Auntie Nettie's Merchandise 2017 - Taking Heart cont'd

Sometimes it is okay to take a unfinished project that was started for a loved one, made with love, to show your love, and then use it to spread some love.

After three years as a UFO, it was time to unravel it and let it go. 🏳 of defeat. I surrender!

(Sorry baby niece who is no longer a baby niece.)

💞
💕
💝

~ photo by iPhone, some filters

Some Resolutions for 2016

Just a few ONGOING resolutions for 2016

🎉 Happy New Year! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/BKCUe2YlvS

— Lion Brand Yarn (@LionBrandYarn) January 1, 2016

Anyone else getting started on their reading resolutions today? Reading anything good? https://t.co/5OohL9cOZk pic.twitter.com/HvyMaifuXx

— Tor Books (@torbooks) January 1, 2016

Get in the spirit of giving! https://t.co/PFdpEsYJV7 pic.twitter.com/H6IgKlrYEs

— Mormon Channel (@mormonchannel) December 15, 2015

Happy new year. Our letter writing community is over 9,000 strong! pic.twitter.com/HrTP8oGhob

— Letter Writers Allc. (@_LWA) January 1, 2016

Is it impossible to shop for her? If she loves #littlefreelibrary, try this stationery: https://t.co/2DqTarKLtX pic.twitter.com/EaVJ8tsG5X

— Little Free Library® (@LtlFreeLibrary) December 11, 2015

Twas the Night Before Christmas

And All Through the House

Not a Creature was Stirring,

Not Even a ....

~ photos by iPhone

43 Ideas for Birthday 43: Yards of Yarn

More yarn, please! pic.twitter.com/3VCDaKywDv

— Lion Brand Studio (@lbystudio) December 10, 2014

Photos of the Day: Crafty Ladies

 Left: Mine for her 

Right: Hers

Just a couple of quick photos to document some of the crafty touches now decorating Christine's "crib."

Left: two of the crocheted, appliqued stocking I made for her beloved (and now sadly, late) pooches.
Right: two of the lovely wreathes she made with just a few of the corks that she's picked up in her travels. Let me stress here, for the record, she did NOT drink all that wine by herself. It would have been a whole different type of gathering if she did.

I like having crafty friends. Now, if I could only find time for us to do more arty things. Christine is also quite a fine fine artist. Get those pencils out again, girl!

photos via iTouch

Auntie Nettie's Attic Merchandise 2013 - October

After a relatively quiet crafting period, I got four little blankies done in a very short period of time. It seems I can either craft, read, blog, have a social life, but I can't seem to do a combination of these things - unless I'm on a roadtrip and I can crochet while someone else is driving. Case in point, October's roadtrip to the Cape with Mom...

All of these are made of four (4) skeins of Plymouth Yarns, Dreambaby DK, acrylic and nylon.

In close-up

ANA 2013-26: Little Bitty Blankie, Pink Pastel (DK 0119)
(as of 9/15, no longer available,)

 ANA 2013-27: Little Bitty Blankie, Blueberry (DK 0136)

 ANA 2013-28: Little Bitty Blankie, White (DK 0100)
(as of 3/15, no longer available)

ANA 2013-29: Little Bitty Blankie, Cornflower (DK 0124)

Let me know if you want to give any of these a good home.

I seriously need to get selling stuff. The Attic is bursting again. I also have some commissions, so I need work on those soon. The clock is ticking on a delivery by a stork.

Auntie Nettie's Attic Merchandise 2013 - July, August, September

I've been flipping through my notes from the summer trying to remember what it was that kept me so busy. It was things that have no visible output on the blog; things like culling through closets, buckets, shelves, etc. Other items on the summer agenda were finishing "grown-up" life projects - like running and cleaning credit reports, shredding bills and documents, getting rid of old electronics, etc. etc. etc.

MOST importantly, at least to me, it was imperative to finally finish off crafting projects that I had laying around the Attic. 

To that end, here's the few projects from July through September.

ANA 2013-22: Purple Scarf 

(2 skeins of Cascade yarns Peruvian wool)

 

It's a miracle only 3 years in the making! HOLY COW.

Can I have a moment to savor the fact that the UFO/Bane of My Existence is FINALLY Finished.

ANA 2013-23: 

(Multiple skeins of white Caron sport yarn, arcylic; and Lion Brand Roma yarn, acrylic - Roma, discontinued)

BEFORE

 AFTER

 

Much like my life, I don't know why I was so "stuck" on this. I only needed a (three years and a) four-day weekend of no interruptions to power through it. And now, it's done. Whoo-hoo! (Though, fair warning - it is SUPER warm. Don't, like me, have a lap full of this stuff when it is over 80-100 degrees. It may look light, but it gets HOT fast.)

