Where to start?

I sort of got off the whole blogging kick for a while. Surprised? I didn't think so. I guess I will start at the beginning.

What do you get when you put a bunch of Italians in 1920's costumes in the same room? No, not The Godfather Part II. Nani's birthday! My Nani turned 80 (can you believe it?) and of course had to have a blow out party. Granted, this is normal for my family, so really no one questioned a 150 person themed costume party costing thousands of dollars being held at an authentic location. This is why we eloped.


Mom, Katie, Nani, and Me. You can see that 1. Nani does not look remotely near 80 and 2. I strategically used my fabulous blue faux fur wrap to cover my 80 year plus disgusting armpit stains.

oh, and the best was one of my aunts, who shall remain nameless, but is a super crabby appleton. Hopefully there really is Karma...she's due. Ok, so she says to me "I really like your costume the best because it reflects your personality the most. Conservative and plain." Beee-atch. You know what is conservative and plain? Wearing the same black flapper dress that everyone else and their mother (really, that is true in this case, everyone was related)was wearing. At least I stood out in the crowd! How is that conservative? Grrrrrrrr.


Sort of all the grandkids. This is going to be one of those pictures that we all end up hating 5 years from now. I cringe when I look at old family pictures with me in them. I had an abnormally long devo stage. In fact, that seems to happen with all of the kids. Hmmm. Maybe it is genetic.

Austin Part 2 and other musings

Better late than never.

So, as part of “Austin Part 2,” here are some of the things that I got in my former cit-tay. Fabric and yarn. Are you surprised? I also got a shirt from Parts and Labor, but I forgot to take a picture.



The fabric and the Amy Butler Weekender Bag pattern are from Craft-o-rama. Craft-o-rama is south of South Congress, down by St. Ed’s. It is a cute store with a small selection of fabric. All of it is good though. They have classes and sewing machines set up that you can rent to use in house by the hour. The flowery fabric is Amy Butler. The other one is by the guy who rips off Amy Butler, but I can’t remember his name. They are produced by the same company.

We also went to Hill County Weavers. I was completely overwhelmed, and not just because it is the first time that I have been in a decent yarn shop in a while. The prices have gone up a ton in the past two years. My friends were saying that it really has been in the last few months. Really frustrating. Anyway, between confusion and principal, I only came out with three skeins of yarn. One for me, one to make my mom something with since she always gets gypped on the knitting end, and one to make baby things for my neighbor who is due in October.

Speaking of Austin, while I was there I missed the one year birthday party of my coworker/friend Kevin’s daughter Maddie. So, being the retard that I am, I decided to make her a present.




Pattern: Dinosaur by Jennifer Thurston
Yarn: Leftover Debbie Bliss Cotton Cashmere from the Pea Pod sweater (yay!)
Needles: Size 5 circular, but it is knitted flat and seamed
Time: Started 8/25 finished 8/26
Thoughts: LOVED this pattern. It is so cute that I want to make one for myself. TO make it a dinosaur for a girl, I added a skirt from scraps of cotton yarn I had. The skirt took longer than the dino. I, of course, was thrilled this morning to give this to Kevin. He, of course, was gracious but didn’t seem so thrilled. CRAP.

Speaking of Jurassic, we also tackled the weeds in the yard this weekend. That took FOREVER, but things are looking up. Also bought a couple of ponytail palms for some pots in the front of the house. Things are shaping up. Now all we need is for our new window to finally come in. Drats.

In other knitting news, I have made some cute things for the baby shower that is taking place this weekend. I will have to wait to share until Sunday night. I also am thinking of going to the local Stitch and Bitch tomorrow. A couple of weeks ago Steve and I (well, more me dragging Steve with) went to the local café where they meet to scope them out first. Bad, I know, but I wanted to make sure that the people at least looked normal before I started investing time and guilt into another group. Everything checked out, but we were at a distance.

Worky, worky busy bee

Again, so busy that I can't even function by the end of the day. In fact, this whole post might not make any sense. I have had to do work yesterday and today so that I can take Friday off to go home for a few days. It sucks ass that I only have 2 weeks vacation. I need to move to Europe. Not only would I get more vacation and free health care, but I can be as crabby as I want and it would be cool because I was European.

Anyway, in between crabbiness, we made our way up to Mt. Lemmon on the 4th. We thought it would be cooler up there, and although it was, it was still 90 degrees. We took about a 1/2 mile "hike" and Rey was done for. He laid in the parking lot with his travel bowl of water between his front paws and wouldn't move. On the whole ride home he had his upper half of his body wedged between the front seats with his face about 5 inches from the air conditioning vents. Poor guy.

Because it was so hot, we just ended up eating lunch and taking a nap. At least the breeze was still cool.

Our view during the nap:

Me and my boy:


Oh, and this week I got a bunch of yarn to begin the 1,0000,00000,0,00,0,0,0,0,0 baby things I have to make in the next month or two. This is yarn enough for three of them.