I am fall - yeah!

This is SO true. I love that in Portland fall lasts from October to New Year's. Yeah for pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin butter, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin seeds. I am already counting down the days. Boo to anything warmer than 76!

You Are Fall!

Thoughtful Expressive Creative Poetic Smart

What Season Are You?

bedding porn

My GOD - I love this bedding! Have you seen the new Eileen Fisher Home collection in Garnet Hill? This is motivation to keep working full-time. It's almost motivation to go sell myself on the streets - just for the chance to dive into this gorgeous fabric. sigh.

break from a break from a break

Remember how I started the CeCe as a break from the Flowery Sweater? Now I really need a break from CeCe (fugly lace). So I started a super simple skinny scarf - most likely for my boss's birthday. She wears amazing clothes that are always very put together with accessories. I know she'll love it. I'm using Filatti's Midas Touch - a lovely ribbon yarn. It was much more fun to knit this while watching tivo tonight than reading and re-reading the CeCe pattern. More pictures soon - it will be a breeze to finish.
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cabled fingerless gloves - ta da!

I finished these fingerless cabled gloves over the weekend - they aren't perfect but I think I like them enough and I want to move on to really crank out more of the CeCe. I enlisted Tall House, Double Cup in photographing these. It's hard to do justice with gloves in August.
These are going off to the State Fair along with a felted vest I made for E's Thanksgiving outfit. I am excited to see them on exhibit with all of the other pretties that people submitted.

Fingerless Cabled Gloves, Knitpicks Essential, aSH.

happy day Moo!

Moo turned two over the weekend and we were so lucky to be invited to her family party - it was a beautiful morning up at Marfie & Craig's house. Here is the birthday girl.


Moo had the prettiest cake from Bakery Bar. Her parents brought in a picture of Moo with her hippo jammies and they made a fabu cake from it. It was Grandma Sue's birthday and her cake was just as lovely - with pretty flowers all around.

E was on very good behavior - it didn't hurt that Auntie B brought HIM a present too! Super Blaster Rocket! Auntie B is the kind of aunt that everyone wants. She knows about the coolest toys, books, and fashion. Plus she is also upbeat and tres stylish.
Sam the Man slept through everything - he's totally Mr. Mellow. I didn't get a picture with him but here is a shot of Moo and her parents.

I was trying to be silly and get both E and Moo with their hands praying like little angels - I'd like to officially note here the child who isn't praying . . . .

zoo boy

A few handsome shots from last week's zoo trip. We had to have a fun outing after E fell off his big boy bike on the way to Starbucks, "I am never going to Starbucks again," he yelled through tears. No falls at the zoo.

it's all about the pool

We are still in the thick of swimming lessons. Every morning before I leave for work I make sure to have his swim bag packed - dry towel, swim suit, fresh clothes for after swimming, his new cool Croc mocs to slip into, his dinner, a drink, water for me, my knitting. I haven't done this much pre-morning prep since he was an infant.


But it seems to be paying off. Even though he isn't an attentive listener to his teachers, I definitely see him improving!
This last picture really represents E's relationship to his class and teachers. Throughout his lesson you can hear his teacher's voice calling out his name over and over. "Come on back to the group, E." "Over to the wall, E." "E, where are you?" He does get put up on the side of the pool once in a while for not listening - he doesn't seem to mind - it bothers me to no end that he is so nonchalant with authority figures - I am still trying to figure out what it means within the context of his personality. Thank god the teenage swimming teachers can take it better than I can. Six days of classes left . . .

coffee shop

E and I go to the coffee shop every Wednesday morning. I started the routine when I was struggling with how to wake him up, get him dressed, wash his face, brush his teeth, and out the door without the drama and whining that he likes to go through. The coffee shop is our saving grace on Wednesdays - knowing he gets come vanilla milk and a pumpkin scone (always a pumpkin scone) rise and shine is just easier. We even have a song that goes with the event, "We're going to the coffee shop/ woo woo/ gonna get some coffee/ woo woo." I bring my knitting or read the WW and E picks all of the frosting off his scone ("it's the best part") and tosses tiny scraps for the birds.
Now that we've been doing it for a couple of months, I am starting to feel a bit of community at, gasp, Starbucks. The scrubbed faced barrista almost remembers my drink perfectly (venti iced decaf americano with one pump mocha, extra ice and room for milk). E gets a bit of attention. We see the same police officers and two super rocker-god types who always sit outside.
This ritual sometimes helps us get out the door and sometimes gets me to work five minutes late. It's totally worth it. Our coffee shop date.

