Everything in its right place

As my departure to Japan is in just a little less than 3 short weeks, I thought it fitting to pay respect to the many things I will miss while I am away:

My siblings (I only had good pics of Constance and Mel, but this applies to every single one of them), who are brilliant and beautiful people.

My mother who loves me no matter what, even if I'm being silly or boring, and supports me so much. She's far too cool to exist. If she finds a way to come visit me in Japan, I will jump up and down with glee. Really.

All of my friends, especially Katie and Lauren.

My nieces, who are the smartest and funniest little girls on the planet. One day, I want to take them somewhere exciting and foreign. And, buying them gifts in Tokyo will be easy and really fun, considering every little thing there is wacky and pink in color.

My three kittens who love us and each other so much. I don't even know how I'm going to not see them for a year.

Especially Myoshi, who is the best cat in the whole world.

And last but not least, my Blakey. Best friend and boo bear for life.

Honorable mentions include:

-Thanksgiving with my family. This year I think they're doing British food, but next year I believe we're finally doing Japanese! I think the idea is that I will use my newly gained knowledge of traditional Japanese food to put together our menu.
-Christmas in the US.
-American TV (mainly The Office...but that's what the internet is for)
-Being in the same time zone as my friends and family
-My adorable apartment in DC
-A bed with Blake
-Manna, Inc. Not all the permitting bullcrap, but my coworkers and bosses
-Kentucky, most of all.

I was lucky enough to get the most adorable apartment in Japan...courtesy of Gail, the very awesome girl that currently lives there. I'm keeping all of the great Ikea furnishing she decorated it with, and I'm very excited about all of it. Since I've posted the link everywhere else in the world, I may as well do it here!

Here is a video tour of the apartment before it was decorated, taken when the previous resident first moved in (scroll to the bottom of the post): http://www.todayisunderconstruction.com/2008/07/bloggin-on-sly-youll-see.html

And here it is as it will look when I move in, after it was decorated: http://www.todayisunderconstruction.com/2009/07/updated-apartment-tour.html

I've already met two people who will live in Japan the same time I will, and I'm not even there yet. Things are looking very positive, and I can't fucking wait.

Over and out dooders,
Cecilia

SALE!

All my yarn is 30% off at my Etsy site: frankenskein.etsy.com

It all must go by July 28th, so please snag it up! I'm also still accepting special requests till about the 19th or 20th of July, depending on the order size/fiber availability.

It really is amazing yarn and I already have too much yarn for my own good, so I'd hate to see it go to waste! As a reminder, all of my yarn is made from animal fiber that is either from local farms or recycled mill end fibers...so it's a eco-friendly purchase!

Thanks!

生命はすばらしい

Well, not much happening craft-wise. Still have my yarn up for sale, and I'm encouraging all of you to buy it up! Becaaaause....I'm going to Japan for a year! Yep, I found out last Thursday. So my Etsy shop will be closed during that time, but right up until July 28th when I leave for Kentucky for a few days and then to Japan on the 1st, it'll be for sale! Once again, mention this blog and I'll give ya a discount. :)

But anyway, yes. Going to Japan, and teaching ESL while I'm there. I will be bringing my knitting supplies with me, but for that time I'll mostly be posting pictures and talking about my adventures there on this blog. I'm very excited about it. I'll be working with MIL, a great school located in Chiba, Japan. Oh, and what's even better is that when I get there, I have training for 4-5 days, and then I'm off for a paid vacation for a week! (The school is closed during that time). So, I bought a couple of guidebooks to figure out what to do in that week. I'm thinking of going to Kyoto to see some temples, maybe Osaka as well. I need to plan it carefully because the bullet trains are muy expensive. I'll be spending most of my days off in Tokyo (only 45 minutes and about 700 [or $7] yen away), and various areas of Chiba, including the beach! I'd love to see these places while I'm there:

-Nagoya
-Hiroshima
-Hokkaido
-Osaka/Kyoto/Nara
-Okinawa
-Mt. Fuji (although I'm NOT climbing that damn thing)
-Sapporo
-and of course Tokyo over and over again

So much to see! I cannot believe I get to live in Asia for a year and I'm only 25. I feel so blessed that I have the opportunity to do this. It will be so hard to be away from my family, friends, Blake, and the kitties! Luckily, they have cat houses in Japan where you pay a bit, go in, and pet all the various kitties running around. My little sister went to one in Tokyo, and you bet your ass I'll be taking a few trips there when I get homesick for my Moshi:


All this Japan stuff is pretty much the center of my life right now. I'm saving money, buying guidebooks to peruse, and making sure I'm prepared for this trip. Also, I'm making sure I get as many loose ends tied up at work as possible. My coworkers are so fucking cool about this whole Japan thing. One of my bosses actually told me he was proud of me, and completely supported me going to Japan, as I should do this kind of stuff when I'm young.

