Amy Does Crochet (and other interesting things)

Bath Time

2010-03-08T19:56:00.004-05:00

I just finished this lovely oil painting. I did it in homage to Gil Elvgren, the great American pin -up artist. I took the photo while it was still wet so there is a terrible glare. I decided to give it a try with a limit color palette and I think it creates a disturbing mood that is quiet enjoyable. A new friend of mine has offered up her naked pregnant body as new subject matter and I'm very excited to capture it. I've always day dreamed that I would be in one of those circles of painters who would gather in cafes, discuss art then go back to some random basement and paint models who want just as badly to be in some kind of art scene. I don't even drink coffee so I am never in a cafe. Things were easier when I was in college and the model and community of artists were provided for you.

Amy Does A Week Without Toothpaste DAY THREE

2009-04-01T20:50:00.004-04:00

My third day without using toothpaste, has gotten me to think, I will most likely not buy toothpaste again. I notice that when I am brushing with just water, I take extra care to clean everything off. Without toothpaste, I can feel every grimy thing that needs to be cleaned off. As for the lingering taste of smoke in my mouth, I mixed up some baking soda and salt to rinse my mouth out with. It doesn't taste as bad as I had expected, just a bit salty. My husband has been smelling my breath for me and says there is no problem.

Amy Does a Week Without Toothpaste DAY TWO

2009-03-31T20:39:00.002-04:00

I had a smoke before I went to bed last night. I brushed my teeth with just water. When i woke up this morning my mouth tasted terrible. After brushing with just water, I still had a bad taste in my mouth. That taste went away as soon as I started eating, but the bad taste came back just before lunch. I had to get a pack of gum on my way home when I stopped for gas. After chewing minty gum my mouth has tasted fresh all day. I'm wondering now if gum is just as useful as toothpaste. I didn't check the ingredients but I'm sure there are plenty of weird chemicals in the gum that are no good to my body if swallowed. I may end up driving myself crazy just thinking about the different chemicals I ingest all day long.

Amy Does a Week Without Toothpaste

2009-03-30T20:26:00.003-04:00

I was cleaning the bathroom and organizing the toothpastes. For some reason, I decided to read the label.
Indications
Aids in the prevention of dental decay.

Warnings
Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years old. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away.

Thinking about how I put this stuff into my mouth two or three times a day, every day, I became anxious. Am I slowly poisoning myself with toothpaste? I read on to the ingredients.

Active Ingredients: Sodium Monofluorophosphate (0.8%) (Anticavity Toothpaste)Inactive Ingredients: Sorbitol, Water, Hydrated Silica, PEG 32, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, SD Alcohol 38B, Sodium Bicarbonate, Flavor, Cellulose Gum, Sodium Saccharin, Blue 1, Yellow 10

Sodium Monofluorophosphate is a form of fluoride that is supposed to fight cavities. I will do more research on this.

Sorbitol is a sugar alcohol. Should I be using a sugar to clean my teeth?

PEG 32 is an abrasive chemical binder.

Hydrated Silica is a form of sand used to be abrasive on my teeth.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is another chemical abrasive. I found that it is used in laboratories to irritate skin on test animals and humans so that they may then test healing agents to see how effective they are on the irritated skin.

These ingredients are scary to me. Chemicals are becoming scarier and scarier to me as I read more about them. Toothpaste is probably causing cancer. This week, I will test the effects of not using toothpaste when brushing, flossing and caring for my teeth. It is the end of the day and I am not noticing any foul smells or bad taste like I expected. My teeth don't feel dirty when my tongue touches them. My husband has agreed to be a bad breath meter for me. I'll let you know how it goes.

Freudian Self portraits

2008-11-30T18:13:00.002-05:00

This is my pretentious super ego conte drawing self portrait. It offends me a little.
This is a drawing in conte crayon of my ego.
This too sexy for myspace drawing is of my Id.

Singer 500a, make me some money

2008-09-05T19:44:00.002-04:00

I now have two children under the age of two! This makes life very crazy and tiring. I have also started taking classes again. This leaves me with no time or energy for working. So money is getting low. I have a few websites but usually, I make about 10 cents a day, which is sucky pay. Last weekend, I decided to make up some bumper stickers to sell on the websites. I made this Sew what? bumper sticker to go along with my www.singer500a.info site. I think its a really nice looking design, hopefully you do too. You can click on the link to the right to order one for yourself or for all of your sewing friends. It would completely make my day to see someone driving down the street with one of my bumper stickers.

Granny Square Bag

2008-08-18T20:54:00.002-04:00

I started this bag a few months ago , maybe when I was 8 months pregnant. It is finally done and the baby is two months old. It really wasn't difficult, but I haven't had much time to myself. A friend of mine taught me how to do granny squares, I went home and started one. It grew and grew, I let it go for many rounds. Then I decided to make it into a shopping bag. I made another large granny square for the other side. I made a border of 3 rows of hdc around the squares. My friend's grandmother went insane and they put her in a home. In the home she crochets small rectangles, she thinks they are full sized blankets that she gives to my friend to donate to needy families. My friend gives them to me, to find a purpose for them. I used a few to make the bottom and sides of the granny square bag. The handles took me a few hours to do today, now it is all done. I still have a trash bag filled with tiny blankets and probably have more coming to me. If you have any ideas for them, let me know.

Dried Herbs

2008-07-22T12:26:00.004-04:00

I haven't had time or energy for crochet but my garden is using its own time and energy to produce the herbs I planted last year. My dill spread like crazy, even into my neighbor's yards and gardens. I have been making dilled potatoes and pickles with the dill. My horehound also spread like crazy, I haven't really found a use for that yet but I know it is good for colds and sore throats, so I am drying that also. The echinechea came up really well with plenty of flowers, I'm drying some of that for the fall and winter to protect myself against colds. My marshmallow spread too, it is so invasive, I tried to get rid of most of it. Marshmallow has a really intense tap root system, that is nearly impossible to destroy. But if you have the time, you can boil the roots until you get a thick liquid, then whip that liquid up with sugar and make homemade marshmallows, hence the name. I am drying a bit for tea, it's also good for sore throats. I am also drying some mint, I am using mint this weekend to make mint flavored Shisa for my hookah (see my other blog smokingthehookah.blogspot.com for more on that). My chamomile is doing really well. I pick the flowers daily and lay them on a wicker plate to dry on top of my refrigerator. Chamomile has such a nice green apple scent, I love it. I tried making tea with it last year but it was so bitter. This year, I am making a sleep pillow for my sister, for Christmas.

