First of all, Drea was very right: flour tortillas with Nutella is FANTASTIC!!! I've eaten like half a dozen this weekend, along with half a dozen tortillas with cream cheese. It's getting to be time to go grocery shopping, because I need more food than tortillas, lol.

So I was waiting for Sarah to come back from visiting her family this weekend so I can jump in the shower without her awkwardly walking in, and she walked in as I was typing the above paragraph, so I'm going to finish up here and do that.

As I said, I finished the cross-stitch chick, and I'm working on the diamond fairy (if you didn't figure it out already, I was born in April, hence why I chose to do the diamond fairy; it's my birthstone). It's maybe like half or two-thirds of the way done. I'd post pictures, but I'm feeling too lazy for that now. I will post pictures of both when the fairy is finished.

So Drea has gotten back into cross-stitching apparently. She said on her blog (So much crap to make, so little time) that she's blaming me, which I take only partial responsibility for. Meredith started it all because it's her craft of choice, and I just wanted her to teach me, which I guess coupled with me shooting out so many nerdy and awesome cross-stitch patterns to her and Meredith, triggered her interest.

I've become a little obsessed myself, I admit, as I always do when something new and shiny comes along into my life. I need a second job, so I applied at the local Joann's Fabrics, and while I was there, I got a plastic box with those little sections that people use for floss (for a dollar! Yay sales!), and some floss because it was on super sale (3 for 99 cents, so I got 6), but I didn't have my list of flosses I needed so I got what I could remember and some colors I just liked. I got the rest of the colors at Michael's this morning, because they were having a 15% off entire purchase sale, so my grand total was less than $3. I love sales! And now I'm fully equipped to finish the fairy (minus the backstitching because they didn't have the right floss!) and the next few small projects from the book I have planned, though I think I might do the zombie sampler next. ^-^

I just finished the chick, but I'm too tired to post pictures right now, lol. I will tomorrow.

Meredith and Dave took me to the craft store today and I got a book with a small cross-stitch pattern for every day of the year (for making like calendars and stuff). It has some awesome stuff in it. One of the things it has is a little birthstone fairy for each month, so I decided to do the one for April (diamond). I'll post when it's done. ^-^

Crap. Crap crap crap. I have a new hobby.

The cross stitch chick is almost done, yay! But I decided to take a break and look up some patterns and the like. I found the first sampler I want to make, pattern here.

Isn't that fantastic? ^-^

I also found a blog that has cross stitch patterns for the cast of Firefly, link here.

Yeah, this is not a good thing to be starting, not when I have work and summer classes and a list of crocheted things to do! Woe is me! Heehee.

It was pretty darn epic! Some good trades, mostly yarn and ribbon and the like. I swapped the blaster gun and I.O.U.'d an Emo Bunny (since I wanted to keep Jack, lol) and got some cool stuff in return. But what was badass was all the trade secrets I took in today. Drea showed me the proper way to change colors in crochet, since I read it often but never really got it (I'm one of those people who learns through doing, not reading), which is the only thing stopping me from trying crocheting things in grids, which I've kind of always wanted to try. Also she taught me how to make a yarn ball that unravels from the middle/both ends, so I can ball all my hat yarn! (I leave it unballed so that I can double strand the hats from both ends.) She also taught me Viking wire weaving, which is pretty cool, but I'll need to relearn (again, I learn by doing). Meredith taught me cross stitch, another thing I've always wanted to learn. I'm currently working on a cross stitched chick just to practice (pictures when I'm done!). It's coming along quite well; I'm pretty proud of myself! I'm going to get some cross stitch supplies tomorrow.

Food was had; I reheated some of my mom's epic gravy (meat sauce) with spaghetti and Sarah made meatballs. Sarah and I made a pineapple upside down cake last week from a cookbook we have, and Sarah decided to kick it up a notch for the craft swap and made what I've called a "stuff upside down cake." It had pineapple, apple, blueberries, and raspberries, all beautifully arranged. And she added more sugar than the recipe because we didn't think it was sweet enough last time, but this time was perfect. DELICIOUS!

