What I've been up to lately...

...besides freezing. Seriously dudes, its 54 degrees outside (though it "feels like" 49 according to the weather folks. why don't they just say 49. I don't care if its 54 if I'm really 5 degrees colder, but I digress) and its a whopping...59 in our house. though it "feels like" ....59.

In the grand scheme of things - not that cold! Especially when you consider Illinois in another 8 weeks and I'll be longing for the toasty warmth of a 54 degree day. But for those of us stupid stubborn enough to not turn on the heat, its a little brisk. Especially in a 100 year old house, when your kitchen is poorly insulated, and the wind just LOVES to blow into the direction of the kitchen. So I sit here in layers...I don't lie: 2 pairs of socks, footless tights under my jeans, tank, tshirt, longsleeved t, sweatshirt, scarf. And my options have been to sit under my blanket and knit, or...eat. Neither are BAD options, mind you. I really can't complain about either, and enjoy both quite immensely. BUT...days on end of those 2 activities will not do me well in the end.

So I thought maybe a bit of blogging since I'm only a few months behind *ahem* I'm still cold, I'm just not thinking about it. Good start.

So what's new? Just looked back to see my last post was in MAY. Crap. Ok, well let's get started!

I got new glasses...

I made some yogurt (it tasted much better than it looked, this was pre-mixing)

Eddie and his friend Patrick spent a good amount of time throwing rocks at that utility pole.

Tractor ride at the Iowa Machine Shed.

Spent too much money on junky trinkets at the fair.

That cup was really filled with gatorade, not mountain dew, but I don't think anyone there would have judged me. Since most kids were drinking mountain dew and deep fried snickers.

I was shocked at what rides cost "now'a'days". He got to ride 3, because that's all the cash I'd brought.

We didn't eat any of these, I just took the picture.

$26 and an hour later and this was what was left of the fair experience. Truth be told, I don't love the fair. I kinda don't even like it. Its July, its hot, its $13 for one adult and one child just to WALK in. And there's really not a lot to DO unless sweating and deep fried foods REALLY does it for you. Me not so much. The animals were kind of neat, but we can do that other places. Bah humbug fair. (But we went, because...that's what you do, and Eddie was working it all week and it was the only chance to see dad for a bit)

My cousin got married. She looked beyond amazing.

See, even with "I just got married" goofy faces they're still adorable. (Plus, birdcage veil + finger waves = love)

I was there. I was a bridesmaid so I kinda had to be. I even wore a dress. And I hate having my picture taken, thus the strained "good god just take it" expression. ;)

Zach turned 5. I'm still demanding a re-count to be sure this is accurate. I'm not convinced.

It says so on the cookie, so it must be.

I really don't know why I took a picture of this, but it was about 40 minutes of Eddie's afternoon at a family BBQ that day.

Bouncy inflatables.

Plus fireworks with the fam (Plus blankets...in AUGUST. it was unusually cool)

Kettle corn before fireworks (he wasn't really scowling at me, although...he is a little defensive about that kettle corn...so maybe)

I spun some yarn.

Recovered a chair that has literally been in our family for...YEARS. We ended up with it due to an eager husband and...guilt.



And I'm makin' one of these...


Forgive the WIP picture, but its not done yet. Forgive the "its" reference, but he/she wasn't giving up the goods. He/she loves mom more than dad. As I didn't want to find out, and he did. Ha ha Eddie, ha ha.

For those who can't tell - because ultrasounds are SUCH great imagery - head on right, forearm/fist middle, and a knee/leg on the left. And really, I won't be offended if you just pretend to see something. Its ok.

And now, back to my blanket, and my kitchen. Because cooking makes the house warmer for a bit. And really helps with that "The cold makes me hungry" problem I seem to be having....

Towels

Hello again! Hope everyone had a lovely Mother's Day! Ours was pretty basic - alarm didn't go off, woke up 10 minutes before we should have been leaving for church, decided to spend the morning knitting the last bit of my swallowtail shawl instead. Not to shabby! The shawl is currently soaking:

I know, it doesn't LOOK like much now, but wait until its blocked out. Which I'm waiting for too. Because, honestly, I'm not sure how I'm going to block it yet. I'll probably have to pin it to the bed and hope it dries by the time we want to go to bed? Let's hope.

