nicole tries ballet

Nicole's Books of '09

2009-12-08T09:10:00.000-06:00

Just in case you're thinking of giving the gift of reading this season, here is my list of five star books I've read in 2009. This is based on my opinion and I've omitted those which I prefer solely based on entertainment value (the vampire ones and the smut ones). I rarely give those my elusive five star rating anyway with the exception of the first Sookie Stackhouse. Ok ok, no more vampire romance novels, I promise. Unless you really want them?

For me to give a book four or five stars it has to grab me from the beginning until it becomes an obsession and I need to finish reading it and nothing can come between me and it. What pushes it over the edge is when I finish, I either still want to see what happens to the characters or I close it with a sigh, upset that the adventure is over already. It's a personal thing not a sophisticated literary thing. I am neither sophisticated nor literary. I'm a reader.

Here they are in the order of preference, one being the highest.

1. Book - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Plot Summary - Sexy new husband, gorgeous old estate, mysterious murder ::eyebrow raise::
Recommended to - Jane Austin, Agatha Christie and Hitchcock fans
2. Book - The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Plot Summary - Young girl on a polygamist compound gets 'chosen' to be the next wife of her uncle
Recommended to - Nieces in middle school everywhere, just make sure she lives nearby so you can borrow it
3. Book - The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Plot Summary - 1962 a look at the lives of Black women in Mississippi and their relationships with the white children they raised
Recommended to - Fans of Rebecca Wells who feel cheated that she doesn't develop her Black characters as much as her White ones (which really is not a whole lot when you think about it). Not that that I'm criticizing ::ahem::
4. Book - Genesis by Bernard Beckett
Plot Summary - Post-apocalyptic look at the human race
Recommended to - Philosopher wannabes (be prepared to read this one twice)
5. Book - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Plot Summary - Teenagers fight to the death to the entertainment of the public and the tyrannical government
Recommended to - High schoolers everywhere, and/or Twilight fans who really need more substance in their reading (I'm including myself in this description if it makes you feel any better).

Out of the 72 books I've read this year, these are the stand-outs. That sounds like an impressive number, but really, it didn't feel like a lot. Here's how I break it down: 22 were smutty, 9 were young adult novels, 37 were adult fiction and 4 I abandoned. I'm actually surprised that the number of smutty ones does not exceed the adult fiction ones. Interesting.

Into the Mind of A Chef Pt. 2

2009-11-24T16:39:00.003-06:00

Our neighbors stopped by to 'borrow' a can of tomatoes.

"This is so great! I always dreamed that we'd have neighbors to borrow food from! I wanna dump out a whole bag of sugar just so we can go next door and borrow some!"

Holidays

2009-11-19T11:07:00.004-06:00

Hello dear blog. It's been a while. Holidays are around the corner and I should have a good start on handmade gifts for everyone I know!

::snort::

Sorry people, not this year. I've been doing a pile of selfish crafting and it's been delicious. It's not that I don't love you and want to wrap you up in woolen-y goodness, it's just that... I'm effing cold. If I don't make myself the patterns that have been burning a hole in my queue I'm going to die a cold cold shivery death. And then who will bring you your gifts? Hmm? That's what I thought.

My favorite project for me so far is definitely my Rose Red. I knitted it using Sublime, a merino wool angora blend chosen because I needed my hat to be fuzzy. NEEDED. This thing shed all over my pants while I made it, but now it seems to have settled. It keeps my head and ears warm so effectively that sometimes I have issues hearing people. Actually, that might just be me and not the hat so much.

Curious....

I've also been diving into socks. These are pretty satisfying projects. My brother Ross requested some so I made him some Masonic Lodge socks in a whopping size 12 with Cascade Heritage. Mmmmmmmmcascadeheritaaaaage. This yarn is gorgeous, comes in a bajillion colors (yes, a bajillion, I counted) and feels like butta. In fact, in blind yarn tests, 9 out of 10 people preferred Cascade Heritage to butter. It's true.

Joe let me take pictures of his feet for a full 5 minutes before cracking.

Ross just started college clear across the country and when I asked him for his address he responded with, "1223 something apartment something." I'd like to point out that he told me this in writing. Joe's feeling pretty sure that these socks are going to wind up his. I don't know why.

BONUS KITTY PIC!
Portrait of a Mew - He's a very serious Mew cat and he cannot be bothered with your nonsense... oh... oh.. you say you want to scratch the side of my chin? Very well. But directly afterwards I will need to get down to serious Mew cat business. Something about a gnat in the bedroom.

k2tog Revisited

2009-09-30T16:46:00.002-05:00

In the battle of me vs. k2tog, there will only be one victor. And that victor shall be ME!

MWAHAHAHHA!

k2tog

2009-06-29T23:13:00.003-05:00

Really briefly:

I started a Lavalette, because they're fabulous and it's a good cause, plus I get to use some Malabrigo lace that I've had in my stash forever. And it's been in a ::GASP:: yarn cake! I know BAD KNITTER BAD! for quite some time.

Although I love patterns that start with only 2 stitches to cast on, I have come to a revelation: k2tog. is. The. Devil.

Maybe you disagree? Maybe k2tog is your favorite stitch, you love grappling to get those two stupid stitches to stay together as your other needle attempts to grab your yarn. Maybe that's fun for you. If so, I hate to be the one to have to tell you, but you. are. insane. There is something wrong with you, my friend. And that something is in your BRAAAAAAAAIN.

You must be one of those people who takes joy in removing all wire hangers from their closet, throwing them on the ground, mixing them up a bit and then trying to separate them again. You! Yes YOU! Put all of your necklaces in a lump in a bowl just so one morning you can take extra time getting ready.

Well, I may also keep all of my jewelry in a lump right where I know to find it out of sheer laziness, but I will not stand for this k2tog nonsense. I will do some internet searching; I seem to remember some back loopy higgily piggily or something I dunno. But k2tog must go. Suggestions are welcome.

UPDATE: So I tried the lace Addis, and I even tried Signature needles, and I've come to the conclusion that the problem lies with me. Sucking it up...

New Favorite?

2009-05-28T21:58:00.003-05:00

The project I was guilted into making

Everyone at knit night was making Ishbels. I was really not sure if this was a project that I would like or use or was my style. But everyone was making one... and everyone was gushing about them... and Malabrigo sock yarn is just. so. preeeeeeetty.

I caved. I caved like a fat kid in front of delicious delicious cupcakes. Not just delicious. Delicious delicious. And that's just what my Ishbel is.

Lacey goodness.

I still haven't exactly figured out what it goes well with, but I wear it anyway. I give the pattern a 5 out 5 on clarity. I'd say it's a great beginner's lace project. And it's just enough purling that I don't get sick of purling. I might make another one with the same yarn because I think I have enough leftover. For this project I bought blocking wires. I'm kind of excited about them.

Next month is the month of the Apres Surf Hoodie. I'm all geared. It's going to happen. I'm going to finish this thing. Or I'll just do as much as I can until the end of June when I call it quits. Sounds like a plan.

Smitten with Squirrel Mittens

2009-05-18T21:18:00.004-05:00

Pattern Review: Squirrel Mittens using modifications by Hello Yarn

Look! Our armpits are stripey and fun! Don't you wish yours were like this?

After a frustrating few weeks of starting a sweater, deciding it was too bulky, finishing a hat, that turned out too big, I decided to go back to the squirrel mittens. Ah wee mittens. I started you back in April of '08. I put them down for a short hiatus back then and when I picked them up, oops my gauge was noticeably smaller. This made for a really wonky mitten. It was sad.

I put them away in frustration. Finally, I got the courage to rip them back down to the second braid and start over. Then I didn't like which hand I was holding the pink in, so I ripped them again. My mittens look different depending on which color is held in which hand. Fourth time's the charm??

SMOOCHES

The verdict? The final result is snuggable squirrel adorableness. The mechanics of the pattern I'm not such a big fan of. I don't like doing fair isle where there are more than four stitches between colors. It makes it harder to control the gauge, and things tend to get wonky. This wasn't such an issue on the snowflakes, but down at the squirrels, on each side by the trees, which were also by the ends of my needles, it was too easy for my yarn to get pulled too tight on one color versus the other. This results in a lot of pulling, and a smaller mitten in that area! Not good. I would recommend, if you use DPNs or magic loop, to put those trees in the middle of your needles, or at least a few stitches off the ends, to help prevent this from happening.

I also recommend not putting your thumb hole stitches on waste yarn and instead, at the time where you're about to take those stitches off the needle, knit them with some waste yarn. Then, put the waste yarn stitches back on your left-hand needle and continue knitting the pattern with your regular yarn. It really kept the fair isle under control and helped my side stitches from stretching out. When you're ready to do the thumb, just pick up your mitten stitches on either side and carefully remove the waste yarn stitches. Ta daa! Also, Definitely use smaller needles for the ribbing. I totally forgot to for the second mitten, but decided I couldn't handle any more ripping out.

These cuties are going to be going to be a birthday gift. They were a gift that was planned to be given last year, but let's not get too hung up in the logistics shall we? Life is too good.

And I pat my cheekses with lub

BONUS KITTY PICS!

Bear and Mew decided to make themselves disaster suits in case of... disaster... so that they wouldn't be neurotic about every sudden noise. Unfortunately, the material they chose for their plan ultimately backfired.

Who's laughing now vacuum?!

Berrrrrrrrrret!

2009-03-06T14:24:00.003-06:00

I get a lot of satisfaction over finishing these small projects with soft, squashy yarn. I made a Chunky Slouch Cap for Lauren for her bday. I used Rowan Big Wool with size 17 double pointed needles and although some women may disagree, I'm going to tell you, it IS the size that matters. And baby, this wool is BIG.

Squashinessssss

I got a super chunky, really fun hat. Although, if I did make it again, I'd do half as much ribbing. Also, I really hate size 17 dpns. They're big, hard to manage and stitches constantly fall off of them if I'm not paying attention.

Next time, less ribbing, more lace

Dear Misti Alpaca

2009-02-28T00:22:00.004-06:00

Kate first asked for a beret for Christmas. But I kind of slacked off and it never happened. Then she said I could make her whatever I wanted. WHATEVER I WANTED. That meant I could get whatever YARN I wanted. I could list many reasons why you are so fantastic and why this pattern (Chickadee Cowl) is in my top 10 of best all around pattern/yarn combination in the categories of easy-ness, high satisfaction rate, fast completion time, and efficient use of one fabulous skein of yarn. Instead:

Enough said

Oh. My. Lord. It's Beautiful

oxox,
nicoleballet

Notes on the February Lady Sweater

2009-02-22T18:42:00.005-06:00

Heyyyyyy

Check out my first ever knitted adult-sized sweater! Yea!

Things I liked about this pattern: It was super easy. There's virtually no shaping. The lace pattern is easily memorized. There's no seaming. I got to use Malabrigo.

Things I disliked about this pattern: Sizing was vague between the small and medium. I felt the sleeves were too large and modified them to fit me. Although other people said the button hole directions were easy, I didn't find them so straight forward, so I did my own thing (I figured huge buttons are going to cover them up anyway).

All ladies need large sunglasses

Details on the sleeve reductions:

My arms are about 12" around the bicep. I decreased every row, if you don't want such an immediate decrease (and it may cut down on any sort of bulk around the yolk/sleeve transition), decrease every other row.

Yours will look like this, except you'll be good enough not to get ladders

After completing round 1 of the sleeve decrease, continue the lace pattern on round 2, until the underarm stitches, then ssk, k1, k2tog. Next round is the same except s1 k2tog psso. Round 4, continue lace until last 2 stitches and ssk. Round 5, continue the lace pattern but don't yo in the first half of the first repeat and don't yo in the second half of the last lace pattern repeat (effectively reducing stitches by 2). Round 6, ssk, knit to last 2 stitches, k2tog. Round 7, ssk, knit second half of lace repeat for first 4 stitches, continue lace pattern until last 2 stitches, k2tog. Continue lace pattern so that first 4 stitches are the second half of the lace pattern, and the last 4 stitches are only the first half of the lace pattern.

I give this pattern a B+. The yarn choice was perfect and I love the finished product.

BONUS KITTY PIC!
Seductive Mew says "Nuzzle me! You know you cannot resist!"

Notes on the Aleita Shell

2009-01-21T14:00:00.001-06:00

I had this draft saved for a while now. I was going to take a picture of the final washed garment, because it was a sad mess, but I'm not going to because it's a bit too depressing. And a little hilarious. Anyway, read the following knowing I wrote it back in September.

I finally finished my very first adult-sized knitted garment! Yipee!!! The Aleita Shell. It is done! Overall, I am happy with the work that I did, but I have loads of notes, because the perfectionist in me is telling me I could be happier if I knit it again with some things in mind. Let's begin:

Hazzah! I am finished!

Overall pattern rating: 2/5 stars

My personal issues that may or may not apply to you:

1. The yarn I chose, Baby Snuggly Bamboo is fantastic to knit with, but has a lot of ease. By the end, my arm holes have stretched out just from twisting the garment back and forth while knitting it. I must find a better, more careful way of knitting these.

2. Although my stockinette stitch was seriously right on gauge and the overall dimensions of the waist were right on, my stitch where the neck breaks is loads tighter! That part wound up being a full two four inches less wide than what the pattern said it would be. This actually worked to my advantage because the finished product is really too big.

3. I definitely chose the wrong size to make. Without taking into account that my yarn is stretchier, I went up a size when I think I should have stayed with the minimal ease choice. I chose a size that was 1" positive ease instead of the one that would have been 3.75" negative ease. Knowing what I know now, I think it would have been more flattering. At least, the fit would be closer to how I wear my clothes which is with a bit of stretch. I don't like things to hang off me because my perception is that they're too big then. Personally, I feel they're more flattering if they hug my figure more. Obviously, this isn't true in all cases, but in knit sweaters I think it is within reason.

4. I think I made the armholes too soon, but my top part stretched out when I was knitting the front part so the finished product doesn't look too short.

Those are my personal oopsies. Onto pattern modifications and details:

I do not recommend this pattern to beginners, I felt it lacked details in many parts. All in all, I like the design and the concept of knitting it in the round, I just think it needs some more wordage in parts. It's definitely not wrong, but I think it's misleading.

1. I added an inch to the bottom after the hip ribbing because I like things longer, and I think I made a good decision there. I measured my body from under my chest to where I'd like the vest to hit and went from there.

2. You're only going to do two waist increases after the divide in M1 purl. (This is a clarification more for me than for anybody else)

3. When you knit the left and right fronts and it says to do the neck decreases as established, only decrease on the neck side. Technically the neck decrease pattern decreases on both sides and obviously this isn't needed when making the armholes. (I need a freaking blueprint so this detail is important to me!)

4. For the finishing part you're going to be knitting a long cord that you'll then sex around the neck [sex around the neck? what the hell was I doing back in September?? umm STITCH around the neck!] to make the neck hole look nicer. I was totally confused as to why she was giving these directions when I read this.

Those are my perceptions of the pattern. Again, this is my first garment so some of these may be totally learned to most people by now, but for a first-timer, I totally didn't get them. I thought the increases and decreases in the front directions were totally confusing and I had to write out the decreases by row number for the r/l fronts so that I wouldn't screw up.

Finished product was a bit loose, but I wore it to work anyways and I thought it looked pretty cute, but still a little on the big side. After a day of wear it definitely stretched out even more. After I washed it the first time it turned into a huge baggy mess, there really was no way to fix it. I thought about steeking the sides, but it would be too short. Sigh. You live you learn.

Year in Review '08

2009-01-07T09:20:00.005-06:00

2008 was definitely a year of knitting and 2009 is looking to continue that trend. I think my favorite project was definitely my Endpaper Mits

You know you want a pair...

I put these in the category of most definitely would make again. But if I did make them for you, you'd have to give me something big in return. Like your first-born, covered in solid gold, or a pass to not have to get you any other presents for Christmas or your birthday for the next five years (which might be how long it takes me to finish them). I tried picking up another color-work project a couple weeks ago and found myself totally uninterested in putting in the effort. I need motivation to make another pair of these, even though these definitely turned out fabulously.

Knitting Aspirations for 2009:

- Finish my Apres Surf Hoodie (HA!)
- Finish my first adult-size sweater, WITH sleeves (February Lady Sweater)
- Try and improvise a pattern for the knit hat I have that people always ask me if I knit and when I say I didn't I feel like total hat-knitting failure
- Knit personal sweater pattern!

That last one is a lofty goal, but I have some ideas... we'll see... I picked up the book Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard (ever notice how on Amazon the writer's name is super super teeny? I always think that's so obnoxious. Anyway...) the other day and it really inspired me to try and do my own thing. Or at the very least customize for myself. I'm thinking in this area I'm going to need huuuuuge amounts of patience. And scissors. And lifelines. And more YARN! Yes! I totally think if I customize a sweater pattern that counts as knitting my personal sweater pattern; just to get that out there so you don't think I cheated.

Possible projects for 2009 (a.k.a. Patterns I've had in my queue for ages that I drool over):

Big Projects:
- Bleeding Hearts Stole (I even already have some fabulous lace weight Mmmmmmmalabrigo to make this in my stash already. I think I just got burnt out on tiny yarn because of the Apres Surf Hoodie. ::sigh:: I really do want a lacey shawl. I do I DO!)
- Lush and Lacey Cardigan (So Anthropolgie-esque. Things that hold me back about this project would be that cardigans do not tend to be the most flattering thing on me, and I hate seaming, I may just hold off on this one until I get some more projects under my belt)
- Nutkin (I already have the yarn, plus my MIL bought me my first pair of cashmere-blend socks for Christmas and just FYI, they DO live up to the hype)
- Skinny Empire or Ingenue (I have no idea how to pronounce that last one. Sorry, no pics of these last two if you're not a raveler. I'm going to have to change these patterns a bit to accomodate my womanly figure, so that'll be a challenge)
- Simple scoop neck or v-neck stockinette sweater. (I need the experience.)

Accessories, Quick Knits:
- Odessa (It's swirly!)
- Gretel (Because you can't have too many berets)
- Fetching (Seems like everyone has made a pair of these, why should I be any different?)
- Debbie Bliss Baby Teeny Hoodie (It's a teeny hoodie! 'Nuf said. And no, it wouldn't be for me, obvs.)

If 2008 was a graph with happiness on the y-axis and time on the x-axis it would start out medium, dipping low due to the work effect through late Spring, making some watery flooded bumps throughout late Summer and finally getting back into the positive quadrant when Joe switched to the day shift. Definitely the best thing that happened in 2008.

For 2009, I'm starting out the year in a new project at work, with a new team, and new floors in our home and I'm trying to keep an optimistic attitude. No pre-conceived expectations for me please. So far I've been lucky enough that the economy hasn't effected my job status, but who knows what'll happen this year? I'm just going to take it as it comes. In the mean time, I'm enjoying the fact that I can come home to a living being who talks back to me without saying 'mew!'... well, most of the time anyway.

The Mind of a Chef?

2008-12-19T22:11:00.004-06:00

"I've decided there are certain foods that you don't say no to if they're served to you."
"Yah?"
"Like cake made from scratch, florida citrus -"
"Pudding."
"Pudding?"
"Pudding, can you ever say no to pudding?"
"I was thinking more along the lines of, food, even though you're full, it's so good you can't say no."
"Pudding!"
"Mmmmmmkay."

Project Status

2008-11-02T11:29:00.006-06:00

I am burnt out on the Apres Surf Hoodie :(. I separated for the neck, got to the armholes and just couldn't do it any more. Here's my progress so far.

Please finish me!

So much done, but so much more left to go! Basically, once I got to a part where I couldn't knit in the round any more I was not having any of it. I don't know how people can do this flat. I'm working it so that on the wrong side I just purl instead of doing the lace rows, which is easier, but still tedious. The lace itself is looking really good, but I'm definitely going to have to block this baby to even out the tension across my yarn overs so that the holey bits are all the same size. Here's a close-up:

La la la I'm so pretty!

If I get the motivation again I'll probably take a break on the body and start working the arms in the round because that seems easier to me than doing the flat knitting. Then, once the arms are done I'll be dying to finish it, right?

