My conscious and unconscious self.

Sometimes I think about being able to split myself in two people.  And by sometimes I mean, I think about it a lot.  Mostly in ways to remain lazy.  Currently my favorite split personality fantasy is when my alarm goes off in the morning at 5:30.  I set it for that time because what I should do is get up and work-out, but what I really do is reset it for 6 and think about how nice it would be to split myself.  Wait.  That doesn't sound right.

So here is how it would go down.  My unconscious self would get up and go work out while my conscious self would go back to being unconscious.  So I guess both myselfs would be unconscious.  How lazy am I?   My fantasies are of me being lazy.  Wow.  My fantasies are totally achievable!!

I was actually able to drag my conscious self up to finally put that shelf in the pantry.  It was all very technical.  The first thing you have to do is find a stud.  I couldn't find one so I had to do it myself.  HAHAHAHAHA!  Oh goodness, I slay myself.

No, really.  First thing is to get some tools.  I hate this drill.  It drives me insane.  But it was free so I really can't complain.  Well, I really shouldn't complain.  And then you like, drill some holes and screw some screws in.

And then you get distracted by a freakish screw.

Look!  It has a parasitic twin!!  Perfect opportunity to use my cameras macro feature:

Yeah, and then you get back to what you are doing which is really just a lot of screwing and in my case stripping out a lot of screws.  Oh my!  This post sounds so dirty!!

And then viola!  You have a pantry shelf:

It's like magic!!

Who knew tea shops could be so dangerous?

I love books.  I wouldn't say I was a great reader, but I do like to read and have read many of the classics.  I have enjoyed reading since I was a child and go through periods of reading abundantly to not reading at all.  Most of the books I read I am not ashamed of.  I would happily recommend them to others and feel a sense of pride in my selections.  My favorite books are all classics.  Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, Frankenstein.  And yet... there is a whole other side of my reading that most people don't know about.

I like to read crap.  I mean really stupid garbage, junky, rot your brain, reality television-esque type books.  Case in point; the book I am reading right now.

It is a murder mystery set in a tea shop.  Well, I guess if I am going to be truthful I should be totally truthful.  It's a series of murder mysteries set in a tea shop.  This is actually book 4. Oh my.  I actually tried to get my mom to read the first book "Death by Darjeeling."  She started it and then gave it back saying it was trite and insipid and the characters were predictable and it was just a sugary sweet book where nothing bad ever happened.  She is right and that is exactly why I love them so much.

Nothing bad ever happens!  Well except for the dead guy, but the readers don't know the dead guy.  Sure, the main characters know him in some obscure and abstract way and the carry on as though they feel really bad about the death, but it doesn't really elicit any real emotion from me.  And then the murder is solved and everybody comes back to the Indigo Tea Shop for a nice pot of tea and some cranberry scones.  The books even have recipes!!

Yes, the books.  I may have more than one.  I may have this many:

I love the way this goes.  1984, The Catcher in the Rye, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, my Indigo Tea Shop mysteries and then Gone with the Wind.  Classic.  Literally.

So if you enjoy a book with insipid plots where nothing bad ever happens, may I recommend this Laura Childs gems?  I hear she has a series of books about a knitting group.   Can't wait!!

All the right friends in all the right places, so yeah, we're going down...

It's funny the types of things people obsess about.  It really depends on the person.  My dad had many obsessions when I was a child.  They mostly involved ants.  But there were also the forays into beer brewing, goats, science projects and the all-consuming Volkswagen repair.  Although that was less an obsession and more of a necessity. But since my father spent every weekend since I was 4 until I was 12 repairing our various Volkswagens I'm going to call it an obsession.

My current obsession is my clothes line.  I can't explain it.  I find it fascinating.

Now if my yard weren't such a disaster I could really enjoy it.  But I really enjoy it now.

I love the way the wind blows the cloths around.  I love the sun shining on them.

What I don't really love is finding cherry blossoms stuck in the pocket that fitted sheet makes and then having them littered all over my house.  But other than that I completely love my clothes line.

On to other news.  I finished some Mario coasters for mom's shop.  I made eight of them and they turned out pretty good I think:

I had only made a set of 6 for my sister (see craftster post) so I needed to add 2 more images.  I chose the ghost and the feather.  And yes, I did notice that the feather is off center, but I decided not to care.  But deciding not to care and actually not caring are two very different animals.  My mom will be selling them in sets of 4.  I made the decision on the set and they are as follows.

