Countdown

I'm free! I have a life again! I can come home after work and do whatever I want! Lately all I want to do is make rings and learn to knit. I got a starter kit for knitting and crocheting for Christmas and have been to Michael's twice in the last week. I'm obsessed. The starter kit was a book, needles and a couple skeins of yarn (thanks, Carey) and after reading the first 30 pages or so I took to YouTube (Google: "How to knit") to get the hang of it. I managed to knit about 10 rows before making a mistake (I had a movie on and got distracted). Unfortunately I don't know how to "go back" yet so I ended up unwinding like 5 rows before I put it down for the night. The goal is to have at least a scarf knit by Mom's birthday at the end of the month.

Another obsession right now is making rings! When I started making earrings at home in 2008 one of the girls at our friends' bead shop was always making simple wire wrap rings and I always said I'd buy the tool and start making my own but...I never did. So once mom left New York and I had to think of things to do to entertain myself I decided to bite the bullet and go get the tool and wire. 15 rings later...I can't stop thinking about making more. I've got three basic designs going on and I'm using up all the single stones and beads left over from earring making.

I'm really thinking about starting an Etsy page. Do you know about Etsy.com? You should! It's a website where people sell their hand made stuff.

Look at some of my rings: mostly I just use left over beads from my earrings but once in a while I get stones at the bead store or buttons from the flea market! (The big square black one is a button from the 1940s)

New Year!

Happy New Year!

Mom and I celebrated the New Year at Times Square (did I tell you already?) anyway it was awesome. Cold too. Cold with a capital "C." I mean I live here. I've adjusted to the cold but standing in it for 3.5 hours (and we were not the early ones) with no refuge but the barrier of people surrounding you - that's cold on another level. But we survived! And although it rained THE ENTIRE TIME, it wasn't so bad. They do a 10 second countdown to each hour starting at 6 p.m. so each hour I'd put on a little more clothing. We were at the front of the barricade at the north side of 51st Street and 7th Avenue. So we couldn't hear any of the entertainment you guys all saw on TV. Luckily this group of 20-something tourist d-bags were right behind us yelling the entire time. What would they yell? Oh stuff like "F*#% Toshiba." (On repeat) Why Toshiba? Because the big TVs in Times Squares are Toshiba TVs. They also liked to shout "I f*&^ing hate America." Why? Oh why not?
Back to the countdown. Midnight came and it was kind of amazing. Everyone counting down together. Blocks and blocks of people who were all out there in the rain and cold for one reason, counting down to a New Year. I've watched it on TV for years - you know how exciting it is with family or friends and pots and pans...well...this was so much better. I'd bet there weren't many New Yorkers in the crowd but the countdown and revelry after was the perfect kind of New York moment that I live for, here. Those moments when everyone's on the same team. When everyone is elated for the exact same reason you are. New York is big. Lots of people with their own schedules and agendas. When you can share a moment with someone/anyone/a crowd of people - wow. So we did it and it was a once in a lifetime experience. And I'll never do it again. (Love you mom.)

Happy New Year :)

p.s. How bout dem Cowboys? ;) Superbowl bound?