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another reminder

Another reminder of why I like my job:

Nice gestures of gratitude like this remind me of aspects of my job that I enjoy the most. We had a new employee that moved to Boston from Montreal over the weekend start on Monday, and while trying to get her tax forms processed I realized that she would have to apply for a social security number. Instead of sending her out on her own to the social security administration office in Davis Square, I offered to drive her there only to find out that the wait to be seen would take over an hour. I reluctantly left her there after she convinced me she'd be okay (amongst some of Somerville's finest ... sketchy is all I will say) and she luckily managed to find her way back to our office later that afternoon.

During the drive there, I mentioned that we have a group of rather competitor bakers at the office and how we have monthly baking contests. And then I came in on Tuesday morning to find this sweetly hand-written note and a delicious cookie inside. She remembered our conversation about baked goods!

Again, another reminder of the fact that I have some pretty awesome coworkers. :)

I'm going to try to make my first quilt

I've been itching to try quilting for a while now actually. Then when I heard that the Stitch House in Dorchester is offering a free quilt workshop, I decided now's the time to start on my very first quilt. I won't be able to make it to all three of the workshop sessions so I'll just be doing it on my own with the help from a couple of friends, but I think it's a pretty good class idea. The workshop/guidance is free but they require that you buy the fabric from them (approx. $55) which seems reasonable when you're buying 11 different patterns of gorgeous Amy Butler fabric.

So here's the pattern I'm going to try to do:

I already had some fun Amy Butler fabric on hand (it's the same fabric of a bag I bought in Seattle during our honeymoon), so I'm going to use that as my base. I also had some coordinating fabrics to go with it, and then I found a couple more in solid tones to match at the Fabric Corner the other day. So now I'm at 6 out of the 11 different patterns needed cut into 18 - 4.5"x7.5" rectangles.

And of course, knowing me, I already have my 2nd quilt idea planned out. (I know, crazy doesn't even begin to describe it.) For this one, I wanted to use the black and white fabric I have on hand. Some of the stuff I had at home had some yellow in it too, so I picked up a couple of fun, bold patterns at the fabric store. I am in love with this particular pattern and may have to go back to get more to make up the backside of the quilt.

I don't have a particular pattern to work with for this quilt idea, so I've just cut the fabric into 4" squares and a couple of larger 8" squares. I'm looking forward to just playing around with this configuration.

Wish me luck! I'll be sure to post progress photos as I go.

Happy crafting! :)

i love birthdays

Yes, it's quite true: I love birthdays!*

(* = anyone else's birthday except for my own!)

I think birthdays are my favorite holiday, yes, sometimes more than Christmas. I think it's the best time to celebrate someone's existence, and it provides the best excuse for showering someone with gifts and sugary sweets like cupcakes. :)

I also find that I am faced with an unusually huge amount of birthdays during the summertime. I found myself needing 6 birthday cards around mid-June for some very dear coworkers and friends, so I decided to raid my stash of card making supplies and create some fun cards. The biggest find was a pile of alphabet stickers that I had been meaning to use on scrapbook layouts, but I bought them before I was hit with "scrapper's block" (think writer's block) so they've just been collecting dust in my crafting room. So here are the six cards I put together for some very special friends:

The first one was created for Antoinette, my carpool buddy. I know, I didn't end up using alphabet stickers on the card itself but I found a chipboard letter to use instead. I did end up using the alphabet stickers on the envelope and man, her name took up all my t's!

I put a restaurant gift card on the inside of the card and thought my A Muse stamp that says "have a delicious day!" was the perfect sentiment for it. The funny thing is that I traced the outside of the gift card and tried to do a mock version underneath the real thing, but my drawing skills suck and I botched that idea. Oh well. (LOL)

This card was for my stepmom, Debbie, and as you can see I did use some fun letter stickers here. These are by American Crafts and have a leathery feel to them. And of course, I love the green color!

Again, I didn't use the stickers on this card but I was having fun using them on the envelopes. I used a bee theme with Jess's card because she wants to be a beekeeper. Yes, she really does! :)

And then on the flipside, I used the letter stickers on both the card and envelope for my friend Kathleen's husband, Matt. I love those puffy stickers for some reason. They just glow with cheeriness.

This was a fun "look who's turning 30" card for my coworker, Nathan. (Duh, you can read the envelope, huh? Sorry about that.)

And last (but definitely not least) is this little one I put together for my friend Jennifer who - can you guess it? - is a fellow Cancer baby. I used my crab and cupcake punches for this one. I forgot to take a photo of the envelope before I gave it to her but I used the pink alphabet stickers on it. I ran out of e's before I realized it and resorted to using a number 3 the wrong way instead.

