less than an inch of snow today my ass...we've already got 2-3 inches and the roads are NASTY. I'm betting that means that '1-2 inches' tonight means another 3-4. It's like a code.

working on a hat...my etsy is officially up and running - http://mishee.etsy.com. and has been for a few days, but I was going to wait until I had some more stuff up to say anything. Oh well, looks like I'll probably have the rest of tonight and all day tomorrow to work on it haha. Also looks like I might not get to go to Springfield on Saturday after all. :( (was going to go check out their LYS - that's local yarn store for the non-craft-geeks - and maybe see Pan's Labyrinth if it's still playing) I hope so though. I really want a set of Denise knitting needles so I can start tackling some projects. I'm sorry, but it's just a PIA to run out and buy a new set for everything.

Speaking of projects, I finished my devil hat:



Which got a pretty good reception. And I love it. I have one plain hat that needs an applique, one hat that I'm finishing up right now, and I STILL need to finish my shrug (just add the patches, after I make them). The tunisian corset, which I started and got a row and a half into and frogged, needs restarted. I've got some other great ideas that I can't wait to get started on. Yeah, I'm a geek, so sue me. Although the one project I'm NOT looking forward to is sorting all of this stuff again! ack. it grows, I swear.

ahahaha...funnier than it should be...I'm tired

Religions of the World

Taoism: Shit happens.
Hinduism: This shit happened before.
Buddhism: When shit happens is it really shit?
Islam: If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.
Zen Buddhism: What is the sound of shit happening?
Catholicism: If shit happens, you deserve it.
Protestantism: Let shit happen to someone else.
Presbyterian: This shit was bound to happen.
Lutheran: If shit happens, don't talk about it.
Fundamentalism: If shit happens, you will go to hell, unless you are born again. (Amen!)
Televangelism: Send more shit.
Judaism: Why does this shit always happen to us?
Calvinism: Shit happens because you don't work.
Seventh Day Adventist: No shit shall happen on Saturday.
Mormonism: God sent us this shit.
Wiccan: An it harm none, let shit happen.
Jehovah's Witnesses: *knock knock* Shit happens.
Hare Krishna: Shit happens rama rama ding dong
Atheism: I can't believe this shit!
Agnostic: Shit might have happened; then again, maybe not.
Rastafarianism: Let's smoke this shit!

ok, two questions for my readers - I'll love ya forever if you can help me out:

#1. is there any way to switch favorites (from Firefox) from one computer to another?
#2. is there any kind of online search engine or some such where you can search a word and find common proverbs or phrases or whatnot that involve that word?

Clearance aisles are really bad for me. How, you ask?





That's how. Ouch. But look...that fabric (the neon colored leopard print and zebra print stuff, which probably everyone except me will find godawful ugly) was $1.50 a yard! and those quilter block thingies were like $3.50. No, I don't quilt. But I bet I can make some great appliques out of them. And the yarn was cheap too. And look - that blue yarn (which you can't really see) matches the blue houndstooth. And then all that cotton yarn was on sale at Hobby Lobby and I NEEDED those colors for a hat in progress. I also got some bamboo knitting needles with a coupon for my sister, because she has taken up knitting. Kind of. And those shoes were $12! $12!!! I can blame the shoes on Lydia at least, because she made the mistake of showing me the clearance aisle in shoes. Yeah, it's her fault.

My shrug is almost done. I need to make the hood, and I need to seam up the sleeves. and then make the patches for the shoulders...I decided it was too plain, so I'm going to embroider swallows (old sailor-jerry style) in black on the pink stuff that I got on clearance, and sew those on it. that should do it. and one of the neon-animal prints is going to be a laptop bag, for my new squishy. (yes, that is what I decided to name it) I was going to crochet one out of this wool that I have and felt it, and then embroider a lotus on it. then I realized it would take like 6 balls of yarn, and I only have two (one already crocheted up). But I still like the idea. Just have nothing to make with it.

Working on editing pictures of hats for my shop. I still need to set up a paypal account so that I can actually start listing items. Plus I have some new ideas. Not enough time in the day....considering that I still to need vacuum the house, among other things, before I leave, and I wanted to go someplace with wifi to download some more things.

