Filed under: Blogging, Blogroll, Crafts, Crochet, Design, Finished Projects, Hundred Flower Scarf, Knitting, Life, Ongoing Projects, Ripple Blanket, Thoughts, Writing
there are no graphic signs enough for my slack-jawed expression right now!!!
a long time ago i submitted this here blog to
Crochet Carnival
and guess what?!?!?
my blog is there!!!!!!!!!!
blop on over and check it!!
which reminds me, i have some photos for you of wips and finished projects. i took them with my sil1’s camera when she was in town for G’s birthday last week. unfortunately, she forgot the cable, so i have to wait a couple of weeks till she gets home (she is spending this week with her parents) for her to send them through snail mail (there were too many photos for email)…
so, in a while u will have some new pics of my ripple… it’s going, slowly with my buzybee schedule, but going nontheless…
so, i leave you with a pic of g’s new crocs, brought straight from china by my mom, who got back yesterday… too bad i forgot to ask for a pair of mine!!
I also finished sil1’s hundred flower scarf! yipee!! pics as soon as she sends them…
Filed under: Crafts, Crochet, Current Status, Design, Finished Projects, Granny Square Bag, Hundred Flower Scarf, Life, Ongoing Projects, Ripple Blanket, Sewing, Thoughts, Writing
I know I have been scarce in the blogosphere, and other places, but these last months have been, well, hell.
First, Hubby was finishing his Masters Program, for which he had a scholarship, that basically kept food in our table while I got better from my burnout + looked for a job + decided whether or not to return to college. Well, he finished his Masters, with honors. And so went his scholarship. And 60% of our monthly income.
Now, we were prepared for that, really. But when we made our plans, we didn’t count on my unemployed self still being unemployed, and our computer, which for many times saved our collective behinds with heaven-sent odd translating and formatting jobs, decided it wanted a vacation, which meant sending it to tech support, which made our savings last for about a month. Yeah. Things were dire in the preeety household.
Then we all got sick together as winter came into play. I decided I had to go back to school, or things would be bad permanently, so I started the whole “back to college” process, and away went my pride, since I had to seek financial aid – from my mother! Not a good thing I tell you.
In a moment of desperation, I fled to the streets with a desperate face and a pile of résumés under my arms, and proceeded to stop at every printing service, ad agencies and such, begging for a job. I even tried some English schools for teaching positions (not my thing), but nothing came to my aid.
As I walked past a house, I chance to look at its walls and what do I see: a sign offering typing services! In I went, and now it’s been a month and $600 and I am employed, enrolled and applying for scholarships!
I tell ya, if things got any worse, I’d be dead by now. It’s not all a bed of roses (or daisies, daffodils, and assorted) but things are improving. In a weeks time, G will be celebrating his birthday with classmates, the whole assorted family will be here for the party, as we celebrate 3 years of a better world because he is in it. That is one great kid I made!
About that not being a bed of roses comment, Hubby is still looking for a job, and apparently it’s going to be tough, since he is in crossway of sorts, career wise.
Now, for the worse of all: remember I mentioned the computer brakedown? Well, it went to tech support, and came back not himself. How come I used to be able to run Photoshop, Corel and Firefox, plus Messenger and iTunes at once, and after my baby came from its vacation, I could barely run Photoshop on its own? I pondered over this for 2 months, till one day the answer came to me: the tech guy, hear this, EXCHANGED MY PENTIUM 4 3.0 FOR A CELERON 3.12!!!!!!! I kid you not!! And the shop has removed itself from any responsibility for the occurrence!
Of course, we’re taking the appropriate measures, but it takes time. And to top it of, our mother-board has short-circuited, so I am now computerless. And there is no money for a new board and new processor, so…
Meanwhile, I can only read all the blogs I follow, and post, at work, and that doesn’t happen everyday, so I’m taking a (forced) leave of absence, with occasional visitation rights. Oh well.
Now, for the crafting, it’s going… With the new job, I don’t have much time left, and now that I’m going back to school for a B.A. in Design (insert huge grin here) the time will be even less, but I managed another Santa Hat, am halfway through a cardi for G, one for my sis-in-law, and finished a scarf for Hubby (autumn colors, perfect for a redhead!), and am going strong on the ripples. I even bought some great fabric for cushions, and will be (having made) a sofa cover, finally! And it’ll come off really cheap too, since I got a cheap child-safe fabric, meaning if it gets ruined by 3 yo hands, it won’t hurt as much! And I’ll even try my hand at sewing the Hundred Flower Scarf together (finally) and the inside of the Granny Bag. So that’s all folks!
I’ll try to get some photos done, and show you guys.
And to explain the title of this post, I am awed and amazed that, even though I haven’t posted in so long, there are still some hits and comments on this blog. Thank you so much!
