Busy Day

I had an appointment yesterday at Markham-Stouffville Hospital, then made a trip to Chapters and picked up about $60 worth of books (including tax and after iRewards 10% discount). However, I did manage to make a hat in just a few hours yesterday, so that was productive. I'll take pictures of it soon.

When my dad came home from work, we went to Costco, then No Frills (Warden & Hwy. 7; I don't like that one), and finally Future Shop, where they only had two models for freezers. We picked the Frigidaire, but delivery would be $50 if we went with their service. Being Chinese, the sales associate recommended owning a van, but we didn't, so he called his friend who did and made arrangements to have it delivered after his shift today for $25. That's very easy money, considering I live about a block away.

Another appointment with my fantastic family doctor today, then I went to Pacific Mall today for two to three hours or so and ended up owing my Aunt Tiffany $50. I'll write about what I bought another day, because it's getting late and I have a very long and early day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm hoping that I'll be able to make good use of my time, because I intend on crocheting a bolero to match the two-piece dress I purchased. I bought a lot of things today. I place the blame of insufficient funds on the prescription medications that I had payed in cash instead of using my mom's debit card.

I was showing what I had gotten and tried on my clothes for my mom to see, then dragged out some old stuff and just as I was changing out of my last outfit, the doorbell rang. He was supposed to be here after 6 PM, but it was only 5:45 PM. I was putting on my clothes as I raced down the stairs and finished right before opening the door. He said he needed assistance to move it out of the van. Of course, my dad wasn't home yet, so "I guess that'd be me" and he looked at me, in my ruffled top and brand new black chiffon skirt. He sighed and told me to put on my shoes, so I added on my pleather jacket while I was at it, because it was quite windy and cold. The cardboard carton was slippery and I slipped once, but I kept thinking about Mr. Mitchell saying, "I may be thin, but I am wiry." After just a few inches forward, my mom was yelling at me from the top of the staircase to get away and let the guy do it himself. I told her that he'd told/asked/demanded me to help him, so that was what I was doing and I was fine. After a few moments, she started yelling at him that I had an injury, etc. Seriously, it's a freezer. How is he supposed to get it from his van into our kitchen on his own, without any other equipment, taking it apart or trashing it?

When we got to the porch steps, he asked if I had a ramp or trolley of some sort. Hmm...Nope. He had no idea how we'd get it up the steps. I suggested that we bumped it up one level at a time, but he seemed dissatisfied with it for some reason, but we did manage. I was very pleased to find that it fit in the space beside the cupboards where the fish tank used to be. He asked for a knife and my mom asked if scissors were okay. No and I couldn't find my Exacto or box cutters, because my dad confiscated or threw all of them out. I had another one, but I'd have to run upstairs, so I got him a paring knife, which worked just fine. I spent a good portion of this evening scrubbing our filthy, overcrowded refrigerator and organizing everything between the two. My vegetables get their own drawer in the cool side of the fridge and my parents' meats get another. There is a lot of ancient garbage that my parents aren't willing to throw away in there. Some of it is probably older than I am.

The category that took up the most space in the fridge was definitely the two large drawers of Chinese herbs and medicines, so I moved all of that to the very bottom of the new freezer and it took up about half of it. All my frozen vegan food went on top.

I have a lot of plans to make a lot of things, but not enough time! Blogging takes up a good chunk of my day, because I like to edit several times and add things to it until I'm satisfied with it. I'm also very forgetful, so I have to keep coming back to add to it. Even now, I have things I want to add to previous posts, but I'll make an update in a future post if it happens to be convenient.

My Humps

I was reminded to make this post by the song "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas. It's really quite an absurd song with a lame video, but it came to mind when I was looking at myself in the mirror.

I was looking for silhouettes to help demonstrate my point and I thought I might as well include the following as well; although, I'm not sure if it'll be useful to my male readers:

Check the one that looks most like you.

Average hip. No excessive roundness directly below the waist at sides or back. There is no great sidethigh prominence. The greatest circumference measurement is at the seat level, usually 7-9" below waist.

Little difference. Little difference between hip and waist measurement; generally doesn't have curves below the waist.

Heart hip. Great roundness just below the waist. The upper hip measurement taken 3-4" below the waist will be larger than the measurement at the seat level.

