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Fast-Topic-Changing Friday. Holding, holding, holding.

	Oh, Austin. You’re making it very difficult for me to stay in love with you. It was ONE-HUNDRED-SEVEN degrees yesterday.
	And this old beast of an air conditioner is barely hanging on. I’m on hold now with my home warranty company. Replacing this old girl will cost me a flat fee of $60, not thousands. Whew. So glad I have a home warranty. Next…!
	There will be knitting instruction videos on verypink, verysoon. Veryexciting. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. Next…!
	Just off the needles – Hogwarts’ double-knit bookscarves. These are for a class I’m teaching in July. Yes, Ravenclaw is shorter than the others. Whoops. Next…!
	I’m still on hold with the home warranty company. I really want to get the a/c fixed ASAP. Poor Ike is finally showing his age this summer, and the heat is getting to him. I’ll stay on hold all day if that’s what it takes. Next…!
	Lazy dogs. Still on hold. Have a great weekend!

Pulling the anchor on a Fast-Topic-Changing-Friday.

First up, I’ll get the title of this post explained. I’m a fan of the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch, a show about crab fishing off the coast of Alaska. I like it because I grew up around that stuff in Kodiak. As dangerous and crazy as crab fishing is, the whole thing is very familiar to me. And every now and then I’ll see someone who I’m pretty sure I remember.

There is a new captain on the show, named Big Daddy, who is from Kodiak.

	Here the captains are sitting around talking about why the crews always want weekends off when they’re docked in Kodiak. “There are girls in Kodiak!” Ha! I think I blew coffee out my nose when I heard that. Well, I’m not there anymore, so there is one less girl in Kodiak…
	…but I suppose I’ve been replaced. My niece, Molly Renee, almost two years old. I’m sure she’ll have a future of making crab fishermen want to stay ashore in 20 years or so. Currently, she’s too busy smearing yogurt everywhere. Next…!
	A plug for my friend Stephanie’s online store. She is dyeing up a merino JUST LIKE Malabrigo lace weight. Since Malabrigo is almost impossible to get, and everyone wants to make a Featherweight Cardi, this can be considered a public service announcement. Next…!
	I had the idea to get Tippy to pose for a photo with this little knit dog on his head. It is a Pile-able Pup, after all.
	He had other ideas for what to do with the little dog. His ideas included disembowelment. Next…!
	Do I have the world’s laziest Basenjis? It usually looks like I’m running an opium den. Have a great weekend!

It’s Friday morning and I’m trying to combat grogginess with coffee. Mother Nature has been doing a smack-up job of keeping me from sleeping soundly through the night lately. Storms, possums, crochet. (Does Mother Nature crochet?) Whatev.

We had tornado warnings here in Austin last night, and I had the craziest dream about how my house got swept up in a tornado (very Dorthy Gale-ish-ly), and landed in another neighborhood. I went outside the house to find out where I was. I asked a group of high school girls who were walking down the street, and one of them said, “You’re on the border between Texas and Indiana”. Ah. Oz.

Brewing up a Fast-Topic-Changing-Friday. Strong, but never bitter.

	Yes, crochet. As my friend Stephanie said, “Hell has frozen over.” I’m just dabbling in crochet. I’m not switching crafts….
	…and clearly I’m not taking it very seriously. Trust me. I’m still a Knitter-with-a-Capital-K. Next…!
	Why are my dogs going crazy?
	Why is Abe trying to grow cat claws so he can scale the fence?
	RAWWRRRRR! I AM AN EVIL POSSUM COME TO RUIN YOUR EVENING WITH MY PRESENCE. YOU WILL HAVE NO PEACE AS LONG AS I STAND HERE. MWAHAHAHAHA. Creepy bastard.
	I like this photo. It looks like Tippy has given up hunting and decided that posing next to the possum with a sad face is enough for now. They had been “hunting” this guy for about an hour when I pulled out the camera. Next…!
	Franklin Habit is going to be back in Austin this weekend at The Knitting Nest. We’re doing a live radio broadcast from the store today from noon to 2pm. Stop by if you’re around. Have a great weekend!

At the end of this month, I will have lived in this house for a year and a half. For the most part, I have the house looking the way I want – at least in the more public rooms. But my office. Oy.

When I was a kid, we would go to visit my Great-Great Aunt Ida (the one who taught me to knit) in Oak Harbor, Washington. On the way into town from her house, we would pass this outdoor factory. This place was about three stories high, and a mess of dirty machinery, pipes, and wheels. It was like a steampunk nightmare. One time I asked Aunt Ida why it looked so bad, and she said, “Well, it’s just how it needs to be so that it works properly.”

You get where this is headed?

My office has been like that steampunk factory nightmare. It hasn’t been decorated at all, but the elements of “design” came together as function dictated. And it was ugly. The walls were a dingy baby chicken yellow. Furniture that didn’t fit anywhere else ended up in here. I couldn’t leave the door open, because there was always something interesting within a dog’s reach, since I hadn’t really thought about storage.

This is supposed to be my creative space!

	Before: Yellow walls. Cluttery.
	Stuff shoved wherever it would fit.
	My computer desk was mostly functional, except for the fact that I had things stored near my desk that I didn’t regularly need. Facing the window seems like a nice idea, but it is pretty hard on the eyes when you’re staring at a computer screen.
	First up, empty the room. I moved my desk and computer to the spare bedroom. The dogs were totally happy with that. Also, five million books were lugged to the garage.
	Next, scrape off the horrible popcorn ceiling. Whoever invented popcorn ceiling was lazy (it covers a lot of building sins) and an idiot (it holds dust and stink).
	Here’s the floor once the popcorn snowed down on the terra cotta tiles. I drew a heart to sort of show the real floor color under there.
	Next, repair walls and test wall colors. Spackle. Spackle. That’s an awesome word. Spackle.
	Edge and paint. In this shot you can see where the edges are dry, and show the true color.
	Abe stole my drop cloth at one point, and carefully spread it over his dog bed. What? These dogs are so freaking weird.
	Fresh white paint for the closet doors. Much better than before. What would be the paint color name for the old color? “Dashing Dinge”? “Bountiful Blah”?
	Tippy had to make do with the fact that there were no dog beds in the room while I was working. This photo was taken at about 10pm, because I’m a crazy person who works on projects for 12 hours straight.
	Ta-da! So. Much. Better. The color theme to compliment the turquoise walls is black/white/gray with accents of red. I still need to reshelf the books, and replace the dated light fixture with a small ceiling fan.
	There is suddenly a ton of space in here. I’d like to find a piece of soft furniture for this spot. I’m picturing a large red ottoman; or vintage, armless chair. All in due time.
	I’ve left one giant wall blank so that I can use this color as a backdrop for photos. I’m really happy with the results of The Great Office Makeover. Can I just say this? Budget for this project was $36. One gallon of paint. I was lucky that the previous owners of this house left me a can of high-gloss white, which I used for the closet doors and trim.
	I just took this shot a couple of minutes ago. Tippy’s the only one in the photo, but you can see Ike, Abe, and me in shadows. Have a great weekend!