bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

New Hampster Sheep and Wolf

hey, i'm on my way to the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool festival right now.  i've loaded up the mini and i'm probably somewhere on 495 maybe sipping on a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and eating an egg mcmuffin.  i travel in style, yes i do.

anyway, just a quick post to announce the winners of my Rosie Craft Book contest that I had on Monday.   thanks for all of the comments.  not a bad number of entries considering that i now blog every day.  and i did close  comments yesterday so maybe i could have had more.  but whatever ... you want to know who the winners are, don't you.

[if this were American Idol, we'd go to commercial now]

heh heh

my first winner is ....

MANISE!!!  i'll be seeing you later so i'm bringing your copy of the book with me.

the second winner is ....

PUMPKINMAMA!!!

and finally, the third winner is ....

BOOKISH WENDY!!!!!

i'll be getting in touch with you two ladies in the next few days.  Congratulations!  I think you'll all love the book.  I gave a copy to my niece who is still in the hospital (no worries -- the docs are just being overly cautious)  and she and her mom love it. 

and for those of you who didn't win and would like another chance to win a copy, remember that i'm donating a copy as a prize to Claudia's Knitter's Against MS fund drive.   so go donate.

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day 24  -- have a kick ass saturday!

Rosie O’Donnell’s Crafty U: 100 Easy Projects the Whole Family Can Enjoy All Year Long

So when I was asked to do this review, I was very nervous and I almost said no, concerned that I wouldn’t do a good job or I wouldn’t even like the book. 

Well I can’t be sure that this review isn't horrible, but I’m happy to say that any anxiety I had about not liking the book was unnecessary,  because I really liked it.

I have to be honest though.  When I saw Rosie’s mug on the cover, I was concerned.  I used to be a fan, but over the past few years, she’s kind of made me a little twitchy with her  feuds with various ridiculous celebrities   And well I was afraid that her face would be all over this book.  But it’s not.  Do not worry.

What is in this book are tons (well 100 it says so on the cover) of really great projects for kids of all ages. 

The book is divided into six project sections:  One devoted entirely to decoupage projects; another with rainy day playdate projects, and four seasonal.  In the Spring are cupcake flowers and a bunny piñata, presents for mom and dad.  Summer projects include sand art  and a royal icing sand castle.  In the Fall we have Halloween costumes and paper bag turkeys for Thanksgiving.  And in the Winter  are Holiday decorations and Valentines.   The last section, the rainy playdate section, also includes recipes for “silliest putty ever” and something called “kitchen clay” and invisible ink and fake blood.   A lot of these projects are variations on old classics that many adults will remember from their childhood.  But that’s the best part of this book.  They’re all here in one book.

Yes, I do have some favorites.  I like the section on tie-dye t-shirts and painted sneakers.  And deep down I’m a girlie girl so I like the decoupage bangles and the friendship bracelets.  And the cute Oink! Meow!  Glove Puppets.    I love the string bowl and all of the projects made with paper maché.  (See?  I told you there were some old classics.) 

And there’s a recipe for bubble stuff.  But my most favorite?  The one project that made me seriously consider keeping a copy of this book for myself?  The crystal garden called the Mad Scientist Experiment.  Heh heh.   How great is that thing!?

 

The instructions appear clear and concise and don't overwhelm with dozens of unnecessary steps.   I do recommend that an adult be present for most of these projects though.  A lot of them require mixing and measuring, a glue gun, cutting tool, etc.  If you and your kids are even the tiny bit crafty, you’ll have no trouble with any of these projects.  Some of these projects I admit are less for the kids than for the grown-ups.   For example, only older kids or adults would probably want to make the Miss Lazy Daisy costume by themselves.  But there are plenty for the younger set too.

Now I'll admit that I didn't try any of these projects so I can't vouch for how accurate the recipes are or how relevant the instructions are once you're in the thick of things.  But having read the book, cover to cover, I'm impressed.  I plan on trying many of these projects with my 12 year old nieces, even if they don't want to. (So sad, I'm the only crafty one in the family.)

