Weekend Round-up

WOW what an action-packed weekend -- I feel like I need a weekend from my weekend! :-)
The line launch went well -- as did our after celebratory dinner at Mamma Mexico's!

Things heat up as soon as we begin to sing Happy Birthday with the Mariachi Band for one of my sales people... this signals the manager to bring around the house special...pinapple infused tequilla that is presented to the party directly from the spout (see photo lower right)! Yum!

Saturday I was up early to make cookie dough and dash to brunch and food shopping. Then off to the beach (30SPF & large brimmed hat of course!)with friends. Home again - bake the cookies and dash to Jo's FABULOUS FEMALE FRIENDS party.
What's a FABULOUS FEMALE FRIENDS party you ask? It's a WONDERFUL IDEA!! Jo and her friend Nadette invited their network of female friends to come to a party to meet and network with other fabulous women --- we (the friends) were strongly encouraged to each bring friends along as well. I'd say there were well over 100 ladies there. We interrupted the chatting at two points to introduce ourselves to the room. The cross section of women was amazing! From artists, lawyers, yoga enthusiasts, knitters, women from the UN, casting agents, actresses, film and TV folk, writers, cooks -- you name it! Wow! How FUN to meet such a wonderful and tallented group of women! I can't wait for the next one!! I strongly reccomend this type of party ladies --- we should be having them all over the world! What a fun and wonderful networking and chatting night!

Sunday I got to the mailbox to find a lovely surprise! A cute card and 2 large markers from Cheryl in my FiberRAOK group! A wonderful early birthday gift that will come in handy with some of my chunky knitting ahead! Thanks again Cheryl!
This week I'll be sending out a number of FiberRAOKs. Just packaging them all up! Also packing up my next Secret Pal 5 package!

I've also signed up for You can register books here and pass them along for others to read. Go on - sign up! Tell 'em I sent you (kimberlinewyork)! :-)

I found out about it through RAOKBook Crossers which I also signed up for. This forum is for us to use to share books either by giving them away in an RAOK package or in a "ring" when multiple people want to share a book but the original owner would like it back. It'll be a great way to pass along a number of my books!!

I finished and blocked the Backgammon board last night -- but the kittens pulled half the pins out and batted it about a bit in my sleep -- so it's needs one more (supervised) blocking. Also - the OSW is nearly done. Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

My Interview from Cheryl
(same Cheryl that sent me the lovely early birthday gift above!)

Question from Cheryl: 1. How did you get into designing hats?
My Answer: I made my first hat around age 4 -- I crochet it from my teddy bear. I always had a hat with me as a child - just loved them. When I realized, while in college getting my Fashion Design degree, that with work I could make a living at it... I gave it a go...

I like the way people look in hats. Women exude more confidence when they wear hats...and men respond to that! Ladies - TAKE HEED - Every time I wear a hat I get compliments from men --- and their wives/girlfriends/whoever is on their arm always gives a snarl...and the man almost always says to her, "Honey, you should wear more hats."

I LOVE watching people try on hats...as the hat hits their head they seem to totally shift - they get this new look on their faces as they imagine themselves perhaps on a beach or at a fancy garden party. It's great!

Question from Cheryl: 2. Where did you go on your most interesting trip out of the country?
My Answer: It's a toss up between the USSR when I was in High School or China (2000 to present). The USSR was my first view outside the US and was an amazing eye opener. It made my realize just how lucky I am to have been born ad raised in the manor I was. The trips to China continue to remind me of this all while I get to dive head first into an amazingly rich culture...
Hmmm...then there was Mexico for the Day of the Dead Festival...nothing like eatting silver dollar pancakes in a cemetary.

Question from Cheryl: 3. If you had to give up either chocolate or cheese for the rest of your life, which would you choose?
My Answer: Although difficult to give up either - I think I'd choose to give up Chocolate. There are too many dishes world wide that use cheese. Yummmmy yum yum!

