iPhone update v2.

*shortly after the post below my phone was activated. i can call out, but can't receive calls until t-mobile does there thing and cancels me. no probs there, i expected that. the phone is simply amazing. and the web isn't as slow as they made it sound. all in all, it leaves me almost speechless how cool it is. just have to see how the battery fares now.

went to pick up a car phone charger and protective case at the apple store this afternoon. they have not sold out yet. i imagine i would have had better luck there last night, but all in all it was a fun experience and i got the phone.*

well i am still waiting. i guess that at&t wasn't prepared for all the online activations and so i have had a paperweight for the last 12 hours or so. the beauty of it was that you should have been able to use the ipod etc. while waiting for your phone service - but nope. they are swamped. i've given up calling (the guy at at&t was pretty clueless, told me a few more hours, was obviously reading a script and couldn't help me with even the simplest technical question). so i'll wait it out. it just better be working before they cancel my other cell service! i am not a patient person. kind of have that veruca salt attitude "i want it now". oh well, patience is a virtue no?

iWait over

so maybe i got caught up in the hype and bought one of these. just the 4 gb. i got the last phone they had at a local at&t shop! i got in line about 45 minutes before they went on sale and was about 40th in line. i had a feeling they wouldn't be that hard to get ahold of. and i was right. if you check the availability through the apple website it shows all the apple stores are going to have stock tomorrow morning.

as for me, i am just waiting around for an email confirmation so that my phone is actually activated. i can't play around with it at all! lame! hopefully by saturday morning i'll be able to go. i have used the slider to turn it off though and am already in love. and don't worry, i did alllll my research. i know about all the good and all the bad. i was hesitant. first generation is tough. but what the heck! me hearts apple.

stash additions

as promised, here is the skein of str my parents brought back for me. colorway is cobblestone county.

as i mentioned, i also ordered some directly from blue moon a couple weeks back (a birthday present to myself, along with some posh yarn i need to get around to posting)


blue moonstone and algae. i love these 2 colors.

i have been a bit quiet lately. not a lot to post about really. but i do want to say that last week i had tami and alyson (blogless) over for a little bit of a send off event. tami just moved back to oklahoma over the weekend. she was one of the first knitters i met through my blog and she is just so cool. i will miss being able to see her in person but am thankful she is a blogger so i can keep up on what she is up to. we had fun sitting on my deck knitting, eating and sipping on arnold palmers (half iced tea, half lemonade). then we moved it inside and gabbed until late. never a shortage of things to talk about with us!

as for knitting, i tried so hard to resist the urge to cast on for something else. i wanted to finish my chevron scarf (no. 2) first. but i was weak and actually cast on for 3 other projects! i took pictures, but they didn't turn out so well (not much to see anyways, i didn't get very far on any of them!). one is a pattern from the lys tour using fleece artist suri blue and one is shifting sands from grumperina using str heavyweight in downpour.

ok gotta run.

pictures can't do it justice

well the tale of my fireplace re-do is nearly complete my friends! oh how i wish the 'after" picture did it more justice because boy is it fabulous (if i do say so myself!). the tile is amazing and the detail (iridescent, beach glass, moonstone) cannot be captured by my amateur photography skills.

as a reminder, here is the before shot in all it's 70's glory!


and what i see now

the mantel we designed is so simple and clean lined. i think it turned out great in the espresso color stain. all i need are a few more adornments (sconces for beside the mirror etc.). i learned so much on my first diy project and couldn't be happier with the results.

trained well

my parents left this morning on a small roadtrip to oregon wine country. on the way they were stopping in my very favorite town of cannon beach (we went there on family vacations every year growing up!). i may have just mentioned to my dad a week or so ago that the yarn shop there happens to carry socks that rock. my crack yarn of choice at the moment. so i just got off the phone with my mom who was standing in the yarn shop listing all the colors (and asking the shop employee over and over what weight the yarn is (she wasn't hearing me when i said it was on the band)). i did good and only asked for 1 skein. i'll show you the color i picked when they get home :) i may have ordered a couple skeins last week from their website too. all this after buying several skeins at churchmouse over the last few months. i think i'll be content for awhile. and really it isn't that much yarn.

yarn tip

hmm if anybody is interested i see there is some army girl duet yarn available over at a swell yarn shop. i know it is hard to get a hold of so i thought i would help enable.

