New Blog!

Hey guys! I was feeling kind of bound to knitting with this blog and so I decided to make a new one that would focus on all the different crafts I like doing :)

Thanx a bunch to everyone who has visited here! I promise the new blog will be even better <3

Visit me! :)

~ Holly

AMERICA!!!!!

.... How I've missed you. x]

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!/Happy Birthday To Me!?!

Oh man. I am sooo old. I can't believe I'm 20. What is this nonsense?! O_o

Soooo to take my mind of this fact AND to post something Christmasy, here's a meme.... ;)


CHRISTMAS MEME:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Definitely wrapping paper for Christmas!!! So much more fun, festive, and bright, specially for little kids. For baby showers/wedding showers/ etc... I feel no guilt using a bag. After all, the recipient can reuse. But for Christmas? NEVER! ... Ok... so maybe I did once or twice since I've run out of wrapping paper a few times *hangs head*. It makes me feel blah though, as I would much rather sit down and take an entire evening wrapping up gifts for everyone. Gets me into the Christmas moooood ^_^

2. Real tree or Artificial? I love the smell and feel of a real tree (long-needle, thankyouvermuch). Enough, even, to put up with the putting it on the roof of the car and the shedding, but I like the fact that a fake one doesn't die (obviously). I like to have the tree up several weeks before Christmas. That's no problem if you're using a fake tree, but come Christmas time a real one will start looking a bit dry around the edges. When I was little we always had a real tree, but then my parents got older and more sisters sprouted out of the ground and we got a dog that likes to eat any/all plant-life, so then we switched over to a fake one. It was acceptable, but nothing beats the Christmasy smell of a real tree. Well now that I'm married I can have whatever tree I want. HA! x]

3. When do you put up the tree? In a perfect world? The day after Thanxgiving. In a procrastinator's world? Two weeks before Christmas

4. When do you take the tree down? It varies. I like to keep it up as long as possible, but it still usually comes down a few days after Christmas *sniff*

5. Do you like Eggnog? Mmmmmm yummmm yeah xD

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I'm not actually sure. Since my birthday is on Christmas Eve, its hard to remember which were birthday gifts and which were for Christmas, but I remember I always especially liked the craft-type gifts ^_^. One that really sticks out in my mind was a kit my sister got me that taught me how to make a bowl out of long pine needles and raffia. It was pretty sweet xD. Very sturdy too. Its still in fabulous shape despite it being 12 years old :)

7. Hardest person to buy for? Hmmm. My brothers. Mainly because they always say that I don't have to get them anything, thus refusing to give me good ideas =P

8. Easiest person to buy for? Hmmm. Probably my sister Ivy (yeah yeah yeah "The Holly and the Ivy". I know I know lol). I'm closest in age to her so we're pretty close. I know just what she likes and such.....

9. Do you have a nativity scene? I have a cute little glass one, but its back in the states. Can't wait till I can set it up next Christmas ^_^

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I don't have much experience in this area since I never really needed to when I was a teenager. I could always just hitch a ride on my parents cards lol. Now that I'm married (and 20 years old *wince*) I'll probably get into the habit though. So to answer the question, I think I'd prefer regular mail over email :)

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm. I dunno. I think I enjoyed all my gifts. When I was little my older sister would tease me and buy me underwear and then make me think that was all she got me. The main gift usually made up for the underwear though haha. Oh oh oh no wait I got one. When I was 16 or 17 I got a ridiculously ugly purse thingy. It. Was. Hideous. I even suspect the giver was being passive aggressive by giving it to me ;)

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don't know if I actually have a favorite. Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is an obvious favorite but I rarely watch it on Christmas. I usually watch it July or August when I'm needing a snow/Christmas fix lol. The movie I enjoy most on Christmas isn't even a Christmas movie. For some reason, Watching "Bringing Up Baby" with Cary Grant and Kathrine Hepburn on Christmas is my family's tradition. I don't know why and I don't even remember what started it, but its just what we've done ever since I was little lol ^_^

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? It varies, but I usually start seriously considering it around October. I like to give myself JUST enough time. A little less even, so I feel the Christmas gift buying rush. I like that feeling xD

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. I probably have considered it but there really is entirely way too much risk involved =P lol

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Hmmm. I can't choose. I love my mom's brown sugar ham. I also really like hot chocolate and homemade toffee xD

