Today, Hairy found a new place to walk the doggies in a town nearby called Montara. The trail is along a hill that overlooks the ocean and follows Highway 1.

It was really pretty there, but also SUPER BRIGHT. So I couldn’t really see the photos I was taking with the iPhone, since the screen just appeared black to me!

Afterward, we got a sandwich at this place called Gherkin’s Sandwich Shop, and they put little gherkins in your sammy instead of pickle slices, and they were really crispy and crunchy!

We passed by a Peruvian restaurant called La Costanera which looks like a fun place to check out in the future. We also saw a neat BBQ shack and a place to get coffee and donuts inside an old train car. It’s funny all the little spots you can discover so close to your own city!

P.S. After I wrote this entry, Hairy started swearing in the shower and then came out and said he had found a tick in his side. Then we all freaked out, and I checked myself and the pups but didn’t find any more. The place we hiked had a small woodland area that transitioned into a more open area with wild flowers and grasses. We stayed on the dirt trail and didn’t wander into the grassy parts, but you never know what’s dangling on a flower or blade of grass! Wear light clothing, tuck everything into everything else (like pants into socks) and check you and your furbabies immediately after a hike!

Thanks so much for filling out my survey, guys! It was really interesting to read the responses. Over 80% of you know how to knit/crochet. That’s a lot!

My favorite part has been reading how you guys describe your personal style. I know it can be a tricky question, and a lot of us shy away from putting ourselves in little boxes, but I think it’s a fun exercise! I would say mine is “The Girls Section at Target.” Comfy, casual, colorful, but with girlie frills like ruffles, bows, and cute collars.

Here are some of my favorites from the survey. I love how unexpected some of them were!

The personal style question reminded me of this test someone gave me back in college, and I started giving it to all my friends. This will probably look familiar to many of you, and there were probably many variations on it.

1. What’s your favorite color? State three adjectives you’d use to describe this color.

2. What’s your favorite animal? State three adjectives you’d use to describe this animal.

3. State three adjectives you’d use to describe a large body of water.

4. State three adjectives you’d use to describe an empty, white room.

There may have been a fifth question in there, but I can’t remember it now! Okay, take a second to write some answers down if you want to play along.

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 I HAVE to tell you guys about my current girlcrush, Brit Marling.

One night on cable, I happened upon her 2011 movie “Another Earth,” which she co-wrote and starred in. Here’s a blurb from the Fox Searchlight site:

“In ANOTHER EARTH, Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling), a bright young woman accepted into MIT’s astrophysics program, aspires to explore the cosmos. A brilliant composer, John Burroughs (William Mapother), has just reached the pinnacle of his profession and is about to have a second child.”On the eve of the discovery of a duplicate Earth, tragedy strikes and the lives of these strangers become irrevocably intertwined.”

It sounds kinda science-fictiony, but it feels like a quiet, elegant, emotional indie movie. She is one of those people who I find oddly mesmerizing. Like, feed me the Kool-Aid cuz I will drink it! The sci-fi-ish angle gives the movie a sense of fantasy or magical-realism to me. When the movie ended, I was like, “MORE? NOW WHAT? I NEED MORE!” There may be elements that remind you of Lars von Triers’ “Melancholia,” but I found “Another Earth” much more hopeful and sweet, although also with its own sadness.

When I looked her up on IMDB, I loved her even more. She is an Econ major from Georgetown U., but turned down a job at Goldman Sachs to become an artist. Here’s her quote from IMDB about why she started to write movies:

“[on why she decided to become a screenwriter in relation to her being an actress] How terrifying to surrender your life to being chosen all the time. Having to be chosen and re-chosen. Writing so that I can act became a way of having not more control over my future but not having to wait for permission. You can choose yourself. Hmm, who should play this part? I nominate me!”

“I think I’ll never stop writing now because I’m wondering why there aren’t more representatives of women that are like the women we know. Where’s the film with the women who are complicated and strong and beautiful and sexy and interesting and of all body types? You don’t get to see enough of them. So there’s something important in attempting to write them for myself and for the insanely talented women out there.”

The fact that I just found her mesmerizing led me to watch another film from 2011 that she co-wrote and starred in, “The Sound of My Voice.” In this film, she actually portrays  a cult leader, and it’s about two film-makers who try to infiltrate and find the truth about her and her strange claims. Much like “Another Earth,” I loved the ending of the movie, and it leaves you with another odd sense of hope and wonder.

She has been in other movies I haven’t seen yet, but her new one, “The East,” is coming out this year and also stars Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard (I didn’t know him, but I guess he’s in True Blood), and Patricia Clarkson. One of the producers appears to be Ridley Scott. The movie is described as an espionage thriller, but I’m hoping it will still have that strange-but-alluring Brit Marling magic.

From Wiki: “Sarah Moss is a former FBI agent and an operative for the private intelligence firm Hiller Brood. She infiltrates an anarchist collective called The East and convinces its members of her genuine participation. Moss begins to fall in love with its charismatic leader Benji, and she begins to question the moral underpinnings of her undercover duty.” Apparently she and the director/co-writer spent a summer being freegans and learning about living off the grid, with no money, and used those experiences to write this movie.

I am just really into young women who find a way to create their own opportunities and make such a splash.  The two movies I watched felt like little film gems to me. If you get the chance to watch one, I hope you like it! I would start with “Another Earth.”

Here’s some eye candy for you from Glamour.com.

I hate to ever really ask you guys for anything, but I was wondering if you could help me out by filling out this superquick survey. It’s only 6 questions and includes things like:

(p.s. that multiple choice option is dedicated to Manda, and, no, she CAN’T get mad at me, because she doesn’t read my blog… and what you don’t know, won’t enrage you.)

Why did I make a stupid survey? Well, the big reason is that I take meetings from time to time for various business opportunities (actually I’m doing that today at 2pm!), and sometimes in meetings, I’ll get asked, “Who is your audience/market/readership?” And like, I’ll have an IDEA of who I THINK is reading, or who I think I am crafting/writing for, but to be honest, I don’t really know, and I kinda make it up based on who leaves comments for me, whether I happen to have time to click on your website/blog if you have one, or if I’ve met you in person or we’re friends.

SOOOOO, by filling out this VERY BRIEF survey, you can help me to start forming a basic picture of who all of you guys are.  This will also hopefully help me bring you more of what you want. I mean, you might just be here for a rare blog photo of Bibi (there’s lots on Instagram!), and if Bibi is what everyone is really after, then I need to re-strategize and send Bibi to Hollywood or something!

I’m also exploring the idea of adding sponsorship space on my side bar to promote your awesome businesses, so it would be neat for all of us to get an idea of …who we all are :).

Thank you!

I didn’t want to make the survey long and boring, so if you want to chime in about anything else, feel free to sound off here!

Thanks to everyone who participated in my first “Free for 48 hrs” crochet pattern party! I may not always do 48 hrs, but I’ll try to always throw some kind of “party” with a window of time when you can grab a new pattern for free. Now, the crochet pattern for the Cupcake Coffee Cup Cozy is available in my Etsy shop.

BONUS!!! At the back of the pattern PDF, I included the cup-shaped paper insert that I sometimes use to package my cozies. It’s really perfect for gift-giving because it explains what the gift is and also includes washing instructions.

A new thing I noticed while adding the pattern to the shop: Etsy seems to now be offering the link to customers directly to download the pattern, so let me know how that goes! This is really cool for sellers, because before, we either had to manually email all the patterns, or pay for an app to do it for us. Etsy really stepped it up!