Busy week but nothing done...

Well, it has been a long one. Dramatic in more ways than one. Historic in more ways than one. Histrionic in more ways than necessary.

Naturally, I've spent way too much time in front of the television, trying to time channel flips to catch the most Olympic moments I could. And they have been wonderful. Heart-warming. Heart-breaking. And occasionally, embarrassing. Particularly embarrassing is the first half of a pair of mittens I started knitting to keep my hands busy and actually feel like I wasn't being completely unproductive while I cheered for Latvia, Russia, Ghana (Go, Snow Leopard!!), Norway, Germany, Australia, Slovenia, India, and the rest of the nations gathered in Vancouver. It's not pretty. I'll show you, if I ever get them finished, the consequences of knitting while watching hockey.... It's sad. Homeliness, thou art a hockey mitten.

I did get the shop updated. Not that I made anything this week but I had a few items I was selling locally on hand and have added them to the inventory. Made a bunch of dust covers for some equipment at work. Ran a bunch of errands. The usual.

And, in what may prove to be pure folly, I snagged a pair of used cross-country skis for the budget-busting price tag of a whopping ten dollars. They will have their maiden voyage tomorrow morning before I settle in to watch the last game. (I predict ibuprofen with a Pepto-bismal chaser.) But after two weeks of watching the best athletes in the world while sitting on the chesterfield, I'm feeling a distinct and inspired need to get off my marshmallow-y behind.

Silliness. On all fronts.

Hey there, Thumbper. What's the matter?

Ooooooh. Ouch. Plastic bakeware-safe knife, you say? Because I didn't grease the brownie pan properly in haste to watch the hockey game? Because I was rushing to grab a brownie on my way back to the tv and slipped with the plastic bakeware-safe, good-for-lettuce, knife? And what's with the overly-dramatic lighting?

No, I don't think you need stitches. Yes, it's deep but that's what Superglue's for...

Walk it off, Thumbper. Walk it off.

Nightstand Revisited

It is customary for Mother and Father to holiday each winter in a tropical vacation with Sister or myself usually in charge of airport drop-off and retrieval, pet maintenance, snow-shovelling and house-guarding. It is also customary for them to experience a flight-delay on the way home. (This time - volcano. Truly.)

It's nice after traveling, especially if you have a habit of getting waylaid, delayed and tarmac-stayed towards the end of your trip, to come home to a treat. I figured that maybe the time had come to tackle the toppers she wanted for her nightstands. (The ones to hide the "incident".)

Trouble - I had NO idea what kind of pattern I wanted to do. When Mum requested them, she gave me virtual carte blanche, except to say, "Maybe some yellow?" Pattern, no. Style, she trusted me. And the fabric sat in my hands for weeks. I was paralyzed by the freedom of it all.

Oh, inspiration! Thou art a fickle mistress!

(Which is a line from the first act of the elizabethan tragedy this project was becoming... Line 164 to be precise.)

Then I remembered that she liked how the runner I made turned out. So I just started cutting....

And cutting....

Fretted about how to get the curves right and not use bias binding.

It took me a Saturday. No more, no less. Go figure.

(So it may not have ended a tragedy but Aristotle would have to be satisfied by the Unity of Time, Place and Action! That's for you theatre and philosophy nerds....)

What do you think? Maybe less yellow?

Act V, Scene 3, Line 82:

But it be a butter yellow, and not glaring, like the offending sun of morning hung o'er.

Exeunt.

The Shape of My Heart (Warning: May contain extreme Canadian-ness)

It looks like this....

Wide and flat and kinda pointy? Probably. I get incredibly spirited when the Olympics come around and so this Valentine's Day:

My heart...

...is excited to see all the different nations come together. It cheers for underdogs, from everywhere. (GO, Jamaican Bobsled Team!!!)

...thinks American Shannon Bahrke hugging every competitor that came down the mogul run after her with wild and supportive abandon was pretty cool. (GO, for hugs!)

...bleeds for Georgia. (There are no words...)

...loves, loves, loves The Great Game, will be rooting hard for Team Canada, and respects Crosby but would be leaps and bounds more excited to meet Ovechkin.

...doesn't really understand short-track speed-skating.

...actually gets weepy during inspirational commercials, medal presentations, heartbreaks and successes.

...is a little embarrassed about said weepiness. (Seriously, it's not even hormone-related. Unless there's such a thing as "that time of the Olympiad." )

...watches the events we don't have contenders in with the same enthusiasm as the ones we do. Who doesn't love to randomly adopt another country's athletes and just start cheering? (GO, Lithuania!)

...wonders how they made those whales during the opening ceremonies and who's that slam poet guy? Wow to both. (slight edge goes to the whales but the poem is here)

...has a sense of humour drier than the best of ginger ales. (GO, Canada Dry!)

...will always say "eh". I simply can't help myself and I'm not sure I really want to.

...hates the 'cheer' invented by Pepsi. As much as they're still evil, Coca-Cola just gets it. Pepsi, you don't. (PS. The Coke commercials are some of the ones that choke me up... I wish I was joking.)

...wishes it was in Vancouver.

Well, that is my maple-flavoured, bacon-wrapped, beer-dipped, "aboot"-saying heart's feelings today. I hope yours, no matter its shape or flavour, is equally full.

If this post is too full of Canadiana and rampant enthusiasm for you, I'm sorry. Oh, that was a little bit Canadian, too. Sorry. Ah, nuts. I'm just so excited.......!!!!!!!

PS. If you happen to have Sting's Shape of My Heart stuck in your head for the next few days, there is no need to thank me. You. Are. Welcome. :-)

Finished. One stage anyway.

The top is finished.

The binding is made.

I don't have batting at the moment.

Or backing.

Or time and money to spend at the fabric shoppe.

But if wishes were horses...

...this girl would be shovelling horse crap out of the living room for the next several days.

:-)

Warmth from Wonderful People

It might look bleak and cold.

But you might come home to something you've won in a fabulous giveaway.

It's warm and the stitches are immaculate.

Thank you, Jess! I love it and it could NOT have been more timely!

Latest Endeavour of the Sewing Variety

I have neglected my machine since the holidays. And now that I have a little bit of time on my hands, I've dived headlong into the big-girl version of Lego. :-)

I am NOT a person who does Christmas fabrics. I am NOT a person who does quilt "kits". Typically, I like to take an idea or a pattern and make it my own, choose my own fabrics, make my own mistakes and triumphs. But when I saw the Figgy Pudding quilt top hanging in my local quilt shop, I needed it. It was the prettiest, most modern, holiday-themed quilt I'd ever seen and I fell desperately in love.

And then Santa brought it for me. :-)

There are dimensional tree blocks using a one-seam method that I would not have been able to figure out just by reading the pages...

Very fuzzy photography - there may have been wine involved.

Luckily, I'd seen the technique just before Christmas or I might have gone out of my mind trying to wrap my head around these trees and resorted to something crazy like attempting paper piecing and ruining my precious fabric with an untested method. How serendipitous that Anjeanette of Roots & Wings, Co. featured the exact technique I was going to need - THANK YOU!! (and just for you, I'll tell you that I'd've been Sobbin', Sobbin' Sobbin', Fit to be tied!)

I imagine I'll have the top together in a matter of days....