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Beads, Clips, and tu-tus

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Friday after pre-school we went to my friend Kayt’s bead shop she works at.



Kayt is like a worker bee.



She had zander sorting and counting beads



STOP AUNTIE JEN STOP


What was she working on?





Why she’s working on sweater clips! THAT ARE NOW LISTED IN HER ETSY SHOP!! I think these are my favorites make sure you READ the description.

The weekend the universe was trying to tell me to leave chicago...i had picked up my new glasses. I picked up two new sets of frames for super cheap. A brown pair and an orange pair. Nat took some pictures for you to see.







Like them? I love the orange ones, they look more red in nat’s photo but i assure you, they are my favorite color. The brown ones i like a lot too. I an’t believe they were being clearanced out. Here’s a picture of Zander playing with Simon, nat’s kitty.



and last but not least. Lucy Dog in her tu-tu. We got her a tu-tu because if you scratch her belly while she’s tanding she sticks out her back paw like a ballerina. SHe’s done this ever since we rescued her. As wendy says that tu-tu was the best 11 bucks spent at target.



Isn’t she just the cuuutest thing?




Nat and i saw the Darjeeling Limited, and did anyone else see this? Is it just me or did that one song that plays at the end..sound a little too much like an Indian intrepretation of a Yo La Tengo song. It was and still is driving me crazy. Nat looked it up and they said he borrowed songs from existing movies...but you know since he had Bowie sogs done in Portuguese he’s clever enough to have pulled a fast one on me.

Posted by Jennifer on 11/05 at 12:35 AM ♥ Comments (13)

Dia de los muertos, stuff, things, and etsy friday of course!

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Guys, seriously, thanks for all your comments and hellos and notes. I spent the day hiding under my blankie watching a movie or two, and all of them really did make me feel better. I think i tried to thank most of you but then i got back on the serger and i apologize if i didn’t get a reply to every single one. I did appreciate every note, you guys know how to cheer someone up after a craptacular weekend!!

It is Day of the Dead! We have a few day of the dead and loteria inspired bags in the shop!

Ok let’s back up. Halloween. Here’s Zander as Venom, scratch that it’s BLACK SPIDER-MAN AUNTIE JEN!



I spent Halloween at my neighbor’s house. They had to go to a wedding so i baby sat Kelso. And handed out candy.



Note that baby toy. See how he is 400 times the size of it? He won’t walk over it. When he would bark he would literally scare the crap out of the bigger kids who came to the door. “what do you feed that thing?” “Small children, see any that are lost?”

Bad self portrait of us



He has a luxary bed!


How about some shrines? It’s Day of the Dead. I took these at an old celebration for all hallow’s eve/all saint’s day/ dia de los muertos in logan square a long time ago.









Ok. You know you want it. Etsy friday!

First up, a new stitch marker person! Yay. As some of you know we like to have little details on our bags. One is a stich marker for you to remove and use, usually advertising someone out there on etsy. I always buy the markers for y’all. So we now have Ana of Entrelac



She gets the prize for the most elaborate set up for markers i’ve bought yet. I always ask for cards to match the amount of markers i buy from you. And Ana out did herself making them look super cute for you. She has included all different kinds to dress our bags up!



Next, my awesome friend Katy maker of jewelry, sweater clips, and other fine items in here. Has made for me some awesome HELLO KITTY markers!



And if it can’t get better..it does! If you haven’t visited Middle Earth Yarns yet, you simply must. Cairi’s yarn is so super soft, squishy, and very very pretty. Very worth that long wait for my freelance check to come.



premium merino sock yarn in coffee cream, and pumpkin mmmmm orange and brown (total piddleloop colors)



sample in tiger feet

I also got some more markers from her to dress bags up.







I even got special markers for the brown and orange birdie bags we have int he production pile



Cairi wants y’all to know:that she will have some other yarns going up which are UK blue faced leicester priced at 20$ US, but seiously folks her luxary yarn is worth every penny of that 24$ US.
Her stuff is coming straight to you from Scottland, Land of Nessie!! How cool is that? You know you love the lochness monster! (well at least i do!)
Ok. So check out all these fun etsy people, some near and some across the pond. Their stuff is worth saving up for! And have a good weekend. I’ll be sewing up a bunch of knitting needle skull bags and hopfully seeing the Darjeeling Limited with nat.
xoxo (always said x,o, never hug and kiss..type nerd remember?)
jen

p.s. i hope to have a picture of Lucy Dog in her Tu-Tu for y’all. She is adorable. And how often do you see a basset hound in a pink tu-tu? Gotta get a picture in the daylight hours for you!

