The guest train keeps on truckin’.  I LOVE friends and family coming up to visit us, but it does create one slight problem: when we have guests for 3 weeks straight, the definitely cuts down on my blogging time.  Thus this delayed recap.  But here I am, back and better than ever.

Anne came up last week for some grand explorations in the Pacific Northwest.  She spent Thursday and Friday exploring the city, unfortunately, mostly on her own during the day because I had to work.  Bah! to work.  However, we did get to get some good times in- Anne was able to explore some local yarn shops, meet my super awesome knitting group (or at least the girls who made it that night), meet me for lunch at The Other Coast (by the way, I am stupidly in love with their new extra small sandwhiches, which, for $5 are a total rip-off – a regular 6″ would only be $2 more for twice the sandwhich, but I don’t have the self control to save the other half, PLUS small food is cuter), wander around the Market Friday afternoon and then go to Black Bottle with Mike, where we had some good wine and THE BEST CHOCOLATE CAKE IN THE WHOLE FREAKING WORLD OMFG, which was even weirder because MIKE picked it out.  (Mike hates chocolate and cake but highly recommended this choice, and dear god was he right.)

Saturday morning(ish) we left for a weekend in Portland.  Portland is basically the knitting capitol of the universe, so we had to make sure to check it out.  We stayed at the Ace Hotel, which is basically a fancy hostel- I was a little wary of the shared bathroom idea but my fears were quickly alleviated.  Everything was so clean that I think my mom would be comfortable wandering around the showers barefoot.

During our trip, we visited some fabulous yarn stores, including Twisted, which was highly recommended by my friend Kate, and Knit/Purl, which houses the amazing Sandy of ShiBui Yarns.  We spent nearly two hours with Sandy catching up on the latest knitting gossip and news.  I am totally bummed that we forgot to take a picture with her- I basically want to be her when I grow up.

We also hung out with Anne’s friend Sherri, who acted as our tour guide and took us to some really cool restaurants and events.  We started out the night with cocktails, where I introduced Anne and Sherri to the liquid glory that is sparkling sake, and then checked out a Fashion Show featuring some really cool independent designers followed by Steven Adler’s long lost cousin’s band.  Ok, the lead singer was of no relation to Steven Adler, but he had that same 1987 style shaggy ‘do and he was way the freak too skinny with bulgy veins.  And he wore bedazzled jeans.  This was by far the whitest show I’ve been to in a LONG time (yeah, totally whiter than when we saw the Stars with Amy and Derek), and I realized that I had completely forgotten that white crowds don’t dance.  At all.  Ever.  I really don’t get it.

At least the lights made funny pictures.

The next day Sherri invited us to a special crab boil dinner at Kenny & Zuke’s.  Attending it meant that we wouldn’t get home til midnight and I had to be up early the next morning for work, but I am totally happy to sacrifice sleep for crab.

Yeah, you would give up sleep for that big bowl o’ goodness too.  Anne was particularly enthusiastic:

Much to my delight, the dinner proved to be pretty healthy, but only because of my mayo-phobia.  Thank god the crab was so fresh and sweet that it was good enough to eat on my own, because here were the accompaniments :

A giant tub of coleslaw swimming in mayo and a gallon of mayo-based dipping sauces.  UGH mayo.  And normally I don’t shy away from butter, but looking at that much of it kind of took some of the joy away.

Don’t worry- I didn’t go away hungry.  Between the pounds of crab, the yummy grilled asparagus, some fantastic clam chowder and the free-flowing wine, I was definitely a happy camper.  Well, specifically, I was a happy camper sucking down chowder and wearing a bib:

All in all, it was a good, but exhausting, weekend.  It was definitely good times to see Anne and embark on a mini roadtrip adventure.

Here’s something you haven’t seen in a while:

It’s me.  In the sun.  The glorious, glorious sun.

