Editing...or what I should have been doing on Sunday afternoon

I've been under a deadline the last couple of days...and not the fun kind. To clarify, the fun kind would be where I get to play with yarn and knit up a sample.  No, this is the kind of deadline I dread:  editing the written pattern for publication.

Now, people who know me in my everyday life know that I have the attention span of a squirrel on crack.  It's rare that I can focus on one thing for longer than a few minutes.  In my day job, this is a great trait, as for most of the day I have to be in several places at once, or at least my mind does.  But in my knitting life, this (self-diagnosed) ADD can be a real problem.

You see, just when I need to buckle down and edit 12 pages of charts and line-by-line instructions (gah, the horror!), I decide I want to organize my sock drawer. I mean, I can't possibly move on with my day until all my socks have found their mates, right? Right.  

It's also a struggle for me to edit because my computer has to be nearby, which means that I will inevitably wander off onto the internet and get distracted by anything and everything in my path.  And I do have a few good ol' tried and true sites that can always eat up half my day if I let them.  Let's take a look at my distracted afternoon, shall we?

Of course, I always start out with a little iTunes to keep me focused. I will neither confirm nor deny that I purchased the Dirty Dancing soundtrack to rock out to while I proofread. And, no, it did not help me have the time of my life.

Then of course I have to check the news (I use the term extremely loosely), because I can't go another minute without learning what Tori Spelling considers her best kept motherhood secret (nannies and lots of money) or what Angelina's kids eat for a snack (apparently crickets).  Oh, look, I also acquired a cup of tea along the way.

And then, to counteract all the brain cells I lost by consuming the drivel on UsWeekly, I take in a little NPR. But only for about two minutes before I get really depressed at the state of the world and move on.

Then, because all of the yarn in my stash will never be enough, I head over to ogle the deliciousness on my favorite yarn sites, starting with Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  Pictured here is my new favorite BMFA colorway, LL Cool Sock. I've already acquired two skeins of it and then also 1 skein of each of the solid colors that comprise the multi-colorway. Someday, when I have the time to devote, I WILL make the most colorful pair of kneesocks you've ever seen. Someday...

And then - surprise, surprise - I am drawn to Tanis Fiber Arts like a moth to a flame. I am so completely in love/obsessed with her colorways. I could buy one of each...and if I'm not careful, one of these nights of insomnia I just might be driven to that act of insanity pure genius.  I just love how she organizes her colorways. 

Oh look, I'm checking my work email. Something I do about a gazillion times a day, even when I'm not in my office.  Check out that clean inbox!  That's the result of years of hard work in cultivating an obsessive email ritual where I have to respond to/file/or categorize an email within the first 10 seconds of it reaching my inbox. Don't ask me why I do it...I really have no idea. I'm in therapy for it though.

Hmmm....I wonder what's going on on Ravelry....Am I the only one who compulsively checks out what their friends have favorited?  I find the best stuff that way. What can I say? My friends have great taste!

Oh, yes, back to editing...sigh.  Yeah yeah yeah. I know, it's got to be done.

So, there you have it. That was my minimally productive Sunday afternoon. What about you?  What are your favorite sites to visit to pass the time?  Do tell!

By the way, I DID get all of my editing done, thank you very much. 

{this moment}

{this moment} A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, visit SouleMama leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Nicknames and birthdays

Since welcoming my nephew into the world two and a half years ago, my family has really taken up the habit of bestowing strange nicknames on all the little people running around at our feet.  My sister is searching for the perfect name for my littlest niece that is baking in her oven, but I told her that it really doesn't matter what they name her since we'll never call the baby by its real name anyway.  Jackson is better known as Zillsman, or just plain Zills.  And little Adelyn Grace is known to everyone around her as Frassy, or sometimes just Frass.  I can't remember the last time that I called my niece and nephew by their real names.  Somehow their nicknames just fit them perfectly, even more so than their given names.

And yesterday my sweet little Frassypants celebrated her first birthday!  I can't believe how quickly this year has flown.  Zillsman's first year seemed to drag on (mostly because I had an agonizing 10 month wait before I could get to Ohio to meet him), but Frassy seems to have just sprouted up before our eyes.  She's gone from the very sweet and soft-spoken little 4 month old I last saw in the fall (seen here stuffed into the lamb costume I knit her for Halloween) to a crazy little screeching wildcat that gets into everything.

Happy birthday to the most beautiful little girl with the absolute cutest laugh in the world!  (Play the video if you don't believe me!)

A new look!

I'm so excited to roll out my brand new logo today!  I contacted Jill Zielinski of Jill Zielinski Designs (also of Kniterella fame!) back in March about creating a logo for yours truly.  I had a pretty good idea in my brain about what I wanted to convey....I wanted to combine my love for my surroundings here in Alaska with my passion for knitting.

While there are many things that come to mind when I dream of knitting in Alaska, the themes that kept coming back to me were mountains and yarn.....wait for it....MOUNTAINS OF YARN! Of course.

Initially I had pictured small balls of yarn that were piled up in the shape of mountain peaks...literally mountains made of yarn.  It seemed to make sense in my brain but it just didn't translate well on paper.  Jill, being the awesome graphic designer that she is, helped lead me away from that hare-brained well-intentioned really kind of strange idea and towards the awesome final product that you see today.

I think what I like most about the logo is that the ball of yarn seems to be writing the mountain peaks in cursive.  Such a unique (and much better) way to depict mountains made of yarn.  I can't even tell you how much I love my new look.

Ahhhhhh. It feels like a new beginning. So many cool things coming up in my design realm....and you can add another one to the list...just got another acceptance today!