Owlishly

I'm a colon

I was over reading Eydie's blog, specifically this post about what punctuation mark she is.  I think when I take those quizzes the results can be, and often are hilarious.  Here's what it says about me-

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

So that's it, it's SO me *giggle* only sometimes. I don't know why I'm even posting right now, but I'm feeling chatty about nothing in particular, and need to say something.

Well, I've got to go, my little boy is done drawing the background for my octopus, hopefully it photographs well!

I was tagged...

...a while back *hangs head in shame* and I'm just now getting to it.  A little because I'd forgotten, and a little because when I'd remember I was a) either away from my computer or (mostly) b) I don't know what the heck would be interesting enough about me to write about.

Sorry Val! I'm going to give it a go now if that's okay.  So the rules are as such:
1. When tagged, place the name of the person and URL on your blog
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 7 things about yourself
4. Name 7 of your favorite weblogs
5. Send an e-mail letting those bloggers know they have been tagged

Now, about me-
1. I'm obsessive about know what time it is.  I seriously start to have an anxiety attack if I don't have my watch on.
2. I'm pretty darn pleased about the shape of my toenails. Weird, I know, but I've always been teased by my family about my second to being longer than my big toe.  But of my sisters & mom, mine look the best polished and pretty :)
3. I seriously thought growing up that I'd marry a redhead, specifically Benjamin- the second brother from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (one of my favorite movies).  When that didn't work out I moved on to dating other ones. My first 2 boyfriends had red hair & I was convinced it was in the cards for me. I was SO off.
4. I LOVE musicals, I'll watch any that come my way, and typically, I'll watch them over and over again.  Also, the dancing movies, specifically Fred & Ginger.  When I was little, I couldn't wait to be old enough to take  ballroom lessons, and actually was on the Ballroom Dance Team in college.
5. I hate Little Women, I'm pretty sure that it's because Jo didn't marry Laurie which I was so certain she was supposed to.  Of course my opinion may differ slightly now that I'm no longer 10, but probably not.
6. I'm really particular about scents/aromas I get nauseous super easily & pretty much the only perfume that I can tolerate wearing is Jessica McClintock.   Luckily, it's my favorite too!
7. I am always in awe of people who can cook.  I love to read about the science behind cooking and have tons of cooking reference books (but that may just be the reference librarian in me), but usually I read them because I think they're really interesting, and not to really learn how to actually make a variety of things.

Since it's super late, I'm going to edit tomorrow to finish it up!

Here's my edit- and unfortunately, since I did take so long to get to posting my seven things, I think most of the blogs that I read have already done their 7 things.  So in random order, these are blogs that I check on a regular basis- mostly crafty ones-

SheBrews
Still-Snarky
The Kidney Bean
Imagine
Floresita's Things I've Made
Susie Can Stitch
Roman Sock
MollyChicken

Okay, so that's 8, I know.  But because they've almost all listed their 7 things, I'm not retagging them so I'm just including one more since those are the one's I check almost daily.

Super quick update...

I suck, I know. I don't have any pictures, but I finished up a little cape for my niece & made felt flowers for everyone's hair for the party yesterday. 

On the other hand, I didn't finish my mom's embroidery piece in time for the party.  I tried, my poor husband knows that I tried.  I spent all of Friday night working on it, and then Saturday morning I got up with my little girl at 6:45 and started working on it again.  She woke up her Daddy too, so he got up with us and took care of her to let me work on it again. I kept feeling like I was almost done, but then I'd start concentrating too much and taking my time so I just gave up.  At least on it being done for the party.  Maybe by the end of this week, dang it.  I wanted it done, and I was so close. 

Well, onto other things I suppose.  I'm going to finish the embroidery & a blanket I'm crocheting for my sister's sister-in-law's new baby.  I haven't felt very motivated to finish up my dolls either, I only need to take pictures of 2 of them, but I'm sort of stuck with how I want to take the pictures so I keep putting it off. I told you I suck :)

Messy, messy

I think the state of my mind is reflected in what my desk looks like right now :) 

I've been trying to finish up some things and it feels like I need to get them done all right now.  My main focus is getting things done for my sister's baby shower.  Since she was in the hospital for 6 weeks and the baby was in the hospital for another 6 weeks she never had a shower.  My niece's birthdate was supposed to be around February 10th, but since she was born in late November she's been kept away from everyone to make sure she's healthy. 

