Presenting my newer, faster computer !

 

Current Mood : Whimsical- and soooo lucky. 

Current Image Notes : Here's the crappy posterboard-and-felt tree I made last weekend - I played with PaintShopPro X2 to erase the desk behind it and add the starfield. That's getting much easier !

 

I am sooo amazingly lucky ! Beloved Hubby decided to upgrade my computer's memory as an early Christmas present - and the memory arrived today ! As he went to install it - poof ! The power supply flashed blue twice and croaked. Well. Luckily we had a spare from an in-family computer shuffle several months ago, and the motherboard, memory, and hard drives were fine.

 

Unfortunately, the new memory didn't work with the old memory. Seems my Acer system has an issue with running more than two gigs, and there's nothing that can be done about it on this model. Beloved said if he'd have known that ahead of time, he just would have waited ‘til midyear and bought me a whole new computer ! But the new memory is faster than the old, and he cleared some of his old stuff off this system - she used to be the sole family computer - so she's now purring right along. She even got a complete clean-out, since her fan was randomly making annoyingly loud buzzing noises. And we found what was draining her virtual memory - a slowly goin' South old hard drive I never used. Once that was removed, and a few settings were adjusted, everything hummed, much faster and a lot better !

 

So while it wasn't precisely the upgrade he wanted to give me, it actually turned out better ! I can probably get at least another two years out of this system, I'm sure. Heck, it'll take me the better part of next year to fully understand PaintShopPro X2 !

 

Still putting yesterday's haul away. Dearest Son wants one of his toy cars painted, so I'll help Beloved remove all the sticker residue, mask off tires and details, and snag a can of red Fusion this weekend. Hmmm...red Fusion Spray Paint for Plastics... I have grey, cream, and green Fusion. Red...I could use some new red doll seating. Especially the pieces I bought yesterday !

 

Plus, it's important not to waste materials, ya know. So ‘borrowing' a bit of Dearest's red, once his car is done, shouldn't be too much of a problem...

 

In the meanwhile, ‘Talk of the Town' is currently resting and drying from her afternoon boil perm. Hopefully I'll have a nice photo of my own home-grown Barbie Basic tomorrow. While the ‘customize a little black dress' is kind of unique, the idea of customizing is far from new. I don't know why there's still this level of excitement over the series. Most of those dolls' face molds I can (and have !) found in yard sales and flea markets.

 

Yesterday on In The Pink, one guy showed the BB set Mattel sent him, to promote the line, and get his designer touch. I'm sure it's just my jealousy talking, but it seemed kind of braggy to me. It's nice and stuff, but with half the board saying they'll have to gather the fundage for these $22. each dolls, showing how Mattel sent you a doll and all four of the $15. accessory packages just seemed...well, I should just own up to being reminded that most of us are faceless consumers to Mattel, I've never been a golden circle inner, and deal with it.

 

Anyway, the ten minute computer upgrade took nearly two hours, so I'm late starting dinner. Gotta split - see ya'll tomorrow !

 

It's great to be tummyache free !

 

Current Mood : Happy - no tummyache ! 

Spent on dolls & doll stuff: $ 7.83  ( spent $15.12, minus $7.29 in returns)

Current Image Notes : Here's Sassy with the Little Kiddle Joanne sent me. I've never had one before - but I can see why they're so addictive ! So cute ! Someday soon, I'll take a picture with this little one and the Peek a Boo Petite doll I still have.

 

OK, I think I've isolated what was giving my tummy the whim-whams, since it happened again last night. Nowhere near as bad, but I still went to bed early with a whiny stomach, and slept for a straight eight, once I finally dropped off. I may be one of the few people on the planet that like Wasa ‘CrispBread' - kind of like a rice cake, but thinner and made of wheat. Used to eat ‘em all the time, even though they were considered diet food, I liked ‘em - but evidently, I just can't handle eating more than three. Monday, I'd munched through six, and yesterday, four. It's been a while since I had those, and it was something I ate that Beloved Hubby and Dearest Son didn't. They haven't been sick, just me. So that's probably it.

 

Leave me to my own devices, and I'd eat a few more right now, but I can't deal with another tummy-jam. So they're bagged and stored, but I may have to toss ‘em, to avoid temptation.

