just maryse

Ooof!

so for once i have a lot to blog about.  i've got some news to share.  and some new books to show you.  and stuff like that.  but i'm having trouble with words these days.  it could be that i'm just out of practice.  i remember there was a time when i used to blog in my head, you know in the shower, or driving.  and i'd have mini conversations in my head. BUT NOT LIKE A CRAZY PERSON.  but not so much these days.  oh well.

so i'll just show you some pictures.  my latest little obsession is the hipstamatic iphone app.  and when i use it, i take photos that look like this. 

and since i've got your attention for a bit, saturday is May 1st, and the start of another round of Macro May.  our third round!  to play along all you have to do is take one macro photo a day for the entire month of may.  and then you can post your shots to the Macro May Flickr Group. 

A Tale of a Little Tree

last year in honor of earth day, the realty company that owns the building that i work in, gave out tiny little trees and encouraged us to plant them.

so i planted the wee thing and hoped for the best.

and check it out!  a year later, it's bigger!!!

maybe not a lot taller, but he's got five branches!

this year, they gave us packets of forget-me-not seeds.  I'm going to plant those too and see what happens.

happy earth day everyone!

Six Whole Years!

ha!  check it out!  my blog is six years old! 

it started small with two tiny posts on april 16, 2004.  just a couple of lines of text.  nothing really but a tiny shoot of myself out there in the jungle that was the blogging world back then.  (heh. i'm such a dork.)

a year later, much to my surprise, i was still here.  i was posting fairly regularly and was sharing more of my real life than i am today.  my photos were kind of lousy though and small.  shortly after my first anniversary, i would suck it up and finally learn how to knit socks.

in 2006, i participated in my first project spectrum, got dissed by grumperina (ha! it was a joke!) and continued to knit socks and ugly crocheted things when sick with fever. 

in 2007, i wrote a philosphical post to celebrate my blog birthday.  and there's a photo of my boy, napoleon.  i still miss you buddy.  and my feelings about the great people i've met hasn't change.  love you guys!

2008 was the year of the googly.  i have a pouch of googlies somewhere.  i should really bring them out again.

and last year i celebrated by running a contest that i never followed up on.  hmmm.  sorry about that. but i wore a mustache for you!  no?  that doesn't count?

anyway, i don't blog as much as i used to.  i have other distractions now, like flickr and twitter.  and i certainly don't read other blogs as much as i used to either, which i regret since there's so much inspiration in them.  but i haven't once thought about quitting.  it's kind of cool to be able to see how i've progressed in the past 6 years. 

so here's to another year.  i owe presents from last year, so i'm going to follow-up on that. 

thanks for reading.

A Potholder Swap -- How To's

So you are probably wondering how one (or 5) takes over 500 potholders and repackages them for 100+ people.  Well it's really quite simple.

1.  start the day off right with several cups of strong coffee and toast made of fresh baked bread, lots of butter and yummy homemade jam. 

2.  eye the 3 giant boxes in the corner of the dining room suspiciously.  drink more coffee for energy.  

3.  empty 3 giant boxes onto the dining room table and chairs and floor.

4.  open packages and cover the floor with stacks of potholders.

5.  admire potholders (see more here).

6.  take a break and sample a wonderful selection of salamis (heh) and cheeses.

7.  the rest is kind of blur.  i blame the liquor.

8.  eat cookies.

9.  prep new packages for the post office.

10.  DONE!  in celebration, adminster more cheese, salami, and alcohol.

Thanks to everyone who participated! Thanks to those of you who sent us surprises and snacks!  I hope you all enjoyed yourselves as well. 

Potholders Done!

this past weekend, stacie, maritza, cheryl and I headed off to adrian's to redistribute everyone's fantastic potholders.  this was the second year and  i think it was a success.  but before i tell you about the swap (that's for tomorrow or the next day), i'm going to finally show you my contributions.

oof.  i was a little ambitious so each one took forever.  but i'm also pleased with how my little experiment turned out.  they are far from perfect.  i should have maybe used a smaller hook, they aren't as stiff as i would have liked them (heh), but overall, they turned out how i imagined they would in my head.  and that's not bad.

using size 3 crochet cotton thread (not the super thin stuff, but thin enough) i basically made my own cross stitching fabric. then i just cross stitched a design on each one.  for the swappers i made these squirrels.

then since it's tradition, i made potholders for my co-administrators.  that's a lot of freakin' potholders let me tell you.

anyway, that's all.  i raveled some details.

i hope that everyone who got one of mine, likes it.