S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D

Looking back at my last post, I'm intrigued at how happy I sound. My stress has been at an all-time high since school started. Balancing two jobs, school, and free time has felt near impossible. Last weekend, I woke up Saturday morning in high spirits, thinking I had the weekend to myself. But as luck would have it, my boss left a message on my phone the day before saying he was in a bind and wanted to know if I would come in to work Saturday. So of course I said yes, and it wasn't too bad.

And speaking of work, it's been tough getting used to going to work every day after school at the law office. After school, I just want to go home and relax...so it kinda sucks knowing I can't relax quite yet. I'm liking that job more and more though. I'm feeling more confident with my tasks, especially answering phones (which I was dreading). Although I feel more confident with the phones, I'm still not completely comfortable with it yet. I seem to have this problem where I get real down on myself. Even though I know I'm doing a good job, I just don't feel like I am. I'm not sure if my low-self esteem is causing it or not, but it definitely isn't helping.

Like I said, my stress has been at an all-time high. I'm slacking on my homework already, even though I've only been back to school for two weeks. I'm not turning in anything late, but I've been procrastinating and not starting things as early as I should. I had a little mini break down during study hall the other day. It lead to me talking to the school psychologist to see what could be done about my situation. She gave me some good tips - like making sure I stay healthy, since stress can cause you to ignore how your body is doing. I've constantly been feeling stressed, no matter what I'm doing or how I'm feeling. The feeling of stress is always there. She told me exercise can help get rid of that feeling, since it's caused by pent-up energy that needs to be released. And most importantly, I need to find some time to myself. So I called in and told my boss at the kitchen that I can't work there until I have stuff figured out. And that made me a lot better knowing I would have the weekend all to myself, especially since I would have been working a wedding and those are the worst. The horrible part about that is...I got sick yesterday. So I was feeling icky at school and work yesterday, and I had to stay home all day today. So I won't be able to take advantage of my weekend how I would like to. Instead of seeing my boyfriend or going shopping, I'm stuck home to recuperate.

On a better note, I got a new phone last weekend. The LG Optimus V. It's amazing and I love it. I bought it with my own money, which makes me proud. And the monthly plan is even cheaper than what I have now with my crappy Razor!

And finally, an update on my Toothless. His progress is very slow, since I've obviously been so busy. His head/body/tail are complete, as they are all one piece. Also I've made his eight fins and sewn them on. And today I managed to finish his legs, although they aren't stuffed or sewn on yet. I'm planning on finishing him this weekend. All that's left to do is attach the legs and make the six wings and sew them on, too. Here's how he looks right now:

He looks like a worm right now, with fancy facial embellishments. And my mom mentioned when he has legs, he'll look like a dragon. And when his wings are attached he'll finally look like Toothless, the Night Fury!

I've also managed to finish a flower done mostly at school. It looks way too much like a brain for my liking, a different color choice would have fixed that. I got the pattern from here and I must honestly say that I hated crocheting it. It was monotonous and boring and it took way longer than I expected. Although I must say it was a good project to work on at school since the stitches were the same the whole way through making the "petals" so I didn't need to carry the pattern around with me and look at it constantly.

Some other small projects I've done recently include a pink flower for a coworker's friend, and a kraken applique for an art project. Pictures to come soon!

On The Bright Side...

Whew! I have been a busy lady these past few weeks! I got a second job not too long ago, so I've had even less time to myself. I've been getting really stressed out lately (more than usual this summer) because I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to handle two jobs, school and still have some me time. But luckily, things have started looking up. I'm sick of being stressed, so I'm happy as a clam right now. I think I have a perfect schedule worked out with my jobs where I'm working one every day after school for a little bit, then I'm on call for the other job if they really need me. So I should be able to get enough free time so I won't go crazy! I worked an 11 hour shift last weekend at the college, which was bad...but not terrible. (I've been getting used to everything there, and my feet hurt a lot less!) But after that day, things have slowed down and I'm off that job for three days! Woo hoo! I feel like God has answered my prayers! I finally have time to do the things I want, and finish my art projects! :D

All this free time means I've had time to crochet! Here are my recent projects:

Ruffly Scarf

Baby Cthulhu

Butterfly Decoration

The scarf is made from that alpaca yarn I bought forever ago. The scarf is really soft and warm, although it kinda sheds. 

