kitschy and delicious

Are you seeing these granny square cookies?? I'm freaking out! These in particular are right up my color-obsessive weirdo alley. (There's a tutorial here.)

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birthday window shopping

Ew, I'm getting so old! How best to numb the pain? What's that? Materialism, you say? Being rewarded for existing with goods and services?? Do you mean to imply that I can acquire things just by having been born once upon a time? Well, if you say so! You seem trustworthy to me!

This Mahalo ukelele in yellow (or maybe pink??) would be delightful!

And wouldn't it be adorable to play it, or my beloved guitar Little Ghosty Boo, with Rilakkuma guitar picks?

(picture found here!)

And this yellow dress is just crying out to be in my girls' closet. I want to have yellow dresses for each of them someday -- I'm almost there, just need a couple more!

And to complete my Maria-sama ga Miteru DVD collection, I still need the third and fourth seasons! Oh my, I miss this show so much!! The fourth season is just my favorite thing ever.

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understated as ever

It's so incredibly lovely out on these April afternoons! Despite Miss Beatrix looking extra cute in a very vintagey orange and blue plaid (!!!) dress that suited her so perfectly that she wore it for a few months, I finally let her have first dibs on this fabulous charcoal-gray CannonBelle cardigan. She's also wearing one of my fave Reve de Rui dresses -- it's quite airy -- and Very Vicky's dark teal stock Mary Janes. The little bow keeping her side-part back in a twist is from a scrap of mustard ripple yarn. I just love Beatrix in yellows and mustards. Her front-facing chips are yellow!

Currently:

• listening to: "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" -- not gonna lie, I still love the music video for it!
• coveting: this J. Crew. sweater... in ruby!
• working on: laundry, writing, ripple blanket
• contemplating: what on Earth to ask for for my birthday in a couple of weeks!

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Ripple Throw Progress Report: three-quarters there

(Pardon my pajamas and feet.)

Yes, it's That Time. The time for me to bask in the ever-increasing glow of my ripple blanket. It really is quite the beast now! I would guess it's about 70-75% of the way done. It's very warm and heavy. As the weather grows warmer, it becomes a sweaty sort of affair to work on, covering my lap and legs as completely as it does. There are cooler days here and there, or evenings when the air conditioner is on, and I like to work on it then.

So far it's about four feet tall, and getting hard to take pictures of.

Here are some visual aids...

Currently I need to buy one more skein of yarn (I'm using three different whites, although I'm not sure you can tell, and I want them to feel evenly distributed between snow white, dull white, and cream) and then I think from there the goal will just be to keep going till I'm out of the yarn I have left, and call it done! I estimate a couple more feet or so! It's all by ear, so whatever works out is pretty fine with me. This has been such a fun project for me so far. I hardly ever do things bigger than little Blythe hats. I have liked having a pet project that I can pick up and feel like I've made progress on, even if it's one stripe here and seven there.

Today's delights:

• nachos - yummm
• springy, stormy weather
• doing hard burn on a writing project! Tunnel vision!!

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I'll consider this my spring cleaning!

It had not been April first for an hour yet when my computer died! I spent many days cut off from "civilization," or at least, my typical habits: working, writing, stalking Rachel's Ribbon on eBay... you know, daily activities. I watched three seasons of Gilmore Girls and crocheted a lot on my ripple. I also made three Middie hats just because I had some spare yarn and Bonnet was chilling with me. I played on my guitar. I pondered doing things by candlelight just to further the blackout feeling. It's scary to realize how dependent on technology we truly are these days!

Luckily, I'm back in business on a new machine now! I was fortunate enough to have a backup of all the things I consider important to me and was able to save some frivolous things, too, but otherwise, I'm starting fresh. Is it just me, or is it fun to download fonts? You know what, I'm going to clean my desk so it will go with my clean hard drive!

I've been listening to Sucré non-stop as I install programs! So dreamy. Listen, listen!

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