rained out at the pumpkin patch

We got rained out from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch - serious rain today. So we settled for a trip to the market's pumpkin patch. Not half as exciting but when you need to see pumpkins, you need to see pumpkins.

still life

E and I have been decorating for Halloween. I think this is one of our more sophisticated offerrings. Still Life - with ghost pumpkins and cotton.

I got this yummy chocolate brown yarn to make my own CeCe but I think it might go for a cabled sweater for E instead. I'm not ready to face CeCe again. I really should leave the still life alone until it's time for our Christmas decorating . . . .

moving on

I am tired of posting about Martha . . . even though the whole adventure was fabulous. Let's get back to knitting. I am on pins and needles waiting to see if the Flowery Sweater for Moo is going to work. Everything is knitted, everthing is blocked, but I am just doubting it a bit. I need a Moo Model to shape it onto since the real girl is a bit hard to get to slow down - she IS 2 you know!
While I was stressing about the sizing, I made a sweet little hat to match. Maybe the hat will distract from any weird shaping issues.

I've got a date with the treadmill tonight so I won't get much progress done. I think I need to make an appointment to go see Moo and do a real fitting. So Project Runway.

martha martha part deux

The Martha Stewart Living Good Things event was so great it's taking two blog entries to cover it all.
We got a couple of sneak peeks at upcoming issue stories. Martha showed up the silver-gilded arc as well as glittered animals for the holiday table - not my thing at all, but it was fun to watch her do the crafty stuff in front of 2,000 people.






There was an art auction to fund a garden and playground across from the new wing at Cedars-Sinai that Martha is dedicating to her mother. Martha talked up the photos a bit - they were going for $500-$2000. There were two photos by Martha that I think went for around $3,000.









From left: Kevin Sharkey, Editorial Director of Decorating, Sharkey the French Bulldog, and Hannah Milman, Editorial Director, Crafts. She created that amazing Martha wreaths book in the 90's.





There was more than a bit of the absurd at the event.
Absurd #1: I love Paw Paw, Martha's prize chow. I really do. But not enough to lay on the ground and kiss him the way several people were doing. Paw Paw ignored them and kept drinking from his Depression Glass bowl.
Absurd #2: My encounter with Martha (see blog entry from yesterday).
Absurd #3: At the homekeeping session with Melanio Gomez, I won a flat-screen tv! I had just moved up to the third row (all the better to see the cool organizing stuff Melanio was doing) when he told us all to look under our seats. Voila! I was so excited and sort of jumped around but since I wasn't with anyone, no one in my room was particularly happy for me. I called Tall House, Double Cup and shared the joy on cell phone. They are sending it sometime next month. hee hee.

I still have a couple more pictures to add and a bit more to tell, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow. Work calls.

martha, oh martha!

I was out of town at the fabulous Martha Stewart Living's 15th Anniversary Celebration this past weekend. There was laughter, tears, joy, and more! This is going to be an excessively long blog entry so just skip if Martha isn't an interest of yours.
First, the tears - I didn't get in to see the Martha show on Friday, despite standing in line for HOURS. I really hadn't thought for a moment I wouldn't get in, so I was a little teary as I walked through Chelsea.
An amazing lunch at Union Square Cafe restored my faith in my NCY trip. House-made pasta with lobster and orange oil. Lovely. I spent the rest of the day shopping up Broadway at yarn stores, antique shops, and dish stores. Happy girl.
The big event was all day Saturday at Pier 94 - which was transformed into a very Martha area - lots of grey, white and green. Martha came out and spoke for 90 minutes on the iconic images of the past fifteen years of the magazine. It was fabulous! She is an amazing speaker - no hesitations or ums and ahs. I took pages and pages of notes - I am not sure why - I was just feeling so inspired. Martha looked amazing. I saw her several times during the day and was happily surprised how positive and happy she seemed to be about the entire celebration. She obviously isn't an ice princess icon to her staff but is highly admired. She is also skinny skinny in person - much more so than on her show.
After she spoke, there were a number of stations to visit around the Pier - all of the different magazines under Martha Stewart Omnimedia were represented. I bought a pretty transferware cup and saucer at the "tag sale" and was questioning myself about wasting time waiting in line to pay, when in swept Martha, five bodyguard, her two French bulldogs (I kid you not), Charles Koppelman (her CFO) and various pr types. She walked right up to me and said, "What are you getting?" And in a total trance, holding the cup and saucer in each hand, stupidly replied, "A cup and saucer." I was stunned and excited and absolutely a dork. After saying, "lovely" she and her group swept on. I was congratulated by all in line next to me, but was stunned for several minutes.
I took one of the special workshops - "Good Things for the Holiday Table." There is nothing I like doing more than setting a pretty table - really, I know it's silly but my mother and grandmother set great tables and it's a point of pride to me to be able to do it to. Sadly, the class was really "crafty" and more about making little things for the table than the higher concept I was hoping for. We deconstructed a pine cone only to reglue it together again in the shape of a flower. I'd much prefer to just have a pretty pine cone on the table. We justed pears with gold dust - again, I'd rather just have the pretty pair. We made fun candles with sheets of beeswax and cookie cutters - something my three year-old will dig. We did get cute aprons which made the class sort-of worth it.

