look at the puppy!!!

its gonna be that kind of day. tgif. enjoy your weekend and get yo knit on!!!

It's Beginning to Smell Like Fall!

I give you....terrible pictures of me just after waking up.  AND CHOCOLATE CHIP PUMPKIN PANCAKES!!!  We ate the pancakes too fast so we couldn't snap a picture, but they were delicious!

You Say Autumn, I Say, Pretty Please!

Yup, another post.  And yes, so soon after the last!  What has gotten into us?

Usually, in LA, our "signs" of fall are
celebrities dressing more cozy, as in this photo
from www.collegefashion.net/

Well, for me, it is the fact that the weather in LA is finally starting to turn to a more "fall" like season.  We have been battling triple-digit heat for too long over here and I am ready for things to cool down.  Seriously, you know it has been hot when you check the forecast, it says 80 degrees, and you say, "YES!  I'm wearing a sweater today!"

Today, however, is overcast, slightly drizzly,  and a cool 71 degrees (yes, I know what that sounds like to my friends back east and in Seattle) and I am ready to bust out my leg-warmers and some comfy food.  Add to that, my dear Marmie is on a plane, as I type, making her way to the west coast.  She will be here for a full 8 days but I only get her for the weekends.  Can you imagine a better fall day than snuggling up all cozy with your mom, watching chick flicks, drinking hot drinks, and knitting??  I can't!

I'm shooting for more of a
"quaint New England town" feel

So for tomorrow, I have planned us a delicious breakfast.  In fact, I am about to throw on my favorite Salmagundi fall hat and get the final ingredients.  The meal?  Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Pancakes.  That's right.  You heard me.  I decided to not just mush up my pumpkin puree with my box of Bisquik and actually find a recipe.  I stumbled upon this blog A Cozy Kitchen and she not only tells you why chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes are amazing, she gives a pretty simply but delicious-sounding recipe.

So, cheers to all of you who have been blessed with the appropriate weather.  I am finally joining you and will post pictures tomorrow!

what howe girls do

so howe girls do stuff is supposed to be about what we do. which can be anything. so one would assume that if there are no posts, howe girls do jack shit. well this simply just isn't true. howe girls do procrastination very, very well. so, without further ado, i present to you what this howe girl did, in picture form...

baked cookies

knit a wonky glove...

...and took it apart

hung out in brooklyn

spent a day hiking

hung w einstein

pissed off a cat enough to do this

was a baller and got flowers

made hipster eggs

saw jack white and his creepy band of zombie ladies

watched the nats win

made a new best friend

stalked adorable children's authors

was jealous of children screaming for coffee in italian

met a baby 

turned my friend into a model

surprised momma w balloons

made an american flag cake...

...for captain america

well there you have it. a snap shot of what this howe girl has been doing. next time i will hopefully have an entire blog post w words instead of just pictures. but lets face it. why do today what i can do tomorrow???

I LOVE YARN!

Today is I love yarn day.  To celebrate...I'm posting a knitting project and sharing a Yarn book with you.

First, the yarn book.  Extra Yarn is a children's book written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Jon Klassen.  In the book, Anabelle finds a box of yarn and starts knitting.  She realizes, after knitting a sweater, that she has extra yarn so she knits a sweater for her dog.  Extra yarn....sweaters for the neighbors, then the houses, the trees, the trucks, etc.  All is well until an evil archduke wants to take her box of magical yarn.  I love this book so much, we put some characters from the book in my classroom this year.  Marmie loves this book so much, she said she is giving a copy to everyone she knits something for.  (Lucky folks!)

And now, my knitting.  There has been a serious hiatus from Howe Girls Do Stuff but we have been doing lots.  Marmie and JJ ran in a Dirty Girl run a few weeks back.  JJ is working on a big Christmas order for a friend...lots of scarves and mitts, and I've been working on my project, the Love Robot. 

The beginning, using yarn I inherited when a friend's
mother passed away a few years ago

Many moons ago my friend Brandon asked me to knit him a robot and I decided back in March to get started.  Then, Brandon and his fiance announced they had set a date so my toy robot was about to become the BEST WEDDING GIFT ever.  The wedding was this past week, on Thursday (10-11-12) and in San Diego, not too far from me.  However, with a crazy back to school and travel schedule I was way behind on the little Love Robot.  So, enter two evenings of knitting until 2 am and voila!  A robot was created.  I had a very tiring week but it was so worth it! 

I delivered him to their wedding and I think they like him.  It also helped that the best man wrote a children's book for them in which the two main characters (the best man and the groom) are a monkey-robot and a clown. Best man then asked why I hadn't knitted him a robot...oops!  Now...to find a pattern for a monkey-robot...this should be a good one!

