Song-a-Day May: one take

Seriously, it was a long day, and we are really dead on our feet.

I did manage to ask good questions at work today.

It's okay, we'll just run on the awesomeness of yesterday.

Cheers!

See, this is what happens when you mess around

Detail from one of our homemade holiday cards. Limited editions, anyone want to buy a set?

Hey, when did this whole March thing happen?

I hate daylight savings time. I predict that everything I make this week will be surly. And that makes me happy. Yes, that is my second pink surly shrinky cake. The first one broke and I can't find it. But hey, rubber stamps and shrinky dinks? Way cool...

all work and no play makes Homer something something

14 hour work day! Still came home and knitted most of an egg cozy. Guilt is powerful.

Will finish tomorrow.

Also, my life is pretty lonely these days, but I am happy to report that my cat still loves me. Just look at the way he cuddles!

I was hot, and I was hungry.

Actually, I was tired and feeling lazy, and there were some trying moments today that demanded chocolate, and this only took twenty minutes if you also count the time I spent consuming the resulting product.

However, I still think there is something vaguely revelatory about the knowledge that you can make s'mores in a toaster oven even though I don't particularly like s'mores.

I know, I know, strange but true--they're just too sweet for my tastes.

Despite that, tonight was a s'more night:


Man, how many pictures are there of oatmeal in my entries?

Yes, duh, you should totally post the recipe

Also I think I'm getting hands like my mom's were. It's a knobbly knuckle or thin papery skin thing. It was almost weird, taking a picture like this. I am quite pleased, after the fact, to note that my finger nails are not really dirty. How lucky!

Normally I would never do this...

I am not one for key accessories. I do not decorate my doorknobs, why should I ornament my key ring? This, however, had to be an exception...
It's surly and shrinky!

Apparently those self portraits got so frustrating that I have a new default thing.

ALMOST TWO LEGS LONG!!

You know what is great about making scarves? If you aren't being fancy, you don't even have to count anything. Just go until it's about as wide as you want, turn around go back the other way, over and over until it is done.

Brain seems to greatly appreciate the associated opportunity to think about something else.

Tired. Default. Thing.

Grarrrgh. Sleep. In under wire. 11 more days.

Time limits are for suckers.

As I was working on today's craft thing, I realized that, by way of a general approach to life, I am not totally awesome at paying attention to arbitrary recommendations about how much time I ought to be spending on things. Take, for example, thingaday. Now, I have spent way more than 20 minutes on stuff basically every day. Today was especially awesome, with my efforts clocking in at about 3.5 hours worth of crafting. Likewise with exercise--recommendations from doctors usually end up in the 30-60 minutes per day neighborhood. I train for marathons, which means hours and hours of running at a stretch, plus I lift weights three times a week. I work well over my allotted 40 hours per week. I don't come even close to getting 8 hours of sleep a night.

But here's the thing: I feel great. I make my deadlines, I don't feel unusually stressed out or tired, and I like it that I have intuitively grasped the concept that the rules people make up for how we should all comport ourselves need not prevent me from enjoying myself.

Anyway!

Today I took a $2 XXL t-shirt and turned it into a little dress by following this tutorial. I haven't yet put on the straps because, after 3.5 hours, I was done working on it for the day.


Interesting things to note:

• sewing stretchy cotton fabric is not nearly as difficult as I was led to believe
• there is a lot of thread in the seam that attaches the sleeve of a t-shirt to the torso of that t-shirt
• it is really hard to pin up something for yourself while wearing it when you have no help

Here's what I am thinking: the combination of this turn-t-shirt-into-dress technology and the bleach stencil technology could easily be combined into some kind of super hyper awesomeness.

a study in mustachios

Fifty done over the last two days, in chocolate and marzipan. tomorrow eyes ears eyebrows hair toque. shoot me please.

happy Crappy Week week

This has just been one of those weeks when everything has pretty much sucked. Monday? Sucked. Tuesday? Tuesday really sucked. Wednesday? I had a ton of meetings, and also it sucked. Yesterday? Started out like it was going to be okay, but then descended into suck. Today? Exhausting, erratic, more fun than the previous days (everyone at work apparently got the "inappropriate for work Friday" notice, which at least made the day interesting), but still pretty well punctuated with suck. To make it even more fun, the majority of my local buddies were also experiencing Crappy Week week, so I couldn't even wallow in misery.

Please don't even ask about Tuesday, though.

However, today was different, because today was February, and, like my sister, I have embarked upon a perhaps misguided effort to make something every day this month. This meant two things: a trip to Michael's for some supplies (which was facilitated by the fact that I sat on the edge of my tub this morning creating a list of completely random stuff I could make over the course of the month), and the incredibly painful act of making my first thing.

I decided on a self portrait. Well, more like 2.5 self portraits. Here are some of the things that make these particular self portraits particularly excellent:

1. I don't actually look like any of them.
2. Looking at yourself that closely for that long really draws attention to all seven signs of aging that they mention in those skin care product advertisements. Note how this is particularly clear from my depictions of the dark circles under my eyes. Did I mention that this week sucked?
3. I used to be pretty good at this.

Top this off with the fact that I couldn't find the cable that makes my camera talk to my computer (I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have been an unfortunate victim of the great Division of the Goods), and, well, it kinda sucks.

So yes. It's a rather inauspicious beginning to a month of craftiness, but that's okay. I have...ideas. And I do believe rather sincerely that if I can execute successfully on even one or two of those ideas, I will be most satisfied with the outcome of the month. There are a couple in particular that I am pretty excited about. Conveniently, the exhibitionist element of blogging means that you all get to watch as I spiral downward into a dark place where arts and crafts dare not show their faces.

I also feel compelled to mention that I've just discovered that my roasted acorn squash has gone bad.

Awesome.

Granny Octagon, Drat!

Four not eight! Math is NOT hard! But I think I'm making progress....

what is this thing called free time?

I am very impressed by those who are committed to all handmade gifts this season.

Obviously none of them work for catering companies.

I've heard of Tipsy Cakes...

... but Surly Cake is a new one on me.

It makes me very, very happy, though. Surly Cake is adapted from this pattern. I'm very tempted now to go to various restaurants with Surly Cake and snap pictures of him with their dessert plates. Because I'm just that way.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. P.S. Rach, how do you bake a card? :)

It's a gazillion degrees outside, let me wrap my hands in warm fiber.

Record heat and humidity. Everyone is being told "Stay indoors or we can not be held accountable for your immediate raisinification". (Hey, if spaghettification can be a scientific term, so can raisinification.)

Of course, I have been knitting.

I made a pop tart phone cover which made me very happy and which I promptly gave away, so I have no pictures. It looked a lot like this, only without the evil evil acrylic yarn, instead using happy sugar and cream cotton yarn.

I made an mp3 player cover in an effort to work my way into making a good looking mp3 player cover. No pictures.

I also completed a hat for a person-to-be. It is blue, much to the chagrin of the mom who really really wanted a girl. I went to take a picture and the camera batteries are, shockingly, dead. I really should go out and buy some new rechargable batteries.

Ok, is anyone particularly good at switching colors in knitting to make a design? I feel like there is something I'm missing when I do it, probably relating to the word "intarsia" which I have no clue about. I tried to make a pickle on the mp3 player cover, but it came out all lumped and embossed looking. No, I won't take a picture and show you. It's weird.