Semi-heart hip. Curves below the waistline may not appear to be as extreme as the heart shape. The lower hip circumference may be the same or up to 1 1/2" more than the measurements taken 3-4" below the waistline. There is no thigh prominence.

Diamond hip. Great thigh prominence at the side. The difference between the waist and lower hip measurements is 11 1/2" or more.

Rounded diamond hip. Great prominence at the sides as well as curves just below the waistline. This sometimes makes the difference between the waist and hip much less than a standard diamond.

I think you could say I have the one in the first picture, the "Average" waistline. However, I'm not exactly Average anymore:
I've got something of a lump on the right side and my left side is just a little bit turned inwards but it's not noticeable. When I lie down, I can feel my left pelvic bone protrudes in the right position or at least how I remembered it, but the right side is flat, does not protrude and feels some what dislocated. It's all very subtle and it seems normal to the unsuspecting eye, but that's what it looks like in the mirror. I think my jeans aren't fitting quite right at the waistline because of it. I wonder if it'll show if I wore a clingy dress. Of course, if you were to check my x-rays it's position would not only be much more obvious, but you'd even see the fractures. The right leg was in traction for about eight weeks and that was the best it could do. I think it made my right leg a little bit longer than the left, but that's adjustable and I think the physiotherapist I was seeing did something to align them, but I'm not sure. My right leg bothers me from time to time when I'm walking, but it's tolerable, albeit a discomfort.

Nevertheless!

I'ma get, get, get, get, you drunk/ Get you love drunk off my hump./ My hump, my hump, my hump, (etc) / My lovely little lumps. (Check it out!).

Damn those stupid, catchy lyrics. See, if I were to dress like Fergie, I'd have uneven camel lumps XD

The Vita-Mix 5000

My dad went to the Homeshow in September, because his line of work allows him to. However, the real reason he went was to buy us this lovely machine for which I watched the amazing demo. when I was volunteering at the Vegetarian Food Festival the year before last. I wish I could have volunteered again last year, but I think I might miss it when I go to Waterloo. Anyhow, I was so excited about this machine that I could hardly breathe, but not like I'm going into anaphylactic shock or anything. It cost us about $600+ including tax.



We used to use the average juicer and blender, but we have now retired both of them. The Vita- Mix 5000 comes with a video and a binder of recipes for inspiration and instructions, in addition to the manual . It can make frozen desserts or decadent mousses and a variety of beverages in about 30 seconds and hot soups in 2-4 minutes! Instant gratification! It doesn't destroy the vegetables' nutrients and is suitable for the Whole/Raw Foods movement. It was rather pricey, but my dad says it was worth definitely worth it because we use it every single day. It's a vegan/vegetarian's dream, especially a health-conscious one. As for hot soups, it pureés vegetables, such as squash or into a thick, creamy soup that is completely guilt-free and chemical-free, such as preservatives and colouring. It can make homemade peanut butter and pesto amongst other sauces and spreads. Just add imagination.

There are carnivorous recipes, but it's not so easy for me to name some off the top of my head. The ones I can think of include soups like clam chowder and bisques, seafood or meat fondues, ground meat, etc.

Everyday, we have been drinking a fruit /smoothie with no additional ingredients - just the fruit of the day and a little water to thin it out. The fruit include anything that happens to be at the supermarket: apples, kiwis, dragon fruit (4 for $2 yesterday!!), bananas (which I don't usually include), cantaloupe, melon, cucumber, papaya, frozen berries and fresh strawberries, pears, cranberry juice, etc. We also eat an extra plate of fruit as dessert/snack some time during the day. My food intake would probably be composed of 67% fruit, 15% vegetables, %15 soy products (usually tofu), 2% grain products and 1% miscellaneous (I don't know what would fit in that category, but I allocated a section to it anyways).

Just recently, we've begun to have papaya soyshakes and it's hands-down my favourite beverage. I dislike eating papaya on its own, but it's fantastic in a soyshake. It's one of the highlights of my day and it's one of the main sources of protein that I get each day.

