little messes

more rusty (red) fun from my excursion in tucson

and a wee glimmer of my walk to work in our nation’s capital:

orange is just about my favorite color at the moment and today i got smart and brought my camera with me to my new office. have a peek at my daily view:

my day is always more fun when i can start it by chatting it up with adrienne on my (early) morning commute:

my newly acquired window view (with upholstered seat!!) and the new planters that i filled with aromatic greens so i can diffuse any stressful moments in the day with a long whiff, i’ve got lavendar, orange mint, lemon balm and some non-aromatics for texture, hens and chicks and something i can’t remember the name of by that i love oh so much:

the bags i lug all my crap around with, if it’s colorful somehow it makes the load lighter, no?:

a past christmas gift from jeff that i can’t bear to let go of:

not such a bad day at the office with all this color and light.

all photos from a recent trip to tucson. we spent the day at jeff’s uncle’s desert home. i could have stayed there and shot pictures for days.

as part of curious bird’s color week, i shot a little glimmer of henry in the rainy park this morning.

bibbs popping in the garden

my prints made their way out to my swapping co-horts last weekend and i’ve been so excited to see what’s been popping into my mailbox in return. i was mostly happy with my first gocco attempt. i can’t wait to start experimenting more.

on friday jeff and i got out of town for the day and made an impromptu trip to meet dear friends from another coast who we wish we lived just down the street from. everytime i see these two i spend nearly every minute laughing. and even thought the antiques were crazily overpriced it was nice to take a day’s road trip. we avoided late friday afternoon commuter traffic by taking the long way home. which if you’ve ever tried to drive through dc on any weekday afternoon, is probably not as long as sitting in traffic on the beltway.

and now today we’ll add another trip to our list. we’re off to tucson for a short week in the desert with friends and family. when next you see me i’ll most likely have enchilada sauce dried to my chin and a round happy belly to boot.

so as i mentioned before i’ve been working on the endpaper mitts these last few weeks and well, let’s just say it’s been a rocky relationship. the more i worked on the first one, the more i hated little things about the pattern. first off, the “seam” stiches, i just don’t like the way the look. the outside seam is ok, but the inside seam starts to look all wonky when you begin to add stitches around the thumb. i can only speak for my pair, and i’ll admit i’m no star knitter but the seam made it look like i’d jacked up all the stitches around the base of my thumb. yuck. also, the seams break up that gorgeous pattern that you put so much work into making. being that i’m a bit of a perfectionist (aka obsessive-compulsive) i spent nearly every moment i was wearing said mitt, lining up the seams properly so that i could enjoy the warmth of them. ugh.

so just as i finished the first mitt. i decided this wasn’t going to work for me, so i started over. on my new mitt, which i finished last night, gone are the seam stitches and the pattern just runs it’s course over the whole of the mitt. so voila. i’m as happy as my right hand is warm… two down, one to go. and until the next one is complete, i still have the wonky one to keep me warm. albeit constantly adjusting.

i love a busy saturday, well as long as the busy refers to making and not running errands. today was great. full of friendly drop-ins, ink and sketch pads. you can’t get much better than that. i got all my prints ready for the gocco swap and worked with a friend to design her wedding invites. oh geez i love a day of creativity and the sunshine didn’t hurt either.

sometimes what passes by each day is worth another look.

and sometimes it’s nice just to keep busy as i head for home.

nothing says saturday night like tax returns and risotto.

yeah that’s right, things are getty pretty crazy tonight. aw yeah. if this kind of action keeps up, i’ll be maxin’ and relaxin’ real good all night long. maximizing my deductions that is.

ok. sorry, i’m in rare form tonight. must be the week i’ve had.

i went to my standard six-week appointment with my oncologist, thankfully these appointments are really easy these days and just involve a standard blood test to make sure me and my cells are still friends. i randomly asked my nurse about vaccinations and if i’ll ever need to get any. (in case you have no idea what i’m talking about look here, but essentially, after a bone marrow transplant you actually lose all of your previous vaccinations because really, you have the immune system of a dear sweet baby.) my nurse looked at me with a strange narrowing of the eyes, trying to figure out if i am trying to make funny. she says, well, you should have been re-vaccinated at 14 months post-transplant. i then return the look to her… i’m nearly 5 years out people! so we look back over my records and figure out that at 14 months i had just moved from nyc to here and it must have slipped through the cracks. nice.

so essentially i’ve been walking the world for the last 4+ years with my arms wide open in search of polio or diptheria. twice as nice!

ok, so yesterday i had the pleasure of getting all this taken care of by pushing up my sleeves for 5 vaccinations. 5!!! 4 intramuscular and 1 sub-cutaneous. the sub-cu i could do in my sleep, but the 4 intramuscular were a killer. nevermind that small helpless babies get the very same shots and probably only complain for a touch, and their complaints are embroiled in adorable whimpers and helpless cries and greeted by soothing motherly voices and calming swaddles. i, on the other hand, came home and whined my friday away. seriously, at first it was fine, just a few pricks from my lovely nurse. no problem. i can handle that. then as the day went on and the soreness deepened i started to fall apart. really. sadly. in my most pathetic moments, i dragged my frown upstairs and got back in bed (for the 3rd time in one day) and watched really bad tv. and cuddled with henry. who promptly kicked me in the arm. darn those adorable pushy paws.

ok, so today i’m back on track. still a wee bit sore, but much more adult about it all. and as for my saturday. well, there’s nothing like a little math to make you forget physical pain.

jeff just sent me this hilarious photo of henry. he must of gotten inspired by all the knitting around these parts and decided to make a go of it for himself.

sadly for him, knitting + pups = naptime.