things dont always go as planned

tried out something different today....



thanks to the super creative idea of artmind, i was able to take all of the above to equal all of the below....



clay gift tags! aren't they neat?

heres a closer look at some...

i wasn't able to do the next step properly because some how i forgot i dont have any paint at all except for the metal paint i bought recently. i left all my acrylic paint behind when i moved. i of course didn't realize this until i went to search for it...if i didn't feel like a dip shopping for paint on easter (dont even know if michaels was open), i would have gone out and gotten a bunch.

so, i tried the next best thing...metal paint. ugh....

thats not how its supposed to look. that paint doesn't wipe off clay that easily.

oh well....maybe next weekend i can get some paints so i can finish this project!

onwards and upwards....

sewed a card...messed that up too...

(look at the "y" in "birthday". grrrrrr....last stinking letter. thats all stitched by the way. i'm loving my sashiko thread :D )

oh well. heres a look at my piggy timer. just because he makes me smile.

a week at the academy starting tomorrow. 2 hours of commute time a day. wonder if i'll be worth it....

"never underestimate the power of listening." ~ dr dorian, scrubs

eating like a king

atticus ate like a king today....cheesy garlic biscuits, sweet potatoes, and i let him have his own hamburger. and still, he tries to steal hamburgers off the counter. silly dog.

i'm trying to air my apartment out...it smells like grease. ugh.

"come on, you're practically a midget." ~ one of my esteemed coworkers said to me one day...

a lazy wednesday...

my last three days at work went something like this...

12 hours...
12 hours...
10 hours...

my weekend is going something like this...

sleep...
movies...
sleep...
the office season 4...
dog park...


(atticus hanging out in the puddles....)


(soaking wet and pleased with himself....)

finished a project....


but its for someone who reads this blog (i think?) so i can't really show you too much...

(combination of linen & sashiko thread and a couple buttons. isn't it neat?!?)

wish the video was better - but it shows you one of attie's favorite things to do at the park. as a side note, the ending is a little jerky because when i went to move out of his way my ankle came down onto a mini-tree stump, scraping my ankle bone. mmm...ankle bone...




"well, i'm off to fight crime..." ~ r.l. 1122

and back to nights....

if i show you something, you have to promise not to scream.

promise??

okay....

so recently i've been pretty lazy and haven't been putting things away when i should. as a result, my bedroom started to look like this...



i know....yikes, right??

let me point out a couple things. #1 - although i have dark curtains, light still streams through. #2 - my alarm clock is buried. those were two big things that HAD to change seeing as i'm going back to graveyard shift.

i finally bit the bullet and bought blackout shades. and since the first set i bought wasn't enough, i ended up making an emergency run to lowes (well, "emergency" in the sense that i needed to get those shades up there and wasn't waiting any longer) to get more.

this is what i came up with....

not too bad, right? there are 2 layers of blackout curtains there in case you're curious. do you notice anything kind of odd with the curtains??

here, let me show you up close...

*big sigh* yes, i bent the curtain rod. its actually a tension rod, but still. its permanently bent. and since i refused to make yet another run to lowes, i figured this would have to do. the one thing you can't see is the front set of curtains/tension rod is basically being held up by a screw that i had to put in the middle of the wall to support all the weight of the curtains. for some reasons i forgot to factor weight in there. hmmm....whoops.

anyways, onwards and upwards.

started sewing again today. awhile ago i bought my first pattern at pacific fabrics and today i used it. while it is a very simple pattern, it is also a good example why i like step by step tutorials with pictures and an opportunity to ask the author questions. in other words, i messed up what i was making today. i would show you, but i'm thinking of giving it away to someone and i didn't want to spoil the surprise. its not THAT messed up. :)

the one thing i made that actually turned out is my new fold-over bag....

here is atticus as my bag model...

and up close...

yes, that is pickle fabric you see!!! woohoo!!

heres a look at the inside....

(i know it doesn't match but i love the fabric and wanted to use it anyway)

AND, i got to use more grommets!

heres another look...(and yes, its almost impossible to take a picture without atticus getting in the way...)

i think i shall use it for work. maybe it'll motivate me to go....