Atticus

For my English Independent Study Project, which I believe a lot of people are either finishing up or preparing their presentations around this time of the year, I had wanted to compare The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things with The Child Called 'It' by Dave Pelzer and write an essay on different aspects concerning child abuse. I had it all planned out, I was going to compare the tones in each book as they were written through a child's perspective and contrast the character developments throughout the novels. There were a lot of ideas in my mind and I had almost had it written out...

But my teacher wouldn't let me use those two books. She said the vocabulary and writing styles were too simple.

I ended up having to compare To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee with Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. They had SparkNotes on them, but they weren't entirely helpful. I also figured they had movies, so I could watch them for inspiration. I couldn't get through five minutes of To Kill A Mockingbird. Of course, that's to be expected because I didn't enjoy the book at all and I'd had to read it a million times over, select quotes to support my arguments, pick out specific examples to compare and contrast with the other novel, Snow Falling on Cedars. I had watched that movie many years ago, but opted out this time because it really wasn't worth watching again. I was dying to switch novels, but by then, it was already too late. My essay focused on racial discrimination in both eras and against different races in the US.


My dad gave me these pens, but I'm not sure where or why he had them. It might have been a bonus with the purchase of a bottle of Hennesy XO Cognac, which is what seems to be printed in silver on the inside of the cover. The pens don't even write very well and they're also too big and heavy for my preference.

The problem with the English curriculum throughout high school is the rigid rules on writing a "proper essay." The student must not deviate from the robotic fill-in-the-blanks format and reiterate but paraphrase the thesis at the end of every paragraph. Each paragraph had to have a specific argument and it had to end with a sentence that connected the topic of that paragraph with the thesis and attempt to make it flow into the next. One thesis. Three arguments. Done.


I don't remember what I did with my essay that ended up being something like twenty pages long or so, double-spaced, but I remember my teacher simply wrote "Beautifully written. 40/40." I don't know why the students of the year before mine were making such a big fuss over it, causing fear in the hearts of all the younger students in each year after them. It may have just been the excessive amount of time that we were given to write it.


I can't remember how much, but this essay was worth a lot in the calculation of the final mark for university. There were many simple components to this project in an attempt to allow the student to redeem him/herself, such as the essay outline, which was also worth a fair amount of marks. After the essay was completed, each student was also required to do a presentation, preferably in some creative manner.

I decided to present my project in the form of a court case as Atticus, a lawyer and the father of Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird. I dressed in black suit, put on a Southern accent, slicked and tied my hair back and strode in with a file folder, transparencies with quotes, notes on index cards, notebook, a case of pens, my Emporio Armani watch, and the thin glasses in the photograph above. It was a bit of a reverse order, because I walked in with the glasses and promptly took them off as I began my presentation, because I have 20/20 vision and I could not see clearly through them, whereas they're supposed to be reading glasses. The two cartons of cupcakes I had baked the night before to be distributed as a part of my Southern hospitality were already under the desk. I think I had made something like sixty cupcakes of both "black" (chocolate) and "white/yellow" (lemon) varieties to represent racial harmony. It hadn't gone as well as I had hoped because I was very flustered, nervous, and experiencing a serious case of social anxiety.

To think, the year before I was the alienated Joan d'Arc, pleading for my innocence in a French accent with the occasional French word, while wearing the heavy steel armour my friend had made for her Classics project, aluminum foil thigh and arm pieces, black pants under knee-high black leather boots, standing on a chair, tied to a Roman pillar, and had pieces of fire made from construction paper on little stands around me. I had to get someone else to cue the background music for me from my MP3 player and a pair of speakers because the school didn't have enough CD players to go around. Of course, it was the track I use for almost all my presentations of this nature: "Cleansing" from the Resident Evil soundtrack and, while it contained no lyrics, its score was written by Marilyn Manson. I think that was probably my best presentation throughout high school.

As always, I'm off topic again. The real focus of this post was on the pen that I've been meaning to describe, the one on the black notebook and on my laptop in a previous post. I saw this advertisement in a free magazine that I picked up at a subway station on my early trip back from DECA.



I cut that page out of the magazine and stuck it to the inside of my locker with a magnet for the rest of the year and its corner has gotten a little bit damaged. No fear, for I have made a copy on thick, high quality, glossy photo paper, encased in a page protector. It's sitting on the top of the shelf to the left of my desk.

