Upcycling!

A while ago, I saw a shirt at Target that I just had to have! Sadly, it only came in those small sizes. You know those ones that claim to be XXL but in actuality, they should be considered a medium at best.

This is said shirt. I LOVED Rock's Modern Life when I was younger so you can understand why I wanted the shirt. It was the biggest they had. An XL. Now, if I were to like super tight shirts, this would be the shirt for me. Unfortunately, I am a big girl and this shirt was just too tight. So why did I even buy the shirt in the first place? Because I knew I could modify it so I could wear it comfortably. 

So here is what I did (I'm really not the best sewer so I'm not going to describe step by step how to do this). I had a set of jersey sheets and pillow cases that I just do not like sleeping on so I used the pillow case for this project. 

I cut the sides of the shirt and cut the pillow case into two small panels, uses the thicker hemmed side for the bottom.  Then, it was a matter of pinning and sewing the panels to the sides of the shirt like so:

Simple! So I tried it on to see what it was like.  It was so boxy that it looked horrible!  BUT!!!! I knew what to do.  On each side, I went in about an inch or inch and a half and sewed down at an angle, giving the shirt a better shape.  When I tried it on the second time, it was much better!  Eventually, I maybe go back and do a little bit more shaping, but for now, I'm happy with it!

Some kitty decided she loved the shirt too and claimed it as her seat for the next hour after I put it down to take a picture.  I'll try to get a better picture of it soon enough. 

Piece of Cake?

The other day, I was going through some of Twinkie Chan's free crochet patterns when I came across a pattern for her tissue box cozies.

This one just caught my eye!  I think it is be a use it reminds me of the birthday cakes I got growing up. I love yellow cake with chocolate frosting and the sprinkles make it all the more festive!

So, I decided to try to make one for myself. 

I was lazy with the frosting and it took me a few days to get it done. I would do a row here and there while watching TV or waiting to reach my destination in World of Warcraft  (Yes, I play WoW and have for about seven years!). 

I finally got the frosting done the other day and started in the cake part. I don't know what the heck was going on but it took me at leat four tries to get it to look right. I followed ed the instructions and everything. 

Turns out I was crocheting too tightly! >,<. But I also needed to add a few more rows to get the right hight. 

But finally it's nearly done! I just need to buy me some pompom sprinkles to glue on and it'll be finishes!!

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Ragbrai Iowa!

Every year about this time, Iowa has this thing called Ragbrai.  What is Ragbrai you may ask? It's basically thousands of people riding their bicycles across Iowa. From the Missouri River to the Mississippi  River. 

Every year, the route is different. This year, it just happens to be going through my home town!  

To really understand why this is so exciting for my town is that our population is dinky. Like 2000 people dinky. Our annual town celebration doesn't even bring in this many people! 

Pictures don't even do it justice! I have never seen so many people and bikes in my life!  Walking through the crowd was interesting. You couldn't stop or else you might get hit by a bike. And trying to go the opposite way was like trying to swim upstream!

There were quite a few vendors there too. Shirts, paintings, necklaces, temporary tattoos, and food! I manages to get a couple t-shirts and a pair of sunglasses from the Google booth (Yes! A Google booth!).

My sister loves Turkey legs and usually has to wait until we go to a big fair to get one. Myself, on the other hand, LOVE cheese, so I got myself some cheese curds!  They were so good and I wish I had some more now! 

All in all, it was a pretty good day. One that I will remember for years to come! 

Groot!

I LOVE Guardians of the Galaxy! LOVE IT! Love the characters, love the music, loved the CG effects, everything! Its easily in the top three of my favorite Marvel movies of all time!

I went to see it in the movie theater when it came out. Funny thing, the electricity actually went out in the entire theater just at a perfect spot (where the servant goes and puts her hand on the infinity stone). Our theater room sat there in silence for a minute, wondering what we should do. Do we get up and ask for a refund? Do we just sit and wait to see if the lights come back on? Turns out the power had gone out in the entire building for some reason and within a couple minutes, it came back on. Another minutes later the movie had started back up, but only the sound. Finally, the movie started up again but we had missed at least 15 minutes of the movie, not to mention the sound wasn't in sync.

