Blech

One of our neighbors invited our family to dinner today.

I couldn't have any green salad, salmon, fruit salad, or dessert. I ate green beans, corn and a plain baked potato. It wasn't too far from what I would've been eating at home, but sitting next to everybody else, watching them eat much more interesting food was hard. Usually I don't mind, I'll have lunch with friends or go hang out at their house and I really don't care that I'm eating differently.

I think part of it was that after we had finished eating we stayed sitting around the table and talked. I could smell the leftover salmon (it smelled soo good!) and watched the Oreo dessert stuff slowly get devoured. It was soo boring and my knitting was in the other room. I would've gone to get it but was sitting on the opposite side of the room and would've had to climb over 4 different people to reach the door; not to mention the trip back. *sigh* You can only play with a bracelet/ring/watch/Tshirt hem for so long.

Then they started talking about how I don't have a boyfriend and am not dating anyone (this family has 2 girls about my age who are currently engaged) and started coming up with a list of people they could set me up with. To my horror, Mum was thrilled with the prospect of them finding me a date (I think she's worried that I'll never get married, come on Mum, I'm only 20!).

Why can't people keep their noses out?! Has it not occurred to anyone that I like not having another person to screw up my life?! Yes, someday I'd like to settle down, but notice I said someday!! I am nowhere near ready to commit to someone and I quite like being free of emotional entanglement. Now sometime next week they'll call me about a movie they want to go to and would I like to come?? If I can't come up with an excuse not to go, I'll end up sitting next to some guy they think will be perfect for me. Eww, no thanks.

And to top the night off; Daddy's brother Uncle Rubiks and his wife Aunt Gossip are driving all night and will be spending tomorrow at our house. We got home from dinner and found a message on the answering machine that said they were coming. Yes, it was completely out of the blue. At least they're not bringing Cousin hate-his-guts (my feelings towards him are completely justified and the feeling is mutual. We just do not get along).

**Edit**
I just realized how angry I sound in this post. I'm just in a really bad/pissy/depressed mood. Today I was going through some old CD's and found one given to me by a late friend (just barely passed the one year mark) and I've spent the day worrying about the possibility that I am literally going insane.

I also wanted to give a bit of background to Cousin hate-his-guts (it felt weird to say I hate someone without saying why). He's a year younger than me and has always felt the need to compete with every little thing I do. He always has to have the last word in and "top" every story (if I only slept for 5 hours that night he only slept for 3, etc.). He is the most self absorbed, cocky, rude, annoying person I have ever had the misfortune of coming in contact with. He feels the need to constantly ridicule anything and everything I believe in, admire, or am remotely proud of. About six years ago he and his Dad (Uncle Rubiks) were living with us and he destroyed, ruined, and stole/resold many of mine and Sister's belongings. During this same time he often tried to hit on me or set me up with his creepy friends (keep in mind that he and I are first cousins, eww!). He's an only child, very spoiled, and grew up with the world revolving around him. He is truly a despicable person.

And he when he eats he chews with his mouth open and breathes though his nose at the same time (which, in my opinion, is the most disgusting noise in existence).

Words cannot describe how happy I am that he's not coming with his parents.

Socks!!

Today I finished my first pair of socks!! I was scared of running out of yarn so I made the cuffs really short (like, 2 inches total) but now I figure out that I would've been fine making them "normal" length.....oh well :o)

You may have noticed I changed my avatar (click on it to make it clearer); that's about the color my hair is now (in the sun it looks a bit more red). Today I'm liking it more but I'm not sure if I'll keep it this color. I still might go for something a bit brighter.

Next week I'm going to take my camera's memory card in and have the pictures burned to a CD. After I do that I'll be able to post WIP pictures of my shawl and finished pictures of my socks/boogie time (I fixed it yesterday!!). Oh, and I'll be able to post pictures of Lake Alice (where I went for the dreaded reunion) so you can all see how gorgeous it is :o)


Ummm, that's it really. Kind of a boring post.......

Old Jewelry

So as it doesn't look like I'll be able to upload any new pictures for at least another week I decided to start posting old projects. The first was inspired by Otto (my violin bow), the second by Johnny (my violin):


I made this pendant to look like the frog* on my bow. It's constructed mainly of brass tube and an 18 gauge sheet of silver.


