In progress

In an effort to blog more often (did you notice it hasn't been over a month?), I'm going to try to post more projects that are in progress, rather than waiting until everything is finished. Heck, even if I posted all completed projects rather than posting about every fifth one it would help make my blog more interesting.

So anyway, in honor of Sock Saturday (ha, I love alliteration!), here's a pair of socks that are half-finished. These are Sheri's Posies Socks from the book "Socks From the Toe Up" and are made out of my own hand-painted yarn.

I had to temporarily put these aside because I misplaced my copy of the pattern. I have since started another pair of socks because I was in the mood to knit. And then I promptly found the pattern to these. Oh well. I hope to get back to these shortly and avoid the dreaded SSS (Second Sock Syndrome).







I love knitting socks! And wearing hand-knit socks is so awesome.

To re-skein or not to re-skein ... that is the question

One of the dilemmas I have faced since starting to dye yarn for my Etsy shop is whether to re-skein - i.e. re-wrap the yarn in a different sized skein - after dyeing. One of the issues is that the yarn sometimes looks a little messy after the dyeing process, since I end up using a mix of foam brushes, squirt bottles and my fingers to get the dye just where I want it in the quantity I want it in. This ends up with some really neat effects, but the yarn sometimes is off-kilter in the skein after it dries, which is sort of annoying.

Some knitters have a preference one way or another, either liking to see the original dyed product (to see how long the color repeats are) or prefer to see the colors all mixed together (so they can get the idea of how the fiber will look knitted up).

So far, I've just been leaving the yarn as is because I like the way it looks after being painted. And it saves me time, which is awesome, because I'm a low-tech kind of re-skeiner, wrapping it around a board in my apartment. Still, I was curious if it would make much of a difference.

One of my favorite skeins was this rainbow-colored beauty.





I had pretty much decided to keep this skein, so I decided to re-skein it, just to see how it would look.



Hmm.

Granted, this picture was taken indoors in not-so-good light, but this yarn definitely loses some of its luster post re-skeining. One of my favorite things about doing one-of-a-kind hand-painted yarns is the variety of tones, shades and color mixes I can achieve. It's kind of hard to notice that when it is re-skeined and twisted all together. I think I'll stick to the original skeins for now, as messy as they might appear.

Because they are prettier.

And quicker. :)

Tilt-a-whirl

Have I mentioned how much I adore the new tilt shift camera app I have on my iPhone? (Probably not because I hardly ever blog). But oh, how I love this app. It's called TiltShiftGenerator and is so beyond awesome. It has the ability to make even crappy phone pictures look amazing.

Here are a few of my favorite recent shots.









(This last photo is from the garage sale!)

Buried

I've had a tough week. Or two.

My wheelchair of choice - of the sparkly pinkish/purplish variety - has been out of commission. I ran into a table at work - which I've done hundreds of times with little to no damage - and jarred something in the joystick, rendering it inoperable. Then my backup wheelchair started having issues, with the battery dying much, much quicker than normal. Oy to the vey!

Then one of my teeth started hurting, so I made an appointment to see my dentist. Being a bit lackadaisical in going to the dentist in a while has come back to haunt me. My sore tooth turned out to be two problem teeth, one of which needed a root canal and both needing crowns.

So finally it's Friday. I've been root canalled. Both wheelchairs have been fixed. Sounds like a great night to relax and make something crafty, right?

Not so much. My family is having a garage sale over Labor Day and I'm in the midst of sorting through all my belongings for crap* to sell. And trust me, there's a lot of crap.



It's going to be a long weekend.


*Note: Hippos and gorilla not for sale. They're definitely not considered crap!

I'm in business!

As mentioned previously, I've been very into knitting, dyeing and spinning lately. One of my favorite fiber-related things to do is hand-dyeing/hand-painting yarn. Well, as much as I wish it weren't true, I can't knit/crochet fast enough to get through the yarn I've purchased, not to mention the skeins I've been dyeing.

So anyway, I opened a new Etsy shop - little critter knits - with some of the yarns I've done so far.

And on Thursday I made my very first sale! I am so excited. Here is the skein, named Pink Grapefruit, that was purchased.



Here's hoping to more sales in the future!

Confession

I've been cheating.

On quilting.

