I definitely got the quiet, relaxing summer I hoped for back in May. I think I may have gotten a little too much of this particular type of summer, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Here are some of the few things I accomplished in the last few months:

• Failed my self-assigned summer reading
  To be fair, it was a very ambitious summer reading list, especially as I don’t read as much as I’d like to anymore. I didn’t fail it altogether, though. I did reread all seven of the Harry Potter novels, read three quarters of the complete works of Sarah Dessen, and read two of the books in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. I just didn’t read any of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares or A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.
• Did lots of crafting
  Those of you that followed my blog this summer will know about my various ventures into crafting. Sewing, knitting, cross stitching… I dabbled in lots of it this summer and have a lot of finished products to show for my work. It was definitely a way to increase my summer productivity!
• Actually began writing a novel
  Longtime readers of this blog will remember a few casual mentions of “my novel” here and there. This summer, I finally got around to actually writing it and even launching my online writing portfolio, amandaosborn.com.
• Failed to find a job
  I talked about how it sucked to be unemployed in May, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a job for the summer due to the increasingly poor job market. However, being unemployed this past summer wasn’t all bad. I made conscious efforts to not spend money unless absolutely necessary, and I was able to spend time doing things I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to, like crafting and writing.
• Experimented more with cooking
  I’ve always loved cooking, and for a portion of this summer, it was my job to do the cooking and making sure no one in my house starved to death. I had lots of successes, like my seafood paella, red velvet cake, and mac and cheese. I had one disaster where a carrot cake turned into a carrot souffle… but I’d rather not talk about that

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

I’ve added two new items to my Etsy shop yesterday: a cream-colored wave stitch scarf, and a crimson-colored twisted drop stitch scarf.

All the scarves I have knit previously have either been in a simple garter stitch or a rib stitch, so knitting the wave stitch was a welcome change. The pattern was worked in ten rows, so I just repeated the pattern until I got the desired scarf length. The great thing about the wave stitch is that it is reversible so that there is a “wave” pattern on both sides, which is always a must with scarves! I loved the cream color of the yarn too, cream is a great color that goes with any outfit and I like it better than the brightness of white for a scarf.

The twisted drop stitch was also a new stitch for me. It was much more simple than the wave stitch, so it was a quicker and easier knit. I worked the yarn over slightly larger needles than needed for the gauge for a looser knit, as the gauge wasn’t necessary for this particular project. The twisted drop stitch, like the wave stitch, is also a reversible pattern, so it looks the same on both sides.

Both of the scarves have fringes at the ends, which is something I’ve never done with my knitted scarves. When I was done knitting them, I felt like they were missing a particular element, so I added a fringe and the scarves were complete! I find that not all scarves look good with an added fringe, but I feel that these two particular ones would look unfinished without one.

As always, feel free to follow my Etsy shop’s Twitter account for all my Etsy updates!

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

In May’s Every Hour on the Hour post, one of my photos that represented an hour of my day was that of me sewing the seam for one of my current craft projects. I was making a knitted cupcake with a removable cake case! I purchased the pattern from Cakes Knits and Cosies at Etsy¹, and I’ve been experimenting with different colors for the cake cases, as well as different icings and decoration for each cupcake!

This particular cupcake was the very first one I made. It has a blue cake case, which can be removed from the actual cupcake, a vanilla cupcake base, yellow icing, with a pink cherry on top and pink sprinkles scattered atop the cupcake². The cake case was knit in a rib stitch, the cake base and cherry in a stockinette stitch, and the icing in a reverse stockinette stitch (for a more textured look in comparison to the smooth cake base), with each piece of the cupcake and cake case having various other stitches for increasing and decreasing during the knitting process. It was a fairly easy knit; I had knitted and stuffed the cake case, cake, and decoration in one night!

I gave this cupcake as a present to one of my high school teachers. She was the faculty sponsor for my high school’s knitting club and over the years has become more of a friend than teacher to me, a sort of “mentor,” if you will. It only seemed fitting that any gift I give her be one that I knit, seeing as I spent so much time with her and other members of the club knitting! She loved it, and I think that cupcakes will make perfect gifts. They’re lovely to look at and very cute, and they would be very handy pincushions!

1. For those who crochet and do not knit, I believe Cakes Knits and Cosies have crochet patterns for cupcakes as well as knitting ones. [↩]
2. You can’t clearly see the sprinkles in the photo due to the lighting and my poor photography skills, but if you click on the thumbnail for an enlarged version, the sprinkles are visible. [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

This past Saturday, May 23, was May’s day for Every Hour on the Hour (EHOTH), a monthly event hosted/run by Vegetarian Option. Essentially, you take pictures every hour on the hour of your day to give a visual representation of what it is like a day in the life. Here are my EHOTH photos for May!

First thing of the day is to brush my teeth and wash my face, of course. I use the Proactiv line for my facial cleansing, Clinique’s moisture surge for my facial moisturizer, and Neutrogena’s Norwegian Formula for my body moisturizer, in case anyone was wondering.

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.