I (heart) Tuesday, late edition (i.e. on Wednesday)

Sorry, I know I ...

a.) am late with my post (and I'm on deadline constantly for a living, so it feels really weird to blow one.)

and

b.) guilty of leaving you hanging about my big splurge.

So I apologize and give you these in hopes you will forgive me.




And now for my splurge ...





Can you tell what it is?

I got a new camera! Okay, a second-hand Nikon d-70 body from somebody on Craigslist, but it's new to me!

I'm still playing with it, since I wanted to be able to use my old lenses, I'm having to dust off that part of my brain that knows what the hell an f-stop and iso are.

The inlaws have been helping us around the house, namely A.K. and his dad are building a deck for our new house and A.K.'s mom is helping me make some cushions for a window seat. (I'm nervous about putting cording and zippers on the cushions.) Hopefully I'll get the hang of my new camera and take some great pictures. Or I can continue taking lame photos with my super-duper camera. Well see how things go.

I (heart) Tuesday, Bjork edition?

Normally, I don't understand Bjork, and honestly I don't understand this video for her song "Wanderlust," but I love it all the same.



Also, when I hear her name, I always think of the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show.



I'm making a splurge purchase today (and if you know me, when I say splurge, I mean it.) and I'll do a little show and tell tomorrow!

National High Five Day

Did you know?



are you wearing your High Five tshirt?

i am.

I (heart) Tuesday, New Zealand edition

STERIOGRAM'S WALKIE TALKIE MAN
Greatest video EVER that features mass amounts of yarn. Steriogram is a great New Zealand band. This song was used in one of the the iPod silhouette promos, but they should have shown this video. In fact, I bought their album before the iPod commercial because of this song.



Also this is the behind the scenes video about how they did it.



While I'm at it, I think I'm a Kiwi-phile.

My spinning wheel is an Ashford,

The New Zealand Merino is my favorite sheep,



I'm not-so-secretly crushing on Flight of the Conchords,


and who didn't like Lord of the Rings? (seriously, do I need to link to this? How about I link to Bret of Flight of the Conchords and his adventures as FIGWIT?

Crushing on Blithe

In sixth grade, I sat behind this boy who had curly, sandy blond hair and these mesmerizing blue eyes. I spent a good portion of my day wondering what it would be like to loop one of those curls through my fingers. This boy had no interest in me other than to give him a copy of my science homework, but I think Blithe is giving me a taste of what those sandy locks may have felt like.

(On a side note, I ran into this boy later in our lives, and his hair had darkened and thinned quite a bit. He wouldn't shut up about "living in the shadow of his older brother." It's nice to know Blithe will never become bitter and bald.)

Kim Hargreaves is my frenemy?

I finally got Blithe in the mail. All the way from England. There she was wrapped in brown paper, just the way Fraulein Maria from the "Sound of Music" would prefer her packages sent.

But what made my day was when I turned it over and saw the custom declaration.


Yep, that says K. Hargreaves. I think Kim Hargreaves package this herself and sent along to the post. (Okay, I admit, there is a strong possibility that someone picked it up from her office and it is actually one of her minions or maybe "Kristin Hargreaves," Kim's well-intentioned, but good-for-nothing-but-signing-customs-declarations, who is responsible, but don't ruin this for me.)

I also love how the return address is from Intake Cottage. Alright, I've been watching a lot of PBS lately, but the idea is charming. Kim doesn't reside/work at some numbered square on some numbered street (like I do). Kim sits in a comfortable chair, with a roaring fire at Intake Cottage and gets up every so often to mail packages with yarn to pathetic Americans who have the misfortune not to live in a cottage or Pemberley.

Inside the package is pretty good too.



Yeah, that's an envelope that contains buttons and a label. Again, charming, but this is where my Blithe love hit a snag.

Although I agree that Kim is the genius behind the garment, I'm knitting the damn thing, I should get some credit there somewhere.

And this my friends is when I realized why the colonists fought the Revolutionary War.
Knitting without representation.

I (heart) Tuesday

I've been a little down and to get myself out of a funk, I've been looking around for inspiration, reminders of people and things that make me happy and places I want to see. It's been working and I thought it might help others, so today and every Tuesday, I'll be posting a list of some inspirations I found.

ALSO
Graphic design firm which I wish I was talented enough to work for.



OKIDO
Great British children's magazine. I can only oogle online as the subscription price is a little beyond my means.



ENFANTTERRIBLE
Really cute online kid store. The animations just made me smile.



FUJIYA & MIYAGI
Great band out of the U.K. (even though their name sounds like they are Japanese) you should check out "Collarbone."



LIAM FINN
I love this video, as well as Liam Finn.



What do you love? What inspires you? Where do you wish to visit?

Fixation

So here's a photo of the Eggplant in her corrected form. I'm glad I went back to fix her, but my enthusiasm for her has definitely waned. I'm generally in a funk these days, so maybe she is just suffering from my mood.
Sorry to be such a downer these past posts, maybe I'll be able to cheer up this weekend.

Loser

The Gators failed to be the N.I.T. champs (you know, the 'loser' bracket), and I failed to finish the eggplant sweater.

I know, I'm a loser.

I did finish the wrap cardigan for the baby to be named later. But that accomplishment feels a bit empty.

I admit, part of why I haven't finished Eggplant is because I decided to rip back to fix the messed up cable. So I would show you a photo, but it would look almost like the photo from before. I'll take some photos when I'm feeling up to it.