Doodle-a-day & Retail woes

Hello! Welcome back to my Make-It-Monday (I'm trying out a fun name for my themed days! Whatcha think?)

Besides making plans and patterns for Christmas gifts, I didn't do much crafting these last few days. But, I still want to have something to show you all so I thought I'd share my House GlaDos doodles. First, an explaination: I recently joined International Geek Girls [Pen Pals] Club (IGGPPC or Iggles) and on their website they have a bunch of fun activities and challenges to take on that you can earn achievements for. I know I'm not artist but there's something meditative about doodling and its fun to give my brain a stretch thinking of doodles to fit the prompts.

So, the challenge I took on this month was the House GlaDos (the house I was sorted into) November doodle challenge. Since it is half way through the month right now, here are what I've drawn for the first 15days of the month. Some I'm pretty proud of and feel very clever, others are a little embarrassing and if you could just not look too terribly closely (its the thought that counts, right?) that'd be great!

Day 1: Cake

Day 2: Fire    Day 3: Orange    Day 4: Laser    Day 5: Blue

Day 6: Speed      Day 7: Portal   Day 8: Bottomless pit

Day 9: Test Subject     Day 10: Maze     Day 11: Potato     Day 12: Puzzle

Day 13: Jump      Day 14: Computer      Day 15: Gun

If you happen to be inspired to join the club, you most certainly can by going -->here<--. Sign ups just opened up for the next month's penpal match up so now is the perfect time to join (this month's theme is the 90s). If writing to total strangers isn't your thing, that's totally okay! There's activities and prompts for a wide range of things from fitness to video gaming and more.

One of the reasons I wasn't terribly crafty this weekend was because I worked almost all day Saturday. Now, I absolutely love my job - getting to work with fabric everyday, listening to customers creative ideas, answering questions based on my own experience and knowledge - I love it all. With the Black Friday frenzy nearing us, I thought I would be a voice for all us underpaid, understaffed, retail-workers. So, here is a short list of things to please keep in mind as you fight your way to that perfect present:

1. If you have a question that we can't answer, please don't get upset. During this time of year a bunch of people are hired as seasonal workers and are thrown right into the mess. For me, I haven't had a chance to map out the entire store and I don't have an ever-updating list of what we carry/ what's on sale/ if that coupon will work in my head. I've had a few customers (usually men, I might add) who ask me questions about a specific sewing machine or type of fabric that their spouse wants and then they get upset when I can't give them the correct answer. Here's the truth: I have a cheap machine that I absolutely love. I wouldn't buy a sewing machine from Joann's even if I was in the market for one but I can't exactly advise you to GTFO because that's not my job. I will tell you what I know but I don't know every little detail especially when you don't even know what you're looking for. We do the best we can but honestly, we may just not know the answer and we truly do feel sorry.

2. If you decide you don't want something PLEASE don't just put it down somewhere random or, in my case, on the top of a random aisle of fabric. Please just bring it to a desk/ the cutting counter. I have no problem putting away fabric but I hate it when I'm putting things away only to be attacked by falling merchandise or bolts of fabric that I couldn't see.

3. Please be patient!! Anytime I'm at the cutting counter (which is most of the time) and someone has had to wait more than a minute or two, they angrily yell at me to bring in some more people. Yeah, I would love to have more people come and help me but that's just not possible. Especially during the holiday season, as far as I know, everywhere is understaffed because that's how big chain stores make more money. Also, just because we aren't helping you, doesn't mean we aren't working. At Joann's, once finished with a customer, if there is a remnant piece of fabric (usually a cut less than 1 yd), I have to measure and write it up. At least once a day I have a customer tell me I was ignoring them and need to pay more attention. Dear inpatient person buying fabric that equals my month of paychecks: I'm not blind or ignoring you, I'm just busy doing my job as quickly and accurately as possible so that I can get to you sooner.

4. The back room is not some magical portal where we hide everything from you. Unless you looked it up beforehand and our website says we have it in store, assume that we don't have it. If you're coming in on the last day of a sale and are surprised to find that that unique, holiday-only item isn't out on the shelves, you probably missed your chance. The "back room" is more like a death trap and, to be honest, I tend to avoid it. It's poorly lit, cold, and like a scene out of a horror movie. What is in there is merchandise that will eventually be going out on the floor when the new ads go out but is not just some secret stash of extras. What we have on the floor is all that we've got. Sorry.