I've got four copies to give away.  One copy is being donated as a prize for Claudia's MS ride fund raiser.  But if  you want to increase your odds of winning a copy, just leave me a comment and I'll select three winners using a random number generator.

What are you waiting for?  Leave a comment, will you?

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day 19 -- begging for comments

Eye Candy Friday

look what came in the mail yesterday.

my kind of candy.

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day 16 -- it's quite possible that i love books more than yarn.  maybe.

Kozy Up with a Good Book

the wheels started turning a few months ago after stitchy mc yarnpants announced that her book was coming out.  there was much rejoicing of course.  and sucking up.  (because of course who doesn't want to be chummy chummy with a published author. )  and finally, inspiration.  others are inspired by nordic patterns, complex lace, beauty in nature, gorgeous yarns.  i'm inspired by scary clowns made of red heart and the nausea inducing yet oddly comforting granny square.

i present to you my latest crochet incarnation ... "The Kitschy Kozy."

made of non-kitschy patons classic merino, the kozy can also be crocheted in red heart (preferably).  i used odd balls of paprika ("shag carpeting" rust), dark olive ("avocado"), old gold ("harvest gold"), chestnut brown ("ugly fake wood paneling" brown), and red.

would you like a kozy to protect your museum of kitschy book?  it's really quite simple.

the front and back of the kozy were made of 4 4-rowed granny squares stitched together.  how big your squares end up being depends on your gauge and the yarn you're using, so experiment.  with the right side of each panel facing you, on one side of each panel, single crochet an even number of rows so that the the total number of single crochet rows is as wide as the binding of the book  is wide.  sew the binding edges together so that wrong side of each panel are facing eachother.   then starting at one of the binding edges, single crochet around the whole mess.  i needed to only crochet 1 row.  again, depending on the size of your squares, you may need to crochet more rows.

to attach your kozy to your museum of kitschy stitches book, make 2 chains that when pulled taut are long enough to reach from the top edge of the book to the bottom and attach to the single row edging. 

to create a tie closure, to keep your book closed, make two chains and attach one to each panel opposite the binding side.  then tie.

voila!  you're done.  and your book is protected and decorative at the same time. 

IT'S HERE!!!!!!

GO BUY IT!!!!

Oh, Right ... The Haul

sorry, i got distracted by the ABC-Along.  i had some serious catching up to do.

so the haul.  i did bring stuff home.

i brought home some pottery

this cute little chicken ...

and this sponge-brillo pad "hut"  and matching butter dish.

 

oh.. right, you don't want to see this crap...

so the yarn -- like i said before, i found very little but i couldn't leave one store without buying these three little skeins of italian cotton.  i loved the colors.  they'll be good for MDK inspired warshrags.

i also bought some beads.  these from the crafty shop where the lady didn't mind me taking pictures.

and these from la droguerie.  yes, i had the NERVE to pick up the jar that these shell beads were housed. 

and finally, the books.  OOOHHHH BOOKS.

of course i had to get the current issue of marie claires idees (and the special edition of prima -- another crafty mag).

and then i went a little nuts...

i love the title of this series of books...

Shhhhh.. I'm creating. (or  SHUT UP, I'M MAKING SHIT)

i got two -- one that uses every day sewing notions for making jewelery and other decorative items.  and one that uses beads and buttons for jewelery.

 

i also got a book on red embroidery.  this one reminded me of some of the japanese craft books we've been seeing.

then there's this one on crochet trims, and another put out by the people of DMC.

 

and last but not least, a couple of knitting books/mags.

 

and of course, i've told you about  the chocolate.

Wish Lists

look what showed up in my Amazon recommendation list.

how cool is that?