Posted by Jennifer on 11/01 at 10:22 PM ♥ Comments (10)

The Universe is trying to tell Jen something

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friday nite it was rainy here and i had not a good feeling the whole way to nat’s. Cars were driving in the middle of two lanes and people must not have been able to see very well. So while coming around the severe curve of the Museum of Science and Industry a cab was blocking my lane and 1/2 in an intersection. By the time i realized i was going to slam into him it was too late. I had at least been able to throw all my weight on my steering wheel and try to get my car in the direction of the cab rather than try to swerve around him by going into the other lane. So i avoided people from hitting me from the left and behind. This resulted in some smashed headlights and me just being very freaked out. I drive an old old beast of a car, and i am really sort of thankful for her metal around me..and peeling paint.



As you can see i took out a red cab.

So my weekend continues. I was told by 911 friday nite TWICE, that i could go to ANY police station to make a report and that i had 48 hours to do it in. So Nat and I head to Belmont and Western to the police station. Where i was berated, yelled at, and lastly IGNORED by the police officer. Also was yelled at for not going to a police station by the museum. By the end when he had to give instructions on what to do with the report he ignored me and spoke only to Nat who was standing beside me. This all stemmed from me only having the information 911 told me to get from the cab driver. So when he’d ask me for information i didn’t have i’d say “no i only have this” pointing to the paper or “i only have what 911 told me to get fromt he other driver” and he’d yell very loudly at me YES MAME YOU TOLD ME THAT FIVE TIMES NOW. And when i elevated my voice at him he told me not to speak to him like he was my son??????? This whole experice was *so* bad even Nathaniel wanted to get the hell out of there. Once we left i cried for a good 2 hours. I just couldn’t stop. It was awful. The one redeeming thing on saturday we going downtown to meet:



Stacey from Sheep in the City. SHe was visiting for the weekend. Look she had her bag with a blankie stuffed inside. Sorry i didn’t take so many pictures i just enjoyed talking to her for the short time we had. My day had been *that* bad. We both have orange glasses!



We even saw this woman, decked out in designer sweatsuit and UGG boots and tiny little dog shopping in Nordstroms????



So i go home take a nice hot bath and go to bed early. I wake up and tell Nat..i hope the universe will be kinder to me today. COULDN’T BE MORE WRONG.

We come back from brunch drive past my car (which is parked directly in front of nat’s apt building) and my WHOLE driver’s side window is smashed. Nat just stops the car in disbelief and i just start to cry.

Nat found the broken bottle of beer in the passenger side of the car



someone decided to throw a bottle of beer at my window for fun.Thanks. Thanks a lot.



So tomorrow i wake up in fear of now what? Sorry there will not be an etsy update today, possibly some tomorrow but i’m not sure. The universe was trying to take me out or something all weekend. There was no sewing. :(
And even Nat tried to cheer me up with going to Tea Geschwender I felt really sad when i said not even that would cheer me up this weekend.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/28 at 09:19 PM ♥ Comments (36)

Stuff & Things Eleventy Billion Edition

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Things:
1. Yes nat really said those things, in my conversation i pasted..i didn’t edit.
2. Glad too see that he made a lot of you and not just me laugh!
3. Yes, the store at the store url on piddleloop dot com is still down. I have to go thru it and do some major updating and get rid of things. For the meantime just pop over to our etsy shop please. And pattern seekers, just look there for now ok?
4. If you noticed this website was down monday or tuesday, thanks amy, you were right. Nat is helping update this site, and my expression engine software.
5. I’ve hired Nat my web genius to freshen up the template. He showed me stuff the other nite and it looks good. He rocks.
6. I have this awful start-itus. Thanks to ravelry. I don’t want to sew and just want to cast-on for a million projects, and ignore finishing them. (as per usual anyway)
7. I succombed to knit picks again for DPN’s (still live dangerously and don’t have a knit picks gauge) and i gave in and got a hippy the hippo.



Isn’t she cute, she’s huge and holds a lot of stuff..of which i’m not showing you it was cold out this morning.

Stuff: You know y’all want it? How about a really short Etsy Friday?

I pestered Katy of Love Sticks for some trick or treat colorway yarn. Then i saw Count Sockula when she posted she had a Morrissey colorway. SHe was out of the Girlfriend in a coma (rats!) but i picked up Count Sockula to add to my special order of trick or treat. She rocks.


She makes her yarns all stripe. mmm stripes. She even included a few business cards, and some post cards of the yarn. Very pretty!


