Purplegreen’s Weblog

I don’t quite know where that last post came from, it wasn’t what I sat down to write about at all! However, pms probably contributed, and the fact that it is assignment-writing time.  I spent the whole weekend working on the damn thing, so I feel entitled to be grumpy about being stuck in front of a computer when everyone else is lazing around.  I’ve also discovered that assignments and diets don’t work so well together.  Weigh-in time again tomorrow with yet another new set of scales as the last new pair turned out to be totally inaccuraate.  I just hope that i’m still 5kg down, that will be enough of a victory at the moment!

The SO and i went to see Indiana Jones IV last week.  I gather it has had some mixed reviews.  I think the key is not to have huge expectations – just go along to enjoy seeing Indy again and you’ll have a great time.  There is no doubt the plot is all over the place, and I thought Cate Blanchett over-acted horribly, but hey, its Dr Jones in a new adventure and there’s a lot of humour.  I suspect i will have to go see it again on the big screen.  We went on opening night, and on one side of us was “I can’t possibly go half an hour without texting somebody, so I’m just going to keep my phone flipped open so the screen glare can get in your eyes” woman, and on the other was “I’m slightly mad and will talk to myself all the way through the movie and laugh at not-funny things that no-one else is laughing at” lady.  Which is the sort of thing that explains why i don’t go to the movies very often any more.

This weekend is a long weekend for us, for some reason we still celebrate the Queen of England’s birthday which isn’t even in June, go figure, but a holiday is always good, so Happy Birthday your Majesty.  HOPEFULLY I will not have to spend all of it studying…I accidentally bought a book of animal crochet patterns by Amy Gaines from Spotlight (accidentally because it wasn’t what i went in for), and i’m dying to get started on Chaos the Cat and also the Pirate panda. 

Here’s my last completed project, done with a 1.5 mm hook and DMC embroidery cotton.  I bought the pattern online and am reasonably pleased with the result, especially the Fimo nose which is something I haven’t tried before.  However I did find that the decrease stitches ended up creating holes in the fabric, which is not what you want for an item that has to be stuffed.  no doubt I need to refine my technique, and maybe try using an even smaller hook for the decreases, but if anyone has any tips about this please do share!

Anyhow, this is BonBon.  I think hes is quite cute but he does look like he would rather be an elephant, and I can see just how to alter the pattern, so look out for an elephant sometime soon.  I wonder…if i take someone’s pattern for a bear and turn it into a pattern for an elephant, will i have changed it sufficiently for it to be considered an original that i can sell?  You’d think as a librarian i would know everything there is to know about copyright.  Sigh.

Is what i plan to get written on me for my next tattoo, if i can just find the time to pick out the font that looks best and decide where to put it.  The quote is from Shakespeare of course, though i’m not sure which play, and i probably wouldn’t have read it anyway – but i don’t think that matters.  It is pretty much the basis of my life, that quote.  To me it means “be who you are, not who society thinks you should be, even though it may be tough sometimes.”  Therefore i have given myself permission to be unfeminine (i don’t wear dresses, skirts, makeup, high heels), unsociable, interested in nerdy stuff, not act my age if i can help it, not have children, love cuddly toys and be more interested in crafts and video games, robots and aliens than politics/business/current events. 

Sometimes it is a lonely life and i don’t have many friends, because i’m not good at talking to strangers and getting to know them.  I just HATE “polite conversation”.  Why ask someone how they are when you don’t really want to know the answer?  Why ask them about their hobbies that don’t interest you at all?  Why sit in the staff room and listen to people wittering on about what happened on Coronation Street last night when you could be on your computer exploring the net and talking online about things that you are passionate about with people you will never have to meet if you don’t want to?  I’m an introvert and its about damn time that all the “I’m really bubbly and and I’m always cheerful and I talk mindless drivel constantly” extroverts learned to respect the introverts of the world.  So there.

..since I last updated?  I’m sorry for my inconsistency.  Three weeks. Wow. Ok.

Well, i got an A- on my first essay, which i was quite shocked about; but the lecturer said that other papers will mark us a lot harder, they tend to be gentle on us for this paper as it is the first study many of us have done in quite a while.  So, meh  :/  Whatever.  Now i’m starting on the 2nd assignment and am already freaking a little, but it is not due in for a month, so i have time to get my head together.

I have had a lovely cold for a couple of weeks which i caught from the step-daughter, so there was quite a chorus of lung-coughing-up going on for a while there!  We are better now though.  It has been really really wet the past few days (fine by me!) and it is definitely getting autumnal.  Stupid me, i believed the weather forecast this morning and have been cold all day.  Grrrr.

i am losing weight!  (again.)  If you’ve done the diet thing multiple times, you may have noticed that there are times in your life when you just can’t make it work, and then every once in while something goes “click” in your brain and suddenly you are very determined and focussed and prepared to make sacrifices because now losing weight is somehow Very Important?  That’s where i am just now. 

 I discovered the other weekend while looking for something else that i had THREE lots of Weight Watchers courses sitting around the place, and i thought to myself “I SO know how to do Weight Watchers and i have all the information i need right here, so why not just get on with it?”  Now with WW they place a lot of emphasis on going to the meetings for support.   Last year i tried going to meetings near where i work, and the year before that i went to some meetings near my house.  What they don’t really mention is that you need to click with the meeting Leader, and if you don’t (which i didn’t in either case) then the meetings are largely a waste of $18 a week.  So i am being such a rebel (lol) and going it alone!  I just finished my 1st week and lost around 1.25kg (that’s 2.5 lb for the Americans).  I say “around” because our crappy scales are pretty vague.  i am about to go and reward myself for this result by visiting my LYS and getting some yarn to make a scarf.  Not that i NEED another scarf, i have a lovely one that i bought a few years ago which is about a zillion km long and very soft and light in grey and black – but i want to wear one that i made myself.  You know how it is.

Life. Our house continues to have too many people in it (flatmates/stepchildren) and to be a tip because nobody ever cleans up except me and i’ve pretty much given up as well now.  My Significant Other continues to be mostly a very sweet and kind guy and i feel like i should probably appreciate him more, but just now all i can think about is that he drinks too much, needs to lose a lot of weight and start doing some exercise and that he won’t live long enough to grow old if he carries on like this, and i just want to slap him in the face and say “Wake up!!!” 

Last night when i got off the bus going home i saw one of our neighbours having a conversation on the footpath with some woman i didn’t know.  As i walked past them i thought the woman said something to me but i wasn’t certain (i don’t hear that well when there is background noise such as traffic) – so i walked past her.  Then i heard her say something along the lines of “do you not talk or are you just rude?”  Later we figured out that she may have been the neighbour’s wife, but i don’t remember ever seeing her before and i’m not in the habit of saying hi to total strangers.  GRRRRRR!!!  my SO said to say hi and be nice if i see her again.  I say, a) what are you doing taking her side rather than mine?  and b) i don’t why this bothers me, but it does and now i have a Grudge against her – whoever she is.

CRAFTS!  PHOTOS!  of the bag that i was working on and finally finished.  I’m really pleased with the colours and how it turned out, and really glad that i crocheted it in wool and felted it.  the pattern is available fror free from here

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=103&d_id=40&lang=en

 Now this pattern has been translated from Norwegian into English and uses UK terminology, so if anyone wants to make it bear in mind that treble crochet means US double crochet.  I really recommend making the bag slightly larger than the pattern and felting it, as otherwise it is pretty floppy.  Also, i made the strap in dc as per the pattern, but if you can be bothered i think single crochet would be better – less stretchy.  I might make more of these for when i have an Etsy shop someday!