New Etsy Listings!

Finally! Finally! Finally! I just finished posting two bulletin boards on Etsy and I'm quite pleased with myself. I keep making stuff and never posting it and then wonder why I never sell anything. :)

I found these fabrics at Ikea this week and they absolutely called out to be made into bulletin boards. I think the photos even turned out pretty good . . . for me, that is. Here--take a look:

How Fast Can You Type?

I followed the link on Lauren's blog to the type test. Here are my results. I thought it was hard to type random words instead of typing sentences. Did anyone else have that experience?

82 words

Typing Test

Something Fabulous for the Five

Yay! Thanks for playing! I made something for each of you and will bring most of them to work tomorrow. Holly and Emily, I'll give yours to Justin. Sarah, can you stand to wait until I come to Houston in April?

I'm not going to post a picture so you'll be surprised. I hope you'll enjoy what I made and have fun using it. :)

In other crafting today, I finished the big, ol' Christmas stocking and put it in the washer to full (felt) it. I just can't get over how cool felted knitting is. Every time I take a shrunk wool item out of the washer I get a little frisson of excitement! Now I'm wondering if I want to embellish this stocking or leave as is to enjoy it's simplicity. FYI, the stocking as you see it is about 15" long--it shrunk to about half it's original size.


I'm listening to David McCullough's 1776 right now and loving a deeper look and understanding of the America revolution than I've ever had. It's also been fun to hear about the places in Boston I've been able to see while visiting Suzie and Matt. I could picture it in my mind.

And finally, Levi and I had our first grandma date last night. At the advanced age of 7 months, Levi got to stay and play at my house alone last night for the first time. It was Erin and Nate's second anniversary and they celebrated with dinner and a movie. Levi and I played piggies and had nakey time on the floor (okay, he had nakey time and I patted his soft fanny) and ate dinner (grilled cheese sandwich for me and applesauce, olives, and toast for Levi) and watched Pride and Prejudice and looked at and tasted Goodnight Moon. He is a delight, as ever. Here's a self-portrait of us on our first official date:

Something Just for You

Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

One More Thing

I forgot to post a Levi picture today. This one shows his two little teeth (did I mention that I was the first to discover BOTH of his teeth?).

So today Erin decides to let Levi taste bread. Now let me tell you a little about Erin. She's very particular about what Levi eats: one new food a week; fresh and unprocessed; grind your own baby food at the table; etc. I couldn't even let him lick the chili spoon today! So she comes down the stairs with some spongy white bread today, ready to let the perfect baby take a taste. I very kindly, no pressure, suggest that perhaps a good full-grain wheat bread might be better for the bebe, and she pretends to agree. I mean, that white bread will give him constipation and could totally choke him--all gluey and sticky in his mouth!

Then the minute my back is turned, Erin is shoving white bread into the little dear's mouth. And she didn't even have the guts to confess! I had to use my deductive skills: empty bread sack, flecks of crust on the blanket around Levi, and a glazed look in his eyes! I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

A Late Night Preview

I think I'm getting smarter. :) Tonight I have been taking pictures all along while working on a Valentine's project. It's not done yet, so here's just a little taste--I hope you think it's yummy! It's made with red and white felt and a pink purl cotton blanket stitch. Oh, yeah. This project was inspired by something Martha did with a pink napkin and a pair of scissors in the current magazine. And talking about Martha, while I usually like her stuff, sometimes she really has some wonky ideas, like this Valentine's hat for a baby. This is NOT an idea I will be stealing from MDF Martha.

PS: CTR (Charlet Totally Rocks)

TRIM training: Coupon Clutch

At work last week I began TRIM training--eliminating waste and increasing value. One tool we learned about was called 5S--can't recall what it stands for but I remember that part of it means a place for everything and everything in it's place. That inspired me to clean out my purse, which reminded me of one of my biggest challenges at keeping paper stuff and my purse tidy: where to keep the coupons. So this morning I made a coupon clutch for my purse that was big enough for all of my favorite coupons: Joann's ads and Costco coupon booklets as well as printed-from-online coupons for Hobby Lobby and groceries. Now that I've got a place for coupons, we'll see how tidy I can keep my purse. (I'm not holding my breath while still feeling surprisingly hopeful.)



The next 5S project is my desk at work--arghhh! It's ALWAYS a disaster! I'll take before and after pics.