Things I Wish I Could Buy

Is it too early to order Christmas music? I really want Sufjan Steven's Christmas album, as well as She & Him's Christmas album. Actually, to be honest, I pretty much want all of She & Him's collection. But especially their Christmas diddies. I dropped a lot of pretty major hints to Eamonn regarding the Sufjan album last year, but apparently they were sold out.

This year I thought about buying them myself but since I'm saving to go back to San Diego (where I will bring two empty suitcases and fill them with lots of clothes, Jr Mints, and classic Cheerios), I thought I'd save on the excessive spending.

That's a lie. It's mostly because last night I ordered My Fair Lady and a British TV series I've been promised is as awesome as Downton Abby. But perhaps the San Diego thing will be my further excuse.

In the meantime, I'm still pretty obsessed with that Sammy Davis Jr song "Rhythm of Life" from Sweet Charity. Did you know it was in a Guinness commercial (or "advert" if you're British, which I'm not...but man do these words creep into my speech)? This ad incorporates many things I love: booze, science, and an awesome song.

On another note I'd just like to say I'm pretty sure the weather in Glasgow is bipolar. One second there's thunder claps and violet rain, not to mention a very grey sky, and the next it's sunny and birds are chirping. If I've learned one thing about this silly country, it's that one needs cute rainboots and a warm jacket with a hood. Neither of which I own. Must grab my wallet and head to the "high street!"

Me and My Discoveries

Lately I've been craving some My Fair Lady like nobody's business.

I chalk it up to the fact that I'm working on the musical Me and My Girl, which seems like the dime store version of My Fair Lady mixed with a little Singing in the Rain (they even have a song called "Leaning on a Lamp Post").

Not to say the musical is without merit. Apparently "The Sun Has Got Its Hat On," the opening number for act 2, is actually a well known song that my various Scottish friends were surprised to find out is from a musical.

I was also surprised to see people in the musical wearing these clothes:

After making a few (hilarious) references to Mary Poppins, and possibly singing part of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (I seriously spelled that right. I googled it after, and found my version was correct! High-five me!), I was informed by my fellow coworkers that this is in fact an actual thing. So I looked it up. "Pearly Kings and Queens" is a kind of working-class charity tradition. But it seems to also be a kind of strange fashion fad, much like much like the Yoyogi Rockabilly Elvises. For charity. By the way I chose that particular Youtube video of hundreds, because I enjoyed the awkardness of that older Japanese guy taking off his shirt.

Back to Pearl Kings and Queens. Maybe I'm the only one, but this information completely blew my mind, as I always thought this mariachi-esque outfit was strictly a funky thing from Marry Poppins

I said it to me girl, and now me girl's me wife!

Now I think I'll cruise Amazon for a good used copy of My Fair Lady so I can also sing about the rain in Spain being mainly in the plains. While humming the tune to "The Sun Has Got Its Hat On," Which is mega-catchy.

Challenge Rejected

Well that challenge was a waste of time. Especially since lately I've been working late, staying up even later catching up on my stories, then getting up around/after 12, reading in bed until late afternoon, then scrambling to exercise and make it to work by 6pm.

It's a fine life I lead...as a casual technician.

But that's about to end as of tomorrow because I have Halloween decorations to dig up/make, Christmas presents to seriously start making (seriously...me. Seriously), and movies to go see by myself (it's fun...honest! No it's not. Maybe it is a little).

Who knows if this will work...perhaps weeks will go by and all you'll have is another "Wow it's a whole new season and I've been awfully quiet!" post.

Fail Fail Fail!

My 30 posts in 30 days hasn't gone very well so far, considering that the month is almost over! What happened? I blame myself, the pure dislike I have for my dying computer, and the fact that I've been entertaining visitors.

But these are mere excuses. I have, while not blogging every day, been crocheting every day! My bag now looks like a giant ruffly doily. I'm still concerned about this ruffling, but I'm going to keep going and hope it's all for the best. Either that or I'll have to take the whole damn thing apart and make up my own pattern. Here's my ruffly ruffle ruff:

Now I must go back to this curious bag, a really bad miniseries I can't stop watching, and the promises of a yummy curry being made by Eamonn in the kitchen.

As far as things to come, I have some fun crochet-related plans ahead, as well as nearly two months straight of theatre-related work, a "mini break" (sounds so much cuter than mini vacatoin) to Edinburgh, and DOWNTON ABBEY IS BACK! So in a nutshell, things are pretty awesome!

See you tomorrow! I promise!

Hey, It's Pretty Cool!

The holidays are creeping up, and for that reason I have my mind set on crocheting Christmas presents early so I don't spend December nights up late making ugly hats.

