Sandwich Day!

Have you ever woken up one morning with the knowledge that a sandwich lay in your near future? Yes, I'm talking about sandwich destiny and I'm currently living it. Chicken and Gouda on wheat from the Huckleberry's deli.

What's better than eating a delicious sandwich? Eating a delicious sandwich while watching a television program that features sandwiches. So, I'm going to make this sandwich a part of me while watching a very special episode of 30 Rock: "Sandwich Day". Even if you don't have a sandwich of your very own, you should still get on Hulu or Netflix and watch some 30 Rock while eating something roughly comparable to (but never quite as great as) a sandwich.

The kitten is still bad...all the time.

This is how I spent my lunch hour...

I did not wake up this morning feeling like P. Diddy

I had twenty olives yesterday.  Twenty m-fing olives!  Towards the end of the night no one told me, "Catherine, you smell like booze." Nick did say, "you smell like olives." I'm getting ahead of myself.
Nick and I spent the weekend in Seattle.  An overdue GNO happened on Saturday night.  Drinks were delicious, food was delicious, and the conversation...delicious. For whatever reason around 3:00, I decided to ditch the car I was riding in back to the hotel and walked back.  I was sure the hotel was closer than it was.  0.9 miles later at 3:17 a.m. I arrived at the hotel.  I think I got annoyed when Nick and Chase were talking about burgers and Trailer Park Boys.  I paid for my decision, my shoes gave my feet blisters and I suffered all day long.  I had too many martinis, too many cups of coffee, and not enough sleep.  I also dedicated a whopping 45 minutes to school work--something tells me I'm going to regret this decision tomorrow night.

Now that you're heard about the weekend, this is kind of how it looked:

(I recommend you think about Ke$ha's Blah Blah Blah while you look at these pictures...that's what I'm going to do).

I made this coffee cozy on Friday night for a swell gal (she doesn't know about it yet). I tried it out while heading North.

I bought this yarn in Seattle. Projects to come!

We stayed at The Monaco. It was nice.

I stuck to martinis the whole night...hence the 20 olives.  In my defense, these two martinis came with three olives, not the standard two.

Lights...

You can request a fish in your room at The Monaco. They have about 150 down in housekeeping, we asked.

I bought these tulips at Pike Place. The tulip lady told me that double-petal red tulips are the only tulips that have a scent! Yes, please!

Breakfast view from Nick's perspective.

Sock yarn from Tucson for Nick's socks.

Slow start.

Yarn ball.

My perspective. A lot of orange.

Winter Wonderful!

Monika's Second Christmas Post:

Blurry Lights in Glendale

Let me start by thanking Christine for showing me how to update my blogger edition I was using. I am so very excited to test out my new wings and see if I can fly. Okay so here is my Christmas blog post, I feel like it's still okay to post because we are still in January which as I am sure you are fully aware is Second Christmas month. To get you in the mood I have posted a blurry camera picture I took at the Americana in Glendale. Also to further justify that my tardiness for this post should be forgiven, in Burbank some houses are still adorned with glowing Christmas spirit. 

Naturally I loved my holiday celebration, we ate approximately 100 different types of desserts and sweets! Yum...and ouch, inevitably, later in the digestive process. Unfortunately I was without a camera, as I believe a prior post informed you of my situation, so I am able to share the following photos. Which are a couple gifts I made for Mom and Sisters. Thank you for sending the photos to me Christine, they are lovely, much props.

Felted ball necklace, grey with flecks of blue, black &  white.

This was my first attempt at jewelry making, I think... can't really remember for sure, oh I did make Catherine some earrings for her birthday last year. But this was my first knitted necklace. I can say that with certainty.

Christine wearing hers

Okay here is something else, I also water colored some little note cards. The pictures were actually based on previous blog posts. I combined the few handmade cards with some other cute ones I had around (including a Jill Bliss) and wrapped a little faux bois Martha Stewart ribbon around them and pinned it all together. I had some other pictures of them but I think Ben deleted them from the camera. So thanks again Christine!

Pinned and packaged.

You'll have to find the original picture...

Well, that's all I have for now. I actually need to get to work on a present that I didn't have done in time for the official present opening ceremonies. But it is really time sensitive so I need to be getting on it and getting it in the post. 

