sHell!

Praise the heavens!  I've finished.  Do I love it?  Nope.  I like it.  That's all.  It doesn't fit like a glove because I'm a twit and decided to use cotton on my first "sweaterish" item.  Fool!  I also don't much like this picture because the shirt I'm wearing underneath is a v-neck and this shell should only be worn with a button up shirt or a scoop neck.  This, my friends, is what NOT to wear.  Whatever!  My sister was over here earlier and I had her take a quick pic.  Here's what we get.  Yes, apparently I'm waaay to vain. 

 I'm devastated over the fact that I sewed the shoulders together completely wrong but I'm thrilled that the sides are the perfect mattress stitch-invisible!  Also, in trying to rectify the shoulder seems, I accidentally snipped an actual stitch and made a hole in the shoulder!  I know, it's too horrible.  I tied a knot (I know, no knots in knitting!) and made it almost invisible.  I cried over this mistake and will never again sew shoulder seems together incorrectly.  Lesson learned.  

Here's a picture of it off my body.  My thinnest area on my body is my waist.  This shell, as you can see, does not come in at the waist.  Therefore, it's a bit baggy around the tummy (you can only see this if you're looking at me from the side in this shell).  La di da.  
I am quite proud of my shell but regret that I didn't knit it in an alpaca/silk blend (the other option the pattern gave).  This pattern requires A LOT of picking up stitches and other techniques that I was uncomfortable with.  I learned a lot and for that I am extremely happy.  

Also, I was tagged by Hege in an ABC game where you describe yourself through the letters of the alphabet.  How fun!  I've never been tagged before.  If you feel like playing along I really hope you do because I learned things about Hege from her list, that I didn't know.  Here goes...

A-Alpaca, my favorite thing to knit with.

B-Bendixen.  My original last name (I never legally changed it).  I'm very proud to be one!

C-Chocolate chip cookies (that Steve made, for which I will later kill him).  I love them!

D-Dogs.  My favorite animal.  We have two-Boo and Shamus.  Also, Dad.  Mine husband is a great one and our Dads are fantastic too.

E-Elizabeth, my baby girl.

F-Family.  They're the most important thing to me.

G-girls.  I love being around girls, doing girl things, just being a girl.

H-Hell.  What it feels like in Utah right now!

I-Intelligence.  Very important to me.

J-Joker.  Love having people on.

K-Knitting!

L-Linton.  My husbands family who I love.

M-Mom.  That's who I am and I love mine.

N-Nice.  Something I should be more often.

O-Olives.  I love olives.

P-Patience.  I REALLY need to work on patience.

Q-Quiet.  I love when the kids are asleep and it's nice and quiet.

R-Responsible.  I need to work on this one (yes I'm 31, I STILL need to work on this one).

S-Steve, I love his stinkin' guts!

T-TV.  I'm in love with TV.  

U-Utah.  It's hotter than hell but I love it just the same!

V-Values.  Something I try very hard to teach my kids.

W-William, my little man. 

X-Christmas.  I know, very unoriginal.  I do love Christmas, though!

Y-Yarn.  Obviously.

Z-Zion.  It's the only thing that came to mind.  It's a National Park here and I really would not want to be there right now as it is probably 115 degrees.  Seriously.  

California Dreamin' (Part II(and a half)-Observing)

On the same day as wonderful Studio City, we visited the Griffith Observatory.  It looks a bit like this...

