Feelin' the Love... and the Silky Wool

nessarenee and nudista have tagged us in the 6 Quirky Things meme! The rules: 1) Link to the person who tagged me 2) Mention the rules 3) Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about myself 4) Tag 6 other bloggers by linking to them 5) Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that lets them know they’ve been tagged My quirks: 1. Breakfast is my favourite meal, and I like to eat it more than once a day. I have toast for real breakfast every day, and when I'm at work, I eat cereal every day for lunch. I make omlettes and homefries and bacon on the weekend. yum! 2. I am so directionally challenged, it borders on a handicap. I am the kind of person that needs GPS on the cell phone, just so they can get from point A to point B. On foot. In their hometown. Yeesh. 3.I like to knit while reading hardcovers, because then I can sit crosslegged on the sofa, with my knee holding the book open. 4. I'm on a huge baking bread from scratch kick. I never thought there would be such a huge difference in the quality of the bread, but it's true! And the homebaked bread seems to keep me full a lot longer than store bought bread. I think I've offically become someone who bakes their own bread: 5. I despise shoe shopping. Really. I have hobbit feet, short ones at that. finding small and wide shoes is often a challenge, and I never get home from shoe shopping feeling good about myself. 6. I really like embroidery, and am half-decent at it, but I hardly ever do it. But then again, there are a million crafty things I would do, if only I had enough hours in the day. Sigh. I'm going to cheat a bit and not tag others, although I would love to know quirky things about all of you! If you would shared a quirky thing about you in the comments section, I'd be pretty happy about that. :) And angelknits has given Teamknit the I Love Your Blog Award!!The rules are: 1- Post the award on your blog. 2- Add a link to the person who gave you the award 3- Nominate at least 4 other bloggers and add their links I nominate(in random order): Canary Sanctuary Phoeknits blue garter Pie Knits 4- Leave a comment at the recipients’ blogs so they can pass it on. What an honour! I'm feeling loved today, I tells ya. Currently, I'm working on the Opulent Raglan from the Fall 2008 Knitscene: I've already done some slight mods. I added an inch of k1, p1 ribbing to the hem, and I plan on doing the same on the sleeve cuffs rather than the ruffle. I have nothing against ruffles, but I wanted something a bit more streamlined. I'm using Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool, which I got from Phoeknits. I haven't knitted with this yarn before, and I have to say that I am a big fan now. I love the slightly nubbly texture, the subtle shade variations from the way silk and wool take dye differently... so pretty! Someone suggested that kitten portraits be a regular Monday feature... I can't say I'll do it every Monday, but they are so freaking cute I've got to share at least one more shot: And yes, they are napping on my Lady Eleanor.

All About Meme

Allison and Kimberley have tagged me in the latest meme that is making the rounds! I admit I like memes, so here we go!

1.) What was I doing ten years ago?
I was 19, and just wrapping up my second year of university at Trent (in Peterborough, Ontario). I flew out to British Columbia and spent a couple weeks in Vancouver and Victoria. I remember being in Lion's Bay, and having breakfast down by the water. Everything in front of me was so vast, and I was sitting on a rock with a bowl of Cheerios. I felt so small, like I could have fit on the head of a pin.

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
- shave legs
- sunless tan (I have to wear a sleeveless, knee-length shift dress to a semi-formal dinner tomorrow night, and my pasty limbs need the help)
-set the alarm clock for an hour earlier (have to get up really early tomororw)
- pack my golf clothes and my dinner dress (I work for an organization that has ties with Prince Edward, who is currently in Canada. I'll be at a golf tournament and a dinner with him tomorrow night. Not just me, about 50 other people, too. I'm not golfing, I'll be there in a work capacity)
- pilates
I just realized that's all partially work related, except for the pilates. I don't write lists for non-work stuff!

3) Snacks I enjoy:
- peanut butter, eaten directly from the jar with a spoon
- cereal
- edamame (steamed with a bit of lime juice, salt and pepper- it's heaven!)
- McVittie's chocolate digestive biscuits

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Tell everyone that I got a job as a travel writer, travel, live modestly, and not tell anyone about the billions. Money changes people, and it changes people's perception of you, and I like my life the way it is now. I'd never want my family or friendships to be tainted by suddenly being perceived as a human cashpoint machine. I'd donate a lot to charity,set up some education grants, maybe some programmes for underprivledged kids, pay for schooling for any of my friends or family who needed/wanted it, and buy some beautiful holiday homes around the world. I'd only tell very close friends and family the truth.

Who am I kidding- I'd by myself a black Audi TT and drive on the freaking Autobahn as fast as the car will physically go. Woo-hoo!

