I thought...

...that perhaps I had more to say: more pictures to share, more musings to muse upon before I took a break for the holidays..

I was wrong.

I'm currently nursing a terrible case of something* -
ugh, my head! my nose! my ears! (I hate, Hate, HATE it when head colds get all stuck in your ears...) - and so I think I am going to say my "I'm taking a short break" farewell right now...

No matter which holidays you and your family celebrate - I wish you all a very Merry Everything and a Happy Always!

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And Capello? Did you somehow do this to me?

Let It "Snow", Let It "Snow", Let It "Snow"!

Last night, Schecky and I were on our own, so we decided to head over to Atlantic Station, where we heard that it snows each night at 7 pm.

I can't quite believe that I am saying this, cynical old me, but it was a great time - and yes, I dare say it, perhaps a little magical as well...



Schecky had the time of his life, twirling and dancing and romping through the "snow" - which was some sort of foamy soapsud-ish stuff, which actually performed quite nicely.

I've got lots of pictures, but it turns out that an ecstatic Schecky is a Schecky in motion - so I've got about 2 dozen pictures of nothing but blur...


Ho Ho Ho!

K is for Kiera, G is for Gwendolyn...

...and both are for Christmas!

I finished assembling the "Gwendolyn" bear this morning, so that she may join her sister and I can deliver them this evening...



A while ago - Autum discussed the apprehensive feeling you can get when you make and give a gift to someone, and you are not sure if it is something that the recipient will want. I've got a little of that feeling going on...

These bears are for the lovely daughters of James, my photographer friend who took our Christmas Card photos this year!*
James was so generous to share his talent and his time with us - and I really wanted to do something to express just how much we appreciated both. However, I also know that he doesn't want or expect anything in return....

So I decided to make this pair... I figure they can either give them to the girls as Christmas presents, or - if that is not appealing - I made them in kind of Christmas-y colors, so that they can haul them out once a year to decorate the mantel...

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On a completely unrelated note - kisses to everyone who YOPPED for me this morning, and then sent me concerned emails asking "WTF???" - looks like it is all good now! (I hope!)

I spent all morning at the laundromat, so maybe I can spend a little time playing around and seeing what's so swank about this new upgrade anyway. Oh - and for what it's worth: this pixie never did get invited to the party. When I logged in this morning, Blogger basically greeted me with: You need to upgrade now, loser, because now we're letting just anyone in on the fun...**

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*The Christmas cards which finally got all completed on Monday! Slowly, slowly, slowly (but surely) that to-do list is getting done!

**OK, technically, Blogger might not have resorted to actual name-calling. However, the "loser" was very much implied!

Feeling Really Clueless...

Updated:
Hmm - thanks for all the "YOPs"!
Still seems like it is not done - but at least it is looking somewhat-normal when I look at it now...

In a weird ironic twist, I had been messing about the templates just the other night, to get rid of the dots.
If I'd known that I'd be upgrading, I wouldn't have bothered messing about with it!

So - now that I'm still here, and you're still there, maybe I should see about some content, hmmmm?
If I can squeeze any in between trips to the laundromat!

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So - it seems that I am stalled halfway through the "upgrade" process. Blogger is supposed to email me and let me know when they are done. Um, yeah....thanks for that!

But, in the interim, I am trying to figure out if I am in some kind of crazy limbo here.

Can anyone see this? Everytime I look at BFC, I see something different, something else acting wonky. And my stat counter seems to have gone Ka-BLOOEY!

So - is anyone there? Could you give me a "YOP" in your best Who-voice, just to let me know what's up???

OMG!!!!! It's, Like, So Totally Awesome!

I may be late to the party on this one, but I just discovered Teenage Girl President.

Good stuff...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Spring Break????

OK - maybe it's not starting to look like Spring Break - no "boys in bikinis, girls with surf boards"* - but it sure does feel like it.

A balmy 72° out there today, a 10 on the Mellish Meter if ever there was one...

