Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Wood Floor Warning

Do not walk on a wood floor with wet feet. This should have been a warning label on the product when we bought it. For stupid people like me.

So there I was this morning, enjoying my shower and wishing I could stay in there for at least another 10 minutes. Alas, I am a wage slave. So I begrudgingly turn off the water and open the shower door. Dang. I meant to grab a towel before I got in. Such as it is when you have my brain and have not fed it the proper levels of caffeine. No worries, I keep a few in the cabinet under the sink. Dang. Empty. Sigh. Guess I have to walk out to the hallway and get one from the linen closet.

I walk gingerly on the bath rugs to absorb some of the water that is dripping from my body. Then I step into the bedroom. No throw rugs in my path. I make it about 5 steps and...

WHAMMO!

Down like a ton of bricks. And because my entire body is wet, there is a fun 'slip and slide' effect. As I lay on the floor on my back half in the bedroom and half in the hallway - nekkid and stunned - as it happened in a twinkling of an eye, I stare up at the ceiling and squeak out an 'ow'. My husband is still asleep in bed, but Paco and Mo are awake. They start jumping around on the bed and finally the half-deaf husband wakes up. I'm still muttering 'ow' and he says 'what's that noise?' I say, 'down here'. 'What are you doing down there?' 'Oh, I don't know. I thought I'd inspect the ceiling to see if it was time to repaint. Get me a flippin' towel and don't step in the puddle all around me!!' After at least one more sarcastic response to 'what are you doing down there?', the latent gentleman in him finally comes out and he helps me up.

To put you at ease, I am perfectly fine except for a new bruise on my knee that somehow got in the way of the decline. I'm actually grateful that I was wet all over as it seemed to have made the trip down a lot less harmful due to the ability to fall and slide at the same time. Kinda like sliding into 3rd base upside down and backwards. I'm also grateful that I missed landing in the curio cabinet. Otherwise, Legolas would have finally shot that arrow he's been holding his aim steady on for the past 4 years.

Photobucket

Needless to say, after that adventure, work was a piece of cake! And how was your Tuesday?

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Wish Lists

Amazon has a good thing going with the Wish List thing. You find something and store it there for later. You half-heartedly think maybe you'll buy it later. Months and months go by and still, nah - not today.

And then... you wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. There's nothing but infomercials on and you turn them off because they are starting to sound pretty good and maybe you just can't imagine life without that male enhancement product or maybe I CAN get rich in real estate. So you turn to the computer. It's safe. It's yours. You don't have to go anywhere you don't want to go. But after checking out all your fave sites and you're still wide awake, then what?

All that's left are shopping sites. And now everything on that Wish List you must have now!

Here are some purchases from a week ago when this [surprise!] very thing happened to me. And you know what? I scored! The fugly quotient in the books is quite low! Just about all of the patterns in all 3 books are things I'd want to make - how rare is that?!

Photobucket
Lots of cool projects in this book. Sweaters, scarves, hats, purses and lots of felted items.

Photobucket
Ever wonder how to wear sweaters and boleros that are not styled with the traditional button/loop closure? Well, you can make a button frog using 2 shank buttons, some elastic thread and seed beads. Just make a loop with the thread and string the seed beads onto the thread, with a button on either side. Tie off, hide the ends and voila! A button frog closure :) This is just a little side tip that is included in the Everyday Crochet book.

Photobucket
Who can have too many motif books? I'm quite certain that the answer is no one. At least no one that crochets anyway. There's lots of neat motifs with interesting stitch patterns, a lot of which that are textured - and I love texture!

On the disappointing side, I purchased this book from Overstock.com a couple of weeks ago.

Photobucket
Except for the pattern on the cover, this one is a HUGE disappointment. There's maybe only one other pattern that I might consider making. Oh well, that's the down side of buying books online. Unless they offer a 'browse' feature, you don't know what's inside. So on a positive note, 3 out of 4 ain't bad!

Now, to con the hubby into building a new book case for the craft room...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Concerning Hobbits and other things...

Another round of excitement begins as the early stages of casting, etc. start. 2 films with talk of a 3rd - don't know what that 3rd film would be. I hope they don't get carried away and ruin the overall experience - the 2nd film is taking a bit of liberty in tying The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings together as it is. Anyhoo... if you want the latest and greatest info on the Hobbit movies, go here. And if you're a fan, pleeeeeease post against them doing this in 3D!! I can't think of anything worse that they could do. Well, maybe, but seeing that rumor just about sent me over the edge.

Speaking about over the edge, I had to take my car into the shop this past week. The trunk latch stopped working and I wanted to replace the visors as the mirrors were broken (my bad. I didn't catch this when I first bought the car.) The repair for the trunk latch was covered by the warranty, but the visors were not. Now take a guess at how much the visors were? Now extend that to your wildest dream and double it. Then add $48 for labor - yessirree - turning 4 screws is quite laborious work. Grand total? $348. Was I stupid? Yes. Did I give them a mouthful anyway? Abso-flippin'-lutely!! And they're not even magic mirrors. They do not light up, magnify, put on your makeup for you or tell you that you are the fairest in the land. Chalk that one up under "lessons learned" and "maybe that's why Chrysler / GM went bankrupt."

On a brighter note, my pineapple plant has finally produced something resembling a pineapple!

Photobucket

It's still a little guy, but he'll grow up. Not having had a pineapple plant before, I'm not quite sure how long that will take, but I'm thrilled to have gotten this far!

It's been a few months since I've posted last and I have finished off a few crochet projects:

Photobucket

This is a pineapple shawl that I worked up during the MCAL at CFL. You can get the freebie pattern here if you are so inclined. I made this with about 2-1/2 balls of Marble (Red Heart is now selling this yarn under their label - look for 'Collage'.)

Photobucket

Then I've been working up washcloths for charity. I dorked around a bit with wrapping the washcloth around some handmade soap that I wrapped in pretty paper.

Photobucket

Then a little gift bag that I did up in Patons Grace. I started out with a square pattern that I found on line and took it from there. Would also work well as a soap holder / saver, dontchathink?

Other than those projects, I've started many and finished few. Seems to be a theme with me now. Could it be I have too many patterns and too much yarn that keeps me from focusing? Could be, but I'm too lazy to do anything about it ~ LOL.

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up soon!