Hello friends! Things have happened! I got a dog and I went to the island and some other stuff. I have some photos for you but I have been super busy taking care of this beast and trying to make sure she doesn’t eat my house. Puppies are like children, it is the worst. But also the best.

LOOK SHE IS A T REX

She is Boston Terrier/French Bulldog style and one ear is not fully up and probably never will be. She is 7 months old and full of beans. Her name is Gypsy and she is a travelling dog.

Here she is enjoying a vegan bone.

Ok that’s it, I have to go job now but I’ll have more island things to talk about later maybe if I get around to it.

<3

the beekeeper’s quilt from tinyowlknits on Vimeo.

but how cute is this lady? Also it would make sort of a neat whatever a day project, and then at the end you have a blanket. I don’t know why but I imagine it would be so heavy but also SO WARM.

P.S. Someone please take this song away from me. I have listened to it at least thirty times today.

P.P.S. The reason I figured it out is because Jersey Shore was trending on Twitter and I was like whoa did it start today? Why would it be on a Wednesday. I am a champion of life.

Let’s call this a sweater I started last year but then got too busy to finish and put away for almost a year.

It’s the February Lady sweater, and it is kind of killing me. I was knitting away last night when I noticed a weird yarn loop and discovered that actually I had dropped a stitch somewhere back in garter stitch town without noticing and just kept on plugging away at it. (You can probably tell from the scribbles that this is not the first screw up I’ve made.)

I’ve isolated the problem though and hopefully Val will show me how to surgery this back in. I know how to pick up a dropped stitch by going back in time but not when going back in time involves undoing lace patterns. She asked me how I managed to keep the lace pattern correct and I had to admit that I had added some stitches here and there because I needed the right number. Oops.

The best part is I don’t have enough yarn to finish it. I’ve ordered more online (I’m using Cascade Eco+) but it’s a different dye lot so I’m hoping it’s not weird. If it is, I’ll just chuck it in a dye bath.

Guys I think a bunch of holidays or something just happened? I dunno it was really busy and intense and then today when I went outside it was really quiet and delightful. P.S. I am super over the holidays. I was stressed out so hard that I got really sick on my six days off and spent two days in bed watching Netflix and hanging out in a Nyquil coma.

I’ve also had this song in my brain this morning. You’re welcome.

I hope everyone had a good time last night and that your brains are not hurting this morning. We continued a New Years Eve tradition by having Val and Sean come over to play Rock Band until the night. She brought her entire Xbox over so we could do QUEEN because I am too cheap to buy Rock Band 3 and they will not let you have new songs unless you buy it I guess. I don’t know.

They also brought ZOE over, and she is my favourite. The cats were unimpressed. One time I was in the middle of singing a song and she farted the worst short face stink dog fart and I did not get 100% because I was choking on her fumes.

Here she is with her new dog shoes.

I only drank a tiny bit of gin so I did not wake up feeling the worst ever. But I did wake up early because that is how I roll, so I let Maine sleep in and walked over to the dog park to take photos.

I am not very awesome at photos because I don’t exactly know how to use this camera. One time I read a bit of a book and I was like THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE and then I didn’t take any photos for a while because Vancouver in winter is basically grey forever and also I job a lot in the day time so I can’t really photo when I am talking to people about which cable package they should get. So basically I forgot about how to do a thing. Also I am terrible at manual focus, I think because when you wear glasses it is harder to judge a thing? That’s my excuse anyway.

So I guess one of my goals for the new year is to figure this thing out and get more awesome at photos. And also not be a wiener about it and stop caring if people are looking at the weird girl taking photos of ducks.

I am really terrible at making goals. I think it’s partly because I don’t really know what I want to do, and partly because I get a lot of ideas but thinking about things is way easier than doing things. I spend too much planning and not enough time doing. So then I don’t make goals because I’m like pffft you won’t do it anyway Tams.

