pocket pouches

i'm gonna fudge here. i made these a few weeks ago for yet another swap. the sweat shoppe swap. you make five like items and swap them for five different items. in this swap i get to choose the items i want and if they're available i get them. i got most of what i asked for so all is good.

the pouches resemble the clutch i made a while ago, only smaller and with a wristlet. i tried to accommodate peoples likes and dislikes so there's a wide array of style. i'll revisit these in a few weeks as a daily craft.

i am working on a craft right now. bamboo tiles covered with various papers. most of them will eventually be made into bookmarks similar to the one i made angela in the last swap. i used varnish on them to give them a high gloss look and it's taking a while for them to dry. i made more than ten so i guess that counts for two days of crafting. i'll post pics tomorrow of the finished items.

one a day

they've come back to haunt. garden gnomes! when in asheville a few weeks ago, our lovely host had an abundance of these little devils sprinkled throughout her yard. i started snapping away, knowing i'd be doing something with them somewhere down the line. first project: gnome notes.

man, does it suck not having a desktop publishing program. quark, indesign, anything is better then using microsoft word. i was able to punch out 3 sets of cards before my printer went kaput. inkwell is now dry. i gave a set to jill for her birthday and am selling the other two in my swap shop. i'm not too happy with the colors...wanted them to pop. once i get the bugs ironed out i'll make some more. hopefully i'll be designing aaron's office website and i'll be able to afford creative suite. how to break down the difference between programs: creative suite is equivalent to a lexus where microsoft word is a fiat. dumb comparison, since i haven't ridden in either. but you get the gist.

my swap shop is basically a place for my practice projects. i've been trading practice projects for more materials, i.e. buttons, fabrics. it's kinda nice having that option. they'd be going to waste otherwise. i've gotten a few cool items, but i'm finding my style and everyone elses are very different as far as finished products go. so basically i've been sticking to supplies.

i've also found that i need to give myself goals. otherwise i push things off and they tend to never get done. i've decided to do a project a day. at least attempt to. five items. two for practice and three to sell. unless, of course, they are perfect from the get-go. i am finding i am a little OCD when it comes to setting up shop. the sewing needs to be perfect, the photos have to look great and the marketing materials have to shine. at this rate, i should be open....never! ;)

this time last year...

pretty much the phrase of the weekend. the whole phrase: "can you believe this time last year we were in jamaica getting married?" jamaica...oh how we miss thee! seriously, we do.

we've officially got a whole year of marriage under our belts.

we thought we'd try and take one of those "spur of the moments" vacations/weekends, but that didn't pan out too well. (i don't think those work unless you live in a city with a major airport.) we even considered reliving the moment in jamaica. poor planning on our part. two nights cost just as much as five days. so that was a bust. instead we decided to have a date weekend. friday night we went out to dinner at one of our favorite "fancy" restaurants, the artisanal. food was fabulous.

saturday we went to the movies and watched dan in real life. a cute, romantic comedy. yes, cute. we don't like spending $16.50 on a movie we know is going to be so-so. we bit the bullet and splurged.

on our official anniversary we went hiking. a big difference from last year. since this was going to be the last nice weekend of the year, we decided to take advantage. we climbed 1000 ft. in a little over a mile. elevation on elk knob: 5520 ft. i thought i was going to die. it was pretty much uphill the whole time. but when we made it to the top it was totally worth the climb! aaron slathered on the zinc sunscreen so his lips are stark white in the pic. but we wanted to commemorate the occasion with a photo. slightly resembles the photo we took last year this time!

it was pretty much a low key anniversary. we shared a few gifts, relaxed, and were probably a little more lovey-dovey than usual. i think we both agreed we'd plan a little better next year. this time next year, i can't believe we'll be in jamaica! ;)

i swap a lot

angela received her tin today so i can post photos of what i made. above is the top of the tin. i went with her asian/orient theme. i love the theme myself so i absolutely enjoyed making everything. i practiced a little more using polymer, both inside and out.

unfortunately the blossom pin didn't make it. one of the petals broke. boo! :( everything else arrived intact. also included: a large marble magnet, blossom bookmark, origami crane earrings, fortune cookie cell phone charm and 6 marble thumbtacks. it was a great swap, especially it being her first!! you go girl!

brother brian asked me to make steak and potatoes. i told him steak is "so not cute" but he insisted. here's my version...i even made the little plate it's sitting on. i may redo the steak, it's a little too rare for his taste. he wants grill marks, the works. everyone's a critic! i should have put a dime in there for scale. it's pretty small, it can fit in the palm of my hand (to give you reference).

take the tour

per request, here are photos of the interior of the house. it's still a work in progress.

swap gone good

since my last swap was a bit of a disappointment, i decided to do a personal swap this time around. angela and i basically followed the guidelines for the altoid tin swap from craftster. gave each other a list of interests and presto! we have a swap. i think this is the better way to go. i know her skill level and she knows mine. she did not disappoint! she went with my "day of the dead" theme and did an awesome job! pictures to prove it. thanks, angela!! i'm so ready for another one!

a tad OCD

aaron and i have discovered that marley is a little ocd. especially when it comes to this chew toy. it can no longer be put it in the bin with all the other toys, it has it's own spot on top of the television. when we get home she runs and sits, staring up at it, begging us to get it down. she's also a clever dog. she's figured out if she scratches to be let out it'll get us up and then she quickly runs over to the television for the toy.

