weekend extravaganza!

many photographs to follow, not all are terribly exciting, but all make me rather happy.

as mentioned previously, erika and meaghan came up for a little girlfriend sweatshop city-wide! much bubbly was ingested and yarn bought. and sangria! and brownie brick! meaghan makes this delicious dense and melty brownie brick "cake." maybe it's more of a loaf. it's heaven on a plate. and in my mouth.

firstly, meaghan dropped by & vacuumed my craft room, i showered, anthony ran off to pick up chinese take-out, my parents came into town, erika drove up and we ate! thank you, ho ho choy's deliciousness.


the parents - look, they sit alike!!


erika telling us stories about her high school students and what wonderful angels they are! (read: sarcasm)
[this was when i broke out the good flash - it makes a big difference!]


the snuggle-bunnies


"what? 3 females? 1.5 bathrooms? token male? whatwhatwhat??"


we watched pretty in pink, which meaghan had never seen (!!) and lounged in our pjs.


i believe that erika's shirt says 'stolen from mabel's whorehouse.' i believe it means the person, not the shirt.


so cutie! boy w/ cats. that's thomas on the right and yammie on the left. this was actually the second photo taken - thomas learns quickly to not look at the bright light.

the next day, we woke up late and meandered down to ybor to see yen @ the craft fair!


yen makes beautiful jewelry!


yen & her man, mike


"hellooooo customers!," says yen


jen & yen are so adorable! not only do their names rhyme, but they're also about the same size.


rachel looks... umm... really lecherous in this picture. we're actually insanely hot and sweating. the sweat gushed forth as water from a burst dam. my shoulders are sweating in this picture. my SHOULDERS. along w/ other body parts. UGH! a cold front supposedly went through, but could we feel it? a hearty NAY. i've never sweat that much before in my life .


again, that's not happiness - rachel & yen are actually crying because of the heat.

and onward, to the yarn store! we met up with danielle, the newest addition to our girlfriend sweatshop (tampa edition) meetings. i had to restrain myself to not buy $90 on japanese yarn. so i spent $50 instead. it was so beautiful. so yummy. as meaghan said, it's wonderfully slubby. mmm....

the evening entailed erika falling asleep at 8 pm, pesto, onion/garlic/olive oil/balsamic bread dip, salad w/ pineapple lemon dressing, caprese and pavlova.

sunday was a day trip to la creperia.


rachel & laurie (lawrence)


erika, looking cute, yet funny


jen grabs her knitting from the car - meaghan inspires us to actually carry our knitting w/ us everywhere. her knitting is incredible. *le sigh*




the send off. eff, i'm getting a mullet. i am ----><----- this close to cutting my hair tonight....
secrets?? hmmm....


yammie will miss them, too.

highly anticipated fridays

thank goodness for fridays!

meaghan & erika are driving in tonight for a good 'ol romp in the hay, gfss style. ok, maybe no hay romping, but as per usual, lots of food, drink and girly time. also, yarn. lots of yarn.

just 40 more minutes and i can leave the brightly lit environment of my cube. i should name my cube. my work cocoon. my freezing, forest green, work cocoon. if i should die here, i believe that my body shall be forever young, never to decompose. it is so cold that i often use my desktop battery plug as a foot warmer. now, that's pathetic. or ingenious, i'm still not sure which.

• smoke signals - the magnetic fields, distant plastic trees
• fortunate and holding - knapsack, silver sweepstakes
• william, it was really nothing - the smiths, louder than bombs
• red house - the casket lottery, possiblies and maybes
• speed of film - elliott, false cathedrals
• we heart our hive - q and not u, no kill no beep beep
• things that make you want to (kiss me) - errortype:11, amplified to rock
• buildings began to stretch wide across the sky, and the air filled with a reddish glow (demo) - red sparrowes, split EP 2005
• panic - the smiths, the best of the smiths
• leif erikson - interpol, turn on the bright lights
• live through the age of radio - the cancer conspiracy, the audio medium
• hilmar orn hilmarsson & sigur ros-5 - sigur ros, angels of the universe
• hanging marionette - the appleseed cast, two conversations

girlfriend sweatshop weekend wonders

sewing, relaxation, spumanti, tomatoes, pasta, chocolate, quilting, rotary cutters, fabric heaven.... that's how i'd describe my past weekend.

