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.

Featured on the Best of Etsy!!

That's right! My mittens were featured today on Mireio Designs with some other very awesome stuff for holiday giving! You can check it out here.

Plus, you should visit Mireio's shop, especially if you haven't finished your shopping. The acorn sachets are soooo very cute and her pillows are the jam. (Jam: noun - meaning: the best part of the doughnut.)

Thank you for the mention, Wende!!

The bleak month of November (which has historically been unkind to me for several years) is OVER and December is starting off with a bang: new job that I actually love, we finally have snow, my car is NOT a write-off, wonderful and supportive friends and family, and an advisor meeting booked for that good news that I haven't actually spilled about yet. :-) Soon.

And if you love free stuff, there is a plethora (yes, a plethora) of giveaways all linked at Sew Mama Sew.

Now - if you've read all that - have a fabulous Wednesday and treat yourself to: a) a dish of ice cream, b) a half-hour alone time with a good book, c) a snuggle with your favourite mammal (human/four-legged) or d) all of the above!

Where to put the stitches...

Seems like a theme lately.

I've finished the top of what will be a protective runner along the top of an antique vanity. I've composed my pieces and seams in an arrangement that I like. I've selected my backing - part of an old sheet that has been in my family for years before it fell victim to my scissors as I try to make each thread of it new again. And I thought very carefully about what to put on the inside. You won't see it in the finished product but what's inside something always affects how the outside turns out. I've layered them all and now comes the question of how to stitch all the elements in place. It will either bring out the best in the top or highlight the flaws. But the stitches are what hold the whole thing together and I don't want to take that too lightly.

This isn't really about a runner. :-) It's about making my own pieces fit. About being choosy about who I am inside. About finding the right stitches to pull it all together. Or maybe I'm waxing poetic about quilting as a metaphor. A little pretension on a Saturday night hasn't killed me yet :-)

"Life has its ups and downs, " she sighed, staring at the fabric collage that had become her own existential dilemma. "What would Neitzsche say?"....

(Sorry, I just Kant help myself - heehee)

I think I've made some major life decisions this week. I'm not quite ready to share what they are yet so I'm leaving in the safety pins until I'm sure about the stitching. (Although, I can tell you right now that deciding to take pictures early enough in the day to catch natural light so my photos aren't so.... so.... what's a word that means "lame" but isn't "lame" because "lame" is a lame word?) :-)

In the world word war department, I used "disparaging" in conversation this week and was told to speak english. :-| (Please join me in a collective head shake.)

And in the small victories department, I had my first Etsy sale today. And that, like making major life decisions, feels pretty darn good.

The Shop has Opened: A Day of Photographs and Clooney

Well, after (hopefully) getting my photography sorted out and learning the technical details of etsy as I go....

I have opened up my etsy shop. ( Insert exclamations, yawns, or expressions of your choice here. I choose a "Yaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!" in the style of one Kermit D. Frog complete with flailing arms and puppet master.)

It has been longer in coming than I had planned, what with the particularly odd couple of weeks I have had - I won't bore you with the mundanities of it all because they just aren't interesting. :-) Today, however, was devoted almost entirely to getting my little venture (venture?) up and running with a brief timeout to see The Men Who Stare At Goats. (1 [me] out of 5 of us really enjoyed it - 5 out of 5 thought it was weird.) I plan to spend the rest of the evening adding the few items I have ready to go right now.

As an aside, a preview for a movie featuring George had a woman talking to a friend about how she didn't think that way about him because he was old. All I can say is that George Clooney would have to get quite a bit older before I stopped thinking of him that way. :-) Swooney Clooney has had me since The Facts of Life....

Happy breeds Happy so Strike a Pose

I received word this morning from Whitney at Whisker Graphics that her mittens had arrived. So now I can share...

I asked Whitney for some of her favourite colours and wasn't particularly surprised by her list - if you read her blog, you would not have been surprised by it either. Graphic designers have such an eye for colour!

You can read about the arrival and Whitney's reaction HERE. The fact that my mittens inspired modeling a la Madonna pleases me to no end! She is happy which makes me happy: it is contagious and infectious so I hope they never develop a vaccine for THAT. (although, knowing Glaxo and all those other pharmaceutical giants that make a fortune off of antidepressants, I'm sure at some point, they'll try. After all, they're halfway there with their commercials - who can watch one of those without getting bummed out?? Melancholy chords and grayed out images of deeply sad people usurp your screen and then they ask if you experience any symptoms of depression....Sheesh.)

If to vogue would make you happy today, by all means, do it. Strike a Pose!! (Fight the corporate system - heehee)

In other news that would make me happy, I hope to have the CitricSugar etsy shop open by the end of the week.... :-)