The Stashbuckler

Rhythm and all that jazz.

thestashbuckler — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:53:01 +0000

I was in need of cheering up today, and this just happened to come across my radar. Thanks to Franklin for tickling my funny bone.

Filed under: A Picture's Worth 1000 Words, Funny

A few more pictures…

thestashbuckler — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:22:32 +0000

I couldn’t resist posting a few more of my favorite shots from the wedding.

I love this one of the “maids”:

The father daughter dance:

The cake and incredible flowers:

And of course, a little knitting. The wedding gift:

The pattern: Wool Leaves by Jared Flood

The Yarn: Cascade Eco Wool, Lake Chelan Heather colorway

The Needles: US 15′s

The Verdict: I hope this enormous warm woolly blanket keeps Beth, her hubby and their future family wrapped in warmth, happiness and love for years to come!

Filed under: A Picture's Worth 1000 Words, Family, Off the Needles

Married off!

thestashbuckler — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:02:26 +0000

This weekend I went up to Chicago for my little sister’s wedding! I can hardly believe that she’s married and on her honeymoon now. We spent a wonderful week getting ready, visiting with family and friends, eating good food and catching up. I hardly know what to say except I wish them both a lifetime of happiness and love.

The rest of the album can be found here.

Filed under: Family

What I did this weekend: Evicting the fowl.

thestashbuckler — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:32:49 +0000

When Wes and I saw this house, we really fell in love with it. We did not, however, fall in love with the kitchen. In fact, we both agreed that the kitchen would be the first area of the house to see a little improvement. You might be wondering why. Well see, the previous owners liked roosters. A lot.

I’m sorry, you probably can’t see it quite well enough. Let me show you a closeup:

The night after we closed, Wes and I drove down to the house to see how easily the wallpaper might be removed. We peeled a bit and low and behold the vinyl portion of the paper just came right off. Starting to look better already.

Saturday, after a BIG trip to Home Depot we got out our DIF blue goo and smeared it all over the walls. A few hours of scraping and we got all the paper removed. What was underneath? Well burgundy walls of course!

Yeah. We don’t get it either.

Sunday we primed and painted. Our walls our now Cancun Sand, which basically means a nice cream color. Tape comes off tomorrow so this shot will have to suffice for now:

Of course the other fun thing about our house is that the previous occupants were serious gardeners. This means we got lucky and get a bit of the end of the season produce. We watered today, and collected an enormous zucchini, a squash, a couple peppers, okra, tons and tons of tomatoes (the cherry ones are SO good – and I don’t even like tomatoes!), blackberries and concord grapes. YUM!

ETA For more pictures of the house visit the whole album here.

Filed under: A Home of Our Own, Domesticity, Farm Fresh Foods, Finding my Green Thumb, Weekend Update

Two years.

thestashbuckler — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:25:58 +0000

Two years ago today I married my very favorite person in the whole world. He has been a part of my life for just over 6 years now and I can’t even remember my life before him. With each passing year he takes me on more adventures than I ever thought possible. It seems fitting that for our second anniversary (this very week), in lieu of gifts, we’re purchasing our first house and building a home.

I love you honey!

Filed under: Uncategorized

Weekend trip!

thestashbuckler — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:54:41 +0000

This weekend I packed myself up and headed to Chicago for a quick 36 hour visit with the little sis and a bridal shower for her! I can hardly believe a year has gone by since she and her fiance got engaged and the wedding is fast approaching (the end of the month).

We got to run around and do various and sundry wedding errands and she appeased me by taking me to Trader Joe’s for some much-needed tasty snacks to stockpile at home. (since Kansas City has no TJ’s which is another story for another post!)

One of my favorite stops during the errands portion of the weekend was the Chicago Cultural Center. I hadn’t had reason to go before, but we went to grab some city brochures for out of town guests and Beth showed me the beautiful windows:

Saturday night was the shower. Managed to grab one pic of me and the little sis after the champagne toast!

And really, what trip to Chicago is complete without a visit to Wrigley Field? (though I admit this was just a driveby!)

Filed under: Adventures in Travel, Family

Torreyana Pines

thestashbuckler — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:24:00 +0000

A few months ago, someone I consider a dear friend (but have only met on the internet) purchased a yarn store. She was so excited to have a yarny business of her own! I volunteered to knit a sample for her shop as an opening gift. Fast forward a few months and I’ve finally finished a lacy shawl that I hope will inspire her customers to knit more lace!

The Pattern: Torreyana from the Summer Knitty 2010

The Yarn: Baruffa Cashwool, Purple

The Needles: US 6′s

The Verdict: This was a challenging knit. There are lots of different charts and pieces, and the pattern is set up so that you can add in what you want and omit what you don’t. So there were lots of decisions to be made and careful tracking to be done. Add in very thin laceweight yarn, cables and nupps and you understand why it took me almost 3 months to knit. But I think it’s beautiful and I hope it will inspire my friend’s customers to knit lace!

Filed under: Off the Needles

Still spinnin’

thestashbuckler — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:47:53 +0000

So normally I post about crazy knitting hijinks (yes, I am a crazy knitter). Today I turn my attention to crazy spinners (yep, I’m one of those too)!

So every summer there’s this little athletic event called the Tour de France, you may have heard of it? Well I don’t know exactly when it started, but thanks to Ravelry, a huge group of spinners (of yarn) get together each year for the Tour de Fleece – they spin (yarn) while the riders spin (bicycles). You set some goals, you start spinning, you watch the stages and away you go!

Being a new spinner I figured, what the heck? As usual I set the bar too low on my goal. I wanted to spin one “proper” skein of yarn (read: a skein that I could actually knit with). Behold, the results of my spinning Tour days 1 through 7:

The Fiber: Frabjous Fibers Blue-Faced Leicester, Colorway Moulin Rouge

The Stats: 4oz, Approx 220 yards, sport weight/light dk weight

I’m planning on spinning a few others bits of fiber I’ve got in this color range and ending up with (hopefully) 600ish yards for a handspun shawl!

And of course because I’m obsessed with seeing the transition from the fiber to the yarn:

Filed under: Spinning a Yarn

We done did it.

thestashbuckler — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:25:48 +0000

We bought a house! Inspection was yesterday and we’re moving towards closing mid-August. We are SO excited – a home of our own!

You can find more photos here. In the current photos, all furniture, paint, clothes and crosses belong to the sellers.

Filed under: A Home of Our Own

All spun up.

thestashbuckler — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:59:33 +0000

I’m still playing, and I’m loving it! I guess it’s just a matter of the right timing. I tried to spindle spin a few years ago and I hated it. This time I picked it up and it just clicks for me. Currently I’m spinning 8 ounces of BFL in a gorgeous red/orange/pink braid. It’s coming out at laceweight singles!

But today I’m going to share my second handspun. I’m really proud of this one.

The Fiber: Squoosh Falkland in the Hibiscus Colorway

The Stats: 105 yards total, 2 ply.

And start to finish:

Filed under: Spinning a Yarn