half-thought plans

So! Things!

Firstly: I got a message on Ravelry asking if I’d like to join a local knitting group…three months ago. Crap! So, I sent a response saying yes! I would like to! And apologized because I just completely forgot I had a Ravelry account and things that just been like “I don’t want to do anything but surf the web and knit.”

I need to send them a message and ask about what I can do because we do have cats and dogs. The group is for making chemo hats and I don’t want to have anyone get adverse reactions due to my knitting a hat and getting pet-dander on it. For those who don’t have cats, especially cats like Ugly who shed, it doesn’t matter how careful you are—cat hair will get everywhere.

It’s kind of like glitter.

…

Speaking of knitting. I thought about finding somewhere to sell my little octopi and things. I’ve had a number of friends mention that I should sell things on Etsy.

Apparently it’s been long enough since I had originally looked at their charging prices, that I had considered attempting to open a little shop.

But, needless to say, I won’t be opening a little shop on Etsy. While I realize and understand their request of a certain amount for listing fees as well as a certain percentage for every item sold, I just can’t afford that right now. It sounds kind of silly since it is a rather low percentage.

I had hoped that I could find another website, similar to Etsy, to sell things, but so far, I’ve found one and I still can’t afford it. It’s no listing fee and a smaller percentage per sale, but it’s still a money issue.

I’ve seriously considered just making a side-blog, setting up a Paypal account, and putting a Paypal button up. I know Paypal charges for every transaction, but if memory serves correctly, they automatically take out their fees before you get the money. I’ll have to look into it.

I know that if I do set up a “shop” (so to speak), it’s not going to get off with a bang. I guess, if anything, I just want to see if I can do it.

…

So. Making things.

Since I made the post about making the Slenderman and Octopus, I realized I should make a new list of things I wanted to make, planned on making, or needed to make.

It was a bad idea.

I spent maybe half an hour writing different things down and later on I typed it up. After typing it up, I realized I should probably count it and see how many things it was because I didn’t think it’d be that many. Nope, it’s 82 things, not including the “various sizes, various colours, etc” notes that I made.

Holy cow.

I would say that I guess I should get to working, but there’s so much I have to do around the house. We’re going to be puppy-sitting later this week. This means we’ll have to get some extra cleaning going since it is Poedog.

Since we’ve lately learned that Faust really hates dogs, whenever Faust is not in the livingroom (oh the joys of having a dog-gate installed to separate the livingroom from the rest of the house) we’ll be putting him in the Blue Room because we’d rather be overly cautious than not.

Too many projects

The downside of being easily distracted and having Really Cool Ideas where sometimes I have the ability to Make Them Happen, is starting these things and going off to do something else.

For instance:

I started a Sandworm scarf…over a year ago. I got distracted (and commissioned to make a couple Doctor Who scarves) and I also realized that hey, I really don’t need that piece right now so it can stay half-finished.

I have other pieces of knitty things that I can use and continue with, but now I’ve run into the snag of: I should probably use those.

I’ve got part of a blanket on one of my things, the Sandworm scarf is hanging out on other knitty things in a bag with brown felts, and I’ve got the beginnings of what will be a Large Smiley Face on another knitty thing.

But, now I want to make a Cthulhu and I may need one of those knitty things and I realized that the knitty thing that the Sandworm scarf is on I think I need that thing, but this means I have to finish the Sandworm scarf and I kind of don’t want to finish the Sandworm scarf because I don’t have eyes. I really want something akin to Ooogly eyes, and I need to make a second Sandworm to go into the Sandworm and I need to make teeth and a tongue.

I’ve also been getting not so subtle hints to make Giant Octopi and I am going to probably need all of my knitty things to make them.

I also realized that:

I have 2 blankets that need to be done

Since I made the Slenderman, this opens up a whole new slew of things! to try to make (a zombie for a friend, Lenore, more Slendermen, etc)

I want to try to make an elephant (for Jamie. he’s always wanted a little white elephant with red dots, just like the one from the Island of Misfit Toys)

I wanted to make more Doctor Who scarves. I have all of the materials I need, I just haven’t gotten there yet.

And, if I can do it, which I think I might be able to, I want to make my own little Horace Horrible (from Candle Cove). Ever since I first read Candle Cove, I have wanted my own little Horace Horrible

…and now I need to go check on laundry.

tentacles

Hello, Internet. How’re you? Doing well?

Me? I feel like crap. I caught something from the “Germ Factory” (work) and therefore feel rundown and am very lethargic (also, rather lazy)

Faust, the new cat, has determined that the little cubby hole where we throw dirty laundry in the bathroom is his new bed. We’ve learned that he really hates dogs and Ugly does not want to have anything to do with him. Faust is, however, getting along fairly well with Snooch so that’s a plus. We figure that Ugly is just staying grumpy.

