Happy birthday Jason!

Today has been one of those recharge days.  Originally it was meant to be a change-from-graveyard-to-dayshift-sleep-pattern-so-I-can-wake-up-early-tomorrow type of days, but after I immediately fell asleep after sitting down in my comfy chair this morning (I HAD meant to stay up for several more hours), the original plan kinda fell apart.

So instead, I actually got some sleep, and after waking have been lazing around in my PJs, drinking coffee and catching up on internet world instead.  Also have been having long texting conversations and am currently up to 5 concurrent WordFeud games.  My phone beeps about once every minute.  Until about a minute ago, Atticus was snoring beside me, making best use of his time as well.

I should probably be doing something more constructive, like washing the mound of dishes in the sink, making dinner, or trying to find the waiver for Hell Run tomorrow, but lately I've found I just need to chill out more often:  stop thinking, stop doing, and just relax and enjoy the moment. 

*deep sigh*

Moment is just about over...I'm out of coffee and I'm hungry.

But back to the original title of this post.  What I didn't put was "extremely belated' in there, but you've come to expect that from me this year, so I figure it would be redundant to put that in there.

I was inspired by this tutorial, but I tried to make it a little bit more manly.  Tried.  Oh, and I lined it...



A fun winter hat!!!



Made of old tshirts and exposed seamery....

See?   :)

Lined with blue fleece that reminds me of cookie monster's fur....



Modeled by someone with a decidedly smaller head...



How could I forget the card?

Just in case you were wondering, my brother in law did ask for a winter hat.  He just didn't give any specifications other than his head size. 

Happy super belated birthday, Jason!

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~ Author Unknown

Updating

I had a lot of new stuff to post, but I can't remember a single thing right now.  Or at least, anything interesting...

Hell Run is this Saturday morning.  I bought an awesome pair of sneakers at Goodwill for it.  (I needed another pair of shoes I could donate to the mudpile).

I went shopping at Joann Fabrics yesterday...spent $20.07 & saved $20.05.  Love it when a plan works.

Shipped off packages for my friend Katie and my brother-in-law Jason.  As soon as I hear from them I'll post pictures. 

Cut out and bought everything I need for my niece, Sarah's, birthday present.  Need to find the hours to sew.  When thats finished I can send her present plus my sisters present together.  Sorry, Michelle, yours has been completed and sitting in a box for weeks now.

My experiment with my brother Andre's present was not quite a full success.  I'm going to have to make something else to include as a "sorry I apparently can't follow a tutorial right" present. :)

Planted the broken off stem from my angel wing plant.  I poke at it every day to make sure its not dying a slow death in soil.

Unclogged my bathroom drain on the first Drano attempt.

Finally told my apartment manager I'm planning on leaving when my lease is up the end of November.  Hoping to find a rental house with a backyard for Atticus.  I'm not picky about house size, but I'm picky about location, the yard factor, and rent.  So far, no luck.  I can always re-sign a new lease November 30th, but I really don't want to stay here for another 6 months.  Three years is long enough.

Started counting calories again.  Realized one of the reasons I haven't lost weight - I either calorie starve myself or eat too many calories or any given day.  Not purposefully of course, I just eat when I'm hungry.  I also didn't realize how many calories I was actually losing at the gym and not replacing with actual food.  Silly me.

Still drink way too much coffee.

Started doing a pilates class.  Although its not listed as a strength class (its listed as cardio), its more of a strength class for me.  Kinda like more intensive yoga.  I always feel taller when I leave. 

The weather here is turning to fall.  Makes me sad.  I love fall, but I hate the rain.  It hasn't rained too much, but the rain we've had has been intensive.  I forgot how much I hate driving in downpours. 

I'm turning into a Trader Joes addict.  I don't understand it.  Other than their food is yummy and simple and caters to my lazy anti-cooking self. 

Well, my dryer just dinged, and Atticus is staring at me through the screen door (he wants to take a walk), so I better wrap up my super thrilling update list. 

Don't have any other relevant pictures other than....you guessed it...Atticus!!!!!  (He was intensely focused on hunting a fly.  It was hilarious.  Every time he snapped at the fly on the back door he ran into the door himself.  Ignore the bucket of car stuff...that needs to go to storage.)

