Currently Loving

A grouping of tags related to things I am currently digging. Enjoy!

Gred and Forge Weasley Gloves

I am a knitter. You knew that, right? I am crazy about fibers and knitting and finding new patterns and really want to design my own items one day. I’ll probably start with a shawl/ wrap as it’s pretty easy to design a flat triangle of fabric. Or at least I assume so. Yep, I used the word assume. 😉

Anyhow, I am a member of the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry. Ravelry, of course, being my favorite site on the entire internet. OK, maybe not, but you get what I mean.

So a few weeks ago, I signed up for a test knit for some super cute fingerless gloves. Sure, it took me a lot longer than the rest of the testers, but I’m immensely pleased with how they turned out! Of course they’re Gator colors. I used stash yarn that I had sitting in a box from years ago and since there wasn’t enough for both gloves, I alternated the colors. So they’re kinda like the Weasley twins… the same, but different.

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Pottermore or Yes, I am a Dork


I just got my owl invite into the fab Pottermore site! Yep, I’m one of the first million or so able to enter and explore before the mass opening in October.

If you are already on there, add me! And leave a note who you are so I can add you as well. My Potter name is JinxDust63 and now I’m off to get my wand and be sorted.

Dear Sorting Hat,
Hufflepuff please.
kthx

Pottermore is a unique online reading experience from J.K. Rowling, built around the Harry Potter books. Share and participate in the stories, showcase your own Potter-related creativity, and discover additional information about the world of Harry Potter from the author herself.

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25 Things About Me

I used to be very big on Livejournal. Once, a few months back, I used a blog printing website (LJBook.com) to create a book of all my posts and, that book? It was over 7,000 posts and 4500 pages. Now, keep in mind that I was very active between 2003 and 2008.

But I digress.

I was digging around to find some of my earliest knitting projects posted on LJ and not on Ravelry, and I found one of those “25 Things About Me” lists from January 2009. After reading though it, not a whole lot has changed. It’s posted below with the updates in green.

1. I grew up in the “country” of Miami. There were no sidewalks, no street lamps, and a bunch of horses around the corner. Oh, and the smallest lot in the area was 1 acre.

2. I learned to knit in a bar. By a half drunk girl. <3 Now I’m obsessed with knitting! Seriously love it. However, I have knitting ADD and rarely finish a project before starting a new one (or 3)

3. On that note, I collect yarn for it’s softness and colors. No clue what’ll ever be made with about 2/3’s of my yarn stash. But at least I did finally start organizing it all. (It’s in several bins by yarn weight. I’m actually starting to list about a dozen for sale that I likely won’t ever use.)

4. I am horribly terrified of spiders, rats and, to a lesser degree, snakes.

5. When I was about 12, my “job” was to feed the hundreds of birds that we owned. Did it all the way through high school.

6. Die hard Gator fan. Die Hard. Even though I’m currently enrolled and paying an arm and leg for my MBA at ECU, my love for the Gators vastly outweighs my love for the Pirates. (sorry ECUers!) (Scratch that, graduated May 2010)

7. I tend to start watching shows a season or 2 after they start and then watch every single episode. Like LOST, I got into it 3 episodes to the end of season 4. Then proceeded to watch every episode in a matter of weeks to catch up. (Yup, just did this with both Drop Dead Diva and Secret Life of the American Teenager. Oh, and Firefly. And Doctor Who. And Torchwood.)

8. I have a personal vendetta against Ben Affleck. He got Jennifer Garner pregnant and ruined my favorite show (at the time) – Alias. (I fully admit that this is weird, even for me.)

9. I will watch everything J.J. Abrams produced or will produce. By far my favorite producer/ director/ writer. (And bonus, he tries to always cast Greg Grunberg in everything he does! Love him!)

10. I want to have lots and lots of babies. And have a list of names that I love. Now to find names I love that overlap with names Steve loves. (uhh yeah, still have that list, but the overlapping list is far far shorter. Blah.)

11. I was engaged right out of college. My feelings for him paled in comparison to the person I truly loved when I was in college. We’re talking head over heels love as compared to lukewarm love. And we never even dated, that’s the sad part. (He and I are both married now, obviously to different people, but seeing his wedding pics was a bit bittersweet.)

12. I’d basically given up on online dating when I met Steve. I had no idea how things would end up even though I did know there was something special and different about him on our 1st date.

