self portrait tuesday - splitting hairs

i cut my hair. short. for all that know me in person, you know that my hair is always pretty short, but this is the SHORTEST it has been since i guess i was four.

my mom used to cut my hair like a little boy's and i always asked her WHY??? WHY DID YOU CUT MY HAIR LIKE A BOY'S? after being allowed to rebel, i let my hair grow really long, almost 3/4 of the way down my back. it was long and lovely and boys loved it. i looked girly. it was like i didn't want to be that dumb little girl with the boy-cut hair anymore.

sometime in my late 20's, possibly when i was living in italy, my hair went from shoulder-length to short. it touched my chin, but i still looked girly. it's remained the same length for a few years, until last week where i told my long-time hairstylist that i thought i wanted to go a little shorter. i didn't think she'd cut it this short.

when i wake up in the morning, sometimes i think i look like a little boy. just my face in the mirror, when i'm not wearing my glasses, it looks fuzzy and the short hair makes me think WHY DID YOU CUT MY HAIR LIKE A BOY'S??? but this time, the only one i have to blame is me.



it's come full circle.

surf & turf

these are a couple of hats i made in the last week, the first being the 18 seconds before sunrise hat. it looks a little weird on hot mathilda 'cause her head is kinda square instead of round (i'm not sure why) but it's made with this one skein of lana grossa's stoppino that i splurged on. i don't know if i like the colors as much as i did in the yarn ball form, but i'm ok with it. i'm going to remake this hat in a solid color though, 'cause i've seen that it looks great in solids.

the second hat i have made is the nautilus hat by marnie maclean. i've actually made two of these before and i was going to send this out for the ongoing swap but i made it too big for my partner's head. so i made her a new hat in a different pattern :)

from my private swap!

i did a private swap with antigone, who is in sweden (first germany, now sweden, i'm truly international now). i sent her my specialty, the kitty hat, and she has sent me a mixed paper book. she's received and i hope to receive soon!

and hey i would like to introduce you all to Hot Mathilda, my new model :) i got her because i just can't take any decent shots of hats without a head!

*edit* and here is the lovely antigone, wearing her new hat!

more swap stuff

for instant swap 7 :) i made craftykate a small journal, some stitchmarkers, and this little knitting pin! the pin was pretty difficult to make 'cause those there were toothpicks and i was knitting off the toothpicks! but it was worth it 'cause kate was so nice as to send me her beautiful handspun yarn, some handmade paper, two cutie bracelets, some size 15 needles and a candle votive. lucky me!

self portrait tuesday - part of history

this is the last day of self-portrait tuesday's history theme, but i just looked into the theme for february and it's called all of me, about the ugly bits of ourselves. i don't know if i think my scars are ugly, though, just always thought they showed (and sometimes showed off) my experiences.

the first scar of this little collage is the happy face one (bottom left). i must have been about seven when was riding on a bike sitting behind my father and i stuck my foot into the spokes. i couldn't walk for a month and kept getting really painful shots for the infection. i remember snippets of feeling scared and sad and sometimes angry. i remember the bike was an aqua color. i remember that at the end my scars looked like a happy face, with two eyes, a nose and a mouth. my happy face is now deformed, one eye and the nose are completely gone, the mouth and the remaining eye are so faded that you can barely see them. i remember exactly what he looked like though. and it sounds silly but sometimes i miss him.

the second scar was the light bulb scar. this one was quick, where i accidently put my wrist on an exposed lightbulb. i didn't realize i did it and don't remember feeling pain, just looking down and feeling the hot bulb on my wrist. it didn't look burnt in the end though, for some reason, i always think it looks like a hickey when i see it.

the third group of scars are also from a bike, but they all happened in college. i proudly tell everyone that i was in a total of 5 bike accidents my entire college career and that only two of them were with other people. i've cracked a tooth, i've scraped several parts of my body and this knee has been hurt in each and every accident. again sounding silly, when i look at this knee, it is always with nostalgia and affection, as if it has been with me through everything. and it has.

