As usual, I hate summer. This summer is no exception. It seems to be the hottest so far… or that is what my mother is claiming. It feels like it. I hate the heat and I equally hate air conditioning. I just can’t win. At work we don’t have AC and I don’t think it hit anything lower then 95 everyday last week. I also spent most of my time in a paint booth with safety equipment on. It’s been so bad that we’ve even been forced to set up camp in the computer room to sleep for a few nights… feeling sorry for me yet?

The most I can do is make myself as comfy as I can. So far they’ve been working to some extent. So what have I been doing: (lots of words behind the cut… amu is pretending to know how to write)

Cool drinks and food: I love unsweetened green tea. My favorite is the bottled stuff made by ITOEN. It’s refreshing and strong but not too bitter. It is so hard to find in my area. Lotte has it but it’s hard to get to with out a car. I try to stock up when I can but the stuff goes so fast. When that happens I make it at home. A few weeks back Yoko gave us a bag of instant green tea. Throw a bag in a contain of water, shake and chill. It’s has a great flavor. Now if only I could figure out the kanji so that I can get more (my Japanese is still at a five year olds level).
The Mr on the other hand loves iced coffee. His favorite coffee is Zeke’s “Tell Tale Dark”. Zeke’s is also a local favorite and we can easily get it at the farmer’s market (both at the Baltimore Farmer’s market on sundays and Waverly on saturdays). Anyway, it’s the only type he will drink black. with other brands he usually loads his up with sugar and cream. I used to hot brew and then chill but Lee from Leethal.net posted an article on Lightninglittlefires last month on how to make cold press coffee concentrate. So simple and really good. The coffee flavor really stands out and you can control how strong you want it. I even use less coffee for the same amount of servings as before. I totally recommend it.

As for food, it’s all things fruits and veggies. The farmer’s market has been amazing this summer (btw, I just realized this week that we are going on our third year of not depending on huge chain grocery stores for our weekly shopping… saving for another post). This week we have peaches and watermelon. Sadly next week blue berries are on their way out but it was good while there were around. Cucumber season is also here. It may not mean much to most but I love the little guys used for pickling. No wax so they are easy to wash. Chilled and sliced with a tiny bit of ponzu sauce. So good and refreshing.

Lastly, we have been living off of “netflix watch instantly”. I’m amazed at what is available. I’ve been trying to watch as many Japanese films to work on my listening comprehension skills (a major weakness of mine. I’ve even had issues with english). Watching a lot of Japanese movies from the 50’s and 60’s. I discovered yakuza films from this time (which are a riot to watch) and a ton of Gozilla and Mothra films (I have a soft spot for Mothra). I always liked english and foreign movies from these time periods and it never occurred to me to check out Japanese movies. Tons of Kurosawa are available and we’ve been watching pretty much of what is currently there. Besides Seven Samurai and Yojimbo, High and Low has to be my favorite(I’ve seen it three times so far). Besides the acting, the charactors and the story, which are all amazing, it takes place in Japan in the 60’s. It has a certain aestheticism that I really like. It’s not Kurosawa’s usual period movies. If you like mysteries and drama (which is normally not something I look for in movies) I highly recommend it.

I lied about that being the last thing. The icing on the cake for me this summer was a good hair cut. I really could not stand having damp wet hair clinging to my neck and face while I was trying to work. Knowing that I was going to be home all week to prepare for Otakon I needed to be comfy… yet cute (yeah I went there). Saturday I had an appointment with Alana to get my hair cut. I brought with me a picture that I had stored on my old hard drive for that time I was feeling brave. This was one of those times. This weekend I called on the spirit of the lovely Jean Seberg for beauty advice and this is what I was told to get:3

I think this picture was taken at the time she was filming the French movie Breathless

Alana worked her magic… even after saying in a thick Russian accent “yeah, that’s short”. She made the cut work with my hairline (the main reason why I pay lots of mullah for her to cut my hair).

There is something about a really pretty face and cropped hair. I am by no means a Jean Seberg, Leslie Caron or Mia Farrow or any of those other vintage beauties who carry off the pixie cut so well, but a girl can pretend can’t she?

Well that’s an up date of sorts. I almost forgot what it was like to log on to wordpress for a second. Crazy. This week I’m off working on Otakon. Everyone seems so prepared… while I’m not. Luckily I can be sewing and knitting late friday morning and still make it to the con on time. It helps to live walking distance from the con. I’m screen printing this morning and finishing up two more sweaters for the con( I still have a ton of sewing, weaving ends in, labeling). I think this calls for sushi at Matsuri for lunch this afternoon.

