Going out with a Bang

Figured that finishing nablopomo I should at least do something, you know, significant. I think the amount I'm reading is probably the most cool thing in my life right now. I use to read all the time and it's taken me, oh, 18 months to get over the impact of reading for university to get back to enjoying it. And I've read so many amazing books since September. My five star books since September are Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Guernsey Literacy and Potatoe Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Burrows, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. You need a lot of kleenex to get through all three.

But, I needed something more tangible, something I could post pictures of, hence~ knitting. (side note, Spike is trying to elegantly sit on my dusty TV but I'm kind of concerned he's going to flip it) Right, back to knitting.

I have a FINISHED OBJECT!!!!
Woo! It's roughly based off the buttony sweater (but aren't all buttony sweaters roughly based on it?) and it's all cascade in cream. Knit on 5.5mm needles this took way too long. I like it a lot and can't wait to block it and add some details. It's a boat neck, asymmetrical button, raglan style, top down, and whatever else I'm forgetting.
All the ribs are inconsistent, so 2 by 4 by 3 by 2 kind of thing.
The sleeves are very long and are also an inconsistent rib.

Some of you haven't seen my new hair. It's usually even messier than this. And ignore the safety pins. I'm hopefully going to head down and get some mismatched blue buttons tomorrow. I'm also thinking about adding the silhouette of some ravens on it, on the back right above the hem, not very big, itty bitty ones, and maybe a tree branch that sneaks around a little. I don't know yet though so we'll see.

*poof* finished nablopomo *poof*

I know I've shown this photo before but I like it.

I slept in.

I read a book.

I did laundry.

I ran errands.

I cooked and baked.

I knit.

I swept and mopped the floors.

I talked on the phone with many a people.

I cleaned the kitchen.

I played with Spike.

I made my lunch for tomorrow.

There's no putting it off. I need to start my report cards.Maybe I'll go play Zelda.

Random Thoughts or Stuff

It's so hard to decide what to do on transit at night when surrounded by loud stupid people. Do you put on your MP3 player so you don't have to hear them or do you not so that if they say something incriminating you'll know?

I hate it when you make dip and then realize you ate all your chips the previous night. It's just not the same with rye crackers.

I'm pretty sure Spike is on the counter right now licking the cutting board but I'm too lazy to go do anything about it.

Nablopomo can't be nearly over because that would mean it's nearly December. And I'm just not ready for it to be the end of 2009.

Since I've been going around this entire past year saying I'm 28, turning 28 doesn't seem that like big of a deal now.

Though you would think at 28 I'd have some idea about what I'm doing.

Nope.

misheard...

I was out tonight for a friend's birthday party and the place was quasi-loud. When the birthday girl (who enjoys her Twilight) was away I saw the event planner person whisper something to the waiter. Of course I wanted to know what it was. What she said was something along the lines of

'I got a cake for Jessica with whipping cream and there's a picture of Edward on it'

I looked at her with eyes open wide in horror and said 'you're a bad bad friend!' because in the garbled mix what I heard/interpreted was that it was a shot order with

'whipping cream and a picture of Edward'

so you can imagine what I thought they were going to try to make the birthday girl do. Once the cake showed up I explained what I had called the hostess a bad friend and we all laughed. But then, there was sadness because it was an ice cream cake. Oh well. I bought myself a caramilk bar on the way home.

Authentic Inspiration

So last night I started reading The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexei. Page thirteen and I had to put it down because I was sobbing (another reason I don't read in public); however, it was the good cry in the was that it's like, your heart is being ripped out and at the same time it makes you so motivated to appreciate all the opportunities you've had in life. I also couldn't read for a bit. I had to distract myself. So I decided to work on my painting again and not only was I going to work on it, I was going to paint her face, the part I've been avoiding because I'm scared I'll mess it up.

Now this is where this book is different from inspirational cards or mass email forwards, because I did mess up the face. Big time. I had no idea what I was doing and it showed. But you know what? I don't care. I mean, I'm going to fix it but I wasn't upset. I was just still so touched by the words from this book that I was just happy that I was able to have the time to sit down and spend an evening painting. And I messed it up but I still have the time and resources to work on it again. Thirteen pages and I've never been so humble or so thankful for what I had and what I've been given.

I'd show you picture but somehow her lips are like, under her right eye. It's weird. And the rest of the painting flows but her face is rather... muddy. It's not a good thing.

Go out, buy this book, and read it. Like, right now.

Spike is not pleased

I think he was planning tuna for this morning but there is none. He's glaring at me from various hiding places in the living room.

So, I just wondered how other people feel when they miss work. Cause I didn't go to work this morning but it was a sub job, and what's hard is that nobody cares if you don't go, you cancel through an machine. It's like... *poof* you get to stay home. My only thing is is that I am still sick and I'm on some new really fun antibiotics. But when there's nothing obviously sick with you, you're not oozing, or nauseous, or feverish, it's hard to justify staying home. I am glad I stayed home. I tried getting up for work this morning but my body was not having it, it was just like I had shut down entirely.

I was so tired that I couldn't even figure out the coffee maker. I can usually do that on auto-pilot half-dead no matter the time. We are one, the coffee maker and I.

Anyhoo, I'm not on here to be all like 'excuse excuse excuse' I stayed home and no matter what, that was my decision. I could have stayed home because I didn't like my hair, or stayed home because it's a Wednesday, but, this post is about the guilt surrounding not working. I hate that guilt.

And really, Spike's poor attitude is not helping. THERE IS NO TUNA!!!