To dry the herbs:

cut a few stems and wash them thoroughly
shake them off and let them dry a bit
remove leaves from the bottom portion (so it can be wrapped without getting moldy)
wrap the bundle with a robber band. this works better than tying it with string because as the herb dries, it gets smaller. The rubber band will tighten as it gets smaller, string will not.
hang the herbs in a cool airy spot where they will not get direct sunlight.
once the leaves are crispy and crumbly, they are ready to be brought down, crumbled and stored in air tight containers.
dried herbs are good for one year

tiny blankets

2008-06-24T18:12:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine came to visit me and the new baby last week. She brought a bag of what her senile grandmom calls blankets. There are about 50 of these "tiny blanket" in the bag. Each of them is about the size of a wrist warmer. My friend doesn't crochet but she figured I could find a use for them. So I might add some buttons and make wrist warmers or I might piece them together to make something larger. Maybe a shopping bag? I'm still working on my granny square shopping bag but my time is very limited due to the new born and 15 month old. I'll put up pictures when I get some.

crochet piranha plant applique

2008-05-19T21:29:00.002-04:00

I just finished this crochet piranha plant applique. Schwa has been making a bunch of Nintendo themed Perler magnets which has got me into the Nintendo mood. I thought the piranha plant would be a nice crochet challenge. All of this was done free form (with no pattern), which is the most fun way to crochet. The spots were the trickiest part, I decided to do them using surface crochet. Over the weekend, a friend taught me how to make granny squares. I was impressed at how tightly she crochets, so I was inspired to increase my tension on this piece. It is much tighter and flatter than anything else I have made. It will look very nice once I attach it to a shirt. I just need to go thrift store hunting to find a shirt that is Nintendo sky blue. After it is attached to a shirt, I will try to sell it on Etsy. So if you want it, look for it there :)

I'm getting better with the website publishing

2008-05-15T08:21:00.003-04:00

Schwa and I just added more pages and reorganized our Creepypa.info with the help of a guy named Kevin Parris. He visited Austin Dam and the Bayless Paper Factory ruins you can read about it at this link http://www.creepypa.info/austindam.htm I learned about it a few months ago but there is no way we are visiting it any time soon with the new baby coming. We published the site last night and some of the links were screwy. This morning it only took me a few minutes to straigthen everything out. A few months ago that would have taken a few hours. I'm starting to feel confident in my website skills.

Skull Applique

2008-05-09T15:23:00.006-04:00

I made this pattern for the skull and cross bones up on my own last night. Doing that freeform blanket has really taught me to think in crochet. I went to a thrift store this morning, they were having a crazy sale along with everyone who worked there has some kind of mental handicap, so I ended up getting a whole bag of clothes for under $3. I am going to sew this skull and cross bones applique onto a shirt and try to sell it on Etsy. Schwa has been trying to sell his dirty latchhook pillows there. He gets alot of views but no buyers yet. If you are interested in Vagina themed pillows you should check out the store, www.schwarox.etsy.com

Free Form Baby Blanket is all done

2008-05-04T15:25:00.004-04:00

I am 34 weeks pregnant, so I'm very happy to be finished this blanket for my baby Penelope.
All of the pieces are free form (scrumbled) pieces that I crocheted together.
My original goal was to make it a flat square blanket. There is no way that I could figure out to piece the pieces together in an actual square, so the resulting shape is a more organic form.
There are puffy spots and flat spots, there are many different textures all through out the blanket. Penelope should have fun just feeling the blanket.
In the end, I did a round of black HDC and a few DC to create a nice border around all of the pieces. Then I made a pink shell edge (5 HDC in a ch then 2 SC in the following 2 chains) to give it a pretty girly ruffle. Pink and black are just so awesome together. Doing this blanket has inspired me to try something new. If I have the energy, I will be making some clothes :)

Free Form Baby Blanket

2008-04-22T19:17:00.002-04:00

I'm getting closer to finishing this free form blanket. The edges are tricky to think about because I want it to be square or rectangular. It's hard to do that after making many round pieces. I'll do a little more tonight, I had a schedule planned out to get it done before Penelope is born. I haven't really stuck to that schedule but I do have about 8 weeks left, it'll probably get done before then.

Water Bottle Holder

2008-04-20T12:22:00.002-04:00

I got bored with working on my baby blanket. It's been really nice out lately, so we've been going on a lot of walks and my water bottle has no handle. So I decided I could easily crochet a water bottle holder to make things easier. It took about 2-3 hours and I did it freestyle. But here is the approximated pattern that I made up for the water bottle holder.

Chain 8 and join 1st ch into last with a slip.

HDC into the ring all the way around until its full, maybe 9 or 10 times

Make a turning chain of 2 then *HDC into 1st ch and 2 HDC into the next* Until the round is done

Make a turning chain of 2 then *HDC into next 2 chs and 1HDC into the following* Until the round is done

This made a circle about the size of the bottom of my water bottle, you could do more rounds if yours is bigger.

Then I started the body, I'm not sure how to explain this next part. Instead of crocheting into the Vs that you usually go into, I crocheted into the "legs" of those Vs so the crochet would move upward. I did a round of that in SC.

For the next rounds: DC around and around until you have the desired height. If you get bored of DC do a few rounds in HDC. End it off in a round of HDC, but don't break the yarn.

Make a turning chain and SC 6 chains to start the handle. Alternate rows of SC and DC until you have the length you want for the handle. Use Slip Stitches to join the handle onto the opposite side of the holder. Break yarn and weave in ends.

Filling in some holes

2008-03-25T19:56:00.003-04:00

I've been doing some work on this free form baby blanket for Penelope. The blanket is not going to lay flat. It has an interesting shape since most of the pieces are round and bumpy. My goal for this week is to fill in the bottom section. Next week, I'll try for the top half. The following week I should be able to get the sides. Then all I have to do is put a border around it. I do have 12 more weeks just in case that time line doesn't work. I'm sure I'll distracted by something and not stick to that schedule.

Feeling Successful

2008-03-24T13:31:00.003-04:00

I have done even more to the blanket and I plan on spending a few hours on it tonight. Maybe I'll put up a new picture later this week. I need to get some pictures developed from my camera first. I aslo figured out my publishing problems. I was using the wrong path to publish the singer site, so the information I was putting up was going somewhere else. I think the site looks really nice now, if you care anything about sewing machines you should check it out. www.singer500a.info. I set up some google anaylitics to watch the traffic and everything on my sites, its really interesting to see the things people type into search engines to find my sites. I haven't really figured out how to get people to click on ads but at least they are looking at my hours of work :)

More on the blanket and websites

2008-03-20T19:46:00.003-04:00

I crocheted all of the blanket pieces together. That took a few days, from now on I'm going to put it together as I make the pieces. It'll be less overwhelming that way. I should be working on this more but I keep getting distracted by my websites. I added another page to www.workingwithautism.info I also added another page to www.singer500a.info but when I published all of the pictures got corrupted and for some reason the links got screwed up. www.singer500a goes in twice before everypage even though the code doesn't say that. I'm really frustrated with it. Maybe Schwa can figure out what is going on with it when he gets home.

It's all good

2008-03-17T18:14:00.002-04:00

I went home and found almost all of the files I needed to repair the websites I deleted. Some information was lost but it could be recreated. My www.singer500a.info was still in frontpage so it just had to be re published. www.creepypa.info only had a page sitting around but Schwa put most of the stories in Word, so they just had to be copied and pasted. All of the photos were in a folder, so they just had to be put onto pages. I added more things, more photos, more pages and it gave me ideas for more pages. Some of it is still a work in progress, I just wanted to get it up so I can work on it here in the mountains from the laptop. www.workingwithautism.info also has some improvements and one new page. Schwa says many of the pages have too much information, so maybe I'll break those up into different pages. I really want to work on my blanket for Penelope though, I have only a few months to go.

OH NO!!!

