Gather Your Things

What a weekend! We were supposed to have stitching night (in the daytime) on Saturday but there was "too much snow in the parking lot." (Did they know they have this invention called a snow plow?) (I'm too NH for this place.) So I told my sister she could bring her dog over on Friday for the whole weekend. Two dogs may be two too many. (Oh, I'm just harassing Stella the way she harassed us all weekend.) On Friday I did tell the dude to remind me of that night's walk if I ever claimed I wanted two dogs. By Sunday, I was pretty sold on the idea. They played so well together. And my sister's dog is 10. She was out in the yard playing like a puppy! It was nice that Stella didn't come to me all weekend for entertainment, though we did have to resort to feeding them in separate rooms and running interference so Belle could enter some rooms Stella deemed off limits. So, just like kids!

On Friday, I got the e-mail reminder that my BIL's birthday was coming up. So I made him a card.

It's not perfect--the beer strip should have been shorter and I wish I owned one more circle punch (the one between those two sizes that I used)--though I do think the circle came out looking a little like a pool ball, and that seems apropos.

That plaid background is two sided paper. When I was making this card, I put the adhesive on the wrong side. D'oh. So I quickly stuck it to a piece of blue paper for later use. On Saturday, I used it to make this card because if it is one BIL's birthday it's two (they're like a week apart) and my FIL's birthday isn't far behind. (Actually in March, I have 6 birthdays in the two families--and between January 1 and April 30, 14 of the 22 birthdays in our families occur.) But I digress, here's the card made from the mistake.

I kind of like my mistake. Definitely for the FIL.

On Sunday, I made the toasted coconut sour cream cake from the Cake Mix Doctor. And then spent the rest of the day furiously cleaning the house because everyone was coming over for my sister's birthday. (Which is today.) About half an hour before guests were expected I realized two things: we were out of toilet paper, and I didn't have a card for my sister. So I made this (after I got the toilet paper):

(Sorry about the photo. The white part opens up and the pink is stuck to the back of the card. It's pretty, but the card doesn't stand up well for photography. So, yes, it's on the fridge. Nice magnets, huh? Inside, the sentiment is also glittered. Oooh glitter.)

At Sunday dinner, my elder niece mentioned that she had recently made a scrapbook. It dawned on me that I could get another thing out of the craft room. My mother had started a scrapbook--well, started gathering supplies to make a book--for said niece about the big trip to Los Angeles in May 2003. When she moved, she gave the stuff to me. But isn't even better for my niece to scrap that trip? Why, yes, it is! When we went up to the craft room, my younger niece, the one who is developmentally delayed and doesn't speak much? Well she is learning words like a sponge. When we walked into the room she said, "Meth-thy!" My elder niece told her she's seen it "a lot worse." So you see, I am making progress, though how much is a point of contention.

Since all those blue scraps were out, I started to make this card for one of the other male birthdays. It turned into something else...because you can't have too many Father's Day cards in March.

Okay, I'm about to be booted off the computer--the dude is in the middle of a master's exam, and he gets priority. You'd think I'd use some of my copious free time to take one of the other laptops to be fixed, but instead I'd rather suffer...'til tomorrow!