You guys really know how to make a girl blush!! Thanks so much for the response on my hair! I really love this cut (how could I not when it takes 15 minutes to go from wet to perfectly coifed)! If you are ever in Jacksonville, FL & in need of a cut, make your way to see my sister, Corrie at Hair Peace.

Now for some project spectrum goodness (which there has been a severe lack of this month).




A mosaic of yellows & oranges around our house. A little slimmer this month but there is still some good stuff in there. I think that is my favorite part of project spectrum, making a point to find & create those colors I don't always work with.

Next month's color, green, will be much easier for me.

How about a novel idea for tomorrow, a post that actually contains proof that I do, indeed, knit!

Enjoy your Saturday!

I really do love my new haircut!

As an added bonus today my mail brought me 4 skeins of Pure knits Bamboo yarn in the "Leah" colorway. It's soft, scrumptious & beautifully dyed!!! It's going to look fantastic as this, don't you think?

Thanks so much for all my birthday well wishes! You guys are all too sweet & it really warms my heart to get such a response.

I agree that the cards I got were awesome & with Kym's assertion that "29 is the new 21". All in all it was a great day that turned into a great weekend.

We headed down to Jax on Friday & I hung out with my sister/hair stylist. It was great to see her & check out her new apartment but even better to get her to cut my hair. I have a stylist in Atlanta that I really like & trust but when I'm changing something major I would rather have my sister do it. She's great at her job & really honest about what is & isn't going to work. Donning a new bob with really dramatic angles & fabu new choppy bangs I feel even better about being 29 (my hair never looked this good at 21). I'll have pictures of the new 'do tomorrow.

Saturday was a whirlwind of friends & family. I got to see all the most important people in my world, eat some great food check out our friends Max & Cash's new record store, Moon Colony Razorblade. I found plenty of audio, video & literary goodness there to spend some of my birthday cash on. It also doesn't hurt when I walk in and find that a few of my other friends just happen to be hanging out there. It's got a really great atmosphere & tons of big comfy cushions near the window that were just calling to be a knitting hang out!

By the time Sunday rolled around and we made it back to Atlanta I was exhausted!! Too much food & fun & beer. So my confession is this.... I picked up the needles for the first time in 6 days today. I can't believe that 6 days went by where I didn't knit. There was just so much going on & although I packed projects (my felted bag & giotto socks) I just never got around to it.

That leaves me with some serious catching up to do!! The felted bag is coming along nicely. I've almost finished the bottom & my first Giotto is soaring (now that I've picked it up again that is).

Oh & I owe a public apology to Claire (my april project spectrum postcard swap partner) for being so sucky as to keep forgetting to mail her card. I will have it out by Friday Claire!! I promise!

Lolly had this fun little tidbit up on her blog today.

The cover art of what is in heavy rotation at my house right now:
Create your own Music List @ HotFreeLayouts!

It's my birthday!! Yippee! No really, yippee! I love birthdays and at this point I have no real issues with getting older. I feel happier and more fulfilled at 29 than I did ever before.

Today the mail lady in our building asked how old I was & I replied "29". She kinda smirked & said "No really, how old are you". So I said "29". She laughed and said she thought 29 was just the age women gave when they didn't really want to admit how old they were. "I've been telling people I'm 29 for 10 years" she said. This woman is kind & friendly but clearly pushing 50. I just smiled politely & left it at that.

Then there was a party in my honor at our afterschool program. They are 5 of the coolest, funniest 11 year old girls you will ever meet. Of course they immediately asked how old I was & I told them. You should have seen the looks on their faces! "29" said one girl "That's almost 30!!" Immediately after that two of them started whispering furiously and came to my defense with this little gem :

"29 isn't really that old. I mean it's not like she's as old as Brittany Spears. Now she's old".

So what does that say about Brittany? It did finally come out that they were all shocked because they thought I was 23. Angels I tell you.

Then they gave me this:





I love the last picture. Priceless wisdom from the mouth of babes.

Tonight we feast on Samosas from our favorite Indian Bakery Royal Sweets and Chocolate Cheesecake! YUM!

How about another round of things I love this week?

1. Neko Case. We saw her live last night at the Variety Playhouse & it was really wonderful. Her voice has such depth and emotion that really is only hinted at in her CD's. It left the whole place with the feeling of a bittersweet lullaby.