2008-03-10T20:24:00.002-04:00

Instead of just doing my crochet like I had planned, I decided to spruce up my Autism site. All of my other websites are subdomains of the workingwithautism.info and when I published my changes I stupidly deleted everything else. So a few pages of the autism site were lost and the entire sites of creepy pa which took forever to set up, all of the singer site and the tattoo site. It's all gone since I didn't save anything to disks. Always remember to back up your work on disks, I knew that and ignored that. I have recreated all of the lost Autism pages plus made a new one but I'm afraid to hit publish because I don't want to screw anything else up. I'm not sure what is left to destroy but it seems lately I'm just out to destroy things, lives, whatever you can hand me I can destroy it. Maybe tomorrow, I'll get around to crochet. I'm almost in my 3rd trimester so I really should get cracking.

Some whole foods info

2008-02-27T16:01:00.002-05:00

A while ago I posted the whole foods diet I was following. I still try to eat mostly whole foods, it makes me feel good :) I found some very interesting stuff about some foods and how they relate to the body. It is also interesting that during this pregnancy, I have been craving avocado.

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function. Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.Eggplant, Avocados and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them). Latin name is TESTES!!!!!Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries Grapefruits, Oranges , and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts. Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eye

a few more pieces

2008-02-23T13:34:00.002-05:00

I'm up in the mountains now for a while living in this all white apartment. (no more green rug to take my pictures against). I've been making a few freeform pieces for this blanket after the baby goes to bed. I think this is going to look really nice once it's all stitched together. I'm not really looking forward to all of that sewing, I'm not sure if I should just crochet it together somehow. I'd love feedback on what to do.

Doing Some Things

2008-02-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

I have finished some more of my baby blanket. My plan is to make two more pink flowers for the sides then fill the rest of the space in with black flowers and maybe black butterflies (we'll see). Then I'll sew all that together and make a pink border around the edge, then maybe a black border. My vision is always changing. The surface crochet on the heart looks really neat, I might add surface crochet to other pieces.

Also the website we were working on is up! There were a few errors with links in the begining but I've fixed it up a few times. If you check it out let me know if you see any problems. The site is http://www.creepypa.info/ its all about different abandoned places in PA, such as Pennhurst (an insane assylum) , Nuke Town (an abandoned town near the Limerick Power Plant), Centralia (an abandoned town over a mine fire) and Forest Park (what is left of an old amusement park).

With 3 days

2008-02-08T11:45:00.000-05:00

I've had three days home from work now. I haven't knitted, crocheted, painted or drawn anything but I have gotten alot of extra sleep and am close to finishing a website that we started a long time ago. Hopefully by next week some time the Creepy Pa site about different abandoned places I have visited with my husband will be done. It is massive so I'm sure there will be plenty of errors to sort through after launching.

More time more energy?

2008-02-05T18:33:00.000-05:00

My doctor gave me a note saying I should stay home from work and rest. I never plan on going back to that crazy stressful job. Maybe now I can rest, get more energy and have more time to do things. We'll see.

First two pieces

2008-01-30T12:17:00.001-05:00

I've made the first two pieces of my baby blanket. The one is done in a puff stitch the other is done in the popcorn stitch. My camera flash kind of hides the stitches, but I think it has a fun texture for a baby to play with. My original intention was to make different squares but these shapes are more freeform so I'm going to go with it and make a bunch of these pink freeform pieces then go in between with black. I think I can pull it off.

A baby girl

2008-01-28T18:34:00.000-05:00

I had an ultrasound this weekend. The technician said it should be a girl. I'm so excited. After I had lunch, we went out and bought some yarn. Tonight I will be starting a pink and black checkered blanket for her. I'm thinking about using the popcorn stitch for the pink and some kind of flat and fancy stitch for the black. Then probably a shell border. This is just an idea we'll see how it evolves.

David needs some cheering

2008-01-21T18:11:00.000-05:00

My Friend David Gerbstadt

was riding his bike somewhere in Florida. He got hit by a bus and a car. He was bleeding pretty badly but had enough consciousness to hold his leg to stop the bleeding. The artery was severed and he needed a few blood transfusions. They almost had to amputate his leg. He went a few days without his glasses, so he was unable to see. I'm sure that was pure hell for him. His life is art and creating, it has to be torture to not be able to do anything. I was thinking that if you read this, you should check out his website of artwork www.gerbstadt.net. His stuff is very reasonably priced, it would probably cheer him up to get some business or even to get some e-mails through his site. Those two pictures up top are some of his work that he left out on the street for passers-by to take. He's cool like that.

Felting is fun

2008-01-16T18:46:00.000-05:00

I tried my first felting project last night. It was so much fun, I think I will do a felted purse or something next. If anyone has a cool pattern, let me know. The thing that I made last night is going to be a gift for someone so I'm not going to post a picture and ruin the surprise for her. I kind of made up the process as I went based on a paragraph I read from one pattern and a memory of some tv show in which a girl felted a hat. So it was a surprise to me when it turned out so well. First, I did the crochet portion (making the pattern up, as I went along) with some wool yarn. Then, I put it a a big bowl of hot soapy water swished it around and roughed it up as much as possible. Occasionally, I would take it out of the bowl and just rough it up in my hands. After it no longer looked like a crochet piece and it looked like a piece of felt, I ironed it dry on the wool setting. Once it was dry, I cut the extra strings off and did the sewing part. It was pretty simple and fun. When I first saw the process on that crafty tv show, I thought it looked like fun but it also looked intimidating. Now that I've tried it, I want to do more.

Scarf is done

2008-01-15T17:45:00.000-05:00

I finished this a few nights ago but I couldn't find my camera until today. I really like how it turned out. I followed the scarf pattern almost exactly. It was a good pattern. I have been wearing this scarf all week. With all the scarves I have, I think I could wear a different one everyday for almost a month. It would just take the effort of going through my closet. There are ones of all different colors, I could probably coordinate with every outfit. Not that I'm wearing a huge variety of outfits with this big belly and chest I've got growing now.

Painting

2008-01-10T18:35:00.000-05:00

Last night, I started the ink portion of my painting. Tonight, I painted it up. It's of a terribly painful and funny moment from my life that I will not explain. I used to make 2 or 3 of these kind of paintings a week when I was in college to get all of the crap out of my head. I'd bring them in for my one class, in which we worked independently then brought in work for the group to critique. Everyone would hang their work, say a bunch of things about the significance and inspiration of their work. I would hang it and just say if it was finished or still in progress, my favorite thing was to listen to the interpretations people would give. Most of the time they were way more interesting that the actual meaning. I miss that class. When I open up an art center, I will have a class just like that. But for now, I'll just say this piece is finished.

Not Much Progress

2008-01-07T18:18:00.000-05:00

I've added a few inches to that keyhole scarf I'm working on. Knitting is a lot slower than crochet but I think it's prettier so I will do it. Being pregnant makes me tired so I haven't been working as hard as I usually would. Some weird things have happened to me recently that make me want to paint again. I think I will break out my watercolors this week and see what happens. I have a good amount of canvas boards that are yelling for acrylics as well. Hopefully I'll have something to show you later this week.

New scarf

2007-12-31T10:27:00.001-05:00

It's time to get into knitting again. I got a knitting pattern book and some really nice yarn for Christmas. This scarf has loops to stick an end through. It will be a short scarf. I'm using #4 needles so it will take a good amount of time to finish. So far it is about 12 inches long and I've been working on it for maybe 4 or 5 hours.

