I am most definitely sick

I requested a Saturday morning sleep in, but wouldn't you know that a scratchy, itchy throat and a plugged nose (with exploding sinus pain) made it awful hard to sleep. I decided to pass this sleep in day to Chainsaw. I will be drinking my weight in Traditional Medicinals and working on my tshirt rug.

Speaking of the tshirt rug, if you're looking for a perfect LAZY craft, this is it! I spent part of yesterday cutting up shirts, and it's going together fairly quickly with my gigantor crochet hook. I love a craft that I can work on while sitting on the couch watching Law & Order reruns.

I hope everyone has a great, germ free weekend.

Etsy Color

Have you seen this?

Etsy Color

It might be the coolest thing that I've seen all day.

Still lazy, but trying to shake it off

First off, I just want to say thanks to all who have been stopping by (and commenting or not). I have a hard time making friends sometimes (I'm shy with new people), and it's been fun having everyone stop by. I've also expanded my blog feed by eleventy billion. All the new inspiration is glorious!

Confession time.

In addition to feeling a bit sick/lazy this week, I've also been addicted to a British tv show called Skins. It's about a group of teenagers, and I love it. I accidentally watched all of seasons 1 & 2 since Friday. Oops! I didn't even bother sharing its glory with the Chainsaw. I don't think he'd like a show about a bunch of teenagers. He might, but let's face it- I've only NOT been a teenager for just less than 3 years.

Season 3 just started, but I see that they've started it with a new cast (the other kids were done with school and scattering to Universities, etc.), and I'm not sure I really care. We'll see.

Anywho, I have barely touched my sewing machine all week. I cut some pieces out for a new purse design on Tuesday. Yesterday I cut out a few more pieces for it and sewed some of it together. That's it. I haven't been feeling it, but I should try to finish it. Finishing something always leaves me feeling triumphant!

Heather got her clothesline pouch and posted nice things about it here. I'm so glad she likes it!

Let's end this post with something weird. We were making our semi annual trip (as in, whenever we feel like, but not too often) up to Rocky Mountain National Park in 2007 when this vision greeted us from the side of the road:



I rolled the window down and got this glorious picture. Weee!

I have a quick question. I checked out some old library books about bag making, and they have the teeny tiny pattern pieces that say enlarge 400% (or something else ridiculous), and I have no idea how to do this. If I scan it into my computer, it never scans it at actual size. They always end up bigger, but I have no idea what percent. Anyone have any enlarging tips for me? I don't really want to go to the copy shop, but I guess I could if I have to.

Don't look now..

I'm being oh so gloriously lazy today (and yesterday and the day before that). Not exactly true, but do you really want me to tell you stories like this...

I got to sleep in a bit on Saturday, went to the post office to mail my giveaways, stopped at the library (oopsies! I owed 20 cents!), blah blah blah.

Oh! The weather totally pulled a fast one on me again. Last week it was oh so gloriously warm here, which I suspected was a joke played on me by the weather. Then Friday night it's supposed to snow, which it does for a second. No snow was on the ground Saturday morning. Ha ha weather, you pulled a fast one! I wake up Sunday, and the weather had gone and done it. It was snowing. It was snowing well enough that I woke the Chainsaw a bit early on his sleep in day so I could go run errands before it got too yucky and I lost my will to leave the house. My cat was out of food!

See how boring this is?

I wrote all the stuff above this last night and was too lazy to post it. Today I don't feel so hot. Maybe that's why I'm lazy?

I'll make myself get to work tomorrow or at least do something cool.

The fruits of this week's labor

Public service announcement:

When trying to make an omelette, which I've never really tried before, if you attempt to flip up one side and accidentally turn it into a big eggy, cheeesy, ham filled mess, more cheese seems like the logical answer. Put a pile of cheese on top and let it melt. It'll cover the ugly and add extra deliciousness, right?

The answer to that question is yes and no. Yes, it tastes delicious for a couple bites, but it may leave you feeling like you just ate a pound of cheese. You may wish for a magic phone booth to take you back in time to the point of the cheese adding to change your mind.


Oh, another question has come up. If you're making an omelette that turns out ugly, and you're about to put more cheese on it when you from the future shows up and warns you from the past not to do it, would you listen?

