great gatsby, ahoy! and vacay time...

i made it safely home from my EPIC vacay to philadelphia and nyc at, oh, 1:30 on friday morning. what a trip - what a whirlwind. it's trip recap time, i suppose! i've been lazy and fully pretending i was still very much on vacation all weekend long. this afternoon, it's barbecue time, then back to work tomorrow. wheee! and boooo!

before i left, thomas and i got all dolled up and went out to a fancy schmancy dinner at restaurant tallent. amazing - i had bacon wrapped pork. i couldn't be bothered with the "sides." i just wanted to eat all the pork. thomas got the lamb shank.


this is what i looked like. i got a full-on bullseye in darts after dinner and kicked his butt. it was rad.


i flew into philly on saturday afternoon, got my rental car, and promptly headed into the city and to two different yarn stores. got a wee tad lost and realized i probably wasn't in the best part of town when i walked past a housing authority type of place. oopsy daisy. i did find some stellar yarn, though, and am currently knitting up a super awesome, do-it-as-i-go topdown cardigan in malabrigo lettuce colorway. it's gorgeous! photos soon.

woke up on sunday, the day of the wedding, with awesome bedhead:


then i headed to west chester (very sleepy town on a sunday) and to valley forge:


poor little kite.


then it was wedding time! i think kim was making faces at nathan at this point to keep him from breaking down during his vows. it was pretty freaking sweet.


on monday, i met up with karen and bach in downtown philly. what a wonderful day - i had my first cheesesteak, it was sunshiney and beautiful out. we met up with jef at this awesome downtown bar where they had a baby sitting on the bar, games everywhere (like hungry hungry hippos and operation), and we witnessed competitive rock paper scissors! simply amazing. and, somehow, i took zero pictures.

tuesday afternoon i was headed to nyc, but first i wandered to independence hall.


then to nyc. i dropped my pack at gray's office, then we sauntered about for a while before the methodman/redman album release party. (no, there were no celebrity sightings... but i did get a rad new pair of kicks for 25% off and drank some hideous pink fizzy booze made/sponsored by ludacris).


on wednesday, we had a late breakfast (BAGELS!), then trained it up to central park. we wandered everywhere, got ice cream, went to the guggenheim, wandered some more, then tried to go to the moby release party. i say "tried" because we got there, and gray realized that the party is, in fact, NEXT week. BOO! he made up for it by taking me to paul's, which is this amazing burger shack. seriously, amazing. i had the best burger of my life.








my rad new kicks. did i mention the methodman/redman thing was at the adidas classic store? i wanted to buy ALL the adidas.


that night, we went to a different bar in his neighborhood, where they played the blow, clap your hands say yeah, and other fantastic music i love. the bartender even put on mclusky at my request. and sang along with me to it. beautiful.

thursday was shopping and slow-moving day. we got bagels at murray's and ate them in washington square park. then i spent far too much money at american apparel, hopped in a cab, and started my long journey home. my feet HURT. i had some ridiculous blisters. i think we might have walked 10 miles on wednesday. seriously. a lot.

in knitting news (and just to make this post a LITTLE longer), i finished the great gatsby dress from interweave knits! i am in love.








on the needles currently: tuck in knitpicks comfy sport in a nice pumpkin color:


and the aforementioned topdown cardigan in malabrigo worsted in this colorway:


yum-yum-yummy.

see you later, twenties...

i am told everything gets better when you turn 30. that you breathe a deep sigh of relief. that all the waiting and the crap of the twenties just kind of... flits away. that it's a weight off of your shoulders.