16. Lights on the tree? Wait.... this is OPTIONAL to some people?!?! Of COURSE lights on a tree!!! O_____o

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Carol of the Bells", "Have Yourself A Very Merry Christmas", "12 Days of Christmas", "The Little Drummer Boy", heh..... I think I just like Christmas songs in general lol. I have some techno Christmas stuff that's pretty sweet too =P haha

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both. It used to be "stay at home", but then I got married and moved away from my family. Now Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas to me unless I can spend the day with my family during the day and then relax alone with Brent with a hot drink while watching a movie before bed :]. This year the former was missing since we're in South Korea, but we'll be able to celebrate a belated Christmas with them when we move back to the States in just a few weeks!!! *mas minor panic attack about all the stuff that has to get done before then....*

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? I guess so? I was never really a Santa fanatic. In fact, I never believed in him. Even when I was really really little I would just kind of play along when people would be like "oooo what did Santa get you?". I dunno... My parents didn't force the whole Santa thing on me and I always thought it was kind of a silly thing to try to get your kids to believe anyways. Goodness, I sound like such a Scrooge lol

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? My family always opened gifts on Christmas Eve after supper. My birthday gifts were before, and Christmas gifts would come afterwards. I would always get to pick what we would have for Christmas Eve since it was my birthday and then we would have a big Christmas lunch the next day. Lots of cooking for my mom, but she always outdid herself :)

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? The kind of people who try to squelch the good cheer because they don't believe in the Christian aspect of the holiday. I, myself, am a Christian, but I'm not a bigot. If a person doesn't believe in Jesus then that's their choice. I just don't like it when they feel like they have to scrooge it up. There is plenty for EVERYONE to enjoy during Christmas, whether you're a Christian or not!

22. Favorite ornament theme or color? Ah I don't know. I really enjoy the sort of.... mismatched type tree. It makes it feel very personal and warm when each ornament has a memory attached to it. I don't know what Brent and I will start off with once we buy a full sized tree. Well whatever the case, snowflake/icicle ornaments are a must. Maybe I'll make my own :)

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Well I'm still looking forward to celebrating belated Christmas with my family in a few weeks, but Brent got me a wonderful gift. He took me to Seoul to shop in a cluster of MASSIVE 5-7 story buildings that were..... can you guess? FULL to the BRIM with wholesale craft stuff.We only had time to go through part of one building! Each floor was packed FULL of a different kind of craft. There was a knitting/crocheting floor, a beading floor, a sewing floor, etc. There were so many tiny shops on the yarn floor that some of the aisles were only about 2 feet wide in places! It was hot, it was crowded, and it was glorious. Bwahaha xD

24. Angel on the tree top or a star? Oh either is wonderful. I think I'll get our tree a star though. Growing up, my family had an angel, so I think I'll start a new tradition for Brent and I :)

25. Favorite Christmas dinner? Hmmm. I don't rightly know. Growing up each and every one was fantastic. I think some of my favorites were the glazed ham years. Mmmmm with mashed potatoes, stuffing, Mom's homemade cranberry sauce, chocolate cherry rum cake, homemade toffee, and all sorts of other stuff.... oh man *tummy grumbles*. I have the best of both worlds now because MY mom is a wonderful country-style homey-type cook and BRENT'S mom is a wonderful fancy/gormet-type cook. Heeeeheehee lucky me! xD lol



Tada! Nother meme down the hatchet! Now its off to get more stuff done! I'll hopefully post pictures of our trip to Seoul later today if my camera starts behaving again! Until then, and soz I don't have a pictureless post, here's some sparkley/wintery Eye Candy! :]

Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday xD

God bless,
              ,    ,
,  ,           |\_.'/
)`-'\__,    |\_/ .`(_
/ `.   (   _| . '_.-'`
'--. `'. '-(_)'  (
/.-. `(_)(_)`--'
`   \/ / . '-.
     '`)  :  (
      `-. ' .-'
         )'/
         `;

Stellated Truncated Icosahedrons & Excuses!

.: EDIT :. So for the last several weeks I have been swamped with trying to get all my Christmas knitting done (not to mention getting prepared to move back to the States!). There will be much hullabaloo in post-form once I get myself together again, but unfortunately I don't exactly know when that will be. I will get in as many posts as I can done in the next couple months but I can't promise any regularity until the beginning of march, when we get settled into our new place. I meant to post this tutorial weeks ago! I am ashamed *hangs head*

So I hope that justifies my spastic posting with everyone! Lol :]


***************
Supplies:
Off-brand Post-it sized memo pad (you should be able to pick up a pad @ WalMart with about 300 or so sheets for under $3)

Bone Folder (optional)

Origami Board (optional)

Step 1: start out with a fresh sheet of paper.

