The Show

The Show
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

So YAY! It all worked out. Sort of. Our babysitter's dad rolled up, got out of the car, and said, "I heard you got tickets to the show!" Which, in reality, still left E a bit clueless. We could've been going to the movies, for all he knew.

But we went to the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase to see someone we wanted to see LAST year, Elvira Kurt. She had to cancel her show because she had a new commitment, something like an HBO special to tape, not a bad alternative. But when I was in town on Thursday and saw she was going to be here this weekend, I scrambled to get a sitter & tickets, since it was the perfect birthday gift for E.

I don't know what I was more excited about, the show tickets or getting a babysitter at the last minute.

Elvira kept heckling the crowd for being quiet, but at one point I had to get a tissue out, I was laughing so hard I cried. We've been to one other show there, and the audience was waaaaay more dead, so A2 might just have a bad rep as an over-educated, hard-to-please crowd.

Unfortunately, we were met back home by our babysitter saying, "Tess has been complaining about her stomach all night, didn't eat dinner, went to bed, and she just threw up." So, it turned into a really long night for all of us. Food poisoning from the reception after her recital yesterday, although it didn't hit E or me.

Birthday surprises

Just a quick, photo-free entry...I am SO GEEKED, my last-minute plans for E's birthday celebration came through. We have a babysitter for tomorrow (!) and I got...um..."what I needed to get" for his Perfect Evening Out tomorrow...

More on it later. He knows this blog exists, and now that I've told him not to make any plans for tomorrow night, he's going to start snooping. He is not beyond checking out this blog for details. HA! He's not getting any!!

Basted moon quilt

Basted moon quilt
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

I have discovered a horrible secret for evening energy -- Spanish Drinking Chocolate from Zingerman's. It gives me a gentler buzz than coffee (I'm even avoiding decaf at this point, it upsets my stomach so) but keeps me up well past midnight.

I *am* taking it easy with the stuff, though, but MAN. I was up until nearly midnight in some kind of mad rush to finish basting this quilt.

I have no idea if it's overkill or not; I know the 200+ pins I had in it before basting it with thread was DEFINITELY overkill. Keep in mind this is a 20"x20" wall quilt, and my basting lines are about an inch, inch and a half apart. Well, better over-basted than underbasted, I guess. What a pain basting a full-size quilt must be!

Side-by-Side Samplers

Side-by-Side Samplers
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

As if I didn't have enough creative projects brewing (is it a new nesting instinct? at only 6 months?!), I've started a Welcome Baby sampler for the new arrival.

The Rocking Horse in Farmington, the only remaining cross stitch/embroidery store around (anyone remember Connie's Corner Stitchery in Northville?), had its semi-annual sale (20% off everything in the store, 20% off framing) this past weekend and I made the effort to drive out there and choose a pattern, since I didn't want to do the one I did for Tess again (on the left here, vital info blurred out badly) and all my baby patterns are circa 1989 or so (I HATE backstitching or anything too "cutesy").

That place is so inspirational...floor to ceiling samples of GORGEOUS embroidered and cross-stitched projects, in the flesh -- not copies. REAL embroidered, matted, and framed work. Stunning, and worth the drive.

I finished the border for the new sampler in 2 evenings of stitching. God, I love variegated thread! It's on hand-dyed 14-count Aida fabric I picked up at Stitches In Bloom (the other known existing embroidery store in Michigan -- this one all the way up north). It's dyed to look like sky, and I've been wanting to use it. The rainbow-colored, hand-dyed silk thread (Waterlilies, from Italy) is perfect. Inside will be "Welcome Baby" and vital info, just like for Tess. I wanted something simple because I just don't have time to do anything as detailed (or more so) as Tess's.

Hers took me most of my pregnancy to finish (except for the vital info, of course). I JUST got it framed during Rocking Horse's sale last November! Hopefully I will get this next one done soon after the birth (seems simple enough, right?) and get it framed THIS November (okay, maybe next June). Not another 4 years down the road...

I've also pulled out my moon quilt and worked on finishing the basting, so I can get it off my cutting board & get it in a lap frame in time to take it up to Mom's over the holiday. I need to start somewhere with my hand quilting...and this old wall quilt seems a good place to begin.

Gigantic, or not?

