Postcard feature: BY-930053, PL-710853, FI-1798019 *explicit*

A few postcards I have received recently and particularly liked.

BY-930053

I quite like this one for the very in-depth explanation of the front of the card.  And Opposition sucks!!

Hello Tanya!  I am Ann from Minsk, Belarus.  I chose this card for you because it's a very special symbol for my country.  Centuries ago it used to be flag (white-red-white) and symbol (image in the center) of our country.  Those times it called the Grand Dutchy of Lietuva (Lithuania nowadays) and was the greatest state in Europe in the Middle Ages.  The symbol is called "Cahse" ("PAGONIA" in belorussian langauge).  Nowadays these are symbols of our political opposition.  Opposition sucks (so as legal government) but symbols are beatuful and have very rich history.  Happy postcrossing!

PL-710853

The front of this card is mediocre at best, but I think it may win the award for best message ever.

My country is so proud of JPII, that they want me to put him here four times.  Now I don't have place for anything else.  Everything best from me.  You are great person, people loves you and you diserve all the unicorns and rainbows.  I want to give you pie, but it will be not fresh, so, well, I'm sorry, no pie.
Love
Hero

Added bonus of picture of sender telling me that I'm awesome!

FI-1798019

I like this one because BOOBS.  Generally I get these delivered to work, but have changed that now because BOOBS.  I have nothing against boobs, and even have two of my own, but you know, workplace!  LOL

Dear Tanya,

Summer greetings from Tempere, Finland!  This card shows you very typical and famouns finnish activity - SAUNA.  I love to be there; my soul and body relax and will be clean.  It's like re-born.  HAve you heard sauna earlier?

Enjoy postcrossing!

Liris

Sauna is unfortnately (or fortuantely?) not common in Australia!

~Tan

p.s.  Not a postcrosser?  Why the frick not!?!

introducing...

...my mum!

You think I was slack taking 6 months to finish that moose?  Well, just turn away now.

This frickin poncho for my mum took me over 2 years.  I had reasons.  Mostly, I found it super boring.  And then, I'd left it alone so long that when I did pick it up I found so many problems with it it, having levelled up so much in the meantime, I didn't like working on something so full of issues.  Anyway, finally just sucked it up and finished it.  Do you think my mum looks happy?

So usually I show you pictures of The Kitten interfering with my photography, but this time I had a different visitor.  This time, it's my niece!

Pattern:  Aran Toggle Wrap.  Meh.  Mum chose the pattern, I personally think it's a bit fugly and would probably prefer not to be seen with her when she wears this hulk of a garment in public.  To top it off she asked me to make her a matching hat!  *vomit*
Yarn:  Again, yarn acquired in the BWM bargain room.  This is called Shetland, and stupidly, it's not machine washable and is going to felt like a s.o.b.
Ravelled here.

~Tan

-Linking with-
Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

to decrease or not to decrease

I've already mentioned in passing that I'm participating in another KAL.  Considering my opinion of the last one who knows what I was thinking.  I think Liesl made it sound too enticing.  There's a hefty amount of time given to knit and I had Miette in my queue anyway.  Those are my reasons.

I can't tell you the number of projects I cast on without the correct weight of yarn, but it's a lot.  I'm such a big fan of using whatever is handy and dealing with the consequences later.  This project is no exception.  I kinda tried to do a gaguge swatch and didn't really get what I was doing, so instead I'm just kntting the largest size hand hoping it's kind of wearable.  I feel able to do this because I got the yarn for nothing, and it is neither my colour nor is it nice to touch, so I don't mind.  Also, this is my first adult sized cardigan (!) so at the very least it should be a useful learning process.

Anyway, progress so far.  It looks like the top of a cardigan!  Neat-o! 

I can haz more light?

The pattern has these cute little bust darts, which has caused a bit of a dilemma.  My stitch count is already all over the place as I've thrown a couple more increase rows in to accomodate my chubby arms, plus I think I missed some increases somewhere because it just wasn't adding up.  So I've fudged the placement of the sleeves slightly so it's even.  I'm already re-drafting the pattern to make sure I get the lace correct, I really can't be assed to work out where to put the decreases in as well!  Plus, I generally wear my cardigans open or partially open, so the necessity to have it fitted falls away a bit.

tl;dr - I've fucked the pattern up and now am too lazy to work out where I should put the darts, so I'll probably leave them out.

~Tan

p.s. if you're thinking about knitting this pattern check out this page at Today's Agenda for lots of notes about how to make this cardigan (gauge, how much yarn and more) which were compiled during a past KAL.  SO helpful!

Linking to- WIP Wednesday (Tami's Amis) | WIP Wednesday (Ambassador Crochet) | Yarn Along (Small Things) | Keep Calm and Craft On {Crafting on} (Frontier Dreams) | What you doing Wednesday (SusanD1408 Crochet Addict) | Hookin on Hump Day (My Merry Messy Life)

365: 121-140

I think I'm up to date with a my photo-a-day.  Woo!  So, here is another dose of my very exciting life, illustrated in square chunks badly filtered.  Enjoy.

