Done (for now)!!!
Finally, all those links up at the top are working! Please, check out the new
Recipes and
Patterns sections, and find out more about me by clicking the
About link (duh). I'm especially excited about the patterns section -- it has a picture of every project, plus links so you can buy those patterns that are for sale using either PayPal or Ravelry (your choice). Those patterns are still available on
Etsy as well (and if you're a
fan of me on Facebook, you can email me the current discount code and I'll honor it when you purchase from here as well. For PayPal purchases, I'll refund you but for Ravelry purchases, you need to let me know what you want prior to purchasing and I'll set up a gift for you over there.) Right now, my eyes are bleeding from doing markup all day -- I got a little feature creep when I sat down to do the pattern page this morning and ended up doing a lot more than I planned. But I'm very, very please with the result, and now I don't have to go back and do it all over again in a month. I hope. So anyway, I'm going to cut this short instead of blogging about how our visit to the pediatrician went (the kids are healthy, and that's about the only good thing I can say about it...there were Issues.). I'll try to post something about that tomorrow. For now, enjoy all the new pretties!
Labels: blog update, etsy, kids, patterns, recipes
My creative cup is overflowing!
The BlogAs you can see (and if you can't, please hold down the "Shift" key while clicking the "Refresh" button in your browser), I've begun the migration over to the new pretty graphics. I'll be continuing to pretty up the site in the coming weeks...I'm hoping Blogger is a little more CSS friendly than it used to be. But before I do anything else with the design, I'll be launching the Patterns and Recipes pages. Those will be up either tonight or tomorrow. I'm hoping for tonight so I can spend tomorrow doing super-fun creative things, like...
New Products...dyeing some yarn (which may or may not go up in the shop -- we'll see how much I love it), making button bouquets, finishing the knitted tank top, making more bags,
perfecting this reversible dress pattern,
and so on. I am loving making these dresses...
The Kids...because Becky decided after she got her adorable dress from Grandma Tedi that she is definitely a dress girl, so it's super fun to put these together for her and let her pick which side she's going to wear. Also, one of her favorite things to do is to thank people for giving her things, so she's constantly saying, "Thank you, Mommy, for my beautiful dress!" which is nice.
Here are a few more pics from our little photoshoot. As soon as I pulled out the camera, Zack started saying, "Cheese!" right along with Becky. This is another new word for him, so I started snapping away. He's still got a very small vocabulary, but I think a big part of that is because Becky answers for him a
lot. I'm not too worried, because he's very good at communicating non-verbally. We've got our much delayed 18-month and 3-year checkups tomorrow -- finally no one's sick! -- so I'll see what the doctor has to say then.
The stains on his shirt are a result of the lunch I had served them just before we started taking pictures: ice cream waffles! Trader Joe's wholegrain waffles with a little scoop of homemade vanilla and a drizzle fo chocolate syrup. Big hit with both kids, though Becky didn't care for the chocolate syrup on her waffle and has decided she would like strawberry next time. They both handled it well enough that there will definitely be a next time. I love it when I plan something fun for the kids and they actually do have fun with it.
Just a quick one, as the husband is waiting for me to close up the 'puter and spend some time with him. I had planned to spend some time working on the blog graphics (almost done!) today, but got caught up in sorting through all* my material. So I did that all day...first step to reclaiming the basement studio! I also got some books put out at the curb (outdated computer books), so that was another big step. Maybe I'll get some work done during naptime tomorrow? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, geez, I kill myself with the funny.
Also, today was "Try Something Tuesday," where I fix something new for Becky and Zack. And this week, for me, too! I braised country ribs in the slow cooker (not the new-for-me part, but nummy), baked up some potatoes (still not the new-for-me part), and -- Mom, Dad, please make sure you're sitting down -- made up some fresh snap beans. And ate LOTS of them. How come you guys never told me how delicious fresh beans are? ::ducking and running:: Here's a pic of my lovely, well-balanced meal:
All I did to the beans was give them a quick (5 min.) blanch in heavily salted water, then put on a pat of butter and some onion powder. The intarwubs taught me how. Love you, intarwubs. And now I'm going to fetch a bowl of fresh homemade strawberry vanilla ice cream and watch some TV with my honey.
