i heart....

my lauren alane caketopper!!

photo courtesy of Lauren Alane

cutest little felted birdies ever! and yes, i realize i already bought something for the cake. but it was way too big.

a wee bit of knitting

things have been busy here so i haven't been doing much knitting. or much watching of tv series on dvd, in spite of the fact that my coworker lent me the first two seasons of the wire. i'm going to need to get watching if i want to get it finished before moving. but i digress.

there is one project i've been working on. it doesn't look like much yet, but i think it will be quite nice when its finished. its the cotton yarn i bought in asheville, nc. i'd never worked with cotton before and its definitely a different feel than wool, but its nice and light.

a big white blob

and, after i finished the last wrap i bought myself some yarn in a color as far away from orange as i could get. its a beautiful purple laceweight purchased on etsy.


the color is so vibrant it almost shines. i don't know what i'm going to make yet, but i can't wait to see what it looks like when its knit up.

um, WTF?

I'm not really sure how much news coverage this is getting elsewhere, but apparently Ohio was struck by hurricane Ike on Sunday. Now I'm no meteorologist but I'm not dumb either; I know that those monsters don't just disappear once they reach land, and I know we've had some pretty decent storms resulting from the remains of previous hurricanes. But great googley-moogley this was ridiculous.

I was at work when the windstorm started. Then foolish me decided after work would be a good time to go to WalMart to pick up a few things afterwards. I knew it was windy, but I had no idea just what was going down. The power was out at home when I got back at 7:30ish. Why?



That's why. Notice that it tore up both the sidewalk AND the street on its way down. I think at one point they said there were 700,000 people without power. Luckily I live right across the street (and on the same power grid) as a hospital so we got power back late Monday evening. Though sadly, the internet didn't return until today. My dear friend pegasaurus is still without power, and is expected to remain that way until the 21st. Not that I'm rubbing that in or anything...

more pictures of destruction (not the best lighting in this next one)

the shoe.

it would appear that i have a knack for finding people who really want to go to an osu football game and then inviting their spouse instead when i have an extra ticket. last year it was sara, who spent the game sending picture messages to her husband to rub in the fact that she was there and he wasn't. a move i found delightfully entertaining. this year i invited jenny, apparently only days after her husband expressed his desire to attend a game. luckily this is my last fall in Cbus, so my days of wreaking football induced marital havoc are nearly at an end.

if you've never been here, let me warn you. we take our football very seriously here in Cbus, though we've calmed down in recent years. I mean, there hasn't been a good car-burning riot since what? 2002? Anyway, about the football. This here is home to the Ohio State Buckeyes...


i think its technically called Ohio Stadium. No one calls it that. We call it "The Shoe" which is shortened from the horseshoe, which is the shape of the stadium. The shoe seats roughly 105,000 fans. 100,000 people in red shirts makes for a pretty impressive sight. As does 100,000 people systematically spelling a four letter word repeatedly. (O-H-I-O... what did you think we were going to spell??)

that hat on the right there is a buckeye. i would like to emphasize that is not a marijuana leaf on the back.

We also seem to have a thing for ridiculous hats. these were the only two in the nearby vicinity. all I have to say is sweaty heads... ew.


The weather was actually spectacular, though a bit toasty when the sun was in full force.

I think this was maybe during a portion of the game when we were trailing. Her dad was cheering for the other team, but luckily mom seems to have the prevailing influence.

Another decison

Once again I am in need of opinions. Primarily because I am incapable of deciding anything on my own. And again, its in regards to the boutonnières. Or Mr. Z's boutonnière at least, as the dads' bouts are still in pieces scattered around my "craft table"

So the last time, the wheat bout got mediocre reviews, which was unfortunate since it was the favorite contender for both me and the mister.


So I stole an idea for fabric leaves from Martha Stewart and played around with it a little bit. This is a rather haphazardly assembled version, thrown together so I could snap a shot before the light disappeared. Since taking this photo, its been disassembled, and I added some more "veins" on the leaves. I also stitched some copper wire into the leaf and used that to wrap around the wheat stems to attach it all together... very clever, I thought.

fabric is left over from the cornsacs

I have also since ironed the leaf again so its a bit flatter. And when its actually assembled, I will put some effort into tying a nicer bow. So now its opinion time. Better with the leaf? Or without?

