Twenty.

I stared at the clock at 11:59, waiting and waiting to see the moment it turned to 12:00. When it did, my entire body jolted, my heart skipped a beat. I actually felt myself age.

It’s a very strange feeling; knowing I am so old yet feeling no difference to my personality. I know I felt that moment when I left behind being a teenager, and I know I am slowly starting to feel the difference, I just don’t think I want to accept it. If I take the time to mature now, I don’t know who I’ll be.

I like someone really badly. I want him to like me back.

I want to do well in school right now. Writing this, of course, is hindering my reading. It’s my birthday and the only two classes I have today are both tests, and I’m not prepared for either one of them.

Writing has taken the back burner for me lately and I’m not okay with that. Perhaps I need to make more time for it, which I’ll try to do. A major factor in doing this will be curring down on the amount of procrastinating I do.

I’m 20 now, and sitting here in the UC which is unnaturally busy for so early on a monday morning I’m starting to feel different.

My friends are the best. My best friends and my MUN friends and I all went to dinner at Jungle Jims on Saturday, and it was such a good time. I haven’t laughed so hard in a while. Then, my best friends and I all went glow bowling, which was equally as fun.

I feel a little bad because I haven’t done anythign with my Clarenville friends, and didn’t invite them to the dinner and bowling because it would have been too many people, but perhaps I’ll order in food tonight for my roommate and I.

A major reason I am ending the post here is because the lineup at treats is completely empty.

For my birthday I got the equivalent of 6 volumes of Fushigi Yuugi and 4 volumes of Fruits Basket and I nearly cried when I got them like when I got the Robert Pattinson movies.

Casettes

I really like casette tapes. I think they’re super neat. They play music, they’re classic symbols, and mixed tapes are the most powerful form of present you can receive/give, in my opinion.

I have another use for casettes. They make fantastically cute walletts.

I stumbledupon this tutorial by Chezlin, and needless to say this is where I got the idea for this blog, specifically the crafting part of it.

So here we go:

You get your hands on a casette tape.

My mothers car and thrift stores were fantastic finds for casettes. The ones held together by screws are super easy to get apart, it saves you a lot of trouble, but the ones glued together DO come apart, they just need quite a bit of coaxing. With this in mind, though, be careful- older ones can break apart really easily.

After you’ve got it opened and gutted (and perhaps taken out the tape to make some artwork out of?) you’ll notice all the little plastic innards that hold the thing together. They’re very easy to break off with a pair of pliers, just hold them by the base and be careful not to break the casette. Try to get as flat a surface as you can.

I won’t post many pictures, since the link above leads you to a great tutorial, I’m just sharing my experiences with it.

A 9″ zipper fits perfect around the three sides of the casette. They come in lots of colours and are easy to find at Wal-Mart.

The glue I used is a LePage brand glue in a purple tube called flexible plastic. I got it at Canadian Tire, but I’m pretty sure you could get it at Wal-Mart and any other hardward store. It’s a popular brand.

This glue is super effective, so you don’t need to use a lot- especially when you apply the felt. It comes off the fingers easily, and only a thin smear is needed to secure the zipper. Just hold it in place for a while! The hardest part, I think, it after you’ve glued the zipper to one side of the casette and then getting it on to another. After much trial and error I think the best way is to zip it up, and glue the side closets to the end of the zipper (bottom of it? The part that the pull tab is on when it’s opened) and then glue it on. After that you can worry about securing the very end and then keep on going.

After that, cutting out the rectangle of felt is next. I find that it doesn’t hurt to make it just a little bit longer, so that it can really attach to all of the casette, and still keep a space at the bottom. Rounding the edges makes it look a bit better, too.

–On a side note, never roll up the bottom of the glue upside down over your pants. it WILL fall onto them–

When attaching felt, like I said, don’t use too much glue. Use enough to cover the surfaces you want. In my experience it’s best to cover one half of the casette and lay it down, then move on to the next. If you casette has a little clear window, don’t put glue on it because it looks bad. This being said, using a solid coloured casette is definitely best- Though if you’re using a clear one, then try and use one with a sticker on the outside!

All that’s left now, is to leave it left open over night. I’m pretty sure with the LePage glue this isn’t necessary, but since it’s such a wide surface, I like to be safe than sorry. After that you’re good to go! Overnight the stifling heavy duty glue smell goes away, too

One last note: If you use the LePage glue, be careful! It doesn’t burn or stick your fingers together like super glue, in fact it’s really easy to get off of skin. But, when the casette and zipper and felt go together- they won’t come off. The glue practically melts the plastic of the casette to keep it on!

So, here is a gallery of pictures. I’ve made seven of these so far. The first one is still the best one, the zupper is straight all around. Every one since then has been crooked! I think I’ve figured out what I’ve been doing wrong now, so the one I made tonight might be better!

The green one is one I made while writing this, and you can see it with just the zipper on and after the felt’s been applied. The orange I finished yesterday. It’s a bit crooked at stiff, but it’s still super cute! I love the colours. I couldn’t find an orange zipper, sadly enough.

The black and yellow one is the first wallett I made, and it’s mine. It’s pictured here after seven months of use- still kicking! I haven’t had a single problem with it. The words rubbed off (it was a Police casette) but that’s no big deal! You can see black parts through the yellow on the inside because I used TOO MUCH GLUE! Take my advice! I mean it! haha.