the other day, after throwing it a countless number of times. i put it on top of my car for a break. forgetting it was there, aaron took my car to run some errands and the toy fell off somewhere along the way. i walked down the driveway...nothing. he got back, took his bike and rode down the gravel road...nothing. marley sat in front of the t.v. staring up at nothing. poor dog. i pulled out some other toys to spark her interest...no love. i decided to try and find something that would/could replace it. while i was out searching aaron called. he had seen it along the road on his way to work yesterday morning. thank goodness. he stopped on his way home, braved traffic and got marley her bone. she, of course, is thankful and has yet to put it down.

life...on a smaller scale

along with sewing i've started working with polymer clay. a little here, a little there. creating charms of little food items. here's the spoils from the past few evenings.

it's funny, in college i took a 3D design class and i absolutely hated it. i had a hard time visualizing things in the next dimension. look at me now, things have certainly changed. an evolution of the mind has taken place sometime between now and then. i'm amazed at how life-like they appear, good enough to eat. the picture doesn't do them justice. my favorites: the hostess cupcake, the moonpie and the blueberry slice.

i'm still learning techniques, perfecting the craft. i'll be selling them online soon. yes, the shop is still in the works. it's gonna be hard to part with them. they're like tiny works of art.

here's another picture with a dime to demonstrate the scale of the charms. suggestions on what'd you like to see?

today is a good day

although the weather is a bit dreary, today is a good day. as of 11:15 a.m. i am brace free. since, there has been a constant running the tongue over the teeth, huge smiles when i walk by a mirror, and the chopping and chewing of an ewwwy, gooey rice krispy treat. my orthodontist asked me what i was excited about eating when i got them off. i honestly couldn't think of anything. why? cause i've pretty much eaten everything i shouldn't. popcorn, caramel, ice chips. if it was on the list of don'ts, i did. then last night, i had a craving for rice krispy treats. i realized i hadn't had one in over 2 years.

after my appointment, i headed over to the grocery store bought a tray of sushi, a large bottled frappacino and a box of rice krispy treats. (i found out last week our grocery store started selling freshly made sushi.) weird combo, but it was oh so good.

and to top of the morning, i heard they're gonna build a target in boone.

this indeed has been a good day!

if you blog about it...it will come

my constant griping about my lack of a good camera has not gone unheard. my dad just got a new digital camera and asked if i'd be interested in his old one. my answer: of course i'll take it!

every so often

every so often my camera phone takes a crisp, clear photo. a very rare occasion.

three days and i'll be released from wire hell.

orbs and gnomes and truffles, oh my

saturday i headed down to asheville with jill and two of the nurses from aaron's office, kendall and michelle. first off, i got about an hour of sleep the night before. (yes, insomnia still plagues me) i did manage to function without being too cranky most of the day. we hit the downtown area for a little shopping. mostly window shopped and then grabbed a quick bite to eat.

we then headed to ox-ford (there's a hyphen, which was quickly pointed out to me) farm, where we would be residing that night. met dr. hapke...or i should say frau hapke. a former pulmonary doctor who now owns and operates the bed and breakfast. she sat waiting in her little golf cart by the entrance gate.

"did you tell her when we'd be arriving?"

"no!" we all glanced at each other, eyebrows lifted.

we followed her up the drive. past cows, sheep, peacocks and various other animals. including four large, white sheep dogs. we reached a tattered-looking little house nestled among some trees. how quaint. roosters crowed, sheep baaed. it was like stepping back to the old country. the house itself reminded me of anyones grandma's. outdated and packed full of knick-knacks. cranberry bread and tea sat waiting for us. quick tour of the rooms and history lesson on the house and farm. four rooms. we had two and four other women had the remaining two.

we had a few hours to kill before the concert. we sat out on the porch. sipped wine, relaxed and took in our surroundings. yes, i'm a little overdressed for the weather. it wasn't as cold as i make it look to be.

we headed downtown after a while. grabbed some drinks and appetizers then made our way to nickel creek show. by this time, sleep was calling. i sat most of the concert with my eyes closed. not sleeping, resting. bela fleck played first. mind you, i went to this concert not knowing any of the music. bela plays nothing but banjo i soon found out. wasn't too bad, but i'm not a fan of jammy type music, no matter what the genre. at least for me, bluegrass is a bit more tolerable then most. nickel creek, by far, the better of the two. found myself enjoying it more than i expected. already downloaded an album. stand-up bass, fiddle, mandolin and guitar. it's surprisingly good...i'm slowly becoming a mountain girl.

i was ready to crash when we got back to the farm. tea, coffee, cobbler and cranberry bread awaited us on our return. breakfast at 9:30 we were told. headed off to bed, no difficulty falling asleep. although jill and i chatted for about another hour before i dozed off.