I spent last weekend with my dear friend and partner in crime Anne in San Diego at the biggest knitting trade show of the year, TNNA.  It was exhausting but glorious- I had to carry around a LOT of stuff, but most of it was free books, and I spent a lot of time in a classroom, but it was because I was taking some classes with some really amazing knitters.  Plus, it was sunny- god, I love sunny- and warm, and beautiful.  And I got to get some quality time in with some fabulous people.

I ate 3 meals in 3 days at Chocolat, which, I discovered, has the perfect combination of foods- they serve crepes, gelato, coffee, paninis and cheese.  Heaven.

The best thing on the menu was this turkey sandwhich.  I don’t like turkey sandwhiches, but I wanted to move to San Diego and marry this turkey sandwhich:

It came with a side of olives.  Every time I see olives, I picture my bestie Scott (his blog is coming soon) as a 7 year old eating a can of them by sticking them on each of his fingers and gulping them off.

Denise, me, Kristy and Anne (the Handicraft Cafe Entorogue) had delicious tapas at Sevilla:

(There was a picture of me where you could see my face, but it involved a full on nostril shot as well.)

We discovered just how Anne, who doesn’t ever sleep, manages to keep herself going all day and all night:

And every day looked like this:

Which is why I looked like this when I had to leave:

Obviously, there was a lot of knitting as well.  I got 7 inches done on a sweater, learned how to knit continental-styles, found out that I cast on upside-down, discovered the joy of wrapping yarn around my neck and hung out with Cat Bordhi and Chrissy Gardiner, and watched Anne’s celebrity status as a knitting designer grow and grow.  I’ll be updating the Handicraft Cafe blog with knitting nerdiness for those who are interested (as soon as Anne finishes making the photos of me a little less shiny and a little more tan!)

Really, I’m alive.  But I’m in San Diego at TNNA (a knitting industry trade show, in case you’re not cool and don’t know anything about yarn.  Loser).  I’ve been taking classes with knitting superstars, petting the most fabulous yarn ever, and doing some serious stocking up for HandicraftCafe.com.

I’ll update with pictures and stories, but now I’m going to take a nap and then eat dinner.  Those are two of my favorite things in the world by the way.

Hey-o!  Besides my recent job news, which is totally rocking my world on my last official day of freedom bumhood, I also wanted to share exciting news about my passion project- the Handicraft Cafe blog is up and running!

As many of you know, Handicraft Cafe is the online yarn store that I run with the most crafty person I know- my amazing friend Anne.  We have had our online store up for a few months now, and we’re getting a small following.  There are still glitches to work through, but all in all, we seem to be getting the hang of things.  And even though I’ll be working, Handicraft Cafe will keep chugging on- it’s easy to make time for things that you love.  (It’s much harder to make time to do things you don’t love so much, like cleaning the house.  Blech.)

I am THRILLED to have our blog being regularly updated now.  Of course we list special offers and information about our (incredibly awesome) yarns and exclusive patterns, but we also round up interesting articles about talented, inspirational crafters, trends in fiber arts, and other random, interesting things.  If you have any interest in crafts, knitting, etc, take a minute and check it out.  If you come across any cool ideas for entries or products, shoot me an email or leave a comment!  And of course, if you knit or crochet or spin, or know somebody who does, knock out some of your holiday shopping at Handicraft Cafe!  All proceeds go to a good cause- supporting our yarn habits!

I had great plans for this weekend.  Unfortunately, none of what I planned happened.  It was a nice weekend nonetheless.

We didn’t go to Wordcamp.  Mike wasn’t feelilng too hot on Friday, and on Saturday was not up to waking up to leave the house at 5:30 AM to go to Portland.  Instead, we slept in and decided to use the day to run a few errands, but generally chill.  I think Mike actually felt a little guilty because I was actually really excited to go to WordCamp, so he agreed to go to brunch with me.  That’s right, brunch- his most hated word/meal.

