The Christmas season begins

Posted on November 30, 2007
Filed Under Blather, christmas | 2 Comments

With everything going on right now, progress on Christmas decorating is a little slow… BUT I have lined many of our moldings with my collection of antique Christmas postcards and our tree is up and decorated.


The top of the tree with a number of new (to me) ornaments and my postcards in the background



All lit up

En route, we stopped in New York

Posted on November 30, 2007
Filed Under Blather, christmas, daytripping | 1 Comment

Ez did some work in New York on Tuesday en route to Pennsylvania, and I got a chance to see a bit of the holiday decorations down there as well as the preparations for the big Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.


The decorations at Lord & Taylor were so beautiful that they lured me inside. It was like a glistening wonderland in there! The Macy’s decorations were less impressive (though still very nice), but their windows were quite fabulous. On one side of the building all of the windows depicted scenes from the film Miracle on 34th Street.

Thanksgiving at the farm

Posted on November 30, 2007
Filed Under Blather, Pennsylvania, dining, family | 5 Comments

We arrived at the farm to find it very autumnal and pretty.

This year Josie, Lisa, and Mama Jo joined us for Thanksgiving. Ez and I got to see them three times in one year!! And they loved the little snowflakes that fell on Friday.

Abby and Dan were home, and Dan’s parents and grandmother also joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. We had 17 people! Ezra’s mother was in heaven with all those people.

I must say, this year I got a Tofurky “vegetarian feast” because Wegman’s in State College was sold out of my usual Quorn roast… and the Tofurky was in fact delicious and much better than the Quorn roast. (Yes, it’s worth mentioning.)

This year’s farm projects included clearing away lots of branches from a line of gigantic pine trees that they had cut down the day after Thanksgiving, working on a long trench that is somehow involved in getting their new furnace operational, moving said furnace (all 3800 pounds of it) onto a concrete slab, and attempting to fix a toilet. I was primarily involved in the first project and photographically documenting the whole shebang.


Ezra knocked himself out and drove the new tractor.


Here he is working on that trench.


…which winds around the house…


… and down between the garden and the pool where it will eventually (I assume) meet up with the furnace.


Needless to say, Ez (and everyone) was plenty hungry for leftovers and tired at the end of the day.


(…but not too tired to play Risk, which I’d never played before.)

Tonight

Posted on November 28, 2007
Filed Under Blather, art, craft, me and my brain | 3 Comments

Tonight we’re at the studio. I haven’t been as productive as I was the other day. This may be due to the fact that after being here for about 20 minutes I cut my finger with an Exacto blade. Yeah, it was pretty gross. I’ll be fine and all, but I had to sit down for a minute… nasty.

I have lots of pictures and stories to share from Thanksgiving, printing, holiday decor, etc. Coming soon!

Radio Rudolph

Posted on November 26, 2007
Filed Under Blather, christmas, music | Leave a Comment

Hee hee!

Meme-ity Meme-ity Meme-mi-mo

Posted on November 19, 2007
Filed Under Blather, me and my brain | 3 Comments

2fs has sent a Meme my way. I think I’ve done this one before–state seven weird or random things about myself. I present myself now with the challenge of coming up with seven different things–that is, different from the ones I posted before. Oi… we’ll see if I’m up to the task.

Having said that… I can’t seem to find that other meme post, so I’ll just have to wing it.

SEVEN RANDOM/”WEIRD” THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I’ve never received a ticket other than a parking ticket–no speeding tickets, running red lights, etc. Never.

2. I won a typing award in 10th grade.

3. In college, my friend and I decided to pierce each other’s ears. I already had three piercings in my left ear and two in my right. After my friend pierced my left ear, I chickened out of piercing her ear, so she did her own. The post didn’t go in straight the first time so she had to poke herself twice. After that she didn’t feel like piercing my right ear. So, I would have four in my left ear and three in my right, but instead I have four in my left ear and two in my right.

4. I have recurring dreams, especially about tornadoes and about missing classes (in high school or college) because I don’t know my schedule.

5. During my freshman year in college, I stood in a horde of people waiting to get into a rave in Montreal for at least 4 hours. My friends and I would have given up and left at some point in there, but it was a mob scene and we literally couldn’t get out of the mass of people.

6. I have never purchased a television, but have had one (never a new one) since college. The first was a hand-me-down, there were several picked up out off the street in Cambridge (people were just throwing them away), and we got the one we have now from one of Ezra’s prior bosses, who brought the TV in to work for a Halloween party and just didn’t feel like taking it home.

7. Though I’ve lived in Massachusetts for about eleven years now, I still get my hair cut in Pennsylvania. The same woman has been cutting my hair since I was 11 or 12. As my parents are moving to Delaware some time in the next year or two, and as I’ve finally abandoned the haircut I had for ages (for the time being, anyway), I may finally be getting my hair cut in the state where I live in the nearish future.

Stu-stu-studio

Posted on November 18, 2007
Filed Under Blather, art, craft | 1 Comment

Sorry for that. I’m a bit punchy. Ez and I have been in the studio printing basically all weekend. I have to say, I’ve really loved it. I love having a project. I love making things. I love being active and creating something. I love being tired at the end of the day for a satisfying reason. I love being surrounded by art and possibilities. When Ez and I have a goal that we both agree on, we work pretty well together–or we can, and I think we are (I hope he agrees). I feel like I’m learning things and getting better at it all the time. Our stuff this year is already nicer than what we did last year. We have a long way to go and not much time, but I’m enjoying it immensely.

