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!