Don't give up on your dreams

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education alone will not: the world is full of educated derelicts
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

                                                  - President Calvin Coolidge

Bueno esto lo lei en un articulo de Ray Kroc que tenia que estudiar para un oral. El fue quien hizo Mc Donald's lo que es hoy. La verdad me sorprendio, no pense que una compañia tan... comercial tuviera este comienzo. El tipo siguio luchando por lo que queria (ser rico) aunque estaba viejo, enfermo, en algunos momentos muy pobre y habia fallado muuuuuchas veces.

En fin, siempre va a haber gente que te diga que lo que queres es muy dificil para vos o que te des por vencido y busques algo mas "a tu altura" o la tipica: "yo conozco a la hermana de la vecina de mi prima que intento y le fue re mal", pero si realmente quieren algo, ponganse en la cabeza que ya lo tienen y sigan insistiendo , no piensen en el tiempo que les va a llevar, ni las puertes que se van a cerrar, ni las malas notas que les van a poner, va a pasar, lo quieran o no, porque es parte de la lucha y cuando obtengan lo que quieran, todo eso ya no va a importar.

I wrote this on a note on facebook because some of my friends and I, myself, are going through a hard time getting what we want (don't we all?), I thought I'd share it here:

Quick translation:
Well I read this on an article about Ray Kroc, I had to read about him because he was in the topic of success, one of many I had to study for a language oral exam. He was the man who make Mac Donald's the place it is today. I was amazed, to be honest, I didn't thought a company so.... materialistic or successful would have a rough start. This guy kept on fighting for what he wanted, for what he dreamed for (to become rich, I don't think money is that good but anyways) He kept on fighting for that dream while he was old, ill, poor and had many failures on his life.

What I want to say is: there will always be people that tell you that what you want is too hard for you, or there might be someone that tells you to give up and try something "more at your level" because what you are trying is out of your league. Or the one that says: "I know this person, sister of neighbour of my cousin's, that tried and didn't make it" If you really want something, think that you already got it and keep going on fighting for it. Don't think about the time it's going to take, or the time you are going to "waste", don't think about the doors that are going to be shut in your face, don't think about the bad marks you may get, those situations are going to happen because, you like it or not, it's part of the "struggle" and nothing of that is going to matter anymore when you get what you have dreamed for.

Like my mom would say, something like: "Do like the horse, never look back, never look the sides, look the horizon and push."

I wish I had a grandma

Today I bought double point needles because I saw these cute birds online, I instantly felt I should make these for my mom, Mother's day is coming in October so I think she would love them.

They look sooo complicated but I like challenges... and for long I wanted to try to knit with dp needles.
When I saw the abbreviations on the pdf I was like o.O... KFB, M1.. what's that?! so with the help of my good friend youtube I looked those oddities up and also, of course, how to cast on with this bunch of needles.
Anyways the reason for this post name is because I found this video who helped me a lot, of course I watched a billion times till I get it, a few times I felt frustrated and wanted to quit but for some reason I had to keep trying.
The thing is, the lady from the video... her hands and the way she explains, made me feel nostalgic.
I don't have grandparents, my grandfathers died before I was born and grandmothers passed away when I was 5 or 6. All people who knew them, always tell me how I look alike to my dad's mom (I happen to saw a picture of her, and it's totally true although a bit scary lol) and also, when one of my parents see me crocheting, or knitting or sewing, they tilt their heads and say "you are so like your grandma". Both my grandmas were craft lovers, they knew all sort of things related to that, in those ages you had to also they taught you that in school. My mom's mom used to crochet, knit, sew and embroider, I saw beautiful pieces that my mom had stored. My dad's mom also painted and drew, maybe I will take pics of their stuff and make a post someday.

Somedays I feel really sad because I wish they were here with me, teaching me how to do stuff, how to get better at it... or tell me how bad I am :p.
I'm the only one in my family who actually does (or tries) to do the stuff they did, so I feel lonely. When someone talks about this topic, my eyes get teary and then my mom says: "grandparents are a big important part of a child's life"... "ok, that doesn't help", I say and then she makes me remember what year is and the fact that if my grandmas were alive, they would be more than 100 years old... and yes, they would probably be too sore and ill but oh well.
This make me realize that I have to appreciate life and what I have now but sometimes I see how people are mean to elderly people or even their own family and it makes me feel so mad at them... there are people out there who wish to have what you have.

