Just some stuff I have my eye on. I totally absolutely do not expect people to get these for me. I just like compiling the list of goodies.
Creamy shawl with multicolored skully beads!
Smaller organizer case in "lotus" or "anemone"
Colorsmart handmade wooden needles set
Animals Knitting Duvet Cover (clearance woo!)
Holy Crap look at that Louet Victoria Wheel
Anna's Grasshopper Batting from Peace Fleece
I'll add more as I find more cool stuff!
And I've changed the default blog skin to the old Moxie Hedgehog Reindeer on a rooftop design! Is that design really two years old now?
Absolutely nothing much to note. Really so few things of interest are going on these days it would just bore you to read about it.
We had an unbelievable storm during Tuesday's stitch n bitch. Driving back up Greigos from Rio Grande Blvd the street was so flooded we weren't sure the car was going to make it at some points. Good thing we have a tall baby suv type car. Later we saw there were watermarks up to the bottoms of the doors though. Skeery.
I went to get my glasses fixed at the optomotrist who reminded me that I haven't been there since March 2004 so it's time to get my eyeballs checked again. And we're almost finished paying off the criminal dentist.
In knitting I'm about to finish the sixth scarf for the Think Pink charity. They're all fuzzy and acrylic because I'd used up my wool pink yarn for the warming grace squares. I think that's all I'm going to do. I'm impatient to start new socks.
For lack of anything else to write about I'm going to make up some lists.
How I feel right now:
lazy
tired
sleepy
ambitious
nauseated
hungry
hopeful
Movies I've watched the last few weeks: (bad ones and all)
Bewitched
Stage Beauty
Monster-in-Law
Invincible (2001 Werner Herzog not the 2006 one about football)
The Carpetbaggers
Deuce Bigelow European Gigolow
de-Lovely
Notting Hill
Kiss Them For Me
Walk the Line
Heaven's Gate (director's cut)
The Skeleton Key
Books I've read the last few weeks:
Blue Shoes and Happiness
The Moviegoer
The Tiger in the Well
The Shadow in the North
The Ruby in the Smoke
Things I'm going to go do when I finish this post:
eat
watch something on the Tivo
take my medicine
sleep (wish me luck)
Cody may or may not get one or more of the following things for my birthday on Sunday:
Needles
The new KnitPicks needle sets with all the additional options looks good. They're backordered for a few weeks though.
I've been lusting after these handmade wooden needles for months. Aren't they pretty?
Or maybe a set of needles with lights inside?
If these stretchy circular needles came in sizes other than 2 I'd want them too.
Bags
I've been eyeing this lemonade bag at Discount Yarn Sale for about a year.
But I love the new designs on the Lexie Barnes bowler bags
Or maybe I should get a Jordana Paige bag, like this cute black and pink tweed
I like this imitation Jordana bag too.
Although I'd be really happy with a cute matching set of an Acadia Backpack or Empire bag in black sushi material with a matching Denise needle set cover from Boogie!
Or maybe this cute sushi purse?
The Usual Etsy Suspects
The Morrigan Necklace
Assorted cute handmade hedgehog stuff
Fibery goodness
Maybe something from my favorite handspun fiber shops?
Hello
Material
Luxe
I love Trader Joe Sundays. We get over there every other week - on Cody's alternate Sundays off. Today we were there early so I could look at all the prepackaged meals before they were picked over.
We brought Barry. Tried to take his photo with the Trader Joe's sign but my camera's batteries were out.
Bet that won't happen again after I get my new cellphone in the mail (that's not the plan I signed up for I got an excellent deal with Cingular).
Now I get to gorge on hummus. Marmarmarm.
check it - jewelry made from inactive birth control pills to raise money for Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland. link via Colagrl
Barry says thumbs up.
Well, he does from his plush envelope flying somewhere over the Atlantic anyway.
Had a bit of a busy weekend. Heh. Busy weekend. Just a bit. Hehehehehahahahahahaheeeheeeheeheelmmfao
Yeah. Ok. So. Right now we're looking at roughly 272 people for the dyeorama swap when I'm all done confirming a few entries and getting some info I need from a few others. Call me a softhearted woman but yeah I'm giving people about eleven more hours to confirm or ask nicely if they can join.
Let me say that again. Two hundred seventy two people. And the server didn't go down. And it won't show up as overage on the bill either. So hooray for Dreamhost! It shows a little having that many people signing up for WordPress but the swap registration form was great. All things considered there were very few problems to fix. Especially once we got the Internet Explorer issue resolved. When there were problems (primarily people entering wrong information and a RTFM moment or two) they were incredibly easy to fix thanks to Cody's programming and Dreamhost running PHPmyadmin so I could maintain the database.
Now on to the programming a way to randomly match people and email them by May 1.
We were approached by a store for sponsorship and decided to give out some prizes in a random drawing from the list of people who completed the swap. I'm really pleased with the sponsor's yarn and I think her dyeing kits are great! We're accumulating several good gifts (I love the idea of having an incentive to be a good buddy) and trying to come up with a way to confirm when people have received their yarn. Cody has some great ideas.
It's kind of hard to get across how much work programming something like this from scratch really is, or making things run as smoothly as possible with all the possible variables. I pretty much haven't done much else this weekend but check emails, change database info, fix the website, and figure out how to fix bouncing emails. It's not sexy or exciting but I'm proud of the work. And I think it's going to be a fun swap.
The great part of this is knowing that between Cody and I we can pull off a project for almost 300 people. That's something to put on a resume. Which is very cool.
So after all the work I've been shopping online for a prize for myself. Between this work and resolving a serious problem we were having wth PNM misreading our gas gauge and overcharging us by several hundred dollars, *and* selling some yarn this weekend (to a dyeorama member no less!) I feel like I should buy myself a present.
In a state of sleep-induced delirium yesterday I wandered around online looking at my favorite places. My favorites list at Etsy, Kpixie's one of a kind yarn, the new Fiber-of-the-month club at Spunky...I couldn't decide on anything.
After running to Trader Joe's for groceries (we still can't get over the prices there) and to Smith's for the less glamorous groceries like toilet paper and kitty litter (I know TJ's has hippie pine pellet kitty litter but that isn't going to work for my cats' industrial grade asses - we need crystals), I ended up going to Borders to get the brand new "Big Girl Knits" book. They couldn't find it for me so the nice guy called Barnes and Noble (which was maybe a football field away anyway) and had them hold it at the desk for me.
It's a great book - the models are actually plus sized not the like "oh she's a little hippy but otherwise railass thin" kind of models. The advice is good, the patterns cover a wide variety of materials and shapes. I'm very pleased to hear that ribbon yarn is the novelty yarn for the big girl since that's what my big tunic project is - also pleased to find out that they recommend tunics. And I love the boobs, butt, belly category. I found the bottoms section a little - well, kind of weird. But I'm not much for knitted skirts. And there weren't any bottoms for belly people which annoys me a little. I might try the yoga pants pattern someday. Yoga pants are my favorite kind of pants. The accessories was an interesing section - mostly because of the advice to carry larger accessories. I can attest to that - there's nothing that will make you look bigger than a tiny purse. Or make your neck and chin look larger than a mini necklace. So overall, I'm pretty pleased with the book. It's a nice sized hardcover that will take a lot of abuse. I beat up on my books ya know.
