Tuesday, May 20, 2008
tow move
I am moving my blog on to this address
bluekelebek.wordpress.comSee you there!
kelebek
Posted at 2:43 PM
Thursday, April 17, 2008
tow everyone is having a baby
Everybody is having a baby, I don't know if there is something in the water. I am baby free as of now and hope to stay that way a bit longer ins.
Yesterday I found out that a friend I haven't spoken to in a while had a baby last friday, a boy. In Milwaukee there are three more boys on the way and another baby that we don't know the sex of yet. It gives me a great excuse to knit and crochet adorable little baby things!!
I also finished up a baby hat for a boy today. I really hope there will be a girl on the way soon so I can make some frilly girly things. I am up to my neck in blue yarn (it's mine and ACA's fave color) so I have been using that up. I am also making a seamless top down cardigan for myself and I also started a pair of gloves again for myself. It will be exciting to wear gloves for fashion reasons rather than to avoid frost bite!
There is the cardigan. It needs a bit more work.
My attempt at making knitted lace. It so much easier with crochet!
Wearing the shawl I have crocheted. My mom got me my brown top!
We are in fall now in Australia. It feels like a very cool spring. I was completely weirded out by the whole summer in December thing a couple of months ago. It doesn't get too cold here, nowhere near Wisconsin cold! I will probably make a nice lacy scarf for myself. In Wisconsin I wrapped the scarf around my neck, mouth and nose to protect myself from the wind. Now I am hoping I can drape it under the lapels of my light jacket oh so prettily!
I finally got a job. Well it is a "casual" position. It is whole another category of working that I haven't heard of when I was in the US. I got this position at the local library. What it means is that they will call me in when they need me to work. I had applied for a part time position but they gave it to someone with more experience. I hadn't started working yet, I have to go through "induction" which I think is "orientation." I have been thinking about what postgraduate path to pursue. I have thought about going into teaching. That's still an option. Now I am entertaining the idea of Library Science. I don't have to make up my mind now because I won't be eligible for government funding for another year and a half. But it is good to keep my mind on my goals.
And here is a photo of Hermoine napping on ACA's Excel book.
Why, hasn't your cat read the "VBA and Macros for Excel?" Tsk, tsk!
kelebek }{
Posted at 1:22 AM
Monday, March 10, 2008
tow anane
ACA (the hubby) and I were in the kitchen preparing pizza for dinner. It was around 7 PM. The phone rang and I went to answer it. When I heard my mom's voice I knew it couldn't be good news (it was around 3 AM in the US). She wanted to talk to ACA. I heard the word "cenaze" meaning funeral and I froze. He hung up the phone and didn't talk right away. Then he told me my anane (maternal grandma) died.
She's been ill for a while, some kidney and heart problems. I spoke to her a few days ago before she checked in to the hospital. She sounded good, I told her "onbeslik genc kiz gibi konusuyorsun" (you sound like a 15 year old girl!) We chatted about my new sweater project for ACA and she asked about our cat. The next day she went to the hospital. When I called my uncle to ask about her, he told me she was not in any pain but she had trouble breating so she had a oxygen mask. And yesterday she died.
I am going to miss her.
İnna lillah ve inna ileyhi raciun (To God We Belong and To Him We Will Return)
kelebek }{
Posted at 11:18 PM
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
tow knitting
My father keeps sending me screen shots from the accuweather website showing the weather in Milwaukee. I have lost my ability to comprehend windchills being 30 minus zero. I busted out the long sleeves when the weather dipped to 60 F (14 C if I remember correctly). I am still trying to adjust to the Celsius vs. Fahrenheit business. When the temperature was supposed to hit 40 degrees ACA was kind enough to figure out that was 104 F. Then I realized, whoa it's going to be hot! Same goes for measurements. I find myself trying to figure out what 125 grams of butter would be, trying to visualize a beaker from 10th grade chemistry class. I have recently started driving. The obvious challenge is of course driving on the left side of the road. But another unexpected challenge is the speed! 50 km ACA tells me is the speed you should be driving if there is no other signs. There is a stretch of road that has a speed limit of 80 km/hr and I start freaking out when I start driving past 70. The the US the cars have both miles and kilometers on the speedometer but here they only have km having switched to metric system ages ago. I am also having trouble with length measurements. I have recently picked up knitting and my needle is 23 cm. There are also 33 cm needles as well. I was telling ACA this much (holding my fingers apart an inch or so) shouldn't make too much difference. Well 10 cm is longer than an inch (yes I know 2.54 cm per inch but it is hard to visualize).
