My Month Away

So, I've been in Mobile, Alabama for a month and I just got back. Figured I'd share some of my experiences while there.

Apparently Mardi Gras was invented in Mobile or something, even though it is really big in New Orleans, it's home is Mobile. So, the friend I was staying with picked up a king cake at the store and brought it home. It's a pretty cake, round with icing and loads of sugar sprinkles in the Mardi Gras colors. Inside it was cinnamon with strawberry filling (it is important you remember that strawberry part) She goes off to work and I decide I'm gonna have a piece of cake for breakfast (nutritious I know :) ) I'm all not paying attention, checking messages, watching stuff and I look down to find this on my plate...

 WHY?!

Why does my cake have a bloody baby corpse in it? Did my cake give birth? What the hell man?!

Apparently it's got something to do with Mardi Gras, lemme go see if I can find why there was a dead baby in my cake. Here's a New Orleans site explaining the King Cake. Makes a bit more sense now but still, you guys coulda found a better way, honestly.

So after my traumatizing cake experience we went to Books-a-Million where my friend bought me an awesome magnet.

What is that wonderful bracelet? It's a row counter! Yes, my friend is a fantastic jewelry maker and she made me a sliding bead row counter. How cool is that? I love it mightily. 

When I was packing to go to Mobile I packed Valentine's colors of yarn and crochet thread, just in case I decided to make something for my friends. It starts getting closer to the day and I happen to remember that I have a tatting pattern for hearts that I got on my last visit to Hobby Lobby. (I love those free little tear away things, don't you?) I dig through my crafty bag and resurface with red and white crochet thread, a tatting needle, a pattern, and I get to work.

Shut up, I'm still new at tatting.

The white thread was made of a different material than the red and didn't lend itself to tatting very well. I tried starching them to make them a bit stiffer, but it didn't work. I think the red one came out better because the thread actually worked with me instead of doing it's own thing (Yeah I'm looking at you, white thread *glare*) My other friend (I have two down there, hence the two hearts) showed his mom my wool-eater blanket because she's a crocheter too. She loved it and gave me yarn to work on it. She also asked me to make her a baby blanket and gave me yarn for that as well. I don't have pics of it yet, I'll prolley do a post on it later. I love yarn, it's one of the quickest ways to my heart, plus she was super nice, love the whole family. Anyways, I can't see anything else when looking at the white heart since the guy I gave it to told me it looks like a monkey. Le sigh, my tatting needs work.

I previously made a purse for my friend...I don't think I ever posted it. Weird. Dragon Egg Purse

The colors are much prettier in person.

She loved it but I noticed that she had trouble finding her cards and money in it in a hurry. So I figured I would make her a little wallet to match for her birthday. But then, in glorious yarn crafter fashion, I figured, why not make her a wristlet to hold her phone and cards to match her purse? Only I'd use a double zero (00) hook to make it small and start with an oval the size needed to fit her phone. And while I'm at it why don't I just now realize that I have 2 days to finish it and can only work on it while she's asleep or at work?  Dragon Egg Wristlet

Brilliant, really.

And while I was at it I'd go on and make her a card holder too since I had a whole day left till her birthday >_>  Card Holder ITR

I crocheted this in the round for a reason. I had plans on using the random stripe generator (very cool btw) but then I noticed that with all of the blue in the Oceana yarn that you wouldn't be able to tell very well where the stripes were. If it were done in the round with random stripes the front and back would match. I still made stripes but kept it simple. I actually made this a little too small but I figured that, with use over time, it would stretch a bit. Still made with a double zero hook to keep the stitches tight. (Almost a little too tight when it came time to weave in ends. I broke a needle while doing that.)

Dang, I should have taken a pic of the purse that started all of this while I was there. I made her a purse with blueberry banana yarn once and it made me get back into crocheting. You aren't missing much though. 

I also finished the scarfy thing while there. Return of the Scarf 

That's the friend I was staying with in the pics. 

It was a funny thing when I turned around and looked at the couch I was sleeping on during all of this.

 Don't see what's so funny?

How about now?

Yeah, that's where I was sleeping and it was slowly being eaten by yarn. I then had to stop and wonder if I had a problem with this. That wasn't the only bag of yarn btw and my little pink bag just holds all of my tools, and if it's small enough, my current project. (the baby blanket is in it now)

While making the wristlet and wallet I became paranoid that I was gonna run out of Oceana (that's the pretty purple and blue variegated yarn) When my friend wanted me to make her the purse she bought me two skeins of the blue and two of the Oceana. I made the purse, the wristlet, the wallet and this...

