Evil Eye

It’s a nice slow moving Saturday afternoon.  The little man kept me up much of the night, so he and Scott let me sleep in this morning.  When I finally emerged from under the covers coffee was ready, and I settled down on my much improved (although still in need of reupholstering) couch for a hot cup o’ joe and a windmill cookie.  Yum!

I picked up the windmill cookies at the local health food store (Bonne Sante in Hyde Park) after getting a much needed haircut.  I had been putting the haircut off since I didn’t know what I wanted.  Finally, I decided I just felt too shaggy and unkempt, so I asked my Mother-in-Law to come and stay with Victor while I went out.  I still didn’t know what I wanted, and was seeing a new hair-dresser.  I took a leap of faith and just gave her some guidelines, we chatted, and now I have a nice hair cut, a new hair-dresser, and I had an afternoon out without any worries, which was more relaxing than I had anticipated.  I have a great family that supports me, for which I am eternally grateful, even when I don’t take advantage of it.  I did take advantage of it this last week, and now I have a couch that no longer sags, a new super cool bookcase,

thanks to my talented Father-in-law and Scott, and a nifty new haircut thanks to my Mother-in-Law, and a little more sleep thanks to Scott.

Even on a slow Saturday afternoon, I am aware of how quickly time passes by.  Victor is already over 4 months old.  At this time last year, Scott and I were discussing how to best share the news that I was pregnant with our family.  Now we have a baby who is growing at an amazing pace, who since Thanksgiving has learned how to laugh and roll over from his stomach onto his back.  Watching him figure out… everything, it fills me with wonder.  While he naps (he’s falling asleep on my lap right now), I get little odds and ends done, like knitting, rarely blogging, frequently reading blogs, and slowly adding inventory to the new store web page.  My mind and notepad are filled with plans for new creations, and in time they will realized in wax and metal, little by little.  While Victor quickly learns new skills, I am slowly learning patience.

We are finally getting ready to unveil the new Evil Eye website, so things might get a little weird for a bit.  The new site will launch on Friday, and there will be a link to the blog on the main page.  You will not be able to use the current url for this blog as of Friday, but http://www.evil-eye-emporium.com/ will get you to the main page as always. If any of you RSS this blog (and if you do, thanks!) you might need to update it a couple of times before it settles down, but I will keep you posted.
I am busy updating inventory which was a collosal pain on my old site, but much improved now.  The look of the page may evolve as I get handier with Zencart, but it’s not too shabby.

The website is not the only thing I have been crafting, I’ve actually been spinning a little bit too, as well as knitting.  I can’t show you the knitting, gifts, you know.  But I can show you the spinning.

I dyed this corriedale at Yarn School in April:

And have spun it into these singles, which I am going to ply:

I am curious to see how it plies up.  The colors are muted, but nicer than I thought they would be when I first started spinning it up.  The corriedale is dreamy to spin, so soft and squishy.  I started spinning the single on that bobbin before Victor was born.  I don’t get much time to spin, but even a few minutes a day is nice.  I set him in his play pen where he can see me, and encourage him to play with his toys while I spin.  He almost rolled over yesterday!  Good times for both of us.

I’m looking forward  to some holiday crafting and decorating too, we’ll see how it goes.

Want a unique gift for the yarn lover in your life (or yourself)?  May I suggest the limited edition YarnCon poster, hand-printed by Chicago artist Alex Uribe?

 Proceeds from the sales of these prints will go towards promoting more local fiber artists in the upcoming year.  You can read more about it at the YarnCon Blog.  Thanks!

Without fail, I always leave the DIY Trunk Show with a little less inventory, and a whole lot more inspiration.  Chicago has some amazing crafters! And I had some amazing helpers, thanks so much Scott, Sara and Victor for making it a great day.

I always like to hunker down and make stuff as the temperature drops, and that includes baking of course!  I just visited a site that is perfect for making some crafty cute cupcakes and candies: Bake It Pretty!  And, as if that shop is not sweet enough (yes, pun intended), they are having a contest over on their blog, every little thing.  Of course I entered the contest, I need more of those gnome decorations!  If I had seen that site yesterday, I think the tasty pumpkin muffins I made yesterday would have been embellished somehow.

So, I’m confused about the blue bins.  I saw the truck full of them out front, heard lots of racket from them, they spent lots of time out front.  We got notices about the program (again) a week or so ago.  But, no extra bin, which is good, we have our bin.  But, what was going on yesterday morning?  Confusing.

