Woho! I think this birthday was one of the most fun I've had in a while. Quickly, here's a run-down of my loot!
DVDS:
Harry Potter, Chamber of Secrets
Blue Crush
Sweet Home Alabama
Friends, complete 2nd season
I also received pink gerbera daisies, several cards, money from Mom towards the GCS crop, bath stuff galore and a teddy bear puzzle (which is neat because of the whole teddy bear collecting thing and the fact that it's been absolutely ages since I put together a puzzle).
Dinner at Carrabas was wonderful and, even though I usually don't like the signing thing, these waiters actually could sing fairly well :) And it was in Italian so that was fun too!
27 sure sounds old, but tonight I do not feel it.
... waiting to be filled, a good visit with an old friend and a new one together, getting 12 pages scrapbooked, the anticipation of a birthday, and someone calling to say they care.
This weekend was, overall, wonderful. V surprised me by getting the freezer we've been talking about since February picked up and installed; he even went today and bought stuff to put in it!
The NSD crop was quite the succes page-wise as I got many pages complete and thoroughly enjoyed them. Speaking of crops I am SO looking forward to the Mobile crop next month!!! Crop room open for 41 hours...who wouldn't be ecstatic?!? The ladies organizing it seem really great, I cannot wait to meet them, and another road trip with C. will be a blast. She did mention yesterday that we should try to avoid pissing off any motorcyclists the way we did in Jacksonville when I inadvertently cut a pack of them off. Oops.
I would just like to point out that I am sooooooo very glad that the Paper from You-Know-Where (Seattle lol) is finished. I am through with the Seattle Commons and I really don't even want to visit the city after this odysey!
Now I will let my writing for grade-not-pleasure brain rest for a few days while I get ready for the NSD (National Scrapbook Day) crop Saturday and the GCS crop in May. I also have some cards to finish the initial art on, but that may not be completed before I have to start the Final Essay.
Finally, a draft I can count ans finsihed and just in need of a little polishing. Okay, maybe a lot of polishing in the form of parenthetical references and an annoted bibliography (good thing I reread the requirements this weekend because I just about missed that requirement!!!) I am so close I could taste it!!! Just the revisions for this paper and a Moral-argument leter/essay and I will be FINISHED with this semester! Whew!
Now, off to color in some notecards for the site :) New product line of scrap-related items coming out soon! You know I'll post when it's ready :)
Best laid plans and all that notwithstanding, I find myself not only changing the struture to my final research paper, narrowing the focus, but also going back to the much-maligned (by me, last month) Rogerian form of argument. Funny how we make ourselves eat our own words. Okay, brief entry but my mind is swimming with the Seattle Commons facts, figures and detractors. Back to teh essay!
Yesterday was a fun day in the land of apparel. Why is it that, undoubtably, one's favorite outfit is the most bothersome???
The item I have now resigned to the Bureau of Fabric (a chest of drawers in my garage that holds all of my fabrics sorted by color) is a lovely purple hankershief-patterned rayon skirt that just will NOT keep a rear seam. I mean, it's not like this is a tight skirt yet when I wore it the first time after buying it a few years back (trends...what trends) the rear seam shredded...about a foot....and no one told me! (I really wonder how I managed NOT to be told my skirt was ripped having spent the whole day at my office...but anyway!)
So, being the coscientious mender that I am it sat in the to-be-fixed pile for about a year or so until I finally got around to re-sewing the rear seam. Which also meant taking it in a mite because it did not just separate, no, it created a lovely fringe that I had to get past before repairing it. The first repair was semi-successful...it held, but periodically I would notice I had a "tail" of silky fibers trailing me (the inner edge was still shredding lol) or that wisps of thread would become tangled about my knee, or in undergarments. So it sat in the closet for several months again.
Next I got a serger. Of course, this repair entailed even more taking-in but hey, it was a very full skirt to begin with and it was still rather full and flowy even after all of the mends. At any rate I thought FOR SURE this would solve the chancy seam repair and the wispies once and for all. And it did. For about 2 wearings. Sigh... I knew I should have worn the other skirt but this one WANTED to be worn, honest!, how could I resist it???
