Joanie loves tchotchke

pause

2007-08-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

Oh. Hello. You still here? Looming, with baited breath for a new appearance?

Things have been busy around these parts.

I found out several months ago that my current company would be closing the end of August. I have found a new, super totally fantastic position with one of our clients that I am ridiculously excited about, though won't start there until the end of September.

But in the meantime... end of August? Hello? How do you spell 10 days away? It turns out there is a lot of work to do to close a business after 10+ years. Holy hell.

So on the rare days when work hasn't been beating me down, I've been busy playing music, knitting and trying to enjoy the few days of summer left. And pining for a good set of power tools with which to demolish my kitchen and bathroom, but well, one step of crazy at a time, huh?

X

Toronto

2007-07-17T09:54:00.001-05:00

My husband and I spent the past weekend in Toronto, childless (thanks again to my wonderful in laws...). My band played up there for a fan-sponsored event for the machinima series we do music for.

The people there we so great and fun to meet. A lot of kids came a very long way to be at the event, and to hear us play. England. Australia. Iraq. I'm still trying to find words to describe how great it was to meet every one of them. We brought a few CDs, rough mixes and live recordings and such, as a preview of the album we're working on. We sold every one of them, and some of people even paid more than the 15$ we were asking.

I signed T-Shirts, CDs, an iPod, someone's arm and had my picture taken with about 50 different people. It was such an intense outpouring of support for our band and I've never experienced anything like it.

Here are some pictures.

In other news, my son is potty trained (thanks to all that is holy) and turned 3 two weeks ago. There was cake, there are pictures, and they will be coming here soon.

And apparently I don't knit anymore. Or at least for right now. Though there is a sale at Circles, so this won't last long.

Black Sheep

2007-06-29T18:35:00.000-05:00

And now for a brief musical interlude*:

My boy will be three on Tuesday.

He has discovered the joy in relentless repitition of cute little songlets until they make you lose your mind.

...just like his momma.

* please excuse the poor lighting and camera technique

Friday July 6th

2007-06-25T09:25:00.000-05:00

Trocadero will be playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge MA on Friday the 6th.

We'll be playing with:

Bitters - beautiful and atmospheric and there first ever live performance. 9:00.

Angeline - Awesome. Just really an awesome group of musicians. 10:00

We'll go on last at 11:00. Please come early to make sure you don't miss any of these great bands. Plus my lovely and talented sister in law Cheryl plays with both Bitters and Angeline. I hear there may be costume changes.

If you go to the club's web site, you should be able to pre-order tickets for 8$ each. Otherwise the charge will be 10$ at the door.

Thanks!

6 years

2007-06-16T20:40:00.000-05:00

Happy anniversary to my sweet old man.

I love you.

And thank you for my beautiful presents and the dinner which will just help to make me very much fatter for the next year we spend together.

You've been warned.

X

Mar

Love and rapid healing

2007-06-05T15:10:00.000-05:00

To the dear, sweet, beautiful and oh so strong Georgia and family.

We love you guys.

Away from the camera.

2007-05-30T10:08:00.000-05:00

...but there will be great things posted here soon-ish.

1. Some knitting stuff, because I knit. All the time. Though you wouldn't know it from all this husband and music banter.

2. My boy. Because he is getting big. And more awesome. My mother-in-law just gave him a hair cut (she called me first for permission, because she is thoughtful about things like that), and it is the cutest thing ever. It may even cause a few less "she's" when strangers refer to him.

3. My garden. And by "garden" I mean a wooden half barrel on my deck where I am refusing to let tomatoes and basil die, try as they might. Three years of motherhood HAS to have fostered that nurturing gene, yes?

4. Many other wonderous and intriguing things. I'm sure.

Things have been pretty durned busy in the Williamses's household. Jared is poised to start his Fabulous New Job, so therefore we are about to become remarkably wealthy and I will take on airs. I have been working on a new record with Trocadero, despite an apparent bout with laryngitis (nice timing on that one, my friend.). The boy is about to turn 3, so Ridiculous Birthday Shenanigans are being planned. I have been busy at work and becoming masterful at CS3 (and have taken to playing around with Photoshop on my off hours. As such:

I call it: Introspection and Apocalypse.)

And I just mistakenly washed my already beaten up copy of Lost Horizon by James Hilton with my bed sheets. That's right. An entire book. In the washing machine.

Egad.

Stage Presence?

2007-05-25T10:56:00.000-05:00

It appears that our band has been nominated for Best Stage Presence in a local band category on WBZ.com's (a Boston Television/Radio station) "A-List."

If you'd like to vote, go here and vote for Trocadero. Or vote for someone else. Voting is good.

If you are the type of voter who likes to be informed, and does not cast votes based solely on the demands of some bossy girl on the internet, there is some footage of our last show at TT the Bears posted here.

Watch it. Marvel in our Stage Presence. Someone, somewhere thinks it's the Best, after all.

Husband!

2007-05-15T14:13:00.000-05:00

Look what we just got an advanced copy of:

That's right.

My husband's newest book.

Yay Husband!

Soon, you can go out and get a copy for your very own self. Or like 12 copies. Because he's got a good royalty deal.

evidence.

2007-04-23T12:04:00.000-05:00

Here are pictures from the rock show Saturday night:

(All photos shamelessly stolen from very sweet and loyal fans who I'm sure won't mind.)

