October 25, 2010

Wonderful Chaos

Wow, before derby I never had quite this busy of a life. Oh derby how you take over.

Monday I helped out a fellow roller derby girl with a humanities benefit. Three of us were on skates selling raffle tickets. The top winner got a 1/2k diamond. I had a good time chit chatting with everyone. I fell on my butt once, but I have to say, those floors were horrible. Uneven cement floors with holes are tough to skate on. It went well and we raised quite a bit of money. We missed most of the raffling. We were too busy enjoying great food after we were done selling. :)

Tuesday was practice. Then off to visit the boy since if I didn't we would have waited 3 weeks. Ew. We had a relaxing time together filled with him making me a great dinner. When I got back to RI it was straight to work, followed by two derby meetings. Friday was a double header party night. I got to wear my Tank girl costume that night and also celebrated the birthday of a fabulous teammate.

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Saturday was a baby shower and the Zombie Pub Crawl led by Rev Al. I had a good time at both and wings I made for the shower were a hit. There were over 300 Zombies at the crawl. I loved the surprised looks on the people that were innocently enjoying a beer. Nothing like going out and having the bar being filled with random walking dead.

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Sunday was the icing on the cake. The Mob Squad scrimmaged the ZomBSquad of Hudson Valley. NY. The Mob won 178-52! It was an awesome bout. We were happy to have them come on by for the scrimmage. We all hit hard and worked our butts off. Thanks again ladies! I hope we see them again soon.

This evening is going to be the start of a hermitful week. I need to recuperate.

October 9, 2010

One down, one to go

Another week by and another commission knocked off my list. Yesterday morning I went for breakfast at Brickway in Providence to meet up with the lovely Myles. By the way, their pumpkin pancakes are awesome!! Sadly I didn't see my fellow derby girl that works there but I did see 2 PRD hoodies. I digress... Myles asked me for a set of booties and hats for future twin girls that her friend is having. These sets inspired the collection I made last friday in my Friday Favorites: Little monsters post. I made Monster Baby Booties and hats to match them. The hats were based loosly on a basic baby hat pattern and I added horns in the bootie accent color. After all the work she was happy. I love seeing a smiling customer. I can't wait to see baby pictures later. Without further ado, here they are!!

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After this I have just one commissioned hat and one trade to do then I'm free! There won't be any commissions for a while after that. This weekend I'm actually knitting something for me for once. I was starting to feel neglected when I was remembering the days when it was all for me. You have to treat yourself here and there. Don't get me wrong, I like knitting for others still. I just want to be selfish for a moment. What are you creating for yourself or for others?

October 8, 2010

Photography fun

When taking photos for my Artfire items I kept running into dilemmas. My house is too dark. The window placement doesn't provide good lighting. I also would barely be home or have time to be outside during the best natural lighting. When I could be outside it was raining or it was starting to get darker sooner. Natural lighting was just fighting me. I came to a conclusion: Time to make a light tent/box.

I googled around and came up with this link: How to make an inexpensive light tent. I really liked it's instructions so I decided this was the way to go. I ended up buying a box since the ones laying around weren't the right size for me. It only cost 88 cents so no biggie. I also picked up some white fabric and masking tape. Once I had all this I went to work.

First I had to measure the margins and cut all the sides and the top out.
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The next step was to cover the sides and top with fabric. I used masking tape like they suggested in case I want to change it up in the future.
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Now it says to put a pice of paper or posterboard in for the background. I chose to use fabric. In order to make it changable I used binder clips to hold the fabric up. I put two slits in the top, one for each clip.

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So here is my temporary setup. It worked out alright but the lighting is kind of yellowed. I know editing will help but I would like to get a better bulb anyway. I think it will cost me around $10 in total. Not a bad deal at all. So now to edit and list more items. :)

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October 4, 2010

Very sore, but worth it

What a weekend I had. Saturday was stressful and exciting. I finally got to skate with my Mobsters. We didn't win our bout but we worked so damn hard. The final score was 111 to 136 with the Rats going to the championship. We were neck and neck most of the night. I landed on my butt pretty good on the polished cement. I feel like an old lady when I get up, but I'm a badass old lady! :) I didn't get home till 2am from the after party. I love spending time with the PRD ladies.

Yesterday was a lot more relaxed. I only left the house once to get my ingredients for dinner. I spent the whole day knitting for my commission project and only stopped to cook. Zeus stayed loyally at my side, waiting for attention and keeping me warm. He is so sweet. He's helping me build my light box right now.

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For dinner I made a broccoli and cheese calzone. It was sooooo good. It was my first calzone ever. I'm a big kid now! I based it on a simple recipe that I found online.

Broccoli and Cheese Calzone
1 clove garlic
1 head of Broccoli
Romano cheese
Mozzerella cheese
Olive oil
Pizza dough

I chopped up the garlic and threw it in the pan with enough olive oil to spread across the pan. Then I added the broccoli. I sauteed it all till the broccoli was tender. Preheat the oven to whatever your pizza dough says. I put mine at 450. Once that was done, I set the broccoli aside and rolled out the pizza dough. Once I got it to about 12 inches across I laid it out on a cookie sheet. I added a bit of romano and then a bunch of mozzarella to the broccoli. Sorry I eyeballed it, not measured it. After that was mixed well I just plopped it all on the pizza dough and folded the dough over the filling. A few pinches on the edge and it was ready to cook. I left it to cook for 15 min on the timer and checked every 5 min or so to see if it was golden brown enough for me.

Such a good dinner with a minimal amount of work and a great way to end the weekend. Back to working on what will be my next blog post. :)

October 1, 2010

Friday Favorites: Little Monsters


Welcome to another edition of Friday Favorites! For the holiday season and for my own love for monsters, I have created this collection. I hope you enjoy my Little Monsters collection!