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No matter what the weather was like outside, it would be a warm and sunny day inside - thanks to the totally fun package of goodies that I got in the mail from Jen of the Piddleloop Sewing Team!

I have long been smitten with this goldfish fabric. First I saw Autum use it in some of her bags at Creative Little Daisy; then she was sweet enough remember that I liked it and used it in the incredible apron and pillow that she made for me.
I got hooked on the fishies... (yes. yes I did just have to go there...)

So when I saw that Jen was using a companion fabric in her craftiness, I doubly smitten! I just knew that one of her clever pouches must be mine!

Proof that good things can come in tiny packages - the goodness of it all!




I love each and every piece of this, and plan on using or displaying it all proudly...
Darling knitting buttons, gift tags, stitch markers, and a Kleenex pouch, too!
(Although, I can already tell it's going to be hard to actually use the gift tags - they're so cute, and I want to keep them! I'll have to save them for special knitting gifts, I can tell...)

This little pouch is exactly what I needed to keep together all the notion-y things that I need for knitting. And do so in a much more stylish way than the Ziplock bag I've been using!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jen and all the Piddleloop Sewing Team - it's fabulous beyond all words, and I am so pleased...

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*Name that tune!

Serenity Now...

Look at that face....
(deep contented sigh...)

beta Blogger problems? What beta Blogger problems?

Dryer that has decided to quit drying clothes? No worries...

How can I not smile and feel better looking at that face*???

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*Who/what is she? Visit Flickr and read all about it!

Grouse Grouse Grouse...

Sigh...

Seems like everyone is upgrading to beta Blogger.
And I've not been invited to the party...

Which would be fine - EXCEPT - for some reason, I can no longer leave comments on blogs that *have* upgraded...
It pretends not to recognize me when I provide my Blogger login info. And most of the time, it won't even accept my "anonymous" comments.
Most annoying...

So - apologies to MeLisa, and Maize and KatKat1 - I love your respective wedding outfit, paperwhites, and Thursday Thirteen, but can't comment on them!!!

grouse grouse grumble grouse...

Little Ups / Little Downs...

It's just that kind of day, you know??

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The Little "Up":
My panda* got her name today in her 100-day NamingCeremony.
The name selected is Mei Lan, which means "Atlanta Beauty". It wasn't my first choice of name, but it suits her well enough, I suppose. She also took her first steps yesterday...
I love my panda...

The local paper has been getting a lot of complaints lately. (Well, more so than usual.)
Seems some people think that there has been too much panda coverage lately. And I'll admit, they have had tons of pictures and articles about our young cutie - and maybe that's not the most earthshattering news.

But to all you grinches out there griping about panda coverage, all I have to say to you is this:

If there's something in the paper that doesn't interest you,
you don't have to read it.

It's not all mandatory reading, you know...
Like with all the "The Senate this" and the "The Cabinet that" and "George W. whatever" stuff they have in there all the time**...

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The Little "Down":
My dryer is broken. So I will now be hauling 3 baskets full of wet duds to the Laundromat.

Instead of taking pictures and blogging about them the way that I had hoped to.

Ah well, I'll take a book and have some "quality time" whilst the laundry tumbles dry...
Ho Ho Ho!

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*'cause she's mine, you know!

**I'm Kidding!!!
(mostly...)

TCB Tuesday*...

Progress is being made -

• Holiday Cards are all addressed.
  (which I know doesn't sound like a big deal, but since I insist on doing it by hand - return addresses too - it takes FOREVER. I know, I know.... I'm a moron. And, of course, I still have to *write* the darn things....)
  
  
• PomPom Garland has been made!
  And I can not thank Beki enough for introducing me to this idea! I am so happy with this.
  First off, I think it is cute. And secondly, I had a wonderful afternoon with Schecky - sitting on the couch, overdosing on cocoa and cheesy Rankin/Bass Christmas specials, and stringing pompoms. And for that, this garland will always be special to me....
  