Joy Street open studios were this weekend. We didn’t participate because we just have so much to do and because we don’t have much to show yet. There will be open studios again in the spring, and we’re hoping to have things together enough to participate then. It’s definitely something to look forward to. There are some really talented artists all around us–painters, photographers, sculptors, mixed media artists, printmakers… and we haven’t really even explored the other areas of the building.

It’s 10:07PM and I haven’t eaten dinner.

Global warming REALLY sucks

Posted on November 15, 2007
Filed Under Blather, me and my brain, rant | 1 Comment

What the heck?!  Fifty-nine degrees and raining on November 15th?  Garbage!!  Outrage!!  Utter bogosity!!  At least it’s nippy and mildly snow-y in State College (though that’s not supposed to last).

Billie Holiday-Nice Work If You Can Get It

Posted on November 7, 2007
Filed Under Song of the Day | Leave a Comment

A pretty birthday visit to New York

Posted on November 5, 2007
Filed Under Blather, me and my brain, music, wide world of vacation | 7 Comments

Yesterday Ez and I hopped the train down to New York. He has to work here for a few days, and as it’s my birthday, we decided to make a little trip out of it.

We arrived around 12:45 and made our way down the street and to the subway. A very nice woman helped us make sure we were on the right train (who says all New Yorkers are cold?) and we got out at Grand Street Station, on the edge of Chinatown and the Bowery and just around the corner from our hotel.

Now here comes the crazy-coincidence, what’s-up-with-my-luck, I-swear-I’m-not-making-this-up part. As we were walking across Broome street, at the corner of Broome and Bowery, mere yards from our hotel, who was crossing the street as we were, going in the other direction, but Mr. Daniel Kessler himself. I just about didn’t believe it. Once he’d gone past Ez looked back at me and smiled and I said something like. “Yeah… ha ha!” Now, this is just a crazy crazy thing. I happen to be in New York when the band happens to have a week or so off before going to Europe. It’s a big city. Fans who live here tell me that they never see them. I’m here for no more than an hour, and I walk right past Daniel. Ez and I are still shaking our heads about it.

After settling in at our hotel, which is charmingly half-assed (no elevator, no phone in the room, totally noisy–Ez found a sticker of a man’s face on one of the radiator pipes), we headed out on foot to explore, with the Strand bookstore as our destination. We stopped at Other Music and Shakespeare and Co. along the way, where we made some delightful finds (a Liars single and Voxtrot ep that I didn’t know existed and some Richard Powers books for me, jazz and accordion cds for Ez). At the Strand itself I picked up Karen Russell’s book of stories and a great book about a woman who was an MGM photographer in the 20s (for only $8).

At this point we decided we needed coffee and realized we’d eaten very little all day. We ended up at the big coffee shop at Union Square. They have a fun neon sign, and we sat on their little patio under very toasty heaters. We then walked around some more and ended up stopping at the Grey Dog on University Place for a drink. I drank Sauvignon Blanc and Ez had a Brown Dog (beer, but not Smuttynose Old Brown Dog) and we talked about our books and New York and all kinds of good stuff. We ended up at an Italian Restaurant we’d eaten at years ago when we came to town for our first anniversary–I think the place is called Buona Sera. It was very romantic with little candles and a pretty fab little trio (upright bass, guitar, and violin) playing sweet songs like Paper Moon (one of Ezra’s favorites) and Fly Me to the Moon. Two girls came in who were speaking Russian (I think?) and looked almost like twins. I’m thinking about it now, and the one girl looked a lot like a supermodel I’ve seen in a lot of magazines… maybe they were??!! Listen to my crazy talk. Anyway…

And after purchasing some earplugs we called it a night. Which brings us to this morning. Ezra is at work. I’m in the West Village and will resume work after I finish up this post. I had my oatmeal (New York cafes seem to understand the greatness of a good bowl of oatmeal) and my tea is getting cold at this point.

Happy birthday to me.

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The Knitting Turnip

On My Needles

Rhapsody in Tweed cabled pullover for Ezra! using Tahki Donegal Tweed in Forest, from Fall 2004 Interweave Knits. I've just picked this one up again, so it's moving up in the queue!

Sweater with Cable Patterns pullover using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Mauve, from Rebecca Magazine Number 28

Heather Pullover using Classic Elite Wings in Larkspur, from Rowan’s A Season’s Tale... This needs the knit doctor. I'm going to have to frog back a little bit and redo the shoulder area. Long story.

Hush Pullover using Jo Sharp DK wool in Wine, from Rowan’s Calmer Collection

Recently Finished Projects

In the Groove boatneck pullover using Manos del Uruguay in Black and Cheek (pale pink), from Fall 2006 issue of knitscene. SWEATER IS DONE!

Stash Stealer Scarf for me, using delicious yarn that darling Amy let me raid from her stash. I made up the pattern--a couple of wide ribs rimmed in moss stitch. It's soft and fuzzy and DONE!

Moss Stitch Jacket with Collar for Hope using Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo in Ivy, from Quick Baby Knits by Debbie Bliss. JACKET IS DONE!

Next in line

Brompton cardigan using Noro Cash Iroha in Jewel Green (my name for shade #100)

Eyelet Yoke Pullover using Debbie Bliss Merino Aran

Under consideration

Loads!

More scoop on my knitting endeavors can be found at my home on Ravelry (clicky here).

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