First Day of Summer!

Although summer doesn't start officially for a while, I'm back in my hometown with my family. My dad's house is kind of a wreck, but I think I'm going to clean it up in a while. It seems like everywhere I go gets clean... which is nice.

First, I went to Tanglewood to see Roxy. I took a little walk and found some nice lichens. I wanted to walk some more, but I realized how lonely it is walking alone- after taking walks with all my friends at RIT, being in the woods and being quiet is a little depressing.

I got some awesome pictures though! Check out this sweet foliose thallus, found on an oak (I think) by the teaching pond:
I also found some really nice cyphellae on a lichen just by the parking lot... I didn't put the picture in, though, because it didn't look very impressive small-size.

And, of course, some glamour shots of Roxxors! Isn't she a doll? I got her at a good time, she played around, I cut her nails, and gave her plenty of FerretVite. She was so happy :)

I also made some super sweet iced tea... it's a little weak, but it's very sweet and addictive! I used 5 bags of blueberry tea, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 quarts of boiling water. The tea seeped for 10 minutes, and the whole thing took about 2 hours to chill.

I'm having a picnic with my mom tomorrow, so I'll perfect the recipe :)

Where I Produce Some Movie Stars!

So, for my sweetheart's final film project for this quarter, he asked for some puppets! I made these birds in about two weeks, and he added the pipe cleaner faces and rigged them with armature wire.

I'm really proud of my work- perhaps I'll show his project up here when it's finished :)

Knit a scarf: hug a tree

Knit a scarf: hug a tree

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Keeping you Updated

I always feel a little guilty when I do something cool and don't blog about it. So here you go. A nice picture for you.

Right now, I'm working on knitting puppets for my boyfriend, who is a first-year film and animation student at RIT. He's going to use them in a stop-motion short!

Here's the blue bird, where my work is finished. I knit the body, and he will stuff it with armature wire so that it stays put, add the face and legs, and essential make it look nice.

I'm pretty proud of the composition, though it was mostly ad-libbed. The head is a separate piece so that it's movable, held in place by the gray cuff.

Perhaps I can show off my work by posting the animation when he finishes!

Oh, by the way, have no noticed the poor quality cell phone pictures? My camera charger disappeared. I plan on buying a new one this weekend.

Wanna see What I'm Doing?

Every so often I try to get away from knitting, because of things like family or schoolwork or just work in general. Then, it sneaks up on me in the night. It starts with the occaisional doodle, usually in class. I think, "Hey, that would be a cute doll!" Then it becomes schematics. Then I think of another doll, and another, and then a pair of socks, or a sweater, or maybe a stylish hat.

Then BAM. Superbam. I'm doing things like picking up projects that I "put down."

Then I'm deciding they aren't good enough.

Then I'm frogging them.

Then I'm staring at the yarn, and I'm thinking "Why did I have to play god?"

My love me knot socks before I decided they needed to be improved:

My love me knot socks after I frogged them.

Then, to add insult to injury, the yarn tangled up and attacked me.

So, now I'm a zombie. What a weird day.

The "Price" of Being Environmentally Friendly

So, as you can assume from looking at my profile, I'm a student in Environmental Management. I'm looking to go into consulting, and a potential minor of mine is accounting. Why? Numbers fascinate me, especially when they tell you things you ought to pay attention to.

Well, I recently lost my Sigg waterbottle, and have spent the first week of classes without it. Instead, I've been using all debit and buying plastic waterbottles, under the assumption "It's too expensive to buy a new Sigg, I'll wait until the end of the month until my mother comes up with it."

Well, before class today, I did some number work. I've purchased an average of 4 20oz bottles everyday (I drink mainly water.) I reuse them once, then recycle them. Each bottle of water costs $1.75 from a vending machine- that's the cheapest way to get them, since I'm on a college campus and can't go off to buy bulk or on sale at Wal*mart. If you buy bottle water from the cafeterias, you'll be charged about $2, with tax.

Let me explain the math. Four water bottles each day at $1.75 each is $4.50 each day off my student debit account, about the price of a strawberry parfait, my favorite dessert. So, every day, I'm giving up a strawberry parfait. I'm fine with that. But spending 4.50 every day adds up to $31.50 each week, just on water.

Here's some more perspective: I go school in New York, where the minimum wage is $7.15. I have to work 4.41 hours every week to pay for the water I'm drinking. Since I'm a full-time student living on-campus, I can only work 10 hours each week at my job. That means that 44% of my income from my job this week will go to buying water.

Water, people. Something that I could have just gotten for free out of a fountain. Something that the United Nations deems a right. A 16oz water bottle costs about $16.00, meaning it will pay for itself before the first week is over. If you actually use it, you'll end up saving yourself a pile of money in the long run, not to mention make your life a little greener.

Kitten Mittens

Kitten Mitten
I will not hesitate to admit it: this started out as a joke. I wanted to make a cute little kitten, but someone scoffed and said I should make it “at least useful.” Well, here you go! They’re mittens, shaped like kittens, ready to smile at you while you play in the February snow.

Although they have a distinctive look, these mittens aren’t a pain to knit up. If the snow gives you a long weekend, you’ll be ready to rock these at the bus stop on Monday. If your intuition says there’s a good chance of a snow day tomorrow, you could probably whip these up for a little one in an evening of work.