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
~ Abraham Lincoln

A good day to...

....stay inside and make stuff.

Although I can't show you most of it (because people haven't received them yet), here's what I can show you....

I took a really really really boring sweatshirt.  It was even boring for me...

And turned it much less boring...

I was inspired by a sweatshirt I saw while watching Awkward.  Don't judge me because I watch an MTV show.  Its on Hulu.  And its hilarious.

The stripes up close (ignore the small threads etc...I need to wash it).

I also started a friend's request for his & her tshirts...

And now am starting on another present while watching My Name is Earl...

The bowl is actually filled with my snack...edamame.  There's something else I bet you didn't know about me.  Mom, don't be shocked, but I actually love a green vegetable.

And last but not least, here's Atticus...

He was hoping it was finally watch Hulu and sleep time.  Not quite yet...



The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

~ Nelson Henderson

Yet another reason to buy local

Let me digress into girl-dom for a little. 

I have the hardest time finding hair products that will work in my hair.  I have sensitive skin, and am allergic to most commerical shampoos.  Until recently, I have narrowed down my choices to certain kinds of herbal essences, Burts Bees, or extremely expensive salon shampoos. 

I was introduced to meme cosmetics at urbancraftuprising, a company out of Vancouver, WA.  In a word:  awesome.  I use the conditioner AFTER I take a shower and it has done nothing but wonderful things for my hair. 

I recently had to restore my stash:

hand-written thank you note!

My loot!

Free stuff!!!  (it doesn't take much to impress me)

Go to memecosmetics if you want your own. 

And no, I was not paid for this.  Just an impressed consumer.

An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.
~ Arnold H. Glasgow

Last fair of the year

This morning I went to a local farm fair.  Its main purpose was to bring attention to the farming community in my county.  Although small, it was probably one of the best fairs I've been to this year.

It had rained heavily last night into this morning, so the fields were a little wet.  But I didn't mind, because I got to wear my new (well, new to me) rain shoes...

This was probably the best fair I've been to so far.  It was all local vendors, a lot of produce vendors, and the fair food was all interesting - crepes and a potato booth etc. 

My arms were full by the time I left though... I bought a bunch of fruit (just had one of the peaches tonight for dinner...delicious!), homemade soda (same vendor as the blackberry soda at the blackberry festival, only this time I was able to get 6 different types of soda to take home - black cherry, birch rootbeer, orange cream, grape, apple pear, and of course, blackberry.), etc. 

Some more loot...the orange/white thing is a dishcloth.

I was also able to bring home 3 bunches of flowers....

Afterwards we went out to lunch and then did some random shopping on the waterfront near the restaurant. 

I've been wanting a blue mason jar for awhile now.  Finally found one.  I'm storing my wine corks in it...at least til I make something out of them...

Anyways, fun day!  I totally screwed up my sleep schedule though, so I have a day and a half to get back on track.

Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship.
~ Dorothy Parker

For a boy

Several months ago, a boyfriend of one of my friends saw a coffee sleeve I had made and requested a guy version.  He even gave me a "button" to use....

Robot fabric with geometric designs instead of "quilting"

the "button"

The guy version of an awesome coffee sleeve

Another project off my list!

No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
~ Sheik Abd-al-Kadir

Don't tell anyone, but...

...I totally copied this idea, I was just too cheap to pay for it...

Far from perfect (I didn't hold the stencils down well enough on the first line so the letters turned out globby...hence my black "shading"), but I'm still happy with it.  A new tshirt out of an old 99 cent goodwill tshirt, using fabric paint I just picked up from goodwill (5 brand new large bottles of Tulip for $1.99!). 

I've been pretty productive today...It only took me an hour to wake up after my alarm went off, Atticus has been walked, I gave him a bath, laundry is almost done, I cleaned up my "craft station" so I can continue a project, the bathroom is halfway cleaned, and I recleaned most of the dried up junk out of my brushes (that I couldn't seem to get out no matter what) with a new non-toxic brush cleaner. 

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my day.

We cannot waste time. We can only waste ourselves.

~ George M. Adams

A clean Josie

Three other girls and I got together to have a carwash. 

Only we just washed, vacuumed and cleaned the crap out of OUR cars. 

