Xmas Knitting and Pottery

I started this rainbow scarf when I was in Salt Lake City this summer. My sister Jeaka flipped over it, and asked for it outright. This was supposed to be a lightweight scarf for my occasional Key West chilly days (like today…53 degrees!).

But how could I keep it for myself when she begged for it shamelessly?

All any knitter wants is a properly grateful and gushing person to wear and show off their time-consuming handiwork!

For my mom, I knitted something ghastly. I used a beautiful minty green, super bulky, nubbly, spun-cocoon-looking yarn. It made the most lopsided, lumpy, misshapen “purse” one could ever knit. I struggled with it for weeks before finally chucking it as a failure and buying her this lovely bowl instead.

It was made by my friends Adam and Kelly at Honest Works Pottery here in town. They are famous for their boisterous use of color and their rooster mugs are hugely popular. Roosters always make me think of my mom, who made the mistake of mentioning that she loves them and that they remind her of her own mother. I am not the only person always tempted to give her rooster gifts.

Roosters are Key West’s pests and icons; well photographed by tourists and hated by anyone with a bedroom window. I frequently photograph the prettiest ones when I’m out and about.

I’ve started making Key West christmas gingerbread roosters (becoming an annual tradition).

For knitters: the scarf used three balls of Koigu PPPM (no, I don’t have any clue as to the color numbers) and this Churchmouse linen stitch pattern. This was an excellent exercise in forcing myself to knit continental, because the constant switching between k, p, and yf, yb would have taken even longer if I had “thrown” my yarn the whole time.

Handmade Presents for ME!

Months and months ago I participated in on of those Handmade Pay it Forward gift exchange dealies on Facebook. I sent Sunshine a baby chick hat for her tiny daughter.

This weekend I received some handmade goodness in the mail from her!! Check out these cute and super strong refrigerator magnets.

My favorite is cake.

Now I can retire the ugly bottle opener and ridiculous knife sharpener that I had been using to hold up the Boogedy’s artwork!

Also, she sent this adorable garland that says “Frosty”.

I wish I had had time to take it to the beach and model it there! But here I am in front of my neighbor’s house, with their garden composed of vegetation that is considered “houseplants” in most of the country!

Also, Sunshine was kind enough to send me a jar of Mentholatum, which must not be popular in the south, because no one here carries it. A few weeks ago I had the worst cold, and all I could find was nasty ol’ Vicks!

Sunshine, this was such an awesome box to receive. Thank you so much for making me these gorgeous presents!

Xmas lights

Our little Island Pine tree is getting weighed down with cool ornaments this year. This abundance of decoration is thanks to presents from my mom and sis; homemade garlands of popcorn and tinfoil and paper chains; late-night shopping at Kmart without Zach; and a few great thrift store finds. Here is one of my favorite spots:

These lit-up bikes made my night

Lights strung between the masts of a beautiful ship in the harbor during the Lighted Boat Parade.

And a really good dad, getting creative on paper-chain-making night:

Pandora in the background, playing the four christmas songs I was able to sit through before turning it to the Arrogant Worms station.

Lamingtons and December Fun

I swear that Lamingtons transcend the sum of their parts. Look, they’re just sponge cake, jam, chocolate, and coconut. But all together they’re amazing. I borrowed a cake pan from Kelly and Adam (super cool owners of Honest Works Island Pottery in Key West). So, when the Lamingtons were done, I took them some cakes and modeled them on one of their lovely turquoise plates.  Recipe Here.

On the way home I saw this big truck parked across the sidewalk and it made me laugh out loud. I can just picture my DVD remote control running out of juice and me calling these guys for some spare Triple A batteries, Pronto!

I strung the advent calendar up in the kitchen. Each day I try to think up some free or cheap activity. Last night was “go pick up dad from the airport and raid his suitcase for presents!”

Saturday’s advent activity was the Key West Holiday Parade. Here’s the haul. We threw most of this away, but kept enough to eat one piece every Monday for a few months. (That was the deal the kid came up with, after I said one piece each day was Too Much Candy.

Sunday’s activity was free locals day at the aquarium. This sweet pigeon ate from our hands!

They have a fish there that looks like a PUPPY. It’s called the dog-faced puffer fish. We couldn’t get a great shot, but I wanted to pet him, he looked just like a beagle.

Here are the finished sugar skulls from my sister-in-law Noemi in SLC! The Boogedy believes he won the contest, for Most Use of Frosting. Zach believes he won for best disco lips.

People Kites

Today we went parasailing for the first time ever! It. Was. AWESOME.

Look, I duct taped my magnetic sunglass attachment to my glasses. Dork-0.

This kid never even thought to be afraid of parasailing!

Launch

Feet. High, high above the water.

The view. OH, the water was so gorgeous!

Squish Squash.

The Boogedy, 2 minutes after coming ashore….”Now what can we do?”

Kite Day

I bought this peacock kite for Zach back in May when I was visiting my family in Salt Lake City. I just love World Market. Zach put it together today. It had dangly, gangly bamboo legs and long tail feathers and was made from painted silk. (Look at both my boys wearing handmade leather shoes I made for them!)

