piddleloop.com

our exchange

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nat and i exchanged gifts this year before we flew out. Nat is always very very good at getting me exactly what i want. He is a very very good boyfriend. He on the other hand is always the hardest to buy form because he never wants anything. Soooo i got him arrested developement season 1 & 2 and a threadless shirt he was wearing in the oscar picture, a starbucks card, and various monkey gifts such as bowling for monkeys.
i need to get some pictures of that. Perhaps next weekend i will make him bowl for monkeys. He gave me these and i love them all:






yes my very own ONE EYE direct from marianne! a copy of the Jay Ryan book, and a kate spade bag. All put to good use.
now i am finishing up some last minute christmas/b-day knitting for my pal amy and tonight i think i get see some of my knitting pals. *whew* i’m tired of posting.

Posted by Jennifer on 01/02 at 01:48 PM ♥ Comments (4)

christmas take two or three

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Nat’s parent’s live outside of Philly, in New Jersey. Yes i’ve got myself a Jersey boy.
So nat and i flew out xmas eve and stayed until the 29th. I want to thank his parents (if they read this - there’s a possibility) for being again so wonderful during our stay. This is the third year i was able to come out and they are always so giving. I again didn’t take too many pictures of people opening stuff, but when Nat’s mom opened the HELLO KITTY TOASTER she asked who wants toast!? and i started yelling I DO! I DO! PLUG IT IN! PLUG IT IN! Nat and i ate Hello Kitty Toast all week.

next was BREAKFAST! which consisted of pumpkin pie, and cookies his mom had made xmas eve. we also ate these cookies and pie pretty much everyday til it was gone for either breakfast or lunch. mmmmmm






nat’s mom and sister are really into j-pop or japanese pop and culture, stuff and things. They had a special tree of their own. A pink tree trimmed with pictures of j-pop singers.


so i knit for each of them a pair of mary janes slippers in Noro (japanese yarn)
here they are finished






we went to nat’s grandmother’s for xmas where they do a “white elephant” exchange which i think is the MOST FUN. you can get anything from a cork signed by each person’s who has received it since 1972 or a lint brush or magic towel. The highlights of the evening was nat’s mom opening a large box, the outside had a juicer on it and everyone was like what is inside, cause IT’S NEVER EVER WHAT’S ON THE BOX…well it really was a juicer and what’s funny is it took 5 people to say OH IT *IS* REALLY A JUICER! and all i could do was laugh. We then went to nat’s aunt’s house where we ate again for the fifth time that day a full blown turkey dinner. Thank god we went to NYC a few days after so i could walk off those turkey dinners and ONE BILLION COOKIES i ate
every year i make us take our picture here if you look back i am sure you have seen them

Posted by Jennifer on 01/02 at 01:40 PM ♥ Comments (5)

a flurry of gifts

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I exchanged gifts and had christmas with my parents and nephew and sister on new year’s eve this year. i didn’t take many photos, but when you have a soon to be three year old everything happens really fast anyhow. Zander was really INTO christmas this year.
all i have of Zee are action shots since he was into opening EVERYONE’s presents


zander got his uncle nat some oscar slippers and a oscar hat (nat’s favorite sesame character if you couldn’t tell)


my parents gave me a fancy new camera this thing does cool stuff like auto bracketing and has a motor drive like thing built into it. It also has some handy internal memory. Sandly tho it is not an SLR. I only wanted an SLR that shoots in raw and you can’t get one under 2k right now. That wll be my next step in a few years


the most important thing i asked for was new scissors. Most importantly Gingher scissors. These are super sharp and slightly expensive scissors. It seems all my scissors i use for my embroidery, felt, and knitting don’t actually CUT. So now i will never need another pair of scissors again. THANKS MOM!


my sister left my present at her house, but i did get a handmade frame with pictures of zander and i and some lime green and orange pot holders!
my sister did give me my birthday present early tho how about these!


the top book is knitting for dogs, so i can knit lucy (the basset) her winter coat.
the rest of the books i always longingly looked at for months without money. THANKS WENDY!
i showed wendy the books i bought in NYC for her and i to look at some japanese crafting books


so that was my new year’s eve slash christmas with the family

Posted by Jennifer on 01/02 at 01:17 PM ♥ Comments (2)

Self Portrait Tuesday

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Yes i know it’s monday and this is NOT for tomorrow…instead it is for LAST tuesday. Because i was in NYC and philly for xmas i took my picture and wanted to squeeze it in, but due to being at Nat’s i couldn’t. His card reader just HATES my camera cards. So anyways nearly SEVEN days LATE i bring you my last installment of self portrait tuesday’s reflection series. These are both taken in New York City’s Bryant Park’s AIDS instillation.

