ATCs

I'm actually surprised at how long I lasted! I received a couple Artist Trading Cards through some swaps and I thought, "what a cool idea... and I cannot start doing this, too." I set them aside and didn't think about it for about a month. Then I stumbled upon ATC Treasures and that was it. I spent every spare moment of this week going through all of my scraps that I've been hoarding over the years (yes, years!) and now they finally have a canvas to become art - the whole reason I have them in the first place! It's really wonderful because the canvas is 2.5 x 3.5 Inches - which is so not intimidating to someone like me who has finishing issues. I can sit down, make one, and be done. And I did. Here's a couple from this weekend:

Notice a theme? Yeah I know... it gives me an idea to work with, so I'm gonna stick with it for a while. Another really great place for ATC eye candy is: Art-e-zine & Teesha Moore

I'm on the home stretch

School is so close to being over that I can taste it (it's kinda tastes like cream puffs)! The French final is over, the English class is long gone and I just have a writing portfolio and zine piece to put together to call this semester good. Seems easy enough, aka: will probably be a lot of work. My biggest challenge is getting started. I actually like to write, but the build up to writing is what hurts. I stress and fret and finally start and realize how easy it was. One of these days I'll learn that stress never solved anything (someday).

Anyway, it's definitely easier to just pretend the reason for stress doesn't exist and go camping! That's exactly what we did last weekend. We went to Antelope Island for Simon's birthday. The boys played football, us girls talked about coming babies and I received several bug bites on my scalp. This turned out OK though, after the sun went down they all went and died or something and I gave a speech about married life and getting older, Shai described what kind of food everyone was, and Simon and Ann arm wrestled - All a part of a fun game they invented for the trip.



I got to forget about the stressful aspects of school and had a great chat with Ben about literature and all the good parts of school. This guy (Ben) can remember every thing that ever happened to him and quote from every book he's read. I'm impressed! I'm hard up to remember the story line of the last book I read, let alone quote from it!

Although, that's a lie, I just finished "The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets" by Eva Rice and I can clearly remember scenes from this book. Possibly because I read certain passages over and over again just to give myself butterflies in my stomach again and again. It's absolutely delicious! It's about life in post war England for the young kids, the parties and the wonderful weirdness and love. So it gets to me, I promise I don't read romances much, but this book is romantic in all aspects. The house, the culture, the music, and of course the people. It was one that I couldn't stand to end and have been kinda depressed about today because there's nothing left to read. I did see that a new book from Eva is coming next year in England, so I guess I'll just have to pine over the new Harry Potter for now.

Your Monster Profile

Creepy Fiend You Feast On: M&Ms You Lurk Around In: Shopping Malls You Especially Like to Torment: Pop Stars

What's" Your Monster Name?

I had to post my monster name in celebration of seeing the double feature GRINDHOUSE last night. The 1st feature, Planet Terror has so much over the top gore that even I could handle it. And the 2nd feature, Death Proof is just way too cool for words. I think if anybody else had made this double feature, I wouldn't be able to stomach it, but Rodriguez and Tarantino are awesome! And the missing reels were genius!

Just in time for Easter

I usually don't dye eggs for Easter. At my house, they will just look pretty and then spoil, unless I really, really want a huge batch of potato salad all to myself. But this year I have found some really pretty natural dying techniques that are actually tempting me to dye eggs just for the fun of it.

These are sooo gorgeous! I love the leaf designs. I'm a bit put off by the blowing out part, but maybe as long as I'm not planning on eating the onion eggs, I won't have to blow them out.

This is a list of natural household dyes, surprisingly the colors turn out really bright and pretty.

Week-end cake

I haven't been able to post for a while, so I thought a big update would be good and it's been a week, OK, not quite a week, but enough for me since I'm usually a anti-social homebodier. But this weekend was really great, actually. On Friday Todd and I went out to Red Rock with my brother and his girlfriend. I haven't quite gotten used to calling her "his girlfriend" again, but it's a long story, so I'll leave that at that. The food was awesome! And I think we scared our table neighbors because we talked about guns all night. I think that was my fault, Todd and I are doing a community writing campaign about violence in America and I got carried away about my research. It was fun though, Eric's taking off to New Mexico to live with our cousin Joey and it was a good farewell.

Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Beehive Tea Room, for a family Stitch n chess organized by Tan (hopefully she will have pictures, hint hint). They had lots of yummy little sandwiches and other treats for their afternoon tea. And I got some much needed sock knitting in. I finished my duck stitch (Nicky Epstein) sock in between playing Fluxx with Cherry and Todd and going out to Indian food later at Royal India in Bountiful. Oh so good... My life is now complete, I have Indian food and a finished sock.