It's weird how you can miss someone who you didn't even get to know.

212 Randomness and yesterday's sweetness

The other day I was touching up one of my posts (I can't help it) and saw this:

I don't really trust these things, some of them "catch" the IPs, others if you saw a picture on google images and so on, I think I'm going to get rid of these someday... but I really like the moon and the flags, I wonder how you called a person who likes countries and languages? Anyways...
Nice... 212 Polish views (I bet most of them are you mój przyjaciółka :p)... and tomorrow 1st... I'm going to be 22... yeah, random!!.

And about the sweetness... I baked tortas negras yesterday, I really enjoyed kneading, I used to do it a lot when I was younger, not for eating though, just to make a mess in the kitchen... sorry mom.

Corseted vest!

Wooho I finished this the other day, I'm so happy with the results... although it has lots of flaws but it was going to happen since it's my first try.

1. DSCN29211, 2. DSCN29291, 3. DSCN29231, 4. DSCN29321

Some things I need to keep leveling up:

· Cutting the fabric, I try to be neat but it seems that all my fabric scissors are useless, I've been thinking about buying a rotary cutter, I'd so LOVE to have one.

· Sewing stupid satin bias tape, yes... we met again, I had to use this tape to finish the armholes... since they are obviously round and the fabric wrinkled when I first try to finish them, my teacher told me the satin bias tape would stretch and finish it neatly.

Points to bare in mind for next time:

· The armholes were too wide on the front so I need to modify the pattern.

· The vest was also too big on the sides.

· Use thiner interfacing, which I kind saw it coming but I couldn't find other.

· Change the "homemade ribbon metal ring thingy" for pieces of fabric with eyelets.

· Go back to the basics! yeah, it's incredible, when I was about to give up finishing the armholes we had a black out and I was like, well I'll finish the "gapwhereIturneditrightsideout" and then I just went and finish the ends of the satin bias tape by hand, I wish I knew it before I sew the armholes with the sewing machine, I'd have done it entirely by hand but the thing with this satin bias tape, is that it is a pain to unpick so I left it that way.

About my inspiration, I totally love Sn@tch (virtual shop in a game I (used to) play called Second Life) and Lip Service, the first one I found it by chance and I was very hooked from the first time, it was like someone has made real all the ideas I have in mind or things I would totally like. And about the second one, I don't really remember how I end up knowing about it but it happens more or less the same, I really like some of their stuff, too bad I can't buy them though (It's going to be one of the first places I'm going to visit when I go to the states)

It's kind of funny but they both have the same looks sometimes, I'm not sure if the designers are just one but anyways... they truly inspire me.

I finished my pattern making course!

Well, actually a week ago but I didn't want to make a post without pics...
So, first we learned how to make skirts (I made a post when I was about to), then how to make vests and here a pic of what I've done. The skirt is made with kind of godets.

It's obvious it's ONLY for practice, the fabric is cheap and I chose those colors only for sight sake :p, and also the vest is not finished, I don't think I'm going to unless I need this for a costume or something.
In those 2 garments I learned how to sew a zipper, invisible stitch, waistband among other things.
The teacher asked us to create designs for a vest for us, so I did it, he loved them, specially the corseted ones, I've not scan them though but we had to make them real so I'm going to make a post about it later.
Then we moved to shirts and learned how to make collars, sleeves and cuffs and finally a pant and then a dress.

I chose this pretty striped black fabric for my pants since I wanted to make something I'd wear, the fabric was very affordable and did I meantion it is striped?, it's a denim corduroy kind of heavy but it's for winter, I have trouble with the crotch though so I'll have to look for a solution on the net one of these days. Good things I remark is that I learned how to make pockets and also sewing the zipper, which I kind of forgot now :p
About the dress, I have this beautiful black satin modal top, I love it but since my chest is too... big it's kind of too revealing so I have to wear it with a kind of bandeau underneath, I still love the shape so I told my teacher I wanted something like it, so he taught me how to do it, the transformation was easier than I thought. And I'm testing the pattern on this cheap cloth before actually going to the fabric I have in mind.
So this is more or less what I've done on the course, now I kind of miss going there but it was going to finish someday.

