The Knittings of Bree

Last Post

2010-11-01T16:42:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone! This is going to be my last post here on The Knittings of Bree. I've decided to move over to a new blog, I figure I've been horrible about posting so I'd like to start a new. The new blog is Stitchin' My Life Away. Hope to see you all over there!

Beautiful Days

2010-08-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

I went out to a property the other day to change out a lock box, but I had forgotten that our lock boxes have timed access and I couldn't access the key until 9 AM and it was only 8:30. So being that I was in an area of Orange County that I really like (Old Town Orange) I decided to go for a walk. It was a beautiful day, albeit humid, but this is the view I had as I was walking:

Then after walking for a while, I came across this awesome house that had corn growing in the front yard:

I love the idea of edible landscaping, I think things should be functional and beautiful. I think that's it for today, I'll update you all later, I have a few finished objects that I'd like to show off, but that'll have to wait for the weekend.

Thrifting Goodness

2010-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

So we got a new property over close to Old Town Orange and I had to go put a lock box on it Tuesday. For those of you who don't know, Old Town Orange is one of the oldest parts of Orange County and has awesome houses, lots of Craftsman and Victorian Style houses. Steve and I love it there and that is our "if we ever win the lottory" place to buy a house. In fact, Steve and I met up again and started dating at the annual International Street Fair they hold 3 years ago.

But back to my point. Since I was down there at the end of my work day and I wasn't going to get back in time to get any work done at the office (it was 3:45 when I finished with the lock box and I'm done at 4, it takes about 20 min to get back in afternoon traffic) I decided to go to one of the thrift stores and my favorite used book store, Bookman. Boy am I glad I did (though I'm not sure that Steve is)! So while thrifting I found these awesome crewel embroidery kits from the 70's, unopened for $2 a piece! Look how amazing they are!

I want to make these and hang them in my house. Steve's response to this was, "Wow, I can't imagine why those were never opened." He's fine with them though in real life. He's a weirdo like me and likes random stuff up in our house. So excited!

When I went to Bookman I got the first book for our new book club, Watership Down by Richard Adams, for $2.95!

And then I got 2 books I just want to read, Post Office by Charles Bukowski, for $13.00:

And Visions of Cody by Jack Kerouac, for $2.95 also:

All in all it was an awesome day!

My Momma

2010-08-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

Hours 1-9, 10,000 hours project

2010-06-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

So in the last 2 weeks I've finished 9 hours of the 10,000 hour project. First I planned out some of my summer sewing, most of which you'll see here. I'm still trying to figure out a better organizational tool for up comming projects, I'll keep you posted on that. The planning was only a half hour though, then I worked on a robe, it is Butterick 5152, super retro and wonderful. Took me 7 and a half hours to complete from cutting out to the hem. It's full length short sleeved with rick rack trim, I love rick rack.

Pattern: Butterick 5152
My Description: Full length retro robe with belt
Difficulty: Low to Moderate
Things I learned: I need to get better at sewn in trims, had a bit of trouble with the rick rack. Also, I need to mark the front and back sections better, I sewed the 2 fronts together and had to do a bit of ripping out.
Is this something I'll wear: Yes, every morning in summer.
Would I make this pattern again: Yes, I'm thinking I'll make the long sleeved version for the fall/winter out of something warmer, it's the perfect pattern for sipping coffee.

The next thing I made was a super simple skirt, took me only 1 and a half hours from cutting out to hem. I think this is going to be a go to pattern, elasticized waist and a great length for work or the weekends. I also want to make the shirt that goes along with it, but I'm having some issues with the length of the bust, so I'm going to make up some muslins. I'm also thinking that I'm going to need to make a dress form here sooner or later. But with the whole wanting to lose weight thing, it's hard to put that much time into a dress form. I'll think about it.

Pattern: Simplicity 2614 a Threads pattern
My Description: Simple skirt and bias cut shirt pattern

Difficulty: Skirt: Extremely Easy
Things I learned: While elastic waists aren't super retro, or professional, they are super comfy, but I do want to get something to make feeding the elastic through easier.
Is this something I'll wear: Yes, super comfy.
Would I make this pattern again: Yes, basically right now I want to make it in every color.

10,000 Hours

2010-05-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry I’ve been away for so long, I’ve been way overwhelmed with work. I’m not enjoying my job at all, I mean I used to get frustrated at the way people in my line of work do things, but it was nothing compared with the way stuff is being run with our new owners. I’ve been trying my darndest to leave work at work, but it’s hard when you have a job where you’re on call 24 hours a day. In conjunction with the downward trend of my feelings toward my job, I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, I mean I know I don’t want to be an office manager/property manager for the rest of my life, but what is it I want to do. I’ve been trying to figure out what makes me the happiest and what is it I feel most relaxed doing. And the answer came to me while making a wedding dress for a friend of mine, I love sewing. Not just sewing, but creating clothing.

In addition to all this reflection I’ve been trying to figure out how to make myself better at my craft. Enter Ms. Violet of the venerable Lime & Violet podcast, she’s been talking about her 10,000 hour project, so I went to her blog to find out more about it and the basic premise is that anyone who is considered an expert in their field has spent at least 10,000 hours practicing whatever their craft is. She’s made a resolution to spend 10,000 hours in pursuit of perfecting (as much as that is possible) her graphic design and perfume making. This got me to thinking. Wouldn’t this be the perfect way to figure out if this is indeed what I would like to do with my life? I know I’ve tried other things with a “do this everyday” theme and they haven’t worked out, but I think that if the end goal is to be self sustained in business and not have to work a full time office job that I can work on my craft for 10,000 hours. I realized that it doesn’t have to be sitting at my sewing machine for 10,000 hours, it would include learning new skills, designing, sketching, sewing muslins and wearable garments. I’m looking at taking some classes this fall at Santa Ana College in design and fabrication, I might go to OCC though instead. I’ve looked at design as a viable career before, right after Steve and I move in together in fact, but school was just too expensive. I’ve since figured out that by taking the classes at a community college instead of a private design school, not only can I afford it, but I can still work full time and support the fam and just take classes at night. I’m going to start my own personal 10,000 hour project on June 1, 2010. You may not hear about it here on the blog all that often, but you’ll see the fruits of my labor and I promise to update when I get to big milestones in my journey. I look forward to sharing this with you and as I’ve been typing this I am starting to feel an excitement about my life that I haven’t felt since Steve and I decided to get married. There are a few other projects in the works that I’ll let you in on as soon as they get underway, all I can say is that they are exciting.

Here's the wedding dress I made, I'll post some more pics when I get some of her in it:

A recipe to share and a couple announcements!

2010-03-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

Hey all, so it was my new boss' (more on that later) birthday a couple weeks ago and I got to make the cake. Well he wanted a chocolate cake but, I've made too many of those so I wanted to make something a little different, so I went searching on the web. I noticed that he likes coffee quite a bit, so I thought the Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe by Ina Garten looked awesome, and different! It turned out really great, just a couple things I'd do differently next time, it calls for freshly brewed coffee and I think next time I'd use a big Pyrex measuring cup to measure it since I managed to burn my hand trying to measure the hot coffee out. I forgot to take pictures before I served it, but here's some after it was half gone:

I also wanted to announce that since my parents moved, they gave us their cat, Tinkerbelle, since cats don't do too well on road trips and they are planning on going to Africa this summer for 2 months, she'd get eaten by a lion. But here's my little lady:
Yeah, she's got a little attitude problem, and see the hair rubberband in the upper left corner there? Yeah those are all over the house now because she steals them to play with and will actually fetch them if you throw or shoot them for her. I'm hoping to get a video of that up pretty soon.

The last announcement is the most amazing one to me. Last night Steve and I were at Sprouts getting some stuff for lunches and some stuff for his leg cramps and as we're standing in line he says to me, "How many days are in April? 30 right?" I say yes and he says, "I think we should go totally vegetarian for the whole month." I was flaberghasted, I mean as you may or may not know, I was a vegetarian for a while when I was younger and have wanted to go back to that way of eating lately, but it's hard with 2 meat eaters in the house. So it looks like starting April 1st, we're going to be vegetarians for 30 days. I'll update the blog a little more often as we've decided to call the experiment "Walking a Caveman Through the World of Veggies" or something like that. So now a question, what are your favorite vegetable recipes?

New Purse and Other Things to Come

2010-02-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

So I made a new purse, thinking I would make a smaller one that than the one I had been carrying. Well that didn't happen, but it's an awesome new purse. Everything I used including the batting was from stash.

I'm also starting a new way of eating on Monday, as of Monday, March 1st, I will no longer be eating, or drinking processed foods. I'm interested to see how hard it really is, I'm also going to give up sugar. I'll let you guys know how it goes. I'm pretty excited. I gave up coffee and soda about a month ago due to some acid reflux problems I'd been having, so sugar is the next step. I'm interested to find some cook books using things like sugar and apple sauce in baking.