Big Girls Don't Cry

i had an amazon coupon to spend so i ordered jillian moreno's and amy singer's new book, Big Girl Knits.

gotta love a book that starts like this:  "chances are if you're reading this book, you're fat."  HEY I AM NOT FAT....I'M BIG BONED!!!

the first three chapters review the best yarns and shapes for our more bodacious ta-tas and butts and gives as advice on how to customize existing patterns or how to design our own.  the rest of the book is filled with some really fun designs.  some of the patterns didn't lift my skirt up (a-line of course) but here are some that did.

this is the mosaic sweater.  i really like the detail but i'm afraid this baby wouldn't be very flattering on me.  but i would definitely use the mosaic pattern in a bag.  i like the colors too.

this is the curvalicious cardigan.  this shape is the basis of my entire sweater/top wardrobe, so it doesn't surprise me that i really like this sweater.

bombshell, a stephanie japel design, is probably my favorite.  but there is no way that i'm making it in lorna's laces lion and lamb as recommended in the book.  c'mon ladies.  take pity on my budget.  don't make me run out and make it in *gasp* TLC (not to worry, i'd sweat like a pig).

this is cherry bomb.  a nice basic tank.  thumbs up.

and i really like this bag -- it's called scarlett carpetbag.  (the sweater coat the model is wearing is also very pretty.  it's called natalie.  designed by libby baker.  i love the color.  not sure i would make it though -- not comfortable with all of that knitted fabric across my double wide ass.)

finally, here's a beautiful wrap designed by kate gilbert.  it's called the bluebelle ruana.  (more expensive yarn though.  jesus.)

all in all this is a great book.  BUY IT! 

oh and there's buttons too.

 

Blasphemy?

wanna see what i've added to my library lately?

i'm wondering if this has anything to do with being surrounded by 34,261 tiny skanks of yarn.

I Wore A Scarf Today

it's officially fall.  the house was cold this morning.  and i wore a scarf in to work.  i think we're supposed to hit a high of 65 degrees today.  it's awesome.

in other news.  the work auction was yesterday with all proceeds going to hurricane relief.  my throw made some money $50 but my little crocheted flower pins -- $2 for five.  no appreciation for high fashion, clearly, but what do you want from a bunch of computer geeks and statisticians.  if they have pants on it's a good day.  (sorry no pictures, i am still sans digital camera but word on the street -- ritz camera sent me an email -- the new camera is on it's way.  woo-hoo).

i also received two new knitting books in the mail yesterday.  yes, because i needed new knitting books.  because the 1,249 knitting and crochet books that i currently own just aren't enough. 

i love this one.  i've only flipped through it quickly.  this weekend, i'm going to sit on my couch, and lovingly page through it.  from what i can tell, the photos and designs are beautiful.  the colors used are rich and vibrant.  it's like melanie falick's weekend knitting but better.  she's an incredible editor.

and the other book i received was hot off the presses.  so hot, that amazon doesn't have a picture of the cover.  it's by debbie bliss and it's called "Home:  27 Handknits for Living."  what a disappointment.  i'm a big fan of patterns for the home -- you know me and my afghan, throw, pillow obsession.  but this book is going back.  maybe she should have talked to sarah dallas before publishing this one ... because it's virtually the same type of book, with the same type of patterns, only not as wonderfully photographed.  been there, done that. 

finally, can i tell you how friggin' excited i am that it's friday?

Whatcha Readin?

oh my.  i got tagged by both ben and cathi for the book meme (me! me! me! -- hey that's what i'm thinking when i see the word meme).  my reading choices really aren't all that fascinating.  really.  quite lame actually.

1. Total number of books in your house:  easily hundreds.  i have quite a few of my college and grad school text books (some of the grad school ones i also have at work ).  I still have my biology text from freshmen year, the contents of which is probably now obsolete since no one is allowed to teach evolution anymore.  oh...that hasn't happened yet?  ok...i have of course a pile of knitting and assorted other craft books -- i showed you those during "here's my stash" day.  i've also got plenty of magazines (i got rid of a ton when i moved but i've kept a lot of craft magazines and martha stewart livings.  i have vogue knitting magazines that are over 20 years old).  most of the fiction i have are books that i have not read or books and authors that i like a lot.  i may not read them again, but i like having them there.

