Amazing Dinners

I think one of the things I will miss the most about Oshkosh is having little dinner parties with Tony. It has been a tradition since we were living together, and it has held up ever since. We never try to make something we've done before, and sometimes it turns out wonderfully, and sometimes it has been barely edible. But it is nice having such a great friend to eat my food even if it is utterly terrible, and to ask for seconds when it turns out well. A few nights ago, Tony made an amazing dinner for Nate and I. He made an Italian Bread and Cheese Soup, Moroccan Spiced Fish over Lemongrass Rice, and Creme Caramel with Coffee for dessert. It was the kind of night that I am going to miss a lot once we move.

$12 = Awesomeness

I almost died when I saw this lovely cabinet at the thrift store the other day, especially after I saw the price tag! I somehow managed to fit it into my Corolla and carry it all of the way across my parking lot and up the stairs to my apartment. It was quite the feat, but well worth it indeed. It matches all of our furniture that we already have, and although we are going to be moving in a week or so, I still believe it will be worth the extra effort of moving it, don't you?
As far as yarn making goes, here is my latest skein of yarn where I experimented with coils for the first time. I think I may be keeping this one for myself :) After I made it, I was going to make myself some dinner, and thought to myself, "hmmm, don't I have some hummus already made up?" much to my disappointment, it was was in a sad sad state..... My sadness was quickly vanquished though when I sat the nasty rotten hummus next to my beautiful yarn, and they were the same colors! Go figure...
Nate and I are going to dinner at Tony's tonight, and I am kind of sad because it will be one of the last little gatherings we will have here in Oshkosh before we move to Sycamore. I'm sure there will be good food though, as Tony is a most excellent (albeit messy) cook.

Sparse Postings

Sorry for the lack of postings lately, I've had a bit on my plate this summer. These last few weeks I have been working on my wedding dress, working on a bulk order from my Etsy site, and doing all kinds of random things for the wedding. I also got to see a lot of my family this weekend at my bridal shower, which was wonderful as well.
I will probably remain slightly scatterbrained until the wedding is over and done with, and we are all moved and settled. I have a few pictures to tide you over though!
I did these skeins for my site, but the blue one is my favorite of the three. I hope you are all having a great week!

Magsafe Sucks...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, my charger for my MacBook has been on the fritz due to the mysterious melting of the cable. I love Apple, but my patience with them is waning. Their computers have always run really well for me, but the outside of my computer already looks like crud. I've been looking around online, and it seems like most of the MacBooks with the Magsafe chargers are melting or breaking.... A recall seems to be the right thing to do (hint hint).
I also had to say goodbye to the Honda this week. Even though it had its problems, it was sad to see this car go.

Special Delivery

Look at what was waiting for me when I got back home earlier this week:It came just in time, I've only got about 4oz of wool left from my last big order! This time around I upgraded from domestic wool to lovely merino. I also threw in about a pound of falkland wool and a pound of mohair locks to play around with. I can't wait to get some of this dyed! It is about 13lbs all together, and will probably be gone within a few months....
Speaking of spinning, here's a pretty little skein I whipped up right after getting home from Door County:
It is the exact colors of an astro-pop! Perfect for summer and the 4th of July.

Relaxing in Door County

Sorry for the week long hiatus, I've been in Door County for the last few days with Nate and his family. It has been very relaxing, and slightly gluttonous. We couldn't have asked for any better weather.
Here we are at one of the many wonderful places where we dined. Don't you admire my ability to take a picture of myself?
I think this was the only time Nate didn't order a beer....

This is the view from sunset beach at sunset! Imagine that! I'm sad to be leaving tomorrow, but there is always next year to look forward to. The rest of this week we will be going back home, and then to our parent's houses, and then to Dekalb to look for a place to live.

In non-vacation related news, I've been working on a pattern for a cute and simple shrug for my Etsy site, but I haven't found the "perfect" yarn for it yet. I would love something widely available, but not really low quality. I was thinking along the lines of wool-ease, or a cotton/wool blend, but I'm not really sure yet. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Summertime Thunderstorms

I think this yarn represents the weather today. It was a rainy day with a heavy humid sky. This skien is fairly bulky and is made from a wool single plied with a 50%cotton/50%acrylic dark gray yarn that I recycled from a sweater. I think it is about 8 wpi putting it at a super bulky weight.

