Saturday, March 15, 2008
Reminder: Pay It Forward drawing
I forgot to include this reminder in yesterday's post. For all you weekend readers, don't forget to enter the random drawing for the next Pay It Forward. For details, click here.
Friday, March 14, 2008
ECF: Baby shower
Last weekend, my sisters-in-law threw a baby shower for me in the Bay Area, attended mostly by family friends from The Sweetie's side of the family. It was held at an English tea room and included sandwiches with the crusts cut off and scones with clotted cream and lemon curd. It was sooo cute!
The girls got me a wrist corsage to wear and a balloon bouquet (tied to my seat at the tea room). At the end, the waitstaff brought out this sweet little dessert - a petit four with a candle in it, with "Congratulations Kim" written around the plate in icing.
It was a really fun party - thanks!
The girls got me a wrist corsage to wear and a balloon bouquet (tied to my seat at the tea room). At the end, the waitstaff brought out this sweet little dessert - a petit four with a candle in it, with "Congratulations Kim" written around the plate in icing.
It was a really fun party - thanks!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Thank you, Rhonda!
I was bowled over the other day when I opened my mail. Hmm....something from MIT.... Now I am an alum and a volunteer, so it's not so unusual to get something from them, but in a padded envelope....mysterious.
Inside was the most beautiful card and the most awesome pair of baby socks from none other than Rhonda the Stitching Nut! It's such a special gift. Thank you, Rhonda! Thank you so much! She had blogged about them, but I had no idea they were destined for my little boy!
There's still time to enter the random drawing to be a Pay It Forward recipient. Click here for more details.
Inside was the most beautiful card and the most awesome pair of baby socks from none other than Rhonda the Stitching Nut! It's such a special gift. Thank you, Rhonda! Thank you so much! She had blogged about them, but I had no idea they were destined for my little boy!
There's still time to enter the random drawing to be a Pay It Forward recipient. Click here for more details.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Paying It Forward
A long time ago, when Pay It Forward was relatively new, I jumped at the chance to be a PIF recipient. I really like the idea of just giving gifts for no special reason - just to make their day.
Rachel didn't promise to be speedy, but she was working hard! She made strips of fabric, and knit them into this beautiful rug! I don't want to put it on the floor! Right now, it's sitting on a chair in our living room, covering up ugly stained bits, as a sort of chair cushion.
Thank you, Rachel!
Now, the next step is to pay it forward again. I'll pick 3 random people who comments on this blog entry. I'll pick those people next week, on March 17. Then someday, you'll receive a handmade gift from me to brighten your day. I can tell you right now, the "handmade" part might be small, but accompanied by something good, like chocolate. There are no promises of promptness here - just within 365 days. When you get it, you must promise to do the same on your blog.
You can be anywhere in the world, but you must have a blog (or start one!)
Rachel didn't promise to be speedy, but she was working hard! She made strips of fabric, and knit them into this beautiful rug! I don't want to put it on the floor! Right now, it's sitting on a chair in our living room, covering up ugly stained bits, as a sort of chair cushion.
Thank you, Rachel!
Now, the next step is to pay it forward again. I'll pick 3 random people who comments on this blog entry. I'll pick those people next week, on March 17. Then someday, you'll receive a handmade gift from me to brighten your day. I can tell you right now, the "handmade" part might be small, but accompanied by something good, like chocolate. There are no promises of promptness here - just within 365 days. When you get it, you must promise to do the same on your blog.
You can be anywhere in the world, but you must have a blog (or start one!)
Friday, March 7, 2008
ECF: Pond in Hancock, NH
This is my favorite photo from our New England Foliage Trip of 2006. And I took it with my (apparently not-so) crappy phone camera. I'm pretty sure this is from my most recent phone camera. I can tell from looking at the various phone photos which of them came from the old (first phone camera) and which from the new. The old ones look kind of neon and overexposed. The new ones look pretty true to color.
If only I had a higher resolution version of this, I'd print it and frame it - it looks like one of those 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles.
And I'm not 100% sure it's a pond. Northeastern landscapes are funny - a big outcropping of water could be a pond or a lake, or just a place where a creek widened out and became a river or something. But it was so beautiful in the morning light.
