Author: lizbeth

For those of you who missed Kia making fun of IKEA I present iKia

Oy. I was given a knitted blanket kit from D a while ago and I am just getting around to it now. It had been started and was in a bit of a tangle so I ripped it out and started over. The blanket it knit on size 35 circular needles and has 5 different yarn strands, one type that sheds like crazy. As I was nearing row 20 or so I realized that I was not going to have nearly enough of one type of yarn to make anything larger than a pillow case… So I read the pattern more closely and realized that I was using too much of one type of yarn. After ripping out what I had done, covering myself in fuzz that makes it look like a white cat sat on me for a week, I adjusted the strands I started again. Last night I got all the way to row 40 and realized there were two balls of yarn of a type that I hadn’t used yet! Now you may be wondering why I don’t just add this new yarn and continue until the end. I wish I was the type of person who could do that. But I just can’t. I will have to rip out everything I have done and start over… again. I hope that this is the last time. D, I was going to give you the blanket, but after all this I am going to keep it.

M & I have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. We love so many of their inexpensive, simple designs, we love their as is section which gets our creative juices flowing and we love that we can get storage boxes for half the price they are available anywhere else. But we HATE that so very often they are out of the very thing that we need. This past weekend we went to get pieces for project closet and despite the fact that I checked to see if the items were in stock, the items were not in stock. It was very frustrating. Luckily we are within driving distance of 3 stores, but this means another trip this weekend. Well today I read on Apartment Therapy that CB2 is opening a store in SoHo next to one of my other very favorite stores Pearl River. While I have never actually been to CB2, I have checked them out online. They are Crate & Barrell’s younger hipper, more reasonably priced sibling. Watch out IKEA, we may have a new love.

After trimming more basil from our garden I decided it was time to give the pesto recipe a try. I went in thinking it was going to be a long arduous task that would take hours to complete. 20 min later I was putting the final touches in my little pesto cake. Now I am all ready to make something pesto-y.

My mom is a weaver and a while ago I asked her to make me a rug. We finally decided that the best place for it was the bathroom and that I would like a red and orange rug. After a little trial and error my rug was finished and it arrived yesterday with a surprise towel thrown in. M & I love it! It matches our fish shower curtain perfectly. Mom asked what is going to happen when I “grow out off” orange and red… like that is ever going to happen.

Yesterday M had to drive to NJ to take care of a client and was done early. I encouraged him to take some time to himself because he works hard for his money (so hard for it, Honey) and he really could use a day off. When I got home and looked over at my desk there was (is) a ridiculously huge flat screen monitor sitting smack dab in the center. 24 inches to be exact. Now I work on a 12 inch ibook at home so this thing is just… huge is really the best way to describe it. After I got over the shock I looked around the house a little more and saw some other shiny new toys like a new drill and a laser level and some stuff in a bag that looks suspiciously like computer games. I swear I leave him alone for one minute and look what happens! Luckily he doesn’t get many free minutes.

I have been on a shoe hunt lately. I have always had eclectic taste in shoes to say the least. Either they are totally funky or they are utilitarian and comfortable. I ran across a shoe store that claims to have both. They pass the funky test for sure, but I am going to see how comfortable they really are. Check them out

M & I are project people. We seem to always have something or other in the hopper. The current project is operation renovate closet/office. First we took care of the office portion of the project. So far that has gone really well. Now it is time to tackle the closet. When we moved in there were two closet “systems” (I use the term loosely) in place in this room. One had to come out immediately because it wasn’t very functional. The other seemed to serve its purpose for the time being so we left it to work on things needing our immediate attention. Now it is time to replace closet system #2. This means that right now everything that used to be in that room is now all over the rest of the apartment. It is going to be great once we are done but sometimes I wonder why we do this to ourselves.

We have a lot of basil. The basil plants in our Aerogarden have been growing like crazy. Frankly we can’t keep up. I guess this means we are going to have to make pesto. Today I read a post on 101 cookbooks called “How to Make Pesto Like and Italian Grandmother”. I guess I know what I will be doing Sunday. To be honest I was just thinking today that it has been way too long since I spend an afternoon cooking so I am looking forward to it.

I am playing hooky on Friday… although can you really call it playing hooky if you request the day off? A friend and I are taking our cameras (we actually have matching cameras) and heading to the Orchid show at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and then heading to the Prospect Park Zoo. We are hoping that because it is Friday neither place will be mobbed with people. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I have been bad about taking pictures so far this year so I am really looking forward to this.