Chicken Butt

Beginning to look like Christmas...

It's 11:13 PM and I'm trying to decide if I really need to take out the garbage tonight. I've stayed indoors and unshowered today. It's lovely to watch the snow fall on my driveway, but quite another to drive in the stuff. 

Today I engraved or marked all the tools I'm giving to nephews The First and The Third. Didn't take as long as I fears. As I write this I'm also installing iWork onto an iMac to be found under the tree in three days by The First. We all pitched in so Santa could be extra generous this year. 

I tried to set up the email to connect to a gmail account but failed. My main task was to set the wallpaper to something that Santa would have set it to. I found a bunch of potential images via Gizmodo. There are some really lovely ones that I really liked, but they were a bit abstract. I think NtF will really like this one. It looks really good on this 21.5" screen. Even with the plastic screen protector still on. 

This is really a sweet computer. Not sure I like the new mouse and the bluetooth keyboard is the tiny one without the number pad. I know wires aren't very stylish, but for a desktop I think wired keyboards make sense. It's bad enough when batteries die in your mouse, the bluetooth mighty mouse I bought for my MBP is lousy, but two battery hogging flaky controllers would drive me mad. Plus I like the extra USB ports in the wired keyboard (and the number pad). I don't use the keyboard much though. I mostly use my laptop from my lazy-boy. 

Okay. iWork installed. Now I need to close it down and wrap it up like new. "Leave no trace" is a good motto for Santa's helpers too.

Tasks for tomorrow:

1. Sew gift bags for everything. (Cheap X-mas fabric washed today.)
2. Make gift tags.
3. Sew set of zipper bags for sis. (optional, but I'd really like to do this)
4. Buy a lot of scotch tape for final present for the boys.
5. Buy green onions, bacon, Miracle Whip.
6. Make double batch of traditional Christmas Eve cheese-ball. Cooking the bacon is what takes me forever. I usually bake the bacon, but it still takes forever.
7. Make a mix CD or two for Dad.
8. Electrolysis appointment at 1:30.

Shit. I was thinking I was in good shape. I really should not have played WoW for 2 hours today. I thought of installing WoW on the iMac, but sis thought it might give it away. Certainly Santa knows that Max hasn't been able to play for many many months. Hm. Really tempted to Install it all including patches. Otherwise NtF will spend all day installing.

Updated 12-23 5:51 pm: I'm so screwed. iMac ready for delivery but I may not get around to the CD for Dad or Zipper bags for sis. 

Do what I say, not...ah you know

I want my friends who blog to post new stuff everyday to entertain me. Which is hardly fair considering my own sporadic posting. Speaking of which, Monica has started a blog! Hooray! I cannot wait to see Monido this populated with crafty goodness. I hope she posts some of her past projects too. I've heard much about various projects, but haven't seen pictures of the results.

I've started several posts, but not published them. Mood, motivation, accurate judging of writing quality; take your pick of reasoning.

Here is some of what is going on with me:

1. Sis does not want me to post pics of her kids on Facebook. She will allow me to post a few pics of Halloween costumes here. This is on my big list of things to do.
2. I hardly ever go to parties. They stress me out. Especially if I've gained weight and don't feel at home in my own skin nor in my wardrobe. I have two parties to attend Saturday. The annual glug party I love and a friend's 50th birthday party. Though I look forward to the glug, parties with small talk and mostly people I hardly know exhaust me. I am trying to get into the proper spirit here. I think a pretty, flattering top would help.
3. I hung a wreath on my condo door and my stocking over the fireplace. Want to put up a few more things, but so far have not taken action on this.
4. Used a bunch of credit card points to buy B&N e-gift cards. Tired of saving the points for something practical, I blew the whole wad buying DVDs to replace some VHS movies in my collection. It's been really exciting to get packages at work this week. Shocking that some movies are not available on DVD. Either they are not released yet or have never been available. Or maybe just not on B&N. Compared to Amazon their website is painful to use and their prices suck. But who cares because now I have many shiney "free" DVDs.
5. I'm taking 2 weeks off. Five working days remain before vacation. Nope, no plans. Heaven.

