Grr Argh

Posted on by bekswhoknits

I just bought the cutest thing!!!

And I think this officially makes me a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan.

Any regular Buffy watchers would know the zombie that crosses the screen at the end of every episode. Well now that sound is my email ringtone (check out this post on how to convert mp3s to ringtones, and used a free YouTube to mo3 software to grab something off YouTube) and I wear this bracelet on my wrist.

Justduckydesigns is the shop and I am super impressed. I absolutely love it!! And now have my eye on a pair of doctor who bowtie earrings


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Guest Post – Her Name Was Greta

Posted on by bekswhoknits

Everyone head on over to her name was greta.

The lovely Stina let me guest post for her.

And while you’re over there spend some time looking at all the beautiful things Stina does.

She crochets, and bakes and has gorgeous cats to drool over.

Go on.
I’ll still be here when you get back.

inspiration from around the web this week

Posted on by bekswhoknits

<a href="http://wildolive.blogspot.com/2011/11/story-of-making-your-story-book.html”>this DIY for making a story book, brought back memories of a pen-pal book my primary school best friend and I wrote with each other. Each letter was in an envelope which was then bound together to make a book.
If I recall correctly we had both read Anne of Green Gables, and so naturally it had a tragic ending, like so many writers club stories had.

it’s such a pretty watch – and a really easy DIY

this tutorial also posted at the hairpin has got me really excited for sewing again.
I have a car back and the first place I’m going is my local fabric store.
I need to find that perfect pattern for a dress that I can just make in so many fabrics it’s not funny. Maybe this modcloth pattern

This really cute thread holder cosy from Scathingly Brilliant.
Although first I need someone handy in my life (wouldn’t it be useful if I lived with someone who enjoyed carpentry – oh wait! I do!) who could build me a thread holder.

A Sparkley Silver Lining finally inspired me to design buttons for all my alter-egos (look to the right! woo – look at that. And whilst you’re looking right, why not check out my google+ profile – it contains the highlights of my daily google reader addiction)

And finally from etsy this gadget wallet. I’m pretty sure I can reverse engineer it and make it myself, but I need this in my life.
For those iPad owners around the place with iOs5 installed, the newsstand feature has free issues of magazines available. The
Mollie Makes magazine has an awesome tutorial on making a wallet. Maybe it could be adapted.
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blogging for confidence

Posted on by bekswhoknits

Allow me to be all introspective for a post. I was doing my usual blog reading / blog discover this morning and I kept stumbling across similar themes. Blogging for confidence particularly struck a nerve. Since this blog has just turned 1 (happy blogday to me!) it was a topic that I wanted to explore and write about.

I have always been the shy girl. The girl in the corner who dressed a little bit differently and thought about different things.
The girl who felt like Daria except not as smart. The loner in the corner of the library.
The girl who dressed in all black and read Anne Rice novels, when no one else was reading about vampires.
I wore headphones as shoelaces and got in trouble for wearing (fake) doc martins instead of school shoes.
I’ve had pink hair, purple hair, green, blue, and even tried polka-dots once. I’ve gone from a shaved head to nipple length hair and every style in between.
I always preferred to set myself apart. In my own head it was easier to accept that people didn’t like me because I wore too much eyeliner than they just plain didn’t like me.
I have struggled with my mental health. There have been some terrifying lows which I shall never forget.
High School was not easy.

It made my stronger, but I constantly look back and wonder why I had such a hard time.
Therapy helped.
But what has really helped is blogging.

Writing about things helps me stay on track. It helps me be a “proper grown up”.

It helps me get some perspective and some purpose.
There’s a strength I get from blogging.
It gets me out of the house. It gets me looking at the world in different ways.
I appreciate the beauty of things more.

If I was left to my own devices I could quite contently never achieve anything. I could sleep for days, never communicating, never seeing sunlight, living in my own little world with no one to bother me.
But that’s not good for me. I’m sometimes not the best company for myself.
So blogging, even if it’s just what I ate, what I wore, what I knitted, what I listened to, it makes me think about what I’m doing.

It makes me live.
And I’m very grateful for that.

This is why I blog.
Blogging has definitely got me out of my comfort zone, doing things that I never would have done before.
Hell, it turned me into a knitter.
I guess that’s why I relate so much to this challenge. Because I know how much blogging has helped me.