Found a cool little trailer from Yojimbo. The awesome music I was talking about is towards the end. My wanting to watch old samurai movies has turned into a mini Akira Kurosawa marathon… which has now turned into a small Toshiro Mifune movie marathon. All thanks to Netflix, in the past few days we’ve watched Sanjuro (the sequel to Yojimbo), Rashoman, and High and Low. Surprising I really liked High and Low despite the fact that it’s not a samurai flick (hahaha). I even decided to watch it again this afternoon to catch anything I may have missed. They have a pretty decent selection on their “watch instantly” so we have a few more movies on queue. Very good stuff.

Very tired this even. I stayed up late last night sewing. I should have a few things to show off soon. But don’t get too excited. It’s all for the dollies.

He’s far from finished. He’s on his second face up and needs lashes. I learned the hard way by putting them in after the first face up only having to take them out to do the second. I’m feeling this one out but I think I like it. I just need to add a little more gloss and giving him a little body blushing(not to mention a new wig… do not like DX and maybe some new eyes).

He is such a melon head (don’t let the first photo fool you, though) but I just adore him. So different from my other minis but that is a good thing. He did make it to a doll meet this weekend while The Mr and I were working Balticon. Sadly at the time he was going by “the schulze” but thanks to The Mr’s help he now has a name.

The Mr and I spent most of the weekend in Huntvalley for Balticon. It’s a sci-fi/fantasy literary convention run by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. The Mr was a guest there along with a few of his web comic friends. He was given a table in the guest hall and I set up shop to plug his webcomic. It was a good weekend and a met some very cool people. A few fiber artist who I was able to talk to as well as a very cool doll group who was kind enough to let me crash their meet.

The Mr had to go back today for one more panel and I was kind of regretting not coming along. The dealer’s room had a vendor who was selling clothing reference books which I would have loved to have checked out. Oh well maybe they will be there next year.

Totally random but, I’ve been in the mood for some really good and old samurai movies lately. Netflix watch instantly has a great selection of Akira Kurosawa’s films. The Mr was watching Yojimbo last week and I was only able to catch a little while preparing for the convention. Tonight I decided to replay it (the music is awesome, by the way… no really… I’m serious). There are a few other titles that I’m going to catch but if anyone has any recommendations, I’m all ears.

It’s been so long posting a photo here, I almost forgot.

Anyway,… So, Kristy and Emily, happy now? The Mr is:D

Oh, and yes I’m one of those doll collectors.

The littlest things have made an odd but good change in my mood lately.

We had a good trip at the farmers market on saturday. Asparagus is now in season here and several farmers had it at the market. I roasted some last night and they were so good. I also got some out-of-this-world strawberries. They’re from North Carolina which means the local berries should be here in a few weeks. I decided to get some after craving them for a month now. I made the mistake of getting some seriously non-local berries a few weeks back. They were bright red on the outside but completely white on the inside and tasteless. I knew better than to get them but went against my better judgment. The ones I got on saturday are so red all the way through and oh so good.

I’m still slightly dragging my feet about Dolpa and I’m only left with a few days to decided. They listed their schedule and I’m still not sure. If I go, The Mr and I are going to make a weekend of it. I would still be going to the event myself but at least I’ll have a traveling partner… or we could just save it for another weekend in New York. Decisions decisions…

Besides this little set back, the littlest things have put me in an odd but good mood.

Sorry, this post has gone a bit everywhere this evening, hasn’t it?

“Lay off, will ya!?”

Um, I kind of disappeared again. I’ve been doing that quite a bit lately. After the whole finger post I was laying low. I made a few post over in the doll blog but that was it. I did go to the DC Cherry Blossom festival last saturday with the Mr, Katie, Caitlin and her friend Andy. I had a great crew to travel with and had a great time all around. The trip was more doll related then anything so I left a mini post about it in the other blog in case others are interested.

So that I don’t bore those who may not care, everything else is under the cut:
The finger is doing well. No nerve damage that I can see. I can move it and there is no numbness. Even though I’m finally able to look at it (it took a week O_o), it still looks pretty gross if you ask me. The Mr was a huge help in mending my wounds and changing the dressing on it. I’m still able to knit and work, though I can’t really use the tip of my finger just yet. Luckily I trained my other fingers to take up the slack when I’m having index finger issues.

I’m busy getting ready for Balticon and then Otakon. I’ll have a schedule up sometime soon of all the shows I’ll be doing this year. One show I’m also going to be working is the sheep and wool festival next month, for the shop. I’m too excited. I live in Maryland and knit like a fiend yet I’ve never been. We’re going to be doing wood turning demos and hopefully have quite a few items for sale like drop spindles and niddy-noddys and all those good useful things. We’re also going to be advertising for the wood turning school since we’re adding a “part two” to the fiber tools class. Once I get more info like table location and such, I’ll post it.

