knit or die

Crossing.

2008-08-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

Hey. If you ever get the overwhelming urge to cross stitch an alphabet sampler with perl cotton and burlap early on a beautiful Saturday morning, here is a great website of much resource: /xscharts/aphabets. I stole the idea from a Leisure Arts book I was flipping through (called I Can't Believe I'm Cross-Stitching! Neither can I, to be honest!) when I was supposed to be working. If you don't get that type of notion, well, clearly you and I are two different people. And I hope you are having a good weekend so far. Over here, I need coffee, STAT.

(image from freepatternsonline.com used without permission, to illuminate my own eccentricity. Who wakes up on a Saturday and says YAY A DAY OFF! I THINK I WILL CROSS-STITCH!? What have I become? Don't answer that.)

Nerding.

2008-07-05T17:59:00.001-07:00

Dear Bill Shatner circe 1968,

You are such teh hottness. If it were 40 years ago, you'd have to get a restraining order against me.

Love, erin.

Conniption-ing

2008-06-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

ACK. I WANT TO TAKE THEM HOME AND LOVE THEM FOREVER.

(at eQuilter, Park Slope from Free Spirit. I must be the trendiest. Park Slope. Come on now. This shows growth, doesn't it? It's not Alexander Henry!)

Circling.

2008-06-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Dude, I had an idea.

Crop-circle quilt. Don't they look like patchwork as it is? Crop-circle quilt. It would be awesome. Google crop circles, they're heady.

Finding.

2008-06-04T15:07:00.001-07:00

What's up, blog?

1. Thank you so extremely very much for the kind comments and e-mails about Norton. He is, I am very happy to report, doing awesome. It was quite scary for a while, and Nort absolutely HATES taking pills, but we've rounded a corner and he's doing fabulous. He still has to wear the dumb collar for a bit longer but he'll manage. Thank you so much for the love : ) It makes a difference.

2. The other day I was going through my vintage sewing pattern stash to sort out the wearable and the unwearable, and I found this dress pattern, with a pocket and a facing cut out and stuffed in the envelope. Vintage fabric bits when you're not expecting them are a wonderful surprise. Copyright 1966. A nice little surprise that made me feel exponentially better about life on this planet.

X'ing.

2008-05-18T14:09:00.001-07:00

X your fingers for Nortie.
Originally uploaded by Erin Or Die.

This is Norton. You've seen him before. He is my most bestest cat friend. On Wednesday when I came home from work, he was acting very strangely. I knew something was wrong when he didn't come running at the sound of the cat food hitting his bowl. He was hiding under furniture and making those awful, heart-breaking cat yowlie sounds. We rushed him to the animal hospital that evening. They told us his urethra was blocked so the poor thing couldn't pee, which can be deadly if not treated quickly. They put him on a catheter and on Friday he had surgery to widen his urethra. This is probably too graphic and I'm sorry but oh well this is what is going on. He's been at the emergency animal clinic since Friday night and we're trying to stay hopeful, but he won't eat, and he's having trouble emptying his bladder without the catheter. We went to visit him yesterday and it was so sad. He has a big cone around his neck so he can't get at his sutures or the catheter, and he's all shaved and dirty and his eyes are all wild and red. He kept hiding in the corner and he wouldn't even eat with us there to feed him. He kept stumbling into shit with that big dumb cone around him. It is the most saddest thing ever to watch normally happy-go-lucky, super-friendly Nort-Nort in so much obvious discomfort. We feel very helpless and awful and all I want is him to get better and come home safe. Please keep Noodle in your thoughts or something, and wish him a speedy recovery. It doesn't feel right without him here.

Borrowing.

2008-05-07T14:39:00.001-07:00

Davenport Public Library
Main Street
Check Out Receipt
Customer name: HOLST, ERIN M

Title: The best American nonrequired reading 2005
ID: 30050056655540
Due: 5/28/2008,23:59

Title: Valley of the dolls, a novel
ID: 30050020737119
Due: 5/28/2008,23:59

Title: Bergdorf blondes
ID: 30050051531530
Due: 5/28/2008,23:59

Title: Budget living : home cheap home : a room-by-room guide to great decorating : 500 ideas
ID: 30050051583648
Due: 5/28/2008,23:59

Total items: 4
5/7/2008 2:54 PM
Checked out: 4
Overdue: 0
Hold requests: 0
Ready for pickup: 0

Renew by phone (888) 542-7259

Thank you for visiting the
Davenport Public Library

Journaling.

2008-04-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

I guess Friday there was a tornado. It touched down, again, I guess, a few towns over from where I live, and was supposed to hit here. Only it didn't. I was on my way to work. I took the bus because it was raining. I cut through the mall to get to the shopping plaza across the street where JoAnn is (in the Village Shopping Center at 391 W. Kimberly Road, blah blah, I can't remember the phone number). I stopped at Barnes & Noble to buy some Moleskin notebooks and a present for my mom. And I guess like, moments after I headed out into the Dillard's parking lot to cross Northwest Boulevard, the mall went into lock-down for fifteen minutes. But nothing happened. I passed Steve & Barry's and the guy in the window mouths "We're closed" at me, and I'm like, "Great. Ok. I wasn't planning on stopping here anyways, bro. Please call Jo-Ann and tell them to close, but they have to pay me anyways." So it just rained a lot and I stood around for a few hours, helping what few people were determined enough to go out and buy last-minute prom stuff or whatever.

The point of this story was I got my Moleskins and my scanner and you can peep into my sketchbook here. My notebooks have always been a lot more fun than my blog.

Hiding.

2008-04-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

My secret pal at school is approximately four months pregnant. It is hard to spoil her because we work in the same classroom and I also am reasonably sure she knows I have her, and despite that, the only things I can figure out that she digs are pretty much Coca-Cola, candy, cats, and her three and a half kids. So I am giving up trying to be sneaky and I am going to give her these bibs on Monday and totally blow my own cover. Because who else at school is a weirdo that sews. Oh, well. They're from Bend The Rules Sewing by the lovely Amy Chicken, who I am not even going to bother linking to because probably if you have ever read a crafty blog in your life, you know who she is and where to find her. The bibs go together very quickly and are very sweet and I think I will make some more for the seemingly-endless number of women I know who are expecting. Seriously. Another reason to make more is because setting snaps is the most satisfying feeling. If I could get a job setting snaps, I would take it. I like when sewing involves hammers.

FAVES 04.03.08

2008-04-03T14:19:00.001-07:00

FAVES 04.03.08
Originally uploaded by Erin Or Die.

Uh-muh-gawd. Hello again. We were out of batteries. Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous, with wonderful sunlight. The fort looked alive with possibilities. Aaron found some AAs for me last night, after the sun set. Today, armed with a juiced up camera, it is pouring rain and grey as all git-out. It's just as well. Since we last spoke, I sewed something annoying that doesn't fit, I knit something annoying that doesn't fit, I ponied up 8 bucks in fines to the library so I could use my card again, and I baked a cake that collapsed. So here's a flickr favorites mosaics. Cheers. I'll be back soon with more!

Gaming.

2008-03-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

Dude, I just saw a rad Pac-Man baby quilt on craftster, and it has opened up a world of heady patchwork ideas in my brain. Consider the geeky possibilities! This picture is a screenshot I Google-Image'd of Yar's Revenge (Aaron knows what it is, I don't-- A. I was about a decade late for Atari, and B. I'm only here for the quilting)-- that field of colors and stripes would be totally easy to strip-piece! Time to start hoarding cotton solids! Cos that is what I need to do, is start another fabric stash. Because I have room for that, and no other projects in the queue OH MY GOD, TETRIS QUILT. Dude! Have another cup of coffee and talk to yourself on your blog some more, Erin!! Yeah ok.

P.S. Fierce.

Becoming A Quilt.

2008-03-05T13:02:00.001-08:00

Becoming A Quilt.
Originally uploaded by Erin Or Die.

How To Make a Quilt, If You Are Me.

1. Check out the entire shelf of Kaffe Fassett quilting books from the Davenport Public Library, Main Street branch, several times over, on your delinquent library card. Carry them home, about half an hour on foot, past the high school your imaginary kids will go to if you never move again like you said, until you think your fingers are going to break off from the weight of all that color. Wear big sunglasses and listen to your ubiquitous white headphones. Think about the segment you saw on the Today show about the white headphones being a dead giveaway that you have an iPod in your pocket and makes you a target for theft. Realize that if anyone did try to jump you, there are maybe two quarters in your wallet and about ten JoAnn sales receipts.

2. Spread out all your Kaffe books and your mom's Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework with the cracked binding and sketch pads and Sharpies and calculator and doodle until you come up with something. Calculate your yardage. Realize that this is going to take something like fourteen yards of calico. Get a stomachache when you think about how much this is going to cost.

3. Spend the next four months or so buying a piece of fabric here and a piece there, mostly at work, sometimes from eQuilter. Diane gives you a vintage one when she comes over to help you with your overambitious X-mas gift hand-quilting, and it goes perfectly with a Tracy Porter print you already have in the pile. Think about how quilting is sort of magic.

4. Mostly your fabric will hang out in a market bag on a chair in your sewing room for a long time, until you have collected enough prints.

5. Eventually you will realize you have to start it or you'll never start it. You spread your collection out and you will be horrified by the visual chaos you have invested too much in to start over. You will ask yourself over and over why you didn't see this coming. You resolve to buy yourself a 6.5"x24.5" ruler and get moving on this thing, and whatever happens, happens. Most of you believes that matchy-matchy is the most boringest thing going, and that the things you are attracted to most will coalesce into a groovy, well-loved harmony. But a little bitty part of you is scared you are making a huge, drawn-out, expensive mess of a blanket. Norton consoles you.

6. That ruler makes such a huge difference it makes you want to shout it from the rooftops. It doesn't take long until you find a groove. You knew you would eventually, it's just finding initiative. You are making mistakes but you are learning from them. You leave what you can deal with alone, you rip out what you can't. Sew all night while your huzz is out playing rock shows that last longer than you can.

7. You have absolutely no idea how long this thing will take you, but you can wait. This is a gift to yourself. Treat it well.

Snowballing.

2008-02-23T10:11:00.001-08:00

This is where I will be for the duration of the weekend. Because I need my floor back if I am ever going to get anything done. Take care, friends. xoxox.

Squishing.

2008-02-14T13:21:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day, my squishies. I made these little guys for my kiddos at school, and for you, too. Have a lovely evening. Get some. xoxoxo.

Obsessing.

2008-02-09T10:55:00.001-08:00

Butterprint.
Originally uploaded by Erin Or Die.

When I was home in July, Jenna took me to the most amazing country mall antique shop. I had like, four dollars left, and noooo room in my suitcase. We saw a darling set of these Pyrex nesting mixing bowls, and I squealed a lot (probably lots of cuss words) about how perfect they were and how in the hell could I possibly get those onto an airplane back to my new midwest home wow I hate my life. The memory of those bowls has been haunting me (HAUNTING ME I TELL YOU) ever since. I am currently purusing eBay and kicking myself. I should have charged them. It totally would have been worth the trouble of carrying a set of mixing bowls on an aircraft because $36 plus NYS sales tax with no shipping and handling is an excellent price for such a find. So, if you ever feel like buying me a present, it's called Amish Butterprint. If I weren't so hopelessly cheap, I would be making bad choices via Paypal right this second. Maybe I'll splurge and bid on the butter dish ; )

Not Worrying.

2008-02-07T14:18:00.001-08:00

Over the past six-ish months, I have been collecting brown and turquoise/blue-ish prints to make a snowball quilt for us, because all my quilts have been gifts and it's time for us to keep one! I took a lot of time collecting the fabric, I even got a new spiffy ruler (6.5"x24.5", it's great, I highly recommend it), and I finished cutting up all the little squares today (two freaking snow days in a row, can you believe? I'd be happy if not for the fact that my next paycheck is going to suck, profoundly). All laid out before me, my nagging fear was undeniable: the assortment I have accumulated is a bloody mess. There is no connective thread beyond the pretty loose color limitations. I always do this.

So I was going to post a photo and whine a bunch about my spazzy calico compilation and lack of forethought with regards to my quilt tops' cohesion, and dig for some reassurance, when I found:

and he says it's okay. What's the big deal. It's a blanket. Let's stay focused here. Quilt on.

Resembling.

2008-01-30T16:58:00.000-08:00

Not that this blog is ever on-topic (knitting, what?), but this is going around and I wanted to play, too. So who do people tell you you look like? Post it.

In like, ninth grade, I got compared to Madonna a few times. Has to be the eyebrows. Lucky Star Madge is still my favorite. If in thirty years I look half as good as she does, I will be a happy girl. With some serious eyebrows. Mental note: must start doing intense yoga immediately. And possibly making films that completely tank. But I don't think that is her secret to looking amazing at 50.

