sol y sombra

another sweater in the making...

2007-02-06T04:21:46Z

I haven't forgotten how to knit yet :)

A while ago I wanted to start Tubey and a few of us were going to knit it together... I even went so far as to pick out my colors and photoshop them in a mockup.

Well a few people dropped out but my friend Cami and are are still in! We ordered our yarn together and started our Tubey last week... I loved seeing all the colors I picked arrive together in a big bundle!

I've only started the first sleeve of my tubey but I love the colors together so far.

It's fun to see Cami's sweater come together too since we're using such different colors... I made a photoshop mockup for her sweater that you can see here if you like :)

resolutions update

2007-01-25T17:31:38Z

So I know it's still January but I think I'm doing pretty good with my resolutions so far. Here is an update:

the obvious - lose weight, go to the gym, diet etc. etc. I'm hoping to lose 5-7 pounds before my birthday party on the 27th. small goals.
I've been going to the gym with Jessie 2 or 3 times a week and I've lost 8 pounds and almost 3 inches from my waist! woohoo! The party is on Saturday so my first goal is met :) Let's try for another 10 by the end of February? That should be doable.

find another job or find a way to be happy at my current position. the company I had been interviewing with informed me today that they would be 'pursuing other candidates' after I was SURE that I had it. at least it motivated me to put together a resume and portfolio so I can look for other opportunities.
Haven't done much here yet... my job has kindof changed here for the time being so I'm riding it out, ready to see what happens. But I may start looking again soon.

learn spanish. I've always wanted to have a conversation with my grandparents in their native language and I think it would mean a lot to them that at least one of their grandchildren learned español. :) I've signed up for a class at the community college with my boyfriend, it started yesterday and I think it will be fun :)
The Spanish class is going really well. It's a lot tougher that I thought it would be though... I'm going to need to set aside a couple of days a week for study in order to keep up. We had our first test last night though and I think I aced it - woo!

visit someplace new. I'm 28 and I've never been outside the country. I've been to many places in our own beautiful country and I'd like to see more. for the last 5 years or so I've gone to the northwest coast, an absolutely beautiful place that I definitely want to visit again. but this year I'd like to see something new. I'd love to go outside the country, maybe practice some of my new language skills ;) or even just visit a place close by that I've never seen before.
So we're not sure yet but I think we may be visiting Puerto Vallarta in May. Yay! A new place, a new country, AND practicing spanish... perfect :)

New years resolutions.

2007-01-10T00:27:52Z

Sure. Why not. I won't keep them or anything but it's good to think about it and try to make oneself better no?

the obvious - lose weight, go to the gym, diet etc. etc. I'm hoping to lose 5-7 pounds before my birthday party on the 27th. small goals.

find another job or find a way to be happy at my current position. the company I had been interviewing with informed me today that they would be 'pursuing other candidates' after I was SURE that I had it. at least it motivated me to put together a resume and portfolio so I can look for other opportunities.

learn spanish. I've always wanted to have a conversation with my grandparents in their native language and I think it would mean a lot to them that at least one of their grandchildren learned español. :) I've signed up for a class at the community college with my boyfriend, it started yesterday and I think it will be fun :)

visit someplace new. I'm 28 and I've never been outside the country. I've been to many places in our own beautiful country and I'd like to see more. for the last 5 years or so I've gone to the northwest coast, an absolutely beautiful place that I definitely want to visit again. but this year I'd like to see something new. I'd love to go outside the country, maybe practice some of my new language skills ;) or even just visit a place close by that I've never seen before.

Happy Holidays

2006-12-18T23:58:26Z

We did a photoshoot for gifts for the family that are impossible to gift to...

Sydney is not yet well behaved enough to be in the photoshoot, but it made for some fun times :)

Brandon was a bit slow to get into position for this shot... so i did what I could... I look a bit like I'm leading a marching band or something.

Brandon is trying to get her to pose for the camera but it didn't happen in time :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-24T19:03:27Z

I was only in charge of a pie and cranberry sauce but they both turned out nummy :)

Apple Frangipane Tart

I love the rich jewel-like color of cranberry sauce. This year I made a cherry-cranberry sauce with dried cherries instead of the dried cranberries I usually use. It turned out a bit sweeter and more palatable to those who don't like a really tart cranberry sauce.

A sweater!!

2006-11-20T17:06:54Z

A hoodie in fact. I knit a hoodie. How cool is that??

I'm really quite proud of myself :)

with hood up

I hate this picture because WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY FACE?? - so crooked... *sigh* but you'll all still love me anyway right? and it's about the sweater.... it's about the sweater...

back detail:

And finally - stitch detail:

YAY! The tweed, the cables... I'm in love :)

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky
Source: Knitscene Fall 2006
Materials: Debbie Bliss Aran Tweed

Finally finished my scarf...