There are other people (people that mean a lot to me, which makes it extra hurtful) in my life that are, shall we say, not supportive. However, I'm hoping they get over it. Blake is being awesome. He's excited for the opportunity to become independent for a year, as am I. We both need to make a lot of changes, and I think we're mature enough to handle the distance for a year.

Where would you go if you went to Japan?

adventures in plying

It's about time I posted up pics of my apartment! I still need a few touches here and there, and it's just a little basement apartment, so it's not super impressive....but I put a lot of work into it! So, here it be:

My entry room/craft room. Isn't the yarn storage great? Desk is a bit cluttery, but I've been a spinning machine lately, so yeah.
Another view of the craft desk....along with Blake and I's bookcases. We're big readers. And the painting up above featuring Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor was painted by me, btw. I know, I know. How does someone with so much talent even exist? I ask myself that question every day, my friends. sigh.
I hung those hooks myself! And the Japanese print calendar was a Xmas gift from my mom....I love it. Eventually I want to frame some of the art in it, it's so pretty.
Weird showing you the bathroom, but I think it's so cute. Mind the ugly plunger/tissue box combo. I'm in the process of pretty-ing up some basic around-the-house stuff.
View of my kitchen from the living room. Very small, but it does the trick for Blake and I. The table expands to seat 6, so that's nice. I hung the chrome shelves on the right side myself for more storage...I love them! Again, excuse the dish drainer....just got done washing le dishes.
Living room. I love my white couch (and the little Myoshi sleeping on top of it). I'm still really needing a big piece of art for above the couch. I might get some graphic sort of wall decal from Blik, but who knows. And the chair on the left will eventually not be there, I want the coordiating white loveseat to be there instead. But who knows when that will happen. Side note: check out the sweet new Macbook to the right. Oh yes.

The bedroom is really cute too, but Blake is asleep in there currently, and I don't think he'd like me taking pictures this late at night. Ah well. Once again, it's small, but it stays clean, and it feels like me and Blake. And the colors make me happy. That's all I really care about.

In other news, I'm experimenting with plying my handspun yarn. I made a makeshift lazy kate and now I'm working on a really nice 3-ply with some wool and mohair. We'll see!

The grayish white already spun up on the lazy kate is mohair, and the black and brown is wool. I made the lazy kate with a photo storage box that I have a couple too many of, a hole punch, and some needles I never use (I'm anti-DPN). The little wooden thing is my drop spindle, by the way, which I've begun to spin up the brown wool. I'm determined to get the word out on my Etsy shop and make sure my very best is for sale, dawwwwgs.

Time for bed.

bigger, better, faster, stronger

So! I finally tossed (and by tossed I mean gave to Blake as a 2nd comp) my USB challenged PC laptop and got a Macbook! It's pretty much the coolest thing I own. So now, I can upload music and photos even better than I did before, so I set up my Etsy shop!!! Here's a little preview of my handspun yarn that I'm selling:
This skein of superfine merino is currently on sale at my Etsy shop! Here's the link, folks: frankenskein.etsy.com. I've only got 5-6 skeins up right now, but I'm spinning more and posting it up every day, and I accept custom requests as well, so be sure to let me know what you're looking for, and I'll do my best!

Now that I've plugged my shop, I'm finally going to share my pics from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! Blake and I really loved it.



This is from a fascinating sheep-shearing demonstronstation....it was interesting to see how chilled out the sheep are when they get sheared...I guess most have been through it quite a bit, and this shearer in particular was really good at what he did.


Alpaca!
I was surprised to see how gentle and nice all the animals were...I thought I'd get snapped at atleast once, but nope! They're all so sweet.

An Angora bunny...yeah, there was a whole lot of cute at this fest.

These sheep (they're called Jacob sheep and I snagged some of their wool to spin up for my store) were Blake and I's favorites. The adult rams had 4 horns! They looked like some kind of crazy fantasy creature. Me likes.

I would highly recommend it to those who haven't been yet. There was an insane abundance of fiber there as well, obviously.

Lots more to come. In the meantime, visit my Etsy shop!

