quilt #1ish

i started my first official quilt this weekend. i have made several unplanned quilts before [not "crazy"] but never one from an actual pattern. of course i changed stuff from the original parttern... like # of blocks, size of blocks, color pattern... etc. more realistically i had no idea how much fabric i would need and it turns out 4 fat quarters werent nearly enough. it still needs a border, im thinking white to match the middle, the actual "quilting" part to hold on the back i have yet to buy, and a binding/edging of some sort.

so basically i have the pain in the ass part done. ie cutting out squares/triangles. and its not quite as perfect as i would have liked but i managed to put a dent in my rotary blade by running over a button. so now its fucked and i need to buy a new blade but too lazy.

and now the obvious but captioned progression:

triangles

squares

rectangles

done. sorta. it is currently 53"x28" which is an awkward size to say the least. i plan on adding a row of white squares down each side which should bring it to 42" wide. but umm like most of the crafts i do.. it started out with a sweet idea and kind of petered out towards the end. better luck next time right?

new calendar

i now have 4 wall calendars. 2 at work-defenders of wildlife from sarah and a vintage burpee; and 2 at home-the gift of zen from the mums and angry little girls from my sister. i just got the last one last week and it being february already... i missed the january page.

id never heard of the weekly comic strip, but the little asian girl in red is most definately me.

old lady craftys

besides patterns for little amigurumi vegetales... i have a book of 200 crochet blocks. yup. just like an old lady. so far i have made 4.5 cos im a busy old lady damnit. [and some of them have pretty stupid names]

tiny textures & webbed lace

openwork [i effed this one completely] & granny stripe

bobble diamond & extreme closeup of the bobble thingers.

and since i love all my scarves and i dont look completely unpresentable today:

• shirt: calvin klein
• pants: victoria's secret [not just for sleazy lingerie anymore]
• purple scarf: h&m
• black sparkley scarf: present from kt i think

websense

work just became much less interesting and more of a totalitarian state. the bossman decided to finally use a technology that the tech side uses. so now we have websense. according to wikipedia [...] both the aclu and amnesty international have denounced the use of websense on the basis of personal liberties and freedoms. and what do we have blocked you ask?

EVERYTHING.

obviously theres the non-work appropriate things like porn. but trying to be an informed member of society, i no longer can read the news or even check the current weather. obviously the simple solution is buy a newspaper and look outside. but damnit i want the unending fount that is the internet so i can look up useless facts on imdb.com or pay my bills without having to search for an envelope or see the pictures from a new sale in my email.

our only hope is the bossman gets annoyed enough that the tech guys have "forgotten" to unblock his computer and has them turn off the blocking. but until then, every site we actually can access is logged FOREVER, and i am severely annoyed and slightly oppressed.

free hugs

saturday, a trip to the city resulted in amazing food and a glimpse of the union square farmers market and this:

i had never heard of the free hugs campaign, and was apprehensive to touch a stranger. however, saeunn and lizzie were ecstatic after their free hugs and almost convinced another woman to forgo the crossing sign and go back to get a hug.

LI sunsets

probably due to the air pollution levels...the sunsets in long island are pretty spectacular.

taken at our office


taken at our office [stupid powerlines]


taken from the parking lot where my gym, ballroom dance, and future hair salon are located


taken from an abandoned parking lot off rte 112


taken from my car [side mirror] at a stop light


and lastly... an ode to the frankster:

you wait in the windows and mutter
how long ive been gone from this clutter
if you could go out
and prance all about
youd jump up and hang from the gutter

you sample real food like brown butter
and when scratched right you purr and do shudder
you act like a dog
and practically jog
all around the house cos youre a nutter

obligatory valentines day post

a strawberry heart

a strawberry doesnt have a heart
nor brains to say its dumb or smart

in st val's day it oft takes part
but really cant care enough to fart

spring?

on a weekly seemingly innocuous trip to the grocery store, i happened along the first true sign of spring. also of american gluttony...

but who cant resist the overly sugary goodness of a marshmallow blob shaped like a bird dipped in colored sugar with weird not chocoately eyes? and what other dessert type treat ages so well? not much better than a slightly hardened marshmallow peep.

not quite a stylista

another posting inspired by lady smaggle

• earrings: overstock
• purple necklace: new zealand boutique
  
• scarf: h&m
• shirt: ny & co
• tanktop: somewhere cheap
• jeans: pacsun
  

• red necklace: west australian gift shop
• scarf: indian imports store in port jefferson
• shirt: victoria's secret
• giant champagne glass in background: eating well calendar
  

new zealand retrospective

3 years ago i returned to new zealand for my absolutely failed semester abroad.


ilam beach

new brighton beach

ilam village at either sunset or sunrise.

moeraki boulders

tunnel beach dunedin

wellington from the air

waiotapu volcanic park

surfer on st clair beach

cecily, danielle, and me

george street normal school entrance

banks penninsula

im going back to nz again some day damnit.

cupcakes!

irish car bomb cupcakes? chocolate ganache? sprinkles? leah and i will attempt to make these for her birthday in march!

pre-spring cleaning

after cleaning off my random table covered in clothes, i found i have more scarves than room for them. instead of getting rid of some [i bought another..], i put up more hooks. problem solved-decorative and functional.

in keeping with my organizational mood and our current lack of hangers around the house, i also rearranged my closet. this required fixing my previous color coding to account for new clothes, folding tee shirts, sorting tank tops, and hanging up all pants including jeans.

also, i finally put up my letters from urban outfitters. since i was looking during a clearance sale, i could only find certain wood and metal ones. but should anything happen in the future...ljz are my initials and lmz are leah's initials. perfecto. the white icon stickon things are from blik. apparently they dont offer the icon pattern anymore, but it was designed by undoboy. as the boys have noticed, some are perhaps a little less innocent than they originally appeared. regardless, they are a simple example of anthropomorphism. like putting legs on a pair of tighty whities.