Quirk

I seem to enjoy labeling pictures on my blog as "exhibits". Maybe I should have been a lawyer.

Things About Milwaukee That Make Me Happy

My computer didn't want to download the pictures from our trip, but technical difficulties are over. So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the full photo-version of:
Things About Milwaukee That Make Me

Happy!!!!!!!



(I'm not limiting this list to ten because I think it's possible I'm going to come up with more than ten things. Plus, I gotta show range.)

1. Visiting old friends! K & B have a beautiful house with a cool yard and a kooky neighbor (well, a retired man they dubbed "Mr. McGregor" due to his pristine garden and the rabbits that like to frequent it). If I haven't told them enough, thank you thank you thank you!!!! We had the best time and you guys went above and beyond to be the best hosts ever! Thank you!
   
2. Crazy Cats. Martin and Lewis, our gracious host's cats are prone to wacky antics like sneaking into our room despite J's allergy, crawling into baskets and having wrestling matches that you can dub over in funny voices.
   


3. BEER!!! We drank a lot of it. And all the beer we drank was made in Wisconsin, if not in Milwaukee itself making our experience extremely authentic. We left wondering if we could ever drink imported beer again.



4. The Miller Factory. It is massive and pretty amazing. We had the first of our Milwaukee beers there, because it is J's favorite beer. K and J had debates on the merits of "Lite" versus "high life". I think we all know who won:
   
   There was more beer at the Miller Factory then you can even imagine- football fields worth of beer that leave within a day. Frankly, this picture doesn't even do the big-room-o-beer justice:
   
   
1. Miller Sub Topic: Free (postage included) postcards: Yes, at the Miller Factory you can write out and have the gigantic mega-corporation mail out (free of charge) as many postcards as you can think of address for. Not knowing all that many addresses between us, J and I decided to send ourselves a card, and K and I each wrote out a card to a random student at our Alma Mater. Some other prominent US residents may have gotten a post card as well. Next time I'm bringing my address book!
   
5. Lakefront Brewery!!! (Brief interruption to note that I'm already on number five and in Milwaukee-time it's still "Day 1") Lakefront was not only a brewery tour, but an opportunity for drunken debauchery with a fish fry and polka. So it pretty much had everything. You pay five dollars and the nice people at Lakefront give you a plastic cup-
   Exhibit A:
   
   Then you start the tour by filling up the cup. You are encouraged to refill your cup throughout the tour at will. During the first 5-10 minutes, you can go back to the first tap, but after that you might want to jog ahead to the next tap. I missed the middle of the tour. Whoops! Luckily, this just means that I got first look at all the Brewer's paraphernalia from the old stadium:
   
   After the tour ended with a rousing rendition of the Laverne and Shirley theme song, complete with glove-on-beer bottle
   
   we were off to...
1. Lakefront Sub Topic: the Fish Fry! Fried fish, polka dancing, bubble machines and voucher coupons that we forgot about! What could be better?
   
2. Lakefront Sub Topic: Melissa! No clue who she was, but we had a great time joking around with her, polka-ing with her and toasting with her. Plus she gave us our chorus for the rest of the weekend: "Heyyyyyy!!!!" Clink!
   
6. The Milwaukee Art Museum. It was raining, so I didn't get a shot of the outside (and there was water on my lens, so my inside shots have a spot!), but the architecture was amazing and there was the biggest wedding I have ever seen in my entire life was being set up. I am envious of all the women I saw getting their wedding photos shot around that museum. We didn't stay to see an exhibit, but just stopping by the building was totally worth it.
   
7. Alterra Coffee. Great coffee shop. Fun location. Makes even airplane coffee bearable. So happy. The perfect stop on a rainy day.
   
8. Watching baseball in the pouring, miserable rain! Yes, our trip to Milwaukee was marred by poor weather. Luckily for us, Miller Stadium has a dome. We had field level seats in which to watch the Brewers kick butt and WIN! K & B even gifted us with gear, so we looked the part of good Brewer's fans when we watched the cheerleaders do their thing. Yeah, I don't really get the whole cheerleaders at a baseball game thing either, but there you go.
   
