Tatting! Yes!

Today, I finally allowed myself to something non-school related, since, this week, I finished my English abstract, History notes for the final, History Honors paper, and a few extra things. The only thing I need to do for the rest of the semester is study Algebra (not a big deal) and finish my English Honors paper (1 page left. Easy.).

Needless to say, I was going to be CREATIVE! First thing I did was finish an itty bitty, crochet doily.

Beautiful yellow thread that I got a while back but didn't allow myself to use until there were no more educational obligations. The pattern is, of course, from 99 Little Doilies, my favorite. I've been using a smaller hook than usual. After completing the pattern (I don't actually choose the pattern specifically, I just look for one with very few rows and surprise myself.), I realized that I had done the pattern before in red with a bigger hook and same size thread. Here's the size comparison. Ridiculous, right?! They both actually look fine, but I like the tight look that the small hook gives.

Then I worked on this little beauty. Another new thread. After beginning the pattern, which was again a surprise, I remembered that I don't like it very much because of all the open space on the outer rows. So I made up my own pattern for the last two rows, drawing on ideas from the yellow doily above. Turned out pretty cute.

After all that crocheting, I decided I was ready to tat for the first time in a while. Not only did I want to tat, but I wanted to design. Ceremoniously, I prepared the area.

Supplies: Thread, shuttles, findings, beads, buttons, notebook, a page of ideas that I so thankfully wrote out forever ago.

Decided on my colors and picked out coordinating supplies.

Sketched my idea. Not the prettiest drawing I've ever seen....

Used two shuttles, something I rarely do, which you can probably tell from my hideous ring. Not sure why there's such a big space. On both  sides, nonetheless. Step one of idea complete.

Threaded the loose threads with beads, then swung them over.

See how I put the picots in beads?? I've never done that before! I looooove how it looks. For so long, I saw it all over blogs and didn't know how to attempt it. Also, see that space? How do I avoid that? I have no idea what I did wrong. As for beads, how do you thread them over the picots? I just wet it and pinched it, then forced it through with a little effort. Pretty sure there's a specific way you're supposed to do it.

Final product! Ta-da! I'm hoping those spaces aren't too noticeable. I really hate that I couldn't even prevent it totally the second time around, so I just stretched the one okay-side to make it even(ha).

I'm working on something else tatted that is VERY cool. The first part is complete. Now i just need to perfect it. Will post this week.

:)

Cheating at Cake

Before I say anything else, thank you for the encouraging comments about my school situation! I promise to keep quiet about that for a while... Haha. :)

Today is my boyfriend's birthday. What do you get the man who has everything? I couldn't think of anything besides food, so that's the route I took. If you've met me, you know that I never. stop. talking. Not only that, but I've got a big mouth. With kindness in my heart, I make a lot of promises. Don't get me wrong, I always keep my promises, but I happened to promise said boyfriend that I would make him a birthday cake.

What!

"ANIKA!" I thought, "WHEN are you going to find the time to do that?!" Upcoming finals, exams, two research papers, a presentation. Time is ever-fleeting.

But then I remembered something I read on a blog post. You can buy undecorated cakes and pretend that you made them. Brilliant. That's what I did.

Mmmmm vanilla with buttercream frosting. I ordered it from Stater Bros. for only $8. The woman even made sure not to put a label on the box so I could pretend I made it.  

I got these at Joann. Everything was inexpensive, plus I had a few 50% off coupons. The pearl sprinkles are wonderful, but, just a warning, they don't feel too great on your teeth!

Just one problem. I forgot to get a Wilton tip set, so I had to figure something out at the last minute. 

I cut some plastic tips from the grocery store. They were dirt cheap and did the job fine. Came in a set of 4.

Almost started crying. That sooooo doesn't look good..... 

Some nice puffs around the edges. Looking better.

Black petals where I'll put the roses and cover my boo-boos. 

Placed the roses. Looking a ton better.

I put little pearls in the middle of each spiral. 

Then added a trim of black pearls around the edges. 

Voila!!! 

It turns out cake decorating is hard stuff. Not too bad for my first "serious" attempt. The spirals would have been much better if only I had remembered to get the correct tips, or, you know, actually knew what I was doing. 

For the actual meal, I made ceviche. 