Cthulhu was made for an ami-along a group on Ravelry was having. The theme of the month was monsters. I would like to make another monster with the left over alpaca yarn I have. I'd like to make this out if it, but I don't know if I have enough yarn.

The butterfly decoration is going to hang from the rear view mirror in my car. I just got a car this month and I've been dying to add my personal touch! :)

As for an update on my laptop with the virus...the virus is gone, but it left my laptop damaged. A lot of my files are now hidden. The only thing that pops up on my start menu is my internet browser. So I need to find a way to get that back to normal. Also, my internet keeps redirecting me whenever I click a link from Google. It's very irritating.

Anywho, back to crocheting! I started making Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon today! I love him (or her? I think Toothless is a guy, but I wish he was a girl!) I'm so excited! I've been dying to make him all month. It'll definitely be my biggest crochet project so far. And afterwards, I think I want to make a pouch for my crochet hooks and such. All my crochet goodies are kind of unorganized and it bugs me!

That's all for now! I'll try and update more, especially with my progress on Toothless. This one's gonna take me a while!

CINNAMON BUN!!!

Alright, well...it's been a while. I recently started my new job working in the kitchen at a college. It's been taking up all my time. I worked long hours all weekend so my days have looked like this: wake up, go to work, come home, sleep. My feet aren't used to standing all day yet, which isn't fun. But the paycheck shall be amazing!

I feel like I haven't crocheted in forever, even if it's only been a few days. Here's my latest project:

CINNAMON BUN!

I fell in love with it the second I completed it. It looks so life-like! I walked around with it for the rest of the day and whenever I mentioned it I said, "CINNAMON BUN!" in a loud, silly voice. I found the pattern for it here. The cinnamon swirl is surfaced crocheted on. It was the first time I'd ever surface crocheted and I liked it a lot. The frosting was just glued on. I use this heavy-duty glue we keep in the freezer whenever I need to glue something onto a crocheted project. But it doesn't dry invisible, so it leaves these unattractive white marks behind. I should really invest in some fabric glue.

Last night my laptop got a virus, so I'm typing this post from the home computer. I'm quite worried about my laptop, it's like my baby. My boyfriend should be coming over soon to fix it. I work again today, and hopefully it'll be a shorter shift. This is my last month of summer and I really don't like how busy my life is.

Yesterday I finally made a trip to the store and purchased my alpaca yarn! They were $6.99 a pop, and I bought two skeins. I say it's my reward for getting through my first weekend at work. So hopefully when I have time I can get to work on my scarf!

Fuzztail Complete!

I just got done making my fuzztail by Siân Lister! It's adorable! The colors look amazing together! I love pastels. I'd never crocheted with fun fur before. It was quite a challenge. This tutorial by June Gilbank really helped me out. Now I love fun fur! I hope to make more stuff with it in the future.

Of course, whenever I make something from a pattern, I end up altering it somehow. And it's usually not on purpose. I seem to find a problem (of my own) as I'm going along, and I have to fix it. Here, I made the mistake in my choice of hooks. The pattern called for a 6 mm and a 4 mm. I have neither. So I was going to use a 3.5 mm and a 5 mm until I started the fun fur and realized I was going to have to crochet extra loose. To help me, I switched to 6.5 mm. So I used a hook that was too small for the head and a hook that was too big for the tail. AND I somehow ended up with more stitches than I should have while making the tail, so I did a few decreases before I ended, just because. And I stopped the tail at 32 rounds instead of 45. At first I thought my fuzztail was really disproportionate, but now I don't notice all that much. Good. It's not fun to go through all that effort to make something, just to end up not liking it. But I do like my fuzztail! So I'm satisfied.

She's even cuter in person!