But first, I am going to attempt to make this Super Self-Pouching String Bag as a birthday gift. The website is kind of silly, but after looking at what feels like hundreds of different free patterns for market bags, I think this one might be the best. Plus I saw a picture of someone's kid hanging in the bag! Hilarious!

I'm also pretty obsessed with this amazing lady's blog Hair Romance. Her tips and stories are wonderfully helpful, and I have realized I have hair dysmorphia. Despite the fact that it's pretty longish (just past the shoulders), I keep thinking I can't do anything with it. NOT ANYMORE!

And finally, thanks to Stumbleupon I came across this lovely mural which I can't wait to do in my home. Possibly in the hallway, possibly decorated with whatever tchotchkes correlate with the season. Crocheted bits and bobs perhaps?! The possibilities are endless!

Now I will go back to being proud of my hair, and crocheting this thing even though the base seems to be ruffling, which I don't think is supposed to happen.

Challenge AccepTED

I am so bad at blogging. Is it because I'm busy, have lost interest, or after throwing sandwich-sized updates on facebook/twitter, I just don't have the energy or motivation to put anything up on a blog?

I consume interesting things on the internet constantly now that I have a smart phone, and am always emailing things I love to friends, family, etc. Yet I hardly think about writing about it on the blog.

Funny things happen to me all the time in Glasgow, I see awesome things I want to do to my apartment, I make new crafty presents for people, yet I do it without really thinking about sharing.

Maybe I'll force myself to document it all for the next 30 days and see how I feel at the end.

So here's day one! On the next post.

So Let Me Get Right to the Point

I used to do this all the time, and I quite enjoyed it, and sometimes I even thought I had funny things to talk about.

Then I got busy or stopped caring or lost motivation or all of the above.  Recently my dad told me that he quite enjoys reading what I have to put down so that's enough motivation for me!


So what's new? It's July in Glasgow and if I didn't have mud on my face and desires to exercise, I'd be walking through a park listening to this song:

Man that song is a jam. I can't get enough of it.

I haven't picked up a crochet hook in weeks, mostly because I've been incredibly busy and at a standstill with the whole plan to sell things. Also if I start now I could probably have all my Christmas presents made...so that's something I've been thinking but doing nothing about.

While not being craftily productive, I have been physically productive. I've been doing a few get-ins and get-outs at work, which involves carrying heavy crap and knowing a lot about lighting (I fail on both accounts), and while I may not have that much motivation to learn the finer aspects of lighting, I can be better at lifting heavy crap.

So I bought this book, read it cover to cover, and started the six-month program laid out in the book. Today marks day three. I finally feel like I've found a method of exercising that doesn't make me want to kill myself, and the way it's written is very easy to follow and understand. Plus the author's pretty funny. The only problem is that when one is building muscles, one has to eat a lot more, and this is hard for someone who previously ate maybe two, two and a half times a day. Now I'm up to eating three times a day and two big snacks. I also have to get up earlier than lunch time so I can eat breakfast, and to actually plan a dinner instead of grabbing something random to eat at work. I seriously feel like all I do now is eat.

Frustratingly, despite all this eating, I'm a little less than 300 calories short of hitting the calorie mark I should be for my age/weight/height. I'm counting on this mark being just a suggestion because honestly it's just too much damn food!

Then there's the whole protein thing. I'm really enjoying figuring out what sorts of proteins to eat at various times of the day, but I am not enjoying the INSANE farts that come with consuming this much protein. I can't recall anyone talking about protein farts, yet apparently everyone's doing it. Not a fan. Although now every time I see someone with very obvious muscles, I think to myself "you have terrible shits and smelly farts!"

I also joined a council gym, which means I can take pilates classes, which were suggested by my physiotherapist for my back (and it apparently is good for people with sore muscles, which I have a lot of at the moment!).

So four days a week I'm either lifting weights, lunghing, crunching, or bending myself in bizarre ways on a yoga mat in a gym tangent to a huge beautiful park.

Oh! Did I mention this gym has a huge outdoor track and I saw a girl roller blading on it?! Looks like I'm bringing my blades back from San Diego next time I'm down!!

In other news I got a job at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August so that's fantastic and amazing and very exciting. Conversely, I currently don't have any work lined up for nearly a month leading up to the Fringe, which scares the crap out of me.

What else...I'm  growing my hair out, it's to my shoulders and I honestly have no idea what to do with it. I don't think it's been this long since I was in high school. I have a couple weddings coming up and am contemplating buying some sort of ridiculous fascinator so I can simultaneously be more like Princess Beatrice and hide the fact that I have on idea what to do with this curly mess.

I think that's finally it. It honestly is a beautiful day so I'm going to get to it!