Sweater kind of fits

2007-12-31T10:05:00.001-05:00

Heather was wearing three shirts, so the sweater I made her looks tight. I had to help her take it off but it wasn't scary and trapping like when I tried to wear it. It will fit her with just one shirt underneath. The neck is really screwy looking. In a while I'll try another sweater and maybe the neck hole will turn out right. I made a sweater for Schwa and the neck is way too big, I have a fear of tight neck holes.

Christmas Ornaments

2007-12-20T18:08:00.001-05:00

Even though I was feeling very sick yesterday, I stayed up and painted these ornaments for my close co-workers. This Snowman one was my favorite, the snowflakes are very textured. They were very hard to photograph since I used metallic paint. These were the best shots.
This Christmas tree ornament is my least favorite of the bunch. The lady I made it for is always wearing those tacky sweaters with all the reindeer and lights and sequins. She's a very nice lady but has that crazy fashion sense.
This angel ornament looks better in life than photograph. It was for my boss, she only likes the religious aspect of Christmas. I am also going to make my mom an angel ornament, but different from this one.
This is the back of the Christmas tree one. I wrote Merry Christmas on each of them, this was my best lettering.

This elf ornament also looks better without all the glare. I really like the way this one turned out. The lady I made this for is the biggest goof ball. One day we were checking e-mails next to each other and she wanted to show me this video of elves farting some Christmas song. She laughed so hard then she watched it three more times. I thought about making this elf farting but I couldn't bring myself to paint something so ridiculous.

I don't know if I'll work on the rest for my family tonight, but once they are done I'll post them. Then my gifts are done being made.

Finished Sweater

2007-12-17T18:20:00.000-05:00

I finished this sweater for my sister last night. When I tried it on, I got really freaked out that it would have to be cut off of me. Heather is about 20 pounds lighter than me so it should fit just fine on her. She said she might have to work when our family is meeting for Christmas. I hope that's not true, I'm excited to give this to her and I don't want to have to wait even longer. I'll put up a picture of her wearing when I get one. Now I'm off to finish many other Christmas presents. Way to wait until the last minute.

Recycled plastic bag

2007-12-15T15:50:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on the sweater for my sister but it's nothing to take a picture of just yet. I have started a bag made from plastic shopping bags. I took four bags and ironed them together two at a time. I did this twice, then ironed the two sections together. Then I ran out of plastic bags. Usually, we have tons of them but we dropped them off at the recycle bin last week. It's kind of silly, I'm just making a reusable shopping bag out of the "throw away" ones. Once I have some more under my kitchen sink, I'll iron them together, then use my singer 5ooa to sew it up and make it look fancy. I probably won't get to this this week since I should finish the sweater by Sunday when I'll see my sister and I also need to start the thing I am making for Schwa. He has been pretty busy with his latch hooking. He is going to start a blog about that. When he gets its going, I'll add a link so you can check it out.

One sleeve down

2007-12-10T17:35:00.001-05:00

This sweater will definitely be done in time for Christmas. I finished up the first sleeve last night. Of course I had to change the pattern because I cannot follow any one's directions. I will take some close up pictures later, there is some fancy edging along the cuff, I will also add fancy edging to the neck and waist. I sure hope it fits my sister.

Growing tiny sweater

2007-12-05T17:54:00.001-05:00

The body of my sweater is now finished. I didn't understand what dc2tog meant so I think I made it up. I had instructions for the stitch but they made no sense. I have started the sleeves, they are worked in sc so it will take longer to make them. I have about four inches of one done. The next part of the pattern says Shape Cap. What does that mean? If I were making a hat, it would make sense but not a sweater. Let me know if you understand that term.

Goofy Auctions

2007-12-03T18:47:00.000-05:00

There is this site http://www.goofyauctions.com I was checking it out and it amused me. Maybe it will give you a laugh as well. You can find things like chips or pancakes that look like celebrities. On Page 2 there is a really funny picture of a man catching a balloon. You have to see his eyes.

Anyway, my sweater is getting much longer but it will definitely be for my tiny sister. I'll post a picture tomorrow once the entire body is worked.

My sweater

2007-11-28T18:02:00.000-05:00

My V Stitch sweater is starting to look like something (a mini-skirt) so I figured I'd put up a picture. My flash really changes objects' colors. The yarn is actually purple. I'm starting to think this will never fit me and I should give it to my little tiny sister. We'll see.

Trying a sweater

2007-11-26T19:36:00.001-05:00

I started crocheting a sweater, its done mostly in V stitch, so it is pretty easy. I'm pregnant now so I'll probably have to wait for next fall to wear it since I'm making it for my small body measurements. I only have 6 rounds done, so its not much to look at yet. When it looks like something I'll put up a picture.

Psychedelic knitting

2007-11-15T18:11:00.000-05:00

It may be time to start knitting again. Over a year ago, i started knitting a psychedelic square "patchwork" knitted quilt. You can check out the my baby nursery link on the right and go to the baby blanket section to see a picture and my pattern. This blanket is a lifetime commitment that i think I'm ready to take on again.

A finished hat

2007-11-13T18:16:00.001-05:00

Oops, I posted this blog on a different blog last night when I meant to put it here. I'm so confused lately! This weekend I finished the hat I started a few weeks ago. I just haven't been spending any time crocheting or knitting because I'm so exhausted from life. Of course I changed the pattern I was following. I did not stripe the hat because the yarn I was using was interesting enough without stripes. I also did more rounds because I wanted it to cover my ears. It ended up being too loose with 55 chains around so I had to reduce down to forty something in the last rows with an hdc instead of the dc that the rest was made in. While making this hat, I was also trying to teach my friend Rosalynd how to crochet the same hat. She was intoxicated for part of her construction as well as being left handed. So it was tricky to teach her. She must have switched her gauge or something between rounds. She decided it wasn't worth continuing, I agreed. So Milo is wearing her crazy little doll hat.

Busy me

2007-11-05T18:12:00.001-05:00

I have been busy with life and not crochet. This weekend I am planning on working on my hat, hopefully I will finish it and be able to put up a picture. I also learned about a cool way to recycle plastic grocery bags. Hopefully I will get around to doing something with that soon. I just want to quit my job and have time for life. Stupid needing money and insurance.

Finished Skull Purse

2007-10-17T18:29:00.000-04:00

Here it is, my crocheted skull purse. I started out making a crochet potholder but it evolved into something much bigger. I am in the process of making a hat to match it. I'm tired tonight and still have some house work to do after blogging, so I most likely will not work on the hat tonight. But I think I have a friend coming over to crochet with on Friday, so Maybe it'll get done then.

Skull Purse is Done another hat is on the way

2007-10-13T14:17:00.000-04:00

I can't find my camera right now or I'd put a picture up. My skull purse is pretty much finished, I need to add a fastener to the top but the liner is in. I did that with my singer 500a, that is an awesome machine. I put cat scan films along the sides and bottom to sturdy up the post. The singer 500a went through it like it was nothing!What a great free machine. I had a few people over last night to try and crochet some hats, nobody finished one (we are all beginners) so we will be having another hat making night. I guess when I am in my 30's I'll be able to whip out hats in one sitting. I completely messed up the pattern I was following because I confused hdc for dc, then the pattern called for sc but I used hdc because I didn't want to go dc to sc, that would look strange. So, I guess the hat will be done in fewer rows than the pattern instructs. We ended up playing the Garfield Board Game my husband found at a thrift store to sell on EBay. It is such a fun game, hopefully it sells for a lot because I really don't want to let it go.