So today I finished an afghan I was working on since winter-ish time. Turns out the skein only had about one and a half once-around left in it, so I could have finished sooner. I had the ultimate choice of "do I get more yarn or leave this skein unfinished?" and decided to leave it unfinished, because I'd already used 8 skeins on the thing, lol. But now I have the second afghan I crocheted all finished! It's really just one giant granny square made with Seagrass by Red Heart. As Drea has often said to me friends don't let friends knit Red Heart, but the coloration was soooo pretty I couldn't help myself!

Here is the afghan on the couch, and on it is my giant octopus Hubert (I decided to give him a name besides "giant octopus" just before taking the picture) that I finished the day before I started my blog, lol.

And one more of my "baby octopus" Dumbo on Hubert's head.

Sarah was posing the octopi on the blanket, and she said it was like an ocean scene. She said we should cut off some of Dumbo's legs and make her a starfish, to which I replied, "Or I could just make a starfish..." Sarah continued with something to the effect of, "We need some fish, and...do you think you could manage a coral reef?" I said maybe; she said she had faith in me. Heehee.

We got to talking about Emo Bunny again, and Sarah asked if he had a real name, and I explained the name of Jack. She seemed unconvinced, and said he needs "a more depressing name." I'm leaving it up to her to come up with one.

OMG CRAFT SWAP TOMORROW! SUPER EXCITING!

He's done! ^-^ Here he is posing on my couch with my first afghan. (Sorry about the not-so-fabulous quality; the light in my living room sucks.)

Some close ups of his face.

And a close up of the embroidery skull and crossbones.

I've half-decided to call the bunneh Jack after my LARP character for Scion, who is also an emo, but is a far cry from a bunny. Jack was an adventure in crafting, to say the least. Getting the ears to match the slits in the hood was tricky, but that was just the beginning. I think I got more than I bargained for with the emover; it took a lot of thought and creativity, as well as a good 45 minutes. Then came the skull and crossbones. I believe I mentioned I suck at embroidery, and if not, then I'm saying it now. But I am DAMN PROUD of how this turned out. It might just be the best thing I've ever embroidered (let that be the standard you judge my skills in embroidery, lol). After several attempts at just a skull that looked like some kind of abstract line art, I finally came up with the skull and crossbones idea, and that only took one try! And it looks really good! And I did it with my cheap plastic flimsy tapestry needle because I still can't find my good metal ones! Booyah!

My summer roommate Sarah thinks I won't trade this for anything at the swap. She might be right. He's going to be hard to part with, if I'm even able to. We'll see on Thursday. ^-^

My older brother needs to have a baby so I can be an aunt. This of course requires finding a girlfriend and getting married. But still, it needs to happen. I could have my own baby, but I too am presently single, plus I'm still not sure I want to have kids, which is philosophizing for another night, but I know I want to know someone who has kids. Why? Because I, of course, want to crochet baby things. ^-^

I worked on my schoolwork a little and rewarded myself with some pattern browsing, and came across this alphabet baby afghan pattern (it's free!). As my friend Ginny would put it, it made my ovaries explode with happiness. It's so cute! And I want to make it! It's so simple, but nice, too. Sadly, there are not many babies in my life, and it would be a little silly of me to make it for myself. So someone has to have a baby!

I also found these adorable monster-themed bibs on Etsy (I'm kind of an addict...). I like the Cthulhu and the vampire one the most. Again, someone needs to have a baby...and a good sense of humor, lol.

Anyway, on to projects I can actually do now.

I've decided on my next mini project for the craft swap. It's going to be one of these bunnies with hoodies, pattern found on Etsy again. But of course (saying that a lot in this entry...hmm...), I decided to kick it up a notch. I'm making the hoodie in all black and depending on how up for it I feel, I might give it an emover. Meredith suggested I also embroider a skull on the hoodie. I kind of suck at embroidery but I'm going to give it a shot. So yeah, emo hoodie bunny. Again, I might end up making one for myself. ^-^;

So I didn't finish it BY dinner, but by dinner everything was done but the handle so I finished the handle, ate, then did the button and stitched it together. I was talking to Katie, my during-the-school-year roommate who is presently finishing up her study abroad in Vienna, while working, which is why it didn't get done sooner. But here it is!

Another angle.

Detail shot of the front. I break away from the pattern for the rings and make them more like funnels, since the frontmost one is made like a funnel and this way they all match, rather than have a funnel with three rings.

