Too much white.

Y'know, I thought having an iPad was going to inspire me to create more, draw more, paint more.  Instead, I spend a lot of time staring at a white canvas.  A VAST WHITE CANVAS!!  There's so much white!

It was just time to dive right in and start making a mess. 

Countdown to San Francisco!  4 sleeps to go!  Woohoo!  It's been about thirty years since I was there last.  I'm sure the city has changed much in that time.  :)  Still, I'm really looking forward to this trip. 

Things I'm thankful for:
1.  Work was surprisingly good today.  Projects are coming along nicely.  It's kinda scary, really.  I'm waiting for the bad stuff to happen.  I have a great team of people to work with.
2.  The weather has cooled down.  It's still beautiful and sunny but not killer hot.  The nights are perfect for sleeping.
3.  Puppy was attacked by a loose dog today but was not harmed.  She didn't even seem to be tramatized by the experience. 

I'm surrounded by new toys! And I don't know which one to play with first!

My new spindle came a week & half ago.  Guild Wars 2 launded on Friday.  Today, I got my new iPad.

I'm overwhelmed.  Good thing I took two days off to play with everything!

Guild Wars 2 is so amazing!  The GW2 team did a fantastic job.  Everything is so detailed and there's so much to do and explore.  I could see myself playing this game for a very very long time.  There were a few lag issues but it's not enough to bother me or stop me from loving this game.  WoW's Mist of the Pandarians should be coming out in about a month...I don't think I'll be getting that soon.  Sorry, Blizzard, I've jumped ship. 

I finally finished spinning the sample fibre that came with my spindle.  It wasn't a large sample...I'm just that slow.  I actually plyed it back on the spindle as well...something I've never attempted before.  The yarn is really ugly but it's spun and plyed.  That's more than I've ever done on any other spindle!  I've started spinning some fibre from Sweet Georgia and it's going well.  Found the perfect case for it - it's one of those hard shell case you put small cameras in.  Perfectly padded to nestled a spindle and some fibre.  :)

I really had a tough time deciding on whether to get the new iPad or go for the new Asus Transformer.  Both are great but in the end, it was that I had all the apps on my iPod Touch.  Just from a few hours playing on it today, I wondered how I could ever existed without one before!  ALL my photoediting apps work!  I knew my old iPod Touch wasn't capable of running a few of the updates for my apps but I had no idea what I was missing!  Everything downloaded and I was like a kid in a candy store...going through all my apps and thinking WOW! It does that?!

I have to admit that big white screen for drawing is so very daunting.  

Tomorrow is back to work and another hell week.  I really need to win the lottery so I can stay home and play all day long.

SQUEEEE! AND DOUBLE SQUEEEE!!

21 1/2 hrs to the launch of Guild Wars 2!  Normally, I don't get this excited about any games nor do I care if I played the Beta or not.  Usually, I prefer not to play the beta because it ruins the game for me.  You see everything in the imperfect version.  Not much is left when the game actually launches for real.  Guild Wars is so not like that.  The beta was fantastic!  There is so much to do, it's going to take me a very long time to play this game.  It's like everything I didn't like about WoW fixed. Tomorrow, after work, we're going out for dinner.  Then I'm going to plunk myself down in front of the computer and play until my eyeballs fall out.  I can because I'm a grown-up.  :)

Double Squee!!

I'm going to get an iPad!  I'm going to wait until September to see the new release and decide what (and if) I want an iPad.  I've heard rumours that the new iPhone is a bit bigger this release and that might mean the new iPod Touch would be bigger too.  Wasn't sure if I wanted an iPad - too big for me to carry around.  I love the portability of my iPod Touch but really do wish the screen's a bit bigger.  Something bigger than the Touch and smaller than the iPad would be so perfect!  Despite my love for my iPod Touch, I don't want an iPhone.

My concern is that if the iPad is too big, would I use it as much as I use my Touch?

Busted!

2 more sleeps to go!

Note to self:

Staring at the countdown clock will not make the time go any faster.  Friday is going to be hell day...especially the last few hours.  Guild Wars 2 will launch and all will be right in the world. 