AWW MAN

2007-10-08T18:34:00.001-04:00

I only need to finish the handle of my skull purse but I hurt my wrist on Saturday. I might be able to get a few rows in but I think I should just put it off until next week and save my wrist power for Friday night hat making.

A hat in under 4 hours

2007-10-04T18:22:00.000-04:00

I heard that hats can be crocheted in one night. So I decided I should have a crochet a hat evening. On Tuesday, I tested this out on my knitting/crochet night to make sure it was possible. I got 12 rows out of 19 done in one night along with trying to teach a friend how to crochet and read a pattern (she didn't get very far). The other 7 I finished last night, in total I think it took 3 hours and 45 minutes to crochet the hat. It's kind of a goofy hat, so if you want it, happy birthday to you. (Angela was the lucky winner of this hat, so it is not up for grabs anymore) I didn't have time to go out and buy yarn, so I just used some yarn from my crazy yarn basket. The pattern called for an H hook. Of course I changed the pattern as I worked it (I'm a control freak I guess). Here is my updated pattern.

Starting with the center top of hat, chain 5. Join the chain with a slip st so that you have a ring. Chain 2 and count this as first st on first row.
ROW 1 Work 9 hdc in the ring (or you can use a single or double crochet st depending on the yarn and what effect you want to achieve). Join last st to first with a slip st and chain 2 which makes the first st of row 2.(chain 2 will be 1st st on each row).

ROW 2 Work one st in same st as joining st, then 2 st in each st around.Join to top of chain 2. (End all rows by joining to the top of chain 2)

ROW3 Chain 2, one st in first st, two sts in the next st (increase by one st every other st. Do this all the way around). Join as in row 1.

Row 4 Chain 2, crochet around making 2 sts in every 3rd st (increase made), one st in the st in between.

Row 5 Chain 2, increase ( 2 sts) in every 4th st around.

Row 6-8 Chain 2, increase ( 2 sts) in every 5th st around.

Row 9 Decrease every 3rd st by skipping each 3rd st. Crochet in all others around.

Row 10-11 Hdc in every st around.

Row 12 Hdc around, Increase in every 5th st around. (2 hours 20 minutes)

ROW 13 14 Hdc in every st around.

ROW 15 Repeat row 9.

Row 16 Hdc in every st around.

Row 17 Hdc around. Decrease every 5th st by skipping each 5th st around.After joining with slip st, do not make a chain 2 stitch.

Row 18 Hdc around. Decrease every 5th st.

ROW 19 Shell Border: Make 5 hdc in next st Skip a st, slip st in next st.*Skip a st, make 5 hdc in next st, skip a st, slip st in next st.(Repeat from asterik around.) Join; cut yarn; tie off; weave tail into hat so it doesn't show.

more progress :)

2007-09-27T18:58:00.000-04:00

If you have been following along, you know that I have been crocheting this Skull purse (it started out as a potholder but I didn't check my gauge). It is my 3rd crochet project since I have taught myself to crochet. It is so much faster and easier than knitting. I have crocheted the bottom and the one side, all I have to do is the other side and the handle and the lining. This is exciting. I'm really not sure if I am going to use it myself, I keep going back and forth on that. Maybe next week it will be done. It would have been done this week but I decided to have drama in my life instead of quietly crocheting.

See The Turtle of Enormous Girth On its Shell he holds the Earth

2007-09-26T15:53:00.001-04:00

I finally finished Alysen's painting. Due to pregnancy it took almost two years to finish. So the idea had so much time to evolve. When I couldn't paint, I would sketch different versions of this. One version had overgrown cities, that was my second choice. I am very happy with this final product, if I would have had Alysen model, the clothing would look better but she wanted to be surprised. So I worked from photographs (I know that is cheating). That is Alysen riding the horse, she is really into horseback riding.I call it "See The Turtle of Enormous Girth On Its Shell He Holds the Earth". That line is from Stephen King's Tower books (my favorite books). The phrase is scratched into the clouds but it is only visible from certain angles. I should be giving it to her soon, I hope she likes it.

Skull purse and Alysen's Painting

2007-09-25T18:45:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update: I have finished the bottom of the bag, I just need to do the sides/handel. I don't have to work tomorrow so I will be finishing up a painting that I started for a friend over a year ago but couldn't finish because I got pregnant and couldn't work with oils. I'll put up a picture then, I'm so excited :)

I Doser

2007-09-22T12:51:00.000-04:00

I watched this video on you tube about this I doser music that is supposed to make you feel high or intoxicated. This is a relly strange thing, I don't know if it is power of suggestion or something but when I listened to it, I actually felt really warm, tingly and dizzy. I might be a little hung over from last night though. Check it, tell me what you think.

2007-09-19T20:30:00.000-04:00

Yea! The back of my purse is finished! It only took me 20 minutes to do these cross bones in surface crochet. I think it turned out pretty well even though it is a little off center. I am all out of the black yarn that I used, so hopefully Milo is up for yarn shopping tomorrow. Usually I am more prepared but this started out as a potholder and has evolved into a bag. Once I have the black yarn that I need, I am going to make one long rectangle of black and red stripes to work as the bottom, sides and strap of the purse. I think I will be finished by next Wednesday, including the liner that I will sew into it.

Cross bones it is

2007-09-19T18:31:00.000-04:00

I have decided to do cross bones on the back of my bag but with just surface crochet. They will be just outlines, mostly because I couldn't find a good cross bones pattern and I was having a terrible time drawing one out. I think free hand surface crochet will be the way to go. I'll post a picture (tomorrow maybe) if its good or if its a complete failure. Wish me luck!

Surface Crochet is really cool

2007-09-15T20:08:00.000-04:00

So I was reading about surface crochet on another blog (http://monstercrochet.blogspot.com/), she was talking about how to clean up the yucky edges of crochet images. While trying to work out the back of the purse, I decided to use surface crochet to clean my image up. I really like how it turned out. On the right side of my blog, is a poll about what I should do to the back of my purse. Please help me out and vote.

Further progess on Skull Purse

2007-09-14T18:34:00.001-04:00

Wow, I don't know what I did wrong but this is way too big for a potholder. I'm glad I already decided it was going to be a purse. It measures something like 12" X 10". This picture is really cool, the face looks like it is glowing. My friend Alysen suggested that I put cross bones on the back side, I think that is a great idea but the bones are really hard to draw out on the graph paper. If I can't draw them tonight, I am just going to do one bone straight across.

On another note, I am still on my whole foods diet but I had a piece of banana bread at lunch (I have no idea what it was made of).

Skull purse (not potholder)

2007-09-13T16:04:00.000-04:00

This is the start of my skull purse. I am excited that it is turning out so well. It is the first image I have ever crocheted. It's way easier than intarsia with knitting but it doesn't look as clean. I hope to finish off the head tonight. I'm still debating on whether or not to make a skull on the back of the purse as well, should it be the same or should I reverse the colors? Or should I just do a black panel. The sides and straps are going to be black and red stripes. I'd love feedback.