  
• One little bear down!
  One companion bear for her sister to go...

And, oh yeah - I did finally get the laundry pile dealt with too. I may not be done with everything from Friday's list yet - but at least things are moving forward!

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*A followup post to WIP Friday...

Lazy Saturday...

Little things are making me happy today...

Like breakfast this morning from Krispy Kreme -



Admittedly, this little guy looked much more perfect on the Krispy Kreme website - but the reality of him was quite appealing to me (much in the way that the Charlie Brown tree appeals to me....)

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I'm also getting a big kick out of the new ornament that we picked up while we were getting breakfast -

It blinks on and off, much like the real signs do, and it even came with a set of extra batteries. Not bad for a dollar...

(Look at it, looking all cute on the tree. Where it is the only ornament. Poor tree - it's been up for a week, naked, save for its lights...)

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The rest of the day will be spent curled up with Schecky on the couch. The croup is 100% gone, but he started running a low fever again yesterday afternoon. He seems to feel OK,but he's a little droopy and very snuggly.

We're going to watch the ABC Family marathon of Christmas Specials today*, and work on stringing pompoms.
In a way, it may be a good thing that he's a tiny bit under the weather; as on a normal day I think he would have too much energy to think that this was much fun...

Last night, we watched Elf. I had forgotten just how amazingly good Will Ferrell was in that role.
If you've never seen it, I do highly recommend it. He really captures that "little kid wonderment at being in a grown up world that doesn't really make sense to him" thing better than anyone since Tom Hanks in Big.

Happy Saturday!

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*TiVo alert! "The Year Without A Santa Claus" is on tonight at 5! That Heat Miser slays me every time... Plus, you have Shirley Booth, TV's inimitable Hazel, as the voice of Mrs. Claus - what more could you ask.

And for the record, I didn't see "Hazel" in its heyday - I saw it in afterschool reruns, back in the day when we only got 4 channels. Cable came late to Appalachia (as did/do most things...) However, I suspect that I am still dating myself simply by referencing "Hazel" in the first place...

Welcome, Welcome!

To all the visitors who are finding their way here via RockStarMommy, CreativeLittleDaisy or SewLittleThyme - It's nice to have you stop by...

(And I assure you, it's not all whinging on about dirty laundry* here.
I find lots of things to crab about...)

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*complete with pictures!

WIP Friday - a day with three parts. (make that five...)

Let's see what we've got going on here today...

First up:

Christmas Cards.
And yes, those of you with really, really good eyes did read that correctly. There are a 110 of them this year.

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Hard to prove from this picture, but this is the start of a pair of little Christmas bears that I am making for two little girls (they are sisters) as a thank you gift.

Click on this picture so you can get a better look at the darling stitch marker that I got from GoodToBeGirl.

Remember how I originally bought these for my mom, but then mused that they were so cute that wasn't sure I could give them away? You can see for yourself how I handled that dilemma! I am a selfish, selfish grrrl....

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Hmmmm - wonder what this could be???
I'm waiting 'til Scheck gets home from school to get started on this one...

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And, if we're being really, really honest about what's going on here today in The House That Crazy Built^TM, then I simply must include these list as well:



Ah, the depths of degradation... I do believe that I am now, quite literally airing my dirty laundry! Well, one of the loads. There are about 12 more where that came from...

And for the record, I hate vacuuming, but I love my vacuum cleaner. It's baby blue, and pretty darn cute. Well, you know, for a vacuum...

So, what are you up to today????

Beaded Tree, Completed...

Ta -da!
Over 500 pins and beads later, it's done!
It wasn't a horrible project, by any stretch of the imagination - but having completed it, I do not feel the need to make it a little friend...

Especially since, as I already mentioned, it didn't turn out at all the way that I had intended it to. But that's OK, no beating myself up about it. Just going to appreciate it for what it did turn out as - a fun, silly little candy bobble tree.

