"You don't climb into a T-180 to be a driver. You do it because you're driven. " - A head-scratching moment (you get used to ‘em) between Racer X and Speed, Speed Racer

Yeah, we finally broke down and rented that tonight. Dearest Son has wanted to see it for ages. Only reason he hasn't is because Dearest reacted badly to some Matrix footage BIL insisted we watch a few years ago. It got him all hyper and out of control for roughly three times as long as what he watched. Both films were directed by the increasingly weird Wachowski Brothers. However, this film left me slightly dazed and a bit logy, as though I'd eaten waaaay too much candy. The color scheme here isn't so much a palette as it is an amplification. Pushed up to ‘11'. Story itself was OK, but the constant use of ‘things out of the frame' as a transition device started to get on my nerves.

On any other day, with my sweet Molly-car working and $13. big bucks in my wallet, I'd be out searchin' and scooping the sales. But the few I've found are way across town, and if I was going all the way over there, I'd much rather visit Toys R Us. Plus, Beloved Son is home today - end of quarter break - and seriously, I can't afford to take us both to TRU ! If I have $10., he'll fall deeply, eternally, and naggingly in love with something that's $15. Instead, we hit McD's for lunch, where he obtained a pull-back Hot Wheels race car, in the same general color scheme as Iron Man. Since that was the one he most wanted, he was happy.

I was happy, too. Because I also got a Mighty Kids meal, and got the one Barbie out of the set I liked - the Shanghai doll. Out of package, her skirt had spun until the seam was up the front, so I just twisted it a bit until the seams fell to her sides. One seam had a bit of a slit to it. Naughty Barbie !

Tied to her wrist was a small postcard with a view of the city at night, all neon glamour. Allow me to share her message :

Ni Hao (nee-He-OW) from Shanghai. What an amazing city this is - twice the size of NYC ! The designer fashions here are fabulous - especially my new silk party dress ! Well, I'm off to a fashion show. Write back soon !

                                                 ♥ always, Barbie

It's actually a rather nice doll. Stands alone, and her arms move - her right is bent, so it brushes her hair back when raised, almost like playing with a miniature Superstar doll. Hair is brushable, but it doesn't go flying everywhere, and the curls are pretty. Facial screening, even at this size, is pretty good. Heck, if the quality was this good on all dolls, many of us wouldn't have anything to complain about !

Spent most of the day doing some housework and getting ready for the weekend. DC and Jack have shredded their third shower curtain, and this one wasn't even put up until Monday. I'm about to go ballistic on two cats' butts. (sigh) Oh, well. I can always enjoy another trip to Dollar Tree. Any tips on how to keep six-month-old felines off the draperies ?

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Kind of a boring day today - about all I did was some housework and homework ! We helped Beloved Hubby prepare the silver truck for its upcoming paint job in the early evening, which was kinda fun. He's never painted a vehicle before, so Beloved's a bit worried and jittery, but I know he'll do well.

I'm thinking of a visit to TRU this weekend, since there don't seem to be many yard sales this weekend. Between the cold weather and recent rains, I shouldn't be surprised that the season is ending. But I'll always have thrift stores - and it's been ages since I went to Toys R Us. I'll never run out of ways and places to spend money !

Had kind of an odd dream last night. I was, for some reason, tasked with finding the perfect phrase for a talking doll to say. In the dream, it involved taping messages over and over and watching people's reactions to the doll and her words. I finally decided that the perfect message was "I love you, too, (child's name), and I always will. Everything will be fine.". How weird. I was designing the package, trying to figure out how best to say, ‘Send off for your personalized message chip !' on the box when I woke up. This is probably why I rarely remember my dreams... they get bizarre ! I can't even recall what size doll I was supposedly working with ! Spent most of the dream hunched over a sound board and a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Joyful !

Spent on dolls : $2.18 (bandannas, belt)

Spent on crafts :  $2.53 (needles, knobs)

And today's big news... Molly's fixed ! Whoo-hoo ! A morning of heavy rain led to Beloved finishing up early for the day and returning home with the last few things he needed for her. The driveway was nice and dry by then, so he took care of her tune-up and oil change. I handed him filter wrenches and spark plug wires, and gathered up trash.  I get to drive her again tomorrow !! I'm so happy !

I also got to go to Hobby Lobby today. Picked up the yellow felt I need for a project for Dearest Son's Halloween class party, using the 40% off printable coupon. Also got another belt for Elphie - like the others, this was designed to be a sort of watch band-like charm bracelet, just without the watch, but they didn't sell. I got white and black ones for a bit over a buck a month or two ago. Today, I scored a pretty light blue one for 85c. These things were originally $5. !

