Summer Goals

I should have posted my summer goals at the beginning of the summer. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might know that, at least when I'm not immersed in the life of a law student, I'm usually working towards goals in four different arenas - knitting, beading, hiking, and running. So here is an update on how these different things are going for me.

Beading: Right on track! I completed an EBW Challenge piece that I'm really proud of. I listed two pieces that were on the back burner forever. I experimented with shapes, like I wanted to. I have two pieces that are almost ready to list and another piece that's about half finished right now. Now that I have a brand new camera, these pieces will be displayed here and on my Etsy site very soon. I also made a new piece for myself, and as a bonus, Sam found a piece I'd made for myself years ago under the radiator!

Knitting: I kind of told myself that I would finish one sweater this summer. Unfortunately, it looks like that is not going to happen. I've been working on my double v cardigan, but after I messed up and had to unknit for many rows. This was really boring and caused me to avoid the project for a while. So I'm still on the first piece - the back piece - though I'm almost done with it. I'd have to really struggle to finish by the end of the summer, and really, that's not a challenge I feel like undertaking right now. But I'll keep working on it, because it's true that I can't wait to wear it!

Oh, and also, my crocheting is on hold. That one stitch I was doing got very tedious. Hopefully I will get the patience to pick that blanket up again soon.

Hiking: This is a hobby that's never really materialized as much as I would have liked. I did some backpacking in high school, which I absolutely loved, but since then, I haven't hiked very much at all. Sam and I went a couple of times before I started law school, but especially since we live in the city, hiking is an all-day adventure for us, and I simply haven't had time to go on an organized trip. It's true that I had an internship this summer and had weekends off, but law school doesn't really end when the semester is over - there are still things law students need to be working on over the summer (like, you know, finding a job). BUT Sam and I are going hiking in Virginia for two days in about a week and a half! I'm super excited about it!

Running: This was a lost cause this summer. After years of knee pain, I found out a couple of years ago that I had tendinitis and cartilage damage. I can still run, but I have to build up my quads first. This past year and this summer, I was pretty bad about going to the gym. So for now, I have to work on my quads before I can even start running again.

My internship is over now (which is sad, because I really loved it) but I don't quite feel like I'm on vacation. I do have some things that need to get done ASAP. Still, I have two more weeks to work on my goals. But they're really only loose goals - I have enough stress in my life already and I'm not going to let my hobbies add to that stress!

Wednesday: An evening of lines. (Or queues, as we call them in Australia)

I got a new camera! And it works!! After work on Wednesday, Sam and I went to B&H. That place is both insane and awesome. Once I decided what to get, I got a printout of the camera. Then we had to wait in three different lines before we actually received the thing. But for such a crowded place, it was so efficient! I was impressed.

Then, we went to a show on the lower east side. Sam's friend's band was playing for. They were having a BBQ on the roof, so we got tickets and waited. And waited. We were in that line for an hour, and we only saw the band's last two songs! Somehow, though, we made the most of it. Waiting there for our hamburgers and hot dogs was pretty comical. And I haven't been out on a weeknight in forever! Years, probably. This isn't something I can do all the time, especially now that I'm in law school, but mixing it up like that can be really fun every once in a while.

I still have to charge the batteries in my new camera, but pictures WILL be coming to this blog! I promise!

Ice Skating

Things have been pretty hectic around here lately, and they're not going to get less hectic any time soon. There are so many things I have to do that are related to being a law student - even during the summer. So my crafting has slowed down a lot over the past couple of weeks.

Today, though, I'm putting everything on hold to go ice skating! You see, I was a little late jumping on the Groupon bandwagon. When I started paying attention to Groupon, I bought several Groupons all in a row - Groupons to things I've always wanted to do but never had the time, and Groupons to places I haven't been in a really long time. This Groupon to Chelsea Piers Ice Skating is going to expire, and this is the last weekend we can use it. It's kind of nice to have that as an excuse to do something different from my normal routine. I figure skated for a while when I was younger, and I always love to go ice skating - I just never seem to find the time. So now I am making the time!

A lifeline would have been nice...

