rhymes with spoon

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them! You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

Well, I guess the meteorologist wasn't kidding. We got a ton of snow this weekend (the picture was taken just at the beginning, there's much more snow now) and I was caught without a snow shovel--a purchase that I've managed to put off until now. My oh-so-nice neighbor let me borrow one of my shovels and helped me move the large mounds of snow burying my car. Together it took us 25 minutes, and boy are my arms tired and sore.

I have loads of things to blog about but I haven't managed to upload any of the pictures to my computer. I'm cramming for a midterm at the moment (wish me luck) so I will check back in later this week with more updates. (Believe it or not, I've still managed to finish some crafting.)

Labels: minneapolis

Well, despite another slow delivery, the post pulls through again. Kristine finally got her package and she wrote me a lovely thank you email, including some very adorable pictures of her two boys. So I promised pictures. Here are the goodies all wrapped up and ready to go.

look at all the girly wrapping paper
Here's a look at what's inside.

Per the terms of the swap, the vase and cross stitch are thrifted, the fabric and notions are the crafty items, and the brown fabric envelope is the crafty part. I sent along some truffles in the polka-dot container and made two felt froggy pouches for her two boys.

Here's a look at what else is inside the fabric envelope:

Maybe some of you recognize the design from a gocco master I made and used a few months back. This time I applied it to some very nice pink notecards and got some matching envelopes and pencils to go along with them. I love the ribbon I found to bind it all up. I found a spool of it Michaels for $1!! More wonderful pictures of the swap can be seen here. I'm very glad I joined and thank Lucy and Rebecca for putting it all together.

I am still toying with the idea of having an etsy shop. In need of a long drive this afternoon to blow off some steam, I stumbled into a fabulous sale at Mill End Textiles. This was the third location I've been to (Burnsville) and I just can't believe the prices and the selection. I walked out with a heap of great fabrics and I only spent $34. Mostly I picked up green fabrics--I realized that despite it being one of my favorite colors, it was sorely lacking in my fabric stash. I also picked up some t-shirt fabric remnants for some aranzi aronzo softies I'm hoping to make. I absolutely cannot wait to put it all to use.

Despite some victories, February is turning out to be a much harder month than I'd anticipated. The stress of it all sorta caught up with me this weekend so I've been outta commission for a chunk of the weekend from splintering migraines, eye pain, and exhaustion. I'm hoping that a night of solid rest will fit the bill. In any case I'm very much looking forward to having tomorrow off from court.

Labels: swaps

all packed up and ready to go

All this crazy ass weather has entirely derailed my well intentioned plans to bring people Valentines Day joy. What should've been a two/three day mailing has stretched out over the week. Jeff is the first recipient--of his mega Valentines Day package. Ok, maybe not mega, but definitely well wrapped. (see above)


gocco'd shirt, flannel cat boxers (inside joke), misc goodies,
and three boxes of handmade truffles

I had a lot of fun putting this package together. Though Jeff and I have been together for a while, this is the first year we've made a big "to-do" about Valentine's Day. (Although last year, I did send Jeff a hefty box of decadent champagne brownies that I made using this fabulous recipe.) The design on the t-shirt was a piece of Japanese clip art that came with my gocco. (I have a PG-5 which is the Japanese equivalent of the PG-6 which is much more common in the U.S.). I have no idea what the Japanese text says but there's a crane and a turtle underneath--turtle saying "I am Kame" and crane saying "I am Suru." What that all means, who knows?? The cat boxers started as a joke in a Joann's fabric store in MD. Jeff was graciously allowing me to take a little detour to buy some fabrics during my last visit. I asked him to pick out a flannel so I could make him PJ pants. There was a good selection of prints there but then Jeff came across this (what I think is) hideous cat flannel print and was just dumbfounded. Dumbfounded that such fabrics exist and that the bolt was almost empty--there was just a scant yard left. After we both recovered from healthy laughter--in the knowledge that there are several yards of the fabric out there in use somewhere--Jeff insisted that I buy the last yard and claiming that he would wear almost anything I'd make for him using that fabric. As it turns out, a yard is not enough to make PJ pants but I did manage to crank out a very handsome pair of cat boxers. These were my first sewn boxers and I was quite pleased with the way I turned out--minus the wacky tesselating cat pattern. Incidentally, the cats on the fabric resemble Jeff's two cats--Shirley and Otis. The pad I included in the package says "Things You Must Do to Make Me Happy" and has a long checklist of things you can mark for your special someone.

The boxes in the back contain truffles that I made last weekend. Extremely labor intensive and messy process but I had a lot of fun making them. I made six flavors--chili pepper, lemon pepper, coconut, brown sugar bourbon, fleur de sel, and espresso bean. I had a couple of friends over before I mailed them out to taste test. All flavors passed with flying colors although everyone had their favorites. Alas, we were all so greedy that I didn't get a picture of any of the truffles but boy were they tastey. The flavors are definitely a keeper going forward although i will likely cut back on the cayenne and get a good candy thermometer so I can do a better job tempering my chocolate.

Coincidentally, Jeff got me truffles, although I won't fault him for not making them himself. The rest of his present shan't be discussed here. ;-)

I will post more pics from the pink and brown swap after I know that Kristine's got the package. I also have another crafty project that's been on the back burner that I finally finished. I like the end product but would definitely go about a little differently the next time around. It's a very cute and handy purse so I forsee making another one in the near future.