Now Accepting Donations

My blog posts have been pretty sparse, no? Well, there's a good reason! I've actually accomplished A LOT in the craft department, but my computer is M.I.A. when it comes to uploading things. And after taking it to multiple places, it's official, I need a new laptop.

So, I'm saving to buy a MacBook. Finally. The only problem is, I've got this possible thing happening in August where I might be in Japan for a year, and I need a little startup money. So, in addition to my regular income savings, I was thinking, maybe I should get a second job for all these extra things I have to save for pretty quickly...?

Rewind to last weekend, where I attended the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (amazing!) and bought a drop spindle. Yes. FINALLY. I also got about 8 oz of some beautiful roving, went home, and starting spinning away.

Well, my first skein turned out not too good, as I only got 25 yds out of 4 oz....about an 8th of what it should be at worsted weight. Nevertheless, I was proud and determined to master it. So, I kept spinning, and even went back to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Fest on Sunday to purchase more roving. Then, on Sunday night, after watching and reading countless tutorials, I got it. It finally clicked what I was doing wrong and how to pre-draft properly and the whole nine yards (pun intended).

So, I've spun up a few VERY nice skeins since then, set the spin in them, and thought; "I have enough yarn, what am I going to do with this?" So, in the next week or two, I'm opening up shop on Etsy and selling my spun items. And, everything I spin will either be from local farms or recycled mill-end rovings (which are still top quality and perfect for handspinners, they just aren't suitable for machine spinning. So, they throw it out unless nice people like me buy it)! So as soon as I get my shop going, I'll let you know and put a little shop widget on here. If you mention my blog, I may even give you a little discount.

So, project "Cil needs extra money to buy a new computer and go to Japan" is solved! I figure, why go back to waitressing part time in addition to my full job when I can sell high-quality spun yarn? Especially since I love it so much. Seriously. If you don't spin already, you should start. It's wonderful.

Well, there's my future business plug for the day. In other news, work has been super slow lately. It's only noon and I feel like I've been here for 19 hours. I bought "Twilight Princess" for the Wii recently, and it's really good. Although I feel like it rips off Okami just a bit (best game EVER). Lately I've been feeling like playing some Final Fantasy. It's been a while.

More to come. Lots of pending excitement that I hope pans out. Stay classy guys.

Aw Suki Suki

Incidentally, I want to name my future daughter Suki. And every time I say it around my mom, she says it sounds trampish and says the above comment.."awww suki suki". I'd maybe be slightly annoyed except she's so cute when she does it. Oh, my mother. Hilarious.

So, still having issues with my USB ports on my laptop. Dumb. I can upload pics via Blake's comp, but it's sooooo slow. But, I may just do it anyway, because I've ACTUALLY managed to complete a project! Yes! And I've done lots with the apartment, of course.

So I have been like, super duper restless as of late. I need to be on an adventure, travel the world, see everything that I dreamed about seeing while I was in college. I both love and hate this aspect of my personality...I'm so restless and eager to do EVERYTHING. But, I may have found a way to satiate my adventurous nature, and it just might have something to do with Japan. More on that when I know more.

For now, I'm just working, getting my home together, and super-duper focused on getting healthy. I've also gotten back into watching movies a bunch! Yesterday I finally saw "Oldboy" in its entirety, and it's so amazing. I also watched "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music". Oh yes. It was a good day.

I think tonight I'll watch the final installment in Chan-wook Park's revenge trilogy, "Lady Vengeance". Maybe I'll finally be a good Netflix customer again and turn in the movies I've had for a month and a half....

Speaking of movies, here are my MOST anticipated movies coming up:

-Where the Wild Things Are (Blake and I nearly peed ourselves with excitement the first time we saw this trailer)
-Tokyo! (Michel Gondry + Japan? Helllll yes!)
-Away We Go (John Krasinski. nuff said.)
-Earth (I know, I'm a dork. But I love thing about nature. I grew up with National Geographic!)
-9 (This animated film looks SO awesome. The graphics remind me of Final Fantasy 8 in a lot of ways. Maybe because the rag doll main characters remind me of the Esthar City Guard that you have to fight a bunch in the game? NERD ALERT.)
-Year One (This may be dumb, or it may be brilliant. Either way, I heart Michael Cera.)
-Astro Boy (A graphic animation of Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy! Fucking A!)
-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (My favorite of ALLLLL the books, so they better not fuck it up...seriously.)

There's more, but that's all I've got for now. What movies are you guys most excited to see?