Now I have to go back to work. I can’t believe it took me 2 hours to write this (I had to stop constantly; apparently people do get out in freezing cold weather on a Saturday; based on previous Saturdays, I couldn’t tell). Bye ya’ll.
Filed under: Blogging, Crafts, Crochet, Finished Projects, Granny Square Bag, Life, Ongoing Projects, Opinion, Sewing, Thoughts, Writing
well, following crafty pants!, i’m on the bandwagon. and for this very special ocasion, i’m including a new page to the blog. so, if you wanna keep up with it, just follow the link upstairs…
i now seat myself in my comfy chair, listening to the rolling stones as hubby makes some burgers sizzle on the skillet, and feeling little monster’s weight on my thigh – i want my lap!, he says – and his hands on my face, playing with his mommy’s nose waiting for her to quit reading those silly blogs and play the pirate game with him, accompanied by some eye scrubbing – so adorable. he got up early to go to school today, so he’s pretty wiped out by now. sigh.
had a bad case of insomnia today, which led me to a bones marathon, preceded by october road’s season finale and grey’s somewhat drab latest episode (is it just me, or is it grey’s is slumpin’?) followed by gilmore girls, with some hefty lor-luke action. finally!!!
all of that to say i passed out around 1 pm and slept through most of the day, managing to do nothing of my last few hours. i hate it when that happens… i used to go days at a time without sleep a few months ago, so just over 30 hours isn’t much for me, but… i still don’t like it.
i was in a really bad shape till a few months ago, for about a year and a half. in a way, crafting helped a lot, and so did blogging. i was never a very popular person, seeing as i prefer books and art supplies over people pretty much all the time, but spending this long confined home was ever worse. and i was a pretty active person before that, so when i spent nearly a year doing nothing more then reading cheap paperbacks – that was the only thing i could get myself to do that didn’t include house work (and very little of it, mind you) – i really cracked. and i missed creating.
after i quit art school, i didn’t want to come near any sort of art supply. this new year’s we spent at my in-laws. hubby’s mom was crocheting a rug, and it got me itching, so i ended up at a craft shop buying heaps of cotton thread to make a couch throw (which i’m still working on – i hate cotton thread, as it turns out), and some fabric for a crochet bag, which has now turned into lining for the granny bag. i did put those aside for about a month, seeing as how i’m deathly scared of sewing, as perceived by the mess i made of the fabric, and how much i hate cotton thread because it makes my arms go to mush. i don’t know how i came upon some craft blogs, and ended up with a lot of acrylic and acrylic-mix yarn in my hands, making great things for my up-till-then-comatose-ego. and created my very own blog, which has kept me in the right path…
so, thanks to you all. really. i don’t know where i’d be if it weren’t for you guys out there, and it’s a scary thought.
off to feed my little monster now.
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Filed under: Amigurumi, Art, Babette Blanket, Blogging, Blogroll, Books, Crafts, Crochet, Current Status, Design, Finished Projects, Granny Square Bag, GrannySquares, Heaven Blanket, Hundred Flower Scarf, Knitting, Life, Matryoshka Doll, Memes & Quizzes, Ongoing Projects, Opinion, Painting, Paper, Photography, Quilting, Ripple Blanket, Sewing, Stool Covers, Thoughts, To-Do, Ultimate Blog Party, Vertical Scrap Blanket, Writing
first, watch this.
now, for the ranting session.
- the amazon does produce a lot of oxygen, which it consumes right away.
- the territory where amazon is located houses a lot of people. these people are for the greater part brazilian.
- the people who are pulling it down are corporate america. yes. that’s right. huge “american” multinationals are taking it over, with the “purpose” of using the land for grazing. cow grazing. know what they do? they pull down all the vegetation. then they put one cow there. leave it for a while, and go on to the next piece of land. taking that same cow, by helicopter, while the ground burns to get rid of the cleanup job. and this is a very poor soil, especially after the burning, so the only thing that grows there is forest, cause they are self sufficient, and the fallen leaves and dead animals make up for the lack of nutritients in the soil. these are the same companies that gave the military money for the coupe d’estate in the 60’s, which led to our state as a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1984, a time when many, many hundreds “mysteriously dissapeared” after being taken by the military. these people were mostly tortured to death and disposed of in unmarked shallow graves. most of them are still missing. the military then went on to start hundreds of projects meant to “bring progress to the country”, but which ended up bankrupting us. and that is still a problem 20 years later. i could go on, but all this information is available, so…
- there are minerals and gems and gold and silver and all that more around there. all of it protected. but, if you happen to own the land… need i say more? there is a huge speculation of diamond mines there as well.
