Turks and Knitting

Hello everyone (All none of you who read this blog anymore - oh well).

Today I finally have some project photos to post. Hurrah! But not a lot. Because I still haven't taken dress photos, but sersely? It's about 300 degrees outside, and the following photos were all I could muster.

Ok! First off, some of you might remember this hat from several years ago. I'm entering in to that book thingie I mentioned the other day, and had to get some artsy shots of it. I'll lighten this up later so you can see the cypress trees behind it, but here it is....Hat In Swamp:


Heh. I also had Noel take a few pics of me wearing it:



This is as close to my face as I'm willing to put here, because I was super shiny because of bug spray. Also? The other people at the end of the dock were really confused as to why I'd be wearing a big wool hat in 100 degree heat. Always keep 'em guessing!

(Also, you'll notice my hair is extremely red. I colored it last weekend, and it came out a LOT redder than I was planning. It's fading a smidge but WOW. My head looks like it's on fire.)

So next! A finished object! Yay! This is my Textured Circle Shrug, designed by Stefanie Japel. I'm pleased with it, except the arms need to be taken in a bit so they're not so bell-ish. I don't need the extra width on my arms/shoulders/chest/torso area. The yarn is gorgeous, and you can't really see it here (I'll try to lighten the pic later on and repost it) - but it has little metallic flecks in it. It's a wool/mohair blend and is SOOOO soft. And also teal. Which I love. And always reminds me of my Makita drill. Anyway.





All I can say is, after wearing that for about 1 minute, I was hot. It works. Now to pack it away until January. Bye, shrug!

On to other things now. Very exciting things.

First, a little background. If you've ever read the Chronicles of Narnia (which I have, many times in my life) you may recall that Edmund is seduced as it were to come to the White Witch's side of the battle/power play by a never-empty plate of Turkish Delight. Ever since reading that as a kid, I wanted to try some. I, for some unknown reason, always had it in my head that Turkish Delight must be some fanciful and delectable turkey dish with gravy. I am perhaps a comfort-food carb ho. Anyway. Imagine my surprise when in Scotland many moons ago, I was walking through the grocery store and stumbled upon...Turkish Delight! In a small plastic package, in the candy aisle. Huh. Candied turkey. Interesting. I was intrigued. Must try. So I purchased it, and instead of finding one of my favorite winged food products, I found instead a jello-type substance wrapped in chocolate. The jello-stuff was flavored like fruit, and it was...ok. Not superb. Not enough to betray your siblings to the wiles of an evil tyrant who wants to ice over the planet. I had basically given up on understanding the yearning for Turkish Delight (much like I just didn't get Prawn Cocktail flavored potato chips).

While my family came to visit me in Scotland, we met up with some people my BIL & sis knew from the BBC (love you, BBC and Top Gear and Miss Marple!). I told them the story of the sucky Turkish Delight, and the lady (whose name escapes me at this point) decided to call in the cavalry. The Turkish Delight cavalry. In the form of her aged and absolutely ADORABLE father, this little Scottish man with cane and tweed cap and little sweater OMG I could've eaten him he was so cute. Anyway. We arrived at the train station to leave Glasgow, and this little man shows up with a small bag from a confectioner's shop, full of REAL Turkish Delight, not the cheapo mass-produced stuff I had tried before. It was little inch-size cubes of the firm jelly, flavored like lemons, other fruits, and some like rose essence (Rachel thought these were like chewing bubble bath balls - I liked them). It was such a sweet gesture and one that has stayed with me through the years. And can I just say, that real Turkish Delight is AWESOME.

So I ate it all.

And lived years of my life with no Turkish Delight.

So Noel and I were discussing this a few months ago, how yummy it is and you just can't find it here and sigh....

And Noel being Noel, took it upon himself to procure me some Turkish Delight. He talked to one of his coworkers who is originally FROM Turkey, and found out that his nephew was planning to travel there. So he requested a box of Turkish Delight from this guy we've never met, traveling halfway around the world. I arrived at work yesterday and found this on my desk:



A box of REAL Turkish Delight! From Turkey! Sersely! Genuine stuff. See?