My mom told me I look like Selma once. I don't know. She's cute. Someone (stupid) told me Naomi Watts once too, but I did a search and I really don't think so, so I left her off. Not even as Jet Girl.

My sister thinks I look like Amanda Peet. Kinda. I do not entirely disagree. She's cute.

Of course, I strive for Audrey. Hearing that makes my heart flutter. I should be so lucky. Mostly when my hair is colored darker, and long enough to be swept up, but still my nose is too big (see Madge, above). It's definitely not in the ever-so graceful way I carry myself. In slip-on sneakers, baggy khakis, chasing after kindergarteners squawking about making Green Choices and using Line Basics and Walking Feet, muttering about how I hate pancake and French toast breakfasts in the school cafeteria. Five year olds + imitation maple syrup + "MISS ERIN CAN I HAVE A HIGH-FIVE!?"= not very posh. I am a sucker for those durn kids and I got the chocolate milk stains and crusty icing on my sleeves to prove it. Education is not very glam, but that is okay.

Chilling.

2008-01-21T07:46:00.001-08:00

Four day weekend.

Homemade pancakes (from How to Be a Domestic Goddess).

Thrifting (I love these weirdos, more fun finds in my flickr).

Making (Puzzle Ball from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, extremely fiddly, but cute, "Congratulations you're pregnant!" gift for a friend).

Today we're going to Target and I am going to bake up a storm. It'll be 6am Tuesday way too soon....

Babying

2008-01-18T07:03:00.001-08:00

Well, I finally finished this dear little sweater (more info over at Ravelry), but for Thee Very Life Of Me, cannot get Ravelry to let me add a photo. Am I missing something, Ravelers? Basically, I ripped the shape for this sweater off from SnB Nation and I like the Cotton-Ease a lot. I did not like sewing all those little snaps on and I am interested in adapting this pattern to be knit in the round. I want to make it in red with blue trim, and dots. So Ta-Da. This is heading off to Buffalo NY for little Ethan ASAP.

Oh my god. Kate Spade @ Bed Bath and Beyond. Frightfully expensive, and I love EVERYTHING :::::swoons:::::::. Speaking of babies, page five has some darling baby dish sets, for like, $75. Seriously!?!!

Today is an In-Service Day, which means no school for me, so I'm gonna go watch Martha for as long as I can stand to (I rarely make it through the whole hour) and then I think I might brave the frizzing-arse-cold to avoid stir-craziness. Wish me luck. Peace.

P.S. Oh man, Martha's about weddings today. I already had one of those. Plus I hate crazy over-the-top $100k wedding crap (this whole post makes me sound like the cheapest cheapskate on the whole planet). Borinnnggg. Damn it.

Failing.

2008-01-10T20:16:00.001-08:00

I have been having candy troubles, friends.

It has become all too clear that I am no Alexis Stewart, candy maker-ess and reluctant heir to the throne. Back up: Ok. On New Year's Eve, I called my dad and he thought it was weird but I asked him to scan and email me a page from my mom's Betty Crocker Cookbook with a recipe for Penuche, the most wonderful food on earth. I made those lovely treat bags with penuche and peppermint hard candy that looks remarkably like broken glass for the W900 family. I wasn't thrilled with the penuche texture. It was kinda crumbly. So I made a second batch New Year's Day. Same thing. I made TWO BATCHES yesterday: first, the crumbliest yet, and second, a GRAINY, yet fairly solid, confection of mass LAMENESS. I'm hesitant to try again, because I have the recipe committed to memory, and I'm concerned I am getting sloppy because I am angry. But dang. Four failures in ten days. Not cool. Not freaking cool.

In other news, I got a yard of this for $3.50, for one of the three sanctioned projects outlined in my Epic List, and it's just perfect.

Nothing.

2008-01-08T13:27:00.001-08:00

Posting some quilt porn from Christmas to distract you from the fact that I am probably crazy and there is no such date as Monday January 8. Um and since my "contest" received a whopping six entrants, you are all getting something. Cheers. Happy Tuesday, readers. By the weekend, I will have pictures of FINISHED baby present. There, I just set a goal. Nevermind it seems like every day I find out someone else is having a kid, and that the baby that this present is for is probably too damn big for his sweater by now. Nevermind all that.

Re-evaluating.

2008-01-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

Um, oh my dear lord. As my friend, you have to promise you will stop me if I get any crazy ideas about starting new projects in 2008 until the 32 items on this list are completed. Thirty-two projects that I already have most of the necessary parts for, scattered around the fort. Which does not even touch on the home improvements that dear huzz and I would like to tackle this year (hellooooo hideous kitchen and bath). Or even for that matter, projects involving yarn (I counted the granny squares last night. 113. So about 55 to go, and we're in business.) No, this list is just fabric. So in 2008, I am only allowed to buy, like, thread, and buttons, and interfacing, maybe a zipper or two, possibly batting, possibly elastic, Vecchio-purple calico for Bella, blue calico for Christopher, red and blue calico for a quilt I have made up in my head, and ummmm. Yeah. That's it. Nothing else. I was out of control, and now I am cut off.

Standing

2007-12-31T05:59:00.000-08:00

Hello, friends. Today we are here, standing on the edge of 2008. Welcome to Knit or Die Post No. 100. Leave a comment, I'll pick a winner at random in one week (Monday January 8) and that lovely person gets a prize sent to them in the mail. I don't know what it will be yet, but it will be a prize and it will be for you. So yeah. I think today I am going to listen to lots of loud rock music and try to restore some order to the Fort. I'd post a photograph to demonstrate how horrifying but it's just too awful to share. You would cry. And that would be a sad way to ring in the New Year.

Peace, love, and death-metal,
xoxoxo erin

p.s. I kind of made a mess of the template. But Blogger is too frustrating right now before coffee so please accept my apologies.

FAVORITES 12.27

2007-12-27T12:49:00.001-08:00

FAVORITES 12.27
Originally uploaded by Erin Or Die.

My brain is mush.

Prepping.

2007-12-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

Cute overload: Aaron gave me a big red wagon with hardcore tires for my birthday, for hauling stuff around. Like plants and Martha Stewart Everyday at K-Mart purchases and our imaginary children. He listens when I talk (constantly) and I love that about him. Here is the Girl Cat noozling up in said wagon, currently parked in the dining room.

So the quilting is completed and all that is left is stitching the damned bindings down, which I can't bring myself to do any way other than by hand. It's hateful and time consuming and slower than the slowest slow was ever slow, but it's coming together and that feels good. We are scheduled to depart the Quad Cities International Airport in 24 hours. I'm doing laundry and last-minute crafting my face off as furiously as I can. A's bro & his wife gave me Desperate Housewives Season 2, which is helping the previously mentioned horror of hand-stitching for miles along. I got their kiddo this toy for Christmas. It's hilarious. I love it. It's gonna get so annoying so fast, I can hardly wait. I couldn't find a drum kit at Walmart. They probably would have seen right through that anyway. I'll see you guys soon. Everybody have a happy holiday, ya heard? I raise my mimosa to you. Cheers, and happy happy, friends.

P.S. Sweet Juniper is my new favorite blog. Absolutley, Parent Differently. I'm with them.

Complaining.

2007-12-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

Maybe I am the last one to hear about THIS but WTF? MSLO is killing Blueprint?! I feel blindsided, and I should have seen it coming. Remember when they were giving subscriptions away with the purchase of that Fancy Special Weddings Issue a while back? Honestly, I want to know what they are thinking. It's just like how they turned MS Kids magazine (which I totally was buying at the newsstand even though I don't even HAVE kids, the stuff was so cute and fun) into a COLUMN in Living. Martha publications keep eating each other. It's a stupid move though, IMHO, and this is why: in real life, normal people (read: not me and Aaron) become "engaged" with a ring and a Fancy Pants Proposal (Aaron asked me to be his wife in the awful galley kitchen in the old awful apartment, ---wait, technically, only one of us could have been IN the kitchen, he must have been in the living room/bedroom, that stupid apartment was that small,----- with a ring he twisted out of wire, when we had been dating about 3 months) and normally, the wedding follows, what, a year-ish later? You tell me, I obviously don't know. So you buy wedding mags for one year. Even if you buy every issue for a year, that's only like, twenty, thirty dollars. And once you are married and your thank you notes are sent out, you are no longer a target for MS Weddings magazine (unless you end up remarrying, but let's not be cynical and insinuate that such an outcome is what MS is banking on). What are they going to sell you now? The Blueprint blog? Jerks. I enjoy Blueprint. It was like a Domino with a sense of humor that liked to get drunk sometimes and didn't assume you had a bottomless bank account (and a stick in your... you-know). I finally caved and subscribed to Domino, but it's totally not the same. Dang. And I was all feelin' bad for Martha lately, too, since she lost her mom. Ugh. What a mess. I hate everything.

Excepting, but not limited to:

Alexander Henry. My love knows no bounds.
This cat. Again, love, no bounds, yadda yadda.
These disgustingly yummy treat things. I know they are profoundly wrong, but they require almost nothing on my part, and deliver such a "How could anything this gross be so delicious?" thrill.

Amen.

Borrowing, Part # I forget. 3?

2007-12-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

Davenport Public Library
Main Street
Check Out Receipt
Customer name: HOLST, ERIN M

Title: Knitting rules!
ID: 30050056672255
Due: 12/26/2007,23:59

Title: The best American nonrequired reading 2003
ID: 30050054345870
Due: 12/26/2007,23:59

Title: Blue jelly : love lost and the lessons of canning
ID: 30050033953695
Due: 12/26/2007,23:59

Title: Kaffe Fassett's quilt road
ID: 30050054459754
Due: 12/26/2007,23:59

Title: Kaffe Fassett's kaleidoscope of quilts : twenty designs from Rowan for patchwork and quilting
ID: 30050056800617
Due: 12/26/2007,23:59

Total items: 5
12/5/2007 3:11 PM

Thank you for using the
Davenport Public Library

Have a great day!

This week sucked, thank who-ever it's almost over. I need to go sew now. See you like, next year.

Revealing.

2007-11-28T12:13:00.000-08:00

This photo pretty well sums up the last week. Hi again. Jenna tagged me um, a month ago, and Rachael tagged me today, so I guess maybe I ought to do the dang thing.

1. My favorite song in the history of recorded music is, far and away, "Livin' On a Prayer" by the illustrious Bon Jovi. Everything else just pales in comparison to that masterpiece of New Jersey pop-metal brilliance.

2. I have a fake tooth. I worry how obvious this fact is when I smile.

3. It's almost my birthday (December 1st) and I identify very strongly with my zodiac sign. So as a Saggitarious, I am fun, but my foot pretty much never leaves my mouth.

4. I don't know if this has much to do with being a Sag, but my attention span is about three seconds long.

5. This makes me well-suited for kindergarten, which moves at the speed of light. I think it's a good fit. I need to go back to school and do this for real. (And yes, I can manage not to use the eff-word in front of the children, but I do say "dude" a lot. As in "Dude, you need to sit down at your table! That is not your work. Make a better choice.")

6. Um, I guess there have been a kind of surprising number of times when I have met folks for the first time and they have thought I was from Europe. And not because I am so extremely fashionable and worldly that there is positively no way I could be from Middle Of Nowhere, NY. It's more like "Where did you get your accent? Are you Romanian?". WTF, people. It's embarassing. It happened twice at my first JoAnn, once in the quad at Brockport, and at knit club. I guess I talk funny and possess some prominent eyebrows. I should have just played it off and told them I was an exchange student, but I'm also a horrible liar.

7. I definitley like Coke Zero better than Diet Coke. Hands down.

Ok. That was eye-opening. You're it: Binet, Kim, Tristan, and Papa Dukes. Your job: post this on your little blog, think of seven weird things about yourself, tag some friends, and leave them a comment to let them know they are tagged. Have fun, and happy self-reflection.

Happening.

2007-11-14T20:34:00.001-08:00

Time for a picture post cos my brain is hurtin'.

I went to Michael's. I don't like that store but I like MS Crafts and Wilton and fluffy bird ornaments.

I hand-quilted. My friend came over and we quilted like crazy and all the sudden it was 3am and the quilting is about 2/3 done. How's that for an exciting Saturday night?

I made cupcakes for Bunco and no one ate them.

Knitting the fronts for the baby cardi (I know, no swallows, I'm tired) at the same time is tangly but well-worth it. They'll actually be the same length when they're finished! Miraculous!

So I am actually getting things done, even though this stack here is mis-leadingly providing evidence to the contrary. Fabric heap growing exponentially at a rate greater than I can keep up with. There's two jackets, some pillow cases, Halloween decor (oops, missed that one), a quilt top or two, beginnings of some Chrismukkah stockings, and Lawd knows what else hiding in there. Lotsa Alex H. Trixie tsk-tsks. She clucks, "Simple human, you are much too scatterbrained and spread too thin. Get it together! Now fetch me my kibbles at once."

