Mar 31, 2013

Spring is finally here.

Will spring stay here is the question! For the past few days however, it has definitely decided to stick around. I feel my spirit rising everyday, and the dogs are happier too because the back door has been left open a lot longer each day. They are definitely less annoying. I get tired every time I venture outside though, which is really annoying...

Tomorrow I'm going to a job fair at worksource, dressed up and with a bunch of resumes... and on Tuesday, I'm going to orientation at the Humane Society to volunteer there. I'm allergic to Guinea Pigs, so I feel like I might be needing some Benadryl(sp?) in my near future. I know that they deal with small animals like that, because I've seen Guinea Pigs there before.

I had a crazy dream last night about working there... Everyone had roller blades on, because we needed to do things so fast that walking wouldn't work. If I can't get a ride there, I might have to take the bus there and there's a 20 minute walk from the nearest bus stop to the building. If it's clear of debris, I might roller blade from the bus there. That would entail hauling them around though, and that's annoying. They can get pretty heavy and awkward.

I really want to start going to school soon. I'm already 20, and there's kids from my pre-vet tech class who are already at the university I plan to go to. I need to start! All I need is a job. And to move out and live somewhere that I won't feel stressed all the time, dealing with things like DOGS. I swear, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I'm busy and end up having kids. If I have such a problem with a couple of dogs what am I going to be like with a baby? Well, I'm not going to know that until years from now anyways. That's one thing I don't have to stress about.

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Mar 30, 2013

Stuff I want to do


So, my hands are still killing me. I guess I went a little overboard with crafting. So, I've been reading and playing Harvest Moon. This is making me sad, because taking care of chickens and cows in a virtual reality isn't good enough. I want my future dairy cow, and my future small backyard flock of chickens. I can only hope I end up living at a place where I can have a cow and chickens as soon as possible.

While giving my hands a rest, I figure I'll post some inspiration and post some pictures of things I would like to do when I start crafting again. I have a yard sale that I'm selling homemade things at in about 2 weeks, so I'll have to start soon!

As a side note, I went to my BFs brothers wedding today. His OTHER brother got married a few months ago. I personally feel too young to get married, but at the same time I think it would be cool that we all got married within the same year. It isn't going to happen though... I also feel that we should be out on our own before we get married, and we haven't quite managed that yet.

On to inspirations:
knitted slippers
Knitted Slippers

I've actually started making these. However, I have to unravel them in order to make my sweater, which I haven't worked on since I ran out of the first ball of yarn, and probably won't until after the yard sale. So, I'll have to restart these. I've been wanting knit slippers/shoes for a while now, and these seem the easiest to start with.

Easy Car Seat Cover
Easy Car Seat Cover

Here's another thing I've STARTED... but need to finish. I cut a blanket in half and made a small hole to go over the top of the headrest, but I need to line them with something stiff like a thick towel so that they don't just pile up in the middle of the seat. My BF has leather seats, so during the winter he was freezing while he was at work, and now that the weather is warming up, they're going to be HOT. I hate leather seats... It was just the car we found that fit his requirements and the budget. Yeah, they're luxurious  but my god what other function do they serve? They burn you! Literally! 

DIY gift bags
DIY gift bags

I'm thinking I could make some of these for the yardsale, to package up the jewelry. As well as use tissue paper to wrap them up in. Good idea? Yes? No? Yes? 

Anyways. I'm surprised I can't find anything else, but I just cleaned out my bookmarks haha. Well, I can't overload you with tons of pictures and inspiration then. 

As a side note, I just ordered a Square... That little thing you use to take credit cards? I don't have an ipad, iphone or ipod though. However... I do plan to eventually get an Ipod Touch though. So, I can see if I can just borrow other peoples phones/pads/pods while I'm at the yardsale. It'll route it back to my account I believe. If not I plan on keeping track of what I sell anyways.




Mar 27, 2013

I made enchiladas!

That's right! I was inspired by my friend who posted pictures of her enchiladas a couple of days ago. So I decided, I want something that freaking cheesy too.

Enchilada


I looked it up and after looking at different recipes, decided I could make whatever I wanted for the filling and then just bake them. I did it real easy, and I'll show you how!

I used a rotisserie chicken and a half (I was lucky that the BFs mother had some left on hers, because I ran out of filling before I filled the lasagna pan so I had to use up all of the chicken). I just didn't want to have to cook the chicken and because of this, this took nearly no time at all. Also because of this, I can't really tell you how much chicken I used besides it was about 1.5 medium chickens..

Ingredients:
Chicken
1 can Refried Beans
1 big can Sliced Olives
2 packages of shredded cheese
Large can of Enchilada Sauce of your choice
Large Tortillas
Seasonings of your choice

Shred chicken and place into large bowl. Mix in refried beans, one package cheese, and half the olives. Add seasonings of your choice and mix.

Pour some sauce into the bottom of a 9x13 lasagna pan. Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Take 6 large tortillas and fill them up as much as you can equally. Roll them up and place them seam side down into the pan.

Cover them equally with the rest of the sauce, the second package of cheese, and the other half of the olives.

Bake for 20 minutes or until heated all the way through. Eat. Enjoy.

Delicious.

My hands are thanking me for a day off from crafting, but the day isn't over yet and I might just start working on another dice bag. Perhaps this one will look a bit better... I want the bottom to lay flat when it's full of dice and sit on the bottom, instead of sort of falling over on its side.

I've noticed I have a callus on the tip of my finger where I push the right needle back down the pull the next stitch up. I don't have too, but it's a reflex. I can't stop fingering it now!

