No pics until AFTER xmas.

I planned on posting all of these pictures of the things I've been making recently, but then I decided against it because I DO post my blog posts on my blogs Facebook page and I don't want people seeing all these things, deciding they like it, then finding out it was for someone else. So I'll be posting them after xmas.

Meanwhile, I've been working my fingers off knitting. Scarves are always difficult for me, because they seem to take SO long to make. I've saved the hats for last, because they go so much more quickly and feel more satisfying. I knew I'd be burned out by now, and it's only the beginning of December! After all the knitting, I've got clay figures I need to make. One will be rather simple, and the rest I haven't even decided what exactly they'll look like.

So, sorry I haven't been posting, but all I have been doing is knitting, knitting, knitting for xmas. I'll make absolute sure to get pictures of everything before I give it away, because some of the things are nice enough that I wish I could keep them. I cut a lot of people out of my gift list this year (you know, the people I never see and who never give me anything anyways) and some people I won't see until summer, so I can concentrate on those gifts at my leisure. I really wanted to start making things earlier in the year, but I couldn't decide on what I wanted to make, because my gift list was a lot longer. I usually end up making everyone one small thing, and basically mass producing the same thing to give to a lot of people, and most of them time they aren't exactly happy with that. That's the big reason why I cut the list down. The other reason is the fact that I'm sick of giving people shit when they don't return the favor. If it's been a couple of years... You ain't getting anything anymore. Or is it you ain't getting nothing? Apparently "ain't" has been added to the dictionary, so what is the proper way to use it in a sentence? Honestly I think it's an improper word, so if it's an improper sentence, it should be proper. Two impropers make a proper, right?

So, here's a link list of some of the things I'm making, in case any of you guys need ideas:

Corset Shaped Hanging Bag

Graham Knit Hat

Very Plain Knit Hat

Starfish Knit Cloth

Knit Scrubber

Knit Troubador Scarf (I did a variation on this scarf)

Double Knit Soap Sack

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Baby Alligator

I'll hopefully be posting some pictures of xmas crafts soon, but I wanted to share a fun social media thing I just did. I usually don't do these types of things, but I figured, what the heck, it'll be fun. 

A friend posted that she was moving too a new country and I asked if it was true. She then sent me the following: 

"Its not Real! It's a game. You should have never commented or liked my picture. HAHAHA! You fell into the trap. This is a game. The person who likes/comments has to choose one of the following to post as his/her Status, Profile or Cover photo. 1. We eloped! 2. We're getting married.3. We're engaged 4. Wedding bells 5. Engagement ring 6. I'm moving to another country. 7. I'm expecting 8. Ultrasound 9. I just bought a new Ferrari. 10. I just got a pet Alligator. 11. I'm still in love with my ex. 12. I'm in love with a stripper. 13. I'm a stripper on weekends. Make it believable and juicy! Note: You cannot explain anything, just post and leave it up for a few days and INBOX only your victims. I'm also a victim lol"

Well, I didn't want to do any of the marriage type ones, or the ultra sound ones, or the stripper ones, and definitely not the ex one, so that left just a few choices that would definitely sound unbelievable with me posting about them. So, I went the MOST un realistic and tried to make it sound as real as possible. I posted a picture of someone holding a baby alligator and typed (Amiira is our hedgehog):

"Today we found a baby alligator and I guess we're keeping it for the winter. We're keeping him in Amiira's old cage right next to her new one, kinda scary but the room is warm enough. We'll have to get a heat lamp tomorrow. Here's a pic of the little guy."

Believe it or not, within a couple of minutes I already had 2 people ask where I found him. I think I'm just proud of how well I did tricking people! 

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What is the world coming too?

I automatically hit tab and it went from the title to the blog post instead of "publish" or any of the other buttons... THAT was a cool discovery...

I just read a blog post by another woman about how she is sick of children being spoiled rotten and babied. The post reminded me of a specific experience I had in High School.

Several of my teachers used their classes for experiments. One such occasion was when my Government teacher decided to give us 45 minutes in the computer lab to write one single spaced page on a subject. (I cant remember what subject it was.) Most students sat in their seats waiting for more information, and when he didn't give any, finally asked, "What are we supposed to write about?" He just told us to write a page on the subject. Again, the question: "Yes, but what about it?"

This was a normal sized class of 25-30 students and I am positive that I am the only, or at least one of the few students who wrote ANYTHING, much less the full page. I understood. I had no problem just typing for the full 45 minutes of anything I could think of, and making it a coherent report of some sort. All I could hear around me, and indeed I was asked, "What are we supposed to be writing?"

I explained several times that we just had to write whatever we wanted about the subject. Of course people only asked me after surfing the internet for most of the time. I am a fast typist, and I had trouble filling the full page with information in 45 minutes. In fact, most of my time in High School I noticed that when we had the computer lab for the full hour, most people only wrote a sentence or two. I spent my fair share of time NOT doing work in freshmen and sophomore year, but I finished my school work AT SCHOOL and never had to take it home.

A lot of people mention how independent they have grown up to be and how it's a result of being treated like we should be, with spankings and being grounded. I, however, don't remember being spanked. I simply stopped whatever I was doing if I was threatened with a spanking. I was also never grounded by my parents, (different story when I lived with my sister) but I'm sure I could have benefit from being grounded several times. I definitely went through a teenage angst stage. My younger brothers are a million times worse than I ever was, though. I attribute this to the fact that it's my dad raising them instead of my mom. They have selective hearing, are rude, do not stop talking regardless if you are on the phone or doing important work on the computer, they refuse to clean up after themselves, they cannot sit down at a table and eat their food without getting up several times to go back to the tv, which they NEVER turn off even when they finally go to bed. We don't have channels, just a Wii, therefore, Netflix.

Also, the WORST ideas come from my stepmothers family: They gave us the Wii, they gave my oldest younger brother an Iphone, not that it has minutes but it can still take pictures and connect to the internet and download apps. They gave us a leapfrog tablet, which has promptly been destroyed by my retarded brother who gets frustrated beyond belief when he cannot figure things out. (Yes, I call him retarded. He IS retarded, I don't consider it an offensive term.) Which they KNOW that he gets like that, yet they insist on giving these kids things that are making them not want to leave the house EVER. They don't want to go outside when kids come over to ask if he can play, or ride bikes. They are glued to multiple screens. They are no longer allowed on the laptop, since they broke 2 computers before, which turned out to be a good thing. These kids are being allowed and even encouraged to sit around all day. I can watch this happening and know that my generation is the last to be only HALF good. There are kids like me, who were sort of disciplined and took to it, then there are the other kids who were sort of disciplined and decided to forget that.

I'm sad to be a part of this last generation of some good people. I can only hope to give my future children a fighting chance in a world that is both too nice and too mean. There's a surprise at every turn, and whether it's a good thing or a bad thing is half the surprise. I've already lost hope in my brothers.