Ms. Glynda's Purse

(That a good sized purse btw, it is in no way small)

I had one small ball left of Oceana but I hadn't even used a full skein of the blue yet. How does that happen? I've still got a little bit of blue plus a full untouched skein left. Have I discovered an immortal yarn that never runs out??

My other friend also made me a hand of Clow Cards while I was there.

And since they are so cool you get closeups :D

They are from an anime named Cardcaptor Sakura

The one's face down belong to my scarfy friend, I just showed them so you can see what the backs looked like. I like ice and water, can you tell? Also, The Dark is darker cuz it's from a different batch. It was from his personal collection so I feel all special.

(I really should get their permission to use their names cuz this friend and other friend thing is confusing)

I watched my friend (see?) play a video game called Trinity Universe. One of the hidden characters' name is Recit and he gets made fun of by Prinnies because no one wants their receipt. 

So for the whole time I was down there any time someone asked any of our group if they wanted a receipt we were obligated to say yes.

Let's see...what else happened while I was down there? I tried several red wines, so far I'm not a fan. Maybe I just haven't found the right one but I haven't liked them so far. The one I found the best was called Layer Cake

(Image from Google)

What I did like was that I got some mango rum. I have a bottle all to myself now ^_^ 

(Image still from Google)

*Happy dance* By the way, this stuff is really good in apple juice, just sayin'. And yes, I am of legal drinking age :P You might remember me talking about this stuff in my previous post, Boozin'. So happy I now have some. I missed my family, friends, and kitties, but it was great to see my other friends and hang out. I'm gonna write about the ending to the trip (which included my first ever concert) later cuz I think this one is long enough now. See ya laters peeps.

Egg Drop Chicken Noodle Soup

So, I've shared success, failure, and now I'm sharing a meh. This one I did way back when I still had chicken noodle soup, before I found my awesome soup ->  Cheap Chicken Noodle Made Awesome

I absolutly love egg drop soup so I'm always on the lookout for some way to make it. I decided that since it is chicken broth like stuff that I would try and experiment with chicken noodle soup.

Voila, cheap chicken noodle soup.

I added water and brought it to a low boil. Added scrambled eggs and lightly swirled it around then took it off of the heat. At the end it looked like this...

I cooked the egg a little too long, my bad.

It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. It was okay.

Moral: Meh, prolley won't do this again.

Return of the Scarf!

Soooo, while staying with a friend I brought the 2 needle scarf I was working on ages ago.

New Needles

I was just using it for practice cuz I'm new at this knitting thing and don't know what I'm doing half the time ^_^ Plus when I cast on I accidentally made too many stitches so it's way too wide. But my friend liked it so much she wanted me to finish it. So I thought I'd share with you the final product. She didn't want it blocked so it's a little wonky, just warning you.

It's not crooked, it's just how she's holding it.

If it were blocked it would have spread out the stitches but this way it spreads when you want it to. Like where she's holding it at the sides the stitches are open but if she doesn't want them to be open, for warmth or something I guess, they don't have to be. One weird side effect of it being so wide is that it can be used for more than just a scarf.

So my friends, we have a fashion show! Here's a scarf.

So stylin' ^_^

 A hooded scarfy thing.

And a shawl.

This is what the stitches look like when open. So yeah, the scarf is finally done. Woot!

Pizza Failure

So I figured since I shared a success story with the soup I'd share a failure as well. I did this a while back so wish me luck on remembering everything ^_^

I took a Totinos and wanted to try heating it up on the stove. Sprayed the pan and added a bit of cheese to the pizza.

This is back when I had cheese. I miss you cheese T_T

I only added it on half cuz I was planning on folding it in half. Problem is the bottom got done faster than the top. I put the top on the skillet to try and circulate the air or something like that. Went to flip it and...

Failure. Complete and absolute failure. Maybe if it was cooked on a lower setting, maybe if I wasn't a dumbass and actually cooked it the way it was supposed to be cooked, maybe then it would have turned out ok.

