Wedded Blog

I've got a new place:
corgipants.blogspot.com

And I've also started a new blog to list upcoming swaps, especially the harder-to-find privately held swaps on people's blogs.
swapdex.blogspot.com

I have entered the Etsy/Instructables Sew Useful contest. The neck cooler is my entry. Please visit my Instructable for a turorial:
www.instructables.com/id/ESB3EJYF3R7AO6L/

And my etsy if you want to purchase this one!
www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6372822

If you visit both, you will help me have a better chance to win a new sewing machine! I'll gladly give you lessons on it if you help me win! Or I'll sew you something cool if you like!

I've been busy making crochet food like this tartlet and hotdog. Also made a blueberry tartlet, fortune cookies, oreos, bread slices, strawberries and I am making an ice cream cone right now. They are for a swap and will make my partner's daughter VERY happy.

It's officially summer now and my summer news is that I am taking swimming lessons! I took lessons in grade school but failed, mainly due to my inattention and chatting with friends instead of learning strokes. So I'm hoping to learn a few different techniques so I can lap swim for exercise when it gets really hot!

With mustard!

After nearly 8 years on birth control pills, I've made a switch!  No, I'm not going off them.  Gah!  I'd never think of it unless I got one of those nifty hysterectomies.  I switch around my sugar pill week so that every single weekend is period-free!  I can't believe it never struck me to do that before.  Now I'm free EVERY single weekend! 

Ever since making cupcakes for the craft meeting, I've been obsessed with them.  I made more tonight because I ate the last of the last batch.  Mmm, cherry chip cake!  And they're all mine because Mike doesn't like cherry chip!

Things are all planted in the garden.  We've got:
lettuce, carrots and radishes that have been growing for about a month now
tomatoes
peppers
Zucchini
cucumbers
all manner and variety of pumpkins and gourds!
zinnias
moon and stars watermelons

I think my corn that I planted (strawberry popcorn) all got eaten by birds/bunnies so no popcorn this fall.   Sad.

My dear bud verba0 called today and I was reminded that people are still posting their tidbits on here and that I might want to keep up both reading and writing.  So I'm making an appearance. 

We've been going to dog shows on occasion, competing in Rally and Obedience.  Our latest challenge is putting together a short Freestyle (read: dancing with your dog) routine for an upcoming show.  I've almost got it choreographed the way I want it and just need to put in some hours practicing with the boy.  Speaking of the boy, Sully had his fourth birthday party which went smashingly!  His buds all came and they played games and ate cake and ice cream and wore paw print party hats. 

This weekend we got a new car.  We traded in the Stratus for a Yaris.  Only the cutest little car around!  Loving it so far, it has a cute little face on the front.  We got the liftback so it's even smaller and cuter!

My latest craft project, fingerless mittens! Such lovely wool yarn, so soft to work with and they're going so fast. I have one down and one in progress (shown).

Speaking of crafts, we will be having a crafty get together at my house on Sunday. All crafty well-behaved people are invited. There will be cupcakes! Bring you knitting, embroidery, origami, etc. and have a sit with us.

Yesterday was my first day back for work in over a week, due to a nice long holiday vacation I took.  It was relaxing, didn't get as much done at home as I wanted to (Christmas decorations are still up) but being back to work is nice too.  I like the schedule of being at work, a reason to get up and get moving in the morning, then lunch as a scheduled time and then a clear-cut point at which the day is mine and I am free to do as I please.  Having all day to do what I want leaves me a whole lot of time to NOT do what I need to.  :) 

So, 2007, time for resolutions.  I know, lots of people don't like resolutions.  But I am always one for goal-setting and what better time that at the beginning of the year!  So my resolutions are:

Physical fitness:
attend two classes/week at the gym and strength train at home in between
maintain my FitDay food journal for at least two months to analyze what I could do better in that area

Digital/Paper Scrapbooking:
complete 5 pages every month (60 this year!)

