I did a little photo shoot in the woods by my house. First up we have one of my birthday gifts, an old, leather messenger bag::

The bag is closed by bringing those tabs up and around the little knobs(I don't know the technical terms. Brads maybe? mom?) This was a lucky ebay find - I found it 4 minutes before the auction ended!

And next, a blocked picture of orangina::

And, finally, the beach countdown continues!

Out of Season

The past few days have been full of storms here in Boston. They've been grand, summer storms full of pounding thunder and ginormous drops of rain. I would expect a week of rain to interfere with my summer days, but we've worked around the rain amazingly well (C only got 'stuck in the car' once and had to wait for the rain to die down). So today I decided to stay inside and work from home. As I was drinking my morning coffee, I could hear the wind picking up outside. Even though I know that it's really a balmy 70-80 degrees out, I told C that the stormy winds blowing through the trees 'felt like fall'.

And so, when I sat down to work, I thought I'd share these pictures which look like fall (although they were taken in the spring!).

This is an old apron that I bought for $0.25 at a yard sale... $0.25!

And the sweater I'm wearing? That's a well loved and well worn sweater that my grandmother made for my pop. It's so well loved that it has felted in many patches.

I hope you're enjoying your day, whatever the season*

Summer Weekend

Some bike racing::
At a race track!::

Eggplant blossoms::

New sweater almost complete::

And the mental beach countdown has begun!::

And the winner is...

{drumroll please}...Amiee of MamieKnits! And really, who more deserves a cold one with her knitting than a momma of twins? Congratulations!

I was a little late revealing the winner, but we can just blame that on C and his crazy biking schedule! We hit up three races last weekend, and today marks day three of a three day stage race (he's in forth place right now!!!). There he is in the Penn uniform below::


I'm off to get some work done, but I should be back with more knitting progress soon!

Mullets, knitting, and contests, oh my!

Yesterday was my birthday, and yes, it was full of mullets, knitting, and fun.

I finished Orangina, just minutes before our local library opened, so I took it along for a quick photo shoot::


I wasn't quite dressed for the occasion, so I promise some more pictures of Orangina was I've blocked it and am wearing a more appropriate tank underneath!

I used Knitpicks Risata yarn for this project, and am so happy with the results.

Now back to birthday fun, one fantabulous gift that I received was a waterproof bag for taking underwater shots. Like this::



So, after the knitting, and swimming, we were off to a Bon Jovi concert. Queue the mullets.
{Someone's mullet was a bit rough right out of the packaging, so he combed it while we were on the subway.}



Well, all the celebrating and summer fun put me in the mood for a little CONTEST! In the spirit of summer birthdays, summer knitting, and cold beers on hot summer nights, here's the contest:

Leave me a comment and tell me something you love about summer. And remember to make sure that I can get in touch with you (either through your blog, or by leaving your email address). I will randomly choose a winner and you'll receive a set of the Ravely Pint Glasses!

The contest will remain open until Wednesday, July 16th at noon. Good Luck!!

Fun Surprise

Puppet Theater from Katie
Originally uploaded by mrs.veghead

I was browsing through blogs yesterday and saw this!

Look at the first shot in the 4th row of Angrychicken's photo montage and you'll see a picture of the puppet theater I made for Sophia's first birthday. While this was a great project, it was really challenging to take a good picture of the finished object, so I borrowed another picture of Soph exploring the theater from Nik's flickr page for this post.

This was a fun (and EASY) sewing project! It's the second thing I've made from Bend the Rules Sewing, and I've loved both projects. Amy's directions are clear, yet flexible. As a result, I've started both projects feeling confident that I knew what to do, but at the same time I was very comfortable making modifications (like the major ones to turn a purse pattern into a computer case).

If all goes well, I should finish a fun summer knit in the next couple of days, so stay tuned!

Some Good Things

gifts.from.nik
Originally uploaded by Pairaschut

I was reminded today that I've become a bit lax with my blog postings. And all I can do is agree - I keep meaning to post, there's so much good stuff going on and so many ideas that are popping into my head, I just have to get on it! June was just a whirl-wind of traveling, visiting, and transitioning into summer; every time I sat down to post, I either got distracted or didn't have the material (i.e. pictures) on the right computer.

So, this post is a jump-start of sorts. Here's to the rest of summer, the skirts I plan to sew, the summer knits I plan to knit, the summer foods I plan on cooking and eating, the summer fun that's still to come!

The pictures in this post are from my b(a)ff, Nik. She's a pro at sending packages filled with goodies (I'm guessing that having a husband in Afghanistan helped with that!). I think I squealed when I opened a box filled with lemon curd, a great old Vermont Cookbook (hello maple syrup), yarn, needles, etc.etc. And, as if it couldn't get any better, a set of six cognac cups carved from stone and sent from Afghanistan were tucked inside(I'll have to add the picture later, because they're on another computer!).

And while I've been silent, I've enjoyed these goodies from other blogs:
~Luckybeans' tour of a tea estate in Africa.
~Soulemama's adventures in jam making... I can't wait until apple butter season comes around again!!
~This sweater by DoggedKnits. And these embroidered pillows (hint hint Kris).
~And THESE spore prints by Knittingiris. wow!

Next up:
~A June Travel recap - from Maine to Virginia, with a shout out to Philly.
~Some knitting catch-up
~Sewing - bring on the skirts and bags
~A birthday contest!

Ahhh, I think that's all for now, Happy July!