So it's going to be this Saturday and it's going to be a fiesta theme and I thought that my mom's embroidery gift would fit right in with all the decorating going on.  I've got almost 3 of the 5 finished so I think I can get it done by Saturday.  I've already embroidered a dress for my niece & crocheted trim on the sleeves & hem.  I'm making a tiny little cape for her too. 

With all the babies that'd been born in our family we've never had a preemie so it's an entirely new experience for us.  At 6 months my little girl was wearing 12 months sized clothes, at 5 months, my niece is finally getting into newborn sized clothes.  She definitely acts like a 5 month old though :)

Anyway, I'm hoping by this weekend my desk will have some of the things cleared.

Also, I'd forgotten to say, the pattern that I'd found for the doily from my previous post was from Smart Knit Crocheting.  The thing is, I don't like reading written doily patterns, I prefer the charts so much more.  I guess for me it's easier to find my place in the chart than it is reading and rereading to find it in written instructions.  I used size 3 crochet thread too, I wanted to see if I could make it a little bigger before attempting thinner thread. I'm still intimidated by that.

So I think I've waxed on long enough, my little one is waking up from her nap & I've got to see about getting snacks for her and my little boy.

Some excitement in the midst of my housekeeping overhaul

Yay, finally something interesting to post!  First, what do you think came in the mail the day before yesterday?

My little Alexa the bee girl, all the way back home from her jaunt to Australia for a photo shoot! But not just her, she brought some goodies with her- some Frankie magazines which included her pattern and an image from her super fab photo shoot!  How neat is that! 

My pattern for her is in the latest issue of Frankie magazine which I'm rather excited about. 

The extra magazines that I got have already been claimed by my dad & grandma- some of my biggest fans.

Then, I don't know why I'm so late in the game when it comes to knitting bags, but off all the biggies I hadn't found "the perfect one" or at least any that I considered close.  It's always the wrong color, or pattern, or size, or material.  I know, I can be incredibly hard to please. But the search ended earlier this week, only to find out the one I want is back ordered for months and months and months! WHY!!!!!!!!!!!! I called or checked all the online retailers, and all of the LYS's within a 60 mile radius of our house and finally found my second choice bag, in my second choice color. 

I bought the Namaste Malibu in Olive which is a lovely grown up color, but I wanted the Hollywood Pink Laguna.  I love it anyway, it's nice and cavernous!  It's kind of clanky with all the metal on the handles, but I think once it's full that may not be as much of an issue.  My little girl and I went to get it this morning while my son visited with grandma.  I'm just going to have to wait until the Laguna's are in stock. Nuts. But I am glad I've found a good bag for our impending trip, I was getting concerned since I don't really like the one I've been using.  At last, fun stuff.   

New-ish dolls

I'm working on some right now.  In fact, I'd planned on working on one of them tonight, but I think I left them in the car since I can't find them anywhere in the house.  My bag may be in my bedroom, but there are two little maniacs in bed with my husband who went to bed too late and I don't want to wake them up going to look.

My little boy is very interested in an octopus and he requested a little boy in purple so I'm almost done with that one, and then I'm making a little boy dressed up like grapes too.  That one's for my cousin's birthday whose a bit of a wine drinker, and since she only has 1 son I'm making it a little boy. 

I suppose I should finish up my turkey boy and the big head baby and the other doll wearing the blue dress.  Good gracious, okay, I need to write out the patterns.  I keep starting to feel better, and then feel absolutely wiped out.  Too many things are going on that are getting in my way, dang it!   Even now, I'm a little distracted while I'm trying to write.

You know what else, I'm super embarrassed about something too.  I totally, totally, appreciate everyone who buys my patterns but it was getting to the point where I had to start sending emails to new buyers to make sure that people know they're getting patterns.  I'm frustrated and somewhat annoyed by people who don't read the listings, especially when I try to make sure I do everything that I can to make sure you know that you're getting a pattern.  Aaannnnyyyway,  getting back to the point, I had over 350 feedbacks to leave for pattern purchases.  *hangs head* I'm so sorry about that. 

The reason being, I hadn't left feedback because I hadn't completely finished up canceling transactions.  I got tired of having transactions from the end of November that I hadn't left feedback for, so I ended up leaving the same positive feedback for everyone.  It ended up taking around an hour and a half to finish it up yesterday and I'm sorry to those who come back again and again and are so sweet leaving comments and then I've just left funky, generic feedback.  I really do appreciate your purchases and support and I plan on trying to leave more personalized feedback in the future!

