Ok, I am back! Get ready for a long post! I have officially added a reminder build into my internet browser (which I am on at least one time a day) reminding me that I MUST blog every week. This will help me get back into the habit, practice my writing, and also help with promotion of my knitting and crafts. I will also use this blog to talk about delicious foods that I have recently made as well as to talk about health and fitness, which I have been quite lax on in the last year.
Monkeys:
For me, my knitting and crafts will be the highlight of this blog. By May of 2010 I had been spending a few years playing with many different kinds of crafts; knitting, crochet, Jewelry making, scrap booking, weaving, beading, sewing, cake decorating, and probably a few other things as well. I soon learned that a few of these crafts really required that I take a class, which really wasn’t in my budget both money and time wise. I had taught myself to crochet and a little bit of knitting when I worked in one of my mindless call center jobs (pre-paid cell phone minute sales… boring!) and I had been both crocheting and knitting scarves and baby blankets with simple stitches – without patterns. And then I took a hiatus from needle crafts.
While in South Korea a friend of mine became pregnant and I really wanted to make a gift from the heart for her baby. I found a yarn store after much searching, found some soft baby yarn, a pattern, a pair of needles, and knit her probably my best work by that point. The blanket was a hit and I didn’t knit much more for awhile, but I think I was hooked to knitting people things at that point.
I took another long hiatus after coming back from Korea, knitting maybe a scarf or two, but otherwise not touching my needles. This is when I was trying jewelry making.
Suddenly, in May 2010, I realized that my niece, Lily, was about to turn one and I hadn’t knit her anything yet. I thought of making her a blanket, but I debated because what does a one year old need with a baby blanket? She needed a toy! While surveying a craft store for baby yarns and wondering what I should do, and only 2 weeks to go before the birthday party, my eye caught sight on a Paton’s Sock Monkey pattern book. I decided that even though I had never knit a toy before, didn’t know how to knit in the round, or anything, I would give it a try. If I failed I would just go to the store and find an age-appropriate loud toy, since that is an aunt’s prerogative, to annoy the parents with singing toys. Right?
Well, I did not need to go buy that obnoxious toy for Lily because my first attempt at the sock monkey worked. It was fantastic, and she loved it. Two weeks after this, I was due to visit the before mentioned friends from Korea in Canada, and I wanted to bring their baby a present as we were bringing presents from Oregon to the parents. I spent the next week wondering what I should do again, and decided that, well I should just make a monkey again! One week later, and knitting like crazy most of the trip up, I had a completed monkey for my friend’s baby!
And so, almost an obsession and an Etsy store was started. I still use Paton’s patterns, but I also have my own patterns that I have created. Mini monkeys are the most popular so far, but I have also designed a ‘Soctopus” a cute little Octopus knit much like the sock monkeys.
My store is slowly getting looked at and I am beginning to make sales. I am excited to finish some custom orders and them make some more items for the store in the future. Some ideas I have had:
~ More Soctopuses or Soctopi?
~Bigger Monkeys
~Monkeys that resemble popular characters
~ Furry Monkeys
~ Other little creatures
~ Scarves
~Legwarmers
Some completed Monkeys (And Other):
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| Baby Safe Mini Monkey |
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| My first Mini Monkey with non-embroidered eyes, I have since found safety eyes that look better. |
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| Mini Monkey ordered for a friend's child. Safety Eyes and Mohawk. |
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| Socktopus! |
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| Headband |
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| Headband |
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| Punk Rock Monkey made as a present for my room mate's birthday. |
Food:
So many things have been made and consumed since the last time I blogged. Let’s see, some highlights?
~ Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Easter Eggs (A yummy alternative to buying Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs)
~ Random Turkey
~ Turkey Pot Pie made from the previously mentioned Random Turkey
~ Dak Galbi (Korean Spicy Chicken Dish)
~ Garlic Scape and Zucchini Sauté
~ Pineapple-Coconut Upside-Down Cake
~ Bacon-Cheddar Scones
~ Hot Dog Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (And one covered in Chili that my roommate decided would be delicious – it strangely was delicious)
~Delicious Cookies that I cannot find the recipe to but were yummy honey-butterscotch- treats
~ Triple Threat Chocolate Cookies (No Picture)
~Homemade pasta (I forgot to take pictures off this, but it was yummy!)
~ Stuffed Turban Squash
This is not all of the treats I have made since the last blog, but these are some of the highlights. I have most of the recipes if anyone is interested in any of them though.
Health and Fitness:
Well, unfortunately there is not that much to report on here. I have been a huge slacker the last year. I can use whatever excuse I want, but I have gained back all of the weight I lost before going to Korea and the weight I continued to lose while there. I am currently looking at some options, like starting the South Beach diet with a friend of mine, but I am not sure. I’ve never 100% bought into fad diets and paying for diet plans. I also hate that the “healthy foods” they want you to eat always seem to be $8.00 a pound salmon fillets served with some other expensive side. I’m thinking about trying it or a month or so though so that that will get me going and then customize it to the weight watchers/mix diet I was doing last time.
The hard thing for me though is getting started and keeping myself accountable. Last time I had Cody, Fallon, and Adam all on my butt asking when we were going to the gym, giving each other low-cost food ideas, and generally supporting each other. I think Fallon was especially pivotal to me making the change because she was an almost daily visual focus to make the change. After leaving Korea, it seems like the support all went away and with the stress of everything going on in the last year, I just got lost. I need to learn to depend on myself for that support, but I am not sure how to do that yet. All I know is that I hate getting my picture taken again because when I look at them I look horrible. Hopefully this blog will help me get started. I am already trying to make a few small changes to my routine:
1. Drinking more water again - This has been a challenge. My job requires a lot of driving and being with kids that I often cannot just run to the restroom. I have been limiting my water intake because of this. I also didn’t use my ‘bit and suck’ Camelbak for too long because of this and I think I need a new top for it…
2. Remembering to substitute tea for coffee more often – I don’t care much for plain coffee and during the holidays my weakness at least 3x a week has been a Venti Caramel Brule Frappuccino from Starbucks. Ouch - that is calories galore! I love tea and so I am trying to remind myself that not only do I like it, it is so much healthier for me and it helps me drink that water that I need! I can’t even use the caffeine excuse because one of my favorite teas is Green and that has a fairly large caffeine helping.
3. Trying not to have a snack with every one of my clients – Again his one is so hard, especially when I often forget to have a regular lunch. They have a cracker pack or gummy fruit snack and I am tempted to have one too. I do set limits on what kinds of snacks the kids can have, I try to buy snacks without high fructose corn syrup and low sugar contents, but those things do end up in the snack box in my car.
Well, not a lot of changes, and they are not perfect yet, but that’s where I am.
Alright! That's it for now, my next post should be a little bit shorter!
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