Previously on Planet Earth...

I'm slowly -- oh so very slowly, because I'm doing it all from scratch, and it's a learning process -- building a new template for this blog. It's mostly for fun, and to teach myself what I need to know about building blogger templates that I didn't know five years ago, and so it's being done in my spare time, which doesn't happen very often. Maybe I'll finish it next month. Maybe I'll finish it next year. But I'm working on it, and when it's done, I'll be proud. For about two weeks until I get bored with it and decide to redo it all over again. Because that's how I roll.

Fizzgigg has a hole in his leg again. I don't know if I ever mentioned the first hole here, but last fall a sore on his front right elbow turned into a gaping, open hole through which you could actually see bone. It looks even grosser than it sounds, believe me. We bandaged it, we kept various ointments on it, we spent a large sum to have the vet sew it up only to have it open up again after the stitches came out, and finally, it closed up on its own and completely healed. And now, almost overnight, it's back. I got another tube from the vet of the post-op ointment that we were putting on it when it healed the last time, and we're keeping it clean and covered and hoping for the best. And Fizzgigg acts like it's the most traumatic thing ever when we change his bandage. This from a dog who was apparently kicked around before we got him, and who has fallen down stairs and chewed his own leg almost to the bone and broken limbs and once had a cat very nearly claw his eyeball out. He's a tough little guy, but man, he hates having to lie still and have his bandage changed.

He hasn't been in the greatest health lately, either. His thyroid is whacked out, and he's lost so much hair and weight that if you saw him and didn't know any better, you'd think we were like those scumbags on Animal Precinct who never feed or take care of their animals. Of course, once you saw his cushy digs, his food bowl that's constantly filled with expensive organic gluten-free dog food, his tiny sweater wardrobe and all of his various vitamins and meds, I'm pretty confident you'd know better. That dog lives better than we do. But he deserves it, because, see above. He's had a rough little life. I just wish we could get him healthy and keep him there.

Speaking of tiny sweaters, I finally sold one. Now I just have to make it. So that's what I'll be doing with my weekend. I need to find better beads than the one I used on Fizz's sweater, though, preferably ones that the silver doesn't rub off of when they come in contact with the yarn.

And that's what's happening in my world. Here's some of what happened elsewhere while I was resting my brain and morphing into a YouTube blog:

Remember when I mentioned that Tor was giving away free e-books in exchange for signing up to their newsletter? Apparently, this is just phase one in their re-branding project. The next phase will reportedly launch them into the social networking stratosphere and also offer original short fiction and non-fiction on the web site. The Nielsen Hayden's tend to be pretty awesome, so I expect good things from just about anything they put their collective hand to.

Did you know that George Romero made a new zombie movie? I sure didn't, and I'm not sure how I missed it. Speaking of zombie movies, did I ever mention Fido? It's no Sean of the Dead, as zombie comedies go, but it has its moments, some of which are surprisingly poignant.

The Indiana Jones trailer has already been all over the internet, but it's squee-worthy enough to post again.

Ditto the fact that CBS is offering free streaming videos of the entire run of Star Trek: TOS.

And that's all I've got. Hasta, pasta.

Wee little punk puppies!

"So what are you up to today, Jean?" some of you might be asking.

Making over my Etsy shop, if you must know, and updating it with my new Tiny Dog Threads. Because every tiny dog should have a hand-beaded Jolly Roger sweater, that's why.

Isn't that right, Fizzgigg?

Buffy fans recognize! Plus: 'Ripper' movie news. TV giveaways, and more

I have a lot of busy-work to catch up on today, which makes for a slow blogging day. Instead of coming up with content of my own, here's what's loaded in all my Firefox tabs at the moment, most of which is Whedonverse related, natch:

@ Physics of the Buffyverse author Jennifer Ouellette reviews Allyson Beatrice's book Will the Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby? True Adventures In Cult Fandom. Which, I gather, is more memoir than expose. I avoided The Bronze, so Beatrice never made it onto my BNF radar, but I still think I need to check out this book.

