Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Off to Beantown!

We're off to one of our annual trips to Boston tomorrow. The WORLD SERIES (WOOOO!!) starts tomorrow, and we'll be in the city that wants the Phillies to beat the Yankees almost as much as Philadelphia does. I hear Phillies fever is rampant in Boston.

Matthew is occupied for most of the days, so Gus and I will poke around the city as we usually do. We're planning a Duck Boat trip, some yarn store jaunts (well, I'm planning them; I just drag Gus along), and then who knows what else? We're staying at The Langham, which is in a slightly different part of town than we usually stay, so we'll have some new places to explore.

I'll give you a good report when we return. In the meantime, GO PHILLIES!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Buy Local!

Welcome to the latest additions to the Momogus Knits patterns family! Yarn It in Deal, New Jersey, Yarns R Us (love the name) in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, and Unwound in Blowing Rock, North Carolina (first NC yarn store for MK!) are all now carrying Momogus Knits patterns. Thank you! Remember, it's so important to support your local yarn shop! I know it's easy to go to Michael's or A. C. Moore, but who will help you figure out pattern directions or help you fix a mistake in your knitting or spend an hour picking out the perfect yarn for your first grandbaby's sweater? Your friendly local yarn store helper, that's who! If we don't put our dollars there (and buying local is always a great way to go), they'll close and we'll all be out of luck.


Speaking of spending your dollars locally, are you familiar with The 3/50 Project?


Go ahead and click on the link and poke around and then come back please. It's a great easy way to stimulate the economy and keep our neighborhoods and small businesses vibrant and flourishing. Spend $50 a month at 3 locally-owned businesses and be amazed at how much good you'll do for your neighborhood and small businesses.

I personally support the 3/50 Project by eating lots of cupcakes from The Night Kitchen, which unfortunately for my waistline is now 2 doors up the street from The Tangled Web. I also spend approximately $1,000,000,000 annually at Lewis Paints in Glenside. I get to talk about the Phillies, and debate eggshell vs matte finish and gossip with the local painting contractors whenever I go in. You can't get that at Home Depot. Finally, my third favorite local business is Joe's Meat Market in Ardsley. When we moved into our house, the mover said to us, "You're so lucky! You're only 3 blocks from Joe's!" We had no idea what he was talking about, but soon learned that Joe's is the heart and soul of our neighborhood. It's a father (Heinz)/son (Ralph)/daughter (Monica) business, and it is the best. If I come in without Gus they will ask me where he is, how his baseball team is doing, how school is going. I love them, and I am so thankful that they're near. Nobody at Genuardi's asks me how Gus is doing.

What are your favorite local businesses? Think about what you love about them - how near they are to your house, how friendly the atmosphere is, how high the quality of the product is. That's what we can work on keeping.

Now go buy some cupcakes.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Yippee!

Obligatory flying champagne picture, this time with Chan Ho Park:


Welcome back, "Lights Out"!


Here's the Park Place of the team. You can pitch around Howard, but then there's Werth. You're going to land on one of them. And then you will pay:


Thank you, beloved Charlie Manuel!


Now cross yer fingers that we don't have to play the Yankees. Go Angels!!

ETA: Kel's right - bring on the ding-dang Yankees!!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Phinally!

(Are you like me? All those Phillies-related cutesy spelling jokes - Phinally... phans... phanatic... phrantic... philibuster... phitting.... - drive me crazy. I loathe them. I am using Phinally ironically. Or "ironically" for all you California Angels fans! Get it?!)

I finally finished this ding-dang sweater!

Yes, the Child's Chestnut Hill Gansey finally got finished this weekend. I can usually knock out a child's sweater in a week or so, but this one kicked me around the block a couple of times. I feel like it took me months to finish it. Oh wait, it DID take me months to finish! Those sleeves..... But it's done! I can get the pattern in final form.

I'm also knitting this:

Because I can't knit enough Chestnut Hill Ganseys! This is the Adult version. The yarn is Cascade 220, which is severely underrated. I think of it just for felting (even though it doesn't really felt very well in my machine), but it's soft and wooly in a very pleasing way. I'm really enjoying this knit. I'm knitting a 38" version, which might fit Gus in a loose way when I'm done. I deliberately chose a denim blue that would not be objectionable to a way cool 9-yr-old boy. I still need to fudge the numbers a little bit, and of course there are the sleeves to knit (sigh), but this pattern should be ready pretty soon as well.

GO PHILLIES!!!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Yippee!

Monday, October 05, 2009

Thrift Store Score!

So after 8 years I am repainting Gus's room. Soon it will be time to repaint each room in the house, as I did 8 years ago. It's what I do. I am a painting force that cannot be denied.

Anyway, Gus's room is pale yellow and not very interesting. When he was 18 months old pale yellow was the most I could manage in inspiration. But now he is 9 and wants a blue and green room and I am happy to oblige.

First we had to get rid of his current desk. I don't have a picture because it's out in the trash now in several pieces, but suffice it to say it belonged to his Aunt Laura when she was a girl and it was made of plastic and particleboard. It was okay for the casual student (and I mean casual; when I emptied the drawers they were filled with action figures and Pokemon cards...), but now it's time for a serious desk.

A casual dip into online shopping convinced me that I could not afford a new desk. This was $699 at Pottery Barn Kids:

Yikes!! That's a plank on top of two filing cabinets, yo! I had an idea that I could find a new desk at a local thrift store. so I started scouring. My usual reliable thrift store had no suitable desks, but I did find this gorgeous, perfect J Crew 100% wool sweater in my size and my favorite weird browny-green color for FOUR DOLLARS:


SCORE!

I tried a few other places with no luck (why are there so many thrift stores near me?) Finally, I stumbled across this, buried under stuff:

Now we're talking! It was solid wood and just the right size. All it needed is a new paint job and new hardware - my specialty! They wanted $60 for it. Matthew went back a few days later to pick it up and they sold it to him for $35. What?!

So I go visit my best buddies at Lewis Paints and pick out some nice brown paint ($10) and went to Home Depot and got some new stainless steel pulls ($21), primered it all up and.....


SCORE!! Now that's a desk! Better than that old Pottery Barn desk, and $633 cheaper!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Phew!