I'll bet you thought we went to Endor.  We didn't.  This is still in California.  The observatory was really cool with lots of displays and a massive telescope that we didn't have time (or patience) to look through.  Even if we'd had time and patience (which we did not) this is just a taste of the view we may have gotten.  The "Hollywood" sign is behind us somewhere.  Look really, really closely.  Find it?  Didn't think so.  I didn't even know it was there while the picture was being taken.  Stupid smog.  Will is chewing on part of a milk bottle lid.  Where, you ask, did he find it?  I don't know and here's the worst part, when I saw him chewing it, I just let him! (By the way, my hair is not styled like a chicken-it's the wind.  I swear.) 
Here's a picture of what Lizzy thought of the observatory.  Actually we were just asking her to tell us what a pig says and this is the face she makes when she does it.  I thought it was so funny that I had to put it on here.  She and Will actually had a lot of fun, especially since they were with their friends Maggie and Grant (Will is still talking about his friends).
Here's the lot of us having a lovely time.  This trip contained many things we had never done before and the Griffith Observatory was one of them.  We loved it despite the smog and children acting like pigs.
For dinner that night we went to Bob's Big Boy.  That's right.  It's a greasy spoon which is good because the kids were nuts.  This photo is of the mess the Lizzard made.  She is a complete animal!  Don't worry, I cleaned it up (I know it's someone's job, Nicki, but I could NOT leave this one!).  Look, she even speared a pancake with a straw and chucked it on the floor!
We ended the night with a trip to "Diddy Reese", this amazing ice cream place where you get tons of ice cream sandwiched betwixt two delightful cookies for $1.50.  What is that!?  I didn't know you could sell anything delicious for $1.50, especially in L.A..  We had an awesome day and completely wore the kids out.  Thanks again Cory and Nicki!

California Dreamin' (Part II-Studio City)

Our second day in California we met up with some good friends, Cory and Nicki, who we got to know while they were living here in Utah.  They have since abandoned us for better weather.  Cory is a production designer and took us on a tour of his set for the ABC Family show "Greek".  Steve and I have been fascinated with Cory's work for some time-since seeing "Napoleon Dynamite" which he did the production design for as well.  He is very talented and has amazing ideas.  See Cory, we did like the tour! Nicki-you are also amazing and a wonderful mom-we love you!  The "Greek" set is actually on a rented space on the CBS studio property.  Go figure.  Anyway-it was completely fascinating.  

This first picture is of the bar which is apparently the sort of gathering place for the show.  Doesn't that patio look like it's actually outside?  Yes, it does.  The kids were loving it but got annoyed when we kept telling them not to touch things (you never know if something is real or if it is, in fact, a papier mache bench that will collapse if you sit on it).  

 

This picture is of the patio you can see from the doorway in the above pic.  Except for the fact that I got the set light in the photo, it looks amazingly real!  Yay, Cory.  

A cute pic of Will and Maggie on the set (this is when Will was still happy, this state of affairs quickly changed)
This picture is of the kitchen in the girls sorority house.  That countertop is just faux painted to look like granite.  What the!  Isn't that a good job?  This kitchen is amazing and I desire it for my own.  The girls house was my favorite part of the set.  
This, my friends, is the cutest shower curtain on the planet.  These showers work but one of them can be moved around in order to let the cameras come in.  Very clever.  Nicki and I wanted any leftover fabric to make bags but Cory said no dice-the curtains cost something like $3,000.  A bit too spendy for a bag.  
"SERENITY NOW!"  Will had had enough after being told for the millionth time that he could not touch this or that object.  He has a SERIOUS fit throwing problem.  I spoke with him about it yesterday and asked him why he does it.  He told me "sometimes a tantrum comes and it's like a little ball and it comes down and ooohh!"  Okay, I understand that (I think), so I told him when he feels it coming to tell it to go away.  It's been working today.
Here's Lizzy on the patio.  Love that patio.  This was a real bench and so we didn't run the risk of her falling through it if it got wet.
Here's the "party house".  It's where the wild fraternity guys live and it looks like a filthy pig hole!  They purposely leave it messy all the time-it was seriously disgusting.  Can you believe that's all fake, though?  Even the house.  Fake.  It's crazy!
How many out there are "Seinfeld" fans?  All of you?  That's what I thought.  This is "Central Park" on "Seinfeld".  It's true!  We sat on the bench that George sat on in his scene with Marisa Tomei.  This "Central Park" area was about 500 square feet.  It's amazing to me that these people can make this look so convincing with just a few trees and a bench.  This was very exciting for Steve and I (especially Steve) because we are huge Seinfeld fans.    
This is "Del Boca Vista".  Jerry's parents retirement condos.  The name Del Boca Vista has always cracked me up so I was thrilled beyond measure to see this.  They're just offices now but still-DEL BOCA VISTA!  
We had so much fun during our studio tour.  We even saw Rachel Hunter practicing for "Celebrity Circus" (the stupidest show ever to hit TV).  It was great to see Cory's set and some of the Seinfeld sets.  It's all just so fascinating to me (a huge television and movie addict).  Thanks Cory and Nicki for taking time to show this to us.  We also went to an observatory on the same day but this post has gotten a bit ridiculous with the amount of photos so I'll save it for later.  

