OMG...so frustrated! And sadly, when I'm frustrated and/or stressed, I cannot stitch whatsoever. I think that despite it being enjoyable and relaxing on a regular basis, I fear completely screwing something up and that would, of course, frustrate and stress me out even more.
I did have an enjoyable weekend despite the issues of the wine cabinet and other annoying little things. Friday, I watched La Vie en Rose on video which won Marion Coittard the Oscar for Best Actress this year. The movie was superb! I love Edith Piaf's songs and I can have "La Vie en Rose" stuck in my head for days on end. I never realized that she led such a tragically sad life though so that was very eye opening. They also did a good job with makeup as Marion Coittard doesn't really look all that much like Edith and the scenes range from when she is a 20 year old to her death at 47 years of age. It was a fantastic film! Since I had to concentrate on the subtitles, there was no stitching for me that evening.
Saturday was a super day in the city. I drove in for an appointment and some errands, one which included going to Britex, which is the super duper 4-story fabric store downtown but as always, I couldn't find any fabric to fall in love with although there were great notions and trim. I'll have to go back with the projects to pick that part though. Perhaps next weekend. I decided to cancel my evening plans to tackle the problem of the wine cabinet. I drove to Crate and Barrel to switch out what I thought was the defective piece. In my original piece, only three of the four screws would tighten. On the second piece I got, only ONE of the four screws would tighten! What a fricken nightmare!! Of course, I've had it! I went back to the store to talk to a manager and did my spiel about how I don't expect to pay $300 for something that I still need to assemble and it still be crap. This isn't Ikea and as much as I love Crate and Barrel, I'm having second thoughts about the quality in the store. Blah blah...you get the drift. Then the manager suggests that they can give me a discount if I want to jerry-rig the cabinet. Excuse me?!?! So there went another little tangent about how that wasn't acceptable and how inconvenient this was since I had to ask friends to help me plus borrow a truck as I can't do this by myself up to my THIRD floor apartment in my little compact car. So the manager said he'd talk to the STORE manager today and get back to me. Okay, fine...all I want is a solution that will make BOTH of us happy. Happy customer = happy store with more purchases from said customer. The rest of Saturday had me cheering myself up by watching Moulin Rouge. And in the middle of me singing and dancing (yes, I am a dork!) along to the tango scene, my dvd player decided to conk out...literally. Gah!!! Multiple poundings has not fixed the problem! How am I going to watch my movies?! Looks like it's time for me to head out and buy a replacement. I did start my HoE Pinkeep exchange project and continued to work on Santa's hair and beard. Slow boring progress but I'll take a picture tonight to share.
Sunday, I headed to this little spot in the Mission for brunch called Maverick. It was tiny but oh, so yummy! I had the cornmeal pancakes with pork sausage and about 10 cups of coffee. You could have rolled me out of the joint. I was going to get the chorizo and eggs...mmmmmmm....memories from my childhood. But the ones at Maverick came with grits and I don't know about grits. What the heck is that? I had a try from my tablemate and they kind of reminded me of salty cream of wheat in a way. Overall....great experience. Oh, and their cinnamon encrusted donut holes are tha' bomb (as the kiddies say). I could have hoovered the whole plate of them! The rest of the day was boring stuff like errands and then I visited the folks. My brother stopped by with his little chihuahua, Mondo, who is a total trip. It's like he thinks he's a bunny. He goes around doing this little hoppy-run all over the house. I never considered myself a small dog type considering I am waiting for the day I can get a place with a yard so I can adopt a boxer but Mondo is a lot of fun. I pick him up and he calms down and then I put him down and he does the hop-run all over the place again. Strange little dog.
So not much stitching but I'll report later with my progress on Sweet Dreams.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Nesting
I've been in a nesting phase since the beginning of the year and I have to say that it's been nice. Slow...but nice. I managed to clean out a couple of closets and have three trash bags filled with junk ready for Goodwill. I need to still box up my old dishware and flatware and donate those too. And I still have a lot of work left to do...but I see progress and that makes me happy.
The last two or three weeks, I've been in a decorating phase. I got a new bookcase that matches my big bookcase and I'll probably spend some time this weekend actually organizing my books and some knick knacks on the bookcase so it looks nice and homey instead of all barren and desolate like it looks now.
Monday night, Claire came over and helped me with my new wine cabinet and futon cover. First the good...the futon cover is really nice! It's very simple and it's a light tan with gold threads weaved into a type of tweed fabric. I liked that it was darker that my current ivory one and that there was some sort of texture. Plus, my red pillows still go with it and it matches with the rug and the furniture in my living room. I only had to go to four futon shops to find it!! Once I did find it, I found out that it came with matching tan pillows that were nice but I really like my red ones and I pondered skipping it all together but the cover was the one I liked the most. I figure that when I get tired of the red pillows, I have an alternate look with these tan ones the cover came with.
Now the bad...the wine cabinet. It's a very nice wine cabinet and I'd be ecstatic with it if there wasn't some sort of defect in the one I received! I bought it at Crate and Barrel and for $300 and something that they are forcing me to put together, I would hope that they would at least inspect things before they box them out and send them off to the stores. So on Monday, we picked up the cabinet from the loading dock at the store, drove to the apartment and dragged all the pieces up to my 3rd floor walk-up apartment. That's right...three floors...no elevator...50 steps. Living on the third floor doesn't bother me at all...only when I got to get furniture up there. So we're upstairs with everything...my arms are screaming and that reminds me I should work out more and do weights but whatever. Claire and I get to putting the sucker together. We do the sides, then the shelves, than the back, then the bottom and attach the legs. We are almost done. Only the top, tray and drawer left to go. We get the top situated and Claire is screwing the blots in and then she says there's a problem. The very last bolt to go in won't. She tries...I try. The sucker is not going in. So we take the top off and measure and that side is .25 inches off from all the others. Great. So close and yet so far. I called Crate and Barrell and told them that I was having a problem with the assembly and that I believed their was a defect on the top (it can actually be the side so I have to research my theory a little bit more). The guy on the phone was very nice and amiable and at that point...I was more tired than annoyed. Apparently, I bought the last wine cabinet in that model and they are waiting for a new shipment. When the new shipment comes in, I will have to swap out pieces. It was a relief that they wouldn't expect me to take the whole thing back. It took me two weeks to arrange with Claire a day that would work for both of us. It would probably take me another two weeks to figure out when we could schedule a full cabinet swap. But just one piece, I can handle that easily. So hopefully, I can get this all done and figured out by the end of the weekend.
Because of the wine cabinet debaucle, I now have wooden wine cabinet pieces and box remnants all over my apartment. It looks like I went two steps back in the organization front instead of one step forward. But once the wine cabinet snafu gets taken care of, things will be loads better.
Maybe over the weekend I'll take pictures of the new "improvements" in the apartment. The bookcase and wine cabinet are dark wood so it won't show up well in evening pictures. I'll try to devote some daylight time to take some pictures of that and my progress on Sweet Dreams then. The tree is now all stitched on that. Yay!!
The last two or three weeks, I've been in a decorating phase. I got a new bookcase that matches my big bookcase and I'll probably spend some time this weekend actually organizing my books and some knick knacks on the bookcase so it looks nice and homey instead of all barren and desolate like it looks now.
Monday night, Claire came over and helped me with my new wine cabinet and futon cover. First the good...the futon cover is really nice! It's very simple and it's a light tan with gold threads weaved into a type of tweed fabric. I liked that it was darker that my current ivory one and that there was some sort of texture. Plus, my red pillows still go with it and it matches with the rug and the furniture in my living room. I only had to go to four futon shops to find it!! Once I did find it, I found out that it came with matching tan pillows that were nice but I really like my red ones and I pondered skipping it all together but the cover was the one I liked the most. I figure that when I get tired of the red pillows, I have an alternate look with these tan ones the cover came with.
Now the bad...the wine cabinet. It's a very nice wine cabinet and I'd be ecstatic with it if there wasn't some sort of defect in the one I received! I bought it at Crate and Barrel and for $300 and something that they are forcing me to put together, I would hope that they would at least inspect things before they box them out and send them off to the stores. So on Monday, we picked up the cabinet from the loading dock at the store, drove to the apartment and dragged all the pieces up to my 3rd floor walk-up apartment. That's right...three floors...no elevator...50 steps. Living on the third floor doesn't bother me at all...only when I got to get furniture up there. So we're upstairs with everything...my arms are screaming and that reminds me I should work out more and do weights but whatever. Claire and I get to putting the sucker together. We do the sides, then the shelves, than the back, then the bottom and attach the legs. We are almost done. Only the top, tray and drawer left to go. We get the top situated and Claire is screwing the blots in and then she says there's a problem. The very last bolt to go in won't. She tries...I try. The sucker is not going in. So we take the top off and measure and that side is .25 inches off from all the others. Great. So close and yet so far. I called Crate and Barrell and told them that I was having a problem with the assembly and that I believed their was a defect on the top (it can actually be the side so I have to research my theory a little bit more). The guy on the phone was very nice and amiable and at that point...I was more tired than annoyed. Apparently, I bought the last wine cabinet in that model and they are waiting for a new shipment. When the new shipment comes in, I will have to swap out pieces. It was a relief that they wouldn't expect me to take the whole thing back. It took me two weeks to arrange with Claire a day that would work for both of us. It would probably take me another two weeks to figure out when we could schedule a full cabinet swap. But just one piece, I can handle that easily. So hopefully, I can get this all done and figured out by the end of the weekend.
Because of the wine cabinet debaucle, I now have wooden wine cabinet pieces and box remnants all over my apartment. It looks like I went two steps back in the organization front instead of one step forward. But once the wine cabinet snafu gets taken care of, things will be loads better.
Maybe over the weekend I'll take pictures of the new "improvements" in the apartment. The bookcase and wine cabinet are dark wood so it won't show up well in evening pictures. I'll try to devote some daylight time to take some pictures of that and my progress on Sweet Dreams then. The tree is now all stitched on that. Yay!!
Monday, March 03, 2008
Prime Rib, Date #4 and The Sopranos
Weekend Recap...gosh, the weekend seemed like a Whirlwind!
Friday was nice. I got off work a little early and headed into the city to pick up my new futon cover. I still need to put it on the futon though but that will happen tonight. After that errand, I headed to meet some friends for a much awaited dinner at House of Prime Rib. Mmmmm, yummy! I'm not much of a meat eater but when I do, I do it in style! I love this place...rich color tones, old-school vibe and great service. Dinner was fabulous. The only disappointment I had was that they couldn't make a decent sidecar. It was actually pretty bad and I had to send the drink back. I figured for an "old school" establishment, thay'd have the sidecar down pat but they didn't. So I opted for a nice glass of pinot noir instead. And the wine was probably a better compliment to the meal in the end. After dinner, we caught up over coffee. Seeing old friends is always great fun!
Saturday was Date #4 with the new guy and my hesitations and concerns really rang true throughout the date. I haven't had butterflies from the very beginning and butterflies are really important to me. Not to mention I planned EVERY date. I wasn't feeling very comfortable with some things he had shared with me and I feel it best to keep this as the last date. I'm not dating to be the planner and the entertainer for yet another person and frankly, telling a guy where to take me makes me feel like a golddigger girl...which I am not. I tend to get a long better with assertive guys who know what they want. I tend to be the bossy planner in all other realms in my life but when it comes to dating and a potential romantic relationship, I want to feel like I'm the girl...not the assertive bossy planner bossing my guy around. So the new guy goes bu-bye and I'm back to square one. May not be so bad as the next month will be crazy busy at work and as if I didn't already have my hands pretty full, I have a work-related class starting up at the end of the month. I'll be lucky to make any huge progress in any of my bigger projects! After the date, I headed home and had myself another Sopranos mini-marathon. It was quite fun to just sit back and watch the drama unfold as I stitched more on my stocking. I'm almost down with all the stitching in the tree. That tree has seemed to take me forever. Once I truly finish the stitching, I'll share a picture.
