She's Crafty

These are the little things that have been keeping me busy lately:

• a Mighty Boosh-themed embroidery. I'm somehow both super excited about this (mostly just because I love the Boosh and because of the shiny silver thread), but also not super happy with the way it turned out. It's part of a continuing theme of making tv-show related things. I used to have a portrait of the Bluth Family I painted somewhere, but I don't know what's happened to it. Pity.
• a t-shirt with iron-on letters because what adult doesn't need a t-shirt with her name on it? It makes me feel like I'm in the Mickey Mouse Club or something.
• the new Beatles Live at the BBC album. This just arrived yesterday and I'm totally in love with it. I was just talking with my sister about the Beatles the other day and mentioned that it doesn't even occur to me to name the Beatles when people ask what kind of music I like or what my favourite band is. Because I just assume that everyone loves them as much as I do (which I know isn't true, but it blows my mind and I prefer not to think of how anyone could not like them).

(and yeah, I know the song "She's Crafty" isn't about crafts...)

Lately

I seem pretty incapable of updating this blog on a regular basis. Oops. But here are a few things that have been going on these days.

1. I got my hair dyed at a salon instead of doing it by myself. For the first time ever! I only had the front done and it was a super dark navy blue, so it was pretty hard to tell, but it's lightening up.

2. I got this super cute little dog planter (and a mini mirrorball). His tail is in water and keeps the soil pack on his back wet. Genius! The clover is just starting to grow!

 

3. I went to see Simon Amstell and sat in the very front row! (Possibly because I got the time wrong on when the doors opened, so we were there early. Oops.) He was awesome and hilarious. You weren't supposed to take photos (and I observed this rule during the show, I promise!), but couldn't resist trying to sneak this on my phone.

4. I did a dj set in front of strangers for the very first time. It was super, super fun although I was incredibly nervous (which might explain the blurriness of this picture, which I took just when we were setting up and the nerves were just kicking in!).

Space is the place

 

A bit of an unintentional theme around here these days.

• The Hubble documentary had some pretty amazing shots. I get easily overwhelmed by the thought of the vastness of space though and had to take my 3D glasses off at one point and look away and sort of...compose myself.

• A wax 'space robot' (it says this at the base) I made at the Science Center. And by 'made' I mean I put the money in the machine and watched the wax pour into the mould. I painted it silver when I got home. It seemed more fitting than the sort of light brown of the wax. The Tintin rocket figure I bought a few days ago while taking a long lunch from work.

• Mismatched spaceman socks.

• Another journal page. 

Are 'Friends' Electric?

I've been trying to be more productive lately. And that means making a pin with a robot on it.

Other things I've been up to these days:

• getting excited about The Hobbit
• watching a lot of the Mighty Boosh
• sewing a faux fur coat (don't ask me why)
• stressing out that it's almost time for the holidays.

Summertearz

 

 

Less than a month left of summer. Things have been quiet here and so have I. I can't believe it's been over 2 months since my last post. In between there have been birthday parties, trips to the record store, late night bus rides. (And lots of getting really excited about Blur gigs, none of which I got to see in person.)

And here's some Little Dragon with the song from the title of this post. (How cool is Yukimi? And all of Little Dragon, for that matter?)

Phone photos

 

 

I don't tend to take very exciting pictures with my phone, but here are a few recent-ish highlights.

1. Radiohead. Amazing. That's really all I can say about it.
2. It poured buckets and for some reason, I decided I needed a break from work and ended up just walking around for about an hour, getting soaked. But somehow only one of my shoes seemed to get wet. (Not really a highlight of recent times, but here's the picture, nonetheless.)
3. Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys. We had seats way high up we were excited to get to sit down because it's kind of rough going to a gig after a horrible day at work, but everyone in our section stood, so we had to stand in order to be able to see anything. And I could still barely see.
During the encore, they lowered a big disco ball.  I'm not usually a real fan of big light shows during shows, but all of the different colours floating around made it seem like we were underwater.

Cut Your Hair

Yet another phone photo of a drawing, which is why the colour is so weird.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I chopped my hair off a couple weeks ago. Or rather, I had it chopped off. It's taken some getting used to because I've never had hair this short before and I still find myself reaching back to fix a pony tail that isn't there. Mostly it's meant I have to actually brush my hair now because otherwise it sticks up all over the place.

These Days (2)

Things have been rather crazy with work lately, and I've been neglecting this blog and spending time on tumblr instead...but here's a quick rundown of some things that have been going down lately:

- Breakfast with co-workers across the street from our office. There aren't many choices for non-meat-eaters, but I go mostly for the company. And the hashbrowns. Maybe more for the hashbrowns, if I'm honest. (I'm kidding. Sort of.)

- A Blur t-shirt I got off ebay. It was a men's XL, but I cut it down to fit me. I was nervous about messing it up, but I'm super happy with the results and kind of want to wear it all the time. But apparently I couldn't be bothered with making sure it wasn't wrinkly for this picture. Oh well.

- An excellent package of stuff from a friend in Berlin: candles, a matchbox from kaufbar in Berlin, a photo album and a book on Braunschweig - the city he's from and the city my father's side of the family is from.

Snow days

That's the view from my bedroom window. It's been snowing here for the past few days and everything has sort of come to a stop. I live on a rather busy street and it's been pretty silent for the past two days. No one from our office has gone into work and I've only ventured out once to buy some noodles to make vegan mac and cheese and to get this little pegasus from Kyrgyzstan from a travel bookshop that had holiday stuff on sale.

