Oh, this old thing?

So my friend Quigs makes awesome purses. She made me this

fantastic purse for my birthday and I use it all the time. Talking to her is quite a hoot too because she is constantly saying "I could totally make that" and I believe her. For someone that had nothing to do with a sewing machine 2 months ago, she has turned into a regular Martha Stewart! :) However, when she gave me my fancy bag, her first comment was "don't look to close at the stitches". Of course, me being me the first thing I did was turn it inside out and check all the seams. I found one little spot that wasn't perfectly straight. Other than that, it looked fantastic and there was no way I could do something like that!

I started embroidery when I was a kid. I was about 12 when my aunt got pregnant with my cousin and I decided to make her a bear and bunny baby name sampler. Unfortunately, I'm tragically slow at the process so I never got it finished for him. I ended up finishing it for WF. Since then, I've worked mostly with cross stitch and WF took one I just finished for him, with tree frogs, to show to Quigs at lunch today. She looked at it and commented on how nice it looked and the very thing out of my mouth was, "don't look at the orange frog, he is all 'Picasso' because I messed up the counts". Then she turned it over to look at the back (presumably to see if she could make something like it LOL) and I said "the back of that one is so ugly, look at this other one that I'm working on"

She seemed fairly impressed with them and I can tell you I'm totally impressed with her sewing so my question is "why do we do that"? It isn't just us, either. I see so many people, when complimented about something they are capable of doing, even if it isn't perfect, saying stuff like "oh, don't look at that" or "well, it isn't the best". Is this a learned "skill"? Is this something that people see other people doing and assume it is something that they should do also? Is this something guys do? It doesn't seem like it, but then no guys I know really do anything crafty so I'm dealing with a potentially abnormal subset of the population.

Now what?

I bought asparagus today at the store. Now, what do I do with it? I'm thinking about maybe grilling it but as you all know, I prefer veggies raw so suggestions for that would be good too :)

I've been thinking

I've been thinking about doing something "more" with my time. Lots of my friends have work from home jobs or volunteer posts or other things besides tending the house and the kids, full time. Working really isn't an option, until MT is in school full time and even then I'm not sure. There are so many things that go on at school that I want to be part of, that I couldn't if I worked a regular job. Plus, I'm insistent that I be home in the afternoon with the kids. Fortunately, my ECE education lends itself pretty well to that kind of alternative schedule. Still, not the right time for all that yet.

Volunteering would be something to consider but I don't really want all that commitment. Last year, I spent a lot of time in TB's classroom and by the end of the year, I was completely burning out doing it. Going in each week was drudgery and I don't want to feel that way about something that is supposed to be good.

I really want something I can do at home that doesn't require a ton of time. I would like to do some kind of writing or something. Maybe a monthly newsletter or product reviews or something. I write my "Freaky Travels" blog and I really like doing that. However, I just can't afford to travel far and wide enough to make it be what I want it to be. I could expand it to general product reviews or TV show reviews or something but I don't know what kind of readership there is for that.

I read The Full Mommy and want to do something like that. Anyone know of any review sites that are looking for contributers? Or groups that need newsletters written? I promise to proofread and spell check better than I do here :)

Music suggestions

Ladies and gents, I'm asking for music recs.

This



is my new absolute favorite song. I LOVE it and I listen to it all the time. Angry (not angsty, which is totally different) girl rock makes me happy!

So I'm asking all of you for suggestions of songs along these lines. I know there are songs that I like but I'm drawing a blank and "angry girl" isn't a genre that is really searchable. :)

PS, this is the same band that did the Twilight songs, which are kind of "meh" and definately NOT what I'm looking for.

Thanks

Talkin' in your sleep

It was pointed out to me today that most men sleep on the left side of the bed, when you are standing at the foot, looking towards the head. Every person I've polled, except one, has confimed this so I now I want a larger audience to weigh in.

Standing at the foot of your bed, what side do you sleep on?

Why?

Seriously, why can my kid read the word ostriches but not at?

What do you miss by being a parent?

