Monday, April 19, 2010

awwww!!!!



Cute boy (ted) with Cat (gimlet). It's posted HERE

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

sad day.



I got a call from my dad last night. I could tell when I answered the phone that the somber tone in his voice was going to be followed with some pretty bad news.
The sweet little miniature Dachshund, Leibchen, that he bought me as an early Christmas present when I was 16 lost her little bout with Pancreitis yesterday morning. I remember bringing her home, holding her in my lap and thinking I would never let go of her. She was so small that she could fit in my dad's hand and I loved her tiny little face so much I couldn't hardly stand it. I named her Leibchen after another weiner dog I had only seen in photos. When my dad was younger, he too had a weiner dog named Leibchen. Everyone always had nothing but amazing things to say about that dog and would always talk about how special she was. I knew that my dog was special too and so I named her after my dad's dog as a sort or tribute.
As she got older she developed a "mild" obsession with squeak toys and would use them to supplement her little bark at passers by. She would growl and holler as though she didn't realize she weighed 7 lbs, she must have thought she was a great dane or a saint bernard or something. Anyone walking by the house could hear a mean growl with interludes of yappy barking and high pitched squeaks (usually from her favorite rubber hamburger). She was funny like that.
But Leibchen had been ill for a little while, couldn't seem to keep food down, and had been really lethargic. Her poor little spirit was not as it had always been, tenacious, spunky and bossy.
She woke up early yesterday morning and made a trek down the long hallway to my dad's bedroom. She scratched on the door to wake him which was a little odd since she had barely left her bed in over a month. He picked up her tiny little body and brought her back to bed and that was where she stayed. I think it was her way of saying goodbye. She died there, wrapped up in the blanket my grandmother crocheted just for her. My dad buried her in that blanket in the garden in his backyard.
I'm going to miss her little face and her giant bug eyes. She was a special little dog.... and adorable to boot.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Cute Boys With Cats

This is awesome...and adorable.





New Favorite Website Alert!

As most of my friends would attest to, I have a "healthy fondness" of fancy foot wear and accessories and Endless.Com is the perfect place to feed my addiction, er, "healthy fondness".
Endless.com is very easy to navigate which is great for shoe shopping novices and pros alike, and not only does the site offer an abundance of perfectly photographed designers and brands at great prices, they also price matching and offer free overnight or 2-day shipping on most styles!
Plus, the website's shopping cart is powered by Amazon.com so when I placed my first order, I needed to do little more than plug in my Amazon log-in, and click the button to approve my order! Huzzah! They arrive tomorrow!

And just for fun, here's a little eye/foot candy!









Ugh, I'm such a girl. Don't judge me.

heart
-kb

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Everybody's Workin' For The Weekend

Dear Friends,
This weekend Lory and I will will be going here...

...eatting this...

...drinking this...

and this...

and perhaps this...


And we will also be doing this...

And this..

And more of this...


Kinda can't wait!

heart
-kb

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

As Promised, My Handmade iPad Cover


This was a super easy pattern. I basically just knit a stockinette stitch the whole time. I measured it at eight inches across and 23 inches long. After the cast-on, I did a seed stitch for two rows, and the same with the last two rows. The cute part is where I stitched the edges. I think it adds just the right amount of craftiness to the whole thing. The buttonholes were the hardest part, but I found a how-to guide at www.knittingonthenet.com.
The iPad fits snuggly inside the cover and protects it from dust or other scary irritants. Plus, since it is made from a 75% microfiber blend, it will not scratch the giant, vulnerable 10-inch screen.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Crafty Generation


When my mom and I get together, I become a crafting maniac. Something about the sound of her needles clickety- clacking gets me motivated. So, last week, I found an adorable crochet pattern at lionbrand.com for amigurumi bunny baskets. Of course I had to try it. Mom made the first one and I finished the rest. It doesn’t take very long at all. If you are a speedy crocheter, you could finish one while watching a movie. I watched Where the Wild Things Are. The baskets were a big hit with the family and I finally used up a bunch of that crappy acrylic yarn that I’ve wanted to get rid of.

My mom discovered a pattern that works perfect with the Swiffer© brand mops. She spent her movie-watching time making me three adorable, reusable Swiffer© covers. I’ve never used one of these things before because I didn’t like the idea of the excessive consumer waste. Now, I can use one (or two) reusable covers for the daily sweeping, then use the third one for the weekend mopping and throw them all in the wash at the end of the day. It works great and is about a hundred times easier than sweeping and mopping the traditional way. Let me know if you want some. I think my mom might sell them.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Yarn Crawl 2010 - NorCal Style


My dear mum came for a visit this past week. One of our favorite pastimes when calling on each other is yarn shopping. We have even coined a new phrase for this fibrous adventure, a Yarn Crawl. This time, we went on two yarn crawls. One trip was to Napa Valley as part of a nice day trip to the beautiful wine country and one was in my home town of Sacramento.