In the meantime, I'm going to pick up some projects that use much thicker yarn. I'm starting with the Mystery Beret by Wooly Wormhead. Ooooooooo, a myyyyyystery! All I know is that I'm going to get a slouchy lacey beret, which sounds good to me. And if I don't like it, someone will be getting it for a present during the holidays so I really can't lose here. So far we've only had one clue, here's what I've done so far:

Just the beginnings...

That's all for now. Mostly I've been enjoying some relaxing days inside with library books and just that wee bit of beret knitting.

Rockin Out

2008-10-20T09:45:00.001-05:00

Mini-project! My friend Paul asked for just one hand-warmer, so I had to comply. He wanted it for his strumming hand when he plays bass... on Rock Band. They're fun and easy to make plus doing just one is super quick and gives me a nice break from starting more complicated things. And I got to use up some itty bits of Noro that I had in my stash. Bonus.

Feel the punk

The black and blue/green went unexpectedly well together. I think there may be some soft blue tones in the black yarn that blended with the blue really well. I was happy with the end result. Paul thinks it's a little warm for bass-playing, but it is only October. We'll see what he says mid-December.

I still owe you a write-up on the Aleita Shell, but I'm working out the kinks. It is just a bit big and I'm really hoping I can figure out how to make it more fitted then I can give a complete run down on the whole thing at once.

Right now I am knit knit knitting forever knitting the Lacey Hoodie with that teeny tiny tencel yarn. I am doing it in the round and I'm halfway through the bust increases. Although I am a little nervous that the increases may not be enough for MY bust, this is why we use lifelines. I'll try this baby on when I get to the dividing point for the v-neck and make a decision if I should rip back. Although I reeeeeeeeally don't want to. I've put a whole lotta time into this thing already. Here it is a week and a half ago:

sooooooo teeny

I did take it off the needles at one point to make sure it fit. Now it has about 7 more lace repeats. The picture there shows it with just one lace repeat (the part above the red lifeline). Do you like all my stitch markers?? Oh yah I am super paranoid. I took out about half of them once I got some more confidence about the pattern because they were becoming a nuisance. So now I have one marker to every two repeats. I don't think I'll go with any less than that. I already have two errors in there, but I am beyond caring, there's no going back for two teensy mistakes that are easily fudged away.

I am so dang proud of my work on this thing, I show it to people who don't even care. Joe's really nice about it and puts up with me showing it to him every five minutes, "Look baby! I did another lace row! Doesn't it look great!?" Then I spend like twenty minutes just smoothing it out and cooing, "Oh hellooo lovely, aren't you the prettiest ever? Yes you are!" Seriously, if this thing doesn't fit by the time I'm done I will have a complete and totally knitting breakdown. There will be tears.

I'm mulling over some other ideas for a brainless project to go with this one so I don't get completely burned out. Keep you posted!

Cables for Hubs

2008-10-13T10:52:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it's very strange grocery shopping in my yuppie neighborhood since I am married to a chef. My grocer habits have definitely changed from what they were four years ago. Back then my regular purchases consisted of half of the frozen food section. I lived off of Lean Cuisines and stove pop popcorn. I'm not exaggerating.

Now, I think we buy a lot of stuff that anyone else would buy, except at the butcher counter. There, amongst men in jogging gear and women in peacoats ordering their skinless boneless chicken breasts and the occasional steak, I put in my order for my husband and myself. This generally involves the butcher going into the back and grabbing specialty items from his freezer.

I usually get the most looks when I'm alone. For example, when I ordered meat for a sauce I was making recently, 1.5 lbs ground chuck (for the meatballs), 1lb. of sausage, and five short ribs (I only needed one but Joe wanted more for 'playing around' with). Our big meat buys together the other day were two whole turkey legs, five slices of bacon sliced thinly, 1.5lbs of ground chuck again, and finally one huge chunk of bacon because they didn't have fat back. Yes, we asked for something called 'fat back' in front of a customer wearing spandex biking shorts who was on his cell talking about potential organ donors. Whatever! Joe's baked beans are the best!

He was especially happy because I finally finished some longer wrist warmers for him. Even though at first he critcized that they weren't long enough or snug enough and questioned the color choices, even though he approved them in the store. I would just like to say, I am not as picky about his cooking. Granted, I did not study knitting professionally nor do I get paid to do it for a living nor do I have someone hovering over me yelling instructions and criticism every five minutes ("TENSION! Watch that tension! This is crap! Throw it away! Do it again! FASTER!"), so yah my skills in knitting are nowhere near his skills in cooking and that may be an unfair comparison. Having said that, I would say that Joe's knowledge of knitting is about the same level as my knowledge about cooking and therefore when he throws disappointed looks my way I have the urge to hide his favorite knives. Oh yah, and don't think I don't know which one is your favorite Joe. You just brought it home the other day. Yep THAT one. I may forget that we have an extra soup pot floating around in the cupboards, but I know which utensils you like.

Below: Cables for Hubs

These remind me of Oscar the Grouch

"Now leave me alone and get lost!"

"Scram!"

Weekend Projects + Craft Fair

2008-09-23T08:53:00.000-05:00

Quick rundown: The Renegade Craft Fair was glorious yet again! Although it rained all day Saturday, I was there, in my parka checking out all the goods. I got some earrings from Nervous System (I've been eyeing their jewelry for a while) plus a necklace from another vendor, who, unfortunately, I forget the name of. I also got Joe a t-shirt that says "Uranus is dark and icy." He was really excited about it. All in all, it was a great turn-out for a rainy Chicago day!

This past weekend I wanted a fast and easy project to use up some skeins of Manos del Uruguay 100% wool that I've had in my stash forever. They were on sale when I got them and I liked the color. I knitting up a Foliage Hat from Knitty!

Check out the sweet plucking job I do to my unibrow.

This pattern was super easy, super fast and I really liked the end result. The yarn though I wasn't a big fan of. To be honest, this probably isn't the best pattern to choose for this yarn, but I couldn't decide on anything else. I have loads of it left and I was debating if I should make a So Called Scarf from ImagiKnit, but I still don't know because I don't think the scarf would be as interesting if the yarn isn't variegated.

I won't be doing that as my next project though, I need a break from that yarn. Right now, my mind is whirring away on possible new projects to do. I think I've made a decision, but we'll see. I really want to take a break from knitting altogether and do some sewing, but my improv sewing table happens to be overrun with books that were lifted off the floor of our bedroom after the great flood of '08. Since we haven't gotten bookshelves yet, or new hardwood floors, or even tacked the carpet back down, I'm not holding my breath that sewing will be done any time soon. Forging on!

Craft Fair '08

2008-09-08T10:30:00.001-05:00

Don't forget! Chicago's Renegade Craft Fair is this Saturday and Sunday on Division between Damen and Hermitage St. in Wicker Park. I will be there are noon sharp on Saturday checking out the goods. If it's as good as last year, I'm going to have to leave debit/credit cards at home again and limit myself to a set amount of cash so I don't go overboard.

Alo Alo Alo

2008-08-25T09:20:00.005-05:00

Hey! Remember me? A little? Maybe? From way back when I actually kept this thing updated? It's AUGUST! Which, in Chicago, means we should be sweating balls and running the dehumidifiers, but lately it's been incredibly mild ::knock on wood::. All talk seems to be towards fall which makes me want to dive head first into new projects. But first, some of the old ones that finally FINALLY have been completed.

Project 1: Monica from Knitty.

This project was fun to make and pretty easy. Although, I messed up twice because I got cocky and didn't think. I knit it in the round, and if I do that next time, I'll cross out stitch numbers on the pattern and write what it should be before I start knitting. Oh well. This was a present for little Miss Olive. I was afraid that she'd refuse to wear it, but as soon as she got off the wrapping paper she started taking off her dress so that she could put it on! It was awesome. She definitely looks like a little strawberry.

and

If I were guaranteed a smile like this every time I made something for someone, I'd never stop.

Project 2: Child's Placket-Neck Pullover from Last-Minute Hand Knitted Gifts

This sweater took me a ridiculously long time to finish. I started back in January, had technically finished by February and just had to close up the armpits and weave in the ends... months go by... baby is born... um yah I'm still not done. Poor little Cooper is 4 weeks old and he's COLD dang it! I really regret not seaming the armpits closed sooner. After being on stitch holders all that time, some of the stitches got stretched out and I had to try and kind of disperse the yarn again through the rows. I'm going to try and wash and stretch this guy to see if that helps, but there are still some lumpy bits. I would totally do this project again though. For some reason the neck on mine is way longer, I have no idea how that happened. Oh well...

Work in progress: The Aleita Shell from Interweave Knits Spring 2008

This issue has loads and loads of really cute patterns that I'd like to try, but this one stuck out as the one I'd probably wear the most. And it doesn't have sleeves... I'm a slacker. So far, I've messed up once, counted rows incorrectly, and had to rip back three inches. Now I'm putting in safety lines that I can rip back to if I need to. Right now I'm up to the part that separates for the crossover. I really hope this fits!

The color I chose isn't that fun, but I'm going for more practicality here than anything else. Maybe next time I'll choose something more colorful, if this works out that is.

In the queue: The Apres Surf Hoodie from Interweave Knits Summer 2008

This one is going to be a challenge. I've never done lace before, and I'll have to seriously concentrate on my stitches. We'll see how this goes. I love the yarn I chose for this! The last project was kind of ho hum but this is a really fun purple tencel yarn!

You're probably thinking the same thing I am, "Holy crap that is some tiny yarn." I know. I have no idea how I'm going to pull this off. I got special Addi lace turbos needles for this stuff. This is going to be a challenging project me thinks. To top it off, this project is NOT knit in the round. eeeeeeeks! Purling with this stuff does not sound like my idea of a good time. I'm nervous about my skills of converting this project to in-the-round knitting. I don't know if I'm going to do that. We'll see...

Before I get there, I will probably start a pair of hand-warmers for Joe. He's begging me for another longer pair, he even picked out yarn he liked. Since I'm heading to Denver!! YES!! VACAY! this weekend, I think the airport down time and flight will give me some time to crank out another pair for him. Maybe ones with cables... ooooooooo

Note: These pictures never look so great in blogger, so feel free to click on them to see a better enlargement.

Old Notes to Self Courtesy of Google Docs

2008-07-28T10:18:00.002-05:00

Written when I was obsessed with Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.

"11/30/07-

Things to hunt for: new jeans check!, winter jacket check!, cashmere sweater - reasonably priced as in not over $150.

Things to casually look for: black dress, trench, classic white shirt check!, blazer, sweatsuit alternative

Bonus items I would like to add to wardrobe: light long belted sweater (no, changed mind, not flattering), print blouses,

Shoes: Have multiple MULTIPLE options am not allowed to buy shoes. NO MORE SHOES NICOLE. You have ballet flats, stilettos, kitten heels, mid-rise heels, boots, sandals, fun-colored going out shoes, espadrilles, sneakers, slip-on sneakers, this list should tell you that you do not need any more shoes. NO. MORE. SHOES. You may buy a shoe rack. Cheated and bought mary janes... I suck..."

Tired and Bloated

2008-06-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

I am waaaaaaaay behind on the blog. It's so sad. Here's a wee update on the goings ons lately:

My boss was on vacation for two weeks. Another guy on my project team was on vacation for the last week of those two. So I was doing my job plus theirs for a good enough amount of time to want to demand money any time anyone called or stopped by my desk.

"Nicole, do you have - "
"That'll be $5.00."
"Excuse me?"
"Each question is $5.00."
"But what if you don't know the answer?"
"You're paying for the time. Even if I don't know the answer we'll spend 10 min. on you telling my why I should know the answer, how come I don't know the answer and how are you supposed to find out the answer now that my boss has inconvenienced you by doing something as unbelievable as taking his vacation."

But I don't ask for money because usually that ends in someone throwing around initials that start with P end in S and contain 'whiny crazy beotch' somewhere around the middle. Instead I bottle frustration and then work on my intimate relationship with netflix.

Joe started a new job at a different restaurant, opening in June. WEE!! We're so excited about this change. He's been transitioning over and took a well-deserved week of vacation. Unfortunately, I couldn't take off work to join him for the reasons above. Which sucked. A lot. It's hard to get vacation time if you're in the restaurant business and we really would've liked to take a trip somewhere, but it was not in the cards.

What was in the cards was me hammering out my work the last week my boss was gone so that I could take liberties the following week (last week). I left on time, I came in a half hour late because we'd go out to breakfast. We were on Joe time, which meant going to bed after 12, going out to eat every other night, and going out on the weekend with his friends (which we never do because his schedule never worked out). I've had at least three weeks of weekends where we've stayed out past 4am on Friday and Saturday. I do not usually do this. I usually go out maybe one night and then I conk out around 12 and I am unmovable until around 10am the next day.

While this extravaganza has been really wonderful because I get to spend loads of time with my hubby, I am tired, and I am fat. I'm running on 4 hrs of sleep and a belly full of fried bar food. I have no one to blame but myself. Did I have to order the fried green beans with sariacha sauce with my beers? No... Did we have to go out for sushi 3 times in the past two weeks? Probs not. Did I really need those late night Bambas nachos? Most definitely no. I have this issue with moderation. If Joe isn't working, I want to be with him and I do not want to do any work, any chores, any errands which means an empty fridge and a condo that has been taken over by the kitties, that is, if you can find them.

Last night I threw a shirt on top of a chair in the corner of the bedroom and heard, "Brrrrp?" because Bear had camouflaged himself into the pile of crap that was also on the chair (there might be a humidifier down under there). I think the kitties like this impromptu obstacle course we've set up for them. I have to side-step my hamper to get to the other side of the bed, they jump up onto the edge of the bed and the over to get to the window. They're reaping so much more fun out of this arrangement than we are.

That's my spiel for the hiatus. It will probably continue as long as Joe's working shorter hours. I have to take advantage now for obvious reasons. Although all this going out has to be cut back. I knew I was in trouble when I started searching for my largest pair of earrings because I thought they would distract from the tube o fat around my waist. If I toss my hair I can distract people with shiny things! BRILLIANT! I'll have people thinking "Is that jewelry really work appropriate?" Instead of, "She's wearing that same skirt with the elastic waist... again."

Sewing Circle

2008-04-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

I'm having a particularly great day today even though it's gray and rainy outside. Joe and I went for pancakes before work and it really jump-started me on my day. Not that I was really more productive at work, but I am happier so I think it was worth it! Pancakes with my hubby will always put a smile on my face. Hopefully this weather turns into Spring too, that would really make me happy.

The tulips along State Street are starting to bloom and if this weather makes them die, I'm going to be really upset. I wish I could have more plants at our condo, but we have a tendency to kill them. Gardening is really not my thing. A lot of people in my family are successful gardeners and I don't think I've inherited the gene.

For my cousin's Christmas present, ::ahem:: that I gave her two three weeks ago ::ahem::, I made a Lotta Jansdotter Gardening Tote, she has the green thumb. I got the green canvas from Ikea and stamped these abstract dandelions onto it. The stamping was really fun, even though the kitties kept trying to sit on the fabric, "Oh! You like this stuff? Let me try it out here ::stretch:: You know what I think would make it even better? Cat hair, here ya go, this is SO MUCH BETTER, right?"

The tote bottom has rounded corners that you're supposed to sew onto the tube of the body and for the life of me I could not figure out an easy way to do this. Am I missing something? Probably, oh well, that's why sewers invented linings, to hide mistakes. Other than that, I found the pattern pretty straight forward.

The Lotta Jansdotter Gardening Tote: Able to lift 12lb kitties who are attention whores and refuse to get off what you're photographing. He actually put up with being in this thing until I took him halfway down the hallway to test his nerve.

Cat head accessory not included

Wee Gifts for Wee Folk

2008-04-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

I used to feel alienated by crafty sites having so many projects that were geared towards babies and toddlers. I felt like I couldn't really identify with wanting to make things for little kids because, obviously, there are not many little kids that I run into on a daily basis (unless you count the ones carefully disguised as grown men har har har). Now that more family members and friends I know seem to be having babies, I'm more inclined to make some fun gifts for their new additions.

There's one really great thing about projects for little kids: they're widdle! They don't take a lot of time and I like that I get to use sugary sweet cutsie patterns and know that it won't get stuck in the bottom of a drawer somewhere. First off, I made two quilts inspired by the follow-the-lines baby quilt in Last Minute Patchwork Gifts.

I'd been eyeing this spaceship fabric for a while. You don't see a lot of boyish fabric in stores. When I first spotted this print, it went out of stock before I could push myself to buy it, so when I saw it again online, I had to have it. It is so dang cute. I'd have a bad day at work and just knowing I'd come home to hand quilt some rocket ships made me smile. You cannot frown when looking at red and blue spaceships, it's not humanly possible.

This quilt was for Ryan's 2nd birthday. I hand quilted it, and the stitches are huge and definitely random, but I kind of like the effect. It's almost as if a little kid did it, I think it adds a bit o charm.

I also hand did the binding, my first time doing it. That was definitely tricky, but totally worth it.

The next quilt I made was a polar opposite of Ryan's. This quilt is so sugary sweet I think I could die from cuteness overload. The pinks are so pink, the yellows are so bright!

The other thing I really like about this quilt is that the fabrics technically do not match. The pinks are different shades, the flower pattern doesn't have yellow on it, but it looks like it should have yellow on it. I think the two different fabrics almost imply color similarities on themselves. For me, the yellow binding brought it all together. This quilt is for my friend Joyce's new baby girl, she is to arrive on May 7th. Instead of ties, I used a zig zag stitch to quilt the fabrics together.

When I gave Joyce the present she said, "I was hoping you were going to make me something!" I can't even tell you how that really warmed my heart. I think with handmade gifts there's always this fear that people won't really get it, or appreciate it. I think that's totally fine, I have just as much fun spending my time picking a thoughtful gift for a friend. It just feels defeating when you think that someone will like something and they don't, whether it's handmade or not. You know what I'm talking about, "Oooohh... umm yah thanks! Thanks so much! Oh yah I LOVE it." Luckily, I haven't run into this reaction yet. ::knock on wood:: And if you spend time making those little details and people don't notice, it's a little pang.

For the little details, I taught myself some tricks on the second quilt to make the hand-binding go a little easier. Maybe these will work for other people, maybe not, maybe this is totally obvious stuff that everybody already knows, well I didn't ok!?!

1. I have to pin binding to the quilt. I know I know, everybody hates pinning and all that business, but I tried without pinning and it turned into a huge gigantuar mess, so no more of that. And when I do pin, I pull the binding taut, otherwise pilling forms because the stitches are pulling things in tighter than the binding is laying. Does that make sense? Well, even if it doesn't, everything laid nicer when I gently tugged the binding taught as I pinned it down to machine sew it.

2. I use a teeny needle to hand-sew the other side. JoAnn's was having a 50% off sale on all quilting notions, so I bought shorter needs to do the binding with. I wound up using a medium size length (medium compared to what else was in the package, it was still relatively short) so that my chubby fingers had enough to grab onto but were still able to manage the needle easily.

3. I looked up exactly how to blind stitch. The Last Minute Patchwork Gifts book explains in words how to do a blind stitch. I need a visual. I am a visual learner. I don't even know how to properly use a thimble much less do a blind stitch. Here's how I stitched my binding, after hiding my little knot I put the needle in just below the machine stitching that attached the binding to the front of my quilt. We're talking a hair away from the stitching, then, I inserted the needle parallel to the stitching about 1/8" along the stitching and took the needle out. The next stitch went into the fold of my binding directly above where the needle had just come out from the back of the quilt. Again, the needle went parallel along the fold of the binding about 1/8" before coming out. So all it looks like is a vertical thread coming up from the back of the quilt and then into the binding. I continued along, tugging gently as I went to pull the binding to the back of the quilt. The result was flawless, in my opinion. That blind stitch is genius I tell you. If you still don't really get this, search for blind stitch on youtube. I think the other two things to remember are to go really close to the machine stitch and then into the fold of the binding. That way the edges of the binding on either side will match. Ta daaaa!!!