Also, I'm starting some plants from seeds this weekend. I'm going to have the munchkin go with me to the nursery this weekend to pick out some stuff to grow. That's about it for now. I'm going to try and update once a week, I think it's a good outlet for all the things going on in my life.

Knits and Beautiful Days

2010-01-28T10:27:00.000-08:00

So apparently I never blogged about the first lace shawl I ever made, so here it is:

My question is can I pull this off wearing it in either one of these fashions?

So some other things I wanted to tell you about, after all the crazy rain, we had one of the most beautiful days yesterday, here's some pics I took as I was waiting for some clients yesterday at one of our properties:

And last but not least, did you know that Debbie Stoller now has her own line of yarns with Red Heart? I was at JoAnn's yesterday and I spotted this:

Look how vibrant those colors are! And they're only $4.99 for about 150 yards of yarn! There are 3 different yarns Full of Sheep, Bamboo Ewe, and Alpaca Love! I'm thinking of getting some of the Full of Sheep to make the Sunshine Intarsia Bag from Boutique Knits. Here's the pic of the bag from the book:

I think I either want to make it in pink and red for Valentines or yellow and green for bright obnoxiousness. Not sure yet, I'll keep you posted!

New Year New Home

2010-01-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

So, right before the new year we moved into a new bigger house as I told you all we were going to. Now I'm gonna show you some pictures of what the house looks like empty and as soon as we're done decorating I'll post some pics of that.
Here's the garage:

This is where our new washer and dryer are now

Here's the Living Room

Here's the stairway with the awesome sky light:

Here's our Room and bathroom with the awesome Harry Potter closet that's going to be my craft stuff:

And here's the munchkins room with a walk in closet:

And last but not least the hall with the linen closet that we're using for books and the awesome up light:

I also wanted to show you all a great set I did for my parents Christmas party. Here it is fresh out of the curlers:

And then here it is brushed out and styled, sorry no pics of me in my dress and such.

We're Moving

2009-12-16T08:52:00.000-08:00

Hey all! Steve and I are packing up and getting ready to move.

source

As you may or may not know the owner of the condo we've been living in for the last 14 months is short selling the home. The new owners have no intention of renting the house out so we're moving. At first I was really upset about this, I mean I hate packing and moving. But it's ended up being a really good thing for us. We're moving out of a small 900 sq ft 2 bed 2 bath, horrbily designed upstairs condo that needed a lot of work the owner wasn't willing to do. The home we're moving into is 1132 sq ft 2 stories, 2 bed 2.5 bath with an attached 2 car garage and laundry in the garage. It's a huge step up for us, not to mention the areas a bit nicer than where we are now, it's all homes as compared to the apartments that surround us now. I also feel like we'll be able to have people over since all the living areas and such aren't right on top of each other. Now, I'm looking to paint the house, but we haven't decided what colors we're gonna do as of right now. So it looks like we'll be painting after we move in. Because of this I would love to use a paint with no VOC's if at all possible. I was trying to find a good paint, and had kind of given up, but then I happend on this blog. She's awesome, and she's having this giveaway! It's a perfect start to make the new house our home!

I suck

2009-12-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know, I know, I suck. I haven't posted in almost 2 months, but with the wedding and honeymoon and all that I got distracted.

So the wedding was awesome! I would not recomend my coordinator to anyone however. There was one point at which we were lined up ready to go down the aisle and not only did she yell at my wedding party about smoking, but the caterer spilled some marinara sauce on the upper level of the cabin deck right in front of us and everytime they tried to wipe it up more spilled down, she did nothing. I had to ask them to stop wiping until we walked through. But it was a beautiful day, and I am so glad I am spending the rest of my life with my best friend. Now for some wedding porn, like I know you all are looking for:

That's our awesome photographer Leah Lee in the background.

Ok so this is a lot of the wedding party right after Grace, the flower girl and Mike's daughter, and Richard, my cousin the ring bearer, entered. My maid of honor Lauren is in red and my sister Susan is in purple, you can kind of see Amanda in blue there too.

My sister doing her reading from Corelli's Mandolin.

Matt, brother of Mike and Janice and uncle to Grace, doing his reading from Oh The Places You'll Go! You can also see Jeremy in this pic.
Our first Kiss.

Our Exit.

Some of my family coming up the aisle after pictures, that's my Momma in the front with her head bent.

The whole wedding party!

Lauren giving her toast.

Janice giving her toast.

Us toasting.

Steve giving his toast, he got teary eyed again
.
My Dad giving his toast.

My Godfather Tom giving his toast, made everyone cry.

Our first Dance, we danced to I'm Your's by Jason Mraz.

My cousin Zach sang the processional, Such Great Heights and then I'll Follow You Into The Dark at the reception. It was awesome.

So that's the wedding, more later.

Makin Me Happy!

2009-10-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

I was having kind of a crappy day today, then I saw this bracelet give-away! Just seeing this bracelet makes me happy!

How stinking cute, right? Here's the blog post: http://talesofaretromodernhousewife.blogspot.com/2009/10/celebrating-150-followers-with-giveaway.html?showComment=1254929298662#c7933033757883244589. Take a look at the whole blog it's too cute!

...

2009-10-03T23:33:00.000-07:00

Wedding stuff is starting to get me in a weird mood. But not a bad mood, or a cold feet kind of mood, just super sentimental. I am fully sure that Steve is the most wonderful man I've ever met and I'm also totally sure that I made the best decision I've ever made in deciding to spend the rest of my life with him. I just watched P.S. I Love You, Steve's at his bachelor party tonight, which means stupid girly movies for me and a cold bed to sleep in. But even so I'm glad he's getting to spend a night with the guys. But back to the subject of the movie, I don't know what I'll ever do if Steve dies before I do. There was a line in the movie that the Mom says, it's something like, "I know what it feels like to walk into a room and not feel like you exist until he touches your hand, or smiles at you, or makes a joke, even if it's at your expense." I never thought I'd be that girl. I never thought I'd be the girl who didn't feel whole without a man at her side. But here I am 3 weeks before my wedding and I can't imagine a day spent without him. Why does he put up with all my nerosis and my need to nest? Why does he seem to be the only man in the world that has ever fully understood me, more than I understand myself sometimes? If I never believed in soul mates before I met Steve, I'd believe in them now. I remember telling a friend in high school that I wanted to find a man who would love all the parts of me, not just the singer, or the seamstress or the mom, but everything, I've found all that in Steve. I love everything about him, I love that he gets so upset when people try to screw other people over. I love that he loves his son more than life itself and has taught me to love him more than anything I've ever loved in my life. I love that he has a favorite football team and doesn't watch any of the games until they make the play-offs. I love that he challenges me to be more and that he tries to be more everyday. I love that everyday at work I get an I love you text from him.

Sorry for the rant, like I said, I'm a bit sentimental lately.

Ready for the wedding to be over!

2009-09-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

It's not so much that I'm sick of wedding planning, I mean there's a little of that, but that's not the majority of it. It's more that I'm sick of having the wedding stuff on top of other of life's little fun things that get thrown in: a job I hate (with people that make my job about 15 times harder), football season for the munchkin, looking for a new home, losing the home we thought we'd be in for years.

So we called the owner of our condo a couple weeks ago to see if we could renew the lease for another year and she says, "Oh, I meant to call you, my rate is about to adjust, so I'm just going to let it go into forclosure." Lovely, don't call us to tell us that, don't worry about the people who have made their home there. I'm a little frustrated that we are going to have to look for another condo, yet again. I mean it's one thing when you're ready to move, but to be forced out is another deal entirely.

On a happier note, I'm totally enjoying being a football momma (well step momma, but you know). We had a game on Saturday, we were beat, but even still, the kids are really starting to play well and munchkin is super-cute with his football uniform. I am getting a little sick of people not understanding that I think of Chris as mine and regardless of whether or not I birthed him he's my little munchkin and always will be.

I have my bachelorette weekend coming up and I'm really looking forward to it, but not sure about what to expect. I'll keep you all updated. Also, I'm doing my hair trials this week for the wedding so I'll post pics of that when it comes up.

I Bought A Wedding Dress

2009-07-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

So, you all know I was planning on making my wedding dress. Well, my Mom decided that I really needed to get the experience of trying on wedding dresses. We went down to Mon Cherie Bridal in Costa Mesa and I tried on anything that my wedding dress consultant brought me. Well there was one dress I kind of liked and we only had a couple to go. The second to last dress was super cute and Marilyn Monroe-y, but it would have meant all of my tidle-bitties hanging out. So we get to the last dress, which I hated on the hanger by the way, and I was convinced it was going to look like crap. Now, keep in mind that there is just over 3 months before the wedding, so we were going to have to pay a rush fee if the dress I chose didn't fit well. So I put on the dress, she zipped it up, and it. was. perfect. I love this dress, I didn't want to take it off. It is made of silk taffeta so it's super light and it's gorgeous. It also had all the things I didn't want, a train, beading, lace and pearls. So enough with the talk here's the pics:

So there you have it, I also ordered the bird cage veil and the flower you can kind of see in these pictures.