In my rush to finish and eat, I accidentally skipped over four rows of the handle. I didn't notice until I had bound off and was about to stitch it on and noticed how short it was. So I retied the yarn and threw four rows on the end. The result is a handle that's not exactly right, as it's supposed to be a more gradual narrowing, but it still looks good. Detail of handle (sorry it's sideways!).

I had a dream last night that I found my good tapestry needles AND my bag of safety pins that have both gone missing since moving into my summer apartment. Dreams can be so cruel. -_-

I'm presently sitting on my bed in my diabetes camp boxers (I won't say what camp so I don't get stalkers!) and black tee shirt with bare feet because my jeans, socks, and shoes got soaked in the rain today while I was at an abandoned drive-in theater taking pictures with a friend (abandoned places make for great photos!). I just finished a chocolate chip Kudos bar (rant below) and am sipping on a diet Dr. Pepper with cherry. I've promised myself I'll crochet until dinner, then do schoolwork for the rest of the evening, so I made a good compromise with myself. Basically, I'm feeling pretty fantastic.

So yeah, Kudos bars. Gotta love 'em. So good. But I kind of feel like a tool, because they brag so much about being only 100 calories, and I'm not the kind of person to care about calories. Sure, I'd like to weigh a little less, and one of my summer goals is to lose a chunk of the weight I've gained since going on my medication, a side effect of which is weight gain, but really, I don't care. I'd rather exercise and control my portions better than eat low-calorie foods. So I feel like some kind of sell out. But I reiterate, they're so good! And they're only 15 to 20 g of carbs each, depending on the kind, which makes Benjamin the Second (my insulin pump) happy.

Rant over, back to crafting.

Yeah I totally didn't finish the blaster gun last night. I crocheted a little longer after I wrote, then went to sleep, so I'm going to go finish now. Hopefully I'll finish before dinner so I can do my schoolwork in peace, because there's nothing like an almost-finished craft to distract you from everyday life!

Bleeeeeh it's almost three in the morning and I'm wired. I really need to stop sleeping until noon on days I don't have work. Heh.

I finalized the date and time of my craft swap, the first I've ever hosted (OMG SO EXCITING!). It's going to be Thursday evening. I need to make some little projects so I have stuff to trade besides the like three skeins of yarn I can bear to part with. I decided to make another blaster gun like I did for the last craft swap I attended. They're fun to make, pretty quick and easy, and c'mon, who doesn't love a blaster gun? I found the pattern on Etsy; it's right here. Though it costs money (it's really cheap though!), it's totally worth it. And hey, maybe you can figure out how to make it on your own by looking at the picture. Beats me. Do what you will.

Anyway, the last one I made was black, white, and gray, but this time I got crazy. The main part, the knob thinger on the end, and the trigger are all a dark steel gray, while the barrel and the base are a sort of light coffee brown, and the rings are black. I'm totally making myself one in this color scheme, because it looks really good all together. I'll post pictures when I'm done. I wanted to try to do it all in one sitting, but some drama that came up kept me from doing this, but I'm still going to try to finish tonight.

Of all the blogs I've ever made and kept, I've never had one specifically dedicated to something before, let alone one dedicated to crafting. But I've been crafting so long and reading so many craft blogs that it dawned on me that I should make my own, so here we are now!

As I write this, it's the start of the summer (I got out of school two weeks ago), and I made a list of crafts I want to make (between work and summer classes) before I return to school and have less time to work. I'm making a goal to finish at least one craft every other week (giving me two weeks per craft, which is probably more time than I need but you never know), and to post here at least once a week, since I also kind of suck at keeping up with blogs and journals.

A Little About Me:

My name is Erika, but sometimes I go by Hoshi (Japanese for "star") and I usually write on the Internet as KuraiHoshi/DarkStar. I'm a college student majoring in photography and minoring in Asian studies and world literature. My main craft of choice is crocheting, but I have some sewing projects I'd like to complete. I want to branch out more into sewing, and I'd like to learn to knit but haven't managed to figure it out yet. I also am pretty apt at miscellaneous crafts as well. I have an Etsy; my username is DarkStar888.

A Little About the Blog:

Pretty much all I feel the need to explain is that l'artisanat, according to all available sources I have at the moment, means "the craft" in French, which is a language I studied for a few years in high school and loved/continue to love. Don't ask me why an Asian studies minor and former student of the Japanese language chose to name her blog something French, because I don't really know. I think it sounds nice.