You Can't Make This Stuff Up

From the local police beat in yesterday's newspaper:

"I'm here to rob your store."

"Sorry, Orange Goatee Dude.  I call bullshit."

"Okay, um, just give me a sub then...which I'll pay for with my Visa card."

When I'm not chuckling at the newspaper, I've been making blocks.  Got a nice pile of them ready to lay out on the floor later today.

Like my scribbled design?  I can't draw a proper square, but I can sew one, so who cares.  When I decided to make it a little longer, I scotch taped a second scrap onto the bottom to draw the rest.  'Cause that's how I roll.

I have a PT evaluation today for the shoulder.  I'm only a little scared.  

(Thrifted skull and treats; glass pumpkin Pier 1)

Happy Halloween! 

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 50

Deck the halls with...Edward Cullen!

Fa-la-la-la—Ooh-la-la—la-la!

Not the season to be sullen

Fa-la-la-la—Ooh-la-la—la-la!

Dons he now his grey apparel

Fa-la-la—Ooh-la-la—la-la-la!

While I botch this yuletide carol

Fa-la-la-la—Ooh-la-la—la-la!

Oh, the merriment of hanging this poster in my sewing space today! It was a Christmas gift from my friend Marie, who likes me so much she read all the Twilight books just because I would not shut up talking about them.  What a pal, huh?  Though she has no desire to see Breaking Dawn, and Robert Pattinson does absolutely nothing for her, I sure won't hold it against her.  

Hey, if Edward wasn't bored out of his gourd watching Bella sleep every night, I figure he can watch whatever foolishness I get into in the sewing room, right?  Although he looks like he may be waiting for me to sew through a finger.  All in good time, my pretty.  All in good time.

I did manage to bring out a few, more seasonal decorations this weekend, but the going has been slow. Every year, I desire to decorate less.

We needed a catchall for the Christmas cards, so I employed a festive piece of Pyrex for the task.

How do you display your holiday cards, if you do?

It occurred to me that I have no appropriate holiday wall hanging for the front hallway, but I've got a plan to fix that soon with this Carpenter's Wheel block that I saw on Laughter in Quilts.  As I commented to Karen, it looks seasonal without screaming "take me down on December 26," if you know what I mean.  Here are the fabrics I've pulled for it.

And though I haven't sewn a single seam this week, I did manage to get a quilt cut out.  These stacks of raw materials are now waiting for me to bang together at the job site.  (What's with the construction reference, P.?  *Shrugs*)

It occurred to me that the CDs I was listening to as I pressed and cut fabric kind of matched the quilt's color scheme.  Very interesting!

Hubs, who overhears whatever I'm jamming out to in the sewing room, says to me yesterday, "I think you're becoming a progressive rock fan but don't even know it yet."  

Don't know?  Hello?  Who has listened to prog rock since Rush, Kansas, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Yes, etc. were invented?  I just go in cycles with music, and there hasn't really been a decent progressive rock sound I've liked in a while...until Mute Math.  I don't even know if they're technically considered that genre, but it seems as if they lean in the general direction.  By the way, if you want to read something hilariously funny on the subject of progressive rock, see THIS (warning: some people may find this link mildly offensive; I am obviously not one of those people).  And Porcupine Tree?  Must hear more!

The Black Keys are not progressive rock, but rock they do.  I just want to dance with this gentleman.  Perhaps without all the literal hand gesturing, however.

Making it Work

I moved things in the kitchen as much out of the way as possible so I could baste the quilt on the floor today. 

When I was a kid, my dad would shampoo the living room carpeting every once in awhile, and somehow all our furniture managed to get squeezed into the tiny dining room for a day or two while things dried.  One year the Olympics were on TV during that time, and I remember watching them perched on top of something that was perched on top of something else.  This reminded me of that, but nowhere near as tight a squeeze.

This made just enough room for the quilt.  I am standing in the doorway to take this picture.  It's a small kitchen.  The quilt is a full size, not even a queen.

But mission accomplished with the basting.  Yay!

Norm brought the mail in from the box at noon.  "Your contacts are here.  Try them on!"

He was more excited than I was, but when I put them in, he was less impressed.  I think he was hoping they'd be creepier.  Me too, actually.  Maybe I should have gotten the red ones.

