Actually, I can’t think of any place I’d rather be. Sounds like… family. This is what the holidays are all about. Suck it up baby, time for togetherness, food and love.

Good news:

1.  I get to be all smooth and secret-agenty as I t take Florence on the airplane, or at least I’m going to try. I’m adhering to all TSA guidelines (as well as a few SNB ladies suggestions) but you never know when someone at security is going to have a crap day and view your knitting needles as deadly weapons. Oh, did you know that yesterday was national “Have a bad Day” Day? Who’s idea was that to tell people that in the morning? Idgits.

2.  I might actually, once and for all learn how to make my grandmother’s (and great grandmother’s) tamales. A family tradition and secret. Now that I have the capacity to understand the nuances in  their preparation, this may be my golden familial culinary education opportunity.

3. I get to see lots of family, dad, stepmother, grandparents and my aunt and uncle might be coming in the last day we are there.

4. The ocean. Flagler Beach is very near to where they live, I’ll take my running shoes and hijack someone’s car for an hour or so and go for a run on the beach, absorb some of the ocean air through my skin and lungs. Aaaaaaaaaaah.

Have a happy holiday! Oh and pray that Florence arrives in Daytona tomorrow around 11AM unscathed and unmolested!

I wish it weren’t so washed out but I captured this moment at our tea party and Mamama was in mid-laugh. She had just said something slightly evil. The stole she is wearing belonged to my great grandmother, (the mother of my grandfather.) The same woman that didn’t particularly like boys (except for me, tee hee) and that always referred to my Mamama as “That woman Jim married.”

I had just asked her if that stole was a gift, she said, “Yes! She Died!”

Glad I was johnny on the spot with my camera here, this was a moment to remember!

Whatever does a finished object even look like? Well it is a very cool project! I made the Moebius Cowl in a beautiful beaded silk, it is simply lovely and I used up every bit of that wonderful yarn! (Thanks Jen!)

Do you like the current hair color? I can’t remember what box it came in, but it is a slightly darker shade of mocha for the fall. And yes, I have bangs now. But they are cute bangs. No “bang intervention” necessary.

I’ve made more progress on Florence, yes the yarn is from last Christmas (thanks again John Olin and Margaret!) But this isn’t procrastination. No, this is PERFECTION, and perfection takes time. This is the softest knit fabric on the planet. I can’t wait to wrap myself in it some day in the next ten years.

Gigi is blocked and ready for seaming (feh, I hates the seaming process.) And will be lovely to wear in the spring.

I started some pedicure socks as a demo for the class I am currently teaching. A class on socks. A class on socks in the magic loop method. My students are all doing so well on their little practice sock, I feel like a parent on prom night, I want to whip out the camera and dab tears from my eyes at each milestone. YAY! we have turned a heel! Save this sock in a scrapbook, seriously!

For this particular pair there will be no toes (duh, that is where the pedicure part comes in.) I dyed the yarn myself months ago with kool aid. This was my demo-day yarn. I was sick as a dog that day, can you tell? I would have to file this self-striping yarn under the category of fiber disaster. The colors are very much like giving a child some rainbow sherbet then placing them on the tilt-o-whirl. It is rather like sherbet regurgitated. I suppose these socks, due to their unfortunate color palette, will have to be “keepers” but I may gift them if they come out even remotely cute and then I shall christen this colorway as “Sherbet Spew From Me to You.” Oh, and with love.

And finally, I’m making the Baby Yoda Sweater (free pattern on ravelry) for little Nevin in some left over yarn from the ROYGBIV blanket. I will make the sleeves and piping details navy blue on the burgundy sweater, it is going to be cool. The detail picture isn’t very exciting, so I’ll leave it up to imagination for now.

I’m so organized! Could you just die? Or at least be flabbergasted at my mad organization skillz?

No?

