and we're off ...

Today, my partner-in-craft Erin and I are hitting the road for this weekend's Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. (Yes, it's this weekend! I can't believe it!) My little Prius is stuffed to the gills. We are armed with skinny caramel lattes, our beloved Pepsi and granola bars. I'm pretty stoked that one of my Renegade booth neighbors will be my pals and fellow Des Moines girls, Urban Posture. Also stoked to have sweet family members who are cool with letting us crash at their house over the weekend.

If you're going to be at Renegade this weekend, please please please come over and say hi!! You can find me at booth #177. (I'm getting so excited.)

And last but definitely not least, happy birthday to my super rad and extremely understanding husband. Who has put up with my knitting and massive yarn piles all summer long. Totally bummed to be missing this b-day (but I know Bo and Lo will be spending lots of quality time together while I'm away.) Happy birthday to you! (And thanks for being so great.)

it's about that time ...

September is here, I'm piling up all of the things I've knitted over the summer months and in just one week, I'll be packing up the car and driving to Chicago for Renegade. I cannot believe it's September. I cannot believe how many hours I've spent knitting and knitting and knitting. My poor husband is ready for all of the yarn piles to go away. (And I hate to break it to him ... but I'm just getting started. It's fall.)

* Today, I'm 'On the Table' here. And yesterday, my review of the knitting/crochet book 'Gifted' went up here. And don't forget to enter the Knit Simple giveaway in the post below ... I'll pick a winner tonight. Have a good weekend, friends!

Knit Simple winner

You thought I forgot to pick a winner for last week's giveaway, right? (Well, I almost did ... but long weekends will do that to you!) Kathy, you're the winner of the Fall '10 issue of Knit Simple. Email your mailing address to jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll get it sent off to you.  :)

Knit Simple winner

You thought I forgot to pick a winner for last week's giveaway, right? (Well, I almost did ... but long weekends will do that to you!) Kathy, you're the winner of the Fall '10 issue of Knit Simple. Email your mailing address to jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll get it sent off to you.  :)

the simple life

I'm loving the fall 2010 issue of Knit Simple. Simple is good for me. I don't grow tired of making scarves and hats and mittens. I have a three-year-old and I don't typically choose to knit the most complicated or technical patterns that I can find. I really like plain, classic sweaters and scarves and this publication nails it. Every project is totally color heaven (and they even made a plain garter stitch sweater look cool.) I have to make the garter stitch + seed stitch button yoke cardi on page 37, love the scarf/mitten sets and that cool hometeam blanket towards the end.

So guess what? Since I enjoyed this issue so much, I'm giving a copy Knit Simple Fall 2010 away. To enter, just leave a comment here and let me know what project you're most looking forward to knitting this season. (Because fall is officially here ... I saw pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks this week.) I'll pick a winner on Friday. :)

* Also! Check out my rad friends and sponsors in the sidebar to the right. It's totally not too late to throw your ad up there this month ... if you're interested, email me at jgeigley [at] gmail [dot] com.

it's a long way to the top ...

I had seen these awhile back, but I can't get them out of my mind. Song lyric quote posters by Music Philosophy. (Cool, yes?)

she was a teenage zombie

What can I say? It's been a very metal-tastic week. Last night we hit up House of Bricks to check out the Murderdolls cd-release party before they head off to tour in Europe. We got to say hi to the guys after the show and talked a bit with Joey Jordison (who is also the drummer for Slipknot) before we left. Such a talented dude.
It was honestly one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. They played all of the best songs from the old album and mixed in the new stuff for a killer show.
And over the weekend, we got to check out another Slipknot side-project. Sid Wilson's new endeavor (called SID, I think) played their first show at Val Air. There were a bunch of opening acts, including Blue Felix above.
Here they are a little bit closer up, because you must see their costumes and makeup. Funny stuff. (I think I need to work on being less smiley in these situations ... gotta practice the angry face a little more.)Here's Sid taking the mic. (He's the dj for Slipknot and also goes by DJ Starscream, so this was the first time we'd heard him sing and rap.)It was definitely an interesting show to check out and we liked his new stuff quite a bit. He also had a song dedicated to Paul Gray, which was pretty sad for us all since he got a bit emotional with it. All in all, it's definitely been a good week to live in Des Moines. We're pretty lucky to have these opportunities to see such talented acts perform here in our city and I've gotta say that I'm pretty damn proud of our hometown boys. (Hope you had a fun weekend, too.)

do fun stuff

One of my favorite blogs (and I'm sure it's one of yours, too) is Pacing the Panic Room. If you've never seen Ryan Marshall's incredibly cool maternity photo series, click here and scroll down. Those photos were what originally got me into reading his blog, and following along with Cole's pregnancy became such an amazing thing for so many people around the world. He captured her so beautifully along the way. (Cole is gorgeous, and I loved her baby-making wardrobe, too ... lots of the things she wore were donated by American Apparel.)
While reading, I started to get to know a little bit about Cole's son (who they call LB – Littlest Buddy – on the blog.) LB was diagnosed with Smith Magenis Syndrome in 2009. He loves music, so Ryan decided to compile a charity album called 'Do Fun Stuff' to help fund more research for SMS. Which you can officially buy right now on iTunes. (Dear parents ... you'll love this album. It's nothing like Kids Bop. It's indie rock that both you and your kids will love and I promise you won't want to beat yourself over the head while listening to it in the car. Go on, buy it!)

100% of the proceeds from the sale of Do Fun Stuff will go into a grant fund established by PRISMS and the money made available to grad students who select Smith Magenis Syndrome as their field of choice. This is in the hopes of generating more intense case studies to provide parents and researchers with new and important information about the mysteries of Smith Magenis Syndrome.

Give the songs a listen above, and then go buy the album on iTunes! You can read more about SMS and the album and the research by clicking the 'our cause' tab on the little monster guy above. And if you want to help spread the word and share this widget, go here to get the code. (Thanks!)

six years

Today is our sixth anniversary (although we met and started dating ten years ago.) So I'd like to take this opportunity to share ten cool things about Bo.

1. He's really good at making quick comebacks and jokes. That are actually funny.

2. Back in the day, he skated with Rob Dyrdek.

3. He knows how to play a ton of my old favorite metal riffs on the guitar.

4. He's a graphic designer and multimedia developer and has kick-ass design sensibility.

5. If you break it, he can fix it. (And if he can't fix it, his dad can fix it.)

6. He's been a vegetarian for close to fifteen years.

7. He once asked Bjork if she'd go out for coffee with him. Yes, Bjork. (This was before we were dating.)

8. He does off-road unicycling. (If you don't know what that is, watch this.)

9. He restores (and ... ahem ... collects) old Vespas.

10. He knows what's important in life, he's a fantastic dad, and he totally gets me.

There's more, but I think I'll stop with that. It's cheesy, but I thank my lucky stars that I said 'yes' to that blind date back in 2000. (And I'm also glad that Bo didn't end up with Bjork. Even though I really like her.)

Happy Anniversary, Dude.

;)

so you think you can blog.

Just picked up this shirt at a local shop called Raygun. I like it a lot. You can get one, too.

And after months of saying, 'nah ... I don't know,' I've decided to see if anyone would like to be a monthly sponsor of this little blog. (I'm offering up a few spots for just $10 a month, and if you need help designing your ad, that's cool. Just let me know.) Hey! Jen Renee is averaging about 30,000 - 35,000 hits per month, sometimes reaching 45,000 and higher. (I'm working on it.) Ads will appear in the sidebar. Email me at jgeigley [at] gmail.com if you're interested in advertising for the month of September.

Cool? Cool. Thanks. :)