A Bit of Housekeeping

I have a few tiny statements to make in regards to Ugly Bird. First, the "About" section was a bit outdated so I made a few changes there although not much because I really hate filling in, "about" on profiles, it always feels strange!

Next, I want to mention that if you want a link to your blog or website posted on my sidebar, do let me know! Do not worry if your site has nothing to do with crafting, most of those do not. In fact, I think most of them are people I've internet known since the days of Livejournal (yes!) Hardly anyone I know in real life blogs, but those are there too.

Finally, you should probably expect a bit of a slowdown in posts here soon. I am no longer unemployed & have just started grad school so I will not have quite as much time or energy to work on these projects. I am still a bit backlogged with things I have done before moving, but those will be winding down eventually. To those of you in my sidebar, I wish I could read & comment on your posts with as much frequency as I have in the past. I still love reading your posts & will try my best to stay up to date!

Just a Few Journal Pages

Doodling & playing with paint is fun which is why I recommend keeping a journal in which to do these things. A place to play, to not worry about things looking nice or interesting or even remotely creative, but to just have fun! I no longer have access to a scanner :( so I am having to take pictures of these pages which doesn't look quite as nice, but whatever.

A tiger who doesn't like to get wet, but still likes the rain

A request to the wind

Lion Brand's, "Easy Sideways Hat"

Easy is a very accurate way to describe this pattern, it is so easy & quick to complete. I was able to finish it in the span of one movie (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari if you were curious) which is perfect! It's kind of a ribbed pattern which is great for making gifts because it can stretch to fit larger heads if you aren't sure how to big to make the cap. I used one of Vanna's Choice yarns for this hat, I love her colors so much! The pattern can be found here.

Fly Away

Another small, simple embroidery in the hoop. I have always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon despite being terrified of heights. Something about the colors, the way they seem to travel so smoothly, makes me think that being way up in the air wouldn't be scary at all, kind of like how being in a plane feels more exciting than, "oh gosh, why am I next to a cloud?!?". Anyway, my fantasies of hot air balloon flight will have to be restricted to stitches in cloth for now.

10 Things I Did Not Expect About Moving to LA

Hello, new university, you are pretty

The last time I moved prior to this was about twelve years ago, I was about to start the sixth grade. Moving when you are a kid is incredibly easy even though I clearly recall being severely annoyed about the whole thing. At any rate, it's easy, you are not responsible for anything too serious, you are super adaptable, it is easy to make friends at that young age because elementary school forces you to interact with about thirty kids everyday, some of them are bound to take a shine to you. Moving as an adult is different, a little more lonely, tiny bits more stressful, but (in my opinion at least) considerably more exciting. I'm not much of a list maker, but I do recognize it's usefulness in helping to organize your thoughts. Here are ten things that totally surprised me about moving to Los Angeles:

1. That's a lot of cargo space! I have to say I am incredibly impressed at the available space in a Honda CR-V. Moving trucks & regular truck rentals are ridiculously expensive, so we loaded up the Honda. For about a month, all I could think of was, "How am I going to fit everything in that car?!?!?!" Yes, I did leave lots of things at home with my parents, but I did manage to take kitchen things, bathroom things, & bedroom things with me (& yes, the craft supplies!). My room here feels full, I have not yet missed anything that is not with me, so I'm still pretty impressed.

2. Anxiety: I knew there was going to be some reaction in me resulting from the sudden change in location/home life, but I had no clue what that reaction would be; apparently, being a bit anxious & worrying about really idiotic things was it. One bug in the bathroom made my imagination create a major bug infestation & resulted in a serious cleaning spree. The sound of sirens made me imagine streets filled with all crime all the time before realizing that there is actually a big hospital nearby & yes, ambulances use sirens too. Much of this anxiety has passed now which is great although it does mean I have less silly anecdotes to tell my friends.

3. Oh, so this card is basically useless? The credit/debit machines at UCLA often have trouble with small banks. By trouble, I mean, they will not work. You have been warned!

4. UCLA: Well I was expecting UCLA, I had seen UCLA, my reason for being here is UCLA, but the campus blows my mind every time I take a visit. UCLA certainly has more of a collegiate, academia, knowledge center feel than the university I attended previously. Powell library is so beautiful, walking around in there gave me watery eyes. Or maybe that was because my shoes were very uncomfortable which leads me to my next point

5. Aughghghg, my feet! Whyyyyyy?!?! Where I come from, walking is not so popular. Streets are wide, sidewalks are lacking, public transportation is a joke, it's car city. Therefore, I never noticed that so many of my shoes are good for moderate walking, but not a lot of walking. & I have been doing a lot of walking! I love walking, walking feels great. In fact, the lack of walking I previously experienced caused me to be a pacer which was a bother to my stepmom because apparently someone walking around in circles repeatedly can drive others batty. There is a lot to see so I often don't realize how much walking I've been doing. Until of course, I stop. Whenever I would stop walking, I would realize how much my feet hurt & how much I hated my shoes. Have you ever seen, Tokyo! ? There is a short film in it called, "Merde", in my imagination, that is how I look when I am ready to be done walking for the day. However, Dr. Scholl's moleskin has banished those pains! If I were in the 7th grade, I would be writing "Dr. Scholl" in my notebook surrounded by hearts, that is how much I love this product.

