I'm a married lady!

My last post was May 21 of this year, and I was all "I'm back, and I'm going to post every single day!"

On May 22nd, I had an epiphany. My wedding date was August 15th, and I had NOTHING done. NOTHING.

Now granted, The Hotness and I were aiming for a small, backyard ceremony, with very few guests, but when May 22nd rolled around and I realized that I had NO plans at all, I figured it was time to get rolling.

If you're still out there, Dear Reader, stay tuned; I'll be back with photos and embarrassing stories shortly!

Packed full of whimsy

Okay, I said I was baaaaack, but I know it appears otherwise. In reality, I am more back than you think. Worst grammar ever, but just play along with me, here.

Since I cleaned up my craft/sewing room, I've been going like a madwoman. I've made a pair of shorts, a necklace/bracelet/earrings combo, and am halfway through a reversible dress that I'm making without the benefit of a pattern, but rather from a picture in my head.

I've hauled out my papermaking supplies, my corsetmaking supplies, and my scrapbooking supplies, did a little bit of preliminary work on each, and then stacked them neatly so that when I'm ready to do a few more minutes, I can easily get to what I need.

I've been learning how to use my new camera, teaching myself how to really understand the whole f-stop thing. Seriously; I can do complex corporate bookkeeping, but for some reason, I can't figure out how to take a properly focused picture, even though my camera has a higher IQ than I do.

In short, I've been on a roll, creatively, and have found it difficult to stop and take a breath so that I can write about it.

Stay tuned; tonight I'll post some pictures!

I'm Ba-aa-aa-ck!

This blog isn't ALL about my crafts, but honestly, when I don't have the opportunity to be creative, I find it really hard to blog about ANYTHING. Since Christmas, my mojo has been missing, not because I haven't been feeling creative, but because my craft room / sewing room has been looking like this;

I wish I could explain how this happened, but I just can't. Well, except I can explain the dog and cat food; we bought bags larger than our storage containers, so what the heck; excess pet food obviously belongs in Rachelle's craft room, right? Thanks, Hotness. :P Unfortunately, I can't really blame him for anything else in there.

As the picture says, that was the room on Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon (yes, a full day and a half later!!), this is what it looks like;

I noticed a couple of things while I was cleaning out my sewing room. First, I have a nasty habit of buying a minimum of 8 metres of every fabric I purchase. I'm not sure why this is; I'm a large woman, but other than my wedding dress, nothing I make for myself REQUIRES 8m of fabric. I'm not complaining or anything; the extra fabric gives me a bit of wiggle room when I'm working on a project; at least I know I won't run out of anything.

Second, I noticed that my sewing room chair, a full-sized manager's office chair, is completely inappropriate for sewing. Not only is it oversized for the room, but the huge armrests are ALWAYS in the way. So for now, I'm on a folding chair, which is proving to be surprisingly comfortable, and I've been sewing like a fiend for the past few days! I made Pepper a new dog bed for her crate, as well as a pair of shorts for our upcoming trip to Mexico. I'll show those in my next post.

Third, I noticed that I need to keep better track of the Christmas gifts I buy; as I excavated the room, I came up with a few gifts for The Hotness, which I'd purchased, forgotten, and then piled stuff on top of. I should have told him they were Valentines Day gifts, but I'm just not a very good liar.

Holy Macaroni!

Karen, from Sewing By The Seat of My Pants, has nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger Award, and I'm both excited and kind of embarrassed.

Excited because this is my first award, and embarrassed because I've been a bit lax in my posting.

It's a little like being chosen, say, Miss USA, but then having the camera and spotlight turn on you just as you're reaching into your dress to adjust your cleavage.

At any rate, thanks so much, Karen, for your continued faith in my ability to NOT sew my fingers together!

Part of this award, as you know, is nominating five others. I have a large number of blogs in my Google Reader list, all of which you can see on the right hand side of my page. I'm exceptionally pleased to be able to pass this award along!

Camilla, from CamillaKnits, because she makes ME want to knit, even though I'm perfectly terrible at it. Plus, I yearn to shop at Clementines!

Kristin, from Quiltilicious, because her quilts are amazing, but her sewing studio purely takes my breath away!

Barbara, from MoxieTonic, because I love her style. And that Flamingo dress!

Gigi, from Behind The Seams, because I can't stop staring at her gorgeous knit dresses.

And finally, Erin, from A Dress A Day, for many, many reasons, but mostly because of the Darth Vader Duro.

Thanks for the nomination, Karen!

Oh dog, my dog

For your viewing pleasure, I'm presenting an art installation which I like to call "Thirty Seconds Alone With The Dog."

The pair on the top were The Hotness' brand new, $200.00 fancy glasses, which he spent an hour and forty minutes picking out.

The pair on the bottom were my brand new, $8.00 cheapo glasses from Zenni Optical, which I learned about on Cidell's blog ages ago, but only worked up the courage to try recently.

Though officially We Are Not Pleased about the chewing, I'm actually secretly relieved about the green Zenni pair; they were very comfortable, but the colors looked HORRIBLE on me, and let's face it, now I get have to order more glasses, and really, what's the point of only ordering one pair? Might as well get three or four!

I currently have six or seven pairs from Zenni, including two pairs of prescription sunglasses, and I'm not entirely certain that I've spent more than $100.00 yet.