So I was feeling pretty plus-sized friendly. And still looking around in my wishlists and things for something else fun to buy, maybe. And I've been going back to this one little weird thing on etsy the last few weeks. It's by the same woman who made my incredibly cool purse. And I kept going back to this weird thing and last night I'd just pointed at this little chubby guy and made too many cute boopy "poking in the belly with my cursor" sounds for Cody - he decided that Barry had to come live with us. I'm very excited about this. He's definitely a belly guy. No boobs and a flatter ass than mine which I wasn't sure was possible. Aww but I love Barry. Can't wait to have him here.
So click on the photo and give him some clicky belly boops with your cursor for luck and safe travels for Barry.
And now, photos of my ironically cabled socks (ironic of course because the cable was out when I started them) that I finished last week sometime.
a silly photo I took of myself in my rock n roll cowgirl t shirt
And a few birds have been building their nests under our porch roof again. This one had used a little strand of pink yarn. Isn't it sweet?
Is this post long enough or what?
If officially ended Saturday around 1:30 pm my time. We justified this by saying that it was Easter sunday in Australia and the yarn store wouldn't be open on Sunday anyway. Considering that I had bought no fiber in any form since Ash Wednesday I have to say, I did well. Particularly for someone who doesn't really observe Lent anyway. And to my complete surprise I didn't go crazy buying everything I saw or had on my wish list. I hadn't been to Village wools since the large koigu shipment had come in so I was happy to sift though the shelves.
So I bought four skeins of a pretty color of koigu to make myself some kneesocks
And, social dork that I am, I did succumb to peer pressure and purchase the yarn to make a shadow shawl with my abq snb girlies. Hey, without them I never would've tried the Jaywalkers pattern especially as my first sock and to my utter surprise I've become quite the joiner. The pattern calls for three skeins of koigu kppm and three skeins of E Lavold Silky Wool (which I've eyed several of the last times I'd been in the store) in contrasting colors. Several people have been getting dark silky wool and bright koigu. I kind of went the other way.
So those and I paid Mama-E for her project spectrum sock yarn subscription and that was pretty much my discretionary portion of our tax return. But I'm very happy and really looking forward to those kneesocks and casting on for another project with my snb buddies.
All the purchases (including my April mama e sock yarn) involves yellow orange so I suppose it qualifies as Project Spectrum. I'm way WAY behind on my PJ project but I've finished the ugg booties and ironically cabled socks.
In Dye-O-Rama News, which i'm sure you read at Scout's anyway Cody and I are putting the finishing touches on the signup forms and the Swap website tonight. SIGNUPS WILL BE TOMORROW NIGHT AT 6PM MDT - THEY WILL END SATURDAY NIGHT AT 6PM MDT. Number of participants is unlimited but only one swap per person. There is a group blog and you'll be sent to the group blog signup form after you finish filling out the swap form. It's all very complicated and stuff for us but (hopefully) easier for you.
My Albuquerque-related project is on hold until the signups are done but I've pretty much paid for and finished part one of the big indescribible project. I really wish I could go into it more but that one's seriously top secret.
Back to the salt mines with me. Where the hell are my glasses.
I haven't posted in a while and usually that's a bad sign but I'm actually feeling better physically and mentally this week than I have in a long time. I think we may have found the perfect medicinal cocktail now. I'm very excited about this. The shorter hair seems to help as well. Easier to care for, less tangles, less heat on my neck.
And I actually have several surprise projects in the works. And, get this, none of these particular projects are knit or spun (by me anyway). A few involve crafts in general, one involves yarn specifically, one involves photography and crafting of a sort, and another one involves..well, no real way to describe that one so I'll let you wonder about it for a while. They'll all be revealed in time.
In other non-surprise project news we went and did serious grocery shopping at Trader Joe's now that Cody wasn't afraid of the potential hippiecrit prices (to be honest I don't blame him our bills in a normal grocery store can be pretty outrageous) but we did well! Several new things to try, several re-purchases of things we liked from last time. And while we still have to go to the regular grocery store for a *few* things the bill at TJ's was WELL under our usual grocery bill. So we're both pretty happy about that.
And the cats seemed to like the non fish flavored cat food tins. I don't recommend the tuna for cats it doesn't have a pop lid and that annoyed me I don't open the cat food in the kitchen I open it in the kitty bathroom dammit I don't have any can openers in there. So we're going to try a small bag of the dry cat food and see how they like it. They're very picky about their dry food. In this case picky means they only eat crap Science Diet that I put out as a last resort. But the dog, who will eat any dry food I put out, and loves eating the cats' poop when she sneaks into the laundry room, likes the dry dog food. Which wasn't really a surprise. The question was whether or not I'd approve of the food for her. And I do! No corn, first ingredient is not a meat meal or bi-product so I approve.
Ok, it's been a fairly long day. Before Trader Joe's I did some work on a really cool project (my Albuquerque knitter friends will LOVE this) and we had a visit to Scout's house since she lives near TJ's. So I got to meet Supergirl, Superboy, Superhusband, AND Superdog! Her house was unbelievably clean and organized (would you expect any less) and the kids were so sweet. Let me say, those Superkids are WAY cuter in person. My friend has a great little family there and I can't wait to visit again sometime. I'd invite them here but..I'm afraid the house would scare the children.
t's been warm which is nice but the angle of the sun is brutal on the house this time of year until we get the energy to go on the roof to get the swamp cooler working. So even with the windows open and the fans on the house doesn't cool down until late at night.
Not a lot of knitting going on. Still working on the same old projects. Still need to ply that pretty green yarn.
Oh! And you have about fifteen minutes to go wish Cari a Happy Birthday before she turns into a birthday pumpkin. I don't remember how old she is today but this girl totally kicks ass. She knits and snowboards. Not at the same time of course. And likes Upstairs Downstairs! Paisana!
I had a blast at Crafty Friday. Yay!
Cody found my digital camera in one of my project bags. Yay!
He found it when it fell out onto the garage floor when he was bringing my project bag in from the car. Boo!
The camera's still ok. Yay!
I was ubergirly last night. Yay!
I dyed my own hair dark strawberry blondish. Yay!
I used that cool depilitory Veet squeegee stuff on my legs and underarms. Yay!
I missed a spot and found a "soul patch" smack in the front middle of my ankle. Boo!
I also got a chemical burn on the underside of my left upper arm. Boo!
I found some neosporin for the healing and found some monistat topical cream (the stuff that comes in a little tube for numbing your hooha before the internal medicine works) for numbing the pain. Yay?
We got some real medicine and bandages today. Yay!
I don't make much of a girly girl do I? Yay.
We finally made it to Trader Joe's today! Yay!
It was unbelievably crowded. Boo!
They have good pet food. Yay!
It was comparatively cheap with higher quality than Smiths. Yay!
We didn't buy a whole lot else. Boo!
We did get a pot of daisies...Yay!
To bring to my mother-in-law when we went for a visit this afternoon. Boo?
We got free haircuts from the mom-in-law! Yay!
The father-in-law and I did not argue about politics once. Yay!
He made a compliment (I think) about Cody looking like "the president" after his haircut. Boo
I joked "Ok Cody now you have to make a face that's simultaneously dumb and smug!" Yay!
My mother-in-law gave me free Tupperware! Yay!
Alas, we did not get a free meal. Boo!
