Sights of San Francisco

I took a whole slew of photos of San Francisco and I thought I'd share a few. If you want to see them all head to my flickr stream here.

Live from New York It's A Snowy Saturday Night

Happy New Year!! I hope everyone out there ended 2009 in a happy way. 

Not surprisingly I am a bit behind and will have to have some 2009 related posts before I fully surrender to the new decade.

The week before Christmas I headed to NYC to stay with Non-Crafty Meg and to go to Saturday Night Live.  Of course there was a doozy of a winter storm coming up the east coast but I was lucky and made it there before the snow hit and buses and trains were cancelled. 

With a dim sum lunch in Chinatown shortly after I arrived I was fortified to up into the wee hours.  We braved the snow and crowds at Rockefeller Center to see The Tree, well, it was across the street from the studio so really how could we not?

Non-Crafty Meg with The Tree behind her, it's hard to see but it's there

The Tree at Rockefeller Center

Watching SNL was really cool.  I had never seen a tv show filmed before so it was neat to see all the inner workings and how much goes on so during the commercials of a live show.  And for my cousin, Celeste, yeah James Franco was really hot.

For you knitters out there I also managed to make a quick stop at School Products before I left and picked up a cashmere-silk blend and some Karabella yarn of which they have more colors than I have ever seen. 

Hot Time in the City

It's a warm Friday night in the city and what am I up to? Laundry! And I am just fine with that. I was away the past few weekends and now my naturally homebody-self is happily sitting at home catching up on shows on the DVR and my Netflix.

I spent the 4Th of July weekend up in Maine where we picked strawberries, made strawberry daiquiris, strawberry and sponge cake and strawberry pancakes. All wonderful until I realized by the end of the weekend I have developed a strawberry allergy and had to hit the store for antihistamine and calamine lotion. I like to think that maybe my body couldn't handle the strawberry overload and I am really not allergic. I do love my denial.

This past weekend I went to New York City to visit Non-Crafty Meg for her birthday. We packed a whole lot into one weekend. We saw The Hangover (hilarious - but not for those who dislike profanity and ribald humor) then over to Serendipity for a late dinner and their famous frozen hot chocolate.




Serendipity


We had lunch at Justin Timberlake's bar-b-q restaurant with my cousin who is interning at a magazine in NYC for the summer. A loooooot of walking around and much drinking of iced coffee, a quick visit to the Museum of Arts and Design, where the current exhibit The Art of Industrial Ceramics was very cool and is there until Sept 13 so check it out if you're in the city.

Columbus Circle (photo taken from outside the Museum of Arts and Design)


That night we went to see "The Tempermentals" starring Michael Urie from Ugly Betty. He and the entire cast were just wonderful! A really great and interesting play. Another must see if you're visiting the city. And who was in the audience just a few rows away - Joan Rivers!

The celeb spotting continued all weekend as saw one of the kids from Gossip Girl and an actress from One Life to Live on the street. The next night we went to Rock of Ages (fabulously cheesetastic in an 80s music kind of way) I won the ticket lottery and got a sweet seat in the 2nd row! and who was there but Phil Collins! The play stared one of the folks from American Idol but since I have never watched it (yeah I am one of those 10 people) I don't count him in my celeb sightings. Meg says she saw Pierce Brosnan at a cafe in Soho the next day but I missed it so I can't corroborate that sighting.

I did squeeze in a visit to a yarn store but the yarn I bought there is soooo pretty that it may deserve a post of its own and I haven't taken pictures of it yet.

Besides the yarn I picked up these super cute appetizer plates at CB2 that were recently mentioned at decor8. I bought them before Meg pointed out the decor8 post to me. I am just soooo trendy, ha! (Hear that Marsy I'm hip!)




Whew, by the end of the weekend I was exhausted and my feet were a wee bit sore but we had a great time and I think Meg's birthday was celebrated in style. But now I am happily loafing on the sofa watching summer tv.

Rhinebeck!!!

