Tasty Vegan inspired meal

In keeping with our new vegan-esque eating regiment, the husband cooked up an old staple!

I first had this surprisingly delicious meal while living in Alaska. One night Cam picked me up from work with this tasty treat waiting for me!

It's acorn squash with rice, but in this case there was the addition of mushrooms and chickpeas. 

You cook up the rice separately on the stove, while the squash has been cut and cleaned and cooks with a bit of butter- inside the oven in a brownie pan. 

When ready, scoop the rice medley into the squash and eat!

The little engine that could...

I made it to the front page of Etsy on Friday. And with every front page comes increased traffic and general knowledge of my shop! I really feel like the little engine that could. I almost gave up on my shop back in January, as sales were down and money for yarn was tight, but I stuck to it, saw it as an investment and was frankly too stubborn to quit before my first year was up. I'm glad I persevered and made new spring inventory, it's starting to pay off. My new twitter account has helped tremendously and probably more than I know at this point... Being one of the new kids on the block, especially on a block with a lot of established knitters, I realized how important it was/is to design and create pieces that will allow me to be my own knitter and to offer something unique to the community, to allow myself to stand out.... It's been a great week and a great month with 18 sales so far! Things are looking good!

New necklaces in the shop!

In a continuation of gearing up for spring, I updated Urban Knitfits with four new necklaces today. A few more are in the works... and will go up soon. IN the meantime check out my necklace section for the new springy colors!

Featured on the etsy blog- TWICE in one day!

I've begun making a few spring inspired pieces for the UrbanKnitfits shop. And today my spicy curry necklace made it into the etsy finds blog! And my Pixie pointed hat is feature on the news from the craft blogosphere blog! So excited!!!! I'll be making more necklaces and such and hope to list them tomorrow, stay tuned.

Nuts 4 Love, Now in Gray!

After my white Nuts 4 Love hat was on the front page at the beginning of February, I had a request to make the hat in reverse colors- white squirrels on a grey background! I sent it off to California today and now it's listed in the shop as a made to order hat!

this is what our lives have become...

This is lunch, no joke. After my mom sent us this book- all about eating better, less processed foods- essentially a vegan diet, we have really stuck to it, with the occasional pizza slip! But I assure you, it's good pizza- from Otto's in portland, me, so tasty and with veggie toppings galore, so it actually feels healthy.

I will say that we were always pretty good eaters, no junk food or soda, but our limited budget did keep us skipping meals and not eating a variety of fruits and fresh veg... the biggest areas of change have been with bread and let's face it weekend pancakes! So unlike most american's this new "diet- as in what you eat, not a fade to get thin" hasn't been a huge challenge, but more like an awakening to being more conscious about the specifics of what we eat.

Anyway, this was our lunch today we each had an enormous salad. We aren't just rabbits, we also eat more rice, quinoa, beans, etc. And to help all of these leafy greens go down we use a healthy ginger dressing. Eating so much veg and fruit really makes you feel more awake, and cleaner.... I'll include some recipes as we go along, but it's been a lot of fun, an adventure if you will!

Go Vote!

My Retro winter Olympics Ski hat is part of the Olympic Etsy voter! the top 5 winners get to be on the front page! Right now I am holding on to 5th place, but would love more votes to solidify my standings! so go vote here! Voting ends on the 25th at 12pm est.

Urban Knitfits- news & updates

New spring items are coming to the shop! like this hipster easter basket pastel explosion- hat!

A cute staple, is this lilac gray seed stitch hat, knit with acrylic yarn- perfect for spring transition!
And the same style hat, but in melon!

Another braided necklace, this one is Spicy curry!

In other news my Retro winter olympics hat is featured on yet another blog! ocweekly as well as being nominated for the winter olympics etsy voter. If u haven't already, here's the link where you can vote for my skier hat! As a result of all this new press, sales have really picked up and now I have quite a few custom orders to fulfill. My goal is to maintain variety with my blog, to share other fun links, items, etc other than urban knitfits all the time, but these days I'm swamped! Hopefully the spring will offer more time to blog about other things in and around portland maine, etc!

dear diary...

I've had this entire week off of work, and its been fantastic!

My etsy sales have been strong and consistent bringing the total to 14 so far for Feb, the biggest month since Urban Knitfits opened in September. Looks like my new twitter presence since January is really paying off! As a result I have some custom orders I am knitting up, as well as some spring pieces to keep the shop current and up to date with the up coming spring season.

We are still looking to move in April now... the search has yielded minimal results with the occasional perfect apt coming along- great location, affordable and an actual upgrade from our current apt- but then- no dogs... so that's been frustrating. And just when I think we can hold out and stay here a few more months, something crazy happens- ie no hot water during my shower, waking up to yelling and the general over all poor insulation of our current abode making every syllable heard. And there comes a time with the age and state of a house- where you feel like you are vacuuming up the deteriorating walls, and when I go to clean, chunks of the baseboard effortlessly chip off onto my sponge....

In the mean time I am focusing on finishing up my knitting orders- and then I will finish my couch redo I started a while back. Fingers crossed it will turn out! To give a little hint- after totaling up the cost of fabric for a slipcover, I am opting for an alternative- painting the couch with fabric paint, could be terrible, but if it is, I have some back up plans. I have the first light coat painted on, and the fabric is not stiff or odd in anyway- except color. Once the next few coats are applied I will stencil or free hand some textile/modern prints over top as seen in the above image. I'm excited. But I have to get the custom knitting completed first before tackling the next step of the couch this weekend! so back to it, I go!