9:07 i was up. didn't want to upset the frau by being late for breakfast. walked into the sitting room and met one of the four women also staying there. everyone else was out and about, checking out the farm. kendall and i sat and chatted with jane. the frau announces breakfast will be later than usual. we met up with the rest of our party and decide to take a hike up to the top of the property/hill.

it was a trek. dodging cow pies and avoiding electric fences. after documenting our accomplishment, we headed down. i went on a picture taking frenzy. mostly capturing my surroundings. orbs and gnomes...both deserve their own posts later.

got back to find a hearty breakfast waiting for us. we had worked up an appetite. bacon, eggs, applesauce, potatos, homemade bread/toast, grits. my first time eating grits. pretty good, not something to write home about. the frau told us stories while we ate. mostly of how medicine and nursing has changed over the last 50 years. three of the other four ladies were also nurses. new fact i learned: early nurses weren't allowed to be married if they wanted to make medicine a career. they had to be at the beackon call of doctors. my how things have changed.

after breakfast, we headed downtown again before leaving. we all decided we wanted to hit up the chocolate fetish before heading home. i splurged and bought 15 truffles. mostly for aaron, cause i know he loves chocolate. i did find i'm a bit of a dark chocolate fan. tried one made with cayenne pepper. sounds gross...but it was so yummy. mmmmm. i'm getting hungry smelling them.

shopped a little more. stopped at a pottery show on the way home. got home a few minutes after aaron got home from chicago. all and all, it was a good weekend. and i had to head back the following evening. this time to see family. what a busy week.

tomorrow aaron and jerome are going to the app. state game and then we're all headed to see big bad voodoo daddy on campus. another great weekend ahead of us.

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Now playing: Nickel Creek - When In Rome

she shrugged

here's the photo of the shrug i completed for carrie last night. once again, shitty camera-phone photo. it's supposed to have a twisted knot on the front but after coming down to model it for aaron, the knot was soon history. hence the seam right down the middle. i would have made it into a jacket but she really wanted it to be a pullover. maybe she can add some flair to cover it up. hopefully she likes it and will be able to wear it. it's really hard to size for people sight unseen. but i think i managed. i even added a zipper along the side, yeah me!

it's a modified shirt pattern that's made for knit fabrics. next i'll have to make one with the appropriate fabric to see how it turns out. my mom will be happy about that. she's been begging me to make her some empire-waisted shirts. another project to add to the list.

i'll post about the weekend tomorrow. now back to sewing.

thrift store score

i hit up a few more thrift stores and consignment shops yesterday and spent a grand total of $5.81. $4 of that going towards a matching pair of elephant vases. it's funny cause i felt like i was spending entirely too much on them. are prices at thrift stores a little outrageous? or is it just me? i am buying used, very well worn objects so i feel i shouldn't have to pay $3.50 for a blouse or $5 for a pair of pants. i guess i'm grumbling over the trivial. maybe i'm spoiled by garage sales. paying a dime or quarter sounds more reasonable in my mind.

what did i spend the other $1.81 on? i went back to the salvation army and there's a rubbermaid tub full of upholstery samples. it was restocked recently and i found 5 different patterns for a quarter a piece. they're fairly small but i'm sure i can find something to make with them. 2 unused zippers and a terra cotta pot later, i was done. pretty satisfied with my finds. i may have to hit up garage sales next spring. i was going to say this weekend, but the temps have dropped and we're leaving early tomorrow to head down to asheville. so it'll have to wait til next year.

i did get my hair did today. i'm quite happy with the results. i'm glad i found someone here who can style my hair. i was a bit worried i'd have to travel far and wide to get a decent cut. he's literally just 2 minutes away. he even gave me a hug when i left, which caught me off guard. after three cuts...it's become that kind of relationship. ;)

cache nab

"not leaving the house" isn't an entirely true statement. sunday aaron and i spent 3 hours searching for caches in the area. six finds including two micros. a few park and grabs including one at the mall. we went searching for the mall one last week and didn't have any luck. i checked with the cache log online and noticed someone found it after we searched. so i went back on my own and looked again. the coordinates took me to a light pole in the middle of the parking lot. completely baffled, i got out and looked all around the pole. i finally lifted up the base and voila...an altoid tin. clever hide.

aaron and a micro find. this one was hanging from the cap on a chain link fence.

barrel of monkeys? one of the things you can do is leave a little calling card in the cache if it's big enough. this is ours. i was hoping to use them on our next hunt.

unfortunately our next expedition yielded nothing. yesterday we went out and searched for a few more. we weren't having much luck and neither one of us could figure out why. it was frustrating. we returned home and i got online and all the caches we were looking for had been removed. apparently the guy was one step ahead of us and decided yesterday he was gonna leave the game and remove all his hides. what a relief, we thought we were going crazy and suddenly got really bad at playing. good to know it's neither.

aaron leaves for chicago this evening. i'll be flying solo til sunday. i am heading down to asheville saturday with jill and a few of the nurses from the clinic for a concert. bela fleck and nickel creek. i have no idea if i'm gonna like it, but it should be fun to go out. we're staying the night and doing a little sight seeing. i'll report back with pics later.

strawberry in the abstract

lately this has become more of a crafting blog than anything else. i might as well add a few more items to the mix. this will be an image obese post. you'll be able to see what occupies a majority of my time and why i haven't left the house in 4 days.

above is my latest project. the strawberry wristlet. the main accomplishment: ZIPPER installation. i've been avoiding them after a mishap i had early in my sewing career. i recycled the zipper from the previous post pillow sham, found a tutorial online on making zippered pouches and presto...cute bag! it's even lined. the zipper is a bit wavy, probably due to old age and i haven't figured out how to prevent the top edges from puckering. but other than that, i'm pretty happy with the results. i can't believe i've been avoiding zippers this long.

