Oh the Cuteness!

So I was looking over my blog, cleaning up links, etc, and I realized I haven't really posted anything I've made since my little lunchbag . I made tons of Christmas presents but didn't snap any photos of them, probably due to my need to get them done and wrapped at the last minute, as always. And I've been crocheting a lot since I moved into my new place, but lots of the projects need little finishing touches before I'd feel proud to put them on my blog. In the works I have 2 scarves, 2 hats, and an amigurumi sheep. I've got pieces of fabric cut out and ready to be made into something, but I haven't sewn since we got here. I think part of the problem was the lighting; my sewing table is on the opposite side of the room from the overhead light. But that was remedied as of yesterday. I also know that my machine is in serious need of some maintenance, but I lack sufficient funds for it at this moment in time. Excuses, excuses, I know. Anywho, I'm posting

First of all, this is my 100th post which is some sort of milestone, so yay! And secondly, I've got another tutorial for a parasol light fixture to share! Today Michael and I were working on getting some light fixtures put up, which has been on my to-do list for a rediculously long time now. Endless gratitude for Michael making me get my butt in gear! So he helped me hang this nifty lotus flower-shaped lamp from Ikea over my sewing table. (I've always wanted one!) I finally have enough light to see what I'm doing, so maybe I'll actually start making things again! So anywho, on to the tutroial... Remember my idea for turning a parasol into a light fixture? Well with Michael's help I finally did it! We had a lot of technical issues to work out, so hopefully if anyone out there wants to make one this tutorial should save you a lot of time. As far as materials, you only need a hacksaw, a parasol, and some wire. Start by cutting the handle off of the paraso

Did I mention that Angela is the most awesome roommate in the world? And do you know why? Because she had a giant green chalkboard for us to hang in our living room! This has been up for quite a while, and as you can see we encourage people to draw on it as much as they like. And when it filled up we snapped this pic and erased it to start over. We always have a lot of fun with it, right now we're working on our friend's anagrams, making a family tree-style chart with all of them, eh, you'll just have to see it when it's full again. I recently went to see my friend Jill's art show at the college, she's so cool! And every time I go to an art show it makes me want to work on my art, so I've been doing just that. I have some new drawings and a collage piece in progress, who knows when they'll be done though. Anywho, come visit me and you can draw on my living room wall, ha!

So I know this post has nothing to do with crafting, but I just wanted to share the adventure I went on today with my friend Michael. I took a Geology class a few quarters ago at CSUEB and one of the main focuses was on the big ol' Hayward fault, which is due for a big ol' earthquake in the not-too-distant-future. Today I took Michael around and showed him all of the evidence of fault movement scattered throughout the old downtown. (Man, we are such big tourists!) My personal favorite is a curb on the corner of Rose and Prospect streets. This curb is world famous because it is the largest measured displacement of a man made object by a fault line. All the other curbs at this intersection are new, but when this curb was due to be replaced geologists from all over the world banded together to save it. The line drawn in 2006 already shows the smallest amount of movement, but in relative terms it's quite a bit. After the famous curb we went to check out the old city hall.

This past weekend I had my coworker Brittany over for a crochet lesson, a cup of tea, and fresh baked cookies. Angela came home as the cookies were baking and I gave her a crochet lesson as well (Man, I should start charging for this, lol!), and they both picked it up really quickly. Angela's about halfway through a wide bright yellow and green scarf made from Sugar and Cream cotton yarns. Brittany's been practicing swatches in hopes of making her boyfriend a scarf from some ArtFibers yarn we've lovingly dubbed Pirates vs. Ninjas. It's actually called Marble Cheesecake #5 , but if you take a look at it you can see why it conjures up images of pirates and ninjas. Anywho, I made the cookies totally on the fly, improvising a recipe and hoping for the best, and I think they came out very well. I unfortunately don't have a pic because they're long gone, the darn cat even managed to eat one while we weren't looking! They're very soft and cakey, almost more li

Why are close-ups of everyday objects so lovely? I have a bunch of these on my computer in my "inspiration file" along with lots of pictures of purses, jewelry, and other ideas I've found all over the net. I wonder if these will ever come in handy... Even if they don't I love looking at them. The lovely food coloring pic is from Liquid Paper, see her flickr here . And I unfortunately can't figure out where I got the pencil pic, if anyone has seen it before please let me know!

So right now I'm sitting in a Starbucks across town using their internet because ours has been down since yesterday, probably because of the storm. And I didn't want to be a booger and dissapear again without any explanation until after the fact, so I forked over ten bucks to sit here and get my orders copied down and do a little post I had planned for today. I wanted to show off my lovely collection of fabric, all organized like I've always wanted, like something out of a magazine: I've always wanted to have an appartment that looks like it's ready for a shoot with Better Homes and Gardens or something, and it's getting pretty close, lol! Isn't it cool! I'm so proud of myself. (Truth be told, that's not even all of my fabric, just the prettiest ones that I could fit on the shelf. I have 2 little plastic containers with thin cottons in solid colors and lots of silks and satins that don't fold easily. So why don't I sew more? Laziness...)

Well I was planning on working today but the roads were deemed too dangerous to drive today by my awesome boss so we didn't have to go in today! It's really coming down outside, pouring rain and really strong winds. This is the view from our living room window: That's the clock tower at Mills College across the street. You can see it from all of our front windows and we basically have a 360 degree view of green trees thru all of our windows, it's really nice... Even in the rain I guess. I wasn't expecting to have some extra time today, I don't know what I'm going to do with my time! Probably goof off and get nothing productive done, but I'll try not to. If you're home and bored today I suggest you check out some of my favorite stuff on the net, go to youtube and search for Flight of the Conchords and listen to "If that's what you're into" and "Business Time" Or watch the original human tetris or the japanese gameshow vers

Check out the gauntlets I spied in an old MSL magazine! The pic's actually really small, but I can definately see how easy those will be to make thanks to my new camera. If I actually do it I will post the pattern on here so everyone else can make some too. Something about them is so cool, probably the Kill Bill-esque color scheme. I've been gathering a bunch of new ideas and putting them up on the wall of inspiration, I figure I can do a new wall for every season and mabe take pics of my favorite things to post on here. It's going to be later though; I'm working every day instead of every other day this week and then it's back to school on monday. Ho boy. I don't know how ready I am - I took a quarter off because of the move, so I haven't had class since last spring. Wish me luck!

Lots of new little things have been going on around here for the new year. I got to go out to SF with a few friends to watch the fireworks over the bay and we got a couple drinks and played pool at a bar called the Elephant and Castle. It was so nice to finally be old enough to really celebrate the holiday. As far as hopes for the new year, I'm  hoping  for better luck with most everything - money, boys, etsy, etc. My new years resolution is to stick with blogging and listing on etsy more because for a few months there I all but  disappeared  for various personal reasons including the breakup, the move, and personal stuff I'd rather not get into. But it's beginning to feel like the bad stuff is behind me now. I wake up in the morning with a smile on my face - something that didn't happen often before. When I wake up in my new home it feels so right; I adore my squishy bed and my soft polka-dotted sheets, they're so soft that it's hard to get out of bed in the m