It's even written in Turkish! And it's from Istanbul. How freaking cool is that?

And in case you were curious, this is what Turkish Delight looks like (thankfully I took this pic before digging in!):

YUM.

Cranking and Coughing

Hello all.

Much going on here lately in the craftiness world! But alas I have no photos. I'm planning on taking some tonight!

Here's a quick rundown:

(1) First, and most exciting, I finished my Textured Circle Shrug on the Lion Brand knit-along. Very lovely pattern and it turned out quite well, if not a little big. I think I'll take in the arms a bit, since they're a bit bell-ish for my taste.

(2) Entry into a hat competition for a knitted hats book. Need some nice photos of the hat. Funny, to take pics of a winter hat when it's hotter than Dante's oven out there, but hey.

(3) I started last night on a crocheted wrap for my darling Grandmother. It's a nice sage green color and is open and airy, so she can wear it now if she feels like it, or throughout cooler weather. I love crochet because it goes SO FAST. Mom's wrap took 2 months or so to finish. This wrap might be done by tomorrow. Depending on how much I do tonight. But I already have about 2 feet of it done. Wow!

(4) Mystery Project X, which I want to keep secret for now because I don't know how it will turn out! It's a freeform crochet garment for myself. Check out what freeform crochet is at: http://www.freeformcrochet.com/

(No, I'm not making a wearable coral reef, but that would be an AWESOME halloween costume for Neptune? SCHWEET.)

(5) Slipcovers for the living room furniture, which are in stylin' fabrics. Woo hoo, let's here it for purple!

(6) Sundresses for myself. I still have the 6' 3" dress that needs to be shortened dramatically. I also have enough fabric for about 5 more dresses, and want to get going on those.

(7) Amigurumi project for the kitties - a family of crocheted octopi. Fun stuff!

Speaking of the kitties, I had to take Loki to the vet this morning because he's been sniffling a lot lately and has runny eyes and nose and sneezing fits. So apparently he has a respiratory infection (and a fever) but they hopped him up on antibiotics, so he'll be back to his playful self soon.

Interesting note though - we thought Loki was either trying to throw up or cough up a hairball. You know, that sorta painful looking neck-out body spasm thing that cats do? Except nothing ever came up and he was making kind of a weird sound with it. Apparently that's how cats cough as well. Huh.

Anyway, after his trip to the vet, I got him some new toys (since that's exactly what the cats need) and some Greenie treats, which he loves. Recovery is assured!

(2)

R.I.P. Ivy

My sister's beloved calico cat, Ivy, died yesterday. She was a beautiful, loving kitty cat and will be sorely missed.

I forgot to take pics of my dresses again. Oops. I will! I promise! And I will upload them too. I still need to do some readjustments to the long one, since I'm not 6'3" but apparently sew as if I am. Whoopsie!

Good news! I got an article published on www.savannahbest.com, but it's not posted yet. I wrote it about our trip to Boone Hall Plantation. Cima, the editor, gave me a really nice compliment. I had said that I was trying to get back into writing more, she said "Do keep writing! You owe it to yourself." I thought that was a nice thing to say, and very motivating to have someone who thinks you have a talent for something.

Yesterday I finished a great book called I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It, by Barbara Sher. VERY interesting book. She had some really good insights into Scanners like myself, and it made me feel like maybe there isn't anything wrong with me after all, for wanting to skip from one project to the next. (It's something I've always beat myself up about, that I can't just Buckle Down and Focus and so on.) She recommends a 30 day Very Small Commitment, where you choose 1 project you want to work on and spend 30 minutes on it for 30 days. I chose crochet, because I've been working on some projects and designs for crochet and feel I need to expand my skills there, and why not work on my skills in a conscious way?

She also made an interesting point about people who always got things very quickly (as in learned things without really realizing they were learning) and how challenging that can be later in life, to realize that mastery of something (which generally Scanner types don't have - they flit from one thing to the next) can take time to learn and perfect. I know I tend to do this - I get mad at myself if I don't get something right away, or get impatient and then feel like I'm a total loser because I need to practice at it. I expect that I will be the be-all-end-all right away at something, instead of giving myself time to learn how to do it.