4. This whole binding method also taught me that next time I'm going to put the binding edge slightly away from the edge of the quilt before I machine stitch it, that way the binding will totally encapsulate the quilt edge instead of having a sort of empty space that makes you think your binding was too wide for your quilt.

I am definitely going to do more of these. I'm thinking the next one will have some simple patchwork involved. I like simple details. There's definitely something of a triumph when you patiently work something to perfection.

Draft

2008-04-14T09:47:00.000-05:00

I'm fiddling with the layout and some of the features on here, see the new search box? Still experimenting, so bare with me!

Confessions

2008-04-10T00:29:00.000-05:00

I've been holding out on you just a wee bit. I've been secretly way more crafty than I've been letting on. I'm hiding crafty projects from teh internets because they're presents. BUT today I mailed two of the big ones off on their way so I have some pretty picture posts coming up. In the meantime, I've had some other works in progress.

I finished my Endpaper Mits ages ago, and I really really like how they turned out. I use them all the time and I believe I am the envy of everyone on the CTA, or at least the homeless ones... and the smokers. Because they love pink.

Myspace Endpaper Mit Pic! OMG IDK MY BFF JILL?

I finally finished my first crafty gift for Joe: handwarmers! Aren't you surprised??? It's not like I've made oooh six of these already, but who's counting? Joe likes them a lot and says they make a part of him warm that he never thought was cold. ...his WRISTS! Jeez! tsk tsk tsk

Joe has very feminine hands.

Not much else to report except for the sad passing of our guinea pig friend Oliver. He's pretty much infamous around here. I got him right after moving into my place, and I have to say, even with the cats, it kind of feels weird not to hear him bleeting about and rustling. When I came home today the cats seemed alarmed that Oliver was gone and hadn't returned, but I'm pretty sure that's all in my imagination.

Of course, the past three weeks Bear has been rubbing against my legs every time I put on my shoes to leave for work. I was tempted to put up a video of it because it's ADORable, but all of them have my kitty talky voice in the background and nobody needs to hear that. Mew's been jumping into the tub and digging, flopping around in it and even sleeping in it. I feel like we're in London circa WWII. Except WAY cuter. I've been assured by my pet psychic this is normal kitty behavior. But who can trust a woman who's change her name to Skygirl?

RIP Oliver

2008-04-09T12:21:00.000-05:00

Oliver the Guinea Pig
? - April 2008 (age, about 4 yrs.)

Oliver was a pretty good guinea pig as guinea pigs go. He didn't eat his vegetables even though every website I researched said he'd love them. He also neglected his salt lick, but he did love these little nugget treats. He was pretty content hanging around in his home all the time, occasionally running around and jumping while talking to himself. A big fan of his igloo house, most days he could be seen with his pooch hanging over the sides of it. Every once in a while we'd take him out and force him to be petted, and after a lot of persuasion, I think he would begin to like to be petted on his sides. Each morning he'd hear me wake up and get a glass of water and he'd start making his bleet sounds declaring that he was hungry.

The past couple months he hadn't been going on the top of his igloo. I'm not sure if that's due to old age or because he was getting fat, maybe a combination of the two. The past couple weeks, he'd seemed less 'talky' and wasn't running around as much. This morning I found him lying peacefully between his water bottle spout and his food bowl, looking pretty content.

Oliver has gone to the big plastic igloo in the sky. We tried to give him a good clean home with plenty of food, clipped his nails, made sure the cats didn't tease him too much. I'm pretty sure he passed due to old age.

Thanks Oliver for being the fat furry football that was always around for amusement and to endlessly torture my mother, who, when I told her her wish came true said, "Awww I'm sorry honey. But I never liked that tail of his, so gross."

Anything You Can Cook I Can Cook Better

2008-03-18T01:14:00.000-05:00

Lovin' the shots of Chicago, makes me so happy.

Pizzaria Uno's! I want pizza... Enter Colicchio and Padma. Is Colicchio on a box?

Elimination Challenge Time!

Me: Joe, peaches, fennel sausage, thoughts?
Joe: Oh that's a great combination!

Sure enough Rocco was dubious and the peaches prevail. Yet again solidifying my opinion that Rocco is a giant beotch. Go defrost some Bertolli and leave us alone! Or at least take off your shirt.

Flash to Nimma saying she's not going to socialize with the other chefs. We've all heard this before, and it doesn't give you any sort of advantage. Yet, I can't say it gives you a disadvantage either, unless you count being held down by two of your teammates and being threatened that they'll shave your head a disadvantage.

Joe: Oh that girl's gone!

Back to the kitchen.

Me: Joe, what's the deal with the souflee?
Joe: A good souflee uses egg whites that are beaten into stiff peaks and then you carefully put it into a dish and then into an oven of the right temperature. It's supposed to rise up out the dish like a chef's hat.
Me: ermmm...
Joe: They showed perfect ones on Ratatouille.
Me: OOOOooooh!

Me: Joe, shrimp marinated in parsley? That's weird to me.
Joe: No, that's the classic recipe, loads of butter, parsley, maybe topped with a lemon wedge.

Me: Stephanie's like, YES Bourdain loves my duck, please come live with me so I can feed it to you and you can tell me how great I am over and over again.

Richard has effing smoke come out of his dish. All I can say is thank God there is none of that stupid foam Marcel was so fond of in the past seasons. Let's see some new gastro-nomical creations and you do not have to use the FREAKIN' FOAM! Liquid nitrogen pleeeeeeeeease! I have had food made with lasers and liquid nitrogen, and trust me, it was delicioso, and that's the whole point right?

Joe: Here's my big idea: Fast food, slow food. You have two animals go head to head, one eats the other and then you eat them both. Round 1 - Cheetah vs. Turtle.
Me: You're pretty.

Chef's Table

Hey, I seemed to have misplaced my douche, has anyone seen - "Guest chef Rocco DiSpirito" never mind! Never mind everybody! False alarm.

Bourdain, "Loved your dish, great flavor, great composition, great color, great texture, loved it!" Stephanie's like, one more time! Pleeeeease!

Stephanie wins!! YEA CHI TOWN!! I highly suspect that Bourdain held down DiSpirito and threatened to mushroom stamp him if he didn't give the win to Stephanie. At least, that's how I envision it...

Ok, why didn't Stephanie get a special prize?? Joe says she should get - never mind, you don't want to know. He's dirty. He's spending too much time with dirty boys.

Colicchio, "A milanese is breaded in bread crumbs, there is a difference between the two. And it was just the coating of bread crumbs was way too thick. Way too thick."

Joe: OWNED!

Rocco, "Let's just say it wasn't just his gnocchi that was dense." Taking notes at the chef's table... note to self: gnocchi is tough... dense... please God have this guy say something stupid so I can use my line about the gnocchi, man that would be so badass. I gotta get more quips than Bourdain this season.

Little plug here, the best gnocchi I have ever had was cooked by Tony from The Filthy Libertine. Just throwing it out there... mmmmm little pillows of heaven.

End of episode one. Let's revisit the past for a moment. Season 1 winner of the first round: Harold. We all know how that ended. Season 2: Ilan, again season winner, although he was not my favorite and his drama with Marcel made me threaten not to watch season 3, and the only reason I did was because a chef from Chicago was on it. Season 3: Trey. Many argue he could've gone all the way. He did go far, but flopped in one of the last challenges. I think the point here is, if you stick out in the first round, when the group of badass chefs is at the all time high for the entire ordeal, you're going to stand out for the rest of the challenges. I hope Stephanie continues to be a head above the rest!

You all should know Joe's been cooking soup this entire time with his own stock made from scratch. He first put all his ingredients in their own little separated bowls. Now, if only I could find him a cheetah and a turtle...

2008-03-03T12:32:00.000-06:00

Fingerless mittens or fingerless gloves? I think I like mittens. Cuz it rhymes with kittens. tee hee Kittens with mittens, mittens with kittens.

I've been doing some major work on my fingerless mittens from Miss Eunny. Please please please open that link in a new window because if you don't I know you'll never return to this entry. I have currently ripped out and started over the color work on these twice now. sigh. It's okay though, they look loads better now than they did when I started. First I tried having brown as the background with pink as the design, but there just wasn't enough pink! If you look closely, the pink actually changes colors slightly going lighter and darker and I really wanted to show that off. Because it's purty dang it! You should be very proud that this yarn is not any sort of shade of blue or turquoise. It seems anything and everything I could make, I automatically go for the turquoise, and it's usually the same shade that I'm wearing at the time. So I went for a color I don't normally wear this time to mix it up.

I'm surprised I still have the motivation to do a second mitten after all that ripping, but so far things are looking good because I've been imagining wearing these to Paul's Rock Band Party Part Deaux!! YES!! ::insert devil horn hand signals here::

I heart Rock Band. On Guitar Hero my character's name is PHOENIXX (yes all caps please), and Kate and I made our band name Mind Moose on Rock Band. I imagine that when we take the stage the announcer from the movie Spiderman goes, "MIIIIIIIIIIIND MOOOOOSE!" with his voice going up an octave and then down again like a verbal roller coaster. Because that's what are show is like fool - an effing roller coaster YEAAAAA! Ideally speaking I would wear a leather bikini top with a sequin mini skirt in order to show off my PHOENIXX belly tattoo to Paul's par-tah, but sadly I'll have to settle for my new Foo Fighters t-shirt and fingerless mittens. I would wear my new beret, but berets aren't punk enough, sorry.

You wanna rock with 'dis?!

I haven't worn a beret since I was about six years old and had a bowl hair cut. I was the hottest thing in two mary janes, I'll tell you what. Those holes are supposed to be there, I promise. I wore it to work today and noticed that it is exactly the same color as the shirt I'm wearing. I'm cursed I tell you. I swear I don't do these things intentionally. The pattern is from Twinkle's Weekend Knits. I added one more row of increases, but next time I think I'll do two to make it extra-slouchy. This one was a pain to do on double pointed needles, my stitches kept falling off! And then there was the part where I kinda skipped four rows of pattern, cuz I'm cool like that.

Twinkle's book had me a wee bit disappointed. I have her first one and there are a ton of sweaters in there that I drool over. There's maybe one in Weekend Knits I would actually make. There's a throw that is pretty too, but easy to figure out without having to pay for the whole book. Then, there's a scarf that is scarily reminiscent of the one I made for my dad with crochet?! ::Looks over right shoulder, looks over left shoulder:: What's going on here?

Besides being obviously stalked by knitters because I'm sooo pop.u.lar., I've been stocking up on yarn and knitting supplies. I'm currently not allowed to buy any more. You know, unless I really need it, like really really need it, or it's super cute, or it's right in front of me and I can't just LEAVE it there! Can you just LEAVE it there??

Little Things

2008-02-28T11:25:00.000-06:00

This morning I was standing on the bus completely absorbed in recapping a meeting that didn't go very well in my head. I'm pretty sure I had a huge scowl on my face, because that's my typical bus face. Someone got up and I sat down in their seat just as the woman next to my nudged me and with a huge smile on her face said, "What a beautiful ring!" nodding to my engagement ring. It was like someone turned on the sun. It's amazing how with a few words of kindness and a smile your mood can turn from gray to pink.

Here's to more pink days...

72 - 69

2008-02-27T01:05:00.000-06:00

And it feels SO SWEET!

I might have been a wee bit too vocal during the UT game because Mew was getting a little freaked...

Too Many Humps on My Hump Day

2008-02-21T01:40:00.000-06:00

I'm having trouble conquering the obstacles on my Wednesday. Still, I take comfort in the little things like when I look to the left I see:

Sweepy Mew

And right:

Dweaming Bear (yes that pumpkin's from October, DON'T JUDGE ME!)

They can't cuddle together, that would be unheard of. They like to flank you and then conquer you with cuteness!!

Yesterday and today I've been thinking of what inspires people, artwork, peers, music, teh internets... I find work life to be less than inspiring. It physically hurts when I go out to lunch and find myself with co-workers saying, "I never go to the art museum. My teacher in high school showed me a painting of a mountain and asked me what I thought it represented. What? It's just a mountain!" sigh. And so I asked, "So if you went west to Colorado and you saw the mountains would you think, 'eh, they're just mountains!'?" Everyone laughed, but I was being serious. Maybe a bit too serious for a co-worker lunch, I admit.

Monday Joe and I went out to The Filthy Libertine, a semi-recently re-opened gastro-pub down on Clybourn. Gastro pub because the food is classy, but not over priced and the drink selection is prime. I recommend the gnocchi with pork belly and the beignets. Anyway, Joe used to work with a couple of people that now work over there. Monday nights they have guest chefs come to bartend, and this Monday, it was ::swooooooon:: Dale! Yes, Dale! If you'll remember, I'm a huge fan of Dale. So you ask, did you get pictures? HA! Do you know me AT ALL?? How could I pass up an opportunity to totally humiliate myself even after I spilled my drink all over my lap?? That's right, Dale made me a specialty cocktail and delivered it himself and I spilled it all. over. my. lap. And then he made me another one. That one went down the hatch.

Later, Joe bought Dale a shot and he was nice enough to give us some good conversation. That's not Stan, that's Dale, I promise. Do not be misled by the shirt. No, really, NOT STAN. Maybe I should photoshop that out because you look confused. DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT STAN. IF YOU ARE A FRIEND OF STAN, I CANNOT TELL YOU WHERE STAN IS OR THE LOCATION OF HIS SHIRT. PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT FOR ANY INFORMATION RELATING TO STAN. THANK YOU.

The following captions by Joe: "This is Joe getting shitfaced with Dale
This is Joe puking into Dale's underpants
This is Dale cleaning Joe's puke out of Dale's underpants
This is me hugging Dale"
Some pictures may have been removed due to adult content.

The whole experience left me wishing I could see the same sort of passion in someone in my own field. I was, and still am, a bit jealous. I mean, Joe got to meet a guy that inspires those around him with his artwork, his creations, all the while taking some shots and eating some amazing food? I feel so cheated! Why can't Engineers put something together of this caliber? There's really no reason why we can't.

What's That Noise?

2008-02-13T10:38:00.000-06:00

Shh... Do you hear that? That's the sound of Kentucky fans crying. As my friend Lee said, "Kentucky's playing last night was almost as bad as Ashley Judd's hair..." The Commodores handed Kentucky their worst loss in the school's history last night. It feels so sweet!

Now I want to make t-shirts for March Madness. Help me by voting on a t-shirt slogan.

Here's my selection of originals:

Commodores, like pirates, but sexier.

Commodores, we don't just play with our dinghies.

Commodores, we get to have swords.

If you ain't a 'Dore, you ain't shit.

Then, I was thinking about references that only my friends from Vandy would get, here's to you ladies:

Commodores, we don't do that.
Yes you do.
I know.

Your team has a disease, called obnoxious.

Then I just went on the random, nobody would probably get it but I like it anyway.

Vanderbilt, no, not in Indiana.

Commodores, cuz two points on your hat are better than one.

I Heart the Continental

2008-02-11T23:31:00.000-06:00

"The cham-pan-gnay you have thrown stings my eyes!"

No, not that continental, THIS continental. I have been knitting up a storm practicing the continental knitting method. Yes, Chicagoland, that wasn't the heavens blowing snow, it was me with my knitting skillz. I've found I like it a lot better than the other way just because it's feels more like crochet. I have to wrap the yarn around my finger in the opposite direction, but it feels more natural. And I can go faster. What can I say? I like immediate results. Which is why I am so happy that I have finished three, yes count 'em, three wrist warmers (pattern from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts). TA DAAA SCIENCE!

My first pair in jade. Finished in the airport with help from my companion knitting expert, Mom

I also made a pair in pale pink and a manly pair that are ribbed in black. I like the size of the men's, but I think the women's size will stretch and fit better. Next on my project list is a baby sweater. I'm taking a huge leap here, from square projects to non-square projects, but I think with the help of my mom, Joe's mom and maybe the ladies at my LYS I can conquer it! I love having a wee community to get help from. Warm fuzzies.

P.S. Can I do a little praise the Ravlery Gods? First of all, I discovered the tab under my friends page called 'friend activity.' Within a nano-second I can see all the projects my friends are working on, what they've updated, what they've 'faved' and what they've queued. I can't even count how many more cute projects I've found within the smallest window of time. My other Ravelry epiphany? Did you notice my new sidebars?? Aren't they amazing!! I have to say, it's been about four years since I've done any real coding, and back then it was your basic HTML, a little Java and mostly MathCad. I can't get over that all I have to type is photos:true between two little parenthesis and bam! Instant photos! That whole sidebar with photos took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to put on my blog. I spent most of that time picking the color for my progress bars. I am blown away.

These progress bars might spoil me. I update my Ravelry more than my blog. I hope this doesn't become a trend because I do like adding bits of info. on here, especially since not everyone is on Ravelry and not everyone is into crocheting and knitting.

Okay, I'm done with my gushing!

Friday

2008-02-08T10:36:00.000-06:00

On this Friday I'm kind of burnt out. My challenge to you is to do what I'm doing, which is recounting this skit. With any conversation I have today. It goes a little something like this:

"Hi Jim, Dave asked me to see if you coming to this morning's meeting."
"At 10:30?"
"No, actually he's over in a conference room right now."
"Hrumpf! I guess he meant easter-"
BANG!
Oooom whatcha saaaaaaaay

"Do you have hard copies of these drawings?"
"No, but the electronic ones are on my computer, let me go print them."
"::Sigh + eyeroll:: You should really have hard cop-"
BANG!
Oooom whatcha saaaaaaaay

"It's Friday! haha Are we having fun ye-"
BANG!
Oooom whatcha -
BANG!
Oooom -
BANG!
Oo-
BANG!
Oooom whatcha saaaaaaaay ahhhhhh that you only meant weeeeeell cuz you diiiid

I know it's kind old, but I don't care, I'm still amused. Almost as amused as I am about Laser Cats. Almost, I mean, they're cats, with freakin' lase- BANG! Oooom whatcha saaaaaaaay

WIP

2008-01-28T22:42:00.001-06:00

Girlie
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I did do actual crafting today. I attempted to make a checkbook cover and it went wrong in every way a checkbook cover could possibly go wrong. I don't know how little rectangles of fabric could be so unruly. Little bastards. So instead of showing the sad sad square I managed to seam-rip three times over, here's a little peek at some new purchases I made last week at the fabric store!

GIRLIE FABRICS! Pink pink and more pink! A co-worker of mine is having a baby girl in May so I'm thinking of making her a baby quilt. I used to complain about the abundance of baby patterns and the lack of those for men. I really want to make something special for my hubby, all in good time. It seems this is the year for people having babies. The good thing about projects for babies is that they are miniature! Less work area for me to mess up on them.

Sniffles McGee

2008-01-24T12:23:00.000-06:00

Penelope's diagnosis came down to a dead battery and a faulty altimeter. Nothing life-threatening there, I'm happy to have her home. We still need to take her to the dealer to get her a check-up on her computer.

Looks like I'm the lucky individual who took to the sick bed for a couple days. I'm fighting a nasty cold. It also doesn't help when a certain individual, who shall remain nameless, enjoys waking me up at 3a.m. by roasting garlic for his soup, or sauteeing pork chops. The only thing keeping me from strangling him besides my weakened state is that I get leftovers.

One good thing about being sick is that you take delight in the littlest things. Yesterday I opened the fridge and saw: ta daaaa! Barbecue sauce! YES! Did I put it on anything? No. But just knowing it's there gives me warm fuzzies. I walk into the bedroom: nice cool down comforter!? YES! Ahhhhh... I love wrapping myself up like a hot dog in a bun.

Out of Service

2008-01-21T11:40:00.000-06:00

I have been crafting, and I did finish one project and am in the middle of the other, but then tragedy struck: Penelope is in the garage. And I needed her to go to the hardware store to pick up some accessories for one of my projects. Boooo.

Penelope is our trusty Saturn Ion, and we think with the extreme cold we've been having she just couldn't handle it. She's usually snuggled up in our warm garage, but Saturday night Joe took her out and she hasn't recovered. Diagnosis should come later today and hopefully won't be too bad. ::fingers crossed for out of antifreeze!::

Now Joe and I are voting on what's going to be next to break. His vote is the toilet; he's a pessimist. I went with the more reliable Comcast cable, which he declares unfair since our OnDemand never works, so I've been forced to go with dishwasher. Although I think in reality it will be one of us that 'breaks', i.e. comes down with something incapacitating, pneumonia, strept throat, bad cold, etc. This weather is killing me, it's not even the cold that's bothersome, it's that it is sooo dry, my humidifier can't keep up.