1. Brewer's Game sub topic: Sausage Race! No, not that. Get your mind out of the gutter! At Brewer's Stadium, in addition to a man who is dressed up like a viking and goes down a slide every time there's a home run as seen in Exhibit B:
   
   there are human sized sausages, with faces, competing in a foot race. Bratwurst versus Chorizo . Polish Sausage versus Italian Sausage. Hotdog versus everyone. Though it is a shame that delicious meats have to compete in this way for my amusement (can't we all just get along?), and the odds were on Polish Sausage (crowd favorite with 26% of the text messaging public betting on it) I went with the long shot Chorizo (only garnering a modest 12% of the vote) and we WON! Whoo!!! Yes, you heard that right. Not only did the Brewers kick serious butt, but so did Chorizo. Could a baseball game be any better??? Here's a picture as he edged in for the win:
   
9. Homemade Indian Food. K & B are braver cooks than I and made us an Indian feast, complete with mango lassi and local beer. We ran around dancing and singing while cooking, and ended up with the most beautiful table ever which was captured forever in this photograph. Please enjoy this picture- it took a while to compose properly. I had to force K to pull out her tripod so I could get a clear shot in the low-light conditions. And yes, this dinner was as delicious and elegant and fun as it looks.
   
10. 
    The sign says it all. The world's finest frozen custard. In fact, I suggest you get on a plane right this second and go to Milwaukee and get yourself a hot fudge sundae with pecans and extra cherries from Leon's. You would not regret that plane ticket at all. Don't quite believe me? It can't be that good? Doubters, I give you...
    Before:
    
    After:
    
    Makes me want to get on a plane right now... Especially because on the plane, you get the final reason that Milwaukee makes me happy:
11. Homemade Cookie on the Plane.Yes, midflight the good people at Midwest offer you two delicious, fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies. And when you notice that the crazy people around you are refusing theirs, and you make a comment to the flight attendant about how strange that is, you might end up with an extra! Pair that with a little Alterra coffee, and you might just come up with the best airline experience ever. Keep your fingers crossed that any airline takeovers won't mess up this good thing!
    

In conclusion, there are many, many things about Milwaukee that make me very, very happy. Being happy is nice. I totally recommend it. Maybe the next time I visit one more thing that makes me happy will happen, and it will be sunny! Sadly it rained most of the time we were there. After our rainy trip to Barcelona earlier in the year, we're beginning to think we're cursed!

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Stuipdest Idea Ever

Uh, change the shape and kids will drink more water? Lame.

http://www.aquapod.com/

Especially in light of recent news awareness about bottled water and it's effect on the environment (and seeing how the US has some of the best tap water in the world), it seems morally reprehensible that companies are marketing bottled water directly to children. Do they really think that a "new orbatstic shape" makes boring old Poland Spring bottle so exciting that kids won't be able to keep their dirty little mitts off of it? Shame on you Nestle.

Now, I'm all about kids drinking more water. At work I see kids drinking sugary crap all the time. But as a society, is this really the best we can do? In college it was encouraged to be environmentally friendly in your drinking habits. Why can't we get the younger generation in those same healthy habits?

Of course, I'm not entirely blameless here. I still drink bottled water myself, though I do try to recycle my water bottles, both personally (I almost always use them more than once, braving toxins from the plastic) and in the bigger picture (NYC recycles!). I should follow the good example of my good friend S, however, and make it a point to carry around a grown-up version of my good ol' enviro-mug.

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Pet Peeve

When I open my oven and go to move some food around and the mascara on my eyelashes melt together.

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We're gonna make our dreams come true. Doin' it our way

This coming weekend, my husband and I are going where the greats have gone before us (See: Laverne and Shirley, Gene Wilder, Frederick Pabst, Fredrick Miller, Joseph Schiltz and Valentine Blatz!!) and heading to Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

You may ask, "Milwaukee? Why????"

In fact, we get that a lot. (You can picture my very pretty friend and Milwaukee resident K sticking her tongue out at you here for deigning to ask such a question). Firstly and foremostly, we're going to visit the above mentioned K and her husband B (names have been adjusted to initials to protect the innocent). Secondly, we're going because of my husband's love of baseball stadiums. We have sweet tickets to Saturday's game of the Brewers versus the Reds and number 7 clicked off the list.

Thirdly, we're going for the beer.

I have never really liked beer. In college I had a wicked "beer face" that I made whenever I tried to take a little itty bitty sip of beer. My lips would pucker and my eyes would close and my entire countenance was one of unhappiness. However, in the past ten years or so since I first developed my face, I have become much more tolerant towards beer. One might even go so far as to say that I like it.