Okay, lets review: PLEASE be understanding, bring unwanted merchandise to us, be patient, and assume you missed out (aka look online first).

Phew, that was tense. But seriously, we're minimum wage paid workers who are working during times that you get to spend time with your family and enjoy your day off. As I said though, most of the time I enjoy my job. I'm actually one of those weird people that is enjoying the busyness of retail work. Its just the occasional mean person that just has to come in and be a jerk.

I'm really excited about this opportunity (though I suppose most people don't see it as that) and though I don't plan on this being my end in career searching, I'm learning what I can from this experience to apply in to my future. A recent way that I've seen working retail affect me is when I went grocery shopping on Thursday, instead of going through the self checkout like I usually would, I went through a a check out with a nice looking girl my age and enjoyed a conversation with her as she scanned my purchases. I typically avoid talking to people but I've discovered some inner extrovert/ worked through some of my social anxiety and have learned how carry on a conversation like a normal person/ a person with the only the ability to smile and agree to everything. The key: finding something you have in common. For example, working as Joanns, I can assume the customer is some sort of crafty or talking to the Fred Meyer check out girl, we both work retail.

That's all I have for now. The first half of this week is work heavy but then I have a few days off that I'll be starting my Christmas crafting so look forward to that next Monday. Also, join me Wednesday (Written-Word-Wednesdays?) as I go over some great reads that feature kickass women. And/ Or Friday (Free-for-all-Friday?) as I talk about my planning process and transitioning into bullet journaling. Lots of fun ahead!

Just for fun, can you tell what each of my doodles were and how I got to them from the prompt? What geeky thing first comes to your mind when you read the prompts? Also, if you're also a retail worker, what other things did you wish your customers kept in mind during this holiday shopping rush season? Let me know in the comments below!

As always, you can follow me on Instagram @trekkiechick29 or Pinterest @TrekkerChick29 or Twitter @AimeXAime and check out my etsy shop. Until next time my shopping crazy (or maybe not so much) readers, live long, doodle on, and prosper!

November catchup

Hello!! So, going from unemployed/ working in my pajamas from home to standing for 8 hours 5 days in a row is exhausting. I absolutely love my new job, being around fabric all day and hear about all these fun and crafty projects. I'm sure customers get tired of us asking "So, what are you making with this?" but, at least for me, I honestly want to know. My feet are getting used to being used everyday and my hip is getting tough against me using it to balance as I reach across the cutting counter to make the final snips to some fabric (it was hand sized at the worst).

Besides work, though, what craftiness have I been up to? First up, I learned how to make a latte! Okay, so that's not really crafty but I'm pretty proud of it. You want real craftiness, oh okay. If you insist - I finished my Tolkien swap package:

Map of Middle Earth coffee mug with routes from each of the books

Lembas bread leaf wrap as a coffee cozy to hold some red dragon tea and some chai tea mix

Arwen quote cross stitch and a hobbit hole necklace

I made myself an incredibly unflattering sweater but, my goodness, it feels like wearing a blanket and that is totally okay with me. Please excuse my funky face, I was feeling uncertain with my work but honestly, it was a yard of fabric that I sewed up the sides and cut out a neck hole. Then, since it was longer than I would've liked, I chopped off a few inches at the bottom and turned them into kimono style sleeves and sewed them on. 30ish minutes of work and I have my favorite day-off outfit:

Let's see, I also bought a crazy amount of fabric for Christmas gifts. Well, the fabric isn't the gift, what I'm going to make it all into will be. I'm super excited to get started on it but I have 2 more swaps to finish off. I probably won't be able to show too many progress photos of the christmas gift stuff since I'm pretty sure the majority of you readers are those that the presents are going to.

Oh! And yesterday, though technically not crafty, I finally got a chance to go on a real grocery shopping trip, completely cleaned the entire apartment, tried out a new dinner recipe, and prepped 4 overnight oatmeals for each J and I (because we are definitely not morning people). Here's a few photos from yesterday:

Our bathroom really isn't this crooked, its just because I had to shoot this photo in panorama so it added a curve to it. I added another Mermaid to the wall from the Mermaid swap (switched out the frame she came in for a shadow box and put a layer of shells in the bottom) and hung fresh new towels. Also, look at how nicely the plants are thriving since this is the only room the cats aren't allowed into.