I believe Julianne Moore also supported this ad campaign for the "Entertainment Industry Foundation and Montblanc to help children develop their most valuable asset: imagination."

I wish I had taken more magazines with me, but I was in a rush to catch the subway and get home as soon as possible. I still have that page from the magazine on the shelf wall of my other desk and I look at the slogan everyday "Time is Precious. Use it Wisely." It doesn't really motivate me to study hard or anything though.

I had a whole bunch of useless "coaster" CDs and I didn't know what to do with them and nobody else seemed to have any brilliant plans either. I came up with a simple one, where I threaded a rope through two discs stacked on top of each other and hung it from the magazine rack on the top of the shelf attached to the desk on my right. It allows for papers and notes to be gently clamped between the two discs without damaging them and they don't fall out too easily either. Johnny Depp has been there since I created the contraption and he is still firmly in place. In short, I'm sitting between two identical pictures of Johnny Depp; although the one on my left is mixed in with a stack of university packages and notifications.

It's a strange feeling to have been staring at the same stack of brochures and pamphlets on being accepted to university and other packages of information for about a full year now, while I am now receiving a new batch in the mail. I'm not sure if I should throw it out just yet, but I will have to eventually, because it really is quite a collection. That first set was the one I was supposed to have made good use of. If you had asked me at the time that I had been receiving those notifications how sure I would be that I would be student of the University of Waterloo in September '06 I would have said 99.9% certain, because nothing is ever absolutely for certain in life. Who would have known that I would be opening those packages at 4AM, lying crippled in bed at Markham-Stouffville Hospital in September, when I should have been sleeping in an apartment-style suite with two or three other girls in Mackenzie King Village in Kitchener-Waterloo?

That 0.1% of uncertainty was what happened to me.

Wings in the Sky with Diamonds

Once upon a time, a girl, who had diamonds on her tooth and wings on her back, went to the supermarket and wondered why people were looking at her funny. She wasn't even carrying her wand, because she knew it would get in the way when she would be picking grapefruits.

One woman struck up the nerve to ask her why she was wearing the wings. She didn't want to tell her that it was a part of her and that she had left her wand at home, so she told her it was just "For fun!" The lady didn't know what else to say and responded with "They're umm...nice" and quickly left to walk away to her car.

As for the jean shorts, she got them at Urban Behaviour, two for $50, but promptly ripped them just after wearing them for the first few times. She was in a rush to catch the bus, slipped on the ice, scraped and bruised the right knee with a few scratches on her hands, but worst of all, she tore the right knee of her new jeans. Those were stretchable jeans in the perfect wash and colour that she had wanted, but Urban Behaviour was starting a new line of clothing, so it was unlikely that she'd be able to find another one of a similar design. Disheartened, she returned home and may or may not have ended up going to school anyways. Probably the latter. However, this is only Part One of the story of these jeans...

Pillmatic

This was how my laptop started its life that was soon to be abused.



I thought I'd make a three dimensional collage of some of things that surround my desk and laptop. The front of my laptop is very scratched up, so I decided to paint wings on them. They couldn't be facing in the same direction, because then it would be upside down when it was either opened or closed. From all the capsules that I get from the vending machines, I use them to hold my medications for me, because they have a transparent half and it's also easier for me to pick out the amount I need. There are some that I don't really take very frequently so I just keep them in their original tubes.

There's my diamond-studded mouse that I keep with it. However, some of its diamonds have fallen out, but I don't have any clear ones, so I had to replace them with blue crystals. It always reminds me of a ladybug. There's a story behind the pen, but I'll discuss that in another post.


These are some other medications that I happen to have on hand, but don't take regularly. I only take the ones on the left as needed and I haven't been taking the ones on the right at all anymore.

The green and white ones are fluoxetine capsules, which are just about internationally recognized under the name Prozac.

In Hong Kong, they use the name Seroxat for what we know as Paxil, which are all just brand names for paroxetine. The pink one is a Paxil/Seroxat 20mg pill. I find the sticky notes that the psychiatrists get to be a little ironic. There is a collection of users who are currently launching a lawsuit against SmithKline Beecham (dba GlaxoSmithKline). While the notepad simply commands the reader to "Be Happy!" like the little person looking at the rainbow in the illustration, these people are obviously very unsatisfied and not happy at all.