Meet Pink Ivory

Is it possible to love an inanimate object?  I love my new Jenkins Lark. It's a tiny Turkish Spindle.  A little thing, weighing in at 27 gms and barely 6" tall. 

I love spindles and while I don't have as many as some people, I do have a few.  I don't spin on them.  I love them for the beauty of the wood and the craftsmanship.  You can tell they're all made with love and a lot of care.  In the hands of a decent spinner, I'm sure they will produce beautiful yarns.  In my hands, not so much.  I just don't have the patience to master this skill.  After a while, I'm frustrated and go back to my wheel, just to prove to myself that Yes, I do know how to spin.  After half an hour, I have this:

Pink Ivory Lark

The spindle is light and very easy to spin.  I love the small size.  I'm already planning a carrying case so I can take it with me.  If there's a spindle out that that would inspire me, it would be this one...until the next shiny thing comes along.  :)


And now for something completely different:  Cheese.  I love fresh cheese.

Fresh goat cheese

I found a place that sold fresh farmer's cheese.  Really yummy stuff.  Then I discovered how easy it was to make your own (recipe found online).  It was one of those "what do you have to lose except a couple of bucks worth of milk?" moment.  Half an hour later, I have cheese.  Rather, I had cheese.  Most of it is gone now.  Great on bagels and crackers.  I would make this again.






Things I'm thankful for:
1.   Very thankful that the Boy and his friends made it to San Francisco with no problems.  Got an email from him that all is well and they've checked in their hotel.  The mom in me will worry until he's home.

2.  Four more sleeps to Guild Wars 2!   Rumour has it that it's going to launch 3 hour early.  That means Friday night at 9pm PST!  Glad I live on the Westcoast.  :)

3.  New spindle toy to keep me occupied for the next couple of days. I'm really looking forward to GW2 launch.  Usually I don't like playing the beta because it's usally kinda wonky and it spoils the game for me.  But there is SO much to this game that I don't think I would be bored with it for a very long time.  It makes WoW blech in comparison.

No Fish

It's been a busy week at work. I also started and finished my painting class this week at the Port Moody Arts Centre. I had so much fun! It was three consecutive nights - Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday. The instructor was hilarious! I've learned something really important - I don't really like working big. We painted a canvas each night - they're really not that big, according to the rest of the class but it was huge for me. They were approximately 10"x12" each. Towards the end, I was just slapping on paint just to cover the darn things! Athough, I really enjoyed the class, I'm not sure it's something I would keep doing...at least maybe not on canvas.

On the second night, we did an underwater painting. Using stock photos to inspire us, we had to create an underwater scene. I won't hurt your eyes with my "masterpiece" but when I got home that night, I worked on a digital version of the painting. I think this one turned out much better than the actual painting.  According to the Sketch Club stats, the digital verson took 3 hours and 43 minutes to do. By the way, the fish are hiding. 

Things I'm thankful for:
1.  It's Friday!  It's been busy as usual but my new saying is "any day you have time to eat lunch is a good day!"  I've been making time to go outside and wander around in the sunshine almost everyday this week.  I love downtown Vancouver in the summer.

2.  My sister.  We did our annual trek last week and visited the Vancouver Aquarium with the kids.  When I say kids, I really mean Young Adults.  This is our 15th Annual Trek!

3.  Hubby.  I love the fact we're an old married couple.  :)

*Sigh* Back to work tomorrow

It's been a great week.  I could use another week off.

A lot of time was spent watching the Summer Olympics.  A lot of time was spent on sketching on Sketch Club. A lot of time was spent on photo editing on my cell phone.  A little bit of time was spent on the beta test for Guild Wars 2.  There was shopping, puppy playing, and the Annual Trek.

I was hoping my new spindle would come in the mail by now but I guess not.  Oh well.  I have another  couple of days booked at the end of August.  I'm looking forward to that.

Thankful for:
1.  A beautfiul week off.  There was a thunder storm one day but it was much needed to cool things down.
2.  I'm thankful that I'm not allergic to sushi.
3.  The kids still wanted to do the Annual Trek this year. 

A state of being

This picture was taken in the spring of this year during a walk along the dike near Colony Farms.  It was a cool and foggy morning, with the light just perfect for photos.  I edited the hell out of this in Sketch Club.  Hahahaha!  Who needs Instagram?!

