New clay stuff!

 Aren't these ring dishes just beautiful? I LOVE my fall colored one above! The colors just ended up blending just enough, and it made me so happy with the end result! I found this tutorial for these leaf dishes on pinterest and I said "I HAVE to make some of those!" I rolled the clay a lot thinner than the tutorial did, but I use Premo and it has a lot of flexibility so I think they'll be fine. The green one is for a close friend of mine. I mixed glitter in with the glaze, and then did a clear coat of glaze on top of that so that none of the glitter would come off whenever you touched it.

 

 

I also made a couple of dragons! The blue one wasn't glazed yet when I took that picture, he is all shiny now.  I'm not too proud of their faces, I am still working on that. The neck on the blue one is definitely a bit thick! I am a lot happier with their wings now... I used to make such ridiculous wings! Now that I've got the wings down (at least I am happy with them... for now) I need to work on their faces and front legs. The red one below isn't even baked yet! That's why he looks pretty shiny. It's a different shiny than what glaze gives them. I've taken a liking to making the dragons out of clay that's been mixed with different colors, but not mixed into one color. They look a lot more interesting this way, I think.

He is missing a black spike right on the tip of his nose!
A picture decided to fall right on top of him...

Both of these dragons will be for sale soon on my Etsy or possibly my Facebook page. I'll have to look up this new facebook shop thing! Does it cost money to set up? That's my biggest concern.

I'm staying at my dad's for another month at least, so I'll be making quite a few more things! I'm headed to Joannes tomorrow to grab some fabric for a few projects... At least 3 different projects actually!

So I shall be posting a bit more regularly for a while. I'm usually at a place where I can't do any kind of craft or if I do I'm being bothered by destructive dogs so it takes forever. I'm so happy to be back here and getting some stuff done!

Bubble Art, tips and tricks!

I spent the weekend with my sister and she mentioned seeing something about bubble art recently. I never thought I'd ever make bubble art, mainly because I never had food dye and never need it, so why should I buy some for one project?

We went to the dollar store and got 2 packages of 3 containers of bubbles and a thing of different sized bubble wands. $3 for the whole project, since she had the dye and paper already! Also, it was the day after Easter, so I'm sure that there were at least egg dyes at the dollar store if not regular food dye.

So here's the results! These are only my 2, but they are the same color scheme as my sisters:

Aren't they pretty? I cut a heart out of the cardboard on the back of the extra wands, then cutout the cutout (if that makes sense, it's the hearts outline).

NOW. We had an issue while doing this: The bubbles hate the color white and will do anything not to land on it!!! So basically, we would blow some bubbles and then try to catch them on the wand, and then basically place them on the paper. If you press down gently and then keep still, then lift up a bit and keep still, you can make rings of color. You can see on the bottom of the green and blue one a blue bubble with another blue bubble inside of it. So when you place the bubble on the paper, press down so that it spreads wider, then lift up so that the bubble tries to come off the paper with the wand and it gets skinnier. That's how we made the multiple rings.

Right next to that double bubble on the green and blue picture, there's a bubble with some purple in it. I can also explain how to do that! We each had a wand, and I would dip mine in the blue and then NOT blow a bubble. My sister would dip her wand in the purple and blow bubbles and I would catch them with my wand. Basically there's extra dye and liquid from my wand and it all goes to the bottom of the bubble. I place it on the paper and extra dye lands first with a little bit of purple from my sisters wand, and more blue from mine since I didn't blow any bubbles.

Anyways, pretty cool huh? I thought I'd just share some of the tricks we learned while making our pretty pieces of art.

Powerpuffs save the day!

So I've taken a short break from my quilt to work on a simple dress. A powerpuff girl dress. Yes. I will be dressing as Buttercup. For Radcon. I really wish I had a black corset, because I just feel so unbelievably fat in this dress. Losing 7 pounds this month has not had any visual effect whatsoever. I can only hope in the next 2-3 weeks I will lose more! Haha. I am doing it for a friend though! We started watching Powerpuff Girls on Netflix and they're just really simple. Instead of doing a simple black band around the middle, we sewed the sash to the front and left the back long so that we can tie them into bows. The front of the dress is "modest", trust me it really bothers us to have such a high neckline! I seriously can't stand shirts touching me above the collar bone.