As was pointed out to me last night at my knitting group, a "lifeline" really could have saved me a huge headache. For those of you who don't live, eat, sleep, and breathe knitting, a "lifeline" is a piece of yarn threaded into live stitches of knitting (stitches that are currently on knitting needles) that can be easily removed. If you make a mistake and you've given yourself a lifeline, you can rip out the stitches up to the lifeline, and the lifeline will keep the stitches in place so you can just put the needles back, instead of painstakingly unknitting for hours, as I have been doing for the past few weeks. I always remember to use lifelines when it's too late. That's how most of my lace projects have ended or been indefinitely postponed. I'm determined not to let all this unknitting stand in the way of my current project, Double V Cardigan, but it sure is making the process a whole lot slower!

my life in the blogosphere

As I think I may have made clear on this blog recently, during the summer, I have a lot more time for my "other" life. Don't get me wrong, I'm interning (at a place I LOVE) and doing other law-related things, but I do have some time to work on crafts and my blog.

So I've been really diligent about Entrecard recently. For those of you who don't know what Entrecard is, it's a site where people find other people's blogs, read them, and then drop an entrecard, which is the new-aged version of an old fashioned calling card (or a business card, perhaps), on the blog's entrecard widget. You get one entrecard credit ("ec") each time you drop on someone else's widget. Then, when you accumulate enough ec's, you can "purchase" an ad on a blog of your choice. The "price" of the ad depends on how popular the blog is with advertisers. So that pretty much sums up Entrecard, right?

I'm really loving "my" Entrecard blogs - I love that I'm keeping up with people all over the world in their various pursuits - art, life, politics, nature...the list goes on! It really is a community! A chapter of my college thesis was about online communities (online knitting communities, to be exact), and since then, I've always been fascinated with online communities.

Facebook is another matter. I may be fascinated with the anthropological aspects of online communities, but I'm still 27! I was in college when Facebook was invented, so it has definitely become a part of my everyday life. It's made me so lazy, because when I like a post on Facebook, I just click "like." But you can't really do that on people's blogs. Sometimes I just want to write "I like this," but then I don't have anything specific to say, other than a general affirmation of the post, so I don't say anything at all. I've got to work on that!

And speaking of blogs, Sam is going to start a new blog! It's going to be a movie review blog, but the movies are going to be movies that are hard to find. (I thought he should call it "Not on Netflix," but he has a different name for it - which now escapes me.) He formed this whole idea months ago. He made a list of movies that are not on Netflix and gave it to his whole family, including me. Then his mom found a movie rental place that is able to order in a lot of the movies on his list, so he took everything that the place carries off of the list for the family. All he wants for his birthday, etc. are movies from the list. So that's what I got him for his birthday on Tuesday! I selected movies from the O-R section of the list, and bought VHS tapes and DVDs from EBay. Now, Sam has watched so many of these movies, he only has to start the blog! (If he had actually started it, I would totally have linked to it, but for now, this post just has to be a teaser.)

the good news and the bad news

I'll start with the bad news.

I called Olympus today. Their tech support has been very helpful (I've also emailed them a couple of times), and apparently, my brand new camera that I've never even used needs repairs and it will cost up to half as much as I paid for the camera to repair it. So I think this is a sunk cost. I have to buy a new camera - my shop can't exist without one.

The good news is that TWO Etsy purchases arrived today. (Maybe if I laid off the Etsy purchases, I could actually afford a new camera!) But these two were well worth it. They're BOTH more beautiful in person than in their photos, but unfortunately, I have no camera with which to take their pictures. But here are the pictures from their Etsy listings.

The first is this pair of earrings by TotusMel. These earrings are my perfect shape, size, and color! And they're so fun/funky and delicate looking at the same time!
The second is this amazing top by iheartfink. I can just tell, it's one of those articles of clothing I will wear every day and only take off (a) to wash, or (b) so that I don't look weird for wearing the same thing every single day - which I have been known to do (just ask my mom!)
Oh, and they look amazing together too!

My new bracelet

Yes, MINE! I made it for me! Ok, well I didn't actually make it for me, but it turned out slightly unperfect, so I gave it to myself as a present. I'd like it to be a little longer, and I accidentally made the ends uneven. You can't tell about the ends, but I still couldn't sell something like that. Also, I have very narrow wrists, so the length is actually perfect for me, but since my bracelets are adjustable, I prefer to make my own wrists the smallest possible size for the bracelets that I sell so that they look good on people with normal sized wrists too.

