But now I’m back, and I’m going to tell you all about the stuff I’ve been doing!

I have no photos, unfortunately, because I don’t have a working camera right now.  =(

Anyway…

I’m cross-stitching a small design from a book called Art Nouveau Cross Stitch, by Barbara Hammett.  If any of you have that book, it’s the Small Round Pot Lid on page 43.

If not, I’ll have to find a way to take a picture when I’m done stitching it. ^_^

I’ve made a lot of biscuits recently.  Everyone loves them – when I don’t put vanilla in them.  I think that they taste delicious with the sweet hint of vanilla, but no, they have to be bland!  =(

There are two versions to the recipe, and I don’t mean the vanilla.  One is rolled out and cut, the other is dropped with spoons.

I haven’t been crocheting much lately.  I just haven’t been inspired to make anything.

Well, I should get back to the things I should be doing right now.

Cheers,

Katy

Hello, readers-of-this-blog!  The other day I made chocolate chip muffins, and I thought you might want to know.

My mom and I created the recipe.  We’ve created quite a few – so I might eventually write a cookbook.  Or “recipe book”, since baking isn’t technically cooking.

And so I can’t give you the recipe.  But know this – they were really good, even though I forgot to put the sugar in.  ^_^

On another topic, have any of you heard of the COBY Kyros tablet, code MID7012?  I’m saving up for one.  It looks really fun.  Here’s a picture:

I’ve never owned a tablet, but I played Angry Birds on one displayed at Staples.  A very fun 20 seconds.  ^_^

I don’t know everything about it, so if you’ve owned one, could you tell me a few pros and cons?

Cheers,

Katy

I’m making a tea cozy now.  It’s obviously green, and done in 3×2 ribbing, and in two halves.  After I’ve knitted the halves I’ll sew their sides together and gather the top.  I’ve never made a tea cozy before, so I hope it works!

Also obviously, I’ve only knitted a little bit so far, but I think it’ll work.  Maybe.  ^_^

Don’t tell her, but it’s for my mom for Yule!  ^_^

Oh, and in case you want to make one like it, the pattern is like this:

Using DK yarn on 4.5mm needles, cast on 50.

Odd Rows: [k3, p2] across.

Even Rows: [k2, p3] across.

I don’t know how many rows are needed yet, but I’m sure you’d want to customize it for your teapot anyway.

Once it’s long enough, (this part is just a theory) slide all 50 stitches onto some scrap yarn so that you can use the needles for the second half.

Make it the same as the first one.

Sew the sides together, leaving spaces for the spout and handle.  Gather the stitches on top.

And, voila!  There’s your tea cozy.  I think.  ^_^

Katy

Yesterday I crocheted myself a small backpack/purse.  I used a V stitch, and I used two shades of shiny purple yarn.  I even lined it with light lime fabric!  I don’t have any pictures, since my camera stopped working, but I assure you it looks great.

The day before yesterday I finished knitting a white toque with 7 “faggoted lace” panels.  I decreased by 3 every round after the lace, so (unfortunately) it’s a bit pointed.

I started the Books of Ember series a while ago.  I’m halfway through the second book, The People of Sparks.  They’re alright.  A bit weird, but that’s normal.  It’s post-Apocalypse, and the characters are in this underground city called Ember.  They don’t know that they’re underground, though, until the two main characters Lina and Doon find the way out.  They leave a message for the other people of Ember, and soon all 400 of them follow.  In book two they find a town called Sparks.  The people of Sparks grudgingly allow them to stay, but there isn’t much food and both sides are getting more hostile.  A couple of things happen to make them angrier with each other, and now the three mayors of Sparks have announced that the Emberites have to leave right then, rather than after six months as it originally was going to be.

And here I am, waiting to find out what happens next.  I read on Wikipedia that there is a movie of the first book, City of Ember.  The book has ‘the’ in its name, though.  I wonder what the movie is like?  (That’s rhetorical, by the way.)

Cheers,

Katy

And here is how it really looks:

It’s made out of wool.  So is the one I’m keeping.  But the unfinished third one is cotton.

That’s all I have to say for today.

Cheers,

Katy

I suggest that you click the thumbnail to open the full-sized image.  It looks better that way.

And by the way, I’m attempting to design a cross stitch chart based on it.  I hope it turns out well!

All of the cats are weird like that.  Their eyes are just as big.  Their muzzles are just as small.  Their heads are just as oval.  And they are all monochrome, bar their eyes.

Well, I suppose I’ll stop chattering on like this.  Cheers!

Katy

For my birthday on the first my parents got me a book of crochet motifs.  Thanks again – it’s really good!!!  I’ve made at least twenty motifs so far, and the book has 144 in it.  My favourite is Motif #18.  Three rounds.  I’ve done it three times now, the last two put together to make a little bag.  I’m not done making it yet, and my camera is officially damaged, so I can’t show you.  Unfortunately.

I wonder if I’ll ever make all 144 motifs from the book?  Or if I’ll make anything out of these motifs I’ve been making – besides the little pouch, I mean.  That hardly counts, it’s so small.