Finalizing.

2007-11-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

Dudes, I finished something.

A modified version of this bag, from a free pattern by Clover. Follow that link, those projects are so cute you're liable to get a toothache. If anyone can make heads or tails of a Japanese crochet pattern, those Mary Jane slippers have got my number, bad. The bag is made out of about 3/4 of a yard of 54" decorator fabric (which my machine loved sewing through 4 layers of, let me tell ya) off the flat-fold table with a green broadcloth lining. I made it a little bigger, slapped a pocket on the inside, and gave it "real" straps, for my friend at the fabric store's birthday. Which was 3 weeks ago. Detecting a pattern there? :X

On the subject of bags, via not martha, check out this guy getting told to eff straight off : Unclutterer: Is that a purse or an over-night bag?. A unified front presented by humongous bag carriers of the world in the comments! Sorry mister, but if it can't hold a bag lunch, a book, waterbottle, datebook, knitting project, and enough Coke Zero to keep me a step ahead of the kindergarteners, won't find it slung over my shoulder, y'all.

Tiling.

2007-11-06T20:12:00.001-08:00

Faves 11.7.07
Originally uploaded by Erin Or Die.

Dude I finally figured out the mosaic maker. Good golly, I am rather set in my ways. Birds bling buttons cats cupcakes crochet kindergarten chocqua skulls and a touch of Jesus. See?

Doing.

2007-11-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

OH HEY THERE!

I am a little late (and a little I-know-better) for NaBloMoPo, but here I am none the less. This is my 91st post, and I would like to do something special for my 100th, but the way I roll, it could be 2008 by that time. I'll try! Trying to remember to look around, and not just ahead tunnel-vision style. Things are getting away from me. Like returning phone calls, paying the library back the $2 I owe them, cleaning the bathroom, making things. Oh goodness. There are so many fabulous ideas and gifts to make and DMC Color Variations floss and piles of exciting fabric gracing every horizontal surface in my fort, and nothing gets fricking done. Ugh, me.

This is the back of a baby cardi I am knitting for a slightly longlost friend from undergrad who is about to pop. I am biting off the shape of the Tattoo Cardigan from SnB Nation, but knitting at a totally different gauge with lovely machine wash/dry L.B. Cotton Ease. There is no solid plan yet for the chest where they put the swallows/nautical stars/skulls. I am kind of thinking argyle. I love swallows but my gauge is not as fine as the printed pattern. Time to bust out the graph paper! How about a snake around a dagger or a heart with the MOM banner??? Born To Lose?? Spiderwebs?? Anchors? A mermaid? Petunia from Pete & Pete?? Endless intarsia possibilities, my friends. Endless.

Borrowing, II.

2007-10-24T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yay for going paperless. These books are due on my baby sister's 18th birthday. That's crazy. So this is what I'm reading. This week, a little BUST contributor lit, a little EZ (need baby gift ASAP), a little Erma, some goofy stuff with great photos to inspire, and I'll read anything Dave Eggers ever put his name on.

Davenport Public Library
Main Street
Check Out Receipt
Customer name: HOLST, ERIN M

Title: Job hopper : the checkered career of a down-market dilettante
ID: 30050054260046
Due: 11/14/2007,23:59

Title: All I know about animal behavior I learned in Loehmann's dressing room
ID: 30050039205249
Due: 11/14/2007,23:59

Title: The best American nonrequired reading, 2002
ID: 30050050453264
Due: 11/14/2007,23:59

Title: Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's almanac : projects for each month of the year
ID: 30050039284442
Due: 11/14/2007,23:59

Title: The Salvage Sisters' guide to finding style in the street and inspiration in the attic
ID: 30050054411540
Due: 11/14/2007,23:59

Title: Between friends : craft projects to share
ID: 30050046071790
Due: 11/14/2007,23:59

Total items: 6
10/24/2007 5:14 PM

Thank you for using the
Davenport Public Library

Have a great day!

YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY TOO DAVENPORT PUBLIC LIBRARY THANK YOU.

Chicks With Sticks, hopefully I'll be seeing you fine ladies tomorrow.

Toting.

2007-10-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

You're all going to laugh but I need a new bag, and I am thisclose to just ordering a Boat and Tote from LL Bean. Everything at the stores looks the same, everything on etsy looks the same, all the bag patterns look the same. I'm getting aggravated. And the Boat and Totes are indestructable and visually unobtrusive.

Meanwhile, this is a great and tremendously useful site : u-handbag. Maybe she can help me.

Piecing.

2007-10-11T10:46:00.001-07:00

The alternate title for this post could be Why I Won't Be Leaving The Fort Until 2008 At The Very Earliest. There are not one, but two interesting pieces of patchwork afoot here, and this photo is of one half of the first. Interesting to see what the prints "do", how they blend and fade and read through the camera lense. Fascinating. Wish me luck, that this hodgepodge will be transformed into two throwy (45"x60"-ishy) quilts for the little sisters by Christmas. Of this year.

Borrowing.

2007-10-03T14:30:00.001-07:00

I should rilly just buy Passionate Patchwork before they notice how often I check it out. Also I don't think I am old enough to be reading I Feel Bad About My Neck, but I am going to anyway. I didn't expect my thrifted copy of Erma's If Life Is a Bowl Of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits? to hit me like it did, so you never know. I love that book. I should probably make it my life's work to obtain every edition of said title. I only bought it because the "bowl of cherries" cliche kept popping up in my work (don't you think that cherries are a really loaded symbol? Maybe it's crass, but I do), and it had goofy illustrations I wanted to cut out and paste to some silly thing. But then I read it, and I remember crying on the bus, thinking how weird it was that I was reading this hilarious book and crying on a bus. It's the seed of Desperate Housewives, only no one is gorgeous and people don't get killed all the time.

Davenport Public Library
Main Street
Check Out Receipt
Customer name: HOLST, ERIN M

Title: Created in darkness by troubled Americans : the best of McSweeney's, humor category
ID: 30050054411672
Due: 10/24/2007,23:59

Title: I feel bad about my neck : and other thoughts on being a woman
ID: 30050056722332
Due: 10/24/2007,23:59

Title: Ready made : how to make (almost) everything : a do-it-yourself primer
ID: 30050018309285
Due: 10/24/2007,23:59

Title: Passionate patchwork : over 20 original quilt designs
ID: 30050046016035
Due: 10/24/2007,23:59

Title: The happy hooker : stitch 'n bitch crochet
ID: 30050018315357
Due: 10/24/2007,23:59

Total items: 5
10/3/2007 3:36 PM

Thank you for using the
Davenport Public Library

Have a great day!

Going.

2007-09-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

I suck at having a blog. This photo is what our life is like. There's bills and Diet Coke and more fabric and less sewing and Anthropologie catologs (I regret ever signing up for that, they just makes me irrationally angry) and crumpled-up construction paper with MISS ERIN written in shaky crayon letters, everywhere. I mailed Alex's birthday gloves without taking a picture of them, 25 days after her birthday. Nevermind I am a bad blogger, I am an even worse sister. Who am I kidding. This blog is a joke. Oh well. I'm going to a cocktail party now. Call me. See ya later.

Posting.

2007-09-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

Tres novel, no? Forgive my (not entirely unusual) lack of blog. This time my excuse is that I left the camera in the glovebox nearly two weeks ago after a W900 show and I can only seem to remember this fact when the car and I are many miles apart.

I am having an EXTREMELY hard time accepting that THIS sensational clock is from WALMART. I WANT it. Resistance is futile. We are a cuckcoo clock lovin' family over here and I can't believe that clock is from Walmart and I need it. This is the first time ever in my entire blog-reading life I have seen something on the extremely inspirational decor8 that I could actually, conceivably have for myself, without guilt or excessive credit card debt.

Anyways, I finished the Birthday Girl's gloves a few days ago, they are blocked and dry and lovely and they need to go into the mail ASAP as her birthday was 3 weeks ago now. I still haven't solved the dilema of how to photo them. So that's good. I finished something

Oh and speaking of finishing. Last week I spent half an hour sitting on the floor trying to trace the crotch of a pair of pajama pants so I could sew up a pair for me out of some fabric that has been waitingpatiently for me for a very long time. Crotchlines. Not Fun. So I said Bump This and went into work at the Fabric Hole the next day and as soon as I clocked out, I went through the book of whatever company was on sale (Butterick at the time), grabbed a jammie pattern for less than 2 bucks, went home and turned them out. I feel like I should have been able to figure the shaping out, but if it took ANY LONGER than it absolutley had to, they were not going to happen. Cursed, stupid crotchline. Wonderful sloppy flannel pj pants though, coffee and donuts print. Best pants ever.

Pulling.

2007-08-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

sometimes i'm tempted to forget myself
jump back into the skirmish as a mercenary.
what little time my poor soul may have left
i'd rather that i lived it in sanctuary.
i don't take orders from the war room anymore
this is one recruit who's surrendered.
i don't take orders from the war room anymore
now i am my own defender.

I realized tonight that I've worked at JoAnn in Davenport longer than I worked at JoAnn in Rochester. I really do live here. How geeky that JoAnn is my barometer.

I think I need to go to St. Ambrose University for Early Childhood Development and then everything will be just fine. How could it not be? Ambrose is walking distance from my house. I could be there in less than ten minutes.

Happy Birthdays out to Alex, my sister, who is 21 today, and Sophia, one of my kindergarteners, who is 5.

I'm gonna fall asleep at the keys and I have to work in 8 hours. This is the LiveJournaliest entry ever. BYE.

Reassessing.

2007-08-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

I know this is boring by now, but this is seriously how stupid I've gotten.

I got my order of Alexander Henry prints (tattoo, city girl, beauty bar, kissable color, & tsukiyo) from Denver Fabrics on Monday, yesterday at work I killed the bolt of pink skulls (flora de los muertos), because it is on sale and all of the sudden I grew terrified someone else was going to get it before I could, I'm working on making someone to go with me on a trip to get more (inked, etc.), and I'm on eBay right now looking at the AH offerings, contemplating some Bad Choices...

I think I need to make an Alexander Henry label for all these dunb posts. I've seen some pretty crazy quilters (and I've spent 45 minutes cutting their fabric) but this, to me, is weird. Never in all my crafting life have I had an obsession this bad, this single-minded, that I couldn't snap out of. It is not normal.

Does anyone else have a crafty crush that they simply cannot shake, that makes them do dumb, irrational things? Please say yes. I'll give you a prize if it makes me feel better about my addiction.

P.S. I do have a couple of projects in the works. I swear. All of the recent haul was bought with a destination in mind and that is no lie. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't make my heart pound and the blood rush to my head. I suppose it can't kill me but dang, it's, like, $8.95 a yard!

Falling.

2007-08-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Alone at home after school with the sun coming in through the curtains, the cats have been fed and are lounging contentedly, just the white noise of cars outside and birds that have built a nest in our fireplace chirping (don't ask). It's quiet. Peaceful. I want to pretend it's fall but I know that outside it's 86 degrees and Mississippi River Valley humid. It can be fall inside at my house, anyway.

I ran around like a lunatic all last week stressing about the brief ( nonetheless, short-notice) visit from A's family. I changed the sheets on the guest bed and went and did something else and this is how I found Norton upon my return to the spare room. It just made me laugh. He climbed into the blanket tunnel to escape the whirling crazy person tearin' it up all over HIS house. When we moved here, for the longest time he spent most of his days under that blanket, which was the bedspread at the time. He would not come out for nothin'. This went on for what seemed like forever.
"Hey, have you seen Norton?"
"Um, no. Check the futon."
Cat-shaped lump under the red blanket. Yep. And now that he's settled in, he is into everything. While I don't appreciate him knocking every object in sight off the kitchen counter, I felt sick knowing he was so uncomfortable he wanted to hide in bed all day. But he's all better now, and back to his old tricks.

So on my home inprovement binge, this happened and it's just as cute as I imagined it would be. I love when that happens. Mary Engelbreit's "Chair Of Bowlies" print, my salt & peppers, a can of red spray paint, and some homesewn aprons. It's my new favorite spot in the house. Bless A's heart for hanging that stuff for me. And powertools. Bless powertools.

We did a very grown up thing and got a mirror for over the fireplace. It's like, the thing to do. Nothing lights a quick-decorating fire under the arse like a visit from A's mother, no?

Knitting: The sistergloves grew fingers, spontaneously. It amazes me how creepy they look spread out on the table versus how classy they look on. But the ends need to be darned up and also it's astonishingly hard to photograph your own arm with results that even approach normal. It's hilarious, actually. Try it sometime.

Catching.

2007-08-18T20:07:00.001-07:00

This is a cute little baby rabbit I spotted through the kitchen window, just chillin' out in the alley.

