have you been missing my outfits? they’ve been quite boring, i assure you. you only get to see outfits i put an ounce of effort into. today i went so far as to put on accessories, so it seemed like it was time to renew documentation!
thrifted jones new york cardigan, gunmetal belt
i haven’t a clue this grey t-shirt. where did it come from?
t rex, the dinosaur themed restaurant my necklace
grandpa the watch
a tiny fair trade store my gigantor ring!
plato’s closet delia’s black jeans
galeria grey wingtips
i hope you weren’t looking at any of my clothing sources in the hopes of actually finding the same pieces of clothing… blue, grey, and black, these are my fallback colors. they make up the majority of my wardrobe. you’ve probably already sussed that out!
haha, i didn’t realize that you can see where our kitchen tile recently fell down… i need to get on that! anyways, i was trying to take pictures of my fancy nails and the light and the camera were not playing nice.
i have this annoying thing that happens… the less money i have to spend, the more frivolous things i want. it was the case with this ring, which i found for $7 at a fair trade store. who needs lunch tomorrow when you could have a ring today?
i don’t really have my own parlance yet for this type of blog post, so i’m just gonna mish-mash and steal others until something sticks.
look at these cute t-shirts from dowdy studios! one sheepish girl is doing a giveaway, if you feel like trying your luck! entries are open through tomorrow (better get on that).
i personally like the foxy fox and the viking wooden beard the best, but there’s some other fab options!
Source: philnoto.tumblr.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
game of thrones! season one recently came out on dvd (uh, we only watch tv on dvd), and i’m loving it! high fantasy! fantasy politics! so much more palatable than real politics! daenerys (pictured above, in fan art by phil noto) isn’t my favesies, that’d probably be arya (little girl who defies expectations!) or tyrion (i’ve loved peter dinklage since living in oblivion and the station agent). and, hey! if you want more game of thrones fanart, geek tyrant did a great roundup here!
Source: stylebyemilyhenderson.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
emily henderson’s new blue office makeover. love this palette: rich blue, bright white, kelly green with touches of gold. excelllllent!
the wickerwork sweater, by michele wang, from quince & co. i’m a little obsessed with everything quince & co recently. the immie tee i’m working on is one of theirs, as was the avery cowl. the style is simple, classic, but also fresh and modern. i lllllove it. i’ve never worked with their yarn, but maybe it’s time for that to change? but back to the wickerwork sweater, i’m extra in love with it. every time i look at pictures of it, i want to cast on for it immediately.
Source: theliterarygiftcompany.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i found this cute tote when i was peeking around the internet for screen shots from i capture the castle for my daydream knitting post a bit ago.
i’ve really been enjoying reading the knit and crochet blog week posts that have been turning up on my blogroll! i didn’t know it was coming until it was upon us, so i’m not participating. maybe next year!
other internet-y things: rebecca is having a giveaway of her hand-dyed yarn! check out her blog to enter!
what have you guys found recently that you are loving? anything you think i would like?
celia’s socks are done! whoo!
deets: cloudy with a chance for celia <–ravelry project page
pattern: glynis from cookie a’s sock innovation
yarn: knit one, crochet too’s crock-o-dye in pewter (it’s a generous skein of yarn, i still have some left. i think i used somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 yds for these)
needles: US size 1 metal addi circulars
mods: the legs are a couple of repeats shorter than the pattern. i did six repeats before working on the heel.
gosh, i originally started these eons ago. i tried to do the sunshine pattern from cookie a’s sock innovation. the problem with that was two-fold. i was knitting them on little wooden size 0 dpns, which were very slender and bendy. and there were cables, which made the fabric i was knitting even tighter. basically, i thought i was going to snap my needles, which made for tense knitting.
so i switched patterns to the glynis socks from the same book, and swapped out the dpns for metal circulars. in the long run, this made for smoother knitting. at the beginning, though, when i was done knitting the cuff, i kept trying to start the pattern using the wrong chart. i had to rip out several times before i actually took the time to look at the pattern to see what i was getting wrong.
i also dropped a stitch on the sole of the first sock, and didn’t notice for about 20 rows. you can see it in the photo above, there’s a slight puckering on the top sock (i didn’t manage to pick up a stitch for every one of the twenty rows), but it blocked out okay.
celia’s feet are smaller than my own, and therefore the sock blockers i usually use would stretch them out considerably. i bent two wire hangers into smaller blockers, using mine as a shape guide, and sent them on to the recipient, so that her socks can dry prettily.
the coral craze continues:
as does the knitting on the immie tee. i have commenced the first sleeve!
