Turning Japanese

Lookin for Love

2007-03-13T10:46:00.001-07:00

Not Knitting

2007-03-01T09:46:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't blogged in a long time, but I haven't really knitted in a long time either. School has been really busy, and I'm lucky to even get a few rows in while I wait for classes to start. So sad, I know. But here's a tidbit of what I've been up to at school, it's a video project in which we were given a bunch of random clips filmed straight from the television. There were clips of Hitler, WWII footage, Civil Rights footage, and a lot of really bad modern commercials. We edited on imovie and could only use audio from imovie and the clips we were given. I'd love to get some feedback on it since this stuff is totally new to me.

*just a note: the video is extremely compressed for web viewing...it wasn't that pixelated to begin with!

2007-01-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

This week was a very exciting week for me because I started my first semester at my new school. It seems like I've been working up to this forever, so it was really great to finally be there! I think that it's the perfect fit for me, and already I'm blown away by the differences of attending such a small school as compared to the big ones that I've been to in the past. Everyone there has been really welcoming and supportive so far.
I also got my new computer this week! My school is Mac based, which meant that in order to be on the same page I needed to make the change and dump my little PC. It was kind of terrifying actually, which is apparently really funny to people because Mac's are supposed to be so easy....but I've got to say that I have had some difficult times with Mac's in the past. But this time, this new laptop of mine is my new favorite thing! It's shiny, it's got a huge screen, and so far it's been great. I think we'll be friends.
In other news, our wedding photographer emailed me a couple of weeks ago to tell me that she is going to start making custom wedding albums to offer her clients. She chose our wedding as a sample which you can view here by clicking on "albums" and then "Ginny and Matt". The online view is simply a layout, but she had the real book leather bound in Italy. I just thought it was great to revisit our wedding photos, and I love the way that she grouped the photos together. Heather has an innate sense of each tiny detail that was important to us, and she included most of those moments and details in the book. She's going to come by the house to visit and show us the real album tomorrow afternoon. How nice is that?! I thought it was great.

I'm Baaaack!

2007-01-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

I apologize for taking such a lengthy vacation from the blog, but maybe you'll forgive me after seeing all of the gifts that I made for Christmas. For a minute there I didn't think I would be able to finish everything on time, but I came through in the end! And I have to say that I'm so happy that I made most of my gifts instead of buying them, even if it caused me a little bit of stress....

Mom's sweater caused the most stress. This was mostly due to the fact that I started it in June and then had to rip out all of my work when I realized that the yarn I was using just didn't work with the pattern I was following. I ended up making a seamless sweater because it was so easy to jump into and didn't require an exhausting pattern search. I like the finished sweater, and Mom says that it's the only sweater she's ever owned that didn't have sleeves that were too long for her. I'm just happy that it fits! I called her first thing Christmas morning just because I was so Handknervous for her to open it.

This bag is for Pua, my sister-in-law. The pattern is from Interweave Spring 2006, yarn is Nashua Creative Worsted which I doubled and knitted with a size #13 needle. The bag is huge, but I loved making it. I made this at the beginning of the summer, which in retrospect was a very good idea.

I just love this picture. I made these two aprons for Matt's Nana's using a pattern from Amy Butler's book. The fabric is from Japan, but I bought it at Satin Moon Fabrics here in SF. I wish I would have made one of these for me!

This bathrobe was one of the more challenging projects, but I think it was a good learning experience. It fits Matt's Mom perfectly, and she was really excited about it.
Now that I'm posting all of my hand-knitted gifts I'm realizing that in all of my rushing around before Christmas I forgot to take pictures of a lot of the things that I made. I guess I'll just have to tell you that I also made an Elf Cap from Handknit Holidays. (I'll definitely make another one of these.) And I sewed a log cabin pillow that turned out really nicely and was really fun to make.
Oh well. Now that I'm back home I've got some cleaning up to do as well as some more knitting. I'm thinking that my unofficial New Year's Resolution is going to be to knit up some of my stash because my craft closet is overflowing with yarn and fabric. I've already gotten through about eight balls of yarn for a sweater that I started over the break...and I know that you just can't wait to see my sweater.

Don't hate me

2006-11-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

I'm just to busy to blog.

Maybe I'll come back to it once the holidays are over.

Weekend of Crafting, Yay!

2006-10-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Let me just begin this post by assuring you that I do love my husband Matt.

This weekend Matt went out of town to visit some friends down in Southern California and as much as I thought I would miss him, I had the best weekend ever! There was no one to tell me to stop knitting and go to bed, I got to watch whatever I wanted to on tv (while knitting, of course) and I had all of my sewing and knitting paraphernalia spread out all over the living room. It was glorious.

I'm taking a little break from Mom's cardigan because I think I want to rip out about five inches of the sleeve and do the decreases differently. I'm tired of making sweaters that don't fit, so I'm taking my time with this one. In the meantime I have gone through my huge yarn stash and collected all of the wool scraps and leftovers that I have and put them into bags so that I can mix and match the colors and make some felted bowls. The felted bowl pattern in One Skein is quite satisfying in that it is really quick and easy and with a great result. I have this funny feeling that everyone on my Christmas list will be recieving a felted bowl...just a feeling. Especially since I was able to crank out two bowls per night.

My other craftiness from this weekend is a little dress I made for a friend's new baby girl. Matt was actually down visiting them, but I just couldn't get this done in time for him to take it. This pattern is from Melanie Falick's "Knitting for Baby" book and I think it is just so cute. I used Rowan All Seasons Cotton for the top, and the fabric is Michael Miller, Party Dots. It's all about the machine washable baby gift.

It felt so great to get these things done this weekend. I've been feeling kind of guilty about the amount of yarn I have in my stash, so I'm trying to make it a priority to use a good bit of it up. There's some good stuff in there! I have twelve skeins of cashmere to make a sweater...now all I need is for Matt to get out of here and leave me to my knitting!

My Favorite

2006-10-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling kind of dorky, because it's two months from Thanksgiving and already I can't stop thinking about it! I always thought that Christmas was my favorite holiday when I was a kid (the reasons for that are obvious) but now that I'm an adult I have officially decided that Thanksgiving is my most favoritist holiday. When I moved to San Francisco I was kind of sad to think of spending the holidays away from my family and so to deal with that we began to make our own traditions and invite other friends who don't have family here to join us. The result has been some great Thanksgivings, my favorite one being a costume party where everyone had to dress up like pilgrims and indians. Although every year has been a fun celebration with great food, wine, and a bunch of friends.
This year my friend Syrette is coming from New York along with my sister and her new boyfriend and we'll also have a few other friends that live here in SF. I'm still deciding what kinds of desserts I'm going to make to supplement our homemade pumpkin pies...but I guess that I've got plenty of time to figure that out.

Really Knitting

2006-09-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hey People,
I didn't realize that it's been so long since I posted! Almost a whole month has gone by, but that just means that I've been busy working on all of my projects. I also had a big school project in which I had to draw seven views of my dining room and paint them with watercolors, and that took quite a bit of time! With that finally finished I've actually got another one to start, but in the mean time I've been working feverishly on Mom's Christmas sweater (on which I had to rip out several inches of knitting to re-size it) and I've also made some things for the store. Since school has started this semester I've decided to bring my knitting to school and work on a few rows between classes and while I'm waiting for teachers to get set up, take roll, etc. This has done wonders for me! You'd be surprised at how many knitting minutes are wasted when you don't have a little project in hand all of the time.

Ball Band Discloth from Mason Dixon Knitting
Yarn: Crystal Palace "Arcadia"
Needles: Size 5 Crystal Palace

Yummy Peach and Blackberry tart with cornmeal crust that I made this weekend to take to a dinner party. This was so easy and soooo good!

Felted Clutch from One Skein
Yarn: Nashua Worsted Weight, doubled
Needles: size 13 Crystal Palace

I've actually got some more to post, but I forgot to take pictures of everything when I was at the store. So, more to look forward to!

Good Enough to Eat....On

2006-09-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my first "Stockholm" Placemat and I love the way that it turned out. Despite the small needles, I really like knitting with linen and I think that I might have to get my hands on some more of it to see what else I can do! For now I'm going to put this very ambitious project on hold and make some things that I've planned for Christmas presents so that I can get them done in time.
I actually started making the Sunrise Circle Jacket for my mom using Tahki New Tweed in stead of the recommended Karabella yarn. Bad idea! For the first time ever in my knitting life the gauge was correct in terms of the stitches per inch but my New Tweed stitches were taller, therefore making the sweater super long for my 5'-3" Mom. Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but that pattern is written line by line and therefore I have no idea how I would go about shortening it to make it fit. Unfortunately for me I took only this project with me for one of my summer trips and I worked on it alot until I figured out that the problem is unfixable. Frogging had to be done....
Now I've got a new plan that is much more simple and much less exciting, but it will still be nice and wearable and my Mom will still love it. So much for learning a new pattern! I'll have to post some pictures of my mom-project progress as I get some of it done, but it might be a while until then.

Europe Finds

2006-08-31T09:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been about a month that I've been home so it's past time for me to unveil the yarn finds I had while in Europe this summer. Thanks to Allison for reminding me!
At first I wasn't really expecting to buy yarn on the trip, but as soon as I got my first taste of some really unique stuff that I can't find here, I was hooked! This first bunch is from a store in Helsinki, Finland. It was actually a kind of housewares store on the main promenade and at one point I turned around and realized that they also sold yarn. I think I actually gasped out loud....needless to say that Matt was a little afraid of me at that moment.
The yarn that this store sells is mainly used for weaving and not hand-knitting so a lot of it was very itchy. But then Matt found a sample of some hand-knitted and felted slippers made out of this orange stuff below. It's a very fluffy wool that hasn't been tightly spun, it's more like a very thin continuous strand of roving.

Now I just have to figure out a pattern for these suckers.

Next to that big orange ball, there is a pile of spools that I found in the same store. That is cotton ribbon and I'm so excited to see how it knits up! I really love the colors that I chose, though they literally had a rainbow of colors and I would have liked to buy one of each. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this yet, but it's machine washable so I think it will be really versatile for whatever I choose.

Another note about this store, they sold the yarn by weight. I am very unnacustomed to buying yarn by weight, but I thought it was really fun that the saleswoman weighed each ball as if it were fruit. This whole lot cost me about $28 US.

THere are actually a few yarn stores in downtown Helsinki and after finding the first one I was very curious about the others. I only went to one more and it was very much like an American yarn store but without any handpainted yarns. They had all of the same brands we have here, so I didn't buy anything.

Then, on our last day of the trip we were in Stockholm and I came across a store in what is called "Old Town" which is actually quite touristy. I was looking for another yarn store that I'd seen advertised, but I came across "This Side Up" first. Here I found the linen yarn shown below. It's Swedish linen by Yllet and it is so gorgeous.

I decided to make a set of placemats with it (I bought three skeins, 200 meters each) using the log cabin technique from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I love that book! And I really like the way that the placemat is coming out so far although it's taking quite a long time on size #3 needles. I'll have the set forever though, so I'm willing to put in the time.
Also at THis Side Up, I bought this skein of hand-dyed laceweight Swedish wool. I'm not really a lace kind of girl, but I couldn't resist and I figured that if I'm going to try to commit myself to a lace project it might as well be with some special yarn.

There isn't a ton of it, so it will be a little project anyways.

So there you have it! My vacation yarn purchases are all out in the open now. I'm still considering emailing the people in Stockholm to try and get my hands on some more linen, but I'm going to wait and see how my stash of it works out for my current projects.

Happy Cat

2006-08-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

My Pointy Kitty arrived at her new home yesterday afternoon. I think she'll be much appreciated there!

The Forgotten

2006-08-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

For some reason I've forgotten to post pictures of these two big projects that I finished recently. I guess that I've been knitting so much I've forgotten how fun it is to show off my hard work! I loved both of these projects, though I have to say that the Clapotis gets a bit redundant after a while. If I make another one in the future I think I'll make it narrower and a bit shorter because as you can see below mine is kind of huge.

Clapotis

Yarn: I'll have to get back to you, I completely forget the main yarn! I strung it with Kidsilk haze too.

