Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Easter Cupcakes

I decided mid-last week that the best way to celebrate easter would be by making some yummy cupcakes from the "Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World" Cookbook. Since we aren't very religious and aren't into eggs I figured it was the best way to go about getting some pastels in the house.

Well I picked out the cookies and cream & the green tea cupcakes. They aren't quite pastel, but they are pretty to look at...and very yummy. I'm probably not the first to declare Isa Chandra Moskowitz a genius! The look fancy but they weren't even very difficult. She rules!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Comsumption this week & a bit of last

Food: Vegan Cupcakes from PCC...other store bought items. We really need to make a serious grocery run!

Film: We went to see Be Kind Rewind last weekend because I heart Michel Gondry. (He's #68 on the Stuff White People like blog, which is a very silly blog Chuck's been amused by lately. I also happen to think Mos Def is cute, they failed to mention his cuteness in item #69.) So I liked this movie in spite of Jack Black, who I'm okay with, just not crazy about. He can be annoying. But his personality suited this movie alright. And now I want to "Swede" something.

Materials: I just finished my sweater last week. So now it's on to new and different yarn. I have parts of several knitting projects going on including some experimenting with ideas from a Japanese knitting book. I'm waiting on some yarn from Nordic Mart that I think will work to make one of the new Knitty patterns, Nob Hill. (My knitting seems a little worldly this week!)

In Etsy related materials, I really need to get going on consuming some paper, sterling silver and beads. I vow to do that this week!

Music: After a post at Into the Fray I downloaded (from emusic) an album by Kudu. Now I can't get the track "Love me in your language" out of my head, which is fine, cause I love it. It's been a great album this week to wake me up and keep me going. I've even jogged to it a the gym a few times recently.

Books: I'm still reading What is the What by David Eggers. It's extremely engaging, I feel very attached to the main character. I almost feel like I have to make sure to "check in" daily to see what's happened to him by reading a little bit each day. I haven't had a lot of time to read so that kind of works out well!

Wire Wrapping


Wire Wrapping
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
Last weekend I took a fun wire wrapping class taught by Marlo of imakecutestuff and Marlo M. Jewelry Design It was a great chance to visit with other EtsyRain artists including Trina of WovenChains, Sima of SimaBella and Martha of dancingmonkeyjewelry, and learn some new tricks. It was a fun way to spend the morning even if I forgot about daylight savings and slept in a bit & showed up a little late and confused. That's what the thermos of coffee was for! It worked out fine. Marlo has a great studio space & is an awesome teacher. Thanks Marlo!

Another awesome Etsyrain get together happened yesterday, I'll be posting about that later this week!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Venus Sweater


Venus Sweater
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
I finished knitting a sweater pattern from Knitscene magazine this week. It was a fairly quick pattern to knit up, I think it took me about 3 weeks (of course only working sporadically on weeknights.) I finished it Wednesday and I'm so pleased with it I couldn't help but wear it twice already.

I feel kinda silly that I've been very obsessed with knitting lately considering that I've got some architectural licensing exams to study for, an etsy shop that needs more attention, etc, but having a new comfy sweater I made myself is more important. Right? (I think so. :P)

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Movie Day


Aaron Ekhart & Fake Rain
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
Feeling lately like there's a lot of things I would like to blog about but it's a matter of finding the time. Photos make it a little easier.

Today there was filming going on at the pike place market, which my office is adjacent to. Yes, I managed to be in the way by being a big dork taking pictures. I stood around watching for a while on my lunch break and caught a scene with one of the main actors walking through traffic with a brief case. On my way out at the end of the day I checked in again. I got to watch them making rain. The rigging for the rainmaker was up all day, and I was a little disappointed I didn't manage to see them use it on my lunch break. Fortunately some waiting around after work (and inadvertently standing around in the crowd of extras that got rained on for a bit until a guy with a headset moved me along) proved fruitful and I got my fake rain. Hooray for Hollywood. With out them we'd have no rain in Seattle....or wait...that's not right.

Anyway it was neat for a day but a bit chaotic. Being able to peruse the Market is exciting enough for me on most days. Everyone once and a while I'm okay with a movie filming though...as long as they run it by me first! ; )

More pictures on my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmakat/

Monday, March 3, 2008

Recent Book Purchases


Recent Book Purchases
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
I knew I was in trouble when I walked into a display of Japanese craft books at the Kinokuniya bookstore (part of the Uwajimaya Grocery store complex) this weekend. After much deliberation I selected a knitting book that has some instructions in English. Some. Not much, but I think enough to play around with some of the ideas. And there are some really cool ideas in this book. I love the amount of illustrations, photographic, hand-sketched, diagrammatic, it's all in there. I should be able to figure out something cool, if not exactly per the pictures. First I have to figure out which concept I'm most excited about, which should be difficult. But it's a good dilemma to have.

The other book is a copy of Ulysses by James Joyce. I was really taken by the typeface. Hopefully one day I'll read through the whole thing, I figured an attractive copy might make that task a little easier. What can I say...I do judge a book by its cover...but only to a point.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Consumed this week

Food: I made this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmakat/2302368145/
and Chuck made us some great banana bread this week.

Film: The Darjeeling Limited was excellent, and I proved to myself that I am just not a big fan of Sean Penn or Eddie Vedder by watching Into the Wild. We've also been watching a few episodes of the original Star Trek just for fun and silliness this week. Last we we saw Persepolis. Having been unable to put the books down, I felt the film was missing a lot, but it was still good and very pretty.

Materials: Rowan Holiday Yarn in Pumice from BargainYarns.com. I'm working on the Venus sweater from the Spring 2007 issue of Knitscene. And the usual bits and bites on my computer, Chuck bought me more Ram this week! I think that's probably a good thing....

Music: I think I downloaded Lavender Diamond from emusic about 2 months ago, but I'm finally consuming the album and it's great. Also still into Jesca Hoop's Album and I'm relistening to my old Eryka Badu albums in anticipation of picking up her new release. The video on her website for the first single is pretty cute.

Books: Finally reading What is the What by David Eggers. 35 pages into it I can tell it's going to be one of my favorite books.



Also consuming an unexpected amount of sunshine this week, Yay! And today was supposed to be rainy, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I better get off this computer!