She also talks about the all-or-nothing mentality that some of us fall into, how we think we have to be able to dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to 1 thing in life, and until we have the right circumstances, we can't do anything toward that goal. She used the example of a man who wanted to write poetry, and also do several other random things in life, but he couldn't do any of it because he couldn't just quit his job and "go off and write poetry". And the author asked why he had to "go off" to do it - you don't! You can do it every day, in your own life, in little snippets. That's a nice feeling!

Anyway. Great book, and I think It was one of the reasons I was able to finally sit down and finish that article & submit it. I can be a freelance writer, even by only writing for an hour a week. That still qualifies me as a writer, and it's better than doing NO writing because I can't dedicate 60 hours a week to it (which I don't think I want to do anyway!).

I have another of her books, this one called Live the Life You Love, and am going to start reading that one now. She has another that I might buy (the library doesn't have it). But I also don't want to overwhelm myself with books about living the life I want, and put off ACTUALLY living the life I want because I'm so busy reading about it!

On to other things - it's HOT here. Brutal. This weekend will be even worse. They're saying that Friday and Saturday's high temps will be 100. That's without the heat index added on, y'all. That's MISERABLE. I really sometimes wish that I lived someplace that wasn't so unbearable in summer. It really takes the fun out of this time of year, because you can't do anything outside at all.

Of course, that means I can stay inside and work on my crafty stuff! So things could be worse. :)

Stitchy Fairy Princess, that is me, yes indeedy.

I've been busy sewing this week. Noel's having to work late because our mill is in the middle of a shutdown, so he's slaving away on top of some big machine in 95 degree heat. And I sit in my office and file stuff and then go home and it's about 2 hours or so before he gets home. So to fill the gap in my afternoons, the kittens and I have been busy at work with the sewing machine.

On Sunday I finished up this little bonnet for some friends' baby's baptism, and it looks ADORABLE on her. :) Of course, anything would look cute on that child, but hey. The bonnet looks nice too, so I'll take partial credit. hee hee.

This was a superfast thing to sew - it's basically just 2 rectangles, and the trim goes on the outer rectangle and you stitch them together with some ribbons and lace and voila! Instant Bonnet Cuteness!

So a few days ago I had to go to Wally World to pick up some eye stuff (kittens hid my contact case in the morning and I was forced to open a new pair of lenses. I had no idea the kittens were myopic). (They're also grounded for that, and have had no canned food since then - they must suffer with hard food until my old contacts are returned, or I cave into the cuteness).

Anyway, while at the store, I decided to take a quick look through their fabric department, and lo and behold, I found some fabric I liked. I'm into cottons lately - they're super easy to sew (no stretching!), inexpensive (unless they're designer, more on that later) and most importantly, they're cool and easy to wear when it feels like the 6th layer of hell outside, which currently it does in the SAV. Holy crap it's hot outside, y'all.

I prewashed all of the new fabric I had (which includes the designer stuff from the store in Asheville, which was I think about $10/yd). My new fabric cost between $2.50 - $3/yd, which really? You can't beat a $5 dress. So! Anyway. I digress. I prewashed it, which means I washed it (duh) and then put it in the dryer, so it would shrink. Why would I want to shrink my new fabric? Because I'd rather have it shrink BEFORE I cut it out and made it into a dress than AFTER I made it into a dress. If it shrinks before I make it, no big deal. If it shrinks after I sew it, my pretty little size 12 dress becomes a size 8 dress, and thus a castoff to friends who can avoid Doritos better than I can.

So here is my new fabric stack, all nice and pretty (they're actually folded with the wrong side out here, so they're brighter than this in reality):

Fun, huh? I got the red and the lime green as possibilities for contrasts for a plaid dress I'm designing out of the leftovers of Noel's kilt. I'm still iffy on that dress, and am going to put it away for a while and let it simmer there.

The next one down is a fabric that was used in my sea-themed quilt, and I loved it so much I went and got more. I ADORE that fabric. I would swathe my life in it if I could. It will likely be the bodice of a similarly sea-themed sundress.

The next one down is the designer fabric from Asheville. LOVE that fabric too, and am trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with it.