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-06-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so I know I haven't blogged in a super long time, but I had to post about this new blog I found, Grosgrain, she has super cute stuff and she's doing a give away for a super cute dress that I just had to post for a chance to win. More blogging later, but go look at this blog it's too cute:

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Those Blah Days

2009-05-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of blah days lately. You'd think the fact that I'm getting married to my best friend in less than 5 months would have me in an overall better mood. But with my job and the economy I've just felt kind of melancholy lately. I feel like after doing a million favors for people at work they are never returned and I am treated as though I'm the one causing all the problems. Take last week for example, my parents took off work and I was in charge of the office. My Mom had this lady who works part time for us come in, which you would think would be a great asset, but she is the most co-dependent not self assured person I have ever met, and she's over 60, you'd think she'd have over come this by now. But some of my stuff fell through the cracks because she was constantly asking me about things and I was having to help her through her days. I don't know, I just feel like I can do no right, so why stay at this job any longer than I have to? I realize I work for family and this is the way it goes sometimes, but I just didn't see my life being like this at my age. I mean I literally have to make myself get out of bed everyday because I know that I'm going to get crap all day at work. Not to mention I can't even talk about my political views half the time because I work with a bunch of super conservative Christians and anything having to do with anything that may go against their beliefs is wrong and should be banned. I just feel like I'm the only one in this office held responsible for my actions and I'm rather sick of it.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, but I didn't want you all to feel like this was a ranting blog, so I've avoided blogging all together. I'll post another blog later today with more knitting/wedding content. I promise, not so much bitching next time.

Which witch is which?

2009-03-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm wanting to make the Buttercup Bag by Rae but I can't decide on a color scheme. Here's my two choices:

These are the outside choices:

So what do you guys think?

FYI, Steve likes the skull choice.

The Big Read

2009-03-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

I was reading Tess' blog this morning and she had posted this. I was sad to see that most people have only read a handful of these, but then I come from a reading family. So without further adieu, the list.

The Big Read (http://www.neabigread.org/) said that, on average, adults have only read six books on this list. So … copy this list, remove my yeses and nos, and add your comments (favourable or otherwise) about the ones you have read. Don’t forget to include a total.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - Yep
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien – Yep, the entire trilogy infact
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - Yep
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling – All, and listened to the audio books, both British and American versions
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Yep
6 The Bible - Yep
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - Yep
8 1984 - George Orwell - Yep
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - Nope
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yep, to see if any of Dickens' stuff was to my liking, it's not
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Yep, one of my favorites
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – Nope
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller – Yep
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – Yep, my Mom had it in the house when I was a kid and I read through it in Jr. High.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - Nope
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - Yep, had it read to me as a child and then read it on my own when I was older
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - Nope
18 The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - Yep
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - Yep
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot- Nope
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - Nope
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Yep, also thought it was over rated
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens- Nope
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - Started it, never finished
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - Yep
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - Nope
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Nope
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - Yep
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - Yep
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - Yep
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - Yep, see previous comment about Dickens
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - Yep
34 Emma - Jane Austen - Nope
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - Nope
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - Yep
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - Nope
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres- Nope
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - Yep
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne – Yep
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -Nope, pretty sure I was supposed to in High School though
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Yep
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Nope
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - Nope
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - Nope
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - Yep
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - Nope
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - Yep
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - Yep
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - Nope
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - Nope
52 Dune - Frank Herbert- Yep
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - Nope
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - Yep
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - Nope
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Nope
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Yep, first I read of Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Yep
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - Nope
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Nope
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck – Nope
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - Nope
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - Nope
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold – Yes, hated this book
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Nope
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - Nope
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - Nope
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - Nope
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie - Nope
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - Nope, want to though, Steve seems to like it
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - Yep
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - Yep
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - Yep
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - Nope
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - Yep
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - Nope
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - Nope
78 Germinal - Emile Zola - Nope
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - Nope
80 Possession - AS Byatt- Nope
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Yep
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - Nope
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -Nope
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - Nope
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - Nope
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - Nope
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - Yep
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - Yep
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Yep, at my grandparents when I was young
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton – Nope
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - Nope
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupe – Yep
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - Nope
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - Nope
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - Nope
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - Nope
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - Nope

98 Hamlet – Shakespeare – Yep

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - Yep
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo -Yep

I've read 46, but now I want to finish the list.

8 Months to Go

2009-02-24T16:43:00.000-08:00

Hey all, it hit me just now, I only have 8 months until the wedding. We still have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of things to do. But, we got the Save the Dates today and I couldn't be happier with them. They are so us.

Crappy Day

2009-02-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

Today is just kind of a shit day. My favorite radio station Free FM 97.1 goes off the air at 5 today, no more Frosty, Heidi & Frank. Work was crap and I found out that the stupid tax increase got approved yesterday. Steve and I have to go to some lame ass thing for his work tonight. Basically I just want to beat the crap out of someone. I don't know why, I'm not really a violent person, but the fact that I'm going to end up working until at least 5 today and I have little to look forward to tonight makes me want to punch someone in the face. I've never punched anyone in the face, ever. I think I need to get out and go to a punk concert so I can take out some of my aggressions in the mosh pit. I mean really what else are they for? I just can't seem to shake my pissed off mood today. People I work with are increasingly stupid and I'd like to just quit as I hate my job, but I can't because no one can get work right now, so how am I supposed to assume that I would get work outside of this job. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'd like to just move to the middle of no where and talk to no one outside of Steve. Sorry for the attitude, just a crap week. That's all, I'll post again when I'm in a better mood, I wore a super cute hat, but I can't get in the right frame of mind to post about it.

06/365 Self Portrait and a Hand-knit

2009-02-13T09:11:00.000-08:00

I figured I'd do another Self Portrait today, I think I'll do one a week or so during this year. Today I wore my hair up and my neck gets super cold when it's not covered so I figured I'd wear the scarf I knit for my Chicago trip last spring. It's made out of Noro Silk Garden in a 1x1 rib and alternating balls every other row. I love it, but I wish I'd used 4 balls instead of 3, the sales lady at Strands and Stitches in Laguna Beach talked me out of it. Don't get me wrong it's a great length for California, but when I was in Chicago it wasn't quite long enough to wrap around my face and my neck and tuck into my jacket. But it's still one of my faves! Notice my cheeks are rosy from the freezing 50 degree weather.

05/365 Valentines

2009-02-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

I think the idea of needing to get the person you love a big extravagant gift on Valentine's Day is way too contrived, but a cute card and an extra kiss to acknowledge the fact that you are in love is wonderful. I also like being a big 8 year old and giving cards to everyone for random holidays, I'm a gift giver, it's my thing. So this year I made little Valentine's for everyone in my office, the best part? I totally forgot to sign them before I sealed the envelopes, but I figure it's a small enough office I don't think anyone'll be confused.

Have I mentioned how much I love Target for having awesome little DIY kits?

04/365 Coffee

2009-02-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

I love coffee, I've loved coffee since I was a kid. I love espresso. I love the experience of drinking coffee. I think coffee is a lifestyle. I know I've posted on here about my coffee love before, but I thought I'd share that my favorite coffee place is Kean followed closely by Pete's. My normal drink is a non-fat, sugar free, vanilla latte, iced or hot depending on the temperature. So for my 4th day of pictures I figured I'd post about my pseudo- obsession with coffee.

So what's your favorite coffee place and what's your drink of choice?

03/365 Bread

2009-02-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

So in an effort to save money and be more of a 1950's housewife, I made bread. I made bread and it was good. It wasn't like a rock, it wasn't all gooey, it tasted good and was cheap! I love this idea, I'm going to try to make bread every week, that way Steve has something home baked in his lunch every day! Sorry that the pics were after the bread had already been sliced, so it's not the whole loaf, but it was yummy:

That's my awesome Wustof cutting board that came with my awesome knife for Christmas from my parents this year.

02/365 Cake Toppers

2009-02-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday when we were whoopie pie tasting, we went antiquing afterwards, we found the cutest salt and pepper shakers that are now our back up wedding cake toppers. They are before and after:

I love them, they crack me up, we'll see if we can find our other choice for toppers!

Project 365

2009-02-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

I've decided to join Project 365, you know taking a picture a day for a full year. I think it'll be fun during the year of planning our wedding. So here it is the first day:

I found the pattern for my Wedding Dress

2009-02-03T15:27:00.001-08:00

Ok, I'm pretty sure the title says it all, but here it is:

I found it because lovely 50's Gal posted a pic of the pattern as something to make. Go read her blog, it's a really interesting experiment that she's doing. I love reading it and I love her even more now that she helped me find my wedding dress, for the record it's going to be the shorter version. I'm planning on making it in a peacock blue silk shantung, but not until late this summer, as I want to lose some weight before I get to that point.

