Mama's Growing Mangoes

My mother likes to grow things. Or perhaps I should say my mom likes to start things growing. My grandma, Mom's mom, could grow anything. If that woman spit on an acorn you'd have an ancient oak in under a week. My mother, on the other hand, has had issues with things growing. She tries. God bless her, she does try. Currently in the kitchen is a mango pit sitting in a shallow bowl of water trying to root. It may actually do so. She got the pineapple top to root. She gets lots of things to root. Then they just...kinda sit there.

It's not that Mom has no follow through, she does. She's been married to my dad for 47 years and y'all, that's some serious damn follow through.  She just has an immensely busy schedule and she doesn't seem to have time to plant the things she roots. For those of us that knit, crochet or craft in general, the pineapples, mangoes, celery and such are Mom's WiPs. Yes, yes now we hear the collective, "ah ha" happening. We all understand WiPs, or works in progress. We all have something in our lives that are our mangoes. For some knitters, it's socks. You know who you are. For some crocheters, it's that blasted afghan that never seems to get finished but you WILL, by God, get to it eventually.

I have my own mango. It's my Cathedral Rose Window afghan. I have it started, I just can't bring myself to go any further. I want to yell at it to go on without me. To save itself. But then I'd have bigger issues than WiPs if my afghans started dragging themselves toward the door in search of more dedicated people with hooks. Behold. My mango.

My problem isn't time. It's summer and I'm not in school so time is NOT an issue. Although, I have had a pretty active social life this summer. I have tan lines!! I went outside!! And even though I just got a job for the first time since 2006 (yay me! a job!!!), it's part time and still won't be much of an issue. No, my problem lies with all things shiny and new. I see a new pattern, or get new yarn or hell, get a crap load of free yarn and my mind goes insane with all the ideas and the needing to start things and make them happen now and oooo I wanna try THIS, and....well, you get the picture. After the granny square afghan from the last post, I liked the color play so much that I decided to do more color play and am currently in the middle of this one:

Once all the squares are sewn together, it will bee a black field with polka dots! i got to figure out how to turn circles into squares. I will radiate out in a pastel rainbow, ending with pink on the outside. In the second picture you can see the bag on the right full of polka dots waiting for black squares. Then....well, then I got two black garbage bags full of yarn. With some things that had already been made. There is so much variegated and solids that I normally wouldn't buy so my mind has gone INSANE. So many possibilities. I wanna sit in a room with nothing but ALL my yarn and figure out what I have and color sort and place together and holy crap there's so much yarn!!!

See my problem? Okay good. On the same page? Awesome.

So of course with all the new things, I now have more WiPs, cuz....yarn.

This is one I started yesterday. The flower squares were already made but there's LOTS of that yarn in all the colors.

I sewed all the squares together and worked 2 more rows of the white around them. now I am working on just making a solid blanket bottom for it in simple double crochet, and once it's long enough, I'm taking that pretty pale green and putting a scalloped edge on it. I'm hoping it will look like one of those old fashioned blankets with the hand made embroidery across the top. in my head it is gorgeous. it also makes me miss my grandma cuz y'all, she would have LOVED this. Hell, she might have claimed it for her own. 

So what are you working on?

Stalking shit again!

Check it, y'all. Blog 2.0 with a whole new lease on life. Now I won't feel guilty about not stalking knitters anymore. Yay!! Now I can stalk...everyone. Muahahahahaaa...


Okay, so I'm still crazy, this isn't news. What IS news is I'm going even more insane having taken the summer off from school. I'd like to say I haven't been posting because school has been kicking my ass, but I have a 4.0 that I haven't really had to struggle for. I'm not smart, but everyone else I have class with is slooooooow. Anyway, not here to put down my fellow classmates. Then why AM I here? So glad you asked! I'm here because there are times I find I want to post things that are not Facebook appropriate and I will think to myself, "dumbass, you have a blog," and then I feel all guilty for neglecting the blog and not stalking any knitters. FIXED!! Now I can stalk whatever new shiny has my fancy and nobody can tell me i can't post about it cuz...IT'S MY DAMN BLOG! 


 This means I can talk about school, or post recipes which I have threatened to do in the past (psst, semi recipe at the end. Well don't go look NOW! Rude...), or even post things I've made again cuz y'all, Stalker's been crafty again!! For those that don't have the dubious honor of following my crazy on Facebook, here's a pic of the latest afghan I recently finished:

 


Which totally matches my disco floor blog background and makes me strangely giddy.