swimming fever

We've started the two weeks of intense swimming classes EVERY night after work/preschool. E complains a bit each night about "having" to go to swim class. Once we get there and he sees the kids he's totally game but the drive from preschool to the pool isn't pretty. He is in the "Penguin" group which looks almost exactly like his "Goldfish" group except they spend more time away from the wall of the pool. E still doesn't want to go underwater but it's so sweet to see him try try try to get his nerve up and get wet all the way over his ears and then pop back up. I've been knitting during his class so I haven't taken any pictures yet . . .

Here is a fun action shot of E and La at the park. E likes to strut around in front of her, "La, look how FAST I am."

cece challenge

CeCe is coming along. Knitting lace is definitely a challenge . . . it's so intricate that I know I've messed up a couple of times but it's such a non-defined pattern (at least how I am working it) that I can't really tell exactly where I went wrong. I am hoping that by the time it's done, it will be wearable and then I might just start right over and make it is more luxurious yarn like hemp or bamboo. At least it's keeping me from going crazy over the Flowery Sweater.

honey chile

This is Honey - E's very favorite teacher. I think she is possibly his first crush as well. Her real name is Kristie but E came up with his own sweet moniker. One time E got very frustrated with me and slapped me on the forearm. When I was explaining how we never, ever hit people we love, I asked him, "Would you ever hit Honey"? And he GASPED at the idea! Of course not! She's Honey - you're . . . . Mama.
Honey is leaving E's school to look for a new position - we will miss her so much! She gave Tall House, Double Cup and I so much good advice for helping E along with his development. I'll never forget her telling us that, "Your child is so capable if you give him the tools to take care of himself." It's so true. A three-year-old can dres himself and sweep and pull up his covers and put on his own shoes . . . . at least at school he can.
I just love this picture of the two of them. I don't know if he will ever remember her kindness when he grows up but I am hoping with this picture he'll remember a "honey" kind of feeling from her.

super puffy

We were so excited to get E a big boy bike! He borrowed a friend's 12-inch bike a couple of weeks ago when we saw how proficient he was at pedaling around - the only problem was that his knees were coming up to his chest to pedal.
Then, being very un-librarian-like, we went out and bought him a big 20 inch bike without doing any research. It was just so fun and exciting for us as parents to get him a real bike! He is such a tall fella that he is riding what is usually cut out for five-year-olds.
We've already gone to Starbucks (about 3/4 of a mile away) with us walking and E biking. Maybe E could be my new workout partner. I'll just have to learn how to avoid all of the parks in our hood (there are five in walking distance) because every time he sees a play structure we have to stop (and bring down my heartrate, you know).
At E's school circle time, every child was asked to tell what they did over the weekend. When it was E's turn he said, "I rode on my super puffy bike!"
It's actually a "Stoked Huffy" but he had his own interpretation. I did buy spangles to hang off the handles but that could be just me living out my bike fantasies on E - this bike is pretty butch for spangles.

welcome sammy!

Marfie gave birth to a sweet little boy on Monday - Sam the Man is perfect and round - with a teeny little chin that points up. I burst into tears when I met him - it's so special to hold a five hour-old baby! He gets to come home today and I got out all of E's newborn clothes this morning to wash and have ready for his arrival. I love those little newborn onesies. hee!

drink them in

Our friends who live in North Carolina were able to stop in to visit on Monday night. They went to college with Tall House, Double Cup and when they lived in Oregon, we were able to get together for weekends every now and then. They brought the prettiest flowers from Pike Place Market for us. Drink them in!

registration success!