I love this idea for a Save the Date Card:
Makes me want to steal it!

Zane's Birthday

2009-02-03T14:15:00.000-08:00

There are times in my life when I am immensely glad that I don't have siblings, and there are times when I know I missed out on so majorly awesome times. Friday night was one of the times I felt both. We went over to my cousin's for my youngest nephew's birthday, it was a really fun time, they made him a giant hamburger for dinner, which goes along with Steve's wish for a meatloaf cake for his birthday, more on that next month.
So that was followed by lots of conversation in which I found out that my cousin JoQueta thinks that because of all the economic stuff going on that we are all going to have to move to the family farm in Oklahoma and live off of alternative fuel sources, also a whole seperate post. But then, it was time to do the cake and Zane's 4 older siblings were sweet enough to get him a tiny pink cake as a joke to try and make him cry, sweet right? Well then Zoie, thinking that her sweet youngest brother wouldn't retaliate smashed his face into the cake.
Well Zane being super crafty decided it would piss his sister off more to get it in her hair.

She was none to happy.

The real cake was a cookies and cream ice cream cake and was super!

I am happy to report that Jim was good enough to keep the demon dog outside the whole night and none of us were attacked. Although he did ask if he could let the dog in at one point to which my Dad replied, "Don't you dare let him in, I'll kill that f***ing dog." Which is weird to hear from my father the owner of 2 dogs and a cat and the former dog shows man. Tells you how evil this freaking dog is, half Rottweiler and half Chow, not a good mix, especially if you don't train it.

Steampunk Santa

2009-01-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

I listen to a podcast called Escape Pod, it's an awesome podcast with awesome sci fi stories. I'm usually a big fan of the stories, sometimes not so much. Bu I have never been as big a fan of any story than I am of the story I just listened to by Mer Lafferty, As Dry Leaves Before a Hurricane Fly. It was simply awesome. I mean what's better than a steampunk Santa with 9 inventor children instead of reindeer? I think this is the Christams story we should read next year, way more awesome than some creepy guy that watches everything I do all year, then sneaks into my house while I'm sleeping and judges my actions to deem me worthy or not and leaves me a coresponding gift. I just had to share this story with you all since it made me smile. I know it's after the holidays, but if you need a pick me up from a well written story about an awesome family, or just something good to go listen to while knitting, go here. Also I was so intrigued with the idea of a steampunk Santa that I googled it to see if I could find a good one, and get this, there was only one steampunk Santa, I think the world is lacking in this area, we need more steampunk.

Source

More Weddingy Stuff

2009-01-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

I just sort of need to write today. I'm not upset about anything, I'm not angry at anyone, I just kind of need to talk through some things with myself. I guess this is what happens when I'm stuck home sick for a couple days.

I've been thinking a lot about our wedding lately. My Mom and I went to look at invitations this past Saturday and after looking through about 9 books of different invitations to all kinds of events, we found 2 that were acceptable to me. They both ran about $800 for as many as we needed. I didn't love any of them, so we found some papers and such that I LOVED! We're going to end up making the invites ourselves, which isn't so bad, except that about half of the stuff for the wedding is going to be hand made. I've looked at about a million traditional wedding dresses and can't find anything I like, so I'm going to make it. I don't love any of the bridesmaids dresses I've seen so I'm letting the girls do their own thing. I'm thinking of making the flower girl's dress. I want to make whatever the favors end up being, I want to make the majority of the centerpieces. We're having to find someone who makes good whoopie pies because neither Steve nor I like wedding cake. It's just that now the wedding is about 10 and a half months away and it's seeming like a lot, it's normal everyday life plus a crapload of extra stuff. All of this makes me wonder if I might be happier with a traditional wedding, a big white dress bought from a big name designer, have all the bridesmaids go for fittings together for their dresses, make everything match everything else perfectly. But I think that scenario would make me want to shoot people. I'm not perfect. I don't try to be perfect. Why would I want my wedding to be perfect and look like everyone else's cookie cutter wedding? I guess what I'm trying to get at is that this is all starting to feel like a lot of work for a weekend of fun, but I guess it'll be worth it in the end right?

I just need to vent

2008-12-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

I am so freaking pissed this morning and there isn't anyone I can vent to, so I'm going to vent to you dear readers, if you're not in the mood to hear a stupid rant about stupid people, please skip over this post.

Ok disclaimer done.

I work my ass off at my job, I'm really good at what I do. I'm an incredibly honest person. I would never steal from anyone, let alone people I do business with. That said, we had a tenant who was bringing her rent in cash because she was having some sort of issue with her bank account. I let her do this for a couple months, thinking she'd get it sorted out, well it's been about 6 months now and it's getting pretty old, especially since I have a remote deposit scanner now and don't have to go to the bank, except when she brings her rent in. This month, I get her rent, gave her her change, photocopied the money (after she left, she didn't ask for a receipt), and put the cash in a sealed envelope because I was afraid the money might get lost. I got to the bank and she informed me it was $100 short. I proceeded to freak out. I scoured my purse, where the sealed envelope had been. No money in my purse, well that's not entirely true, I had $3 in my wallet, love my check card. Then I rushed back to the office, tore apart my desk and the money wasn't there, then I thought of checking the photocopy of the money, sure enough it was $100 short. So I redid the deposit and had my boss call the tenant and let her know that it was $100 short. Now said tenant is accusing me of stealing $100. So I don't know what my boss will say when she gets back from vacation. But she knows me really well and knows I would never, never steal money from anyone. I am so upset over this, I've known this tenant since I was a kid and now she's accusing me of stealing her money, wtf?!?!?!

That's all, I'll have another post once I've calmed down from this.

Oddly Fitting

2008-12-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Sorceror Control is the name of your game. You are a studied tactician and scientist and you seek a kingdom where things make sense, damn the morals, even if you have to create it. You are cold, calm and calculating.
Werewolf
Cthulu Spawn
Vampire
Ghost
Incubus/Succubus
Demon
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

How awesome is this?

2008-12-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

I just found out from Cupcakes Take the Cake that my birthday, December 15, is national cupcake day! How awesome is that!

Number 6

2008-12-03T09:15:00.000-08:00

I found this on The Woolen Rabbit, and I think it's fun.

Here's the challenge from Kathy: go to your sixth picture folder, find and post the sixth picture, pray you remember the details; tag five others. So here's mine:

This is my little monkey man in his old room acting like a weirdo. Steve wanted to document the old room before we moved. I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you wanna do it, go for it!

Holy Crap!

2008-11-21T09:37:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a Disney Nerd, but seriously this is an over the top wedding:
The Dress:

The Cake Table:

So all of you coming to the wedding, be glad I'm not this much of a Disney fanatic.

I finished an awesome book

2008-11-20T11:38:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I loved this book, I know it was meant for teenagers, but it is incredibly well written and is a great story line. Though it is no secret that I love books and movies about vampires, so I may be a bit biased. I wasn't going to read this book, but after great reviews by 2 friends who aren't into vampire books I decided to read it. Man am I glad that I did, I literally read this book in 4 days, it's freaking addictive.

This made me laugh

2008-11-19T09:37:00.003-08:00

This made me think of Steve and laugh out loud in my office today:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

I love this one

2008-11-18T13:24:00.001-08:00

I love this even more with the entwining of souls:

Wedding Quilt

2008-11-18T13:17:00.001-08:00

I know you all must be getting sick of wedding talk, but since I'm planning a wedding it looks like it's going to continue for a while.

I really want to do a wedding quilt for my guestbook. I got the idea from Speakaboo on craftster:

I want to have maple leaves though for the guests to sign and I'd like the tree to look more like this:

I also love the wedding rings at the bottom of this. I may also go with a tree of life theme:

But I don't know where I'd put leaves on that design. Hmmmm.

WTF?!?!?

2008-11-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

I was reading the Beauty in Real Life blog today and this was part of the quote about the "Eyeslices" eye pads they are giving away:
eyeSlices® are innovative eye treatment pads that combine the natural essence of nature.

WTF? the natural essence of nature? What the hell is that?

I think I need this

2008-11-13T09:06:00.000-08:00

This gals stuff is freaking awesome!

Pub Knittin'

2008-11-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went to knit at Hennessey's almost everyone was there. It's nice getting to see so many people at once. I dig it. I'm not staying at home tonight through Sunday night, my Mom is in Texas and my parents have a new female roomie so my Dad didn't want to be staying there alone with her, you know, don't invite the appearance of evil and all. So I'm staying at their house, I don't know how that's going to work though, makes it hard not getting to be with Steve all night.