By the way, I did not knit a stitch on this trip-I made a fingerless mitt on the plane ride home but it was crap so I frogged it.  I've had serious knitting anger lately because of this shell I've been working on.  I am now finished and I feel like I've been released from prison!  It's blocking right now so I'll show it soon.  

California Dreamin' (Part I)

We've been in California for the past 5 days and have been having a blast.  The trip is going to have to be divided into a few posts because there are lots of pictures and we did a lot of stuff (I'm quite shocked at the amount of stuff we did with the two pills!)

The first day we went down to San Juan Capistrano to meet up with some of Steve's family who were in California as well.  We had a few hours until dinner with them so we decided to go to the beach.  The kids had so much fun.  Lizzy was afraid of the waves at first but quickly fell in love with the water and sand (especially the sand-she thought it tasted mighty fine!).  I love this picture.  Look at the three different sets of footprints-so cute.  

Here's Will just running his little legs off.  I'm amazed that he finally let go of my hand-he is so scared of the water.  When he's with Steve he's a bit more brave and will let the water touch him without someone holding his hand.  Heaven forbid.  

The Lizzard had the time of her life.  Notice the sand on her face-leftovers from her sand lunch. She was more brave than her brother and tried several times to just saunter off into the waves on her own.  Very scary.  
Another shot of my Monkey Man being very daring!  He LOVED the beach and threw a fit (imagine that) when we had to leave.  
After the beach we met up with Steve's parents to go to the Mission in San Juan Capistrano.  It was built by an Italian Friar in 1776 (I think) and it is completely gorgeous.  This is one of the ruins that you can tour.  It reminded me a bit of Rome (ahhh, Rome).  I realize that it is much "newer" than ancient Rome but it's about as "ancient" as we get here in the U.S..  The gardens are beautiful and the kids had a lot of fun just running about.
Here's one last shot of Lizzy being cute and running away from the camera in order to savage the nearest object.  
We then met up with Steve's sister Karen and her family for dinner at a Mexican restaurant down the street from the Mission.  All in all it was a wonderful day.  I was very excited that we didn't have too many meltdowns from the kids due to air travel and lack of naps.   

Next post...Studio City!

 

The Weddin'

WEDDING FUN

Yesterday my brother in law got married.  It was a fun day-and very long.  They got married in the morning, we rushed home to get the kids down for naps, and then back again for the reception.  Lizzy was so nuts that I had to leave by 8p.m..  I made a shrug for this occasion and wore it but got no pictures of it.  I didn't have time to block it and I'm not sure if I love it so it will not be featured at this time.  By the way, I'm only wearing white because I was asked to!  

This is a picture of Steve's whole family (minus one nephew who is on a mission in Guatemala). Matt and Hilary are a darling couple.  A friend was asking me all sorts of questions about how they met, where she grew up, etc, etc...I knew none of the answers.  Why?  They have only been dating for about 6 months!  That's the way we roll, my friends (well, not us, we dated for 4 years, but some people roll that way).  Will was an absolute crack up-he is doing this face in most of the pictures because this is what he has decided is "cute".  

