spring has sprung!

Really! It has! And just in time for Valentine's Day! Yippee!!!

Although a peek out the window belies this statement...



it is a fact.

(Unaccountably right now I'm reminded of a little ditty my friend Bronwen came up with when we were in high school:

Spring has sprung
Here come the turds
Where the hell
are the goddamn birds?

Man, the brain does work in mysterious ways...)

Anyway, here is my evidence that spring is here:

!!!! And not before time.

I picked this up at Romni Wools yesterday.

But it's not even PayDay yet, you say? What was I doing at Romni? Weeeeeell...

I had been doing some work at home in the early morning and was leaving late for the office. Late enough, in fact, to catch the 10 a.m. opening time at Romni on the way in. Where I had to go, by the way, because I needed some fine-gauge crochet hooks with which to string beads.

Good Kristina then made an (increasingly rare) appearance and reminded me that Amy had proffered a very good suggestion involving fishing line as a solution to this issue earlier this week.

Hardware store... yarn shop? Hardware store... yarn shop? What a choice!

But Romni is right near my streetcar stop closest to work (if by "closest" one means "5 blocks further west than the stop which is really closest, but a more scenic route by far"), so the choice became clear. Only for crochet hooks, of course.

You might well ask. It's that time honoured game in which my pocketbook (and any hope of ever buying property in this town) are always the losers.

As soon as I stepped into the shop, this leapt into my hot little (well, cold by that point - it was well below zero yesterday and I had been knitting in the street) hands:

Handmaiden Mini Maiden! Look at the pretty colours! The colourway is called "Blackberry" (I assume after the real thing, not after the obnoxious electronic rudeness-sanctioning device). How could I resist?!

Besides, it will be perfect for the Swallowtail shawl that I plan to start tomorrow at the weekend one of these days.

(Good Kristina: But I thought you already had this stuff for the Swallowtail?!?


Evil Kristina: Ah, shuddup.

I am always astounded by the efficacy of rudeness, even against myself. Maybe those Blackberry-wielding urban warriors have a point?! Hmm. Not one I wish ever to understand, mind you.)

I also scored the perfect buttons for my Bespoke:


...and some other very flashy vintage buttons besides.
I then left the shop, glowing with the satisfaction of shiny new purchases. A block and a half later, I realised that I had forgotten to look for these!

SIGH. I found 1.0 mm and .75 mm hooks (and whoever actually crochets with these and reads this blog, please contact me and I will send you a medal. Really. 3.00mm stretches the limits of my patience, which is admittedly not a hard thing to do).

All in all it was a productive day. I accomplished all this in my commute to and from the office:

Sleeve No. 1 of my Bespoke. (Did I mention before that I have found the cure for the dreaded SSS?! Take your sleeves with you wherever you have to wait in line/sit on a train, bus or streetcar, etc.)

I also reviewed some pressing legal research materials:

...and did a little light reading over the lunch hour:

(Dang. Did I mix up those photos again?! Bad habit).

Now it's off to work - but spring has sprung!! Does this mean all the snow has melted, d'ya think?

Er...nope.

Oh well.

many forms of craftiness

When dancing to work this morning, a sign on a new shop across the street from where I was at actually made me stop in my tracks. It said Craft something (I really need to clean my glasses more often).

I peered more closely past the oncoming traffic and saw the second part of the sign:

... Burger.

This confused me as I was still hung up on the "Craft" bit. What kind of craft shop could this be? Would they, for example, sell stuff like this? (Another one for the "Wish I'd thought of that"!!!" list, which is up to vol. 7 or so at time of writing this post.)

I was too lazy to cross over and investigate, but of course fired up my trusty search engine as soon as I reached the office (only a short break, of course, before immersing myself into high level legal research all day!):
This is what I found on Craft Burger.

Dang. It really is a burger joint after all. Not only that, but a "gourmet" burger joint. Isn't "gourmet burger" an oxymoron?

Just what Toronto needs... another fancydan house of burgers. And, given its location right in the heart of Prime Condoland, a burger with fries and a drink would doubtless set me back the same amount of cash as a skein of Handmaiden anything. (This, when I just picked up 3 kilos of extra lean ground beef at Loblaws for something ridiculous like $15.00!)

I know how I'd rather spend my (hard-?)earned cash. But then, who am I to dis other crafters, anyway?!?

Anyway, probably just as well there isn't a new real craft place two blocks from the office. As it is, one of my well-meaning co-workers came in this morning with an "announcement" for me - a new LYS is about to open. On Thursday, of all days - that most hallowed of the bi-monthly spending holiday known as Payday. Sigh. Thanks, W!