gainesville is always the best location for girlfriend sweatshop city-wide. mainly because meaghan has her own house and it's pretty big. she's got a crapload of cutting mats, a second sewing machine, a huge quilting table on wheels, extraneous craft supplies, craft knowledge and craft know-how.

unfortunately, rachel couldn't make it, so it was me, erika, virginia and meaghan. oh, and craig for about a half-day. that boy will go into his job at night and work until 12 am! "wtf?!" as erika would declare, in her internet-acronym-loving way.

erika and i drove in on thursday night (i called out of work on friday - mwahahahaha) and the relaxation and eating commenced. friday was shopping day in which each of us spent anywhere from $50 to $130 on incredible fabric. i learned what "fat quarters" were (as opposed to "long quarters") and quickly became obsessed. little bits of fabric! perfect for little bags! it was only afterwards that meaghan explained that by only buying fat quarters, you often pay as much as $10/yd for fabric. oops!

seriously, i am so in love w/ my fabric. hopefully i'll have pictures soon, i dropped off 3 rolls at max color and will drop off more when i pick them up. let me go count how many i have... only 5. that's reassuring.

i could go on and on about this lovely lovely fantastico weekend, but i shan't bore you with all the details. here's a truncated list:

• meaghan learned me on how to correctly use my rotary mat & cutter
• erika and virginia made some beautiful quilts in but a single weekend
• we played three games of celebrity
• we gave ourselves team names at first - bras vs. skins
• you can only guess at what that means
• 4 girls? no boys? OH yeah
• virginia and i won the last game, even after i had a few shots of amaretto goodness to console the fact that i kind of (really) suck at guessing (but i totally rock at giving clues)
• i got to eat delicious food and peach daquiris
  
• insanely good homemade ice cream at sweet dreams (spicy mayan chocolate?! yum!)
• i am in love w/ erika's email she sent pre-gfss-citywide:
• Holy Fuck. I don't check my email for a week and am flooded with a melange (I don't really know if this is the right word, but it sounds good) of sewing-jargon.
  I am so excited about learning to quilt! My life-long dream for nigh three years! Although I must say Meaghan, I'm a little puzzled why you bothered to send that last email to me, too. I mean for the love of god, do you really think I am capable of picking out fabric on my own? You should have sent me a seperate email saying: "Dearest Erika (my favorite), I will walk you through every part of the quilting process baby-step style. I will have with me several elixers to calm your addled brain. Fear not, my love. Sincerely, Your Biggest Fan, Meaghan". Furthermore, I was a little worried by the words you used to describe quilting, i.e.: "time" and "work". I hope you were just kidding about that.
  Also, here's a heads up: if there's time, I'm going to trick you into "helping" me make a skirt and showing me how to hem some pants. Just so you know. You really can't refuse me, I'm just too cute.
  Love,
  e
  P.S. - Steak, veal, and ground beef sound great to me. In fact, why stop with just one type of meat? I find it's ofttimes better to mix 2 or more meats together per meal. The more dead animals the better, I always say! Meaghan: if you need some more meat, I have a few hours today I could go round us up some wild pig-a-lets with my bb gun down by the crick.
  P.P.S. - I'll be there Thursday around 7 or 8!
  P.P.P.S - I will steal my mother's sewing machine.
• and i daresay she's been a vegetarian since the tender age of 3

i can't even explain how heavenly the weekend was.

a great end. since this will be one of the last gfss weekends with virginia, who is soon to be moving to england. and erika will be living in italy for a few weeks, as well.

at least i was awash in girly estrogen happiness. until i got my period on the 21st.

let's just say i am highly considering continuous contraception.

anyways. shower now. then perhaps cleaning and sleep. alcohol soothes all stresses about classwork and assignments. why are motivation and passion so hard to come by? regarding work and your job, of course. *sigh*

que sera, sera.