We're Feeling Good From The Pills We Took

So, I haven't posted much lately because last week, I fell and broke my knee, and I didn't think being hopped up on Percocet would make for good blogging. Actually, Percocet only takes the pain away. It doesn't do much else.

Thanks to Blogger, I just found an unfinished post with the following:

I just discovered designer Anna Maria Horner's blog (thanks to My Half of the Brain). Here's a how-to for a cute felt owl ornament. And a felt garland. And a dog leash. I love her handwritten entry. I still write letters sometimes but nowhere near as many as I used to. It's easier to send an email, but I don't even do that sometimes. Right now, I have 216 emails to answer. Some are from as far back as June. I get on my computer and I'd rather read blogs or blow up cute little creatures.

I can't put any weight on my leg for two months (just shoot me). And, I was thinking, well, I could use all this downtime to stitch and embroider. So, maybe I'll have a few million things that I've made to share over the next two months.

Postcard Giveaway

As you can see, The Apronista and Jane's Apron are having a giveaway this month. The prize is a set of apron postcards from Julie over at Jane's Aprons. You have three chances to win and the drawing is this Friday so go enter now.

I forgot to post this last night: go see the Pop Tarts (at least that's what I think they are).

And, Wolfgang Will Be Playing Bass

I was just at a blog where the blogger was sharing pictures of some cross stitched Christmas ornaments that had bible verses on them. And, that's fine. I don't really care what people cross stitch -- I was going to mention one thing I wouldn't want to see but that will bring a bunch of perverted googlers here -- but I'd much rather see this than something biblical. Also, worth mentioning are these. (That reminds me: I need to put some Simple Minds on my iPod.)

And, I think I've already linked to it but once again, here's the best knitted project ever.

Did you know you can make Shrinky Dinks from a piece of #6 plastic aka polystyrene? You can! Directions are here. [link via Not Martha]

Tillamook is having a macaroni & cheese contest. [that link also via Not Martha] I don't want to enter. I just want the winning recipes. I like to use different recipes for macaroni & cheese and am always looking for new ones to try. The last time I made it, I used this recipe but I changed it a little because I didn't have all four cheeses that Emeril called for. I think I had two kinds and just used two others that were in the fridge. (I also left out the essence because the bam thing annoys me to no end.) Between the butter, the half & half, and all that cheese, it probably has a gazillion calories in it, but it was really good.

There are embroidery lessons over at Crafty Daisies for the next few weeks. It starts with the basics (supplies) and instructions for a few stitches (with good pictures).

Once again, the title of this has nothing to do with the subject matter. I'm just using the upcoming Van Halen reunion tour as material for naming these things.

I'm Sure They're In It For The Money

One time, about 20 years ago, my grandmother came out for a visit and was being her usual bitchy self. I had had enough and had to get out of the house so I called Ticketmaster and got a ticket to a John Mellencamp show at Irvine Meadows for that night. It was a pretty good show. I had a nice drunk guy next to me who kept singing along to all the songs. After they John Mellencamp and his band came back out for an encore, the crowd started booing. Or so I thought at first. The nice drunk guy told me that Bruce Springsteen was onstage and sure enough he was. They weren't booing. They were yelling for Brooooce. Sometimes it pays to have a bitchy grandmother.

Van Halen Reunites

Wow! Sarah at kniting-and.com finished her yo-yo quilt. She made 1600 yo-yos for it using a Clover Quick Yo-Yo Maker. Color me impressed.

And, if you're keeping track of my yo-yo making, I have yet to do a single one.

Pat Cummings has put her Just For Fun Redwork Book of old patterns online. Designs include a pig, horse, dog, cat, owls, children, flowers, birds and a somewhat disturbing one (to me) of a little boy in short pants riding on the back of a rabbit, plus a bunch of others. Thanks for sharing them, Pat!

How's about making slippers from an old wool blanket? There's a tutorial here. [link via Craft Leftovers]

I know the title has nothing to do with what I've written but I have a hard time naming these things. Who had that blog where all her titles were song lyrics?

Or is that a mug?

Instead of posting pictures of their kids on their blogs, people should post more pictures of bunnies in coffee cups.

Check out the Just Nan chart for a lovely Christmas biscornu.

I still think biscornu sounds like something to eat. Probably because it makes me think of biscotti.

Speaking of biscornu, a member of Cyberstitchers has made up a bunch of them. Instead of using a typical pattern where the design repeats so it's the same from each side, she did them a little differently. I really like how they turned out. Nice job, Helen!

