New hair color. I ditched the cotton candy pink with blond streaks for an all-over black. I’m also very overdue for a cut, but I’m attempting (for the 598th time) to grow it out. I’d love to rock the longer Victoria Beckam for the winter. I’m also loving the idea of rocking little pigtails while it grows.

We’ll see if I can grow it long enough before I give in and head straight for the hair clippers.

I don’t want to get all cocky and jinx myself here, but I’m tentatively reporting that things appear to be looking up for me these days. I’ve got a few really exciting things that seem to be coming together. **knock on wood** Sadly, one of them involves dyeing my hair back to boring, plain old black, but at least it suits me. And it just might be completely and totally worth it. (Here’s hoping.)

It’s surprisingly sunshiney today, considering we’re into September already, and in celebration of the incredible natural light coming in through the windows I’ve had my camera in hand most of the day. I’ll leave you with one of my favorites from a series I shot with Gir about an hour ago. He has given full publishing permission, but only after I paid him in bites of tuna.

I’ve just spent the last 5 minutes of my life watching Gir try to catch a fly that found it’s way into our house. I watched him gallop from room to room, randomly jumping in mid air, flailing his kitty arms out nowhere near the actual fly. It was quite amusing and I found myself enjoying the show. I noticed Wednesday was also entertained, sitting in a corner of the room doing her best brooding Wednesday Addams impression. (That’s what she does best.)

And that’s when it happened.

All of a sudden as I’m watching Gir fail miserably at fly-catching, Wednesday goes screaming by, launches herself magnificently from the middle of the living room to the top of the computer desk, and CATCHES THE FLY IN MID AIR. Note to self: Wednesday is a freaking NINJA.

Out of nowhere, she had taken the fly out with a single swipe. I couldn’t effing believe it.

And as if that weren’t enough, she put the fly in her mouth, jumped carefully off the desk, pranced over to Gir, and — get this — she set it down in front of him.

Too bad as soon as Gir went for it she grabbed it and gulped it down right in front of him.

The fly has since been reported missing by it’s immediate family members.
Moral of the story: Ninjas can never be trusted.

Obviously I haven’t been writing much lately. I feel bad when days go passing by while my blog sits stagnant. Silence tends to breed more silence, which really doesn’t work at all when my main outlet is text.

It isn’t that I’ve lost the creative urge to write, it’s that lately when I’ve found myself inspired I don’t have time to type it all out. And when I make time, I forget what I was going to write in the first place. It’s quite the paradox.

Note To Self: Start carrying around a notebook to jot things down.
Bonus: I’ll totally look like a journalist.

In other news, I have a secret: I’m creating a new project that I expect to fully develop over the next week or two. I’m super excited to share it with you, but it’s too early in the game to risk someone stealing my awesome idea. Hang tight for now, I promise to end the suspense soon.

On the knitting front, I finally finished my first Central Park Hoodie sleeve — the third freaking time I’ve knit that damn sleeve and it finally appears to be the correct shape and size. Honestly, I’m just fucking glad to be done with it.

Unfortunately, sweaters do require two sleeves so I put my game face on and cast on the second sleeve immediately after binding off the first.

I’m happy to report that I’ve now passed the halfway point and expect to finish this second sleeve sometime this evening — meaning both sleeves will soon be done! As in I’ll never have to knit them again! (At which point I’m definitely going to sit down and enjoy at least 7 glasses of wine. And then 12 shots of whiskey. Followed by 24 fluid ounces of Drano. Because obviously I’m already dead — this sweater has been on the needles for 193 years.)

After I recuperate from dying, I’ll seam the sweater pieces together, knit up the hood, and then the dreaded button band will be the last leg of the never-ending My First Sweater marathon I’ve been running since September 2008.

It seems fitting that I just might finish knitting this sweater in September 2010 — just 2 short years after I started the project.  </sarcasm>

Today is The Day. The day I’ve been dreading for 12 long months. The day I wasn’t sure I could make it through in one piece (I’m still not sure). Exactly one year ago today one of my closest friends died in a motorcycle accident. Just like that, she was gone forever.

I’ve tried several times today to put my thoughts into words for you to read; to explain how I feel to the world on this somber day. Try as I may, I have failed.

It hurts so much. Today is an unbelievably sad day.

*I can’t take credit for picking out this video; Sandi sent it to me earlier today and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. Snow Patrol is new to me, but I cannot get over how moving this song is - the lyrics are amazing. I’m glad she shared it with me, and now I’m passing it along to you in case you haven’t heard it yet, either. Enjoy.♥

Sam and I are hosting a birthday party for Timm today. This is the current scene of my kitchen:

I’ve been making cupcakes since 8:00 this morning, with one emergency trip to Safeway when I realized that one package of cupcake tins wasn’t nearly enough. I made 45 cupcakes total, though I’ll go ahead and admit that I’ve already eaten 3 of them.

Happy birthday to my favorite fellow Alaska/Portland hybrid — and I hope you love cupcakes. Here’s to another year older and another year wiser. I can definitely drink to that. **Cheers!**

…and now I have to go frost 42 cupcakes. lol

I’ve hit a motivational road block on my cotton tank, and I decided to whip up a quick-knit project for the sake of my sanity. I chose a cowl; knit in worsted weight it uses only about 120 yards of yarn.

I picked the best shade of Caron Simply Soft I could find in my stash and went for it. And though Sam just doesn’t “get” the idea of a neckwarmer, I love love love this thing!

Pattern: Thermis by Kris Knits, $2.49 via Ravelry.com

Started: August 24, 2010
Finished: August 25, 2010
Estimated # of knitting hours: 8

Each of my growing number of tattoos holds a story. My newest piece is no different. On the top of my left foot I now proudly boast the words “Love always” in my Grandmother’s handwriting (we call her Grammy).

Thankfully Grammy is still with us and this is not to be mistaken as a memorial tattoo, but rather an honorary daily reminder of just how much I am loved every single day. I did speak to her about this idea and was given full permission before I made the appointment.

As my artist was preparing to lay the ink transfer onto my skin, he asked me to remind him to face it towards me, as the general consensus is that tattoos should face others and not yourself. (I disagree with this “rule”, as I get all of my tattoos for ME, and I want my text to be readable when I look down at them.) Sure enough, when he went to set the transfer on my skin, he was holding it with the text towards him — therefore making the words upside-down when I looked down at my feet — and I had to politely remind him to flip it around so that I could read the text. He laughed at his ironically predicted oversight, happily corrected the position, and less than 30 minutes later I was the proud owner of a tiny masterpiece.

*Whoa. Does my hair not look like Syndrome from The Incredibles!?

This tattoo really speaks for itself, and though I’ve repeatedly tried to put all of it’s meaning into words for all of you, I’ve failed. Words simply cannot accurately describe everything this piece stands for, and I’ve realized that trying to over-explain it only detracts from the meaning.

I will say this: It hurt. A lot. But not for very long. And it was over before I knew it.

Sam visited me at the tattoo shop after work, but only made it for the very end of my pain time under the needle. He left while Mom was getting ready for her “Ester star”, something she’d been talking about ever since I got my own stars back in 2007 (my name, Ester, means “star” in Hebrew). She finally decided where she wanted it, and less than 20 minutes later she was the proud new owner of this little beauty:

I’m quite proud of her, I must admit. This was her second tattoo (her first being the ankle tattoo we share, now 6 years old), and she took it like a seasoned champ. Actually, I fear she may now be slightly addicted to getting tattooed… (You might say that this is what she gets for talking me into getting my tongue pierced 5 years ago!)

Yay for new ink, after nearly a year dry. I plan to get more soon; maybe I’m the one that’s addicted.