So this is what the driveway looked like yesterday. Manda moved all her stuff in on Saturday, and most of it was in the garage, then she emptied out the garage to re-organize all the stuff, and so that we could also sort through stuff in my storage-area/crawlspace. Luckily, we shoved everything back into the garage before dark! The house is still exploding a bit, but Manda already cooked a first dinner, and we already had our first dinner guest, so all is moving forward and dandy!

I posted a lil video to YouTube over the weekend to show you guys my craft-room process and to blab about some other stuff.

Jenny from the Craft Yarn Council sent me some photos of Crochet Texas crocheting 65 lemon stress balls (my pattern and video here) for the CYC’s annual meeting! So cool and so cute!

If I have any Dallas readers interested in Crochet Texas, here’s a little more info:

“We meet the third Saturday of each month at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Mockingbird Land and Inwood Rd., Dallas, Tx.  We have upcoming classes on Irish Crochet, Short Row Crochet, Positive and Negative Ease, etc.  Please go to our website for more information:   crochettexas.org”

Do we have a Crochet California, or  Crochet San Francisco, or a Crochet Bay Area? I gotta look into that some time. Should we form a group called Crochet Heroes of the Interwebs?

I’m a bit predictable. If I’m entertaining out-of-town visitors, I always want to take them to PikaPika in Japantown for some purikura or Japanese photobooth fun. It’s always really stressful because time goes very quickly in the photobooth, and sometimes the pics turn out well, and sometimes they don’t, and you just sorta go with it cuz it costs $10 bucks.

A few weeks ago, my friend Candace from SuperGoodClothing spent a week-long layover with me. We ate tons of snacks, cooked junk food (I need to edit video for IEatYuckyStuff!) and went to J-town 3 days in a row. Why? The first day, we got there too late, and after shopping at Daiso, we didn’t have enough time for PikaPika. On Day 2, we got there only to find out that it was closed for a special event. We did visit Mitsu Tea House, the new bubble tea place, which also serves shave ice/”snows” which I don’t usually get. But Candace got a strawberry shortcake one that has actual cake in it, and I approve! Day 3 was the magic day for us to let loose our creative and artistic spirits, as evidenced above. Candace is the only person I know with an effed-up sleep schedule like me, hence, #lackofsleeppals as well as brain damage references. We need help. We’re working on it.

My craft room is moving!

Manda is moving in with me next weekend, so this past weekend, she and my mom helped me to start moving the craft room from my 2nd bedroom into the DINING ROOM. My dining table is now in the corner of my living room, and at first I thought it was really weird, but it’s kind of cute and I’m starting to like it.

I am going to lose  a closet and one of my work tables in this process, but I think it is always nice to have an opportunity to take stock of what you have and what you need and really pare it down if possible. We already took some big trips to Goodwill, and I already sold a lot of yarn online. In the interest of time (since I’m still on tight deadline for my book, too), I started to Goodwill a lot of usable craft supplies instead of posting it online for sale, because photographing, shipping and packing everything also takes up quite a bit of my time, which I don’t have a lot of right now!

I’ve been taking some (shoddy) video for YouTube of the moving process. I would have loved to have done a  time lapse, but since other people have been involved, I didn’t really want to futz with cameras or computers. I kinda just wanted to get it done while I had the help!

My goal is to have everything out of the old craft room and into the new craft room by FRIDAY, since Manda’s stuff will be coming in on Saturday. Wish us luck! And new adventures! We actually lived together for a few years about a decade ago. We are trying to make goals for eating better, cooking more, and exercising together more often. But first: the move! More photos and videos on that very soon!

(Apparently I wrote this blog entry in February but never posted it!? I have no idea why I didn’t. Here we go!)

I posted this photo on Instagram the other day, and I was sort of surprised that people liked it so much, since it’s an older project of mine that I recently re-made.

Over the holidays, someone special-ordered one of these bad boys for a Christmas present. I had only ever made one (I can’t even remember when), and I had never written down the pattern. So I winged it again and sent it off. I didn’t write down the pattern AGAIN cuz I was in my holiday freakout mode.

The cute part of the story starts when the recipient of the gift contacted me and said that she wanted to order TWO MORE of these cozies, one as a return-present, and another for another friend. These ladies are like the Pineapple Upside Down Cake Tissue Box Cozy Club! Even though I can’t take on very many orders right now, I really wanted to make some pineapple dreams come true, and I actually wrote down the pattern while I crocheted the above cozy (edit: the yarn I use for the “syrup” keeps getting discontinued so I have to keep re-writing the pattern…!!!!).

I guess the point of the story is that I so appreciate you guys, and I’m so happy that you continue to like my work, both old work and new work. I’m also always so floored when people share my work with others, either as physical items/gifts, or just photos online. I like that there are people out in the world that like the same weird stuff that I like.

And for those wondering if I will release the pattern for this cozy: yes, that is the plan. When I get some free time to shoot step-out photos, I plan to post this pattern for free on the Tissue Box Bakery website, which I know is SORELY inactive, but always on my mind!