We tried something new with our gigantic baby last night.  For the first time I nursed him to sleep (that part is not new, I do that every night), turned on the baby monitor and left the room.  Normally, I nurse him to sleep, and go to sleep too, but I want to get him to fall asleep earlier than he has been.  It worked pretty well, he did wake up to nurse again at 11pm, but only briefly, and fell asleep again.  I was a big ball of tension leaving him in the room alone.  I know I was just downstairs, he was fine, but man, I was ready to leap at the first sound.  But, it was the first time, and it will get easier each time.  I guess I was worried that he would wake up, find himself alone and freak out.  He freaked out last week when I had the bright idea to take him to the American Indian Center Pow-wow.  For years I’ve seen people bring their babies, there were other babies there.  Victor was fine until the amplification started, and then it was over, he lost it.  He cried and screamed all the way home, and he cried on and off until he fell asleep for the night.  Sigh.  He was his happy, goofy self the next morning.  It was horrible to see (and hear!) him in such distress.

But, hey, when that’s the worst thing that has happened, things must be pretty good.  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow at the DIY Trunk Show!

Dear Mayor Daley,

I know you are looking to cut costs, and I have a little suggestion.  You don’t need to supply areas that already have blue recycling bins with blue recycling bins.  I hope that helps.

Kind Regards,

A bemused South Sider

This morning I woke up to a lot of noise in front of the house, what could it be?

Yup, that.  Except, that picture was taken in March of last year.  We were part of the pilot program, so we have been using our bins for a year and a half.  Oops.  I wonder how much it cost to give each of us that extra bin, hmmm….

I couldn’t think of a title, so I’ll plug the DIY Trunk Show, which I’m honored to be at again this year.  It’s on Saturday at the beautiful Pulaski Park Fieldhouse from 10am to 5pm.  It has been a challenge to get ready this year, but thanks to a supportive husband, I have managed to pull it off.

Yesterday Victor and I went hunting for historical figures.  I just finished reading Sin in the Second City, and recently remembered that Big Jim Colosimo, a Chicago gangster who was a major player in the Levee, the Red Light district in Chicago at the turn of the last century, is buried at Oak Woods Cemetery.  So, off we went to find him.  I had seen the grave before, but didn’t know anything about him, so I didn’t think much of it at the time.

We also found someone along the way I hadn’t expected to see, James R. Mann, the author of the Mann Act, or the White Slave Traffic Act.  It was “drafted to prevent interstate commerce to facilitate prostitution or concubinage, or other forms of immorality.”*

When I saw it, I thought it would be funny if Colosimo were nearby.  See the dark gray mausoleum in the background, to the right?  Yup, that’s Colosimo.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act#History,

More about the Mann Act: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88104308

More interesting people at Oak Woods Cemetery: http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=173554

It’s time to get out there and vote if you haven’t already.  We’re going today, and I’m pretty excited.  Not only do we get to vote for the president, here in Illinois we will vote (yes!) for IL Con-Con.  I just wish I lived in the 39th precinct in Hyde Park so I could vote against the referendum to make the area dry.  If you do live there, please vote against that move.  I completely understand wanting to support the union, being against the demolition of Doctor’s Hospital (although, really?  It’s just not that interesting, and keeping it empty is not useful at all, but that’s just my opinion), and wanting someone else to develop the hotel, but making the area dry for at least 4 years is a mistake.  I know any precinct can choose to do this, but by actually doing it, no restaurant or hotel will consider moving into the area without taking this action into account.  The 5th ward (which includes part of Hyde Park and Woodlawn) needs more businesses, it needs jobs, please don’t sabotage this area.  Just today I read this story about the economic state of affairs in Woodlawn.  A hotel on Stoney Island could employ a lot of local residents, and make that area less lonely at night.  If you don’t like the way things are going, keep negotiating, but think of the area beyond your little precinct, we are all affected by what happens with Doctors Hospital.  How many more large abandoned buildings does this area need?

So, get out there and vote, it makes a difference.

RIP Studs Terkel, Chicago is a richer place because you were a part of it.

more animals

I came across this the other day and thought it was funny.  I’ve actually already enjoyed a lovely dinner and yummy birthday cake courtesy of my MIL, and tonight I am looking forward to birthday sushi, and tomorrow dinner with my brother and his girly.  I normally spend more time anticipating my birthday and halloween celebrations, but this year it snuck up on me.  I guess I have been distracted by the little guy who just spit up on me.  I thought I would be a little blue missing out on halloween activites this year, but that has not been the case at all, in fact, I feel very content, although I feel a little bad I have not put decorations up outside.

Now, if you will excuse me, the kid and I need a change of clothes.