13. I proposed.

14. My parents have 25+ dogs and I can name them all… but only when I’m there and looking at them. And yes, the majority of them look exactly alike except for a few markings. (They’re down to about 20 now… I think. I honestly don’t know bc they’re never all out at the same time.)

15. I have 5 tattoos and counting, but not a single one is anywhere that will be affected by being pregnant or nursing my kids. 3 on my ankles, 1 on my neck and 1 on my hip. (7 now! The other 2 are on the collar bone and on the left wrist.)

16. I was raised in a Reform Jewish synagogue and had a Jewish education until the 10th grade. I have been celebrating Christmas with Jen’s family since I was 16-17 years old and can never even remember when the Jewish holidays are.. let alone observe them. Jen or my mom has to tell me.

17. Stars are my favorite shape and 12 my favorite number. (Other favorite numbers are 843 and 42, with the latter being 1/3 of my latest tattoo.)

18. One of my tattoo’s is a seemingly random cluster of 37 stars – 3 different shapes/ sizes. There is nothing random as I drew it in Photoshop very deliberately with a specific design in mind. Also, the 4th and smallest stars were left off as they’d have been nothing but a needle prick.

19. I taught myself web design when I was a freshman at UF. I didn’t like my dorm roommate very much and spent all my free time in CIS Lab (the computer lab) tearing apart websites to figure out how they’re made.

20. The majority of my friends in college were made on IRC back when the internet was safe – yes, there was a time when it was safe! We all met up in #uf and had reunions in Gainesville for years afterwards. Many of them I’ve found again thanks to FB!

21. By that token, I got online in 1994

22. When I finish my MBA (May 2010) I will be able to manage at IT department, and also know what they’re talking about since I’ll have been coding websites for almost exactly half my life. (At my age, that’s a feat!) (Will be able, err, am able… yet still unemployed by MBA standards. Grr.)

23. I’m a label whore when it comes to my purses. I own Coach, Lucky Brand, loads of Vera Bradley and a knock off Kate Spade. (While I do have a few Coach bags and tons of Vera Bradley’s, my favorite is a no name faux leather bag from Kohl’s.)

24. I’d love, more then anything, to learn more about my dad’s mother Clara. My brothers and I didn’t find out she’d even existed until a few years ago and it was unbelievably weird and freaky to find out that his step-mother wasn’t his real mom. It was also somewhat of a relief since she always treated me like I was the most horrible person ever. BTW, Clara died when my dad was very very young before he was moved to Florida from Chicago. (I still don’t know very much, though I do know her maiden name. However, that’s about where my knowledge ends. :()

25. I am the only bridge of communication between my parents and brothers and my dad’s step-mom’s family. My “cousins” are awesome even if the parental/ grandparental generations don’t get along.

*wow. that was really difficult to come up with.*

Clearly I haven’t changed all that much in the last 2.5 years.

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Coming Atcha From MegaCon in Orlando

Hello from Orlando, FL!
[well, technically we’re home already.. but I’ll still write it like we’re there.]

Steve and I are here for a long weekend for MegaCon, a huge comic/ sci fi/ fandom convention. We drove up early on Friday and after checking into our hotel, came to the Con for a few hours to wander, gawk, snap pictures, and attend a few panels. It’s my first Con and a total blast!

After a few hours at the Con, we had dinner with Marie and Eric at Adobe Gilas at Pointe Orlando. Dinner and the company was fantastic, but poor Steve had been up for 27 hours by the time we crashed back at the hotel around 10:30. It was an early night for us all due to Steve’s 27 hours awake and Marie’s working at the butt-crack of dawn the next morning.

20110327-042023.jpgKevin Sorbo

Saturday we got up super early (a by-product of going to bed super early) and took our time getting ready, eating at Golden Corral (surprisingly good!), then heading back to drop my car off and head to the Con via the I-Drive trolley. I’m actually pretty annoyed that no one at the hotel told us it took exact change only. We didn’t want to spend another $8 on parking, so we walked the 0.8 miles. I know, this doesn’t sound so horrible, right? However, we’ve been walking the equivalent of several (10+) miles each day and my feet already hurt.

C’est la vie! We walked. As Steve sat in on panel after panel, I wandered the main exhibit hall with my cousin Audrey and her daughter Melanie. Mel had her Yellow Rick Road Productions sign and was having fun snapping pictures of costumed attendees and comic book artists holding the sign. I sat in on the James Marsters and Stan Lee (!!) panels with Steve, until he went off to others he was  interested in.