Our coffee cart is one of my favorite parts of our home. It used to be split with the top shelf devoted to coffee and tea and the bottom shelf devoted to alcohol. We were running out of room for our coffee cups and we had finally decided to bring J's college years espresso machine home so I moved to the alcohol to a cupboard and made this cart coffee and tea only. The cart is from Ikea way back when I first got an apartment and I stained it a darker color to better match both my tastes and the rest of my furniture. The wine cork board was an old window from the house I grew up in filled with wine corks collected from McMenamins Edgefield (don't worry, I did not drink all that wine). I'd eventually like to add a few more wall hangings (Like a Janeway quote about "coffee in that nebula" and a chart about different ways to prepare your coffee).









And, as I mentioned earlier, we ended the night with prepping some overnight oatmeal. We each chose 4 we wanted to try out, you can find lots of fun recipes on Pinterest (or google, obviously). J went with pumpkin pie (pictured), peanut butter and jelly, latte, and . I went for cocoa butter nut, butter nut bread, latte, and cinnamon apple. I ate the cocoa butter nut one this morning and it was pretty tasty:


 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup greek yogurt, 1tsp cocoa powder, 1/2 banana, and 1/2tbsp chopped walnuts. Mix it all together and put it in the fridge. Bam! It really doesn't take that long and you could make it hot in the morning but I hate mornings so being able to roll out of bed and just grab some breakfast is pretty fantastic for me. Plus, making lattes takes up my usual breakfast making time and I really like me some fancy coffee in the morning.




In non-crafty news, I'm caught up on Supernatural (actually watching the most recent episode right now). I had to return a few books to the library due to not being able to renew them. I made it through about 1/3 of Armada (and loved it!) so I'm hoping to find it today during our library visit (when a book is recently released or a bestseller, they can't be reserved ahead of time or renewed). I also started reading Felicia Day's book last night and I'm loving it too. Its pretty hilarious that her writing is so similar to her acting/ speaking that I can read it in her voice. If you don't know who she is, you need to look her up, watch a few episodes of The Guild, and fall in love with her as I have.

 I'm working on a schedule for myself so I can stay on track with all my goals while also managing an inconsistent work schedule. I know I fell behind after the first but I'm back on the horse and excited to move forward. That's all from me for now. As always, you can follow me on Instagram @trekkiechick29 or Pinterest @TrekkerChick29 or Twitter @AimeXAime and check out my etsy shop. Until next time my most wonderful readers, live long, get crafty, and prosper!

Moving forward

Today I bring you not 1 but 2 posts! I meant to have this all ready to post on Saturday but then I went for a splendid hike (more on that later) and I spent all of Sunday/ yesterday cleaning so here I am, Monday morning. I've broken what I have to say into 2 posts because 1 (this one) is an update on how my 24 by 25 goals are going and the other post is a crochet pattern (which will be posted later today).

Goals that I made progress on in the last 2 weeks:

Orange and blue are a definite, just not sure on the exact shades

1. Plan our wedding - we sat down for a few hours and decided to start the planning with figuring out the venue (location, location, location - am I right?). I should note that we have a pretty good idea of what we want (colors, theme, attire, etc) so its really just figuring out the specifics. Plus, the wedding is still 410 days away (yes, I'm counting). Follow my pinterest.com/wedding board for more.

Defining the ceremony space with a doorway, backdrop, and trees

3. Read 24 books - continued reading through Storm of Swords and moved from 65% to 73% these last two weeks. J and I are reading through all the Song of Ice and Fire books together/ out loud, so we average, maybe, a chapter a night. Last Monday I also started reading through Divergent, I'm currently at 24% complete, and I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the week (since I need to average reading through 2 books per month).


4. Complete a Norway quilt - I pulled fabric and figured out the measurements of each piece and its looking like I may need to make more than 9 squares. Plans to sew up the first one by the end of the week.

Each pile of color = 1 block, except the grey which will be the +'s in the corners of each block, white is the background

5. Give up candy for 1 month - Last candy eaten was on July 9th so I'm at 18 days. This goal seems so silly but it is, honestly, really difficult. I've seen plenty of things that say throw all the candy out but that seems like such a waste so my still sealed candies I've been including in swap packages (though I didn't have that much when I started on this goal). I've decided that when the 1 month is up, I'm going to continue restraining myself because: 1. I'm an adult and there should be no reason I eat candy every day and 2. I've already experienced so many benefits (more energy, not feeling like I'm always hungry, weight loss!) that the immediate gratification of sugar just isn't worth it.


