My weekend in pictures!

This weekend I went to sunny Philedelphia with my friend from high school.  We didn't do a ton - we just saw the Philly Art Museum and hung out at her aunt's house, but that was more than enough! I was too tired to drive all the way home yesterday, and so I went to bed early at woke up at 5 today to get to work.  Even worse idea than driving at night... because now I'm so tired! Boo!

But we did see some totally awesome things! The coolest being this painting by Van Eyke:

It may look unimpressive, but it was so tiny! About the size of my hands! The curator said that it was painted with a brush of two hairs...

And this photoshopped gate.  Yes, I did commit a horrible faux pas, as soon as I saw this painting I said... 

..."That gate looks totally 'shopped."

Though I have to admit that my friend said something equally funny, when we saw this altarpiece...

 ..."There's a bird trying to steal her hair!"

I love how the two of us did extremely well in Art History class, I got a 5 on the AP and I think she got a 4... if not a 5.  And now, 3-4 years later, we're in a museum poking fun at altarpieces. Hey, we did appreciate some stuff! They had some great impressionist works (I'm sorry that the Renoir exhibit wasn't open yet, because that will be AWESOME!) and some cool non-western art as well. Here's my top three (besides the Van Eyke, but photgraphs can't do that stuff justice, it's like Dali or Color Field paintings, you have to be there.)

Lotus spent the weekend at her grandmother's.  I'm such a typical teenage mom, dropping my hedgehog child onto her grandmother.  Both of them like it, though, I think.  At least, Mommy's never complained and Lotus has a whole room of her own, with a bed with piles of blankets to dig in.

  She was sooo happy last night, but she got grumpy as soon as I tried to get her under the light to take her photo.  I asked her "Don't you want to be famous on the internet!?" and she only replied by curling up into a ball and hissing.  She wouldn't stop, even when I put her back on her mountain of blankets.  So I decided she was done with playing and she went back in her cage, where she knocked her bowl over and then had me put it back, knock it over, put it back, until I finally gave up and went to bed.

Well, now I'm going to go back to work, then home to go to bed. Have a great week!

Free Pattern: Wooper

This pattern is dedicated to my sweetie, by the nickname of "Wooper."  I wanted to be nerdy, and there are so many Pokemon... he's why I chose this one! I hope you enjoy, and expect to see some more knit Pokemon in the future! Gotta Knit 'Em All!

Here's the pattern! If come across any problems, please feel free to let me know! This little guy has not been test knit, so if you come across something odd... it's probably me, not you! Send me an e-mail at lynough (at)gmail(dot)com!

Who's that Pokemon!?

Um, the reprise? I forgot how much I loved zoom abstract, hehe.

Bask in the glory of me finishing something! I didn't eat lunch today, instead I decided to snip all of this guy's loose ends and do a photo shoot.  I told myself that I would eat at home... but all I have is celery and wasa crackers.  I'm living lean! I'm trying to save money so I can take a summer course! There's nothing wrong with eating celery and wasa crackers for one... two.. three meals a week.

I also have a pattern for him, and I aim to get it up by Friday, which will be easy now that I have my car back and can drive to McDonald's! On an unrelated note, those Frappes? Pretty good.

Back to the subject of knitting... I can't believe this took me so long. Really.  Did you know Mother's Day is Sunday? Started knitting my mom's present today, and hopefully it doesn't take me all week! I'm on a mission to use up bits of my stash that I have lying around, which is not too hard because I build my stash very meticulously.  But I feel like that could be a blog post in itself, so I won't ramble here.

Guess what it is!

(P.S. - Don't ask me about Karen's Walk, which was supposed to be Sunday, but since I can't say anything nice about it I won't say anything at all and not make myself look like a total brat.)

How to Draw a Hedgehog

This is me, blogging pointless things from my laptop during lunch.  Just so you know, the not updating thing isn't because I don't have things to say, it's mostly because I don't have my car this week and without a car... the walk to McDonald's is about a half and hour... and it's raining...

Anyway, enjoy my tutorial :D

 ONE

 TWO

 THREE

 FOUR

FIVE - I think you should know, 1 - 4 are usually just one fluid motion.

SIX - Get some back legs

SEVEN - Add a face

EIGHT - Look, you're done.

Finally, jazz it up.  You can add whatever pattern you want to the quills, I just went plain jane.  Sometimes, when I'm on hold, I use highlighters and make some pretty ravin' hogs.

Like I NEED a New Hobby...

So, the past two days my mo has convinced me to make earrings to sell at Karen's Walk.  Really? This is addicting.  Once I figured out how to do it (which took about three hours of my life... grr to pliers!)  this whole earring thing is kind of fun.

