Velma's World: charmed I'm sure

Showing posts with label charmed I'm sure. Show all posts

Monday, July 20, 2009

It's Been a Schmoopy Year

Saturday, Cole & I celebrated our first year of marriage! Yep, the wilderness hitchin' was an entire year ago, & we continue to live in wedded bliss. Who says the honeymoon has to end?

Nice & quiet (who knew I'd turn into someone who likes nice & quiet?), we bused it to Eureka and had a massive, booze-infused lunch at Hurricane Kate's, courtesy of a holiday gift certificate from Cole's boss Dick (note to locals: stay away from the mojitos, they're WAY too sugary).

After lunch we wandered around downtown, visiting my handspun for sale at YARN, having pick-me-up mochas at Old Town Coffee, and goofin' with the camera. The pics aren't great but we like 'em. There are 2 more schmoopy ones here and here.

After that, we strolled down to our fave pawn shop on the edge of town, where I found these two beauties:

All Cole got from me was my promise to pay the utility bills this month (hey, that's what he asked for!), but I scored. He got me the traditional paper gift: Spin Control by Amy King (!) and these 2 new charms for my bracelet. Turns out he doesn't much care for the sound of the whistle though, haha!

After we got back to Arcata, we headed over to the Minor Theater and saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The film wasn't my favorite in the franchise, but the company was great! All in all it was a really pleasant & relaxing way to spend our anniversary.

Did you ever see our wedblog, Cole Loves Velma? No? You should totally check it out! There are some embarrassingly funny photos housed there. Pay particular attention to the 'wedding party' section (we're not lushes, really!). There's pics from both the 7/18/08 Hitchin' and the 8/16/08 Partyin', as well as several other photo galleries. See what a wilderness wedding and a luau reception look like! Plus, my ass looked phenomenal in my wedding dress and you really should see it! Haha!!

Here's to year #2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Not Your Typical Wednesday

No, it was a most A-typical Wednesday indeed. Who should show up on my doorstep but the local constabulary? A lovely uniformed member of the Arcata Police Department, inquiring if I might be acquainted with the rather impaired & disheveled woman who had taken up residence in our side yard. No, I informed her, I do NOT know the aforementioned 'lady' plopped down on our lawn next to her 3-wheel bike who was claiming to reside in our very house. Four police cars, a handful (a gaggle clutch? a doughnut?) of Arcata's finest, and what I took to be 2 paramedics later, they all decamped after a 40-minute or so confab. The photo above was my view of the whole encounter through our kitchen window. Surreal. But don't ask what became of our 'visitor', apparently the 'hosts' don't warrant an explanation. My guess? They 5150'ed straight to our local residence facility.

Things calmed back down to a semblance of normal after that. I returned to my dyepots, which you see here.

This is the most AMAZING Rambouillet wool fleece from Homestead Wool & Gift Farm - 'Curley Sue' from yesterday's post as a matter of fact. I did an all green batch and a green & blue batch. Soft & springy to beat the band, I tell ya! Look for these in my Etsy shop very soon (they're on the drying racks as we speak).

I also did some Baby Doll Southdown yesterday, but wasn't that happy with the results. I had a bit of an 'oops!' moment with the orange dye, so today I'm doing some over-dyeing with turquoise. Let's just call it an experiment, shall we?

It wasn't all work & no play yesterday. Took that photo of my 4 new charms headed for my charm bracelet. A '64 Chevy like my Impala 'Betty' (ok, it's just a car, but still...); a rooster to bring me some Eleggua energy; a corkscrew 'cuz, well, I do love me some wine!; and a Princess phone just like the turquoise vintage model in our bedroom. Fun!

Ended my day with Crafters Under the Influence. This week was Lush, Monica, Jen, & me. Once again, beer, tequila, & whiskey were involved. We got kinda bleary & blurry. Good times, good times. Although I fucked up my entrelac socks. Le sigh. Guess that means I've earned my FUBAR Knit badge! I think it's apparent from our pics that we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. There was knitting, painting, & project planning going on in addition to the general swilling, rocking madness.

1. Word.,
2. Socks & Beer Under the Influence,
3. Lush Under the Influence,
4. Lush Gesturing Under the Influence,
5. Hat-in-progress Under the Influence,
6. Monica Knitting Under the Influence,
7. Jen Painting Under the Influence,
8. Lush & Jen

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Dye Devotee & Other Ramblings

Well, DAMN, I got behind on blogging again, didn't I? Sure gets away from me. Guess that's a sign that I'm leading a busy & interesting life (at least it's interesting in my OWN mind! Let's get right into it then, shall we?

The shots below are just 'test' shots with my new-to-me Nikon Coolpix 7900 camera. I've been having a great time playing around with it, & using a fully-functioning tool has made my life sooo much easier. That's me on the left (duh!) at sunset (love that warm light!) & my VonTiki 6ft. palm tiki totem on the right. These were taken before I figured out how to turn off the date stamp, but I thought they were fun. Gotta say that although Nikon cameras are known for being less-than-intuitive, that has not been the case for me with this one at all. Really like it!

As you may have noticed, I'm all about the dyepots these days! After my all-blue day for a big custom order, I needed some warm color to stain my hands, so I did a bunch of batches of PINK! This was, what?, last Wednesday I think?

