I've been meaning to post about the Thanksgiving holiday but I'm going through one of my weirdo avoidance phases when it comes to the comupter. I do this from time to time.

Anyway, it turned out to be a really nice holiday for the most part. I cooked up a great big dinner and we popped open a couple bottles of wine. I think we were all pretty silly from the sauce because when Dave spilled the containers of leftovers all over the kitchen floor (enough to keep us fed for 2 or 3 days, easily) we all just laughed like idiots and let the dogs clean up the mess. I'm surprised the dogs didn't pop open afterwards.

We had planned to participate in National Buy Nothing Day in solidarity with other folks opposed to mass consumption the day following Thanksgiving, but we woke to find that our hot water heater was leaking all over the floor and was completely shot. With all those dirty dishes in the kitchen and my desperate desire for a soak in the tub, there was no other choice but to replace the hot water heater ASAP.

Speaking of mass consumption, I'm getting more and more anxious about the holiday season. Oh, how I hate it. There is nothing that makes me sicker than so much insincerity. I'm going to resist the pressure to give gifts mindlessly out of obligation and ask that everyone around me do the same. I'd rather spend some time with my friends and loved ones just talking and enjoying each other instead of standing in shopping lines or having us all work our fingers to the bone trying to pay for it all.

With that said, one thing I actually do like to do during this time is make holiday cards. I didn't make homemade cards last year and I missed it. So this weekend I got started on some using my Gocco. I guess I need to get that finished up here pretty quick.

Of course today we started back with school just like all the other kids. We conducted science experiments and memorized poems from The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories.

Other things: Desperate Housewives made me cry last night, I feel a new hairdo coming on, and I can't wait for Doris (the book) to be completed and printed so I can lock myself in my room with a copy of it.

This is the little hallway where I sew. It is my happy place. I was thinking about things, and I realized that sewing and sex are the two most blissful activities I participate in these days. I don't think my boyfriend needs to know about this conclusion, though. 

I got my Amazon.com order in today, which contained both of the Stitch N Bitch books. I'm a bit disappointed with Stitch N Bitch Nation. While there is some information in it that makes it worth having, the patterns were a let down to me.

I also got a copy of the coveted Knit.1 magazine, which I love. There are some patterns in it that I would actually try, and I just think the magazine is really cute overall.

I've been working on my website every night and hopefully I'll be able to launch it by the end of the weekend. As long as I don't get too distracted--but I've been itching to sit down and do some serious sewing all week.

There just aren't enough hours in the day.

Built by Wendy: New York City designer of custom guitar straps & designer clothing

Built by Wendy: New York City designer of custom guitar straps & designer clothing

Fantastic Amy Sedaris pictures! I particularly love the Memory Motel one.

Good day. Spent hours at the library and had lunch in the park. Perfect fall weather. Got quite a bit of reading done, some note taking for various projects, a bit of knitting.

Here are the first buttons to come out of my new machine.

 

Pretty productive weekend. I was able to work on some photographs for the next issue of my zine, get a decent start on a new website and webstore that should be open to the public in the next few weeks, recovered a sofa (I'll post pictures when I complete the throw pillows), made a great big yummy dinner, played around with my button maker, read some, and put together a bunch of copies of Eat Your Heart Out, Martha #3. Thanks for the help, Liz.  

Today I spent hours at the Snooper's Barn, a dusty and musty bookstore downtown. I scored vintage children's books, such as "Let's Go To a Hospital!" and a stack of these fabulous Workbasket magazines. Each issue is full of crochet, knitting, and sewing tips and patterns, plus casserole recipes, assorted craft how-to's and gardening info. Basically, it is the magazine I've been dreaming of. I need to see if this is still being published. If it is, I might as well give up the zine gig and subscribe.  

So for my thirtieth birthday I wanted to be left alone to stew in my misery. No presents, no fuss, let's just not talk about it, okay? That didn't happen, of course. I got a card + cash from my parents, a call from Paul last night and then today a package from him in my mailbox containing two fantastic mix CD's (I love the crayon colored cover!), an e-card and an Amazon gift certificate from Liz (yay! knitting books!), a sweet phone call from Renae, a nice e-mail and best e-card ever from Marie. And then James gave me a dozen beautiful red roses and took me to Emmy's for dinner, where he gave me a ring. Not an engagement ring, mind you. Just a lovely little ring. When we got home Dave and Kyle had a cake waiting for me--my favorite kind of cake, too! Chocolate with rasberry filling and cream cheese frosting. They also got me the cute little butter maker I've been wanting for months (plus refills). I'm stuffed and sleepy and very, very happy. Thank you all for making my thirteth birthday not so sucky. Now I'm gonna kick off my shoes, watch Hedwig and knit.  