 

We have a bright, sunny day - too bad it's eighteen degrees outside ! At least there was enough light to see that a head-swap between Talk of the Town and Miss Sassy won't work. ‘S OK. I'm still gonna give Talk a smooth bob, and that'll clear Barbie Basics #7 off the wish list. And she won't have that Model Muse swayback body !

 

Got to do the grocery shopping once it warmed up. And since the thrift store is right there, I dropped off a four-bag donation. Big bags ! Including two outgrown coats of Dearest Son's, several dolls, some big props, and such. While I was there, I looked around - and found some goodies of my own ! Two great Barbie chairs and a sofa, a princess doll in a gorgeous dress I wanted, and another Tiffany Taylor ! Ordinarily, I'd have passed her by, but she was wearing another doll's dress I've always liked - the issue one for Mattel's Cynthia. I was hoping I'd actually found Cynthia herself, a 1971 talks-via-records 18.5-inch preteen, but I was glad to just have the pretty pink dress.

 

Once home, I discovered she also had a the nightgown from the large soft-body Bedtime Barbie, a much bigger doll than the standard Barbie one. It was actually a bit loose on her. Underneath it all was Tiffany's original issue bodysuit !  I'll clean up this Tiff tonight, and keep one, donate the other.

 

I thought I'd donate the ‘princess' doll, once I got her gown off, but this is actually a very pretty 2006 Holiday Angel doll, complete with crown and wings. Once I got her loose hair tucked back under the pulled-back side-pieces (made a ‘hook' from a paper clip to do so), I found that I loved her soft, almost vintage look. For some reason, she was wearing pink ballet slippers, the kind with the slots for ribbon, although these had none, but I love those ! I'll replace them tonight with a soft blue or white pair.

 

And I can't wait to redo the new furniture. The chairs are awesome, and I like their colors, but the one chair has a stressed-plastic mark - you know, when it goes white at a stress-point - and the sofa is neon-pink. Gotta fix that. Hoping to paint it this weekend.

 

Moved on to Mal-Wart - and they not only had the last of the larger ‘Battle Force Five' cars for Dearest, but they had the ‘Flight Attendant' Barbie outfit I've wanted, too ! Since I returned the sequins and the craft adhesive I didn't need anymore, I had no problems pulling the best of the two off the peg. Yaaay !

 

I need to donate more stuff more often, huh ? Karma sure shone on me today ! Hope yours was a great day, too !

Sassy and the swimsuit

 

Current Mood : Recovering

 

Sorry to bail on ya yesterday. Shortly after I wrote that last paragraph, my stomach began to act up. It got so bad so fast, Beloved Hubby urged me to lie down on the sofa and covered me with his favorite red velvet blanket - I was freezing ! My entire midsection felt like a bag of Sakrete left out in the rain for a month, heavy and hard as a rock. I just thought it was indigestion, but after two hours, I was about to go nuts. No matter how tired I was, I couldn't sleep.

 

Long story short, I felt better after the second time I barfed, and at the urging of Beloved, ate a couple crackers. Fell asleep with my tummy still raging, but nowhere near as badly. Woke up this morning nearly normal, with my midsection soft and squishy again, just vaguely aching, like a sore muscle. Still have no idea what I got into.

 

Our home-game version of Clean House continues. Today, we started with six shelves of VHS tapes, two of which were double-deep. We now have two single shelves, and much better storage for the DVDs. We ditched about a dozen of those, too. We'll offer the tapes to the Dear ILs, and if they don't want ‘em, they go to GoodWill. I'm going through Lab stuff, and culled several pieces, including the remote control Barbie car Dearest Son's wanted. I bought it, fully-functional -even the batteries were still good ! - for a quarter at a yard sale about two years ago. And I haven't touched it since, so..."Stuart Little" is getting a big Christmas present. Once I clean it up.

 

Freeing up the Jeep space allowed me to give the My Size Barbie girls more space, so they're not jammed up together right at the door. Which makes it easier for my big ole butt to get in and out ! I swear, once you get over the ‘It's MINE !' impulse, it's much easier to be honest with yourself about what you truly love and what you just ‘have', taking up space from what you love.

 

That said, I'm not looking forward to culling the Barbie collection...(whimper)

Thanks, Joanne !

 

Current Mood : Not well...

