Life Marches On

Whoo hoo! March is finally here! Although, baby is not…yet. It can be any moment now, though, so of course I’m walking like a sumo wrestler in hopes that the next time I sneeze, she’ll just gently slide out because….well, labor hurts, y’all.

This pregnancy started out quite…challenging, to say the least, but I’m happy to report that it is ending a heck of a lot better than I could have ever anticipated. I thought I would be a miserable mess of a woman who couldn’t wait for this darn baby to get out of me NOW! Because that’s how I was with my first pregnancy. I was actually resenting Little Mister for not being born prematurely because I was in so much pain and misery. Yeah…I was in a pretty messed up place last time.

As they say, every pregnancy is different- glory be hallelujah! The biggest difference is that I’m not in constant pain every day and that has made a HUGE difference in EVERYTHING. Yes, I still have pelvic issues, but for the most part they are more on the “normal pregnancy” scale. I’ve been avoiding activities that will aggravate my joints, so no long walks or pushing Little Mister in his stroller, but I’ve been able to be a whole lot more mobile than I thought I would!

And that, my friends, is a very good thing because I needed to have all the strength I could muster in the last couple of weeks since we moved….AGAIN.

BOOYAH! Didn’t see that one coming, did ya?!? Major life stressor on the horizon?? No worries, mate- just pile it on top of the other ones so we can get them all out of the way at once! That’s the way we roll!

Thankfully, however, this was not an international move- we just moved houses. (Ha! I made that sound like it was so easy, didn’t I?!?) So, it wasn’t as bad or as stressful as it could have been, but still….I think I overestimated just how much I could do (and how quickly I could do it) at 8/9 months pregnant. I am thankful that we were able to move before the baby got here, though. It’s a whole lot easier to get things done when you’re carrying a baby around in your belly rather than in your arms!

We are now almost completely settled in again- just a few more things to get unpacked and find places for. This house doesn’t have as much closet space as the other house, which means I’ve been playing Tetris with my yarn stash trying to find room for it all. Heh…heh…….*gulp*

Speaking of Tetris…..

It's not lopsided...promise. Just a crappy picture.

BOOYAH, AGAIN!! FINALLY! Little Mister’s Blanket o’Love! I have more (better) pictures- and the pattern!- to come, but since I’ve been so busy with the whole moving thing, I haven’t had the time to get it all together quite yet. BUT. It’s been two years since I started this thing so I thought I could at least show y’all what I had been working on. It’s actually not 100% finished yet- I still need to put a lining on the back. I had to order the fabric from the States and waited over a month for it to get here and then had other things to preoccupy my time (WE MOVED!) so my Little Mister is still Blanket o’Love-less. However, since it’s still a very hot summer out here (100 degrees today!), I figured he’s not going to need it for a little while yet, so I can procrastinate just a little bit longer.

I also have been crocheting things for the Little Miss, too. You’d think that I would be doing a lot of stash busting with the whole crocheting-for-a-new-baby thing, but then you’d be reading the wrong blog. I HAD to order just the perfect yarn, you see….so the increase to my stash truly was minimal……cross my heart! Besides, now there’s a whole new crib that I can stuff (more) yarn under, so…. STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!

Anywho….just wanted to let y’all know that I’m still here and doing much better than I thought I’d be. Just waiting (and waiting) until I can meet our sweet Little Miss. Although, as much as I can’t wait to meet her, I must say I’m really savoring these last few days alone with Little Mister. He’s such a sweet little cuddle bug and I’m really going to miss our one-on-one time together. Oh man….I’m getting all verklempt over here. Talk amongst yourselves- I’ll give you a topic. Lightning McQueen is neither lightning nor a Scottish monarch. Discuss.

I Am the Champion, My Friends

GAAAHHH!!!! O.MY.LANTA!!! I’m sooooo excited that the Ravelry Bobby Award winners are finally posted and I’m literally shaking about this- my Super Mario Blanket won BOTH categories it was nominated for!!! (I’ve had to retype that sentence twice- my fingers couldn’t find the right keys- I’m soooo stoked!!!)  I WON!!!  TWICE!!! 