2006-10-25T17:53:17Z

This scarf was like the third thing I ever... started... knitting. I ran out of yarn and more appealing projects came along and I forgot about it. But I thought enough ahead to know that I would want a scarf for this winter and so I finished it just in time :)

Finally... my fall colors scarf... yay! :)

Yarn is Manos Del Uruaguay in #104 'Prairie'
Pattern is Knotted Openwork Scarf

Happy Birthday Argyleist!

2006-10-24T22:15:00Z

My boyfriend turned 28 about ohh... a week and a half ago now.

Here he is modeling his brand new birthday hat that I made for him...

He loves Argyle. It's even his online personality. :)

This hat took weeks of planning and secret knitting, and hiding of yarn and patterns, and what did I find out the day before his birthday?! It was TINY... it didn't even fit me and I have a tiny head, like child size... this is a little girls hat that I'm wearing... So what did I do? I ripped it out and designed a new pattern and knit an entire new hat in just under a day so that he could still have a birthday hat. Am I a good girlfriend or what?

The argyle pattern didn't fit perfectly with the number of stitches I needed so I designed this neat little motif for where the seam would meet in the back. I think it turned out pretty spiffy. :)

Brandons birthday falls right in the middle of baseball season and he always has to miss an important game because of some family birthday dinner or some such silliness so we celebrated his birthday by going out to a sports bar with friends and watching the game. :)

Welcome to the Galley

2006-10-13T16:39:01Z

Finally.. the bar and basement are looking somewhat finished. Take a seat. :)

click the pictures to see them bigger...

Brandon has done a lot of work to the bar area, he completely rebuilt the top, bent the metal himself and everything. We saved a lot of money here by doing this ourselves.

Here are the before pictures:

pretending to be bartender... :)

god I am so happy we got rid of that horrible vomit pink color. it was seriuosly pinkish... ??

One of the first, cheapest, and biggest, changes we made to the room that you probably can't tell from the pictures here is we changed the lighting... There are like 5 lights in the ceiling here... and they were all these terribly terribly bright fluorescent lights. FLUORESCENT!! I hate fluorescent lighting. We replaced the 3 shown in the photo above with some warmer and prettier tungsten lights, and then bought some specialty lights for above the bar and installed a dimmer for those lights. That ALONE made this room 10 times more livable. I love watching a movie with snacks on the bar with the lights set so you can just see the bar and surroundings... it's a great atmosphere :)

Everyone thought we were crazy when we wanted to paint the basement burgundy. It's too dark, it will make the room look and feel smaller, blah blah... but the feeling we wanted to evoke down here was that of a bar, or a movie theatre since that's what we would spend our time doing down here. I think the burgundy is perfect.

and yes.. that is painted over wood paneling... I know, I know. There are a few major issues that I would fix down here if I had the money. Like I would love to have a tin tile ceiling, but it's just not going to happen with the budget. I think Brandon kinda likes the stripes in the walls though.

The couch is donated by friends of ours and the cool coffee table we picked up at a vintage furniture store. It's nice when we have a party because there are 3 little ottomans that can be pulled out from underneath that can act as extra seating.

We didn't paint the entire room burgundy, because I agree that it would have felt a little boxed in... we chose this light gray color to compliment it. The gray also brings out the silver/metal that is used throughout the room. We also got to do that cool thing where you paint the inside of shelves a coordinating color... I love the burgundy inside the shelves :)

In this pic you'll see another big change we made to this room... The Media Center. If you check out the second before pic up there you'll notice these completely useless shelves on the right hand side? Well... I had a dream... a dream that this could be our movie room and the TV could be comfortably seen and also be tastefully tucked out of the way. So... my uncle came over and started sawing things and there was a huge mess and a hole in the wall (I apologize for anyone who visited us in that time, I know it didn't look great... ) And again Brandon did a great job of finishing it with some skillful moulding. I especially like the decorative piece just above the TV set. And voila - movie watching began :)

This is probably the most used room in the entire house now. It feels so much cozier. There are many things I would still change (like the addition of this $3000 sofa we've been eyeing... ) but from where we started out... we are in a MUCH better place :)

cure thyself...