It was a great time and huge thank yous to everybody who came out.

X

A reminder...

2007-04-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

Stand up. Vote

2007-04-10T15:39:00.000-05:00

Or stay sitting, that works too.

Do yourself a favor and go to:

http://pv.webbyawards.com/account

Sign up and vote for my friend, and fellow turkey eater.

Go to Web Site -> Weird (?) -> vote for The Museum Kitschy Stitches.

And then after you vote, go visit her web site. I always believe that one should be an informed voter, even if said informedness is a bit on the tardy side...

And then hell, go buy her book.

And then let me know if you need me to tell you other things to do. I'm full of great ideas. And bossiness, apparently.

Oh yes. Knitting.

2007-04-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's what I'm here for, yes?
No.
There's more as it turns out.
But here's some knitting:

A scarf. Because I didn't have one. And it got cold.

I do not enjoy knitting scarves. So I knit this in a bulky alpaca on size 11s in a k2 p2 rib. It took 2 hours. 2 hours which could well have been spent finishing this:

A hooded cardigan for my boy, loosely based on my favorite top-down raglan pattern with some Elsebeth Lavold cable panels thrown in for good measure.

Oh and another sweater for me, of which there are no photos, so will try to remember to mention it again someday. With evidence.

The Rock

2007-03-26T16:41:00.000-05:00

Recently I have been playing with a band called Trocadero.
(We do all the music for this.)
We will be playing at TT the Bears in Central Square, Cambridge Mass., on Saturday April 21st at 10:00.
The show is 18+ and will be $8 at the door.

That is all.

My Hero

2007-03-16T11:03:00.000-05:00

So my husband is really, really good to me.

Things have been stressful on occasion after so many years of marriage and certainly since the birth of our awesome, awesome son, who has turned our life around completely.

But through it all, my old man has been a champ and has rallied with every new bump and done what he can to accomodate.

And now as he embarks on a new, slightly more exciting career path, I vow to be, like, totally cool about his putting my wine glass in a pot of greasy water in the sink.

...because at least he's still picking up after me.

(he has also started a new site where he's posting some of his more recent work, so as to try to land an exciting new job, well, soon. So check it out, and revel in his genius)

And here's a picture of us, just before we got hitched and still very well rested.

I love you baby.
x

And she makes the best cupcakes I've had in my entire life.

2007-03-15T17:31:00.000-05:00

We had dinner with my dear Bestitched and her darling family (quite awhile ago, in fact), and the only picture of the night before my cursed batteries died was this.

It'll do.

In celebration of the first nap my son has had in 3 days

2007-02-20T20:51:00.000-05:00

...and for my poor husband who has been through the wringer a bit lately.

I made these:

They may not look pretty, but holy hell are they good.

I made them up on the fly and have rarely been so please with myself. Maybe not since the time I made homemade macaroni and cheese with 3 different cheeses and cheese filled tortellini.

I started with your classic cheesecrack crust: graham crackers crumbs, butter and sugar, and pressed it into a dozen muffin tins lined with paper.

And then, oh lord, this is where it got really good, in a moment of genius I melted some white chocolate and poured a dollop into the center of each crust:

For the batter, again a very basic cheesecake recipe: cream cheese, eggs & sugar, to which I added a puree of raspberries made with a bit of sugar, lemon juice and almond extract.

After pouring the batter on top of the crust and, ahem, white chocolate, I baked them for about 15 minutes.

(There is probably even a magic way to turn them gluten free ala Ms Melanie, but you'd have to make your own graham crackers. Which she can do. Because she's got fancy flours. A lot of fancy flours.)

Really, I mean GOD these things were good enough to make my son remember every bit of etiquette that we've ever drilled into his head.

First things first

2007-02-15T20:15:00.000-05:00

There are many things that have happened during these silent weeks since the Holy Days, but I will start with this:

Today I am blonde.

And older.

My son woke me up this morning with "Happy birthday, mom! Where's my cake?"

Good question, little man.

Bring on the cake.

Warning:

2007-01-03T19:52:00.000-05:00

The following post may prove to be entirely too long.

Because it was Christmas.
And as the mother of a 2 1/2 year old, Holidays have taken on a very new meaning.
Christmas especially.
This Holiday in particular has gone from a pained smile while drunk patrons butchered carols for FAR TOO MANY DAYS IN ADVANCE at the bar I tended through most of my twenties, to eagerly awaited paid holiday time and the heart stopping BLISS of watching my child discover the glory of all of its... stuff... lights... shiny things... candy growing miraculously from trees... and so on.

So please pass on by if you are not interested in repeated pictures of my son.

OK.
As some of you may have beheld, my stepfather takes certain celebrations very seriously, and at times over the top. And Christmas holds a very special place in his heart. He is a guy who believes that Christmas trees must not only be perfect, but that underneath these trees, the volume of gifts must be overwhelming. Now you can get a lot of volume out of things like bulk packages of paper towels, windshield washer fluid, toilet paper, um... new doors... and when they are wrapped and strategically placed, it is a spectacle of Christmas excess the likes of which are rarely seen.

Holy Awesome.

And there's a train.
A train with whistles and horns and well, train noises.
A train that runs in and out of tunnels made entirely of gifts that, as the unwrapping commences, reveals more and more track.