A woman had gotten up while were were waiting, and then came back, telling us that the theater room next door was showing the same movie and they were at least twenty minutes behind us. For me, it was a no brainer, and most of the room thought the same thing. We all got up and went into the next room, re-watched a few minutes and finally got to see what we had missed out. When I look back on it, I was never mad about it because it wasn't anyones fault. I just saw it as a story I could tell!

So, anyway, back to the point of this post. There is something that boggles me about this movie. How is it, that a character, who only has a vocabulary of four words (five if you count the word "we"), made me fall in love with him? Groot is a big, dumb tree and I love him for it! Even though he is so much taller and stronger then the other characters in the film, there is a innocences about him. He's like a little kid with a huge heart. And don't get me started on the beautiful light show!

So, when I saw that TwinkieChan had put out a pattern to make my very own Baby Groot, I knew what I had to do! I had to make one for myself! And that's just what I did!

He was so much fun to make! And I really didn't use anything special. Red Heart Super Saver yarn for everything, safety eyes, an empty candle jar, and a bag of dollar store rocks. His smile was different story. I tried so hard to get him a good smile, but everything I tried looked horrible. It may have looked better if i had used a darker brown instead of black in my opinion but oh well! He's still adorable and I love him to bits!

On A Mission

For a while now, I've been trying to find a good tea that I actually like the flavor of and wouldn't mind drinking more then just every once in a while. Today after work, I was browsing the clearance in the grocery section in Target and came across Tazo Chi Pumpkin Spice Tea. I thought, "Hm..I like chi. I like pumpkin thingies. Might as well give it a go!" I needed something new to try out in my new #muglife cup anyway!

It smelled so good while it was steeping! Surely it had to taste as good as it smelled! Meh, not so much. The spices in it were sort of strong. So I did what I thought might be good at the time. I added a little french vanilla coffee creamer. It did improve the taste but only slightly. I'm sure those who really love the pumpkin spice lattes and the like would love it. For me, I would have rather it tasted like pumpkin pie.

My verdict? Not my cup of tea. (Ba-dum tsss!)

Parseltongue Take Two

Its no secret that when I find a designer that I like, I become obsessed with their patterns. Tiny Owl Knits for instance. Ever since I saw her first video for the Bee Keeper's Quilt, I was hooked! Miss Stephanie has such a wonderful personality that if you dislike her, you probably hate puppies and kitties too. She is all about fairies and gnomes and all things magical and mythical! She is also just so stinkin' adorable!

The first thing I made started was The Bee Keeper's Quilt. Those little hexipuffs can be addicting to make! And you feel so accomplished when you finish like three of them in a night!

About a week ago, I started one of her hat designs called The Parseltongue Hat. A head warmer with so many snakey twists and a lot of Harry Potter love in every stitch! (Did I mention that I adore Harry Potter?! Because I do!

Everything started out peachy keen... Sorta. I'm not all that great with knitting with DPNs. It's just so fiddle-y when you have only ten stitches to start out with.  But I preserved and after about a bazillion tries, I finally got into the rhythm of it!

After I was finished with the crown increases, I was able to transfer over to a 16" circular. Then the cables came.

Things were going great until I realized that I counted some wrong on a round. No big deal, I just started to knit backwards. Then, it happened....

My needle slipped out from the stitches! Oh how I tried to save it but it was too late! Too many stitches were lost and I wasn't able to unravel to a good point to pick up from!  There was only one thing I could do. Restart completely.

So here I am. At the beginning again! I just hope that this time around will go more smoothly than the last!

New Year, Fresh Start

Its been a while since I did any blogging. The last time I posted in this particular blog was in May of 2012 just shortly after my grandmother's passing.  After that, I just didn't feel the need to keep the blog up so I just stopped.

Here lately, I've been getting back into the Yarn Arts as I like to call it.  Basically just crocheting and knitting.

Making things from patterns:

And a few of my own concoctions:

I've also been in love with taking pictures and posting them on Instagram:

I'm always so jealous of how comfy Hermione looks. #cat

A photo posted by Jenny Jenn (@xlolliqueenx) on Jan 4, 2015 at 11:38am PST

I hope I'm going to be able to keep up on this little blog like I would like. Putting up latest projects, my geeky finds, and just other maddness that I love. Until next time!