It had the prettiest face. We debated just hanging it from our ceiling for decoration, but ultimately decided on giving our kid the experience of flying a kite, which he had never done before.

Run, run…  But not too fast, it’s just silk and bamboo!

Ah! Flight! Joy!

Damn. Total flight time: 120 seconds.

Higgs Seascape Stole

Looky what I made for Kristin! I insured this package with the post office and they rolled.their.eyes when I told them what I thought it was worth. Or maybe they were incredulous that I would actually spend 120 hours knitting.

Here is the Higgs Seascape Stole modeled in front of the beautiful Atlantic Ocean.

Here it is modeled on me. I was standing at the end of the Higgs pier on a VERY windy day, and praying I wouldn’t drop the scarf in the water.

Me again with my artfully wind-tousled locks.

Here it is modeled in the empty chocolate box I sent it in. (I hope Kristin wasn’t disappointed that there were no chocolates in that lavender box!)

This pattern is Seascape from Knitty, and I used a LOVELY, softy-soft teal alpaca lace yarn from Cascade. I wish my photos had captured the subtle heathered hues in this yarn.

Happy Birthday Kristin!! I love you!

Key West Headdress Ball 2011

I worked the front desk at the Headdress Ball a couple of weeks ago, part of the annual 10-day Fantasy Fest here in Key West.

My pictures aren’t the greatest, but I wanted to share because some of the headdresses were so amazing!

The theme of this year’s Fantasy Fest was Aquatic Afrolic.

She’s part of a very sparkly dyad of jellyfish!

This whirlygig actually whirled…

This couple was staying in the hotel where the Headdress Ball was taking place, they only entered the contest because we thought they were so fun.

I loved this mermaid’s body paint.

This group wasn’t even competing, they came dressed up to watch.

Same with these guys, only there were, like, TEN of them!! Can you tell that their skirts are made of construction fencing? One guy had fashioned his into a bustle instead of a skirt.

I had a backstage pass so I caught up with these ladies after they hit the runway.

This is Inga, a local celebrity, leading the audience in the Chicken Dance and a naughty number.

This ensemble wore my favorite costumes, 18th century-ish. The queen wore pink frilly pumps, which I coveted, and satin bloomers. The boys are wearing crushed velvet hot pants. Ooh la la.

These gents come from across the pond every year for Fantasy Fest, and I adored their light-up flamingos.

This girl’s headdress is a ship being attacked by a kraken. The ship had an on-board cannon that shot confetti cannonballs.

 

I dig this scaly costume made from paint samples.

I couldn’t get a good shot of these snooty girls from NY. But they had the most amazing headdresses made from real sea sponges and coral fans. They were wrapped in olive green and tan fish nets.

This headdress features a functional water fountain up top.

This guy was sporting a HUGELY heavy headdress and he fell off the stage… onto my husband, who saved him from breaking his neck. Zach’s knee is still hurt from the strain of catching this guy and his getup.

Christopher Peterson sang a number and sounded great.

This fellow had something of a flamingo theme going on.

I absolutely loved this Las Vegas style clownfish costume. She had tailfeathers to match!

This was the coolest Fantasy Fest event I’ve been to so far!

 

I made a delicious braided bread braid filled with sweetened cream cheese and homemade lemon curd a few weeks back. I shared some with Paige because it was too pretty to keep to myself. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite websites for great food.

Here are the spotty orchids currently in bloom by my front door.

I took the kid and dog to the playground 3 or 4 nights ago and stood on a fire ant hill. Fire ant bites form pustules that sting and itch like mad; if you scratch them, they pop open and spread sticky gold fluid all over and they just itch more. Look how far the redness extends…you should see the toe with FOUR bites on it!! Fire ant stings peak at 48 hours for me, so 6 hours after this photo was taken, I was begging Zach to PLEASE find the anti-itch spray so I could get some sleep!

This is my Sunday view. Looking at the washing machines, and eating bread and butter from Sandy’s Cafe.

This rainy day photo was taken back at the beginning of the rainstorm that caused the flooding. We were tired of being cooped up inside, so we took our umbrellas for a walk to the pier.

Despite the rain, the water was crystal clear, and we could see Parrotfish down amongst the rocks! Hmm, he is hard to see in this picture. Click here for someone else’s better photo.

I pulled over on my bike to take a photo of this glorious passionflower vine in a pot.

The Boogedy went to the new office with dad to help run network cables after Goombay Festival. This activity was deemed more fun than the festival itself, so much so that he forgot his tummy ache, which he’d had for days, and which the funnel cake and hot dog did nothing to stop.

 

 

Pinkish Pasta

My friend Paige and I got together last week at her house to make fresh beet pasta (recipe from Martha Stewart).

The beet puree was gorgeous, though if I did it again I would use the juicer to make pulp that is finer and drier.

The dough was pretty. The baby was TRYING to be helpful. We wore old clothes so we wouldn’t get stained.

But in the end the dough was too soft, stretchy, and sticky and we used a bunch of flour to keep them from reforming into a mass.

I thought the noodles looked like hookworms.

Neither of us took pictures of them cooked up. I thought they were UGLY when cooked, having changed from Sunset Violet to something like this reddish pinkish brownish bag . A whole lot of work for something vaguely unappealing.