I just received a huge order of stamps that I bought after Papertrey Ink's July release so I hope to get back into the swing of things with cardmaking. There are so many ideas swimming through my mind these days but it's been a struggle to actually get the mojo enough to make these ideas happen. Stay tuned ... more crafting posts will hopefully come soon!

knitting: striped scarf

I know it has been a while since I've posted anything really craft related on this blog but truth be told, I've been in quite a rut. It's also been a while since I've posted anything about the going ons within my knitting group at work. So hopefully this post will satiate both and get me back on the crafting radar.

My friend Jess is like one of the best knitters I know. And I mean, seriously, she is a really good knitter. Not only is she good at it, she actually completes projects. (I have so many WIP's -- in the knitting world that translates to "works in progress" -- it's pretty shameful.) Anyway, she brought in this scarf to our knitting group one day and I just knew the instant that I saw it that I had to make one too. I just love it when inspiration jumps at me like that.

It's a pattern that Jared Flood blogged about and she used Noro yarn like he did. I love how her stripes turned out, don't you?

I had some Manos del Uruguay yarn in my stash and of course, I need to use the yarn I have before I buy any more, so I decided to try making the scarf with it instead of buying new stuff. I tried to pair a skein of multi-colored dark blue and gold tones with a really bright turquoise skein I have, but it just looked awful. So I caved in and made a drive out to Windsor Button in downtown Boston one afternoon and found a skein in a more golden brown and orange colorway that I thought would provide enough contrast.

I started working on it while flying out to Chicago and it was the perfect project to bring along on the plane ride because it's a simple knit one, purl one rib where you do two rows in each color. The only tricky part is remembering to slip the first and last stitches purl-wise on the second row. (I still think it's odd how they will allow me take bring knitting needles -- the metal ones even!-- onto a plane and past security, yet we still can't bring water on board.)

It's my "do at work during my lunch break project", so I don't bring it home (I have the hubby's sweater to work on at home ... yes, that will take a long time) and as a result, I usually only get in about 4 rows each time I sit down to work on it. Needless to say, it's slowly coming together but I intend to give it to someone (won't say who here even though I know he doesn't read my blog) for Christmas so I have plenty of time to complete it.

The striping is very subtle and at first I was quite disappointed, but over time I have started to really like the coloring. I hope the person I am making it for likes it, which is most important, and I think the colors are masculine enough.

Stay tuned. Hopefully I can get this one complete before the summer ends!

foiled saturday plans due to rain

Oh rain rain ... it's good to have you here because it has been uncomfortably hot, humid, and muggy this past week. But why did you have to ruin my Saturday plans? I was going to go to the craft show in Union Square and then have some yummy drinks and food at the Indo afterward. But to think about walking there in this? No way.



I suppose there's always Sunday. Sigh.

fireworks in chicago

A quick post about our Chicago trip ...

Most people that know me and my husband know that when we go on vacation, we don't ever really go "on vacation". I have been known to make my poor husband walk and walk and walk, but the plus side is that we always end up seeing SO much. We're also not the type to really go on tours in a city for some reason, especially boat tours. But while doing research on things to do in Chicago, I came across something online that mentioned fireworks over Navy Pier during the summertime on Wednesday and Saturday nights. After further investigation (and reading several good reviews) I learned that boat tours of Chicago's architecture were highly recommended. The bonus part was being able to watch the fireworks from Lake Michigan!

We got our tickets with the Wendella boat company online in advance for the 90-minute river and lake tour and paid $23 per person. It was well worth it, and it was definitely one of our favorite parts of the whole trip. I would highly recommend doing something like this to anyone travelling to Chicago.

We decided not to bring my big camera on this trip and so I just stuck with our little Nikon. I have to say, for a little camera, it takes some great shots (especially food!). I know I could've gotten better shots with the Canon, but I'm happy with what this camera took of the fireworks.

Oh and lastly, we got stuck in some traffic going through the Chicago Harbor Lock before the fireworks show began at 9:30 pm. So when we finally made it through, we were smack dab right next to the barge that they were being fired from. And man, it was LOUD! My teeth chattered a few times when they were released because we were so close to them. Intense!

purple alliums

There's something about allium flowers that grabs my attention each time I see them. I don't know if it's because I'm in awe of how perfectly round they seem to be, or if it's the bright purple color of the petals.

I made a special trip out to Windsor Button in downtown Boston a couple of days before our trip to Chicago because I just had to get some skeins of Manos yarn for a striped scarf project so I could work on it during the plane ride. A scarf? Made out of wool? Yes. And you're working on it in this heat? Yes. Well, mostly at work where it's quite frigid because of the air conditioning. But yes, during the summertime. I know, crazy but Christmas is coming! (<-- that was supposed to be funny ...)

