black and gold forever

Okay, so I'm just going to go ahead and call this vintage week. This is my last and most favorite discovery in my box of old clothes.

A mini old-school Iowa Hawkeye jacket!

My dad has always been a pretty huge Hawks fan (and then I had to run off to Iowa State.) But both me and my brother sported these awesome jackets for a few years in the 80s.

This one still has my name neatly printed on the tag. And it's going to fit Lotus for a couple of years (if she feels like wearing it.) I think she'd really turn heads at preschool.  ;)

nothing but frills

Yesterday, Lotus played dress-up with tiny t-shirts that I used to wear when I was little. And today, it was my old dresses.

 This pink one was hand-sewn by my mom, I think.

And here are the rest of my baby/little girl dresses! Some are too tiny for Lotus to wear now but they're all pretty fun to look at and everything is in great shape.

So fancy! (So funny.)

bloglovin'

Do you read a ton of blogs? Tons and tons of blogs? I was one of those people who swore up and down that Google Reader was the only way to go when it comes to keeping up with your favorite stuff on the interwebs. And it was good ... until I started getting overwhelmed by 400 unread items every. single. day. It was taking too long to find the stuff I wanted to read. I needed to come up for air.

So, now I'm a Bloglovin' girl. Not McLovin' ... Bloglovin. Follow me on Bloglovin'. (Try it, you'll like it.)

that old box in the closet ...

So, as you grow up and move into your own house and stuff, you sometimes inherit old boxes of things. We've been cleaning out our basement, and I've been going through boxes of my old things. And as you can see, I was a little girl who liked the color blue and went fishing in Minnesota. (Check out the rifle on that Lake Winnibigoshish t-shirt! That's right ... Winnibigoshish.)

I also remember loving this neon pink bikini.

And I wore this sweatshirt when I was probably Lotus's age. One day while I was wearing it, someone asked me who the President of the United States was. And I remember answering "Jimmy Carter." (wow.)

Guess who else was intrigued by all of these little vintage t-shirts?

My mini-me. (Check back tomorrow for some more fun things we found.)

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crochet a rainbow

You've most likely heard about the devastating floods in Australia. Lives have been lost and many families have lost all of their belongings. If you knit or crochet, you've most likely also heard of Sarah London, an Australian native. She's pretty much my crochet hero, a master of color, and the reason I wanted to learn how to make granny squares.

Sarah has started a project called Crochet a Rainbow for flood victims in her homeland, and you can help, too. Sign up and read about the project here if you're interested in helping out. Sarah's looking for regular sized granny squares, five rounds each, which she'll join to make blankets that will be distributed to those affected throughout Queensland and Victoria as they begin to rebuild their lives and start over.

If you're in need of some color inspiration, check out Sarah's crochet photo sets on Flickr to see her exceptionally cool color combos. You'll be itching to start hooking ASAP.

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giveaway on Freckled Nest

Be sure to check out this fantastic January giveaway over at Freckled Nest.

You can win a little something from me if you enter! *No, not the snowboard.  :)

pretty GAP-tastic ...

So, you might remember me posting about my GAP-tastic cowl last December.

Back when this real Gap cowl was briefly in stores and then sold out everywhere. I couldn't find one (along with many other people who loved it) and so I knitted a knock-off. And posted a free pattern on Ravelry.

In the short month that the pattern has been out, it has somehow made it's way to the number two spot on the most active recently published designs. Which means, as of today, 543 people have already made a GAP-tastic and 174 more are working on one! I have no idea how this happened, but it's pretty cool.

Anyway, I can't really take credit, since after all, it's just a big seed-stitch tube from Gap. But it's cool that we can all make our own now. It really is the most easy-to-wear and versatile cowl I've ever knitted and I hope everyone else loves theirs just as much as I do.

done and done

Way back in November, I started a little sweater project for Lotus – Milo, by Georgie Hallam. With Lo's help, I picked out some Noro Kureyon in this fun pink/black/chartreuse colorway from our favorite local shop, Knitted Together.

And then, the poor sweater sat in my bag looking like this for a couple of months. It was one of those projects that I could have probably finished in a week or two if I had kept at it, but ... you know. It sort of hibernated.

So this weekend, I was bound and determined to get this off the needles. This was after I realized it was going to turn out much, much larger than I had planned and had to pick up another skein of yarn before I could finish.

But it's done! Even though it's more of a tunic/dress than a sweater vest. I figured it would look cute with leggings/skinny jeans this winter.

I'm totally cool with the larger size, because she can easily wear it a good two or three years before she even gets close to outgrowing it.

I was sooo relieved to find out that Lo likes it. I've made things in the past that she wouldn't even try on, but she's pretty excited to wear this stripey dress to preschool.

She even thought she'd take it for a little spin (and I think that was the perfect thing to do.)

ace

 So, about three months ago, I was standing around with my friends in NYC.

 

I was just looking through these photos again and found this little set of pics, taken from the dirty cab window on the way back to the airport.

I was sitting in the back seat with Jamaica, probably crying. And she was saying that my weird sunglasses made me look like Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland.

It was such a fun time.

I had finally met Kara the day before.

And experienced Law & Order slumber parties with Kristi.

And cupcakes and nighttime dinner-finding adventures with Vee.

It was some serious girl time. We navigated. Took way too many pics. Kristi held out her arms like a gate at street corners to protect us from getting hit by cars. We consumed coffee, had heart-to-hearts and noodles with butter. Those trips are so good for the soul. (I miss it and I think another one needs to happen soon. xx.)

edits by edit

So I can't take credit for spotting these (my friend Chrissy at Domestica always has her eye on the best stuff, so this is all her.) But aren't these amazing? Of course, I kind of love the metal one the most, but they're all pretty rad.