UNDER THE SEA

I'm generally NOT a water person. I don't go to the beach. No, it's NOT because I fear sharks or think people will mistake me for a beached whale! LOL! I just never found hot sand and 'loose' water (as opposed to a nice, controlled swimming pool - preferably indoors) appealing. I'm more a mountain kinda gal. Give me the higher altitudes where the air is cooler and there aren't a million people walking over me, kicking sand in my eyes, or stage-whispering, "Now THAT woman has a BIG BUTT!" while staring at my ample derriere. I like quiet. And cooooooool. But I do like the creatures of the sea. Well, a LOT of them, anyway. And I decided the first thing I'd make from the latest Tilda book, SEW SUNNY HOMESTYLE, would be a few sea critters. See my lil' seahorse? Despite the fact that my background board is getting pretty yukky (sorry about that - I need to get a replacement) I like him! I have another one half done, too, as well as a small & a large starfish cut out & ready to sew. Plan to do a sandcastle also. THEN I'll move on to her other projects in the book. If you sew; or if you CAN'T really sew (that would be ME) and you like to try making cute things, check out her books. Even this non-sewing novice can do the patterns. Yep, I still make things that come out lumpy & cattywampus (sorta like me) but you can tell it's a seahorse ... right? Least, I HOPE! Oh, and the cheeks came out sooooo red in the photo but really they aren't red at all - they're a nice, soft pink. Go figure, huh? I'll post my other sea critters when I finish. Just wanted to show I'm doing SOMETHING besides cleaning, cooking, washing, & editing this weekend! Hope all of YOU are doing something YOU love to do!

I HATE HURRICANES!

My dear friend, Susan, at Blackberry Creek blogged today about how the news has been negatively affecting her; how hate-filled it seems and how (not her words, but the general meaning) DOOMSDAY and depressing it is. I SO agree, the very reason I stopped watching the news a looooong time ago. I do watch the local weather. That's IT. I simply read a very abbreviated version of all the rest on the internet. I DO want to be an informed human being, but like an old tv detective character, I want 'just the facts'. I had no sooner commented to her post, saying basically what I wrote above, than I heard the weather. OMG! Hurricane season starts in 4 days (that much I already knew) and this year, Atlantic Hurricanes are predicted to be many and powerful. Please, see the photo below. It's a random shot of Galveston (50 miles from us) and what Ike did there. We had a lot of the same HERE. I sat up that entire night - my 58th birthday, I might add - in the dark, hot livingroom, trembling as wind seemed to scream, and trees, fences, EVERYTHING fell around us. It was horrifying and lasted from around midnight until dawn. That one night gave me something I'd never had - a huge fear of storms. I hate them now. Dread them. And tonight's gloom and doom weather report, given melodramatically over & over, scared half me to death. I understand that we in this hurricane prone region need to ALWAYS be prepared. That's common sense. But WHY scare us? WHY? They could remind us of the need to be ready (there's only so much we can do anyway) then SHUT THE HECK UP until they have a definitive REASON to warn us. PLEASE, weather folks - take it ONE STORM AT A TIME. There's no need to make us worry and be fearful. Now I AM. I will no longer watch the weather, but just read a quick forecast on the internet. And if I see a storm is headed this way, THEN I'll track it on tv. Sorry to be such a droopy drawers tonight. I needed to get this out of my system. Otherwise I may have spent the night under my bed. Well, maybe not REALLY, but then again ... !

I'M REALLY GOING TO BE LOST!

TV - the 2009/2010 season is winding down. Last night was the series finale of the hit phenom LOST. There were times over the 6 seasons when it touched me, times it annoyed & frustrated me, times it confused me. LOTS of times it confused me! But I watched. EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE. Lost had it all. And now it has ended except in syndication, I'm sure - soon as someone picks it up. And on dvd, of course. I watched the finale with my housemate, also a LOST fan, but I wish I could have watched it by myself because I don't LIKE crying in front of anyone. So today my head & throat hurt from choking back the tears. Okay, I know! I'm a sentimental nut. That, and the fact that I HAD to shed tears 'cause I won't see the gorgeous Sawyer, Jin, or Sayid NEARLY enough anymore! WAAAAAH!

Tonight Law and Order is ALSO coming to an end. Again, I've never missed an episode, and have seen SOME episodes LOTS of time in syndication. I just read that PERHAPS another channel will pick this one up after all. They picked up Law & Order - Criminal Intent! But I hate to see it go. I really do.

Law & Order - SVU hasn't ENDED. Whew! THANK GOODNESS! It's my favorite of the L&O shows! But it has shown the season finale so no NEW SVU until Autumn. Sigh.

