Sugaroni

Location:Kansas City, MO

Last weekend, Bob, Fat Charlie and I headed west from Kansas City to MINI Takes the States, a biennial MINI USA rally event. We drove from KC to Dodge City and then onto Denver where we got to rally from Red Rocks to Estes Park. Every night was a party, every morning was a Rise & Shine Rally. It was a total blast. MINIs and their very happy owners were everywhere.

I wish I had gotten some pics of some of the awesome organizers — Tina, Diane, Trudy and the staff from TPG. Everyone was super nice and the event was so well done. Not a single moment was a disappointment. It was hotter ‘n Hades across Kansas but the temperature broke when we got to Colorado and then it was beautiful. I met lots of cool MINI-ists from KC that I’m hoping to see again at the next local event.

I got to see the new MINI Countryman up close and personal and the 2011 Cooper S too. I was surprised how much I liked the Countryman. I’ll be excited to see them on the roads in the coming months. The Cooper S though reignited my lust for more oomph under the hood. Maybe its time to start tricking out Fat Charlie?

Here’s a slideshow of my edited pictures. We shot over 900+ pictures but I was able to narrow it down to about 150+. Lots of MINI photos!

To see more images, check out the MINI Takes the States Pool on Flickr.

Every August, the state of Missouri has a back-to-school tax holiday. The masses throng to shopping malls and computer stores to stock up on tax-free hardware and software, school clothes and notebooks. Though I am not going back-to-school, I took this tax holiday as a sign that it was time to breakdown and get my new Apple hardware. So, I spent my Friday afternoon standing in line outside the Apple store (a habit that is getting to be all too common for me) to get a new iMac and to splurge on an iPad.

Upgrading from my little 15″ MacBook Pro to the behemoth that is a 21″ iMac was an experience unto itself. It’s almost as big as our tv in the living room so I am super excited to run it through it’s paces with the Adobe Suite and Aperture. Thanks to Apple’s built-in migration system, all of the files from my old computer were moved onto the new iMac in a little over an hour. It even put my desktop wallpaper and icons in place. Apple really does make the migration process ridiculously simple.

It’s arrival, however, was clearly overshadowed by the arrival of the little tiny tablet that could. The new iPad is everything I expected it to be and so much more. In fact, at this very moment I am typing this post on the screen using the WordPress app for iPad.

I am starting to understand why people are so evangelical about the iPad. Everyone thinks they need a huge computer with an enormous hard drive but, for day-to-day use, most of us need email and web access, text tools and maybe an image browser. Lo and behold, the iPad. It is quite the little wunderkind. Once the iOS 4 is released for the iPad, this will end up being my go-to device most of the time. The portability and battery lire alone are reason enough to make the iPad a necessity. And I am no longer getting burn marks on my lap from an overheating, inefficient battery like I was with the MacBook Pro.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon: A Novel by Sarah Addison Allen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It only took me a day and half to read this book and I had to literally slam it shut and run out the door to keep myself from sitting down and reading the whole book in less than a day. It has all the grace and mystery that has been included in her previous books. Sarah Addison Allen weaves another tale of a small southern town with secrets — magical secrets. Her ability to make me believe in the wonder and beauty is part of what brings me back to her stories again and again.

Sadly though, I feel like it ended a bit abruptly. The resolution was much faster and I was left a little unsatisfied with the end. I hope the ending doesn’t color my long-term opinion of this book too much because there was so much loveliness at the beginning.

If you’ve never read Sarah Addison Allen before, I’d recommend Garden Spells or The Sugar Queen as they were satisfying from cover-to-cover.

View all my reviews >>

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 which had recently been re-released and I was taken by the title. I did a little research and discovered that it was one of about a dozen stories set in his world called Newford, a fictional city that rubs close to the mythical and the magical. I was able to find a list on de Lint’s site of the recommended order in which to read his books as characters often appear and reappear.

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.

(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.)

First, I pulled out the package of cotton/modal yarn I bought to knit up a Pinwheel blanket for my sister- and brother-in-law. It was shown on the website as a lovely aqua blue which I planned to trim with a Granny Smith green edging. It came out of the box as acid blue toxicity and green slime green. These are the kind of colors you expect to stain your hands when handled too much. This is the kind of yarn that would get me blamed if the baby develops early eye strain and retina issues from staring at these colors too long. Failure Number One.

“Okay,” I thought, “maybe the City Tweed I bought to knit up Olivia by Kim Hargreaves will be a luscious midnight blue.” Nope. Its dark, dirty denim blue. It is amazingly soft yarn for the price but the color is much more suited to a manly fisherman sweater than to a charming little swing coat. Ooof. Failure Number Two.

Then I reached into the box again, dread slowly enveloping the whole stinking postal affair. “Please,” I pleaded to no one in particular, “let the next lot be yummy”. Out came the rich blue Gloss DK for my future Merenge. It was not as vivid as I had hoped but its a lovely ocean blue color with a gorgeous silky sheen so I think it will be good. Sadly, though, I think I’m going to need another skein because I underestimated how much I was going to need. Grrrr.

The last thing out of the Knit Picks box was my replacement Knit Picks Nickel-Plated needle set which I had to re-buy after I foolishly sold my original pair. Why, you ask? I sold my original Options because I discovered that HiyaHiya was selling interchangeable needle sets and I love their basic circulars so much I thought, “I must have the HiyaHiyas. To hell with the the KnitPicks.” Of course, I had to eat my words when the HiyaHiyas arrived and then only went up to a size 8 and the needles were only 4″ long. For some things they will be perfect but for larger knitting like sweaters, they are sadly lacking.

So there it is. The whole good mail day gone bad. Or at least a bit off. Of everything I bought, I kept the replacement needle set, the pencil case and cardigan and four balls of Gloss DK. Pfft.

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!

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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).
5. 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.
6. MINI Cooper: exceptionally well-designed, fun to drive, and fuel economical. Best car ever.
7. a bag: I love bags. Particularly vintage or classic looking bags. I need something in which to carry the phone, book, doll and knitting.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.

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.)

modern quilt guild

Away we go

Cambridge cycle

autumn squash

“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” George Eastman

Squirrel and buck miniatures

Chestnuts and squirrel by Moline

another green collection from flickr. this time from Yvonne Stehle (AKA Moline)

creature comforts inspiration

bird print by Inaluxe

Wayne Pate Illustration

Sewing Kit by Liesl Gibson, AKA Disdressed.

Tokyo Subway Map Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman

Squirrel necklace

Old Tom Foolery

Logos by Dustin Wallace

graphic alphabet prints from Draw Pilgrim

logo

Luke Elliot and Toby Edwards poster for Feel Good Juice. Love the monster with foam fingers!

Such a great combination of typography and illustration, Ty Mattson, letterpress printed by Studio on Fire

Stitch Design identity

Leica M9 sticker graphic for iphone

ha!

Jonathan Adler designed iPhone cases. As Apartment Therapy pointed out, it's probably the only Adler piece most of us could afford at $20