My friend is Blossom and made this amazing and giant hair bow. She just made it out of leftover dress fabric so it's pink instead of red, but it is still simply amazing. I love it and I want one. She said it turned out a lot better than she thought it would.

I'm going to add darts in the front and back of my dress because the sleeves are basically hanging on my shoulders and I'd like them to be closer together. There's definitely room in my dress to be smaller! Although it's not a stretch fabric at all so I shouldn't make it too huggy.

Speaking of losing weight, I believe I'm being more and more better (don't even try to correct that sentence) about food. At the moment I am making beef soup bone broth, using a slow cooker for the first time, and I am also cooking beans. Not canned beans, dried beans! They're really annoying with all the overnight soaking and now cooking for hours, but this is what a good woman does, right? Pre-plan meals? I also made rice, and plan on cooking up some ground beef and also making guacamole, so we can have burritos/tacos probably for lunch/dinner. We don't really eat at regular times, and I try to eat smaller portions while my boyfriend will eat until everything is gone. When I make enchilada's, I make 6 so there's 2 for each of us here. When he decides to eat 2 enchiladas I bitch constantly because he knows he shouldn't eat so much (I stuff them unbelievably full, it's like enchiladas you get at a mexican restaurant) but it's there and he WANTS it even though he already had one! He keeps saying that he's lost weight, and I don't really believe him because he keeps talking about when he's skinny and looks good he wants me to make him all of his clothes but he never bothers working out, he tries to get me to hand him things that are just out of arm's reach from him, but nooo he's losing a pound once in a while so why should he try harder? I'm pretty sure he is losing weight because of my trying harder to make us better food.

Sorry for the rant, but it's starting to get on my nerves! This is something that NEEDS to change and soon, because when I don't think and hand him something that required me to move more than he would have if he got it, that's just ridiculous and sad and pathetic. Sometimes when I say no I won't give him something he will explode saying how his hip will hurt like the old man he is in his early 20s, and that I can't expect him to do it and from now on I'm not going to listen to that bull.

Stop ranting. Stop it. I really needed it, though! I feel loads better. I'm just done being a maid!

Quilt Update!

So I spent 12 hours both today and yesterday, plus some time before that, and I'm still just barely done with half the quilt top! It's crazy, but seeing all the blocks I've made, especially after I've ironed them, is just so awesome. Looking at those crisp, clean lines... It's worth it! My hands and back don't even hurt at all. They were a bit cramped earlier, but I just shook them around a bit and that worked like a charm.

Here's a few pictures, this one is of the fabric choices:

Batik's, a few tie dies, and white. 

This below is the block I'm making. The pattern is called "Bento Box", where you make the same block but can put it in several different patterns for the finished top. Since I have so many colors, I might do one of the more random looking patterns, instead of the more organized ones. My friend is making the same block and her quilt is much more colorful. She is further along than I, and has already started sewing the top together. It's looking AMAZING! I can't wait until mine is finished! 

Bento Box Block

The colors look a bit washed out, I'll have to remember to bring my nice camera to take pictures soon. I love batiks and just can't wait to see what it'll look like all put together! 

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Quilting!

So I mentioned my "big project" on Facebook and forgot to give any details. I asked a few friends if they were interested in starting quilts this year. One is more experienced and has been helping us start ours, and it's proving to be much easier than I thought it would be... Probably because the ironing board is right next to us instead of downstairs, encouraging me to actually iron the fabric!

I choose to go with batiks for my quilt. We're doing a pattern called "Bento Box" that shows you how to make a block that can be arranged into many different patterns. Some don't look like anything to me, and other ones look really cool.

I also am going to start knitting a TON of these Trumpet Flowers for my sisters wedding! They're really pretty, and small. It shouldn't take to long to churn out a bunch, but I've got the time anyways, it seems. I'll need to grab up some needles that size, and matching yarn for the theme, but it shouldn't cost too much except time, which I've got plenty of!

So there's my 2 big projects this year. Yes, a lap sized quilt is a big project for me! I really want it to turn out beautiful. We are zipping through, honestly. I only got most of my fabric today, and I know that I'll end up need more anyways. Especially of the white. When I sew up a few blocks, I'll post a couple of pictures of the blocks so you can see my color scheme. It's mostly batiks, with a couple of tie-dies thrown in that sort of match the batiks.

