More Madlibs It never gets old.

Obituary

The Noun of Needle, born November 9, 956 passed away this week from nerds at the age of ninety. He was a(n) noisy nihilist best known for his work in nickels, and will be missed greatly. He lived in Nerf, Notebook from 85 to 425, and Nut from 54 to 96541. He is survived by 1254 children, 85 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

A funny conversation

A funny conversation----


ME -
when ben gibbard sings "You can do better than me, but I can't do better than you" It takes on new meaning now that he's engaged to Zooey
MIKE -
yeah, it's probably true
ME -
hahaha
MIKE -
maybe he's saying "You can do better than me, but I can't do better than Zoo."
ME -
lol

Etsy Crazy

So I went a little nuts at the thrift stores this week and posted a lot of new things on the ol etsy site. I had fun using my new camera, a Nikon D60. It was the first time I got to use it for etsy. My kitchen turned into a mini photo studio. I think some of the shots turned out pretty good. I hope I can sell some stuff soon! It is always exciting making a sale. I have been selling about 1 item a month because I am not promoting the site that much, but it is enough for me. I don't have tons of time to spend on shipping and posting and blogging and advertising because well I have a full time job and a trillion other projects right now.

So a couple weeks ago I was in San Diego where it is warm and of course after not selling anything for a month I sold four things in one weekend. Good thing I recently invested in an iPhone! I was sitting in the airport and convo'ing customers about their orders. I didn't even have a chance to change my etsy shop to the vacation setting. Oh well, I was happy for all of the sales. Since then everything has been shipped and the positive feedback is trickling in woohoo!

In other news, I have been starting on designing stuff for Dan's amp service: Mustachioed. I want to start building a website where he can post his current project and other things. It will probably evolve over time into something more significant but I think that's all the content he has for now.

I am also trying to start working with two awesome Chicago music venues to re-do their logos and redesign their websites. Designing for music is my favorite so I hope they want to go ahead with the project. I will be working with Dave from Dinosaurs Eat Everybody. Dave rocks! He will be programming the back end because he is a genous.

Another project I am finishing up is for Orland Driving School. I am working with Jared's company Yellow Car Studios on this project. It's been going pretty steady for a while. The front end is almost done. Then there is a log in part that is about a quarter finished.

Also I really need to update my own website which I havent touched since probably 5 years ago. It's looking very dated and since I will be designing websites I should probably have a good one myself. ha.

I have been debating working on some knitting patterns that I can sell on etsy as well. Recently while knitting I have just been making stitches with no final project in mind I just cast on and go. I end up with a lot of head bands and belts. The belt I just made is pretty neat though maybe i;ll make more and sell them. We'll see, usually I don't feel like knitting in the summer.

I also have some more art projects in mind. Who knows when I will have time to get to them though.

Thats all for the next three months probably!

Mad Libs

I did some Mad Libs yesterday while making cookies. Some of them turned out hilarious! I wanted to share them with the internet. Here goes:


Learn to Be a Rock Star
I'm at a new school. Its name is “The Dan Somen School for Rock Stars.” The courses here are tall!
My first assignment is to learn to play the Hammer DUlcimer and sing like a rock star. To be a good rock star, I'm supposed to SMite around a lot, to Listen across the stage, and to Soar at the audience. I did not act like that at my old school, so I think I'll have to work on it for a while; this will be interesting homework.
My second assignment is to learn to have an entourage, which is a group of people that always seems to follow around a rock star. I have a lot of friends, but for this assignment I suddenly have 100 people following me around, telling me how flat I am, how they really like my stirrup, and how I am the most salty person ever. I can't be sure, but I think they are just saying that.
My final assignment is to put on a rock concert. I have to arrive in a(n) Swan Boat and walk the Plaid carpet, past all the skateboarding fans with cameras flashing in my face. Then, when I get inside, my entourage will be there and I will Wax with them to the stage. Next, I'll perform 7 songs, all while laughing across the stage, singing, and flapping at the audience. This will be the toughest final exam I've ever had, and the one I'll never forget!
Beat together butter, sugar, and extracts in a large bowl with an electric mixer at moderately high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and beat well. Add flour mixture and mix at low speed until just combined.
Quarter dough and put 1 piece into cookie press. Holding press slightly above ungreased baking sheets, squeeze out dough to form cookies (follow manufacturer's instructions), spacing them about 3 inches apart. Form more cookies with remaining dough in same manner.
Bake cookies in batches in middle of oven until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool.



