Thursday, February 19, 2009

It's my opinion birthday balls should be held every night.

The past week or so has been filled with productivity, accomplishment, and a general getting-stuff-done attutude around these parts.

Case in point: The house is clean. It took 2 days, but it looks awesome.

Case in point: I spent Monday (had off for dead president day) doing things like culling books and working on Secret Birthday Projects in between the running in the park and the lounging on the bed and the playing with the kitties.

I am definitely feeling better. Saturday's highlight was a surprise from-scratch paella (made by Dan) accompanied by the best appetizer ever (smoked salmon, Humboldt Fog cheese and fancy herb crackers) and 2 amazing Spanish wines. I made dark chocolate mousse for dessert, making a 2/3 recipe from the Joy of Cooking and it still took us 3 days to eat it all. All of our laundry got washed, dried, folded and put away (even the throw rugs!); all of our dishes were at one point washed, dried, and put away. Spending part of Monday in the house felt good instead of oppressive.

An interesting thing has happened recently: I have reconnected with some old friends through one of those social networking sites all the kids are talking about these days. Except these aren't just old friends, they're people who at one point were like my brothers that I wasn't actually genetically related to. The younger one goes by a different first name than how I always knew him, but in his photos he and his brother look just like they did when they were kids, except they also look just like their parents. And like themselves. I might meet up with them the next time we go to California; there is something both nostalgic and immensely satisfactory to trade stories with people with whom one shared one's childhood. We were at each other's houses multiple times a week. We took baths together and had sleepovers. They were my brothers 20 years ago, and now they can be my friends.

Four overdue packages got mailed off yesterday: housewarming, thank-you, and new baby boxes are winging their way to the East Coast and to California. My newest cousin baby (#4 for them) was born in January (and thankfully her name is a real one, Jenna). Here is the blanket I made for her.


(As you can see, it's significantly smaller than the one for Wombat.)

And here is the sweater that I made Dan that got finished in January. He wears it all the time, so I think he likes it. Either that or he is just trying to make me feel better for spending so much time on it!



(He was thrilled that I wanted to take a photo of him in it this morning, obviously.)
I want to share photos of Super Secret Birthday Project, but I think the recipient might see them, so they will have to wait. It's not a knitting project, but it's going to be awesome.

Speaking of birthdays, I have been invited to a 30th Birthday Ball in Southern California for Oldest Friend. I will be attending. What should I wear to a ball? Gloves? Mask? Should I actually try to find a ballgown, or wear something I already have? I'm excited about the prospect of dressing up but I'm already flying and renting a car, so don't exactly have hundreds of dollars to spend on a fancy dress. Ideas?

8 comments:

Abby said...

I am always impressed by your knitting projects and the sweater looks great (as does the model). Anyways as for a ball gown, probably my favorite fancy dress was a dress my friend wore to our senior banquet that was a fairy costume rescued from Goodwill. However that kind of luck may only strike once :)

Sara said...

Dan's sweater is awesome! I am impressed.

Cagey (Kelli Oliver George) said...

I am SO impressed with Dan's sweater - awesome!

Yank In Texas said...

The sweater looks awesome! I'm way impressed!

Anonymous said...

Great job on Dan's sweater. The baby blanket looks nice too.

There are many many many places to get fancy dresses for not very much money at all. You might be sample size which means you could hit some of the LA design houses and look there. Oldest friend could likely give good advice about shopping there.

Erin said...

Poke around on the Trashy Diva site, they often have glam dresses for low low prices. Beautiful sweater!

Anonymous said...

DAMN, you can KNIT, girl!! I am SO excited for the blanket...

I don't have any helpful tips for the gown, but I think you should definitely wear long, elbow-length gloves. I wore some to a formal event once to spruce up an old dress and I felt all kinds of fancy. And you can get them on the cheap!

Crafty Mama said...

Your knitting is gorgeous, I'm impressed!! I hope to someday move on from scarves into something else. Good luck finding a dress!