IGN Spot On Coverage

Eavesdropping over the boyfriend's shoulder as he was watching an IGN video on a discussion of Bethesda's treatment of Skryim in between my makeup blog stalking and I have to say they were spot on.  I agreed with a lot of their points that Bethesda handled the situation poorly with little to no explanation on the situation for months to PS3 owners given how much money the company made from that marketed demographic of console owners and frankly, it does make me wonder how they'll handle Fallout as well if this trend continues.  Funny timing of the video given I really was just whining about never going to see Skyrim DLC pop up on my PS3 anytime soon just this past weekend!

I digress, I'm all excited because the best time of the year is coming soon upon me.  Autumn!  It's when all the most amazing things of the year come around.  Pumpkin spiced lattes, Oktoberfest beers, fall colored yarns and knits, big movie releases, holiday sales, and new video games slowly trickling in before the holidays!  Basically a giant amount of awesome filtering in all leading up to winter then the crash until spring!  Which, in Florida, our winter is more like a Wisconsin autumn in terms of temperature drops but without the crisp autumn air and changing of the leaves.  I'll be honest, I miss real autumn and winter but I still have memories of waking up at 6 in the morning just to dethaw and shovel my car out from a night blizzard before work.  *shudders*  Banish the thought.

Still watching the boyfriend play Skyrim.  My favorite series of events from the last weekend.

Him:  "How do I get out of this dungeon?"
Me: *typing at my computer without looking up*  "I dunno, did you check online?"
Him:  "I don't want to cheat."
Me:  "Then why are you asking me?"
Him:  "Cuz that's not cheating."
Me:  "Okay, but I'm just going to look up online anyway for the answer."
Him:  "Kay.  That doesn't count as cheating."

It turned out he was stuck on that "Man Who Cried Wolf" quest.  Long story short, he forgot to pull the lever to lower the bridge out and wandered about circling around the area of the lever for a good half hour until I told him to stop moving and just look AROUND with his camera at the bridge to see the lever.  Some days he amuses me.

Backseat Gaming

Yeah, it's like that.

So folks may or may not know, I took a little backseat to gaming after finally getting Platinum on Skyrim on PS3 a month or so ago.  FYI, that stuff is hard to do on PS3 with all the fun little buggies and annoying patch errors over the past year.  I absolutely LOVE the Elderscrolls series despite that they are notorious for having bugs as much as they are for being immensely huge worldscapes.  Morrowind, Oblivion, etc are amazing but good heavens do their bugs crash your game on a console!

The series' developer Bethesda have learned and fixed quite a bit over time but for some reason they still haven't learned their lesson with the PS3 and I don't want to try and upgrade my laptop or buy a gaming computer when I've been very happy with my PS3 for everything else.  You'd think I would just get this for X-Box 360 but I do my trophy collecting on PS3 so to PS3 I go for my version of Skyrim.  Still, I managed to fight through bugs and quirks and waited on patches and repatches to finally get my coveted first and only Platinum and it was worth it.  I'm still the only one in my group that has gotten that final trophy for this game either because they moved on to other games or I'm just that much of a fanatic for the series but I adored this Elderscroll setting in Skyrim.  The best so far and that's saying a lot give how much I used to love Morrowind.  

Anyway, after putting so many months into playing this game, I've taken a wee bit of a break and gave the reins to the boyfriend while I wait on the new DLC for Skyrim to come out.  If it EVER comes out for PS3.  We'll avoid my rant about Bethesda releasing the DLC vampire quests and werewolf perk tree for PC and 360 with no guarantee for PS3 before the holiday season.  Still, the boyfriend gets to play while I work on my knitting and crochet projects and just watch because it's still interesting although I've realized that not only have I taken a backseat to gaming, I've become a backseat gamer of sorts to the boyfriend. Like...wincing when he uses ice spells on a frost troll or dying 5 times in the same dungeon section because he forgets he can heal or the one that really makes me die a little inside...refusing to approach any door or treasure chest with a lock on it unless he finds the key because he thinks the lockpicking mini-game is too hard and he won't let me show him how to do it more efficiently so his game can go by more easily.  Yeah, looks like someone isn't going to be joining the Thieves' Guild anytime soon.  