Step 2: Now fold in half lengthwise, and crease with either the bone folder or your fingernail so its nice and exact. Then unfold again. This center line is merely going to be a guideline for the next two folds....

Step 3: Now fold the top half inward to meet the center crease. Then flip 180˚ and do the same fold with the other half

Step 4: Next unfold the paper and lay it flat. It should look like this, with creases where I've drawn the lines.

Step 5: Now take the top left corner and fold it down so it lays flush on the top-most crease. Then spin 180˚ and do the same with the opposite corner.

Step 6: This next fold is a little bit harder to explain. I drew a line on the top section showing WHERE to fold and the bottom section shows the COMPLETED fold

Step 7: Now take both outer fourths and fold them inwards. This shouldn't require any creasing at all because you're simply using the ones you had already established in step 3




Step 8: Next take the left bottom corner and bring it up so the left edge is flush with the top

... like this ^

Step 9: Then spin 180˚ again and do the same to the other side.

Step 10: Now take both triangles you just folded and tuck them into their corresponding inner flap

... This is what your piece should look like after step 10




Step 11: Flip over to the completely blank side

... and then flip again, 90˚, so it now lays vertically

Step 12: Next take the bottom point and fold it upwards so it touches the base point of the slant like so ^ (This will be simple to do because of how the insides are folded. You should be able to feel where the exact fold point it by how much "fight" the fold gives you)

Step 13: Flip and do the same to the other side

Step 14: Now take the piece and fold it down the middle...

... like so.

FINISHED! Your piece should now look like this! If not then that simply shows how bad my teaching skills are *sigh* :]


***************

I didn't even want to attempt to try to explain now to make the "peaks" through pictures so I recorded a video. I felt kind of rushed so I hope I explain everything clearly. If not, let me know through comments, and I'll record a new one :)

.*: THE END :*.

Just a quick sneak peek....

... of something I'm working on.




Sorry this post is going to be pretty short. I just got a bunch of my supplies and I'm pretty busy! Also working on a special tutorial for whoever reads my blog :)

Thanksgiving was wonderful, btw! My exciting Thanksgiving story is that I had NEVER cooked any of the things I made and they still turned out! Seeee?


I also made layered jello and apple crisp, but I didn't get a picture of those. Too busy eating ;)

The weather here is pretty chilly but no snow. Apparently this area of Korea doesn't get much which saddens me. I'm glad we'll be back in the States before all the snow melts though! :)

In other news, I just got my Prismacolor pencils and stuff in the mail today! There were some packing issues but DickBlick.com has fantastic customer service. Its a fantastic site for one-stop online art supply shopping so I was really happy when I got such nice service also ^_^

Now to sharpen them all. This may take a while.... haha =P

Sometimes the internet is my BFF.

I've started browsing through art/craft blogs again and its been pretty great. Although my Firefox probably doesn't agree, since whenever I find a link I think may be interesting I'll open it to a new tab. A couple hours of that equals several DOZEN tabs at LEAST. A lot of the links really didn't even have much to do with crafts haha. Just random crazy fun stuff xD.

What? What's that? You'd like me to share? Weeeeell, don't mind if Ah do :]


#1. Gaia Avatar Maker
I love these and this is the best one I've found. I messed around with it a bit and made a few element based/random characters :)







#2. Mammoth Crocs
I always promised myself I would never ever ever ever wear, much less BUY, these abominations to the shoe industry. I remember when they got popular, a friend insisted I try a pair on, so I kind of hid behind her as I slipped into them. Sure. Ok. Yeah they were comfortable, but they didn't come CLOSE to making up for their hideousness, in my opinion.

