Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Knitting Practice

I bought a couple of new knitting books this past weekend and spent some time practicing new stitch patterns. I love the fact that just a few variations in your basic knit and purl sequences can result in such pretty and complicated-looking patterns.

Here are a couple of patterns I've been trying out:
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This is a basket weave pattern.
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Here's a zigzag pattern. I really liked this one.

One of the books I bought combines two things I love. Knitting and nerds.
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My favorite project in this book is a pattern for "Hobbit Feet Socks". They're socks with "fur" knitted into it, just like hobbit feet!

Excited to start.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day & A Sunny Day Out

Happy Mother's Day to my Mama! I'm so sad I can't be there in Hawaii with my family to celebrate, but it sounds like they had a nice lunch at The Mandalay in down town Honolulu.

Kevin and I had our own celebration of the sunny weekend in Seattle. There is a small park near our apartment, so we thought we would have a little picnic lunch. I whipped up some chicken salad wraps and chocolate & butterscotch chip cookies and we had a nice walk to the park. It was so relaxing and we so enjoyed the fresh air.
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Some Instagram pics of the day:
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A creepy face in the tree!
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Friday, May 4, 2012

Sick Days + Thrift Finds

Oh boy. Apparently there's been a crazy flu going around and, unfortunately, I caught it. I've been sick for 6 days and it's the worst I've ever been sick in my life. Thankfully, it's slowly getting better, but I'm definitely not at 100% yet.

I've been trying to rest and kind of moping around the house all week trying to stave off the boredom. Now that I have a little time, I thought I'd do a post on a couple thrift store finds I discovered over the course of the months that I haven't been able to show off yet. :)

This also gives me a chance to test out the new Camera+ app I downloaded to my iPhone.
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I found this deer plaque at Goodwill. I got the jewelry stand from Urbans several years ago.
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This is an awesome embroidery piece I found at Goodwill too. It's pretty big, maybe about 4 1/2 ft. tall. Love the colors.

And that's it for now. Stay germ-free everyone!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Long Term Project: Bucilla Honeycomb Afghan

What a shame! It's a partly sunny Saturday and Kevin and I are holed up in our apartment with the flu. There's a lot of orange juice/tea drinking and chicken noodle soup eating going on. On the bright side, this will give me a chance to watch old Arrested Development and Golden Girls episodes, and work on a new long-term project.

I recently went on a Goodwill run and, to my amazement, found two completely unopened Bucilla crocheted afghan kits from the 1970s. I'm currently working on one of them now:
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Crocheting all of those little honeycombs sure is time consuming, but it's still fun and the end result will be awesome!
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Eventually it'll all come together like this:
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I'll keep you updated with the finished product when I'm all done. Only 90 more pieces to go!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Time Out: Career Path

I wanted to take a little break to discuss something that I think/worry about A LOT. Now that I'm progressing deeper into my late twenties, the fact that I still don't have a solid career path bothers me very, very much.

To give a bit of school/work background, I graduated from the University of Hawaii in 2007 with a BA in Psychology. During my time at school I worked for almost 6 years as a manager at a Van's Shoes. I loved it there and stayed longer than I probably should have. After Vans, I worked for a year doing administrative duties at a local Hospice organization in Hawaii. I was very thankful for the opportunity to work in a social work setting as social services is a possible path I'd like to pursue. After my year at Hospice Hawaii I decided to take a chance and move to Seattle to be with my boyfriend and experience life outside of my small island home. It took about 9 months for me to find work out here, but finally landed an office manager position at a small Seattle software company. I've been at this present company for over a year now and have learned tons of new skills in the computer world. And although these skills will be beneficial in finding other positions, technology isn't really the field I see myself in.

Due to some family circumstances, my boyfriend and I will be moving back to Hawaii in the next few months and I will find myself searching for a new job back home. And while the prospects for finding work in Hawaii are not too promising, that isn't really the issue I'm worried about.

For me, the issue lies in finding my passion. At 27 years old, I figured I would have my act together by now. There are things that interest me, such as, social services, crafting, teaching, baking, but these topics are kind of all over the place and none of them present a real "oomph" when I think about them. To me social work seems like the clearest path, but then doubts of my ability and drive start creeping in. How will I know I'm capable? What if I find that it's not really what I want? I don't have much experience, why would a Master's program even accept me? All of these questions give me great anxiety.

My plan at the moment is to try and find an entry level job in the social services field to see if it's something that I could/should or even want to do before applying to graduate school. This will help me gain insight into the field, as well as much needed experience.

I just get so scared that I'll never find my place. Sometimes I feel like the only 27 year old that has no clue what they're doing. I have to keep telling myself that everyone has a different experience in searching for that path. I have to stop comparing myself to the accomplishments of my peers (who in my opinion are way ahead of me) and that things happen when they're supposed to happen and that helps to calm the fears.

How do you find your passion? If anyone has any advice, I would love to hear it.
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Gas Works Park Path - courtesy of Kevin

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Another Beautiful Day!

It was yet another beautiful spring day in Seattle today. We decided to have a little picnic at Gas Works Park with some of our friends. I actually got very sunburned, but it was well worth it after months of gloomy weather.
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Here are some Instagram pics of the day:
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There were so many kites in the sky. This octopus kite was my favorite.
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Here's all of us. This picture is courtesy of our friend, Rob.
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No shoes on the picnic blankets!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Happy Record Store Day!

Happy Record Store Day, everyone! It's a beautiful, sunny Saturday today and we spent some time out to enjoy the warm weather. Since it's Record Store Day we decided to make a little visit to Everyday Music in Captiol Hill.
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I had to take a picture of this Jefferson Starship album. Love everything about this cover. I ended up buying The Carpenters' Christmas Portrait (this album reminds me of my childhood) and a Three Dog Night album for 40 cents each! Can you believe it?

Then we strolled around Capitol Hill and stopped by Red Light Vintage.
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So many colors!
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Ahhhhhh. Finally I get to feel the sun on my toes!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Some Thoughts Here and There...

Hello! Just a little update on a few things.

I stopped by one of my favorite places in Capitol Hill after work today, Stitches. They are a wonderful craft store specializing in all things that you stitch. They have great knitting & crocheting supplies, really cute fabric and lots of other stitching necessities. I had to pick up a few crochet hooks to help me get started on a long term project that I'll be sharing soon.
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And also a little book update. Battle Royale was phenomenal and now I am on to Carl Sagan's "Contact". I love Carl Sagan so much! He is definitely a huge inspiration. Happy reading!
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