I'm all set for Valentine's !

Current Mood : So much better...

Current Image Notes : This is the mailbox I got today. Love it !

Maybe I just needed a good night's sleep, or some new books. I feel much better now ! And 'feh' on what the Universe may or may not be tryin' to teach me. I already know I'm a greedy, rapacious little jerk - I try to do better and I stopped snarling at little kids last year, but you always return to your base instincts. So there.

And today was much better. Amazon.com has still not shipped the Bee set, but I'm tryin' to show patience and faith, so I'm gonna save my ire until someone earns it. Two lovely ladies at Mal-Wart (the one I ordered from, in another city) tried their darndest to try to find those Cupid dolls that still show as in-stock in their store on line, but it was simply no-go. So I told their manager how wonderful they were, and let it go. It'll be there one day, or it won't. Either way, stewing about it squanders the time I get to spend on better pursuits and more fun, and let's face it, my time on Earth may already be more limited than I wanna admit at this stage.

Today, I got to spend it at the Library and at - you're gonna laugh - another Mal-Wart. Beloved Hubby had the day off, and we had the funds to pick up a late birthday gift for Dearest Son. He was all-over excited about it, and he bounced around in anticipatory joy, which made us both happy to see. It also helped that the Monster High Valentines were in stock - both the lenticular ones and the 'mailbox' set. Snag !

I also got to peek at the slightly-shifted MH toy section. Which is reset with 'Sweet 1600' everywhere, but near-totally empty shelves. They had no dolls. Not one. They had three of Cleo's vanity, and a couple of Clawdeen's dress-up sets. Places for dolls - including Cupid - were clearly marked, but aside from clean shelves and air, nothing was there. The DracuLaura 'Newspaper' Club and the Clawdeen 'Fashion Entrepreneurs' Club outfits hung from pegs...and I didn't have Clawdeen's...

So I had a bagload of MH to play with today. I addressed one of the lenticular Valentines cards to Dearest and sneaked it in his birthday present bag. He found it about five minutes later, and happily played with it for about three minutes. Beloved had fun playing with the whole set for just as long, and expressed mild disappointment that Abbey wasn't represented, and Ghoulia had only one. Well, maybe next year. I snuck one in to DMIL's habitual chair, but I'm not sure if she found it yet, or what she thought of it.

I snagged a stack of books at the Library. Since it's evidently literarily vogue to rework fairy tales, I went for three written by favorite author Mercedes Lackey. Turns out, she has two series of fairy tale reworks - Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms and Fairy Tale Series. I scored two from the first, one from the second.  I'm about a quarter of the way through The Sleeping Beauty, which has been a truly fun read. I've loved her Heralds of Valdemar books, and this is the best part of them combined with familiar-but-different fairy tales, and you know what a total sucker I am for those ! 

I also got Barbie : A Rare Beauty, because it's new, and it'll be fun to leaf through, like that Making of Empire Strikes Back art book I scored a couple weeks ago. I'll definitely get some new sewing ideas ! And I got a pair of sewing books, one on making purses, another on remaking clothes into household items. Dearest picked out a couple for-kids pirate themed stories, including an illustrated Treasure Island, and Beloved got his usual political / psychological studies fix on. Nothing like carrying away a stack of new reading material to put a lift on the day !

Plus, it's raining. I've had a minor headache for days, and it's gone now. I'm starting to think my empty head is a barometer !

A trip to the library, and I'm set for *weeks* !

Current Mood : Delighted

I'm still on a kind of 'craft high' from yesterday's success with the tote lid-cover. Forgot to mention this, but I did the lid from the longest strip, which allowed me to avoid using some odd pleats the original bed-skirt had in it. In order to use the remainder of the strip, I'm gonna hafta pick out the pleats with a seam ripper. Guess what's on the 'meaning to' list now ? (grin)

Got to hit the library today, and I really bagged my limit. Three more sequential Mercedes Lackey books, a huge art book about the making of The Empire Strikes Back, and a craft/sewing volume. Should keep me busy for a week, maybe two. Got all the others turned in.

Had to photocopy a pattern set I hope to use this weekend - our printer broke. The letter tray was sticking again when Beloved Hubby went to use it, and when it came loose, some white plastic piece did, too. Now it won't load paper at all. He's gonna look at it this weekend, but for now, there's the local library, his school's library, and various other locations for either Xerox copies or USB-drive printouts until we save up for his long-awaited wish - a black-only laser printer. I'll still use our current busted one as a scanner, because that still works !

We also went out to a late lunch, where I had some delicious fried chicken and paprika fries, and tried Beloved's catfish - yumm ! We knew, from past experience that Grandy's is very generous with portions, so we ordered smaller meals, and still took enough home for supper. I'm trying to hold out 'til Beloved comes home from school, but is that chicken ever calling to me !