It’s definitely getting warmer. We need to do some serious work in the garden. The peonies are popping up. One of the two trees are ready to bloom (I think the one tree is still too young to do anything just yet. Maybe next year). The peony bush on the opposite side of the garden is just sprouting and has a few tiny buds. One stalk has made it’s way up to the trees. It’s so odd but it’s a single stalk with one tiny bud. I’m going to leave it alone for now to see what it does.

There are a few more flowers plants that I would like to add. We’ll have some room once I trim the rose bush down. It’s getting a bit out of control. The lemon balm is back as well and is ready to take over. I’m cutting all of that back and saving one bush which will be kept in a container away from the garden. It’s just a mess when the end of July hits. We plan on growing some veggies as well this year. I’m going to try radishes and edamame. Maybe even zucchini since we eat quite a bit of that through out the year. We need to start soon though since it’s now almost mid april.

This evening was rather unproductive so I’m heading to bed early. I’ve been doing that the past several nights. I’ve been getting so tired around this time every night. Maybe I’m getting a healthier sleep routine. We’ll see.

….pssss…. vote for #1;)

I’m so brilliant. And because of my brilliance I’m missing half of an entire nail and have a busted knuckle. Way to go, Amu! It could have been worse but it still hurts and is a pain in my butt right now (who knew I did so much with this one finger). I will have to thank my aunt, uncle and Joe for acting fast or I would be a puddle of goo on the shop floor right now.

The Mr said that most would rather see what is under the bandage rather than the bandaged version. WhatO_o! I don’t even want to see whats there myself. There goes any future hope of being a hand model.

Now I’m off to see if I can figure out a way to knit with my right foot. Tata.

I’m still going through photos from a fantastic meet up I went to yesterday. Sadly they will have to wait another day since I have a few things to do before I start my work week tomorrow.

I’m still spinning away. I managed to get a bit spun while I was waiting for a sweater to block after the meet, last night. As I had said in a post earlier to this, I plan to use this yarn for a doll sweater… I know you’re all disappointed right? They dress better than me most of the time…

It’s a nice little project though, spinning the yarn to knit into a sweater. When I was taking a few fashion design courses (… over a decade ago… I feel so old now) I found that my pick of fantastic fabric shops was pretty limited. In Baltimore that meant there were none, unless you thought Joannes was the place to go (no!!). I never found the right fabric for my projects and wished I went into designing tectiles instead. A few years later I picked up knitting, simply for the fact I was pretty much creating my own fabric. Now, I’m able to go back an extra step further.

I’m such a noob in so many ways. Right now I’m trying to go as thin as I can knowing very well that I’m not using the right spindle and weight. That’s okay, another project for me at the shop will be to make a smaller lighter weight spindle. Another problem is knowing when to stop. This looks like it could be enough… but then again, it doesn’t. It’s quite relaxing once I get a rhythm going so I don’t mind finishing off the wool I had left. As for what type of sweater, I’m thinking of just making a non-mohair version of the Takumi sweater. A comfy, chunky sweater. Maybe something inspired by the gorgeous sweaters made by Craig Hunter of Cubist Literature. (by the way, he has a pretty awesome pattern up on Knitty this season).

Yesterday I helped out with the Fiber tools class at Mark Supik and Co. and had such a fantastic time. We had a wonderful group of students who were enthusiastic and just totally in the class. As usual I was in awe of my uncle’s teaching and demo skills. Having been taught by him myself over the years, his instructions are always clear and easy to understand. You always seem to get it after the first explanation.

I gave a demo myself and turned a drop spindle. Even though everyone was able to make what they wanted in the second half of the class, three of the six students made drop spindles themselves. Other projects included nostepinnes, orifice hooks and a niddy noddy. Everyone was able go home with a few projects that they made from one day of class. It was a busy day and I was so beat in the end but it was great.

The photo above is the spindle I made during the demo. I started using it today without putting a finish on (which I normally recommend) but I was too impatient. I’m spinning some merino wool I picked up at the convention center, the last year Stitches was in Baltimore. It’s hard to tell but it’s a beautiful gold silky looking merino. Even though the spindle is just too large and heavy for lace weight I’m seeing how thin I can go with it. I would like to see if I can spin enough for a doll sweater. Wish me luck.

By the way, I was told this week that my work at the shop was “Awesome!”. Now, I normally wouldn’t make a big deal about this, but it was said to me three times in one conversation by a little old lady who was touring the shop. I thought it was rather blog worthy, don’t you?