Things I love and hate, simultaneously, at the same time, concurrently.

Perhaps it shall become an early January tradition to write about things I both love and hate. I wrote about it last January, here.

Nearly a year has passed, and I have so many more things to love and hate that it's time for a new installment.

So, if you'll permit me, it's time for the annual

Things I love and Hate, Simultaneously, At the Same Time, Concurrently List

1. Photoshop

Photoshop, I love you. You let me get rid of pieces of lint on a sweater whose picture is slated for publication.

Photoshop, I hate you. You suck all of my non-existent time.

Photoshop, I love you. You make the world a prettier place.

Photoshop, I hate you. You give us complexes about our cellulite and upper arm flab. You create freaks of nature with your cloning and your head swaps and your layer masks. You don't play fair.

But I still love you.

And I also kind of hate you. Both. At the same time.

2. Any of the TV shows about hoarding.

Train wreck is the only way to describe these. So utterly repulsive and yet, fascinating.

When I see it, my mind is filled with questions. Mostly questions like,

How?

HOW?

HOW????

And occasionally,

WHAT?

As a person who naturally tends to collect and accumulate things, this assuages my deepest fears about myself. When I see it, I know for sure that I am not a hoarder. And that makes me feel better for about 43 seconds.

My mind then returns to

HOW????

And, For the love of God, what is going on?

Have you seen the episode with the person whose home was filled with rats?

I am not making this up.

I hate it, because it makes me feel nauseated.

I love it, because it makes me feel less bad about the eleven skeins of yarn I'm currently "storing" on top of my bedroom dresser.

I hate it, because I feel bad for the people and their families who are living this way.

And yet, it puts my disorganized entry closet into perspective.

3. Grapefruit juice

I hate the taste of it.

But I can't stop drinking it.

I drink it every day.

Just a little, because I hate the taste, see?

It's not some health kick or some belief that there are magical grapefruit properties.

I can't explain it.

What is it, grapefruit? How can I hate your taste and feel compelled to drink you every day?

Think of the ills I could cure in the world if I could bottle the, "I hate this thing that is good for me, but I feel compelled to do it regularly" phenomenon.

The world would be gingivitis free, I can promise you that.

4. Pink velvet pants

I own pants a lot like these. Except they don't have an elastic waist.

They're basically pink velvet stretch jeans.

And they're hideous. I bought them at Gap on super amazing clearance.

And they're comfortable.

And they make me look ridiculous.

And I don't care.

And I used to wear them all the time.

And one of my teaching colleagues used to make fun of me all the time.

I think it was because of the pants.

They're now covered in paint and held up with a yarn belt that I made by cutting open a skein of yarn and threading 30 strands through the belt loop. (Kieran on Lindon, if you must know.)

And I hate them. And love them. Both. Simultaneously.

5. Post It Notes

I will only buy this kind -- the super sticky recycled variety. Not that brand loyalty is one of my best consumer traits or anything.

I love them because they are infinitely useful.

I hate them because they are infinitely losable.

One of my favorite things to do with these is clean my computer keyboard. After I turn the keyboard over and shake and bang all of the crumbs out, I take the sticky end of one of these babies and run it between the keys. It is extremely satisfying and repulsive. You have no idea how much food, lint, and hair is in your keyboard. Try it.

I hate them because once I started cleaning my keyboard, I can't stop, and soon I've used half a pad of sticky notes getting the garbage out from between the keys.

It's an excellent way to feel productive while on the telephone.

It's also an excellent way to procrastinate. Who needs to keep rats from gnawing up the carpet when you can be cleaning in between the keys on your keyboard?*

Who needs to remove the three year old milk cartons from the refrigerator when you can use recycled paper to remove innocuous toast crumbs from the innermost recesses of your typing instrument?**

WHO?

WHO???

So. There you have it. Things I love and hate, simultaneously, at the same time, concurrently.

And that's all I have to say about that.

*Except this: there are no rats in my house.

**And this: I promptly recycle my milk cartons, thank you very much.

christmas in these parts

Christmas is over. I don't feel as though I've fully recovered, even though our (dead as a doornail) tree is down, the lights put away, the gifts stowed throughout the house.