Also I found this great blog in Spanish, El costurero de Stella, she teaches pattern making and other stuff about sewing,I had the exact same idea of her blog, start to explain the process of pattern making, I love that because I've seen other blogs that only teach the sewing part, which is very important, but you have to buy the pattern or already know how to draw it from scratch so I'm really happy I found Stella, I wish she would have started to write it in English too, I'm starting to rust since I'm not reading crafts blogs everyday so I'm kind of forgetting English sewing terms, I wanted to say "vista" and "cartera", I just can't find the words in my head... oh well... they will come into my mind eventually.

Völkerball Richard's coat

So I'm watching Rammstein's Völkerball dvd and I can't help myself... I want a coat like this... so bad!

Shame I can't find more detailed pics... and while I was looking for pics I noticed I'm not the only one who thinks this coat is to drool for. And by the way I'm certainly not a groupie, I'm not the type: "omg XD he touched my hand!!", "he looked at me, HE looked at ME!!!" or "I love you, take me!!!!" or scream when they... do something lol.
Some musicians are hot, hmm Richard is kind of handsome... but it's not like he is going to notice me in all the screaming and sweating mass and propose me, even if he would, I'd say no, I don't like men who wear more make-up and use more hair products than me :)

A new addition

The other day another friend "discovered" my "secret blogger" identity :$ ...Hey there *waves*.
Well Sakul asked for a green mushrom and here it is: Hope you like it

Weird thing about it was that it turned out bigger than the red one and I think I used the same size hook, I unraveled it and did it again...and still bigger...it still looks cute though but anyways, I made that brick box the other day... it made me feel like in school again, I printed a sheet of paper with the template and then grabed some markers and a pencil and colored it inside the lines :3, I like making cardboard boxes for some reason, I guess I like geometry after all...
Pattern from here

Ps: Yummy

Satin bias tape... I wont buy you again

Hello!, I'm still struggling to give the final touch to my hoodie (pictured a bit in the last post), this satin bias tape is   driving me crazy!! it looks so nice... but it gives so much trouble in the V neck but... it looks nice.

Anyway, days ago I finished a scarf, last year my brother asked me to knit him a scarf so we bought this yarn with red-grey-purple colors on it, I loved it, so this year I bought some for me and I wanted to make something more... uhm challenging?... and I realized something... which is funny, I always read about "cable knitting" or "cable patterns" and always thought cable needle meant circular needle because of the cable/wire part lol. Dumb me, cable patterns are so simple. I chose this pattern which was very easy and after a few times I memorized it so it was knit really fast.

And... I sewed this "tied up Voodoo doll wrist-pincushion", I've been using Mario's mushroom as a pincushion but, as I thought, it was kinda annoying to take the pins, so with the bits of fabric I bought for barely nothing in my last trip to Buenos Aires, I did this... I liked the idea of a voodoo doll pincushion, but I didn't like carrying the mushroom everywhere so I thought... why not a wrist pincushion... and even better with the twist of him tied up :p

Shame on me

So it's been what... like 2 months since I last post something?... damn you seek for perfection.
... It's seems it's like this: I have to finish something before actually writing about it otherwise I get bored and leave it missing in action.
....I still have an ace up my sleeve though *suspense*

I WILL be back SOON /hangs head in shame.

So...

1. Crochet long sleeve top - on process, 2. Las mil y una noches - close up, 3. Cooking, 4. Pattern making - skirt

... I took a long Easter break and went home, had a blast with my family, I'm starting to miss my parents now... it's weird, it's been like 4 years since I moved but I had a great time with them.

 I began the long sleeve top before I left to go home, like 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I already have the half of it, a big improvement to me because I get easily bored, but the pattern helped, it's really easy but it's kinda tiring because I'm crocheting all the sleeves and "body" together so it's like forever to make a round.but I know I'm going to complete it... this time.