On Sunday I went to The Last Mimzy with Sara and Brianne. It was so good! I originally heard about it at Sundance, but wasn't able to make it to a screening, but I'm so glad we saw it in the theater because there were some really cool scenes and special effects. It also presents a really interesting viewpoint about what the future will be like and why some things are the way they are in the present.

So it was a good weekend and it preoccupied me enough to keep me from doing homework, so when I went in to French class on Monday, I had no idea what was going on. Even more disappointing was the phone call with my landlord, when he told me I can't have Haze, the dog we were going to adopt from my Mom. Never mind that my neighbor has 2 big dogs, and we want a really small one. And his wife already said I could have a dog. He says it's because she's has some pit bull in her, but I don't believe him. I do understand not wanting 3 dogs in that tri-plex, but make a policy then, don't say you can have dogs - but you can't. Anyway, that still stings a bit and I can't stand him right now. I really was ready to take care of Haze, so even though I didn't have her yet - I still feel like she's been torn from my arms. Those jerks!!

how can they say no to this?

So, the icing on my cake turned out to be a little sour, I know deep deep (really deep) down it's really for the best, but I guess I just don't like being told what I can and can't do- I'm sure there's plenty of people out there that can vouch for that :)

So yah... oh yah, so for my happiness and yours, those who are here for a little bit o' yarn porn, I would hate to disappoint. Merry Tuesday:

Cherry Tree Hills Serengeti that I picked up for my lunch treat at Hemstitched Heirlooms

Mountain Gold Rush from Francis Patrick on eBay

The end of mesh

I think I have finally cured my obsession with knitting mesh. And this is the sock that did it. The mesh hats were easy and I didn't have to worry about them staying up without ribbing, but this sock... I just have absolutely no desire to knit another one of these and I don't think I ever will...

But I do think I will take Tan's advise and turn it into a Christmas stocking. Viola! OK, so maybe I have some more work to do before it is a Christmas stocking, but I'll worry about that in December.


So, to curb my disappointment in the mesh sock, I started on a green striped sock for Todd at my very first Stitch n Bitch on Tuesday. I really like how it's turning out and it went so fast, this is less than one week's progress (which is really really fast for me). Then I held it up to Todd's foot and remembered he has size 13 feet and I have a long way to go...

He actually requested this sock, that I was knitting during the long hours in the car for our Canadian road trip last summer, but after finishing the second sock, I realized I had sized these for me, so he'll get the other striped ones and we can kinda be twins, cute.

You may notice that this post is heavily laden with socks... At Tan's recommendation I have started listening to Lime & Violet, which is hilarious and fuels an obsession with all things that are socky. So now I think my entire family is getting socks for birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays that I may or may not celebrate. Actually, now that I think about it, it is St Patrick's Day, yeah actually, I'm making Todd's socks as a St Patty's Day present... Oooo, I hope my Mountain Gold Rush sock yarn comes today. OK, that's it for me, time to go knit more socks.

Frankenstein had a punk girlfriend

Ok, so I'm really supposed to be doing homework: mais je ne veux pas le faire! Ok now that that's done, let me show what I have been doing instead. I have had this yarn on my spindle since before Christmas and I finally have felt inspired enough to finish it, or was it stressed enough to avoid everything else? I call it my Frankenstein yarn because I used some different rovings that Tan gave me in the great stash reduction event and some strange brown stuff that I had lying around. I really like it... kinda wondering what it'll look like all knit up.

Then, inspired by a couple of the swaps I'm signed up for, I went crazy making decoupage bookmarks. Here's a couple sides that I really liked:

And then I finally found headpins that fit the teeny holes in the pearls I've had laying around forever. So I HAD to make some stitch markers (these are going in the mail, hopefully my swap partner isn't looking :)
So, I'm feeling much better after this mad craft weekend. This last week has been so overwhelming. I've been spending eight hours a day doing the same thing over and over and I haven't been able to sleep at night, so I couldn't concentrate at work (or in class). So I just needed a bit of therapy. I still can't really sleep, but I do have something to show for it anyway :)

What kind of yarn am I, you ask?

You are Cashmere.You are sophisticated and luxe. You can often be found in high-end boutiques and hobnobbing with the upper crust. You are one of the beautiful people and you don't let anyone forget it!
Take this quiz!

Hmm, I like the sound of being cashmere, but I'm wondering about my description..?