 

Had a sort of mini-Christmas today - both my photos and the box from In The Pink's Joanne arrived ! Photos, 100 freebies from American Greeting's PhotoWorks, look great, and feed my vanity more than I expected. Since 97 are of doll clothes I've made, it's been fun to see the dolls and the outfits again. Especially since I don't have all of them anymore.

 

I won the lovely Avon-exclusive ‘Talk of the Town' brunette from an In The Pink contest just last week. That was a thrill - ya'll know how much I love brunettes ! And comparing this doll to Barbie Basics #7, the one I most want, shows that they're nearly identical, save for their hairstyles. Hmmm...that can be changed. Oh, and the BBs have various versions of the Model Muse body, which I don't like at all. I could feel my intense "I want !!!1!!!" for BB#7 waft away...

 

And that evaporated completely when I opened the box ! Joanne had included some bonus goodies - she always does, it's so exciting to get a package from her - and beautifully wrapped ‘Talk'. And I think she read my mind. My fingers found an unwrapped, deboxed Miss Sassy ‘Fashionista' ! You may remember I already have Ms. Sassy, and she was so much fun to pose, I bought ‘Glam' for her dress and immediately swapped her head for the ‘Then and Now' doll, for a totally 2009 ‘nostalgia' Barbie. So I'm giving serious thought to giving Sassy's body to Town, then giving the Frankendolly a smooth bob - I'll have my own BB#7, with a preferred body, no matter if I stick with her original one or she gets the Fashionista one. I wanna look at both dolls in better light tomorrow, since today was so overcast.

 

I also now own my very first Little Kiddle, a cute blonde with green accents, making her home in a large brooch. There's a good chance I'll actually wear it, it's so funky ! According to the back, she's a Lucky Locket Kiddle, with a date of 1966, the year I was born ! Of course, none of us take Mattel's year markings seriously, but I'll research her, because I'm actually curious about her. I confess, I sort of liked the modern incarnation, Peek A Boo Petites, but I think I understand the nostalgia for the originals now. 

 

Sassy and Town can also fight over an awesome blue-and-white striped repro of Barbie's original swimsuit. I have a darker blue version of it, too, so this one's perfect. The hang-tag is so awesome. Dearest Son wanted to see what Momma got, and immediately fell for Town's leashed Poodle. Needless to say, Wall-e, Stuart Little, and one of the Battle Force Five took him around for walks today - he's Dearest's doggie now !

 

Joanne also sent one of those battery-powered tealights - I've seen those, and wondered what they looked like turned on. They're awesome ! And they make great campfires, since the little ‘flame' flickers. At one point, Dearest borrowed it, and all the Battle Force Five figures had a camp-out, with their vehicles in a circle behind them. It was so cute ! I'll definitely buy more of those, so I'm glad Dollar Tree carries ‘em.

Not a good craft day - but a good de-clutter one !

 

Current Mood : Cheesed with m'self

 

Nice, quiet Sunday. Beloved Hubby let me sleep in, but once I was up, I was ravenous ! So I followed through on the sausage biscuits, and everyone ate and enjoyed. Made me feel good.

 

Beloved had a client coming over right after lunch, so I took the after-breakfast time to clean up the living room, which needed it. Much better. With that done and everyone fed, I set out to list the former Elphie-jeep on Craigslist. I want the space and cash more than I want the car ! Unfortunately, allowing it sit around for a couple years left it a dust trap, and it had to be cleaned before I could take photos. It felt so funny to detail a toy car that I never used, just to sell it.

 

And, in a further irony, I crammed Debbie and Jenny, my two Our Generation dolls in there for photos. The jeep is made for their size dolls, but they never got to try it out before. Too bad it was only so I could get it out the door ! Their wide-legged seated stance made it a real cram to get one in there - shoving both in was almost doll-origami !

 

It was amazing how much time that took. Over two hours ! Before I knew it, Beloved's client had departed and it was dinner time. Then bath time, and time for Dearest Son to pick up toys and get ready for bed. Never got to his toy-sort. Hopefully tomorrow...