Paranoid I kept reaching back to check the seam and around 10am I noticed a small pull. Hmmm....not good but not impossible. The purple shirt was long enough to cover it. Well, once it started it kept going and I was facing the very real possibility of having to dash home (a 20 minute drive in the best of conditions....lunch hour? yeah...right...) during lunch for a wardrobe change. Inspiration gleamed however, and no one seemed to notice that the skirt (which is long too) got about 6 inches shorter around noonish ;-) Thank heavens for a bit of fluff that hides the bulk of a rolled-up (down?) waistband!
I have discovered that I ADORE capri pants now lol Since jeans are no longer allowed on my body for health reasons, it's been skirts only for the last several weeks. Well, with ST last weekend I really needed something and shorts just aren't all that flattering on my right now so I succumbed and bought 1 pair of black with white designy flowers and just a hint of stretch for comfort capris. These have become my Saturday uniform now lol. Ergo, I need more capris. Will have to trek out to Marshall's sometime this week and see if I can find another pair a) in my size b) in a color that is flattering/will match something in my closet c) in my price range. No, I do not see myself sewing them as I still have yet to start on my "Easter" dress and, well, let's just say it'll now be my birthday dress.
In other news I purchased a couple of fun-funs this weekend and have played a bit with them now:
First was the watercolor pencil set. I have a set of wc pencils and know that if you wet the paper after you color on it with them you get a nice watercolory effect. What I did NOT know was that you can wet the tip of the pencil and "paint" with just that!!! Wow! PLUS, if you draw with the dry pencil on the WET paper you get big bold lines, etc that are more painty than pencily. Cool! Still have to work on my walking-out technique. But I like the practice things I've done so far.
Second was the Coiling Gizmo (picture later if I can wrest the digicam from V). It's 3 pieces of metal, bent, go figure. BUT! It makes the easiest uniform coilies ever! I pulled out some spare wire and 'coiled one on' on the two different rods (2 sizes). Went REALLY fast! Now just to decide exactly what to do with them....
Oh! I also picked up some black satin ribbon to make a choker for the carved jade piece I picked up friday. Still don't know what I'll do with the jade elephant....I'm thinking a gilded-cage pendant of some sort.
Work is hectic, 3 weeks left of classes, busy at home: what can I say, it's another sort of spring fever!
Lots of ideas brewing for both sites, still contemplating new outfit to make, and had my first pedicure yesterday...mmm....heavenly!
More later if I take another break from this paper I'm writing.
But with no photo-proof! Drat! I tried to get the tech to take my picture for a wonderful "Wired" layout but she said they weren't allowed. Boo hoo! (And no, I wasn't let alone before I was hooked into bed to do it myself lol). Maybe I can get a copy of the video if I sign all sorts of waivers and such lol
Springtime Tall. was a disappointment as far as the craft booths went. I really hate to see how few crafters were out there compared to when Aunt Bea used to exhibit her dresses.
watching: Sweet Home Alabama
reading: Lions of Al Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay
craf6ting: mock wax seals
happy for: M & J who got married Tuesday and are moving this weekend! Way to go ya'll!!!
And JUST in time for my Sleep Study tomorrow night. Oh well, hopefully this quadrillionth round of antibiotics with the addition of allegra will yeild normal results....wouldn't want to have too much oxygen cued up on that future CPAP now would I???
Oh, and speaking medically: How nice was it to see a new ER finally! Especially (and my apologies if you haven't seen the episode yet--you may want to skip this part) Romano getting his clock cleaned. Hoo-rah!
Hmmm....let's see, projects in the works currently include dreaming up new watch bands, picking a ppaer topic for ENC1102 Paper #2, contempl.ating actually cutting out the pattern for my Easter dress; also contemplating cleaning my desk. I managed to get my desk at work pretty well straight (enough to uncover LAST YEAR's desk calendar which was still on Feb.02...sigh...replaced it with new desk calendar with all sorts of yummy illustrations across the top....inspiring). My new checks came in today, this time they are correct (!) and D shared a new bead catalog with me :)
Over all...life is good. Now if I can just make it 23 more minutes I can take my meds and get to sleep :)
Note to self: remember camera for sleep study, must have 'wired-up' pics for scrapbook.