I shared this post here:

And here:
All Things with Purpose

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Dice Bag Prototype

After I FINALLY finished the boxchain choker I made the mistake of deciding to make (It just took SO LONG!) my hands hurt in the exact positions the pliers would rest against so I decided to try knitting a prototype dice bag. I want it to be rather small, although the one I just finished comfortably carries 30 dice and could carry more. I just wanted it smaller than the gargantuan tentacle bag I made from the tutorial here. I'm glad I made it full size, because it's been put to good use; it carries not only dice, but lots and lots of little characters we use in our d&d campaign. The bag is starting to fall apart, though, which makes me sad because it's huge, took forever to make, and I don't have anymore yarn to use for it.

Anyways, here's the bag I made today (Please ignore the color, it was all I could find at my dads):

Knit Dice Bag
Ugly pink prototype dice bag

I want the bottom to be more flat, otherwise I'm pretty happy with the shape and size. I just braided some yarn together for the drawstring, but I could pretty that up as well. I'm thinking I might just knit it longer and then pull all the stitches together at the bottom without actually decreasing might look better. Any thoughts on that? I'm pretty bad at decreasing. 

Here's the boxchain I finished today. 

Boxchain Choker, Chainmaille
Boxchain Choker

It's adjustable from 15 to 17.25 inches, and took tons of rings. I used a heavy duty lobster clasp to finish it. It's for sale for $30. It doesn't look that long in my hand, but it's hanging down a little bit behind my hand. If only I could get a few more good pictures of it, and then I could put it up on Etsy. Which I plan on doing eventually! 

I applied to volunteer at the Humane Society. It didn't ask for any experience to list, but it asked about allergies, so all they really got was my name and the fact that I'm allergic to Guinea Pigs. I hope they overlook that and contact me, because I took the pre-vet tech class at Tri-Tech and I did an amazing internship last summer. I already know that they deal with Guinea Pigs because the few times I've been there they had some. So, really... I could be conned out of VOLUNTEERING... At which point I may just have to kill myself, because I obviously am a waste of space if I'm not good enough to just volunteer. I'm not serious, but that would just kill me! I have given wild birds intramuscular shots, tubed them, caught and restrained them, cleaned their crap, bottle fed deer (and was consequently beaten nearly to death by their hoofs) and much more. I think I'm qualified to handle some dogs and cats after just the pre-vet tech class. Especially since they will take 14 yr olds as volunteers. All I want is experience by this point! 

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Mar 25, 2013

More and more and more chainmaille!!!

So I don't think I'm going to be able to make scaled dice bags until I've got more than 100 scales of each color. I calculated the number of stitches on size 9 needles for a dice bag (I'm trying out 35) and I can't imagine being able to make a nice one with only 3 layers of scales. I'm pretty sure that's going to be a small dice bag as well, so with bigger ones it'll take way more. I REALLY wish that I could find a local company that made scales for scalemaille!

So, instead, I'm making another dragon. This is going to be the last one until I get more 1/2 inch ID rings, which I can probably get at Micheals. Here is the beginnning of this second dragon:

Chainmaille, Dragon
Red and Black this time

I have red scales, so I figured I should make a dragon that matched with red rings as well. The first dragon is silver, green, black, and gold. Colors, that is. The silver is aluminum and the gold is jewelry brass. It's also extremely light... Like less than 1/8 of a pound! I showed it to my dad and he was amazed when he picked it up. The bracelets I make out of aluminum always scare me because I feel like they can fall off without me noticing the sudden weight loss on my wrist. 

I'm working on a boxchain choker now: 

Boxchain, choker, chainmaille
Only a little over 5 inches here. 

My hands are starting to hurt, so I'm taking a break. I also sewed today, but all I did was add a decorative stitch along the bottom of a skirt. It's a tiered skirt, with the bottom tiers being REALLY long, so it took absolutely forever to sew all the way across. I ran out of bobbin thread 9 inches before I finally finished T.T omg, I thought I was going to flip a bitch at that point. 

This weekend I also finished cutting out all the 5 inch squares I could out of all of the onesies and other baby clothes I could from a friend. I'm going to make her a quilt out of them, so she can keep them. Or rather, her kid... The quilt isn't going to be big enough for my friend. If I sewed it together now, it'll be about 31 inches square... That's small even for a baby blanket! I'm going to have a border all around each of the squares, but it'll still be pretty small, so. But that's just fine with me, because it's going to be the first quilt I actually make (the first one I started cutting up needs more squares then I can get so I'll have to wait until I get more coordinating fabric for it).

Looking at the boxchain, I'm thinking about making some chainmaille snakes. I got the chainmaille to make jewelry and I'm stuck making animals! Oh well... They'll probably sell better. I hope I can just sell them somewhere local, because I'm starting to really hate the idea of shipping. 

Yesterday I did like, NOTHING at all, because I figured my BF would pick me up. Well, that never happened... Nor did it happen today, so, I guess I should fill my time somehow. I really wanted to donate plasma today though. Oh well. 

Bonus picture; I was looking around for my cat and couldn't find her. Meow? Meow!?!? *rustle rustle* ?? *look down* Of course. Playing with my yarn, which I had stashed in my purse so it wouldn't roll around. She's actually laying on top of the ball itself here: 

Silly Kitty.

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Mar 23, 2013

Getting things done.

I find I'm having a hard time thinking up of titles, because all I've been working on is knitting, chainmaille, or both (more on "both" later). It's not like I can title a post "chainmaille" every day, or call it "chainmaille bracelet" because I have more stuff than just a bracelet to show you. So if you think I have unimaginative or random titles in the next few days.. weeks.. for a while, it's because it's just the same category, but different stuff.