The rest of the weekend was spent running errands and visiting with my folks. Pretty tame stuff.
Friday was nice. I got off work a little early and headed into the city to pick up my new futon cover. I still need to put it on the futon though but that will happen tonight. After that errand, I headed to meet some friends for a much awaited dinner at House of Prime Rib. Mmmmm, yummy! I'm not much of a meat eater but when I do, I do it in style! I love this place...rich color tones, old-school vibe and great service. Dinner was fabulous. The only disappointment I had was that they couldn't make a decent sidecar. It was actually pretty bad and I had to send the drink back. I figured for an "old school" establishment, thay'd have the sidecar down pat but they didn't. So I opted for a nice glass of pinot noir instead. And the wine was probably a better compliment to the meal in the end. After dinner, we caught up over coffee. Seeing old friends is always great fun!
Saturday was Date #4 with the new guy and my hesitations and concerns really rang true throughout the date. I haven't had butterflies from the very beginning and butterflies are really important to me. Not to mention I planned EVERY date. I wasn't feeling very comfortable with some things he had shared with me and I feel it best to keep this as the last date. I'm not dating to be the planner and the entertainer for yet another person and frankly, telling a guy where to take me makes me feel like a golddigger girl...which I am not. I tend to get a long better with assertive guys who know what they want. I tend to be the bossy planner in all other realms in my life but when it comes to dating and a potential romantic relationship, I want to feel like I'm the girl...not the assertive bossy planner bossing my guy around. So the new guy goes bu-bye and I'm back to square one. May not be so bad as the next month will be crazy busy at work and as if I didn't already have my hands pretty full, I have a work-related class starting up at the end of the month. I'll be lucky to make any huge progress in any of my bigger projects! After the date, I headed home and had myself another Sopranos mini-marathon. It was quite fun to just sit back and watch the drama unfold as I stitched more on my stocking. I'm almost down with all the stitching in the tree. That tree has seemed to take me forever. Once I truly finish the stitching, I'll share a picture.
The rest of the weekend was spent running errands and visiting with my folks. Pretty tame stuff.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Peanuts on Dating
I'm a HUGE Peanuts fan and becoming quite annoyed with dating (like you guys can't tell!). I came across this photo and just had to share! That Lucy is a tough one! =)Monday, February 25, 2008
O' Christmas Tree
Ok, like I said, I was able to sit down and stitch last night and made decent progress on the tree in Sweet Dreams. What kills me is that I could have moved onto the ornaments and the gifts in the tree is I 1.) stayed off the computer and 2.) did not get sucked into the trash on tv such as "Moment of Truth" or "Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious. Both shows are, by the way, utter garbage!! I can't believe I actually watched them and admitted it here but hey, we all have faults. I was actually horrified watching Moment of Truth....and I think the host was horrified too. The lengths that people go to for money is amazing! This woman admitted to her parents and husband that she cheated in the marriage, that they had bad conversation skills and that she still had feelings for an ex-boyfriend. The $100,000 questions was asked by her ex-boyfriend and it was "would you leave your husband if I told you I wanted to get back together" and she said YES! Can you believe it? And then she promptly lost ALL the money when she was asked if she thought she was a good person. She answered "yes" and I guess deep down, it's a no. So to go through all that and wreck her marriage and then she promptly lost it all. Amazing. And the Pussycat Dolls show is a complete fiasco with all sorts of teenage catfights. It's nuts! So shame on me...definitely should have gotten farther in Sweet Dreams. This project is feeling like a chore though. I just wish I was farther along in it. That just means I will have to start Fairy Moon and hopefully that will become my "fun" project. Not too much stitching time in store for me this week as yoga and gym will eat up a lot of my evening time. I'll have to sneak it in here and there.Melancholy Weekend
I was set for my weekend of stitching and watching loads of tv until my mom called me at work on Friday close to quitting time. She called to tell me that a close friend of the family had passed away and funeral services were this weekend. I would, of course, accompany my dad and aunt to services because that's just what I do. As the years pass, memorial services become more difficult to bear. At my ripe old age of 32, I've been to more rosaries, wakes and funerals than I can count and definitely more than anyone I know. I've probably been to as many as one would go to in a lifetime and I'm not really exaggerating all that much. I've been the young girl at the funeral parlor accompanying my parents as babysitters in the evening were out of the question when I was a girl. My parents dragged me everywhere. Through my late teens and 20's, I'd go by myself to represent the family (sounds so mob-like, huh) and pay my respects. I didn't really mind it then. I was able to hold it together and be stoic; offer calming words to those who needed comfort and let them know that their loved one had gone to a better place. But as I enter my 30's, I need time to prepare for these types of events. Eulogies and memories hit my heart and I'll start tearing up. It just isn't as easy for me to be the stoic calming person I guess I expect myself to be...that girl from the past who would get comments from ladies older than myself who would say that I was a calming effect amidst the sorrow. It's just not in me anymore.
So knowing I would have to attend this rosary, I spent most of Friday and Saturday zoning in front of the tv and sleeping. I managed to watch my Sopranos dvd, The Godfather 1 and The Jungle Book along with some miscellaneous tivo'd shows before completely passing out at the extremely late hour of 6pm! So I didn't get very much stitching done. I worked on Sweet Dreams and managed to finish the right side curtain, fill in the rest of the red in Santa's hat and jacket and moved in trying to fill in the tree. Not nearly as much as I would have liked so I am hoping to make some decent progress on that tree tonight. I doubt I'll be able to finish though.
Yesterday was the rosary and dear Chavela would have been happy with how lovely it was. She was a dear old lady and it was time. She made it to 102! But I spent a lot of the weekend thinking about all the times she came to visit with her daughter and just how cheerful and lively she was for someone so much older. She always had a smile on her face and was the type of person to put kisses all over your face if you would let her. She had such a warm spirit and a kind heart that it put a smile on my face just thinking of her.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Stitchy Withdrawals!
It's amazing how fast time flies sometimes! How does that happen? When I posted my Fairy Moon entry, I had grand illusions of starting and have a pretty decent start and picture by the middle of next week. It's been a week and a half and I haven't put one single stitch on her! Actually, I haven't had much time to stitch at all and I am going slightly berserk. Last weekend was very busy (but amazingly fun) and the weeknights can at times be pretty crammed between class and errands. I cannot wait until tonight!
This weekend, the original plan was for me to head up to Lake Tahoe with a friend and her mom for a couple of nights. But her mom invited some of her friends and the car and cabin would have ended up too crowded and cramped so those plans are off. I was hoping to have some quality time hanging out with her and stitching in front of the fire...far away from all the things that end up distracting me...dating, tv, phone, apartment cleaning and all those other pesky responsibilities. So I am going to pretend like I am still out of town. I'm going to go home, make a nice dinner for myself and pick up some stitching and stitch to my little heart's desire. It will be nice to tuck in for the night with Santa and have myself a mobster fix. I've got my netflix waiting for me on my coffee table...The Sopranos, Season 3, Disc 2 and Godfather 1. Not to mention The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Edition my landlord loaned to me and Ratatouille. Oh and I've got enough Project Runway on my Tivo to have a mini-marathon! Lots of tv watching this weekend! Oh, and it's the Oscars on Sunday! I don't think I'll be able to watch everything I even mentioned! But with the exception of a social event in the city tomorrow and a pampering massage on Sunday, I've got the whole weekend to zone into the tv and stitch. Can't wait!
This weekend, the original plan was for me to head up to Lake Tahoe with a friend and her mom for a couple of nights. But her mom invited some of her friends and the car and cabin would have ended up too crowded and cramped so those plans are off. I was hoping to have some quality time hanging out with her and stitching in front of the fire...far away from all the things that end up distracting me...dating, tv, phone, apartment cleaning and all those other pesky responsibilities. So I am going to pretend like I am still out of town. I'm going to go home, make a nice dinner for myself and pick up some stitching and stitch to my little heart's desire. It will be nice to tuck in for the night with Santa and have myself a mobster fix. I've got my netflix waiting for me on my coffee table...The Sopranos, Season 3, Disc 2 and Godfather 1. Not to mention The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Edition my landlord loaned to me and Ratatouille. Oh and I've got enough Project Runway on my Tivo to have a mini-marathon! Lots of tv watching this weekend! Oh, and it's the Oscars on Sunday! I don't think I'll be able to watch everything I even mentioned! But with the exception of a social event in the city tomorrow and a pampering massage on Sunday, I've got the whole weekend to zone into the tv and stitch. Can't wait!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Home is Where the Heart Is!
And my heart belongs to San Francisco. I tend to talk a lot about work and dating and crafting that I don't really talk too much about the city that I love. I don't live in SF proper anymore and I've been missing it a lot lately but I live close enough to make multiple trips in a week if I'd like. Just this weekend, I made two trips to run errands and visit with friends. Today was a federal holiday so I had the day off from work. Woohoo! Gotta love 3-day weekends! So I decided to take advantage of the easy parking and head to North Beach with a friend. North Beach is the "Little Italy" of San Francisco and it's my favorite neighborhood. It's lively and fun; has great coffee shops, restaurants, bars and entertainment and makes for great people watching. But besides the gastro-delights of the neighborhood, there are amazing views. One of my favorite things to do here is to drag my lazy tush up to Coit Tower and go down the Filbert Steps. So today I decided to take my camera along so I could share this walk through my eyes!
Filbert Street...walking up the steep grade to get up to Coit Tower. The street gets so steep towards the top that there are little stairs etched into the cement so you aren't so angled trying to get up there.
Coit Tower (not the Leaning Tower of Pisa...I suck at pictures)
Whew...made it up to the top of Filbert Street. I turned around and wow...look at the view! Far in the distance you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.
Along the walkway near Coit Tower, you see an amazing Financial District shot that includes the Transamerica Building. This was a daytime shot but with the lighting, it looks like dusk.
Filbert Street and Telegraph Hill. This is the juncture to head down the infamous Filbert Steps.
As I go down the steps, I turn around to show how the steps are engulfed by gardens, trees and lots of greenery. It always seems so cut off from the rest of the city.
And along the stairway path, there are cottages and bungalows that look like this one. Isn't it cute?! How do people get their groceries up or down all the stairs? I still don't understand. I don't think you could pay movers enough to get furniture to one of these little homes. And my friends complain about my third floor walk-up! But it sure is a lovely setting.
And we get to the very bottom of the Filbert steps across from Levi Plaza. I turned around and here is a shot of the scary part of the Filbert Steps. The stairs are so steep here that I always fear I'll trip and slide all the way down. Yep, this is me living on the edge! We feel good but I'm not crazy enough to turn around and head back up as my friend suggests so we go out to the Embarcadero with the intention of walking to Broadway. As we walk, we come across this plaque imbedded into the cement.
Apparently, way back in the Gold Rush days, shops were on floating ships out in the Embarcadero. As that era passed, the ships were buried under landfill and built upon and that area is now the Embarcadero. I was born and raised in San Francisco and never knew that! So I learned something new today. We kept walking and my friend dragged me up another steep stairway and I saw this abandoned on the sidewalk. In the city, people will dump their junk on the sidewalk because one person's junk is almost always someone else's treasure. This hadn't found a home yet though but it was well worth a picture.
"Don't watch me watch tv" What?!?!
We finally made it to my favorite coffee shop in North Beach, Cafe Greco and just sat, talked and people watched. This is always a challenge because right across the street is Stella Pastry.
