endings and beginnings

So, it has been a little quiet around here lately.

Totally silent, in fact.

Do you ever have those weeks (or months, as the case may be) where everything just happens all at the same time?  Well, that happened to me about a month ago.  In a span of about three weeks, I volunteered to make all of the flowers for my best friend's wedding (more on that next post!), applied for a job, interviewed on the phone and in person, completed an application project, and stayed up to all hours of the night making the wedding flowers.  After many hot glue gun burns, occasional cursing, a lot of help from my mom, and a lot of tea, the flowers were finished and my mom and I went careening down the highway to Pennsylvania to deliver them.  

We had to pull over so that I could take a call, and somewhere on the side of the road in Pennsylvania, I accepted a job offer!  Then, after some cheering and lots of hugs, my mom and I were back on the road.  The flowers arrived intact, my best friend and her now-husband and I played Mario Party, and I collapsed on their couch and slept the sleep of the totally exhausted.  The wedding was wonderful-- but that deserves its own post.

 

On my last day at my previous job, my coworkers threw a going-away tea party!  It was so thoughtful and sweet and I was absolutely blown away by the amount of effort that went into making this celebration happen.  

 

One of my coworkers' husbands has a catering side business, and he made the most delicious cucumber and watercress tea sandwiches, as well as radish and cream cheese sandwiches and tiny peanut butter and honey sandwiches!  

 

Another coworker, Lindsay, made mini-cupcakes!  My friend Stephanie spear-headed the party planning and she knows how much I love miniature foods-- I think tiny foods are so cute!  Steph knows me so well.   

 

Of course, there were teacups and doilies and lots of varieties of tea to choose from.  

My coworkers also presented me with a beautiful bouquet of white roses and blue hydrangeas-- my favorite flower!  

I was absolutely floored by the wonderful send-off from my coworkers.  In case any of you guys stumble across this, thank you so much!  I still smile every time I remember this incredible party.

As for my new job, well... I absolutely love it.  I wake up every day excited to go to work and contribute to the amazing team that I am lucky enough to be part of.  I have been in my new position for almost a month-- I can't believe how quickly the time is flying by!  

One last little note-- as you may have noticed, I've redesigned my blog!  I'd love to hear any comments about the new look!

What's new with you?  Any exciting news in your life recently?

♥

snippets

Hi!  Here's a peek into what I've been up to lately.

All of a sudden, Queen Anne's Lace flowers are popping up everywhere!  One of my favorite things about my commute is seeing what is growing in the gardens in my neighborhood.

 
The Buckster fell asleep with his tongue out.  Heehee.

 
 It's been cool enough this week to have tea in the morning.  Yay!

 
 I walk past this bird cage every day, and usually there is a parrot in it.  But yesterday morning, he was joined by this squirrel, who was enjoying a snack of parrot food!  The parrot didn't even seem bothered about it.  When I walked by this morning, there were two sparrows in the cage with him.  Maybe he likes the company.

 
I went to the knitwear and yarn trend show, SpinExpo, for work, and I loved these two swatches.  The bottom one made me want to start crocheting a blanket in these beautiful, creamy neutrals with fuzzy angora bits here and there.  So pretty!

 
It's always a good day for a cat sweater.  One of my coworkers brought this one back from Europe, and when it wasn't used for work, she gave it to me!  It makes me smile every time I look at it.

 

Sometimes Cocoa decides it is time to snuggle right now.  And sometimes he doesn't care too much if Bucky is in the mood for snuggling.

I hope you're having a lovely week so far!

♥

snippets♥

Hi there,

I hope you're having a good week and that all of you are safe and sound.

First of all, my heart goes out to everyone involved in this week's events in Boston and in Texas.  

I'm lucky enough not to know first-hand what it feels like to be in either situation, or to have a loved one involved.  I'm sure that even the deepest empathy or the most vivid imaginings fall short of how horrifying the reality is.  I'm simultaneously shocked at how terrible some actions can be and at how selflessly others respond.  Seeing the footage of runners in Boston putting their own lives in danger to try to save others, or continuing to run directly to hospitals to donate blood, is so encouraging.  It pales in comparison the heroic efforts made by so many, but I'm sending out all of the positive, healing energy I can muster up.

