I went to Art Media today and picked up new notebooks and pens with the gift card B.T (John's mother) gave me for Christmas this last year. I had lots of fun drawing landscapes with my new pens, in the Moleskine book she gave me as well!



My Moleskines:

Set of three graph paper notebooks, set of three ruled notebooks, and the Japanese accordion notebook.

My Pens:

6 landscape shades, in the brush pen, 6 grey shades in the brush pen, and I also have all the black pens with tip sizes from "super-extra-fine" to "brush" and the chisel heads in black, tan, and raspberry. (The "calligraphy pens.")

But all that landscape drawing started making me think about my favorite landscapes, which are more photographs than drawings, and most of my favorites are by Ansel Adams. He's one of my favorite photographers, and so I looked up some of his work.




In other news, I accidentally made a fool of myself to a woman I'm trying to get a job from. *palm to forehead*
I sent her an email asking her why she hadn't replied to my resume that I emailed, for a job as an intern cake decorator. She sent an email back saying that she hadn't received any resume (I think it turns out my attempt to send it as an attachment didn't work...) and that she wanted me to call her. DOH! So I called and left my number with the woman who was working there at the time... I hope this works out and she doesn't think I'm a total spaz.
I'm so embarrassed.

Not much knitting done lately, but I'm counting on my knitting group on Tuesday to set me back on my way with it...

John and Jackson threw me the most epically amazing surprise party yesterday. It was the coolest. We had party hats, and there was a big banner that said happy birthday, and we all sat in the sun and drank and laughed.
And today I am 17. I'm looking forward to sushi for lunch, and vietnamese for dinner. And my mom is making me breakfast right now, which is why I haven't gone downstairs yet. Also, a trip to ikea might be in today's future. And I can't wait to see everybody tonight at dinner.

Also, it's one of the most gorgeous days in a very long time.

I'm so happy.

Best job ever:
Organizing yarn for ten dollars (paid in yarn) per hour.

It was the coolest.

Also there is free pizza.

Some people remind me of stepping in dog shit.
You don't notice it at first, but then the smell gets strong.
And then you keep wiping your shoes in the grass.
Hoping it will go away.
Hoping your loved ones noticed the shit and stepped over it.
Hoping no one else will notice.

(On the plus side, I won a photography contest today. And I didn't even submit what I would consider a valid photo. I won some film and a cable release... And a chocolate covered cherry.)
(John comes home tomorrow and then we leave for a while.)

Yesterday was amazing. I talked to Kimya after the show and she is a neat lady. She signed my pants too. And then I went to Duncan's and had the best time ever. It was the ideal house party. Pilar and Hannah are a year older and their brother is awesome and nice and Emma is a sweetheart and Pilar is my new girlfriend. Who I kiss passionately in front of my real boyfriend.

It was a good day.

Here Nicole, here's that hat pattern you were asking about:
aqui

Best. Weekend. Ever.

I'll post more later, but I wanted to make sure I blogged a particular moment.

John and I were on the bus, and we were nuzzling and rubbing noses and this hipster-y girl behind us asked to take our picture because we were so cute.
And we are cute. We're frickin adorable.

Edit: I lied, I'm not really going to post that much more. Basically I spent the weekend at John's house while his mom was signing books in N.Y. (Yay for her new book!

Sorry it's so small, but you get the idea.)
And that was about it. Kimya Dawson was canceled, sadly, due to the illness of her little one. I think I can learn to forgive her.
Also today I had my conference today and I did really well in all my classes, which is pretty sweet and about what I expected.
Also I need to get a job. Probably at Safeway.

It has now officially been one year.
I am more in love with him than ever, and the years after this one can only be better.
I'm a softie, it's true.
But he's wonderful.
I'm so lucky.

Stuff I got for the holidays:

( Gifts )

So I spent the last few days (tuesday-today) up in Seattle, staying with John and his dad's family. Suzanne, Frank's (John's dad) wife, is really awesome and nice, and Frank is cool in a dorky kind of way, and OLIVIA, John's 5 year old half-sister is a bundle of adorable wrapped with a strangle-myself-ribbon. I had a really good time, and spent a lot of the trip just eating good food and spending time with Olivia. I accidentally pulled a muscle in my back on the second or third day, but it cleared up okay, and I survived. About halfway through yesterday I started getting irritable, due to lack of sleep and I also forgot to eat lunch, but today I was more chipper. A few times I feel like I sort of directed my frustrations at John, and started getting fussy, but I didn't feel like I took it out on him too bad. He knows I wouldn't have done it on purpose. Especially on the train ride back, when I was feeling upset and fed up with my parents, I started getting upset, but I feel so much better now that I've calmed down and such. I feel like in a tiny way, John and I were just too tired and hungry from traveling, and couldn't deal with spending anymore time together. I need my space sometimes, and I think he understands what I mean.

