oh sandy

being in philly i thought "like totally omg, we might get some like, terrible weather or something", so we hunkered down under a blanket at resolved to watch movies until we surely lost power. but even though we were hit smack on by hurricane sandy, this is the only devastation i've seen. honestly, i'm not even sure how it happened. i mean look at it, i'd almost be more likely to believe a gnome came over, hopped up on our deck and tipped it over as a joke than to believe wind knocked over my terra cotta pot of now sad, dead basil. i thought it was so funny i left it like that.

just wondering, did they ever stop and think how amusing naming an ocean storm sandy would be? i've never seen so much sand in the wrong places in my life. i bet the people on the coasts are cursing the sandy/sandy situation because if they've thought of it, they're probably giggling at their own misfortune.

dirty doz: meet RAD fox!

he's done! i finished knitting all the parts of this little dude over a month ago but only finished him now because i managed to procrastinate actually assembling him with amazing efficiency. not a huge fan of the sewing together of things... maybe this explains why i have three cut out and marked sewing projects sitting neatly piled and not a seam sewn on any of them. anyways, i really like how he came out! i used some little glass buttons i had in my "fancy button jar" for the eyes and they totally give him the creepy insane fox look i was going for. he looks like the kind of fox that would cuddle up next to you and then run off with your baby. PERFECT.

i knit him in the round rather than flat like the pattern said, specific details here on ravelry. he stays in place with a hidden susan bates stitch holder. also i don't need to worry about him being too absurd to be used, i wore him to the grocery store last night. not a single person said anything to me which i find strange because really, he's kind of noticeable and silly. but i guess we were in suburban new jersey where my nose ring is probably enough to get people to avoid interacting with me, never mind my semi-insane haircut and then a candy colored knit fox stole. i probably may as well have had "KEEP ME AWAY FROM YOUR CHILDREN" tattooed on my face. either way, he was cute and kept my neck warm, i give him an A+.

mr fox stole my heart & mini fox by tiny owl knits
claudia hand painted yarns sock in scarlet o'hara, cotton candy and rubies playing

here's a better pic of color, the selfy camera on my phone kinda blows it with reds but i needed an action shot!

woods, coldness, meteors, falling water and the usa's mascot

this weekend db, uzo and i ran off into the woods for a camping adventure. we decided at like 11am on saturday that this is what we should do and just went and did it. we went to the delaware water gap and set up our tent under these large grow-y things and drank beer i smuggled into the campsite rolled up inside all my shirts. we made a pretty legit fire and ate leftover udon noodles with "piss chopsticks" db whittled out of twigs he found at our campsite. it was awesome. then we shivered while staring at the sky waiting for the moon to set so we could see the Orionids at their peak. it was pretty cool, we saw a few good ones before shivering our way into the tent. 40 degrees, uzo was not pleased.

in the morning, we got up and drove to raymondskill falls which are the biggest falls in pennsylvania. it was really really cool. i have pictures of the actual falls but none are good enough! you're going to have to take my word for it they they were pretty big. let's just say if you fell in and went down them you would totally die at some point before getting to the calm part of the river. there was mist shooting everywhere and they were really loud. uzo was still not pleased, he's super scared of water. he did like the rock hoping on the trail though.

on our way to dillonskill falls, lauraskill falls (a drainage pipe) and uzoskill falls we discovered a mystery cave! uzo was into it. it was really cool, possibly my favorite cave ever considering there was no sign of spiders in it and in general it was pretty badass.

after finishing our cool adventures we were like "i'm hungry, but the food in the city is the best so let's pull into a gas station and buy mini-pies to hold us over" AND SAW A BALD EAGLE. yes, just flying above a freaking gas station! it was awesome. i think i scared uzo by screaming about it and gesturing wildly so db wouldn't miss it. worth it! what the eagle was doing flying around such a lame area i don't know, i always imagined them living in 100' pine trees in pristine wilderness, not keeping watch over podunk america. i guess bald eagles are all about the whole country, not just the parts away from people. either way, we got to see it and it was awesome. weekend success.