Anyway, they're fairly comfortable and I can see well, so that's good.

This is my normal eye color, dark blue.  Or somewhat hungry "vegetarian" vamp?  Nah, not dark enough.

And here is with the contacts.  "I have been hunting."  Pretty subtle.  They do make my irises look larger though.

It's not easy taking photos of your own eyes.  The mirror shots = Fail.  I am starting to get silly here.

Finally I turned the camera around to where I could see the viewfinder in the mirror.  Duh.  That worked.

No Sugar Coating

Hi.  You know what I'm doing right now?  I'm NOT baking that chocolate cake I so want to, and NOT then frosting it with chocolate frosting, and NOT eating at least two large pieces.

Woe is me.

This giving up sugar business is making me cranky.  Or it could be PMS, or a combination of the two.  Anyway, I am craving and crabby.  Stay out of my way.

Now, that's not completely true.  No one needs to stay out of my way, because in real life, what I do is hole up in my office or bedroom or sewing room when I'm crabby.  I take myself out of the mix, so to speak.  Maybe turn on some music.  Eat something junky (but not today).  It's too hot to walk tonight.  There's a heat advisory, which is a convenient excuse that works for me.  I know I have a treadmill inside a home that's air conditioned to within a degree of igloo status.  Shaddap.

In a little bit I will have to saunter back over to work for a while.  I'm waiting until all the cars are gone from the parking lot though (see, holing up).  Also, I don't want to talk to anyone about the file I was working on recently that has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared from the computer and, by extension, the face of the earth.  

I swear I didn't eat it. 

So add a little anxiety to the list of things a chocolate cake would make, at least momentarily, all better. 

Did you know V8 contains sugar?  I have polished off a six pack of V8 this week and only tonight paused long enough to read the label.  There it was, SUGAR, for crying out loud.

I also had some Grillin' Beans the other day, which I should have known better but was in denial, apparently.  They were really good.

However, I did NOT use Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce in the sloppy joes last night, like I usually do.  At least they're up front with "Sweet" being the first word in the product.

I did find some new music I liked today.  You know what made me click on the Amazon link to the CD?  The title, "Strings Much Better Left to Fray."  It's a line from the song, Here and Now.  Don't be put off by the band name, this is a melodic tune.  Give it a shot, you may be surprised.  And I promise, no hidden sugar. Now that's sweet.

Update: Went for a walk at sundown. Had some watermelon. Feel better.

Organized Chaos

I've been working on string pinwheel units.

Good clean fun...

...that makes (more of) a mess of my sewing area.

Sheesh, how many scissors do I need there, anyway? Apparently, one to cut paper, one to snip thread tails, one to cut fabric. Just out of frame, there's another longer snipping scissors and one or two rotary cutters. Right tool for the right job, I guess.

I'm using the old Singer Touch & Sew for piecing the strings onto phone book pages. I'll use the Juki (aka Jane) when I get to sewing the rest of the blue/red units. The Touch & Sew wants to eat the triangle corners. She gets a little grabby when she's hungry.

The Touch & Sew needs a name, by the way. I was thinking of Tammy. It's from the mid-1960s, and that seems like an era-appropriate name to me. Tammy, the Touch & Sew?

Viv is relegated to watching from afar. Hope she doesn't mind sitting this one out.


Yep, that is a boom box there in the corner. Does it qualify as vintage yet? Norm has it running through the stereo amp and bookshelf speakers above, and I just use it as a CD player. It may be old school and cobbled together, but it sounds much better than my mp3 player does. Besides, I still like the tactile nature of CDs...just not so much the clutter they make on my table.

A few finished units. My goodness, I am a piler. Underneath are, let's see, a couple of finished items (in a shopping bag) that need quilting, a vintage apron pattern I intend to sew (probably in 2013), and a stack of mending...which, since it's spring now, can probably wait another six months!

There's part of the fabric stash--the part that can't fit in the drawers. Hey, there are those cork squares I bought in September. Guess they're not going to stick themselves to the wall, are they?

And to think I started this post feeling like I had been productive. Oh well, how about a fun song?

Too Much Stuff - Delbert McCli...