U.K. Give Away!

Enter to win my popular gray slouchy knit hat! This hat has been on the etsy front page and was part of the voter feature on etsy in January.

All you need to do is one of the following- follow my blog, comment below, become a fan on facebook, follow me on twitter.

Participate from now until Feb 25th! The winner will be drawn at random & announced on the 26th. The hat will be made to order with gray alpaca yarn with your specific head measurements! Good luck, and spread the word!

Apparently we celebrate Valentine's day!....

I've never been big on Valentine's day, well maybe when I was kid- handing out valentines at school was always fun, and then one year my sister and I held a VERY fancy tea party for our friends for the occasion. Age 8-10 or so, dress code a must and pretty porcelain tea cups, all my mother's doing- a fun memory. But besides those childhood moments, there are also those awkward teen moments that make the holiday something else entirely. It can be very over rated for sure.

So I'm always surprised when the husband does something to commemorate this "holiday". Like how he came home from whole foods with a crap ton of roses last night! so crazy. He was so proud of himself, and it was very cute. And I'm never one to pass up flowers. And he assured me it was actually not expensive, yadda yadda, which always makes you sound like such a scrooge when you have to hound your husband about how much he spent on you... lol. Thankfully the card that came with it was not sappy or Valentine related, but a picture of tomatoes, speaking to our future goals to grow more of our own food.

I got in the habit of taking pictures of flowers I receive. During boarding school and College I used to receive flowers from my Dad on my birthday, and every year they were documented! Thus the tradition continues.

I caught little dog in the middle of her morning routine- sleeping after breakfast. She let me sleep in this AM as apposed to waking me up at 6 to go out, so I'l let her sleep on the good pillows.
And the second bouquet.

Happy Love Day to you, or just Happy president's weekend, which ever you prefer!

up late and into the morning...

One of those odd nights, when Cam got up to go to the bakery at 2:30 and I can't get back to sleep.. I snuggle with my dog, put pillows on the empty side of the bed, but I'm up my mind racing with my to do list- ie knitting commissions and my future to do list- more artwork and the coming week vacation!

So I killed time and joined the sunrise by looking around on the internet and I wanted to share this website with you- MrToledano.

An artist and photographer who recently completed a project of investigating the modern definition of beauty and its evolution along with technology- plastic surgery. His gallery is very gripping and intriguing as it speaks to Caravaggio and other period inspired imagery... In addition, I really like his America- the gift shop series, which reminded me of Thomas Hirschhorn's work, and I was very moved my his personal documentation of days with my father.

I recommend going to MrToledano main website to look at his other work as well.

Updates, Updates, read all about it!

Well I've been busy this week with many updates to all three of my ETSY shops! I spent my day immersed in Etsy! And here are all the updates!

Love birds- salt and pepper shakers. On grayday.

Rabbit Vintage fur coat. Also on grayday.

Send me away with a smile, silkscreen. On Graydaysprintshop.

Florence Scaffolding, etching. On graydaysprintshop.

Leopard girl, upcycled fingerless gloves. On Urban Knitfits.

Sailor girl in love, upcycled fingerless gloves on Urban Knitfits.

New hats on Urban Knitfits

"The Knit fit" Inspired by U.K.'s logo!
It's like a salty sailor girl beret with an embroidered seagull on it.

The Urban Boy Beanie. Made with Baby Alpaca- soft and cozy and light weight!

The Swiss Miss- pixie hood, custom colors available!

The "cuddle cap" made from a vintage pattern in white eco wool. Perfect for spring weather and to keep ears warm and hair tidy! Has its own vintage buttons. Here's my shop where you can learn more about each piece and for purchasing!

Sofa redo- project for winter!

I have this idea to do over our sofa, and I wanted to share it with my blog audience! You can see our sofa in this picture. I inherited it from my folks. Originally it was all green plaid with three seperate cushions. My mother and I redid it- when I moved to Philly. I sewed a few duvets around the three cushions- after sewing them to each other- in order to make one big cushion. Then she loving made the floral zippered cover for the cushion. This funky couch goes with everything and makes renting a colorful experience when you can't always paint! However, I've been itching lately for many changes in my life and so I am tackeling those that I can address immediately and those that are more in my control...

So here's the plan! I am going to buy grey linen fabric, sew a slip cover for the entire couch and a separate one for the cushion. (this is a big endeavor! for sure and a first) Then I will silkscreen a few areas with some fun floral/vintage/rustic images in black ink and presto! I will leave most of the pillows the same, and might upgrade them individually. I've thought about silkscreening the fabric first... but since this is foreign territory I figured I would have more accurate results once the slip cover is finished... I'll take better before pictures and do a follow up post once it's all done!

Print shop on etsy- now live!

My new etsy shop Gray Day's Print Shop is now up and running with actual listings on it! I plan to continue to add more prints from my portfolio as well as new ones hot off the press.

A winter essential

How, How in the WORLD!?- did I not own slippers!? I lived in Alaska, and some other cold places, and it took coming to Maine, an LL BEAN gift card and these super fuzzy padded guys to keep me warm! so Insane.

Anyway, bought these on sale with our fab gift card from Christmas and it really is amazing how much warmer I am bopping around the house. I have yet to go out in public in my slippers, nor do I plan on it, but I thought a little show and tell on the ol blog would suffice.