I've been on a knitting/dyeing/spinning/crocheting bender. I'm starting to find more pieces of wool than pieces of thread stuck to my clothes. I never thought this would happen.

Can I admit though that I've been enjoying it? Who knew that dyeing yarn, knitting, crocheting and spinning would be so fun? I previously didn't think it could hold a candle to quilting. Taking pieces of fabric, cutting them up and then sewing them back together in glorious patterns and color schemes. And let's not forget the joy of shopping for fabric.

Of course, this was when I only knew how to knit items in squares and rectangles. In the past 12 months I've learned to knit in the round. To make hats, socks, blankets, etc. Now I've even crossed a line I thought I'd never take, and that was to try spinning my own yarn. Now that I think of it, knitting has sort of the same fascination, which is taking something simple and making it into something beautiful. Especially when I can dye my own wool. And again, I'm enjoying the shopping for yarn/fibers. (That seems to be a common thread here.)

I have a TON of photos from the things I've been working on the past few months; this even includes a little quilting. But until I stop feeling so guilty (I just accidentally typed in quilty) and start posting again, I'm going to show off my recent accomplishment: My first handspun yarns! I love, love, love them.

From this (my first attempt):



To this:



From this (second attempt):



To this:





And this is my next bunch of fiber. So pretty! I hope to get it started this weekend.

Sunday stash

Purchased during a recent trip to Joann's. The fat quarter bundles were 40 percent off. I am trying to be braver and use larger prints with a variety of colors in my projects. I hope these help!

Quilt and sock progress

Remember this quilt?



Well, I finally went out and bought backing and binding fabric for it. All of the top is made from charm packs from the Wonderland line by Momo. When I bought those, though, I didn't buy any backing fabric. It was kind of hard to find a coordinating fabric that I liked, since the colors are kind of muted, but I picked these up at Joann's. The aqua is for the back, the dark brown w/ polka dots is for the binding.



When I was visiting my parents over Easter, my mom even helped me get it pinned. If only I could motivate myself to get the quilting started.

On the knitting front, I finished a pair of socks! I finished sock two from the pair that I posted about previously. Check out the finished product - definitely cankle friendly!



It was weird how they knitted up. The yarn pooled quite differently from foot to foot.

Left:



And right:



And that is just a small tidbit of my exciting craft adventures. More coming!

She lives!

So have you ever gone so long without posting to your blog that you're almost embarrassed to post again?

Me neither.

Yeah, so I'm back. Obviously quite a bit of time has passed since my previous post, but I'm not going to dwell on that. I don't feel like going into a long explanation about everything that has happened in the last month (at least not right now), so I'll just post a few random thoughts and then try to do a better post soon.

- MRI and appointment with the neurosurgeon didn't go great, but not horrible. Just more confirmation that I am pretty much broken for life and there isn't anything surgically that can be done to help. The good part of this news is that I'm not getting a lot worse, and therefore don't need another surgery to fix a new problem. Kind of a glass half empty & half full at the same time. I haven't seen my pain management doctor since those appointments, but I have one scheduled on Monday. It will be interesting to see what she suggests for the next step.

- I turned 35. I am old. And feeling old. It's weird to think I am almost twice the age of the college freshmen on campus. No wonder I got called ma'am the other day in the elevator. Egads.

- I got a really cool wall decal at Target today. It's all black and is a leafless tree with lots of birds in it. I really like it and have stuck it on the wall by my bed. I think it's crooked though, so I will have to try to rearrange it tomorrow. I also hope it doesn't give me any nightmares a la "The Birds." That was a creepy movie.

- I am trying to decide if I want look for another place to live. One of the windows in my apartment leaks pretty seriously. It's been leaking for years and I've been complaining about it for years. The apartment management refuses to do what it takes to fix it for good. I said I may not re-up my lease if they don't promise to take care of it, but so far that's not really helping. I've been living here for almost 5 years though and don't really want to move. I like the location & some of the apartment features. It's really hard to find what I need (2 bed & 1.5-2 bath) with a W&D that also is wheelchair accessible. Just because units are on the ground floor doesn't always make them OK for me.

- I am so looking forward to spring! I love springtime.