I attribute this change in tastes to my brief sojourn in Bath, England where the beverage of choice is beer. However, like most of the other women on my trip, I would order pints of British cider. Unlike American cider, which tastes more akin to a malt beverage than a beer; British cider is very dry (which is easily remedied by having your local barkeeper add "black" or black currant syrup-- called a "cider and black" yum!) and resembles beer more than it resembles the apple-y goodness of Woodchuck. While in Bath I fancied myself as something of a cider connoisseur, adjusting my palate so I preferred the sharpness of Blackthorn to the smoothness of Strongbow, and weaning myself off of the currant syrup. By the time I got back to the States and tried to continue my cider obsession there, I found I couldn't. Some people will argue that American beer is inferior to English and Irish beers. I would argue that it is more the cider that can not stand up to the Brits. And so began my slow decent to becoming a beer-drinker.

Once graduated from college and working an entry-level job, this trend strengthened. Back up at my good ol' alma mater, a trip to the bar for an evening of mixed drinks would cost you $6-$10 and get you throughly hammered. A basic Vodka Cranberry would cost a whopping $2 ($2.50 if you were all fancy and wanted Absolute or some such pretension) and be 90% vodka, 10% cranberry. But down in NYC, one single vodka cranberry costs at least $6 and is not nearly as potent, whereas you can buy a domestic beer for a piddling $4! So, beer it is!

Nowadays I tend to order wine or beer instead of standing at the bar perplexed, contemplating exactly what fancy drink I want to order (though my drinks of choice are: Vodka Cranberry with lime juice; Jack and Ginger; Rum and Coke with lime juice; or anything that they can put a cherry in), annoying the barkeeper and all of the friends I am with. I'm still a kind of wussy beer drinker, but I know what I like and what I don't. I don't like the flavor of hops (!?!) so I prefer Lagers to Ales. I don't like dark beers. I will happily sit with my husband and down Miller Lites (sic) in perfect bliss. On fancy occasions I'll go all out and order a Stella or a Harp.
But if on tap I see the siren draw of Blackthorn or Strongbow ciders, I smile in contentment, knowing this is a true Irish pub and I sigh in a blissful way and go back to my roots.

So Milwaukee, we're looking forward to coming. We plan to eat Brats, drink beer and watch baseball like locals...

Give us any chance we'll take it.

Give us any rule, we'll break it.



When I return, I promised K that I would post on the top 10 awesome things about Milwaukee. But in the meantime I have a few other posts up my sleeve...

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Ten Awesome Things About Vermont

Warning: I can only think of about 3 awesome things about Vermont offhand. That means that some of these awesome things are going to be stretches, and might not be altogether awesome. Sadly, "Three Awesome Things About Vermont" just doesn't have the same ring to it... They are listed in order of "perhaps not so awesome" (#10)- to "definitely awesome" (#1). So now that you've been properly warned, I give you....

Ten Awesome Things About Vermont


10: There are no billboards in Vermont. I did not really notice this offhand, but this website swears to it, and now that I think back on it, I kind of agree with them!

9: There is great outlet shopping in Vermont, where I got two awesome pairs of pants and a cute pair of shoes.

8: Vermont has interestingly shaped trees (I told you this was going to be a stretch).



7: There aren't too many roads in Vermont, so if you get horribly lost at 10'oclock at night, it's not too hard to figure out where you're supposed to go (not that we would know from personal experience or anything...).

6: Vermont has the Simon Pierce Glass Company where you can visit and watch as guys make wineglasses and say, "Huh, maybe that $50 per glass price tag is kind of reasonable seeing how it takes 3 guys ten minutes a glass...." They are also environmentally friendly, making their own sustainable electricity by dam.

5: Vermont is easily drivable from NYC. This makes it an easy weekend getaway without feeling like we're somewhere we've been fifty million times before.

4: Vermont's off-peak season is summer! Take that all you suckers who wait to see the beautiful fall foliage and great skiing! We got a bed and breakfast to ourselves and lovely weather to go boating, swimming and to sit and relax with a good book and friendly inn-keepers on the front porch!

3: Vermont has fun breweries like Long Trail and Harpoon. We would have liked to have gone to Magic Hat as well, but it was too far away. And might I say that Long Trail has a very good lunch menu with generous sizes, including hot wings.