In the meantime, I am going to try and snuggle up with some comfort food, soup or mac n' cheese, and some crafty goodness.

Intermission

2008-01-09T23:41:00.000-06:00

The writer's strike is robbing me of television. In the meantime, I've been catching up on shows that everyone has insisted I should watch, like Heroes, Arrested Development and back-episodes of The Office. Netflix movies can't come fast enough! Heroes was fan-smashtic and I love the soundtrack. Whoever said that TV show theme songs were dead? I rented The Red Violin tonight purely to hear the music. It also may be one of the only movies that Samuel L. Jackson lives through.

I'm still working on resolving my own creative strike, errr lapse, errr hiatus. To fill the gaps, here's a view of what crafty things I was lucky enough to receive over the holidays. It's been hard not to start something new with all this inspiration!

Friends at work gave me a knitting pattern book and the ultimate kitting manual.

Joe's crafty preset for me, in true Joe style.

I've been eyeing this crazy creation

A new crochet book from Adrienne and antique crochet hooks from my mother-in-law Vicky

I like this babydoll dress, but I think I'd shorten it for me

I really like the crochet hooks. I'm not really one for antiques or collecting knick knacks, but I can actually use these. It makes me wonder what someone has made with them. Vicky said the two with the colored ends are from the 70s and the double ended one is much older. I can't wait to test-drive them!

Hopefully this weekend will be a craftier one than last. I'm still recovering from back to work shock. This morning the fridge broke and I'm currently surviving on a diet of salt and MSG, or lime tostitos and ramen. And I'm officially a whiner wah wah wah.

Scalpel

2008-01-09T11:01:00.000-06:00

Doing some work on the look of ye old blog for the new year. Last night I was distracted by the possibility of watching Heroes episodes online and kind of gave up trying to fix the resolution issues with the header. The best fix for that is for you, the reader, to start drinking. Then you won't know the difference. It may even look cleaner.

'08

2008-01-02T13:16:00.000-06:00

I started writing New Years Resolutions. Then, I decided I just don't like New Years Resolutions. There's all this build-up and then a stigma and then you wind up in awkward conversations with people that start with, "Sooo what are your RESOLUTIONS?" and I think, "None. I hate setting lofty goals for myself that I never achieve so I just don't set them to begin with." and I say, "Oh I dunno... eat better, exercise, etc. etc." In fact I've never had any New Years Resolutions. Never. Just not a year resolution person. I may have told you that I did, but I was really just jumping on the bandwagon because for some reason it makes you look like a jerk if you don't. Everything in my life is just perfect! I don't need resolutions! Look at meeeee! So I deleted the title and wrote Goals for 2008. But even that seems wrong. Knowing me, I'd wait until November to try and achieve them. I'm settling for:

Purposeful and Achievable Goals for January:

1. Get library card
2. Check out two library books
3. Read library books before end of 3 week time limit
4. Send resume to at least 3 companies
5. Clean condo for 14 min. three times a week

To explain #5: My friend Paul has this crazy work-out routine that he calls his S-Day diet. I feel like I should reference some obscure website when explaining this thing because that is where he found it - online. The S-Day diet consists of the following: you may not have seconds, you can have as much firsts as you want but no seconds, no sugar, and you can eat whatever you want on S-Days which include Saturdays, Sundays and Special Days. It also has a work-out routine, I will spare you the details but it includes a sledgehammer and a sweater in the time interval of 14 minutes. Because 14 minutes is the longest non-schedulable time interval. I know you're thinking what the heck is this? Tell me more about it, this is so strange, a sledgehammer? But I'm not going to, why? Because as you may have guessed it MAKES NO SENSE. I'm sparing you the brain annihilation of trying to find any sort of rational scientific sense of it all. Just trust me, you don't want to know, this is for your own good.

I am borrowing the only part that I think I could make work for me and that is the 14 minute rule. I have a 950 sq. ft. condo, I think it could be made to be consistently and extremely clean if I did something for 14 min. three times a week. That's... boop boop beep... 42 min. total! In 14 min. I can do all the dishes, sweep and vacuum the living room. Or, do the dreaded task of mopping that Joe and I avoid like the plague. Maybe this will save my sanity so that I won't make those 10:30a.m. phone calls to Joe in the morning to wake him to demand to know why, why is our tub now coated in black ... stuff? after his bath last night. Or how could he possibly think he could put a dirty dish into my MY nice clean sink, didn't he notice I just put them all into the washer? And those onions he insisted I buy? The ones that have now disintegrated into a foul-smelling jelly mush in our cabinets which I'm pretty sure is a crude primitive form of napalm, yah I'm not cleaning that up. No, this morning I just did not feel up to braving the obstacle course that is his side of the bed to give him a kiss goodbye. I like my ankles unbroken, thank you. And where the hell are all my socks!??!!

On Why There Probably Won't Be a Crafty Post This Week

2007-12-18T10:59:00.000-06:00

I walk back to desk. Sit down. Hand reaches to right, grasps.... AIR?? Oh please God no. My COFFEE?!?!?!? Did I FINISH IT already?!?!

Eyes dart to left, right, front, underneath chair. Garbage? A flash of brown cardboard cozy -

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

If I concentrate hard enough it almost feels like my lips are touching the sweet white plastic of a cup top and then the warm hazelnutty delicious rolls onto my tongue. Why can I not savor every drop, holding on with both hands, instead of WASTING it away and not even remembering that last glorious gulp of goodness? ::choke - SOB::

A Masterpiece!

2007-12-13T00:43:00.000-06:00

Solo
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

So I used the same jagged scarf pattern to make one for my dad in this very manly navy. Arrr matey I spots me some manliness starboard! It's almost like I'm a real sailor. The only thing I'm missing is a parrot, and scurvy. That was my little play on the color navy and the group, the Navy. Try to keep up, we move a bit fast over here, port-side. (I have no idea what that means, just go with it.)

I finished the entire scarf only to realize I accidentally counted about 50 stitches short of what I should have. Oopsie daisy. And here's where my ravelry.com experience helped me out! YEA! I made my first post on the forums asking if I should just add on a swatch at the end or undo the entire thing. Well, one of my fellow ravelers (you are just foaming at the mouth you're so jealous that you're not on ravelry yet, aren't you? That's what I tell myself so I feel special.) gave me the advice to add a little sumpthin different at the end and make it look like I meant to do that. So taa-daaa! SCIENCE! I added some perpendicular stripes (I aced Geometry fyi) and then a navy border to kind of keep it all together. Joe said it looked good without the border, but I think it'll keep it from stretching out in all kinds of directions and look be-a-u-tee-full - I mean MANLY, unbelievably MANLY, arrrrr, anyone seen my electric drill? Oy I forgot to put the toilet seat down AGAIN.

The double scarf, perfect for winters in Chicago, and avoiding eye contact on the transit system. Chic and incognito.

I love both of the scarves together. If only I could accessorize like this all the time. These are the days I worship the cold weather in Chicago, right before the blasting cold winds come my way. Then I hide inside and drink cocoa.

BONUS KITTY PIC!

Shnuggily cowl

2007-12-11T00:29:00.000-06:00

Shnuggily cowl
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I bought some amazing yarn at Loopy Yarns on Friday. It's a blend between silk and mohair. The pictures don't really do it justice. I just want to bury my face in it. I have a bit left that I think I'm going to try and make into a hat.

Here's a bit of the close up on the pattern. It's a ripple pattern I got from an afghan. I may give this one to my mom instead of the green one, I don't know. Still debating.

Check out my shmancy 'paint' border. Then get jealous.

R E S P E C T

2007-12-07T01:13:00.000-06:00

Detail on the throw
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

At lunch I started practicing my knitting; I am an excellent student if you didn't already know. It took me about 45 min. to get two inches of scarf using super bulky yarn. Sigh. I have a new-found respect for knitting.

Tonight I pulled out a throw my mom made me when I moved into my new place. And I was kind of overwhelmed with how long this must have taken her to make. The throw she made is from two different types of yarn and it's in a diagnol rib pattern with purl borders. My yarn is even bulkier than this and it's having a hard start.

It's shnuggily shoft

Isn't this beautiful? You should know it's folded in half in the picture above. It's huge! I love this blanket which is why it rarely leaves the closet. Kitties have a sixth sense about these things, "Oh you love this? ME TOO ::stretch, yawn, CLAWS KNEAD::" After having to weave in some snags a couple times I called it a day. Still, it's nice that since it's put away, when I take it out it is cat hair free! A rarity in these parts. Someone please tell me there's a magic spray I can just cover everything, including myself in, that will repel cat hair naturally. I will give you my first born, I promise.

I know you're saying to yourself, "didn't she just go through a mom-bashing rant in the other post?" Yah, I know, I just like to keep you guessing. What am I going to do next? You don't even know. Just try, just try and guess, you can't, you can't even do it. The only thing you're guaranteed is that it will include the use of caps lock, multiple vowels in a row and the vocabulary of a five-year old, cowabunga! Ha ha! I made another funny!

k1 p1 vs. sc

2007-12-06T10:57:00.000-06:00

After my knitting class I've been looking around at the forums and things to get a general idea about the attitude out there about knitting and crochet. It ranges from the very strong: "I HATE crochet." to the very vague, "If you like crossword puzzles or math games, reading and such, knitting is the way to go." Wait, why, what?? Well I like Candyland so ::sticks out tongue::.

It seems everyone has a pretty narrow notion of what either technique produces. All knitting is floaty and easy and there are loads of patterns and all crochet is bulky and structured and old, etc. Not so. I'm not going to argue about which patterns are cooler or more modern because it all comes down to personal taste. Both techniques just feel different, it's a preference. What kind of irks me though is that people who have strong opinions about either technique have experience in only one of them. I know, I know, you tried one pattern five years ago and it was tedious, well hellooooo it's a new skill, it's going to be hard!

I admit, my reaction to knitting is an immediate, "Change? NO!" And I kind of like searching through the internet for crochet patterns, it's like a treasure hunt. I got over it though, I think there are going to be certain things that I am going to want to knit, ::ahem:: legwarmers ::ahem::, and others that I'll want to crochet, hats, blankets, as God is my witness I will get to that hexagon blanket!

To the point: I'm trying to keep an open mind! Trying different stitches with different yarns is half the fun. And I get automatic bragging rights for being able to do either technique. Oooo look at meeeee, I'm so CRAFTY. I made a hat by knitting AND crocheting wooooo! Look how clever I am!

Onto trying new things with a new attitude. Because it's hella cold in my office dang it. And I want pretty leg warmers, edged in lace. Because I can. Just like how I wear my wedding veil blusher around while ironing: because I CAN.

Yo-seph

2007-12-05T09:03:00.000-06:00

"Look babe! I finished the scarf for my mom!"
"ooOO! AAAND it can be worn as a belt!"
"No one likes a smartass, Joe."

Mom's Christmas Gift

2007-12-04T23:32:00.001-06:00

Mom's Christmas Gift
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

Definitely click on the picture for a closer look. I didn't strain my wrist on those teeny tiny shells for nuttin'!

It's another scarf from my Vogue Knitting on the Go book. This is the third pattern I've done from that book! I highly recommend it. There's still a couple more I want to try.

I had some reservations about doing this thing since the yarn was so tiny and so was the hook. They recommended an E but I crochet so loosely I wound up using a D. The ribbing was really tedious, but after I got through that the shells were a lot easier. The bigger stitch was faster to make and I crocheted in spaces instead of stitches so it went a lot faster.

I hired a professional model to show of the scarf's natural beauty. HAHA, oh God I am hi-LAR-ious. Oh stop! Aw man I am good. No seriously, I should really think about doing this professionally, you know, being witty. It's like my job. My J-O-B, yah you know me, and there I go AGAIN. Most people mistake me for obnoxious, but truly, it's all natural brilliance. Much like my rack. ...of spices.

In line to be crocheted: Dad's scarf, another sawtooth in gray and navy, and a hat for my brother Ross in dark green. He's doing this rastafarian dread lock thing that I've got to support just because it annoys the hell out of my mom. Then I think I'm going to take a break from the crochet projects and do some sewing.

Confession time: I caved and went to my first knitting class today. Lauren talked me into it and I didn't have a good enough reason not to go. We'll see how long that goes. In the meantime, fiber news wise I'll be heading to Loopy Yarns downtown after work on Friday for their holiday celebration! 20% off yarn that is red, green, white or blue, refreshments and help on projects. Looking forward to it.

Update: Is it sad that I'm in my 20s and I still get pleasure when I get a rise out of my mother? I'm thinking on a level yes... but you would too if you saw her reaction, namely, she has one.

"Ni-COLE! I cannot believe you did that! ::eyeroll + grimmace:: Just look at his dreads. ::grimmace:: Why are you letting him DO this to himself? ROSS! RO-OSS! You really need to cut those off. You look DIRTY. ::grimmace+groan+sigh+choked-up-fake-crying-sound:: I just don't understand why you're DOING this."

Patchwork Pears

2007-11-27T21:59:00.001-06:00

Patchwork Pears
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I made some pears for my partridges. The pattern is from a Japanese craft book called Patchwork Quilt for Interior. My red one came out a little thin on top. Actually they're both thin all around. Such are the downsides to not speaking Japanese. Oh well, I think they're fun.

I really like the alpaca yarn I got for this scarf. The pattern was from Vogue Knitting: Crochet Scarves and it was really easy. I already bought some more yarn to make it again in a different color.

The Dark Side

2007-11-26T11:47:00.000-06:00

My crafty friend Lauren is going to take knitting classes and she invited me along. She even said we could carpool. Dilemma time. I finally get to learn how to make decent legwarmers and I don't have to drive? What's holding me back? I equate knitters with the dark side. They're taking over the world! Everyone knits. Every pattern is for knitting. Blast you knitters thinking you're all that just because you use more than one stick! In my grand tradition of always doing things the hard way I scour the internet for crochet patterns that don't look like something my great-grandmother was buried in. (Sorry stutamama.) I toil away using only one utensil and minimal food and water, slaving, to make something that doesn't stretch and is hardly form-fitting. I raise my nose snooty-like in your general direction you knitting fiends! You will not turn me!

Yes I am posting for the sole reason of not working! Leave me alone, I just got back from vacation... ::grumbles and hobbles back to hole that is work pod::

While I Was Watching Elf

2007-11-26T00:22:00.001-06:00

Ornaments
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I got the pattern for these from Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. I love this book. It has a lot of great ideas plus it has it split up into chapters of how long it takes to make them. These took me all through Elf plus a Law and Order mostly because I had to seam-rip on the second one. I used some twill tape for the loops because I don't have a bias tape maker. I think they still look pretty cute. I have plans for making either more of those or the same idea with a pear pattern I have in a Japanese craft book.

I also finished my puff scarf quite a while ago. Here it is! I am so happy with how it turned out. It's just long enough to go around the neck and then in a knot. I really hope my sister-in-law likes it.

Poofy and fun

I've finished some other items, but I'll save them for later. I'm pooped. In the meantime, here's a work in progress. If I like how it turns out I'm going to try and make a bunch. My debate is whether or not I want to add a band of fabric above the pleats. I think it would give the bag a bit more depth and stability, but... I think it'd look sleaker without it. Any opinions?

Looks like candy stripes

BONUS KITTY PIC!
It took ten minutes for Bear to realize he was being followed. His pursuers were cunning, intelligent, knew his every move. Even spinning circles was to no avail. Finally, after threatening to go the litter box, the rascallians ceased their endless torment.

I'm an Elf

2007-11-21T11:57:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in way way too long. My excuse is I can't find the charger for my camera, and I'm stickin' to it!

Okay that's a poor excuse for my two-camera plus cell phone camera household. I have been crafting. The hard part about the holidays is I don't want to share too much in case the people I'm making it for see it! But since I have only one real fan, I'll just have to hide her family's presents. Which I actually haven't started yet, BUT! BUT! have all the materials for! See what I did there? I am thinking of you, eh? EH?

This loverly turkey weekend I am determined to craft like nobody's be-zizzle-ness. Booya. Foo'. I'm making myself sew because I've been crocheting a lot lately and my checkbook could use a break on buying yarn since I already have all the sewing materials I need. Anything I don't have I can get on sale with my mountains of coupons from JoAnn's. Check back this weekend and I promise I will post pictures.

Hubby

2007-10-22T12:20:00.000-05:00

I like showing Joe what I make so I can get my gold star for the night.

"Look what I made tonight!"
"Oooo a tie?"
"No! It's a belt/scarf thingie. See? I can wear it like a belt, or like a scarf..."
"Can you wear it naked?"
"::Sigh:: Yes I can wear it naked."
"It looks great babe! Good job!"

I should just lead off with, "Look what I can wear naked!"

Design by Me

2007-10-18T23:00:00.001-05:00

patchwork
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

This is one of the first sewing projects that was one of my own patchwork designs. I was inspired by Amy Butler's sequin scarf from her book In Stitches. But I had a pile of really fun fat quarters in tones of blue. So I thought it would be fun to make a diagonal patchwork belt/scarf. I also went a bit thinner than Amy's. Mine's about 2 and a half inches wide. I have the same fabrics back to back on either side. I like that touch, makes me feel like there's some kind of harmony about it.

I must confess, I did a sloppy sloppy job. It's a first draft! While I was making this thing I told myself I would never make another one, but I like it so much now even with all its flaws, I may make another attempt. The next time around I'll be using a different method entirely. I'd tell you how I tried this one but it is so sad and so wrong I think I'll spare you the frustration. I imagine an experienced sewer watching me while thumping her hands on a desk, "IDIOT! Nooo!! You just do it this way. NO! NOT THAT WAY!!"

Scarf-a-licious

I am notorious for going about things the hard way. Honestly, in any Math/Engineering class I took when we got the tests back and we would go through the answers the professor would say, "There's an easy way to do this and the hard way." Guaranteed, every single stinking time I took the harder way. I did get it right though, ::pats self on back::. Aaaah the simple times.

I've been having a frustrating time at work. After being back on my old college campus (or rather newly-refurbished?!) last weekend, I have a hankering for the times where a 70% meant C, 80% a B and 90% an A. Things have seemed more blurred lately. If only things in the corporate world worked on such a black and white scale. Not so much. So crafting is nice turn from that where I can look at a crochet pattern and know that when I chain 28, I'm going to get 28. And when I do a sloppy job of pinning, I'm going to get a sloppy patchwork. Nobody to blame but myself.

Enough of that! Oh woe is me bullshiat is not what this is for. I leave you with:

Kitty in 5 yards of Joel Dewberry!

Yes, FIVE YARDS. I bit the bullet. Now, to finish enough of my presents for the holidays that I feel I can devote time to redoing my duvet cover with my new ripples of fabric.

Fall

2007-10-07T23:57:00.000-05:00

IMG_0029
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

How is it October and 90 degrees outside?? Even with this odd weather I still have a hankering for crocheting my brains out. I'm starting with this fun scarf that will be a Christmas present for someone I know who has a vintage fabric purse to match. This pattern eats yarn for breakfast, but it's going to look so great when I'm finished. I got the pattern from Vogue Knitting: Crochet Scarves. This book is full of inspiring patterns, I'm already lining up yarn for two more patterns.

Another fun thing about doing crocheting is that I can take it anywhere. So I took a break from the crocheting today and decided to make myself some new pillows for the couch. Another good thing about this project is that I can scrap the old pillows and repair some over-zealous kitty love marks on the couch legs.

How do you like the bird theme continuing?

I kind of made up the pattern for the pillows. It took me about 2 and a half hours to finish them mostly because I spent a lot of time squaring up the circle patterns. I really wanted to make sure they wouldn't be off on a diagonal when I sewed them together. I think I did a pretty good job! I love love love the wood grain fabric. I have loads leftover and I'm thinking of using it for someone else's Christmas present.

