April Obsessions

April has been moving at quite the glacial pace, but I have to admit that I like it.  The past few months have taken me by surprise at how quickly the time went by, so the slower pace is more than welcomed.  I think slowing down, taking my time, and not jamming my day full of errands and to-do lists has helped me in being a little less stressed out this month.  Although, it might all bite me in the butt further down the road.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, here are a few things that have been plaguing my brain during the month of April:

1. Yellow

All month long I've been thinking about and drooling over yellow yarns...a colour that is sorely lacking in my stash.  I have only a handful of yellow yarns, two of those are seriously bordering the orange family than they are yellow.  I've been itching to knit something yellow, and even though I've knit the Honeybee Cardigan (aka my Queen Bee Cardigan), I still don't think I can pull off yellow.  I think it makes me look like I have jaundice or some other sickly illness.  So I'm settling for knitting hexipuffs.

Yellow is also MIA in my fabric stash.  I was thinking that if I can't knit with this colour, I could at least sew with it.  Um...no.  Not going to happen.  Bummer.  Guess what I'll be shopping for in the very near future??

2. Hummus

All month long I've been eating hummus.  Non-stop.  With everything.  When I get on a food jag, I'm allllll about that one food and this is no different.  I realized I had a problem a week ago when I had consumed two whole cucumbers and half a bag of baby carrots (it was a 2lb bag!) within a half hour span...all because I had a huge bowl of hummus sitting in front of me.  I thought maybe keeping the hummus in the fridge would deter me.  Um...no.  Instead I would make frequent trips to the fridge, sneaking a carrot, and pile as much hummus as I could on it and shove it into my face.  You'd think this was a bad thing or something!

3. Flipboard

Seriously, THE.best.non-knitting.app on both my phone and tablet!!  I really need to thank my friend, Bonny, for introducing me to this!  I have all my most used apps on it - from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram, all my blogs are on it, a few magazines, fashion and recipes...it's so customizable and the layout makes everything look like a magazine or something.  I love it!  Sometimes I can go the entire day without having to log into a social networking site and still know what's going on with this bad ass app.  Pure amazeballs!


4. Hexipuffs

Knitting hexipuffs has been serving two purposes: it lets me knit with yummy yellow yarns as mentioned above, and it's been really helping in curbing any hints of Starteritis!  Bonus!  I did have to stop myself from knitting these sweet little puffs (they are so addicting to knit!) these past few days so that I can actually work on some of my projects.  My pile is still nothing to write home about but I'm happy to announce that I now have to find a larger container for them all!  Yay!  It doesn't sound like much, but my goal is to have at least 50 of these bad boys in the pile.  Two hexipuffs to knit a week?  I think I can do it.  I just have to remember to actually do it!


5. Seche Vite

I have my friend Andi to thank for this one.  We both have an obsession for nail polish (amongst other things!) and we show up at knit night sporting a different colour each week.  Andi loves to watch make up tutorials (she's my source of info now!) and would get on my case about giving Seche Vite a try because it's utterly amazing.  Since I started wearing nail polish on a very regular basis I've just been using the same bottle of top coat that has been in my bathroom cabinet for who knows how long, and the drug store closest to my house is always sold out (I seriously have crap luck...I'm the person that, when they do get a shipment in, I arrive just as the last bottle is being sold).  Andi couldn't take it any longer and a few weeks ago when I arrived at knit night she placed a bottle of Seche Vite right in front of me.  Andi, you're awesome!!  I'll admit, I thought top coat was top coat, was top coat.  Oh no.  Seche Vite is fan.freaking.tastic!!!  Awesome sauce at its very best!  I kid you not.  I finally gave it a go last week and could immediately tell that this stuff was different.  From the smell to the consistency.  Then over the course of a few days I can tell that this stuff wasn't anything at all like what I was using.  Not even close!!  Normally, if I don't do much in the way of activities that could ruin my manicure, I can get maybe a week's wear out of my polish.  Don't get me wrong, by the end of that week there's some definite wear that you can see a mile away.  

Well...last week I didn't treat my nails that nicely and was out and about doing non-manicure friendly actions.  And look how well my polish held up!  In the photo above, the nails on the left is day 1 (the polish is Nfu 51, in case you wanted to know) and the nails on the right is after a week.  There's very minimal wear on the tips, with definite signs on the middle finger.  At a quick glance, you wouldn't even be able to tell the difference.  Now, if I was using my usual top coat, the nails on the right would show heavily chipped tips and possibly some discolouration.  I have been converted.  Andi, I am forever in your debt!


An honorary mention should be given to knitting apps.  I've been downloading, testing, and obsessing over all the available knitting apps out there.  So far I've only been using the freebies as I'm a little hesitant about dishing out the dough for something that I might not even like at all.  There's one app that a friend of mine claims that she can't live without, but to me shelling out $15 is a fair bit of moola for something I'm not so sure about.  You know?