that's all. been a weird week. some stuff is going on with my job and so i haven't been spending money on condo stuff like i want. it won't come down to me losing my job, but it does put me in a weird position with little career advancement opportunities. and a lot of flying to wisconsin. i should know a little more next week, but i would be surprised if the outcome is in my favor (things stay as they are and an empty position on my team is filled in seattle instead of wisconsin). jobs just aren't reliable anymore are they? nothing is stable, nothing is guaranteed. it doesn't help i work in a volatile field, but still.

of course i tend to shop when i get a bit down so maybe i will spend some money this weekend! anyhoo, go get that army girl before it is gone!!

final prize winner

well the final (very belated) contest for my blogiversary had to do with those who commented during the month of may on my blog. i took anyone who commented more than 3 times and put them in a drawing. if you commented over 6 times, your name got entered twice (for better odds since you were so kind to comment often). the winner of the drawing? katie o.!

wanna see what she gets?

we have tea, hot chocolate, amy butler stickers, honey gummy bears (to die for, one of my very fav things),a knitting notebook, chocolate covered marshmallow, a skein of good to be girl colorway from yarntini and of course a tin of a variety of my gtbg stitch markers! congrats katie!

thanks for participating everyone!

all done!

monkey socks started tuesday, june 5th, completed saturday, june 9th. they are washed, blocked and wrapped up for the recipient. i used str lightweight in thistle (not an easy colorway for me to photograph).

i am very happy i was able to complete these. as most of you know, i am a very selfish knitter so if you see me knitting for someone else, they must be pretty special ;) i know that my friend will totally appreciate the effort and that is part of the joy of giving hand knits. i'll be giving her these tomorrow! and might just cast on a pair for myself tonight. i have the pattern memorized now and for some reason it really does go very quickly!

for those who asked, lily is back to her old self (phew!). her current favorite activity is chasing flies around the condo. cooper is an active participant in that as well. they are still very kittenish at 10 months!

i could use some quirky monkey line here but i'll refrain

i cast on for a pair of monkey socks tuesday night. i want to have them done by this weekend. i am not sure that is going to happen, but i am only doing anklets so i just might make it. i have a few issues with these, i cast on too many for the picot cuff (inspired by january one's version). i should have done less and then increased for the pattern rows. it isn't horrible, just a bit loose. i also am hoping that it will also benefit from blocking because those little areas of purling down the center really jump out at me more than the pattern.


i am making these for a friend. her birthday is the day after mine so we always celebrate together. we don't have firm plans for getting together quite yet, but it will be over the weekend or monday. so i am in a rush to say the least! i am tempted to frog, but am close to finishing sock one. i will make a final determination then (i am pretty sure i am going to keep going). i am using str lightweight in thistle. she loves green and purple together and has a thing for thistles so when i found this yarn i had to get it.

i would have started a bit sooner, but let's just say i made a bozo move and burned a couple of my fingers badly. i had to wait until they felt better to start (although i still have the blisters).

and one more thing. i couldn't resist. normally i go for mini versions of everything but last night i had to have the ginormous skeins of sugar and cream. have you seen these? huge! and only $5 each at michaels. (can you tell how big they are in the pic? maybe not. they are about 10" tall!)

actual knitting.

this time of year is always busy for me for many reasons, and this year is no exception. but it doesn't mean i stop knitting (slow down, yes, stop, no).

my last chevron only took me 2 weeks i think? well i cast on for this one shortly after and it will probably take considerably longer since i am not knitting as much.

i love the combination. footzey foo and pebble beach.

i have plenty of other things i need to get on the needles. i took a long weekend (fri/mon off) this coming weekend so hopefully i can take some time to get a few more things going.

i also hope to wrap up the blogiversary. here is just a peek at the final prize.

i told you that the comments left over the month of may would figure into the last contest. so stay tuned.

first contest winner - finally!

remember the first contest? i am finally getting around to naming the winner! leslie was one of a few who guessed 13 posts for may 1-28. i put all the people who guessed 13 in a bowl and chose randomly - and leslie won!

wanna see what she gets?

the super duper good to be girl colorway from yarntini and a lovely gtbg cupcake necklace.

one more prize to give away so stay tuned over the next couple days for that!

sale reminder

small marker sale this morning on the shop blog, 10 am pacific.