You're Saying it Wrong!

I've been trying and trying, but I've decided that the best thing to do is take another hiatus. I really don't want to, but I'm going to have a crazy month, so any posting I would do would be spotty at best. I just think it will be better if I'm not worrying about trying to post along with everything else. I'll probably won't be back until after the holidays.

Let's face it. She totally would have said it!

Coming Right Up!

Guess what I finished last night?

Yeah. That's right.

All four. Done. So guess what I'm starting soon(ish)?

Yes, I did get out all five needles. I figured that since I separated all five, I would keep all five separate. And I'm going to get something to put the beads in. Because that seems like a better plan than trying to get them out of that thing.

Unfortunately, I probably won't have any time to do things this weekend. I have a lot of stuff to do! :O But take a look at this:

I agree. And by the way, I guess Dudley has hung out with a lot of dementors! :)

Have a great weekend!

Hiss!!!

That's what Mr. Snake is saying:

You know, now that he has a mouth. What I'm doing for the background is going back and forth and doing half of each stitch, then I'll go back up and do the other half. It'll work, I swear!

Today's picture is a quote from The Half-Blood Prince:

This always makes me laugh! I especially love how Michael Gambon does it in the movie.

Au revoir!

Sirius, Lupin, and Mad-Eye

Two posts! In two days! It's a miracle!

Now that that's out of the way, I have these two pictures for you:

This was taken this morning,

and this was taken about half an hour later. I went fast.

 
Anyway, I am chugging away, and feeling slightly more confident on a Friday finish. (Excuse me while I go check and make sure it didn't just catch fire.) It all depends on how tomorrow goes.........

And now, the obligatory HP picture:

It's true. Enough said. (I cry every time I watch Dumbledore die.)

Good-bye!

Best Course of Action

Greetings, Earthlings! How about we pretend that I have posted every day this month, and that this post is super long because I did a lot, and not because I'm catching up? OK, here goes:

1. First up, an update on the HP cross stitch. I  think I already mentioned that I picked up the last color I needed, and I'm now done with the Hufflepuff!

Yay! I had already started the Slytherin, to save time, and here's what I have so far:

I just started filling in the curly stuff in the border. I'm not sure about a Friday finish, but I'm going to keep pushing through it!

2. I've also started planning for the rest of the pictures. This afternoon, I compiled the list of all the remaining colors I'll need. In total, I need to pick up 92 more (and that's without the Snitch, because it won't load). That's getting close to $40, so I've decided that my best course of action is to glare at my list and see if it shrinks.

3. I know I said this would be a long post, but I'm sort of out of stuff. All I've really been doing is cross stitching and real life stuff. I'm hoping everything clears up in the next week or two, because I really want to start my Wristers. I'm going somewhere cold for the holidays, so I'm gong to need them!

4. One last thing. Funny picture time!!!!

To be honest, I never really thought about that before, but it is a good point!

5. I lied. I have one more thing. At some point, I realized that the Hogwarts crest is just the four house emblems put together with some other stuff, right?

Well, sort of. Anyway, I was all annoyed with myself, because I really should have looked up the placement before I started, right? It turns out, I have it all right except for one thing. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are switched! It's so frustrating! And it's not like I can just switch them, since they're both done.

Bye!

      

Keys and Teapots

Despite my utter lack of posting last week, I've gotten some more done on my cross stitching:

I'm chugging along with it, and I'm still hoping for a finish by next Friday. And I mean done done, because I went to Michaels yesterday! I picked up a few things, including the last color I need for the center, and these charms:

Can you figure out the theme for these? Maybe this will help:

Yeah. I managed to find five completely unrelated charms at Michaels, and connect them all to Harry Potter. It's a talent. 

(I feel like I should explain those: the owl, the crystal ball, and the dragon are pretty obvious, and the key and the teapot are just weird. The key reminded me of the flying keys from the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone, and the teapot made me think of reading tea leaves. I know, I'm crazy.)

Have a great evening! :)

Huffle, huffle, achoo!

I made a lot of progress this weekend:

Yeah. I wasn't just saying that to look good. I actually did a lot of work on this one. Everything is done except for the 415 stuff and the backstitch that goes over it. Once I get that floss, I'll finish it up.

But wait, there's more!

Since the odds of me making it to Michaels and still finishing this by Thursday are really slim, I decided to start Slytherin:

That is enough to make up for what I missed, right? Anyway, I'll just keep working on this one, and hopefully I'll have gotten the floss I need before I finish it.

There was just one problem, though.

(And I remembered to take a picture of it! It's a miracle!)

One of those yellow stitches didn't get a second half. Inn my defense, they're kind of hard to see, but now I can feel it staring at me! I'm probably going to have to fix that.

Finally, I did a little bit of thinking (!) and I don't think I need to move any of the pictures around. The places where the crests stick up don't interfere with any of the other things, so it should be okay!

I am so doing this to my toilet!

PS

I'm not really sure what the title means, either. It just sounds cool.

What post?