2: Vermont has beautiful nature! Every so often I would look around and just sigh about how pretty everything was. Yea nature!

1: Vermont has street signs that tell you how far away popular destinations are. It was awesome. We would be ready to keep an eye out for a turn or a road when all of the sudden, there would be a sign announcing the exact destination we were looking for. It was surprisingly like a road-trip business plan that Brianna and I had envisioned during a particularity nerve wracking trip from school to NYC.

The worst thing about Vermont is that things close really early-- we went into Woodstock, VT at 5:30 on a Saturday and the only things open were a coffee/tea shop (which was super cute, but was closing any second) and a restaurant/bar. Luckily, this gave us a good excuse to drink yummy local beer (see awesome thing #3).

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And the verdict is...

"Best year old cake I've ever had"-- Joe

Yes, ladies and gents, eating our wedding cake 364 days later was an amazing experience. We commented that it was a shame that we didn't freeze *all* of the leftover cupcakes so that we could have enjoyed this delicious cake once a month since the wedding, instead of just once, a year later.

We were about to leave for our fun filled anniversary weekend in Vermont when we realized that if we didn't eat the cake now, it would not get eaten. It had already sat in our refrigerator for a week and likely would not truly last the 3 days until our return. It seemed fairly sketchy to eat it at this point, as my previous entry attests to. So, as we had not yet eaten breakfast and were about to leave, I made the executive decision that breakfast would be year old cake. The gauntlet was drawn, our mission was clear, and so I procured two cake forks and a plate and proceeded to unwrap the half eaten cake that had been sitting in various freezers and refrigerators for the past year. Luckily for you, at this point I remembered to take pictures.

Exhibit A: Slightly smushed year old cake



Sitting at the dining room table, forks poised cautiously over the cake, neither of us knew what to expect. Little did we think that the outcome would have ended up so delicious. The cake was so good-- moist and chocolaty and the icing was sweet but not cloying. We were both surprisingly happy that both the cake had been saved and that we were eating it. We gave each other warnings that perhaps we should not eat a lot of the year old cake. It might not agree with my somewhat delicate stomach I mentioned as I ate yet another forkful.


Finally, willpower overcame our cake eating instincts and we discarded the remainder of our wedding cake and headed out on our vacation. Keep tuned in for my next installment:

10 Awesome things about Vermont

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To Cake or Not to Cake

Right now in my refrigerator resides a year old piece of cake. Though I am sadly neglect when it comes to cleaning out old food and sometimes unearth wilted herbs and moldy fruit (hey, that's my dirt, not OPD!) this cake is not an unwitting science experiment. It has traveled many miles, from Geneva, NY to Long Island, NY to Catskill, NY and finally back down to good old Queens to sit in my refrigerator, waiting for my husband and I to take a bite of the cake we ate a year ago on our wedding day.

As you can imagine, year old cake does not inspire confidence in consumption. We received this cake from my inlaws (who have generously volunteered their freezer to its cause for the past year) on Saturday, and it has been sitting there, with it's smushed icing and chocolaty cake mocking me for the past four days. Which of course, harkens yet another question: How long does defrosted year old cake last in your refrigerator anyway? On one hand, it's a year old... is a few more days really going to hurt? But on the other hand, uh, it's a year old. Well, almost at least. Maybe sooner is better than later in terms of the eating. Don't want it to go... stale?

Though this cake was utterly wonderful on our wedding day-- so good that on our way out of the venue to the post-party (which was basically just beers at Odells-- aka flashback to 1998) I grabbed two cupcakes (best cake-option ever. Much neater to grab on your way out of the party in a gluttonous cake-double-fisting move) to nosh on on the ride home-- I am having serious doubts that it will be that delicious the second time around. Do I really want to taint my beautiful cake-binging memories? And of course, having this dilemma in the first place brings up serious "where in the hell did thiswacked up tradition come from anyway???"

My friends know me as something of a crazy wedding etiquette and tradition junkie due to my obsessive reading of indiebride , yet I can not think of anything I've read that tells where this crazy tradition came from-- and why my mom and MIL thought it was a perfectly logical one to keep, despite our somewhat a-traditional wedding. So, thanks to the unending amazingness of the internet after a few easy clicks, I seem to have come up with an answer....