- I bought an awesome bright-colored big umbrella today at Target! I have a normal-sized one, but when it rains I am always forced to make a decision to keep one half or the other of me dry. Sitting in the rain = more body surface to protect. I got drenched Thursday afternoon when I was out waiting for the bus for about 40 minutes in a downpour. I was putting off getting a new umbrella because I wanted something cute and really didn't want to get a big umbrella that wouldn't fold down. Luckily I found a really pretty golf-size one that collapses to the same size as a regular umbrella. It also has a carrying loop so I can just loop it on the back of my wheelchair and take it with me easily. Nice!

- My mom has been visiting, but is going to leave tomorrow. :( I love my mom - she's the best. It's been nice to have company in the evenings.

- I've been completely yarn obsessed lately. I have been knitting like crazy and have been experimenting with dyeing my own yarn. It's so fun! Right now there are two skeins sitting in the kitchen - one is a big skein of lace weight yarn dyed in reds & pinks that I heated in the crockpot and another is a skein of fingering weight dyed in pink, red, green & blue that I heated up in the microwave. Last weekend I dyed two other skeins. The first was a really ugly worsted weight wool that I ordered on the Internet that REALLY didn't look like it did in the picture! It was cheap though, so that's the only upside.

Here's the before:



During:



After:





That was overdyed with berry blue & grape Kool-Aid and a little bit of sky blue Wilton's food coloring gel. I'm calling if Forest Moss. (Did I ever mention that I'm obsessed with moss?)

Here's the sock yarn (this started with a white superwash wool (with a bit o' nylon):

During:



After:





That one had a lot of different flavors of Kool-Aid, including lemon lime, strawberry watermelon, lemonade, orange and either cherry or fruit punch. I can't remember. I named this colorway Rainbow Sherbet.

- And speaking of dyed yarns, when I went to ball up that green and brown dyed yarn, it tangled to an extreme. It took me FOUR hours to get it untangled and rolled up. It's lucky I didn't throw it in the trash.

- I'm also continuing to push myself to learn more knitting techniques and I am so glad. I made my first sock last week! I decided to look for a pattern I could do in worsted weight because I thought it might be easier & quicker than trying something with uber tiny needles and skinny yarn. Reading the instructions was kind of confusing, but I just jumped in and it started to make sense. Now I just have to make the second one! (It is weird shaped in the photo, but it actually fits pretty normally.)

Early morning rant

Dear back,

I hate you. It's 4:20 a.m., and I'm wide awake. My feet have been hurting badly for more than 2 hours and my pain medication is really not helping. You are making my life miserable. Give me a break, please.

See, I have this thing called a job that requires me to get up super early and be awake all day. You are really making this difficult, if not impossible, some days.

No love from me,
Christy


Later today I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon to see what, if anything, needs to be done about my back. My MRI results were rather disturbing, I thought. There are disc problems above and below where they did the surgery seven years ago. My pain management doctor said it appears to long-standing damage -- she told me that because of the pain issues I am having, she expected the damage to be more recent. I don't know what to think. Was my first surgery messed up or has my back just continued to get worse since? If it's been getting worse, how? I don't do anything that could cause injury! WTF?

I am so, so scared that I will need another surgery. Maybe it will help. But if something happens and I end up worse, I don't know how I will deal with it. I've been worse -- after the first surgery, I didn't have hardly any sensation from the waist down. I needed help with everything - I couldn't dress myself, roll over, use the bathroom or get in or out of bed by myself. It was the absolute lowest point of my life. I've never been more depressed. I've made quite a bit of progress since, but of course I'm not back to normal. There's the whole wheelchair thing. And of course, the pain is always present.

I'm not sure what's going to happen. Wish me luck.

Wow, what a week! Now what?

I've had an amazing week so far: two concerts from two of my favorite performers - Owl City and Lady Gaga.

Owl City was in Indianapolis on Sunday and I was soooo happy to be able to go. I spent the evening with my friend Natalie, her exchange student Mia and two of her friends. Despite being pretty sick, Adam was all kinds of awesome. One thing I really enjoyed about the concert was the audience; it seemed like everyone there knew the words to all of his songs and proudly sang along. I love that about his music.

Another great thing about the concert was one of his opening acts: LIGHTS. Oh. My. God. How come it's taken me so long to discover her music? I downloaded almost all of her songs off iTunes on Monday and have been listening to it sooo much.

