A Much-Needed Nap

What would you do with 5 hours stretched out ahead of you on a hazy, hot Sunday afternoon? Go for a swim? A walk? Hole up in your air-conditioned house and nap for 4.5 hours?

Yeah, that last one would be me.

I've been very PMSy, crampy, hot flashes at night (although that could be the weather), bitchy, etc. etc. all the signs of the usual visit from Aunt Flo, including a craving for a salty-sweet Hawaiian pizza tonight (ham and pineapple, yum). Yet, nothing. And a long, long nap today. So, who knows what's going on. I'm not holding out any hope for being pregnant again, not after last fall. But there's always a little part of you that wants to hope. And a long nap in the middle of the day kinda of puts you there.

Anyway.

I'm up late, thanks to that nap, chatting with some Close To My Heart gals, those of us not going to convention this week. In Vegas. At the Mirage. Sob! I love the Mirage.

Went to a Stampin' Up workshop with Lisa on Saturday. A "retirement" party, so we could order the last of the retiring stamps and papers, with a very nice discount. I'd never been to one of Tina's workshops before; she's got quite the space. And I finally attempted the much-touted "shaving cream" technique. Sounds funny, doesn't it? A little stinky, but fun.



Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

The swirled background is "shaving cream technique." The butterfly has glitter on it, too. Very pretty card.

Reading Anne Quindlen's commencement speech from 1999. Does anyone remember their HS or college commence speech? Me neither. This is a good one.

Marin Fiber Arts is 'a bloggin'

Warren found my post on a web search for Marin Fiber Arts. Silly boy. Hope I didn't trump him too hard.

I can't wait to follow his adventures. I can so live vicariously through him.

Kim at Cafe Felix

Kim at Cafe Felix
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

What a beautiful night to sit out and knit...or eat...or drink...or all three...hic...

I realized early yesterday that I was child-free (yes, Mom again took Tess up north with her...just for the weekend...then no more free babysitting until September...sob!). What else to do but invite everyone to knit, outdoors, drinking sangria (me) and eating a luscious berry crepe (Kim) or chocolate cake (me)...

Kim has more photos from last night (including one of me, in which my grey silk shirt matches my grey hair...what did I pay for highlights last month?! Whatever it was, tt was too much...). I like that Libby's glasses match her scarf yarn.

I needed to get out after being indoors all day on such a gorgeous day. Once Tess was gone, I realized I had no distractions for being online. I could scan and upload scrapbook layouts to my heart's content (as "Motown Lady," if you're curious), and I did so. Now I'm off to the scrapbook store to crop some more. It's going to be 94 today, so perhaps being inside is a good thing. At least I'll get more light at the shop than in my basement, where our computer is. The Man Cave, I've nicknamed it.

That SnB Group I've Never Been to...

...had an article done on them in Detroit's Metro Times. At first I was annoyed that Stitch -n- Bitch groups were described as "the younger generation's knitting circle," right after getting a quote from a 21 year-old. But I got my panties out of their knot when I read a little further...they do quote some gals in their "mid" to "late" 30s. And they quote Debbie Stoller, who talks about the growth of knitting as a craft for "women 45 and under." Thought I was gonna have to go gangsta there for a moment...

I joined this Yahoo group, who meet out in Royal Oak, before the most excellent Ann Arbor Knit-In group formed. So I should probably un-join, but I like to keep tabs on the knitting community at large. Who knows, I might end up out there knitting with Ella some time, now that she lives in Troy.

Memory Lane Moment: When I was a student at Wayne State University (back in the "Ancient 80s"), the Metro Times offered free classified ads up to about 30 words or so. My fellow Duranies and I used to post incomprehensible messages to each other about Simon, John, Nick, Andy, and Roger. Yeah, I'm admitting to that. And that my "code name" was Blue Silver. Which sucked, because it took up two words. Good times, good times.

The Guy Who Taught Me to Knit

Warren is opening his own yarn store! How cool is that?!

He emailed us a few weeks ago with a cryptic message about leaving his current job (like, that Friday) with info on what his new contact email would be. Of course I wrote and said, "Is everything okay?" Then didn't hear from him for weeks.

He called me Sunday night and left a voice mail saying he didn't want to tell me in an email (or via voice mail, apparently). Funny, I was thinking about him Sunday afternoon, a bit worried because I hadn't heard back from him. Psychic connection #1...