But I did finish the second ugg baby bootie. Yay!
My Tivo DVR thingie is acting up. Boo!
But it taped the new episode of Huff. Yay!
I'm going to go watch it now so this post is ending soon. Boo!
And eat some hummus and Pitas from Trader Joe's. Yay!
But first I'm going to show you all these photos. Boo? Yay?
Here are the long-awaited Noro Stash photos.
All the Noro
with bonus puppy lying in the dirt!
Silk Garden
Kureyon
Iro
Cash Iroha
Transitions
With bonus Fiesta Yarns porn!
La Boheme and Gelato in "African Violet"
Kokopelli in Turqoise Trail and Watermark in Taos
La Boheme and Chamisa in Arizona
This is a neat handpainted yarn from a local artist in the East Mountains, Robin Pascal. I used her yarn to make the craaaaazy scarf.
And this is my current Project Spectrum project yarn. I'm in the second repeat on the front of my Sprout tunic with this Giotto yarn. I'm going to use this pretty gold Fiesta La Luz silk for something this month as well.
And this is the puppy wearing the glam punk rock neckwarmer
Don't you hate the days when you have to keep reminding yourself of that?
Yeah, sure the restaurant doesn't open for lunch until 10:30 am because they don't like YOU. Or just how reasonable is it for someone to believe that her hedgehog had cancer in every organ of her tiny body because she didn't clean the hedgehog cage often enough? NOT VERY.
My parents and sister have an old joke with me from my particularly neurotic and self-involved (prediagnosis) days where we were watching Ordinary People and Mary Tyler Moore's character, a clearly insane soulless bitter woman who has no love left for her husband or her remaining son, has been sent away. And the poor remaining son asks his Dad, "It's me, isn't it?" Well, NO, it's not. It's HER not you, poor little teenaged Timothy Hutton. Your mom has ISSUES that have nothing to do with you honey. But that's the joke, see?
Smith's no longer sells my favorite "Four Red Fruits" tea... "It's me, isn't it?" Someone had a bad day at work? "It's me, isn't it?" The Drag Queen Grover Yarn hasn't sold yet (even though almost everything else I've put up for sale has and I should be happy and flattered about that) "It's me, isn't it?" Etc. Ad nauseum.
It's a joke and while intellectually I know how ridiculous it all is, sometimes I have to convince myself that it's not me.
It's a windy and warm dusty spring day in New Mexico today. And yet again I'm doing my best to assume that it's not all my fault. That I'm not the center of the universe or responsible for other people's actions. Just my own.
I did take the photos of my Noro yarn on Sunday just as I'd promised. I'm just not sure where I put my camera after that. It's around here somewhere..
We might have to go to a funeral this weekend. One of Cody's cousins died. No one's sure what caused his death but he was only 35. Apparently he had a pretty terrible life, extremely unsupportive parents, I've heard he was functionally illiterate and had some fairly serious learning disabilities as well as a history of drug abuse. The general feeling from the family is that he's in a better place. I've never met this cousin. This is the side of Cody's family that just wasn't around.. I think there were maybe two from this side at the wedding. And there seems to be a good reason for that as I've heard some pretty bad stories about how they would take advantage of others, scam them out of money or just leave their children with people while still taking the money from the government that was supposed to help the children.
But to be honest I'm sure there was more to the story. This family can be very small-minded about things sometimes and while they're not the best at practicing empathy they can sometimes expect a pretty good deal of it for their situations. They're Republicans. Not everything is about me, I'm not responsible for everything.
Instead of flowers or anything we've been told to send money to the widow - his second wife that's the mother of one of his children, although they were taking care of a few from his first wife as well I've been told they'll probably go with their mother now. We'll probably send a money order. It seems that the wife is probably not entirely ok either. I suggested a wal mart or smith's grocery card to be sure the money went to food or something useful but it seems a money order is for the best. Not everything is about me, I'm not responsible for everything.
I'll also be sending a donation to the American Diabetes Association in memory of my sister's father-in-law who passed away last week. It's my understanding that he's probably in a better place as well. I don't believe in heaven or hell really. I never met this person either but this family also seems to be fairly complicated and it's best for me to offer my sister support and stay out of it. I will make my donation and send my condolences. Not everything is about me, I'm not responsible for everything.
Ten more days (well really, eleven) until the end of the fiber diet. And my fantasy shopping list is growing. Some of these yarns have been patiently waiting for me for a long time. I keep expecting them to sell but they haven't yet which, since everything is about me, means they're waiting just for me.
Amber's Carrot Cake Yarn was a featured item on Etsy a few months ago and STILL didn't sell! I've been watching and waiting. It looks so yummy. I love carrot cake. And I keep thinking what a great April Project Spectrum yarn this is!
Midnight Sky's Bubble Tea Yarn I swear this has been around since I first found Etsy last summer even though it seems to have been relisted in January. I can't believe this hasn't been bought. Mmm Bubble Tea.
And Natasha's Bloo SlushPuppie in the Sand. Preeety Colors. I love slush puppies. I have a fresh fruit lime slush waiting for me in the fridge. I should wrap up this post to go lie under the ceiling fan and drink it.
In non food-related yarn desire, I've been eyeing Angela's Manly Stripes. It's so hard to find good yarn a guy would be willing to wear that doesn't make me fall asleep.
I'm learning that 3/4 of the creativity is the spinning, 1/4 is the naming of the yarn.
And I want to join Mama-E's PS sockyarn club.
And there's all that new koigu at Village.
What's that? Not all of this yarn is about me?
You may have noticed that I've changed the default layout for the site again. To the "Cotton Candy" design, which I also fixed up a bit. It seemed like it needed a little love. If you'd like to change to the default design just click here. Be sure to hold your ctrl key and click the refresh or reload button to be sure it's the right one. Or feel free to change to whatever layout you like using the gallery.
I also fixed the problems the "Neapolitan" skin was having in Inernet Explorer. Or I think I have. I've checked the skins in Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, and IE. I haven't gotten screenshots from the Safari generator so who knows what that looks like. I've also finally fixed the links list. In the links section of the sidebar there's a "blogrolls" form button. Click on it and you'll get a matching popup list of some of my bloglines - yeah I have a LOT of bloglines subs.
Here's an example that matches the new default skin:
I have not figured out what's going on with the "remember me" cookie function in the comments section. I think I'll have to go in and tinker with the headers in all the skins to have this work universally. I also haven't checked to see if there's a new version of Movable Type that may have fixed this. However, if you log in using a (free) Typekey account, it does seem to remember you that way. And it will work in all capable versions of Movable Type as well as all Typepad websites. But I'll get this remember function fixed someday. I know it's a pain.
I feel somewhat ashamed that I work harder fixing other people's sites than my own. Seems to be a sort of "cobbler's children having no shoes" type of situation. But I'm trying a little on mine anyway.
In related shoe news, Cody and I braved it over to the Coronado Mall yesterday and I had some fun visiting the Torrid store. It's always interesting to see the stuff in person as opposed to the online store. This shirt is much better looking in person. It looks like barf on the site though. This, while it looks cool on the site looks like cheapo trash in person. And I'd been wavering back and forth on getting this shirt online but wasn't sure. Then saw it in person and really wasn't sure. But when I tried it on I couldn't believe how flattering it actually was. Particularly since it's fitted in the belly area, which usually means very bad things. But the panel down the middle with ruching on the side looks really good!