Just. so. good.

This over-doing of things transfers to stockings as well.

(Now, for craft content, here's a little story about Christmas Stockings. When My son was born, clearly it was up to me to knit him some incredibly huge fair isle number on size 2 needles out of yarn spun from reindeer hair and dyed with fairy tears. Which didn't happen as I was busy doing...well, something else. A lot. So Christmas #1 was a stand-in loaner from Grandpa, #2 was also not the year. So I couldn't possibly let year #3, a year when he is finally able to comprehend some of the madness and ritual, pass by without his mom-crafted-stocking. But then October was gone in a haze of last minute costume frenzy, November...cheesecake, and December was quickly running out of weeks. So this is what happened:

YES! Freakin GENIUS! A stolen tip from my gorgeous and sassy step sister. A 4$ giant red cotton rib knit sweater from the used clothing patch. With the price tag still attached, no less. Cut out, seamed together, and name embroidered in a cream colored sport weight cotton. Time spent actually making Child's First Stocking: 23 minutes. I am a very well-intentioned mother, though one with a full time job, a much neglected husband and a penchant for TV. And sleeping. And generally not doing stuff. So my genius has to come in these panicked spurts.)

But back to the Christmas Fest.
Santa was good. He brought the much desired guitar,

(which looks adorable next to mama's...)

which was well loved, though a pale comparison to The Drum Set.

Yes, Santa is a sucker for the rock.

And the boy even reluctantly shared with his step half cousin. In law. Removed... something. We love her and she got a damned pony!

And there was a parade

And there were puzzles

And there was the bike

And we were explained the awesomeness of it all, very articulately

Things That Have Been Done Lately

2006-12-14T21:10:00.000-05:00

A sweater completed:

An artsy bathroom action shot of said completed sweater taken:

A top down hooded raglan, started for a 6 month old, put aside, forgotten and completed upon discovering aforementioned 6 month old has turned one:

(sewing in ends and adding button to be done hopefully before child turns... older)

Child's initial embossed in reverse stockinette on back of same top down hooded raglan:

Much time spent admiring boots I can't really afford, and compiling list of reasons rationalizing the purchase of:

8 dozen chocolate walnut white chocolate chunk cookies invented, shopped for and baked:

More admiring of boots which, while possibly financially irresponsible, have already provided much joy and comfort:

And yarn generously given by Mrs. Hammer, cast on with abandon and knit with no plan or project in mind:

(I have no idea how many stitches I cast on or what I'm going to turn it into. And the colors are much nicer than this lousy flash portrays)

So Happy Upcoming Holiday Shenanigans to all, and I leave you with one last glimpse of my gorgeous new boots which I totally sort of deserve:

Things That Make Me Happy Whilst Working

2006-12-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

My feet.

Thanks was Gaven

2006-12-03T17:42:00.000-05:00

Oh yes. We did that Turkey dance too.

It was filled with family and friends and poetry and wine and it was lovely.

...falling like rain.

2006-12-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, you see some brief glimpse into the beauty which can exist in mankind. A crack in the callous facade that reveals the true insight and depth man can possess. While rare, these moments are so very necessary to cope with the horror we can be capable of.
Moments of purity.
Wisdom so totally complete that it can almost rationalize our existence in the first place.

This is so utterly NOT that moment.

You really, REALLY want to click on that link.

Dear Diary

2006-11-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

Please don't let my cheesecake be burning.

YES.

2006-11-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

Good news for the free world, my friends.

I know some of you may be disappointed, and I feel for you. I know what it's like.

God in heaven, I know what it's like.

But let me let you in on a little secret:

When you wake up that blessed morning in January, come with me outside. I want to show you something.
See there? accross the street? Your neighbor Jim is NOT marrying a goat.
And quick! Behind that tree! There are no terrorists with vials of avian flu waiting to get you and your children.

In fact, the air is just a little bit sweeter, the sun is just a little bit brighter and people are going to be slightly more tolerant of one another.

Yes, yes, a bit more optimism and sunshine never hurt anyone.

Cheer up, my son. The skies are beginning to clear...

I have seen the Devil, and his name is Pink Eye

2006-11-05T11:11:00.000-05:00

Stupid, stupid pink eye.

I shake my angry fist at you in all your evil ways, for all that is unholy and vile, for your itchy, swolen, and (oddly enough) pink, heart.

Beware less ye make that leap into my eye, filthy Devil.

Jerk.

When Jesus Gives Candy To All The Good Little Monsters

2006-10-31T21:38:00.000-05:00

...or something.

Do you recognize this?
It's Max from Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak and embracing one of the few times I can totally dictate my childs choice of costumes, I decided to make him this wolf suit.

And the crafty gods smiled upon me, sent their muse into my sewing machine and helped me to do this:

Yes.

I know.

It's fantastic.

No pattern, pen, pins or other sewing related p-word. Just me, some scissors and my sewing machine, and a suprisingly patient 2 year old who allowed me to hold variously shaped pieces of fleece to his tiny frame.

I'm feeling rather smug.

Although there were a few last minute adjustments while waiting for the rest of the Candy Brigade to arrive:

But in the end it was awesome:

Thanks to Melanie

2006-10-16T18:41:00.000-05:00

I have this new sweater.