fuzzy kitty hat & drop stitch scarf

i made this set for two different swaps but for the same person. she wanted the fuzziest kitty hat and drop-stitch scarf i could make. so i made this sort of matching set from patons divine, which was challenging to work with. i dislike working with boucle to begin with but this one had mohair too so it kept snagging. no matter! i learned something while making these: no more boucle or mohair.

the meme of 4

Ooh Oh i've been tagged by my friend, emmie, to do this meme! ok here i go:

4 jobs that you have had in your lifetime

* Fish caretaker at the Aquaculture and Fisheries Department at UCD -- i used to get in a big tank with 9ft sturgeon to clean their tanks!

* Shoe salesperson for like 6 summers. al bundy watch out!

* Translator. italian to spanish. spanish to english. italian to english. and vice versa.

* Transcriber. people talked. i typed.

4 movies that you could watch over and over

* Pride & Prejudice BBC version. Watching it right now.

* 7 brides for 7 brothers. oh i love you howard keel!

* the major and the minor. ginger rogers and ray milland. LOOOOVE this movie.

* drop dead gorgeous. when i lived in italy i watched it over and over and over again.

4 places that you have lived (in order, omitting most current places of residence)

* lima, peru

* buenos aires, argentina

* siena & florence, italy

* seattle, washington

4 TV shows that you love to watch

* ANY law & order

* mythbusters!!!

* desperate housewives (i know, this makes me such a nerd)

* all those vh1 countdowns, like the 50 greatest hair bands of all time

4 places that you have been on vacation

* disney land -- every year from when i was 4 until i don't remember when

* the bahamas

* cozumel, mexico for my one year anniversary

* france & spain

4 websites that you visit daily

* craftster.org

* yahoo

* this one! lol.

* wists

4 of your favorite foods

* tuna with onions and potatoes (nowhere near as gross as it sounds)

* mashed potatoes. i <3 potatoes!

* cheeeeeseburgers. my biggest vice.

* anything topped in cheese. i'm not supposed to eat milk products but i'm in love with cheese. so sue me.

4 places that you would rather be right now

* right here.

* or hanging out with my mom

* or in italy at my mother-in-law's.

* or living and working in england, as i have always dreamed.

4 bloggers who you are tagging

*Sylv at Pelotes

*Bronxie Knits!

*Everything Holley

* good lord i don't know that many bloggy people and emmie has tagged those i do! i'll think about someone else.

ok hopefully someone will read my humble blog! if you do, well i tag you!

a journal for a swap

i made this mini-journal for the ongoing swap 5. pinkmafia said she wanted a mini journal, and i knew that she really liked geishas so to make it more personal, i used a japanese inspired paper to cover the journal and then a geisha & pinkmafia's initials to embellish the front.

uninspired

you know sometimes i'm just uninspired. which bothers me some, because i see that my other bloggy friends or my "real life" friends are constantly creating something new. i want to create something new, constantly be thinking about creation rather than the destruction going on in the world.

my first step is to join self-portrait tuesday.




my second step? to come.

the sushi sweatshirt

on craftster, i saw someone had embroidered some sushi stuff on a sweatshirt and i said, HEY! i can do that!!! so i did. i love the way it came out. this sweatshirt was old and plain but much beloved and now i like it even more. it proves my sushi lovedness!!!

free to stitch, free to bitch

what ridiculous people! turns out a company, which i will not name here has decided that st*tch and b*tch is their own term and that no one else in the world can use the term st*tch and b*tch. in fact, i'll probably be sued for just mentioning it on my humble blog. (asterisk included just in case this becomes a legal battle in itself).

but here, this explains it all: http://www.cafepress.com/saynotosfse/

monster cozy

i made this cozy for an ongoing swap :) it's made kinda like a card holder, where the mouth opens to reveal two compartments: one on top and one on the bottom. not to toot my own horn but i like it! it continuously amazes me that i made something that cute ;)

new pictures up!

my cousin, jennifer, has been asking me to put up pictures of thanksgiving so this is what i've got. i didn't get many 'cause i was busy eating!