Lesson Eight: Publishing a subdomain with Front Page

2007-09-09T20:29:00.000-04:00

Schwa and I are trying to do some websites, he learned and is working with a friend on some sites, and we are doing some on our own. We have Front Page, which is a pretty outdated program, so there are some weird things to figure out while using it. The first page (www.workingwithautism.info) went up easy enough, after we learned all the code stuff. Then when we went to publish the second one (www.singer500a.info) it overtook the first one. When we tried to fix it, both of the sites becae forbidden. So it you ever want to publish more than one site to one host using Front Page there are a few things you must do before hand. First set up a path to your second domain in your hosting account manager. Just give the path the name of your site. This will take about an hour to activate. Next, when you go to publish your second site publish it to your first siteaddress/path name. It is really simple once you know. I had to call tech support twice to figure it all out. So hopefully I save you the trouble of making those calls.

Crochet Corset Belt

2007-09-09T20:18:00.000-04:00

I finished the crochet corset belt (from the Happy Hooker) yesterday. This may be the first pattern I have ever followed without changing it. I'm pretty happy with it. Tonight, I started making the skull pot holder from the Happy Hooker. 4 rows into it, I have decided to turn it into a purse, it just way too big too be a pot holder. It is a pretty simple pattern, so I should finish that up pretty quickly. On Tuesdays, I usually get together with some girls for a knitting/crocheting night, hopefully they will meet at my place this time. Last time we met at my friend's house and she was really worried that my baby was going to puke all over her house. He goes to sleep around 6, so its just easier to have people here, then I can put him to bed and no one has to worry about getting puke on their couch. He just cut two teeth today! Poor guy, how crazy is it to have your first two teeth come at the same time?

On another note, I am still continuing my whole foods diet but I am not going to write my daily menu since no one has written that they are following it with me. I have lost about 6 pounds, it feels good to be back to my pre-baby body.

Crochet corset belt and summer blues

2007-09-07T19:39:00.000-04:00

I am sick now, school has started back up and I got infected by the new kids. It is no fun and I am feeling down. Going to work has been hard for me. I don't get to work with the boy I've been with for two years, instead of with a new no fun kid. My baby is almost six months old and I feel like I'm missing too much of his life. He goes to bed around 6 or 7 so I only get about 3 hours with him and he gets cranky around 5 :( Today was funny though, he is starting to get a tooth and he was being all fussy. I headed towards the kitchen to get him a bottle, he started whining so I turned around with my arms spread out and he started laughing like crazy. So i kept doing silly walking towards and away from him and he laughed harder than I have ever heard him laugh.
It's been three years since, I've been camping and I didn't make it to the beach this summer. Living in the suburbs, I don't get much fresh air. I am a water sign and sometimes it feels like I'm dying if I don't get fresh water on my skin, so I am probably just sick because the summer is ending and my skin hasn't been correctly hydrated.
Besides all that, I am working on a crochet corset belt. It is almost finished and it is going very well, I will post a picture in a few days.

Whole Foods Diets day thirteen

2007-09-07T19:34:00.000-04:00

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast hot tea, and Puffed wheat cereal with soy milk
Snack water and a peach
Lunch left over 5 Different kinds of rice mix with roasted butternut squash and a kiwi
Snack soy milk, a few handful of pretzels and some dried fruit/mixed nut mix
Dinner water and whole wheat pasta with broccoli

Whole Foods Diet Day Tweleve

2007-09-06T18:18:00.000-04:00

As I was making dinner last night, I went to throw away the papery peels from the garlic. When I push open the trash can a cloud of fruit flies came out into my face, they landed everywhere. The power cord to my phone was covered with fruit flies, my wine glasses on the shelf above the trash can were covered, the toaster was covered. I felt like I was covered with fruit flies, it made me twitchy and extremly creeped out. After shooing the imaginary flies off my face for ten minutes, I decided that it is really about time that we started composting. So I started a bin to collect all of the vegetable/fruit scraps instead of putting them in the trash I will put them outside in a compost heap. That will be good to spread over and into my gardens.

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast hot tea, and Puffed wheat cereal with soy milk
Snack water and a peach
Lunch left over beets from last night and a small piece of chocolate
Snack water an apple and some dried fruit/mixed nut mix
Dinner water and 5 Different kinds of rice mix with roasted butternut squash
Dessert whipped frozen pineapples

Whole Foods Diet Day Eleven

2007-09-05T18:16:00.000-04:00

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast hot tea, and Puffed wheat cereal with soy milk
Snack water and an apple
Lunch left over stir fry from last night and a chocolate chip scone (my boss was kind and bought for me, so how could I refuse?)
Snack water and some dreid fruit/mixed nut mix
Dinner ice tea and roasted beets with onions, garlic, carrots, and a side of sauteed beet greens
Dessert whipped frozen pineapples

Whole Foods Diet Day Ten

2007-09-04T20:54:00.000-04:00

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast hot tea, and Puffed wheat cereal with soy milk
Snack water and an apple
Lunch water, pineapples, and cucumber, daikon and onion in vinegar with dill
Snack water and a cookie
Dinner ice tea and stir fry with onions, garlic, broccoli, corn and peas
Dessert banana chips

Whole Foods Diet Day nine

2007-09-03T19:56:00.000-04:00

I am really enjoying this whole foods thing. I noticed that I lost 3 pounds this week and i think Schwa has lost some too. If you haven't tried this you should. Also, I haven't filled up my trash can yet, usually it is full on Sunday, but its Monday and it hardly has anything in it but fruit flies, we should really compost the waste cuts and I think we would have no trash at all! Today, I rode my bike for a half hour and walked for two hours.

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast hot tea, potatoes and onions with hot sauce and Puffed wheat cereal with soy milk
Snack water and handful of nuts
Lunch water and hot potato, soy bean and cucumber salad ( I added too much miso, so it was way salty)
Snack water and spicy chanuchar
Dinner water and Corn on the cob, quinoa with red onions, garlic, tomatoes and basil (all of the vegetables except the onion were straight from the garden and a local farm YUM)
Dessert frozen whipped pineapples

Whole Foods Food Menu day seven and eight

2007-09-02T21:34:00.001-04:00

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast water and Puffed wheat cerael with soy milk
Snack water and a mango
Lunch roasted acorn squas
Snack handful of nuts and water
Dinner Past primevaera (Iwent to a wedding)

Red means not whole foods
Breakfast Hot tea, White potatoes and onions and a cup of fruit
Snack sprite and a deviled egg (I went to a picnic)
Lunch Fruit punch salad and a roll
Snack deviled egg
Dinner water,Kasha, rice, peas and corn

Whole Food Diet Day Six

2007-08-31T18:35:00.001-04:00

I was asked about being on a whole foods diet while being pregnant, I have to say that I am not a doctor but I do know that you need an additional 300 calories a day to support your baby. While I was pregnant I was not on a whole foods diet but I was a vegetarian, and I tired to eat as healthy as possible for the baby and to avoid stretch marks. I ate almonds through out the day and usually had an extra apple. I also ate many pretzels but they are not a whole food. So, I have almost been on this diet for a week, it makes me feel very good to know that I am being kind to my body and not giving money to corporations that want to keep people, fat and apathetic.
Red means not whole foods
Breakfast Water and red potatoes and red onions with hot sauce (if you haven't noticed, this is my favorite)
Snack water and a handful of goldfish crackers and a handful of mixed nuts
Lunch Quinoa, corn and Lima beans and a glass of water
Snack water and a mango
Dinner water, rice, black beans, kidney beans, corn and red onions
Dessert pineapples

Crochet Flower Scarf

2007-08-30T18:30:00.000-04:00

This picture is a little wonky, but its the best one out of all the ones I took myself. This scarf only took a few weeks which is pretty fast considering I only worked on it for about an hour a day. I love the way it turned out, mainly because the first flowers are terrible and you can see the progression from terrible to correct. I didn't follow the pattern completely but if you want to make this here is my modified pattern.

