Alaska, Long Beach

Woods & Real Foods

Yesterday I visited the Long Beach antique market and came home with these colourful threads on wooden spools [what home is complete without a mason jar of vintage threads?]...

...and this giant wooden bucket.  I bought this bucket right after walking in, and carried it with me over 20 acres of antique covered parking lot.  Everyone I passed had some sort of view on the bucket; I was told the name of it [already forgotten but I think the first syllable sounded like "fur.."], given advise on how to clean it, given advise on how to paint it, told that those used to be easy to sell but no one buys them anymore, and asked repeatedly "what are you planning to do with that?".  I just bought the bucket because it was huge, simple, the wood matched my floor, and it was $10.  I had no idea it was such a conversation piece.

Last night I coerced T to go with me to a classmate's party only to discover that the party isext week [this is not the first time I have done this].  So we went a restaurant we hardly eat at, Real Food Daily, and split nachos and the Real Food Meal with wasabi dressing which is the ABSOLUTE best meal on this planet.  It is macrobiotic and represents "the 5 elements of oriental health philosophy" and though it sounds like just steamed veggies and sauce I promise it is not.  It is such a good meal that others at your table who order the tacos or club sandwich end up eating half your meal.  Even splitting it last night I had enough leftovers to get full on lunch today.  Yum.  If you are ever in LA I highly recommend seeking this meal out. 

It is rainy here and I was almost able to finish my laundry before it started pouring.  The laundromat is across the street and it isn't fun running through the traffic, in the rain with a basket of clean laundry.  But I made it with only a little water.

Cheers all!

Tree-mendous & Wardrobe

Again another lengthy post-gap.  Hmm...  Anyway I have a few things to share.  After my previous post I realized that I forgot two very important notes on both mustard and the sweater I am intending to make.  First is that I recently acquired the scarf in the photo below.  I had seen it at Bazaar Bizarre and meant to return to the booth and purchase it, but by the time we left, had forgotten.  So I emailed the maker, Tanya Aguiniga, and asked her to make one for me [in nicer words of course], which she did and I love it.  Yes it is mustard and felt and beautiful.

Second, I was so suddenly inspired to make a cardigan after seeing Notes on a Scandal.  Now I liked that movie, not loved but liked, but I loved Cate Blanchett's wardrobe.  She dressed so beautifully simple, unfussy & comfortable with great a great colour palette.  In one scene she is wearing a gorgeous and obviously hand knit cardigan which immediately I wanted to make.  So that is why i was searching around for a simple loosely knit cardigan.  I found a partial picture of what might be the sweater here, though if you find a better image please let me know.  But I am still torn on the movie plot.  Good, but a cat-obsessed, lonely, crazy old lesbian in a major movie?  That always irks me. 

And finally I found the BEST valentine's gift ever; even for people like me who choose not to celebrate the day.  Buy an eCard which plants a tree in the honour of your love.  Tree Greetings gives you a customizable ecard that lets your loved one know that they are "tree-mendous". 

Have a tree-mendous v-day!

Cheers! 

Cables & Mustard

I have been quite a busy knitter the past few weeks.  There is nothing to get you more motivated to knit then finishing a project.  It all started with this book that was brought to the Stitch n' Bitch meeting, and since then I could not stop thinking about the cable slipper socks.  So I ran out to buy the book, and I paid retail [no discount, no used version off Amazon, no wholesale purchasing etc.] which is extremely rare for me [I am a store buying by trade].  I love this book because my entire stash is single skeins that are in need of a good knitting up. 

I started the cable slippers straight off and had a wonderful time making myself one in orange.  Then T saw it and wanted her own pair, so I started and completed the brown pair for her.  Then I decided my mom should have a pair to be gifted on our upcoming spa day [a birthday present we are giving to each other even though it could be scheduled until almost 4 months after our actual birthday, which we share].  So the burgundy pair is for her.  And soon I am going to finish the pair for myself.  These slippers are fun little projects that I highly recommend. 

Then there is this arm warmer which is quite a beast.  I only have the first one done since I ran out of yarn for the second, and which I have order but have not received.  Thanks guys.  I do love the warmer, too bad they won't be finished until next winter.

Also I have decided to start a new sweater.  This sweater in mustard.   I immediately regretted the colour after I labouriously selected it.  But I think I will love it since mustard is the new black and one of my long time favourite colours.  See great examples here and here though usually I wear it as a slight accent like here.  A whole sweater that colour?  Can I do it?  Oh and it will look great with my wallet and new scarf [see post to come].  I seem to have a long running love affair with mustard.  My couch is mustard tweed and I had a mustard painted wall for a while and I had knee high boots that colour in high school and so on.  I hope it doesn't start to look dated after the trend comes and goes.

Cheers all!

Living the Marine Life

I don't post here as much as I would like to but I am trying to close the "in between-post gaps" a bit more. 

I took this picture at the dog beach last week, or maybe the the week before and I snapped it after unsuccessfully trying to get camera phone pics of the dolphins playing in the waves.  Yes, dolphins.  We were walking down to the dog beach and in the waves, not 30 feet from the shore, was a family [school? Group? Gaggle?] of dolphins swimming and diving in the waves.  It was truly breathtaking [especially if you have a thing for marine life, like me].  Every time a wave rose, you could see the whole group of dolphins silhouetted, swimming parallel to the shore.  Then they would start jumping as the waves crashed.  They were completely visible for about 15 minutes or so.  Incredible. 

I actually got to swim with dolphins a few years ago and live out a childhood dream of mine.  I swam with a blind rescued dolphin in Hawaii.  It was amazing [p.s. the dolphins don't totally mind swimming with folks and the money supports dolphin rescue and protection].  Ever since I could remember I have loved learning about and watching marine life; my mom says she could make an album just dedicated to pictures of me holding starfish.  I always had pet fishes and even had hermit crabs [one of my favourite marine animals] for a while.  I worked 5 years to get the hermit crabs which I was only allowed to get if I got a report card with straight A's.  That's a rather weird bribe for a child.  But I was a weird child.

These other ocean shots are older and may have appeared here before but they are quite beautiful. And they are of the same location the dolphins were.

Cheers all!