High flying zip lining

Like I said, I went on a canopy tour. They are pretty popular in Costa Rica so I thought I had to give it a try. Being the off season I got my own personalized tour with two guides, one to throw me and one to catch me. Also one of the guides loved using my camera and took tons of pictures and a few videos. The first is of me and the second one he took while cruising on the zip line.

btw- I think they thought I wasn't having fun as I was making serious faces the entire time... I was just trying to do it right and not fall of off the trees... success!

Driving the dirt roads

So I didn't knit much this last week nor was I doing any fun fall New York activities as I was in Costa Rica. My friend and I booked the trip way back in June (I think?), but didn't have any specifics on where we would be going or what we actually would be doing until we arrived in San Jose. Well we did know that we had a rental car and hotel rooms (but not where these rooms were). The more timid traveler or OCD personality would not of faired well, but we are both chill so it worked out great.

We went in off season so things were cheaper, roads were emptier, and the trees were greener (thanks to the rain-a-day). We had a great time.... a few highlights.

Zip-lining through the cloud forest

Relaxing on an almost empty completely beautiful beach

Hiking and learning about the cloud forest in Monteverde

Swimming at the foot of Volcan Arenal

and sleeping in some of the most fabulous accommodations ever

Knitted cowl

Just finished my cowl knitted in the round. This was fun to knit as it was a different pattern; full of yarn overs, knit togethers, and slips.

Nice and warm and out of the way

Halloween decor in Brooklyn

I walked around some neighborhoods in Brooklyn with a friend on Saturday. She's looking to move back to the city (yea!) and wanted to see if Carroll Gardens area would be a good fit. The neighborhood is great with old buildings and lots of trees, but I really enjoyed all the stoops decorated for Halloween.

Two of my favorites:

Week of culture

The week before last week went from ho hum to full speed ahead and has now continued for another week. I had been enjoying a peaceful life when all a sudden my social calendar filled up. A few highlights:

Wednesday:

First event was attending PopArt the musical. The music was written by one of my Mizzou friend's boyfriend. The show was part of a festival aimed at previewing as many new musicals as possible. So it wasn't like the Broadway musicals, smaller theater, less flash, but it was really good and the singers and musicians were talented.

Thursday:

A coworker IM'd me at the end of the day wondering if I wanted to attend a concert in Williamsburg. One where the headliner would go on till around 11pm. Hmm.. well I got talked in to going to see !!!, who? !!! (if you are wondering how to pronounce that it is chk, chk, chk) The show turned out to be a lot of fun. I'm not sure how to describe the music but there was a string section, occasional horn action, and major danceability. The lead singer had an adorable dance that I could of watched all night.

Friday:

For my second concert of the week I headed back to Brooklyn with a friend to see Mark Geary and Marketa Irglova (you might know her from Swell Season or the movie Once). Mark's music was fun folksy irishy (I'm not a music critic) while Marketa's was more soft, slow, and deep. It was in a cute "art space".

Out my window

I haven't posted a good "out my window" picture in awhile. But this sunset last week deserves to be seen!

MetroCard holder

I mentioned the other day how at the Maker Faire they had a demonstration on how to make a MetroCard holder, but it was really more an infomercial for a set of tools (large punch, adhesive machine, laminator, etc). However I liked the idea and new it could be done with things I had in my apartment. Well this week my old holder, which I had gotten for free at this arts festival from the Whitney Museum booth approximately 3 years ago, completely came apart.

How to make your own MetroCard* holder

Supplies: Scissors, clear tape, notecard, and MetroCard to determine size. I also used my old holder as a pattern, but it isn't necessary.

You can use a piece of card stock or a post card as well.

Cut your paper to the appropriate height and fold in thirds. I made one flap a lot bigger than the other so that the grab hole (I just made that term up) wouldn't be on the two sides.

Then trace and cut out your grab hole

Then I just used clear tape to tape the sides together and put a piece across the bottom. If you have clear packing tape it might be a good idea to just cover the whole thing to protect it a little.

front

back

my MetroCard ready to go

*Same process can be used to hold any type of card