Hook size K and a variety of yarns to match

Flower Type A (make 6)

ch 8 and join into a ring with sl st in first ch

Rnd 1 (RS) Ch 1, make 3 st in each sc, sl st in first st to join-24st

Rnd 2 Ch 1, *sc in sc, ch4, sk next 2sc* sl st to join in first st- 8 petals

Rnd 3 Ch 1, (sc,hdc,2dc,hdc,sc) in each petal, sl st to join in first ch. Fasten Off

Flower Type B (make 6)

ch2

Rnd 1 (RS) work 8 sc in second ch from hook, sl st to join in first sc-8st

Rnd 2 Ch 1 work 2 sc in each sc around sl st to join in first ch.

Rnd 3 Ch 6, sk next sc *dc in next sc, ch 3, sk next sc* sl st to join in first ch.-8 petals

Rnd 4 Ch 1 (sc, hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc) in each petal. sl st to join in first ch. Fasten off.

Leaves (make 4)

Row 1 Ch 12 turn

Row 2 Sl St into second ch, 2sc, 3 dc, 3 trc, 1dc, 1 sc, sl st in same st, turn and work the same stitches on the other side

Row 3 1 Sc, 1 dc, 3 trc, 3 dc, 2sc, sl st, Fasten Off

Sew all together

Whole Food Diet Day Five

2007-08-30T18:12:00.000-04:00

So I was thinking last night that in the near future children are going to start dying from obesity maybe before their parents die. There are so many sugars and fats in processed foods and for some children, that is all their parents feed them. These children are like the ducks that are force fed until their livers become swollen for foie gras, but in this case its their parents force feeding them out of pure laziness or ignorance. I wonder how many children and people will have to die before the FDA starts to regulate food? Or when will people rebel against the corporations controlling our food? I went back to work today and the faculty room was filled with cookies, sticky buns and other bad choices and it really wasn't that hard to say no. This diet is my form of protest, I hope you will join me.

red means not whole foods
Breakfast
Red potatoes and red onions with hot sauce, hot tea sweetened with a little honey
Lunch
Water, left over stir-fry from last night and a nectarine
Snack
water and a handful of mixed nuts
Snack
water, home made hummus and carrots
Dinner
water, Miso soup with bok choy, onions, mushrooms and corn

Whole Food Diet Day Four menu

2007-08-29T17:49:00.000-04:00

I did so good today :)

red means not whole food
Breakfast
water, red potatoes and red onions with hot sauce, The Baker (its whole food bread!)toast with smart balance spread
Snack
water, handful of mixed nuts, and a kiwi
Lunch
water, black beans, kidney beans, red onions, and lettuce with hot sauce on a tortilla
Snack
water and a nectarine
Dinner
water and stir-fry (red onions, garlic, daikon, carrots, broccoli, corn and tofu) over jasmine rice

Lesson Seven: Blogging is easier than publishing

2007-08-29T17:44:00.000-04:00

Over the summer I have been building a website (www.workingwithautism.info) about autism. I finally got it published today, it took a few hours of failed attempts. For some reason the internal links on my page had extra .htms and I didn't realize it because reading code is boring. If you ever publish a webpage make sure you check for that.

Side Note:I will be finishing my flower scarf tonight!!! I'll put up a picture tomorrow.

Whole Food Diets: Day Three Menu

2007-08-28T18:38:00.000-04:00

Red means not whole food
Breakfast
Arrowhead Mills Puffed wheat cereal with unsweetened organic soy milk, glass of water
Lunch
cucumber and carrots salad (in dill and apple cider vinegar) and kidney beans, black beans and red onions with balsamic vinegar, water
Snack
water, handful of nuts and a handful of banana chips (?)
Snack
free sample of rye bread and a sample of some sugary strawberry cake (I couldn't resist)
Dinner
Pomagranate juice, Lentils, peas and garlic seasoned with honey, cinnamon and lemon juice
Snack
Kiwi

Lesson Six : Threading the Singer 500a Rocketeer

2007-08-28T18:18:00.000-04:00

I figured I should post the threading instructions for the side slanting Singer 500a Rocketeer since I had such a dificult time figuring it out. Click on the picture of the threading instructions and you'll be able to see it better. Hopefully, I'll start another pillow or sewing project soon, I want to finish my scarf before starting something else.

Whole Food Diet: day two menu

2007-08-27T18:53:00.000-04:00

So, this is what I ate today. I was really hungry and made a few bad choices.
Red means not whole food
Breakfast
cup of hot lotus green tea 2 scoops of sugar no cream and an everything bagel with smart balance spread
Snack
water, nectarine, handful of mixed nuts and a handful of banana chips are banana chips whole food?
Lunch
Red potatoes with red onions and a cup of Sprite
Snack
water, a small piece of dark chocolate, and two handfuls of mixed nuts
Dinner
water, roasted beets and carrots with rosemary over Jasmine rice

Lesson Five: Crochet lossely and count your stitches

2007-08-27T11:15:00.000-04:00

My flower scarf is almost done and I finally made a flower (actually I made two!) with the correct number of petals. The reason I was screwing up was I was using the hook and yarn like I use my needles and yarn for knitting, I was working tightly and using my fingers to wrap the yarn. To crochet, it works so much better if you make your chain loosely and just use the hook to twist into the yarn then pull the loops through each other.

Flashback to the Amy Diet

2007-08-26T18:58:00.000-04:00

A year or so ago my friend was trying the South Beach Diet. She is over 200 pounds and is always talking about losing weight. I usually have trouble keeping weight on so we decided we would switch diets for a week to see if I could gain weight and she could lose weight. For one week we wrote down exactly what we ate everyday. We wrote up our diets and gave them to each other for the following week. I felt terrible eating my friend's diet, she eats an incredible amount of cheese, in fact it was so much cheese that I woke up one night with the taste of chedder in my mouth and had to brush my teeth again. I was tired and just felt bad so I started to cheat on this crazy diet and eat only half of what she told me to. At the end of the week we had our offical weigh in, I had gained half a pound and she had lost 2 pounds on the Amy Diet. There were things from my diet that continues to eat today, I kept nothing from her diet. So, I was thinking that if you are reading this and you happen to be overweight, you might be interested in being on an Amy Diet and try this whole food diet with me. I am not doing 100% whole food but I am 100% meat free. I will post up exactly what I eat. Leave a comment and let me know if you are tying this.