I finished the chainmaille dragon today:


He's longer now, in the picture he was 7 inches, and now he's 10 inches. I just added some more body in order to add more scales. He looked a little short to me. I think I will add some Chinese dragon whiskers to his little face. You can't really tell, but his eyes are jewelry brass. I followed someones tutorial on making the head, but I didn't bother finding rings with the right gauges so it turned out a little loose. I just shoved a scale into the middle of his head to take up space, and it's a bit better now. It's also better now that it's attached to the body. 

Here's the knitting AND chainmaille:


I just knitted a small swatch to see if I wanted to put scales on every stitch or every other stitch. I think I should have just looked at other peoples knitted scalemaille, as it's obvious that EVERYONE does it every other stitch. It's more secure that way, anyways. Plus it uses up less scales. I only have 100 of each color. 

I plan on making knit scaly dice bags like this. I tried making a scale maille flower, but it's pretty much impossible with the rings I have, so that will have to wait.. For now it's just dragons and dice bags, at least hopefully. I bet those will sell faster than chainmaille jewelry, anyways. 

I think that I am just going to start buying wire from chainmaille websites so I can make rings in every size, because it costs a lot of money to order rings in every size. Every time I order, I'm always disappointed in my limitations because of the size of the maille. Because of this, I ordered discounted packs of random sizes of aluminum, copper, and jewelry brass a long time ago. I would rather have all the sizes separated instead of spending an hour at a time looking through the piles trying to find the right sizes though. 

So, that's what I've been doing all day. I also made cookies. I can't eat any though because I just ate a giant package of skittles, even though I hate them. I can feel my teeth rotting. Ugh. 

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Mar 22, 2013

I love chainmaille!!!

So, yesterday, I started working on chainmaille! Finally. I was NOT happy with the wait. I never want to order from Canada again. While I was waiting, I looked it up online and found all of these horror stories about shipping to and from Canada... Ugh. I've just never had to wait as long as they actually said, or I already knew about a long wait coming and was getting continual updates about my package. Anyways, on to the fun stuff!

I forgot how much pain my hands would be in after a long break from working with pliers. I didn't stop because I was too excited to try some things out, though. The first thing I made was a half Persian bracelet:

Women's Size Persian Bracelet

I should probably stop wearing it, as I want to sell it, but YAY CHAINMAILLE! Next I tried making a juggling ball. I'm not too happy with it, it's sort of misshapen for some reason, plus I couldn't get the very last ring in. I'll probably take it apart, I think that the AR will have to be a little different with the 1/4 inch ID rings.

Crappy Juggling ball to be taken apart in the near future. 

Next, I started on a chainmaille dragon. I haven't figured out how I want to do the head, but here is the body and the tail:

Might add more scales at the end of the tail...

There IS a tutorial I have found to make the dragons, but the body would have taken too many rings. I used much bigger green and black rings, at least with a 1/2 inch ID if not bigger, to make the body in full Persian. Then I mixed the blue scales with the silver because I wanted more silver to be incorporated. He is only about 6 1/2 inches long right now. Since I used bigger rings for the body, I may use smaller ones to add legs.
After that I hope to sell him. I'll have to figure out the shipping prices. I think he'll be $20-25, depending on how many rings I use, as well as how much time I waste trying to figure out his head.

I'm posting on a Facebook page my friend created specifically for chainmaille, if you like what you see come find us there!

To end on a happy note, my cat is inside:

Poor Kitty

My stepmom says she's been peeing on a chair, and my dad told me that the chair is ruined. I got home, saw that my cat is now being chased outside every time she's found inside, but no soiled chair. She's locked in my room for now, and she hasn't peed on ANYTHING... But to be on the safe side, she's staying in my room. She usually hates being in here, but now she'll do anything to be allowed to stay inside, so she's happy snuggling up in my comforter. Like the scarf she's cuddling? My friend Leah makes those and sells them for $10! Send me a message if you want one! 

Mar 21, 2013

FINALLY!!!

Yay, so my chainmaille arrived! Can't wait to get down to business with this stuff:


Since I'm home for a little bit (not sure if for a couple of minutes or an hour or two) I think I will get started on going through some baby clothes to see if I can make a quilt. There's some family problems going on at my house so when I got here I pretty much left straight away, and haven't gotten anything done for the 2nd week in a row. Oh well, I've been knitting pretty much the entire time anyways. I tried on my sweater last night, the body is about halfway done. I've finished with the first hank of black yarn and have to wait until I can add the second one. I hope I can finish the sleeves with only the 2 balls of yarn that I have.

Now that I've got my chainmaille, I hope to power through it pretty quickly, but actually sell some pieces off before I need to order more. I might go back to the other website even though it's more expensive, at least they're not shipping from Canada.

Sorry for the small break in between posts, but as I said, family problems, so I went to a friends house who doesn't really have internet. Sometimes she does, but mostly she doesn't. Not entirely sure how that is. But whatever. I knitted and tried to help clean. and traded beads.

I've learned recently that the best way to get a good selection of beads is to trade some off with other people. I'm rather happy with what I've got in return, and happy to get rid of some of the beads that I had a LOT of. It all works out pretty good. Especially when it turns out like this:

"Oh, I really like those beads!"
"Well, I don't really know what to do with those, so you can pretty much have them all. Oo, those are awesome!"
"I don't ever use those, so take what you want of them!"

Yeah. Anyways. CRAFTING TIME!!!

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Mar 18, 2013

Woot, gettin' things done.

I knitted up the horns last night for the Viking hat, now to figure out how to do the beard. If I can finish it tonight, I can give it to my friend tomorrow. Let's hope! The picture is a little... bright, or something. I didn't really take the time to position the hat so the horns were even, but they're much more even than the picture looks! 


