"Stitch 'n' Bitch"

Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was one of the first crochet books I ever owned. The beginning section that teaches you how to crochet was a big help and very easy to understand once I actually made myself read the entire explanation of each stitch instead of trying to figure it out on my own! The patterns are very cute and many are easy enough for someone just starting to learn crochet. I would definitely recommend this to any beginning hooker out there.



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"Awkward Family Pet Photos"

Awkward Family Pet Photos by Mike Bender

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


While some of the photos really made me laugh (or just creeped me out), most of them kind of fell flat. Yes, it is slightly amusing to see the hair and clothing choices of people during the 80's and 90's but I didn't think that the portraits of people with animals were amusing by themselves. I don't find people holding their pets to be terribly funny but I suppose if you aren't a pet person then maybe the photos will be funnier to you.



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"Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful"

Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful by Narumi Ogawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It seems like almost all of the Japanese-inspired crochet books out there are only for amigurumi. I like that this book includes patterns that aren't amigurumi. I love all the super cute designs. I can't really see myself making some of them, but the instructions are fairly easy to read and I've already completed one project from the book.



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Wedding Style

I went to the bridal salon recently and didn't realize how many things they were going to ask me. After a million questions I couldn't answer about my wedding I've decided to actually start visualizing what I want everything to look like. I've managed to at least decide upon a general look and feel to the wedding. Since it will be outdoors, I love bright colors, and it will most likely be earlier in the day, I thought a floral garden-y look with bright orange and blue would be nice. Not too formal, more like a fancy brunch. Some pictures of things I like:

Fun rings for bridesmaids, perhaps?

I was actually thinking of a lighter orange than this for one of the colors at the wedding, but I really like this dress

Maybe a floral print for the bridesmaid dresses. Think this dress would be cute with blue shoes.

I love this color combination, but I think it would be better to add some darker hues as well, so it doesn't look so tropical

I want to make a brooch bouquet like this one!

And cake toppers for Kraig :)

An Irrational Fear

I can't recall when I became so terrified of bugs. There was no specific instance I can point to as an explanation for my fear, I only know that I didn't used to have a problem with them and now I do. Not too long ago a friend and I were discussing our irrational fear of all bugs. As we both talked I began to realize how completely insane we sounded. This didn't help allay my fears, it just made me realize how crazy those fears were. I have to check inside my coffee cup each morning in case a spider got into it (because I once saw a spider in one of the coffee cups)and my shoes in case a cockroach crawled in. At night I won't walk around downstairs without slippers or shoes on my feet (a habit I developed recently after seeing a cockroach in the family room). I also will sleep with my entire body under the covers, including head, if I hear a fly or mosquito in my room (so they don't fly into my ears, nose, or mouth).
Any kind of bug bothers me to a certain degree, though spiders and cockroaches are the worst. I can't bring myself to get anywhere near a cockroach. It took me nearly five minutes of standing outside in the dark last night when I saw a cockroach in front of my door before I figured out a plan to get in and worked up the nerve to implement it (the plan being - stay as far from cockroach as possible while trying to scare it away with stomping and/or my shadow). And, of course, when I finally scared it away and ran inside the house a cockroach was waiting inside as well. I made some sort of screeching sound out of fear and fled the room, grateful I didn't need to linger in there to turn out the lights since my brother still wasn't home.

Engagement

Here are a few pictures I stole from my sister-in-law from the night we announced our engagement - extremely awkward for me, by the way. I think I just about had a panic attack having to make that announcement in front of everyone. I really don't do well in that kind of situation.

Kraig didn't know where I was and I had been holding his coffee so he asked where his coffee was - not where I was, where his COFFEE was. Looks like he found his coffee!

My ring!!! I love it!!! (and my orangey looking nails from the gloss stuff I put in my hair that morning lol)

After the announcement everyone was taking a look at the ring.

Hmm . . . picture for an engagement announcement perhaps?

Here's me hugging my dad - and laughing because he hugged Kraig first and was like "oops! I have to hug you too!"

Change

So many things have changed since I last wrote. Of course, that was over two years ago so that's only to be expected. However, many of the changes in my life are things I never expected at all. I still work at Barnes & Noble and am thinking of going back to school in October. Also, I'm now engaged to the guy I started dating not long after my last post on here, which I am very happy about.
The only thing about being engaged that doesn't thrill me is the wedding. While I've come to realize that there are other girls out there who also feel like vomiting at the prospect of planning a wedding, most people don't understand my lack of enthusiasm for what is supposed to be the biggest day of my life, which, as a female, I'm expected to have dreamt about since I was a child. But the thought of having a wedding never occurred to me until I started dating Kraig. Maybe I should have payed more attention in my Family Living class in highschool when we were planning imaginary weddings instead of just cutting out anything brightly colored from wedding magazines to glue to my display board.

Fashion Show

Here's some pictures of the fashion show I was in a couple weeks ago at the Haggin Museum. It was put on by students and faculty from Delta.

This is the back of the dress I wore, not sure why the bows are crooked (could be because they got pinned to me about two seconds before I walked out)

June, Me, Bianca (the fabulous designer of our clothes), Jasmine, and Ana after the show

Me, posing on the runway maze (it really was like a maze - so confusing!)

Top row: Amy, Jasmine, Ana, June

Bottom row: Cassandra, me

Me, getting ready (look at that hair! it took me forever to wash all that hair spray out and get it untangled - the girl who did my hair ratted it to make it look like that)

Everyone running around trying to get ready on time. It was crazy back there, but we managed to find a small room off the main dressing room that no one knew about and commandeered it for ourselves.

Right before the show - hecka nervous! BTW, it was hard to get into that dress. Not only was it tight, it wasn't finished when I put it on so it had pins in it still. I scratched my leg trying to get dressed! Then my dress had to be finished while I was in it.

Sea Beast

Here's a video from a trip I took to Monterey Bay Aquarium awhile ago. This is the majestic sunfish. Without a doubt, the best fish EVER!!!

Blobfish

Check out http://divaboo.info/, the 25 weirdest animals! It's hecka good!