Once again, here is my Christmas wish list. It's full of realistic things, silly things, and things I'm well aware aren't possible to buy but I want anyway.



Moomins everything! I absolutely love the Moomins. So far in my collection, I have two mugs (the green one of Little My on the bottom row, far left; and the light pink one on the second from bottom row on the far right of Moomin and Snork Maiden hugging), but I want to collect more of them. They are made by Iitala, and fit in with my love of all things Finnish. I've also taken to reading (or rather, re-reading in many cases) some of the Moomins books. I should note that while searching for these, one of the Amazon Lists came up names "Great books for 3-year-olds", but whatever). I already have two of the comic books (Who Will Comfort Toffle and the first one), but I'd be thrilled with any of the others (number two, number three, or any of the little novels (I have Finn Family Moomintroll and Moominland Midwinter, and I would like Tales From Moominvalley, Moominpappa's Memoirs or Comet in Moominland).

Ok, that's probably enough Moomins stuff for the time being. Other books I'd like include: Vegan Pie in the Sky; Journals of Sylvia Plath; Plath: Poems; The Doris Encyclopedia; Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath; and this vegan desserts cookbook (which has a recipe for vegan macarons!). The final paper-based thing that I'd like that I can think of is a year planner, maybe something plain like a Moleskine one. I'd like a medium-sized one, i.e.: enough space to write more than one thing per day, but smaller than A4.

Now, some less realistic things I'd like:

http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/us_kids_know/Default%202/

* A sloth. JUST LOOK AT THEM. Argh, they are so cute it hurts my tummy from laughter.
* Some free time for myself and Garrett. Because working suuuucks.
* A trip to Montreal. I'd love to go, and stay there for a while to immerse myself in French, but I can't get the time off work.
* A trip home / to Paris / to Helsinki. See above. I would also settle for having my family teleported over here for Christmas day. I don't ask for much, do I?


Some more realistic clothes / hair makeup related things:



Any of these Smiths or Morrissey shirts (Youth Medium, Men's XS or maybe S). The site I was told has the best ones is down at the moment, but it's www.everythingenglish.com the white shirt with the band, Morrissey in the middle wearing glasses and grinning with his eyes closed.

A powerful hairdryer (I can't use the hottest setting on mine because it's old and just stops working).

Straighteners with some sort of anti-static magic in them.

ELF makeup (we found it in Target, it is all vegan, and super cheap!). In particular: eyelash curlers, black cream eyeliner; nail polish (any of the top row, or the black).

Eco Tools makeup brushes (one for powder, one for blusher / bronzer, and the angled eyeliner brush) - these are also in Target

Lush stuff (Gingerbread House bubble bar; Tizag Home candy mountain bubble bar; Magic Wand bubble bar; anything that smells like candy or spices at all really; Enzymion moisturiser)

A raw quartz crystal on a long chain necklace (like this one)

This giant vintage leather backpack.

A super fancy waterproof shell, with no lining so I can layer under it in winter, and wear it alone in spring / summer, would be wonderful for walking Lady in the rain (and I could count it as an "investment" for when I start a dog walking business, right?). I know this one fits me perfectly, but the price makes me want to run away and cry. This North Face one is a little more realistic, but still... ouch. I wear women's size small.

Boybrief 7 / $25 undies from Aerie (honestly, the all black ones are my favourites, I'm boring)

This bra from Victoria's Secret, the either the black lace or flesh lace one in 34B (hello internet, now you know my bra size).

As always, I am constantly trying to improve my posture and reduce my back problems. I'd love a yoga mat, and yoga classes, or just a new back would be nice, too. I'd also love a desk chair that is made to improve posture, because the one I have at the moment is definitely not designed with this in mind.

I'd like a case and lens cover for my camera, but I'm not sure what exactly. Garrett would know, but he's sleeping as I write this.

A duvet rather than comforter, so I only have to wash the cover and not the whole giant thing. Going by the Ikea warmth rating, I'd like a level 3.

Yarn, as always. Particularly a few balls each of Berocco Comfort Chunky in 5703 Barley and 5716 Chambray.

...I'm going to finish this up later.

Here is a pattern I adapted from Lion Brand Yarn's Camelot hat (I disliked the K2, P2 ribbing and I found that their decrease was too pointy). I'm not 100% positive how much yarn I used for this, because I had a few fragmented skeins lying around from previous projects that I'd frogged. I would estimate that I used approximately 150 yards of worsted weight yarn, which is one skein of super vegan-friendly, organic Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Cotton.



Cast on 60 stitches. Join in the round, being careful not to twist, and placing a marker at the beginning.
Knit in [K1, P1] ribbing for 8 rows (1.5").
Knit around for 55 rows (9.5").

Now, begin the decrease:
[K2tog, K8] x5 (ie: all the way around).
[K2tog, K7] around.
[K2tog, K6] around.
[K2tog, K5] around.
[K2tog, K4] around.
[K2tog, K3] around.
[K2tog, K2] around.
[K2tog, K1] around.
K2tog back to back. Cut yarn and weave through remaining stitches, pulling tight to close the gap.
Weave in all ends.

Tadaaaa! You now have a super slouchy hat.

I slept for 13 hours last night, after a 18 hour journey back to the USA. Today, I am having a day of self indulgence: writing letters, cleaning my room, hanging out with Pupstuff, drinking tea, and listening to awesome music. Time off work is the best.

+ 7 days until I travel to the UK! I plan to spend my obscenely long journey knitting and writing letters, maybe watching French films, reading, and probably trying to sleep a bit, too.

+ / - My suitcase is literally going to be about 1/3 to 1/2 full of presents for other people - I hope I have enough room for clothes!