PROBABLY NOT!

Anywhos, now that we've all learned from my mistakes, I have other things to talk about.

I told Monty that he was probably going to have to pose for some pictures soon, and he decided to get ready. He's currently shedding all his old, dull scales. He wants to have a shiny new set on display for his close ups. As soon as he's done, we'll have a snakey photo shoot. I'm glad for the wait. I still can't look him in the snake eyes after what happened the other night.

Yesterday I decided to use my awake, dressed self for good instead of evil by working on a new wristlet pattern resulting in these cuties:











I also made a couple new clothesline pouches featuring undies only:

I just got dressed before noon for no reason?

What? And I vacuumed the rug too?

I babysit a sweet little girl and her funny little brother twice a week, and on those days I get up, get dressed, brush my teeth, and clean up my house as much as possible before they come at 9. That is a LOT for me to do that early. I go back and forth between being a morning person and being a morning dreading person. I think it depends on how well I'm sleeping.

When my relationship with the Chainsaw was fresh and new, we had a huge time difference between us. He was seven hours ahead of me in The Netherlands. I would go to bed early, like 8 or 9 (do you see why I wasn't super cool in college?) so I could successfully get up at 5 or 6 am to talk to him online for a bit before I had to go to class. Believe it or not, I liked this schedule. Maybe it was the excitement of internet flirting with my one true love? Maybe it was watching the sunrise? See how cute we were?



Anyway, that is no longer my schedule. Today I am all ready to babysit, but then I get the call that says the two year old is sick. again. That poor kid has been sick a lot lately, and his poor mama didn't want to inflict the germs on Felix.

So here I am, awake, dressed, and my house is cleaned up. I guess I better get to work! I have several new wristlets cut out and ready to be cute.

Scarred for life

Edited to add: I'm a little embarrassed that I posted this, but I had to get it out before it ate me alive. I have some almost finished sewing to show you a little later today. I will try to never tell you such explicit stories about snake poop again.

Warning: I talk about poop and snakes in this post. If you might get grossed out, don't read. That is all.

I saw something completely disturbing last night, and it had nothing to do with the scary movie Chainsaw made me watch last night. Apparently I picked the movie the night before by requesting no scary movies, so last night he got to pick, and of course he picked scary. It ended up having a zombie-ish theme, which isn't really that scary to me.

So I'm scarred for life, and it's not from the scary movie? What could have been so horrible in real life?

Another Warning: Snake poop talk ahead.

There's a snake in my bathroom. His name is Monty Python, but I like to call him Mr. P. We inherited him from our neighbors who were moving and didn't really have room for him/ time to love him. I wasn't too excited, but over the past few months he has grown on me. I have even held him a few times. I bought him a 10 mouse lunch ticket at the feed store. I even felt bad for him one time when Lunch (the name I give every mouse that comes into this house) bit him on the back while Mr. P was strangling him.

To me, the most mystical aspect of being a snake owner has been the snake poop. Snake poop is weird. He does it about once a week, and there is one white poop that looks like popcorn and one brown poop that looks like a Tootsie Roll (the medium sized one, with the 3 little lines to help you break it). It's weird stuff. I am a mom, so I'm somewhat fascinated by poop.

Even more mystical than the poop itself is where it comes from. I have inspected his belly and come up with no clues as to where the poop originates.

Ok, so enough poop back up story.

Scary movie? WATCHED. It is now bed time on the eve of January 20, 2009, a date historic for many reasons. I go upstairs to brush my fangs, and Monty looks kind of funny. That's when I realize that he is pooping. I think to myself, "How lucky am I to catch him pooping? He only poops once a week, and I've never seen it before. Mysteries shall be solved tonight!"

Then I took a closer look and I saw it happening. I can't even explain the horror, but I the moral of the story is this:

If you get a chance to watch a snake poop, DON'T DO IT! It is scary. It is an image you will never get out of your head. It is seriously the most disturbing thing I've ever seen, including the one picture my back up midwife took of Felix crowning. That picture has always disturbed me. Could that really be my body? Yikes! Seeing Mr. P poop was more painful than childbirth.