In terms of use: these walletts fit a lot of cards really easily. Money folded in half twice fits perfectly in them, and even afterward there’s room for change! Change WILL fall out and be clumsy though. This is why I’ve made a habit of leaving the last end zipped when I take things out. I find the walletts clumsy in a hurry, so I only unzip them halfway and shove my cards back into them when I’m in a lineup. Opening them all the way and unfolding them is an accident waiting to happen. Your cards and change will flop out and fly everywhere- leaving the last little bit zipped is the best!

They’re simple and easy to make, and they really make a statement. They’re cute and functional! I have gotten SO MANY compliments on mine- and people are always shocked when I tell them I made it myself. I messed up my loan registrationg because the girl supposed to be helping me kept fawning over them and telling me I should sell them!

One bottle of glue costs 10 bucks or more, I think, and can make four or five casettes. Zippers are mere pocket change, and if you’re lucky you’ve got pliers and a couple of casettes lying around, it’s definitely easy to make profit off of them, or just to use as a gift! I will have given six of mine away once I give away these two new ones tomorrow!

happy gluing everyone

indieVISUAL Journal challenge

I know several friends who have started the 365 photography project- where you essentially take one picture every day for a year.

I know two people on YouTube who are making a video every day this year in order to document it.

The website dailybooth essentially is for taking a picture of yourself every day for a year (or more) and while I’ve been on it for over a year, I have somewhere around 230 pictures taken, so obviously, I’m not good at boothing daily.

The indieVISUAL Journal Challenge is one where instead of keeping a journal and writing the days events in it, you draw a picture of the days events each day.

Admittedly I there have been a couple of days so far (and it’s only the 8th day) where I have been too tired, or not in access of my sketchpad to do my drawings, but I have every single one done. It’s a project that I’m looking forward to, especially when I get more time to sit down and make really decent drawings, or maybe even paintings.

So far they’re kind of poo-y, done with a sharpie pen, pencil, and colouring leads, but I like the idea of this project, and I want this to be something I apply myself to. I used to draw so much in the past, now it’s taken the backburner. I have no interest in just doodling anymore. So maybe this will remind me of how I used to be.

Here are my drawings for so far. Instead of loading them to my tumblr everyday, I think I might just post them here every week- even if more action for my Tumblr seems like a good idea.

Holiday from Real

Despite my lack of updating over the winter break, the views on this blog managed to stay up pretty well.

I was impressed.

I don’t know who you people are who wander here nearly every day, but thanks for dropping by!

I spent my Christmas vacation holed up in my mother’s basement playing video games until 3 in the morning where I would then movie to bed and read silly fanfictions until 4-5 in the morning. I would fall asleep only after my laptop battery died and forced me to go to sleep, with my cat cuddled into my leg and I wouldn’t wake up until somewhere in between 12:30 and 3.

Needless to say it is going to be hard to get out of that routine.

Now, I am back in my house in St. John’s, sitting in my room in my new computer chair, waiting to see if perhaps Jeff Peach is going to come over and hang out until it’s time to go to the Village and browse and be sad about my life because I can’t find a hard copy of Valkyrie Profile for the PSX anywhere, then returning to Lauras and playing video games all night and playing with Pete and spending some quality time with my new file on FF9.

That’s right, I started another file of Final Fantasy 9.

I’ve owned this copy of the game for 10 years now (this year will be my 11th) and it is by far my most prized possession. The cut scenes skip and freeze and will then skip themselves in their entirety, something I get really nervous that it’s going to completely break, but I still play it. I know most of the secrets and have done nearly all of the side quests, and I still find so much enjoyment from it.

However,  when I first moved here I let some people play it and afterwards when I went to continue myself the screen wouldn’t load after I walked into a room and I got so upset, because I was playing the game through and attempting to do as much as I could in one go.

So, after playing copious amounts of Harvest Moon I loaded up FF9 and started a new file, and that is what I plan to do.

Of course, I also plan on reading The Lovely Bones before the 15th, reading a few more Anita Blake books, keeping up on my writing and doing well in coursework, so this semester is going to be a bit busy.

I started a new project for myself.
I know a lot of people who do the 365 photography project, and there’s the indieVISUAL journal challenge for 2010. Essentially, instead of keeping a journal for the 365 days of the year, the challenge is to draw a picture that sums up the day every single day of the year.

There’s been one instance where I drew the picture after 12am, but I hadn’t been asleep yet, and another where I just drew two on the same page, so so far it hasn’t been going to well, but I’m hoping that being back out here will have a more positive effect on the project.

I’m really excited to have something like this to devote just a little bit of time every single day to.

I went to sleep this morning at 6am and woke up naturally before my alarm at 8. I didn’t nap on the four hour ride out here from my mother’s house. Instead, I was full of energy, fighting the urge to sing at the top of my lungs in the back seat. I wanted to sing, and dance, and read so much.

Now, as I am writing this I am even falling asleep, and feeling sick, and it isn’t good.

I should probably take a nap though.

Let it go on the record that I am going to miss my cat so freaking badly.

These past few nights she has cuddled me so thoroughly it broke my heart because she never does that. I left her at home limping au cause de  je ne sais pas, and looking sad because a) I was leaving or b) she thought she was going to have to go into the car again.

I won’t see her again until Easter, and if I am correct in my assumption that the Final Fantasy concert is close to Easter break, then I won’t see her until I get out of school for the summer in April.

I am going to go consult with friends and take a nap because I am sitting up and warm and just want to sleep more than anything.

I’ll probably dream of fighting monsters on the trunk of Cleyra. (A little FF9 reference for you.)

Emma.

New Years Resolutions:

-Make fewer jokes about poop
-Swear less
-Lose enough weight to be a dress size 8 (that’d be losing 3-4 dress sizes)
-Get better grades.