Nevertheless, I laugh while I watch the video for the parody of Justin Timberlake's Sexy Back entitled Paxil Back by The Gray Kid. Maybe you'll be able to "Be Happy!" after watching it, too.

Robot Spare Change

He is who I wake up to every morning. The first face I see in the morning, knowing that it's been watching me all night while I've been asleep. On good days, I can imagine that he's standing guard for me, maybe to protect me from nightmares, but he's really been slacking recently. I've been getting some very crazy, anxious and busy dreams that make my head spin, which makes me think that he might actually be maliciously staring at me while I'm sleeping.

The clock is always wrong, so I never know what time it really is. Every time I try to figure it out that maybe it's 45 minutes late, it turns out that I'm still wrong. Why don't I just adjust it? Pushing any one of its buttons is very, very loud. So loud that I can't stand it. There is absolutely no way of turning it down either. It has a number of tunes for you to choose from to use as the alarm clock ringer, but I can't even use it, because it'll make me leap out of my bed, crash on the floor, fracture something, and wake up the entire house. Maybe the neighbourhood as well. I seem to have an natural ability to wake up at approximately the same time everyday, regardless of when I went to sleep.

One of its special features is its ability to automatically count your change for you, like a high-tech piggy bank. However, that function has the same problem with its volume that bursts my eardrums. It's necessary to set the value of each coin first so it can register it by the coin's size. I don't have spare change, because I take it with me and spend it. I'm one of those people who would make the cashier wait while I count out twenty-three pennies, five nickels, two dimes, one quarter and a loonie to make ninety-three cents.

At night, it's also the last face I see before I go to sleep. I stare at it during fits of insomnia. Sometimes it seems to have an eerie expression. Most of the time the chubby fellow just looks hungry. Hungrily staring at me. Or, maybe it's staring at me and reporting to mission control. Depending on how much it bothers me, if it does at all, I'll turn it slightly away from my head to divert its attention a little bit or completely reposition it and make it look at something else. I wish it would go to sleep. Maybe it does as soon as I do. And if it does, what does it dream of?

Year of the Golden Pig

I was visiting something of an open market in Shanghai and I happened to see these two pigs hanging on a guy's board, which was where he was selling his merchandise, so I bought them from him. I can't recall how much they cost, but I do remember having difficulty choosing them. Nevertheless, I'm glad I did buy them and I'm pleased with the choice I made:


It seems that pigs are really in this year, but its popularity seems to have started some time last year, so I don't think it's because of the Zodiac year.

At another time, I will explain my obsession with capsule vending machines, but for now I'll just describe the following mini-calender that sits on my desk:


I think it might be because I like to bet, gamble and take risks, so there is a certain excitement that accompanies the use of these machines. I dropped one toonie in the one outside Broadcast Books and Gifts the first time I passed by and got the one on the right and was very much confused. I didn't know how I could possibly display the date with just one die. Then I realised there was a scheme behind this one. I would have to take a chance to see if I could collect the other ones. A few days later, I went back and dropped in a toonie twice and I was incredibly lucky enough to complete the set on a first try!

I believe they had other ones to display the weather or something, but I really didn't need it. Thinking back, these three cost me $6 that could have been better spent, but I guess it made up with the thrill and anticipation involved in playing with these machines. I believe they each came in the capsules in the background, but I couldn't even tell you how many I have, so I have absolutely no idea what the original contents were for each capsule. They now contain a variety of batteries, rechargeable or alkaline as well as different sizes.

Little i : Peppermint

About a week ago, I went with my dad to Shopper's Drug Mart to pick up toothpaste or something like that. Just as we were checking out, I happened to see this little box:


Because of the situation with my teeth, I've been warned not to chew gum anymore. Oh, what ever shall I do?!
I just like the chewing sensation, so it's rare to find me without any gum either between my jaws or somewhere in my bag or pockets. I've been trying to replace the habit with breath mints, but it's not quite the same. The price for it was $3.99 and I was hesitant to buy it, but my dad was already almost finished ringing up the bill so he told me to just get it.