8. Fold 1,000 origami cranes - J & I sat down and learned how to fold one! I'm hoping to use them in our wedding so I need more paper that matches our wedding colors or just use white (which may be what ends up happening). 1 down, 999 more to go!

Unfortunately our cats think that paper is a tasty treat so the morning after folding these, the red one lost his wing tips and face...

12. Walk Worf 5x per week (Bonus: Take a long walk without the gentle leader) - Worf and I have taken up walking towards the max stop that J gets off at to meet him somewhere in the middle. The pup started on Prozac on July 7th and has greatly improved that we've been able to walk most days without the gentle leader. He does get agitated with his leash more easily now (easy agitation being a side effect) so that's unfortunate but he is calm enough to learn that being outside isn't so scary. He definitely still has room to improve considering he still acts like we're abusing him (screaming and crying only the way an abused dog can and dropping to the ground when he doesn't want to do something). I should note that he acts this way all the time when we're trying to get him to do things like go outside/ on a walk and not to the car, eat his food (there's been several days where he doesn't eat all day and avoids his food bowl), or even take a treat for doing something good (so much for positive reinforcement). 

"Nobody loves me... except those humans that give me treats all the time and take me on walks and play with me and let me go everywhere with them..."

15. Go on a hike 1x per month - Nailed it! We went out to Sherrard Point on Larch Mountain on Saturday (obviously the one of the only days that its rained this summer). I have no doubt that the view is spectacular but it was completely foggy (and did I mention it was raining?). We hiked up to the top and then back down the mountain 2.6 miles. Due to a lack of planning on my part, we opted to not do the 6.4 mile loop we had planned and just (lol, "just") hiked back up to the parking lot for a total of 5.2 miles. Even with the fog and rain it was a pretty great hike (I'm sore in a good-pain sort of way) so we will definitely be going back on a clearer day.

10 minutes into the hike (on top of Sherrard Point), J and Worf looking totally thrilled, and post-hike selfie (2hrs later) freezing cold but pretty stoked that we hiked 5 miles.

Our view of Mt. Hood (fog) vs a clear day's view of Mt. Hood (photo found here)

19. Blog 2x per month - how does 3x for July sound!? Yup, I'm awesome :)

20. Get a full doctor's check-up - scheduled (ugh!)

21. Daily devotion and journal nightly - I was actually really concerned I would completely fail on this one right away but I haven't missed a day! I discovered an app, The Fabulous, that has made making a morning and nightly routine much more simple. A [no longer] secret goal of mine was to also add brushing and flossing to my nightly routine and I haven't missed a day of that either. My teeth are way more white than I have seen them in a long time (another benefit of less candy and cutting back on coffee) and I catch myself smiling every time I walk by a mirror (yup, I'm a dork).

Every morning...

22. Finish all UnFinished Objects (UFO)/ Works In Progress (WIP) - 3/17 completed

• Polka dot blouse resized - I've had this shirt for several years but at XXL, it was just too big for me. I was always afraid of ruining it so I didn't even attempt to bring in the side seams... until now. It was a simple fix (put it on and pinched in the sides, equally, until it was the right fit) and I think I look pretty cute in it. Completed 7/24/15
• J's old polo into a shirt for me - Turned the shirt around, took off the pocket, brought out the neck line (but kept the buttons), and brought in the side seams for a more feminine figure. I think I may need to close the neck line a 1/2in on either side at the shoulders but it fits wonderfully and is crazy comfy! Completed 7/24/15
• Cat purse (needed hole for flipping sewn shut and hardware for the strap to be put on) - completed 7/24/15

I'll eventually remember to take before photos

• Christmas quilt (started with 1/2 of front pieced) - the entire front is now pieced, all fabric cut and partially assembled for the backing. I'm not sure how I'm going to quilt it, though (please, I need suggestions!), so further progress is going to be put on hold until I can figure that out.

