General Update - 11-3-06

Hi. Things have been crazy, well, forever, but I've been less in touch lately, so here's what has happened to me lately, so we can all save our cell minutes for more important stuff, like talking about other people. Or yarn. I'm flexible.
- I got a new job in June. I used to tell people not to ask me what I do as it is pretty dull, but that only made them more interested, so, just so we don't have to cover it later... I work for a real estate research firm that maintains a database of apartment complexes over 50 units in markets around the country. My particular job is to verify the management company of each complex in the developing market and also to make changes in the "open" markets. I've got mad research skill, yo. Sort of. It pays well and it has benefits, so it'll do. However it does start at 7 am, but you will be amazed to note that I am very often on time.
- The past year or so has been a crazy adventure in the mental health arena. When we got here, we had insurance, but not precription coverage (?!?) and my meds were $500+ per bottle, so I went without meds for a little while (bad idea, I know) but I eventually got back on my meds and continued to cycle periodically and then kind of non stop so in March I quit my job at the yarn company (long story, lots of free yarn, I still quit, see? crazy). I am currently cycling again, but under medical supervision. And I have a therapist. On speed dial. (Quick note: "cycling" means that my mood is not stable, but changes from depressed to manic rather unpredictably.)
- This summer our house got struck by lightning, which was not dangerous to us, but killed some of our house's electrical stuff and several of our pricier appliances. This was followed in quick succession by "roach season," a visit from my mother, a visit from Jeremy's parents, the start of school which we were slightly unprepared for, due to previous drama, and an ear infection in Jeremy and pneumoina in Lily.
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Butterfly Fairy Princess Mania!

These are the pictures Jeremy took this morning when Lily left for daycare! I'm off to make spongebob angelfood cake.

Why do I smell like onions?

At the Zoo

Okay. Guest Editor here. Is this that Information Superhighway?

Jenny wanted me to post some of the pictures of Lily's first birthday party--the first one she actively anticipated and might remember. Once she was told of its location (the Phoenix Zoo) she regularly beckoned us to "Go zoo." She actually speaks in perfect sentences, so I'm not sure why she said it that way.

Anyway, at the party Lily crafted with her mommy, which was like never leaving home, except for the carousels and kids and monkeys, mostly. The hosts of the party knit a cupcake for Lily in her favorite color and with neat little buttons. She is toasting us with it in the first picture while also giving a preview of her Halloween costume. She called herself a princess, her mother agreed, and so Lily naturally asked, "Where's my castle?" Fortunately, we found one very well-located in the corner of her room.

Also at the party, they made masks that I am made to wear (either as elephant or giraffe) but I'm told strictly to wear my glasses over my mask, and we wear them to Lily's castle (or her purple tent) where Lily and I both share "magic" (or: imaginary) drink boxes that she still needs my help to open. She uses her magic wand to conjure the magic Krabby Patties, too, which she feeds to her toothless Play-doh dental patient. It's a good way to spend a Sunday morning after Stephanopolous.

Also, Lily has appropriated the ice cube trays.

I'm so glad you asked

I have been rather busy of late. I started carpooling, but my carpoolee unexpectedly took another job (well, anyway, I wasn't expecting it). I did get like three days of knitting in. I used Stephanie's gorgeous handspun in the "Pine Forest" colorway and kind of winged it on the pattern (thank you, yarn harlot!). I see a "matching" scarf in my future. I have been wondering if I should get my Christmas knitting underway, and what that should entail. (maniacal laughter is encouraged) Maybe I'll just sew this year...


Here is Lily in her most preppiest dress! And you can see how I have modified some shelves to store my stash. I had this all planned out this afternoon, but now it is way past my bedtime. Tomorrow, I will make notes.

Coming attractions

- ruminations on "But you don't sound Southern."
- a biography/tutorial of Alexandretta, the castle wheel
- actual knitting!
- possibly some pictures!
- ruminations on "Do I make things, or merely collect stuff with crafty potential?"
- Cute Lily Stuff!
- And whatever it is that has been happening so that I have not been blogging like I should.