Friday Was A Super Exceptional Tremendous Great Day!

A good day is a sunny Friday before a long weekend. A great day is that Friday is also the day before a week long vacation. A super day is when your boss says “it’s a long weekend…let’s shut down at noon today.” A super exceptional day is when you just found out that the Monday boots you bought on sale two days ago are now reduced by another $50.00! A super exceptional tremendous great day is when you go back to the store, they give you a store credit for the difference and you see the wizard shoes you also wanted are now marked down even more! And they have the colour you wanted in the size you needed!!
It was a super exceptional tremendous great day! :)

Summer Shower

Thankful for:
1.  We had a very much needed quick summer rain shower.It has cool down the air quite a bit.
2.  A week off!
3.  Washed puppy.

Sanity Check

Today was potentially a tough day at work but for some reason, all the stars and planets aligned and everything worked out.  It makes me nervous when things goes well.

 

I have next week off work and I am so looking forward to doing nothing.We have so many major projects on the go at work...this week will be hell week just to get everything organized for next week.

Things that I'm thankful for:
1.  Being able to catch the first train home - again.  I'm hoping that this is a sign of better times. *cross fingers*
2.  Sunny day!  It was nice and sunny and warm without being overly hot.  Perfect day!
3.  Fluevog shoe sale!  

Abstract

I've been using Sketch Club as if I would Photoshop.  While Sketch Club is NOT Photoshop and is very limited in comparison, it's kinda fun to challenge myself to see how I can overcome the limitations.  I've been playing around with doing a "mobile" series...photos taken on my my cell phone, moved into my ipod Touch to manipulate.  I think this might make an interesting ATC series.

Things that makes me happy:
1.  Sunny Sunday!
2.  Finally found sunglasses that I like AND they fit!
3.  Got a confirmation email that my new spindle is in the queue to be made!  Yes, thanks to Helen at Black Sheep Yarns, I ordered a Jenkins Lark.  Drat her!  :)

Gone Sketch Clubbing

It started as an alternative to knitting on the train.  Now it's become an obession.  Playing with the smudge tool and layers for the background effect.

Gone Fish'n

The possibilities are endless on this app!  I've been also playing with the transform tool to resize and move existing work to do a collage effect with photos uploaded from my cellphone.  Each segment was made and saved as separate pieces of work and then merged together.

Night Flowers

Things that I'm thankful for:
1.  I had a day off today...even if it was to go to the dentist.  A day off is a day off, right?
2.  Thankful that I have a dental plan.
3.  It didn't rain when I was walking to the dentist.  

Owl and Pussy Cat

Wow!  I'm on a roll here!  Two posts in two days!

This is my first attempt in trying out the cut-out technique on Sketch Club.  Someone posted the tutorial for this on the Sketch Club forum and I had to try it out.  The shadowing is not quite right but I didn't want to go back and fix that...just wanted to see what the finished product would look like.  Patience is not one of my strong points.  This project gave me a good sense of how the layers work together in Sketch Club and the best way to manage layers.  I'm amazed at the quality of work that people are doing not just on their iPad but on an ipod Touch!  It's a tiny screen.  Go check out some of their work - SketchClub.com.

Owl and Pussy Cat is a poem by Edward Lear. I remember having to memorize this as a kid.  Funny how some things will stick with you.

Things that makes me happy:

1.  Getting off work on time today.
2.  Greeter Dog - Cas does a very good job at being the Greeter Dog.  There's nothing like a happy puppy greeting you at the door when you walk in. 
3.  Coconut jello - just like it was from a dim sum cart.

Water puppy!

In a few short months, Puppy Cas is looking so grown up!  She's lost her soft puppy down and her fur is getting curlier and curlier.  She's now keeping up with the Big Dogs and decided that she loves swimming.  Sometimes I still really miss our old dog but it was time for him to go.  I like to think that Jawge would have approved of Cas.

On a different note, I'm still knitting and spinning as much as possible.  I really do miss hanging out with my fibre friends Wednesday nights.  Work really gets in the way of fun.  Whitecaps play a lot of Wednesday games...I wonder if they would switch it to another day if I ask them nicely?  lol!