Christmas Time Is Here Again

I love buying gifts for people, but for some reason this year for Christmas I've been more successful at finding things for myself. I tend to call all purchase I make for myself during the month of December "Christmas presents for myself" (much like all purchases make in August are "birthday presents for myself"). I usually leave all of my Christmas shopping until the last minute anyway because I get excited and want to give the gifts right away. I basically have no self control where gifts are concerned (or in general, really).
Oh! And I also managed to get my hands on a copy of the vinyl of the Wassailing Song, which I'm super excited about! I've been listening to it non-stop!

Dinosaur days

Work has been pretty slow lately. Probably because most people have sort of checked out for the holidays. I've made a lot of paper snowflakes (some with dinosaurs on them) to decorate our office and have been drawing a lot of dinosaurs. It makes it look like I'm busy with paperwork when I'm not.

Wear Me Down

Guess who's sick again. Or possibly still, since I may not have every really gotten over pneumonia from this summer. So basically I've been feeling worn out all the time and haven't been working full days (edit: which my work has been super jerky about. So apparently it's fine for everyone to take a million years off for the holidays, but when I work from home in the afternoon because I'm sick, it's a big deal. Sorry, I just had to include that rant here, because my work is making me crazy and bitter.). It's also been super cold lately, although it might just be that I'm cold all the time because I'm sick. The last several days have involved a lot of blankets, a lot of listening to music, a lot of reading, and attempting to do Christmas shopping online.

Good times

Today consisted of: sleeping in, watching Harry Potter while eating cheese-less pizza, taking a long nap, listening to the thunder and rain outside, and turning up my music to drown out the sound of the rain. Not bad.

In possibly more exciting news:
1. Last weekend I went to a concert in a partially finished cathedral.
2. I got a skateboarding Spongebob in my cereal box. Except I didn't remember taking it out of the box and found it on the kitchen counter and then got confused as to who might have put it there. Weird, huh?
3. I found a limited edition box set of 13 at Easy Street. I already have one, but this way I figured I could hang up the poster without worrying about messing it up since I now have two! (It made sense to me at the time...)

These days

1. I made myself a note a few weeks (or maybe months by now) back to stop buying records, since that seems to be where most of my money goes, but it hasn't worked. I also like having certain albums/singles only on vinyl. Like this album by the Specials or a bossa nova one I've appropriated from my mom's record collection.
   This past Saturday I spent the day on my own and listened to music for hours. One of my favourite ways to spend a day, really.
   
   
2. I went down to Olympia for the day last week. Or was it the week before last? Sometime recently. I get a bit weirded out when I have to leave the city. Especially if I have to spend time in the suburbs. It makes me quite nervous. (I mean, Olympia is a city of its own, but you have to go through suburbs/smaller towns to get there. Just thought I should clarify.)
   

Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop

I've spent a lot of time waiting for buses lately. Since classes have started up again at the university, my bus is never on time anymore and I haven't made it in to work at 9 in a while (we have flexible hours though, so don't think I'm too terrible of an employee!).

Today on the way to the bus stop after work, I saw a Batman costume in the window of a toy/kid's clothing store and almost went in to buy it. Because I'm an adult who makes responsible decisions. (Or maybe I had Parks and Recreation on the brain and wanted to treat myself to a Batman suit like Ben...) I knew I was already running late for the bus though and reason won out (a rather rare occurrence) and I resisted. But now I'm tempted to go back tomorrow at lunch and at least have a closer look at it.

And while we're on the subject of bus stops, I used to love this song as a kid. And I still do!

Pretty snazzy video, huh? Those lights, the stripes, the Vox Phantom, some sweet 60s dance moves - what's not to love?

I Want To Tell You

1. I picked up the new book on George Harrison this weekend and have been spending a lot of time flipping through it, reading and re-reading the pages. Until I was in college I never listened to anything but the Beatles. I just didn't see the need to. They were and are a huge influence on me. George was always my favourite. I remember going to school in tears on the day he died.

2. I'm starting a course in audio production tomorrow, which I'm quite nervous about. But then again, I get nervous about everything. I haven't taken classes in a while and I'm not really looking forward to having to juggle school and work, but I'm excited to be learning about something that really interests me. And I'm a huge nerd for any kind of audio equipment. I may or may not have gotten a new pair of shoes to start the school year. I guess you're never too old for that back to school feeling.

Two things

1. New slipper socks from Natalie's shop. I'm so excited about them and can't stop admiring them! They're so warm and comfy - I never want to take them off!
2. Vegan ramen noodles. I'm rather weird about cooking: I'm either super ambitious and take on big projects or else I can't be bothered. Mostly I can't be bothered and make super easy stuff. Like noodles from a package. Or beans on toast. Or just plain toast.

Getting better all the time

Not much going on lately. I've been slowly getting better and am pretty much back to normal now. Back to working full days. Missing my bus in the morning because I'm too busy listening to music.

I saw the Horrors last week, which was pretty amazing. One of the best shows I've ever been to. I was right at the front, which was awesome and they sound so good live! And Rhys Webb's dancing was definitely a highlight.

Lately

I tend to ask a lot of hypothetical questions to friends/acquaintances/co-workers. Probably much to everyone's chagrin. I recently asked my co-workers what they would think if they found out I was a wizard. (Don't ask how I come up with these things.) One of them said she wouldn't be surprised, since I'm pretty secretive and always disappear from work and then reappear a while later. And what if I turned out to be an evil wizard? She said, no, I wouldn't be an evil wizard. But probably not a good wizard either. Just an amoral wizard.

I also made everyone play Desert Island Discs at lunch. Except no one wanted to choose their 8 favorite tracks. But they all shared their books and luxury item. I did it properly and even posted my list by my desk.


A vintage Beatles sweatshirt I bought myself as a birthday present. Although, to be honest, I've referred to all recent purchases as birthday presents. Including the new guitar I bought online and that was stolen from my porch before I got home from work. Some people just have to ruin things for everyone else. This is why we can't have nice things!