Crafting Time!

It's Friday, the last day of November! Sheesh, I can't believe December is already here. Sometimes things move soooo slowly... and sometimes the months just pounce on by.

So this is what I've been working on lately. Not my own designs except for certain embellishments and different uses of buttons, but it's always easier for me to follow someone else's rules than make up my own. It took me hours to create my own curious critter because I had to "design" it and I didn't know how.

Introducing......
my pals Jamie, Floopy, and Henri (from left to right). And an unnamed, half-sewn blue hippo.

Jamie is a crooked fellow. So crooked that he's confused about who he is. He thinks he's male, but he's such a bright fuschia pink with a girly blue and pearl bow that he questions himself. He's working on it. Don't judge him.

Floopy was never accepted in school. He tried really hard to fit in, but he's just a little empty-headed and couldn't keep up with the popular kids' drama. He's super fun to play with, but never count on him to be on time for the movies. Despite his seemingly neglectful nature, he's got a heart of gold and is very loyal once he makes a decision if he likes you (it may take a while to know where you stand, so be patient).

Henri, unlike Jamie, knows EXACTLY who he is and embraces being pink and striped. His self confidence is inherent in his French nature. There's no identity crisis here! His beautiful blue eyes draw others to him and his plump tummy just shows you how much he loves his French cuisine. He's actually thinking of enrolling in culinary school and becoming a fabulous (and humble) French chef. Mais oui! Bien sur!!

Sorry I didn't post about my other friends that I'd made a couple of months ago. Oh wait... I may just have a picture of them!!!

OOOH I DO!

Here are my friends, from left to right, who are ALL original creatures except for Pinkie:
Paul the mittened monster (inspired by Bloo)
Cheep the spherical blobule chickie
Pinkie the pig (yes, I know she's red)
Janna the nag
Teddy the bear snowman
Flora the snob

Their bios:
Paul is a distant relative of Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. He's so proud that Bloo has made it big time with his own tv show that Paul brags about him every chance he gets. Too bad the two have actually never met..

Cheep is the most serious one of all the bunch. He's small and round, but he packs a mean punch if you take him lightly. While socializing, one must stick to safe topics such as the weather and food, and never discuss the world's state of affairs. Not if you want to leave with your pride intact.

Pinkie is a happy piglet. She's got ADHD and it took all of her concentration to sit still for this group photo. Seconds after the picture was taken, she sproinged off the couch like a two week old puppy.

Janna is the oldest of the group. AHEM, excuse me, I meant, the most experienced and respected. She is the mother to all the crew, with her big red lips and uneven, blazing blue eyes, she can stop you dead in your tracks if you think you're leaving the house without your coat on. Reminiscent of the tough, no-nonsense diner waitress of yore, Janna is old-school traditional, and purposefully matches her paisley prints on a daily basis.

Teddy is proud that he fits in two genres: snowmen and bears. He's not so happy with his name, unoriginal as it is, and wishes to change it to something more debonair and refined. Like Rupert. Or McPaddington. He is decidedly British of some sort. Oddly enough, he was born in the United States, but he speaks with a Scottish accent.

Flora thinks she is the most beautiful creature ever made. Her flowery patterns and daisy print skirt are all that's needed for her to put that smug look on her face. She thinks she is better than everyone else and has won multiple beauty pageants, mostly by making other contestants cry and forfeit the competition. Unlike a couple of her counterparts, she is completely hand-stitched and pampers her stitches with spa treatments and other very expensive weekly procedures. People often mistake her for Janna, to which she haughtily retorts, "THAT bag?! Get your eyes checked, and apologize to me at once!"

Perhaps we'll have a holiday party soon and you can meet my friends in person. More to come later. :)

Gobble, gobble, *choke*, *hack*

So it's Monday. And I had the strangest and shortest work week last week and a long weekend to boot. I'm back to the grind, but things happened today that tripped up the wonderful, euphoric flow I had going.

Well first of all, I went to Felt Club yesterday and spent $60 on this:

And someone decided she wanted to play too (it's a crochet kit of 2 snails in a toadstool):

So anyways I get to work early and decide to be good and not have coffee, but tea instead. I start working and check out some of my blogs to catch up from the short week I had, and saw that two of my eBay auctions have sold and been paid for! OMG! I'm, like, 12 hours behind!! So I send off an email to the buyers saying thanks and that their stuff will go out tomorrow. And I hope my tardiness (ok, so it's just a matter of hours... but still) doesn't affect their giving me good feedback on my 0 feedbacks so far. And I have to get Rick to ship them out for me tomorrow.