Issues

I have some issues with French immersion. One of them being if you have *any* sort of LD you just don't do well, and I don't think any school should be a place where not all learners are welcome. That being said, when I pulled out my knitting after recess to share with them, I've never had so many engaged eyes on me. They were FASCINATED and we had a round room discussion about what they wanted to knit. It was fun.

I didn't work out today :( but I did do a lot of walking. Still, not a good thing if I'm going to beat the Jubbers. I'll deal with this feeling of blue by eating what's left of the ice cream.

In a week and a half there is a big knitting get together swap thingie and I haven't touched my swaps rather intricate knit project for quite a while. Hm. Issues.

I was at the clinic today and there was a young woman next to me who was pretty upset so I went and got her kleenex. She told me she was so embarrased to be crying in a public place and I was like 'oh honey, I've cried in public libraries, on buses, in the bus station, while going though security at the airport, in the middle of a university lecture, and while walking down a very busy street.' Then I felt kinda worse.

And that's that I guess.

I wish I controlled the heat in this place

cause then I would CRANK IT!!! (and feel free to take the comment aaaaaaaanyway you would like too)

No matter how to took I would like to state that my apartment is freezing while last night it was sweltering. Phhpt.

In other news, I made and than ate the best guacamole ever. I took my friend Lara's advice to heart and keep the ingredients chunky. It was one large BC tomato, a whole thing of avocado (yes, Yarnpiggy (I totally just typed Parnyiggy), I kept the pits and skins for you), two cloves of garlic, and lemon juice. Super yummy. I ate way too much detailing it was a before dinner snack and three hours later I am still freakishly full. So good. So good.

In other **just as exciting** news, the Beast now has bag feet and I started tacking in the canvas. After all the worry about zippers and all that, it turns out that tacking down canvas is a bitch. It's on my list of things for tomorrow if I don't get called in to work.
Speaking of work today was a really good day. I was with my older kids today and we have been working on a really challenging art project that a lot of them really struggled with but today I saw some amazing pieces and am really proud of the kids. We're working with negative spaces and rather finicky pencil techniques so tough stuff.

Good question, Lady Who Runs For the Bus. I'm reading The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Burrows.
I just finished it as I thought about it all day today at school. I'd really really recommend it~ it's very vivid and the people are just plain awesome in it. We need to start a book club.

Nothing much to show you for way of productivity. My only art has been decorating the envelope of the baby shower present.
That was fun.

Is it December yet?

Did I tell you about Saturday? It was an awesome day. I had brunch with a most marvelous group of women though I did feel bad for the one married in our group. She had to put up with a whole lot of single people talk but then she pulled over her wheel and I was very distracted from any such other talk than fibre. It was an awesome brunch though and I always love seeing people's homes and how much character can just come through in that space. And there was turkey bacon and popovers. You want to be me. Admit it.

After that I took the most painfully long bus ride on a bus that clearly needed maintenance. It took nearly double the amount of time to get to where I was going which resulted in me rushing to purchase a gift bag. I was already five minutes late to meet my friends so when I got to the cashier and she rang up the bag as SIX DOLLARS there was nothing I could do but pay it and run. What's with me getting ripped off lately? At least it's only cake and gift bags, and relatively small amounts of cash. Regardless, I was not pleased.

From the overpriced store I met my friends and we eventually made it to a friend's baby shower. She's the first of really my age group of friends to have a baby. Other people my age have babies but not anyone I know well enough to go to a shower for. It's a little freaky but it's all good. It's also my high school friend circle as well so it's crazy. They are actually our only high school sweetheart couple too! All in all it was a really nice time and awesome food. Samosas all around!

Anyhoo, today was pretty laid back. I did some more spinning and started a new book which I love. It was nice spinning with my friend on Saturday because we agreed about our feelings on hand spun yarn. I honestly cannot wait to ply the current stuff but it's taking me forever to spin it! Did I post a picture of the last batch that went to Nina? Here's a bad shot of it but you get the gist.
Laceweight it's not but I love it all the same :)

I lost my productivity list

I made a list of things, well, three lists. One was things that weren't productive, things that were quasi-productive, and things that were productive. Now I can't find it. Thankfully I taped a sticker to my computer that says 'not productive'. Phew.

Oh it's on!

Hanging out at my sister's today and I mentioned that I feel like I've gained weight in the past two weeks with being sick and not working out~ then I followed her around her house trying to make her see how jelly like my belly is right now. Anyhoo, she ended up whipping out a measuring tape and excel and booyah~ we're doing some sort of exercise challenge. I don't really understand it but Julia said she knows what she means. Which means she'll win regardless but anyhoo. All I know is that I weigh 155.6 pounds and my number is 91%. I would like to be around the 140s and apparently my number is suppose to be under 80%. We're determining the winner on the 19th of December. I figure I need to have three points every day in order to win. The point system has no set rules. See as follows...

Walked up small hill to second bus stop: +.5
Ate cupcakes: -1
Did weights: +1
Did yoga for two and a half hours: +2
Frowned repeatedly when Julia wanted to order more sushi: +.5
Walked for a ways with Julia: +.5
Didn't buy Kettle chips that were on sale: +.5
Bought chocolate peanut butter soy ice cream: -1.5
Only ate half the container!: +.5 (evidence)
Woo! Three points!

In other news, I all of a sudden was able to get into a yoga pose I had never been able to before! It's not this one, but it's a plow pose. And I also got my shoulders into a position where my yoga instructor made a face and shook her head. I was like, what? Don't feel a thing! But apparently you're suppose to so yeah. Damn hyper-mobility. Oh, and Julia was silently, while trying to be supportive, mocking my total and utter failure at one of the weight machines because even at the lowest weight I could NOT do it. After yoga, Julia said that probably my hyper-mobility that prevented that from happening so that made me feel better.