The day has arrived! I am registered for Martha Stewart's Good Things 2006 event in NYC!
I registered for the general admission plus the "Holiday Table" workshop. hee hee! I am giddy with excitement about this! I've been searching blogs and message boards and haven't found anyone talking about this event - it's so DAMM exciting - Martha in person plus all of her art-school snotty-snooty editors - HEAVEN!

The first 170 people to register get tickets to the taping of her show on Friday - I don't know if I made the cut but I am hoping hoping hoping!

----------------------------
Thank you, your order is complete!
Martha Stewart Living's : Good Things
Saturday, Sep 30, 2006 9:30 AM EDT - Saturday, Sep 30, 2006 5:30 PM EDT
Good Things for Entertaining: The Holiday Table
12:35PM HOLIDAY $225.00
Mail
$225.00
Service Fee:Delivery Fee:Total:
$16.00$0.00$241.00
----------------------------

avoiding the tough stuff

That dang flowery sweater is just not that fun to work on - it's so complicated and trying to manage three yarns at once is just too much. So I am starting yet another project to avoid having to finish it . . . and this one is just for moi:
The CeCe from ChickKnits
Marfie, Brooke and I went for pedicures over lunch and I got a couple of rows done. My idea of heaven is knitting while getting my feet massaged and polished - now, only if they had a tivo/tv for watching crap reality shows - uber heaven. I am doing it in watermelon red cotton. lurvy.

bathman

The bathrobe is done! The bathrobe is done! And guess what? E informed me he "doesn't like bathrobes." I got this picture only by promising to read chapter upon chapter of Captain Underpants to him. Both of his preschool teachers are working behind the scenes with me and going to drop hints about how much they love their bathrobes . . . . maybe it will help.
The bathrobe turned out so lovely - just the best colors for E and it's so soft and comfy - with little tabs that hold in the belt and a little knitted tab for hanging on his bathroom hook. I did a single crochet around all of the edges . . . I am just so happy with it . . . hopefully I can get E to come around too.

ONline Linie 121 - Summertime, Spring Leaf and Sapphire.

the heat, the heat

We hardly had anything on our schedule for this weekend, but we quickly realized that the main objective would just be getting through the heat. We sat under the sprinkler, went to the pool, and went out to eat for most meals. We survived, but it wasn't pretty. I did get one lovely project done (but now I realize I need one more piece to complete it):

This is Amy Butler fabric in Forest and Sunbloom stretched over 18x30 canvas. I bought a stable gun (fun! fun!) and got to work.

Now that I've made two, I realize I like things in odd numbers. So back to the art store for one more canvas and I have some sheer, burnt green silk leftover from the curtains in our bedroom which will make the perfect third.

it's just so exciting

It's just SO exciting. I got an email back from the Martha Stewart Living 15th Anniversary Celebration staff . . . two days of good things in NYC. I can't wait!

Hi pdxkatie,
Thank you very much for your interest in our upcoming 15th anniversary event! The event will take place on September 30th and October 1st, from 10am-4pm.

General admission is $155, which includes center stage seminars, lunch, and main event activities. An additional $45 fee will be charged for each workshop. We will be accepting all major credit-cards. Please visit the above website for more information. Hope to see you there!

Best,
Martha Stewart Living

Center Stage Seminars
#1 – “From My Home to Yours” with Martha Stewart
#2 - Tips and Ideas for All the Rooms of the House with Gael Towey, Martha Stewart Living’s Chief Creative Officer, Eric Pike, Creative Director, and Kevin Sharkey, Decorating Editor
#3 – Gardening for All Seasons with Margaret Roach, Editorial Director, Martha Stewart Living
#4 - Home 101 with Melañio Gomez, Editorial Director of Home at Martha Stewart Living
#5 – Fast Menus for Easy Entertaining with Lucinda Scala Quinn, Editorial Director of Food/Entertaining, Martha Stewart Living

Workshops #1 – Fit to Eat: Tips & Tools for Healthy Cooking
#2 – Decorating Cakes and Cookies
#3 – Pumpkin Carving 101
#4 - Good Things for Entertaining: The Holiday Table
#5 – Flower Arranging 101