- I thought I was going to be able to pay off a lot of my debts when I go home, but then all this stuff happened with Lady. We've spent over $1000 on Lady over the past month, with vet bills, dog trainers, crates, and the like. She's worth it, but still... OUCH.

+ I still have enough money to treat my Mum when I get home, and to to fun stuff without worrying about money.

+++ I am so fucking excited about hanging out with Donna in Manchester. FFFFFFF

+ I'm going to try and keep a photo diary of the time I spend there, now that I have my fancy pants camera.

- / + Yet again, I am stressing about having enough time to hang out with people and do all the things I want to do. There's just so much!

+ I have 2 weeks off work, so that is going to be weird. Yey!

- I will not be getting paid for my time off work. Bah.

+ I had some super good coffee today. Mmmm...

- My skin is turning to shit and getting gross and spotty. I think it's because of stress, not enough sleep, and eating lots of comfort food.

+ Things are starting to look up with Lady, but I don't want to jinx it.

+ Today I saw a line of 15 or so people crossing the road on SEGWAYS. I just find Segways hilarious. The only thing better than seeing a bunch of nerds on Segways, is seeing cops on them.

+ I have my ride sorted for the airport, and Jack is going to be the main one looking after Lady while I'm away and Garrett's at work, so I think she'll be ok.

+ I was told I'm doing a good job at work again today. I seem to be doing ok there, I think.

Last night was fucking awesome. We put on a 5 band show at Dave's house, so all the furniture got moved out, and his front wall was opened up (he lives in a converted garage). There was a BBQ outside that set the table it was standing on on fire at one point, which was pretty hilarious as no one knew what to do and just stood there looking at it going "Uh... fire. Fire? The table... it's on fire. Uh..." so I threw a nearby glass of water on it and put it out. Saving the day, or something! There were absolutely loads of people who had traveled from out of town (DC, Chicago, NY) just to be there for the show, too many for me to list or be able to remember, and I was really happy to see everyone, even though I didn't get to spend too much time hanging out with any one of them in particular because there were just so many of them. Ugh, I loved it. Everywhere I looked, there were familiar faces.

I don't think I've been so excited to be at a show in absolutely years. It was full of so many people I was excited to see, and so many bands I was really looking forward to watching perform. I felt 100% safe and comfortable, and spent most of the time up front singing and moving around way more than my usual static show self. At one point I got quite emotional and teary just because I was so happy to be there. It was one of the few times in which I have had that winning combination of new bands, bands I already like and can sing along to, a pretty nice balance of men : women (i.e.: not feeling like the odd one out), no meat heads, not having to worry about getting punched in the face, and having a real sense of everyone being there to support each other. It definitely helped that every single band that performed was super talented, too, and only one band was all male. It was super inspiring seeing so many talented people, and I was so inspired by all the women in the bands, too.

I don't think I'm doing justice to describing the show here because I am only writing this down as quickly as possible so that I have a note of just how good shows can be for me. I have to stop now, though, because I need to start baking! Tonight is likely to be way more of an annoying crowd (ah, hardcore shows...), but one of my favourite bands of the moment, Hounds of Hate, are playing. Perhaps I will dance up front for that one as well; I want to support and encourage my friends. After that I will probably stay hanging out at the bake sale table. But more on that later!

Forgot how much I love this:



...Of which I was reminded by a fashion blog of the same name.

Poly Styrene has died at age 53. She was such an incredible, inspiring lady, with an amazing voice and was totally ahead of her time. Now I really have to get my arse in gear to get my X Ray Spex covers band going!

http://sloth-babies.tumblr.com/


BEST.
TUMBLR.
EVER!

Possibly one of the catchiest songs I've ever heard.

I think I have a bit of a problem with sugar. As in, often, I can't stop thinking about it until I've eaten so much of it that I feel light headed and sick. I think I'm going to try and cut back, and every time I have a craving for it, take Lady out for a walk. I've also definitely noticed that I've been putting on weight gradually. I'm trying to not get too hung up on it, as I have done in the past (leading to some not so nice eating habits), but I do think it's linked to my sugar crashes. I'm going to try and sort it out, not by going on a "diet", per se, but just making some small changes to try and regulate my blood sugar levels.

Lady and I went for a nice, fairly long (40 minute) walk today. It's grey and a little chilly (but not too cold) out, which reminded me of England. A few bushes are beginning to get some buds on them, but so far I haven't really seen anything that's made me think "ah, Spring is here!" like I did when I was in the UK.



At the weekend, I planted some seeds in some old tins / cans and our window box, so I'm hoping to see some shoots coming through in the next few weeks. I also bought some mixed wild flowers, so I think I will scatter those around our house. I may try and clear some of the weeds and general debris in the piece of land behind out house. It's not technically ours, but John, our neighbour with whom we share this strip, said that he would be more than happy for us to use it if we take care of it. I will see how my back feels. This is all linked into trying to trick myself into being more active, without actually "exercising" in the traditional sense. It will also be bike riding weather soon!

Yesterday I altered a sleeveless shirt that I thrifted a month or so ago. It was a size Large, but I trimmed the sides down so it fits me really well. It will be great for summer office wear! I still haven't heard back from that French speaking temp job, so I'll email the company today. I was supposed to be going thrifting with Cayce and Aevah today, but Cayce has come down with a bug overnight and is in no fit state to be browsing through old clothes! Luckily I'm pretty good at keeping myself entertained. I have been playing around with my camera a bit recently. We got a replacement battery and a larger memory card, so I can use it for more than 15 minutes at a time now, which is nice! The sunlight coming through our window yesterday was gorgeous, and Lady looked so cute sunbathing in that tiny square of warmth:



I'm really going to miss having all this free time when I get a grownup job.