LAVA

Todd and I took a much needed trip up to Lava Hot Springs this weekend. It was perfect weather for it - just cold enough to create lots of steam so you can pretend there's not tons of other people in the pools with you. And there were, it seems Lava has become a hang out spot for high school kids from the surrounding area. Makes sense, how else can you show off your "hot bod" in the middle of winter, right? But it wasn't too bad, like I said, there's the steam. And we stayed in a nice hotel right across from the pools and this cool view from our balcony:

I think we had to go, otherwise I would be pulling my hair out this week. My company just released their new product lines for Winter CHA, you can see them at My Minds Eye, so work has been crazy, and I have jury duty this week , which I have yet to go in for - I guess they don't really need me (thank goodness, I'm too busy). With upcoming French tests and helping with SLCC's Vagina Monologues, I needed some quiet time to get some real work done :) which the drive up to Lava helped with:
And I came back to two new knitting mags in my mailbox - yeah!! Then to get on eBay and Etsy to find some yarn for the projects I have to make.

Projects I have to make for 2007
1. Sarong (for the Caribbean in September)
2. Silk Shrug from Erika Knights Classic Knits

Things I want to make from Spring 2007 Interweave Knits:

Things I want to make from Spring/Summer 2007 Knit.1:

I'm mainly interested in the fisherman hoody, but the anchor tube top is cute too.

This one is all about the lace top, I'd definitely be wearing a bit more underneath it though :)

oK, well I better get knitting then.

Swaps and obsessing over photos

So here are the wonderful yarn swaps I received in January, first was the coffee and yarn swap in which the coffee was the a fore mentioned Newman's Own and that is long gone, so no picture, but the yarn is still here and is starring in my latest sock project which will be revealed soon.

Coffee and Yarn Swap

Then my Mug of Yarn came with those delicious cookies I was talking about in the previous post...

Mug of Yarn Swap


Most recently I received my International PINK Swap, I don't know... can you tell?

You may be wondering if I'm a bit obsessed with the whole swappin' thing. The answer is yes.

I also have to show my new hat. I was really trying to take a perfect picture to show it off and ended up taking 5 before deciding I liked the first the best. My journey in pictures:

The yarn is a wool/angora blend and the pattern is from Domiknitrix sans the picot edging. I love this mesh look and I've been incorporating it in a couple different things that will be revealed soon.

New Swap

I just started a new swap and I thought I'd list the particulars here because I'm hoping this one gets pretty big. Also, stay tuned for some pictures of my previously received swaps. I got spoiled this January - I ended up with some beautiful yarn and a new passion for Newman's Own Organic Coffee. Oh, and these fantastic cookies from Canada... that I can't find anywhere! Not to worry though, my wonderful swap partner is sending me more. Big :)

St Patty's Day Party
Swap-bot URL:
http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/2042

Last day to signup/drop:
February 23, 2007

Date items must be sent by:
March 7, 2007

Number of swap partners:
1

Description:
This swap will get you ready for St. Patrick's day. Whether your celebrating out and about or staying home, everybody needs a few things to get their patty on :)

You will send:
-one piece of green, something your partner can wear so they are not getting pinched all day.

-one mix CD of party songs. Try to make something that reminds you of St. Patricks day. For example, bands like Dropkick Murpheys and the Pogues mix traditional Irish music with punk vocals - reminds me of St Patricks Day. If you can't find anything like that, just including party songs will do.

-Also send one surprise. This could be something green that compliments your partners craft tastes, like green yarn or fabric. Or a saint patty's tasty treat or recipe or even a poem or song that you really like.

Have fun with this one, the package should value $10-15. It's international and open to all new swappers and everyone with a rating of 4 or higher.

Life after Sundance

Ah, yes, it's all over. And we did pretty good this year, no screaming or melting slugs, no strange ladies from the sea. They were all pretty coherent. A few weren't my favorite, but they were all interesting. I guess my 1-7 list would be:

1. Year of the Fish
2. Four Sheets to the Wind
3. The Nines
4. Fido
5. Animation Spotlight
6. War/Dance
7. Chicago 10

How funny that one of the opening films that was receiving so much praise was my least favorite. Chicago 10 had an interesting style and it was funny, but it was pretty irrelevant. The director wanted to mobilize resistance to the war in Iraq and just succeeded in telling a story about the Yippies. You could say there's a lot of parallels there, but I think he forgot to put them in the film... Anyway, all the movies I did like were just dramas, the top 2 were love stories. I guess I'm just in a sappy mood or something because both had me tearing up a little. Check out my previous post if you are interested in their Sundance synopsis.

While in Park City, we met a few celebrities and had one sighting. Now don't get too excited, but Screech from Saved by the Bell walked right past me! I wouldn't have even noticed him except for all the photographers saying it was him. Ok not very exciting, but we did meet Hoot, the owl who played Errol in Harry Potter.

