Nevermore 2012 - zombie signage

I am in love with the Nevermore Film Festival in Durham. It only happens once a year, but I wish it would happen every month. Or every day. Okay, that's not realistic. Anyway, the movies are all indy, so low budget, but creative and fun and original and not the ridiculous, predictable Hollywood garbage that's being produced.

Another thing I love about Nevermore is the hilarious signage in the bathroom at the Carolina Theatre. I was running late for our movie, but I took time to snap a few pics. Enjoy!

There were a plethora of nerdy license plates in the parking lot, but I had to stop for this one, because I could see like 20 of my friends wanting it.

The most beautiful yarn in the world...

JazzTurtle - Oceanic 815 colorway

In. Love.

1st Quilting Project: COMPLETE!

I finished my first quilting project! Well, half of it. I didn't do everything right, but I learned from my mistakes, and that's what's important. The placemat tutorial really was helpful, but I would like to watch someone quilting. You know, see their technique and figure out what I'm doing wrong/could be doing better. My friend Melanie quilts...mayhaps I shall talk her into a live demo!

an intro to demolition

On my 2012 goals list was the task of tearing down the planter boxes on the front of the house. I think my biggest fear in taking on the project was that whatever was behind the boxes would be hideous. Ultimately, the eyesore that was the boxes overcame my fear.

See what I mean?

The other set didn't look quite as bad, but still pretty awful.

I'm also intimidated by demo work, so Jose offered to help me check this item off my list. Each set of boxes took 1-2 swipes from his mallet...they really wanted to be taken down and put to rest. I was a little nervous about the crude board with tons of bulky screws holding them up...

Once it came down, we saw that the decorative boards that match the other windows are there, and they don't look so bad. I need to pull out our house touch-up paint to get the bricks that were behind the boxes. But that will only come after we clean and scrub the dirt and filth.

This whole thing reminded me the next wave of house painting is our windows and trim. The color we painted the brick is a cool, sleek grey, so we can either go with white, a darker grey, or black. Decisions, decisions.

sunshine blanky

As soon as I found out that my friend and his wife were expecting, I started plotting a hand-made gift. I bought some Bernat Baby Softee in Citron (nursery colors are yellow and grey), and I altered a few patterns to suit the yarn.

Holding the yarn double, cast on 110.

Knit 4 rows.

Row 5: K5, pm, K50, pm, P50, pm, K5

Row 6: K5, sm, K50, sm, P50, sm, K5

Repeat row 6 until the blanket is about 18 inches, or half the length desired.

Next row:

K5, sm, P50, sm, K50, sm, K5

Repeat this row until the second set of blocks is the same length as the first, knit 4 rows, bind off loosely.

Love the way it turned out - very soft and squishy, but light (summer baby).

WIP Wednesday - my first QUILTING project!

After completing a basic sewing project, the most logical step is not to build on your general sewing skills, but to jump right into a more advanced technique, like quilting. I wish I wasn't always the person who went from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye, but that's just the way it is.

Christy talked me off the ledge and into quilting some placemats before a real quilt. The tutorial walks you through each step of the quilting process, just on a smaller scale. Turns out, I love quilting. I really never would have guessed!

I'm embarrassed to show my lines because I know they're awful, but it's a learning process, right?

Speaking of the learning process, the pattern author says that quilter's basting spray makes the process about 10 times easier, and I can definitely see that being true. Also true, if it gets on your dining room table, it will feel and look awful and really upset your spouse. Woops.

my first sewing project: the poochie bag

The poochie bag. Everyone's making it. Really, you can check out this Flickr stream for proof. Most notably, my friends Tina and Christy have made several of them, and they encouraged me to take a stab at the pattern as my first real attempt at sewing.

This is the ugliest thing that I've ever been this proud of. I did so many things wrong that it would take forever to tally, but I want to focus on what I did right.

1 - I cut all the fabric out perfectly. I learned how to properly use all the fancy cutting tools my brother gifted me for my birthday, so that's a big win.

2 - I made the handles. Seriously, that is a big victory considering how little I know about sewing. Were they perfect? No. Pretty? Not really. But did I get 'er done? Why, yes. Yes I did.

3 - I got one of the steps wrong and didn't realize it until it was time for final assembly. I did freak out a little and put the project down for a while (3 weeks), but I finally got it right.

4 - I didn't quit. Learning something new is frustrating, and I tend to want everything to be perfect. Perfect the first time (and every time). So the fact that I went ahead and carried out the entire pattern, knowing good and well that it looked awful...is a big deal. Hooray for making baby steps :)

The fabric combination is awful. Just awful. The pattern calls for three fat quarters and I had these in my stash. I was tempted to go shopping for a lovely color combo, but I knew that this was going to be a rough, rough cut. So yeah, it's not going to end up in the Flickr poochie bag stream, but it certainly has a place of honor on the highest shelf in my craft room. All hail the greatest awfully ugly first sewing project ever. All hail.

LOLbulldog

My brother's best friend, er dog, takes issue with the strangest things. The fact that he got angry with the iron warranted a LOL caption. Enjoy

Bella Mittens: Complete

Oh yes I did. When I asked Jose to pick up one red apple at the store, he was totally on to my plan. And when I asked him to photograph the mittens for me, he even pointed out that the overcast day would be perfect for the shoot. Very Forks.

The Bella Mittens pattern was easy and the chunky yarn knit up really fast. And warm...man, they are so warm! I'm learning that wearing mittens is much different than wearing gloves (these are the first pair I've owned). Turning keys, pressing buttons, gripping a cup or bottle. All of these things are difficult with mittens. Let the learning curve begin...

Shelley's fetching fingerless mitts...

When I blogged about my first pair of fetching fingerless mitts, my friend (and fantastic Realtor), Shelley, put in a request for a black pair. I've had them in my queue for quite a while, but I really have been reading more than I've been knitting. And why is that? Because she's made some fantastic book recommendations. After my Christmas knitting was done, I made the mitts a priority. Aren't they nice? I used Berroco so that she could easily care for them and make sure that they would hold their color and look nicer longer.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am still moving down the list of knits that I owe people, so I need to get crackin'!

Yin and Yang

This is so rare that I had to get photos of it. There are four dog beds in the house, and Berger likes his personal space, so the fact that he came to lay beside her is really noteworthy. And adorable.

WIP Wednesday: the Bella Mittens

Love. Love the way the yarn feels, love the way the color turned out, love the way the mittens feel. Love it all! They are still (clearly) a work in progress, but I am really in love with this pattern.

Photo credit to Meg, and shout-out to my Vampires! shirt :)