BUT Sam is home from Chile, I have downloaded the program and I have the cord...and my computer isn't recognizing the cord! I think the store gave me the wrong one! This is the LAST time I buy a camera equipment somewhere other than online! To make matters worse, my old camera, which was already on the fritz, completely died while Sam was in Chile. So here are some really terrible photos that I took of a really beautiful bracelet on my computer's "photobooth."

A Bowl of Jewelry

Whenever I get all wrapped up in the world of crafts (i.e. when I'm not insanely busy with law school), I tend to visit Etsy a lot more. I'm listing new items and looking for love (i.e. checking to see which pieces are getting "views" and "hearts.") And then I always end up heating (favoriting) and buying other things that are up there. Here is one of my latest finds:
I bought this awesome piece from Red Hot Pottery about a month ago and it really just screams Adina. It's one of my favorite colors (you see, green is my favorite color, and this is one of my favorite greens), the flowers are so pretty and fun, and it holds my jewelry! It makes me so happy when I look at it in the morning when I'm putting on or taking off my jewelry!

Camera Saga Continued (and other news)

So I wrote to the camera company (Olympus), and they sent me a program to download. So now I will be able to take pictures AND upload them to my computer/blog/website. The problem? Sam accidentally took the cord that hooks the camera to the computer to Chile (along with the old camera). I have to wait a few more days to get it back.

I did finish another bracelet, but until I am able to get my camera back, I'll just have to leave this as a cliff hanger.

In other news, I seem to have been ignoring my knitting. The reason for this is that a few rows back, I made a couple of mistakes on the sweater I'm knitting. Because it is lace, I'm not going to chance frogging it - I'll have to unknit. That will probably take a couple of hours, and I'm not looking forward to it. So I'm kind of procrastinating.

And the Voting Begins!

To vote for your favorite Entry for the July EBW challenge, Sizzling Sunshine and Soothing Water, click on the link on the right hand side of the EBW blog between July 9 and July 15.

Happy voting!

More Beady Things

These two pieces had been on the back burner forever, but I finally finished and photographed them and listed them in my Etsy shop. It's so nice to have some new, sparkly, shiny things when I look at it :-)

Sizzling Sunshine and Soothing Water

My Etsy Beadweavers July Challenge piece is done!

Most of my beadweaving incorporates the peyote stitch to some extent. But this was my first crack at designing a peyote pattern and I must say, I'm pretty proud of it. It was inspired by a picture that Sam took from a helicopter when we visited Australia in 2009.

The only thing disappointing is that I just can't get this new camera to work. First I had to buy a new battery, and now I can't get the software to upload to my computer. So I feel like the colors in these pics aren't quite as pretty as they are in real life.

Interim Report!

In the past, I've gotten super excited about beading and then school has gotten in the way and my beading ambitions have fizzled out. Well, I can safely say that my July EBWC piece is still underway! I've also said in the past that I love these challenge pieces because they force me to stretch myself and use techniques I haven't used before, whilst staying true to myself and my own style. This remains true. This piece is taking a little longer than I thought it would, but I'm about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through with it. It's really fun to work on, but I still can't wait to photograph it and show you pictures!

Shop Announcement

From June through August, I will once again be routinely accepting custom orders in my Etsy shop! Woohoo!

Some Beady Things

Now that the semester is over, I have some time to work on my Etsy shop. (I seem to recall having said something to that effect last year, but this year I'm really going to do it!)

When the semester ends, I get a little crazy experimenting. I usually want to knit and bead as much as possible before my free time tapers off again. This summer, I'm determined to experiment with color and shape. I've always experimented with different shapes of peyote stitch, and I have some new shapes in my mind that I'm working on. I've been making a bracelet with tapered ends. It's turned out to be thicker than any bracelet I've ever made, so it should be a great addition to my shop.

I'm also entering the July EBW Challenge: Sizzling Sunshine and Soothing Water. I like the way my entry is turning out, but it's going to take a while - I had almost forgotten just how long these pieces take to make! Since I'm starting my internship next week and I still have a couple of things to keep up with for school, I'm pretty sure I'll need the whole month.