Crazy Days! (no pictures of Lily)

Apparently, we at the Eisenberg house save our cleaning energies for late summer, so we have been doing some hefty rearranging, sorting and tossing in these parts. It's possible that having to buuy lots of new stuff in the aftermath of the lightning strike (and the van death), we are reassessing our old stuff. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about my new spinning wheel. Today, Lily needed a nap, so I decided to take the time to drive back out to Apache Junction where I recently scored the Purse Handles of plenty. Lily was still sleeping when we got there, so I decided to reconnoiter a thrift store I had spotted but not visited on a recent trip. This was a St. Vincent DePaul and they had nice stuff, if not rock bottom bargain prices, And I can respect that. I got some more plastic circs and a stone (?) double ended crochet hook for under $2. But the best part was, there was a bead store, literally, next door to the thrift store! Heaven! They were closed to install new shelving, but they let me look around. Lily, now being awake, we went back to the bounteous goodwill and poked around. I found three more tiny pair of purse handles, and some crazy fabric for the undershirt of a leisure suit (green with weirdly polarized shots of 70's love/nature scenes. Fun fun. I look around, trying to keep in mind that I cannot take whatever I want home with me as I now have a small car, let lily play in the toy section, try to conn her into a basketball hoop, but she would rather have the bubble mower, and finally it is time to check out. I make my purchases, like five dollars, and I look over, and there is a spinning wheel next to the counter over yonder. I casually ask the lady if she knows how much it is, she says she does not, and I must extend all my will not to run over and check and actually finish up the purchase process. Finally, Lily and I wander over to inspect it (I am expecting someone to swoop down in front of me and take off running. Normally, this would be paranoid, but we are talking about fiber people here.) The price tag says $39.99. God Bless Goodwill. I do not know a lot about spinning wheels, much more than to say, recognize one as such but I realize this could be a very good deal. It is looser than could be wished in some joints, and it definitely needs to be oiled and possibly cleaned, but if it checks out when I have someone look at it, I see very happy times ahead for me and Alexandretta.

All drama, no pictures

Hello world! We have made it through most of another AZ summer. In knitting news, I finished the sweaters for my new niece before she outgrew them, and I finally wove in the ends of the last remaining christmas sock. I'll put up wht pictures I can next time, but just to thumbnail the last sixty or so days... Jenny started a new job that requires her to be at work at 7am, the house got struck by lightning, Jenny's mom visited for a weekend, the van died, Jeremy's parents visited for a week or ten days, we racked up the rental car charges, and we got a new car. Also, school starts tomorrow and I am enrolled for five hours at Mesa Community College. Talk amongst yourselves. I have ties to embroider.

Jenny

beware the organized!

They are organizing instead of getting anything done! A sign of a devious mind, for sure. I give you the following exhibits. My craft space. Larger and tidier than it has any right to be. And my blog, unable to figure out how to re-orient pictures once I've uploaded them, and too lazy to re-upload.
Here is the most beautifulest picture of Lily ever! Jeremy took it and he said it was pure chance. Wanted to get that out there before moving on to...













the amazing all knitting needle useless trivet! The one I saw in Bizarre bazaar was made of chopsticks, wood beads and waxed linen thread. Mine is made of double pointed knitting needles, glass "E" beads, and dental floss (An excellent, if kind of icky substitute). (It wasn't used dental floss) It is unusable for any kind of extreme temperature, so I am assuming I will be putting this under a jewelry box, and keeping it in my idea file for the hard to shop for knitter. (It might work to put a coffee cup on)


This is Lily driving her car! If we go outside, but don't have time to "drive" it, we have to stop and say hello to it. The car is foot powered a la the Flintstones, but it can also be parent powered.







Here is Lily looking over the back of the futon and wearing two of the hats I have made. You mean you don't have all your winter clothes in one box in the living room? Heathen. Is it me, or is Lily starting to look like a McCord in some lights? Genealogy is a curious business. And below, I am so glad we got this moment on film. And Lily, as Isaac, your bartender.







The littlest pixie!
(as long as the other pixies weigh more than 29 pounds...)

First off, Lily made this cast of her feet after she mashed all her play do into this lovely melange.














Then she submitted this design for the World Trade Center site. Here's hoping the committee will accept our bathroom door.














Here is a portrait of the artist in all her fabulousness.















And here, the artist, and her mother, express their dramatic natures.

The Upside of Obsession

Is that I have even more fabulous stuff to show you. Well, I like it a good bit. Most of it works in progress on ideas being refined, but it's really coming along some of it. Let me know what you think.

First of all, here is a local color shot of Lily with her Pop Pop.