Question from Cheryl: 4. And, because I think this should always be the last question (in honor of the undercover celebrity) Shag, marry, push off a cliff. Please put each
of the following men into one of these three categories. Orlando Bloom, Vin
Diesel, Justin Timberlake.
My Answer: Shag = Orlando Bloom, marry = Vin Diesel (he's hot and smart!), push off a cliff = Justin Timberlake - I've no use for him.

Rules:
Want to play?
The Official Interview Game Rules:
1. If you want to participate, leave a comment below saying "interview me."
2. I will respond by asking you four-five questions - each person's will be
different.
3. You will update your journal/blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview others in the
same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them four-five
questions.

Finally Friday

Today marks the launch of my new line -- Spring/Summer 2006! It's the culmination of months of hard work (I began designing it back in December of 2004!!) All of my domestic sales agents plus Canada will come to our showrooms and I'll present it from tip to toe. Then we'll head out to Mama Mexico's (yep second time this week by chance) for food and margaritas a plenty! The Fall/Winter 2005 line is shipping and will hit stores soon!

I forgot my camera at home today - Grrrrr!

The good news --- my Asia trip that has always taken place in August (for the last 3 weeks) has been moved to September! This is good news as it's ROASTING HOT in Southern Asia in August! We think we've had a run of hot weather lately -- Nahhh - it's NOTHING compared to Dongguan and Hong Kong!

I've begun to knit a One Skein Wonder (needed a small project for the subway)...I've been dying to start the OSW as the pattern's been just SITTING there waiting for me! I'm using some of the dip-dyed Japanese wool that I bought in Singapore!!

Most all of the ends of my backgammon board are sewn in and I hope to finish it tonight (late) and bring it to the beach tomorrow for a test run! :-) I sent my Secret Pal a little something and I've been skulking her blog...I she hasn't posted anything in ages...I DO hope she got it!!

Tomorrow will be a whirlwind...or not. Hopefully I'll be able to move my brunch back to 10am...then all will run smoothly. From there it's the beach -- my first beach day in...YEARS! (which means lots of sunscreen and a BIG ole hat!) And the day will end at Fabulous Female Friends party being thrown by my friend Jo, Stylist to the Stars. Should be a FUN FUN day!

My Yarn Runneth Over

After dinner tonight when I arrived at my house I was greeted by this...

Count them... 6...6 balls of the finest Italian Wool that were dug out of a box as I worked. They were wrapped around the chair rungs, around the table, up the stairs...and I think I interrupted them as they dropped the last ball in a hat (at the bottom of the stairs)that they'd also dug out. What a mess... it'll take HOURS to unwind what I'm sure took them both mere moments to create. Ahhhhhhhhh...they DO love to play and explore! :-) My vet wasn't kidding when he advised that I get some child safety locks on my cabinets as Burmese are apparently smart AND investigative. I finally found where they'd pulled the yarn from and have now properly hidden it away in a drawer. They won't be drawer opening for atleast a month I hope! :-) I had to wonder if the big boy took part in the fun or just sat back for the entertainment.

I should finish the Backgammon Board tomorrow night - then I'll have to sewn in all of the ends and block it...it's coming along nicely I think. Instead of making that big bag I plan to make a smaller bag that I can roll the board and slide into. Now I'm on the hunt for the perfect buttons to use as pieces! I'll post a photo as soon as it's blocked!

On TV -- Well -- For a Few Minutes
The day was switched from the Del Mar raceway to San Diego. At 7am I was at the hair salon for a wash and blow-out (can't rightly have frizzy hair and put hats off and on (the hair only gets WORSE!) Then back to my friends home for makeup and dress...all while FedEx packages containing the hats for the shooting are zooming their way to my friends house for an 8:30am delivery (cutting it close - yep!)

Packed the car - zoomed over to the studio for my 9:15am call at San Diego NBC Studios 7!39 and...
VOILA!