Jamie got a last-minute text from Hope, a really awesome dog trainer, asking if we’d be interested in joining her Advanced class. So, Izzy is now in an Advanced Obedience class. This will be great for her and her…unease with new situations, and it’s also structured for CGC certification. At the end of the training period, we can take the test, if we pass, Izzy-butt gets to be our first CGC-certified dog! And if this happens, we can work with the other monkeys and have them certified which will get us a little bit closer to our “I’d love to have one of these guys as a certified therapy dog.”

We’ve learned that we were right: if you drop something, like dropping the broom by accident, Izzy will pee. We’ll be working on that.

Hope has said that, if we really have to, we can bring Hobbes to class to help ease Izzy into these new situations that she will be thrust into.

…

Creatively, I’m working on Octopi. Little knit octopi that are basically taking over my knitting at the moment. (tentacles everywhere!)

My Medusa hat is on hold at the moment, which is stupid of me because I want to knit a little Cthulhu and half of my greens are on hold (because of the hat) and I think it’d be really fun to make a little Cthulhu.

And, I’ve made a Slenderman. He needs a tie, which I have not made yet. He has been squeed over.

I realized that since I’ve made a Slenderman, I can make a Nosferatu. If I can make Nosferatu, I can make that zombie that I’ve promised a friend (from like two years ago).

I also realized that, while the Slenderman was headless, I could easily make a Lenore (created by Roman Dirge). I kind of want to make a Lenore and see what happens.

…

On the other hand, I realized I should really do film reviews again. I’ve been watching a lot of films (the joy of being sick, feeling like crap, and working part time) I’ve watched about 20 or so in the past week, week and a half.

It’s mainly for me. Sometimes I really don’t remember if I’ve seen a film until I’m about halfway through and realize I’ve seen it. I’ve seen Harry Potter and…the Goblet of Fire? Three times and I still don’t remember anything from it besides this is really terrible. I am disappointed.

And then there’s things I’ve been watching that would be really fun to talk about, like “Grave Encounters” (and the hilarity I found in it) or “Absinthe,” the documentary.

He won’t be named Sir Pounce

We’re still trying to think of a name for The Cat. We’ve taken to calling him “Cat” until we can think of something. Jamie mentioned calling him “Sir Pounce” (after Tommen’s cat from Game of Thrones), but he doesn’t pounce all that much. He’s a pretty chill, laid back kind of cat. I offered “Vetinari” because, really, if we’re going to go with literary names, why not someone from the Discworld?

Vetinari doesn’t seem to fit all that well.

Jamie suggested George (after Curious George) because he has to know what food you’re bringing in, I countered with Bentley (after Bentley Little).

Cat also got introduced to Uggs and Snooch today. Uggs doesn’t want to have anything to do with him and Snooch will edge kind of close, hiss, and run away. So far, Cat has basically taken over the living room and the others seem to be fine with that.

——

I decided to make a little octopus yesterday to see if I could. It turned out fairly well and Jamie has claimed it for his own. I made another one today and have been enjoying making them.

He’s a little goofy, but he works and he was fun to make.

I want to make more of these little guys and maybe do something, like put them on headbands. It’d be something fun. I also kind of want to do googly eyes or button eyes (or something other than standard pony beads). Overall, it’s just fun to play around with them and I like how they’re coming out.

I want to make more of them. I’ve got the yarn to do so, so why not? I think the only thing that would be weird/awkward to do would be the variant-colored yarn.

And things continue

Let’s see what I can remember that’s happened.

First and foremost: we have added a new addition to our family. His name is Darius, he’s 14 lbs of lovable cat and is approximately 5 years old. When I can, I’ll add his photo and information to the “pets” section. (he’s white and black, but he won’t be confused for Mr Uggs like Snooch gets. He’s more white than black)

I’m going to be babysitting a 7 year old on Monday and Tuesday. It’s going to be…weird. I have to make sure that he won’t bother the dogs or the cats, but I figure we’ve got Netflix and Mario Kart, so it should be good.

My craft room is still pretty…unorganized (stuff is just piled in mounds really). I brought a couple projects upstairs to work on, but since the kid will be here, I had to take the projects back downstairs. I figure, if anything, I may bring a project back upstairs to work on while the kid is here, or just weird him out and bake dog treats.