Then get this email about my application to grad school. To make a dramatic story short and not so dramatic, an aspect of my application is incomplete, yet I have a perfectly good answer to why it is incomplete, and there is nothing I can really do about it being incomplete as it's out of my hands. I ask what steps I need to take, and get emailed that it's required. I email back, saying Yes I know, but what should I do now? and get emailed that it's required. Yeah. Pain in the butt much? And it's signed by an actual person, so it's not like it's automated, although you could have fooled me with the robotic unintelligence.

So then I find out we get a 20% discount on tuition. But you can either do that OR get work credit. So then I have to do math (UGH) and try to figure out what's the best 'deal'. And then I realize that I didn't get any financial aid so no loans to help me out, so can afford to take two classes a quarter??

I get a few emails from my mom with her updating me about things going on and then I get depressed. Sheesh. Not that it's her fault, it's just that Sh*t happens sometimes. And you can't always prepare for it.

I was hoping this week was going to go super smoothly since it's short and a lot of people are on vacation so things in general should be quiet. Maybe it still can be. But I'm already stressed and I haven't even thought about the impending holiday yet. Which is a smaller stressor than Christmas, but still a stressor.

Ergo, I wish you a happy Gobble, Gobble, Gobble... while I Gobble, Gobble, *choke*, *hack*, *cough*, *grunt*.

Winding down

This weekend I finally finished my app. YIPPEE!! I actually had a really good and relaxing weekend. :) On Saturday, Rick and I went to breakfast at our usual greasy-spoon diner, Ben's, stopped at the farmer's market across the street, and just a block away was the West Coast Artists' Fine Arts Festival going on in Downtown Burbank. We spent a good 2 hours walking the street fair, checking out the jewelry, paintings, and modern art ideas. It was so much fun! The end (or beginning) of the fair started right at the mall so we walked inside and browsed some of the mall stores there. I almost got an Old Navy coat since they're having a 40% off sale this week, but they were out of my size - and I realized the next day that I can't do math and I thought 60% of $90 was somehow $36 ( 9 x 6 = 36, like DUH) so of course, much to my surprise, it was actually $54 so good thing they didn't have my size. Stupid me. How am I supposed to do well on the GREs when I can't even do multiplication????!

Later that evening we went out to dinner with our good friends, Raul and Kathleen, to a Chinatown place that was supposed to be a jazz club, but they didn't have their jazz band playing that night. We ended up leaving and going to Hop Louie just around the corner for dinner, and that was pretty good. :) Stopped in a couple of those little shops that were still open, and then headed back to their place for some TV. Ended up watching many episodes of Robot Chicken, and I gotta say - that series is for someone with extreme ADHD. Someone like me. :) I enjoyed it sooo much and was the only one of us who didn't fall asleep from over-stimulation.

On Sunday I final-proofed my essay, whipped up my resume, and packed up my app to go. It's out of my hands now! This Wednesday I'm taking the day off to take the stupid GRE so hopefully that will go alright. I've been having anxiety dreams about the test, so I really hope I don't get a migraine that day. $140 is not fun to waste.

Things are coming along nicely. I'm happy that all my loose ends and busy weekends are winding down slowly, even as I try to find activities to do on the weekends. Perhaps next weekend I will finally be able to take Rick up to the Griffith Observatory. We can now park up on the hill instead of taking the shuttle, so I'm expecting crowds to be at a max.

Disneyland this Friday!! :) Maybe this time I will go on rides by myself while my pregnant sister patiently waits. She's having a girl!!

Recent craft ideas:
Mini origami crab and crane earrings. I have small gold foil paper (about 4" x 4") that will fold into small crabs and cranes. :)

Mini felt horses, giraffes, snails. The instructions I had been working from were a good, basic introduction to understanding the design and layout of bunnies and kittens. Now I can try to make my own favorite critters with the techniques I've learned.

Annette reminded me that Felt Club is coming this Sunday! I'm going to try to make it.

I've also just set up an eBay selling account and am trying to get rid of some of my stuff. Nothing great, really, just some new, old shoes. I love my high heels but sometimes they just hurt me too much.

Thanksgiving is coming up very soon....