The next blue one is a fun $2.50/yd cotton print that looks like various shades of bubbles all over it. Very fun and...effervescent. heh. Might end up being another shorter sundress, not sure yet.

The last 5 fabrics (hard to tell there are 5 there, but trust me) are also from Wal-mart and cost a whopping $3/yd. I've been coveting some Anna Maria Horner fabrics, but at $15 - $19/yd, I just can't justify the purchase. These 5 resemble her style. So I liked these a lot and they're all designed to go together, and I don't own a lot of yellow clothing, so why not? The very bottom fabric is a dove gray with yellow flowers and black designs on it, and that's going to be the bodice of my dress. The other fabrics (2 yellow and 2 black) will be a tiered skirt to go from my hips down to the floor. I love me some floor-length dresses.

The dress will be of my own design, and I wanted to try it out on less expensive fabrics before cutting it out of the pricier stuff. That way if I don't like it, I can go buy more of the cheaper stuff and just make simple short sundresses out of them and be done with it. (Nothing like a little fatalism, huh?)

I'm going to get started cutting the yellow/black dress out tonight. I spent yesterday evening working on the plaid dress, only to have Noel come home and look at my facial expression while I stared in the mirror and say "You don't like it, do you?" and I said I was completely indifferent to it. Which doesn't encourage one to spend hours working on it. So I'm going to put it away for a little while and work on the yellow dress in the meantime.

In other news....um....it's hot here. It's really oppressive, and makes living here a real challenge. I get frustrated that it's so miserable that you can't comfortably go outside without sweating like a pig (oh wait, per Lisa, pigs don't sweat! What does? Um....a muskox?). Ok, so this weather makes you sweat like a muskox. NOT pleasant.

Also we live in fear of the Tyranny of the Mosquitos of Doom.

It's at times like this that I put snowy photos on my computer and try to pretend I live in, say, Wisconsin or something. Where it HAS to be cooler than here.

Speaking of, I'm gonna go turn on the A/C again. Whew!

STICKY.

Hey. Busy day here today. I had to do three safety audits at work, which is basically walking around the mill making sure everyone's working safely.

Then I did a housekeeping audit of the parking lot (picking up cigarettes in 94 degree heat = NOT fun).

Am very sweaty now and heading to the chiropractor.

Monsoon Season Already?

This past weekend we visited Asia! Ok, not really. We did go to the Asian Festival though. Which is cheaper (free!) than going to Asia. Also it doesn't require flying. So I saved all that money in Xanax. (We also ate sesame chicken for dinner tonight - that has to count for something).

Anyway, the Asian Festival happens every year, and sadly enough, this was the first time I've ever been! What is my deal? Why have I not been there before? (Also to the Greek festival - helllloooooooo baklava!) There were a LOT of people there, and lots of vendors of different types - restaurants, various Asian associations, martial arts schools, visitors bureaus, and shops selling Asian fun stuff.

I resisted the urge to buy one of those round pyramid rice paddy hats, although Noel thought they were fetching. :) And NO, I didn't sign up for Kung Fu classes even though I wanted to.

And on that topic, let's all have a moment of silence for that master of modern Kung Fu, David Carradine. We'll miss you, Bill!

I digress. Back to the festival. We stopped at the Indonesia travel table, because WOW would Indonesia not be awesome? They have incredible temples there, and just gorgeous textiles, arts, fantastic stuff. I mean, check out these costumes:

How gorgeous are these outfits!? I coveted. I admit it.

There were also performers, and when we first arrived there was an extremely talented drumming group that were so full of energy and excitement for what they were doing, it was absolutely contagious. At the end of their performance, one of the players was so pumped he just kept on shouting and throwing his hands up in the air, and then realized that everyone else on stage had stopped, and he shrugged and said "Sorry!" to the audience, at which point the entire audience started cheering yet again for him. What a great thing to witness, someone so carried away by what they're doing that they completely forget where they are and just let the enthusiasm carry them along.

Also? That drumming group was GOOD. We wanted to see more, but unfortunately came in at the end of their performance, so we only got to see a few minutes of it. Super cool, and also, these people probably never have to go to the gym, what with the large stick wielding and such. It was reminiscent of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics with all the drummers, except instead of 2000 or so, there were only 8.