treats

i'm not just a supply hoarder, i swear. i waited and deliberated long and hard on buying these fabrics and, in the end, i decided that they would be a good investment in my vintage, small american designer and handmade by me only wardrobe. also, i survived my lovely friend's wedding without ever losing my cool which was tricky when dealing with so many totally different people. being a maid of honor is fucking hard! so i earned a treat, yes, like a dolphin that does a trick... only in an expensive pink dress. the two dresses i make from these fabrics will still be less than 1/4 the price of my bridesmaids dress. guilt? i feel it not.

if you are equally in love with these fun treats i found them on purl soho. the dark fabric is free spirit: chicopee and the yellow one is cloud9: simpatico. the cloud9 is extra rad because it's 100% organic cotton. the silver bellocq tea strainer was a happy accident,  i'd been looking for a nice one since ours broke in the move. i could only find ones with plastic parts and plastic doesn't belong in food. so when i saw, i snatched. they have brass also.

these fabrics have too-pretty-to-cut written all over them, how will i do it? ...probably beer

haircut! haircut! read all about it!

haircut! wildly interesting right? well it is to me! i was born and raised a short haired girl by a mom who was born and raised a short haired girl and now i will die a short haired girl. not many people can say long hair was a phase of rebellion can they? it was a mess and i hated it! i kept it long when my friend got engaged because she demanded it (it would have been nice if she had asked and not commanded me to not cut it, i would have kept it long for her but been less pissy about it), but the wedding is over and i am now master of my own life again.

what a nuisance, really. long hair looks so beautiful on so many girls but it's just not my thing at all. now i just have to get used to people being less nice to me again. as my hair grew out people treated me less and less like a cultural leper but whatever, i feel better. now i'm back to being unattractive to men and having women think i'm hitting on them. same old shit. at least db and uzo still like me!

fab overload? NEVER.

this is how i spent my day. wearing both my favorite skirt and the apron i nabbed at brimfield for $5 and also finally lining our utensil drawer with this beyond fab contact paper. which is which is which? that's the way i like to play it. the contact paper was first bought years before i was born, so old the plastic wrap packaging disintegrated in my hands. don't you worry though, the backing paper still had directions on how to use it as a wallpaper.

... i think if even i wouldn't use it as wall paper that no one would.

dirty doz: cardigan for thanksgiving

... which we will be spending alone :/ at least i'll look cute while cooking vegetarian feast for two and a small dog.

this is yarn is currently in the form of a 33% done cardigan! it's my first time using sweet georgia tough love sock and i kind of like it, it's surprisingly springy for a yarn with some nylon in it. i usually go for 100% wool yarns because they have amazing spring and natural fibers are just better at everything. the last yarn i used with this 80% wool/20% nylon mix was uzo's first würstwarmer and knitting with it was totally not fun. it was like lifeless string with zero elasticity and not as soft as i would have liked. i gave this yarn a chance because everyone seems to love it and i also am desperately in need of a beater cardigan. the nylon will add some armor to this thing so it can take some abuse because let's be real, i am a known clothing abuser. i wear my clothes into the ground, seriously, and the longer that takes the better. if the nylon will help keep socks from wearing out so i bet it'll make a cardi last forever. isn't the color rad? it's the new color pumpkin. very fall approp but also a hint ridiculous looking, obviously my scene.

the pattern i'm using is jane richmond's georgia. i wanted to make this as soon as she released it but couldn't decide on a color and knitting an entire sweater out of skinny ass sock yarn was not particularly appealing. after banging out a few pretty cool projects it's not so intimidating and now i'm super excited about it. it's also the perfect train project for my trip up north this weekend for two weddings. TWO! db calculated there will be 17 hours of driving in 3 days and i'll also be taking a 5 hour train ride. i guess that's what happens when you have friends in massachusetts and new hampshire and you move to pennsylvania. wish us luck!

cyclocross!

cross season is here! db and i went to our first race in pa this weekend. it was weird not seeing the usual crew but it seems like the cross crew is awesome and nice everywhere, pretty cool. if we're lucky this coming weekend we'll get to pop in on the race in providence! i LOVE columbus day weekend. it and memorial day are two of my fave holidays because you can do whatever the hell you want. oddly enough, we always do cycling/beer drinking related things on both of them. how can you argue with bikes and beer?