I also found two pretty floral bandannas for 59c each. Once I remake Elphie's bed, I'll probably use them for flat and fitted sheets. I also bought a package of wooden ball knobs for $1.47. Needed them to fix a pretty little cabinet I bought at a yard sale a few weeks ago for 50c.  I didn't notice that one drawer was missing its painted-to-match knob.  Since I'd forgotten to take a drawer with me, I got the size I thought would be right. Nope. Too big, so I twisted off the other three, and glued four new ones that match ! I actually like the way the natural wood looks next to the cream paint, so I'm gonna leave them that way. And I may have plans for the two knobs remaining in the package... Still, it is kinda silly to spend a buck-fifty to fix a 50c cabinet. But I like it, and now that it's fixed, I like it even more.

I got to look at yarn, too. Wow, so many kinds ! HLobby isn't much more expensive than Mal-Wart - the skeins I paid $1.98 for at M-W were only $2.49 at HL - but their selection is astounding. And yes, I found luscious, lovely yarns that cost $10. for a surprisingly small skein. Pretty stuff, though. Not sure when ‘hairy' yarns got popular, but HL certainly had many different ‘pelts' in varying degrees of color and shag ! I may be giving those printable 40% off coupons a workout in the near future ! Found the yarn needles I wanted for the Knit Hits thingie, and they were even on sale. All told, I shelled less than $8. for everything, but I got quite a lot !

Got the cabinet fixed while waiting for Dearest's bus. I did a good job lining up the knobs, but anyone would have - I just matched the holes on the knobs to the holes on the drawers !

PS - Kinda ironic of me to tell some folks to 'flush, already !' when I confess to saving 3-inch long yarn findings ! I'm just as bad but not much worse than anybody else !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Reminiscing

Spent on crafts : $4.30

Spent on crafts last week (forgot to record it) : $4.19

Got all my errands, save mailing off the labels, done before 10am this morning. I even managed to snag a RedBox rental copy of the new Indiana Jones movie, and it just came out today. It's pretty good, not too much gross-out, save for two scenes. Fits well into the ‘Indy' mythos, but not quite as good as the first one. Really enjoyed seeing Marion (Karen Allen) again - and I know darn good and well George didn't write those romance scenes ! (reference any of the Padme/Anakin scenes in his other films for further proof of that theory)

Splurged on a big skein of white and a skein of black yarn when I did a bit of shopping. Last week, I got a skein of grey and a smaller one of variegated oranges and creams. It looks like a melting Dreamsicle bar ! It's funny how, before I left the house last week, I knew I'd get some yarn, and I swore I wouldn't get anything variegated or muliticolored, like that awful Christmas colors yarn ball that came inside the Knit Hits box.

But then you get to the yarn aisle, and the all-one-color skeins look so flat and dark next to the vibrant red/blue/yellow/orange one, or the one that's all shades of red from palest pink to fire truck. I found myself looking at them again today, but stuck with the classics. I'm kind of surprised at yarn prices. They really haven't gone up that much. I mean, compared to other things - like the action figure that was $2. when I was a kid is $7. now. The skein that would have been a dollar back then is only $2. now. But all I hear from crafters is how expensive yarn is. Well, I am probably just buying the cheap stuff, and when I visit Hobby Lobby tomorrow, I'll get to see the more expensive kinds. But if you just want yarn to play with, and not make heirloom socks, the everyday stuff isn't as expensive as I thought.

Oh, and this is kinda funny. One of the neat things about Knit Magic-type devices is that it's very easy to change colors. Just knot the old and new together, and keep going. I was really good at it as a kid. My knots used almost no yarn at all, and there were the shortest of tails to tuck in. I had to get the most from the few supplies I had back then. In addition to the aforementioned skein, there was also some unfinished projects from the previous owner in the box. He or she evidently favored wildly striped pieces, because several bits clashed so hard, I had to untangle them while wearing my sunglasses. Some of the yarn pieces were less than three inches long, which would hardly even register in the finished tube. What made it funny was that the knots were large and would invariably have two inches of yarn tales sticking out. Kids today don't have to be as careful with their art supplies as we did.

So what did I do with the yarn bits ? Um, well... I carefully untied them and put them in a drawer, so I could use them to tie up any later fabric I'd need to bundle. (sigh) I couldn't just throw them out. Yes, I probably have a mile of yarn already, but I'm still very careful with any supplies that cross my benighted path. I'll have to work hard to shake that habit. If I want to.