(regular)

(crazy-eyed)

The lovely and talented Ms. Melanie gave me over a dozen skeins of this:

So I adjusted the guage for the pattern (from 5.75/" to 4.5/") and knit this:

from this:

Obviously a far bulkier guage resulted in a far bulkier sweater, but tis the season for cozy.

Thank you Melanie, and if you didn't have your hands full already, I'd promise you my first born, if I weren't already so smitten with him...
So I will repay you with my eternal love and devotion.

No photos...

2006-10-06T19:28:00.000-05:00

...just food.
I have been knitting. I have been doing all sorts of fabulous things, all of which should and may be documented here, but for the time being I've realized that the posting of pictures is keeping me away from you.
Sigh.
This burden has become so great that I shy away from a mere snapshot of a few inces of fabric or a blurry 2 year old face as he runs through puddles.
So here, for my husband and that Virgil fellow off to the right, who both so appreciate giant bowls of food...

Beef Stew

1 – 2 pounds stew beef, cubed
2 cups flour (more as needed)
1/2 stick butter
1/2 dozen white potatoes, cubed
4 – 5 lg carrots, unpeeled, cut into big chunks
3 lg onions chopped into big chunks
5 – 6 celery stalks, cut into big chunks
1 pint Guinness stout
2-3 cubes beef bullion, dissolved in 1 cup H2O
salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Toss beef in 1 cup of flour, until coated. Melt butter in a large cast iron enamel pot (with good, tight-fitting lid. Brown beef until just barely browned, not even on all sides, 2-4 minutes. Add potatoes, carrots, onions and celery. Stir it up, making sure all your ratios look good (I’ll sometimes add more potatoes if it looks necessary). Pour stout over meat and vegetables. Pour in bullion and water. Add more water as needed, until everything is just barely covered with liquid. Cover with lid and bake at 300 degrees for about 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove from oven, stir and smell. Yummmmm. Add 3 heaping tablespoons of flour, stirring well after each spoonful. Broth should begin to thicken. Add more flour as needed, but 3 – 4 big spoonfuls will usually do it. It also gets thicker the more it cooks. Add salt and pepper. Put the stew back in oven (with lid on) and bake for another 2 hours. It will be done when the meat is falling apart when you stir it. You can follow the directions for dumplings on a box of Bisquick, and add these to the boiling stew and it will be the most awesome.

Seriously.

Something that happened 3 weeks ago and has gone unmentioned until now

2006-09-15T20:02:00.000-05:00

So the Elsebeth Lavold cardigan was completed.
Button bands picked up and knit, collar short-rowed, buttons sewn on, seaming completed, ends sewn in, wrapped up and given to the birthday girl herself, on her actual birthday, no less.
(You may notice the absence of "blocking" in the above list of finishing. That's because I did not block it. Neither after or *GASP* before seaming. Yes I am going to a kind of knitting hell, and it will be an odd and rather itchy place filled with people who are sticklers for details.)
So she was thrilled (the mom aka sweater recipient) and I was able to finally accept the title of "daughter who knits for her mother."

These are terrible, terrible photos.
I was not permitted to take "action shots," as it were, so these photos should be seen more as an example of my utterly horrid photography skills, and less as a decision to give my dear mother a gift of crap for her birthday.
I mean, who needs crap for their birthday?

Baby steps

2006-09-06T19:39:00.000-05:00

My boy started his first day of daycare today.

I had one of those moments in parenting when you realize that this tiny creature which has relied for so long on you for every need is taking steps further and further away, and that my only job as a parent is to assure him that he is strong enough to take those steps, and that I am strong enough to let him.

He sat waiting for me and my husband this morning on our front stoop with his back pack (a birthday present from dear Mrs. Hammer) filled with snacks and lunch and a change of clothes, like an old pro.

His biggest concern was that there would be a ball there.

"Oh I think there'll be a ball, honey"
"And a baboon and a big gorilla?"
"Well, maybe not those guys, but I bet there'll be some blocks."
"And a ball?"
"Definitely a ball. And I bet there will be markers too."
"The children will have paper?"

This is my boy. The properness of "children" and the concern that if you have markers there just HAS to be paper.

So, like that, we dropped him off. And tried to be the cool parents that just leave the child without the laundry list of his likes and quirks and spying through the window to make sure the other kids were being nice to him.

Though the temptation was great. In fact, if my old man wasn't with me, I would have stayed for another hour, hiding behind the waist high coat rack and peeking from behind the tiny raincoats and hats watching for some horrible moment that would prove once and for all that I am a terrible mother for abandoning my heart.

But, we left quietly, with a hug and a kiss and a final wave goodbye from the doorway, knowing that he was safe inside with three other children and a lovely and capable woman who knows what she is doing.

And a basket full of balls.

Juror #142 saw no action

2006-08-16T17:44:00.000-05:00

Yes. Jury duty. As a relatively worldly 33 year old American citizen, it may surprise some to know that I had never, until yesterday morning, seen any gleaming civic beacons in my mailbox, beckoning me to some court room to uphold my honor bound duty to use my intellect and unflappable moral fortitude to ascertain the TRUTH.

You see, I was looking forward to this.

Not to mention the idea of an unknown # of hours with which to do nothing but entertain myself.

AKA: knitting time.

