Hello internets, I didn’t feel like visiting you for awhile. It’s nothing personal, I have just been a little stressed out these past couple weeks. My poor little car shut down on me late one night, and now I’m trying to find lots and lots of money to get it fixed. Apparently when the timing belt breaks it flies around and messes up large expensive parts of your engine. So go get your timing belts checked, people. The last time I saw it, it’s guts were spread out all over the mechanic’s garage. So sad. I will try to remember some happier times:
Spring

Winter
I should be able to pick it up Tuesday. Just in time for Thanksgiving, which only means more stress as I will have to clean the house and drive 3 hours to pick up my mother-in-law so she can spend the weekend making comments that I’m never sure are compliments or insults. Like when she told the husband that she thought I was a good cook, but she’s never seen or tasted the things I make before. So I’ll be slaving in the kitchen making turkey and pies for her. I hope I don’t get too crazy exotic with my food selections.

I did get these little guys finished and packed up and sent off for Plush Rush. Here they are in their box:

I hope they sell, I think there are going to be a lot of cool things from people who are way more creative than me.

I should really end the pity party now, so here are a few positive thoughts: the dog bite is nearly healed although a bit of bruising remains, it’s Thursday-only one more day until the weekend, I started knitting myself a sweater, and that’s about all I can think of for right now.

Thanks for all the comments lately, I really do plan on responding, but I just haven’t felt like checking e-mail. Maybe in the next few days.

No pink in sight today!

I was lucky enough to turn in my application on time and be accepted to participate in Plush Rush.


There are a lot of really great artists, I think I’m kidding myself that anyone will buy my little monsters, but I decided to be brave and send them out there into the big bad world. I’m making three little guys similar to Mort, Sally and Mimi. So bookmark the Plush Rush site, and be there when the sale starts on December 3rd!

Wow, I sound like some kind of badly written ad campaign.

This weekend was all about food. I made risotto with prosciutto and peas Saturday night, nicoise salad for lunch Sunday and a big pot of minestrone soup Sunday night. The best, though, was breakfast:

I made ginger scones and lavender lemon mint tisane from Teaism. I was even nice enough to make the manly man some waffles, because we all know manly men don’t eat scones and tea, but manly food like waffles. So he had a plain white manly plate loaded with waffles and syrup, and I enjoyed my scones and tea on pretty pink and red vintage china, and everyone was happy.

I was also busy with the crafty stuff this weekend:

I like cruising the aisle at the hardware store with all the little drawers of bolts and screws and doodads. There is some pretty cool stuff there. This is a picture frame for my desk at work, which started out as your standard brown pressed wood clipboard. I painted it pink, drilled a hole in each bottom corner, and inserted long bolts with spacers so it would stand up. I added some printed vellum for a photo mat, and a little plastic flower thingie from the hardware store. If I got ambitious, I could have plexiglass cut to fit, with matching holes drilled for the bolts, to protect the photograph. I may make a bunch of these for Christmas gifts, so I may have to look into that. It can also be hung on the wall with the hole in the clip part, so shorter bolts would be needed for that situation, obviously. I’d also like to try spray painting the metal bits black, particularly if I paint the board a darker or bolder color. I’m going to use this one to hold a black & white picture from my sister’s wedding.

There was a little bit of buzz last month about eraser carving. I’m a little slow here, but thought I’d share some carvings done in the past:

That thingie at the top of the first picture is an Indian wood block. I’d like to carve that in lino or eraser for easy stamping. With this month’s tie one on theme, I’m thinking I should do some more carvings and make myself another apron with a hand stamped pattern…hmm…the possibilities.

In other news, I made a blog for my mom. I don’t think she knows what kind of blog it’s going to be yet. Quilting? Politics? Books? We shall see!

And if you want to pictures of people in my family, a couple of them had some big photo shoots recently (you may need a myspace account to view the first link).

One of my favorite crafts ever would have to be bookbinding. I haven’t made any books for awhile, and my little sister asked me to make the guestbook for her wedding, so I thought I’d better practice before I do that. So I made a little book:

It’s 4.5×3 inches, and I used a handmade paper for the front and back cover and French printmaking paper for the pages. I did a four needle Japanese binding, which is my absolute favorite binding, it’s loose enough that you can really fill the book with all sorts of ephemera, it lays flat when you open it, and it’s strong and pretty.

I think this is going to go out in the mail to a secret recipient. I hope she will like it!