@ Lots of juicy news bites coming out of Joss Whedon's Comic-Con panel, not the least of which is an announcement that the Ripper movie is a go! Yay! Also touches on plans for Angel: Season Six and Buffy: Season Eight (and Nine!!!), including "casting" spoilers for the latter.

@ Nothing But Red is seeking submissions for an upcoming anthology, to be published through Lulu.com, the proceeds of which will go to benefit women's rights organizations (most likely Equality Now). Their mission statement:

The purpose of Nothing But Red is to bring attention to the issue of violence against women worldwide, as well as the continuing need for equality, through art—both written and visual—and by raising money for a charity that strives to help women of all faiths, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, with the support of dedicated volunteers who share a desire to promote equality.

This project was inspired by Joss Whedon's now-famous essay about the televised "honor-killing" of Dua Khalil, who was stoned to death by the men in her family after she had been seen in the company of a man from another faith. I'm still trying to decide whether I'll submit anything, but either way I want to spread the word.

@ On a happier, and non-Whedon-related note: 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a TV! All you have to do for a chance to win a 37″ Flat-Panel LCD HDTV, courtesy of Best Buy, is go comment and then spread the word. Done and done.

@ Finally, one for the Potter-maniac knitters on my list: This Dark Mark Illusion Scarf pattern is made of cool and dipped in awesome sauce. I only wish there were more Harry Potter fans in my inner circle of family and friends, so I'd have an excuse to make one for somebody for Christmas. Hmm, looks like I'll just have to knit one for myself instead. Tragedy!

I sold my first stitch markers! Yay on me!

Yay on me also for going over my thousand word quota on the novel this morning. I wrote an entire chapter. Woo, and hoo. I could have kept going, but work is piling up and there are still many other things I need to get written, so I made myself stop there, the easier to get started again tomorrow morning.

At least I'm too sore to go work out, so I have a legitimate excuse to stay here and write through my lunch hour.

Busy, busy day. Busy, busy me.

I just updated the knitting blog.

So about the writing, here's what ahmmina do. I'm going to print out my novel-so-far, take it home and read it over the weekend. If I don't think it sucks, then I'll figure out some way to pry myself off my rear end and start working on it regularly again. If it does suck... well, my life's not really very conducive to writing right now, anyway. I'll try again when things get better.

Come in, we're open!

My Etsy shop is live and open for business, and all of my stitch markers are up for grabs.

I was a busy little beaver this weekend, y'all. I made four -- count 'em: FOUR -- super cute sets of stitch markers, catalogued all of my Star Trek Christmas ornaments for eBay, and got a solid start on an article on weddings in Eureka Springs for Associated Content. And that's not to mention all of the cleaning, laundry-washing, meal-preparing, dog-bathing, Pilates-doing and knitting I got done. After practically being a slug all winter, it's nice to feel productive for a change.

In the knitting department, I FINALLY finished Matt's sweater. It only took me since, what, November? I guess if I have any plans for making any more "Christmas" sweaters I should get started on them, like, now, at that rate. I'm not always that slow, though. I also started and FINISHED (except for sewing together) a felted knitting needle case, and perfected my sleep mask pattern. Details and pictures will get posted at Jeanjeanie.Knit later in the week.

Since I'm more or less caught up on the filing, and since tomorrow is Big Drawing Production/Sendout day, barring any urgent work tasks that need doing, today I'll be focusing on getting all of my goods posted online, finishing my article, and writing content for the new web site. But first, I'm going to force myself to spend some time with the novel. Wow. I've been so slammed here at the office lately that it's hard to remember what it's like to have plenty of free time to work on my own stuff. It's starting to come back to me, but I have a feeling I'd better not get too used to it.

