What I Did During the Not-So-Big Storm

I haven't told you lately how much I enjoy your comments. I was shocked to see so many today (figuring that weather isn't that exciting), and it's so fun to read them. Thank you all for letting me know you're out there and for making this bloggy stuff too much fun.

Why is bad weather so fun? Because we stay inside and get things accomplished! Here's what I did last night and a little of this morning ...

Yes, it should've been stitched in 2000, but it wasn't. I put 2000 on there because it goes with "years ago". I suppose I could've put "2009 - oops, late again", but it wouldn't fit and it's not exactly a Christmas sentiment. It's the Shepherd's Bush (of course) ornament from the 2000 Just Cross Stitch ornament edition. The bad news is that now I have to finish finish it for the 2009 Christmas Challenge. Please don't make me.

After I finished that cute little ornament, I was putting away some fabrics and things and came across this little scrap that I begged from the LNS when they cut some fabric for me the other day. It had a really ugly splotch on it, and they were just gonna throw it away! So I brought it home and treated it to a little coffee bath and oven sauna, and here's my first piece of coffee dyed (or maybe overdyed because the R&R girls had already taken a whack at it) and baked fabric ...

I know. Someone out there is thinking " big deal" or "whoop-dee-doo" (obviously not a primary teacher, because we're rather easily impressed), but we all have to start somewhere, right? I like it so much that I'm already on the lookout for larger not-quite-loved pieces of fabric from my stash to treat to a spa day in my kitchen. It's the perfect size for my next Christmas ornament (you can hear the wheels turning, can't you?), which I will share next month (the power of positive thinking).

Now for today's ridiculous moment share (or maybe overshare). I told you about poor Merlin, who is doing pretty well, considering. Did I tell you about the semi-violent and terribly messy kitty wrestling matches I've had while forcibly medicating him? Together we've been responsible for multiple pink Amoxicillin spots dripped and splashed on carpets and floors and walls throughout my humble abode. We even managed to sling a spot onto my favorite purple chair (gasp)! I know! That took some scrubbing, let me tell you. Sorry, I'm rambling. As I was gazing upon my almost-constant companion (no, not Merlin, even though he's become velcro kitty), And They Sinned, I noticed (yep, you guessed it) a pink spot (huge sobbing gasp)! I know! It's right there on the spotted sheep's butt!

Thank goodness it's the only spot (that I've found). One of my afternoon tasks will be removing the offending stain (huge pain in the ass, considering that I could be stitching some unstitched area) and replacing it with some clean Straw Bonnet. Medicating cats (even old man cats) can be dangerous to people (no, I haven't photographed my scratches), as well as carpets, upholstery, paint, and (sniff) needlework. Learn from my mistakes, sweet friends.

I'm off now to spend some time on personal grooming (someone's still in their jammies) and laundry. Love ya ... mean it. Make some fun.

Too-late Snow Day

You've heard (or read) me whine about the fact that the Denver area has had very little snow this winter. We've had too much wind, some good golfing days, and some sit-on-the-deck-in-the-sun days, but very little snow. Two weeks ago, we were supposed to get a giant snowstorm. The forecast even provoked a couple of high schools to postpone proms that were supposed to take place the next day (imagine the limo deposit losses, prepaid flowers and tuxes). Well, the weather was cold and a tiny bit snowy, but the big snow missed us by 25 miles.

Yesterday and today, the weather forecasters were at it again. Big snow ... 10 to 20 inches in the Denver area. So we woke up this morning to not much of anything. It rained all night. It snowed a little throughtout the day, but most of it melted or was washed away by rain. None of it stuck to the roads and sidewalks. At 2:10 this afternoon (about an hour before school lets out), it started snowing. Really snowing. Giant flakes fell, making an extra-fluffy layer of very wet snow on the sidewalks and streets. I think it's snowing at a rate of about two inches an hour (no, I'm not exaggerating).

This was my view (the cell phone camera version) on the drive home, once I was off of the busy street that had bumper-to-bumper traffic and cars trying to get going again after stopping on a hill.



This is what it was like by the grocery store and Blockbuster (a girl has to have movies and tonic water for the weekend, after all).

It took me three tries to get out of my afternoon school's neighborhood. It's in a lower area, so all roads out are uphill. Two roads were completely blocked by school buses and cars that couldn't quite negotiate the stop-and-go traffic along with the hills. I cut over to a smaller neighborhood street and could get a run at an uphill street (a Camry requires a little run-up room). Thank goodness I used to live in that area, so I know the streets and shortcuts.

I'm not whining. Really. I'm thrilled to see much-needed moisture soak the dusty eastern part of our state. This snow is the perfect snowball and snowman snow. It'll be several inches of snowball fight waiting to happen. (All I need is a victim. The man I hang around with would kick my ass in a snowball fight.) I just have a couple of questions. Did so many inches have to arrive quite this rapidly? Couldn't it have arrived on Thursday instead of Friday? Do you have any idea how great it is to have a Friday snow day?

So there you have my Friday spring snow adventure. The number is 5. If you've been reading and paying attention, you know what I'm talking about. The last day of school draws near. Happy weekend ... make some fun.

Silly SAL and Eden's Happy Couple

Happy Monday. Have you figured out yet that I love silly stuff? I do. In fact, I'm constantly entertaining myself with a running dialogue of one-liners, smart-ass remarks and ridiculous commentary. It's always happening. Anyway, as I was wandering around in blogland, I found a silly SAL and decided to join up. It's called the Totally Useless SAL, and Yoyo came up with the idea, and it's probably better if you go to her blog and take a look on the left side to see all about it for yourself.

In order to get started, I first wanna show you a picture of how I usually collect orts. Here is a pile of them on the corner of my purple (the crappy pic has bad, bad colors) chair cushion.


When the ort pile becomes annoying, I stuff it into this little cushion ...

Because I'm now a proud member of the Totally Useless SAL, I will now be putting my orts and stitchy "trash" (fabric scraps, fiber labels, etc.) into this lovely pint jar ...

I put yesterday's orts and stitchy trash into it already. After a while, I'll probably start a different jar for the stitchy trash and give the orts their own jar. We'll see. This SAL suits me just perfectly. The next post of my ort jar will be April 25th. Lovely, isn't it?

I know there are many of you out there who are fascinated with Adam and Eve. I'm completely taken with them. Well, my stitchy friends, you may wanna have a look at someone else's idea of the happy couple. If you go to Missy's blog and scroll down a bit, you'll see her ATS in progress, complete with an anatomically correct representation of Eden's couple (gasp). I know! It's funny and quite creative. She's talented and her blog is very entertaining and highly irreverent (my favorite kind of humor). Go check it out, if you dare.

The uncovered A & E are especially funny to my family because of a kindergarten experience that my son Dylan had. He was given a bear picture on which he was directed to draw clothing. Instead of clothing, Dylan drew the missing parts on the bear (that's my boy). Of course, I received a call from a rather disturbed Mrs. Luna. She had kept him in during recess to redo the bear picture in a more acceptable (to her) manner, and I was summoned to her classroom to discuss the matter. As I recall, she was disappointed that I wasn't upset. I laughed more than once while we were talking, but I was pretty mad that she'd made such a big deal about it. Call me crazy, but it seemed a better idea to say, "That's very nice, Dylan, but let's put some clothing on the bear now." Kindergarteners are five and six, and most males of any age (in my experience) have their equipment on their minds most of their lives. My whole family still laughs about it today, 22 years after the incident.

Hope your week is off to a great start. Make some fun!