Mini Shopping Spree and a Painting

A lot of stuff happened yesterday. My mom and I ventured to Janesville, the only decent place to shop around here because I wanted to look for some yarn at Michael's. I also needed black shoes for work. Anywhoozle, I went to Michael's, coupon in hand, hoping to find some light green alpaca yarn because I've been itching to make a scarf, despite this heat wave in the Midwest. Of all the yarn at Michael's, they didn't have what I was looking for, not even the brand! I was disappointed, but I didn't want the coupon to go to waste, so I picked up some Bernat Satin yarn in Banana (love the name!) and striped Lion Brand fun fur (I don't see a colorway; but it's cream, light blue, and light green). I figure I can make this fuzztail as my next amigurumi project, as it is very cute and it looks like good practice with fun fur.

I also got buttons so I can make Lily Razz's ankle bracelet. My mom and I also went to Bath and Body Works (I had a coupon for a free sample of Paris Amour!), Waldenbooks was closing so everything was 20% off, and my mom wanted to go to K & W Greenery, where I made friends with the fishies in the koi pond :)

Looking at my purchases, I realized what a wide range of stuff I got. I don't usually shop at so many stores in one day. So I took a pic:

Random, but I'm happy :)

I'm going to be taking AP Art. The teacher gave us a lot of projects to work on over summer. We have three major art pieces to finish, among other things. And being the on-again-off-again procrastinator that I am, I just finished my first major art piece. My assignment was to do a piece on a household pet, and evoke an emotional response.

I was going to post my painting side-by-side to the original picture. But when I looked at the painting that way, it just didn't look very good. Now I'm a little embarrassed by my painting. Well here's the original picture, at least:

That's my kitty, Willow, yawning in my mom's sink.

My painting isn't that bad. But I'm realizing that I messed up when I drew the thing on the canvas, it doesn't show the effort she put into yawning that wide, and it just looks silly when compared to the original. I think it's fine on it's own, though. 

Whatever, I'm such a perfectionist, I can never fully please myself...

Well, I can please myself with crocheting :) I used to be into painting, but whenever I would picture something in my head, then try it out, it looked nothing like how I had envisioned and I would get frustrated. I'm sure this happens to a lot of people, but I just can't stand it. With crocheting, I'm given a pattern. And if I follow it, it pretty much always turns out like it should. And that makes me so happy!

Here's my story...

So one day, a year or two back, I was on my favorite online store, shanalogic.com, when I came across this adorable crocheted squidlet:



So cute, right? Well I really wanted one, but for some strange reason I never got around to purchasing one. And over time I kept seeing more cute crocheted things on Shanalogic like a pig, apple, cup, and jellyfish! They were a little pricey for me at the time. Factor in my laziness and I guess that's probably why I never bought any of them! It doesn't help that they kept selling out so quickly (but they're all so cute, it's not surprising!)

Early this year, I was at the store Michael's with my friends at the time. One of them was looking around at yarn, I believe she was getting into knitting but I'm not really sure. I came across this book Super Super Cute Crochet by Brigitte Read. I flipped through it, and was amazed by all the cute animals and well done pictures! The one that stuck in my mind the most was the cube cow! I kind of wanted it, but then I figured that I should put it back, I mean c'mon, I can't crochet!

A little later, I was on Shanalogic again, looking at the crocheted goodies, when it dawned on me...I'm always wanting these little critters, but they sell out so quicky (yada yada yada)...why don't I make them myself!? This was quite a revelation. I made it my mission to go back to Michael's and get that darn crochet book. (In the meanwhile, I couldn't remember if the book was on knitting or crocheting, so my grandma tried to teach me to knit to get me started because she's really good at it. As for me...total fail!) Anywho, I got the book, which is it's own little epic tale (basically I couldn't remember the name or author of the book, just vaguely what it looked like. I looked everywhere around the store but couldn't find it. I was sadly getting ready to head home thinking I'd never see that book again, when lo and behold! Here it is on a shelf in the front of the store! Bingo!)

I digress, I got the book. And I fell in love. My grandma and I made the manta ray together and...I was hooked.

No pun intended.