I'm also thinking of opening an etsy account, and selling stuff.  I know I've brought this up before but, I would like to see if I can make any money from it! I mean, if I can work ten hours a week making earrings/change purses/bags/dresses, maybe I won't need to get a job come school time.  Just a thought.  It would be nice to get some income, especially now with my beading obsession.

My mom is SUCH a horrible influence.

But, conversely, aren't these too cute!? 

Would you buy them?

Nature's First Green

So, I am home for the weekend and having a blast.  This morning I volunteered with Friends of the Chemung River Watershed.  It was great weather for trash picking!

These people are enjoying a nice Saturday under the pretense of picking up trash.

The leaves on the trees in Upstate New York are gorgeous this weekend.  I was driving home yesterday and I couldn't stop thinking about the poem:

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leafs a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay. 

The trees look like they're ready to burst full of leaves, and so many plants are out.  On our cleanup, we came across a huge patch of trout lilies, coming up out of the soil. The garden at my Dad's has Forget-Me-Nots blooming, my favorite flower! Here are some of my favorite pics from today:

I got to sit in the backyard with Jackson, who is super huge! Do you remember him? He's like a tiger now.  I got to take a bunch of photos of him, which I like.  I will probably be taking a bunch more photos in the future, the weather has really raised my spirits! Even now, the night is mysterious and drizzly, like in an old fashioned crime radio show.

A regal tiger cat.

I'm making earrings, and knitting tons more hearts for Karen's Walk this weekend! Gwaaaaahhh. Back to work! *whip cracks*

Navigating a Cubicle Maze

That's what it feels like I do whenever I leave my desk when I'm at work! Really, they should have signs like shopping malls do, with bright colors to indicate what department is what.  That would be really helpful to me, "short blonde co-op who has no idea where she is going."

Anyway, I don't like to blog about work because I just KNOW that one day, I'm going to be working somewhere, and someone is going to want me to work on a super secret government project because I am FABULOUS at my respective field (you can giggle here)... then they'll do a quick google search, read this blog, and discover that I'm not trustworthy! I've leaked super secret company secrets on the internet! Oh NO!

So, I guess I'll share some general thoughts on how my co-op is going.  I've only been working for a month, but I've done a lot of stuff and I feel like I've actually accomplished things, which is good.

1.  Living alone isn't so bad, especially because I don't have to worry about anyone tripping over my things.  My apartment isn't a sty (well, maybe that back room... and under my bed...) but everything is where I know I will remember.  There are no siblings or parents moving my things around.  My keys are always hung over the door, so I never leave the house without them and lock myself out.  

2.  Being far away from my sweetie isn't so bad, because:

              a.  I can hide all my stuffed animals that he gave me under my bed.  Stuffed animals, I cannot stand you, you clutter my bed and stare at me, asking to be hugged.  But, they're gifts... I can't throw you away! Now, you all get to live in lovely harmony under my bed.  If you stare at my feet, it's okay, just no eye contact please.  Thanks.

             b.  I can make him cute things without him knowing! Who's that Pokemon!?

Urm... he's not finished of course.  Otherwise you would recognize him, dammit, I know you would!

3.  I am sensitive to the soap in the bathrooms.  I don't know why.  I spend most of my work-day on the computer, and for some reason this really makes me need to pee at least once every 2 hours.  I noticed I was getting a pretty gnarly rash, but figured it was from Lotus. Then my fingers started to swell, and it interfered with my typing (at work) and knitting (not at work.)  I now present a definition:

problem (n.): Something that interferes with knitting.

Oh, not to mention my mom has Palmar Pustular Psoriasis, which started as a similar thing.  That also worried me, so I went to see a doctor, who said "It's probably the soap" and made me extremely thankful that I had health insurance and could be charged that much money for that answer.

Since Monday of last week, I've brought my own soap to work.  Weird, I know, but it worked! No more itchy, burning rash on the back of my hands and no more puffy fingers that don't want to bend.

4. Lotus is starting to adjust.  Last night, she stretched out on the floor of her cage and let out a ferocious yawn! Did you know hedgehogs can yawn? I sure didn't. Heck, I didn't even know they liked to stretch.

I also bought her mealworms over the weekend, and she is too happy.  I wish I could adequately capture her joy on my camera after she devours one! It's impossible! 

t= 0 sec.

t= 0.1 sec

This one of her licking her lips might do it though, hehe!

 

Let's boost my blog readership by putting up some cute hog photos, shall we?

Okay, that one's kind of fuzzy... can't win 'em all.