and i went to dim sum yesterday with my friend jenny so i got this pic of us at best buy... marco just got himself a new camera with the gift certificates he got for christmas... this is one of the pics from said camera. check out my hot sweater! (look familiar?)

a few silly pictures i found on my mom's camera.

no pride, lots of prejudice.

this is long overdue... but before the vacation, marco & i went to see pride and prejudice (the new one with keira knightley and matthew macfadyen). i couldn't believe that they had beaten my beloved favorite book down to a non-sensical pulp.

i heavily dislike keira knightley. i didn't used to dislike her. i actually thought she was cute and sweet sometimes. but she has crossed the line and made elizabeth bennet a crazy, giggling nutcase. oh i'm sorry keira, but you are soooo not elizabeth bennet... there's so much i can say about this movie, but i recently read this article and it says it all, so why re-iterate?

i had to watch the BBC version over again just to get it straight in mind. for anyone thinking that the 2005 version of P&P was any good, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE shell out some dough and rent the 1995 BBC version instead! i have two words for you: COLIN FIRTH.

happy birthday, marky!

it's marco's birthday today... he's, um, over thirty. on the plus side though, he ALWAYS gets carded 'cause he looks super young ;) seriously tho he looks 27.

in my attempt to become a better wife, i took a little deadly sin quiz and it seems that sloth is the thing to do me in! i will say i was very honest with this quiz and i'm ok with the results.

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Low
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Very Low
Pride:	Medium

The Seven Deadly Sins Quiz on 4degreez.com

another picture of the anthro cardi

as much as i wanted to, i just couldn't get a good pic of myself wearing the sweater that actually shows the detail of the sweater, so here it is just by itself. i think it looks much better on! next time i'm really going to do this with good yarn; rowan i think. on to the yarn store!!!

fresh off the needles

is my brand new anthropologie inspired cardi :) i didn't officially join the craftster knit-along for this but my friend emmie started it so i thought i'd give it a try. actually she made her own modifications to this which made it go from a small shrug-like capelet to a full on cardi. i took her modifications and applied it to my own knitting and came to this :) i did one of my own mods tho, 3/4 length sleevees. i love the way it came out. it's the second sweater i've finished (the cazillionth i've started) and it was a pretty fast knit! marco took the pic and here i think he was saying, "oooh love the camera, love it! now hate it!" i will have better pics tomorrow hopefully, in natural light :)

the cutest hello kitty hat

this is definitely the cutest hello kitty hat i have ever made. not because it's any different than any of the others (although it's smaller) but because it went on this head! i made this hat for craftyzary's daughter and she looks adorable in it :) so i stole the photo and am proudly putting it in my blog. this totally justifies me putting so many kitty hats out in the world (craftyzary and littlezary are out in germany!).

everybody and their MOTHER received today!!!

*DISCLAIMER* sorry for looking like a goober in these pics!

my partners have received! this is a hat and neckwarmer set that i made for hertrigger's mother, who wanted a craft to do with breast cancer awareness. the pink therefore, is breast cancer awareness pink :) the second pic is another kitty hat that i made; it was for hertrigger. she is a kitty hat maniac and loves kitty hats like no other i know. so i know it was appreciated.


ta-da! my very first panta! now you guys know that i can make them too! this one went to orange_sunset, even though it had a couple of teeeny mistakes, i hope she liked it anyhow!

and here is the dayflower scarf. yes, another one! monica in dallas JUST received it yesterday so i'm posting it now to prove i did knit like i said in michigan :)

its rubine red caron simply soft and it's pretty comfy, if i do say so myself! i love this scarf and its been a while since i've made one so i'm not sick of the pattern :) i might just make myself another one...

and heather, if you're interested in one, let me know and we can set up some sort of private swap :)

back home

we're baaack! we're back in california and happy to be home. we had fun in the snow and the family. AND we have come back with pictures :) click on the christmasy pic for our trip pictures.

oh yes and remember i said i was a knitting machine in michigan? this is one of the hats i made myself. the halley's comet hat in gray caron simply soft.