Update

I just wanted to give you a quick update that I am adding things to the shop everyday. Tomorrow I think there will be a bunch. I just have to do some photo taking and that should do it. So go browse, go buy.

I feel I've been productive. Ten placemats are finished and I've finally started taking pictures of some things for my shop...you know, the one that hasn't had anything listed for more than 2 years. Ahhhh, yes, now you remember. I figured that since no one seems to want to hire me and my savings is almost completely gone, it's about timeI got serious with the shop. I'm going to be feverishly sewing for the next couple weeks so's I can have stuff ready for the gift giving season. And really, I'm not too proud to say that pity purchases are welcome, even encouraged. ;)

Avoidance

Instead of starting any of the projects I named before, I decided to decorate a little. I am the queen of avoidance and procrastination! However, I am starting on the placemats today and I think I'm scrapping the costumes...I'm just not feeling it. This Halloween is going to be store bought I think.

I also am making 10 Fimo red and white whirly lollipops. Sorta like this...

Fun!!

Upcoming projects

Here's the short list of some upcoming projects (some sooner than I'd like)...
4 costumes for Halloween - 2 human, 2 canine
a giant floor sized Candyland game board
6 giant styrofoam lollipops
10 placemats
2 cardboard banners
2 beaded bookmarkers
1 glam baby blanket
approximately 10 Christmas presents
And I want to throw in some stuff to put in my poor neglected etsy shop as well...guess I bettr get started!

Autumn!!!

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year! I love the colors, the change in weather, the potential for wearing sweaters, my birthday! For me the holiday season starts on my birthday (Sept 20) so of course I love this season!! Anywho, I just wanted to say happy Autumn to everybody!

Who gets the punishment?

I came home yesterday and put my purse in its normal place (dining chair). When I picked it up again and put it on (it's an across the body type of thing) I reach down and there's a stickiness, with which I'm unfamiliar. I look at the dining table where the chair is stationed and there's this trail of honey leading from an overturned, open and empty container. Said container had previously been full (approximately 16 fluid ounces). The honey was all over the table, the chair, the floor, my purse and me. Not coincidentally it is also on my cat. GRRRR! I have a feeling I'm going to be finding sticky spots for quite a while.

Now my dilemma is do I blame it on the cat who is just being her normal cat self or do I blame it on the adult sister who left the honey out on the table in the first place?

Gratuitous Sasha pic

Cactus Flowers

I knew, in the far reaches of my mind that cacti flower...a cactus can flower...there are such things as cactus flowers...whatever. But I've never actually seen one. And truth be told, I hate cactus! And I especially hate our cactus...

See there, right where the fence gets taller.

Well, about a week and a half ago we noticed these little thingies on it....

They were sorta fuzzy and wierd looking like the cactus coughed up a hairball or something. then they started growing these sorta pod looking things out of them....

Then they opened and turned into this...

The day I took the above picture, right afterwards I went to dinner. I was gone maybe 2 hours and when I came back, the flowers had gone from that to this...

They really are beautiful...coming from this awful, prickly, ugly plant. Amazing!

Free Time

One week ago today the owner of my company called me into his office and told me to clear out...sayonara...don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya...etc. Ok, he said it in a much nicer way but, really, when you get the boot, no matter how nicely they say it, it still feels like they just told you to shove off. So, after being there for 12 years and being constantly working for the last 20 years (with the exception of about 3 months when I moved back home from Seattle) I don't know what to do with myself. I really hate job hunting...never really had to do it before. Most of the jobs I've had I got because someone said, hey, we're hiring, want a job? So, starting from scratch is new to me. And really, I just don't feel like doing it...I know, I know, as a responsible adult I need to, but I'm just not into it right now. Once the money really thins out I'm sure this will change, right?

Fundraiser tonight

For any of you out there in SoCal, my team (those of us going to Thailand in July) and I are having a fundraiser at Chili's in Glendora (the one by Best Buy and Barnes and Noble). In order for us to get our 15% you need to print out this flyer and take it in with you. Thanks so much!!!!

click image to enlarge

Update on things

It's been a ruff few months. My dad past away last month and I am, as I type this, at my aunt's house in Kingman, AZ because we came out to bury my dad's ashes with my grandparents in this little ghost town called Chloride. I was fine with it until it was time to actually put him in the little hole that was dug for him. I couldn't do it even though I had been unofficially elected as the family member to do the deed. The nice guy at the little cemetary saw my distress as everybody else was talking and offered to do it for me. I didn't think it would have been that big of a deal but for some reason it was.
Anyway, now we're getting ready to go back home and I thought I'd take advantage of my aunt's wifi. :) I haven't had much of a chance to do anything crafty lately, I've been busy with, well, just life. However, I've been reacquainting myself with some favorite blogs and I'm inspired, to say the least. So don't be surprised if you see some stuff posted in the near future.