My grandma (anane) is a champion knitter. The woman probably knit enough pieces of clothing to clothe half the world. She taught me how to knit when I was around eight or so. I started working on a hairband thinking it would be easy and I would finish it quickly. I ended up spending more time stretching the headband over my head to see if it was big enough than actually knitting it. That was the end of my knitting adventures. I also tried to make lace but couldn't figure out how to hold the hook and grandma gave up on me rather quickly. It was around this time last year I got interested in crocheting. I can't believe how much I have advanced in that one year. I didn't realize it until ACA pointed that fact out to me. I have recently completed the most challenging project I have ever tackled. A long openwork coat. It needs to have buttons so I will post a photo when it's done. My next project was going to be to crochet ACA a sweater. However I haven't found one that ACA liked. There was one in the Crochet! magazine but the yarn it requires is not available here. Then I decided that I can learn to knit. I bought a pair of needles from a craft fair ACA was so kind to take me and got to work. The firs thing I tried was a baby cardigan worked from top down. Unfortunately the yarn was too thin for the needles and Hermoine (my cat) ended up dragging the work halfway across the living room while we were sleeping. I gave up on that pattern and started a different one. When I told my grandma that I picked up knitting again she asked me excitedly "hazirlik mi yapiyorsun?" (are you getting ready?). I assured her no I am not getting ready for having a baby. I am only making a baby cardigan because it is a small project therefore I can finish it quickly before tacking the hubby's sweater.
When I am not knitting or crocheting I am filling out job applications. It is frustrating to spend so much time crafting a nice cover letter or answering "key selection criteria" with mini-essays then not hear anything. I mean not even a "thanks, but no thanks" There is a part time job at a local library. I am going to apply for that. I really really enjoyed my job in the bookstore, so the library should also be fun. Grad school is on hold until I can find funding for it. But I am determined to get a higher degree ins it'll be sooner than later!
kelebek }{
Posted at 4:36 PM
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
tow yarn
Yarn addicts should be banned from visiting e-bay. I have informed ACA that my new hobby was looking through e-bay for yarn. He informed me it was fine as long as I don't want to buy more than I need. Oh but how do you define "need"? Do I really need the six balls of extra soft merino wool yarn in a shade of blue that makes me ask "who's having a baby boy?" And do I really need anymore yarn considering I already bought the yarn for my next project?
When I started crocheting I heard the term "yarn stash" or simply "stash." No not me I thought. I will only buy enough yarn for my next project. Then I saw the cotton yarn on sale and well think of how many projects you can do with cotton! And so began the "stash". My stash in the US stayed under control because I knew that I would be moving to Australia and I can only take limited amounts of yarn with me. Then in Turkey I completely lost it once I saw how cheap beautiful yarn was! I had assured myself that I would somehow get them over to Australia and made three trips to the yarn lovers heaven. I still haven't figured out how to get that yarn over here but darn it I will get my yarn! And now in Australia I have e-bay and this other wonderful crafts store we've visited when we went down to the city. I will be making ACA a sweater, which is challenging since it is the middle of the summer here! But I promised him a sweater and now I have the yarn for it so I shall make the sweater!