I'm still enjoying the lack of school. Even if it might mean that I'll have to graduate later, which I'm trying not to think about.

so I'm looking at the pictures for the first His Dark Materials move...I am excited. As excited as I am about the TMNT movie, and if you know me, that's saying something :P

makes me want to go read those books again. but I should probably be taking pictures for my etsy store since I got a head-mannequin yesterday ($3 at Sally's, woot woot).

I reaaaally don't want to go back to school tomorrow.

whoooooooooooooooooooooooo our internet is back! well, electricity, and with it the internet. I'm just hoping it doesn't go off again tomorrow.

boring boring BORING week. no school all week, obviously. but it's not a whole lot of fun when you're stuck in one room of a house. and the light was so bad that I couldn't crochet unless it was light outside too.

I think I have a good chance at getting the job at JoAnn's (and if I don't, Michael's might be hiring at the end of the month). I hope so, because I'm working one day a week at Journey's, which is obviously not cutting it, higher minimum wage or no.

(crafty rant that nobody's going to care about starts here)

I really do NOT get this whole bias with knitting and crochet. I mean, I can't even purl yet(which is a whole 'nother rant, because I tried that at least three times this week and all I ended up with was a garter stitch swatch, definitely NOT stockinette - even using three sets of instructions and a freakin' video, am I just dense or what?), and I already own more knitting books than crochet books just because there's so many MORE of them (4 vs. 3, but still). Why? BECAUSE THERE'S SO MANY MORE OF THEM! And with cuter patterns too. This makes no sense to me. Knitters get more magazines, more books, more cute patterns, and more funky type patterns too. I mean, there are punk-y knitting patterns for clothes and accessories and stuff. Things I'd wear. The vast majority of crocheted patterns I've seen are either afghans or things that, don't get me wrong, have merit and good design, but I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. It all looks just like the stuff at Aero or American Eagle or whatnot, and if you know me, you know that's NOT what I wear. I mean, sure, knitting is better at making fabric that stretches and...uh...unstretches? expands and contracts would be a better choice of words, maybe. anyways, does whatever, easily. But I don't think it necessarily has better drape or is all that much thinner than crochet, and I like the look of crocheted stuff more. More texture.

I guess it's kind of a moot point anyways with the patterns, because I don't usually do well with patterns (they give me headaches), but I've seen very little to even get inspiration from. Except for knitted stuff, and that's silly, because even though neither of them is better than the other, they're different things and trying to make one look like the other is just retarded and a waste of time. Highlight the good things, don't try and make it look like anything else. Yuck.

I had most of this conversation with Dave earlier and we decided that it all comes down to the fact that the word 'knit' rhymes with way more things and is much easier to pun with. 'Crochet', however is not. haha. all he came up with was 'the croshiznit', which made me laugh. and I will find a use for it eventually.

And now, back to the hooded shrug and tunisian faux corset... (see, I guess I'm not doing so badly)

this sucks - we're on day 3 (or 4, maybe) of no power, no phone, no water. (no heat, except for our fireplace - so when we're at home, we have everyone plus our pets inside one room, the rest of the house is probably 35 degrees) right now we're at my mom's work, charging everything, getting warm, and checking our email. I think I saw on the Joplin Globe that there's 100,000 without power. ouch. plus, I feel like a steaming pile of poo. Everything hurts. I'm just hoping school's cancelled for tomorrow too, and that our power gets back up soon. I reaaaally don't want to shower at the Y three days in a row. Or for that matter, have to get up an hour early to go shower at my grandma's house before school.

Inventory so far: 2 1/2 hats and a headwrap. of course, considering the fact that I'll probably be stuck at home all weekend(yay for ice storms), I'll have plenty of time.

dammit, I need a second job.

I really really hate school. And this town. Oohh but I forgot, I can't mention that, that's libel. *eyeroll*

but I have sugar, so it's okay for the moment.