Really liking it with the yellow chair

I have to say, I think this is the first sewing project I've made for myself! It feels good! I like walking into the living room and seeing something I put together, I know nobody else has it.

Back to crocheting and snuggling kitties for tonight!

Renegade Craft Fair

2007-09-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

Before I launch into my overdue craft fair review, first I must say:

CONGRATULATIONS DALE!!!!!

I had my doubts, but I had a hunch that if you had some time off to recollect yourself and come up with a new game plan you'd kick some major arse! YES!

To craftier things...

The Renegade Craft Fair was a lot of fun. There were so many things to choose from it was hard to decide. I settled on buying a tote bag from Holly Hue, an ipod holder with shmancy headphone winder thing from Mr. Poncho (lovin the name) mine has the L system printed on it. I wanted something from Boy Girl Party, but all the fun cards I saw I knew I would just keep for myself and not send to anybody. So I got some nifty buttons instead.

Along with finding some fun items at the fair, I successfully freaked out many of the crafters who also participate on our good ole internet. Apparently when I 'whisper' "HeyIloveyourblog!" it comes off mildly stalkerish. My b. But look at this one!! I could spend all day at decorating blogs. Surprisingly to you I'm sure, I have tested this theory and I have concluded it is indeed true: I can spend all day at decorating blogs.

Speaking of... here's what you really came for, some of my favorites that were at the fair:

Three Sheets 2 the wind
I love the pillows and the prints

Soda by amy
She had pillows at the fair that I don't see on the site. Joe's sister and I also really liked her mugs, they're so organic! Coincidentally, I saw something similar at Crate and Barrel or CB2 or one of those. But seriously, when people ask you where you got your cute pottery from do you want to say "Crate and Barrel," or do you want to say "it was handmade by amy?" Hint: one of these options is boring.

fernworks
Some very beautiful pendants, I wouldn't know if people are checking out my jewelry or my rack. The thing I use to carry around my guns that is, har har har. ::tears:: ho! ANYway...

There were two more vendors that I really liked that I don't have cards or websites for. Sob. One made amazing screen prints, Joe's sister got one with geese. The other vendor took used books and rebound them with recycled paper. So you'd get a journal filled with pages from other books, people's homework, fun stuff.

All in all, everyone had a really great time at the fair and I can't wait til next year. This came at the right time of year to get charged to make presents for people! Although I am very very tempted to fulfill my dream of making a hexagon granny blanket for myself, I must postpone and start making things for others. This means finishing some other things I have half-started. A shrug, a crochet purse, bunny slippers, I cleaned out my closet and found a lot of things I haven't finished yet mixed in with my yarn. I also have some really fun fat quarters to play with. Now I just have to choose what to make next!

Recipes

2007-09-07T13:20:00.000-05:00

I'm always trying to cook more at home, mostly for money reasons. The biggest problem being, my hubby tends to be a critic. So I've been trying to find recipes for things he probably wouldn't make on a whim. In my internet search, I stumbled on a great blog called Smitten Kitchen. This site definitely appeals to me.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting, really, is that through that site people have posted some very very horrible recipes. Check it out:

The Kwanzaa Celebration Cake

Mmmm nothin says Kwanzaa like a middle class white woman with corn nuts.

And

Peanut Butter Cheese Fudge

"Because of the amount of butter in this recipe, pat with paper towel to remove excess oil."

YUM!

Reversible

2007-08-24T23:51:00.001-05:00

Reversible
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

Sorry for the huge hiatus. I have been crafty I promise, just around the house, not really anything to brag about. But tonight I finally finished a purse. I apologize, I'd really like to site where I got this pattern from but I honestly don't remember! I got it from a tutorial on the internet, and then I added two inches on the width and put in the pleats.

I will tell you now, I hate twill tape. Hate it. What a pain! I seam ripped twice before deciding to hand-baste the tape to the purse. It's still not as perfect as I'd like. If I do this purse again, which is doubtful, I'd also round out the bottom corners. I'd like more of a hobo bag look than boxy. Maybe if I put in two darts instead of one? I'll have to play with it.

I really love these Amy Butler fabrics. The busy pattern is not really my regular style, I'm trying to push my limits a little bit. The blue and cream is really more my speed and I'm debating on whether or not to put a punchy graphic appliqué on it.

The Other Side

Check out my new fat quarters too! I'm really excited about these. I really love the Joel Dewberry with the Denise Schmidt. I'm thinking about using those to make some pillows. We'll see...

In the meantime... BONUS KITTY PIC!

Don't even think about taking my post.

UPDATE:
I hate posting without giving the source of the pattern, and I was very happy to find it again! Here you go.

Birthday Dinner

2007-07-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

Steamed Clams
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

Joe made me the best birthday dinner ever! My husband's so much better than yours neener neener neener! For our first course we had steamed clams with a lemon clam sauce. Our entree was chilean sea bass with bok choy and radishes with a lemony rosemary sauce yum! Finally, he got me a chocolate cake with real buttercream frosting. It was amazing!

Joe made me a delicious bass.

BONUS KITTY PICS!

We must unite to eat the sheets!! Before...

They eat us...

It could happen to you! or you!

OR YOU.

New Tote

2007-07-17T11:43:00.000-05:00

better focus
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

This bag was based on the tutorial at Mizutamago. I changed some things, like made the straps thicker. I also changed the size of the lining so it fit better into the tote bag. I think she also just top-stitched all pieces together, and I sewed the handles to the lining, then the lining to the outer part, turned it right side out and then top-stitched. I like doing it this way because I don't have to worry about things shifting around. I wasn't going to add the buttons but the front looked lonely! If I do this pattern again, I'd make the top panel a little narrower, it looks a bit wide, I also want to try this guy with interfacing and make the pleats a little more defined.

I used Amy Butler lotus fabric for the exterior and white linen for the interior.

Currently listening to - Daft Punk - Discovery

Currently watching (TV) - Confessions of a Matchmaker, oh my gosh hilarious, my new favorite trash TV show

Currently watching (movies) - The Birdcage, I love me some Hank Azaria

Currently reading - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I am so pumped for the next book!

I heart Anthony Bourdain

2007-07-13T18:03:00.000-05:00

Anthony Bourdain was a guest blogger on Tom Colicchio's Bravo blog, which I am addicted to. I love hearing his opinion on whether or not he would actually work with these chefs. Also, other than repeating my exact opinion of using tuna and filet mignon in a tasting menu (boooooooooooooooooring), he references Heat, the book I gave Joe for his birthday.

Conclusion: I am the best wife ever for a chef to have.

Sometimes I feel like we were made for each other or something... weird...

Work in Progress

2007-07-11T22:20:00.001-05:00

Work in Progress
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't finished anything yet! This lovely work in progress will be a 'Short n' Sweet' shrug (pattern from Happy Hooker). I'm a little worried it'll be too big. I made a size large because I have a ::ahem:: larger upper body. But now I'm not so sure. Right now it looks like a tangle of knots. Gotta love my artsy Anthropologie bowl, I know I do!

Currently Listening to - Paul McCartney Ever Present Past

Currently Watching (TV) - Top Chef (Dale you better be careful, I love you you risk-taking hunk a foodie, but tone it down!) side note: I wonder how Joe would look with that spikey mohawk hmm...

Currently Watching (movies) - Pan's Labyrinth, I loved David Bowie in his labyrinth and now one in Spain?? My obsession with the Spanish culture builds.

Currently Reading - Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix. Totally forgot Dumbledore had a brother. Gotta finish this one and The Half-Blood Prince before I get my pre-ordered book on the 21st. (I just started last night and am currently on page 313 of the paperback.)

Current Obsessions - Chicken Tikka Masala, Ratatouille (movie and the food), Crochet (obvs), Elliptical machine now that I've figured out how to read my Harry Potter at the same time (I love multi-tasking!)

BONUS KITTY PIC!
Oh hi, we were keeping your seat warm.

UPDATE: Forgot to say how Lauren loved her new apron that I made for her! I knew I had struck gold when I walked into her house-warming party and saw a three-tier muffin display and Funny Face playing on the TV. Oh yes, and how can I forget the choice of tap water, lemon water or cucumber water? She's such a little home-maker.

Pictures Finally!

2007-06-27T19:53:00.001-05:00

IMG_0014
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

Last night I was a machine and made Lauren's house-warming present! I love it! I think these are my favorite Amy Butler fabrics. The pattern is from her book In Stitches.

Even though I measured like four times, I messed up the width of the ties and had to adjust the waistband accordingly, it should be thicker, but Lauren will never know that ;).

"Joe take a picture of me in my apron!"

"It's not for yooooou."

"Dang it."

I'm attached.

Berfdays!

2007-06-26T11:42:00.000-05:00

Last night we had our birthday celebration for Joe's mom and sister. We went to Brasserie Jo's on Hubbard and Clark. After a very interesting cab ride in which the cabbie babbled on about politics in Chicago, blah blah blah and Joe entertained him by agreeing with him, we got out of the cab and the cabbie said to Joe, "If you see me again, don't get in my cab." ??? I was thoroughly confused after Joe had a 15min. bonding experience with this whack-a-do. Guess he was expecting more of a tip? Chalking it up to the cabbie crazies gods.

Brassier Jo's is a French classic Cafe style up-scale restaurant. We had a great time there. On the whole, the entrees were mildly disappointing. The shrimp bag? A novelty. Joe's dad got the best one, the skate wing with brown butter. Nobody does brown butter like the French mmmm... If you go there I recommend the appetizers and most definitely the DECADENT desserts. I had chocolate overload after one bite, but I have a sensitive sweet tooth. Chocolate tends to taste bitter to me if it's really rich.

And my presents were big hits! I was so glad! Joe's sister really liked her pinboard and the best part-the fabric covered button push pins. She even said she was going to take it to work and use it there! I was so flattered. Joe's mom seemed really thrilled with her needle case too.

Presents!

2007-06-25T11:36:00.000-05:00

Although I haven't blogged all last week, I have been crafting it up. Unfortunately, I have already given away or wrapped everything I made!!! Sorry, I really need to be better about taking more photos.

I embroidered five onesies for a baby shower my mom's going to on Friday. The expectant mother is an accomplished violin player who we've known for several years. Her father was my teacher and a friend. I don't know her very well so I made some that were more girly/typical and then some that were more unusual. I finished them up on Sunday morning and my fingers definitely hurt today!

I also finished birthday presents for Joe's mom and sister. His sister's pin board came out looking awesome, but what a pain in the butt! Staple guns = no fun. I will be thinking twice before deciding to do another one of those. Her tote bag came out looking spec-tac-ular. I have the ladies at Quiltology to thank for that. Their Berninas spoiled me rotten. I think she'll like her gifts if only for the fact that I used Heather Bailey and Amy Butler fabrics and she's very into textile designers. I was actually thinking of just getting her some fat quarters for her birthday, but this was more fun. Maybe I'll do that for Christmas.

For Joe's mom I tried out some of Amy Butler's patterns from her sewing book that I've been eying, a needle case and a drawstring bag. I made them out of this orange Belle Amy Butler fabric.

My final verdict: twill tape sucks. In the future I will avoid it or find some higher quality tape. The only kind I could find was polyester and I think cotton would look so much better. The drawstring bag I will definitely make again. It was so easy and who doesn't need a little bag to tote things to the beach or to go work-out?

Finally, I made t-shirts to cheer on my mom as she ran in her first triathlon on Sunday! That's right, my mom is an acclaimed athlete!! She ran in the Naperville Sprint Triathlon and made it in under her goal time of two hours! I'm so proud!

I'm really going to have to update this post with some photos of at least the patters or my inspiration!

Currently working on"

-Apron and matching towels for Lauren's house-warming party. With this fabric (which will be so hard to cut because I really really love it):
-Finishing up a teeeeeeeny detail on Kate's birthday present
-Re-doing Kelly's birthday present because I broked it. booooo.
-Making a non-gay bag for Joe to tote his work stuff in
-Maybe... MAYBE something for myself???

Did you say cupcakes?

2007-06-19T02:41:00.000-05:00

Oh my gentle Jesus!

Stand aside cupcake cupboard because now there is the CUPCAKE COURIER!!!!

Olive's Birthday Present

2007-06-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

Olive's Birthday Present
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I mostly worked on Kate's birthday present tonight and it's almost finished!!! I think uit looks really good so far and I'm hoping the things I'm adding to it make it even better. We'll see...

Since I can't show pictures of her present, I thought I'd post what I made last night. I actually made three hair thingies with teeny bunnies on them, but the third has "mysteriously disappeared". When I got home all of them had gone missing and I had my suspicions of the culprit. Suspicions were confirmed when I found one "coincidentally" on the kitty scratching post. I'm sure that was an accident ::ahem:: MEW. Mew has a sick obsession with hair things and one of these days I will find him playing with the last hair thing.

BONUS KITTY PIC!

There was a sale at Borders

Projects!

2007-06-14T01:20:00.000-05:00

Projects!
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I had another sewing class tonight. Here's a glimpse of my 'homework.' No Kate, it's not your birthday present. Sorry, I'm keeping that one under wraps. This one has some of my favorite Heather Bailey prints in my favorite colors. I love the modern paisley print. The wallpaper-esque print is so fun in those bright colors.

So it's official. I have way too many projects going on at one time. Let's see:

-Heather Bailey fabric project
-Kate's bday present
-Crochet hemp twine basket
-Embroidered onesies
-Pin Board for Adrienne

Seriously, I've started something for all of these. The one I finished tonight was for a friend's little girl, some hair thingies and a big pin with her first initial embroidered on it. It's really cute, I'll upload some pics later. Yes I came home from being crafty and got more crafty... while watching Top Chef, another obsession.

I promised myself I wouldn't watch this season but after seeing the article in the Red Eye this morning, how could I not?? Dale Levitski is a contestant and I just have to root for Chi Town!! Come on Dale!!! Unfortunately, he was in the bottom 3 in the first round!!! NOO!!!! I have two things to say in his defense: #1 How can blue cheese with beef be too strong a flavor for an amuse busch? And I saw that signature move with the herb utensil! Very Alinea/Moto/Trio. Going back to what you know, just stick with it man! #2 I really really hope his whole downfall in the elimination challenge was just lack of knowledge about alligator. Please please please. At least he didn't get any negative comments about the monk liver.

BONUS KITTY PIC!!

Mew was more of a fan of the sewing machine 'accessories'

New Japanese Craft Books from Mitsuwa!

2007-06-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

New Japanese Craft Books from Mitsuwa!
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

I went to MITSUWA JAPAN STRIP MALL!!! on Saturday and it was a gold mine! I spent over an hour there browsing. Finally I narrowed it down to five books with the things I'm most interested in now: quilting, sewing, tote bags, crochet, and embroidery. I think my favorites are the natural cord crochet book and the quilting book. There are a ton of ideas in there that I'm going to have to try.

Check 'em all out. The natural cord crochet one is one of my favorites. I love these! They're so summery when usually crochet reminds me of winter. I can totally see a beach towel poking out of them or gardening shears, or knitting. I like the bold colors next to the natural colors, they really pop. I'm definitely going to be experimenting with these guys.

It's pretty obvious why I got the embroidery one yes? Some of the designs in here are pretty intricate, I'm not sure if I can pull them off, I guess we'll see...

Pleats! These will be so cute for summer and at work. Gotta work on those sewing skillz first though.

The quilting book is also one of my favorites.
I have a ton of ideas! Like:

Cute handbags galore in the next book. I really like these tote bags, they're really versatile.

Time to get to work!

Happy Hooker Scarves

2007-06-09T15:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Hooker Scarves
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

A little transition from crochet to embroidery. I made the pinkish scarf yesterday at Joanie's. My mom made me the green one some time last year. I think hers is better... the gage is more even and it's a softer yarn. Also, after I made the analogy of mine looking like raw hamburger meat out loud I just don't know what to do with it now. Nobody wants hamburger meat around their neck. I've been meaning to try this pattern for so long, maybe I just need to invest in some nicer yarn and try again. Oh well.

Here's a little crochet change purse with a felt patch that is embroidered that I made for my friend Aimee for her birthday. I like the lotus a lot, so cute! Inspired by Amy Butler's lotus pattern fabric.

Embroidery is a lot of fun! Especially after I got Jenny Hart's Stitch It Kit! There are loads of fun ideas in there. I'm still wrestling with the whole embroidered pillow thing though, I don't think I'll go there. But the next big project I want to do would be a skirt with some pretty flowers. Here's some embroidery craziness:

Ryan's Redneck Onesie
So cute! It didn't take me too long to do this guy. And I was happy to see it's actually going to fit the growing boy!

Guess who this one is for
Embroidering on t-shirt, stretchier material, was really hard. Ryan's onesie was definitely a learning experience. I tried to use wax paper as a stabilizer but I don't think it did a very good job. For Olive's I switched to, believe it or not, glad wear cling wrap. The wrap stuck to the fabric well enough and I think I got much much better results! My stitches look much more even.

And finally a little sumthin for my hubby. An apron with Red Kitty Blue Kitty. The original pattern had the kitties with big bows, so I put a triangle of felt between Jenny Hart's iron on pattern and the fabric so that they didn't transfer. Then all I had to do was extend the lines on the backs of the kitties.
I love their widdle pink noses.

CRAFTY WEEKEND AGENDA!!!!
Heading to MITSUWA JAPANESE STRIP MALL!!!! I've been hit with the Japanese craft book but and I have to head over there to see what they've got before I go crazy on EBay. I'll let you know if I find anything chock full of crafty goodness.

After MITSUWA JAPANESE STRIP MALL!!!! I'll be heading up to my favorite corner of the Earth that helps me get everything done, Elston and Diversey. I love it, JoAnn Fabrics, Home Depot, Target, PetSmart and now Strack and Van Til, some kind of uber huge grocery store?? I can get all of my errands done in the same freaking place. This is especially awesome when you live in a city where on the weekends people turn into blood hungry psycho drivers.

On my shopping list for today:
-I may be purchasing a sewing machine! WEEE!!!
-Canvas/linen/cheap fabric to practice with
-Button covering kits
-Pins
-Seam ripper
-cork
-MDF

I have a few projects in the works... And I leave you with:
BONUS KITTY PIC! They're all tuckered out from a hard day on the course.

Crafty

2007-06-08T16:26:00.001-05:00

My sad sad blog. My sad sad unupdated blog. So, ballet has come and gone with my wedding. It makes me kind of sad that I've dropped it, but I'm moving on! Trying new things! Exploring! Ballet was an excellent discipline, but the nagging perfectionist in me was starting to get a little disappointed in myself and I couldn't really enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Anyways, I have been keeping myself busy, contrary to the non-existent updates to this blog. Joe's night hours leave me with a lot of time myself and lately I've been getting crafty. I think it started with crochet... moved on to embroidery... and now sewing. I'm starting to mix all three and see what I come up with.

Wednesday night I went to my first sewing class since 6th grade. After class I got into a discussion about my craft blog obsession with the teacher of the class and she said, "I think to have a blog you need to be a stay at home mom with at least two kids." Sad, but true. A lot of the crafty projects I see online are snazzy cloth diapers, teeny dresses, and doll quilts. I get absolutely no use out of these three things. Okay maybe the diapers.

I went home after staying in the fabric store for 2 and a half hours babbling about my craft blog obsession with the idea to share some of my crafty projects online. Far from perfect, but I like them enough to give to people so there!

Today's installment: Crochet

Here are some purses I made for my mom and mother-in-law for Mother's Day

IMG_0201
Originally uploaded by nicoleballet

This one I gave to my mother-in-law.

Inside:
Here's the one I made for my mom:

Inside:

Both patterns are from "Stich n' Bitch: Happy Hooker". The fourth grader in me is saying I should underline that book title. Why do you never see book titles underlined anymore? Is that taboo now?

Future crochet ideas in the works:
-Happy Hooker scarves (skinny and scalloped edge) and bunny slippers!
-More handbags Futuregirl style
-Hemp crochet baskets (hopefully I can find the Japanese craft book that I've seen online)
-Eventually I'd like to tackle crochet stuffed animals.

Next post! Embroidery! OOOOOOOOOooooooooo!