My sweater is coming along great! I'm much farther than I've ever gotten on any other clothing-type knit I've tried doing in the past... Not that any of those ever got finished. It's the same colors as the hat, obviously. It should be past my boobs now, and I'm working on the decreases for some shapely-ness. If anyone would like to try this pattern, I've started up a Knit Along here on Craftster, where I'm posting in progress pictures and you can too! 


I had a picture of a bracelet, but it didn't turn out too well. The camera I'm using doesn't have a very high quality screen, so I can't tell if the picture is clear or not until it's uploaded onto the computer. Well, the picture of the bracelet didn't turn out clear, sadly. But it's okay. It was just a bunch of random beads anyways. Just different beads than before. I should be more creative anyways! I wanted to show you something finished. Most of my projects right now are taking a while to finish, but at least now I can show you some work! 

On to 52 Weeks of Happiness: 

  1. I am almost finished with the Viking Hat! 
  2. My sweater is turning out, instead of being another UFO/frogged. 
  3. I have a camera to use!
  4. I've actually been able to make some crafty things this week!.
Unhappiness: My chainmaille is still in Minnesota. I've been looking up the cities it's been in and it's taking the most ridiculous route EVER. It went from somewhere in Canada close to Washington, to somewhere near the Great Lakes. It hasn't moved since Friday... But Monday is almost over, here, and in Minnesota. It should have at least gone somewhere today. Meh!

Mar 16, 2013

Jewelry?

So I made some bracelets and an anklet while at a friends house. His girlfriend let me borrow her camera, but honestly I couldn't tell if it's better than my phone camera when I looked at the pictures on the screen! Here's some pictures: 

Amiira is the name of my hedgehog... She is brown and white. 

Ball chain and leather wrapped bracelet... I love making these. 

Rhino's Snorting Drano anklet. Made with sampler rings. 

Made with some random blue beads that I have a lot of. 

I like bracelets that don't have any patterns... Like the beaded ones above. I'm not sure if other people do, though, so if you like them or hate them, please let me know. I want to sell these! Except the first one. That's mine... I wouldn't sell something based off my hedgehog. 

Anyways, just wanted to share. Please let me know your opinions! 

Happy St Patrick's Day

I originally planned on making some kind of themed sweet for Patrick's Day, but Dairy Queen is doing some buy one blizzard get one for 99 cents. I think that's more than good enough.

Corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight and tomorrow, both times fresh! Delicious. Although I starved all day because we didn't know when we would be having dinner. It was worth the wait.

It was good to have another nice homemade dinner. Those aren't too common for me these days, seeing as I still hate cooking and I avoid it like the plague, but we just got a bunch of red potatoes. I made some pretty good mashed potatoes for New Years, and I was thinking about trying that again. But I definitely want to try making potato chips again, and also stuffed potato skins. I'm aware that red potatoes aren't the best for some of these, but they're good anyways. Right?

Another recipe I want to try soon is stuffed mushrooms. I love mushrooms. I usually saute them up in bacon grease and drown them in garlic powder. As long as they are cooked I can't get enough of them. I have plenty of friends who aren't interested in even seeing mushrooms. I hope to change that, honestly. They can be pretty disgusting if they aren't cooked right, or if they're raw...

Anyways. I'd like some (cheaper) ideas for a beginner cook. I like having a real dinner but I prefer using the microwave. I have no problem using a stove and an oven, but I end up burning things easily.

I am picky, though.

I hate chewing lettuce. I hate oats. I don't do spicy. I don't like fish except tuna and salmon. I hate coconut. There's tons more but those are the basics. I don't eat enough vegetables, I think. Although I believe that will change when there will be an abundance of tomatoes in the summer.

So if anyone has any ideas on easier recipes for me to try, I'm all ears. If there's something in it that I listed that I don't like, I can leave it out unless it's integral to the recipe. I'm trying to find recipes myself. I just... Usually end up finding things that taste good but AREN'T good, you know? It's like trying to eat healthy at McDonalds.

Any and all help will be appreciated!

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Mar 14, 2013

Long Shipping Times and how to deal with them.

I've been whining and bitching about my chainmaille order being late. Mostly on facebook though. But still.

I finally posted on their Facebook last night, and they posted "Your order shipped on Monday the 11th. You ordered on Thursday the 7th. So it left here in the correct amount of time. You can find your UPS tracking info in the "My Account" area of our site. I don't see anything late about it."

I found out there's a delay shipping to the U.S., not on the website itself but somebody else's complaint on their Facebook. That would have been really nice to know BEFORE I ordered from that site. I wondered why exactly it was so much for shipping... the package is less than 1 pound. I still think the shipping price was pretty extravagant. Especially now that the package isn't going to be here in any time close to what I was expecting.

The thing is, the cheapest shipping was specified as "7 day shipping". For a website to give that option, they have to ship the stuff out in a way that will get the package to you in 7 business days. If it was just a generic cheap shipping without specifying how many days it took, I would have safely assumed 1-2 weeks. But no. I ordered it expecting it at my house in 7 business days.

So how am I dealing with not having my chainmaille magically transported to me to make me happy with my tall expectations? By constantly looking at chainmaille online. Hey, that weave is pretty! That one makes me wish I ordered rubber rings. That would be a cool project to take on in the future! Blah blah blah!

How else am I dealing with it? Knitting.

Another distraction: I got an eye exam and should be getting new glasses soon! Possibly before my chainmaille even gets here! I got these really pretty frames, because all of a sudden it sounds like my insurance pays for nice frames and crappy lenses. At least I got scratch resisitant. The glasses I'm wearing now have a HUGE crack in them, scratches, as well as the anti-glare coating is peeling off, interestingly enough. I wouldn't have known that except for the doctor telling me so. I just assumed it was also scratches.

