just maryse

Hexagon Swatches

thinking about some new projects.

 

swatching a bunch of hexagons.

 

 

in eye searingly bright happy colors.

 

WIP Wednesday without WIP

after 2 months, i finally finished my soctoberfest socks. in previous years, i've participated in kirsten's mystery sock knit thing, but this year she had real life things to handle.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? and totally dropped the ball on designing a mystery sock for us.  thanks kirsten. sheesh.

so i made just another one of my 2x2 ribbed socks.  this time i chose a very neutral palette. i've been in a gray neutral, black color mood lately, so the colorway fit with what i was interested in working with.

the yarn is noro kureyon sock (the details have been raveled here). i really love this yarn. the bands of color, even when only browns, grays, rust and cream, really make me happy.

and maybe because i've been obsessed with gray lately, i've taken to wearing makeup and giving myself manicures again. (the flickr makeup frenzy may have something to do with that too). or maybe it's just because i'm a week away from another birthday and i'm clinging with all of my strength to some vestige of my youth. heh.

 

before i was collected yarn and fiber, i collected makeup and nail polish.  heh.

 

Another FO

looking back on some posts, it appears that i'm averaging AT MOST one FO a month.  yeah i know, that's pathetic.  this problem has been kind of getting me down just a little. i've been very unfocused and it's the first time in a long time when i've had several projects in the works.

but if i'm writing today it's to tell you that I FINISHED SOMETHING!

last saturday, a friend of stacie's brought over an old cashmere sweater for chopping up.  the friend wanted a pair of mittens.  i cut off the bottom of the sleeves.

this is a breakthrough for me by the way. i am nothing if not deliberate and taking scissors to this old sweater, even if it was not my sweater went totally against my normal instincts.  just so you know.

and then i took these two pieces of sleeve, decided right away they would make awesome arm warmers and then thought about how i was going to finish them for 4 days.

 

yesterday i finally finished them by using a blanket stitch to turn down the unfinished edge and crocheting 3 rows in single crochet.  the actually time required to do this?  an hour maybe.  the time to think about it. 4 DAYS! but you know that's still a record. i do a lot of thinking.

and yes, the blanket stitching is a little frankensteinish and far from perfect, but i kind of like it.

so that's it! i've raved raved them here.

Adventures in Parking

it took 8 days for me to sufficiently recover from my month long blogging adventure. not much has been going on since then. mostly just thinking about projects. i've got a few things up my sleeve with imminent deadlines, which means of course that i'm avoiding them.  and i've got a couple of long term projects which of course means that i can't stop thinking about them.  heh.

but that's not what i'm going to blog about today. today it's about last sunday's bazaar bizarre. it's become a yearly event. i get an early bird ticket and with a friend or two in tow (this year it was stacie) we head off to check out the crafty shopping. and like other years, it did not disappoint. i rarely buy a lot of stuff. my gift giving list does not include people who would get the whole handmade craft thing. but no matter, i still love looking at everything. 

but enough about the bazaar.  the big news is that WE GOT TO PARK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET!

the south end, one of my favorite neighborhoods of boston, is notoriously horrible for parking (like pretty much every neighborhood in boston). when i lived in town i would come down and do some shopping/hanging out on sundays and noticed that on certain blocks, cars would be parked along the median line. i figured it was for churchgoing folks. there are several churches in the area. but i was unsure what the actual rules were. and since i wasn't driving then, i didn't give it too much thought.

until last sunday. stacie and i drove down warren ave and stopped a woman who was parking in the middle of the street and asked her, what's the deal?  well apparently, on sunday, you can park in the middle of certain streets. it started out for church goers but you don't need to go to church, nor do you have to have a resident sticker. you won't get towed. you won't get a ticket.  YAY!

it's the little things.

 

NaBloPoMo Day 30

and i'm done!  30 days of november, 30 days of blogging. a couple of days i posted late, but i posted 30 times in 30 days. so i win!

heh.

thanks for stopping by!

oh, guess what tomorrow is. 

 

THE FIRST DAY OF MY BIRTHDAY MONTH!!!! 