5) Places I have lived:
- Sudbury (Canada)
- Peterborough (Canada)
- Istanbul (Turkey)
- Toronto (Canada, and where I currently live)

6) Jobs I have had:
- Shop assistant
- Confidential Secretary
- English Teacher
- Programme Coordinator
- Executive Assistant

Kimberley had a few extra questions added in, so I'll choose my three and list them here:

Q: Do you still sleep with a stuffed animal? We won’t laugh!
A: Yes I do. This is Mr. Weatherby: I'd love to say that I've had him since I was a kid, but the truth is I bought him a year and a half ago when I was going through a difficult time (and by difficult time, I mean the entire calendar year of 2007). It helped a lot, to be honest.

Q: Did you ever watch a scary movie that frightened you so much you were afraid of the dark afterward? I mean like you’re lying in bed trying to sleep, but you have to pee, but you’re scared to get up. It doesn’t have to be recently; could be when you were a kid. So what movie was it?
A: Well, Jen loves scary movies, and makes me watch them more than I would ever choose to! but I have no tolerance for them- I'm particularly creeped out by movies with zombies in them. And as awful as it is to admit, I turn on the bedside lamp whenever I have to get up in the night!

Q: What’s the last book you read that you thought was really super, inspiring, you’d recommend it to most anyone?
A: The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I read it about 4 years ago, and it's still the best novel I've read in years.
Peeps I want to know more about:
Hmmm. I think I've seen this on quite a few blogs already, so I'm not sure who hasn't been tagged. If anyone else wants to fill this out, go ahead and consider yourself tagged. Leave me a comment so I can come read your answers. And if you know of a novel that really rocked your world, tell me what it is so I can put it on my to-read list! Thanks!

All You Need is Love.....(ba ba da da da)

There's a lot about the knit blog world that brings me joy, but the kudos and love that knit bloggers spread around has got to be tops. Jen and I want to say an especially loud and snuggly thank you to Melinda, Sulafaye, and Orata, who have given Teamknit the You Make My Day Award that is currently making the rounds: The rules of the award are thus: Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.

So, despite the fact that through the Ravelry minifeed of blog updates, I probably read 100+ knitting blogs somewhat regularly (whew!), here are ten that I would like to nominate for the award:

* Elizabeth at http://geeyouknit.net/blog/
*James at http://www.subdueitwithasweater.blogspot.com/
*Amanda at http://sticks-and-tones.blogspot.com/
*Lekkercraft at http://lekkercraft.blogspot.com/
*Glenna at http://crazyknittinglady.wordpress.com/
*Marce at http://thebrownberry.blogspot.com/
*Erin at http://girlwhoknits.blogspirit.com/
*Hilary at http://theyarniad.blogspot.com/
*Margaux at http://margauxelena.typepad.com/
* Mary-Heather at http://www.rainydaygoods.com/

And trust me, you guys all make us happy- the comments, the love, and your own blogs that are so freaking inspiring they make me want to run and grab my needles and furiously cast on for whatever it is you guys are all making next.

And Penny (whom I love dearly, as she has spoiled me rotten in a past swap) has tagged me in a meme, so here it goes:

Seven Random Facts

1. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoy eating peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon. I have a special long handled spoon for when I get near the bottom.

2. I still get asked for ID in bars, restaurants, and liqour stores. I turn 30 this year.

3. I have a little brother, who is 11 years old. We don't live together but when I spend time with him, I try to teach him how to cook. I secretly harbour fantasies of him becoming the next Jamie Oliver and crediting me, his adoring sister, for setting him on the path of culinary fame and fortune.

4. I like to read poetry in the bathroom.

5. I don't have laundry facilities in my apartment, and am too lazy to trek to the laundromat, so I hand wash almost my entire wardrobe. Yes, even jeans.

6. I buy myself flowers every week,and they make me so happy. I mean, who doesn't want to come home and see a beautiful bouquet of flowers?? This time of year I am addicted to tulips.

7. I have very recently fallen for someone. And every time I think about it, I have the biggest, goofiest grin on my face.

I feel like I've already tagged a bunch of people in this post, so if anyone would like to join this meme, consider yourself tagged!!

Tagged!!

Anne at Another Shopgirl tagged us! Read on if you'd like to know 8 random facts about us.

The Rules: once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

8 Random Things:

1. Julie: I am completely useless at shoe shopping. I hate doing it and I have no idea what I like or what looks good. I always need someone to come and help me. Then I hold up a shoe and ask them, "Do I like this?". It is the only time in my life I need to be told what to think. If I go by myself, I always regret the shoe purchase.