NPR has a huge MP3 of a live concert she did for them recently here.

2. Giotto socks. I know I said no sock knitting this month but all the concentration on the colorwork for the felted bag left me needing another knit. Something to break it up a bit. I'm using my flickering flame colorway from Brooklyn Handspun. A perfect match for this pattern & for project spectrum!



Anna's sock patterns = LOVE

3. My recent yarn purchase!!



It was totally worth breaking my "yarn buying fast" don't you think?

4. My new camera. It's a Nikon CoolPix 4800. It was a birthday present from Isaac. Who in traditional Isaac fashion, couldn't wait til my birthday next Wednesday & gave it to me last week. Not that I mind AT ALL!

It's got all sorts of great features like a teriffic macro setting & 8.3x zoom (which is soooo cool). It takes great WIP's & yarn porn pics (which is probably not what the people at Nikon designed it for).

You can check out some of my other pictures on my Flickr .

5. Candy Eggs. Particularly ones with peanut butter in them like the reese's peanut butter cup eggs or the speckled peanut butter M&M's.



Somehow it's just yummier in egg form.

6. Tonight we are off to the drunken unicorn to see the selmanaires. Beer + Rock N' Roll = A good night!!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

It's amazing how people can surprise you. It can be something little or big but something you are totally blown away by.

Since I didn't get to blog yesterday I'm sure that most of you have heard of Yahaira's new endeavor, Pure knits. The site is beautiful, chocked full of amazingly detailed pictures, mouthwatering descriptions and a lovely layout. Yahaira has been pretty secretive about this for the past few months so I was totally surprised by her email yesterday. I love that she saw a void & filled it! She didn't sit around and wait for someone else to do it, she just did. I'm really so excited for her I could burst!

Of course she is now my yarn pimp & my 6 month yarn diet was blown yesterday with the purchase of some sundara sock yarn in black magic. I have been so envious of everyone else's cool sundara socks so it was an easy sell.

So yeah I love her store & I am sure I could be considered biased but that is what friends are for. Plus what knitter doesn't dream of having a colorway named after them? In luscious bamboo yarn to boot!

Isaac wants to buy me some of my namesake bamboo but I really want to have an idea of what to use it for first. I was thinking of a summer shawl. Any pattern ideas?

I will leave you with my own surprise. I decided on Kim's b-day knit. The felted floral bag from Interweave knits fall 2004.

I took these progress shots on Sunday morning. I'm now 2 rows away from having the first full side finished. It's a straight forward fair isle which means lots of concentrating on where each color should go. No beer or TV while knitting this up!

I'm calling her "Butterscotch" and she is the first of two little yellow bunnies I'm knitting up for my favorite babes.

I used a tiny bit of lamb's pride worsted (left over from Isaac's 8 bit hat) and Jess Hutch's bunny pattern. This little sweetie is one fast knit (it took me just over 2 hours or 2 episodes of the new Dr. Who depending on how you tell time). I swear it hardly made a dent in the leftover yarn. So much for stash busting!

I also finished my first purse for this month's Sew, I knit! along.




I used the jordy bag tutorial from craftster and some vintage fabric from my stash. It's a great tutorial for anyone interested in an easy spring bag.

Thanks for all the comments on my stash & my elfines! I'm on a serious mission to stash bust so hopefully I will *magically* wave my needles & turn some of that stash into FO's! Or at least become a faster knitter!

Well, it's not as big as some others but it's all mine! At last count I had enough yarn for 5 pairs of socks, 5 sweaters, a capelet & about 2 dozen random full skeins as well as countless bits left over from other projects.

The cones are all vintage wool tweed in sportweight & fingering weight. They were given to me by my friend Kim's mom. The colors are really cool & I think I may make Lucky from Sn'b Nation with some of it. The rest may be destined for socks.

I love all the comments about my elfines!! Debbie doubts the speed at which they can be knit. I swear they are fast! I know someone out there can back me up on this! Come on people!

As far as the kool aid dying went I used the Knitty kool aid dying microwave method. It is super simple & only requires 1 pack of kool aid for each ounce of yarn, water & a microwave safe dish. No smelly vinegar!

Now I'm off to make some pasta salad & go for a walk with my hubby! I hope you guys enjoy your weekend!