- not to mention all of the flora and fauna, many of which have tremendous medicinal importance, hence the potential to make pharmaceutical companies even more rich then they are already.
i’m gonna stop for now, but you catch my drift, right? the people who get their hands on that land is gonna such it dry, and make gazillions in the process. and all in the guise of “saving the green”. yeah right!
Filed under: Babette Blanket, Crafts, Crochet, Current Status, Design, Finished Projects, Granny Square Bag, GrannySquares, Heaven Blanket, Hundred Flower Scarf, Knitting, Matryoshka Doll, Ongoing Projects, Paper, Quilting, Ripple Blanket, Sewing, Stool Covers, To-Do
just to let you 20 people who read this know that i haven’t been feeling very crafty lately. must be the hectic work schedule, or maybe the 35 d. celsius/90% humidity induced headaches… i hate indian summers!
Filed under: Babette Blanket, Crafts, Crochet, Design, Finished Projects, GrannySquares, Heaven Blanket, Hundred Flower Scarf, Knitting, Matryoshka Doll, Ongoing Projects, Paper, Quilting, Ripple Blanket, Sewing, Stool Covers, To-Do
too sick to write. check flickr for photo update. bye.
Filed under: Blogging, Blogroll, Crafts, Crochet, Finished Projects, Granny Square Bag, GrannySquares, Hundred Flower Scarf, Knitting, Life, Ongoing Projects, Opinion, Ripple Blanket, Thoughts, Writing
The sun is out, the birds chirp away, no clouds mar a bright blue ski, temperature is in the 30 C, and I have a bug.
Yes, a bug. My throat is sore, my body aches, my nasal cavities are filled with yucky goo, my head feels like Cape Canaveral on launch day, I am cold as hell frozen over, even my teeth hurt. I kid you not.
Either I have no kudos left in my name, or my karma is preeety messed up. I’m sitting in the sun and, except for my black jean clad leg and my black wool sweater clad arm, which are baking in direct sun light in 30 C weather – hot, mind you; Hubby is in swimming trunks! No, we do not have a pool, and the nearest beach is 4 hours away – I am shivering. Yes. Shivering. You read it right.
So, will i be crafting today?
Ah, the million dollar question.
I’m afraid you’ll have to wait on that one. If my head stops trying to hop out of my neck, and my shoulders un-stiffen, maybe.
Will get back to you on that one.
2 pm
I took some Vick Pyrena tea now and let me tell you: That’s some feady stuff! I once again can consider myself amongst the ranks of the living human. My body isn’t achy anymore, my head is no longer hearig the call of the wild, and I shiver no more! Even a bit sweaty, now that I think about it. That’s good, isn’t it?
(Let me explain here: I wrote this in my journal as a draft post while on heavy medication. What follows is a very yucky description of my condition, of which I will spare you, and go on directly to tell you it is now 11 pm, and I have a bad case of sinus inflammation. Not good. So now to the crafty bits)
My mom came over, to take G for their usual sunday outing, and brought me the crappy camera. So I will this week be showing y’all last week’s production, in actually good pictures for a change – the sun helped a lot here, as did Hubby and a white bed sheet.
So, for today’s update.
Yes, I did manage to craft. Not as much as I wanted to, considering the million faerie folk who decided to party in my head, but…
I am now at 8 flowers for the Hundred Flower Scarf.
I am once again on speaking terms with the Ripple Blanket.
I did a good enough job with the Granny Squares for the Granny Square Bag, am now at:
- 4 rnds – 3
- 3 rnds – 14
- 2 rnds – 13
Those are the thirty for the front and back (?) of the bag. There are 13 more for the sides and bottom, but I don’t know how I’ll be doing them, so…
That’s it. The rest is stalled, due to illness, and yeah, okay, some modicum of laziness, but not much. I really am sick. So I leave you with today’s Finished Project Visual Report:
My lovely Scarf #2 Green:
It’s preeetier then this. Seriously.
Not that you can tell by the mug shots, but it is quite nice.
Okay, so back to bed for little ol’ me, in the hopes of a normal day tomorrow. Bye now!
Filed under: Blogging, Books, Crafts, Crochet, Finished Projects, GrannySquares, Hundred Flower Scarf, Ongoing Projects, Opinion, Ripple Blanket, Stool Covers, Thoughts, Writing
So, I went over to Amazon, in the hopes I could maybe get a book or two, and was forced to do a little conversion, from USD$ to R$. Well, the 200 ripple patterns book, from USD$ 16,49 to R$ 35,00. And I’m not even considering the shipping, which would take my little splurge to the 3 digit area. ARGHGHGHGHGHhhh I am so mad!!!
