Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Can You Believ It?

A work in progress... that I unfortunately can't tell you much about it as it is a Christmas project for a reader.. I can show you the yarn though...



It is a lovely dusted rose pink with a sheen to it. I think it is very lovely I am will be sure to post all about it once it has been received. OH and I think it is the softest yarn too! Too bad I won't have enough left over to make something for myself!



I have a few more secret knitting projects I am going to be starting soon as well, but I will try to post as much as I can before the delivery, because I know it's fun to see what might be!

Happy Knitting! :)

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Tiny Apartment Warming

That's what the invitations stated... as my apartment is tiny and cute :)

I invited a few friends over so that they could see my place, and I could have a reason to entertain :) I made enough food for everyone, and I found wonderful serving dishes at Home Goods to display the goodies on. My favorite was this poppy plate... the color is so perfect and it was hand painted.. I love all the little details, and especially that it has the little dip spot in the middle!

I made a veggie plate with broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, cucumber spears, radishes, and sugar snap peas, with a dish of herb and ranch dip in the center.


I also prepared a plate filled with vegetable pot stickers, spinach and feta empenadas, and chicken with roasted pepper sausages.. in the center of this one there was soy sauce for dipping the pot stickers, which one of my friends was bringing, because of course I didn't realize until the last minute that I didn't have any!


And of course I had chips and dip! These are my favorite tortilla chips, they are sesame blues by Garden of Eaten, they are blue corn tortilla chips cooked with sesame which adds a wonderful flavor and textural element. I served them with guacamole, and salsa.


Then we hung out for a while while everyone showed up, I made margaritas and rum punch, then decided to play catch phrase. The food and drinks were a hit, and everyone mingled well with each other which is always good... especially in a tiny apartment!
Amongst us girls (because although I did invite some guy friends none of them could make it), we decided to have rotating game nights and girls nights at each others places.


The party was a success! And now my apartment is all warmed up for winter.. hopefully I conserve some of the warmth and use less heat! (wishful thinking, I know!)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Apartment Warming In a Box

The week after I arrived back at my apartment, ready to start my new job, and the next chapter, I found a box in the hallway where the mail boxes are located, with my name on it!

It was from my sister and my mom :)

Jessica sent me some Chai tea from this little tea shop in Olympia, Washington (which I've actually never been too, but have had this same chai before and it was the best mix I've had). We have a friend who lives down there and so I thought that she had gone to visit and picked up the mixes while she was there, but as it turns out, she was on the trip just to get me this tea which I love so much, and then ended up seeing our friend sense she was down there. The Chai, for all of you that love it and want to know is by David Rio, and is the Tiger Spice Chai (which is new to me, but also good), and then the Elephant Vanilla Chai... yummy!


Then from my mama, I received these wonderful Tomato Soup Socks! The reason why they are tomato soup and not any other creamy red and white food thing, is because the colors (especially still in the hank) look like when you are making homemade tomato soup, and you add the cream into the pureed tomatoes. It becomes this swirl of cream and tomato for a second before they mix together. Growing up, tomato soup and grilled cheese were a favorite of mine, and still, I love tomato soup because it gives me that warm and homey feeling. So when my mom was visiting CT and NY during the spring of 2008, she looked up several little yarn shops in NYC and when we were there, we ventured into this cute little place where we saw the tomato soup yarn, and I'm not sure if I saw her buy the yarn after I pointed it out to her or if I did and then forgot that she had it but it was really great to open up a package from home and get the warm homey feeling of tomato soup when I took out my socks! They are so warm and cozy, too, that I can wear them whenever I need to feel warm and homey :)

I love getting packages, especially ones that are filled with love!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

A pot of water does not whistle when it's hot..

But the fire alarms sure do ring if you let it boil out and burn the bottom of the pan!

That is precisely what I did last night while I was babysitting... I put the kiddos to bed, and I went to boil some water for a cup of tea (this family doesn't have a tea kettle, or a microwave, so you do it the old way... water in a pot on the stove). Well I stood there for a while, and you know what they say "A watched pot never boils," so after about 10 minutes, I decided to go check out some yarn online--and wouldn't you know I got so sucked into looking at the lovely fibers, that by the time I smelt something burning, I could also hear the hysterically loud fire alarm blaring. I say it is hysterically loud, because quite frankly, it scared the bejesus out of me, and made me slightly hysterical.