It's living on the top of my dresser in the bedroom - a room which, to the best of my recollection, has never seen a Christmas decoration, so that's kind of nice...

I've got a collection of stuff which sits on the dresser, year round - a combination of things that I like to look at, and useful stuff - so I just plopped this into the mix. Not really formal at all, but it works for me!


Several of these items are catch-all jewelry boxes, but all are special to me...

• The large wooden box was a presenter's gift, given to me after I made a 90 minute presentation to 500+ lawyers about the Internet. (This was in the earlyish 90's - when it was still a fledgling technology. I remember that the many people came up after the presentation and made comments about how it seemed cool, but they didn't know if it would really affect the way they did their jobs...) I love it because it is gorgeous, but it also reminds me of a time when I, too, was considered to be a professional.
  
  
• The gorgeous stone pendant is from MollyCoddle and I just love it. I leave it sticking out of the jewelry box because it reminds me to wear it (I have a bad habit of sticking things in these boxes and forgetting to wear them) and because it's lovely.
  
  
• The little papier-mache box in front was the first Valentine's Day gift I got from Bubba...
  
  
• The little dishcloth bear that I made myself when I was falling apart (for no good reason.) He must have worked - no more bizarre crying jags have occurred. He gets to live on top of the dresser to continue to ward any more off...
  
  
• It's hard to see, but there is another small blue jewelry box on the right. A good friend of mine made it for me one Christmas. She was so apologetic about it - she was going through an extremely ugly divorce; her husband was tying up all the money so as to control her. She was so upset that she had to "make her gifts instead of buying people nice things"... (Her words, not mine!) I'm not sure that I managed to convince her that I loved this little box in a way that I could never love something she'd bought. It's up here because it reminds me of a few important things: how much gifts from the heart can touch the recipient, and that out of something ugly (in this case, her divorce) something amazing can be made...
  
  
• An old jar filled with quarters, etc. I have somewhat of a collection of old Ball/Mason/etc. jars - but this is the only one that is in this room. At the day's end, I troll my wallet and Bubba's pockets for quarters - and they all end up in this jar. I have a self-imposed rule that I am not allowed to spend quarters (and it pains me mightily when Bubba spends them in front of me...) I save them up for three months, and then at the end of the "fiscal quarter" I take them into the bank and deposit them. The proceeds all go to a 529 plan for Schecky. Don't worry - this isn't his only college savings vehicle, but I decided when he was a little tot that every little bit would help.
  
  And it does - I manage to save between $300 - $400 a year this way. A few years back, Schecky and I were actually in the newspaper in an article about "What do you do with your change?" I know it's not an overwhelming amount, but I am a firm believer in "EMILY" - Early Money Is Like Yeast. By socking away tiny bits now, it can grow for the next ten years and be a tiny bit more when the time for college comes. It's painless, and did I already say that every little bit counts?
  
  
  

The Top of My Bookcase...

Here's a little corner of my home, of sorts...

It's the top of one of my living room bookcases. Longtime patrons of this site will recognize it from its frequent appearance in pictures around here. It's where I keep stuff that I like looking at; as well as sources of inspiration and whatever materials I need for the current project...

This yarn is waiting to be turned into the little bears that I need to get cracking on! (mentioned in the previous post...) It's getting kind of crowded up there...

The yarn was all purchased at Knitch, the coolest, hippest, and all-around most friendly yarn store in Atlanta!
If you've not visited, you need to. You'll be glad you did...

You can see a larger version of this photo, complete with notes about who/what everything is, here...

B is for Bailey...

It's been wordy around here lately, so I thought it was high time to post a picture…





This bear was made for my babysitter's niece, Bailey.
I have to tell you, I am glad that my favorite babysitter has so many nieces – I am loving the "I will babysit for bears" barter system we have set up…

Oh, and in case you thought I forgot, the obligatory comparison shot between the latest creation and poor BabyHenry can be viewed here…
(She's a teeny girl)

In other news, Schecky had a great night last night (ask me how much I am loving the steroids – g'head, ask me!) and is back in school today. Which is nice because I've got more knitting to do, and a little beaded tree to finish.

