Belated Birthday Post

My 26th birthday was quite a doozy!
My husbear, who is sweet, but never good with the whole gift giving thing, bought me a top of the line mac book pro!  My old laptop has been dying slowly for the past year, and I've taken to playing games of minesweeper in between the loading of pages.  This thing is fast.  Very fast.  And it's my first mac product ever.
On sunday, We went to Quarry Park with two of our friends and our puppy, hiked to the nature preserve, and went off the beaten trail to hike around the woods for a few hours.  That was awesome.  I took pictures until Teddy got snow all over the camera, at which point I put it away so it would hopefully dry in peace.
On the way home we picked up some firewood from some really nice folks that live near us, and after some nourishment, Andy assembled the fire pit we got for Christmas.  It was bigger than we thought it would be, and after setting it up on the shoveled out patio, had a nice large fire :D  My dad even came over, and we roasted hotdogs and made s'mores.  It was awesome.
Tuesday, for my actual birthday, we did the traditional Mexican Village (steak fajitas, heck yes!) family meal, only without my mom or youngest brother, because they were, and still are, down at my Grandma's place helping her clean up the neighborhood after a tornado ripped through.  Her house wasn't hit directly, but there was damage, and her RV was totaled.  At least she was okay.  She wasn't even at home at the time.
I'll add pictures later, when I have time to upload and organize them.  I'm feeling lazy right now :P

Get Out! (and Knit)

I had another assignment a bit back that I think is pretty spiffy.  I had to incorporate a few different elements for the teacher, and it all came together well.  I had to create something in response to this group called Futurefarmers.  They go out and do stuff in communities.  They are a collective based in San Francisco, CA that works with tons of stuff.  It had to have at least one of these elements: performance, collaborative, or temporary installation.  I chose performance.  The teach added a couple more parameters to this.  Because of the earthquake and fire in 1906 in San Francisco, I had to spend at least $19.06 (bonus if you can spend exactly that, which I did!  Thank you Bonnie) and I had to use wood or the woodshop.  It also could NOT be in the art building.
I went out and made my own double pointed knitting needles, which went better than I could have hoped for.  I might make my own again sometime when I don't need a specific size. 

I then bought some spiffy yarn and went out to Quarry Park and knitted bracelets while I hiked and gave them away as I made them.

It was a bit disorienting, but worth it.  I couldn't work too fast because of the hiking and cold, but it was so fun.

Some were scared when I approached them and tried to give them a free bracelet, some were excited.  It was really nifty to just pop in on people in a place where you don't run into many, and give them something handmade for free.  People just don't expect it at all.   I plan on doing it more, after the busy semester is finished.

Go there sometime.  You definitely will enjoy the scenery, and you might just get something extra ;)