The traditional wedding cake, often found in England, is the fruitcake. I think you can find adequate proof for this in the Briget Jones books. Brides (and I suppose grooms too) would traditionally save the top tier of this cake to save for the baptism of their first child... which would come no longer than 12 months after the blissful day they were wed. At least, this is the answer I got at yahoo answers, and the person who answered that question sourced www.traditionalbride.com. Take from that what you will, but it seems pretty darn logical to me...

But as the husband and I don't have any christenings to plan as of this week, and our half a mini-cake would make a piss-poor christening cake, our cake remains what it started as-- a cold, edible enigma. Wish us luck as we attempt to eat year old cake and stave off food poisoning...

I'll add some pictures of our cake when I get less lazy and get my ass off of the couch.


As a side note, this post was the first I have done in my new firefox addon of Scribefire. It is awesome, as it keeps the internet in the top frame for easy access surfing of wedding related trivia as I blog. Can you imagine a more perfect world?

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Other People's Dirt

I have never been known as a "neat" person. Dirt really doesn't bother me in the slightest. In high school I was infamous for my room, where you could not see the floor for all the clothing strewn about. So you can imagine my surprise when after my recent move I discovered my extreme distaste for what I deemed "other people's dirt" (henceforth known as OPD).

I have, of course, encountered OPD in my life. I've lived in a total of three NYC apartments before buying this one, each coming with their own bits of dirt and grossness. However, the first two apartments had a definite sense of transience to them, as we were on year-long leases, and I don't think any of us thought of those apartments as long-term homes. Then, when I left the roommate-situation to live with my then-boyfriend/now-husband in his digs, all OPD was replaced by his dirt, which I could handle. But now in our Jackson Heights home, I was horrified by all the OPD I encountered.

We didn't have any down time between moving and closing, so we immediately started sleeping on an air-mattress while painting. I didn't like being on the floor and that close to OPD. While my husband primed every room in the apartment from it's neon hues, I started attacking the bathroom and then the kitchen with a bleach based spray, ridding all surfaces I could find of OPD so that it would be okay to shower/use the toilet/cook/store food. This involved removing all the shelves from all of the cabinets and scrubbing all of the hinges. Removing the (only two) drawers and scrubbing them inside and out. After I had done, my husband glanced under the sink and remarked that he had never seen under a sink look so clean. I refrained from remarking that was because under the sink at his apartment was kind of gross... especially because it had been my apartment too.

Now that the apartment feels more like "ours", and we've painted every vertical surface in the place, I don't really worry too much about Other People's Dirt. Though it's probably out there, lurking in corners and by molding. Perhaps tomorrow I will pull out the vacuum and start with the crevice tool...

Is it judgemental to think a stripper looks like one or: Roosevelt Island- Looks like Ithaca or small European town?

Today I was at a seminar @ 67th between York and 1st. Instead of taking the subway at 68th home and having to switch, I decided to take a little walk to the 59th street stop and get a straight shoot home. On my way down 1st avenue, as I looked at menus of promising restaurants and enjoyed the first beautiful day of summer I noticed a woman dressed quite unlike pretty much everyone else. She was wearing black fishnets, black knee-high boots and hotpants-- I swear, though I had never seen anyone wear hotpants in public (well, for full disclosure or in private) before. And of course, the first thought in my head was the quite judgmental "wow, what is she a stripper or something?" Not two minutes later we rounded the corner onto 60th street and she walked into Scores. It was kind of impressive.

Walking over to 2nd Avenue I looked up and realized that I have never taken the Roosevelt Island Tram before. I like to pride myself on doing all those low-cost or free NYC experiences, but this is one I have not gotten to experience yet. Having recently moved to Jackson Heights, I can now take the F train home-- which just happens to stop on Roosevelt Island. Being pretty sure that the tram was a metro card ride (it was!) I started up the stairs and waited for the tram to appear. It came pretty quickly, and I found a nice place to stand. I looked at the guy standing next to me, and I smiled. He said hi to me and then I realized it was my oncologist! I made small talk for the trip as I looked at the beautiful city views. It turns out that the good doctor lives on Roosevelt Island! I asked him to direct me towards the subway and he asked if I was going to look around. He showed me the new rental building that was built and his building (condos). Then he offered to show me the view from the roof! I made my excuses and left, but decided to take Dr. C's advice and take a walk around the one street that exists on Roosevelt Island and look at the pretty views of Manhattan, the East River, and of course, my beloved homeland of Queens.


