Its been a long time since a book completely enveloped me. Few authors have made me want to live inside the pages of their books and I have to count Charles de Lint among them. From what I gather, many readers of science fiction and fantasy have already discovered de Lint but I had never found his books until now.
I found a copy of The Onion Girl
What is so striking is that normally, I am not a fan of short story collections. I may love the first story in a collection but not the second or third and then I lose momentum and put the book aside. This is not the case with Dreams Underfoot. Every story left me enrapt, riveted and, in some cases, in tears. There are stories loves lost and loves found, of magic lost and found, or unadulterated innocence and in some the harsh realities of city living. The stories intertwine too. The protagonist in one story is a bit player in the next giving a sense of continuity and letting the reader get to know each character. In the end, the book reads like vignettes rather than stand-alone short stories which made me like it even more.
I finished the book over a week ago but I still think about the characters and how much I would like to read their stories again. With so many other books available about the world of Newford though, I will probably read some other stories before making time to re-read this gem.
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(Crappy late night photos of my clothing purchases)
I received both a box from Modcloth and an order from Knitpicks, all in the same day. Happy mail day for sure. I’d been waiting with ridiculous enthusiasm for these packages to arrive (as you might be able to tell by reviewing posts from a week ago). I was so excited to try out my new dress and cardigan, I could hardly set my bag and keys down before I was ripping open the package. I dropped the skirt and sweater I was wearing faster than you can say, “Fancy new clothes” and was zipping up the dress before I made it to the full-length mirror in the bedroom.
(You can see where this is going, right? That much excitement about anything is bound to result in major disappointment, right? That’s where you would be correct.)
The dress just didn’t fit at all. Too long in the torso, too loose in the bust, a bit snug in the waist. It kind of bulged along the side zip becase there was more fabric in the mid-section than I have in the middle. So. so. Disappointed.
I sulked over to the sweater. Such a pretty shade of aqua. Please fit!! I slipped it on over the dress thinking, “Maybe if I wear it with a sweater it will look better.” Sweater cute. Phew! Fits perfectly and the color is delectable but my overall mood had been dashed. I should have tried the cardigan first!
The last item I got was a pencil case with a camera graphic on the front. I love the screenprint vintage camera design and the clear peek-through lens/window, but I was a little disappointed that it was a soft plastic case (not vinyl or fabric) and the zipper is like those slide-lok zips on kitchen Ziploc bags. It just seemed a little cheap for the $12 I paid for it.
Once I accepted the fact that not even if I returned the dress for a different size would the situation be remedied, I put my old skirt and sweater back on and started to dig into the Knit Picks box. Surely that would cheer me up.
(Again, this is where you would know this was not going to turn out well.) read more…
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Thanks to my awesome husband, the Flight Director at Skylab Letterpress, I was able to have the invitations for this year’s Sunflower Knitters Guild‘s annual soiree in honor of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s birthday (her 100th, BTW) letterpress printed on awesome paper stock, in pretty colors. All in all, they look fantastic and I am thrilled with everything!
The silhouette of Elizabeth Zimmermann was originally created by Diane Tompkins of TagTeam Tompkins. I modified it by giving her the silly party hat. I thought “The Opinionated Knitter” would approve.
I also ordered a rubber stamp for the return address which looks pretty nice. I would have liked to have done a stamp designed specifically for the invites with flourishes and whatnot but decided to design one that could be reused for other mail and projects.
I hope lots of people come to the event — fingers crossed!
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(photos borrowed from Flickr contacts, Pinterest, Modcloth and my own Flickrstream)
I was inspired by a series on the CB2 blog of various employees posting their 10 essentials. It got me thinking, “Hmmm, what are my 10 essentials?”
So, here are my 10 essential things:
- something to read: a book, a magazine, the back of a cereal box. If I have a free moment, I want to read. I even stockpile book apps on my iphone (see below) so that I will never be without something to read.
- iphone: If I have nothing to read, I can check my email, check out Flickr or read Gizmodo. I play Scrabble all the time and love doing the NYTimes crossword puzzle. Occasionally, I actually use it to make calls.
- knitting: I always have a project on the needles. I always knit in front of the TV. Its the only way I can sit still.
- Coffee: preferably a dark roast French Roast with half and half and a packet of fake sugar, in my Japanese insulated mug (lime green, of course).
- Blythe: My Goldie Beatrix goes with me everywhere. I have pictures of Blythe dolls in every room, on my desk, screen saver, etc. Because of Blythe, I’ve traveled, made new friends and been able to meld many of my interests into one focus.
