11.26.2008

It's turkey lurkey time

Tomorrow (or actually today) I'm heading back to my old stomping grounds for a mini Thanksgiving break. It should make for an interesting weekend. My whole family stuffed together into a house, with lots of tryptophan coursing through our blood. My parents will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary next month, so my mom asked one of my brothers-in-law to bring his nice camera and get photos of the family, including group shots of each of our "individual" families and of the whole bunch. Oy. Not much else helps draw more attention to my current living arrangement than the thought of it being captured for all eternity on Kodak paper.

Other than that awkward situation, I hope it ends up being a nice visit. Even though I am trying to do as much of a homemade Christmas as possible, the thought of battling the crowds this Friday is a strange sort of urge to me. I don't know why I want to submit myself for the surefire pain in the ass, but I just do. I like the crowds, the freak shows, the bad fashion. So much fun.

I most likely won't update until I get back next week. My parents have, get this, DIAL UP INTERNET! Hard to believe it still exists! :) I hope I can continue my fast-moving craft trajectory while I am away, and even better, get a chance to stock up on some more knitting supplies! I hope I can find a yarn shop in Fort Wayne.

11.24.2008

Peanuts quilt progress

I got a lot done this weekend! (As long as we're not talking about the pile of dirty dishes or unfolded laundry anyway.)

I worked some more on my holiday gifts that I have in the works, finishing another scarf and starting another. I'll try to get photos of them soon.

I also finished putting all the blocks of my Snoopy quilt together! Yay! I like it much better now, which is good, because how sad would it be to have an ugly Snoopy quilt? That would suck.

So now I'm trying to think of what to do with the borders. I'm going to do the Charlie Brown shirt zigzag on the back in yellow and black, but I'm still kind of meh about the borders. I hope I come up with something soon! And then the quilting pattern. Eek. I could spend months quilting that sucker by hand with all kinds of cool Snoopy/Peanuts designs, but do I want to devote that kind of time into it?

Here it is (needing an ironing, of course):

Snoopy quilt top

Snoopy quilt

I went and saw "Twilight" on Sunday afternoon. I went in thinking it wasn't going to be that good, but it was better than I expected. The actors playing Bella and Edward were awesome, but I didn't really like the Jacob actor. He didn't have much of a part in it as well. Plus his friends all had really long hair, and that bothered me because in the book they didn't. Not a huge deal or anything, but still. I also got asked to fill out a survey while waiting in the lobby and then got a free soft drink, saving me about $12. Just kidding, but I still can't get over how jacked up prices are at movies for stuff like that. It did make me feel less guilty for getting a regular popcorn with extra butter!

I saw a tutorial for making a chipmunk out of a glove on etsy last week and of course decided I needed to make one. Or 10. So I went to Wal-Mart last week and bought a bunch of cheap gloves and cheap socks (for a variety of sock creatures that I have wanted to make as well).

Who knew how long these dang these were going to take? Well, longer than I expected. But I finished a chipmunk (I wish I had used a lighter brown glove), but he didn't photograph well. His name is Woody. I also knitted him a small scarf because he looked kinda naked.

Woody close-up

Woody the chipmunk

And then I thought I'd try a skunk out of the same pattern. And since I had a hunk of white fur just sitting around I thought I would add that as well. That stuff SUCKS to sew with! It looks cute, but my bed was COVERED in fake white fur last night. The skunk still needs its arms and face put on, but that will be easier compared to sewing the fur on. (Also not a good picture, but oh well.)

Partially finished skunk

The skunk looks a bit punk rock from that angle, with the white mohawk and all. I'll try to get better photos after I finish it tonight. :)

11.19.2008

No surprises here ...

... Especially in that I've been errant yet again about blogging. I think because my life is boring — or so I would think it looks from the outside — that there's not much point in giving an update about my current goings on.

I work.
I sleep.
I eat.
I sew.
I knit.

Rinse and repeat.

Lots of monotony I would think from the outside looking in. I know a lot of people may envy all the free time I have, but I can't help but envy everyone else's activity-laden schedules at times, too. Not that I don't enjoy my free time ... I never feel like I can get enough hours in the day to create all the things that spark my interest. I'm constantly seeing quilts and crafts online I'd like to try. I'd like to take art/sewing/craft classes. I want to learn to crochet. I want to learn to knit more than simple squares and rectangles. I have ideas for quilts all the time, but just not enough time to do it in.

I wish sometimes I was a Martha Stewart sleeper — you know, able to sleep 3 or 4 hours a night and still be able to accomplish the impossible. I get 3 or 4 hours a sleep and I'm a mess for much of the day. So I give in to sleep at night, even though I wish I were doing something else more productive. Blogging kinda feels like that too. Hard to multi-task when you are typing.

Thanks to the overabundance of free time that I do have, I've been getting a lot done.

This is one of my current works in progress. I've now finished 30 of these blocks and started sewing them together last night. (This isn't the final layout, I was just taking an in-progress picture.)