The Cute Ones Get The Food

Here is some denim that I dyed yesterday.The variegation's in dye will be more apparent after I iron it. Haven't done that yet. Will that take a long time? No, it won't. The real time will come in clearing off my table so I can lay down the ironing surface.

The cute ones get the food. Whiskers knows this. I wish she were as smart at using her litterbox! Silver, AKA Newman, is better. When the rabbit is better at something.......

Monkey Travel Club

I'm starting off today's entry with these:

Cup cosies to keep your coffee warmer, and reusable so you don't have to get those cardboard ones and then throw them out. Environmentally friendly! I want one, they are SO COOL!

They are on ETSY, a selling website for artists and cafters. The link to MonkeyTravelClub, the store with these is: here.

I have finished the binding on all those quilted coasters and now am in the process of snipping the thread ends. That is very boring! It is SO boring the boredom itself is exciting.

So, in the process of avoiding the boredom, I have gone to the bookstore with a gift card from Christmas. It was hard to choose. In the end, I got two. A big picture book of Gothic architecture sculpture and painting, and The Collage Source Book. I'm not planning on doing collages, at least not as they are in the book, but it has good pictures and I can get ideas from it, or just the feeling that I want to make something. Good for those days when I feel uninspired. I didn't really feel like book shopping when I went in, but in the end it was hard to choose just two.

Joseph comes home today. He has been in Nevada all week, visiting his grandparents and having a good time. We thought we would get a chance to watch some movies without talking through them, and even some that are rated R that we would not watch as a family. With Monday as a mail holiday, Netflix was slower and we didn't plan ahead well enough. Then, two movies actually came, but they were both broken. Three years of Netflix, three or four DVDs at a time, 10 to 20 DVDs a month, and a total of four have been broken. Two of those this week!

We had Fantasy Island, and we slept through a two hour episode, then a one hour episode. We went to the library and got Fahrenheit 451 and Blind Horizon, both of which we slept through. Then I rented Chocolat from a store. I stayed awake through that. Dave also stayed awake, but wishes otherwise---chick flick! So, I would say, we slept very well in Joseph's week away.

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition came in yesterday's mail. Dave said
"This came! Don't tell Joseph." Then he gave me the Entertainment Weekly and said
"Here's your version!" It has Will Ferrell on the cover. I told him that Will Ferrell was not the women's version of the Swimsiut Edition! Then he perused the Swimsuits and found a picture of Will Ferrell with one of the models.
"This proves my point."

I bought the fabric I need to line my DOL Retreat jacket. I also signed up for Retreat Light, hosted by Piecemakers Quilt Guild Community Quilts. They are getting a big room in a Newark hotel so we can all set up and sew for the entire weekend at the beginning of March. I have sent in my money, and plan to finish my jacket them. Rooms are available for a pretty good discount, but I will come home at night and also care for Janow on Sunday Morning.

pictures as promised

Here are the coasters I have been working on. I like doing it, but it takes a long time.






Michie Ettrick of My Kids And I Made It drew the original design. I just copied it. Thanks Michie!









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What's New?

This is what's new here. The new washer and dryer is installed in the laundry closet. This closet is right next to the kitchen, not the in the garage or cellar. It's right where you are most of the time.

These are the new energy and water efficient ones, and Dave put them up on a shelf instead of buying the pedastals that go with them. There are drawers under the shelf for the laundry and the laundry products. The pedestals that you can buy are not big enough for much, and having the washer and dryer at THIS height makes it SO easy to use. When you are not doing laundry, you can close the doors and they are invisible.

Dave wanted me to post them so his mom could see. So, Mrs. Mom, here they are.

I have been working on coasters here. Kind of boring. I have two kinds; quilted ones with labels for promo items, 75 of those, and prim folk art stitched ones. The quilted ones are nearly finished. there are 25 that still need labels sewn on, and then all need to checked and have the thread ends cut off. THe proim ones are something that I sort of started a long time ago. I didnt want them around but I didn't want to throw them out, so I am trying to finish them up so I can move them on.

I'll take pictures later.

I have decided that my paypal shopping cart is not very good at all. It can't do very good shipping calculations. In fact, it can't calculate much at all. It can base the shipping on a percent of the sales total, or it can give a flat rate. What I might do is go with Google Checkout. I need a shopping cart for that, which is eother another major learning curve. Alternately, I can pay a web designer to do it for me. If I did that, I could pay for them from my profits.......wait. One thing you cant do is increase operating costs to exceed you capacity for production. I cant produce enough to make enough profit to pay for a web designer.

I have looked at other options and spent some time in thought. I may be able to open a store on eCrater.com and link my store to it. ECrater.com uses Google Checkout, but has dismal store fronts with room for only one pic per item. I can take advantage of the better shipping options offered by Google Checkout if I integrate my site to there.