Baby Eliana's Sweater

THis sweater is for my friend Delphine's little girl. We picked out the colors together and I designed the colorwork.
Pattern: Ann Norling loose pattern "Kid's Raglan Sweater"
Yarn: Cashoft DK
Notes: This yarn is so soft and nice to work with, and it's machine washable! Great for baby clothes but I would use the Aran weight for adult projects because this was about 5 stitches-1".

More to come, I've been knitting like a fiend!

Meow

2006-08-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is just a silly little sewing project that I did last week. I got the pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls site when I was trolling around the internet, and I think it turned out so cute! There is just something so satisfying about a quick sewing project, I'm definitely enjoying my new sewing machine. This little guy is almost too cute to give away...
I start school today. This semester I've actually got only Architecture classes, which is kind of fun. I've also really got to start getting my application together so that I can get into CCA for the Spring semester. I'm just so nervous to call people for letters of recommendation, but I know that I've got to just go ahead and get over it. I think I just freak myself out sometimes. Oh well.

Back to the Real World

2006-08-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been a little while since my last post but I know that all of you die-hard readers are still out there...right? I'm sure that all three of you have been waiting at the edge of your seats for me to return to the blog and update you on my exciting life.
We just got back from our big Europe cruise on August 1st. We went to London, Dover, Oslo, Helsinki, Copenhagen, ST. Petersberg, Tallinn (Estonia) and Stockholm via a fancy cruise ship where we could eat as much sushi and ice-cream as we wanted. Life is hard, I know. Anyways, it was a ton of fun and I really enjoyed seeing a bit of Europe for the first time. I especially liked Copenhagen, Tallinn, and London and I think that those places are worth another visit in the future.
You can bet that I was secretly scouting yarn stores in every port that we visited. Poor Matt had no idea what he was getting into when every stop turned into a knitting/crafty mission! I found some really interesting yarns that I've never seen before of which I will post pictures in a few days. I also bought some cool handicrafts from Tallinn because there are some really great stores there and the prices are surprisingly reasonable.
They make alot of felt and felt things, so I had to buy these silly slippers for around the house.

Then I tried to re-create them using an old sweater that I'd felted

And here are some baby slippers from a great online pattern, made with the same slippers and some leftover leather from my sister.

The Sweatshop

2006-06-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here in San Francisco it's a pretty remarkable day if you can leave your house without bringing along a jacket. Even on days when it's pretty warm (for us, that's about 70 degrees) the fog almost always creeps up and scares people back into their houses to bundle up. Not so in the past few days! It's been HOT and beautiful here lately...maybe even too hot. For this reason, I think that this post is befitting of it's title. My apartment is not only unbelievabley stuffy, but it is also the scene of some crazy productive knitting and crafting.
I'm still working on my Clapotis, but of course I've run out of Kidsilk Haze as I'm just about to finish it so I'm waiting until I work tomorrow so that I can stock up on one last ball. I'm also pretty close to running out of the main yarn, so there's a good chance that I'll have to nix the final steps of the pattern that make the end come to a point and simply drop the stitches and bind off. That would be very sad considering I'd hate to compromise the look of the whole project, but if it's necessary I'm certainly not going to rip that thing out and make it again! No no no, never again Clapotis! It is beatiful but oh so boring...
Sooo, since I had to put the Clapotis down for a couple of days I decided to begin my Christmas knitting projects so that I can actually follow through with making more than one this year. It only took me a day to finish my first gift, which makes it all the more realistic to plan on a whole slew of knitted gifts over the next few months. You're going to have to wait until Christmas to see all of my handiwork though! So for now I've got a little taste: 100% Mongolian Cashmere, hand-dyed. This yarn is so luxurious and nice, I hope that the lucky recipient enjoys it.

What should I make next? I'm thinking that it's time to dig into the stash and start using what I've got. Oh how I love summer vacation!

Back in SF

2006-06-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Hawaii was fun and relaxing but I'm happy to be home. I successfully made the Nappy Bag for my friend Kimi and it turned out so well that I think I want to try my hand at another sewing project before I jet off for my next trip. My pictures of the project aren't the best, but here they are anyways.

It's a little big on Indiana...

But it fits her mom Kimi pretty well!

The bag is pretty oversized, but I think that once Kimi fills all of the handy inside pockets with diapers and bottles and other baby paraphernalia it will be the perfect size. It also has a cell phone pocket on the strap, which she was quite excited about.
I think that for my next project I might try to come up with a knitting tote bag, but then again I might just make something for me to use as a school bag next semester. We'll see what happens.

Perpetual Vacation

2006-06-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

I know that I shouldn't be complaining, being that I've been in Hawaii for two weeks now, but I'm beginning to miss home a little bit! It's been a busy couple of weeks with a wedding and my 10 year high school reunion. It was a little surreal at the reunion, I kind of felt like I shut down a little bit once I was surrounded by so many familiar faces. I just didn't know where or how to begin catching up with everyone, not to mention the fact that I'm terrible about remembering names. But, the school graciously provided our class with several kegs of beer and bottles of wine so that made it a little easier to loosen up! I'll post some pictures once I get home.
Now that everything has died down I'm trying to work on the crafty projects that I brought with me. I limited my knitting to the Clapotis project that's been stashed away for several months and I've been able to make a lot of progress on it. I'm using a hand-dyed cotton with Kidsilk haze and I'm afraid that I'll run out of the haze when I'm on the plane or something and I won't be able to finish. That would suck, but I've got to press on and get that thing over with. Clapotis is a great project and it's totally something that I'll use forever...but it is so absolutely boring that it's all I can do to work on it.
I'm also trying to put together an Amy Butler diaper bag for my friend Kimi before she pops out #2 baby. I've cut out all of the pieces and ironed on the interfacing but I'm so afraid that I'm going to screw up the sewing that I haven't gotten out the machine yet! This is the first project I've ever made from a pattern, so I think that my fear is understandable.
Anyways, maybe I'll procrastinate my sewing for a couple more hours and lay out by the pool.
Oh, poor me....

Study Break

2006-05-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

You might have guessed that it's finals week, and the last few weeks have been devoted to projects, studying, and necessary travel. There's been a little bit of knitting in there, but for the most part I've been working on paper things for my friend Faith's upcoming wedding. We helped her design and prepare her favors, placecards, and thank you notes and just those three little things have taken up a lot of my time lately. Not that I'm complaining! All of the projects have come out really cute so far so I'm glad that I could help.
Speaking of weddings, my first anniversary isn't until July 15th but I just accidentally found my anniversary gift and Matt let me open it. In my defense it was in a very obvious place...but I guess that if I had some tact I would have pretended that I didn't see it!

But I don't have any tact, and it's a good thing that Matt understands that about me.
If you can't tell what it is from the picture, it's a silver tag with Matt's name stamped onto it. I love it, it's so obnoxious that it's cute. I guess that all of my hinting worked!

In other news, we leave for Hawaii on Monday morning and we'll be there for two weeks. I'm going to try to finish my Clapotis while I'm there but between the wedding and my 10 year high school reunion I don't know how much knitting I'll get to do. There's always the plane though, and I've got about ten episodes of Cast On to catch up on.
Have a good weekend, and wish me luck on my Art History final tomorrow!

Fo

2006-04-25T12:26:00.000-07:00

Is anybody still reading this blog?

So much has been going on that I haven't been able to sit down and write a good post. Earlier this week our bestest and most favorite couple-friends left us for New York, but before they left they spent the weekend at our apartment with us. Matt and I spent a lot of time with Koa and Syrette and we had a lot of fun with them. They were the type of friends that we could just do nothing with for hours, and I don't think it's that easy to find a combination of four people that can just hang out together like that. But, our friend Syrette is too talented for her own good and she landed a job as Assistant Textile Designer for West Elm which just so happens to be located in NYC. Sad for us, but we're really proud of her.

Since our dear friends were moving away, Matt and I both thought it would be nice to make their going away gifts for them rather than buying something for them to schlep across the country. Here are the finished objects:

Koa's Hat
Yarn: Misti Alpaca
Pattern: made it up

Syrette's Handwarmers
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca, Alpaca and Silk in chocolate brown
and GGH Llame in gold
Pattern: Ann Norling mitten pattern, slightly altered by deleting fingertips

Matt also wowed all of us by making Koa a beer can hat for his upcoming birthday. He learned how to crochet for this! THe picture doesn't do it much justice, but Matt executed the hat perfectly.

Now I'm working on an adorable little cardigan for my favorite baby girl, Eliana. I'm also doing the Wobbly Circles Tote while I'm at work, which has introduced me to a new obsession: Intarsia. The intarsia works really well to keep me interested in what would otherwise be a really boring stockinette project. I've designed a little Intarsia detailing on Eliana's sweater that is turning out to be really cute. I think I'll have that finished by next week so that I can post it.

Have a great weekend!

Sweater Update

2006-04-14T23:14:00.000-07:00

Go figure, it looks great on a mannequin (I don't know how to spell this) at the store! I think I'm going to leave it there and hope somebody big and tall decides that they want to buy it. The going price? I think about $300!

We'll see what happens.

The Sweater

2006-04-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

What's that saying about knitting a sweater for your boyfriend and then it leads to the end of your relationship? I'm pretty sure that Matt and I are going to make it through this, but I've got to say that I'm seriously disappointed with the outcome of my Husband Sweater. You wouldn't be able to tell in this picture, but the sweater is like 10 sizes too big for Matt. In fact, I think that the only word that comes to mind when he puts it on is "Floppy". It's terrible.

But on the other hand, when it's not on him I like it alot. I learned a lot about the process of making a sweater and what to take into consideration when designing or altering a sweater pattern. I did all of the edging by using a turning method that gives a very clean and finished look.

This is the inside of the sleeve

So, I present this sweater with mixed feelings. I am ecstatic to have it off my needles! I'm proud that I actually made a whole sweater. But at the same time as I look back on the process I realize that there were a lot of details that I overlooked or ignored which led me to make this thing so oversized. I guess that I'll just have to try again! But this next time I'm using bulkier yarn.

So So Sewing

2006-03-21T21:41:00.000-08:00

Lately I've really been into making things and I've also realized that knitting can't fulfill all of my crafty visions. I got a sewing machine for Christmas from Matt's Nana Fumi and I finally pulled it out of the box for the first time last Thursday. I devoted a whole day to learning how to use my new machine and making a little project and although my sewing technique is a little sub-par, I'm pretty pleased with the way my project turned out.

This is the inside of the bag.

And today I made this

Both bags are made with old sweaters that I bought or had and then felted in the washing machine. The fabric on the inside has been hanging out in my craft bin for a couple of years just waiting to be used, and it's from a trip to Ikea. I did a little bit of embroidery on the fronts to make them more interesting but overall they're pretty simple. I think that the hardest part for me is sewing in the zipper and aligning the lining and everything so that they look okay. I tried a different method with each bag but both ways took me forever, so I'm going to keep working on the design and hopefully I'll figure out a way to make them a little faster and with better sewing. But first I'm going to order some cute fabric online and try making something that doesn't involve such thick fabric. I can't wait until I've got things all figured out and I can make a quilt from my Denyse Schmidt book, but for now I'll have to be patient and start small.

Happy Hooker

2006-03-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

So I know I haven't posted in a week or so but I have a good excuse! It was midterms, and I really was not prepared. This is no surprise really, because I'm never prepared for anything and frankly, this is my process. So I had a few late nights and anxiety-filled days last week...but now I'm okay and I've been spending the weekend celebrating the fact that all of that studying is behind me. This will probably go on until the next time I realize at the last minute that it's finals but we'll just pretend that it's a surprise when it happens and go through the process all over again. It works for me.

Anyways, after my purchase of the Happy Hooker last week I've been desperately trying to finish Matt's pesky sweater so that I can get on with my life! I'm really interested to try out one of the crochet patterns in the book to see how I like it since all I've ever crocheted are hats and hat-like forms. There are so many things that I want to make and that damn sweater just won't end! We realized that it's too big (no wonder it took four hundred extra yards!) but it's too late now and Matt has agreed to wear the sweater regardless of how baggy and wierd it may look. That's love, people.

So, hopefully this week I will be able to post a picture of Matt's completed sweater but for now all I've got is this update. Stay tuned.

Self Respect

2006-03-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, so either no one reads this blog or I have a lot of shy visitors because after last week's request for advice I got only ONE comment! I'm okay with this because I know deep down in my heart I am not using this blog as a popularity contest....but I will admit that there was a moment when I was feeling pretty lame and unloved. I'm okay now.