In other - less impressive - finished projects news...I made hand towels. They're pretty lame, but they were a first attempt. Quite honestly ANYTHING was better than the disgusting looking hand towels we've been using. Do you have those? The ones that have been used to sop up spilled coffee/soda, or used as emergency potholders, and as a result LOOK filthy, even when they've just come out of the dryer? We have a PILE of those. I blame Eddie, which is ok, because its true. :)

So anyway, after months of having one or two "ok to be used when we have company over" towels, and a STASH of "please don't make me hand this towel to one of our friends..." towels, I decided to just make some. (this may also have something to do with me being cheap. frugal. whathaveyou.)

So I grabbed a yard of terrycloth from hobby lobby, and made some binding out of the leftovers from the 'vintage sheet turned curtains'. They're wonky and uneven, and cheap thin terrycloth, but they DRY HANDS! So color me happy and call it a day!

I can never seem to just take pictures...

You would have thought he was stealing home plate the way he dove into the shot.

He is awfully cute though.

Yup. That's an amish carriage on our towel holder. It came with the house. And even if I WANTED to get rid of it, that sucker is some sort of uber-super-duper glued on. Sorry for the crummy pictures, it was a very gray day with my sad point&shoot camera. What can I say?

Oh, and for the record, I think the terry was 6.99, and the binding was free. I got 6 towels out of it. Provided, I could probably go to that evil store that rhymes with fallmart and buy some, but this was more fun. And I won't shop at fallmart. That too.

In other news, I will be making an attempt to blog more often. (MUCH...more often) I figured out my problem. People had been telling me they saw/read my blog. People I KNEW. People in real life. Scared the crap outta me. If people read it, they could possibly not like it. Which is stupid logic, because....I don't care. :) I didn't start a blog to be GOOD at it. I just started it for the heck of it. But then I felt all kinds of pressure knowing people were actually going to read it. Like every time I sat down to blog, I felt like people were staring at me. Like one of those dreams where you're in your underwear. I've never had one of those, thank god. Oy. So, I shook it off, realized if they don't like it, I'll live. And now you'll all be subjected to more of my mindless drivel. Lucky you!

Oh! The sheet turned curtains...

I cut it in half horizontally, and then cut each of those 2 pieces in half vertically. Since they had the larger 'hems' at the top and bottom as sheets tend to do, I just had to stitch rip each side partway open to hem the sides, then re-sew the seam, and they were the right size for putting the curtain rod through.

The chair is just my FAVORITE purchase as of late. It was $10 at the salvation army and I love everything about it. (especially the $10 part..)

Indecisive

FYI, I'm messing with blog colors. Having a heck of a time, so I've changed it about 6 times in the last 24 hours. I have things working against me...I don't like change in the sense that I'm so USED to the old, that the new looks 'weird' no matter what I do. And I'm TERRIBLY indecisive. So if the blog looks a little ADD the next few days, you'll know why!

Why my craft room is always a mess...

**disclaimer: Martha Stewart's of the world - now might be a good time to go scrub the underside of your couch, shine the grooves in your car keys, re-write your to-do list because the first was sloppy... Just walk away now.**

**second disclaimer - Ok, I've been guilty of the re-writing the list one. so what.**


The rest of you, pinkie swear you'll still be my friend after this.


This is what I should be doing:



That's the result of Round 1 of cleaning my craft/junk/crap room. I did the keep, toss, donate, sell baskets and got quite a bit of progress made. Still A LOT left to do, slowly but surely, I'll get through it all. The above is *mostly* the keep pile, and *mostly* things that have no business in this particular room. They have a way of finding a home on my desk. Not sure how that happens. ::coughcougheddiecoughcough:: So today's task is putting all of these things in their respective homes. I was disciplined, I was committed, I was focused.





But....then I found some paper. A little pile of scrap paper. Paper left over from something else. Paper that just HAPPENED to look fantastic paired together. Ah crap, now she's done it. She's distracted....

Ta-daaa!