The dining room table needed a reminder that it is a dining table, not just dumping grounds for junk mail and bills. And thus, Baby's First Floral Arrangement. I broke a pair of scissors trying to trim the stem off a fake glob of hydrangeas. The orange flowers are from the only line of pretend flowers I like from the Fabric and Craft Hole (they look like calico to me and I decided I liked them long ago but was only able to bring myself to buy them because they were 50% off), and the yellow ones are from an odd bag I picked up at the DAV once that prompted my dearest Aaron to ask, "What are you going to do with all the funeral flowers?". The hurricane is from Pier One and the plastic citrus are yet another weird DAV find. No faux floral without irony here. OH, hell to the hell to the nooooo.

Hey this is hush hush but someone very chic and special is going to be 21 soon and needs her own pair of cashmere (OK, CASHMERE-BLEND) opera-length fingerless gloves with a scalloped edge and lacey travelling vine pattern (#135, VK Stitchionary Vol. 1, pg. 91). Cross your fingers that her sister can finish them in the next ten days and get them in the mail quickly.

OK, Knit Talk: I pored over the usual knitting library suspects (a book or two by the completely insane Nicki Epstein, etc.) and the difficulty in choosing a lace pattern was compounded by the fact that I needed one that could be simply translated to knitting in the round. I SO wanted to do the Nosegay with all the bobbles (there WILL be bobbles, make no mistake, whether she'll like them or not, so-help-me-Jesus) but only the patterns with the "rest rows" seemed within do-ability (I'm just knitting when I'd be purling if I were knitting flat). Has this happened to you?!! Am I weird?!! Don't most peeps prefer knitting in the round to avoid purling and seaming?? I also remember reading somewhere about the difference between "lace knitting" and "knitted lace" which to me is splitting hairs but I think I am knitting knitted lace. I don't have a good reason to give a damn one way or the other, I just want to make a nice prezzie for somone fancy on her birthday!!

Ummm, if I am not mistaken, SNL ought to be on at this time and yet there is pro-wrestling on my TV. I must be off to go rectify this situation. I will check you later, blog. Don't tell my sister you know what she's getting for her birthday. xoxoxox.

Melting.

2007-08-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

There must be something wrong with me.

Innocently enough, as I occasionally do, this morning I checked the local NBC affiliate's website, KWQC.com, for the weather report. I walk most of the places I go. I like to know just how miserable I am going to be. Pretty effin' miserable:

WTF, IOWA?! WHAT FOR? WHO NEEDS THAT!! Ack ack ack, a thousand times, ack.

The weird part though, is that while most folks are currently experiencing cooking ennui, not I. Oh no. Since I got back, I swear the oven has been going going going and the little house has just been hotter than hot. But we've enjoyed lovely lasagna (see 7/27/07 for the Lasagna Show), some molasses cookies that promised soft and chewy but delivered cakey, Alton Brown's Good Eats Granola, samosas (Molly Katzen style), and today, easily 90 degrees out, I made banana walnut bread. It needed to be done. I added a sprinklin' of nutmeg and a generous dose of cinnamon and it's pretty awesome. Aaron keeps coming home saying "Hi peanut something smells good Jeeeeesus it's hot in here". Next up: SEITAN!

I've also started knitting the Twinkle Shopping Tunic from VK Holiday 05 out of some white Wool Ease Thick&Quick that I picked up from work for 97 cents a ball, crocheted a handful of granny squares AND I've completely fallen madly for the quilts of Kaffe Fassett (a topic for another post). There has to be some kind of seasonal disorder that explains why I am dreaming of blankets and knitting sweaters when the temperature of my house rivals that of the earth's core.

Slaving.

2007-07-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

The promise of lasagna is not an empty one. Behold:

Only thing I messed up is please add a layer of noodles after the first saucing. I must have forgotten to snap that step. Also note that I am too generous with my materials at the beginning and have to scrape towards the end. I don't usually boil the noodles before they get piled on, and they come out okay, but next time I make it, provided it's any less than 4 million degrees in the kitchen, I think I may give them five minutes of boiling time.

Going.

2007-07-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Oh, hi.
I chilled with 99 percent of the people who read this blog while I was there, so I guess I will just say that my trip to Rochester was lovely. I had fun every day. Even the rainy ones. You can too go home. Whoever said you can't is a bully. Although the word "home" does start to get quite blurry and convoluted as time wears on, you can go. At least for a bit. I went home and then I went home. If I talk about this topic at any length at all I start getting quite teary and also nauseous so I'm stopping now, so I'll end by saying I look forward to my next visit and thank you all for being so dear.

I'm actually quite tired and mildly screwed up from probably more the staying up all night than the one piddly hour time zone change, and from spending the past two days wrassling scrapbook embellishments, with many more to follow. Tiny paper wine bottle. Tiny paper french fries. Tiny paper grad gown. Tiny paper phone booth. Tiny paper Statue of Liberty. Tiny paper sushi. Tiny paper prom. An entire life told in tiny paper approximations.

I'm missing Interpol at Harro East Right Now. GRR. But should this be the greatest injustice of my life, I'll recover.

Spooning.

2007-06-23T19:52:00.001-07:00

::::falls over and d.i.e.s. from the cuteness::::

I never knew it was possible to desire measuring spoons.

[Beehive Kitchenware Co. via oh joy!.]

Cutting.

2007-06-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Oh, "<-----Place On Straight Grain Of Fabric----->", how you do make me so very nervous.

Welcome to the Alexander Henry Dress Factory.

Wondering.

2007-06-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

Unless you are Jenna Small Bird, you can go look at this flickr set of a project that's been in the works for over a year now (or I worked on it for 2 months solid and then let is sit for a year, and then I did something with it a few days ago). If you are Jenna Small Bird then it's going to be in your mailbox in a few days anyway so I wouldn't peek. I shouldn't even be posting this until it's in transit but I couldn't resist and it looks like rain so no bike ride to the PO for me.

Digging.

2007-06-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

I went to the thrift store today. The DAV never disapoints.

When the house started "coming together" a bit (it's still far from done, but what I mean is more like, "when we got a couch"), I was surprised how many people were surprised by the decor (words like "Pottery Barn" and "Martha Stewart" are being used). Is this more what you were expecting?

Biting.

2007-06-10T13:53:00.001-07:00

I skibbled into Steve and Barry's (who I see have dropped "University Sportswear" from the chain's name) on Thursday on my way to work to check out dear SJP's new collection, Bitten. Like everybody, I was skeptical of whether it was actually going to be cute. I think in the wake of Sex and The City, we're having a hard time separating Carrie from Sarah Jessica. Carrie's style was created by Pat Fields. Sarah's style was created by I can only assume Sarah and possibly a stylist. Holy moly, it's actually cute. I'm going back. In a place with no H&M, my beloved source of cheap and interesting clothes, Bitten is a good thing. H&M is one of the top five things I look forward to most about my trip to Rochester next month (1. fam 2. knitters/wedding 3. various friends who don't knit 4. thali 5. H&M. Ta-da.) I feel bad about my lust for trendy made-over-seas clothes, but I don't know how you can assuage that guilt when you're on a tight budget. I like SJP's motives, which are (so she says and I want to believe her) growing up in a big family with no money. That's pretty noble. I'll toast to that. Any thoughts?

Practicing.

2007-06-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, for the past month or so, nine out of ten nights, this has been the scene in my basement. The upside, for you, lovely reader, is that this is a still picture, with no audio. I can dig the audio these dear boys are producing, it's just that it, like, permeates my entire stinkin' house. It's not very peaceful. You think you wanna be one of those moms (wives?) where all the kids feel welcome at your house, but this whole "Um Shit You Guys We Have A Show In Six Days And We Gotta Learn Twenty New Songs By Friday Night Holy Crap Dude" ordeal has taught me that probably, you don't. At least, not four beer swillin' dudes with amplifiers and drumsticks, anyways. Oy.

Coupling.

2007-06-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

First & Most Biggest & a few days late:

As of 6/4/07, this dude and I have been married for two lovely years. And I still have done nothing in the way of creating a wedding album. He is my best friend in the world and I adore him a little more every day. I smile when I think of him. This photo is apparently the most glorious picture of us ever taken because I have a pillow case with it on it. Long story, you don't really want to hear it. Anyways, to commemorate this stupendous occasion, Aaron surprised me with a pink rose at work, and after my shitty twelve-hour workday was finally over, we went out for pancakes. It was stupendous.

Also on the subject of weddings:

It's really no secret that I am a weird Martha Stewart semi-fanatic. I am not alone. Many a blogger has confessed that she will buy pretty much any magazine that Martha publishes. I am among them. My only regret towards our very brief engagement was that only two issues of the utterly gorgeous MS Weddings came out during my time as a Bride(zilla)-to-be. OK but did you know that if you buy the fancy Collector's Edition of Weddings ($9.95) that's on the stands right now, that you get a free year of Blueprint? It's crazy. My plan is buy it with the 50 percent off coupon from the JoAnn NPI so then I get it for five dollars. FIVE DOLLARS = SIX ISSUES of Blueprint and the magic fancy issue with it's many pictures of lovely flowers and cake for looking at when I am sad and when I decide we need to renew our vows in 18 years so I can have a mini-wedding with cupcakes. Oh, blog, I knew you would understand.

Squishing.

2007-06-01T19:57:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever been really clear about my "dayjob" (while I blather on about my nights-and-weekends-and-school-holidays job at the Fabric Hole). I am a para-educator (which is nothing more than a fancy Iowa word for teacher's aide, I think, just like "guest teacher" which is Davenportese for SUB) at an elementary school and I work with behaviorally disturbed kids K-2. It's the hardest goddamn thing I have ever done in my life. But you get to love the kids so much, even when they're being A W F U L. The classroom teacher I work with is a doll and one of the things she does is first thing in the moring, they draw a name out of the basket and that person is the Warm Fuzzy. The Warm Fuzzy gets to be the line leader all day, and go first at whatever, and everyone has to give them a compliment (A WARM FUZZY, PERHAPS?), and then we go do the calendar. So the Fuzzy is denoted by the sticker he wears on his shirt (all five of our kids are boys) but the problem is that the stickers keep falling off and getting lost. And that can be pretty disasterous to a seven year-old. So with five days left 'til the end of the year, I had a Stroke of Genius and I made a little badge out of wool felt and DMC and a safety pin. How hopelessly nerdy can you get?

Treasuring.

2007-05-29T15:32:00.001-07:00

I wanted to start this post with something cute about how enamored of the Alexander Henry Collection I am, as I know I've mentioned before. Yes, Alexander Henry is totally my boyfriend. But it's just getting out of hand. I think about it all the time. I don't buy that much, I guess, but I think about buying it. Just to have. Because it's delicious. You can't trust me around it. I try to think of ways to smuggle more home and not get caught (by my hubbers, not STEALING from work, heaven forbid). The prints get in my head and follow me around. I'll get a third of a yard or whatever here and there just so I can sleep at night. It's sick. I won't lie. It's completely weird.

I don't know. At JoAnn a few weeks ago I was (gleefully) cutting some Alex fabric for a guest who was grumbling about how you used to only be able to find AH and Robert Kaufman at the independent quilt shops and was all wistful about how they sold out and wholesale to the big chains now. I don't know where to stand on issues like that anymore. I personally am at once grateful and tortured by AH's deal with JoAnn.

Here, let's talk about something else. In this last batch of photos I just dumped off the camera, of stacks of coveted fabric, a maxed-out GC-card-worth of speakers and mixing boards, here's a new photo from The Cave AKA The Master Bedroom, version Lots of Dots Point Oh. We've become bedding junkies. I've always been a fan of the dot. Way too much hoarding and excess going on over here. Must be some kind of weird compulsive personality type we both are. Way too wanty. Get zen or die.

Missing.

2007-05-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

I have such lovely friends.
Thank you, Ms. Small Bird. You are so cute. I'm working on your swapperdoo still. It's coming!

Birdwatching.

2007-05-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Too cute! matteart, @ etsy via Domino via Oh Joy!. Every single item in his shop is darling. Please go buy something from him because he makes my new favorite stuff and I have no money right now so I can't!

All-Knowing.

2007-05-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

Eighty-six grannies down, infinity billion to go. So, so boring!!!!! Only twelve colors remain to mix up and it's so un-fun.

I have started the most dinky little compost heap in the backyard. Do you remember Madame Trash Heap? I hope mine turns out like her and is all wise and stuff.

You can listen to the new Interpol single at Spinner. Interpol makes me all squshy. I love that band to little tiny pieces. New album out July 10.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies in the house.

'Cuz today, my heart swings.

Boing.

2007-05-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

Oh. Sorry. Hello. This will catch you up.

We painted (ok. Aaron painted. But I did the taping off and the corners.) the spare room. Good-bye, ugly green extremely poorly-done faux finish. Then Aaron's mom breezed into town (HA!) and slept in that room for a couple days and we had to amuse her (which mostly fell on me, somehow). So that was that.