Lizzy, as I said, was an animal.  She is walking now but decided to crawl all over the ground so as to filthify her lovely dress, shoes and tights.  She pulled my skirt up at least 33,000 times and got "candy hands" all over my dress.  Plus she had a runny nose which she kept wiping on us!  DISASTER.  We still love her!  Will spent the evening pilfering candy from a table that was akin to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.  We will bill Matt and Hilary for the dental bill. 

This is the gift.  I knitted a bowl and felted it then bought some fake lemons to put in it just for a cute decoration.  We got them a wicked awesome Mexican cook book (by Diana Kennedy, Mexican cook extraordinaire) and a pot to put spoons, spatulas etc in.  And isn't that huge candy jar great?  I bought one for us and put colorful yarn in it-very cute.  They better like it!

 
I had to put just one more picture on here.  My sister in law just emailed this over and I can't believe how funny it is.  How hilarious are those pants on the little man?  Notice the untucked shirt and wonky vest buckle hanging out of his jacket.  And again, the head tilt.

In other news, the hair is fixed.  I regret that the picture of the stripes did not do the actual stripes justice.  I wish you could all have seen them in person.  I do miss them-I had a fun week making jokes about them.  My stylist was a bit baffled as to how the Striper actually achieved such a result.  He couldn't quite wrap his head around the stripes on the hair around my ears and came to the conclusion that the Striper must, in fact, be an elf whose fingers are small enough to put a foil in that length of hair.  In order to cover up said stripes, we had to go a much darker shade (something I only like to do in the winter) but c'est la vie!  

I promise to post some knitting pictures soon.  I have several things to block but I'm too lazy to do it.  I hope you've all had a great weekend!  

Hats, Hair and Fabulous Fibers!

Oh the pride!  I am soooo happy about this hat I did this weekend.  I cabled for the first time!  Yay me!  I've been wanting to do this hat for a very long time (since Kara helped me with the Jon Merrick and knitted this hat whilst teaching) and I finally got up the guts to do it.  I started it with this hideous Katia yarn which I detest but ended up doing it in Rowan Big Wool and LOVE LOVE LOVED it.  I tried to start it on dpns but it was just too much for me so I did it on circulars.  It's the "unoriginal hat" by the Yarn Harlot.  You can get the lovely pattern on her blog.  Anyway, I think it turned out rather nice.  I'm glad it's done because now I can wear it (yes, it is 80 degrees here now) in order to cover up this...
That's right.  I have, in fact, been striped.  You can't tell so much in this picture but it's REALLY bad.  So bad that I had to put my angry eyes on for this pic.  I look like a flipping tiger.  Mind you, I have a wedding this week and was nearly forced to be immortalized as Le Tigre in the wedding photos.  My usual hair guy is fixing it this week, praise be his name!  This is what you get when you stray from the correct hair path.  The expensive path you know you must remain on in order to not become stripey.  Also, the top is rather calico.  A nice kitteny sort of look.

Now, I admit I am a multiple knitter.  A VERY multiple knitter.  I am now addicted to the easy peasy wrist warmers I showed you last week.  My mom has been in the hospital so I decided to make her a lovely gift.  She goes out walking all the time (even in the winter when it's 9 degrees outside) so I thought she'd love some of the wrist warmers for her wintertime adventures.  I wanted to do "luxury" wrist warmers so I decided to do them in Berrocco Ultra Alpaca with Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  Holy cow!  They are lovely.  It's such a simple thing but I love me some alpaca and I love it even more mixed with a bit of goat!  If she doesn't love them, she's mental.  I'm making some for moi very soon.  I've also decided they'd be great birthday gifts for Will's buddies (in a smaller size) and for mine!  Isn't knitting wonderful?  Gifts for all!!!  Here are the warmers modeled by a reluctant Will...

Don't they look fluffy and delightful and don't you love Will's wonky post nap hair?  Looks better than mine!  Next, socks!