Oh and also, I got a new camera!!! I'm super excited about it! I got it when I was in Canada, and after the salesperson had me set on the model that was perfect for me (good for photographing jewelry AND good for adventurous travel), she realized that the only one left was the display model! I was going to get that one, but it was missing parts! So my dad and I ran through the mall and down the street to get to the camera place's sister store before it closed. The only one that place had, too, was the model, but it appeared to have all the parts, so we bought it. WELL, as it turns out, the battery wasn't just dead, as they told us it was in the store - it was broken! (In hindsight, I really should have ordered a new one online, but hey, I got $20 off!) But then I ordered a new battery online and this one seems to be working!

I've definitely noticed that my pieces that sell are the ones with the better photographs. This makes sense because good photographs (a) show the pieces' true beauty, and (b) look more professional. So I can't wait to use my new camera! :-)

Two Awesome Weekends

Two weekends ago, I visited my dad in Toronto. Actually, I was there for five days. I arrived on Thursday, and since the next Tuesday was Victoria Day, a public holiday in Canada, I left Tuesday. We had a great time seeing the city and even spent a day at Niagara Falls! In true "Dad and Adina style," it took us 4 hours to make the 1 1/2 hour trip because the freeway was closed (and other obstacles), but it wouldn't have been one of our adventures without those hurdles! And the Falls were beautiful! (My camera battery ran out so my dad bought me a disposable one and I still have to develop the photos - so there are more to come!)
Then, last weekend was my 5 year college reunion. I remember starting this blog a few months after I graduated, and I can't believe it's been five years!

Soooo....

I had my last day of trusts and estates today. Got on the subway and it was having signal problems. At the next stop, I got out and walked to a different subway line, about 10-15 minutes away. Got on the train and of course, there was an announcement that it was running on a different line. There was an announcement that the next one was running on the correct line, and since with my shortcut that would be so much faster, I got off and waited. The next train was the wrong line, so I waited some more. And then there was the right train AGAIN running on the wrong line. By this time, class was starting in 10 minutes. There was no way I could get there on time. I jumped out of the subway, and started running around looking for a taxi. And of course, because it was raining, combined with the fact that I live in Queens, I couldn't find any. FINALLY, I found a taxi. A very nice taxi. But I was still half an hour late!
The worst part of all? I left my Ishbel shawlette in the taxi.

Krista Tee

It's finals crunch time, but I did manage to take some exciting pictures of my completed Krista Tee. (And by "pictures," I mean "get Sam to take for me"):

Passover Break

starts today! (Well, for me it started yesterday because I don't have class on Fridays.) My law school is at Yeshiva University, so we get Passover off. It's also kind of our spring break. Passover is really late this year, so I'm pretty focused on outlining for my exams.

Nevertheless, there is always some time for creativity! I'm finally finishing up my Krista tee from two years ago. I worked on it obsessively the last time I was home in Sydney, and it's been sitting there waiting for me to weave in the ends, block it, put it together, and crochet the edging for the past two years. So yesterday, during my study breaks, I wove in all of the ends and blocked three out of four pieces - quite a feat for me!

Treasury

It's been quite some time since I've written about an Etsy treasury. But I'm just in love with this treasury curated by trinitydj, and it really is an honor for me to have one of my pieces featured amongst such beautiful things.

Crochet

I haven't crocheted in a few years, but I'm getting excited about starting again. There are a couple of patterns I've been looking in that would make great gifts. I'm really excited about them but I don't want to say much more so that I can add an air of mystery to this blog so that people read it (and also so that gift recipients can be surprised). :-)

Winter Break

I always feel so much more creative during winter break. Hot chocolate, pajamas, and beading or knitting make the perfect combination for me.

School breaks are always when I think more about my Etsy shop -- probably because that's when I actually have the time to think about it. It's about time I added more inventory! I've had so many ideas brewing for so long, I would love to just sit down and make the things!

This break, though, I have to finish the draft my note. A note is like an article for a law journal. Mine in about women's rights to refuse cesarean sections. It's a fascinating subject, I just wish I had more time to write my note AND to bead. (And to knit all of the patterns that have been accumulating on my Ravelry queue.) Hopefully I will finish my note draft early and then I will have time to bead and knit to my heart's content!