we'll just go til the road ends

 "just hold tight to my hand, there's no need for any big plans, we'll just go til the road ends." - Holley Maher

I'm inconsistent, I knooow. I tend to have legitimate excuses though, or at least I try. You know. If you wanted to know where I've been the last four days, I was holed up in my room blaring indie love songs and making art, obsessively. I mean it all started on Saturday night, when I was sitting downstairs listening to music, loudly, and thinking, mostly about the lyrics in said music. I came across the line, "I don't wanna talk about it, I just wanna hold your hand" by Rhodes, in the song Your Soul. It just sounded so nonchalant and intense at the same time, which is the nice thing about the subtleties of loving someone. I'm not in love with anyone right now. In fact, I don't think I've ever quite been in love with anyone, but I do know that I've loved people before, so intensely. It's something comfortable and beautiful and also terrifying, but at the end of the day that's not love, that's something crazy, but it's not quite it. I don't think it's supposed to be terrifying. Whatever. I'm nineteen. I'm not supposed to be in love. I'm fine. That was all besides the point.

Can I tell you something funny? I don't know much about Taylor's life. I know a lot about her career, but even that I don't know completely. I know what her sense of humor is like, I know her cats' nicknames, I know who she has dated, I know she likes wearing outfits that consist only of black clothes sometimes, I know what she would say in most situations, but I don't know much else... and I didn't realize that until last year when this one weirdly plausible article was put out that nobody really talked about. It doesn't even matter though. Okay, so on a more related note, I know she's dating Calvin Harris. That's the sort of thing you can't hide if you're famous. I know he said he wanted to see her in 2012. I know they connected at the Brits Awards two months ago. I know they were first seen together hand-in-hand on a stroll by a lake. But I don't know what exactly is going through her mind, or what she thinks of it all. I mean, I can't just assume she's so in love cause I know it's not like that sometimes. I just don't know. God, I hope so. She's a more rational person now, though. We all are when we grow up and get hurt a little.

Anyway, the whole point is that I drew this very lovey dovey pictures of her and Calvin holding hands and it all sort of just came together, like things tend to do. There's a candid of them holding hands and I drew it and I was going to stop there and quickly write that Rhodes quote on the bottom, but then I was like WHY STOP THERE WHEN THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF SONGS WITH NICE LYRICS and then I stayed up til 2:30am googling and searching and listening to songs until my eyes hurt and my fingers were tired of typing and I felt like an insane person. And then I changed the whole composition of it. The lyrics went on the side instead, and in faux calligraphy but with pencil. And then I was like, why should the hands be freely floating? They need a frame, enter the floral border. It was going to be watercolor, but then I decided to opt for watered down acrylic because it's more pigmented and I love acrylic. My sister walked in halfway through and was all like, "you should make something like this for a real couple you know, so they can hang it up on their wall" and I'm like, "is it that lovey dovey?" I'm not crazy, I swear. I actually love it for it's cutesy nature. And it did take me three days, so it better be worthy of being hung up on a wall, even though it does in fact reside in my sketchbook. Isn't that dumb? I spent three days on a sketchbook piece. What is wrong with me.

But anyway, my friends thought it was cute, and I feel proud of it, so whatever. Let's let it be cutesy. Let's all just gush over the fact that at least someone's in love, somewhere. Which reminds me, one of these days I'm going to post the playlist I listened to when I was working on this. It's my favorite right now.

Have a flawless Wednesday!

What I'm Making: Bunny Sleep Mask

So, the last time I was on a red eye flight I remember feeling really annoyed because 1) I didn't have a sleep mask with me and 2) planes are surprisingly brightly lit in the middle of the night, so this time I knew that I'd have to make a sleep mask at some point during the course of the week. Actually, I had been meaning to make one for a while, just to have it ready, but I'm not exactly timely half the time. I could've easily just bought one, I know, but why would I do that when I could make a cuter one. ANYWAY, I made it reversible.

It's very serendipitous that I had everything already in my stash. I mean, if you know me you know I wear a lot of neutrals so I tend to sew things that are neutral as well, which gets boring sometimes but that's a story for a different day. the point is, I really didn't think I'd have black and white quilting cotton. Or the fuchsia elastic. Actually, I had no idea I ever bought elastic in that color so that was a nice surprise! And the fact that the black and white cotton was polka dot just made my day. As for the pink side, I actually had so many options. I considered using the pink cat fabric that Ester Lara designed, which I used for the lining of a coat I made last year. And then, I almost used a scrap of Liberty fabric I've had in my stash for ages, but then I settled on this bunny print by Moda instead, and there's a story for that.

I love that it happens to look girly and pretty on both sides. I still favor the bunny side, of course. That fabric stole my heart from the moment I saw it. It's so darn cute, don't you think? Little animals on fabric is just heart eyes emoji.

There was a day last summer when my friend Angie and I went out to get burgers for lunch, and then we didn't know what to do so we ended up traipsing through town. Like seriously, we went to pet kittens, we ate snow cones at the parking lot in front of a furniture store, and we just sat there talking for ages. And then I had the idea of heading to the local fabric store, and you should know, I don't usually shop for fabric with anyone else. It's sort of my little introvert retreat. Regardless, we went. And I saw the bunny fabric and she asked me what I would make with it, to which I responded with a simple "I didn't know, but I want it," and somehow, I don't remember exactly they way it went,  it all resulted in the conclusion that I would buy a half yard and I'd most likely never use it but I was going to buy it anyway and if in a year or five, I ended up making something with it, I would have to text her a picture of the thing. Well, I guess it didn't take long. It hasn't even been a year yet.

Oh and it took a grand total of 30 minutes to sew, so if you want a quick project this one's a fun one!

Hope you've been having a lovely day!

What I'm Making: Archer progress

Over the weekend, I had quite a bit of extra time to work on the Archer Shirt. I actually didn't spend that much time working on it, but I did sew a whole lot. I was able to put together the whole bodice and now the only thing I still have left to do is sew the sleeves and the collar, etc. And hemming, obviously. I love how it looks so far though, especially the back:

I can already tell what it's gonna be like when I'm done with it and I'm so excited! I already know I'm gonna get a lot of wear out of it this Spring.  Well, I'll be keeping you updated on the progress. As for my diet, it's definitely working, but it's not any easier. I'm excited for tomorrow though! I've been craving sweets so bad, especially since I have a bag of Ghirardelli dark chocolate in my desk drawer tempting me, but since tomorrow is bananas and milk/yogurt day I'll finally be able to have something sweet that I love almost as much as chocolate. And then it's gets easier from then on. I'll keep telling you how it goes!

Have a lovely Wednesday!

What I'm Making:

In October I learned how to knit and I quickly made my first two projects - a grey/ blue blanket and a white sparkly one I gave to my dear friend Caitlin. Now I'm thinking I want to try something smaller and more useful on a day to day basis, so last night I found a pattern from Purl Bee for a pair of handwarmers/ fingerless gloves that I'm wanting to try out! I've tried a sewing pattern from Purl before and it was so easy to follow, so I'm hoping their knitting ones are just as lovely. I'm so excited! I'm gonna go to Harmony over the weekend to pick out some yarn, I'm thinking I want it to be a nice subtle color like a soft pink or an ivory hue, but I might go for something bolder if I absolutely fall in love with the color.

and I might try for the hat as well! What do you think?

picture credit goes to Feeb, from Purl Soho in New York.