Carry the boxes to the spot outside on the plaza and hurry up and wait! Ever wonder what one does while waiting to be on TV?? KNIT! Here I am (Above, left) - all dressed and ready to go...and here I am, knitting my little heart out! (I'm knitting MYSELF a backgammon board from Weekend Knits using Mission Falls wool. It should be done by the end of the weekend! Also --what the heck was I thinking when I grabbed the worlds longest wooden needles for the trip?) :-)
At approximately 10:10am Marianne Kushi came out and we did the spot. As fast as we bagan it was over and I was packing up the car. My friend Tara was keeping me company and acting as photographer, chauffer and all around amazing support network! Thanks A MILLION Tara!!!


I got home to find that the dynamic around the house had changed a little bit...
I took the red-eye home and couldn't WAIT to crawl into bed... but of course the cats are all playing together now! Good right? Well...good until they are all running over the bed - under the bed - over the bed in a long game of chase. The kittens would chase Loco into a corner and he'd turn around and chase them back...except when he backed THEM into a corner they'd hiss and meow! Loco would then look up at me with this "Are they KIDDING ME?" look === so funny!
Poor old man got all tuckered out! Later on in the day Coco - ever pushing the envelope...decided that he wanted Loco's chair.

Step one: Sniff sniff


Step two: look cute and nice
Step three: begin to kick Loco and then attack his tail when he starts to show his annoyance...and voila -- he gets the chair all to himself! Loco just moved to the cool floor. I tell ya - Coco will be in for a rude awakening when Loco gets sick of his behavior! :-) Loco really has NO IDEA how big he is!

Tonight I'm are off to see Batman Begins in IMAX. Yeah!!! I am SO BEHIND on my movies! OK OK - back to work I go - setting up the showrooms takes all day...and even longer without an assistant! S'OK -- it's fun.

Tick tick tick...I launch my new line next Friday @ 5pm!

Hello from San Diego!!
I arrived Monday night in San Diego and was all prpared to head to Del Mar for the TV interview at the races... well... sadly something was messed up on the side of the TV folks and the interview was moved to the NBC Studios here in San Diego (so I didn't get to go to the races afterall. Hmph.) Being that I was no longer going to be at the hotel, but imposing upon my friend Tara and her husband Brian...I too them out to dinner last night. We went to Rice at the W Hotel. YUM YUM YUM!

So...this morning went well...the interview was on San Diego's NBC with Marianne (their anchor woman.) She was very pretty and nice to boot! Tara took some photos that I'll load in when i get home (tomorrow) as I haven't got the camera cord with me.

As promised...and a few days late... here is my latest FO!!!
I'll post a photo of my niece wearing it as soon as I get one!
I'm now working on something for ME!!! I'll post photos when it's done...likely Friday!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Gotta Dash!

Things that go Bump in the Night...


...Coco when startled by Loco groaning at him...
...My belt that I foolishly left on the LR table as it's pushed to the floor by a sliding kitten at 2am...
...Chanel (right) sliding off the bed to a soft thump (Burmese are described as "bricks wrapped in satin")...
...One of the kittens sitting up too fast under the bed.

When I woke at 4am, all 3 were on the bed. Coco (left) and Chanel @ our feet, Loco up next to my head-shoulders - facing the kittens. All was well until Coco decided to simply walk up towards me. Add growling and Loco getting pissy & attempting to hop over me only to land all his weight on one paw on my stomach (OUCH!)...and well...you can see where things went from there.

Loco is finding his inner grouchy old man... and Coco is helping him explore that side! Loco retreated downstairs this morning to sleep and Coco soon followed. Loco is put out by Coco's mere presence...funny to watch as Coco just wants to play.
Chanel would rather be playing with toys or people than caring where Loco is.

Things will be fine as soon as Loco relaxes a little bit. :-) How soon he forgets his days of playing with my old roommate's cat and his best pal and roommate Nandi (the Scottish Terrior.) All-in-all I think the introduction went well!