I love Christmas, but it's exhausting to stay up until 1:00 in the morning putting together your daughter's art easel with 5,042 small pieces, only to be awakened by enthusiastic offspring before human o'clock.

I'm normally one of those annoyingly Martha Stewart Christmas people, who's all, "LOOK! I painted my own gift wrap!" and, "I knit you this queen sized afghan!" and, "I handcrafted this wreath out of locally harvested holly berries!"

I don't do it to be annoying. It's honestly fun for me to do these things, most of the time.

But this year was one of the lowest key Christmases we've had. And that's OK. I crafted exactly zero items. And while, yes, my gift wrap had a color scheme, I didn't make the paper myself, and I used stick on bows instead of elaborately styled ribbon.  I didn't send cards. I didn't finish my one Christmas knitting project.

Let's see, what else?

I didn't have any ubiquitous blog posts about my holiday home decor. (But those are so fun to read, aren't they?) In fact, I barely posted at all.

I didn't get up early on Christmas to make my traditional coffee cake. (I did, however, make Creme Brulee French Toast.) (Keep in mind: I don't like French toast. This was for the enjoyment of others.)

I finished shopping on December 23rd.

And you know what? It was all OK. I let it go. We had a lovely Christmas.

I did go to one holiday party. And it was at the studio.

The studio tree is like the ugly Christmas sweater of Christmas trees. It's garish. Tacky. And amusing. Almost all of our ornaments were bought at a thrift store, and they are of the goggly-eyes-glued-on-a-walnut variety. (You can see more of them here.) We do treasure the handmade ornaments that many of you have sent us, though -- they're like old friends coming to visit!

As you can see on our Christmas tree, we ran around the studio, finding random items to include.  Hidden in the branches are about 12 skeins of yarn, a large plush rooster with posable tail feathers, glitter sparkle tree branches, and bibs and bobs of ribbon and other detritus.

There is one thing that the studio knows how to rock, however. And that is food.

We had an epic brunch and cookie feast.

EPIC.

More (holiday?) decor. What is this woman? She is made of molded paper and is from the 1960s.

After brunch, we exchanged gifts, hauled out the projector and movie screen, and watched Christmas movies while trying to knit in the semi darkness.

I watched the movie Elf for the 600th time, and it never fails to make me laugh. Get two people together who enjoy that movie, and they will spend a half an hour saying things like, "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"

"Smiling's my favorite!"

"First I traveled through the seven layers of the candy cane forest, past the swirly twirly gumdrops..."

"You're sitting on a throne of LIES!"

Try it. If you're a fan, you know exactly what I mean.

On December 23rd, one of the best parts of Christmas finally made her entrance. She was more than a little tardy to the party. (Try more than two weeks late -- maybe she couldn't find anything to wear?)

One of our awesome team members, Heather, welcomed her first baby into the world.

And, oh heavens. She is precious.

Little Cecilia Scout (after the To Kill a Mockingbird character, perhaps?) weighed 7lbs, 1oz, and I would be happy to take her off her mama's hands for a week or seven.

Look at that one day old face.  She could not be any sweeter or better smelling. (And I have held quite a few babies in my day.)

Who needs Christmas crafts when you can snuggle a new baby?

Here's what I did do this Christmas:

Ate too much. Marveled at how much children grow in a year. Shopped and wrapped and marveled at how fun it is to give presents you think the recipient will enjoy. Listened to 160 hours of Christmas music. Minimum. Marvelous. Attended school holiday programs where children sang loudly and with abandon. Marveled at how it's possible that we shipped nearly 1,000 packages in less than three weeks. Spent a quiet holiday with family eating, visiting, and marveling.

And it was perfect.

end of the year clearance

I've posted some clearance items here for y'all. All of these are instock and ready to ship to you right away. Hop on over before they all disappear!

vote immediately. as in, right now.

a tale of two colors (color, demystified)

Why are there no cookies at my house?

Why has this post not written itself? I asked it to more than a week ago. Why are my posts disobedient?

Why did my horsedogs knock over the Christmas tree?

Why does it get dark at noon?

Who came up with the idea to mix ground meat together with breadcrumbs and eggs, form it into a loaf shape and bake it? Were they burned at the stake?