Survivor finished its season a couple of weeks ago. I am still having withdrawal symptoms, and WILL until September when SURVIVOR: GUATEMALA begins.
I'm getting ready for all the summer stand-in shows. Most of those are either test dramas or reality shows or the remainder of shows they started earlier in the season and unceremoniously stopped mid-season. Shows such as LIE TO ME and AFTER LIFE which will return in a week. So You Think You Can Dance, Hell's Kitchen, The Next Food Network Star, and Top Chef are not far behind. Something called THE ROOKIES was advertised on ABC during the finale of Lost. I like police stuff. Maybe I'll check that out. But if all else fails - or even WITH the other shows - I always have my 6 seasons of the show that STILL, after all this time, is one I'll never get ENOUGH of watching! I'm so glad I have my beloved THIRD WATCH! Thank you, 55! I LOVE YOU!

What show or shows are YOU going to miss? And what can't you be without?

WOW! WHOSE NICE CLEAN, ORGANIZED CRAFT AREA IS THIS?

WHEW! What a monumental job THIS was! I've been in this house for over a year now & always MEANT to get around to totally organizing my craft room. But you know how it is! STUFF gets in the way. For ME, that's mostly editing! But I have finally got it ALL done! Things are in designated areas, mostly in covered containers, and labeled CLEARLY so - if I can't see all the contents, I can READ them. I have to confess, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Below you can see one of my yarn shelves. It's directly to the left of my office area. By the way - note that teeny sewing machine on the shelf to the right of the yarn shelf. LOL! Pitiful, huh? You can't see it, but all my patterns & creating books are on the brown shelves over my desk, too. Here, just behind my craft table, is another shelf with yarns and some of my fabric.

UNDER my craft table are containers with felt (I have a TON of felt) felt food-making things, etc. As you can see, this brown thing holds 90% of my art supplies. But it also holds my lil' pin cushion (top of shelf) and container with all my crochet hooks. On the right hand bottom shelf you'll see a white bucket. That's what I use when I'm crocheting & don't want my yarn on the floor. The bucket sits atop the two big containers of DMC thread.
The triple brown shelves are my pride and joy because I love, love, love glass jars of ANY kind. Seriously! I'm ADDICTED to jars! Beads, buttons, MORE yarn, doodads, doll & animal eyes, glasses, some of everything in them! Of course you can also see containers filled with wooden things, paper mache, & a myriad of other stuff. Finally, next to the light switch is yet a final stack of containers with ribbon, purse findings, crown-making stuff, more fabric, trim, etc. Incidentally, my closet in this room is ALSO neatly redone! But you can't SEE it because I tend to buy gifts ahead of birthdays, etc. and THAT'S what fills the closet. Well, also boxes, wrapping paper, so forth. There's only ONE BAD THING about having everything organized. What excuse - what POSSIBLE excuse - will I have for going to Hobby Lobby or Michael's? UH-OH. I may have screwed up here.

DID SHE SAY TURKEYS?

Earlier tonight I received an email from my daughter. The subject line read: HUNTING TURKEYS, but the truth is, I didn't NOTICE that at first. All I noticed was her email address & was glad to hear from her so I clicked it open. OMG! What's THIS? My child has joined the ARMY? Look at that GUN! I mean, for goodness sake, the thing is bigger than SHE is. It freaked me out. Of course, PART of that is because I HATE guns of ANY kind. To see my daughter with that big, honkin' rifle REALLY threw me. Then I FINALLY happened to look up & saw the reference to turkey hunting. Her fiance is a big fisherman/hunter. Ooooohhhhh! Okay. Got it! I wrote back & told her what I'd thought & she replied in her very typical Leah way. She wrote, "Mom, you're an airhead." Sigh. Yep, I AM. LOL!

JUST CALL ME HAZEL

Who remembers Hazel, as played by Shirley Booth? For those of you among us who are whippersnappers, she was the maid to the Baxter family on tv. This was years ago, of course. Still, whenever I have to clean house, I always say I have to 'Hazel'. Lately, with the HUGE bunch of editing I have in my possession, and Hazeling, washing clothes, cooking for my housemate, etc., I have begun to FEEL like a maid. I don't think I like it. MOST of the time I don't really mind. I LOVE a clean house! I enjoy being organized. I like the $$ I get from editing so I can support myself as far as needs are concerned & indulge myself as far as books & craft supplies are concerned. But sometimes I have a real NEED to be pampered; to get away all by myself & answer to no one for a few days. Can't DO it right now because there's too much I HAVE to do. Still, I can daydream. And I HAVE been daydreaming. I think I'd enjoy a cruise. To Alaska! Yes! I'm NOT a beach or island kinda person. Give me cold and icebergs (not ones that break away and sink the ship and cause Leonardo de Caprio to freeze his butt dead in the water; just nice to LOOK at icebergs doing their quiet lil' iceberg thing!)
Doesn't this look appealing? It does to ME! Makes me feel so frosty I ALMOST want to go turn off the a/c. Or NOT!

And SPA TREATMENTS! I'd have a LOT of those! That would be in between times of sitting around in a deck chair admiring the scenery, going sightseeing at port stops, eating too much, seeing a show or two, and being sinfully lazy!