Old Woman

2008-11-11T20:37:00.000-08:00

Have you guys seen this commercial from Kaiser Permanente?

I love this song so I looked up who it was by, it's an artist named Michelle Shocked I downloaded her Short Sharp Shocked album. I love this woman. Here's the original video for this song, When I Grow Up, you have to love the weird 80's ness of it:

I Made A Hat!

2008-11-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

I made the Buttercup Beret for a 1930's Glamour swap on Ravelry. I think it came out pretty well. Here's some pics for you all:

Here it is as a slouchy hat (how I'd wear it):

And as a beret:

Don't mind the looks on my face or the fact that I'm wearing 2 sweaters, it's early and cold. But I'm thinking of making one of these hats for myself. I'm kind of digging the slouchy hat thing.

Awesome treat for my feet to live on

2008-11-09T08:04:00.000-08:00

I want to make one of these. I love it! Now if I can convince Steve that we need one in our house:

Wedding Shoes!

2008-11-08T23:03:00.000-08:00

I think I found the shoes I want for the wedding (for now):

100th Post

2008-11-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

WooHoo, I'm on my 100th post. I have no idea why I'm still up, everyone in my house is totally asleep and I need to be awake tomorrow, I'm taking my niece out to lunch to ask her to be one of my bridesmaids but I just can't sleep right now. I've been looking at wedding stuff all night, it's kind of becoming an obsession, but I just really want it to be an expression of us, and of our love for each other. I asked my best friend from highschool, Lolo to be a bridesmaid today and she was so excited she literally jumped up and down.

On the knitting front I finished a beret tonight, it's for a swap, but I think I'm going to make one for me, it's too cute for words and super fast and helps take up some of those single skeins laying around. I'll take pics after it's blocked.

I FOUND AWESOME CAHSMERE

2008-11-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

I found the yarn I want to use for my bridesmaid's shawls! It's only $36 a cone so I should only need 2 cones for all 5 shawls! I can't get the page to load, but it's from Colourmart. Should be good stuff!

Election

2008-11-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty happy with the President elect, but I am more than pissed off about prop 8 passing. How can we deny a group of people a right based on something they can't change about themselves? That's it, before I get to preachy, I'm going to sign off.

I Voted

2008-11-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

No Caffeine

2008-11-03T18:14:00.000-08:00

Today I quit drinking soda, I'm trying to cut back on my caffeine and my high fructose corn syrup. Holy crap, I feel like I've been doing cocaine and am having withdrawal from that. I have a horrible headache and feel sick to my stomach. I'm gonna go sleep, I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

Halloween Part 2

2008-11-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

So I got to have 2 Halloween costumes this year. This first one was for work, I went as an 80's chick, I found silver leggings at Target and I needed an excuse to buy them, plus my real costume was too short for work. So here I am on our balcony, sorry for the turned pic, that's how Steve likes to take them:

Then for Halloween night Steve and I went as the Dude and Ms. Lebowski from The Big Lebowski during his acid trip. I made my costume and knit Steve a sweater from the movie, which I'll have to post later since he wasn't wearing it for these pics:

And here is Steve without his wig looking decidedly like a gay Mr. Clean, but I still love him:

That was our Halloween night since we didn't have the munchkin, it was super fun!

NaBlaPoMo and Halloween Part 1

2008-11-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do the NaBlaPoMo again this year, a post every day for all of November. I think it'll help me get my blogging mojo back.

Ok so onto the content of the post. We took C to Disneyland last weekend to watch the fireworks and he decided he wanted to wear his costume, so here he is, my little dead pirate:

You can see S and C in this one, they were watching the fireworks and eating popcorn.

I'll have some pics of S and my costumes tomorrow.

More Wedding Stuff and Some Beautiful Stuff

2008-10-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

So I think we've decided on a wedding location it's in Lake Arrowhead and set out in the woods, I don't have any pics right now, but I figure next time we're up there I'll take some and post it.

So I went to McDonald's to get a salad the other day and saw this sign in the drive thru:

There are days when I remember why I pay as much as I do to live in So Cal.

And for posterity here's one of Steve at the Shake Shack:

Wedding Dreams

2008-10-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

So last night I had a dream about the wedding, it was stinking awesome. But my dress was the part that was so amazing. It was a tea length peacock blue strapless retro inspired dress with a granny smith apple green crinoline sticking out and I was wearing red heels. All my brides maids were in red, Steve was in a black suit with a green shirt and black tie an the guys all had on black slacks with red shirts and black ties. It was freaking amazing! How do I convey this to my Mom? I am kind of in love with my peacock color scheme, but it's a fall wedding and I feel like maybe it should be more rustic, is there some way to incorporate rustic into that color scheme? Can I maybe do more of a funky shabby chic thing? I dunno, these are all things to ponder...

Holy Amazing!

2008-09-25T08:43:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Tim Burton is directing a version of Alice in Wonderland? And the Johnny Depp is confirmed as playing the Mad Hatter? I think I might have just died and gone to heaven! I wonder if Danny Elfman is going to do the music? I would be wonderful! Here's the IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/

That's all for now.

Wedding Bells

2008-09-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's been far too long since I've updated. Sorry all, work gets crazy at the end of the summer. But the big news is that Steve and I are engaged! I think we're looking at next October for the wedding, so we've been kicking around ideas, and I knew I didn't really want fresh flowers for the bouquets or boutonnières but I was having a hard time thinking of something else, until I found this:
It's from this store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5767847

I think I'd make my own but I love the idea, especially getting to use buttons!

In other news I finished a pair of socks in August:

They are the Embossed Leaves socks from Interweave.

More update later.

My 100

2008-08-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

Got this from Glittyknittykitty:

Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food - but a good omnivore should really try it all. Don’t worry if you haven’t, mind you; neither have I, though I’ll be sure to work on it. Don’t worry if you don’t recognise everything in the hundred, either; Wikipedia has the answers.

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred (glittrgirl):

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (this one scares me a little)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (Yay for Disneyland where I first had this)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (this one I want, I may have to do this for my b-day)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu (this one scares me too)
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (never again though)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine (not a big fan)
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe (doing this this year for my b-day for sure)
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (not a fan of this either)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

That's my list, how many have you had?

I made a dress!

2008-07-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

So I finished this like a week ago but forgot to post it. But I made a dress from a vintage pattern! Here's the shots:
Front

Back:

Close up of the fabric:

On me:

Also, notice the super cute table cloth I made. It makes the apartment feel so much homier.

Beautiful Days

2008-07-02T09:40:00.000-07:00

I love Summer in So Cal, it gets a bit hot, but it is beautiful here. I've been having one of those weeks where everything has been insanely busy and crazy and all that, but in spite of it all, I have felt serene and beautiful. It's the little things that have been making me happy lately. Take Monday, I went and got my car washed, well drove through a wash. But the colors were just so pretty I thought I'd share:

There may be another post today, we'll see how the day goes.

Daring Bakers

2008-06-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yep! My first Daring Bakers Challenge, Danish Braid! I loved making this, it was a bit labor intensive, but I would for sure do it again. I chose to make the braid with an almond vanilla filling. It was wonderful, Steve and I both loved it, so on to the pictures:

MY C AR IS FIXED!

2008-05-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

I finally got my car back 39 days after it was hit, but it looks like brand new:

Also, I got the first block in my Dear Jane Quilt done, but I realized it's supposed to be in Oranges not Reds, I decided to to color on color for the quilt. Here it is, I'm thinking it may become a hot pad or something:

This makes for a happy 3 day weekend, see you all next week.

One Word Meme

2008-05-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

I got this off of my swap partner's blog Cake Makes the World A Better Place.

The idea is that you can only use one word for each of your answers - so here we go

1. Where is your mobile phone - purse

2 .Your significant other - Steve

3. Your hair - growing

4. Your mother - work-a-holic

5. Your father - creative

6. Your favourite thing - rain

7 . Your dream last night - reminiscent

8. Favourite drink - Whiskey

9. Dream/goal - happiness

10. The room you're in - office

11. Your ex - married

12. Your fear - elevators

13. Where do you want to be in six years - loved

14. Where were you last night - home

15. What you're not - angry

16. Muffins - blueberry

17. One of your wish list items - serger

18. Where you grew up - here

19. last thing you did - texted

20. What are you wearing - vintage

21. Your TV - over-used

22. Your pets - parents

23. Your computer - new

24. Your life - happiest

25. Your mood - content

26. Missing someone - Steve

27. Your car - fixed!

28. Something you're not wearing - dress

29. Favourite store - Anthropologie

30. Your summer - busy

31. Like (love) someone - Chris

32. Favourite colour - green

33. last time you laughed - today

34. last time you cried - unsure

35. Who will re post this - Jerry?

There we go, it's harder than you think, because you want to explain choices and you can't.

