Currently Obsessed With is a once-a-month (but sometimes more) feature where I talk about my favorite things from the last month.

Is it weird to anyone else that we’re now officially halfway through the year?  Because it’s a little weird to me.  June wasn’t an eventful month for me, but I think July will be more interesting!

Crochet:

It hasn’t been a big crocheting month for me.  I finished this purse…mostly.  I need to felt it, and then it’s done, but so far, it’s smaller than I would have liked, and I even added a few rows.  I’d definitely like something bigger, and I found a couple of things on ravelry that are felted and cute, but I may end up modifying it a bit to see how a bigger version would turn out.  Below you can see the “before” picture, and I’ll share the “after” once I actually felt the purse.

I also started this washcloth, but one side looks a little crooked.  It would be easily fixed once it’s done and I do the border, but I actually have to get to that point.  I may end up frogging it, and starting over, and have stitch markers at the end of each row if I have…which I might do, because even with counting stitches, it looks off to me.  Unless I’m not crocheting in the same spot at the end of each row, which is what I think I’m doing wrong, so maybe I need to do that, because I know it’s going to bug me.  Maybe I’ll make some face scrubbies to go with it…

I’ve basically put my blanket on hold for the summer, as I do not, under any circumstances, want to sit under a blanket in weather that’s probably going to be in the 80’s or 90’s for the next few months, so it’s in time-out for the time being.  Which makes me question whether doing a temperature blanket is a good idea for a year-long crochet project next year.  And I’m pretty sure I don’t have the right colors (or enough of the right colors for the one’s I do have), and since I’m trying to de-stash right now, I may do a blanket out of the random assortment of yarn I have.

I do have my eye on this capelet and this hat, as possibilities for a Fleur Delacour outfit for both a Harry Potter party I’m going to, and the midnight release party for the HP & The Cursed Child script.  That, or the sorting hat.  I may get stuff for both, and dress up as one for one thing, and go as the other one for the other thing.  I can’t seem to find a good pattern for adults, but there’s one pattern that comes up a lot for kids…I’d have to modify it, and I don’t feel confident in my abilities to actually do that, especially in a month, and with two other projects…and it seems like a few people were having trouble with the pattern, if the comments are any indication, so if I do go for a Sorting Hat costume, I might end up buying a hat off of Etsy.

Books:

It’s been quite the book buying month!  On my Nook, I bought Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, For Darkness Shows The Stars by Diana Peterfreund, Positive by Paige Rawl, Midnight Bites by Rachel Caine, Lord Of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase, and Hello, Goodbye And Everything In Between by Jennifer E. Smith.

I also got a few books from Audible!  I bought Interpreter Of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.  I also got Outrun The Moon by Stacey Lee with my Audible credit.

I also went to a book signing for And I Darken by Kiersten White, which I reviewed here.  Marie Lu was there as well, and it was awesome to hear them talk about Kiersten’s book.  Especially having been able to read an ARC of it, and it makes me want to go back and re-read it, because I loved hearing her talk about the history and research that went into it.  And this blog post has a pretty good recap of what she and Marie Lu talked about.  I got a signed copy (and I absolutely love the cover, it’s gorgeous), plus I got a signed copy of The Young Elites. And I randomly bought Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick earlier this month.

T.V./Movies:

For movies, I saw Finding Dory, which was absolutely adorable, and I’m so glad it finally came out!  I was surprised by the number of adults in the theater, which is totally cool, but it did surprise me!

And for t.v. (by which I really mean Netflix), I watched a couple episodes of iZombie, which I like so far, but I haven’t done much watching of anything lately.  Maybe this month, I’ll start up with something.

Around The Internet:

I love this list about why libraries are awesome!

I never really thought about books being translated from British English to American English before.  But I say keep the original British English in books, because changing it takes away from the book in it’s original form.

I totally agree that we shouldn’t shame people for choosing not to have sex, just the way we shouldn’t slut-shame people.  Let’s just let people make the decision that’s best for them.

This post about what the word diverse means is absolutely worth reading.

I love seeing these pictures of libraries from all over the U.S.

It might be good to make a couple batches of these cheeseburger sliders– one to eat right away, and one to freeze.

I also want to make this hash brown casserole.  It could be interesting to throw in some chicken or something.

And when it’s not super-hot, I’m totally making this Garlic Lover’s Spaghetti.

Speaking of not crocheting blankets during the summer, these are some good tips for doing exactly that.

I love this post about your go-to not being your go-to anymore.  I’ve noticed it a little bit with my own reading over the last year-and-a-half or so, as I’ve tried to read a little more diversely.

You could probably talk for hours about spoilers, and this Book Riot post does it quite well.

As usual, you can find all that and more over on this Pinterest board.

Music:

I’ve been listening to some good stuff, I’ve just been too lazy to actually put a playlist together.  I’ll do an extra-long one next month, I promise!

Have an awesome day, and for all of my readers in the U.S., have a happy and safe 4th of July.