And here is my second try at haberdasherical adornment, and it is going to Nashville, because Herb was the first person to admire the last one.












And here, after much debate, mailbox checking and general bellyaching are the star wars jewelry demos. I know the earrings are not exactly symmetrical, the others will be, I made these on the fly. But the ear wires are sterling silver. It is very easy to get a good amount of these anonymous characters (there are eight or so uniformed guys in one package) and I think as matched sets, they make good earrings. Thoughts on the accompanying beadwork are appreciated. More? Less? Chandelier style pieces with jawas and stormtroopers and tusken raiders all battling it out? Moving on...















Here it is, the piece de resistance, Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you, the Star Wars Charm Bracelet. It's possible I forgot to mention it, but the earrings are available to anyone willing to hand out my business card to anyone who seems interested. Which will come in handy when I get my website up. I require sleep. Y'all take care.

continuing...

Here is the diaper bag I made for the lovely Francesca. If you are going to be having a baby in the future, you might want to let me know any color preferences and so on, as these are going into my standard repertoire. I was going for manly, dignified and a little bohemian, and considering it was a diaper bag, I think I did okay. I haven't made anything recently that I've also gotten pictures of, so we'll leave it at that for now.

More Lily pics and more stuff I made

Those stickers were bought from Martha Stewart dot com to go on wedding invitations back in the day. I still have a lot left over. It's like we have wedding pox.

These next two I bought because I thought I could make something really really cool out of them, but their coolness is too much for every plan I have yet come up with. As usual, any ideas are welcome, with the possibility of reward by stash-diving.





And this I am calling the turkey pants tie. Everyone I have shown or mentioned the idea too has pointed out that anyone who wears ties would be unlikely to wear a tie with a cupcake on it. Especially a beaded, sequined embroidered tie. It's a concept I am working on refining.

Crazy, but productive

Hi all. I am sure you have been wondering things like, where is Jenny and what is she making. Fear not, I am here to tell you. With visual aids, even. Another exam season has come and gone, and the Eisenberg family has survived. I'm working on a harper's index of exactly what these first two semesters have involved, but like so many things, it is not done yet.

This is the apron I made for work. I heart batik. Also, note that the pineapples on the trim look like Spongebob's house. Don't bother, I got it all. But I have some left over if you've any ideas.

The multi-pink skirt is made out of three fabrics I got in the sale bin at work. And a free pattern from the discard bin. I'm so cheap. The second skirt was from three pieces of tie-dyed fabric I got at the Mesa Thrift Store, the same pattern, and some various notions I had around.

More pictures in another post.

When not to fall asleep

It was Sunday morning, Lily was contentedly drawing (mostly on the paper) with washable markers. Spongebob was on, we were sitting in the bed, we had finished our cereal, and I just dropped off to sleep. When I woke up, Lily wanted something, so I told her to ask Daddy, as I was a bit groggy (or perhaps, lazy). Then I heard Jeremy's exclamation of dismay. What is it, I asked. Couldn't you see, he said. Apparently not, but there, for all to see was the lovely Princess Queequeg.

This is usually the point in the conversation where Jeremy starts humming the "Mother of the Year" theme song.

In other news, Lily and I went back to the carousel recently. Here's some pictures from then.

Jeremy is closing on the end of his first year of PhD work, so Lily and I are spending some time out of the house. If you know of a) a shady place to park in the east valley, whilst my girlchild naps, or b) a toddler friendly place to hang out that does not require the outlay of much/any cash, let me know. It's getting too hot to just drive and park, and the thrift store budget is pretty much done with. And I could go on and mention gas prices, but you'd rather hear me talk about my cats, wouldn't you. I used to have a cat that my mother didn't believe existed. He was shy. And now I have some video of Lily with the neighbor's cat, Anatole (we live in a grad student community, did you know?). Email me if you want to see it. She's funny. I'm off. I've got an apron to make (among other things).

Two Finished Objects!! (more or less)

I finished the striped baby sweater that I started on the trip home from New York last month. Well, it still needs to be seamed, but the knitting is done, and also, the sixty two ends have been woven in! That's right. 62. That's why I'm calling this one finished. After that, a little mattress stitch is a trifle. This is intended for my upcoming niece, formerly known as baby X. I started a pinkish one before I knew it was a girl, and then I started this one, to make up, just in case (plus, I ran out of yarn on the pinkish one). But baby X has been named, and she shall forthwith be known as Magnolia Reese, mostly called by Maggie.