On the bottom left corner of the tin that has a net weight of 8g, it's labeled "Mirror Inside" and I thought that was rather bizarre, while on the lower right corner it claimed its contents were "Sugar Free Mints". After removing the protective cellophane, it slides open with a click and, to close it, it slides, clicks and is securely locked in place.


It may be difficult to see, but there is a hole in the top left corner where the tiny mints fall out and there is a mirror that fills the rest of the area. In the bottom left corner, it reminds the consumer of its brand: "Little i"

I didn't take a picture of the back, because that would be rather pointless since the quality of my cameras are so poor. It declares that "Little i: Mirror Mints" have a patent pending. The ingredients are as follows: Sorbitol, Calcium Stearate, Peppermint Oil, Menthol, Sucralose (Splenda Brand); in both English and French. As for Nutrition Facts for every two mints (0.28g), it contains no fat or protein and minuscule amounts for both carbohydrates and sugar alcohol (0.24g each) and has only one calorie.

I find that it's interesting that the mints are made in Canada, the tin is made in China, while the head office is located in Washington, USA.

Overall, it's very minty and refreshing. Some mints require having to take several at a time, but this one is strong enough on its own or maybe with a second one. With a great product, creative package design and a fair price, Little i: Peppermint comes highly recommended by me :]

Emily the Strange

I've been on the hunt for all sorts of Emily the Strange merchandise. I went to Pacific Mall with my 'aunt' Tiffany and after a long search and a lot of haggling to the point that I was dizzy and confused, I managed to decide between three bags, but picked this messenger bag in the end.


This is the back of the bag. I thought it needed a chain or something to make it look complete, so I added one along with a rape whistle.

I'm very impressed that all of the zipper pulls are specifically made for Emily the Strange.


While we were at that stall/shop, I noticed that the lady was also selling Emily the Strange wallets and change purses.


It bothers me a little bit that the change purse is slightly wrinkled and improperly attached to its clasp, but it's fully functional. While the wallet has two zippers for change, but if a few coins were inserted, it bulges and makes it difficult to close securely. It wasn't easy for the magnets to hold to begin with.


I like what it says on the inside of the wallet :]
It also has two layers to separate bills of different denominations or currencies. As well, there are several spaces for cards and a transparent vinyl window for ID.

This is a closeup of the tags before Emily the Strange was added to it:

front back

I've also owned a few items that have a space where you can stick a photo on it. My mom think I resemble Emily the Strange if I were a cartoon and since I'm collecting her paraphernalia, I thought I might as well do my best to add to the collection and the red and black theme.


These are the original items closed. I had purchased the mirror on the left in Hong Kong, but I hadn't really been using it. My aunt in Shanghai bought the four-leaf clover tags with pendent and chain for my uncle to bring with him to Canada to give to me. I've had the key chain forever. It bears the symbol for Virgo and flips open to show a photograph if it were attached. For a long time, it was just completely chrome.

This is what it looks like when everything is opened. There's me holding the camera in the mirror, a cartoon version of me on both the tag and key chain. Sometimes it worries me whether I'm just a little bit on the edge of being a narcissist, haha, j/k.

I've been trying to purchase the original comics and books, but I can't seem to find them anywhere. I attempted to order them online, but I was very disappointed after eagerly awaiting its arrival only to find that it was just an empty notebook with nothing particularly interesting or distinctive about it, so I had to return it, because it was most definitely not worth its price.

When I went shopping at Markville last week with my dad, we stopped by H&M to buy a pair of sunglasses for $7.90. They were the ones I've been searching for - one continuous lens without a break in the middle or rims.


The part that positions the glasses to the nose was really bulky and rubbery, which makes it very uncomfortable, so I took it off and just bent the metal posts inside of it to keep it from scratching my face and now it feels much better, but pokes the bridge of my nose on occasion.

I've taken to wearing bandannas around my neck to hide my tracheotomy scar. I'm not ashamed of it or anything, but it doesn't look very nice with everything else that I've put together.