Speaking of giddy, I'm all little miss dancey pants here lately. If I stand still too long, i start shakin mah booty.  If I hear any kind of music, booty shaking. Commercials? You guessed it. Booty. I'm hyper all the freaking time and I am blaming it on the treadmill from my fitness class last semester that I have actually found myself missing. A treadmill. I've missed it. Shoot me now.

Anywho, we can delve into more insanity later, for now, a semi recipe!

Crispy Oven Roasted Chicken a la Stalker


4 chicken breast quarters, leg quarters or 8 thighs
1 gallon size Ziploc bag
Kosher Salt
Ground pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic powder


24 hours before you plan to cook the chicken (yes, I said 24 hours. Trust me here.) place the chicken into the bag and fill it 3/4ths of the way full. Place in kosher salt, ground pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. I would LOVE to give you measurements, but I never measure when I cook. I can tell you that I thought I had put waaaaay too much ground pepper in there, but it was fine. place chicken in the refrigerator for 24 hours. I put mine in a large pot in the fridge cuz I simply don't trust those bags.

When you are ready to cook the chicken, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Take the chicken out of the bag, rinsing each piece and patting it dry. Place the chicken on a roasting pan, or, if you're like me and not fancy, a foil lined cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Sprinkle some Kosher salt onto the tops of the chicken. This helps the skin crisp up. Bake for approximately 1 hour, until skin is a crisp, golden brown. (internal temperature should be 165 degrees and the juices should run clear. please don't give yourself food poisoning.)

Enjoy!! If you try it, please tell me your thoughts on it.

Since I've been gone forever again, if you have questions for me or wish an update on something I may have forgotten, please just let me know in the comments. I really don't have anything to hide anymore since you people got to read about me needing to possibly cut scrunchies out of my hair.  Laters!

A REAL post. With Pictures!!

So I finally have a moment in between my busy schedule of school and...well, school, to post the pictures of the room makeover. I cannot tell you the difference it's made in my general well being. It's soothing to be in here now and I no longer feel as trapped. No, the trapped feeling won't go away until I have graduated, have a job and have become a useful member of society again, but it's been lessened and that's huge.

School is awesome. Not because I adore my instructors cuz that is sooooo not the case. School is awesome because I've already met some amazing people and I've actually enjoyed getting to be around people again. I finally feel like a lot of the anxiety and panic has gone. I'm not 100% but then I may never say I am again because we all know that when I do I end up right back in the crazy so yeah, not 100% but having a DAMN good time talking to people again.

What? Oh! Pictures! Right. Sorry. You know me, I ramble. Shut up. Here ya go!! Pictures of the room makeover with commentary! Comment away.  :)

I still have shelves to put up so I can get my dragons back in the room (and out of Mom's dining room, don't judge me) but otherwise, it's such a vast improvement that I'm very happy with it. A huge thanks to my folks for putting up with it and helping and to my nephew, Dylan, for being a champ during the whole process.

P.S You there. Lurker McLurkerson. There's a comment button below. Click it. Say Hi. Stop being creepy. That's my job, dammit.

Quicker note:

Holy hell,  I am exhausted.  I have one class that is apparently self taught and another that thinks homework is a present. plus not sleeping well doesn't help. I know, I owe you pictures and stories. They're coming, I swears it!!! Right after I read this next chapter, make a study guide and figu...zzzzzzzzzz

Quick note:

There's been a room makeover and there are pictures! Also, today was the first day of class so yippee! Also, I am on my way out the door to meet up with my nieces for what is sure to be hell at first but then fun. Midnight Harry Potter premier. I swear I will post something interesting and picture related this weekend. I swear it on my stash. Oh yeah, shit's gettin' real in here.

Wait...What?

So, I'm 39. WTF? Anyway, I've been 39 for a couple of months now so I should be over it but recently it's kind of been slapping me in the face like a loose boob during a random jog. Wait...know what? Nevermind. We'll just roll with it.We all know I'm bat shit crazy by now.

