Fashion and crafts

Uh-huh, my male readers probably all just either gulped, groaned, or decided not to read my blog right now after all. ;)

I was amused by the fashion section in the paper today...not so much by the contents, but by the fact that it was right on the other side of the sports section. :) The funny things that happen when they squash the paper into fewer sections...

As far as fashion, the dresses that are in style this summer are...interesting. Things like these:













































I like how they're very flowy and feminine, but I don't like how they look like nightgowns. If they just had some more structure or sleeves I'd like them better...like in that last picture numbers 4 and 6 have sleeves, and #4 almost looks like a t-shirt and skirt, plus the model is wearing a belt with it.

I like the ones from last time these were in style, like the Gunne Sax dresses:
























Oh, I just remembered I have some vintage sewing patterns for dresses like that, though they all have long or short puffy sleeves...maybe I could come up with a way to put a different sort of short sleeve on them. Hmm... :)

All in all though, I don't really follow fashion trends. I like to look at what the fashion is "supposed to be" and maybe some ideas, or take one thing from it, but I generally just wear what I like.
Thing is, with my taste in clothes that can be jeans and a t-shirt one day, one of these sort of dresses possibly, and a preppy-ish business look the next. :) Well, perhaps not quite preppy...more like classic preppy. Or maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about because I don't really pay that much attention to "fashion". :D I know what I mean by a certain look, but I may not be using the right terms to describe it. At any rate, I wear what looks good, and for the most part it's usually something pretty simple, and if it happens to be in style...well...so be it. :)

As far as crafts, I've seen several neat things recently.

These flower hair clips are cute. Good way to get those pretty fabric flowers to stay in your hair. I'm wishing I had some fabric to make these now!

Fabric Easter eggs. I'm not quite sure that there's any really good use for them, but they're kinda cool.

This really neat tote bag. I think what I like most is that it looks like something you could buy (but not sew!), but you can make it at home, and they even have the pattern on there for free. Free is always good. ;)

Headband...looks like it might even stay on my head, though they usually slide off.

More fabric flowers. These ones can be made out of any fabric too, so I might be able to find something to make them.

I've been working on knitting this scarf out of some yarn I got at Goodwill (in other words I have no idea what kind it is). This is how far I've gotten so far...it's just shy of 14 inches.












Oh, and I'm also wondering if I've just blogged about all I have to blog about or what. I haven't been able to come up with anything to really write recently.

Natalie is:

...: doing a Facebook status style blog post. As in, on Facebook, you put in what you're doing at the moment so everything is "Natalie is:"
Actually you don't have to have the "is" in there...but it has to be in third person at any rate. (However, I tend to switch to first person half-way through what I'm writing if it's more than one sentence.) So...

Natalie:

: is not happy with the new Facebook layout!!! I don't think anyone is, actually. They changed it once before, not long after I signed up, and while it really bugged me for a while, it was well-designed and I got used to it. I may get used to this too, but well-designed it is not. At all.

: is trying to grow her hair out long again. I had it long before...I know for my 16th birthday it was about half-way down my back. Now I'm wishing it was long again so I'd be able to properly braid it and stuff like that. I want it to be long, but with some layers in it, so that it doesn't just look stringy and flat like it did last time it was long. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to get your hair to grow faster, and it supposedly only grows approx. 6 inches a year. At that rate it will be half-way down my back by this time next year. :( Ah well. Anyone know how to get your hair to grow faster?

: is temporarily a red-head...slightly. I had the leftovers of some temporary haircolor mousse stuff, so I put it on my hair yesterday. It's not terribly red, but rather red-tinted...in time for St. Patrick's Day! You know, looking Irish and all...

Here you can sort of see the red color...and the short little braid I can get my hair to stay in now. :P
























: is wishing for warmer, dryer weather. Thankfully, it's supposed to be warmer and partly-cloudy tomorrow, and getting better through the week.

: is silently complaining about wisdom teeth and feeling slightly sorry for herself. Over the weekend either from eating something sharp, or yawning too much, or something, I managed to injure my mouth, back in the back where it's apparently still not very strong after getting my wisdom teeth out. So I just took an Advil and am holding a heating pad on my jaw and moping. :(

: is knitting a scarf out of some random bright pink yarn. I got it at a garage sale or Goodwill, and there's just enough for a lacy scarf. It's this pattern, and I'll get a picture of the scarf when I'm a little further along. I've only got a few inches right now.

: made bagels last week! I'm so glad I tried it too...bagels are so yummy, and they're even better made at home. Next thing I need to try is making english muffins because I like those a lot too. I used this recipe for the bagels, added 2 t. cinnamon to the dough, and put a cinnamon streusel topping on them. Mmm...

: is thrilled to have figured out how to use the built-in spell-check in Firefox. I knew it underlined words with red if they were spelled wrong, but I didn't know that if you right-click on the word it gives you options for the proper spelling.

: has no more to say right now and is considering taking a real short nap.

