where have you been, dear bloggy-poo?

looking back at my most recent entry, i can see what happened here. it was a few days after this august 2006 post that i found out i was pregnant, and i promptly lost all sense of time and space. more than one year later, i am happily carving out craft time while my daughter naps or is otherwise entertained by her papa or her bouncy chair. so many things have changed! it has been quite a journey.

i don't even know where to start. i have been doing my best to work on projects here and there, which have included the darling wee jacket from amy karol's book which the peanut wore to her baptism a couple of weeks ago, several summery baby dresses, a bunting, two diaper bags, several pairs of knitted pants...it's been pretty good.

i have also amassed a metric ton of crafting books. i'm not sure what happened there. somewhere around month six of the pregnancy i decided that i would never have another opportunity to casually leaf through a craft book for the rest of my life, so i went crazy and wiped out half of my wish list. (the truth is, now that things have settled, i have plenty of time for coffee and colorful craft photos. thank god.) i've also got quite a collection of japanese crafty books...it's pretty crazy. we didn't find out whether we were having a boy or a girl, and once she arrived i was more than ready to collect tons of book with patterns for girly clothes.

here's a sort of out of focus photo of my second nappy bag, from the famous pattern, seen here. i had adrian reduce it by 10% just to make it different from the giant summary one that i had already made.



the fabric is joel dewberry - i love it.



and here is my "works in progress pile" - yikes. with our first halloween looming, i need to get in gear. wish me luck!

this has gone far enough

tomorrow is my last day working at the scene shop. and i think that i'm glad. i have really been missing my time alone in the morning, not to mention my free fridays. but just when i thought i could relax back into the old routine, someone in my office decides to take next week off. so i'm working full time once again. DAMN YOUSE!!!!!!!!!

since i am woefully behind in my blogging, i will simply say that you haven't missed much. i haven't done anything. except for this:



some lovely new pajamas for a little birthday girl. here she is:



well...that's a good representation of what we saw of her, anyway. what can i say...the girl loves to party.

other than that, i have been sleeping and dreaming up projects for the free time that i know is just around the corner. i have big plans for our new bedroom, and a fresh quilt to go with it. (after cutting 1800 silk shingles without stabbing someone in the throat, i am fairly certain that i have the patience to attempt a quilt)

also, an amazing little package found its way to my doorstep this week. check out the goods:



oh my! my lace swap pal must really love me! not one, but TWO 1260 yard balls of jaggerspun zephyr wool-silk from sarah's yarns in teal and lady slipper, PLUS a ton of sample cards and the pattern for a shawl! PLUS, there is still another package on its way, direct from my pal, who has still not revealed herself. i am beside myself. this is just so generous. so thank you, sweet pal, whoever you are!

that's all for now. i am so excited for the three-day weekend. i am hoping to have nothing to do on sunday and monday, and hopefully that will give me time to catch up on housework, knitting, cleaning, purging and planning the new bedroom. one can hope.

where have you been all of my life

i can't even begin to describe how BUSY i have been over the last couple of weeks. and there are no signs that anything will be slowing down. i am pretty tired, but still trying to keep up with chores and swaps and craftiness. it's tough!

there is no way i will be able to recall everything that has happened during the recent weeks, but here are some highlights:


spending three days here with my best friend...


crepes and lemonade on the streets of new york for breakfast...


lots of shopping (and shopping and shopping)...


fake bags and impromptu street carnivals...


getting the opportunity to work on this...


making dinners at home...

the dashboard show was great, and i got to meet ben lee which was a thrill to say the least. i've been listening to his stuff since i was 15. he is very sweet, and a great performer. if he is ever in your area, you must check him out! he is hilarious.

whilst in new york, i had the great pleasure of spending some quality time at mood fabrics which, for those of you who don't know, is the fabric shop that all of the little goons from project runway frequent. i was in heaven! we spent quite a bit of time in the fashion district, and i got some very cool treasures. good times. we even went down to soho and i got to shop at purl - it was so much fun! i think that three days is just enough time in the city for us. adrian was getting claustrophobic, and i was getting moody. it was just a wonderful getaway.

everything has been going well. i am super excited for the fair which starts tomorrow night with the demolition derby, which we will be attending with guerry and colin. good times, i tell you. we will probably go for the day on saturday. i need some fried dough. and one of those awesome wraps that i had with kate last year. YUM. then it's miss molly's birthday on sunday. i cannot believe that she will be two years old. i'm working on a special project for her which i will happily show off after her party.

i will most likely be MIA until next weekend. my schedule is super-tight until i am done with the overhire stuff, which should be another week or two. the money has been worth it. (although it doesn't help when i spend said money on fabric and a new pair of scissors...oops...)

more to come!

lazy friday

i'm feeling quite sleepy today. i really don't feel like doing much of anything. but this is my last free friday for the rest of the month, so i need to use it well.

starting on monday, i'm going to be working at the soft goods shop at adirondack. they are pretty swamped and they need help pinning and cutting patterns. so i'll be working there in the morning, and at the regular job in the afternoons. plus, one of my co-workers is taking every friday of the month off, so i'll also be working fridays! it will be nice to have a bit of extra money, but i hope that i don't become too wiped out.



check out my new sink! finally installed, after sitting in the dining room for two months! it is shiny and wonderful, and i especially love the new faucet which is also a super-powered sprayer.



look at that glistening eggplant! i'm going to turn it into eggplant parmesan this morning. i will probably freeze it for later use. yummy.

