New camera coming up!

I apologize for not posting very often lately. I really wanted to keep up with this blog, but it's about crafting, and I haven't really had time for that lately. The temporary work I had kicked my ass, and I'm still feeling tired no matter how little or how long I sleep. So imagine the pain I must feel thinking about going BACK...

I've found a camera I want. Mother's day is coming up, so it's on sale for $350. It's usually $480. That's over $100 off. Also because of mother's day, anything over $50 has free 2 day shipping.

I need to get this camera, NOW!

So, I'm going to go back and see if I can get temporary work for a few days at Labor Ready. I'll be splitting the price for the camera with my boyfriend, as well, so I don't need to make all $350. If they actually send me out to do work, I'll definitely make the money. I just don't know if they will want to send me out. I've had experience HELPING my dad work on things like building a shed, and putting down wood flooring. I know how to swing a hammer, work a cordless drill, but we'll see. Hopefully, they'll think I'll be a fast learner.

So, the reason I'm getting the camera is so I can take pictures of things I want to sell on Etsy and/or Artfire. The other reason is because when I make things, I can't always get a good picture of them on my phone, and then I don't want to post those pictures, and then I don't write on my blog because I don't have pictures to show. That's all going to change, now!

If I get work at Labor Ready, I'm going to continue going there for work. Eventually, I'll get enough experience to get a real job. I'm also going to try to get an Ipod Touch so I can use my square, but my boyfriend is going to wait until he can get a free smartphone from his company instead. I don't want to deal with a smartphone, I also don't want to be using my square on something of his, because I've been in situations where someone saw something I had and wanted it like at the grocery store, and he's not always there when I will need it.

But I have the damn square already, I just need something I can use it with!

On another note, I'm almost done with my $5 in paris sweater. I've debated on long sleeves, short sleeves, then just posted it on facebook and everyone says short sleeves. Honestly, the sweater doesn't keep me warm when I put it on anyways, so I was about to decide on short sleeves anyways. Here's a nasty myspace mirror picture of it:

Nasty Myspace Mirror Picture

All I can say is, SQUEE! It's almost done! Plus, it fits! Perfectly! I have never knitted something this large before, or anything wearable at all, actually, so, I feel awesome about this. It actually didn't take that long at all, either, once I got over my knitting break and continued on with it. I could make tons of these! In fact, I just might! Or, I could move on to something a bit more challenging. Or I could stop knitting myself things and work on jewelry to sell. 

I DID make a byzantine bracelet, against my better judgement... The rings are a little too big, so it doesn't look as fancy. Here's another really blurry crappy picture: 

Byzantine Weave in too big rings

I want to make myself a nice Byzantine chain necklace, because for some reason I feel like it'd be completely awesome and everyone will want one. I want to make it with much smaller rings, though. These are 5/32, I believe. I think I may order 1/8 rings next. At the same time, I think I should probably order rings with some color on them, instead of just plain ones. We'll see how expensive this gets...

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What do you do when you're pissed off?

Today, and last night, have been highly stressful for me. I don't even want to talk about it anymore, but basically, my boyfriend lets the dogs out of the front door when we get home (from donating plasma, so we are both weaker than usual), one of them shot off and I had to chase the fat thing down, my boyfriend also kept talking about ways we could make a job work for me when I already know I don't have the job, and now he's talking about making me drive tonight on a frightening road when I haven't driven in over a year.  I don't have my permit, because they're ridiculously expensive nowadays, but I am 20 and need to know how to drive. I'm terrified of driving. I used to get motion sickness, now it's just straight up terror when we are going over 40 mph. This happened after we lost control of the car on some slush/ice, and went off the road. We didn't rollover or anything, but it was still scary as hell and now I don't ever want to get in a car.

So he wants me to drive in the middle of night on a scary, twisty turny road, going way to fast in my opinion  otherwise he's not going to get me at all tonight.