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Star Shaped Dishcloth

Hey, an actual project to show you guys! These will be happening more often as December is just around the corner and I'm make the majority of my xmas gifts. Here is one I threw together today:

This dishcloth still took me a few hours to knit, with the smaller needle size. I think the next one I make I will use a size up. It's a good size, probably will be better when it's wet.

I made a mistake, I thought that the pattern was to make each wedge individually and sew them together, but it's supposed to be knit in one piece and sewed along one edge only. I ended up making one wedge, cutting the yarn, and THEN checking the comments on the ravelry page to see if that was correct. It wasn't. So, I made one half, then took the wedge I made earlier and continued from it and made the other half, then sewed it up nice and neat up the middle. It really isn't noticeable!

Anyways, here is the raverly page for this project. It's free! Otherwise I wouldn't have done it... Haha. Maybe once I get that elusive job!

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Universal Studios

Well, we're back, and I'm positive about one thing: Universal Studios is WAY better than Disney World! At least for taller and/or older people. I went to Disney World when I was... 12? At the time, I was terrified of roller coasters but on that trip I learned to appreciate the large difference between permanently set up coasters and the kind they throw up in a day for the fair.

That said, I honestly think the best part of the trip was when we were watching a horror make up show and the guy was teasing a kid, and then said "See, this isn't Disney World... We don't have to be nice to the kids here." (There were two guys on stage, the other guy pretended to accuse the kid for throwing a rock, the second guy was pretending to yell at him for it.)

Now, the reason why I say that Universal Studios is better than Disney World? Sure, Universal may be half the size, but the coasters are WAY more intense! My favorite ride at Disney World was the Tower of Terror. (You're in an elevator that drops quickly. The rises, not so fast.) Universal's version of that was Dr. Doom's Free Fall. You lift about 5-10 feet off the ground, and then SHOOT into the air! The only bad thing about that was all the rest of the dropping and rising weren't nearly as dramatic. I'm not much of a screamer, but I definitely screamed on that one.

The Hulk coaster has to be my favorite, and I'm going to keep the reason a secret because it's a complete surprise. The Dragon Fight ride at Harry Potter was also a favorite. And the Mummy Ride... That one was also a surprise!

There were a bunch of rides that were pretty much a theater with seats/cars that jerk around and make it feel like you're on a coaster, with the added effects of a story plot, water, smells, fog, etc. We usually called these "4-D" rides, because some of the rides were described as 4-D (3D with the added benefit of the car/seat moving) but not all of them were 3D. We also called some of them Story Coasters, because some of them were more of a Roller Coaster, but not quite.

The biggest lesson we learned, though, was to wear very comfortable flip flops or sandals. The reason for this was because there are a few water rides in the Islands of Adventure park, (one of the 2 parks right next to each other) and our socks and hiking boots got SOAKED. I was very worried about getting foot fungus when we finally got back to the hotel hours later and the bottom of my feet were swollen with water. Our shoes STINK horribly.

The reason we even went alllll the way to Florida was for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights. They were basically mazes based off of popular movies/games, and they have REAL movie props and actors, instead of some broke teens trying to make a few bucks during the Halloween season. My favorite maze was based on the 3rd season of the Walking Dead. They had actors dressed up like some of the characters from the show, and lots of details as well. Resident Evil was a really good one as well, they had what I believe were the actual lickers props or at least full size replicas of the real movie props. Those were fun to see!

Well, all of the mazes we got to see were awesome. The details in every one was amazing. Like I said before, I'm not a screamer, but I definitely screamed a couple of times in those mazes, too!

Anyways, sorry to sound like I'm writing a long review. We didn't bother taking the camera, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures anyways of the stuff we would have wanted pictures of. I just had a GREAT time, and it was fun being there with just my boyfriend instead of a group of friends.

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Heading to Florida!

I'm SUPER excited for this trip! I've been on several long road trips with my boyfriend, but this involves a long flight. I'm kind of nervous! I've been to Florida before, but that was with someone who knows a lot about traveling.

We're going for the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. I heard about these last year, when they had Pyramid Head running around. This year, there'll be mazes based on The Walking Dead, Evil Dead, Resident Evil (The games, not the movies..) and several others movies and games.

I saw an advertisement about the Horror Nights back in August, and since he was right there, I told my boyfriend about how I'd like to go sometime. He apparently liked the idea and decided we would do it this year! I was really surprised about that. I figured that if we ever did go, it'd be a couple of years from now.

Anyways, just a short post. We're not bringing the camera because my boyfriend says it looks "too professional" and we would probably get in trouble... I just don't want to take it through security at the airport. We'll be going through Salt Lake City at some point, and we've heard horror stories about the security there!

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Beer Olympics!

I mentioned to a friend of mine about a blog post I saw about holding Beer Olympics. Well, he evidently took that random chance conversation and decided to act upon it and threw his own Beer Olympics! I went to be a referee and ended up participating in the games because an odd number of people showed up to drink. I am a VERY inexperienced drinker and absolutely hate beer, so when our teams were pulled out a hat, I apologized to my partner immediately. We were on teams of two, and my team won. Yeah. Out of everybody there, who had been drinking for years, in fact the MOST experienced drinker was the only one who ended up vomiting (and was disqualified for an hour and a half), I was half of the team who won. It wasn't all just my partner either! I really pulled through for him. I am actually proud of myself! For drinking beer ALL DAY.

It was actually pretty horrible... Half of us considered dropping out or at least taking a nap. We'll have to find a way to keep occupied between events in order to NOT become too full of liquid, because that was the biggest problem... Being too full! One participant actually suggested we all go on a job until we puked so we could continue. We just took an extended break, instead.

We also had pretzels and brats for lunch. The games didn't last nearly as long as we expected it... I think because we didn't have as many people as we were expecting to come.

The games we played:

We started with Beer Pong. To keep these matches from lasting all day, we restricted ourselves to 20 minute games. We had 4 teams, so we played 2 matches, then winners against winners and losers against losers.

I believe we played Flip Cup next. We split one beer between 2 cups, 2 cups for each participant. So for one team, that's 2 beers in 4 cups. Chug, flip, teammate chugs and flips, back to you, back to them.

We did Ice Tray Races, at which I excelled but most people hated. Fill an ice tray with one beer, race against each other drinking it with a straw. Most participants complained about the air you end up swallowing, and this is the point one person vomited.

We were REALLY full at this point, but we had eaten lunch just before the Ice Tray Races.

We started to practice to play Quarters, but just about everyone hated it and we vetoed that game. No one could satisfactorily bounce a quarter in a cup enough times to justify the time that game would have wasted.

We also played Battle Shots, which was definitely fun. We got pizza boxes and drew a 4x4 grid on them, placed 10 shot glasses on them and called out which position (A3, D2, etc) we wanted other players to take their shot glasses off of (and drink) if they were in the place we called.

Then we played Darts. For some reason some people hated the idea of playing darts, but we all ended up doing it anyways. All we did was take a shot before we threw our 3 darts. The only reason I got any points for this the first turn I had was because I managed to throw my last dart into the reset button on the dart board. Apparently, that had to count for something!

