Completed sea creatures baby mobile

I finished the Baby Mobile with not a moment to spare before the baby shower last month. I've just had time to post the images here.

   

The whale did turn out to be the centerpiece as designed.  I ended up using a small wooded dowel for the upward water stream, some .22 gauge flower wire for the arms with the sea friends, and a wooden clock face for the mounting plate.  The flower wire for the arms for the sea friends provided enough support and made it easy to bend the arms until everything looked right.  I had more wire coming off of the top so that it could be hung easily above a crib or pack and play.  Everything was wrapped in either light blue yarn or light blue felt.

Here are the stars of the show.  Ms. Seahorse!

Ms. Octopus!

Mr. Starfish!

And last but not least, Mr. Sea turtle!

Overall I was pleased with the design and concept.  Had I allowed myself a bit more time, I would have liked to change the design on the mouth for the whale.  I probably would have used some felt or gave him a silly tongue.  

For more information and a link to the patterns I used for reference, check out my project page on my Ravelry profile: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/cmmiller/baby-mobile.

I'll post soon about my next project plan!

Crochet Baby Mobile Sketches

My first craft for the new year will be a baby mobile.  My stepsister is having a baby in March, so I'd like to crochet an amigurumi plush mobile for her baby shower.  I thought about designing something that would be gender neutral.  The idea is to create the mobile, but make the individual pieces detachable so that the baby will be able to play with them later on.


For the first design, I went aquatic.  The idea is that the large whale will be in the middle and the water stream coming out of the blowhole will be the different arms of the mobile with the other sea creatures.  I drew more animals than I would need, but the skill is with the editing.

The more I thought about the idea of the baby being able to play with the toys later, I thought (with the help of my husband), that it might be nice if all of the toys could be stored in the larger centerpiece of the mobile.  That led me to my second design of the Barn and some barnyard animals.  The barn doors would open and the animals could go inside.  That would mean of thinking of a way of reinforcing the barn piece without stuffing it completely.

For my next sketch, I went against my normal instincts and went insanely girly.  The rainbow will be the largest piece of this mobile with other various girly things coming off.  The challenge here is finding a way to make an amigurumi 3D rainbow that looks good.

If I was going to make something girly, I thought I'd go with something in the totally opposite direction. This mobile would not have a centerpiece, but the framing at the top would be some sort of race track or something (going back to the idea of almost every piece being usable).

The more I thought about making baby mobiles, my thoughts turned to what kind of baby mobile I would make for my own if I ever decided to have one.  It would be the nerdiest baby mobile on the planet.  I didn't pick a centerpiece or think about the layout very much because I knew it wasn't something I was actually going to put a lot of time into.

And the winner is ... the Ocean design!  I've started with the whale, which will be a white one.  I've started with a magic ring and the basic stitch progression for a growing circle using a series of increases. When I've decided the whale is fat enough, I'll start to decrease.

I'll post more once I've made some notable progress.

New Year's and Reflections

New Year's is a time for making tons of promises one has every intention of keeping but loses dedication, discipline, and drive by the end of winter.  I have so many scattered interests and skills that I have trouble maintaining focus on those things.

Writing

Spending some time dedicated to this blog and other writing projects such as emailing with friends about various topics and writing fiction will help me to continue to develop my craft.  Not only should I spend more time writing this year, but also reading and commenting on the works of my fellow writers.

Crafts

I've started desigining my own crochet projects, and I'll keep track of their design and outcomes here.  I actually completed my Mario Pixel Art blanket in 2012.  I need to finish weaving in all the tails and tackle the first washing of the blanket.  My goal will be to wash it successfully without the colors bleeding everywhere.

Mario Pixel Art blanket

Mario Pixel Art blanket

Health and cooking

This year I will spend some time getting back into the hobby of cooking.  My family bought me tons of gadgets for Christmas.  I'll be focusing on cooking healthier in the new year and incorporating regular exercise into my life.

Entertainment:

I love music, movies, video games, and reading.  I need to spend more time engaging in these hobbies and thinking critically about what these things mean on a larger level.

Reading challenge
I've bought and ordered a ton of books in 2012 that I need to read and trade on www.paperbackswap.com.  I unsuccessfully tried an A-Z book list in 2010, but I wasn't supper organized.  This year I'm going to list out all of the books I've purchased or swapped online with the intention of reading them all by the end of 2013.