I give up!

I've given up on the internet because the internet has given up on me. Not having a connection at home has reminded me how things were pre-world wide web. Simpler, more stuff got done around the house, more crafting got done, etc (read more tv was watched). So until we can afford to get a proper connection at the house I'm taking time off from my little blog, facebook, ebay, and all my other online activities.
However, as soon as that reconnection is made expect a full update on everything from our tea in my last post to my precious Jasper to any crafting that might be taking place.
By for now,
CrissyGirl

Our Annual Tea

Our church's annual Christmas tea is coming up in a couple of weeks. Last year I had taken my inspiration from a spread in a magazine and it turned out pretty nice, I think (see the post here).


This year I don't have any tangible inspiration just an idea in my head. I'm thinking teas around the world with a sort of vintage travel motif. So I've started gathering items to decorate the table with but I feel like I'm missing something.


So far, I have this little globe...

It's going to sit on top of three cigar boxes that I'm going to paint to look like vintage suitcases. That will be the centerpiece with a wreath around them with misc travel ornaments we've collected over the years.

We've bought tea from a bunch of different countries (ie rooibos from South Africa, green tea from China, Spiced Chai from India, etc) and the placemats will be flags that correspond to each country.

And that's all I got. I feel like we need something else, maybe a travel themed table cloth and/ or napkins, I dunno. If anybody has any suggestions please let me know.

Our Dining Room

Last Tuesday marked a year since we've been in our house. During that year our dining room has had many roles...sewing room, storage room, buffet room...but it was never really a dining room until now. I was lucky enough to grab a really great table off free cycle that sits about 8 comfortably and I scour the thrift shops on a regular basis for dining chairs (wicker back preferably) and do a bunch of bargain shopping for the table accessories. So far here's what we have...

I put up the two pics because only one has the chair in it. I know there are people out there that think it's crazy to paint over perfectly good wood but I can't help myself, I love white furniture so I pretty much paint everything white. So the white chair at the end of the table was unpainted when I bought it (and it's partner) at Goodwill, but like I said, I can't help myself.

At the moment this is what is at each place setting. Our cat hasn't learned that the table is off limits yet so there's no table cloth (much too tempting!) and no plates or any type of breakables. Just these place mats and napkins.

I found this candle holder at a local thrift shop and loved it instantly. Mostly because if you look at it closely you can see that it is handmade. Unfortunately, the weld joints don't really show up in my photos, but take my word for it, they're there.

Finally I put this up...

Remember from my last post? This is what that turned into.

So, now, we have a proper dining room...Yay!

I survived!

So I survived the chaos that is the Harvest Festival at my church. We had somewhere near 3000 people attend. It seems more like 10,000 when all you do is hand out candy for 2 1/2 hours. It was a lot of fun tho. This year Halloween just kind of snuck up on me so the decorations for the car were, let's just say minimal. Here's my sister and the car...

I must say that this year's costume was more easily recognized than the last one...

I was dressed as Peach from Finding Nemo. Most people thought I was Patrick from Sponge Bob, at least he's also a starfish, but one guy thought I was a tongue...makes me wonder about the things floating around in that guy's head!

Anywho, the M&M's went over well and we had a lot of fun.

***

To remind myself that this is indeed fall (even tho it feels like summer) I'm working on a few projects for the house. Just some small decorations to put up here and there. See if you can guess what this one is...

OOOOhhhh 2 posts in 1 day!

Ok, so I missed Blogtoberfest this year cuz of my dumb butt computer and I really almost kinda felt like I shouldn't participate in any of the give aways since I wasn't doing any of the rest of it. But then I came to my senses!! So, my first give away that I entered was over at Kimono Reincarnate. Here's the goods she'll be sending the lucky winner (namely me)...