Yesterday was going to be the day I completed the last section of the Elsebeth Lavold cardigan. Even 2 hours of uninterrupted knitting would have done it.

So there I was, eagerly awaiting my foray into the world of civic responsibility, grasping my Circles knitting bag breathlessly looking forward to my legal insight and cable panels.

And then...

...they took...

...my knitting needles.

They. Took. My. NEEDLES.

What, I'm going to get all stabby with my Addi Turbos?

I am the PICTURE of UPRIGHT CITIZEN, damnit.

And, if this hasn't been made clear to date, I am not the kind of girl who can sit still. I am a freaky little twitching mess with my need to DO something. Smoking really helps, but it's been like three years since one of those babies has touched my lips, and besides, if anything is going to make me start smoking again, it'll be something way sexier than jury duty.

Like France.

I'd smoke for France, if it was sweet and freshly shaven, and asked nicely while offering a lovely cheese plate.

But I digress.
So, there I was, with what turned out to be 5 hours of sitting around and avoiding the "crazies", with nothing but my newly discovered Armistead Maupin to keep me from running screaming through the corridors desperately clutching the shirtfronts of all passersby begging for the sweet relief of death. Or at very least a cigarette.

And in the end, the hours passed without the dulcet tones of Mr. Courtroom guy asking for #s 125 through 150 to please line up single file and follow him down that coveted hallway.

Bastard.

So anyway, here's a bunch of pictures of some stuff:

No knitting. Bleh.

Why I May Be A Terrible Mother #245-A

2006-08-02T19:51:00.000-05:00

I TAUGHT my son how to do this:

Adorable perhaps, but this is totally going to bite me in the ass.

quiet

2006-07-30T19:28:00.000-05:00

almost TOO quiet.

Too hot and too tired to do much else but lie in 8 inches of kiddie pool water and let my boy pour water on my head.

So things have been neglected.

Things like knitting and cooking and therefore blogs.
And now with the onset of Heat Wave II: electric boogaloo, this seemed as good a time as any for a quick update.
There was, despite the neglect, a few strides made in the name of knitting progress.
Sleeve # two of the Elsebeth Lavold cardigan is now complete:

And what better way too pat myself on the back than with a quick Top Down Child Raglan?

(resting atop another neglected love of mine. Can you see the dust? Terrible.

What the hell is with me and this pattern? Is it somehow all a part of a master plan to create a tribe of children in matching though various sized hooded tunics, weilding heavy wooden clubs and sporting berry stained cheeks and mud streaked legs running wild through a post apocolyptic desert waiting for Mel Gibson to try to fly them out in a rusty shell of a futuristic flying machine?

Well, obviously.

On another note, check out CN8 (local Boston TV) on Tuesday at 7:00 PM for a live interview with my husband and several other people involved with the production of the first children's book he's illustrating.

Yeah, baby. T-to-the-V.

And this is what being a tourist looks like.

Complete with a trip to the Hip Clothing Store, H&M.

Because I'm the mom and I said so.

2006-07-11T20:12:00.000-05:00

Long awaited reveal of the Vacation Knitting, reluctantly modeled by my suddenly vocal 2 year old...("no, sweater mama. NO SWEATER!")

Yes. I made him pose.

As you may notice, this is another example of my penchant for this top-down raglan from Knitting Pure and Simple (too lazy and slightly feverish so no link for you.)

Birthday party #2 was a raging and low-key success.

And I learned that children are suckers for stuff on sticks.
(see the long stabby rods of fruit below)
And green frosting.

This party's cake took the form of a yummy carrot bundt cake, with green cream cheese frosting, and matching vegan cupcake sidekicks, so noone was left out.

So that should about do it for the birthday shenanigans.

...for a while, anyway.

07/03/06

2006-07-06T18:24:00.000-05:00

So there was a Party.

There was a lovely party at my mother's house with wonderful friends and family and swimming and sliding and running around like maniacs.

And then there was the CAKE.

A 3 foot high, 3 dimensional giraffe cake with buttercream frosting, chocolate spots and fruit leather ears, standing on a bed of green frosting and green shredded coconut.

Now you may wonder Why?
Or How?
Or What the hell is wrong with you people?

The truth is that we may be a little crazier than we had even knew.

And that my Step-Father is the kind of guy who says "Giraffe Cake? Great idea! I'll go out to the wood shop and build a wooden armature for it!"

And that my husband is the kind of guy who understands the physical make up of many creatures and can easily sketch them onto pieces of wood to be cut out and arranged properly.

And that I am the kind of gal who will spend many hours baking yummy dense and sticky yellow cakes and giant vats of butter and sugar and food coloring for enough frosting to cover a 3 foot giraffe cake and all it's wooden structural elements.

Combined we are a birthday force to be reckoned with, and who may have inadvertently ruined birthday-cakes-as-we-know-them for my 2 year old, who now has an exceptionally high bar for the rest of his birthdays.

Whoops.

Behold:

Now I'm off to plan birthday party number 2 this weekend for our friends and family here.

Anybody have a wooden elephant skeleton kicking around??

How to pass time without knitting

2006-07-05T20:46:00.000-05:00

Vacations are good.
Vacations in VT are very good.
Vacations in VT with 4 adults and 3 toddlers and 2 dogs for 1 week in a tiny, itsy cabin are better than you might think.