Getting back to it, matching up points and lines, progress from 7/23, and final front pieced shot from 7/24

• Sand display - I added 3 new jars to my display. I got a jar and sand from Englewood Beach, Florida in my Viva La Villains swap. The other two jars were from my mom this last week (super cute mini mason jars) and the sand was from my Grandparent's trip to Hawaii in 2013. I have probably another 15 baggies of sand/ rocks that need jars and I probably need another shelf at this point. 

Sand in order of when they were obtained

• Pacman menu board - technically not a UFO since it was finished and just needed hung. It is now up, in use, and dearly loved. Each of the note cards has a meal on it, some are recipes while others are just pick-one-of-each-category cards. For example, this week we're having a meat and veggies 2 different days so there are two note cards labeled as so, with all the choices on the back. Using paper clips on the side, the meat choice and veggie choice is indicated. Having everything on note cards makes it easy to both plan for a month's worth of meals and write out a grocery list for what we need.

24. Watch every episode (and movie) of X-Files - I'm currently on season 7 (of 9), episode 6 (of 22). I had to skip the movie since it wasn't on Netflix but I will get around to locating it and watching it.

There you have it! I'm doing better than I had expected and am motivated to continue strong. I do admit that it all seems fairly easy right now, being that I am unemployed still (boo!) but I know (well, hope) that things will speed up soon and I'll be able to contribute more to the saving money goals and paying for that wedding we plan on having. Here's hoping! I update the 24 by 25 page every Friday evening so check that out. Also, I have more crafty finishes not mentioned here that you can check on on the crafty finishes page (duh). Finally, tune in this evening for the edited Loki crochet pattern that I made for my Viva La Villains partner - That is, the original pattern is not mine but, to help others, I kept notes on all how I understood the original directions and the changes I made. If you're not of the crocheting-craftiness variety, that's totes okay! I hope to see you again in 2 weeks (August 8th). Live long and prosper!

Welcome to our 127.0.0.1

Not that we have guests that often/ ever but I thought it would be nice to provide our wifi network and password during the few times that we do. I love how easy QR codes are - snap a picture with your smart phone and you are automatically connected to whatever the QR creator intended you to be connected to. I've had this idea of cross stitching a QR code planned out for a while and even had the pattern almost entirely complete for near 6 months. I am proud to say, I have finally completed this one of a kind cross stitch project.

I started with a basic QR code generator where I could customize the link however I wanted. Once that was complete and downloaded, I got to planning out the pattern using an Excel spreadsheet. I do not take complete ownership for the border, though I did customize it a bit to fit my needs. Making the pattern was fairly simple and, since I wanted to the QR code to be large enough to be recognized on a phone, I stitched 4 squares for every 1 square of code. After my pattern was printed, it was just a simple matter of stitching it like anything else. It took me several evenings to complete the stitching but once it was done, I was so proud of how it all turned out and it fit so nicely with my goodwill-found picture frame.

I've had an empty space where this would one day go ever since we moved into our new place. Now, the hole is filled and I can check off another week of goal #6. Until next time, live long and prosper!

*127.0.0.1

Shabby Geek

Since I suck at keeping up with this on a scheduled basis, I again have changed my mind about what I will be doing: I'm going to type up and post as I complete items on my 23 by 24 goal list. Now, if I'm really on top of things that will be at least 1 post per week for the goal #6: Create something at least once per week. Well, it just so happens I have two posts worth of things to chat about so here goes.

I have recently decided to quit denying my love of things that some may view as odd and embrace geekdom. With that in mind, I've also been considering how to turn my home into a mash up of my love of the old and vintage with my love of video games and various fandoms. I took the plunge today and created a sign for our entryway.

I started with some Pinterest - inspiration:

 

For those who don't know, the hearth stone (on the right) is from the game World of Warcraft. When activated, the hearth stone returns you "home" (being where ever you set it to be).

Materials and supplies:

• Wood
• Paint and/or crayons
• Paint brush(s)
• pencil and paper or stencil
• hardware to hold it all together and hang

Price: If you already have all the supplies/ ask around to borrow or recycle this is has the potential to be free
Time: Approx. 4 hours (including time for paint to dry)

For this project, I already had all the supplies so price for this was free. I suggest before going out to buy wood (which is fairly cheap as is), you should check out Craigslist. I am always seeing people with posts for free scrap or fire woo. For me, the boards I used actually started out as the foot board to my bed (check out that here), then were re-purposed into a dog bed, and were then just hanging out in the craft closet. I cut down 3 boards to be stacked on top of one another and attached them to another piece of scrap wood. Its fairly easy so I will just direct you to the inspiration tutorial (click on the image above).