See! Stella Pastry and I always have to test my willpower. I have no willpower when it comes to pastry. OMG and their stuff is soooooo good. My favorite is their Sicilian Cannoli. If you live in SF and have never had a sicilian cannoli from Stella Pastry...what are you waiting for?! It is sinful and decadent and omg, so good. Obviously, I went to Stella and got my cannoli and it made me very happy but then I feel bad because I may as well just slather the filling onto my hips as that is where it will stay until I can workout enough for it to melt away. But you know what, I don't care because if there's anything worth extra time at the gym, it's anything at this little italian bakery. YUM!
Filbert Street...walking up the steep grade to get up to Coit Tower. The street gets so steep towards the top that there are little stairs etched into the cement so you aren't so angled trying to get up there. 
Coit Tower (not the Leaning Tower of Pisa...I suck at pictures)
Whew...made it up to the top of Filbert Street. I turned around and wow...look at the view! Far in the distance you can see the Golden Gate Bridge.
Along the walkway near Coit Tower, you see an amazing Financial District shot that includes the Transamerica Building. This was a daytime shot but with the lighting, it looks like dusk.
Filbert Street and Telegraph Hill. This is the juncture to head down the infamous Filbert Steps.
As I go down the steps, I turn around to show how the steps are engulfed by gardens, trees and lots of greenery. It always seems so cut off from the rest of the city.
And along the stairway path, there are cottages and bungalows that look like this one. Isn't it cute?! How do people get their groceries up or down all the stairs? I still don't understand. I don't think you could pay movers enough to get furniture to one of these little homes. And my friends complain about my third floor walk-up! But it sure is a lovely setting.
And we get to the very bottom of the Filbert steps across from Levi Plaza. I turned around and here is a shot of the scary part of the Filbert Steps. The stairs are so steep here that I always fear I'll trip and slide all the way down. Yep, this is me living on the edge! We feel good but I'm not crazy enough to turn around and head back up as my friend suggests so we go out to the Embarcadero with the intention of walking to Broadway. As we walk, we come across this plaque imbedded into the cement.
Apparently, way back in the Gold Rush days, shops were on floating ships out in the Embarcadero. As that era passed, the ships were buried under landfill and built upon and that area is now the Embarcadero. I was born and raised in San Francisco and never knew that! So I learned something new today. We kept walking and my friend dragged me up another steep stairway and I saw this abandoned on the sidewalk. In the city, people will dump their junk on the sidewalk because one person's junk is almost always someone else's treasure. This hadn't found a home yet though but it was well worth a picture.
"Don't watch me watch tv" What?!?!We finally made it to my favorite coffee shop in North Beach, Cafe Greco and just sat, talked and people watched. This is always a challenge because right across the street is Stella Pastry.
See! Stella Pastry and I always have to test my willpower. I have no willpower when it comes to pastry. OMG and their stuff is soooooo good. My favorite is their Sicilian Cannoli. If you live in SF and have never had a sicilian cannoli from Stella Pastry...what are you waiting for?! It is sinful and decadent and omg, so good. Obviously, I went to Stella and got my cannoli and it made me very happy but then I feel bad because I may as well just slather the filling onto my hips as that is where it will stay until I can workout enough for it to melt away. But you know what, I don't care because if there's anything worth extra time at the gym, it's anything at this little italian bakery. YUM! And that was my fun-filled day in the city. I so love 3-day weekends. I wish they came around all the time!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Bookcase, Stash and Date #3
So far, it's been a busy weekend. Friday was a god-awful day and everyone was asking me if Iwas pms-ing. Geez, like a girl can't have a bad day without it being contributed to hormones. No, it wasn't that lovely time of the month. I ended up being the only one in the office on Friday as all kinds of stuff was hitting the fan. I had to deal with people who didn't follow procedures, people who didn't follow instructions, things falling on my desk with a deadline of "five minutes" and dealing with my own self-imposed deadlines that I was trying to accomplish. I was a stress case. But I was ecstatic once 5pm rolled around. My friend Claire came over to help me drag a new bookcase up to my walk up apartment and assemble it. Yay! I have a new bookcase IN my apartment. New project is to sort my books and make that bookcase look all nice in my apartment. After assembling the bookcase, we grabbed dinner at the corner thai place and went to see 27 Dresses. After such a crazy day, I just wanted to see something funny that didn't require too much thinking. I thought it was a cute film and James Marsden...OMG...such a hottie! I would watch that movie over and over just for him!
On Saturday, I decided to go across the bridge to my almost local needlework shop, Needle in a Haystack. There is actually a needlework shop three blocks from my apartment but they never have what I'm looking for and they are more geared towards needlepoint than anything else there. Plus, NiaH is huge and they have so much selection and so many options that I can spend an entire afternoon there getting lost in the possibilities. Really...I do this all the time and end up leaving the shop 4 hours later! So I will drive across the bay and pay my $4 bridge toll to go to Needle in a Haystack so I can fawn over everything. Plus, most important of all is that I get to see Mary. I love seeing Mary...she always helps me with a smile and she will always give me her opinion on things and anyone who knows me knows that I like a second opinion! I can spend hours paining over a decision and Mary knows how to pull just the right chart or fabric that will win me over! I had gone with the intention of picking up the Shores of Hawk Run Hollow chart that I had put on hold but once I saw it, I wasn't loving it as much. I was loving parts of it...but not the whole thing. And I definitely wasn't loving the Lakeside Linens Vintage Gold fabric that it called for. I was hemming and hawing and I decided to put it back. I still got stash though...no doubt! Here's a picture of all my stash. I got two pieces of fabric. I was going to get the called for cut of Wichelt French Cashmere but in 32 count for Quaker Christmas but they only had 28 count. I liked the French Cashmere until Mary started pulling out all sorts of fabric and I really LOVED the French Latte that she suggested. So I got a good half a yard of that for Quaker Christmas and smaller projects down the line. I also got a small cut of 25 count Jobelan for secret stitching. I got a handful of Week Dye Works floss for a birthday present in July and some stitchers lotion that NiaH has been promoting for months. With the weather, my skin is so dry and the lotion says it is non-oily and will not stain so I'll give it a shot. I can't even imagine what my skin would be like in the Northeast with the constant snow and wind!
And the charts:
The Workbasket: Quaker Pig and Rooster and Lavender Wings: Moonlight in Vermont
OMG...don't you just love the rooster! He's my favorite!
On Saturday, I decided to go across the bridge to my almost local needlework shop, Needle in a Haystack. There is actually a needlework shop three blocks from my apartment but they never have what I'm looking for and they are more geared towards needlepoint than anything else there. Plus, NiaH is huge and they have so much selection and so many options that I can spend an entire afternoon there getting lost in the possibilities. Really...I do this all the time and end up leaving the shop 4 hours later! So I will drive across the bay and pay my $4 bridge toll to go to Needle in a Haystack so I can fawn over everything. Plus, most important of all is that I get to see Mary. I love seeing Mary...she always helps me with a smile and she will always give me her opinion on things and anyone who knows me knows that I like a second opinion! I can spend hours paining over a decision and Mary knows how to pull just the right chart or fabric that will win me over! I had gone with the intention of picking up the Shores of Hawk Run Hollow chart that I had put on hold but once I saw it, I wasn't loving it as much. I was loving parts of it...but not the whole thing. And I definitely wasn't loving the Lakeside Linens Vintage Gold fabric that it called for. I was hemming and hawing and I decided to put it back. I still got stash though...no doubt! Here's a picture of all my stash. I got two pieces of fabric. I was going to get the called for cut of Wichelt French Cashmere but in 32 count for Quaker Christmas but they only had 28 count. I liked the French Cashmere until Mary started pulling out all sorts of fabric and I really LOVED the French Latte that she suggested. So I got a good half a yard of that for Quaker Christmas and smaller projects down the line. I also got a small cut of 25 count Jobelan for secret stitching. I got a handful of Week Dye Works floss for a birthday present in July and some stitchers lotion that NiaH has been promoting for months. With the weather, my skin is so dry and the lotion says it is non-oily and will not stain so I'll give it a shot. I can't even imagine what my skin would be like in the Northeast with the constant snow and wind!
And the charts:
The Workbasket: Quaker Pig and Rooster and Lavender Wings: Moonlight in Vermont
OMG...don't you just love the rooster! He's my favorite!Saturday was also date #3 with the new guy. I still feel mixed. I get frustrated when guys constantly cannot plan a date. I'm pretty old-fashioned when it comes to dating. I like being asked and planned for initially. At least the first handful and I'll put in my ideas and options and plan dates after. It's just that I plan for everyone else on a constant basis that when it comes to a guy taking me out, I kind of like it when the guy is in charge of the plans. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the dinner pick especially as I told him I had been there the day before and he really came up with that at the last minute. I like guys to have plans and be assertive and to be secure within themselves and fun and exciting and culturally aware. I just don't understand why... in a huge city that is amazingly cultural and diverse...I can't seem to find the guy who fits all those attributes.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Fairy Moon - Challenge of '08
Lookie here...Mirabilia Fairy Moon by Nora Corbett!
Third try is always the charm. In the picture is my final color choice. Fairy Moon will be stitched on Dragon Moon by Sugar Maple Fabrics. Its a beautiful navy blue color with white and purply-gray splotches. It kind of looks like a stormy blue sky. Perfect! May the moon in the sky guide the fairy to her dreamy destination.
I'm hoping to have a start on Fairy Moon this holiday weekend but probably won't post a progress picture for a couple of weeks as I'm sure I won't have anything decent to share before then!
This is my huge challenge of '08. I can do it...there's no question about me being able to do this piece. The challenge lies in whether or not I can actually finish it in 2008. Another challenge may be whether or not I will go berserk by the sheer size and monstrosity of the piece, by the amount of white I will have to stitch because of her dress or by the amount of beading I will have to do. What whole moon is stitched out of beads! But I love her...she is beautiful and I already know I will have to go get her professionally framed and she will have a prime spot in my bedroom over my dresser. I have been drooling over this piece for at least 5 years. Wow, I can't believe the chart has been in my stash that long. I finally became active about trying to work on this piece last year. Fairy Moon is a great example of how my stash grew. I bought the fabric and threads as indicated on the chart and then I realized that stitching a fairy that is looking at a moon on brown fabric is ridiculous! Since when has the sky ever been brown when the moon's been out?! Nora? What were you thinking suggesting that? So, I began a search for appropriate fabric and I chose Tumult by Sugar Maple Fabrics. Beautiful fabric...Mindy knows how to hand dye some fab fabric but Tumult wasn't quite right. It came out lighter than the picture on the website and the lighter blue-gray threads and beading would have gotten lost in the fabric which was a mottled blue and white like blue sky with white clouds. Very pretty...but not quite right.
Third try is always the charm. In the picture is my final color choice. Fairy Moon will be stitched on Dragon Moon by Sugar Maple Fabrics. Its a beautiful navy blue color with white and purply-gray splotches. It kind of looks like a stormy blue sky. Perfect! May the moon in the sky guide the fairy to her dreamy destination.
I'm hoping to have a start on Fairy Moon this holiday weekend but probably won't post a progress picture for a couple of weeks as I'm sure I won't have anything decent to share before then!
Fat Santa Hibernates!
It's February and I finally managed to put away all the Halloween and Christmas decorations that were scattered around the apartment. Yes, I know that those Holidays were ages ago! I was a major scrooge-ette over the holiday season and was lucky I even got decorations out. Once they were out, I liked looking at them and was too lazy to put them away. I had made an attempt a week ago to put the things away and did box up most of the decorations but there were some I forgot about. One was "Fat Santa". I love Fat Santa! He is the project I'm most proud of. Maybe because I actually made him for myself instead of someone else. My sister has a christmas sampler type pillow I made so she can decorate too but Fat Santa is mine! Isn't he cute?! Well, Fat Santa isn't really the name of the chart...I just call him that because he's kind of a fat santa...obviously. This is truly called Two Star Santa by The Design Connection. It's time for him to go into the storage closet until next holiday season.
Bye Fat Santa! I hope you have a good sleep and I'll see you in December!
