Like a swarm of mud wasps, always gotta be a buzzin' about something

It's prom season. This is the view from my window. It's probably about a fifth of the people that have descended on my home.

If you're going to prom, you must have your own entourage to take your pictures.

A year ago, I was out there doing this.

I'm the one in the pink. Pale is the new tan (really? no), but if you don't want to end up the same color as your dress, you should really wear sunscreen. Or get a spray tan, as did my two amigas to the right who are normally the same shade as me. Nikki, the girl in the black, is Dominican and almost naturally that shade.

Cool is...

Doncha hate when you read something and you can't remember where?? Especially when you're trying not to plagiarize??

Since I'm not writing my English paper, look at my new shoes!

(Yes, I know there are three pairs of shoes in that picture. No, I do not think that this constitutes a problem.)

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

Friday is my last day of classes; a week from Wednesday is my last final (history! agh!). And after that, I'm selling my textbooks and going to Barnes and Noble and stocking up on lots of good reads.

Ahh, to read again! Okay, so the last time I read for fun was actually Saturday. But for real, this semester, I'd say I've read about, oh, 3 books for myself.

This summer, on the other hand. Well.

I've got three books at home on my list. Three or four at B&N I'm staking out in my mind. And for 7 weeks, I'll be volunteering in the children's dept at the downtown library full time, so that's endless literature on my hands. It's gonna be great. I cannot wait.

I am a reading fool. Like, whoa.

In elementary school, I was famous for having so many Accelerated Reader points. I broke records. I got comments about it in my junior year of high school.

The picture at the top is all the books and magazines my friends and I took on our senior trip. (And only two of those are mine, plus one Teen Vogue). I still remember the different books I read and where I was and such.

So, I read Prep. By Lauren S...?? Anyway, I didn't like it. And then I read The Devil Wears Prada, the chick-lit made into a movie that summer. The book was okay, but I like the movie better. (The chick-lit-soon-in-theaters-this summer is The Nanny Diaries, and yes, it's on my list of books to buy). TDWP was my friend Cindy's. I took it to the beach and the tide came in and it got all wet, but she wasn't upset like she would've been had it been, say, Don Quixote. Umm, what else? Oh, I read Northanger Abbey. I was reading that one on the trip home, when we broke down on the side of the interstate and were stranded for approximately four hours. Good times. NA was my favorite book last summer, is my favorite Jane Austen book, and might be flat-out my favorite book ever. It's right up there. There was also this book published by MTV(???what?)..I don't remember the title, and I didn't read much of it, but I read bits and pieces cause the main character's name was Betsy. The Da Vinci Code was on the trip as well(It belonged to Lauren, as did the other copy of Prep up there in that picture). I didn't get around to reading it until we were back (I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, okay?). I remember that I read it in the urgent care waiting room when I got pink eye. And without all the sacrilege, I would've like it a lot better. But whatev.

This summer, the classic on the list is Jane Eyre. Cindy hates Jane Austen with a passion, but loves the Bronte sisters. I adore Jane Austen. We'll see what happens.

So, summer reading '07..we'll have a list and picture next Wednesday post-exam; it'll be my last post of the semester.

Love, Basically

I love buying pocketbooks

because they always fit.

Maybe that's part of the reason I love making blankets, too. You don't have to worry about gauge and needle sizes and yarn weight so much. You just pick something you like and go with it. And blankets are useful year round. I love that! Sweaters, not so much. And the same with socks. Sweaters and socks are great, don't get me wrong. I don't go around just making blankets; that's not what I'm saying. I mean, maybe if I lived in Canada, I would be all about the wool sweaters. But I live in Georgia. I own one sweater that's about 20% wool. I actually think I might be allergic to wool (forgive me, I know that's a horrible thought). But I love cotton. And cotton is great for blankets. Layer them up in the winter so thick that you can't move underneath, or just put one light one on top of the sheets in the summer. Perfect for spring picnics and fall football games. A blanket is always useful.