With no segue whatsoever (because really, how can one possibly segue from that to anything else?), here's a peek into my life lately.

My mom won a door prize at the opening of the Skirted Fleece Mill!  She won a set of these adorable sheep stitch markers and a beautiful hand-thrown, hand-painted yarn bowl.  Lucky for me, she doesn't knit.  She also won a skein of handspun yarn, which I'll be knitting into a hat for her.  The stitch markers are currently on my very first sweater-- more about that soon!

Here are the two adorable reasons why I never have room to stretch out to sleep.  They take up the entire bottom half of the bed!  But they always look so cozy, I just can't bring myself to move them.    These little guys have had a rough time this week-- more on that soon, too.  They're back to their usual charming selves now, though.

Tulips are blooming in Manhattan!  

It's such an amazing change to see the city go from cold and gray to balmy and green.

I just re-stocked my supply of my favorite tea ever, McNulty's Berry Creme black tea.  It's delicious, and the dried rose petals make it beautiful to look at, too.  

I hope you have a beautiful, peaceful day.

♥

playing catch-up

Hi there, ladies and gents.

I hope you are having a fantastic January!

It's been a bit quiet around here lately-- between the holidays and being sick on and off for the past few weeks, I've either been gift-knitting like a madwoman or snuggled up in bed, sipping tea (and maybe whining just a little).  But I'm excited to get back to blogging.

the Christmas Spice tea has little snowflake sprinkles in it-- how cute is that!

My brother's girlfriend sent up this delicious tea for Christmas (thank you Sheila!) and I've been having at least three cups of it every day because it's just so tasty.  I think the Strawberry Honey is my favorite.  I've been getting a lot of knitting done between the inevitable caffeine crashes.

Speaking of which, I finished my Robins' Feathers shawl!

snow boots instead of ballet flats in shawl photos this time of year...

I'm pretty excited to have knit my first big lace project.  Yay!  You'll be seeing more of this shawl soon-- I want to post a photo of myself wearing it because it's huge and I don't really wear shawls draped around my shoulders.  It makes a lovely scarf-ish wrap, though.  But y'know who needs to see me looking bleary and cold-stricken?  Nobody, that's who.  So it'll have to wait until I'm no longer sniffly.  

Anyway, my Robins' Feathers shawl took a couple tries to get going, but now I feel confident in my ability to read complex charts, and I'm already trying to decide on another shawl to cast on.  I think it's going to be the Hogwarts Express.  I've been spinning up some soft, fawn-brown alpaca for the Pomme de Pin cardigan, but I'm not going to have enough yardage, and I think it'll be a better match for the Hogwarts Express anyway.  ...And c'mon, how could I not knit it?  It's snuggly and Harry Potter themed.  I'm also still knitting away on my busy bee quilt, so I'll show you my progress on that soon, too.

I hope you have a wonderful evening!

♥

weekend plans

This weekend will consist of...

countless cups of tea...

lots and lots of sewing...

and sunshine-y napping.

What are you doing this weekend?

1.2.3
I can't quite decipher the watermark on the teacup photo to link to the original source.  if you're able to, pretty please let me know?

♥

tea time ♥

from here and here

♥

trust30 project: day three (etc.)

I've been pondering this question all day, and I've had a hard time coming up with an answer.  For the most part, I do share the beliefs of my family and friends.  If anything, I think I have a bit more of a propensity to think the very best of people.  Which isn't always a good thing.  It isn't something I do intentionally, so I'm not sure it counts as a belief, but I'm kind of okay with it even if it doesn't always lead to the best results.  When Bryce sent me three adorable little cards, one of the things that she wrote in them was that she admired my willingness to be vulnerable to other people and to the world in general.  That sentiment kind of took me by surprise, because I'm an extremely private person, but maybe a willingness toward vulnerability comes from refusing to be cynical.  So although I don't consider my friends and family to be cynical, let's go ahead and call that my belief.

♥

...and on a completely unrelated note, I made a mug cozy.  It's to keep my fingers from getting burned when I'm too impatient to wait for my tea to cool before I take it somewhere.

also, I just thought they were really cute and wanted to make one regardless of whether it served any practical purpose.

♥

might as well face it...

...I'm addicted to mugs.