Posted by dorriebelle at 2:26 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:37 PM CDT

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Current Mood : Gratitude for breathing

Amazingly, we had high humidity today - it's now raining - but my breathing was as stable as a table. I got so much done ! Cleaned up the kitchen, corralled all the weekend soda cans for recycling, wrangled the cardboard recycling, changed the litter box, did some laundry, the banking, and the week's grocery shopping, cleaned out the fridge, hung the new shower curtain, and assembled and installed the new lamps. Whew !

The lamps were an incredibly lucky find ! They're either desk or clamp lamps, with a plastic bullet-shaped shade. $1.50 each ! I got ‘lettuce green' for my two, a desk for the computer and a clamp for the sewing machine table, and ‘blooming orange' in a clamp for Beloved Hubby. He likes them, and asked me to pick up a desk one tomorrow. The bulbs are a bit expensive - $2.35 for six 25watt Type B - but not all that bad. The clamp opens wide enough to grip a door, and the desk base is good and heavy, with a small tray. It took me longer to find a Phillips screwdriver than it did to assemble the lamps. They also came in grey, purple, pink, and teal. I found ‘em over by the big plastic storage boxes, in triangular boxes you know I'm keeping for reworking. I kinda wanted a desk lamp, but I hadn't expected to pay just $1.50 for a new one. Maybe a used one...

I also splurged and bought a dozen cupcakes. While tasty and a handy reward for Dearest Son, I mostly wanted the DPrincess crown-shaped rings for the LDPs. I get two each of Belle and Jasmine (yellow), Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (blue), and Ariel and Snow White (green). I asked if I could buy the rings separately, but they were $5. Wanna guess how much a dozen cupcakes with them on ‘em cost ? Surprisingly, they look cute as headwear on Barbies, too.

Tomorrow's gonna be just as busy. One of the special needs coordinators said she could use my empty spools and empty pill containers, so I need to drop those by while I'm delivering Dearest's snack - ice cream bars. I also hope to get the ‘made with love by #####' labels in the mail, finish a survey, snag a new lamp for Beloved, and get some more laundry done. And sometime after all that, I'm gonna sew something if it kills me ! I'm going nuts without having made anything in so long.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:37 PM CDT

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Current Mood : Light frustration, gently starched.

Had some fun today reading craft websites. Lots of ideas there ! One crafty lady was very proud of all her recycling efforts. ‘Tis a noble thing, to make something, reuse materials at hand rather than go buy more stuff. And she had some great ideas. But... most of her stuff was kinda weird. I mean, yes, it's great that you can coil magazine pages up tightly, glue them to a magnet, and have a new fridge magnet... but the magnet was a magnet before. All she did was glue something to it. If it was particularly artsy, or arranged ironically, or made by the six-year-old, or something, I could understand, but all I saw was coiled up make-up ads glued to an otherwise functional magnet, and I had to wonder why anyone else would want a set. Same with the framed plastic bottle caps she and her kids painted. Nice idea, but how much framed art of bottle caps, toilet paper rolls, and magazine strips does any home need ?

One site had some great ideas for notepads. Folding and gluing fabric around a square of cardboard to hold in paper - pretty nice. Using paint chip strips from paint displays as covers, in a sort of ‘matchbox' design - also crafty, but you have to go get paint chip cards, they don't just appear in your house as a by-product of grocery and other purchases. I don't really think it counts as recycling when you went to get the stuff on purpose, you just didn't have to pay for it ‘cause it's a promo. Beloved Hubby has whole ‘color books' of the things, but they never make it into the house. He forgets to reclaim them from the folks who hire him ! And then a new set comes out from the paint company, and if he can turn the old ones in, the new ones are cheaper...

Not to mention that paper is pretty much dirt cheap in the States. I get at least two reams' worth during the school year - flyers from church festivals, reminders of school events, notifications, you name it. It's cheap, unless it's scrapbook paper, then it gets ridiculous fast. I just can't see devoting two hours to making a notepad held together with one staple when I can buy a pack of four wire or thread-bound ones at Dollar Tree. Much as I love to cheap out and make stuff, even I will buy the occasional notebook.

Anyway. I get this a lot with crafty sites. After about 20 minutes of ‘cute monsters', bizarre recycling, and free patterns for 30 tote bags and three outfits (nothing over a US Medium, though), I get a bit antsy. I can't expect someone else to meet my craft needs, after all. But I do get tired of seeing the same stuff over and over, and again starting to think I'm some sort of freak who should run around naked and hairy - I'm fat, so I should be furry like an ape, right ? - because fabric evidently refuses to form itself into my shape. Luckily for me, fabric just looooves tote bags !