We spent the past week with some of our favorite people in the world here:

We were tough:

We were sneaky:

We ate watermelon:

(OK... we did some knitting, but took no real pictures so it will have to have a post all to itself in all it's finished glory)

We Kabobed some Shish:

And we were pirates:

And one night we stayed up too late and caught fireflies:

It was pretty spectacular

And then the boy turned 2.

And there was a party.

Oh was there ever...

Oh George...

2006-06-22T22:07:00.000-05:00

Have you seen this yet?
This is the longest I have been able to tolerate this man's screen presence to date.

While that man may in fact be the devil, this boy is certainly not.

although sometimes he may dress like one.

A hat I knit 3 1/2 years ago for a friends then unborn child, and handed down to my son over a year ago.*

Ah. the glory of regifted handknits.

*these photos were taken about 1 1/2 years ago, when my child's head was still kind enough to fit in little hats.

Jared

2006-06-16T20:56:00.000-05:00

Today I have been married to this man for five years.
He is an amazing creature, and the best husband and daddy the world has ever known.
He has made me a better woman.
I love you baby.
X

Unabashed HBO advertising

2006-06-12T19:07:00.000-05:00

There has been Elsebeth Lavold progress (behold it's unblocked beauty):

Back:

Front Left:

(yes, I have indeed used a paper clip as a stitch holder)

Sleeve:

# of skeins used thus far:

1.1

Despite my sheer glee at the amount of yarn I am using for this project, I grow pretty weary of this cardigan.

Purty gal durned WEARY.

And I'll tell you why.

Patterns - Not really too much of a fan. I'm more of an "outside of the box" kind of gal. Of course there are plenty of lovely items out there which I covet, and therefore a pattern is not only helpful, it can be darn near essential.

Pieces - This cardigan is knit in 5 pieces, which are then sewn together, then edges are picked up in order to knit button bands and the collar. I have said this before and I'll say it again. I am not knitting for the sewing, dig? If I wanted to hand sew a freakin garment, I would buy the damn fabric and not spend hours knitting it in the first place.

Charts - Cable charts can and have been yummy in my experience. However, when my allotted knitting time is shared with things like TV, spending time with my neglected husband, driving, reading, bathing, any other thing that can allow for an occasionally free hand or two, it is not always ideal to have an extra piece of paper with a cable chart floating around. Plus, the thinking? Forget about it. I need me some good old brainless knitting these days.

Time - Too long. I'm over it. My heart is fickle, what can I say.

Then, the reality. There's this, and this, and these... yup, patterns the
lot. You want consistency? Not here my friend. I must complain with a free flowing stream of abandon.

Post Script: If you have yet to witness the glory that is this, get yourself to a video store pronto.
Beware the potty mouthing.
I'm just saying...

from the sewing archive

2006-06-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

So here's a bathing suit I made:

OK, so technically you are just seeing the top, but the bottom exists, it's just needed a little finishing I have yet to get to... (translation: Finishing = waistband and hemming; "...yet to get to" = has been sitting around in a box for the last two years)

This was my first attempt at such a thing, and I basically cut out a shape that looked something like this:

Do you see how it works?
The top of the loop goes behind your neck, the triangles cover the "ladies", with the outer points being tied together at your sternum.

If you take your chest measurement and add say 6", this number becomes the length of the bottom of this triangle, giving you enough excess to tie a pretty secure knot. I played around with the length of the back strap in order to get it to fit more snugly, and added an extra strip of fabric to the outsides of the bust triangles for modesty's sake (I am somebody's mom after all)

This same basic approach to a backless top has reappeared as a few different dresses I've made, with varying success.
All of which have "finishing" I have "...yet to get to" to some degree or another, and may or may not appear here someday.

All about the boy

2006-06-04T19:45:00.000-05:00

This is my tiny boy brushing my teeth a year ago.

This is my tiny boy last summer with a stick.

Here is same slightly larger boy last fall in a hat I knit. (Thrown in for knitting relevance)

And here is my enormous man child helping his daddy husk corn.

I love him and his quickly growin ways.

No-tell Motel

2006-05-30T18:03:00.000-05:00

So I did it.
I strayed.
I had a brief fling with a darling little top-down number in a washable persian red cotton.
I gotta tell you, I am a sucker for these top down raglans.
This was a last minute must-knit-something-for-an-adorable-toddler-by-this-sunday kind of thing.
I bought the yarn Wednesday night (as usual at my lovely Circles), and wove the ends in on Sunday morning. This may not seem like a short amount of time in "regular person" hours, but as my dear bestitched will attest, mom hours are very different. And "full time job mom" hours, even more so.
So I feel a pat on the back is in order for this one:

And the addition of an engraved initial in reverse stockinette:

This little boy is beautiful and hilarious and I love him. So this sweater will be well worth any long term repercussions such marthon knitting may induce.

Speaking of beautiful toddler boys, look what happened last weekend:
Aquarium:

And afterwards:

Darn.
That's some sort of cute.

Putting the Chick back in Chicken

2006-05-22T18:02:00.000-05:00

I have rallied some knitting support for the Elsbeth Lavold cardigan.

(Something funny and sarcastic about "child labor laws" and "Kathy Lee Gifford")

My knitting time consists of the few hours between putting my son to bed, and falling asleep myself, assuming of course that I don't have anything else to focus on like laundry, or dishes or communicating with the outside world. One could of course argue that starting this sort of web adventure is counter to finding additional "me time", but screw you. Who's asking?