Hopefully tonight I'll get to cast-on for the next Christmas gift on the list!
I bought a few rolls of Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair while up in New Hampshire on vacation (of course we had to hit ONE LYS!!!)
I did up the swatch and blocked it and my tension is dead-on! Yeah!

I also heard from my Secret Pal and was delighted to find out that she made the needle case (I thought so!!) for me! It looked way to nice and special to be "store bought."

Don't you just LOVE homemade gifts??

In all of my Kitty-ness I almost forgot to share a lovely "put on your list" place if you come to NYC! It's called Mary's Dairy and Chocolate Bar. It's small and neighbor-hoody. Here I am trying my best to eat my fill (and not make myself ill while doing so) of this amazing concoction! It started with 2 different chocolate ice creams ((1)Yin Yang - Milk Chocolate Ice Cream and bits of bittersweet Valrhona Chocolate (2)Hawaii Five O and Callebaut - Callebaut Chocolate Ice Cream with Macadamia Nuts it) then I figured - when in Rome...for a buck you could have 4 add-ins mixed in -- so I did -- Ooooh BABY! Butterfinger, Heath bar, dark chocolate covered espresso beans and so that I could feel I was trying to be healthy -- granola. {grin} It beat me (by a mile!) -- I thought I'd ordered the small and didn't --- next time I will SPLIT one with someone!


Back to work I go!! I arrived late to begin with as I couldn't find a way to get here! While waiting for the subway there was an announcement that my line was suspended from service -- I found out shortly there after a building that had been under construction a mere 4 blocks away has collapsed and they were looking for survivors. Not only did the police have there hands full with that -- but now there were 100s of people converging onto the street trying to find there way to work! It took nearly 2.25 hours instead of 25 minutes. I'm hoping the 5 people injured in the collapse are all OK! Hmmm...I wonder how I'll get home?

I are off to Time to play catch-up
(and tell you about my new family members!)

Whoa-nelly there's a whole LOT that's happened in these two weeks! I'll try to go in order -- but do forgive me if I jump around a bit!

First - my deepest sympathies with all of you in London -- the news awoke me while I was away on my vacation. I am thankful to ahve just finally heard from the last on my list of friends who have checked in as being A-OK.

Now to the lighter stuff!
The last week of June I spent in San Diego doing a PA/trunk show -- then I returned home to wrap things up at the office before my vacation. Yep - I decided to take a week off.
Sadly, my new assistant has taken a turn towards some ill health and is no longer working with me. I'm hoping that she'll be well in August to rejoin the team...otherwise I'll be back to looking for an assistant (not something I look forward to!)
The trunk show went well. The Village Hat shop is a well-oiled machine I tell you! I received a call from my PR agent on Friday of my vacation telling me to hustle back out to San Diego for July 21st (Thurs.) for an interview on NBC. Yeah!!!

More on that as it unfolds. As I was leaving I got an email from my Secret Pal that my first package was on it's way! Yeah (keep reading to see what it is -- it's AWSOME!) The funny thing is that I'd mailed out my first SP5 gift to my pal that same day!
When I got home I was greated by this: A lovely R.A.O.K from Catherine Kerth -- Who is LONG OVERDUE for a BIG THANK YOU!!!!! A Yummy ball of Dante by Berrocco!!! I'm looking into some fun ideas for it!! Thanks Again!!!!


I then went to the office to greet the growing pile waiting for my on my desk,
only to be surprised by the mailman with THIS: AMAZING LOOT from my BackTack Pal - Stacy in San Diego! Go check out her blog! She's got some great links! She made me this beautiful tote bag with floral applique, a smaller project pouch, and lots of goodies!!! (A fuzzy donkey PEZ keychain which I've used to make a sufficient ass out of myself, Burt's Bee's Lip Balm and hald balm, a FUN Tape Measure, an amazing pin cushion with scissors, chocolates, a portable keychain sewing kit, and buttons! Phew!)

Worked wrapped up -- busy - but it always is ...
I hopped in the car to head out of town to visit some of my college friends for the annual Forth of July Feista Weekend. A good time was had by all for sure! I'm really glad that DeJay and Matty G decided to hop in the car and join us on Sunday after all!