This year, our games were more or less a trial. I'm sure we'll work on refining them for next year! Plus, I think we should have 1 more game... We were going to play King's Cup, but it was decided that since no one is really the winner of that game (except the loser) that it wasn't a good game to play.

Hope I've helped start some new traditions! Find us on our Facebook.

Bachelorette Party Details!

So I didn't bother taking any pictures at the party, because it was mostly girls I didn't know. What I wanted to show you was the party favors I got and why I got them, anyways! I did make a Pin the Junk on the Hunk game that we didn't end up using, and that idea came from Pinterest. I'm trying to convince some friends that we should use it at their Beer Olympics next weekend.

Game from Pinterest (this one isn't mine)

We ended up playing a game of Cards Against Humanity, which is just like Apples to Apples but the game is for 17+ of age! I've never played with so many people before, there were 7 of us and I was surprised when we started getting repeats of cards we've had before! I usually only play with 4 people.

Everyone got a pretty pink bag full of Party Favors, including the bride-to-be's fiance. He was sick, so he stayed home that night. Here's a pic of everything that went in the bags:

Mostly Dollar Store goodness

Ring Pops, of course, because it's the "Last Fling before the Ring"! Since I was throwing the party and I'm not yet 21, we didn't go to a bar. I got a few bags of those. I also got girly stuff, such as small lotions, and shampoos, tissues, hair clips, and pretty nail files. At the bottom of the picture are garters I made out of headbands! While we were poking around at the mall, the bachelorette and I looked at Spencer's bach party stuff and she saw a pack of garters and decided she liked the idea of everyone having garters for the party. I did buy lace, but it ended up not having nearly enough. It was measured in feet, not yards! So I headed to Hobby Lobby and got some headbands and simply laced ribbon through it. I made corsages, but I decided on attaching those to the garters.

The stack of green boxes in the picture? I go to Planned Parenthood every 3 months to get the Depo Shot, and every time I go they give me a bag with 3 or 4 boxes of Plan B. I don't really need it. You'll also notice the pile of condoms to the left and the smaller pile of lube to the right of the Plan B. There were several girls who really appreciated this gift, for which I am glad because I really wanted to get rid of it!

Anyways. I'm really happy that everyone took their bags with them, because the last time I spent time and money putting together bags full of favors, everybody ended up leaving them at my house.

I didn't get a picture of the garter that I did make with the lace I got, but it ended up really pretty even though I had to hand sew it. That was a 2 person job! I had to have my boyfriend hold the elastic stretched out to the length of the ribbon and lace while I was sewing. I'm sure it'd be a lot easier with my sewing machine!

Anyways. I got 3 different kinds of nail files, and 2 different kinds of hair clips. I thought the butterflies were really cute! I gave the extras to the bachelorette's little girl, as well as an extra ring pop. She also got a garter and wore it as a headband. Luckily a couple of the girls didn't show up!

3 different nail files, for variety

Butterflies and tiny octopus clips

Anyways. Hopefully I shared some ideas, especially the garters made out of those cheap headbands! They are 79 cents each at Hobby Lobby. The Plan B, condoms, and lube came from Planned Parenthood (and were free) and everything else came from the dollar store.

Oh, I didn't get a picture, but I after I put everything in the paper bags, I folded the tops once and used a butterfly hair clip to keep it closed. Some garters were made for specific people, so I cut out dress shapes from scrapbook paper and wrote their names on them. When I mentioned that at the party, I noticed all the girls with the name tags take the tags and put them in a safe place. It was kinda funny! 

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Holiday Stress

It's October. It's the time of year I get depressed. And why? I didn't even celebrate the holidays for the first half of my life.


I need to talk about this. I can't afford therapy, or the medication, which I sorely need. I cry half the night for no reason that I can think of. I can't sleep. I know of several people in my life who end up drinking a lot during the holidays. I don't, and I don't plan too when I turn 21 (Next month!) because I have an alcoholic mother and it's just sad what she goes through.  Those people I know drink because of family reasons. I don't spend the holidays with my family. I can no longer stand driving 3.5 hours with my younger brothers to get there. However, holidays and family don't mean anything to me, because we never really celebrated it together.

The only reason I can think of for this deep stress and depression, is because I force myself to make things for my friends for xmas, things that are usually useless but take a lot of work. No one understood what the mug rugs were for last year. People throw away the reusable coffee cup warmers. Liners. Whatever they were. I made corn bags one year. Those were useful. Before they were eaten by mice. Thankfully, I have a sewing machine this year, but still.

So, I'm thinking about just taking this xmas off. At least, limit my craft making for close friends whom I talk to every week, instead of once in a while. I'm sick of making a bunch of small things for a bunch of people. I'm thinking I'll try to make medium things for a few people, and then maybe step it up depending on how I feel.

So. I was just wondering, does anyone else get stressed about the crafting for xmas? I can imagine some do... With the quilts, and far more complicated things for a lot more people than I care for, plus having a job!

We had the bachelorette party today, so I'm planning on posting pictures of the party favors I got everyone and the ideas I had tomorrow. Just to share and give ideas to all of you. We had a real good laugh about some of the party favors!

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Camping and Acorn Pics

I figured I'd actually share some pictures with you guys, instead of not posting ever and then just posting a wall of words...


Early September I went camping and took the camera. The place was beautiful, but it was an abandoned campground with no toilets. There was a campground up the road with toilets, but it was too far too walk. We would drive up in the morning to use their bathrooms, but suffer through the rest of the day. As a girl, I had a worse time than my boyfriend.

Very vibrant tree mushrooms! 

Here I am being fat in a sweatshirt. They always make me look huge!

The bumble bee that stung me... Stupid thing...

Our tiny tent! 

This inchworm liked to pretend it was a giraffe. 

Traveling Gnome.

Here's some of the River, it was low and very still. 

WHAT is this error thing that keeps popping up!? Seriously... It's getting annoying! I can type while it's up but I can't do stuff with the pictures... 

Anyways, before I post pics of the failed Acorn Experiment, here's the one and only Halloween Cthulhu I've managed to make this month: 

Halloween Cthulhu

Ain't he cute? He isn't glazed yet. I planned on making an army of them this month but got caught up in party planning instead. 

Okay. so about the acorns. It turns out you can eat acorns, they're just nuts, you know. So, I went out and gathered some from the park down the street. I had to fight the squirrels, by which I mean, when I got close they all ran up the trees and hid in the branches. While I was gathering, they kept dropping things, and I finally saw where one dropped. It was a half eaten acorn! Squirrels need to learn how to hold their nuts better! Unless they were deliberately trying to hit me.

Well, in order to eat the acorns, you need to leach the tannic acid out of them. You can boil them, but I read that boiling them makes them tough to chew. I also read that you can place them in running cold water. Well, I couldn't just leave the tap running for a few hours, so I tried just soaking them instead. Here's the results of soaking:

Little bit of Tannic Acid

It actually got way darker, and I thought I got a picture of it but apparently not. Oh well. I didn't get any pictures while boiling, but the first time I dumped the water, it looked like hot chocolate it was so dark! 