I don't have any good pictures of Mr. P, but I'll work on it. When he is not pooping, he is seriously a glorious animal. Don't get me wrong, I'm no snake lover, but I do appreciate his majesty.

"Hiking" with Felix

Today it was 65 degrees. Did you see that? Do you know what month it is? Do you know what season it is? It was glorious, truly glorious. That said, I don't like it on principle. I feel like the weather is fooling me.

Weather: I'm so warm today.
Ashley: I know, it's like spring is coming!
Weather: HA! It's January yo. I can snow on you again, and I will!

Weather seems to be serious about trying to fool me. The forecast for this week says 50+ everyday, which is what today said, and it was actually 65.

Anywho, I packed up the family to go "hiking today." By family, I meant Felix and Nana. The Chainsaw isn't feeling too hot today. By hiking, I mean going on a walk on a trail. Felix called it hiking. Our favorite walking place is technically on a farm (but also has public trails). There are cows!



There are sticks you can pick up and use to poke at cow pies (after your dog is done sniffing them, of course).



You can declare yourself "Jogging Boy," and jog far ahead of yo mama.



You can pick up rocks and throw them in the bushes. Mom says no throwing rocks in the house, but it is ok here as long as there isn't anything alive in your strike zone.



The sun shines brightly.



And if you're really lucky, the cows will be having a feast on the way back to the car.



Whatever good ol' weather is up to, I guess I'll take it for a bit. I wish it really was time for spring!

Important Saturday night announcements

The most exciting order of business is that the random number generator picked lucky number 18, Heather Jane from Living Senses. She, like so many of you, likes the clothesline best, and it will soon be on its way to her house! Congrats Heather!

Good news though, I have two more clothesline pouches appliqued. They shall soon be in the shop!

Even more good news- I decided that there should be two winners. The second winner was chosen less diplomatically. I didn't feel like having to count through all the comments again, so I looked at the ceiling, scrolled up and down for a minute or two, and picked the name the mouse was on for the second lucky winner. Feel free to try this method for yourself, it's kind of exciting.

Anyway, our second winner is Shel from AuntieThesis, who said the Love Bullets pouch would make a great gift for her sister the police officer. She also would like us to go vote for her dog, and is offering a prize for people who do so. Check that out if you will!

I had a small shop update today, and I'll be listing the pouches not destined for new homes tomorrow.

I think that does it for my announcements. Felix is in bed, and I think I'm going to go hit the tub and then cozy up in bed with some magazines (I have a huge stack I need to catch up on!). Thanks again to everyone who commented. I hope to see you around again!

More fabulous giveaways

Cool camera strap giveaway here.

Pendant and fat quarter bundle here.

Just try not to win, ok? I want to!

Just kidding (kinda)! Good luck!

The thrifted linen strikes again

If you're looking for the giveaway, it's HERE. The cut off is still tomorrow night at 7pm mountain time.

I've been working hard to make that pair of linen pants into as many cool things as possible. Here are the creations I've finished today:



I love this one. I found a ginormous jumble of this lace at a thrift store. I'm assuming it's old because it looks it. It also looks super pretty.

I also decided to try my hand at some embroidered change pouches, like this one:



and this one:



Um, I like hearts, ok?

I also finished a couple more Love Bullets pouches with red guns, but you know what those look like.

You guys are blowing me away on the giveaway post. The clothesline seems pretty popular. I'm thinking I should make some more. Maybe one with all undies?!? Sorry, but the undies are my favorite part. My family home didn't have air conditioning until after I moved out (like right after, thanks for all the suffering ma!), so we had to hang all our clothes out to dry. Dryers = hot house. My mom always said to hang the undies in the back so the passersby couldn't see them. Consider upcoming undies pouches my late rebellion!

Some things I'm going to work on:

1. Make a sweet list of all the blogs that promoted my give away and post it here. I haven't had time to check them all out, but I've seen some pretty cool stuff on the ones I have looked at.

2. Shop update. I know I said Sunday, but I might try to put a few things up sooner. I have to wait until after the drawing to list the pouches in the giveaway post. One of them won't be available because it will be living at your house or wherever you decide it needs to live. The winner will have the huge responsibility of deciding if they're going to keep it for themselves (and if so, what you're going to do with it!) or give it to a friend. I am the tangent master!