Shrimp, green bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, green onions, parsley, cilantro, pepper. I had the shrimp "cooking" in lemon juice overnight. 

I don't eat this type of thing, so I was a little grossed out by the tiny creatures. 

Even though this isn't my thing, I know when something looks pretty! Hurrah! 

Side note: OH my goodness cilantro smells terrible! Why did no one ever tell me this? I have no problem working with vegetables or foods I don't like at all, but cilantro pushed me over the edge. I had to throw it out. I didn't even put a tiny bit in the ceviche. It doesn't smell rotten, more like money with an undertone of herbs. Strange. 

None of this exists anymore. The birthday-boy was very happy. According to him, the ceviche was delicious and the cake was both beautiful and delectable  I had a slice of the cake. It was very good. I didn't want to take credit for something I didn't do so I fessed up that cake and buttercream frosting layer was made by someone much more skilled than I. He didn't mind. 

Good day! 

My Money's Where My Mouth Is!

Nothing to report on besides this....

YES! I was driving myself nuts worrying about this exam, thinking I probably made a ton of mistakes. I did make mistakes, but I still got 96%. One percent more than I hoped for. 

This was the most difficult exam so far, according to my classmates. I guess studying really does pay off. I got the highest score in the class!

However, the 4% that I missed is due to silly (so silly!) mistakes. 3 points were missed total, out of 75. 2 of the points were because I forgot that the square root of anything is plus OR minus...... twice. And the last point was because my brain decided that -1-5 was 4. Silly me. I hate to think that if only I had gone over my work one more time I might have gotten 100%... *sigh*

Better luck next time!

Keeping from insanity. Crochet!

If you read my last post, you know that I am driving myself nuts. School is my number one priority, as it should be, but I've immersed myself in it to an enormous extent. My thinking is that I don't want to do this again. I've got to do my best the first time.

Turns out my history professor doesn't hate me. My Algebra exam went well. There were no problems that stumped me. A couple took some thought, but I was able to go back and complete them with confidence. I was almost sad when I finished. If only all of life's issues and troubles could be solved with Algebra. Maybe then I would know what the heck I'm doing. No results for that test yet, but I'll let you know. I've got to put my money where my mouth is, after all.

I haven't been doing much of anything otherwise except crocheting a little. I finished up TEN pairs of earrings today and listed them on Etsy. Yikes! I guess when I'm "unproductive", I'm pretty productive still. They've been a lot of fun.

I love the colors so much! Happy happy happy! Unfortunately, I won't be crocheting for a while. My hands have been hurting a lot lately to the point of having to stop what I'm doing a few times a day, so I've decided to take a break from fidgety projects. I've been wanting to start tatting again though.... 

This is what my free time will be composed of from now on, I suppose. 

Digital painting!!! Woohoo! I finally saved up enough to get myself a drawing tablet. I got the Wacom Intuos5 Medium. It cost a pretty penny (To a broke student), but it's worth it. 

I think there's a stigma surrounding digital art. Some view it as easy or cheating, but, after using it myself, that is sooooo not true. Sure, if you alter photos with it, that's darn easy on a tablet. Drawing from scratch isn't easy at all. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind, plus you lose hours of work in a split second if you mess up. Also, not sure if everyone knows this, most digital pieces take between 8 and 15 hours to complete if not more. Masterpieces can take months. I have a newfound respect for digital artists, and hope to get there someday myself. 

I drew that eye (My eye) from scratch. You can import a picture into a layer to trace, but I don't like doing that, so I just eyeball (hehe) it. Tracing is something I do feel is cheating, for me anyway. This took around 3 hours and is not 100% perfect. I'm getting there. You'd laugh if you saw my first pieces... 

Have a nice day! 

In which I talk about myself... Tiny Update. No Pictures.

This is what has been going on in my life lately for those interested:

For a while I was crocheting during lectures, but I decided to up my game and fully concentrate. School is ridiculous. I have two research papers, a presentation, and tons of Algebra homework. However, I would be lying to you if I said that I didn't enjoy math. That has been the major discovery of my college experience thus far: I love math! Who'd have thought? I got a 91%(ugh) on my last exam because I didn't study or particularly know what I was doing. It seems a little dramatic to say "ugh" about a 91, but the way I see it is that I was only a couple points away from getting a B. You can really only be happy about an A if you are safely in the "A range".

