Thankful Day 22

It's Thanksgiving!  Today I give thanks for my wonderful extended family who I get to spend all day with.  I am blessed to have a rather large family who like to get together and have relatively few disagreements.  I hope all of you have a wonderful day of thanksgiving and have someone special to share a great meal with today!

Thankful, Days 17-21

I am thankful I have so much to do that I haven't been able to blog about what I am thankful about!  Seriously, it is much better to be busy cleaning the house, (so thankful for that roof over my head), taking care of my kids (so thankful for those two little monsters), and taking care of shopping errands (so thankful for the funds and transportation to do so) than the alternative!  And now for the rest:

18. Working appliances, because really, who wants to wash all those dishes by hand!

19. Our newest family member, Thomas O'Malley.  No home is truly complete without a fur person to share it with.

20. Wireless internet, it is so nice to be able to be out on the couch with my kids while I take care of business, and often play, instead of being confined to our office.

21. Ravelry, I love that site!  I think I am a much better knitter because of it.

Thankful, Day 16

Today I give thanks for Mobile Notary Public people!  Why, because the Mister and I are both sick (I think this is the first sick day he has taken in at least 5 years) and we need to sign the documents for our mortgage refinancing.  So thank goodness for a Notary who will come to our house to witness us signing all the paperwork all while exposing themselves to all our yucky germs and those rotten kids of ours. 

Thankful, Day 15

Today I am thankful for Hot Cocoa weather, there is just something about a cold, gloomy day (like today) that makes me want to cuddle up on the couch with a vat of hot chocolate, a warm blankie, a book and the warm glow of my monster television.  Mmmm, chocolate...

Thankful, Day 14

Today I am thankful for naps, no necessarily for me, for the kids.  You have no idea how much you will miss them until they are gone.  Destructo-Boy used to nap reliably for at least 2 hours a day, until we enforced the removal of the pacifier by cutting off the tip, he retaliated by cutting off the naps.  I really miss those quiet few hours every day.

Thankful, Day 13

So I should have started this on the first of November, sue me I'm late (probably because I just thought of it, d'oh!).  I want to remember each and every day what I am thankful for and I thought I would record it here, some things are silly, some ridiculous, and a whole lot are simple but here are 1 through 13 in no particular order:

1. My husband, a great guy who puts up with me and all my craziness and has for 15 years now.
2. The smell of coffee, yes, just the smell.  
3. My kids, the little loves of my life, I can't even imagine life without them.
4. Fall, my absolute favorite time of the year, and yes I do realize I live in southern California but we do still get fall (at least us natives can tell the difference without the more obvious clues such as leaves changing color!)
5. DVR's, so I can watch American Horror Story, CSI, Grimm, etc. without giving my kids nightmares or having to hide in my room.
6. My families health, we are all amazingly healthy, knock on wood it stays that way!
7. Dr Demento, because I was sharing some of his albums with the kids yesterday, his humor will always be weird, offbeat, and in style!
8. That I was fortunate enough to be born here, in the United States, we may have our problems but I still feel this is the best place to live.
9. Chocolate, because really, would life be worth living without it?
10. Manual transmissions, because really, driving a stick is SO much more fun!
11. The home I live in, it is ours (well, some of it anyway) and safe and a great place to raise our kids.
12. Warm Vanilla Sugar perfume, because who doesn't want to smell like a big ole' sugar cookie?!
13. Handkint socks, you don't know there is even a difference until you wear them, especially ones made with skinny bugga, mmm, cashmere!

WOW!

Excuse me while I get all tingly and tounge tied here, but this flew over my house today!

 

Yup, that's Endeavor riding piggy back on top of a 747 on its way around the Southland before landing at LAX.   I think I upset Destructo Boy a little when I grabbed him away from his lunch to go run outside to look for it since it just passed by Disneyland and I knew it was on its way to flyover us.  Our neighbor and I chatted for a minute before whe burst out "There it is!"  and we ended up running out in the middle of our residential street to get a nice unobstructed view.  It was amazingly close, following a street only 3 blocks away from us.  

