♥september 17, 2011♥

Anyone else feel like they have separate and wholly unconnected “episodes” in their lives that don’t really seem to have anything to do with eachother? (I guess that’s what unconnected means, haha). I’m only 28, it’s not like I’ve had years and years of experiences, but what happened to the me from university who knew how to solve wave equations? What about spending hours searching for journal articles about obscure artists to write papers on? It just feels so weird to think that I’m the same person who did all that.

It’s not even exciting or adventurous stuff either, like I don’t have a time when I was hiking the Andes or something that I look back on in amazement, I just think back to a previous job or something and am like: was that actually me? How did I get here? There’s nothing particularly bad about where I am now, there’s always things you wish for or wish were different (hello, better paying job, where are you?) but I still sort of marvel at my current life.

Then when I start thinking this way, I get all nostalgic and soppy. Does anyone have any good methods of focusing on the present and living in the moment? I hate to think I’m the kind of person who either spends too much time dwelling on the past, or wishes my life away by always waiting for the next thing to happen.

That’s all. Just… introspective. I ate an entire KitKat just now (the kind with 10 mini-pieces), so maybe it’s the chocolate. I don’t know, haha. I think I will paint my nails. xo

Erm, sorry for the blurryish photo with yucky lighting… once the sun comes back (soon I hope!) I want to snap some better pics. But for the time being, at least you can see the little rosette embellishment I added. I wore them all day at work today and had the warmest wrists!

PS I also joined Pinterest, you can find my pinboards here (or on the link in the sidebar). It’s way too easy to get sucked into such lovely lovely photos and inspiration. I’m mostly excited about wedding stuff, but I’ve found some pretty great crafty ideas too. You should check it out, if you haven’t already! xo

• went thrift store shopping! Some of my best finds include a white porcelain cake/cupcake stand for $5 (!!!) {photos to follow later, seriously this thing deserves a post of its own}, a pair of adorable flats with stud buttons, and this jacket: 

• ate lots and lots of awesome food!
• opened christmas and birthday gifts, including the incredible handmade BOOK-PURSE, sewn & glued by Himself!!

• got a Singer sewing machine for my birthday!!! (Thanks love) I am so terrified to use it as I have no experience, and I don’t even really get how to load the thread or whatever. BUT there’s a picture of Martha Stewart on the box and it says “Learning is Easy” so I am going to do it. With the help of a bunch of YouTube videos, I imagine (if you know of any good ones, please tell!)
• listened to {beach house: teen dream} & {florence + the machine: lungs} over and over again -  my two new fave cds!
• bought a skein of berrocco ultra alpaca light (50% super-fine alpaca; 50% peruvian wool) and started crocheting these lovelies…

• (I want to add some embellishments, either pompoms or crochet flowers, but I have to make the 2nd mitt and see how much yarn I have left over. Aside: my digital kitchen scale is soooo handy for mitts! I weighed the yarn I had as I went, and since I started with 50 g, I stopped when I had about 28 g left before starting the next mitten. Smart, huh?)

• … and we got a sony handycam from Himself’s parents, so I can make viiideoooos! yayay! (I haven’t made any since uni, but I am excited to do some now.)
• there was a whole bunch more stuff too… but those were the big ones. Now tomorrow I have to go back to work… blerg. What did you do for the holidays?

{ps: I’m 28 now! woo!}

Find the fabulous tutorial (with tons of photos!) here, at Attic 24. If you haven’t already made some, you will! xo

I’ve also been admiring the stack of gifts I finally got around to wrapping last night.

Nice, aren’t they? Since I bought the wrapping paper last night as well, it was on super-sale (like 60% off I think), which makes me even happier. I think we might open a gift on the 21st – Winter Solstice/Yule – so that will keep me going until the Ultimate Week of Gifts (i.e. Christmas & my Birthday), heehee. We’ve got so many lovely cards in the mail already, it’s so much fun going down to check the mail every day and not just finding random flyers asking me to buy cable TV, or my credit card bill. What kinds of lovely surprises have you found in the mail lately? xo

Knit today on double-pointed needles! Pattern found here. I also discovered a brilliant photo tutorial on flickr for doing a figure 8 cast-on… it’s like magic, people! So the entire heart is knit in one piece, from the bottom point up, in the round. At the end, you kitchener stitch each of the top sides, and then stuff some cotton inside and close the teeny hole in the middle. (You can use your yarn ends to do this, which I read in the instructions after cutting my yarn ends allllmost too short! eep!)

I love love love them. I made the smaller version, and am going to make the larger one and maybe some cute ones in other colours too. I can’t remember what yarn I used: it’s Red Heart maybe, and it’s pastel colours so maybe it was a ‘baby’ kind of yarn.

{PS: the background of the last photo is some printable gift tags – free!- which I found here via How About Orange. Too cute!!}

{PPS: I’ve been using the ‘winterize’ effect on Picnik for my photos lately… I like the washed-out look it gives}

It’s a L’Oreal colour, in case you were wondering, and the pigment is so rich that you can get colour that matches the bottle in just one coat. I usually use two coats anyway, since I type all day at work and my nailpolish chips quickly.

Yesterday my nails were grey, which was nice, but not nearly as cheerful. And to continue the random “apple” theme, I baked applesauce-spice cupcakes this morning for breakfast (from a Martha Stewart recipe in her cupcake book). I left out the frosting since I had no cream cheese in the fridge, but they taste super-yum just as muffins, served warm with some melted butter on. Mmmm.

Even if it keeps snowing, I’m planning to go out a bit this afternoon. I enjoy bundling up in knitwear; as long as I’m warm, I’m happy. Do you have snow where you are? xo

We’ve started getting cards in the mail! And I loved our dollar-store “clothes-line” of cards last year, so I put it up again, with the addition of some decorations.

I also put some decorations in this jug, and here:

And some lights were hung up in the living room…

(They’re hard to see, but they’re little red globes that kind of look like glowy cranberries, heehee).

And some lights in the bedroom:

Inara’s craaaazy about the lights. Leela is like: oh right, I remember those from last year. meh.

Finally, I hung some lights here:

Yep. That is most certainly a “tree” of random wine bottles. The tree-thingie was free from our building superintendents when we moved in (haha) and the wine is gifted to us by Himself’s parents, and why not hang lights on it?

And that’s about all! I decided not to go for the tree when I had to pry Inara off of the string of lights, and then lift her out of a box of ornaments. Maayyybe next year would be a better idea. By then she’ll be almost two, and maybe slightly less of a crazybones kitten? (Not likely, but we can hope!)

I’ve also crocheted a little bowl, which I have filled with candy:

And a random potholder which is shaped like a bear’s head. I don’t really know why I made it!

Anyways, I have to go get ready –  my part-time job is having a staff dinner out tonight and I have to leave in about half an hour!

xo