Dear card,

you're so freakin' (awesome)

Love, Sarah

Yeah, I know, parenthesis around a random word - not correct punctuation. Its ok. At least I don't type my whole blog in rndm txt spk. w/ rndm lttrs missing and then inexplicably adding on extrass. Whyy do kidss do thatt noww? I know we did useless and stupid things too. Oh did we ever... Oh right! Card...

For the record, this is the FASTEST I've ever made a card. Really. Because I didn't let myself fiddle with it. I decided I had to sit down and just DO it. If I hated it, too bad! Just had to get done. And it worked. Go figure. I think it took me 20 minutes, and that included answering 20 questions for Zach, and digging through all of my things to find stamps/buttons/thread. (the downside of cleaning, now I can't find anything)

It made me contemplate doing a 'thing a day' challenge on my own. I'm thinking I just might.

Side note, I obviously resolved my broken camera issue. ...kiiiinda. Its still broken, at the shop actually. But its going to run $150 to get the sucker fixed. ::wince:: Not outrageous, but considering I'm saving up for a Nikon D40 (hello lover!) ...most likely used. I didn't want to invest quite that much in the old one. So I got a cheaper point and shoot for the time being. I don't love it. But...it takes pictures, and will come in handy someday when I get the new one as "Eddie's camera". God bless the boy, he CANNOT take pictures. No really, he can't.

Its alright, I can't throw a ball to save my life. So we're even.

Alright back to cleaning this mess. Focus...

Actual Conversation Earlier Today...

Tell me if I'm crazy...


My lovely cousin, Nicole, is getting married in August. She has asked me to be in the wedding (what can I say, my family makes foolish choices...) I am - of course - delighted and honored and plus, just super excited to have an occasion to wear something besides jeans. woot!


So last week, she and I and her mother went to look at bridesmaids dresses. The other girls live out of town, or were working so it was just me. Plus, I'm the hardest to dress, so it made sense to start with me. You know how something can look cute on a hanger or the 80lb silhouette of a mannequin ...but not on YOU?

That's my life. I'm too short, and weirdly proportioned, especially in dresses. But we did find some we really liked. We actually found one we loved - strapless, and more fitted through the bottom. Most of the rest were a-line and flared out - which isn't bad, but we were diggin' the straighter fit. There was also the issue of the v-neck, we liked the v-neck. We especially liked the "no strapless bra required" benefit of the v-neck. If only we could find both in one dress....





Oh...but we may have! So my cousin sends me a link this morning, v-neck, trimmer through the hip/thigh, and chocolate-y brown. Potentially ***IT***. Now, to see how it looks on!



She'd found it online, and I said I'd call the store and see if its available in store. I could possibly run down and try it on tonite. Fannnntastic!





So...I call store, conversation as follows:


*ring ring* (that's my best phone sound effect...)

"Dillard's something-something-sales-pitch-related-to-spring-if-I-didn't-say-it-so-fast-maybe-you'd-understand-it, how can I direct your call?"

me: I'd found a dress on your website, and was wondering if there's a way to see if you carry it in the store?

"I'll transfer you back to dresses"

*ring ring*

"dresses" (with all the enthusiasm as if she'd said "salamanders" or "liver sandwiches")

me: yeah, I'm looking at a dress on your website, and was wondering if there was anyway to find out if you carry it in the store?

"...no"


at this point I stammered and stuttered, because I couldn't believe this was her answer?

uh, I...uhm...well...

"well we don't have everything that's on the website"

No DOY genius, that's why I'm calling to find out. I refrained.

me: well, I was just wondering if you had a way to look it up?

::pause::

"well, if you tell me what it looks like, I can go look and see if we have something like that"

---at this point I was just making exaggerated "oh my word you're an IDIOT" faces into the phone, because I can't bring myself to be rude...even if warranted. Bad customer service is a BIT of a pet-peeve of the husband's, and I think its starting to wear off on me...

me: ok well, it says 'Betsy & Adam sleeveless satin dress' and its...a v-neck, knee length, dark chocolate-y brown...