After lunch, Kevin Sharkey, Eric Pike, and Gael Towey - all long-time Living editors, gave a presentation on their fifteen favorite decorating ideas. The three of them are SO knowledgeable and the real style mavens behind the magazine. Martha's new home in Bedford, NY is painted completely "sharkey" grey, and her new French Bulldog is also named Sharkey - he's definitely a big influence in her life. Eric Pike is known as Father Christmas at MSL and I wish he had had more time to talk about his Christmas spreads.
Martha's daughter Alexis and Jennifer Koppelman did their radio who live from the conference floor. Both were deadly gorgeous in person and signed a photo for me.


I am terribly behind at home and work so I'll blog more tomorrow about the rest of the day/trip to NYC. Off to the library!

perfect apple pie

I was busy hosting Caldecott Winner David Diaz at our library over the past three days (pictures tomorrow) so I haven't had any time to blog. While I was driving Mr. Diaz around the county, E and Tall House, Double Cup made a perfect apple pie! Absolutely perfect! E's been reading an apple pie story before bed for the past couple of weeks and THDC offerred to teach him how to make one - they did great together. Pie for dessert or pie for breakfast. Either way - I'm impressed!

halloween preview

When I was about 5 or 6, I was in love with Peter Pan. I would pretend to be Wendy and fly my grandparents' basement and think romantic thoughts. Now E is in love with Peter in a whole different way - he wants to BE Peter Pan. He's all ready for Halloween and tries on his costume everyday. Then he stands in front of the mirror, posing. Sometimes he has a real menacing look while holding up his knife and other times he posing in that classic Peter Pan stance. He can keep himself busy for 20 minutes doing this!
The real upshot to all this is that I know how to play Peter Pan. I'm not that good at playing dump trucks or matchbox cars, but I can fly to Neverland with the best of them. Now . . . I just need my own blue nightgown to really be Wendy. Poor Tall House, Double Cup - he's usually stuck being a lost boy or Schmee. hee.

cece is fini!

The CeCee is fini! I've decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Christmas - I've never made her anything particularly special and this turned out quite lovely. When I blocked the 3/4 sleeves, they actually stretched out to full sleves, which I really wanted. I also learned about the construction vs. my body so I'll know how to make another for me eventually.
I am terrible at doing self-portraits
with my camera, but I'll definitely post pictures when my mil gets her gift.

Moo's sweater

I am actually starting to make serious progress on Moo's flowery sweater dress. The back and two sleeves are done. I'm on a 10 row-a-day diet with the front to finish. Ten rows sounds like nothing but the three color intarsia takes a long time and I have to untangle all the yarns at the end of each row. . . . but oh, it's so pretty.

It looks smocked in the body (due to my wayyyyy to tight yarn carry-overs) but I actually really like it - it will be very shaped. I did a fitting with Moo at the farmer's market on Saturday and I think it will be a winner. I might need to do a bit of adjusting at the shoulders - little girls have the tiniest shoulders. But with a pair of red leggings, it will look great. hurrah!

manly polka dots

Can polka dots be manly? Yes! Check out these - E's newest jammie pants. He was utterly disagreeable in posing for me tonight but you'll get the drift. I used one of those super basic pull-on pant patterns - the kind on the spindle that basically shout out, "If you can't make these, turn in your sewing machine."




I also found three more pairs of super soft footie jammies this weekend so I am going to stop with the sleepy time projects for awhile and try to do a bit of tailoring with my clothes. Miss Applebotton needs to take in A LOT of waists on her pants.

saturday market

More dahlias and farmer's market bounty. The blackberries and peaches are just perfect.

fresh air can kill you know

2.17 miles into my walk on the treadmill tonight - just as they went to jury on my tivoed Survivor, the mill just stopped - cold. I dorked over my feet and then kept trying and trying to get it to start again - no go. I am hoping it's just a bit hot, a bit overworked. I am SPOILED rotten by working out to my tivo. Returning to the walking everyday outside without constant entertainment is, well, not appealing to moi. I need my Survivor, my Amazing Race, my Laguna Beach.
Please blow a cold breath towards my treadmill to cool it off by tomorrow morning. My butt thanks you!