All this is really to tell you why it's taking this long to finish this little beauty. But there has been some progress:

(I have yet to master the fancy "picher takin'")

In the meantime, for the benefit of my darling Virgil, here's how I make Chicken Cutlets.

You'll need:
Chicken - about 1 lb, bendy and nekkid (that is boneless and skinless)
Milk - about 1 cup
Egg - one
Breadcrumbs - about 2 cups
Olive oil - some

•Rinse off the chicken. Salmonella is nobody's friend.
•Pour the milk into a bowl, and add the egg. Mix it with a fork.
•Pour the breadcrumbs into another bowl.
•Cut the icky parts off the chicken. Anything that looks bloody or white, get rid of it, because no one needs that, I don't care how tough you are.
•Put the chicken pieces, one at a time into a heavy-duty ziploc freezer bag, or cover with heavy-duty plastic wrap. If you're using a ziploc bag, do not seal it, because it will explode and you will look foolish.
•Using a meat tenderizer (if you don't have one of these, buy one. You will love it.), whack the ever-lovin-bejeesus out of the chicken. Continue to do so until the chicken is consistently 1/4" thick.
•Take the flattened chicken pieces and dip into the milk/egg mixture.

•Then take each chicken piece and roll in breadcrumbs until totally covered.

•In a large heavy pan/skillet, heat enough olive oil to cover the pan, and then some.
•Add chicken, without overcrowding. Chicken feels the most comfortable in smaller, more intimate gatherings where it can really relax and be itself.
•Cook for 3 - 4 minutes, until golden brown, flip and do the same for the backside (teehee. backside).

•Continue for all the chicken until it's all cooked. Tell your husband/roomate/fire department that your kitchen is supposed to smell like that.
•"Place cooked chicken on paper towels to absorb excess oil" ("excess oil" hahahahahaha.)

You can turn this chicken into things like chicken parmesan, or slice it up and put it on a salad, or eat it at room temperature right off the pile with your fingers while watching Grey's Anatomy. And then let the stream of tears cut through your greasy cheeks at the realization that they did indeed use a blood clot to kill off the handsome and charming fiancee of the only character you find truly endeering.
Heartless bastards.

Psst...

2006-05-18T18:59:00.000-05:00

...hey kid, wanna see something sexy?

mmm. can't you just smell the faux-leather yumminess?
But wait! It gets better. Take a look inside:

That's right. Despite it's appealing yet serious exterior, it's capable of holding POUNDS of knitting goodness (with inner pockets galore).

Circles has em. And my husband "allowed" (read: smiled begrudgingly and did not complain out loud) me to buy it.

Not that I needed another "purse" or "knitting bag" or "reason to spend more money which rightly belongs in our savings account". But really,

How can you resist that little face?

Another face I cannot resist is that of my flu-ridden toddler, who has aquired a taste for tea.

This poor little angel child has his fourth cold this spring. Though this has yet to turn into the devil croup which seeks him out with a vengence, it has been threatening to. This was a child who I nursed diligently for 16 months, and fed a well touted porridge made from whole grains and legumes which I made everyday for his first year of eating solid food. All in the name of "healthy immune system." Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but really? Has his father's poor respiratory gene allready gained a foothold?
Hell.

On another note, I've been outed!
Yikes! the bestitchedstress herself went and posted a big ol' shout out my way. I feel like she just asked me to the Blog Prom.
(Hmm. I don't think I'll ever say blog prom again.)
I guess we're playing in the big leagues now. Thanks D!!!

So to summarize:
Go to Circles and buy a sexy bag of your own.
Virus's are mean and lame.
Go Visit my mentor and say hi.
Never say "Blog Prom."

Jet Bleu

2006-05-15T19:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a funny picture I took at gate 31 at logan airport Friday night:

What was funny is that we were there at 5:00pm for our 5:55 flight.
What was not so funny was that we actually left the tarmac at 12:30. AM.
Yes, SEVEN HOURS LATER. Seven, bored-toddler-up-far-later-than-bedtime hours.
There is no picture of that.
Well, unless you count this:

So, at three o'clock in the morning, we arrived in Richmond, VA., with a sleeping child and $200 worth of JetBlue vouchers, for what proved to be a fabulous weekend for the wedding of Hinmaton and the beautiful Samantha.
(we'll provide evidence of that later.)

The real sad part of all this "weather delay" and "baby finally sleeping on the plane"

was the fact that I had packed my knitting in my checked baggage.
So that, combined with my leaving the unchecked pattern book in the convenient little pouch in the back of the seat in front of me on the plane*, resulted in this:

Five measly rows of garter stitch on the front left side of the Elsbeth Lavold cardigan.

My feelings of straying are growing...

*it should be said that the fabulous John at the Richmond JetBlue baggage desk found, held and set aside this book for me to pick up for our departing flight on Sunday. I still love JetBlue.