After assembling the boards, I created a sort of stencil using word. If you already have a stencil, great! you can skip this paragraph. If not, simply type the letters up as needed in the font you want (I downloaded a WoW font for "HOME" and used the typewriter font for the rest). Obviously you don't have to print every letter so for just type up the letters "HOMEiswhert". The way the sizing worked was HO and ME each had their own page and the rest of the letters fit on a single page. Now cut out your letters.

If you look close enough you can see the pencil tracing I completed for the 'E'

Lay your letters out on your boards and rearrange as you see fit. I definitely suggest taking your time to make sure you have it just the way you want it. If you're using a stencil you can paint right over the top, keeping the stencil in place with tape. If you're using letters printed and cut out like me, I suggest tracing and then going back in with paint. 

Maybe you can tell or maybe not but the hearth stone grey/white color is actually from crayon because I didn't have the right color for it but I think it turned out quite nicely. If you don't have paint, before you run out to your nearest craft store, try some different mediums on the back of your boards to see how that might look. In all honesty, I didn't intend for the colors to be so similar to my original inspiration. We have a lot of blue in our house and we've been trying to lighten it up with spots of orange and red so the "home" was supposed to be more orange but it dried quite yellow. Anyway, let your master piece dry for at least an hour, hang with sturdy hooks and you're done. Now time to admire your work!

Also on the entry wall is a window from the house I grew up in and lots of fun knobs that my mom sent me. We hang our bags on the ones with heavy metal plates and our keys and dog leashes on the small ones.

There you have it, my first plunge into... shabby geek? Sure, we'll go with that - a mash up of shabby chic and geekdom. One more thing to check off my 23 by 24 list.

I will be posting another goal I completed in the next few days so tune back in for that. Until then, live long and prosper!

23 by 24

Today is my 23rd birthday! Today I look back over what I accomplished and what goals I want to set for myself for the next year. Though I didn't complete all last 22 goals by my birthday, I still feel great with what I accomplished:

1. Read through the entire bible - Still working on it; it didn't exactly help that I pushed this one to the side until the 30 days leading up to my birthday.
2. Watch the sunset at the beach - Check! In fact, multiple times check!
3. Graduate with both degrees - Heck freakin' yeah! I now have not 1 but 2 bachelor degrees.

My 22 by 23 list at the start of my planner

4. Take a big step in my relationship with J - Check! Though we were living together before, we moved into a new apartment and, a few months later, adopted a dog.
5. Do something to make myself proud
6. Jog/ run 3 miles without stopping - Sadly, no. I did do 3 5ks this last year but I still don't feel I quite met this goal.
7. Develop and follow a weekly workout plan - EEeeek! Definitely no where close. I have tried but there's always one reason or another I stop 1-2weeks in.
8. Read 5 books just for fun - 3 out of 5 isn't too bad! I read S, The Magician's Nephew, and Wicked. In all fairness though, I did read a lot more than that in taking 18 credits fall semester and 19 credits in the spring.
9. Journal regularly - Instead of forcing myself to write a page every night, I decided that I'm satisfied with keeping my past planners. Looking back at my previous planners, I get a picture at what was important to me, how I was feeling (stressed, bored, relaxed, etc), and what I was striving for. I did upgrade to a larger moleskin planner this year with more room for doodling, keeping notes, and journaling as I feel the need.
10. Learn to take a quick (less than 5 minutes) shower - Check! Ha, but J can vouch that I don't do this very often. I just wanted to figure out how to do it in times that I'm in a hurry.
11. Learn Yoga - Checkish. I certainly learned how but actually doing it on a regular basis as I had hoped hasn't quite happened yet.
12. Finish all the crafty things I have started - So close! I finally got jars for my sand from my travels and sewn up a few things but I continue to have a wine cork board partially finished, cross stitch patterns drawn up but not started, and crocheted scarves half done. Lets say its a work in progress now that its the summer.
13. Improve hygiene overall (brush teeth, wash face, etc.) - Check! Its embarrassing that at 22 I needed to put this on a list but I struggled with keeping to a daily hygiene routine (though I did use my water pik religiously).
14. Purge the apartment - Check, though when it came time to move, I didn't have much of a choice. It felt good to finally get rid of a few things from my past and make room for the future.
15. Go star gazing - Surprisingly no. Plans are in the making though for this to happen in the next few weeks.
16. Have coffee with my mom - Check! You see, my family moved just before my birthday last year and on our road trip to their new home, every morning my mom and I would have coffee together to update our blogs. It is one of my favorite parts of the trip and I wanted to be sure to have coffee with her when I visited for Christmas.
17. Spend an entire day on myself - Check! At the time, I thought I would be busy everyday, all the time. Now I just have to laugh because I have had almost too much time to myself with school being out. It's a good reminder, though, to make time for myself with life starts to pick up again.
18. Unplug for 48 hours - Check! For our anniversary, J and I stayed the weekend at the beach and just relaxed. The only electronics we used were our phones for occasional navigating and our kindles for reading. It was so wonderful!
19. Volunteer & donate more - Check! J and I spent the day with Habitat for Humanity back in November and I donated blood 3 times (as often as I could, since there's a limit to how often you can donate).
20. Ride my bike to school 25% of the time - Check!
21. Get closer to my goal weight - Eeehhh.. lets just say no but I do feel better about the weight that I am so that's something, right? 
22. Speak positively about self and others - Check! Though I do occasionally fall into gossip or a self-loathing funk, I feel much better about how I talk about myself and others.