He was really sweet and very tame. His trainer stuck his finger in Hoot's mouth and he didn't do anything, just stood there and took it. We also met the star of Year of the Fish, An Nguyen, who was really sweet and gave us fortune cookies that said "Year of the Fish." So it was a fun year and I'll probably keep on going, despite my previous frustrations with it :)

Now... to find some time for knitting...

Sundance and Swappin' and School, Oh My!

Sundance has been at it's craziest this year. They have decided to "fix" a lot of the problems they've had in the past, but it seems to make things more complicated. First I signed up for the free locals ticket buying. But "due to the overwhemling popularity, blah, blah, blah..." I wasn't assigned a time. So then I paid to buy tickets with the rest of the world and when I go to buy during my assigned time, the site crashes. I wanted to cry... if it was just me, I wouldn't care. But this is the first year I have family traveling to go to movies with me, so I had to get those tickets!! Anyway, they finally figured out what was wrong and I got some of what I needed, I'll have to wait until Friday for Todd's time, to see if I can get the rest. We did get the Animation Spotlight, Four Sheets to the Wind, War/Dance, Year of the Fish, and Chicago 10. And hopefully we will also be able to get tickets for The 10 or Fido. We really want to see A Very British Gangster, but we'll have to wait list that one because it's sold out. For those who don't know what wait listing is: spending 2 hours usually in a cold tent hoping you are one of the 10% that gets let in after all the actual ticket holders are seated. It really doesn't feel like Sundance until you've wait-listed.

I also need to advertise my very first SWAP on swap-bot. I was thinking about all the spectacular music that came out last year and so I dreamed up the Best of 2006 CD. Here are the details for those who don't want to click on my link:

In this swap we will create a mix CD of our favorite music released in 2006. Include at least 10 songs on your CD. You will have 2 partners, so plan on making 2 copies of your disc. It would also be nice to include some cover art for the CD case, but it is not required.

Please try to only include music that was released in 2006 but if there is a great song that was released at the end of 2005, nobody will hold it against you if you include it :)

This is an International Swap, which will make this much more fun as we will hopefully hear new music from all over the world.

Voila!

In other news:

School started this week. Although I have really been dreading the first day of school, I am actually really happy with my classes. My French class was very encouraging because I retained most of what I learned in 1010 and soon I will be able to talk in past tense without sounding weird, Hurray!! I am also taking an Imaginative Writing class and Intermediate Writing (required). So I will be an accomplished author who speaks a fair amount of French by the end of April... something to look forward to :)

Happy New Year!

So for the new year, I have started a new sock. Not only is it much easier to knit than the shawl I was knitting up until Dec 23rd for Christmas, but it is also more therapeutic. My sock comes in Puck's Mischief from Blue Moon Fiber Arts which Tan, my mother-in-law, gave me for Christmas.

Tan also gave me some beautiful fiber to spin up. I am imagining it as sock yarn, but then again I can't imagine fiber as anything but sock yarn.

And here's the shawl that dominated my life in December. Actually I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and I'm completely in awe of myself for not being incredibly bored with it by the time I was halfway through, it was actually kind of exciting - I guess that's because it's my first.

Other Christmas knitting that has not been bragged about yet is my sisters "Ice Cream Geisha Socks." The foot was way too long for her, but I think she liked the sandal toe. I think I want a pair - they make wearing socks with sandals look cool.

Also check out the Picot Edged Ribbed Socks on Tan's blog that were her Christmas present. They are my favorite socks that I made in 2006.

It's finally here!

My tree has been up since last weekend, but this week has been full of white elephants, secret santa's, and sugar plum fairies. So I am finally getting some pictures up... just in time. My camera doesn't take dark pictures very well, but here we are:

My tree looks like its on fire..... I also got two new ornaments for my tree. I bought the first on Etsy.

It is hand stitched by fariada in France, she even included some crocheted pieces and other goodies when I ordered from her. I'm in love with this little heart.

Todd and I went to Balletwest's Nutcracker on Saturday and it was incredible. Their sets and costumes were so fantastic. ...So I had to get a souvenir, this is him in full action:

I made macadamia butter popcorn last night to go in Christmas packages, it's so yummy, when you don't burn half of the syrup - which I did - and then put too much salt in the new batch - but hey, half of it turned out really great. Now that that's all done, maybe I can retire for the rest of the winter.

