Happenstance

Over the last year, I have really started thinking a lot about positive body image, self-acceptance/love, and happiness. Not only are these ideas not tangible, but they can be so hard to talk about because their definitions widely vary depending on who you are talking to. However, I genuinely feel that I need to better understand not only what these ideas mean to me, but also how I am going to actually achieve them.  I wrote a long post earlier last year about why I decided to do a  boudoir shoot  and how it made me feel, and later followed-up with a post about my  pin-up party  experience, and recently I participated in an women's empowerment photo-shoot. All of these were very public and somewhat anxiety inducing ways for me to really force myself to see my body for what it really is, not what I perceive it to be. I can't say that I am a completely changed person or that I now look in the mirror and love what I see. However, I think I am making real strides towards that.

Recently, a lot of very important little people have been having birthdays or showers. This really inspired me to make some stuffed animals/monsters for them! I have been struck with the urge to knit in the last few months, so my first few projects were along that vein. I generally prefer knitting to crocheting, I just find it easier and am more comfortable with it. However, when making animals or other complicated patterns, it can be hard to find a large selection of knit options. Luckily, I had on hand some simple knit animal patterns  and was able to set to work following them.  In general, the patterns were very straight forward and easy for me to follow (note: I chose very easy patterns). My only hitch-up is I still don't 100% understand how to correctly pick-up a stitch. I kind of just do it incorrectly and move on... Here are some of the projects I finished over the last few months: I really love how they turned out! The first three were about 6-7 inches long, but the cl