2.  The last book you bought was:   our friend the yarn harlot's, At Knit's End.  and Simple Socks Plain and Fancy by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts.  when i lived in boston, i used to walk by Brookline Booksmiths almost every day and i bought at least one book a week.  somehow buying books has never struck me as an extravagant or needless purchase.

3. What was the last book you read before reading this:  i've had a hard time getting into a book of fiction lately.  but i started The Lovely Bones by alice sebold monday morning and i've gotten seriously sucked in.  i'm getting to the home stretch and i'm already a little sad that it's ending.  next on my list is a book that i borrowed from our work "library"  (the work library consists of a series of shelves with books that people have brought from home for others to read) called Middlesex.  everyone and their mother have been telling me what a great book it is.  i don't know now if i even should read it.  what if i'm disappointed?

4. Write down 5 books that you often read or that mean a lot to you:  i almost never reread a book.  i did read The Perfect Storm twice, before and after seeing the movie.  the first time around all of the technical stuff was over my head and that bugged me.  so i had to read it again.  and every now and again, i do reread Gone With the Wind.  and i'd like to reread some of the books i read in highschool and college for classes such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles (there you go cathi) and the Grapes of Wrath.    i love anything by david sedaris.  in fact, i love him so much that i even love his sister, amy sedaris.  and all of the other sedarises (sedarii?).   i also loved Stones from the River and I Know This Much Is True  by Wally Lamb.  i hated Wally Lamb's other book, She's Come Undone.  everybody loved that book and went on and on about how in tune he was with a woman's mind, they couldn't believe a man had written such a character, yadda yadda yadda, and all i could think about was how unpleasant and whiny and miserable a character she was and that in order to write such a character, that he must hate women.  hated that book.  blech.  i'm making a face showing my distaste for this book as i'm typing this.  (and yes, i read the whole thing because 1. he's a good writer and 2. i kept hoping she wouldn't be so pathetic. )

Update:  oh oh oh how could i forget another of my absolute favorites:  A Prayer for Owen Meaney.   love -- that -- book.

5. Who do you tag?  my favorite aunt, crazy aunt purl

Good Housekeeping Seal

in the second half of the 90's WAY before it was cool, before dave foley was trying to salvage his career by hosting Celebrity Poker Showdown (which i love by the way -- everything including the Loser's Lounge) i was a member of a women's poker group. we met once a month, in someone's home, the host providing nibbles, the rest of us bringing the liquor. sometimes we had a serving wench in the form of a husband or boyfriend, but they weren't allowed to play. NO BOYS ALLOWED.

the group consisted of some very talented women -- all writers -- poets, novelists, playwrights, short story writers (one is the founder of grub street) and well me. many had local successes and i was always very happy to support them by going to their readings and plays. i was like a proud parent, really.

so the proud parent in me was bursting out of control last thursday when i went to see one of my former poker buddies read from her newly published collection of short stories entitled Calamity and Other Short Stories.

I MEAN HER BOOK IS SOLD ON AMAZON!!!! AND SHE SIGNED IT FOR ME!!! when i think about what this means, i do become a little verklempt (proof that although i did not care for Titanic, that i am not in fact, dead inside).

RUN DON'T WALK and buy her book!!! really truly!!!

by the way, one of the stories in the book was published in January's Good Housekeeping Magazine, the one with julia roberts on the cover, so you know that the stories are wholesome and family friendly too.

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on a totally unrelated topic....another quiz

Angry Girl


What kind of little girl were YOU?
brought to you by Quizilla

i did try to read tolstoy in the third grade.

Lead and I Shall Follow ...

i've been commuting in from the suburbs a lot lately. i used to do 80% of my reading on the T. so now that i drive, not only am i not getting any exercise, i'm also not reading. and i love to read. so sad.

anyway -- since i'm too tired to post anything interesting and also too lazy to actually head home (is that nuts or what?) i thought i'd do the reading list thingy like everyone and their mother out there is doing.