Anyways, maybe it's not the right time to go about a blogging change. I should probably start working on my crafty to do list before I take on such a big project. And speaking of big projects, I thought that I'd share my newest creation with you.

I am crotcheting a basket out of 24 gauge copper wire. So far I'm pleased with the way that it looks but I'm reaching a point that will require me to increase stitches and I'm not quite sure how I'll do that. I guess I'll have to see what happens.
I got this idea from a local Bay Area artist named Ruth Asawa who made hundreds of these amazing wire sculptures. They are really so simple and organic, but I find them to be really moving. They remind me of jellyfish or being underwater. I don't know if I'll ever be able to acheive the same feeling that Ruth has, but this is still only my first attempt.

Non-Knitting Content

2006-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

Since I don't think that you want to see Matt's partly finished sweater, here is a photo of my first ever sculpture. It is made of plaster, it is chalky feeling, I like to look at it but I hate to touch it...it feels icky.

For my next sculpture project I have to make something that somehow involves a wooden box that I build myself. So far the box is done and as of today, it is also Shellac-ed and ready to be sculpturized. I'll keep you posted with the details, let's just say that there is a crochet hook involved.

In other bloggy news, I've been thinking alot about my blog lately and I realized that I had forgotten that my original purpose in having a blog was to keep track of my various creative endevers (I think this is spelled wrong, just to let you know) and to be part of the community of crafty people out there who inspire me by they're own crafty blogging. For this reason I think that I need to maybe change the format of my blog so that I can fit in all of the little details that make a good crafty blog good. So, I wanted to see if any of you people have any suggestions about different hosts. What do you like, or dislike about typepad, squarespace, etc.? Is it worth the trouble to switch?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Toasty Elbows

2006-02-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

If you haven't spent any time in San Francisco then you're probably not familiar with the wierd changes in weather that we experience over the course of a week. It's cold, then hot and sunny, then windy, then rainy, and then it's just really confusing and hard to plan for. So in order to combat the mostly cold weather while continuing to wear short-sleeves, I decided to take things into my own crafty hands....

....and this is what I came up with.

Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Sport Weight in Plumilicious stranded with Zukii "Fluffy" for and extra undertone of purple coloring
Fiber: 100% Merino Wool
Best part about my new handwarmers: I made them so that I can slip my thumb out of the thumb hole without taking them off completely, which allows me to wear them all day.
Other good thing: I think I love working on size 4 needles, and of course the Magic Loop!

Cutey Crafter

2006-02-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

A guy came into the store yesterday and told me about this girl. Her scarves are super cute and one of a kind.

The Crafty Wheels Are Turning

2006-02-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

I know that I haven't posted in a while, but now that I've gotten a request to replace the last post with a new one I've realized how badly I've been ignoring my poor blog. The reasons for this are a combination of things, so I'll make a list:
- I really want to show you a picture of some fab finished objects, but my UO shrug is in the laundry and I've either forgotten to take pictures of my latest knitted gifts before I give them or I can't ever pin Matt down to take pictures of me wearing them.
- I feel guilty blogging and not doing my homework
- I'm knitting!
- I'm reading your blog
- I'm baking (because let me tell you, I just can't stop baking ever since I recieved this for Christmas!)
- I'm pretending to do my homework but really staring at the wall

I'm also going through this crazy crafty thing right now that has caused me to create a mental backlog of things that I want to make. I really have actually lost sleep over this because I don't know how I'm going to have time to make all of the things that I want to, so I've decided to create a sidebar list to keep me focused. First, I'll have to figure out how to make such list....so for now I'll attempt to show you my thoughts in this post.

1. My friend Kimi is Prego with #2, and this time around I want to make her a diaper bag that will turn heads, not that she needs any help in that department. I've already got the fabric for it, but I need to bust my new sewing machine out of it's box and learn how to use it.

2. I can't explain my new obsession with sock monkeys, but I'm dying to make some and this book has some really cute examples. I've also found some good tutorials online to get me started.

3. Mom's birthday is in April, and I've decided to take the plunge and make her something that she'll love. I think this jacket will look great on her.

4. These are from Alterknits, by Leigh Radford and I think it's a great idea. I went and got some wool sweaters from the local thrift shop and I'm almost ready to get started. (I just found the instructions here, and they're exactly like the ones in the book!)

I've also got a few knitting projects going on, of which I'll wait to post so as to conserve the little bit of exciting news that I have to share....So keep reading! I haven't stopped blogging completely.

Obsessive Tendencies Have Formed

2006-02-09T12:36:00.000-08:00

As you can see, I can't stop myself from making these things! Unfortunately, I made the mistake of doing the second half of this pair while at a super bowl party, which resulted in two different-sized handwarmers. Oh well, they're just for Matt.

I've begun another pair of these that I like better, but I'll wait until I've got them done to post. I think the key is to use smaller yarn with a smaller gauge and a durable, ropey texture. That way when you're pulling them on and off you don't worry that you'll stretch them out or anything. Anyways, when I'm done with this pair it's very likely that I'll start another....there's just something addidictive about the whole instant gratification thing. I'm thinking that next time I might try some color work, maybe a big L and R so that I know which is left and right. Or maybe a big G? I'll have to think about it. I'm still a bit afraid of that whole color work, carrying yarn behind situation.

In non-knitting news, Matt and I went to the MOMA yesterday to see the Chuck Close exhibit before it's gone forever. It was definitely worth the $7. each to get in, we both really enjoyed it. It was really interesting to see all of the different ways that he has expressed the same image while maintaining public interest and exploring different mediums. Blah blah blah, I know.

FO's

2006-02-03T19:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a long while since I last posted, and I'm proud to say that it's because I've been knitting like crazy. Maybe it's because I don't want to read my physics textbook, but I'd like to think that I'm just really into knitting right now. So, here are the Finished Objects:

Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Wool
Pattern: Feather and Fan

You may remember that I first began doing this the short way

But then I realized that I'd have to weave in all of those ends....and so I changed it to knit the long way instead. I kind of prefer this short way, but only if someone other than me is doing all the finishing because I hate weaving in ends.

Next up are my oh so wonderful cashmere handwarmers:

Yarn: Trendsetter Kashmir
Pattern: Adapted from a mitten pattern
I really like this yarn, and I especially like the fact that you can get a pair of handwarmers out of just one skein. I initially made this pair for myself because I had an extra ball left over from the ruffle scarf. But now I've written the pattern for the store and I'm making another pair for Matt in green and black. I just finished one for the store sample using the Magic Loop technique that everybody's been raving about. I'm officially addicted! I like the fact that my stitches aren't loose like they tend to be when I'm using double points. I found that my gauge was really different. Anyways, thanks Joelene for the link!

My last creation is a neckwarmer for the knitting store:

Yarn: Cascade 220 and Kidsilk Haze
Pattern: Made up by me
Admittidly, I'm not too into the whole neckwarmer situation but other people like it and it's a good little project if you ski or something, I guess. Matt thinks that neckwarmers are stupid. Oh well.

Next up I'm going to make Matt's handwarmers and then pick up Clapotis again, because I made some kind of mistake somewhere and I've got to really sit down and figure it out. Also, I just have to admit that I have officially entered the dorky knitter zone and I've gotten myself hooked to Cast On. If you haven't checked it out, you should. It's super fun to knit and listen, almost like your own personal stitch and bitch.

Workin' The Stash

2006-01-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the view from the beach house we stayed at in Costa Rica. I wish I was there right now! It's so cold here.

Now that school has started I've only got a few days to get some knitting done before I get too overwhelmed with homework and projects. Unlike last semester, I don't really have any art classes that will consume my life like last time but I think I should be prepared nonetheless. This sense of urgency combined with the fact that Matt is out of town for the week has led to some good knitting time. On Monday night I started and finished the black and white scarf that I've been wanting to make out of some Manos De Uruguay wool that I bought a while back. I'll have to show pictures when Matt returns home with the camera. I also started to make some much-needed handwarmers out of the leftover cashmere that I have (Yay!) I'm very excited to finish these because my hands get soooo cold. I'm using an Ann Norling loose pattern for mittens and changing it a bit so that I can make the fingerless warmers with a thumb gusset. Very exciting stuff.

So far I've had three days of school. I think that in my mind I'm just not ready for the semester to begin and therefore I've just assumed that we won't actually be doing anything in classes yet. This is obviously a very stupid assumption that has lead me to do a couple of very retarded things, the worst of which was going to yoga class in a skirt. Yes, that was definitely the dumbest thing I could have done.

Now I'm off to work at the knitting store after about a month of being away from it. I'm excited to go back and show off all of my FO's!

Have a great weekend everybody.

Home for good, unfortunately

2006-01-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

We got back from Costa Rica on Friday, though we could have easily stayed there for a couple of more weeks! I didn't spend a lot of time knitting (no surpise there) but I did manage to finish this ruffly scarf from "Scarf Style" that I was making for Matt's mom's X-mas present. I made it out of Trendsetter Yarn, Kashmere which was great to knit with and really soft. It was the first time I've knit with Cashmere and I liked it alot but I'll have to save up for a while until I'm able to use it again.

I've got to wait to post pictures of my UO shrug because Matt has taken the digital camera on a trip. I do have to say that it is now my most favorite knitted item ever! I wear it constantly and I think I'd make another one if it just didn't take so darn long...and so much boring stockinette and ribbing.

Now that I'm home I start school tomorrow and I'm trying to motivate myself to do some cleaning up and organizing around the house. I really don't want to clean or organize though, so maybe I'll spend my day trying to finish one of those unfinished projects in my craft closet. We'll see.

We took a ton of pictures on our trip. If you're interested in seeing all 225 of them then please email me and I'll send you the photo album. I'll also try to sprinkle some highlights into future posts.

Happy New Years!

2006-01-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

We've been home for just a day or so and now Matt and I are getting ready to leave for Costa Rica tomorrow morning. The good part is that we never really had to unpack our suitcases, so that made things pretty easy. I'm really looking forward to lounging on the beach, which is something that we hardly got a chance to do in Hawaii.

Our trip home was fun and it's always nice to spend time with the family. Kauai was beautiful and green and warm and I really enjoyed being there. I was a little bummed that we didn't get more time to hang out because we were busy helping with the wedding and going to various celebrations before and after Andrew and Dayna's big day, but it was worth it to be a part of everything that was going on. I think that we'll have to try and go back another time when we can just cruise around and see the sights. Kauai is so laid back and quaint, so different from Oahu.

I've been knitting nonstop since I finished school, but of course I've forgotten to photograph all of my projects. I finally finished my UO Shrug and it is SO cute! I think that in retrospect I should have knit the back part to be about 18 or 19 inches instead of 20 or 21 like the pattern suggested, but it still fits pretty nicely and I like the way that the rolled collar replaces the need to wear a scarf (I'm prone to cold neck). I also finished the scarf that I was making for my uncle just in the nick of time. I carried that thing around with me everywhere I went until it was done. I also started a ruffle/corkscrew scarf thing from Scarf Style. I really like some of the patterns in that book and I decided at the last minute to buy the book and make Matt's mom the ruffle scarf in black cashmere. I've never knit with cashmere before, and it's quite lovely! I'll be sure to take a picture of it when it's done.

Of course, part of planning my trip involves figuring out which projects I should bring with me (and I always bring too many). I'm kind of low in projects to bring that aren't too big and complicated so I've decided to try making Clapotis with some of the yarn I got from Matt's mom's stash. I know this project takes forever, but it will be a good thing to bring along and keep me interested on the plane.

Happy New Years to all of you, I'll be back from Costa Rica in a couple of weeks!

Happy Holidays!

2005-12-20T23:53:00.000-08:00

Bye Blog Friends!
I'm off to Hawaii for Christmas. I hope that you all have a great holiday and I can't wait to come back and tell you all about the knitting that I finally get to do now that I'm done with school. Yay!

