Moving!
August 9, 2008
That’s right, we are moving from this house! We have been super busy packing, fretting, stressing, and getting excited. I know posts have been infrequent, but hopefully they’ll pick up again soon. As far as where we’re going, well that’s not entirely a for sure thing yet. We’ll be staying with Chase’s dad for the interim, but that next step - our next home - is not determined just yet. We have to be out of here by the 15th of this month, so it’s a bit chaotic here.
OK, that’s all for now, will post again soon with more info!
Song I’m listening to RIGHT NOW: “Sey Hey (I Love You)” by Michael Franti and Spearhead
Click on the link and TAKE A LISTEN!
First Group of Visitors
July 7, 2008
June and this first bit of July brought lots of family. It’s always good to hang out, and I love that Collin gets to spend time with family he only sees once in a while (and that they get to see him!). First up was my sister Jaime, her boyfriend Charlie, and little miss Ava. They drove from Arizona and stayed at my mom’s for about a week. There were trips to Java for coffee, breakfast at the Buffalo Cafe, Jazz in the Canyon to hear Ethan Tucker, dinners in my mom’s backyard, and plenty of chit chat. For the cousins, there was lots of chalk, watering cans, flip flop ‘boats’, kites, flower and leaf picking, watercolors, bubbles, giggles, and all-around silliness of the best kind. Here’s some pics from the visit:
So good having you guys visit!!!
© Media Knits 2008
Drag & Drop - It’s Amazing!
July 3, 2008
Well, my house is finally clean again. It’s been a busy few weeks, what with lots of wonderful visits from family (still going), Collin having a 3 day fever, Colin having to go to the emergency room to get 16! stitches (poor little sweetie!), a camping trip, a trip to Boise that included the zoo, birthdays, concerts, kite flying, hikes, and more. Luckily we had four house showings today which, of course, called for a clean house. I feel like I have a bit of order back in my life…let’s see how long it remains. For each of the above mentioned things, I have pictures and stories of course. They’ll be coming in the near future.
Speaking of pictures, I just realized the most amazing thing…I can drag and drop photos from my camera software right into WordPress! I’m not kidding you, this is a revelation for me! I’ll be blogging more for sure with this newfound wonderfullness. Seriously, one of the things that hindered me from posting more was the annoyance of uploading pictures from my camera, then putting them onto Flickr, then putting them into the post. Such a pain! The fact that I can just drag and drop with hardly even a second for it to appear in the post is just so suh-weet!
So anyway, I’m trying to figure out what I will be having for my late lunch, since grocery shopping has been another neglected activity in the hullaboo of late. Maybe I’ll just let Papa Kelsey’s deliver a hot sub and some spicy fries to me. They’re local and they’re yummy.
I’ll be catching up with ya soon. Hello to July - I love July!
***It’s all a LIE, once I finished the post, I went to use the supposed drag and drop feature, but it didn’t work! I could have sworn I had it happen once. So frustrating and what a let-down. Sigh. Do you have some easier way to get pictures in posts?
Consolidation
July 2, 2008
If you noticed a flux of posts added to this blog recently, that would be due to the consolidation of my Rock Creek Farm blog with this one. I just could not, in any way possible, seem to keep THREE blogs updated. In hopes of becoming a more frequent blogger, I have widdled down the count to two. Don’t be expecting consistency from me, that just won’t be the case - but, per chance, you might see me on here more often. With this mixture of the two blogs, will come topics coming from all arenas. So every thing’s game and many subjects will be covered. Look for sewing, knitting, music, movies, books, farm dreaming, things for kids, food, gardening, sustainability, and the like. Enjoy the new mix, and all comments are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Absolution
June 4, 2008
Absolution Muse 2003
This, to me, is an amazing CD! I love its energy, its ‘out of this world’ sound, the progression from beginning to end, the lyrics, and the cohesive theme throughout. The CD is about an apocalyptic setting. I don’t know if it’s religious, political, humanity itsself, something else entirely, or all of the above. The titles have such names as: “Apocalypse Please”, ”Time is Running Out”, “Endlessly”, and “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist”, among others. The songs roll from hard hitting to airy dreaminess and back again. It’s like a journey on a ship at sea with turbulence mixed with soothing rocking movements. But all the while, there’s a sense of anticipation - never feeling quite settled even with the softer songs. The subject matter is comprised of death, finality, endings, abandonment, and things lost. There’s also power struggles and a force that always keeps you down. There are moments of feeling uplifted, but I don’t think they’re sustained.
Matthew Bellamy (lead vocal, guitar, piano) makes great use out of his falsetto and vibrato. He is an amazing guitar player and uses lots of arpeggrations which add an amazing quality to the songs. The synthesizer, sound distortion, and the arpeggrations help to add a dimension to this CD that really sets them apart from other CD’s I am familiar with. I think Muse has an incredible sound all their own (despite being said to possess many Radiohead qualities), that really comes through when listening to this album in its entirety. It’s almost like a rock opera (complete with Intro and Interlude) in some sense.
