Guinness in Wonderland?

On our first day in Dublin we decided to head on over to the Guinness Storehouse. I highly recommend this to anyone visiting Dublin for the first time because it is 1. Fairly easy to find 2. Really fun in a nerdy museum-about-beer way and 3. At the end of your tour you get to have a pint on top of the world!

My favorite part of the Guinness Storehouse was the section on advertising. They had some fun rugby themed adverts as well as whole glass cases filled with different Guinness bottles, glasses, and every sort of trinket you could imagine...including a rather odd book that looked like it was a copy of Alice in Wonderland. Upon further inspection of this propped open book it WAS Alice in Wonderland with (you guessed it) Guinness! So strange and so unexpected this was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

We have the Walrus, Mad Hatter, March Hare and Door Mouse all enjoying a pint on one page (with little pints running around with the oysters) and on the other page the White Knight is having a pint while talking with Alice.

"For Guinness is as Guinness does" I love it! After some research (and by research I mean a 5 minute google search) I have not found out too much information on this mysterious little book. It does look as though there were postcards of Alice in Wonderland+Guinness and also magazine ads. Does anyone out there know anything more about this?

Yarn Bombing

I get easily distracted. There is so much cool stuff out there in the world and with it all at our fingertips 24/7 its no wonder I cant concentrate. I flit from this craft to that. Embroidery to crochet to sewing to baking to...you get the idea. When I found out about Yarn Bombing I was intrigued and delighted. I had recently been on a bit of a street art kick anyway but I am nowhere near brave enough to wield a can of spray paint. But Yarn Bombing? Hmm. That I could maybe handle. What it is: Knit and crochet graffiti that makes the world just a wee bit more snugly but is still totally removable. (That is my definition by the way.) I probably found out about the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit and Crochet Graffiti from a crafty blog. I asked for it for Christmas and it never came. And then it magically showed up in a birthday present!

So inspiring from cover to cover I poured over the book finding more inspiration than I could handle. I was so ready to get out there and DO it! But what? What kind of tags should I make? I am sort of a lone crafter in my parts so there was no 'crew' to back me (or to form as of yet- if you are in the Rochester, MN area and are interested in that let me know...) and I was a bit directionless. So much inspiration and no real plan. Most tags are simply cozies that can be made to fit a plethora of outdoor objects including: trees, sign posts, pipes, fences, handles, etc. I kind of wanted to make something that had some shape to it.

My idea finally came from a band. I get emails from 30 Seconds to Mars as part of their street team Echelon. They just came out with a new album and their new symbol is the "Triad" which is a simple triangle with a horizontal line going through it. The band is promoting the "Triad Global Assault" to try to get this symbol in as many places as possible. They have a flickr page here. I decided that THAT was something I could crochet and put up different places. I stitched up 3 triads pretty quick and then they sat on my desk. They sat there until finally I was leaving for my long awaited trip to Ireland and somewhat on a whim and somewhat inspired by other Yarn Bombing crews that go global I put one of the pieces in my purse.

It didn't happen until the third day of our trip. My friend and I were taking an easy day enjoying a scenic drive on the Dingle peninsula. Well even in such a small area we got lost and ended up circling this one small village about three times. Finally my friend Aimee, who was driving, declared that we were stopping and taking a few minutes to "figure our shit out". The place we stopped was a scenic little beach and it was a beautiful and sunny day so we both enjoyed a chance to stretch our legs, takes some pictures, and hunt for sea shells. It was here on the beach that I decided to leave my first tag. On a chain link fence next to the road at the entrance to this little section of beach I whipped out my triad and tied it to the chain link fence. I then took a step back and took some pictures. It felt awesome. I was so proud of myself for finally going for it! (Yes I am a dork.) Of course I did have to spend the next 30 minutes explaining to Aimee what yarn bombing was and why I decided it was something I needed to do but it was worth it. I didn't label my tag- I am not quite that sophisticated yet- so I don't have any idea if anyone else has seen it or if it is already gone or whatnot but I think that this is only the beginning for me!

On a completely random note: I am sort of in the mood for Sushi. Hmm.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Originally uploaded by Grantasaurus Wrecks

So I was looking for a super cute retro St. Patrick's day picture to add to this post when I stumbled upon this little gem from Grantasaurus Wrecks on flickr. Isn't is just pin-up perfection? So cute. I think if I could have looked a little more like this on my Ireland trip I may have been a bit more "lucky". Hehe.

Anyways....actual trip photos to follow though they are all up on my flickr already. For now I will recap my goals and evaluate...

-Look for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow: There was not enough rain while we were there to get rainbows- but I did see several good locations where leprechauns may have been hiding : )

-Drink more Guinness than I thought was humanly possible: Mk so we did the Guinness storehouse thing and it was cool but that is so not my drink. I found a lovely Irish cider called Bulmers that I became best friends with.

-Watch the rugby Six Nations match between Ireland and Wales in a pub: Ended up watching the Six Nations match between Ireland and Wales in a castle....close enough

-talk with lots of locals: not as many as I would have liked. We spent so much damn time in the car. Best night in Dublin though talking to cutest Irish boy about every topic under the sun. (Message to cute Irish boy- I am pretty sure we are soul mates and if we ever find each other again we should get married.)

-buy lots of tacky souvenirs for friends (and myself): Done and done.

-take lots of pictures with PEOPLE IN THEM (I am notoriously bad at this): OK so there were lots of pictures without people in them but I did get lots of cute shots with my friend. Once again though I am sad I didnt take a picture of cute Irish boy in Dublin. Sigh.

-go with the flow: kind of had to

I will not:

-Make bad choices...: define bad choices

-freak out at my friend while trying to navigate the narrow roads: that happened a bit. Driving is freaking scary over there!

-worry about things I can not change: better than usual but still did that.

Overall an amazing trip. I am sad to be back home and back to the normal everyday life. Now everyone go out and have a pint and celebrate St. Patrick's day properly!

Off to Ireland...

Rainbow Over the Lakes of Killarney
Originally uploaded by Bill Oswald - Tulsa

Recession? What recession? I say 'screw you recession!' I was already wallowing in debt from school. I will not let the fact that I have no money stand between me and LIVING. I have always been the kind of person that says 'Oh I will do that someday. I will go there someday.' Well someday has come. This whole year I am going to sprint head first towards life instead of somehow drifting along with it waiting for special things to happen to me.

My friend and I will be leaving tomorrow for Chicago and then Monday to Ireland!!! We are going to go B&B hopping all around Ireland.

I will:

-Look for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow
-Drink more Guinness than I thought was humanly possible
-Watch the rugby Six Nations match between Ireland and Wales in a pub
-talk with lots of locals
-buy lots of tacky souvenirs for friends (and myself)
-take lots of pictures with PEOPLE IN THEM (I am notoriously bad at this)
-go with the flow

I will not:

-Make bad choices...
-freak out at my friend while trying to navigate the narrow roads
-worry about things I can not change


these are my hopes for this trip... hopefully everything will go semi-according to plan...

Alice in Wonderland

Falta 1 dia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Originally uploaded by alice_in_halloweentown

Um how excited are you for this movie? I am super excited. Enough so that I am hitting the midnight show tonight with some of my friends! Originally my sister REALLY wanted to have a whole party with costumes. The whole nine yards. I talked her out of it only because I didn't think we would have time.

Is anyone else throwing a mad tea party? I will have to see if I can work it into a party for the DVD release or something. Even though we are not attending in full costume tonight we are going for 'whimsical with a dash of wonderland'. I would show you some pictures of some super cute accessories I made for us this evening but... I still have to make them. Hopefully they will be done in time for the movie!!!