Holy shit, it's March! Days 28, 29 and 30.

Three days left, mind as well stick with it, no?


Day 28 → this year, in great detail.

Well, it's on 1 March, so there's not too much to talk about.  First two weeks of January were awesome.  Then school started.  Then February, with Snowpocalypse, migraines, school, and the last three days were awesome.

Day 29 → hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days.
Like resolutions?  I have many hopes, dreams, and plans.  I just hope it isn't as sour as 2009.


Day 30 → whatever tickles your fancy. 
Mm, not really sure.  Happy National Crochet Month!  I'd be crocheting, but I'm working on a hat that needs to be finished quite soon.  Isn't this cute?!

 

I haven't even read any Lovecraft, but this one's just so cute!  Free pattern HERE! 

Speaking of free patterns, there should be a free pattern coming soon. 

YAY FINISHED WITH THAT STUPID MEME.  Ha, it was still entertaining though. 

Day 23 → a YouTube video.

Days 19, 20 & 21.

First, this is what I want my future house to look like:

 

via knithacker.com

Please and thank ya!

Day 19 → a talent of yours.

 I'm not going to lie, I avoided this post because I don't think I'm exactly "talented" at stuff.  Sure there's stuff I can do, and some stuff I can do pretty damn well, let me tell you, but there's always someone better.  On the other hand, there's always someone worse, so I guess it works itself out, right?  Well, yesterday I pulled out my violin and played a few tunes.  I still got it.  :]  I went to Music & Arts to get rosin, so hopefully I'll be playing more often.  As far as the guitar goes, I am one bad ass tuner.  And I've strung a few notes and chords together in a pleasing manner.  (I wouldn't call it a song.)  But it's not like I can pick it up and play something you'll recognize, aside from the Ode to Joy. Give me any instrument, I can play that bad boy.

Day 20 → a hobby of yours.

Well, that's what this blog is all about, innit!?  So I'm not going to go into much detail with that.  Only I learned how to crochet one summer at my grandma's house when I was 15.  I was hooked.  Ha!  I went back a month later, and she taught me how to knit.  Two years later I bought a sewing machine, and started getting back into cross-stitching.  I've always loved cooking and baking, but it's gotten more serious now. (and fun. And yummy.)

Yesterday me mam and I went to Jo-Ann's and Michael's looking for yarn for Sarah/EssHaych.  I wanted to get you some Jo-Ann's brand yarn, because I highly doubt you have it over there, across the pond, but the Jo-Ann's is moving to a new location at the end of April and they don't have any of their brand yarn.  D'oh.  I still picked up some rockin' things though; I'll get it mailed this weekend, most definitely. 

Well, if you know me, you know I can't score a few things for myself.  Like such:

• an ergonomic hook! It's an E (*pauses to update Ravelry*)  3.5 mm, so hopefully I'll be able to make some smaller amigurumi's with it, and not kill my hand.  Even though it's usually my left hand that gets cramped, because I curl my pinkie and ring finger around the yarn and soon it starts looking like I have some crazy arthritis.  Ew. 
• a gorgeous fat quarter.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but it was too pretty to pass up.
• NEON googly eyes!  Cheaper than safety eyes, and I prefer these, not only because I have an odd affinity for googly eyes, but because you don't have to try and guess where the eyes go when you're halfway through the head.  And they'll go perfect for all those technicolor animals I have a habit of making. 
• New purse!  It's a project bag, but it makes a bloody awesome purse.
• Vanna's Choice in pink, and VC's Baby in blue for the MGMT SWEATBAND KAL. (OK, so it might be a one person KAL, but I don't care.)  In the MGMT video for "Kids," the little baby is running around, and at one point has a little sweatband with the MGMT logo:

 

Woo screencaps 101!

I know the colors aren't exact, but I really wanted to use Vanna's Choice.  Those were the closest they had; in fact, the closest of any yarn.  So we'll chart, and see how it comes out.  It's just like knitting a hat without decreasing...right?  LET'S HOPE SO.

Day 21 → a recipe.

I'm going to push this one to tomorrow.  I was supposed to cook dinner tonight, but didn't.  So I'll freeze the fish, and cook my half pound of scallops and half pound of (COLOSSAL) shrimp, and see how that turns out.  I'm feeling... scampi-ish, lemony... some angel hair pasta... oo, those snow peas are going to good use.  Sounds yummeh!

