Well, here he is! My entry for Month of Softies. My inspiration was The Pink Panther. . . go ahead and laugh - hah hah! This is what happens when you are new to sewing and think that you'll whip up a practice panther first out of green felt that you have on hand, but then realize you are in way over your head with these monstrous proportions and pattern-less very difficult head shape. You end up with a green pink panther. Oh well, my dog Bella liked him!
It's 6pm and I'm sitting at work still trying to get enough done to keep my head out of the water! It's been nuts here since I went full-time, go figure. I am taking a moment to de-stress by thinking about crafting.
I finished a quilt square for the tsnuami project last night, but as Greg is in the process of building a new computer (yes, to go with the monster screen) I don't have my photo uploading software capabilities - the horror! So I'll post it when I can. I mailed off my first Snail Mail program letter to Hope this morning. This weekend I'd like to attempt my Pink Panther-inspired idea for the Month of Softies if I'm not too scared. Also more pillowcases, and I need to finish two new felt critters.
Boring tech rant. . .
I am sick of these Blogger templates! I wish I had listened to the dozens of people in the past few years who told me I should learn to make webpages. I just couldn't see that I would ever really have a need for those skills, but now here I am with a small business website that took a good friend hundreds of hours to do in order to meet my demands, and now this - a personal website that I would kill to have it's own unique design. The service Blogger offers is good (the free part has to be fairly recognized), but the cookie cutter aspect of every Blogger blog is getting really old for me. I want rabbits and dogs and trees and penguins in my design! And I don't want anyone else to have it too! It isn't a surprise that with the limited offerings there would already be two of us crafty chicks who ended up on the same page. The dots I had previously were killing me, and apparently Brit was equally tired of her old look. But where to go from here?
I just signed up for the Valentine exchange with Lori-Lyn! I am a huge fan of snail mail and have been peeking around the internet wishing I could join one of these gifty/craft swap things, but they always seem to be full. I was happy to find the cute and simple idea of offering to send via mail a little homemade card or trinket and possibly get one in return. I always am stuck with the problem of what to do with the silly things I make (since for me, and most of us I assume, it's definitely all in the making, and not in the results) and so having an address or two on hand for someone who appreciates these types of things would be really fabulous. And handwritten notes via the mail will forever go straight to my heart! So, if anyone wants to swap mailbox details just to have on hand for whatever or whenever send me a line.
Also a link for anyone who wants to do a little good in this sometimes really depressing world (sometimes being today, the day of Bush's 2nd presidential inauguration) - Hugs and Hope. I discovered their website last year and have been mailing birthday cards and holiday cards to lovely little children ever since.
My Valentine's Day house decoration. Crayon and wax paper hearts from Martha online. If you want to feel like a kid again I strongly suggest this project. (Mine didn't even turn out well since I used way too many crayon shavings, but it was fun and still looks pretty when the sun is out.)
My first real bag! I used Mariko's excellent tutorial and actually learned to sew something the right way (and you'll note there is no felt whatsoever in this project!).
Some headbands and other things I've been making this weekend. My new haircut basically left me with an unruly mop on top of my head and so I was desperate for help in taming my locks. I am putting off making a cat for the Month of Softies because unless I go the simple two-sided felt route I just don't think I can handle it. I may need to purchase my first ever pattern, but then there's the little problem of figuring out how to read and use it. I really need to take a sewing class or something; it's not working out so well to just pretend I can teach myself and use common sense. At least I will always have felt! I should make an 'I heart felt' patch since it seems to be the only material easy enough for me to work with.
Ok, time to think about dinner and I've got two loaves of zucchini bread in the oven. Greg had to work today but should be home soon so we can continue watching the second season of Six Feet Under. Loved the first season, but so far the second hasn't impressed us. We've decided to start a new thing of renting dvds of tv shows we missed because we don't have HBO. I think we'll do the Sopranos next, as we are probably the only two souls on earth who have never seen it. Maybe Sex in the City though I doubt Greg will agree to that one.
Ok so I know I said that I spent my holidays with just Greg and my mom, but I lied. I have been trying to maintain a happy/everything is wonderful picture here, but I just can't do it any longer. The number of times I resort to crying out in disgust is growing daily, and Greg has about had it with me. All this because of a few hundred thousand fucking ants. Our house is infested with ants! Creepy, miserable, multiplying, fucking (literally I presume since there's so fucking many of them) ants. I like to think I can handle a good deal of shit before breaking down, but I am apparently not equipped to deal with this situation. We've been sharing our house, our food, even our damn shower with them for weeks and yet I still let out a piercing scream and throw a tantrum each time I open a cabinet or walk into a room only to find that the little fuckers are having a party and have invited thousands of their friends. After reminding me again that if I keep screaming so much he's going to go deaf Greg cleans them up while I stand 10 feet away and shout encouraging words at him. I can't count how many nights I've slept poorly due to having real, horrible, sweat-inducing nightmares about the ants. Thank god the exterminator guy is finally back from his holiday break and can come poison bomb* our house to get them the fuck out.
*Kidding of course. With our little zoo that very appealing option is ruled out, but we're told they can still help us get rid of them so we'll see.
We decided to start off the year by donating what we could towards relief for the many tsunami victims in Asia. In researching the various international aid organizations I stumbled upon many sites with actual volunteer requests and now can't get the idea out of my head that I wish I could go in person to help. The whole disaster keeps reminding me of being in Turkey a few years ago when the big earthquake hit. The tsunami wreckage is much worse of course, but I remember driving through the streets of Istanbul and seeing thousands of now homesless people living in the streets unable to find food or clean water, with the numbers of dead climbing daily by thousands. If we had the money for airfare I believe I would seriously look into going now to help with the tsunami relief efforts. *I have been reading though that only experienced and trained professionals are needed and accepted by the various organizations at this time, which makes sense.
In the meantime here is a website with links to all of the aid organizations that are accepting donations.
