Call Me Maybe?

Someone shared this on Ravelry the other day, and I can't help but crack up every time I watch it... And yes, there have been multiple times. I absolutely love the ones that totally get into it and sing along.



Of course, watching this video means I get the most earwormy song of the summer stuck in my head, but it's totally worth it!

Also: I'm moving tomorrow. Eek!

The Crap Collector

Yesterday, a friend of mine found out that she managed to score the job she wanted! In celebration, we went out for a small lunch, then I followed her while she bought a ridiculous amount of work clothes. I was so good,  I didn't  buy anything, even though I was sorely tempted.

Well, almost.

The last place on her list- a shoe store- happened to be located near a Half Priced Books and a Charming Charlies. While I successfully  managed to avoid any books hopping into my arms (mostly due to the fact that I've been reading the same paper copy of a book all summer, and I have loads more waiting for me after that), I didn't fare so well at the accessory store.

I'm a fan of big purses, you see. The bigger, the better. Unless I can fit the kitchen sink in my bag, I'm not interested. Unfortunately, because I'm also not interested in leather/pleather, it usually culminates in a giant bag with no pockets. My most recent purse is no exception. I constantly struggle to find my phone, my iPod, my headphones, my lipstick, my scissors, my darning needle, etc. I'm a mess. I usually have at least two knitting projects in the bag, and while I've bought countless skeins of yarn, I've never bought or made project bags. So not only do I have a jumble of "little" things, I also have skeins of yarn getting jostled and tangled together.

In short, my purse is a disgrace.

To combat this, I decided to pick up a small, make up bag for those little nicknacks. I searched Target. No luck. I looked in Kohl's. Zilch. Charming Charlies would definitely have one, right?

Uh, no. But it did have a cute little "purse" on sale for $5 that seems sturdy enough to handle the abuse in my purse! It's meant to be a clutch with an option for straps on the inside, but I think it'll work wonderfully as a crap collector.



That's the scale, above. My current purse could fit a small three year old, not that I've tested that theory. I have, however, tested the theory that it will fit a few cats (three has been the maximum from my skewed data set).



The crap collector is small enough to  not be cumbersome in my bag, but large enough to fit the above. There's little room after all of that is squished in, so I'm not worried about anything getting damaged. It's all quite snug. (That would be my phone, iPod, headphones, coin purse, and one tube of lipstick.)



The best part of this buy? The little gem in the clasp. I didn't even notice it until I had gotten home, and it almost made me love it more than the price already had.

Pod Person Behavior

Today has been an... odd sort of day. I entirely blame it on the fact that I got about three hours sleep last night. So far, I not only went and royally enjoyed myself at my sister's volleyball practice (though, I was enjoying myself listening to an audiobook and knitting hexipuffs), but I did so while drinking something unusual.



I'm really not a coffee person, and as I've mentioned before, I'm really, really not a chocolate person. The fact that I was guzzling down a bottle of this stuff like it was water Dr. Pepper showed just how darn delicious it was. I did show some restraint, and cut it with half a bottle of milk. I think I might have gone over the edge between the richness and sugar if I hadn't. Now I'm determined to replicate the flavor with plain old coffee from my keurig. Yum.

So yes. Seriously. Go out and buy this coffee right now. This instant. It's that good.

In terms of the knitting, I was happily duplicate stitching on hexipuffs and garnering attention from the prepubescent boys who were lifting weights behind me. Even though I had my headphones in, I could still hear their completely mystified conversations about what on earth I was doing. Next up is an optometrist appointment for Jenny, where I'm sure I'll get even more attention.

The Knitting Blahs

I have a confession. I've got no knitting mojo. After I finished my mini creature and baby bunnies I've been completely uninspired with my knitting. It started with my complete unwillingness to work on my beatnik sweater, which, frankly, was understandable. I don't like staring at charts, and I had been working on it for ages. I also felt a lot of pressure to finish it before the Tour de Fleece (even though I fail at participating) and Ravelympics Ravhellenic Games. That pressure was entirely self induced and entirely stupid because it's knitting: an enjoyable hobby. So for a few weeks all I did was stress about how holy crap that sweater was never going to get finished. But then... I did. I finished it! I could move on to more appealing knitting!

Except, that's when I lost it. Nothing is appealing to me right now. I'm trying, I really am. I tried mindless knitting on my hexipuff blanket. That ended disastrously when I added a puff and used each edge to pick up stitches for more puffs that I placed it in the wrong spot. Yeah. That means I would have to rip out five puffs. It wasn't going to happen, so I just set it aside and tried to not cry.