Labels: crafting, jeff

Love those that are close to you

Don't you love it when things go better than you'd hoped?! I'm a pessimist, but it's nice to be proven wrong every now and then. (Jeff is always quick point out when my worst fears are never realized.) After some nagging from the family, I finally got the nerves to check my grades. (Yes, I know that the semester ended like two months ago, but I felt the need to prolong the disappointment.) And whaddya know? I actually did pretty well (and in one class, better than I could've ever imagined!). Maybe this is not such a landmark event to some, but as one who has struggled and toiled through law school (often to no avail), this was some much needed good news and an excellent confidence boost. I can only hope that this means that this last semester will pass with relative calm and that I won't be too much of an emotional trainwreck when it comes time to study for the bar.

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Labels: school

I meant to post more this week but I've been working on some secret Valentines Day projects for the boy so free time is in very short supply! I'll reveal more later this week after everyone gets their packages. Alas, I didn't manage to take a picture of one of my tastier projects--it got gobbled up too quickly and the rest made its way into several packages that are now en route to far flug corners of the country.

A while back I signed up for Rebecca's pink and brown swap and on Friday I got a fabulous package from Kristine. Thank you Kristine!!!! You wanna see?

Look at all that pretty packaging! It was fun to unwrap all of it. I suppose you wanna know what's inside all that?

Kristine included a beautiful cat softy (from one of Denyse Schmidt's books), chocolate, a starbucks coffee card, some fabric and beads, and the cutest little ceramic elephant. Her boys even contributed some tastey pink cookies to the package. (There's a reason there's only one in the picture; I devoured the first one in a real hurry.) I feel like I have no right to complain about bad swaps for a long, long time. Makes me feel evey crummier for not having gotten her package in the mail just yet. I had every intention of doing it on Saturday but I had an unfortunate mandatory (read--super boring, beat my head against the wall in boredom) meeting that ran way over so I could not find an open post office. I'm looking forward to posting pictures of what I sent later this week. I'll have some other crafty goodness to post about but I don't want to ruin any surprises.

I've posted some more pictures from my Memphis trip here. Thanks for everyone's cold medication suggestions...between cold ease, sudafed, and nyquil I feel a lot better but still not quite 100%.

Labels: swaps

Hey All,

It's been a hellacious week...I forgot how much harder my weeks are when I don't get a damn thing done over the weekend. I'm eternally behind on readings and I think one of the clerks I work with gave me a cold. (mother****er!)

Anyway, I don't know who the hell reads this anymore? (Apparently more than I thought based on recent comments...thanks guys!) But I was wondering for you "crafty" folks out there, if you have any thoughts on selling on etsy? I am dying, dying from a lack of a creative outlet (this is in part time management related) but a) there are only so many handmade things I can make for myself or inflict on my boyfriend, b) I'm BROKE...and addicted to crafting and need a way to fund my creative energies, c) while making things for swaps has been very satisfying, that too is getting to be more expensive than I thought (I just can't really work with cheap materials all the time), and d) people have had some nice things to say about my handmade goods, so I figure hey, why not put that out there? Maybe someone will be willing to buy it?

Please tell me if I am completely off basis....or at least feign interest. I'm trying to justify this next venture.

Labels: crafting

So I'm back from Memphis and slowly settling back into reality (and scrambling to catch up on mountains of lost work)...which is cold and overwhelming. The weather here has been blisteringly cold. We have not been above 0 degrees in several days. (That's farenheit folks.) In fact, it was so damn cold this week that after watching the superbowl at a friend's place, my car wouldn't start. This is no clunker either...I have a relatively new subaru...I mean, if ever there was a car that was meant to tolerate this kind of weather....this is it. My friend eventually got my car to start (the next day) and I learned a very important lesson on frozen fuel lines.

Anyway, let's step away from reality for a bit and discuss my kick-ass weekend in Memphis. I brought a little companion with me. A while back Jeff and I discussed painting a Munny for each other. You know--as a cute and creative present to each other.We kept seeing them in stores but the idea never quite materialized. I decided that Memphis was a good place to surprise Jeff with one so I started with a blank canvas:
And yielded this (inspired of course by my favorite boy):


This was a very fun project and an excellent use of a lot of old acrylic paint I had laying around. And speaking of the boy, Jeff and his band played very well...so well that from over a 100 bands, his band made it to the finals!! It was a pleasant surprise--and entirely well deserved. They played an incredible set on Friday night! This of course meant that Jeff and I had to forgo our original plans to sightsee around Memphis. I spent the better part of Saturday watching bands play at the historic Orpheum Theater and Jeff's group was the last to go up. But I didn't mind. (And I lost track of how many times I heard people say "Damn, white boy can play!")


In the end they didn't place (although hey, they were definitely in the top 10!) but Jeff got to fulfill a lifelong ambition to perform in the Orpheum and we had a phenomenally fun weekend filled with love, food, drinks, and fun. It was wonderful to see Jeff completely in his element and also to step outside of mine.

But anyway, that's why I haven't been crafting much...or doing much schoolwork either. ;0)

Labels: vacation

Hello! Thanks for all the wonderfully supportive and kind comments. It's always a nice reminder to know that you have some good people on your side.

I'm off to Memphis for a few days to see Jeff play in the International Blues Challenge. Have a great week!

Labels: vacation