My new glasses. Are going to be amazing. Compared to wearing glasses that aren't my prescription. Plus the pretty frames. They have like, flowery shapes on the sides. It'll be fun to wear. Yay. New stuffs.


...

/rant.

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W.I.P. Wednesday early Thursday morning!

So I started my sweater! I've only just got done with the ribbing at the top. I decided to go with the $5 in Paris pattern.


It'll be black with red ribbing, and I haven't decided if I'm going to alternate thin red stripes with thick black stripes or if I'll just do the main part in just black. I think it'll look a little too plain, but I'm not sure if there's enough red to do stripes.

I've done the math with my gauge and stuff and I still think it looks too small, but it's on the needles. I know it will be wider than it looks.

I'm super excited to be knitting something for myself finally, but I'm using that red heart super saver yarn and I definitely will have to wear clothes underneath this, as it will be a little scratchy. I haven't done anything this big before though and I'd rather do the first one with cheap yarn first.

After this, I want to do something a little chunky and with a hood, and probably a zipper. I'm not really that big of a fan of pullovers, but this is pretty much off the shoulder so the neck line won't bother me much.

I've started a knit along (KAL) here on Craftster for this sweater, so if anyone would like to join me in knitting $5 in Paris, please do so! Feel free to post pictures here and on Craftster!


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Mar 11, 2013

Knitting Inspiration for ME!

I haven't kept anything I've knitted. I've either ripped it all out or gave it away, or it's sitting somewhere completely useless anywhere I could find to shove it away that wasn't at my house. People probably find random knitted items that don't look like anything under their beds and behind their TVs and wonder; "What the hell is this and where did it come from???" Yeah, that was me. Sorry.

Anyways.

I've found 2 things that I want to make for myself, and I might just have enough yarn to do it. The first one is a pair of arm warmers. This picture is from this post here on Craftster, but here's the Ravelry page with the free pattern download.


I'm thinking I'm going to make them in white and red, or black and red. Or black and green. Maybe black and green. I probably won't add the buttons. Or even the thumb. I'm not much of a fans of thumbs on things. 

The second thing I'm going to work on is a sweater. I've been wanting to knit myself a sweater for the looooongest time, but I always try to bite off more than I can chew because I try to make things in different sized needles because I only have a few. Here's the two sweaters I'm trying to decide between: 


This Off the Shoulder Sweater looks easy, but of course I would rather do it on circular needles. I should probably hold off on making this one, because I always mess up when I'm trying to do something with the wrong needles, but I kinda want this one instead of...


$5 in Paris. Even though I have the right needles. Even though it kinda looks more finished at the top there. Not sure why. They are both cute. 

I hope to start soon, and now that I've thought about it I will probably just do $5 in Paris, because there's really no reason why I shouldn't follow the tutorial that I CAN. 

I'm not finished with the Viking Hat yet, and I hope to finish it today, probably not with the horns though. I am realizing that I didn't get nearly as much sleep as I thought I did when I woke up though, and can feel myself slowing down, and also getting a headache! At least I can feel the onset of it though... I can take an ibuprofen before it gets bad. Awesome! 


52 weeks of happiness and another hat.

So I missed my 52 weeks of happiness day again, but only by 3 hours. I haven't been keeping track of things that make me happy throughout the week, so sometimes I feel like I'm talking about stuff that happened maybe last week. I don't really know. Without school or a job to keep things in perspective for me, I have a hard time thinking of what day stuff happened on. Actually, I had trouble with that during school as well.

Happys:


  1. 3 year anniversary!
  2. My bf and I managed to have a Residents Evil marathon finally. 
  3. I learned a movie is coming out based on a book called "The Host"
  4. I finished making my tutu. 
No pictures of the tutu yet, but here is an in progress picture of the hat I'm currently knitting for a friend:


It's going to be a viking hat. It'll have a stripe going all the way up the front and down the back. Not sure how it's going to look when I decrease the rows... Probably stupid. I haven't figured out how to do the horns yet, but here's a quick and dirty tutorial on how to knit a hat on size US 9 circular needles: 

For an adult male, cast on 88 stitches. For a female do 80. You want it to be a multiple of 4. 

Do 2x2 ribbing for 3 inches. 

I haven't done the math for 80 stitches, but for 88 stitches, do the first 10 stitches in the contrasting color (In my case red) then do the next 34 in black. Another 10 in red, then the rest black. Continue that all the way through the hat until it's about 2 inches shorter than you want the finished hat to be. 

Start decreasing, I haven't gotten to this part yet and I probably won't until later today, but I've learned the way to decrease is to start out knitting 5, the knit 2 together, continue all the way across, then knit a row regularly. The next row, knit 4, knit 2 together. Until you have a few stitches left then bind off and finish the hat off. 

For those of you used to reading knitting patterns: 

Size US 9 circular needles
Yarn in main and contrast color.

CO 88
2x2 ribbing in CC for 3 inches
K 10, switch to MC and k 34. Switch to CC and k 10. Back to MC and k 35. Continue until 2 inches from top of hat. 
Row 1 of decrease: k5, k2tog, repeat. 
Row 2 of decrease: k
Row 3 of decrease: k4, k2tog, repeat. 
Row 4 of decrease: k

and so on and so forth until you have only a few stitches left. 
BO and slip the tail through the remaining stitches and pull tight. 

When I figure out the horns, I will try to make the most clearest knitting pattern EVER, because so far I've found patterns that don't make sense. Or are crocheted. My bf keeps trying to convince me that no one ever knits beanies and they are all crocheted, but he just doesn't know how to use Google correctly. There are tons of pretty knit hats out there! 