OK, so I know I said I was going to have an awesome post yesterday, but I didn't. I had a few things that didn't go well, and by the time I would normally post, I made this guy:

look like the Class Optimist.

Anyway, I did actually cross stitch this weekend!

I think this was Saturday night.... maybe.

This is right now!!!!

My goal is to have this done by the 15th, and for the Slytherin one to be done by the 30th. I don't know if I can do it, but I'm definitely going to try! I did a lot of work on this while watching the election coverage, and other TV things. (I don't normally watch a ton of TV, but it very good for working on cross stitch!)

I am now going to show you how I am organizing my embroidery floss right now. I have six baggies:

that have bundles of thread in them. Each bundle has the label tied to it with the floss that has already been cut off. The bags are labeled by number:

and I just tole the numbers from the first website I clicked on. That's creativity, right there. As I get more thread, I may need to relabel them with smaller chunks, but this'll work just fine for now.

My other pastime for this weekend (well, not the only other one) was looking at funny Harry Potter icons. (If you're not a HP fan, you can stop reading now. Bye!) I'm going to put one at the bottom of my posts for a while, because they made me crack up laughing! Here's the first one:

I do actually like the Twilight Saga (cant wait for BD Part 2!) but I am loyal to HP! Have a great day!

Biscuits

The title really has nothing to do with what I'm posting about, I just like the word biscuits.

Anyways...... I'm just going to post this video for Harry Potter fans:




There's a lot of mechanics errors, but still kind of funny!

I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off, so you get an extra long post on Wednesday!

PS for Americans:
Don't forget to vote on Tuesday!

Roll Ups!

Um, no. Not fruit roll ups. That would just be weird. I kind of meant needle roll ups.

Anyway, I have been looking to see if I could find a better way to make my needle roll, and I think I'll do something like this. I probably won't use my original fabric:

because I don't have enough to make the pockets work. Tonight, my goal is to get all the fabric and such sorted out, so I can get started on this tomorrow or this weekend.

Does anyone else think this colonial Miracle Whip ad is really creepy?

More HP Distractions

I remember why I considered making a scheduled post for today!!! I should have done that, so instead, I have another Harry Potter video.




Hopefully I will post the pretty pictures of my bag (which have yet to be taken, of course) tomorrow.

Harry Potter in 99 Seconds

Distraction!!!




This is literally the coolest video ever! Watch it over... and over... and over again! See if you can find the Twilight reference!!!


I've been busy writing lists of cool links for you guys while I'm on vacation/helping my friend move. So far, I have one for tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. I'm not sure if I'm going to do ones for Monday and Tuesday yet.

Have a great day, and I'll talk to you sometime next week!

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie Recipe

My dad taught me how to do this, and I like it because there isn't anything bad for you in it. It makes one smoothie for someone pretty thirsty, or two for moderately hungry people. If you want to make it bigger, I suggest adding more strawberries and milk, not another banana.

Ingredients:

• one banana-this is a good way to use bananas that are just a little past their prime, but I don't advise using really nasty ones
• strawberries-I normally use about five, but it depends on the size
• milk
• ice cubes

Other Stuff:

• a blender
• a paring knife

Step 1:

• Cut the banana into pieces, about 1/2" thick. It doesn't have to be precise at all! I normally do this right over the blender.

Step 2:

• Rinse the strawberries and cut the insides out. All you want left is the stuff you want to eat. Then, cut them into small pieces into the blender. You should have about as much strawberry as banana, but you can mess with the proportions a little to get the best taste.

Step 3:

• Add a handful of ice cubes (five or six, I think), then pour in milk until everything is about covered. Err on the side of having to add more, because that's a lot easier than taking it out!

Step 4:

• Blend it up!

Step 5:

• Pour and enjoy! I have never tried making it in advance and putting in the fridge, but I don't see why that would be a problem.

I hope you love this recipe as much as my family does! Have a great day!

Little Fuzzy Thingies

I have little black fuzzy things on my carpet. They come from this:

A little throw pillow. With tassels. As it turns out, I hated them, so here's what it actually looks like:

Inside of it I put a little stuffing pouch, to avoid leakage through those little holes next to the cables. Once I had this brainwave (not that impressive, I know) I searched through my fabric, only to find I had no black. So I did what any logical person would do made up my own solution. A gray bandana! Covered in black Sharpie scribbles. Not even fabric paint. Sharpie. That's what I call "Classy." But it's done, so who really cares?

I am going to start this beret (Scroll down a bit. Just a little more. If you're at the baking, you've gone too far!) I actually already did, but I tried to do it on DPNs. Trust, me, it's a bad idea, and I hadn't even gotten to the increase section. So I'm biting the bullet, and I will go buy myself the right length circular needle. And I will make myself use it! What yarn, you ask? Funny you should mention it....

Look familiar? Yes, that is the very yarn that I had an internal (and Blog-wise) debate about whether I should return it. I decided I would, but then I realized it would make an awesome slouchy beret thing.


And now, your "Awwwww" moment for the day:

The cutest bunny ever! Or, one of them.


