so much to do...

this is the last week i will be putting this note at the top of each of my postings because my blog is actually at a new url. it may be that you are being re-directed here from my old simplysaid url. so if you haven't been here for a few days, PLEASE update your links to be www.goodtobegirl.com/blog. i would hate to lose you.

are you excited about having an extra day off this weekend? i know i am. i have grand ideas of sipping iced tea and relaxing. but you know what? i have way too much to do. i have two baby shower invitations that have to be designed, printed and mailed out. i also have to clean this apartment up a little bit and do laundry. in anticipation of moving sometime this summer, i am having a garage sale at a family friends next weekend. that means major cleaning out of the junkage and pricing all sorts of shabby chic decor that will no longer be part of my new design vision :) i live in a mere 700 sq ft, but i packed this place like you wouldn't believe! it is time to start fresh!

speaking of fresh, isn't my finished scarf great? i really enjoyed this pattern. i can't for the life of me remember the yarn and i threw the labels away. it was self striping though. it had 4 colors, 2 shiny and 2 matte. very interesting ribbon yarn.



i do plan on dedicating time this weekend to my new project. no matter what it takes, at some point i will relax and work on these. the cascade fixation was hard to get used to (for some reason i kept thinking to myself (in a british accent) "mind the stretch now amy", do you know what movie i was thinking of?). but now that i am several rows in, my tension seems good.



now as for the cotton ease stash, i bought 2 packs of candy blue, 3 packs of pistachio, 1 pack of bubble gum and 1 pack of popsicle blue. each pack is 3 skeins. it was actually everything they had in stock.



ok, have a great weekend everyone!

diet? what diet?

pure happiness are the only words to describe a recent package i received from anjo over at the craftymodster. she claims i was helping her get organized by taking some yarn off her hands. umm ok! i willingly accepted. check out the assortment. i am particularly fond of the fixation.



it didn't stop there, as a bonus she sent along a bunch of pink fabrics. my favorite was this cute one



and as if that wasn't enough, she even made me a stamp of my blog mascot. how thoughtful. i can't wait to use it!



it was great, because the day i got it i was kind of having a bad day. this cheered me up quickly! thanks anjo!!

now, i also did purchase some yarn this weekend despite the yarn diet. now, i get to blame this one on stacey. just look at what she bought. well, i couldn't just ignore that fact that a tuesday morning recently opened near me. so, i too stocked up on some cotton ease. although not nearly as much as stacey! i'll have to remember to take a pic and show you (mine didn't fill my boot (ie. trunk))!

now this one is encouraging me to break the yarn diet too. and she just may have gotten to me because she found a good use for my jamaica yarn (although i would have to buy more!). cathi and stacey, you guys are trouble! :)

ok, i am off to get some dinner. there will definately be knitting tonight. i am very close to finishing the pinwheel blanket. i am going to start the edging now! i think i have like 600-700 stitches on the needles!!

martha really gets me.

for the next week or two i will be putting this note at the top of each of my postings because my blog is actually at a new url now. you may not notice it because my other url is re-directing. so if you haven't been here for a few days, PLEASE update your links to be www.goodtobegirl.com/blog. i would hate to lose you.

i finally have an almost finished object to show you! and sadly, no it is not the pinwheel blanket. but a scarf for me!



the yarn is something i picked up on sale last month. the colors remind me of the beach. and since it is summer that seemed appropriate! the pattern i am using is from the vogue knitting reference book. the pattern kind of gives the sensation of ocean waves. i am very happy with the way it has turned out, although it looks a little 60's macrame or something.

i popped in a fabric store yesterday and came across some to die for fabric. it is destined to be a handbag of some sort. i love it!



i need a fiance. now. i subscribe to martha's wedding mag and the latest issue may just be the best issue yet (if you think i am nutty for subscribing to a wedding magazine while being single, then you don't know how far my love of martha goes, i subscribe to ALL her magazines). check out these pages



man, oh man, my fav color combos!!



pink and green in action.



and a perfect bouquet.

welcome back martha, you have not disappointed me. the latest issues of your mags have been some of the most beautiful yet.

well, happy saturday all, it is definately time for a peach martini! cheers!

in a state of kate

for the next week or two i will be putting this note at the top of each of my postings because my blog is actually at a new url now. you may not notice it because my other url is re-directing. so if you haven't been here for a few days, PLEASE update your links to be www.goodtobegirl.com/blog. i would hate to lose you. BLOGLINES IS NOW WORKING :)

and to address the many comments about my new jane austen books, the publisher is the book of the month club. i know my friend orders them directly from the club, but you should be able to find them elsewhere. hope that helps!