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone- the folks who nominated my project, the Bobcademy, and those who voted!!!! (I wish I was better prepared and had my speech written out! I was going to end with, “You love me! You really love me!” but figured that'd be too cheesy.)

Without further ado, I give you the winning project for the 2010 Ravelry Bobby Awards for Geekiest Project AND Best Personal Pattern Project. 





 YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!





(My Mister thought I may have lost my cool a little. So, now that I’m recomposed….Meh. That’s cool.)

Super Mario Blanket Love on the Interwebs

Last year at this time, I was spending 8-12 hours a day (yes, seriously) sitting on my ever expanding rear end watching Gilmore Girls and Avatar: The Last Airbender while obsessively creating my surprisingly popular Mario Blanket.  I really can't believe it's been a year- 2009, I hardly knew thee.  

It's been amazing to see where this thing has ended up.  I posted it on Crochetville first.  Then, over at Craftster.  (Btw- I am a Best of Craftster 2009 winner!) That's where it got a life of it's own.  Boing Boing picked it up and then it exploded all over the place.  I also listed it on my Ravelry page (user name: Gege.....duh).  I listed it at the end of March and found out that the deadline for nominations for the Bobby Awards was April 1.  At the time, I had no idea what the heck the Bobby awards were, but here we are nearly a year later and I find that I've been nominated in not one, but TWO categories!  Geekiest Pattern and Best Personal Pattern Project.  If you are on Ravelry, please be sure to vote for my blanket- voting closes Monday. :)  Thank you to everyone who nominated me and to those of you who have voted. It truly is such an honor to be nominated. (But, dang, it sure would be better to WIN! Just keeping it real, folks.)

In addition to the numerous tweets and wists, here's a list of a various websites/blogs on which I've seen it posted. Since many sites will show a picture of the blanket and not provide a link to my blog, I wasted my entire evening and googled myself and this blanket obsessively for hours. If you found it on another site, let me know!

Boing Boing
WiiNintendo
Sprite Stitch  (I had posted it in the forums first)
ThreadBanger
RugRag  
FaveCraftsBlog
EpicWinFTW  
Slash Gamer 
I-am-bored
ibored
Geek Central Station 
Craftster Manic Monday
GeekSpective 
1nation 
CraftyCrafty
I Am The Manta
Nerdism Is Sexy
Technabob (though not the blanket...it's for my Princess Scarf, which is pretty awesome in and of itself, but.....hello!? Did you not see this crazy awesome blanket?? Gosh!) (/Napoleonic (Dynamite) rant)
Geeks With Issues 
GoNintendo
That Girl's Site  

It was also in the Official Nintendo Magazine (UK) Fan Art section in May/June 2009 and someone mentioned they saw it in NGamer, as well (it would have been nice to have been notified about these things so I could have gotten a copy.....) 

Thanks for all the comments, compliments and overall geek love for my work.  It truly has been amazing.

My first Etsy Treasury!!!

WOOOOO HOOOO! My Nintendo Felted Koopa Coin purse was listed in Treasury West:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=54245

YAY! It's filled with Nintendo stuff. :)

Also, I had my first Etsy sale! YAY! It's a bag that I just listed- pics coming soon. Just wanted to get this out there now because I'm bursting with pride. :)

Border Crossings and Princess Savings

Ahh...now that the hard part is done with my blanket, all I have left to complete (crochet-wise) is the border. I decided to go with my initial instinct and use bricks as the border rather than the ground tiles. Both hubby and my sis agreed that bricks just fit better.



I'm humming along quite nicely on it- should be pretty quick to finish and not the never-ending project I envisioned. :)

Waaaay back in December, when I cut my hair, I was working on a new scarf- a Princess Toadstool scarf to keep Mario company. Well, I really wasn't pleased with....well, anything with it- the colors, the yarn I chose for the body, the design- all BLECK! So, as I do with anything with which I'm not pleased, I bury it and pretend it doesn't exist. Works for ostriches, works for me. Well, in one of those beautiful, miraculous once-in-a-lifetime moments, while I was in the yarn section in Walmart (where these moments usually occur), the bells tolled and the birds chirped when I saw the PERFECT yarn for my scarf. I love it when that happens. :)



I am soo pleased with the outcome! I found the right scarf color, right skin color, right red hair color- and the yarn was great to work with. I don't remember the color name, but it was Vanna's Choice- LOVE it! I had an epiphany on how to fix the design, too. I really didn't like the back of the scarf with all the ends weaved in, so I found a way to hide the Princess' ugly backside (hey- not everyone can be J.Lo!).