EDIT: 

Here's another in progress picture, I've got quite a few more inches on it. 



Mar 9, 2013

Mosquitoes are definitely here for the warm months.

I've been seeing plenty of mosquitoes these past couple of days, and I now know that the bites I had on my face a while ago were in fact mosquito bites. I just couldn't believe it... It's too early for them to be out!

We usually don't have a mosquito problem here were I live because the city blows its budget on finding and killing the eggs and larvae. I personally think this is a worthy thing for money to be spent on, but the past couple of years we have been taking money away from fire prevention and using it for fire fighting. Thus there were more fires that couldn't be prevented, so we had to take MORE money away from fire prevention...

The dogs here whine until we open the door, then one will go outside while the other sits halfway out the door, preventing us from closing it. During the summer we leave the door wide open all day and sometimes even all night for them. They hate the winter much more than we do. So that's how I got mosquito bites on my face... It's so cold inside that everything else is covered. It's unbelievably annoying to have to deal with dogs who want to go outside every 5 minutes... Especially when they just want to go out for 30 seconds then hope we went back to the living room so we won't close it right away.

I now have a bite on my wrist. I used to scratch them furiously, but I've finally grown up enough to just ignore the itch. When I figured out I was scratching bites on my face, I stopped and they went away almost immediately. It's amazing what ignoring some things can do. If only I could just ignore the dogs. Especially when I'm sleeping.

The only good thing about mosquitoes is the fact that they mean warmer weather is on it's way, which is the biggest reason I'm talking about them.

On another note, my chainmaille should arrive on or before Thursday. I'm hoping for before, because then I will be at home to receive it. Then I can start working on it! I'm not getting my hopes up though... The website I ordered from seems to be taking their sweet time packing my chainmaille. I am used to websites saying that my order will be delivered within 7 days but getting it in 3 or 4 days. Well, it's already been 2 days and they haven't even packed it. The website said it had plenty of what I was ordering already in the bags of however much I was getting. So all they really need to do is print some stuff and put it in a box. I don't really know how companies really go about packing their stuff, so I shouldn't whine about it, but I want it now! So I can start making dice bags and such.

Today was my bfs and mine 3rd anniversary! (I have no idea how to word that correctly.) We watched the first 3 Resident Evil movies, went to the gym, and went to Sonic for some slushes. We had to stop after the 3rd movie because he had to head to work. I got him a stuffed sheep! He is more excited about having sheep than having a dairy cow or a small flock of chickens like I am. Oh well!

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Mar 8, 2013

Chainmaille!

I ordered some chainmaille from theringlord.com... Much cheaper than the previous site I bought from, bluebuddhaboutique.com. I like getting 5/32 ID rings, which for 1000 used to be $17.00, and now it's closer to $5.00. That's a HUGE price cut!

When I first started ordering rings, theringlord seemed like a really crappy site. It still is harder to navigate than bluebuddhaboutique, but now that I've seen the prices, I can't believe I ever decided to get rings anywhere else. I'm not sure about their quality, and I'm already annoyed by their lack of customization choices, but I think it's worth dealing with that.

I bought scalemaille, and plan to make dice bags and flowers with it. Here are some examples below:

Flowers

Bag

I hope to make some other things as well, because I like scalemaille and I plan on selling some products made with it but I haven't found anything else SMALL enough to make. Maybe some jewelry! I'm sure bracelets and necklaces would look pretty cool with scalemaille.... In fact I saw a pretty cool necklace at Radcon that somebody was wearing but I didn't get a close enough look to replicate anything close to it. Ah well! I should be creative enough to make my own stuff, right? 

Mar 7, 2013

I hate knitting hats.

Just a short post today because I'm just REALLY frustrated. Basically, I knit a hat for my bf. I haven't knitted in a while so my hands were really hurting after a while, but I finished the damn hat.

After sitting there and measuring the hat on his head constantly, I finished it up and it doesn't even reach his ears. His mom is wearing it and thinks its cute, but, I don't care, it's a failure and my hands really really hurt, the second reason why I'm not doing a longer post. Blah. I was all excited about finishing the hat so quickly.

Mar 6, 2013

AWESOME APPLE IN AN APPLE

Random post, but I found this on somebodies facebook and I can't exactly bookmark it. So, here's to immortalizing it here on my blog. I do this often because it's a way to keep track of things I want to do! In fact, I did that a lot when I wasn't really blogging for anyone other than me. Anyways, here's the copy pasta:

"~APPLE PIE BAKED IN APPLE~

5-6 Granny Smith apples (make sure they can stand on their own) 
1 tbsp. cinnamon 
1/4 cup sugar 
1 tbsp. brown sugar 
pie crust (homemade or pre-made)

1) Preheat oven to 375F.

2) Cut off the top of 4 apples off and discard. Remove the inside of each apple with a spoon or melon baller very carefully, as to not puncture the peel.

If you’re a skilled interior apple excavator, salvage as much as you can so you can use it for Step 2. I, on the other hand, am not skilled so I just had to throw my interior apples away and chop up additional apples for filling.

3) Remove skin from remaining apple(s) and slice very thinly. These apple pieces will give you the additional filling needed to fill the four apples you are baking.

Mix sliced apples with sugars and cinnamon in a bowl. If you prefer more or less cinnamon make adjustments as desired. Same goes for the sugar.

Scoop sliced apples into hollow apples.

4) Roll out pie crust and slice into 1/4 inch strips. You can also add a strip of pastry inside the top of the apple almost like a liner to add a little more texture/sweetness to the pie.

Cover the top of the apple in a lattice pattern with pie crust strips.

5) Place apples in an 8×8 pan. Add just enough water to the cover the bottom of the pan.

Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until crust is golden brown and sliced apples are soft.

Makes 4 baked apple pies (in the apple)."

And here is the picture that went with it: 


WIP Wednesday

WIP = Work In Progress

I follow a couple of blogs who have a WIP Wednesday, so since I'm home on Wednesdays and working on stuff that may or may not be finished I decided I will do the same. Because, I usually only post things that I've finished, and sometimes that means I'm not posting projects very often. Sometimes I don't post what I have finished because it's finished and it's not a project anymore though!

So, I started a quilt. My first quilt. So far I hate everything. I'm making 12 square foot blocks, and they are going to have strips in between all of them so there's at least another foot to a foot and a half added in each direction when it's done. My boyfriend liked this one quilt that looked easy enough so I started making that pattern, I wish I started with bigger squares than TWO INCHES.


There are a lot of little squares, there will be 16 in each block, and 12 blocks... I need 192 squares. Thank god I happen to have a rotary cutter. 

The other project (that I do hope to finish today) is my tutu. I originally made this tutu to match a pair of cool cat ears a friend got me. Well, I was wearing it the other day (I got a blue and black corset and it's awesome, especially with the tutu!) and I noticed that there are a lot of gaps in between the fabric. It's just tulle tied to a piece of elastic, very simple. I got more tulle, both are sparkly and the blue matches the corset a little better than the blues already in the tutu. Just gotta cut them up and tie them on. Not too hard... Just time consuming. Like cutting tiny little squares and then sewing them together... 


The mess of colors is that actual tutu, while the black on the left there is the black tulle I got and the blue beneath the black is the blue that I got. The corset is underneath the blue fabric, I didn't think to get a picture of that also. You can see the corner of it at least! It's pretty. 

By the way, I used THIS TUTORIAL to make the tutu. I like how mine sticks OUT instead of down when I wear it... That's how I think it should be. I'm not exactly sure how people even make the kind that lay down more anyways. 

I plan on getting pictures of me wearing the "Blue Cat" outfit sometime, I'll be sure to post them because I think it looks cute all put together. 

I'm also trying to write a story! Not sure if it will ever turn out... I don't have much ambition to become an author, but I do enjoy typing a LOT, so why not write something? If I decide that it isn't good enough to try to get it published, I think I will post it here in sections. Is that a good idea? 

Mar 5, 2013

More pretzels, Valentine's Hearts, Recipes.

So I made more pretzels today, with all white flour instead of half whole wheat. I am much more happier with these!


The small bowl has my improvised Honey Mustard Sauce, which is made by putting a dollop of mayo, some mustard, and some honey in a bowl and stirring. I didn't measure at ALL so there's how to make that. It's freaking delicious. 


I made more of these peanut butter filled beauties, and I LOVE them. The mold is made for making chocolate candy in, so they just pop straight out after you put them in the freezer for a bit. 


Half done-ish. 

Now. I am not one for measuring things like peanut butter. It's too sticky to deal with. So, to make the peanut butter filling in these, I just take half a stick of butter, and about the top 1/3 of a small container of creamy Jif, and put those in a bowl. Microwave 30 seconds. Mix. Add a BIT of vanilla, then add a pile of powdered sugar. Mix. Just taste it to see if you want more sugar. Jif already has sugar, so you don't really need that much. If it tastes sweet, you're good. And THAT is how you make "Reeses" peanut butter! That's actually more or less my recipe to make peanut butter fudge, actually. But. It works! 

Then you just melt the meltable chocolate in the microwave, use a spoon to more or less cover the inside of the mold, freeze for a few minutes until solid, pour some peanut butter off of a spoon into there, freeze, then cover with chocolate, freeze, presto, homemade reeses! 

For the pretzels, I have an actual recipe. Here: 

One packet of yeast (2 and 1/4 teaspoons)
1.5 cups of warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking soda
1 cup hot water

Put yeast in WARM water, mix until mostly dissolved. Add suagr and salt, mix. Add flour. Mix. Add more flour until the dough isn't sticky... 

Flour surface and knead the dough for a bit until when you poke it it will poof back up magically. Shape into ball. Cut into 1/3 cup sizes, I just hack a piece off and stick it in a 1/3 cup to see if it fits. 

Take the baking soda and dump it in hot water, mix until... You get sick of mixing, unless you actually manage to dissolve it all. 

Roll pieces into ropes about 20 inches long. Shape into pretzel shape. Dip into baking soda water then place on cookie sheet. Salt on top, or whatever you want... 

Bake at 425F degrees for 15 minutes, done! NOM NOM NOM TIME. 

Okay, so this is based off of a recipe called pretzels in 30 minutes or something like that and this takes me like an hour to do all by myself. The dough does not want to form ropes. The woman talked about her husband helping her, so if you can manage to do this in a half hour with some help, kudos. If you manage to do that by yourself, give me your life force. I mean, even more kudos! Yeah. 

It's more fun to listen to music while you're cursing at the dough. 

Anyways. The first time, I used 2 cups cake flour (didn't have regular) and 2 cups whole wheat, and dipped it in an egg. I broiled for the last 5 minutes of baking them in order to get them to brown, and they tasted more like bread than a pretzel. This time, I read several more recipes and read someone talking about how they used to make pretzels with some kind of disgusting thing (I can't remember) in order to make them taste like pretzels but now we do it in baking soda and I have to say, they taste a lot more like pretzels this time. They kind of have crunchy crusts, but the inside is still super soft. 

Now, my dad is on a diet and took my recipe and figured out the nutritional value to see if he could have one. Well, here's that info, based on the fact that I made 11 pretzels this time. 