ANA 2013-24: Little Bitty Blankie, Fuchsia

(4 skeins of Plymouth Yarns, Dreambaby DK, 0306, Silly Spots, acrylic and nylon)

ANA 2013-25: Old-fashion Capelet

(Leftover skeins of Lion Brand ROMA acrylic, discontinued)

Now that the UFO is done .. I need to get cracking selling these things. Next project? Maybe more trunk sales. And getting the shop up and running. 

Maybe next year.

Auntie Nettie's Attic Merchandise 2013 - June

June ...

How is it the last day of June already?

Well, I know I was at work for some of it. A few days a week anyway because there were the various Summer Fridays activities and the Miscellaneous Monday meanderings and meditations, but, I know I did other things, like:


~ errands and chores;
~ bills and blogging; 
~ train trips hither thither and yon;
~ annual reviews to talk about the white board of doom and my constant state of self-imposed stress/other issues;

~ dinner with the Ironic Mother  to catch up, discuss all her new ventures, her new book, and to trek to Levain bakery for some ridiculously yummy cookies;

~ there was the evening at Symphony Space with Neil Gaiman and the readings and realizations (a very good wrap-up was done by writer for Tor.com) ; and

 ~ the annual trek to Brooklyn for the staff staff party, which this introvert somehow survived--although the trip back from the borough with the new VP bosslady ALONE on the 2 was slightly painful for me, if also not for her.

It's actually amazing, given all that, that I had any time left to craft.

 But I did!

This month's crafting was inspired by something I saw about two years ago during Summer Streets. In the window of a boutique in Soho(?) I saw a shrug/cardigan made out of these spirals. I wanted to learn how to to do them. I'm still stash-busting, so I worked my way through a skein to figure it out.

  

 ANA 2013-21: Solo Spiral

(Part of skein of Bernat sparkly baby sport, acrylic)

 One strand could be worn a variety of ways:

 ANA 2013-20: Trio of Connected Spirals

(Part of skein of Bernat sparkly baby sport, acrylic)

I don't quite have the trick of connecting them up, like my inspiration shots, so I'll have to research a pattern, but this one could be worn "regular" or as a slip knot too. 

 Mint green might only work for a kid, or with the right outfit, but it was a practice piece. To be revisited later.

Now that my stash is being reduced, the afghan collection re-bagged for truck/train sales, and my shelves are re-organized, I have very few excuses not to tackle ... you know what ...

This little beauty of a multi-fibred, multi-colored, project that I only started three summer ago.

If I leave it in this position in the middle of my floor long enough, and I have to step over it at least three times a day when I go to and from the air conditioner and t.v., do you think I'll actually start working to finish it?

Only 7 more Summer Fridays to go.

I should deal with the etsy.com shop too, at some point....

Sumer Fridays 2013: Yarn & Order, Book 'Em Nettie

Maybe it's just me, and/or a sign of my years, but in order to keep track of all the various projects and deadlines I have going in various parts of my life, I've had to create and--more importantly--post lists of all the various things that I would like to accomplish. Like my annual holiday timeline, this list is posted in a very visible spot in my kitchenette and it serves as a constant reminder of things I should or could be doing, instead of goofing off on say, the Internet.

list c. June 2013

By the end of last year, the two-sided list for 2012 was full of annotations, cross-outs, and check-offs, but there were still things I didn't get done. Some of those items carried over to the 2013 list, and were supplemented by new goals, projects, and things to-do.

We're half way through 2013 now, not to mention all the way through June, with its Summer Fridays and Miscellaneous Mondays, and my 2013 list does not have nearly enough things crossed off.

On my most recent Summer Friday, however, I tackled one of the biggest, and long over-due projects -- The Shelves. New York studios are not known for their spaciousness, so you have to be creative with storage and judicious about adding to various collections. For me, that means yarn, media, books, and various collectibles live in the same scarce shelf space, and it was time to reorganize, alphabetize, shift, and cull. The catalyst was that I really needed to find room to integrate nine volumes of this blog printed out into book format ... 

Then there is also the fact that I keep an inventory list in Excel, of materials listed by type, author, publication date, genre, and locations on my own shelves that needed updating since I did it last in 2010/11?

Yes. I'm that person! Hello!? Have you met me? I am a librarian. If my own isn't organized, they may revoke my card. (Which reminds me--I owe annual dues.)