in may i made irina a cute reversible tote from a thrift store skirt and matching fabric from my stash. one of the ladies at her church asked where she got it, i got a call a few days later asking if i'd make one for the "church lady." we were in the process of moving and getting settled that i hadn't gotten around to making it til last week. she wanted the exact same purse i made irina. of course, that was impossible. i only had enough of the skirt for one bag. i found some retro flower fabric and used the same striped fabric i used on irina's. hopefully the lady will like it. i'm actually getting paid for this one.

since i was already sending irina the purse, she asked if i could make a few pouches to hold mp3 players. apparently at her dental office they allow patients to listen to mp3 players while getting treated. they have them sitting on the patients chest and on more than one occasion the player has crashed to the floor. she wasn't sure about size, so i tried to make them big enough to accomodate most players. again recycled fabric.

i'm currently trying to master a cell phone cozy. stupid me. last time i was home, my mom was going to buy one and i told her i could make one easy. come to find out, it's more difficult than i thought. i've trashed two already. but since i'm sending a package home with all these other projects, i have to include the one i promised her. i spent most of last night trying to decipher how to make it work. i think i may have it now. we'll see if i have anything to post tomorrow.

fold-over clutch

last week i hit up a few thrift stores in the neighborhood, mainly looking for animal print fabric for carrie. she asked if i could make her a leopard print shrug for her halloween costume. i was hoping to find something already made that i could just reconstruct. i'm not too comfortable sewing wearable clothing. unfortunately, everything i found she didn't like and now i'm going to have to construct something from scratch. i'll post photos of my success or failure next week.

on my quest, i did find a big bin of fabric scraps. and stuffed in said bin was a set of vintage pillow shams. i used one last night and made this fold-over clutch. i'm quite happy with how it turned out. it'll be added to the shop when i get it started. still in the process of making inventory. i still can't decide if i want to concentrate on one type of item. handbags, baby wear or just have a hodgepodge of everything and anything.

i'm a 7.25

reposting from got shoo. too funny. sad to say, i can definitely relate.

i may have to revise this...yes, i did some more thinking. if this guy is only an 8.5 then i'm clearly closer to a 3 maybe 4. although i did just spend the morning watching the first cd of season 3.

new addiction

just as i suspected, we are geocache hooked. on our 17 mile bike ride sunday, we stopped three times to treasure hunt. here's aaron and his dad stopping to look for the "mossy rock" cache. much to aaron's frustration, i found all three. after the second one he asked if i'd let him find at least one. unfortunately, i got a little excited when i saw it and let out a little squeal.

yes, we're addicted. since, we've each done one on our own. apparently there's a little subculture that goes along with caching. we're trying to learn the lingo and etiquette now. we'll be pros before too long. funny thought.

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Now playing: DETERMINATIONS - Housewife's Choice

in confidence

saturday i went out on watauga lake with vivian and the crew. we weren't sure when mark would be arriving so aaron stayed back and planned to meet up with us later. i got a text from aaron: we're going to do our own thing, call me later. i just assume they're gonna do some father/son bonding and get the whole "jane" situation sorted out from the get-go. when i arrived home i asked aaron if he said anything. "no, he mentioned something about karma when we were talking about getting him a digital camera for his birthday. he didn't elaborate and said he'd tell me more about it on the bike ride."

okay.

"should i bring it up?"

"sounds like he will soon."

backstory: apparently mark and jane are no longer a couple. we've heard this from both danny and nate. but he hasn't said a single word to aaron and it's been 2 months. he's talking and acting like they are still an item. do we keep pretending we don't know?

yesterday we went on the 17 mile virginia creeper bike ride. (i'll have pictures to post later) afterwards i decided to take a hot bath. when i got out and went downstairs the conversation aaron and his dad were having went down to a whisper. it's THE talk. a little awkward, so i grabbed a water and headed back upstairs. i could barely hear what was being said...something about fake sprained ankle, parade, funeral homes. it's so out of context that i decided not to listen plus i know aaron will tell me later. so i thought. he comes up an hour later.

"so?"

"he asked me to keep it in confidence and i want to respect that."

WHAT? hello?!? wife here!

nothing more was said. it was late and i knew it'd be useless to argue, especially with mark in the next room. i'll be saying a lot tonight. mark went down to asheville til tomorrow. do you think aaron should tell me or not? i was just wondering if i'm in the wrong here or at least get other opinions.

geocaching

aaron's birthday is saturday and i was having a difficult time deciding what to get him. my standby has always been cardinal tickets, you can't go wrong with them as far as he's concerned. but with us moving so far away from any national league team, tickets aren't really an option. this year i decided to go another route.

the week before christmas aaron's gonna fly out to seattle and meet up with tom and a crew of his friends for five day hike/camping expedition. he's so excited to go, he's been preparing for months. tom told aaron not to worry about camping gear, he would provide most, if not all. only thing aaron needs is warm, waterproof clothing. tom sent aaron an actual checklist, one he must use everytime he goes camping. tom's very type-a in matters of organization so i wasn't surprised. the list has been sitting on our kitchen counter for weeks now and last week i decided something off of it would make a great birthday gift. he has a majority of the items, thermals, windbreaker, boots. i did notice a lot of items with gortex. (it's one of the best items to use to keep you warm and dry.) i looked everything up and apparently gortex also means you're gonna spend a pretty penny to stay warm and dry. anything with gortex is about 3x more than what you'd normally pay. i settled on a pair of socks. yes, i paid $50 for a pair of socks. he plans on going every year...so i justify the purchase as a long-term investment. plus i don't want him coming back with foot rot.