3. Relax. I think I'm going to do this one first. :D

Have a great Friday night. I'll meet you by the bike rack around the corner tomorrow night for the random number generated "drawing."

Let's have a give away today.

--Giveaway is closed! I'll be announcing the winner in a new post.--

Sounds like a great idea to me.

Remember all that linen from the last post? Well, I spent the last couple of days turning it into pouches. So far I only have 5 DONE, 2 almost done, and several more that are still naked pieces of linen.











Do you want one of these? You do? Good! What? You'd like it with additional prizes inside, like lip balm and vintage buttons? OK, but don't get into the habit of being so wanty. It's probably bad for your skin.

So here's how to get one:

Leave me a comment telling me which one is your favorite by Saturday night (let's have the cut off be at 7 mountain time, ok?).

Want more chances to win? You do? Good!

For an extra chance to win, put out of the word on your blog, come back here and post another comment telling me you did it. I am lazy, and this will make using a random number generator much, much easier.

For another glorious chance, subscribe to my feed. If you already do, cool! Just make another comment and let me know. If you don't, subscribe and tell me in a comment.

Easy peasy!

I'm thinking Sunday shop update. See you there!

Works in progress

I just spent an hour performing magic. When I say magic, I mean I ruthlessly cut up a pair of size 16 pure linen capri pants into 14 sets of rectangles that shall soon become zippered pouches. 14! I even cut part of one leg off a while ago to make Grandma's tea pouch. So really, I got 15 out of it.



After lunch I'm going to go rob the best scraps out of my giant scrap box for super cool applique time (which will hopefully coincide with Felix's nap time).

I really wanted to work on some projects where materials were not a huge part of the cost. I would love to offer some cheaper things in my store, but using new materials keeps things a bit spendy (and I'd like to make a few dollars profit here and there). So I am going to be making some things out of recycled or thrifted materials to keep costs down for everyone.

I did just get all that glorious new fabric, so I'm sure it will be playing some roles here and there.

In other news, Felix has been using the potty, and it is awesome. I have been bribing him with candy for his Pez dispensers. I bought a big bag of half packs of the candy (6 in each), and I've been giving him 3 for each successful pee. He has had a dry diaper all morning. I offered to let him wear his underwear around the house, but he refused, stating that he likes diapers and will wear them forever. He also refuses to do other business in the potty, but at least we're making progress. Hopefully we'll kick his diaper habit to the curb by his birthday. Let's all keep our fingers crossed!

Seeing red

I accidentally let the lazies get me again last weekend, but I think I kicked them out this morning. We'll see!

So when I wasn't being lazy, I did get some work done on my other custom order. I was told that the recipient likes red. So this is what I came up with for the purse:



She wanted some accessories to go with it that would coordinate without being super matchy, so I used some of the same fabrics to make another love bullets pouch. Apparently the black fabric picks up the fuzzies, and I used my flash. That means they show up REALLY WELL. Oopsies! I'll have to lint roll it before I send it out.



I was also asked to make a checkbook cover. I made one this morning that turned out super cute, yet also super wonky. I decided to keep it for myself, learn from my mistakes, and start over (which I'll be doing as soon as I'm done here!). Here is the not quite right first try:





Oh wow, is there an award out there for worst top stitching ever? I'd like to award it to myself. I stitched it topside down, which I probably shouldn't have done. Actually, it doesn't look so bad in real life. Those pictures made me want to scrap or fix it, but after a quick real life looksy, I don't think I'd be embarrassed to say I made it.

Um, I also made up a new style of purse this weekend that I messed up a bit. I am apparently not to be trusted sewing right now. I think I'm going to keep working through it though.

Jellybean Soup Co.: Giveaway!

Check out this cool give away too!

Jellybean Soup Co.: Giveaway!

Out the door

I finally finished custom order numero uno: A pen holder, with a stripey tie on the front. A cool kid named Chris who works with Chainsaw asked me to make him one. He has a really fun etsy shop HERE. A lot of fellas in his art end up wearing adorable red and white stripey ties, so he wanted his pen holder to also be wearing one.

