Found Roots

At the beginning of the year I blogged about creating my own roots and that is finally starting to happen.

The hubby and I have found a house we would like to call home. We are under contract and if the next few weeks go smoothly we will be home owners by the end of May. For real and for true. If this works out that will be what I post about for some time and hopefully more crafty goodness.

My Flickr is filled with pics I should post about, but somehow I haven't managed to get the gumption to do so. My most recent finished project is the stroller blanket I knit for a dear friend's baby using the Mason Dixon Modern Log Cabin Blanket pattern.



She had a little girl at the end of February but my friend is not so excited about dousing her little girl in pink. The nursery decor is jungle/rainforest with the main colors are browns, light green and yellow. I choose to use Lion Brand Nature's Choice Organic Cotton yarn in Pistachio, Macadamia, Pecan, Walnut and a little bit of Strawberry to give it a wee bit of girly-ness. The browns, green and cream match other things that were purchased for them and the organic yarn will please my eco-conscious friend. It is super soft and the only worry I have is that the yarn appears to be a bit linty so I am hoping a nice wash will help with that.

I greatly over estimated the amount of yarn I needed so I will probably make some coordinating accessories...hats, sweaters, booties, another blanket! ;)

Japanese Craft Book

This past weekend the hubby and I drove over to the Japanese market and bookstore in Edgewater, NJ. I had been their once before and the hubby had never been so it was a nice Sunday adventure.

From the market we picked up some edamame and shrimp shumai (yum!) and learned that in Bergen county you have to wait until 1pm to buy alcohol but there are no small appliance purchases allowed. Yup. A strange blue law. That aisle of the market was roped off with signs. Why I could not buy a rice cooker is beyond me!

From the bookstore I purchased a new Japanese sewing book. It is published by Ondori and the title is in Japanese but Google translate the title as "Hand out your grocery store is small cloth of (Japanese characters left untranslated )." Um, yeah. The ISBN number is 978-4-277-43117-0 in case you want to look for it.



Here are some pics of projects that I am considering...


The projects seem to focus on things for the home...of the organization variety. For some reason I am totally in love with the toilet paper wrap. I do not have a clothesline but when I someday do buy a house I want one just so I can make the clothespin holder. I could go on and on, but given the chance I would make it all!

Swap goddies finished!

I just sent off my swap partner's package in Craftster's Typography Swap this afternoon and I am anxious for her to receive so I can post pics and talk about the fun new techniques and materials I tried out and ended up turning out quite well.

All I can say is there was some sewing, stenciling, and other crafty goodness that resulted in projects inspired by my partner's font interests. I can not wait to share...and I hope that she likes her package!

A Very Nasty Flu...

This is not something I would wish on anyone. Not even someone who I was not fond of!

I have what my doctor called "a pretty classic case of the flu with the added bonus of a sinus cold." Great.

All I can say is this is the first day since Monday that I have felt somewhat like myself and even that is a stretch. I have had a fever (ranging from viscious to lo-grade) everyday since Tuesday that causes chills, hot flashes, aches and pains that will not go away, sniffles, cough, and general crappy feelings that are just plain miserable! I was out of school for a whole week. I actually wanted to go to school, but could not will my body to cooperate. It might not have been so bad if there was something to watch on TV during the day.

Ugh...here is to feeling human again soon!

A new year...in double digits!

Since my birthday is so close to New Year's I always use the 17 days in between to reflect and come up with resolutions, observations and plans for the new year.

This year I turned 33...not a terribly exciting number other than the double threes. I know I am closer to 35 which feels much more monumental. I did go to work this year (a break from tradition) but I have to say the birthday wishes and hugs I received from many students was well worth it!

So what do I hope for this year? Well, the eternal quest to be healthy is in my mind, but no major resolutions about that other than make good use of my gym membership since I am paying for it. I would also like to get healthy in prep for the next major step I would like to make which is expanding our family. The hubby and I have not yet made plans to start, but the thought is on my mind and I am certainly not getting younger. Getting healthy in preparation seems like a good idea anyway.

I also hope to take another leap in to "grown up" life...buying our first house. Hubby and I have rented for a long time. Now that I am gainfully employed we can seriously consider a more permanent housing plan. We took a drive around our area to see the neighborhoods of a few house we could be interested in seeing internally.