And she has a BUNCH of ways to get multiple entries so go, go now! Don't dilly dally cuz the give away ends on November 1!

I love this time of year!

This is one of my most favorite times of the year. Here in SoCal we get the Santa Ana winds whipping around scattering the fall leaves (and yes, we do actually have leaves that turn color and fall - you just have to go to the right neighborhoods) and there's a certain smell in the air. I've been told it's called "fresh air" since the winds blow all the smog away but I choose to call it "Autumn". And then there's the gear up to all the coming holidays. Halloween is a good kick off to it all. Dressing up, giving out candy, getting candy - I love it!


This year we - my sister, my dog, my car and I - are going to be M&M's. I guess that needs some explanation, right? Every year (except for last year when we were moving) my sister and I participate in the Halloween festivities at our church (we call it Harvest, not Halloween) where they have a section called "Trunk or Treat" most people (you know, the cool people) dress up and decorate their cars and there's a contest for best decorations. We all line up around the church parking lot, trunk sides in, and we all hand out candy from our trunks, or in my case hatch back. Despite the fact that I've never won the decorating contest I feel my car has been the best each year - they just don't appreciate my perspective, yeah that's it. I've shown this before but here's the car from two years ago when we all dressed up as different Disney sea creatures...

The car was Monstro from Pinocchio.

So that's happening this Saturday and I haven't even started on our costumes yet. I'm making my sister's, mine and the car's. The dog's is a sweater I bought at M&M world in Times Square so I don't have to worry about him.

Anywho, I really do love this time of year. There's nothing like it!

Disconnected

I really hate not having a reliable computer and an even worse internet connection! Since about June or so my time on the internet has been sparse, very sparse. It's one of those situations that is dependent on $$$, of which I have none! This whole "economic downturn" business is really starting to get on my nerves!

Any suggestions?

After writing each post I usually click "view blog" and read my post in the form other people would. Just to see if the formatting is good or if there are any typos or weirdness of any sort. So after my last post I did this and realized how much of a downer my blog has become lately. My last three posts are so depressing!!!

So, to lighten things up I'm asking for suggestions. "On what?", you're asking your screen. On practical jokes. I love pulling practical jokes - nothing destructive or mean - and I love it when they get pulled on me - again nothing destructive or mean.

Let me give you two examples...

1) Once, with the help of one of the girls in our office, after everybody had gone home, we went and turned everything upside down in a co-worker's cubicle. And I mean everything (except his desk cuz it was bolted). All his pictures (most of them of himself), his computer, monitor, printer, his chair...everything. When he came in the next day he was none too happy but everybody else got a kick out of it.

2) You know those co-workers that love having little tchochkies all over their desks? We have one who likes little figurines. She has a Snoopy, a couple of M&M guys, etc. So I stole her McDonald's Hamburgler for a week and photoshopped him into pictures of things like St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, the Eifel tower and a bunch of other places...sorta how in Amelie she sends her dad's lawn gnome out to fabulous destinations...then returned him none the worse for wear. To this day my co-worker doesn't know I'm the one who did it.

Well, it's been a while since I've pulled any kind of prank and I'm really hankering to do one so if anybody has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Again, nothing destructive or mean, just funny. I'm not afraid of spending extra time or effort to pull off a good prank...the best ones sometimes require that.

Sadness

I found out yesterday that one of my friends lost her husband yesterday. I'm so stunned and sad. She and I went to school together and I met Brian briefly before going off to college then we lost touch with each other. Now, 18 years later we had all reconnected via facebook and were just settling into knowing each other again. I don't know exactly how he passed but it always seems more tragic when someone dies at such a young age (he was only a couple years older than me). It's like they haven't really had a chance to live a complete life yet.
There's also their two small kids who now no longer have their father with them. My heart is just aching for them and for my friend who lost the love of her life.
It's such an unfortunate reminder to make the most of the time you spend with your loved ones. Tell them you love them as often as possible!

Fire season is upon us

This morning when I got into my car to go to work there was a layer of ash blanketing my car. Fire season has started early this year thanks to a very very dry winter/spring. Normally, around October we start seeing the firebugs going crazy, lighting fires everywhere. This year we got a two month head start. My prayers go out to the people whose homes have burned and those whose homes are in danger.



Photo credits:
1 - 4 Anthony Citrano
5 NASA
6 M&C Website