So, I know I've said it before, that I promise to blog more and blah blah bullshit blah so I'm not gonna make any promises here. Can't make me. But I have found recently that I wanna write and the whole reason behind me ignoring the blog is feeling that my life is boring as shit, which it is, and feeling like I had nothing to talk about, which I don't. So...umm...I'll be blogging...things. Random shit. I know the title of the blog is I Stalk Knitters, and maybe I should change that since I'm not stalking a damn thing. I am currently knitting and crocheting multiple projects but only because I've had some time freed up recently since I no longer spend all day, everyday talking to Cory. We broke up. It's a long story and one I may get to at some point. Or not. Whatever.  Just please don't do the whole, "OMG I'm so sorry are you okay men are assholes you're better than that anyway and he never did deserve you!" thing because that's all I've heard the last couple of weeks. I'm fine. Really. He and I both saw it coming, we haven't seen each other face-to-face in 2 years and it seemed ridiculous to continue calling him my boyfriend. Granted, he took the chicken shit way out of it but again, long story.

So...I'm going back to school. Again. I still haven't been able to find a job as a medical assistant because our economy blows so more schooling works for me. Mom and Dad are being kinda awesome about their sick lump of a daughter nesting in their house for the duration of school. I'm finally going to pursue my dream of becoming a nurse. Dammit. I mean it. This WILL HAPPEN. I start classes on July 14th. Do too! I'm uber excited which seems like a good thing until you realize I'm excited about doing math! You can't even use the "well maybe she just likes college algebra" excuse for me since I'm 2...TWO classes from even being in college algebra. I am math stupid apparently. I got through MA school with a 4.0. But my math skills are lacking. English? I tested out of every English unless I plan to major in that shit. Nice to know I can handle my own language.  Wish I could handle 2+2.

So essentially, this blog will start to be me rambling about...things. I will eventually post what projects I'm working on, but I'll most likely keep note of how school is progressing, my frustrations with financial aid, how neurotic I become about my grades and stuff like that.

Oh! I also decided to make a fresh start in my room. I know it may not sound like much (omg she's gonna clean something??) but I quit smoking back in October. No cigarettes for me for 8 months, people!! So, my nephew who adores me, as he should, is going to come over and I plan on taking every single thing out of this room, cleaning it one thing at a time to remove 2 years of dust and nicotine. Then rip up the carpet, paint the concrete floors an aubergine purple, paint all the trim a nice clean white and paint the walls a really pretty pale sea green. Possibly replace the ceiling fan. Depends on how much of the nicotine and tar I can get off the damn thing. Did i mention I was sitting in this room smoking 2 packs a day before I ended up with Congestive Heart Failure? Yeah....it's bad. I'll break out the camera and take pics of the progress. It'll be fun for everyone! Well, except my nephew who will do most of the work but he's 18 and i'm paying him with a trip to our favorite Chinese restaurant, dammit.

Speaking of food, I've been playing around a lot with cooking and finding a LOT of joy in it with the whole we-have-to-eat-healthy-even-if-it-kills-us thing because we have 2 heart patients living in the house. I'm a heart patient, y'all. Shit is stupid scary. Granted, I haven't really kicked in the whole Angie-needs-to-get-up-off-her-fat-ass-and-move thing yet. I have lost weight. A total of 35 lbs since last October and that's just from the water weight and healthy eating bit, so moving? Actually moving for at least 30 mins a day? Angie could be getting her sexy on. Not that I really give a crap about being a size 2 or hell even a size 8. But y'all, for Christmas my mom got me a really pretty skirt and shirt set. Size 18. It's tight but I got that shit zipped and buttoned. I haven't been able to do that since I was like 17. Oh yeah, we like it. I'll be happy with an 18 looking good on me! I will rock those 18s. Hells yeah. Which bring us to why I mentioned the cooking; I may post recipes as I make things up in my kitchen for us. If I find something healthy and delicious, I'll pass it along. Pinky swears.

Anywho, I think I've rambled enough for now. You're pretty well caught up on what's going on. You haven't missed much but coming soon? Changes. Me, out and about again. Doing things. With people! Making new friends. Reconnecting with old friends which I have also been trying to do more of. And I'm starting to ramble again. See? I NEED to write, I'm just too damn stupid to realize. Okay. Laters! Bye! Smooches and shit!  ♥

Oh, one last thing. Is it bad form to demand my hat and scarf back? I loved that damn scarf.  *pout*

Still Here.

There's a post. I need to read through it, but there is a post, I've just been busy. That almost said, "I've just been busty."   That would have been awesome.  Anyway, I will try and read through it tonight and get it posted. I haven't forgotten you guys, I swears. 


For those of you bugging me in MSN, Facebook and e-mails, thank you.  It helps to know you care.  Sincerely.

Oh, and if anyone wants to add me to FB, please feel free. I am easier to keep track of that way.  :)

Angela Ingham Hughes.   (zomg she put her full name on teh interwebz!!!!)  haha