Mrs. Smarty Pants

The new web site is coming along. My knitting blog redo is done and settled in its new location, although none of the internal links work yet. I dropped all of the ads except for the Amazon and Cafe Press affiliate banners; Amazon because I just like to see the pretty book covers, and Cafe Press because it's the only one that's actually earned me anything over there. I also need to track all of my external links back down, since I didn't save my old template and they got lost in the transition. And, weirdly, it's still duplicating updates at the blogspot url, and I can't figure out how to delete it there. Anyway. Check it out, if only to see how pretty I made it.

Speaking of knitting, tonight after work I'm going shopping for the supplies to make several sets of needles and stitch markers. I also just ordered a batch of cotton embroidered custom labels to sew on all my stuff to make it more official-looking. So it shouldn't be too much longer until I'm ready to open up shop.

~~~

Guess whose husband aced his first test of the semester? And guess whose husband was the only one, not just out of his class, but out of all of his professor's math classes, to ace said test? That would be my husband. I caught me a smart one, y'all.

An interesting life is a curse, anyway.

I didn't get any of the eBay stuff photographed this weekend. I was about to, when Matt was all, "Come and watch Sopranos with me. Just for a couple of hours, then I'll go do homework and you can take your pictures then." Which sounded plenty reasonable, but then of course once we were done with Sopranos we remembered we still had a Nip/Tuck DVD we needed to get watched to send back to Netflix, and once we were done with that, it was time for my shows on SciFi.

Speaking of which, still feeling let down by Dresden Files, although it is showing signs of improvement. As long as I don't compare it to the books and tell myself that these are not the characters I already know and love, but simply unrelated characters in an unrelated universe who just happen to have the same names (something I've had plenty of practice doing with Smallville), then I can enjoy the show and admit that it is, at least, an entertaining hour of television. So I'm just going to leave it at that.

And then there's BSG. OMGLaura! So scary, with all the talking--no, screaming of airlocking Baltar! Eeee, that was awesome! As for Karleedeeanders--WTF-ever. Seriously. It's becoming my fondest wish to see Dee and Sam hook up and live happily, functionally after and leave Kara and Lee alone with their whiney-ass loser selves. I can't believe they cut an entire interrogation scene between Laura and Caprica for their self-inflicted melodrama. Bah.

As for the rest of my weekend...

- Hugo's: I meant to take a picture of my breakfast so you could see for yourselves how much food they give you, but I got all mesmerized by the mountain of forbidden carbs before me and forgot until I was halfway done eating. Lordy, that was good stuff.

- Pan's Labyrinth: Good, but slightly overrated, much as I'd feared. It was a very well done, engrossing movie, but it didn't really move me the way all of the praise being heaped upon it led me to expect. Matt felt the same way. He doesn't even really like the whole fairy-tale genre, but he was disappointed that the film didn't spend more time in its own fantasy world. It also reminded us both a lot of Devil's Backbone, which we rented not too long ago, and we both suspect that maybe that's why we weren't blown away by it, since we'd both already been exposed to that whole "real life is scarier and more cruel than anything the supernatural could throw at you, especially if you're a little kid" sensibility that it had going on. I did like the ambiguous ending and the way it was left wide open for interpretation, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

- I knitted several little projects over the weekend, making up my own patterns as I went. I'll go into more detail about them over at the knitting blog later, but I think with a few pattern adjustments and embellishments these will make good projects to sell.

- I went all day yesterday without any caffeine. It wasn't by design, it just sort of happened that way. I thought about trying to see if I could repeat it today, but then I woke up with a headache that only coffee could cure. Oh well.

Today is all about getting back on track. I'm still caught up (mostly) at work, I've eaten only healthy things so far today, and I power-walked a mile and a half at the gym. I also wrote a little this morning, and I'm going to try to finish out the chapter I'm currently working on today. If I'm happy with it I might even post it, but I'm going through a really self-conscious phase right now when it comes to my writing, so we'll see.

My life is comfy and dull.

Because just making ends meet is a bucket o' suck.

