Friday, March 22, 2013

Keep on the Sunny Side

Cloudy Side:  It's really cold! Definitely not Spring weather.
 
Sunny Side:  I can still wear my hand knit sweaters!
 
 
Tuesday I wore my just finished Hoaloha
 

 
I got more compliments on this sweater than I think I've ever gotten on a sweater.
 
Then yesterday I got to wear my Aidez
 
 
I'm glad I got to wear my sweaters again but to tell you the truth I wouldn't mind if it was too warm to wear them again.


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Some times your natural hair color is your best hair color

Before anyone freaks out, this isn't some horror story about how I tried to dye my hair and it turned out bright orange or pitch black or anything terrifying like that. 
 
 
 
On my 21st birthday, I decide I was going to do something crazy, partly because I was all excited to be 21 and wanted to do something exciting and partly because I was really early for my tutoring session. So I stopped by the Walgreens and took a look at the hair dye.  I didn't want to go too dark because I have really light sick and I didn't want to look like a witch.  I didn't want to go too light because I have really dark eyebrows and I didn't want it to be totally obvious I dyed my hair.  So I picked up a box labeled medium brown. 
 
 
I was so excited to go home and dye my hair,  I even took before and after pictures.   
 
 
 
 
Can you tell which one is which?  Because I can't.  That's right, I dyed my hair pretty much the exact same color as my natural hair color.  Morals of the story:  1) My idea of "crazy"  is really not that crazy and 2) Sometimes it's best to just not mess with your natural hair color.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Sweaters


This past week was Spring Break for me.  I was packing to go home for the week and I came across two sweaters, one that I knit about 2 years ago and one that I knit this past summer.  I've never really like the way these sweaters looked or fit on me. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Since I've knit them I've just kept them around, tried them on every once in a while and hoped that one day I'll put them on and love them.  But that has never happened.  So I did something crazy.  I ripped them out.
 
 
 
I decided that it was better for me to rip out the sweaters and re-knit them into sweaters I will actually wear.  I'm starting with the purple sweater and I'm actually knitting the same pattern...sort of.  I am going to change a few things to add just a little more shape to it.  I also managed to get another skein of the yarn at a pretty good price so I can make it longer.
 
 
I've also just recently finished another sweater.
 
 
This is my Hoaloha sweater.  It was a mystery knit along run by Mel of the Single Handed Knits podcast.  Mystery knit along means that I really had no idea what this sweater looked like when I started it.   I was a little nervous about it at first but I figured that if I didn't like it, I could always rip back and knit a different sweater.  But I did end up really liking this sweater. I do need to add buttons to it and then I'll post some pictures of what it looks like on me !


Monday, March 4, 2013

Oil Pulling aka The Grossest Thing I've Ever Done, Ever

I thought about writing a post about how I have so much to do this week and how I wish it was spring break so I could go to Louisville and see my cat and do nothing but knit all day long.  Luckily, I thought about it and realized that nobody really cares about that.  I barely even care.  So I'm just going to talk about my oil pulling experience instead.
 
 
Before anyone gets too excited, let me just say that this had absolutely no effect on me what so ever.  I look the same, I feel the same and I weigh the same.  I did only do this for a week, but according to what I read about it, a week should be enough to see differences.  So let it just be known that there is no benefit to sitting around for twenty minutes with a mouth full of olive oil.
 
 
Now, I am dedicating the rest of this post to talking about how disgusting oil pulling is.  In fact, if there weren't certain family member who I know read this blog, I would use some pretty nasty words to describe it.  It's not the taste I had a problem with.  I really like the taste of olive oil.  On pasta, bread, salad...that's good.  But sitting around with a tablespoon of it in your mouth takes it from "That's a flavor I really enjoy" to "Oh my God, my mouth is so greasy and slimy. I don't even care what it tastes like, it's nasty." I totally understand why it is suggested to do this first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.  If you have any sort of gag reflex and you decide to try oil pulling right after a meal...good luck to you.
 
 
So a) no effect and b) so gross it's beyond gross...I think it's safe to say that I am never going to try oil pulling again.  I also would not recommend anyone try it, but hey, I'm just one person.  What does nothing for me might work wonders on someone else.  The only way to know if something works for you is to give it a try.