Did you know you can use wax paper as a substitute for tear-away stabilizer? I need to try this.

I Has a Corm

I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? has a store now but I refuse to buy anything until they offer a Monorail Hamster t-shirt.

You know, if you're depressed and suicidal, go look at the Monorail Hamster, and as you watch him whiz around the track, say outloud "I has a corm!" and I swear you will decide to go on living another day. And, if that doesn't work, you might as well throw yourself in front of the Monorail Cat.

Well, I just cracked up for about five minutes.

Here's a fun quiz: Decide which of ten stories are for real or from an episode of Scooby Doo. (I got 60% right). [link via Pop Culture Junk Mail]

I Want to Marry This Fabric

Does everybody get weird messages from Blogger or am I the only lucky one? Like just now, I tried to log in and I got a pop up that said I needed to enable Javascript or some such thing. So I closed the window and opened it again and here I am.

Sometimes I get an error message when I'm trying to upload an image, but if I close the window and try again, it works. Go figure.

Anyway, I just wanted to share something that makes me drool. There is nothing on this webpage that I would not wear, carry, put my stuff in, sleep on, or drape over me. I love it all. When I get asked what my favorite color is and I say pink and green, I mean the colors on this page. If this doesn't inspire me to whip out a sewing machine and make something, I don't think anything ever will. Of course, I'm too broke to buy the fabric or the purse pattern but hello! I have other fabric! I have a purse pattern! I have a sewing machine! Time to wind that bobbin! Or whatever it is you do with them.

Biscornu Link Update

Maggie the Shih Tzu
Originally uploaded by PipStitch

Some time ago, I linked to a couple of posts on Craft Gossip where Heather, the needlework editor at the time, had shared two free cross stitch charts from Periphaeria Designs. Well, all the old needlework posts on Craft Gossip are now gone for some bizarre reason. I'm sure it has something to do with Heather no longer being the editor over at CG.

I stupidly did not save either chart, but luckily, they can be found on Periphaeria Designs (click on "Sample Designs"). I can hear them calling to me right now: "Make me into a biscornu! Make me into a biscornu!"

Actually, I can hear a dog growling. Lately, Maggie the Shih Tzu, will go sit in the middle of my bedroom floor and growl. I seriously think she is telling me it's time to go to bed, because she only does it after 2 am.

So, good night!

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today (almost)

Earlier this morning, it dawned on me that it was probably twenty years ago that I bought "Pleased To Meet Me" by the Replacements. It didn't seem possible it was that long ago but I checked the receipt and saw it was true. (Click it if you can't read it. And, yeah, I know I need to use a scanner next time. And yeah, I used to save record store receipts.)

I started thinking about the Replacements after I saw a link on Guava's blog to an article about Paul Westerberg. That got me to googling his name, which led me to his wife's blog, where I read he was 47 years old.

Excuse me? Did you say Paul Westerberg is 47? Are you sure? Dang. I don't even want to know how old Tommy Stinson is now. (He'll be 41 this year, according to Wikipedia. That can't be right. He was like 13 when he joined the band.)

It's not that I think 47 is old because I don't. It's just that I haven't been keeping up with Paul Westerberg the way I did with the Replacements, and I guess I forgot that people get older even if you aren't running to Tower Records every time they release a new record.

I once wrote the Replacements a fan letter. They sent back an application for the NKOTB fan club. Yeah, I saved it.

So, should I go clean my bathroom or take pictures of myself wearing my Replacements t-shirts?

Some Links at 3 am

This is such a great idea! It's a cross stitched design but she added some miniature skis and poles, and a ski boot charm. And the snow is pearls. I never think to do anything like that, unless it was already part of the chart.

I'm glad Blogger automatically saves drafts of posts. I wrote that about seven hours ago, got booted off AOL and forgot all about it until just now.

I was going through a list of links to free doll patterns that a nice person shared on the craft forum at Swap-bot. Here's one for a sock monkey elephant. How cute would that be?

By the way, there's a Christmas biscornu swap on Swap-bot.

This site has instructions to make a stitcher's book. It looks pretty involved but I'd like to try one some day.

One More Sponsor

After the Blogathon was over, I slept for about ten hours. I had only gotten three hours of sleep on Friday night. I was afraid I wasn't going to be up at six on Saturday so I laid on the couch with the TV on, thinking I would doze off but wake up every so often because of the television. I vaguely remember seeing Giada De Laurentiis in New Orleans eating alligator, and even though I had the sound turned down pretty low, I swear she said it tasted just like chicken. It must have been this show. I'd like to see it again because I also saw her throwing something white off the side of a boat to feed the alligators and I'd like to know what it is. Do you feed gators bread the way you do ducks?