The job hunt continues. I get very motivated some days and whip up great cover letters and send my resume in its merry way to the employers. But some days I just sit around and look through job ads wondering if I'll ever get a job! Who knew that once I finished college everything wouldn't fall neatly into place. When I was in high school I was thinking get to college. When I was in college I was thinking graduate, graduate. And now that I have graduated I am thinking "now what?" I was a journalism major but I don't think I want to pursue a news reporter career. I am considering grad school but God that price tag is sooo steep! I am thinking of going back to my original career choice, teaching which will require me to do one more year of schooling, unless I want to get masters which brings me back to the steep price tag! I wish they had a used book store here that I could work like I used to work when I was back in Milwaukee. That made me happy...
kelebek }{
Posted at 1:14 AM
Monday, December 31, 2007
tow a new year
The year 2007 was very kind to me. I can sit here and try to make a list of all the incredible things that has happened to me but me getting married to the most amazing man in the world is the ultimate highlight of the year. This was also the year that I got to visit Turkey for the first time in nine long years. I did a ton of traveling from US to Turkey and from Turkey to my new home in Melbourne, Australia this year. And of course Hermoine, our new kitty joined our small family.
I can't really predict what will happen the next year. I am hoping for a bit of peace and quiet since 2007 really tired me out! I am looking forward to getting a full time job and starting to drive by myself. Getting more used to the Aussie way of doing things (it's day, month, year NOT month, day year!) And getting more adventurous with my cooking! Hmm maybe that should be my new years resolution. Learn to cook a bigger variety of foods. I like it!
kelebek }{
Posted at 2:29 PM
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
tow too much time in my hands
This is why I need to find a job and find it fast. It's late in the afternoon and I am watching a movie called "Leprechaun 4, in Space" In the short while I took to check my e-mail and open up blogger the leprechaun became giant sized, the leading female somehow lost her pants so she's in her black undies now. And the leading male lost his shirt so he's topless. I believe this is a sequel to the previous three Leprechaun movies, which I know nothing about.
On brighter news we now have a cat! I named her Hermoine because well, I like Harry Potter! If we got a male his name would have been Optimus Prime (ACA's idea, not mine). She's a strange cat. At the moment she's tearing through the sheet I put over our new futon. She has very spectacular jumps and she likes sleeping on her back with her paws up in the air. She is not much of a lap cat, but she'll let you pet her if you're next to her. And she's crazy about twisty ties. ACA keeps the twisty ties he gets from his computer stuff and now we have a cat who has a twisty tie fetish! Here are some pictures of her.
Check out the "mole" she has!
Most cats sleep on the pillow, but not Hermoine. I have not idea how she managed to squeeze herself between the pillow and the pillow cover.
She's a very long cat. She likes laying between the window and our couch. Especially if it's sunny.
I put the towel there to dry. She must have dragged it down so she can sleep on it! She also likes doing acrobatics on top of our drying rack.
We could her bought her a bed, but I know she'll still be sleeping on the 99cent cloth shopping bag!
And my favorite picture of her. Just so cute!
I've been steadily working on getting the house organized. Other than the everyday mess of things the place is in good shape. Now that we've bought the futon we can actually invite people over. I am a bit nervous about the idea of playing the host. My mom was always so good that I never really needed to do much. I hope it'll all go well!
On the crochet front I've finally got around to blocking the shawl I made for my mother in law. I've been thinking that I should take pictures of my projects as I finish them. I also finished the squares I've been working on for the afghan for our couch. I made sixty 6 inch squares. It was a looong project but I am almost done with it now, whee! I just need to join the squares together. I made up a pattern of placing them together in an interesting way.
Like this,
And there is Hermoine checking out the blanket.
I am still trying to adjust to the weather situation. On TV I hear "coming this summer" and I am thinking "Oh, that's so far away" When in fact it is now! Believe me I never thought "summer" and "Christmas" would exist at the same time! I hear Christmas music, I see Christmas promotions yet there is no snow, no bitter wind but there is the AC (or Air Con as they say here) blasting because it's so hot! Strange country I live in!
kelebek }{
Posted at 3:13 PM