Guess I'm in a mood again. I really should avoid Hancock Fabrics when I'm like this. Few weeks ago when I went, I scooped up a buncha freebie leaflets from Kwik Sew. Oh, they have fantastic patterns, and they favor simple sewing... but they're always about $16., never on sale, and within six leaflets, I found three plus-size patterns. One for pajamas, two for coats. There were actually more clothes pictured for dogs than me.

Aaah, I need to go dunk my head and get over m'self. Who cares about another crop of cute monsters and tiny t-shirts ? I shouldn't. As my last little foray into the ER proved, I'm actually in fairly decent shape, health-wise, when I can breathe, so it's time to move on.

But I swear, one more ‘let's iron-melt Mal-Wart sacks onto perfectly good fabric so we can make yet another tote bag' website, and I'm gonna get every sack I can and just roll around in ‘em. I'm gonna make a point to throw them out when that's done ! Sheesh, folks, enough's enough. Not everything has to be reused to a grey pulp. You can flush on occasion already !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:37 PM CDT

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Current Mood : Fat & Happy & Well-rested

Kind of a continuation of yesterday. Beloved Hubby and I really slept in today, didn't even stir until after 8am. Considering I'm normally up at 5am, this is mega-sleeping ! Especially after Friday's nearly day-long doze.

We went out for an errand and lunch, though. Cruised by two yard sales, but there wasn't anything of interest. I swear, I really do already have everything. It kind of cuts the excitement and thrill of the hunt, that's for sure. 

McD's has gone to a Hot Wheels / Barbie Happy Meal for the next six weeks or so. Barbie's theme seems to be ‘clothing clichés around the world'. I mean, the New York look is oversized funky, the Shanghai has cherry blossoms, the London has a plaid so boring, her shirt actually says "London".  (yawn) Don't think I'll be bustin' my butt trying to get any of these, honestly. I'll be seeing ‘em in next season's yard sales soon enough !

http://www.happymeal.com/en_US/standalone.html?s=GirlIntro&swfH=450&swfW=772&bs=GirlToys&swf=/en_US/swf3/sections/toys/girlintro/intropreloader.swf&bgc=%23000000&ID=#GirlIntro   Website, if you want it !

Otherwise, kind of a boring day. And I loved it !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:36 PM CDT

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Current Mood : Mild annoyance (from tripping over stuff in piles)

After spending a good chunk of today trying to find places to put stuff, I decided against going out to yard sales for more. Plus both Beloved Hubby and I have tummyaches, so it was just as well that I stayed in. We slept in after getting Dearest Son ready for school, read some, played on the Wii some, watched old Law and Order episodes on DVD. We only have the fifth season, though. Wish we'd bought the rest, you can't find ‘em now !

Got the last of the images up while Beloved dozed. Like before, it was a struggle and an eternity for the first ten or twelve, but after that, they only took seconds. Long as I kept at it. Once I stopped for more than five or ten minutes, it was back to Square One. Hard to believe sometimes that I pay for this...

Not much else going on - we really did stay home all day today. DFIL picked up Dearest after school, all we had to do was get him ready. And there's always ‘just one more' toy or DVD he needs before he can go. Leaves us plenty of opportunity for bye-bye kisses !

Normally by now, I have a list with directions of all the yard sales I wanna hit on Saturday. But I'm just not into it today. Got to visit Community Thrift, but I didn't find anything. Well, I found a set of Barbie-licensed clone Fashion Plates, but I already have that set, complete with box. So I'll let someone else make that find. Problem is, without the box or prior ‘Fashion Plates' experience, the tray and plates don't make a lot of sense !

I also found a Disney Princess counting book, complete with CD, but again, decided to let someone else make the find. Only thing unique about it was that, for a preschooler's volume, Jasmine was really, um... out there. You know the poses where she has a scarf wrapped around her, and her eyes half-closed ? For some reason, they used those. The other characters were as wide-eyed and widely used as ever. I'd seen each ‘artwork' previously at least a dozen times before.

I did find a Little Golden Book from 1974, at GoodWill. Barbie's first LGB, if I'm not mistaken. Story inside is terrible. Artwork is awful. But you know me, if it has that much-loved Friend Ship airplane on it, I gotta have it. I'm just glad it didn't cost much, but I wish I'd paid what it was worth. Coulda saved about 48c that way...

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:36 PM CDT

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Current Mood : Relief !

Whoo. Done. All the images are up, and for the first hour and a half, I got maybe ten done. The remaining 30 went at lightning speed and took about an hour, total. I have no idea why Tripod's like that. If you can fight it for an hour, you're awarded impressive upload and download speed. But for that first hour, it's a fight and a drag the whole way.