I made a pocket!! I ran out of the main color, so I used this raspberry color, instead and then used it as an edging- LOVE it!! I guess with the right colors and design, you really can save a princess. :)

I even used white sparkle yarn to make the princess just a little more princess-y



The pocket is a good size and can fit a DS, natch.



The DS provides a nice heft to the scarf, so if you are walking down the road and are mugged by one of Bowser's minions, you can swing the scarf and whack them in the head. Hey- works in the game and, as we all know, games influence our real lives. ;)



Now, Mario has his mate. :)



Mawaige....Mawaige is wot bwings us togeder today.

Wuv, twue wuv.....

Mario Party! Part 3- My Quest Ends.

Ok- now we are now on the home stretch. My previous post has the blanket half way finished....now for the final half!

Alright....I knew that I was going to have a battle scene for my blanket. In order to put up a good fight, Mario had to get big, but I couldn't fit all of the characters/scenes I wanted previously with Mario taking up so much space. So, towards the end of the blanket, he finally gets a Big Man mushroom. Hmmm.....where does this pipe lead??















To an underground level with a fire flower! Ok, another geeky tidbit...in world 4-2, an underground level, there is a hidden warp zone. You go up a vine to an upper sky, mushroom land level....















Now, in the game, the warp zone does not have a Flying Koopa Troopa; however, he was the one enemy I didn't have in my blanket, so here is his cameo. :)
















WARP ZONE! To..... 8-4?? Hey- it's my blanket....I have the artistic license to do as I please....

















Now that he's warped to the castle, brave Fire Mario (with "spit power" as mom would say) gets to battle a fire fan....right before doing battle in the castle.....


















Ok- I ain't even going to lie....this is my hands-down all-time favorite of all the panels. I dreamed about making this panel since the very beginning. It came out just as I imagined! I am so incredibly proud of it! It's HUGE! It's 3 panels wide and 2 tall- roughly about 4' x 3'. It can be a wall hanging- something I've been debating about doing. I wanted to keep this one all by itself b/c it's so awesome. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!!!!





Ahhh...the end of my quest. I had debated about whether or not to just leave it as, "Thank you Mario!" But, this truly has felt like a quest for me. I spent so much time and energy in planning this blanket and doing the math to make things just right. I am so incredibly proud of this work! My quest truly is over. :)











I hope you have enjoyed this journey along with me. It has been a long time coming! I do need to finish off the ends (I'm not weaving them in- I'm tying little knots and then am going to sew a backing on the blanket). I have put in so much into this blanket and now truly feel like a quest has been completed. I know my husband loves this blanket and will treasure it for many many years to come. :) Now, I can get back to my regularly scheduled life....and crochet projects. :)

PS: A FAQ can be found here.

Mario Party! Part 2- My Quest

As my teasing (and teasing) can attest, this blanket/bedspread has been a real obsession of mine for a very long time. I had just taught myself how to crochet and decided to make a Mario granny square blanket for my brother- this was over a year and a half ago. My husband saw it and wanted one of his own. However, I could not let my husband have the same blanket I made my brother....oh no, my friends. His had to be so much....MORE. I woke up in the middle of the night and had the beginnings of the blanket in my head. I scribbled out a rough draft of a map and was so giddy, I had a hard time falling asleep. I had never used Tunisian crochet before, so I had to practice. This was the result of that first practice:


My husband wanted a hat with Mario on it-I was unable to get my idea for a hat to work, but I thought, I could so do it as a scarf! Thus the Mario scarf was born.



Even though I had the concept down correctly, I did not know how to change colors correctly- there were huge holes in between my color changes. I'll show an example of this in just a bit.

I soon started on my blanket with this panel- The Beginning of a Journey:




Then, I did the second panel- needed to have a Goomba and a Koopa Troopa!