Please forgive me if I've written about any of these things before. I've lost track between unplublished posts, twitter and Facebook.

Oops! No title

Plenty of randomish thoughts, but no motivation to explore them. Rather than creating another post that will languish on my hard drive I'll post it anyways:

• Go Karen! 30,020 words completed with seven days to go. Karen is posed to win the NaNoWriMo challenge again this year. My hero. If you are stuck for a character take a look at this print: Characters for an Epic Tale
• I croqueted a hat over the weekend. I used some pink fuzzy yarn I bought years ago and cannot remember what I intended to make. It might have been a hat, so bad I only had two small skeins. It is a pointed stocking hat that I made up as I went along. If I had had more yarn I would have done single croquet stitch throughout, but instead did double until the brim. Tried to make a pompom for the end, but it was a fuzzy disaster that would leave a trail of fibers wherever I traveled.  It doesn’t match a thing, but I really like it.
• On Saturday I intended to sand the top for what will someday become my kitchen table. It’s been in my garage for about two years now. I started to tidy up the garage first and didn’t get to the table at all. I decided I probably could get my Christmas tree down from the shelves by myself and went for it. Not only did I not drop the box or injure myself, but it fit into the boot of my MINI with the passenger seat down. I took my tree, a batch of VHS tapes, a few DVDs and a stool to Goodwill. Weee! I have extra space in my garage now. Now I have room to move some more temperature impervious stuff out of my living space. I have a pile of Halloween costume pieces by the front door.
• When I pulled the random bits of Halloween stuff together from around my condo I noticed with a bit of shock how many pairs of funny eyelashes I’ve collected. I have nine pairs now. None are exactly alike, but really, I think I’m set for now.

Hm, there is more but I've pooped out.

Hey, I'm published

Go to The Morning News to read the story of my first horror movie. TMN's Of Recent Note feature is a collection of ~150 word stories from TMN writers and reader submissions on various topics. I usually start to write something for it, but this is the first time I've sent one. I'm pretty sure they use every submision. Also, I'm so used to posting comments as Dodi I didn't put my real name on it. I'm the only one using a nickname.

My story is third from the bottom. They embedded video clips for each story, which is pretty cool. The article was posted on October 29, but I just saw it today because I've been sick. Is it swine flu? I don't know. I think it is just broncitis. I didn't go to the doctor though. I never caught my fever higher than 99.7 and I've mostly had a killer headache, dry cough and low grade fever. My nephews, who do have swine flu are snotty, wet-coughing, feverish messes.

In case I didn't state for certain before. I am not doing NaNoWriMo 2009. Nor am I doing any other structured activity this month. I do intend to keep using my craft room regularly though. I have to take my sewing machine in for repair. The reverse function is broken. I hope the Creative Sewing Center doesn't drive me crazy with rotten service this time.

I haven't asked my sis for permission to post pics of her kids yet. So no Halloween pics yet.

Knock wood

Halloween costumes are in progress. So far I’m on track (I think). Three weekends left before school parades and H day. My goal is to finish all costumes on time without pulling any all-nighters.
Status:

Pirate vest: In Progress - needs buttonholes and buttons
Pirate pants: In Progress - needs waist elastic stitched, leg elastic waiting for boot cover completion
Pirate boot covers: Not Started
Pirate shirt: Not Started – considering buying adult pattern instead of altering child pattern
Pirate head scarf: Not Started
Snowman costume: In Progress – Fleece pieces cut
Snowman hat: In Progress – needs new band w/ flower. needs glue touched up to black from sizing changes. Should fit now, smaller felt hat glued inside too large top hat.
Ballerina tutu: Not Started - materials purchased.
Ballerina top: Not Started – probably needs embellishments to shirt sis will buy/find
Dark Fairy skirt: Not Started, materials purchased, ruffler foot bought, test gathering in progress.
Dark Fairy top: Not Started
Dark Fairy wings: In progress – wings purchased, need modifying if there is time

Ugh, so now that I wrote it out I don’t feel as impressed with myself. Maybe I’ll work on the boot covers so I can finish the pants too. I’d feel better if I had anything completely finished. At least this year I’ve got patterns for everything. Which is less stressful, but not as exciting either. It is frustrating figuring out what sewing instructions and unclear diagrams mean.