Bad Sign

2005-12-19T20:54:00.000-08:00

Today this thing happened that is bothering me so much that I feel like I need to tell everyone the story just so that I feel like I have some control over the situation. Lucky you, I know. Anyways, today I my Anthropology final was scheduled at 3:30-5:30 pm and when I got there.....no one was there! The campus was virtually empty, there was another class finishing up a final in the classroom where I was supposed to be, and there was no one from my class in sight. I (naturally) started to freak out. At first it was just a kind of freak out, because I expected that I would simply find my class in another location and only lose a couple of minutes on the test. Then as I started calling every office on campus with my cell phone and walking all over the campus looking around for some other confused student from my class I began to really freak out. I even cried to the librarians, how embarrassing is that?! I felt like a little kid that lost their mom! There were real tears.
So it turns out that there was a typo on the review sheet that the teacher handed out and the final was actually at 10:30 this morning, meaning that i was 5 hours late! Now I can't find my teacher anywhere on the earth and I have only one day to find him, tell him what happened, convince him that it's only fair to let me make up the test, and then schedule at time to take the test. The likelihood of this happening is little to none. So what do I do? I'm so worried, but I don't even know what to do next.
Argh! I just want to scream and listen to my music so loud that I can't hear that little voice in my head that keeps telling me that I'm going to fail this class because of a stupid typo. And to top it off, Matt is already gone to Kauai and I have no one to vent to. As I said earlier, lucky you.

Thanks, internet friends.

Art

2005-12-13T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is a group project that we did in my design class. Each of us blew up a tiny piece of a black and white picture and painted it by using the same values. Mine is the second one up from the bottom right. I did it a little bit too dark, but it worked out okay. We were all really surprised at how well it looks.

I've got an English final this morning and then I've scheduled myself some time to work on my paper later this afternoon. I can't wait for all of this to be over!

Finals = Burnout

2005-12-09T00:11:00.000-08:00

Sister Scarf
Done in New Tweed black and brown with fuschia Kidsilk Haze double stranded. I did random striping throughout which looks great, but it took forever to weave in all of the ends. The stitch was just a seed stitch, but a small guage (for me anyway).

I think I might have lost the few readers I have over the past week of non-posting, but who's to say that I'm counting? As the semester winds down I'm not feeling that relaxed, in fact I'm a little bit freaked out about all of the things that I have to do! Final exams, final projects, another eight page essay...it's all just a little bit overwhelming.

Thank you to all of you who wrote me a note about my grandmother. We actually had a really nice time in Indiana despite the purpose of our trip. Spending time with our family all together is something that we really never get a chance to do so it was really special and actually fun at times. My grandmother was a cool lady and I will miss her alot, but if she was looking down on us then I think that she was happy to see all of us together. When you've got family from Hawaii, Costa Rica, New York, Virginia, San Francisco, and Indiana it's not that easy to get together.

In knitting news, I've re-started my UO shrug but this time I'm doing it the easy way...with chunky yarn. I splurged on about a million yards of Blue Sky Alpaca worsted in black and I'm about 1/4 of the way through it. I think that I'll have to wait until after my finals to pick it up again though. I'm also working on some secret projects of which I will not name until later. Those will also have to wait, unfortunately.

I'm beginning to think that my blog is really boring. I'm boring myself with it actually! Hopefully I'll be able to "find my voice" or whatever once this semester is over and done. I think that all of my creative juices are dried up for the time being.

Bye for now

2005-11-30T08:24:00.000-08:00

Bye everyone, I'll be back on Sunday.

Ginny

Sad Monday

2005-11-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

My Grandmother passed away this morning, so it is a sad Monday. She's been in so much pain and discomfort due to her cancer so I'm glad that she's finally free from it. My mom stayed with her all night in the hospice, and Mommom slipped away this morning just as she promised that she would over the weekend. I think that in a wierd way, her warning to us that she would die today was her attempt to put us at ease over losing her. I went to sleep last night and thought about how much I love her and I said goodbye to her as I dozed off to sleep. Somehow I knew that when I woke up today it would be to a phone call from my mom to tell me that she was gone.
I see it fitting of her to leave us right after Thanksgiving because it was a holiday that she really liked, and she was surrounded by family over the weekend. I just can't believe that she's gone, and I'll miss her.

Matt and I will be leaving for Indiana on Wednesday so that we can be with the family and attend the funeral. This is the first time that I've lost someone close to me and it will be my first funeral, so I think it's important for me to go and get closure.

We did actually have a nice Thanksgiving, and I thought that I'd include a picture of our dinner table so that this post isn't completely sad. The other photo at the top of the page is my Grandma (right) at the rehearsal dinner for my wedding.

Blogging Hiatus

2005-11-17T17:33:00.000-08:00

Did I spell that right?

Anyways, I am going to have to take a short break from blogging this week due to an overwhelming amount of homework that is due on Tuesday of next week. I will most definitely be spending the next several days alternating between moments of academic clarity and poor-pathetic-me pouting tantrums. No knitting, no fun, no Oprah.

Hopefully I'll be rejuvenated and happy in time for our Thanksgiving festivities.

Another weekend gone...

2005-11-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Mini High School Reunion

Despite the piles of homework I'm supposed to be doing, Matt and I spent a lot of the weekend playing. On Friday night we had a bunch of people over to the house before going out for drinks because all of my friends from high school happened to be in town at the same time. These guys were like my brothers growing up and we've never been in the same town since high school, so it was really fun to see everyone. There's just something about hanging out with old friends that is so satisfying.

On Saturday we went out on a date, sushi and a concert. We saw Amos Lee, a singer/songwriter that we both really like. The show was great! But I was so irritated with all of the people that I almost lost it. It was all general admission, so since we were just standing Matt and I found a spot close to the stage before it got crowded so that I could see (I'm all of 5'-2".) Once the show started, this really really tall guy pushes his way in and stands directly in front of me. I was fuming! Then his equally mammoth wife showed up and it was all over. I was so overwhelmed with annoyance that I could think of nothing but how bad I wanted to push them out of the way. I got my chance when he started stepping on my foot over and over and I finally pushed him really hard (as hard as I could, anyway) and yelled "would you please stop stepping on my foot!!!" And I was clearly so mad at him that he wouldn't stop apologizing, although in a very annoying way, and so I couldn't help but to continue to tell him what he had done to irritate me. It wasn't really a shining moment for me, but in the end he and his wife let me stand in front of them. Matt stayed behind, I think he was a little embarrassed.

The moral of this story? Sometimes it really sucks to be short, but being sassy and short has its benefits!

And since this is a knitting blog, I should tell you that I'm really making headway on Matt's sweater. Last night during Grey's Anatomy I finished the top and started working on the body. I'm so excited! I hope it fits. I am making it a little bigger than the pattern calls for because when I made him try on the top it didn't seem to fit around the arms. What I didn't realize is that the pattern tells you to cast on an additional 20 stitches when you start working in rounds for the body, so that would have made up for the fit in the top. I'm hoping that it will just give him some more room to move without looking too baggy, but we'll have to wait and see!

And in a last note, if you do watch Grey's Anatomy, Matt's cousin Brittany was on it last night! She was the Asian woman who yelled for help at the restaurant because her husband collapsed. It was a great performance, of course.

Back on track

2005-11-10T08:48:00.000-08:00

This week has been very busy as I try to get my schoolwork back in order. I fell off the wagon there for a bit, so now I've got to try and make up for lost time. Yesterday I spent the day doing all of my reading for various classes and I began to figure out my schedule for next semester. Essentially what I'm doing rather than getting an AA is scheduling my classes based on the curriculum requirements of the school I want to go to. This is a little bit risky considering I'm not in that school yet...but I'm trying to be positive. On Tuesday I had a little bit of a freak out though when I started to think about how jacked up my credits will look if I end up going to some other school! It's an art school, and I am beginning to get really nervous that I don't have that artistic/creative streak that I'm supposed to have in order to go to art school. This is making me nervous. I'm realizing more and more that despite my craftiness, there is a big difference between crafty and creative....but I think I should stop analyzing now.

Food and Snoopy

2005-11-06T23:52:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't get a chance to work alot on Matt's seamless sweater this weekend, but I did get to eat alot of good food and do some shopping! On Friday we drove up north and ate at the Dry Creek Kitchen for lunch. We had an amazing two hour meal and completely stuffed ourselves! We had intended to hit a couple of wineries while we were up there but we spent so much time eating that we didn't get a chance to. So, we drove south a little bit and hit the Charles Schultz Museum in Santa Rosa. I didn't really know what to expect but it turned out to be really fun. I mean, how could you NOT enjoy looking at original Peanuts comics? There was also an exhibit of Peanuts quilts made by various Japanese quiltmakers. I really don't know how the whole thing happened with Japanese people and Snoopy...but it's huge, and apparently it's big enough that people will spend years devoting themselves to things such as Snoopy quilts. I was hoping that they would have a book or some postcards of the exhibit on sale at the museum shop but there was nothing! Very disapointing gift shop if you ask me.

Anyways, this is only a small sampling of the highly exciting weekend I had. It has been so exciting that I might even save bits and pieces of it to sprinkle into my the coming posts in an attempt to make my life seem interesting and fun (when really I'm just going to school every night and doing homework all day.) But really, I'd better go to bed now so that I'm ready to get some quality homework time in tomorrow. Good night.

Seamless Sweater, Yay!

2005-11-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

So I guess that my attempt to blog more than once a week didn't go so well this time, but there's always next week! I've been working feverishly on Matt's seamless sweater and I really love it so far. I'm using a loose pattern from the store and some merino yarn in charcoal gray. The pattern is really easy and it's going much faster than I thought it would. Granted, I'm still working on the chest area...but I'll get to seperate the sleeves and body pretty soon.

Matt's parents are in town this weekend so we're going to spend the day up in wine country and have some lunch, do some wine tasting and stuff. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city for the day, although driving for an hour with four people in the mini can be a little bit cramped!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yay, I've been tagged!

2005-10-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be tagged for the first time, I feel as if I'm part of the club! Joelene at Misocrafty tagged me with this today, so here goes.

1. What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?

Hmmm, that is a hard one for me because I'm all over the place. I do love the texture of Manos Del Uruguay's Cotton Stria, but I find the gauge to be a little small for my impatient self. I think if I have to choose one, I'm going to say Rowan Kidsilk Haze. This is sort of a cop out though, because I tend to mix it with any other kind of yarn to get a nice fuzzy effect. Is this cheating?

2. Your favorite needles?

Crystal Palace circulars, of course.

3. The worst thing you've ever knit?

That would have to be my sausage sweater, hands down the most disappointing fo ever! It still takes up space in my drawer and I can't seem to get up the nerve to frog it. Grrr, just thinking about it makes me irritated.

4. Your most favorite knit pattern? (Maybe you don't like wearing it but it was most fun to knit)

The toy elephant from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I knit him with old yarn passed to me from my grandmother's stash and I had so much fun watching him take shape. He was so cute that I didn't want to give him up!

Look at the cuteness

5. Most valuable knitting technique?

I think that Joelene got it right when she said bravery, but I see it more as confidence. It's all just about knitting and pearling, right? After my first beginning knitting class the instructor told us that we could make almost anything with what we knew at that moment. I think that was really good advice! I went straight into the yarn store and got started on a top pattern from Rebecca and it was really encouraging (but don't get me started on the whole German translation thing.) Now I find that when I make mistakes it's usually not a result of my lack of knowledge, it's that I didn't read the pattern correctly or I wasn't paying attention.

6. Best knit book or magazine?

This is a hard one. I'm going to say Last Minute Knitted Gifts because I like the variety of patterns. For magazines, my favorite for style is Rebecca (although again, I find the patterns are really difficult to understand.)

7. Your favorite knit-a-long?

I've never done one and I'm not quite sure how they work but if they have anything to do with deadlines...I don't want to know.

8. Your favorite knitblogs?

I don't get out much, so the few that I read are all my favorites! Misocrafty was the first knitting blog that I ever read and it really inspired me to get on the bandwagon. Joelene is always knitting and knitting and knitting and her enthusiasm and creativity get me excited to try new patterns and fun stuff, plus she's got the coolest blog name ever.

9. Your favorite knitwear designer?

Oh, I have no idea! Like I said earlier, I'm all over the place.

10. The knit item you wear most? Pictures, please!

I'm going to pretend that I'm answering this question from the future and say my UO shrug because I just know that I'm going to LOVE IT! That is, after I pull it apart and start all over again, spend another million hours knitting it up and sew it together.