I am so sad to see the end of this incredible period of space history and hope the government pulls its act together so they can get us to the moon again and even farther away, but what a way to inspire all the youngsters who were lucky enough to get a view of this amazing sight today!  I can't wait to take the kids to the California ScienCenter to go see it even closer in a few months!

The Magical Mystery Sewing Machine Tour!

I got bit by the quilting bug, badly apparently as this just came home with me on Friday.

tldr; Hey!  I shopped around & got a new sewing machine!

It all began because of the quilt I am making for Lil' Miss (isn't it easier to blame our foibles on someone else?) I looked at the meager machines available for sale at my JoAnn's while I was there buying fabric to back her quilt.  They were Singer's and none too fancy, a whole lot more expensive than my current Singer but just didn't seem to have the extra harp space I was interested in.  So I went home, thinking about how maybe it was time to upgrade my machine.  I looked online, I perused various blogs and discussions about which manufacturer was best and tried to compare as best I could.  Which sounds great, but have you ever tried to find the price of a sewing machine online?  It's like they're a national secret or something!  I finally realized I just need to make a trip to my local sewing machine dealer.

Happily my closest dealer is in the same shopping center as my JoAnn's and since I needed to get some batting anyway...  So I went in and told the nice salesguy what I was looking for, a machine good for a novice quilter.  He starts showing me this lovely machine, demonstrating what it does and all the cool bells and whistles on it as I am coming to the realization that this machine is way out of my league.  So I ask how much it is and almost loose my bladder right there on the floor, $2399 plus tax!  This is so beyond the budget I had in mind of $500 that it is just sad.  I explained there was a monetary constraint to this purchase and did they have anything more in my price range.

He showed me a perfectly serviceable used machine (who knew a 20 year old machine would sell for $500!) and their limited selection of lower priced machines, yes, $500 is lower priced in the world of sewing machines.  As he was getting call away to assist another customer he mentioned the machines up by the front window that were their best-sellers, Pfaff Amitions, and that the store did offer financing.  I looked at them but was feeling so overwhelmed that I needed to go home and resume my internet searching for these specific models now that I had narrowed the field somewhat.

Have I mentioned that shopping for a sewing machine has a lot in common with shopping for a car?  Trade-in's, financing, servicing plans, oh my!  Anyway I came home and resumed my search, looking specifically at the Pfaff Ambition line, because with the 0% interest financing I could definitely swing it.  The reviews overall for these machines were glowingly positive and everyone seemed to love the built in walking foot.  Although the used machine was perfectly nice, I will admit I wanted something new, I like me some bells and whistles.

meet Pfrannie Pfaff... I think we are going to be good friends, she and I

I was able to pick the brains of my friends in regards to my sewing machine quest and their advice was to test drive any machine before I purchsed it.  Their preferred brands were Viking and Bernina, but since Bernina is so far beyond my means I didn't even consider it.  As for the Viking I found that the Sapphire line seemed comparable to the Pfaff Ambition line, and after further research I focused in on the Sapphire 835.  I located my local dealer for their machines and planned to go test driving the next day with my 2 selections in mind, the Viking Sapphire 835 vs the Pfaff Ambition 1.5/

I charged up my ipod to entertain the monkeys while I was doing my test drives and got an early start the very next day to compare one right after the other.  The very nice sales lady at the Viking dealer went over the machine with me, not pushy at all and answered all my questions.  What I particularly liked about it was that there was more harp space than the Pfaff, about 1.5", and when you take your foot off the pedal the presser foot automatically lifts, a nice feature for doing straight line quilting.  I did not like that there was not a bobbin sensor for the model I was looking at (every damn time I sew I run out of bobbin thread and don't notice until at least a foot of fabric has gone under the needle, so this was a priority feature for me), and even on sale this machine was $100 more than the Pfaff with less stitches available and no integrated walking foot, a separate one would have to be purchased for another $100.  Additionaly, this dealer did not offer any financing or trade-in rebate.