This necklace is made of tiger tail wire and (broken/very used) violin strings. At the base of each string is the "knob" you see at the top of each "dangle". This is used to attach it to the violin tailpiece** and helps keep the string nice and tight. Each brand wraps their strings with different colors of thread (I collected strings from my own stash and also received some from violin playing friends and teachers). The little white bead-like thing at the bottom of each "dangle" is hot glue (I was worried about the ends coming unraveled after I cut them).


My hair is red now.....I'm not sure yet if I like this shade. It's a bit more purple than I was hoping for. Tomorrow I'm going to get it cut, maybe it'll look better then? I suppose part of it is the shock; I've only ever had brown hair. I think I'll leave it for a week or two and if I'm still not happy with it I'll try it again :o)


*The frog is the part of the bow (long stick) that the performer holds in their right hand (picture)

**The tailpiece is where the base of each string is attached to the violin (or viola, cello, and string bass). It is usually located next to where the violinist/violist would place their chin; on a cello/string bass it is at the bottom of the instrument (picture)

Close Call

Daddy read my blog last night.....

I emailed him the link when I first started, knowing that he'd glance at it and probably wouldn't follow. Lucky for me, he has a sense of humor and thought my take on the dreaded reunion was funny (*HUGE sigh of relief*). I think he was a bit surprised by the way I "talk" on my blog. In real life, I am painfully shy, and usually very quiet (until I get to know you).


Tonight I was going to go knit at S'n'B but I think I'm getting sick. I've had an almost constant stomach ache for two days :o( I was hoping I'd feel a bit better tonight but as I don't it would probably be better if I stayed home and didn't infect everybody ;o) <--winking smilie, if you can't tell (I've always thought they looked a little weird)


I'm having picture posting withdrawl. Starting tomorrow I'm going to post pictures of old projects.

I miss my computer....

I miss my lap top; this keyboard is driving me crazy!! You have to push the keys a lot harder and it's bigger then the one I'm used to. And it feels like the mouse is HUGE! I also miss being able to upload pictures from my camera. On my lap top there's a slot where I can just stick in my memory card but on this computer there's not even the right port to plug it in with the cable!! Maybe I'll start posting old projects that I already have pictures for......


Today I was going through some old craft supplies and found a couple of silver rings I was working on and forgot about!! One of them is cleaned up enough to wear but the other still needs a ton of work. I love it when I find old projects I've forgotten about (and still like); It somehow feels like a new project yet it doesn't take as long to finish :o)


- Knitting Update -
I've finished one sock and am about half-way through the other. The shawl is at a halt because I screwed something up and haven't quite figured out what I did. I got some elastic to fix boogie time (the watch thing) and will hopefully finish repairs on it by tomorrow. I still don't feel like fixing my cardigan; I think once it cools down I'll feel a bit more motivated.


I've finally gotten so sick of my hair that I'm going to change it this week. Today I went shopping for dye (I'm going red; not fire engine red, a nice auburn). I have really sensitive skin so I'll need to test it to make sure I'm not allergic to it but by Thursday I should be a red head! I'm also going to trim my hair a bit. The last hair change I went through was getting rid of my dreadlocks (if I had my way I'd still have them but my scalp couldn't handle it; I miss them terribly!) and when I finished combing them all out I had million different layers but it looked ok and I haven't changed it since.....I'm getting really sick of the layers :oP

The Family Reunion (part 2)

- Day 4 (Thursday) -
After breakfast Daddy and I went to the lake together, just the two of us (Baby Sister and Brother got so bored at the lake the first day they wanted no part of it). We fished for about an hour and then tried to hike all the way around the lake....it was WAY too big. We hiked for about 5 hours and only made it about half way, I think. Coming back we found a better trail and it was a lot faster.

While we were at the lake we missed the "war". The "war" is a natural occurrence whenever Aunt Crazy and Aunt Psycho are together for more then 72 hours. The "war" is not your usual fight (Crazy and Psycho had many other little fights each day of the reunion); the "war" is an all out screaming match that usually ends in either Aunt Psycho making herself faint, Aunt Crazy leaving, or the two of them vowing to never speak to each other again. Daddy and I thought it would actually come on Wednesday, causing Aunt Crazy to go home, and we would have a peaceful rest of the week. But they surprised us and were able to last an entire extra day (they arrived at Alice Lake on Sunday). I guess Aunt Crazy didn't approve of Aunt Psycho's recent divorce and told her she was a terrible person for marrying the guy in the first place (Uncle Star Wars, actually a very nice guy, a bit odd, yes. He and Psycho fought constantly so it was good they split). Aunt Wishy-Washy took her side and told Aunt Psycho what a bad mother she was and that her kids were horrible brats (mind you, they were saying all this in front of the poor kids). Aunt Crazy, Aunt Wishy-Washy, and their families left. Then came the task of building up the self esteem of Aunt Psycho's kids and trying to explain to them that the things Aunts Crazy and Wishy-Washy said weren't true.

