Happy, Sneezy, Giggly and Sticky

My children are using the Xyron machine (sticker maker) to adhere "H"s to each other's foreheads.

Only the true geeks will appreciate the significance of this. ^_^

I have a real post coming. Honest.

Creative Streak

No, sorry, no streakers or other nudes here. Just this stuff:



I made sleeping bags for Prawn and her friend's Groovy Girls.


Then I turned these


into these. I wasn't thrilled with the pattern, because the seam allowance got in the way of the buttonholes that hold the elastic in the top of the shoe. I improvised and did the stitching lower down in order to avoid the buttonholes, and did a fancy scallop stitch just for fun. Of course, because I was dorky enough to use fabric with lines on it, everything looks a little wonky. :-P I used this pattern, but found these instructions a little more helpful. Next time I'll try the pattern from the second site. It looks like the buttonhole markings are in a better spot.


Then I made some sherpa and flannel washies to go with them.


Round about the same time, MuNKi was making this fabbo beef stew and bread.


And for Tori, the Webkinz Recipe Books I scrapped for Prawn's B-day. Clio the Kitty is here for size comparison. Of course, this only helps if you know how big a Webkinz is. >^_^<
The original album I had for stove recipes wouldn't fit them, so I had to redo the cover pic for the new, more expandable album. I stuck the other label inside the front cover. ^_^


And I loaded the album from back to front, so I ended up with a blank front page. Of course that was all wrong, so I hastily threw this together.


Random spread #1 (they're alphabetical, but what I'm gonna do when I add the new ones as they crack them makes me cringe to consider.)


Random spread #2


Blender recipes!


I just did random spreads because there are way too many to show.




And some from the sandwich book. . .





That is probably more than enough. :)

Christmas Candy

I have stuff to post, but I'm too worn out. I did class tonight in case I don't get to tomorrow (Prawn was sick last night, but unless she spikes another fever tonight, I think she's going to be fine for me to go tomorrow) and I just finished my review for a Beowulf audio CD as well as a last-minute order for MuNKi. So it's eye and ear candy for you all (provided you like these actors and actresses and Nickleback. . .)

How many of these flicks can you name without looking at the info? I got all but 4 or 5, but I think some of those are from the same films. :)

Captain Chaos

Wow. I've been sewing lately (!) and tonight I was trolling blogs for fun baby gift ideas. You would not believe how many beautiful crafty-type blogs are out there. Or maybe you would. They all have these gorgeous pictures of their amazing creations (with all those yummy, pricey fabrics I've seen online but always considered to be a "you can look but not touch" item), and everything is clean and orderly. There are great tutorials, and I found some really inspiring stuff. I also thought, "Wow! I should declutter my life, declutter my blog, get everything in order and live like that, with fresh huckleberries and organic milk and crocheted antimacassars (OK I didn't really think that part right there) and beeswax candles and stuff."

But you know what? That's just not me. I'm not an orderly person. My mind is always whirling, my house is never, EVER perfect (and sometimes it's a LOOOOOONG way from even decent), I usually have too many irons in the fire, and I'm running on a budget with no room for organic milk or designer fabrics. (Or else I just blow it all on books.) I do have a weakness for beeswax, though. ;-)

The more I think about it, the more like my dad I realise I am. He always had tons of ideas and projects and some of them never came to fruition, but he was always enthusiastic about all of them. And you know what else? I'm OK with that.

So, no, I'm not going to be decluttering my blog, or very likely my life, even though I really do admire - and yes envy - those women who can. And I'm still going to post like a chicken with ADHD, because that's who I am. So there.

In that vein, I shall switch tracks completely and post pics of our Dec 1st adventure which I mentioned, and then never came back to. ^_^

So there was this lovely little celebration in our town. I don't know what it was called, but they had reindeer for the kids to check out and Santa, and caroling, and carriage rides, and once it got dark there was a parade. I took the kids after sparring and lunch and we found the line for the carriage rides close to quitting time. So close, in fact, that I was pretty sure we'd be the last ones, if indeed we made it at all. Sure enough, we didn't make the last ride, but were given the option of riding the carriage to where the horse trailer was parked if we didn't mind walking back. The woman driving the carriage jokingly added something about helping them push the carriage into the trailer after they got the horse taken care of, and when we got there, I saw that she really didn't have any help. It was just her and a 15 or 16 year old girl, neither very big, a horse, and a heavy carriage that needed to be pushed up a ramp. So we offered to really help, and I'm so glad we did. :) I almost hate to say it for fear of changing our luck, but somehow we always fall into awesome situations like this where we get to really talk to the people handling the animals at the bird shows (all by ourselves after everyone else is gone), or help pack the hot air balloon that landed down the street back into its basket, or brush the horse, and push the carriage into the trailer.