Bye Fat Santa! I hope you have a good sleep and I'll see you in December!Stash-Mania
I'm not really into football but one good thing came from the Superbowl...superbowl sales! I love sales and I love building up my stash. Now, instead of having plenty to work on until I'm 50, I have more than enough to keep me occupied until I'm at least 65! I don't know what I'm thinking about buying all this stuff when I barely have time to work on the things I already have. So here's some of what I've bought.
Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches - I've seen quite a few people working on this and it comes along beautifully. I love christmas stuff and this quaker stuff is kinda growing on me. So I've got the chart and also ordered the 24 skeins of Crescent Colors floss that's required. I love Crescent Colors and that's a pretty hefty haul right there.
Pumpkin by JBW Designs
Lots of Week Dye Works and Gentle Sampler threads for a couple of secret projects I'm currently working on.
Hmmm, after I list it out...it doesn't seem so much. BUT, I'll be heading to my almost local needlework shop this weekend to pick up Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and fabric for Quaker Christmas and one of the small secret projects I'm working on. Why does Shores of Hawk Run Hollow have to look so awesome and why does it have to be so bloody expensive?! It's just the chart for me right now. The threads are too expensive and if I'm going to invest the time and the linen, I may as well use pretty threads. I have too many other projects I want to do but better to buy the chart now since you never know if they'll sell out and then go out of print.
I also bought 5 skeins of yarn for my afghan and am having second thoughts about the color scheme. Maybe I should use the color I started on and make it monochromatic in that color and each square be a different pattern/stitch. Ugh, the dilemna. So indecisive...cursed libra trait! I am the worst at making decisions. This is how I end up with so much stash! I buy things and then change my mind and end up buying and using different things.
Must stop the stash buying...but all those charts and fibers look so pretty!
Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches - I've seen quite a few people working on this and it comes along beautifully. I love christmas stuff and this quaker stuff is kinda growing on me. So I've got the chart and also ordered the 24 skeins of Crescent Colors floss that's required. I love Crescent Colors and that's a pretty hefty haul right there.
Pumpkin by JBW Designs
Lots of Week Dye Works and Gentle Sampler threads for a couple of secret projects I'm currently working on.
Hmmm, after I list it out...it doesn't seem so much. BUT, I'll be heading to my almost local needlework shop this weekend to pick up Shores of Hawk Run Hollow and fabric for Quaker Christmas and one of the small secret projects I'm working on. Why does Shores of Hawk Run Hollow have to look so awesome and why does it have to be so bloody expensive?! It's just the chart for me right now. The threads are too expensive and if I'm going to invest the time and the linen, I may as well use pretty threads. I have too many other projects I want to do but better to buy the chart now since you never know if they'll sell out and then go out of print.
I also bought 5 skeins of yarn for my afghan and am having second thoughts about the color scheme. Maybe I should use the color I started on and make it monochromatic in that color and each square be a different pattern/stitch. Ugh, the dilemna. So indecisive...cursed libra trait! I am the worst at making decisions. This is how I end up with so much stash! I buy things and then change my mind and end up buying and using different things.
Must stop the stash buying...but all those charts and fibers look so pretty!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A Date, Imagiknit, Janeane Garafolo, New Starts and Cleaning
Wow, when I look at my title, it sounds like I had a busy weekend and I did in a way.
Friday was date night with the new guy and I had a really fun time. I'm still having feelings of "nice guy but not exciting" but that's just how I've been feeling about a lot of people lately. They're all nice but I'm not wow'd...yet...I can spend six hours in their company. Because that's just the sort of person I am provided the person I'm with isn't exuding stalker-like psycho tendancies. We had a nice dinner at Nob Hill Cafe and we had a sighting of the "doublemint twins" aka the Brown twins. I had read that Nob Hill Cafe was one of their favorite places and they have a standing reservation there on Friday nights. I was wondering how true that factoid was but low and behold, it was true. They walked in and waved as they made their way to their wndow table. They are such a San Francisco "institution" and I always get a kick when I see them cheesing it up for the tourists and the passer-bys. After dinner, we headed to Vesuvio for a cocktail and a mini-chatfest. Then I felt like walking to see how crazy North Beach was that evening before heading back to the car and the drive home. I should probably go ahead and set up date number three but I'm hesitant because I'm not feeling the crazy butterflies I so desire. I'm going to think about it for a day or so.
On Saturday, I headed to Imagiknit where I stood for an hour in a state of indecision! I think the staff was laughing at me and my hanks of yarn as I stood there trying out different color combinations and different sequences. I finally took the three colors I was trying to decide between to the counter to ask for a different opinion and they were no help! I just couldn't make up my mind. And I finally came to my decision which was the color I had discovered on my initial visit to Imaginknit a couple of weeks ago. The winner is:
Friday was date night with the new guy and I had a really fun time. I'm still having feelings of "nice guy but not exciting" but that's just how I've been feeling about a lot of people lately. They're all nice but I'm not wow'd...yet...I can spend six hours in their company. Because that's just the sort of person I am provided the person I'm with isn't exuding stalker-like psycho tendancies. We had a nice dinner at Nob Hill Cafe and we had a sighting of the "doublemint twins" aka the Brown twins. I had read that Nob Hill Cafe was one of their favorite places and they have a standing reservation there on Friday nights. I was wondering how true that factoid was but low and behold, it was true. They walked in and waved as they made their way to their wndow table. They are such a San Francisco "institution" and I always get a kick when I see them cheesing it up for the tourists and the passer-bys. After dinner, we headed to Vesuvio for a cocktail and a mini-chatfest. Then I felt like walking to see how crazy North Beach was that evening before heading back to the car and the drive home. I should probably go ahead and set up date number three but I'm hesitant because I'm not feeling the crazy butterflies I so desire. I'm going to think about it for a day or so.
On Saturday, I headed to Imagiknit where I stood for an hour in a state of indecision! I think the staff was laughing at me and my hanks of yarn as I stood there trying out different color combinations and different sequences. I finally took the three colors I was trying to decide between to the counter to ask for a different opinion and they were no help! I just couldn't make up my mind. And I finally came to my decision which was the color I had discovered on my initial visit to Imaginknit a couple of weeks ago. The winner is:
Shocking Pink!This means that my afghan will be more pink than red and I've never been a "pink" type of a girl but I think that the colors will be very nice together and will go well with the reds, roses and pinks of my throw pillows and living room area rug. I had really hoped for more red but a lot of the reds out there were orangy and just didn't look well with the yarn colors I had already purchased.
Later Saturday, I headed back to North Beach for a nice dinner at Ristorante Contadina and caught the Janeane Garafolo comedy peformance at Cobb's. I so love Janeane. She was really fun and I can't believe how tiny and tatooed she is. Plus, I love that she is a total advocate for eyewear. In a day and age where everyone asks why I don't wear contacts, it's nice to see a big name acress/comedian who is pro-glasses. Plus, they add so much character to her look. I had a great time at the show although the company I was with left a lot to be desired.
Today was a cleaning, stitching and laundry day. I didn't really clean so much as organize. My bedroom got another good dusting and I found another half a hefty bag worth of crap to donate to Goodwill. I can finally see the surface of my dining table and did a good three loads of laundry. I still need to organize my living room which presently looks like some tornado went through a craft shop and landed into my living room. There's fabric, floss, scissors and tape blended in with netflix, cds and magazines. This room will get some attention tomorrow and then I can start on the heavy duty dusting, mopping and vacuuming of all the rooms. I hate cleaning! I always ponder hiring a cleaning lady but then I feel guilty because I should be able to keep up after myself. It's only me...how do I make it all so messy?!
I did manage two new starts. I started Halloween House which is a very small Lilybet design but with my limited stitching time and needing small projects to work on before yoga, this was perfect. I've only stitched the windows so far and it's not worth a picture yet since the windows are yellow. My other start is secret stitching so no details but that start got more attention than Halloween House today. It's a quickie so I'm already a third of the way done.
Friday, February 08, 2008
A Pat on my Back...
I'm a little proud of myself. I think back to how my blog looked 2 short months ago and there weren't any pictures of my stitchy progress. There was no cute girl blog photo. There was no blogroll and hell if I could figure out how you could do a hyperlink. It was BORING! Well, it looked boring...
Now I have a cute blog photo, a blogroll, I can link to other people's blogs and I can post pictures of my crafy projects...albiet not the best pictures but people can tell what I'm talking about and referring to in my ramblings.
I was playing a bit more with it today and I've got the book I'm currently reading up in my sidebar and a stitchy rotation gridded out. Other stitchy bloggers have theirs up so I'm wondering if it will help me keep things organized and accomplish more. It's worth a shot...right? Instead of Sunday being my "day of rest", I set aside Friday for mine. I'm usually too burnt out on Fridays to do anything other than lie on the futon and catch up on Tivo. I guess tonight will be an exception as it's a "date night". I've decided that if I have Fairy Moon, which is a HUGE project, and Halloween House, which can be my small travel project, already kitted up and ready to go, I can at least work on them once a week and stick them into a rotation. So those will be new starts this coming week. I'll definitely start Halloween House this weekend so it can travel around with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Can't wait!
But the blog is looking better...didn't think I could master the coolness effect with it. Although I know others have blogstats and visitor mapping. That's kinda cool but a little beyond my techie ability. Now, if only I could figure out this iPod thing.
Now I have a cute blog photo, a blogroll, I can link to other people's blogs and I can post pictures of my crafy projects...albiet not the best pictures but people can tell what I'm talking about and referring to in my ramblings.
I was playing a bit more with it today and I've got the book I'm currently reading up in my sidebar and a stitchy rotation gridded out. Other stitchy bloggers have theirs up so I'm wondering if it will help me keep things organized and accomplish more. It's worth a shot...right? Instead of Sunday being my "day of rest", I set aside Friday for mine. I'm usually too burnt out on Fridays to do anything other than lie on the futon and catch up on Tivo. I guess tonight will be an exception as it's a "date night". I've decided that if I have Fairy Moon, which is a HUGE project, and Halloween House, which can be my small travel project, already kitted up and ready to go, I can at least work on them once a week and stick them into a rotation. So those will be new starts this coming week. I'll definitely start Halloween House this weekend so it can travel around with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Can't wait!
But the blog is looking better...didn't think I could master the coolness effect with it. Although I know others have blogstats and visitor mapping. That's kinda cool but a little beyond my techie ability. Now, if only I could figure out this iPod thing.
A Random Realization...
I don't think anyone would ever hear me say something like "when I was your age, a loaf of bread cost .35 cents and gasoline was .75 cents a gallon". Nope, because that's never ever been true...but I've heard stuff like that all the time...from my parents. Nowadays, bread costs $4 a loaf, milk is $5 a gallon and let's not even talk about the cost of gasoline or a movie ticket.
Last night I was talking to the new guy and trying to finalize plans for our second date. As usual, you do the normal chit chat and asking questions about each other's family and upbringing. He asked me what my parents did for a living and I told him that my parents are blue-collar immigrants. They are both retired and have been for years but they worked a hard life of being a steel metal factory worker and a seamstress. They are jobs that are taken for granted and fairly underappreciated. When my mom first came to the States, she worked for Levi's and helped sew together countless number of jeans. I wonder how many people out there ended up owning a pair she had handled, sewn the seam on, shaped the pockets. To think that those jeans may be surviving somewhere out there when the factory's been closed now for years. As I was telling this guy about their work history, it occured to me that my parents worked hard jobs that they were thankful for but that didn't really pay a lot of money yet they were able to buy a home in San Francisco and raise three children in private schooling. Everyone knows private schooling doesn't come cheap and neither does property in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, it's ridiculously expensive...now. It wasn't so bad way back when but still. They probably brought in the same salary (give or take a few thousand dollars) combined as I do by myself now. Now that same salary can barely support me in a one-bedroom rented apartment with my 10-year old car! Forget being able to buy and own a condo, let alone a house and let's not even get on the topic of kids.