last night i made beer bread:
also, chili, while it’s still cool enough to enjoy. it will probably be the last chili for a while.
and i bought myself a treat:
ranunculus! the lilac is cut from the tree outside our door, and smells divine. while planning my wedding several years ago, i was disappointed to realize that having an autumn wedding cut me off from the possibility of ranunculus. they are so romantic, don’t you think? i loved what i ended up with, though!
i’ve have been experiencing a resurgent love for my gingham shirt recently. almost every day when i’m figuring out my outfit, i at least think of it. i feel like it’s one of those pieces that can turn practically any ensemble into an *outfit*. i’m just waiting until i stockpile up enough outfit pics to start doing a ‘ways i wear’ kind of post. most of my favorite fashion bloggers have this in some form… observe: kendi‘s, kaylee‘s, tania‘s.
Source: seejaneworkplaylive.blogspot.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
prefectly simple with a black skirt and brown belt.
Source: etsy.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i need to play with more necklaces.
Source: google.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
love how it is the contrast in this otherwise pale pallette
Source: sperrysandseersucker.tumblr.com via Jamie on Pinterest
how is this so preppy and edgy at the same time?
happy wednesday, all! i’ve got a couple things in the works right now…
i’ve finished knitting the glynis socks! i’m very happy to be done with these socks. they just need a soak and a blocking. they were made for someone with smaller feet than yours truly, so my sock blockers would stretch them out wayyyy too much. so last night i played around with bending a wire hanger into a smaller sock blocker, using mine as a shape guide. it looks like it should work! so, i just need to make another appropriately sized sock blocker, and then soak the socks!
every other day is what i’m in the middle of reading right now. it’s fun and fast-paced, action-packed and engrossing. i find myself wishing i could wikipedia things that are exclusive to the mythology of this series, a sure sign its charms are working on me!
i cast on for the immie tee a day or two ago! i have loooooved this adorable tee since i first saw it, and i’m using pregnant friends as an excuse to do some baby knitting. i thought coral might make a nice twist on the usual pink for baby girls, plus there’s the fact that i’m totally mad for it right now!
that’s all from my corner right now! my serious camera is on the fritz and needs to be sent to a camera doctor, so i’m stuck with my more rudimentary point & click. we took some terribly lit & fuzzy FO shots with it the other night, which are up on ravelry… i have to decide if i’m willing to keep them, or if we should re-take them. so you may or may not see them on friday…
i’ve been meaning to do this post for a while now. and it’s gonna be a long one, and fillllled with pictures. now you know!
BEFORE
waayyyyy before. this pic was taken a week after we moved into the apartment.
when we first moved into this apartment (august 2009), our furniture got dumped in the first location that popped into our heads, as is frequently the case with moving. i probably knew that it wasn’t going to stay like that forever (growing up i would rearrange my bedroom annually). we painted the living room a pale blue, and the slanted portion of the wall a paler blue.
a more official before picture
in october of 2010, i decided that the time had arrived! even more importantly, i had a plan! i’m pretty sure young house love inspired it, but i can’t remember how. since i was totally hooked on home design blogs, i decided the whole thing should be documented, of course, so i got the room nice and tidy (which is not a default, sadly), and took some pictures.
these were my priorities:
-having the couch on the knee wall meant that the ottoman was directly in our path from the bedroom to the kitchen. there were a few late night stubbed toes on quests for glasses of water which were not appreciated.
-we have a fairly small apartment, with shortish ceilings (around 7 ft, or 213 cm), so i really wanted to make the best use possible of the space, and hopefully make it feel as large as possible.
-i wanted to maximize the amount of natural light. having the TV, especially after we acquired a much much larger one, on the same side of the room as the window made it feel smaller.
-this apartment has a decent amount of storage built into it, which i did not take proper advantage of (i’m still working on that, honestly)
-we did not have adequate seating for the times when we have guests over.
AFTER
i moved many of the books to the built in book case (documented in this post as well). i was amazed at how much filling up the space properly and putting them in color order did to visually de-clutter the living room. i’ve become slightly addicted to putting things in color order now… i might still do that to the dvds, but i would have to keep them separated by genre so that we could still find things.
you can’t really tell in the before picture above, but the tall blue wingback chair, while comfortable and reclinable, made our short ceiling-ed living room feel much smaller. it got donated to a friend who moved to an apartment with quite tall ceilings. for a while we had a stand-in chair, which wasn’t terribly comfortable, but it was free and easy, hanging around while i kept my eyes open for chairs. i was imagining & shopping around for a pair of slipper chairs, when i got the incredibly generous offer of these two beautiful mid-century style chairs from a friends parents who were downsizing. and i la-la-love these chairs.
we do most of our eating in the living room (watching venture brothers or veronica mars at the moment), so we swapped the ottoman out for a coffee table (on sale from world market). our drink spillage has gone down significantly since we now have a flat surface to place glasses on.
there’s many small things i would still like to improve in here over time:
-touch up the paint job where patches have been made or there are marks on the walls
-get a better side table for the couch.
