Knitcore

With Alan in New York for his 20th High School reunion (and to put a new roof on the house he owns there), I'm going to be spending this weekend at Lollapalooza with my sister. I went last year, saw some great bands, and generally had a miserable time in the heat and sun and crowds because I am old and cranky. I swore I would never go again. That plan got totally scrapped when I saw that Depeche Mode and the Beastie Boys would be headlining - I bought my tickets the day they went on sale! I'm regretting it a little bit now that the Beasties have cancelled, but we've got these plans and I'm determined to have a better time than last year.

Now that we're getting down to the wire here, I have been looking at the lineup. It's only serving to remind me that I am old and cranky. I have HEARD OF maybe 20 bands total, and as far as hearing or knowing their music, it's closer to 5 or 10. Probably a lot closer to 5.

THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN, my hip young friends! Please please please take a look at the lineup and either recommend bands you think I would like, or name the band and tell me what their music is like. My taste runs to peppy music - old punk, new wave, 50's - 80's pop, hard rock and metal (but not death metal or speed metal or black metal or anything too hard), hip hop with a melody, etc. The slow, emo, and shoegazing stuff doesn't really do it for me.

You can view the lineup HERE.

Thanks for your help!
xoxo

Holy crap.

The closing was far worse than I expected, but we finished, and the house is mine! Alan and I spent the weekend buying stuff for the house (paint, lumber, etc.) and starting work on the kitchen and garage. I'm exhausted!

I have a few pictures to show you, of course. Let's start in the kitchen. The kitchen is divided into two sections, an L-shape section on the South and West walls, and a separate run on the North wall.

Here is the North wall before (along with all my crap on the countertop):


and after cabinet removal:


The Southwest corner before:


during:


and after:


The kitchen/hallway floor was horrifying laminate tiles, so they came up too, starting in the hallway:


I was hoping it would be hardwood, like the rest of the 1st floor, so that I could refinish the hallway portion of the floor. And hey, look, there's hardwood under there! Except that it's covered with peel & stick vinyl tiles. Who would do this to an oak floor?!?


Here, you can see why I'm taking up the laminate tiles - they are so, so awful:


Yay, no more tiles!


The second project I worked on is prepping the dining room for painting. I've got all the trim and the niche taped off:


and put Xs on the areas not to be painted - this wall is staying white so I can cover up the ugly spiral staircase. Who puts a staircase in the dining room? The same person who puts peel & stick tiles on a hardwood floor, I guess.


You can see some of the paint we've acquired here:


Things worked out so well with the paint - two friends had leftover paint that they wanted to get rid of (free!) so we scored several gallons that work for us, and the rest was purchased at Menard's, who had paint on sale at 50% off. The paint bill was about 1/3 of what I had budgeted, so that makes up for whatever comes up next.

The last thing I did on Sunday was help Alan with the garage. He had already made a new cover for the oil pit:

This will get a coat of concrete before he puts the epoxy down on the whole floor.

Then we put insulation and wallboard (free OSB he found in the alley - score!) in the areas where the old kitchen cabinets will go:

We can't afford to insulate the whole garage now, but having it done here will keep us from having to move the cabinets when it's time to do the rest of the insulation. We're thinking ahead.

Since Alan is leaving for New York for 12 days on Wednesday, and my sister is coming to visit for Lollapalooza on Thursday, not much else will get done for a while, I'm afraid. We'll be moving some of the basement/storage items over there to make room for boxes in the apartment, and I'm going to spend my vacation week weeding through all the STUFF and having a yard sale. If I can get some (tall person) help, I may do some painting and replace light fixtures while he's gone, but no heavy lifting for me.

I've got a busy week coming up as far as shows go.

First, my products will be available at the Pitchfork Music Festival at the Pink Sprout 13 booth (inside the Cobra Lounge tent) all weekend long. If you're headed to Pitchfork, look for Jaimie from Pink Sprout 13 and check out my stuff. This will be my first time with merchandise at a music festival, I'm excited to see how things go.

Secondly, I will be showing at the Gothic Craft Faire at the Nineteen Hundred and One Gallery (1901 W Belmont, enter on Wolcott) on Sunday, July 19 from 1 - 5 p.m. I've done several of their Gothic Craft Faires and they have all been full of great handmade stuff for sale, so come on down!

Finally, I'll be doing the Cobra Lounge Flea Circus once again on Tuesday, July 21 from 5 - 10 p.m. The shows at Cobra (235 N Ashland, 1 block North of Lake) always include an interesting mix of handmade and unique items, plus they have fantastic food, so you can eat, drink, AND shop.

Come on out to support local artists!

Since I've been in Chicago, I haven't seen 4th of July (or 3rd of July around here) fireworks a single time. It's a tragedy, really. Here in Chicago, the city fireworks are set off down at Navy Pier, and people watch them from Grant Park. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. It gets ridiculously crowded, and even if I rode my bike or walked, it would take hours and hours to get home from there. So, I've been explosionless, and very sad about it.