Who shall I tag now?
Alexa and Amber, you're it!

I'm so retarded

2005-10-26T21:48:00.000-07:00

So today I decided to measure my UO shrug to see how much more I had left to do and low and behold....I calculated the stitches wrong! You are supposed to measure the length from should to shoulder, add four inches and multiply that number by your stitch gauge. One would think that when your stitch gauge is 6, you would use that number....and yet for some reason I multiplied by 4! Now I have to start all over, and I already felt like it was taking me forever.

Maybe I'll start Matt's sweater instead....

Ditching school for the museum

2005-10-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

Today I partially ditched school to go to the newly opened DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate park. I say partially because I was on a field trip for the first 40 minutes, but then I just didn't ever go back to school and I decided to stay and look around. It was worth it for many reasons but most of all because I'm just not that into school right now.

My Art History class went to the museum to see the Queen Hatshepsut exhibit that's there and it was pretty good. I was alot more interested in it since we've been studying Egyptian art, and I guess that was the whole point. After I was done there I explored the museum on my own and I took a picture of my favorite thing

I couldn't use the flash, so you'll have to forgive the quality. And of course I can't remember the artist's last name...but her first name is Ruth and she's from the Bay Area. She made these sculptures years ago by crocheting wire and working downward. I first saw them on a PBS special and I've been dying to see them in person. They have this really beautiful fluid quality to them that reminds me of jellyfish. Here's a close up of one of them

After I was done at the museum I continued my adventure by going to a fabric store that I've been wanting to visit called Satin Moon. I think I'm going to try and sew some Xmas gifts this year if I ever find time and I was happy to find some fabrics to inspire me. One is for an adult gift, and the monkey fabric is for a baby gift. I also got some bamboo purse handles so that I can make a project bag.

I can't wait to get started on this stuff, maybe after I finish a couple of the papers I've got to write....

Fun Weekend

2005-10-24T08:40:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty action packed weekend this weekend, as compared to our normally home-bound ones. I also got a lot of time to knit my UO shrug, which made me very happy. I'm using a cotton from Schaefer yarns called Frida Kahlo combined with Kidsilk Haze. It's a really nice, soft fabric with some fuzz-factor to make it really girly. I think I'm going to like it alot. The body of the piece is done in a stitch called Mock Rib, and the effect is a really spongy stitch that looks like stockinette but it's actually composed of a 1x1 rib on the front and a purl and slipped stitch on the back. I really like the way it looks, but I'm worried that it's taking up a ton of yarn. Hopefully I'll have enough!

On Friday we went to see a band called Grupo Fantasma with a bunch of friends. They're our friend's favorite band from Austin so we always go with a big group when they're in town. It had been a long time since I've been dancing, but it was fun to jump around a bit.

Anyways, it's been brough to my attention that my blog is lame now because I never post...and I guess that I didn't need someone to tell me that for me to know it's true! I think I've got to work on posting more often, so hopefully you'll be hearing more from me in the future.
G

Finished Objects

2005-10-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Eliana's Baby Sweater
pattern by Debbie Bliss
yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton with Manos Del Uruguay Cotton Stria for the collar

Eliana's Bonnet
pattern from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts"
yarn: Manos Del Uruguay Cotton Stria for bonnet, GGH Leggaro? (or something like that) for the border

Despite all of my schoolwork and general business I've actually been knitting a little bit. These are some things that I finished several weeks ago but I accidentally left my camera at a friend's house so I've had to wait to show them off. I also finished my sister's scarf (still weaving in the thousands of ends), started a shrug, bought yarn to make Matt a man-sweater, and I'm still slowly working on my black and white feather and fan scarf. I really don't know the likelyhood of me finishing all of these projects and making some Christmas gifts, but I'm going to take the chance anyway.

I worked all weekend this weekend and I'm definitely feeling the crunch. I'm so behind on all of my reading! And my art projects are still eating into the time that I thought I could spend doing homework for other subjects. I really hate my schedule this semester. Speaking of which...it's time to leave for school.

I'm a dork

2005-10-07T17:45:00.000-07:00

That's a Stork, if you're not sure

So I just have to tell all of you how much of a retard I am. This week I've done several really stupid things that I think I should share. I'll list them here since I tend to be a little wordy...
1. I have been calling my friend Delphine almost everyday to see if she had her baby. Today when I called her mom answered and although we had a bit of difficulty with the whole language thing (Delphine's mom is from France)I thought that I got the basic info I needed. From what I heard I thought that the baby was born yesterday, healthy, and I got Delphine's room number at the hospital. So this afternoon I go to visit and see the new baby and when I get there I realize that Delphine had the baby six hours ago, she just woke up from the general anesthesia, and she had not even gotten a chance to hold the baby yet. I felt HORRIBLE! I totally ruined their moment. I still feel really bad that I didn't understand her mom when I spoke to her on the phone.
2. On Wednesday night when I was rushing off to my nighttime drawing class I filled up my big Nalgene water bottle and put it into my $500. leather totebag WITHOUT CLOSING the lid at all! That was so stupid, I am still annoyed with myself. All my stuff was soaked and the bag was filled with water.
3. On Wednesday morning I bought some art supplies at the art store and then walked around a bit with my coworkers from the knitting store. About an hour later I freaked out that I had left my bag of purchases somewhere and went back to all the stores I had been to looking for my bag. When I got to the art store and realized they didn't have it I thought "Oh, well maybe I should check my purse" and low and behold....it was in there. A totally spacy move on my part, and the cashier thought I was retarded.
I hope that next week is better for me. At this rate I'm bound to accidentally cut off my hand or I don't know what.

Indiana Here I Come

2005-09-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

I decided to go to Indiana at the last minute, so I'll be gone all weekend. Poor Matt will be all alone without me. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my grandma company and it will give me piece of mind to be there.
Have a good weekend everybody!

Memories

2005-09-25T19:26:00.000-07:00

Me and Kimi at my Bachelorette Party, I hope that I haven't posted this picture already...
This weekend was my friend Kimi's 30th birthday. For some reason, her birthday is one of those days that always causes me to reflect back on old times. Kimi and I became friends when I was a senior in high school so it makes me feel really old to think that I've celebrated nine birthdays with her since! We've been through all kinds of crazy things together, Happy Birthday Kimi!

On the knitting front, I've been working like mad on the baby sweater for Baby Wilson. I actually finished it just on time for the shower today! It turned out really cute, but I accidentally left my camera at the party so I'll have to wait to post pictures. It only took me a week to make the sweater, so now I'm back to where I started last week with my two unfinished scarves and the "Spring Fling" that needs to be partially frogged....not fun. I think I'll make a hat this week before I dive into my bin of unfinished projects.

Thanks to everyone for the nice notes about my grandma. She's been in the hospital for the past few days but she's doing okay. I think that we'll be buying some tickets to go and see her in the coming month because she changed her mind about our visit and decided that she's excited to see us. I think that she's kind of scattered with everything going on, so she didn't really mean to turn us away after all. I'm glad, I feel alot better now.

Hard Times

2005-09-19T21:41:00.000-07:00

Today has been really hard for me. Yesterday I found out that my grandmother's ovarian cancer is not being helped by her chemotherapy and she's getting worse much more rapidly than expected. I guess that until now I didn't really realize how quickly I might lose her and it's affecting me greatly. All I want to do is get into bed and cry, but instead I've got to do homework and study and run errands...and I feel like a bit of a zombie.
Part of me thinks it's bad to be expecting the worst, but at the same time I think it's important for me to focus on my grandma while she's still here. Today I called her to tell her that we want to go and visit her in a couple of weeks and she told me not to come. This crushed me despite the fact that I was expecting it.
I guess that it hurts me most to be so far away from her and so helpless. I've never lost someone that I love before and I don't quite know how to deal with it.
Maybe writing about it here will help me.

Let It Die

2005-09-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Matt and I really don't get out much, so when we do it's always very exciting. Last night we went to a Fiest show with our friends Syrette and Koa (whom are responsible for introducing us to cool things in general) and we had a great time. If you haven't heard Feist yet, I think it's time to jump on the bandwagon because she's incredible. She put on a great show too.

What else is going on? I bought some yarn to begin my very first baby sweater yesterday and I'm very excited to get it going. At first I was thinking that I should finish at least one of the 3 current projects I've got going, but I talked myself out of that idea real fast. I did make a good attempt at it though. I promised myself a day of knitting on Friday (no posting allowed that day, sorry) and I did literally knit all day. I was trying to finish my green mini-cardigan and I came so close but then I did something really stupid and used yarn from two different dye lots on one front sides and it looks really wierd. Usually in this case I would finish it anyways and say screw it, but my boss at the yarn store pretty much threw that idea out the window. I guess I'll be frogging that side and starting it over, blah. For this reason I'm putting it back on the back-burner and in the words of Feist, I'll let it die....at least for a little while.

Look! Pictures

2005-09-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

Design project: "Exploded Square"

Design project: "Still Life"

This is a sample for the store made from the new Rowan

Everyone at work is making something with this pattern, so I decided to jump on the bandwagon and see what the fun was all about. It's the feather and fan stitch done in Manos de Uruguay wool. Let me know if you want the pattern, it also looks great in mohair.

This is a secret project I'm doing, so you only get a peek. (Also from the new Rowan)

I think I'm just going to have to come to grips with the fact that I only have time to post once a week now. Otherwise I feel really guilty about it every time I don't post more often. I thought that today I'd show you some of the things that I've been working on. The three knitting pictures are my current projects. I'm to laze to put them in my sidebar, so there you go. The other two are projects I did for my design class. I love homework that involves cutting and pasting! I especially liked working on the black and white one because the designs that you can come up with when you're using simple shapes are endless and they always look interesting. I'm really liking that class.
I'm really happy that I've been knitting a little bit more too. Now that I'm working at Urban Knitting Studio I am constantly coming up with ideas of things I want to make. Here is my current list:

- Felted zipper bags using my scrap wool
- A baby sweater for my friend Delphine's baby on the way
- A shrug for myself
- A cardigan for myself
- A tank for my mom
- Christmas gifts of which I will not name...

And I'm also considering the task of making a sweater for Matt, just because I think it would be fun if he actually wore it. There is a nice pattern in the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book for a zip up sweater. If I do go through with such a huge project I think I'd do this one since Matt really likes to wear hoodies and zippery things.
Okay, I think I'm done with my post now. I'd hate to bore you with any more of my knitting thoughts....

Kim Hargreaves is not my best friend

2005-09-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

So now that I've been working at my LYS for a few weeks I'm beginning to feel as if I'm really in the loop with this whole knitting thing. For instance, I was never privvy to any of the knitting magazines until two weeks ago. (Who knows how to spell "privvy"?) Anyways I'm sure that you can just hear Matt saying "What? Now you're reading about knitting too?!" I think it's probably better that I started reading the knitting publications after we got married...
And now back to my point: now that I'm more in tune with the knitting community I have become aware of the plethora of pattern resources that are available to me. I may not like many of the designs that I find, but at least I know where to look. So I've been searching for awhile to find a really specific shrug pattern but I never seem to find the right one. I finally found it. Enter Kim Hargreaves new website. I fell in love with the Splendour pattern, but wait! You can only get the pattern if you buy the yarn, buttons, and pattern kit that she ONLY sells on her site. Is there anyone else who finds this really annoying? Especially because her company is based in England and for all of us over here in the US it could potentially be even more expensive to order from her after shipping. I don't even know how much the whole thing would cost me if I ordered it but even if I could afford it I still think that her approach kind of diminishes the whole creative aspect of knitting. I might as well just buy a shrug a the Gap!

Life takes over

2005-08-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

I may not be the busiest person in the world, but I just haven't had the time or the interest in posting this week! Or maybe I just haven't had anything fun enough to post...
School isn't completely consuming me yet although I should probably be spending more time studying in general. Instead I've been knitting a bit more and this weekend Matt and I spent some time with friends that we haven't seen in awhile. Most of my knitting has been secret, but I think I'll have to find a way to post little pieces of what I've been working on so that I can feel like this is a legitimate knitting blog!
Anyways, today I spent almost all afternoon working on my drawing homework. Right now we're doing "partial blind line contour drawings" which means that you can only look at the page in order to place your pen but you have to look at the object you're drawing while you draw it. It's not easy, but I think that it's teaching me how to understand proportion and foreshortening, etc. My homework assignment was to do a partial blind line contour drawing of the interior of a kitchen drawer. Here is a picture of what I did.