froggy jammies

I grew up in a fairly small Wisconsin town and I only knew of one person who went away to sleep-over camp - my friend Kelly got to commune with fillys one summer at Girl Scout horse camp (which still sounds very glam to me today). Instead, my parents took advantage of the local summer offerings, hence my experience at a variety of townie day camps including puppet-making, coil pottery, and bowling camps. I bet there are other girls from the 80's who may have also gone to bowling camp but I haven't met anyone else who, as a child, went to sewing camp. Yes, that was me in the church basement for two weeks, laboring over a pastel Hawaiian printed camp shirt. Sewing camp has served me well - I wasn't a repeat visitor but I parlayed those two weeks into a lifetime of being to able to just practically pull off the sewing projects I am interested in.
Rearranging our laundry room allowed me to make an actual dedicated space to sewing. I'm not a perfectionist and I don't care much about details (not the great makings of a good sewer), but I get inspired by fabric almost the same way I get excited about yarn - the colors, the patterns, the feel . . . my latest completed beauty . . . . the froggy jammy pants for E.


Here are the pants in action - wicked cool for popcorn parties.

older people

Today is E's first day in "OP" - which he says stands for "older people" but actually means "older preschool." He was in "YP" aka "younger preschool" for the past year and really thrived in it - he made two best friends, overcame a tough situation with a bully, started getting interested in art, and really bonded to his teachers.
He is very happy and excited to be moving up to the big kids class. It doesn't hurt that his friend Will is moving too.
We went in this morning and set-up his new cubby. He picked one right next to Will. Then he headed outside to play with his friends. As I walked through the school, I got a bit teary - E's in his final preschool room - he started in Wobblers when he was 11 months old and has moved through Toddlers and YP. He has two years left at the school before starting kindergarten, but I already feel a bit wobbly at the thought.
Yeah for E and OP!

dahlias

I can't get enough of these beauties . . . yeah for the farmer's market.

saturday market fun

We took Nana and Jonesie to the downtown farmer's market and met up with Marfie and family. It was chilly and fall-ish and just a perfect feeling morning. We camped out in the middle of the square and took turns watching the kids and shopping. Jonesie tried samples at every booth. Here is Nana with Sam . . . .


And Jonesie with E and Moo.
We came home with some beautiful
produce and dahalis. I made pesto with fresh pasta for dinner and we've been snack on the fruit all day. The dahlias are amazing. I'll post more picture of those tomorrow.

One last picture of E and Moo - their love is destined!

my hot cuppa's birthday

Happy Birthday Tall House, Double Cup!
You are the big papa around our house and E and I love you so! You only grow more handsome and sweet each year that I know you. You are such a great papa to E - so many of my friends can't rely on their partners to be equal parents, but you are truly my partner in raising our little boy. I love that you read BUST and Bluff - you are a man with your own tastes and interests - and you are the very best friend and travel companion.
So today starts your birthday weekend: dinner out tonight, present shopping tomorrow and a family dinner on Sunday. Let the revelry begin!

my own wife

E spent the day with Nana and Jonesie yesterday. It's such a luxury to have them visit for such a long stretch. Nana makes healthy meals, Jonesie lets E tag around with him and both of them include E in their projects - and those projects mostly consist of fine tuning our household - it's like having my own wife for a week.
Just yesterday Jonesie fixed a broken stool, fixed the ceiling fan in our walk-in closet and watered/weeded my tomatoes. Nana dusted all of the woodwork in the house and started putting out the fall dishes. I came home to a lovely meal and got to have a second stint on the treadmill while she put E to bed. I am feeling extremely lucky! Thanks Nana and Jonesie!

still thinking about the beach

I am still thinking about the lovely weekend at the beach. This is where I could be found most of the time it was sunny. Heavenly!

no labor on labor day

What a weekend on the Oregon coast we had - four days of reading, knitting, playing cards, drinking wine, jumping waves and going for walks. Nana and Jonesie are visiting so E was in heaven, getting attention from everyone. After the first night, he decided that he had to sleep with his Jonesie - even though Jonesie was camped out in a single bed. E discovered a Wizard of Oz gameboard and insisted on knowing the entire story. Nana and Jonesie sang him the songs, played the game and told the story of Oz over and over to him. He's such a lucky boy to have grandparents who will play and play and play with him. And what a treat it was for THDC and I - I read three books while we were there and THDC napped every day, I think.

I made a treasure map for E and THDC buried in the sand, using two sticks for X marks the spot. E recruited a couple of Lost Boys (aka grandparents) to help him find it.
On our last night we had a bonfire on the beach. E told stories and didn't take a breath for about thirty minutes. His stories involved a little bit of everything we had been talking about over the weekend - caves, mice, treasure. It was a lovely weekend.