29 was tumultuous, but all in all, very, very good. i left for europe the day after i turned 29 on a solo trek from barcelona to paris to venice to rome. it may be the most amazing thing i have ever done. i lost a tooth and got three new ones. i got settled into a new job, which i still love. i had heartbreak, i had manic-crazy times, i knitted a lot and pet my cat and made new friends. as i said, overall, very, very good.

so i give you the last weekly self-portrait of my twenties. i look painfully serious, but i promise i'm not. on saturday, i leave for a friend's wedding in philadelphia. i have printed out maps to get to various yarn shops in philly, i have maps from hotel to liberty bell to south street, i have a "map" of nyc, which is really just a drawing of various stops i have to make, including the best bagel in the world. i have a charmed life some days.


i also have a motorcycle and an ailing houseplant on my back porch.

a prolific knitter...

i have been going nutso with the knitting lately. seriously, i don't know what my deal is or how i've been putting stuff together so darn fast - but things seem to be flying off the needles.

case in point: i started the great gatsby dress from interweave knits' latest issue. i'd been dreaming of the perfect knit dress for a while. then i check my mailbox and, voila! there it is, staring me in the face. i started this on may 3.

on may 6, we were looking at this for the back:


by yesterday, may 8? the back is done! (also, kitty cameo appearance as he tried to bat at all the hanging threads).


i really can't wait to wear this! i'm halfway there. oh, and i'm using knitpicks cotlin for it - the gauge is a bit off, but i think as long as i'm careful around the top portion, we'll be just fine. i'm knitting the smallest size, and so far, it's just going to be a bit longer than the pictured dress. just fine by me - so far, it's pretty much perfect.


i also finished another shawl collar baby sweater, this time knit up in three different yarns (hello, stash busting!). the red buttons make me inexpressibly happy.


finally, self-portrait day! my birthday is coming up. my mom sent me a check for 100 bones (which i promptly used to buy yarn online - free money, free yarn!) and THE FIRST TWO DIE HARDS! i love my silly action movies, and i love my mom.


speaking of how much i love my mom, i painted this for her for mother's day. now, i am not a painter. not at all. i paint like i draw, basically. so yeah, it looks a little like something an eight-year old would paint. i still love it, though. it was based off of a photo they took in the greek islands when they were there for my cousin's wedding a few years ago. "my uncle, ulysses athanassiadis, skin dives for octopi in the mediterranean" is possibly my favorite sentence ever uttered. and it's true - he does.

for the sophisticated babe-to-be...

i give you: baby sophisticate (free ravelry download)!

knit up with leftover cascade 220 heathers.


i added some moss stitch in halfway through and at the bottom. didn't realize the stripes didn't line up so well - whatevs.


i actually have another multi-colored green one blocking right now, too. too cute! i think i may have to work out the pattern for an adult lady size for moi at some point. in other news, i just received the yarn for my great gatsby dress. of course, i need to finish at least two other projects before i can really get cooking on this one. but i WANT TO START NOW! so bad. i'm a knitting addict.

rock and roll prom, baby gifts (oh, and a little bit of knitting)...

first off, i am rather freaked out by this whole swine flu thing. the thing that frightens me is realizing how easily a virus like this can spread across the entire world in such a short period of time. it doesn't take much. you look at maps and see flagged cases popping up in the most random of places. only it's not random. that's the interesting part, from an epidemiological standpoint. of course, it's also a good thing that, so far, at least, it appears that it is mostly just making people ill. here's to hopes that deaths continue to stay low (says the girl who will be traveling to new york city in a few short weeks).

anyway... i finished off the day at work, which included a lot of swine flu updates, then headed out to find a birthday present for my brother and some mother's day goodies for mom. i decided to give my brother a gift card and then send him some more baby stuff. i got a 5-pack of onesies at target, then some iron-on printable transfers at hobby lobby. i give you THE cutest onesies on the face of the planet:


another tree.