At our second visit to the Pfaff dealer I homed right in on the machine I was interested in and the sales guy there went through a whole demonstration of all the features of the Ambition 1.5 for me, again he answered every question I asked kindly and with respect.  After sewing on it a bit, I was pretty happy with it and was ready to ask about pricing.  Turns out it was on sale, plus they offered trade in credit, and financing with a minimum $1000 purchase.  I really liked the integrated walking foot, the huge selection of 196 stitches including 4 alphabets, and the specialty buttonhole foot on the Pfaff.  The financing deal was the final trigger though, both machines were great but the ability to stretch those payments out over a year at no interest was what got me to pick the Pfaff, plus the offer of free classes on how to use the machine, a free service at one year, and the ability to trade up in one year while being cresited for the full value of the machine I just purchased (not that I will actually take advantage of this, but nice to know it's possible!).

check out all those stitches!

So yea, I am the proud owner of Pfrannie Pfaff, an Ambition 1.5.  I have barely started to play with her but I already know I will definitely need that free 'Get to know your Pfaff' class!  As typical for me though, this was partly triggered because I know to do free motion quilting you need to lower the feed dogs or cover them...guess what I found while packing up the Singer to take for the trade in?  Yup, that's right I found a cover for my feed dogs right there in the accessories storage area.  Oh well, still not sorry in the least that I upgraded, now I just have to learn how to use this fancy machine!

Success!

He is potty trained!  Destructo-boy that is, Mister Vonkysmeed came to me that way.  It was so much easier this time around than it was with Lil' Miss.  Maybe because I learned that pushing ended disastrously with her so I backed off this time and let the boy take the lead.  I showed him what to do, set up a sticker reward system and then let him have at it.

Don't get me wrong, there were quite a few mistakes made along the way, on both sides, but after 8 weeks he is going days at a time with no accidents, it has been a few weeks since his last oops.  I think the last one was when he was away from home and didn't know where the potty was, can't really blame him too much on that one.  Amazingly enough he is usually waking up dry too and it took the girl well over a year to be trained at night after we started her potty training.  Although on those nights he falls asleep early and we don't bother to put on the night time diaper are of course the nights he wets himself.

He was so excited to pick out his new underpants choosing Toy Story and Cars 2 when I laid them all out for him.  Then he wanted to show them off, to the point that he dropped his pants in the quad of Lil' Misses school to show them to a neighbor.  I haven't laughed that hard in awhile!  Now that he has been wearing them for a few days he isn't dropping his pants to show them all the time, but he is getting particular about which one he wears on a given day.

Next I'll let Mister Vonkysmeed demonstrate how big boys pee in the potty (I don't really have the equipment to do that for the boy!), I see Cheerios kept in a bowl in the bathroom in our near future.

OCD Much?

That's Obsessive Compulsive Delightful as I heard on the morning news program the other day!  That said, I got rather obsessive about some quick to finish projects that would use up the bits and bobs of yarn that I have clogging up my stash bins.  Why did I get crazy about this one asks?  Well, I need to get rid of them so I have room for all the new yarns I want to buy!

For starters I gave away yarns that drove me crazy, such as the 2 partial skeins of Berocco Vintage left over from Destructo-boy's Tomten cardigan and some really pretty but difficult to use mohair bulky yarn.  The Vintage stuff just doesn't hold up, it pills if you look at it funny so regardless of how much I spent on it I'll never use those bits and off they went.  The mohair I just gave to Goodwill, I tried to knit with it, I really did but it made me cry (literally, is that sad or what?!) so away it went too.

For the knitting I first took a little trip through Rebecca Danger's great book The Big Book of Knitted Monsters, knitting 3 different monsters so far, with a 4th planned.  The monster creation used up 5 different yarns, hooray!  Then I made a pair of fingerless mitts for Destructo-boy (who put them on immediately and would not remove them for the rest of the day) and a ear-warmer headband for Lil' Miss (that still needs a cute crocheted flower to finish it off).  Those 2 projects used up 4 different skeins of leftover bits, so happy!

The only problem was that I have 3 larger projects going on already and I have been totally ignoring them in the instant gratification of pulling yarn out of my boxes, making something and being done in a day or two.  Additionally I found myself getting all anxious about the amount of yarn still in the boxes and that I wasn't getting rid of it fast enough.  Then I stopped and reminded myself that knitting is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby, not something that creates angst.  So I am currently back to the big projects and trying to remind myself to enjoy each and every stitch.  It helps some that I made a new rule for myself, only 1 yarn order allowed per month, and I still need to have room to put it into a box before I can order it...yes, I already made my order for March!