The End of Xmas

2007-05-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

Last night Joe and I finally took down the ole Xmas tree. Sure it's been like four months, but who's counting? Of course this took persuasion on my part, which was so very different from anything else I've asked Joe to do... oh wait, oh no, I meant the OTHER Joe. The one that does stuff without me asking? You know, the one that exists in a parallel universe where mayonnaise makes me thinner?

So Joe goes to take the tree out to the trash (it was a cheap-o fake one that we both decided we just don't have room to keep), and I finish packing up the ornaments. Of course this whole process took like 20 minutes but we insist on delaying it for months on principles.

I open the door to the bathroom to grab some windex to clean the excess of festive Jesus glitter from our glass table the tree was sitting on, and BAM! There's the Christmas tree all lit up. I see it just as Joe goes, "BWA! YOU'VE BEEN CHRISTMAS TREED!" Which definitely scared the Ba-Jesus right out of my Ba-Christmas.

Fridge: Pre and Post Joe

2007-02-11T14:56:00.000-06:00

After searching through my photo library with the intention of making a kitty montage, I came across some old pictures of my fridge that I used for a previous blog post: Ghetto Food Fabulous.

So now that Joe's been living here for ::gasp!:: seven? months now? dang... OUR fridge looks a little sumpthin like this:

Let's take inventory.

Old fridge contents:

-One plastic container of old grated Parmesan cheese
-Two containers of deli sliced honey ham mmmmm yum!
-Four bottles of water, one open
-One teeny thing of jell-o left over from when I was being a super cheap skate and decided to fill tiny gladware containers with jell-o
-One half filled thing of salsa
-Horse radish from when Joe made bloody mary's... six months ago...
-Pickles?
-Another half eaten jar of salsa
-A very old jar of Miracle Whip, but I don't think that stuff goes bad
-One seedless cucumber
-My leftovers and lunch for tomorrow in the gladware
-Half an onion
-Part of a garlic thingy that used to be whole but I had to throw half of it away because it started to sprout
-Asparagus
-Half a bag of pre-mixed spring greens

New Fridge Contents:

-Freshly bought grated parmesian cheese including a wedge to be grated
-Two containers of lunch meat
-Bottled water
-We ate the rest of the salsa last night, but a jar of cheese dip remains
-Bread and Butter pickles
-Milk
-Chicken Stock
-Eggs
-Jalapenos
-Goose Island beer sampler... mmmmmmmm goose island beer sampler
-Regular coke
-Homemade twix bars (obviously not homemade by ME)
-Some sort of meat from the butcher plus bacon
-Homemade pasta sauce
-Assorted jellies
-Garlic
-Some black stuff in a tupperware container??
-Turkey somethin or other

My Life is Over, Apparently

2007-01-08T12:32:00.000-06:00

Last Friday I went for tapas and sangria with some amigos! It was muy divertido. Afterwards, we headed out to a local bar. Part of our group left leaving me and my friend Lauren. We stayed because my hubby told me he was on his way there with some friends. While we were sitting at a table, sipping on some cheap beers, a guy in a What Would Chuck Norris Do t-shirt starts hitting on us.

WWCND: So... you guys still in school?
Me and Lauren simultaneously: ugh... nooooo, why? How old are you?
WWCND: 29.
Me: Really? Normally guys who are 29 don't bother asking that question.
WW: Naw naw, seriously I'm 29.

Oy. It was pretty much downhill from there, but at least he was entertaining. He claimed to have majored in Engineering in undergrad, and then gone to law school and now he's a personal injury lawyer. I can't make this shit up people. Anyway, turns out he's just buttering us up for his friends! Yes, he was a gen-u-wine bar fluffer. It was weird. So naturally I told him I was married and Lauren has a boyfriend. He was a good sport about it, some guys get all offended or whatever. He introduced us to one of his friends standing nearby anyway and his friend got one sentence out before he declared to him how I was married. Which, I do not care being called out because I am and I'd rather not put up false pretenses.

So this guy looks at me and with a straight and very serious face says "So what are you doing at the bar?" What am I doing at the bar??? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm enjoying a beer with a friend while getting buttered up by your fluffer friend over here. And now I can see why you need him because you are apparently void of any and all people skills.

I apparently had one too many because it virtually ruined the rest of my night which I spent thinking up better things to say back to void people skills guy than what I did say which was "I'm having a few beers with friends." What I could/should've said:

"What are you doing at the bar?"
1."Well I know what YOU'RE doing at the bar."

2."You're right, I should be at home having endless hot sex with my husband, but instead I'm talking to jerks like you."

3."Trying to pick up guys since my husband's out of town. HAHA! Oh no, that's what you were hoping I'd say isn't it?"

4."Drowning my married life sorrows with crazy amounts of drinking. Woe is me... woe."

5."Hoping Girls Gone Wild will show up. I'm determined to get on their Desperate Housewives edition."

6."Shopping for sperm donors. We're having trouble conceiving and we figure this is cheaper than invitro."

7."I'm sorry, all I heard was 'blah blah blah I'm desperate'."

8."Apparently attracting assholes."

9."I have this weird disease where if someone doesn't make a jerkass comment to me every hour I die. Thanks for filling the quota."

10."Hoping my husband doesn't catch me because then the whole 'fake pregnancy' story is totally blown!"

RANDOM KITTY BONUS PIC!

Quittin Time

2006-12-18T15:11:00.000-06:00

Survey: What do you think would be the most amusing way to quit your job? Add to these suggestions in the comments section.

Suggestions:

A. Any time anyone asks you for anything say 'no'.

"Nicole, will you forward this email to so and so"
"No."

"Nicole, are you going to answer that?"
"No."

"Nicole, can you tell me - "
"No."

B. Give yourself a pedicure at your desk.

C. Start wearing questionable t-shirts to work like: "My parents beat me & I turned out fine." or "Gin and Jews" or "Mojitos, mo' problems."

D. Walk past a conference room, double over like you're going to puke, dry heave, stand up, wave, carry on.

E. Put up various pictures of yourself with random drunks at bars, top optional, cross-dressers preferred.

F. Show up at the Holiday party and offer to get everyone a drink. The next day at work ask for your money back and insist it was a cash bar.

G. Make up things about your department/specialty and insist you're right.
"Why would I ask for an 80MVA transformer, clearly I said 80GVA."
"Isn't that really big?"
"Well then how do you explain how an ipod can hold 80GB??? HMM?? OBVIOUSLY a transformer is more powerful than an ipod. Jesus!"

H. Start commenting under your breath about everybody's outfit.
"Cannot beLIEVE she thinks those colors go together."
"What?"
"What?"

I. Insist the printer is broken. Always. All four of them.

J. Start calling your boss a catchy nickname like "Butch" or "Kid" or "Speedy."

K. End all sentences with a religious connotation (not necessarily yours).
"The document went out today Praise Allah!"
"The computer, God Bless it so, keeps fucking crashing when I'm on Excel, sweet baby Jesus."

L. Interrupt all work-related conversations to talk about your cats. No it doesn't matter if you really have cats.
"So we're going to have to get these out by -"
"OH MY GOSH that reminds me, so last night I was about to go out and Fluffy and Spotty were all like 'mew!' and I was like 'mew?' and they ANSWERED ME!"

M. ???

Letters to George

2006-12-14T15:54:00.000-06:00

Every have that one co-worker that always picks at you? And it seems like no matter what you say or do the situation never gets better and never goes away? You just keep getting completely whack-o emails and there's no way to remedy the situation!

If only you could just tell your co-worker off!

Well do it! VENT! Write your 'Dear George'.

Dear George,

No I will not make out with you.

Dear George,

Drink the Kool-aid.

Cheers!

Dear George,

Late at night, when I'm in bed, naked, I think of you...

...dying in a fire.
Sweet Dreams!

Dear George,

I'M A REPUBLICAN!

Dear George,

Hey! Know what I like? Kittens!
Know what I don't like? YOU!

Dear George,

The common loon (Gavia immer) is a bird found in Northern Michigan and other parts of the US / Canada Border.

The office loon (Psychovia Georgimmer) is a loser found in the front office.

Both should be shot upon visual contact.

Dear George,

I love it when you talk dirty

Thinking of you!

George,

I know I can help you, but first we have to test your thetans.

George,

I think of you when I clean my toilet, you're both full of sh*t!

Dear George,

You know when you're a kid and you're parents get divorced they tell you it wasn't your fault? They lied.

Come on! Give it a try! Write a Dear George!

*Special thanks to Joanie for her contributions ;)

It'll make you feel better, I promise!

Crazy M

2006-12-12T11:24:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would this morning with some amusing stories about my podmate.

I work in a cubicle with three other people, and the girl across the corner is a little wacky. For instance, she'll blurt out personal questions during total silence. One day I was sitting at my computer, back to her and I hear, "ARE YOU HAVING KIDS?" What if I were barren??? Not to mention that's none of her business. Okay, whatever, a little strange.

Last week she let out a loud burp followed by "Excuse me!", and then burped AGAIN and said, "ExCUSE me!" and then started laughing hysterically. Seriously, laughed for quite a while everyone else just kind of sat there awkwardly. So she's a little socially inept.

She'll also count out drawing numbers, out loud, hundreds of them. A little annoying.

So it really didn't surprise me that today she comes in and she's got the sniffles... awww... She decides to do what any other person would do, stuff kleenex up both her nostrils. It's hanging out for everyone to see. Hotness.

I guess she just kind of adds to the wacky atmosphere here at the office.

There's the whistling guy. Thankfully he's stopped since I've asked him, I've given him credit for that. He's made such amazingly condescending comments to me like, "I guess you're not just another pretty face" and "Good job, I'm proud of you!" when I'm speaking in Spanish to someone.

I think my favorite is the guy who uses outdated emoticons in everything. EVERYTHING. Every email even to our client! I practically peed my pants when I saw the following message in a conference room:

"Room Reserved for 11/9
and 11/10 :>/"

Yes, he wrote out the colon, carrot and backslash.

I could go on about some others, but right now I think these are my favorites.

Happy Halloween!

2006-10-14T23:39:00.000-05:00

Joe and I had a loverly Saturday. We stayed in, as evidenced by my blog post on a Saturday night. In my defense, it is freeeeezing outside! So this morning (or rather 2p.m. otherwise known as 'Joe and Nicole morning' time) we walked down Clark St. to see if the farmer's market was open. It wasn't. Pretty uneventful. But we stopped at Oven Grinder's and got some amazing pizza. They bake it in bowls with the crust on top so when you flip it over it looks like a mushroom cap full of goodness. I just ate my leftovers.

After the pizza, we went to the lovely local grocer's and picked up, among other things, a pumpkin to carve. Yea! I haven't carved a pumpkin in a really long time. Joe's idea was to, "make it a mew mew." I did the ears, a couple whiskers and Joe did the rest. Here is our finished product:

No, it's NOT a mouse!

I think we did an excellent job even with our limited artistic ability. In fact, I guess we did TOO good of a job because Bear is terrified of this thing. TERRIFIED. I was trying to take a lovely Halloween family photo and he was having none of it.

It's gonna EAT ME!!!

His little paws are gripping my arm with a death-like vice. Despite several attempts to warm bear up to Pumpkin, our new cat, not even treats could get him up on the table. The closest he got was me holding him on the edge of the table. He was very upset. Who knew black cats and pumpkins really don't get along??

LIE

Clarktoberfest?

2006-10-09T12:10:00.000-05:00

The street I live on (Clark St.) is organizing an event this weekend. It's called... CLARKTOBERFEST!!!! What is it, you ask? I dunno... no seriously, I can't figure it out. I have no clue what exactly will be going on at Clarktoberfest. As far as I can tell, these are the nifty things I have to look forward to that Clark Street is celebrating:

Increased sidewalk area
Snowplowing services on said sidewalks
A clean-up crew has been hired to pick up garbage and debris on Clark Street every Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday (does this include the homeless? just askin'...)
Decorations were provided on the street poles for the holidays (oooooo faaaancy!)
Power washing of the sidewalks

So I know what we're supposed to be excited about, but still, wtf is Clarktoberfest?? Maybe the poster will provide clues...

Hmm.... sot here wil be joggers and dogs eh? Interesting...

From the website: "Clarktoberfest will kick off on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. on the patio at Ranalli’s on Clark (2301 N. Clark) with an unveiling ceremony, during which the Clark Street SSA will officially make public the new Clark by the Park logo. The Clarktoberfest festivities also include sidewalk sales, live music, food samples and other giveaways, such as Clark by the Park-branded tee-shirts and dog treats, walking maps, and coupons."

Ooooo! Logos. Snazzy. I hope they're giving away commemoral Clark St. t-shirts. (OMG I was totally joking about the t-shirts, and I just re-read that section and saw them... wow. Clark St. REPRESENT!) And I am all about food samples. Not too crazy bout dog treats though.

Continued: "Clarktoberfest also marks the beginning of a marketing campaign aimed at reducing storefront vacancies and alerting Chicago residents to the variety of shopping and dining opportunities available on Clark Street."

I have to say there is a crazy amount of storefront vacancies on the street. Quizno's didn't even survive! (To its credit, there's another Quizno's four blocks away on Lincoln, so it might not have been the best idea to put a new one there, but whatever.) Just recently, I saw some of my favorite crazy cheap jewelry stores are going out of business. Who knew that closing at 3 during the week would do that? On a more serious note, I found out this morning that Tower Records is liquidizing its stores. There's a Tower Records that occupies the entire second floor of my building. I consider them to be my favorite neighbor. They don't ever make any noise at night and they didn't complain when my toilet overflowed (I thought the water had gone down when I flushed it again, it was an OPTICAL ILLUSION I TELL YOU).

Then there are the stores I think should be out of business. Like my cleaners that used to be next day... and has mysteriously stretched to an unbelievable four days! Or the five or six sushi stores on the same two blocks. I am loyal to my Sushi Para Too and their $16.99 all you can eat special. There are two Indian cuisine restaurants with a Mexican place inbetween them. The wine bar??? I have no idea if anybody ever goes there because the windows are tinted. Finally, the one I really don't get, Rose's Perks. This place recently opened up very close to my home and I can't, for the life of me figure out what it is. There's a picture of coffee, but there is no coffee sold there. The inside is painted a deep purple and a neon green, but there's two seating chairs and a coffee table that look like something out of grandma's house. So what's in there, you ask? A collection of crap that looks like someone pulled it out of their attic and decided to try and sell it. She should rename her shop Garage Sale.

To Clark St.'s credit there really is no reason why these stores should be going out of business. It's a busy street and it's in a great location. And here I'm referring to the stretch of Clark from Armitage to Diversey. There's a high school right there, and DuPaul is directly west, with the Fullerton beach access directly east. Lincoln Park Zoo is blocks away! Maybe the problem is the rent? This is possible seeing as the majority of places that I do see vacant are managed by the same company. They have loads of great places that would make me cry if they went out of business (my staples in order of importance):

1. Sushi Para Too... do NOT take away my sushi, I will die and God knows Brandon will never come to visit me again.
2. The Golden Cup, I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeed their pancakes at 2p.m. on Sundays
3. Ranalli's, pizza until 5a.m.!
4. Walgreen's, it's just essential
5. Hema's Kitchen, gotta get me some curry
6. Galway Arms, I really don't go here to get some ecclectic Irish food as much as I should
7. Express, it's practically in my basement. I get to know about their sales before anyone else.
8. Dunlay's, goat cheese pizza and spinach artichoke dip are awesome
9. Weiner Circle, this is many people's favorite, mostly I just like to laugh whenever I see the sign and a line out the door at 12a.m. on Fridays.
10. PAWS, I just like seeing the kitties! mew mew mew

Anybody have any other favorite Clark St. stores/restaurants?

Chi Town & Other Randomness

2006-10-06T21:50:00.000-05:00

How much do I love Chi Town?

THIS MUCH!

This morning, while waiting for the bus, I saw a man, aged around 60 in a plaid shirt, overalls riding an adult-sized tricycle down the sidewalk. Yes, a tricycle. It was blue. I believe it had a basket. I looked for cameras, saw none. Now, I'm used to seeing dogs in strollers and all that, but an adult man on a tricycle?? Get a motorized Rascal like everyone else your age you crazy whack-a-doo!

p.s. He definitely had his gray hair tied back in a pony tail too.

Other random thoughts:

Halloween!!! J's par-tah is at the end of the month and I am so damn excited. So excited every time I read her 'Bring your own booooooos' part of the invitation I laugh hysterically. Tee hee.... boooooos, CLASSIC.

Thanksgiving!!! Officially going to Pittsburgh for the holiday. Bringing my new hubby (HUBBY!) with me. I cannot wait to see the fam, especially our new addition, Kelly's new baby Ryan!! And I know he is just dying to see the nasty, horrible blanket I'm making him. It started out as a good idea, but alas, it has died. Will post pics later. Am thinking of keeping it and putting it over the arms of my couch so that the cats rip that apart instead of my apolstery. I think that's much better than bringing it with and saying "Hey look Kel! I can instantaneously make your baby cry! Look at this! Yep, the monkeys face looks like it's been beaten in, tis true."

UPDATE:

Why does my monkey have only one ear?? AND NO BODY?!?!?!?

WHAT'S on my head??!!!

When Santa got dirty and drunk, the monkies took their revenge...

He tried to hide under some garbage...

But there was no escape!!!!

BONUS KITTY PICTURES!!!

LOVE LUMPS!

AH! Two-headed cat!! They're guarding the trap door.... to my heart... awwwww!!!

Overheard in Nicole's House

2006-06-30T13:02:00.000-05:00

Too Many Pepe le Piu Cartoons

My mom: Bryan, are you going to take Spanish or French this year?
Bry: French
M: I don't know, it's really hard and both Nicole and I can help you with the Spanish.
B: No it's not! You just put 'le' in front of everything. Le I am le going to le speak frances.

AIM Conversations
How much?

Nicole82: Ok bye! I love you!
Nicole82: THIS MUCH!!
Ross89: I love you too!
Ross89: this much

Ah the Computer Illiterate

Mom41: Hi, it's your mom.
Nicole82: Yes I know, hello.
....five minutes later...
Mom41: Bye! love, Mom

Wait... Did I Just Tell you...
(At dinner after a couple glasses of wine)
Mom: So the baby shower was a lot of fun?
Me: Oh yah, we had a great time even though the weather was awful and nobody came.
Dad: It's nice that you got to go though.
Me: I know! There are so many baby showers going on! Kathleen's, Kelly's, a girl I work with. There must be something in the water, I'm drinking bottled from now on.
::laughing::
Me (thinking): Wait... did I just tell my parents that Joe and I are...

Denial
Me: So I know I've told you guys it's a possibility that Joe will move in with me after his lease is up. Well, we've decided that's the best thing to do so he'll be moving in at the end of the month.
Mom: hmm... Well make him help you paint this place!
Dad: What? You're worried about the PAINT?

A Little Awkward
Joe: Thanks so much for helping me move this mattress.
Dad: Yah Nicole said she doesn't like hers any more and that yours is a lot better.
Joe: Yah she does...
Dad: Uh-huh...
Joe: ummm...

Blaaaaaaaah

2006-06-28T17:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't been to class for a while now. I have just been a little crazed with wedding stuff going on and some snags that have come up. Joe's moving in all of his stuff tomorrow into OUR place! He moved all the important stuff on Tuesday (read: computer and laundry). Since he doesn't start work until 2p.m. he gets to stay in OUR bed all morning. Which makes me want to skip work all the time just so I can get in some good nappin.

Joe's slowly trying to win my kitties over. He said Fenster's been jumping into bed to sleep with him. Which doesn't surprise me because Mew-mew is a giant whore. He's getting worse too. People come over, he comes into the room to see what's up and starts the whoring. Typical whoring strategy begins with making enticing 'mew' sounds and rubbing his face on everything and anything. Manusbear's strategy is limited to me only. It consists of running in front of me into the bedroom, jumping on the bed, laying down with his back to me and then looking back over his shoulder coyly "Wanna pet me? eh? EH? I know you wanna! Look at my lovelumps! They're ADORABLE!" And then turning into a croggity old man. "I can't believe you jostled me slightly by laying down on the bed! Oh!? OH? FENSTER wants some attention?? Well FUCK THAT! I'm going to go lick myself in front of the balcony where all the neighbors can see!"

