photo update

oh i just love taking pics of marco and rusty. here they gaze lovingly at each other. it's like they're in love ;)

and here is one of our glorious tomato bounties. marco is an amazing gardener and this year he has grown tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, lemons, green peppers, a peach tree , and an entire herb garden including basil, oregano, rosemary, chocolate mint, and parsley! here is one of the tomato plants, and you can see the rest of our harvest here and full garden shots here. and if you're on craftster, please vote for my garden as the Greatest Garden in the contest by the same name. Here is my entry and this thread has the contest rules/ tells you when to vote :).

Also, I've made my first tee shirt reconstruction, nothing too fancy, but cute :) and an octopus hoodie using the print gocco and some speedball fabric paint.

moon over my balcony

this is the moon over my balcony. i have been staying up very late lately and one day i stayed up until dawn. and then it started to lighten and i saw the moon looking so heavy and still and lonely. i took a picture of it; i learned to use my camera in the semi-dark.

more knittied things

i guess i've been knitting like mad lately. i do want to say that i knit out of stress and this is the proof. with all the midpoint stuff going on and having to resubmit, etc. knitting is keeping my hands occupied as well as allowing me to get rid of my nervous energy.

so this is what i've made so far. the isabeau purse is my latest knitty, fully lined with tie dye lining and finished with a bee button. it's very cute but unfortunately, i got really impatient with the blocking process and took the iron to it. not a good idea. it lost some structure but oh well. i put a cardboard piece at the bottom to keep it from collapsing into itself and to give it structure.

the next pic is another fishy hat, this one especially for my swappy friend ianna, who loved the fishies and wanted gray and pink. isn't she so frickin adorable? and the pic below is the fabulous ravenhurst, her pug! i'm so happy she liked it. see a clearer picture of the hat & fair isle right here.

the last is the most popular of the crazy lasandri hats. the colors seemed to have appealed to everyone and a lot of people wisted it. *blush* i'm super proud :)

so yeah, my thesis

today was my midpoint day, which is the day we (the grad students) give our thesis proposal presentation. i think the presentation itself went well (and the committee made it a point to tell me that i spoke well about my topic), but unfortunately, they felt my proposal booklet was too business-y looking rather than really reflecting my topic (client-designer relationships).

although i'm ok with a resubmit (it's a conditional pass where you don't have to present again but you do have to resubmit the proposal booklets -- like 90% of my class got a resubmit), i feel a bit overwhelmed with the whole thing. it's kinda bringing me down.

sigh.

some summer things... and the octo-hat & crazy monochrome lasandri hat

these are my latest hats! the octo-hat was born from octo-love! many people on craftster love octopi and although i have here a quadropus hat (4 tentacles instead of 8), we can say his other four tentacles are hiding and is still an octopus hat. i'm getting good feedback on it and for the fans, here is the octo-chart!

the second hat is a lasandri hat that is knit completely with one yarn/one color (except for the gray in the poms). its the new thing! and i think i like it.

in other news i took rusty on a walk today and found my favorite thing of the summer: rambling blackberries. there are thousands on the railroad tracks where we walk. i love them. they are super sweet and sun ripened! yum!

love and affection

we didn't do anything (together) for 4th of july (marco went to a friend's to watch the world cup - italy won!) but the saturday before we went to marin county fair... why on saturday instead of yesterday? well, i have to admit (and it's a bit embarassing) that i'm a hardcore hair band groupie. i love hair bands. the very best was def leppard of course, but i am a lover of most hair bands. and when i was 12 or 13, i was forever in love with the blondest, pop-iest of all the hair bands, Nelson (remember they had waist length hair in platinum blonde?). so when i heard they were going to be at the marin county fair, i was like, yes! we're so there. i wasn't expecting a lot, just a goof, really, as most hair bands i see today are sad shadows of their former selves. i was extremely surprised to find out that the nelson brothers, matthew and gunnar, are AWESOME performers. i mean truly great performers. they're charming and sincere, and since i no longer require the idea of a bad ass hard-edged band, these guys were so great! they were so fun and the concert was really entertaining and they kinda joke through it and make fun of themselves in a good humored way. at the end i was like, i love nelson. yes, many may scoff, many may laugh at me, but they were so good i couldn't believe it! i took a bunch of pics of them and posted some up in the gallery. at the end of the concert, they stood outside and met and talked to everyone there and didn't leave until they got everyone. marco and i were toward the front and i got my picture with them *gush* (nevermind the crappy hair day!)! i did it for the blog! (um ok, i did it 'cause it was my dream from when i was 12). i will definitely be looking out for them and if they come back, i'll be there. they've won me over ;)

oh and i took some pics of the fireworks and some other stuff at the fair... take a look right here!

if only this wasn't so damn cute

i actually opened up an account at youtube for this one video. it's so frickin awesome, it deserves to be blogged! i love chicken little now.