1. Jen: I've had mostly male friends for the majority of my life. I don't know why, I guess I feel I just get along better with the boys. It's only in the last few years I've started to have close female friends.

2. Julie:I am surprisingly handy. I install light fixtures, put down flooring, love painting, own my own power tools. And I adore assembling Ikea furniture. I wish all furniture needed to be assembled at home.

2. Jen: I'm crazy good at calming people down. I can rationalize things out and talk people out of the crazy tree when they are acting nutty and ready to do something rash. Julie can back me up on this. I should be a negotiator.

3. Julie:I lived in Istanbul, Turkey, for 2 years (2002-2004). Living in a foreign country changes you in ways that only someone who has done it can ever truly understand. I knitted so many socks while I lived there, that I hardly ever knit socks now- I'm all socked out. But here's a very old in progress shot of the last pair I ever made:3. Jen: When I was a kid I used to travel everywhere with my parents, who loved going anywhere warm. You name the island below the equator, I've probably been to it. But as an adult, I hardly every travel any more. But that's getting fixed soon- next month, I'm going to Tobago!

4. Julie: I don't have any single girl friends, everyone is happily coupled up. I, on the other hand, do not have the luxury of a warm body next to me every night, or even on the couch. I have to keep reminding myself not to settle for Larry* (see footnote).

4. Jen: I'm an Asain wannabe. I look waspy and blonde, but really, on the inside, I have shiny black hair and almond shaped eyes. Every boyfriend I have ever had has been asian, and I speak some Mandarin. Mostly so I can talk with my boyfriend's parents.

5. Julie:When I was a kid and adults would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always told them a psychologist for the criminally insane. I never really wanted this, but I got a big kick out of their reaction.

5. Jen: When I was a kid, I wanted to be an opera singer. Anyone who has ever heard me sing knows that was never going to happen. Ever.

6. Julie:I write a weekly column for the Saturday edition of my hometown newspaper, The Sudbury Star. Somehow, I get to ramble on (and on!) about my life, and people read it. I'm as shocked as you are!

6. Jen: I've been addicted to snowboarding for about 7 years. I may not be the best, but I can shred hard and keep the boys on their toes.I'm really looking forward to this year- it's my first year back since my knee injury. I've got my season pass and I'm all set!!!

7. Julie: I make an amazing pie crust pastry from scratch, and everyone asks what my recipe is... it's the one on the back of the Tenderflake box. Seriously. Best pie crust of your life.
7. Jen: Years ago, I made a pork roast for my then-boyfriend's family. I bought one of those pre-seasoned, already completely done (all you have to do is heat it up) and I passed it off as my own that I made from scratch. His family was so impressed, they wanted the recipe. So I panicked, and just made it up. When they tried to make it, of course it didn't turn out the way the store bought one did. I had to fess up.

8. Julie:I'm working on a novel, and am about 75% finished the first draft. It's got no working title at the moment, but there is some knitting in it! One of the characters (not the protagonist, but a major character) dreams of being a knitwear designer.... the character is based on Jen, although I don't actually know if she really would like to be a knitwear designer. I know she would like to have her own yarn shop, though.

8. Jen: When I was really into graffiti art in my younger days, I used the tagname of 'Satincare'. I chose it because back then I thought that nothing was sexier than smooth, shaved legs! Obviously, I watched too many commercials on TV.

As for tagging... how about Glenna, Jessica, Erin, Marce, lekkercraft, Kelly, and Phoe. I know that's only 7, but...tag- You're it!!!

*Footnote: Larry is a family joke. My aunt worked with a teacher who wanted to settle down, and was dating this guy named Larry. Larry was a part time Elvis impersonator. He was cheap (and constantly broke), unrealiable, and just plain retarded when it came to relationships. He would cancel their plans to go out with his friends, he would let her pay for dinner all the time, and only came around if he couldn't find anything better to do, and didn't make an effort to do things that he knew made her happy. Everyone else in his life was a higher priority than her. This girl still thought that he would grow up and become someone worth dating. One night he was supposed to pick her up from work, and she was relying on him since it was late and there was no other way for her to get home. He called from a bar, told her he had met some friends instead, and couldn't come and get her. She broke up with him. Met someone way better shortly after that. She is now happy with the much better new guy. Larry is still an Elvis impersonator and a loser.

Thus, my family's catch phrase: "Don't settle for Larry!" Because apparently, there are far too many Larrys in the world. And Elvis impersonators.