Another thing I would like to do this year is make more art happen. I think it’s natural that once school finished I got a bit lazy… Art school is pretty intense you guys. Especially when you are jobbing a lot, too. But there are deadlines so you HAVE to do things or you fail, and failing is not a thing I do. Being mediocre at a thing, yes, but failing, no.

I recently had a dream where Mary Lou Trinkwon (one of the instructors for the Textiles program at Cap, in case that is not a thing you know about) was asking me why I don’t art more, and I listed all the reasons that I normally use  (the studio is too cold, I don’t have enough time, I don’t have enough money to buy all the stuff I need to make a thing happen) and the excuses sounded really stupid in my dream, so probably they sound really stupid in real life too.

There is a call for entries coming up for the cherry blossom festival thingy, so I definitely want to submit something for that. I have an idea of a inlay weaving so I need to clean up the table loom I have downstairs and warp it so hard.

What about you, friends? Did you make any goals? Do you have any pro-tips on how to do a thing?

I think the key to goals is having actual quantifiable things you want to achieve and also an idea of how you will do it. So you aren’t supposed to be like “This year I will get fit” – like wtf does that mean anyway? You are supposed to be like “This year I will do the Grouse Grind and not die” (this is an idea I have obviously had in the past and then never achieved hahahaha) and then be like “ok to not die I need to practice going up stairs forever so I will practice being a master of stairs at least x times per week for x amount of time until I am so good at stairs that I can do them for like two hours up a mountain”.

Wait actually I am pretty good at making goals I guess. It is just that pesky doing a thing part that I need to learn about. OH WAIT I GUESS YOU JUST DO IT. That is the key.

What’s new? I am still kinda having the winter sads but I am pretty stoked that the solstice is a thing that is going to happen soon. I can totally understand why in the old days they had big rituals to celebrate the sun coming back. Speaking of, Christmas is kinda bumming me out – it’s too overwhelming. I basically have not achieved any gifts for anyone and it is sad because I LOVE YOU ALL I just don’t want to go to the mall and buy you crap and I have clearly procrastinated too much to make anything worthwhile. Can we have a do over in like four months?

(P.S. Run on sentences are super my favourite)

Oh yeah also I have not forgotten about spoiling movies for you, I just haven’t really watched that many because I have been reading books. Weird, I know. One time I watched “Peep World” and it reminded me kind of the Royal Tenenbaums except full of less whimsy and with more Jewishness.

This movie was ok but I felt like it needed to be longer. I wanted to know more about these characters and it was more like I had a little tiny taste test and not a full meal.

Speaking of Michael C Hall, I need to watch Dexter now. (Also I read the first Dexter book and it is terrible.)

So, here goes: It is the weekend and weekends are good, also big fat cat orange tummies are good even if he doesn’t really want you to touch it. Also I like the internet because it has good things in it, especially videos of puppies and kittens.

I tried writing this post earlier and then I got lost in a vortex of videos of baby elephants and dogs howling on Youtube. Then I went to the mall with Steph and her man friend James, and when I got home I remembered that it is Christmas time, which means I can definitely post this video again.

Hope you’re having a good weekend

This has been on my mind for a bit. I follow a lot of blogs on my Google Reader. Maybe too many. I end up scrolling past a lot of things – it used to be that I didn’t have it in me to read them but I would look at the pictures, and now the pictures have to be really compelling to prevent me from pressing the next button. I am kind of overwhelmed by the internet.

But one thing I have definitely noticed is the amount of advertising – either subliminal or completely obvious – that has made it’s way onto personal blogs. I used to read blogs to get inspiration, to learn about other people, that kind of thing. And now all I see is how many things Modcloth/Blowfish/WeHeartColours/insertcompanynamehere has sent a particular blogger (note: I am not trying to call anyone out with this… Well, not the bloggers, but maybe the companies. I am on to you.).