I guess thoughts like these make me realize that even though I have my complaints about growing up and having overly strict parents, they really did a decent job bringing up three kids on a limited income, limited command of the english language and no extended family. It's a little inspiring...that and they've been married for 52 years and haven't killed each other.
But since date planning with the new guy brought this realization about, I'll probably post a post-date entry later. Date #2 is tonight!
Last night I was talking to the new guy and trying to finalize plans for our second date. As usual, you do the normal chit chat and asking questions about each other's family and upbringing. He asked me what my parents did for a living and I told him that my parents are blue-collar immigrants. They are both retired and have been for years but they worked a hard life of being a steel metal factory worker and a seamstress. They are jobs that are taken for granted and fairly underappreciated. When my mom first came to the States, she worked for Levi's and helped sew together countless number of jeans. I wonder how many people out there ended up owning a pair she had handled, sewn the seam on, shaped the pockets. To think that those jeans may be surviving somewhere out there when the factory's been closed now for years. As I was telling this guy about their work history, it occured to me that my parents worked hard jobs that they were thankful for but that didn't really pay a lot of money yet they were able to buy a home in San Francisco and raise three children in private schooling. Everyone knows private schooling doesn't come cheap and neither does property in the San Francisco Bay Area. In fact, it's ridiculously expensive...now. It wasn't so bad way back when but still. They probably brought in the same salary (give or take a few thousand dollars) combined as I do by myself now. Now that same salary can barely support me in a one-bedroom rented apartment with my 10-year old car! Forget being able to buy and own a condo, let alone a house and let's not even get on the topic of kids.
I guess thoughts like these make me realize that even though I have my complaints about growing up and having overly strict parents, they really did a decent job bringing up three kids on a limited income, limited command of the english language and no extended family. It's a little inspiring...that and they've been married for 52 years and haven't killed each other.
But since date planning with the new guy brought this realization about, I'll probably post a post-date entry later. Date #2 is tonight!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Picture Share
I've got pictures to share! I've been meaning to share for a while but my pictures always come out so screwy looking when I take them at night. I decided to skip yoga tonight since I wasn't feeling all that well and didn't forsee me holding a downward dog position for 2+ minutes being a very good thing. I may fall on my head or something because my arms gave out! Did you laugh?! Yea, that would be a funny image! As I was driving home, I noticed it was still light out so I raced home and grabbed the camera but the light was pretty dim in my apartment. I'm still sharing anyways. I haven't worked on Sweet Dreams much since my Vancouver trip. That was almost a month ago! I had gotten a lot of Santa's jacket done and that had been my goal. I started knitting my afghan block after that trip and only pulled this out recently when I needed a mini break from knitting. I felt like I needed a break from red as my last few projects have had lots of red. Red is my favorite color but I needed to look at something else so I threaded the needle with a pale blue and am working on the curtain on the right side of the window there. It doesn't stand out so much as the color is pale. I was really hoping to be farther along in this as I want to start Fairy Moon but I will hold off a little more on that and probably start a couple of small projects to make into a pinkeep and a flatfold. Both firsts but I'm curious how it will come along. Plus I need something small to work on when I am waiting for my yoga class to start. Sweet Dreams is too big and uncomfortable to work on on the go so I've been carting Block #1 around everywhere lately. Just waiting for supplies to come in to get the two small projects started.
Since I mentioned Block #1, here is my progress so far. I've knit about 62 rows which measures about 8 inches. I only have 4 more inches to go before I start Block #2. I have to make a decision as to what my fourth color will be before I start Block #2 though. I forsee a trip to Imagiknit in the near future to help me make that decision. The lighter flecks you see in the picture is the variation in color...it's mainly a pinky red with some lighter pink variation in color. Very pretty!
That's it for pictures. I'm hoping to have progress on both this weekend but with a busy Friday and Saturday, I may be forced to clean (ick!) on Sunday instead of stitch and knit. We'll see.
Since I mentioned Block #1, here is my progress so far. I've knit about 62 rows which measures about 8 inches. I only have 4 more inches to go before I start Block #2. I have to make a decision as to what my fourth color will be before I start Block #2 though. I forsee a trip to Imagiknit in the near future to help me make that decision. The lighter flecks you see in the picture is the variation in color...it's mainly a pinky red with some lighter pink variation in color. Very pretty!
That's it for pictures. I'm hoping to have progress on both this weekend but with a busy Friday and Saturday, I may be forced to clean (ick!) on Sunday instead of stitch and knit. We'll see.Thursday, January 31, 2008
Ruining my Safeway Experience
I hate running errands after work and on the weekends. It seems to eat a lot of time when I'd rather be doing something else. A lot of the time, I'll use my lunch break to run errands at Safeway or Trader Joe's and just put my refrigerated groceries in the fridge at work. It's not ideal but I like getting it out of the way early and then I get to head straight home instead of getting all frazzled trying to squeeze my way through the produce section after work with everyone else trying to get dinner fixings.
The other day, I headed to Safeway to get the fixings for a veggie soup I wanted to try and make. While roaming through the aisles, I ran into one of the guys from work. The engine crews will stop at Safeway to get their lunch and dinner fixings everyday. I usually like running into them since I get to say hi and see how they are doing as I don't usually get to see them on a regular basis. I finish up my shopping and decide to get into a different checkout line than the guys and boy, was that a big mistake. The checker for my line and the lady she was helping was going all goo-goo ga-ga about having firemen in the store and talking about it. Obviously not very discreetly as I heard most of what they were saying and them being chatty cathys was totally holding me up. If I know that it would take so long to help ONE person, I'd have gotten in another line before unloading all my stuff on the belt. I just couldn't believe how blatant this checker was in getting all hot and bothered and holding the line up to chat about the firemen with her lady customer. If it hadn't been such an inconvenience to me to move all my stuff, I would have.
So thanks guys, for ruining my Safeway experience. I wish that people would realize that if it wasn't for that uniform, most people wouldn't even give these guys another look. They are just like everyone else. They have to eat and sleep and tend to their families and yes, their job is incredibly difficult and challenging and we appreciate them everyday for it but the fawning. The fawning has got to stop because not only is it embarassing to them, it's incredibly irritating and frustrating to me when I just want to pay for my groceries already and get on with the rest of my day!
The other day, I headed to Safeway to get the fixings for a veggie soup I wanted to try and make. While roaming through the aisles, I ran into one of the guys from work. The engine crews will stop at Safeway to get their lunch and dinner fixings everyday. I usually like running into them since I get to say hi and see how they are doing as I don't usually get to see them on a regular basis. I finish up my shopping and decide to get into a different checkout line than the guys and boy, was that a big mistake. The checker for my line and the lady she was helping was going all goo-goo ga-ga about having firemen in the store and talking about it. Obviously not very discreetly as I heard most of what they were saying and them being chatty cathys was totally holding me up. If I know that it would take so long to help ONE person, I'd have gotten in another line before unloading all my stuff on the belt. I just couldn't believe how blatant this checker was in getting all hot and bothered and holding the line up to chat about the firemen with her lady customer. If it hadn't been such an inconvenience to me to move all my stuff, I would have.
So thanks guys, for ruining my Safeway experience. I wish that people would realize that if it wasn't for that uniform, most people wouldn't even give these guys another look. They are just like everyone else. They have to eat and sleep and tend to their families and yes, their job is incredibly difficult and challenging and we appreciate them everyday for it but the fawning. The fawning has got to stop because not only is it embarassing to them, it's incredibly irritating and frustrating to me when I just want to pay for my groceries already and get on with the rest of my day!
To Biscornu or Not to Biscornu...
that is the question...
The next sign up for my exchange group is for a biscornu exchange. I've never made a biscornu ever! I don't know if I feel up to the challenge. On the one hand, it would be good to learn how to make and finish one. Learning something new is always good. But I also don't have much use for a biscornu. Isn't it for pins? I don't even sew or use pins for anything. Biscornus are quite interesting looking though. Oh boy, I just can't decide. Decisions, decisions. If I had the time, I'd make a practice one and then depending on how the practice one turned out, decide on the exchange. But I don't have the time. Although I am highly intrigued at the mention of the pinkeep. I've never made one of those either but they ones I've seen are very cute. I may have to hold out for the pinkeep on the next go-round.
The next sign up for my exchange group is for a biscornu exchange. I've never made a biscornu ever! I don't know if I feel up to the challenge. On the one hand, it would be good to learn how to make and finish one. Learning something new is always good. But I also don't have much use for a biscornu. Isn't it for pins? I don't even sew or use pins for anything. Biscornus are quite interesting looking though. Oh boy, I just can't decide. Decisions, decisions. If I had the time, I'd make a practice one and then depending on how the practice one turned out, decide on the exchange. But I don't have the time. Although I am highly intrigued at the mention of the pinkeep. I've never made one of those either but they ones I've seen are very cute. I may have to hold out for the pinkeep on the next go-round.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
First Date of '08
I've mentioned it before. I'm not in much of a dating mood right now but I still want to be social once in a while or I may become a single crafting hermit who never leaves the house unless it's to get more yarn, linen or floss. Nobody wants that. I'm already talking way too much crafty-talk to my friends who don't understand what I'm even talking about since they aren't crafters.
I'm trying to be more selective about who I go out with after coming across someone's vent on a website late last month. The guy was complaining that he had just been on a first date with a woman who told him that he was her 47th date that year. 47 dates in a year?!? OMG, I don't think I could be that cute and witty on such a continuous basis. That's practically one new date a week! I've labeled myself a serial dater and picky. I have been a serial dater and am picky but I don't think I'm overly so. There are a lot of wack jobs out there. But I don't want to be the girl who has 47 first dates in a year. That's just ridiculous.
So I hesitantly accepted the offer of a coffee date over the weekend; half wondering if I really wanted to do this as beautiful yarn was calling my name at home. But I went ahead and did the first date meet-up at a local coffee shop. It was a nice date. We met for three hours and talked about loads of things. Talks of a second date are in the motion but no real sparks flying...yet. He's a "safe" guy which I should be looking for. Stable job, good family values, local, similar interests, a tad shy and seems pretty accepting of his 30's. That's all good stuff when you're looking for something long-lasting. I don't need the bad guy. I fall for it everytime. The bad boy with his motorcycle or his tattoos or his crazy and exciting job. It's all very interesting and fun but always frustrating and short-lived too. I don't need that in my life. Plus, I think I've come to accept that I may be too much of a "good girl" to put up with the "bad boy.
As a sidenote: I think it's odd when someone emails you out of the blue to say that they are in your town for a few days and asks if you'd like to meet up for coffee. It's one thing if it's someone you know but it's another if it's a complete stranger. I don't know what this guy was thinking emailing me! I know he'd looked at my profile in the past but considering I didn't even know his name, I wasn't about to make time out of my schedule to meet him. I may be adventurous with online dating...but not that adventurous!
I'm trying to be more selective about who I go out with after coming across someone's vent on a website late last month. The guy was complaining that he had just been on a first date with a woman who told him that he was her 47th date that year. 47 dates in a year?!? OMG, I don't think I could be that cute and witty on such a continuous basis. That's practically one new date a week! I've labeled myself a serial dater and picky. I have been a serial dater and am picky but I don't think I'm overly so. There are a lot of wack jobs out there. But I don't want to be the girl who has 47 first dates in a year. That's just ridiculous.
So I hesitantly accepted the offer of a coffee date over the weekend; half wondering if I really wanted to do this as beautiful yarn was calling my name at home. But I went ahead and did the first date meet-up at a local coffee shop. It was a nice date. We met for three hours and talked about loads of things. Talks of a second date are in the motion but no real sparks flying...yet. He's a "safe" guy which I should be looking for. Stable job, good family values, local, similar interests, a tad shy and seems pretty accepting of his 30's. That's all good stuff when you're looking for something long-lasting. I don't need the bad guy. I fall for it everytime. The bad boy with his motorcycle or his tattoos or his crazy and exciting job. It's all very interesting and fun but always frustrating and short-lived too. I don't need that in my life. Plus, I think I've come to accept that I may be too much of a "good girl" to put up with the "bad boy.