I came home to my dads house to sew stuff because that's what I've been wanting to do, but now that I'm here I'm tired and I just want to curl up in a ball and cry. I don't want to deal with the fact that I didn't get the job, or any of this crap that means it's just going to take longer to move the hell out and be with my poor forced-to-live-outdoors-unfairly cat. I don't want to think about the friends who are moving into their first houses while I haven't started moving out of my parents, or people who have started going to school when they don't have any kind of idea of what they want to do when I know what I want to do, or at least I did until I rode along with this mobile vet clinic and watched the vet pull dead kittens out of a cats vagina, and now I'm even rethinking my whole life plan.

I'm going to attempt to sew up a beach bag, because I've always wanted one for some reason, but I don't know if I'm going to finish, or even be able to comprehend the pattern to even start. My mind is all over the place and I kinda don't like anything or anyone right now. I just want to be alone in my room.

Find us on our Facebook for cheerier posts than this one! I have a friend who is also posting on my page now, so you'll get more variety of crafts on the D.I.Y. Daily Facebook page.

Healthy Beginnings Recipes and Tips

Homemade Potato Chips

Baked Mac N' Cheese

Healthy Meals to look into: 

http://www.favehealthyrecipes.com/Beef-Recipes/Beef-Asparagus-and-Portobello-Stir-Fry

No more Bat Blog

As you can probably tell, I've stopped blogging here. It was too hard to try to post daily, and thinking of things to post. I've started another blog that I hope will be easier to keep up, because I don't plan on posting every day but it's more about crafting and I always have something to say about crafting! If you are interested in following my crafty blog, it's here at D.I.Y. Daily!

Beauty Tips the First

Following with my pre-arranged blog post plan, I am going to post things like this, tutorials, home decor tips, and things for sale in the second week of the month.

I have a simple tip for tonight for those of you with acne problems: Pop them.

Tons of people say not to pop zits in the case that your hands are dirty and they will get infected. But a zit isn't a wound, it's crap in your pores. Based on personal experience, when you pop your zits, they DON'T scar. If you don't? They DO. Horribly.

If you get zits on your back, have your mom pop them for you. Just get rid of them. Don't listen to people who tell you not to pop them. They don't know what they are saying, and you will end up with a scarred face because of them.

I might sound a little vicious about this, but I am sick and tired of the people who believe that they will scar you if you do anything about them. It isn't correct, and by them telling other people that, people end up with ugly faces. So many of them could have had nice faces!!! So stop listening to your friends and family and listen to ME.

.....hehe ^^

Very basic overview of a Low Carbohydrate Diet

My boyfriend and I are starting a low carbohydrate diet. We're not going to follow a specific plan, because they are all pretty much the same: Eat about 20g of carbs per day for 2 weeks, gradually up the carbs until you've lost all the weight you wanted, up them some more until you reach a plateau but NOT gain weight.

Some people want to just to do the "Induction" Phase, where they eat a very low amount of carbs per day until they lose all the weight they want, and then go back to eating the way they did before. Well, you COULD do this. However, you will simply gain all the weight back.

The point of eating very little carbs in the first weeks is to switch your body from burning the sugars from all the carbohydrates for energy into burning the fat you eat for energy, and then continue burning the fat your body has stored for energy. Once your body has switched from sugar to fat, you will start dropping pounds.

The second phase is usually called Ongoing Weight Loss (OWL). In this phase, you begin to gradually raise the amount of carbs that you eat daily, between 5-10g per week. You need to find how many carbs you can continue to eat without gaining weight. If you reach a "plateau", try dropping some carbs. If you need help, you should exercise. Exercising REALLY helps accelerate the weight loss!

At the end of OWL, when you are closing in on that weight loss goal, start upping the carbs even more. You will lose weight more slowly, but at this point, you don't want to go below your goal, you want to stop at your goal. When you have lost all the weight, continue eating as many carbs as you can without gaining weight. You will feasibly do this the rest of your life. This is the third phase, Maintenance.