 

And I started the tutorial. Um. It did not go well. The finished item is a real mess, I don't like it, it looks cheap and junky. And the directions don't work, the only way I was able to finish it was to smack it together, trial-and-error style. I finally gave up, it has wide gaps in the back, and "futz ‘til you get it right, because I couldn't" is not the sort of instruction I want to post. So I'm gonna take the spangle-sequins back to the store, and give ya'll a link to what I was trying to replicate. I was trying to make a sleek, customizable Barbie-size Christmas tree, using posterboard instead of polystyrene cones. Here's the original inspiration ->

 

http://feltorama.blogspot.com/2008/12/merry-and-bright.html

 

I can see part of my problem by seeing the originals again - using posterboard made it wider and less sleek, and the crafter there can evidently find paper-thin felt. Mine's as thick as the stuff you remember from Vacation Bible School and various school crafts. (sigh) Give me some space, and I'll probably post a photo of it. Tomorrow, before I dump the ugly thing. Arrrgh.

 

And while it sounds weird, I can't wait to clean up the Lab tomorrow ! I've trashed it with digging out failed tutorial stuff, getting the Our Generation jeep ready for its close-up, and placing some odd bits and pieces. But I have a bit more room in there - the jeep is under the Dollhouse until it's gone. Whoo-hoo !

Vision of Spring...

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

Spent on doll stuff : $3.

Spent on a pink book : $1.07

Spent on DP Christmas : $1.08

 

Had the latest in a series of attacks of lazy today. I didn't really get rolling until about 1pm, and didn't do my prowlin' around until after 2. Hung out with Beloved Hubby at his Shop, which was nearly as warm as the house. He's been enjoying the rack - turns out it holds chisels perfectly, and keeps their sharp tips safely out of the way.

 

Hit the Flea Market for a bit - while it doesn't close until 5pm, again several booths were unattended and one was packing up. It was actually fairly busy in there. I spent $3., and that got me a Barbie ‘Springtime' Hallmark ornament (no box) and six "My Friend" clothes patterns. The tag read ‘Five Patterns', but I scored all four of the Seasons series with the separate Blouse and Nightgown ones. I already had the Nightgown one, from the same yard sale that got me the tin dollhouse, but it's amazing how different the identical patterns were. One was on much thinner paper, sequence numbers varied, and it was even folded differently. I'm thinking of scanning and working one of ‘em up, see if it fits the LDP and Princess Dorrie dolls. You'll get to see cover scans of ‘em all next week. The line art is so adorable - and it's precious how the previous owner colored a couple of ‘em.

 

Next stop was GoodWill. Also very busy. Evidently there was a party on the nearby University campus which required the purchase of a ‘funky Christmas sweater'. So that section was pouring with energy. I found a paperback titled Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons by Lynn Peril. I was initially drawn by those delicious 60s-vintage graphics, but the book itself is fun to read so far. I had no idea Mamie Eisenhower was behind much of the ‘pink mania' of the 50s - the decade which saw the birth of Barbie. I'm looking forward to the rest of this read !

 

At the Dollar General next door, I just prowled. Didn't really find much I liked - but I liked the Disney Princess ornaments. Just a buck, and filled with a packet of gem-shaped Smartees-type candies. I got the silvery one with Aurora on one side and Cinderella, Belle, and Aurora on the other side, complete with a gold hanging cord. A reddish tinted one was nearly identical, but it had a holiday Cinderella on the single-character side. Yes, I'm a sucker for that stuff. Candy was good, too.

 

Did a bit of grocery shopping while I was over there - that store has some great bargains. That's the only thing I don't really like about shopping Mal-Wart or Target for chow, there's never any specials. No loss leaders, nothing that makes me say, "I need that, I'd better get over there." I like ‘cherry-picking'. I read this grocery's ads on line, and it's fun to plan what I can use. The grated cheese made our late-lunch frozen pizzas extra tasty, and I already have sausage ready to go for breakfast biscuits tomorrow. And a fresh gallon of milk, since I wanna make brownies, too. Gotta love those bargains !

 

And with milk in the car, it was time to head home. I was kinda proud of me for not booking to TRU, because I really wanted to go. But this weekend wasn't a good time, and the closer we get to Christmas, the worse it's gonna be over there. Maybe a bit after Christmas - I'll know more of what I want and don't want, and can zero in on what I truly want, instead of ‘everything looks sooo good !'. Right now, I pretty much want everything !

