I'm Not Dead Yet

So, I am still around and I've been doing things. Crafty things, in fact! I have (several) cross stitch WIP and some completed sewing projects! I am very proud of what I have accomplished this past month.

First a little personal update on me: I have taken a leave of absence from derby. To be more specific a maternity leave. Very unexpected and shocking but I am one that believes things happen for a reason. What the exact reason is, I'm still at a loss for, but it's going to happen.

Anywho...I made an apron, finally. I've had the fabric for almost 2 years, which is somewhat typical of me. Yes, I love to cook and bake and never had an apron...until now. I did get a little tired of my family taking pictures of flour hand prints on my butt.

My favorite part of the apron is the seams, they are flawless. I have a tendency to fudge myself through the last bits of a project just to get done but I made myself slow down and take my time.

The boy wants me to make him one, and I will, in time. He currently has two aprons that fit him so I will be waiting until he grows out of them. The fabric will always be there, and there is PLENTY of it.

Black Aida Woes

So, I have a WIP and I keep stalling on it mostly because it is on black Aida. It is so time consuming because I can't find the holes (that's what she said). I feel like it would be easier to light it from underneath or to put it on a scroll. Are there any suggestions out there to ease the troubles with working on black?

Yay April!

April seems to be an amazing month so far. It started out with getting my informative speech done and nailing it. A 192 out of 200 is not too shabby. I've been getting caught up on all my school work and it looks like I am going to make it through all 4 of my classes this semester. It's a very amazing feat for me.

Derby has been going well. My team traveled to Tulare and competed in a tournament and won! Three games and three wins in one day. I've also become so determined to bust through this plateau. I haven't lost weight in months and have totally stalled out so this week I got super focused. I was amazing on my eating this week and made sure to refuel after workouts, I even got to bed on time. All this led up to an AMAZING practice Thursday night and it's going to continue until tomorrow's game.

The only thing that's missing is crafting, video game playing and reading something other than a text book, but I know to do all I am doing now I have to give up some things or severely reduce time spent on them...but only for a short while. I'm doing well in school and I'm starting to kick serious ass at derby (at least compared to where I started) and I don't want to give those things up right now.

Deliciouscraft

So Brian went on a Minecraft kick this weekend, not playing but watching You Tube videos. While Minecraft does pique my interest, I cannot bring myself to pay $20 for that game, especially since I really don't have the time to dedicate to it and most especially since I will probably get addicted to it and fail classes.

But, I digress, this is not about my avoidance to playing it. It is about the You Tube videos. Specifically videos from Coestar. More specifically this gem titled Blighthouse Now what is so great about this video? Nothing really, I suppose, until you realize, like I did, how much it sounded like the Delicious Dish . It made me ROFL...for like 10 minutes. I got the hiccups.

*Disclaimer* I am often easily amused and usually laugh at my own jokes longer and harder than anyone else, so I will not be offended if you didn't find that revelation as hilarious as I did.

Cookie!

I've been so busy with work, school, derby and family life that I have not been stitching. So here is my favorite cookie I decorated this past Christmas, enjoy!

Dead Snow

Last month I finally watched Dead Snow, a Norwegian zombie movie, and cannot stop thinking about it. Let's just say I love this movie and there are going to be some spoilers in my totally non-professional review of it, but I will put those at the end under the all caps underlined spoiler alert.

First off, it is a zombie movie, but not just any zombies, Nazi zombies. I am not very big on horror films but zombies have a special place in my, uh, brains (as does Sam Raimi, see geek below). I think what a lot of zombie movies do now (and Dead Snow is no exception) is make you laugh and cringe at the same time. There are plenty of horror movie cliches which, for me, didn't spoil it. One might say, as my boyfriend did, that some of it was ripped off from Sam Raimi, I say I totally geeked out and got way excited at those parts, I mean who has honored Sam in that way? Brilliant, I say, extra points for that.

Hmm, what more can I say about it before I get to the spoiler goodness? Oh, yes, I did have my inevitable zombie dream and I will talk more about that under spoilers.

The two things I have nightmares about are zombie and dinosaurs, go figure...

So, watch the movie so we can discuss it!! It's on Netflix instant watch!

SPOILERS

So the total cliche was "first to have sex dies" and that part made me cringe more than all the intestines, ok, not as much as stitching your own neck, but I keep thinking about her sucking on his finger after he took a shit and...EWWW!

I LOVE the creative use of intestines, and damn there were a lot of those, kinda got used to seeing it.

At the end of the movie I was saying "I don't know if I would want to survive that and have to explain what happened to my friends."

My nightmare about it was I was part of a group investigating what happened (we knew it had to do with zombies) and I kept saying "What am I doing here? Nobody survived to tell us any of this happened!"

Random Thoughts...

As I sit here trying to do some homework my mind won't stop thinking about so many other things. Of course this always happens when I try to do homework...

I had tryouts today and a week ago I was freaking out and having a panic attack. I was defeating myself and becoming my own worst enemy, something I am very good at. Several people told me to shut up and that virtual slap in the face was all I needed to snap myself out of it. I decided I wasn't competing against anybody else, I was competing against the Sharon that tried out six months ago and failed to make an all star team. Well, if no pain, no gain is true then I gained more than I expected. I am in so much pain right now, I came home took a hot shower, took two Aleve, lay in bed for several hours and I can still feel it...everywhere, not just my bum knee. I gave it my all and left it all on the track. Whatever the outcome I am happy with who I am today and the effort I put in, I have come a long, long way.

I also keep thinking about the things I would rather be doing than homework. I have a boxes full of projects waiting to get done and I cannot stitch something while reading a textbook...ARGH! Hell, sometimes I would rather be cleaning, but if I want to get done in two years and with good grades I need to get my ass in gear. So if I get off the blasted computer and get some homework done, I can get some stitching done while watching some anime...BRILLIANT! BTW, I am watching Fruits Basket and OMG, SQUEEE!!