They had a segment on the radio asking people to call in and talk about the things they miss because they are parents. People called in with food issues (never getting to eat your own, having to cut someone else's, etc), time issues, social life issues, etc. I got to thinking about and I thought about all day and finally came up with something that I miss from being a parent. I miss 150lbs. While not thin, that is what I weighed when I got pregnant with C. It was over all a much healthier weight and I felt better and looked better at it. How much of that is simply time (don't they say something like we gain 10lbs a year, typically) and my being a lazy ass and how much is from having kids. Gaining the weight while pregnant certainly didn't help things but I think the other factors play a part too.

Other than that questionable thing, I don't miss anything by being a parent. I'm really a 3 year old in a much older body so I'm pretty happy doing things with my kids. I went to freaking Chuck E Cheese for my birthday for crying out loud! LOL We never did anything that we couldn't do with the kids before having kids so I don't miss anything there. A year ago, I would have said I missed sleep (because Lizzie never slept but she is doing SOOO much better now) and friends but both of those are none issues now. Lizzie sleeps pretty well most of the time and I've made some friends that I really enjoy hanging out with

So what, if anything, do you miss?

Sewing

First point, I DO NOT sew. I can't even sew a button on a shirt. I can thread a needle and I have done cross stitch patterns in the past. I have no idea how to use a sewing machine and the only one I even have access to is my mom's that is older than I am. I can plug it in but I probably couldn't do anything else with it.

Now, on to my question. I make knot blankets, which are easy, even for the craft challenged like myself. The problem is, I can't find fleece bigger than 60 inches wide. I want to make a blanket for my queen sized bed for this winter. I have a comforter, but I feel like the fleece is warmer over all.

What I need to know is how hard it would be for a complete craft idiot like myself to sew two pieces of 60 inch fleece together. It seems to me that it would be a simple straight line but I'm not sure how I would get all 60 inches of the fleece crammed under the sewing machine and still be able to sew it.

ACDSee

This program is STRESSING me out to the max. I went through and tagged everything and then moved it to the folders that I wanted it in. I'm using the program so I could find a piece or 2 that all matched easily. Hummie had the stellar tip of just dragging and dropping the files into photoshop instead of clicking tools and then open in editor and then Adobe, which is a pain. Now, however that doesn't work from the search pane (ha, I typed pain which would be true too LOL). I have to go to the folder that I have it and move it from there. Talk about a PITA! And even the tool option doesn't work. Why is this?

Someone help before I totally freak and throw this POS computer across the room (in addition to the ACDSee issues, I'm "running", although crawling would probably be more accurate, Vista and am generally unhappy about).

Bras and babies

I need some new bras. Dh commented the other day "how many bras do you have?" "uh, 2, not counting the left over nursing bras for laundry emergencies, why?" "because every time I've seen you with your shirt off for the last week, you've had that purple one on" "uh, yeah" One problem is I'm endowed and have a hard time finding anything that I like. I wear a D, so not huge, but bigger than a lot of places make. I don't like bras, as a general rule, but I'm a little big to go without so it has to be something crazy comfy. I don't like sports bras and I HATE HATE HATE with a passion underwires. I don't get padded/formed bras in my size either. If I were an A or B, I would totally get it but at a C/D? I fill out my own sweater thanks! Additionally, because I don't like bras, I don't want to pay much money for them. 5 years ago (which is the age of one of my bras) I found some Playtex ones at Target that are great. They are white, lightly padded (to prevent THO, I found out recently), no underwire and $15 a piece. Perfect! Sadly, they don't carry them anymore. In fact I couldn't find any Playtex bras there at all. I also recently got one at Lane Bryant that wasn't too bad. My mom had a coupon for buy one, get one half off and then they had some other sale so we each got a bra for $10 a piece. Unfortunately, the one here has gone out of business (they claim to be moving to a new location but they said it will be at least a year) and I'm afraid to order online. I tried on 3 different ones, same size, just different colors and all 3 fit differently.

Anybody have any suggestions?

Now for babies part. Lizzie is sitting here with her play phone saying "Hi, Grandma Jill, Hi Randy. Hi Grandma Jill, I talk my Randy" She apparently decided to call MIL and FIL but was more interested in talking to FIL than MIL. :)