Then I thought, well, maybe I just want to knit on something a little more complicated and larger! So I pulled out my Saroyan. Nope. I hate the yarn. H-A-T-E it. I don't get any stitch definition and it creeps me out to no end that it feels like hair. I'm going to finish this shawl, but I'm not sure how much use it's going to get. Actually, that's a lie. It will get exactly the same amount of wear as my other shawls: none. Remind me again why I keep knitting them?

Finally, I decide, forget it! I'll stash dive and knit a baby hat and matching booties! The hat was ridiculously fast and cute and adorable and then it came time to knit the booties... and I just can't force myself to do something that fiddly.

So... Basically, I'm stuck. I've gone through cycles of this before, where I hate all my knitting and I have zero motivation. Usually, I suffer through whatever projects I have on the needles and snap out of it with a giant case of startitis. Unfortunately, startitis seems a long way off, so I tried to jump start it with a little shopping.



If time, beads, and pretty yarn can't cure me, nothing will, right?

I had bought the skein on the left at the 2012 DFW Fiber Fest. The first year I had attended, I fell in love with the Brooks Farm yarn that eventually became my Multnomah. I figured I might as well continue the tradition and after some serious deliberation, I opted for the deliciously awesome skein of Solo Silk. The colors remind me of steampunk and 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea in the most awesome of ways, so naturally, I thought of The Age of Brass and Steam. After spotting a few amazing examples using beads, I knew that I was a goner.

 Once I got to the store, however, I had some serious issues picking out fabulous beads. In fact, I'm still not 100% certain those are going to make it. I know for sure that the little vial of beads will happen, but I'm going to have to see what the multicolored pack looks like on the shawl before I decide whether to use them. Though, the colorway is called "seabreeze", which is utterly perfect with my submarine inspiration.

The other skein came from a venture into a new LYS. Despite the lack of prices on, well, everything, I did find something I really loved. That skein of Baruffa Cashwool absolutely sang out to me. The fact that it was something like 50% off certainly didn't help, though the absolutely ridiculous tangled mess it was certainly gave me pause.

A few podcast episodes later, I tidied it up into this happy ball and decided that  a Laminaria would be just the ticket. After knitting my Haruni, I knew some pretty coordinating beads would make me happy as clam.

You know, apart from the fact that I hate knitting hugely complicated things. That's why about 75% of my stash is laceweight yarn that I intend for pretty but complicated and charted shawls. I'm nothing if not practical.

In any case, the beads certainly did inspire me. I can't stop staring at them and petting my yarn. I'm in lurrrrve with the idea of those projects. I cannot wait to cast on both. But am I? Nope! I'd rather go the masochistic route. I'm saving my Laminaria (which I cannot spell to save my life) for the Ravhellenic Games, and the Solo Silk for after I finish my hairy Saroyan. Hopefully, by the time I finish, I'll be so happy to have gotten it off the needles that I'll explode with a bunch of WIPS. Or something.

And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses

First off, an announcement! I've been stockpiling my review for a while now, and I've finally hit the point where I'm three months ahead of the game. Since that's more than a little ridiculous, I'm going to go ahead and start posting two on Thursdays until it gets closer to when my classes start up again. And now, on to your regularly (or not) featured program!

This entire post was really a product of bribery. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Monkey is going to be out of town for two months, and completely out of touch for one of those months. Naturally, I'm freaking out. Before he leaves for those trips, he has been, and will be pretty unavailable anyways, and I've been sorely missing him.

When I finally saw him on Monday, I have to admit, he spoiled me. I strongly suspect this was really just him trying to bribe and distract me so  that I don't break his legs with a sledge hammer and imprison him in my spare bedroom, a la Kathy Bates.Consequentially, I made out with some serious loot! Not only did he feed me delicious things, but he also bought me Psych (admittedly, this was after months of whining) because he got an awesome deal- seasons one and two for $24. Considering my sister and I have recently bonded over a Psych marathon, it was perfect timing.

Okay, it was less of a bonding experience and more of her having pneumonia and being too weak to fight me when I took control over the living room TV and refused to stop watching it on DVR.

Nevertheless, after forcing Monkey to watch an episode, even he admits that the show is awesome and I have amazing taste, but we already knew that.

As if those things weren't wonderful enough, he bought me the third coolest pair sunglasses ever. The first coolest were a pair of my mom's from the 80s that at one point in time, were mirrored but have since been so scratched up (and peed on by one of Monkey's short term, drunken roommates), that I've been unable to wear them. The second coolest were my replacement pair- cat-eyed leopard print that are delightfully ridiculous. Then there are these.