Gigantic, or not?
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Does the sock in the middle look all that big to you, compared to the two from my first pair?

It feels fine *on* me, while my first pair of socks (the blue ones on the left and right) seem a little narrow in the heels (and definitely short in the toe, but that is not the fault of the yarn or the pattern).

Everyone has commented on the Largeness of the middle sock, but honestly, I must have thick ankles (lord already knows I have good-sized feet, I just didn't know they were all that wide). The heel fits a little goofy (wraps around a bit far) but it is comfy, more comfy than my first pair.
Gotta love the colors, too...the old Sock Memories "Paper Doll" from Knit Picks, 100% merino wool. I think they've re-named it Hawaii. I almost ordered a 3rd skein of it, but had justenough to finish one sock, so I'll make the next one the same size. Soon.

Right now I have Baby Knitting Fever. I requested some knitting books from other libraries (ours is sadly in need of updating their knitting section...as well as their quilting section...oh well, we have a new library coming in, what? 2008? Meanwhile I will keep requesting the "right" books from the library sharing system, to give them some clues).

Took all my knitting books in to Flying Sheep and bought wool (shocker!) for two projects: bonnets from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, and a chunky cardigan from Knitting for Two.

Already finished the back of the cardigan, and I'm trucking along on the first of the two bonnets. Another shocker -- both projects called for a wool blend with mohair in it...so, we'll see how my skin & allergies handle that...

A Van Full of Memories

RIFF Rocks...Baby!
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Despite having a hungry, tired preschooler in the car on the way home from Meijers tonight, I had to do a U-turn and get a shot of this van. So many memories from my days as a WRIF intern in 1987...

...single-handedly dealing with the World Bar Tour every Friday night...unknown to my parents, who would have stopped me immediately from participating (they thought I had a partner, he flaked), despite the fact that it was my sole interesting intern duty...saving a spot for the guest DJ, only to have him sit somewhere else (the ladies, Ann and Karen, were always sooo much nicer)...

DJ Steve Kostan getting up to join the band, always playing the same three songs on a borrowed guitar...mercifully they have been erased from my memory (wait, one of them was "G-L-O-R-I-A," ugh, just remembered)...

...getting across the Canadian border to a bar in Windsor, thinking the van was going to be searched, when the young border patrol officer just wanted some of our famous oval bumper stickers...

...making my way out to the parking lot at 2:00 a.m., hoping I wouldn't be accosted...taking a shower the minute I got home, because I reeked of bar smoke...especially my hair (yuk)...

...smoking a cigarette at the bar to kill time...

...Playboy Channel going on the bar TVs around 1 a.m. (see: possibility of getting accosted, above)...

...having the way cool assistant programming director, Scott, buy me a flaming shot...The Mexican Revolution...green, white, and red liquor set on fire...spilling it across our table as I tried to blow it out...afraid I'd set the whole place aflame...

...Scott getting nicknamed "Cripp" after a debilitating accident...altering Def Leppard bumper stickers to read "Cripp" and putting them on his office door (he recovered, despite needing a walker for about 6 months...we put a "Cripp" sticker on his walker, too)...altering other stickers to read "Dead Wings" or "Piss-Ons" since our hometown hockey and basketball teams were such duds at the moment...

...stuffing envelopes with whatever bumper stickers we had on hand at the time...pathetic requests from listeners for the most popular (long gone) bumper stickers...my own collection of over 150 unique WRIF stickers...in a box somewhere, now...

...sitting for hours listing songs the other rock stations were playing (the most mind-numbing of my duties)...NEVER remembering the title of "Every Picture Tells A Story" by Rod Stewart...going into the programming director's office to ask him what the hell is this song? AGAIN...having him tune in his radio just as Stewart started to sing the title about 300 times at the VERY END OF THE SONG...

...attending premieres of the Talking Heads concert movie (where David Byrne comes out singing Psycho Killer, wearing the gigantic suit?...sorry, now you'll have that song in your head...)and a premiere of Princess Bride (still have the poster)...hanging out late night at the studio with David St. James...meeting Sam Kinison (the only "celebrity" I met during my entire internship)...interviewing DJ Ken Calvert (sweetie) for my feature writing class and getting an "A"...

Gotta get all that in my Book of Me someday...whenever I start one...