*Where "all" includes none of my quilting material. Are fat quarters like the sock yarn of the quilting world?
Projects and Publicity
ProjectsI'm actively working on two things right now, both original designs, and neither socks. First, there's the revamp. See, I began designing my own stuff in order to create things I wanted and either couldn't find or didn't want to pay outrageous prices for. One of the very first things I designed was a very easy to knit water bottle carrier -- I was commuting into the city at the time and tired of my water bottle getting condensation all over the stuff in my bag. I was cleaning out a closet the other day and one fell on me, and I thought,
Hey, I should put that pattern up! I dug the pattern out, and boy, did I not know anything about writing patterns back then! I decided to spiff it up and make it legible and usable, and it turns out that rewriting a pattern that you haven't actually knit in about 10 years is sort of ridiculously hard. And also, they stopped making the yarn I originally used, which is a bit of a monkey wrench. So I'm redesigning it in Arucania's Patagonia cotton, which is yummy though a bit smaller gauge that what I originally used. But look, pretty! This is about halfway done:
And the big project I'm working on right now is a lacey summer tank. I've finished the front and will cast on for the back tonight:
PublicityTuesday I was getting my oil changed and knitting socks while I waited, and a very nice lady who had come in with emergency car trouble approached me and started talking to me about knitting two socks at once (because that's what I do, usually, and what I was doing then). We chatted a bit, and I showed her and her daughter where I was putting the afterthought heel and explained briefly how to do it, and then they went back over to where they were sitting. And I thought
You know, I should have given them a card. Used to be, that would have been the end of it. But I said to myself, "Self, you need to not let this opportunity get past you! Gird yourself up and go give those nice ladies a card!" So I girded, and I pulled out a card...and then their mechanic came in and told them their bill was going to be about $350. So that was clearly not a good time. And as I waited, their ride came...and had thrown a belt on the way to get them. So then that wasn't a good time. And then finally my car was ready, and the two nice ladies happened to be outside smoking while I was leaving, and I offered them sympathy and gave them a card (I offered two, one for each of them, but they said they live together so one was fine). Whether they buy anything or not, that's a pretty big deal for me, so I'm pleased with the interaction.
I've been Taking Steps lately to get myself out there and stir up the publicity and so on. So I've joined the
EtsyNJ street team. And I've got a
Facebook fan page. And there's
the Twittering (and not just about the Etsy store). I've redesigned the Etsy store avatar and banner, and will be unveiling a blog redesign soon (that's the delay in the recipe and pattern pages -- easier to do new pages once than do them first then have to redo them). And I've decided that as part of my "Proud to be an Artisan" campaign, I'm going to art up my laptop. Here's the first bit, inked today:
Sweet, right? I'm recreating this piece as part of the new blog design, and have decided to use this as my general logo (which means there will be a small revamp of the new Etsy banner to include this).
I *AM* a designer/artisan/writer
A couple of weeks ago I was at the
local stitch'n'bitch, and I happened to have my design notebook with me because I was working on one of my original designs. I opened it up and Sharon (the owner) peeked over my shoulder and said something like, "I love looking at designers' notebooks!" One of the other women said, in a very nice tone, "Oh, you're a designer?" And my response was to hem and haw and say something like, "Oh, well, you know, I'm trying." And later I thought
What is wrong with me that I can't just say loud and proud "YES! I AM A DESIGNER!"?* I mean, really. I have quite a few designs up here, and the two I'm selling over in the
Etsy store, and not only that, I have the one that got published at
Purlescence a couple of years back. So while I'm no
Cookie A. or
Norah Gaughan, I think I'm allowed to call myself a designer. And I'm
proud of being a designer. There's just something inside me that feels the need to be overly modest and self-deprecating when it comes to my abilities and skills.
I have the same problem when it comes to any sort of art and/or craft, including writing. I'm not saying that everything I've ever written is gold, but I do get more compliments than not on my writing. One of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me was my college English professor telling me that she always saved my papers for last so that she could be sure she'd have something well-written to read at the end of her grading. But have I ever really tried to make something of it? No. Same with my art. Maybe that's why I'm trying so hard with the Etsy store (though I often feel like I'm not doing enough with it) -- I feel like this is my chance to validate my artistic, creative self. I suppose I sort of did that a bit already, back when I was a web designer, but creating for marketing reasons isn't really the same as creating art for its own sake.