I am 100% bored of outfit posts, and it’s not just because my blog will never be popular enough to get all the sponsors ever (besides, nothing that Modcloth sells would fit on my body so the point is kinda moot. [Moot is a good word.]). I just feel like the content that I used to go for is not there anymore. If I wanted to see what new dresses Modcloth had put out recently, I would go to their website. Ya know? (Guys I’m just going to say it: Modcloth makes me sad. It seems pretty expensive and I am not convinced it is worth it, so good on ya to those of you who are getting it for free.)

And I feel bad because… I want people to be able to live the dream. It is inspiring to me that there are people who do not have to go to an office and pretend to be nice to people for eight hours a day so they can pay their rent and eat food.

(This is where I go to be nice to people for money.)

I get that part of living the dream might be taking on sponsors and posting an outfit wearing the stuff they gave you, or raving about how awesome their product is or whatever. But it just makes me feel like… I am already being advertised to all the time. I don’t need to be advertised to when I am trying to read about the cool things people are making and doing.

So maybe I need to find new internet hang outs. What do you think? Have you noticed this too? Does it bum you out? Am I over-reacting? Also, when do I get the moon shoes?

I maybe already talked about this not that long ago. I can’t remember. Being nice to people for money all the time makes me forget most of my life.

note: I already regret this post.

Today Tremaine went for breakfast with some people so I got bored and made soup and decided to decorate the tree.

The soup was made of whatever I could find in the fridge. Onion, carrots, celery, rice, kale, tofurkey sausage, potatoes and half a tomato. Oh and peas! I think it weirded Tremaine out because he only ate like half a bowl but I thought it was delicious.

A few years ago I did the tree as if it was space and had planets but they have been destroyed by cats and I thought I would do something else this year. So I used the first ball of handspun I ever made as garland and then i tied yarn to some little button pins I made and turned them into ornaments.

Oh and I put a bow and disco ball on the top. It seemed appropriate. I also had some silver balls that were regular kind. I think it is funny that usually I am made of rainbow colour explosion but when it comes to the tree I prefer it to be more subdued. (Although my dream tree would be pink and I think I would make it so so so pink.)

We had some Halloween things still up and instead of, you know, being normal and packing them away, I knit a tiny hat and scarf for this skeleton instead. I like it.

This is my most favourite Christmas movie. I am watching it now but soon I will watch Dexter. Have a good night!

K you guys, I know I should not have expected much from a movie that pretty much starts out with two dudes peeing in a fountain, but sometimes I like to watch these kinds of movies specifically because I do not expect much from them.

I have probably talked about this before, how… if you watch a movie that everyone is all “omg it is the best ever!!!”, often you end up disappointed because everyone has their own idea of what is really awesome and most things are not that awesome to me. You have to work for it to be awesome, ok? But if you watch a thing that you know will be bad, sometimes you are surprised at how it was not as bad as you thought it would be. This was not one of those times.

So the very beginning of this movie is like Michael Bluth having to take care of his twins in the night because it is his turn and the point of it is to introduce you to this character and be like wow his life is so hard and hey let’s throw in a joke about projectile poop because everyone knows babies poo like it is shooting out of a hose. Riiiiiggght.

I *almost* turned it off at that point, partly because it was such a stupid obvious thing to do, and partly because I tried watching Horrible Bosses a few weeks ago and that movie was AWFUL and I did end up turning that one off. So I was still mad at Michael Bluth for wasting my time and not being funny. Basically I don’t understand who writes these terrible, terrible jokes. HOW DO THEY HAVE JOBS?

Ok back to this movie. Well you know they switch bodies and of course discover that the grass is not greener and also learn something about themselves and become better friends/people because of it, the end.

It goes on longer than it should but at least Olivia Wilde is there being Olivia Wilde. I think if she was not in this movie I definitely would have given up.

There are some funny parts that are ok but honestly don’t waste your time. This movie is exactly what you think it will be and it is also not that funny.