♥

breathe

This morning I fell victim to one of the most prominent dangers of finals week:  online shopping.  One of the things keeping me from getting too stressed out is the Crunch: Candlelight Yoga program that's available to watch instantly on Netflix, and it's fantastically relaxing.  But I also want something a little more challenging.  I tried the Crunch: Super Slimdown yoga/pilates blend routine, but it just wasn't for me.  Too much encouraging shouting.  Instead, I just impulse-ordered a DVD that has two yoga routines, one that's more gentle and one that's sort of a 'power yoga' thing.  It's with the same instructor as the Candlelight Yoga one, Sara Ivanhoe, and I like her style a lot.   She explains enough that I feel fairly sure that I'm doing the poses right, but she also lets you get into your own rhythm with the breathing by having parts where there's no talking, which is helpful.  There's a distinct lack of phrases like, "Great job!" and "Looking good!"  I find it hard to take compliments seriously from someone who can't actually see me.  It's too reminiscent of being told "Good eye!" in gym class when I would run in terror from the ball being lobbed at me.  Good intention, but not actually helpful. Anyway, here's what I've been doing, and here's what I just ordered.  Yay!  I'm so excited to try it this weekend.

As for the other item that's tempting me on Amazon....



It's a yellow submarine tea infuser.  So, so cute.

As of now, I have one class (my online licensing class) completely finished, including the final, and I'm almost done with the sewing for two of my other classes, and I only have photoshopping and printing left to do for my two portfolio classes.  I hesitate to say this for fear of speaking too soon, but I think maaaaybe I'll make it to the end of the semester with a minimum of weeping/moaning/gnashing of teeth.  Here's hoping!

♥

oh my.

I want this so much, this whole scene.  I want to curl up with one of my very favorite people and watch movies outside, with twinkly lights and tea and popcorn with cinnamon and sugar.

1

some days are just perfect

So today, I went to one of my favorite cafès / coffee shops in New York, 'sNice on West 4th Street and 8th Avenue.  I just couldn't take another day of being holed up in my room, not having any contact with other people.  And I thought a change in environment might make me more productive.  It worked!  I got so much done today that I can work for a few more hours and then go to bed early and still be ahead of where I planned to be by the end of today.  Yay!

If you're in the New York City area and haven't visited 'sNice, you should check it out!  It's a very relaxed atmosphere, with a really good vegetarian menu.  Since I got there around eleven-thirty or so, I was feeling brunch-y and had a toasted nutella and banana sandwich and lots of chamomile tea, both of which were incredibly delicious.  They serve tea in tall, substantial-feeling glasses, which I love love love.  I also love that there are big wooden tables for people who are on laptops, which helps to avoid that awkward situation of taking up an entire small table by yourself and trying not to make eye contact when people come in and can't find any other seats.

So anyway!  I happened to sit across from a fantastically attractive man at one of these communal tables-- for about six hours.  And I got so much work done!  From this we can deduce several things:

1. I am much better and faster at doing my homework when there is a gorgeous man near-by.


2. I am doing homework pretty much all the time.


3. Thus, I should be surrounded by gorgeous men at all times.

Makes perfect sense to me.

I've been alluding to a major project that everyone in my semester has to do, which is what I was working on today in between eye-flirting and sipping tea.  Here's a sneak peek at a little of it!

♥Yay for Saturdays!♥

tea time ♥

One of my New Years to-do list items was to buy tea from independent sellers on etsy, but when I found out about this fantastic brick-and-mortar tea shop, I had to check it out.  And oh my gosh, it is like a tea-lover's paradise.  McNulty's Tea and Coffee Co. is on Christopher Street between Bleecker and Hudson.

I don't like coffee, so I was pretty focused on the tea selection, but they had lots of different kinds of coffee beans, too.  And there are these great antique scales where everything gets weighed.  And when you walk in, it smells so good. McNulty's sells tea and coffee accessories, too, lots of tea infusers and tea pots and French presses.

I picked out three different black teas-- Mint Chocolate, Berry Creme, and Lemon Spice.

The fourth tea is an herbal tea mix of peppermint and lemon balm, from our garden at home.

The labels (minus the words and a little recoloring in Photoshop) are from here, here, and here.

keep warm, lovelies! ♥