So I say now, loud and proud:
I AM A DESIGNER! I AM AN ARTISAN! I AM A WRITER!And I will use those skills and traits to make my mark.
*
I know my punctuation there is questionable, but it's the only way it makes sense. Sorry, to those of you who are as anal about those things as I am.
Too much to blog, not enough time
It is somehow 11pm on Thursday, and I've run out of time to post about all the cool things I really need to post about:
- Redsox game/weekend in Boston last weekend (sadly, sans Kevin and Peggy, who were still kind enough to lend us their house), including the 15 minutes it took Kit and I to figure out how to buy a Charlie card. And that was before we got to the ballpark and the beer.
- New
Ravelry store open! Same patterns as in the
Etsy store, but if you're a Raveler, you might prefer to purchase that way, and that's fine.
- New pattern up at both the Etsy store and the Rav store!
- New
Facebook Fan Page for the Etsy store -- become a fan and get updates, discounts, etc. and so on.
- Went to a different farm store and they had the Good Stuff (local grown produce) for the cheap prices. Win!
- And, of course, the kids:
Clearly, I can no longer allow my mother to make dresses for Becky. The absolute adorableness of the dress almost overwhelms the amazing cuteness of my daughter.
And if you're wondering why I can't just write about everything tomorrow, well, I'm headed up to CT tomorrow to hang out with Kristi. *THE* Kristi.
Otherworld Kristi. The good times, they will be rolling. Oh, yeah.
Coming Soon!
You may notice that there is a brand new nav bar, where there never was one before. You may also notice that if you click on patterns, recipes, or about on the new nav bar, you are taken to a page that just says "Coming Soon!" The store link will take you to the
Etsy store (which has a pretty new header and will have new products up later this week), while the blog link takes you, well, here. Soon -- within the next week -- I will be consolidating all of the recipes I've posted here (and formalizing the ones that are just "throw these five things into a bowl and presto!") and offering them over on the new recipes page. Obviously, I'll continue to post new recipes here as well -- if there's anything I love more than yarn it's food -- and all of those new recipes will be added to that page as well. At the same time, I'll be putting up the long-promised patterns page, with pictures and PDFs and even a couple of new (well, old, but never posted here) patterns.
To tide you over until then, here's a recipe for the baconcheeseandcheeseburgers we had for dinner Monday:
1 lb. ground beef (I used 85% lean)
1/2 c. shredded cheese (I used the pre-shredded Kraft Mexican mix)
1/4 c. crumbled bacon (I used Hormel Real Bacon Bits in the purple envelope)
Sliced cheese (I used pre-sliced Colby-Jack; I believe Kit used Swiss on his)
Buns
Put beef, shredded cheese, and bacon in a large bowl. Mix (use your hands -- it's okay to get dirty) until thoroughly combined. Divide mixture into 4 parts. Press each part into a patty approximately 4" across and 1/2" thick. I found that the lid from an old quart yogurt container gave me perfectly sized burgers. Grill to desired doneness (you could also cook these on the stovetop or broil them -- however you like to cook your burgers should work fine). Place cheese slice on top of patty a couple of minutes before removing from heat. Place patty on bun. Enjoy!
I added a slice of grilled pineapple to mine, which was pretty awesome. But it's great all on its own, too.
Labels: etsy, recipe, site maintenance
Food, and a table to eat it on
Sometime last year, I read a book called
The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. It's quite good, and I recommend it if you're interested in where your food comes from. I found it much more compelling than a similar book,
Fast Food Nation, as I don't actually eat fast food all that often (once or twice a year) so being grossed out by the fast food industry's practices was, well, gross, but didn't really give me any information about changes I could make to my own personal habits. TOD, on the other hand, looks at food from three different sources: industrial farms, small growers, and hunting/growing/gathering your own. Pollan even takes the time to point out the many similarities between large-scale organic growers and non-organic industrial farming -- things you'll want to take into consideration if you're really concerned about your food and how it relates to your own health as well as the environment. Which is all a really long way of saying that I've decided to try to eat more local food, especially produce.