So I got a few things and got a chance to use up one of those "ten punches for 15% off" cards. Which was nice. And we found a shoe store across the hall from the Torrid which seems to be closing and has DOC MARTENS ON SALE! Cody finally found two pairs that were comfortable enough for him. Is it strange I find him sexier wearing them? And I got a cute pair that's pretty close to what I wanted. For twenty bucks. Let me say that again: Doc Martens for 20 bucks.
In beverage news (ha) there's a Boba Tea Company in the mall now. Of course this is the mall that's clear across town from our house, not the one that's just down the hill. We still have to cross the river and I-25 to get to Bubble Tea. But isn't that weird? Bubble Tea in a mall. And I got to use another one of those "ten punches for a free smoothie" cards at Keva Juice. Go me being a conscientious consumer.
We never did get to Trader Joe's. Maybe next week? We did get to the regular grocery store though so I'll get to eat this week yay.
I totally overslept for my Saturday knitting group. I was busy having a freaky dream about my car breaking down and being stuck on an old family compound which was inhabited by ten really hot Italian brothers (as in related to each other, not of the cloth) who were all vying for my hand and heart with their studly bodies and smoky eyes. I thought one of them was secretly in love with my sister because I saw her photo on the wall. She'd had her wedding there or something. But I kept thinking one of them harbored a crush on her. I was in love with the strange little artistic brother they kept hidden away in one of the remote houses where he stayed and made his beautiful little miniature art projects. Ya know, this wasn't even one of the strangest dreams I've had this week. But it was certainly the most fun. Reminded me of the one I had about shopping for leather pants with Edward Norton. Let me tell you, that guy looks good in leather pants. Or at least he did in my dream. These are the rare times when my brain is a fun place to be.
My dreams are more vivid than they've been in years. Which I'm not sure is a good thing considering vivid dreams were a part of my recent diagnosis. Which I'm still supposed to write about. The good part is I don't get "stuck" in the dreams in the same way I used to since I've been on the Trileptal.
So the first item on our big list for the day was missed. Part two was shoe shopping. We both need shoes. Mr. Man needed a new pair of black business casual shoes for work. He's been wearing the same pair since early 2001. They were such good shoes that no others can live up to their standard. We've considered just getting these resoled and after today's progress we still might. Not sure what he'll wear in the meantime though. We came *this close* to buying some black Dr Martens for him but in the end he thought they pinched in at his toes too much. It's better he decided that before we bought them. We did get some good brown hiking type shoes for him, which was the other kind he needed.
For me it took trips to both the Shoes on a Shoestring stores and some other place I can't remember where he got his brown shoes and I still haven't found a pair that I a) like and b) think are cheap enough for me to feel comfortable buying. Although I did see some kickass black biker boots in the men's section but they didn't have my size.
Somewhere somehow I have gotten to a place where spending over forty dollars on shoes has become too much. I'd love to tell the person I was ten years about this because she would laugh and laugh. The problem is I'm after something somewhat specific: mary jane type shoes - could be a clog or have an open back but the toe must be closed. My toes are yucky. I'm not a pedicure kind of girl. I'm wanting a much less bulbous toe than I usually get - very slighly pointier but still not like put your eye out pointy I hate those. See it's all in my head! Gah! And I need brown. Brown shoes. Because I've been buying a lot of brown things lately. Chocolate brown and pink. And the only brown shoes I have are these fabulous ankle boots which look great with pants but soon it will not be boot weather and I want little mary jane clog thingies. But closer to the ground than clogs. Baby clogs. Clogs light.
So I found these great shoes. They are pretty much exactly what I want. Brown with little subtle pink flowery accents and everything. Not. On. Sale. Like 109 dollars. For cute little brownish pinky clogy shoes? At a discount shoe store? Nuh uh. If I'm spending that much on shoes I'll be buying that in a really good brand from a store where I have to ask the guy to go get them. If I have to find the size myself I'm not spending over forty bucks. Fifty at the absolute most. Ok, sixty but that's the absolute top. One hundred and nine is completely unacceptable.
I know a lot of you Manolo people are like "Man that's chump change" but I'm not a Manolo girl. I don't like dainty shoes, I like to feel the earth beneath me and not worry that a strap is suddenly going to break and I will come crashing to the earth. I have to concentrate enough on walking with plain old normal shoes. The best shoes I've ever worn in my entire life are my Doc Martens (any of them) and my black Chuck low tops. And this resurgence of kitten and wedge heels (not to mention the old school wooden hooker Candies shoes) make my ankles hurt and my stomach bile slowly rise in anticipation of the horrors that would happen if I tried walking more than twenty paces in them.
So I'm very happy for the Manolo fans out there who love their expensive strappy shoes. More power to ya (and definitely your arches and ankles) but I'm just not in your shoe strata. As one of the highly coiffed and be-makeuped ladies kept saying as she was trying on some (apparently wide) sky high strappy shoes at the Shoes on a Shoestring store: "these are for flintstones feet!" I have flintstones feet. I actually murmured that after the fourth time she squawked what she seemed to think was a really witty thing to say. Then the gaggle of these OC housewife wannabes stumbled and tripped in their scary tall shoes over to a different part of the store.
So, three shoe stores and we have one pair of shoes to show for it. And they're not even for ME!
After shoestore number one we needed coffee. My sunglasses had broken and I wanted to stop by the Avenue next to the Starbucks (yeah we're big westside chain whores blah blah) and get some. The Avenue also has shoes so I thought that would be convenient. We also wanted to see if there were any more corduroy pants like the ones I'd gotten over Christmas because I love these pants and they seem to have gotten stained or something in the wash, or the texture dried strangely in the dryer. Hopefully that was just a weird detergent or dryer thing and I can fix it. So there was lots of clearance rack scouting. As usual I accumulated a huge pile of clothes to try on. In the end I came out with two cotton fishnet sweater thingies off the clearance rack. And sunglasses. Not having a lot of luck today.
Then we were supposed to FINALLY get to the new Trader Joe's. And I was going to call Scout and meet her so we could do odd organic TJ shopping together while Cody hid in a corner. He's scared of hippies ya know. Ok not really. We made it to the parking lot at 8:45. Guess when they close? Yep. 9. I know Ms. Scout goes to bed pretty early anyway so we decided to just go eat dinner. We went to TGiFridays because I like their Jack sauce stuff. Yes it was another chain on the Westside why do you ask?
A lot of driving. A lot of stores. Oh, we went to the pet store (yeah, the Petsmart chain) for a new retractable leash as well. So that's two sweaters, a pair of men's shoes, a leash, and a pair of sunglasses. That's all we have to show for it.
Tomorrow? We'll be hitting Torrid and Trader Joe's. Dammit.
Sushi for dinner last night. A big breakfast at Cracker Barrel this morning. Cody and I are nothing if not diverse eaters. I love the weird country store (or as Cody and I call it, Cracker Mart) at the cracker barrel. We got some candy for a friend's little boy and a cat-shaped peanut butter biscuit for Winter. Oh ok I got a teddy bear too shut up.
There was snow this morning. Not enough to really affect anything other than produce some sparkly wonder in our minds. It didn't really stick to the roads either. It's still very windy and the snow blowing around on the fields by the bosque looks like there's a white misty fog. But it's just fine bits of snow in the wind.
