Remember when I said I was going to sew some spring tops for my girl?

I actually did it!

New Look 6940 Cotton knit print with black knit trim.

Variation of New Look 6891 Silky-ish poly from Hancock's, black satin band.

And check out the smiles! She likes them! AND her friend asked her if she got the blue top at Charlotte Russe! Pretty much the greatest compliment I could have received from a 14 year old girl, yes?

Dear Office Depot,

I went into your lovely establishment today to buy a box of envelopes. I was paying with cash. Seems simple, yes?

Cashier: Hi! Are you purchasing these for business or personal use?

Me: Uh, personal?

Cashier: What is your zip code?

Me: You need my zip code?

Cashier: Yes.

Me: (gives zip code, like a good little monkey)

Cashier: Ok, what is your phone number?

Me: (sigh) (gives phone number)

Cashier: Do you have one of our Rewards cards? You can save..

Me: (interrupting) NO.

Cashier rings up purchase.

Me: (because I just can't help myself) Why do I have to give you all of that information just to buy a box of envelopes?

Cashier: I'm sorry, but our registers won't even ring up a purchase unless we ask all of that.


So, Office Depot, even though you are convenient for me, I will be finding another place to fill my various and sundry office supply needs. You are simply too damn nosy.

Yours affectionately,

Is it just me?

Just saw an ad for Viagra. A middle aged man is walking down an urban street. His reflection in the shop window begins talking to him.

Reflection says, "Going to the Dr?"

Actual living/breathing Man answers, "Yes."

"So, are you going to ask?"

And the man continues to have a conversation with his reflection about his shyness about talking to the Dr. about Viagra while walking down a city street.

Personally, I'm guessing that if you are having an out-loud-and-in-public conversation with your reflection, your biggest problem is not ED.

Really, the voices and hallucinations should be mentioned first.

The Weather Report

Tomorrow, the sun is supposed to shine. Which would be a really welcome event, since it has snowed and rained and generally been cloudy and moody around here (both me and the weather).

I re-read (reread? looks weird) my post from yesterday, my whiny, whiny post. I'm embarrassed for me. I hate feeling that sorry for myself.

So, I'm not going to anymore. No more whining. No more.

Let's talk about something fun, shall we? My daughter needs some spring tops, and so I've decided during her spring break this week to try and make her some new ones. I haven't sewn any clothes in a while, so I'm looking forward to the challenge.


The first one is a super-super simple top, New Look 6891. For some reason, this is supposed to have a front seam and back seam, but I see no reason for this so I'm just going to cut it on the fold.

If it comes out well, I'll take pictures.

A post in which I blather on about the daily hiccups of my life...

Hiccup #1 - Tension Headaches.

Actually, as I've learned from my massive research on Dr. Google (which involved exactly one article on webmd), they are now referred to as Tension-type Headaches, as they are no longer considered to be caused by tense muscles, but by some sort of brain chemical thingie.

I've progressed (really wrong word) from having some sort of life-altering-holy-hell-my-head-is-going-to-explode-and-then-burst-into-flames event once every month or so to having an ongoing-seemingly-never-ending-low-to-mid-to-extreme-headache-all-the-time-every-day-omg-will-it-ever-end.

Which really puts a wrench in the creative works.

Hiccup #2 - Uh....Hmmmmm....

OK, I've just realized that all of my hiccups are basically ALL ABOUT THE HEADACHES. Headaches made me feel bad. Headache medicine makes me feel weird and woozy. Creativity sucks when your head hurts. Productivity sucks even worse. The fact that I'm less creative and productive than I want to be makes me tense. Tense makes the headaches worse.

The downward spiral is both maddening and cliche.

Aren't you glad you asked?

I have tried peppermint tea, relaxation techniques, hot baths and showers. I've cut out alcohol and aspartame as possible triggers. I need to do yoga or add in some exercise.

Hiccup #3 - Bieber Fever? UGH!
___________

In good news, I've discovered Greek yogurt. Delish.