It was odd to talk with Aunt Psycho later and hear her account of the "war". All of the things Aunt Crazy said to her (not counting the whole divorce/bad mom thing) were almost word for word what she had screamed at me last October. Aunt Psycho didn't know about that but felt better after I told her about it. I mean, she felt better that Aunt Crazy had used the same script which meant that she hadn't thought up all those insults just for her. My theory is that Aunt Crazy just doesn't know how to express anger/worry/frustration/fear in a healthy way. Uncle Controlling (Crazy's husband) had forbidden her from coming and I think she was scared to go back home because he gets mean (and abusive, though she won't admit it to anybody). I think she looks for someone else to blame all her life's problems on. Last October she was upset that she had taken her kids out of school so they could come to Disney Land and they weren't having as much fun as she had hoped they would so she accused me of ignoring her daughter. I wish someone could convince her to get help but I doubt that will ever happen.

- Day 5 (Friday) -
We left at about 12:30 and got home around 7. Mum had thought we were coming home on Thursday and had literally worried herself sick thinking we had been missing for a day (she tried mine and Daddy's cell phones but we didn't get any reception up there). When I got home the first thing I did was take a shower. It feels soo good to be clean again.


- A couple of other random things -

• To get to the Camp Site you have to drive for 30 miles on an extremely rocky/bumpy dirt road (it was soo bumpy I couldn't knit!)
• There were about 23 billion flies at Lake Alice; I'm certain they had not eaten for an entire year. We would drench ourselves in 3 different kinds of bug spray and we were still bitten.
• I finally told Daddy's side of the family about the possibility of them all being gluten intolerant

One family member in particular (Cousin Zelda, daughter of Aunt Crazy) I'm pretty sure has it. She's been tested for everything under the sun and they can't find out what's wrong. A lot of her symptoms are similar to what mine were. When I started telling her what she needed to look out for I started to feel really bad for her. Aunt Crazy kept interjecting favorite foods of Cousin Zelda's saying "oh, that means you can't have ____ anymore! How awful!" You could just see all hope draining from Cousin Zelda's eyes.

The first 3 months of trying to rid your diet of all gluten are soo hard! It's common to become depressed because you start to feel like you'll never enjoy food again and everything that tastes good is off limits. When I started eating gluten-free (GF) I was severely depressed; I've always been, well, a happy person; and it was really hard for me to feel so awful all the time. I don't think I would've made it if it were not for my parents. They treated each discovery of a new GF food as something to celebrate and were constantly on the lookout for GF substitutes of my favorite foods. At my lowest point my sweet, sweet Daddy went and found a TON of GF pastas, soups, bread, and a cookie mix! I cannot tell you how incredibly happy that cookie mix made me. I know it sounds stupid that a cookie mix could make such a difference but to me, it brought me back to reality and made all the difference in the world. Now that I'm used to it, I'm perfectly happy eating GF! Yes, there are still a few things I haven't yet found a substitute for (like licorice, ice cream cones, and good hamburger buns) but life is a lot better now.

Once in a while I'll be "glutened" (meaning I've eaten something containing gluten without realizing it); most recently it was Powerade. While camping I get really dehydrated so we bought a bunch of my favorite powerade (Arctic Ice) and I drank a lot of it during the reunion and when we got home. All that time my stomach was really touchy and I had a hard time making myself eat or finding things that I thought my stomach would be able to handle. A couple of days ago I was randomly reading the label of my powerade bottle and I discovered it had gluten in it! I should have checked before I started guzzling it but who would've thought there would be gluten in Powerade!? I gave the rest of it away and feel a lot better now.

The Family Reunion (part 1)

- Day 1 (Monday) -
We didn't leave till about 4pm; I didn't mind (I was all for delaying our departure as long as possible but I wasn't the reason we left so late, honest!) but this meant we didn't arrive till 11:30 that night. Grandpa left a lantern on for us so we knew where to go (glad it didn't burn down the forest!). We searched around for a free spot and found the perfect one! It was around 250-300 yards away from everybody else so we couldn't hear or see them but Brother could still walk over there by himself to play with cousins; we had our own fire pit and picnic table; and we were close to an outhouse (yet far enough away that we couldn't smell it). So we set up our tent and finally all crawled into our sleeping bags at about 1. It was freezing; I don't think I slept for more then 2 hours.