The jacket isn't the pleather one from the previous post, but it's softer and thinner. I bought it at Urban Behaviour for only $10 and 10% off with my SPC card. I got the sweater in Hong Kong, but I don't like that it has something of a wider collar, so the bandanna comes in handy for that purpose as well. I bought it at one of the kiosks at Scarborough Town Centre with a deal of 3 for $10, so I picked out a bright pink one and a white one, all of the same design but they don't have diamonds on it like the red one does. The brand of the jeans is Miss Sixty and I bought them in Shanghai.

Tailored Pleather Jacket

When I was in Shanghai I spent a lot of time at the textiles market. There, you could pick the design you wanted for any article of clothing or bring in a photo of what you would like made and they would take your measurements and have it ready for you in a few days.

In this post, I'll be writing about my pleather jacket (I'm vegan). I had them make pleather pants, not to wear together at once with the jacket (!!), but only because I couldn't find any here. The pants were a little bit disappointing, because it started out a little bit too big, so I had it altered, but it was also a just a bit too short and there could be nothing done about that. I think it should be fine if I were to wear high heels with them though. I was a little bit disappointed, because the other side of the fabric was warm and felt like suede, but they ended up adding a lining to it, which is somewhat uncomfortable. I can't think of an occasion where I would actually wear it though; maybe to go with a different, long jacket.

I've digressed, so back to the topic of this post. I hadn't liked it before, because it was a bit 'squeaky' when I moved and it was a bit too shiny. I had hoped that the zipper would be on a slant, but it wasn't - it's very straight down the middle. Nevertheless, my fondness for it is growing each time I put it on.


They've paid a lot of attention to details and added a lot of buckles for no practical purpose, aside from further embellishing the jacket. In fact, none of the buttons or zippers are actually functional, nor does it have any pockets. It's actually perfect for me, because I wouldn't use them and if they did have pocket linings they would make the jacket 'lumpy' or bulge a little bit.


This is the side of the jacket if I were to lay it flat to show the straps on the sides, which aren't entire visible from the previous photographs.


In addition, there happens to be a belt and buckle around the collar that serves absolutely no purpose and falls out from time to time. I try to keep both ends even on each side, so I don't lose it somewhere when I'm not paying attention or if I'm in a hurry. While we were shopping, I saw an Emily the Strange cell phone accessory and it was just my luck that it happened to come with a tiny Virgo pendent on it, so I just had to buy it, but it was rather expensive. My 'aunt' Tiffany saw me contemplating whether or not to buy it (I believe it was $6.99), but she beat me to it and just bought it for me:]

Once I got home, I really didn't know what to do with it since I don't have a cell phone and I wouldn't want to attach it to my iPod case, because it would probably scratch it up and make it even more bulky. Then it dawned on me. I should attach it to the jacket, right on that troublesome buckle so that it would hopefully make it longer and less likely for it to fall out of the loops. If it still does, I'd be rather upset that I lost the accessory, so I'll pay extra care to make sure that

This is a bad picture, but I thought I'd post it anyways just to show you what it would look like on a mannequin. The camera was on a timer and balanced on top of a rotating chair and I was trying to keep a straight face and get into position, so please excuse the lack of an artistic pose.

I really like that shirt, by the way. I got it at H&M on sale and they didn't have it in my size, so it's very loose and comfortable. Those Urban Behaviour jeans are almost four years old.

Hobbies to Last a Lifetime

I've started making a whole plethora of crafts since I was three years old and I am absolutely serious when I write that. I used to do very simple origami, as well as those stars and geometrical shapes made of paper strips.

I really enjoyed cutting and pasting things at that age and I still do it from time to time, I even used it for a French presentation in Grade 11.


The cut-out is covered by a transparency and there are ribbons on both ends so the folder can be tied to prevent documents from falling out :]

For as far back as I can remember, I've been beading all my life.


I also started working with different kinds of clay and progressed from play dough (purchased and homemade), plasticine, polymer clay and ceramics. When I was fifteen and becoming vegetarian/vegan, I made marzipan creatures and flowers to decorate a cake I had made. I've also been stringing a whole smörgåsbord of different kinds of beads and knotting strings and gimp for friendship bracelets or Chinese knotting.


