This post is temporarily highjacked for the squeeage. I just got a picture of a bead that Ziggy made me.. Contact her for pricing and ordering information if you're interested.

It has sparkly eyes. Stardust eyes even. It had to be said.
She also made me a grey, and some matching accent beads.
*does the happy alien dance*

Back to your regularly scheduled post..
One of the dolls we got at the thrift store a few weeks ago was a Kelly doll with long black hair and short bangs, so I'm having W bring over his paints tonight so I can re-do the eyes/lips color to start turning it into a little Shala doll. Because I'm amused with a self portrait doll, and if I don't keep it.. I'm pretty sure I can find a home for a mini shala doll.

Wow.. I had lots of ideas for this post.. but.. I'm all alien headed now.
GOSH!!!!! I'm the luckiest girl in the world!

Time for chat. Right now. It usually lasts a couple hours. It's 7:30 am PST.

Well.. my first ever amigurumi was an alien, which my son took when he saw it.
Then I made a few more, and went to thread amigurumi, again, my first was an alien.

While I was cleaning out my purse last week, my son saw my little thread amigurumi and mentioned to me in a very subtle 17 yo boy kind of way.. "I don't have one that small"
So we talked, and he decided rather then just a loose little toy, he'd like a keyring.
( W's little alien keyring )

Yesterday I decided to straighten back out my schedule from being sick, so I was zombie like all day. You know, shuffling my feet, trying to eat brains.. or something like that. Since thinking was just beyond me, I watched Dark Angel and worked on that and on a really simple headband for E.

( Loving the alien )

Last night, Emily found a print out of a pattern I'd written and was testing, and she read it aloud completely baffled. "I don't know what this means."
Well.. she's a knitter, not a crocheter, and is as bad as I am at following other people's patterns.
I'm growing out my bangs though, so snap clips are utterly essential while I decide if I want to give up bangs or not. Otherwise it's not even a question, because despite all the years I hid behind very long bangs, having them fall in my face now makes me nuts.

If you're just dying to see it..

The next tattoo I'm getting
Kind of anyway, that's the general idea.I'll work with the artist and get his input too to polish it up and finish it up, but that's my bracelet to replace all the bracelets Mike gives me which I break because I wear them all the time.

Last night Mike called on his way home from work,and wanted to know if I wanted to go out. He'd gotten his bonus check. WOOHOO! So we went out, and E and I got some Valentine's stuff for cute lunches and dinners. A nice heart cookie cutter set that will work great with sandwiches, some pink and red sugar for sprinkling on yogurt and other sweet things that can be sprinkled with pink sugar to look cute, and some cupcake paper liners to turn inside out and use for food cups. I'm seeing a very heart-y lunch in our future.
I told Mike "I can either give you another adorable dinner, or you can take us out" so we wound up at Sourdough Mining Co. after some discussion. The issue being, I didn't care much, I was just hungry, but wanted to go to a locally owned restaurant, and Mike wanted to go to one that was close. This time I was smart. I ordered my dinner to go, because I knew I wanted the cheese sticks as an appetiser. I almost took a picture of them. They are soo huge. Mike ordered their biggest plate of bbq ribs, and also had lots of leftovers.
Sourdough has an icecream bar, with real hot fudge which I think is why Emily always chooses them. You get the icecream bar with any meal. So she got herself icecream after packaging up her leftovers (seriously.. if you order an appetiser, count on boxing most of your meal. They don't stint on portions) and I got myself a vanilla icecream with hot fudge. Mike decided real hot fudge sounded good and got some too.
So you all know how my appetite is pretty light most days right? I didn't finish my ice cream, but was leaning forward to say something to Mike and my hair went right into that real hot fudge and icecream, then when I sat up, wound up all over my shirt? I felt stupid. Anyone have any idea how to pre-treat a hot fudge stain?
Then we went to Best Buy, because I told Mike at Christmas time that for my present to him, he could get himself a new game console. I know nothing about game consoles, so it had to be his choice. He still hasn't chosen. I picked up the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire soundtrack for Emily who's been wanting it, and a couple cds for myself.
While we were there, this young lady just stopped cold, and started GUSHING over Emily's hat and scarf. "She's like a happy sunny sky! Look honey! She's a happy sunny sky! Isn't that just the cutest!! Oh I love that so much!" Emily smiled and said thank you. Yep. Definately why she loves that set. It does bring smiles. Sure, some people think her hats are just weird, but they never say anything, it's the people who appreciate them who comment.
(do you suppose the young lady blogs and will blog about seeing a girl who looked like a happy sunny sky?)
Came home, listened to the new cds, worked some more on my alien scarf, which is not going to have crossed stitches like I originally planned. I didn't like how they looked, so it's a stripe pattern with spike stitches. It's turning out nice. I still need to pick up more hot green for the alien pockets.
It was a really fun evening.

*singing very offkey*
I could while away the hours,
making shawls with flowers,
I only knew how to knit,
Things from outer space
I'd do at my own pace
If I only knew how to knit.
It would be a piece of cake
to frog every mistake,
if I only knew how to knit..

Except I do know how. And I do it very very slowly. And painfully. And keep going back to crochet for the joy of seeing something get done. Plus I don't do any fancy knitting. Just working on getting the basic stitches down just right.

Anyway.. point being.. remember that nifty scarf pattern I pointed out this morning? Of course you do. Unless your CRS is worse then mine.
( I graphed an alien )
-Shala

( now if I could figure out a basic cute bead woven body for mini bead amigurumi type figures.. I'm working on it.. )
Kind of want to finish my fossil necklace. Still unsure where I want to go with it. It will come to me.
-Shala

( well.. I tried. I like it. )
and a ( picture of my ocarina )
William can play Amazing Grace now. I'm still practicing scales. Thinking my son is well and truly hooked. I'll get a picture of his soon.
-Shala

While I was out doing the shopping last weekend with Dad and the kids, I was exhausted. We stopped at New Sagaya for a lb of my coffee, and I grabbed myself a ginseng root drink to help me stay awake.

The drink had in it a piece of ginseng root, and it looks like an alien podling.
( a bottle )
Not the greatest picture, the rest of the root looks like a finger with tentacles coming off of it. The little tentacle bits kept brushing my lips while I was tossing it down. A fairly unpleasant feeling.
So to the point, I've got the empty bottle with the podling in it. I love the shape of the bottle and was thinking of using it for the base of my Fur Rondy entry this year, bottles have always done well for me in competition. Do I take the podling out and bead the bottle gorgeously to look like Love Potion #9 thing, or do I leave the podling in and bead it with aliens and spirals and all sort of organic/freeform goodness with enough of a window to see the podling?

( Greetings Beadlings )
Today I think I'm going work on a pair of mittens. At least try my best. Life would be so much easier if I was more willing to follow other peoples patterns and not want so much to work it out myself.
-Shala