bird

It's all about orange and buttons

I published most of my Paris photos on Flickr. But I forgot this one. Some how I was smart enough to visit La_Droguerie before going to the Louvre. I was searching for a knitting shop, but it's actually an embellishment boutique. Knitting is a very small part of La Droguerie, but they have all the trim, feathers and buttons you'll ever need. The yarn, patterns, and needles only exist so you can embellish the end product. The patterns are simple and suitable for beginners. Unfortunately I won't be going back unless I need something specific because they're really expensive. My total was about 127 Euro for everything pictured. Yep, I needed buttons really bad.



Kiki made this for me as a gift. It's perfect for my new Moo.com cards. Can you guess what yarn she used?



It's all about orange. Below is Ikea's 2007 Orange Fabric by Sissi Edholm and Lisa Ullenius. I fell in love with the birds first then the orange background. It's heavy upholstery weight. I have no idea what to do with it. I'm happy to hold on to it for awhile.
My recent Gap purchases include orange suede shoes and an orange and cream woven scarf. These two purchases brightened my wardrobe. I like to wear them with my green colored stuff. Now I can't help but add more orange by visiting How About Orange I subscribe and enjoy it.




Orange Accessories GAP

Purchased Handmade Items

I've been dreaming of a pair of black crochet earrings ever since seeing Anthropologie's really expensive pair last winter. Or was it two winters ago? Anyway I stumbled upon a pair while using Google image search. These are made By Ann Libertini at WithoutAPulse.com. She crochet's wonderful pairs of earrings in four different colors. They're stiffened then shipped carefully and expedisiously.

I wanted to receive something in the mail and I needed a pincushion. Thank goodness for Etsy. I purchased this cute Tomato Pincushion from SarahKladzyk.Etsy.com. It's soft and plushie.

Swap-bot Swap Partner

I just got my Swap-bot swap partner and yes she's an Aussie! It's an awesome match. Just like me she loves stationary, notepads and postcards. I'll add a few postcards to the box. I already have notepads in there. There's an Ikea south of her but it's a long drive. I can't imagine making the trip too often, so I'll leave the Ikea stuff in the box. I'm mailing it tomorrow so I can hurry and get a response.

Swap-bot

I entered a swap on Swap-bot. It's the "10 Surprise Items" swap. You send 10 things with a collect worth of $5. I have a lot of stuff that I collect so I only had to buy one thing. I hope the person I get doesn't have an Ikea. That was probably an evil thing to say. I'm sorry. I'm sending Ikea stuff. Maybe it'll be a surprise anyway. I'll have to send it right away so it'll arrive ontime. Maybe it'll be another international swapper. I'm so excited! There're already 287 swappers. A lot of them are Aussies. This is too much fun. I'm signing up for the "Gain Eposure to Your Blog" swap. The deadline is January 31st. I've done this one before. It was fun.

Ravelry

Does anyone know how to set Ravelry to send you emails if you receive messages? I Also found it hard to find my friends. So here's me. http://www.ravelry.com/people/Letoya

Christmas Wreath

I finally got the chance to create my version of the yarn ball Christmas Wreath. The inspiration for this creation was featured in the previous post. I was sad at first, because I wasn't optimistic about finding the materials to decorate it. Lucky me, I found cheap poor quality ornaments at Carrefour. I covered them with yarn. I bought the gift boxes and stuffed hearts at Ikea. The lights came from a really cool housewares store called The One. They're battery powered, so no wires to plug in . It took an hour and a half to construct. I used craft wire to attach everything. This wreath cost about $15 US Dollars to make. I made the wreath hanger from a dry cleaners wire hanger. It works perfectly. I'm really proud of it.

I'm also proud of the Christmas tree. My roommate Henry bought me the Hello Kitty ornament. Brenden sprayed the windows with fake snow. HEHE! The hanging lights are battery powered from Ikea.

I know the spire topper is crooked, but it'll have to stay as it is. It's handblown glass. It'll just break if I mess with it.

Anywho!

Starbucks Yarn Ball Christmas Wreath

I'm in love with this Yarn ball wreath from Starbucks. They don't sell it in the shops here in Abu Dhabi. I can't even find enough supplies to hack one of these, but I won't stop looking. Has anyone else seen it? I think I even recognized some of the yarns. They look like Lion Brand.

Plastic Rainbow Heart Earrings

I bought these charms in the Target dollar section. I hacked them into cute earrings.

Knitting Fashion's of the 1940's

Knitting Fashion's of the 1940's by Jane Waller. I'm mezmerized by this book. You can see why. I'm planning to make the water bottle cover first. Because the other patterns are a bit complicated but I'll get to them in time.

The Reluctant Anti-Heroes

I've just finished the first four episodes of Showtimes comedy Californication. I know I'm late but you can't that stuff here in Abu Dhabi. I watched all of them straight through without a break. I had no Idea what to expect. Is it a coincidence that lately, I've been reading books with the same sort of character. May be it's somekind of Noir writing trend. I would compare Hank Moody to Death's Head, Sven Tveskoeg and Altered Carbon's, Takeshi Kovacs, but without guns. David Duchovny's Hank Moody has a lot in common with these guys, like the restless demons that try to pull you into the black or the complete disregard for scum who prey on the lesser. He's a real badass and the women love it. Forget about the fact that he hates himself and then self-medicates with boose, sex, and drugs. Somehow he manages to uphold some type of chivialric honor and express a bit of sensitivity. There're still lines he won't allow himself to cross. There must be some hope left for this self-loathing, violent, vomit stained mess of a carbon based unit. Now introducing your reluctant and unasuming anti-hero. It's entertaining like a car wreck. David Duchovny is believable even when he's muttering through his thin upper lip. Enjoy.