So, after having slept until 5 pm, I was up all night Sunday, and Monday morning I got online to find I had another sponsor: Bobbie. Thanks so much for your generous donation, Bobbie!!

Found a Missing Post or Three

During the Blogathon, I lost two posts. I could have sworn Blogger told me they had been published but they didn't show up on my blog. Well, I just found one. It's actually showing as the very first post on Saturday with a time stamp of12:18 am, even though I wrote about being six hours into the Blogathon.

Apparently, we had some Blogger Gremlins at work on Saturday.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Postcards
It has almost been six hours since we started this blogathon! I've had time to visit a few other participating blogs this morning. I keep checking Food & Movies because Stacia is posting pictures of old postcards that her dad had saved. I've been saving postcards for years, ones I bought myself, and ones that were sent to me, so I am really enjoying her pictures. I'm glad she chose to share them today. Oh yeah, Stacia is blogging for the ASPCA. There's a blogroll on the right sidebar for other bloggers who are also supporting animal welfare organizations today. Please consider sponsoring one of us. Thank you!I am so late with this one!
Posted by Patty at 12:18 AM
Labels: Blogathon 2007

Actually, I lost 3 posts and I just figured out it was my fault. I put the wrong time on them. For example, say I started writing the midnight entry at 11:40 PM. When I was done with it, I would change it to whatever time I finished -- like 12:05 AM -- so the time stamp would show that. Well, I must have put PM instead of AM for two of the entries so Blogger posted them chronologically and that's why I couldn't find them. The one above got an AM when it should have gotten a PM.

I know no one cares. I'm just happy to know I wasn't imagining things and they really did get posted.

The Blogathon is Over

Well, I (sort of) had a good time. Thanks to all my generous sponsors! Thanks to everybody who left me comments and sent emails! I very much appreciate that!

Remember, my charity is Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue. You can still make a pledge until Monday.

Good night, all!

Edited to add: That's Maxwell and he belongs to my friend, Odean. When she sent me the picture, I knew right away I would have to use that on my last Blogathon post.

Next to the Last

I am counting down the minutes until 6 am.

A huge thank you goes out to all of my sponsors. Mom, Susan, Lindy, Odean, Kim, Diane, Nicky, Guava, Dad, Marg and Carrie, you guys are the best. Thanks to you, Lone Star will have over $250 to use for the furballs.

I'll be emailing you the mailing address for Lone Star to those of you who we did proxy pledges for.

I don't even know what that last sentence means.

All Done Stitching

God, that's a lousy picture. That's white aida. Who knew?



Boy, 5:30 came and went quickly.

I finished my Shih Tzu cross stitch. It's pretty sloppy and I'm not sure if I did all the back stitching but I was not going to thread the needle again. By the way, the chart came from LucieHeaton.com.

20 minutes until bedtime!

I still have to do the back stitching to my cross stitch but I think you can see what it is by now. Jen was right when she guessed it was a dog. More specifically, it's a Shih Tzu.

I also wanted to add a thank you to two of my sponsors I forgot to mention earlier. That would be my mom and dad. Oops! Thank you so much both for your donations!

Combination of posts

The baloney-loving cat threw up all over the kitchen floor and I was busy dealing with that, so I missed the 4:00 entry. But I am here now and I am still awake. And, I am going back to stitching.

Ack, I am running out of time

I attempted several times to post pictures of two adorable stuffed dogs that my friend Fiona made but I could not get it to work. So, if you like that kind of thing, you can see her white dog here and her little red one here. It looks like both of the patterns came from the Iro Iro Nuigurumi book.

Which reminds me, I was recently in Borders with my sister and I saw The Cute Book. I really need to get this book. Floresita made Terry the Terrier from The Cute Book plus a bunch of other critters (scroll down to see all the posts). They are all very, well, cute.

Still Time to Pledge

Just a reminder that you can still make a pledge up until 48 hrs after the Blogathon is over.

You can sponsor me here. (Thank you!)

You can sponsor a different blogger and a different charity here. (Thank you!)

If it's after July 30, 2007 and you would like to help Lone Star, go to their website. (Thank you!)

Ok, I am going back to my cross stitch and hopefully will have it done by 3:30. On second thought, make that 4 am.