Fibre content: I'm knitting a cowl to match one of my favorite toques. That is all.

24 hour curse!

Isn't that spooky? It's my shadow while I was walking home on Halloween. Anyhoo, I'm so cursed right now. But it'll be over at 10:30 tonight, let me explain.

10:30pm Wednesday evening~ realize that I didn't clean all day and now have to rush to do things. Scoop kitty litter and realize, too late, that Spike mistook kitty litter container for kitty litter box (honest mistake, and totally my fault for leaving it open), but much badness ensues.

10:45 pm~ spend about five minutes trying to do something about the bathtub drain so I can shower. Hurt my fingernails trying to fix it but it refuses, so don't shower.

11:00 pm~ realized at this point my dinner really upset me and take the last of my peptobismal, but my tummy is making such unhappy noises Spike is giving it the evil eye.

12:00am Wednesday night~ so not sleeping, tummy still upset, the rain is freakishly loud.

1:00am~ still not asleep. Cannot decide if I'm too hot or too cold. Wonder if I'll prefer an old-age home in an apartment like style or a heritage house.

2:00 am to 6am Tuesday morning~ fade in and out. Wake up every time the weather changes or someone opens or closes a door anywhere in the apartment. When alarm goes off, press snooze. Repeat.

6:30am~ wake up 30 minutes late, but don't care. Realize shower is still broken, shower anyways. Forget to bar cat from bathroom and he jumps into the bathtub with water still slowly draining from it (that was kinda pretty funny actually).

7:00am~ decide to change clothing no less than three times. Decide to buy lunch today as left-overs from last night seems less than desirable and besides, I'm out of pepto bismal.

7:30am~ run for bus in heels. Probably entertaining others.

8:00am~ get to school and see that there's been a rescheduling and Wednesday's meeting is now today at lunch in the staff room.

8:15~ realize that despite your best efforts, sweater is somehow still covered in cat hair. Remove sweater. Shirt is stained. Spend another five minutes removing the rest of the cat hair from sweater and spend all day in sweater.

8:30 to 3:00~ day is pretty okay. Kids were fun, we learned about our teeth, played with toothbrushes and toothpaste, and I ate two cupcakes and had some goat cheese on crackers during the staff meeting.

3:30pm Thursday afternoon~ fall in the rain while on my way to see Jubbers.

4:00 pm to 6:30pm~ sees that when my sister spends all day at home she keeps things tidy, is productive, makes kimchi, AND makes aaaaaaamazing cabbage lasagna. Yesterday I started watching a new TV show. I am fail.

6:45 to 8:00 pm Thursday evening~ realize on my way to knitting I don't have any knitting on me. Go anyways to pick something up. Not there. Decide to go grocery shopping instead. Can't remember what I need. Get home, remember I needed light bulbs and butter. No toast or reading in bed for me tonight.

Seriously though, I'm totally fine. I'm just rolling with things. It's almost comical. And it's funny because last night, I swear at 10:30 I had this premonition, and I was like... something's off. And I just decided instead of getting upset, just going with it. Glad I did. I mean, lots of good things too! Just all these little things adding up... bizarre.

Half an hour to go people! Half an hour to go. I'm staying away from hot liquid, sharp objects, or texts.

Workout Wednesday Fail

This is what Spike did allllll day. There was no making this cat move.

I've barely worked out this month. And seriously how is it the 18th? I'm going back to the gym tomorrow for step and then yoga on Friday and Monday. I still haven't beat this stupid cold but I roasted and ate an entire bulb of garlic on various pieces of toast today (obviously, didn't have a date tonight). Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.

And that sliver of cake was not worth 11 dollars. I mean, it was good. I could see paying six dollars for it. But ELEVEN?!?!?! It hurts in a bad, bad way.

I knit today. One more baby sock and, if I can get it done in time, some baby mittens as well, and we'll call it a day.
Could this sock be any cuter?
Hopefully tonight the sleeping will be better. The crazy wind/freezing rain/hail/drowning rain is freaky loud and woke me up continuously. Boourns!

It's totally still Tuesday

It's not even one in the morning on a Tuesday.

And to be fair I didn't think I'd be out this late.

Today's warning: don't buy cake after drinking lots of mead. Because then you pay 11 dollars for this.
Seriously. SERIOUSLY! But at least I didn't pay for dinner. Yeah for dates! And now this cake is in my fridge. It better be good. I don't know how it could be 11 dollars good but whatever.

In happy news I retrieved my expensive umbrella from the restaurant I left it at on Friday. And I got my monthly calendar for next year.
And while I'm here, grapes in caesar salad? Soooooo good. From now on and always, I will put red grapes in my caesar salads. Even if I have to sneak them into restaurants myself.

It's so totally still Tuesday.

Budgety goodness

In part of being productive, I'm trying to stick to a budget and I'm using jars. So far week one has gone pretty well. I was a little over budget. 9.77 over in entertainment (sushi) and I used my emergency 20 for party snacks on Sunday (brie, raspberry jelly, and crackers) but overall, I did pretty well. I didn't drink nearly as much coffee outside of the house as I usually do, so maybe saved six dollars at least there, and, even though I don't know if I would have caved or not, I didn't order take out any of the nights I wanted to because I knew I was going to go out already once that week. It's been really good for me to use cash and to really think about where it's going. I didn't do a baseline or analyze my past spending because I find that really overwhelms me and makes me go to a bad place. This way it's just... me doing what I can right now.

