The Vacations/Day Trips I embark upon
Two weeks ago (how has it already been that long?) I went to Des Moines to see my favorite knitters. My family linked up and ta-da! It was the best knitxmidwest ever (and also the 2nd annual). heyjenrenee was there and the lovies from hill vintage & knits plus the now internet famous shemakeshats! Here are a bunch of photos of the weekend!
While in Denver, I had a chance to check out an exhibit that everyone has been talking about – the Chihuly glass art exhibit at the Denver Botanical Gardens. It was so amazing. *i had shorts on – even though it looks like I’m missing my pants.
During my trip in Denver my babes of friends threw me a little birthday tea party. I just still can’t get over how much fun it was and how amazing these girls are to me. We played an awesome game called Munchkin, ate, laughed hysterically, ate more, and just had a damn good time. Plus tea! It was just so thoughtful and wonderful and I’m smiling wide just thinking about it again.
Here are pictures of the decorations, the games, and the amazing desserts. That coconut macaroon! 😍
Home Sweet Home. Well sweet old home. I flew into Denver for a quick visit Friday through Monday and boy was it fun! I got to see my family, go for a wonderful hike, eat some delicious food, finish my fantasy sleeve, hung with my badass super babe crew, visited Allegro Coffee headquarters, and attended a Game of Thrones premiere party! I will do a separate post on the Allegro visit and the Game of Thrones party in the next few days. Let’s roll the footage!
Surprise Surprise I blew the 12 days of Christmas blog challenge. BUT – as soon as I landed in Denver, I hit the ground running. It was the most filled, fun, and best holiday I have had in years! Roll the Photos!
BEST HOLIDAY EVER!
XXX
GFK
Jeez. Let me start by saying sorry that I have been the worst blog owner ever in December. I’ll briefly just mention jet lag, knitting/making holiday gifts, and life as why I’ve been MIA here. I don’t like it. I’m thinking I’ll finish up the November challenge I never finished (because of Thailand) and get back in the daily blogger groove.
Let’s see what’s new? Well I have been knitting like a fool and I have so much to show you all – except it’s all gifts for people who read my blog so…. you’ll have to wait. (*stomps foot*)
I’ll recap the weekend for you a little since I had a wonderful time. Friday afternoon we had our work Holiday party at Maggiano’s Little Italy. The food was alright, the dessert was AMAZING. I decided after the official party to go out with a few co-workers to mingle and be social. It was great getting to talk to some people I don’t get to interact with on a daily basis. Also I really enjoy being sober at social gatherings – I never have that moment of ‘oh shouldn’t have said that’ or ‘wait what???’ I did have a hard time getting home during rush hour on Friday night though – after all that I ended up home at 7:30ish and decided to prep for my BIG DAY on Saturday and knit/cuddle with animals.
Saturday: Well a few months ago I scheduled an appointment with Dusty Neal at Black Anvil Tattoo in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Now a few months ago it was not winter, there was no snow, and the mild last winter we had made me forget it even snowed here in Chicago. Fast forward to Saturday December 14th – there is a winter storm warning for my entire drive. Wonderful. I briefly thought about re-scheduling, but I just am stubborn so I pretended like a winter storm was not happening. I left Chicago at 5:30am to moderate flurries/snow fall and proceeded to drive the 208 miles to Ft. Wayne for my 11am appointment. I will say that the snow driving was not ‘that’ bad. However, people in the midwest (forgive me midwest followers) have NO IDEA HOW TO DRIVE IN THE GODFORSAKEN SNOW. Being a Colorado-girl, I guess I was forced to figure out scary snow driving from the start. I also understand my car in the snow and was able to make it to Ft. Wayne only 15 minutes behind schedule. Travel Advised in Case of Emergency? Tattoos by Dusty Neal are emergencies in my life.
When I got to Black Anvil in Ft. Wayne I can say I was beyond impressed. Dusty Neal is not only an amazing amazing amazing artist and tattooer, but he is a great and inspiring human being. I had a blast being tattooed for about three hours. As time went on more friends of the shop started showing up and the commentary and tom-foolery happening was a hilarious and pleasant distraction. I just can’t say enough wonderful things about Dusty Neal and his shop. The entire experience was professional, relaxed (although I’m hardly intimidated in a shop these days), spacious, clean, gorgeous, and perfect. I will most assuredly go back (in the spring/summer haha).
I left Ft. Wayne at about 3:30pm and by the time I hit South Bend, Indiana, the roads were no longer wet so the drive home jammed by. Pure stubborn ideals, 6.5 hours of intense snow driving, 3 hours of tattooing and conversation, and one epically beautiful tattoo = the best day.
My lesson this weekend was to value safety and your responsibilities by being prepared, but don’t stop living life because you might have to white knuckle drive for 200+ miles.
Oh and Vladimir helped me Sunday prep to ship gifts to Denver and Friends.
Sorry for the super huge delay/hiatus here on GFK. I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful trip in Thailand. If you haven’t seen, I was able to upload my photos often onto my Flickr account which you can access on the lower right sidebar. I think maybe I’ll talk in more detail about certain things, but honestly I think some of my favorite photos will highlight my best vacation moments. I just want to stress that my little sister was just a wonderful host/tour guide/honorary Thai. We have already agreed on future travels together because we just had such a blast traveling. Sister-win!