Dog:
continue showing on a manageable scale (not EVERY weekend)
take Sully on 3 20-min trots every week
build up his abdominal and back muscles enough to do stand on his back legs

Over our vacation, we went to Indianapolis and ate at the Broad Ripple Brewpub. http://www.broadripplebrewpub.com/

This place was excellent!  The vegetarian options are staggering and everything I ate (lentil soup, vegan sloppy joe with fresh sweet potato chips) was absolutely delectable.  We have a show coming up in Indy and we are definitely going to eat here again if we are anywhere near it!  Of course, the original reason we went there is so Mike could eat some scotch eggs.  I would love to go there for dinner and try the shepherd's pie or one of their pastas.

I hope everyone who has made resolutions has good luck with them!

My fortune cookie today told me:
Consider gain and loss, but never be greedy and everything will be all right.

I take this to mean "Do not go back for second helpings of chinese food and everything will be all right, you may even loose a pound, or at least not gain one." :)

So, the plans are set for a holiday party at my house! Next weekend. Cheeseballs to make, seating to magically make appear because just like last year I have way too many people coming for our tiny living room, and favors to create in my copious spare time!

I am back on plan to try and actually loose weight this holiday season. This is, more importantly, a tool for dealing with my anxiety. So it's off to yoga and team strength classes, or when you're iced in like last night, it's working out in the living room to Yoga Booty Ballet DVDs.

Funny Sully story: Today it is snowing and icy for the first time this winter! Sully lived outside for the first years of his life. InWisconsin, I might add. I'm sure he's used to this kind of weather. Now he's spoiled and sleeps on the sofa and enjoys the finer things in life like those Nutro Dog Desserts in flavors like Pumpkin Crumble and Apple Strudel. When I opened the door this morning for him to go potty, he stepped out and turne around, beaseching me to let him back in. After a few seconds, he realized he had to go pee before I'd let him back in just like every morning. So he stepped off the step with only his front feet, lifted on leg and peed off the step with one foot still on it. Then he hopped back up in front of the door and I let him in for breakfast. It doesn't take long to turn a dog soft.

Oh, holidays! Holidays are one of the few things keeping me up and going right about now. Work is not going any better but at least home life is not terrible. I just keep making stupid errors, misplacing things and generally making myself seem like a bumbling oaf. My boss keeps telling me they are piddling things and I make a big deal out of everything when I shouldn't. But I don't know WHY I keep messing up. I've had this job down to a science for over a year and now I look like I have no idea what I'm doing. I am trying some anxiety-easing exercises so hopefully that helps.

Just finished up a few swaps, should really post pictures of the christmas ornaments, corgi goodies and recipe cards I just finished up!

No picture today. I just wanted to document this terrible few weeks. No, nothing terrible has happened. I haven't turned ill or lost a loved one or my job or anything like that. But sometimes times are just seem bad when they should, on all accounts, be good. I have been having a terrible time at work, making silly errors and spacing on simple things. These dumb mistakes have made me feel pretty useless and I'm lacking in confidence now. This weekend, we have a dog show and I really could use some of that confidence I used to have.

I know these are just little things, nothing very important so it's not a big deal to anyone else but to me they are complete failures, each and every one. Tomorrow I am going to try and kick work in the knee and really bust it out and try to regain a little self-esteem by getting a lot done. I hope it works.

So, here is my problem: I love LOVE planning crafts, shopping for supplies, thinking about all the minute details of assembly and design. But then I actually have to DO the craft. I LOVE perusing swaps, thinking up what special things I could make and choosing which ones to sign up for. But then the day rolls around when I have to complete the crafts. And I get bogged down. I have never not completed a swap, it's not a matter of backing out. I GET them done and no one has ever complained. But my favorite part is the planning, shopping and strategizing, not the actual completion.

Today, I caught myself browsing swaps even though I have three right now that I have halfway finished. They aren't due for another two weeks but I really shouldn't be focusing on finding future swaps with these still to do.

This weekend, I got the garden cleaned up for winter and all that's left is to trim the rose bushes back to nothing so they don't take over the yard in the spring. Today I potted some tulip bulbs for spring forcing. This is my first time with tulips indoors so I hope they work out well!

I really don't like that it's dark out when I walk the dog in the evening. And it's doubly bad because our street doesn't have street lights. So Sully has a reflective vest and a flashing collar tag so hopefully cars will notice him. But what about me? I need a reflective vest!

I am really going to try this winter to use our bread machine and crock pot . Cooking at home is part of my plan to weigh under 200 lbs by new years. At my doctor's appointment last week, I was 202.26 so it's not that far but the farther under I get, the better!