Main Event Activities
#1 – Best Buy Solutions Center
#2 – Epson Custom Craft Area and Moviemate Theater
#3 – Sirius Radio Booth – Live Broadcast
#4 – Collecting with Fritz Karch, Editorial Director of Collecting, Martha Stewart Living
#5 – Healthy Living with Brent Ridge, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia
#6 – Martha Stewart Living Photo Retrospective and Silent Auction
#7 – Martha Stewart Living Good Things Gallery
#8 – “Make It and Take It” with EK Crafts

We at Martha Stewart Living know that you are our greatest fan and we will make sure you have special front row seating at all events.

Okay . . I added that last sentence, but don't you think I really do deserve front row seating?

shoes, people, shoes

Nana gave me the prettiest pair of shoes I've ever had and I've been stomping around the office looking for a compliment . . . and let me tell you people, it's not working. NO ONE has commented on these and I've worn them TWICE this week. I even gave out a few compliments (which I am happy to do, but hey - this was intentional). "oh, co-worker, look at your lovely skirt. You really know how to pick pretty clothes." In return, "Thanks."




So today I even went super matchy-matchy and pulled out the PERFECT shirt to go with the shoes. More stomping around the office and . . . . nothing. At least E told me they were pretty. He likes the flowers. I like it all.

every boy needs a bathrobe

I got a bit down and out about the flowery sweater from Lucinda Guy - that damm intarsia colorwork is truly the death of me. So I needed another project that I knew I could be successful at. Enter - the boy bathrobe.

Actually, I don't know the official name of the pattern - it's from Greetings from the Knit Cafe book - such a lovely book - great color choices - which, of course, I got from the library and photocopied and filed future projects in my pattern binder. Here is a crappy shot of the pattern . . .



I am knitting it up for E with ONline Linie 121 - Summertime in grass green with a happy royal blue trim . . . I am working the two sleeves at the same time which is fun . . . and it's knitting up like a dream. Official colors: Spring Leaf and Sapphire.
I have a long programming team meeting this afternoon so I bet I can finish out the sleeves (yes, we can knit in long, arduous meetings - v.v. Scandinavian of the library, isn't it?). Then I just have the hood left.

E has informed me that boys don't need or wear bathrobes so Tall House, Double Cup and I are on a campaign to subtly change his mind . . . "Hey, Papa, did you hear that Guapo (E's friend) got a new bathrobe? He wears it while watching Wallace and Grommet." We'll see if it works . . .

fun hangover

Our weekend was packed with fun stuff . . . maybe too much since our boy woke up with a fun hangover on Monday . . . surly and exhausted. Here's what brought it on . . . Friday night was a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Tall House, Double Cup let me off the hook and took E on his own. While I reveled in the solitude, THDC chased E around the same insane pizza place that he went to as a child.

On Saturday, E had his 3 1/2 year pictures followed by a trip to Grant Park and the Ribsy statue turned into a soaking wet "Waterboy!" adventure.



Ella and Baby Lucy came over while their parents had a date night. Evan was a total show-off for Ella -"Look how fast I can run. Look at me!"
Big Nate turned 3 on Sunday and the kids celebrated with a slip and slide and alligator green cupcakes.
Jeff and I had a date night on Sunday that started with massages at the Barefoot Sage, followed by lemondrops at Lovely Hula Hands and then dinner outside at Fenouil. We didn't get home and E in bed until 10pm . . . too late for our sleeper. We won't repeat the late Sunday again any time soon, but that date night was worth it.