"they call me munchkin." and mama and baby elephant.


the back of the munchkin one.


and for kicks and giggles, i've gotten addicted to tiltshiftmaker.com. here's a recent one: a photo of my sis-in-law, the mom-to-be, at moraine lake in canada.


also? rock and roll prom was a few weeks ago. the theme was "talk nerdy to me," thus some of the outfits. here's my favorite photo booth shot: this was immediately after i accidentally elbowed megan in the face bouncing on the bed. why do i look so happy?


oh, and finally, a knitting project. i've been going nutso with the baby knitting lately, but i also have a top secret lacy tunic in the works. the body is done - now i just have to get onto the neck-wrappy part. here's your sneak peek:


it's been a while since i bought new yarn, like, online. i've been to the yarn store off and on, but even that has been a while. i've used up some of my stash yarn on baby stuff. i swear, i've been good! yesterday, though, i bought some lovely wine-colored yarn to make this: the great gatsby dress.

and i just now bought some hemp yarn in a (hopefully) nice chestnut color on ebay to make this: sunshiney summery awesomeness in shirt form.

i think i'll be starting with the dress... oh, right, once i finish this hat i'm making and the lacy tunic and this baby sweater on the needles. too many projects in the works!

watch my garden grow...

i can't remember if i posted a month or so ago about going crazy in my two little backyard garden plots. i tore the heck out of them, weeded, poured on new, yummy soil, and planted a bunch of seeds. well, late-march in southern indiana really isn't the time to plant seeds - at least, not outside of the house. we had some freezes, some ice storms. lovely, right? now it is fully sunny and warm out, and i decided it was time to reassess the garden. not much really survived the freezes - except for some little, baby sunflowers, which are looking rad. so i decided it was high time for a trip to the farmers market to get some stuff in the ground. ran into marc on my way between getting money from the cash machine and picking up some iced coffee, then forced him to stop at every plant stand with me. and there are a lot of those this time of year, people.

all in all, we have pansies (i think? or were they violets of some sort?), some flowery succulent whose name i can't remember, a gerber daisy, lemon verbena, a BIG BOY pepper plant, fennel, and monkeyflower. my original plan was to do coneflower, black-eyed susans, sunflowers, and a bunch of herbs and veggie plants. why are there no coneflower or black-eyed susans at the farmers market? hmm? they're native perennials, for goodness sake!

whatever. i will find them, and i will have them. oh, yes, i will.

here's one of my baby plots, half-planted with purty flowers. don't know what will go on the other side just yet.




look! baby sunflowers! grow, sunflowers, grow!


big boy pepper plant (big b!) and lemon verbena in the terrarium, waiting to get a little bigger. you can see out onto my back porch here, too, where the garden is. they can look out the window every day and dream of the day that they, too, are planted.


and finally, i stole a broken off piece of equisetum/horsetail when i was in san diego. this is one of my favorite california plants, and i had to have it. i didn't know if it would survive the trip home in my suitcase (particularly after i got stuck in denver and my suitcase probably sat on a freezing tarmac for 12 hours), but i plunked it into some water. lo and behold, it started growing roots and new shoots! i am so excited.

works in progress... always a work in progress...

tonight. tonight was a good night. me and one of my favorite people tried to make temporary tattoos of yoshitomo nara pictures, and it failed miserably. that was sad - i was so excited for my yoshitomo nara tattoos! c'est la vie. they smeared all over and still aren't "setting" four hours later. whatever, temporary tattoos. you suck.

but then we went to an art show, and i was thoroughly excited by kevin's paintings. thomas and i discussed buying the one that cost, oh, $2,300 and sharing it - just toting it between houses every month or so. just beautiful - just a picture of a guy sitting in his living room with his foot up on the top of a little television, but oh. so nice.

then we got dinner, because, lordy, hunger to the nth degree. then to a show at the video saloon. sadly, i just was not feeling social. it was one of those evenings where you end up seeing all sorts of people and being glad to see them, but not really feeling like interacting. you know? which is difficult in a noisy bar.

self portrait day today: outside the indiana university art museum, reflected.


and works in progress. i decided to try my hand at recycling yarn. my goodness, what a pain in the ass it is to unravel a sweater! however, i did get a lot of nice, ivory colored cotton yarn from a massive men's sweater for $1.50. i'm making myself a cabley dress, darnit!