Funny random story, I brushed my teeth a little bit ago and then realized I hadn't put away the rest of my lunch from today. When I put it away I remembered that I hadn't eaten my yogurt. I bought little things of yogurt to eat every day, small enough to not upset my stomach, but still really good for you. Anyhoo, I was all like, whatever, I just brushed my teeth, can't eat yogurt. Then I realized I had only eaten half of Yarnpiggy's delicious pumpkin spice chocolate vegan cake for lunch and still had some leftover.

I need to brush my teeth again before bed.

I'm not as deep as I think I am

Sanguineness Sundays? What was I thinking? All I want is to go to bed.

Anyhoo...

here we be ninjas sneaking into the Circlecraft by cleverly disabling people. Sneeeeeeeky.
Um... an okay picture of the baby sweater I knit while confined to my couch for three days. Just followed the schema of a regular baby sweater and used a really nice rib-esque pattern from a stitch library.

I took photos of my room but they are super yellow and bad. Try again on Tuesday maybe? The lack of good daylight hours is frightening!

The funny thing about Saturday and spending the day happily organizing and rearranging everything is that Spike goes berserk. It's his form of watching UFC marathon on TV or something. He doesn't like it when I move things and also, when I'm doing stuff, he needs to be in the same room. Now that's fine when I'm on the computer because he just curls on up his yoga mat and sleeps but on Saturday things were pretty noisy and I am was going from room to room. He actually really lost it at one point and freaked out. His tail was HUGE and he was doing that freaky walking sideways thing with his ears back. I gave him some kitty treats and brushed him to help him calm down.

Here he is ontop of my bedroom bookshelf supervising the laundry. He jumped up there while I was moving it which wasn't helpful since it's not the sturdiest of bookshelves and he also slashed at me while I was trying to move it.
Some photos turned out okay. I put my figurines ontop of my dressor~ my little Tuxedo Mask is so cute.
I hemmed the curtains! Only a year and a half after I put them up! And those are some pretty cards Jenn made me so they are getting displayed nicely now.

See what I mean about the yellow? Sigh.

Goodnight all!

Seriously Saturday... Silly Saturday... Solemn Saturday...

I tried to get photos today but I was still having trouble photographing the red and then my camera battery died. Not my fault! I am happy to say that I did a tonne of work on the apartment today and tomorrow I will post photos. I changed around my bedroom a lot so I'll want to know what you think. Darcy, maybe you can give me some hints for next time I go to Ikea in January!? We could have lots of fun.

And that's it for my blog today. Seriously I just cleaned and organized today! That's it. It was kinda fun. I'm excited about the new bedroom layout. And I'm trying to figure out how to cover my walls with jellyfish. Seriously I'm all about the jellyfish now. Any good suggestions for wall thingies that won't kill my damage deposit? I did kinda consider my black acrylic and claim they were there when I moved here. We'll see.

Photos tomorrow! Lots and lots of photos!

I can't even remember what I'm suppose to be blogging about.

Just in Blogging Time...

I just went to Circlecraft and managed to not buy anything for myself. I love this guy though. Like.... wow. His stuff was so awesome it made me very sad to leave without any. I got only Xmas presents and am now officially in a Christmas-realization zone. I really wanted these black metal jellyfish you put on the wall but I just couldn't justify it. I may just go get some black paint. I mean. I'm not moving any time soon so whatever. What's a few jellyfish on the damage deposit anyways?

As for fibre Fridays I still can't show you anything because I've been out of the house since ever but I will say that I've noticed with my new haircut that slouchy hats are looking really good on me so I may start one of those soon when I'm done with the Christmas knitting swap thingie.

OMG! Are those more PG birds? Why yes, yes they are.

I promise a real post tomorrow.

So I'm Thinking...

about stuff.

I'm wondering if by April 1st, 2010, I could have no projects on the needles. Like none. That would just be the most exhilarating feeling ever! And I even mean my knee high socks that I've been working on for three years (I swear like 20 more rows but it's black ribbing on tiny needles!) and my rainbow bright blanket too. Sometimes I think the goal isn't lofty enough. Sometimes I think it's too far away to be realistic, like how will I know what's happening in the world of knitting at that point? All I know is I want to lessen the amount of knitting projects I have on the go right now, and I have only three major projects upcoming... Meg's shawl (which I think I will do during the olympics), my sister's sweater, and my Aunt's cardigan. But I don't know... no projects on the needles? Hard to imagine.

I'm also wondering what can be done about my room. I moved out again. I just don't like my room. I prefer sleeping in the living room even though I do like my bed but it feels like my room isn't part of my apartment per say. I dunno. I need to do something with that space to make it more integrated into the rest of my apartment.

I'm wondering what to do about my cat. He's kinda weird. Have I told you that he now won't drink water out of the bowl? He'll only drink water from the tap, pooled in the bathtub, from the toilet, or water that's flavored with food, but he won't eat the soggy food afterwards. Drives. Me. Bonkers.

I'm wondering what to do with the massive pot of yam soup I made yesterday. It's super good and very fun. I accidently bought a big can of lentils instead of chick peas while sick and decided to throw them in the soup with a tonne of corn too. Mmmmmmm... the only thing missing was roasted garlic thrown in with the blender stage but I wasn't willing to walk back to safeway for the garlic. Which is weird cause normally I would. Stupid cold. But seriously, it's a whole lot of yam soup. I mean, I've got nothing on Hilary and her... beans.