Yarn store yesterday. Scout completely surprised me with a freakin sweater in my size. Some crazy person knit the Simply Marilyn sweater and decided it was too big so they were going to give it away. Scouty said "I'll take it! I have a friend that would love it!" And it was mailed to Albuquerque. How sweet is that? Scout is too good to my slow webpage fixin slackass. Remind me to give them both handspun yarn. Now I have a pretty sweater to wear. And it's sort of pink so it even fits into Project Spectrum!
I'm still doing well with the yarn diet. I did get to do some vicarious yarn shopping by helping Adam pick out some yarn for fuzzyfeet. He went with the donnegal tweed which I think felted the best out of all the yarns I've used. And somehow I managed to still spend too much on patterns and books at the store yesterday. Bought a set of bamboo crochet hooks to go with my new copy of The Happy Hooker that came in the mail on Friday. I am hellbent on figuring out this crochet thing. People say it's easier than knitting but I'm just not getting it. I can't wait for the Big Girl Knits book. I'm hoping there will be a good pattern for my neapolitan handspun.
I'm afraid that I will have to delay Stash Sunday photos. The outside table I usually use is wet and sludgy and the winds are strong enough to blow my precious Noro all over the place. And the lighting inside the house is just awful I won't do that kind of injustice to the yarn. Yes. I plan to take photos of the Noro stash. It's a shameful amount of yarn.
Cody is taking a nap. It goes without saying that all the animals are too. We've already been to the grocery store, stopped by the coffee shop, and even picked up a refill of some of my meds at the drug store. I'm going to watch tv and see if I can use this weirdo icord maker I picked up at the yarn store yesterday.
I hope you all are enjoying the women in history posts. I don't usually get a lot of feedback on them until months later when someone does a search and finds my page. But I'm happy to get the stories out there. I like to think it helps preserve their memory in a way. I really enjoyed writing about Vera Hall today. Some of her songs can be bought on itunes. She never really expressed an opinion of all the recordings the Lomax's did of her voice. Can you imagine what she'd think of being able to buy digital music in an instant like that?
I didn't finish le Clap Sunday night. Or last night for that matter. On Sunday I got lazy and forgot to finish the last few rows of Section 3 before starting Section 4 and had to tink back to fix it. I was also easily distracted by the shiny email box and cleaned the bathroom. That, in itself, warrants a holiday.
Last night I made some progress. Amidst a scary PMS meltdown wherein the world is very lucky I didn't have access to "the red button." Did you feel the earth shudder with relief at around 10:30 last night? Yeah, sorry that was me. Anything and everything was getting on my nerves last night. DAMMIT why are they showing this stupid skiing stuff don't they know I want to watch the tacky ice dancers? Oh noooo I'm out of diet cokes. But I don't waaanna go in the dentist tomorrow. How dare that person say that about my adopted home state?!? If they don't like it they should leave! Fie! Fie I say! Yeah, it was bad. And scary. A few decent meals and lots of sleep later I'm doing much better today.
I'm making progress on the clap though. About to do the sixth repeat of Section 4, then that half-repeat, then I'm on the home stretch. It's conceivable that I'll finish it tonight at Knit and Kvetch but I don't want to jinx myself again.
If you guys would just stop posting in your blogs I'd get bored and go knit. Or stop posting insane completely fascinating stuff like this. Thanks to that site I've actually started reading and knitting at the same time.
Beverly has proposed that we pick up and try to finish our old moldy projects during Lent. Which is odd because, not being one who really observes Lent, I'd already thought that might be a good period of time to try a committed yarn diet. It's short enough where I won't go insane but long enough where I might stop the compulsive shopping. Thus the yarn photos. I'm trying to remember and appreciate what I have. But I'll definitely pick up my pumpkin patch shawl. It's close to done and I'm sad that I had to put it down to start the Giftmas knitting. And I might even start working on that damn baby sweater. I'd overestimated the size enough such that the cutieniece will probably still fit into it.
So. We're going to Village Wools on Friday as planned to buy some yarn and stuff. They were broken into last weekend and everyone's trying to help them out so they can fix their ceiling and still be able to move to their new place in May. I'm going to buy this as well. Light-sensitive glow in the dark yarn. Holy shizzle fizzle. That's right it's so incredible I reverted to Snoop Dog Speak rather than outright cussing- also rare enough to warrant a holiday. Reenie was generous enough to put it on hold for me until Friday. She. Rocks.
In other news I've been drinking an Odwalla smoothie every day and all the pets are just fine. Everyone was on the bed in a big pile earlier. I am going to go warm my feet in a big hot bath now. And have a snack. Mm hummus.
We ran a lot of errands yesterday. Did a little retail therapy visit at Village Wools which was nice. I probably wouldn't have asked Cody to take me there but Jamie was working and I thought it would be good to get out for a little while. I'd brought Zola there last fall so they were really sad to hear about her. One of the women who works there, Franzi, had just picked out a pattern and some yarn to make a felted hedgehog so when she heard about Zola she took me right in the back and let me buy them instead, even though one of the yarns was the last in the store. It made me tear up. Again. Just every once in a while I get sad about it. Wasn't that just incredibly sweet though? I also found some really pretty iro and some funky optik and picked up two #1 circulars since the fuzzyfoot is going pretty well and neither of my circular kits go that small.
Then we got some boba tea and went to Page One Too to look for some books for Cody. I found a few things: a mindcandy Barbara Michaels, the new John Irving, and Reading Lolita in Tehran. I also ran into Kay, a very nice lady from the dropped stitch knitter's guild, whom I'd just seen at the giant knitathon at Tuesday's Stitch n Bitch. I hadn't seen her in months so it's been nice to run into her twice in one week.
She was the first person I watched spin with a spinning wheel. Unfortunately it was an incredibly cool Journey wheel (wheel in the sky keeps on tur-nin' - sorry can't resist hearing bad Journey songs in my head now) so all wheels pale in comparison to its coolness. Except my lendrum of course. Love my lendrum. Secretly want a journey wheel. (don't stop be-lievin'! Damn that Steve Perry's voice.) I'm hoping that Kay, Beverly, and I can get together and spin on our wheels sometime when Beverly's gets here. (Oh Sherri! Hold on Hold on!)
Then we went to the grocery store and bought food for the next two weeks. Then got subway sandwiches on the way home. So after having the dog run around and give us lots of kisses because she never thought she'd see us again and bringing in all the grocery bags while keeping the cats from getting into the garage I was putting the refrigerated stuff away. And the phone rang with the "long distance" ring meaning it was probably my parents or my sister. Cody was closer to the phone so he answered it.
It went sort of like this:
My Dad: Is this (Cody's and my last name which sounds a lot like DaVinci's but isnt)?
Cody in a friendly voice: Yeeees
Dad: I'd like a large house salad with light dressing and a large Mona Lisa pizza.
Cody thinking my dad is kidding: A large house salad and a large Mona Lisa pizza? Sure we'll get that for you.
My Dad: Ok we'll be by in forty-five minutes to pick it up.
Cody slightly panicking thinking they've come to Albuquerque as a surprise (which wouldn't be the first time) but also confused because he knew they were supposed to be in Atlanta this weekend: Uh, forty-five minutes? Ok, we'll have that ready for you.
