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!