It's too early for me to come up with a clever title...

ok so I just decided to get back into blogging :) I kind of dropped that ball when I started school. I kind of kept up at times, but for the most part I've never been super consistent with posting. So I'll try, again. Hehehe...

Seattle Part 1

Ok guys. I was just about to take a nap and I decided that I should journal about my trip so far so that I don't forget anything! So I left early on Wednesday morning! I wore a nice traveling outfit and still felt comfortable the whole time. I got to my gate on time and was able to purchase a magazine for my flight. There were no screaming babies or loud children on this flight! I squeezed in a tiny bit of rest and before I knew it we were landing in Seattle 10min early! I have to say, I was kind of happy to see it raining when we landed. Just because its Seattle rain! Heaven and her friend Caroline picked me up a little late because they got caught in some traffic. When we were driving to Heavens apartment the rain really picked up and there were some semi scary parts of the drive when a ton of water would get splashed onto the windshield and we couldn't see for a second. And there were a few times when Heaven and Caroline would scream. It was so funny. We went to a small part of the mall that was all Filipino. Caroline picked up some food but Heaven and I decided to get some food somewhere else :) Then we made our way to Heavens apartment. I got myself a little situated and then we headed out to walk to Fremont for some Pho. Right before we got the Pho I spotted a music store and asked Heaven if the sold instruments there. She said yes, and I had a mission in mind. For a few weeks now I have been wanting to buy a new harmonica. So we decided to take a look. They had some! So I bought a cute one! I am so happy that we found that place and that I was able to buy a new harmonica! And it was only $10! Then the Pho place was really yummy! I had Shiracha for the first time ever! It was good. Next Heaven had class. We were a little late, but it was ok because the teacher wasn't even there yet! Then Heaven worked on her art project, a french press pouring a book, protractor, and pencil into a cup like coffee :) After that we had to go back to the apartment to change my shoes and then head out to Heavens workplace. I was able to meet her coworkers and boss that evening. I also got to try a Spicy Dark Hot Chocolate. It was amazing. I have never been a hot cocoa fan. But this changed my mind! I loved it so much that I already have had another one since then! I worked on some Calculus review and talked to a few people on chat while Heaven worked. Once she got off work at 7:45pm we walked down the street to Trader Joes and Safeway and bought our groceries for the visit. We almost went to Menchies (frozen yogurt), but decided to not have too many treats in one day! Back at the apartment we sliced a french bread baguette and poured two glasses of red wine. Then we feasted on bread, brie, grapes, wine, and of course, chocolates! It was a perfectly divine dinner for the tiring and busy day we had. We felt so relaxed and cheery! Afterwards we made some of the objects that will be in Heavens art project. Then we cleaned up and went to bed. I had a normal night of sleep. Which means a bad night of sleep. Ugh. I woke up at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep. But its ok. I woke Heaven up at 7:45am even though we were going to get up at 7:30am originally. I didn't want to get out of bed. But eventually we both did and we started making some breakfast right away. We had some hashbrowns and eggs. I had a glass of milk too! Then we got dressed for our run and went out running! It was more hills then I am used to running on, but we made it through! Then we showered and got all prepped for the day. For the few hours that we had before Heaven had to go to work we decided to go downtown and visit Pikes Place Public Market. It was so cool! There was so much to see and taste! Too much in fact. We were running out of time fast so we decided to go back over the weekend. But before we left we made sure to grab some Piroshky for our lunches. Its a Russian bread type thing with meat and cheese inside. They were really yummy. And we had to stop at the first ever Starbucks and get some coffee. Then once we got on the bus going to Heavens work we split up. I got off at a park to take some photos of the city skyline and the space needle and she kept going towards work. Then when I was done there I walked the few blocks up to her work. I browsed a few shops before heading back to her apartment. And thats where I am now! I am about to start making pizza for our dinner and I'll bring it up to Heavens work so we can eat together! Ok, well thats all for now!