Pics of the fixed car to come later today.

Rambling

2008-05-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

I don't really know what I want to post about today, but it's one of those days that I just feel the need to blog. It's my favorite kind of day, overcast, colder, kind of gloomy. I know that's a very goth statement of me, but it's the kind of day, you want to sit home and be creative, I would love to be home right now quilting. I think that's my big passion right now, I'm kind of burnt out on knitting, I'd love to be knitting, but I can't find anything I really want to knit. I think I have knitting ennui. For me it's an Ani Difranco kind of day.

Steve and I were talking about taking this girls to Disneyland, my Dad's best friend's daughters, they are 15 and 19. He made me feel old, because I don't have my finger on the pulse of teens today, but then I got to thinking and I don't think I had my finger on the pulse of kids when I was that age. I think that's part of growing up with a weird lesbian environmentalist in the house. I never saw the world the way most people did, I wasn't listening to the music of the time, I still don't.

I never realized how much I was missing from my life before Steve came along and turned it on it's head. I have never been so happy in my life. Between having a man I love dearly and who loves me back with the same intensity and becoming instant mommy with Chris, I never knew I could feel so much at once. This kid who isn't even my son has taken my heart and made it 4 times bigger. Steve is the only man who has ever been everything I need when I need it, he constantly surprises me, and I love that he isn't weak minded, and isn't willing to back down on his beliefs. It's funny to me how things in life work themselves out. I think that's it for now.

I know this post was totally random and disjointed, but I just needed to talk to someone without being shamed into going to church. I feel like everyone here at the office constantly gives me the stink eye for living with Steve and not being married, but thus is life.

AHHH!

2008-05-20T14:57:00.001-07:00

Ready to kill some people in my office for pure idiocy, that's it.

This post actually has fiber content

2008-05-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

Are you amazed? I've been spinning, I filled a bobbin with half of the fiber I got from the Spunky Club in April (maybe) don't remember. But here's the first bobbin:

I'm going to spin another bobbin and ply them, no idea what I'm going to make with it yet, but it'll come to me I'm sure.

I thought this was cute when I looked in the back of my Dad's truck this morning (still don't have my car back, hopefully this week):

Why is there purple lined up in the bed of the truck you ask?

They're flowers that fell off a tree, I love the color, but these suckers get slippery when they are on the cement.

So on my lunch break today I went to the LAB to get some lunch at The Gypsy Den, and I decided to stop into Urban Outfitters where I got this super cute hat:

And here it is on, I don't know what inspired the off kilter Rockabilly pompadour, but I'm kind of diggin it today.

We're moving Pub Knitting tomorrow night, we'll be at the Steelhead Brewery in Irvine by UCI, should be fun times!

A day at the beach

2008-04-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

So I am finally posting a happy blog! Saturday was hot, I mean like 96 degrees hot, so we decided to pack it up and go down to Corona del Mar. It was Steve, Chris and I and Steve's best friend Mike, his girlfriend, Melinda, her 2 girls and his daughter. We had so much fun and I even managed to get a tiny bit of a tan, ok so I added freckles, but what's an Irish girl to do? Here's some highlights:

The amazing view from our spot on the beach, this is why I live in So Cal.

Chris playing down at the water, this makes him look so little, he played in that water for hours, it was all we could do to get him out when it started getting dark.

Steve digging a hole for the girls and Chris to play in.

And last, but not least, my white white legs trying to soak up as much sun as you can wearing 45 SPF sunscreen.

In other news, I've finished the middle part of the quilt top I'm making for Steve and my bed:

That's it for now, I'm hoping to get to work on this a little more this week, I need to get the border done and then it's just the quilting and binding.

Sad Days

2008-04-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I walk down to my car and I see this:

I thought it was just a little ding in my car, then as I continued to the drivers door, I saw all this:

Someone broke my car! It turns out they bent the suspension on my rear driver's side. But that's why we have insurance right?

In lighter news look at the hand spun I did:

On a Happier Note

2008-02-28T15:40:00.001-08:00

So I', sitting in the airport in Long Beach getting ready to go to Chicago and it's hard for me to believe that I'm going to leave 70 degree weather and go to where it's 14. Don't get me wrong I'm super excited to go, but it's gonna be a major shock to my system.

After I went to Weight Watchers this morning I realized that I really need to do something to change the way that I'm doing this. I mean really if I'm doing this half ass then I'm going to get half ass results. I mean seriously gotta get with the working out and cut out the sweets and cook more. I've been reading a lot about the slow food movement and I think it really sits with my beliefs about food and the way that we, as Americans, relate to food. I need to start cooking more in bulk so I don't have to worry as much about not having things ready.

So really this post is just because I'm sitting in the airport and I don't really feel like knitting, I know gasp, and I needed something to do. Sometimes it sucks to travel alone. I already miss Steve, this is going to be a long weekend without him, but it's going to be fun seeing everyone again. Ok they are starting to call my plane so I'm off...

Cute Shoes for Cheap, Worth It?

2008-02-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

So I got my hair cut last night so that I look amazing for my trip to Chicago (I leave tomorrow). And I figured why not stop at Ross and see if there are any new shirts I needed for work. I found 2, while I was there I also managed to find 4 pairs of shoes that I needed, you know how that goes. Well I'm line and this guy comes out of nowhere and grabs this basket that was off to the side and gets in front of me in line. And I politely said," Excuse me sir but I was in line." And he says to me, "Well I had this basket there and that was holding my place in line." And I informed him that I wasn't aware that he was in line and told him I'd be the bigger person and let him go in front of me. Well that set him off, he started yelling at me and insulting me, so I apologized for the misunderstanding. At this point his wife, who was standing at the returns counter starts yelling at me and acting like she's going to come back and kick my ass. I apologized to both of them again and asked the man to refrain from speaking to me. He kept yelling at me and I said to him, "I've asked you politely to stop speaking to me and I've let you go in front of me in line, I don't see why there is still a problem." And he continues to berate me, at which point my parents friend, Joann, came up, she had been in line behind me unbeknown to me. She also told the man that she had heard me apologize to him numerous times and wasn't sure why there was still a problem. He and his wife then attacked Joann and me both. It was an insane night. Finally I get to be the second person in line and the checker at the regular counter (not the returns and exchanges) calls for the next customer, I naturally didn't go because I was behind crazy man. His wife then looks at me and says, "Bitch, it's your f*cking turn!" As I was walking to the register I said that the language was uncalled for and she came up on me and started pushing me, I asked the checker to check me out 3 times before she finally would. Then as I was leaving the store the crazy woman started following me out to my car, luckily I was driving Steve's truck, I think it made her back off a little, but she continued to scream profanities at me as I drove by. I think what upset me the most about this was that nobody who worked at the store came to settle this dispute. I mean everyone around me (Joann asked) said that he was the one who over reacted and that I wasn't in the wrong. The lack of help from people around was sad, but that's the way of people I guess. So here's the shoes I waited through this hell for:

So I don't know if I'll be going back to this Ross, but if I do I'm for sure taking Steve along with me.

More Office Geekieness

2008-02-21T13:06:00.000-08:00

So in an effort to keep myself from going insane I have to have fun things on my desk. You've already seen my rubber band ball and my gnome garden. But now I will show you the franken-robot that Sarah knitted me for Christmas/Solstice this past year.

Rubber Band Balls Unite

2008-02-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

So I saw this post on M. Patrizio's Blog about her rubber band ball and I figured that I should post a pic of mine. We get our mail at work with a rubber band around it everyday so my drawer of rubber bands was getting out of hand, so one slow day at work I decided to start a rubber band ball, it's just grown since then.

It's posts like this that make me realize what an office nerd I am.

Hand Spun is pretty

2008-02-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

Two-ply dk/worsted weight about 500 yds

One-ply lace weight about 500 yds

Monday's

2008-02-18T13:51:00.001-08:00

This is how my day started out:

That was the sunrise as viewed from the window of the apartment. I saw this as I was putting my yoga mat away. It was incredibly inspiring. Sometimes the little things are what I really need to make my day.

Then I got to work and my Mom was here, and we had some awesome conversation about making cloth pads to send to Africa via Goods 4 Girls. And it was cool and then my Dad came in and it was like no one could do anything good. So that's where I'm at at this point of my day. I'm sure it'll get better when I get home I'm going to work on a coat for my trip to Chicago next week.

Edit: I figured it out. My Dad brought me a valentine from my Grandma and she wrote in it "No college - no money. I'm praying for your weight loss." I don't care if I get money, but what the hell kind of valentine greeting is that? You're a slacker and you're fat? Whatever, this is why I don't enjoy going home for family gatherings.

D is for...

2008-02-17T13:45:00.000-08:00

Disney World Lunch Box!!