I had to fudge in a couple of places because my proportion was off, but I think it looks pretty good. My next assignment is to draw the interior of a room in the house which I think might be easier.

All Better

2005-08-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

So I finally figured out how to go forward with my Spring Fling thanks to my friend Syrette. I don't want to bore you with the details but essentially i think that the lace pattern directions are switched on the pattern: Left side directions are actually for the right, and vice versa. This is the only explanation I can congure, but I looked all over the net to see if anyone else had this problem and I couldn't find anything.
I started school on Wednesday but I had my big day of classes yesterday. I think it's going to be a good semester. This is a list of the classes I'll be taking:
English 1B-basic college literature coarse
Basic Drawing
Basic Design
Western Art History
Cultural Anthropology
yay school!

Now I'm off to work at the knitting shop for the afternoon.

Friends

2005-08-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

My friend Alexia and her family are moving to France today for a year long adventure so I thought it would be fun to send her off with a post. Alexia and I met about four years ago in a class at Public Glass, back when I used to blow glass. Back then she had just returned to 'normal life' after a year of sailing with her husband to mexico and hawai'i on their little sailboat. Anyways, we were friends almost instantly and we have been close ever since.
Alexia is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and the most daring. When Matt and I had a goodbye breakfast with her on Sunday she admitted that even though they were leaving the country on the 17th (today) they hadn't even begun packing or figured out who would move their stuff into storage so that the new owners could move in. The fact that she made time to see us despite the looming deadline is amazing!
Anyways, good luck Alexia!
Here are some pictures of our Sunday visit:

From top to bottom:
Alexia's husband Matt (yes, another one)
Alexia's son Jake, eating butter straight and loving it!
Me and Alexia

Blog Spam

2005-08-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is today but I got 3 spam comments on my blog post! Who does this? I find it really annoying and I felt the need to comment that I will promptly delete all blogspam from now on. So there.

Back to knitting

2005-08-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

I'm finally knitting again, which is very exciting. I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a long time but I just haven't felt like it! There are so many things that I want to/have to do everyday and blogging just hasn't been one of them. But I'm back, I think.

I started working at my favorite lys last week and it's been really fun so far. I love being there and I think that I'll learn alot about knitting just by being around it so much. The only danger is that I want to buy yarn and start new projects every time I go in there, but I can't. I've got to finish my existing projects and use up some of the yarn I already own (notice the word "some", not "all").

We also finished all of our thank you notes, which was a big accomplishment. I'm so glad to have those done because Matt wasn't letting me do anything fun until I did them, which was obviously a good tactic on his part.

Okay, so now that I'm knitting again I am determined to finish this project that I started in June. I've already finished the back, but I forced myself to frog the almost-completed right front that I'd already done because I didn't like the way that I had decreased for the neckline. The only problem is that I can't figure out how to start the lace stitch again because I think the pattern is wrong (note: I always think that if I can't figure something out, the pattern MUST be wrong.) I spent about three hours last night trying a million different ways to do it but I still haven't figured it out. Let me attempt to show you my problem:

So this is how it's supposed to look. The ribbing and the bump of the lace pattern are aligned vertically.

Now my problem is that if I follow the pattern for the right front then I end up with an offset lace/ribbing. Argh! I'm so frustrated with this, especially since I've done this front before the correct way. How did I do it? Why can't I remember? Why why why didn't I write it down! I'm officially stuck.

I guess now I'll have to move onto another project until I can ask someone for help. If anyone out there has made this thing before and you know the secret, please let me know!

Notes

2005-08-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

If you were wondering who's who in the picture below of me and my wedding party, here is a list from left to right:
Faith- best friend/sister since 7th grade
Kimi- best friend since college (not my sister, but everyone thinks so!)
Me
Jessica- best friend and partner in crime since 9th grade
Bliss- my cute little sister
Carli (nickname "Krazy Kool")- my flower girl and bestest little friend since the day she was born

Nueva Familia

2005-08-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend Matt and I went down to the OC yet again to help with a big sale they were having at the family store. Matt didn't really want to go, but they needed help and we need jobs...so it made sense to help them out. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the Fam and spending time with them in a different capacity. I think I miss working too, as weird as that may sound.

Poor Matt has bronchitis or something (I don't know if I spelled that correctly). He's got a nasty cough and he's all achy. So far I've been lucky enough not to catch it though but I'm thinking that I should take some Airborne just in case.

Anyways, our actual wedding pictures were released last week on Pictage and you can view them if you'd like. Just plug my name into the "find your event" space and you can wade through all 952 of them. They really came out nice. If you don't know my full name, just email me.

We've got a ton of stuff to do today before we've got Jury duty later this week. I'll post something more interesting when I have time.

The Aftermath

2005-08-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

Now that I'm married I have this wierd sense of loss now that it's all over. I'm surrounded by piles of unwritten thank you notes and name-changing paperwork and somehow those things just aren't as fun as planning a wedding! Today I went to the Social Security office to change my name and then I headed over to the DMV to get a new drivers license. I know that I've already talked about my feelings about changing my name...but now that it's done I feel sad and wierd to not be a Lau anymore. As annoying as hyphenated names are I can now completely understand why so many people choose to do it. Oh well, now it's done!

Rather than wallow in my post-wedding depression, let's revisit the excitement of actual wedding. I'll start at the semi-beginning:

In a dramatic example of my famous procrastination I did not pickup my wedding gown until the day before the wedding. This was not in the plan, but the man who was altering the dress wasn't returning my phone calls (major point of stress) and he finally called me that morning. Though it was a relief to have the dress in my hands, he did a horrible job and ultimately my sister had to completely redo it. To add to the drama, he also altered Jessica's bridesmaid dress and somehow made it too tight. Luckily she was able to have it taken out at the last minute and actually picked it up from the tailor an hour before we left for the wedding! I think you're getting the picture, this was pretty stressful.
I'll add more later, but here are some pictures.

A Peek

2005-07-27T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm Married!

2005-07-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say hi. I'm officially Japanese now, no more turning japanese! Matt and I had a great wedding last friday and we're still entertaining guests and resting after our week last week. I'll post some pictures as soon as I get a chance.

45 Lbs. of Jelly Bellys and miles of ribbon

2005-07-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

Let the wedding stress begin! I didn't think it was possible to get stressed over ribbon tying and jelly belly weighing, but let me tell you that it is. I think it might have to do with the fact that there were too many people involved in the process, but either way I think it's a little bit ridiculous. I'm hoping that I'll be able to relax today but we'll see! Let me give you a small list of the things I have to do today:
-Pick up Carli (my flower girl) at the airport at 10:30 am
-Go to reception site and drop off alchohol 12pm
-Pick up Dry Cleaning
-Pick up outfit at tailors downtown
-Go to grocery store
-Finalize with caterer
-Eat a big lunch so I don't throw up on the gender-illusionists at my bachelorette party
-Go to the bachelorette party
-Have fun
It may not sound like a lot, but add in two sets of parents, a brother, two bridesmaids, an eight year old, and a grandma and you've got yourself some serious drama!

Wedding Crafts

2005-07-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

It is the expectation that someone in my position (getting married in less than a week) is very busy with planning and general wedding craziness. Not the case. Matt and I are relaxed and unfazed by our upcoming nuptials. So much so that I have had more time to craft, hence the cute Ring Bearer pilllow that I made this week.

I've been holding on to this pattern since we were first engaged and the finished project looks exactly how I pictured it. I think I should have pressed the edges before I stuffed it though, but it's too late now. Thanks Martha! I never could have done it without you.

Props

2005-07-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that I found the pattern for the bag on Craftster. I would not have been able to figure it out without this handy tutorial.

Craft Corner

2005-07-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting because I've turned my house into a craft corner and I haven't been able to sit down at my computer long enough to post! I'm so into sewing now that I've started. I just keep looking around to see what I can sew next. Yesterday I finished the little messenger bag that I was making for Carli, my flower girl, as a gift. It turned out really cute.

I'm quite proud of it, I must say. I've never sewn anything that was this elaborate. Not that the bag is really complicated or anything but my sewing usually consists of little zipper bags and nothing else. THe only thing that I don't like about the bag that I made is that the lining inside is all bunchy. If I were to make it again I would make the lining slightly smaller than the outside part so that it is tighter. Here is a picture of the lining.

I think you can see how bunchy it is.
I also made a curtain for a window in our hallway. There's this window that looks into our storage room and it's visible when you first walk into the apartment. The curtain hides our piles of boxes and stuff so that people don't think we're slobs when they first come into the house.
Yay sewing!

Lazy Post

2005-07-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry everyone, I don't have it in me to post a picture today. If I did, I would post a shot of my current project though. I'm making a little messenger style bag for my flower girl, Carli. It's not necessarily for her to wear during the wedding but I've been wanting to make her a little bag to hold her camara and things while she's walking around San Francisco next week.
I really like sewing but as I think I've mentioned before, I never do it. I think that this project will motivate me to make some more things in the future. I'm borrowing Jessica's sewing machine for this job but I dont think that she'll mind if I borrow it for awhile. There is actually a really cool place here in the city called Stitch that I'd like to check out. They teach sewing classes based on your abilities and they also rent out machines and space for those of us who don't have the right stuff. I know what you're thinking: why does Ginny need to take more craft classes? Or maybe you weren't thinking that but it is true that I have taken a class for just about everything from glassblowing to hatmaking to knitting to felting, and then there was this jewelry class I took...the list goes on. I think that sewing classes fit really nicely into my little repetoire. We'll see if I ever find the time or money to realize this idea. For the time being I'll just rely on the internet crafting community to fill me in where I'm lacking in crafty knowledge. Thank goodness for Craftster!
Okay, time to go to bed. That is as soon as I finish my little cocktail that I'm drinking. Have I mentioned that I'm obsessed with drinking "Dark and Stormy's"? My friend Rachel introduced me and I'm hooked. She and I share a love of all things ginger and the Dark and Stormy is just another way to enjoy it. It's basically made with a really strong ginger beer (like root beer, but ginger) and dark rum with a little lime. Yum.

Counting down the days

2005-07-02T23:12:00.000-07:00

I've only got 12 more days until THE day and it's beginning to feel very surreal. Not surreal as if it's not real but more like wow, I Ginny Lau am going to be married in 12 days! In 13 days I'll be Ginny Uyesugi and I haven't even had time to practice my new signature. It's taken me years to perfect my Ginny C. Lau with a big G and a curly messy Lau with a C in between. How will I do it now? Will I spell out each letter of my new last name carefully so that you can read it? Will that even make a difference since no one can pronounce it anyway? Is it lame to simply make a Ginny U. with no yesugi? These are all things that I will have to consider when I go about my new signature. I think I'll need to begin practicing this week so that I'm seasoned and ready once the time comes to sign my first credit card charge. I imagine that being like the first time I wrote a check for schoolbooks with my mom's checkbook (I had permission, don't worry) and I was all nervous because I wasn't sure how to write out the amount. My hand shook, I was a mess.

*

2005-06-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

In case you were wondering, I didn't give up on my blog. Matt's parents have been in town for the weekend so we were too busy to play on the internet. We had a lot of fun with them, especially once we started playing Canasta. I'm not usually big on card games but Canasta is so fun! We used to play it for hours with my mom when I was in high school but it's been a while. It's better with four people too so Matt and I get bored playing it by ourselves at home.

Other than Canasta we ate a lot of food and bought a lot of stuff...both of which are common practices when hanging out with Matt's parents. Some highlights of my weekend eating are:
-Lemon pancakes filled with Ricotta cheese and smothered with lemon curd and rasberry sauce (today's breakfast)
-Grilled halibut on a sweet corn cake with okra and coffee jus (last night's dinner)
-Cowgirl creamery Mt. Tam triple cream Brie on mini toasts with fig cherry jam (card playing snack)

At this juncture I must also comment on a low point of our dinner last night just because I like to complain and I can't let it go. We were eating at a very well-regarded restaurant here in SF and Matt and I were sitting with our backs to another table of diners. Their table was fairly close to ours and one of the people knocked over a completely full bottle of wine (RED) and it flew and sprayed in our direction. I just happened to be wearing light colored pants and the $70. pashmina shawl that I bought for one of my bridesmaids to wear at my wedding (also a light cream color). Matt was wearing a light blue shirt and khaki's, both of which were completely stained with wine. I was really pissed off by this, and although I know that the people apologized to Matt, they did not apologize to me nor did they offer any assistance with our dry cleaning or anything! The restaurant manager was very nice and he did offer to pay, but I still think that had it been me that spilled the wine I would have offered to dry clean the people's clothes myself or bought a round of drinks or dessert or something to extend my apology. It was truly annoying and it ruined the mood of our dinner completely. But the food was good!