I haven't been listening to her solely though. Another musical obsession is Lady Gaga. Way back when the tickets for her show went on sale, I liked what I had heard from her, but really didn't know much about her and her music other than she dressed rather bizarrely. Since then though I have downloaded all her stuff on iTunes as well and love just about everything she has done. I find her weirdness fascinating - I don't ever know quite what to expect from her.

Her concert was such a great experience. My friend Amy went with me and we had the best seats! Like the first/secondish row on the left side of the stage. Lady Gaga's show was such a production and it was so fun to be in the middle of the crazy crowd that was so into her music and having a blast. It was a great night for people watching - a ton of people went to the extremes with their outfits. It would have been a perfect night except for the near-toxic levels of dry ice fumes rolling off the stage right at the level of my head. Yuck!

One thing I really admire about Lady Gaga is her self confidence in doing whatever the heck she wants. I can't imagine being able to withstand all the awful and horrible things that are said about her. I wish I was more like her in this regard. My worries about what people think of me and my actions sometimes feels nearly as suffocating as all that damn dry ice.

I'm kind of bummed that both concerts are over. Now what do I have to look forward to?

In a medical update, I had to go in for an MRI on Monday. The experience itself wasn't that bad; I'll have to come back and post about whether I can say the same thing about the results. I should have some kind of news about it Monday when I have another pain management appointment.

So far I've been feeling a bit better with the new medications, but I am so not happy about how much the new prescriptions are costing me. Not sure what I can do about it, but hopefully something. The whole medical money situation - from prescriptions, doctors' appointments, X-rays & MRIs and wheelchair repairs - is depressing as hell. I hate that a really stupid phase of my life is costing me so much. And it will likely to continue along the same path.

And now, for the obligatory quilt photo, is a picture of part of the disappearing nine-patch quilt top that I made at quilt camp. I'm really looking forward to finishing this, but I need to find a fabric for the back of it. It will end up being a lap size quilt.

You might think ...

... That my lack of posts indicate my lack of quilt- and craftiness lately. Definitely not true! I've been working on all kinds of projects (lots of knitting, especially.

You also might think that after spending the entire weekend at quilt camp that I'd be ready to take a quilting break. Not true either! There's just something about spending a weekend at camp that invigorates my creativity and urge to do more and more.

I am really happy with what I was able to do during my time. While it's not usually my style to be really organized and know exactly what I will do during quilt camp weekends, this time I made it easy on myself. UFOs ONLY! (My secret title was UFO No Mo' - just a tad different from their '60s theme). So challenging to only bring those items, especially when there are like 70 other quilters around with piles of fabric, new patterns and fresh projects. By packing strategically though, it really helped me focus. I only brought supplies needed for already started projects. No extra fabric whatsoever. That was tough! (Although a heck of lot easier to pack.)

My tally during the weekend:
- finished the machine quilting on this quilt. (This photo was taken at a previous weekend at quilt camp!) I was able to get the binding cut and sewn on. Working on hand stitching it to the back now. Yay!

- Was able to sew together version No. 2 of the quilt I made as part of the Old Red Barn Co. quilt-a-long in July. (I just went on a search to find a post about the first top and realized I've never posted about it. Great blogging there, Christy!)

Anyway, back when I decided to do the quilt-a-long, I wanted to use my jelly roll in the Charisma line.



I wanted the fabric to go a long way though, so I added some other fabrics that I found in my stash and a few that I got at Joann's. That, plus I like using a variety of sources and usually prefer to not use fabrics all from the same line. I'm also usually too cheap to buy "designer" fabrics! This gave me enough strips to make two lap-size tops with mostly the same fabrics, but with different color placement. I have two different fabrics for the backs of them and think I will piece the backs to use both kinds on each.

- And finished the top of the disappearing nine-patch that I am making with the four charm packs I bought a while back.



Go me! I hope to download some of the photos I took later this week.

In the meantime, however, I'm joining lots of other quilt bloggers and am going to pretend that I will do a Sunday Stash post every week. The stash isn't the problem at all, it's the me remembering/getting around to do the posts!

This is waiting for the "perfect" pattern. I adore these patterns and colors!

It's a Hoffman Bali Pops in Kiwiberry.



I also, ahem, added a teeny tiny little bit to my stash this weekend. More details on this later. :D

Random list of update-type stuff

- They performed an autopsy on Shiloh and discovered she had a heart condition. The vet said she probably didn't suffer or anything, so that is good to hear. Daisy is really missing Shiloh though, so they put her on doggie Prozac. I hope she is doing better soon.