We finally touched base this afternoon...as a joke, on my first guess I said, "You're opening a yarn store!" Despite his obvious love of photography. Psychic connection #2...

Warren attended the Stitches conference in California in February and said he just HAD to be a part of that energy & excitement. I'm so proud of him, and proud that he's the one who finally got me knitting all those years ago.

It's going to be called Marin Fiber Arts (why do I immediately think of Cheech and Chong? Oh, yeah...), located in San Rafel, California. So I can't go to work for him (it would be a hoot), but I've already offered to make shop samples for him. In exchange for yarn, of course...too bad he won't be carrying Rowan...

Party at Pooh's Corner

Party at Pooh's Corner
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Just testing this Flickr option. I submitted this layout this morning to Creating Keepsakes, following a sketch for Becky Higgins' column. This is my third attempt at one of her sketches. I feel pretty good about this one.

Too bad my first subject line reflected the wrong publication month. I sent a second "oops, sorry" email with the right month in the subject line. I hope they have a sense of humor.

Chianti makes cropping (and being stood up) easier

I haven't cropped in two weeks; I thought I'd be rusty. I hate paying $12 to crop out at the Zone, considering I can crop for free in Chelsea. But Ella PROMISED (twice) to call them early in the week so she could crop with me; I should have known she wouldn't call until Thursday, when the Zone was already booked. Grr. Lisa's still in London, otherwise I would have had ready company out there.

Ella came out and had dinner with me, taking me away from the crop for an hour or so. The $12 crop fee includes dinner, but it was pizza, so I didn't care if I missed it. We ate Italian anyway, and split a half carafe of Chianti. That made for some relaxed scrapbooking later!


Latest layout
Bigger version, as always, here.

I've done so many pages lately, but this is the first one I've scanned it a while. I'm going to get back to my scanner so I can torture you some more later...

Stash at last

Now, Jen came up with the caption for this one. She had to knit it for the shop, so she can call it whatever she wants, because she got paid for it!


Rockin the Ugly Shrug

I see our Knit In group site uses Flickr, not Hello, and I've completely forgotten how to post photos through Blogger (off to figure it out as soon as I'm done with this post), so I decided to post it here for now.

After my trip up north (good lord, a couple of weeks ago now...sorry about that), I discovered I now have STASH. Something I swore I would never have. Here's how it goes:

• 4 skeins Peter Pan/Wendy yarns' Velvet Touch in Raspberry Fizz, for Tess's Pink Fluffy Cloud sweater (all over but the finishin')
• 9 skeins Cascade black wool for cardigan (pour moi)
• 14 skeins "old" Rowan wool/cotton (the seed stitch sweater begun 12 years ago, and abandoned after 5 inches) PLUS --
• 8 (?) (holy cow sheep! I've lost count!) skeins Silk Tweed by Elspeth Lavold, to be combined with above for Yarn Girls' hooded V-neck sweater
• 3 skeins (1,320 yards) soft, creamy (-colored, and textured) sport-weight merino I bought up north from the woman who raised the sheep it grew on, for who-knows-what project (most likely a shawl). This is where I cross the line into "stash," when I buy yarn for which I have no project...)
• 3 skeins Adrafil Jumping, which apparently I can only get at Yarns to Go in Alpena (trust me, I've looked just about everywhere else in Michigan!), for 3 future baby hat gifts (pink, denim blue, and red, just to be safe)
• 6 (!) skeins of Unspeakable Acrylic, for a self-designed sweater I'm creating as I go. Yes, acrylic, but the colors are wonderful and even if the design turns out terrible, at least I have that. I'm not going to waste quality yarn on my Guinea Pig Project. That'll happen if my measurements and calculations turn out something wonderful.
• 10 (and counting...) skeins Rowan Summer Tweed, in various colors for the Kaffe Fassett stole (not afghan, sorry) featured in Rowan Magazine #37. Fifteen different colors required, 24 skeins in all to be purchased. I even let my buddy Ella buy me 2 skeins of color #537, Summer Berry, in lieu of gas money for driving her around shopping when her car broke down last week. I am now officially Shameless.

This doesn't mention works in progress, of which I have several. Including two Irish Hiking Scarves, which I've put away for the summer, and my first pair of socks, in Fortissima Disco Colori (or something Italian like that).

Well then, off to knit and reduce my stash.