Place Me On Your Shelf

Gah!

pmoys — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:51:20 +0000

So i’ve been away for a little bit. Between my mom getting married and a friend getting married, and school, and work, and life in general…
Things just have not gotten finished.
Thankfully, after this weekend, I get a bit of time to unwind from all the stress of the summer, and truly enjoy being back at school.
So… I guess I should say what HAS gotten finished…
I almost completed a “Matron of Honor” Dress for my mother’s wedding. It ended up being less formal and I was permitted to wear a sundress.
I spun a little bit in my spare time.
My desk moved to a much nice location.
I am working on completing another “Matron of Honor” dress for a friend’s wedding.
I am working on trying to be more honest rather than nice. I keep reverting back to thinking “if I say this, people will be happy” and then I end up owing people mittens and socks and gloves and such. So, after I catch up this recent batch, no more! I am going to knit something for MYSELF. The only thing i’ve knitted that I still own is a dicebag. Everything else has gone to other people some way or another.

That being said, I’m out to locate expensive college books. Oh joy.

Finally doing something again.

pmoys — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:34:41 +0000

Lost my mojo. Wanted to get it back, figured I need to do something for myself.

So this is the front view before i trimmed the middle panel. It's not sewn, just pinned.

A closeup of the bust. to show the gathering. I found it hard to see from farther away.

The back is shirred and laced, so I was trying to figure out how much ribbon I would need. Only pinned and not shirred yet.

So, Pmoys, you never seem to make original designs! This is yet another case, isn’t it?
Right you are, Me talking to myself!
This is an older classic style dress. Victorian Maiden if i recall right.

I can’t fit into their stuff nor afford it, and I have had this fabric for 4 years. This dress is coming at literally no cost. Thread, Zipper, Lining Fabric… total has cost me about 12.00 so far. And since it’s been a few years I won’t count the original cost of the fabric. (though still about 30.00) So a 45.00 dress? Instead of 300?

Now if I could just learn to sew for sizes other than my own!

Lately…

pmoys — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 17:01:55 +0000

Been catching up on things!
My quest for a vegetarian diet is not going so well. I keep flopping back and forth between veggie days and “normal” days. I will just have to try harder.

I finished up a skirt for my friend Kai.

I got started on the October is for Spinners (Rav Link) scarf (FINALLY! I’ve been wanting to for about a year! Don’t worry, everything else should still get done!)

I can see where i got a little messy with my PRTs, but I’m not sure if I want to fix it or not… If I have to rip it out, it may sit dormant for a long time…

New Spinnings

pmoys — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:12:56 +0000

I got this beautiful fiber from spin knit and life on etsy. This particular fiber is a blend of merino, corriedale, and domestic wools. It was called Northern Lights, but when I’m done, I hope to rename it “Aurora Borealis” because it sounds a bit more fancy.

I think it will turn out as a lovely yarn, but im still not sure if it should be lace-weight or light fingering.

Ramblings…

pmoys — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:05:46 +0000

It seems that 5 years in lolita fashion has done me in. I still love the romantic style I first fell in love with, but I find myself leaning more to natural kei, morigirl, and a few other looks I can’t find names for at the moment. Something more natural and free. Feminine, with muted colors, lace and pearls, but the direction that lolita has gone in has become overly sweet for me. (A shame, I never did get to do some of the looks I wanted to…) All good things must come to an end, yes?

We’ve finished moving, but not unpacking. The new place is nice. I still need to acquire another bookcase before I can even think of trying to unpack again. We technically still do not have internet. It runs only to the television in the living room, which makes it a bit difficult to do things I would do otherwise. (is it too early to say I miss using my mac?)

Not much of anything going on lately, but I will be able to post photos in a week or so. Hopefully.