i did also purchase a hand-held gps device for him. since we've been hiking a lot, i thought it'd be something we both can use. plus, i wanted to try geocaching. what is geocaching? defined:

geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. the basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. gps users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. all the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

it's like a modern day scavenger hunt. one of my blog buddies has one and used it while hiking in colorado. it just adds a twist to exploration. i'm so excited to try it out.

side note: mark, aaron's dad, is coming out here saturday to help celebrate both his and aaron's birthday. we've got a fun-filled week planned. we'll be doing a lot of boating, hiking and biking. hopefully i'll have pictures to post next week of all the fun.

four, 4, IIII

weeks and braces will be a thing of the past. oh happy day!

a finished home improvement project:


i've had this memo board since high school (a long time ago) and decided it needed an upgrade to fit with it's new environment. i've got a few more things to finish up and you'll see the fruits of my labor.

aaron has decided the camera is better suited to take photos like this:

the aad should use photos like this in their ad campaigns. ewww! this is mild in comparison to some of the photos i've seen. makes you think twice about forgetting the sunscreen.

so i've been without a good camera for the past month. i may have to break down and get a new one. the camera phone can only do so much.

gocco pg-5

my most recent purchase: a tabletop printing press


i'm extremely excited about this acquisition. so many possibilities. along with bulking up my fabric stash with lots of cute japanese prints. things are moving forward. i've been feeding my minds eye for weeks. soon, my friends, soon.

the air up there

yes, i live here.

saturday aaron and i went to an all day music festival at the boone city fairgrounds. this don't look like no stinking fairgrounds i ever saw. we listened to some roots, rock & reggae. not in that particular order. my favorite: black cash (a johnny cash tribute band). although all were great. there was a wide variety of people...mainly of the hippie persuasion. apparently the hula-hoop has replaced the hacky sack. i didn't get that memo. and i think aaron and i may have had the shortest hair there. definitely a good place to people watch. we got there about 2 left about 9. started to get a bit nippy.

we are still the the most unprepared couple of the bunch. forgot lawn chairs, blanket, food, frisbee, tent, kite, kids etc. just had our little cooler filled with 6 hard lemonades to last the both of us 6 hours. i think this happened to us the last time we went camping. aaron and i are eating granola bars and everyone else was cooking up bacon, eggs, coffee, etc. when will we learn?!?

friday i let jill inject a little botox in me. i really don't need it, but i wanted to see how it felt. she gave me 4 injections, mainly to lift my brows and give them a natural arch. i honestly can't tell anything yet. she said it might take a few weeks for results. luckily i'm blessed with some asian genes and don't have any noticeable wrinkles. thanks mom.

katie and adrian have decided boone is not the place for them. i'm a little disappointed but i kinda figured as much. they just aren't the outdoorsy type and you really have to be in order to appreciate this place. aaron and i don't regret our choice at all. it would have been nice to have another group of friends out here, oh well. they're still looking at asheville, so there is a possibility they'll end up fairly close. we'll just have to wait and see.

sakura anyone?

here are some pics of what i made for the cherry blossom swap.

a messenger purse: (pattern-free, i'm starting to get this sewing thing)

a felt change purse: (practiced my french knot)

some bracelets: (i got the flower beads from walmart for a buck and recycled some old stretchy bracelets i had)

all-in-all it was fun making everything. these were my big items. i made a few more things that i didn't take pictures of.

here's the email i got this morning from one of my partners:
i received my altoid tin today, it was absoultely awesoem, i feel like the one i sent wasnt that great, i guess i will just say it is simple. i tried so many times to make a really cool pez one but is just didnt work. i love the vampire tin and will post pics tomorrow. thank you so much.

what if it is a huge disappointment. ugh. sometimes i feel like craftster is like american idol. people think they're good when they're not. i always give credit when credit is do, but damn, what do i do if i'm not excited or impressed? what a predicament.

attack of the...

we're still in the process of exploring the area. every chance we get, we like to hike with the dogs. yesterday was no different. aaron wanted to show me some of the trails he found while riding his bike. so we packed up the dogs, put on our hiking shoes (yes, i went out and bought hiking shoes...chucks just weren't cutting it anymore) and drove over to the greenway. i hooked bosco up to his new "no pull" harness and commenced to start his "i'm the master, your the dog" training. (i've discovered the dog whisperer) of course, he's not having any of it.

well, while we're trekking uphill i really can't correct him and i give him more lead then i should. so he's off smelling and marking everything. when i finally catch up, he starts scooting around on his butt and acting really strange. he must have gone through some brambles and it's put him in panic mode. then i see the hornet on his little stump of a tail. i swat at it but it's almost like it's embedded in there. then i feel something on my finger and start flailing my hands. it's another hornet. *sting, sting, sting* on my back. i take off with bosco in tow. "bees, bees, bees!" i scream at aaron as i run past him. when i get a good distance away, i reach back and notice the sweater i've got wrapped around my waist is still covered with them. i fling it off in the middle of the road and start running again. seriously, this had to be a sight. finally, after we get a good distance away, i'm able to calm down and regroup. aaron heads back, with a big stick and picks up my sweater. it still has a few hornets hanging out on it so he flings it around and shoos them away. i make him carry it the rest of the hike. seems to be a hornet magnet of some sort.

we ended up in a neighborhood neither one of us was familiar with.