I'm a little embarrassed about how long it took me to get done, but first I had to deal with the lazies. The lazies wore off, and then I had to deal with the sick kid. I started working on it and realized all my white zippers looked like they used to be white. That means that they were yellowish, dingy, nasty, no good. So then I had to wait for new zippers. What's even more embarrassing is how long I worked on it yesterday. I kept messing up. In the end, I think it turned out pretty dang cute.

I hope he likes it as much as I do.





Now it's time to get back to work. I have more custom orders to work on. Custom orders make me feel special and fancy, even if they are from my step mom and not someone all fancy who is dying for my work. Oh wait, she is fancy. :D

Oh my heart!

The zippers just got here today, and oh. my. word. are they beautiful. I want to take off their rubber bands and roll in them. I'm not going to do that though. I will wear them on my head like a zipper wig though. I have no shame.

(Excuse the fact that I couldn't be bothered to use a real camera. Your mom invented photo booth so I could use it.)





The colors didn't show up well in photo booth, but they are awesome, I promise.

Zipper stop is where it's at kids!

Also, sewing machine still works and fabric is being fed to it. She is so happy, and so am I!

A happy list for an unhappy day

Felix feels a little bit better today. That should be good news, but in all reality he feels just good enough to have the power to hate everything. Fo reals. He "hates" every show I can put on the tv. He "hates" it when I take him out of his high chair. He "hates" being in the high chair. He hates "milk," but he wants some. In fact, he even "hates" me and himself. He has told me all of these things several times today.

All the hate that's flying around here isn't making me very happy, so I thought I'd make a list of things that do make me happy.

Ashley's Super Cool List of Happy Stuff

1. I know I've said it before, but I am always happy about getting new fabric in the mail from overrainbow.com. Sign up for her newsletter, I dare you. Then you'll know about the sales on her already cheaper than most places fabric. I got 18 half yard cuts in the mail yesterday, and that makes me happy.

2. Cheap zippers. Mama needed some new zippers. Zipper stop has several lots of 100 zippers for $9.99. Shipping is a little spendy, but they will combine. So I just got 200 zippers for a little less than $30. They are on their way. I'm excited about this bringing down the cost on the zippers I put into my items. 35 cents a zipper is much better than $2 a zipper!

3. Winning stuff. The universe apparently thinks that if I need anything right now, its a calender. I won one of these cuties from LeeAnn at MintBasil. Then a couple days later I saw that I won this family organizer from The Toby Show. I currently have a big ol' dry erase marker calender on the wall that I haven't touched since sometime before Uncle Babraham went missing in July. I think I'm going to put it away. I'll let you know where the new, glorious calenders go when they get here. Thank you so much ladies! Let us let 2009 be the year of no forgotten birthdays, anniversaries, or appointments!

4. Christmas Eve Fambly picture:



5. Adorable nieces with carrot faces:



That's what I've got for now. I hope your day if a happy one and that no one else is being hated as much as I am right now.

Work, huh? What's that?

I have been lazy. Gloriously lazy. My sewing machine has not been plugged in since before we left for SD. My floors are dirty, my rugs need vacuumed, my laundry needs folding, but I don't really care.

Today seems like a good day to get back to work though. Chainsaw headed down to Denver after a four day weekend. If he can do it, I think I should be able to also! My only obstacle today is sick kid. Sick kid wants to stay in his bed (WEIRD. He must really be sick if he'd rather hang out there by himself). Sick kid has a chest full of junk. He coughs so hard he gags. His breath is not good. I try not to smell it if possible. However, sick kid has adorable sweat induced curly hair. He is sweet, thanking me for every drink of water, every cool wash cloth face wipe, every kiss on the forehead. Today is day three, and I think the sickness is on its way out. All the resting must be doing some good. I can't wait to have this happy guy back:



So maybe if sick kid sleeps a bit longer I can get to work. I have a few custom orders I need to work on, and I won some adorable pear fabric from Lolly that I'm supposed to be making into an apron. I have also won a couple giveaways that I'll soon be documenting. I would love to do another giveaway here soon. It's always good to pay back the universe for things generously given to you. Oh wait, I'd have to get to work for that, right? Yikes!