Chaotic or not, life is good. :)


Festive Scarf Horse


Tess and her 2 people and (heavy) carriage


Sluggie does not impress Tess


Tess makes an impression on Mollusc


Brushing Tess -- shortly before she swung her back end around and knocked all the kids over like dominoes! ^_^

That Takes the Cake

At this time, six years ago, our newest kitten was attacking the midwife's foot, and I was somewhere between the fireplace and the Christmas tree, just 18 minutes away from giving birth to The Prawn. I'm feeling much more comfortable right now!

Since then, the kitten has gone through a devastating illness and been given up for dead, only to turn around and become Mr. Fat and Sassy whom everyone adores (though his now-black hair went all salt-and-pepper for a few months) and The Prawn has grown from an 8 lb 8 oz black-haired kicking machine to a 42 pound blonde kicking machine whom everyone adores. :-)

I'd stick around and post all kinds of sappy stuff, but I have rather a terrible track record with cakes. They fall. Whoever heard of cakes that fall? That was the stuff of our childhoods (mine anyway)- "Stop jumping in the kitchen; you'll make the cake fall." Modern cakes don't fall, do they? Mine never used to. But somewhere along the way I must have angered the God of Rising Baked Goods, because I can no longer bake a cake that doesn't fall. I thought of making a sacrifice to the Kitchen God. I mean, maybe he's making the cake fall so he can have it, and I just need to fill him up first. I don't know what he likes, though, so I'd better get baking and just let him have the first cake. And maybe the second. . .

Deep Thoughts

So I'm at the library, making judicious use of my enforced computer/writing time by checking my Scrabulous games, putting books on hold and blogging. Just now, I tried to put an audio recording of The Wee Free Men on hold, but the system didn't allow it. (Some libraries are selfish bastards and won't share with ours.) The computer popped up a screen informing me "Hold Not Allowed" and presented me with only one option: the OK button. But it is most definitely Not OK that they are a collection of selfish bastards who won't share with me when I Really, Really Want to hear this book. Honestly, what am I supposed to do? Push the OK button, even though it's Not OK? Throw a screaming hissy on the library floor? Navigate away and blog about it?

Also, when a math problem works out to something like "7= (-156)" isn't that technically a paradox? And aren't paradoxes rather earth-shattering events? They were in every Dr. Who episode I every saw. Imagine my surprise to find us all still here.

For Your Eyes Only

I think this will be the last year I'll be able to make something for The Prawn in plain view without arousing her suspicions. It probably helps that she's used to seeing me make a mess with scrappy stuff on the table. It also helps that there has been such an incredible scrappy mess on the table that she probably can't even see what I'm up to. :) I think I've finished the recipe books. All that remains is to load the recipe pages into the little albums. Yes albums, plural, because there are an ungodly number of them and I had to break them down into Stove Recipes, Blender Recipes, and Sandwich Maker Recipes. This will mean nothing to those of you whose households are not graced by the presence of fuzzy little Webkinz, but they will mean the world to Prawn. I hope. :)

So now, in my weird and strangely pleasure-delaying ways, I have put the very last disk of Going Postal on pause, stepped away from the final stage of the project, and sat down with my computer to blog. The kids are in the basement with a friend, playing some strange and exciting Pirate Ship game they've invented. I know there are swashes being buckled, because I saw an armory load of wooden swords and shields getting dragged down there. Hopefully there won't be any severed limbs to deal with. The crew ate lemons just before going to sea, so at least scurvy isn't going to be a concern.