- Day 2 (Tuesday) -
I was the first one up (around 5). I couldn't stay in the tent any longer, it was too cold. The first thing I did was build a fire. I discovered that whomever it was that took care of the camp sites had cut down a bunch of dead trees and left them about 20 feet from our site; so I didn't have to search at all for firewood (yay!).

After everybody woke up we went to the lake (Lake Alice); you can only get there on foot (an easy hike). We hiked with Uncle Boring, Aunt Boob-a-phobic (so called because when she gives you a hug she's afraid to let her chest touch you. It's like bowing and mashing your shoulders together while patting the other person on the back), Uncle Glasses, Cousin Normal and Tiki (Cousin Normal's dog. He's the most adorable and well behaved black lab ever!). Everybody was going soo slow, it was really annoying myself and Cousin Normal so we managed to break away from the group and arrived at the lake about 45 minutes before everybody else. We played fetch with Tiki in the water and chatted/made fun of relatives (I know, we're horrible).

After everybody finally arrived I went fishing for the first time ever! I found the act of fishing to be quite enjoyable, at first....till I hooked a fish. It was a beautiful fish, about 16 inches, but I felt soo bad watching it gasp for air.....I let it go. I love fish but I don't think I'd ever be able to eat the ones I catch unless I was starving....poor fish. It was Baby Sister and Brother's first time fishing too! They had fun for the first hour or so but by then it was extremely hot and they were tired and bored.

That night I witnessed my Grandpa trying to start a fire. From a young age, I was taught how to properly build a fire and how to keep it going (I was taught by an Uncle on Mum's side of the family). Grandpa put a HUGE log in the pit, added a couple of news papers and some lighter fluid, and threw a match in.....I was speechless. What would they do if they ran out of lighter fluid (probably freeze to death)??


- Day 3 (Wednesday) -
On Wednesday all the adults decided to go fishing and leave me to watch their kids. I didn't have any say in the matter, they just left. It was like, because I don't have any kids of my own it was my responsibility to watch everybody else's. Just because I love kids, and I'm really good with kids, and they all seem to like me, does not mean I'm dying to do it just because you don't want to take them fishing with you!! Surprisingly, they were all very well behaved and I was able to use this time to finish my cardigan. After they got back Uncle Boring and his family went into town (they didn't get back till we were all asleep) and Aunt Boob-a-phobic and her family went home (which included Uncle Glasses, Cousin Normal, and Tiki; boo!)

Wednesday evening, Daddy and Uncle Chicken-Fat (so called because that's his favorite part, ewww) went back up to the lake so they could take advantage of the great fishing at dusk; so Brother, Baby Sister, and I were left with the Grandparents, Aunts Wishy-Washy, Psycho, Crazy, and all their kids. Aunt Crazy decided that she was going to be in charge and tried to make everybody sit still and listen to Grandpa tell us how he found out about Alice Lake. As you can probably imagine, none of the children were even remotely interested (not counting myself, they're all under the age of 12) so Aunt Crazy starts yelling at everybody.

At this point the sky suddenly lit up with lightening which was immediately followed by rolling thunder (meaning it was really close). All my Aunts flipped out, they were like chickens running around with their heads chopped off! This made Baby Sister freak out and she immediately broke down into tears which in turn caused Brother to do the same. Great; Daddy's at the lake and I'm stuck with 2 crying kids and relatives that don't know how to keep their cool during a storm. I somehow got us back to our camp site and we climbed into the tent. Now that we were away from the crazy/freaked out relatives Baby Sister and Brother were a bit calmer but still really scared. After we had been in the tent for all of 30 seconds it starts hailing, HARD. Yeah, this didn't help them calm down. We sat on our sleeping bags and I held them while they plugged their ears. It hailed for about 5 minutes then began to rain. So we played cards (old maid :oP ) to keep their minds off the storm. It was getting late so I put them in bed and told them a condensed version of the Hobbit (their choice, it's their favorite). Daddy got back about halfway through and we moved a bunch of our stuff back into the car (the rain was starting to seep through the bottom of the tent). He also borrowed a bunch of blankets from Grandma (I swear she brought enough blankets to start her own store) so we slept a lot warmer and drier then we would have.


