Ill, Crafty, and Cheap

I'm sick. Whine whine whine whine whine. I KNOW. But I was just sick in January so to be sick again already is just a pain. I keep reminding myself of all the people in this world who are really sick, who really have something to whine about, and it makes me feel slightly better. Or at least keep my mouth shut. :)

I promise that this entire post will not be about me being sick, but I have one thing to get off my chest first. If I were President, I would overrule whatever stupid laws they wrote to take pseudoephedrine off the market (and I'd smack all those idiot druggies that caused them to pass the laws in the first place). Gimme back my magical quadfecta (hey, you've heard of a trifecta, right?) of cold-pill drugs: pseudoephedrine, guaifenesin, dextromethorphan, and acetaminophen. With all my years of ear troubles I have become somewhat of an expert on cold meds, and this combo of these four drugs is the best thing around. And then a bunch of druggies figured out how to make methamphetamine out of pseudoephedrine and now my beloved cold meds are off the friggin' market. There must be a better way to control this, since I can't imagine that it's actually inhibited the drug manufacturers in the least. And in the meantime, millions of cold-symptom sufferers receive inferior decongestants [fist pounded loudly and with much righteous indignation]. {Achooo!}

Anyway, since I've been logging lots of couch time I've been able to spend a bunch of time on the internet. And a couple of things have been striking me lately as I've been perusing ol' world wide web. First, I think that I do not give myself nearly enough credit for the stuff I know how to do. I tend to forget that not everyone is crafty. I've learned a lot but I think there is also just an inborn craftiness that some people possess and I am one of them; since it's so natural for me I usually forget that not everyone is crafty. So when I stumble upon things on the internet--such as tutorials for potato stamping and felt heart pins--I think, "Ummm, we need a tutorial for this?"


And obviously, according to the many comments on each of these tutorials, the answer is YES. Obviously everyone did not grow up with moms who covered the kitchen table in newspapers and broke out the paints and taught them how to make their own stamps out of potatoes (thanks, Mom!). Obviously everyone does not look at these cute heart pins and automatically have a tutorial pop up in their head. So I should really give myself some credit for all this cool stuff floating around in my brain. I really should. And heck! Maybe one of these days I will write a tutorial myself!

Those heart pins are so stinkin' cute, too. I think they'd make a really sweet mobile like this one from Pottery Barn Kids:


Except I would draw the ribbon down through the middle of the hearts (in between the two layers of felt) instead of just sewing the ribbon to one side of each heart. It would totally be cuter that way. If I get well in time to make this for Valentine's Day I just might do it and hang it over the dining table. I love hearts {and love!}!

The other thing that has been striking me as I've been wandering through internet land is, "Seriously? People will pay that much for that? Do they not know we're in a recession? Do they not know how little a freakin' Barbie actually costs?" Okay, the Barbie comment only came when I looked at one little etsy shop. One little shop where these two pairs of earrings


sell for $110. For each pair. (!) Is kitsch really that valuable? If anyone is interested in these earrings, please let me know. I will hook you up. Half price! :P

I know how mean I probably sound, and I don't mean to be mean. More power to the seller if she can sell this stuff at these prices (and based on her sales numbers, she can)! But buyers? Hellooooo? If my friend showed me these cool Barbie hand earrings she just bought for $110, I would have a hard time not smacking her upside the head. I do really like the Have a Heart Bust Pendant; I think it's clever and cute and funny. But for $180 it will not be going into my shopping cart. And The Kiss is genius; I'm sure somebody will snap it up (but for $525 it will surely not be me; not even if it were $125. Maybe if it were $25, but I'm cheap).

My friend Paulette recently forwarded me an e-mail full of lovely gift ideas and asked if I could make one of the items contained therein. She's super sweet and loves the rings but said she'd rather have them made by someone who's special to her. Is that the sweetest or what? Anyway, the price of these beauties in the e-mail made me gasp and I think I'll be able to do them for a fraction of the price. I can't wait to get the supplies in!

Did anyone out there try to order the Project 365 Kit of the Month from Becky Higgins and not get one? I accidentally got two (in my flurry of hitting refresh over and over, trying to get my order in) so if anyone wants one let me know and you can cover the cost for one of them.

Today I saw a commercial for the 20th anniversary of... get this... The Simpsons. Am I really that old? Cowabunga, dude! According to The Simpsons' official site, "Now the longest-running in television history, The Simpsons is celebrating two decades with a one-year celebration culminating on January 14, 2010, the 20-year anniversary of the series' debut!" So I guess it's only 19 years old. Whew! For a minute there I really thought I was getting old. :P

See you tomorrow for Favorite {Photo} Friday!