I'm eager to get these projects done, because I am salivating over Beki's fabulous pom-pom garland, and would like to attempt one of my own...

In further news, I am all caught up with my blog reading, and am (insert deep breath here) preparing to tackle my email soon*!

Cheers!

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*Doing what I can, when I can, in a way that makes me happy!

A Few Quick Updates...

Hey all - seems like I've left some loose ends hanging, so I thought I'd do just a few quick updates...

• My Mom
  Thank you all so much for the sweet comments and emails letting me know that you were cheering my mom on.
  She had her surgery last Thursday, and they did decide to go ahead and replace her shoulder. So, my mom's a bit bionic now - how cool is that? She spent a few days in the hospital, and is now delighted to be back home again.
  I have to say that she's rocking her recovery. My mom is just amazing....
  
  
• I've Decided Not to Leave Bubba
  Even though he did NOT get me Vanilla Ice's autograph. Sigh...
  but seriously, don't you think that I'm allowed to at least threaten to leave him for not getting it? :)
  
  And this is where we were both regretting (somewhat) our Luddite position on cell phones. We have 'em. But very, very grudgingly. We pretty much picked out the cheapest, least convenient pay-as-you-go plan, so that we wouldn't be tempted to use them much. However, we were both wishing that he had had a high tech phone with a camera, so that he could have at least gotten a photo...
  
  
• The Little Beaded Tree
  It hasn't been terribly, terribly time consuming - it's more that there's not been much time to work on it! In all honesty, it's probably taking twice as long as you would think. But it looks like one of those projects that would take ten times longer than it should, so I'm pleased with the "twice as long" part.
  I also thought that it would just kill my thumbs, from pushing in all the pins, but that hasn't been an issue either.
  
  The hardest part was finding materials with which I wanted to work. Michael's selection was hideous, so I did have to wait a day and visit a Hobby Lobby. My first choice of bead was a pretty glass pearl, but it would have been hideously expensive, and I didn't want to sink $75 into this project. I decided the candy colored beads were acceptable, and they were 50% off. Sold! The only problem was that the holes in them are ginormous, hence the use of the glass headed pins (also 50% off, a good omen).
  
  At first I was really unhappy with it, because it didn't look at all as I had hoped. But then I realized the irony in this position - we encounter this all the time with Schecky.... Bless his heart, he is a little perfectionist. And he loves to draw, paint, sculpt, etc. However, these sessions very often end in frustration because he can't get things to look in real life the way that he envisioned it. I am forever telling him that whereas it can be disappointing to work hard on something and not have it turn out as expected, that he needs to quit beating himself up about what he didn't do, and focus instead on what he did. Instead of getting upset about what didn't turn out, he should look at the good that did turn out.
  
  So, I decided to quit beating myself up because the beaded tree isn't the tree of my dreams, and instead focus on the things that turned out OK with it. It's a lot more "fun", and a lot less "sophisticated" than I had hoped - but you know what? Who says the holidays can't be fun? And the candy-colors will look good in my bedroom on top of the dresser, a place that historically has never been decorated.
  
  Now if there were just time to finish it...
  
  
• Speaking of Schecky
  Bless his heart again, he's having a rough couple of days. He's sick - which kind of threw both of us for a loop. He's a really healthy kid; like crazy-healthy*. We've been really lucky that way...
  Or so we thought...
  
  Turns out that if you dodge all those early childhood illnesses in early childhood, that's no guarantee that they won't come back and bite you in the bum really hard later on. Which is exactly what has happened to poor Scheck. He's got a wicked-bad case of the croup. And he's really freaked out because he can't remember the last time he was sick, and because he feels like he can't breathe. Which would freak me out too.
  