Moral: Not gonna happen again

Cheap Chicken Noodle Made Awesome

Been a while huh? I've been having some medical issues going on and been a little distracted. I have taken pics of stuff I swear, I just never seem to find the time to put them up. I'll try to do better. Going out of town for a month and I've got a few pics on my comp so I'll see what I can do. Anyways, good news and bad news for this post. Good news: I found a way to make that really cheap and blah store brand chicken noodle soup taste awesome. Bad news: I'm out of chicken noodle soup cuz I've made this a couple of times T_T It's just so tasty, I can't help it! So let's get started shall I?

This all started cuz we had garlic left over from Christmas and I was trying to think up ways to use it. I'm not a big cooker cuz I hate cleaning up, and I know there are probably tons of ways for people to use garlic.

I folded a piece of lunch meat in half and then rolled it up.

You can use whatever you want, I'm just broke and this is all we had.

Then I sliced it into rounds and cut those in half (you can chop up your meat any way you like, I just find this faster and easier) Then I chopped up two cloves of garlic.

After that I heated up a bit of butter on medium heat and when it was melted I added the garlic (butter burns, be careful. If you need to, add a bit of olive oil or something) Stirred until it started smelling really good and I thought it would be a good time to add the ham.

 I know when it's time to add the soup cuz the ham starts jumping. I'm serious, that ham is after you and you need to drown it. Added the soup and half a can or so of water, up to you how much you add really. Added 1 bay leaf, a dash or two of black pepper and Italian seasoning and a few shakes of this stuff...

I can't think of what it's called right now. It's some kind of peppers in vinegar. The label has been worn off forever ago cuz we just refill it with vinegar when it gets low. Speaking of which, looks like it needs some now. Anyways...

Here's another thing up to you. Leave it on medium and it will boil eventually. When you think the bay leaf and garlic have had time to infuse to the rest of the soup and the little garlic pieces are transparent and mushy it's time to take it off. 

I actually cooked mine a little too long and some of the water cooked out. I had to wait for my batteries to recharge just a bit so I could take the final few pictures. Oops. Anyways, this soup is great I love it, I'm just gonna be sad when I'm out of garlic.

Moral: Garlic = Bad breath but numminess.

Ravelry Christmas Goodies

I got my first swap from Ravelry today ^_^

We were supposed to send 4 granny squares...

And a Christmas gift equaling 20 bucks or less.

She got me a bag of coffee, a sparkly scarf and a little ball made of magnets that had me playing with them and forgetting to take pictures ^_^ They are fun, don't judge me :P 

I wish what I sent her was cooler but as my bloggy readers know (ha, as if anyone is actually reading this) I am what people call "below poverty" I hope she likes them anyways. Also, what yarn are those two variegated squares?

My camera won't show the colors very well but they are gorgeous! The one on the right reminds me of a peacock. The yellow one is super soft and they are all awesome but these two are my faves. Pretty pretty!

I also have a new way of protecting my yarn from little kitty claws.

That is, if I can stop playing with it and remember not to get it near my comp ^_^ I love mail :D

Also, anyone have a use for this pink fluffy yarn? I rescued it from my brother's house, and I don't know what to do with it. It has a paper core, if I'm not mistaken. What do you do with yarn you can't block or wash or ever get wet? It's still pretty even if I have no idea what to do with it.

My First Shawl

So I'm new at knitting and I don't want to make a scarf or anything that will make me bored and not want to finish. I have a ball of green yarn and I found a leafy shawl that looks interesting. (Ashton Shawlette)

I don't have the right yarn or needles but hey, you deal with what you've got ^_^

12/29/12 You go into the first chart with 7 stitches on your needles.

Aaaand cue screeching halt.

1/2/12 I'm done with the first chart.

It took a few days to get here for a few reasons. I tried on my own for a few days and just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong, then a few days more of talking with the designer (she was super sweet ^_^ ) until we figured out what I was doing wrong, then a day or two to get to this point. Turns out that I learned a stitch incorrectly aaaand it was a really important stitch. Yeah it looks like a pile of crap (my fault, not the design's) I know it'll look better as I go along and when it gets blocked. I keep losing a stitch somewhere on one side so the design over there is prolley gonna look funky anyways. Not gonna tell you where, just in case when it gets done you can't tell ^_^ But hey, for my first try at shawls and being a complete newbie at knitting, it doesn't look too bad. It could be on fire and have gaping holes in it right now and it'd still be better looking than what I would have had if the designer hadn't helped me so much. You rock ^_^