 

So, once home, warm and fed, I did what I normally do when I get the ‘wants' - I go through what I have to shut ‘em down. Decided I really don't like that milk crate I put the fabric bits into yesterday, and found a nice box instead. It allows for more digging, and is a bit more narrow, so it fits the space better. And here I thought I'd never find a use for that huge Hello Kitty sticker - it was perfect for the box. With the fan gone, I had space for the doll clothes repair sewing box, and I'm giving serious thought to selling Elphie's car.

 

It's really an Our Generation / American Girl clone car. I paid about $2. for it at GoodWill several years ago, cleaned it up, boosted Elphie with a custom-made cushion, and took website photos, but it's mostly gathered dust since. With any luck, I can Craigslist it, maybe get $15. or so. Hmm...oh, wait a minute. One on eBay just sold for almost $50. - and it's missing the doors ! I may have to see if I can find a box big enough to ship this thing... And I was happy just to reclaim the space.

 

(singing) She was such a naughty nanny...(Queen, Fat Bottomed Girls)

 

Current Mood : Better.

 

Busy day - cold one, too. Got the wire shelf rack I mentioned yesterday all cleared off and out of the Lab. Had to do a few on-the-spot repairs to get all the damaged doll clothes into the box I wanted ‘em in, but that's good, too. Ditched a Mal-Wart-style sack full of tiny fabric fragments, and I honestly don't know why I was keeping most of ‘em. Brought a milk crate back into the Lab to hold the midsize pieces, and it's fun to dig through. Doesn't hit my butt, either, so I'm happy.

 

The rack immediately went back into service down at Beloved Hubby's Shop. It's now a tool catcher, easy for Beloved to move around with him when he's all over the place on a task. He's really cleaned things up down there - and he even made a fireplace out of two steel barrels this week. They make a kit for that. It's actually quite nice in there now. Last year, even with a propane heater, it was too cold to work in there for long, and only at midday. Because of the fireplace, we made a little deal. Since my barely-used fan is perfect for keeping the air moving, he's gonna keep it - and I get that 40s-repro fan I want every year, but never get. It's weird how I'm already a bit excited about this summer...

 

I also had a small bundle of larger Polly Pocket size dolls, mostly Disney Princess ones I found cheep at yard sales. Past tense. Those are now in the stuffed Donations bag. Last thing on this blue Earth I need is another doll collection ! Never played with ‘em anyway. I'm hoping they get to a kid for Christmas. While I have nearly all of Belle and Ariel's rubbery clothes, I never had a Belle doll. And the Ariel I had wasn't quite the right size. Best to ditch ‘em all.

 

In Flea Market news, there was one today, and Dearest Son was so excited, hoping we'd get that Barbie mini van he's been wanting for three weeks now. It's at Brenda's, the car set seller. Even though it was stuffed with six dolls, $30. was a bit higher than I wanted to go, and I didn't want any of the dolls. So I proposed to Dearest that I'd offer Brenda the dolls and case culled from my collection, the dolls from the van, and $10. - $7. of which was his chore cash. If she was OK with that, the van was his. If not, we'd see what we could do.

 

I think Brenda would have been OK with $10., but she seemed pleased with the offer and took us up on it. Dearest proudly handed her his cash, I made up the balance, and the de-dolled van was in the bag, literally. We looked around a bit, but Dearest was too dazed with his find to really pay attention to where I was going, so we cut it short and headed home. He's been happily playing with it all day. And Beloved finished the cubby cabinet he was making for him, so it was proudly parked next to his other favorite cars. Before packing it for his weekend visit with his grandparents.

 

We're doing a toy clean-out on Sunday, since the cubby takes up space that held a bin fulla toys, but Dearest knows we do this every year before Christmas. And I only encourage him to ditch the broken stuff at the bottom. So he's OK with it.

 

And once I was all alone, I decided to do a bit of playful photography. My 2010 resolution - figured it out today - is to learn PaintShopPro X and Stitch Era Universal. I cagily left PSPX's owner's manual in the bathroom, where I'm sure to read it. And I'm missing out on a lot of fun stuff by using the old version. Yeah, it's embarrassing, since we bought X earlier this year for its vast functions, I still used PSP 5.3 nearly all of the time. X takes a while to load, and I don't know how to work half of it...blah, bleh, all excuses.  So, I'm gonna learn. I'll probably have to print out Stitch Era's manual m'self, it's over 200 pages. I'll make sure to have an extra black ink cartridge ready. But I'm gonna master ‘em both, or at least give it more of a try than I have so far - which is mostly dimly plunking at both programs like a cat at a keyboard. And with about as much understanding. 

