This week for my 20% Project I started making a platypus. At home I finished my elephant, made another elephant that looks for like a mouse, and a dog. This week I started making my platypus, as I said earlier. My platypus has its head finished so far, has its two eyes, and that it. No legs, no tail, no mouth, nothing. But he will be completed at home! My struggles is that this platypus takes a little bit longer than the others. And my longer much longer. I had to do four rounds of thirty, then six round of thirty six! I’ve finished the six in every row, meaning I’ve done thirty six, and I have one-hundred eighty more single crochets left. This is going to take a long time, emphasis on long. I don’t have adjustments, just to go faster and remember my stitches. Next time I’ll hopefully be finished with my platypus and I will start a new stuffed animal.

My favorite room is easily my bedroom. I share my bedroom with my little sister Beverly, and she’s a bit messy. Unlike her I like to keep clean, but when her stuff starts piling up on the floor, I can’t help but join in. Within a couple says you can barely even see the floor! It’s been cleaner lately though, because my parents got a new table, which me and my little sister has claimed as the craft table. Beverly usually does whatever crafts she find on YouTube. She once made some beads out of paper, glue, and some nail polish finish. I usually sew and crochet on the table. But my room is a room of many uses. I use it to read, because it’s mostly quiet in there if I turn on the fan, music machine, and close the door. My family is full of readers. In my room there’s a big bookshelf full of books. There’s one bookshelf dedicated to Harry Potter and Mo Williams, another dedicated to yearbooks, one for Jane Austen and Nancy Drew, and one for all my Keeper of the Lost Cities books. There’s also another one for children’s books we used to read, one up high and the other way down low, and two for me and little sister to put our stuff. There’s also a bookshelf in our living room full of random sorts of books, and one in my older siblings room recently made and is already filled to the brim. Me and my little sister just got rid of at least fifty books and we still don’t have enough room. But anyways, I’m on the bottom bunk and my little sisters on the top. My bed is nice in clean, with my weighted blanket on the bottom, and my quilt my nana made for me on the top. I also have a heart blanket used as decoration. I have a few stuffed animals with important purposes behind them. Then I have two pillows, one that’s used so my things don’t fall in between the bed and the wall, and one with a silk pillowcase I got from china. I have nightstand that I recently cleaned, but it’s already dirty, with yarn scraps all over it and my fake plant, light box thing that I never use, alarm clock, and organizer. I have a bottom drawer used for some clothes, and the top is for some of my random things. I also have a box I added underneath to have even more room, but it’s full of keepsakes. My little sisters bed is a mess. Over fifty stuffed animals, three blankets, and two pillows. And she wonders why she can never sleep. Our room doesn’t have a carpet or a rug, just wood, it’s not very comfy. We have a cabinet full of old childhood toys my mom can’t bring herself to throw away, and a big dresser. The top two are for me, the bottom two for my little sister. On top of everything is a little area to store things. It’s for my me and Bevy’s (my little sisters nickname) jewelry, and for bevy’s shells, rocks, and other things the annoy the life out of me. On the walls are some church things. My family LDS, so we have some of that kind of things all over the house, we have a little area decorated for it. It has some scriptures, a “I am a child of god” type thing, and a painting I picked out and that I love, a picture of Jesus taking care of his sheep. We also have a shelf that’s use for put color me mine creations, and a little glass bear with a play block in its hands. There’s also a BYU soccer poster, and a panda picture that I really hate. It’s Beverly’s, of course. My third reason I love my room is because it’s fun to hang out with my friends in. I pull down my sisters giant axolotl squishmallow and slay on that, while my friend sits on my bed. We can open up the window and close the door and it’s so much fun! I love hanging out with my friends in there.

This week I begun the body for my crochet elephant, and I’ve got to say, it’s doing pretty dang good. You can easily define the trunk and with the white yarn and the pink I’ll soon add I’m really liking it. My accomplishments are that I am now easily able to read crochet patterns, and follow along the rounds. I finished nine rounds today, and I will be working on ten and more next week. Next week I’ll also attempt the ears, hopefully I don’t fail again! I will also have to buy some safety eyes for this project. My struggles were that I attempted a duck, but I couldn’t do good with that. It was a video and I have learned I’m better at reading than watching. Going at my own speed is better for me. My adjustments are to make my crocheting a little looser, not as tight. And to also just continue with my elephant. Over the weekend I’ll work on this, but next week I’ll just continue with the elephant if I haven’t finished, but if I do I’ll work on a pink dinosaur.

This is a part two for my previous free write titled “Elephant.”

Here I am in Hawaii

On the island known as Kauai.