(we were enjoying the clean room and available floor space....)

okay, time for a nap. first graveyard shift is tonight!!!

"he wasn't smart enough to play dumb." ~ t.b. 511

pbbbtttttt

wish i had more to report. but i dont, seeing as i was called into WORK on my day off. pbbbbbbtttttt.....

thats an air zerbert for those of you who couldn't tell.

and it was beautiful today. low 70's...sunny....beautiful. atticus wanted to go to the park. so did i. maybe on friday...

i did make a quick trip to goodwill. mental note: wednesday is senior citizen discount day at goodwill. good for me when looking at clothes, bad when trying to look through anything else. restocked my pants collection (thats a story for another day). got this cheery container....



went to work. had to eat a little crow. i hate that. its my day off and yet i graciously go to work and then i have to apologize for messing something up a month ago. *sigh* theres something inherently wrong with that.

home again....tried to make the most of the beautiful evening by taking a long walk with attie. afterwards we practiced the "leave it" command with some new treats.



lets just say we're working on it....

my dad challenged me to beat his all-time record in free-cell. 124 straight wins. after i messed up my 8 game streak, i'm back up at 13. i have a long way to go...

"the day i learn to fly, i'm never coming down..." ~rise against

just another saturday

another saturday has come and gone....

attie and i went to the park again....



he made a new friend, ollie...


ollie loved atticus. more than atticus loved ollie, but thats okay. we're working on making doggie friends.

came home....tried to make things out of my washer discards....

found a new setting on my camera to take up close pictures....

accidentally took a long nap....woke up, looked around, immediately frustrated with the state of my apartment. instead of actually doing something about it, i sewed instead....

sneak peek...my first time using sashiko thread....(anyone recognize the gray fabric?)...

made a garland out of black leather dots, red sashiko thread, and used a washer as a weight at the end....

(ignore the fact i need curtains - ironic, i know. one of the many reasons i'm frustrated when i look around.)

almost a busy day. feeling blah. maybe i'll do something more interesting tomorrow...

"maybe this, then, is the ultimate upshot of our endless, self-wrought swirl of sour disappiontment, of never having our impossible needs fully met, of constantly being thwarted in our desire to have the world revolve around our exact set of specifications and desires.

our disappointment begins to curdle, to turn back on itself, poison the heart, turn us nasty and low. it shifts from merely being a national mood or general temperament, into a way of being. a wiring, deep and harmful and permanent. its all very disappointing, really."

~mark morford

park smiles

so, attie and i like go to to the bandix dog park. of course its about 30 minutes out of my way and not on the way to anything, nor is it near anything or anybody i know. but its several acres, has probably a mile or two worth of trails through the woods, and is fully fenced. people there actually keep their dogs' behavior reigned in (for the most part), and most of all: atticus loves it there.

i talk about atticus a lot at work, and i've mentioned the dog park to a couple people i work with. several months ago, one of the troops asked me if i had been the one to draw the smiles at bandix. my confused look of course answered his question, but the question itself got my curiousity piqued.

a month or so ago i finally saw what he was talking about, and yesterday we went to the park (65 degrees and gorgeous!) and i was able to take some pictures of what he was talking about.

yes, someone went around with a sharpie and drew smiles on rocks in the ground. as far as i know, most of them go along one trail, but you really have to look for them. and when i found them, they made me smile. what makes me smile more was the fact that someone saw them, thought of me, and wondered if i did them. i guess i'm cooler than i thought. :)

i also went on a ride-along last night. quite fun. one of the few perks of my job i think. i like to joke that i'm building bridges. i got home last night after 4am, took today off, and have yet to do anything constructive today other than run the dishwasher.

oh, and i'm also going to a different shift starting next week i think it is....a split shift, 2pm & 10pm 4x10s. which means, i work 2 shifts 2pm to midnight, then 2 shifts 10pm to 8am. and i get a 3 day weekend every week. sweet. for those of you who are wondering, i actually volunteered for this shift. i'm trying to escape the drama that is called dayshift.

onwards and upwards!

"i've been way too busy taking naps." ~ m. segrest