Next up is future Etsy person Kelly. I wrote to her last weekend and she assures me she is looking into starting up an etsy shop. WHen she does y’all will be the first to know. Here’s the Pattern Tamers at work. So you can see what they do. keeping my place on my RPM sock pattern.



and



Keeping track of the Foliage chart pattern They hold down your pattern, and you slide it to keep your place. They are cute, and very affordable and very gift friendly. I will let y’all know if she makes a shop.
I have a problem. There i’ve admitted it to y’all too. I went into several antique shops last weekend and bought 4 pairs of screw back clip earrings for cheap. Then came bearing Hello Kitty gifts and other gifts to Kayt last nite. Begging her to put chains on them for me. So now i have even MORE sweater clips. Except my favorite ones need a tune up on their clasp so she had to take them (no photo) . But check these out:



These i got for way cheap and she informed me they were old sworovoski (sp) crystals and those beads are somewhat rare and expensive these days. Good thing cause the earrings cost me a whopping $4. Here’s the back cause you can see they are hand strung and hand tied. The tag said fromt he 50’s.


Then i found these heavy silver and robin’s egg blue with brown speckles in them



and of course a 60’s classic large pearls



So again eventually when i stop bothering her with stuff Kayt will be putting some of these into her etsy shop..keep an eye out...cause i’m quick like fox.

So I was hoping to hibernate this weekend. Wrong. I have Loteria pouches to finish and more Sugar skulls to finish large glittery ones and small ones. For an update hoping to happen monday or tuesday.
And i get to do rockstar drop offs of product to several people. And possibly get to meet a Colorado Blogger downtown.
Ohhh fun. I’ll be back Monday with more, y’all have a good weekend.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/26 at 07:28 AM ♥ Comments (4)

A short Conversation with Nat

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this is only a conversation i could possibly have with my boyfriend Nathaniel. I think this will be funnier for anyone who knows us in real life, but it’s still pretty good. Reminder my boyfriend doesn’t have cable, and hasn’t for at least the five years i’ve been dating him. This would explain why you can find me watching Smackdown in Spanish on Telemundo or mesmerized by infomercials on the Asian channel most weekends. He only watches “learning shows” on PBS or listens to NPR.

Jen: Sorry i was late, i was sucked into watching “Turistas”
Nat: That’s ok...what’s that?
Jen: a horror movie, it wasn’t *that* bad actually. It was only 1.5 hours long.
nat: oh
Jen: Has that guy Josh Duhmell (sp) who’s dating FERGIE in it
nat: oh i remember the signs for that, they were in the El
Jen: his band of people are taken hostage by organ harvesters
Nat: the princess?
Jen: FERGIE the singer, only *YOU* would ask that! you know i’m ferg-a-liscious!
Nat: what?
Jen: how can you possibly escape pop culture? what cave are you dwelling in?
Nat: i don’t watch tv or listen to the radio
Jen: i should do a google search and find out if fergie’s been on NPR or PBS!
Nat: if she hasn’t been on austin city limits, i haven’t seen her on tv
Jen: consider this BLOGGED
Nat: did you see i changed the shape of that etsy thing on your blog?
Jen: what are you doing breaking into my blog?????
Nat:  i was trying to make it look more like the rest of your blog, but their code is terrible and you can’t change it
Jen:  Maybe you should go work for them
Nat: it looks like they got their html from 1997

only my boyfriend folks. oh man.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/24 at 09:25 PM ♥ Comments (9)

big ass photo post number eleventy billiion and etsy friday edition

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&I have a lot to show and say in this post, so less chit chat and more photos, eh?
ok. I am behind on saying thank you to some mail love people. First there is Karen, from Weathertop Farm who had a little contest. My nephew being a die hard cubs fan paid off. She sent me a special prize. I tried to get her to send me one of her goats but i never received a large box with holes, sad i know.



I did get GOAT PICTURES! yay! Thanks so much Karen!





Next I have to thank Erin. She has been cleaning out Ida’s (her new home) and she has passed down some more awesome things to me. Books...adore them!


and then there were these photos of: the picasso in daley plaza circa 1973, the art institute lion with xmas wreath circa 1972, and a squirrel in lincoln park circa 1972


and then the thing that made me tear up. A set of sweater clips.



Lesa took this photo of me wearing them while knitting on my monkey sock



You see i wear cardigans, all the time. I’ve always wanted some of these. Erin thank you so so much. I adore everything.
This leads me into etsy friday.

As some of you know i buy stitch markers from various etsy people and put them on our bags for you to check out. Please welcome something and someone new. Natalie from Bake and Destroy. Not only does she have tons of baking recipies on her blog, but she has awesome things in her shop. Like these buttons, which will now go on some of our bags.


There will be two cards attached to your stitch marker on the zipper, one if or your marker and the other is for your button found inside the bag!


I also bought one of the shirts.



Cheap jewelry, you know how i love it. I also love horseshoes. I got this from Imogen


And Cheri of Tinkerwiththis had some pretty little wooden pendants! Update: i added cheri’s blog link too!