So, I told Alan that I would be explosionless no more. So rather than fighting the crowds at Grant Park, we decided to head North to my hometown for the 4th. Since I had Friday off and got out of work early on Thursday, we headed up Thursday afternoon. On the way up, we had dinner at Mickey-Lu's:



Gotta love a place that says "EAT" on the sign!

On Friday, my mom wasn't feeling well, so we hung out at my sister's house and made frozen watermelon mojitos:



Friday night, there was a little mini-reunion for my graduating class at a local bar. When I showed up, there was no place to sit, and my sister and some friends were sitting in a nearby booth, so we sat with them. They told us that a mutual friend's band was playing at the park across the street, so we thought we'd go check them out for a while and come back. By the time we finished listening, everyone had gone, so I missed out on getting to talk to people. I did talk to one guy who also lives in Chicago (hi Matt!) and works for RED BULL, so awesome! I could never work for them though, I'd drink nothing but sugar free Red Bull and have a heart attack in two months.

On Saturday, I went to see my grampa at the Veteran's Home. He's doing so much better than he was last time I saw him, it was a really nice visit. Then I drove over to my grama's apartment at the assisted living facility, but she was asleep so I didn't get to visit with her at all.

After lunch, with mom still sick, Alan, my sister and I all went to watch the parade, then we had some drinks and headed to the International Food Fest for dinner. Shortly after we finished eating, the fireworks started:


The moon was full!


The fireworks were bright!


The explosions were loud!


And they went on for a loooooong time!

It was a fantastic show, and I had a great time visiting up there. The downside is that I caught my mom's flu, so I've been sick since Sunday (the ride home was no fun at all, I can tell you). Hopefully, I'll be feeling better by Friday, when we head up there again.

I've been experimenting with a new material that will allow me to make customized jewelry and pins in just about any design. Hint: it involves my favorite thing ever, sharpies. First up: comic book line!





I'm so excited about these, and I have plans to make them in several different lines as well - old-style tattoo, horror and zombie, maybe some guns or robots. If these were earrings, pendants, or pins, what kind of designs would you like to see?

I finally got my shit together and posted a few items to my Etsy store! More items will be added gradually.

If you haven't visited my regular website, you can see everything I make there, including one of a kind items and what has already sold.

I have also created a "Citizen Kitten" group on facebook - that's a great way to keep up with upcoming shows, new projects, and news.

Hooray for self-promotion!

It's been a while since I've posted, I had some hard times in my personal life and decided that my business needed to stay my business.

Things are going very well for me lately, and I've been happily crafting, so I think I may start updating again regularly.

In the meantime, here are a couple non-artsy things I've been up to lately:

I got a new tattoo (or 2):




Alan and I went to Vegas for a wedding


and we got to meet Big Elvis!


Then we drove to the Grand Canyon


My next big step is BUYING A HOUSE!


I don't close until the end of July, so I'm trying not to count my chickens, but holy crap, I'm so excited!

I promise that I will post fiber-related content soon.
xo

I have the kick-ass-iest Secret Pal ever!

I got this package last week (I know, I'm sorry I didn't post earlier) from my SP. Check out what was inside!!

I opened the box to see this:



Two super fancy chocolate bars:





A cute card with AMAZING hand made stitch markers with olives and martinis:



An accessory pattern book to keep me warm all winter:



A magnetic notepad with a very South Park-ian sheep:



A bottle of Woolwash - I've been dying to try this stuff:



AND a PERFECT addition to my antique barware collection - an antique folding corkscrew:





How cool is that? I just love everything, thank you so much Secret Pal!!

Things have been CRAZY for me lately. I was on call last week (and last weekend), so I wound up working 70 hours last week. In exchange, they gave me today off, which I desperately needed.

My parents are coming to visit Friday and I needed to do some MAJOR housecleaning. They're bringing me a cabinet that was in my grandfather's office, so I had to move some furniture around, and M's office and my art room were both in a shambles. Plus, I hadn't taken the recycling to the center in three months! It took me over an hour just to bring the recycling out to the car - ugh! I am exhausted and sweaty, and I still have 15 things on my To-Do list before Friday at 2. When the cleaning is all finished, I will take some pics of the pad to show it off.

I have actually done some knitting too - I finished the scarf for my Ravelry Scarf Exchange pal (who knows who I am, so no pics until she receives it!), and it came out so much better than I expected! I think I may have a calling as a pattern copier.

I made wristwarmers to wear at work. It is ungodly cold in there all the time, so it's nice for my hands to feel warm.

(yes, I already know that I need a manicure)



I made a gaiter, which is a tube that goes around your neck to keep it warm, instead of wearing a whole scarf. I got this yarn through an exchange on Ravelry, and it feels oh so good against my neck!







I started the Ribbed Lace Bolero, which is the pattern that my Caffeine Swap pal sent me, with some of the yarn she sent me. I'm kicking myself for not doing a gauge swatch though, my gauge is a full stitch short per inch from the pattern, so I think I may rip it and start over. At least I didn't get too far.



AND, I heard from my "upstream" Secret Pal that she mailed my first package!! I cannot wait to see what she picked out for me. We've been emailing quite a bit, and we have so much in common that I can't imagine not loving every single thing.