  He's got some steroids now, and hopefully we're through the worst of it. I've not slept in two nights, and I am crazy-tired, so I am ready for the meds to kick in and work so we can both get some sleep...
  

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*So much so that when I first realized he had a fever, I went to the pie safe (which doubles as a medicine chest, since the real medicine chest is cute, but holds little more than dental floss and toothbrushes!) and got out the "kid medicines" I realized that everything had expired in 2003 and 2004. I debated giving it to him anyway, but feared that would automatically enter me in the "Bad Mommy" sweepstakes. So I went to the 24 hour grocery at 4 in the morning to get new, unexpired Kid's Tylenol.

But seriously, could I have just given it to him anyway? Had it "gone bad" or was it less effective? Or is this a pharmaceutical company plot to get overwrought moms to buy new meds???

WIP Friday

A start on a little beaded tree....

Oh, No! (alternately titled "Happy Clean Slate")

I've been mulling over Autum's recent post entitled "To Blog Or Not To Blog..." It was, for me, a very timely posting.

November just seemed to have a lot going on in it, and I got behind in my blogging. Really behind. And by the month's end, I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Now, it is not unusual for me to get behind on posting, I do that all the time. Also, it's not uncommon for me to be behind in replying to comments*. That's pretty much the norm around here. But I found that I was getting behind in my reading of blogs - and what with it being NaBloPoMo and all, the amount of stuff that I wanted to read was piling up alarmingly.

And, oddly enough, it was starting to feel stressful!
I'd look at Bloglines, and I would see that "BloggerILoveToRead" had new content - bringing the number of unread entries from that blog alone up into the twenties. And I would leave the new message unread, because I knew I didn't have time to read all twenty-something, and then I felt sad because I didn't know what BILTR was up to. Crazy, huh?

So, Autum's post really was a thought-provoking one for me. Why was I letting something that I enjoy cause me to feel stressed? And guilty? I wanted to reply to Autum's post, but didn't simply because I couldn't quite work through it all. (Then, of course, came the guilt at not commenting at one of my favorite blogs...)

How to stop the madness? Two things came to the rescue...

The first was I stumbled across a wonderful post by Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy. I am sure that most of you have already read it and know to what I am alluding, but if not here it is. She says it far, far, far more eloquently than I could ever hope to - but I loved the idea that the whole point of the "blog thing" is to do what you can, when you can, and in a way that makes you happy. So simple, so dead on. How had I forgotten this???

The second thing happened a short while ago. I actually carved out an hour or so of time - I even blocked it in on my To-Do list - in which I was going to sit and read and get caught up on blogs. I suspected I would barely make a dent in the number of unread posts, but by George, I was going to try.

Until I clicked on something. Something wrong...

I have no idea what it was, but it was obviously the wrong thing. Because voila! everything was now marked as read.

"Oh No!" I cried out - all the posts that I had been watching pile up all month long gone! I now had no idea just how many new posts awaited me at "BloggerILoveToRead", etc. "Oh, No!" This was horrible....

Or was it?

I didn't mean to do it**, but as soon as the "Oh, No!" moment passed, it was replaced with the "This Could Be Good" moment.

This could be good.
It's a clean slate.
No more guilt at the number of wonderful, clever, thoughtprovoking things that I was "behind" on.

I can start anew.
And this time, I'm going to remember Alicia's words.

Happy Clean Slate...

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*And yes, I do know that I do not have to respond to each and every comment that comes in. No one expects me to do that. Except for me.
Even though there are a number of blogs I visit and comment upon regularly - blogs where I am sure the author has no idea who I am and has never replied.
I am totally fine with that - I just like to let people know what I've enjoyed about their blog, so I comment. There are honestly no expectations of reciprocity.
But when it comes to BadFortuneCookie, it's something that I want to do. If I can find an email address for you, I'm going to try to respond. It's just probably going to be really late... :)

**Unless it was my subconscious self, stepping in and rescuing me...