And last but not least, Kayt, showed me these sweater chains last nite.


she saw ida’s clips and i told her she should make eleventy billion, so i can buy them all. SHe showed me 4 sets last nite and i bought these two. She will be filtering them into her shop soon. That is if I don’t get to them first! muwahahahaha


I would like to thank Alyson of Yo Yo Knits for getting the word eleventy stuck in my head for weeks now. I’m totally ripping you off girl. Now please go check out some of those links.
Also check out the link again for Jennie the potter. Her pottery is unbelievable.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/19 at 08:56 AM ♥ Comments (0)

YarnCon, Chicago Oct 13th 2007

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Yarncon glorious yarncon!



In all your poor lighting glory!





We had a fun neighbor tot alk to meet Kelly with her Pattern Tamers. genius little things.





See this great pottery? They are made by Jenni the potter who is one of the nicest people on the planet.







Jennie found a lovely thing to do with our pouches! check it out, use that paper clip i give you in the freebie bags to do this!


Ditto for her booth neighbor Lara from My Green Apple Yarn.


Franklin Habit was there doing portraits of knitters for his 1,000 knitters project.


I did sit for him, but he made me laugh the WHOLE time. Who knows if i’ll make the final cut either. But anyways it was fun to talk to a fellow person who likes type.

here is my sister and i nerding out in our glasses



i pounded grommets for people and the hammer echoed sometimes



Erika showed up and said hello



and just more stuff







So in the end i bought a ton of pottery from Jennie, some pattern tamers by kelly, and 3 skeins of sock yarn from My Small Wonders Avacado, burgandy bliss, and orange crush. mmmmmm.


And my cheveron scarf is a little longer.



Special thanks to Erika for coming over to say hello! Her friend who let me take a close up of her fabulous glasses, and Lauren for being the best cash box holder ever.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/15 at 09:09 PM ♥ Comments (18)

Broken Internets and Fish

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Ok just a few things.

1. Wednesday I went intot he basement at 8am to package up some orders only to find several inches of water in our basement. It was flooded. All day and most of the evening was spent ripping up old carpeting, carrying sopping carpeting up and out, recycling some soggy cardboard boxes, and moving stuff. Our basement has never flooded, it was due to a water seal breaking near the meter and spigot. fun fun. not.

2. Yarncon was a success. It was fun and a nice event put on by two girls. Their hard work paid off and it was an enjoyable saturday. I’ll have a picture post on that tomorrow.

3. Our mailing list hasn’t been working for like 2 weeks. If you signed up and didn’t receive any kind of notification, it didn’t go thru. I have now got the brokn internets fixed, thanks to the web genius nathaniel is. So again if you want the skinny on our updates, shop stuff, fabrics and whatnot...please go here and re-sign up. If you don’t care that’s cool too.

If any of you know my sister and i have been in sewing overdrive for the past 3 weeks getting stock up for yarncon and the etsy shop. 3 solid weeks of sewing. Plus the basement flooding. So when our favorite customer Alexis posted her feedback on etsy and i clicked the picture..sometimes a simple picture makes everything all worth it.  She posted Osiris her fish with her newest pouch and it’s matching yarn.



I just love to see Osiris. She sent me in July this picture of Osiris enjoying her goldfish pouch. (thanks for permission to share the photos alexis!)


Sometimes it just takes a simple little thing like this to make me laugh and feel like...oh yeah that is all woth it. Man, you guys rock.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/14 at 10:45 PM ♥ Comments (11)

Stuff and Things

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Hi everyone, i hope you had a good weekend. I spent it sweating in our 90 degree heat and sewing. We did take a break on sunday to go down to the Museum of Contemporary Art for their 40 days things. It’s their anniversary and they are free for 40 days and they had a big rock concert for free. We caught the 1900’s and Califone. Nat is the big Califone fanboy, so in 5 years we’ve pretty much only missed a show once, and the red red meat show because we didn’t know about it. Nat got a fancy pants Canon Rebel XTI digital SLR camera and a few lenses last week.
I stole it during the show and took a few photos. He’s going to let me put them on flicker this weekend. But every so often i suprise myself and really like something i take. I think i want an 8 x 10 print of this one. If any of you know me in real life, i’m a banjo freak. The banjo makes me happy. This picture just makes me happy



That’s Jim playing his banjo. Taken with nat’s ginormous lens. Very top heavy..hard to lock in your ams to avoid camera shake. Other photos Nat and I took of them here.
So again because i don’t have anymore to share if you live in the indiana/chicago/wisconsin area please come out to yarncon this saturday from 10am til 4pm.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/09 at 09:01 AM ♥ Comments (7)

whoa did someone say overwhelming?

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I went out with the girls for some laughing and knitting, mostly laughing. Thanks momma shortbus and kayTEE dog.
I’m on Raverly now. I’m Piddleloop...feel free to make me yer friend. or not.
I’d like to thank Nat who bought my poor ass a pro flickr account. You rock.
Now less talking more sewing for me.

Posted by Jennifer on 10/04 at 11:25 PM ♥ Comments (9)