I did do something stupid yesterday and bought 2 packages of tea– one was a box of Tulsi tea (original), and the other was Pau D’Arco. They were both on sale, I’d never tried them before so I thought it might be fun. The Tulsi tea kind of reminds me of chammomile from Stash. It’s not bad and I haven’t tried the Pau D’Arco yet, but I’m hoping it doesn’t suck. I also bought this little energy drink called Xtreme Shock. It’s a shock alright; it makes your brain wired into go-go-go mode whether your body wants to go or not. The one I tried was the blue one and it tasted like blue freezie pops mixed with a blue Hugs drink. It says sugar-free, but it really seemed like it was jam-packed with sugar.

And now I’m going to go. Darius is a really lovey cat and he wants scritches.

Learn something new — February

As March 1st is winding down, I present you with my “Learn Something New Everyday” for February! Woohoo.

1. There is a frog called the “harlequin toad.” It’s kinda like a poison dart frog and they’re really pretty.
2. Pseudopod is having a flash fiction contest.
3. The guy who coined the term “dinosaur” was Sir Richard Owen.
4. There is a piercing known as the dolphin piercing. It looks pretty neat. (a piercer we happen to know did one and posted a photo of it on Facebook, being curious as to what it was called, I looked it up and found a piercing forum. Apparently it’s not done very often)
5. There is a Peeps dog shirt! (Rita the Naked Pitbull has a photo on her Facebook page)
6. Never buy the 24oz/1lbs package of large Milkbones if you’ve got 4 dogs over 30lbs. It didn’t even last a day and a half. (it was also on sale for $1.69, which was why I had gotten it)
7. Wolfgang Puck Mocha coffee-drink tastes like Yoohoo with a hint of coffee flavoring. I will stick with the regular and the vanilla.
8. Dan Aykroyd is the guy behind Crystal Skull Vodka! This is awesome (and I’m kind of not surprised)
9. Apparently Peter Davison will be going with a select group of people will be visiting the Star (it’s the biggest thing Roanoke’s “known” for.)
10. Apparently “consumed” is now used instead of “used” (ran across a website that had a counter which stated “Plastic bags consumed this year” that had hit a few hundred thousand. It had nothing to do with the plastic bags that sea life consume because they think it’s jellyfish)
11. Billie Holliday had a pitbull! [https://strangernightmare.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/1947billieholidayboxermisterthedownbeatwest52ndst.jpg Yes, he does look more like a boxer, but at this point in bully-breed history, he could still be considered a pitbull, kind of like how Sgt. Stubby was considered a pitbull]
12. After 12 years of wear and tear, the strap on my camo messenger bag ripped off. Two large safety pins made for an ok fix until I could bring the messenger bag home. Weird to know that a little messenger bag I got from Claire’s lasted a lot longer than the 2 that I bought 3 years ago (both of which lasted maybe 6 months each)
13. Dolly Parton has a program called “Imagination Library” that is now available in Kentucky. This is really awesome.
14. The people who lived in this house before us built part of a wall over some moulding. If we take the moulding off, the wall comes down. Fantastic. (they also made a piece of drywall for moulding)
15. Terry Deary (author of Horrible Histories) fully believes that libraries are “no longer relevant.” Talk about someone who lives under a rock.
16. Build A Bear is getting an Autism Awareness bear! (March 27^th!)
17. Never lay tile and grout with your bare hands.
18. Ommegang Brewery will be releasing a Game of Thrones themed ale and it will be available in 23 locations within 10 miles of us. (and it will be coming out on March 31^st! Same day as Season 3 premieres!)
19. A Game of Thrones exhibit will be available for the public in New York City March 28 to April 3 with the chance of sitting on a replica of the Iron Throne.
20. Trying to cancel a gym membership is almost damn-near impossible. (they also refuse to cancel via phone)
21. Skulls Unlimited also has a museum! (The Museum of Osteology) How awesome is that!
22. Jim Jones regularly did suicide drills. That’s…really fucked up. (source: film “Witness to Jonestown,” 2008. It is currently on Netflix insta-watch.)
23. Frances Glessner Lee created these things currently known as “nutshells” which are extremely detailed dioramas of crime scenes that ultimately helps detective become better. There is a documentary about it on Netflix (called “Of Dolls and Murder”). They are really fascinating and I would love to go see one.
24. There is a glitch in Skyrim where, if positioned correctly, you can drop a pot or a basket on top of a shopkeeper and it will cover their head. This enables you to be able to steal from them without getting punished.
25. Apparently Nine Inch Nails is reuniting and reinventing themselves for a summer tour. I will…probably not look into this upcoming album.
26. Apparently my Doctor Who scarf looks like it’s something bought from a store (damn, I must’ve done something right when knitting this thing)
27. Even though I was excited to try out the French Knitter, this thing is a pain in the ass.
28. If your dog has tummy issues, don’t feed them cooked squash.