Entry the twenty-second: In which I come in just under the wire

I meant to post these pictures yesterday but was sidelined with a migraine. To celebrate what's left of Halloween, I present some pictures of a candle thingie I made for a friend last fall.



After drawing the design on orange cardstock, I cut it out with an x-acto knife. Then I inserted it in a glass candle holder. When a tealight is lit inside, the paper will act as a partial shade and make cool shadows on the glass and anything else the candlelight reaches.



Happy Halloween!

Entry the twenty-first: Mice!

Progress has been made and I have photographic evidence! (If you're a friend or family member and you have a cat, just pretend you see nothing. <waving hands mysteriously> You see nothing... This post is invisible to you. </waving hands>)



I like little hand sewing projects I can work on in front of the TV and these guys fit the bill nicely. They're stuffed with cotton and homegrown catnip and will go out as holiday gifts when the time arrives. I started with four panels and the blue calico, but my heart belongs to the three-panel plaid flannel mice. They're the perfect size, soft as anything, and will be camouflage nicely if you want to hide them amongst your Bermuda shorts.

Entry the twentieth: In which I can't help myself

He is all id.

Entry the ninteenth: Quandary

I've made progress! On two projects!

But now I am faced with a dilemma: almost all the the things I am working on now (or for the forseeable future) will likely be presents... and some of these will be intended for people who read this blog. So what to do? Should I save up all my photos and progress reports until the giftee has been given the gift? (It could be several months.) Or can I write about the things I'm excited about as I work on them, and resign myself to ruining surprises?

Any advice would be very welcome.

Entry the eighteenth: In which I have no progress to report

But here's my contribution to Eye Candy Friday.



I hope the Montery Bay Aquarium got some kind of award or a MacArthur genius grant for coming up with this way of displaying live jellyfish. I never thought jellyfish were all that exciting until I saw them in Monterey. And now? Now I think they're still not exciting BUT they're really gorgeous. So. Yeah.

Plus, those otters are really cute. You know, the ones they have in Monterey. Actually, the ones we have here at the zoo are pretty darn adorable as well. I'd love to pick one up and pet its tummy but I'll bet you a quarter that otters bite, so I won't. Plus, it's against the rules. You aren't allowed to do a lot of things at the zoo, and even though it isn't specifically mentioned, I suspect breaking into an enclosure with the express purpose of petting an otter's tummy is still considered a no-no.



But look at them! Aren't they the cutest? Those eyes! Those shiny black noses! The tiny ears! The little clawed toes!

Yesterday at the zoo, I saw them zooming around in the water. They swim like... otters. (Okay, lousy simile.) But you know what they sound like? Birds. One of them spent a lot of time chirping -- it was quite high pitched -- and it was both interesting and unsettling because it seemed worried about something. None of the other otters paid any attention, though, so maybe it was just crying wolf.*

*As in, "Hey you guys, I know you said I should stop chirping about this, but I swear this crazy woman in the big hat is going to jump in here and rub our tummies! I'm serious you guys! You guys? Where'd you all go?"

Entry the seventeenth: In which I continue to get nothing done but share a few details

Hmph. For various reasons, this weekend was close to a total loss. I hate that.

Anyway, in lieu of showing any actual progress, here are a few details about the yarn I'm using to make myself a sweater.

When I was three years old, my father got a summer-long sabbatical. My mother, grandma, and I joined him for three months of driving all over Europe in a red VW bus,* camping, checking out cathedrals, pretending to speak Danish,** and visiting museums. Sometime during the trip, my mother bought a seventeen skeins of this



to make a sweater for herself when we returned home. She never got around to it. When I got interested in knitting about ten years ago, she gave it to me. I started and then abandoned a sweater (though, in my defense, I did get a few other projects done) and put it away. Until now.



As you can see, the yarn is a lovely bluey greeny color (the photo is pretty darn close to reality) called "Kentucky."*** I have no what it weighs (what its weight is? I don't know how to write about knitting) but it's very satisfying to knit on my mom's old #7 BERNAT-Aero needles (which, since they're English, I'm guessing my mom bought on the same trip).

According to Valerie's diligent googling, the yarn is from the Keighley Knitting Wool Spinners in Yorkshire, England. It was a little business that was eventually swallowed by a larger one and at some point it produced this batch of yarn. Since the company closed the same year we took our trip, it's likely the yarn is from sometime close to the end of the Keighley Spinners' history.

Oh! Oh! Wait! I do have progress to report! Okay, maybe not knitting progress, but it's a project I completed, so that counts, right? I finally finished making a wedding photo album for my parents and they love it. I used Apple iPhoto and mypublisher.com and it came out really, really well.

I don't have a picture of the album but I can show you the invitation my dad designed for my wedding. The little thingie next to it is a teapot made by cutting & folding the invitation (and following the convoluted directions inside). Isn't that cool?!



Here is Mirabelle "helping" me take the picture.



*Does this make anyone else start humming "Alice's Restaurant"?
**None of the grown-ups did this. I thought the Danish kids in the campground were speaking gobbledygook, so that's what I spoke back at them.
***This is where Sylvie wished to add "fgcxxxxxxxxd"

Entry the sixteenth: In which I need to get some work done on various projects so I can write about them

But in the meantime, check out this article. It's hard to choose my favorite sentence, but "the shop manager said people need to be aware not to put spiders in bags" is a strong contender.

I love the dry tone of BBC news. I'd say it's second to none, but the New York Times is pretty fabulous, too. My favorite is when they're reporting on a celebrity with a name like Snoop Dogg. They'll use the whole name the first time, but subsequently refer to him as "Mr. Dogg."

Entry the fifteenth: Je suis grincheuse

<snit>
Quick question: if you were applying for a job as an editor, writer, or proofreader, wouldn't you want to be very, very sure your resume didn't have any typos in it? I mean, really, all resumes should be carefully proofed before being submitted for all the world (or at least all the hiring world) to see, but isn't it even more important if the job you're applying for is that of CORRECTING OTHER PEOPLE'S MISTAKES?!

Dear applicant,

When your only writing sample is your cover letter and the first sentence
1. is badly written
2. has two grammatical mistakes
3. makes no sense
you are in trouble. You are even more trouble if you spell a word incorrectly. It's not a typo -- I can tell you think "laid" is spelled "layed," but it's not.

I'm sorry. Please go away now.*
</snit>

*the applicant. Not you guys. You guys are great. :-)