Meme- for Book Geeks Only

I saw Phoeknits's book meme, and I thought I'd join in. This is from Most Common Unread books over at Librarything.com. The idea is that you bold what you have read, italicise what you started but couldn’t finish, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. The numbers after each one are the number of LT users who used the tag of that book. # Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (149) # Anna Karenina (133) # Crime and punishment (122) # Catch-22 (117) # One hundred years of solitude (115) # Wuthering Heights (110) # Life of Pi : a novel (95) # The name of the rose (91) # Don Quixote (91) # Moby Dick (86) # Ulysses (84) # Madame Bovary (84) # The Odyssey (83) # Pride and prejudice (84) # Jane Eyre (81) # A tale of two cities (80) # The brothers Karamazov (80) # Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies (79) # War and peace (78) # Vanity fair (74) # The time traveler’s wife (74) # The Iliad (73) # Emma (73) # The Blind Assassin (74) # The kite runner (71) # Mrs. Dalloway (71) # Great expectations (71) # American gods : a novel (68) # A heartbreaking work of staggering genius (67) # Atlas shrugged (68) # Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books (66) # Memoirs of a Geisha (67) # Middlesex (66) # Quicksilver (66) # Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West … (65) # The Canterbury tales (64) # The historian : a novel (63) # A portrait of the artist as a young man (63) # Love in the time of cholera (63) # Brave new world (61) # The Fountainhead (62) # Foucault’s pendulum (61) # Middlemarch (61) # Frankenstein (60) # The Count of Monte Cristo (59) # Dracula (60) # A clockwork orange (60) # Anansi boys : a novel (58) # The once and future king (57) # The grapes of wrath (58) # The poisonwood Bible : a novel (58) # 1984 (57) # Angels & demons (56) # The inferno (56) # The satanic verses (55) # Sense and sensibility (55) # The picture of Dorian Gray (55) # Mansfield Park (55) # One flew over the cuckoo’s nest (55) # To the lighthouse (55) # Tess of the D’Urbervilles (54) # Oliver Twist (55) # Gulliver’s travels (53) # Les misérables (53) # The corrections (54) # The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel (52) # The curious incident of the dog in the night-time (52) # Dune (51) # The prince (51) # The sound and the fury (52) # Angela’s ashes : a memoir (51) # The god of small things (52) # A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present (51) # Cryptonomicon (50) # Neverwhere (50) # A confederacy of dunces (50) # A short history of nearly everything (50) # Dubliners (50) # The unbearable lightness of being (50) # Beloved : a novel (49) # Slaughterhouse-five (49) # The scarlet letter (49) # Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Pu… (49) # The mists of Avalon (47) # Oryx and Crake : a novel (47) # Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed (47) # Cloud atlas : a novel (48) # The confusion (46) # Lolita (47) # Persuasion (46) # Northanger abbey (47) # The catcher in the rye (47) # On the road (47) # The hunchback of Notre Dame (45) # Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of… (45) # Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance : an inquiry into … (45) # The Aeneid (45) # Watership Down (44) # Gravity’s rainbow (44) # In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its … (44) # White teeth (44) # Treasure Island (44) # David Copperfield (44) # The three musketeers (44) # Cold mountain (43) # Robinson Crusoe (43) # The bell jar (44) # The secret life of bees (44) # Beowulf : a new verse translation (43) # The plague (44) # The Master and Margarita (43) # Atonement : a novel (43) # The handmaid’s tale (43) # Lady Chatterley’s lover (42) # Underworld (41) # Little Women (41) # A brief history of time : from the big bang to black holes (42) # Stardust (41) # Jude the obscure (42) # The chronicles of Narnia (40) # Possession : a romance (41) # Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal (40) # Never let me go (40) # The trial (40) # Kafka on the shore (40) # Bleak House (41) # Sons and lovers (41) # Alias Grace (40) # The Arabian nights (39) # Baudolino (39) # Confessions (39) # The great Gatsby (40)(This my all-time favourite book!) # To kill a mockingbird (40) # Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Gla… (40) # The alchemist (39) # Candide, or, Optimism (39) # Snow falling on cedars (40) # Midnight in the garden of good and evil : a Savannah story (39) # Midnight’s children (39) # White Oleander (39) # A passage to India (39) # The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and … (39) # The house of the seven gables (39) # The lovely bones : a novel (39) # Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (39) # The amber spyglass (38) # The histories (38) # Swann’s way (38) # The shadow of the wind (38) # Fahrenheit 451 (38) # Good omens (38) # Running with scissors : a memoir (38) # Everything is illuminated : a novel (38) # The divine comedy (38) # Paradise lost (39) # The English patient (39) # Uncle Tom’s cabin (38) # The Origin of Species (37) I'd like to say that I could blame in on having been an English Major (well, double majored in English Lit and Women's Studies...) but I actually read most of them on my own. I am Book Geek, hear me roar. Or hear me quietly reading in the corner. You know, same thing.