The Big Snow of 2010

pmoys — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:24:07 +0000

Well, we got a good bit of snow here. up to my knee, sometimes my hip depending on how the snow fell in that area.
Our power was out for 2.5 days.
In those 2.5 days, we had a lot happen:
Had to skip work. Turned out okay though because work was cancelled.
The first night I was afraid to leave the cats alone. We stayed in the house with no heat, food, running water, etc. under 7 blankets and were okay. The cats layed all over us and under the covers and I felt really good.
Second Morning: Car battery died. As a result we walked 2 miles to the Advanced Auto Parts. Paid a lot for a battery… (I’ve never bought one before, so that’s just my opinion.)
spent the rest of the day commuting from friend’s house to friend’s house trying to find electricity and heat. My friend Amanda put us up for a while, and I really really appreciated it. I’m sorry I didn’t get to cook dinner like I planned. Dinner was offered to us by a friend earlier that day, and the mashed potatoes and meatloaf was amazing (if a little heavy on the onions, but it was a nice change!)
Second Evening: After dinner, husband decides we need a hotel. We check on the cats, everything is fine. I lay out more blankets for them just in case, trying to ease my conscience with “cats survive in the wild all the time”… Hotel was disgusting, by the by. Claimed it was a clean and non-smoking room, and when i picked up the plastic cup wrapped in plastic, two cigarette butts flew out and onto the floor. It made me question the cleanliness of the rest of the place.
Third Morning: Husband gets up. Car won’t start again. Too cold? We bought jumper cables, so we had some kind citizen jump his car. He got to work in one piece. I walked to work. A half a mile. Work deems me crazy for it, but I need the money.
Third Afternoon: (as I type) The water pipes in the bathroom busted. The bathroom in this house was an afterthought, built onto the outside of the house. It was inevitable that it would happen. Also, our siamese, Izzy, is incredibly smart. So much so that I nearly had a heart attack. He figured out how to open the attic. He’s downstairs, more of a rogue than an explorer-type. Our two girls (Alice and Poncho) ran into the attic. Makes sense. Heat rises. The problem is I was horribly afraid they would fall into the walls and die. So I’m up there with our roommates digging the cats out. Mother called and announced her decision to visit early, ruining our shopping plans to get her a Christmas gift. (I know, I know it’s 2 months late. We haven’t seen each other and some things have come up that are preventing us from getting things done in a timely manner.)

In the end: All is well. We’re running out to grab her something tonight, and will have a fun week with her.

I really do miss my mom. It’s weird to not have her, but I think I’d feel stranger without the husband.
That’s been the last 3 days. :D Time to relax!

A day off for once!

pmoys — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:23:11 +0000

I had a day off today, and aside from completing some pajama pants that were due finished before christmas for the sister-in-law… I decided to try “Hot Chocolate on a Stick”. They are in the fridge as I type this sentence. I got the recipe from Gifters Log, and thought it was PERFECT for this time of year. I have no chocolate-crafting experience, and I found this to be easy. I would say… Keep your cats away and use a frosting bag instead of a sandwich bag. Mine didn’t seal properly and made a big big mess….

I checked the ingredients in Wilton brand’s Chocolate Pro Fondue Chocolate. (Or Melting Pot chocolate… It’s a 2lb bag that’s available at your local JoAnns store right now.) It’s second listed ingredient is cocoa butter, and that’s what I was told to look for by that recipe. I was pleased as punch. 16.99USD was what I paid.

Mmmm melty. Old saucepan and a clear pyrex bowl.

IKEA! This is actually my favorite method, the cubes... well, i'll elaborate later...

What ended up happening after i got the chocolate all into the trays… and after the HUGE mess I made… (hey, it was my first time…) was they went right into the fridge. And later I popped them out to put a top coating on them. The regular cube tray was AWFUL in comparison to the IKEA tray. I kept twisting and warping the tray to loosen up the chocolate and to no avail. I got two out that way. The remainder of the tray had to be run under hot water so the cubes could… slip out, but of course, that was more mess. The ikea tray… the only thing i would have done different would be to insert the sticks… AFTER the chocolate was poured into the tray. I ended up with some gaps due to that.

GAPS. OH GOD.

Sanding Sugar! Red and pale pink for Valentines, right? I just love sanding sugar.

After that, I went back to sewing on the pajamas and ended up burning my thumb on my iron. It’s a little odd to type, but I’m sure it will be back to normal in a week or so. I wonder how it will change knitting?