Earth Hour and beyond

What did you do yesterday during Earth Hour?



No, these aren't fireworks. This is my attempt at taking a photo of all the big houses on Millionaire's Row across the ravine from me... who did NOT turn their lights off. Indeed, in four or five houses every single light in the house appeared to be on - and these are some big houses, let me tell you. Sheesh.

Well, JJ and I did turn off our lights, and we were in good company apparently...this is downtown Toronto:

Weird to see the CN tower in complete darkness, but pretty cool nonetheless. And this is the Peace Tower in Ottawa (our capital city):

... and, for my American friends, Detroit as viewed from Windsor, Ontario:

Anyway, I rather liked this Earth Hour thing. I think they should actually do it once a week... but also make shutting off all the cell phones, blackberries, computers and televisions mandatory. And yes, we can live without these things for an hour. Really.

After Earth Hour was over, JJ and I hopped into a cab and headed downtown to see the Axes of Evil play!


The Axes of Evil is a local band made up of a bunch of leftie lawyers and other leftie folk. I'm one of their groupies...


...and we were all out in force last night bustin' our moves on the dance floor, cheered on by our admiring audience:

Fun was had by all ... and I got lots of great comments about my springtime purse:

Don't know if I've posted a photo of this one before - I made it some time back. It's a bag made out of a repurposed sweater from Goodwill. I felted it, cut it up and then crocheted this part together with spare yarn from the stash. My favourite part is this little flower:

Anyway, the bag cheers me up and lets me think that spring is actually on the way.

So, on the agenda today? No huge plans. I hope to continue hacking away at my latest piece, April Showers:


Looking a bit odd right now, but I have high hopes... and I really love this colourway. It actually glows in person. Ah, Italian Silk!

Time to get back to it ... wishing you a very happy Sunday!

a fulfilling day

Well, yesterday was a truly great day even though the snow is still lying on the ground. Why?

Well, for one, I finished Clue 7 of my SOTSii!




But that was at the end of the day. Here's how my lovely day began...

First, I got to meet Wannietta for the first time at a knit cafe called "In The Loop" in my neighbourhood. Also met another local knitter, Kelly. I had a lovely time.

I also scored some royal purple Silken!! It's Wannietta's fault. Really, it is. She threatened me with dire knitting curses such as "You will frog three rows for every two and a half that you knit" if I did not buy it.

So, now I'll just have to make another River Rock scarf, I guess.

Then I came back home and did some work on the SOTSii:

I then ventured out again to run some errands. While standing in line at #@$&(#*&$@(@#*$& Forest Hill Loblaws, I decided that I was way overdue for a visit to Zia Mosaics.

I bought some inspirational materials (after all, all lace and no glass makes Kristina a dull girl, I fear):

I'm also a sucker for stained glass as you might imagine, and the following pieces just leapt into my hands while I was standing at the cash register to pay for the other stuff:

This is a cross between violet and deep purple, if you can't tell from the photo:
I've never quite seen a shade of rose like this!

And finally, my all time favourite colour of stained glass: oilslick!!!

Susanna at Zia calls it "gas glass". I truly love it. If Handmaiden came out with this colour in its seasilk line I would likely have to declare bankruptcy within about a week.

And finally, I headed to the Goodwill and scored this hot pink fleece top and necktie!

I then hauled all the goodies back home and resumed work on the SOTSii:

This particular phase of SOTSii was very satisfying for a couple of reasons:

- I came to the end of my beadwork pattern at Row 419. This will make the rest go much faster.

- I only started my third skein of Malabrigo at Row 417!!! Which means I have plenty left for the shawl!

I feel as though I'm in the home stretch... I think there are only two more clues to go.

So, that was my Saturday. Today, the Icarus!

Have a good one!

work craft blasts from the past and other beauties

Hello all: and happy anniversary to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who was a former prince of Greece although he is not Greek. Go figure. I like to think of myself as a Princess of Greece, but am sad to report that they missed my respective families in the selection process for this high honour.

Now for a news flash!!! Apparently, rubber duckies
are now threatened by mass destruction and decimation!! Click (here
to see how you can help!!

And now for some craft blasts from the past. My Duty Counsel colleague Adelaide (who is the longest serving permanent Tenant Duty Counsel in Ontario and a staunch defender both of tenants' rights and of the rights of her coworkers, has kindly agreed to model for this photo of one of my knits (which is now hers):


Doesn't she look lovely? And isn't that a fancy purse? (I had nothing to do with selecting her purse, I'm sad to confess.)

The knitted T-shirt she is modelling was a staff gift in honour of her 65th birthday last year (and that in itself will tell you how committed she is to tenants - still on the job every day).

It was knitted in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and is a close cousin to this top that I kept for myself:

Sideways top
Originally uploaded by BespokeByBrouhaha

Both were made from a pattern from Knitters' Magazine, Spring 2005 edition.



Next up is a little something I'm taking to the office today to put up: a felted bulletin board!

This is a Treasure from Trash made last summer or thereabouts. I scored a (rather ugly, to my view) sweater at Goodwill, and decided to felt it and sew pieces back together as a little sewing exercise. I have put this up on the blog before (I can't find the post for it!) but like the floating effect in this newer picture better... heh heh.

And here is some Frankensteinish detail. It's supposed to be herringbone stitch but it turned out more like cross-stitch, unfortunately.
And some more lame sewing:


detail

However, the end result should jazz up the office (not that it probably needs it...)

And now onto something that will never jazz up my office, courtesy of the Presto cookbook which has fascinated me so greatly over the past few days...

Now - this I have to confess I like - at least the colour. But I can never acquire a serving dish which resembles an indentured servant for my house. My leftie credentials would be shot completely. I'd probably lose my job and end up having to find my own cart to push around to collect beer and liquor bottles to pay my rent.

This, on the other hand, would be an excellent addition to my household:
I think it's really cute. I can only hope that I will be the first one to spot it when they put it out at the Value Village. There might be bloodshed if I view it in someone else's cart...

And now for something completely different...

A destroyed law text! While ripping it to shreds, I half expected the Law Lords of Centuries Past to throw scrolls down upon my head...

I'm now having fun plotting to deface it further. Stay tuned.

I do hope that Adelaide approves... I haven't shared my nefarious plan with her as yet. And here is another "strike the pose!" shot...



You'll note the fancy beautiful purse in the righthand most side of the photo, on the table. Just in case you thought I walked away with it...

And, in parting, someone far less pretty than Adelaide. I came up with Kristina's first Photoshop item ... (I downloaded a free trial last night...) which my Canadian friends might get a kick out of:


(For others, "Carmen Mulroney" is an ex-Prime Minister who has been in the news again of late because he has some questionable past associates. The Man in the Moon is our current PM, Harper).



Cheers,

Kristina

bulletin board in progress

Have finished the initial seaming of this... didn't actually take too long! It is messy, but can't really be seen. I am going to go over it with some embroidery stitches suggested by knittyfolk... particularly as I have some yarn in blue that matches the blue in the recycled sweater.

Will also be trimming off the stick out bits at that time.