Michaels Sale of Awesomeness!

Yesterday, I went to the Michaels sale I'd mentioned in my last post. It was 20% off your entire purchase, including sale items; but not including things like books, magazines, Christmas trees over a certain height, etc. And I got yarn!

I wound up getting up before my alarm. Somehow, I tend to do that; probably because I'm anticipating the alarm. I had set it for 7:00 and got up at around 6:15, so I had plenty of time to eat and get dressed. I had to get up early because the sale was only from 9:00 until noon (I think), and Mom wanted to get there early so that she could get the yarn she needed.

After helping Mom pick out some colours, I started looking for yarn for the patterns I'd brought with me - Ysolda Teague's Lace-Up Opera Gloves, and Jenny Dolan's Punk Rock Corset Gloves. I wasn't sure what colour to get for the opera gloves, so I picked two colours for the corset gloves instead - Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in 'Cranberry', and Loops & Threads Impeccable in 'True Gray' (I think that's the colourway!). I thought about making the gloves in black and another colour like red, but then I realized that black yarn can be tricky to work with, so I didn't want to plunge into applied i-cord using black yarn. I liked the idea of red and grey, so I went with that. I think they're gonna look great :D I'll still make the opera gloves, but I might use some worsted that I already had before going to Michaels.

I felt really tired that afternoon, probably because I was up so early; so I rested for a bit on the sofa, watching/listening to Robin Williams' HBO special (which, I should warn you, is R-rated). After that, I think we watched the news, and then the Tina Fey Mark Twain Prize special on PBS (which was really great).

That's pretty much it. I'm starting to love my novel for NaNoWriMo, but I feel like it isn't moving quick enough. But I'm excited to write tomorrow, because I have a really good scene in my head that I want to write :D

Christmas shopping woes

Sorry about the huge gap between posts. NaNoWriMo is eating my soul. I'm at something like 31,903 words, which is pretty great. My story hasn't plunged into adventure quite yet, but I'm working on it. I think I'll throw a curve ball in tomorrow to make things interesting.

So I'm having a minor dilemma with Christmas shopping. I know it's early yet, but I like to get my shopping done ahead of time so that I don't have to go to the mall more than I need to. I'll probably have to go to the mall to shop for my mom, but that'll be it, I think. I already have my dad's present (I won't say what it is, just in case he comes across my blog by accident), so that's one person down.

I've been trying to read Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, but I'm still at the prologue :p My dogs seem to interrupt my reading, which is a bummer. I also want to try to get Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince finished, because I want to be able to see the second part of Deathly Hallows when it comes out. Finishing Half-Blood Prince and reading all of Deathly Hallows might be a bit of a stretch, but it's a challenge I'm willing to take. I think I'll make it a goal for the new year.

I'm getting up early tomorrow to go to the Michaels 20% off entire purchase sale tomorrow. I have to get up early because it's only a four-hour sale. I don't know if I'll get anything (I really don't need yarn :p), but I might look at the clearance yarns to see if there's anything I like. Or I could pick up some Vanna's Choice to make a hat or a pair of Ysolda Teague's Lace-Up Opera Gloves.

I also want to make a Doctor Who scarf (you know, the one Tom Baker wore), but I have to do my research on what yarn to use. I think that'll be another goal for 2011: knit a Doctor Who scarf.

So that's what's going on right now. I will try to post sometime soon, but it may be a long break between posts while I'm doing NaNo. Later!

Halloween, NaNoWriMo, and other happenings.

Wow, I haven't posted in ages :p I never did write a Halloween music post. Sorry! I'll try to remember to post Halloween songs next year.

First, I'll write about Halloween.

My Halloween was a little different from last year, because I went to a coffee shop in the afternoon for the local NaNoWriMo kick-off party. I hadn't seen some of the local NaNo'ers in two years, so it was cool to see them again; and a lot of the folks at the party were unfamiliar to me. I brought my handknit eyepatch with me, but it was a pain to wear because I made the patch part a little bit big. I had a lot of fun at the party, and came home with an awesome party bag (with chocolate in it!).

We had a timer set up to change channels to America's Funniest Home Videos that night, so I didn't get to put on Rocky Horror at 7:00 on Treasure HD. I put it on halfway through, at the 'Touch-a Touch Me' scene, but then my dad changed the channel and pretty much hogged the TV for the rest of the night, so I couldn't put my Rocky Horror DVD in :( I did listen to the soundtrack later that night, though, and I did the Time Warp :D

We didn't get a lot of trick-or-treaters - about 42, I think, was our final count. One of the kids that came to our door was adorable - she got her fairy wing caught on our screen door, and said, "My wing is caught AGAIN! It keeps getting caught on things!" It was really cute :)

The only problem with having very few trick-or-treaters is that we have a LOT of Tootsie Rolls leftover. I'm pretty sure I'm going to OD on Tootsie Rolls pretty soon.

And now, for NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) started on a Monday this year, and a lot of people on the boards felt a lot of pressure because of it. I was all right, though, because I'm not enrolled in school right now. I have been neglecting my GED work, though :p I started out with a pretty good word count, and now I'm at 11,904 words. Needless to say, I'm pretty proud of myself :)

I really like how my novel is going so far. Last year I wasn't too happy with my novel - it felt a bit like a silly soap opera. I really liked how my novel from two years ago turned out, though. I totally didn't know what I was doing with my idea, and it kinda morphed into an urban fantasy. My novel for this year is a werewolf urban fantasy, which I find is easier to write than vampire urban fantasy because there's less lore to memorize.

And now, Other Happenings.

Aside from NaNoWriMo, not a lot has happened. My sister came up to visit, and my brother and his girlfriend came up as well, and we ordered Chinese take-out for dinner. We had fun chatting about cats and other stuff, and we had fun teasing Steph (my brother's girlfriend) about going back for seconds, because she's really tiny :p

That's all, folks. I'll try to post regularly, but I might not post a lot because NaNoWriMo takes up a lot of time.