- The things I missed most while camping -

• My computer
• Craftster
• Blogland
• My bed
• Showers
• Flushing toilets
• All the CD's I didn't bring

Part 2 coming tomorrow......

Computers are dumb

So you know how I had my lap top kinda working?? Well now I need a new hard drive.

Yeah, I'm really pissed.

Things were looking up; I managed to back up everything and decided to wipe the hard drive (it's been running a bit slow lately anyways and needed to be done). I wiped it and starting reformatting/installing programs when suddenly I get a blue screen that said a bunch of stuff that basically meant 'you're screwed please try again'. This is when I started whining to Daddy (I love having a computer nerd for a Dad!); he does a some tests, tries a bunch of stuff, and says "well, I think we need to replace the hard drive". So we try to get it out so we can see what kind it is and go buy a new one and we can't get it out. Call the company; they won't tell us what kind it is but will ship us a new one for $400 plus shipping (it would cost me about $800 to buy a new and better lap top)!!! So I guess we're going to take it in to Daddy's friend to have the hard drive removed and it'll be around $50 to replace it. Daddy set up his old work computer but when I try to upload pictures from my camera it makes funny sounds and turns itself off so I'll be making pictureless posts for awhile.....This means it wasn't really Sister's fault that it crashed; something was already a little funky and it just gave up (she's soo relieved; she was really beating herself up over it).

In not so depressing news I went to see my ear doctor and he says the infection that I've had for about 2 years is finally just about gone (yay!!). We've been able to keep it at bay for the past year but haven't been making much progress till now. My doc is so weird. I swear he has a different color of hair every time I go see him. He's been through white, black, auburn, grey, sandy blonde, brown, and light blonde.

As far as the knitting thing goes -

• I've finished my cardigan but there's things about it that I'm really unhappy with and need to fix.
• I've started and finished boogie time (the watch thing) but it doesn't stay where I want it to; so it's going to be fixed too.

This week I also started my shawl and my first pair of socks!

• I'm scared of running out of sock yarn so I made the cuffs really short; they're going to be like ankle socks. I'm using a simple 2x2 rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.
• I was showing the shawl pattern to one of my neighbors that was wondering what I was doing and she said "you're making that? Now??". I tried to explain that lace looks a lot different after you block it but she just looked at me like I was crazy. The way she was talking to me made me feel like she didn't think I was capable of making it!!

Stupid ignorant person.


Oh, yes; I know you've all been dying to hear all about my reunion (in case you can't see it; that sentence is dripping with sarcasm). That particular update is still coming but won't be posted till tomorrow or perhaps Friday.

I'm back!!

Yesterday I arrived home from the dreaded reunion. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was still pretty bad.

When I got home I was greeted at the door by a sheepish looking Sister....she somehow managed to totally crash my lap top. So for about 5 hours yesterday and 4 hours today I've been trying to figure out what's wrong. I've got it kinda working but the reunion update will have to wait for a few days till I'm completely up and running. Hopefully I won't have to resort to wiping my hard drive and starting over.

As today is Saturday here's a picture of the sky. I'm really quite amazed my computer would allow me to upload it.

Random Stuff

Once again, I'm up so late this says Monday but pretend it's still Sunday :o)


As promised; here's a picture of Sunday's Sky (Saturday looked pretty much the same but with more clouds)



And I'd like to introduce you to Johnny


Yes, I named my violin; Johnny is 5 years old and was made by John Moroz. Poor Johnny was tortured today; this guy in my neighborhood begged to sing a solo in church so as Daddy's in charge of that sort of thing I had to play the obbligato for him. I didn't mind except he was impossible to follow! He had absolutely no sense of rhythm and was kinda tone deaf. He also took a HUGE pause in the middle of the last word! He sang it like that when we practiced too; it drives me insane!!!


The Grandparents came today; the bad news is they decided to bring Aunt Wishy-Washy, Aunt Psycho, and their families. Then Aunt Crazy (the one who was yelling at me in California) showed up too. The good news is they left about an hour after they arrived rather than stay the night and drive with us in the morning (yay!).


I still haven't finished the button band on my cardigan; I didn't get to knit at all today :o(


Today was the last day of the Jazz Festival; I got to work with Sister today! She's soo funny :o) For some reason drunk guys have a need to tell her their life story.