I am back from my trip to Rhinebeck with my friends Ariel and Jenny and it has taken me a few days just to rest and recover before being able to get to the computer to post. For those unfamiliar with this event of fiber-y goodness, the NYS Sheep & Wool Festival, it takes place in Rhinebeck, NY, so hence it is just referred to as "Rhinebeck". A fact that kept confusing Jenny who could not comprehend how anyone could mention the word Rhinebeck and not be referring to the wool festival.

The whole event was truly a feast for the senses. The Hudson Valley area of NY in autumn is just gorgeous.


Then throw in the smells and tastes of fair food: fried dough, chicken pot pie, fudge, maple syrup cotton candy (yummy!), all that plus they had wine and cheese tastings. Really people! Yarn and cheese, does it get any better?

But most of all there was yarn, fabulous, colorful, soft, roll around naked in, yarn. There were just buildings and buildings of vendors with such pretty things to touch and see. Most of the yarn was from small farms and independent dyers. I think I was pretty restrained in my shopping but did add to my stash with absolutely no idea what I am going to use some of this for and I don't care! I don't usually buy without a specific project in mind so I think this was really good for me.

Saturday night was the ravelry party and I think someone said there were nearly 700 people there! We initially were way early so we stopped at a local diner for an amazing burger and chocolate milkshake. So we ended up getting to the party a bit late but we did get goodie bags! Since it was so very chilly we took refuge in one of the tents with heaters and hung out with the wonderful folks of the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm.

Diner


Ravelry cupcakes

Now for the photos you are really waiting for....yarn!!!!

Socks That Rock

Alpaca light fingering weight, the softest thing ever! I literally cradled it in my arms and stroked it as I waited to pay for it. I have adopted it as my new pet and I think we are just going to sit on the couch and watch tv together. Far less maintenance than a cat or bunny.



Lluxury Llama, the only thing I bought with a specific pattern in mind


Best bargain of the day, this 100% wool cranberry fingering weight heather with blue flecks that I figured had to have something wrong with it since it was so reasonable!



I finally found a cute vase to show off the colorful needles my grandma gave me.

Goats On Film

For those of you who are Duran Duran fans and are wincing at my title of this post, I'm sorry.

Recently I got the chance to visit the Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm . Home of the first yarn CSA and some super cute goats. For those who are unfamiliar with CSA concept, you buy a share of the yarn and then get a portion of the fiber at "harvest" time. Susan the Shepherdess is so cool and it's just an amazing concept I was forced to buy a skein of yarn for myself on my visit (photos to come) I am not a shareholder but wouldn't a share make an awesome birthday present (hint, hint for any family members reading along).

Also about a month ago I saw a mention on one of the many craft blogs I read about the Intel Need A Tech Makeover Contest. I actually forwarded it to my mom kidding that we should enter her 'cause her PC is soooo old. We like to say she's not on the Information Highway but selling boiled peanuts on the dirt road off the Information Highway. I didn't enter Mom but it turns out the MVFF entered and are looking at using the tech upgrade to add webcams so we viewers at home can check out the goats in action. So go on and vote for them right here. You don't need to register or anything just click it says "like it?" next to the number of votes they currently have.

Now to the best part of this post, cute goat pics. Feel free to ooh and aah amongst yourselves.

A Bite of the Apple

So I am back from a weekend in NYC visiting my friend Meg who has recently moved there. She is doing great except for a growing addiction to Tasti D Lite. After a slight delay in getting there when the megabus broke down, I arrived last Friday afternoon with some time to kill before Meg finished up work so I having done my homework beforehand on yarn stores I headed over to Knitty City. A truly charming store, with oodles of pretty yarn and a great vibe. I was surprised by how many people kept dropping in on a hot Friday afternoon in July. They had some great sounding classes coming up, if I lived in New York that would surely be my yarn store.

While I was knitting, Meg was getting us tickets to see Spring Awakening. I loved the music by Duncan Sheik. And there was the bare ass of a cutie 20 year old guy!

The next day we headed to Williamsburg for some for brunch and then stumbled upon the Brooklyn Brewery.


Mmm....beer tanks.


We ended up at Union Square Greenmarket where the vendors were selling wines, produce and in one bizarre tent both the lamb's wool yarn and the lamb itself for consumption. Don't worry I only took a photo of the yarn, not the meat.



