digging in!

Ahh! The sweet relief finishing up my degree. Thanks so much for all of your congratulatory comments!

So far, I have enjoyed...

...sleeping in on Saturday
...going for a leisurely Sunday afternoon ride with Jon

(hello gorgeously pruned pear trees in ritzy neighborhoods)

...running errands with Jon because I have free time now
...reading new books that I've been wanting to read all semester (Jar City, The Glass Maker's Daughter)
...finishing up some quilts (more to come on this front)
...attending a super inspiring music seminar
...learning how to weave and starting on my first rigid heddle loom project


On Sunday, Jon and I were able to get our garden prepared for this summer. We weeded it, added compost from our bin, tilled it and rearranged the rows (ouch, my fingers and hands are still aching from all of that weed pulling!).

Our lonely chives are looking forward to more company. We need to start adding chives to all our recipes, stat!

We're hoping that our second try at growing seeds inside will prove to be better than last year's failure...fingers crossed here!

I stumbled across this super helpful gardening blog yesterday, digginfood, which is written by a master gardener. I think we're going to make her diy squash trellis and cucumber trellis to try and contain these plants better this year.

If you're into gardening, do you have any helpful sites that you frequent?

I'll leave you with Jon's photograph of his japanese garden. Jon is obsessed with growing his moss and will talk your ear off if you ask him for bonsai or moss advice...it's really cute when he gets excited about his plants.

local Quilt Show

I visited the Oakland County Quilt Guild Spring Quilt Show last Friday. The quilts were amazing! Here are a few of my favorite quilts from the show. You can view the rest of the set here.

Such a cool optical illusion!


a fun space themed quilt in a sea of flowery, girly quilts.


This is a Turkish puzzle quilt (I think). The top six blocks are repeated in the bottom six blocks and the trick is to find the matching pairs of blocks. I love the rich colors in this quilt.




Incredible, incredible machine quilting!


Love the bold colors and geometric design on this handkerchief quilt.


I am always so impressed by beautiful applique in bright colors.




This quilt took pebble quilting to a whole new level! The quilting on this is unbelievable!


Again, I'm a sucker for beautiful applique!




These two quilts (peony and cross) were made by the same quilter. The cross quilt has been hanging in the church where the flute choir ensemble I'm in practices each week. I've been meaning to bring my camera to practice to get a picture of this quilt because it's so striking. I love the stained glass effect she created with the vibrant colors.


Such a cool kaleidoscope quilt.


And, for all of you hexagon lovers out there, I had to throw this one in. The tag said it was made with 2,585 hexagons!

As you can see, the show was totally inspiring. It makes me want to step up my quilting game a bit (or outsource more :)

Again, you can view the rest of the set here.

mini projects

I will be done with my master's degree next Saturday(!) and I can almost taste the freedom! I've been finishing up little projects here and there lately because that's all that I can handle in my overused brain and overtired body.

Camera Case

I made this a few months ago to fit my new mini camera. I used this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew and made the dimensions a bit smaller for a snug fit. I actually made two cases because I wasn't following directions closely and made it too small. (The octopus print is facing in the right direction on the first case, but not on the final case). My only hint for the pattern is to sew the button on before sewing up the sides - it's a tight fit for a needle if you sew it on last.

Mittens

This is from a basic mitten pattern that I found on ravelry. I've been wanting to work my way up to stranded mittens, so I thought I'd start with a basic pattern first to learn the details of mitten knitting. These ended up a little "off." On one mitten, the hand is too long and the thumb is to short. On the other mitten, the thumb is too long and the hand is too short. They fit well if I make a "C" with my hands, so I'm just going to leave them as is. Here's a link to my ravelry project for more details.

Maverick Star Charity Quilt

My dad recruited me to make a twin sized quilt for teen girls living at Children's Village in Detroit (his coworker is collecting handmade quilts). I made this quilt to donate and I recruited the ladies in the Bee Beautiful VQB to help make a second quilt. We all made Maverick Star blocks for the quilt and then I put the quilt top together and dropped it off at the long armer earlier this week. This is my first quilt being outsourced for quilting, so I can't wait to see how it turns out!

I discovered that my Doll Quilt Swap Quilt was included in a mosaic of solid quilts on Whipup today. It was fun to see my quilt included in such an inspiring mosaic. I spotted Amy's Zen Mini Quilt in there too.

how don't call me becky came to be

It was a momentous day at the library today because I ran into the person who inspired the name for my blog.

Picture me back in 1990...permed hair, big purple glasses, tight rolled jeans. You get the picture. My family started going to a new optometrist's office and the doctor's assistant, Annie, welcomed me at the start of my appointment.

Annie: Hi Rebekah. Do you go by Becky?
Me: Nope, just Rebekah
Annie: Okay, Becky

She continued to call me Becky throughout the appointment and introduced me to others in the office as Becky.