goodbye pepto pink

I couldn't escape from small town life any faster than I did after high school - I was ready to get away and get away fast - but looking back, there where a few lovely things about growing up in a town of 10,000 people.
1. the local university provided some cool camps during the summer - when I was a little kid I did art, theater, music . . . and then when I was a teenager, the college hosted hockey camp with lots of out of town boys. Need I say more about my appreciation of this?
2. my hometown is really pretty. I don't think I appreciated it then, but when we were back in Wisconsin last week, I took Tall House, Double Cup on a hometown date and marveled at how many lovely trees and greenspaces there were. Ack - greenspaces - isn't that a Portland word for what a midwesterner would call a "lawn."
And finally, the very best part of my home town:
3. The movie theater. The movie theater in my hometown was a huge part of my life. The owner had several other theaters in bigger cities and always doted and personally ran the one in our town. He brought all of the first run movies to us for bargain prices. How bargain? $1 for kids, $2 for adults - 50 cents for weekend maidens. On the weekends, every kid got a ticket with a number on it and Stan showed old fashioned b&w dog race films. Everyone would yell out there number, "Go 12! Go 4!" and if your dog won, you got to run up to the concession stand and get a stuffed animal - just because. This was the life!
And check out this picture - not much has changed. This is their current price list.
I saw ET 16 times at this theater one summer. One extremely boring Christmas break (yes, even the school called it Christmas break - we had one Jewish kid in the whole school district), my best friend and I sat through Terms of Endearment 6 times. My first kiss happened just after leaving this theater. A huge romance blossomed for me on a Friday night in 1984 while watching The Breakfast Club. I snuck bottles of beer in my jean jacket while watching Batman in high school. This place is epic to me.

Which is why I had to share it with THDC. The theater has gone through a bit of a remodel. Your shoes no longer stick to the floor like they used to. The cry room where we used to go makeout is now a storage closet. The concession stand is still exactly like it used to look. On the night we went, the owner wasn't there but the popcorn had REAL Wisconsin butter on it and cost $1. The bathrooms had been repainted and even though I stood on the toilet and tried to scrap a teeny tiny bit of paint off with my car keys, I couldn't unleash the pepto pink paint that I remembered so fondly.

I'll never ever move back to Wisconsin or even to a small town - I am reborn as a pdx girl completely - but it was lovely and a little teary to see it all again.

grow and grow and grow

I was scrubbing the bejesus out of the grout on the tile floor while E took a bath last night - NEVER get crazy with the Bon Ami on dark grey grout - when E shouted, "Mama, mama. Look at my penis. It's so BIG. It's gonna grow and grow and grow and be the biggest in the whole world. I am gonna have two of them." I fell over laughing - right into the slurry of Bon Ami.

Sonny - I don't have the heart to tell you that one is really all any man can handle.

mighty pirates plunder the shores of western wisconsin

We are back in pdx after ten days of lazy vacation in Wisconsin. Here are some choice pictures from the trip.
Jonesie was back in pdx on business and flew back to mpls with us. He got bumped to first class and let me have the ticket (wine and cheese and silence for moi!). He got the lucky seat next to E.



We spent a day at the Mall of America - all trying to maintain that Camp Snoopy is still there for E's benefit (I had talked it up a bit much before finding out the Schultz people pulled the licensing last year. E and his Nana checked out Legoland.

Our own Little Uncle Sam - we had our own fireworks show at my parents' house - sparklers were a hit until the end of the show when E went into meltdown mode over the fact that sparklers indeed do run out.


Jonesie hid a pirate chest full of booty on the other side of their pond. With map in hand, he and E set out on a treasure hunt - E was THRILLED when he found a "real" treasure chest!

Our mighty pirates plunder the wild Wisconsin shores!

E caught his first fish - a four-inch bluegill - what a sportsman!


Looking at the photos I took on vacation, you would think this vacation was only about E - but Tall House, Double Cup and I came home quite rested and sassy ourselves - that will happen after getting ten hours of sleep every night. I read four books, got a lot done on my knitting and took THDC out on a hometown date - photos from that another day.

dispatch from wisconsin

We are going to be Americans today and head to the Mall (or fall) of America to visit what once was Camp Snoopy (don't tell E that it isn't anymore), legoland, and hopefully a huge Aveda store. None of us are wearing red, white, or blue but we'll definitely stimulate the American economy with our shopping. Then it's back to the country for our private fireworks show.

Moi: reading, Tall House: sleeping, E: playing with Nana and Jonesie. I don't see much changing in the next seven days.