How-To Tuesday: 8 Uses for Men's Neckties

A lot of us have several extra ties lying around. Especially since Father's Day was just about a week ago....


Here are some creative ideas for upcyling those ties and putting them to good use!

Necktie Skirt

Tie gadget cozy

Necktie Pillow

Tie a tie (hehe) around your waist and wear it as a belt. Easy!

Or tie one around your head to be worn as a headband. Just as easy!

Necktie Purse

Necktie Quilt

Happy how-to Tuesday, everyone! :)

Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

Meowr. Hi, my name is Blaze. You may remember me from this post where I introduced myself and told you a few things about me.

One thing that you don't know about me is that my family adopted me from a pound.

This is what I looked like when my family brought me home.

I've had a wonderful life ever since then! Now...

I have plenty of toys to play with

Lots of laps to lie in

And board games to play.

Also, instead of lying a tiny cramped cage all day,

I have plenty of sinks and windows and floors and couches to lie on

And a nice yard to frolic in too!

I love my family! In honor of National Adopt a Shelter Cat month, I think you should adopt one of my friends from your local animal shelter. I'm sure they'll love your family as much as I love mine :)

Happy June 23!

Happy June 23 everyone! There's lots of celebrity birthdays today including 

Jason Castro

1987

Kris Allen

1985

Vivin

1989

and

Randy Jackson

1956

Ok, ok... so Vivin isn't actually a celebrity, he's my boyfriend (the guy who bought me all that awesome yarn for my birthday, remember?). But he's born on the same day as THREE American Idol people. Isn't that awesome (dawg)?! He turned 21 today, which means he's..

7670 days 

184,079.8 hours

11,044,789.1 minutes and

662,687,343 seconds old

Dang, man! You're soo old!!!

Some quick trivia: on June 23, the US Secret Service was created (1860), Walt Disney's "Lady and the Tramp" was released (1955), and the Nintendo 64 went on sale for the very first time (1996). What a day!

Works in Progress: Blanket Obsession

Ever since I started working on Shelly Kang's Sock Yarn Blanket, I've become obsessed with knitting Blankets!

I'm working on two sock yarn blankets (one with worsted weight acrylic yarn, another with actual sock yarn) and a 10 Stitch blanket (official pattern is on Ravelry, similar instructions can be found here as well).

Pixels of my loverly blankets to be:

This is the first blanket I've ever started for myself. I started it June last year and its been growing ever since! As you may notice... it looks a little lopsided. The squares take so long to make that sometimes I forget what colors I was gonna use on the next row, so I cheated and went ahead a little. :P

Here's my "actual" sock yarn blanket. I started it just last week :) I don't have much sock yarn so each of the colors was used about 3 times each for the first two rows. I can tell that this one is gonna take a while!

This is my 10 Stitch Blanket/Scrap Yarn Blanket/Ugly Blanket. I'm doing this to use up scraps and not worry about the blanket turning out pretty. In fact, I expect it to be ugly. lol :P This pattern is very interesting, though.    Most blankets are worked across hundreds of stitches, but this one...only 10. Its basically one reeeally long strip that connects with itself. In the end it longs kind of like a long sqaure snake, like in the old video game... Snake.

Have a great week everyone! :)         

Scene Diego: Banana Wireless Prank

If the song from this video doesn't get stuck in your head..... psht, who am I kidding? It will. Trust me, it will. ;)

20th Birthday Report

I had an awesome birthday! I ate out with my family and ended up with lots of goodies too! ^_^

Here are all the sweet pressies I got in the order I received them

The first gift came from by boyfriend. He gave it to me a couple of weeks ago when I visited him. It's 4 hanks of Mmmmalabrigo (you can see that I already started a project with one of them. Eager hands. lol :P) and 2 sets of double pointed needles. He just remembered me saying that Malabrigo was really nice yarn once. Even I didn't remember ever mentioning that to him! Awesome, right? Don't you love it when they listen? ^_^

The next one, believe it or not, came from someone I've never met! A RAK friend from Ravelry, LouieLouie, sent me two skeins of Noro Silk Garden and some Harajuku Lovers perfume! She even sent it by priority mail so that it would make it in time for my birthday. How sweet :)

After we were done eating at Nothing but Noodles, we went to Hobby Lobby and I treated myself to some yarn for a sock yarn blanket I recently started (pics coming soon!) I'm saving the two purple ones for a pair of socks though. Maybe. lol :P

While we were at Hobby Lobby, my mom got me this fancy vase to display yarn in. Here it is with my fancy smanciest yarns. Recognize any of them? :P

After Hobby Lobby, we went clothes shopping and I got

A top for church

A cute blue skirt

And a flowy dress for school.