Last weekend, I asked Kit to take me to
one of our local farms. They have a petting zoo, so it's kind of perfect for the kids. He took the kids up to visit the animals while I perused the produce in the farm store. What I found was really, really disappointing: very few things they were selling were actually grown there. I got some carrots (which, OMG, why didn't someone tell me how amazing fresh carrots are?), some celery, and some mushrooms (which I apparently don't know how to store because they went all ooky before I had a chance to use them). I believe the blueberries were also grown there. Everything else was from some place else. The peaches were at least New Jersey grown, but the strawberries were the same old big name farm berries they have at my A&P, the apples were from Chile, and most of the other fruit was from California. They also had pineapples and bananas, which were obviously not from around here, and the grape tomatoes I bought were from Florida. They did have some regular tomatoes that I think were grown there, as well as some lettuces and other veggies that I didn't buy -- I was just surprised at how much produce they offered that was not only not from their own farm, but not in any way local. So that was a really disappointing attempt at buying local produce. There are a couple of other farm stores in reasonable driving distance, so I'll try those next and hope for better results.
One of the big reasons I'm doing all this is to try to introduce the kids to good fresh fruits and veggies. Zack will eat pretty much anything -- he'll try everything, and most things he actually likes and will eat lots of -- but we've had lots of issues with getting Becky to try things. To be clear, it's not that she won't try "healthy" things -- we have trouble getting her to try
anything. She doesn't respond to bribes (even crazy ones, like eat one pea and get a whole cookie), and I'm loathe to actually punish her for not eating something she didn't request. It's incredibly frustrating and we're constantly trying new things. One thing we've incorporated is an idea from friends of ours who have a daughter about the same age as Becky: when dinner is served, she may eat what is on her plate OR if she tries it and doesn't like it, she may request a (reasonable) alternative that she does like. If she doesn't try it, though, she goes to bed hungry. We've been trying that for a few weeks now, with little success -- Becky gets so involved in saying "no" and throwing a tantrum that I think she doesn't really realize what she's saying no
to. So I came up with a new idea to add on: we're going to do a menu each week. One day a week she gets to choose what we eat, and on the other days, I'll serve whatever we're having for dinner and the previous rule applies. This allows me to tell her well in advance what we're having for dinner, which allows her time to get used to the idea. Last night was our first menu dinner (meatballs and noodles for "International Monday" served alongside some frozen veggies), and Becky even helped prepare everything. She decided not to try anything on her plate, but she was very calm and polite about it, which is a big improvement. She didn't eat much all day so I wasn't terrifically surprised that she didn't go for the deal, but I was very pleased with her behavior, at least.
Tonight we're having tostadas for "Try Something New Tuesdays" -- technically, I served tostadas Sunday, but nobody was prepared for them and there was a tantrum and I think we might do better tonight. I had one for lunch yesterday, topped with a few diced grape tomatoes -- yummy!
The base is a fresh corn tortilla that I fried myself in vegetable oil, so I feel better about it than commercially fried and salted chips. There's also some whole corn hiding in there between the beef and the cheese.
In non-food news, today's things-I've-been-putting-off-for-oh-about-7-years project was painting the patio furniture that my mother-in-law was kind enough to gift us with our first summer in the house. It was a set that she had owned for awhile, and just needed a fresh coat of paint. I actually purchased paint at the time, but never got around to prepping it, and then there was the whole college thing, followed up by the whole pregnancy thing (twice) and finally, I got around to it today. Guess what? If you don't use paint for seven years, it dries up in the can. Who knew? So I went to the hardware store and got new paint. The original paint I had bought was a nice forest green, which would have been just fine. But when I went to get more paint, I fell in love with the idea of a Cherry Red patio set. So, 6 cans of Krylon and two trips to the hardware store later, I have a lovely, cheerful Cherry Red patio set.
Before (well, okay, I had started to paint the table and then I realized I wanted to have a "before" shot, so I guess it's really a "during" shot)
AfterI love the reality just as much as the idea. Now I just need to decide if I have the energy to make a patio where Kit tore out the tree, as the set doesn't really fit well on the little patch of concrete we have outside the back door.