Red means not whole food
Breakfast
cup of hot tea 2 scoops of sugar no cream
cup of fruit (watermelon, honeydew, and grapes)
wheat toast with grape jelly
potatoes and onions with hot sauce
Snack
water
nectariane
Lunch
Kasha mixed with onions, garlic, spinach and baby portabella mushrooms
mug of chamomile and mint ice tea
water
Snack
water
a few handfuls of hot Chanachur
Dinner
water
black beans, onions, white rice, lettuce, and hot sauce on a flour tortilla

Whole Foods Diet

2007-08-25T13:19:00.000-04:00

I have decided to try a whole foods diet. I have been a vegetarian for about 8 years but I feel like I still eat too many processed foods. My belly is still a little big from being pregnant five months ago. It will be hard to cut out candy and perogies but I am going to try. For sometime, I will keep whole grain pasta and tortilla shells in my diet but I will try to slowly phase them out as well. Occasionally, I watch Christina Cooks and I have one of her cook books to help with some whole food recipes. If any are great or just worth trying, I'll post them here. Also, i am going to ride my bike to work when the weather is good, it should only take 10 or 15 minutes, its such a waste of gas driving there plus I could use the exercise. My current weight is 115 so I am not at all concerned with that.

Lesson Four: Limoncello is strong

2007-08-24T18:47:00.000-04:00

Last Night I had a board game party with some people from work. I am planning on being pregnant soon, so I decided this would be my last night of drinking before that happens. Someone brought over a bottle of Limoncello, I mixed it with some pomegranate juice, it was very sweet and easy to drink. Probably too easy to drink. We were playing Cranium and I could hardly read the questions, I tried sculpting a faucet but ended up laughing so hard that I cried. Somehow my team won. Everyone went home and we went to bed. I was feeling okay until I got into bed, that's when everything started spinning and I had to rush off to hug the toilet. I'm 26 years old, that is way too old to be puking up alcohol. This morning it was rough getting up with the baby at 6am, I fed him and then got sick some more. Thankfully Schwa was responsible and could take care of him while I slept the rest off. I went to sleep and had a nightmare that I went to see a movie with Lisa Simpson and some guys tried to force me to drink more Limoncello. I ran away, some robots jumped out of the movie screen and chased me up a tree throwing bottles of Limoncello at me. I woke up sweating. When I checked the bottle, I found out it was 60 proof. I can drunk off of one beer. Limoncello is too strong for me, now I know.

First Pillow

2007-08-22T20:38:00.000-04:00

This is the pillow I made on my Singer 500a. The picture is a corner of my pillow room, I hope to fill the bottom of the room with pillows.

Lesson Three: Get to know the Singer 500a Rocketeer

2007-08-22T18:18:00.000-04:00

A few years ago a woman gave me her Singer 500a "Rocketeer" sewing machine that folds into a table. It didn't come with a manual and my only experience with sewing machines was in 6th grade home economics. I put the sewing machine in my basement thinking, "I'll learn to sew as soon as my vacation starts". Time passed and I forgot about the Rocketeer. I got pregnant, then had the baby. Schwa built a new room in the basement and my stuff got moved around. Once I recovered from the c-section, I decided to build up my art studio and I rediscovered the Singer. It reminded me of the clothes my friend David Gerbstadt hand makes and I felt inspired to try making something on my own. I tried threading the machine but couldn't figure out where or in what direction to put the thread. I did figure out how to thread the bobbin up top by running the thread from the spool onto the metal bobbin case. I called up a friend who made a quilt for me, she asked what kind of machine it was and came over with some directions for it. I thought that was pretty amazing because I spent almost an hour searching for directions online. She showed me how to thread it and showed me how to use the different settings. I made a pillow for my pillow room. It actually was very easy to use. The only thing we couldn't figure out was how to reverse it. I could only reverse use the hand wheel but there must be another way that I'm missing. I'll post pictures of pillows or clothes that I make as i make them.

Side Note

2007-08-18T14:07:00.000-04:00

I just read last night that Rob Zombie has made a remake/prequal to Halloween. House of 1000 Corpses (also directed by Rob Zombie) is one of my favorite movies, so I am very excited to see how he handles Halloween. It should focus on Mike Myers' childhood and hopefully his time in the mental institution. I really only enjoy scary movies if they have pyschotic charecters and you can understand where they are comming from. (that's probably why I enjoy my job, I work with pyschotic children with Autism) I haven't been to the movie theater since Milo was born and it is very likely that I will not be going to the theater to see this one. Hopefully I can get it on DVD quickly.

Lesson Two: Don't act like you know more than the pattern

2007-08-17T11:30:00.000-04:00

Milo went to sleep, Big Brother came on (can you believe Dustin got kicked out?), I figured it was a good time to get out my crochet and give another flower a try. The center came out very well but when it came to making the petals, the pattern said *dc in next sc, ch3, sk next sc; rep from* I had failed at this the last 2 times, so I decided to just *ch6*, I probably messed up sk the scs too. The flower is lop sided and terrible so I will have to frog it and try again. If I would have just tried to follow directions, my scarf would be longer.

On another note, we might be buying a house today. Let's see what I learn from this.

First Time- Lesson one: Don't write in Hindi

2007-08-16T17:47:00.000-04:00

This is my first Blog. I don't have much experience writing but its my goal to learn as much as possible in this life. Within the first minute of writing this, I have learned not to type in Hindi. At first I chose that option without even realizing it.

I am on vacation until September, so now I am staying at home with Milo and Schwa. Being home with the baby all day long is exhausting. He is five months old today. It looks like soon he will be crawling. He can get up on his hands and knees and shake his body back and forth but he can't really go anywhere yet. I am still breast feeding him but he has started on some foods. Now, he eats oatmeal cereal, rice cereal, and squash. I made the squash, blended it up and put it in an ice cube tray. It seems crazy to buy the baby food in jars for 50 cents each when you can buy the whole squash for about $3. That is one of the reasons other than the health benefits, that I decided to breast feed. It seems crazy to buy formula when you can make the milk for free. I read that you burn 500 calories a day breast feeding, so that works out to about 50 calories per feeding. I lost my pregnancy weight pretty quickly, I think the breast feeding helped. At first he was eating just about every hour. That was painful, but once he learned to latch on the correct way and my engorgement ended, it wasn't painful anymore. I keep hearing stories about women switching to formula because they had too many visitors and were afraid or shy to feed their babies in front of an audience. I guess I'm lucky that I have two sisters that had babies before me and I saw them breastfeeding in many situations and in front of many people. There were times when I wanted to give up but I didn't just because I could talk to my sister about the trouble I was having and she could tell me how she got through it. We both had the same problem of having too much milk. She taught me to sleep with a receiving blanket folded up in my bra to stop soaking the bed when I sleep.

Milo goes to sleep early now, which gives me some time to work on things. I am trying to teach myself to crochet. I am working on a flower scarf from the book Happy Hooker. So far every flower is wrong, either it has the wrong amount of petals or the wrong amount of stitches so I can't fit in everything. I will attempt another flower tonight, hopefully I can focus enough to follow direction. One of the challenges is I am a knitter and crochet seems completely backwards.