Then on Saturday we drove to Chicago to see this baby get dipped in holy water and cry a lot. I think this is a very sweet photo and I plan to get a nice print run off for Eric and Kate, but secretly, and you have to promise you won't tell, Elke's intense sweet little gaze is totally transfixed on a candle flame. Wee baby pyro!

While in Chicagoland, the culmination of me staging many fits ("I NEVER GET TO DO ANYTHING I WANT WHEN WE'RE IN THE CITY EVER.") over the course of two years was finally realized and we went to IKEA. Dude. We were there for three and half hours. It was bananas. I was very pleased to finally get there, but by the end, I was completely burnt out and dehydrated and tired. A's mom bought us this bistro table FROM THE FUTURE as our housewarming present. I think the peeling paint on the garage looks almost romantic here, but that's going bye-bye this summer.

So what's new with you?

Running.

2007-04-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

Erin's Top Ten Things Of The Moment Ready Go:
1. All prints by Alexander Henry. I am going completely bananas for this guy. I can't stand it, really. Above is the product of my latest tiny stash enrichment expedition. Thank you, JoAnn credit card, for giving me free money at the place I spend too much real money.
2. I had a lovely idea for the rick rack theme at Tie One On, like, two days ago. Of course the theme is posted two months ago and I get a good idea at the ass-end, days before the deadline. Sigh. I accept your apron challenge, Amy Chicken!
3. I really want the guest room to look nice for A's mom, but dang. So Number Three on this list is Worrying about the Guest Room. Help. When you stay with somebody what makes it special?? I got her a bar of my favorite handmade soap and I am going to make her a magic pillowcase. Any other ideas? Keep in mind probably that when YOU come stay with me you will sleep in this room too!!!! No I am not going to put a lasagna on her pillow.
4. Stranger Than Fiction. Rent it, it's really cute and it made me cry. Will Ferrel is just good, he can't help it. Maggie Gyllenhal has a punkrock bakery in the movie and even though I don't listen to punk anymore or define myself as "PUNK" (except I still adore X but they don't count cos they are transcendant) I appreciate doing stuff punkrock. If that makes any sense. No.
5. Mint Chocolate Chip Pop Tarts. Sounds so gross, secretly so tasty.
6. I've been struggling to make pillows for our room.

It sucks. I don't want them to be all dog-eared, but the rounded corners one looks awful. Ugh. I even sprang for the NICE poly-fil!!! I want to punch these pillows in their face. Yes. Pillows have faces.
7. I never took a picture of them but for Bunco this month I made Cathedral Windows (this definition makes it sound a lot more bitchier than we are. My group just likes to hang out with other girls and drink). One of the cute little old ladies at my old Jo-Ann made them once and I thought they were cute and hilarious and kind of scarily trashy and delicious. One girl told me "I know we just met, but I could kiss you for making these". WOOO!!! Yeeeeuuh.
8. I'm getting SO ANTSY to start a garden. I have no interest in annuals. I want my garden to grow and spread and go crazy. I brought my little herbies outside today to start hardening off, and then I forgot about them and left them out half-an-hour longer than I planned to. And then it rained. Oops. I hope that is no indication of what I will be like as a Cottage Gardener. I also hope they will be ok.
9. Today at recess I learned a lot about Mean Erin and so did one of the students in my class. It was weird. Cos I never yell, I usually nag, but they don't listen. But there is a Mean Erin in there, and they'll listen to her. I wish it weren't so, because negative reinforment isn't the greatest way of managing behavior, but sometimes they leave you no choice. Good luck reasoning with an eight year-old. I think children are fabulous and amazing but what do you DO with them sometimes??
10. I don't remember the last time I made a granny square but, hey, if my girlfriend Teva Durham is hookin' it up, then somehow it must be right that I am having major knit block and crochet fever.

Smashing.

2007-04-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

I feel like such a follower these days. I've been getting swept up in crafty internet phenomena lately (the grannies and now the Purl Swatch Portraits). What a geek. Go get your own idea, Erin, jeez.

Anyways, for the one in the bedroom I used Heat-N-Bond to do the bird on a branch applique and I think that H-N-B is one of the best things to ever happen to me. It's the most fun ever. The one over the mantle is just a quarter flat. I used quilting hoops because they are nice and big and interestingly shaped and I found them on clearance for less than a dollar each. I think that both of them could benefit from being flanked by a smaller ones on both sides. Fast, cheap and wicked cute. Love it. It's really starting to make me crazy how blank our walls are. So I gleefully pound brads haphazardly into the plaster (makes Aaron cringe) and top them with silly things.

I got a lasagna in the oven right now so hey let's all make lasagnas and start a Lasagna-A-Long and a flickr group and blog about lasagna.

Presenting.

2007-04-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Finished the quilt for Afton's baby yesterday. It's Baby Quilt 2.0: The Green Version.

I started it two days before the little dude was born. Like an idiot. Then to make matters even worse, I ignored it for a while.

Hi, Baby Adrian. Hi. I'm your cousin. Welcome to Life, buddy. It's really hard sometimes, so I made you a quilt. I hope you like it. I can't wait to meet you.

Love, erin.

Coloring.

2007-03-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

Act I:

Scene: Lowes, 53rd & Elmore. Erin and Aaron shopping for paint. (The siding needs to be painted rather desperately and it's finally Spring. Other bedroom needs to be spiffed up soon as A's moms will be here next month. All I am going to say is: Ack.) A is looking at a nice latte color for the bedroom, a pale blue for the house exterior, and red enamel for the front door. He holds a very conservative stack of color chips in his hand. E is over at the new Martha Stewart colors. Her take resembles a deck of cards.

Aaron: "Jeez, peanut, how many are you going to take?"

Erin: "Oh my god, I'm like Lowe's worst nightmare. Ohhhhhhh! Peanut, look, this one is called JORDAN ALMOND! Eeeeeeee MINT GELATO. Oh my god. Oh my god. Yeah, we should prob'ly go. Okay."

E and A walk away into the sunset. Fade to black.

END SCENE.

::shrug::: Hey, if you don't want me making off like a bandit with all your paint swatches, Martha Stewart, probably you shouldn't have come out with a new paint line with colors like "Pencil Eraser", or "Embossed Stationary". Or "Trousseau", or "Cuckoo Clock", or "Porcelain Doorknob." Or "Sewing Basket". Or "Fondant". Or "Dungarees". Or "Birdhouse". Or "Vintage Map". Probably that was a bad idea on your part, lady. Paint chips are free for the taking, and there's no shame in my game.

I'm looking at painting my kitchen "Newsprint" from her line or "Tea Stain" from the Valspar line. Pale greys.

Here is a tute for a cutie paint sample wallet over at flickr. It's a lot of fun, but it wouldn't work with the teensy MS ones. Not that I care. I'm content to just shuffle though these and squeal once in a while.

Climbing.

2007-03-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

Iowa is proving to be lovely in the springtime.

I am getting wicked excited about having a YARD. It's a pretty small, urban neighborhood yard. Know what though? It's all made of dirt and I am going to grow some roses and some tomatoes and I can't wait. I want to plant a sour cherry tree and wait impatiently for years and years for cherries to bake into pies.

New job is going well. Damned if it's not the hardest thing I've ever done, but it feels good to be part of the system. To be there to help.

We went to Iowa City yesterday to visit friends and eat wraps at A's favorite lunch spot. We went to an unfriendly yarn shop and I DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING. It was a lovely afternoon. Saw a few students zipping around town on Vespas. Doesn't that sound like fun?? Hmm, there's a dealer in Geneva and one in Joliet, too..... Ciao for now.

Going.

2007-03-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

I baked these to bring to Bunco tonight. They are much uglier than the ones in the magazine, but I assure you they are delish. I ate like five. Which was a very dumb idea.

I forgot how much I like to draw. I looove gouache. This is basically that tattoo I am always talking about. It's pretty much on hold indefinitley. I doubt the school district would see the awesomeness.

Tapping.

2007-03-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

I love these picture frames, because they are the anti-frame. Not really a huge fan of the traditional frame. Much prefer to "float" the piece. Was criticized for doing so at my BFA show (frames make things look "finished", floating looks like you just are too cheap to frame). I think often times that framing closes the image off too much, isolates it from the rest of the space. And I know that this may come as a shock, but sometimes I actually do believe in spare, minimal. Totally not in keeping with the 99 percent of my aesthetic that's informed by the simple truth that I am my own tacky Italian grandmother. Click 'em for notes.
Anyway, I love these, I want more, they snap together so I can change the display easily if/when I get tired of it. Pier 1! On sale, $4 each for the 11"x14". Love love love them. Can't say it enough. Squeeee.

Also, are y'all familiar with Create For Less? Their prices are fantastic (wooden embroidery hoops for the bird lamp and the swatch portraits, and more floral birds than you can shake a stick at, oh my!!!); it's the dang shipping that's holding me back (I don't hate on the USPS, I love them deeply and accept that shipping is one of the few certainties in life, but if it costs 8 dollars just to get it here... I might as well trek over to Jo-Ann and pay retail minus team-member discount.) Probably what I will do is fill a shopping cart, dump it, fill it again, dump it, fill it again, say TO HELL WITH IT!, order it, and then get a free shipping code in the e-mail the next day. Happened with fred flare. True story. Ah, phooey. Whuttayado??

Counting.

2007-03-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Ala Purl Soho:

I am going to do this in our bedroom. And it is going to be fantastic.

Props to Ms. Jang for her new gig at IK.

I'm so glad it's almost spring.

Reveling.

2007-03-08T17:44:00.000-08:00

Oh, sweet Jesus. Aaron and Jeremy have found themselves a drummer. There is an ungodly amount of jammy noise coming out of my basement, just in time for Grey's Anatomy. Those jerks. Disrespecting my Thursday night TV rituals.

I'm doing this. BECAUSE CROCHET ATE MY LIFE. In a good way (?). Wheeeeeee. I've been off coffee and alcohol for about two weeks because I've been sick. Today is the first day I've felt completely human, and it's good to be back.

The spring issue of Knitty is up and I don't hate it. Nothing earth-shattering, but solidly okay. I want to knit that purple thing and an erin-sized version of the flutter tank.

Good lord. Can I come over to your house and watch my show? I'll make you brownies. Thanks, you're a doll.

Plotting.

2007-03-07T07:01:00.000-08:00

As per the delightful Kelly Brown, I took pictures of TV. Elisabeth (I think I disagree with Elisabeth on basically every single issue there is to take a side on, but there is no doubt in my mind that she is a nice girl and that we could be friends despite being political polar opposites) was wearing the most cutest top the other day on The View. It occured to me rather late in the program that taking a picture of the TV was an option, so I didn't get a shot of the back, but it has a nice little white belt at the waist that ties in a bow at the back. I think this would be a fun fun little knit, a tasteful way to do some intarsia (for the vertical stripes). Now, does anybody know if it is possible to knit a Peter Pan collar? OH SHOOT, I'll figure something out.

In other crafty news, the Use What You Have afghan g-square count has reached: 34 completely completed, and 13 in need of black rounds, but the GINORMOUS ball of black nast acrylic from 4 years ago when I didn't know better that was just taking up space in the stash has run dry and now I actually have to suck it up and buy more. Unbelievable, people. We'll see what happens. I don't really have a goal here except Use It All Up Get It Out Of My Fort And Doin' Somethin'. I really don't know where in my home this thing will live but I could see it growing to queen sized and looking gross in my NEVER GOING TO BE COMPLETED MASTER BEDROOM. But that's neither here nor there. If crocheted insanity is your thing (don't start, it's addictive), here's the new granny square flickr group and the No-End-In-Sight Ripple-along.

Also: I found a really fabulous, bursting-at-the-seams and yet impossibly neat-as-a-pin (enough cliches for one sentance, no?) SCRAPBOOKING SHOP in my neighborhood yesterday (again, Kelly, it's on the corner of Rusholme and Nate's gramma's street). I don't scrapbook, but I make Stuff and I'm a sucker for paper and stickers, etc. So I'm glad it's there. There's also a fantastic natural foods store in walking distance and I wandered around there for entirely too long yesterday as well. I like it here. I wish it wasn't so far from, like, everyone I ever met in my life, but I really do like it here.

AND ANOTHER THING. I am really annoyed with domino magazine's latest issue. It's the "GREEN" issue, and while a.) I am all for Green Living and I try to do what I can, and b.) I normally love domino in like, a really intense, drooly way, I find this issue of the mag to be wicked hoity toity- yeah, I just said hoity toity - and kind of self-rightous. On the one hand, great, thank you for telling me which paints are low-VOC, I can use that information, and yes, right on with the low-energy lightbulbs, but then don't tell me I can be nice to the environment by using like 56 dollar shampoo and laundry detergent and salvaged woodflooring that's like 200 dollars a square foot. When it's THAT inaccessible, it doesn't do anybody any good. I realized a long time ago the magazines are there to show you what looks cool and what is in style, and it's your job to (if you so choose) find ways to mimic that FOOOORRR LESSSSS. But this shit is just bananas. And domino? Don't try to talk up organic meat, because eating meat is totally not green. So don't even PLAY. I'll show you self-rightous. I'm a vegetarianan and we own self-rightous!!