I gave up on the acorns because it was taking so long, the acid was staining the pot and that bowl, and it't not my kitchen or appliances and tools that I was using. I had to boil clean water in the pot, and put a healthy coat of clorox in both the bowl and the pot and let them sit for a while before they were clean. 

I was thinking maybe I can find some pine trees with big enough pinecones to try to gather up pine nuts, but it's getting cold and I'm not sure when to look for the nuts. They are probably picked up by animals by now. I'm really interested in learning about wild edible plants, for some reason. I'm also interested in learning about easy things to grow. I saw a post about green onion, you just leave a longish piece of green above the white part and put it in a small thing of water and keep it on the windowsill, and it'll grow. You just snip what you need off the top! So easy and useful! 

Anyways, I'm getting really sick of this error popping up 1.5 seconds after I close it, so I'll wrap it up. 

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WHAT is up with the pop- ups!?

I've noticed recently that blogspot blogs that I follow have ads that pop up in the bottom right corner. Since I keep the volume really low on my laptop, I don't mind these. What I DO mind, is the fact that when I click on a blog title to read that post, it will just pop up an ad instead. I have an ad blocker on my laptop, so why is this happening? It doesn't bother opening the post that I'm trying to read, it just opens an ad. What I'm worried about, is that it is happening on MY blog. I want everyone to know that I did NOT choose for that to happen. It's not something I'm using to monetize my blog! 

As I'm writing this, I keep getting an error popping up that forces me to stop typing and close the window. Is it because I'm writing something blogger doesn't want me talking about? Haha. Now that's paranoid.

It's giving me this error code: bX-o85jh5 

UPDATE: Yes, it is happening on my blog as well. Again, I am NOT choosing for these ads to show on my blog. 

Acorn Fail and Other Fails

I've decided to stop trying to get the tannin out of the acorns. (Read that post here.) It was taking way too long! I'm also not using my own kitchen or kitchen tools and I don't want to inadvertently ruin them. The tannin is sort of staining the bowl and the pot I was using. I soaked them in hot water, scrubbed them, then put comet on the stains for a while, scrubbed them again and most of it came off. Which is, you know, good.

I've been trying really hard to throw an awesome party, but one thing that I was REALLY excited about suddenly might not happen. I bought some lace to make everyone garters. I thought the lace was measured in yards, but they are measured in feet. 4 feet is not 4 yards. I.... Am sad about that. However, there are these stretchy headbands at craft stores that are cheap (hopefully as cheap as I'm thinking they are) that will work just fine. Maybe it won't be as pretty, but I'm adding ribbon to them all anyways. I might even try to make garters out of just ribbon. IT WILL WORK. Somehow. I'm making some damn garters!

I also thought I'd be making headway into my xmas craft load. Well, I've started knitting one scarf so far. I have fabric and yarn for several more presents, so at least I've made some progress. I've realized that when I decide to start working on xmas in July, it means I'm going to spend a couple of months looking up online what I should mass produce for everyone. Except that this year I can't find anything that I can make for everyone. I'm going to spend a lot of time crafting...

In fact, the reason I haven't been posting very often recently is more because I've been spending a lot of time looking up what I SHOULD be crafting, instead of actually making stuff. Or looking up how to eat acorns and wasting my time with that. Speaking of which, I've decided I want to look for some good pine trees and try to collect pine nuts next. There's no leaching acid out of pine nuts, so why not? I want to gather food off the ground!!! It seems to be some survival instinct coming out. Not sure why, but there's no reason to not feed this desire of learning what natural things I can eat that I didn't have to grow myself...

Acorns!

I completely forgot to mention this in the last post, but I'm in "prepper mode" and decided to gather up some acorns and work on making them taste palatable. Acorns have tannic acid in them, which you have to either boil or cold water leach it out. You're supposed to leave them in cold running water, under the tap or in a river but I can't leave the water running for hours, so I've been soaking them for DAYS and they still taste bitter, so I'm going to boil them once the rest of the acorns I gathered are ripe enough. 

I have pictures, so I will explain it all when the process is done so I can post pictures of it all. If you want to try it yourself this year, I suggest googling it NOW because you'll have to gather them in the next week or so before the squirrels carry them all off and they stop falling! 

Excuses.

Sorry for the long absence! I haven't been crafting, like at ALL for a while because my BF worked for a month straight with no days off and when his schedule went back to normal all I did was stay with him. All I've been doing in the craft department is look up projects for xmas, and! (More exciting): A bachelorette party that I'm throwing for my friend!

I'm pretty sure that all the bridesmaids are supposed to be helping plan, but I'm doing this mostly on my own. I don't mind, because I always go above and beyond for parties. At least, on the smallest possible budget that I can. Once I get a job, my parties will be infinitely better!

This party however, will not be at my house, so I'm not bothering with decor or music. I am going to do party favors, because that is a MUST in my book, especially for specific parties (i.e. bachelorette party, graduation party, ect. not birthday parties though).

The bachelorette wants everyone to have garters! So I'm making those. Hopefully I'll get some in progress pics for you guys. I'm also making corsages, because I have a lot of silk flowers to use up. I also have a TON of feathers, so those will go into anything I can get them into.

I'm also going to draw up a "Pin the Junk on the Hunk" poster and "Junk" for a fun game! 

My BF is throwing the bachelor's party hopefully the same night as our bach party but all the girls are going to come home will all kinds of pretty things to show off and the guys will be jealous! That's my favorite part of all this crafty work!

Anyways, just an update. I've got to get to work! I'll work on getting you pictures. Sorry again for the long absence!

Ideas and Inspirations

So I thought I was over my "crafting block"... I think I'm just too exhausted recently to do any creative thinking to get me back INTO crafting. Sure, I made a couple of tentacles and a pig, yeah I made myself a purse and a skirt, but these were now several days ago and all I have to show for the past week is about 2-3 inches of a knit hat.

Oh, and why haven't I posted any pictures of these things?

I've come to realize that my camera didn't come with a cord to download pictures onto a computer. However, I had to send it in for repairs because I was taking the memory card out of it in order to upload the pictures. So. I have to find a cord... A lot of cell phone chargers work great, except that all the ones I have don't have USB plug ins for a computer. This camera is proving to be a LOT of trouble!

I've made these cool little Wallet Gloves, that you can keep money in at events when you don't want to carry a bag around. I showed them to people, who then complained that you can't fit an I.D. in the pocket. Well, of course not... You can't fit an I.D. on the top of your hand.

My Wallet Glove

Friends Wallet Glove

However, a friend had the idea that I could make arm bands that wrap around your upper arm, and put pockets on those! Well! Lots of people's arms are big enough for I.D.s! I'm definitely going to work on making up a prototype, but my problem is, arms are so different for so many people. I'll just have to find measurements online and make up a bunch of these... Wallet arm bands? In all sizes. Maybe I'll have a naming competition and send someone a free one.