Then he hands the phone to me. I'd heard the conversation and didn't have a clue what that was all about but I saw my parents' number on the caller id so I took the phone. And Dad had hung up. Now if this had been Cody's Dad we would've thought he was kidding around and would call back in a minute. He's kind of silly. My Dad is not silly, at least not silly like that. So I called them back.
I asked my mom if Dad had meant to order a pizza from us. Mom was confused. It seems that the phone in Dad's office is kind of weird (it's given me trouble when I've used it too) so it had redialed our house from when they'd called on Friday while Dad was dialing DaVinci's in Birmingham. The best part is that Dad is a retired executive from, what else? The phone company. So he really thought he was ordering a pizza. And probably wondered about the employee being so cheeky. This is an interesting new way to get me to call my parents.
It was very very funny.
So bad. Soooo bad.
I've been pretty busy this week. Went to the Stitch n Bitch (I totally dare SFSE to send C & D letters to knitbloggers) on Tuesday and had fun. Jamie bought me dinner and dessert for this web thing I'm working on with her. And I got all kinds of cool gifties from her too! I also got a bunch of fun gifties from Jocelyn who visited Artfibers to get my giftmas present. I am so super friggin spoiled. Oh, did I mention what I bought for my quitting smoking anniversary? I got a pound of thrums fiber (which is on super-great sale right now) from Spinderella and a city shawl knitting kit. The thrums are already here can you believe it?
Ok so pics..
These are the finished tweedy fuzzy feet before felting.
I felted them tonight because the in-laws were coming by. The photo is terrible because it was still wet and indoors with a flash but I wanted to show how the tweed looked after felting before they left. They did not even think this was odd. So this is the heel.
So they look pretty good. My fil loves his fuzzyfeet. LOVES them. And Cody told me tonight he wanted me to make a pair for him. this is the first time he's asked for me to knit something for him. He's just not a sweater or scarf kind of guy. But fuzzyfeet I can do. And since fuzzyfeet have become sort of my canary project before trying a new sock technique I'm going to do his on 2 circulars. Won't that be exciting? I have no idea what yarn I'm going to use. I might even use the yarn that's leftover from my other fuzzyfeet projects. Wouldn't that be cute and interesting?
And here's my finished Jay
I love this sock. I'm getting very little work done because I keep just looking at the stitch pattern in awe.
You know how new parents are when they just can't stop taking photos of their baby? I'm pretty much like that with everything I knit
And spin
And my puppy
I have good news, I've finally found a religion I can get behind.
There's a music meme going around but since I did that one not too long ago I thought I'd just show the last few songs I've listened to
Wickerman - Pulp
Freedom of Choice - Devo
Time is on my side - Irma Thomas
Rollerskate - Call and Response
Calling Dr. Love - Kiss (heeeeeeee)
Mary Susan - Blood on the Wall
Deceptacon - Le Tigre
You never even called me by my name - David Allan Coe
Don't make me over - Dionne Warwick
This city never sleeps - Eurythmics
(I can't get no) Satisfaction - Cat Power (her new album kicks ass too)
And finally I need to get something off my chest. I've become addicted to Dancing with the Stars. I tivo and enjoy both the Thursday and Friday night episodes. And it's all Beverly's fault. It's also her fault that I'm trying to get Cody to take me to see Pam Houston read at Bookworks tonight.
Last year for valentine's day I bought the perfect shirts for Cody and I.
Of course, he has taken over wearing them both. But it was the perfect gift for us both: silly with no serious pressure because really, and I'm not kidding, every day is Valentine's Day for us. I know it sounds all dumb and cheesy but it's true. We buy little gifties for each other and ourselves pretty often so the idea of putting all this pressure to buy each other "special", ie: expensive, gifts is more than we really need. We'll probably go out to dinner (most likely sushi) to recognize the special day. Maybe go buy a dvd or something.
But really, the whole expecting him to pick out the very rare piece of jewelry I would be willing to wear is a very unfair task to ask of Cody. And what are you supposed to get a geek for valentine's day? A glowing heart lamp that plugs into the USB? Total waste of money for him he'd enjoy it for about a week then get annoyed by the usb port being taken by something not pertaining to gaming.
Last year's gift was just perfect: it was cute, useable, and something we both really liked a lot. So I've decided that every year for Valentine's Day we will both get silly shirts. Of course Cody likes this because it takes a lot of pressure off of him and he gets a new shirt to wear at home. And I'll probably pick out my own shirt.
These are this year's tentative choices (assuming I don't find something dorkier for us or they don't sell out before the next paycheck)
Cody's
With his love of lesbian rock and security in his masculinity I just can't resist putting this on him. Yeah it's kind of tacky. But that's part of the fun with this new tradition. He won't be wearing it outside the house but he never wears tshirts outside anyway.
Mine
Believe me, wearing a pink thermal Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt is embarassing for me on several levels but if I'm putting my husband in a shirt declaring him a lesbian I'll have to give myself something equally humiliating. And this one is. Playing on both my weaknesses for pink and bad redneck classic rock.
Jaywalker Update: I've turned the heel and am working on the gusset decreases. Which seems like it's taking forever because I picked up several more stitches than the pattern called for. But three more repeats should do it then I'm on the home stretch for the foot. I tried it on this morning and it fits fairly well. Might be a bit big but I don't care I WILL finish a normal pair of adult socks. They may end up fitting Cody or my dad but I will finish them.
It's gross and cold and slushy outside. I had a blast last night at the knit n kvetch. Little Miss Sugarbug's mom came and picked her up while I was out. Cody stayed home to wait for her and since she was leaving for NO that night he made a pot of coffee and printed a map for the journey. Sugarbug and Mom are probably somewhere in Texas right now.
Ok, back to the Jays and Tivoed eps of Will and Grace. Project Runway tonight! Whee!
So we decorated a tabletop tree the other night. We wanted some kind of tree but didn't want to commit to the full thing this year. Since redecorating the office we have an extra desk in the living room which is handy for all the yarn mailing I've been doing but is in the exact spot where we usually put the tree. I also didn't think I was up for putting up and taking down a full sized damn tree this year.
I'm coming to realize that while I've managed to commit to interpersonal relationships with comparative ease I have trouble committing to, among other things, paint colors, decorating schemes in general, and what I want to eat. Even though we bought a tree two years ago in the post-xmas sales and I have yet to take it out of the box and put it together. We were out of town last year and I just didn't want to put up a tree to leave and come back weeks later to just have to take it down. It would've just been a giant hazardous cat toy. So the other day we bought a tabletop tree at Target. It was on sale and it involved a lot less heavy lifting. And there was no having to go into the scary shed business which was the main thing. We also decided to just use the ornaments I've acquired at the last two Aunts' ornament parties because..the other ornaments are in the dreaded shed.
Yes the innocuous little aluminum shed in the backyard is becoming Dirk Gently's refrigerator in The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul. Someday it will produce a brand new God of Denial. But while I sit around in my ugly hat pondering the interconnectedness of all things I still want a shiny tree to help secure a feeling of holiday cheer because to be honest I haven't been feelin' it this year. Not at all.
So on Monday night we went on a quest for my favorite holiday movie on DVD (which we didn't have in the lost pile of movies anyway). I love that version of A Christmas Carol - mostly because it's scary and there are musical numbers. And the musical numbers aren't even what makes it scary. After four stores we found it. And a wonderfully silly string of lights (more on that later). Then we went home to decorate the tree, wrap presents, and watch movies.