- It was part 3 of my dental adventure today, during which I got my permanent crown put on. It wasn't too bad of an experience - definitely less disturbing than getting the temporary one and way less traumatic of the root canal, during which the sedative did NOT work. Yes, you read that right, I was totally alert throughout the whole damn thing. I signed up for dental insurance for next year, so I hope I can go back on the dental offensive rather than defensive.

- Yesterday was my first appointment at the pain management clinic. I was worried about how it was going to go. Luckily for me, the doctor I saw seemed to be very understanding, nice and funny. She wants me to get another EMG on my legs, which is a test where they put pins in your legs to study how the nerves are functioning. I had one while I lived in Texas shortly after the back surgery, and to tell you the truth, it kind of sucked. The doctor wants to compare the old results to the new ones to get a sense of where I'm at and if there is improvement with the nerve restoration. She also gave me a bit stronger of a painkiller to try for the next month. Today has been completely horrible pain-wise though, so I really hope that's not a foreboding sign of things to come. I spent most of the morning at work crying in my office because the pain just wouldn't quit. I hope it's just a bad day. I don't think I can deal with that.

And now that all the crappy stuff is out of the way ...

- I'm going to quilt camp next month! I am so, so excited. I have no idea what I am going to work on, since I am trying hard to get some UFOs finished for the Joy in the New Year Challenge over on Jacquie's blog. I've entered 5 UFOs. I don't know if that is possible for me to finish, but I'm going to try!

- My first finish is the daisy wallhanging I made on commission for a friend of mine in Chicago. I am so happy with how it turned out! I got a lot of applique practice and also did some machine stippling. That was a first, because I've struggled getting the stippling to not look pointy or uneven. It definitely gave me a bit of confidence for my next project. Here are a few photos:

Shiloh

My super-sweet beagle Shiloh died yesterday. She's been living in Texas with my husband, so I don't get to see much of her or my other dog Daisy. I still love those dogs like crazy though and miss them a lot. We're not sure yet why she died, but they are doing an autopsy to find out. They think it may have been heart-related.

Shiloh cracked me up because she would get so excited that it seemed like her tail was wagging her! Her entire back end would get in on the action when she was happy. She loved playing with Daisy, especially chasing each other around the house. Shiloh also loved her treats and would always chomp hers down right away. Daisy would always want to save hers, but that strategy didn't work too well with Shiloh around.

Daisy and Shiloh were best friends, and it sounds like Daisy is really missing her. I know I will.

Reason 4875 why my life sucks

Ha. Kind of kidding about the title, but not completely. I'm spending my day tomorrow getting a root canal, hooray! In good news, however, I am going to a sedation dentist, who is giving me something that will hopefully knock me out so I am not aware of what my mouth is undergoing.

Back when I was getting my wisdom teeth removed, (which were impacted, which made the process even more fun) they put me under. For some reason or another, it didn't completely work and I woke up before they were done. It was pretty creepy to be awake during mouth surgery. And not something I especially want to re-enact. I am going to take my iPhone though, and if nothing else, hope to drone out the dental sounds with music, particularly my current obsession, Owl City. The awesome Adam Young (Owl City himself) has even written a song called "Dental Care." How can you not love a musical artist that can write a cool tune about going to the dentist? Exactly!

In craft news, I've been working on a daisy applique quilt that a friend of mine asked (and is paying!) me to make. I just finished all the blocks and now am trying to figure out what fabric to use for the sashing and borders. It's fun to try out new techniques.

I've been slacking on photos (or downloading them at least) since my card reader stopped working. Here are the flower pieces before they were stitched on the background. I love the colors!



And my other current obsession?









I wish it would stay autumn forever!

Hi. My name is Christy and I'm a fabriholic.

I'm going to Joann Fabrics in less than an hour.

I need a plan.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have plenty of fabric. And thread. And supplies. But that doesn't make it any easier when they have a big sale with lots of coupons. Although heaven knows Joann's makes their coupon periods challenging by letting people only use them on regular price merchandise. And then they put just about everything in the store on sale for a smaller percentage than the coupons are for. Oy.