I'm also thinking that I might as well sell Wallet Gloves in pairs. Everyone wants one for both hands, so why not make it easier to do that? I also need to work on making the pocket itself more FINISHED. All I ever do is cut a straight line, sew some trim to the bottom of it, then sew the top of the line to the back of the glove. So the top starts fraying. However, sewing trim all the way around seems very tedious to me. I think I'll just have to get over it. People want nice things and I'll have to give it to them!

On to the inspiration part of the post. I want to get better at making things. I also want to make useful things. So how do I inspire myself to do better? Looking at other peoples things that are much more professional looking and "finished" than mine. Example. I make clay cthulhus, this woman makes realistic looking faces on her beautiful faeries.

You can find her profile here. 

Jealous. Example of USEFUL things. I would love to make up furniture that suits specific needs, as I recently read about in a magazine. This woman had a chance to convert a room into her craft room. Since I can't remember what magazine this was I can't try to find the article online, but she knew exactly what she wanted for her sewing table: Lots of storage space. She knew that she would stand at the table, so instead of having a table that she could sit at and have her legs under, she used the entire thing as storage space. The closest I have gotten to making customized furniture is putting blocks of wood underneath the legs of the table I am sitting at now, to make it high enough for my legs to be underneath it comfortably. 

So I have a ways to go, but at least I've got plans for my future crafting abilities to be put to good use. For the longest time I made things that nobody wanted because it was useless. I'm trying to change that! Well, except for the clay things. Those are obviously just decoration, but they're just too fun to give up! 

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Yeast, interrupted.

So, I went downstairs today and my yeast water is gone. So I guess I'm not going to be able to "experiment" any farther here at my dads house. I was really excited about learning more about my yeast water, and posting it here.

I mentioned before that I considered myself a "prepper", or someone who is sort of preparing for an "apocalypse" or some sort of survival situation. I also mentioned how at the same time I don't really believe there's going to be an apocalypse, but I wanted to share a list of skills I'd like to learn. At the end of this post, I'd also like to share a story a bus driver told me...

First, let me explain why some of these skills would be useful to me: I want a farm. I want cows and chickens, probably goats, and my boyfriend wants sheep. I also want some what of a large garden, growing enough food to provide for the whole year.

• Shear sheep, and spin wool into yarn. 
• Butcher my own animals. 
• How to make all sorts of food from scratch. 
• Knit and sew USEFUL items, such as scarves, blankets, hats, clothing, etc. 
• Grind wheat into flour. 
• How to grow all sorts of food and how to protect it. 
• Preserve food for winter. 
• How to care for and breed farm animals. 
• How to build all sorts of things from wood. 

I'm sure I'll think of more later, I'm sort of sleep deprived today! My bf is studying to be a mechanical engineer, so he will help in that department. He hates working with wood, but I like it.

I still enjoy my crafts that I do now but not all of them will be useful in the long run, such as wood burning. Wood carving, however, is something I'd like to do more often. It seems a hell of a lot more useful, to shape things instead of decorate them.

Anyways... I overheard a bus driver telling some spooky stuff a while ago. It seems much too... obscene to be real. Basically, he says that Obama has authorized the use of guillotines again, in FEMA camps dotted throughout the U.S. This driver said that pretty soon, the U.S. is going to start killing people who aren't useful or adding anything to the community. Apparently, right before this happens, there's going to be no food stocked in stores, I'm assuming because farmers are smart enough to realize to gtfo or something... I don't know. But the driver ALSO said that if you are smart and do stuff with your life, you'll also be killed because you might lead a rebellion. So, we're all going to die here in the U.S... Sometime soon, evidently. I guess the U.S. has also been secretly considered under martial law for quite a few years, too.

What gets me, is how many people the driver managed to freak out. They're asking, what can we do? How can we prepare for this? What on earth do you MEAN? How can you prepare? Move to Canada if you're that freaked out! Because this guy is saying we're all going to be killed and there's nothing you can do. How DO you prepare for that? I guess you could kill yourself before it happens!

Anyways. I've had this story stuck in my head for a while now, and decided to share it. He said a lot of other stuff too, but it's been a few months and I've forgotten all the details. Scary, right? Yeah, if you believe it. I honestly just think this guy was lonely and started making up stories to pass the time. What do you think? 

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Yeast and other craft stuff.

I used my yeast water to make pretzels, and it worked just fine. For those of you who are interested in the yeast, basically I took 2 big spoonfuls (Like the big silverware ones that you eat with, not measuring spoons) of flour and put that in a jar of water. The jar has oz markings on it, so I filled it to about 20 oz of lukewarm water. I mix the flour in, but it will settle and that's fine, you can leave it like that. Leave it in the kitchen windowsill. If you have cheesecloth, you should cover in with that and use a rubber band to secure it, but I didn't, so I just put the metal lid balanced off kilter so it's sorta covered, but still has air coming in. Remember, yeast is a living organism so it needs air. It will have small bubbles when it's ready to use, although they will go away. It will also smell kinda funny.

I think you're supposed to put it in the fridge, so I think I will try that now, since it's ready to use, but I'm not sure if it's going to kill it or anything. Also, you're supposed to be able to just add more lukewarm water to it when you use up some of the water, but I used so much of the water that I just dumped the rest out and started over again. So, I'll try just adding water to it next time.


My "craft block" is still going strong, although I have managed to make myself a purse and a skirt. Honestly I think I just need to make myself a few items at a time before getting back into the swing of making other people stuff. I'm talking about xmas stuff, but I've downgraded the blankets to probably socks, or hats, or pot holders, or rags... I REALLY do like knit rags but my BF used his as a pot holder and it worked really well, so I think I'll make a few friends some of those, since they will be needing them...

My stepmothers mom just ordered me a knit picks interchangable needle set! I'm really super happy about it because I've been wanting them forever and I will have so many needles now!!! She and I also just listened to a friend rave about their prices and quality, which was one reason I hadn't really thought about asking someone for a set yet, but now I can just hope that it'll be awesome! The only thing is knit picks doesn't offer a 16 inch cord, for hats. The smallest is the 24 inch, which I supposed I could make hats on but it'd be a bit tight. I've measured several heads and I've found that male heads are generally 23 inches in diameter where the edge of the hat will hit, and females are 21 inches. Yes, I've measured peoples heads. I'm not a freak, I was just making them fleece hats.

I made a "down syndrome cow" recently, and people absolutely love his retarded face, so I'm thinking I will do several more of those, to give away, not sell... Keep in mind when I call this cow all kinds of slanderous, mentally disabled names, I'm really giving myself a bad time for how he turned out. I DO have a developmentally disabled brother, so, please don't think I make fun of ACTUAL people with mental or physical issues. Here is a picture of the masterpiece:

Down Cow

Isn't he adorable? Can't really see his tail, but it's there. The sad truth of it is, I hate working with white clay because it got so dirty! So, I stopped working on him before I added a snout. I plan on making a down pig, down sheep, and maybe a few others. 