But when? Very good question.

Cutsy Pootsy

Look what I saw on ETSY. Isn't this great? It reminds me of Whiskers. Whiskers will steal blueberry muffins, donuts, tortillas, brocolli......
This is Whiskers. She came from Tri-City Animal Shelter in Fremont. Tremendous cat, except for the constant food search.



To actually get this bag for yourself, or see more stuff like it, visit Jelene on ETSY.

winter pics

My BTAE friends started a group post of winter pictures. They all went out and took picutres of their yards covered in snow or just dead with cold. I think they wanted to comiserate. I don't think I can comiserate. This is my yard on Wednesday.
Nova Scotians, up to their butts in snow, will have to comiserate with each other.

And this is Mary Shelley wishing she were in the yard on Wednesday.

After returning from the Design Outside The Lines retreat, I was enthusiastic to sew more. However, I have not really had the opportunity. Rats. Piecemakers Quilting Guild Community Quilts Project is hosting what they call Retreat Lite on the first weekend in March. It's local, in Newark, so getting a room is possible but not necessary. Arranging care for Janow et al is can also be skipped, so I signed up for that. Retreat Lite will not have teachers and classes or projects, just opportunity to set up machines and sew for 48 hours straight.

Someone in GThreads Group posted about the demise of another independant fabric store in her town. These are falling by the wayside, in favor of megastores that sell all kinds of stuff from prestretched canvas to playdough. This is a lot more walking for those that find that difficult. A sterile mega environment is harder to feel inspired for fabric choice. Quality is lower, in general. So my weekend plans include a visit to Sisters 'n' Stitches in Fremont. Support local independant stores.

Joseph is flying to Reno to visit his Grandparents for "Ski Break" next week. He leaves on Monday and he is SO excited he can't stand to be with himself. Flying as an 'unaccompanied minor' adds to the excitement. A non-stop flight lasting less than 1 hour, along with airport security, makes it comfortable for us to put him on the plane.

Back

I have returned form my big adventure, my first Retreat. I picked a good one to go to: Design Outside The Lines with Marcy Tilton and .Diane Ericson. There were 18 of us there, and it was a beautiful retreat center in Santa Barbara. I drove, so I had lots of time alone, by myself, without questions. I also had Cat Scratch Disease, thanks to Mary Shelley.

I went without expectations. Well, maybe I had them, but I didn't know what they were. I made a jacket, but it isn't finished, I had a little trouble figuring out how to do the front. Yesterday I decided that the problems would go away if I lined it. So I have to go back to the store and get fabric. The jacket is good enough, I think, to go in the quilt show that Peacemakers Quilt Guild is having in May. Now I don't have to worry about that entry anymore. It will be done it time, no problem.

I didn't take the camera so I dont have pictures. I didn't want to have to think about that too.

I atarted with such an idealess brain. It was very strange. Usually I have more ideas than I can think through and organize, and I have difficulty picking out the good ones. To be empty is a very odd feeling. I wondered it there were people who felt like that all the time and that it was normal for them. But I started in on something anyway, Marcy got me going. And then I made a simple mistake and I couldn't just re-do it right. I had to think how I could do it differently and make it work. So I did.... and then I had lots of ideas.

When I finish my jacket, I will take a picture so you can see. I'm sure I will finish it(she wrote, hoping that writing it and publishing to the web would make it come true). Then I have lots more ideas!

Santa Claus and the Crap Fairy

Here is some of the work of Carrie Lyons.These are all 8"x11" pencil on art board, and they are availble on ETSY for $50.
You can also buy hand touched prints and note cards and artist trading cards an very reasonable prices. You shouold check her out by clicking on this banner link.
The best part is, she can make custom portraits of your pet. She has four house rabbits and understands the importance of catching the essence of your pet.

Tomorrow, I leave for a four day retreat in Santa Barbra with Marcie Tilton and Diane Ericson. I hope everything here doesn't fall apart. Not badly anyway.

Silver is now working on her third newspaper log. I make them out of newspaper rolled up and tied with jute twine. It keeps her happy, but Dave doesn't like the mess. I remind him it is better than chewing on the sofa.

This past Christmas, it was surprising how Joseph, at eleven, is still holding on to his belief in Santa Clause. The reason became obvious when we sat down to write thank you notes. See, you have to write notes to all the people who give you gifts, except Santa Claus. Anybody who believes in Santa Clause has fewer notes to write.

The Crap Fairy is another story. Its easy to see why he still believes. The Crap Fairy goes around the house picking up all your crap and leaving prizes. The more prizes you want, the more crap you leave around. There has never been any evidence of Crap Fairy prizes, yet millions of children still believe.

Banners for Brian

My cousin Brian asked about banners. Less than an expert myself, I provided him with some info, and here, he can see some examples. They should all click through to that place.




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