"i'm not going back," i tell him.

so we head down the paved road in the opposite direction.

"you know we're headed in the wrong direction?" he says.

i look down and see big lots and i know exactly where we were. damn it. if we continue, it's going to take us twice as long to get back to the car. i turn back around.

"when we get back there, i'm running past that hornet hole! you take bosco and you go first."

we run past. the only hornet that bothered us on the way down was stuck to bosco's tail again.

"there's one on the sweater! no, wait, that's a leaf."

"you're paranoid."

"i just got stung 5 times, i have a right to be paranoid!"

i guess i'm not allergic to bee/hornet stings. and neither are the dogs. marley's already been stung twice since we've been here. and yesterday was bosco's first experience. we're headed to the dog park shortly with jill and jigsaw. a little playdate of sorts. should be fun.

altoid anyone?

i had two swaps ending today. thank goodness. i was burning the midnight oil finishing them. one of them was a "fill an altoid tin" which was, by far, my favorite. i'm really happy with how everything turned out. here are some photos of what i sent. i'll post the other swap later. it was a cherry blossom swap.

the cover of the tin:

the contents:
can you tell what my partners theme was? i'll probably cease from swaps for a while. they don't match partners according to ability levels and i have a feeling i may be a little disappointed with what i get. we'll see. plus i want to get things rolling on my online shop. hopefully i'll have some things posted next week. i'll post a link when i have something to show.

check yes, no, or maybe

i was cleaning out my car today and i found a note i got the night before we moved out here. i was sitting at the bar at the hangar with carrie and jen when one the bartenders handed me a folded flyer. i opened it and this is what it said, "dude, i think that maybe, just maybe...only maybe. you should be my baby. just once." hilarous, i know. i wasn't sure if i should feel flattered cause someone was hitting on me or lame cause they were using the most idiotic method known to man. i think i have a note from one of my boyfriend's in 8th grade that reads almost identically. goes to show, most men don't ever evolve.

talk-on-the-phone girl

yes, i've become that girl. main culprit: miss dana. the other night i found myself talking to her while texting both ryan and her. don't you just love technology. i had to delete both my in and outbox on my phone. it was 95% full. the girl can talk/write your ears off!

i finally got through an hour long conversation with jamie without becoming an emotional mess. i knew time would ease the separation sadness. i still miss her though. her and the fam will be making a trip out here in november. hopefully it won't be too cold, want to get some more camping in.

monday i went to winston to get my root canal wrapped up. i was able to make a brief stop in greensboro to visit jennaya and family. it was a bit of a whirlwind. i got a late start and only had a couple of hours to spend with them before my appt. we ended up running errands together and getting my frappacino fix in. i'm so glad they moved fairly close. i can do the drive on my own, so be on the lookout davis clan!



here's a short video of aaron weed-eating our hill. i did it the first time. he was quite surprised that i managed to do it all on my own. i am woman hear me roar!! and yes, he's wearing an app. state tee and he did say "i bet i look dead sexy doing this."

pixy stix

since danny started college, i thought it'd be a good idea to send him a few care packages to help ease his transition. i remember when i started at siu, my aunt pam sent me a few and it made me feel a little less homesick.

our first package mainly consisted on everyday essentials for dorm life. mcdonalds gift card, towels, mac & cheese, pringles and what not. the second was a couple of t-shirts i had sent directly to him. i am currently working on his third package, a halloween themed one. lucky for him, mast general store sells candy by the pound. so i can get an assortment of different types and pay a nominal amount. unfortunately, since i've been buying a little here and there to fill the box, the candy has been sitting on our dining room table this past week. i just finished off all the pixy stix (about 20). and am very tempted to open another bag of skittles. danny, like me, loves the fruity candy. and now i have a paper sack filled with the yummy goodness. to resist temptation...

time stands still

a connection. a true testament of friendship.

a bond like no other. always there.

time never an issue. distance means nothing.

rarely in the form of the female persuasion.

one in each stage of life. i've discovered mine.

go mountaineers!

michigan (ranked 5th in the nation) paid appalachian state $400,000 to pad their win record. boy, was that a mistake. we got a call from jill and jerome on the road today. "you got your yellow and black on? app state just beat michigan!" *insert hooting and hollering!! unbelievable! yesterday, i was watching the weather channel and even the weather guy mentioned how it wasn't gonna be much of a game. yeah, i'm swelling with pride. i don't even like football, but i'm glad the little guy prevailed.  here's the espn article. way to go mountaineers!

btw, it's a seven hour drive from boone to baltimore. so we're almost halfway between the westphals and the richs. thought we'd be a little bit closer. oh well. we're here, kicking it with the fam. can't wait to get my grub on.

lunchable

i just went to walgreens and bought a lunchable. thought it might be a little bit healthier then driving through somewhere. it had american cheese, turkey, crackers, a reese's peanut butter cup and a capri sun. number of calories=360. which seems kinda high for what little you get. maybe that's normal, but 40% of the daily recommended value of saturated fat is not. and we wonder why kids are getting obese.