Set #1:

And Set #2:

So please visit my mom's shop if you are interested in buying them.  All proceeds go to World Vision for helping the people of Africa.  They even have cork backing so it won't drip through the cracks and onto your table that you are trying to protect with a coaster in the first place.

I just had a wonderful lunch with my old co-workers Lynne and Cheryl (I meant to take photos, I even remembered my camera, but I completely forgot as per usual.)  And now I need to hang that shelf in my pantry because cans are starting to pile up on my counter tops.

We shall see how that goes!!

The shopping won't stop until the money runs out.

Isn't shopping the best?  I've been doing that a lot lately.  I'm starting to worry I won't be able to stop, but for right now I have the money so why not?  And I keep adding things to my list of "must haves."  It's quite long.  you have labored on it since, it is a ponderous chain!  Ah.  I wish it were Christmas again.


So went shopping with the folks yesterday.  Hit all my favorite thrift shops and Joann's.  I found one of those knitting bags that my mom used to have.  I meant to take a photo before I tore it apart, but I complete forgot so here is where I remembered.  This is the icky, faded fabric that was originally on it.

And then here are a couple photos of the frame:

I bought some new fabric at Joann's and then just hand washed it in the sink and hung it out on my NEW CLOTHES LINE!  Yes.  First day up and I already got to use it.

They dried really fast.  I can't wait until it's nice enough to start hanging more clothes out.  I had to borrow Katie's sewing machine and luckily she was home from lunch.  I sat down to use it and couldn't remember the last time I had used a sewing machine.  8th grade Home Ec?  Has it been that long?  Luckily it had pictures that showed you had to thread the machine.  It turned out to be quite a pain in the ass because I had to hand sew nearly the whole thing.  The way the frame works you have to like weave the fabric around it and then sew it into place.  I used the old fabric as my pattern and that worked really well.

Insane amount of pinning though.  Anyway, my hand sewing was piss poor, but it turned out pretty good and I'm really happy with it.  I can't wait to take it to craft night!!

Action Shot ^

I also found this really cool bench at Salvation Army.  I was thinking about painting it, but it also looks pretty good the way it is and I really need more side tables so I was really happy to find it.

It has these really weird side details, like wagon wheels or a crib or something.

So yeah, pretty happy with my purchases.  Can't wait to go back out and shop some more!!

A Brand New Day.

It is finished.  I wanted to show the whole kit and kaboodle, but I was such a wreck yesterday all I could think was "load, load, load... UNLOAD.  load, load, load... UNLOAD."  Although on the up side, I finally realize why they called those makeup storage cases Kaboodles.  It's like all the pieces finally fell together and the world makes sense.

 

This is the view from my front window.  But it isn't from today.  I took this yesterday.  I took one today too, but it's cloudy out today so this one looks much better.  I meant to get photos of all my helpers, but I forgot (because I was a wreck) until the only people left were the Smiths.  So here they are:

I think Christy was afraid she was going to smile ugly in this photo.  I do that.  I have so many photos where I am making this exact expression.  It reads "God, please let me look thin and pretty."  Don't you hate when someone has a really horrible photo of you where you look so fat and hideous that you hardly recognize yourself and they say "here's a good one of you!"  And then you realize you actually look like that.  And then you quietly resent that person for the rest of your relationship.

And now for the tour!!  The spare room/office/craft room.  It's the least set up of the bunch.  I got the computer up (obviously!!) and got the closet pretty much organized, but it's pretty empty.

 

  

The my bedroom, it's also pretty empty.  I haven't gotten any pictures up yet:

 

 The bathroom:

The living room:

Yeah, I know.  I have a lot of rocking chairs.  I don't know how it happened but I think I'm collecting them now.  Ken and Christy bought me the brown one and I really wanted it for the back patio, but it's so nice I don't really want to put it out there to rot.

Here's the dining room (I need a dining table and chairs for a good price.  FYI):

 

And the kitchen:

 

Here are some photos of the backyard, I know it looks kind of crappy, but I'm hoping to clean it up this summer so I'll post photos as that comes along.  I also want to put a clothesline in so that will be fun.

 

Tada!!  I'm so glad the moving is over and now I can get back to crafting.  I have nothing to show on that front, but I bought a ton of perler beads that were on clearance at Joann's so hopefully I'll come up with something really cool to do with those.  Alright, peace out.