Posted by Jennifer on 01/02 at 01:01 PM ♥ Comments (0)

back (in black)

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I’m back from the east coast (according to nat where-everything-is-better)

I do not have pictures until tomorrow due to the mac hating my camera card.

i can report the folowing things:

1. after arriving at his family house from our flight i ate 7 chocolate peanutbutter chip cookies. nat’s mom made buttloads and buttloads of homade awsome cookies.

2. xmas morning breakfast consisted of pie and cookies

3. lunch and dinner also consisted of large amounts of said cookies.

4. after finishing his dad’s scarf and mom’s and sister’s mary jane slippers AFTER xmas i finished the last of the cinnamon snickerdoodles.

5. i was told i would fit in easily because i dunk my cookies in my hot tea.

6. i now want to collect japanese crafting books, because they are all beautiful to look at…and i would give my right arm for some.

7. i don’t want to look at another cookie for at least 24 hrs

pictures to come

in other news our shop is open. please come and look inside. drop a line say hello if you stalk the blog. I like email.

Posted by Jennifer on 12/30 at 08:32 PM ♥ Comments (3)

Merry xmas and all that stuff

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We’re wasting time before our flight today. seems like we got ready waaaay before we had originally thought! Well I’m leaving for the Easy Coast again and I hope everyone has a nice holiday. Y’all stay warm ( i hear it will be 50 degrees in philly!) Nat and i exchanged gifts last nite and i’m so glad he liked his. I’ll have to post pictures when i get back. i got some awsome things, because Nat almost always gets me awsome things. So everyone have a good one. i’m outta here.

Posted by Jennifer on 12/24 at 09:33 AM ♥ Comments (4)

starting to feel a lot like christmas

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around here in the house it’s starting to feel like xmas! i get pretty lazy when wrapping presents and sometimes have to get creative! like turning a somewhat boring gift (a plastic lid you put over food in your microwave) into something new and fresh like AN ORNAMENT!


or just adding a big red bow to a rat and sitting him in the xmas tree


how about a dog under a tree?


she will catch some rays anywhere she can, and frankly with it being 5 degrees today who can blame her.
i went to lesa’s house for a little xmas get together with our knitting group. I for some reason didn’t take many pictures of things i should have, oops. Like her wonderful friend from the UK, Jen. Or Kristen who was in town from California. I did seem intrested in take 3 pictures tho. Here is one of my new favorite members, Ann. She is very cool and she is very funny. She LOVES kitties. She made a kitty hat for herself from the stitch and bitch nation book! here she is modeling it:

long after midnight we were still up talking and knitting away. Here are lesa’s animals, meet buddy the dog passed out snoozing

meet mittens the kitty who sleeps on her head

erin, kristen, ann, jen, lesa, rebecca, tara, and sly it was good to spend the evening with all of you and laugh and eat it was a good evening had by all.

If your order today thru the 30th from our little shop we’re not going to ship or process orders until the 30th. I am going to the east coast for xmas this year again. I’m going to Nat’s family’s again. I will process anything ordered and ship when i get back after the 29th.
In the meantime Wendy was an insomniac last nite and handed me these today for your viewing pleasure (they are up in the shop as of now)



I got my shrinky-dinks paper in the mail today so we will be putting up Mustached Animal Knitting Stitch Markers after the holiday! make sure you watch for them! People at the party last nite were asking about our pouches. They were curious if knitter’s who drop by our shop have purchased the 12 x 6 pouches. Because they are perfect for knitting needles! I think most people don’t know you can fit your straights in there and pop them into your knitting bag. So i thought i’d give it a mention here. i’m mailing out the last of the orders today

I’m working tomorrow and thursday, coming back to Indiana to do laundry and pack to fly out saturday afternoon. So maybe i’ll slip another post in there before i leave.

i got a check for a scarf i sent to the trunk show at Fancy but i don’t know which scarf sold or who bought it or anything. so if you bought it and you read the tag and came here drop a line and say hello! Or if you stalk my blog always feel free to drop a line hello. I love it when you do, because then i can read your blog and say thank you.