The Selfish Knitter
I normally knit for myself. The whole "designing and writing patterns" thing has sprung from a desire to have things for me that are exactly what I want (well, and also to accommodate my penchant for buying yarn independent of patterns, which invariably results in my having not enough yarn of the right type for a particular pattern). I have knit a couple of things for my kids, and a couple of things for other people's babies, and the odd scarf as a gift, and one pair of socks for my sister-in-law. But really, mostly, it's all about me. Which makes it particularly odd that I finished not one but two items last week that were designated for other people. Even odder, both projects ended up requiring modifications to avoid running out of yarn, and still ended with less than a yard of yarn left over. Whew.
The first big project to come off the needles was my second
Sahara. I knit the first one for myself last year, and Miss Jene, one of the caregivers in the infant room at Zack and Becky's school saw it on me and asked if she could pay me to knit one for her (for those of you on Facebook, this is the sweater I'm wearing in my profile picture). Because she asked in that particular way, and because she's been really, really good with/to/for both my kids, and because I actually really enjoyed knitting the first one, I said I'd knit one for her for the cost of yarn. I couldn't find more of the color I had used for mine, so we decided on a gorgeous lime green. I ordered the yarn, it came, I proceeded to knit 70 gajillion other things. I finally got going on the Sahara and actually thought I'd have it done two weeks ago, but then I decided to do the kitchen floor instead. But it is finished now and delivered. I know she was planning on wearing it last weekend, but didn't get a chance to talk to her Tuesday -- I hope it went well!
That bit of string at the top is all I had left over.I may end up knitting yet another one of these for myself. It's an easy knit, this yarn (Berrocco Touche) works up beautifully with the pattern and comes in lots of pretty colors, and I love the way it looks on. We'll see -- I've got a lot in the queue ahead of this.
Once the Sahara was off the needles, I focused my attention on the half-finished
Clapotis I was knitting for Kristi (the fabulous, fantastic, freakin' awesome person who created/writes/directs/runs
Otherworld). It was a just-because gift...I had been thinking about knitting her some socks or mittens or something, and I had also cast on a Clapotis with Great Adirondacks Sireno in the Magnolia colorway. It's a fabulous yarn to work with (though it does catch a bit on the drops, so if that's what you enjoy about knitting a Clap, I don't recommend it), and the colorway is really beautiful. But as I was knitting it up, I just felt like the color wasn't really
me. And then one day while I was working on it, a little light bulb went off and I realized the colors would be gorgeous on Kristi. So it became Kristi's Clapotis. I had intended to get it done in time to give it to her in San Francisco (remember I went there way back in March?), but I got distracted by socks. So then I was going to give it to her at the staff picnic last weekend, and I almost made it, but fell a few rows short. I showed it to her at the picnic Saturday, then took it home and finished it up Sunday. So it's ready to gift next time I see her.
The funniest thing about being short on yarn for this one is that at one point I actually thought I was going to have over half a skein left. [This next bit will mean nothing to you if you're not a knitter, and even if you are a knitter it probably won't mean much if you haven't knitted a Clapotis.] I ended up being about 3 repeats short, so I ripped back to the last stitch drop before running out of yarn (mostly because I was almost a full repeat further on) and then worked back up, but this time decreasing on each end of every row instead of just at the end of every row. I dropped when I hit a stitch that needed to be dropped and really, it's hard to tell unless you know what you're looking for that one end is different from the other. I'm definitely going to knit another one of these for myself.
And now I'm working on finishing up my Leaves and Berries socks (you will remember that I had to start over due to
yarn issues) so I can get that pattern published. I discovered a group of free pattern testers over on
Ravelry, and I'll admit I was a bit trepidatious, but really, they were amazing. I got really great feedback and criticism and suggestions from everyone who tested for me. The pattern is now written, and I'm hoping to get the knitting done in the next week or so, with publishing to happen shortly thereafter.
I've also started swatching for a sleeveless summer top pattern that uses an interesting lace pattern and a couple of different yarns. I've got a bunch of half (or not even) finished projects languishing about, but they're really all winter sweaters and I want to get something done for summer (and yes, this one's for ME). Here's the yarn:
I'm almost certainly going to self-publish this, so I'll post pics in progress here as well.