Deflated, waiting for love

Trying out his new-found Love on NJP

Ready to love Brandon and Elisabeth!

i got 99 problems...but my sis aint one

this is my favorite time of year, and not because i sweat just looking out the window, and nothing is hotter than a sweaty chick in sweatpants. oh no. summer is when meg and i do our annual sisters weekend in NYC!! this year started a bit early after i ventured up to boston super duper early thursday am. some might think i did this just to see meg's smiley little face. some would be correct. but i had an ulterior motive. located in the lovely neighborhood of cambridge, ma is an adorable little crafting store, Gather Here. the first and third thursday of every month, Gather Here invites crafters to bring their piece work (thanks mom) and a pint to the shop to hang out and craft for an evening of Pints and Purls!

i am obviously easily entertained

after the obligatory visit to Salmagundi for a movie montage, we were off to gather here! meg brought her robot, which she has been working on for 3 years now, and i brought an idea. at the moment i'm still working on the million cowl and glove order, but decided i would prefer something quick and easy. as luck would have it, a dear friend of mine had requested a personalized beer coozie. game set. when i left DC i knew she asked for blue and yellow, but for some reason only brought blue with me. thank god we were in a knitting store. so while i sat and tried to remember how much to cast on, meg set off to find me some yellow yarn. when she returned with her spoils, i helplessly pointed out that the hank was beautiful, but needed to be wound. now meg and i have watched mom do this for years. we have watched our nephews wind balls of yarn. we have watched our mom wind balls of yarn after her sixth martini. and yet we had no idea what to do. however, once we found someone to show us, it was easy as pie. (is that a thing? i'm confused).

oh hey, i have a beer.

after way too many drinks that night, we woke up and hopped on a bus bound for new york. i would like to stop for just one second to mention how amazing of a sister i am. my normal sisters weekend trip, from dc to nyc, takes around three and a half hours each way. this year, i travelled eight hours to boston, driving right past nyc while crying a little bit inside. then i turned around and took another four hour trip JUST SO I COULD RIDE THE BUS WITH MY SISTER. you would think she would appreciate that shit. nope. she took the window seat. she fell asleep on me. she got to ignore the creepy couple sitting across from me making out the entire drive. silver lining? she turns 50 first.
back to new york. every year we have the same basic plan: go to the met to see the fashion exhibit and get dinner at philip marie. those are the only two requirements, and they can happen whenever. and since we had soooo much more time than our usual saturday/sunday trip, we decided to take advantage of it.

met

we woke up bright and early saturday morning and headed over to see Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at the met. now i must say, this was not my favorite exhibit. the met has put on display some of these two women's most beautiful pieces, and yet the entire time i kept wondering where inspiration stops and straight up copying begins? maybe i'm the only one. i also think that coming off the heels of last year's Savage Beauty exhibit, which featured the amazing alexander mcqueen and was impossible to walk through due to the crowds, they were looking for something a bit more low key.
to round out our NYC experience, we brunched, went to a comedy club and i laughed while meg got hit on by a NYU student who could have been her son. (oh snap!)
all in all, it was a great sister weekend, one that will be replicated this weekend when i head to boston as her plus one at the wedding of a very dear friend who will hopefully have a top shelf open bar.
below are some random pics from the weekend. meg accepts all the blame for their crappy-ness as i lost my camera for the millionth time on my last visit to LA. i will, however, accept any accolades they may deserve. 

this is the bruise meg gave me. but she wouldn't hit me if she didn't love me. right?!?!

i wanted to swim.
















there's some scene in when harry met sally that this arc thing is in. i'm not really sure as i think meg ryan is stupid. but meg howe loves it, so i took a pic.

 on our way to dinner.

this was in boston. i figure nikolas wanted a buddy shot at 1am with a drunk chick. who doesn't?!

this was the cause of the drunken buddy shot. woo wha? from Trina's Star Lite Lounge

i need to stop w the drunken buddy shots. at least meg was a willing participant.

Get Yer Knit On!

I have two knitting events for all you knitters out there.  One is here in Cambridge, MA and the other is back in LA.

Pints N Purls
Pints N Purls happens every other Thursday at gather here on Broadway St. in Cambridge, MA.  What is it exactly?  Well, you bring your knitting, a beer, and you join other folks in drinkin' and knittin'.  Two Howe girls will be making a guest appearance there next Thursday.


Stitch N Pitch
This Friday, June 13, the Dodgers are hosting a Stitch N Pitch Night. (Read more here as well.)  Basically, you buy a baseball ticket to the Dodgers/Padres game this Friday, bring yarn and knitting needles, try and make something.  You don't have to know how to knit, you just have to look like you are trying.  If you aren't sure what to make, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier have been on the DL and could use something cozy to make them feel better. There is word they may be back tomorrow to play but they could still use some stitched up love!