Look at them. Look at them with awe and amazement. They are so cool. Clearly, my sunglasses taste veers toward the "more than a little obnoxious" side of the spectrum, but hey. They've got magical UV protection and look pretty darn awesome on me, if I do say so myself! And if need be, they double as manhole covers.

Monkey was undeniably sweet to me, and I'm going to be a complete basket case on Saturday. I did arrange for a mope-fest with another one of my friends though, as her boyfriend will be out of town as well. This mope-fest involves a road trip, and I'm super excited about seeing her. I'm thinking I'll probably continue my "house-wife training" teach her how to cook a few more awesome things.

Bovvered

I've been overwhelmed by exams. Yikes! In times like these I like to procrastinate take short breaks to enjoy simple things.

My very favorite Doctor Who character ever was Donna. I had never seen anything with Catherine Tate before, so when I finally saw her on the show, I was blown away. Tate is absolutely hilarious and brings a real humanity to her role. I absolutely adored her, and wish she could have stayed with David Tennant on the show forever.

Alas, it wasn't mean to be. Instead, we got a nice nod to their epic awesomeness on in one of Tate's most famous sketches.



Bite me alien boi!

On a completely pointless and arbitrary note

I have this song stuck in my head.



You can thank the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group on Ravelry for that one.

I've always loved the Muppets though, and this has been one of my favorite scenes since I was a wee one. Seepag just reminded me of it.

Fantastic Flying Books

Just a quick post. This is just beautiful and makes me want to start hoarding all the books. I'm absolutely in love.

Sad, Sad Trombone

As I mentioned in the last post of this theme, a big mood booster for me has been writing lists of things that make me happy. Along the same line, Gala Darling wrote a list of things to do when you're unhappy, aka the Sad Trombone List. I don't remember when exactly I stumbled across this list, or who exactly turned me onto it (I believe it may have been San Smith), but I'm infinitely glad they did.

Lately, I've been having a tough time focusing on the good things in my life. A lot of it is because I'm completely burned out of school- I want to be done and I want to be done now. The thought of going through another year is absolutely unbearable at this point- especially because I need to fill out applications to even go through that last year. Even trying to enjoy my favorite things has become really difficult. All I've been doing lately has been stressing myself out and being an emotional wreck (poor Monkey, he's had absolutely no fun with that). After a tearful night of declaring that "I give up, I'm going to be a cashier at Kroger for the rest of my life", I realized that I (and Monkey) had had enough and that I need to finally start tackling this anxiety I've been feeling. I finally remembered this list, and even just reading it made me feel better.

If that doesn't cheer you up, I'm sure Monkey pretending to be Wolverine with DPNS will!

Validation

I'm introducing a new segment to my blog! Whoo hoo! Rather than 'limit' it to a single day of the week, I've left that blank (I put limit in quotes, as I think it's fairly obvious that I write a lot of posts- particularly the book reviews- in advance, without regard to the actual day of the week). I figure that the more time I can think about my favorite things, the better. I'm assuming for the majority, these are going to be rather short posts, but still a good collection of fee-good links and topics.

When I started college, one of the ways I tried to combat my loneliness and homesickness was to come up with a list of 1000 things that made me happy. I'd doodle and sketch and make the list as pretty as I wanted, and it was a great way to keep my mind happy. I'm hoping to do much of the same here- only even better. For one thing, I don't intend to limit myself to 1000 topics. I want as many as possible. For another, with blogs I can actually link (and embed) to the things! Hopefully these posts will not perk me up when I'm feeling down, but also give an opportunity to anyone who reads this to see something that makes them smile.

So, without further ado!



First up on my list is a short video from a few years back. I'm not entirely certain how I stumbled across it, but after seeing TJ Thyne, I was instantly intrigued. I used to be a huge fan of Bones, and Hodgins was my favorite character. Every time I stumble across one his works, I always check it out to see if it's equally good.



This video? This video is so much better. Talk about your quintessential feel-good mood lifter! I absolutely adore it. It reminds you of just how great and good and kind people can be. I loved the music, I loved the black and white film, I loved everything about it. Whenever I'm feeling down, I like to listen to it. It hearkens back to when I was in grade-school and Random Acts of Kindness (AKA RAOK) were encouraged. This wasn't just a random act of kindness, it was kindness to anyone and everyone.

It's just a great, great video.