It's too early

Urgh...I don't like daylight savings time. It usually doesn't bother me too terribly much, but this year it is. This whole week I've been unable to get to sleep, and then sleeping late (but not late enough), and waking up tired. I was blaming some of it on the weather...that I couldn't get to sleep because it was hot and stuffy inside...but that wasn't really it either. It just occurred to Mom and I late this week that it was because of the time change. :/ She had been having trouble getting to sleep too.

So anyway...awful daylight savings time is throwing us all off. (Is that supposed to be capitalized? It doesn't deserve it even if it is...)
I do like it being light later, but it's going to take some getting used to. And I'm going to have to get used to getting up in the morning by Tuesday because I go back to work then. :( I'm just really thankful that this past week was when I was off work, so I was able to sleep in.

And yes...now I'm up at....11:40 on a Saturday night writing a blog post. I'm planning on having caffeine with breakfast, and maybe a nap in the afternoon tomorrow. :D I would have gone to bed a little bit earlier, but I was hungry and needed some ice cream.

The cat has given up on me and already gone to sleep:














I shall have to get her to move though, because she's right where my feet will need to be...

Myers-Briggs typology

I took one of these personality type tests maybe...a year ago? I was thinking it was more like 6 months ago, but this year and the last are going by so quickly that I think it was probably more like a year ago that I took it.

Anyway, when I took it then I'm thinking I got a lot more logical, driven sort of personality type as a result, but I don't remember. :D Anyway, this time I'm classified as an ISTJ. The description for the most part is amazingly accurate too!

You can take the test here. I had a little trouble with some of the questions....I needed a "depends on the situation" option. :p For instance: "Strict observance of the established rules is likely to prevent a good outcome" Well, that depends on what the rules are for. Generally-speaking I'm a law-abiding person, so I marked no, but in some situations I would agree with that. And there were a couple others like that too...however, I think that viewpoint came out in my results, so I guess it worked. :D

Here are descriptions of all the personality types.

Posts? You expect me to post on this blog?

Hmm...blogging. That's right, I have a blog and it needs some words on it as well as photos. Unfortunately I seem to be either lacking in words, or using them up via other outlets. I was telling Mom the other day that I feel like I've been talking more than usual. She seemed surprised, so maybe that's not the explanation. Maybe I'm just getting talked out faster, so it seems like I'm talking more... It just seems like I'm lacking in things to blog about...there's either nothing important that I'm pondering, or when I am, it's something I don't feel like writing about.

Anyways...I've been off work this week, so I'm trying to get some stuff done that I don't have time for on weeks I'm working. I've been able to get some reading done which is really nice. I was thinking the other day about all the reading I used to do, mainly because I would grab whatever book I was reading whenever I wasn't doing something else and it was almost impossible to pry me away from it. But I don't usually do that anymore, plus to be able to really comprehend something other than a fiction book I can't have much noise in the background. So I haven't accomplished as much reading in the past few years. I just finished reading "The House of the Seven Gables" though.

Let's see...what else? Oh, I went hiking on Saturday with my friend Jess. We went up to Hanging Rock State Park and climbed all over the muddy rocks by a waterfall and had lots of fun and took lots of pictures. :) I hadn't been hiking for a while, so it was nice to get out in the warm weather last weekend and hike.

Then of course the time change was on Sunday, so I was really tired and kinda sorta fell asleep after the lunch potluck after church... :p I was leaning on the couch listening to a political discussion and kind of spacing out. I'm not sure if I ever completely fell asleep, but I got a nice rest anyway. :D ...and a couple of comments like, "I think Natalie's asleep..."

I made some granola this afternoon using this recipe. It turned out pretty yummy, though I still have to see how it is with milk on it...I was just eating it plain. And I'm thinking about trying to make some bagels either tomorrow or Saturday.

So...sorry about the lack of real posts. And I'm afraid this is all I've got right now. *sigh*

A few finished craft projects

This the baby blanket and giraffe that I made as gifts for a friend. Her baby shower was last Saturday.

The blanket is crocheted. They originally thought they were having a girl, but it turns out it's going to be a boy. :D Fortunately they weren't getting much pink stuff anyway, so that worked out fine...including the orange blanket:




































Her husband wears bow ties, so I thought I should put one on the giraffe. :)












And finally, some earrings I made for myself...I'm trying to decide if they look way too large:






















I just wish the bottom bead was a little smaller...

You know, they should sell beads in bulk somewhere...like, they'd have big bins of all the different sizes and colors and you could just pick which ones you wanted and write down the number for them. Like they do with bolts and such at the hardware store. But I guess that's just way too practical...

Oh yeah....it snowed. :)

I know I'm a wee bit late, but it snowed Sunday and Monday. :)

Sunday night:








Monday morning:






































Snow angel :) :











Hmm...fairly comfortable in the snow...a little cold perhaps:











Gracie didn't really want to walk in the snow:












I think we got about 4 inches altogether. It wasn't very good snow for sledding or making snowballs though...it was too dry. Probably good for skiing or something like that.