Can't believe this is my first post of 2013

I have been so busy revising for my final year exams to think about crafting or blogging and will be busy for a bit longer unfortunately.

I have decided to change one little thing in my blog posts - from now on I won't call my boyfriend 'The Boy' as it seems a tad unfair at our age to call him a boy.  From now on he will simply be 'Rob'.

OK now that is sorted - we went to see the new Les Misérables film last night and it was so good.

Neither of us had seen the musical before but I recognised a lot of the songs.  As it is so new and popular the cinema was packed so we were sat so close to the huge IMAX screen that it made you dizzy at times.

My favourite characters were the Thénardiers played by Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.

They were good fun and always coming up with schemes to get rich.

Serious Stuff

As I've just started my final year of university the time has come to start applying for jobs.  By this time next year I will no longer be a student but will (hopefully) have a full time job - scary stuff!

I've spent most of this afternoon filling in online application forms for various engineering companies and sending CVs with the knowledge that I have many more to go.  I hope it is all worth it in the end!

On a sillier note, I'm back visiting my parents this weekend because I haven't seen my Mum for a few weeks.  We got to watch the Formula One together and while Dad was out today Mum and I watched Four Christmases.  It is such a funny film!  I haven't seen it before but Mum had and we were both laughing out loud at several points in the film.

I should blog more! - my weekend

I always get to the end of the week and realise I was meant to blog about the weekend before so this is me trying to catch up.

I spent last weekend in London as The Boy and I went to visit his Dad who I hadn't seen in over a year.  We went out for a meal at a Brazilian/ Argentinean restaurant which was fun as the waiters (in cowboy hats) bring around the meat on skewers and offer it to every table.  

Basically the weekend was a chance for The Boy and his Dad to make fun of the way I talk but it was really good fun and we watched films I hadn't seen before such as Blazing Saddles and Alien.


The first thing I did when I got back was to make myself 2 cups of tea (I haven't figured out the right amount for 1 cup so 2 is easier to make) and get back on with my crochet.

 But while I was in London I received more requests for crocheted things - a ball for them to kick/ throw around (Mum's Patchwork Ball) and egg cosies based on The Boy and his brother.

Senna Documentary

I went to see the new documentary about Ayrton Senna with my best friend from work (IMDb page here).

I've heard critics say that you don't have to be a fan of Formula One to enjoy this film but we were already big fans and we really enjoyed it.

Although I’m a bit young to remember Senna, I have read Formula One books so know the stats and a bit about the history.   

I really liked the film as it showed Senna as a human rather than a list of statistics, as well as seeing his career progressing.

Homemade Pie

We made summer fruit pie yesterday and it is so tasty.
Here it is:

Since we started watching Pushing Daisies a few years ago we have been inspired to make more fruit pies.  It is such a happy program that it makes you want to dress in a cute vintagey way and bake pies all the time.

On the DVD box for the first one it says that this program looks like Tim Burton is the new director of CBeebies which in itself is an amusing image.  If you haven't seen it already I definitely recommend it.

Totoro again!!!

After another hard day of work today we've decided to watch My Neighbour Totoro again as it's such a lovely film.  Here is the mini Totoro I made recently:

At work they ran out of jobs for me to do so I was assigned transferring questionnaire results into a spreadsheet and then making pretty graphs so they can be presented some time next week.

I love Venice, even though I've never been, and so when Mum and Eve went shopping in Chester a few weeks ago they got me this little porcelain mask as it looks a bit like a Venetian mask:

As well as some books to read on the long train journeys to work every day.  I've almost finished the first one though so it looks like I'll be asking them for more books soon.

Some Housekeeping

I realised today that I am losing track of all the projects I am working on at the moment so I decided to make a list with links to the ravelry pattern pages.

• Beau by Kim Hargreaves
• Glint by Kim Hargreaves
• Gumball the Kitten by Samantha J. Montgomery
• Café con leche cup by Ana Paula Rimoli
• Karin by Annette Petavy - this is actually finished but not photographed
  

I've decided that I'm going to knit some of Beau (or maybe Glint) every night after work to try and make some progress on it.  It is growing, but slowly, and The Boy keeps hassling me about when it will be finished.

Also in relation to my pattern post I found this really funny I Can Has Cheezburger picture:

At the moment I am busy enjoying my freedom by watching The Beatles film A Hard Day's Night with my sister.  We always used to watch it when we were younger and it does have some great lines - mostly just because of the amazing scouse accents :)

I am going to spend the rest of the day relaxing, probably watching more films, and playing The Sims 2.  We watched Totoro yesterday and it was even better than I thought it would be!

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi, I’m Smiles A Lot.

I’m a natural optimist and love smiling (often manically).

I’ve just completed my second year at Liverpool University studying Electrical Engineering and Electronics (which I love doing).  

Outside of uni, I love to crochet, knit, draw, read, watch films, bake, and do jigsaws and word searches.  My other big hobbies are watching F1 and cricket.  I’ve never been to an F1 race but I watch it on TV almost religiously.

I have finally got around to making my own blog after being jealous of my Mum’s blog (yellowpinkandsparkly) for years and also being told that I had to wait until my summer exams were over.

The only way I got through my exams was by imagining all the wonderful things I could treat myself to when they were over.  The list started off as the DVD of My Neighbour Totoro which I have wanted to see for a while but, sadly, I missed it when it was shown on TV recently.   

 The DVD of Hot Fuzz quickly joined the list too as I’ve seen it so many times and just love it!

 

Besides F1, the other thing I am weirdly obsessive about is playing The Sims 2.  Although my poor boyfriend (The Boy) doesn’t understand why I like playing this game he is sweet enough to buy me expansion packs as presents and so I have been saving one (Open for Business) to play ONLY after these darn exams had finished. 

I’m sure I’ve said enough about exams – they are gone now.

I start work at my first ever job on Monday.  I’ll be working in the research and development department of a power/electrical engineering company.  This means that, instead of having a nice, relaxing lie-in on the first week-day of the summer holidays, I will be getting up at a ridiculous time and spending over an hour on trains to get to work bright and early.