a must read!

Pearls Before Breakfast

Renowned violin virtuoso Joshua Bell does a social study in a metro DC train station, dressing as a street performer. Click on the link above to discover what happened.

"The violin is an instrument that is said to be much like the human voice, and in this musician's masterly hands, it sobbed and laughed and sang -- ecstatic, sorrowful, importuning, adoring, flirtatious, castigating, playful, romancing, merry, triumphal, sumptuous."
- Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer

Don't miss this one.
Thanks Ali!

bag-o-happiness

here it sits, waiting for me to click my sticks around it, longing to become something fabulous!

having trouble with my latest knit project. details to come, i'm sure. maybe it's just me. maybe it's my mom saying perhaps i picked too challenging of a project. maybe it's my husband scolding me for sitting on my ass knitting all day, which all of us knitters know is impossible *g*.

i'm going to try again tonight. last night i couldn't even make a k1, p1 rib look good.

funny how knitting teaches all sorts of lessons that have nothing to do with the yarn.

onward!

crafting is on hold

we're still trying to get settled in the new house.
i can't believe how long it's taken.
the house is pretty much a box-free zone thank gawd! but the office is filled with cardboard.
i can't believe how out of sorts i feel without the familiar around me. it was time to sit and pay monthly bills. i was lost without the calculator on my computer! i'm hoping there is no major error in my bill paying as i'm digging through boxes trying to find payment books and registers.

i think i have it under control but all this has been such a reminder of how organization is GOOD. it makes life so much easier.

since i'm not currently crafting i wanted to share a picture.inspired by 3191 (and reminded by Cathy z) i wanted to share a shot from my everyday world.

welcome to mundania.

felting does NOT hide all the mistakes!

a good friend of mine said she loves to felt her knitting because it hides all her mistakes. i'm here to tell you it does not! (sorry wil!)
i doubt the little two-year-old who is the intended recipient will care if one side is slightly higher than the other - i think i put the wrong row marker in the beginning so half the bag has an extra row. it's tough, moving and trying to knit. i put this down for two weeks while the movers came and took all our things to indianapolis. and that is what happens i guess. when you're melly, anyway. :)

it's still cute.

and, btw . . . a nestle chocolate can is the perfect blocking tool. you can't see it, but it's in there, doing it's thing.

:)

Tasting Wine

"One of the best things about going to California besides seeing family is going wine tasting.
At this Vino Piazza or wine mall, several wineries are represented in one area. It's GREAT!
We sampled a wide variety of wines including a Petit Syrah right from the barrel.
MAGIC!"

It's been so long since I really scrapbooked - it was so nice to sit yesterday with my friends and get my hands on paper again.

Putting together the story of the memory photos capture is what I love most about scrapbooking.
This layout preserves this moment forever. Good times.
Good.
Times.

gnomey hat - done!

fun and easy!

My babyfriend, Paige. :)

Gnomey Hat

My latest project from Hello Yarn.

I made one the other day with some Red Heart I found but it was too bulky and too scratchy and WAY too big even for a Rappling (the pet name I have for my best friend's big headed children).

This yarn is gorgeous! Part wool, part alpaca - it's knitting up so beautifully. I'll update tomorrow with a photo of the finished product on the sweet head it's made for.

I wanted to finish it tonight but I spent the last HOUR trying to unravel a rats nest of yarn my dogs decided looked like too much fun to pass up. I had to throw most of it away. Brand new $8.00 skeins beautifully wound by my favorite yarn store covered in dog hair, too knotted to untangle. :\ I took the skeins out of the bag to put this hat in for safekeeping. Better the skeins than this. I'd have a new dog skin rug if it had been.

So for now I think I'll go seduce Mr. Sandman and leave the knitting till morning.

Sweet Dreams...

Men's Warehouse

We had such a great shopping experience at Men's Warehouse this weekend.
I made this card to send the salesman as a thank you. He ROCKED.
Cute, no?

Instructions from Martha Stewart, of course!

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel189343&catid=cat333

felting: before and after

got this super easy pattern from cathy z's blog. figured it was as good a place as any to start on my first felting project. i used circular needles for the first time too - they were a little awkward in the beginning but once i got the hang of it i finished this bag today. TO-DAY. as in started it this morning, finished it tonight, today. SUPER easy.

i had the green yarn left over from other projects but it wasn't enough to finish the bag. the orange finished it off just fine, i think.

i couldn't even get over the before and after. these pics were taken in the same spot - hanging from my linen closet door. i swear. no photoshopping happened here tonight.

this knitting thing is about to get out of control.
:)

(thanks mom, for all the over-the-phone knitting lessons!)

overheard in a yarn store today:

"I don't knit, only crochet. Knitting is the popular thing though, all the cool kids are doing it."

my knit found it's purl today! I'm knitting a scarf. I'm. Knitting.

Does that make me a cool kid?