Mammoths have changed that for me completely. I tried some on while shoe shopping with Brent (isn't that crazy?! I married a man that's willing to go shoe shopping with me!!!) and oh my goodness..... the clouds parted and sun shone down upon me. They are STILL just as ugly as the original, but oh man.... The fleece lining is what sold me. *drools* Its like..... walking on a baby cloud. A baby cloud inside an already pretty comfy shoe haha. I say baby just because I assume baby ones are softer then adult clouds =P

Oh and just as a side note as I rant about Crocs.... when did they start making PRETTY shoes?! I DEMAND TO KNOOOOOW!!! I want the green ones xD


#3. JetPens.com
Little known fact about me is that I have a bazaar obsession with office supplies. Its not that I USE them a lot. I just like HAVING them. Funky desk organizers, pretty notebooks, calenders.... you name it. Ah but most of all.... Pens. I lovelovelove pens and I've discovered that the ones from Japan tend to be especially fantastic. This website has every kind of pen you can think of, INCLUDING sparkle gel pens that actually work and don't get clogged every other letter. Will wonders never cease to amaze me?! I didn't even know those existed! =P


#4. Simon's Cat
These made me literally LOL in delight. Absolutely adorable xD

#5. French Kitty Dolls
I never liked dolls a ton when I was little. I liked building houses for them out of random household items and making "outfits" for them out of my mom's sewing scraps, but I got tired of actually playing with them quickly. I might have been more interested if I had had these French Kitties though. I've never seen anything like them. They're so different and whimsical! I just couldn't help myself. After getting the ok from Brent.... I made my move! Ebay item..... SOOOOOLD!!! Bwa ha ha!

I'm planning on making and collecting clothes for it and then if I have a daughter one day, I'll give it to her and teach her to sew clothes for it too :)

I had done a little bit of research to see which one I wanted to get and I decided on the yellow tone one with the cheetah-type spots. I was REALLY happy when I found her on Ebay BNIB! Isn't she funky? xD




Well that's it for now! I'm sure there will be more entries like this with random stuff I've found online :)

Until then..... <3 HAPPY TUESDAY!!! <3

.*: 11/22/08 :*.

Peekaboo! <3
This cute little ladybug peaks out of the grass in the park Brent and I walk past when we go to "town". The grass is dead and crispy now, but the ladybug is still adorable haha

On My Bedside Table:
Brent's comic books (its more of a bedside bookcase)
My iPod
"Doodle Stitching" by Aimee Ray
"Roverandom" by JRR Tolkien (One of the only Tolkien books I hadn't read)
A Water Bottle

Currently Used Computer Programs:
Firefox 3.0
Mail
Preview
iTunes
Adium
Skype

Newest/Latest Interests:
Embroidery
Whimsy Art
French Kitty Dolls (just bought one!! YAY! xD)
Prismacolor Colored Pencils

On My Mind:
My latest yarn order
Crime Shows (and how I'm starting to run out of ones I haven't seen *wah*)
What mittens I want to knit for myself this year
Whether or not I will eventually buy Adobe Illustrator :]
Why everyone's art seems to have their own personal "style" to it, but mine is all different :[

Learning:
... a couple new drawing techniques :]
... to cable without a cable needle o.o
... to accept that I enjoy doing too many different things to be able to focus on just one thing for lengthy amounts of time haha

Making:
A bazillion and one Christmas gifts
Winter gear for myself (if I have time after all the gifts, that is O_o)
Several new drawings in my quest to find my "art style"
Sandwiches for Brent haha :]

Looking Forward To:
Going errand running with Brent tomorrow
Moving back the the states where there is family, friends, the rest of my yarn stash, and readily available craft stores.... :]
The arrival of my new art supplies
The arrival of my French Kitty Doll
The arrival of the rest of my knitting supplies I need for Christmas gifts this year
Opening an Etsy Shop once I make enough stuff to fill it :)

Not Looking Forward To:
Moving back to the states where I will have to once again deal with various people I doooo not like (at least if they're being rude/stupid/hostile HERE, I don't know what they're saying lol)
Brent having to work 12 hour days again -.-
The weird feelings I'll have when I visit my parent's as a "visitor" for the first time in my life :[
Going into debt when Brent and I have to buy furniture and a car haha

Enjoying:
Having it be Brent's weekend
Day old garlic bread and apple cider. Rustic, I know, but still tasty tasty haha
Listening to Brent sleep

Amused By:
The super lame dramatic moments that CSI: Miami is chocked full of xD
All the people that have been complaining about the upcoming winter
Brent's random snores (just a couple every half hour or so)
My hypersensitive sense of taste and of smell and how they affect my life in weird ways

~~~~~

Stay tuned for our next episode: Fun Things I've Found Online Lately :]