Around age 7, I started sewing somewhat more seriously. I bought a kit at the book fair in the library and started to learn quilting. I'm really not a very patient person, so they turned out rather ugly and useless. When I was 12, Mr. Sasaki made us sew some kind of Aboriginal design pieces. I don't have a sewing machine, but I've tried many times and I still can't seem get to get my grandmother's sewing machine to work properly. Recently, I've to hand sew almost everything: lace wrist warmers, lace gloves, skirts, hats, a dinosaur hoodie, and a reconstructed halter top and messenger bag. I also embellish my clothes with pieces of felt if I feel that they're too plain and sometimes I make little stuffed animals out of felt to make pins. There was also the duct tape era, where I used a regular sheet of paper and duct tape to make wallets and pencil cases. This lead to crafts from office supplies, which I make when it got really boring (almost all the time) when I was at work.


The paper clips still work, but they've just been transformed into little hearts <3

When the super long and thin straw fad came around, I also made bouquets of roses and jars upon jars of straws. I give them away or use them as bookends, but they're not very effective since they're not heavy enough.



I also made things from regular drinking straws, such as bracelets and animals, as well as my signature shrimp:

These straws were from Starbucks :3

The straws were from Ikea and I wanted to try fork bending. I didn't get a chance to upload how it looks from the front, but that's the basic idea.

Speaking of making things from everyday items, there was a time where I was begging people to eat the Starburst candies I had bought, but they were obligated to give the all wrappers to me in good condition. They had to be of a specific colour, so I could only buy selected flavours. I had a few blue and green ones or some other similar colours from when I hadn't decided what I wanted to make with them - I wanted to make a pheonix.



My dad came home with a weaving loom one day when I was about five, so I worked with that, but didn't like it very much.

To answer Seema's question: All of my dolls are crocheted. I think I started to learn to knit and crochet when I was maybe six years old with my grandmother, who is an expert at it. She was one of those old ladies who would make doilies out of cotton thinner than fingerling yarn. She made a cover for my piano with frills to hang from the top of it. Can you imagine how intricate and how long it must have taken her to make such a large cover of a beautiful design?? When we sold it, we gave it to the new owners, because we wouldn't have any use for it anymore. I hope they put it to good use. She also makes those little coaster-like things to put under flower vases.


At the time, I wasn't really good at either methods, because my attempted projects all had huge holes in it. I had had an on and off relationship with yarn. I took a break and when I came back to it, I insisted on knitting, borrowed and purchased a lot of books, searched up a lot of sites and bought more supplies and equipment than what was necessary. Eventually I moved on to crochet to design and create the dolls, which are known as Amigurumi, that you see on this blog. The most annoying thing about this activity is the way I manage to lose all my crochet hooks or knitting needles rather quickly, especially the most essential ones. *sigh*
I'll probably be alternating between the methods depending on my mood, like everything else I do. :3

My grandmother's eyes are failing her as she is aging, so she has passed down the yarn that she had in her house, just as she did with the Chinese knotting satin strings, and she is going to try her best to bring the rest of her stash from Taiwan. See? My yarn stash keeps growing, but I'm not alone. This happens to the best of us.


Please do not be alarmed. I still have cartons upon cartons of more unorganized of works in progress (works that have been abandoned and will probably be frogged sooner or later), more skeins of all colours, thicknesses, and fibres and qualities. I also plan to make a trip to Wal-Mart on Monday to check out whether they have new colours and varieties of yarn. I have a list of colours that I need to purchase:

• Different shades of orange, other than the neon one around the bottom right corner
  
• I'm in desperate need of more cyan and vibrant yellow
  
• Jumbo sizes of black and white or yellow
• Safety eyes if I can find them
• Whatever else catches my eye ;)
  

The focus of this post revolves around knitting and crochet because that's what I'm mostly working on at the moment. There was a point where I'd make a whole bunch of things out of pipe cleaners, felt, pom poms, glitter and sequins, but that was a long time ago and I don't have any completed pieces to display. Now, I use the felt to decorate the dolls and the pipe cleaners to put inside the arms and legs so that they can hold poses, like The Philosophical Frog. I have to remember to pick up white felt when I'm shopping for yarn, too.

So, how many years have I been knitting? I don't even know. Could you say something like twelve years on and off? I don't know.

I hope you enjoyed this post, because it seriously took me all day to write, maybe seven hours give or take.