2006-10-11T22:44:05Z

Brandon and I have both been feeling a little under the weather lately so I decided to make some homemade tortilla soup. Now I only wish I had made more :(

1 chicken breast cut into bite size pieces
1tbsp veg. oil
1/2 onion chopped
32 oz low sodium chicken broth

1 can black beans
1 cup frozen corn
1 can mexian style stewed tomatoes

1 cup vegetable oil
6 corn tortillas

limes
avocado
cilantro
monterey jack cheese

In a heavy pot bring a tablespoon of veg. oil up to heat and brown the chicken pieces for a minute or two then add the chopped onion. Cook until onion is translucent. Add broth and bring to a boil.

Drain and rinse the black beans and add to the pot along with corn and tomatoes with juice. Lower to a simmer. (you may need to add water if your soup is too thick, I added about 2 cups of water)

While this is simmering bring 1 cup veg oil up to heat in a skillet. Cut 4 tortillas into 1"x1/4" strips. Test a strip in the oil to see if it's up to frying temp. When the oil is ready, fry the strips in batches. Fry the remaining tortillas whole and drain all on a paper towel. (I sprinkle salt on the strips as well after the frying, but that's just my preference). When cool enough to touch crumble the two whole tortillas into the pot with the soup.

It's better if you let it simmer for a while but we ate as soon as we could because we were hungry :) the soup was much better the next day. Just make sure the chicken is cooked through of course.

Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle in some crispy tortilla strips. The remaining ingredients are all to your preference... I love adding toppings to soups. Chop some cilantro, add some avocado, some shredded cheese, sour cream whatever you like. I especially love the addition of a squeeze of fresh lime.

I don't know how "authentic" this recipe is since I just made it up... but I am half hispanic so that's got to mean something right? ;)

everything huuurrts....

2006-10-10T16:23:45Z

I woke up on Sunday with the worst hangover ever... Our new bar (pics to come soon) is getting a lot of good use lately which is fun, but 2 martini's are my limit thank you very much.

I woke up yesterday to find I felt even worse than I did Sunday... with no drinking involved. And today, here I am at work and it hurts to move every muscle... I just rapped my fingers on the desk and my nailbed's hurt!

please don't let it be the flu...

Say Hello to Luna

2006-10-09T19:07:04Z

Luna is the whole reason I went on a fun little road trip with my mom through colorado last weekend.

My mother decided she NEEDED a pure bred russian blue cat. I tried to get her to go to the shelter, I did searches of cats here in Utah, even Salt lake, that were homeless and either russian blue or russian blue mixes - but she wouldn't hear any of it. She needed a purebred and a purebred who's father has been in the movies no less... yeah... my mom is crazy. And so... the plan for our trip to Colorado to pick up this little kitten began.

I love road trips. Not the drive 12 hours to your destination to hang out for a day and drive 12 hours back kinda road trip.. but lazy road trips where you stay and stop in places that are not typical "destinations". So our little trip to pick up the kitten turned into a 4 day adventure instead of just a long drive to pick up a kitten :)

On Saturday we drove halfway to Dever via I-70. This took us south through beautiful canyons blooming with autumn color and we ended up in the desert mesa's of Grand Junction, Colorado. Grand Junction is a small town that most people just drive through, but I have a friend whose parents live down there and knew that it's also a beautiful little town and the center of Colorado's wine industry. My mom and I booked a room in a Bed and breakfast that is also on the grounds of one of the best wineries in the area.

Our room was gorgeous - and twice this size as I couldn't get it all in the shot :) And of course views of the winery grounds themselves were beautiful but we were also just outside the Colorado National monument which provided some great views as well.

the best thing?

All the wines the winery offers are left in your room for 'tasting' :) Now I want to go back and bring Brandon because it would be a fun little weekend getaway.

We also managed to meet up with my friends and her parents for dinner at a surprisingly good little Italian restaurant in the middle of the historic 'downtown'.

The next day we drove to Denver to stay with my aunt and the drive was one of the most gorgeous I've ever been on. If we were to pick a weekend specifically see the seasons change this would have been it.

Everywhere the colors were popping... and driving from the desert mesas up to mountain tops filled with snow was just a great experience.

We stayed the night with my aunt and uncle and had a good home cooked meal with family :)

The next day we drove to pick up that little one at the top of this post and she took surprisingly well to the car. That night we stayed in Estes Park - yet another place I will have to go back and visit for it's beautiful landscape as it is nestled right below the Rocky Mountain National Park. Here we stayed in the historic Stanley Hotel. This is the Hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining.

They have a channel on TV in the hotel that plays The Shining 24/7... which is a little creepy... but it was still fun to stay in such a historic place.

Of course this place provided the perfect backdrop for the photo shoot with the new kitty and here I present the rest of the photos of Luna.