ETA: Coolest Flickr blog!

Day 18 → whatever tickles your fancy :: Jillian Battles the Pink Elephants

 Seriously, I cannot for the life of me make an amigurumi elephant, whether it's knit or crochet.  It's pretty annoying.  I started out using Susan B. Anderson's Elefante pattern. It was going good, but then I started stuffing his head, and there were these odd pleats on the bottom:

 

Ok, it's not too bad.  But after I was stuffing, they didn't go away.  Susan B Anderson's didn't have odd little pleats:

Well, it does, but they aren't as severe.  I asked her what the problem is, and she agreed with my fears, that my tension's probably too tight.  Damn you bamboo needles.  So I could frog and redo, but I was running low on time.  (It was supposed to be a gift.)  I was also pissed because then I'd have a huge head and body, and the legs wouldn't work, because I did the legs first. GRAH.  So I frogged

...and realized yes, my tension was waaaaaaay too tight, and chose another pattern, this time Wesley the elephant, by Amy Gaines from Cute Little Animals.  Yay crochet!  It'll get done a lot quicker, woo!  So Valentine's Day I put Watchmen on my computer and got working.

And then I just don't know what went wrong:

WHAT IS THAT? IS THAT AN ELEPHANT? HOW IS THAT AN ELEPHANT ANYWAY? 

I have no idea how it's an expletive-ing elephant.  The part where my hook is is supposed to be the beginning of the trunk.  WHAT IS THAT GRAH.

This is what he's supposed to look like:

photo courtesy Mimael 

Yeah, so I have no idea what to do with these stupid elephants.  I don't think an elephant will be made, stupid things.  Currently everything's just hibernating; I don't know what I want to do with the second elephant, because my safety eyes are in there. Grah, more frustration! I might take out the trunk part and make it into a monster thing, but for now I'm done with them. 

P.S. When I write a book, I want to have a neat Gorillaz-esque youtube.com preview.  This is for Pirate Latitudes, which I talked about on Day 13.

Day 17 → an art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.).

Judith and Holofernes, Caravaggio, 1599

Day 16 → a song that makes you cry (or nearly).

Day 14 & 15

Day 14 → a non-fictional book.

Hm.  Since it's the first one I thought about, let's go with that, Simon Schama's The Power of Art.  This man is brilliant! He gives a section each to Caravaggio (my favorite painter), Bernini (favorite sculptor), Rembrandt, David, Turner (another fave!), van Gogh (love him, too), Picasso and Rothko.  I haven't finished it, sadly, but it was brilliant.  I mean, you can't beat a book that has this as its first paragraph: Great art has dreadful manners. The hushed reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are polite things, visions that soothe, charm and beguile, but actually they are thugs. Merciless and wily, the greatest paintings grab you in a headlock, rough up your composure and then proceed in short order to rearrange your sense of reality. BRILLIANT! If I write a book on art/art history I want it to be like his.

Day 15 → a fanfic.

Hm.  Another hm.  I don't read fan-fictions; usually they're really horrible, (no offense, but there ain't no Shakespeares on fanfiction.net) or they go to places I just don't need to be a part of.  For example, I do not need to know about Harry Potter and Dumbledore's sexscapades when they got caught by Malfoy who joined in on the fun.  No.
I'm currently writing something that you could consider a fan-fiction, only because I've taken something fictional (a TV show) and added in characters and such, but it's private.  It's for my eyes only, where I can work on writing without caring about my audience.  So, in the honor of St. Valentine's Day, we'll share some Pablo Neruda.  This isn't my favorite love sonnet, but I still like it.


SONNET XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.


I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.


I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way


than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. 

Day 13 → a fictional book.