Reading List:

A - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Author:  Michael Chabon

B - Breakfast of Champions Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (finish reading)

C - The Corrections Author: Jonathan Franzen

D - Drowning Ruth Author: Christina Schwarz

E - Everything Is Illuminated Author: Jonathan Safran Foer

F - Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results Author: Harry Paul, Stephen C. Lundin PhD, John Christensen

G - The God Delusion Author: Richard Dawkins (finish reading)

H - Hitch 22: A Memoir Author: Christopher Hitchens

I - I'll Take You There Author: Joyce Carol Oates

J - Jailbird Author: Kurt Vonnegut

K - Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly Author: Anthony Bourdain

L - Letter to a Christian Nation Author: Sam Harris

M - Middlesex Author: Jeffrey Eugenides

N - No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process Author: Colin Beavan

O - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Author: Michael Pollan

P -  The Palm at the End of the Mind-Selected Poems and a Play Author: Wallace Stevens

Q - Quicksand Author: Nella Larsen

R -  Rework Author: Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

S -  Snow Crash Author: Neal Stephenson

T - Then We Came to the End Author: Joshua Ferris

U - Until I Find You Author: John Irving

V - The Voyage Out Author: Virginia Woolf

W - Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?: Stories Author: Joyce Carol Oates

X - Xpd Author: Len Deighton

Y - The Year of Living Bibically Author: A.J. Jacobs

Z - The Zombie Survival Guide Author: Max Brooks

Been busy

I've been uber busy in the past month, both in my work and home life, which hasn't left much time for my blogging/writing interests, crafting, gaming, or much of anything else.  I do have some big life changes coming in the next few months.  My husband has accepted a job in another state, so as we are living in different states,  I will be finishing up with work and be working on selling our home.  He'll be setting up our apartment and working at his new job.  We're super excited, but there's a lot of stuff that lies ahead for us.

As we were traveling this past week, we did have an opportunity to see two movies in the theater: one we liked and the other not so much.  We went and saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which was great.  A few days later, we went to see Captain America, which we didn't really care for.  We weren't huge fans of Captain America in the first place, but we are a fan of the Marvel and DC style super hero movies.  Captain America, for me, was too long and kitsch.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes was great.  It had a lot of soul, and by the end we were all rooting for the monkeys...those humans can be so cruel.

Mario Pixel Art Blanket Update

Updates on the Mario blanket.  I've reached the half way mark...ish.  My momentum is pretty steady on the project, so if I can keep up and I'm excited to keep going, then I will definitely make a border and box Mario in.  This blanket is just going to be huge!  with or without the boxed in border.

Here's what my workstation looks like.  I've been laying out two rows of the squares at a time and stitching them together.  Then I attach them to the main project.  I feel like stitching them together is taking more time than making the actual squares.

Of course, Doodles and Gizmo had to make a guest appearance in this post.  :-)

A reflection on music

In the past few days, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my music collection.  I have a deep, lifelong connection with the music.  I read and listen to music, so I often make connections between that music and book.  I also like to play video games and listen to my music.  I will usually turn down the game music and play something from my 68 gb collection.  Even though we didn't have extravagant things, we always had music.  My parents had great taste in music and passed that on to me.  I started playing the guitar around age 13 or 14 and played almost every day until I went to college.

I haven't always had the greatest taste in music.  Sure, I fell for the popular, trendy late 90s tunes that I could care less about.  I still have a soft spot for grunge, even though I know it's not the most ingenious music.  I just love it.  What can I say?  But I do love the music produced from 1960-1979.  The rock era dominates my collection.

Our family has music traditions.  We listened to music when there wasn't much better to do.  When we played outside or rode bikes, we usually brought the stereo.  Every Thanksgiving we would listen to "Alice's Restaurant."   My dad had a bunch of tapes and Steve Miller and Boston were our most common cleaning soundtrack.  There was always, of course, Christmas music.  My sister Karen hates Christmas music, but I hold a place for it in my heart.  Not the Christmas music, but my dad's quick-witted improv parodies of the music and lyrics.  When my sisters and I take road trips to visit mom who lives about an hour away, we blare our favorite music, both current and past, and sing.  Music is in our blood!

Recently on twitter a game of "desert island" was suggested where I had to pick the five albums I would take with me on a desert island.  What a difficult task!  Here's my 5 (in no particular order):

Mario Squares Project

As a child, we didn't have many of the "extravagant" things I now have as an adult.  We didn't have cable TV, Internet, cell phones-not even a home phone most of the time.  Sure we had some nice things here and there: a swimming pool for two summers, a trampoline, dogs, and of course, each other.  But as far as modern entertainment goes, we had what we had and that was it.  During hot, hot South Carolina summers, we'd spend hours and hours glued to the TV playing our Super Nintendo.  Sure, there were more advanced systems out like the N64 and PlayStation, but we were more than content with our gaming antique.  We only had a few games, but we played those games on repeat.  My mom hated it!  The TV screen constantly showing the same screens; that music; three daughters fighting over two available player seats (with the two oldest usually trumping the youngest-sure we'd share, but, in our minds, we were alive longer so that had to count for something!).  Of those games we played on repeat, Super Mario All-stars topped the list.