Now I'm just sitting at home and dealing with all of the paper and mail and junk that I've been ignoring. I hate paper, so hopefully I'll be done with this soon.

More Wedding Drama

2005-06-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to postpone my sharing of the current knitting project because I simply don't have the energy to knit right now so I can't talk about it. I know that you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering what's going on with our wedding stuff today? Oh, I guess that I'll tell you then.
Well we had thought that we had our location for the rehearsal dinner all taken care of. We sent out invitations for the dinner to the wedding party and the immediate family and everything. (Can you figure out where I'm going with this?) So when I asked about making a reservation months ago I was told that we only needed to call about a month in advance to set our date. We did that today and it turns out that the location has been booked for months. Of course it has! It would just be too easy otherwise. Now we have to scramble and find a restaurant in San Francisco that can hold 40 people on a Thursday night three weeks from now. THis is an impossible mission, and a most irritating one if I do say so myself. Argh. We're laughing at the drama it has caused but it's still annoying.
On a lighter and more fun note, I spent today helping my friend DeAnna at her hat studio. It was fun. I got to block a men's felt hat that she'll sell at a store in LA and I spent the rest of the day sewing buttons on a women's cloche style hat. I aspire to have a whole two bedroom apartment that is only used as a studio, so you can just imagine how fun it is to spend the day with someone who actually has that. I honestly don't know what I would do in an art studio, but I'm sure that I could come up with something. I really like hand-sewing too and I only do it when I'm making hats. I only make hats when I'm with DeAnna, therefore I don't do a lot of sewing.
Okay okay, I think I need to relax a bit and hang out with my BF (can I still call him that even though he is actually my fiance?) Anyways, he's sitting in the dark living room by himself playing the guitar and I think that means "get off that damn computer and hang out with me!" in passive agressive boy-language. I guess I'll indulge him this one time.

Knitting?

2005-06-22T18:37:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that I am actually working on a knitting project right now, although you'd never know it by my posts. I'm knitting this little cardigan from Knitty, although I'm changing it a bit by shortening it and whatnot. Essentially I like the idea of the pattern but I don't like the way it looks on the model (no offense intended if you ever read this post!) Hopefully I'll like the way that it looks on me.

On Our Own

2005-06-22T18:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday our roomate and bestest friend Jessica left us alone for good. She and I have been living happily together since 2001 and we've been friends since 9th grade, so it was a bit traumatic for me (I don't know if it was for her or not, but it was for me.) Anyways, she's gone and here I am living with Matt for ever and ever.
I don't want to give the impression that we were happy that Jess left, but the first thing we did after the movers were gone was open the sliding doors that seperated our living room from her former bedroom. This was an exciting transformation because it doubles our living space and allows alot of light to come in that was otherwise blocked by the sliding doors. Once the doors were open we realized that we don't own enough furniture to fill up the space (and I thought my 84" couch would fill any room!) But anyways, we moved the dining room into the area that used to be the living room and pushed all of the living room furniture into Jessica's old bedroom. I hope I didn't lose you with all of those details, but I think you can get the idea based on the above picture.
Now the dining room is my new "office" and I even have my own craft closet!

As you can see I sort of just threw everything in there, and for now it contains my wedding boxes and files as well as yarn...but it's still exciting to have a place for my stuff.
We also got a new stereo the other day since our old one belonged to Jessica. I think Matt is going to return it though because we just realized that although it holds 5 cd's it doesn't allow you to shuffle all of them at once, just one at a time. That sucks. Since I don't have an ipod (that's a hint to all of you out there wondering) I have to create playlists the old-fashioned way. Poor me, I know.
We also lost our tv to the divorce, so our friends Syrette and Koa were generous enough to give us their tiny tv. The screen on it is seriously smaller than my miniature laptop screen, but it's cute anyway. It doesn't actually get any reception, but we set it up so that it can look like our poor little entertainment system with the new stereo. I think it's funny but when Matt's parents come to visit us this weekend we're sure that his dad will be so desperate to watch television that he'll run out and buy us one...we can only hope. We do actually have bets going that he'll do this, but we'll see.

I can't believe how much I have to say! Is this interesting to anyone out there? I have a feeling that my babbling posts might be a turn-off to some of my readers, but then again there are only about four of you anyways! (And I love you all dearly, by the way.)

Is this a sign?

2005-06-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

So Matt and I have been relatively on-time and organized with all of our wedding planning, except for the florist. This is my fault because I waited and waited to call around despite the fact that I already knew who I wanted to speak to about it months ahead of time, but that's not the point. Tonight I called Ricardo (the florist that I really want to work with) to follow up on the quote that we're expecting. This is how the conversation began:
GL: Hi Ricardo, I just wanted to follow up on our proposal and see how it's coming along.
R: Oh, well you must already be aware of my situation.
GL: (uh) No, what happened? Are you okay?
R: Well let's see, um, last Tuesday I went to take out the trash and I had too many bags and they wouldn't fit in the trash can so I was jumping on the trash to try and make room when the can rolled out of underneath me and I fell on my face and broke both of my wrists in three places. I've been in the hospital on morphine all week, I just got out on Sunday.
GL: Oh my god!

I think you get the picture.

I think that this is one of those situations that will show my true colors as a bride. Will I turn into a crazy stressed-out freak or will I stay calm and work through it? So far Matt and I have just laughed at how entirely typical this is...and it definitely makes for a good story to tell later. For now I feel terrible for poor Ricardo as he sits at home with a cast on each hand. I hope he gets better soon because I can just imagine how stressful it must be for him since he is the only one that can do his job. Everyone, take a moment to wish Ricardo a healthy recovery....

I promise that this isn't going to turn into a wedding website, but it's only three weeks away! As of this weekend every phone call I get begins with "Are you ready for your wedding?!" or "When are you and Matt going to start having kids?" I don't know which one is worse at this point but if you're planning on asking me one of these questions in the near future these are my answers "Let's not talk about it because it gives me anxiety" and "I think we need to get jobs before we can have kids."

I think I could really rant for several more paragraphs but I'll save you from that and give you just one more. I got a lot of crap for my last post, but I think those pictures are cute and I like them! Thank you to my blog friends who commented.

Talk to you tomorrow,
Ginny

Photo Photo

2005-06-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Matt and I did some major shopping today downtown. It was rainy and gross outside which doesn't usually make for a good shopping day, but we did some damage despite the wet weather. Our most exciting purchase: a new camara! Yay. Now we can carry our camara with us at all times. Hopefully that will make us better at taking lots of pictures.
Here is our first go-round.

The Good Old OC

2005-06-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here I am in the OC! The four of us piled into the Mini with our belongings tightly packed into "the boot" and we were off. We had high hopes of arriving here in six hours...but it took eight and a half long cramped hours to get here. It's always fun in the beginning, but then you reach that middle point and you're soooo ready to be at your destination! Are we there yet?

Now the boys are off to San Diego for two nights of drinking and debauchery and Syrette and I are happy as clams on the couch watching Kept on VH1 and knitting. I'm not feeling worried about Matt at all though, but if anything I'm more concerned about him getting too drunk and doing something stupid like falling in the gutter or something. We'll have to wait and see if he comes home scarred and broken. He's not really the type to want to live it up at the strip clubs, but you never know what the friends are going to make him do!

Road Trip

2005-06-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

We're off to Orange County for the weekend. I'll catch up with all of you on Tuesday!

So Tired

2005-06-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

I can't even believe how much I've been working over the past few days. I feel like I haven't been home at all! It's been so much fun to work as a Production Assistant but it's alot of work! Or maybe I'm just not used to work in general....
The whole group of people involved are so nice and outgoing, and the biggest ringer is that the photographer helped write Last Minute Knitted Gifts! I was so excited when I learned that that I could hardly contain myself. I love that book.
Now I'm going to go hang with my honey and try to recover from all the ironing and running back and forth that I did today, not to mention all of that hand-modeling! Now that can make a girl tired.
My last note to you is about my grades. I got 3 A's and a B in American Government. To think it could have been straight A's if I'd worked a little harder just kills me!

24 Hours

2005-06-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd give you a quick update of my life while I wait for dinner to be ready. Yesterday I had my first day as a production assistant. I'm working for a publishing firm that does all the cookbooks for Williams Sonoma. The one we're working on currently is called "Easy Entertaining". My job is to organize props, run errands, and do any general task that needs doing at any given time. Yesterday I spent almost 5 hours buying the wardrobe for the models. I have never been so tired from shopping ever before in my life!
Today Matt and have spent almost the entire day watching season 2 of 24. My dad sent us the box and the suspense is just forcing us to watch disk after disk! We have no self control, none at all.
Now Matt's making a scallop salad with avocados and mangos for our dinner. They gave me a huge cookbook yesterday at work so he got it from there. I'll tell you how it is!
Bye for now.

Finished!

2005-06-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

I finished Georgine's tank top yesterday. I hope it fits her! I'll take another picture of her wearing it once I see her.

In other good news, my friend Helen at my favorite LYS has informed me that she wants me to work at her shop beginning in August!! Yeah! I can't think of any other way I'd like to spend my days. I can't wait to be shopgirl.

I left my envelope in San Francisco

2005-06-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

So yesterday Matt and I went down to City Hall and got our Marriage License. It was a relatively easy task, in fact it only took about 10 minutes once our name was called. We found it really funny when the woman helping us said "now I will put your information in a recycled envelope" and then she gave us an old ratty UPS overnight envelope to keep our precious document in. Only in San Francisco...
The other funny thing we got yesterday was this booklet

"Your Future Together"
Highlights of this comprehensive owners manual are:
-"Folic Acid in Your Diet"
-A description of Genetic Disorders that states: Genetic disorders are not contagious.
-The food pyramid

Matt and I will definitely get a lot of use out of this handy booklet as we embark on our future together....

Love

2005-05-31T17:49:00.000-07:00

So I just spent my afternoon watching The Notebook and can I just tell you that I cried and cried and oh my god, that guy is so hot! I don't know who he is or where he came from....but I will vow right now to watch any movie that he's in, ever, from now on.
What a story. So good. Matt can't stop laughing at me now because I'm all wrapped up in "romantic movie mode".

I also got a lot of work done on my tank while watching tv. I've only got to do one more little bit of the front shoulder and then I'm done! I think I'll be able to finish it tonight, and the beauty of the pattern is that it was done in the round so I've only got to sew the shoulder parts together. I hate finishing, if only everything could be knit in the round!

My Masterpiece

2005-05-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

For all of you who are familiar with the intricacies of the perfect "Egg-in-a-hole", you can understand and appreciate the art of this one.

I was almost too proud to eat it, but I got over that quickly.

So I'm officially done with my first semester back at school. I wonder what my grades will look like? This is my prediction:
English: A-
American Government: B
Interior Design: A
Asian American Women: A
We'll have to wait until June 5th to know if I am good or if I just think that I am. Either way, it's over!

Note: The spellcheck function on Blogger is not working for me. I'm a little nervous about the above spelling of "intricacies"...but I will go with my gut and publish it anyway. (This is a polite attempt to say "Koa, don't go commenting about my spelling mistake! Not everyone knows how to spell mannequin.)

Should 'a been a lawyer

2005-05-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ha! What did I tell ya about books online? In my daily webnews reading I came across this.

The Tank Top

2005-05-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

I am officially the worst photographer I know, please forgive me.

I've gotten so much done over the past few days! How exciting. This picture is of the back. I've got to do about 2 more inches until I'm finished with this part and then I start on the front. I think I'll finish it by the weekend. I have a feeling that I might need to make another one for Matt's mom because this one might not fit her. Oh well.