As a sidenote: I think it's odd when someone emails you out of the blue to say that they are in your town for a few days and asks if you'd like to meet up for coffee. It's one thing if it's someone you know but it's another if it's a complete stranger. I don't know what this guy was thinking emailing me! I know he'd looked at my profile in the past but considering I didn't even know his name, I wasn't about to make time out of my schedule to meet him. I may be adventurous with online dating...but not that adventurous!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Baby Hats!!
After my discovery of the doomed demise of Block #1 of my afghan, I decided to turn my attention to the baby hat I had wanted to make for a co-worker expecting a baby boy any day now. So I pulled out my little ball of pale blue yarn and cast on to make my little hat. Well, starting the baby hat didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. I REALLY am rusty with these needles! The first time I tried, I only cast on 70 stitches instead of the required 72 so that was all wrong and I had to frog the little bit I started. So I tried again and cast on the right amount but when I tried to join the yarn, the stitches got all twisted and would have made for a screwed up edge/rim to the hat so I had to frog again! Grrr!! First the afghan, now the hat...I was getting very frustrated! But I prevailed and cast on again and things went smoothly for the most part. So I've got a pale blue hat to show plus a lavendar one that I had on my double points that I had to weave the loose threads on so I could use the double points for the blue hat. Here are the baby hats!
I realize I've been posting a lot about crafts so I'll have to find the time to talk about my first date of '08 tomorrow...hopefully.
I realize I've been posting a lot about crafts so I'll have to find the time to talk about my first date of '08 tomorrow...hopefully.Show and Tell!
I received a lovely email from my HOE scissor fob exchange partner, Michelle, saying she received my package. Yay!! I'm really happy that she liked what I sent. Hard to know what to make for someone you don't even know but I had a fun time stitching up the scissor fob for her plus it was my first one! I think this year will have a lot of firsts for me in terms of my craft-likes. Here is what I sent her as a whole package:
In the package, I sent her the fob, a skein of green varigated DMC floss and two Just Nan angel charts (Hope and Flora) as Michelle said she liked Just Nan AND angels. Those were a perfect pick for her. So glad I came across them at my LNS. I also sent her a cute little notepad that matched the fob and candy. Below are pictures of the front and back of the fob. It was a freebie design from Tantes Zolder which I thought was the cutest! Here is the front:
Tantes Zolder freebie design stitched on 32 ct. antique white belfast with Crescent Colours "Cupid"
I'm really glad she liked everything and I had a fun time with the exchange! It was also a good way to learn something new. I know now to try to put a fob together during the day...my poor eyes and fingers...definitely need better light so I don't poke myself with the needle! I also should have stitched the back on a diagonal to match the front but I'm happy with how it turned out considering it was my first time ever. I'm looking forward to the next exchange/challenge!
In the package, I sent her the fob, a skein of green varigated DMC floss and two Just Nan angel charts (Hope and Flora) as Michelle said she liked Just Nan AND angels. Those were a perfect pick for her. So glad I came across them at my LNS. I also sent her a cute little notepad that matched the fob and candy. Below are pictures of the front and back of the fob. It was a freebie design from Tantes Zolder which I thought was the cutest! Here is the front:
Tantes Zolder freebie design stitched on 32 ct. antique white belfast with Crescent Colours "Cupid"And here is the back. I stitched the same border as the front with the year and both my initials and Michelle's.
I'm really glad she liked everything and I had a fun time with the exchange! It was also a good way to learn something new. I know now to try to put a fob together during the day...my poor eyes and fingers...definitely need better light so I don't poke myself with the needle! I also should have stitched the back on a diagonal to match the front but I'm happy with how it turned out considering it was my first time ever. I'm looking forward to the next exchange/challenge! In Love with Malabrigo...
I'm not a big knitter. That can be proven by the fact I haven't picked up any knitting needles in a year! So I'm a little rusty and cautious. Please don't talk to me while knitting!! I may lose a stitch. But I can handle listening to/watching tv at the same time. I've never been very adventurous when it came to needles and yarn. I'm a stitcher at heart and not a knitter. But I've managed to knit a few scarves, a few hats, a baby blankie, washclothes and one sock. Notice I said one sock and not a pair. Socks are hard to make and I was incredibly discouraged when said sock was a size or two too big!
Funny to think that when I started this blog, oh...three years ago now...it was supposed to be about knitting. But with no camera and too much dating, my blog became a journal for all the crazy dates I've been on. Go figure...but back to knitting for the moment...
I've worked with lots of fibers...cotton, wool, fun, fluffy synthetics. Yarn just makes me feel toasty. It looks welcoming and has so many possibilities. The local yarn shop was offering this knit-a-long in the form of the afghan I've mentioned in previous posts. The yarn it calls for is Manos De Uruguay which is a color-rich wool yarn that's pretty but a little scratchy. I had reds and pinks in mind for my afghan but all the Manos reds were too orangy (ewww) and the pinks too pale. So the shop owner pointed out Malabrigo yarn. It was so soft and plush to the touch. Not something you find in 100% wool yarn. This yarn is awesome! It comes in amazing colors and it knits up easy. If I could jump into a big tub of Malabrigo yarn, I'd be in heaven. It's that warm, fluffy and soft! So I decided to pick four colors and do a rotation between the four colors to knit up the 12 blocks. I've got three colors bought and I'm happy with them but I am having a really hard time picking the fourth color. Maybe blog-lurkers can help me out here. The colors I've decided on are:
Geranio: it's a deeper pinky-red in real life.
Little Lovely: pink shades - variegated
Cactus Flower : lighter, not as bright in real lifeNow for the colors I'm trying to decide on:
Vermillion : seems nice on computer but haven't seen it in real life...wonder if it's orangy and if it is, it wouldn't go with the color scheme
Shocking Pink : I kind of like this color but then I think it would be too much pink overall
Intenso: sorry the pic is so big, couldn't find the color on the manufacturer website. This was my original 4th color pick from my knitting shop visit. I liked that it had red and pink in it along with a tiny bit of orange and my original thought was darkest color to lightest in each row (i.e. geranio, intenso, little lovely, cactus flower). But then I became doubtful.
Amoroso : similar to intenso but brighter because it has more orange in it. I think I like intenso better.So definitely having problems deciding. I still have time to pick my fourth color. I ran into a snag over the weekend. I was doing such great time on Block #1 and was all excited about it and maybe had about 50 rows or six inches of my 12 inches needed done. When I was showing my mom how well I was doing, I noticed an error about 1.5 inches from the beginning! Gah!!! It was way too far down for me to try and fix it and if I was going that far down, I may as well start over. And even though the mistake wasn't that noticable, the perfectionist in me wouldn't allow me to ignore the mistake and keep on knitting on block #1. So I ripped out 6 inches of lovely textured rib knitting to start all over. Now...I'm on row #2. Sad...very sad. So there will be no good progress pictures on that for a bit as this coming week is too crazy for me to get any real progress done. Too frustrating. So I'm loving the Malabrigo a litte less but it isn't the Malabrigo's fault. Note to self: Pay attention to the knitting outcome as you go along to catch mistakes early!! I still love the Malabrigo! =)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Fob and Goodies has Arrived
When I arrived home from work today, I was wondering why there was a large envelope in my mailbox. My scissor fob and goodies arrived from Michelle all the way from Georgia! She stitched up a very cute sun fob that she said was a Clioratha design. She also included some goodies...cute powder blue scissors, a piece of mint green cashel linen (love the color!) and a couple of skeins of hand-dyed floss from Carrie's Creations and Six Strand Sweets. I've never worked with these hand-dyed flosses before so I'll have to find a special project to use them in. Thanks Michelle! Sorry for the poor picture...it's cold, rainy and dreary here and I'm hardly home during the day to take daytime pictures. I had fun with this exchange!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Sick but Busy...
I'm tired...and behind...on everything! It didn't help that I've spent the last week sick and that I had too much of a good time at a company retirement party on Friday night so most of Saturday was a complete waste! Oh well, it's the having a good time part which is most important in that whole scenario. Despite being sick and incredibly tired and achy, I did have an enjoyable weekend. There was the retirement party...200 guests, fun music and lots of great people to hang out with. This was a company party though so it was interesting to see who got how drunk and what inappropriate things they said or did. Most likely, they won't even remember most of the events from the day. Gawd knows I don't even remember how I stayed out so late. Next thing I knew, it was 1am! Hence, Saturday being a day of rest. I was too tired, sick and ok, I'll be a little honest here, hungover to do much of anything that day. Things looked better on Sunday when I caught a double feature at the Stanford and saw "Notorious" and "The Philidelphia Story" with Cary Grant and had an awesome meal at Nola's nearby. Monday was another social day where I went to see a friend I hadn't seen in a while and we had lunch at Q and watched "No Country for Old Men" at the remodeled AMC Kabuki. I didn't care for the movie and I didn't really like that they made you pick your assigned seats when you bought the tickets but there is loads of leg room (very important for a tall girl!), the seats are super comfy and they have a bar! So that was the extent of my weekend. Sadly...there was no cleaning or laundry done so now my apartment is in dire straits! Looks like I will have to devote this coming weekend to cleaning.
I finally managed to work all the red in Santa's jacket and the tree in my Sweet Dreams Stocking and set aside that project to finally finish my scossor fob. I'm not a very strong sewer which is sad as my mom is a seamstress by trade. It took me most of the evening yesterday to stitch and stuff the fob and attach the ribbon. Not bad for my first fob ever! I think I will need to make a practice one for myself to see how people do cording and tassels. Those look so nice but I didn't want to try something seemingly complex my first time at bat. What if I completely messed it up?! I'd have been very frustrated and sad. I got everything packaged and mailed off to my exchange partner today and I hope it's well-received. Once she gets the package, I'll post picks.
I am setting aside my stitching needles for knitting needles...at least for the next week or two. I decided to start a 12-block afghan in yummy reds and pinks and started my cast on last night. The yarn (malabrigo) is a dream to work with so I want to make some decent progress in my first block before I get sidetracked by my cross stitch projects. My goal is to do one block per month and at the end of the year, I will have 12 blocks to sew up into an afghan. Depending on how the size comes out, I may make it a 16 block afghan since I'll have enough yarn on hand. But it's one block at a time for now. I'll be using the Manos Block of the Month pattern book with my Malabrigo yarn and will make one of each block. Block #1 is a textured rib pattern that I will knit up in "Geranio", a lovely reddish-pink color. I do seem to be in a red kick lately. I'll probably be sick of it by the time I finish this afghan project! But if everything goes according to plan, the afghan will match my living room perfectly and be added warmth in my chilly living room. I'm looking forward to this little project and mastering my meager and yet forgotten sewing skills. As a small side project, I'll try to whip up a light blue baby cap for a co-worker who is expecting a baby boy soon.
I finally managed to work all the red in Santa's jacket and the tree in my Sweet Dreams Stocking and set aside that project to finally finish my scossor fob. I'm not a very strong sewer which is sad as my mom is a seamstress by trade. It took me most of the evening yesterday to stitch and stuff the fob and attach the ribbon. Not bad for my first fob ever! I think I will need to make a practice one for myself to see how people do cording and tassels. Those look so nice but I didn't want to try something seemingly complex my first time at bat. What if I completely messed it up?! I'd have been very frustrated and sad. I got everything packaged and mailed off to my exchange partner today and I hope it's well-received. Once she gets the package, I'll post picks.