Last asides, I promise.

Eunny is alive and I want the pattern for the sideways cable hat because that is hot.

I start my new job with D-port Community Schools on the 19th.

SALLY, I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE. I am (tentatively) going to craft a rip-off bird lamp. I'm going to need a lot of floral birds. I might need to make a Rochester friend go to Craft Service on University and scoop me up some vintage milinery birds. The whole thing reminds me of Alicia's cagelets. I'm picturing large embroidery hoops for the circular bits at the top and bottom of the cage. Sigh. Another undertaking. I'm gonna go see what Elisabeth is wearing today. xoxox.

Wanting.

2007-03-03T17:53:00.000-08:00

This is the cutest effing thing I've ever seen in my life.

I hate you, Anthropologie, for instilling in me an insane desire to blow a month of minimum wage on a light fixture!!!!! That's more than our mortgage payment!!! I'm going to go poke my eyes out.

Twisting.

2007-03-02T07:16:00.000-08:00

I knit a swatch. Yay.

Trudging.

2007-02-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

I feel kind of like a heel because as of late, "Knit or Die" has been a real misnomer. It's been "Granny Squares or Die" and "Use Proper Caps or Die" and "Eat A Stick Of Butter or Die", all kinds of other NOT-KNITTING stuff. I just have not been knitting much. I don't quite know why. My life has kind of changed a lot recently. Could it be the nine pairs of fingerless gloves have temporarily killed my knitting drive? I started a sock based on Kate Gilbert's sock chart, but once I turned the heel, I got bored. I knit that green pickle pillow in one evening out of some Lion Brand Big I got for 1.75$ at Hancock Fabrics on US17s (I made those big buttons out of Fimo, it was fun). If the non-knitty stuff doesn't interest you then I'm really sorry but here comes another one.

I GOT FORTY VINTAGE ZIPPERS FOR 1.95$ AT THE D.A.V. THRIFT STORE. As we all know, zippers are the devil, but they come in handy once in a while, and I'm probably never buying one ever again because I found 40 of the little bastards for less than two dollars.

This was .50 and it's a slightly bigger version (with a lift-out tray) of the sewing case my mom gave me for my drawing supplies freshman year. That poor case took a beating after four years of hauling charcoal around campus.

I also got a huge bag of really gnarly faux-as-they-come floral bits and a big old bag of lace trims, and a lovely embroidered lacy thingie I want to frame, and a little flower charmie necklace that I don't feel like photographing. It was a really good trip. I never find that much good stuff in one go. The thrifting has been really good here in D-port. The lady in front of me at the checkout (who totally beat me to a full roll of turquoise pompon trim) handed me a 10% off coupon, and I was like, "Oh, uh, thank you" and I felt weird using it because, um, it's a thirft store, it's cheap as hell to begin with, and the money goes to a good cause.... But they give 'em out on their website... I still sorda feel like a dirtball who just robbed the disabled veterans of like 75 cents.

It wasn't easy but I faced my fear of letting someone other than my lovely sister Alex cut my hair. It was sort of scary but the girl had her work cut out for her (that was so not a pun don't even go there), because it was just too long and shapeless. And my bangs were crooked because someone thought it was a smart idea to trim them herself with the good Fiskars, but she was totally wrong. I feel better now. Thanks for asking.

Waving.

2007-02-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

This is pretty much all I accomplished this weekend. Whoop-dee-doo, no? After seeing this cutie by Anna Maria, I needed one with a big old cherry-printed "E" and a handful of buttons and some crocheted laceyness. I love stuff with my name on it (like my husband, right!?) because I am a dweeb. It's not that I think "Erin" is the most amazing and spectacular first name ever (not that there is anything wrong with it), it just makes me feel special. I'm mad because I haven't seen any "Erin Go Braugh" St. Patrick's stuff this year to festoon my little house with. Wow, I'm going to stop because this is getting far too dorky.

This is how we spent Saturday night. WHEE! Power outage for almost 3 hours. We couldn't make a pizza with no electricity, nevermind that we had no heat and no way to watch L&O:SVU on DVD. It sucked. NO PIZZA, YOU GUYS.

Granny Square Count has reached 20. I have a new plan. I am weaving in the yarn tails as I go along now (ok I still have 8 left that need their tails darned), because I do not want the reason I never finish the blanket to be because I let 1690 little yarn ends scare me. I have to go buy a ball of red because that is the only color I am really missing (secret: I don't have any purple but I don't think that's going to be a problem. I do not love purple. I have too much PINK, are you surprised?) and if I only have to buy one ball of yarn to complete this project, I don't think anyone can call the Use What You Have police on me. What knitter doesn't cheat on their yarn diet? Fr realzies.

Crumbling.

2007-02-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

I made these biscuits last night from the recipe off the can of Zingerman's Irish oatmeal. They are so good it's frightening. With that much butter, yeah, they had better be transcendant. I think baking a batch of these took less time than actually making porridge.

Irish Oatmeal Biscuits (about 2 dozen 2" biscuits)

3/4 cup Stone-Ground Irish oatmeal
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 3 tablespoons salted butter
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F. Mix together oats and flour. Rub in the butter and add the sugar. Knead mixture into a pliable dough. Rocll out dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut the dough into rounds or rectangles, about 2" across. Place biscuits on a floured baking sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 12-14 minutes.

Also, I added a few sprinkles of ground cinnamon to my coffee grounds. I didn't know French press coffee could get any better, but I found a way. Scrummy.

Have a super day.

But time is on your side, it's on your side now
Not pushing you down, and all around
It's no cause for concern.

Blanketing.

2007-02-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

I want desperately and feverishly to make one of these lovelies and I vow I will someday. Right now though, it's granny squares for me. I read my stash and this is what happened. I work on this at night on the couch with Aaron and the cats and David Caruso or whatever. On a good evening, I make four squares. On a bad day, I fall asleep after one. While considering color combinations, I ask Aaron, "Which is grosser, this one or this one? Does this one hurt your eyes? Yeah? You like the lime green with the orange? OK, good." At an estimated 70% plastic, this garden will outlive us all. When the world ends, the only thing gonna survive are the acrylic afghans. Y'all have been warned. Rochester certainly got more snow than we did here, but Mississippi River Valley cold is unlike any other cold I've ever experienced. Sure, Buffalo is buried, but Midwest cold makes you wish you were dead as you walk from the car into Target or wherever. The Coldest Cold That Was Ever Cold. Seriously. Another 155 or so granny squares (Shooting for 13x13. I have a weird thing for 13. Probably just don't ask.) and I've have a nice, eyeball-blisteringly ugly blanket to block it out! JOY. But I can't complain, it's a tropical 47 degrees here in the QCA this afternoon.

I will be right here piecing a quilt-top for a baby that's already been borned. Have fun out there.

Sprouting.

2007-02-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

My baby herbs are growing! From L to R, in ABC order, there's basil, chives, dill, and parsley. Love plants, oh yes, but the attention span isn't long enough to care for them properly. When I was twelve, I fancied myself a little aromatherapist. I got a book on soap and candle-making and a gripload of baby plants from the nursery. Planted them and all that, crushed some leaves, inhaled deeply, and clear forgot about them. The lavender perished, peppermint and spearmint continue to go bananas and my dad discovered that Sweet Woodruff (when dried, smells like hay, how romantic I was at twelve!) makes lovely groundcover. Eleven years later I'm making a mess of potting soil and plant food on the kitchen floor, dumping a whole packet of seeds into a 4" terra cotta pot. I don't know any better? The rhododendron cuttings my mom sent me off to Iowa with are looking kind of dire, but the Wandering Jew (yo I didn't make up that Un-P.C. name, swear it) that she yoinked from my grandma is happy. I just can't believe they're growing. You can't see it but the basil has two tiny sprouts in there. I am so proud of my little herbs. They keep on keepin' on even though their mama is a blooming idiot who has no idea how often to water them.

One of my cousins had a baby boy (name's Adrian) yesterday. I bought the fabric for his (mostly lime green!) baby quilt in December, before we even moved, and I was just thinking this morning, "Dang, I ought to get cracking on that quilt so it reaches them before he begins kindergarten", and of course I check my e-mail and there it is, he came at 4pm yesterday and both baby and mommy are well. Glad to hear, but rats. I'm strip-piecing this mohunker, hopefully it will be done much more quickly than Elke's quilt was. OH, LE SIGH.

Tomorrow I'll show you my mostly-acrylic "garden" that could quite possibly survive the Apocalypse.

Peeping.

2007-02-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you
And honey, you should know, that I could never go on without you
Green eyes, you’re the one that I wanted to find.

Romancing.

2007-02-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day. I had today off. So what did I do on this romantic holiday? I cleaned the house! Whee. How sensual. So I tried to treat myself special with some nice strawberry-rhubarb jam on potato bread with some soy-milky English Breakfast in my most hilarious mug. Then I made some Nestle Tollhouse because nothin' says lovin' like six dozen of The Tollhouse. You know this.

Le Playroom is coming along into a lovely and productive space. This beast is finally finished. Oh, I speak so harshly of the nice ribbon board, don't I? Well, after finding that the (I thought) safe-side SEVEN YARDS of yellow twill tape I bought was nowhere near enough, I had to make some design decisions. I told myself: Hey, Self, now calm down. Life thinks it's funny to do this to you sometimes, you know, throw you a little curveball, to make you think. Keep you on your toes. Lemonade and what-have-you. And thus the very Sally Shim pocket was added. OH LIFE, you almost had me there. But I win. NEENER NEENER.

When His Hubbiness gets home, we are going to Village Inn for some PANCAKES. Yeah, giiiiirl. No, we're not normal. We know. Hope you are having a lovely day. Go lavish someone (huzz, wife, dog, cat, self, knock yourself out) with affection. XOX.

Testing.

2007-02-05T15:50:00.000-08:00

Aaron and I have a theory. I think I can call it a theory because it started as a hypothesis and I think we've proven it through experiments. Get ready to be blown away, because it is really scientific.

Everything looks cuter in a jar.

Would you look at that big ol' motherlode of candy? Can you even handle this much cute? Do you want SOME MORE?

Are those or are those not the cutest cotton balls and Q-tips you've ever seen? Do you like how that jar still kind of smells like a pickle after I washed it three times? I DO.

So anyways. I think I am getting a cold. It is probably from being exposed to freezing temperatures (and the germy public) while doing register all weekend long. It's fantastic.

Anybody needs me, I'll be right here (not pictured: Mason jar of M&Ms keeping me company).

hatching.

2007-02-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

i feel stuffy calling it my studio, like i'm fancy and i'm going to make really groundbreaking important stuff in there. like valentines and knitted hot pants and baby quilts. very heady, i know. the paint color is glass green by laura ashley (from lowes, our second home). i love it. it looks amazing with the gumwood (no kelly we're not going to paint it, pinky promise). i did it myself. and it really needs a second coat. it's the perfect shade of robin's egg blue, which is fitting, because i'd prefer to think of it as my little nest anyways.

gleaning.

2007-01-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

so i transferred from joann 1943 to joann 1645. i'm a freakin' lifer. i think my three favorite places in the store are the DMC floss display, the calico wall, and the notions wall. there is something about these spots that just make me feel like anything is possible. did you know that DMC makes 454 colors of six strand cotton floss? the greatest gift i could ever receive is one skein of each. oh my lord. each 8 yard skein is twenty-five cents worth of joy. i dont think you even have to quilt to enjoy the calico. i just love the prints. and notions. don't even get me started. those little glassheaded pins in the rainbow colors. and D-RINGS. i love d-rings. whatever gets you inspired. i need to be reminded that anything is possible. i wish to feel that way more often.

(can you tell i'm having a lousy time finding a "real" job?)

anyways. this is a short list of words that i think everyone should stop using so loosely: random. ecclectic. organic.

how long has it been since i actually posted knitting content? jeezaloo. ugh. sorry.

it's good to have you with us.

2007-01-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

hi from iowa. this is my little studio. yes, it's currently a mess, and yes, it's rather far from Home. but it's mine.

merry chickmas!

2006-12-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

shewt, you guys. i love you wacky knitters so. happiest holidays to y'all.

extremes.

2006-12-11T08:19:00.000-08:00

three things that are way too easy to do with results as lovely as they are.

lettuce edges.
cake mixes.
scribble lace.