I'm in the middle of about 15 projects, but that doesn't keep me from brainstorming ideas for my next quilts and crafts. I don't know if it's from a lack of sleep/too much sleep/too much pain medicine, but I am feeling so productive today! If only I could work as fast as I think I can.

Wish me luck!

A new look

I've decided to change my blog background. I'm not sure yet if I like it, but I've been wanting to give it a bit of a facelift for a while. I'm sure it will grow on me!

It was a busy weekend ... I've been working on a baby quilt for a friend who is expecting a baby ... very soon! So it's been a good thing I got so much accomplished. Now all I have to do is finish hand sewing the binding on and then clip strings. Then the big decision - do I wash it or not? That's a tough one; both options have their positives. What do you normally do for quilts? Or if you're not a quilter, would you prefer to get a more crisp-looking quilt or one that's kind of wrinkly and soft-looking?

Anyway, I've just spent over an hour messing with the blog design. I better get back sewing!

Middle-age angst

I've been in a bit of a funk lately ... it seems as if it's not one thing it's another. I've also hit a bit of a stage where I'm having a blog identity crisis - is this solely a craft/quilt blog or a life blog, where posts touch on the little life I have outside of quilting/crafting? I just have an urge to post more than just crafty goodness, so feel free to skip the verbiage if you wish!

Anyway, I'm crabby as hell. So many things are such a mess lately! I've been without my wheelchair of choice for over a month after a treacherous ride on the short bus. (And yes, I have enough wheelchairs from which to choose.) Thankfully (finally!), the repair guy is coming to the apartment tomorrow to make the extensive repairs it needs. I can't begin to explain how much I am looking forward to getting my regular wheels back. I can't wait to be back on a more comfortable seat (although after 12 hours, anything is uncomfortable) and no longer fear a dead battery while rolling amok on campus. I am crabby, however, at the thought of having to pay for repairs.

Another crab-inducing issue is the leaky window in my apartment, which spurred a potential move to another apartment. This idea was quickly abandoned after I realized the replacement apartment wasn't Christy-accessible. The idea wasn't abandoned soon enough though, because my mom and I packed up a good portion of my stuff and started moving it across the parking lot. Now my old apartment is full of storage tubs and stacks of stuff while we reorganize everything. Good fun. And it still leaks, although I am now more hopeful than I was before about it getting repaired before the first snowfall. The good part of the story is that as part of the non-move, I've decided to get rid of a bunch of stuff - so much so that I have been able to get rid of the rack of clothes in my living room. Success!

I also haven't been feeling that great, and have a regularly scheduled appointment w/ my doctor on Thursday. I am weighing my options and whether or not I want to seek a referral to see some sort of specialist that can help with the pain issues. I'd also like a decisive answer on what in the heck is up with the weird dark spots on my feet. Not sure if they really hurt or not, but they're not pretty.

Don't get me wrong, life isn't all crap, it's just been a couple of tough weeks. There are some definite bright spots that I look forward to blogging about when I'm not as grumpy, including one of my life's new loves ... Buster!

Meet Buster, my new and lovely sewing machine. It's a gift from my Sweet Baboo (totally stole that from Peanuts - and don't worry, I don't actually call him that) and it's damn awesome so far. The best part of all? You don't need to use a foot pedal to operate it! Yes, you heard me right, no more scorched thighs from holding the foot pedal between my legs when I sew. It's named after Buster Bluth, one of my favorite "Arrested Development" characters. One of his favorite phrases was "hey brother" so it seemed like a good name for a Brother machine.



Plus, here's a teaser of the fabric I am using for one of my WIP. I love, love, love this line of fabrics. I can't wait until my apartment is organized again and I have time to sew and not feel obligated to sort through magazines!

Another finish

If I was one of those people that purposely spelled words wrong just to make them all start with the same letter, I might have titled this Krazy Kansas Kwilt. I am so NOT one of those people though, so hence the lame (but correctly spelled title).

This was another quilt I made for a friend. She is really into the University of Kansas and dogs, so I combined the two in a wonky log cabin pattern. I really enjoyed making this quilt since it was so random, but it took a really, really long time to make the blocks. Maybe my strips were too thin? Either way, it was nice to not stress about having a perfect 1/4" seam on everything.

The wavy lines I machine quilted turned out really good, I thought. They made the quilt significantly wrinkly but also were pretty easy to do.

Here are a couple pictures. (sorry, the photos always suck!)