i'd probably never eat if i actually read nutrition labels. i'm a total visual consumer. if your box looks pretty and the food looks remotely edible, i'm buying. luckily, we've been getting a steady stream of fresh veggies from aaron's co-workers and i'm not much of a sweets fan. that's probably my own saving grace. that and my i.b.s.

adrian and katie are getting here tomorrow so katie can interview with boone dermatology. it'll be insane if they decide to move here. i'm keeping my fingers crossed. hopefully they'll dig on boone the way we do. they'll be leaving saturday morning and since monday is a holiday and aaron has tuesdays off we're gonna visit the fam. we'll have the dogs in tow, so it should be a really fun ride.

is your mother home?

"hello?"

"hello. we're conducting a short survey on television viewing. would you be interested in participating?"

"sure."

"excuse me?"

"sure. yes, i'd be interested."

"is your mother home?"

"no."

click.

yes, this really happened today.

the list

here's the movie list i've been promising for a month now. we started using the redbox kiosk in our local grocery store to rent most of the movies. it only costs $1 a night unlike blockbuster where you have to rent for 5 nights and pay $5. we were thinking about netflix, but we had this huge ordeal with our address not being recognized by the postal system that it hardly seemed worth the effort and energy to set up an account manually. normally we don't watch this many movies in a one month period.

my rating key
* don't bother, hated it
** watchable, but barely
*** good, if you have nothing better to do
**** definitely recommend
***** i love this movie

children of men ****
breach ***
the number 23 **
beerfest **
hot fuzz ****
black snake moan ****
employee of the month ***
disturbia ****
premonition ***
man of the year ***
the holiday **
music and lyrics ***
at close range ***
babel ***
zodiac ****
barton fink ****
the man who wasn't there ***
shooter ***

the following movies are part of our own stash, so a majority of the movies i'd highly recommend. we usually only purchase movies we love. there are a few exceptions. namely don juan demarco and trial and error. we got these movies free with pizza and there's good reason why. they're awful. i sat through trial and error, don juan was turned off 10 minutes into the movie. if you like johnny depp, don't rent this movie, it may change your opinion of him! ;)

raising arizona
the big lebowski
o brother, where art thou?
fargo
ghostworld
the way of the gun
groundhog day
slums of beverly hills
high fidelity
trial and error
suicide kings
swingers
made
clerks
chasing amy
what about bob?
adaptation
royal tenenbaums
l.a. confidential
office space
closer
rast times at ridgemont high

i've been simpsonized

pretty darn accurate! try it yourself

homicide

today i was checking out one of my high school alumni websites and i noticed a memorial page. there were only three listed that graduated from the 1990s and only one where i actually recognized the name. derek andrew marston. i didn't really know him at all cause he had graduated the year i moved to berlin. but i knew of him. (i dated his younger brother, kyle, for a few weeks my junior year.) i do remember hearing about his death or that he had died but i didn't know any details. the power of google. i typed in his name and found a few articles about his death. here's a short synopsis of what happened:

National News Briefs; Fugitive in 2 Killings Is Caught in Wilderness
Published: August 6, 1998

The man sought in the killing of two campers last weekend was captured tonight after a six-day search, the authorities said.

The man, James A. Finley Jr., 21, of Hickory, was arrested about 7:30 P.M. near a hunting lodge, Sheriff Jeff Jordan of Montgomery County said. Mr. Finley was armed with a rifle and a handgun when he was confronted by deputies on foot, the authorities said.

The police said Mr. Finley pointed one of the weapons at officers as they approached, prompting one officer to a fire a shot. No one was injured.

The campers, Derek Andrew Marston and Tommi Danielle Byrd, both 24, were found shot and slashed on Sunday at their campsite in Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in western North Carolina.

Mr. Finley was thought to be an admirer of the man charged in the Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic bombing, Eric Robert Rudolph, who has evaded a search in the western North Carolina mountains.

***and what's crazy about the whole thing is where it happened. it's less than 20 miles away. insane.***

simon's got back

this video is too cute. little langei is singing and dancing to "baby got back"

his mom would like everyone to know, he learned it from watching shrek. and not from her. although i will say the moves look quite familiar, but i won't point any fingers.

the tooth diaries

a power chain, an additional metal chain, new arch wires and another rubber band. <-- in case you were wondering what this means, i've included a visual representation.

an unflattering photo, i know. my orthodontist informed me i have less than 6 months left in these bad boys. i will have a definitive answer september 24. september 5 will be my 2 year anniversary. i can hardly believe i've been wearing them this long. i've come a long way, oh yes, a long, straight way.

left incisor is the devil tooth that received the root canal. it only took 20 minutes, i could hardly believe it myself. drilled a hole in the back, scrapped out the pulp and infection, sealed it temporarily up and i was out of there. been nursing it with vicodin and antibiotics since. heading back september 10 to have it permanently sealed and internally bleached. $700 for, perhaps, an hour of work. i'm definitely in the wrong business.

the coat, the coat, the coat is on fire

one of our last evenings in springfield was spent burning aaron's white coat. i think he may have been a little too happy doing so. what do you think?