Sick Girl

She's been sick for three days now, I know this isn't big news to anyone else but my child has one of those iron-clad constitutions that mean she rarely gets sick and even then not for long.  Poor thing, I hope she gets better soon because I'd really hate to keep her home from school tomorrow.  Not that I don't like having her around but if I do she won't get her perfect attendance for this year like she did last year (that said I am not sending a sick child to school, it's not worth sharing with everyone else!). 

Thankfully the vomiting stopped after Friday night, but anyone know how to get the smell out of a couch?

Out with the old and in with the new

stash down 2012!

I am quite happy to see 2011 in the rearview mirror.  It wasn't the worst possible year but it was a pretty difficult one for us, at least the first half with the whole unemployment/no money thing.  Here's to hoping 2012 brings much better things for us (steady employment would be huge)!  At least it was a very productive year for my crafting habit.

First, a recap of my goals for 2011, I have had them posted in my sidebar all year and have been checking items off as I did them.  So what did I manage to accomplish this past year?  Well, I did knit at least 6 pairs of socks in the year, as a matter of fact I finished 8 pairs and have had a ninth pair languishing on the needles for the past 2 months (it's a pair for Destucto boy and for some reason I just do not want to work on them).  Going along with the sock theme I also learned to do 2 at a time knitting, in fact it is my preferred method of knitting now, less counting!  I did a pair of toe up socks but prefer top down to ensure proper fit for my incredibly high arches.

I have been swatching for everything, although sometimes that still doesn't work out that well, frogging is my friend!  I did manage to knit at least one pattern from each of the books I owned at the beginning of the year, I have now added 2 more books to my collection and have a stack on magazines also that I need to knit something from.  I definitely worked on holiday knitting all year, starting in January and still finishing up today.

I kind of failed on the whole keeping current with scrapbooks, updating the blog every week, and losing some weight.  You win some, you lose some!

For the coming year I think I want to accomplish the following: make a quilt for Lil' Miss, make a quilt for my bed, make at least one holiday themed wall quilt (I want to make one for each month of the year to switch out on our family room wall), finish up the 2011 scrapbook, finish up Destructo boy's birthday book from 2011, learn to steek (yikes!), make sweaters with my sweater quantities of yarn before purchasing more (4 right now), and make socks/shawls/anything to use it up with all my sock yarns before buying more since the box won't close (11 colorways right now!).

So, do you have any goals for the new year?  Whether you do or not I hope the new year finds you happy and healthy and 2012 brings lots of love and happiness to us all!

Advent Craziness

Somehow in my fevered brain I had the brilliant idea to participate in the Advent Calendar Scarf 2011 KAL, what in God's name was I thinking?!  I have been able to keep up thus far, but I fear I will soon fall behind, especially once I start on the cookie baking craziness, {WARNING: extended tangent ahead!}  for some reason I always end up making 10 different kinds of cookies, am totally stressed and wiped out then have tons leftover, when will I learn!  Although I did finally learn about the glitter wrapping paper that tape won't stick to, oh the frustration of self-unwrapping presents, didn't get any of that this year since Target has this awesome kraft paper wrapping paper this year.  I have been wanting to use kraft paper for years and they finally have some for sale, yeah!

progress up to the third day's clue

Anyway, back to the knitting, the pattern is a lace sampler and is a complete surprise as every day we get a clue for that days pattern, like a child's advent calendar.  It usually takes me about 5 to 6 hours to get through the days pattern which I have been able to keep up with so far, I just fear I will fall behind as we get closer to the big day.  It is fun though, I have already encountered a number of stitches I had not done before, and it is interesting to see how each pattern looks with all the others.