My friend, Judi, lives in North Pole, Alaska. I could stop and meet up with her for a couple of hours! I'd LIKE that! Maybe there'd even be a guy on the cruise who ADORES large Comanche women who are almost 60. Yeah! He'd see me across a room (how could he MISS me when I am this big?) and think, "I have to meet this vision of lovely BIGNESS!" And he WOULD meet me and fall for me & turn out to be not ONLY the nicest, most loving, caring man EVER, but he'd have TONS of $$ and all he'd want to do with it is spend it on me. Sigh ... And the BEST part is THIS: I would NEVER have to start drinking & order ANY of those abundant drinks on board. Not even the bright-colored ones with lil' umbrellas stuck in 'em. NOOOOO! I already have a drunken imagination. Can't you tell? BWAHAHAHAHA! But I guess I should put my imagination away and get back to the editing. Hazel lives.

OH, BABY!

I like making things for baby girls! Sooooo much fun! Recently I saw this pattern on Ravelry. I looked at it & thought I'd 'test drive' it BEFORE I really NEEDED to make it so I could see if it worked up properly. It DID. I started & FINISHED it in under 2 hours! How's THAT for a great pattern? Now the pattern's author didn't say what size this pattern would make but I knew that, using an H hook & 4-ply yarn would most likely produce about a 9-month size. Yeppers! If I want to adjust it to make newborn, 3-6 months, or 12 months, it'll be a cinch. On this particular dress I made one addition. I threaded ribbon through the waist just for fun.






Check out the back. It called for only 1 button, but I liked 2. I used some mouse-mommy-with-mouse-baby buttons I had. Whatcha' think?

Here's a closer look at the waist.

And here's the picot hem detail.

This particular dress will be a gift for my friend Sandy's granddaughter's first baby who she already KNOWS is a girl. I intend to send her some newborn things, of course, but it's always good to have a larger size, too! After all, babies grow SO FAST! I can vouch for that! Wasn't MY baby just 1 year old yesterday? Or maybe that was - sigh - many, many yesterdays ago!

PURRRRRRRR!

This is Ms. Kitty. She's for my best friend, Jan's (grown) daughter, Tania who is - like me - a kitty person! I got the pattern from Ravelry recently & it was so cute, I HAD to crochet one! She looks kinda happy, don't you think?


Here's a side view of her. (And yes, I realize there are 'hardly any' - LOL! - cats with blue & green in them, but I felt like making her a rare species.)

Now, I say it's just NAUGHTY of her to turn her lil' tail toward the camera. I mean, who wants to view a KITTY BOOTY? Honestly! (WHAT? You think I turned her that way? MOI???? Never! Well ... oh, okay! I confess.)

And with that, I'd better make this THE END!

I'M REALLY In-VEST-ed IN THIS!

I JUST finished this on my break. Whew! I got a HUGE unexpected rush job & have been editing almost non-stop since 8:40 last night! But awhile ago I decided I needed a break. So I got myself some water, a cup of soup, and added the last thing - the button - to this sweater vest. It fits a medium to an extra large! Cool! Made it much easier to do. Plus the cotton Sinfonia yarn I used has some stretch to it. The colors are intended to please the recipient. I'm happy with my bad self. LOL! Now back to editing.

Stitch detail.

Button detail. (The button is shiny gold - the light is just hitting it wrong.)

And botton trim detail.

MARCH, MARCH, MARCH!

CAN YOU RESIST THESE SWEET FACES? BETCHA' CAN'T!

Some of you who read my blog know my lil' play-daughter, Courtney. Her link is http://cajunhillbilly.blogspot.com/ and if you are familiar with her blog, you KNOW she is one busy lady. Well, this month Courtney is walking for the March of Dimes. Now Court is the type of person who does all SORTS of wonderful things for her family, for her friends, for strangers, for anyone. But this walk is more personal for her because her twin boys were born prematurely & had to stay in the NICU for 10 days. WHOA! That's expensive and really frightening! Thank goodness for organizations like the March of Dimes who kick in and help! Today, those darling boys are healthy & smart & WONDERFUL and Aunty Kai ADORES them as well as their sweet big sister! I'm posting this today so even more people will see it & donate if you can. Go to her blog to find out how. You don't have to donate a million bucks! LOL! A dollar, five or ten if you can. Whatever you can do. We ALL know the March of Dimes, & it is TOTALLY a great thing to contribute to. (Yes, yes! I DO know better than to end a sentence in a preposition, but just this once, please pardon my grammar!) I sent my $$ to Court this morning! As SHE asks on her blog, if you can't send a donation, please DO send prayers because she AND the twins are doing the 3 mile walk. That's a LOT for lil' guys! I for one am THRILLED that today they are healthy and happy and able to walk those miles! THANKS, EVERYONE!