Pumpkin Hat Nation

In honor of the holiday, photographic proof of my recent efforts. My stoop is a veritable patch!

I haven't yet mastered the hat sample self-portrait, but I'm working on it.

Happy day to all you 'weeners out there! :) When you emerge from your insulin comas, don't forget to come back tomorrow for Official OysterGirl Webstore Launch Day!

Five minute weekend

Where did the past three days go? Wasn't it just Thursday? Good thing I now have a camera to keep track of what I'm doing and where I've been.

Friday night, Liz and Stefani had some folks over for an early All Hallows' Eve party. The refreshments were delightful! My favorite was the Cemetery (Brownies) Cake. That's green coconut standing in for grass. Awesome!



In honor of the festivities, Liz busted out the homedone Topsy Tail. Holla!

Guests were encouraged to attend in their holiday finery, including Halloween turtlenecks, vests, sweaters and headwear. Karla won the doorprize for this delightful ensemble. I think it was the Velour skirt that pushed her over the top. I wish I had a photo of the prize itself--a painting of clown faces that can be hung with equal success in any direction (including diagonally!)

The next day, Katie brought me to the airport to catch the first of two flights that would bring me to New York for Brett and Caren's wedding. I changed planes in Charlotte, which had been a site of misfortune for me on my previous trip back East in August--tarmac delays in Nashville combined with an unusually short layover forced a sprint through Charlotte's surprisingly large airport. Fortunately, this time Charlotte proved much more hospitable. I even had time to admire the charming rockers sprinkled intermittently throughout. I snapped this shot as I rode past on a moving sidewalk.

My flight from Charlotte arrived at LaGuardia without a hitch, my luggage came quickly and I had no problem getting my rental car. Sadly, it then took me HALF AN HOUR to exit LaGuardia onto the Grand Central Parkway. Worst. Airport. Signage. EVER. After I return the car tomorrow, I am seriously never driving in Queens again.

The wedding was this morning, and it was beautiful! The weather wasn't warm, but was sunny enough for the ceremony to proceed outside. Here is Maid-of-Honor Liz:

Brett, happily awaiting his bride:

Caren was escorted down the aisle by her grandfather:

A lovely view, a lovely couple, a lovely day! Mazel tov, Mr. & Mrs. W!

Back home tomorrow--four more days until the big store launch!

Somewhere, over the rain . . .

. . . and that somewhere would be right here in Music City, U.S.A. Today was the third gloomy day in a row, and the first Wednesday this fall that I haven't been able to take my Wednesday morning kiddos out on the playground during my time with them--boo!

The overwhelmingly most popular item in the OysterGirl webstore has been those baby pumpkin hats. So far I have made six, and have three in inventory. But the season for squash-related headwear is coming swiftly to a close, and so I've been working on designing some new items with an eye towards upcoming holidays. Yesterday I posted a demo picture of a child-size elf hat (you know, for Christmas), and today, I present a preview of the baby version:

And if Christmas is right around the corner, then Valentine's Day must be just up the road a piece. For which I've been working on the heart scarf . . .

. . . with coordinating hat in sizes for kids (yes I realize that it's too big for the dolly)

. . . and grownups-ish.

Any ideas you have for further holiday- or otherwise seasonal-related items are extremely welcome! Please leave a comment or e-mail me at oystergirl [at] bellsouth [dot] net.

Long-awaited rain in the 'Ville

I don't know whether or not you've heard, but we've been having a fairly significant drought here in Tennessee. Or at least, we had been, until the past few days. Apparently, Mother Nature has decided to refill our reservoirs in the matter of five or so days. Dee-lightful.

Our week of wetness kicked off last Thursday, when we had a tornado watch and thunderstorm warnings. Though I don't think we actually had any tornadic activity touch down in the area, we had some really strong winds. When I drove to and from my Thursday babysitting job, I saw oodles yards strewn with fallen branches. And then when I returned home, I noticed this slight aberration in my own backyard:





Yeah, so apparently I'm not super-observant when leaving my house before coffee. Perhaps I oughtn't be driving a car. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, I feel fortunate that this tree didn't actually fall *on* anything, and I have some friends with chainsaws who have offered to help. Looks like I should be good on firewood for a while.

I bought a digital camera from another Nashvillian on eBay, so rather than having him ship it, I just went over and picked it up (about 10 minutes away). Hence my much-anticipated return to blogging! I have been meaning to get back into writing here, and several folks have actually requested that I do (for which I am extremely grateful), but I was having a hard time getting started without having illustrations to add veracity to my wild tales. That, and I'm just unfocused.

But I've been knitting up a storm, and as soon as the storming outside lets up, I'll be out in the late-day sun trying to capture that ideal dappled sunlight for some of my projects. I just happened into the perfect lighting by accident my first time out, and discovered after the fact that not all daylight is created equal. This is hardly news to you experienced photographers, but in this aspect of running oystergirlknits.com (as well as so many others), I am a complete novice.

Here is one of my accidental photographic masterpieces:



Just look at that . . . doesn't it make you feel like you're looking at an LL Bean catalog or something? Well, as I say, that was an accident. I had tried to take some others with the camera that Katie and Scott very generously loaned me, but they didn't quite work out as I'd hoped. Here's one for you to see by comparison:



Yes, it's an elf hat. You know, for Christmas.

Just haven't been able to catch that perfect lighting again . . . but now that I have a camera of my very own, I'm determined to persevere.

I did get a couple of photos tonight of a prototype in action--the very first OysterGirl doggy sweater. This is Eli, our Bible study mascot and just about the cutest canine you ever did see. His mama, Lydia, is a big Ole Miss fan.





Well, I guess that's it for tonight! I really am hoping to update the blog more frequently now that I have a camera. My friend Adrian does a great job of tying in her blog with her photography business, and I'll be trying to emulate what she's done. By which I mean copy her. By which I mean steal her ideas.

Thanks for reading! T-minus nine days until the official launch of the OysterGirlKnits.com webstore!

22 days and counting . . .

The official launch date of the OysterGirl store is November 1, but there are already some items up for sale! Head on over and check them out (click on the logo to go to the store):




Lots of stuff to report about what's been going on during the (gasp!) THREE MONTHS since I last posted. Once the store is up and running, I'll be making a point to post more regularly again. Please keep checking back . . . I promise that I'll be gettin' back on the blog horse soon!