I'm wondering how much I'll fall down on my credit card while at the circlecraft tomorrow.

In unrelated news, I have no photos because it's dark all the time here and none of my photos are turning out which is a shame because I finished a baby sweater and am down to one sleeve on my easy peasy cardigan. So here's a cool bird in our tree in Prince George.

Workout Wednesday

Yeah... working out. It was intense *but* I did walk to the coffee shop and then back home. Yup. Pretty gosh darn intense. Phew.

And I shall distract you from this pitiful blog entry by BLINDING YOU WITH SUSHI!!!

Pirates! Pirates everywhere!

Even though zombies and ninjas are cool, pirates will always be my favorite. Might have something to do with Johnny Depp.

So I use to paint all the time. It started at a young age with my eldest sister, Jennifurfur being an artist, and my dad's influence too. When I entered high school you had to choose between art or band, so I went with band but then approached the art teacher about taking art before and after school. My other sister, Julia, warned me that the art teacher was a scary scary bearded man, which he was, but he was also super cool. He let me come in early every morning and romp around the art room as I pleased.

As grades went on I fell in total love with art and we had an art room like no other. We had a kiln, pottery wheels, a silkscreening twirly doohickey, a cupboard full of dangerous chemicals to mix glazes, canvas and frames (we made our own canvases we were that cool), acrylic paint, oil paints, watercolours, different kinds of watercolour paper, charcoal, pastels, massive drying racks, a massive wooden table with lots of fun slicers and dicers to make mats, specialized benches for holding canvases, linocuts, carving tools, soapstone... it was heaven. I even helped my art teacher build a canoe around the tenth grade. We had life drawing classes on Wednesday evening and I started right away in grade eight. One class I got adventurous and tore off a six foot piece of manilla paper and attached it one of the large pottery tables turned on the side so I could draw people life size. I also got a chance to work with raku which is an amazing clay. My favorite sculpture I did is of the upper torso of a woman, all clavicle and boobs, and while she was drying the weight of her head pulled her neck back, so she's greatly exaggerated and awesome. With raku you fire it once in an ordinary kiln and it turns white. For the second firing, you use a glaze and the clay turns black. After the first firing I mixed an ordinary white glaze and than mixed what should have been a copper glaze; however, something was mislabeled because my glaze was possessed! For the second firing you actually need a kiln that is hotter than a regular kiln so we built a kiln outside using special bricks and tiger torch. We would also roast marshmallows and hotdogs on it during lunch (btw~ this was an all day project and Mr. Weibe would write a note to all my other teachers explaining I simply could not attend class). It's an intense experience. The kiln (outside) in pretty small and when you remove the sculpture you have to use tongs and special fire gloves. You drop the sculpture straight red hot from the kiln into a bucket of sawdust and throw a lid on it. The sawdust instantly catches on fire but because of the lid, the smoke is trapped and that's how you turn the exposed raku black. The only thing is you had to be careful removing the lid because all the oxygen would get eaten up inside the bucket so if you removed the lid too quickly there was sometimes a small explosion which did result in my art teacher losing the bottom half of his beard at one point. Mom you aren't still reading are you? Anyhoo, I had just poured my two glazes over the sculpture so that they flowed down, showing large areas of plain raku and overlapping strips of both glazes. The white glaze did what it was suppose to, but the second glaze went bonkers. Where it hit the white glaze it went kinda copper but more blue-ish black but when it was on its own it cracked and curled up on itself. When we checked on the sculptures the glaze had actually formed little puddles of itself and was crawling all over the sculpture. When it was done, they formed little speckles of beautiful colour all over the areas I had poured the glass. It's an amazing sculpture. All in all, it was seriously, an amazing art class.

As I got older I often skipped (Mom stop reading) other classes and go hang out in the art room. It was so large I could hide quite efficiently and it helped that possibly, just maybe, my art teacher would say 'I haven't seen her' if anyone asked. Which I'm sure, Mom, he never ever did. Anways, it was all I did in high school and I loved it.

I tried to keep up with it afterwards but between the travelling and the stupid amount of post-secondary educatioon, I lost touch with painting. I was still drawing and doodling like mad, most of my tattoos are from those doodles, but I wasn't painting. I decided once I really started making an income and settling down that I'd start up again. Well, this is really as settled as I'm going to get I think so yeah.

This summer I went out to Deserres and bought a massive canvas. It's about four feet by two and a half. I took it home and instantly realized I wasn't about to start painting again for the first time in years on such a large canvas and went and bought another one. This one is um... quite smaller... I don't know, maybe 30'' by 30''? I started with this one though I do have the pencil down on the larger one. So far so good, but I forgot how long it takes me to do a painting.

I tend to stick with layers of washes, using acrylic paint, which means letting the layers dry and putting new colours ontop of old. I love the versitatility of acrylic, and how you can blend and manipulate the colours, unlike watercolour, where you're kinda stuck with whatever you put on the paper (though I still do love watercolour). It just takes a little longer. Afterwards I go ontop to do the details and such. My little painting is nearly done some of the layers, but I'm so scared of the face! Oh I'll have the whole thing done but her face I swear. I love faces and I draw them constantly. It's like extra pressure times a hundred. Anyhoo, here's the progression of the painting thus far...

Oh, the original photo I found here at Jezebel. It stayed with me after I saw it~ for a whole week I couldn't stop thinking about it and who the girls were and then I realized I wanted to paint that photograph.

I bought a set of paints from De Serres that not only worked with the colour scheme, but it also meant I could afford to do the painting with nice quailty paints. Their website is down but I'll see if I can find it later for you.