Luckily it is well out of my way (it's east of the Don, and anyone who has lived in Toronto for more than about 20 minutes knows that it is not the done thing to cross the Don unless you absolutely must, for work). So, I'll probably be able to hold out until the 1 December Payday holiday.

Or (says Good Kristina) until I work my way through more of the stash. I'm still hacking away at that. Right now, a lovely piece with Handmaiden Silken:

Trying to make a sow's ear from a silken purse! (now I'm taking the cliche school a bit too far, I think)... Not really. Stay tuned!

And - getting some home decor ideas from Amy Sedaris. This may well be the only time I will ever buy an Issue of House and Garden (not because I don't like home decor - only I keep waiting for them to come out with "Apartment and Balcony Flowerbox" (with such tidbits as "how do you secure a flowerbox to the balcony so as not to have it fall off and brain another tenant, inspiring an eviction application for serious impairment of safety". And stay tuned for the monthly centrefold, "Haute Couture for $30 or less", sponsored by Value Village.

On that happy note, I'd best sign off. In parting, today I am glad to note that I'll be celebrating two important milestones in history:

(a) Greece adopted a new constitution in 1864 (three short years before Canada became a country and came up with its own constitution . Coincidence?) and

(b) Sadie Hawkins Day was created in 1939, two years after Sadie's birth (she seemed awfully precocious!).

Homage to Miranda

Who is this, anyway?

Is it Carmen Miranda, risen miraculously from the dead?

I wish! Sorry to disappoint, but it's only...

little ol' me.

I am, however, honoured to be in very good company indeed respecting my tribute to Ms Miranda - including Angie Pontani, who inspired this creation with her article in Craft Mag Vol. 4. I will admit that Angie looks far better in her version than I.

(If you are too young to remember Carmen Miranda (as, technically, am I - but in some respects I am an old fart trapped in a not quite middle aged woman's body!), you may well recall some other tributes to her: including Bugs Bunny and Chiquita Banana)

But actually I don't think I look half bad! At any rate, I look happy.

And, speaking of fancy dress - isn't this a great outfit? The dress is called is the Rhumba. I acquired some years back at Price Roman (which sells absolutely fabulous clothes) to wear to a wedding. I don't want to admit how much it cost... suffice it to say it was roughly equivalent to 20 Value Village sojourns or 50 dollar store runs.

The headdress, on the other hand, cost only $30... er, $42. $20.00 for this stuff:
... and $10.00 for this:
(Except that, ahem... the glue gun pictured perished last evening at my cruel and impatient hands. And if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you have probably already surmised that there will be a future post on this topic alone. I'm fairly predictable in my lunacy. A basket also perished but it was ugly anyway so I really don't care.)

I should note that JJ gave creative input to this project (he is a big fan of Carmen Miranda, having seen this flick when a young lad. And, by the way, it is highly recommended viewing for all ages. I loved it!). Most specifically, he proposed that I weave the orange flowers in with the purple - which worked perfectly.

I made a couple of modifications from what Angie suggested:

• mixed in some vegetables with the fruits and flowers

• added two scarves, one to wrap the basket and one to drape over the spandex tie
• omitted the sparklies and fake pearls, for now, anyway
  

(I did locate these...
... in the bedroom drawer - together with some other stuff which will be the subject of yet another post, I'm sure you'll be glad to know. Again I digress... I did try stringing these onto the headpiece but they didn't quite work. I'm sure they'll do for something else, though... stay tuned!)

However, I think that mine is taller than hers (hell, it's taller than I am!). heh heh. I had to duck coming through the doors to make my grand entrance, which kind of detracted from the grand aspect of the entrance. (The headpiece is 30" long from tip to bottom and about 10" wide.)

Oh well. The fruit look tasty anyway, don't they?

I will confess that I was not able to tie it properly to stay on my head unaided (I could have asked JJ to help, but wanted to surprise him). I could walk when holding it and even did a little samba for JJ (for at least 20 seconds!).

If I make another one (and I don't see why not) for actual wear, I think I'd try to go with some styrofoam fruit.

But, all in all, I'm very happy with this creation and it will make a great table decoration to match the Liquorice Allsorts.
In parting, here is a photo that I think represents the spirit of Carmen.
I do hope that she is resting in peace... either that, or having a ton of fun wherever she is now.

And, for the living, I wish you a happy St. Michael's Day. If you know any Greeks called Michael, try to crash the party. It will be a good one.