Only took four hours.

:)

My car....

My name in soap  :)

Sweat cleanses from the inside. It comes from places a shower will never reach.
~ George Sheehan

Predictable and Non

Sometimes, I'm way too predictable. 

I went to Goodwill the other day, and didn't realize til I was washing my clothes what I had done..

Yup.  I bought 4 brown sweaters.  To join the other 5 brown sweaters in my closet. 

My clothing is 95% brown, gray, black and blue.  With an occasional shot of dark green in there to liven things up. 

Othertimes, I'm a little less predictable.

My dinner creation tonight (thanks to Trader Joes)....

Organic 3 cheese pizza on which I placed artichoke hearts, one of the few vegetables I like. 

Yup, thats right.  I like artichokes.  Not always, but usually. 

I bet you didn't know that about me!

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.

~ Jonathan Swift

A sneak peak

I recently finished up making a birthday present for someone and had some extra materials, so I made this....

A wire wrapped ring with glass beads.  It took less than 10 minutes to make and it is way too cool for words.  I'm pretty excited about the possibilities. 

Of course, I don't have a ring dowel so I estimated size on the handle of a mini rolling pin, so...the size is a tad off.  Not so bad though. 

I saw a ring kind of like this on etsy a long time ago and showed it to my sister.  I recently found a tutorial.  I don't have a link for the Etsy ring, but here's one for the tutorial if you're interested.

I have weird elephant skin.  I don't understand it.

Off to zumba and aqua zumba (I haven't gone to the gym for 5 days.  I need it!)

If you want to be happy, be. ~ Leo Tolstoy

My own reasons for buying local

Remember this...?  (I bought it at urbancraftuprising)

Well, I'm almost out.  It is wonderful stuff.  It took me awhile to get used to pouring out the liquid (without making a mess), but I think I finally got used to it. 

Why do I like it so much?  Well...

#1.  It works just as well as other dryer sheets.  I'm not sure how it could work better. 

The thing is, I've used Bounce for years...probably since college days.  The other day, I was doing laundry with my eyes barely open and decided to use Bounce instead of my liquid stuff.  I pulled the Bounce down off the shelf, opened up the box, and was almost bowled over by the smell of it.  It smells super strong, and weirdly, super chemically. 

#2.  My liquid stuff does not smell like chemicals.

So, I decided to order some more.  While I was paying for shipping, I included some unscented laundry soap.  I haven't had a chance to use that yet as my Tide is still 1/4 full.  Believe me though, I'm excited.

Never have I been so excited to open my package of laundry soap:

In it was a thank-you card.  A thank you card!!!!!!  What?!?!  Can you imagine buying a box of Cheerios and having a hand-written card inside?  Umm...no.  Never. 

I got a free snack bag just for ordering.  How cool is that?

Here's a picture of my laundry soap.  They don't have the same scented soap as my dryer sheet system so I went with unscented.

Anyways, if you want a thank-you card just for buying soap, go to pepperjackhome.com

No, I didn't receive any compensation for writing this.  I'm just an impressed consumer.

As a side note, I came home one day to my plants from my plant stand on the floor and Atticus looking guilty in the corner.  Nothing a little vacuum and paper towels couldn't fix.  I found a broken stem to my angel wing plant on the floor and decided to put it in water to see what would happen....

Another week or two and I'll plant it!!! 

Nine-tenths of the people were created so you would want to be with the other tenth.

~ Horace Walpole

The blackberry festival

Another local festival today...

I actually spent a fair amount of money buying local things - I bought potpourri and oil, a dog bone, ginger marinade (I tried it on fried mushrooms - it was delicious!  And I hate mushrooms), and blackberry wine.  The blackberry wine is the exact same I buy at the local grocery store, but here the proceeds benefited the festival and the city, so I bought some more. 

Plus, fair food!  I had a hamburger with extra pickles, a blackberry milkshake, and blackberry soda.  Awesome. 

Today is my Sunday.  I only had 2 days off this weekend, and I spent 20 hours of my first day off sleeping.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Apparently I was very very tired. 

You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.

~ Jan Glidewell

In town for an hour

Fate laughs at probabilities. ~ E.G. Bulwer-Lytton