Little did Joe realize that when he moved in he adopted both a whorey man and a grumpy one. OH! And don't even get me started on the guinea pig.

Summer Sesssion is Ending...

2006-06-15T15:13:00.000-05:00

With the wedding right around the corner (AH!) I decided not to sign up for the next session of ballet. The instructor said I could pay as I went along, so I think I'm going to do that. I can't stop altogether!

Yesterday we only had four people in the class. I wore a $5 long jersey tank top that was cut on the edges and my hott pants. I felt very 80s waspy. I have decided that Forever 21 is my new favorite ballet gear store. Little do they know their collection of retro 80s t-shirts are my Mecca. I just bought one of those long sleeved tie shirts (in turqouies) that only cover your boobs for like $4. It will look spectacular over my black leotard. I love that people actually wear this crap around, and I only wear it to ballet class. I also have a hoodie that has its arms cut off and shows off the mid-drift. I bought it with Meg one day.

Me: Hey Meg! If I was walking with you and I was wearing this would you cross the street?
Meg: Oooooh, I'm sure I've worn plenty of stuff you wouldn't want to be seen with.
Me: ...No.
Meg: Then yes.

As real clothes go I think I have a couple of tops from Forever 21 that I actually wear in public, but they're all the kind of thing where you have to wear something under them, like a tank top so that people don't stop and point at your bra. And so that Joe doesn't call me 'Hooty McBoobs.'

We did a lot of jumps in ballet class yesterday and today my calves are really sore. I love how the teacher goes into the whole explanation of "jump in fifth one two three four, and sissone one two and royale and step back side front, royale, and back side BACK and now left one two three four, and sissone one two and royale and step right back side front, royale and back side back NOW the ARMS" WHA? NO ARMS! ME NO DO ARMS. I didn't do arms... She was talking about this whole shoulder thing, frankly it was lost on me. I mean seriously, she's lucky if I don't run into somebody. I practiced it later at home except holding onto something. The cats enjoyed the show.

Fenster Embraces his Heritage

2006-06-07T00:52:00.000-05:00

Ok ok ok ok.... which one do I submit to www.stuffonmycat.com ....

Option 1: Direct, unashamed

Option 2: Closer, coy
Option 3: Where the hell is my tail?? Taaaail! Tail? wtf?

Mmmmm Ghetto Food Fabulous

2006-06-06T23:04:00.000-05:00

I am a ghetto food aficionado. Joe's the actual worshipper of all things long, laborious and there fore delicioso in the food industry. I am the huge shortcut girl. Making your own chicken stock? Pish-shaw! So I'm always in search of the perfect recipes which means they don't take longer than half an hour and they use ingredients I have in my fridge. ...The latter option is more of a problem. View below:

This is my fridge. Contents:
-One plastic container of old grated Parmesan cheese
-Two containers of deli sliced honey ham mmmmm yum!
-Four bottles of water, one open
-One teeny thing of jell-o left over from when I was being a super cheap skate and decided to fill tiny gladware containers with jell-o
-One half filled thing of salsa
-Horse radish from when Joe made bloody mary's... six months ago...
-Pickles?
-Another half eaten jar of salsa
-A very old jar of Miracle Whip, but I don't think that stuff goes bad
-One seedless cucumber
-My leftovers and lunch for tomorrow in the gladware
-Half an onion
-Part of a garlic thingy that used to be whole but I had to throw half of it away because it started to sprout
-Asparagus
-Half a bag of pre-mixed spring greens

In the door:

-Two things of mustard
-Butta
-Three jars of empty salad dressing
-One jar of fat free Ranch that I will never eat
-One water bottle full of pear chipotle marinade mmmm
-One jar full of ginger soy marinade
-Half a thing of milk which is amazingly unspoiled
-Chai tea mix mmm

So what recipe could I possible find that would work?? THE BEST ONE EVA!!! Here is, courtesy of Better Homes magazine, a crazy good recipe I modified a wee bit so I could make it, and it was awesome.

Prep: 15 minutes
Grill: 12 minutes
Ingredients

4 medium skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound total) (frozen in my freezer yea!)
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil (leftover from when Joe and I attempted Chicken Curry. Note: Curry powder NOT the same as Curry paste... this took two tries)
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter (me gots the crunchy kind yea!!)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (every good single girl has at least leftover packets of this stuff)
1 tablespoon cooking oil (I used peanut oil... I like making popcorn on the stove and it's definitely the best for that - thanks Kate!)
1 clove garlic, minced
4 French-style rolls, split (aw french my big white butt)
1/4 cup radish sprouts (yah cut this out)
1/2 cup packaged shredded broccoli (broccoli slaw mix) (how bouts spring greens?)
1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional) (already included in the peanut butter! look at me I am a cooking multi-tasker!)

Directions
1. Rinse chicken; pat dry. Combine sesame oil and crushed red pepper; brush over chicken.
2. Grill chicken on the lightly greased rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium heat for 12 to 15 minutes or until tender and no longer pink, turning once.
3. Meanwhile, for sauce, in a small saucepan,* stir together sugar, peanut butter, soy sauce, oil, garlic, and 2 tablespoons water. Heat on grill rack until sugar is dissolved, stirring frequently. For the last 1 minute of grilling, place split rolls on the grill rack to toast. I definitely did not do this on the grill because I don't want to ruin what little pans I have. Also, little note to you... do NOT put the oil in first when the pan is hot and THEN the soy sauce KABOOM! There was smoke and soy sauce all up in my everywhere. The next time I put the soy sauce first when the pan was a lot cooler and it worked perfect. I guess the whole put is just to barely warm things up just so the sugar dissolves... Made me very glad I wasn't an over-achiever and decide to do it on the grill. Yah and screw the fancy shmancy rolls, I just put it right on my salad instant mix.
4. To serve, place cooked chicken breasts on bottom halves of rolls; spoon on sauce and top with radish sprouts, broccoli, peanuts (if desired), and roll tops. Makes 4 servings. Blah blah blah they're lucky I didn't eat it with my hands... No! I DID eat it with a fork and knife... but they said nothing about not licking the pan with the peanut sauce... mmmmmmmm
*Note: The heat from the grill will blacken the outside of the saucepan, so use an old one or a small cast-iron skillet.
Nutrition facts per serving: calories: 360; total fat: 14g; saturated fat: 3g; cholesterol: 59mg; sodium: 852mg; carbohydrate: 29g; fiber: 1g; protein: 28g; vitamin A: 3%; vitamin C: 14%; calcium: 4%; iron: 14%

So this really really turned out well. But I am totally stealing this peanut sauce. I will slather it on pasta, chicken, all over my body, everywhere!!! It is so daaaang good. Me loves me some peanut sauce, but there is only one kind that they sell at my grocery store and it's too spicy for my taste. I've looked at other recipes for it, but they are WAY more complicated and sometimes require a food processor?? Screw that - I'm lucky I have pots and pans. Although, after this wedding I will probably have the option of selling the Le Creuset to pay for Joe's school loans... It's nice to have assets to fall back on.

p.s. check out the picture on William Sonoma website.... awww gawd ::drools:: me loves me some lobster.

p.p.s. BONUS KIITTY PIC!!! On the window sill:

Oh So Totally 80s

2006-05-31T22:39:00.000-05:00

I wore the best ballet outfit eva today to class. I had my pink cut-off tights, black leotard and my off one shoulder lose 80s graphic t-shirt. It is da bomb dot com. Yah I spelled that out all right. I love my tights. I definitely got a size too small because the elastic at the cut-off part is leaving impressions on my calves (I always have to get huge sized tights no matter what the sizing chart says due to my abnormal limbs, but we have covered this). Still, they suck me in and make me feel stronger. Either it's the pilates abs class I'm taking or the tights, but I feel like my 'core' is getting more solid. That's right! Just try and punch me in the gut when I have these things on, you're gonna like totally break your hand.

p.s. The Breakfast Club is definitely on abc Family tonight.
p.p.s. Sadly, the guy who plays the principal died yesterday or today I think. And not from breakin skulls.

Speaking about throw-downs, I ran into an interesting punk today. I was on the red line and it is just packed. Of course, nobody gets on at my stop (Monroe) because there's nothing really there except for the Palmer House Hilton. So I got a prime seat. I wasn't far too from the door. Unfortunately, five stops later, there are people jam-packed in the aisles and one of the doors isn't working on one side. Awesome, right? My stop is next. I contemplate moving toward the door and quickly veto that idea seeing as I can't even stand up. The train slows down, I gesture to the guy next to me I'm getting off and he tries to move to the side. The doors open, it's like the parting of the Red Sea except much more awkward and sweaty and there were no divine powers involved. At this point, people are already pushing themselves onto the train. I'm doing the 'scuse me, sorry, thanks, scuse me' routine, and one guy is nice enough to yell out 'Coming off!' So the people start backing off and this chick in front of me who is trying to get on goes, 'Watch it, bitch!'

She is a lovely 5' nothing in a green trucker hat with a scowl on her face and all I can muster is "Excuse ME" and I push myself off. She is so lucky I walked away because I was ready to take that hobag on. Booya! That's right! Lookin at me like she's gonna do sumthin, whatev!

I spent the rest of my way home visualizing myself waiting until right before the train doors close, snatching the Von Dutch hat off her head screaming "Watch THIS!" and running for it. I may also possibly flip her the bird, haven't decided.

Of course, in reality, how this would really go is I snatch the hat too soon and trip over my flip-flops as soon as I get to the stairs and her and her wannabe thugs jump me and take my ipod... and my turqouise ipod case... and break all my fingers... but not before I get in some good clawing and scratching haha!

Follow-Up: Here's my Totally 80s T

But I Don't Even Get Paid to Deal with This

2006-05-26T09:13:00.000-05:00

I had a ridiculous flashback to my years as a resident advisor last night. It was scary. So my neighbor on one side that I've seen maybe twice decided to throw a party. Fine, whatever. Well, it gets to be around 12:30 and all I hear is literally screaming, SCREAMING. Girls squealing and guys screaming out the window. I am too old for this crap. I heard my other neighbor knock on the door and ask them to keep it down about an hour ago. So I head over, in my pajama top, jeans, my hair all gross because I worked out and knocked on the door.

"SHHHH!!! SHHHH!!!"
"Just like don't even answer it man, don't even answer it."
::shuffling around, possible hiding of solo cups lol::
::I knock again::
"Man just ANSWER IT!"
"Naw naw, they'll go away, just don't even answer it."
me, annoyed, "Just answer the door, I'm not going anywhere."
::knock again:: Guy comes to the door
guy: Do you live in the building?
me (thinking: no, actually I live across the street. wtf? YAH!)
me: You don't live here, I need to speak to the guy who lives here.
guy: Aw it's his 21st birthday! WOO!
girl behind him: We're leaving in like TWO minutes, I swear.
me: Yah, uh-huh ok. I need to sleep. I've got work tomorrow -
guy: Aw really? What do you do?
me (thinking: wtf? I am NOT having a freaking conversation with you right now): I'm an electrical engineer.
guy: Oh yah?
me: Yah I'm badass.
guy: We're going to leave in like two minutes, I promise. PROMISE! Pinkie swear?
me: no.
guy: Yah we're outta here in TWO minutes.
me: Ok, you're leaving, I'm sleeping, cuz if I'm not sleeping, I'm at your door. Awesome. G'nite.
guy ::motions the high five, I leave him hanging::

What busts my chops about this is that his place is definitely a $400,000 condo ... and now it's a $400,000 condo that reeks of bad beer. I don't think his daddy's getting a good return on this one.

Dobeedobeedoooo

2006-05-24T17:39:00.000-05:00

Wednesday...

Boring boring Wednesday...

...until 7 p.m. when I will be forgoing my ballet class and heading to Goose Island for

*****BEER NACHOS*****

Due to my wedding 'diet' (otherwise known as the Nicole system) whose basic motto is "don't eat things that are obviously bad for you, like entire bags of doritos or french fries with mayonnaise, or entire bags of lime tostitos with salsa, or basically entire boxes/bags of anything in one sitting" I will be eating only beer nachos. I know this sounds minimalist but that's obviously because you haven't HAD beer nachos from Goose Island. Suriously... four people can make a meal out of these things. They serve nachos with jalepenos, cheese, and your choice of meat with a giant bread bowl filled with beer cheese. The thing is bottomless, I swear to God. In fact, I've been preparing myself for my meal of beer nachos by eating only oatmeal for breakfast and a 4/5 pt. lean cuisine for lunch (that's four or five not four fifths)... and 2 medium sized pretzels. Now I must fast.

So the Nicole system is a little more complicated than that, but in the beginning those were my basic guidelines and YES it was hard for me to resist the huge bags of potato chips. I can't remember the last time I had a dorito unless you can count those dried out pieces of baked crap I'll sometimes pick out at Jimmy John's with my slim sub with ::gulp:: mustard, no mayo. But of course I don't miss that... wtf! YES I MISS THAT! I miss being freaking 15 yrs. old, 125 lbs., 5'7" eating a box of ho ho's when I came home from school and drowning my sandwiches in ::drooling:: Helmann's real mayonnaise ...gawwww... I mean suriously, if the clouds parted and a voice boomed "You can eat whatever you want and stay amazingly skinny" I truly believe any health-conscious person would drop the tofu and head to Fannie Mae, screw the chloresterol. Anyone who talks up how they would never go back is a LIAR!!! LIIIIIAR!! "I don't even miss those big juicy cheeseburgers -" LIE!! I guess my point is, all in moderation. So to save my wedding diet sanity, I'm going to get beer nachos.

Nicole Tries Ballet New Session

2006-05-18T14:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was having kind of a bad day. I'd bought a new dress, a strapless one and I had to wrestle with my boobs to make it work. There was the regular strapless bra, the boustie, I even tried tape. Twenty minutes later, the girls are looking good, but I've slipped into the kind of depressed mood where I want to sit in my pajama pants and watch reruns of Top Chef while eating endless amounts of wheat thins and boursin cheese (THE best cheese ever) and drink a tub of Crystal Light Lemonade. Somehow this makes me feel like I'm somewhat near being a Top Chef... it's the cheese.

But I resisted. I said NO, No Nicole, you will not let boobs ruin your day, you will stuff those ladies into a double layer of bras, wear your favorite 'Kiss me I'm Irish' t-shirt (somewhat false advertising seeing as I wouldn't let you kiss me and I'm really only 25% Irish but no matter), throw on those hott pants and go to ballet! And then it hailed... Luckily it stopped before class and I was determined to make it out.

Off I went! Hott pants and all, through the lovely condominium meeting in my lobby. And ballet class of course wound up being a great stress reliever yet again. Maybe it's because no matter what, you can't help but see yourself in a great big tutu twirling around, and let's face it, you just cannot be in a bad mood after that. It's just too ridiculous to be sad about. Makes me wish I had class twice a week.

So here I am at work today, wishing I were at ballet class. Because there, I can wear legwarmers. And I got the ones with stirrups for your feet that go up to your thighs and they. are. awesome.

Hellooooo

2006-05-16T16:09:00.000-05:00

Here I am at work, still waiting for a new project to start, dragging out my 15 min. of actual work to last all day, and I thought I'd talk about the new ballet session! YEA!!!

Our first class was May 3rd. The only people who have returned are T-back, actress and me. There are a bunch of new people who have never taken and one girl who is really good. But she only came to the class on the 3rd, so I think she dropped it. This makes me, dum dum DUUUMMMM! The Best Dancer in the Class!! Amazing, isn't it?

I practice my backbend solo for the modern section of our ballet repertoire

The first class was pretty boring because we spent a loooooooong time at the bar going over things I alread knew. The second class was a bit better but we did pirouhettes! I HATE pirouttes.

I'm... getting... so... dizzy!

Otherwise, it went well. I love going, it's such a stress reliever. Gaw! I'm ready to get out of this building!!!

Doc

2006-05-08T18:46:00.000-05:00

I realized I never did a follow-up post on what really went down in my back doc appt. It was thrilling. And by thrilling, I mean a colossal waste of my time. Although the x-ray guy did give me some oreos so at least I didn't go hungry. But I probably walked around the rest of the afternoon with oreo in my teeth. Hotness.

Doc: So it doesn't look like your spine curvature has gotten worse.
Me: Well no, of course not, I'm dealing with pain associated with an injury in high school.
Doc: Aha...
Me: I get these shooting pains around my rib cage and it hurts more when I breathe in, they usually last now for about half an hour. Before they went away after a couple minutes.
Doc: Hmm... Does the pain inhibit you from any of your normal activities?
Me (confused): Well yah, I mean I can't really breathe.
Doc: No no, I mean normally.
Me (more confused): Uhh... yah because I can't breathe.
Doc: No! I mean AFTER the pain is gone.
Me (ready to strangle someone): Of course not, because then the pain is gone.
Doc: Right, riiiiiiight... hmmm... we-ell, since it's not interfering with your daily life I suggest you give us a call if it gets worse over the next couple of months.
Me: Isn't that... what I just did?
Doc: We could give you an MRI but I sincerely doubt that would show anything.
Me: Ok... so what am I supposed to do?
Doc: Call me if it gets worse, in the meantime I'm giving you some literature on vitamins, they are shown to improve joints.
Me: Vitamins????
Doc: Oh yes, I highly recommend the vitamins.

So I left, with yet another set of lovely x-rays and an article on effing vitamins. I'm so excited for the bill to arrive.

When I got home I started searching breast reduction surgery. I was totally for it, but after seeing some of these pictures... ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I think I'll wait this one out as long as humanly possible.

Update: so it's been weeks after the doc visit. And back pain wound be the same. Vitamin article remains unread. Sue me.

Mew?

2006-05-03T00:40:00.000-05:00

On my train ride home today (or rather my train ride to my bus ride home), I spotted the 55+ year old man across from me reading THIS:

Ah yes, Warriors: Into the Wild. It is also followed by Warriors: Fire and Ice. Read the thrilling synopsis from Amazon.com below:

Grade 5 Up-Rusty, a young "kittypet" (house cat), yearns for adventure. When he's offered the chance to join the ThunderClan, one of the gangs of feral cats in the area, he doesn't hesitate. Renamed Firepaw, he becomes an apprentice and begins to train as a warrior. After rescuing Yellowfang, ex-medicine cat for the ShadowClan who has fled for her life, Firepaw and the other ThunderClan members find themselves in the middle of a turf war against the rival gang, led by the nefarious Brokenstar. There's a traitor in their midst, though, and Firepaw must learn more than just hunting and fighting to survive. The author has created an intriguing world with an intricate structure and mythology, and an engaging young hero. The supporting cast of players is large and a little confusing, but there are standouts who give dimension to the tale. The difficult life of a feral cat is described in some detail, and a fair amount of violence is included. The ending is left ambiguous-there is definitely more to come. This is not as elegantly written as Brian Jacques's "Redwall" series (Philomel), but it's another option for fans of animal adventure/fantasy stories.
Mara Alpert, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

THUNDERCLAN GRRRROWWWWL!!!

I wonder if he was a teacher... hmmm downtown on State St. on a Tuesday? Probs not. A very responsible... grandfather? Who decided he must read Warriors: Into the Wild to make sure it has appropriate content for his grandchild? Wait... Brokenstar? Firepaw? Doubtful...

I leave you with one more quote from Amazon:

Inside This Book
First Sentence:
It was very dark.

I'm hooked

Oy....

2006-04-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

So I did not go to ballet yesterday because I've been having back issues. I'm hoping my back issues will lead to a doctor's appointment that goes something like this:

Doc: Nicole! There seems to be only one cause to this problem.
me: Oh really, one?
Doc: Well... two. I'm afraid you're going to need an emergency breast reduction right away.
me: Emergency?!
Doc: It's that grave. Of course this means it'll be totally and completely free of charge, in fact I'd do it pro bono if the hospital had any issues. Let's face it, your size is... well... obscene. I'm surprised this didn't become worse sooner, you must have quite the pain tolerance.
me: Well when I was little I did dare the kids in the playground to try and make me cry by stomping on my toes... I never did.
Doc: Hmm... we might want to get you a psyche consult as well...