I think the idea is to have a scarf complete to wear on Christmas day, but since I already have a red dress to wear I think the scarf might be too much.  I actually have two red dresses, but I got hit bad by buyers remorse and bought the second one as I thought I'd get more use out of it than the first, which I still need to return back to the store, ugh.  Somehow I don't think even laceweight yarn can dry that fast though it would be nice to try.

and progress up to day 10!

A Place to Knit

This is my new knitting spot and boy is it comfy!  We finally ordered a couple of Sky Chairs after wanting them for years.  There has only been a place to hang them for about 2 years, so I am not that upset we didn't get them sooner, but I sure am glad to have them now!  I have sat in their samples at their booth every time I have gone to a Renaissance Fair for the past 20 or so years and have always wanted one.  Now I have two!  It makes a great spot to relax and knit while the kids are playing in the backyard, and the fact I can turn around in it easily to keep them in view is an extra bonus, makes me much more comfortable with them in the pool.  About my only complaint is the fact I have to kick a child out of my seat whenever I leave it for an instant.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today having barbeques, making ice cream, and watching fireworks.  I always get a little choked up every year thinking of how proud I am of the nation I was lucky enough to be born in.  Sure, we have a host of problems, but I am a patriot and love my country nonetheless.

I am reminded of a blog post I read a year ago regarding the Declaration of Independence (although for the life of me I can't remember who or where I read it), in it the author cited a tradition that has fallen to the wayside, a public reading of the Declaration of Independence that would occur at every celebration.  Try as I could, I cannot locate anything to verify this as truth.  Oh, I found a number of blog posts and articles on the internet that assert much the same thing, that it is an old tradition that should be revived, but I could not locate anything that cited any actual references.  Well, I have my own reference that I am sure will amuse the heck out of all you reading, Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Lil' Miss and I have been working our way slowly through the series and in her book Little Town on the Prairie she talks about going into town to celebrate the 4th of July, the first celebration of it in the new town.  She specifically recalls a man reading aloud the Declaration as one of the big events of the day, so I can say pretty surely that in the late 1800's at least in South Dakota it was being read aloud.

With two fairly young kids I don't know how far I will get through the Declaration, but I will certainly try to read at least some of it to them.  It is the document which announced the beginnings of our country and thus is vitally important, they should be aware of it from an early age.  How about you?  Will you at least read the Declaration to yourself if not aloud?

School's out!

I can hardly believe that it has already come to an end!  It seems like just yesterday that I was walking Lil' Miss to school for the first time and holding back tears as I walked away without her.  It has been a truly amazing year, the amount she has learned and grown is mind-blowing.  I remember Kindergarten as being essentially arts and crafts time, and maybe we learned to spell our names but it is completely different now.  Lil' Miss went in knowing her alphabet, knowing her numbers up to about 20, and could spell her name.  Now that school is over she is capable of writing complete sentences, can read at 2nd grade level, can do addition and subtraction of single digit numbers and a whole lot of other things I can't list out here. 

Saying goodbye will be especially hard since her two closest friends are transferring out to a different school.  We also struggled with the idea of transferring, as I blogged about another time, but our decision was made to keep Lil' Miss in our neighborhood school.  Since she has had such a good experience and is doing so well it seems a little silly to transfer her out just because the school test score averages are relatively low.  Happily her best friend Miss E lives around the corner and we moms have already been discussing ways to keep the girls close.  Such as continuing the Friday play-dates and arranging to be in the same Girl Scout troop if both want to participate.  Nonetheless, it will still be sad to not see them at school everyday (and not just for Lil' Miss, I'll miss seeing them too!).

Lil' Miss is having an awful time with saying goodbye to her teacher Ms. W.  I think she has burst into sobbing tears daily all week.  We had thought she might get to stay with the same teacher for next year in a Kindergarten-1st grade split class, but luckily for the school enrollment has gone up for the Kindergarten and it seems that they won't need a split class.  Happily our school has some of the best 1st grade teachers in the district so whoever teaches her next year will be great, but Lil' Miss still wants her current teacher. It was heartbreaking to leave the school with my poor little one sobbing the entire way to the car.  I tried to tell her that she can visit her teacher next year, and that she is going to try to get the class together over the summer at the park but it's still not the same as having Ms. W as her everyday teacher.  I can kind of understand since it just hit me I won't get to see the kids in her class on my volunteer days anymore, I am going to miss seeing those kids every week myself!