And here is a cat picture, just because. Red is being particularly cute! He is still evil though, don't forget that.

This is this year's gourd crop. Lots of variety in shades of tan, orange and cream.

I have an idea kicking around in my head. It's the idea of having a mock wedding, very tacky-like. We always put on a mock wedding in home-ec where we would make cream cheese mints and sew dresses/find dresses to alter and we would vote on who would get married and then invite the whole school to the ceremony at the nearby church. I guess it was suppose to prepare us to be better hostesses ready to take on the task of planning a large soiree. But now I want to host one for Mike and I, as an anniversary party and have wonderfully tacky dresses and a big cheesy-looking cake and really hideous plastic flowers and cream cheese mints. And a glittery spangled garter! I'm thinking tenth anniversary party!! Which is coming up pretty fast! February 2010 is less than 4 years away!

I am kinf of tired already of the whole people having kids thing.  I'm over it, it's not fun and exciting any more.  It's kind of a bore.  I'm tired of seeing babes on flickr, taking up space where pictures of crafts and people's studios and lovely creations should be.  And I'm quite tired of garage sales with nothing but baby toys and baby clothes. 

And for that matter, I'm getting bored with "felt stuffies".  Yes, felt is easy to work with, hand stitch, blanket stitch, machine stitch.  You can make cute felt toilets, dog poo, tampons, raccoons, monsters, robots, elephants, chickens, dolls and cats until your eyes turn blue.  We get it, I don't want to buy any and I don't even really want to see them any more.  It's time to get creative and move on to another medium!  Felt has served its purpose and it's 15 minutes of fame are over. 

Why am I ranting?  I am feeling frustrated at work and wanted to vent!  I am planning a revamp of our spare bedroom aka the computer/craft room to make it into a real studio type space!  I am collecting pictures of studios so if you have seen some good ones, please pass them along.  I am not painting the walls because I don't want to move EVERYthing but first on the list are pennant flag banner style window toppers.  And hopefully a clean-out to make more shelf space.

It's Halloween time!! I love Halloween because it marks the beginning of my holiday decorating season. I decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (BIG TIME), Valentines day and sometimes Easter. Then I give myself the summer months off. :) So this is our spooky buffet!

To get in the Halloween mood, I have posted almost every childhood halloween costume I ever had. This is my very first halloween, a litle Raggedy Ann. Check out my flickr for more.

Jenny Doll is supervising the creation of a new dress. It will be yellow and flowered and the hanky with daisy trim will be a pleated apron for over top of the dress.

I have organized a doll clothes swap on swap-bot.
see it here:
http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/878

This afternoon I had a blazing headache.  I need some soda and chocolate.  It's a good thing my workplace provides both of these!  I am recovering from staying up too late over the labor day weekend.  Mornings have not been good this week.    But evenings have been very productive! After I finished my tiny food binge, I started work on two new purses with corgis on them for a raffle.  I also have a jaen skirt in the works.  I finished up my thaumatropes for he thaumatrope swap I organized and am also making yo-yos for a yo-yo swap.  (fabric quilt yo-yos, not toy yo-yo's)  And in between all those, I am working on my biggest doily to date!  I only have about 6 more rounds to go and then I will post a picture! 

I suppose I should explain the tiny food.  I became obsessed with Re-ment tiny food, which are from Japan.  But I am poor (read:stingy) so I had to make my own.  I hope someday to own a few of the real name-brand mini foods or some of the dishes but for now, my homemade food will suffice.  I think I got started on the Re-ment because quite a few of the blogs I read regularly have a thing for Licca and Blythe and Pullip dolls, and making clothes and setting up kitchens for them.  I don't own one of those either because they are expensive.  But stay tuned for my own version of doll obsession!  Tiny clothes-making, here I come!

Sully earned his Canine Good Citizen award! He had to pass 10 sections of the test and he did splendidly at all ten. You can find out more about the CGC program here: http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/ It is an AKC title that ANY dog can earn! If they have a little training, of course.

I have been on a mini polymer clay food making kick. Check out up close pictures on the flickr. I made pies, cakes, waffles, bread, doughnuts and more!