Hmm.  Well, we already went over Interview With a Vampire, so let's see what I'm currently reading, that would be Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton.  I believe it's his last book before he died, which really sucks.  It's so completely different, too.  Instead of being science fiction-y it's PIRATES.  C'mon, after Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean who doesn't like pirates? Argh, matey, me booty.
Anyway, it revolves around Captain Charles Hunter who's going to attack the Spanish fort/island/thing [forgive me, I have a migraine] of Mantanceros because there's a treasure naos there. [Even though Google says it's part of a cella, I'm assuming it's a boat. Whatevz.]  So he takes his crew and off he goes!  I haven't finished it, so I can't tell all the fun details, but so far so good.  It's funny because they're at Port Royal and just mentioned Tortuga, and I keep expecting Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom to pop out.
Maybe it's just my migraine/drug induced state, but I keep on picturing my boo, Alex O'Loughlin as Hunter.

Rawr.  Which of course means I imagine other actors as the characters as actors.  Is that just me or do other people do that?  I should seriously move to Los Angeles; I'd be a kick ass casting director.  Let's see who else, shall we?  I promise no spoilers.

Sir James Almont aka Governor of Jamaica?

Probably the guy who played the governor in Pirates of the Caribbean, 

 

Yeah, that guy.  Jonathan Pryce.

Hackett would definitely be Tom Hollander from Pirates, too.

 

Haha, yes, he's all ready!

Young Anne Sharpe would be Dakota Fanning.  LOVE HER.

She's going to be a man slayer in a few years.  Watch out men. SHE'S COMIN.

Bassa? I immediately thought of this guy:

Michael Clarke Duncan.  Yeah, he could definitely play a huge, mute pirate.

Lazue would be Kiera Knightly, especially when she dressed up as a man in Pirates II.

JOHNNY DEPPAGE. ♥ 

Plus I just love her.

GORGEOUS.  And that's it. OH WAIT. Cazalla would definitely be Antonio Banderas.

This would be one insanely sexy movie. Haha. So now when you read this book, you'll be imagining all these people.  And of course I had to add images.  Have I ever had a blog post without images?  Bad habit, oops.

Day 11 & 12.

Oopse, forgot yesterday.

Day 11 → a photo of you taken recently.

Meh. I guess this?

Ok, yeah, now that's over with.

Day 12 → whatever tickles your fancy.
LOL tickles.

Let's remember Alexander McQueen, shall we?

 

  

 

Damn, I love fashion.  RIP.

In SNOWPOCALYPSE news, I braved the weather yesterday to go shooting.  New pictures on Flickr ASAP.  I figured you're all pretty tired of snow pictures anyway.
NEW PICTURES ADDED!

ETA: More McQueen HERE.

Day 09 → a photo you took // SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010

Are you ready for it? You ready for SNOWPOCALYPSE 2010?! Yeah, ya'al thought it was going to end in 2012 with the plagues and the opening of the seals and the horns and the angels and the fighting and the Horsemen, right? Oh no, oh no. It ends in snow.

 

Susie's lil prints.

 

It's really heavy snow.

The cars before we dug them out.

 

  

 

Ohh, my poor car. 

 

 

 

 

For [a few] more photos, and better quality shots, check out the Snowpocalypse 2010 set on my Flickr. 

 And for fun, Eastern Market!

courtesy valkyrieh116 on Flickr. Check out her photostream; she has some shots from the City.

P.S. New block pattern (!!!) and more FOs coming soon.

Day 07 → a photo that makes you happy.

Hmm, happy? That's a tough one... But no matter what my mood, or how crappy things go, hippos always make me happy.

P.S. There's a lot of motherf*cking snow out there.

ETA: This too, oh how cute!

Day 06 → whatever tickles your fancy.

Day 05 → your favourite quote

i want you to love me/ let me love you/ i dont wanna

dance wit ghosts/ snuggle lovers i made up in my drunkenness/

lemme love you just like i am/ a colored girl/ i'm finally bein

real/ no long symmetrical & impervious to pain

from for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange.

Day 03 & 04

Since I have a migraine I missed yesterday. Oopse. It's the thought that counts, no?
Disclaimer: I still have a migraine, so if this post seems a little...weird, well, now you know why.

Day 03 → your favourite television program.

I have many; it's so hard to choose! First, of course is House M.D.

 

Haha, I grew up with Hugh Laurie on Jeeves and Wooster. (UK shoutout) If I was in the hospital for longer than a day, I would definitely want him to be my doctor, even if he is an asshole. Maybe he could find a cure for my stupid migraines.