This is what my Mom and Dad got me on their last trip to Round Top, Tx. It's a vintage Disney World Lunch Box and I love it. It takes 2 things I love, lunch boxes and Disney, and puts them into one pretty package. Here are some more pics:

The Back

The Top (and yes that's a random pack of glitter on my work desk!)

The Sides, I love the attention to detail with all the little pictures.

The safety information on the inside of the lid.

It still has the Thermos, I love that too! I guess I now officially have a collection of lunch boxes, I have 3 now.

Masks and the first 2 of my 101(or at least starting them)

2008-02-16T21:45:00.000-08:00

So tonight we went to a Black and White party where the guests were asked to wear masks. Well we decided to go at the last min and so I made the masks from some stuff from Michael's. But I did use glitter on my mask:

And I used pom-poms on Steve's:

I don't have pics of either one of us wearing them as we didn't need them at the the party, but this is the first time I've used glitter just 6 more! And I've decided to take a pic everyday and post it. I made these at the El Pollo Loco and I looked like the crazy girl having craft time, but it was fun. I think I should do random crafts in public more often.

101 Things in 1001 Days

2008-02-15T13:52:00.000-08:00

So I saw this on Handmade Homeschool's Blog and thought it was an awesome idea. I'm categorizing them so that it's easier for me to figure out what I still have left to do. Here's what the site says about it:

The Mission:
Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

Start Friday February 15, 2008 - Friday November 12, 2010

The Criteria:
Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?
Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organizing and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Some common goal setting tips:
1. Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.

2. Stay Focussed. Any goal requires sustained focus from beginning to end. Constantly evaluate your progress.

3. Welcome Failure. Frequently, very little is learned from a venture that did not experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.

4. Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your commitment.

5. Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently, and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.

And here's my list:

Travel:
1. Go camping
2. Take a trip with my Mom
3. Take a trip with my Dad
4. Spend 6 romantic weekends with just Steve
5. Go to the fair
6. Go to a county fair in another state
7. Visit 8 national parks
8. Visit 3 States I've never been to

Finances:
9. Write down every purchase for a month
10. Make & sell stuff on Etsy
11. Put money into retirement fund on a regular basis

3 R's:
12. Write & leave fortunes around the city
13. Learn 3 types of decorative writing
14. Write a note to someone in a service oriented job once a month
15. Read a book on "proper" letter writing
16. Make a list of the top 5 people who have influenced me & write them letters
17. Leave a positive note on a random car or bike twice a month
18. Put a note in Steve's lunch once a week
19. Read a book on etiquette, modern or vintage
20. Send a handwritten thank you note every time I receive any type of gift
21. Write 3 short stories
22. Write 2 letters or post cards a month for "For the love of letters" group on Ravelry

Crafty:
23. Design a full wardrobe in the vein of sewing with a plan
24. Make 1 garment a month
25. Refinish or recover 1 piece of furniture
26. Knit 5 items for charity
27. Learn 3 new forms of art/craft
28. Decorate for 6 holidays
29. Make a corset
30. Make a 3 piece tailored suit
31. Use glitter in 9 projects

Masks 02/16/08

32. Make gifts for neighbors & leave them on their doorsteps
33. Brew a batch of my own cider, beer, or mead
34. Create 3 shrines
35. Make 5 pillows
36. Knit or crochet a giant doily
37. Refashion or recover a pair of shoes
38. Knit something for Chris
39. Make a full size quilt
40. Make a burlesque costume
41. Make a bathing suit
42. Learn millinery
43. Make 5 pieces based on art pieces
44. Create an art journal
45. Make 4 pieces of jewelry
46. Buy & revamp 8 pieces of clothing from a thrift store
47. Publish a knitted design
48. Learn to steek
49. Make an alphabet book
50. Knit Steve's blanket
51. Knit 13 items from stash
52. Take an art class

Green:
53. Go to the Farmer's Market once a month
54. Switch to all non-toxic or natural cleaners
55. Use only reusable grocery bags
56. Make 1 "green" change a month
57. Plant a tree
58. Grow 5 varieties of herbs
59. Research community gardens & join if able
60. Grow flowers from a seed
61. Use only reusable cups & mugs
62. Make or give fair trade gifts for Christmas
63. Switch to natural beauty products
64. Buy & Start using a diva cup
65. Reduce plastic in kitchen by 90%

Health:
66. Build the stamina to run 5 miles
67. Run 5 k for a cause & get donations
68. Make 1 new recipe a week
69. Track my points 1 week a month
70. Go 1 month with no TV
71. Learn to surf
72. Do yoga 3 times a week
73. Ride my bike to work once a week
74. Make bread
75. Take the stairs instead of the elevator when able
76. Go to the beach, on the actual sand, once a month
77. Do 1 full detox
78. Go 1 month with no processed food
79. Take a class in burlesque or pole dancing
80. Get to my goal weight
81. Take Chris on a nature walk
82.Stop drinking coffee
83. Take a course in swing dancing
84. Learn to snowboard

Miscellaneous:
85. Take 12 units at a college
86. Go to 5 concerts
87. Sleep under the stars
88. Compliment someone everyday
89. Go caroling
90. Have 1 day every month with no plans
91. Take a picture everyday for a year & post it to the blog
92. Only wear skirts & dresses for a full month
93. Get another tattoo
94. Clean the car out once a week
95. Make a personalized emergency kit for my car
96. Make Limoncello
97. Blog updates when tasks are finished
98. Find a creative way to save for & buy a digital SLR
99. Design or have designed a logo for Etsy shop
100. Buy 4 pieces of original art
101. Get a new job

C is for...

2008-02-08T09:59:00.000-08:00

Christiania

B is for...

2008-01-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

That's him in a hunting hat I made him 3 years ago now I think, maybe only 2...

Style, Color and Living Green

2008-01-30T09:06:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about design lately. Color design, sweater design, clothing design, home design, green design. I find it weird that you have to lose some of your style to live a completely green lifestyle. I mean I'm all for saving the environment, but when did that mean knitting with only organic, naturally dyed cotton? I need some color in my life. I dunno, I see things like this and I realize it's more that we all make some effort, I don't have to become a granola eating, hemp wearing, dread lock sporting uber-hippie. I just need to make an effort towards some change, with time it will be easier.

But onto the topic I mean this blog post to be about, style! I saw this post today about the new Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie offices in Philly. Holy awesome, I want to live in their offices. I'm trying to figure out how to bring more color into the apartment, right now we have dark gray awesomely comfy couches and a matching chair. but nothing else has much color, you know, white walls, dark metal coffee/side tables and an oak entertainment center. I think I need to add some pillows, but I haven't found any fabric I love for this purpose. Guess that means I need to go shopping. I'd love to find some old saris or cool 1970's or 1940's fabric. Like flour sack cotton, now that I think I could find. Maybe do some patchwork with stuff like this and this.

I also really want one of these for our wall:

I think it'd be awesome, you could hang stuff off the antlers, I know I'm a little country sometimes, but what can you do?

I also love this idea that I saw when we went to Blair and Sidra's Wedding in Virginia:

Ok I think I'm done for now, but if you guys have any ideas on new ways to add color, let me know.

First of the Year Organizing

2008-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

So the year is starting to fly by, but as I move more and more of my stuff into Steve's apartment I'm finding the need to organize. I'm also trying to be less of a hoarder when it comes to fabric and clothing and yarn. In an effort to do all this I'm organizing my fabric and sewing pattern stash. While going through my pattern stash I found this gem:

I also really like the idea of taking vintage patterns and making them look punk rock with color and trim choices, so we'll see what wins out, I am going to wait until Spring so I can lose a little more weight and not have to resize all the stuff I just made (I'm being super optimistic, but that's how to do it right?)

I think that's it for today.

A is for...

2008-01-14T10:49:00.001-08:00

Anime hair!

After I dyed my hair last night I turned to Steve and said, I look like an anime character. I love it! I've gotten mixed reviews so far. My Mom hates it, she said it doesn't look natural so she doesn't like it. My counter to this was, "Did my black hair with pink streaks look natural?" I'm not too upset by her analysis of it, it wasn't meant to look natural oddly enough. Both my Dad and Chris in the office made the comment that it's "bright". I like that one. Steve loves it, we'll just see what everyone else thinks.

Update 11:27: Our Mailman, Roger, just came in and asked me if I had sunburnt hair, that's my favorite comment so far.

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New Year's Resolution List

2008-01-04T13:58:00.000-08:00

I stole this from Nikol Lohr and I thought it was a great idea to write it all up in the blog. So here it is, my list:

under 2 hours
under a day
a day or 2
a month or so
ongoing

Wedding Shawl for Sarah
Finish Halloween Mystery Shawl
Hat for Steve
Mystic Waters Shawl
"The Dude" Sweater for Steve
Spin my stash of roving
Wash and card fleece from Tina
Make a quilt for the bed
Be able to run 5 miles in under an hour
Get to my goal weight
Continue to eat mostly healthy food
Make an outfit for Bat's Day
Sew a jacket or coat
Sew a dress
Find out if I'm eligible for Lasik Surgery
Find a new job
Make stuff to sell on Etsy
Read at least 6 Novels
Write a knitting or crochet pattern
Write a blog post at least once a week
I joined the ABC Along on Ravelry
Transfer all my photos from my PC to CDs and store them
Make a scrapbook for Chris

I think that's it for now, I will most likely add to this, but we'll see.