gettin to the root

tomorrow i'm heading to winston-salem to get a root canal. yes, the trauma my incisor suffered 15 years ago has finally caught up with me. when i got my braces tightened, big understatement, this last time it started to throb. my new orthodontist decided to add a power chain, an additional metal chain, new arch wires and another rubber band. i've got a mouth full of rubber and metal. the consequence...the death of tooth number 9. funny thing, i was worried i the orthodontist in boone wouldn't be able to treat me. apparently damon braces are fairly new and a lot of orthodontists don't use them yet. i lucked out cause the guy in boone travels and lectures on them. so now instead of heading to winston for ortho treatment, i'm heading for endo therapy.

what's in your backyard?

here's a gaggle/flock of wild turkeys taking a stroll up our neighbors driveway a few weeks ago. courtesy of my new camera phone. yes, i broke down and purchased a phone with said feature. i've got a few other nature and other boone shots to share and now that we have internet, waa-hoo, i'll be uploading and sharing in the next few posts. how's this brother dear? does this picture make you happy?

record highs

still no internet/cable, hopefully the problem will be remedied tomorrow. the cable company keeps sending installers before they’ve laid-the-line. and since the local office doesn’t have a phone number, at least one available to the public, we’ve had to physically go down there and make arrangements three or four times. so they finally laid-the-line wednesday, which was scheduled for friday, and we’re supposed to have everything (phone/internet/cable) installed tomorrow. i’ll be quite surprised if everything goes according to plan. i guess it was a good thing they didn’t come friday, they would have been vying for a parking spot in our driveway. we had the invisible fence installed, the plumbers working, and both our real estate agent and builder all here that morning.

even when you purchase a new home, you’re still going to have a few kinks that haven’t been completely worked out beforehand. ours was no different. luckily it’s still under warranty and all the problems are being fixed at someone else’s expense. the main culprit seems to be sediment from our well clogging screens and building up in our toilets causing them to continuously run. we noticed a wet spot on the ceiling in the living room after one toilet ran all night and immediately shut that water off. then the toilet in the master bedroom started to run, so i shut it off as well. (didn’t want to have a bigger problem than a few running toilets.) this was about a week after we moved in. we called the builder and informed him about the problem. he said he’d send a plumber to fix the problem, we hadn’t heard from him or a plumber since. jill and jerome suggested we call vivian, our real estate agent, and sic her on him. plumber was here two days later. we now have functioning toilets upstairs. thank goodness, i was getting tired of running up and down stairs to relieve myself. jerome with the help of aaron installed a filter on our water pipes and it has made a huge difference. i don’t have to fill the washer with buckets of water anymore. it was much easier to do that then to unscrew the hose, clean out the screen and reattach the hose again.

then a few weeks ago i was reading the Mountain Times, which is the equivalent to the Illinois Times, and i couldn’t believe how bad ‘design wise’ it looked. i ran upstairs to grab a copy of the IT to do a side-by-side comparison and when i walked into the guest bedroom i noticed a shard of glass on the carpet. i walked into the bathroom and the plate-glass mirror had fallen off the wall and shattered into a million pieces. it must have happened while we were bike riding that day and luckily we had closed the room off so the dogs were unaffected by the crashing glass. it looked like it was only held up with double-stick tape, which i found quite disturbing. we ran out and bought brackets for the other mirrors and replacing the mirror has been added to the list of things for the builder.

i did start painting some rooms this past week, the mudroom, my sewing room and two bathrooms. i didn’t have any problems till i reached the second downstairs bathroom. i decided i wanted to paint it yellow along with the other bathroom downstairs. so i bought a gallon of “pale butter” paint. i put on one coat and decided the color was too yellow, almost florescent for my taste. i only used a quarter of the paint so when i went back to lowes i bought a quart of the “sunglow” color. i was quite happy with this choice but it ended up taking me five coats and two quarts to cover up the other original yellow. i couldn’t figure out what was going on. i knew that i was covering up another color but it shouldn’t take me 5 coats to do so. i finally figured out the new paint roller i was using was spooging out some type of gray color along with my yellow and that was why i wasn’t making any progress. i switched rollers and problem was solved. i felt like i was in a steven king story and the room refused to be painted. after that ordeal, i’ve taken a short break from painting, mainly to give the blisters on my hand a rest. later this evening i’ll start painting the computer nook/craft room gray and red. i’m starting small and will eventually move up to the bigger rooms, but that might be a while.

tomorrow will be a busy day for all. aaron finally starts working. bosco and marley will get their first taste of the “correction” (shock) from the invisible fence, and i’ll be painting and waiting around for the cable people to install everything. it’ll be easier to update once we have everything in-house. i’ve only been going up to use internet every other day. it’s too much of a chore to make a special trip just to check email and browse. yeah, i’m lazy like that. i’ll post our movie listings tomorrow. we’ve watched an abundance of them the last month, probably more than we have in the last year. a lot rented and many from our own stash. we’re on a coen brothers kick. new favorite movie for me…the big lebowski.

till tomorrow.

oh, the reason for the title. apparently they’ve set record highs in temperature this summer, highs in the upper 80s. the humidity is what’s killing everyone, every single person i talk to says it’s never been this bad. i guess we brought the midwest weather with us. although i’ve heard it’s reached over 100 in springfield, so i really can’t complain.