I've been practicing on my spindles and have come to the conclusion that I really suck at spindle spinning.  When I've gotten to the point of no return on my Frustation Meter, I pull out one of my wheels to convince myself that Yes, I do spin.


Things I'm thankful for:

1.  My niece turned 19 yesterday.  She has grown up to be a beautiful, intelligent, and creative young woman.  I hope she will never grow out of her sense of goofiness.
2.  The new TCA at work...this might mean that I can work less and get home at a decent time everyday.  *keeping my fingers crossed*
3.  A week of sunshine.  Most likely, in Vancouver, this WAS our summer. 

Sketch Club

I've been playing around with a new app on my Ipod - Sketch Club.  I admit to having a fondness for drawing/painting apps - I have three - but this one seems to be my favourite.  I'm really not sure why...all these apps seems to do more or less the same thing.

Diablo III came out last week.  I'm playing a Witch Doctor.  I like the character but the running annimation is strange.  She reminds me of a spider when she runs.  Ick!

The first casualty of Puppy Cas

It's a good thing she's so cute...look at what she did to my alpaca mitten!!

Stuff

It took a while but I think I've figured out how to add my blog to Google+. We went to see Joel Plaskett on Saturday night at the Vogue Theatre. I love seeing concerts there. The nice surprise of the evening was the opening act - David Vertiesi. Normally, opening acts don't thrill me but this guy was really good. Good enough to buy his CD. On the knitting front - not a lot of knitting being done. Still working on the sleeve of the cotton cardigan. It's now taken two weeks to knit one sleeve. Puppy snuggling seems to be the priority in this house now.

Puppy pics and a couple of knitted bunnies

There's not a lot of time to write up anything. Right now, Cas is distracted by her squeeky ball. Thank goodness for squeeky balls! She has a new sleeping area...the shoe crate by the back door. She will crawl into the back, push all the shoes out and make herself a little puppy nest.














Knitted a couple of little bunnies for Easter. Made these before we got the dog. I may not be able to knit for a long time. Cas seems to be fascinated by the knitting needles.

*sigh*

Life has a way of happening on Wednesdays

It seems that life happens on Wednesdays around here. There's some kind of cosmic force that's keeping me from going to meet up with the Twisted group.

This week's distraction is...THE PUPPY!!

Meet Cas, short for Castiel. She's nine weeks old. We weren't expecting her until Saturday but was able to bring her home today.



Once she warmed up to us, we discovered Cas has two modes: sound asleep or running around like a little black ball of mercury.






Yes, Tammy, those puppy ears are very snorgle-able. :)

Puppies

Tonight we went to look at some puppies. Needless to say, one cannot just go "look at puppies" without wanting at least one or two of the cute furry fuzzballs. I remember saying to my hubby that unless these pupplies looked like half-eaten zombie puppies, it's pretty much a given that we're getting one. It was really tough picking out one that all three of us were happy with.

Sorry, no cute puppy pictures. They have to be checked out by the vet, go through all their shots, etc before we can bring one home.

I'm quite excited.

Natural Selection at work here...

We got a new bird feeder. It's one of those squirrel-proof ones...if a squirrel does manage to jump on the ring, the weight of the squirrel pull the ring down and close the feeder. We've been getting flocks of Pine Siskins living in our backyard for the last month or so. They're very aggressive with the other birds and will clean out the whole feeder in about a day or less.

Squirrels love them as these birds will knock the seeds out of the feeder onto the ground. Seconds before I took this picture, there were close to 50 birds covering the trellis and feeder. All that's left are a lot of blurrs and the squirrel on the ground. The squirrel took off a second later.

It seems that we now have a couple of residence falcons using this place as their version of Watership Down.



Whenever the whole flock is spooked and takes off, we know one of the falcons are near. Sometimes there would be the one bird left, pecking away at the seeds on the ground. That one usually ends up being falcon food.

Bunny Chunks

My latest obession may seem a bit odd. I've been drawing little tiny bunnies on a sketch app in my ipod Touch. Instead of knitting on the morning trains, I've been doodling.



Don't ask why that middle bunny is tilted.