So yeah, now I want to go to Indonesia again. Managed not to buy anything at the market, although they had some pretty silk dresses. Those aren't very easy for curvy women to wear though, because they just don't make them to fit curvy women. I have fabric to make my own (someday).

Speaking of sewing, I did quite a bit today. I'll post a picture of my work tomorrow - a baby bonnet for a friend's baby's christening. Sewing baby stuff is fun because it's small projects and fun stufff with little ribbons and ruffles.

Ok, so we decided to leave the Asian festival and walk around downtown for a little while. The only problem was, apparently these Asian performers brought the monsoons with them:


Yeah, that's the curb there, underwater. This was rain that fell in about 15 minutes or so (and it didn't stop for a while after that). Can you say Flash Flooding? Thankfully we had an umbrella. Unfortunately the car was about a 15 minute walk. And it was a bit windy. So. By the time we got to the car, we were...damp. To put it mildly.

I'm trying to wring out my skirt here. It was SOAKED.

See? (OK, so it's a black skirt and you can't see how wet it is, but it was WET.)

So as I mentioned, I've been working on some sewing projects, and will have another one to work on very soon. I was at work the other day and had a wardrobe malfunction.

This looks pretty bad, huh? Just wait....

To get a real feel for how bad this was, check this out (please pardon the cotton undies! but better than NO undies, right?):


YEAH. NICE. Thank the gods Noel was the one who discovered this, when we were leaving work. He politely offered me his shirt to wrap around my waist. At first I just tried to pull my shirt down to cover it.

Yeah, that wasn't happening.

I had a sweatshirt that I used to cover my tushie. These pants though, I refuse to relegate to the Cleaning Rags pile. I'm going to make them into a cool (hopefully) skirt in the mode of http://www.alabamachanin.com/ - some embroidery, some patching (for obvious reasons!) and hopefully it'll turn into something lovely. That won't show my entire rear end.

And I though the only work hazards I had to worry about were the gators!

And now for your Daily Dose of Cuteness. Check out Poe taking a nap.

Hee hee! He has his tongue out. I could even touch it and he still kept it out. How funny!

A Few Words on Envy

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about envy. I tend to have a lot of it. I envy thin people, I envy (natural) redheads. I envy wealthy people. It's been a way of life for me so long. I guess because I'm natually very competitive? I never thought about myself that way until Noel pointed it out - I'll compete over anything! Therefore if someone else has something that I perceive as better, I get really frustrated and envious about it.

The funny thing about it is, it's such a wasted emotion. I spend a lot of time reading blogs, books, etc. and looking at other people's (public!) lives and thinking: wow. If only I could live like that. If only I could decorate my house in really bright fabrics (www.annamariahorner.com) or if only I could have a business designing knitwear (www.glampyre.com) or if only I could be some world-traveling bon vivant who lives life the way she wants, and appreciates what she has. And is Put Together.

Does anyone else have this hangup about being Put Together? When asked to define it, I can't. It's a mish-mash (in my mind) of living creatively, having a clean and well-decorated home, a healthy and open relationship, a pet (or 2), a worthwhile job that's fulfilling, and a general sense of satisfaction with life as it is, TODAY. Not wishing for the future, not waiting for someday, not constantly What If-ing life. I look at some of my friends and think they're so Put Together. And then am surprised when someone else tells me that they think *I* am Put Together, because I guess it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

One self-helpy thing that I do want to work on, however, is a sense of appreciation for the moment. Not constantly living for the future, because (1) the future isn't guaranteed, and also (2) the future never comes. If I live life looking forward and not at where I am, I'm going to miss all the wonderful things happening to me now. And I do appreciate them, I guess it's more that I look for changes in myself to be satisfied with who I am. In the future I'll be in a job I actually enjoy, I'll be thinner, I'll be wearing clothes like I want (www.anthropologie.com and www.alabamachanin.com) and won't life be grand? I'll be who I want to be.

But here's the thing: I won't get there if I don't actually take steps TODAY to be that person. I want to wear fun colorful clothes? Then why not wear them TODAY? I want to be thinner? I need to lay off the potato chips TODAY. What a concept. Sometimes it's hard to wrap your brain around though.