Here we see Kimberli in her natural habitat...the only one in the full shade of the trees, by the pool...in a hat...knitting up Mom's Christmas socks! (Note the use of the newly gifted Backtack bag and pouch! Thanks Stacy (It's fetched many a compliment and then they get to hear how I got it!!) I've been using the bag and/or pouch EVERY DAY! It's a perfect size to transport thing on the subway for a few minutes of gettin' my knit-on!

From my friends (Beth and Gene -- thanks for being such amazing hosts AS ALWAYS!!!) house I went north to The Wentworth --- I had bought another auctioned package from LuxuryLink.com -- again - it did not fail to be FABULOUS!!!
The first night my Mom and Dad joined us (see photo left!) Wow -- Mom's now lost 44lbs! (That's more than 3 stone!!!) GO Momma! And Dad has Lost 37 lbs (which I think is his goal weight) -- GO Dad!!!
The package included a 5 course dinner and full breakfast EVERY DAY for 3 days! WOW! This also meant by day we had to do some walking (shopping) and/or hiking to work off the dinners!! Delicious! Did I mention relaxing??? I finished knitting the socks for Mom while at the Wentworth...just a bit of finishing to do! Yeah - 1st Xmas gift nearly done!

From there we ambled down to my parent's house (the house I grew up in). On the way we stopped by the town I went to high school in for a Pizza at the Greek restaurant I had worked at. Sadly it has recently been sold -- and it's quite as good as it had been -- but it was still good! Next, on to visit my dear friend Deb and her family for an all-to-short visit, then on with the tour of my childhood haunts! Finally landing at my childhood home in time for a YUMMY dinner made by my parents. Upon arriving we were greeted by two ADORABLE -- AMAZING kittens that had landed on my parents doorstep the Saturday prior. They were looking for homes... and...well... they found one - TOGETHER! I decided to take them both! Thus I introduce Coco (left)and Chanel (right). They are nearly twins -- they look exactly the same save for the white tip on Chanel's tail. Neither myself nor anyone who saw these kittens on our way to NYC had ever seen such color on a cat! The ride back from NH to NYC was fun - included a stop over at my brothers home where I got to see my Brother, Sister-in-law and Niece (I haven't seen enough of them lately!) We got to find out that the boys were old enough to be neutured (after they sprayed at DeJay's dog who was ALREADY scared to death of cats!)

Monday was a FULL day -- between bringing the boys to be neutered (where I found out that they are a Burmese mix - but mostly Burmese!! WOW!) and begining the process of kitten-proofing... I also had to go BACK to WORK! (Neeeeeed to take more vacations!!!) As all good things have it -- The mailman happened to visit me on Monday afternoon bringing me my first SP5 package!!! Ooooooh it's from Australia!! How COOL eh? The package contained a beautiful knitting needle holder and a wonderful cooking/entertaining magazine -- donna hay. I wonder what a subscription to this mag would cost? It's beautifully done!
As you can see I've begun to fill it (with the needles that were lying around my Living Room -- picking up the kitty hazards!) Thanks Secret Pal!!

Tonight it's dinner with Morgan and Dmitri, some more kitty-hazard proofing and then perhaps...

THE MEETING OF THE KITTIES!
Loco - resident 11yr old 27lb siamese --- he's been sniffing under the bathroom door after the kittens...but only seems phased when all of the humans are in the bathroom with the kittens and he's all alone on the other side of the door. Of course then we go to see him and we get loving like you see to the left! Thank goodness I've got a big-wide couch!! He's a BIG MOOSH! I'll keep you posted on the kitty-ness! NOTE: This photo was taken JUST before the meeting of the kitties...

I have finished the dress for my niece -- but will save THAT for FO Friday!! Cheers all!
PS -- I bought a portable hard drive and will be taking the Singapore photos from both computers so that I can FINALLY post them. I just need another 5 hours in my day!