Not so instant Instagram

I love the idea of Instagrams and how cool the pictures look. Unfortunately, there is no Instagram for my phone and I do not like the iPhone. Don't get me wrong, I love my iPod Touch but just can't see me switching for an iPhone anytime soon. There is a workaround solution. Download Instagram to my Touch, take the picture on my camera phone and email it to myself. Pick it up on the Touch, play around with the Instagram stuff, and email it back to myself. Yeah, I thought it was too much work too.



Apparently, Instagram does not like the higher resolutions. It took me a couple of tries in finding which resolution worked the best.

Despite the bit of rain we've been having, the weather has been gorgeous for the most part. My favourite fall days are the cold, crisp sunny days. Just bundle up in your cozy handknitted woollies and it's all good.

Yesterday we got a really nice treat at work - a tour up on the catwalk. I've been up on the ring beam of the old roof and been up on the old roof before but this was much scarier. Not a place you want to be if you don't like heights.



The stairs and the catwalk are the grated metal kind...the kind where you can see ALL the way down. Ick! I'm usually okay when it comes to heights but this was making me go weak in the knees by the time we got up to the actual catwalk.



Things that makes me happy:
1. I have the next ten days off!
2. My fibre friends welcoming me back into the fold after my long absence.
3. It's December and Christmas shows are back on TV!

It's a perfect day!!

To make up for working last Sunday, I took a couple of hours off today to get my haircut. It's one of those haircut where you trust the stylist and tell her to surprise you...which she did, in a good way. Really happy with the cut. On the way back to work, I stopped off at Sweet Georgia Yarns to pick up my fibre club stuff for October & November. October's fibre is a blend of superwash Merino, bamboo, and nylon. November's fibre is Polworth and silk.

A great hair cut and fibre. You would think that all this would be enough for a perfect day but no, it got better. Got back to the office and there was a message from home that my Hansen minispinner had arrived.




Perfect day!!!!

King of Coffeemakers

My Hansen mini spinner is not here yet but the new coffee maker arrived on Friday. It's a very unusual looking machine this Technivorn Mochamaster. It's handmade...yes, handmade coffee maker. While not quite as awwsome as a mini spinner, it's a pretty amazing coffee maker. What makes it so special is that it actually brews coffee at the right temperature!


On the knitting front, I finished the Stockholm shawl in record time. My motivation was the very cold mornings waiting for the train. Long enough to wrap around twice and wide enough to pull over my head as a hood.


Pithy details: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in dark brown, roughly 3-ish skeins (yarn reclaimed from a project that was destined to be unfinished). 7 mm needles, cast on 252 sts and knitted in the round. Knitted to 16" wide and blocked to 13". Silly me washed it in warm water.

Made it through the dark tunnel...

...and there was light at the other end. I promised myself that I was going to meet up with the Twisted last Wednesday. It was time to get my life back in order, get back the stuff that's important to me.

Sometimes plans change. When I got home from work that Wednesday, fate decided I was going to stay home...and ordered this.

Very much a SQUEEE worthy moment.

Roof from the inside

Nervousness and sleepless nights are all part of the package now. It's about a month to re-opening day and things are really jumping at work. Everyone is walking around with a glazed look.

Our department is slated to move back in two weeks. I'm going to really miss it here at the Waterfront. Miss all the yummy food carts at walking distance...back to the dust, noise, steel toe shoes, and hard hats everyday.

Hot! Hot! HOTHOTHOT!!

It's hot today. It wasn't that hot when I left the house this morning. Cool-ish enough to grab a sweater. By mid-day, it was HOT! Extra hot if you're walking on concrete. And no one felt like cooking today so a decision was made to go out for sushi. The perfect meal for a hot day. Cold raw fish in an air conditioned restaurant. Followed by black sesame ice cream.

Which led me to google black sesame ice cream recipes. Now I have to go find the ice cream maker. :)


No explanation for this picture except that everyone needs a random shadow picture once in a while.

Didn't mean to leave it so long...

I had forgotten my password to log in...it's one of those things when you try too hard to remember something and it just doesn't happen. And then if you leave it for a while, your fingers automatically remembers the right sequence to type and you're in!

Old age will do that to you.

