Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Life got very busy. Brief recap:

Did my first craft swap
Went to Europe for 2 weeks.
Worked
Went to Chicago
Worked.

Yeah. Thats basically my summer so far. Its been awesome, but totally distracting.

My first craft swap went well. It was "Supernatural" themed, which was a fun one.

I learned a few new crafts for this swap, and I think my partner liked what she got. I loved what she made me.



I made:
"Mystery Spot" Magnet board
Dean tin
13 marble magnets (in the box)
Stenciled tattoo shirt
5 candles from scratch, one with tattoo carved into it. (Black=Chocolate scent, Purple=violet scent)







I'm in 3 more craft swaps now, so loads of stuff to come!

Tony Awards review

Well, I just got back home after a great weekend and a wonderful night at the Tony Awards! 

We arrived out front at about 6:30, and joined the line to stand with everyone else that was entering Radio City. The line then split into two groups, the "regular tickets" and the "Silver Tickets". We had silver tickets, which meant we were with the theatre guild people, which was really cool. We actually got to walk on the red carpet, although we only got on about two feet of it.

As we entered the door, they then confiscated our cameras, but they missed my cell phone camera, so I did get a few dark shots of the inside.

The first hour were the artistic awards, which were really cool to see. The audience wasn't totally full by that point, and the people who made the speeches were funny. I believe they showed some clips of it during the broadcast, like the guy who made the comment about looking for his m&m's. All of these awards were presented by the same two people. I don't remember who the woman was, but the man was Michael Cerveris, who I got to see in Sweeney Todd last year, so that was really cool. He really enjoyed saying "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", and it was very funny.

At five of 8, they announced that there were going on the air in 5 minutes. Then, three minutes later they repeated it, adding "Please do not stand in the aisle for your safety. There may be some surprises", at which my mom and I turned to each other and said "They're starting with Lion King then."

10 seconds of 8 we figured out we were right when the cameras clicked on and the music started. I forgot how much I loved Lion King. We saw it when it first opened, 10 years ago last month, I believe, so that was really cool to see again.

Cry Baby seemed better on that stage than it did when we saw it. It was good when we saw it back in previews, but not that good. Here the leads voices were a lot stronger, which was interesting. My mom and I were laughing that they got all their shoes on with the license plates, because when we saw it performed originally, one of the dancers got his shoe stuck underneath one of the presses, and had to do the whole tap routine with one tap shoe and one white sock on. So that was cool to see again. That is one of the stronger numbers of the performance.

Then came Passing Strange, I believe. Not sure, the music was so loud I couldn't think. For a room that sits 6000 people, it has good acoustics. Never seen it, and honestly don't really want to.

Then was Gypsy (I think. Its so late now my brain isn't working. correct me if I'm wrong on the order). It was amazing. Patti LuPone Owned the stage, far more than Bernadette Peters did. I'm not sure if you guys at home could see it, but right after they performed, when I believe you all had a commercial break, the entire audience had like a 5 minute standing ovation for her. She was phenomenal. 



The Order of the performances after this part is probably out of order, because I'm so tired I can't remember. o.O


Grease was interesting. I saw it on its last revival, and the definitely played this one up more. Looks good, but I wouldn't want to spend the money to see it again when it was fine the first time.


South Pacific was one that I didn't want to see again, but changed my mind. I saw it in Philly when Robert Goulet was the lead, and I thought that was more than enough for me. However, this production looks incredible, and I want to see it for sure now.

I was disappointed by the Lack of time that they gave the musicals that weren't nominated for best Musical. Two of the three are in the top 10 bestselling musicals currently on broadway, and are in the top 4 best selling out of any of the performances that were in this tony awards. They easily could have cut the speeches by 10 seconds per person and given that time to the other shows, but no.. of course not...

Little Mermaid- They could have picked a better song, but for the time and everything they had, it was good. I want to see it for sure now. Love the costumes.

A Catered Affair- I actually had to cover my ears, because I NEVER want to hear this score again. Gah. Nothing further.

