Merry Xmas 2012

I always make some gifts for Christmas. This year it was tough, because I was selling and sewing right up to the last minute. I did make some really cute sachets, out of old denim with white machine embroidery. I didn't even get a chance to take pictures of those, but trust me, they were adorable.

For the most part, though, I was sick to death of sewing, so I tried my hand at crocheting. I knew I could crochet the scarf, like the Minecraft scarf that the Dink is wearing, but I didn't know that I could make amigurumi. My first ever is the Yoda on the right. As that went so smoothly, I thought I might attempt a Slenderman for the teen. I found one that I liked and based my pattern on that. I had no pattern to work from. He turned out pretty cool. Even has creepy curly tendrils coming out of his back.

The picture below shows the teen and Slenderman, enjoying a cup of cocoa. Dink and Luna enjoyed Christmas a LOT, even Santa Fuzzy did. That hat was bought by someone for the puppy whose head is bigger than mine now. Well a LOT bigger than Fuzzy's. Hope you enjoyed your holidays, family, and learning new things :)

Counting my Blessings

I spent last night counting things I'm thankful for instead of sheep (like the song Count my Blessings Instead of Sheep" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgZJGl101KE ). It actually helped me fall back to sleep at 4 when the puppy woke me to go outside. She's been sleeping well, but I think the growth spurt is forcing her to eat more and with more food, comes more emptying.

Everyone here survived Thanksgiving once again. Although the boys came screaming to me at 7 pm that they were starving and needed food, because they couldn't eat their other grandmothers Thanksgiving dinner. Overcooked jerky turkey that was too dry to chew, "gravy" that was just grease with no thickening agent, green beans that tasted like water, and sweet potatoes that were just cooked and barely smashed (not mashed). The only edible things were the garlic mashed potatoes and corn souffle that my DD made and the store bought pies. We filled up on that.

I had to feed the boys, because their parents went off to stand in line for black Friday deals to buy them gifts that are too nice at prices they could afford. Those boys are spoiled, but when you consider that they politely  thanked their other grandmother for the horribly prepared food, they might have deserved it.

Luna want shopping with them, because she still can't be separated from her mom at night. They took her stroller for her to sleep in, because the last deal was at 5 am. But DD couldn't make it and her FIL came to rescue her and Luna at 11 pm while Luna's dad stayed for the final deal.




Some of the things I am thankful for.

The health of my family, including my son who finally got his heart patched up and ticking in a way that will make it last longer before more surgery.

A roof over my head, small and tight, but warm, and food in my stomach.

The ability to think and work and earn an income, no matter how small it is.

All of the lovely friends and customers have because of my journey into the online retail business.

The fact that anonymous posts to this blog are blocked :)

Hope you all had a joyous Thanksgiving and can count your blessings instead of sheep too.

Life on Mars - Holidays and Restless Nights

I had so much design work to do this week it was just NUTS. I had a birthday too. There was so much going on this week that I almost forgot I had one. I didn't get to enjoy it much. I worked for 14 hours to complete one project. Then I worked another 14 hours straight on Thursday to complete another project. I did, at least get to have a very nice dinner my daughter made me for my birthday. Lamb chops and my favorite "cake". A meringue torte with whipped cream frosting.

The sun was out a lot, and with the sun comes the neighbors. Poppy's MIL is feeling better and out and about working in the yard and not getting any sleep. After 14 hours of work Thursday, I had to watch some videos to unwind. Just after I fell asleep around 1 am, apparently she needed to go out and look for her cat. Of course she forgot to check the lock on the door (again) and pounded, screamed and cried at the door, until someone let her in. I would have called over there, but they don't answer their individual cell phones, in case it's a collection agent (at 1 in the morning).


Saturday, she decided to decorate for Easter. OK, so it's her yard and she can crap it up as much as she wants, right? But did she have to hang those plastic Easter eggs from twine and a big ugly bow on Our Fence post? Technically it's her fence post too, but they seem to not know that their property is not theirs when they are renting it out. BTW this fence post is just in the middle of the yard with no fence. When we first moved here, there was a piece of wood making a step that stuck out above the ground about 3 inches and it made a nice pond of ice. I slipped on it and caught my wrist on the post and almost impaled it.

So out in the front yard in her planted old tire that is cut, turned inside out, and painted, she put some kind of green fabric, and some stuffed rabbits. The rabbits didn't stand, so she grabbed one of my tomato cages to stand them up. Again, anything that's in the yard is hers, like my shovel that I finally got her to return after she uses it, after two years.

And there's the Basket on the lamp post. That's her knitting basket. I'm not even sure what's in it, because she hung it to high for anyone to see. She must really love her decorations, because she takes that knitting basket everywhere with her. That's some nasty old wooden cross tied over the basket.

We don't let her decorate for Halloween, and I think that annoys her.

Life on Mars - Family Dinners and Black Friday Shopping

So we decided we were going to have the Thanksgiving dinner ourselves and not go over to Poppy's in laws because - well their house and cleaning habits are - well - I'm not going to say really. Lets just say I don't like sitting an barely wiped off cat barf, drinking out of greasy glasses, or having their huge dogs nose in my crotch while I'm trying to pretend I'm eating somewhere else.