Came home to some great news - my copy of Fashion Doll Sewing sold ! It'll be in the mail tomorrow, then I can wait the five to seven days it takes for me to get paid for it. Ah, well. Hope the buyer likes it. Like the other time I sold a book, Beloved sez the funds are all mine to do as I please, so I gave it a bit of thought today. After Amazon takes its cut, and postage is paid, I'm gonna buy two things I've always wanted, but considered too pricey to get, and the rest will go into the general family fund. Ironically, if things go as planned, what'll go into family funds is what I paid for the book in the first place ! Yay, me !

I kinda wanted to sew today, but that remnant from yesterday was bugging me. So I put MST3K Manos : The Hands of Fate on, and got to it. Wow. Whoever sewed that dust ruffle used tiny stitches and serious tension. In that twelve-inch strip, I had four pleats and five seams to undo, and it took me nearly all of Manos to get it done. But it's all ironed and ready to go ! Still have some strips of the ruffle, but only about a third as much - and only a few pleats and seams on the remnant bits. My fingers hurt, though, so I'm gonna wait 'til I need the fabric to undo the stitches. Don't be surprised if you see something 'starfield' tomorrow ! 

Picky, picky, picky...

Current Mood : Hopeful

Ready to go to the library ! I've read Mercedes Lackey's Winds of Fate, Winds of Change and Winds of Fury, all in a week. I read her Queen's Own series before Dearest Son was born, but never read this sort-of sequel, because I didn't care much for the lead character. But, since the local library seems to have darn near all her books, I gave them a shot. And really enjoyed them ! It's funny, but when I knew of the Winds books, that was pretty much it for that series. Turns out, there's at least one more trilogy afterwards, possibly two before, and several other 'stand alone' books featuring characters from the first series. Whew ! I got a lotta reading ahead of me ! And Beloved Hubby boggled at me a bit when I got five books from our last visit !

I also finished Pretty Little Purses & Pouches, most of which were just too...fiddly for me. I was looking for more general shapes and ideas, but this book gives instructions on how to make exactly that purse in the photos. Nice if you want a quilted metallic bowling ball bag purse, but you have to take a leap on your own if you just want that shape, without the fiddly bits and quilting. I may use one of the simpler designs, though, for a bag to show off some embroidery.


I'm nearly done with 1,000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts and Tips - having read most of them on the source, PatternReview. com. I found two of mine that got used, but I'm embarrassed at how beginner-basic they are. Still, it was kind of a shock to see them there. And I'm skipping quite a bit, since I don't have a serger. Should be done with it sometime tomorrow.


I feel better, but I still fall asleep like a computer - no input for ten minutes, and I'm gone. But I think I'm on the high side of whatever-this-was. Here's hoping ! 

Yaaay - new books to read !

Current Mood : Very, very tired. 

Current Image Notes : I have a tip in this book somewhere - they even paid me ten bucks for it. Now, thanks to the library, I can have fun trying to find it !

Not sure what I got into yesterday, but it followed me into today. Too bad for whatever it was, I had work to do ! Dearest Son's education picks up right after his January birthday, so if I wanna establish a working routine, it was now or never. Gonna try the 'one major task a day' thing again, it was working fairly well until I got uber-sick.

Decided on bedroom cleaning Monday, dishes Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, laundry on Wednesday, and Bathroom and dining / Arena area Friday. Since I was out of it yesterday, I had dishes and laundry today - or I could hold off and have dishes and laundry tomorrow. Bleh. Got the dishes done before lunch, and got the laundry going before I got nauseous again. I couldn't make m'self eat for nothin'. Still, with laundry, I have about an hour between loads to rest, so I did, and still got it all done. It helped that there were only three loads ! It's all washed, dried, and put away, hooray !

You may be wondering if we've moved, and the sad thing is, we haven't. But DMIL does no housework at all - I mean, none ! I'm almost jealous, except for the fact that she barely moves more than thirty feet in a day - and DFIL is frequently tired and hurting, so he doesn't do much. And frankly, half the time he does dishes, I end up redoing some. I'm not perfect, but I actually wash knife blades and the backs of plates. It's far easier on me to see what he does as a bonus, instead of getting upset when his 'share' isn't done. It's much quicker for me to improve my 'tude than it is for me to change anybody else's...well, anything ! 

So I'm fairly tired still, especially after we went to the library and out to eat tonight. But the good news is, Beloved Hubby's off for the rest of the week ! We can sleep in, watch movies, and relax tomorrow. And I have lots of new reading ! In fact, I think I'll go lie down now...so sleepy.