But it's done, and hopefully, I won't get more than a week or so behind again ! Sorry for the worry - and I know the entries don't sound like I was very ill. But I tend to write more optimistically than things often warrant. Yeah, I did go to all those yard sales, but most of what is up doesn't mention the intense inhaler-sucking in the car in between darn near each of ‘em. Or the wake-up, get-Dearest-ready, go-back-to-sleep-for-five-hours rhythm my days have had for the last two months. Asthma means never having to say you slept too much.

Anyway. I'm getting better - darn near normal some days ! - and I'm gonna take advantage of it and quit whining already. Had a parent-teacher-coordinator meeting today, and it's good to know that Dearest's schoolwork isn't all that bad, but we're having to upgrade our game on some aspects.

When I began the new Jem doll's benzoyl peroxide (zit cream) treatments, I ceased Charmin' Chatty's. Gave her a good cleaning and we regarded each other for a while. The mark on her cheek had faded somewhat, but would probably always remain. But that didn't bother me. Facts were, I really never bonded with her - or she with me - and pure space constraints made me question keeping her here. In the end, I've decided to let her go, so she can be happy. I'll probably donate her, so someone can have that wonderful ‘score' feeling, unless someone here would like her. Drop me a message, and we'll take it from there - I'll be glad to send photos and such. Make no mistake, she's not pristine and was probably lonely in an attic for years. If you can accept that, and you've wanted a Charmin' for a while, then consider adding her to your home.

The brown feathery yarn works OK in the Knit Hits machine, but I discovered that I really have to watch any and all yarns in that thing. Even a simple three-ply acrylic could drop a stitch undetected, so the specialty stuff really needed monitoring. I hope to find some yarn needles soon, maybe at Hobby Lobby. I was hoping to find one in the machine's box, but nope. Crochet hook was, though... maybe I'll learn to use that for the finishing thread instead.

Oh, all right, I admit it... I did kinda like Winx. Just wish the characters' wardrobe selections had been, well, different. Otherwise, it was cute and fun, and I wish it'd continued.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:36 PM CDT

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Current Mood : Emerging

Spent on crafts : $1.08

Wow. And I thought posting all those text entries yesterday was a PITA. Going back and adding photos is like wrestling with a statue. You hurt, you're frustrated, and you end up not knowing who really won ! Guess I should have done images and text at the same time, but I was about to give up yesterday - adding photos may have encouraged me to wreck the computer ! It's taken me an hour to add four photos. Sheesh. I'm gonna get the rest of August's up, then take a break before I hurt something...

As you may have guessed, we got the computer back up yesterday. We bagged the UPS and just got a super-heavy-duty surge protector. Otherwise, I'd still be down. With a few of the bucks we had left, we got Dearest Son a copy of the now-on-markdown Cars : Mater National Championships for the Wii. Pretty much a sequel to the first Cars game. He and Beloved Hubby really enjoyed it. Much more fun than the first one, from what I could tell. The first Cars  really was too dicey, even on the easiest setting, for Dearest - you had to be on the exact right pixel most of the time for anything to work. Mater seems to be a bit more forgiving.

Got to visit Dollar Tree today - the cats have shredded their second shower curtain, the little furry *&^5ings - and snagged a couple of goodies. Tinkerbell fans should hit it soon. LOTS of Tink stuff ! Lotsa DPrincess stuff too. Puzzles, megaphones, knock-off gymnastics ribbon wands, playing cards, color-in posters, Christmas gift wrap, small plastic figurines, stationery, all kinds of stuff. I got one of the ribbon wands as a cat toy. Used to have the original toy, the Ribbon Dancer, and used it as therapy when I broke my arm in college. This one is much, much cheaper, but DC and Jack love it.

I also snagged a small skein of brown yarn that's quite bushy. Almost hairy ! I was wondering if novelty yarns would work in the knitting machine, so here was a way to find out without spending novelty yarn prices. I'm hoping to make a ‘fur' jacket.

There were hundreds of copies of Winx magazine hanging from pegs, but just the first issue. You may remember Winx, it was a cartoon about fairy school and the rather.... um, tightly and slightly dressed teenage girls who attended. In four-inch heels. Kinda silly to me, but so was Sailor Moon when you really looked at it. Anyway, this was yer typical kids' magazine - a comic story, glitzy columns about hair and nails and friends, with several doll, game, and video ads. Only reason I bought it was because the included pencil bag was kinda neat. It wasn't until later I thought that some of the poses were kinda... Playboy bunny-ish. Oh, well.

At least I got through the first week of September's images. It's like I have to fight it for an hour or so, then it's as easy as sipping soup. Go figure. Now, if I can just find two or four hours tomorrow to get the rest of the photos up...

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 11:29 PM CDT

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