 And I also began to read again, I'm reading Las mil y una noches, One thousand and one nights, I first read the whole book when I was in high school I guess, and I started again now, it's said if you read the same book after 10 years, it changes the whole meaning, (like with the Le Petit Prince, it's been more than 10 years, I should read it again), so this book is somehow special to me, it's kinda old, it has this yellowish color and it's from 1975, my dad bought it when he was in college here.

Another thing I've been doing in this long college break is... to cook "real" food every day, like more than 1 or 2 steps food, not including just "open the package and boil" or the simple one " take the phone and order" so I think it takes more time and waiting and preparation but it's more special and cheaper and I guess I'm losing weight lol. I don't know what is going to happen next week when I start school, and I spend the whole morning there... probably I'm going to be too tired to just take the knife and dice, but I'll see.

Last one but not least, I finally started a pattern making course, I'm so excited, I always wanted to learn the "good way" because since I was young I taught myself from magazines and craft shows but it's good to know how things are really made, before I took just a pattern and cut, now I learning how to make that pattern and modify it, I have so many drafts I want to make real. I also brought my sewing machine from home, it's funny that is the same age as me, my mom hardly used it, it works really good, someday I'm going to post my first attempts at sewing.

Anyways I made a little friend to help me.

I took the pattern from the Wolfdreamer of the hook's blog, and I love it, it's been really useful, I thought the pins would "get lost" in the yarn but so far is so good. I lost practice in embroidering though.

I'm trying to make a Puzzle Bobble amigurumi, I can't believe nobody else has done them, they are so cute.

 

What I brought from home

I brought my beads :D
All of these brings old memories, those magazines are from 2002, my parents bought them from me after they saw me so interest in making stuff for myself.
8 years ago, (*sigh that long?) I was in 8th grade and back then what I watched the most on tv was craft shows, so little by little I started to try those projects but my hometown is a small city, and most or all the materials and tools they showed on tv, weren't there. Also beading or making your own jewelry was odd, it was a "hippie" thing, I mean, Internet was only to check e-mails and chat online.
 One day my mom told me about a little bead store, so she drove me there, it was kind of cute now that I remember, the owners were a couple of old people (in a good sense) and they were really nice and they had everything in little boxes, I was amazed, I couldn't stop staring all of that, I wanted to take everything home, so after a few days I became a regular visitor and months later the "bead fever" started, diy jewelery magazines started to come out (i forgot the phrasal verb for "publish and sell") and so people started to sell beads and all the necessary material little by little, but I kept visiting the old little store.

 I remember my dad buying tons of magazines for me and my mom asking me if I wanted her to drive me to the little store again... they were like encouraging me. After a few months, while in my parent's hometown on vacation, my aunt asked me if I wanted her to sell my stuff on her store so I said yes and I arranged everything with packaging and displays and gave her most of the stuff I had atm, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pins (I was kinda crazy, I was making stuff I didn't even wear, I was making those just for the sake of it) and finally I earned 50 bucks :p, my parents were really proud of me, but I was like "bleh it's not big deal, it's what I like to do".
 And after a while I stopped doing it, because it became massive and I feel what I was doing wasn't special anymore, I guess the comment "ah yeah, those are easy!, my 5 year old nephew can do them" pushed me back and I wasn't interested anymore, suddenly everybody knew, everybody sold, it wasn't a good viable hobby anymore, so I stayed put. Of course there will always be people better in what they do than you, or worse than you, or people more succesful but I felt like limited because I wanted more but I couldn't buy the stuff to make the things I had on mind, so I just keep making things only for me. It was a craft hiatus till I moved where I live now and i saw all those stores with infinite amount of supplies and I slapped my forehead several times like saying "damn it, if I only knew this before"... but it's fine, I'm cool now, the massive bead fever is kinda gone... or settled....

 Now everybody or most people are on the rush and just buy whatever it's on the shops. I still look for handmade stuff, I really care for the effort people have put on the items and it's better if I see I can do it myself,  I feel really proud when I finally get it done and I like the result.

I still want to take home everything from the craft stores and make stuff I wont even wear, I can't help it.

Me wants to go to Poland.