Just a note, I know the pictures in this post are worse than usual, and that's because I took them in the dark. It's a bad idea. I promise you that.

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone that is celebrating it today! I hope you get to do something fun like watch some fireworks! I'm about to head off to do that myself, and it should be pretty awesome.

I'll have a real post tomorrow. I promise. With a sugar filled cherry on top. (OK, that sounded cooler in my mind than on the screen, but I' posting it anyway!)

Yarn Math!

That doesn't even make sense; I mean yarn is amazing and math is just, well, alright. But I did have to do some yarn math for Branching Out:

The yarn I am using for Branching Out has very similar yardage to the Elsebeth Lavoid Silky Wool, so I'm basing my numbers off that. The pattern said those using the Silky Wool would get about 27 pattern repeats. Based on what I have now, that would give me a scarf about 55 inches long, which is a pretty good length. I don't think I need the other skein, and I have until August to return the it, so I'll just go through the first skein and see if I like the length. (OK, not sure that really qualifies as math, but whatever.)

Here's what I have so far:

4.5 repeats and 10 inches. I really like this pattern so far; after the initial ripping out, it's basically been smooth sailing! It is taking me a lot longer than a normal scarf, and  haven't been working on much else, but I did make a few things with the hot glue gun this morning:

I can't post a picture of the first thing, since it's my dad's birthday present, but I will after his birthday. If I remember. I also covered a notebook, but I'll show that tomorrow to go with my upcycled post.

These are completely upcycled wrap bracelets, made three different ways. I'll have a tutorial up for tomorrow's post! I burned two of my fingers making the two-tone one, and I'm typing using hunt and peck while I put ice on it. :)

I also covered a notebook, but I'll show that tomorrow to go with my upcycled post.

OK, so a summary. I have anther repeat done for Branching Out, I'm probably returning some of the yarn for Branching Out, I had way too much fun with the hot glue gun this morning, and  I'll have a tutorial for those bracelets up tomorrow. Have a great day!

Random Photo for Today:

My comforter had a rip in it (probably from cutting fabric on it) and I've been ignoring it forever, but I finally decided to fix it last week. After a year. Anyway, I sewed it up, and I noticed the stitch line looks a little bit like Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar. Freaky, huh?

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, and I hope you have a great day!

To my dad, I love you so much, and I hope your day is awesome too!

A New Breed Of Sheep

As a distraction from the lack of knitting and crocheting, I have a new breed of sheep: LED Sheep! This is an awesome YouTube video that I saw, and watched over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.




Enjoy!

Happy Earth Day!

This is a neat video from Mother Nature Network, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Obviously, it's a bit outdated, but it's still kinda cute and interesting.

Crown Roast of Pork Day? How about some music?

I don't get it either.... Go read about it here. Or don't. I don't really care. How about instead, let's have some music?

First, let's have some musical instruments.

-Here's a tuba or baritone dishcloth from Designs by Emily. It costs $1.79, but it's so cute it's worth it!
-She also has a bunch of other music dishcloths. They are super cute, go check them out!

Now, some wearables:

-These adorable music wristwarmers from something I can't spell or say. Check them out, I am definitely making these!
-There's also these wristwarmers, where it looks like the design was made with beads.
-A piano keys scarf, one to knit, and one to crochet. (I don't think the designers were collaborating, I just wanted to post both. There are a lot of other versions out there, too!)
-To go with the scarves, here is a piano keys hat from Ravelry. (You have to join to see it, I think, so I don't know what the pattern looks like.)
-And finally, an illusion scarf pattern. I'm not sure I would want to commit to that, because there's no picture and illusion knitting sounds like a pain, but maybe someone out there will!

Now, for the actual post (please excuse any random words scattered in here, I'm singing while I write this. Not the best idea!) This post will only have sewing pictures. Sorry, but I haven't been able to sit down and knit (because of the pain of seeing my diminishing yarn ball) or crochet (because it's so darn big) but hopefully I'll do some later tonight.

This is a little bag I made from a kind of cowl thingy that came with a top. I was originally going to make a dress with it (It came folded and stitched into a little tube, but it came apart kind of huge!) but that obviously did not. I was just about to eat it out of frustration, but then I realized my stomach would like it better if I just moved on. So it's been in time-out for about a month, and I took yesterday to fix it. It turned out pretty well, now I just have to see if the straps hold up with a real load.

I thought I had posted a picture of this ages ago, but looking back, I haven't yet! I made this right after New Years, when I took my new Kindle (Christmas present!) to a friend's house, and kept having to pick it up to save it. (OK, that made literally no sense.) The point is, I wanted a case! So I made one! This is another quilted reversible fabric, with a really cool pattern. The inside is this pale yellow with little blue flowers. The flap is velcroed, and it has survived a lot of openings. I love it!

And finally, a fortune cookie fail. If you can't read that, it says, "Actions speak louder than talks." No joke. My whole family was laughing about that last week!

Have a nice evening (or whatever it is while you read this) and I'll see you tomorrow with post #50 (gasp!) and some popcorn!