So as you can see, I got plenty of things that were on my birthday wish list. Told you I had an awesome birthday! :D

"WHY ME?!" Life Horror Stories

Today, I took my sandwich out of the microwave to find that the cheese had exploded, sending the bun flying and getting cheese everywhere. I just failed at making a cheese sandwich. I'm set to major in Culinary Arts next year. -foodfail. Massachusetts

Today, it was my birthday, and I was at work for my dad. He has been promising me a huge surprise that will show up at the office for months. I just saw the brand new Jeep he bought for me collide with another car on its way here.  -Anonymos, Texas.

Today, I decided to pull a prank on my brothers, so i hid inside the cabinet in my room and waited for either of my brothers to come in. Apparently, my brothers saw me go inside the cabinet and so they locked me inside. it took me 4 hours to get out of the cabinet. -icefairy1104, Phillipines

Today, my math teacher told me to learn how to say "welcome to wal-mart". -Stevo, Washington

Today, I learned that you should never, ever, under any circumstance, take a laxative and a sleeping pill on the same night. -emilygreeny, US

Today, I woke up in an emergency room. Why? I hyperventilated and passed out when I found out that my favorite video game is getting a sequel. -YouCouldFly, New Hampshire

Today, after breaking up with my boyfriend, some of my friends decided to take me to a comedy club for a girls night. My friend's jealous husband decided he had to come along, then decided to invite my other friends' boyfriends. I ended up being the seventh wheel on a night meant to cheer me up. -Anonymous, Ohio.

My Birthday Wishlist!

photo by heatherkingdesigns

My birthday is tomorrow, June 16! I'll be celebrating the BIG TWO-OH!  =)

Here's a list of a few things I might like to have around that time. *cough cough, hint hint* ;)

1. A sewing machine

This Janome Threadbanger one looks awesome, but this Walmart one is probably a little more realistic pricewise and will get the job done for the simple projects I'll be doing.

2. A new car (who wants to check this one off for me? lol)

Smart Cars are so cute! They're fuel efficient and easy to park, too. What I've heard about their safety ratings is a bit of a turnoff though, so I'll settle for a Pruis. I'm doing you a favor, I know.

.3. yarn, yarn, yarn.

As in...

Noro

Malabrigo

Cascade 220

I think you can see where I'm going with this. A nice trip to Yarn Expression should do me good.

4. clothes, clothes, clothes

As in....

Dresses

Tops

Skirts

...I can see that you're a fast learner. I'll move on.

5. A circular needle holder

by gomonkeydesign

Omgeezers I've been dying to get one of these for ages! I was gonna sew one myself, but you know how the laziness thing goes. :P

6. a purse

Some may say this belongs in the clothes, clothes, clothes section. But no. Purses are that important. I've been eyeing this one by Ecoist for quite some time.

And there you have it! I can't wait to see what you get me!! lol :)

101 in 1001 updates, June

I've been accomplishing lots of things on my 101 in 1001 list! Here are the updates:

18. Go bowling. Date completed: 5-22-10

26. See Vivin over the summer. Date completed:  6-3-10

28. Beat Vivin at a board game. Date completed: 6-5-10

37. Read the New Testament (2/27)

51. Reach 20 sales on Etsy. (8/20)

56. Get Moo cards. Completed in April

57. Have 40 items listed on Etsy. (24/40)

62. Take a reusable water bottle to school with me 10 times. (10/10) Completed in April.

87. Reach 400 fans on Facebook (294/400)

88. Reach 3000 followers on Twitter (2153/3000)

89. Reach 500 followers on this blog. (247/500)

100. Learn 10 new words and use them often. (9/10) juxtapose, germane,serendipitous, aspersion, gumption, fruition, beguile,vendetta, gratuitous

I now have exactly 900 days left. Better get to it!

How-To Tuesday: Clothesline Caddy

Spotted at The Long Thread.

This cute little caddy is perfect for holding pens, pencils, knitting needles, crochet hooks...almost anything you need within arm's length!

Here's what you'll need:

• cans
• pliers
• clothesline [I'm curious about trying this with something different like yarn or fabric. hmmm...]
• glue gun and glue sticks
• scissors
• masking tape

You're dying to make one of your own by now, aren't you? Ok, well calm down! Actually, no...don't calm down. Hurry up and click here to find the full tutorial and use all of that crafty energy while you've still got it!