hurrah!

I can officially add "crocheting" to my list of special powers! ^_^ Many thanks to Woowork for without him, I may have never gotten in touch with Planet June and thus found a reliable source on left-handed crocheting. I've taken many stabs at trying to learn how to crochet, but with black&white hand-drawn pictures, it's nearly impossible to imagine the instructions and then flip them to make them more lefty-friendly. I've even tried many sources that claim to teach crocheting to left-handers, but they were no good. Planet June, on the other hand, is actually a lefty crocheter with really simple instructions and pictures to aid. I was able to understand her instructions right away and in fact, made my first attempt at amigurumi!

I'm the type of person who whenever I take on something new, I immediately try to jump 10 steps ahead of me. Everything relies on those first moments. If I'm not getting something (organic chemistry) or it's not piquing my interest within 5 seconds (Clay Aiken), I give up and move onto something else. But if I can somehow mathematically wrap my head around something and I feel like I'm progressing toward some sort of understanding, I recklessly ignore how deep the plunge is, and jump right off the edge, figuring I'll find out the subsequent risks along the way

when I picked up my first pair of knitting needles, as soon as I got the basic knit and purl techniques down, I immediately set myself to knit a lace shawl. I ignored the fact that I didn't know any other techniques, gauges, or tension, and went right at it. Of course, this led to many many mistakes and much pleading for help on my thankfully-patient, master-crafts-woman big sister (^_^)

likewise, just yesterday, I was introduced to Planet June's instructions on basic crocheting for lefties. As soon as I saw it, I immediately picked up some cheap yarn and my crochet hook (like I said, I've attempted, and failed many times before! Plus, a crochet hook can come in handy for knitting too). Once I felt like I got the basic chain stitch down, I went right ahead and bugged my sister (again!) for one of her amigurumi toy patterns. This morning, with my chosen pattern in one hand and June's instructions in the other, I went right at it, and by this afternoon, I completed my first ever crocheted amigurumi project, huzzah!

post edit: meet my first ever crocheted project, a burgundy koala! Or as some people like to call her, Baby Gau

mmm, begonias *nom nom nom*

courtesy of Woman's Day

if you don't sweat, you're not doing it right

day 1 of the VCR Pact. And by VCR, I mean the Vivian-Carmel-&Rosa Pact: work out 4x a week. Pretty simple and not to rigorous, right? Wrong! God I hadn't realized how out of shape I'd gotten... since the last half of fall quarter, I haven't been able to hit a gym at all. Winter was busy with grad school apps and spring has been a packed schedule of 19 credits and 2 labs.

so finally, I hit the gym today as day 1 of our pact. I started everything out light knowing that it'd been awhile. In fact, I've been wanting to get back into my old running shape, so I restarted the original training program that I did almost 5 years ago that made me into a runner in the first place. And even with a light workout, I was huffin' it! -_-''

I did 20 minutes on the treadmill, 30 minutes on the elliptical, and 8-min abs. And let me reiterate, these were light workouts--as in, I wasn't going that fast or hardcore. I use to run 4.5 miles on the treadmill set to speed 6.5, and that was on an easy day...

I'm really glad I decided to join in on this pact because I've been wanting to get back in shape for awhile now, especially before grad school starts. I hadn't really noticed it until I was talking to Rosa one day, but at one point, running kinda became my identity. I felt off if I didn't run, and now that I haven't been running, I've felt off from a big part of myself. Now that I have a full summer, my main goals will be to work (nothing tough since it'd only be a summer job) and workout. I'm hoping now that I won't have a car, I'll be forced to use my bike more, which will also contribute to my exercise regimen. But ultimately, I'd like to do a 5k sometime before 2011. I never did one when I was in good running shape and I'd always regretted that. I figure, now that I'm trying to get back into the groove of things, now's a good time as any to slowly train myself for a 5k in the meantime. Wish me luck!

happy may day!

I can't believe it's May! Where has April gone? Hell, where has the last year gone? Anywho, I've finished April goal #1! In fact, I finished it last night, just in time for May to roll around the corner, but was waiting for daylight before I could take pictures.

his name is Bonifacio, after Filipino hero & revolutionary Andres Bonifacio. He stands about 12" tall and loves sipping on coconut milk. Bonifacio is an idealist and contributes to his weekly blog of political views and donations to various non-profits. He'll always fight for the little guy, but he could never actually hurt a fly. He enjoys the beach, though he's never been to one, and longs to visit the crystal clear waters of southeast Asia one day.

copyright: pattern & design by Rebecca Danger (Esther the Eccentric Elephant).

i shall call him squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my squishy

apparently Petco's adoption program extends beyond just cats. Chris & I stopped by today to try to pick up some new fish for the pond and found a sign advertising 6 huge goldfish up for adoption. We left the store $3 lighter & 27 fish later. Great deal if you ask me!

mahlzeit!

April endeavor #2 completed! Today, I made Chris & myself homemade gnocchi with a garlic lemon butter sauce :9. Unfortunately, I finished my bowl of gnocchi before I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures... oops! Anyhow, I was quite satisfied with the texture; it was softer and lighter without being too doughy. I'd have to second the grating technique, messy as it is. The sauce on the other hand? Meh. It was aight. I didn't really know what I was doing so I just tossed a bunch of things in a pan and heated up 'til saucy. Thankfully, we still had some leftover pesto from the batch my sister & I made, which helped save it. Next time, I think I'll try a lighter sauce or a marina methinks.

skurrously!

there are a few things that I would like to accomplish, mainly in the realms of food & knitting, so I've been checking out a lot of sources for ideas. I think I'm gonna try to complete something on a monthly basis, which may not sound like much, but trust me, with school and my schedule, this may be a rather ambitious feat. I've already selected my 2 upcoming projects for April:

1) since my nephew is coming, I've only got a month to make him an elephant. I got this pattern from the lovely & amazing Rebecca Danger. My sister-in-law is Thai so I wanted to make an Asian elephant, but I'll have to figure out how to make the ears a little bit smaller and how to add tusks...

2) my other endeavor will be fresh gnocchi made-from-scratch, mmm! I've made gnocchi before, but it never melted in my mouth, even when I used Chris's ricer to get the right consistency. But then, I found this recipe from smitten kitchen that uses a cheese grater instead of any of those fancy schmancy tools, so of course I'm gonna give it a try! I've also never pan fried my gnocchi, but I've had it at some other places and it's really good. I'm no chef, though, so I just hope these turn out tasty...

i wants

I found this little guy at ouou's shop on Etsy. He's just so perfect! In fact, it's worth checking out some of her other stuff because they're equally as adorable. She also has a blog, Everything in Blue, featuring some more of her print designs. I've mentioned before that I wish I had learned print-making before. I've always admired original, hand-made designs, cards, stationary, and whatnot. Next time I'm in Portland, I'm just gonna have to check out her shop.

but until then, a little word of advice:

via