It's closing time...

So I'm all packed up, my room is clean, and I'm checking out with my RA first thing tomorrow morning. Robert arrived around 8:30 p.m. yesterday, and he's been a great help (when I can pull him away from his computer games!). We're headed over to Megan's for a last friendly get-together before summer in just a little while. It's sad to think I won't see her (or any of my other friends) again until the end of January.

Robert and I went out for a special dinner tonight. He said he wanted to take me out to celebrate the beginning of my senior year of college. I had fajitas, which made me so happy! In addition, we ordered the margarita sampler tray. After tasting all of them, I drank the red one and the blue one. The red one was pomegranate, and we agreed that it was the best. I'd never had a margarita of my own before, and it was TASTY!

By the way, this picture was taken with my brand spankin' new camera. It's tiny and perfect to slip in my purse for occasions such as this. As you might be able to tell, I'm still figuring out the settings as far as focus points and such. I'm so used to being able to choose every setting that it's a little hard to get used to.

I hope everyone is doing as well as I am. To my Texas family, I'll see you in just a few days! I come bearing gifts (as long as they fit in the car :) ) and I can't wait to see everyone. I love you guys.

To my mother...

and every other mother I know, happy Mother's Day! I hope that you are all able to relax and have a wonderful day.

I'm horrible at keeping secrets, so I told my Mom about half of her Mother's Day present. Here it is, a gorgeous handmade single serving teapot made by a super cool CC student. (Sorry, not me!)
I traded for it yesterday at Llamapalooza, and got a super great deal. The price on it was 1.5 times more than the price of one of my animals, but the guy traded me for just one octopus. So I'm happy with that!

The coloring on it is gorgeous, and it looks way better in person. Here it's reflecting everything in my room (the light from the window, the lights in the room, the brightness of the fabric under it, etc), so you can't really tell how gorgeous the coloring is. But just trust me, it's gorgeous. :)

I love you, Mom, and I hope you love it!

Oh, Llama.

Llamapalooza was fun, but the selling wasn't great. I made about $100, and paid $30 for the booth. So that's kind of disappointing. But hey, at least I have a bunch of animals made and ready to sell now! The day itself was cold and windy. It was sunny for a while, but then the sun went away and never came back. One of the bands (a really awesome jazz group) joked about how somebody promised them it was going to be warm and sunny. "Well," he said, "somebody lied." It didn't get out of the 50s, and I was freezing the whole time. Plus the wind kept knocking over my animals, which was so annoying.

But anyways, here's my table. This was right after I first set up, and I did fix the uneven table cloth things. (Hey Trudy, recognize them?)

Here's a closeup of some of the animals, including my best sellers- the llamas. They were the first three things I sold.

Here's my view of the stage.

Okay, just kidding, that was the zoomed in version. Here's my actual view of the stage. I took these pictures before a ton of people showed up.

Here are the people! And, as you can see...no sun. There were free cheeseburgers and veggie burgers, but the line was so long that I didn't get one.

Here's another crowd view. You can see the graffiti mural they were making. You can also see the huge variety of seating that people brought in. There were at least fifty couches, and I also saw computer chairs, lawn chairs, recliners, futons, mattresses, and one blow up pool (with no water, of course).

There were a ton of fun things for people to do, including a huge bouncy house, a slip 'n slide (which no one was using because it was so cold), frisbees, sidewalk chalk, slacklining between trees, horseshoes, kite flying, and face painting. The face painting booth was right next to mine.

So, overall, Llama was fun, but I don't know if I'll sell there again. I like my nice, climate controlled, indoor sales. I did, however, trade with other crafters for some really awesome stuff. A little more about that next.

Llamas for Llama

When I turned in my sign up sheet for selling at Llamapalooza, a girl asked me what I would be selling. I told her crocheted animals. She asked if I'd have llamas, since that would be just so perfect for Llamapalooza. Having never made a llama before, I just kind of smiled and laughed and said something like, "yeah, that would be cool".

The thought got stuck in my mind, so I decided to try to make a llama. Here's my first try. I think he's pretty cute.

His head is a little big for a llama, though.

So I tried again. Here is llama 2.o. What do you think? Which one do you prefer?

And here's just a quick snapshot of my "work station". I've been putting together animals as fast as I can, while watching TV or listening to music on my computer.

So far I've got 47 completed animals. My goal is to get five more done tonight, then finish putting together all the animal pieces I have completed tomorrow. Then I'll use Friday and Saturday morning to get everything ready, find some things to set up a nice table front, and gear up for the sale. Wish me luck!

Blowing money at the C-Store

As most of you know (since I called you yesterday) I had a large amount of dining dollars left. Since it's getting so close to the end of the semester, it's use 'em or lose 'em time, so I decided to spend it all at the C-Store. When I went there today, I had a list of things everyone wanted, and I think I did pretty well. Everyone got something- Mom, Dad, Trudy and her family, Christin and her family, Becky and Dustin (well, mostly Becky), Robert, and Robert's Mom. Not to mention me! In this one trip today I went from $450 down to $7. (Just to show you how high their prices are, I only had three plastic grocery bags and a backpack full of stuff.)

Thank you to everyone who helped me spend my money! Now, can you guess whose bag this is? I'll give you a big hint: it has AA batteries, AAA batteries, 9V batteries, a Butterfinger, Peanut M&Ms, Reese's, and Double Stuf Oreos. (The answer will be listed beneath the photo.)

If you guessed that it was Dad's bag, you are so right! I'm sure I'll be asking him for some of the batteries this summer, though. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Are you sick of them yet?

I'm not! Here are a few more of our engagement pictures, probably the last set I'll post.

Rob's favorite pictures...

So these are our funny pictures. These are the only pictures I specifically requested/brought anything for. I thought they would be funny and cute and very true to our relationship (You know, because I'm always saying "Rob, stop playing and pay attention to me" and "Rob, put down the controller and talk to me" and "Robert Barnes, are you choosing video games over me AGAIN?". You know. That's how it is.)

Anyways, I think they turned out hilarious, mostly because of the crazy faces he was making. And Robert loves them, too.