(..)Ja tańczę, a niebo, niebo gra
Ja śpiewam, prze-niebieski czas(...) - Pasażer by Coma

 So, today again I have this insanity feeling to travel to Poland, good thing my brother is cheering me up to go. But... money, is always a problem, and to make it worse, the country is joining the Euro zone in 2012 (nooo, I hate euros, the exchange with my money is pretty bad with dollars.. so it is worse with those euros) So, I have 2 years to save enough money to go as a packpacker, or a year to save money to go to work to the states as an au pair for a year, save the money and go to Poland before they change!!

 I have this little crush with Poland, I find the country really familiar to mine... economy, people, religion, and the language, which is different to mine but they share a couple of words, which I find really interesting. It's like Italy, I'd really love to go there too but it's like... it's way too popular bleh, everybody went/wants to go to Italy or France or Germany. I find it more attractive a trip to, besides Polska, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria...

....I had/have the crush with Norway, Iceland, Sweeden and Finland as well... but while my brother and I were looking up how much is a coke in those countries, I was shocked when I saw Norway's GDP per capita!!! 

Norway -> USD 54900 ... so, an average person wins USD 4575 per month? holy...
Italy       -> USD 31200
Hungary -> USD 19300
Poland   -> USD 15500
Argentina ->USD12500 (I don't care, I still love my country :) )

-Numbers from this site-

So again with "how much is a coke in Europe", we type in google.pl, the word supermarkety(s?) and after looking a while we found this cool site with lots of supermarketys, it was a relief, we were checking through prices and they are the same or near the prices here!, so it's a yay for me. Cos... today Polish currency is pretty similar to ours ---> 1 USD = 3 PLN / 1 USD = 3,80 ARG.
And while we were checking out the supermarkets in Poland, we checked the German ones, it wasn't that bad, it was actually kinda the same, but what is bad (for me) are the ones in the UK, pounds are like... 1 pound = 6 or 7 ARG o.O, so it's like a lot of lot of money lol, No UK for me!!! (although I'd love to check out those castles, but no thanks)

And I have the food checked, the accommodation too (I've been looking for info a long while ago, just in case and for daydreaming... ) the hostels are affordable and a nice way to meet people from all over the world.
I checked the legal stuff, thank God I don't need a visa, checked transportation too, same with the maps cos I like to know where I'm going to be, well, I always do that when I want to go somewhere, I did it when I was about to go to Chicago and when I did go to Brazil (although everything was already planned by the company), and this time I kinda did it too, but I don't want to be all excited cos I still have to get there, and the ticket plane is a complete pain in the ass!

This text/post is a complete mess, I'm just typing what I have in mind, and I HAD to get it out of my mind cos I have to study later and I kinda have all of this going around, and one of the purposes of this blog is to work as a "dreammmmagnet".
I've been excited about this new 3 year Polish course, and now I'm more excited cos it seems more affordable, but *sigh, I want to do so many things.. the daycare, the first aid course (for the au pair thingy that I've been looking forward since 2008)... lol and COLLEGE.
The day HAS to have 25 hours!

Edit 8/8/2011 I don't like posts without pictures so here is a funny one for this post. "In Poland all dancing is Pole dancing" lol (and it's teal <3)

Source: 9gag.com via Josie on Pinterest

FAILS: Sometimes you just need a little kick...

Well, I know I posted here I was going to do some projects and I've never talked about them again... and now I look back and I want to kick my procrastinating butt and...

....I feel kinda bad because I have a wandering (?) mind... it's like I am all excitiment about something and then I find a rock on the road and instead of jumping over it I look at the sides and get excited with a new idea or maybe I don't find a rock but I get bored of the project-idea-activity so I find  a new excitiment one and I left the previous one....and so on... that's how I been like with everything in my life since I have memory. (for instance, artistic gymnastics, ballet, ballet with other teacher, acting classes, ballet again, guitar lessons, graphic design and English (those last 3 I found out I learned better on my own so it doesn't count really)
 Some people have told me it's a good thing because I can be very creative, which I feel it's true... but I can't have constancy and it's a competitive world and on the other hand some people have told me I have to try to change but I don't agree with that either because it's the way I am.. and besides I tried and it didn't work :p. 