Another Algebra exam is on Wednesday. I have gone over every covered section multiples times. I'm challenging myself to get at least 95%. Also, this time I'm going to get a "distraction free environment" and "time and a half" because a doctor decided that I have ADHD. Not totally sure if I believe that, but I might as well take advantage of what I can get from it.

Speaking of math, after this semester, I have a week long break and then a 5 week, 4 days a week, 4 hours a day long Plane Trigonometry course (I am honestly excited). Followed by a similarly long American Sign Language course. Needless to say, best summer ever! Then back to the Fall semester nitty gritty.

Oh, and my History teacher totally hates me for the following reasons:

• She implied that she thinks I don't pay attention (I do!)
• I got an iffy grade on my midterm (It wasn't clear what we were covering....)
• I turned in my research paper draft 2 days late (This was my fault, I know. But I had it done. I just had written the wrong date in my planner. I also emailed her the exact moment that I realized what happened.)

Not to mention, she thinks my name is "uh-NEE-kuh". I would hate someone with that name too. It's "ON-ihhh-kuh", just for the record.

That makes me pretty sad, but I hope my research paper changes her mind about me.

That's about it. I only think about school. 24/7. I'm obsessed with good grades.

Who needs drugs when they can have As?

Okay, this nerd is out....

Awesome Walls, Messy Tatting, and Broken Heartstrings

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS UNBLOCKED TATTING.

I don't like posting unblocked tatting because it's just so messy, but sometimes it's a must.

Finally, I got out of my crocheting thing (for a little bit, I'm sure) and back into tatting, woohoo! Unfortunately for me, I have two projects in the works that need to be completed before I can move on. The first is this beautiful edging that I forgot about. It's really crumpled because I wrap it in the hanky and stuff it in the ball of thread for safekeeping. Not the best, but not terrible, right? This handkerchief was supposed to be a gift for my boyfriend last year. I'm sure he won't mind.

There's only one side completely done, but I'm making lots of progress since it's size 30.

Now, this is extremely disappointing. You know the Miracle Doily? Well, I'm doing it in size 80. Can you please please please tell me how to work with size 80 properly? It's so stressful. Always a struggle to close the rings, even if I let the shuttle dangle as long as it wants. I'm on the last (and very beautiful row) and THIS happened! GRRRR.

Tips would be SOOO appreciated. I have quite a few size 80 balls of thread and I'd like to actually enjoy working with it. I think the edging above is what upset me. The tatting is nice and smooth. No snags. Sticking to size 30, 40, and 50 after this.

Motifs are the definition of fun, especially square motifs! When I was dyeing thread, I had a lot of blank spots on my test skein, so I just threw some extra dye all over it, expecting something ugly. This was the product.

Pretty! It's strange, but nice. I think I misjudged my middle picots. Still getting back into the swing of it. I think it'd be interesting to someday do a mat made out of this patter, since the squares are so perfect.

Now, for non-tatting things.

I wrote my first crochet pattern. It's simple, but fun. I have it up for free on Ravelry, but I doubt that's of any interest in the tatting community.

My last, and most interesting, picture.

I'm working on jazzing up an old, messy house right now. It needs a lot of TLC, a little more than I feel up to every day. So for a little inspiration, I decided to create my special wall. It's an idea that I got from a picture a long time ago. It's always been in my head. I finally got to bring it to life.

I didn't zoom out more because the house is a wreck right now, but you get most of the wall in the top picture. It took a lot of tape, a little paint, and about 4 miserable hours. Before all the tape came off, I was almost crying because I saw it getting soggy and thought it would be ruined. But, voila! It surprised even me. The edges are jagged, but it adds to the effect so much, it's like I did it on purpose.

*sigh*

Midterm week and spring break are over. Didn't do too hot in history, it turns out. I expected that. I did, however, get an A on my Algebra midterm. My worst high school subject is now one of my best. Who'd've thunk?

Thanks for listening to my ranting and rambling!

Northern Lights and Spring Break!

So it's officially spring break. Last week, I had 6 midterms and one paper due. It wasn't actually all that hectic, as opposed to worrying. I don't think I did very well in anatomy or history, but everything else is good.