I am setting aside my stitching needles for knitting needles...at least for the next week or two. I decided to start a 12-block afghan in yummy reds and pinks and started my cast on last night. The yarn (malabrigo) is a dream to work with so I want to make some decent progress in my first block before I get sidetracked by my cross stitch projects. My goal is to do one block per month and at the end of the year, I will have 12 blocks to sew up into an afghan. Depending on how the size comes out, I may make it a 16 block afghan since I'll have enough yarn on hand. But it's one block at a time for now. I'll be using the Manos Block of the Month pattern book with my Malabrigo yarn and will make one of each block. Block #1 is a textured rib pattern that I will knit up in "Geranio", a lovely reddish-pink color. I do seem to be in a red kick lately. I'll probably be sick of it by the time I finish this afghan project! But if everything goes according to plan, the afghan will match my living room perfectly and be added warmth in my chilly living room. I'm looking forward to this little project and mastering my meager and yet forgotten sewing skills. As a small side project, I'll try to whip up a light blue baby cap for a co-worker who is expecting a baby boy soon.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Vancouver Overview
It looks like I've fallen a little behind on my posting. I went away for a very nice and relaxing trip to Vancouver, Washington last weekend and have been trying to catch up since. I had been planning to visit an old friend and her family for three days and it was great seeing her. It's funny how we met. She used to be my downstairs neighbor in this crummy little apartment building I used to live in in the Richmond District. I remember that we moved into the building around the same time and despite it only being a 4-unit building, it wasn't until a year after moving that we bumped into each other at the mailbox. After exchaging pleasantries and introductions, we became great neighbors. Honestly, she took care of me a lot. I was always busy working, dating and living up to the demands of elderly parents who depended on me for far too much. I'm hardly a chef and she loved to cook and I would often get calls asking if I would like to come downstairs for dinner. Of course!! I love homecooked food more than I love leftovers! After many dinners, conversations in front of the tv and playing with her cat, Fuzzle, we finally discovered that we had the love of craftiness. Then I started to bring my projects downstairs ans stitch on her couch and chat. It was probably more estrogen than her poor husband could deal with but he was always a good sport. About a year later, they moved to Portland, had a baby and then moved to Vancouver.
It was my first trip to Vancouver and I absolutely loved the relaxation. I did think it was interesting that just two hours before I landed in Portland Airport, there was a tornado that hit in Vancouver. Luckily, it didn't affect the neighborhood my friend lives in. Tornados in the Pacific Northwest?!? That's completely out of my league...I deal with earthquakes, not tornadoes. But the weekend was filled with chatter, shopping, crafting, playing with Fuzzle and Kassie (my friend's 2.5 year old daughter) and movies. It was a great weekend. My friend's husband cooked us amazing breakfasts and dinners (yum!) and I felt completely rested and spoiled. I had such a great time.
But it was back to reality the moment I landed in Oakland. I got home to chores that had to be done and errands to run. To a personal inbox with 40 emails and a work inbox of 34 emails and a pile of personal and work email. So you can just imagine what I've been trying to do all week...catch up! I'm pretty caught up but still behind on some projects at work and well, the apartment has been getting messier instead of cleaner. I think the cold/flu bug I caught over the weekend hasn't helped me much. I haven't been able to get any cleaning done or very much stitching.
While I was in Vancouver, I was able to do some good progress on Santa's jacket in my Sweet Dreams stocking. I'll have to take another picture soon to share. I also started on my scissor fob for my exchange and have finished the stitching this week. Now I just need to construct the fob. I'm hoping to get that all done and in the post on Tuesday or Wednesday of the new week. I really hope that my exchange partner likes it. I'll post pictures of it and the goodies once my partner receives it. I want to start a new project but am holding off. I'm not a good juggler and can only handle one or two projects at a time. I don't know how people out there juggle more than 4 projects at a time. Plus, I will be busting out my knitting needles (and blowing the dust off of them) to start a 12-month afghan project. We'll see how it goes. It's been about a year since I've knit anything but I could totally improve my knitting skills. I figure that this afghan project will be a good choice as it consists of 12 blocks that are then sewn together to create an afghan. Each block is constucted using a different pattern, different stitch and a different color. Plus, the finished project is something that anyone can use. I'm choosing a medley of red and pink varigated yarn to match my living room decor. I'm looking forward to it and maybe meeting some new crafty ladies. I'm hoping to meet ALL my stitchy goals this year. Wish me luck!
It was my first trip to Vancouver and I absolutely loved the relaxation. I did think it was interesting that just two hours before I landed in Portland Airport, there was a tornado that hit in Vancouver. Luckily, it didn't affect the neighborhood my friend lives in. Tornados in the Pacific Northwest?!? That's completely out of my league...I deal with earthquakes, not tornadoes. But the weekend was filled with chatter, shopping, crafting, playing with Fuzzle and Kassie (my friend's 2.5 year old daughter) and movies. It was a great weekend. My friend's husband cooked us amazing breakfasts and dinners (yum!) and I felt completely rested and spoiled. I had such a great time.
But it was back to reality the moment I landed in Oakland. I got home to chores that had to be done and errands to run. To a personal inbox with 40 emails and a work inbox of 34 emails and a pile of personal and work email. So you can just imagine what I've been trying to do all week...catch up! I'm pretty caught up but still behind on some projects at work and well, the apartment has been getting messier instead of cleaner. I think the cold/flu bug I caught over the weekend hasn't helped me much. I haven't been able to get any cleaning done or very much stitching.
While I was in Vancouver, I was able to do some good progress on Santa's jacket in my Sweet Dreams stocking. I'll have to take another picture soon to share. I also started on my scissor fob for my exchange and have finished the stitching this week. Now I just need to construct the fob. I'm hoping to get that all done and in the post on Tuesday or Wednesday of the new week. I really hope that my exchange partner likes it. I'll post pictures of it and the goodies once my partner receives it. I want to start a new project but am holding off. I'm not a good juggler and can only handle one or two projects at a time. I don't know how people out there juggle more than 4 projects at a time. Plus, I will be busting out my knitting needles (and blowing the dust off of them) to start a 12-month afghan project. We'll see how it goes. It's been about a year since I've knit anything but I could totally improve my knitting skills. I figure that this afghan project will be a good choice as it consists of 12 blocks that are then sewn together to create an afghan. Each block is constucted using a different pattern, different stitch and a different color. Plus, the finished project is something that anyone can use. I'm choosing a medley of red and pink varigated yarn to match my living room decor. I'm looking forward to it and maybe meeting some new crafty ladies. I'm hoping to meet ALL my stitchy goals this year. Wish me luck!
Monday, January 07, 2008
Stitchy Progress Report
Ok, I finally was able to take some picture of my stitchy progress so I can share. And I've made pretty decent progress on Sweet Dreams. It's been slow going. Mainly because the colors are all over the place and I have to stop and start again versus carrying over. I'm doing this as kitted since it's my first stocking and I didn't want to spend even more money on nice linen and high quality threads so it's just a cream aida and supplied threads. I'm not really fond of this floss though. It seems to knot up and shread with the constant handling and pass through the fabric which is highly annoying! I feel like I should have a pair of tweezers so I can pick out any little loosened lint so it doesn't blend in with other colors. But I'm determined to make it work. I was hoping to be farther along by now but I do have to admit I'm having fun with it. I did have a little challenge with myself. I wanted to finish the window and frame and move onto the red in the Santa before I put it aside and started working on my fob exchange and I finally reached that point on Sunday. Here's how it looks fo far.
This weekend, I'll be in Vancouver, WA visiting a friend of mine and her family. I'll be bringing Sweet Dreams and the scissor fob stuff so I can stitch and relax with her. I'm wondering if my plans will be foiled by her cute and charming two year old daughter. I have the feeling that despite my "dear gawd, no kids" mentality, little Kassie will win my heart. Although...there is also the chance that my current mentality will be further reinforced. I am looking forward to a weekend away in the company of my friend whether I get to stitch or not.
I finally finished Plumpkin! Actually, I finished stitching it a while ago but I lost one of the star buttons, then I ordered some spares online but I ordered the wrong color (honey versus yellow) and then just ended up picking up the right button when I stopped by my LNS a couple of weeks back and then had to pick up the right color floss at Michael's. Regular DMC floss costs twice as much at the LNS than at Michael's and considering how much I spend on this craft, I can stand to save a few pennies somewhere. I'm hoping to find some cool halloween fabric and making this into a wall hanging once I fine-tune my sewing skills. Ok, I have to stop kidding myself. I need to learn some sewing skills before I can fine-tune them!
This weekend, I'll be in Vancouver, WA visiting a friend of mine and her family. I'll be bringing Sweet Dreams and the scissor fob stuff so I can stitch and relax with her. I'm wondering if my plans will be foiled by her cute and charming two year old daughter. I have the feeling that despite my "dear gawd, no kids" mentality, little Kassie will win my heart. Although...there is also the chance that my current mentality will be further reinforced. I am looking forward to a weekend away in the company of my friend whether I get to stitch or not. Saturday, January 05, 2008
The Wrath of Mother Nature
There are a lot of "shoulds" today. I should be cleaning. I should be organizing. I should be writing that confirmation letter for my neice. I should get my stuff together for a visit to my parents this weekend. I should put my Sweet Dreams Stocking aside and start a scissor fob for exchange. I should be doing a lot today...but it's rainy and gloomy and dark and all I want to do is hike up the heater as high as it can go, curl up with a blankie and watch TV. It's just past noon and I've already watched a little bit of Bones, a little bit of Monk and watched the original 'Hairspray' and I'm listening to the commentary as I type. I did manage to take a couple of pictures for a progress post that will follow soon.
Frankly, I'm still trying to recover from yesterday. The Bay Area was hit by such an awful storm! One that, I think, rivaled the winter storms of 1995. In the past, I'd just battle my way to work, if it happened to be a workday, and just plug away at what had to be done. If a storm landed on a weekend, I'd hunker down and stay indoors but I think this was the first major storm that I've worked in a position of public safety support. We fielded so many calls seeking help yesterday that I was amazed and distressed. People called with problems such as downed wires, fallen trees, trees into houses, minor fires, power outages, flooding and broken sump pumps. When you get a call or two, it's ok. But when you get tons of calls and you know that your resources are already so stretched and the pumps you had on hand are already loaned out, all you can do is apologize and put them on the list and offer other suggestions.
I was amazed at the people who would call the fire department asking when the power would come on and then get irritated that I didn't have an answer. Last time I looked, PG&E was in charge of power and the fire department was in charge of putting out fires, providing medical aid, pumping out water from flooded areas, helping at traffic scenes, etc. When I explained that they had to call PG&E for status on power, the response was that they couldn't get through to anyone. No offense but that does not change my answer. I don't know when the power will be back but be patient, PG&E is out in the rain working as hard and as fast as they can to restore power to everyone just like the firefighters are out in the elements helping everyone who needed it.
When you come down to it, on the level of disasters, a winter storm does not compare to an earthquake (this is earthquake territory), blizzards, tornadoes or hurricanes. And despite how much we tell people and the news tell people to prepare, people are NOT prepared. I wish the public would be more prepared because the situation could be so much worse. Get sandbags and keep them in the garage if you're in low-lying areas. Put the sandbags out BEFORE the rain starts to minimize the amount of water to enter your house or business. Always have bottled water and canned food on hand. Have flashlights, candles, matches and batteries stocked. If your house gets flooded and you have a pump, have a small emergency generator in case of a long-time outage during a storm AND check it periodically.
In a true disaster, resources are stretched everywhere. An eye-opening example is that for the small town I work in, we have 100 firefighters to 100,000 residents. In San Francisco, I estimate 1,000 firefighters for 1.5 million residents. I can't find the exact number anywhere but that's a pretty decent guess, I think. If your community offers a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class...take it. It's free and the lessons you learn from it can be truly irreplacable and priceless one day. All you would need to devote is time. I know that time is hard to come by but if the knowledge and skills that you acquire in a 25 hour class can help make you, your family, your neighborhood or your block safe and comfortable until emergency resources are available...isn't that completely worth it?