- MINI Cooper: exceptionally well-designed, fun to drive, and fuel economical. Best car ever.
- a bag: I love bags. Particularly vintage or classic looking bags. I need something in which to carry the phone, book, doll and knitting.
- a cardigan: I am always cold so I always have a cardigan — lightweight, classic cardis in the summer and thick, wooly cardis in the winter.
- notebooks: a moleskine, a blank black sketchbook, a leather-bound, handmade book from Venice. racking open a new sketchbook or notebook is the closest thing to heaven I can think of.
- a camera: I love photography. I am constantly on the hunt for the perfect camera. I always have at least one camera with me. Thanks to a stint with the Lomographic Society the tenants of Lomography have been fully ingrained into me.
(my favorite Timbuk2 bag, my iphone, a moleskine notebook, stuff to read, and some knitting... clearly, with the exception of my car, most of my "essentials" would fit into the average airline overhead bin.)
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I have been so excited about knitting ever since I spent an afternoon sifting through my yarn piles and assigning each skein (or skeins) to a specific project. I was able to associate a bunch of projects (in my favorites and in my queue) with a bunch of yarn in my stash. These are the next nine projects in my queue with yarn picked and patterns acquired. Three projects are from Louisa Harding patterns (and Susie’s Reading Mitts look like they could be a Louisa project), two from Ysolda Teague, one from Kim Hargreaves, one sock pattern from Interweave Knits Favorite Socks book and Ingenue from Wendy Knits.
Its kind of refreshing to have my knitting mojo back after so many months of feeling very under-inspired. Summer seems like a time to prep for autumn — to knit up new warm hats and sock and mittens. Its still a bit too warm out to have a whole sweater’s worth of yarn in my lap but I can imagine a month from now, I’ll be ready to imagine crsip autumn mornings in a big wooly sweater.
So the question now is which one should I start next? Something small and quick? Some instant gratification knitting? I think maybe I’ll start with the Forro bag and either the Featherbed beret or the Ripley with the lace edging. Maybe I should just do the Featherbed beret so I’ll stop posting photos of it? Can I cast-on now? .. now???
(All links are for Ravelry. If you knit and don’t have an account there yet, RUN don’t walk over there and get one. Its the knitter’s new BFF.)
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I just couldn’t resist the allure of ModCloth any longer. They carry lots of cute, vintage-inspired looks at pretty reasonable prices. I found this dress and another cardigan (like I need more!). The camera graphic pencil case was a bonus (I was there, it was there… it had to be purchased.). And the whole ensemble will look great with my new shoes that I found on sale at Bob Jones earlier this week. Now, I just need to find a few accessories to make this the perfect outfit.
Maybe some new pens for the pencil case? On second thought, do you’all have any suggestions?
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I just discovered a site called We Heart It. Its one of those image bookmarking sites like ffffound but unlike ffffound, anyone can join We Heart It. It’s nicely designed but a little slow.
I’ve had fun filling my page with images that inspire me. Its sort of like keeping a digital bulletin board. See all the images I’ve collected so far.
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I finally saw a Little Odd Forest bag in person today and I totally swooned. The quality is top-notch and the bag is big enough to hold a toddler (big plus for me). So I had to go on a scouting expedition to see if I could find one for myself. I looked on the main web site and didn’t realize the prices were listed in Singapore dollars not US dollars so I blanched at the prices ($120) — not exactly in the “impulse purchase” range. The other thing was that I wasn’t completely in love with any of the pattern and color combinations. So I went to Etsy to see if there were more (or different) designs and lo-and-behold, there was a clearance section. In this wonderful clearance section was a lime green bag in the exact style I wanted with an apple print all over it. And it was on sale for $45. Could it be more perfect? No. It could not.
Ding. Buy. It. Now.
And all was well in the world. Hurrah!
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Maura introduced me to Rotocasted, an online library/catalog for vinyl and urban toys. The site allows you to add toys to your collection or to a wishlist. Its fun to see all my toys in one place since they are scattered throughout my house and work cubicle. Then I could see how quickly I could add an equal number of items to my wishlist. Oops! Maura warned me!
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My awesome dolly friend Kat, who is currently living in Korea, offered to send me some delicious super-light fingering/lace solid wool yarns in exchange for some goodies from America. You’d don’t have to ask me twice! Look at all the wonderful yarns! She wound off about a half a skein of each of the 12 colors she had and sent them to me! I can’t wait to try knitting some of them up!
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