Okay, so I have been doing stuff besides making poorly constructed penis dolls. One of my goals is to learn how to use a pattern properly. Following a pattern was not something I ever thought I would want to do, but I realized that my sewing would stay pretty limited without learning to make more complex garments. I have picked up a handful of patterns for 99 cents at the local Hobby Lobby that I plan on trying soon, and I ordered the Amy Butler Chelsea Bags pattern. I completed my first handbag from that pattern--as you can see--and it was a breeze. It is a little time consuming since you are essentially constructing two bags to have one reversible bag, but I like the finished look. It makes a good little knitting bag. I planned on making another right away, but it seems that I have misplaced the pattern. I searched high and low for it last night and it just seems to have disappeared. Maybe Amy Butler designed her patterns to self destruct after they have been used once? I dunno.  

Umm. I don't know what to say.  

sweater for a snake

This weekend I finished my first knitting project. And what I mean by that is that this is the first project I started when I learned to knit a month and a half ago. I have finished other smaller and simpler scarves and even a hat while working on this piece. The very first time I ever cast on, I knew that I had to make a red and black striped scarf for my boyfriend--he's wanted one for years. I had a couple of false starts using straight needles and then double pointed needles. I wanted stripes without that weird dotted line on the underside. Anyway, I used #8 12" circular needles. The final product measures about 69 inches (not including fringe) and is about 6 1/2 inches wide. I figured that in the end the scarf is comprised of somewhere around 30,000 stitches. Yeah, I'm geeky enough to count it all up. This scarf has tormented me daily. But James adores it, and that's what it's all about.

 

Here is the first thing I've made on my new machine while messing around with the different stitches and zipper foot. I don't know why the picture is so blurry. I tried to watch the instructional video that came with the machine, but it seriously put me to sleep. I absolutely adore the machine, though. I feel like I've gone from a beaten down old Fort Pinto to a shiny new Mercedes. If it weren't fot the needle and fast moving parts, I'd probably try to hump it.  

Sew Happy

Oh, happy day. The UPS truck brought me this. I doubt I will be leaving the house this weekend.

Bright Ideas

Oh, how today sucked. Not as bad as yesterday, of course. Nothing can be worse than waking up to hear the news that Bush will be president for another 4 years. But today was pretty sucktastic anyway.

Today is Dave's birthday. Dave is my housemate/best friend/father of my son/ex-husband. Dave is an electrician by trade, a geek by nature. He likes building Jacob's Ladders and converting antique refrigerators into bass cabinets for fun. I got him a gift card at his favorite place to shop: Ace Hardware. And last night as I was drifting off to sleep, I had an idea. I would make him a birthday cake that resembles a light bulb! I woke up this morning all excited (I'm a geek, too) and started baking.
 





I am not yet used to the fact that the puppy we adopted from the Humane Society a few weeks ago is quite a bit taller than my other dog. So tall, in fact, that he can reach the countertops in the kitchen. I certainly wasn't thinking about this when I left the freshly frosted and photographed cake on the island when I answered the telephone in the living room. I returned to the kitchen just a few minutes later to find Rex gobbling up the bit of cake he could reach.

 




Here is Rex taking a nap after eating the cake. I was a little concerned he might get sick, like SUGAR SHOCK or something, but he seems fine.




After stomping around the house for a bit, I decided the only thing to do was go to the grocery store and pick up some things to make the cake all over again. I had a few other errands to run, so I set off. At my first stop (several miles from home) I took care of some business and was about to get back into my car when I saw a puddle of anti-freeze forming at my feet. A couple hours of stressful phone calls and waiting in a creepy Oklahoma gas station followed. By the time my car was back on the road I was beyond tired and pissed. Instead of making another cake I just came home and took a Lorcet and knitted. At least Dave got to see a picture of his cake.
 

Mohawks and Fainting Goats

Why am I the person people call in the middle of the night for a haircut? And why do these people always want a mohawk in times of crisis? Maybe it is because I never try talk anyone out of anything. It is either none of my business or bound to be highly entertaining to watch. You want a mohawk the night before you are scheduled to go to court for public intoxication? Sure, come over.

A couple of years ago an old man knocked on my door and asked me, "Are you the girl that cuts hair?" He caught me off guard and I told him he had the wrong address. I'm still kicking myself for not saying, "Sure! Come on in!" He could have been my one paying client. I imagine a scenario where he just keeps coming back for haircuts every month for years and over time we form this surrogate grandpa/grandkid relationship and then one day he dies and leaves me his fainting goat farm or something cool like that. Ahhh, missed opportunities.

You know, that could be a t.v. show, starring me. Here's the pilot: I turn 30, have a total freak out about what to do with the rest of my life, invite the old guy in for a haircut, inherit the fainting goat farm. I'll have lots of wacky neighbors out in the country who are always dropping by with their personal dilemmas which I'll be very good at solving, yet I'm totally incapable of dealing with my own problems! Of course in the t.v. show I'll be single and all my attempts at romance will be foiled by the zany antics of my fainting goats. But I love my fainting goats, and if a man can't love me and my goats, then he ain't the man for me.


Okay. I'm going back to bed.