While our house is not the greatest, our cats will not jump on the table while we are eating and we can manage to keep the room we're eating in clean for at least a day. Although we do have a lot of clutter, it's clean clutter.

Then, on Wednesday, boy child #1 says "Grandma is swearing and having a fit because our house is filthy and she doesn't want to have dinner over at our house." So I immediately take over some extra food we had for them and trip over the junk in the hall and say, "Wow this hall is really a mess" and look in the living room and say "Good thing we're having dinner. Looks like you wouldn't have had time to clean up everything anyway." All in a very pleasant tone with a big smile on my face.

Poppy and I were busy with the baby, cleaning and setting up everything for dinner. Poppy spent a little time next door and came back stating that MIL won't be coming to dinner, because she's had runs for 4 days. Well I happen to know that's not true, because the first day she was helping us with the baby, the second day I took her up to the church, and the third day she was just bitching about our house and never said a word about being sick.

Poppy told her that if she was sick for so long, that maybe she should go to the hospital and maybe if it's that bad Luna better go to the doctor and get checked too. Later that day MIL came over and said she wasn't sick when she was watching Luna and she could probably come to dinner because she hadn't been sick all day, even though she just said she was a few hours earlier.

Even though it was an insane and crazy morning and afternoon, when it came time for dinner, the house was beautiful, the food was fantastic and everyone had a great time. No fights, no fuss. MIL said grace, because we don't know any, FIL said the house seemed bigger that theirs (even though it's half the size, it's just cleaner) and the kids actually sat quietly for a minute and enjoyed their meal. A perfect end to a crazy week.

Poppy and Luna took a nap before they went out shopping with Daddy at 10 PM to 3 AM. They want to several stores to price match the Best Buy ads. She only got a few things and some of the stores didn't give them all the matched prices.

At 9 AM I went online and found almost everything she wanted at Best Buy. She ordered there and now she has to return the other things. lol Next year do your Black Friday shopping from the living room Poppy!

Happy Holidays!

Life on Mars - Babies and Holidays

Another Hectic week. Luna is still settling in and I've forgotten how to handle a babe. Well it has been 8 years since Poppy had her last. So this week I grabbed Luna from Poppy to help her out and sat right down in a plate of leftover Riggie Sauce. Had to hand her back to change my clothes.

Tried to put up some Christmas decorations. Had such a horrible winter last year that most of the lights were ice damaged. It happened so suddenly that there was nothing we could do about it. Heavy Snow melting from roof froze. Our Penguins were one big block of ice, but I was able to save them - until sometime this fall.

The Penguins were under the porch in plastic bags. I looked and looked, but only one bag. I swear there were two. Maybe I was wrong. Nope only 2 penguins holding the letters O and Y. No J penguin. Looks like Poppy's FIL thought one of the bags was garbage and threw it out with the recycling. Not too angry, just kind of sad, I set out the two penguins and was resolved to have a Hanukkah display, spelling Oy! instead of Joy.

Then I had a brilliant Idea. We had Candy Cane path lights. I took one and hung it upside down in front of the O and Y Penguins. And this is what it looks like.

Not the Greatest Picture. But you get the idea. I didn't feel like setting up the manual settings, so I shot on auto. What's that saying? Desperation  FrankZappa Necessity is the Mother of Invention?

No one will dampen my Christmas Spirit I say! Can't wait to see what Thanksgiving has in store for us.

Life on Mars - Brotherly Love

I was going to write a post on Labor Day. You know, the day that we all celebrate...what was that again? Labor and Trade unions? The end of white clothing and Summer? The start of Football season? Why are we celebrating again? The invention of the Hot Dog and mustard?

Seeing as most of us are underemployed or  unemployed, and most of the rest of the World celebrates International Workers Day or May Day on May 1st. I thought I'd share something called Brotherly Love.

Things have been relatively quiet around the neighborhood lately. Not that we don't have issues here, but not ones I need to post at this time. There was this unusual whirlwind of cleaning that happened the day after Poppy went out with her BFF for lunch. She needs to get out more often.

For some reason yesterday there were also a lot of brotherly love photo opps too.

Look at these two brothers lying in bed together. Of course the older one is telling the younger one to "Get the hell out of here." The thing of it is, he's laying in the younger one's bed and bedroom.

Don't you just love how brothers adore each other.

These boys however, totally love each other. Well they are only 8 weeks old, I'm sure they will be tearing each other apart in another few weeks.

Poppy and I also had a great time photographing these little guys yesterday. We finally were able to flea med them and they are getting fat and healthy, and oh so cute.

They just got litter trained, we found the last of the hidden poop and pee, and now they are no longer hiding under the living room sofa.

But they did have a very busy day running around, climbing up my bare legs, climbing Poppy's fabric mountains, chasing mama's tail and wrestling in the Mystery Triangle (very cool net kitty house found for $3 at a dollar store)

Do any of you understand the concept behind having items for more than a dollar at a place called "The Dollar Store"? IDK



Well all of you in the US have a great Labor Day.