Christmas Meme

2007-12-13T10:55:00.001-08:00

I stole this from Boogie who stole it from someone else:

Christmas Meme

Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, I know it's not a very green choice, but I just like the way the presents look under the tree.
Real or artificial tree? I have a big white fake tree that's wonderfully retro, I love it, Steve won't let me put it up in his apartment so it's up in the office this year and it has kind of taken over the front office.
When do you put up the tree? Sometime the week after Thanksgiving.
When do you take it down? Sometime after Christmas before Valentine's Day.
Do you like eggnog? I like eggnog flavored things but not eggnog itself
Favorite gift received as a child? My fairy wings my Mom made, but they weren't for Christmas, they were for Halloween, I'd say my Teddy Ruxben (don't know how to spell it), it was this teddy bear and you put tapes in his back and he'd tell you stories, great thing for an only child.
Do you have a nativity scene? My mom has a bunch, she collects them, in fact I just got her a new one that is rubber duckies in soap.
Hardest person to buy for? My Dad, the man has everything and the money to buy the stuff he wants.
Easiest person to buy for? My mom, she likes the same kind of stuff as me.
Worst Christmas present you ever got? An apple shaped sponge, that's it, and it was deteriorating, weird, thanks Grandma.
Mail or email Christmas cards? I mail them, this year I got super cute ones...
Favorite Christmas movie? The Nightmare Before Christmas, does taht count?
When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I start seeing cool stuff.
Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yep.
Favorite thing to eat on Christmas? Swedish Tea Rings, it's a family tradition, super good, I'll have to post a recipe.
Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear, looks more like ice to me.
Favorite Christmas song?Good King Wenceslas by Loreena McKennitt
Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home.
Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? Dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner, blitzen, and rudolf. Being in choir for a million and three years has it's perks.
Angel or star on top of tree? Right now it's a snowflaky star thing, but when the tree is gothed out at my house it's a Bleeding Edge Goth Doll.
Open presents Christmas Eve or morning. One Christmas eve and the rest in the morning.
Most annoying thing this time of year?People who are all about the materialism that has come to be associated with the season, but why not focus on the beauty of Solstice.
Do you decorate your tree in any theme or color?This year it's red, purple, silver and green, but usually it's black and white or purple and white.
What do you leave for Santa?Cookies and milk and a carrot for Rudolf, but we haven't done that in quite a few years, just when the little ones are over at the house.

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Best Monday Ever!

2007-11-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

So you know how Mondays are usually the crappiest days of the week? This Monday that wasn't true. I had a great day at work, nothing really went wrong and then when I got home, I had my new wheel and all of the Raven Clan Series from Blue Moon Fiber Arts on my doorstep!

Here is all of the colorways. I am in love with all of them:

That's all of them, but I also made some Chicken Cacchitore for dinner and Steve loved it. I love getting to do Susie Homemaker things.

BEST CRAFT BOOK EVERRRRR!

2007-11-26T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe not ever, but it's pretty freaking awesome! I have literally been calling on this book everyday since last week, or having Sarah call on it (that's what best friend/assistants are for right? Not to mention she's awesome and loves me!). So I got mine at Barnes and Noble because I have an awesome friend there who got them out of the boxes for me!!! And as he read the description and looked through the book he was all, "Yeah this book is perfect for you." I love, love, love this book. The writing is freaking hilarious, the patterns are great, I have a few I need to make including the snake dance thigh highs, gothic glam yule hat, immaculate heart, liza's net, apothrcary/i [skull] trouble tote, bad eggs, three owls, wheel of the year skirt and the chandeliers. I had some heads up on three of the patterns (linked above) because futuregirl is awesome and was the one who made the patterns and I read her blog every time she posts. Basically, I'm hating that I have Christmas knitting because I need to wait to make these things. Apparently Ms. V feels the same way I read her post and I was like yup, that's how I feel.

Christmas Decorating

2007-11-25T10:32:00.000-08:00

My Family goes a little overboard with the whole Christmas decor thing. I'll take some pics when I can, but the last 2 days have been spent decorating. I'm thinking of making my Mom an advent calender from Allsorts , she has the freaking cutest stuff. I love all of her stuff, I love when she shows up in my blog catcher. How cute is that advent calender though?

Christmas knitting overload

2007-11-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

So I've realized that I'm a bit over zealous when it comes to Christmas knitting. Today I came up with the genious idea to make my cousin JoQueta and her Fiancee and their 5 kids all hats for skiing since they are getting married on the slopes this Christmas season. I know it's all a little insane, but so am I. I'm also working on a baby blanket, a hat for Steve and a shawl for my Momma. I'm sure I'll get it all done, we'll see though...

Mr. Magorium

2007-11-23T22:09:00.000-08:00

Steve and I took Chris to see Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium today. I loved this movie, it was kind of stupid in an awesome way. I dunno, I just love fantastical movies, and this was a super cute one.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I wanna go on a tour of here! Or work there! Or give tours there! I need to work for Disneyland.

Shut up! It's Glow in the Dark Yarn!

2007-11-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

I think I need to make something with a glow in the dark skull on it. A purse maybe?

Equality

2007-11-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

"Equality is not a concept, it's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity, we need it to stand on this earth as men and women. And the misogyny that is in every cultur is not a part of the human condition. It is life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who's confronted with it. We need equality, kinda now"
- Joss Whedon

Did you know his Mom started Equality Now? How cool is that? He's totally a feminist, now he is even more swoon worthy...

More Corteo Goodness

2007-11-19T11:38:00.001-08:00

So I posted on Friday about going to Corteo by Cirque du Soliel. Well, I bought some souviners. Firstly a hat, I think I'm going to wear this to Bat's Day next year, I've got a whole costume idea worked out for it.

I just seem to have this soft spot for hats of all kinds, if I could find a reason to wear them every day I would.

I also bought a CD so I could remember the weirdness:

And Sarah bought me a clown nose, a green clown nose, have you ever seen anything so awesome?

Oh and I got a lunch bag.

I really shouldn't be allowed to take my credit card with me to these things.

Ok, for some actual knitting content, I've been working on a sock:

I have no idea what the yarn is, but I like it, I bought it when I was in Germany last summer and the pattern is Broadripple from Knitty. Great pattern to take with me as it's only a 2 row repeat and I think it shows off the color of the yarn really well.

Brunch with Family

2007-11-18T21:28:00.000-08:00

This morning my Grandma came to town, so we had a big old brunch with a crapload of family. Here's the spread:

How good does that all look? It was wonderful! But I got stuck cleaning up, silly people, don't you know I could better use that time knitting?

Kean Coffee

2007-11-17T22:59:00.000-08:00

Today, we went to Kean Coffee in Costa Mesa off of Newport and 17th. It was amazing coffee and look at the design they did in the foam of my latte. I love coffee!

Cirque du Soliel

2007-11-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

We went to see Corteo, the newest Cirque du Soliel performance, today. It was amazing, all about a clown dying and coming to grips with it. It was part burlesque, part circus and all amazing music. I always love Cirque du Soliel, but this one was especially amazing. It gave me so many ideas for costumes and such.

The most awesome book case ever

2007-11-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

I am in love with this, I would totally love to have a super open house with a giant book case like this. Swoon!

Back to your regular programming

2007-11-14T15:16:00.001-08:00

So yesterday was a bit of a rant, sorry about that, but sometimes we just need to get things off our chests.

So I thought today I would give you some pics of my adorable cat Tinkle Biddy Kins.

On Saturday she found some yarn laying around so she felt the need to play with it of course, here she is doing just that.

And then Monday we got the carpets cleaned since my Grandma is coming to stay next week, well you have to get everything off of the carpet including the cat tree climby thing, so we put her's in the office chair. Apparently she felt the need to climb the tree thing anyway, so she did so in the chair that spins and rolls.

Ok enough of the kitty, cute as she might be. I thought I'd show you all the manicure that made my mother worry that I was going to come to work "gothed out".

My hand looks a little creepily pale there, but what can you do right? I mean what's the big deal with black nail polish anyway? I like it, though now they are a dark burgandy color.

Ok and last but not least, I put some stickers on my car last week that I got at the LA Public Library when we went to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I've gotten so many comments on them, all good, I love it! Oh and I have to mention, I over heard my Mom on the phone with one of her friends praising how great my knitting is, w00t! Sorry I had a nerdy moment there!