At the end of the day, I was truly thankful to work with a hard-working group of guys, to have been indoors most of the day and to be able to go home at the end of the workday to a lovely yet messy apartment that had power. And I curiously await my own first CERT class so I can be more prepared than I already am.
Frankly, I'm still trying to recover from yesterday. The Bay Area was hit by such an awful storm! One that, I think, rivaled the winter storms of 1995. In the past, I'd just battle my way to work, if it happened to be a workday, and just plug away at what had to be done. If a storm landed on a weekend, I'd hunker down and stay indoors but I think this was the first major storm that I've worked in a position of public safety support. We fielded so many calls seeking help yesterday that I was amazed and distressed. People called with problems such as downed wires, fallen trees, trees into houses, minor fires, power outages, flooding and broken sump pumps. When you get a call or two, it's ok. But when you get tons of calls and you know that your resources are already so stretched and the pumps you had on hand are already loaned out, all you can do is apologize and put them on the list and offer other suggestions.
I was amazed at the people who would call the fire department asking when the power would come on and then get irritated that I didn't have an answer. Last time I looked, PG&E was in charge of power and the fire department was in charge of putting out fires, providing medical aid, pumping out water from flooded areas, helping at traffic scenes, etc. When I explained that they had to call PG&E for status on power, the response was that they couldn't get through to anyone. No offense but that does not change my answer. I don't know when the power will be back but be patient, PG&E is out in the rain working as hard and as fast as they can to restore power to everyone just like the firefighters are out in the elements helping everyone who needed it.
When you come down to it, on the level of disasters, a winter storm does not compare to an earthquake (this is earthquake territory), blizzards, tornadoes or hurricanes. And despite how much we tell people and the news tell people to prepare, people are NOT prepared. I wish the public would be more prepared because the situation could be so much worse. Get sandbags and keep them in the garage if you're in low-lying areas. Put the sandbags out BEFORE the rain starts to minimize the amount of water to enter your house or business. Always have bottled water and canned food on hand. Have flashlights, candles, matches and batteries stocked. If your house gets flooded and you have a pump, have a small emergency generator in case of a long-time outage during a storm AND check it periodically.
In a true disaster, resources are stretched everywhere. An eye-opening example is that for the small town I work in, we have 100 firefighters to 100,000 residents. In San Francisco, I estimate 1,000 firefighters for 1.5 million residents. I can't find the exact number anywhere but that's a pretty decent guess, I think. If your community offers a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class...take it. It's free and the lessons you learn from it can be truly irreplacable and priceless one day. All you would need to devote is time. I know that time is hard to come by but if the knowledge and skills that you acquire in a 25 hour class can help make you, your family, your neighborhood or your block safe and comfortable until emergency resources are available...isn't that completely worth it?
At the end of the day, I was truly thankful to work with a hard-working group of guys, to have been indoors most of the day and to be able to go home at the end of the workday to a lovely yet messy apartment that had power. And I curiously await my own first CERT class so I can be more prepared than I already am.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Funny Stories
I just realized that I've had blog-worthy things happening despite my non-dating status but I keep forgetting to write about them. Or maybe I think that my reading public only wants to hear about my crazy dating stories?! I don't know but I'll share my stories, dating or otherwise anyways.
Earlier this month, I had to go to the eye doctor for my yearly checkup. Those who actually know me in real life know that my yearly checkups are important because I'm blind as a bat and don't want to get any blinder! Hey, the possibility is there with the hours I put in at the computer and stitching. Earlier that day, one of the engines stopped by the office to drop off paperwork and they needed help with some computer stuff so I helped out and they went on their way. Yea, I work for a fire department and it's really nothing to fawn over. These guys are like my older brothers and I am their loudmouth annoying younger sister! Helping them out is all part of the job and I get to fine-tune my sarcastic remarks. Anyways, fast forward to the afternoon and I need to head to the eye doctor for my appointment and things are going well...I hadn't gotten any blinder so far and the doctor asked me to switch from the contacts I was presently wearing to my glasses. The doctor had to leave the office to grab something and then all of a sudden I hear, "oh, there she is!!" and I turn around half blind, since I had just taken one of my contacts out, and see the same engine crew that had been at the office earlier. I scrambled to take the other contact out and slap my glasses on to see why they were there. At first, I thought one of them had to stop by for their own visual needs until they said that my coworkers had told them that I was at the eye doctor and they decided that they would come and visit me at the doctor's office. Talk about embarrassing! The real reason they tracked me down at the office was because they were giving out Starbucks gift cards to all the girls as christmas presents on behalf of the union and that they wanted to do it personally to each one of us. That, of course, is amazingly sweet but I couldn't help but feel embarrassed that I was the cause of the firemen scene at my eye doctor's office. They went on their way and I continued my eye exam. My eye doctor (she's female) was all flustered and excited to have a story to tell her family about how the *hunky* firemen stopped by her office for a special delivery for one of her patients. Oh gawd...see....embarrassing! But sweet...
Other interesting stuff...guys from my past coming back. Some I'm curious about and others not so much. One is the firemen that acted just like the stereotype. I'm not sure what his agenda is but I'm not really eager to find out. We just chat on the phone and crack jokes to each other and that to me is fun. We've been doing that for the past month and I haven't been pressed to schedule a time to hang out in person. He's suggested it but like most guys, he's vague about a day and time and without a set day or time, I'll flake on anything. I don't work well with the *play it by ear* philosophy of scheduling. But if you give me a day and a time, then I'll definitely be there. The other guy is someone who's emailed me off of match and frankly he seems like a nice guy but his eagerness and desperate air turns me off and makes me a little nervous. If I give him anything that truly links him to me, will he abuse it? I'm not really interested in finding out.
So for the holidays I got a wide array of gift cards. I'm the type of person that would prefer that someone try to *figure it out* and give me something that they put some thought into that they think I would like rather than get a generic gift card but sometimes I am thankful for them and this was one of those years. I was hoping for Crate and Barrel gift cards since there's new dinnerware, glassware and a wine cabinet that I've been eyeing for months. I was hoping with birthday (October) and Christmas, I'd rack in some Crate and Barrel dough with the hints I dropped. No such luck on the Crate and Barrel gift cards but I got loads of other ones so I decided that I would try and barter. I posted my ads on Craigslist and had mediocre luck. Some guy wrote me saying he'd buy them at half their value. I don't know who in their right mind would accept that offer! That's a rip-off! What an idiot...I took that as an insult especially as my ad was specifically for a trade/barter only! One guy asked for a trade in weed. Yea, no thank you...not a pothead and never was one to begin with. And then some other guy asked for a trade in *cough* sexual acts. Gah! Seriously, San Francisco is a lovely and wonderful place but there are some weird freaky people out there. In telling my weird contacts with people to a friend, she offered to do a trade with me since she had a Crate and Barrel card and just about any girl can use a Nordstrom card if they aren't presently lusting after plates! And I did get one sincere offer from a guy who wanted to do a similar trade. So we arranged a time and public place to meet to do the trade and he seemed very nice and sincere. He was chatty as I was checking balances on my phone when he suddenly asked me how old I was. Odd question I thought. So I asked him how old he thought I was and he said 23! I was ready to hug the guy! He was kind of cute and older but frankly, I don't know why he was asking about my age anyways when I already knew he had a girlfriend. But that comment made this 32 year old girl very happy! It was a nice ending to my year and now I have a good amount of Crate and Barrel money to buy my dinnerware....yay!
Earlier this month, I had to go to the eye doctor for my yearly checkup. Those who actually know me in real life know that my yearly checkups are important because I'm blind as a bat and don't want to get any blinder! Hey, the possibility is there with the hours I put in at the computer and stitching. Earlier that day, one of the engines stopped by the office to drop off paperwork and they needed help with some computer stuff so I helped out and they went on their way. Yea, I work for a fire department and it's really nothing to fawn over. These guys are like my older brothers and I am their loudmouth annoying younger sister! Helping them out is all part of the job and I get to fine-tune my sarcastic remarks. Anyways, fast forward to the afternoon and I need to head to the eye doctor for my appointment and things are going well...I hadn't gotten any blinder so far and the doctor asked me to switch from the contacts I was presently wearing to my glasses. The doctor had to leave the office to grab something and then all of a sudden I hear, "oh, there she is!!" and I turn around half blind, since I had just taken one of my contacts out, and see the same engine crew that had been at the office earlier. I scrambled to take the other contact out and slap my glasses on to see why they were there. At first, I thought one of them had to stop by for their own visual needs until they said that my coworkers had told them that I was at the eye doctor and they decided that they would come and visit me at the doctor's office. Talk about embarrassing! The real reason they tracked me down at the office was because they were giving out Starbucks gift cards to all the girls as christmas presents on behalf of the union and that they wanted to do it personally to each one of us. That, of course, is amazingly sweet but I couldn't help but feel embarrassed that I was the cause of the firemen scene at my eye doctor's office. They went on their way and I continued my eye exam. My eye doctor (she's female) was all flustered and excited to have a story to tell her family about how the *hunky* firemen stopped by her office for a special delivery for one of her patients. Oh gawd...see....embarrassing! But sweet...
Other interesting stuff...guys from my past coming back. Some I'm curious about and others not so much. One is the firemen that acted just like the stereotype. I'm not sure what his agenda is but I'm not really eager to find out. We just chat on the phone and crack jokes to each other and that to me is fun. We've been doing that for the past month and I haven't been pressed to schedule a time to hang out in person. He's suggested it but like most guys, he's vague about a day and time and without a set day or time, I'll flake on anything. I don't work well with the *play it by ear* philosophy of scheduling. But if you give me a day and a time, then I'll definitely be there. The other guy is someone who's emailed me off of match and frankly he seems like a nice guy but his eagerness and desperate air turns me off and makes me a little nervous. If I give him anything that truly links him to me, will he abuse it? I'm not really interested in finding out.
So for the holidays I got a wide array of gift cards. I'm the type of person that would prefer that someone try to *figure it out* and give me something that they put some thought into that they think I would like rather than get a generic gift card but sometimes I am thankful for them and this was one of those years. I was hoping for Crate and Barrel gift cards since there's new dinnerware, glassware and a wine cabinet that I've been eyeing for months. I was hoping with birthday (October) and Christmas, I'd rack in some Crate and Barrel dough with the hints I dropped. No such luck on the Crate and Barrel gift cards but I got loads of other ones so I decided that I would try and barter. I posted my ads on Craigslist and had mediocre luck. Some guy wrote me saying he'd buy them at half their value. I don't know who in their right mind would accept that offer! That's a rip-off! What an idiot...I took that as an insult especially as my ad was specifically for a trade/barter only! One guy asked for a trade in weed. Yea, no thank you...not a pothead and never was one to begin with. And then some other guy asked for a trade in *cough* sexual acts. Gah! Seriously, San Francisco is a lovely and wonderful place but there are some weird freaky people out there. In telling my weird contacts with people to a friend, she offered to do a trade with me since she had a Crate and Barrel card and just about any girl can use a Nordstrom card if they aren't presently lusting after plates! And I did get one sincere offer from a guy who wanted to do a similar trade. So we arranged a time and public place to meet to do the trade and he seemed very nice and sincere. He was chatty as I was checking balances on my phone when he suddenly asked me how old I was. Odd question I thought. So I asked him how old he thought I was and he said 23! I was ready to hug the guy! He was kind of cute and older but frankly, I don't know why he was asking about my age anyways when I already knew he had a girlfriend. But that comment made this 32 year old girl very happy! It was a nice ending to my year and now I have a good amount of Crate and Barrel money to buy my dinnerware....yay!
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