Stan Lee | BeccaBlogs.comStan Lee!

After a full day of panels, pictures, gawking and enjoying ourselves, we slowly walked back to the hotel and had an early dinner at Johnny Rockets at Pointe Orlando. Mmmm milkshakes and sandwiches. From there, we drove out to East Orlando and spent a few hours with his great aunt and his cousins. Mr. Up-at-4:30am was perfectly fine being out till after midnight. I, on the other hand, was falling asleep on the couch.

Sunday we were up early again, had breakfast at Golden Corral again, then drove to the Con. To me, it was a much more chill day after the insanity and thousands of people on Saturday. We attended a few panels together, then I took off to walk the entire exhibit hall floor, row by row, as he sat in more panels. Seeing Steve so excited was great. He was in his element learning about publishing comics and furthering his passion for drawing. We had dinner at Cattleman’s on I-Drive then ended up back at the hotel where we fell asleep early, yet again. Cattleman’s was good food, but grossly overpriced! $80+ for 2 steaks, a la carte everything and $6 small soups is ridiculous in our opinions!

On Monday, we slept in, checked out of the hotel and then went off to look at the house Steve lived in for several years, then visited again with his family for several hours before getting on the road home. Sadly, it rained like crazy the entire day and followed us back to Miami.

All in all, the weekend was fantastic and I couldn’t be happier that we went. It was like a mini-vacation perfect for our 6 months (almost) of being married.

** These are crappy iPhone camera pictures and I do apologize for their graininess. I have hundreds of higher quality photos that I’ll be posting soon enough. **

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Oh Bon Jovi.. You Taunt Me So!

Do you have an obsession? One of my longest running obsessions is Bon Jovi. If you know anything about me, then you already know this. What’s the point of my post, you ask? Well, I missed the last concert as we were moving to Florida within weeks of their last FL tour dates. And I just found out 2 days ago that my Jersey Boys will be back in Florida in 3 months. On May 15th. Sure sure, it’s not local and we’d have to drive to Orlando, but for the Boys, I’d go almost anywhere.

However, it’s in 3 months. And I don’t have a steady enough paycheck allowing me to pay anything more than my minimum payments on, umm, everything. Yes, yes that does suck. My amazing husband immediately started looking up their new songs so he’d know their current stuff in case they played any of it.

Jovi is a Jen and I thing. We’ve been to every other concert together. Never has a significant other joined us. However, due to her being in Jacksonville and me being in Miami and neither of us having very much money, I think we’d be buying tickets separately. Even if we did make it, I don’t think we’d be sitting standing & singing next to each other.

The problem is mainly that we have a few things in the 3 months between now and May15th to pay for. Namely MegaCon (2 day passes for the Con, hotel for 2-3 nights, 2 passes to Harry Potter land), WordCampMiami (luckily only $30/person), SheBlogs (free for the conference, but money for the hotel split about 6 ways), and of course all our bills.

So, uhh, does anyone want to loan me about $300 before 10am so I can go see my beloved Boys one more time?

Yeah, I didn’t think so…

/walks away dejectedly, kicking a rock

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Favorite Audiobooks?

I live my life like I am pregnant. I don’t drink, smoke, or take major risks. I don’t eat weird foods or go on roller coasters. In short, I live like I’m carrying precious cargo. Lately, that’s all I think about and our conversations about new baby names, talk of twins, etc don’t help. It’s almost like the wedding ring on my finger meant free reign on baby brain. Yes, I have issues.

Right now I am searching Audible.com for a pregnancy or conception book. Hey, I have a free book credit to use up!

OK OK, it doesn’t need to be a pregnancy book. What are your favorite audiobooks or authors?

I have all the Harry Potter’s and Twilight’s and a ton of other books, but I’m always up for more stuff to listen too!

Also, does anyone want to see me finish up the 30 Days Meme or is it basically pointless by now?

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The Heroes seem Lost

This is totally not wedding related, it’s just amazing! I adore the snot out of both Lost and Heroes and watch them religiously, week after week.

Tuesday night during Lost, there was a scene with a cab. Steve immediately said “that’s the puppeteer from Heroes” but I wasn’t totally sure. Being me, I tweeted out:

then immediately, not ever thinking he’d respond cuz hello busy celebrity life!, I checked IMDB and saw that it was, in fact, David Lawrence. Yes, Steve was right.

Little did I know that I only had to wait a few minutes to get this tweet in return:

I KNOW!

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