 

NaBloPoMo Day 29

thank god for carole and her "ten on tuesday" series because otherwise i would have had nothing to blog about. this tuesday's topic:  10 favorite musicals.

so you may not know this about me, but i'm a sucker for old movie musicals. LOVE THEM. the costumes, the cheesy stories (because the plots are always a little cheesy), the spontaenous breaking out into song. when i was a kid, i thought that's how life should be.  me getting ready for school, and walking and singing to pick up my friend judy, where we would sing and dance our way to school... YES, THAT'S HOW LIFE SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

anyway, in no particular order, unless i tell you, some of my favorite musicals.

1. The Sound of Music.  A classic. And the first movie I remember seeing in the theater.  I was maybe 6. I went with my mom. I've seen it a bazillion times.  Christopher Plummer as the captain is dreamy.

2. Another classic that I've also see a bazillion times:  The Wizard of Oz.  I was pretty young the first time I saw this movie too. I was afraid of the flying monkeys. I'm not afraid of them anymore. Heh.

3.  An American In Paris.  This is probably my favorite musical of all. Set in Paris, Gene Kelly plays an American (duh) artist who meets a beautiful, young woman (Leslie Caron) and they fall in love. And dancing ensues. The music is great. The costumes, the dancing, everything is just awesome.

4. Gigi.  Another musical with the gorgeous Leslie Caron. In this movie, she plays a teenager at the turn of the 20th century being groomed as a courtesan.  She falls in love with a family friend and singing ensues. This is the movie where Maurice Chevalier is famous for singing Thank Heaven for Little Girls.  This song is not as creepy as one would think. 

6. The Young Girls of Rochefort.  this is a french musical that I saw the first time when I was a kid. it stars a charmingly young and gorgeous catherine deneuve and her real life sister (who would tragically die a few years later).  It also stars gene kelly who does his best to speak french (not to0 badly).  it is colorful like candy. the music is fantastic. it explores themes that an american movie for it's time would never have even touched. and it is ridiculous. a few years ago, it was playing in it's original version in a local theater and i talked two friends to come and see it with me.  since i hadn't seen it since i was a kid, i never realized how truly bad and ridiculous it was so i was so embarrassed. but i was also enchanted all over again.  i would watch it over and over again for the colors alone.

7. West Side Story. The Sharks. The Jets. Natalie Wood. Rita Moreno. "I feel pretty" and "Tonight."  So tragic. So sad.

8. Fame.  The modern musical.  Modern themes. Less ridiculous premise. A movie where singing and dancing actually makes sense in the plot. I love this movie. "Macaroni and baloney
Tuna fish, our favorite dish  Hot lunch, hey If it's yellow, then it's jello If it's blue it could be stew oo, oo."

9. The Producers.  The Producers is one of the few musicals that I've actually seen in person.  I'm not a huge fan of live theater mostly because I find that I'm easily distracted.  J's parents gave us a pair of tickets because they couldn't go and although I really enjoyed it, our seats were to the side and there were sections of the stage I couldn't see and that kind of bummed me out and took away from the experience.  And also, we didn't get to see the original cast, so that was disappointing. But still fun and funny.   

10. Rent.  Another musical I saw in person. I've added it to the list not because I loved it or it's a favorite but because I saw it.  And I enjoyed it. As much as someone knocked out on cold medicine could enjoy something. 

So that's my list. There are others I could have added.  Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand.  Anything with Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Dick Van Dyke,  Fred Astaire.  The list goes on. 

Yes, I'm a big dork.

 

NaBloPoMo Day 28

re-entry into the work world was rough today. so rough in fact that i almost skipped a day. ON PURPOSE.

yeah, that's all i've got.

heh.

NaBloPoMo Day 27

OMG IT'S GETTING CRAZY AROUND HERE!

DUELING SANTAS??

i did nothing this weekend. no-thing. you know it's been an unproductive weekend when i'm patting myself on the back for NOT STAYING IN MY PAJAMAS ALL WEEKEND AND FOR ACTUALLY PUTTING ON SWEATS. yes because sweats are fancy.

anyway, i had planned to put up the inflatable snow globe, but i didn't. because that would have required getting off of the couch.

this daily blogging thing by the way is kind of getting lame. i'm glad the month is almost over.

 

NaBloPoMo Day 26

thanksgiving is over. over the past 2 days, the neighbors have been putting up their christmas lights and decorations. so it's time for one of my favorite christmas songs.

 i heard it on the radio driving back from the store earlier this evening and i actually got a little excited!

 

NaBloPoMo Day 25

my kind of candy ...

from coastal scents

from sephora