Here is a photo of her and my great grandfather:

I took a brie box (that I acquired upon eating some brie) and attached it to a wire headband. From there I glued scrap black fabric to it using some spray adhesive (that got ALL OVER my fingers.) I embellished the edges with ribbon and sequins adhered with hot glue, and then placed some feathers and buttons on the side. Overall it took me about an hour for the whole project for better than I hoped for results!

I couldn’t resist pointing at my head and screeching “cheese box” all night long. I should have resisted… but couldn’t.

I was the cigarette girl and I carried (and “sold”) candy cigarettes, so I won the most “money” earned and the best costume certificates- I ROCKED! It was loads of fun!

Waitress Kitty Carlisle and Cigarette Girl Cindy Butts.

We were supposed to stay in character all night, and the funniest development was after speaking to Miss Kitty (who decided she was from Kentucky) the “Juice Joint” started sounding more like a Tennessee Williams play- all gin soaked and southern. It was a fun night.

I didn’t do it!!!

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.)

Yes. That would be the tiniest storm trooper costume ever made. He was very cute. Er- I mean- scary. Storm troopers are BAD guys so he was fearsome. Yes. very, very intimidating. I was quivering in my Ziggy Stardust boots (I threw Ziggy together at the last minute because I didn’t want to wear my other costume yet and to see if I could.)

Here is my costume from Saturday- I was Jackie O. (My hat is a padded oatmeal box because that’s how I roll.) Mom helped me sew this last week.

There were many other good costumes this year. I saw two girls dressed as Richard Simmons (?) and my mother made a Cher costume.

Could you die? How funny is THAT?! Yes, my pop was Sonny complete with furry vest. I could go on and on about this, but I won’t. Being pressed for time and all.

Oh, so that brings me to the scary news. I’ve heard through the grapevine that my gym is closing. Wait! It gets worse! My gym is closing and merging with another gym nearby AND the teachers of the classes I love can’t teach at the new location because they don’t provide Les Mills classes. Which is a load of crap, but whatever.

Wait! If you can take it, it gets even worse. A certain unsavory individual that I have been fortunate enough not to run into (…yet) I believe is a member of the gym where mine is expected to “merge.” My biggest fear is that there will be much hair-pulling and potential blood shed if I am ever faced with a scenario where I would be confronted with her, particularly while adrenaline is pumping. I would like to think that I could rise above the situation -folks, it would be much more likely to end with an eye-narrowing contest- but the part of me that is still royally pissed (the part that believes I’d be fully justified in whooping some ass) would rather simply avoid the situation all together if at all possible.

I have no idea what sort of rights I’ve signed away or what this merging will ultimately mean to me, but I do know that the gym has been my sanctuary and I will not risk it being tainted by having to submit myself to the presence of… well… someone icky. Any creative ideas for getting out of a gym membership? I know they charge my credit card monthly and I can simply cancel the card and be done with it but I’d prefer to be released from my contract free and clear. I might have to go to the doctor and develop some sort of “condition.” I sure hate to lie but I may be without options here.

“Thank you for your email.  I apologize that you have received a damaged issue.  I will have a replacement sent out to you.  It should arrive within 7-10 days.”

…and then the generic (from RCA):

“Thank you for your inquiry concerning the design and quality of your product.     Consumer satisfaction is very important to us and we continually strive to provide the best consumer electronics products available. We regret you are not pleased with your product. We invest substantial resources in market research to develop products that meet consumer needs and expectations.     We are continually finding ways to improve reliability, designs, product quality, and professional service.     Your comments are appreciated, and we thank you for taking your valuable time to contact us.”

Well, at least customer satisfaction is important to them and my comments are appreciated.

I’ll sleep well tonight knowing that. And I’m sure Mamama will rest assured that her money was well spent a year ago on that crappy t.v. because they’ve invested substantial resources to meet her consumer needs.

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

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!

Crazy work night ended successfully, I think, for now. It was a late night. Now, I have other stuff to do, like not leave the apartment today at all if I can help it. Crud. Need to go get groceries, it might be fun to eat today.

Happy Sunday!