Double blog action!

So, it's not that I haven't been posting. It's that I've been posting at my other, brand-new, totally awesome photography blog. It even has my name on it!

http://www.veronicamachak.com

I am really excited to have a fancy new web presence for my photography. I'm really looking forward to having plenty to say about portraits, wedding photography, and all things crafty and DIY related to those things! Check it out and tell me what you think. And if, say, you needed or wanted photography, I'm at your service. :)

And don't worry, I've begun a Clapotis in Noro Silk Garden Lite (in one of the most gorgeous-and discontinued!- colorways), so there will be plenty of knitting content once I get back from Las Vegas. Mommy is taking a little trip by herself!

FO: Adamas shawl

Conceived in 2008, but not born till 2009, I present to you: Adamas. This thing has been in progress since April, but it got balled up when Vivienne came along and didn't get brought back out till I needed something to do in class this fall. I fully support Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's notions about knitting being important work for achieving fancier brain-waves and all that- I concentrate so much more on the discussion at hand in class when I have something to knit while I listen and talk. If only I could knit while reading...

Anyway, here's the shawl. It's knit with pagoda red hanpaintedyarn.com laceweight on size 4? 5? (it's a fleamarket circular, and my gauge is missing). The pattern is the beautiful Adamas, and I am looking forward to trying another of Mim's designs.

Here's one more picture which captures all the gloom of the subzero, sunless weather we have in a Michigan January:

Cold weather, warm quilts

So, what do you do when you get a sewing machine for Christmas? You go out and promptly begin hoarding fabric, of course! This is the year I build my quilting skills, after all. I have an idea all planned out in my head for these cute prints:

this is also the inspriration for the blog redesign

This is roughly $12 of fabric from the big box store, and I think it's really cute, honestly. I am already worried that I will finish the top and then freak out about quilting it perfectly, thus stalling the project.

But it's 2009, and I'm not! doing! that! This is a practice quilt, after all. It's going on the couch to get gnawed on by dogs and puked on by the rugrat. Good enough will be good enough.

Although maybe I will back it in chenille. We love fuzzy things at my house.

New Year's Plans

I'm not calling them resolutions. I'm not. They're more like... goals. Things I'm hoping for. Things that I will try to do. With resolutions I feel there is a predestined failure waiting to realize itself. Maybe if I don't call them resolutions, they won't act like resolutions. It feels a little like trying too look at something in my peripheral vision, and I'm scared that if I turn my head, it'll disappear.

That's a little depressing. Perhaps what I mean to say is that if I try too hard to schedule my life, the fun goes out of the task, and nothing gets done. I want to have fun, and what follows are things I hope I'm doing when the fun happens.



Anyway, here we go, in no particular order:

• Sew more: I got a sewing machine for Christmas, so I am hoping to make some strides in my abilities. I want to make a couple of little quilts before I conquer the spaceman quilt- I bought those materials before Viv was born! Free motion quilting is on the list for 2009.


• Knit things I will actually use: Let's face it: I am a process knitter. It took me a long time to realize that, but now that I know, I need to tailor my projects to reflect that. No more knitting non-superwash socks (ack!), no more sweaters I won't wear and felted bags I won't use. I like lace, I like cardigans, and I like fancy schmancy knee socks. These are the things I will make... oh, and baby stuff, if it's fast and I think it will last. I want to try Socks that Rock this year, and I want to make one or two orders to handpaintedyarn.com or 100purewool.com.


• Stop kidding myself about gardening: I can't do it. I am bad at it. If Dan wants to try, fine. But no more planting tomato plants that I water all season to not get a single freakin' tomato (seriously! bad! at! gardening!).


• Redecorate the house on a budget: I need to paint, which my lovely landlord covers, but beyond that, I need to fix my house. I have been inspired, but I can't afford the sticker price on some of the things I love (mid-century furniture, bold graphic stuff, etc.). Watch the blog for some revealing photographs about my space as it transforms from crappy to ...less so. Fortunately, IKEA and Target hear me loud and clear... but I am conflicted about buying too much stuff from big-box stores. It reminds me too much of the narrator's apartment in Fight Club.
  