I suppose I could look up the answers to most of those questions. But I could also be talking to you about colors. And my guess is that you're not really here for my scintillating meatloaf commentary.

(I really do hate it, by the way.)

This is supposed to be part four of my Color, Demystified series. We've already tackled the most difficult color combinations, the complementary pairings of blue and orange, red and green, and purple and yellow.

Let's move on to some analogous color pairings.

Complementary colors are colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. So, red and purple.  Orange and yellow.

And some of my personal favorites: blue and green.

If my experience holds true, this is also one of your favorite color combinations, as some of our best selling colorways use blue and green together.

And really, it's no wonder given that such a large portion of our natural environment is one or both of these colors.

Heck, from space, the earth itself is blue and green.

Here's the good news: with analogous color groupings, there are no rules. Everything looks good together. It really becomes more about the feeling you want to create in your clothes, your home, your knitting, your design work.

On its own, blues are seen as serene, dependable, clean, and restful. At the lighter end of the spectrum, they can be icy. In the midtones (like turquoise), they are energetic and tropical. As blue deepens, it gets more serious.

Men in suits wear navy. Deep blues are conservative, confident, and authoritative.

Green is a neutral color. Look at nature if you don't believe me. Nature puts green with everything.

Which means, guess what? that all blues go with all greens.

You can't do it wrong! How often has someone said that to you?

Like, almost never, right?

Guess what? You cannot do blue and green wrong.

Liberating.

So here are some of my favorite blue and green pairings. Use them, don't use them. You can't do it wrong.

1. Aqua + Bright Green

How adorable are these socks? The pop of color at the heels and toes make them special.

I like the teal and turquoise with the chartreuse and kelly here. What a bold look for an interior space!

The combination of aqua and bright green is energetic. It feels like new growth, like spring, like the tender buds unfurling from the trees against the morning sky.

Here, it's paired with hints of mustard, which is an analogous color to green.

2. Navy + Kelly

Deep blue and bright green is preppy, classic, timeless, and clean. It looks equally good on men and women.

Oh, look. Erin Bradley thinks so too.

This is an interesting take on a nursery. Cool white, deep navy, and pops of aqua and kelly green.

Navy and kelly have enough contrast to make a print (or colorwork) stand out, but not so much that the pairing becomes garish. This color combo would be a safe choice if you're knitting something as a gift.

3. Blue + Green + Brown

I really love mixing blue and green with brown. Like, a lot.

A lot a lot.

A lot a lot a lot.

The bright green scarf is what kicks this outfit up a notch. And the awesome boots and bag are certainly not hurting matters.

The grouping of blue, green, and brown is earthy but elegant, and quietly eye catching. It's not the flashiest combo in the box. But it's one that can fit into almost any context.

4. Olive + Teal

If you're looking for a hipper alternative to navy and kelly, try teal and olive. This combination is all over, oh, hmm, everything right now.

Home decor. Fashion. Event planning.

Olive and teal has a retro feeling that's popular today. It's just enough late 1970s/early 1980s to seem fresh again.

I'm seeing teal and olive paired with grays, which gives it more sophistication.

Another reason this combination is popular is that in its more muted forms, teal and olive have an heirloom, natural feel.

5. Blue + Green + Purple

Purple and blue are also analogous colors, which means that the combination of blue, green, and purple is a natural one.

Any time you add purple to a color combination, you up the wow-factor. Purple is mysterious and intriguing, and I'm in love with what it does to blue and green.

I love violet with teal, lime, and brown.

And oh, how I love magenta with lime and turquoise. And brown. I have said before that I could spend the rest of my life inventing colorways that have blue, green, purple, and brown in them.

I've created a Pinterest board dedicated to blue and green. You don't need an account to see it, so click here. If you want to join Pinterest (which you do, it's super awesome), you can use the contact button in the upper right, leave me your email address, and I'll send you an invite.

Let's recap what we've learned today:

1. There is no wrong way to do blue and green.

2. The person who invented meatloaf should have been burned at the stake. I'm going to google and see if, in fact, they were.

3. Which shades of blue and green you use together is all about the feeling you want to create.

4. Blue and green can be both timeless and trendy.

5. There are still no cookies at my house.

Thank you. And goodnight.