I fell in love with these two! I kid you not- I would wake up in the morning, see them on the floor, and bust out with a smile and a laugh. My husband thought I was nuts....

Well, I continued on, making 7 panels total throughout the months. Each panel took about a day to complete and, since I was working part-time, I could dedicate my days off to making them. But, I was suffering migraines from having my head hunched over all the time.....so I put off the blanket and started other endeavors.....

With each blanket or purse I finished, my husband would sigh, look longingly at my Mario panel pile, and say, "One of these days, I'll have a blanket of my own...." I wanted to finish this blanket soooo badly, but was not satisfied with some of the panels. The last one I worked on was the underwater panel; however, when I counted the rows (height) after completing it, one side had 50 rows and the other had 49....oops. I had mistakenly started a first pass with a row when I hadn't finished the second pass of the previous row. (Each row of Tunisian crochet has 2 passes- the forward pass and the backward pass- in order to make the stitches square.) I was sooooo bummed. As I mentioned before, if something doesn't come out right, I put it aside. Well, I put this blanket aside for about 8 months because of that. I didn't have the heart to tear back 15 rows and re-do them.

Well, all that changed at the beginning of 2009. I decided that this was the year I was going to finish this blanket, so I started in earnest. Well, now that I knew how to change colors correctly, I had to redo 4 of the previous 7 panels that came out all wonky. Ugh. But, it really was soooo worth it! There were 2 other panels that I had to redo- not because of the mistakes in color changes (I had learned how to do it with the underground coin panel), but because I found the right colors to use for Mario's skin and for the "skin" of the enemies. So, even though I started a year and a half ago, every single panel that is now on the blanket, except for the coin cache one, has been completed since February 2009.

Here are side-by-sides of the panels:

This first panel actually didn't look so bad. However, I did have some issues with my tension, which is why it's so much smaller than the newer one. However, the character definition, and even the cloud, is so much better in the newer one. Changing colors correctly is soooo important!




This second panel really shows how having the correct colors makes the image POP. Also, the first one was sooo wonky! I was so incredibly proud of it when I first did it....now, I feel like a kid proud of a stick drawing. I am proud to say that, by changing colors correctly, the goomba no longer looks phallic...




This one I knew I had to redo....if only to correct Luigi's hat. Erg. You can see how malformed the pipe is (due to incorrect color changes) and how much more the color pops in the second one. Also, I had originally crocheted the turtle shell by using a screen shot of the whole turtle and taking off the head and legs. I then found this awesome site that has all of the characters on there...including the correct turtle shell!





Next comes the underground coin cache. This is the only "original" panel on the blanket. I learned how to color change correctly with this one; however, I didn't have the right color for Mario's skin tone. Though you can't really tell in the picture, he's my Chicano Mario on the blanket. :)













Mario comes out of the coin cache and steals the star Luigi was about to use. Life isn't fair for Luigi.... This is actually the first of the new panels that I made in February.
















Ever since the beginning, I knew that Luigi couldn't stay forever....this was Mario's quest. I loved the idea of him being trapped between a Bullet Bill and a Buzzy Beetle! However, the star panel above was not part of my original design. I decided to add that during the blanket reboot. So, since I had to redo this panel anyway due to the wonkiness, I decided to replace the question block with a brick, and to have Mario as star Mario. Oh yes- Luigi has to take one for the team!



This panel makes me laugh- poor Luigi! Game over for you, chump! And, to add insult to injury, that innocent looking brick actually contained a 1UP mushroom for Mario- hahahahaha!















Awww yeah! Hammer time!! This was a new one that I did in February and also had to redo. I used the peach color for the Hammer Bros. skin when this color really popped. So, I ripped out allllll of those rows and redid it....this one took me 2 days to do. *Sigh*















This is one of my favorites- not only do you get a Piranha plant, but also a squished goomba!!! Ahhh...I love this game. :)
















The Lakitu and Spiny panel. The original is on the right and was my favorite of the original panels. I did the color changes correctly and I LOVED it. Then, I realized that the colors weren't correct....then I realized that I had Mario in that same pose for a few panels in a row....BORING. So, I changed the colors (MUCH better!) and put Mario in a skidding stop right before he could slide into a Spiny. Whew!