I think I’ll do some bullets about general descriptors too:
Shopping – EPIC. I mean Thailand is right next to China, so the amount of ‘stuff’ to buy is just unreal. I ended up with a real leather Tokidoki purse, tons of Hello Kitty merch, a “LV” wallet, loads of awesome tees, some fun knickknacks/trinkets. We went to two giant nice malls. I’m not kidding like 8 stories of shops. We also went to a more ‘bazaar’ shopping place called JJ Market that was phenomenal. That was where I got my “LV” wallet for 450 Thai Baht (around $12).
Food – NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. Obviously Thai food is delectable. However, the whole choosing what to eat made this kind of hard. See – when you think of Thailand as ‘street-food’ wealthy, you must also acknowledge that a lot of that street food is not being how shall I say….. used/rotated out/disposed of. My sister lived in a more ‘residential’ Thai neighborhood (no tourists AT ALL) and I noticed after a few days that the food was not moving. Raw chicken/beef/mystery meat just sat there day after day. MMMMMMMMMM NO. Now at the Krabi Beach Resort the Thai lady could cook some EPIC food. I was obsessed with a chicken, pepper, onion, and cashew dish (drool). Other than dishes like that I ate yogurt from 7/11 and loads and loads of coffee and candy. We did get food poisoning on Thanksgiving from a ‘boil your own’ meal place. I guess we did not boil the wontons right? (BERRRF) Plus the eggs were ‘gamey’ or funky all the time. It was interesting and unfortunately I did not acquire a taste for the funk egg.
Thai peeps – INCREDIBLY NICE. I love Thai people. They are so accommodating and lovely.
Weather – HOT. It was even the ‘nicer’ months, but it was always 90+ degrees and very humid. I wore jeans/yoga pants the entire time and it wasn’t unbearable. I always had a sweaty sheen on me though – it complimented the smell of sunscreen that permeated off my body 24/7.
The only ‘downer’ parts of my trip were about 8 hours of food poisoning (it happened at night so it was not a waste of time), the flight to/from Bangkok – I discovered that I definitely have circulation problems in my ankles/legs which was scary when I think of my age/lifestyle.
The verdict. Thailand is amazing. There is something about it that just immediately hooks you. I will most assuredly get back there at some point.
Well I had a great weekend! It’s my last one here in Chicago before I leave for Thailand on Saturday!!! (WHAT TIME FLEW BY!) On Saturday I got a new iPhone 5s for my trip/life. Ever since I updated my 4s to iOS 7 it was just so slow and the battery would not even last for a few hours. The upgrade came at a good time because I’ll be able to use this new one on my trip as my primary camera.
Anyhoo. I met up with an old Mullen (my high school) buddy who recently relocated to Chicago and finally got to eat the November burger at Kuma’s Corner – the immortalized SLEEP burger. Pretty much it is a ‘Thanksgiving style burger’ with cranberry, gravy, turkey burger, topped with tempura fried stuffing and sage leaves.
Yesterday I accidentally got into the holiday spirit… I know what you’re thinking – “But Bree it’s only the middle of November!” I know I know. BUT Since I’ll be gone for Thanksgiving I had to set up and shoot all the photos for my annual Ugly Tribe Calendar this weekend. That meant I got to buy/set up a tree – I didn’t get to decorate at all last year so this year is gonna get nuts.
Then being such a coconut milk/almond milk enthusiast I was super super excited when I saw that this year there are even more holiday/seasonal flavors for the non-bovine ‘milk’ drinkers. So far – So Delicious is winning by miles and miles.
In terms of CRAFTS! I know it’s seemed a little dry here lately. BUT I’m gift making so I can’t very well put up photos of people’s future gifts. But do note that I finally bought the contrast color for my sweater and have been marathon knitting gifts so once I can give those gift I’ll post all the photos here. I did manage to use the sewing machine extensively last night/yesterday afternoon during the Chicago Tornado watch 2013.
It was a super busy, but fun weekend – Now on to the busy week before I jetset to Thailand on Saturday!
Godspeed!
xxx
GFK
It is Friday! Also I’m so excited because today I get to go to Des Moines to meet up with Lois and my aunt for a knitting weekend! Sayyy whhhhhaaaat? You heard me! A KNITFEST!!!! Anyways, I packed last night (sort of) and am set to be there this evening. YIPEE.
I know what you’re thinking… where are the crafts?!
Well oddly enough I have been covert-crafting. This means I’m making gifts! Therefore I cannot post what I’m up to on here as it would ruin the surprise! Duh!
But I will share the next big knit project I’m about to start. It’s 100% selfish knitting. I found a marvelous pattern book of vintage knits a few weeks ago and have been going gaga over this sweater. The Perfect Christmas Jumper by Susan Crawford. You can buy the pattern for exclusively this, or her book Vintage Gifts to Knit is available for purchase and download.
I know isn’t it AMAZING? I’m going to do a ‘plain’ version without the reindeer to start. I got all the supplies and am ready to start it probably this weekend. I always enjoy ‘working’ the pattern first before I dive into the ‘real project.’ Kind of like a Muslin for sewing. I’ll post progress here. I’m hoping to bring this with me to the MIDWESTKNITFEST – who knows maybe I’ll go full on knitter-machine and be able to work on one with the reindeer pattern there instead. Basically Susan Crawford is a vintage knitting GODDESS. Check out more of her work on her website.
Would you wear a Christmas ‘jumper’ like this? What does everyone think about the sleeves/shoulder area on this garment?
DUN DUN DUN.
xoxo
GFK
ghostfaceknitter.com 