HSKS 11 - third week activity

This week's game is a scavenger hunt. Here are my results:

1) Campfire...

I found this ever so cute pattern from CraftyAnna on Etsy



2) Pinecone...

And I found a marvellous pattern for a pinecone at this website.



3) Bowtruckle...

And here's a pattern for a Bowtruckle, which was designed by a Dragonsinger (I suspect it's our very own Rowan Dragonsinger - aka my spoilee)



4) Candle...

Cute little candle pattern



5) Muggle trash...

Did you know that muggles keep monsters in their trash?



6) Water balloon...

I couldn't find a water balloon pattern, but I wanted to stick with my theme so I've bent the rules a little. Here's a water pattern and a balloons pattern




7) Edible plant...

Have some nummy strawberries



8) Creature that lives in the lake...

I'm so adding this kraken to my queue



9) Bird feather...

This time I've picked a gorgeous cross stitch pattern



10) Yarn...

Surprisingly, I couldn't find a pattern to make a ball of yarn, so I'm just going to use this pretty one instead.



11) Hogwarts/house pride item...

I'm going to my LYS to buy green and black yarn tomorrow! This is why. Go Slytherins!



12) Bathing suit...

Finally, here's a delicious old-fashioned bathing suit.

Trouble sleeping

I'm tired. I'm tired all the time. My depression makes me tired, and my anti-depressants make me tired. Constantly tired, every second of every day. So why do I have such trouble sleeping?

When I decide that it's time for bed, I curl up under the quilt and watch an episode of a show, or read a few chapters of a book, then I roll over (usually a few times, one of my many doglike tendencies) and close my eyes. I count. I stay perfectly still and I count my breaths. If I move, I have to restart the count. If and when I reach a certain number, it's obvious I'm not going to fall asleep and I get up to do something.

Occasionally, it doesn't work like that. Occasionally, I try and try and try, and I can't even lay still, let alone count. On those occasions, and actually on most occasions, I start to think. I think about everything. From whether or not I remembered to check a certain website, to what I got up to that day, to what I need to get up to the next day, to whether or not my boyfriend has been in a horrible accident, to whether my friend is doing okay with the whole trying-to-be-single thing, to whether my sister will outgrow her current phase, to why my cat won't come and give me a cuddle, to whether I'm ever going to see my boyfriend again, to how I could sell a kidney, to....

Well, it goes on. And on and on and on. It doesn't stop. Sometimes it's just inane randomness, and sometimes it heads towards the darker stuff. Like, my relationship with my father. And my fears. And all kinds of other things that I just don't like to think about so I try to keep my mind busy all day, but they sneak up on me when I lie down to sleep. And that cloud of depression sneaks up on me. All of a sudden my dark and depressing thoughts turn to how to deal with the darkness and depression. Whether or not I should forget about sleep and get up and do stuff to keep my mind busy again, and try to sleep when I just can't stay awake long enough. Whether or not I can manage without slicing my skin open and watching the blood again. Whether or not I'm going to heat up my binge food, or just stuff it into my mouth cold. Whether or not I'll try one of the other self-injury methods that have been floating around my head for a while now.

This particular time, I've chosen to eat another three portions of my tart from earlier, a big bar of cooking chocolate and half a can of whipped cream. I might try sleeping again in a minute, but if it fails a second time, a binge won't suffice. And I'm trying very, very hard to stop adding scars to my ever-growing collection. So I'm blogging. I'm leaving a nice depressing ramble for all you internet lovelies who pop onto my blog to read about my crafts and my cat. Sorry.

Little Green

Here's a cross stitch I did a while ago. His name is Little Green and I found the pattern in issue 121 of Cross Stitch Crazy magazine. He took lots and lots of work. I actually finished him in May but it's taken me a while to get him sorted and framed.

Apple, bacon and onion tart

This is an apple, bacon and onion tart from Evil Shenanigans and it's delicious. I put a little too much parmesan (twice what the recipe asked for) in the crust, but it tasted fine.

The good news is that the muffins weren't just a fluke, and apparently I can bake quite well. The bad news is that this tart is 8 weightwatchers points a slice, with 8 servings in the tart. Very, very pointy. But very, very delicious.

I Can Bake!!

Here, have some Bacon and Cheddar Muffins...



Since the whole banana cream pie process, I've been wanting to do much more baking. I make the mistake of looking for recipe blogs. Now I have a list of a bajillion recipes I've wanted to try. I started last night with these Bacon and Cheddar Muffins from Evil Shenanigans.

I was a little concerned, because I have a tendency to be catastrophic with my cooking, but it went well. All the ingredients in the right order, no burning, nothing wrong. And they looked great when they came out of the oven. And, even better, they were delicious!!

HSKS - I won a prize!!

Yay, I won one of the two weekly drawing prizes...



I've never dyed my own yarn before, I'm very excited! Of course, I'm also semi-tempted to just drink the kool-aid.

New Thing: Challenge # 29

Challenge 29 - list ten things every day that make you happy.

I so very nearly made it this time. Unfortunately nearly isn't good enough...