The pink chiffon and satin for Sis’s ballerina tutu arrived today. It will take time to get together, but once I figure out proper adjustment for the ruffler foot to gather 3-to-1 it should go pretty smooth. I will install my first invisible zippers for the snowman suit and do not have a special invisible zipper presser foot. I found this tutorial for using the standard zipper foot to sew invisible zippers, so I should be okay. Until this week I didn’t even know there was a specific foot for invisible zippers.

A huge thank you goes to Karen, who bought the snowman pattern in Canada and shipped it to me here in Illinois. Burda Fashion doesn’t sell it in the USA. Burda also doesn’t include seam allowances in the patterns. Both these things are very strange.

Apropos nothing, I read People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks this weekend. It was very good. I wonder why I let it sit on my to-read shelf for so long. (Please do not point out the correlation of reading a novel in three days to my costume progress. I do not acknowledge the implied causation.)

A good deal

My sis called to let me know her newly repaired jeans are awesome. Her favorite jeans had torn on both back pockets at the inner top corners and a spot by the butt seam was worn through one layer and not yet hole, but very close to baring her bottom. We picked a cute pattern from my stash. I used a method I saw on Craft: How-To: Patching Pants with Stylish Stitches. The patch fabric goes on the inside and you just zigzag stitch over it in all directions, like a sewing machine scribble. The blue thread I used was practically invisible and the actual holes small so only one small area shows the pattern. Okay, looking at that first link again, we should have used a heavier patch fabric. We were going to do a reverse appliqué on her knee like this, but the knee wasn’t a hole quite yet. Both those posts are from their March Mending Month series they did this year. There are a lot of good ideas from those posts.

What’s the good deal? Sis gets uneasy doing nothing and couldn’t sit and watch me work. (I know, weird right?) So she washed my dishes, wiped my counters, took my garbage and recycling down to the garage, broke down boxes from new shelves and a lamp I assembled on Saturday, and vacuumed most of my home. She did all that work and then thanked me for helping her out. She needs me to hem pants for her oldest, so maybe she’ll wash my windows next weekend.

Do I even like making things?

Yes, I do like to make things, though no one could tell this by my actions. I must seriously ask myself if I like making things or just shopping for the materials. When I’m home with time on my hands I’m too tired, too engrossed in my book, too sore, too close to bedtime or too uninspired. When I’m just a tiny bit inspired I want to drag my projects out and figure out how to work on them from my recliner. I have a craft room. It has 40” widescreen TV, a large sturdy work table and a good office chair. The lighting is not good yet, but I’m fiddling with it. The room is not cozy or friendly yet. There is too much disorganized stuff in it. All that wouldn’t matter if I really wanted to make something.

It is 37 days until Halloween and I’m working myself up a bit. I have four costumes to make this year: a pirate, a snowman, a ballerina and a dark fairy.  I have patterns for everything this year. Or I will when the Snowman costume arrives. Thank you Karen, my Canadian friend! (Burda has a cute pattern, but will not ship to US.) Not having to pull ideas out my ass to design the things should make things less stressful. The thing stressing me out right now is that I have to make adjustments to the pirate costume to make the shoulders and everything about one size wider. I must excise my perfectionist tendencies and just start. Once I get going I’ll start enjoying myself.

Recent craftiness

My contribution to yesterday's picnic:

Replaced my planner cover:

Double clock for work:

Click on the photos for more pics and notes.

Plate of shrimp

This blog is such a cool idea: Different Strokes from Different Folks

Artists submit paintings based on a photo provided. Every couple weeks there is a new photo. There is a wide range of skill represented, but I have no doubt that regular participants are improving their skills from participating.