Sorry, I meant to take pictures while I was there but I completely forgot. I'll reuse old ones instead...


Olivia-bean (wearing the hat and scarf I made her for her birthday last September...)

Anyway, I'm pooped so I'm going to bed...

So there wasn't any presents this year, because my family doesn't have any money, but that's okay, once my dad got home from work yesterday we had a nice Christmas. And my mom did make me a scarf, with was lovely. It's got little crocheted daisies on the ends.

However, I did get lovely gifts from John and his mum and I suppose partly Wil as well. Although in my experience most husbands let their wives worry about getting the sentimental gifts. She got me necco wafers because I once mentioned that I love them but hadn't had them in a while. And a moleskin journal that folds out accordian style, and a gift card to art media, and caligraphy pens! It was so sweet I nearly cried.
However, that is not the sweetest part. John gave me a little book called "Modes of Travel A-Z" which is just what it sounds like, with little pictures that accompany each mode of travel. And inside he wrote: "I want to travel the world with you. You choose how. Love John"

I am still all misty thinking about it... awww.

This is the Give-Some-Get-Some Musical Christmas Exchange.

How it works:
I'll post up 25 songs, and then you post a comment with a song of your own. (Or two, or three...)

Dying Man's Wish - Doria Roberts
Cosmia - Joanna Newsom
Heavy In Love - Bitch and Animal
A Phoenix and Doves - Diane Cluck
The One I Love - Rosie Thomas
Sylviana - Diane Cluck
A Rose In April - Kate Rusby
Much Farther To Go - Rosie Thomas
Indian Rope Trick - Flunk
Echo - Kristin Hersh
Twilight - Elliott Smith
Black Eyed Girl - Bitch and Animal
Alice In Lotusland - The Black Watch
As Is - Ani DiFranco
Overkill - Colin Hay
How Can It Be? - Forever Thursday
Blue Eyes - Timmy Curran
Marry Me - St. Vincent
Handy Man - Matt Strief
If You Leave - Nada Surf
Hadlock Padlock - Kimya Dawson
The Microwave Song - SoftLightes
Nostalgia - The Culottes
I Heart Fags - MC Frontalot
Black and Blue - Thirdimension


Special thanks to Nico-wafers and her music-sharing in the past. Also thanks to e-music.com for being awesome. And pandora internet radio for being cool back when I used it.

My workspace, which has much more yarn than it did when I took the picture.

Knitting a scarf, with a new pattern I've found.


I like the blues in it, it's a very winter-y scarf.

Slip slip knit stitches are tricky...

It'll be cozy when it's done... I'm sure someone will love it.

PAST KNITTING EXTRAVAGANZA PRODUCTS:

From left to right: A hat that is a little to small, MY MOBIUS SCARF (see below), and a hat that looks like the top of a mushroom.

Mobius scarves have nothing to do with the inside of my nose, but notice I have included them both anyway...

I finished my socks!



They are fuzzy and warm! And awesome!



I love them.



In other news, Aribella and Nicolopolis showed a bunch of people this awesome video:



It's from basically the best TV show ever, and John and I lay around quoting this all the time. I've seen it a shitload of times. So props to the ladies up there.

I had a good day today. Nothing went horribly wrong, classes were normal, people weren't undully mean, (although I did put my foot in my mouth while talking to Alyssa about legwarmers.)(I hate them.) but the real cherry on today's sundae was spending time with John. I know, I spend time with him everyday. I see him all the time. I can't help it, he's just wonderful to be around. And speaking on the subject of that, I just have to say that there isn't a sweeter, kinder, smarter, funnier, more handsome guy out there. When you spend enough time with someone, someone you really love, every day is even better than the last.

Long story short, I'm unbearably happy. What did I do to get so lucky, eh?

Opium - Antje Duevkot
Anybody Else But You - The Moldy Peaches

Let's be friends?
Comment with a picture of anything!