This next FO is a conundrum. I had planned this one for awhile, but lacked certain components, and once I acquired all of them I discovered that it is not easy to use jump ring pliers. As this was my prototype bracelet I didn't really sweat it. I'll do better next time, when it counts. This is basic on all levels, beads, interesting assortment of characters, quality of findings. But when I tried to share my vision with the world, my digital camera refused to cooperate. I took many many blurry shots of my new jewe but it's coolness confounds photography. Either my bracelet is the loch ness monster of adornment, or I need some photography pointers. One or the other. If anybody knows the name of these gray suited guys with their white helmets and black vests, I'd love to know who they are. I tried searching the unofficial star wars encyclopedia, but they didn't sort by "Imperial garb?" Losers. (And yes, I didn't check the official one beacuse you need to log in, and I am just that lazy) The other thing you should know about the bracelet is that the blurry circular shape, is a ceramic bead with the star wars logo (or, the words "star wars" in the star wars font) in metallic ink. I found them and I bought them all. Don't even ask.

In other news, the new job seems to be interesting and thus far non-threatening. And the promise of a discount (after 30 days employment) is more beguiling still. That's all I have. I got a date with some mattress stitch.

I got a job!! (at least I think so)

It's part time with possibilities. I go in tomorrow to hammer out all the details and will let you know more, then. Also, the prototype star wars bracelet is almost finished. Hopefully there will be pictures of that soon. (any hand models out there?) Take care everybody.

Hello Everybody!

First of all, I should let you know that I quit my job. Which was okay, because I got a new job the next day, except that it turns out there wasn't really a job for me. So, here I am, unemployed. But I've got applications in and am looking at (almost) everything. It's not critical yet, but check back, okay?

In other news, the world's cutest toddler continues to astound!
She has learned to wear pigtails! I, alas, have not yet perfected the art of pigtail installation, but perhaps with time... Coming soon, pictures from our NY trip and other stuff.

Best Brother Ever!

I linked to my brother's super cool art in the last post (and I know you all clicked through). Today he sent me a Valentine in the mail. It's papery and arty goodness of the highest order! Pictures to follow very soon. But the coolest part is that he made the thing using this crazy wrapping paper hoard we found when my grandmother gave up housekeeping. I came across it at my parent's house (I come from a long line of packrats) and showed it to Herb saying, "you have got to use this!" as it was all vintagey and awesome. And he did use it! Thus fulfilling my lifelong ambition to acquire things useful to the artists around me. That's what I want to be, a finder of art in its unrefined state (especially if I can dress like Maude). What do you want to be?

Valentine's Cuteness!

Here is Lily partaking of some of the delights of the season. (photo again by Steve of the lusciousgracious clan)

And while we're sharing links, check out the awesome art my brother does for the awesome gallery he works at.

I'm too tired to post knitting content, but expect to see a finished sock soon, if it kills me.

New Friends!

This weekend we went to two knitting gatherings and just had a wonderful time. First we went to the inaugural meeting of the Arizona Chapter of the International Knit Circle, where we met the charming LusciousGracious clan in the flesh for the first time. We also saw Stephanie who is just wildly productive. Jeremy helpfully ran around after Lily, and I got some knitting done, when Lily wasn't demanding that I run around after her. It was a good time, and I look forward to more like it in the future, when the school schedule permits.

The next morning, Lily and I got up semi-early and made the drive over to Phoenix to have breakfast at the lovely City Bakery where we again hung out with the LG peeps. My Lily especially enjoyed running around with their Lily and their Lucy. Well, that and the cupcake. Without further ado, Stephen's photos of that event!



















Don't worry everybody, the cupcake was a very special occasion that we shall not be repeating on a weekly basis. Coming soon, the tale of the baby doll.

New Year's Fun!

Here is the hat I worked on all weekend. It's not totally finished, but it is soft.

I did not get any pictures of Lily on the carousel at the mall, but here is an action shot of her on the monster truck ride at chuck e cheese.

And here is Lily on a weird bicycle contraption that was very popular because if it's enormous "beoons." Anyone who comes visiting, forget the flowers, bring something shiny and helium filled. You've been warned. And just so you know, neither of these rides were activated. We tried a couple age appropriate rides and they stunk, so we played some games and ran around. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. Except when the giant dancing mouse came out. That bit was horrifying.