Wedding Planning

First, let me say that I am not getting married. But...one of my best and closest friends is!!! I was there when they first met and when they got engaged - they first met at a bar and I introduced them and they got engaged in Hogsmeade at Universal Studios - we are both HUGE Harry Potter fans and we were there for the Celebration of Harry Potter that they had at the end of January. We met (well we actually saw them a few feet away) Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, Fred and George Weasley and Seamus Finnegan. We were rather excited. But what made it even better was that he proposed to her in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - her dream come true. I am one of her bridesmaids and have been helping her plan her wedding for next June 2015. She has some great ideas - blending her geekside to her chicside :).


She wants to incorporate all of her favorite fandoms into her wedding. I told her that there is a way to do it that will look cute, as long as it's done right. And thanks to Pinterest, I think I found it!
 These are some of the ideas that I found:





Famous couples names instead of table numbers:
The Doctor and Rose
Ron and Hermione Weasley
Belle and the Beast
Han Solo and Princess Leia
Mickey and Minney
...and whatever other couple she wants

Using characters/mini figurines inside a lantern with flowers as the centerpiece.














A sign that says "Pick a seat not a side as many worlds become one." Similar to ones that say "Pick a seat not a side as two families join together."

These are just a few ideas that I've come up with, and I think it's going to turn out awesome! Her wedding isn't for another year so we still have plenty of time to prepare. :)

Crochet Baby Booties

My best friend just had a baby girl and so for the shower I went crazy with crocheting little things. :) One of the things I wanted to make was booties but none of the online patterns were free. But then I found this really cute yellow yarn and on the back of the wrapper was a pattern for "baby shower booties." I followed this pattern to a T and got the cutest baby booties in about an hour or so!
The yarn is Bernat Baby Coordinates in lemon custard - I didn't use the yarn for the booties but actually for the flower on the headband. Here is the pattern:

SIZE: to fit baby size 3-6 months




MATERIALS: 1 ball of any type yarn
Size 4 mm (U.S. G/6) crochet hook or size needed to obtain gauge


GAUGE: 16 hdc and 11 rows = 10 cm


ABBREVIATIONS:
ch = chain
hdc = half double crochet
rs =  right side
sl st = slip stitch


INSTRUCTIONS:
Note: Turning ch 2 does not count as hdc
Ch 29
1st row: (RS) 1 hdc in 3rd ch from hook. 1 hdc in each ch across. 27 hdc. Turn.
2nd - 5th rows: ch 2. 1 hdc in each hdc across. Turn.
6th row: Sl st in each of first 6 hdc. Ch 2. 1 hdc in same st as last sl st. 1 hdc in each of next 16 hdc. Turn. Leave remaining 5 hdc unworked.
7th - 11th rows: Ch 2. 1 hdc in each hdc across. Turn. 17 hdc.
Place marker at each end of 9th row.
Do not turn at end of 11th row.
12th row: Ch 1. Working from left to right, instead of right to left, work 1 revers sc in each hdc across. Fasten off.
Finishing: Fold bootie in half with RS facing each other. Join yarn with sl st at marked row and work 1 row of sc through both thicknesses to join seam down remainder of cuff, around toe and across bottom of foot. Fasten off. Turn bootie right side out. Fold down cuff.


I didn't make a tie but you can to go around the bootie around the cuff.
Tie: Make a chain 12" (30.5 cm) long. Weave through 7th row of cuff.


Other items that I made for the baby was a bunny hat and a headband with a flower attached. I'm going to make more things and will post as I make them :) I'll also try to post the pattern or links to patterns that I used. Happy crocheting :)

Dreaming

I love the way you feel, cuddled up next to me. All warm and toasty under cotton sheets. Your fingers entwine in mine as we ponder the next step. We've been friends for over five years. Friendship that turned into a crush for me from the very beginning, it took you a little longer. I gave you a million nudges but you finally took the bait. After years of waiting, frustration, determination, we finally explored new territory.


