Oh Hey!

I sometimes do other stuff over here besides talk about vegetables.  It's true!  Sometimes I do stuff like this:

Or sometimes I do stuff like this:

Which turns into this:

I've been holding off on sharing these projects because they were (are) gifts for a dear friend's little girl (who still hasn't made an appearance).  Of course I had to wait until I gifted them before I could share.

The sweater was from this etsy shop, which is now closed.  It's a very nice pattern, but it's written from the bottom up, and I have to say I really prefer top down.  The yarn is Spud & Chloe, which is my new favorite yarn for everything.  It feels like cotton, but knits like wool, which is a big deal for someone with wonky gauge like myself.  Superwash.  Awesome.  And the prettiest colors.

The quilt.  I can't even tell you anything about the fabric for the quilt except that it all came from Purl Soho, where the ladies who waited on me were so helpful and so kind.  And yet I still came out with waaaaay too much binding.  How does that always happen?  What I am going to do with it all?  

Anyway, this was my first Log Cabin quilt and I used this tutorial:

It blew my mind!  Did you know that's how you make a Log Cabin square?!  No?  Neither did I!  It's mildly addictive and I am already planning another Log Cabin quilt for the bedroom.  

It was also my first time tying a quilt, which I really loved, because I used a really lofty batting.  The lovely ladies at Purl told me to just use yarn, like Cascade 220, which I did and which totally felted to bits when I washed the quilt!!  So I had to cut all the ties off and re-do them with embroidery thread, which is was Alicia uses.  It turned out so pretty and exactly the way I imagined it.  I love the way the grey tempers the pastel colors and grounds the girl-iness and bit.  

I actually am working on another quilt right now.  And another baby sweater!  I'll share more of that soon. Bye!

Welcome back

Hello there!  It's nearly two weeks into the new year and I'm finally getting around to saying hello to you all - how rude of me!

I had a week off of work between Christmas and New Year's and it was the loveliest week ever.  I had very little expectations as far as plans go and it was just the perfect balance of relaxing and doing.

We had fancy coffee every morning for breakfast.

We did silly things like make our own baguettes so we could recreate sandwiches that we had in Spain.  (OK, I didn't make any baguettes, but the Man did.  And they were awesome.)

Of course the sandwich fixin's required a special trip to a store in Queens that makes their own chorizo.

And I made these napkins just in time for New Year's Eve dinner.  

Did you also know that my blog turned 6 years old?  I've been doing a lot of thinking re: the blog and I'm going to try to shake things up a bit.  The blogisphere has changed so much since I started in 2005 and a lot of the blog friends I had are no longer writing.  

I have big plans for 2012 - how about you?

Somethin's Cookin'

December 1st is tomorrow and, today, it seems, the sense of foreboding or melancholy or whatever-it-is-that's-been-bothering-me, has come to a head.  For the last couple of weeks I've been plagued by some very un-Christmasy thoughts.  Thoughts that were very Bah Humbug and very, well, not me.

I couldn't figure it out.  I didn't have the holiday spirit and I always have the holiday spirit and then it hit me - this was what some people call stress.  That feeling of having too much to do and not enough time to do it all in.  On top of the hype of Black Friday that seemed to creep in well before Thanksgiving, pile on the multitude of blogs that I flip through during the day (don't tell my boss) where perfectly adorable bloggers are decking the halls and making homemade salted caramels and wearing vintage frocks and, well, I'm quite primed for a melt down.

Then I remembered this post, from earlier in the month (Seriously, read it.) and I told myself to take a deep breath and pick two.   Honestly and without irony, I literally choose two things I can do from this list each night and let the other ones go without feeling guilty. 

Here's the list:
gym

cook dinner

clean up after dinner

make (sew, bake or knit)

quality time with the man (this means eating dinner at the table and talking, instead of watching TV or choosing a movie that we both want to watch together)

If It means giving up the gym one night so I can finish up a project or putting a project on hold so we can linger a little longer over dinner with a glass of wine then so be it!  It's a small list, but I'm also adding to it some Christmas cheer.  

Here's another list.  A list of holiday goodies I want to make as gifts, instead of buying into the holiday crush of consumerism.

linen napkins

coffee cozies

building blocks

hot chocolate

candied citrus

I'll try to get to them all, but if I don't, then that's OK, too.