A brand new concert flute.

You may naturally be asking why.  I will attempt to formulate an adequate response for such an odd impulse purchase. You may not know that the  Spazz played the flute from grade school through high school. And I didn’t totally suck either, my junior year I made it all the way to fourth chair before I started losing interest and nearing the finish line of my high school career. I maintained a not too shabby front line of the second string, but alas, my instrument was stolen during my senior year over 14 years ago. (I know, who would steal a flute, right?)  I stumbled upon a moderately priced concert flute this weekend at Tuesday Morning of all places. (Don’t you just LOVE Tuesday Morning?)

Long story long, I snapped it up after very little persuasion from mom. Turns out, much to my surprise and the amusement of both Jeff and my mother, I can play a B flat scale AND arpeggio.

Thaaaaaat’s about all folks.  But I look forward to practicing and re-learning what I can so I can bust out  some wicked “rock flute” at a future gathering. I’m thinking some “Smoke on the Water” or “Stairway to Heaven” or even “Enter Sandman” would be nice to add to my repertoire.

I need to work on my posture. And clean some junk off the fridge while I’m at it. (Yes I voted for Obama and yes, I’m currently a little disappointed even though I didn’t like that other guy much either.)

In other news, I finished a cupcake hat. Well, actually, I finished five cupcake hats. There are too many delicious little girls that needed warm heads this winter. Because I am wildly impatient and couldn’t wait until official gifting time, not to mention the fact that this little nugget was hat less on Saturday evening (shame, shame Ole) I have already gifted one hat.

I’ve got it baaaaaaaad for this little one. She’s both my weakness and endless delight. In short, she’s my pwecssssssousssssesssss. Yes, she has red eyebrows .  RED eyebrows I tell you. Be still my beating heart I almost can’t stand it and want to gobble her up every time I see her. The empty womb is apparently knocking. (Don’t worry, I’ve hit snooze.)

So, here are some highlights from the past month.

Early in May I took a mental health day and visited Babs, we rode our bikes at the Chattahoochee River Park, turtles were basking in the sun on river rocks and the honeysuckle was blooming and it smelled awesome. We ate Mexican food and had pedicures. In short, it was a perfect day.

I started another lace shawl (because I’m a masochist) and at this rate it will literally  take me a hundred years to finish it, but I like the challenge. I knit without life lines and with a ‘close enough’ approach to lace that would probably have most knitters cursing and ripping, ripping, ripping. I’d rather the product be flawed and my sanity intact rather than focus too much on perfection. Is that crazy? The pattern is Muir, and FREE on knitty. The yarn is pretty and I’m so scattered I can’t find the label, so I just call it “Wool Awesomeness Gifted to me by the Lovely Claudia“. (the colors are much deeper than in this crappy photo.)

I saw the new Star Trek Movie with these crazy people:

Even if you weren’t a huge fan, it was still an awesome movie. I’m not sure there is anything else coming out this summer that I am really stoked about…

I hung out a lot with this guy:

And last week I did a “favor” for Miss Foxy by posing for a wicked cool picture for her. Sure I had to bounce on a trampoline in my underwear  at night while Jeff blew bubbles at me, but what are friends for? It is such a CHORE having a mega-talented artist take your photo… (that was sarcasm, did you catch it?)

My summer is off with a bang. Hopefully there are more fun things that I’ll be able to write and I’ll have the time to post more frequently.

I say I tried because as the side by side will show you, I got a little lazy with the shield and just sort of said “fuck it” there at the end.

But the cake itself was yummy. I focused on making it so just in case it wasn’t real pretty. I used regular yellow cake but made two thin sheet cakes and sandwiched raspberry jam in between the layers. I then iced it with whipped cream cheese icing and since red food coloring + icing almost always yields pink (not to mention the fact that I was correct in my deduction that precision with icing and stripes would not be plausible for me) I used decorators sugar and a piece of paper to get the sparkly stripes. Decorator’s sugar was easy to find and an awesome value at $1.89 a shaker with an added bonus that I only used a wee bit.

The birthday boy liked it so I felt it to be a culinary triumph if not an exact replica. The kids went NUTS over who got the biggest piece of the “shield,” which, for those that are curious, was made of piped white chocolate, twizzlers and Mike &Ike.

I aim to please.

Here she is with her finished object, a cute little drawstring bag. (Not quite as funny as the fact that her living room, couch, cat and outfit are all TAN!)

I also finished my Amelia Earhardt hat in just enough time to wear it in this COLD weather!

To Miss Holly the closest to leopard print that was in the box- a black and tan beaded set. And to Mindy some loverly blue/green EZ combs (thought they’d look nice with your hair color.) Babs, get back to me with what you want, I have a few sets left.

I love sharing. Makes me all tingly inside.

In other news, look what I’ve been up to:

Finished this guy for Jen

Finally made myself some of these:

(Made with one last ball of Jo Sharp Silkroad that I scored for 1/2 off at the closing of a LYS last year and why oh why didn’t I buy more???!!!)

Oh, and I started this:

It will be the Amelia Earhardt aviator cap- a cute, vintage-looking hat for the COLD weather we’re having. I made one of these last year in the same yarn, Art Trends Artesanal (Cotton, Poly, Alpaca blend) and I love it but I went down a needle size as the knit seemed too loose and I remember it being ever so slightly large when I tried it on. I’ll probably ‘embellish’ it too to make it sassy, not sure how yet. And I’m using my awesome Harmony Options (gosh how I love these needles!)

You can say it, you know you want to. Ok, I’ll say it…

Way to bust stash, Spazz!

My mother gave me the book Hello Cupcake this Christmas. Ok, so it is probably the favoritest Christmas gift in the history of Christmas gifts other than the iPod. Oh and the George Foreman grill with interchangeable plates. But Hello Cupcake is the BEST cupcake book ever! Ok, so it is the only one I have or have ever seen, but I lurves it!