Anyways. Here's to a hopefully more productive week! I've got everything that I need to start making stuff! Although I still do need some other things. I have a bus pass now, so I can go ANYWHERE that the very limited bus system will take me! 

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"Making" Yeast.

The other day, I was hit by a strong wave of soft pretzel cravings. Well, I've made them before, so I head downstairs to check out the available ingredients. Well, yeast wasn't one of them. We have some, but definitely not enough to make any one thing. This saddens me. However, I've heard about people "making" yeast (It's a living organism, you can't actually MAKE it) with several different techniques.

The first of which was chopping up an apple and soaking that in lukewarm water for a few days in a warm area. I read the reviews on this particular tutorial and found that if you make yeast with fruit, whatever you make with it will taste like the fruit. Well, I don't want my pretzels to taste like apples, OR raisins or grapes or whatever else...

You can also make yeast with vegetables. Same thing as stated above, do not want vegetabley pretzels.

There is also the use of a sourdough start: When you make sourdough batter, take a small piece of the batter and store it in a warm, dark place. It will expand and expand... Then, when you make bread again, you can take a piece of it off and use that in place of yeast. You're also supposed to cut the start in half and give half to a friend, who will then wait until it expands and do the same thing...

So, I found another tutorial... It wasn't a good one since it didn't have good measurements, but, I just put some lukewarm water and a bit of flour in a glass bottle, with a tiny bit of yeast, and set that on the kitchen windowsill for a couple of days. During the day I will set it out in the sun, because it needs to be warm. I was hoping it would yeast itself faster that way, which is why I also added some yeast... It makes it go faster. You can do this with just water and flour. Once it starts bubbling, (I think), it's ready to use!

To use this yeast water, you replace the water in a recipe with the yeast water. I.e. in a recipe for bread, it will tell you to use perhaps a cup of lukewarm water and to stir the yeast into this. Well, that's what you already have... Yeast water!

What my problem is, is the fact that every how to on making yeast is not very clear on when it's ready. When it has bubbles? Well, mine has bubbles alright. But, big bubbles? Small bubbles? Mine has both now, but I don't know if they'll get bigger. Also, I think I'm also supposed to eventually refrigerate the yeast water... but when? So, I'm going to experiment with this, because yeast is expensive; water, flour and an empty pickle jar are not.

Hopefully I will get some answers to share. I recently learned a term that I can apply to myself: I'm somewhat of a "prepper". Preparing for things. More specifically, preparing for the apocalypse. Which is strange, since I don't really allow myself to seriously believe that zombies are going to pop up out of manholes and come running out of the wilderness. At the same time, I feel that it's inevitable that some angry scientist will decide to fuck humanity over, though. If there are highschool shootings...

So, it'd make sense that I'd want to learn how to make yeast. I'm a prepper. This also explains my dream of owning a small farm, with cows, goats, and chickens, and enough of a garden to feed my family and guests.

Anyways...

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How crafting made me.

I've decided to write a condensed version of why and how I started crafting, because I've been thinking about my life lately and honestly, I'd like to move on. Typing things out often make me feel better more than talking things out, plus I think my friends are a bit bored with my complaints anyways. I wish I had some pictures to show for this post, maybe of things I've made in the past, but I live with my dad and my mom was the one who documented things with cameras.

Recently, I got the chance to visit my mom. This is a rare occurrence, and we ended up talking a lot about why I didn't end up living with her after the divorce like we planned. I told her how moving from one school to another, even though the school districts were literally right next to each other, fucked up my education. My first district taught division in 4th grade, the second one taught it in 3rd grade. I learned how to divide in 6th grade. She told me how, at the time, she didn't have a place to stay, and wasn't financially stable. My dad had a job opportunity in Oregon, and took it, and took me with him. I didn't do any school work that year, and yet was moved on to the next grade because it was "understandable" that I didn't do anything.

I managed to graduate high school on time, regardless of the fact that I spent most of my time between 4th and 10th grade not doing any school work. My relationship with my dad bordered on friendship, instead of father and daughter. My stepmom seemed to stop trying to care for me when I stayed holed up in my room for years.

I was always encouraged to draw. My entire family would draw. So, I drew. I still do, but I don't like my particular style of art, and I can't draw realistically. So I don't do that as much. When I lived with my older sister for a while, I got a bracelet made of shoe laces and pop tabs. I started making those out of boredom and even sold them at school. During one spring break, I was taught how to knit by my stepmoms mother. I knit one short scarf and then stopped because I didn't have any more yarn. After a while, I somehow found craft websites, such as craftster.org and cutoutandkeep.net. These inspired me to start reconstructing my clothes. I made a few cute things, but ended up ruining others. Then, I started to get bolder and go to Joannes for fabric. I mostly ruined that too.

Then, I found a website that sold chainmaille rings for cheap. I decided I wanted to try that. I got my dad to order some, and I made some bracelets and a choker. Then I started realizing that I wanted to learn how to make all kinds of things. I threw myself into crafting because I didn't have any friends in my neighborhood to ride bikes with, as I had in the past. I was a loner, because I had a hard time thinking of words to say to people.

I started knitting again. I learned and learned and learned. I didn't have people to help me, I just had the internet. Then I started connecting to people because I would be making something, and they would ask me about it. Or, I would be wearing something I made, and they would compliment me, and all I had to say was "I made it" and it would start a whole conversation.

I don't always make the coolest things, or things that look interesting, or even functioning things, but people loved it all because it was something they couldn't do. They would be amazed at my talents. I had something in me that was worth working on and improving! So, I brought that into the rest of my life and improved that too.

So. that is how I started crafting. I was depressed and alone, and needed something to do. It brought me out of my depression enough to connect to people when they spoke to me. I still have a hard time with thinking positively a lot, but it's better than it was before. I'm really trying to let myself be happy. I can lose myself in crafting and come out with some kind of productive work to show for it. That's better than wallowing about, letting myself get down.

Does anybody have an inspirational story about crafting to share? I'd like to hear it! Hopefully there are some out there that isn't as sad and annoying as mine is.

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Crafters block.

For the past 2 days, I haven't been doing anything but getting on the computer, reading, eating, and sleeping. See, what happened was, the blanket that I've spent over 20 hours knitting, has a twist in it. The only way to fix this is to unravel 20 HOURS of work and start over. So, I kind of hate crafting right now...

The twist is there on the right... 

So what I'm going to do, is start over, and knit the blanket from the inside out. The amount of stitches I cast on  wasn't going to be big enough for a fully grown man anyways. This way, I can stop knitting when I can tell it'll be big enough. I can only hope I can do this in one month. Which I bet I can, it will just be a month full of agony and "why did I decide to knit BLANKETS?"

I haven't even been working on clay, which, I REALLY need to for my shop. I also REALLY need to buy some boxes and shipping supplies in order to ship things for cheap. I personally hate shipping things because it usually ends up so expensive! So, I've decided to buy the boxes online, for cheap, and not have to pay for boxes at the UPS store, keeping the cost down for both me and my potential buyers. Because seriously, paying $10 for just a cardboard box and then another $20 for shipping is ridiculous. I need tiny boxes, for tiny things. That is all.