The first stage I was having trouble with the skin and the green colour but overall I was happy with it. I had a lot of fun with colour and the background.
The second layer I worked on the background some more and the folds on her clothing but I reallyl wasn't happy with the skin or the green again. I decided to go and buy her skin colour in acrylic instead of mixing it because my mixing was too haphazard to get a consistent skin tone. I could not get the green vibrant enough either so I bought another green.
This is where it's at now. I'm pretty happy with the earth and I'm going to hopefully finish off the pants behind her soon. The green worked fabulously and same with the skin, though I didn't do anymore on her face yet.
I'm very happy I did this post. I'm totally inspired to do some more painting tomorrow. Today I mostly slept and realized that I simply cannot eat soup anymore. I'm feeling much better and tomorrow is a holiday so I'm sure I'll be back with my class on Thursday. Wheee!

Thanks to Jubbers for phoning me and reminding me to blog! High five!

Not so much a productive day...

But after watching three episodes of Till Debt Do Us Part (seriously I wanna get a partner and then fight just to go on that show) I've decided to do the jar system. Seriously epic people. Seriously. And I already have the jars!

In other news it is majorly storming outside right now. This rain means I need to use more product in my hair. Have I shown you my hair yet? It's cute. Julia assures me it is retro cute not meh cute.

My day wasn't productive because I should have stayed home today but now I'm all yucky again. So hence, two days in bed and hopefully I can go back on Thursday.

My goals for tomorrow are as follows:

*sleep
*drink more liquids
*paint
*don't eat all the chicken tenders (janes) you bought today just because they are that good. They are for nights you've worked only. Woah awkward statement. Let's just sit back and deal with that sentence shall we?

I'm going to bed.
Why yes, it is a picture of Mal.

What are Sundays again?

oh yeah... Sanguineness. Which isn't hard when you've been in the apartment for four days without leaving. My only hope is to GET OUT!!! Which I will, tomorrow, so that's good.

Now that that's out of the way let's check up with the 30 by 30 shall we?

Completed:
#7: Get another tattoo: Whoo!
#22:Participate in a charity marathon even if I just briskly stroll the whole thing: done. Please see original 30 by 30 post for details. Nearly died. (not really)

In the Works:
#1:Design and knit my perfect cardigan out of hand-spun hand-dyed yarn- the J.Baas cardigan was the prototype for this (scroll allll the way to the bottom). Now I just need to spin the hoardes of fleece from Chrissy so I can dye it and get started!
#4:Crochet a bedspread with one of my Grandmother Hazel's crochet hooks and laceweight thread: got the thread and the pattern and have temporarily lost the motifs somewhere in my living room but no worries. Hopefully I'll find them this Wednesday.
#11: Publish one of my poems (and not self-published)- started writing again! Wooo!
#13: Keep my blog- look at me go!
#14: Pick up some kind of activity or sport thingie- yoga is well on it's way to accomplishing this goal for me.
#17: Use my 5' by 7' canvas for a painting- the pencil has been laid down and I'm still working on the smaller one for practice first.
18: Get another family portrait with all the new people in our family- what do you think... this December? I think so!
#19 & #20: Organize a serious charity knitting project & Get involved with a Feminist organization- have started looking at different organizations in Vancouver and nothing serious yet but wheels are turning. Hoping to get into this one after Xmas.
#27: Write and illustrate a picture book- again, started writing and painting again so I'm pretty pleased.
#30: Design and sew a dress that is spectacular- Got the materials but haven't done much with them. Maybe Project Runway will inspire me (not this season though, this season sucked).

Haven't the Foggiest:
#2:Get a spinning wheel- whatever. They are too much money. I don't have the time. I like my spindle. This one may be something like a gift to myself for my 30th birthday or something. I do want one but I'm discouraged.
#3:Make a really awesome bookshelf- have talked to my Dad about this one. If I really stick to it it may happen this summer.
#5:Go on a real vacation: what's that?
#6:Bike around one of the islands: not in this weather. Get back to you in the summer.
#8: Pay off bank student loan: Aaaaaahahahahaha
#9: Visit my friends in Gimli- have started up communication again so maybe next summer?
#12:Become an Aunt again- I'm crossing my fingers but besides that.
#16:Be a bridesmaid again cause it is fun- let's get on that people!
#21:Go swimming in the Atlantic Ocean with my friends on the East coast- double sigh.
#23:Do the European coastline trip with Julia- oh yeah.. getting right on that one.
#25:Scuba or snorkel- I know where the vancouver school of scuba is now! Yeah.
#26: Garden- no matter how small- I figure I'll have to get involved with a community garden in case I don't move. We'll check them out in the spring.
#28: Adopt another kitten- nearly did the last week of August but going to hold out till I a) get a vet and b)get Spike all his shots again and c) have three weeks off at least to make sure Spike doesn't eat the kitten.

In risk of being changed:
#10: Get really good at the violin- like stellar- this may be changed too... get considerably better at the violin so you can play independently without relying on someone else to tune or have the cat run away and hide. True story. When Alyria came over and house sat for me when she played my violin Spike CURLED UP IN HER LAP AND PURRED. He runs when he sees me open my violin.
#15:Learn how to be awesome at chess and play a game with those really serious russians downtown- again, may just be changed to learn how to play chess in a way that isn't pathetic. Still want to challenge myself to play with the scary serious dudes downtown but we'll see.
#24: Hike the West Coast Trail- I'm getting a lot of varied reports about the West Coast Trail so I don't know. This may just become 'do a day long hike' but let's be clear... I don't 'scale' things, I don't do rickety bridges or unreliable ladders, and I don't do freaky ass heights either.
#29: Make a life list- I started to do this but it seemed really lame. I didn't like any of the life lists I found and I wasn't inspired at. all. I think I'll turn this into a book list of 100 books to read. More about that later.