-hang the duck hook for keys.
-the couch has gotten beat up in its time with us. ideally, i would like to make a slipcover for it, and possibly get new cushions for it.
-paint the ceiling a bright white. i didn’t realize that it was a warm-cream color until we painted the walls a cool blue.
oh look, the baby blanket is blocked! but still no official FO shots…
that list was as much (okay more) for me as it is for you. despite the list, i looked around the other day and i was like ‘whoa! this room is almost done!’ in general the functionality of the living room has greatly increased. there’s more light, more seating, and it feels much much more finished. have i mentioned that i love it, too? there’s more pics of after in this photoset, if you’re interested!
have you been undertaking any major rearrangements recently? have any of your home projects taken a year and a half?
(image originally from here, but i found it here)
i was poking around the blog where i found screenshots for the daydream knitting post earlier this week, and i found this extra fantastic post of vintage group pictures. there are lots of amazing pictures in there, but for some reason, this picture of a kindergarten class where it is just plain too sunny for anyone struck me as hilarious.
this article on norman rockwell & race had me thinking a long time about the topics it brought up. a really interesting look at the civil rights movement and also the artists power and lack thereof in terms of politics or social change. brought to my attention by the ever vigilant kate beaton (<–that link is her tumblr. here's her main website).
Source: avatar.wikia.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
coming soon to a television near you: avatar the last airbender follow up series: legend of korra (!!!!!). i’m a *little* excited.
Source: etsy.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
i keep seeing really excellent bags and purses that i really want to try my hand at making some… maybe colorwork knitting & felting? maybe felting then embroidery? possibly with thrifted leather belts for handles? maybe all of the above? as i mentioned before, though, i won’t have a chance to play with my knitting for a little bit yet. image shown is from bookhou’s inspiring store.
Source: coattonline.com via Eliza @ ifandany on Pinterest
morse code necklace! from coatt jewelry. isn’t it lovely? so delicate and awesome!
baby blanket done! by done, i mean i’ve finished the knitting and it’s spread out over the bed, blocking!
i’ll get some FO shots in the next couple of days.
i’ve been having a little blogging block recently. i’m wearing clothes, i’m knitting away, but i don’t feel like documenting it, or talking about any of it. does that ever happen to you guys? anyways, i’m trying to work through it. any suggestions?
i’d love to start up my choose your own adventure knitting again, but for another month or so, most of my knitting is preordained.
i dropped that march photo a day like a hot potato. sorry, photo a day…
coming up soon is: 30 for 30 spring edition! i’m still planning on starting april 15. who’s with me? i know a couple of you guys expressed interest in giving it a shot.
i have had a fairly steady stream of yarn acquisitioning recently. behold:
more loft for my birthday:
the blue was from christmas, but my pictures didn’t do it justice, so i hauled it back out to model with it’s birthday counterpart. it’s so pretty you need more pictures, you say?
ooh, dreamy! with 825 yds of each color, i’m hoping to make the sweater equivalent to my favorite striped shirt.
also new:
ooh, ursula’s alcove kettle sock yarn in teal, with a staggeringly generous 560 yds. no specific plans for this one yet, and too many potential ideas to sensibly tell you about. yet.
jake’s birthday present for me:
5 skeins of malabrigo worsted weight yarn in paris night, one of my favorite colors! what is this destined to become? i can’t be 100% sure, but i sure have been drooling over this sweater recently…
and in case you thought this just wasn’t enough! there’s more! my momma brought me some randomly inherited boxes full of yarn!
this actually only represents about 1/3 of the yarn she brought me… i sent a lot of it down the line to my grandma, who knits prayer shawls for the church, and she can use it or disperse it as she likes.
the one i’m most excited about is the bottom left corner… you only see three, but there’s actually 14 skeins of discontinued reynolds icelandic homespun. it could be… anything!
all my work last year of stash busting is now moot. i think it’s time to think about getting rid of some yarn in a non-knitting fashion. and if i keep acquiring at this rate, it might also be time to start up the official stash busting quest once more.
ifandany 