Young Frankenstein- One of my favorites (top fav, actually) of all time, and I must say, I hate the theatre guild for taking out their rage about mel brooks leaving the guild on his musical. They gave it the least amount of time out of all the acts, didn't introduce it well, and just kinda poked at it with a stick. However, Mel Brooks is a genius. I don't know whether he picked the song himself, but whoever did is a genius. They picked a song that basically said "F**k You" to the theatre guild, and, IMO, was one of the strongest performances of the night. NOTE: You guys didn't see it because of the commercial, but Megan Mullally did a little twirl after she bowed, and skipped and twirled off stage, which was cute.

In the Heights is a musical that I really want to see, although getting tickets is probably going to be impossible now. -sigh- Oh well, we'll have to wait. There was so much energy coming off of them, and it was obvious they were the crowd favorite. Every time the name was mentioned there was screaming and cheering.

Sunday In the park with george- I hate this musical, so I'm kinda biased against it, so I'll stay away from the play on onto the actors. The Leads had energy and chemistry with each other, which was good, and excelled voices, but besides that, Its not something I plan on spending money to see.

Xanadu looks Okay, but I don't plan on seeing it. The only reason I would see it is for the lead guy, who we saw as the lead in All Shook Up. He has an excellent voice, but I don't think the musical will be sticking around very long.

Seeing the whole cast of rent together was cool. I never got to see it in NYC, although my dad and my brother did over 10 years ago. I loved their small comments, especially Idina Menzel's in reference to her husband, which was cool. The entire audience cheered at that point.


Random Notes and Memorable things:

I'm Glad Patti LuPone won the tony. She deserves it. Out of all the plays that were up today, out of all the people that had different awards, she was the only one that I really cared about winning.

Because I'm not sure which parts of it you all got at home, seeing the sneak peaks of what is coming to broadway next year was cool. Dirty Dancing is coming, which is interesting, as well as loads of others.

I loved Lin-Manuel Miranda rapping his acceptance speech. That was unique.

I thought it was really cool that Mandy Patinkin read the acceptance for Sondheim.

Mark Rylance's little ramble was like "WTF". I loved when they focused on the woman in the audience and her face said it all. (As a Side note, I believe the speech was a well known poem, which was cool)

Not sure if you saw it, but after xanadu, during the commercial time, whoopi was pushed from one side on rollerblades, but couldn't make it to the other side, and was left 5 feet from the wings, and someone had to reach out and pull her back in. 

Also, Whoopi was falling out of her black dress. She couldn't get it closed, it looked like.

During Lion king, when they had the birds "flying" in the audience, the person with the bird on the balcony below was spinning it so crazily it hit this one guy a few rows in front in the head a few times, which was so funny.

Right before they went back on the air, they had to say "10 seconds... -pause- can I get some applause please" because we were all waiting in silence. Lol

Patti LuPone yelling at the orchestra was cool too. Good for her for going on.

I have more, but I don't want to bore you all. Pictures to come later.

Woah, so much for daily posts...

I got so swamped with the end of school and starting my summer job that I completely neglected my blog! Sorry for all you people that read it (pfft. I don't think anyone does. If you do, let me know! ^.^). Anyways, lots has been happening. I'm back working my summer job at Pine Run, and stressing about life.

Lots of craft stuff to report. I've been doing loads of shirt stenciling.. I've kind of gotten addicted to it. I joined my first craft swap over at Craftster. Its supernatural themed, of course, but I won't be posting any of my completed things here till after my partner receives. Don't want to spoil the surprise! Learned a few new crafts, have made a bunch of candles, did my first clothing recon, and loads of knitting.

Stenciling:

Evil Giraffe Shirt (Eddie Izzard Joke)

Director Shirt

Bottom Right

Back

Top Left.

Chance (version 1)

Chance (Version 2)

Skirt Recon

Tony Awards Shrug (Unfinished)

Central Park Hoodie (Unfinished)

There's other stuff, but I either don't have pictures of them, or I don't want to ruin the craft swap surprise!

Less than 4 days till the Tonys!

Part 2

The back of my shirt.

Its really weird because, for some reason, it bled around the letters. I think it was a little watery and I should have shaken it better, but its ok. Maybe it gives it personality. 

Its also a little tilted, but oh well. I think it turned out well.

First t-shirt stenciling attempt ever!