I didn't know about this site until last week, but I own two paintings created for the challenge. I bought one of the paintings sort of on accident because I thought I had already bought it. I had both in my Favorites on Etsy and bought the less expensive one first, then sort of lost track. They are very different except for the three white pumpkins. They are different sizes, medium and composition, and I didn't realize they had a common inspiration until now. I thought it was a weird coincidence, just something in the air. Looking now I can see that both listings clearly say where the inspiration came from, I just didn't pay any attention before.

I like them both and am glad I have them:
 

(Click pics to enbiggen)

Here is the blog post. (scroll down to end to see original photo) or just look at thumbnails of all submissions including the photograph.

I like the idea of voluntary assignments. I chaffed under assignments in school, but restrictions imposed from external forces usually made my work better. When left to my own devises my work was mushy and mostly without focus. This challenge could be a good way to brush up on basic skills.

Tangentially related: I sorted through most of the papers I possess while on vacation. I found slides of my work from my Bachelor of Fine Arts senior show. There is some other work I hadn't thought of for years in there too. I've added them to my list of things to scan into digital format. When I get to it I'll post anything that doesn't mortify me. Some of it still cracks me up.

So, anyways...

I have a touch of crafter's block. I read skimmed the manual for my new serger the night I got it and it intimidated the excited right out of me. I sympathize with all those who never take that fucker out of the box. I hope that the "Inspirational" CDs help. Two factors have kept me from watching them:

1. They are CDs, not DVDs and are compatible with Windows 95 and higher. So I'll have to watch them on my work laptop. That last thing I want to do at home is hook up my work computer. I leave it in the car on weekdays and right by the front door all weekend.
2. Fear. If these CDs don't enlighten me I'm SOL. Sure there are all kinds of positive posts about how easy it is to thread with just a little effort in the beginning, but part of me thought I would different, that my brilliant mind would immediately grasp the mechanics and I wouldn't even need the videos. I am so full of crap.

So yep. Nothing was sewn at my home this weekend. I even felt guilty enough about it to avoid sewing two more pool towel hoodies I have materials for. I did let go of a bunch of books from my shelves and assorted piles around my home. I took two paper ream boxes of books to Goodwill on Friday after deleting them from my LibraryThing (LT) library. I can see why people have created different categories on LT for books they've read but do not possess.

Pre-Kindle it was really hard for me to delete entries on LT. It is one thing to decide I'll probably never read the book again and won't want to loan it out, but to delete a LT entry that tells the world "I own this book" is hard, especially when I've gone to the trouble of tagging it and rating it and sometimes even writing a review. The fact that most of the books I've deleted from LT have two stars or less and have tags like "lousy" has little to do with the difficulty of letting go.

I also read some paper books this weekend. I read two YA books on Friday I wasn't sure I should keep or not (kept one of them). And then I read three Robert B. Parker books from the Spenser series. The Spenser books are as easy going as the kid books but with more blood. I decided to read Small Vices, the one where Spenser almost dies after the Grey Man shoots him and Susan and Hawk secretly nurse him back to health in California before he comes back and solves the case. I thought I could just read that one. It's the twenty-third in the series I think. But no, I finished that one and went right for #1 (Godswolf Manuscript). I finished #2 (God Save the Child) at midnight last night. I had to read the second one because Spenser meets Susan in it. And I'll probably go on because Hawk hasn't appeared yet and I thought #2 was about Paul, but it wasn't that comes later.)

Alright, I just lost everyone who reads CB right there didn't I? But that illustrates something important to my collection I think. There are some books that I will read again and again and there are some books I cannot recall at all even though I know I read them. Sure my collection is less complete without The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I will never read that book again. It was depressing and way too long. Sure I felt superior when Disney spun their story and happied up the ending, but I don't lose that knowledge without the paperback and I don't get points for being well-read. Plus, if do for some crazy-assed reason want to read Hogo's Hunchback again I can download it for free from multiple locations on the net and read it on my Kindle.

My collection will have less balance and no longer contain most the books I've bought since Jr High, but it is more personal and relevant this way. So far I haven't missed anything I've let go in the last couple years.