As it's now the time of the dreaded reunion I won't be updating till I get back. Originally we were going to come home on Thursday but now Daddy's thinking of coming back on Friday instead.....I'll be doing my best to convince him otherwise.

Long Day

So I know this says Sunday but to me it's still Saturday because I haven't gone to bed yet....

Today I went to SnB at the Farmer's Market. It was just me and Gwen till she left for lunch, then it was just me. Oh well; at least I didn't have to help prepare for the Grandparents arrival (turns out they're not coming till Sunday). I finished the collar on my Cardigan and picked up stitches for the button band. I might end up not finishing knitting it till Monday; boo! While at the market I looked around for rings. About a month ago I lost my favorite ring and my finger feels really weird not having one on it. I've finally given up hope of finding it but I haven't found one that I like yet (I'll try again next week).

At the Jazz festival I had more fun then yesterday because I got to work with funny people. I also got to work the register, which in a weird way I think is kinda fun, and I found out that I get paid for working the register (not much, but still; I thought I wasn't getting anything)! Here's the back of the shirts we wear:



I love them! On the front it says (in the top left corner) 'SLC Jazz Festival 2006' and has a picture of a Saxophone. Cool stuff :o) Oh, and I ran into David and he got to meet Sister (she loves your hair too!!).

Um, I know it's Saturday and I'm supposed to post a picture of what the sky looks like; but I've been gone all day (I just barely got home) and forgot to take my camera with me. I could take a picture of what the sky looks like now but it's all black and my camera won't focus (I tried). So tomorrow (or later today, if you're going by what day my blog says it is) I'll post a picture of Sunday's Sky.

That's all for now; I'm going to bed.

Interesting Day...

Today I started knitting the collar of my cardigan!! I am so excited to have it finished! I should finished with the collar tomorrow and start on the last bit of knitting (button/buttonhole bands) yay!

I thought I'd be able to finish said collar today but a bunch of CD's came in for me at the library (Bright Eyes, Radiohead, Sugar Ray, U2 and Reel Big Fish!!) so I cut into knitting to go pick them up. I also decided not to take it with me to the Jazz Festival. It was soo weird riding the bus and not having my knitting with me! And my CD player batteries were dead (yes, I am one of the few that do not own an ipod) and I didn't have any extra batteries with me. So I had to listen to some lady yak really loud on her cell phone.

I took a book but it just wasn't the same....


At the Jazz Festival, I worked at a Coke Truck. We were right next to a food place that was selling Navaho Tacos...they smelled soo good. Things were really slow but I'm told they will pick up tomorrow and on Sunday it'll be insane.

We're also right next to the beer booth. There was this guy that stood in front of it (he had already had quite a few drinks) and kept yelling F**k You! at every person that passed by him. Cousin Runs-a-lot (15 on Mum's side) was quite shocked!

As a volunteer, I got a free Tshirt (yay! free stuff)! If I have time I'll post a pic of it tomorrow night.


Tomorrow's going to be a loonng day. In the morning, I'm going to the Farmer's Market to knit; then I'll just be hanging out for 3 hours till it's time for me to go to the Jazz Festival again. If I took the bus home I'd only be here for about an hour and then have to leave again, which is why I decided to just stay downtown. An added bonus for staying is I don't have to clean in preparation for Daddy's parents to arrive (on Monday, they're driving up to the dreaded reunion with us), and when they get here I won't have to entertain them!! Hopefully, by the time I get home (around midnight), they'll be asleep so I won't have to see them till Sunday.

You'd have to know my Grandparents to understand my reluctance to spend time with them. Grandma Too-Sweet is just so, well, too sweet, that it drives me up the wall (like when I just get up, am barely half awake, mane of hair flying, still in my grungy PJs, all she can say is "You're so beautiful!!" *gag*). And Grandpa (still can't think of a good blog name for him) is very...I don't want to say creepy, because it's not quite that; I just don't feel entirely comfortable around him. I don't know why, I just don't. He's also very manipulative and treats Daddy like he's still about ten years old (and me like I'm about five).