To make matters worse, it was in connection with their house alarm, and so sense I don't know the code, I couldn't shut it off. So I am fervently texting the dad, trying to explain the situation as much as I can in a text and get him to get me the code, but he kept asking me questions. Then the home phone rings, it's the alarm company, and I told them it was just something I forgot on the stove, everything was fine. Well they asked me for the password, which I don't know, and so I told them I was just the babysitter, and they took down my name and hung up.

Meanwhile the fire alarm is still blaring so, I called the Dad, and as he's about to give me the code to shut off the alarm, the alarm company beeps in on his other line and he puts me on hold! Now while he is talking to them, the house phone rings again..this time, it is the town's fire department. I tell them the same thing, "I'm sorry, I forgot something on the stove, everything is fine." With which they reply, "We will be out in a minute to check things out for you." And hang up. So the dad switches back to me, and finally gives me the code to turn off the blaring. I tell them I will see them when they get home and re-assure them that everything is fine.

Then wouldn't you know it, a minute later three cars come speeding down the road and turn into the driveway... This is a small town filled with volunteer firefighters, and they are re-doing the stations which most likely means I pulled them away from their families... So I go out and meet them in the driveway, and one guy hops out of the big chief's car (ya know the suburban looking thing that's painted red and says chief's car or something), and tells me he is from the fire department. I again tell them that I just forgot about something on the stove and that everything is fine. So after asking if I was okay, and if I got the alarm shut off alright, they went there way.. and that was that.

Now in the meantime of all this happening, picture this, I had given the kids a bath before bed so I ran and grabbed their towels, opened all the doors (they have like 6), dumped the burning pan in the sink and ran around the house whirling towels above my head to try and clear the smoke out...
And then I felt obligated to clean everything up in the kitchen, so I unloaded and re loaded the dishwasher, stopped to scrub the pan a little, swept the floor, stopped to scrub the pan a little, wiped down all the counters and table top, then they came home.

SO then after I've been freaking out because today is a Jewish holiday that started last night, and the family I was babysitting for is Jewish and I was watching the kids to that they could go to temple, and I ruined it...They informed me that the mom burns water on the stove all the time, like once a week, she has just never set off the alarm before. Then the grandparents stayed with the kids over a 3 day period while they were out of town, and over that time, the alarm went off, and so many other things happened that the police were there 5 times! So I didn't feel so bad.

Anyway, I think I'm going to buy them a tea kettle and bring it with me next weekend when I babysit!

Monday, September 14, 2009

New Job

I came home from my two weeks of vacation to start my new job, and be in my new apartment. I will have to show you pictures of my new apartment later, because I haven't taken any specifically of the pad all set up.. though you may be able to see it in the background of some others.
Anywho, I was feeling a little nervous to start my new day, so I figured what better way to settle the nerves then by picking out my first day outfit to prepare myself. This is what I ended up wearing:

My White skirt with lavender flowery print, a mauve-y pink camisole, with a white short sleeved henley over it, and plum colored ballet flats, that I bought on a quick shopping expedition with me mom while I was home.


It is so nice to wake up in the morning and actually be able to make coffee while I'm getting ready, sit down and have breakfast, and have some time before heading out the door to work. I knew that it was close, but decided to clock it on the odometer to see if it was walking or biking distance. Turns out it is only 3 miles (mostly uphill, but downhill going home).

When I arrived the first morning in my "first day" outfit, I found out that every Friday is a color day, and you dress in that color. The upcoming Friday just happened to be Purple Day... great sense I was wearing most of my purple already. I ended up wearing these deep Purple capri's with a lavender tank under a purple shrug, and again my plum colored flats.


So far, the job is great. I am with a good group of kids, and I can actually interact with adults during the daytime.. well mostly with the kids, but it is good to have "real people" at work!
And I have been walking on the days that I don't have to be somewhere right away after work, and today I even rode my bike... getting there was an intense work out, but the ride home was a breeze!

Last week was red week and up next is orange week.. I hope the weather is nice on Friday, I have an orange striped skirt I can wear!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The License Plate Game!

During our cross country trek, I wanted to try to find as many license plates from different states, or provinces as possible. We found quite a few.. Check 'em out:












































And here are the plates that we found from Canada:






We even found Mexico!


Then there were these silly people who thought that they were amazing,

Which these people disagreed with so much, that it made them want to vom... lol


How many license plates have you seen this summer... we saw a lot for only driving through 15 states :)