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

Having absolutely nothing to do

Today, for the first time in months, I had no plans.  No gym classes, no coffee dates, no doctors appointments, no need to do anything or be anywhere.  It was a little liberating.

Atticus and I ended up spending almost 2 hours at the dog park.  He is currently zonked out on the floor. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon picking blackberries and apples at my friend Grace's house.



Some of the loot

Afterwards I went to Trader Joe's for the first time.  I'm not quite sure what all the fuss is about.  I mean, cool store, and it seemed to cater to people like me who don't cook, but otherwise...???  It wasn't that much cheaper and I'm going to have to supplement what I bought with stuff from another grocery store.   Maybe I'll have to go more often.  The upside is I think I have plenty of food for the next 2 weeks without going out to eat, AND while making room in my freezer for all the food I bought I found a box of Thin Mints that I forgot about.  Score!

Atticus and I went on a walk at dusk....he got his leash stuck in a bush and I insisted on laughing a little bit like a loon and taking a picture before I set him free.

The glowing eyes are a bit creepy...

A pretty darn good day, and a good way to end my weekend.

Oh, and I just watched the season finale to the Dead Zone, so maybe I can concentrate on crafty stuff now...  Lets hope!

 You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
~ Mark Twain

Bones

Life with Atticus is always interesting.  Today, he finally took an interest in all his bones I keep buying for him.  He spread them out then laid down amongst them.

I made this extra-large size so my paint-it work wouldn't go unnoticed. 

Would anyone judge me if I bought this over-priced but eco-friendly tshirt?

Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy.
~ Cynthia Nelms