Damn, I love this man, too. It's Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations on the Travel Channel. This photo is from Monday's episode when he was in Prague (Praha in Czech) which is one of my favorite cities. I have yet to watch, but am thrilled. He goes around to different cities and/or countries with his snarky self and tastes the local cuisine and gets into odd situations. Like in Russia (or somewhere near it) he was with this group of guys in the desert and they killed a deer or goat and cooked it and drank liquor from a gasoline bottle/tank and did a dance that eerily resembled Riverdance. Gotta love him, though, even if he is an ass sometimes. (Apparently I'm addicted to salt-and-pepper coiffed assholes.)

If you put J.J. Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman you not only get the most attractive looking Vulcans this side of Planet Vulcan, but you get the amazing show that is Fringe. First off, this show is disgusting, but it makes up for it in brilliance. Wait, there's a computer virus that turns your brains into a liquid that resembles vomit that seeps out of your nose? Some guy almost lost his son and genetically re-engineered him to be half mole? BRILLIANT. I love it, I love. And now I just let you all know how much of a science fiction freak I am. And to add to that, the guy who played Lord Denethor in Lord of the Rings plays Walter Bishop. Ha.

Did you know dinosaurs are real? Well... I mean real in the 21st century. YEAH. AWESOME RIGHT. (I was a Dinosaur Girl when I was little.) And these two cuties (plus some other folks, whatever) are going to save the day! Or at least London. Even though I haven't watched the 3rd season (or session, or whatever they call they over there) I still love Primeval, especially Connor. (And Abbie [Hannah Spearitt, who was in S Club 7, remember them!?) aren't too hard on the eyes, either.) Apparently there's these "anomalies" in time and space and dinosaurs (and Future Predators, too, which happened to scare the living shit out of me) think it's really cool to go through them and see what's up, like "oh man, humans?" or "what's this weird box on wheels?" and wreck havoc, and it's up to our Accented Attractive Heroes to save the day. Can't get much better than that, now can we? Good. *Drinks tea*

Why whY WHY CBS DID YOU GET RID OF MY MOONLIGHT? C'MON! THESE VAMPIRES DON'T GLITTER, THEY DON'T PLAY BASEBALL. THEY WEREN'T CEDRIC DIGGORY AT ONE POINT. Ugh. Even though it ended (in like 2008...) Moonlight's still one of my favorite shows. I love vampires, BUT I like my vampires more realistic, does that make sense? Ann[e] Rice's vampires, these vamps, all good. Twilight? Blade? NO. How do vampire's glitter, how can you be half vampire. Even the Underworld series was ok in my book. CBS made a big mistake when they cancelled this show. I don't care if it came on Friday's at 9; I was single then! I don't care if it was soap-opera-y, it was still awesome. I miss my Moonlight. *goes and watches my DVDs.*

As far as what else I watch, it's [almost. I don't like Axe Men.] on History Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. I've learned waay too much, but I like learning. I go to class, and I know all this random information just from watching these shows and documentaries. Definitely better than rotting my brain cells watching Jersey Shore on MTV.

Day 04 → your favourite book.

 

My alltimefavoritebook is Interview With a Vampire by Ann[e] Rice. Poor, dear Louis. He doesn't want to be a vampire, kind of like Mick St. John from Moonlight. And can you have a better character than Lestat de Lioncourt? I won't go into details; you really have to read the book yourself. Or watch the movie. I don't think Brad Pitt has ever been sexier, but I'm biased; I like me some vamps. (Granted Tom Cruise as Lestat does not work the blond hair nor do his fangs work, but hey, it was the '90s.) And Kristen Dunst is the cutest little girl-vamp ever.

Some of my other favorite books include:

• East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (J.R.R. Tolkien)
• The Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling)
• On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
• The Watchmen (Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons)
• Prey (Michael Crichton)
• Lolita (Vladimir Nabokov)
• The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
• Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)
• Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
• The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
• The Portrait of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
• for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf (Ntozake Shange

Go read some of them. I have good taste. And let me know what you think!

~

And now for something completely different! I'm making my friend an ami for her birthday (shh, I don't know if she read this!) but I made all four legs a few nights ago and inspired by the Kitten Mittens video from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia decided Arwen needed Kitten Mittens:

 

Hahahah, she was not a happy kitteh. I was laughing so hard in this picture, while she's sitting there growling.