The tree took all of thirty minutes to decorate. And I forsee easy taking down as well. Now that's what I like. We can't have a real tree anyway because of pets an a severely allergic husband. And I hate hate hate wrestling with lights and broken lights and tangled lights. So I'm all about the prelit trees I don't give a shit what the tree purists say. I just want to get the tree up and decorated so I can sit and look at the pretty lights then move on to the next task. So this was ideal. Hell, we may do this from now on.
Then we had about 10,000 presents to wrap. Cody came up with a great idea this year for the present wrapping: he moved the room divider screen into the den so we could sit in the same room and watch movies but still keep our presents a secret! The pets were totally confused of course. But all present wrapping for everyone (except the ones I'm bringing to B'ham since I'll be carrying it on the planes) are wrapped. Hooray hoorah. Then I put some on the desk under the tree and put the rest on the dining table.
So here are all the presents
and more presents. I am a bit of a snob when it comes to ribbons and bows. But I always buy good stuff and reuse them.
"What are those beige things hanging off your tree?" you ask?
That's right! They're leg lamps from A Christmas Story! A bunch of tiny examples of Glowing Electric Sex hanging off our tree! It was the fringe hanging off the bottom of the lampshades that sold us.
So yeah, now I'm feelin' it. Still need to finish packing and just enjoy the pets in their cute holiday accoutrements but I'm feelin' it.
Unfinished Knit Items
My Dad - Irish Walking Scarf in my handspun Muscadine Wine :) about 1/3 done
Finished Knit items
My Sister - Nouveau Poncho in Noro Silk Garden #234 #47 I got nervous the yarn wouldn't get here in time so we picked out some more at Village Wools. Is it possible to have too much Silk Garden? I'm starting to prefer this color anyway.. done!.
My Mom (don't look Mom!) - Chicknits new wave scarf Mini Clapotis in Noro Cash Iroha # 87 done!
Cody's Mom - Fulled Fiesta Tote - done!
Cody's Dad - Fuzzyfeet in Crystal Palace Labrador Print "Jaguar" - done!
My Sister's husband - a variation on the Rustic Scarf just using the stout and string colors (I didn't like the olive color and thought the scarf might be a bit wide anyway) done! I posted the pattern I made for it (it's not the same pattern as the rustic scarf).
Jocelyn - got her fuzzyfeet and so-called set (which was sort of her Samhain present) when she was here :) - finished those, obviously
So yeah I think I'm pacing myself pretty nicely and even have time to do some spinning. I took the Yarn Noir off of Etsy since one of my SnB buddies wants to buy it. So I've decided I'm going to start giving a sneak peek on this site before listing them there. That way my local buddies and blogland friends can get first dibs :)
Non-knitting presents
I am DONE with the SHOPPING WOOOO! Now I just have to wait for it all to get shipped in
Mom's birthday (Don't click mom don't click!) - this - done
The Niece (1.4 years old) - Stacrobats done but ordered from uncommon goods since flax ran out of stock
The Nephew (4.6 years old) - Boomwhackers Whack Pack - done!
Winter - Fleece Turtleneck from Orvis in Navy - done!
The Kitties - Beastie Bands the cats with presents design - done!
the Hedgehog! - she'll be getting this little fleece tent to fit over her pigloo in the wintertime - done!
Presents for Cody - not sure which of these I'm getting yet.
USB Port Replicator / KVM switch
Some little treats from thinkgeek - done!
Bootleg MST3K dvd set done! (different auction)
Swiss Army Geek Knife with 1 Gig USB Flash Drive
and um this!
Prezzies I got for some of my knitting buddies (since they've all gotten them now)
Beverly: a ballwinder (used my 50% off at Joann so it wasn't THAT expensive)
Jeannie: 2 skeins of orange with yellow halo Manos :)
Emma: some orange roving and a Spin it book. Also got some I heart Johnny Socks and button that have finally come in
Erin: Knitting for Anarchists!
What's that? You want to buy ME a present? Well, who am I to say no to that? Oh okay here are my wishlists
Amazon lists
Crafty List
Target
Thinkgeek
Torrid
Was that shameless enough for ya? Yeah now I feel like a schmuck.
I'm a big dork but I'm excited I just made my first yarn sale at my Etsy shop! People like my stuff, Mom!
I added the yarns from yesterday and the autumnal crossover scarf to the shop. I pulled the October Song yarn because I want to make a hat out of it now. This is the attitude I'd really like to keep about it: if people buy my yarn, great! If they don't I'll just knit something fun with it eventually. If I put that up for sale and it sells super! If not, I have a readymade present for someone.
I spun the yellow and orange yarn for Mr. Tong's birthday Jayne Cobb Hat but the red roving I'd bought wasn't quite the right color for it - a bit more wine than rusty red but it's beautiful anyway. In fact, it's probably my favorite yarn so far. I'm already calling it Muscadine Wine. So back to ebay to find a more suitable red for the hat.
Erin and I have joined the Fuzzy Feet Along. I just happened to buy some lopi for that the other day at Good Fibrations. I'll be holding three different colored strands so it should be interesting. And super thick! Which is good the person I'm making it for has really cold feet. I should go get it started now so I won't be trying to join three strands in the round at the knitting group. I never do well with joining in the round if I'm distracted.
I don't plan on bringing the wheel to the group today. But I might bring the hedgehog.
If you already have a costume for yourself and your pet. Don't forget one for your ipod.
Includes costumes for ipods, ipod minis, and shuffles. None for the nanos.
Via Mighty Goods.
I happened to catch it coming on last night just as I was sitting down to spin the last 4 ounces of Adrian's gorgeous moody garden roving. I had a few thoughts about it.
Completely superficial observation: Ethan Hawke has aged very badly. What the hell was Uma doing to him? Or did he do it to himself? I dunno but he looks like he's spent the last ten years in a very dark bar in a dry climate drinking whiskey and chainsmoking in between sessions of making hugely animated faces while singing the blues. Frequently forgetting to wash his face, allowing the dirt and smoke to grind right into his pores, carving lines that make him look far older than his early thirties. I mean damn I never had a crush on him but I had friends who did and I'm cringing on their behalf. Probably as they are on mine about Benicio's aging process but he was never what someone would call pretty - which to me was half the charm.
Julie Delpy on the other hand looks great. I think she's actually gotten better-looking with age. I particularly enjoyed her singing and the little dance she was doing at the very end. But she comes off as pretty charming even when she's playing a werewolf.
Have to say that I didn't really like Before Sunrise when I watched it ten years ago. I thought it was dull and self-indulgent. Or maybe that's how I felt about Hawke. Either way it did feed some Vienna eyecandy, a place I've wanted to visit since I was an early teen reading old John Irving novels. It was so dull though that I haven't watched it since.
But I enjoyed this one. It might be because I'm older and have a much better attention span. Or it might be a better movie. I couldn't say. No, I think it's a better movie. People in their thirties are generally more interesting to listen to than people in their early twenties, even to people in their own age group. (*SPOILER* Even when they're smack in the middle of a cliched failing shotgun marriage and aboug to cheat on their wives with an old French flame */SPOILER*) No offense twentysomethings.