"Chocolate solves all problems."
"I think I'm gonna barf."
"Except that one."

name the source! DO IT MAN!

yeah I dunno I've been in a really weird mood for most of this week.

the trip to Springfield went well. Got new shoes, met cool new people, etc. etc. Saw The Prestige today and talk about a mindf--- movie. It's worse than Donnie Darko and Fight Club combined. Afterwards me and Stacia went to Subway and then to the mall. This conversation proceeded at Subway:

Stacia: So the other day I was cooking...yeah, I've got all into cooking now. I bake. I'm a baker.
Michelle: Did I tell you I can knit now?! I'm a knitter AND a crocheter!
Stacia: Oooh, cool!
*short pause*
Michelle: This is probably the dorkiest conversation we've ever had.
Stacia: Possibly the dorkiest ever recorded by mankind.

ahhh I love my friends, they make my heart happy :)

I can now knit! very basically, but I can. So since I completed that goal so quickly I'm adding another one...get a crocheted item accepted to Crochet Me online magazine.

excursion to Springfield tomorrow, should be fun. going to talk to the people at Good Girl Art Gallery about selling on commission. So I'm desperately trying to finish up making my outfit, haha.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. New Year's resolutions (Heath says you're only supposed to have one, I don't care...call them goals then)...

1. Yoga 3x a week
2. Start the craft store and maybe selling on consignment (been rethinking that a bit...it'd shoot the prices up a lot for me to be able to make a profit, so I don't know)
3. Learn to knit
4. Integrate all aspects of my life together into one functioning whole instead of a bunch of shattered pieces
5. Not get walked all over

Yeah, about the consignment - dunno if I could sell anything. Let's say it takes 2 hours to make a hat, and the stuff for the hat cost $5. I'm not going to pay myself minimum wage, so let's say $8/hr. $21-23 is what I' d normally set as a price. however, everywhere I look the consignment is 40/60 (60% going to me). For me to get the same amount of profit, the price at whatever boutique would be $35. Pretty steep. Not that anyone really cares about all this stuff in the end, but y'know, I like to babble.

Just got home from running around...gotta love the comments some of Alicia's coworkers make. And then when I left and paid (I'd got a roll and a drink) her manager, who I had previously thought hated me with a fiery fiery passion, gave me a discount. Weird stuff.

I stopped by Hobby Lobby to get some yarn to make hats for Jessica and Shane - Jess wants a hat with cat ears like I did for Megan for Christmas, except in black and blue (I did Megan's in black and gold for school colors). Shane wants a beanie with gold fun fur type edging. Which I undercharged him for, silly Mormon better appreciate it. Anyways, I also picked up a pair of bamboo knitting needles on clearance (going back tomorrow, because I get paid and there's more) with the flexi-end things. The long ones are just too awkward for my hands and way too hard to hold after being used to a crochet hook. I have decided that, come hell or high water, I am GOING to learn how to knit. Not because I don't like crocheting (I have a feeling I might end up preferring it in the end, using more yarn or no), but just because it bothers me that I don't know how. So, I also traded in some books at Eccentrix and got the first Stitch-N-Bitch book. Again. Probably my own damn copy that I sold them a while ago when I gave up. It'd be great if I had high speed internet so I could download the videos at knittinghelp.com, but unfortunately, I can't. Can't do it on the school's computers either(was going to put it on my 1 GB flash drive). And when I went to the library every single computer was totally used up and looked like it'd be that way for a while. Ideas anyone? I'll probably just have to wait until I get my laptop (belated Christmas present, or early graduation present, however you want to look at it, from my parents) and go someplace with wifi.

After that I went to Alicia's place of work. As read above.

I have a feeling I'm going to really really hate the group of people in my Economics class. There's these two sophomore girls who get on my nerves SO EFFING BAD that after the first ten minutes of class I was thinking "duct tape...need some duct tape...".

It cracked me up because I brought in my crocheting to school today - figure I can work on it in art, and that way get credit for the stuff I make and start working on inventory to sell (so far, have a headwrap thing and a hat. yeah I'm doing great.). I did some during first hour too, and had one of the ladies stop and tell me that she thought it was great I was doing it because not a lot of young ladies know how. And another younger one say she wish she knew how, so I offered to bring in a hook and some yarn (got some cheap acrylic lying around) and teach her. Made my heart all fuzzy. Nicer than the "old lady" comments I get in art class sometime. until, of course, someone sees that I actually make nifty stuff, like the cat hat, and they all decide they want one...but y'know, for wal-mart prices. Shane was astonished that I asked $11 dollars for the beanie until I pointed out to him that it'll take me almost two hours to make it, if I go fast, so that gives me less than minimum wage and doesn't even factor in cost of materials. That shut him up pretty quick.

And so now, I'm done with the post that the majority of my readers will probably find extremely boring.