So far, I have no new finished projects. Stuff are on the needle but knitting half-heartedly. Summer has been nice but super busy. Work is getting stressful again. I haven't decided if it's good stress or bad stress. Just a different kind of stress than before. There's so much to do getting a world-class stadium ready & re-open in less than 50 days. It's really REALLY scary!

I did managed to take a few days off and we went on our Annual Trek. The Annaul Trek was a tradition my sister and I started when the kids were teeny. Our usual trek was to ride the Westcoast Express downtown, have breakfast, wander through Science World, BC Mining Museum, etc. It was something we loved doing. Over the years, BC Mining Museum went away and Science World got old. It was hard to come up with something different. This year's trip was to Britannia Mines. I haven't been there since the renovations and it was really a lot of fun.


All the old core samples were kept in trays here. There must be millions and millions of them. The guide was telling us how valuable and extensive this collection was, etc and not to touch. At that point, I looked at the group and most of us had a core sample in our hands and guilty looks on our faces. She might have mentioned that first.


It was a fun day. We wandered around the mine, panned for gold (got some interesting shiny rocks), then drove to Squamish for a tasty lunch. The weather was great and a good time was had by all. Our kids are older now and I'm not sure how many more Annual Treks they'll put up with but I'm hoping there's at least one more.

I got a call Saturday morning from Helen at Black Sheep Yarns. She said that those bags we were drooling over the other day are in...do I still want one? HAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!

Within 15 mins I was at the store.


The pockets are really nice and deep so you don't have to worry about things falling out. The inside is HUGE!

And it's reversible too! It will hold a knitting project or more PLUS whatever else you'll need. A beautifully made bag.

Of course, if you have a new knitting bag, you must have new yarn to go with it, right?

Madeline Tosh Light.

I was thinking of a light shawl for that yarn. I even started one today, right after I finsihed Amiga Three. Did about 3 inches and changed my mind.


It's amazing what a difference a sunny day makes. When I took the pictures for My Amiga, it was a very dreary cloudy day. The colour kept looking more green than yellow.



Pithy details on Amiga Three - Louet's Euroflax 100% wet spun linen, knitted on 5.5 mm needles. No real modifications to the pattern except on the front band. I did a simple yarn over eyelet. No buttons. If I decide to add buttons later, I can use the eyelets as buttonholes. No blocking but threw it in the washing machine on a gentle wash, followed by 15 mins in the dryer.

Interesting the lint that came off this yarn...it's like paper.

Gingerbread Cake

Gingerbread Cake...my new favourite. So good with coffee. I need to make a variation of this with chocolate. Gingerbread Brownie Cake has a nice ring to it.

Amiga Too

This is the Amiga Too from the Amiga pattern from Knitty. And I've started a third one. I really don't think I've ever knitted the same sweater pattern three times in a row. Love this pattern. It's a quick simple pattern that is easily adapted to pretty much any type of yarn. This version is more snug fitting than the first version. I added the feather & fan inserts on the bottom and sleeves. The sleeves are tapered to the elbows then flared slightly by the lace. No buttons on this one.

I started Amiga Three in linen. Loving this one so far and can't wait to see it finished.

And just to show that everything is not always about knitting...



Things that makes me happy:
1. It was sunny today. Time to plan more picnic lunches at work!
2. Long weekend coming up and the weather is supposed to be nice.
3. My cellphone. With this phone, I always have a camera with me.

Knitting in April 2011

April turned out to be a bit of a stash busting month. It wasn't really intentional...just so happened that the projects finished this month were knitted from the stash.

Ribwarmer is one of my favourite designs by one of my favourite designers - Elizabeth Zimmerman. This ribwarmer vest is a modification of her design from the Fall 1997 Knitter's magazine. It's done in one piece with no seams if you graft the shoulders together. It's a great pattern for odds & ends of leftover yarn and it really knits up fast.


Well, that's interesting. Blogger is being weird and I'm not able to post another picture.

That's ok. The other sweater was just a plain simple shell knitted from Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool. I love this yarn but it pills if you look at it sideways. I'm sure it's one of the reasons this yarn was discontinued. The pattern is Amiga from Knitty. A great versitile pattern that's good with all different yarns. Just started the second one in a grey wool.