And Richard Linklater, whose movies usually direcly hit or completely miss with me, can pick a hell of a soundtrack. In Before Sunset's case a lot of it was so subtle you didn't even notice there was music but it added something. But it's hard to mess up with Nina Simone, hell even that American La Femme Nikita remake was good primarily because of her music.
I didn't really get to appreciate the visuals as much as I think I should have, but I was doing crafty stuff. This is also why I haven't watched a subtitled foreign language movie in the last eight months. I'm usually looking elsewhere but am listening intently. So I guess I listened to Finding Neverland the other night, not exactly watched it. And in that regard, Johnny Depp nailed that Scottish accent down to the friggin ground.
Almost twenty years ago I was clandestinely taping 21 Jumpstreet, watching the tapes late at night in my room. Now he's making these interesting characters come alive. And making it look easy. On the other hand, twenty years ago I made no effort to hide my crush on Nicolas Cage, punk rock boy and crazy 20s era mobster. Now look at his stupid action movie sap ass reproducing with women half his age and naming them after comic book characters (and not even the interesting ones!) self. One of my friends in Santa Fe had a theory that seems more plausible each year about how Cage sold his soul to the devil so he could be an actor, one that specified he could be in good movies for the first ten-fifteen years or so then he would have to spend the rest of his life making absolute crap. Spooky isn't it?
Finding Neverland was good. Very good. Sweet and sad and charming. Kind of like Peter Pan. Julie Christie almost stole the show too. (She certainly did in Afterglow) And Kate Winslet didn't. Which was kind of a relief, sometimes she can make a movie exhausting. This isn't her fault really she's just got a light inside that takes over sometimes - which can make watching a movie with her very tiring. I think as she's gotten older she's learned to control that a little. Which is nice.
Oh there's an IMDB poll today about which Robert Altman movie is your favorite so go vote. I, of course, voted for Gosford Park. My sister will probably vote for Nashville. Which Altman movie is your favorite?
Ok I'm done now. I'm fantasy shopping at Patternworks. If you haven't subscribed to their catalog you really really should because it's like KNITTING PORN. And really GOOD knitting porn because you could open the catalog to any page and find something desirable. Try that with any other catalog or knitting book. Or porn if that's your thing. I'm not here to judge. Not you anyway.
I think the Craftrevolution Etsy shop has done a myriad of good things.
Not only has it raised 20,500 dollars that has gone directly to the Red Cross but it has also given exposure to a great group of crafters and a wonderful place for creators to sell their items. Etsy may have waived their usual commission for the Craft Revolution shop but they have gotten an unbelievable number of new members and shopkeepers in the process.
Several of my favorite creators, like Erin and Mel, already had shops but now there are several new crafters who, after donating their stuff to the Craft Revolution fundraiser, decided to open a shop as well like Pesky Mac and ChaosTheoryJen.
Seeing how well some of my stuff sold in the fundraiser and how much yarn I've been spinning and non-gift knitting I've been doing, well, consider me a new rider on the bandwagon, ya'll.
Cody even made a little banner for me last night.
Why Noelle's Noodles? Well, NoelleNoodle or sometimes a derivitave, NoLNoodle, has been my standard online nickname / handle / membername / login ever since I signed up for a geocities website in July, 1997. The idea at the time was that I was just noodling around. After that I had my own domain and website called Noelle's Noodle which was more of a reference to whatever what going on in my brain.
So when creating my etsy account in order to buy something I used one of my standard names: noellenoodle. So since I already had that account, the way etsy works is I automatically got a subdomain for my shop: noellenoodle.etsy.com.
So what it's referring to now are the fibery noodles I've been making, all the noodling around I do with yarn, or the random knitting ideas that come out of my noodle. So there ya go, in case you were wondering.
I haven't uploaded anything for sale yet but there's also a nifty rss feed so you can subscribe to it on Bloglines or some other rss feed aggregator and see when I do.
This Etsy setup is incredibly cool.
Winter's fourth birthday is on Saturday and we were planning on getting her a new collar. I can't decide which one to get though.
Should I get the pink leather with silver skulls that I meant to get her for Xmas?
Or the stripey woven mayan collar from flax?
Ok, what do I buy a four-year-old boy whose parents probably don't buy him enough books* or learning toys who's having an impromptu birthday party thrown for him on Saturday to which I'm unable to excuse myself because transportation has been arranged on my behalf.
Curious about what I've already bought? I have a convenient list.
edit- I guess I should clarify that these are things I've bought for previous birthdays and christmases, not this birthday.
*I vividly remember a conversation about how I hadn't bought Dr. Seuss for him last year because I assumed they already had them all. The reply was they didn't have ANY Dr. Seuss. WHAT? Isn't it illegal to have a child in the US without possessing the entire Dr. Seuss library? Wasn't that one of the lesser-known insidious elements of the patriot act along with the repeal of the fourth amendment and that clause that allows for civilians to be tried in an offshore military tribunal?
I've also never bought one of those "Baby Einstein" sets for baby showers assuming people already have them only to find out no one else at the party has ever heard of them.
Remember the Disney wedding last year? Well, the bride (who never sent her thank you note! bad bride!) is having a baby shower a week from Sunday. Hey, call me a cynic but I'm just happy (and frankly surprised) the wedding and baby shower are in this order.
I am most likely not knitting something for her. This is not someone who would appreciate the quirk and beauty of a handmade gift. Not to mention her mother-in-law is the crafty aunt who taught me how to cast-on and knit so she likely has handmade gifts a'plenty. But she's also kind of a bling bling girl who likes Disney so much it usually makes me slightly uncomfortable trying to have conversations with her. Sort of reminds me of the women who collect Hello Kitty appliances without the pop culture irony.
And, here's where my embarrassing pettiness comes in, I don't want to use any of my precious yarn on a present for her. Although..I have some supercheap balls of acrylic I bought at the estate sale for this exact kind of occasion. Maybe I'll have enough time to make something.
Silver and Amber Hedgehog necklace
Testing post capabilities from flickr.
This little present from mr man came in the mail last week. I love that it's got amber because hedgehogs are insectivores and amber usually has little bugs in it...isn't that cool?
It's from a very odd store in Minnesota called Ingebretsen's. I'm going to go cast-on the hedgehog kit right now so it'll be done in time for the nephew's visit on Thursday. He'll be getting a book as well. I love book and stuffed toy sets.
This was my absolute favorite booth at the Fiber Fiesta. The women were nice and helpful but were also kind enough to discretely leave Aubree and I alone to fondle and bond with their beautiful handpainted yarn. The wool and silk blends were like a magnet for me as was a particularly beautiful gigantic skein of multihued red mohair. But I was good! I resisted my potentially very expensive urges and only bought two skeins of handpainted superwash wool for me to try my hand at making socks for father's day. I'm starting to recognize that I need to plan a bit more in advance for handmade gifts.
I also indulged in a beautiful nubby blue cotton that was a great bargain at sixteen bucks a skein for about three hundred sixty yards. It's so soft I ended up holding and cuddling with it most of the night after I got home. With the marked difference in gauge I *think* I have enough for mariposa. My first sweater. I'm terrified.
I also picked up some Fortissima Colori Disco Sock yarn. Self-striping sock yarn with sparklies! Whee! A copy of The Yarn Harlot's book, some fuzzy sparkly yarn handspun by a very nice lady I met, some Japanese silk rem