OH! I forgot to add, that after several rather embarrassing attempts to stitch some veins onto the leaf, I decided it might be worth my while to look up the proper way to embroider such a thing. If you are ever in need of such instruction, there is a very handy website here

a disaster of epic proportions

first of all, i'd like to thank the five or six people who so gracefully handled the sobbing, panicky mess that was me last night. most notably my mom and grandmother who both sat patiently through several minutes of unintelligible blubbering before i could even spit out a complete sentence.

for those of you who did not receive a phone call, text, or facebook message (i was panicking people, i contacted like everyone i knew looking for a miracle) here's what happened.

almost a year ago, last October to be exact, i bought a dress. this dress. in a size four.


i didn't have an "oh my god, this is my dress" moment. i wanted to buy almost every dress i tried on, or at least three dresses from every gown-hunting excursion. i found this one at david's bridal in rochester with mr. z's mom and aunt. i really liked it and it was a fantastic deal, but it wasn't the right size. i really needed a six, but this dress was discontinued and there wasn't a six anywhere in the david's system. so the consultant called the seamstress out and asked her to take a look at it.

"no problem," she assured me. "its not that tight, we can fix it. no problem." so i bought the dress. (can you see where this is going??) i should have known better.

so at the beginning of august i took it in to the david's in columbus for my first fitting. the woman asked me what i wanted. i needed a bustle put in and some pads sewn in the bust, because even if the rest of me is a size six, my boobs are still a size zero. and i pointed out the fact that the waist didn't fit quite right. so she said they'd let it out around the waist an inch on either side. fantastic.

fast forward to yesterday. i had an appointment in the evening to pick up my altered dress. i put it on. boobs look great... and pads are firmly sewn in. (no one wants a boob pad flying out mid-chicken dance.) the waist, on the other hand, looks the same as it did pre-alterations. ashley said my face was priceless. i made a superstar effort to not say the f-word repeatedly. ashley asked the seamstress if maybe they took it in by mistake. seamstress said no, definitely let out. so we made plans to let it out some more and she showed ashley how to work the bustle.

the panic didn't start immediately. in fact, i made it all the way through a disappointing sushi dinner with ashley (two thumbs down for ba sho in dublin, if anyone cares). it wasn't until i was driving home that it suddenly occurred to me that the reason letting the waist out didn't make any difference is that the waist wasn't where the problem is. its too tight around the hips, so it rides up and makes the waist bunch. and the bad news is, the way the dress is constructed with the lace and everything makes it almost impossible to let out at the hips. so i officially flipped out.

thus began the tearful phone call marathon. at one point, my mom suggested i call the alterations department of david's back and tell them what i thought and tell them if they couldn't fix it, i would just pick it up and take it somewhere else. so i called and told the woman that it had suddenly occurred to me that the fit at the hips was the problem. she said she was thinking the same thing, but didn't know if she'd be able to let it out where it needed to be. she said she'd check to see if maybe she could let it out along the zipper but she didn't sound too optimistic. the phone marathon continued.

the major problem lies in the fact that this saturday is exactly five weeks before the wedding. i can't go back and pick up my dress and see if it fits until next friday. exactly 4 weeks and 1 day before the wedding. making it very bad timing if i need to find a replacement dress.

HOWEVER...

i went back to david's after work today. i told the consultant what happened and that i wanted to try on some dresses, just in case. i found two that i like ALOT. quite different from my original dress, but still with a similar 'vintage' feel. (one of which i would probably have picked over mine, had they been around at the same time) the consultant assured me that since they are new styles and i am a fairly common size, they would definitely have them in stock next weekend. and she said there would still be enough time to have a bustle done before the wedding too, IF i needed to get a second dress. but, i was also able to talk to the seamstress again as well, and she said now that she's had a chance to look at it, she thinks it should be possible to alter it so that it actually fits me. so everyone keeps your fingers crossed for me.

maybe this won't be a total disaster after all. though i really did like those two dresses...

license to thrill

or get married. whatever.


according to the website, we're down to 39 days. RSVP's continue to roll in, with the majority of people being able to make it thus far. there was some drama today about whether or not we'd be able to get all the bridesmaid's dresses in time for the wedding. but in the end, its only one that's still up in the air.

ken was in town this weekend for a raging bachelor party and to pick up our paperwork, so we can actually get married legally. turns out we weren't drunk and we aren't any more closely related than second cousins so they let us get a license. requirements are tough here in ohio!