A Few of My Favorite Things

We are busy little bees over at Chez Lotus! I've gotten really slack about updating though because it's easier to just Twitter stuff quickly or bitch and moan on Ravelry. I know, I suck. :P

One of the things I'm working on is a website for Lotus Yarns (which I might have to rename because of some Chinese company, but maybe not...GRRR. we'll see). Learning Photoshop is fun and time consuming so I hope the final product will be made of awesome! So far I have a basic main page, but I'll be adding purchasing software (a store) and a gallery of colorways and finished products. Woot! None of this is online yet. Boo.

Speaking of shops, we've been working on a pretty serious shop local initiative, at least at our house. Athens itself has had a cute little "Shop Your ATH Off" slogan around town (pic here, thanks Bill!) and so we've joined in.

Shop local...why? For me it's about keeping money in my town if I can. That includes relatively big boxed stores (since they employ people who live here) AND locally owned shops. For Valentine's Day, Nate bought me some gorgeous opal earrings and a matching necklace from a super cute little downtown store. I bought him some books on baking bread from Borders and together we got a few baking supplies from another local store.

My sweetie made us whole wheat bagels, which is very time consuming and almost not worth the effort, but man are they tasty.


Another crazy thing I'm trying: Green smoothies. Call me nuts. They taste pretty good to me. The only downside is that the ladies on Ravelry are making me want blenders I can not afford. Le sigh.

And believe it or not, I AM KNITTING. I'm almost finished with this pair of socks in Shibui Sock Pebble (or Sand? I can't remember). The colorway is pretty but I really hate the pooling. Doesn't matter though, I'll be wearing them anyway since I've finally made toes that AREN'T square OR pointy. It's a knitting miracle.


I'm also working on two sweaters and a cowl, but I forgot to photograph them this week. Oops!

And before I forget - YARNY GIVEAWAY! Carrieoke is collecting donations for Athens Literacy Council and she's holding a drawing for handknit socks, a handknit cowl, and Lotus Yarns superwash fingering yarn in a CUSTOM COLORWAY made just for YOU! Sweet, eh?

Aside from Photoshopping and knitting, this is a new favorite thing. Add water, lemonade, or actual sweet tea and whoa. Not for the faint of heart. This will knock you on your ass if you're a lightweight like me. Whoops.


Another favorite thing? YARN. I culled my stash this week in preparation to anonymously give to the LSG RAK thing on Ravelry. I realized there were many things I loved and some of them will never see the light of day if I don't give them a better home. There's some Yarn Pirate, some Noro Kureyon Sock, several lace weight yarns, and a few things I've dyed myself. I'll miss you dear yarns, but now I have room for more. Ahem.


Finally, not a favorite thing:

Viral rashes. OMG with the itchies. More pictures here on flickr, this one in particular is very tame. I was sick with a pretty bad cold a few weeks ago and this is the aftermath. I've never had a rash like this before, so I freaked out a little and ran screaming and begging to my doctor to make it stop only to have him say, "I have no idea what this is". Thanks dude. He referred me to a dermatologist and I got a shot and two weeks worth of drugs. The swelling and itchiness is gone but the red spots remain for now. It's amazing how insane just itching can make a person. Whoa. I'm lucky I didn't hurt anyone.