Calories: 174
Fat: 0.5
Carbs: 34.5
Fiber: 1.4
Protein: 4.9

and that is per pretzel. Not the whole batch. I can only assume the measurements are in grams, since that is what is usually on packages. 

Mar 4, 2013

52 Weeks of Happiness... Late.

Just a reminder, I do have a facebook page for my blog! For any updates, head on over and like!

I had planned on editing my short post last night with my 4 happys, but instead I went to bed. Or tried to, at least. So here they are, late's better than never:


  1. Hung out with a friend 
  2. Made a real dinner for once
  3. Found like 5 new blogs to follow
  4. Found the Squid Pillow. 
The squid pillow is happening. I don't know when, I don't know how, but he is going to be made in the future. Hopefully the near future!

Today I want to talk about donating Blood Plasma. For those of you who don't know how you donate JUST blood plasma, instead of whole blood, you get a needle stabbed into your vein in the crook of your arm, a machine starts taking blood out, and puts it in a bowl where it's spun around at about 2000 RPMs a minute I think. This separates the red blood cells from the plasma, and the plasma goes into a bottle. Then the machine returns the red cells to you, through the same needle.

There may not be a Biomat in your town, but there is one in mine and that's how I make my money. Yes. You donate 2x a week and get paid. It's not just doing a good thing anymore... but it's how they get lots of people to do it, therefore getting plenty of plasma for the people who need it.

Most biomats will give you a debit card these days. Mine only recently switched to the card from cold hard cash, but apparently it was one of the last biomats who was giving out cash. It's really annoying, as I have to be able to put money into my REAL bank account, so, I have to go to the ATM in 7-11 in order to get my money out for free, because the card they give you has a ton of restrictions and fees unless you do things their way, including taking out money from specific ATMs. Of course, I have to get a slurpee as well!

You can't just walk in and donate plasma, either. You have to be screened, in which you are tested for iron, protein, asked a bunch of questions pertaining to diseases you may have been in contact with, have your blood pressure and pulse and temperature taken, and when you first start donating, and once a year after that, you have to do a physical. You can't have had any tattoos or piercings in the last year, or have had tattoos revised or any REpiercings. You have to drink enough water, you can't smoke before or after, shouldn't drink alcohol or energy drinks the day of, etc etc. Most people try not to follow the rules, but you might end up permanently deferred from the donating list. I personally go through cycles of having too high a temperature (even though when I check before and after going with 2 different thermometers, they say I'm fine) and then I can't donate, or my iron is too low regardless of the fact that I have been eating steak almost constantly for 2 WEEKS. STRAIGHT. I take expensive vitamins to try to keep my iron and calcium up, and that doesn't work half the time. Ugh.

So, donating blood plasma, if doing it for a good cause, is very rewarding. If you do it ONLY for the money and have never even thought about the fact that you're donating bodily fluids for people in need, it's very frustrating. There's a long wait right now as well, because they're short on staff. Of course, I would LOVE to work there instead of sitting around with a needle in my arm, but I have to stop donating for 6 months in order to apply there, and there's no guarantee that I will get the job. They even train you and you don't need any experience. I did apply anyways but they sent me an email saying they couldn't hire me because I've been donating. Blah, company policy...

Mar 3, 2013

Giant Squid Pillow

I am TOTALLY making one of these. It's a freaking body pillow... 8 feet tall/long.


Here is the tutorial, not showing the one above, that is one another person made with this tutorial, but she used fleece and I think it looks MUCH more cuddlier! 

Anyways, sorry for the short post, but I'm kind of busy today, but I just HAD to show you all this amazing squid body pillow! Definitely something in my future. 

Mar 2, 2013

So the Love Coupons...

While I was looking for ideas for usable Love Coupons, I read a lot about people who had made them and their boyfriend/husband never used them, or they were afraid to make them because they thought that they would never be used. Well, my bf has used 2 of them so far, and I'm pretty proud of myself for choosing ones that he likes!

As a recap, here are the coupons I made for him:


  • Sweets for my Sweetie: I will make/buy your craving ASAP when you present this coupon
  • Ice Cream on Me: I will buy you ice cream
  • Movie and Popcorn: A movie out, all on me
  • GOOD Homemade Dinner: You must have an idea of what you want for dinner, but I will make everything except meat
  • Picnic Planned by me: I will plan a picnic to be enjoyed wherever you want
  • Chocolate Covered Fruit: I will hand dip fruit in chocolate for you
  • Craft made ASAP: Any reasonable craft you want made ASAP
  • Dress me up: Pick out my outfit 
  • Bonus Your Choice: Whatever you want


Anyways, he has used the Craft Made ASAP for a blanket, and the Sweets for my Sweetie for pudding. The Sweets for my Sweetie has unlimited use, the Craft Made ASAP has 3 uses, and I believe the Ice Cream on Me was a 3 use too. I KNOW that he is going to use the Ice Cream one... He loves Ice Cream. The Dress me up coupon somehow got lost, so he doesn't have that one. That, the picnic and fruit are the ones I felt like he might not use anyways, but I wanted him to have a decent selection. He might not use the movie one, either, but he has a job and I don't. So, that's kind of understandable. However, one of the movie theaters around here has super cheap prices on movies that start between 4:00 and 5:30. It's like, $5.50 for a ticket. Instead of $9-11. Which is awesome. Except it's at the crappiest movie theater.

I live in the Tri-Cities, which is pretty much 3 towns all right next to each other, and there's like 2 theaters in each town. At least! So. Yeah.

Anyways, just wanted to say that if you pick out good ideas that personally suit your boyfriend/husband (Or your girlfriend/wife... I've never seen Love Coupons for girls though) then they might use them! I was doubtful of my bf using them until I thought of ideas that I knew he would like.