Happy Final Catdown Thursday

Happy Thursday everyone! Look at what my sweet friend Liz found for me:

Isn't that THE BEST?!

Today is Liz's birthday! If you know her, tell her happy birthday, and if you don't find a random Liz of your acquaintance and wish her a happy birthday! Confusing, but sweet.

Here are a few fun facts about my friend Liz: ever since I put her contact information in my phone (several phones ago) at The Bird she has been listed as "Liz!" Every year, Liz and I go on a major thrifting shopping extravaganza around the same time every year and we call it Friendaversary.  I credit Liz with my love of Belle and Sebastian, my exposure to the only two (or so?) Tori Amos songs I like, and with introducing me to this song:

Liz has the best tattoos, the prettiest hair color (all of her hair colors), the coolest glasses, the fattest cat (I say it with love, Lola!) and the sweetest heart. I love you friend! Happy birthday!

Phoning in the weekend- Valentine's edition

Hello everyone, and happy start of your week! I hope you had a lovely, restful Valentine's weekend! Mine was very fun.

It started out with Valentine's cards and treats for my student assistants and trying to bribe my APA manual to be good to me while I write a paper for a conference (come to Denver, it's going to be fun!)

After work, I drove to Grand Rapids for a fun filled evening of dinner, drinks, and pin ball!

The next day, we went to the Grand Rapids Public Library (amazing!), a plant store, a record shop, and a local brewery for snacks and drinks. Also, the gorgeous antique store pictured above where I was almost overcome by all of my antique store addictions: sparkly jewelry, bags, Fiesta Ware, and hats. If there had been more Pyrex I would have been truly done in.

Sunday was lazy with sleeping in, pancakes, and dinner with my family. What did you do this weekend?

Happy Favorite Song Thursday

(Disclaimer, I don't know anything about these videos, I just picked them in kind of a hurry to share the songs. So enjoy the songs! And maybe the videos?)

Happy Thursday, one and all! While I can't pick a favorite song for all time, I always have one or two favorites at any given time. 

Recently I came across this on Pandora. I had forgotten how much I love it!

So naturally I ordered the CD from MelCat so I could hear more from this band. That's when I discovered they also sang this song:

That song was on a CD one of Erica's friends sent her when we were roommates on Locust Street. We listened to the CD, oh, a thousand times? A week? It was our fav! It was the soundtrack to the winter of 2007 along with (for me) Against Me

 

Fiona Apple

And the Hold Steady

So now my old favorite songs are new again! It's like being an angsty 23 year old again, except I'm not actually. Which is preferable. Now songs like this are my real favorites:

Pinterest Wednesday- Messy Microwave

Living alone means pockets of grossness can happen in a relatively normal looking house. I'm the only one who sees certain things so I'm not always super picky about how they are cleaned. Especially if, like a microwave, the pocket comes with it's own door that you can shut and forget that you said "YUCK" out loud when you opened it.

It was gross, ok? And I'm not going to post pictures of it here because I didn't take any because I was in a hurry to clean. But I tried this technique (click on the image to see the pin and subsequently the webpage for a full description) and it worked really nicely! You still (if you have let things get as bad as I did) have to scrub a little, but a wet dishcloth was all it took. I highly recommend this!

Phoning in the weekend (only not really)

Here are the three pictures I took this weekend. That is it. It was a super busy and fun weekend, I just didn't document a lot of it. What these three pictures do document is getting ready for a fancy dinner, getting a surprise picture of Roman, and a difficult pattern I was working on which I sent a picture of to Erica to get her to join in on my self pity.

Not pictured activities include: getting coffee and going to the coolest specialty bookstore, the 1939 copy of Jane Eyre I bought there, finding SO MANY RECORDS I've been searching for at the record store (including two Mel Tormes, Jethro Tull Stand Up, Little Orphan Annie for  a dollar, and a Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers Christmas album!), walking around a super cool fish store, knitting, eating dinner with my family, and playing cards with good friends.

Sometimes your just too busy to take pictures, I guess! What did you do this weekend?

Friday FO's Procrastination Buster

Remember my super awesome cast-on? Well, it turned into this hat:

Nate, in all his sassy glory.

Poor Nate has waiting four years for a hat. It was one of those things, I just never got around to it. But finally, it's done! I loved that pattern, it's my favorite basic hat pattern thus far.

I also finally got around to finishing this blanket for my lovely Heather:

I highly recommend this pattern if you are trying to knit a blanket in a hurry. You can see that at one point in time I was in such a hurry that I started my i-cord border before I cast off! And then I let it languish for a long time, for reasons. But it's finished now and keeping Heather warm and cozy!

Another project I finished was this cute Generations Bag for my cousin's Natalie's wedding!

And finally, this scarf which is the first thing I can ever remember knitting solely for myself and not as a gift or for a craft show! I made up the pattern as I went using beautiful yarn I bought at a LYS in Lansing called Sticks and Strings. I used the yarn as inspiration and knit long stretches of garter stitch and seed stitch (which I am currently obsessed with). The interplay between the textures and colors are exactly what I was hoping for!

I foresee more FO's in my future now that classes are done for the semester. I'm going through a major knitting phase so if you have any TV or movie recommendations for while I'm knitting, I would appreciate it. I just started season one of Moone Boy and oh my lord I love it! I'm trying to ration it out, but I'm not being terribly successful.

Happy Weekend!

Happy Thursday Texts from my sister

Happy Thursday, everyone! I present you with this text exchange between one of my sisters and me. It took place earlier this week when I had a weird, wonky eye and a headache. All you have to know to enjoy it is that the dresses for my sisters wedding are a lovely blush pink color, I am something of a hypochondriac, and stroke is the most common medical issue I think I'm having. I have learned to live with it and joke about it. Which, of course, will stop being funny the minute I die of a stroke. KNOW THE SIGNS!

Me: Hey, when you get migraines do they ever affect your vision?

Sister: Yeah, sometimes. Why do you ask?

Me: Because my left all got all weird. Then I got a headache.

Me: Just ordered my Maid of Honor dress! You wanted it in blaze orange, right?

Sister: Hahahahahaahaha, you are so funny! I'm sorry! Do you feel better now?

Me: I do, but you know me, I thought I was having a stroke. Sister. I am the Maid of Honor. If I want to wear blaze orange WHO CAN STOP ME?!

Sister: Lol! You know I think you might be having a stroke if you think blaze orange is a good idea.

Me: I know all the signs of stroke because it's my favorite disease to think I have and I am here to tell you: having amazing color sense is not a sign of stroke.

Sister: If you say so.

Me: A stroke of genius yes. A brain stroke no.

Sister: Potato Patato.