All my wildest fantasies disappeared in that one first kiss. It came so suddenly and unexpected that I almost pushed you away, until I realized what was happening. You waited for the perfect moment, when I was so distracted by my surroundings that when you came up beside me and gave me a kiss on the cheek I was shell-shocked. I looked to you as you stood there with a smirk and I asked you "what was that?" like I didn't already know. You had finally made the first move.


I firmly believe that a girl has a right to make the first move, but I was always too shy or scared to do that. Instead I await patiently for a kiss that may never come. But it did this time. My patience won out and I finally got the green light for what was to come.


We had been talking about the possibility of an "us" for months via text messages in late night conversations. But I never actually thought there would be an "us." I just thought it was me reading too far into things. I had taught myself not to get my hopes up because it only leads to heartbreak. So my expectations of our hangout was not to end up in bed. But I was pleasantly surprised that it did.


Now we lay together in post-coital bliss, all I can think about is the next step and where do we go from here. Maybe this is one big dream that I'm in and one day I'm going to wake up and we'll be back in our non-committal/flirtatious/endless friendship. I want more. I want this. I want us.

I Don't Even Know Anymore

Why do you do this to yourself?
You have a good job
A family
And yet you sit there depressed ruining your life.
There's no more words left to say.
You have to fix yourself.
Make yourself better, stronger
I don't know how you came to be this way.
I thought maybe me being here would change things
But I was wrong.
I was oblivious before
But now I'm a front and center witness to your own destruction.
I don't know how to talk to you
To get through to you
Because I don't even know if you're still there.
You look like you
You talk like you
But you say things we want to hear.
You've already been sent away to make yourself better.
Do you want to go back?
Or worse...
I can't even think about it.
You're my brother.
My little brother.
What happened to make you like this?
If I was around more
If you could talk to me
All those years ago
If I wasn't so oblivious to my surroundings
Would things be different?
Maybe so.
I can't blame myself though.
I'm here now.
Have been for years.
Though I was miles away
I answered when you called
Spoke to mom and dad constantly about what was going on.
I couldn't do anything then
I can't do anything now.
I feel so hopeless
And yet, you must feel that way too.
But I still don't understand why.
Why do you do the things you do?
We all love you.
I know you know that.
I hope you know that.
We don't know what else to say
Or do
To fix the situation.
Talking to you is like talking to a brick wall.
You say you understand
Then you go and do something totally different.
I wish I could talk to you
I wish I could make things better.
But only you can do that.
I love you.
Good Night.

CROCHET - The gift that keeps on giving

So, I've been doing a lot of crocheting the past few months and have added some cool new things to my growing list of what I can and can not crochet - I've come to find out that I can do just about anything. I usually use a picture to get me started and then once I have the basic measurements of what size the hat is I just go from there. I usually use the same pattern for every hat (just tweaking the size for babies, kids and adults). But sometimes I use a pattern if the design calls for something extra, like the cool shark hat I made for my little cousin. I didn't follow the pattern to a T, but I followed it pretty closely especially for the shark fin. I used whatever buttons I had lying around for the eyes, and seriously the teeth are so awesome!!! You can use that for a dinosaur or any type of animal - really excited about that!! But anyways, this is a really cool hat and I think my cousin is going to thoroughly enjoy it and be the talk of the town.

I'm also really into ear warmers. I made a couple before and they are really simple. I usually do 18 stitches across and 43 stitches long - that fits my head. I usually add flowers or bows to it but I figured out how to make the earwarmer itself look like a bow - see below. Just pinch in the middle at the seam and wrap w/ excess yarn and now you have a bow earwarmer! Piece of cake!! I made this one for my cousin but I'm going to definitely have to make one for myself. I have a hard time making things for other people because once I make it for them, I want one for myself, too. Oh well, at least I know how to make it. :) I just have way too many projects to make anything for myself right now.