This controversial Pay Per Post thing I'm doing is already about to net me $200, and there's still a week and a half to go this month. Can I just say? Whee!

We've discussed how we're going to use all this extra wealth, and have decided to apply it all to debt, except for the months when we have annual or semi-annual fees due on things like AAA and car insurance. This will free up portions of my regular pay for trifles and frivolities such as car repairs and wisdom teeth removal and getting to leave our home to watch movies sometimes and saving an actual emergency fund and what have you. Yes indeedy, we've got it made.

But I'm greedy, and I want more. I want a computer that works, with high speed access. I want to go on some kind of summer vacation with my husband this year (maybe take that foodie road trip up to Chicago that we keep threatening to do). I want to be able to furnish my new house after I move into it. I want to be able to hire people who aren't me to do all of the heavy lifting when we move. And, gosh darn it all, I want to do all of this without incurring more debt.

So I've been going over my options. I've already got a whole queue of things to hawk on ebay, including a couple of first edition Phantom of the Opera ornaments that have been fetching a penny pretty enough to round out the rest of our "first month's rent and deposits" fund. After that I figure we can rid ourselves of enough clutter through that giant virtual garage sale to cover the necessary moving costs.

But what to do for extra spendy stuff once the clutter's all gone? Inspired by this article at Get Rich Slowly (which, by the by, is a pretty good personal finances blog), I've decided it's high time I started marketing my marketable skills. I don't quite think I have any that would make for a good consultant (maybe after I take that web design course next semester), although I am considering putting an ad in the paper to offer private knitting lessons, emphasizing my locality and the fact that those in my home town wanting to learn wouldn't have to drive all the way to Tulsa to take classes, so long as they're willing to meet me someplace public and well lit.

Mostly I've been pondering putting my relatively newfound crafty knowhow to work, and what I can make quickly cheaply and sell for profit. So far I've come up with:

~ Handmade knitting needles. These are ridiculously simple and inexpensive to make, in addition to being cute and nifty, and I could make a dozen in a weekend.

~ Handmade stitch markers. See above re: knitting needles.

~ Needle cases. Another simple-to-make item that tends to sell for a lot more than it costs to make. I'm not sure about the hand-sewn variety, but I bet I could whip up a felted knit version that would be teh cute.

~ Purse accessories. Speaking of felted cute things, I can knit a business card holder in the space it takes to watch a movie with my husband. Ditto a cell phone cozy, a glasses case, a check book cover, a key fob....

~ Bridal veils. These are not so much with the knitting, but I made the veil I wore in my own wedding for under $20 and in less than an hour -- and I didn't even know what I was doing.

~ Ceramic beads. Not really my area of expertise, but my mom used to be into ceramics, and my aunt owns her own kiln. With their help it might be doable.

I'm already not writing on the weekends (bad Jean!) so I could work on this stuff then and not have to feel guilty about taking away from my writing time. I started out thinking I'd sell them on eBay, but the market is pretty saturated for some of this stuff (especially the bridal veils), so I'm considering opening up shop on Etsy. They both have their pros and cons. ebay is the average user's go to online shopping bazaar, but as such the competition is stiff. Etsy is more obscure, but there's less competition, as well as fewer fees. Also their seller pages just look prettier. That might sell me on them right there. What can I say? I'm a girly girl.

As for eBay, even without getting crafty there are ways to keep using it to make money. Coupons, for instance. Did you know that people actually buy and sell coupons on eBay? I had no idea that this was happening. Not for a lot of money, but considering how easy it is to come by coupons for free (I always get them from my mom, who gives me her inserts from the Sunday paper), it's pure profit. Awesome!

So that's the plan. If any of this actually works, most of the extra income will be thrown straight at our debts, because the sooner we're rid of those, the better. After that... well, that would be putting the cart before the horse, wouldn't it? I'd better just focus on putting the strategy into action for now, and see how that goes. But I'm optimistic. Every little extra bit helps, you know?

Knit-pimpin'

CONTRIBUTORS WANTED!