Granny hexagons

Ok Vanessa Nina I am finally getting around to posting a crochet tutorial for you! This is going to be a granny hexagon blanket pattern. It is a little tricky for a first try at crocheting, so if it proves to be too confusing for you just let me know and I can find something else for us to do :) For this tutorial I am just posting the instructions that the lady who posted this pattern posted and just clearing up some confusing spots. I hope it works out, but let me know if you want to do something else!

First off chain 4 and join to form a ring. The hole in the center of the ring will be smallish, but this is where you need to work from for the first round. Tweak it a bit with your fingers to open it out a little if need be.











Chain 3, then work 11 double crochet stitches (US) or treble crochet stitches (UK) into the ring. Join with a slip stitch to the 3rd stitch of the initial chain 3 and fasten off.











You should now have a little whirly wheel circle with 12 stitches/spokes altogether.

Join in a new colour for round 2 :: knot the two yarns together at the base of the first yarn color. Remember you can crochet the ends in as you go with the hex's too.











Pull the new colour yarn through to the front, through one of the dc/tr stitches :: you are working out of the stitches in this round, not the spaces in between the spokes.











For this round, you're going to be making what I think is known as a Bobble Stitch. It's basically where you work two incomplete dc/tr's into the same stitch, joining them at the end by pulling the yarn through all loops.











I shall describe it to you :: yarn over, insert hook through next stitch, yarn over, hook back through stitch (3 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2 loops (2 loops on hook). Then yarn over and insert hook through SAME STITCH, yarn over, hook back through stitch (4 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook), yarn over and pull through all 3 loops.























I know it sounds complicated, but honestly, it's really not.

So this is the pattern for round 2::

Chain 2, then 1 US dc/UK tr in same stitch. Chain 1.

Work a bobble stitch into next stitch as described above, then chain 1 to space.

Repeat 10 more times until you get back to the beginning and have 12 "bobbles" in total. Join round with a slip stitch into the 2nd stitch of the initial chain 2.











OK, you still with me? Onto round 3 :: Nice and easy now, you're doing dc/tr clusters. You are working out of the SPACES now, the spaces between the bobble stitch clusters of your previous row.

Join a new colour, pull loop through a space between 2 bobble clusters to start.

Chain 3 (counts as 1 dc/tr), work US dc/UK tr twice into same space, then chain 1.

Work US dc/UK tr three times into next space, chain 1.











Repeat 10 more times until you get back to the beginning and have 12 "clusters" in total. Join round with a slip stitch into the 3rd stitch of the initial chain 3 and fasten off.











Round 4 :: the chain-loop round ::

Join in a new colour and pull loop through a space between the dc/tr clusters of the previous row.



Chain 3, then make a slip stitch into the next space between your dc/tr clusters :: this anchors the chain loop.











Continue making little chain-3's, slip stitching them in place in the gap between the dc/tr clusters of the previous round. Join the last chain-3 with slip stitch into the first chain stitch you made. Do not fasten off as you will use the same colour for round 5.



Round 5 is the final round that forms the hexagon shape. I'm going to tell you how to crochet this as a single hexagon before we talk about the joining-as-you-go method.

You are using the same colour as the last round, and you will be working the stitches under the chain-3 loops you created. So to begin, make a slip stitch under the nearest chain-3 loop.

Chain 3 (counts as one dc/tr), then US dc / UK tr twice. Chain 2 (this is the corner spacing), then in the SAME chain-3 loop, US dc / UK tr three times. This is your first corner, it should look like a double cluster of 6 dc/tr's with a pointy corner bit in the middle.











Into the next chain-3 loop, work US dc / UK tr three times. This is a single cluster and makes a straight side.











Into the next chain-3 loop, work US dc / UK Tr three times, chain 2, then US dc / UK Tr three times. This is your second corner.