So there you have it. Is this a boring post? Are you at all interested in updates? I feel like I'm babbling about things I've babbled before. I guess for me the coolest thing about this list is the way it's making me look at time and my life so I don't know how that translates on to the blog. Hm.

Anyhoo, see you tomorrow! For... Maniac Monday!

Saturday of Sheesh

Story Saturday? What was I thinking? I can't think of any stories! Ugh.

Um..... okay.

Once upon a time there was a clean apartment. It had spaces that were entirely empty. It had a distinguishable floor. The books weren't stacked up, down, sideways, and over there somewhere. It didn't have dustballs that were threatening the cat. It didn't have laundry in every single room on every single surface. It wasn't covered in kleenex and teacups. All the fibre in this apartment was... well it was still everywhere but it wasn't so haphazard. The desk wasn't drowning in paper. The bed was for sleeping and not for storing more stuff. And it just looked... nice.

But this apartment was cursed! By the evil warlocks and witches of Laziness, Head-Coldness, and All-Around-Contempt-For-Cleaningness, it had became a rather uninspiring land. And frankly we're in danger of losing the cat somewhere. Like remember, in Who's That Girl when they meet that really rich guy in the mansion and he says that he's lost his butler and so the others think he meant his butler died but then the rich guy says 'I think he's in the west wing somewhere. At night I hear him crying.' TOO FUNNY! But wouldn't be funny if that happened to Spike. I have shut him in closets before because he'll crawl into the funniest places to sleep. Anyhoo... the apartment is cursed! For many a moon now and the day of Judgement will be this Wednesday as I try to wrestle the curse from this place and maybe, just maybe, I can photos that look like these to show you. Since these photos were taken in... um... March. Yeah.



Now if I can only get my Mom here to pose in them as well! I love how messy that daybed is but it's still cleaner than it usually is. If I succeed on Wednesday than I can also show you some new stuff in the apartment.

Stay tuned!

(I know this is a dumb post but I'm really tired and still kinda snotty but the exciting thing is I'm about to go watch the first Jurassic Park!) (wheeeeee!)

Phlegmy Friday

I swear I'm producing my body weight in snot every hour.

Blarg.

I like spinning but some times it takes too long and I'm not very good at it. But I really enjoy it. And I like what I produce even if it's not really perfect at all. I like it all wobbly and mishmash (also my favorite kind of bagel). I don't even want to ply the current stuff so I'm researching how to navajo ply on my drop spindle. I just like how it looks. All... natural-y. And it's not just me saying that because I want an excuse to suck! I'm hoping to get better and stuff but I really really do like what I'm making right now. I'm hoping to knit a very simple shawl out of it so it showcases the yarn. Also I love my turkish drop spindle. Check it out.
Full of yarn...
remove the stick...
remove one doo-hickey part...
remove the other and voila! Ball of centre pull yarn!


I'm soooo close to finishing the yarn....
so. close.


Blarg.

I'm thinking...

so... apparently Thursdays are for thinking. I've spent since 11am on the couch drinking tea, orange juice, ginger ale, water, and more tea while watching the first season of Buffy.

I'm sick. Blarg. It's a cold. I miss my students. I feel yucky.

I guess Thursdays are not for thinking.

I just had ice cream

Which I think is a great way to start a workout post! I didn't do much today as I had a date (and why yes, that is all I'm going to say about that) but working out is going soooo positively for me right now, really for the first time in my life.

I'm pretty sure it chalks down to yoga. I don't dread yoga at all. Sometimes I'd rather go eat burgers, but frankly, I always would rather be eating so that's moot. I never don't want to go to yoga. Does that make sense?

Yoga is awesome and just so... good for you. I feel so good doing yoga and I feel like I'm doing such good things for my body and for getting to know my body. Slow descent into yoga freak: check. I just don't associate it with all the negative things I tend to do with anything that resembles working out.

Also because of yoga I'm just more likely to go to the gym, either it be on a machine (ellipticals make my feet go numb, what is with that?) or to another class. My sister and I are going to a step class that is pretty intense but really fun. Unlike the step class I went to during university where I never knew what was going on and felt stupid. This instructor is firstly, really jazzed but in a good way, and secondly, shows an achievable move, and then makes it harder for the experts, but the beginners and non-crazy people can continue doing the first move, so we're always moving and not tripping over the step trying to figure out where our feet should be. And then it's always funny because you go from using the step to a mat and you're all like 'oh thank god we're off the step' but then she makes you go through the most drilling ab excerises.

But I still like it.

And that is my workout post.

Last post I showed you my costume but here is my partner-in-crime for the evening....


Sheena the Jungle.. I mean Pirate Queen!
This is just a glimpse of our evening...
and my new boots which I love so very very much.

Good night!

Woah... I'm a teacher?

Seriously, sometimes that still rocks my world. I'm, like, in a career... and... it's the career I want... so weird.

Anyhoo, I have the day off guilt free as I didn't get called for subbing. I really enjoy teaching but subbing, not so much. I don't mind if I get called the night before but getting a phone call at 5:30 in the morning and having to figure out where your school is and how to get there... meh. I have to admit because I have a temporary three day a week job right now it's harder to get out there on the other two days.