Our errand run took us downtown, so we had brunch at Etta’s right by Pike’s Peak.  I had their “breakfast polenta,” which was sooooo good and covered with fresh, sweet blackberries.  I don’t know why it’s never occurred to me that polenta would make a great breakfast food- it’s basically the same thing as eating grits, except not drowned in butter and cheese and other weird crap my Southern family members put on it.  Next time my bff Mary and I host a “breakfast party” I’ll have to try making it myself.  Mike had fish and chips and actually enjoyed his food.  It made for a really nice meal.

The fact that it was a BEAUTIFUL day made it even better:

We walked around a little, but visiting the Market on the weekend scares me.

The rest of the day was nice and quiet, as it should be.  The big accomplishment of the day was that I finished the scarf I’d been working on.  Here it is being blocked on our outside stair case:

And here is a close-up of my “oh crap where are my blocking pins and how am I going to give this thing a shape” technique:

Yeah, those are bobby pins holding it to our staircase.  Only knitters will really appreciate the humor in this, but I really think it complements my habit of having various scarves and yarn trailing out of my purse and car rather frequently.

YAY: Saturday I successfully slept in almost as late as Mike.  This is a major accomplishment for my unable to sit still self.

BOO: We didn’t get out of the house until 1:00 pm, which means we wasted half of what is probably one of the last really nice weekends of summer here.  We suck.

YAY: We made it to the grand opening of the Colonnade Mountain Bike Skills Park.  (I think they should have called it a “Skillz” park.  ::groan::).  It was really cool- well built, much bigger than I would have ever imagined, and only 2 miles from our house.

BOO: Mike’s bike is still broken from his last trip to Mammoth.  Something tells me that will get fixed soon.

YAY: The mountain bike park has an off-leash dog park!!

BOO: I still don’t have a dog because my husband doesn’t really love me.

YAY: We found a really awesome Thai restaurant down the hill from our house.  Yum.

BOO: We have to walk back up the hill after we eat there.

YAY: Mike actually went to the farmer’s Market with me in Ballard Sunday morning.  Total food Pr0n + somebody to help me carry stuff.

YAY: I made a ton of progress on a lace scarf I am knitting.  I just started this on Tuesday:

BOO: My stupid wrist is still hurting when I knit or bike or lift things.  I think I’m going to end up having to do physical therapy.

YAY: We saw Burn After Reading on Sunday night.  It was pointless and self-mocking and it entertained me so much that I actually stayed awake through the whole thing- yeah, that’s right Ben, I stayed awake during an entire MOVIE!

BOO: Mike got so frustrated trying to park downtown before the movie that he ended up driving to a mall outside the city to see it.  We both agreed that it’s time to conquer our deep-rooted Orange County-born-and-raised fear of public transportation and start using the bus system.

YAY: All the new TV shows are **this close** to actually starting full-force.  Gossip Girl and Bones have already come back to us (squeeee) along with a handful of new shows: 90210 2.0 (eh), Fringe (has some definately nerdy X-Files-ish potential) and Privileged (I don’t think Mike has seen this yet, but it might end up being cute).  I know it’s lame and low-brow, but I love TV.  Mike and I are the best at lying around and watching TV.  We would totally medal if watching television while knitting (me) and looking at car forums (Mike) was an Olympic team sport.

BOO: TV definately limits productivity.  But I love it anyways.

BOO THE SEQUEL: Speaking of Gossip Girl, Blair is putting out an album:

… a SUPAH-STAH…

My friend Anne is a total crafty superstar in general, but today she made her official high-profile debut by getting a pattern published in Knitty, the world’s best free online knitting magazine.

Anne designed Morgan, an English driving cap.  I seriously cannot describe how excited I am for her and how proud I am to be her friend and business partner (she is the creative spark behind Handicraft Cafe.  Go buy our yarn!)

Anne modeling her creation:

Here are some other pictures that we shot of Morgan, courtesy of some very talented knitwear models:

Seriously, this is just the beginning of Anne’s knitwear design career.  She really is one of the most talented people I’ve ever known.  And now she’s FAMOUS!