EDITED to add: How about all the damage control good ole G. Bush has been doing? oh wait it wasn’t “damage control” it was rallying support for even more washing away of our civil liberties. I like how he spent ten whole minutes yesterday during that press conference talking about how the government CARES about your civil liberties. Now. You KNOW the frickin’ court will give you a warrant for wire tapping and all that crap. So what just what makes you think you can go and break the Constitution and just do things without a warrant? Last time i looked we still have a Constitution and a Bill of rights…..? My friend Erin said somewhere on line you can buy a mug with the civil liberties on it and when you pour hot liquid in it they disappear. I should look into that.

Posted by Jennifer on 12/20 at 01:47 PM ♥ Comments (1)

xmas rush

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ok so i spent a week up in chicago and i’ve come back to do laundry, watch zander, and xmas shop all on one day and then go back. So far there’s no car with a car seat for me, so foget shopping. I did watch zander and we did laundry, he was in charge of fishing the socks out of the dryer.

more of big needle xmas three scarves for Nat’s: aunt, grandma, and 94 yr old grandma

i still have nothing wrapped. I still have a few gift cards i have to buy for certain people…and i haven’t sent out xmas cards. This is not good. I do want to thank Kim for sending me a picture of her vintage snoopy artpiece on a card. I am jealous and i do love it, altho i have the same Snoopy xmas lights, they used to hang in my bathroom. I always hang lights in my bathroom…but these are in my room.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped me with awsome rubber rain boots. I still haven’t decided on a pair yet. I like those argyle ones, that are cheaper (thanks!) and i like a few of the pairs that are left on target’s site. Altho most of their’s are sold out. I’m just waiting til i get paid for my week after thanksgiving freelancing stint. I am broke. So broke i will have cold wet feet forawhile.

Wendy was bored while i was freelancing and has been busy all week. She’s made two more kitty project pouches. and some of these:

Posted by Jennifer on 12/16 at 02:59 PM ♥ Comments (1)

self portrait tuesday on friday

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i took these on tuesday, and planned to put them up while i was freelancing in chicago, but Nathaniel’s card reader and his Mac didn’t like my stick. It kept making the computer crash, crash badly. So here you go the first is on my walk to the EL over on Montrose. This Sushi place had a nice window

and the second is me while i’m freelancing at the ad agency i was at all week. I am reflecting in the G4 sitting on my desk.

sorry this is late, but that’s what happens when i get to work and am stuck up in the city for a week.

Posted by Jennifer on 12/16 at 02:42 PM ♥ Comments (1)

stuff and things

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what’s that sizzling sound this morning? oh yeah that would be my butt on the radiator! ow! there’s only about 2 feet of clearance from the sink to the radiator and i misjudged that this morning.

i should probably clarify a little more. i am NOT a boot person. i never have been, and probably never will be. The last time i owned boots was in middle school. I don’t wear boots with skirts like every other woman in wintertime in chicago. I also can not see the practicality of any kind of heel on a boot? i am clutzy ENOUGH trying to walk on ice, giant piles of snow made from tire tracks, black ice, and what not i don’t need any kind of heel to make that WORSE. Why do nearly all boots i looked at this weekend have some sort of heel on them or worse a wedge heel? i’m already five foot eleven i don’t need to be taller and fashionable in this sludgey snow, nor do i need to fall more than i normally do.
also what is with the weird fur and pom pom boots? i mean COME ON. who would be caught dead in those? oh wait i think i saw some people wearing them over in lincoln park. My boyfriend’s idea of winter boots is anything that resemble COMBAT BOOTS. Um, no nat. It’s bad enough i don’t like boots but then to take 30 min to lace into them is even worse.
hence why i think i need to find some good ole, rubber rain boots. But not just any rubber rain boots ones that can brighten up my dirty sludgey walks. perferably ones that don’t cost me 70$ either.

Posted by Jennifer on 12/12 at 10:23 AM ♥ Comments (5)