First, everything not a regular "book" had to come off and be put into various type piles, and then alpha/author rows came down to be dusted, inventoried, and then either re-ordered or culled. (It was also laundry day, thus the bed stripped of linens down to the bare mattress. The house was totally a mess of stuff drying or all over the place. The "Rs" could have interrupted my ZZZs if I didn't finish.)

At first things went quickly. The first two shelves saw me getting rid of 18 books. But after that, it was slow going ... At one point I thought it was going to be the death of me and I sent out a message to the effect of: If you don't hear from me later and they find my body under piles of paper/shelves, please tell my nieces/nephews I loved them very much. But then I buckled down again.

I usually do little culls as I go along i.e. one book in, one book out, but it got away from me in the last year or so, especially recently with a collection of ARCs, new/growing scrapbooks, and the new blog books. The design trend lately is to organize bookshelves by color, but that would make me CRAZY. As it is I have two authors out of alpha order and I itch. Of course, it's because those two authors need two-three shelves each ... That's totally normal, yes? It's not an obsession, it's a collection.

After: 3 of the 4, Cameo by Maxxie

Part of why it took all day was because I was dusting, reorganizing, editing the spreadsheet, doing research on Amazon.com, Wikipedia, and Goodreads, adding to my wish lists for missing pieces of the collection/replacements for VHS to new formats, and then sending out e-mails to people to see if they would take things off my hands. (Only one taker for one of the 30+ items that eventually need new homes!)

One more Summer Friday down - one more thing off the list. I've got to tackle the clothes collections later ... I'm scared. Two bureaus, two closets, 2 under bed storage buckets ... Two summer months to go.

Wreck it Wednesday: Wreck this Journal Updates

From the Preface: 
Warning: During the process of this book you will get dirty. You may find yourself covered in paint, or any other number of foreign substances. You will get wet. You may be asked to do things you question. You may grieve for the perfect state that you found the book in. You may begin to see creative destruction everywhere. You may begin to live more recklessly. 





 
It's been a while since I've posted the updates about my Wreck this Journal, but I have been slowly working on it. This past week, in particular, saw a burst of activity - mostly while I was waiting for other things to happen. It was good to use it to process other things that were going on.

Updates on existing pages:

The above is a riff on the apocryphal library school story about raw bacon being used as a book mark. It's a print add for Oscar Mayer (? I think) bacon, that uses Boolean operators. I'm a geek.

New pages:

Everything smells like Tea Rose perfume now ... It's kind of nice, especially when you don't have time to go out and smell real roses. Also, I bet people of a certain age can't get a Tears for Fears song out of their head. (This one.)

This one word is PATIENCE - what I was trying to exercise one night at Symphony Space while waiting my place in line for Neil Gaiman to sign The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

I filled this page up too quickly, to the amusement of an usher. So I moved on to this one. I had already slapped the two Janet Evanovich stickers in there, and it let to some interesting internal debates. It started in the lower left corner of the Morelli page and wrapped around, saying things like:

~8:30 pm  6/19/13 waiting for GAIMAN @Symphony Space OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

It is completely silly that I am actually dedicating these two pages to an internal monologue - especially one that now has to focus on two fictional characters in a series of novels that has unfortunately gotten to be formulaic but I stuck these stickers here so I might as well commit. Plus I have time to kill waiting for a much more intriguing novelist to sign his most latest book. The usher may have a point ... Why do I/we need autographs from writers? Shouldn't the book be enough? Obviously NOT, as a full sold-out house is waiting for this guy to sign their book, and their stuff, so they have another piece of him. But this was supposed to be a monologue about MORELLI vs. Ranger. Morelli - reformed bad boy, house, home, dog, job, family, still enough bad to attract. Ranger - international man of mystery, sexy as hell - but... Not one to settle down with, no shared childhood/cultural BURG history. After all the back and forth, it's really annoying. Pick one or choose yourself. It's 2013! You don't need a man. Really. I mean, it's nice and all, but ... seriously. Time to grow up Stephanie, the character. Janet the novelist should have moved on 10 books ago. The audience has, and I have wasted two pages writing about this and the signing line hasn't moved!

P.S. After writing this, getting dinner @ 9:30 and waiting 2+ hours, watching train schedule -- decided author's work more imp. than autograph. Gave him 1 less interaction, me home around midnight, less commute stress, and some sleep. May be short-sided, but there it is. 
11:50 PM 6/19/13

Post-note: According to the author and organizers, Neil Gaiman wasn't done signing until after 1 a.m. If I had left at the end of the reading, like my colleague, I would have gotten a pre-signed book. I waited until 10:30 and left with an unsigned copy. Who was the smarter one?