Saturday, April 21, 2012

Moving In!


It’s happened!  I took off a few days this week for a break and we decided to take a day to rent a truck and move over all the big stuff to the house.  Brought my cats over too, much to the dog’s chagrin.  There’s still a lot left over at the apartment, but it’s small things that I can pack when I have time and don’t need anyone’s help to lift.  I don’t have to be out of that place until the end of June, so I have plenty of time.

While packing, I’ve tried to downsize and simplify.  I have a tendency to be a pack rat and not want to get rid of things.  My worry is: What if I need it later?  My family likes to make fun of me about it, because it’s just like what my great grandmother used to do.  When we had to clean out her house, we found over 100 egg cartons, a model skeleton, and my great aunt’s appendix in a jar. Weird stuff, I know, but she had Depression era thinking.  Some days I can understand it, because I like to try to repurpose things.  If it doesn’t work for me in its current state, I may be able to change it.  My favorite is my denim jean rug.  I was getting sick of losing a pair of jeans, because I would have one hole or the back pockets ripped.  I started keeping them in my closet knowing that SOME DAY I would figure out a use for them.  Thankfully that day came and I figured out a way to rip them into strips and crochet them into a rug.  And I love it! 

Now I get people saving jeans for me, which is nice.  Free rug material! And no one cares because they would be throwing them out anyway.  My next goal is to make a braided t-shirt rug.  I have a bunch of old t-shirts that have one stain and/or are no longer useable anymore.  I’ll keep you updated on my progress!

While going through all of my belongings to decide what to bring and what to get rid of, I've found a few crochet projects that I had started and never finished. I decided to work on some of the and complete them.  Most are almost done and only needed a little time to finish them.  My first finished project is this rug.  

I had all the small circles and the big two-tone circles completed.  It has been sitting in my "To Finish" pile for over 2 years.  It felt great to complete it.  I love the symmetry and the geometric shape.  It's a perfect sized rug for my side of the bed.  I still need to attach something to it so that it doesn't slip around, but it's a lovely thing to feel on my feet right before bed.

Well, it's about time for me to finish up this post.  I've spent all day putting things away and trying to organize.  It's so much easier to fit things into an empty space, but when moving into a place that's already established, you need to figure out how to rework the place and come up with new systems that work.  It can be quite exhausting!  And I have some tv and a nice cold beer waiting for me.  Hope to hear from you all soon!

Saturday, March 31, 2012

INTRODUCING....Me!

Hi all and welcome to Thornton Park Adventures!  My boyfriend has been bugging me for ages to write a blog.  Now that I'll be moving in with him, I figured it was a good topic to cover (and would give me lots of interesting ideas for blog posts). =)  

Previously I lived up by the University of Central Florida as I was a student there.  I graduated with my M.A. in 2010.  And due to a combination of being busy, being lazy, and hating to move, I just ended up staying there.  Now I'll be moving in with the love of my life (*cue Disney style music) in an area of Orlando called Thornton Park.  It's a great place to be with fun restaurants, bars, you name it!  And it's only 1 mile from Lake Eola which is the epicenter of Orlando activity.  We've been enjoying exploring different parts and I'm excited to share them all with you!

I'm pretty eclectic and enjoy a wide variety of things.  I enjoy crocheting, knitting, cooking/baking, gardening, anything artsy and crafty...pretty much the domestic arts.  I like learning new things and working with my hands.  I enjoy reading, watching movies, and taking care of others.  This blog will be devoted to my life in Thornton Park, so expect a lot of these topics to come up.

I can't wait to start on this adventure and share with you.   Please come with me!