Give-away at Yarn Madness!

Madeleine is having a fabulous give-away on her blog Yarn Madness! The prize is yarn, fabric, a book, buttons... Lots and lots of goodies :) Check it out! 

Birthday & goals for the new year :)

It's my birthday today, or it was, since it's now well past midnight. I really should get to bed, because I have to get up early tomorrow and pack. We're going back to our apartment to start everyday life again next week.

I celebrated my day with a nice breakfast (the mother had boiled eggs for me), then I got a couple of presents. One was a gift certificate for a music/movie store and the other was this cool cat bowl which I will probably use for candy:

Later we had taco wraps for dinner and I made cookies for dessert! I got a cool set of cookie cutters from Ikea the other day, and I wanted to test them :) Slightly burned (but very tasty!) hedgie cookies:

Tonight we went to visit a friend who's had the flu lately, and I brought the cookies to cheer him up. Who wouldn't get better from hedgehog cookies?! :)

So... The new year has begun, and I'm about to start a whole new education. Feels sort of like a new beginning, so I've decided to make up some goals for the new year:

* Study hard and try not to let my urge for crafting take up precious study time (this will definitely be the hardest - when I get a crafty idea it won't leave my head until I've tested it, which makes it very hard to concentrate on math...)

* Try to find a job (preferably part time - but only a little income would help our economy a lot)

* Make up a budget and spend less of it on craft supplies that I really don't need (I tend to go all out and get lots of supplies as soon as I find a new hobby, and then I get tired of it and never use the stuff again)

* Try new food & eat more vegetables (we plan to be mainly vegetarian from now on)

* Work out a little (walking to and from school doesn't count...)

* Lose some weight (only a few pounds would do, and hopefully the above goals will help with that)

* Try to control my temper (I will never be completely zen, but I can at least appear less grouchy)

* Learn to sew (I have a sewing machine that's been in the closet for at least five years & has been used once! Very sad. I really want to learn to sew useful things that are not made entirely of felt, like bags and stuff)

Hmm, I think that was it. I will do my best with all these resolutions, but I also have to try not to be too angry or disappointed if I fail at any of them. At least the minor ones, my studies naturally take priority :) Hope you've all had a nice start of 2011, and that you have lots of good things coming! :)

Summary of 2010...

Let's see... What happened, and what did I do last year? I'll start with the crafting and patterns I've made. There are quite a lot... I've made six sets of Cute Little Dudes!

Forest Dwellers vol. 1

Forest Dwellers vol. 2

Forest Dwellers vol. 3

Happy Pets vol. 1

Christmas Dudes vol. 1

Christmas Dudes vol. 2

Then there are the Great Big Bugs, which - as someone correctly pointed out in a comment last night - aren't really bugs at all! True bugs belong to another order of insects than the ones I've made; Bumblebee, Ladybug, Dragonfly, Dung Beetle and Fly:

And then there are two arachnids; Spider and Scorpion:

I've also made a few free crochet patterns, plus I've participated in a number of fun amigurumi CALs during the year :) I've learned a new craft: tatting. I've become totally hooked and have even made a new blog for it! I've even got a new tattoo to celebrate two very important things in my life - crafting and Bollan:

During the spring term I decided to quit the university for a while, partly because I  didn't feel like keep trying to get an expensive education that had no real job opportunities for me, and partly because I realized that I'd lost my motivation and wasn't really good at it anymore. So I only took two exams of the four I'd originally signed up for, and I didn't bother to sign up for any more for the fall semester. 

This summer I had a taste of work life, and I found out (again) that I'm not made for working in social occupations. The cleaning job I had for four weeks suit me just fine :) I then decided to start studying again, but something completely different - biology! I honestly think that it's something I'll be happy & comfortable working with later. I just have to get through a few mandatory math courses first (eek!)...

As for my personal life, well, I guess it has been as usual. Since I dropped the university I haven't had the study support that I normally get, and my boyfriend hasn't had a steady income either, so the lack of money has been quite straining. Hopefully that changes when I start studying again! Don't know if everyone supports my choice though, I feel like my boyfriend still wants me to finish my bachelor in linguistics, and he doesn't really believe that I'll get through the biology either. He says I quit on everything that doesn't go my way right away. Blah :/ I'm not the most optimistic person, but his attitude sure doesn't help. 

Anything else? Can't remember, so probably nothing important :p 

Christmas craft shopping

Went to the craft store yesterday, to spend a gift certificate I got from my mother-in-law for Christmas, and (totally as expected) I went a little nuts... I figured I'd splurge a little and get some things that I normally wouldn't allow myself to buy (craft things are very expensive in Norway), but I was mainly planning to stock up on fancy beads (both for beaded animals and for tatting). However, the craft store had recently changed owners (during boxing week, I think), and a lot of the usual things were gone... I wanted to look at some books, but they were all gone, along with the rather huge section of fabric. The bead selection was virtually non-existent (boo), and I couldn't find fiberfill anywhere :( They were still reorganizing the store when I was there, so maybe there will be more stuff in the future. I did get some beads, though, a pack of cool faceted silver colored wax beads and a really cheap bag of different plastic beads:

Most of the beads were gone, but I did find a good selection of pendants instead :) These things are usually too expensive, but I thought I could use some for my tatting, and I got a few bags of various motifs:

Also, since I was getting new stuff "for free", I decided I needed a new tape measure (my old retractable one has started to fall apart), and I found a matching pair of sewing scissors:

The tape measure has both centimeters and inches - how neat is that! Plus it has a magnet on the back to stick it to my lamp or something. Or I can use it to hold sewing needles so I dont lose them on the cluttered table. *ahem* Like I need that :p

Last, but certainly not last, I got this hedgehog patch:

I'm not sure what to put it on yet, but one of my new year's resolutions is to sew more, so I'm sure I'll find something :) Isn't it adorable? I just couldn't resist it!

Happy New Year & new Bugs :)

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a nice evening last night :) We didn't really celebrate much, we just had dinner and some friends over for a Warhammer roleplaying session. At midnight we went out to look at everyone else's fireworks, froze our bums off and went back in and played some more :D

I use these sessions to crochet "boring" things, like the legs for Great Big Bugs or things that go round and round for ages, and I got quite a lot done yesterday.  Of course I ran out of yarn and have to go shopping on Monday (because everything is closed today)... Almost done with two new bugs that'll show up later this week if all goes well. Will try to do as much as possible before I start school :)

But here is my newest pattern - the last of 2010: Great Big Scorpion!

I hadn't planned him long, he just sort of happened because I wanted to make a scorpion for my sister-in-law for Christmas (she's a Scorpio). So he was finished on Christmas Eve, but the pattern wasn't ready until yesterday. Among other things I forgot to photograph some body parts before I attached them, and I had to remake them for the shots. Thankfully one of my next Bugs is going to have yellow legs as well, so I didn't have to make it just for one picture... Yeah, I know I'm lazy like that :p 

Anyway, the scorpion is based on the Deathstalker for those who are interested, and I chose this because of the colors. I felt it was time for something yellow again :) In difficulty, this Bug shouldn't be more complicated than the rest, except for a new stitch to make the segments of the body: back post single crochet. Plus, there are a lot of parts to put together... But I had fun making it, and I hope you like it too :) As usual, you can find it both on Ravelry and Etsy.