I'm Not Dead!

I was so sick for a while and then I just went so completely MIA that unless you've been reading my tweets, you probably think I'm dead. Luckily, I'm not! {Yay for me! And Jason's pretty happy about it, too.} But my internet connection is dead (as of last Friday). I hate Comcast! Four days and three+ hours on the phone later I have an "appointment" tomorrow for a technician to drop by "some time between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m." Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Comcast sucks *$#@+ {fill in expletive of your choice}. What other business could get away with this?

[Deep, cleansing breath.]

Now, if you disbelieve me that Comcast sucks, or if you just really need a good laugh and/or a good "stick it to the man" story, check out this story. Read the whole thing. Mona "The Hammer" Shaw is my hero. :) {Don't worry, Mom, my hammer will stay in the garage... at least until I'm 75 and can get away with it!}

Luckily I have an aunt and uncle who live not too terribly far away, so I drove over here today and let myself in so that I can download the handouts from my online classes and do a couple other molto importante internet tasks. I was even super smart and brought along a thumb drive with the photo and blog for Favorite {Photo} Friday!, so that is post-dated and up! :)

Now if I don't leave this very minute I will be stuck in the afternoon exodus from D.C. and it will take me 14 hours to drive 25 miles. Bye! And hope to see you soon!

The Better To Hear You With...

To say that I've had "ear trouble" in my life is akin to saying that Michael Jackson has had "pigment trouble" in his. Except that my trouble started at birth. And also, is not self-induced. And, okay, maybe that's just a really bad analogy. Blame it on the cold meds, alright? :P

But "ear trouble" in my life? Ummmm..... YES. If there is anything more boring than listening to someone talking about their health troubles, it's reading someone's writing about their health troubles. So, let's not go there, 'kay? :P Let's just keep it at this: ear pain is the worst pain I've ever experienced (I'll let you know how it compares to giving birth when I, you know, get around to that), and because of my ear "issues" I am on high alert regarding my ears. High Alert, let me tell you, at any change whatsoever when it comes to my ears. So when I woke up on Tuesday I was 100% confident that I had an ear infection. Which sucks. {And--what am I, three?} What doesn't suck is finding a doctor who has never seen me before but can get me in that same day and be kind and actually listen to me and prescribe me antibiotics and a nice cough syrup to help me sleep. His being from South Korea originally and wanting to hear all about my travels and experiences there--and telling me about a great new South Korean restaurant here!--was just a big fat bonus. Go, Dr. Kang! Thanks, Dude! Kamsahamnida!

So. I am on the road to recovery. But I'm still on cold meds, which means my brain is not really firing on all cylinders, and my ear is still all plugged-up feeling, which makes me anxious, which makes me tired. I know that so many people are dealing with such worse stuff than a silly old summer flu and ear infection, but/so/and I can't wait to just kick this thing in the rear and get back to myself! Thanks for all the e-mails and comments and thoughts. See you tomorrow for Favorite {Photo} Friday!

Out of Office

We had a busy weekend last weekend and my introverted self crawled into a hole for a couple days to recover a bit and accomplish some tasks. Just as I was coming back into the world, I woke up yesterday feeling sick. And it got worse. This nasty illness has been going around Jason's office and we saw some of them over the weekend so I'm assuming that's where it came from. My whole body aches and my throat hurts and I have a headache. It probably didn't help my case that I did Pilates on Tuesday for the first time in two years... so between my using muscles I haven't used in ages and the general body aches, I had to have Jason help me sit up out of bed to take my pills! So I'm staying medicated and drinking fluids and having Jason run to the grocery store on the way home for all the "sick food" supplies. Thank goodness for kind neighbors who have Top Ramen in the house and gave me access to their house today so I could have lunch (thanks Roxanne!). :) I hope to do Favorite {Photo} Friday tomorrow but other than that I will probably be MIA for a bit. Everyone at Jason's office says that they were down for about a week so I guess I will have plenty of time to catch up on bad daytime TV and any movies I haven't watched! :)

"Dave Matthews Band" or "I Am Becoming My Mother"

Catching Up #2--Dave Matthews Band Concert!

