Where the hell have I been??

A sad excuse for not blogging is being too busy. But something happens when I have a million things going on at once - I want to wait until it's all over to talk about it. Normally, this would work fine, but this late winter/early spring things have just not stopped! Let me give you the run down.

March - The New York Book Show




















Mister Tim made it a big outing, with a fancy hotel stay and everything, to celebrate our real reason for attending... I took second place for Trade Books in a Series! I was so excited and so proud! The part that was fun was that it wasn't just a cover design award, judged by other designers, but it was for all elements of the finished book from paper choice to typeface to interior design (my forte) to printing and binding. It was really a thrill!

Here are a few shots, first of the view from (one of) our hotel rooms (The Helmsely was under renovation. The management was rude and uncaring. We had several rooms. 'Nough said. Note to self - don't try to save $$. Stay where you know you'll be welcome - stay at Essex House), followed by a few touristy NYC shots.














































































































I love New York so very much... :-*
And we never even made it to School Products, much to my shame. ;-)

March - The Big Yarn Crawl




















Blogless Sara took me on a most excellent yarn crawl to Yarn and Fiber Company and the Classic Elite warehouse outlet in Lowell. Yarn and Fiber is, in a word, incredible. Sara did some serious damage there, while I was there on a mission for an appropriate yarn for this spiral blanket. I wanted something self-striping, but not heavy. And I've already done a blanket in Noro, so I was looking for another option. And did they ever deliver! I scored two skeins (and ordered, I think, 4 more) of an amazing, hand dyed, self striping sock yarn, by Serendipitous Ewe in a bamboo/merino blend. And the colorway? Prickly Cactus! It's really beautiful, full of all the pastel-ly colors I was hoping for, and I can't wait to knit it up! And then there's the warehouse outlet... I just don't have the words. That is where I did my damage, because I can not resist a bargain. Here is a photo of my part of the day's haul.














Damned impressive, isn't it.

But you should have seen Sara's... ;-)

April - "The Cake of My Dreams"

Kath has always referred to our wedding cake as "the cake of my dreams", so when her birthday was impending, I knew what I had to do.

I called Hillary. This is her smallest, most basic cake. It's actually the size she uses as a "taster" when you order a wedding cake. This one is chocolate with chocolate filling and buttercream frosting. All I asked Hillary for was to "please, if it will fit, put 'Happy Birthday Katherine' on the top". And this is what we got.














If you are anywhere even near the north shore of Massachusetts, and you need a cake for any, any reason, you must call Hillary. You simply must. You will not be sorry. She is teh awesome. With awesome sauce.

April - Mister Tim's Surprise 50th Party

This was a miracle. I still don't know how we did it, but a huge thank you to James, Janey and Kath. There is now way in hell I could have pulled this off without you guys. As is, I went through a whole bottle of gin and didn't sleep for a week getting all the details and decorations worked out. People came out of the woodwork for the party and I was so pleased to be able to do this for my beloved husband. He deserved it, in spades. The theme was "Fifty and FABulous", with a heavy reference to his role as Philip in "The Movie Mogul." It was... well... see for yourself. Do you think he was surprised??



May - A Trip to Key West

And finally there was our birthday/second anniversary trip to Key West. This trip was what Mister Tim expected as his birthday present. This made it infinitely easier to surprise him with the party!

We stayed in a resort this time (!?!), on a part of the island we'd never stayed before, way down by Southernmost Point. The Reach Resort was amazing. Spend the money and upgrade to the ocean view room. It is so worth is.
























Mister Tim's birthday theme was The Night of a Thousand Drag Queens. We started with a stellar dinner at Square One, then a short walk up Duval to a show at La-Te-Da. We were fortunate enough to have Randy Roberts performing that night. He is... incredibly talented. And damned cute, to boot.
























Randy, by the way, is the one on the left. ;-)

After that was 801 Duval, where they do not actually sing (which may be a good thing), but they still look damn good (for the most part). And those ladies can seriously bust a move. I dream of being able to dance like that. Seriously. Good times.

We had our anniversary dinner at the same restaurant where we had our wedding dinner - Pisces. We had almost the same menu, too: a bottle of Veuve, caviar, carpaccio, Lobster Tango Mango, and something chocolatey for dessert. Our waiter, Zak, was incredible. I know you'll probably never stumble across this blog Zak but, I swear, you made our night. We love you! I would knit you something - you made us that happy!

We also spent two glorious days house hunting. In Key West. But that's a story for another time...

;-)