This week has been designated as cleaning/dyeing/gardening week. I need to get everything done NOW. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until summer!

To kick off spring break, I dyed a new color-way called Northern Lights:

I love how it came out! I need to tat a sample soon, but I already know it's going to be pretty. 

There are two more color-ways on the way. They aren't as pretty as this one, but they're sort of unique.

Pixie Dust and Evergreen

I finally (finally) was able to catch the sun for some pictures of this thread. I'm glad I waited. I got some nice accurate, clear pictures, and listed everything on etsy.

Evergreens.

Some very calm greens. It's a slow, smooth transition. 

Pixie Dust. My favorite!

It turned out soooo pretty. I only dyed size 20, so I guess I'll be trying my first crochet size 20 Doily soon. 

My latest doily. I didn't take a very good picture of it, but it turned out really nicely. It took a lot longer than the other ones because I didn't get too much crochet time this week. Too bad.. 

I started tatting my Miracle doily again. It's the last row, so I'm making a rule for myself: no new projects until the Miracle doily is done. 

Now I won't have anything new for a while. 6 midterms next week, therefore my weekend is wholly accounted for. 

Wish me luck! 

Josephine

Today, I picked up my newest (and last, for a long time) addition to my little animal family. I picked her out on Saturday at the pound and got to retrieve her from the vet today! She's a sweet little thing. She'll make a good dog.

There's just one issue.

She was hurt badly. Not by another dog or a car or anything. She was hurt by a person. And not only a person, but the person that was supposed to take care of her. I'm sure you're aware of the ear-cropping trend that been around for, oh, hundreds of years. It's slowly losing popularity due to conscientious owners and vets that insist it's not necessary in any way. Because of this resistance on vets' part, it's become pretty expensive at between $400 and $600. The cost drives some owners to just do it on their own; and that's what poor Josie's owner decided to do.

She has the sweetest face that should be framed by a pair of floppy ears, but, alas, they are gone forever. Her tail was also hacked off. Even more unfortunately, the neglectful owner's action were in vain. He/she threw her out onto the streets with fresh wounds that are still healing. Poor Josie! 

I truly wonder what the situation was. Perhaps they did a bad job and thought they would get charged with a crime so they just let her loose. Or maybe she was one of a litter of puppies that the breeder wanted to dress up for prospective customers. I hope it was the first one.

Josie weighs 12 pounds at almost three months old. My older pit bull, Delilah, weighed 16 pounds at two months. Who knows what this little dog has gone through, but she needs a lot of love, food, and joy. Yes, that should do the trick!

Now, on a less morbid thought, I dyed a couple more threads for my crocheting hobby:

I'm really excited to use the first one. It looks a lot prettier in person!

Fin.

School Doilies #7, 8, 9, & 10

Boy, have I been enjoying crocheting these little doilies. It's such a pleasant experience. Easy, quiet, fast. What's not to love?

It's especially enjoyable because I've been dyeing the thread that I've been crocheting with.

Here are some of my recent threads:

The pinks looks similar but they aren't. The middle one is bright pink and bright purple. The lower one is much more subtle with magenta and a lighter pink. What I've learned from crocheting with multi-colored thread is that if the colors are drastically different, the pattern will be difficult to see. That means that my current challenge is coming up with similar,yet interesting, colorways. Very fun!

Here are my doilies of the past couple weeks:

Done with the aforementioned purple and pink thread. See how beautifully the similar colors work with the pattern as not to be distracting? This is one of the bigger doilies in my new book. Love it! 

A smaller doily. Maybe 30 yards at most. The last row drove me nuts, so I made it up myself. No too shabby. 

Had a few leftover yards, so I did the first few rows of another little doily. It turned out to be beautiful. When my house is more organized, I might make several of these to use as coasters. 

Funny story about this thread. I found the skein and wound it up a few weeks ago. Then, while crocheting with it, I just kept thinking about how gosh darn pretty this thread was and how come I didn't make more. Then, one day, it hit me. My COUSIN dyed this. My 6 year old cousin dyed this gorgeous thread. I guess similar colors make good neighbors. 

This pattern is so pretty. I love the petals, but I hate the outside edge. It looks too messy. Eh. Better luck next time.

Side note: I rescued a puppy. I get to pick her up on Monday! Lots of pictures to come.