much love, monday

Hi everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend of fun and relaxation.

Here's what I'm loving this week!

this illustration, found via Jacqui-- I'm so ready for autumn!

   

this CG rendering of an amazing indoor pool

this sweet knitting illustration

this forest carousel... it's made of packing tape!

these ballet flats-- a playful twist on a classic

this fairy-tale pretty Twinings for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

(it's entirely possible that I just ordered this in all three colors.)

Have a wonderful day!
♥

fill-in-the-blank friday: the triumphant return!

Yay!  Lauren over at The Little Things We Do has brought back Fill-in-the-Blank Fridays.  So let's get to it!

1. I am a down-to-earth dreamer and a chatty introvert.  

2. I have always loved to draw and paint and make things.  My parents used to wake up in the morning and come downstairs and see that I'd already been up for hours working on a new project on the kitchen table.  

3. I hope to give people even half the amount of love that I've been given in my life.  I've been really lucky to have had the opportunity to know a lot of wonderful people, some of whom are still in my life, and some of whom are not.  I'm thankful for every one of them.

4. I can eat the same thing for lunch indefinitely.  For weeks I've been having peanut butter and strawberry jam, a glass of milk, and either a nectarine or strawberries-- and it tastes just as awesome every time!

5. I dream of a sunny little studio apartment where I can live with my two kitties and a lot of yarn and fabric.  

6. The way to my heart is by making me laugh and being genuine.  A good sense of humor is so important to me.  Ooh, another way to my heart is by being kind to people from whom you have nothing to gain.  If a man is absolutely charming with me but rude to a waiter or taxi driver, I lose a lot of respect for him and thus a lot of romantic interest in him.

7. I am passionate about responsibility.  It drives me crazy when people don't take responsibility for their actions, so I try never to make someone else feel that way about me.  

I'm headed to my best friend Marissa's house for a long weekend!  Yay!

I hope you have an excellent weekend, too.

♥

deep river

This past weekend was one of my favorite events of the year:

The Deep River Ancient Muster!

     For those of you who may not know, I spent pretty much every Friday night and most weekends involved in a fife and drum corps from the time I was eight to when I turned eighteen.  It was such a cool experience, and I made some of my closest friends through it.  While I haven't been overly involved in fife and drum since graduating out, Deep River is not to be missed.  It's basically a huge gathering of fife and drum corps that lasts from Friday until Sunday, in Deep River, Connecticut.  My mom and I camped out with hundreds of other corps members from at least fifty different groups.  Friday was spent setting up and hanging out at the campsite, then Saturday was a parade and mainstand performances.

Parade-side knitting, naturally.

(I was working on my Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica scarf all weekend, and I'm about halfway done!  Yay!)

My knitting attracted these two kiddles, who then stuck around for most of the parade.  Not surprising, really-- for some reason, children have always flocked to me.  I'm like Mother Goose, but 22 and a brunette.  And sans goose.

I thought this Celtic/steampunk look was pretty cool.  I always admire a man who can rock a scarf.

My mom's fife and drum corps!  Yay Mom!

The Ancient Mariners, who are known for being a little...hmm... raucus, shall we say.

They always put on a wild show and their musical ability is second to none.

I love that while they dress semi-uniformly, each member adds distinctive touches.

The littlest mariner

Oh, and Santa was there.  I guess we know what he does during the other eleven months of the year.

I loved the stud detailing on these snare drums, it gives a totally different look from the usual paint or decals.

This trio of kids cracked me up, especially the little guy on the right.  He's just doin' his own thing.

Heehee.

Saturday night was full of good food (hello, steamed clams at 10 pm) and lots of music, then we headed home on Sunday morning.

It was one of the best weekends I've had in ages.  I even made some lovely new friends (Hi Dawn!  Hi Steph!  Hi Carol! Hi Justine!).  I'm looking forward to next year already!

♥

much love monday

Hi there sweetpeas!