you gotta love a sale. especially a sale that includes handbags by kate spade (nordstrom). both of the bags are big enough to hold knitting, an extra bonus!



now a girl has to have a brown bag too (ok, so i may already own a brown bag, or 3 or 4!)



did you know i used to belong to the kate spade community group on ebay? i just don't have time for it anymore, but i really enjoyed it. now my knitting blog readers are the only ones i have to share my new purchases with :) hope you don't mind. my weakness is definately handbags and yarn!

i have some time set aside for knitting tonight. i am debating over casting on my new fixation yarn for a pair of socks or continuing on my pinwheel baby blanket. i think the socks will win out if i get gauge pretty quickly.

oh and i have been bad about participating in the knit the classics kal. i am reading middlemarch (slowly), but don't have a project to knit along with it. i think it may have been a bit of a stretch for me to join with all the other stuff going on in my life (birthdays and babies and condos oh my!).

speaking of condos, i need to get organized! i will probably start looking in a month very seriously. i did my pre-approval this last weekend so i am pretty much set! just want to get a few more weeks on the new job under my belt.

will it ever end??

for the next week or two i will be putting this note at the top of each of my postings because my blog is actually at a new url right now. you may not notice it because my other url is re-directing. so if you haven't been here for a few days, PLEASE update your links to be www.goodtobegirl.com/blog. i would hate to lose you. i have it set up so bloglines should be working, but right now it isn't recognizing the feed. i think it is because i have to create a post to activate it (hpoefully this one will fix it!). if not, i will try and troubleshoot it this week.

ok, so enough abut the move. i swear my birthday is never-ending this year!! i received more gifties to share with you! i promised you a picture of the goodies my friend denise made me. they are soo adorable. i have used the handbag several times already! it is the perfect summer bag!



isn't the belt fab too? it has 2 sides, one with the flowers and one with polka dots. and it is pink and brown :)

now it didn't stop there. this weekend i spent time with a friend who has a birthday the day after mine. this year she totally spoiled me and got me the most amazing gift. she had these on her bookshelf and i commented how much i loved them a few years ago. i tried to find them online but no luck. i had forgotten all about them until i opened the box. i couldn't believe she found another set! i am so in awe of these books. they are sooo beautiful. take a look, the covers all have the most amazing period costumes on them.



the covers...



i also broke my yarn diet (with no excuse this time). i found a new yarn store via the craftymodster. it was pretty tiny and limited on selection but i still managed to find some stuff i had to have.

light blue alpaca


and cascade fixation sock yarn (i have decided i don't like the wool sock yarns on my feet, so this is stretchy cotton)


i took a break from the baby blanket this weekend and cast on a skinny scarf for the summer. i was deciding between the yarn denise gave me...(she also gave me another ball of the jamaica, you will notice the yarn below coordinates with it REALLY well)



but i decided on the zen yarn my parents gave me from their trip to sonoma. the yarn denise gave me will probably end up being used with the jamaica somehow because they look great together.



the colors are off in the picture, it is a muted mix of greens and a hint of a mauve/purple color. i will try and finish it by tomorrow and take a better picture.

i have bought several new patterns the last few weeks too. i will get around to posting those eventually, they just aren't that pretty :) i also need to find myself a copy of the katia no. 48 book. it has a bunch of patterns for the jamaica yarn, and suprisingly i like a lot of them.

that was too easy!

i just moved my blog over to my goodtobegirl url, if you didn't notice you were redirected to this url. SO PRETTY PLEASE, UPDATE YOUR LINKS. i will be getting rid of my simplysaiddesign.com hosting, so in a month or so it will no longer redirect, you will have to have your links pointed to http://www.goodtobegirl.com/blog or else you will LOSE me! Nooooooo!!!

i need to fix the whole site feed thing too and get bloglines in order, so you will need to update that too i think (unless anyone knows of a way to do it so that it is seamless). i know you all just got fixed up with my simplysaid bloglines account and i apologize that i am breaking it, but i so wanted to use my goodtobegirl.com url (i have owned it for sometime now!).

if you come across any weirdness, drop me a note, because right now it seems as though the transition was perfect, and considering my lack of blogland knowledge i find this hard to believe!

sunshine state of mind

my old co-worker angie and her partner carry (of fairie knits) are part of my knotty knitters group. carry is one of the few as obsessed with knitting as i am (dare i say, maybe even more!!!??). so after a slight delivery debacle, i received my very knitter friendly birthday gift from them in the mail yesterday. i had no idea the splendor that awaited me.



