ONE YEAR + STILL SMILING

pen + watercolor drawing by Mariss @ Vanillabean Knits

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of us closing on our house, but we closed on Feb 29, leap day, so we are not quite sure when to honor the anniversary.

I cannot tell you how much we love being homeowners.

We still wake up every morning + pinch ourselves.

Q: HOW DO I GET FREE STUFF?

A: Sometimes I have to wear people down.

Ever since transfering to my new office building I have wanted this lamp. It sat in a department that never used it, in fact they hated it. Knowing this, I saw an opportunity to make it mine. Knowing how much I wanted it, they were going to make me work for it.

The person making me work the hardest tried to convince me that he needed it to prevent aliens from reading his thoughts (he's tall enough to make this work) + I told him I would buy a roll of foil or help him tie a hubcap to his head. Hum...

I spent the next month asking each person in the department if I could have the lamp + finally one person said, "YES! TAKE IT! do you need me to drive it to your house????"

So there it is. I know that I often make it look like things just fall into my lap, but that is not always the case. Sometimes it's a matter of being tenacious + convincing someone that there are portable devices that can prevent aliens from reading their thoughts.

p.s. I love lamp.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF AMY + ISLA

This is the title of the new game I made up to amuse myself because when it comes right down to it...I can't tell them apart.

It generally comes down to these two questions:
1. Is she "the purse girl?"
2. Or is she the one who is with Sacha Baron-Cohen?

I do know that Amy Adams was nominated for, but did not win, an Oscar last night.

In the early 90's I used to play this game with Renee Zellweger + Joey Lauren Adams, but this version is much harder.

KNITTING POT SCRUBBERS (super exciting!)

While watching The Oscars last night (I posted my comments about the show at great length over @ The Claw) I knitted a bunch of pot scrubbers using a very coarse acrylic rug yarn. I am hoping that they will withstand hard use + take the place of the disposable green ones I keep buying.

15 YEARS AGO...

My boy + I went on our first date, which ended up lasting four days. We saw BB King at a small club, stayed up all night + listened to Bruce Springsteen records, ate breakfast at a greasy spoon, hung out in book stores, + saw Shallow Grave.

HERE'S TO GOOD FRIENDS!

I had not seen my friend Hezza in sooooo long (since last May) so she came over Sunday for a hat knitting lesson. Actually, we ate, drank lots of hot tea + after about 3 hours of non-stop talking, we finally got out our knitting. She sent me an e-mail saying that it was like no time had passed + that's when you know you have a good friend!

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR

When we are teased with beautiful 70 degree days
+ spring starts peeking out.

Feeling a little obsessed with Dansko shoes, I found a pair of sandals at a local discount shoe store. I was looking at this exact pair online + was thrilled to find them REALLY cheap.

OOH! Seed catalogs! I'm dreaming about this year's garden.

My new print is inspired by the amazing book Planetwalker by: John Frances, Ph.D. My boy thought it had a President Obama tie-in, but it was actually more tied to a line from Vanilla Sky,
"every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."
This idea was echoed in Planetwalker + it has really stayed with me, which always results in a new print.

Seeds of Change is available in my Etsy shop.

WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS pt. 2

It's not like I'm glad that my laptop went kaput, but not having it at my fingertips has been, well... relaxing.

The ideas have been coming non-stop these past couple weeks + I'm having a hard time keeping up (sketchbook pages are filling up!). The drying racks are full. This feels really good after a creative dry spell.

Thank you for all your good wishes from my last post. I cannot wait until I get to start the project, but until then, I'm doing research on local folklore to present some ideas for the planning meetings.

I sent a thank you e-mail to the co-worker who insisted I eat black-eyed peas on New Year's Day.