I've recently read that if you do a low-carb diet, and then end up gaining weight because you didn't follow your individual Maintenance plan, it's harder to lose weight the second go around. Nobody knows why, but I read from plenty of women that this is the case with them. It doesn't seem to happen to men quite as much, but it still does happen. This really worries me, but I have been doing fine, especially when I get to the gym!

UN-PROCESSED meat and eggs have no carbs, so you will be eating those a lot. You can cook the eggs in any which way you like! The meat must NOT be breaded though. That's extra carbs! That first 2 weeks you will be eating a lot of meat, eggs, and salad. However, if you plan to do a low carb diet, you will need to research. Some vegetables have a lot of carbs, some have almost none. Most fruit have a lot of carbs.

In order to figure out how many carbs you are getting, look at the nutrition facts on whatever it is you are eating. Subtract the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbohydrates. That's how many carbs you are getting. However, some packages have mistakes about the amount of carbs. If something says it only has 2g of carbs per serving, but the fiber and sugar add up to be MORE than 2g, it's WRONG. Always look at the package!!

Another mistake people make is trying to do a low-carb, low-fat diet. The fat in all the meat you are eating is what is helping keep you full. You need the fat, don't worry, you are BURNING IT ALL OFF! If you don't eat the fat, you will get tired, you will be hungry, and you will fail and just start eating carbs again. Again, you need to do your research about a low carb diet before you start one.

Maladaptive Daydreaming

All my life, I have rocked back and forth while I am sitting. I shake my leg violently at other times, like when I am laying in bed. While standing, I sway side to side. In all this time of moving for no apparent reason, I am actually daydreaming without being aware of it. When I snap out of it, I am not confused if I am in reality or a fantasy world. I know where I am, what I am doing, and that I was daydreaming. At least, now that I have realized that I AM daydreaming.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally googled this strange behavior. I never thought to do that before, but now that I have, I'm kind of sorry about it. I found pages and pages of people talking about their symptoms, wondering what they could do about them, and how it seemed impossible to stop. They talked about their addictions to spending hours at a time daydreaming, and how they wanted to stop WASTING their life doing NOTHING.

I never realized that I was daydreaming while rocking back and forth until I read about other people with the same condition. Then it clicked. I have Maladative Daydreaming, I have had it all my life, and I wish I never found out what it was.

Usually, and apparently, it starts with a traumatic incident in your childhood. It's a way to escape. I however have had it since birth. I would rock at night until my crib would block the door from being opened. My younger brother seems to have it, too. He doesn't make friends well, he would rather be by himself... Like me. People just get in my way of daydreaming...

Maladaptive Daydreaming is much worse than having idle daydreams while in school and your teacher is boring you. It's addictive. You can't stop. It's like a drug. If you can daydream for hours at a time? You might have it. While daydreaming, you do some kind of movement over and over. Shake something in your hand, rock back and forth, shake your leg. It will bother people, and they will ask why you do it. Most people don't have an answer. Then they make fun of you.

It's not a very nice existence. You waste your life. You stay in. You daydream during jobs and get fired for it. You don't keep friends. People yell at you.

You can stop it yourself. I would suggest doing so, unless you want to spend years of your life doing nothing. but daydreaming. Just catch yourself, and stop. Just keep trying.

There are usually triggers... Something that gets your mind start being creative. A book, a movie, music... The weather. I've noticed when there is a lightning storm, I start daydreaming about North Dakota. I used to spend summers there, and there is a lightning storm almost every night there. I am terrified about tornadoes, and then I get scared. That feeling remains with me when I snap out of it, but I know I am not in N.D. I'm still in a lightning storm though.

You end up with weird feelings and thoughts and it's just annoying. I feel like now that I know about it, I'm diseased. I never thought it did me any harm before, but now? How much of my time am I spending daydreaming?