I know he's tried to lend me Mass Effect 2 and Batman: Arkham City to play in my woman cave upstairs but the chance to just craft for a few weeks and get projects out of the way before the holidays while there's no rush is very enticing for me right now and his games aren't going anywhere.  I just can't help watching him play Skyrim either.  Plus, once I'm done with this crochet stash busting blanket, I can try my hand at spinning wool, a craft I really have put off for FAR too long.  My wheel is collecting a little dust, the poor girl. :(

Crochet and Tokidoki!

It's going to be a VERY photo heavy post between crafts and Tokidoki hauling, just to warn everyone.  I took a dive last night into crochet like a soldier through the trenches.  Okay, maybe not exactly but I had to justify the little gun toting Mozzarella figurine plunging through my DC stitches.  I usually knit and last night the boyfriend took my plush Donald Duck Sith apprentice blanket for his own uses when I was feeling a little cold, the brat.  Yes, the blanket is as nerdy as it sounds.  Between all the joking back and forth he boldly suggested if I was so cold then I should just knit a second blanket so we wouldn't have to fight over the main one.  My rebuttal was going to be that I couldn't knit a blanket fast enough to keep me warm that night when suddenly I realized perhaps I could crochet one instead so I pulled ALL my loose end skeins of yarns from my stash and one of the many gifted crochet hooks for the ultimate quick stash-buster!  Hint for non-knitters, normally you should NOT gift a knitter a bunch of crochet pattern books and hooks or at least check with them if they don't already own a full set.  I think I have 3 different full sets of crochet hooks now none the less the original hooks I picked up separately for picking up stitches and setting beads on lace.  Literally FULL sets of crochet hooks!?  Anyway, at least now one of those hooks will be getting more use.  Bonus, the boyfriend did not anticipate how much yarn I would pull out all over his living room for his insolence.

Ultimate stash buster  project indeed!  A few hours of running WILD with it in DC stitches I just went to town on my stash leftovers.  Little odds and ends in worsted I held 2 stranded to match up against the bulky yarns for a faster project.  So far it's a good square foot at least and growing fast.

 

  

In non-knitting news, I'm still rounding out my Tokidoki collection post Sephora's clearance and discontinue of the entire line.  Much sadness as they are ultra-cute and right now super cheap.  I wish I knew about this makeup BEFORE they were discontinued because I want to collect them all now before they pop up on Ebay for jacked up prices but at least I'm happy with what I've managed to stash away in my makeup caboodle kit.  So far I have 3 of Arte eyeshadow palettes, the Pittura eyeshadow brush set, Siberia blush brush, and the Love from London eyeshadow palette.  I can live without the perfumes, the lip glosses, the mascara, etc but what I really wanted was just the eyeshadow palettes and the brushes which I have succeeded at! Woot!  Side note, totally sorry for posting pictures of dirty brushes.  I couldn't resist trying them out and the white picks up color very easily and hard to get out.  Still, they are ultra cute and VERY soft.

Tokidoki Arte Eyeshadow Palettes-Vegas, 24 Karat, Lion Pappa with Pittura Eyeshadow Brush Set

Donatella, Mozzarella, and Adios.

Arte Palette-Vegas, 24 Karat, Lion Pappa

The last of the clearance haul came in today.  The original purchase was just the Love from London Eyeshadow palette, Siberia Blush Brush, and Kat Von D eyeshadow brush set all for 60-80% off from Sephora's website.  There were a bunch of sampler perfumes that came in my package in those tiny vials attached to cardboard cutouts and then came the small score of REALLY awesome freebies.  I got Coach Poppy Flower perfume and this fancy little facial cream moisturizer from Lancome for earning enough points and ordering online over 25 bucks between the two.  I actually wasn't expecting much from either as they were just freebies tossed in on a whim out of the selection but the face cream ended up being pretty sizable for only 0.5 oz and the Coach perfume was just adorably cute.  It's a tiny-tiny little bottle of perfume!  I don't know why but fancy stuff in tiny, well built packages make me smile.

Love from London Eyeshadow Palette, Siberia Blush Brush, Lancome Bienfait Free Sample, Coach Poppy Sample, Kat Von D Eyeshadow Brush