I could, to this day, draw the early level maps for you from memory.  As a tribute to the game being one of my all time favorites, I'm working on a pixel art blanket.  I'll be crocheting the blanket.  I gave a brief intro to the project in an earlier entry, but I thought I'd go into more detail now as I'm getting closer to finishing the squares on the Mario figure.  For the past few weeks I've been making 3x3 squares--hundreds of them.  I actually have the majority of the Mario squares completed.  The image I decided to go with is the raccoon tailed Mario.  The blanket will look something like this:

The majority of the squares are black, red, blue, and skin colored (as you can tell from the image above).  Here are the squares.  I'm storing them on the desk in my bedroom in stacks of 20 squares each.

                                      

An important factor in my continuing work on the project is the availability of my tools.  Next to "my spot" in the living room, I keep the skein for the color I'm currently working on, any squares that haven't accumulated to 20 for a stack yet, scissors, and my crochet hook.  I also keep the number of each color square I have to make.  Another tool that has been of particular use lately has been a wrist brace.  I spend the majority of my day in front of a computer at work, then I come home and crochet.  My wrist and arm start to tire quickly and get sore, so wearing the brace helps (not pictured).

At this point, I'm still deciding on whether or not to create a full background.  Making the full background means making nearly as many squares as I've made just for the Mario Figure.

Beginner Garden

My parents never had a garden, but as a child, I often had access to fresh vegetables, pickled peppers and chow chow, and fresh, delicious, strawberry jam. One of my earliest memories is one of skipping the last day of school to drive out to Pappy's house. He had a few acres of land he planted every year with strawberries, peppers, peanuts, and other vegetables. I was tasked with dropping exactly three seeds into each hole. We made a sort of assembly line out of it: Pappy dug the hole, I dropped in the seeds, and my dad covered it up.

My Parsley

So, gardening should be in my blood, right? I tried to plant a garden when I was a teenager. I planted some seeds from little paper packets purchased at a local dollar store. I tilled the small plot of land and closely followed the instructions for how far apart to space each plant. I was amazed when, in a week or two, life sprouted out of the ground. Who knew it could be so easy? Unfortunately, we ended up moving away from that house to another one before the plants fully matured. I tried to transport a few to the new location, but aside from some bean plants, nothing really matured or survived.

My Basil

My previous attempt at gardening was more of an accident than a planned attempt at gardening. I happened to find myself stuck in Wal-Mart for an hour after I survived my first flat tire while driving (it wasn't nearly as bad as the movies would have you believe-my tire just sort of deflated as I was driving. It was full of air one second and flat the next. But, I digress...). What does one do while stranded at Wal-Mart for an hour?  WANDER! I made my way to the "gardening" section and made a not-well-planned-decision to purchase a window box, some potting soil, and some seeds. I went home and planted the seeds, and not much came of it. It was a little late in the season for planting, and my sprout-lings were not getting enough sun light.

My Cantaloupe fruit!!!

This year I started early. I bought a few planters, used the rest of the seeds from last year and bought a basil and a cantaloupe plant that were already growing quite nicely. So far, I've enjoyed cooking some things with my basil and parsley. I planted some giant spinach that I really didn't know what to do with, so I did nothing. My tomatoes never came up and neither did my spring onions. But of my successes I do have a big, beautiful basil plant, a watermelon plant, a cantaloupe plant with my first little fruit, and my parsley.  I guess I will just have to say that I have yellow thumbs-green thumbs in training.

Hobo with a Shotgun-the review

In 2007 Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino revived the "grindhouse" style of B-movies with their release of the Grindhouse double feature (Planet Terror and Death Proof). These films brought back to life the traditional exploitation films of a previous film generation.  Exploitation films are not for everyone-they often contain highly suggestive scenes with over the top gore and violence, nudity, sex, and an overall brashness.  These films paint an unbelievable, bizarre picture of the world and are  usually ridiculous.  Fans of the genre find themselves laughing hysterically at geysers of blood or fake limbs being blown away.

