1 up

Back in early June I went on a bit of an Amigurumi binge thanks largely to the drug that is the Ravelry pattern browser.

Somehow or another I stumbled upon an awesome little 1 up pattern. So easy and simple but absolutely cute. Plus on occasion I feel the need to come up with something to give to Bran. You see he is a most excellent boyfriend. He does things like brings me flowers for no reason (aside from my undying love of flowers and those who give me them) on quite a regular basis. And I am all about reciprocity. But what is the male equivalent of flowers? I was a bit stumped.

He does however happen to be a good bit of a gamer with a soft spot for old school nostalgia, particularly Nintendo. Perfect! And while some men might think a little stuffed trinket to be too girly-cutesy my man is secure in his manhood (although he won't wear a pink shirt). He has what I'm thinking may be the exact perfect amount of soft sentimentality to him.

Needless to say he likes it (or fakes it quite well). And I have attached it to his key chain so that he can think of me often. I'm sneaky like that :-)

8-bit blanket

As a part of my June freedom I was perusing Ravelry for some good yarn projects. I had somehow gotten on the theme of video games. Certainly it had something to do with Bran's fascination.

When I turned up this pattern I got really excited. But knowing my own aptness to be a complete dork I figured I best confirm it's awesomeness. I sent the link to the ultimate dorky-cool connoisseur, Bran, and asked cool or lame? His response was "Totally awesome." Rock on.

Now I am seriously itching to make it for him. For some reason projects always seem way better when they are for someone. There are however a few hurdles.

The thing is a pretty ginormous project. So far in my lifetime I have completed one blanket (and it came out pretty wonky) and have one pretty awesome blanket where I completed like 2.5 feet 3 years ago and haven't picked it up since. But I'm thinking Christmas Present. And if I work with this very specific goal in mind I'll stand a chance right?

It also requires some pretty serious yarnage. The original designer used Red Heart super saver yarn and estimated $25 of materals. That's pretty freaking sweet. But alas the stuff is cheap for a reason. I may pony up and go with my standard Carron Simply Soft which isn't horribly expensive but still pretty nice. Methinks the best approach will be to drag Bran into the craft store again (last time we went we lost each other for quite sometime....oops) and have him pick out his colors. Then I shall be cheap and buy the stuff over a series of trips. They always have coupons available and the craft store is right next to the grocery store. Bwahahahaha.

This is going to be freaking amazing.

Do what you like.

Tonight is a somewhat rare occurrence: a free night. No scheduled obligations (work, ballet, band), no plans with anyone else (saw the family all last weekend, a friend on Tuesday, and Bran tomorrow). This is glorious.

When I first started thinking on what I could do I thought I would be stuck at the laundromat as it is my normal every other Thursday. But earlier this week I realized that with the advent of the nice summer weather my clothing habits have changed and when combined with the recent purchase of more underwear I can totally make it to next Thursday, no sweat.

Back to the amazingness of a sweet sweet free evening my immediate conclusion was a bike ride. I've not been out nearly so much as I should be and I'm still totally out of shape. I could even still be back in time to watch So You Think You Can Dance (yup I'm a dance show addict) at 8.

But as I was pondering all of the various other things I wanted to do and turning things around in my brain I came to a realization. I really didn't want to go biking. It was put in more like another obligation on my schedule, albeit with good reason, then anything else.

So instead I have decided to drop all of those things I think that I ought to be doing. And instead do what I like.

My plan is to cook myself a good dinner (for the second night in a row!). Make sure the house is tidy because that makes me happy and ought to be easy. And most importantly spend a good bit of quality time with my crafts (other than squares).

Somewhat obviously relaxation is not one of my strong suits. So for tonight it will be my goal to just sit back, stop worrying about what I could or should do, and enjoy the evening.

Do what you like. Like what you do.

Lunchtime

I've been packing my lunch pretty much since sometime in early elementary school when for some reason buying lunch was too scary and made me cry (I was and in many ways still am quite a bit shy and not very accepting about anything I view as new and or scary). Although these days I do it mostly because I'm cheap. 

Every once in a blue moon I'll have a new shiny lunch box or bag which is for a time ridiculously awesome. But the majority of the time my lunch bags are rather dingy dirty and a bit yucky to think or look at.

Somewhat recently, or well maybe for like the last year or two, I've been thinking I should get a new lunch bag. Rather than looking in the stores I was thinking I ought to be able to make my own awesome bag. Also I am cheap and this would avoid sticker shock.

However given my propensity for thinking up projects and never following through. Plus realistically materials costs always end up costing as much if not more than something off the shelf. So I started browsing Etsy :-)

Things I now want:

Way brighter than my norm. But that's not a bad thing.

Very much my normal 'style'.

A bit funky but not too far out there. The complimentary lining is really cute too.

This could possibly be my favorite but it already sold. I love how quirky it is!

Now the only problem is that I am trying to absolutely not let myself spend any money on superfluous things because of saving towards so many awesome vacations. If only I were rich....

"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."

A twist on people watching

I dislike driving and am not a fan of it being such a necessity in my life. But as of late I've found a somewhat amusing way to occupy my driving time: people watching.

Most frequently I find myself doing it on the drive home. Looking at the cars on my left and right is a bit sketchy because it's obvious that I'm starting at the other people. But at stop lights I'll watch in the rear view mirror to see if the person behind me is at all interesting (sunglasses are useful). Frequently it's a boring hobby and then I'll drift off into imagination land pretending things about the people around me. Or other times if I'm at the front of the waiting line I'll watch the all of the cars going past cringing at the number of individuals distracted by cell phones and the like. Where is everyone going and what are they doing with their lives? It's interesting to ponder.

Occasionally, most often when there is more than one person in the vehicle, things can be more interesting. Catching someone singing along to the radio is like a surprise bonus.

Self Portrait

Yesterday instead of trying to cram a bike ride between work and the laundromat I went for a walk and took my camera along.

21 days

In 21 days SD and I will be going to Ocean City Maryland!

There is a rather large possibility that this vacation will drive me crazy. You see growing up we had yearly family vacations. We would go somewhere and then try to do and see absolutely everything. So as soon as anyone even mentions 'vacation' I immediately start researching all of the things that there are to do.

However this is SD's vacation and he has declared that no planning is allowed. [Actually he's a push over and I totally could get away with some planning, but I'm being a good person.] Apparently we are supposed to just like sit on the beach all day or something like that. He says it's called "relaxation". I'm speculative.

Ooo I bet I can bring many crafts! yay!