As I walked, I felt like Roosevelt Island looked a lot like Ithaca.
Granted, I never spent too much time in Ithaca, NY, except to go to the Haunt and for other occasional forays outside of lovely Geneva, NY. But, for some reason the feel of Ithaca started to fade, and Roosevelt island began to feel something like a small European town.

Which means one of two things: 1)I am crazy, and Roosevelt Island feels like neither of these things or 2) Ithaca feels like a small European town. You can discuss that among yourselves.

Alas, gentle reader, this is not the end of my adventure for the day. As I finished walking around Roosevelt Island, I came upon a small park with those sprinklers going off in them for young NYC children to play in so they don't feel the need to ruin fire hydrants. As I was walking past, contemplating the waste of water that these urban tools create, I found myself being gently dropped on with water. Amazed at the distance the gentle sprays of water from the sprinklers get, it took me a while to catch on that it was actually raining. Thunder started crashing and lightning was flashing and I got my jog on towards the nearest shelter. I braved a little bit of wet, stopped at Roosevelt Island's very own Starbucks to score myself a Marshmallow Crispy Treat (I have a slight obsession with Rice Krispy Treats, no matter what they're called) and hopped on the train home.

I love New York adventures, even in all their silliness.

heart shaped tub

Joe and I are discussing what to do for our impending one year anniversary. In a fit of nostalgia for 80s commercials we started talking about heart shaped tubs and champagne towers, and how perhaps a touch of kitsch would be a great way to celebrate our first year of happily wedded bliss. So as we spend this evening researching hotels with the requisite bathing vessels, let me share with you the fruits of our labour. Sadly, at this point, the idea of spending $500+ a night for the experience of a heart shaped tub and a celestial ceiling is seeming less and less realistic.

Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:


Exhibit C: Hilarious Article from The Denver Post.com I totally recommend reading all the way through to the end. The FAQs are quite possibly the best part.

And of course, please visit the Pocono's Caesars Resorts main site The virtual tours are wonderful. Then you can take a deep breath, sigh, and mourn the fact that Joe and I will likely not be spending our second honeymoon soaking in a champagne tub at an all inclusive resort with a night show (oh my god, it would be just like Dirty Dancing!!).

almost a year

Yeah, I'm planning on really starting up again- no cancer, no wedding and frankly, not much to do this summer (whoo!). So I'm going to start blogging again- for real. But for now you're going to look at the results of stupid quizzes I've taken and like it.

Done!

The bridesmaids bags are totally finished, and I'm wrapping them up. Just in the nick of time too-- I'm giving them out on Friday! I have stuff to do, but here's some pictures. I think they all turned out really well! It took me only one bag to really get into the hang of attaching the handles. I thought about adding some chains to make the bags more portable, but never got around to it. So clutches they are. I put some ribbon around the inside edges of the bag to cover up the stiches that occur while they're being secured into place.

Completely Off Topic

Today I stopped by the Socrates Sculpture Park, right near by where I live and work. It was a beautiful day. Some of the sculptures were really interesting, some were ho-hum, but one was AMAZING. In the middle of an empty part of the field, there was a lone pay phone installed. Where the usual "directions" for using the phone are listed, instead there was a list of about 10 different numbers for pay-phones. Above it (and I paraphrase) said: "The more ways there are to communicate with one another, the more alone we feel."

I looked at the numbers. Picked up the phone. Dial tone. Put it back down. Looked around. There wasn't really anyone there. Picked the phone back up. Laughed. Put it down. Considered calling my boyfriend. Then I seriously looked at the list of numbers. There was the N/R/W platform in Times Square, there was the lobby of the Empire State Building. I didn't want to call NY. I wanted somewhere more random. More interesting. Just a street name in Milwaukee, WI. Bartlett Street (hmm.. I think).

The phone started to ring. It's around 4:20 in the afternoon. I figured no one would answer. All of the sudden, I was wrong. I was talking to some guy. Some guy who thought I was a lunatic. It was awesome. I didn't even find out his name. He asked me a bunch of questions, I explained where I was. He doubted me, of course. I probably would too. But I definitely made his day more interesting. Gave him a story to tell. And I smiled all the way home.

miss busy- bee

All my bags are beaded. I think I might try my hand at beading other things when my extensively long list of things-to-do needs another thing-or-two added onto it. In August my learn Italian goal, and my knit cute bags from my bridesmaids goal will be accomplished, or at the very least irrelevant, and I don't think that learning to play the guitar will be enough to not do.