 

It's one of our ‘stay home' weekends, but I'm gonna spice it up with home-made tacos ! Hope your weekend is off to a fun start, too !

Come see my dye job !

 

Current Mood : Satisfied with m'self

 

Today really was inspired by Clean House and Hoarders - did ya'll know that the website for the latter has unaired footage available to view right on the site ? And if ya don't get A&E, you can watch episodes, too.

 

http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/

 

Anyway - you might remember that, last weekend, part of my thrift store finds included a bundle-bag of fabric pieces. About half of it became part of my ongoing ‘catch and release' program, and was packed for eventual release back into the reuse stream, but I kept the ones I wanted. And one I only sorta wanted. It was a nice lavender eyelet piece, but once I unfolded it, I noted that it was faded and sort of tired-looking. It looked much better folded up !

 

It was going in the ‘donate' pile, too, but I remembered...I have a half-bottle of dark green dye in the laundry room, a leftover from my disastrous attempts to dye a doll. I liked the fabric's style, it was merely the color I didn't really love - and let's face it, if I don't adore the fabric, I don't need it. I have too much already ! But I wanted some experience dyeing, and eliminating another bottle in the laundry cabinet sounded good to me...

 

So I got off my butt and experimented. Read the directions on the RIT label, decided to use the washer for this trial. Unfortunately, the fabric didn't get to soak as long as it should have, but still... it looked great ! The darker threads on the eyelet parts really stood out on the pale green fabric under it. Gorgeous ! Rinsed ‘til the water ran clear, then washed the new green material with some stuff that, if it got dyed, no one would care. Then I washed the washer according to the RIT directions. But the next load of regular laundry I do will be a dark load - just in case ! Wheee ! I can dye fabric now !

 

With all this going on, there was still a lot of time to relax and do other stuff. Toilet ran over, so I mopped up the spill, then cleaned the floor with bleach. Ick. Sad but true, I've been needing to mop in there, but I prefer to sweep first !

 

I also needed a quick peek into a reference book, but it was a struggle to get it off the shelf. Everything on it is tight from so many books. Next to the one I needed was Things to Make for Children, the volume that contained the plans for my Dollhouse. Since that was all I wanted out of it, the book is also returning to the reuse stream. Plus, I have scans of the Dollhouse pages already. May ditch a few more later.

 

I also grabbed the recently purchased ‘Fashion Play' Barbie lavender-and-white lacy teddy and repaired it. I'd intended to re-sew the elastic waist down, from where the stitches had broken, even as I wondered why such a tiny stretchy teddy would need elastic there in the first place. As I turned it inside out, the elastic crackled and curled - it had already begun to rot. Happens. So instead, I got the seam ripper and removed it completely. Fits our ‘naughty nanny' Mary Poppins quite well ! Noted a few missing stitches at the top of it, and fixed those, too.

 

Retrieving the seam ripper got me to thinking about the rack in the Lab. It's small and white (and peeling), four wire shelves. One holds sewing stuff I haven't used in months, one holds a box of doll clothes needing repairs, another holds tiny fabric scraps, another holds larger bits. And it bumps my butt every time I try to eeeeaaase my way between it and the sewing chair when I need the closet or the ribbon bin. I'm thinking of ditching it. Tired of tiny fabric bits being in my way. I was ‘saving' them for appliqué, but I already know that I need larger pieces, and testing's so rare now, I use the fabric I'm gonna use later anyway. And the doll clothes can go into the sewing boxes. So I can ditch it, rack and all.

 

Dearest Son got into the act, too. He cleaned up one of his cars - a Bratz one he likes to use with his stuffie Stuart Little - and told me he was ditching a mostly-wrecked other car. It kept stalling out, he told me, and if it doesn't work for him, out it goes ! I'm so proud of him.  Even if he's just pretending, it took me 40+ years to get that ‘it works or it's gone' philosophy into my head !

Spangles are in !