Napa crawl was only two stores, Yarns on First in downtown Napa and Muse in St. Helena. Our first stop was Yarn on First, since it was the closer of the two. The store is packed full of lovely yarns of all colors, materials and sizes. Your average yarn shop will stock their shelves by material (ie, wool or cotton), but Yarn on First displays their yard by color. This is a fun way to shop when you really don’t have a specific project in mind. Having all the reds or blues in one section lets your eyes decide what to pick. I was looking for nothing in particular when I stumbled across a 74% microfiber blend. I’ve never seen this blend of yarn before, and since I was only seven days away from getting my brand new iPad, I had a brilliant idea to make a cover for it with this super-soft material (don’t worry, my iPad cover post will be coming soon). I bought four skeins and a pair of adorable buttons to accent it.

Next, we drove to St. Helena’s for Muse. Now, I’m not one to trash-talk a yarn shop, so don’t misunderstand, but I wasn’t impressed with Muse. It seemed very small and didn’t have a whole lot of stock. One bonus to Muse is that they carried a lot of locally crafted items for sale. You may not be impressed with their yarn, but you might find a beautiful, hand-made purse instead.

The following weekend, mom and I did our Sacramento yarn crawl. After tracking down as many local yarn shops as possible, we headed to Rumpelstiltskin. Located downtown, this is my regular haunt, mostly because of its geographical convenience, but also because of the wide variety of yarn they carry. They carry your basic Cascade and Noru brands as well as locally spun and hand-died yarns. They even sell raw wool and offer spinning classes. I’d been to Rumpelstiltskin a million times so this was nothing special. I was on the hunt for a good pattern book on appliqués. I found a book called Beyond-the-Square Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman which had a lot of patterns that could be used as an appliqué.


up was Shelby’s Place. I’d never even heard of it, so here is where the adventure began. Shelby’s is situated in the industrial park neighborhood of Natomas and actually shares space with a lawn care store. The place is enormous, but Shelby’s only takes up about one-third of the store. Yarn was shelved largest to smallest, so the back of the store had all of the chunky yarns, while the front had the sock yarns. They also hung a huge array of Cascade brand wool hanks from the wall, which was very appealing. Here, I bought an ergonomic crochet hook, mainly to patronize the store, but also because Kortnee swears by ergo-handled hooks.

After that, we stopped off at a nearby book store where I found a great pattern book called Crocheting on the Edge by Nicky Epstein which has a lot of great ideas. We had lunch, I bet mom five bucks that the yarn she was looking for was called Sugar ‘n’ Cream, not Peaches & Cream. We headed to Michael’s. Turns out we were both wrong.

stop was Anna’s Yarn Shop in Elk Grove. I love this store. I’d only been twice before, but I was really looking forward to this one. They also set up their yarn by color and they have a huge selection. At this point, I was looking for a specific blend of yarn, which is when I realized that yarn-by-color is not always the best idea. I really wanted to be looking at cotton blends only, but I was overwhelmed by hundreds of different alpaca wool, wool, bamboo, cashmere, cotton, nylon… all in the same color, but not separated by blends. I found the perfect yarn and eventually tracked down three complimentary colors to add to my stash.

Our final stop was also in Elk Grove at a quaint shop called Knitique. This store had a very cozy environment, but the yarn was organized in a chaotic way. Colors and blends were all mixed up with no real system. Mom pointed out that if she lived here in town, she could see herself frequenting the shop, but as a visitor, the place just seemed disorganized. In a concerted effort to make sure I bought something at each place we visited, I picked up a copy of a book called Fiber and Fabric Mania! A Travel Guide as a gift for mom. She can’t go to a new town without seeking out the local yarn shops, so this book is perfect for her.

I had a blast with my wonderful mom and I’m glad I got to share our Yarn Crawl adventure together. She even surprised me at the end with a much-needed swift and ball roller. Thanks Mom!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Nettie-Pot-O-Rama

It's April 1st y'all and you know what that means.....pretty flowers, blue skies, sun dresses and ...... Spring time Allergies!!!!

Growing up in the central valley I have been no stranger to the sniffy nose and itchy ears, the swollen throat and watery eyes. My dad says I get it from my mom but I blame it entirely on being a product of my environment. All that pollen and "fresh air" couldn't have been good for the developing lungs of a young KB. To say that I am "Allergic to the World" would be a blatant understatement and to say that it almost kills me is not too far from the truth.

Come the Spring equinox, Ted and I are popping Claritin like a couple of crack heads and going through Kleenex like nobody's business. About this time every year is when I also see a Nurse Practitioner to have my Albuterol puffer refilled.
Spring time is definitely a season of allergy-related rituals in our house and last year we introduced to our routine something new to us - but apparently ancient to the world- The Netie Pot. It's been used in India for centuries for nasal irrigation as part of a practice of Yoga. The basic gist is, you pour warm saline into one nostril and and it pushes all your extra mucus and nose nastiness out the other. It's great!
I will admit that it took a little getting used to - when Ted and I first tried it out we could barely keep from spraying that snotty saline all over the bathroom mirror from laughing so hard. (Proper use of the neti pot puts you in a far from glamorous position, and shoots snot and water and mucus right out of your face)

But now that we have it down pact, we have come to embrace our little plastic neti pot soldier in the on-going battle with allergy season. In fact Lt. Neti Pot, I would like to stand beside you and together we can give allergy season a very noble two-finger salute.

Now my friends, for your viewing pleasure: The best neti pot tutorial video in the WORLD. Enjoy!