This weekend I also worked on assembling some of my necklaces. I think I have a pretty good system going so far. I'm using copper jump rings with silver toned endings and lobster claws for the suede cords. I can't do too many at a time though, or my hands start to cramp up!

Look Ma, Sushi!

So I had this pipe dream on Friday night that I was going to make sushi, and usually these kinds of things end badly, but it actually turned out. Believe me, I am still in awe, and lucky for you guys I took pictures.

These are some of the ingredients:
Here is the filling of the rolls all ready to be rolled up and packed together:
This is the roll before it is cut:
And last but not least, here is the finished product:
They were pretty good if I say so myself! Even Nate enjoyed them, which is a task hard won when it comes to "out of the box" foods. Right now I'm trying to find a new recipe to try for the annual Door County trip that we take with Nate's family every year. Any suggestions?

More Pics!

As promised, here is a picture of the wedding invite! The flowers on the top are all hand painted watercolored stamps that are raised up on foam stickies. I was glad to have a bunch of helping hands with these as well on Sunday. They are about 80% finished, and my goal is to get them done by the end of the weekend.
I also whipped up this pretty skien today. It is 100% domestic wool plied with an orange thread. I really like the texture of it, it is sport to worsted weight.

On the Road Again

Nate and I are back home this weekend for his brother's graduation party, and to do some condensed wedding planning sessions. I haven't been very productive for the last two days as a direct result of this, but I did get a mock up wedding invite done (picture to come soon!) I am also making good progress on the pattern for my dress (no pictures until it is done!) I will at least show you my handy dandy dress form that I made to aid in the pattern drafting process: Nate helped me wrap my upper body in clear packing tape to make this possible. It is stuffed with grocery store bags and packing peanuts. I then finished off the bottom and the sleeves with mat board scraps and tape.

I also painted some pendants yesterday. There were about 20 in all, and I was going to try to finish them this weekend, but alas, I forgot my hammer and my jump ring tools at home, and they will have to wait until Monday.

Fun with Colors

I've been playing around with some different dye combinations this week, and I've had some success so far. I hope to play around with some different techniques so none of them are too big. I got this drying rack this week, and it is nice to have for my roving -- no more moving everything out of the shower when I need to use it!

This yarn reminds me of old farmhouses, It is about 105 yards of worsted weight, and is a very strong yarn. I made two skeins of this yarn. I was playing around with making a marled yarn, and I think I was pretty successful. Both skeins are around 100yds and are a heavy worsted/bulky weight.

I am heading to the craft store tomorrow with intentions of buying supplies for my wedding invites, I've got a good idea of what I'm doing, I just need to get going on them. I am also making good progress on my dress. I am making a mock dress in plaid, and have it mostly done. I just need to finalize a few things, and then I am set to start working with the real fabric. I am scared to use the nice fabric, I almost always use thrift store fabric or clearance fabric, so it is weird for me to be using such beautiful fabric. I will try to post some progress pictures later this week. :) Also, my good friend Tony is coming back from studying in England soon, and I am getting excited for that as well!

Rainy Days

This is what it looked like from our balcony this morning:It seemed fitting that today was such a dismal rainy day. That's kind of the mood I've been in since coming back home after my four day excursion.

I have had a very busy week for someone without a real job, and am enjoying a little bit of time off today with the man in my life. In the span of four days, I've traveled close to 800 miles by car, went to visit both grandparents, my parents, attended a funeral for a friend's sister, did the 5k at the Race for the Cure, and went to the monthly art walk at the very end. I am drained both physically and mentally.

I did manage to get around to taking pictures of some of the yarns I've been making for my Etsy shop. Here are a few of them:I should have a little bit more to show you this week, I will hopefully be finishing a big batch of necklaces fairly soon. Wish me luck!