What have I been up to?

Oh, nothing much, you know, just starting a business, finishing my 40+ page thesis, and learning every single bone, muscle, tendon, ligament, nerve, artery, vein, and bump on a bone in the human body (Oh yeah, and their functions, exactly where they attach, etc). I spend my five minutes of free time out of every 24 hours sleeping. LOL.

In the free time that I make (you know, when I should be studying or crocheting or writing or sleeping) I've been doing some regular fun things.

Like going over to Megan's for delicious hot chocolate and even better conversation.
Or going to the last home hockey game of my college career. We tied. :(
Or just going out to eat with some of the boys I live with.
But mostly I've been making time to crochet. If you haven't already, check out my website at http://www.facebook.com/craftingjoy/. You can see it even if you're not on Facebook, Mom! Here are some of the orders I've been completing.

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!

Mary had a little lamb...

And now, so do I! I have been diligently working on animals for the booth I'm going to have in the Artist's Row at Llamapalooza on May 8th. I made this little guy by modifying a Japanese pattern. I particularly like how the fuzzy off-white yarn looks.

Sorry for the crappy picture quality- they're from my phone. I'm too lazy to get pictures off my camera. Once I do, however, I have a couple of very cool things to share.

It's the last day of the last block break of the year. I've had a very relaxing block break, and it has been so nice. Tomorrow I start Southwestern American Indian Music. I've had the professor before, and she's a sweet lady, as well as a pretty easy grader.

More than anything, though, I'm looking forward to coming home for the summer in just 3 1/2 weeks. Here's hoping they pass by quickly!

Can someone please have a baby...

so I can crochet this?
Isn't it so cute? I found it in a crochet magazine and now I really want to make it. Except I have no one to make it for. And I'm supposed to be making animals for the craft fair. Oh well. Maybe someday.

I did it!

Today was my last workout of the Wii Active 30 Day Challenge! I'm so glad to be finished. If you know me, you know that I hate exercise. Unless, of course, it comes in a fun package like basketball or ice broomball or something like that. And as much as EA Active likes to pretend like it's a really fun Wii game and not just a workout, I think it's more of a workout. I completed the challenge on medium intensity. I'm taking a rest day and then starting the 30 day challenge again, this time on high intensity. Wish me luck!

On to P365...I've been crocheting, sometimes. I think this looks kind of like Bones from all the Mario games.
I've also been watching the Olympics! It's fun to sit and crochet and wish that I could figure skate or ski or bobsled or something.

I got these on Monday. They were supposed to be delivered on Saturday, but I wasn't home when they came by, so it was delayed. By the time I got them the ice pack had melted and the chocolate was about to start melting, too! You can see them sweating.

On my walk towards my last crochet lesson yesterday, I came across two deer in the middle of the road. They then jumped over a fence into someone's front yard, where they were eating birdseed that had fallen from a feeder onto the ground. They didn't even run away when I came right up beside them on the other sde of the fence. I got pictures on my phone of both of them, but this was the best one.

And here is the bones head in a completed project. It is a dog that I was making for Becky to give to someone. I hope you like it Becky!

Full of energy...for now.

[January 29] I adore this peacock. He took forever to make, and I lost my motivation a thousand times, but now that he's done I love him.
[January 30] This is how I spent my Saturday. Ever heard of Hidden Object Games? It's kind of like interactive I Spy on the computer, and I get sucked in for hours at a time. It's a bad, bad habit that will keep you (and by you I mean me) from getting anything useful or productive done!

[January 31] I should be doing something productive like digging myself out of the mountain of paperwork that is piling up around me. Class paperwork, applications, notes, tests, request forms...it just keeps stacking up and it's driving me crazy!

[February 1] As far as weather goes, it's been cold but beautiful here. Mornings are especially chilly, but it warms up a little by the time I get out of class and you get gorgeous views like this one. Those lights are the stadium lights over our soccer field. So when you're sitting in the stands, watching a game, you can look up and see this:

[February 2] So I did actually get something done...I sorted and detangled my yarn. I found this Sterilite container by the trash can here at the Inn, in perfect condition. It has the box that it slides into, too, I just thought you could see my organized yarn better this way. It's a big container and it fits all of my "good yarn" perfectly. Just seeing this makes me happy.

