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!

Swing of Things

So hi! Remember me? It's been like a million years since I updated you on my thing-a-day. Partly, it's a photography problem and partly it's a problem getting computer time. But here I am. It's nice to be back.

Lately, my thing has been a scrapbook for Stella. I've been doing one page a day, so here is the last 10 days worth of work. I still have another 10 days on this, but I'm tired of black-and-white-and-red-all-over jokes.

When I scrap, I could be a bit of a perfectionist--and each album would take a million years-- so what I try to do is limit my color palette, papers, and embellishments. So far, so good. In no particular order:

I'll be updating over at the Olympic Stitching blog today too. So check out what's happening with the mermaid.

I also put in some quality time in the craft room, and I am happy to report that the craft table is cleared! It's nice to walk in and not be assaulted. Well, there's still an assault of stuff, it's just slightly more organized now. I've decided to get rid of the 10 years of Piecework I have in there. I am probably going to sell it on ebay in one year lots; if you are interested in them, we can work out a "buy-it-now" deal before I put them up. No rush. The dude will have the computer all weekend for an exam, and you know how long it takes me to fulfill my good intentions.

Good Things

If you're sick of the snow, avert your eyes*.

I finished the wreath, and promptly put it up. Yup, I bumped the maribou feather heart-shaped Valentine's Day wreath for the snow wreath. The neighbors are going to love the reminder that we are ass deep in snow.

If you're new here, the door color is Behr (Home Depot) Grape Leaves in semigloss.

You'll notice that I added some bling** to the snowflakes. I was inspired by my house bling:

Let's pretend that isn't a portent of danger and sign that the gutters haven't been cleaned since,well, since before we moved in. It's house bling!

Just how much snow did we get? Enough to bury the Stella:

Photo bravely taken by me in the middle of the storm.

And a Honda:

Photo taken less bravely also by me after the melt had started.

*Remember when I chaperoned the 10 year olds? When they were in the bedroom changing to go to the pool, they all kept saying, "Don't look!" And then one precocious young'un said, "Avert your eyes!" The adults in the living room cracked up and "avert your eyes" became one of those phrases we use to make each other laugh.

**They're stick on rhinestones, and I hope the stick is very sticky. We'll soon find out.

Seeing Things

On Sunday, I decided to stitch another thing for my Thing-a-Day. There was a little problem. This project--a lovely Sampler Girl Jane Austen freebie--comes with the vague color code including "red, blue, gold, and teal." I chose Weeks' Turkish Red and Chesapeake and GAST Deep Sea. The gold I chose is a random yellow Loose Thread. Unfortunately, as you can see I ran out of Turkish Red. Maybe stitching projects aren't a good fit for Thing-a-Day.

Yesterday, I worked on a little card. I stamped the flowers on the edge of the card and fussy cut them. (It's not perfect--I'm looking at that black border--because I lent my paper cutter to my cousin on Sunday.) I think I will use this technique again.

Unfortunately, I do so many of my things at night, we're always behind in the reveal. So here's some wet stuff on the workbench. I have been hoarding the supplies for this wreath for almost two years. I think this Thing-a-Day is going to help me clear out the craft room as much as my 15 minutes a day is!

More Things

Friday night, I went for it. I decided to stitch something for thing-a-day. And I did:

This pattern is a French freebie available here (biscornu indien). I used threads from Sharon B, the ones I won for guessing how long her sampler was. I used the one fourth from the bottom, but I only used one ply since it was too thick for the fabric. (The project referenced in that old post is on the list for the Thing-a-Day, so you may see it yet!)

Trapped inside during the blizzard, I thought I could whip up an even bigger stitched piece for Saturday's Thing-a-Day. Unfortunately, I dicked around a lot: read blogs, played on facebook, took the dog out in the snow, and I didn't spend nearly enough time on this to get it done. It's a freebie (not online) from Crescent Colours called "swirlygirls" and you know how I love me some spirals. Unfortunately there is a big ole mistake in the spiral on the right of the flower and I don't know if the circle will meet, so I need to come around on the left. I am putting this aside however. This is Thing 6, fail.

However, I did manage to make something yesterday.

My favorite plain boring lasagna. No meat, no vegetables (beyond the tomato sauce). This is the lasagna my mother taught me to make using the recipe off the Prince lasagna box--Anthony! I just searched the Prince website and the don't have this recipe any more. Of course, you get this raggedy picture because I didn't decide it was my "thing" for Thing-a-Day until after we ate it!

I also made a little video of Stella playing in the snow. If you are my facebook friend, you can find it there. So I guess I made a couple of things yesterday. Go me!

Grrrr

I'm having issues. My computer does random-ass things like erase whole words at a time instead of just letters, open the web browsing history, or close windows you are working in--and you don't even have to touch a button. So it just closed the post I was writing, and blogger hadn't saved it. I will be saving like a maniac as I write this post.

The other issue I'm having is that my printer refuses to scan. I've been online troubleshooting, and the fix is either some 29 minute download or I need to do this weird shamanistic dance that has ten steps ending "press # and 6 at the same time and do not release until you are told to." So I went with the download. If you see the things I have been making for Thing-a-day then we will have had success. If you don't, you'll get some photos tomorrow.

Because according to the weatherpeople I will be trapped inside my house, maybe forever. And here I didn't run to the grocery store and buy everything they had. I think it was the 14 years in Los Angeles: you had to be ready for earthquakes there. No one comes on the teevee to announce their arrival. You just had to be ready, which is why I have eggs and bread and milk and even all the fixings to make chili. The dude was very worried that we'd miss the Superbowl party where we will were to may eat chili. But please, am I an amateur? Do I not have beans in the pantry and meat in the freezer? If my preparedness isn't the result of living in earthquake country, maybe it was all those years in New Hampshire where, even when you were ass deep in snow, you could find things to eat in your house. You know, that would tide you over for the two, possibly three, days that you couldn't get to the store. Maybe I'm not cut out to live in the south* Mid-Atlantic.

Anyway, enough with the bellyaching, take a look at Thing Three:

Since I had the supplies out, I made another and called it Thing One:

I think this may need something. Glitter maybe?

Thing Four:

This is a little cover for a notebook I bought maybe two for a dollar. Anyway I think this may need something, but not glitter.

Now that I've wasted all this time here, I've got to go make Thing Five.
*Do you know how close I am to the Mason-Dixon line?

Thing-A-Day

You didn't tell me about Thing-a-Day. You probably realized that it was way more than I could handle. But I found out anyway, and I'm doing it (unofficially).

Here's my thing for today, a shadowbox of the dude at four (not sure when he made the handprint). But that stuff has been cluttering up our bedroom. And now we can hang it on the wall. (In addition to 15 minutes a day in the craft room, I'm doing 15 minutes a day in the master. I'm making much better progress in there, and it's keeping me going on the craft room.)

The striped paper (from a Christmas paper pack!) almost matches his little 1970s shirt. He's so cute!

Today marks 18 years together, so it will double as a nice little anniversary gift.

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Michelle asked about the cookbook. It was Cake Mix Doctor which is my favorite dessert cookbook. I buy cake mix in bulk because with just a few tweaks you can make it taste fabulous!

It's true that I can't cash the checks (unless I find an unobservant teller)--checks go "stale" (technical term) after 6 months. I did call my aunt to apologize, and she offered to make them good. But it is absolutely wrong for me to expect the offer of money to be open ended. Especially since she retired yesterday. Catherine's right. I should hang one up to remind myself to oh, say, not shove mail into a backpack that I don't open for four years. And then let three dozen pairs of shoes (and a stray boot) pile up on top of it. Live and learn.