Happy Freakin' Spring!

We woke up on March 21st, the official first day of spring!!!, to find this...




These were taken in the morning. It snowed all day. ALL DAY. Official totals were at 12 inches. To put this in perspective, we are not in Minnesota. This is Arkansas. This is the most snow we've had all year. Or for several years for that matter.

We just kept looking outside all day going, "This is so WEIRD!" (Ok, it was mostly me. But it was!)

Today, the high is 70.

I'm guessing the the forecast for next weekend will include either locusts or frogs.

Waahhhhhh.....

I had planned on having lots of progress made. Pictures of headbands! Listings of headbands! Bloggy goodness in the form of new buttons and navigation bars and more pictures!

Instead, I'm parked on the sofa, in painnnnnnn from a root canal/wisdom tooth pull combo, feeling sorry for myself because I had really not expected for this procedure to lay me out. At least Project Runway is on tonight. (please, PR, be good this season.)

Coming soon to my shop...

As soon as I can get my model to let me take some pictures, these new headbands will be added to my etsy shop. The flowers are made of organza with just a few beads in the center for added interest. Right now I have purple (shown), dark blue, black, silver, pale gold, and chocolate brown. I'm looking for some new spring-ish colors of organza to make some more - searching for the perfect ballet pink.

DIY Tutorial - Boyfriend Jeans

Really, aren't they just a basic 5-pocket jean with a roll at the bottom? Do I seriously need to go purchase new jeans to participate in this trend?

Absolutely not.

Step 1. Locate a pair of basic, 5 pocket jeans, either from your own closet or thrifted. Perfect use of thrifted jeans!

Step 2. Put on your jeans. Using chalk or pins, mark how long your want your jeans to be.

Step 3. Take off your jeans. Lay flat. Add about 3-4 inches to your mark (this will accomodate the roll at the bottom). Whack off the bottom of the jeans.

(Why cut them? Why not just roll them from the bottom? This makes for a really bulky roll. Cutting them off makes a smaller, cuter cuff.)

Step 4. Zig zag around to finish.

Step 5. Roll up the jeans. Use a few well placed stitches to hold the roll in place, if you wish.

Step 6. Distress in well chosen places, if you wish. I did this with a cheese-grater-looking-pedicure-thingie-found-at-Dollar-Tree.

Step 7. Enjoy, smug in the knowledge that you got the look without buying new jeans. You have beat the system. Congrats!

Gorgeous, yet confining

While we didn't lose power, we got a lot of frozen stuff in varying forms. I've made quite a dent in the large plate of chocolate chip cookies. I spent an unusual amount of time watching The Weather Channel, which has dramatically named this storm "Winter's Triple Threat!!!" (Seriously.)

And I'm dying to get out of the house.

Making chocolate chip cookies, charging my phone...

digging out the bags of tea light candles ... these are a few of the things I'm doing this morning. We are in the path of a large winter storm with a high chance of ice, which probably means power outage.

Last year we had a huge ice storm and were without power for about 3-4 days. We made it fine. We moved a mattress into the living room and slept by the gas log fireplace. The hardest thing to deal with was the overwhelming BOREDOM - no TV, no interwebs, no sewing machine.

Just sudoku. I did a buttload of sudoku.

According to the Weather Channel, looks like I'm going to be facing the boredom again. At least I'll have lots of chocolate chip cookies to keep me entertained.

Dear NBC,

I know I'm a little late to this rally, but I just watched the Freebird portion of Conan's last Tonight Show, and for the record, you suck.

Affectionately yours

Hello again!

Since the beginning of the year, I've been working on getting myself back on etsy and back in the bloggin' groove.

Progress has been made. A new product line is in the works, different from anything I've done before. I got a brand spankin' new computer for Christmas and I'm attacking the learning curve of new software. NEW is the word of the day.

And to complete another task on my list, I'm doing a blog post. Granted, not a very exciting blog post, but none the less, here it is.

Oh, and Baxter wants to wish you a happy new year.