But it doesn't have to be made out of yarn that should have gold listed on the fiber content cause it costs so much. That acrylic yarn that everybody loves to hate can make a pretty darn good blanket, and it doesn't matter where you drag it (and a little boy, one of the most dedicated and adorable blanket lovers, will drag it everywhere!).


Can you picture anything more precious than a little baby wrapped in a beautiful handmade blanket? At the church I go to when I'm at school, they have a baby dedication almost every week. I love babies; I want a baby so bad I ache inside sometimes. But for now I just make baby blankets to give away, hoping and praying that someday I'll be making one for my own little baby.

I have this picture in my head of my own little house someday. I like to dream about it, rearrange the furniture in the rooms in my mind. And I have this vision of a little linen closet with a shelf of blankets folded and stacked nice and neatly. It's like a scrapbook of my crafting life, you can trace my progression. There are blankets I have made and some that I haven't even thought of yet. They're all just sitting there, waiting for a guest to come so I can pull out the couch-bed and spread one across it. If I'm going to have this closet shelf of blankets in a few years, I figure I'd better get started now.

A handmade blanket is like a big hug. It's love, basically. And whether it's a precious heirloom in perfect condition or a worn-out, fraying scrap of cloth, the underlying sentiment is there. Someone loves me. Or, I love myself, which is something I have to remind myself every now and then.

I suppose that's enough blanket love for now. I hafta go work on filling up that linen closet!

Now What?

Remember, back at the end of September, when I started this thing??

Look how far we've come since then!

I sort of wimped out on the border...I "cro-Kayed" all the way around, and decided that I liked the way it looked, and I really really really did not want to rip out and do something different, so I'm leaving it like that. For now, at least.
I like how it doesn't take away from the psycho effect.

Hah! Like it could.

And I'm glad to be done, I really am. But now I don't know what to do with myself. It's weird not be working on this. It's weird to be done.

I mean, I've got other projects I'm working on. But it's not this. Sigh.

Little Found Things

Did the Easter Bunny come to your house?

'Cause he made it to mine!

I walked into the living room yesterday morning and sat down on the couch glasses and contact-less and didn't see my little basket until my mom pointed it out to me. Love the Disney princess eggs! I ate an untold number of mini Snickers this afternoon after work; I was so hungry and tired. One thing that always makes me feel better on days like this is to go to Barnes and Noble. Look what I found:
This is a birthday card. I adore Oreos, and the expression on this little girl's face is priceless. Beverly Lewis is another favorite:

I have developed a pattern in reading series of books. I usually get the first one a while after it comes out. If I like it, I'll get the second one, which may or may not be released just depending on how long the first one has already been out. Then, by the time the series gets to the end, I'm counting down the months, weeks, days, and hours, calling bookstores to see if it's in, analyzing ads that announce a book's arrival in "early spring" (that's so vague!). I've done this with Beverly Lewis, Harry Potter, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and am getting there with The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (although I am still pretty behind in those, I've read 4 of 8). This book doesn't exactly fall into that category; it was originally published before any of the Beverly Lewis books I've read. This is just a new edition, and it'll go really well with the rest of my B.L. collection. Plus, it's probably a really good book.

If anybody's still here, they're probably wondering when I'm going to get around to talking about the gorgeous work of art that these various items have been sitting on. Well, here it is!!

All seamed up and in desperate need of a border. My roommate talks to this blanket. Things like, "I remember when you were just one square." I'm pretty much obsessed with staring at it myself.

I've got one more picture for you. Saturday evening I felt a strange urge to go outside and take pictures of the trees and the sky. This dogwood tree is outside my bedroom window at home. Beautiful!

Happy Easter!

Just a quick update before I go home for the weekend. Looking forward to a long weekend of seaming..Hopefully I'll have the seamed blanket to show ya'll on Monday!