I hope everyone's doing well. I've got a ton of things to do in the next week and a half (and then this block is OVER!) so I might not post again until block break. I really need to finish up my two applications and figure out my Senior Capstone Project plans, not to mention a twenty page research paper and a huge final exam. Oh, and Megan's 21st birthday is on Sunday. Hopefully my energy will last until block break.

Fuzzy headed...

I have been busy lately, but my real reason for not posting sooner? I'm lazy. I just never want to take the time to actually post. I have been taking my P365 photos, though.

But, finally, here is the promised vegetable photo!

Right now, these may be my favorite Christmas present. (Or second favorite, actually. For a minute there I forgot about the computer. Oops.) But I'm constantly wearing my cozy new slippers because it has been so cold in my room!

And yep, I'm crocheting on a regular basis again. (Which you could probably tell by the cool Etsy sidebar I put up. Neat, huh?)

A little winter weather photo. I didn't realize until after the fact that the camera on my phone had a big smudge over it. Oh well.

More crocheting. I feel like this little puppy need a nose and mouth, but I can't decide what color they should be.

And I'm back to doing my Wii workouts! (Finally.) I'm not ashamed to say they're kicking my butt, either. I've been crazy sore from all the squats and lunges and, worst of all, inline skating. You crouch down and hold in a squatting position until a jump comes, and then you jump up, landing back in a squat. Over and over again. I hate it. But the rest of the routine is usually fun!

And a little twist on my usual crocheting- I've been using a bunch of free patterns I found. The only problem is that they're Japanese patterns. Written in Japanese. Which is where the fuzzy headedness comes in. However, they have charts with symbols, and once you memorize the symbols, it's not too difficult to translate. I've just been writing the patterns out in my pattern journal as I translate them. They're SO CUTE though, so I'll go through the effort it takes to get them. (I did add the heart in on this one. He was supposed to be holding a carrot.)

So that's basically all I've been doing. Except, you know, the super exciting news I have only told a few people. I'm applying for a domestic study abroad program (What an oxy-moron, huh?) in Chicago for this coming fall semester. It's an Urban Studies program and it just looks AMAZING. You can check it out at www.acm.edu/chicago. I really hope I get in, and if I do, I'll be a Southwest Studies major and an Urban Studies minor. Plus I'll spend four months living in Chicago. The application is due on Feb 10 on campus and March 15 at the ACM office, so I won't know for a while, but wish me luck now, anyways, if you'd like!

A crocheted cheeseburger?

With the craft fair coming up so soon (only 13 days!) I really need to step up the crocheting. One reason I haven't been blogging so much lately is because I've been doing so much crafting. I did take a little break from craft fair stuff to work on some crocheted food that I'm trading to another crafter for some christmas gifts. First, a bowl of blackberries...
A bowl of strawberries...

A bowl of eggs...

A bowl of chicken nuggets...

A plump, juicy hot dog...

And the coolest part, in my opinion, a cheeseburger...

And here are all the pieces of the burger...

I still have some craft fair stuff to show you, though. These snowmen just make me smile. Their faces are so sweet!

A cool jellyfish...

I've actually made several jellyfish, but most of them look more like this guy with curly tentacles.

I created this little toad pattern in the dark while analyzing a movie in class one day, and I didn't know how he would really look, but I like it! His fat little belly is so cute.

Two colorful fish...

And a reindeer ornament. (See the yarn hanger?) I've done a snowman ornament, too.

So you see, I have been busy! I start a new class on Monday, a sociology class titled Inequality. I'm not super excited, but there really weren't any classes that excited me to choose from. With the budget cuts here on campus, many of the more fun classes or classes in smaller departments have been cancelled. So if I wanted to take a biology class, I would have lots of options, but if I wanted to take a Southwest Studies class, I only have one choice. (I thought about taking that class, but I've had the professor before and I didn't really like her.) Hopefully this class will turn out better than I'm expecting, though.