This has nothing to do with that.

I went back to work today and even though I felt a little iffy in the morning, by the end of the day I was right as rain. Yippee! I was so happy to be feeling better that when I got off work, I decided to make a trip 1. to the liquor store and 2. to the yarn store. Now, I know me saying that I'm going to the liquor store sounds...bad (Bad? Hey, I'm an adult.), but I don't plan on drinking tonight. It's an errand that needs (yes, needs) to be run, and they're not open on Sunday (my regular errand day). 


You see, I finished up everything in the house before I got sick (which had nothing to do with me getting sick--it began as a cold and moved onto the stomach flu) and it wasn't at all important while I was sick, but now that I'm not sick, I can envision a weekend where drinking a couple of gin & tonics or bourbons, neat (my friend, Dan, taught me neat last year. Before that, my bourbons were plain or regular), would not be such a bad idea. And I should also say, because I felt like a super-lush carting four empty liquor bottles out to the recycle bin this evening, that it took me a while to drink those. It's not like this restocking episode is a weekly or even monthly occurrence. It just so happens that I found myself at the bottom of those bottles around the same time.


Wow. I went on the defensive right away. And not much to say about the yarn store. Guess I don't expect Mother dear to frown on that half of the excursion.


Moving on...


I've been waiting for the right moment to show off some of my estate sale and thrift store finds, from our out and about in Tacoma over Second Christmas, but I realized that the right moment is a ways off (because I had to leave all the unpackable {not a word} items at Mom's), so I better just get to it. Here's what I was able to bring home with me.

A handful of hearts

A vintage telephone and address book.

The cover is all satiny. Ooooooh.

And the pages are all blank. Just waiting for me to put pencil to paper.
This is a very important step in writing oftener.

A colorful assortment of gift cards

A 1968 copy of True Grit

It has an appropriate amount of wear, I think.

What an oddball assortment of items, but I suppose it fits with the oddball assortment of topics in this post. Oh well, I can't always tie everything together. Wait. Rooster Cogburn and drinking. You must admit, that just about gets there.

saltines and 7-Up are played out.

Remember when I said I thought I was done being sick? Well, I ended up getting re-sick...or maybe it's not re-sick when you contract a different illness while recovering from the original illness. I'm not sure how that all works, but let me tell you, it's no fun having two unrelated viruses in your body, each intent on doing its own virus thing. At least, I hope they're unrelated. I suppose I could be Patient Zero for some new and terrible super-virus, but I certainly hope not.


I think I'm mostly better tonight. I made and ate some soup. I took a shower. I did the dishes. Those are the sorts of things you do when you're on the mend, right? You crawl out of bed, and take control of housework, and do something about the creature that your hair has become.


Yes. So, check. Check, check. 


I let all my projects lie fallow while I was under the weather--figuring that it was probably a good idea not to put my Typhoid Mary hands all over something I planned to give as a gift. It seemed like the responsible thing to do. The result is that my hands have been largely unoccupied for the past four days, and I feel like I have a bit of catching up.


Here's a hat that I finished pre-illness(es). I've dubbed it the Copycat Hat because Catherine was the first Nicolai to make this hat (for her trip to Iceland), and I'm following in her knitted footsteps. And I've realized that it really is quite difficult to get a decent picture of yourself wearing a hat when you live alone. Doubt me? Try taking a picture of the back of your head. Not exactly easy.

The name of the hat pattern is Nehalem Hat (AC308) by Oat Couture. You can probably find the pattern at your local yarn shop. Catherine found hers at Canvas Works in Olympia, Wa. Other details? I knitted my hat with Mirasol's Miski yarn in jade, and it only took a couple of days. It's a pretty simple project. Knit on!

hearts on a string

Now is as good a time as any to confess that in the past couple of weeks, whenever I've been on the phone with someone, I've had the overwhelming certainty that I'm going to end the conversation by saying: I love you. This, to me, is totally bizarre. I'm talking about work conversations here, telemarketer conversations, discussions with my landlord about mold. But still, as I reach the end of the chat, a little voice in my head says: I love you? And then the bigger voice in my head says: No! Don't say that! Wait. Did I say it? At that point, I'm left trying to decide if I actually vocalized this weird new reflex or was able to suppress it in time. 