 I also made these boot slippers for my cousin. I've been making slippers for a while. But these are my first pair of boot slippers. I think they came out really cute - she picked out the colors - and I added some buttons to the sides to make them pop! She said she LOVED them! :)

 This is a cowl scarf. I should probably add a picture of it being worn, but I didn't take any - I'll get on that though. This scarf is in the Hufflepuff colors - or Bruins colors. I'm making one for each of my Harry Potter friends based on where they were sorted in Pottermore. Hufflepuff for Alley, Theresa and I. Gryffindor for Mikey and Casey. Slytherin for Derek and Jenn. No one got into Ravenclaw, but oh well, no one cool was in Ravenclaw except for Luna anyways. :)

 And this owl hat is for my neice Hudson. I'm really excited to be able to give it to her finally, considering I said I would make her one when she was just born and that did not work out so well - I was slacking on the crocheting last year, this year I'm getting pretty awesome at it and I'm sticking to it.

I'm really excited about Christmas this year. I've been doing a lot of crocheting because I think handmade gifts are AWESOME!! And my friend is pregnant with her first child so I'm working on my first blanket - kind of nervous about that, but it's alright. I'm also doing some other handmade gifts for my friends considering I miss them tons since I've moved away from them - writing a cute friendship quote on a mug and making dolls for my nieces and future niece. This is going to be one great handcrafted Christmas. I promise to post pics of all finished items. Adios for now amigos, time to get some sleep. xoxo

Two Weeks

So, it's been two weeks since my last post. Two weeks since I began the whole NanoWriMo thing. I haven't exactly kept up with it - how like me that is. I am a horrible procrastinator and my mind creates new projects and ideas before finishing the first project or idea. I have been working on that though. I've been crocheting a lot more now that it's getting colder - so I'm only working on two crafts at a time for that: a baby blanket for my best friends baby (super duper excited about that and that this is my first blanket making ever!!) and a shark hat for my cousin. Once I finish the hat I'll begin another hat for my other cousin - these hats are Christmas presents and as my future niece/nephew is not due til the end of march I can work on Christmas gifts first - top priority. So I've been working on crochet projects, and though writing is important to me, so is crafting. Also, I spend most of my days at work - 12 hour shifts - and I can't bring my laptop there to work on my book. I bring my notebook and write in there, but by the time I get home I just want to change into pajamas and fall asleep, so I don't get to type up what I wrote previously until days later. I have written 8,000 words though in two weeks and I think that is PHENOMENAL for me, the great procrastinator. Because all the books I have ever started, I totally lose interest in in a matter of minutes and start working on something else. So the fact that I'm sticking with my train of thought for this book is also pretty EPIC, so I'm rather proud of myself even though I'm not sticking to the daily word goal. It is my first year doing it as well. It's also a different topic than I'm used to doing all together. Usually what I write about is of love and relationships and all that. This time, its sort of a thriller. No relationship drama there. I don't even know if I'm going to give it a happy ending yet, just because I hate that almost every book or movie ends with a happy ending. But considering that I do know what's going to happen, eventually, I think it will end up happy, just for the sake of my main characters. I just haven't really figured out the ending or the little bits in between yet. But I'm working on it and I'm excited about it, I just don't have all the time I wish I had to write consistently. But then again, I do need me time. And writing makes my brain hurt sometimes, so it is good to take breaks once in a while. I'll keep you posted on how it's going. So far, on the NanoWriMo website, it says I won't finish til February 1st. But even so, this book is doing a lot better than all my other unfinished projects. Rock on!!

November - National Novel Writing Month

I have always wanted to write a novel. ALWAYS! But my brain runs on too many tangents and can't seem to keep focused on one topic at a time. That's why I usually stick with poems or short stories and have been trying to dabble in writing reviews on books and movies because I love reading (http://livelaughluvsmile.blogspot.com/). So, when looking for a quote of the day or what's going on for the month of November I came across http://nanowrimo.org/. It's a website devoted to writing a novel in an entire month, with inspirational videos and meetups in your hometown to meet with other writers doing the same thing you are. I think this is awesome and may just be the motivation I need to kick myself in the ass and finally finish that novel. Let's do this!!