::pause::

"is there like a description? because you're not giving me very much to work with.."


right here is where I lost my 'polite' mode and started my
'OH YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME..."rant as I hung up. There was more, but I think I'd hung up before she heard the lesser desirable parts, which were pretty tame, but still....


Now, aside from giving her the brand name, material, and what *I* would consider a decent general description for AT LEAST a visual scan of the room, I'm not sure what else she wanted. Sassy? Breathable? Perfect for a night out on the town? I'm not an ad agency, I don't write the stuff, I just want you to tell me if you have a dress that looks SIMILAR to what I've told you.


here's the picture in case I've presented you with a visualization challenge.

I'm sure you were envisioning something ENTIRELY different, right?

Needless to say, I'll be heading to Dillard's later this evening to look for myself. Fingers crossed.

Back to it

So in the midst of our chaos, the holidays (we were both working like crazy) and the energy/motivation zapping effects of 40*below weather....I have actually been making a few things.

..though I'm telling you, that weather...is murder. I lose all ambition to do anything important after 4pm. April can't come fast enough, and that darn groundhog and I are gonna have words.

I've been searching for something to put up on our walls. And at the same time, I've had these canvases sitting on my shelf for probably a year now. Yeah, a year. What can I say, painting scares me. Notice I didn't really PAINT anything, aside from letters.

I wish I could paint. I'd still like to try, but at this point, I'm better at sticking things to other things...like above.

This fish was actually part of some dangly bit of nonsense on a pair of shorts I bought last summer. Ya know those things that don't make any sense, but they put on to look like some sort of accessory? (which means, yes, I save random tags if they're heavy, bits of cording, and charms/bits that are attached to clothes when you buy them.)

It took me 3 tries to get that yellow right. And I still can't get a picture that shows the true color. The yellow is brighter, and the blue isn't so blue. A bit more sea green. I would try to take a second set of pictures, but my camera is now broken. Mhmm....yeah. Not real happy about that.

But I am pretty happy about this. Even though I hated it all of yesterday afternoon after I'd finished it. Its not quite what I had envisioned when I started, and I'm not liking the brackets after all, and I'm pretty disgusted with my 'handwriting' after the first line. BUT...I still like it, go figure. Because its done. Because it has a some of my favorite fabric leftovers that got some use. Because of the little fish. and because I think this might be one of my favorite quotes ever.

and also because...I finally have something to put up on my wall. That's a bonus.

Hope its warm where you are! And just to be clear, anything over 35 counts as "warm" to me at this point! ;)

I'm back..

Ok so I've been thinking about this blog post for a good week, not really sure how much to put here, so we'll just start and see where it leads us. Let's throw in a little TMI warning for good measure.

The impromptu blog disappearance was because I was pregnant, and after a year and a half of trying, with a round of Clomid thrown in, I was apprehensive at best. I didn't want to blast it all over blog-land, but ya know how you spend 24/7 THINKING about it. It was hard to post without it working into play somehow, and combined with the fact that I just had a *feeling* that something was off.

So the first week of January we found out I was right, that I'd miscarried weeks before. Which in my gut, I knew, but that was not a fun experience. Then the fun really started....the next day I had a d&c because my body wasn't registering to do it on its own (what can I say, I'm stubborn to my core..) A week later we were back in the ER with me in pain that about sent me to the floor. I was admitted overnight, and given a drug to expel anything the d&c must have missed. The next day, I felt TERRIBLE. Just absolutely exhausted...to the point I planned my trips up the stairs. I just didn't feel 'right' so I called my dr the next day and went in only to find out I needed a SECOND d&c. (for those of you wondering, yes that's very rare to need THREE different attempts at this deal...go me!)

Luckily, after that I started feeling better. Which was good, because I was about one more needle stick away from losing my mind. Speaking of needle sticks, after 3 separate IV's, and 4+ blood draws, I can say there is a WIDE range of talent in the nursing/phlebotomist field. There are a few I'd like to award with a medal of expertise and skill...and a few others who should be forced to practice on themselves for a few more years. Srsly.

So...end result. I'm feeling better. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet. But I'm back to my blog, and even got back to some crafty-ness the last few days. So let's move onto the fun things shall we?