We went to see Dave Matthews Band with our friends Lisa and Steve. It was a "surprise" for Lisa so that made it extra fun. But at the concert it became very, very obvious that I'm becoming my mother in yet another way. I've never been all that claustrophobic, and I'm usually fine with crowds (up to a point, anyway, since I'm an introvert). But I just about lost it at this concert!

We sat on the lawn, which was fine while everyone was, you know, sitting on the lawn. But when the band (finally) came on, throngs of college-age kids who were drinking Jim Beam and smoking pot (and wearing really, really, really bad outfits) started dancing around and pushing to be up front and walking on our blanket and generally just causing chaos in my brain. ACK! Jason helped me escape to the fringes where I could get some air ('cause I never would've found my way back on my own in the dark!), where I sought the advice of a licensed nurse (my mom) and decided to take half of a little pill I keep in my purse for situations exactly like this (i.e. anxiety). Ten minutes later I felt a lot better and ten minutes after that I wanted to take a nap. :)

Besides that, this concert made me feel old. I kept saying (or at least thinking) things that only an "old person" would say. Things like, "Since when did they start charging ten dollars for a can of beer?" And, "Doesn't she realize that she looks like a hooker in that outfit?" And, "Why do they say the concert starts at 7:30 if they know they're not going to start until 9?" And, "Why are they making every song ten minutes long?" And, "Who would pay $35 for a t-shirt? Do they think we're insane?" And, "What makes them think they can have a concert and not play their most famous song?" And, "It's going to take us forever to get out of here, maybe we should leave early." I know, totally "old people" things, yes?

Indeed, it did take us forever (1.5 hours) to get out of there, thanks to the police officers busy texting on their cell phones, leaving the actual directing of traffic to a bunch of high school kids who probably don't even have their drivers' licenses. Inefficiency chaps my hide so much that had I not been zonked out in the back seat I probably would have gotten out of the car to direct traffic. It's happened before!

So I think that my next concert should be Johnny Mathis or Neil Diamond; I might fit in a little better, don't you think? Then again, I hear those Baby Boomers can get a little wild... maybe I'd better just stay home. :P

Favorite {Photo} Friday! #2

Stella is still doing Favorite {Photo} Friday and so am I!

I've been missing Italy a lot lately... it comes and goes in phases. Sometimes I can just cry if I think about it too much, and othertimes I'm just fine. I've felt crappy this week because of a pinched nerve in my neck that's caused pain and tiredness and crankiness a bunch of stuff I don't want to bore you with, so I think that's contributed to the general melancholy. Which I intend to kick outta here today, thank you very much!

Living an hour north of Venice was a dream. I hopped on the train and went down there more times than I could count. I have, literally, thousands of photos of Venice. But I chose this one today because of the sense of looking into the scene but not being part of it. {Hello, Symbolism, how are you?} I love how the photo is framed with the arch and the scrollwork iron gate at the bottom. I love that you can see the Basilica and also the campanile (bell tower), and of course the pigeons. I love, mostly, how it makes me feel. And to me, that's what Favorite {Photo} Friday is all about! :)

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Went to the Chiro yesterday and he fixed me up, but I'm still having some residual muscle crankiness. So I'm going to take it slowly today and, you know, not try to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I'm jaunting out to the Great American Scrapbook Convention, which may or may not be great--I'll be the judge of that and I'll let you know! :) Leaving my credit card at home and am seeking only inspiration this go-round.

Went to a special party for "Bonus Card" Avon Walk ladies last night, which was great fun. The Avon staffers were great--hi ladies!--and I got rave reviews on my book. I won an hour massage and brought home a huge hunk of cheese (literally, Manchego--they divvied up the leftovers!), and if that wasn't enough I also met a couple of fellow crafters. My kind of party! :)

Tomorrow we're joining Andrea and Scott for a baseball game--sweet! Besides doing the Avon Walk together, Andrea and I (and our husbands, obv) were in Italy together... so I imagine there will be some reminiscing going on, too. All in all, it should be a super weekend!

Happy Friday, y'all!

Blahg Blahg Blahg [Cough]

I spoke too soon. The cold has come back with a vengeance and slapped my happy ass into submission. I had to get out of bed way earlier than I'd have liked on a rainy Saturday, because I was coughing too much and wanted to let poor Jason sleep. (Have you ever heard a Harp Seal barking?) I've been thinking that it was a little bit of a cold and a lot bit of allergies but now I think things have reversed. If stuff is coming up from my lungs when I cough does that mean I should go see a doctor?