I'll share with you an awesome day I had with my K/1s. I'm still new with the primary grades but it's getting better as I start to get to know the kids and figure out how they like to do things. We like to look at all the different ways you write (poems, stories, songs, scripts, lists, etc) and we made a camping list and I told them we were going to go pretend camping. We made a list, they drew all their things inside a backpack colouring page, and we discussed all our experiences camping.

The next day we got ready to go pretend camping (though I did have some concerned parents coming in and saying 'why did my son tell me he needed to bring a sleeping bag to school today?') and we packed our imaginary backpacks and talked about what we were going to see. Then I sent them out for recess and while they were gone I put all the tables in a circle and taped sheets to make a 'tent'. I stayed away from props and decoration because I did really want the students to use their imagination to see everything.

When the students came back in they were soooo excited. We first walked through the coatroom (the forest) and they told me what they could see in the wood. They were awesome, they saw salmon in creeks (though the salmon in the puddle was the best sight I thought), bald eagles, trees so tall you couldn't see the top, bears, deers, bunnies, and a cheetah so it was a pretty cool forest overall. We had to step over fallen logs and wind our way around big rocks. Super fun.

Then we climbed a mountain by going along the long outside part of the tent to get to the opening. We started out tall at the bottom, but slowed down and went to a crouched position at the middle, and then crawled our way at the top because we were soooo tired and exhausted from the climb. I had to go rescue a student who claimed 'he can't do it!' 'it's too far!' but holding my hand we made it to the top where we all drank from our imaginary water bottles.

Somehow I got all the students under the tent which they loved. This part was pretty chaotic but it was super fun. We unpacked our backpacks and told others what was in there. Lots of students brought imaginary books which they started to read out loud, some brought apples, some brought stuffed animals, and after sharing with our neighbours, we rolled out our imaginary sleeping bags and did a relaxation/mindfullness quiet activity.

Afterwards we packed up our bags, started down the hill, back through the woods (the cheetah was still there!), and then returned to our classroom. It was just the most fun. Afterwards they wrote in their journals about it and it was some of their most creative writing yet. I was soooo happy for them.

It was also great when the parents came and the first things they heard were things like 'we went camping!' 'We hiked up a mountain' and 'I saw a bear!'.

Okay, I'm off to be productive today. Though I think we all know I'll be spending the day like this.
Curled up next to the bubbles jar.

Might need reminders...

I think because I haven't really realized it's November yet and because I didn't really angst over whether or not I would do naprobloporomowhatever but just decided to do it~ I did just nearly turn off my computer completely forgetting I needed to blog! Huh.

And this day to day theme thing is great!

Productivity Mania: got groceries and made pizzas to eat and freeze! Did dishes! Worked out! Went to work! Got stuff for my passport done! Mailed stuff! Exchanged mouse!

I haven't knit yet, and may not... I'm kinda tired. And I accidentally cooked the pizzas that I was going to freeze uncooked but that's fine too. I like how I consider going to work productive. Anyhoo, tomorrow I'm going to do lots of laundry even if it kills me. Augh. What would I give for insuite laundry?

Holy rambling blog entry Batman.

Expect more. I'm out and about every evening and nearly every day till next Tuesday. NEXT TUESDAY! But I'm the bartender at Kyrsten's bollywood party so you know, that'll make it all worth it. Measure? What?

I am a faerie princess!

Naproductivepoblomo

Thanks for everyone who helped out! Some were pretty intense, some deep, some silly, and all appreciated (aaawww!). The overall theme is productiveness, which is ironic since being on the computer is one of the most non-productive, productive-time sucking activities I do, but whatever.

I'm glad to get today's post out of the way though. I woke up to a possessed mouse which has happened before. I don't know why but when I return this one (I've returned one before for the same reason) I'll also get a mousepad. I hope to find one with Bettie Page on it or something. Does April Flores do mousepads? Anyhoo. Possessed mouse (impossible to click on things, scrawls around the screen randomly without the mouse moving, jumps over links, basically a total bastard) and last night rocked so slightly hungover, slightly grumpy equals really grumpy me. I've done nothing productive today. Wait... I sewed buttons on my Hey Teach and finally finished it but that was because I was in the company of productive people so it rubbed off on me. And I'm happy to report that I have so far stuck to my no buying yarn till January pledge.

So Napropoblom, after today, will follow these themes. I reserve the right to 3 Random Pirate Overtaking if for some reason I need to blog outside the guidelines. If I do two entries in one day, as long as one of them is on theme, it is not considered one of my RPOs.

Maniac Monday: How productive I am being (productive like a maniac) either it be cleaning, knitting, reading, teaching, etc etc.

Teaching Tuesday: If I could post the pictures of how cute my kids were for halloween... oh god~ SO CUTE!!!!

Workout Wednesday: talking about what I'm doing at the Y and where else I'm being active. (I really like your idea Beetnsy about woeful Wednesday but I'm sure I will work my angst into every post but high five!)

Thinking Thursday: Deep thoughts.

Fibre Friday: wheeeee!

Story Saturday: changed this one to be stories about friends and family so meshing everything together. If my sisters want they can pretend this is Sister Saturday.

Sanguineness Sunday: (yeah, whatever) So this day we check up on my 30 by 30 and I talk about my goals for the future and new things I want to achieve, either travel or apartment wise... so major goals and long term dreams.

Okay, I'm off to make myself a hot chocolate because apparently all the sugar I've consumed recently isn't enough. There will be pictures from halloween they'll just show up after I get the new mouse since as I write this the pointer is hysterically jumping up and down the left side of the screen.

Stupid computer.

A photo of Spike protecting my stash for the masses.