Continue working your way round making your clusters of 3 dc's /tr's, alternating between making a double cluster corner group (with chain 2 spacing) and a straight side single cluster. You should be ending the round on a straight-side group of three dc's/Tr's. Join the round with a slip stitch and fasten off.











See?????? It's not so hard?????? You've made your first hexagon!!!



Now if you're happy to make lots of single hexagons and join them all by stitching, then that's absolutely fine. But joining them as you go is fairly easy, although a little fiddly.

You will be working counter-clockwise, starting with a corner.











To begin, you make a single cluster as before (chain 3, then dc/tr twice). Then instead of chaining 2 to make your corner spacing, chain ONE, then replace your second chain space with a slip stitch into the corner space of the ajoining hexagon.
Then working into the SAME chain-3 loop, dc/tr three times to finish your corner cluster.











Now you need to slip stitch into the next space of the ajoining hexagon to secure. Basically, you have to insert hook into the space, hook the yarn from the back and pull it through to the front :: first through the space, then through the loop on the hook. It takes a bit of practice, it can be fiddly. But persevere.











You continue to work your way around, forming the hex shape in the same way as described above, but making sure that after each cluster you slip stitch into the relevant space on the ajoining hexagon which makes the attachment. When you get to a corner where you would normally chain 2, you make 2 slip stitches instead (in picture above, one slip stitch is made into the corner of the cream hex, and the next slip stitch into the corner of the navy blue hex). This is kind of hard to explain in words...











I so hope that if you are inspired to give this a go, then you will be able to follow my blurb. I've done my very best with this, tried not to be too wordy, and its taken me a very long time to write it all out. But you are worth it, every word! I am happy, SO happy to be spreading the Hexagon Love.


















If you find you need further help, please just leave a comment and I will do my best to reply and help out.

HAPPY CROCHETING!

Jake's birthday gift! Finally!

Some of you already know that I've been working for a while now on Jake's birthday gift. Well yesterday I finally got it in the mail! I came home from school around 4:45pm to find it on the doorstep :) I'm so glad that I didn't get it early in the morning before I left for school because once I had it in my hands it felt like forever until Jake got home!I was really excited to open it and see how it turned out. I was nervous that all my hard work might have been messed up by any number of small mistakes I could've made being that I never wrote a book before. The first thing I saw was the cover. Perfect! The. Everything else inside was perfect as well. I was so happy with the way it came out that I almost cried. All that hard work trying to imagine in my head where to insert blank pages all came out right. And all the hard work of formatting the pages and getting everything to look just right came out as well. And the illustrations are wonderful. You can't even tell I edited them! Both Jake and I read the whole thing last night :) He really loved it. He had no idea what his gift was going to be. And it was hard to keep the secret from him. So many times I caught myself wanting to talk to him about a problem that I had run into with the editing and formatting and such, but I couldn't. Anyways, here are the photos I took of it to share with all of you!

The front cover. The title of the book is Bloom.


The title page on the inside.



Then there is a dedication page and a note from Jeremy, Jakes best friend.
And then this page!
Heaven, I can't thank you enough! The illustrations are wonderful. Jake loved looking at all of them and knew what each one was about :)


Then the Contents page since I decided to do chapters.



The opening chapter! I like the way I finally settled on formatting :)
The chapter number and title are in dark gray incase you can't tell...



Then here are all of the illustrations! This first one is of Jeremy introducing Tiana and I to Jake at the snow rally in 2003.



Then this is of me doing a long jump at horse camp later that year.



Then Jake and I sitting in my family's dining room talking.



Then Jake showing me the Alameda beach at night.



Jake asking me to be his girlfriend outside of Round Table Pizza where I worked at the time.



Jake and I texting each other on a couch at UCLA when we finally got together.
This is my favorite I think :)


Then me in the water and Jake laughing at me because it was freezing cold!



And last but not least our wedding kiss!



The wrapped up gift.



And Jake looking at it right after he opened the package...



And that's it guys!