As the sun sets on the honeymoon

2006-05-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

So the back of the Elsbeth Lavold cardigan is complete

When I first started this project it was GOOD.
I would think about the yarn all day. I would sit at my desk at work daydreaming about how the cables would start to form beneath my fingers. Was it thinking about me too? I would call it just to check in. I would giggle about it with my friends; It's color, it's texture, its...ahem...YARDAGE. I just couldn't get home fast enough to pick it up and just stare at it.
But, it was just a matter of time.
As with all my projects, it began to lose its novelty. (After all, a girl can only knit in stockinette for so long.) I found myself thinking about other patterns. I would feign interest in its waist shaping. Smile politely at the armhole bind offs. I began to fantasize about other yarns. I began to think about those new boots I bought and sweaters to match...

And then it happened.

I remembered this fabulous brown sportweight from Carlisle Brook Farms. All, like 1400 yds of it. And then...and then...
the somewhat cowl.
Damnitall.
The perfect pattern for the perfect yarn for the perfect boots.

This relationship is so doomed.

Ghosts of knitting past

2006-05-08T19:18:00.000-05:00

(There were years of knitting before this blog.)

Here's my son's baby blanket.

I knit it for him over the first few months of his life, primarily while he slept on my chest, or while nursing him. Early on, I found that my need to multi-task was overwhelming, especially considering how much time I spent trapped in "Baby Jail". He would fall asleep in the super-handy baby carrier, and I discovered I could make pie dough, roll out crusts and bake several pies while he slept (it may have made my life a bit more simple had I just figured out how to take him out of it without waking him up). Or he would fall asleep on top of me, or while nursing, and I discovered that this was the optimal time to knit. And watch Passions.

So here's the result.

The addition of his name in reverse stockinette is to ensure his not losing this blanket in college.

And yes, despite what my husband thinks, I am SURE he will bring his baby blanket to college.

Blanket in action:
(sort of)

Yarn: Kertzer Butterfly Super 10
Patterns: My own Plus chart from this book

Brando

2006-05-06T19:08:00.000-05:00

I make REALLY good meatballs.
I don't know how other people make them, or if what I do is anything different, but I can go for weeks eating these things. Occasionally I get a craving to see The Godfather, and then begins a veritable orgy of red sauce and pasta and these:

Here's how I do it:
1-2 lbs of ground beef
2-3 eggs
breadcrumbs
parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large bowl, break the eggs into the meat. Add about 1 cup of breadcrumbs, and about a half cup of cheese. Mix by hand until everything is combined. Keep adding breadcrumbs to absorb the egg until the mixture is not too wet. Roll meatballs into evenly sized balls. Place in a glass baking dish and cook for 25 - 30 minutes, until cooked all the way through.

Oh Lord.
I do so love these things.
Plus, as luck would have it, I'm married to a man who makes the greatest red sauce in the land.

(Though, he tends to eat before allowing his food to cool sufficiently, thereby forcing his wife to post photographic evidence)

And it seems that our child is quickly gaining appreciation.

Joe

2006-05-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

The world will never be the same without this man.

broken

2006-05-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

My husband has a boken nose.
My son has croup.
We are a sad, sad family today.
My husband is a break dance fighter or "capoerista", and spends three days a week dangerously close to people's flying feet and fists.

And sometimes that flying danger gets nose-breakingly close.

My son apparently is the kind of 2 year old that gets croup.
This is the 3rd time he's had it and it's a snotty heartbreak.

Me, I haven't broken anything except my all-time-blog-posts record: 3 entries.
That's the most posts I've ever written.
And based on my sample size of one, I have outposted myself on 100% of all my blogs.

On another note, I have a different color of my previously mentioned turkish goodness.
I'm going to knit this:

From this:

With this:

For my mother.
(who shall remain link- and picture-less...for the time being)

starting/finishing

2006-05-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

Okay. Mere moments after officially starting this adventure, I finished the hem on the final sleeve of this:

It is Grumperina's Picovoli. Except that I used a larger gauge. And I opened the neckline. And I added sleeves. And hems on the bottom and cuffs. And I picked up stitches along said neckline and created another hem.

But can't you see the similarities?

Ok. So it is a bit different. But the real thrill of this sweater is the price. To my estimate it used roughly $8.35 worth of yarn. That's right. At Circles, I found this in the sale bin for $5 a skein. Golden Horn Turkish Mohair. 75% mohair, 25% acrylic. Now generally I am the girl that shies away from wearing acrylic yarn, but the color was lovely, I was a bit yarn-broke and it really seemed like an OK mohair. But here's the kicker - 385 yds. For FIVE dollars. I used just over 1 1/2 skeins so...yup...a $8.35 sweater.

It's a little itchy, but I'll get into my remedy for that a little later.

For now I will happily curl up in a kind of itchy cocoon and think of what to do with the other roughly 890 yards of "Turkish Delight" (ok "that" even grossed me out a little bit).

...and so it begins.

2006-05-01T22:20:00.000-05:00

Hmm. Blogging. An ugly word, and one which I'd prefer not to use. Solely out of aesthetic, mind you. Obviously I am embracing whole-heartedly the concept of "public bulletin board"; my own rickety soap box upon which to stand and broadcast my opinions of the mundane; a veritable ego free-for-all to celebrate all things me; a portfolio of my various forays into the worlds of craft, domesticity, motherhood and rock and roll; a celebration of my over use of (and on occasion intentionally misplaced) "quotation marks".
So Hoo-Friggin-Ray for me, and for you who may have stumbled upon this wittingly or otherwise, I say this:
"Thanks"