Back to Life, Back to Reality

Hello all! As you may (or may not) have noticed I have been absent from blogging for the last week or so. Dear friends, I have been on vacation and apparently when I'm on vacation I disconnect from EVERYTHING; alas, I'm to return to work tomorrow so it's time to slowly re-immerse myself in reality. Blegh indeed.

Pretty awesome week off, actually. Shad had some time off too so we got to spend some very rare couples-only time together. I find that I still like him lots, which I guess is a good thing. We spent a lot of time on the motorcycles (yes, plural! More on that later!) including a trip with some friends to the premiere biker bar in Illinois - Poopy's. It rained *CAKE BREAK* most of the way up there and some of the way back and I think the fact that we persevered makes us hardcore bikers. Okay, so I'm not sure that you can deem yourself a "hardcore biker" but if you can I just did. Seriously I had rainwater dripping in areas that generally don't get rained upon. It was rather unpleasant, but I will admit that the rain certainly turned our road trip into a real adventure!

Within a month we've gone from a no-motorcycle family to a two-motorcycle family. We found both bikes on Craigslist and have been really happy with our purchases thus far. I'm still a little nervous on mine - after all it has been something like 25 years since I've ridden regularly - but it's coming back to me slowly but surely. Malorie insists that we're going through a mid-life crisis but I prefer to think of it as reaching that point in our lives where there's no use waiting to do things that we want to do. Crap. That's pretty much mid-life crisis, right? Crap crap crap.

The desktop computer is at the computer doctor's office now and the convertible is at the dealership waiting to get diagnosed. It's really getting to the point that you can't just have a car worked on at your local garage unless they have the diagnostic computer, which really stinks. Our shadetree mechanics are becoming a dying breed.

I made a pineapple upsidedown cake for Shad tonight. He mentioned that he was craving one on Friday but I was pretty sure if I made it then we would have the whole thing eaten over the weekend. The kids are coming back tomorrow night and I'm counting on them to put away a large portion so that I don't feel obligated to - after all, there are starving bleghers on Mars that would be happy to have cake. Anyway, when I went to flip the cake over I found out that the only thing that I had that was big enough to accommodate the cake was a cutting board which was too big to put into the microwave. (For some reason, the microwave has become the go-to cake storage location....) I then decided to cut the cake so that I could put it on a different plate and lo and behold I found that the only logical thing to do was to eat a piece of it. I had to test it out, of course, to see if it was worthy of my darling husband. It was.

I'm working on fabric flowers right now. I'm not pleased with my results quite yet, but I'll post them when I master the craft.

Back to regularly-scheduled blogging. Thank you and good night!

Grrrrr.....

Ever have those days when your body is tired but your mind isn't? That's been my last week. I've been up since a little before 3:00 a.m. and I don't know that I'm any more ready to go to bed now. Of course I have a lot to do today (including taking the written motorcycle test so I can get my permit!) and I'm feeling like I'm not gonna be worth crap today. Maybe I'll try to drift off again here in a bit.

Sweet dreams!

Beginning Bows

I'm improving my technique bow by bow. The larger red one is the first one that I finished and frankly I think it's a little sketchy. The last one that I did this morning, the orange retro print, turned out really well. Right now I'm lacking the hardware to connect my new little creations to hair clips but it's just a matter of time. Then, my pretties, we'll be in business.

Shad also suggested that some of the monsters-to-be be more formally attired with little bow ties. I think I'll have to give it a try!

Some new projects

These are some of the paper piecing projects that I've been up to. I think I like the airplane as is but to me the car needs a little more work. I really want to have a cute camera in my inventory but I can't say that I'm feeling this particular design. What do you think?

Lovin' Friday

Okay, so maybe it's a stretch to say that I "love" people who make cool things, but I usually like them more than the normal, boring members of society. I will say that I have Internet love for this artist. To be clear, Internet love is like shopping love - you "love" something like it's cool, it catches your attention, isn't-that-neat kinda love, not the I-would-mortgage-my-house-including-all-of-my-pets-to-own-it love.

Some random things that I do love are, in no particular order:

-a good unexpected belly laugh. Mine are usually embarrassingly loud and verge on becoming a cackle. I was lucky enough to have two of them today!

-waking up on Saturday morning, be it earlier or later than usual. The "I have the whole day ahead of me with no work" feeling is the best!

-sunsets on our country road. Most of them are pink or red and if you can catch the moment right before the sun sinks behind the trees it's magical.

-juicy, cold watermelon right out of the fridge. I bought a small seedless one yesterday and cut it up and it's almost gone! (I had to discipline myself to leave some for Shad.)

-Wednesday night television during the regular television season. I'm a huge fan of America's Next Top Model (CW at 7:00 p.m.) and The Ultimate Fighter (Spike at 9:00 p.m.) and the fact that they are both on in the same night just thrills me to no end.

I've been working on some new paper piecings and jewelry items - I'll share once they're a little more polished. I'm also working on making some hair bows for Malorie that I think will turn out pretty cute.

Love (or at least an intense Like!), Luck and Craftiness!

It Worked!

Well I'm happy to report that my "post the to-do list on the blog and feel obligated to get it done" tactic worked perfectly! Not only did I accomplish all of the tasks on my list but I also cleaned and vacuumed under my bed. I feel darn accomplished. I suspect that this is something to be used sparingly though....similar to when I drink coffee to wake up. Since I don't drink a lot of caffeine, when I drink coffee I get the full buzz but if I drank it all of the time it wouldn't be the same. From now on I'll use the "post the to-do list on the blog and feel obligated to get it done" method only when I'm really in a pinch. (And I do understand that it's not the most exciting reading for y'all, either!)

Things are on track for my small business venture. It's going to be a lot of keeping track of expenses and (hopefully!) income, but I think it will pay off in the long run. I'll post pictures of some of the items that I come up with. It's hard to tell what I'll end up having - it seems like every time I visit an art blog or craft site I see more ideas that I'd love to try out.

Mini-vent - I swear that the minute I get the dishes completely done the people in my household decide it's the perfect time to see how many dishes, glasses and silverware items they can use within a twenty minute time period. Worse yet, it seems like everyone gravitates to the oddly-shaped glasses that are h3ll to wash. Why is that, I wonder?!?!? Is there a conspiracy that I don't know about? If I knew about it would it still be a conspiracy?

I'm headed up to the office for a bit of prototype making. Keep it real my homies!