This is unrelated, but I want to mention it.  I started reading the first Beyonders book by Brandon Mull today.  It’s called “A World Without Heroes”.  It’s pretty good so far.  The main character (Jason) has been eaten by a hippopotamus that had music coming out of it’s mouth, and instead of being in the hippo he came out into another world.  So the hippo was a portal.

I read the other series that Brandon Mull wrote (Fablehaven) and this one is rather good at this point.  I can’t really say much else about it.  Erm…the prologue was more interesting than others I’ve read?  Um…the chapters have names?  I don’t know what else to say!  …I don’t have to, really.

Well, that’s all, then.  Cheers!

Katy

Cheers,

Katy

Anyway, I’ve made five now.  Only two have eyes (since I’ve run out of buttons) but they all look adorable.  Here’s Imp #1:

The second one is variegated blues, the third is light blue, the fourth is purple, and the fifth (mine) is variegated blues and greens.  They all look great, but I don’t have photos of any but Imp #1.  I’m going to sell the first four either in Mom’s store or online.  Mom has an Etsy account, so I suppose I could list them there.  After I take photos, of course.

And that lavender blossom I mentioned yesterday: it’s gotten bigger – and then Mom cut it off the plant!!!  At least I got to take some photos of it.  By the way, all of the photos in this post were taken with Mom’s Sony camera.

Mom thinks it’s somehow a hybrid.  She says that when she first got the plant it had flowers, and they were normal lavender flowers, but these are obviously not normal lavender flowers, eh?  It’s interesting.  The light pink petals are slightly fuzzy.

I finished chapter two of Incerceron last night.  I’m just as confused now as I was before, if not more confused now.  I can’t possibly try to describe this chapter, it’s less describeable than the first one.  Something about a wedding being brought forward a year, and this person’s dad being cold…

I think that I’ve encompassed all the things I wanted to say today.  Right?  So I guess I’ll write again sometime soon!

Cheers,

Katy

My current project: a “fuzz critter.”  Obviously, it isn’t finished.  The ball’s end isn’t sewn up, the feet haven’t been attached, the eyes (which I painted black with a felt-tip pen – they were that pearly white kind of buttons with the loop on the back) haven’t been attached, and it’s not fuzzy.  Mom has a strange little device like a miniature slicker brush (the kind for cats/dogs) without the handle, and in a loop so you can wear it over two fingers or something.  The label isn’t in English, so I don’t know what they call it, but it reminds me (as I already said) of a wire slicker brush.

Anyway, I’d like to use that thing, whatever it is, to fluff up the Fuzz Critter’s body.  The drawing is what I want it to look like when I’m done.

Besides that project, I made an adorable little witch’s hat using a wonderful yarn.  I don’t know what the yarn is called, but it’s an extremely soft and silky fabric ribbon kind of yarn.  Here’s a picture of it, with the hat when I wasn’t done making it…

My camera is damaged, which is why there are those weird horizontal lines through the photo.  And that photo also makes the yarn look rough, but it’s not.  As I said, it’s really soft and silky.  Do you have any idea what it’s called?  I’d like to get more of it sometime, somewhere.

Since my camera is damaged, it (besides the lines in the photos) sometimes takes photos like this, usually when there’s no flash:

That’s the rainbow-coloured Ostara (which is called Easter by Christians) egg that I blogged about a while ago.  Did I share that photo?  Maybe.  But I’m using it as an example now.

And besides that problem with my camera, it also drains brand-new alkaline batteries in, say, an hour.  Brand-new batteries!  *Sigh*  I need a new camera.

The top photo wasn’t taken with my Canon Powershot A430, it was taken with Mom’s Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2.  That’s a nice camera.  It’ll even take about thirty photos without a memory card!  Incredible, eh?  The kind of memory card it takes is called “Memory Stick Duo”, the same thing a PSP takes.

My sister got a PSP game recently.  Some horse game.  I haven’t played it.  She also got a DS game, Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands.  That game I do care about, since I want it.  Well, I did want it.  I don’t play my DS as much now as I used to.  I want a laptop more.

This is unrelated, but I thought I aught to mention it.  I’m reading a book called Incarceron right now.  I’m halfway through chapter two, and I’m thoroughly confused.  Loads of things have happened already, but I don’t understand any of it.  This Finn person was chained in front of a train, or something, and he yelled at the people to stop the train, and they came out and unchained him, and then a bunch of people came out of nowhere and attacked the people who came out of the train?  And Finn was on the side of the attackers?  And then chapter two has nothing to do with chapter one!  It could be from a different book, it’s so unrelated.  I just don’t understand.  And anyway, the mood of the book doesn’t fit with the moods I’ve been in since I started the book (three or so days ago) so I’m not reading it very often (hence my being only in chapter two).  My sister (who borrowed the book from the library in the first place) keeps telling me to hurry up and read it, or she’ll take it back and return it.  I’m starting to think that I should just take my bookmark out and give it back without finishing it, but I don’t know yet.

Have I ever mentioned Mom’s lavender plant?  Well, despite it’s straggly stems, it’s blossoming.  Here’s the most…blossomy…blossom on it.

And that concludes this entry.

Cheers!

Katy