The Grindhouse films began and end with fictional movie trailers and advertisements, one of them being a trailer for Hobo with a Shotgun.  Another of the fictionalized movie trailers to be converted to an actual film is Machete.  The movie is exactly what it promises to be about: a hobo with a shotgun.  Rutger Hauer stars as the Hobo who arrives to Hope Town on a train.  Hope Town or Scum Town is ruled by The Drake (Brian Downey) and his two sons-Slick (Gregory Smith) the favored and hopeful replacement for his father in his empire of terror, and Ivan (Nick Bateman), the idiot.  The hobo's first taste of life in Hope Town shows the Drake's brother being murdered in the street by his brother, Drake, and his nephews.  The town is forced to watch his brutal decapitation, reinforcing the Drake's hold over the city.  This is just the beginning of the gore in this 1 hour and 26 minute film.

The hobo saves his money and even earns some from a depraved street criminal filming hobos performing various degrading acts.  He arrives at a pawn shop to make a bizarre purchase (I won't spoil it) and finds himself involved in a robbery.  Instead of making his intended purchase he opts for a shotgun and becomes our vigilante hero.  After the hobo becomes famous for his brand of vigilante justice, the Drake declares war on hobos and the violence escalates to its gory conclusion.

Some folks might complain about the physics of the ridiculous and unlikely blood spurts and patterns or the randomness of some parts of the movie or even the cheese levels of the dialogue, but they would be missing the point entirely.  These are the things that make the film-these are the things that most fans of the genre are looking for and expect from this movie, and Hobo delivers.  If you're the kind who likes a good chuckle during a horror flick and you like your films on the bloody side, be sure to check out Hobo with a Shotgun.

Cooking for friends

Yesterday we had our friends Mike and Jori over for dinner and a few movies.  By request, I made steak burritos in an awesome, programmable, 6 quart crockpot.  If you don't have one, you should seriously invest.

The recipe is super simple.

Crock pot steak tacos:
1 5-6 lb chuck roast
1 can of tomatoes and chilies (like rotel)
1 packet of taco seasoning

Stuff cooking:















Mix the taco seasoning together with the rotel.  Put the roast in the Crockpot and pour the mixture over the top.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4-6.  The beauty of this recipe is that if you're using the crockpot with the programmable timer, you can cook it and after the cooking time has elapsed, the crockpot will move to warm and keep the food nice and warm for you.  Pull the roast out of the crock pot and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Shred and enjoy with your favorite toppings.

Toppings:
 














Shredded Beef :

This is a picture of the meat cold, so it looks a little off.

Then we watched two movies, Live Animals and Pandorum.  Live Animals was a part of a four movie pack for five dollars, so, as you can imagine, it was pretty terrible.  I did fall asleep for the first few minutes of Pandorum, mainly because it was so quiet, but I didn't miss so much that it made the rest of the movie unwatchable.

 

my big project

I've started work on my largest crochet project thus far.  I've made things before as gifts: a companion cube for Matt for his birthday (even though it was a bit late), Amigurumi  Monkey, Cat with Kittens, a Mario mushroom, afgans for my mom and sister for Christmas, but this is my biggest endeavor thus far.  I've used patterns for most of the other things I've created, but for this project, I'm flying solo.  I've decided to make a pixel art blanket with the iconic Mario 3 image.  Ya know, flying with raccoon tail Mario. 

To check out my progress on the blanket, follow me on ravelry or here on this blog: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/cmmiller

In the true style of pixel art, it will just be a bunch of squares.  This is the base:

Projects since the last posting

Here are some things I've been working on since my last posting:

Crochet squares blanket
Band practice (check out my youtube videos) 
Learning how to use my bread machine
Working (hey, it should count!)
Visiting with my mom (she's been here for 3 weeks)
Planning a vacation weekend to Atlanta
Reading Trying to Save Piggy Sneed
Beating New Super Mario Brothers for Wii (amazing!)

For this coming week:
Trying out making sweet potato fries with curry ketchup
Finishing up my crochet squares sampler afghan
Starting on making my companion cubeSampling Metal Gear Solid 4

pictures of everything to come!

Tetris Attack!!!!

I'm a combo queen...what can I say?

I'm totally addicted and always have been to puzzle games in general. My most recent obcession: Tetris Attack for the SNES. Not your boring, run of the mill Tetris, this game utilizes both shapes and colors (lucky for my husband who is color blind)randomly scrolling up at a predetermined speed for the user to sort through. The ultimate goal is to make a hella combo and send garbage over to your opponent. Three of the same in a row makes a set, four and up will send over garbage and all 2x and above combos send over better, bigger garbage.



