school started this monday,

and it's pretty awesome being a senior, although i find that some of the only times i feel like a senior is when we talk about how rediculous the freshmen are, and how it was when we were freshies as well and the nerdiness that gets entangled in that whole web of confusion. i'm kinda glad that i'm back in school despite the extra work, mostly because i get to hang around with my friends a lot more. it feels good to be back in german class, especially the giggle fest we had today just talking about random crap and making fun of teachers when we should have been working. :) i am so freakin' grateful that almost every class i have this year i have one of my best friends in, unlike previous years where i had to scavenge for a friend....

i suppose i should get started on all that college crap now (although i should probably have started months ago) but i am freaking terrified, to tell the truth. i want to go to a good school, in a field that no one in my family has been in, and i have absolutely no experience in what kind of career i want to pursue. i guess i would count as sort of a blank slate, right? maybe that means i would be able to absorb info better, but most likely it won't be like that. i don't know what the hell i'm going to do... :(

i just made myself sad.

the birthday girl

today is my birthday, and i'm finally 17! :) yay me! but since it is 11:30 pm and there is only 30 minutes left for my birthday, this'll be another quickie.

just an update for what will be coming in future posts: special birthday gifts (definitely from the heart- appreciate it!) and hopefully a cable-knit bag, if i can get enough yarn to make it.

also, i've decided that i need to start making my own patterns for knit or crochet things now instead of just using other people's ideas. i've just (kinda) learned how to do stranding/intarsia stuff, so the results (if any) should be interesting. :D

YES.YES.YES.YES.

FINALLY. YES. i finally passed my driving behind the wheel test. sweeeeeeeeet.

this isn't really a long update, i just wanted to mention that. :D

cookie goodness :D

so today i whipped up some cookies, mainly because i was bored. i used recipes from Hilarie Waldon's The Great Big Cookie Book, which is pretty good considering i got it for around $2 at Rhinomart. i tried 2 different kinds, but no pics of the first batch because it was a horrible disaster (they didn't rise and ended up being more like crackers than cookies). but here's the second batch: ladyfingers, which actually turned out pretty well, despite the whole meringue-egg-whipping process, which has terribly failed me before in the past. but anywho, no more chit chat! pictures!

sorry for the cell phone pics again, i know they don't do the cookies justice.

close up!

for some reason (i'm not quite sure why) i actually got twice the amount of cookies that the book said there would be, but no worries. the more the merrier! :) mmm... powdered sugar.

so for my next project: birthday gifts, which i'm not sure how long will take because i still have like 2 books to read for my summer reading before school starts on aug. 27th (WHY!? WHY SO EARLY?!). :(

the LOVE rug is finally complete!

so i finally finished knitting my rug, made completely out of t-shirts. some of them were old and some of them i bought for about $2 each. i'm so glad that it's finally done! i actually finished it yesterday, but i had to do a lot of vaccuming before i could take the pics. anyway, here it is:

since it's a little hard to see the love pattern in each square, here are a few close-ups:

i didn't really take the time to measure the size of the rug, but i'm guessing that it's about the size of 2.5 doormats put together. :)

with the leftover yarn i had i made the t-shirt clutch from the knit.1 mag. as you can see it turned out kinda ugly, maybe even fugly, so i'm not sure that i'll ever use it.

the only thing i really like about it is that striking aqua button. :)

the button is a little off center too, through no fault of my own of course! the buttonhole was like that in the pattern, so i guess there was no other way to center it a little. i didn't really even notice it until i started sewing on the button.

after knitting these i have decided to never EVER knit with t-shirt yarn again, mainly because it leaves a huge mess. the yarn tends to molt a lot, something i realized AFTER i dyed all the shirts and began to cut them up and whatnot. also, sometime while making the rug the knitting got really hard, and it just totally ruined the tips of my aluminum needles so that the color totally wore off. sheesh.

my next projects: birthday presents! you know who you are!! :)