blue. sky. ahhhhhh. i can't stop touching the stuff, this yarn is sooo soft. they got me the fixins for the baby bobbi bear, two skeins of the perfect pink cotton yarn (how can cotton be so soft?) and a skein of brown sport alpaca for the eyes. and of course the pattern. i love it! what a super treat. how generous and sweet and thoughtful.....i could gush for hours. thanks guys, you know me well! :)

as if i haven't shown you enough of my goodies, i have more! i really have felt very spoiled over the past couple weeks. i am so lucky! megan over at lovely purls (i LOVE the colors of her blog!) needs a big thank you for such a "sweet" gesture. she sent me cupcake lip gloss! cupcake! did you see that? cupcake! not only do i love cupcakes, but i have a major thing for lip gloss. i keep a tube almost everywhere (holly has bubblegum lip smackers in stock at all times, at my desk i have pink lemonade and in my purse, orange crush). basically, i put lipstick on in the morning, but after that, it is all about the lip gloss. so this is just so perfect in many ways! she also made the card for me, which is so thoughtful. it is a keeper. and of course, a handmade by her, crocheted orange flower pin. i will be wearing that to work tomorrow! thanks megan!!!



i am still knitting the pinwheel blanket. it is slower now that i have about 500 stitches on the needles. but i think i am doing well. this weekend i am going to take a break from it though and use some of the new yarn (which do i choose?) to whip up a little summery scarf. that will give you a little something more interesting than the blanket to look at!

i have one more birthday gift i want to share with you because it is handmade by my dear friend denise. i also had a commenter post that she was going to donate a pinwheel blanket to charity in honor of my birthday. HELLO! you guys rock! i'll be posting more on that stuff soon. take care you guys. i am feeling a bit overwhelmed with trying to keep up with my life right now, but i am adjusting slowly...

p.s. also working on the goodtobegirl.com move, so keep it in the back of your mind that my url will be changing soon

crazy for cubicles

i seem to be on a roll with the pinwheel blanket so i haven't been knitting anything else. i couldn't help but include my freshly washed holly as part of the progress picture. notice the cool clouds in her very shiny top coat!



it is hard to see how far along i am with it being knit on circular needles. i am 1/2 way done with my 4 balls of yarn. i am not sure how much bigger it will get now that the rounds are way more stitches than i started with due to the increases. i don't know if i have mentioned this, but i am knitting on size 3 needles. between that and my job, the progress is slower than normal.

it was my first week back in cubicle land and i was happy to have packages to come home to a couple times. first was the lovely package from becky at knits & bits.



she made me the cutest notecards and pink and green stitch markers. so me! it didn't end there though, i also got yarn, soap and a notebook! thanks becky!

i also received a blogiversary gift from stacey at sheep in the city.



the mug is perfect for work and i can't wait to try out my tea from colorado in it tomorrow morning! thanks stacey :)

my mom took me out to tea at the queen mary for my birthday saturday. it was so good. i think i have gone there for several of my birthdays over the past 10 years. i love the place! and my mom was patient enough to poke through the yarn shop that is just a couple doors down (how convenient was that!). since it was my birthday, i thought that buying myself some yarn should be allowed even though i am really on a yarn diet. i came across the jamaica yarn that my friend denise had been telling me about. i couldn't resist the colorway. it really reminded me of kureyon 95 but in cotton.



i also bought a ball of trendsetter aura in a pretty mix of colors (yes pink and green were involved!).

adjusting to my new schedule has been tough. this early bedtime thing is the hardest part. but alas, i will post more soon. good night

birthday WEEK

i didn't expect to have birthday goodies everyday this week but it is turning out that way. who am i to complain?



on sunday, my dear friend jan took me on a little journey up to snoqualmie falls for an early birthday celebration. it was a surprise! i love surprises. we had lunch at a lovely place called the salish lodge. by luck we got a window seat looking out over the falls. it was really amazing. (look at the dessert they served me above! a chocolate pyramid filled with carmelized bananas!) afterwards we went into the library and sat on leather couches while knitting by the crackling fire. because it was a slightly drizzly day it was the perfect way to end our little adventure. thanks jan! that was sooo sweet of you!



my first day at work was on monday (i will recap that when i have some more time). it was a tough day (just getting used to having an actual schedule) so i was a bit down. a cheery yellow birthday balloon was tied to my door when i got home! it made me smile! even though it wasn't from anyone special (just my apartment hospitality couple, i know it is strange).

so then comes tuesday. i received a great little goodie box from leah at knittin pretty. technically it was a blogiversary gift, but that is close enough to a birthday gift. i was bummed, because she sent it UPS and if you read this blog a lot you probably know that my UPS guy is cute. well, now that i am a working girl, i missed him. however, the treats that awaited me more than made up for it. i now have my very own chibi!