I think this year will be about creating roots of my own. I have always had the roots of my family and home town that are a part of me, but I feel the need to settle in and establish new roots now that I am embarking on a new career, past the one year mark living in a new state and feel the desire to have a child (which has never been a strong priority). I feel that creatively I have already made art making, knitting and now sewing a constant in my life, now for the rest.

It will be interesting to look back in 2009 to see what roots took hold in 2008. Hmmm....I think I can use this root idea in some art.

Holiday Goodies

I must apologize...my time has been whisked away by Ravelry. The blogging has suffered, but the knitting has continued at a pretty good pace. I have also squeezed in a little holiday sewing.

First up, the sewing project for a good friend that is part of her Xmas gift. The whole package has a cupcake theme...a cupcake cookbook, a cupcake carrier and a handmade apron with coordinating towel. The apron was assembled using two linen kitchen towels I found at Target.



There were two other coordinating towels, but only one matched well and it will also go in the package.



And the knitting...






1. Fetching fingerless mitts (pattern on Knitty)
2. Neckwarmer for Dad (my own experimental pattern)
3. Danica Scarf (pattern on Knitty)
4. Le Slouch (pattern by Knit and Tonic)
5. The Unoriginal HAt (pattern by Yarn Harlot)

Has it really been six years?

I am still in shock that six years have slipped by since the tragedies of 9/11 occurred. It is as raw and shocking now as it was then. And I am fortunate in so many ways.

I was living in NYC and the people that I knew who were working at World Trade were still on their way to work when everything happened. I am most thankful that my best friend since kindergarten, who had worked in the Twin Towers for several years, had left the city to go to law school and was far away from the destruction. I am also thankful that the day before I was released from jury duty as the court house is a short walk away. I am sure I would have been fine, but I am grateful there was no reason for me to be anywhere close. I was home, just getting out of bed when the first plane hit. I looked out my window when I heard the news on the radio. At that time they were unsure what kind of plane had hit the first tower. I gravity of the situation had not hit until my husband (at that time we were only engaged) and I turned on the tv, where I stayed glued, un-showered, crying and stunned all day long.

My best friend called me at some point in the morning when she was finally able to get through (the phone lines were jammed with calls for hours) and just cried and asked me, "why?!? why would someone do this?!?" I had no answer then, and I had no answer today when discussing it with some of my 5th grade students.

Now that I am a teacher, I see students who were born AFTER 9/11...they do not know NYC before. They know what happened, but it is far into the past. It was actually watching children play that helped me process all that had happened and make me realize that life would go on. I can't recall if it was one or two days after, but I went for a walk just to get out of the house, away from the news reports and just try to do something normal.

Nothing was normal anymore really. I ended up in Washington Square Park near a playground. I sat for over an hour watching small children swing, go down the slide and most importantly...laugh. When I finally stood up, I had a feeling that if children can still laugh innocently, then perhaps things will be ok someday.

There was an email I wrote to friends and family in the days after, I can not locate it at the moment, but if I find it I will share it. I remember the community of sadness that I witnessed. Never before had I felt NYC to be so tightly linked. Those links have loosened in the years since. The feelings of shock and sadness are still there, just below the surface for me and many others. Even if we are living our lives as separate, there are still the emotional ties to that day that lonk all who remember.

Please remember...

What a week...

Actually it has been several since I last posted. I have been less focused on crafting and more focused on finding a job...and I have! Yeah!!!

After another rejection last week I hit an emotional rock-bottom with the whole not-finding-a-job issue. I have had several interviews over the summer and it was only rejection after rejection. A girl can only take so much! I took a break and scored two more interviews this week in NYC. The one I had yesterday in Brooklyn offered me the job on the spot. Yeah! The principal is very war and welcoming, the school is nice, the art room is amazing. The only down side is the commute to Brooklyn. However, the positive's more than make up for the long haul. And hey...I can use a good 30-40 minutes of commute to plan, write lessons or take care of personal interests like knitting, reading, etc.

Before I dashed out the door yesterday I worked on my next Sunday Collage Challenge from A Girl and Her Journal (as seen above). I am pretty pleased with how this turned out. The scan of my sketchbook page does not do the color justice at all...but you get the idea!

As I was working the phrase that I wrote on the bottom kept passing through my head. I am not super thrilled with how I wrote it, but it sums up the idea of life, rebirth, change and not waiting for change to happen that is swirling around my life these days.