6. Me talking a lot! I am not the world's most outgoing person, I am in fact, far from it. However, I am on my way to becoming the master of small talk. Initially, I felt so lonely that I just started blabbing to anyone. Grocery store clerks, people in the elevator, people who had cute dogs, anyone! This may very well be the year I finally outgrow my shyness.

7. Other people talking to me a lot. Sometimes, when I have exhausted myself from small talk, I am amazed when other people decide to start talking to me.  At In-n-Out (mmmmmm), counter guy is like, "oh I notice you are carrying a book, what are you reading?" which was a longer conversation than the people behind me in line would have liked. While getting a bowl of noodles, counter boy is like, "Oh I notice you are looking through some photographs, are you into photography?" which is really nice! Or maybe fast food workers in my neighborhood are just really friendly.

8. Hey, who turned on all the lights?!?! Mega light pollution unlike anything I've experienced. Night hardly feels like night which is really strange to me.

9. I love not having a car! In the good old central valley, there are lots of open areas to explore, one of my favorite things to do was to get a few friends together & just go driving around in the middle of nowhere. When visiting San Francisco, I would always take the BART & the bus because driving in that city is insane. But I had no idea that Los Angeles had a pretty extensive bus system as well, here I am enjoying a lovely beverage at a cafe that I reached via bus super easily! Bus riding also makes for great people watching, I hope to get better at figuring it all out soon.

10. To really like it here. I don't know if Los Angeles & I are familiar enough for me to say I love it here, but I have been having a lot of fun since moving down. This place is growing on me, which is probably the most unexpected thing.

Valley Queen

A little song that actually derived from the name of a street. I tend to hum little nonsense melodies to myself & this is what my brain was doing when I saw the street sign. It kind of ended up being about all these girls I knew in the central valley who always seemed to be doing really well, how lots of people say they can't wait to leave, but wondering if they will be just as successful anywhere else.

Also mainly the idea of how being in a place (mentally or physically) where you feel really safe, but maybe by taking all this comfort, you're maybe sacrificing your ambitions or other goals without even realizing it. I was pretty set on staying in town for a while because it is so familiar & I loved the connections I had with people & let myself ignore the fact that LA presented many more chances for me to follow the career I wanted.

Anyway, I don't know if that makes much sense, but there you go!

Again With the Afghan!

It's actually all done now, I just haven't really had any good opportunities to take a snapshot of the completed blanket! Here are a few pictures of my afghan in progress. This was the point where I realized it was finally looking like a blanket instead of some mishmash of squares! I've linked to the pattern several times before, but if you would like to know where I found it, ask away!

Mystery Girls

Hello, I am not dead, but I have had this blog on autopilot for abit! I have moved locations though & have been pretty busy with packing & moving & unpacking. Anyway, I made it, all is well, it's a really big change, but I'll get to that some other time. Here is something I finished before leaving home.

Playing around with paint again, here are two girls who know how to keep secrets, something I've never been able to manage. More detailed pictures at their page!

A Simple Tee

Here is something that's easy to make without a pattern, a t-shirt! So simple & so wonderful to have once it's done. I was at Joann's with a friend of mine & found this really soft jersey. There was just over a yard left so I decided to bring the rest home with me & make something. I used one of my favorite t-shirts from Target as a model to cut the fabric & decided to make a round neckline to contrast with the jagged pattern. This was a quick, enjoyable project, I enjoyed working on this one.

A Play in the Park

These pictures are really quite old, but are again from my time spent feeling sentimental. One of my favorite things about my hometown was that every summer, two Shakespeare plays were performed in a park with free admission. I was slightly disapointed this year though because I could hardly hear anything! Usually, the actors use wireless microphones to help project their voices, but this year, they decided the actors should be able to send live updates to Twitter during the performance, so the wireless mics were out as cell phones cause interference with their signals.

I thought this was pretty lame because when I go to a play, I'd rather hear it than play with my cell phone. Especially Shakespeare because his plays are so wordy! But other than that, I love going to these performances because they're a more casual way to enjoy theater. Even if you don't really like seeing plays, it is a perfect excuse to picnic with your friends!