Anyhoo, I wanted to make the Aliens, but it was insisted that for a baby shower, I make the stupid babies.

So I did.

They were cute.

And tasty.

And messy.

Fondling aside, what DO you do with 200 yards of hand-painted and beaded silk? Um,how about a knitted necklace? I decided that a simple scarf wouldn’t do this yarn justice, it would end up so long and skinny. So I opted for the Moebius Cowl a la Cat Bordhi (you can find the pattern for free on her website here.)

I read several patterns and borrowed some books on this method and ultimately decided that this freebie pattern was exactly what I was looking for, simple, yet lacy and fluttery, which would certainly do the yarn justice. I had read some directions on how to do it that made my brain melt- it is tricky, I’m not going to lie. But ultimately the cast on wasn’t really all that difficult. I found the demo on youtube and was saved! I only had to start over once. Thank you You Tube!

(Don’t you just love figuring out how to do something and having it work out well?)

I’m already half way through the cowl and it is going to be stunning when it is finished. In retrospect, it would have been a great pattern to work up on the plane on the trek visit the grandparents in a few weeks, but I want to wear it, like, now, so I suppose I’ll have to come up with another project to take with me. That won’t be hard I’m sure. Getting through the security checkpoint with my knitting, that is going to be fun.

Have a wicked cool weekend!

Okay, okay, one more close-up, your yarn porn for the day (you dirty monkeys.)

I believe it isn’t fair being mad at someone and not telling them why and I believe this to be equally true when dealing with giant corporate monsters too. You don’t get to have a beef if you aren’t willing on giving someone some opportunity to do the right thing, and honestly, if I were a business owner I would like to know if there were a complaint. I like to take care of the little guy. This time the little guy is my grandmother. I’ll let this nastygram speak for itself.

Dear Customer Service Representative,

This is a general complaint regarding a television purchased by my grandmother in May of 2007 (receipt attached.) This summer (around July of 2008) the television started turning itself on in the middle of the night. She could no longer control the volume even when attempting to do so manually on the set. Shortly thereafter the television up and died, and at a time that was just past the expiration of its warranty.

This was a moderately priced unit at around one hundred and seventy-five ($175.00) dollars from, presumably, a reputable manufacturer. It was not by far the least expensive item available at this particular retailer and it should have certainly lasted her longer than one year. Unfortunately in the world we live in today it would cost more to repair this television set rather than to replace it so we will probably recycle the defective machine and my grandmother has since purchased a new set which is, obviously, not an RCA product.

I believed it to be the right thing to do to report this issue in some way. I will not be buying and/or recommending the purchase of your RCA products in the future to any friends or family.

Thank you for your time.

Ok. Now for the nasty gram to the publisher of my favorite crafting magazine (sent via email) also on this date. (I’m a little bit more proud of this one, probably because it was my experience but whatever.)

Dear Craft Magazine Staff,

Yesterday I was ecstatic to pluck the newest issue of craft from my mailbox. To my horror I found when I flipped it over, underneath the pristine plastic outer casing there was a mangled copy inside.

The bottom corners from about page 137 and onward are smeared and ripped and a chunk is missing. It is as if some large metal beast took a bite out of my beloved Craft. This is probably something that occurred during the printing and production at the time that the pages were bound or collated, but still, it is mangled. I worry for other Craft subscribers that may be dealing with a certain level of disappointment that mirrors mine.

I am saddened. I so look forward to each quarterly issue and if I wanted my copies mangled, I’d let my friend with a two-year-old and a proclivity for reading while in a bubble bath borrow my magazine. But I don’t. She has no such privilege as I keep every immaculate copy on my book case with all my other books on crafting. I frowned as I quickly peeked at the damage to determine whether I could live without the directions for those final projects or if I could simply “figure it out” but no, of course I would be most interested in the holiday card ornament on page… ??? Um. Mangled.

I am a sad, sad crafter now. At $35 for an annual quarterly subscription this is an expensive magazine, a little luxury I am afforded due to the fact that this is a gifted subscription from my mother. I would really appreciate an undamaged copy.

Please advise as to how I should proceed and thank you for your time.

I’ll let you all know if I receive any responses. Super Spazz! Fighting for the consumer, the little guy and little old ladies every where!

Yes, I am down one rug because I SPILLED PAINT ON IT. It is currently drying on the porch after being hosed down in the driveway last night. Yeah, I like to screw up royally, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing with some style. A quart of green paint falls, pops open and glug, glug, glug.

Here is a detail of my little sewing/computing “nook”:

My mother made these curtains, aren’t they lovely?

Thank you to the ladies that dragged me kicking and screaming through helped me with this painting project. The results are lovely.

That is half of a finished apartment. Windows painted, patches where painters tape pulled off the paint fixed, furniture moved back (and vacuumed), new curtains courtesy of Momma (thank you again P.S. and by the way) and art work hung. We stayed up late. I had a smidge too much wine, but it was all well worth it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful living room that can actually be lived in. (This might actually get me out of bed.)

Now. As far as the other half of the apartment…. not so much… yet… but there really isn’t very much painting left. I’m feeling pretty good about all of this. We watched “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” last night (yes, again) because musicals and whores, what is better than that? (CONTENT DELETED SINCE I’VE GROWN UP A BIT.)

Oh, in other news, two of my college roommates delivered baby girls yesterday! Beth had her second- Sara Kate and Nicole had her fourth- Vivian Lauren. Way to go with the birthin’ ladies, the last two weeks have been all about the new humans coming into the world, I couldn’t be happier for all of you guys!

Have a great holiday weekend- I’m retreating to the mountains again, it should be fun… ish. We’ll see.