I've also decided to do that whole adsense thing on my blog. So, click those ads, please! It nets me some $$. Which we all need, right?

Anyways. I still have the KAL set up, and I've added a link to a regular pinwheel blanket (as opposed to reverse pinwheel blanket) so those of you who want to knit up an awesome blanket, go ahead and join me here.

Hopefully, I'll start working on some other xmas presents, as well as getting my shop set up better than it is now. I've got some sewing to do, and some clay things to work on for xmas. Maybe I'll be able to do some tutorials! Or at least enough pictures to help one figure it out if they want too.

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Work in Progress

Knitting a blanket is taking me a longer and shorter time than I expected. I'm not sure how to explain myself on that point, but it's the truth.

When I first began, I cast on 450 stitches and it was taking me 40 minutes per round on the garter stitch border. Then I finished the border and started in on the stockinette stitch, I cut that time in half... But it's still taking me 15-20 minutes per round. Which is too be expected!

I think why I feel like it's taking longer is because I haven't been working on it diligently. There's been a couple days where I haven't worked on it at all, and a couple of days like today where I didn't have the time to just sit and work. I haven't even finished one row today!

I started on the 10th, so it's been 9 days. I have until the 28th of August, though!

Here's a progress pic:

About 24 rows in

If you feel like joining my Knit A Long on this blanket, you can here! The pattern is posted there as well. I've got one other person already joining me, it looks like. I have quite a few of these too make, so, it'll be open for a while. Please feel free to post any pictures! I'd love to see your work and variations! 

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Getting Started on Hell.

I'm not sure why I decide to do things like knit blankets, but I'm still happy that I'm doing it. I've casted on, and I'm on row 7 already, soon I will be done with the garter stitch border and things will go faster, I hope. I seem to have more trouble knitting when the previous row was purling. Has anyone else had this experience?

Row 7 so far

I also would recommend using a longer circular... I believe mine is a 32 inch aaaannd... I hate having to stop every minute or so to move the bunches away from one needle and closer to the next. It is just making it take that much longer, you know? 

Anyways, the pattern says to use size US 6 needles and cast on 450 stitches. I'm not sure how big that blanket turns out, but I'm using US 9 with 450 stitches. This is for my 6 foot tall boyfriend, but it's also for his car so during the winter he won't freeze while working. Unless he gets a new job. Then... I guess he will just have a knit blanket. 

I'm also using one pound(16 oz) of yarn... The pattern didn't specify how big of skeins to use, so I just got a big one. Hopefully, it will only use this one, but I doubt it... 

Anyways, my camera is back! Plus, it's working! Now to never remove the memory card ever again, plus get a years warranty in case it happens again! Now I should be posting somewhat regularly again. 

Oh! Also. I started a Knit-A-Long on Craftster for the above blanket. If you would like to join, please do. I will probably be posting every blanket I make from now until xmas, so it won't be too late to join anytime soon! 

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Blog Changes

I just looked at my blog a half hour ago and realized that it still reflected my preferred dark background with bright letters. I've heard tell so many times that this is difficult to read for other people, so I took some time and switched up the colors on my blog. I hope the boring white background with black words help! I'd rather my posts be read in enjoyment instead of given up on halfway through because of the way I set it up... Everything else is still colorful and pretty anyways.

I'm hoping later this month I'll be able to get some yarn to start making blankets. My goal is 3 blankets for xmas, possibly 4, since my boyfriend has taken an interest. Then again, maybe I should make him a blanket for his birthday since he wants it for his car for winter.  Leather interior gets hot during the summer, sure, but it also FREEZES during the winter!

I'm sure a lot of people will end up being jealous, but I'm not going to knit blankets for EVERYONE! That's a lot of yarn! Plus, not everyone gives me enough for xmas to warrant a blanket. I'm still a slow knitter! It'll take a while. I'm just hoping my bf's mom won't see his blanket and demand one for xmas. She's already asked for stuff.

See, that's the problem... I have to keep it a secret from almost everyone. Or else they will get all bitchy about what I made them. Then I hate xmas! This is what happens every year. Then I get over it because that is what happens to almost everybody, and we all get over it. Sometimes.

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It's not too early to be thinking about xmas!

Since I am (1) a crafter and (2) saving more and more money every month, I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do for xmas presents. Like NOW. I'm saving a dollar per number of week in the year, i.e. the 1st week I save 1 dollar, second week I save 2 dollars and so on. Well, this month I'm hitting triple digits. I'll have a lot of money by the end of the year, but at the same time this is all money from donating blood plasma. I'm doing this without a JOB.

If you're confused about the part about me being a crafter, I mean that it's going to take time to MAKE gifts, instead of buying them. Especially since I have just decided to KNIT BLANKETS for several people. Yeah. I'm hoping I might get away with buying yarn from a couple of friends of mine who ended up not using their yarn. Aaaaaand looking out for coupons. Plus, sales. So, there's that to look forward too.

Then again, the blanket I've decided on isn't really anything complicated. It's a reverse pinwheel blanket... I was looking for something that is SUPER easy, but looks really good (No stockinette stitch blankets for me, no, it has to at least look pretty) and the pinwheel blanket fits the bill. I love knitting on circulars, plus the pattern I found on ravelry knits from the outer edge of the blanket in (hence the "reverse"). I'd rather finish on DPNs, not start on them.

My favorite one is this one:

Reverse Pinwheel Blanket

But I'm sure everyone I'm going to make one for will prefer something different. Oh well, I plan on making myself one, eventually!

I also found some other striped blanket I'll probably make for my newest nephew... Just because I feel obligated to make him something, since I DID convince my brother to have a kid. 

Other xmas gifts that aren't as important as my decision to start knitting blankets include a fancy scarf(also knit), a market bag(also knit), soap cozies(also knit), clay things, a pretty wooden box, wine coasters, regular coasters, and some corset bags. 

Anyone else starting on xmas early? Because we all know I need to! 

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It was a good 4th

Sorry no posts... I'm just waiting for my camera to come back from the repair center. I'm pretty sure it should have been back by now, but they have my contact information... I don't know whether to expect it to suddenly appear again, or if I'll get a call... I've been checking my email religiously but there's nothing there. It was an expensive camera, so I'm just worried it's going to just disappear.

Anyways! I only have crappy cell phone pictures, but I wanted to share my twice baked potatoes recipe with you. But first, I made a pie for the fourth:

Fireworks!!! 

Now, I only took one picture of the potatoes and that was after I covered them with sour cream, plus it was with my BF's new phone that apparently has THE crappiest camera ever. So, it is with great shame I show you this picture. But here it is. 

Delicious Dinner

Okay. So. That brown stuff is terriyaki steak, if you want to know. That was my boyfriend contribution to this, his mother's birthday dinner. He did all the work on that, so sorry, but I can't give you the recipe. (He just puts stuff on the steak, grills it, takes it off and cuts it into strips, wraps it up in tinfoil along with a homemade terriyaki sauce and grills it again.) He never uses a set recipe when he makes meat. But he never. Messes. It up. Ever.  