Anyway, I'm getting confused right now so... I'm just going just to see what I have and what I can do about it. Although I already feel "better", I mean... taking the pictures and typing about how I feel made kinda a positive change on my mind and now I want to study. (Turn out blogging is a great therapy)

· On this post I said I wanted to knit some gloves for me... and the "rock" was that I didn't find the perfect wool for the project I had on mind, I found some but they didn't look good when knitted on the pattern I wanted and worse with the little beads I wanted to knit with and it kinda push me back on the idea BUT then I found these punk rock corset gloves which I fell in love with, but it was like October and it was reaaally hot somedays... and kinda freshy but not to wear this, but I was all day thinking about them and I had the materials so I gave it a try:

Why should I kick myself for this project?... because I only made one glove -.-

Then on the same post I said I wanted to knit my friend Valeria some legwarmers.... but happened the same, it was hottt, so.. when in December I went to visit her I gave her my heart ;) and a one of the Christmas tree I made and she was all happy and cheerful.

· Moving on I said somewhere in this messy and empty blog I wanted to crochet a bag for my mom, well, I DID but didn't turn out well because of the size. The body should be wider or less wider so I can join 2, because when I finished it, it was too narrow and my mom wanted it to be a bit wider... so.. I started unraveling the base but I didn't want to unravel the body yet, cos.. it took me a while to crochet because of the yarn and the pattern, but I have to.. :(

· And finally what I was talking about in the previous post wich I still have to translate into English.. so with this one into Spanish, anyways I said I was making rag rugs, for some reason (no tv and no computer :p) while being in my hometown I finished a whole rug in 2 days... the idea come out cos my mom had this "totora" or "fabric yarn" and was knitting a rug with it but she didn't like it much because of the holes the large sized needles would leave so I told her I saw a rug made of crochet so I gave it a try and she really liked it... so she bought more yarn for me the other day and I finished a pretty red-green-white rag rug for Christmas.. and another one in grey and blue that I brought here but it's kinda dirty so I didn't take pics of it.
Anyway... I found here a pretty blue totora and another in white and blue stripes.. perfect matching for my apartment so...I made a rug out of them, final weight around 2 and half kilos.. about 5 pounds.

Problem: Because of the waves if someone is not looking while walking, that person could trip and fall.
Reason: the white and blue striped totora is wider than the blue one and it's also made of a different material so it gets wavy.
Solution: Unravel it and cut in halves the striped one and make it all over again.

Anyway... *sigh, I feel like I did nothing but I know it's not that way at the same time, it's just hard to trip and try to do it again knowing that you may trip again, but it is the way life is, like my brother said: "We hate working in vain but we have to learn how to stand up over that".

I do feel better and I feel something else I can't explain right now, so I'm just going to take a break on the deep thinking for a little while and maybe then show what I did finish and I'm proud of, but.. later..(...)and I want to kick my procrastinating butt(...) (!) and this is not procrastination, my camera is out of battery and I should go to study a little more. Catch you later blog.

So, I'm still waiting to get my camera

... my perfectionism doesn't allow me to post crappy pictures taken with my cell...so

Here a fan page I found on facebook, CroChet, it has many many graphics on their photos *drool... and there I read that someone said something about Crochetville, I'm sure I checked it before, but I didn't pay attention... I think it's really useful, you can ask if you have doubts or if you are stuck in the middle of a project, and there are patterns, crochet-alongs, tips, different ways to crochet and links to other related sites and shops. I wish there were a page about tatting, I can't wait to learn, I must know how to! I'm really hooked on it, I already thought of many ways of applying tatting designs, in bags, dresses, tops, shoes, scarves...

... right now, I just don't know where to start, I just know I want to crochet/knit/bead/sew SOMETHING! but I finally bought a pair of bag handles for my Christmas present for my mom (I'm going to try to crochet a bag with lining, pockets and everything) and many beads and embelishments for a future project... I can't help myself in the store... there is just, too many pretty things!.. I wish I could buy the entire shop...

Segundo semestre

Como alguien dijo en clase, el más corto, el más dificil y el más.. no me acuerdo pero da igual