Super imaginative blog post title

I know. I'm not very clever about titles to each post.  I was over at Ravelry adding my little hat & blanket that I'd made for my niece and I was attaching blog posts to the projects in my notebook and noticed how very sad the titles for each post are.  I'd be sad if I were them.  Anyway, this post is just going to be a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

After my computer died last month and then I got it fixed, I ended up upgrading the operating system and have had to reinstall programs that I'd had before.  All have gone smoothly until now.  I'd installed Photoshop last week and tried to use it for something and there was an error message, so I waited until I had time to mess around with it again (which ended up being today), and tried again- to no avail!  I'm still getting that stupid message and now I'm pretty annoyed about it because I need to use it before adding my pattern to etsy. Argh. I may have to go buy another program, which isn't the biggest deal, I just want it to work right NOW and can't get it to. I guess I'm getting a lesson in patience.  My pattern is going to have to wait until I get my Photoshop debacle over with.

So I've been tinkering with that this evening, and as mentioned previously, I've been thinking about different doll patterns.  I'm thinking I'm going to go through with them since the first one is almost complete now.  I think this series is going to be the Big Head Babies. Not meanly, since it's been a nickname for both of my 2 little ones, it's definitely in the most loving way possible.  It's just funny since in proportion to the rest of their bodies, babies do have super big heads, and I think that's super cute!  My son's in particular was really round when he was born, it didn't really mold at all, and let's just say that I was acutely aware of EVERY one of those 15 centimeters.

Anyway, getting back on track, I'd made a head that I'd planned on using and then made the baby's body with a chubby cloth diaper bum too, but the head just seemed too small.  So tonight I ended up making a bigger head and used bigger eyes and I like it so much more.  Usually, the girls that I make are tanner, and the boys fairer since that's representative of my own little girl and little boy, but I was trying different yarn out, so this little girl is the fair one.  She's going to be wearing one of those infant gowns, like she's ready for bed.  She's all done except for her embroidery and her gown, but I already just want to squeeze her and give her little besitos all over!

By the way, I think I'm going to use the other head for maybe a monkey or a bear.  I've gotten different requests for the monkey, but my mom's birthday is next month and she likes bears so I don't know which one I'll do first.  Maybe I can actually get them both done!

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera

This title is my little homage to Yul Brynner- gotta love The King and I!

I've finished up my cat pattern and have her posted now in my etsy shop, and I'm glad she's done.

I always feel a whole heck of a lot better having things completely finished, instead of having a bunch of WIPs and feeling overwhelmed.

I'm super pleased about the response I've gotten from everyone regarding these little dolls, I think they're super cute, and I'm glad so many others like them too.  I just hadn't realized that it would lead to a lot of other things that I hadn't planned on.  I'm both flattered and hesitant.  Especially because of familial responsibility that I feel a bit guilty about shirking, whether I actually am or not.

I still need to finish quite a bit of other things, including my niece's blanket that appears to take forever and a day.  I'm noticing that since I mainly have been crocheting dolls, I don't use a variety of hooks anymore, and so when I spend time on the blanket, just using a slightly different hook leaves my arm a tad sore the next day.  I've been trying to exercise my hands and wrists to avoid any problems with as busy as they are this month.

I also wanted to talk about the logo contest I ran on the old blog, that was to debut with this one.  I ended up deciding on the owl that shows in my November 29th post, yet the person who submitted it doesn't want to be known, so she won't be, only to know that she's from California too, and she chose the 10 patterns.  Here's the sweet little owl again, though I don't know where I'll be using it. 

I tried using it in my banner, but it just didn't look right to me, and I may use it on tags for dolls, but we'll see.  I feel like though I like it a ton, it just doesn't fit, or else the banner doesn't fit the type of dolls that I make. I don't know, I guess it doesn't really matter all that much, since everything I do is all representative of me in a way.

On that note, I do plan on tinkering around a bit, rearranging things here and there, until I feel that this blog and I are a good fit.  So in the coming weeks (probably months) expect to see things moved around, some times here, sometimes not.

Anyhoo, as most thoughts I have of late, this post seems really fragmented.  I'm going to have my ridiculously late dinner, and spend a bit of time on the looming blanket before getting some rest.