After surviving Lakitu, Mario goes underwater. The original one is on the left. I ripped back the 15 rows to correct my goof from a year ago....then I realized that I needed to change the Cheep Cheeps' color to make them pop. But, the good thing is that I got to add the air bubble that I wanted to add originally but forgot and, again, didn't want to rip back so many rows to fix. I changed the red and green Cheep Cheeps' positions b/c of the following panel.

Flying Cheep Cheeps! Since the red one was on the bottom left, I decided to have the green underwater Cheep Cheep on the bottom right....crazy? Maybe.... I LOVE this panel. The bridge just makes it....WOW.















I LOVE THIS ONE! This is the cutest of the bunch. :) Mario now gets to go to Coin Heaven...atop the "teeth clouds" as my mom would call them. :) Now, astute gamer geeks will know that in world 3-1, just prior to hopping the turtle (next panel), Mario does get to go to Coin Heaven. I debated whether or not to make this a black panel since world 3 is a night-time world. However, I had always pictured this blue! I LOVE IT!











Awww yeah....my true SMB geekiness shines through. Getting infinite free men by hopping the turtle. I LOVE THIS GAME!
















Mario finishes the world by getting 5000 points off of the flag pole. He even ended the world with 1 second on the clock, thus the 1 fireball. :)
















Here are the first 3 rows complete. Honestly, this could have been a blanket just by itself! You got the beginning of the adventure at the very top and end with Mario on the Flag Pole, beating the level. If you can see, I have Gilmore Girls on DVD scattered on the floor. Oh yes. Tons of GG time spent on this blanket....kinda poetic, don't ya think? :)





I'm going to continue the story in one more post. This one is just about filled to the brim.....The end of the quest is in sight!


PS: A FAQ can be found here.

Mario Party! Part 1- The Whole Enchilada

Alright. The time has finally come. I have finally finished crocheting each and every panel of my Mario Blanket. They are all crocheted together. All that is left is crocheting a border around it. However, I have been working my buns off on this thing and I don't know when I'll finish the border. I'm so freaking excited to have it "done" that I'm going to be unveiling it.........NOW!

Here it is, in all of its technicolor glory:



ACK!! How awesome is that?!?!? It's so huge, I had to lay it out in my foyer and go upstairs to get a photo. Here's a pic of my birthday boy stretched out on it for a size perspective. My honey is 6'2".



Here's a shot of it on my queen sized bed- its ultimate resting place.



Unfortunately, I did not get it all done by his birthday party. I was working on the last panel and had only this to show for my months of hard work:




Now, this is not all my friends...oh no. The blanket itself tells a story- if you start in the upper left hand corner and go right, then down and left, then down and right, then down and left, then down and right, you'll indeed see that this was a quest for Mario. I have incorporated various scenes from my beloved game and will show pics of the individual panels. I'm way too proud of this baby just to show a bird's eye view. :) However, since that will be a butt load of photos, it will be a separate post (or two).

Going back to my husband's birthday- my sister had a wonderful idea! To go along with the theme of my blanket, she suggested we throw him a Mario Party....complete with a Mario cake. Well, my entire family is artsy/fartsy, and my sister is no exception. She had a WONDERFUL idea for a cake and it turned out BEAUTIFUL!

Here is the artist at work:



She really wanted to have fondant to make it look absolutely smooth and perfect; however, that stuff is expensive as heck....especially for such a large cake....so we used a cream cheese frosting that was supposed to harden "like fondant." Ummm....no. It did not. Darn those lying liars who tell lies. However, it tasted great!

All of the cakes tasted absolutely phenomenal. The first tier had a raspberry cake layer topped with a chocolate cake layer filled with cream cheese frosting and whole raspberries in the center. This depicted the first level of SMB. The second tier was a mango cake filled with raspberry jam in the center and was the water level world of SMB. The third tier was a chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream frosting and whole raspberries in the center. This was the Bowser battle scene. The fourth tier was raspberry cake with raspberry jam in the center. This was the hero's welcome by the princess. All of the cake was iced with the cream cheese frosting. It was absolutely AWESOME!!!





