i know it's hard

back in high school, there was a running joke of sorts about my girl-scout-ness for lack of a better word. you know, because i did things like bake brownies from scratch and we had a craft room (slash box after we moved) in my house. they would make comments about how i probably made my skirt and my tights and my bag and... you get the idea. a friend wrote in my end of the year notebook thingie:

"I'll remember your craftiness/girl scoutness and how you practically made everything you own... I can imagine you probably made this notebook yourself you liar... that man didn't give it to you."

(those ellipses are not me editing the quote. we were all really big on ellipses back then....) she then wrote that if i was a shape i would be a rectangle, but that is neither here nor there.

anyway. it has been eight years since i graduated high school, and i feel like i am becoming the person that they said i was back then. i just want to make everything. i want to spend hundreds of thousands of hours knitting and only stop when my hands are so cramped that i can barely hold the needles. and even then, i'll just switch to crocheting. (who woulda thought? me, crocheting.)  i want every blanket in my house to be made by me. i want to knit all my clothes. (i'm not even joking, i had the strongest urge to knit myself an entire outfit the other day but i refrained because although i'm fine with being the person who wants to knit their entire wardrobe, i don't think i'm ready to become the person that actually knits her own clothes.) once i finish this turtle scarf for my sister, i plan on crocheting a teddy bear. because why not. i want everyone i know to have babies so that i can make them blankets and hats and sweaters and toys. i want to have made every pot, plate, and mug i own. every vase and box and bowl. i want to make my own notebooks. (i've only done paper-making once outside of science class in sixth grade, but i loved it.)

my most recent crafty urge is to take up weaving. my mom has this huge loom (that i totally plan on stealing someday) that we were kind of obsessed with growing up. so she bought a table loom (that i plan to take a lot sooner than someday) and taught us to weave. we made blankets for our dolls, but then moved on, like kids do. recently, though, i have seen a bunch of woven tapestries and cannot shake the feeling of i need to do that. summers are kind of crazy, so i asked my mom to reteach me to weave in the fall, which she said she'd do. but i still want to weave right now. i am trying really, really hard not to buy myself a lap loom which pretty much needs no teaching because that is fifty dollars that could be used on so many other things. but good god is it hard. if i make it to the end of the summer without writing about my new woven artwork for my walls, i think i deserve a prize.

*Keep Your Head Up - Andy Grammer

time goes by so fast

have you noticed that this is the fourth day in a row that i am blogging? just like old times, right? i have a theory about this that correlates with my state of mind and outlook on life on other things that will probably sound really smart and insightful eventually, but i don't have the time to really get the words right just now. but take my word for it, if it was more than a wisp of a thought than you would be amazed at my amazingness.

it's kind of funny (but also kind of terrifying) to think of how little time i have these days. i mean, there are just so many things to do and people to see. an old friend came to town over a week ago, and yet i still have not found the time too meet up because apparently i spent the beginning of the summer wasting time not from the present but from the future. if that makes any sense. it does in my head at least. (the fact that she came the same day as my sister and that school is starting soon may also contribute to the fact that i have not yet seen her. but i like my theory better.)

speaking of school, it may be starting next week? i honestly don't know, and i'm too afraid to check. my schedule is still up in the air (though a lot closer to the ground than it was last week) and i think if i just don't think about school maybe it will just wait for me to be ready for it. with that great sense of logic it's not hard to believe that i am working on a phd at all, is it?

yesterday while my sister was out fulfilling her childhood slash teenage dream of seeing backstreet boys live (of which i'm a little jealous of, i must admit) her sons and i made stuff out of clay. (i had wanted the clay you bake in the oven, but apparently they don't sell that anymore? there's only the air dry stuff that takes for-freaking-ever to dry and smells horrendous. the stench gets caught in the back of your throat and won't wash off of your fingers and next time i am getting crayola instead of this icky fancy stuff.) my nephew and i worked together on an elephant that i think he made adorable and as soon as it's dry and painted i will post a picture. because, really, you guys need to see this thing.

*Ordinary Day - Nick Lachey

we've got the vision, now let's have some fun

around father's day, i read this post where a sixteen month year old made a finger painting masterpiece for his dad by writing out a phrase in tape and then painting all over it. (you can tell that i'm not all that connected with the creative pinterest side of the internet, because it was the first time that i had heard of this.) after reading it i thought, i have blank canvases at home! i have paint! i will have access to children in the summer! we will do this.

so when my nephews were spending the day with us on thursday, we decided to make finger painting masterpieces of our own. and by we, i obviously mean them. (we stopped by ac moore before chuck e cheese and they chose out some sparkly paints because none of mine were washable and there was no way i was using them with toddlers. [the post i linked to has a recipe for finger paints that i completely forgot about, but check it out and make your own paint at home.] and good thing too, because the two year old was covered in paint by the time he was done. there was one point where he got so into swishing the paint around the canvas that his arms slipped and he fell headfirst into his painting. he thought it was hilarious. they both had tons of fun.)

while choosing out what to write in tape, i suggested that we write their names. they did not think that was a good idea. at all. they had their own ideas.

hamza (four yr old): no, i think we should write elephant.
me: instead of your name?
hamza: yeah. i want to write elephant. mommy will love it.
me: umm... okay. and how about you? do you want to write your name?
omar (two yr old): no. i want to write poopy.
me: no, let's write your name instead.
omar: no, poopy. mommy will love it.
me: i don't think she will.
hamza: oh, come on. let him write poopy.

and that is how we ended up with these:

there were seven different colors of paint, and they both used all of them. mixed together. so it would "be like a rainbow." it took all of my will power to stop myself from telling them to stop mixing the colors. (i also used masking tape which is why the outline isn't very sharp. the paint soaked through a bit.) overall, i'd consider it a success.