Macadamia Butter-Crunch Popcorn
Makes about 30 cups

25 cups popped popcorn (from about 1 cup kernels)
4 cups raw whole macadamia nuts, about 1 lb (toasted)
1 ¼ cups packed light-brown sugar
5 tbsp light corn syrup
10 tbsp (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter
1 ¼ tsp coarse salt
¾ tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 200˚. Put popcorn in a large bowl. Add nuts; set aside. Put sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture comes to a gentle simmer, about 4 minutes. Stop stirring; continue cooking until mixture lightens in color, 5 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda.

2. Pour sugar mixture over popcorn and nuts; toss to coat. Transfer to rimmed baking sheets; bake stirring every 20 minutes, until almost dry, about 1 hour. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

-Martha Stewart

Spill your (holiday) guts...

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate! Every year I always trick myself into thinking that I might like Egg Nog, I mean it's tradition, right? and I try it and I always hate it.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? He wraps all presents that aren't a mountain bike.
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? white
4. Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put your decorations up? the middle of December when school finals are over with.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Mashed potatoes and gravy
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: There are so many, but mostly just being with my family. I can only remember all of the silly tricks we would play on each other, I think it's because we would laugh so much ...like that time my brother gave our little sister a log for Christmas.
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? My brothers, sister and I were awful about searching out presents. So when I found some presents before Christmas that later "came from Santa" I confronted my mom about it and she told me the truth. But then I told my brother, cause he had his suspicions too.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Just one, we usually try to give each other something really funny for Christmas Eve, so we can stay up laughing and playing.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? White lights and matching ornaments, I know I know, I'm supposed to have this big gaudy thing and I always did when I was growing up but now I can't resist trying to actually make my tree look pretty.
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? I love it when it snows on Christmas.
12. Can you ice skate? A little and then I fall down.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My favorite gift isn't a Christmas gift. It's my grandma's wedding band that I received for my wedding.
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? being with family
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? pie
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Just that everybody gets together. My family always makes a point to be together on Christmas and it just doesn't seem like Christmas without that.
17. What tops your tree? This year it is a dove.
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? It's nice to receive presents but I Love giving presents much more.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I have a few, but I have a particular version of Ave Maria gets me everytime.
20. Candy Canes... Yuck or Yum? Yum

Socks... of the baby persuasion

Having been soooo busy, I have barely had time to do my homework, let alone knit. But I figured out what to knit when I have no time to knit but need to for my mental well being. So these little punk rock socks went to Kaia, my friend Chelsea's new baby:



They were so quick! I actually made them a little bigger than the pattern said just because I could not believe a human foot could be so small. And of course when Chelsea put them on, they were a little too big... But this pattern is so easy and has sizes for all baby's and little kids. The are also very basic, so you can change colors easily, add stripes :) , or whatever your heart desires.

The Great Pumpkins

Are you impressed with our amazing artistic abilities? I know I am. My pumpkin is the one with the face (because jack-o-lanterns all have faces in my mind), Todd is a bit more creative with his patterned pumpkin.

But as in life, so in pumpkins - its what's on the inside that counts. I don't have a pretty picture but I have a nifty-quick recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Seeds. *note they're still pretty good if you can't stand to wait 24-48 hours for them to dry out :)

I am a living, breathing, working machine. This week has consisted of work, school (French test), and more work. My company just had a trade show and released 3 new lines. The process is supposed to go - someone else (not me) makes a packing slip for shipping and I make the bill and charge. But this week, because of an unavoidable illness, I have been the packing slip and A/R lady - keeping me at my computer for a straight 8 hours a day. Possibly the most confusing part of this arrangement is that I keep thinking "I've already seen this order... Is this a duplicate... oh wait, no I made Packing slip for it earlier." OK so I know this is probably boring if it even makes sense - but it's what I've done all week. The good news about all this work is that the product lines that are the source of all this excitement are freakin' awesome. You can see them at My Minds Eye. The Christmas line is my favorite. I am a sucker for anything relating to Christmas - I just love it. And I'm mildly aware that this may be what my holiday spending is related to. Not Christmas presents, but Christmas themed candles, paper, ornaments... and so on.

Christmas knitting

I love Christmas knitting, it means that as you knit, which is extremely entertaining by itself, you also get to think about the recipient: how much you love them, how much they will love you after receiving this precious gift and so on. The bad thing about Christmas knitting, is that you can't post pictures of what you've been making on your blog! Oh well, I have other things to share. This is actually really cool.

Because it is handknit

And Handspun and Hand dyed. It's so much more satisfying that way. I haven't been up to much besides knitting, although today we did get out for a walk around the Aves. It's such a beautiful neighborhood and there are some great colors showing up.

That's all for now, stay tuned for the great pumpkin(s)