Beowulf
Achebe, Chinua - Things Fall Apart
Agee, James - A Death in the Family
Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice
Baldwin, James - Go Tell It on the Mountain
Beckett, Samuel - Waiting for Godot
Bellow, Saul - The Adventures of Augie March
Brontè, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
Brontè, Emily - Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert - The Stranger (i read it in french even)
Cather, Willa - Death Comes for the Archbishop
Chaucer, Geoffrey - The Canterbury Tales
Chekhov, Anton - The Cherry Orchard
Chopin, Kate - The Awakening
Conrad, Joseph - Heart of Darkness
Cooper, James Fenimore - The Last of the Mohicans
Crane, Stephen - The Red Badge of Courage
Dante - Inferno
de Cervantes, Miguel - Don Quixote
Defoe, Daniel - Robinson Crusoe
Dickens, Charles - A Tale of Two Cities
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor - Crime and Punishment
Douglass, Frederick - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Dreiser, Theodore - An American Tragedy
Dumas, Alexandre - The Three Musketeers
Eliot, George - The Mill on the Floss
Ellison, Ralph - Invisible Man
Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Selected Essays
Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying
Faulkner, William - The Sound and the Fury
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
Ford, Ford Madox - The Good Soldier
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von - Faust
Golding, William - Lord of the Flies
Hardy, Thomas - Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Hawthorne, Nathaniel - The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph - Catch 22
Hemingway, Ernest - A Farewell to Arms
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (i actually also read this in french)
Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
Huxley, Aldous - Brave New World
Ibsen, Henrik - A Doll's House
James, Henry - The Portrait of a Lady
James, Henry - The Turn of the Screw
Joyce, James - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Kingston, Maxine Hong - The Woman Warrior
Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird
Lewis, Sinclair - Babbitt
London, Jack - The Call of the Wild
Mann, Thomas - The Magic Mountain
Marquez, Gabriel García - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Melville, Herman - Bartleby the Scrivener
Melville, Herman - Moby Dick
Miller, Arthur - The Crucible
Morrison, Toni - Beloved
O'Connor, Flannery - A Good Man is Hard to Find
O'Neill, Eugene - Long Day's Journey into Night
Orwell, George - Animal Farm
Pasternak, Boris - Doctor Zhivago
Plath, Sylvia - The Bell Jar
Poe, Edgar Allan - Selected Tales
Proust, Marcel - Swann's Way
Pynchon, Thomas - The Crying of Lot 49
Remarque, Erich Maria - All Quiet on the Western Front
Rostand, Edmond - Cyrano de Bergerac
Roth, Henry - Call It Sleep
Salinger, J.D. - The Catcher in the Rye
Shakespeare, William - Hamlet
Shakespeare, William - Macbeth
Shakespeare, William - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare, William - Romeo and Juliet
Shaw, George Bernard - Pygmalion
Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein
Silko, Leslie Marmon - Ceremony
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander - One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Sophocles - Antigone
Sophocles - Oedipus Rex
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island
Stowe, Harriet Beecher - Uncle Tom's Cabin
Swift, Jonathan - Gulliver's Travels
Thackeray, William - Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David - Walden
Tolstoy, Leo - War and Peace
Turgenev, Ivan - Fathers and Sons
Twain, Mark - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Voltaire - Candide (in french)
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. - Slaughterhouse-Five
Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Wharton, Edith - The House of Mirth
Welty, Eudora - Collected Stories
Whitman, Walt - Leaves of Grass
Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Williams, Tennessee - The Glass Menagerie
Woolf, Virginia - To the Lighthouse
Wright, Richard - Native Son

hmm, i did better than i thought i would. what's tragic though is that all of those books i read in school. in fact other than the faulkner and the random "oprah" selection i probably read most of those books before graduating highschool. crazy huh.

well that was exciting. this post is kind of lame so i may end up deleting it later.