• and the big one: Start my photography business! This is going to take time. I am already booking some small weddings for the summer, so if you are looking for an affordable and friendly photographer who is super crafty and appreciates DIY weddings, I'm your girl. And I am willing to travel outside Michigan! I hope to have a nifty new blogsite up and running in the next week or so, and I'm heading to WPPI in Vegas in February (with big ups to my husband for watching the baby for, like, five days while I'm gone).

Whoosh

That's the sound of anyone's interest in my blog flying out the window.

Seriously, though, it's been busy. Between the baby, the two jobs (yes, I took another job at school... yeesh), school, the doped up (but still alive!) dog, and the other (normal) dog, things are really, really hectic. Oh, and did I mention that my husband is also working full-time while in school, and Christmas is 10 freaking days away?

So, um, busy.

I have done a little teeny tiny bit of knitting, though. All I have left is the bindoff on my Adamas shawl, and it looks gorgeous, if I do say so myself. I was going to give it away for Christmas, but with the amount of my oh-so-precious time that it took to make, I am keeping it for myself. I don't think there is anyone in the world who could really appreciate how much went into it but me, anyway. All the stolen moments, the pleasure of a couple stitches here and there, slowly crafting something just for me.

Right now, Christmas is a horizon of laziness and presents and giggling babies and eggnog and too many cookies that doesn't feel like it's getting any closer, despite the pressure of the dates on the calendar. All I have to do to get to Christmas is finish the paper I am currently writing and slide it across the conference table tomorrow night. And I mean slide- this desk is some kind of paper skating rink- anything you push in front of you glides gracefully and effortlessly across the desk. It has its own special physics. We spend a lot of time sliding rather than passing papers as a result. But that's not until six o'clock tomorrow and the paper's not done, and I'm getting more and more frazzled! Focus!

So, yeah, I'm probably going to be incommunicado again for a little bit, but it will get better. I'm only taking one class next semester, and I think that I'm going to start blogging from work, provided I can remember to post pictures to flickr when I am home.

This is from Halloween- peanut didn't really like the loud music

Think good thoughts for Viking

My little pup is sick. Really sick. Her epilepsy is ramping up to a point where medication might not be able to protect her at all from the Seizure Monster. We're having a hard time breaking the cycle of seizures she's currently in, so she's not really sleeping (neither are we) and even large doses of valium don't seem to help. We can't afford a trip to the neurologist (it's as much as a semester of college for D!) for what would probably be a dark prognosis anyway, but I feel like there must be something that will fix this, something I can't see, something we haven't tried yet. But who knows. Honestly, there probably isn't anything, but I can't give up hope yet.

I love my little Viking so much, I just want her life to be a good one. We're not sure what's coming next for her, but if you could keep her in your thoughts... yeah.

I swear I'm still alive

I just have been so BUSY! V is now FOUR months old, which blows my mind. She's babbling now, and army crawling around in her crib. She's long and svelte- certainly not the gigantic, fat baby I was expecting. She's so alert and inquisitive- every day is an adventure.

I have shot my first weddings as a (semi) pro, and I LOVE it. I am looking forward to Friday- my cousin is getting married, so I have a particular investment in photographing that wedding. :) If you're looking to hire a wedding photographer in the Midwest, I am willing to travel and I work for cheap (we're talking less than $500 for all day coverage!).

I just got hired at school to work as a student assistant for one of my professors from last year. I am nervous to be out of the house more, but I think it will do wonders for my time management and sanity to be away from V a little more.

And surprise of surprises, I've still been knitting despite the whirlwind of activity (class is good for something!). I am getting near the end of the Adamas shawl I started in the spring. I have memorized the lace repeat (doesn't usually happen), and it's really coming along swiftly, considering the amount of time I work on it. I am hoping to be done by Thanksgiving, but we'll see. I only get to work on it at school because V demands to be held when I am at home.