Playdate DRAMA...

Who knew there could be drama involved in playdates?  Let me take you to the beginning to understand the current state of affairs.  Lil' Miss made her first special friend, Miss E, in Kindergarten and withn a few weeks we saw them walking home and realized they lived literally around the corner from us.  So the new friends mommy, Missus Sweden and I started talking and set up playdates for the girls.  It was kind of funny as we had no experience doing this and both admitted it to each other, but I told her that I felt we should for lack of a better word, 'inspect' each others' homes to make sure we were comfortable with the girls playing there and make sure we had contact info for each other and all should be fine.  She agreed and we had a new routine on Fridays.

So this was the state of affairs for a few months, every Friday we would have the girls play together for a few hours after school, alternating homes.  it was working really well, and then The Third Wheel was introduced over winter break.  She was the child of divorced parents and Missus Sweden felt kind of sorry for her so invited her to a playdate we had set up to have at her house.  It seemed to work out alright, but you know how threesomes turn out, generally not too well.

The next playdate was scheduled at my house and instead of talking to me directly TTW's mother asked Missus Sweden if she could come to the playdate.  So here I was with this child I hadn't really invited, whose mother had no idea how to contact me and who didn't even know where I lived, talk about poor judgment (please excuse me why I shimmy into my judgey pants!).  So we continued on this way, alternating between our house and Miss E's house with TTW added in for spice.  Then TTW's mom wanted to have a playdate at her home, um, NO!  Why no?  I had serious problems with her judgment, after letting her kid come to a home she had no contact info for, let alone had never seen, as well as her not being within walking distance, and the fact that she currently had a brother residing with her who until that time was a homeless drug user.  But how to bow out gracefully?  Thankfully The Child Whisperer came to my rescue with the perfect excuse, #1, Lil' Miss is not ready to be that far away from home (yup, blame it on the kid!), and #2, neither am I.  TTW's mom seemed to asccept this, although she was clearly not happy.

So things continued on but there were starting to be problems, Miss E and TTW were starting to have some issues with getting along.  TTW is a rather bossy child who is sadly lacking in manners (and I'll admit it, I don't much care for her) and Miss E had had enough of being told what to do constantly.  So every week now instead of Missus Sweden and I getting to watch the girls play nicely and hae some fun with them, we were having to intervene to stop the fighting.  Eventually Missus Sweden called up TTW's mom and apprised her of the problem, although she never pointed fingers or placed the blame on TTW, her mom went ballistic.  Apparently we were the mean stay at home moms who were 'cliqueish' and didn't like her.  She refused to accept that it just wasn't working because the kids weren't getting along, it was us evil moms that were the problem.  Sigh, really?  Didn't we leave this kind of crap back in high school, apparently not.

So currently we are back down to two very happy little girls going from one house to another on Fridays and having a fantastic time playing together.  It really amazes me how well these two get along, when they have a conflict I will inevitably hear them saying "Eeny, meeny, minny, moe..." to pick who gets to choose.  The truly amazing thing is that they did this all by themselves, no one directed them to resolve their conflicts this way.  Oh, and although they still play with TTW at school and seem to be getting along much better, her mom hasn't even said hello to either of us since then.  Hold a grudge much?!

Happy early birthday to me!

My birthday isn't actually until next week but yesterday my dear hubby Mister Vonkysmeed brought home my birthday present and handed it over.  I've known for awhile what he was planning to get for me so it wan't really a surprise but it was certainly nice to get it (ooh, and thanks to Pops-in-law too as this gift is from both of them!).  See, I gots a brand new iPod Touch!  I finally mentioned that I might like one after realizing that the Touch could replace my dinosaur of a Palm Zire and do even more.  I admit to being slightly resistant to change, so have never actually had an iPod of any flavor before.

