Of Mail (Both Incoming and Outcoming), The Triforce Blanket, and an Idea

2-21-12


Consisting Of:
-Mail (Both Incoming and Outcoming)
-The Triforce Blanket
-An Idea


#1. Mail.
Today I received a letter from Bri in California - the first penpal I made on NaNoWriMo. <3 I actually had a bit of a heads-up that it was going to arrive today, because I hadn't gotten anything from her up till yesterday, and as we were heading to the post office today she sent me a message on Interpals saying that I'd probably noticed the missing page in her latest letter. So I wasn't entirely surprised to find it in my box, but I was happy nonetheless.


I'm not posting pictures of my incoming mail yet, because I don't have white-out to cover up my penpals' addresses and I'm too lazy to cut anything up for it.


However, here's the letter I'm sending to her in return!

The envelope and card are both hand crafted.
I hope they don't fall apart in the mail!

I've also contacted a few people today about hopefully becoming penpals, but I've yet to hear back from any of them, so we'll see. -fingers crossed-


#2. The Triforce Blanket
For those of you that don't know, the Triforce Blanket is an ongoing crochet project of mine, featuring the symbolic Triforce from The Legend of Zelda. Due to the way it was charted out on  graph paper, the final product will be rather large. Perhaps it will make a nice wall decoration, or a blanket for a Queen-sized bed. Progress as of 2-20-12 can be seen below.

#3. An Idea

And last but not least, something occurred to me today that (frankly) I'm surprised I haven't  thought of before. For over a year now, I've been trying to talk myself into participating in the 100 Themes Challenge on Deviantart, but I keep coming up with excuses: "I'm not artistic enough, my writing inspiration is currently MIA...." Well, today I got to thinking about it, and I asked myself: Why not blog about each of the themes? It would be easy enough to do #1. Introduction, because all I'd have to do is introduce myself. Then the rest would be as simple as my thoughts/memories/feelings about the other word themes, no? And for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about or are interested in participating, the 100 Themes Challenge can be found here. Wish me luck!

And, in other random news...

Today I spent most of my multi-tasking time at work studying Italian. I've decided that I want more than anything to become fluent in at least Italian and French, but hopefully Latin as well. It's so hard teaching myself from scratch, though... :(   -Hopes that someone who wants to pursue a career in teaching any of these languages will take pity on her- We also played a lot of Harry Potter trivia today, and I was so bad at it I have to go back and reread the books now. At least I knew who Hermione went to the Yule Tide Ball with. Dx Though his name was spelled Crumb on the trivia site. :|

AND. I am giving up FB slots until Easter, for Lent. ._. I can do this! It just means more time for blogging. Let's get this party started.

Friday, 2/17/2012

        Well, today was awesome on so many levels I'm not even sure where to begin. But when in doubt, I figure the best way to go is in chronological order. So!

         First off, I woke up and it was Friday. And because it was Friday, I got to see my little cousins this morning. I've decided to try and bring them something every time I see them, whether it's scarves or candy or coloring books- this time, it was crocheted bracelets.

                                                                                    
                                 See? Very simple, but I'm glad to have found a good use for the rainbow yarn.
                                                         Next project? Not-so-colorful crocheted headbands.

       Next, my aunt and I stopped by the store on the way to work so we could grab some breakfast. I ended up with three boxes of Pop-Tarts (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Strawberry Milkshake and Hot Fudge Sundae). But the best part was, when we got outside I decided to use the vending machine. I put $0.75 in, then changed my mind- and it gave me a dollar back. <3

      Dad managed to make it out for lunch, and he brought Subway. Ideal sandwich: footlong on Italian bread, with roasted chicken breast, pepperoni, black olives, oil & vinegar. (Sounds healthy, huh?)

      Other than that, the work day itself went by pretty fast. I got to do a little bit of reading, and I must say that The Book of Lost Things gets rather... intense (in a gross, almost gory way), but overall it's been a good read. I can't wait to see how it ends.

       Also, most of the people in my office have rubber band balls they've been working on throughout their careers, so today I decided to start my own. Thus SRB2 (Shelby's Rubber Band Ball) was born. And named. I've decided to give him his own section in the blog, so everyone can watch him grow!

       Lastly, after hanging out at my aunt's house and playing with the girls for a few hours, I stopped by the post office on the way home and found an awesome package from Ashley! In addition to a letter, she sent me a drawing she did when she was still in high school, a couple of collector pins from Disney World, a cute little cat, and Snow Geisha tea (white) from Teavana! This is definitely one of the best packages I've received- thanks so much, Ashley! I'll try to have one put together for you by the end of this next week.

                         
                                      The whole package. Notice the Disney stickers on the envelope. <3

Cars 2 Collector Pin from Disneyworld. I love Cars! 

                                                                               

                                      The tea and the cat! It's so cute, and I'm going to have
                                        myself a cup of tea as soon as I finish with this post.

                  Another collector's pin! Ashley had two of each, so she sent me her extras. >w<

    And my personal favorite- an amazing drawing of the amazing character, Edward Elric. There was lots of fangirl squealing when I pulled this out of the envelope. Oh, so very much. It means so much that you decided to send this, Ashley- I'm going to go look around and find it a special place of honor on my walls, and I will take great care of it.

     I just realized I'm insanely hungry (though I have no idea why, since I fed my face full of cheesy breadsticks at my aunt's house less than an hour ago...), so I'm going to make some soup and a cup of tea, then curl up to watch the Harry Potter marathon. Here's hoping I make it through driving school tomorrow!

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Thursday, February 16th, 2012

So, today was pretty good, as far as not-Fridays go. After sleeping in late this morning, I danced around my room to the Pokemon Johto theme while I was getting ready for work. And I finally got to have a vanilla frappucino this morning - since there's only been two left, I've saved them all week.

As usual, I got to do a fair bit of reading at work. I'm not about halfway done with The Book of Lost Things.

Now, for the highlight of the day:

Today I discovered the wonderful art of postcrossing. Even though I'll have to pay to send my post cards on my own (my dad takes care of my letters), I'm ridiculously excited about it. Today I have postcards going out to Canada, Russia, China and Germany. Hopefully they arrive and get registered soon so I can start receiving some as well!

And now it's off to bed! Thanks to everyone who's decided to follow my blog today!

The Art of Snail Mail

As I've mentioned, I love penpalling via snail mail. It's so nostalgic. So here's where I'll keep most of my ranting about my amazing penpals. owo

In other news, I've been exploring other peoples' penpal blogs, and I've sent out a few letters of introduction to people I found interesting along the way. I can't wait to hear back from them! And I sent out my own penpal ad that I hope will be put on display, so we'll see if I get any random letters. owo

I also received a letter from my new penpal, Kate, written in straight lines on beautiful, unlined stationery. Sadly, this is a talent I do not possess.

 Well, it's getting late here, so I guess that's it for now.

Much love!

-Shelby

Cleopatra's Daughter- Finished 2/15/12

February 16th, 2012

So, yesterday I finished yet another book at work- Cleopatra's Daughter, by Michelle Moran.

If you're into Ancient Egyptian historical fiction and haven't read it, I definitely recommend it. Unlike a lot of historical fiction novels that I thoroughly enjoy the first time, but wouldn't read it twice, I have the feeling I'll second this one in the future. I'd never heard of Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene before I picked this book up, but now that I've read it, I feel my chances of Ancient Egyptian-themed jeopardy have greatly increased.

Tonight I've started on John Connolly's the Book of Lost Things, which I should be done with sometime in the next week or so.

If anyone has any book recommendations for me, I'm always looking for more suggestions!