I finally had time to try to stencil, so after a lot of work, I present to you my first attempt. Its the symbol of Serenity from Firefly/Serenity. The back will say "Browncoat" but its not dried yet. I'll add more pictures once its done. 

And, action shot! 

Its not as white as the picture makes it seem. its actually like creamy brown tan.

Rant... Sorry....

Note: Skip this if you don’t want to read a rant. I’m a little annoyed and its long. I also wrote this rant a few days ago, but never posted it.

I’m seriously pissed off at apple. I used to be that person who was like “Oh, apple is so much better than the other companies” and I don’t even have a Mac. I have a PC because all of my software is for a PC and I’m too broke to buy a new photoshop and everything. But I love my ipod. I’ve loved every iPod that I’ve ever owned, and I had three so far, so that tells you something. So I got my newest one for Christmas because my parents surprised me with a replacement for my old one. I was so excited. But after only a few weeks after getting it, I started to notice that my frickin’ ipod would freeze occasionally. And not be able to turn off. My computer started to give me messages that my ipod was corrupted, and I thought that was just some stupid thing. Nope. It slowly got worse and worse, till it was about once a week! I’d try to open a game, or even just listen to a song and suddenly it would go all weird. Sometimes it would freeze, other times it would give me an error message saying “This game can’t launch. Your iPod may be full.” WTF!? I still have 130 GB left open on my iPod. I shouldn’t be getting messed up messages like that. 

So I go to the apple store in the mall, and they were really nice, and trying to be helpful, although you could tell that they had never experienced what was happening to me. They didn’t have any replacements in store, so they wrote down everything I said and told me that if I mailed my ipod into their HQ then they would replace it there and mail the new one to me. Cool. The perfect answer. I’d get a new ipod that didn’t get all f***ed up every time I tried to play it, and they’d keep me as a customer. (and my family. We have 6 ipods in total in my immediate family.) I may be a broke college student, but my parents aren’t. So I get the box over a week ago, mail it in, and then I get this e-mail…. 

“Dear Rachael,

Thank you for choosing AppleCare Service. 

Our technicians have performed full diagnostic checks on your IPOD CLASSIC and have been unable to reproduce the symptom(s) you reported when you requested the repair. As a result of our tests, we can confirm that your product meets Apple specifications for performance, usability, and functionality.

As a part of our assessment and test procedures, your product has had the latest software and firmware updates installed. It is now being returned to you, and you should expect to receive it within two business days along with a letter that provides details about our assessment as well as useful troubleshooting tips."

What. The. Hell. Sending my ipod back to me? Umm.. how is that going to help anything? At all?

But maybe them installing new firmware will make my ipod all better, and it’s the best of both worlds the optimistic part of me said. (Hah. Remind me not to listen to that side ever again)

So today at about 3 I get my ipod back, totally wiped, and physically looking a little worse for wear… They probably just handled it too much and got ugly smudges everywhere. So I plug it back into my computer and re-loaded everything back onto it, before running to class with all of my stuff for going home for the weekend, ipod and laptop included.

Fast-forward. I’m sitting in Union Station, wanting to listen to music, and so excited because I had been going through ipod withdrawal. So I turn the ipod on, and listen to like 2 songs. All good. Then, because I still have more than 30 minutes to my train, I decide to play a game. Because, as my optimistic side is saying, “they probably fixed it!”

So, I click on games and try to open one. It starts thinking… and thinking… and thinking.

So now my brain is going “oh shit” because this is what it used to do. Then, right on schedule, the message of doom popped up.

So, I’m getting pissed. I just spent two weeks without an iPod, to have them tell me that there is nothing wrong with my ipod. THEN, it does the EXACT SAME THING that it used to do!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got my dad to get me the apple number because, remember, I’m in a train station. With no internet, balancing 2 bags, a cellphone, a ticket, an ipod, a piece of paper with a phone number number AND and venti shaken ice tea lemonade from Starbucks. So finally I get through to apple, and go though the whole “talk to the computer” process. Which is annoying me too because this guy next to me is talking FAR too loudly on his cellphone, and the computer thinks its supposed to listen to him, and is getting all confused. Finally I got to a person, Ryan I think his name was, who was very helpful. Was nice and waited when I had to shuffle everything to get to my ipod number. I told him everything, and he pulled up my name. This is what he tells me.