I sit on the beach with sun hitting my face

Forgetting about the Elephant and its disgrace

I still remember that day

But now that doesn’t matter with the sun rays

I look over to the side expecting my mom

but instead I see this bomb!

I see a note signed though,

and believe it or not, its signed by Joe.

it writes, “I know what you think of me,

and this gives me no glee,

but I’m required to blow you up,

and here I am safe, behind this shrub.”

This I am worried about

all I can do is scream and shout.

For I am frozen in place

and in between me an the bomb is two feet of space.

I decide to duck and cover

hopefully it will give my mind time to recover

what I should do with me and this bomb,

but then here comes my mom!

she dives and grabs my hand,

and drags me out of the beachy land.

My moms hugs me nice and tight,

While the sun is coming down to bring the night.

the bomb explodes sending sand everywhere,

It gets all in me and my mothers hair.

My dad walks over and hugs us both,

giving us his oath,

“I will be here text time,

and will now stand there dumb like a mime,

because you could have died,

Because I didn’t plan my time.

the bomb nearly blew up,

but here you are, safe and sound,

with all this sand on the asphalt ground.

Hello! I’m Phoebe and welcome to my crocheting blog. For the 20%project I’m doing crocheting, I’m using my friend’s mom as my mentor, and it has been going very well so far. This week I accomplished a few things. I learned how to make a successful magic circle, which is used when making an amigurumi, or a crocheted stuffed animal. I’m working on an elephant for my first amigurumi. I also made an ear for it, but it failed pretty badly, so I’m going to redo it. My struggles were huge. First, it was way too difficult to make a magic circle, and took me a while, but I finally did finish making it. I also accidentally did the wrong stitch, I tried redoing it but failed, so I completely restarted. Next, I didn’t know how to do the decrease stitch. I think I’ve figured it out, but it doesn’t look good… Then somehow the ear got ruined. It look more like a half circle than an ear! For my adjustments I’m now using stitch markers, they’re used so I know when a beginning of a round is and it will make it easier. I’ll also double check what round I’m on, because one of my mistakes I accidentally used the body on the ear, making me restart. Next time I will be restarting the ear, and making the second ear.

I am able to invite three people to my dinner party. The first two people are an absolute no brainer, like it would be weird if I didn’t. My parents are my first two. I love my parents so so so SO much, so it was easy to invite them. This makes my third decision very difficult. I could invite one of my friends, but I wouldn’t want to make my other friends feel left out. I also could invite a celebrity, but that’s kind of cliche. There are so many people I could invite, and would invite. And so many people that I really really want to. So in the end, I have decided it’s just a casual dinner, not fancy to make my other friends jealous, at Chick-fil-A, after me and my friend, Macey, (not her real name, just a nickname) beg my parents to take us. They somehow decide yes, drive the two minutes to my friend’s house, and drive to Chick-fil-A. They can sit with us, I don’t really care, as long as I get a twelve piece chicken nugget meal. It won’t be formal, I’ll just wear my oversized hoodie and some cargo pants. And maybe afterwards we can go over to one of our houses and watch a movie. But knowing me and my friend, we would quit after fifteen minutes and swim. I don’t really know, but it would be fun. At least I’ll try and make it be.

Divergent

Veronica Roth

This month I read a book called Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Divergent is about a dystopian city where everything is run down, and to make it work well, everyone is split into factions. The factions are Dauntless, the brave. Amity, the kind. Candor, the honest. Erudite, the intelligent. And abnegation, the selfless. Dauntless are for protection, amity for food, candor for law enforcement, erudite for doctors and teachers, and abnegation as government officials. Beatrice, or Tris, is a mix of erudite, dauntless, and abnegation. She ends up choosing dauntless, for the trill and excitement. But she soon learn that being divergent, having more than one choice, is a very bad thing. She has to fight her way to get to the top of dauntless initiation, fight to keep her feeling away from her parents, and fight to not get found about being divergent. This story is about having a choice and love. And I really like it.

I like this book because it’s adrenalin packed, with lots of plots twists and some romance in it. It’s about how “one choice can transform you,” which is written on the front cover. It shows that everyone has a choice, and everyone has an opinion, like sure, your parents and family are all in abnegation. But being selfless isn’t for me. I’d rather be free roaming and happy, in dauntless. That was Tris’ decision by the way, I’d much rather be amity. I like this book showing how an opinion and then a choice is all the matters, your opinion, your choice. It’s not showing how you should always listen and do what you’re not loving. When I was younger, my parents put me in gymnastics, and I didn’t like it. My opinion, and choice, was to get of it. It made me do soccer, which I love, and okay it all the way up until twelve. Other peoples opinion and choice matters too.