121.  Treated myself to a new pop figure (picture in the vein of Lisa ;o)
122.  The foyer of my building.  Fancy.
123.  I am so grateful to have amazing friends that know me so well to buy me the most thoughtful gifts.  In this case, Rhonda.  An amazeballs box of yarn, but the best thing is the box says cool things like 'sup' which is like, how I greet people.  Yes, I am that lame.  I love you Rhonda.
124.  Amazing custom handmade card, made by another of my amazeballs friends.  (It was my 30th birthda on the 2nd)
125.  Eureka! Snapped in the car on the way through the city.  I can has photography skillz.
126.  This is Elouise!  Cute huh?  But not as cute as...
127.  The Kitten!  Aawww
128.  What's this?  I'm doing another KAL?  What the frick.  Will share when it's behaving a bit more photogenically.
129.  Just a lovely sky.  And my neighbour's aerial.
130.  My outdoor succulents are doing quite well.  Thanks for asking.
131.  Pretty sunset, not that you can really tell. *shrug*
132.  Still pretty addicted to the vlogbrothers.  French the Llama! 
133.  Mmmm roast turkey dinner.
134.  Another pretty sunset, inexpertly captured through the train window.
135.  OMG a new Earl Canteen near my work.  Pork Belly *drool*
136.  Flinders Street.  I stole this idea from other igers.  Sorry not sorry. 
137.  EB4L.
138.  Random fact:  A large part of my teenage life involved coming home from school and listening to Martin/Molloy while I did my homework.  Recently learned they made a comic, as Partner has it.  Cooooolllll.
149.  The Kitten.  Awwww
140.  Yeah this blue box had a white cloud on it.  I had to.

~Tan

hooray for hollywood

Love love love the way this turned out.  It knit up really quickly, and is just plain pretty.  And red.  Red is the perfect colour for a predominantly grey and black Melbournian wardrobe.  Just look at it ok?  And then tell me how awesome it is 

I never know how to pose.  The following is an example of trying to work out the modelling business.

Oh you were wondering about the title?  Well then.

Sign set up for the Hollywood Costumes exhibition currently showing at Fed Square.  Will prob be the only time I will ever see a Hollywood sign!

Thanks again to the awesome Clara for taking the pictures! 

Pattern: Streusel.  You know how there are patterns where you question whether it's worth buying it because you probably could work it out for yourself?  This isn't one of those patterns.  It's incredibly clever, well written and definitely worth the $5.50 price tag. The only mod I made was make it a bit longer by making about 15 repeats after increasing and before decreasing.  Anyway, this scarf pwns.  I kinda wish I had blocked the edge a bit more aggressively, but whatevs!

Yarn: An excellent excellent bargain from (you guessed it) the Bendigo Woollen Mills bargain room.  I think it's luxury but not really sure. Anyway, it's really nice and it was so cheap ($1.50/ball) because of uneven dying, which I really like and you can see in that close up picture. 

Ravelled here. 

~Tan

-Linking with-
Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots | Muster Party (Fluster Buster)

Don't ask me for things

Because it will take me half a year (or probably more) to get them to you.

I always get very flattered when someone asks me to make them something, and initially quite enthused to make it, but then I get stuck on a bit and the poor item sits languishing with all my other abandoned WIPs.  With this poor moose the part I got stuck on was the sewing of the pieces together.  Definitely the most horrid thing about amigurumi.  When I finally did get around to it it didn't take that long and it turned out super.  So super that Partner was lamenting the fact that I always give 'the good things' away.  Ha!

I had wanted to go down to a park to take some photos, but ran out of time.  Instead I utilised the weeds in my back yard.  It works though, eh?

I'm also going to note how delighted recipient was with moose. In fact, I made it so recipient could give it away to someone else, but recipient is considering keeping it for herself! Which I have taken as a huge compliment to me!

Pattern:  Moose.  Very good pattern, just look at his little nobbly legs!  I used coins in the hooves to keep the bottoms flat.  gave the feet a bit of weight too which adds to the stability of this top-heavy creation.  Googly eyes at the recipient's request, as the whole request was inspired by this card.
Yarn:  Random acrylic for the most part, the brown is Panda Magnum Soft 8ply.
Ravelled here.

~Tan


-Linking with-
Tami's Amis FO Fridays | Fiber Arts Fridays at Wisdom Begins in Wonder | Natural Suburbia for Creative Fridays | I've Made Friday at SusanD1408 Crochet Addict | I ♥ Fridays at Petals to Picots

Tanya does movies: June

Last month was a month of blockbusters, and not nearly as many retro movies?  Maybe that's a good thing!

Texas Chainsaw (2013)
The Partner was on my case to watch this and now I wish I'd seen it sooner.  It's meant to be a direct sequel to the original  and picks up directly from the girl escaping.  I really enjoyed it - it gave a bit of depth (I know it's a crazy horror movie so only for a given value of "depth") particularly giving certain characters motivation for doing what they do.

Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)
A very meh movie.  It was ok, made for kids.  Ewan McGregor was the highlight, his character was very good.  It also has that dude from Warm Bodies in it.  And I generally like the whole kings/queens/princesses thing.

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)
I had no idea what this was about before we started watching.  I didn't even see the cover of the movie, so I thought it was about cigarettes somehow.  I figured with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor it would surely be good.  And it really really was.  Super weird but also extremely touching, definitely worth a watch.

The Proposal (2009)
Oh god this movie made me throw up in my mouth a little.  Well, I should have known better because romantic comedies are going to be pretty disgusting.  Well, it was good for what it was.  I really wish Sandra Bullock would do some cooler movies rather than the usual, and Ryan Reynolds, you should know better!

VHS 2 (2013)
I hadn't seen the first one and you really don't need to.  This is an anthology of stories, each one capturing some a terrifying tale on tape, and then watched by some unsuspecting innocents who happen upon the abandoned tapes.  There's a wide variety of stories, including about demons, aliens and zombies.

Yes, this is a birdhouse made of VHS tapes.  What else could you possible do with them?

Men in Black 3 (2012)
Josh Brolin does a fine fine job as young Agent K.  Quite enjoyable, I'm sure you've seen the previous movies so expect more of the same.

Ok, a very tenuous link to  MiB3, but what a rad picture right?

Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
Dammit I can't believe I haven't watched Star Trek apart from the recent movies.  How rad are the movies?  I loved these movies.  Simon Pegg was brilliant.  As was Benedict Cumberpatch.  I didn't even think of Sherlock, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to think of him as a different character. Loved it.

This is a DIY project - make your own star trek tshirt! 

The Taint (2010)

This movie wins 'The most ridiculous movie I watched in June 2013' award.  I can't even describe it.  I'll try though.  So the water gets 'tainted' with a disease (?) which only effects the male population, which makes them, overly attracted to females (? trying to keep it clean - btw the movie is pretty crude).  It's up to one school kid who for some reason has a gun to save the world.  This one also falls into the 'So-bad-it's-good' pile, if you like that sort of thing.

Ninja Assassin (2009)
If you like crazy ninja action (really, who doesn't) you'll like this movie.  Apparently a spin off (?) of Speed Racer, which I love, this movie tells the story of a young boy recruited into a crazy ninja lifestyle from very young, only to turn his back on his fellow ninjas, who don't appreciate that very much.

This rad hoop was made by the one and only Lisa from Tea and Craft!  

Man of Steel (2013)
I went into this movie with low low low expectations, so was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it!  Partner (a comic-book aficionado) didn't like a lot of it, but in terms of the character he agreed that they did Superman a justice.  Still no contest between this and Christopher Reeve, the very embodiment of Superman forever and ever, but still a good movie.  Amy Adams was a rad Lois too.  Oh, one complaint, where the frick was Jimmy?

Escape from Planet Earth (2013)
A kids movie.  You know by now that I love kids movies, so that's not a bad thing, but this one was very average, even judigng against my low low standards.  Alien race responds to distress call on Earth, gets captured by the MiB and tries to escape.  Sounds more exciting than it was.

Waterworld (1995)
Kevvvvviinnnnn Kossstttneerrrr!  Such a great movie, I don't know why it gets such a bad rap.  It's like Mad Max on water, how could that be a bad thing?  The one thing I don't get - you think a dude with gills would be, like, an asset in a world of water, but nooooo everyone wants to kill him.  People suck!

And the pick of the month?  Star Trek was very very good, but I Love you Phillip Morris really got to me.

~Tan


Unless otherwise stated, all pictures randomly found on etsy.  Click the picture to see the original listing to buy the rad stuff.

365: 101-120

Still having some trouble keeping up with photo-a-day but I will persevere!  Even if I miss a day or two, I'm still digging looking back to see what I was doing on those other days.

101.  Yummy Pffefferfferfenusse
102.  I actually saw Arnie in the flesh.  In the fleeessshhhhhhh!
103.  My tureen collection has a new home.
104.  Churros for breakfast.  Sanchurro himself/itself also commentendeddon my photo!!
105.  Hanami.
106.  Moose complete sans eyes.
107.  The Kitten!
108.  Mmmm Chocolate.  It's for charity so it hardly counts.
109.  Niece no 2's artistic depiction of me.
110.  And niece no 1's version of me.
111.  Playing Skip-Bo with my sisters.
112.  Rooster spotted at at CERES. (My sister even knew what breed it was)
113.  Current obsession: vlogbrothers
114.  The view from work.  At night.
115.  The coke machine at work. 
116.  Still at work (The clock says 3.49AM btw) Can you sense a theme?
117.  Lemony Snicket's new book.  Taking me far too long to read but good so far.
118.  Cute little quote from aforementioned book.

This was nonsense, of course, but there's nothing wrong with occasionally staring out the window and thinking nonsense, as long the nonsense is yours.

119.  Iron man and his bitches.  Best toy display ever.
120.  This is what a $6 coke looks like.

~Tan

p.s. I did not mean to take 2 separate pictures of coke.  The last 20 days have obviously required caffeine.