The following year at the optometrist's office
New receptionist: Hi Rebekah...
Annie: Oh, she goes by Becky
New receptionist: okay Becky, right this way
New receptionist now thinks my name is Becky


and the following year...
Optometrist: Hi Rebekah, do you go by Becky?
Me: No, just Rebekah
Annie: (jumping in) She actually goes by Becky
Optometrist now thinks my name is Becky.
Unfortunately, the optometrist's office was quite large and there were four doctors and countless receptionists and assistants on staff. Annie was very insistent that everyone in the office called me Becky, no matter how hard I tried to assure people that I really did go by Rebekah.

Annie was really sweet and always helped me pick out the cutest glasses and patiently taught me how to put in contacts for the first time, but she never caught on to my correct name. It's been about ten years since I've been to that particular office, so it caught me off guard to see Annie in a different environment at the library.

She's the only person that's ever called me Becky more than once. :)

Diorama

Here's my latest finished knitting project (and one of a whole slew of purple projects that are in the works). I discovered Berroco Vintage yarn and it's awesome pattern support at my LYS a few weeks ago and bought three skeins to make this vest from Arts & Crafts booklet.

The project came together quickly and was a very satisfying knit. I finished most of this on the train ride to and from Toronto a few weeks ago. The yarn is great to work with and I'll definitely be using it on other projects once I knit down some of my stash.

Here are the pattern details:
Pattern: Diorama from Berroco's Arts & Crafts booklet
Yarn: Berroco Vintage, 3 skeins of Dewberry
Needles: Us 8
Ravelry Link: craftr's Diorama

Toronto

We spent last weekend in Toronto celebrating our anniversary. Here's some random snippets from the trip


My first taste of beet (and ginger, carrot and other things) juice at urban herbivore. It was so tasty! Then again, I have been on a beet kick all year.
Me: It tastes so earthy
Jon: (trying a sip) Yep, just like eating a handful of dirt


It was so windy on Saturday night when we arrived. Windy as in the turning your umbrella inside out kind of windy. We broke one umbrella within 2 minutes of walking.

It was funny to see all of the broken umbrellas littering the street. (this mosaic would have been funnier if I had taken more pictures of the umbrellas I saw)


This cell phone ad was everywhere.

1. I want a dog
2. I want to knit a hat just like this (reminds me of the wurm pattern)



The Distillery District was so cute. We had fun walking into the different little boutiques and getting chocolate croissants at a cute bakery.


This garden store has me totally itching to start setting up our garden for the summer time. I can't wait!



On Monday afternoon we made the requisite journey up to the top of the CN Tower. We are both mildly afraid of heights, but that doesn't stop us from seeing cities from above...we just have to brace ourselves and firmly plant our feet before looking over the edge. :)


I didn't realize that the circular figure in the bottom row of the mosaic is actually a train turn table. I didn't know those things still existed (kind of like my sister didn't know that R.E.M. is a band)

We spent the rest of the weekend exploring the city, shopping and eating. Thanks for all of your great recommendations!

Here's our favorites:
One of a Kind Pasta - lots of great pasta dishes - the veggie fettucine was delicious

Salad King - excellent Thai food. And excellent eavesdropping opportunities as they sit you next to other patrons at long tables. We sat next to two girls having a major 20 minute fight over whether or not Girl #1 was being defensive or not.
Girl #1: Why would you say I'm defensive. What in the world would make you think that? I don't know what you're talking about! I'm not being defensive!
It was classic!

Big Fat Burrito - yummy burritos with lots of great toppings
Manpuku - lots of great japanese noodle dishes
Good Egg - cute cookbook/gadget store with some craft books thrown in. The store basically had every cookbook on my amazon.com wish list (and more) for me to see in person.
Blue Banana Market - lots of fun stuff to browse
Lettuce Knit - adorable luxury yarn shop with lots of fun yarn from indie dyers
Romni Wools - Insanely huge yarn store. So much yarn it was overwhelming!  Jon picked out an Icelandic sweater pattern and Lopi yarn for me to knit a sweater. If we can't make it to Iceland, at least he can wear a sweater and dream of being in Iceland, right?
Things Japanese - cute Japanese boutique close to the University of Toronto
Ten Ren Tea - Jon stocked up on lots of loose tea here
Mountain Equipment Co-op - the Canadian version of REI. Made me want to buy some cross country skis and snow shoes for next winter


We were accosted by the customs officer on our way back into the USA. "Why didn't you go to Chicago for your anniversary?"

Why would we go to Chicago when we could go to Canada and take pictures like these?

I think that answers the question. :)

celebrating...

...four years together.

We tied the knot in a tiny wedding ceremony at a cute old church near my parents' house four years ago. We've had a great ride together so far and are starting to settle into life together with all its ups and downs. Jon is such a great husband and he puts up with a lot from me and still humors me all the time with his quirky personality. I'm so blessed to have such a great partner in life!