You've got red on you

The summer has it in for me.

I've never liked summer except when I was in school (summer break! Woo Hoo!) but I usually hid in my air conditioned abode, working on one craft or another and watching movies and MTV, you know, when they actually played videos. Wow, imagine that.

I can't stand the heat, so I got out of the kitchen.

I don't know how anyone can enjoy 90 - 100 degree weather, unless the heat has made them so delirious that they think they are standing in a vat filled with vanilla pudding.

But that's just me. In 90 degree weather, I (used to) get hives from sunburns, excruciating headaches, have an enormous lack of energy, and am just plain sweaty. But now summer has decided to add another component to the equation: now the heat is dehydrating me to the point where I am getting bladder infections from it. What The Hell? That's just not fair! I recently acquired a bladder infection and when I went to the doctor, she informed me that it was a year, almost to the day, since I had my last bladder infection. Strange.

She concluded that since it happens in the summer and since I admitted that I haven't really been drinking as much water as I should, I am probably dehydrated and that has caused my infection. Well, crap. Now I hate summer even more. Especially since I don't get summer vacations anymore.

Needless to say, I haven't really been getting much crafting done. I was hoping to work on a bunch of flowers on Tuesday because I took the day off of work but ended up just sleeping the whole time. How dare my body catch up on sleep! I guess I needed it since I was up all night being uncomfortable.

I've been drinking gallons of water and I have to pee every 10 minutes. Now my pills are making me nauseous. Great.

Oh well, what can I do?

Make pygmy puffs, that's what!!

I ordered some more eyes for my pygmy puffs and decided to get some noses too. That way they will look even more adorable. I ordered them from this fine lady:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6661

She also has another shop:

http://www.suncatchereyes.net/

I know, I know. I get way too excited over little things. But I don't care, they're adorable.

This is a pattern you can buy off of her website:

I also decided to go with this instead of the flower shawl thingy:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring05/PATTido.html

Purty. Now if only I could figure out the damn pattern.

And now for something completely different...

Here's a video for your enjoyment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUwYtabecQ

I love this movie. I wonder if I could make a "Shaun of the Dead" doll. Hmm...

Mmm...braaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiins...I mean...scarves!

I've been living in a daze for a couple of months now. I feel like a zombie. It's partly due to lack of sleep. My kitties enjoy wrestling with each other when Jess and I are trying to sleep at night.
I think another reason is stress. I have less than a year to prepare for this wedding and I have so much still to do. I have decided to stuff the flowers with fiberfill to give them more of a shape and it is taking awhile to get it down the stems evenly. That's going to make the flower-making process take even longer. But I did this to myself so I can't complain.
I would really like to start on my Etsy shop if I had the time. I have a couple of scarves made already but probably need to make a few more things before I can start selling.
This is a scarf that I designed myself:

And here's the garden scarf I made from Debbie Stoller's "Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker" book (http://www.amazon.com/Stitch-Bitch-Crochet-Happy-Hooker/dp/0761139850) :
Now I just need to design a banner for my store and get matching business and thank you cards made.
I found the best website EVER: www.ravelry.com. It is perfect for people like me who crochet and/or knit. I even met a woman from Arvada and she invited me to one of their knitting circle groups. They meet at a yarn shop in Arvada that for some reason I never knew existed.
Ravelry has all sorts of groups that you can join; everything from Harry Potter fan club to a horror group to a Tom Waits fan club to a crafty brewer club. Very fun.
I must say, my work days this week have just flown by because I spend most of my time browsing these groups. Um...I mean working. Yeah. I'm not goofing off at work, never!
Anyway, nothing else exciting going on right now. Except that I keep finding really cool patterns on ravelry that I want to make (and some spiffy Christmas/Birthday presents) but I can't justify working on anything else until I can get a large number of flowers, pygmy puffs, and creepy cute crochet creatures done. And then there's that shawl thingy I want to make.
Sorry this is a bit boring. Maybe when I'm more awake, I can come up with something a little more clever to say.
Until then, I'm going to be a flower making machine.
Goodnight

You don't need to tell me, I know I'm crazy

It only took eight years, but Jess and I are finally engaged (if you want to know the details, you can find it at my wedding website. The link is located in the "Stuff I Like" sidebar). Yippee!!

As happy as I am to be marrying this wonderful person, the actual process of wedding planning is downright scary and confusing. We are definitely not going to have a traditional wedding which makes it a bit easier, but it's still overwhelming.

Luckily, I have some pretty darn creative friends who are helping me with this process.

Since I am an avid knitter and crocheter, my friend Kellie (who's a florist) gave me the wonderful idea of crocheting my own flowers. What a great idea! That is definitely my style! And the best part is, they won't die! They may fall apart, but we can keep them for a long time.

Here's a picture:

I am also going to add some orchids to my bouquet:
Our theme was formed: A homemade wedding. Jess likes to make his own alcohol (beer, wine, mead) and I like to do every craft under the sun. And I like purple and green (well, more like lavender and sage). So I would crochet our bouquets.

Of course, I have to take into consideration that Jesse's family is huge; he wants five people to be at his side (our henchmen and women). Therefore, I picked five people to be on my side. I have to crochet flowers for six bouquets. That shouldn't be too hard, right?

Well, then I got the crazy idea that the flowers could also be the centerpieces at the tables. This idea was quickly dismissed because in order to get them to stand up straight in the "vases" I would have to put some kind of floral wire in them. Plus, I have an even better idea for the centerpieces (hand made of course).

In the end, I decided that I could make a bunch of little flowers for party favors. Anyone who wants to take one home is more than welcome. For the men who may not want crocheted flowers, we will have special cups made.

Okay, so I will have to get busy making all those flowers. I think I've made enough for my bouquet. I will just have to keep chugging alone so that my crocheted garden can grow. Not a problem. And I've recruited my Mom to help me since she's the one who taught me how to crochet in the first place.

But since the theme is homemade, I am constantly getting ideas for decorations or accessories or food.

I was at Barnes and Noble the other day and spotted this cute little book that I just had to have:

Even when I showed it to Jess, he said, "Oh, you had to have this! It's awesome!" Anyone who knows us knows that we are big zombie movie fans. And we like anything with other scary things and ninjas. There is even a little skeleton bride and groom pattern in this book! How perfect! If only we were having a wedding cake! They could be the toppers. But I figured that we could keep them on the dessert table.

Now I am inspired to make a bunch of every pattern in this book and have them on the tables. People can take them home or just enjoy their company at the wedding. And I'm thinking of sneaking some pygmy puffs in there as well :) (I'm going to put as many Harry Potter themes in this wedding that I can get away with).

Then I found this shawl in an Interweave Crochet magazine:

So cute! I will have to make it purple and green, though.

I'm doing an awful lot of crocheting. I should add some knitting in there too.

But I have a million other ideas in my overworked little head. I just hope I have the patient and energy to finish it all. I have less than a year, but I think I can do it. And yes, I know I'm insane for trying to do all of this, but I think it'll be worth it.