1. twelve days of christmas presents for my little sisters and former roommates are DONE just need to be mailed and delivered!

2. safety pin decorated red velvet cupcakes (fabric store jokes!) for my favorite manager's birthday.

3. scarf for baby sister, using scribble lace method from mason dixon knitting book.

can i just tell you, this move is taking so much out of us. as excited as we are, good god it is hard. we're SUPPOSED to close on the house in i believe eleven days. it's unreal. every moment is occupied with thoughts of paint and furniture and learning a new place and dwindling checkbook balances. oh my goodness. i do not look forward to hauling all my books and magazines around or thirteen hours in the scion with two pissed off tabby cats. one of my lovely co-workers told me they'll miss me but that we'll be able to have a better life there (lower cost of living, a wonderful little house after two years in a teensy apartment, havin kids someday. SOMEDAY I SAID SOMEDAY OK SIMMER DOWN). we don't have it half bad here, so i can only hope.

ATTN: debbie stoller, the boat just left without you.

2006-12-06T14:12:00.000-08:00

gosh darn you urban outfitters.

they're even pointelle.

perseverance.

2006-11-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

looks like it's true what they say about how the most difficult things are the ones most worth doing. appears to apply to baby quilts (assembled via the making-shit-up-as-you-go-along method) and motherhood (from an observer's standpoint). perhaps it also applies to moving into an adorable 1917 bungalow four states west of your hometown of 23 years. here's hoping.

HELLLLOOOOOOO!

2006-11-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

oh my. it has been too long, little blog. the thing is that, much like you, dear reader, is that i have been working on way, way, way too many projects lately. so i keep starting more, haven't finished hardly a thing, and i dont think you need to see the mess i'm making of the entire apartment!

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if you ever plan on making any bias tape, for quilting or otherwise, do yourself a favor and get one of these doodaddies. it worked like a charm. i was really really surprised. i kinda wanna go make like fifty eight yards of bias tape and just SQUEEEE over how awesome it is.

baby quilt family photo pathwork pillow 24X4 tiny presents bike tshirt amp cozy scribble lace fifty billion fingerless mitts fimo everything ack ack ack oh ack.

we'll be in chi-town for thanksgiving with my lovely inlaws, where we're going to do some birthday and christmas present exchangin', which definitley puts the hurt on my rushy rushy crafting my tush off. but i'm really excited about the gifts i'm working on. you know the feeling when youre working on a gift and you just know it's dead on and they'll love it? that is what is keeping me going.

oscar the grouch and i have something in common.

2006-11-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

STORY OF MY MESSY, MESSY, CLUTTERED LIFE.

smallest launch party ever.

2006-11-02T19:53:00.000-08:00

erin made this is officially available at g. inc designs, 639 monroe ave rochester ny 14607.

six pairs of lucky 13 fingerless gloves.

i can really do this.

happy halloween!

2006-10-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

love, erinosaurus rex.

so please be kind if i'm a mess.

2006-10-19T15:49:00.000-07:00

cheddar shortbreads from moosewood celebrates - i made these in heart-shapes for our wedding. for the team joann potluck. they taste like goldfish crackers. having another one of our super exciting two-day sales--- MOONLIGHT MADNESS, daddy. everyone brings food to keep spirits up. weekend is sure to be full of arguments about coupons and wackadoos who drove two hours into rochester from the middle of nowhere to buy half-priced drapery lining and annoy me!!!

in other news, i'm on my fifth pair of fingerless gloves.

IF A GIRL WANTS TO DANCE.

2006-10-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

we've been able to sponge bandwidth off someone, somewhere, for the past few days. as unexpectedly and elusively as the innernets appear, SO DO THEY STOP DISAPEAR. enjoying it while it lasts. so hi, friends, it is me, and i'm in my sweatpants and barefoot. tres lux, as compared to going out in public.

hey did you know brooke shield's first baby (tom "i know everything about post-partum depression i'm a scientologist" cruise, remember?) is named ROWAN??? pshaw! totally true access hollywood says so.

ok, so do me a favor? go to designhergals.com and tell me if you think i should get some business cards from them. i made a girl that i think looks like me, dressed her in a pink jacket with ballet flats and put a cupcake in her hand. my spendy muscles are, like, twitching in anticipation but i don't know. should i come up with something on my own? and i'm sorry if you go there and become addicted to personalized cutie stationary and other printed matter. i'm really sorry.

today at work i popped advils and helped a mother and daughter figure out some drapes for the daughter's bedroom. and it turns out that the daughter and i both graduated from brockport this spring! her degree is in dance, which is about as useful as my studio art degree. she's living at home with her parents now and she's not feeling very good about herself. kinda lost and kinda scared and kinda sad. i feel like we need to get together for a disapointed SUNY brockport graduates support group. except no, cos she's thinking about going to school for nursing, and i've been knitting like a mofo. fingerless gloves or bust, so help me god. something good is going to happen if it kills me. i think i threw out my back hunching over (hence the advils), but that's nothin! do these people know who i am? no way. i'm on fire, ladies.

speak slow.

2006-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

did you guys think i was dead? no!!! it's been a week of drunkdialing and mischief, but mostly i've just been up to my neck in wilton method class buttercream. no joke.

this is cake #1. very ugly and also delicious. a fine mess indeed.

THIS IS CAKE #3! i made some cute cupcakes in between but i let the girls at the store eat them so they were not photographed. us joann girls love us some baked goods it seems. but cake 3 looks nice and i don't mind saying so!!! i am awesome. however. it's been a week and the thing is still untouched. i have to throw it away before it gets up and walks out to look for a job or soemthing. so. in conclusion: don't try to make stiff consistency buttercream with a hand-me-down handmixer because you will feel bad for making a small appliance groan so. and also, don't make anything chocolate so beautiful that it pains you to bring a knife to it to feed your friends and dear husband. it's a waste of devil's food. good times. but i'm glad i get to go back to knit club.

GIFT SPOILER: IF YOU ARE LISA MY HETEROLIFEMATE AND YOU ARE READING THIS CLOSE YR BROWSER AND GO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

is she gone? ok.

poor lisa's 22nd birthday was july 20th, and her worthless friend erin (THAT'S ME) is so worthless she just this week made her a present to commemorate her birthday and new townhouse. so this is the pillowcase apron. i can't believe how well it worked out.

and this is a recipe card box for my pookie's new kitchen. i got the box from the unfinished wood section at my store and i painted it and glued some stuff to it and filled it with a few recipes (the cheese crisp recipe she requested, my favorite brownies and some cocktails) and a stack of colorful 3x5 cards. i miss lisa so much. she moved two hours away so i must box it and mail it off to her. i am such a bad friend.

what a blabberpost. anyways last thing.

the girl on the cover of the latest urban outfitters catolog is wearing some cute, cabled fingerless gloves. they are selling for like 16 dollars and they are wool and ACRYLIC, PEOPLE. gross! so erin here, she says "eff that", gets herself a skein of cash irona from village yarns, who BTW are severing all ties with knitting fever international and selling off the debbie bliss and noro for like, dirt cheap, and also a 32" circ, finally figures out the magic that has earned it the name magic loop, faked some cables, and five days later bam i rule urban outfitters sucks. my lovely sister cut my hair and every single lady at her salon asked me what i was making and was all AWWW WHAT A GOOD IDEA THOSE ARE CUTE. plan: i'm gonna knit 38472 pairs and sell em and make my first million.

they keep yr hands cozy and yet you can still find your keys and send text messages while you wear them. magic.

speaking of my haircut, i can't believe how when alex styled it, it was adorable, and when i try to do it, it look like a messed up cross between tegan and sara's haircuts. save me from myself.

tame.

2006-09-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

hi. i'm at the library. i have ten minutes NO NINE to write this and hopefully upload it. sorry nothing pretty or even visually interesting at that, unless yr a text fiend. then eat up.

the wilton company, producer of cake dec supplies and other such fancies, is kind of a monster. but my class is kind of fun and i've been up to my eyeballs in buttercream for the past two weeks. it's fun, albiet nauseatingly expensive.

um. i have finished piecing two baby quilt blocks. i still kind of shudder at the sight of the bag the bits live in. eeagahgfa.

i will not be receiving my big underpants-design premiere via SNBIII. i'm disapointed but understanding. the world is not ready for the secret underpants? maybe i'm just not ready to fully exploit the opportunity yet. i'm goin to go look for a book on small business starting and lament. i still feel like i have no idea what i am doing with my life and i don't think i'm in any position for anything remotely big to happen yet. things fall in place when they are supposed to and mine aren't there yet, i know, i know. i know.

this seriously happened.
scene: home dec counter last weekend.

me: hi can i help you?
him: yes i'm looking for some youthful idealism, do you have any?
me: ha, oh yes,in spades.

F.O. & S.P. & OTHR GBBRSH

2006-09-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

pattern: yoke vest, by teva durham, from loop-d-loop.
yarn: big kuryeon by noro, 1.5 skeins.
needle: bryspun 24" US11
mods: yarn sub, paper clips as stitch markers. i don't reccomend.

i knit this "nod to fashion history" on the road. i used the big kuryeon because i can't find filtes king van dyck an.ywh.ere. it was half price at village yarns anyways and i can't resist noro even though i am begining to think i love it more when it's in a pretty ball than when it's knitted up. the guage was dead on. i don't know how i feel about the stripes. or the rolled hem. scene: at starry nights with binet, when she notices how rolly the hem is. i'm like, "umm rolled hems are a design feature. kind of". she looks at the photo in the book, where the model is standing there, looking as demure as possible in the vest and opera gloves, arms crossed at the elbow, reaching down, in a "I'M SO SWEET" pose, and she says "LOOK SHE'S HOLDING IT DOWN SO IT DOESN'T ROLL!!!". i thought only vogue knitting pulled that kind of scam. so anyways. it's knit. i still haven't finished the back of the secret underpants v2.0 (STILL NOTHING) and i've barely touched the baby quilt in ages (due date: october 20).

but there is good news!

my secret pal is a dear and sent me all this great stuff! there was chocolate too but honey you know that didn't last long enough to be in the picture. and those treats have turned the already insane cats into total crackheads. thank you so much, laurie, you are the best secret pal ever. i bet i knit fifteen ballband dishcloths before i finish that quilt or you tackle your serger. big love, pointy.

a dissertation on cake, followed by the great midwestern roadtrip 2006

2006-08-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

i baked these last week (from the september living, one bowl deserts, they're vanilla cupcakes with DARK CHOCOLATE INSIDE and they were EASY). aaron was eating one and he asked me "what is it with you and cupcakes?"
what it is with me and cupcakes:
1. the answers:

a. cake is an indicator of celebration. right?!! cake means happy party time. that's why i like cake. cake is comforting and it makes you feel five in a good way.
b. cupcakes are little single serving CELEBRATIONS. they are miniature cakes. everyone knows MINIATURES are CUTER.
c. the cop-out: "uhhhh. i don't know. you came with a muffin tin. and i don't really have any cake pans." (when i moved in with him, he just had this muffin pan. there is was. poor aaron is fated to a lifetime of cupcakes of his own doing. i can think of worse things, can't you??)

cupcakes. cupcakes are an excellent way of saying THANK YOU! or, I LIKE YOU! with cupcakes around, you'll never have to say I'M SORRY. say it with sprinkles.

so anyways. speaking of cake we drove 39058387583uwtushyt89 hours on an epic midwest weddding adventure this weekend. i finished 90% teva durham's yoke vest from loop-d-loop in the car and read "the partly cloudy patriot" by sarah vowell in two sittings. we stayed one night in chicago with the BIL and the uber-preggers wifey and ate crepes and talked about swollen feet. QUILT UPDATE: baby is due in eight weeks. quilt is due in like eight years. so then we drove all over freaking eastern iowa. then the wedding stuff began. a served as the best man as his best friend tied the proverbial knot. after fifteen years and three kids, they got hitched. who'da thunk it. but it was cute. here's the good stuff:

i can't honestly say that i think purple and orange are a good idea together, but what do you do when the bride's a redhead who loves purple. there was a cake. there was a watermelon carved into a basket full of fruit, and there were cream cheese mints (a weird midwestern thing if i ever heard of one?). it was nice. and then we got to drive back. driving back is worse, cos you lose an hour, vs. headin' west, where you gain one. and cos we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in michigan. and cos work called me and said WHY AREN'T YOU HERE? and i had to call them back and say COS I'M IN INDIANA AND I ALREADY TOLD YA TWICE I COULDN'T DO TODAY. silly girls.

i didn't get to go to ikea or any yarnstores or even hobby lobby or dunkin donuts or get a tattoo or anything i wanted but that's ok. it's good to get away for a spell. i'll talk to you later. keep it crafty. xo.

p.s. still no news on the secret underpants front. she's killing me.

ONLY 692 TO GO.

