Let's make happy
Archive for January, 2008
Finally, A Lamp
Jan 20th
My 6-month-plus quest for a new floor lamp is now over.
I wish I could say I found the perfect thing to replace our wobbly lamp from Target that broke after a year and a half of use, but after searching all the Crate & Barrels (ugly or boring) and Design Within Reaches (ugly or expensive), I ended up getting a wobbly lamp from Target. It’s really amazingly wobbly, and it came very lopsided too, a feature that I repaired by stepping on the base and bending the poll in the opposite direction.
But I’m determined to make this one work because it looks nice and I’m tired of looking. Sounds like a terrible way to choose a person to marry, but my fingers are crossed that it’ll work well enough for a lamp. Now I can concentrate on seeing things!
Another Somewhat Disturbing Drug Store Display
Jan 16th
Now that all of the dead snowmen have been cleared out of the Duane Reade store windows, it’s time for another pharmacy in New York to claim the title of Creepiest Window Display.
This is all wrong on a number of levels. First, the child-mannequin surrounded by empty prescription bottles and looking ponderous, as if she’s staring into the medicine cabinet and wondering if she should try the Vytorin next or the Levitra before she loses consciousness. The lab coat she’s wearing just makes me worry all the more about her.
Then, the decorative backdrop of warning labels whimsically blown up to giant size. I mean, who sells this? Perhaps pharmaceutical companies use it as a curtain during skit night at their conventions? That’s honestly my best guess.
My keen-eyed husband John is to thank for spotting this doozy of a window display, but I’ve noticed this locally-owned pharmacy’s window before—it’s always a bizarre tableau featuring the same girl mannequin in a slightly uncomfortable situation. They had her in bunny ears far into summer last year, for instance. I sure hope they keep pharma-girl up for a while too.
More Harriets and Haydens
Jan 15th
Thank you, everyone, who left nice comments for Harriet and Hayden yesterday!
Fillyjonk mentioned that she would like to make a flock of pastel Harriets. Me too!
I also had two great test knitters for the pattern. Bonney helped me try out a few different stitches for Harriet’s “wool,” and gathered her test subjects for a photo op.
I especially have a soft spot for the hybrid mix on the right.
And knittygirlie, aka one of the winners in the Mochimochi Photo Contest, made her Hayden into a yummy stick of butter before transforming him into a yummy haystack.
Ha!
A big thank-you to Bonney and Rebecca!
Harriet and Hayden are Here!
Jan 13th
It’s time for the first Mochimochi Land pattern of 2008!
The much-anticipated pattern for Harriet the Sheep and Hayden the Haystack is now available in the Mochimochi Shop for just $5!
Who doesn’t need a rotund sheep? And Hayden the Haystack can also double as a pincushion. (You know, needle in a haystack? Ha, ha.)
Techniques for this simple pattern include knitting in the round on double-pointed needles, picking up stitches, and mattress stitch.
Buy the pattern as a PDF download here!
I am an Idiot
Jan 12th
I just watched the entire second half of Dr. Zhivago without realizing that I was only watching the second half of a movie. It occurred to me that there were curiously no opening credits, and there seemed to be a lot of established relationships that I had to piece together, but still, I had no clue that I didn’t start at the beginning. Curse those confusing double-sided DVDs!
When Dr. Zhivago died just one hour into the film, I was thinking “gee, what are they going to do with the remaining two and a half hours without the main character?” But still, it didn’t hit me until the closing credits started rolling. I thought about flipping the disc over and watching the first half, but I just don’t have it in me now.
This does not bode well for the rest of my weekend.