We had so much fun that night- had some friends over and played Wii....and of course some old school Super Mario Bros. I don't know if I'll ever be able to top this crochet project- or at least not for a while. I've got some ideas burbling around and, once my shoulder, neck and finger muscles go back into a relaxed state, I will be back with my yarn and my geeky obsessions. :) I'm going to take a little time off since this project has seriously taken over my life, but I'll be back with some new purses and scarfs in the very near future.

Onto the individual pictures!

PS: A FAQ can be found here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've actually been quite a Valentine's Day Grinch for just about forever. There's just something off putting about being forced to show love to someone with cards, flowers, and candy. I always get nervous around this holiday since I never know what is an appropriate Valentine's day gift. I realize this is ludicrous since I've been married for almost 10 years, so there's not much more impressing I can do for the guy- he already knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. I always feel guilty, too, since my husband usually always has a card and a thoughtful gift...I remember one year he got me the latest Kinsey Milhone mystery (I'm a huge book worm and LOVE Kinsey!)- HARD COVER....and I got him....a tie. Yipes.

Well, last year, we finally came to an agreement on how to make Valentine's Day enjoyable and memorable for us both. We decided that, instead of eating out at a restaurant and spending beaucoup bucks on a meal we'll most likely forget once we get home, we would instead come up with an elaborate meal and cook it together. You have no idea how wonderful this is! I love to cook and have tried, unsuccessfully, many times to get my hubby to join me in the kitchen. I think it's awful romantic....he thinks it's just awful. Well, it was his idea to cook with me and I LOVE IT! He even went through one of my cookbooks and came up with a menu for this evening. Seriously! I am so in love with this man. :)

We just spent the morning making dessert- a chocolate, cheesecake, pecan pie. I'm serious. It has a chocolate ganache on the bottom, a cheesecake middle, and a pecan pie topping. If it tastes half as good as it sounds (and looks!), then I'm sure we'll be making this for years to come. He found the recipe on a freebie mailing from some magazine...I want to say Southern Living or Fatten You Up....one or the other.



We are just about to go to Wegmans and shop for the ingredients for the rest of the meal. He found a grilled tuna (though we'll sear it) white bean salad for the first course and a Greek wet rub for lamb chops with a side of orzo for the main course. I'm super excited! The best thing about eating at home is that we can polish off the bottle of wine (a Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley in CA....high hopes for this one) and not worry about driving home. YAY!

Since we'll be shopping and cooking, it'll give my poor neck and hands a break from all the crocheting I've been doing. As I mentioned earlier, I've been working on my husband's Nintendo blanket. I have an elaborate map all worked out and it will consist of many different panels. Each panel takes about 8-12 hours to complete. I showed you the first panel earlier....I'll show just one more now. This is the latest one I completed and I'm over the moon pleased with how it came out. It is probably the most Nintendo geekiest of all the panels- it's Mario hopping the turtle in world 3-1! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I LOVE IT!



Here's a pic of the back so you can see what I have in store for me when I finally get around to weaving in the ends.



I think I may just give the blanket to him with all the ends out and tell him it's fringe.....hmmm....now there's a thought......

Happy Valentine's Day!

Back to the land of the living!

So, I've been pretty sick these last 2 weeks and have finally pulled through. Thankfully, it ended up NOT being strep so it's a good thing I didn't go to the Urgent Care right away- I'd have been angry with their incompetence yet again only to realize that they weren't the ones being incompetent and that's not fun.

I have been working on a few projects while I was at death's door (what? exagerate?? Moi??) but don't have anything complete as of this post. I have a couple of things allllmost done, but I like sharing pictures of the finished object....the big reveal! I tend to be a little bit of a perfectionist sometimes.... When there is something wrong with one of my WIPs, I put it away until I can figure out what the heck it is. It could be because of a color combination that just isn't right or, for a purse, it could be that I haven't quite figured out how to finish it- wrong handles or lining or....something. These are the things that I've been working on lately. My "oopsies."