Tonight Jessica and I went out to dinner with our friend Amber. I am so full that I feel like I might explode. We were at a Thai restaurant and we ordered five dishes and a bottle of wine for the three of us! Maybe we overdid it a little.

We've been getting response cards back for the wedding. It's so exciting to get them in the mail every day! I think I get a little too much enjoyment out of entering each guest into the excel spreadsheet. Does this make me a nerd?

Okay, I think I need to lay down...I ate a few too many chunks of tofu tonight.

Too Tired for Pictures

2005-05-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

So it's not like I did anything today that would make me too tired to post the picture of my tank top progress that I promised you last time...but I waited until it was too late at night to go through all of the trouble. Matt and I spent most of the day laying around reading, which was really nice and relaxing. I finished the book that I was reading "The Dim Sum of All THings" so now I guess I should stop reading for fun and start studying for my finals. But about the book, first of all since when were all books available to read on the internet? Who reads a book page by page this way? In some ways I'm a bit confused as to why this is allowed considering all of the illegal music downloading stuff going on, but then I think to myself: who in their right mind would sit at their computer and read a 300 page book? If you do this you are wierd. That's what I think.
Anyways, about the book. If you are Chinese, or part Chinese like me then I think you would enjoy the book. Don't get me wrong, it's a completely silly and ridiculous story but there are a lot of funny tidbits in there about the weirdness of Chinese people that I never realized anyone else had experienced. The Chinese grandmother in the book was my favorite character. She's pushy, loud-mouthed, direct, and she carries around way too much cash in her fanny pack-and that is so my grandmother! The author also brings up the fact that all old Chinese people refer to making out as "Hanky Panky". My grandfather totally says that! I ask myself: how did a whole generation of immigrant Chinese people pick up the term "Hanky Panky"? Who says that? I thought my Gung Gung (grandfather) was original...
I don't know if any of this is making sense. I think I better stop writing run-on sentences and go to sleep.
Nighty Night

Wednesday

2005-05-18T17:27:00.000-07:00

I didn't have class today, so I got to hang out and be lazy for a bit. This morning I met with a counselor at CCA (California College of Arts) to find out what I need to be doing so that I can transfer there to study Interior Design. It was actually quite exciting because I learned that I can take most of my basic design courses at City College, which is almost free as compared to the tuition at CCA. So it looks like I'll be at City College for about one more year, but I have a feeling that my classes will be better next semester now that I won't be in all basic general ed courses. I'm looking forward to taking some design classes too, since I haven't really done so ever before.
I've almost got 10 inches on my tank top so far! I've been trying to do at least an inch a day, and sometimes I have been getting more. It's a very simple pattern so far, but I love the way the yarn knits up. I'll show you tomorrow, I'm gonna go knit now.

All About Food

2005-05-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it says about me that all I can think of to post today is what I ate over the weekend. Here's a list:
Friday: Garlic Chicken Sausage, grilled asparagus, triple cream brie with ciabatta bread, and fresh-baked cookies with peppermint gelato for dessert.
Saturday: Grilled shrimp skewers, grilled veggie skewers, and a whole lot of cheeto-like things from Trader Joe's. Plus, more of that triple cream brie and bread.
Sunday: More peppermint gelato (straight out of the carton at this point), and a normal dinner of soup and bread, with some cheese of course since we've still got it in the fridge.
Looking at the list it doesn't look sooo bad, but I've conveniently left my secret midday gelato eating off of the list because there were too many visits to count. I'm going to be a really fat bride.

Other than that, I don't have much to say. I spent hours and hours working on getting our wedding invites done yesterday. There was a lot of double-checking and cross-checking of various lists, a trip to the Paper Source, and a lot of envelope stuffing. We're finally done though and I think that all guests have been accounted for! I'm taking them to the post office in an hour so that I can have them weighed to make sure they don't need additional postage, and then they're off! What a relief.

Buttery Salmon and Gooey Chocolate Cake

2005-05-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

Tonight Matt and I went to dinner at Delfina with some friends. They're actually family friends, Matt's mom's best friend's son and his wife. We've never done anything with them before but we've always said that we should, so we did. I really like Rachel, the wife, and I'd like to be better friends with her so this was a good little get together. It was also a yummy dinner. Delfina is always called one of the best restaraunts in San Francisco (where there are ALOT of fantastic restaraunts) and no one had been there before except for me, so we went. I have to say that the gooey chocolate cake was my favorite. It was an individual sized cake on a plate drizzled with vanilla cream and the middle of it was all gooey and melty. Are you jealous yet? You should be!
Aside from that, I'm officially obsessed with my new project. I do realize that this thing is going to take weeks but I can't help but work on it every minute I can. It's a little pathetic, but it's true. Here's my progress so far.

I'm a little worried that it's not going to fit her, but I can't stop! I'm going to make it anyways and hope hope hope that it does. I'm just not one of those girls that can rip something out. For some reason I would rather spend a whole month on it and then complain that it's not what I expected...this of course drives Matt crazy. Oh well! He better prepare himself for this one!

New Stuff

2005-05-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Today Matt and I met our minister for the first time. He's actually a monk, but I don't think we're supposed to say that "today we met our monk..." so whatever, you get the picture. Anyways, he is a very nice man with a lot to talk about and he really helped us to get the ceremony all figured out. We need that every now and then.

We also went to Clement Street, which my grandmother calls "New Chinatown" because it has all kinds of Chinese veggie, meat, and generally asian kind of shops and restaraunts. I like Clement Street alot. Matt got some dim sum at Good Luck Dim Sum and I watched him eat it so that I could go down the street and get a Pineapple Bun. A Pineapply Bun is basically a really dense sweet bun with a sugary crackly top, and I'm not quite sure why it's called a Pineapple Bun because there's no trace of Pineapple. It's very yummy regardless.

Our third and last stop was the knitting store, which I had been looking forward to all day. I started Georgine's tank top (thanks to Alexa, my new cousin-to-be) and I needed a set of 29" size six needles. I also wanted to wind up my yarn on the winder. But the most exciting point of my story is that Helen, the owner of Urban Knitting Studio, GAVE me the needles I wanted plus some yarn that I was eyeing! I couldn't be more happy with Helen right now, that was so nice.

This is a picture of my new yarn, needles, and wound up ball of tank top yarn

This is a picture of my tank top project so far

Warm and Fuzzy

2005-05-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Well, my friend Syrette has made up for all of the times that she's looked at my blog and not posted a comment. Yeah for Syrette! What a great picture of the Ipod cozy! So cute.

I really do knit, really

2005-05-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

I was looking over some of my recent posts and I realized that you may have forgotten that this is a knitting blog! Most of my recent projects have been boring and unadventurous because I'm feeling really stuck since I haven't bought any new yarn lately. I just don't know how what I can do with all of my stash (and there is quite a lot of it, let me tell you!) so I've been limiting myself to safe little projects like hats and scarves. This weekend I did make an ipod cozy, but I was too excited to give it to it's (very lucky) recipient and I didn't take a picture of it. This is where I found the pattern. But rather than use a piece of plastic sleeve like the pattern calls for I used a rubbery ipod screen that Matt had. I found this to be a much easier way to achieve the correct size for the screen and they come in a bunch of colors. I used pink, of course. Maybe my friend Syrette will send a picture of it so that I can put it on my sidebar of finished projects, hint, hint.
A couple of weeks ago I also made a scarf for my friend Amanda. I haven't woven in the ends or blocked it yet, but here's a picture

For some reason I always close my eyes for digital pictures, so I decided that for this one I'd just avoid the frustration of taking ten pictures until I get a good one and squint. In case you were wondering.

Next up is a simple rolled-edge baby hat I made for a future baby...I'm not quite sure which future baby, but I was trying to use up this yarn.

I think it's a Debbie Bliss cotton yarn, but I can't remember for sure.

Lastly, this is a chemo cap I made for my mom's friend. She's going to begin treatment soon and she lives in Hawaii, so I chose a nice cotton yarn from Manos De Uruguay so that she won't be too hot when she wears her hat.

I like the color of this yarn, and it's so nice to knit with!

So there you have it, actual proof that I knit and I have been knitting. For my next project I want to make Matt's mom a tank top with some yarn that I took from her stash. Since I don't have the money to buy my own yarn I told her that I'd take some from the giant bag of yarn that she doesn't use and make something for her (I didn't just steal it, if that's what you were wondering). Anyways, now I can't find a good pattern. I like this one from Knitty.com, but I don't know how to make it using yarn with a different gauge. I'm terrified of spending a ton of time on it and then finding that it doesn't fit her. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Bad Blogger

2005-05-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

When I first started my blog a couple of months ago I think it was a subconcious extension of my procrastination techniques. I have always been a really excellent procrastinator and somehow knitting, planning a wedding, keeping up with friends, and finding a job just wasn't enough to keep me away from my homework. All of the sudden, I have now begun to procrastinate on my blog! I haven't posted for several days, yet I continue to look at my blog daily and think to myself how I need to blog. It really is a pathetic cycle.
Today I'm working on my research paper and therefore blogging has been looking real good. I'm to page five already, so maybe with some serious attention I can get close to finishing it today.
I thought I'd leave you with something fun since I don't have any good pictures to post. This is a link to the very lovely wedding band that we've hired to play at our reception.

Back in the groove

2005-05-03T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,
I was gone all weekend and now that I'm home I just haven't found any time to post! We're just finishing up with the wedding invites and I've conveniently waited until today to begin research for a 10 page paper that is due next Monday. I guess I'll have to spend some time in the library today...
Back later,
Ginny

Look, I'm a Rasta

2005-04-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a photo of my new Rasta Hat

So much for making up my own patterns, that is unless I start selling my wares on Haight Street. At least this one won't matte down my new haircut!

We also finished our wedding invitations today, or at least the printing part. We had started before but we had a little mishap with the placement of the design on the paper so we had to do it over again. I'm relieved to have this taken care of...but we have a lot more work to do! We've still got to mount the cream-colored cards onto a green card, line the envelopes with paper that we haven't bought yet, write and print the inserts, and address them. No problem! I can't wait to address 150 envelopes!

Here is a nice little photo of the invites

Done and Done!

2005-04-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm finally done with my project after four whole days of drafting, gluing, typing, and drafting and drafting. I finished ten minutes before I had to leave for class, wonderful.

This is my elevation, I named the house "Hale Pa'ina" which might mean Party House in Hawaiian but I highly doubt it...but my teacher will never know the difference anyways.

This is my plan

Now I am going to go watch the Amazing Race, drink a glass of wine, and get some sleep so that I can spend all day tomorrow Print Gocco-ing our wedding invitations.
Ciao.

The Current State of Affairs

2005-04-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

My procrastinating has reached its highest point this weekend, and the accelerated heartbeat has set in. I have a big project due on Tuesday night (tomorrow) for my Interior Design class and I have a LOT left to do. That probably means that I shouldn't be blogging, but staying on focus has never been my strong suit. Here I am.
The biggest problem so far is that part of the project is a two-point perspective drawing of the living room interior of my "dream house". Who the hell thinks that you can teach two-point perspective in an hour? This is completely ridiculous and I have no problem blaming all of my frustration on my teacher..because I'm convinced that she's in a walking coma and she lives in a dream world herself.
What I have left to do:
1. An elevation of the exterior view of the house.
2. Finish the 2 pt. perspective drawing (which I've already spent two days on and it doesn't even look that good)
3. Write a little ditty about the house and who's going to use it, what for, etc.
4. Mount all drawings onto Mat board with spray glue, which is an event in itself if you're familiar with spray glue.
5. Type up room names and apply them to the plan drawing.
6. Make it pretty so that I'm not embarrassed when I have to hold it up in front of the class.
Plus, I have school tonight and tomorrow morning.
This is what my 2 pt. perspective drawing looks like right now:

Wish me luck!

In other news, Matt apparently doesn't read my blog which means that I now have free reign to write anything I want to about him and he'll have no clue. I find this power very exciting. I waited all day yesterday to recieve some kind of punishment for posting a picture of him hugging a stuffed dog, but nothing happened.

Also, I've recently learned that I have some daily readers that aren't stepping up to the plate and commenting....Matt Grace, that's you. Get your Sushi-eating ass together and write me a note sometime, will ya?

Okay, if I'm gonna watch Oprah at Four I'd better get back to work.