Total complete: 15 out of 22

Now for this years 23 goals I want to accomplish by the time I turn 24:

1. Unplug & turnoff for 24hours once a month

2. Pick my own berries & make them into jam

3. Go camping 5 times - Went for my birthday so really 4x

4. Make a new friend - New school, so many new people; might as well befriend on for them :)

5. Lose (at least) 50lbs through a healthy diet and weekly exercise - No more excuses! This is the year to make it happen. I'll be developing this goal more over the next few weeks to find a way to make this goal happen.

6. Create something once a week

7. Get on Dean's list every quarter

8. Get into grad school or get a job utilizing my degrees - I want to go to grad school but I know that life can sometimes take unexpected turns so I want to leave room for those surprises.

9. Go on a long walk or jog with Worf (my pup) once a week - We take him out at least twice everyday but it would be good for his anxiety and my health to get out of the house and just go for a long walk.

10. Start a new holiday tradition & cook a full meal

11. Finish reading through the entire bible

12. Find a home church to attend - I have really struggled with church (and the people in the church) for a while now but J & I agree it would be good to find somewhere to call home.

13. Travel somewhere I have never been - Whether by car, plane, or train (or maybe even boat), I want to travel somewhere I have never been before.

14. Say something positive everyday - Find something positive in everyday rather than dwelling on the negative that can too often take control.

15.

16. Photo a day - Follow me on Instagram to see how I'm doing!

17. Transfer all pictures and music onto an external harddrive

18.

19. Finish an entire puzzle book - I believe this is a bad habit I picked up from my grandmother but I will buy a new puzzle book, do maybe 25%, then buy a new one. No longer! I will finish an entire book before moving on to the next.

20. Write a letter to myself to read when I turn 30

21. Get Tattoos touched up and/or redone - I got both my tattoos a few months after turning 18 and both have minor mistakes that I hope to get touched up this year. I also wouldn't mind getting an all new tattoo but we'll see how that goes

22. Be seen on tv - I know this one is a bit silly but in August, J and I are going to see WWE RAW live and with our great seats that we snagged, we plan on being as excited as can be. Now to see if the cameras catch our smiles.

23. Read 10 books for pleasure - This really shouldn't be a problem since I own over 200 books, either hardcopy or on my kindle (majority of them were free), that I would love to read. I'm thinking of starting with the LOTR series.

Obviously, there are two that are still blank but they will soon be filled in. I'm debating over what I want those last two to be because I want to be realistic with my goals while still stretching myself. Some ideas I'm bouncing around are giving blood x times (I'm going to give blood anyway but do I want that as one of my 23) and/or writing x number of snail mail letters or postcards. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks for reading! As always, you can follow me on Pinterest to see my inspiration, Twitter to see whats new, and Instagram to catch my photo-a-day. Join me again soon but until then live long and prosper!