I heart cheap glasses. Thanks for the great shopping tip, Cidell!

Sick Day

Ugh.

I love a good sick day, but I surely do hate actually being sick.

So, we had a bit of family drama yesterday; Pepper, The Hotness, and I, came home from work in the city. The Hotness went to my office to google something, while I stayed in the kitchen and started dinner. After a few minutes, Dinger came running into the kitchen with Pepper hot on his heels, and when I looked down, I was startled to see Dinger covered in blood.

I didn't get a picture, but I'm ashamed to admit that my second instinct was to run and get my camera. My first instinct, however, was a bit more noble; I "rescued" Dinger from the awful dog.

Two things you must know; one is that Pepper is Dinger's best friend. They spend hours playing and napping together. The other is that Dinger has grown from the emaciated kitten he was when I picked him up,

into some kind of hybrid between a cat, a rabbit, and a badger. He's a rumbly, purring, fluffy, solid mass of claws and teeth.

He's not large in size, but his mass has grown so much that I wonder if he might not collapse in on himself and create a black hole which will suck all the other animals into it. If I suddenly disappear from the blogosphere, you may assume that Dinger's belly has reached critical mass, and our whole house has been sucked off the map. Picking him up is very much like picking up a furry, squirming bowling ball, and not just a little five-pin ball, but a hefty, fuzzy, 10-pin ball.

Anyway, my point is that Dinger can take care of himself, and he and Pepper really get along. So much that sometimes I wonder what their offspring would look like. It's disturbing.

Back to the story; Dinger, covered in blood.

I've typed out the whole story twice now, but both times, it was just a bunch of blah blah blah, so long story short, nobody was hurt; Pepper lost her first tooth, and then went and licked Dinger.

The Hotness immediately took Pepper off to give her a bubble bath and lots of tummy rubs, and I sat down with Dinger and wiped the blood off his fur, while the other cats looked on with envy in their eyes, so I ended up wiping EVERYONE down with warm, damp paper towels, and dinner was an hour late. The end.

Except it wasn't really the end. Neither The Hotness nor I will admit it, but we are both looking for that lost tooth. Since I'm having a sick day, I think perhaps I'll go and have another look. Wish me luck!

Ad now I hab a code

The Hotness has become The Hot Male Version Of Typhoid Mary, and has succeeded in infecting me with a vicious sinus cold.

It occurs to me that describing my symptoms might be oversharing just a little, so I'll spare you that, at least, but honestly, how can one human body manufacture this much slime?

At any rate, I'm back to work (and have I mentioned that I love my job? I have? Well, good!). I'm working like a crazy person, and I also still haven't unpacked all of our combined Christmas presents, so all the other wonderful stuff I planned to blog about is still in suitcases.

I will say, though, that The Hotness did an exceptionally good job with his Christmas shopping this year; he always does pretty well, but this year he actually got creative with my list and bought according to themes, instead of just what was on my list.

Normally, he Christmas shops for me by hounding me for a Christmas list for two months, and when I finally give it to him, he gives it back to me and tells me to write down where to find everything on the list, and how much it all is. When I've done the research, I give him the list back and he goes shopping. The accountant in me LOVES this, because I know he's paying the best possible prices, but I have to admit, it's not terribly romantic.

This year, I gave him just the list of items and told him to be creative, and darned if he didn't do that! I asked for a new set of pots and pans, and he came across with the stainless steel Rachel Ray set, AND a couple of matching non-stick pans and a dutch oven type thingie, and some matching utensils, AND the Big Orange Cookbook.

I'm a HUGE fan of Rachel Rae as a chef; I love watching 30 Minute Meals, and I've actually tried many of her 30 minute recipes, though honestly, it only takes 30 minutes if you know exactly what you're doing, and if your kitchen is clean to start off with. :)

On the other hand, I'd rather poke at my eyeballs with a sharp stick than watch her talk show. Seriously. I'm not sure why.

For those of you out there who might be laughing about the possible lack of romance in asking for pots and pans for Christmas, you have to understand how much I love to cook, and how difficult it is to cook a decent meal with what I had before.

My entire kitchen set consisted of one HUGE stock pot, sized to fit both a turkey carcass AND two small children, the Ikea KAVALKAD set of three pots, priced at $9.99, the largest of which was the perfect size for a cereal bowl on a hungry morning, and a pink non-stick frying pan I bought at Wal-Mart two years ago.

Now that I have pots big enough to make soup, I've been doing so with a vengance; baked potato soup, chicken lemon rice soup, and a few of my other favorites. I'd post some pictures but my kitchen is actually too messy to photograph right now, but as soon as I get that sorted out, I'll do that. And I can do that because in addition to my other as-yet-unmentioned gifts, The Hotness also bought me a new camera.

And not JUST a new camera, but a Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi!!!!! Eeeeee!

I cannot even express my joy; I've always been interested in photography, and while I've loved my point-and shoot cameras, I've always secretly yearned for a really good camera with a couple of lens options. This baby will do everything I could possibly want, once I finally learn to use it.

Now if only my house was clean enough to take pictures in! Maybe if I ask Mrs. G, she'll let me borrow one of her husbands to come over and whip my home into shape!!