*Time to Pretend - MGMT

with my own two hands i'm going to make it a brighter place

[day twenty-five: something you made]

i like to make stuff. from pottery to hats and scarves to tshirts to scrapbooks to food and everything in between. i'm going to take the easy way out and just throw a bunch of pictures at all of you of things that i have made in the past few years that i happen to have pictures of.

a box i made in ceramics in high school. that's exactly my silhouette.

elephant teapot made in ceramics in high school

vase made in ceramics in high school

crockpot gift basket i made for a friend's bridal shower present. i also made a big silver ribbon bow thing to put on after it was wrapped.

the ringpop/candle favors i made for the bridal shower (they look better in real life)

hat and scarf i made for my husband

i already posted this on here, but the marauder's plaque i made in ceramics in high school

i was trying to find a picture of the sushi cupcakes i made for my sister's birthday a couple of years ago or any of my brothers' birthday cakes to show food, but looking through my pictures takes hours and i don't really have time for that today. so, these will have to do.

*With My Own Two Hands - Jack Johnson

i can do whatever pleases me

who was it who decided to make the cursor blink? i'm sitting here trying to remember how to be unsulky, unwhiny, and at least mildly entertaining, and there's a stupid vertical line on a white background just blinking at me. it's like a silent, almost dance-like rendition of the jeopardy theme song, but a lot more mocking. it's funny how i can type things for like a million and seven hours every day, and i never notice the blinking cursor anymore. but the second i pause to think all i can see is the flashing. now you see me. now you don't.

there are a million things that i wanted to do that i pushed to the side when school started out of the blue. but i have decided that two days of classes, even if they do remain stressful, does not mean that i have to waste my entire week. right? so, after this week, i will be back to my to-do list that contains the things that were not important enough to make it to my other to-do list of important things. the fact that neither of these lists actually exists outside of my head matters very little.

now, i'm not going to bore you with the contents of both lists. i'm only going to mention one item from the not-so-important-but-doing-first-anyway list. a few years ago i decided that i was going to get back into ceramics. after years of annoying my parents, they built a quasi studio in the backyard. i spent one or two days relearning how to throw pots on a wheel (and failing miserably) and then never really made it out there again. and then i left the house. for a while now i have wanted a cookie jar, and one morning i had the brilliant idea that i would just make it myself. but i never did.

last week i got a block of clay from my mom, brought it home to the kitchen so i couldn't ignore its existence, and decided to make my cookie jar. problem is (aside from being lazy to the point of disability) that i can't decide on a cookie jar shape in my head. i've been flip flopping between ideas for too long, and now i don't trust my judgement. everything that pops into my head is getting progressively worse. should i do a normal jar shape similar to winnie the pooh's honey pots? should i do a bear jar (the show i'm currently watching has one)? should i make it look like a cookie? give me ideas people, because i am all out of them.

*Guess I'm Doing Fine - Beck

it's just my luck to end up getting stuck to everything you are

i took ceramics during my senior year of highschool. one of the projects we worked on was making plaques to teach us slab technique or something. i was obsessed with my plaque; i think i smoothed it over a million times, spent forever cutting out the letters and the pieces and everything. anyways, when it came time to glaze it, i was in a major rush and did a really crap job. the plaque was ruined. so over three years later i have finally fixed it. i repainted the border, letters, and background. it still isn't exactly how i wanted it to look. the letters color is totally off, and i'm still not sure if i made the right choice to change the background color. but what's done is done right??

the old background:

the new one:

But as I stood in the doorway, I didn’t see the bare walls or empty room. I saw conversations about Lily, plans for full moon, studying for exams, playing Quidditch, hexing Snape. I saw all of our fights and mischievous moments. I saw James professing for the first time his love for Lily, and me doing the same for Ria. I saw detentions, sneaking down to the kitchens, learning how to become animagi. Seven years flashed before my eyes, and a lump formed in my throat. An era was truly ending, and there was nothing we could do but move on with the future and hope that it held as many good memories and great friends as this phase had.

love the marauders... especially sirius.

painting this thing brought back so many ceramics class memories. five of us crowded into that tiny stuffy room... good times. and yes, the title doesnt really match the post but i wanted it to be from this song so whatever.

*All Hail the Heartbreaker - The Spill Canvas

innocence is the key

what do you see in this picture?

You saw a couple in an intimate love position, right?

Interestingly, research has shown that young children cannot identify the intimate couple because they do not have prior memory associated with such a scenario.

What they will see, however, is nine (small & black) dolphins in the picture!

So, I guess we've already proven you're not a young innocent child. Now, if it's hard for you to find the dolphins within 6 seconds, your mind is SO corrupted that you probably need help!

OK, here's help: look at the space between her right arm and her head, the tail is on her neck, follow it up. Look at her left hip, follow the shaded part down, it's another one, and on his shoulder..

*We Intertwined - The Hush Sound

look at this photograph

these are all done completely with ball point pens by Juan Francisco Casas. don't they look like real pictures?? i love them... they're amazing.

speaking of artsy stuff this is a fun site to check out. be creative. kill boredom. whatever.

*Photograph - Nickelback

a starlight in the gloom

i always wished i was artistic.



on a side note, i think i stuffed too much telecommunications into my brain over the last hour. it may explode. oh, and today's cinco de mayo. yay.

*Apocolypse, Please - Muse