DIY Dr.Who pouch

Now while I have a fondness for Dr. Who, I am not the one who is a fan. It's actually my youngest brother who is. Now, since my family recently moved much too far away, I wanted to make him something for the upcoming school year. What I came up with was a pencil case designed like the top of the Tardis that I made entirely out of left over material from previous projects.

 

Materials and sizing:

• 2x dark blue (9.5" x 6.5")
• Black strip (9.5" x 2")
• 2x White (2.5" x 4.5")
• 2x inner fabric (9.5" x 6")
• 9.25" zipper (dark blue to blend with fabric)
• Fusible interfacing

 

I used 2 different pieces for the inside (yellow swirls and starry sky)

 Instructions:

1. Cut pieces as needed and iron everything so it lays nice and flat (this is really the first step for any project)

2. Now, take one of the blue pieces, fold in half, and near the bottom (approx. .5" from the bottom) draw out a square measuring 2.25" x 4.25" as shown (these will be the windows).

3. Next, you're going to start in the middle of the square and cut through both pieces of fabric (as shown) so both windows are exactly the same:

4. Lay flat and iron flaps towards wrong side of fabric (trim as needed/ if you want)

Back

Front

5. Next, take each of your white rectangles and sew them in place (pin on wrong side and, carefully, sew into place using dark blue or black thread)

Keep in mind that the rectangle and your open spot are only .25" different in size

When you're finished, your front should look something like this

6.  Taking your black strip, iron top and bottom raw edges underneath fabric and sew into place approx. 1" from top (black thread)

7. Now for the fancy stuff: Using black thread, sew straight lines across the windows, stopping just before hitting the blue fabric.

8. This step I had quite a bit of difficulty with. I started out using my chalk pencil to write out "Police Box" onto the black strip. Then, using the sewing machine setting that makes the fabric do this /\/\/\/ (really technical, I know), I started sewing along my letters. As for the "Public call", I opted to had stitch.

I had the most difficulty with the "O"

That's as close as it's going to get, I suppose

9. If you've made it this far - congratulations! You've made it through the most difficult parts of this project! Next up is assembling the whole thing. First though, iron your interfacing onto your front pieces (one being just blue and the other being your lovely Tardis).

10. Taking small pieces of scrap from your blue and your zipper, sew together as shown (watch out for the zipper metal!).

11. Attaching the zipper: Taking your Tardis front and one piece of inner fabric, right sides facing, sandwich your zipper between the two of them on the inside:

Sewing with the zipper closed, start at one end and sew 3/4 of the length, as close to the zipper as you can, then back stitch. Unzip zipper past the point you just sewed. Continuing sewing along same line until you have sewed the length of the zipper. This way you should have a fairly straight line that is nice and close to the actual zipper teeth. This is what it should look like once finished with this step:

12. Repeat with your other outer and inner fabrics, keeping in mind that what you've just sewn will now be the piece being sandwiched between them.

13. Making sure your zipper is 1/2 - 3/4 of the way open, pin your outer fabrics (right side facing) together and your inner fabrics (right side facing) together:

14. Starting at the bottom of your inner fabric (in the above picture: left side at blue pin in the upper corner), sew around the outer edge of the entire piece. BE CAREFUL when sewing across the zipper. I may have mentioned this before but every project I have done that required a zipper, I have broken a needle. In another project very similar to this one, the breaking of the needle included the tip breaking off and shooting into my eye. My boyfriend now requires me to wear his lab goggles when I'm sewing). Back to the current project, be sure to leave a small opening so that you can flip at the end.

It may be hard to see since I was using white thread

15. Flip, iron, hand sew your opening close, iron again.

I perhaps didn't leave a very big opening to flip but it worked out in the end

You're done! Yay!!!

Difficulty: Advanced beginner

Time: 2 hours
Price: $0 (I only used scraps so it may cost a few $$ if everything is new)

A week later I made a similar pouch for a young boy who loves Pokemon and YuGiOh. I'm not quite as proud of it but here it is:

The face of Pikachu

YuGiOh hair (I'm not all that familiar with the show)

 This pouch was a little different because I included dividers inside to organize playing cards:

This project was also $0 since it was made entirely of scraps that I had laying around. It was during this project that I tried losing an eye - most likely due to trying to speed through the process and make this in under an hour. What I learned: Take your time and enjoy the process of making your own creation, no matter what level of DIYing you're at.

Until next time patient readers, allonsy live long and prosper!