When I cut my hair in December, I was working on a Princess Toadstool scarf to match the Mario one I made for my husband. I loved it while I was working on it and had maybe 2 or 3 more hours of work, including weaving in ends. However, there was just something "off" about it, so I stopped working on it. I finally figured out what it was! Actually, there was a bunch of stuff wrong with it....the main scarf was doubly wrong....the yarn itself was irking me and the pink was the wrong pink....the flesh color was not the color I had envisioned....the red was the wrong red....even the construction of the scarf was wrong- I really didn't like seeing the "wrong" side of the scarf with all the hidden ends from the tunisian crochet. It did not please me one bit Sam I Am.

So, I found a nearby Walmart that has not downsized it's craft department and they had the right pink for the main scarf and the right flesh color. W00t! I used Vanna's Choice yarn for the first time and must say that I really enjoyed working with it. Didn't enjoy the price, though. I think it's quite a rip off, actually. But, something so petty as money shan't dictate the genius of the artiste! (Said in my snootiest faux French accent). Thankfully, I found some coordinating colors at Joann's where they were on sale...whew! Anyway, I finally figured out how to construct the scarf in a way that will showcase the Princess while hiding the ugly backside and yet still be functional and, well, pretty. :) I'm finishing it up today, so I'll hopefully have some nice pics to showcase very soon.

I've also been working on my husband's Nintendo blanket...I'm so excited about this one! I have quite a few panels complete, but, again, I want to showcase the big reveal when I'm done. Although, I think I'll end up jumping the gun and showing it when all the panels are complete even though the ends aren't weaved in. I think I'll be weaving in ends for quite a while....

Anywho, that's an update for now. I will be finishing up my Princess scarf and will be shooting a tutorial on my scarves this week. Yay! I really do like shooting the videos. Oh, by the way, I haven't forgotten the video tutorial for lining a bag I promised eons ago. It's just that there was so much footage and we kinda got bogged down in the editing. As much as I'd like putting up a 3 hour video, me thinks it wouldn't be all that enjoyable to watch.....

Until next time....

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Sooo...I tend to be VERY impulsive. Case in point...yesterday. I had just finished a shoot- we actually finished early, so I had loads of time to spare in the afternoon. Spare time and I don't really mesh well together...either I have a plan for the day, or I get panic attacks thinking, "Ack! I have so much to do and I have no idea where to start! I guess I'll get the nap out of the way..."

But, I didn't want to take a nap yesterday. Well, actually I did since I love to nap and I can usually ALWAYS sleep- anytime, anywhere. It's a gift I got from my dad. I literally slept through 2 earthquakes and only awakened because my dear, brave, gallant hubby was frantically shaking me and yelling, "Wake up woman! The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" He's my Foxy Loxy- Rawr! But I digress.

Yesterday I impulsively decided, "I'm going to chop my hair off."


Princess Toadstool ("Peach" kinda sounds weird to me) approves. (That's my newest scarf I'm working on...almost finished...Mario was lonely)

It's REALLY short! I haven't had it this short since...well basically 6 years ago. I had an impulsive day that time, too. I left work and saw a beauty parlor and went in. Came out missing about a foot of hair.

I have let my hair grow since then with just a trim here and there. About a year and a half ago, it was down to my waist. I chopped 14 inches off and it was still past my shoulders. I let it grow again, with just a trim now and then...and yesterday chopped off a good foot of hair. I actually didn't realize it was that long. I am sad to say that I didn't think to tell her to donate it to Locks of Love (which I did last year). Impulsivity does have it drawbacks sometimes.

Since I let my hair grow, I had all my headshots taken with it long, so I didn't want to cut it and not match my pictures. Then, I was shooting Lilly's Thorn this summer, so I had to have the same hair length for the duration of the film. I've become really bored with the long hair! Enough with the long hair! My name is NOT Rapunzel! (Though that would be cool.)

Thankfully, my hubby approves. He's always been a long-hair lover, but I think even he was bored with my long hair. Gotta keep it new and exciting, ya know? :)

To be totally awesome, or not to be totally awesome...

....that is the question.



The answer...I AM TOTALLY AWESOME! (Said with the utmost humility.) This is the unveiling of my "Newest Project" from below. I have been so giddy with this purse.