Give it a try...it will change your life forever!!!  Unfortunately, I have to sleep, so I guess I'll just have to play tomorrow.  :P

Calling the BS

Today I watched an abbreviated interview between Mike Huckabee and Jon Stewart on the Daily show. Topic: abortion.

My Issues with Huckabee's arguments:
1. "Every life has value."

Huckabee says the fundamental argument for his stance against a woman's right to have an abortion rests on his position on life: all life has intrinsic value. If he has such a "pro-life" stance, why does this not apply to all life. By having a pro-war stance, he negates his "pro-life" stance. With this argument he's implying (intentionally or not) that life in the womb, is worth more than adult human lives. Why is he pro-death penalty? Here, he's saying that we have the right to take lives as a means of punishment.

2. "Can a person ever own another person?" (does the woman own the fetus, basically)

Of course not, but Republicans haven't been well known for their stance on freedom: Slavery, women as property, their policies on illegal immigration (forbidding immigrants to come to our country but paying them poorly and under the table for hard labor--essentially a form of indentured servitude where they can send them back when they've used them up). The military's employment policy is a form of slavery where the soldier gives up almost all rights in favor of team unity. I guess his party suddenly has a squeaky clean record on "humans as property."

3. "No one is worth more than another. No one is worth less than another."

See rebuttal number one. Anti-choicers value the unborn more than already living human beings (pro-war, pro-capital punishment). Worse than that, "life" in the womb gets better treatment than kids in and out of foster care, in orphanages or abusive homes, and in third world countries. If they really thought that no life were worth more than another, then they would advocate socialism and not a capitalist system that supports our classist system as it currently exists.

4. "We don't need to shoot each other"

...probably the only thing I agreed with that he said. At least he is openly advocating that his followers militantly pursue pro-choicers.


I guess my main issue with his morality argument is that his morality only applies to this one topic, not all topics. Selective morality is one of my pet peeves as far as politics is concerned. When religion and politics mix, BS ensues.

In all honesty, no one wants abortion to actually happen. No woman walks into an abortion clinic and thinks, "This is the happiest day of my life." Let's be realistic! Put aside morality and religion (the two are not the same) even arguments for or against the issue and just be reasonable for a moment. We need to work on the issues that often lead to unwanted pregnancies (thus abortions): incest, rape, accidents, and carelessness. The ultimate win-win situation is to almost eliminate the need for abortion in the first place: teach kids who are having sex anyway how to appropriately use contraceptives--don't continue abstinence only programs that don't work. There also needs to be bigger pull from all political parties for gender equality in hopes that sex crimes won't occur in the first place.

Last, let's all come to terms and agree that we are actually all equal instead of saying things that make some seem morally righteous for taking the "high road." "All life is equal"--if we're going to throw things out like that to make it seem like we're taking the morally high road, then we should mean it. Regard all life as sacred and equal: stop war, level the playing field for genders in order to discourage sex crimes, abolish capitol punishment, and stop making policies that hinder every human's pursuit of happiness.

I think I'll just categorize this as a fail in logic or morality...I can't decide which though.

Blogging

Thanks to my recent subscriptions to Google Reader, I've now found new interests in things on the Internet. I've regained my previous interest in cooking, surfing, blogging, and other things in general.

I've been reading a lot of food blogs, so I've decided to try a couple of the recipes I found. Right now I'm letting some sesame beef marinate. I've also got some vegetables, mainly onions, zucchini, carrots, and mushrooms marinating in a similar (complimentary but not identical) sweet and savory sauce. They've been marinating overnight and I'm inviting some neighbors over for dinner.

I've also given up on fast food, and I've been packing some pretty wonderful lunches. I still eat out once or twice a week with my coworkers, but I've had great success with packing my lunch. I've been looking for a pretty sweet lunch or Bento box to take with me to work, but they're kind of expensive over the Internet.

Right now I'm also baking my first loaf of homemade bread. I went out last week and bought all of the ingredients. I following a recipe from the "White Lily Flour Recipe book thingy" I got when I was in 10th grad culinary arts class. The recipe makes two loaves, so I went ahead and put one loaf in the oven but put the other loaf in my fridge. If I eat enough bread this week, then I'll make the other loaf this weekend. My house smells so great right now. I've got a few minutes left on it and I'm about to pull it out of the oven. It's going to be hard not to dig in right away. If it turns out right, I'll be sure to post some pictures.

I'm also back into gaming. This weekend I've been playing a lot of Unreal Tournament and the newer versions.

More later...