Got a question about a complicated stitch? Need help working a tough pattern? Something else about knitting you've always wanted to know? Send your questions to jeanjeanieDOTknits AT gmailDOTcom and I'll post them over at Jeanjeanie Knits. I'll give it my best shot, but if I can't answer it, I bet one of my readers can.

Like to give knitting advice? Chime in in the comment trail if you have any to share. Even if I've answered a question, another perspective never hurts. Make this blog interactive and interact!

Want to be a guest blogger? Show off your projects, share patterns, review or recommend knitting books or shops, or maybe just ruminate on the joys (or the sorrows) of playing around with yarn? Send your article in the body of an e-mail to the address above. Please, no attachments; if you have a picture to share, give me an address where it's uploaded that I can link back to. In exchange you'll get a byline and a link back to your web site or blog, and the joy of sharing your work with other yarn addicts.

So what have I been up to all day?

That would be this right here. Yes, despite the fact that not a single soul answered my knitting poll, I went ahead and started a (hopefully interactive) knitting blog.

I'll be straight with you guys. The thing is, we're about to become a single-income household when Matt leaves his job at the end of the month to go back to school, which means I get to be the breadwinner for a few years. So I'm looking for possible sources of extra income. I really don't want to plaster ads up all over this blog, or my writing blog, so I figured, how about a specialty blog? One that can feature appropriate specialty ads? Sounds good. And what else am I passionate about? Knitting.

I don't expect to make much, especially at first. Really, I'll be thrilled if it pulls in enough to finance a night out with my husband once a month or so. Thus, I would appreciate it muchly if you kind folks would head over there and check it out and click on an ad or two. I'd appreciate it even muchlier if you would help me spread the word and pimp the new blog. Thank you kindly.

Tomorrow, we'll be back to business as usual.

Reader Poll: Any knitters in the house?

I'm brewing an idea. But first, a little feasibility study:

Crud. I tried to insert a one-click poll, but Blogger spit it back out. So we'll do it the old-fashioned way. Please answer the following in the comments (if you're reading this in syndication, please be so kind as to click over just this once):

Calling all knitters or knitter-wannabes! Please let me know if:

1. You read knitting blogs

2. You run a knitting blog

3. You ever seek knitting advice

4. You ever give knitting advice

5. You would be interested in reading/contributing to a knitting advice blog

6. You would be willing to pimp such a blog

That's all. Thank you for your time.

Housekeeping

Randomly (except not really):

~ I think this entire week is going to be about catching up and taking care of business. I figure that the powers that be here at the office will smile a little more kindly on all of my recent absenteeism if I can show that I'm, y'know, actually getting my work done instead of blowing it off to write. In whatever spare time I can find, I'll be taking care of end-of-year personal crap and getting any necessary online Christmas shopping out of the way. All of which will free me up for...

~ MyNoWriMo! Seeing as how November did its ever loving best to beat me down and keep me away from my novel, once I'm caught up I'm going to declare the rest of December (excluding a few days off around Christmas) to be my own personal novel writing month. If I can't make 50K by the end of THIS month, then... well, then I suppose I shall cry. But rest assured, dear readers, that once MyNoWriMo gets underway you can look forward not only to more chapter updates at the writing blog, but also fewer in-depth and loquacious posts from me here. Oh yes, and a return to Gratuitous Marsters Picspam. And there was much rejoicing!

~ I think I've decided to forgo the Crapometer this time around. Like I said, my manuscript is nowhere near where I thought it would be by now, and even if it was, it would still be about a year away from being ready to query anybody. I think my time will be better spent, for now, focusing on how to tell the story instead of how to sell it. But as with previous Crapometers, I expect to learn a lot by observation, even without participation.

~ And in news that's totally unrelated to anything: if you're reading this via the feeds then you're probably not aware that I redid things a little around here. I just changed the background and coloring. It's not much, but I think it's both Holiday appropriate and non-specific enough that I won't have to change it as soon as the season ends. The new background reminds me of wrapping paper. Festive!

~ At last, I shall leave you with: Mittens!