Here's what I'm loving this week.

this page from Madeline

this cutie, found via Katie 

ice cream!

these kiddles

this quote from an interview with Maurice Sendak

this little ship

Hope you're having a great week so far!  

I had a fantastic weekend-- more about that soon!

♥

moonrise kingdom

On Tuesday night, I saw Moonrise Kingdom.

It was one of the cutest movies I've ever seen.

Y'know what's in that basket?  A kitten.

I've gotta admit, I spent a lot of the movie worrying about something happening to that kitten.

I blame The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Which I hated.

But this post isn't about a movie I hated.

It's about a movie I loved.

So anyway.

One of my very favorite actors in the world and one of my earliest crushes, Edward Norton, is in Moonrise Kingdom!  Yay!

He is LIT-trally the only man on the planet who could make high-waisted khaki shorts look good.

I loved the storybook aspect of the movie-- interestingly, none of these books actually exist as published works, Wes Anderson just wrote passages from them, but he's currently working on a side-project of animating the books that Suzy brought with her.  Yay!

I absolutely loved the whole movie.  Although it did make me a little melancholy that these two twelve-year-olds did so much to be able to stay together, and it made me very conscious of the fact that I don't currently have someone to go on adventures with.

(Except my best-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world, Marissa, of course.  But I mean a male someone.  A male someone who isn't one of my cats.  You know what I mean.)

If you saw Moonrise Kingdom, what did you think of it?

This awesome piece of embroidery is one of my favorite quotes from the film.

Have a fantastic evening!

♥

much love...tuesday?

Hi there!  

Here are a few of my favorite things this week.

this embroidered dress-- I especially love how the armhole facings were turned into a design detail.

this adorable cake and cakestand

these beautiful neutrals

this cute and funny cat clothes hanger

this rustic bathtub although I think it looks a little out of place in such a formal, modern bathroom

these gorgeous blooming trees

Have a wonderful day!

handspun

...Have I mentioned that I've been doing a little spinning lately?

The pink skein is from the same wool roving as my first handspun, and the yellow is for my "Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica" scarf.  The color looked a little too dark and flat after I washed the yarn the first time, and there was quite a bit of excess dye left in the pot I was using, so I gave it another rinse this morning and it's looking much more light and buttery, with more tonal variation, like it did while I was spinning it.  It's hanging up to dry right now, but you'll be seeing the new and improved version soon when I cast on for the scarf!  Yay!

This blue yarn was my first try at spinning merino wool-- I was really surprised at how different it was to spin!  It sticks to itself much more, so it's a lot harder to draft.  I love the color of this yarn though.  I always love robin's egg blue, and the little swirls of yellow, green, and purple add a depth that I really like.  I have another four ounces of merino, in yellow with shots of color, and I'm excited to see if it's more intuitive the second time.

This grey was my first go at spinning alpaca and oh my goodness, it was a dream.  

The resulting yarn is soft and lofty and squishable.  I have another four ounces of the same roving.  When I spin that up, I think they'll become a soft, cozy hat.

What projects are you working on?

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend!

♥

foxes

performed by Cherish the Ladies, 
words adapted from William Butler Yeats

1.2.3.4

♥

bears. beets. battlestar galactica.

So guys.  

This morning I was spinning away on this beautiful tonal yellow wool, which is going to become a ruffled scarf.  I'm really pleased with how it's coming out, but as I was spinning it, I kept thinking, "What is this color combination reminding me of?"

And then it hit me.

Oh.

It's Dwight-shirt yellow.

If you've been visiting for a while, you know that I love The Office.

And now that I've seen the connection between my yarn and Dwight's color of choice, I can't un-see it.

It's also the color of Jim-as-Dwight's shirt in my absolute favorite moment in the entire series.

(it's in season 3, episode 20.  I laugh until I cry every time I watch it.  ohhhh jeez, I'm giggling just thinking about it.) 

So now this yarn is going to be my "Bears.  Beets.  Battlestar Galactica." scarf.

And I'm kind of excited about it.

♥