Sick Day Painting.

Today I was sick. So I drank water, tried (unsuccessfully) to eat spaghetti, and painted some plates. That's all I got, folks.

This is Happening on My Street.

Yeah. Hard to resist, right? That's my excuse. See that drawer-less thing on the far right? Sitting on my front porch. It's heavy, and I carried it home. Thanks for all the comments on the Thermoses, and also thanks for letting me know I'm not the only phone crier. Hopefully more news on the quilt front soon, when I regain the feeling in my arms.

EDIT: My husband has come home, and after further inspection and discussion, it has been determined that the drawer-less item will not fit into our apartment. Not a spot for it. But it is a lovely little danish modern style thing, and if anyone in the KC area would like it, it is free and up for grabs again. Email me if you're interested and I can send you more photos and tell you where to come pick it up.

Hmph.

I am extremely grumpy today, and have spent half my afternoon on the phone with service representatives, crying. I do that, so, sorry service representatives, I'm a crier and I probably always will be. Anyway, here's the palette for my new quilt, which, currently, I am grumpy about. As with everything. Except...
The easiest way to clean your computer screen.

We Rearranged Our Kitchen This Weekend.

We cleaned out a closet and made it a pantry, and this is what the place looks like now. My husband cleaned out the fridge, and even scrubbed down the nasty vegetable residue crud, because he is a good good man. Did you know I have a small thermos collection? You do now. Did you ask? No. That's the point of blogs.

I Been Bit.

So really, that heading will only make sense to my husband, and there is only a 25% chance of him laughing at it. But what it means is: I've been tagged, by Rachel. It's my first time being tagged, so it's kind of exciting, like being asked on a date, but a slightly boring and totally unromantic one. No offense, Rachel, that's a statement on the information I have to offer. I'm sure a date with you would be just fabulous.
Here are the rules:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
(Those are the rules people, and I'd better copy and paste them, or else.)
Uhm..
1. I was in a band in high school. I played the electric violin, and I dated the guitarist, which was how I got the gig in the first place, because how many bands really need an electric violin? I started playing violin when I was 6, and you'd better believe that my kids will be Suzuki'd too.
2. For one week of my freshman year of college, I only ate orange food. It was gross.
3. I say I like poetry, even though in general, I dislike reading it, and I almost always HATE hearing it. My favorite poet, even though you didn't ask, is Bob Hicok, and one of my favorite poems of his is this.
4. My dream car is a Volvo 1800 ES, but I would settle for a Nissan Altima.
5. I have a degree in Fine Arts,(which I will capitalize to give the appearance of legitimacy,) with an emphasis in photography. How do I use this degree? I take pictures for my blog. Four years for this, awesome.
6. I almost never sweep my floors, and as a result, they are GROSS. Sorry mom, but it's true. We just walk on them anyway, how clean do they really need to be?
7. The first items I ever made with fabric were Troll doll clothes. My mom was hemming a bunch of her clothes, and I was given the scraps left over, and that is what I used them for. My trolls were the best dressed on the block. Does anyone else remember the REALLY SPECIFIC smell of Troll doll plastic? Kind of sweet and wonderful? I doubt I will ever lose the memory of that smell, but I am most likely wrong.
Ok. So, that only took me, what? 6 days to complete? Turns out I am bad at this tagging stuff. And also, now that I am done, I am too lazy to find people to tag, or at least too lazy to check if they have been tagged for this before. So, if you have been, I'm sorry, but I'm choosing
Angie
Alicia
and Laura on her birthday. Happy birthday!Also, completely unrelated, is anyone looking for a little kitty? This one lives in my neighborhood and every time I see him I just wish he had a warm home. He used to have a little twin that he was never apart from, and now it seems he's traveling alone. Very well mannered and friendly too. I'd keep him, but we're hoping to getting a puppy this Spring, and just don't have the room for three animals.

I got new boots.

Not the Campers I've been lusting after, but these are pretty nice, and on sale for $40 bucks. I'm a very happy girl. And check out my latest project, the flowered curtain. It covers all our piles of dirty laundry. Classy, eh? Because I've always been of the philosophy, "Why clean it, if you can hide it or stack it neatly?" Oh, and Rachel, I'm sorry. You know, about the gap.

What's That?

What's that you were saying? Oh, that your cat is cute? Oh. Well, sorry, you're wrong. That's right, you don't even know what cute is. You haven't the faintest clue. Because you haven't seen.....
Baxter bathing.
Yeah, I realize how sad I've become. I'm ok with it. If the cat wasn't so cute, I wouldn't have to be like this. But, well. So here we are. Sad cat lady, party of one.

(Also, I think I am going to put the quilt up on etsy, as a test. I don't see how it could hurt, and if it doesn't happen there, I will look into other options. Thanks so much to all of you who have provided advice and back patting. I really like the back patting. Not in that way. But thanks.)

The Making Of.

** by the way, does anyone know how to make the flickr badges that have th one long rectangle with the little circles coming off of it? Because, yeah, that sentence makes sense. But does anyone know what one I'm referring to?
*** Nevermind, I found it, because you can always learn something about flickr by looking at Rachel Saldana's stuff.

The New Big Thing.

Christmas presents will have to wait a little longer, because I just can't wait to show you what I've been working on. This is the first in a series of several quilts I am making... to sell. Terrifying, right? But so far, I have no idea how to go about it. I've been debating over going etsy, but the prices would have to be much higher than everything else I have in the shop, and I'm not sure if that would really fly. I've also been toying with the idea of going to a couple local stores and asking them about selling there, but that's even more frightening.What do you folks think? Anyone with experience in this sort of thing? More photos on flickr.

All the Posts I Meant to Post

Seriously, I have been constantly thinking about all the things I have to put up here, and yet each day passes without a hypertext peep from me. I wanted to do one of those "This is what I made all year, pretty good, eh?" posts, but now I'm too late, and anyway, I haven't even shown you the stuff I made for Christmas. Or, more importantly, the stuff I GOT for Christmas. And I've started on a new project, and I have lots of pointless stuff to type about, but really, I have to go one at a time. So.
Handmade for Christmas. I really meant to make far more stuff for people this year, but it all kind of fell apart ion the last few days, and so I only ended up with one handmade gift, but I think it turned out well, and it is a pretty big gift, so I don't feel to bad about it. It's a lap quilt I made for my grandmother. It's a really simple design that I copied from a quilt my husband;s aunt made for my in laws, she told me it was called "Picket Fence". The fabrics aren't really to my taste,but that's what you do when you make quilts for grandma, I guess. It ended up being 60" by 60", about, and tied in the back with embroidery floss instead of quilted. What's most impressive about this quilt, I think, was that it was made within a 25 hour period. A somewhat exhausting 25 hours, but still.
Also, I need to show you my pre-christmas-fabric-sale goodies. Did anyone else notice that, during the time of year you are supposed to think about yourself the least, all the online fabric stores had awesome sales? I noticed. And with a sudden influx of etsy profit, I caved. Check out my delicious fabric stacks. The first is from Z and S fabrics. Amazing customer service, and look at how cute they wrapped it all up! I haven't been able to do anything but stare at it and caress it, it's so cute.
Second is from J Caroline Creative, who I'd never really looked at before, but has an amazing selection, and shipped really fast. Ok, coming soon: Christmas Loot, 2007.