My only complaint is that I will miss the stylus.  I know, weird huh?  But it did take me forever to upgrade from a DayRunner (anyone remember those things?!  I could not live without mine!) to a pda in the first place, and one of my favorite tools on my Palm is a notepad feature where I can draw or write lists, impressions of something I see, etc.  Although Lil' Miss has been using this feature a lot, like while waiting in a Dr.'s office she asks for the pda so she can draw while waiting, of course this leaves me with absolutely nothing to do, but at least the kid id happy right?!  I guess I can be a little old-fashioned about some things, like I detest e-readers, give me a real book any day of the week.

out with the old and in with the new

So, does anyone have any suggestions for apps I should look into?  Mister Vonkysmeed is so sweet he even made sure there was a balance available in his itunes store for me to use to get some things for my new toy.  I know I will want a better calendar, with the two anklebiters I absolutely rely on that thing to make sure I don't miss any appointments or classes of theirs, or mine for that matter!  I'm not sure what else I should look into, so suggest away!

Excuse me while I rant

Hmm, no white here!

Can someone please tell me why it is so difficult to find the simplest of wardrobe staples, a white t-shirt?  You know, just a basic whit t-shirt that you can't see my bra through?  Okay, maybe I am totally out of touch with the current style (like I have always been, in high school I strongly resembled a goth-amish refugee, yup, imagine that one for a minute!) but it really shouldn't be so hard to find.  Apparently every clothing manufacturer has agreed to use the thinnest material possible and the public just accepts it.  It used to be that you could find a decent white tee, sadly mine was somewhat stained in the underarm area so it is now a lovely shade of rose pink, nice, but not white.  I mean, I even subjected myself to walking into The Gap (I hate this store, so not me!) bu even their most signature garment was ridiculously thin, I mean, a dermatologist could examine me through it!

With spring and summer on the way I really would like to find a decent white t-shirt, and when I do I'll probably need to stockpile them!  My favorite go-to store has sadly gone out of business, Mervyn's, and my second favorite store New York & Company has joined in the too thin material brigade.  It has been awhile since I last tried to find one, and I am getting ready to begin the search again, sigh.  This could be one of the reasons why I hate to shop for clothes, I need a specific item and just can't find it, or maybe I am being a bit like Goldilocks, this one too thin, that one too short, where is the one that is just right?!

Distraction

newly organized closet, yea!

This weekend I was trying to work on my scrapbooks and my Slice die cut machine was being difficult and not working right for me.  Okay, it's been buggy pretty much since I bought the damn thing but when it works, it really works and I love it.  Anyway, I got mad at it and needed to find something else to focus on, so I decided to move around some craft supplies as I had been contemplating doing for a long time while I waited to see if my Slice would spontaneously start working properly again.

Once upon a time I was an artist, well, at least an art student and I still have a taboret in which my remaining art supplies are housed (from Wikipedia: a small portable stand or cabinet, with drawers and shelves for storage. It is used as a method to bring organization to a work area. This name for a portable cabinet is common to artists.).  I came to the sudden realization that part of my reluctance to work on my scrapbooks is due to the fact it is a total pain in the ass to drag all my supplies from the closet where they are stored out to the dining table where I work with them so I decided to move the scrapbooking stuff into the taboret and relocate the art supplies...somewhere else (I so wish I has a craft room like I did while living with The Momster, I waited a whole week after Grumpy moved out to take over his room for my artsy crap!).

The scrapbooking stuff fits into the taboret nicely and all of the art supplies are neatly reorganized into my yarn storage boxes.  Huh?  What's that?  How did the yarn get involved in this you ask?  Well, it occurred to me that my current yarn boxes were bursting at the seams to contain the yarn I have stashed and since I use the yarn more than the art supplies maybe I should make sure the yarn is easier to get to and maybe devote more space to it.  So one thing led to another as you can assuredly see by now and I spent all afternoon going through stuff, reorganizing it, cleaning out things that I don't use anymore or are broken/unusable, purchasing some new storage boxes, etc., etc., etc. 

So, I got completely distracted and my dining table was still covered in partially completed scrapbook pages.  Sigh, maybe I'll make some progress on it sometime this week, but doesn't my taboret look nice with all the scrapping supplies in it?  And now I have some room to buy more yarn too!

obsessively labeled yarn boxes, hmm, OCD maybe?