These are a combination of two different patterns, one from each Stitch 'N' Bitch book, plus a little improvisation on my part. The main part is made out of Lion Brand Wool-Eze, so it's both low-maintenance and warm. The pair took me two snow days to knit, but again, I'm a slow knitter, and working in the round with (unwieldy!) double-pointed needles slows me down even more. A faster knitter could probably do the pair in a single day.

Red Scarf - Finished! (UPDATED)

I spent my lunch hour finishing up my red scarf, even as the winter weather is settling over northeastern OK. I still need to block it to get it to not curl up into a tube, but it'll do to get me home with a warm neck this evening.



If you're interested, here's the pattern, a simple stitch set similar to the broader ribbing in the sweater I'm making for my husband:

Cast on 16 stitches.
Row 1: *P1, K2. Repeat from * to next to last stitch. Pearl last stitch.
Row 2: Pearl.

That's it. Repeat those two rows until you have the length you want, then bind off loosely. I used two balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky (minus the amount used in the ear warmer) and US Size 8 needles, but the pattern looks good in just about any gauge, so don't be afraid to play around with what you have. And, of course, the fringe is optional.



UPDATE: Of course I can't talk about knitting today without discussing how much I covet the skull and knitting needle crossbones tee shirt Lorelei Gilmore wore last night, the only great thing about that episode other than Luke finally growing a pair where his babymomma is concerned. Oh, and Danny Strong. But the point is: I WANT! And now, I can have, and so can you.

Maybe if I get one of those voice typing programs I could write and knit at the same time.

Which would be kind of awesome. Hmmmm.

Despite printing off what there is so far of my manuscript and taking it home with me last Wednesday, I didn't get a lick of writing done all weekend. What I did manage to get done instead, thanks to its perfect-for-multitasking nature, was a crapload of knitting, so I'm still feeling nice and accomplishy. I'm very close to finishing the front side of my husband's Christmas sweater. I also started a Christmas scarf for my sister-in-law. But what's really making me feel accomplished is this:



It's an ear warmer (the pattern for which can be found in Stitch 'N' Bitch Nation), and it's so pretty. It looks fairly complicated, but it's really a pretty quick and easy pattern to knit. The most time consuming part was the band itself (see below), which took about four hours, or two nights in front of the telly.



The flowers are knitted separately, and all four bits took me about two hours (and I knit slow):



I actually knitted all of the pieces week before last while I was home with the plague. This weekend I finally got around to blocking them, which took about a day of drying time, and sewing them on, which took another hour. And voila! Here's me modeling the finished project (in bad lighting and sans any makeup, so be warned):



It's very pretty in 3D, and I'm quite pleased with myself. It looks warm--if the temperature here ever drops below 60F I'll be able to test it. Actually, we have a cold front, complete with winter storms and possible snow, moving in later this week, supposedly. So last night I took the chunky red yarn that formed the flowers and started making this coordinating scarf:



It's priority one right now if I'm going to finish it in time for the weather to change, but come the cold I should look quite smashing (and be warm and toasty all wrapped up in cashmere).

Of course, my warm glow of accomplishment faded once I got back to the office this morning and saw how my workload managed to build even though supposedly nobody was here all weekend. Plus there was the realization that there is no way on God's green earth for me to make my own personal NaNo goal by the 30th, even though it was already considerably less than the official NaNo goal. That's not so bad, though, because I was able to stop stressing about the word count and spend a couple of hours this afternoon outlining the rest of the novel instead.

The month's not over yet, though, so I'm still going to try to get as close to my goal as possible, and between that momentum and having a roadmap for where to go next, I expect December to be a pretty productive month even without the NaNo deadline looming. Plus there's the Crapometer to look forward to. And hopefully now that Matt's in recovery mode, sickness will be banished from our household for a while and I'll be able to get some writing done on the weekends, too. I'm aiming to have a rough draft finished by the time we're ready to pack up and move, and as of now, it's looking good.

Meanwhile, I'm going to do my best to have a new chapter up before I leave work tomorrow. So if you're tuning in to the writing blog, you're safe not checking back before then.