On the other hand, I started a new project. It’s actually and old abandoned project, a bag for my crochet supplies in use, which I gave up on due to total lack of success. I am now making the outside of granny-squares, and the lining will be made with the fabric I already had from the unsuccessful previous attempt. How clever am I? (no need to answer. I am, after all, allowed to dream, aren’t I?)
And on my Ongoing Projects:
The necklace, stalled. Don’t know what to do.
Ripple blanket, hiding in fear of its life. Haven’t forgiven it yet.
Granny Squares are going strong, one a day.
Couch throw, not even thinking ’bout.
Stool covers, pushed aside in favour of crochet bag.
Hundred Flower Scarf… I’ll get to them…
Am also doing a quickie bag, not sure for whom yet. It matches the scarf though, the one I will post next week, all going well.
And for our visual report:
Today I will show you my hook caddy. The pattern’s around the web somewhere.
That’s that for today folks. Going to curse Amazon to hell and back now!
I forgot!!
I NEED HELP!!
I’m going to place some of my work on concession? at some stores here, and I need a name. So I’m between two choices, which is why I need your help:
made preeety by hand
or
preeety made by hand
what do you think? please comment!
Filed under: Blogging, Crafts, Crochet, Finished Projects, GrannySquares, Hundred Flower Scarf, Life, Ongoing Projects, Opinion, Ripple Blanket, Stool Covers, Thoughts, Writing
I read a lot of blogs. And I am messy. So, keeping up with them is tough, since I can never remember the ones I like, in the mess that is my del.icio.us. So, I use Google reader, coz I can access without opening another software. My pc has been behaving badly in the last few months, so the less I force it to work for me, the better it works. So, I probably read your blog, and if you check the feed stats, you’ll find me there…
Now, changing the subject, and update on ongoing projects:
The ripple blanket is stalled, simply because I’m pod with it. I made so many mistakes due to trying to balance the weights of different clashing colours, it messed everything up. I found a simple way to solve these problems, which didn’t result in ripping. So, all is well, but I’m giving our relationship some breathing room, or I might be sorely tempted to dispose of it in the most shredding way possible.
My couch throw I don’t know what to do with. So, on stand-by.
My granny squares, going strong. One a day.
I’ve been fumbling with the Million or Hundred Flower Scarf for a few months, as a gift to my sister-in-law. Now, she requested a specific shade of green, and since I offered to do it, and she is nice, and I kinda owe her, I threw myself in the search for the perfect yarn in the perfect shade of green. Let me tell you, not an easy feat. I rummaged every single yarn store that came my way, and either a) they didn’t carry the colour, or b) they carried the colour, but in nothing other than itchy-scratchy-cheap acrylic. Now, she may be my sister-in-law, but she is nice, and hubby loves her very much, and she has helped us immensely over the years, so she deserves something not itchy-scratchy-cheap acrylic and preeety around her neck in the upcoming winter months. Which is why it took me three months to find the f*$%@ yarn. But I’ve found it! It’s 96% acrylic, 4% cotton, not rough and not itchy-scratchy, and especially not cheap. It really hurt my bank account, but… it was necessary. So I am currently also doing the Million or Hundred Flower Scarf (can anyone correct me here, please?!!) in the perfect colour and perfect not itchy scratchy cheap yarn. I have four flowers so far. Gonna take me a while, you think? I am aiming for 100 flowers, so 96 to go!
And in my granny craziness, I finally found the solution to the crochet bag I started during our new year’s visit to my in-laws: I am using the fabric I bought for it, but never was quite content with, for the lining, and doing the outside with granny squares in the shades of the fabric! I made a preeety good head start today, and hope to have the grannies finished by monday. Now, I don’t know if I will have the bravery to actually pull out my grandma’s sewing machine that I borrowed six months ago and have not as yet made use of to do the lining, or if I will resort to the seamstress that lives two doors down the block from me. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
Almost forgot to tell you that I started work on my Stool Covers! They are coming along nicely… Believe will have photos on the weekend, all permitting.
Another forgotten: NR’s necklace, which she doesn’t know about, so keep it a secret please. I am nearly done with that one, just needs some finishing touches, that I still need to come up with;-)
And, for today’s visual report on finished projects, a lovely basket made to house G’s sea shell collection. Isn’t it lovely?
I made the bottom using the bottom of the hook cady that is available somewhere online… don’t be mad at me, but I can’t possibly look for it now. I really need to spend some time organizing my bookmarks.
That’s that for today. See you later…
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well, lot of ripples stopping by, thanks for your visit, and please come back!
as you can see by my (soon updated) sidebar, there is a logic to this chaos that is my virtual head here, and you can easily find what you look for (hopefully).
Now for today’s update!
This one actually has a new row now, with white. I will photo it next time i get the camera, along with the other one i made this week. I’m getting good at this!
Here another shot:
Have to go now!
Hubby needs the machine!