So! Next step is the lining. I was planning on buying pretty blue fabric to go with my wedding "colors", but I'm lazy and never officially made it to a fabric store. Luckily, I have a quite sizable stash of fabric to go along with my sizable stash of yarn (I knew my pack-ratish tendancies would come in handy someday), and I had this pretty pink fabric that at one point I was planning to use to make an adorable bag . I still have plenty of fabric left for my bag...don't you worry. And some lovely contrasting orange fabric for lining as well. Unless this was origionally my lining fabric for that as well. It was so long ago, it's hard to remember...

After many initial mishaps (I hate cutting shiny fabric), I finally cut 4 pieces that I believe are the right size. Then I used my trusty rusty chalk (one the perks of being a teacher is that there is often chalk on-hand) to mark the .5" seam allowance. The bag lining only gets sewn 3.75", and the rest gets tucked under the latch after being ironed as far as I can tell. I still have to trek off to M&J fabrics (and that's one of the perks of living in NYC) to get the hardware, but all in good time. For now, the fact that I managed to get this all marked up, pinned, folded and ready for the sewing machine is enough of an accomplishment for now!

slacker-city

So, I've been a slacker on both the knitting fronts, and the blogging fronts, but now I'm back, and even with the pictures, as promised! Bo-yeah.

So, what happened was is that I knitted my fourth (just enough for bridesmaids gifts... So much for one for myself and one for my mom and one for everyone who ever smiled at me...). Somehow I kept messing up one of the cables on it, I kept frogging it and reknitting it. I must have redone it about 3 or 4 times. I was exhausted and frustrated with it. But each time I made the decision that it looked "good enough" I got annoyed with myself, because I really wanted these to turn out as-perfect-as-possible for my girls. But that tricksy little cable is all fixed up now.

After just sitting on the knitted pieces for awhile now, I decided to start blocking them the other night. I blocked 2, but I have two more to go. Let me just note, for the record, that they look AWESOME blocked. The pattern really highlights the cables, and the yarn I'm using is really well suited for the pattern.


So, I pulled out my beads and other bead supplies, and was immediately frustrated because the thread I got was too thick to fit through the eye of my super-dooper special beading needle. I broke a needle before I ended up switching to a normal sewing thread for my beading needs. It seems to be working fine so far.



After looking at my bead options:
Blue seed beads:
Translucent seed beads:
Blue swvorski crystal beads:
Clear swvorski crystal beads:
and inspecting my blocked knitted piece, I decided to go like this:

1st row: alternate blue and translucent seed beads on each side of cables.
2nd row: in the center of each cable, alternate crystal beads, otherwise continue with seed bead rotation
3rd row: repeat 1st row.

It's turning out really pretty... Well, at least in my humble opinion.











I still have to: 1)block the other two bags 2)find material to line the bags with 3)buy hardware for the bags.

Not too shabby. Unless I visit slackerville once more that is...

good things come...

to those who knit? Yeah, too corny, I know.

But I'm knitting my fourth! That means even if I stop at the end of this bag all my beautiful bridesmaids will get one. However, I really want to make one for myself as well...and if that's not inspiration enough, I don't know what is.

I want to take a picture of my stupendous progress, but I fear it would just look the same as the pictures I've posted so far. Not doing anything but actual knitting isn't too picture-inspiring.

But soon I promise! After I block (pictures galore!), I'll start beading. A brief trek to Michael's last week scored me some pretty beads to play with for now. I was going to wait until I went to M&J Trimmings to get the beads and the hardware in one swoop, but I can't resist buying shiny new things when they're so close. We all know of course, that shiny objects make the best pictures... then I'll buy the material (or use some pretty material that I own).

It all feels so close! Progress is in sight, and I'm loving it! Maybe this could get addictive...

maybe the girl just needs some boundries

With a deadline, I've been doing pretty damn good. I've started on bag three this week. With four bridesmaids, I can just make one more if I want... but I kind of want one for myself. And I should probably make one for my mom too. And my future mother-in-law. Hmm... I wonder how far my yarn will take me. I might as well use it all up. There's no way there's enough yarn to make anything else worthwhile.

And here is one of the finished pieces, and the one I'm currently working on:



And here is a detail of the cables. It's a nice easy knit, and the cables make it interesting. I can't wait to see how it looks with the beading.