Decorating my Dorm with my Roommate: A How To

                

               This tutorial comes to you, because of my awesome roommate, Cristina. Who decided to decorate the room =). She also added the saying "Dismiss whatever insults your own soul" to her side of the room using the say technique. The hands and legs you see in the pictures are hers =)

    Before               

After

(It says "Normal is just a setting on your hairdryer)

Supplies needed:

• Letter Stencils
• Magazines
• Pencil/Pen
• Scissors
• Sticky Tack

 Step 1: Find a wall you would like to decorate! =)

Step 2: Lay out all of your letter stencils, so you can easily find any letters you need

Step 3: Take out your magazines

Step 4: Lay out your letter stencils in the form of the phase you'd like to spell. Just do the first couple words to keep and neat and also because you'll run out of letters.

Step 5: Select pages that you like. Try to avoid white, if your walls are white like mine. If not try to avoid the color of your walls.

Step 6: Lay your letter on the page that you like and try to get the most interesting part of the picture.

*Try to make sure that all the letters are oriented the same way on the magazine pages.

Step 7: Trace the letter on to the magazine dark enough that you can see it when you take the letter away.

Step 8: Follow the traced line and cut out the letters.

Step 9: Lay out the letters as you go, so you can make sure you are spelling everything correctly and you're not missing any letters. Once you have all the letters you can switch the letters that are the same to make the letters look nicer together.

Step 10: Use sticky tack or tape to attach the letters to the wall in whatever configuration that you'd like.

And you're done! =)

If you do this send me pictures! @ mylifewithyarn@gmail.com and I'll share them here =)

Hamburger Amigurumi

               Finished this little guy at 3 this morning :) he's so cute. I didn't have a pattern, I just thought it up as I went along

My New Dorm!!

I've been so busy with packing and moving that I haven't had time to post. So now that I'm all done and settled in and classes have just started I'm gonna show you my new temporary home.=)

First things first the common room! I took a panoramic picture of it on my phone. It looks a little wavy, because the feature on my phone doesn't always work for oddly shaped areas. There's a laptop bar, a booth, and the square things on the far right are some awesome seats that have mesh walls surrounding them. All the furniture is brand new this year and each of the floors have a different color. The first floor is tan, my floor is orange, the next floor is purple, and the forth floor is blue and green.The door on the far left in the laundry room

This is my bed obviously =) The really great thing in the picture is the wall decals I got last year are back up on my wall =) I got them at target  and most of them stuck right back on without tape. You can also see my stuffed lobster and dog.

My bed is lofted like super high so that I can fit more stuff underneath. I use the corner of my food trunk to jump onto my bed =)

These are my brand new wall decals =) Got them at AC Moore and they are so pretty and bring tons of color into my dorm

My Desk =) its so organized. I used this thing called the "Dorm Space Saver" it can go over your bed, but I decided it would do me more use over my desk =) 

All of my classes are color coded and in magazine dividers. When I get the books they will also go in the magazine dividers. 

Then I have a wardrobe (The one on the left is mine)

I had half a wardrobe left after I hung my clothes so i put my plastic shelves and the canvas box with my jackets in there also.

And last but not least you might be wondering where all my yarn is =) I couldn't leave home without my yarn. It was the thing I checked most to make sure everything was there, when I packed to leave. I couldn't find my favorites shirt and that was okay, but none of my favorite yarn could be left behind. The square box on the far left is all my yarn that's at school. The bag in front of it has some of the extra supplies. I explain this bag and my whole bag system in my first organization post. 

That's all for now =) Post again soon =)

Jean Bracelets

I had some old pants that I've had forever and they where so full of holes I could hardly wear them any more. So I decided to upcycle them into bracelets.


 The first one is just a strip of jean tied around my wrist. 

The second I braided the jean pieces  then sewed either side of the braid so it would stay together. Then I over lapped the two ends and sewed them together t make a ring. I didn't like the seam where I sewed it together so I took another little piece of jean and sewed it in place after wrapping it around the place with the seam. 

Plarn! :)

Crocheting with some plarn that I made with the plastic bags from all over my house. At this point I'm planning on it being a reusable shopping bag. :) I knew a little about plarn before, but about 2 weeks ago I was reading a article in a crochet magazine and they were talking about being Eco friendly and this was one if there suggestions.

Today while I was bored and waiting for something to lead on my computer I googled "plarn" and found this really awesome video that showed very simply and easily how to make it, so I did. :) here is the video that finally inspired me to try it. Hope you enjoy it and it inspires you as much as it inspired me.

Rainbow granny square update :)

These are all the squares I have so far. And the green blanket is the size I'd like the blanket to be at the end. :) I think it's cute so far.

Olympics Committee Sends Cease and Desist to Ravelry

Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters

If you mess with the Olympics trademark, a cloud of legal hurt will descend on you faster than Tyson Gay in the Men's 100 meters. Case in point: The U.S. Olympic Committee has sent a cease and desist letter to a knitting-based social network for hosting a knitting "olympics." Now, knitters are in revolt.
2012 was to be the third year that the knitting social network Ravelry—yes, this exists and is surprisingly popular—hosted a "Ravelympics," a knitting competition for users that includes events like an "afghan marathon," and "scarf hockey." Knitters were supposed to compete in their events while watching the actual Games on TV.
But that was before the U.S. Olympics Committee got wind of it and sent Ravelry a cease & desist, for making a mockery of the Games with their needlework. Here's a passage from the letter, sent by the USOC's general counsel and posted by Ravelry founder Casey Forbes to his blog (Ravelry account required):

The athletes of Team USA have usually spent the better part of their entire lives training for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.  For many, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of their sporting career.  Over more than a century, the Olympic Games have brought athletes around the world together to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.
[…]

We believe using the name "Ravelympics" for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country's finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.

Yeah, Ravelry, do you want to make olympic athletes cry with your dumb knitting olympics?

If you would like to read the whole article you can by following the link below.

Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters

 This story really upset me. Especially the part in which they said "We believe using the name "Ravelympics" for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country's finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work." This implies that crocheting and knitting is a disrespectful pass time. The community that donates hand made scarves to the special Olympics and that donates many projects a year to other charities such as the purple stitch project.

Also the Olympic athletes themselves use crocheted and knitted goods for a lot of the winter Olympics. This was especially popular during the olympics that were hosted in Sweden. Crocheting can not be automated, so someone, somewhere use the time and effort to make that for them. Without skillful yarn crafters those goods would not exist.

Also the group organizing the Olympics in London paid a Crochet artist 500,000 pounds to complete giant lions that are meant to represent the London Olympics. So England can embrace it's yarn crafty community, but America see's it being associated with the Olympics "disrespectful". Video below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17915318

Also Ravelry was giving The Olympics free advertisement dedicated to a demographic that I do not think is normally reached for the Olympics. The Ravelympics encouraged that while you competed in your "event" your watch the Olympics. Now the one in three Americans who yarn craft may be so upset with the Olympics Team that they might not watch.

If you would like to read the whole article you can by following the link below.
Knitters Outraged After U.S. Olympic Committee Squashes Knitting Olympics—and Disses Knitters