Wow, this is getting to be a long post so I'll shut up now :o)

Bracelet Swap

Friendship bracelets that is! I just finished up with the Friendship Bracelet/Anklet Swap on Craftster. We were put in groups of 5 and sent/received 4 bracelets (or anklets). Here are the four I made:


And here are the four I received (I unintentionally put them in the same order as the picture above; the top one is from the person who received the top one in the former picture and so on):


One of the people I was receiving from felt bad because it took her a bit longer to send out so she also included some craft thread as a bonus:


I've never used this stuff before; it’s a bit different then the DMC floss I use for bracelets. I'm not sure yet what I'll use it for.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoy making these. I used to always have "in progress" ones pinned to the knees of my jeans. While I was browsing patterns, I came across a few that I love and will probably make for myself sometime soon...I'll probably start pinning them to my jeans again :o)

Rotten Day

I'm in a bad mood and I don't know why. I should be really happy because I found some buttons for my cardigan and I'm blocking the majority of the pieces today (still have to finish the second sleeve). And it's Independence Day, my favorite holiday. I even had a good night and actually slept.....yet I'm still in a rotten mood.

Anyways, here are the buttons I chose; they're a tiny bit smaller then the pattern recommends but I'm hoping I can make them work.




And Mum found this in the parking lot at her work yesterday -


I think it was part of a necklace. I'm going to see if I can fix the top "loop" so it'll hang better then I'll wear it as a pendant.

Pictures!

As promised, here are in progress pics of my cardigan

Finished pieces (the green is where I will add the neck; I haven't blocked them yet so the edges are still rolling badly, I straightened them as much as I could.)


Sleeve (almost done)


As you can see, I haven't quite finished the first sleeve (I need to do one more brown stripe and then I'll shape the cap). Yesterday it was going so fast but then it seemed to get slower and slower; this morning I figured out that this is because I'm steadily increasing on each side so the rows are getting longer (duh!). Lately I've been overestimating my knitting prowess; I'm hoping to finish before the dreaded reunion but I'd still be overjoyed having the pieces all knit and blocked so I can seam it during the car ride (we're going to Wyoming).

I've also been meaning to post pictures of the orange shirt I finished over a week ago. The color's a bit wonky; the 'truest' color is on my left shoulder. My left, your right :o)


Detail


It's the shirt from this post; I hand painted the spork family using acrylic paint mixed with stuff to make it fabric paint; for some reason I can't remember what it's called...oh well. I saw a shirt like this on the net somewhere (and loved it!) and I needed to do something to improve this shirt (before I attacked it, it was white with a stain on the front). So put them both together and bam! I've got an orange spork shirt :oD



This morning, when I woke up at 4am (not my idea, stupid insomnia), I decided to create a livejournal account so I could post about things that don't really fit here. If you're interested, you're welcome to come visit at Ramblings of an Insomniac. As of this moment, there's only one post that I posted so I could see what it would look like. I doubt I will be updating regularly but I guess you never know (just look how good I'm doing here; I'm amazed that I've updated four days in a row).

It's Saturday!

Today's Saturday so that means it's time to post a picture of what the sky looks like today (if you have no idea what I'm talking about go here); here's what I see from my backyard:


Oooo, Aahhh :o)

At SnB today everybody learned about my deep dark secret. Well...ok, it's not really deep or dark; and I guess it's not really a secret either. So I guess they just learned a bit of random trivia about me: I am dyslexic. It usually only reveals itself when I write (reading's great and I enjoy it!). I am a horrible speller and have a really hard time with grammar. Because of this, my favorite program on my computer is Word. Whenever I type up a blog post (or craftster post, or email, etc.), I copy and paste it into a Word document so I can use the 'good spell checker' and it also checks my grammar. I also proof read so many times I often memorize the text. I am very self conscious about my spelling abilities and hate writing/typing without using my spell checker.

Sometimes it makes me feel bad because my pen pals have to wait so long to hear from me. When I write to them, I first type my letter in Word, then spell check, and finally write it out. Sometimes it takes me a few days to finish a letter that I'm happy with and then when I write them out I often make stupid spelling mistakes and start over. I'm usually able to deal with it but it's still a bit embarrassing and I was teased a lot as a child. I used to have a friend that loved to write me letters but I never wrote back because I was so self conscious. We fought quite a few times about it till we made the arrangement that she would write and I would call on the phone. It worked quite well until she moved, stopped writing, and I lost her address....I've been thinking a lot about her lately....I wonder what she's up to and where she is...

-Cardigan Update-
I'm about half way through one of the sleeves! I'm hoping to be finished with them both by tomorrow so I can start on the neck and button band (which means I need to go button shopping yay!). Tomorrow I'll post 'in progress' pictures!

Oh, and I changed my list of favorite songs. My favorites change a lot so I'm probably not going to mention it every single time I change them.