Hazel & Agnes

Red sky at morning…

2012-01-13T05:59:44Z

…sailors take warning.

The most insanely cute thing my dog has ever done.

2011-12-22T06:04:32Z

Last weekend, I was at the store with my BFFSK* Jenna (who had flown in from Duke University for Christmas) and my mom. Jenna and I share a mutual love of dogs and spoiling them unnecessarily, so we went to look for Christmas presents for our dogs while my mom checked out storage options for Christmas cookies.

(Honestly, why bother storing them when we all know they’ll get plowed down in a matter of hours)

I found this adorable Lamb Chops toy, which reminded me of the Lamb Chops puppets that my brother and I used to have as kids. I *loved* Lamb Chops.

Okay, so Rory LOVES this toy. I have never seen her act so crazy for something that doesn’t involve a treat or a car ride. She lays on the floor with it in-between her paws, and barks ferociously at the cats when they walk by (they look at her like, “why in the HELL do you think we’d take your dumb lamb”)

She protects it fiercely – she actually picks it up, stretches with it in her mouth, and turns around before lying back down and resting it between her paws. It’s truly adorable.

After she put a teensy hole in it, she waited anxiously with her head on my knee, sighing frequently while I stitched it up.

What have you given the animals in your life for Christmas? Anything over the top? Anything little? Do tell me!

*Best Friend Forever Since Kindergarten. Yes, I know that the “Since Kindergarten” cancels out the “Forever”, but work with me here. Her brother is coincidentally one of the creators of the Hipstamatic and SwankoLab apps, which I used for these photos. Irony!

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Fixed: Free Knit-Stitch Photoshop Brushes!

2011-12-16T06:17:34Z

I uploaded these knit stitch Photoshop brushes back in October, but I’ve since learned that the original file didn’t include all of the brushes. Oops! I re-packaged them for you, so you should be good to go! Merry Christmas!

Download! (.zip 359 KB)

To create a canvas of lovely stockinette (that never curls!) simply do the following:

1. With either the single or the row of stitches, position your cursor at the upper left side of your canvas (or at desired start point).
2. While holding the shift key down, click and drag your cursor to the bottom of your canvas (or to desired stop point)
3. Repeat along the entire length of your imagined sweater-canvas.

For gorgeous fair-isle or stranded colorwork, simply use the “filled” knit brush in the color of your choice to go over individual stitches:

The Fine Print:
These Adobe Photoshop brushes were created by Natalie Matz licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
In other words, please use and enjoy them, but don’t use them for profit or commercial use and please give me credit if you share or modify them!

(You can check out the original post here, if you fancy.)

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Last Weekend.

2011-12-16T05:27:28Z

I’ve been a bad blogger lately. Really bad. I’ve been neglecting honestly everything that isn’t work or sleep. Unfortunately, this time of year is especially draining at my job and it makes me want to curl up in a ball and hibernate until June.
Anyway.
Last weekend, a friend of ours introduced us to this fantastic bar that I’ve always wanted to go to. I honestly believed that it was an abandoned building, because it was dead and run down. BUT it had these awesome, kickass seahorses on it.

So we go with our friend Paul, who says it has a tiny karaoke stage with microphones mounted to the wall and a sign that says “everybody gets the clap”. “NO WAY.” I say.
When we arrive: it’s true. Gloriously true.

Not only is the tiny stage there, but NOTHING else has changed since 1965. Blue shag carpeting. Vinyl, glittery chairs. A treasure chest filled with pirate booty. This grouted mirror in the bathroom:

Oh. My. God.

I didn’t get many other photos since it was so dark inside, but take a look at this gem:

Le sigh. It was awesome.

What did you do last weekend?

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My First Smashbooking Adventure

2011-11-17T03:03:50Z

Hipstamatic Print

Zutter Bind-it-All

Homemade Washi Tape

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Cozy

2011-11-16T19:25:55Z

Knitted water bottle cozy in Noro Kureyon Sock.

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Aw, Rors.

2011-11-16T04:48:44Z

Rorzipan fell asleep again with her tongue hanging out. Teehee.

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Just Remove It.

2011-11-16T01:02:52Z

Thanks to this clever idea found via Pinterest, I decided to give DIY makeup remover a shot.

I really prefer the pre-soaked makeup remover pads, so I decided to give that a shot. Turns out that a jelly jar is the perfect size! Add a cute label, and voila!

DIY iPhone Macro Lens: Part 1

2011-11-11T02:18:15Z

I’ve always wanted to get a macro lens for my iPhone, even more so now that my Canon is dead. I saw an Instructable where someone made one out of a jewelers loupe, but I filed it away because I assumed that loupes were kind of expensive and at that point I might as well just buy a specific lens.

WELL I was at Harbor Freight Tools and found one for $1.99. BOOM.

Here are the first experiments I did tonight with the junk of my coffee table… unfortunately in the ugly incandescent light of my living room.

I’m trying to figure out a better way to mount it to the case, so I’ll definitely let you know when I do it.

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Infograph-tastic!

2011-11-07T16:34:55Z

Pin It

(click for full size!)

I designed an infographic just for fun… trust the info at your own risk…

ON a completely separate note…

I’m super bummed that I missed Blog Bruch this month. Last time was so much fun, so I was really looking forward to this one. Sadly though, we had to be out of town for a funeral.

I can’t wait for the recap, though! If you “attended”, what was the best part?

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