Knit/Sew Swap
yesterday, my swap partner, Heather, got the stuff i made for the Knit/Sew Swap on craftster. she asked for a hat and a scarf and this is what i made her. i'm so glad she liked what she got :)
and then she gave me the best stuff too! she gave me a huge bag to carry all those epson paper boxes that i have for school, a pencil pouch, an awesome wallet with rusty's picture on it, some treats and a stuffed doggie toy for rusty, and to top it off a squirmy wormy (those balls that look like jellyfish and light up). heather rocks 'cause she's been so awesome during this whole swap!
when life hands you blackberries...
make blackberry compote! marco is a brilliant cook. but his brilliance shines the most when it becomes something i've been craving but didn't know i was craving. that was the case last night when he made blackberry compote from that stuff we picked this last weekend. it's on top of vanilla ice cream with a butter wafer... YUMMM!!!
summer blackberries
ever eat sun-ripened fresh off-the-bush berries? we walk rusty along a trail that has bushes and bushes of blackberries and a few days back i brought a handful home to try with some vanilla gelato from trader joe's and it was absolute heaven. so today when marco and i walked rusty, we brought a bowl with us to pick to our heart's content. we got almost a pound and they were steaming hot when we picked them... ahhhh this is one of the few things that i love about sweltering summers!
more procrastination
i feel sorry for this person, 'cause he's trying to get through grad school and i know what that's like. so i helped fill out his blog survey.
i so wanted to do homework...
but i knit and read harry potter and the half-blood prince instead. i still have a ways to go with the knitting but i did finish the book. to tell you the truth, this is my least favorite harry potter so far as i believe that the light reading i used to enjoy just got depressing and pessimistic in this last book. granted, that's the way life is (something jk rowling would say) but i'm not ashamed to say that i'm not in it for the reality. it was just a bummer and made me sad, thereby hampering any attempts at homework for the rest of the night.
i did discover mugglenet.com which fed into my harry potter mania tonight and again, stopped me from any productivity whatsoever.
and to top off my harry potterness, i've been 
into gryffindor.
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also i found this weird thing in someone's signature at a forum:
I adopted a cute lil' tempura fetus
from Fetusmart! mm..yummy.
fetus mart is a weird adopt-a-fetus page where you basically link to your favorite fetus. my personal favorite was a tempura fetus, because it has to do with sushi and because it was way less weird looking than some others, like the pirate fetus.
also i stumbled into a super strange store (fetopia) that sells clay polymer fetuses. with themes. ew.
Grandpa as Type
this is a portrait of my grandfather i did for a layout for type class. its my grampy :) and he's made all out of type. typeface: baskerville old face
updated stuff i've knitted :)
so this is just a few pics of what i've done. first, just left, is the Perfect Winter Scarf. its done in horizontal herringbone out of T&Q wool-ease. the fringe is homespun in nouveau. i love this scarf. its loooong. and warm. and comfy. i wish it were cold out!
here is yet another hat and scarf set i did. i don't know why, i'm just really into hats and scarves lately; maybe 'cause they're instant gratification and they make me feel like i've accomplished something!
little rat
little dying rat
finds solace in the box
and me... plum tree
that was my haiku for today... it's a sad little story about a little rat i found at the bottom of the stairs in my apartment complex. he was just sitting there out in the open, which i knew meant he had problems since rats don't like to be in the open, they like to walk along walls and such (speaks years of experience owning pet rats). we (rusty and i) left him behind and started to go get the mail but when we came back people were walking over him and i thought maybe some mean kid would kick him or someone would throw him away in the dumpster. so i got a box from home and the little guy jumped in the box and we went walking to the railroad tracks where there is a lot of woods and sat for a while with the little rat while he came out of the box. it was obvious he was dying; there was blood at the bottom of the box and coming out of his nose. we sat for a while and he came up to me and hung out for a while. i was under a plum tree so i opened up a plum for him to eat and he started licking it a bit. after a while of sitting and thinking and trying to be there for the little rat before he died, it became very hot and rusty was getting tired. the little rat was walking into the bushes anyway and i thought it was ok to leave it there. i left him a couple of open plums and the box and wished i could do more for him. i hope he dies peacefully there.
salvador's birthday
salvador's birthday was on the 11th but he's going to be having a party this weekend. so after coming across knitty's winecozy, pattern, i thought that this would be the perfect gift for my wine-crazy stepfather.
i'm not really worried that he'll see this surprise, 'cause i don't know if he actually reads my blog... we'll see on saturday! 
officially the end of a bad day
i don't like to complain and whine on my blog, mainly because i don't really care to read stuff like that. but today was an exceptionally bad day. the people i dealt with today were nutters.
what makes my bad day?
- i lost the sampler contest in which the winner won a 3 month subscription. i was really hoping to win. (a bummer)
- some random stranger yelled at me on the street. he was mad that rusty was pooping. (a crazy old man)
- some other random stranger called my cell to tell me to stop calling her and hanging up (i've never even seen her number -- the nut topping on my bad day)
- i had very little motivation to do anything. (the theme of the nutty day).
sigh.
head/neck swap!!! and instant swap stuff
today the mail came and i got the best stuff from my head/neck swap hosted in craftster. this stuff is so beautiful! i got a necklace, two pairs of earings, barettes, a knitted hat in my fave color, a scarf and a CD! wow! my partner, ms_westenra (Tina) is so talented. check out her website Loony for more cool ms_westenra stuff!
oh and i just sent off my own stuff for an instant swap i had last weekend. i sent a monster purse and a matching coin purse. i hope my partner liked it.
my partner sent me my stuff too! i love the swiss family robinson journal i got from her and the other goodies. To see them, look here.
so so sad
i'm so sad about the london bombings yesterday. i have never been but it's always been my dream to live in london and i've been pestering marco about living in the UK for a few years now.
now this.
i hope that everyone finds their family members and friends. i hope this doesn't give some governing idiots the idea that more violence and force is the way to get what they want.
i don't even like oil (possible exception of olive oil).
life from waste
this tiny plant (the pot is only about 3 inches tall) was the result of a filter change in our turtle tank.
here's the story: in the summer, when we grow tomatoes, we give some to our turtle as a little treat. i try to take out the seeds, generally but some slip through the careful screening process (a quick glance-over) and end up in the tank. well, at least we know the filters are working 'cause i was cleaning out the cartridges when i found a little green sprout coming out of the filter. it makes sense, though, because we started using the turtle tank water to water our plants and now they are HUGE. so the filter cartridge, essentially made up of flossy type material was a good place for the tiny tomato sprout to start. so marco took it and planted it in a little left-over pot we had and here he is.
i call him vittorio, after a plant i once knew in college.
my fish
*click the pic for a more detailed view*fish-as-type!