Friday

1) Mini aliens
2) Long baths with a good book
3) Cuddles from a kitty cat
4) Finishing off a piece of work
5) Delicious frappes from Caffe Nero
6) Spearmint chews
7) The MSN "you have a message" noise
8) Pizza
9) When Neil pays me a compliment
10) Soft, smooth, easy-to-work with yarn

Saturday

1) PB&Js
2) Friends who bring jam and bread
3) Completing collecting a book series
4) Text messages
5) Killing random beasties on WOW
6) Yarn p0rn
7) Delicious smelling incense/candles
8) Filing paperwork
9) Free gifts with magazines
10) Having a clean and tidy house (without having to clean)

Sunday

1) Come Dine with Me
2) Making lists
3) The smell of freshly cut grass
4) Neil cuddles
5) Sorting and alphabetizing books
6) Donuts
7) Nerd jokes
8) Not having any laundry to do
9) Putting beads in ROYGBIV order
10) Winning a shuntbumping or quidditch match

Monday

1) Getting something to work without needing help
2) Michael McIntyre
3) Receiving swap packages
4) Sleepy Neil texts
5) Chicken McNuggets
6) Learning and new stitch and managing it
7) Ice cold drinks on an uber-hot day
8) Shiny new stationary with clean blank pages
9) Old musty smelling books
10) Cherry tomatoes

Tuesday

1) Weighing less at a Weightwatchers weigh in
2) Losing 8lbs when you expected to have put weight on
3) Sherbert burps
4) Unexpected gifts
5) Winning a raffle
6) A night without nightmares
7) Christmas
8) Colouring in
9) Ripping off a scab cleanly and smoothly
10) Getting 100% on a quiz

Wednesday

1) Brainwaves
2) Finding something to do with a swatch
3) Recognising my own achievements
4)
5)
....

And that's where I ran out of happy.

Current saved total: £55
Current donated total: £90

HSKS 11 - second week activity

WINGO!!



Okay, along the bottom row...

W5 - Hermione Bagnold has been in 11 HSKS, since HSKS 6.

I5 - Gryphon the Great has been on lots of camping trips.

N5 - Clara Clovenhoof plays the trumpet and the piano.

G5 - Phelia Balycastle was born in October like me.

O5 - Celestina Pettigrew brought her owl Tyto to camp.

WINGO BINGO WINGO!!

HSKS - Celeena Cree - the details

Hello, I'm Celeena Cree. I'm a pureblood witch, and I attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This year was my first term (HSKS 10), and I was put in Slytherin by the Sorting Hat. I got into a bit of a scuffle during a fight with a Gryffindor; fool resorted to physical violence and snapped my wand. My new one is a beautiful Willow one, with a dragon heartstring core. It's a nice manageable 9".

I came to attend Hogwarts after I met some fellow students during last year's Quidditch season (HSKS 9). My Montrose Magpie teammates just could not shut up about Hogwarts, so I chose to transfer.

And now I'm making even more friends in Shell Cottage at Summer Camp (HSKS 11). I've been trying and trying to make a successful patronus, and apparently something about this fresh country air has helped. My patronus is a bear!

I'm told it means that I have gentle strength, and stands for introspection and dreaming.

HSKS 11 - WINGO hints

Here are how the WINGO squares apply to me, to help anyone who needs to fill in a gap...

I don't spin my own yarn, I can't afford another addiction.

I've never worked on a summer camp, always wanted to go to one but they don't really have them here in Blighty.

I've been on many, many trains. I travel two hours each way to see my boyfriend a couple of times a month in Preston.

My favourite brand of yarn is Malabrigo.

I only speak English.

I've seen all the HP movies in the theatre.

I don't dye my own yarn.

This is my HSKS so I don't think I count as new.

I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers.

I have 11 items in my queue.

My patronus is a bear - symbol of gentle strength, introspection and dreaming.

I collect monkeys.

My wand got destroyed in a quidditch crash (I landed on my butt and snapped it) so I had to get another one. My new one is 9", made of Willow with a dragon heartstring core.

I've been to a lot of castle, we have hundreds of them in Blighty.

I make stitchmarkers all the time - you can find them in my beading projects under the projects tab.

I live in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England.

I used to go camping all the time when I was younger, not recently though.

I don't play a musical instrument, but I do sing if that counts?

I was born in October.

I brought my cat Pixel to camp.

Bucket Bag

That yarn I made the giant mini alien with? It's called Sirdar Bigga, and it's huge. And since, aside from the giant mini alien, it was beginning to be unlikely I'd ever use it for anything, I decided to make a bucket bag out of it to store yarn in.

Here are some really bad pictures of it...

Ishmael

Months and months ago now I played Mad Scientist (aka Moderator) for a circle of travelling creatures. The idea being you make a body, then you send it on to the next person on the circle, who makes a head for it and sends it on, and so on. You get the body of the person before you and make a head for it, then you get the body and head of the person two places before you. When your creature gets back to you it's travelled all over the world (UK, USA and Korea in this case) and is completely insane looking.




Forgive the horrible pictures. A) I'm useless with a camera, and B) my digital camera is out of batteries.

Creative Writing 101 - Lesson 2

Ok, so I read that lesson and I've decided to give up this course. I'm very good at giving up courses. But I have a reason. This course is more of a lecture. Each lesson is 5-6 pages of telling me about stuff. I'm not looking for that kind of thing. If I wanted to know about different genres, I'd do the research. I'm looking for a course with lots of exercises and tasks. I have a few courses bookmarked, I'll see if any of the others suit me.