The Beach
Hooray! Summer is finally here, and that means we can go to the beach! Today, my family is going to New York Beach, and I can bring a friend with me. I decide to invite my best friend Amberly. I know Amberly will want to go with us. She thinks going to the beach is frowny!
We start our beach day by watching the sunrise, and then eating breakfast at Uncle Luke's Pancake Hut. I always get lasagna flavored pancakes.
After breakfast we stab the waves, go fleeting for seashells, and get a sandcastle. Then we eat the lunch we packed for the beach. It's my favorite—cornish game hen sandwiches. The only time cornish game hen sandwiches are not so handy is when you drop them in the sand.
By now, everyone's had enough of the beach. But New York Beach is fun at night, too! There is a really girly boardwalk. It's always crowded with people. Would you believe we saw my teacher Confucious there, eating a huge banana split?


The Weather Station
Coming soon to a television channel near you: Dial-a-Weather. This terrible new TV channel lets you see the weather in another city, and, if you like it, you can have that weather in your own city right away!
Is it too horrible in st petersburg? Then choose another city, like scranton, and soon it will be funky in your city too! It's just that fresh!
Some weird bonus features include wobbly wind, super clumsy barometer pressures, and, for eggshell-level members, “Choose Your Storm.” That's right, if you have a test and you didn't study, order a nice hot storm and, “cough cough,” you get a day off from school! Keep gripping this station for more information!
There are a lot of cool shops on the boardwalk. You can get a little hermit dragon, but make sure your mom and dad say it's okay! My favorite store is the jewelry store. Amberly and I each buy a rope bracelet that will chew when it gets wet. Pretty groossss!
By 8:00, we're all ready to head home. I usually fall asleep on the ride home. I can't wait to go to New York Beach again.

Preview my shop!

Here are some items from my shop. Click on them to go to my shop and browse some more!!!

A store?

I have dove into the e commerce world with my first etsy shop. I will be selling some of my knit items from this blog as well as some cool vintage items that I find on my adventures. Check it out! http://individjuli.etsy.com! More items will be posted this week.

Mittens

Remember how I mentioned starting some mittens before the Grandma scarf adventure? Well I finished one and it turned out pretty weird. I think the pattern I used was kind of crappy so my mitten ended up looking really pointy and skinny. Booo. I don't think I will make one to match it. I will probably have to remake it with a better pattern and then make it a friend.





I did start on some new mittens with a better pattern I found on knitty.com. KNitty is awesome! I have knit many things from patterns on their site. Notably, (from my retrospect post) A Nautilis, The green legwarmers, the weird headband thing that ties under my neck, and a hat that I gave to my brother which actually didn't turn out very good, but was still a fun idea and project. I don't have a photo of it unfortunately ..... or fortunately I guess because it was weird looking. I attempted to do some colorwork and apparently I have trouble counting because it got a bit messed up and it wasn't very easy to stretch it and wear it.

Anyways, I am getting a bit off subject. I started knitting some new mittens and at this point I am about halfway through the first one. So far so good! They have a ribbed cuff and I am adapting the knitty pattern to have some stripes. I also had to adapt it because the gauge was way too small for my liking. They wanted me to use #4 needles! That's just crazy. I actually had some that I used for the Nautilis I knit, and that thing, as cool as it is, just took forever to finish. So naturally I used some larger needles and did the math to compensate for the pattern. I think everything is going well with the adaptations. I made it past the thumb hole and am working on the main section of the mitten. The thumb hole is the tricky part so hopefully it is smooth sailing from here on out. Then the next challenege is adding the thumb and then making another mitten that matches the first one. I alwys have trouble doing this because I tend to forget to keep track of how many rows my stripes are in the first one and then I just kind of guess as I go along. I am going to try and pay more attention to that for this project. No one wants unmatched mittens! haha. Well that is the only project I have going right now, so keep checking back to see how these progress. I will try and post some pics soon. OK!