As we headed back to Meg's apartment we could hear the free Bon Jovi in Central Park. Cue "You Give Love a Bad Name" here.

I may have to create a new treaty for Sarahland with the truly noble house of Barney Greengrass, The Sturgeon King. Really anyone who makes a lox, onions and eggs that good deserves to be king.




And finally we got to give Meg's new string bag out for a test drive at the farmer's market Sunday morning. It's a mix of the Everlasting Bagstopper and the Fantasy Naturale Market Bag.

Close up

All in all a wonderful weekend that I can't wait to repeat sometime soon.

The House in the Woods

Well, I am back from the wilds of Maine where I spent the holiday weekend. You've got to love a town where when the phone rings on the 4th of July it's the neighbors letting you know that a wild turkey and her babies are walking down the street.

I spent a lot of time doing my favorite activities, eating yummy breakfasts of waffles or pancakes and watching birdies out the windows. Below are my favorites the gold finch.


There were also a ton of humming birds but as much as I stalked them Sunday afternoon for a photo they could sense my presence and flitted away. As did the chipmunk and the blue jays and the dumb little chickadees who were confused by trying to drink out of the humming bird feeder. Cute birds but not the smartest. It is not unheard of for a chickadee to bonk into the kitchen window when overshooting the bird feeders. Don't worry they are okay, just a bit dazed for a moment.

I got absolutely no knitting done even with a last minute run to Woolcott when I realized I left my current project at home. I was forced, (forced I tell you!) to buy some Silky Wool for stranded mittens. I did finish "The Friday Night Knitting Club", an enjoyable read. I read most of it while sitting on the deck enjoying the view and my laughing companion. No, not my giggling niece although she can crack her self up. But this guy.





I did manage to get my ass in gear for an afternoon in Portland where I visited the Portland Fiber Gallery and Knit Wit . Both lovely shops that I hope to return to when I have more time. And in visiting the Fiber Gallery which has spinning supplies it came up in conversation that my sister has four drop spindles. How did I not know this? So I may have to borrow one and try my hand at spinning.

Well, I hope that everyone had a great weekend!

Art & Soul - Part I

I am back from Art & Soul and it was great! I am sure that this is the first of several posts about it since I still have to take photos and/or scans of my masterpieces.

Things were a little wonky in the beginning as our luggage enjoyed a longer stay at the Philadelphia airport than we did. We flew out of Logan down to Philly okay, a few minutes late but with enough time to catch our 1:20 connection to Newport News which was unfortunately in a terminal at the other end of the airport. We go and check the departure time as we get off our flight and it says "Delayed". We take a shuttle to the other terminal and we spy the Chick-fil-A in the food court area, we figure we can grab a bite for lunch no problem.

As we get to the other terminal, I check the departures again and this time it says that our flight that our 1:20 flight is now leaving at 1:05. Yes, early. Since when do flights leave early? I actually ask some strange man if I am reading things correctly and apparently I was. They start boarding just a few minutes after we get there and we can see them loading the luggage on the small prop plane. Marsy then says "I don't see my red suitcase". Which was true since both of our suitcases were most probably making their way from Terminal B to F but when they got to F, whoops!, out plane was gone. Early!!

Since we checked into the hotel in late afternoon there were little choices on where to eat and the stress of all of our missing supplies (and underwear). I will spare everyone the details of our descent into mopiness and the crankiness of some people when they don't get anything to eat for lunch. Our luggage was due to come in on the next flight, get to Virginia around 4:30 and make it to us in time for our evening class. Yeah, not so much. The next flight was delayed and we had to make head off to class sans supplies. Luckily I in my class the instructor had most of the supplies we needed and the people in my class were generous, very sympathetic to my situation and were good sharers. Marsy was not so lucky and really could have used her own tools and had bad sharers. People who say they are going to share but then don't.

Our luggage finally arrived about 15 minutes before the class ended. And I found myself finally exhaling the breath I had apparently been holding in all afternoon. Did I mention we hate US Airways? And Philadelphia?

Stay tuned for more arty goodness and culinary adventures....