On to the potatoes. We have been craving them for sooooo long. A friend made some twice baked potatoes for a xmas party we went to and ever since then... Omg. 

What you'll need: 

4 Big Baking Potatoes. 

Package of Shredded Cheese. (I used pepper jack)

Green Onion.

Bacon! 

Mushrooms. 

1/4 Stick of butter. 

Basically, bake the potatoes, (I did them at 400 for 40 minutes) while you're baking them chop everything up (Cook the bacon first) and mix it all together. Use only half of the cheese in the mixture, you'll put the rest on top. When the potatoes are baked, cut them in half lengthwise and carefully scoop out the innards and mix that in with everything else. Then stuff the skins! Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top. The cheese itself lent a very delicious spicy to the potatoes... I buried mine in sour cream because I don't like spicy that much. It was still really good though. Then put them back in the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the cheese melts. 

Also. I like to rub the potatoes in butter and salt before baking. Not too much salt, but then the skins aren't just dry and icky. 

If you ever want to make twice baked potatoes, you can honestly stuff them with anything. Vegetables, sausage, cream cheese. Whatever. You. Want. Which makes these even better! 

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Housework + Craft Time?

Ever since I indicated to my dad that I would like to help him out on his home improvement projects, it seems every weekend he has something to do now. Something that entails me staying outside all day, getting sunburned, then coming in and crashing and not being able to work on my crafts. Which is sad. However, I won't go back on my word... It makes things go by faster, and it's easier for him to have a gopher while he is up on a ladder instead of having to climb all the way back down and grabbing something. I don't mind helping him, I mind that I don't get my own stuff done at the same time.

That said, I'm still working on stuff. I really wish I could take my sewing machine and all my clay things to my BF's mothers, but there is no where to work there. Plus the dogs would eat everything. Including my sewing machine if they were desperate enough for attention. Which they're not going to get if they misbehave.

I promised a tutorial on clay snakes this weekend, then my camera broke, but we sent it to the repair center today, I should have it back in a year. Or maybe a month. Or maybe 2 weeks at the soonest. You know how those things go. They told me to send it in without the battery or any accessories, but to send the new memory card that I was sort of planning to return instead. If that thing doesn't come back I'll be pissed. It was only $10, but it was a nicer one than the other one I have. (8gb over 2 gb... What would you choose?)

When the camera gets back, I should have a whole new stock of things to show you, as well as to put up on Etsy, because I'm sure my skills with clay are just as good as plenty of other people who sell their clay stuff. I also plan on making clay pendents... I like the idea, I haven't tried it yet because my jewelry stuff is at the BF's mothers to make repairs on her jewelry. She has a lot. I'm jealous.

On another note, someone made me a banner for my Etsy shop! It's better than mine, I haven't put it up yet because I'm not sure if they are done yet, but they took pictures that I had of my jewelry and used those! It's awesome. So, that'll be up soon.

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A very important life lesson!

I got on a tall ship yesterday! It was called the Hawaiian Chieften. She accompanies the Lady Washington on her trips around the U.S. that goes on all year long. I keep hearing people say that these two ships were used in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but they are much too small. Unless they were ships that you saw from far away, because the main deck of both of these ships are just tiny. The 2 hour sail was crowded with about 40 people on the ship.

I was going to take pictures, but alas, my brand. New. $400. Camera. Is broken.

Yeah.

Camera's hate me, apparently. They don't want me to have an Etsy shop.

I was lamenting over the fact that we've had the camera for longer than the 30 day warranty, but this is not the case... The warranty is 90 days! So, we just have to send the thing back and they'll look at it. Then either fix it or provide us with a new one. A new one would be really nice if this camera was a few years old, but really... We've had it for like a month...

What happened was, I was uploading the pictures by taking the memory card out of the camera and putting it into my laptop, because the first time I uploaded pictures I had forgotten the USB cord. Now the camera refuses to read the memory cards. I hardly think that taking the memory card out about 4 times should BREAK the camera, as I know there are plenty of people who upload their pictures this way, as well as other people who have multiple memory cards because of how many pictures they take. I have 2 memory cards that I used and had files on from the camera and it was working fine, then it broke, then I went out and bought a brand new memory card that was the same brand as the camera and it also won't read that one.

I was reading up online how Sony evidently refuses to look at cameras with this error and says that there's nothing one can do to fix it. Other people just had to clean their memory cards with a pencil eraser, which I did several times. My boyfriend then made me call up Sony and told me if they wouldn't look at it, ask them what the warranty DID cover and then we would do that to the camera then call them back... Well I called them, and guess what? She not only tried helping me fix it myself, she told me to send the thing back in and that they would fix it. 

This just means that I should really stop believing anyone on the internet. These people complaining about Sony not helping them probably finally convinced Sony to start helping out with this problem, or they never called Sony in the first freaking place... Which goes to show, if you cannot find a way to fix something off the internet, CALL THE PEOPLE YOU GOT IT FROM! It is worth a try no matter what the circumstances are! Even if you have had your item for longer than the warranty, they can and will try to help you fix it. It is their JOB! Just be polite. Unless the agent you are talking to pisses you off. If you go into the call blaming the agent for their companies product, they are not going to be happy with you, and you want them happy!

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Finally! Clay critters!

I've been working on making these adorable clay dragons and cthulhus, along with some other animals because of this chick on DeviantArt. Her dragons. Are freaking cute. So, I was inspired!

At first, I modeled them after her dragons without any kind of idea of what I was doing:

Then I watched her video tutorial. Basically, she uses tin foil armatures in her figures. That opened a whole world of possibilities. I improved immediately. 

I want to sell these eventually, so I knew I needed to branch off on my own style. I also NEEDED to make a  cthulhu. Since I couldn't find any good clay cthulhus, I ended making my own without any kind of inspiration picture, and I think I figured out how I'm going to make my figures. Their body will be one ball, then their head will be another ball. Observe: 

Sadly, that sleepy cthulhu was the only one I have a picture of, as my brand new expensive camera has decided it doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that there is, in fact, a memory card in it. I have 2 different memory cards, they both are supposed to work with the camera, but it doesn't pay any attention to them... It's very sad. We'll mess around with it some more, but I reset it to it's factory settings and it's still doing it, so I think it's just screwed and we have to send it back. This is greatly upsetting, as I was waiting for the camera to finally set up my Etsy shop and now that it is set up, this camera has stopped working... 

I've made two more dragons and one more cthulhu with the 2 ball body and they're all getting better all the time. 

I've also made an awesome snake, which I will have a tutorial for hopefully next weekend. It turned out really cool looking, and I thought it would look like crap, so I'm really excited about this snake. 

I've also made some other, inconsequential things...: 

That dragon took HOURS and I'm not very happy with how he looks. It'll be nice to see these pictures in the future, when I will hopefully be better at manipulating clay. 

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