You're Welcome Mom

While back in Kansas City, my mom spied my GUESS by Marciano Gelato Large Hobo with envy. She asked me for it. I said no. Later, after arriving back into Phoenix, I realized that I'd left the bag in KC. I asked Mom to look for it along with my Prada sunglasses. I went to Ross's in Phoenix to find another pair of sunglasses. I found the same Guess bag for half the price of what I paid retail. That was a big "Abu Dhabi sucks" moment. They don't have Ross Stores here or anything close. Anyway, mom ended up with the bag after all. She put my sunglasses away for safe keeping.

My New Bag

GUESS by Marciano Gelato Large Hobo

I finally found a casual bag that's big enough to carry all of my stuff. I mean ALL of the things that I can't seem to leave home without. I bought it in the Guess Boutigue at the mall. It had to be fate. Guess clothing and handbags are not my style. I'm not a fan of stores that sell items that won't allow me to wear undergarments like a bra and lycra slimmer. Their handbags are usually too fantastic with monograms and large reflective metal logo plates. Yeah, I know this Gelato bag has a big shiny metal plate. I used its reflection to apply my lipgloss. But what I'm trying to say is that, dispite my objections, this bag still called to me. I'm a handbag Diva. Holla!

Baby Socks

The two little cream puffs have arrived. I'd show you a photo of my new twin neice and nephew, if I had one. I ashamed to tell you that I haven't started the baby socks. The baby sweaters will be finished by the time the temperature drops in KC. I'm also ashamed to tell you that I hate to use my pretty yarn from SpritelyGoods.com. The socks will get ruined or lost. My brother and sister-in-law don't really have a lot of nice things and they wouldn't take care of a nice sweater if they had one. Some how I have to get over it because 1. I'm tired of being ashamed, and 2. I don't have anything else to knit with at this moment.

SpritelyGoods.com Bird of Paradise

Here's the new baby sock project bag. I love it!

Cat Bordhi socks knitted in Brown Sheep superwash worsted. I forgot the color. My tention is wacky, but I haven't blocked them yet.

Weekend Knitting toddler hat

Letoya's First Blog Entry From Abu Dhabi

My last blog entry was last year. I'm so ashamed, again. So this is going to be a big one.

Abu Dhabi has treated me well. So far my new job is absoutely crazy but my coworkers are very welcoming. I'll tell you more about them later. I found a huge magazine stand at a small grocery around the corner. They sell craft and hobby magazines like Craft: I don't know why they sell them. I haven't found a yarn store here anywhere. I think camel wool is used for rug making. There's no such store like Michaels. I found this knitting mag that came with a free gift. It's a UK publication. The patterns are unimpresive, but they advertise some of the best products like Rowan and Habu. The magazine is trying to appeal to lots of different knitters and cross stitchers, instead of specializing. Anyway, the mag as a whole is still worth the price of 3.99 GPB.

Here's what today looks like in my neighborhood of Kkalidya, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. I took these pictures from my apartment balcony.

Partly cloudy, dusty 94F

Feels Like: 111F
Wind: W 31km/h
Relative Humidity: 50%

Flickr Photo Set

I just added my flickr photo set. I love it! now you can see more of my photos. I spend more time uploading images than posting blog entries.

www.flickr.com blacklovelythang's Jewelry photoset

About as crazy as the holidays

Here it is the Chicken Viking hat.
I'd love to present this hat as a hostess gift. Sometimes it's hard for me to give serious gifts and my friends and family know this. They would never see this coming tho'.

Easter Egg Hunt Scarf

Kiki gave me the Ironstone yarn and then I added the Splash and Fizz. I had to break out the size 35 needles. This scarf seriously bordered on ugly. But somehow it works. I knew of one person who would go completely nuts over it. It just happened to be her birthday too. You are so welcome Lori. She thinks it matches her eyes. I just let her keep thinking that.



There's wacky Ironstone Circus in there!

Wire Pin with Pink Tourmaline

I made another pin.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Tooth Ache Scarf

I'm making this scarf with GGH, Crystal Palace, and Trendsetter. It's so sweet my teeth hurt. You gotta love the macro camera feature. Pink isn't one of my favorite colors unless it's accompanied by brown or green. The Trendsetter Perla definitely fits my criteria with it's bright green strands of tinsel. The Crystal Palace Flowers has lime green fibers and gold tinsel. This stuff is too much fun!

Wire Pin

I made this for KiKi's birthday. Again the idea came as a project from the book Jewelry Making: Tips and Tricks Of The Trade , by Stephen O'Keeffe. It felt great to get such a reaction from her. I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Kiki gave me an Alexander Calder book to explore. The pin brought him to mind. I added it to my Amazon.com wish list. I was serously inspired and amazed. Isn't that what friends are for? She knows me well.