I could take this opportunity to make some secret things with lovely secret fabric I bought the other day, but I fear that the crew will likely pop upsatirs to dry land at the most Inopportune Moments, and unlike The Prawn, the others suffer from Insatiable Curiosity whenever I'm sewing. So it will have to be a matter of Secret Midnight Sewing, I think. In the meantime I'll make more Christmas gift bags. I seem to have given away rather a lot of them, and I'd rather be flayed and hung from the yard arm than resort to paper.

We've started reading Swallows and Amazons again, which I don't think Fishy and Prawnie remember much at all. The Bigs are enjoying it more than ever, as am I. I think the combo of S&A and watching Pirates III is what spawned this latest seafaring game. If you haven't read it, all I can say is that this is a series I wish every child could read. One of my Desert Island picks for sure. (you know - if you were stranded on a desert island and could only take X books - perish the thought!)

Enough pleasure-delaying for now. I'm off to see what finally becomes of Mr. Moist Lipwig.

Widdlyweep

Monday nights I teach a kid class that just happens to have a high number of attending parents (as opposed to drop-offs), and they just happen to be nearly all dads, who just happen to all have shaven heads or super short hair. It really is a lovely view from where I stand.

Now that I've admitted that, I'll cross my fingers and hope that none of them stumble across my blog. Or else that they don't mind finding out how much I enjoy perving at them. ^_^

I have nothing further to say, being in my happy place and all. So you get Widdlyweep, one of my all-time favourite Eddie Izzard bits. I say bit, but it's just over 9 minutes. Kudos to those of you brave enough to click. For my ADHD readers, my sincere condolences. The only one I can find starts out with dull-ish sound, but it gets better. And how cool is it that it starts and ends with Danger Mouse music?? ^_^

Stuffity

Since Tuesday's post I have:

~ Been informed by MuNKi that there is a pole-dancing class starting at the gym where he and another TKD friend lift weights. (And OMG, BG and I are getting mileage off the pole-dancing jokes, LOL!)

~ Taken a spinning back kick to the chin (thank goodness for my mouthguard, or I'd be concussed.)

~ Taken a spinning back kick (I think, or maybe a spinning outside kick -- it's all a blur) to the nose (I need to work on this whole getting back farther thing, LOL) but I DID land a gorgeous counterkick a half second later. Only then did I feel that I'd been hit in the nose (pretty lightly.)

~ Been scrapping like crazy trying to finish a Webkinz cookbook for Prawnie's 6th birthday (1 week from today! OMG!!)

~ Watched Casino Royale again and marveled at how delicious Daniel Craig still is

~ Made a ton of cookies

~ Finished listening to Deception Point by Dan Brown (very good) and started listening to Going Postal by Terry Pratchett (OMG freaking hilarious!) I do this while scrapping -- multi-tasking. Hooray! Mollusc is developing quite an appreciation for Mr. Pratchett, too. :)

~ Finished re-reading The Subtle Knife and started re-reading The Amber Spyglass (the 2nd and 3rd books in the Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman)

~ Laughed a lot

~ Battled a zit trying to grow in my eyebrow

~ Dug wood splinters out of my thumb

~ Tried to determine whether those are really shiny blonde hairs or *gasp* grey ones (I swear they change in the light.)

~ Gotten my glasses fixed so that I no longer have red marks on my nose and headaches. (No, not red marks on my headaches. . .)

~ Done the opposite of coming from behind in yet another Scrabulous game (Simon/Winters is deadly, let me tell you.)

~Decided that my mundane list of stuffity stuff is probably already too long. ^_^

Pictures of You

Perfect, considering I was just going through pics yesterday and still have a sore shoulder from so doing. (Better not to ask, probably, as it's a boring explanation involving desk, mouse and chair placement.)



I just heard this for the first time today, which means that Egan will likely inform me that it's been playing for at least 3 years.

But there's also this, so you can pick your poison:

Stormy

The wind is howling 'round the corners of the house tonight, trying to sneak in all the nooks and crannies. Unfortunately, it's pretty good at blowing right through the window by the couch where I'm sitting right now. Urf.

We had quite the adventure today. I think all the pics are slurped into the computer now, so hopefully tomorrow I will relate all. Very cool. :)

I have no trouble believing recent reports that average temps have been falling since 1998, as it's bloody cold out. But it's a nice way to welcome in December.


PS: if we're playing Scrabble, it's your move. :)