 

Current Mood : a bit wheezy

Spent on craft projects : $3.77

Spent on embroidery scissors : $4.32

 

Didn't find any new doll goodies at Mal-Wart last night. Kinda ranked, because I was all geared up to at least buy an outfit or, well, something ! Having found a complete nothing there, I navigated over to the shrinking craft section. Found the posterboard I wanted, and a big bag of misc. shaped sequins for the upcoming tutorial. While posterboard is pretty cheap at M-W, ours didn't have white. They only had two-sided colors ! I picked out a sky-blue/navy blue one, but there was also orange/red, red/yellow, green/screaming neon yellow, and a pink/purple combos.

 

There's the bag of sequins - or spangles, as the bag reads - I bought. You'll be seeing it again soon. Ya get a lot of ‘em for $2.97 !

 

Of course, it was still raining when I hustled my cartload outside, so it's a good thing it doesn't matter that the board got water-spotted. I'm hoping to work up the tutorial Friday or over the weekend. Wrote up the directions, even though I haven't done the project yet. I do that sometimes. I write down what I know, then later on, edit it to better reflect the pictures or change the wording, once I have actual experience. This way, it's not all squeezed into one day, and nearly everything's easier when it's spaced out. And ya'll know me, once it's begun in earnest, I'll get it done, just to say it's finished ! 

 

 

Ran errands this morning while Beloved was home - it's always a relief to get the end-of-month bills paid ! And after hearing about all the great deals everyone on In The Pink found at Big Lots, decided to stop in for a bit. (sigh) Nothing new - in fact, there was less, not more, there. Luckily, I remembered to buy up two more pair of the embroidery scissors I snagged before Thanksgiving - those are great ! The handles are much thicker than the $5. manicure scissors I had, which makes them easier to use, and less tiring to my hands. Seriously, after you cut tacked-down appliqué fabric, and Peltex backing, and a buncha jump threads, it starts to ache a bit. But with the new scissors, it doesn't hurt at all. So I now have two extra pair, while they're so cheap. The manicure scissors will probably go to the bathroom - or to my living room desk, as back-up scissors in there.

 

Oh, and this isn't news to us, but the season premiere of Hoarders Monday broke A&E's ratings records - it's now ahead of Intervention as their top-ranked show. Whoo. Augustine was darn hard to watch, though. Gratitude and responsibility seem to be as alien to her as toilet scrubbing. But part of me knows, deep down, that could be me in 20 years, given a run of bad circumstances and poor choices. And loneliness.

 

I'm glad you're here. And it's my fond hope that all of us feel a bit less lonely together.

Happy December !

Current Mood : Worn

Current Image Notes : On the left, the original design, unfortunately too tall for Brody. On the right, what it looks like - or will look like ! - once I was done editing it ! 

 

Learned something today, too. I'd long heard that the 4-inch by 4-inch hoop for Brody isn't really 4x4. It's 100mm by 100mm, which is a bit smaller. I took others' word for it that it was something like 3.85 inches square.

 

So when I got an offer of an adorable freebie - a Christmas kitty playing with a sprig of beribboned mistletoe - I launched in its direction. Well, skittles. Only three inches wide (good !), but six and a half tall (rats !). Hmm... What if I pull up Stitch Era Universal and remove the bracketing cursive ‘Merry Christmas' ? That takes it down to a bit under five...what if I remove the pine branch over the kitty's head ? That took it down to 4.10 inches tall, and I've yet to conquer ‘moving stitches' on Stitch Era Universal.

 

So I opened up Explorations Sizer. It'll shrink designs, and fairly well, too. But it has odd limits. In this case, I could either resize ‘ChristmasKittyV3' to 3.95 inches tall or 3.65 inches tall, no ‘in betweensies'. Ya'll know me, I want it as big as I can have it ! But 3.95" might be too big for Brody's hoop - especially if the ‘conventional wisdom' is true.

 

Well, no way to tell ‘til I try. I've already done some experiments with Brody's memory - if a design's too big for him, he'll download it, but won't store it. So I decided to load it up, along with another design or two to try. Aaannd...it worked ! Brody stored it without so much as a pondering pause, and it's on his memory now. So you should see it stitched out soon. Plus, I got a lesson in ‘don't take "everyone's" word for it - try stuff out yerself. Nothing lost if they're right, but a lot to win if they're wrong !

 

Making a midnight (well, 10pm) grocery run, soon as Dearest Son's asleep. Which is now. See ya'll tomorrow !