oh yeah, and leah, you are just so cool for sending me yarn while i am on a self imposed yarn diet. it really helps cut the cravings to hit the lys when someone just sends you yarn out of the blue. and pink yarn! below is a picture of the yarn ( i actually received 2 skeins) in the nifty little ice cream dishes jan got me for my birthday.



i had never seen this yarn. i really love it. and the yardage is excellent. my head is already spinning with pattern ideas. thanks again leah. it was very touching for you to put that together for me, down to the last detail of the bright green tissue! it was a HUGE bright spot in my week!

ok kids, i gotta say good night. this girl has a bedtime now and she stayed up late just to post for you! tomorrow the birthday continues with a cake in my honor at work. remember the cake scene in office space? too funny. have a great thursday all! and check back soon for some actual knitting content ;)

my turn!

a few weeks ago i was contacted by amy of SPECTACULAR amyville stitch marker fame. i was so flattered to hear that she wanted to swap me for some of the kitty stitch markers i had made my bead it buddy (scroll down to the bottom of this page to see them). i was more than happy to oblige!

so today my turn came for receiving mail. look at all the goodies amy sent me along with the markers!



• little japanese goodies (i have a stash of japanese stationery so this was perfect!)
• some great tea (i am the only person in seattle who prefers tea to coffee i think!)
• pink! yarn! this will soon be a great new skinny scarf
• and of course her lovely handmade stitch markers

here is a close up of the markers



seeing the sushi stitch marker reminded me of some blog inspiration i had come across earlier via cathi at in the pink and megan from not martha. so for my knotty knitters meeting tomorrow i whipped up a batch of sushi.



i pretty much followed the instructions at not martha, with a couple of substitutions. i am not sure that they will taste all that good, but they look cool. carrie and ang are bringing the boys along and i think they will enjoy it.



i spent this week enjoying my free time. monday i start the new job. my friend jan and i popped into a bead store so i could pick out a few beads to make some stitch markers. i am on such a stitch marker kick. when i got them home i realized that once again, everything was pink and green.



some time was spent looking for new clothes this week as well. i did ok, but most of the stuff i bought is probably too casual for work. i did however find the skirt i will be sporting on my 30th birthday next saturday. isn't it cute!



ok, off to do one of the million things on my list. or maybe i will just sit and knit!

everything is coming up roses

i am oh so close to finishing up all the roses for my flower basket bag. i need to get the roses felted and then attach them to the bag with snaps. this was a recommendation by stacey at sheep in the city. if i remember right she saw it done that way at one of her lys. the snaps make it so i can change out the color of the roses when the mood strikes. so far i only have the red roses done though. the others will just have to wait.

speaking of roses, it is june, yah! always a very busy month for me. there are a lot of things going on in my family this month. my birthday, my brother's birthday, father's day and my parents anniversary. not to mention starting my new job and a couple of my friend's birthdays as well. and in typical june fashion, it is raining outside.

july will be a busy month as well, i will be attending two baby showers for a couple of my close friends. one reads this blog regularly so you won't be seeing any knits for her! but the other doesn't so i can show you the pinwheel blanket i have been working on. i hesitate to make baby blankets because i tend to get bored, but couldn't pass up the unique design of this one. i should join the knitalong, but i have been lazy.



some major swatching has been going on. i am trying to find some yarn in my stash to make the one skein wonder by stefanie at glampyre. i found the link while catching up on tami's blog blue rose knits. from her past behavior, my guess would be that tami will make more than one of these :) i bought the pattern last night (once again, love the pdf downloads!) and went through the stash. i came up with a couple yarns (i didn't want to do it in wool which is at least 75% of my stash!). the one below (karabella picnic) isn't getting gauge for height though, just width. i love this yarn, but it has some weird stretch, etc. so it may not be the best choice for this pattern.



a few weeks back i was chatting with my brother and he mentioned that all the hats i knit him for christmas made his eyes itch. the only conclusion? he is allergic to wool. which is too bad considering i made him several. a quick peek in my stash and some bernat acrylic was found in colors that i knew he would like. so for his birthday (which is just two days after mine) i knit him up a new beanie in acrylic. now, i don't particularly like the feel of it, but it isn't bad. i think he will like it. i don't think you will be too surprised by the colors :)



funny how i didn't manage to hide my 1 mistake in the picture. oops! and in case the colors don't come through well, they are brown and blue.

i have this week off before i start my new job monday. trying to do some fun little stuff before i head back to the day to day routine that i have avoided for the past 8 months. hopefully the sun will appear at some point :)