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Homemade Xmas Gifts

Anyways, so here's some of the things I made for this past xmas. I didn't get a picture of the scarf I made, I liked how it turned out though... Oh well. I knit a lot, and made a few clay things... I wanted to make more clay stuff, but I just ran out of time. 

Here's a headband I made to match a hat that I didn't get a picture of. You can't really see the pattern, but it has rib knit along the edges and in the middle it's broken rib. I think if I make another one, I'll make sure the rib and broken rib don't line up. 

Dice bag! I love the stripes. The white yarn is fuzzy and the green yarn wasn't... But, whatever. We were supposed to fill it with all kinds of dice, but we never got the chance too. 

Back scrubber! This was like knitting a scarf with the smallest needles I've used. Ugh. Took forever. 

This is what took the longest out of the clay projects. I took the box apart in order to stain it all, and I also used sandpaper to make some worn areas. I was planning on adding more clay features, but the clay wouldn't stick to the wood. So, I painted it instead. After I made the dragon! It's the biggest dragon I've made. You can't really see but one eye is open and looking up. I think he turned out adorable! 

This was for my boyfriend's new friend at school. She mentioned how she really liked the unicorns that also had wings (alicorns), so he came home and asked me what they're called so he could tell her their name. Then asked me to make her one for xmas. The last pony I made was butt ugly, so I'm happy this one came out cute! 

Peacock! This is an ornament I made for a friend. I worked really hard to make it more color-accurate, but the beak ended up become much too long and I didn't want to try to make the wings. They'd be really complicated! 

A lizard! This was actually a request, and I had planned on making more desert themed animals but ran out of time. 

Rags. I actually haven't given these to their recipients yet but they know what they are getting anyways. 

Just a hand warmer. I stuffed some jewelry into it as well. 

These were fun! Corset shaped bags! I put hand soap, sewing kits, and jewelry in these. I wanted to put more, but again I ran out of time. 

Here are the sewing kits. Thread, thread cutter, pins, needles, a zipper in one and I think some velcro in the other. They're good to keep in cars for emergencies! 

2014 Goals

So I'm reading lots of posts on blogs and on facebook about people's goals and I have been thinking about my own. I only really have one big, long term goal that I want to get too: A self sufficient farm. There's a lot of smaller goals that go along with that goal, such as learning about raising and then raising all sorts of livestock, as well as gardening, and using the products from the garden and livestock. I'm in the process of learning a LOT right now, but the farm is a long way into my future right now, and I need to focus on smaller, short term goals that will get me to my future farm.

One of the more obvious goals is to get a job. However, I'm letting the job be interchangable with an education. If I can get financial aid this year and go to school, that will allow me to feel like I have a purpose to my life and that I'm being productive. I suffer from depression, and I think it's because I currently don't have anything to do all day. I AM productive, when doing crafts, but as I've said before I am living in a place where most of my crafting supplies don't have the room to be at. That last sentence could have been worded better, but that brings me to my next thing: Without school, or any stimulation, I can literally feel intelligence leaking out of my ears. I have been having trouble spelling, and a lot of trouble figuring out simple math in my head. Addition? Subtraction? I suddenly seem to be amazing at remembering random multiplication facts, but I can just forget about division. I literally missed learning it in school, anyways. So, I would prefer getting into school instead of getting a job, but again, money would be AWESOME.

I also would REALLY like to get a group of my friends to make enough things so by next February we could be a vendor at Radcon. With all of us together, we can make jewelry, knit items, chainmaille items, dice, carbon fiber boxes, plus lots more, so if we all pitch in I think we could make a profit.

I've also been thinking about getting German Angora rabbits. You have to shear them every 90 days, and you can use their fur to make yarn! Plus, they are also good for meat. So, it'd be jumping into the livestock that I'd like, if I started breeding them at least. I have to learn about rabbits still, plus this ties in to the fact that a job would be helping me move into a place where I could keep rabbits. I'm really excited about the idea of the rabbits, so here's what I've decided my goals this year is:

1. Get a job AND into school.
2. Move after accomplishing first goal! 
3. Focus on sell-able crafts. 
4. Get German Angora Rabbits. After moving. 

I honestly think that my life will be vastly improved by the first goal. I'd be doing something. So, that's the one I'll be working on the hardest. 

And of course, I'm an overweight woman, so I'll need to also lose weight for my New Years goal. I've already lost 3 pounds! What are your goals/resolutions this year? Do you think you'll accomplish them? 

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.

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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!