Of course, the more I think about this issue, the more of an issue it becomes. I'm trying to keep the projection of horrible awkwardness at the front of my brain. This is what will result if you let loose with the unsolicited I love yous, brain. Remember the awkwardness. So, consider this advance warning. If I tell you I love you over the phone, you should probably just pretend it never happened. I'm almost positive I won't mean it. All right, now that I've told you I don't love you...it's time to show you the Valentine's Day project I've been working on. Paper heart garlands!

This has kept me occupied while sniffling. Of course, since I can't just sit and work on a project in silence, I've had my History of Britain dvds playing in the background. I've cut and pasted my way from the 1550s into the late 1700s. That's quite a chunk of time to craft to. And, as I've said before, the History of Britain series always makes me want to learn more about various historical characters. This time it's Sir Robert Walpole--generally considered Great Britain's first unofficial Prime Minister. Someone to look into...

Anyway, the heart garlands are quite easy. You'll need paper (I used red card stock and several sheets of patterned red scrapbooking paper {purchased on clearance for .29 cents a sheet at Michael's Crafts}), some type of string (I used my red & white baker's twine, but a thin red yarn or ribbon would be lovely), a large needle (one used to finish knitting would be ideal), a glue stick, a pencil, and a pair of scissors.

Decide on the size of your hearts and then accordion fold your paper...well, accordingly. You know how to fold and make hearts, right? I'm betting you do. Make a bunch of those. All one size or several different sizes--totally up to you. But know that for each heart strung on your garland, you'll glue together three paper hearts, so trace and cut lots and lots. Then put them in a big old pile and admire your handiwork.

Others might stop by to admire your handiwork, too.

I used the same folded heart to trace all the other hearts, but invariably some were a bit bigger or smaller. I'm not too picky about that because they're charming either way, right? Find three hearts that are roughly the same size and glue them together so they have three sides. Like this:

Measure out your string to fit your window, or mantel, or whatever space you desire, and then thread the needle.
For the left side of the garland, you'll insert the needle through the top of the heart.
For the right side, insert the needle through the bottom.



I had my hearts meet in the middle. Like this:

Keep stringing until your garland reaches the desired length.
Make slipknots at either end and then hang that sucker up somewhere!

 Despite what I said earlier: Lovies!

The Cat of Second Christmas!

Catherine has Bruno in the bag.

I'm feeling a bit better, so I decided that it was high time for the very last of my Second Christmas posts. I believe Monika (and maybe Catherine) still has some post-Second Christmas posting to do, but as for me, this is it. I've decided to go out on the official Cat of Second Christmas (something I just made up right this second), which has to be Bruno Jenkins. Matilda stayed home in Spokane (happily, after the ordeal that was Real Christmas), Beatrix (aka: Bea, baby black bear, little black bowling ball) slept most of the time, and Peanut wasn't invited, so Bruno takes the title. Since Bruno has been mentioned several times in the blog, I should probably give a little background.

Bruno began his life with the Nicolai family in my household in Spokane, but after a visit with Mom (while I was away in New York and then caught in a terrible Spokane January from which I could not escape for several weeks), he became aTacoma resident. Now, I don't need to go over all the details of the story, but let me just say that when I came to retrieve Bruno, it quickly became apparent Mom was going to miss him way more than she was going to miss me, so he stayed. He's settled down quite a bit since living in Spokane--for instance, I'm fairly certain he no longer derives maniacal joy from breaking my things and biting me on the face. Thank goodness. Yup, in these past three years he's actually turned into quite the cuddle-bug...though he does still have his moments.

Here, Bruno fights a fake dog. You may also have noticed a little
something on the floor in the background. That is fake poo.
I had to log into my myspace account to get this picture, which
required that I remember my yahoo account information.
 Worth 20 minutes of password resetting? Totally.

Anyway, Bruno had a terrific time over the course of Second Christmas. Ribbons, paper, boxes, a tree to sleep under, and Monika (one of his favorite people). Sorry about the quality of the pictures; Bruno's a fast one, as you'll very soon see...

Packages and ribbons are no match for him.

And the succulent terrarium from Monika?

Bruno liked that, too.

Sweet little sleeper.