and this is a long overdue selbu modern hat for a dear friend. i fear the purple and aqua parts are going to be too subtle.

mustard, saffron, butterscotch, turmeric...

call it what you will, i've got a new, lacy top (partially) in that color. it makes me so happy. i think this is my new favorite knitted object.

this project was also entirely born of the internets. well, okay, a lot of them are, but it was also born out of someone ELSE bringing it to my attention on the internets. which i think is just rad. girl reads other girl's blog; girl sees pattern; girl thinks, "other girl would totally dig this;" other girl concurs heartily and jumps right in. and here we have the finished project. i just think that's cool - way to go, internets.

so i give you: the pegboard lace tunic!


really the colors are more accurate in the WIP post below.


buttons! i couldn't for the life of me figure out the neckline and i was really partial to the tie top neckline anyway - so i sewed buttons along the top edge (because i thought they were cute), then partially sewed the tie on. i love it so, so much.


and zee back.

on my hermitude of april 2009...

warning: nearly all non-crafty stuff here! general life stuff follows.

i have some wonderful people in my life. i mention something about "quitting" on facebook, and less than 24 hours later, i have words and thoughts and actual, physical gifts on my doorstep to help cheer me on. more about that in a bit.

what am i quitting? smoking. that's right - i'm a smoker. have been for nearly half my life now, more or less. isn't that awful and hideous? i kind of think it is. see, i don't WANT to be a smoker. i haven't WANTED to be a smoker for probably 8 to 10 years now. i have never smoked at work or when i visit my parents; i have always been embarrassed by it and didn't want to be identified as a smoker. i recognize it is a completely idiotic habit (okay, addiction). it's also ridiculously expensive... and stinky... and generally pretty gross. and yet i haven't been able to come even remotely close to quitting except for one three-month period where i was climbing mountains and hiking 30 miles every weekend. so why now? i think i'm just fed up with myself. there are, to be sure, things i like about myself. there are also a number of things i don't like about myself, and i had a wake up call of sorts with a good friend this past weekend. and *palm to forehead* i realized, quite suddenly, that while there are things i don't like about myself that are not easily fixed, there are quite a few things i can do to be a better person, a better friend, a better me. quitting smoking, cutting back on booze, and being a better friend are all things that i can do now and feel good about. really, i guess i finally had it with myself.

you're probably sitting there thinking, well, duh, christie... if you can quit when you visit parents, go on work trips, etc., what's the big deal? the big deal is i am seriously my own worst enemy. if left to my own devices, i could play on the internet and chain smoke for hours. so this week, i have decided to either be a hermit or to hang out with non-smoking friends. during my hermit hours so far, i have a) put on very comfy clothes and my bunny slippers, b) watched countless hours of bad television on hulu, c) knitted a sweater and started a hat and a dress, d) paced the apartment, e) gone to bed at 9:00 just so i wouldn't have to try to function anymore, f) stopped drinking (i have poor impulse control when drinking), and g) eaten what seems to be about my body weight in sherbet (speaking of, i'm out of sherbet - must run to the grocery store!).

so what if it's only been roughly 43 hours since my last cigarette? back to the "i have the best people in my life" comment at the beginning. i got home from work and was warned there was a present waiting for me on my doorstep. what could that be, you ask? RED VINES AND CHOCOLATE PRAYING JESUS HANDS, of course! and, because the gift giver is crazy awesome, the jesus hands come with a whole PRAYER written on the inside. ridonk. is that sacrilege to eat jesus' hands?


do you know how much i love red vines? so very much. they're my favorite candy in all the land. i love that i have friends who love me so much that they know of my love for red vines *and* will go out and buy them for me.


judging by my excitement over these two items, my general need for sherbet, and general oral fixation issues, i'm guessing i might gain a bit of weight. not the best thing in the world, but at least my lungs will be nice and pink again soonish.