Let me give you a tour of it's awesomeness....

this is the front:


This is the back:


I know you can see the strap, but let me just point it out to you...


ACK! How cool is that??? For those of you out there who may be a little slow, (what? moi? condescending??) THE COINS ARE COMING OUT OF THE QUESTION BLOCK AND THEN LEAVING IT EMPTY!!! *Insert kitty Yzma cackle, yet again*

It took for freakin' EVAH to complete...though it was due to my over thinking of the construction rather than the actual difficulty of the project. I knew how I wanted to do the front, back, and strap, but I couldn't decide how to actually make it into a purse. The answer was absurdly simple, so when I make this again (oh yes, it will be mine), it will go ever so much more smoothly. It is, of course, crocheted and then felted. I was very pleasantly surprised at how large it ended up. You never know with felting. I was so afraid that I put in so much effort into this Koopa Coin purse, just to end up with, well, a coin purse.

I did line this bag...as well as the strap.


It is actually the bag I used for the upcoming video tutorial on how-to-line-felted-bags. Hopefully I'll have that up over the weekend...since my hubby is the editor, we have to wait for his timetable.

Here is my parting shot...I love how the bag fits in with the artistic composition...BIG QUESTION MARK: who is this girl? where is she going? where did she get that TOTALLY AWESOME BAG????

Mario Scarf and other Nintendo addictions

Ok. I have a confession to make. I am obsessed with Nintendo- Super Mario Bros. specifically. It stems from my childhood when we just couldn't afford to buy a Nintendo when the rest of the world was at home cozily warping their brains and wasting away their thumbs to their heart's content. My obsession runs deep and goes to dark places.....I would even try to get my friends to invite me to spend the night...IF...they had a Nintendo. That way, while everyone was asleep, I could play that 8-bit slice of heaven until the wee hours of the morning. I was like a junkie and just needed a video game hit so bad that I was just so jazzed when we got a hand-me-down Atari when our friends no longer needed it. Although, it was a little tough knowing we were getting our jollies playing Enduro while everyone else had moved on to Excite Bike. Though, when Super Nintendo came out, we were finally able to get our paws on our friend's slightly used Nintendo- with about 20 games and a bunch of accessories all for 100 bucks. Oh yes- my dreams had finally come true.

My brother and I would play SMB (1, 2, and 3- though 1 and 3 were my favorites) for hours upon hours. Thankfully we had always been very (hyper)active kids, so a Saturday here and there spent sitting on our butts didn't add to the childhood obesity epidemic that was beginning to emerge. One of the shining moments in my life was when I beat SMB3 before my brother- oh yes- I was, as my dad called me, the Nintendo Queen. This Nintendo obsession has to be a familial genetic disorder...everyone except my dad can quote Super Mario Bros. the Movie verbatim... it's one of my mom's all-time favorite movies. My mom is cool like that. My dad...? Perhaps my daddy aint my daddy but my daddy don't know??? Well, it's a good theory....until you look at us together....

So now, fast forward to my adulthood...not only can I now afford a Nintendo and of course stalked out a Walmart to snatch up a Wii, I am also able to create Nintendo inspired items. One of which is the Mario scarf.



I actually made this for my husband- he wanted a hat with a Mario on it (see why I love him??) but, since I had only been crocheting for a couple of months, I couldn't quite get it to work. I taught myself to crochet last summer and this was one of the first things that I created. He loves it and gets numerous comments on it- of course my heart swells with pride.

I'll be adding more pictures of the scarf being modeled in the next few days. It goes along perfectly with my "newest project" from below.



I've also been working on a Mario blanket for my hubby. It is easily the most awesome thing I have ever created and I.CANNOT.WAIT until I complete it. It will take a verrrry long time (I tend to be a perfectionist and really enjoy challenging myself). Here is a teaser of what's to come.



Alright- I'll leave you now...I have a princess to save!!

Newest Project

Here's a sneak peek at my newest project. What will the end product be??? Only the Shadow knows!!! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA!



ok..ahem...now that I got that out of my system... I'll update when this project is complete, as well as, just maybe, perhaps, a video.... Oh baby that's what I like!