2006-08-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

my brother-in-law and his darling wife are having a little girl, due on halloween. i am going to be an aunt. imagine the trouble the poor dear will have when she realizes her only aunt and uncle (my BIL's only sibling is my DH and katy is an only child) are called by the same name. oh jeez. so anyways i have embarked upon my First Ever Quilt, to commemorate the child's birth. i wanted to do hexagons, but quickly realized this was a terrible idea. so i am doing squares. little 1 and 1/4 inch squares.

list of reasons this is a bad m-f-in' idea:
1. to compose a 36ishy inch square baby blanket is going to require a dizzying 784 of these dainty squares.

2. that means that i cut out 784 little paper squares and am now in the process of basting the calico to them.

3. the next step is acutally piecing the thing, so whipstitching 784 squares together and then removing the previously mentioned basting stitches and discarding the 784 paper squares.

3. a guest i was cutting stuff for and discussing quilting with (90 PERCENT OF THE SHOPPERS AT THE STORE QUILT) asked me why in the hell i was piecing it by this stupid stupid method and why wasn't i strip-piecing it (she was much more polite than that, i just am feeling like a boner at this point for not seeing that this would have been a Good Idea and i didn't think of it). this exchange happens the day after i have shredded my fabric into little 1.5 inch squares aka Point of No Return.

4. upon hearing the story, aaron says "ok then start over if it's going to be a pain, and do it the other way". i think i made a face at this point and said NO. i'm too stubborn and resolute in my silly ways and also too cheap to start over.

so maybe it'll be done when she starts kindergarten. kids still like blankies when they are five, right? or does that make them wussies?

cos i've been working on this thing almost a week now. i have a hole in my finger from handstitching without my thimble (i swear when i wear the thinble i find a new way to sew so i'm not PUSHING with the thimbled finger, thus purpose = defeated), and 692 left squares to baste. oh kill me now.

5 things about me, followed by some other stuff.

2006-08-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

1. although my twenty-third birthday will be here in not four months, i am frequently mistaken for much younger. how often i have had to inform people that, actually, i recently graduated from college, not high school. i don't know exactly what they base this assessment on, but it can be rather embarassing. which leads me to item two.
2.
on june 4 2005, i married my favorite, aaron david. there was cake and gingham and pink ribbon and christmas lights and country music and hot dogs and beer and it was lovely. we are alike in too many ways to list (we have, phonetically, the same name!, our birthdays are one right after the other, we've both quit smoking, are liberal and vegetarians and behave the same way when we are nervous, to name only a few). i love him to death and he is my very best friend. and if one more person tells me "OHHHHH you're too young to be married", i'm gonna punch them in the mouth. we're terribly happy together, and i think when it's right you will just Know. so they can cram it.
3. my ipod's name is shirley temple. my ibook's name is lappy. my hard disk's name is edna. my bike doesn't have a name but maybe it should.
4. i burst into tears when the topic of moving away comes up, but i know someday we will have to. i have lived in rochester ny my entire life and it's getting to be about that time to Go Do Something Else. just to see. but don't worry cos i'm not going anywhere yet.
5. if/when i start my "line" of "things", the working title is "terrible delicious", which is ganked from a recipe for barbequed tofu, from an incredible cookbook by cresent dragonwagon. i want to make the recipe but am intimidated by it's extremely long ingredients list. someone has to have a cookout to motivate me (and they better not say EWWW TOFU GROSS before ever even trying it. tofu is super)!

so there it is.

in other news, we are buying a scion Xa. a red one!! so last night, we were sitting in a cubicle at the desk of our sales guy, who was going to get something from somewhere else. i'm a world away, knitting the front of the secret underpants with renewed determination (still no word from d. stoller), when aaron leans in and asks me "what are you making?". i answer, without looking away from my needles, "you know, secret underpants two point oh to see if this yarn will sub my first yarn was discontinued". he says. "oh, right", sits up, and says loudly "UNDERPANTS." alarmed by my husband yelling UNDERPANTS across a room full of toyota salesmen, i look up in horror to realize that my knitting had sparked the curiousity of the sales manager across the way, who apparently couldn't get my attention to ask me directly what i was working on. so he asked aaron. AARON. HE OF NO SHAME. i must have turned same color as the underpants in question (4227). god bless him but i would have answered SHORTS.

2006-08-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

hello dears. hey so there's a record-breaking heatwave currently kicking the east coast's ass. you might be asking yourself, who the heck is baking in this kind of weather? only me. only me. chocolate chip gingerbread cookies from feb06 living, with fresh ginger from the illustrious public market. and darn it they are fabulous. even though opening the 350 oven to remove them kind of makes you want to kill yourself. at 350 that makes it only like 3 or 4 degrees hotter inside the oven than the rest of the apartment.

speaking of killing yourself, yesterday i walked like four blocks to the VOA and viet nam vet thriftstores on main, in the 3457637 degree heat i trekked over, bravely, in search of like 3 key items. let me also mention that binet and jenna and i visited these stores a couple weeks ago. the vet store had like literally 6 cakestands. so i go in yesterday, determined to buy myself a cakestand and oh they only have two in the whole store and they are both fugly. i didn't buy anything and it was really sad. i risked heatstroke for a recipe card box and was rewarded with nothing. MORAL OF THE STORY IS NEVER PASS UP A SWEET YELLOW CAKEPLATE THE KIND WITH LIKE THE WEIRD GLITTER NO MATTER HOW LITTLE SPACE YOU HAVE TO STORE AND DISPLAY YOUR CAKEPLATE. i wont make that mistake again. cakeplates of the world i will make you mine.

also sorry for the whiny disatisfied last post wheeech that was a weinerized moment. ill try not to do that too much. my dad says dont wish your life away, so i wont. it's kind of lazy to be like I DONT WANT TO DO THE WORK I JUST WANT A LOVELY LIFE WITHOUT PUTTING IN THE EFFORT.

anyways im taking the wilton 1 cake decorating class at my store in september with two cute girls that i work with (here's how it works at joann: there are basically two kinds of employees: ones that are prolly old enough to be my mom and ones that are in college slash recent grads trying to get their shit together. there are a handful of exceptions, but not many). unfortch, its going to be on thursday nights also known as knit night. oh no, you guys. when two of my unhealthy loves collide: CAKE VS. KNITTING. death match.

i'm going to become auntie erin in a few months when my little husband's little brother and his little wife have a little baby girl. so i am planning a baby blanket for the anticipated child. i was all about the HEXAGON until today i did a little math and found that i would have to cut out, at minimum, 896 hexagons, baste them all, and then whip them together by hand. a little too ambitious for a first quilt. i'm switching my sights to a postage stamp quilt top. 896 hexagons ain't going to happen. freakin baby would be like graduating highschool by the time her crazy aunt finishes her babygift.

blogger doesn't seem in the mood to upload my pics. lovely. im gonna go, my iced mocha is melted and i have to work in a few hours. damn you blogger. xoxoxox bye friends stay classy.

insane demands

2006-07-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

i am obsessed with buying a house. every aspect of buying the house. the house we live in is/was lovely, albeit slightly rundown in that way that all rental properties have the freedom to become. the landlord people know that they don't have to maintain the houses terribly well, and it shows. our house really isn't that bad, but sometimes when i am walking around i just think what a terrible shame it is that these beautiful older homes are in such disrepair and what a huge difference a new paintjob and a lawnmower could make. the house we live in is on a corner and has a big porch with a slapdash railing and some lovely stained glass. in it there are seven apartments, of varying shapes and sizes with occupants of various levels of annoying. there used to be two RIT students, girls, who lives across the hall, that treated the place as a dormitory. they were terribly rude (the tall one was, the short one i have no real issue with, but the tall one i would like to throw sand in her face) and now that they have moved out i steal their magazines from their mailbox and i know it's not legal but they have been out the house for over a month. i would never buy in style or glamour or shop etc but if i can get it for free with a karmic payback, then hell yeah, it's good to know which 1.5k$ bags are hot for fall i suppose. i wish they had subscribed to domino (i am obsessed with domino also) and lucky, but no. i want our own house. i have been the checkbook nazi for the past month. my dear husband is a sweet man and he works very hard and loves animals but for someone who worries about money as much as i know he does he has a very blase attitude towards the checkbook. before we got our joint account, before i finished school and was blowing all my loan money on yarn (very few regrets in that respect, but oh lord i dread the day i have to start paying it back), when he'd get his checking account balence or statement and go WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT 18 HUNDRED DOLLARS IT'S GONE. that's a bad thing. that't not for me. so now i am receipt nazi. i get a bit irritated when he puts gas in the car without telling me. i highlight all the purchases and withdrawls (pink for erin spending, blue for aaron spending, yellow for the completely unavoidable things like rent gas and food, and orange for the occasional nice things for us like the drive-in or a bottle of wine) and i have figured out what costs what and how much is left over, to be either saved or applied to the repayment of debts. honestly i was just happy to find there was something left over. we are not living totally from miserable paycheck to miserable paycheck. thank the stars or something. i want our own house. i dream of color schemes ( this weeek it's robin's egg blue, cherry red, eggshell, and dark chocolate. do you love it?!!) and of bedding (a quilt, big squares, cherry print on a black background, with red and green and white and eyelet). i want to be able to use the lovely wedding gifts (simply calphalon from my parents, an empire red kitchenaid from his mom and step-dad) that still sit in their boxes because there is no where for them to live in our galley kitchen. a few times i have said "i wish i were thirty". and people say no no no you don't. i just mean that i wish it was seven and a half years from now, when hopefully we will know what we are doing, will be doing things we like, career-wise, will be living somewhere better than a two-room studio apartment with the world's tiniest kitchen, hopefully with stairs for the cats to run up and down. i just like to think that by that time, 20freakin13, that we will be there, or at the very least, much closer, to the list of insane demands with regard to our future lifestyle i have growing in my head. i want a garden and a baby (yeah i know that came out of nowhere but i won't bring it up again) and a normal grown-up life. not that i don't like my little job but i have no interest in doing it forever. i feel good about it because at least i am doing something, but i am more interested in the next phase, whatever that may be. i love our clawfoot tub but i need a kitchen sink larger than one square foot, where if i don't do the dishes every day, it looks like we live in complete squalor the tiny pile stacks up so quickly. i think i am whining entirely too much here, but i can't help believing that a lot of people must be feeling this same way. i know aaron feels the same way, and he is older than me and so has been stuck in this in-between phase for much longer and must hate it even more. oh i am being such a weenie. perhaps i will look back on my ridiculous rants when we do buy the house, and it turns out to be a pain, and i will laugh at how grossly naive i am being right now. i kind of know what i want. i just don't have the patience or fiscal resources right now to go out and get it. i am not unsatisfied with our little life! we have each other and that is so wonderful and i don't mean to sound ungrateful. i live with my very best friend and two little furballs, and i am the luckiest girl in the world. i just want to house our relationship somewhere else. somewhere with our own washer and dryer, and neighbors that we don't have to share any walls or backdoors with. figure something out, i will i will we will we will. enough already, my goodness. wasn't this post more fun when it was about snatching fashion ragazines from the ex-neighbors?

anyways. after a knitting funk, i am trying to re-work the written pattern for the secret underpants, which was, upon draft one, riddled with Big Errors, in Dale of Norway's Svale. poor d.stoller has been ill and needs more time to select patterns for the book. she can take all the time she needs, i was just happy that the email brought news that i have not yet been rejected. but anyways. i bought two balls of blue skys cotton in honeydew last night from the lovely lovely lucinda at wild wools who so graciously invited our little knit club to her store, where she offered us wine (hi if there are two things i have noticed that darn near all knitters seem to have in common besides fiberlust is cats and wine) and a discount and some really really good cheese. but after knitting one inch of my swatch, it became quite apparent that the guage is never gonna happen. no bother, i guess i will have to design some new shorts to utilize the yum that is this yarn. i am not discouraged. i am reading a heartbreaking work of staggering genius by dave eggers and it is very good. i figured i better put my brain to some kind of use beyond crushing on sandals and dinnerware and organizing solutions that stare up at me from the glossy glossy pages of my usual reading material. oh poor erin and her post-BFA blues.

what's COOKIN, y'all!

2006-07-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

kyrie rules. she made me the most darling apron (which i am so close to safety pinning in one or two key points and wearing as a skirt) that totally matches my red kitchen gear and sent delish-sounding recipes with respect for my vegetarian ways and has a lovely child and one on the way. thank you kyrie e-hug from west NY you are a love.

it's been a weekend of erin getting spoiled, actually, as pointy, my much <3ed secret pal, sent me ysolda's matilda jane pattern and some fun socks and post-its and gum. she clearly has got my number. sometimes i love the internet so much. i must be off because knitter nichole and i are going to bed bath and beyond and to see a terrible movie and eat ice cream to contend with the nastyass 90some-odd degree weather. ugh! stay classy, dears.