A silly shot with a rented fisheye lens...

kitty playing

And the proud new parent ;) My mom and her new kitty.

nectarine tart with vanilla cream

2006-09-12T17:10:29Z

recipe and inspiration from bea, who's blog is filled with drool-worthy photos every day :)

WIPs

2006-09-11T20:46:01Z

Sooo.... starting projects is really fun. Too fun it seems. I bring you my 'works in progress'.

#1 Manos Openwork Scar f

I started this scarf last winter. I ran out of yarn. It got hot and I had no more use for a scarf. Now that the seasons are changing again and I've ordered more yarn I just may have a scarf for THIS winter! :)

#2 Central Park Hoodie

This is THE project of the moment. Or it's supposed to be anyway. I want to be wearing this sweater next month sometime. Is that too much to ask of myself?

And then there is the mystery yarn that I talked about in my last knitting post... the yarn that called to me and made me purchase it eventhough I had no project for it... well, I found a project....

#3 Elfine Socks

Or as I like to call them - My Autumn Socks. I loved the yarn for the autumn colors in it and I love the leaf pattern here.... a good knit to watch the leaves change colors by...

and finally the not-so-glamorous shot of...

#4 Space Invaders Tote

One side finished, the other will be done before wednesday! (I hope)

This isn't blocking, I just had to pin it down because it is curling SO badly it was hard to get a good shot. now that I finally did pin it down though I'm a bit worried about the tension... this is my first colorwork project and it was just to use up acrylic yarn in my stash so they are not the same type of yarns and I'm worried about the cinching in the middle of the 'invaders' parts. Blocking might be a solution eh? but I've heard that acrylic doesn't really take too well to blocking... so what's a girl to do?? Any advice would be appreciated.

too many garden tomatoes =

2006-09-05T23:13:04Z

bruschetta with fresh mozzarella cheese... mmmm... heaven.

we also had a quick pasta while camping this weekend with fresh cherry tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil. And I will probably be making this tart for dinner tonight...

any other ideas? or does anyone want to pick up any cherry tomatoes or squash? :)

Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair

2006-09-05T18:14:45Z

Yes, I am turning into a giant knitting geek. I can't get enough of it. And so, my friend Cami and I made our way to the 1st Annual Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair this weekend to see what they had to offer.

The first bit of knitting goodness came when we met for breakfast and cami excitedly showed me her new cell phone cozy!

Isn't it adorable!? she just barely learned cabling from knitty's fetching and used a similar pattern here with leftover yarn from a baby blanket she just finished. It's perfect.

So that was a good way to start out the day :)
Once at the festival we were met with more fiber and fiber arts than I was prepared to deal with. We didn't know where to go first. There were spinning wheels everywhere, big pots of dye being stirred by women in long latex gloves and hand dyed fiber sitting out to dry - and sheepdogs! I kept thinking I should have brought Sydney. :)

Once we walked around a bit though we found more fiber and roving than yarn... still it's quite lovely.

It almost makes one want to learn to spin. And believe me, there was plenty of opportunity!

Not the greatest example but this guy had an audience and was easy to photograph :) There are so many types of spinning wheels and whatever those little hand spinning things are. I had to resist trying it because I knew once I had fondled the fiber and began spinning it into yarn I would be hooked. And no one needs that.

We did find SOME yarn though and it was lovely in all it's hand spun, hand dyed goodness... *drool*

This is a lovely yarn from Mountain colors.... I found so many colorways here that I just loved.

This is handspun and hand dyed alpalca mohair. Cami was in love with that teal/gren/pink colorway towards the middle. I couldn't convince her to buy it to make a scarf with though :p

And of course - the animals who give us all this lovely fiber were there hanging out as well.

I didn't actuallly purchase much - I know, I know, how dissapointing - but cami walked away with a giant bag of yarn for her christmas knitting so all was not lost. I'm still on a search for the perfect yarn for clapotis and a few other projects. I did, however, purchase yarn for no reason other than I thought it was pretty and liked it... so now I have to sit with it for a bit until it tells me what it wants to be made into. You will see pictures of that when we've melded and become the perfect creative pair... but for now, I have too many things on the needles already :)

night photography

2006-08-31T20:26:53Z

long exposure photography is always so fun for me because i never really know what i'm going to get. there is the element of time, the element of motion, and of course the element of light. with enough light - in a normal setting like a sunny day your backyard - you can let the camera do the work for you, or at least assist you in getting what you want. but with so little light at night there is always the element of surprise. sure, you could do many experiments with getting the right exposure based on moon phase, or time of night, or even location (the cities surrounding you effect the light available in the night sky) but well folks... i'm just not that organized, so i just get what i get, and sometimes it's fabulous (and sometimes i get a completely black frame haha). here are a few of my favorites from the last few months.