Besides wool, I was recently inspired by the Etsy Storque Spotlight "Charmed, I'm sure" all about vintage charms & charm bracelets. Decided it was time to show off MY charms. I've been collecting for years, long before I actually had a bracelet. I've got my eye on a couple more over on Etsy, but haven't put any money down yet. After a Twitter conversation with Pumpkinhaus, I'm on the lookout for a vintage Princess phone charm.

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled spinning conversation!

After purchasing 2 new drop spindles at Black Sheep Gathering last month, I've been doing a LOT of that. And you probably know I'm fond of the alcohol. So what could be better than:
spindling under the influence! Yep, that's me at my friend Lush's studio last week, drinkin' beer & tequila, munchin' on giant Ak Mak crackers, & spindlin' up a storm.

I cooked up this idea that I wanted to gather with a few like-minded crafters (read: lushes who make shit) & gather for some convivial conversation & crafting with cocktails. (I am also overly fond alliterative speech). While I spun yarn, Lush did some wood-burning on a sign for the new vinyl shop in town, Missing Link Records (check out their logo; Lush designed it!); meanwhile, Monica & Tamika knit.

More dyed wool on the drying rack, I think this time from Thursday:

Thursday was also Purl 'n Hurl, which for me involved more alcohol & yarn-making.

And AGAIN with the spinning!

This shot is 4th of July BBQ spinning at Kat & Steve's. Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Craftiness! That's what I was celebrating.

And beer. I'm always celebrating beer (note the dead soldier on the ground, & the half-full bottle under my chair, Indica Pale Ales from our own Lost Coast Brewery.)

We went to another BBQ after, but there was no spinning & no photos, just more food & beer & then some fireworks on the way home. A holiday well spent, I say.

I tried to get on board with Tour de Fleece again this year, but only made it through the first couple of days. That's better than my previous record at least! The photo below is of my new Jenkins Turkish Delight spindle on Day 2.

Some more dyeing, some redonculous dyeing!

And yet MORE dyeing!

Although I haven't got it all listed yet, if you're looking for some lovely hand-dyed wool, check out my Etsy shop: www.colorbombcreations.etsy.com & I'll send ya some!

Friday, February 02, 2007

Prizers But No Shadow

Happy Groundhog Day, all! In Gobbler's Knob, PA (no kidding), Punxsutawney Phil says "spring is on it's way!" But, I think that's just in the east and south, where all the prognosticating groundhogs reside. While New York, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama, and two Canadian Provinces each have one, until this year the Left Coast hasn't. But this year, Oroville, CA introduces sunglasses-sporting "Oroville Phil". No word yet as to what he saw.

In other "news", the postman Tom brought lots of goodies from afar. My Girl Scout charm arrived from eBay seller Charming Memories. My bracelet was pretty loaded already, but when I saw this I just had to have it. I was a Brownie in Bellevue, WA, Totem Council (c. 1971?), and a Cadette and Senior in Tustin, CA, Orange County Council (1977-1982). I went to summer camp at Camp White's Landing on Catalina Island (1977-78); I was a counselor at Camp Joe Scherman in Mountain Center, CA (1980-1982) and at Camp Cloud Rim near Park City, Utah (1981-1982); I did the Gold Award thing (1982); and I went on a 'Destination' in Ohio, "Sports 'n Fun in '81" (1981). So I was waaaay into scouting.

Writing this part of the post is kind of depressing though, and proves the old saw "You can't go home again." While researching it to find links, I learned that Camp White's Landing is no longer a Girl Scout camp; it is now a privately-owned for-profit youth camp called The Catalina Experience. The historic lodge at Camp Cloud Rim, built in 1937 by the WPA and the site of more than one of my adventures there, burned down in 1992. Apparently, 'Girl Scout' is no longer cool enough for older girls (not that it was cool when I was doing it, but still); girls age 11-17 no longer go by the moniker Senior Girl Scouts, but by the silly, generic, and confusing STUDIO 2-B. Feh. I must be getting old. At least I didn't find out that I could have purchased my charm in The Shop for less.

But Tom brought other goodies as well, ones fraught with much less angst. Rose sent me the Pilates mags she'd promised (thanks, Yarnivore!) And there was a bounteous box of yarns from Rachel, shown here. You may remember her as Village Knittiot, one of the other Freeform Knitting 365 participants. There are 3 mini-skeins of her handspun in there: 2 blue-faced Leicester (top left, bottom) and a tencel (top right), all 2-plys and *much* more delicate and consistent than anything I've ever made. What patience! There is also a bit of Rowan cotton (the periwinkle) and an unlabeled commercial mohair (the Tequila sunrise). Oh, *and* that great card with the earth mama on it! I am spoiled. AND some purple merino roving she picked up at Rhinebeck!! Thanks, Rachel! Can't wait to work them into my Freeform project.

Off to my crochet class. Ta!

Sunday, July 30, 2006

12:30am - Midnite:30 Jewels

In keeping with the last post, I give you the companion piece to the disc golf basket charm: the spinning wheel charm. Also on eBay. Also would love to put it on my charm bracelet. The wheel on this one even spins. Still can' t find a castle-style wheel charm though, like I spin on (a Lendrum DT).

12:00am - Midnight Jewels

I mentioned earlier that I have a charm bracelet and some new charms for it. Well, I've been surfing eBay, and found this and must have it. Found this one first, but I don't think I like it as much. Same seller.