First (and Second) Stanza (First Song): “Declare this an emergency/ Come on and spread the urgency/ And pull us through/ And pull us through” “And this is the end/ This is the end/ Of the world”
Last Stanza (Last Song): “Change in the air/ And they’ll hide everywhere/ No one knows who’s in control”
Other Notable Lyrics:
“Staying awake to chase a dream/Tasting the air you’re breathing in/I hope I don’t forget a thing” - “Falling Away with you”
“Don’t grow up to fast/ And don’t embrace the past/ This life’s too good to last/ and I’m too young to care” “This life could be the last/And we’re too young to see” - “Blackout”
“And I know the moment’s near/ And there’s nothing you can do/ Look through a faithless eye/ Are you afraid to die?” “Scares the hell out of me/ And the end is all I can see” - “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist”
Among others, because the lyrics are superb!
Extra Bits:
Muse = Matthew Bellamy (lead vocals, guitar, piano) Christopher Wolstenholme (backing vocals and bass guitar) & Dominic Howard (drums and percussion)
Absolution is Muse’s third album.
They’re from England and formed in 1994, first calling themselves Rocket Baby Dolls.
“Time is Running out” and “Hysteria” were hit singles - the former of which made me want to buy the CD.
Bellamy uses custom guitars designed by himself with the help of Hugh Mason.
They’re known to have stellar live performances. Wish I could see them…
Up Next: African Roots by Various Artists (This should be interesting since I don’t think I’ve listened to the whole thing yet…)
This is the first in my iTunes Album by Album Project. For the introduction to this project, click here. For all albums, go here.
© Media Knits 2008
Album by Album
June 4, 2008
So, my lovely sister Linnet has been doing this wonderfully interesting thing of going through the albums in her iTunes alphabetically and offering her thoughts and feelings on them. I have been very intrigued and find it highly enjoyable - and have decided to do the same. Linnet has an excellent taste in music and a knack for capturing the atmosphere an album conveys. I highly encourage you to take a look at the music she has been writing about (Here’s her original post about starting the whole thing). As for my attempt, please be forewarned that I do not possess the musical lingo to fully express what I’m hearing, but can only tell you how it makes me feel. I will try to learn a few technical terms along the way for the mere fact that I, myself, am interested in what the words are that belong to the things I’m hearing. I will also note that this is by all means not my entire collection of CD’s, but solely the ones that are currently in my iTunes. I had put most of my music on our old computer, but have yet to do the same on our new one - despite the fact that we got it three or more years ago. Currently, most of our CD’s are packed away ready for a move that will happen eventually. After I go through all of my iTunes, I shall dig those up and be pleasantly surprised, even if you’re not, to listen to some of my all-time favorites. Also, I get lots of music from iTunes (and sometimes eMusic) and often times buy just a few songs. So those obviously can’t be considered albums. I might quite possibly go through all of those too, when through with the whole album thing. I have no idea how long this will take, how faithful I’ll be to posting, or how often I’ll have time to listen to an entire album in one sitting, but I’ll do my darndest. So, without further ado, I shall begin…in the next post. Hope you can enjoy to some extent, and if not, well I know I will…it is my music afterall.
© Media Knits 2008
What Collin’s Been Up To: Create 2
June 3, 2008
First time with watercolors. Colors mixed. Every paintbrush used. Water dripped. White paper comes alive at the hand of a child.
© Media Knits 2008
Through the Eyes of a Child
June 3, 2008
Trees at Jim’s (my father-in-law) house.
A forest to a child. Enter…
…and discover the magic that awaits.
What I’ve Been up To: Knitting
May 28, 2008
A Dress for a 1 year old - but grows with ya.
Dress Detail
Here’s what I’ve been working on. This is a dress for a little girl named Claire, who had her birthday a month or so ago. I had this much done by the time her birthday party came ’round (and I did it in the span of 2 days!), and now I’m finally getting the back done. It is my own pattern and some of the way it turned out wasn’t exactly how I had planned, I just sort of figured things out as I went along. I really had no idea what I was doing - I still don’t - and I hope it all turns out OK as far as size goes. I am quite pleased with it considering it is the biggest thing I have made so far, and for the fact that I made the pattern myself. You should see the paper I wrote it all down on. I haven’t really knitted much from patterns, so I had no idea how to write it out. I just listed what to do on each and every row (all 105 of them!). I did the back a bit different, no seed stitch except at the bottom. I’m going to put tie straps up at the top, hopefully border the top with white and put a white heart on the bottom. Just hope it all turns out alright. It’s been a lot of fun, but there are red cotton fluffs all over the house! It’s such a nice, soft cotton blend: 50% Peruvian Pima Cotton and 50% Tencel (which I have no idea what that is. Hold on a minute and I’ll find out…).
…Turns out, Tencel is the brand name for lyocell, which is made from wood pulp cellulose. Interesting. So all natural and very soft! It’s made by Cascade Yarns, which I have liked very much thus far.
Also in the works; I am still working on a sweater for Collin, and I did start Chase’s vest, but I’m not very far on it. It’s looking pretty cool, but I’m nervous about the sizing on it and armhole placement (when I get to it) because I decided to use my own gauge and attempt to figure out how to do the sizing according to that, and well, it could have been a very poor decision on my part. I’ll know eventually I suppose. I also have a gift to knit for a friend of mine who has a baby that’s on the way. I haven’t yet decided what I want to do yet though.
There’s a lot more I’ve been up to as well, but I’ll get to that all in good time. I’ve been busy, busy!
© Media Knits 2008