So, where was I going with this? Oh yeah ... so I made this special drive out to downtown Boston and actually managed to find a parking spot (thank you, parking angel!) next to the Public Garden. I went along and bought the yarn, and then on my way back to the car decided to take a quick stroll through the garden. Why not, right? It was a gorgeous spring day, I didn't have anywhere to be in a hurry, and I could use the exercise.

Oh, and the alliums were in bloom!

So pretty. So tall. So purple. So spring. So step-carefully-over-the-chain-onto-the-grass-for-a-quick-photo-opp worthy.

And it was also nice to see so many people out enjoying the weather. I loved this scene of the swan boats at rest.

Of course, as I write this -- fashionably (?) late mind you -- I look at these photos I took a couple of weeks ago and our park just pales in comparison to what we experienced in Chicago. More from that trip to come soon!

TGIF!

more rain (and thunder!)

Even more rain on Sunday afternoon. This time, it had winds powerful enough to knock our new sunflower plant off a table!



Kind of scary!

signs of sunny spring days

Ahhh, I do love spring time in New England, although it has been rather hot and humid lately. With the first day of summer around the corner (June 21st!), I've been appreciating these signs of sunny spring days ...

snails out and about after a rainstorm

a bunch of beautiful hydrangeas in a cool mason jar left on my desk at work from an awesome coworker (I brought them home to enjoy over the weekend)

the incredible selection of flowers and plants at Ricky's Flower Market in Somerville (I bought one of the little sunflower plants for my green thumb husband)

a refreshing way to cool off during on hot days: a yummy cocktail at the Independent (this is a lovely Blueberry Dorchester made with blueberry vodka and cucumber lemonade ... de-lish!)

Enjoy the spring while you can ... before you know it, the heat of the summer will be here! :)

lightning show this morning

I woke up around 3 am to the sounds of crashing thunder and flashing light through the blinds. Sure enough, there was a crazy rain and thunder storm right over Somerville. It was like someone was standing outside our apartment shining a flashlight through the windows. I filmed some of it because it was just amazing how constantly the lightning flashed on and on.





I was finally able to fall back asleep, of course, with a pillow over my head to block out the flashing light!

lunch on the green

There is a huge patch of grass next to our building at work. It's usually taken over by flocks of geese and a family of groundhogs (I think that's what they are), but lately it has been used for games of cricket and lunchtime escapes from the office. I figured the office would be pretty empty on the Friday before a long weekend so I organized a last-minute lunch on the green outing with some of my coworkers. I brought a couple of picnic type blankets to spread out on the grass for us but alas, there was a perfectly good [empty] table waiting for us when we got outside. So we decided to hang out there instead, plus it was better for the two cakes.

Photo taken by my coworker, Tom. Yes, that's the Cambridge jail behind us.

Two cakes? Yes. Two.

My coworker (and extremely talented baker), Jeff, and I had a conversation about cake suggestions earlier this week for a party he was supposed to go to on Friday. I described (and later gave him the recipe for) a cake idea I saw in the Rachael Ray magazine where this woman baked a cake in a jelly roll pan so that it was an extremely thin cake and only took about 15 minutes in the oven. Then she cut it up into rectangles and stacked them with frosting in between. So Jeff went all out and created a beautiful and tall cake made with layers of vanilla and chocolate cake, and iced with a decadent mocha chocolate frosting. The only problem was that the party was cancelled. Errr, not so much a problem for me and my coworkers because we got to enjoy his wonderful creation.

I went ahead and made a cake similar to the one I found the recipe to (read more about it here) but I was thrown off by how she only called for 1/2 a cup of flour so I decided to use my trustworthy How to Cook Everything cookbook by Mark Bittman instead. I used the cream cheese and lemon curd recipe from the article though, and I think it turned out fantastic.

What a fun way to spend a lunch break at work with some of my favorite coworkers. :)

the friday before a long weekend

This totally made my day today, the Friday before a long weekend, where everyone else in the office managed to leave early but I was there till the end (okay, 4:56 pm ... close enough to 5:00!). Our shuttle driver, Arben, came up for coffee and left me this note when I wasn't at my desk. Super sweet!

Hope you all have a nice long weekend too!

a sign that summer is near

It was a Sunday night and still very hot and humid around 9:00 pm (dare I say 80 degrees?), and there was a line out the door (and nearly to the corner) at Christina's in Inman Square. Awesome. Especially since I snapped this after we stood in line for a good ten minutes and sat across the street on a bench devouring our scoops of sweet cream and Oreo ice cream while the line kept growing. :)

colbie caillat

We saw Colbie Caillat at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, Massachusetts last night. Wow. Talk about an amazingly good performance!