My favorite character is Tris’ mother, Natalie Prior. She is the ultimate mom, she died for her daughter when the erudite started to attack, and died a heroic death. Also, when Tris decided to leave abnegation for dauntless, she wasn’t mad. She was happy for her daughter, because later, we figure out she was dauntless! My favorite quote is page 179. She came to visit Tris for visiting day, Tris’ old habits are back to treat other first, but her mom says this line “‘Todays is a special occasion,’ she says. “I came to see you, so let’s talk mostly about you. It is my gift to you’” this line warms my heart, showing how much her mother wants to hear about her, instead of telling Tris about what’s going on at home with her father.

My favorite quote is still the one above, that Tris’ mother says. I feel like it is so kind caring more about others than herself, sacrificing to talk about her self, and state how the family’s going, to talk more about her daughter. And being kind to listen patiently and not interrupting.

This idea took me a second. At first, I thought I would want to work at a boba place, and as much as I love boba, I can’t have it so that would be difficult to work in a store where I can only have a limited amount of the bobas. It’s because I can’t have it, but that’s not the point. I would want to work at Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A is my favorite restaurant, I just really love chicken, and fries. I would want to work at Chick-Fil-A for three reason, my first one is the free food! At Chick-Fil-A, I’m assuming I get at least one free meal a day. So I could have seven shifts a week and get Chick-Fil-A almost every day! You may be wondering, “Phoebe, won’t you get sick of it?” Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but right now, I love it. My second reason is because people really love Chick-Fil-A, so I get to talk to a lot more people, I’m pretty shy around new people, so it will be good to boost my people skills from working at a small job, then I can get an even bigger job, and I won’t be afraid to talk to people! My third reason is because of the Christianity, it’s kind of weird, but I’m LDS, and I can’t do anything on Sundays, and they already don’t have stuff going on on Sundays. I guess it will just be nice having a job where people believe in the same things I do. Those are my three reasons for wanting to work at Chick-Fil-A, and no, actually, don’t think I’ll ever get sick of it!

The Baby-Sitters Club; Kristy’s Great Idea

Ann M. Martin

This book is about a group of friends who start a baby sitting club, as told by the title. Kristy and Mary Anne baby sit a lot, and they have fun. Kristy then thinks of something huge, a club. A group of a few girls (or boys) have meeting a couple times a week for a client to call in and get multiple baby sitters at once. So she invited Mary Anne and Claudio Kishi, and Claudia invited her friend Stacey McGill. The get jobs, and fine out the truth about Stacey.

I like this book because it’s relatable, it’s about middle school girls who do something anyone can do, but they make it work. It’s not like they are crazy popular people who have boyfriends and are so amazing, it’s just a few random girls who start a successful club.

My favorite character is Claudio Kishi. Claudia is a really good artist, and dresses for her, not other people, she wears fedoras to school and expressive clothing that shows who she really is. She also loves junk food, just like me, so I can kinda relate! To be one hundred percent honest though, a can’t find a really memorable quote from Claudia. Her words weren’t very interesting, just her attitude.

My favorite quote in the book is on page 71, it reads, “From what Mary Anne told me, Boo-Boo must truly be a boo-boo. What a mess of a cat.” I just think it funny because my personal favorite are funny quotes, and this doesn’t show anything particular, I just think it’s funny how she says, what a mess of a cat.

I can turn invisible now! I’m not sure how, but it just clicked. A voice in my head told me that I’m invisible, for twenty four hours only. In weird, but there’s no way I’m not putting it to good use. First, I’m going to skip school of course. They’re already going to mark me absent for not being able to see me, so what’s the point? I may stop by to cause some chaos. Like I could walk around making ghost noises to scare my classmates, or make things “levitate”, or write stuff down on white boards to scare people. The next thing I would do is maybe steal some things, I know this doesn’t sound good, but I could get some free stuff out of this. If I touch something, then it will turn invisible with me, only if I wish. So I could grab some things that would usually be expensive, and just, well, take it. I would maybe leave some money because my consciousness would never let me do that, but it would just help with skipping a line if it’s too long. The last thing I would do is board a flight somewhere, no one would know, so I could just hop on. I have a phone, and probably a ticket back home so I don’t get stuck in another place, but I could get a partially free flight to Hawaii or something, and that would be nice. I would be able to turn myself uninvisible so I can actually do something’s, but it would be fun. So overall, if I became invisible, I would cause a lot of mischief. It would be fun watching people squirm when I appear just my head, it would be fun to invisible.