“Oh yeah, you had a repair, but it was cancelled. It says they found nothing wrong with it.”

So I explain it all again, and about how now that I got it back 3 hours ago, its doing the same thing. He says, “Well, I can schedule a repair. We ship you a box and then we try to repair it.” Umm… that’s what just happened… AND IT DIDN’T WORK!

“Then he said that he’ll make a note to them to request replacement.

Me: “That’s what the other guy did to, but they didn’t send it to me… how can you guarantee that I’ll get a new one?”

Ryan: “Well, we can’t. They typically only replace ipods after the third time it was sent in for repair. It’s policy.”

So after a little back and forth, I finally agree to send it in for “repair”. Again. We go through the same thing.. address, location, yadda yadda yadda. 

So now I’m pissed off. What could and should have been solved at the beginning has now turned into this. A back and forth between me and apple.

So I tell my dad, and now he’s pissed at apple because I’m pissed, and now he’s informed me that he doesn’t want a new ipod for his birthday. (he’s probably still getting one… I’m sure my pissy-ness will go away and we’ll still get it for him). He says apple has lost him as a customer forever. I kinda feel that way about apple too, but the problem is that I live off of my ipod. And ipod basically has a monopoly over the market. Plus, I don’t think my movies and everything that I bought from apple will transfer to anything else. So that’s another 60 bucks right there I’d lose. Plus accessories, speakers and everything.

I know ranting about it rarely helps, but I’m so annoyed right now, anything will make me feel better.

 I hope that they will fix it, because if not, I’ll have to send it back for a 3^rd time, and there will be hell to pay.

I go to the apple store tomorrow, so I'll see if they can replace it.

 There’s a nicer post coming after this about crafting, so sorry about the length and the rant, even though I doubt anyone actually reads this…

First post of a brand new blog!

Some of you may know me from my other knitting blog over at Livejournal, which I thought no one read till a random person actually commented. But I've decided that its time that I actually got a real blog, where I can post about my knitting, crafting, and other day-to-day ramblings. If you want to catch up on what I've been doing lately, check out the link above. I'll probably keep that site running with similar things to what I post here, but this one will be where I will try to focus my attention.

To get started I'll introduce myself with this little mini-survey I totally just made up off the top of my head.

Name: Rachael

Age: 18

Occupation: Student at University of Maryland fulltime

Server at an old folks home, web designer, writer, photographer and editor part time

Kids: None

SO: None

Pets: A chocolate lab named Snickers who lives back at home with my parents, who you will see pop up in pictures occasionally, and a few fish, which probably don't look so good in knit objects...

Major in College: Art Studio, hopefully with a focus in photography

Favorite Color: Blue, green, purple

Favorite Season: Autumn

Favorite Drink: When its cold: hot tea or mulled apple cider. When its warm: Margaritas or Coke Zero

Favorite Food: This is going to be a weird one... Oranges with salt on them

Favorite Music: I'm a big Musical person, but I also like indie and alt rock, classical music, and Jimmy Buffett!

Websites Visited most often: Facebook, Craftster, Ravelry, Livejournal, and a number of fan sites

Crafts I do: Knitting, sewing, drawing, jewelry making, candle making, and I've dabbled in some others

Crafts I want to Learn: crocheting, screenprinting, and basically anything else out there. I want to learn it all

Favorite TV/Movies: Firefly/Serenity, Star Wars, Supernatural, Heroes, Criminal Minds, Psych, Monk, Harry Potter, LOTR, Big Bang Theory, How I met Your Mother, All the CSIs and Law and Orders, Cloverfield

Favorite Books: His Dark Materials, Twilight, Harry Potter, Ghost Road Blues, Wicked Lovely, anything Mary Higgins Clark, Poison Study, most fantasy books.

Things On my Needles right now: Central Park Hoodie, Harry Potter Ravenclaw scarf, Harry Potter Book!ravenclaw scarf

If you read this, feel free to comment in return with the same survey. I want to meet the people who read the blogs!

Not What else to put right now, but I'm very excited for this!