If only I had a higher resolution version of this, I'd print it and frame it - it looks like one of those 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles.
And I'm not 100% sure it's a pond. Northeastern landscapes are funny - a big outcropping of water could be a pond or a lake, or just a place where a creek widened out and became a river or something. But it was so beautiful in the morning light.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Old photos, new random stuff
This photo is from our New England Foliage trip, fall of 2006, during The Sweetie's sabbatical. We forgot to bring a real camera, so I took this with my cell phone. I just recently bothered to get all the photos off my cell phone and into Flickr, where they can live in perpetuity.
I have been working on seaming the second bootie - now confirmed to be smaller than #1, and probably close to the intended size. After that, the ankle sock portion to knit. This time, I took care to slip the first stitch of every row and knit the last stitch of every row through the back loop to assist in seaming. I had to add a couple of selvedge stitches to the ribbed cuff to make it work out, but it turned out nicely, I think.
Now I just have to decide whether to keep #1 around as an artifact of gauge lying, or whether to rip it out (potentially salvaging the ankle sock portion?) and re-knit it tighter.
I recently finished a book, A Year without "Made In China". It was a really easy and fun read - not heavy-handed. It chronicles an American family's attempt to not buy items made in China for a year - this family had 2 small children, too! They weren't always perfect - sometimes they accidentally bought stuff made in China (who knew that candy canes were made in China?). They had to decide about parts of items made in China, as well as whether certain areas such as Taiwan or Hong Kong counted. The author acknowledges that she has nothing against China as a country or its people; it was kind of an arbitrary choice to be more aware of where manufactured goods come from. It didn't have a whole lot in the way of fact-finding sidebars; it really was an account of their experiences. All in all, it was a thoughtful book and an entertaining read.
One interesting thing: even though they often spent more money on items to get them from some country other than China, they ended up spending less money overall, since they were prevented from buying junk that they could do without.
I have been working on seaming the second bootie - now confirmed to be smaller than #1, and probably close to the intended size. After that, the ankle sock portion to knit. This time, I took care to slip the first stitch of every row and knit the last stitch of every row through the back loop to assist in seaming. I had to add a couple of selvedge stitches to the ribbed cuff to make it work out, but it turned out nicely, I think.
Now I just have to decide whether to keep #1 around as an artifact of gauge lying, or whether to rip it out (potentially salvaging the ankle sock portion?) and re-knit it tighter.
I recently finished a book, A Year without "Made In China". It was a really easy and fun read - not heavy-handed. It chronicles an American family's attempt to not buy items made in China for a year - this family had 2 small children, too! They weren't always perfect - sometimes they accidentally bought stuff made in China (who knew that candy canes were made in China?). They had to decide about parts of items made in China, as well as whether certain areas such as Taiwan or Hong Kong counted. The author acknowledges that she has nothing against China as a country or its people; it was kind of an arbitrary choice to be more aware of where manufactured goods come from. It didn't have a whole lot in the way of fact-finding sidebars; it really was an account of their experiences. All in all, it was a thoughtful book and an entertaining read.
One interesting thing: even though they often spent more money on items to get them from some country other than China, they ended up spending less money overall, since they were prevented from buying junk that they could do without.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Happy Monday!
This should have been Eye Candy, but I had more urgent matters on Friday. Instead, you get happy sheep note cards on a Monday. These are really cute and inexpensive. I bought them from Bezzie who blogs here. 3 cards for $3.75 including shipping! She's all out of the sets of 3 at the moment, but I'm sure she'll be making more. Speedy service, too!
I knit a bit more on my bootie #2 this weekend, in between marathon laundry and keeping The Sweetie sane by making him leave the house and enjoy the day. It is turning out significantly smaller than the first one. This is probably good, as it will probably fit a baby. The creepy part is it's the same yarn, same needle, and same knitter! Not really knitting tightly, just thinking "tighter gauge" thoughts.
I knit a bit more on my bootie #2 this weekend, in between marathon laundry and keeping The Sweetie sane by making him leave the house and enjoy the day. It is turning out significantly smaller than the first one. This is probably good, as it will probably fit a baby. The creepy part is it's the same yarn, same needle, and same knitter! Not really knitting tightly, just thinking "tighter gauge" thoughts.
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