Moonlit Path - taken near a friends cabin.

haunted woods - this is a friends cabin. while i was taking this shot i almost got shot at by another friend with a bb gun! he didn't realize i was down here and was trying to shoot at targets we had setup earlier. now how you hit a target in the dark when you can't even see the person standing next to it is a mystery to me, but drunk people think they can do anything.

moonlight - another cabin near our friend's property. this was later after the clouds went away and the stars came out.

family portrait - this didn't turn out as well as I wanted it to but it's still pretty fun, I'll try some more if we do more camping trips this season :)

salt lake city at dusk - this turned out pretty well, it was difficult to do a long exposure on this peak because the wind kept messing up my shots... I'm happy with it though.

in recent knitting news...

2006-08-31T17:38:35Z

I've tried to keep my projects over the summer small. I knew that I would have less time over our hectic summer schedule to dedicate to knitting so I chose small portable projects... Also, who wants a big wool sweater in your lap when it's 105°?

I finished these over our roadtrip to washington.

And just a few days ago I finished this scarf for my mom's birthday that is coming up... I think it turned out great and I hope she likes it!

...also, how grandma is my new page layout?? haha... I love it though... do you hate it?

I'm back... I guess.

2006-08-31T14:40:13Z

I can sense autumn in the air (I've also recently fallen in love with the word 'autumn' and try to say it as often as possible) and what better time to pick up my journal/blog thing here? I'm enough of a hermit as it is and when the weather starts to turn cold the only way I'll ever talk to people will be through the interenet.

My problem with keeping a sort of online journal or blog is that I have no focus. I love to impose rules upon myself. Should I have I photo blog? A knitting blog? Camping maybe? and if I have one of those I can ONLY talk about that subject. I feel like I'm writing this more for you than for myself - I think about what my 'readership' (all 5 of you) wants. The problem is my life is not focused. I even had a school counselor tell me to focus in school and what did I do? I dropped out. So if y'all don't mind I'm going to try to stay non-focused and hopefully you're just interested in everything I'm interested in :) And we'll throw some stories of my cat bringing me presents and silly things like that.

Mischief

2006-06-08T15:33:40Z

On Monday morning I awoke to find cat puke on the sofa. The brand new 1,500 dollar sofa. Not the sofa downstairs that I've had for 5 years covered with a slipcover, not even the hand me down sofa we got from friends. She chose the centerpiece of my new living room.

THIS morning... I awoke to find a dead mouse inside my slipper.

ahhh... Mischief. I love ya.

FINALLY

2006-06-03T15:21:10Z

the living room is coming together...

a post full of crafty goodness...

2006-02-20T02:44:51Z

For some reason I got an inkling to sew this weekend...

First, I've been in need of a new wallet for some time now and have just been surviving without one - much to my boyfriend's dismay who organizes and reorganizes the mess that comes out of my purse at the end of the day.

Where else do I turn but craftster - the treasure trove of craftyness. And where I learned to make this!

The fabric is leftover from an apron my boyfriend made me for christmas... it's this fun kinda vintage flowery fabric.. so the button is a kindof vintage flower button too, even though it's hard to see in the pic.

then... since that went so well... I decided to finish this skirt that's been in progress for oh... 2 years? because it was one of the first projects I ever attempted to sew and it was way way too difficult for a first attempt at the scary sewing machine. But I learned a lot and now I already have new project ideas in my head :)

Some of you may remember the cami that I wanted to knit a while back? Well there it is - all finished! and it just so happens to match my new skirt! :).... now... my next goal is to make something that isn't yellow hahaha...

Top 5

2006-02-13T17:54:43Z

While Brandon and I were making plans for our Valentine's dinner we ended up making a list of my top 5 favorite foods ever.
They are, in no particular order:

Chocolate covered strawberries
Risotto
Any kind of custard (creme brulee, flan, sabayon, etc.)
Roasted red peppers
*Almonds

I've described some of these foods as orgasmic and most of them at least make my eyes roll back when I taste them :)

What are yours?

*I'm not sure that almonds count, it's kinda like an ingredient not a "food" so maybe roasted almonds? or almond flavored yogurt? or Ameretti? dunno...

fishie gone?

2006-01-31T16:56:53Z

I haven't seen my shelldweller in 2 days.

I secretly hope he has taken up cover in his shell making secret plans to take over the cave from the big fish. But I suspect the news will be more grim. :(

space invaders - invasion complete!

2006-01-26T03:43:50Z

I know some of ya'll might think I'm crazy but this is what I just did to my wall! I love it... I needed something to break up the orange and this room is the one I get to do crazy stuff like this in cuz it's the "creativity" room :)