Going Domestic

no sad goodbye

Dear Previous Homeowners

It's apparent that you guys really liked pastel yellow. Particularly because you thought that the ceramic tile between the kitchen counter and the upper cabinets would look spiffy if you slapped a coat of pastel yellow paint on them. Even the grout. And the electrical outlets.

We tolerated your love of pastel yellow for a few years. It wasn't really difficult; there were more urgent redecorating issues to attend to, like your fondness for shiny brass accents. But this month, the yellow tile was at the top of the reno list. It had started to fall off, probably because your installation technique was "put glob of adhesive on back of tile, and stick on wall".

Even without grout, the kitchen is feeling ten years younger ...

seeing is believing

Amazing. Those *are* the Princess Irene tulips.

In other news, I'm hanging up my tool belt for a couple of weeks. Chris and I are heading to Bangkok to pick out a place to live on Saturday, and I need to spend my evenings cleaning and preparing everything for my mother-in-law, who will be taking care of the toddler. I can't stand dishes in the sink, clutter on flat surfaces, and unfolded laundry any longer. My obsession with getting everything else done isn't compatible with preparing for our trip. And I am half-expecting that Tile City will call up wanting to install our new kitchen backsplash next week, so I need to clear the kitchen counters ...

can't hardly wait ...

There are tons of tulips in bud in the garden. I'm not sure where I planted which varieties back in the fall of 2005, so I'm extra excited to see what happens in the next few weeks! The thing that I am the most confused about are the tulips in the first photo. I didn't plant any bulbs in the fall of 2005 that would seem to yield orange/purple blooms. I planted bulbs that might in the fall of 2003, however. Could they be my Princess Irenes? I thought that I ruined the bulbs by snipping all the greens after they bloomed in 2004. They didn't bloom in 2005 at all. I didn't purposefully dig up their bulbs when I planted my second batch of bulbs that fall. I'm really curious, especially since I wasn't around last season to see what happened. The idea that those old bulbs might have become viable once again might explain the apparent proliferation of purple buds in the flower bed. I know that I planted three more Negrita bulbs, but I've got at least three groupings of them. I did plant the variety back in 2003 as well ...

love as big as any endless ball of yarn

My dear daughter gave me a ball winder for Mother's Day. It's as good as a copy of No Sheep for You! 

Will I actually use it before we move? I'd be surprised ...

it's not you, it's me

  Yarn Cubbies! 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

New yarn. New bookcases. Trust me - I could write a whole post about my love for BILLY bookcases, but this post is about knitting. My second shipment from Knitpicks arrived at the beginning of the week (much swifter than my first Knitpicks order, I must say), and much excitement followed. I could finally start work on my circular shrug! I've had the pattern bookmarked for a couple of months, and finally I had yarn to make it with!

A few nights ago, I set about casting on to swatch the shrug's mock-rib pattern. Figuring that wool was a little warm for an item to be worn in Bangkok, I chose a cotton blend for the project. I'm about five or six rows into the swatch. I am not entirely sure that I have the mock-rib pattern figured out, but I'm fairly positive that my yarn is the wrong choice for the shrug.

I didn't realize until after I'd ordered the yarn that cotton isn't particularly stretchy when knit up. I'm not sure what a better alternative is, without having to resort to wool. Boo. I'm hoping to thumb through a copy of No Sheep for You in the near future, but kind of fearful, too. What if there isn't anything appropriate? Ugh!

I'll relax when I get there ...

I don't know when this blog will be less-neglected! Busy times here!

Today, the toddler and I went for medical exams to accompany our Thai visa applications. This was my first experience with a private medical clinic, and it was interesting. It bore a closer resemblance to a day spa than my regular doc's office. There was a lounge area, which had coffee and tea, fruit salad, toast, and assorted breakfast bars (which the toddler quite enjoyed, helping herself to three).  I was poked by no fewer than five needles, but the service at the clinic made it all seem better. A huge contrast to the walk-in clinic, where Chris spent four hours waiting this past Saturday ...

Someone from the moving company is coming by tomorrow afternoon to assess our moving/storage needs. I can't help but think that it's a little premature as we haven't finished purging our belongings (coincidentally, our dumpster is scheduled to arrive tomorrow as well) or know how big a place we're moving into, but I imagine that we're not the first family dealing with those obstacles.

On the home improvement front, I just have a few more surfaces to put a coat of primer on, the siding should be going on our garage this week, we've ordered the tile for our kitchen backsplash, and we picked up a new basin and faucet for the ensuite.

I think that we've gained a couple more weeks before Chris starts working in Bangkok, and it's probably a good thing ...