I may just try one or two of these challenges.

my work browser officially sucks…

Posted on by bekswhoknits

…and it’s not letting me comment on anyone’s blogger today. Which absolutely sucks because I love commenting on blogs.
I just love leaving nice comments for people.
It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

So here are the comments that I wanted to leave – I hope you all have pingbacks on your sites.

I have no idea why it’s just your sites that aren’t working, because some blogger sites are and some aren’t.
One day I’ll get around to doing a blogs I follow side bar, for some reason the bloglovin one doesn’t work on wordpress for me.
Continue reading my work browser officially sucks…

everything that is connected, and beautiful, and now i know just where i stand

Posted on by bekswhoknits

I’m having a really good day.

One of those days when I feel that I’m alive and making a contribution.
I feel like I can do just about anything. I’m alert, I’m active,
I’m thinking. I’m socially engaged.
And I just can’t help but smile.

There was a post I read today (from one of the many blogs I follow) from the lovely Give Me Bows, celebrating her 6 month blogoversary. One of the reasons that I love her blog so much is that it’s plain and simple awesome. She takes things that I like and I think about and makes them into blog posts.
What I liked about that post, is her idea of blogging as a scrap book. It’s a space to call your very own. I think of my blog as my online house. It’s where people can come to get to know me, to know who I am and what I’m about.

And it made me go back and look at where I’ve come from, my first post which was full of trepidation and insecurity, to see how blogging is a part of my life now.
Blogging makes me feel better about myself. It makes me less insecure about my own life. I’m judgemental and jealous. I know that about myself. Blogging has made me appreciate me own life a whole lot more.

I’m still thinking about a better name, but for the mean time, welcome to my world.
My little hub where you can see what I eat, knit, listen, and live.
The world as seen by sparkles.

(title lyrics courtesy of silversun pickups)

Identity struggles

Posted on by bekswhoknits

I’m struggling with my blogging identity.

Music food life. It’s what I write about, not who I am.

I love wordpress, but sometimes I don’t like how that’s the way I’m portrayed to the outside world.
I love commenting on blogs. I love the thought that, just maybe, my comment can brighten some one’s day.
I want to make things brighter. But I feel that commenting as musicfoodlife makes it sound like I’m out to promote myself.

Music food life. It’s an accurate depiction of what I do, but it doesn’t have much scope.
As (I discovered on the train today) I’m becoming the kind of person that can spot a ravelry pattern from 100 paces, I’d like to write more about my adventures in knitting. Or even my adventures in life.

I look at all these blogs around me, with their beautiful photography, their beautiful clothes, their beautiful food. I feel that my iPhone photos don’t quite cut it.
But I have to be true to myself.
I’m never going to live behind a camera, I have to experience things.

I’m struggling to find my purpose.
I guess I’ll keep blogging until I find it.

a fennel success and a fennel disaster

Posted on by bekswhoknits

the nicest compliment i’ve been payed in a good while was as a look of total shock and surprise after describing what i was planning to cook for dinner – “are you good at everything you do”… It was so incredibly sweet in its delivery And rather heartfelt – it really touched me…
Even more so when dinner turned out to be a total disaater… It was a taste.com.au recipe. I really wanted to try working with fennel so i found two different ways…

Because i was watching football (Childress! Why didn’t you challenge Green Bay’s second touchdown – we totally would have won) i decided to make sausage rolls (or snosage rolls as they’re affectionately known in my house) using a roast fennel seed, mustard powder, and dried coriander spice mix in chicken mince. Needless to say, they were delicious once coated in puff pastry and sprinkled with sesame seeds… So they were a hit with my boy and thank goodness or else he would have had sandwiches for dinner…

The next recipe was not a success by any stretch of the imagination… it was meant to be chicken, fennel, and lemon fettuccine
I’m not sure what went wrong but the sauce didn’t create itself – even though there was a can of cream in there… and the chicken mince was all gloopy, the zucchini didn’t really work (that one could be down to my chopping skills, and for a first attempt at fennel… well it was a bit of a disaster…
I managed to get mine down, J ate half and the rest went straight in the freezer hopefully until I’m desperate… It looked like congealed chicken mess…
But J’s cooking tonight – he had a hankering for barbequed burgers last night and i think after my attempt last night he might be more determined for a good dinner.