Not to mention that she is absolutely gorgeous! I mean, like even better than in photos gorgeous! She sounded even better than she does on CD. She played a lot of the songs that I love listening to over and over again (yes, it is one of those cds in my "constantly replay" stacks) including my favorites: "Fearless", "You Got Me", and "I Never Told You". She finished the show by playing "Bubbly".

Again, a great show and worth the two hour drive north of Boston (gotta love that route 93 traffic!) to see her live.

blue tights

Too cute! I couldn't resist snapping a photo of my friend, Jeannie, when I saw her wearing these blue tights and cute black shoes.

I need to be that bold. I like a splash of color too. Hmmm ...

a week full of cards

With Somerville Open Studios right around the corner (eeeeek! next weekend! oh my!!), I've been trying (said very lightly, I'm afraid) to keep at the card making this week. Although, my husband will tell you, I can be distracted quite easily ("what? a glass of wine? sure, why not?!" ... "a date night? okay okay."). Okay, make that very easily.

But I have to say, I'm proud of myself for being able to churn out a few new designs this week. And here they are ... also available in my Etsy shop.




Something a little new that I've been doing lately are these mini note cards. They're 3" square and perfect for my littler stamps.




Okay, so wish me luck that this weekend will turn out to be a productive one! I've got so many new stamps to play with from Papertrey Ink's latest release, so I hope I can make some cute cards. Stay tuned folks ...

... and TGIF!!!!! At last!!!

:)

more signs of spring

My kalanchoe plant at work rebloomed! I didn't kill it after all (my thumb is not very green). My husband will be proud of me.

Flowers on a tree next to our building at work. I see these everywhere we drive these days, and I think the excessive rain really made them bloom this season.

spring

Spring is finally here in New England. I love how the cherry blossom trees and beautiful flowers have taken over the scenery.

north shore yarn crawl 2010

"A yarn crawl? What is a yarn crawl?" That's the reaction I had when I read online about the North Shore Yarn Crawl, and I'm sure it was what my friends were wondering when I sent them the info. Think of it being like a pub crawl only there's no beer involved, just yarn!

We started our day of yarn shopping at a store called Seed Stitch Fine Yarn in Salem, Massachusetts. It's a nice, spacious store with tons of beautiful yarn choices. I really liked how they had a lot of knitted samples next to their yarn to demonstrate ways to use the yarn.

I found this really cool ribbon yarn by On-line Yarn that knits up in ruffles. One of the ladies that works at the shop was kind enough to explain how to pick up just the edge of the yarn (the yarn itself looks like it was knitted) to create the effect. I bought a few skeins to make a scarf in a fun, bright orange shade (in the picture below, it's the skein at the far left) plus some in a grey scheme (the skein underneath the pink knitted sample) for a more conservative palette.

I actually managed to knit up the orange scarf with the two skeins within a few hours. I'll have to take pictures of it and post it later because I like how it turned out, even though it's a little shorter than I had planned.

A few more pictures from this store:


Then we drove up to Marblehead and stopped at a shop called Yarn Over Marblehead. It's a cute little shop where my friend Jessica found a lot of pretty Noro skeins.


The owner suggested this place called Shubie's for us to stop at for lunch. What a great market! They have a huge deli counter full of yummy dishes to choose from, plus a sandwich counter where you can order a custom sandwich. There were some pretty neat food items in the store as well as a huge wine selection. Renee ended up having their udon noodle soup which came in a enormous bowl (she said it was quite yummy), and Jessica and I both had the grilled cheese sandwich.



Our next stop was at the Abbott Yarn Shoppe in Beverly. It was a tiny little shop with tons of yarn crammed into it! The ladies running it were really sweet and even gave us the pattern to these honeycomb mittens (I can't wait to make a pair!).


What really cracked us up was this set of rules for the shop. One of the owners' grandchildren made it and I think everyone should follow these rules.

Then we stopped at Yarns in the Farms which is also in Beverly. Despite the pouring rain, we managed to find a parking spot in some muddy grass and trekked into this cute shop. It's small, too, but packed with tons of yarn.

We saw this little dog at a couple of the stores that day. At least he was well dressed for the rainy weather!

Our last stop was at Coveted Yarns in Gloucester. It was a fairly large store that had a ton of gorgeous yarns, but the lighting was rather dim inside so it was difficult to see the difference between shades. What is neat is that they sell the "seconds" skeins of Lamb's Pride yarn, which honestly, you can hardly tell are "seconds". I grabbed a couple skeins of the bulky weight yarn, and found some pretty teal ribbon yarn (which ended up being a drop-stitch scarf).

I was thoroughly impressed by this wall of Noro yarn:

And here is what ended up being added to my yarn stash at home:

Now if I can just get myself back on track with completing some knitting projects! :)