Ah yes... I'm guessing it won't quite go that way...

So this morning, I went to work, as I normally do. Got into a mildly crowded elevator and proceeded to be tortured with the most unfunny trying to be funny conversation EVER. Why do all engineers think they're hilarious?? This was one of those conversations you KNOW the guy had with someone else (poor bastard) because it sounds so rehearsed. Imagine this entire conversation delivered in monotone.

Guy1: My son's moving to New York, so I told him, "You can transverse your L skills over there."
Guy2: Oh yes definitely
me: wtf?
Guy1: The standing, the leaning.
Guy2: Exactly how much to lean with all the people... egress
me: you are both clearly from the suburbs
Guy1: ha. ha. Yes egress. When to get on and off.
me: is this my floor? ... fuck...
Guy2: Finding a space to go in when it's crowded.
me: go faster elevator!!!

This is what I'm subjected to day after day after day after daaaaaaaay...

S&TC

2006-04-25T23:14:00.000-05:00

My favorite FAVORITE episodes of Sex and the City usually involve Carrie being drunk.

Example 1: The Secret Sex Episode
Carrie gets plastered, goes to Big's place to comfront him about him being 'ashamed' of her. Poured herself a martini, onto the floor.

Example 2: VOGUE!
One of my absolute favorites. Carrie goes to VOGUE to get her first article reviewed. Shows up in a killer dress, unfortunately her article is just ripped apart by one of her editors. Winds up getting plastered with yet some more martinis.
"I'm drunk! ...I'm drunk at VOGUE!"
Gotta love the killer shot of the Vogue shoe closet. ...mmm a moment of silence for the gloriousness of it...

Example 3: Awkward Sex with Berger
I love Berger episodes. Ron Livingston is good times. His wobbly motorcycle skills = classic. What can I say? I am a sucker for those handsome funny guys. Anyway, Carrie and Berger get totally plastered after having awful sex two times. They go back to Carrie's place where Carrie attempts to be a ssssssssseductwessss.
"Looka dat! How daya like dat huh?" ::flashes bra::
Then she oh so non-chalantly strips herself of her sexy shoes... that wind up hitting Berger in the face. HOT.

Example 4: Classic Carrie
This episode always reminds me of Leanne. Cuz she inevitably winds up not-so-gracefully falling on her face but geta up and STILL looks FABulous! Carrie gets invited to be in a celebrity fashion show. After a couple complimentary bottles of champagne her 'big girl' shoes wind up being too big and SPLAT!
Stanford, "She's fashion roadkill!"
Only made better by one of the best disco mantras of the century (yes CENTURY!) "To be REEEEEEEEEEAL!" Yah you know you sang along at the end of the episode.

...

...........

.................

And you're singing it now. Yah me too...

Nicole Tries Ballet Part 11

2006-04-25T16:16:00.000-05:00

Since I've received oh so many demands for a new blog post (okay it was just one) here ya go.

Last week we did pretty much of the same. Tomorrow is our last class actually. Nothing really exciting happened in class so I'm going to talk about the wedding a bit.

Now Joe and I want to send out invitations June 1st. We actually sent out save the date cards a couple weeks ago (if you didn't get one it's because you're not special... no suriously it is). Anyway, a couple of Joe's friends that were supposed to get one didn't because I DO NOT HAVE THEIR ADDRESSES! You're saying, oh those old friends are so hard to get in touch with. No, no, these are current friends, current friends living maybe a mile away. The list would include, one of Joe's former roommates AFTER college, guys he and his roommates usually hang out with every other week, and the topper on the cake, one of the best men, there's two. After asking Joe to help me, he got ONE guy's address. Finally, I asked his other best man to help. He, who shall remain nameless *cough* Matt *cough* never returned my call. Which was surprising because the boy has a cell phone glued to his right hand. He's in touch with people I haven't seen in eight years. Awesome. To Joe's credit, he lacks the innate nagging ability that was infused into me in the womb through all the amniotic... uhhh... stuff... I decided to take more action.

Here I must admit that I joined facebook a couple months ago-no wait! No, no don't go! I know, I know it's lame, what do you want from me? I only have like 20 'friends.' Anyway, I know two of Joe's friends through facebook. One, again, never returned my messages. Then finally, FINALLY I received a message!!

i am so sorry i didn't respond. i gave up AIM
and Facebook for Lent, really, and I've been
horrible at contact. if you still need any
addresses, please e-mail me: don'tworryiwillsaveyoufromthehopelessabyss@gmail.com

Thanks!
jason

PRAISE JEBUSALLAHBUDDHAWHOEVERHELPEDME!! After I emailed the one guy who actually volunteered to help, he sent this lovely email out to everyone except for ONE GUY (and I didn't expect him to have that guy's info. anyway so it totally worked).

Hey folks:

I don't know why someone out in Nebraska is doing this, but here I go:

Nicole needs your mailing addresses. E-mail her at helpmehelpme@gmail.com

To which one of the guys responded with his multiple email addresses. Do you see why I'm struggling here????

At least, in a matter of hours I had every guy's address except for one. Guess who? The best man's. Figures.

Nicole Tries Ballet Part 10

2006-04-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

This may be a long entry. Today's ballet class was a lot of fun. There were only five people there which was really nice, more room to move around. We learned some new things at the barre. Most of which really worked on the leg muscles (surprise surprise). It was harder for me because I was really sore today. I did a pilates abs class at Bally's yesterday and it really kicked my ass. So naturally when we moved to the floor we did abs exercises ::groan::. Needless to say I'll definitely be feeling it tomorrow.

After stretching a bit we started doing jumps. Luckily I thought ahead and put on, not one, but two exercise bras. Oh yah, I was double dutying it up baby. And it worked wonders. We did a complicated combination and I think I could get it if I practiced some more. I just get confused on which foot to lift first because we do right and left sides. After that we did more piques, which I rocked. AGAIN. WHOOP! Let's get to the important part of this entry... I've been promising PICTURES WEEE!!!!! So here is my new black leotard, pink tights and legwarmers:

Flashdance!

Here's me in my new blue leotard and hott pants

Relevae with kitty (only professionals dare to tackle this death-defying move, that's my concentration face)

Sorry for the delay on this post. Things were crazy busy and blogger was giving me a hard time with uploading photos.

So you may be wondering why I'm not talking about my mom coming to class... that's because she WHIMPED OUT!!! It was too bad too because it would've been fun with her there. ::sigh:: Oh well, I'll just keep dancing my little heart out.

On another note, I was talking to a girl in my class and she said she was, "an actress." I asked her what she was working on and she said, "auditioning, EVERYbody's auditioning right now." Hmm... interesting. The actress isn't that great at dancing. She's the extra flexible girl who just isn't picking things up.

Sometimes I wonder about the people in the class, a lot of them have missed a bunch of them. I don't know, for me, I don't want to waste my money by not showing up, not that the classes were really expensive or anything, but I'm a frugal bastard and I hate wasting a dime, dollop of food, etc. I go out of my way to pick up pennies and I eat food far past the expiration date. I'm pretty sure the cream cheese I'm still pulling out is dated a month ago. In fact, I have no qualms about taking laundry to my parent's house still or stealing a bit of their food. I had to talk myself out of stealing the aloe infused toilet paper. I go out of my way to get to The Union on Fridays for their $10 all you can drink beer + well drinks + all you can eat pizza deal. It's $10!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even buy lunch any more, my cheek-clenched money habits have beaten my laziness into submission. I do spend money on clothes and shoes, but in my defense I WILL wear them until they are pit-stained, full of holes and beyond the help of arm and hammer baking soda.

I think I get these habits from my dad. The guy who picks out TV's from the dumpster and fixes them up (I think he has four in his workshop, not counting the two I have in my apt. THANKS DAD!). He has a bagfull of rags from old clothes that never seem to go away. He also picks out furniture. He has his and hers lazyboys sitting somewhere that he found along with a dinette, two papazans, and I have no idea what else. This is why I love him.

Maybe it's from my Aunt Kathy. Who endlessly cuts up papers that are already printed on to use for scratch. We had mountains and mountains of this scratch paper, it was endless. If this woman had the recipe for post-it glue, she'd be putting them out of business.

OR it could be my crazy grandfather. He puts the 'crazy' into frugal bastard. Yep he's definitely a crazy frugal bastard. He'll stiff people who worked for him and then try and hire them again. He keeps the same decrepit boat around even though it's rotting and squirrel infested. He has the same suits from the 70s (my brothers beg to wear them to school dances) that are bright yellow with gigantic collars. He also has medications decades old. I'm already going to apologize for the next story. When I asked him for q-tips, he showed me his 'stash' of ones that he'd already used but kept around. ::shudder:: Is that something from the handkerchief era, or just my crazy grandpa? I'm thinking just my crazy grandpa.

Search Me

2006-04-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

Some of the interesting searches that have sent people to my blog:

Ballet Outfits
Ballet tights
Nude Ballet Videos
Diana DiGarmo in Hairspray
Project Jay

and my favorite
Ballet Cupcakes

Drunken A-holes

2006-04-08T03:04:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting night... I was determined to go out tonight because I'm pretty sure I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend in the burbs. Unfortunately, everyone else was determined to stay in. Losers... So I wound up having some drinks at the apartment of James, my BFFeva Meg's boyfriend. There we are, me, Meg, James and one of James's roommate's friends. And this guy is plastered. He went to the Cubs game so he started drinking around 6a.m. ok I exaggerate... 7. We wound up watching Rachel Ray's $40 a Day because it was in Chicago. Rachel decided to take in lunch at Backstage Bistro which is run by culinary students at the Art Institute of Chicago. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Joe had to do this for Kendall except they're open for dinner, too. They're also ranked #1 in the city.
Drunk Guy: Number one in the nation?
Me: No in Chicago.
D.G.: OH! I thought you said in the nation. pish! Number one in Chicago isn't saying much.
Me: It is considering Chicago is one of the biggest cities in the nation.
D.G.: There are other great schools in San Francisco, New York...
Me: I'd think the best school would be in France, and since that's not an option.
D.G.: Yah well it's not like being a chef is that hard anyway.
Me: Oh yah it's SOOOOO easy.
D.G.: Seriously.
Me: Ok. I was being sarcastic.
D.G.: It IS easy you just have to pay attention. All you need to know when you're being a chef is what flavors go with what. You say, "hey onions don't go with this, NO onions!"
Me: And you have experience in this?
D.G.: Well... uh ya-ah. I worked for Outback Steakhouse as a chef AND I cooked for my parents A LOT. In fact when my grandparents became ill with cancer I got a lot of experience cooking for them.
Me (oh great the cancer card, dropping the conversation now since I've met you five minutes ago, awesome)

After that, anything I said the guy just fought me on. Which was awesome. So I left. My cab ride home was also interesting... Cabbie tells me the last guy in the cab jipped him a fare so he "had" to knee him in the gut. I'm feeling very secure at this point. The conversation turns to him not wanting to see Brokeback Mountain "because of those fags." Awesome. I only so much as get out that I do not like that word before I decide to shut up. Definitely not a good idea to argue with a guy after he tells you he just kicked someone's ass.

So that was my Friday night. Good times, wish I'd stayed home...

Nicole Tries Ballet (In Style!) Part 9

2006-04-06T10:56:00.000-05:00

It seems my wireless router is broken, no blinking lights, not even the one for power. How this could happen is beyond me, the thing is not even a year old. Oh well... I might shell out the $$ for an apple one just so I can password protect my connection. Anyway, so I don't have pictures of my new outfits yet, but I'll work on it!

Yesterday I went to class wearing my new tights and legwarmers with a blue tee and shorts I already had. I love my legwarmers, even though I'm pretty sure a chick in my building was laughing at me. Whatever. The people in my building (save three) suck. They're all anti-social and snobs. Take my latest conversation with one for example:

Me: Thanks! (for holding elevator door)
Guy in Elevator: Oh they put tile in here.
Me ('duh it's been here for a week but guy has suitcase so will not judge): Yah.
G.I.E.: It looks nice.
Me: I guess, it gets pretty dirty easily though.
G.I.E.: Haha, well we've got to give Jaime (our maintenance guy) something to do! haha!
Me (mumbling with awkward laugh): That's... not... very nice...

I'm all for people doing the job they're paid for, but let's not go out of our way to make more work for them, seriously now. I like having a maintenance guy, but I wait until absolutely necessary to call him for something. Like when my air conditioning fan broke, or when my bathtub had to be snaked (ew), and when I broke a light fixture in my bathroom and I knew he had a replacement.

My next awful encounter with residents had to do with some girls who I don't know even live in the building. If they do, they definitely have daddy paying for it because there is no way they have a steady job. The day of the air and water show last year I threw a party on the rooftop and my parents and some of their friends came and so did a couple of mine including one of my good friends Jess who lives in Florida. A bunch of other people in the building were also there watching the show and drinking. So Jess and I run downstairs to my apartment for... something... probably amphetamines. And we're in the elevator with these three girls who see us push a floor other than ground floor where they're getting off, but somehow still seem surprised when the doors open since they don't move to get out. So Jess and I say, "Excuse us, excuse us!" and push through the dynamic drunk trio. Just as the doors close, one of them exclaims, "God! People are SO RUDE in this building!" Loud enough to echo down the hall, to which I respond, "OHMYGOD! Aren't they?!" I'm confused on how we were possibly rude. Maybe someday I'll be enlightened.

Anyway, my legwarmers rock! And Miss Gucci Sunglasses can kiss it, she is soooo jealous.

Class turned out to be a huge thigh worker. We were practicing going from the different positions out to second and up on our toes. You go super fast and have to keep yourself turned out. It's quite a work-out on the inner and outer thighs. We also did pirouettes at the bar again. I swear I have an easier time out in the middle doing these things, I don't know why. After some stretching we did jumps. I hate jumps. They hate me. Again, people with bazooms should not be forced to do jumps. Luckily, we moved on to doing piques with turns and then piques coupled with another kind of turn. I did pretty well, I have piques down because they're the easiest step to practice in my little apartment. I have a tiny path from my table to my door that I can go back and forth in.

I got the go ahead from my teacher that my mom can join class. I called her and told her she could definitely come next week with one stipulation: she is not allowed to voice her critiques unless I'm doing something that will definitely cause injury, I really don't want to hear anything negative about my class. I know we stink, and we're not professional, but I don't want to hear it from her. We'll see how this goes... In the next installment of!!!!! NICOLE TRIES BALLET!! STAY TUNED...

Mom?

2006-04-04T12:45:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a dentist appointment. I love my dentist. I have been going to the same one since I was 10. So when I moved to the city I had to look for a new one... yah I don't think so. I make the commute back to the burbs every single time just for my dentist. My mom was nice enough to pick me up from the train and take me there and then we went out to dinner. She had the salmon salad I had chick parmesan mmmm.... yummy!

There we were, dipping bread in olive oil and having glasses of merlot while my mom talked about her trip to California to visit my brother. Later on, the subject of my ballet classes came up. For anyone who doesn't know my mom was HUGE into ballet. She started when she was 10 and took until she was 18, went to college and taught classes there and then took more until after my littlest brother (not so little any more) was born. Let's see, so that would mean she stopped in '89. This story, coming from her, is accompanied by many tales of her riding the El at 10 "Can you BELIEVE my parents let me do that! They don't care about anybody but themselves. But I was fine." Going on to high school: "My friend Kim and I would spend hours stretching each other's arches." Then finally: "the doctor said I was ruining my feet and if I kept on doing what I was doing I'd wind up in a wheelchair." I always wondered how she danced for that long because she has the same bazooms that I do! Ouch! And this in the age before exercise bras.

Usually my mom goes on to talk about my cousin Kathleen and how she was an amazing dancer, "She would stand away from the bar, put her leg up behind her in arabesque with her nose down to her knee, then, with her leg up behind her she'd pull her body straight up! I saw her partners class and she was the best one in the room." Kathleen now has her yoga certification, which is no surprise. My mom says Kathleen and I have the same legs, we're both hyper-extended. She insists I would have been a good dancer if I had kept up with it when I was little. The difference apparently being that Kathleen did NOT get stung by a bee in the parking lot of HER dance studio and thus refuse to return to class.

I've got to give my mom credit, with all her obsession over dancing she didn't push me into it. In fact, she never really forced me into any of those hobbies. There was ballet, figure skating (which I quit when I found out I'd be forced to compete if I wanted to move up classes), horse back riding (I decided was too cold in the winter), and I settled on violin (because my best friend in first grade was taking lessons) and tennis (because Bryan and my dad started taking lessons).

Anyway, so there sat me and my mom in the car, driving back to the city and I found myself saying, "no really, you should come just for one class, it could be fun!"

"Oh I don't know... do you think I could just for one?"

"I'll ask my teacher if that'd be okay, it's only 50 min. and you could stay for the advanced class. But I warn you, our class, everybody's awful. And there's a man in a thong and tights. Just a warning."

"Don't you think I've seen that?"

"Sure, but he's OLD... like 50 in a thong and tights, it's a little disturbing."

"Oh I don't care."

So stay tuned... next week... it could be me and my mom... together... in leotards. SCARY!!! Why is the vision of my mom in tights doing pirouettes funny?

How to describe my mother... Yes, she was big into ballet. But she is in no way a pink tights, tutu girl. In addition to ballet my mom's other big obsession is hockey. Yes HOCKEY. When Miracle came out she'd get all teary describing USA's win over Russia. Then she'd launch into the accuracies/inaccuracies of the film's depiction of the games (which she says she has all on tape somewhere). Inevitably she'd settle on the last game where Russia never pulled their goalie, which in the film they say it's because the coach doesn't know what to do because he's never been in that position before. My mom insists it's because he's cocky, his team is a winner and it would show weakness to pull the goalie.

My mom's love of the game is definitely old school. She doesn't memorize stats or players, she takes it all in. She doesn't follow the puck along, she sees the whole ice. When the Blackhawks scoreboard starts to show pictures of their most favored players she rattles them off, but ask her who's number 19 on the team today, she has no idea. When the Stanley Cup comes around, she always roots for the underdog, hence her endless battle to get the Blackhawks to the finals. After a couple of glasses of wine, "My dream... is to watch the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals with my dad."

My mom coached for Purdue when she went there for college making her the first woman to coach collegiate hockey. She was written up in the Blue Line. First, the magazine had another woman in there, and went on to say she wrote all of these books about hockey and yadda yadda... I think my dad contacted them to tell them they made a mistake. So they wrote a retraction and listed my mom as the first, which was funny because she went on to coach two pee wee teams and then enjoyed the game from the audience.

She's been hit by the puck twice. Once in the head when she was coaching and was nine months pregnant with me (no comments please). The other time she was in her seat, and pregnant with one of my brothers. My mom is tough, driven, disciplined.

The vision of my mom, in tights and leotard, and ME doing plies, frankly, makes me laugh.

Nicole Tries Ballet Part 8

2006-03-29T22:37:00.000-06:00

Seems I've figured out why I had such a hard time last week. None of the flunkies were there! Everybody was back today and I got a little ego boost because we did p.k.'s and other spins that I've practiced a lot before. So I rocked going right AND left. Booya!

It seems registration for the next session starts April 1st. I think I'm going to sign up because it goes through May and June which is perfect for me. Things might be too crazy come July and August with wedding stuff. Besides, I want to take off for the *honeymoon* tee hee. Can't wait!

So I felt really good after class. I'm having a serious moment. I really think this class was a great idea. Starting out I knew it'd be a lot of fun, but I really feel more confident. I used to be more of a 'huncher' and now I feel like I stand up more straight. I feel less self-conscious about my arms, too. A girl in class said she thought I really improved! It was a nice compliment.

My new ballerina gear shipped yesterday. I'm so excited!!! I got tights, legwarmers and a leotard. Check it out.

Tootsies!

Wee wee I'm so cute in my legwarmers
In this ensemble I will be even more believable as a pro

Haha! My assimilation into the professional ballerina world is almost complete... little do they know.