Speaking of clothes though, I've been working on a dress made up of the leftovers from Noel's kilt. I'm thinking I might have an idea for the dress - I have it put together but it's a bit boring right now. We'll see.....

Palace Envy

Well, it's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that! I have no excuses to offer other than I've been busy and also extremely crampy. So sorry.

Anyway.

We did end up going to NC for Memorial Day weekend, and had a nice time. I have bokoodles of pictures to post, so here goes:


It was lovely up there. We went for a drive on the parkway, went to the Artisan Center to look at the local arts and quilts and such, and the weather was very pretty.


How can you not appreciate this kind of scenery? Gorgeous!

We went to Biltmore Village that day as well, because I wanted to see a fabric shop there that's reputedly very expensive, but we found it to be reasonable and full of gorgeous fabrics. It's called Waechter's Fine Fabrics and is the oldest continually running fabric shop in America: http://www.fabricsandbuttons.com/ I found some lovely fabric there that I got a couple of yards of, to make a fun little summer dress. Let me see if I can find it....Yup! Here it is:

http://www.fabricsandbuttons.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=SandiHenderson-11770&Category_Code=MichaelMiller

Adorable, no? The shop itself is very pretty, and the staff is helpful.


So we did that, and then stumbled upon this little beaut:


Woo hoo! Yarn store! And you know what I bought there? NOTHING. I am an oak. Also I have a ton of yarn already and just couldn't justify shelling out money for knitting that I might get to sometime in 2014.


Moving on! The next day, we went to the Biltmore Estate to take in the finery and expensivity (is that a word?) of the Vanderbilts. These folks really know how to spend some cash. It's the largest private home in the U.S., with 250 rooms in it. We saw only about 60-70 rooms. Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take pictures on the inside, so I only have shots from the outside and the extensive gardens.


First, the house itself:



Cozy and quaint, no? Unfortunately it was rainy that day, so you can't see the mountains behind it. Oh well. Here's a detail from the outside:


Fancy schmancy!


Here are some pictures of the gardens and greenhouse. First, the cultured gardens, which Mom really enjoyed:



I like to call this one Still Life of Noel Among Orchids and Lilies:



The greenhouse is impressively large (just like the house) and full of weird, exotic plants.



That kinda looks like a plant that could, with enough motivation, eat you. Scary.


And for those of you who just can't get enough Things In Sky:


Japanese maple tree:


Greenhouse ceiling:

Arbor and vines:


Scary plant leaf that makes a lovely light filterer:

Another still life: Noel in Tree, Exuberantly


I guess the nice weather agreed with him (that and the whole Being Back in the Mountains thing, as his dad lives in TN). He couldn't resist climbing this tree in my mom's backyard and got really high up there before I could dig out the camera. I then related my Learning To Climb Trees story, which involves my cousin Brooke in West Virginia, much grunting and strenuous attempts to grab lower branches, and a misguided idea to climb a pine tree, resulting in copious amounts of sap on my clothing. Note to self: don't climb pine trees. End of lesson.

So we had a nice time, ate a LOT (thanks Mom!) and enjoyed a weekend replete with several very exciting things that we don't experience frequently here in the SAV:

(1) NO BUGS. This is uncanny, to be able to sit outside and not be 3 pints of blood low because of the swarms of mosquitos waiting to ambush you ninja-style by the door. Unbelievable.


(2) Cool breezes. As opposed to hot breezes that smell vaguely of sewage. Nice.


(3) Clean roadsides. Noel pointed this out, that there is very little or no garbage on the sides of the roads. I hadn't noticed it til he mentioned it, and then realized that it's really quite amazing. I guess we've gotten so used to people not giving a crap, and emptying their car floorboard onto the road at redlights (I've seen this happen, and sersely? The world is not your garbage can, asshat.)


(4) Real forests that have lots of trees. So pretty. The mountains are beautiful.


But now it's back to heat, mosquitos, sewage smell, and Hardee's wrappers on the side of the road. Ah yes, Savannah. How we (didn't really) miss thee!