I am brewing a pot of espresso right now. This time it's actually brewing, unlike the first time I set the timer for eight minutes and walked away without, you know, turning on the burner. Oh, wait, it's done already. [shuffle, shuffle, fridge opens, milk pours, micro goes on, fridge closes, micro dings, mini-whipper hums warm milk into lovely froth, a cappuccino is born, shuffle shuffle] Okay, I'm back. Yummmmm. (And yes, Mom, I know that I shouldn't drink milk when I have a cold.) Yummmmmmm. I added a little bit of the vanilla caramel creamer that my sister-in-law bought while she was here. Mmmm. I brewed the big pot today, because 3 shots of espresso just didn't seem like enough on this rainy day. :)

Jason was on a roll last night. He was watching television while I was in the kitchen and he flipped to a show that appeared to be about airplanes. Then suddenly the host says, "I love this airplane so much that I want to steal it! What does the Bible say about lust?" and the show launches into a section about the Bible. [Never mind that this makes no sense at all.] Obviously Jason was like, "What the ... ?" So he slides into a super rednecky voice and says, "Don't be Jesusin' on me all surreptitiously like!" Maybe you had to be there, but I rolled. So funny, that man of mine. [Edited: Jason likes watching those History channel shows about the Bible, it was just funny that this one was sort of, well, tricky about it. Just FYI.]

I've been working on a few really cool projects lately, but they are surprises so I can't post photos yet. :) Don't you love when you're working on something and you keep saying to yourself, "Oh, this is good, this is so good, she's going to LOVE it!"? I do. I love that! And you know what else I love? When you're working on something and you say, "Oh, if only I had X I could blah blah blah..." and then it comes to you that you DO own X and you go down (or up or over) to your mountain of a stash and pull out just what you need. I really love it when that happens! Because it justifies me buying more for my stash. Because then I am making use of the gajillion things I already own. It's like shopping in my own house!

Enough blahging. The coffee's kicking in so I am off to go finish those projects I'm loving!

If You Can't Say Something Nice...

...then don't blog. :P

I have written about five drafts of a blog about my last few days, and I just didn't want my biggest post (on my new blog, yippee!) so far to be all cranky and whiny. :) Who wants to read cranky and whiny? Not even me, let me tell ya. So let's skip all that and I'll quickly sum up in case anyone out there is paying attention. :)

I took Monday off to let my introverted self recover a little bit from the excitement of Inspired. And to sleep, since I didn't do that very much while I was being very, very Inspired (which I promise I will blog about). :) Tuesday I walked almost 20 miles (in training for my Avon Walk) and developed an owie foot. Wednesday my foot hurt so much that I couldn't walk the 10 miles I was supposed to. And that really bummed me out. Really, really.

I really love to check things off my (multiple) list(s) and keep up and stay on track... and not being able to do that, combined with a very painful foot, combined with trying to catch up from being gone for a week (laundry, groceries) and prepare for houseguests this weekend... well, it just put me in a yucky funk. Yucky, yucky, yucky. It reminded me of a StoryPeople, the one called New Friend: "I'm at that point in the day where I'm tired of myself, she said, so if you don't mind, I'm going to be someone else until bedtime & we had a lovely time together, my new friend & I." I was tired of myself for sure, and I most definitely was not creating much beauty. :(

When I woke up yesterday and my foot still hurt, I decided I needed to do something about it. So I figured out my insurance and called up my local Podiatrist and made an appointment. 'Cause this is no time to mess around, I'm doing the Avon Walk in just over two weeks! [Have I mentioned that? :)] It was sort of scary to walk into the examining room and see several Black & Decker power tools, but it did also make me laugh (and it also made me wish I had my camera in my purse!). Anyway, you don't need to know the yucky details but the nice Podiatrist lady fixed me up:

Please ignore that my toes aren't painted. :) Now that I am on the road to recovery I'm feeling much better. It was also nice to have the Podiatrist say, "Ooooooooh," 'cause it kind of validated my pain. And sometimes all it takes is a little validation, right? :P

Afterwards I went to Costco to stock up for the mini-gathering that will descend upon our home today and tomorrow. J's sister, cousin, and the cousin's wife are checking out D.C. and our new (and very messy at the moment) digs. And while there I bought myself two dozen of these babies:

Life is good, friends. Life is good indeed.

I'm off to create some porcelain beauty by cleaning the toilets. Hey, it counts! A clean bathroom is a beautiful thing. :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!