adrian is getting ready to replace five of our windows tomorrow (again, after having the windows sit in the dining room for weeks and weeks), and i have to say, i am quite excited. most of the old windows don't open, so it will be nice to let some fresh air in here!

i have a few sewing projects on my plate for this afternoon. a couple of pouches and a cover fo my checkbook. and i intend to cast on branching out. so excited. i may also place a small knitpicks order...we'll see. i would also like to make some vanilla ice cream to go with the cookie bars, which pretty much exploded. all of the chocolate chips melted and turned the middle to goo. i thought that i had undercooked it, but i think it was just so freaking humid out that it messed everything up. so i'm going to microwave them and put vanilla ice cream on them. which sounds pretty darn good to me.

i've got to go grab my laundry from the drier and get to work. i hope that everyone enjoys a much cooler weekend!

happy birthday, MTV

we had a very nice and relaxing weekend, involving the regular chores, dining with good friends, magic carpet rides in my kitchen, "lady in the water", a search for a wood shed and lots of interesting dollar store candy. and i finally got an organizer for my thread collection, which has really shown me that i need to stop buying the same exact shade of light blue thread. because i have several.

i was feeling inspired on sunday night, so i whipped up a bag to hold my knitting.





the design is my own creation, inspired by a similar bag made by my great-grandmother that my mom uses for her knitting. i'm not totally crazy about the bamboo handles, but they were the best choice from the selection at joanns. i can deal. i am loving how huge the bag is, because i can fit several projects inside of it. it would also be ideal for carting around an afghan. sweet.

and what is sitting inside of this lovely granny sack?



oh, hello samus! how are you?

i'm pretty pleased with the progress that i've made so far. i just wish it wasn't so humid, because i'm really in the mood to work on it.

tomorrow is adrian's birthday, and he has requested cookie squares. that's my project for the morning. plus a quick stop at the post office. gag. i really need to get a scale so that i can print postage off of the computer. because i am really starting to hate going there twice a week.

oh! next weekend is our big trip to the city! i can't wait. we still need to pick out some restaurants, so any suggestions are more than welcome. i hope that everyone keeps cool today. it's still a bit overcast from the morning rain...here's wishing it would stay like this all week.

technical difficulties

it's been an interesting week. our computer suddenly became paralyzed, and was out of commission for most of last week. so we had to buy a new hard drive. which wasn't that bad. adrian installed it a couple of nights ago, and there are still a few things to put back on, including all of my photos. so far, it has been working much better, which we are both very happy about.

i didn't get much done in the way of crafting last week. mostly i cleaned and organized (my favorites) and put some books and CDs on half.com. next we're going through the DVD pile...it's so much fun to get rid of things. i just need to motivate myself to get rid of the giant bag of clothing that has been sitting in the middle of the bedroom floor for two months. it will happen.

i got some really great mail last week, including the rest of my amazon order, a very sweet thank-you note from marion, some gift card rewards from my discover card (i just love having gift cards lying around. it's like a special treat when you are totally broke.) and my delightful PURPLE colorswap package from the delightful emily, whose blog is very cool. check out the goods:



she hand-painted that yarn herself! and she made that purple paper herself, too! the bag of beads is just amazing...so inspiring! and who doesn't love bubbles...thank you so much, emily! it was such a great treat to find this at my doorstep!

i have made some good progress with samus, and i am feeling confident that i just may finish him before october. i am itching to cast on branching out, but also, i have about three different sock patterns that i need to get going on for christmas gifts (yes, i am thinking about christmas already. don't even get me started on the anticipation for the new hallmark ornaments...i have problems.). not to mention the fact that i am now a proud owner of a nintendo DS, which has been plenty distracting over the last two days. i'm making sketches for a little carrier for it, so at least it has inspired me to try my hand at pattern-making.

plus there is a big cross-stitch project in my craft folio that i bought for our anniversary. i think it has 36 different colors of floss to it, so just gathering the supplies is going to take some organization.

with all of this work to do, why am i sitting here? time to get busy...

project wrap-ups and ice cream, too

i have been quite busy over the last few days. mostly it's been wrapping up projects and cleaning. and melting in the crazy heat.

i finally finished my summer dress. the zipper is still a bit questionable at the top, but i still think it came out pretty well.



it's very comfy and lightweight. it still needs a belt or a sash of some sort.



do you love the baby tees i made for marion's shower? i made them with scraps from the teddy bear. she died over the martini shirt, and she wants me to make her a matching one!

i have also had some really good mail over the past few days. a small order from amazon with this and this, the new martha, and an amazing package of goodness from the lovely emily in japan. check it out:



so many goodies! craft magazines, stickers, socks, candies and treats...and some very cool blank puzzles that you can fill in, break up and mail to your friends to put back together. thank you again, emily. everything is wonderful. you should be getting your goodies this week!

last night i made a big dinner of steak au poivre, homemade shoestring fries, and lemon butter broccolini. i also made this:



some most delicious nutella gelatto...oh...my...god... it was still a bit soft after dinner, so i popped it back in the freezer to enjoy tonight instead. but we had a few spoonfulls and it was just divine.

this week is looking pretty tame on the crafting front, due to the extreme heat, which always brings on the extreme laziness. i've got some organizational things to take care of anyways. i've come up with a couple of good ideas for the craft fair circuit, so hopefully i'll be able to get some prototypes together and start mass producing in time for the fall. so much to think about.

i have a doctors appointment this morning. ugh. so it's time to get moving. i hope that everyone had a nice monday!