Time to Go!

Move along, move along, nothing to see here. And do you know why there is nothing to see here? Because I'm moving my interweb home over here!

That's right, I am my own dot com! I'm dressing up as a dot com for Halloween! Ok, I'm just kidding about the Halloween thing. But... I could make a tee shirt that says my website, and then walk around trick or treating. And then when parents wanted to know who the neighborhood weirdo is, they could just look me up online! No, on second thought, I prefer to be an anonymous weirdo.

I guess what I'm really saying is, come see my new digs, you're welcome any time!

A Message From Your Friendly Neighborhood Monster

Hey there! If you have every wanted to meet a friendly monster, today is your lucky day. This guy is mega-friendly, and chatty, and curious, and persistent! I mentioned in passing- in passing mind you- that I was going to write a blog post about monsters. Well, ever since that day he has been asking me, "Is today the day? Is it monster blog time? Which monsters are gonna be there? Am I invited? Will there be cake?!" And on... and on... and on...

So guess what, folks?! Can I get a drum roll please? ............ Introducing, for the first time ever, little... orange... monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

"um... hi."

What?! For days on end he has been pestering and poking me, he has been chatting my ear off. Now that monster time is finally here all he can say is, "hi."??

Well, I'm sorry. I really thought he was going to fill all the time, I didn't even prepare a monster speech. I thought we'd just have this monster ramble on at you for a while so you could get the full experience. Instead, we got one word. I thought we were going to have an 8-minute monologue, but noooooo. Anyway, I guess I'll just wrap this up. I asked some of the other monsters for an interview and they just rolled around and roared.

I know! You could always check out some other monsters here at i only like monsters. Keep up with all the monster gossip and make new friends. If you like, you could scroll to May 10th and have a peek at my cactus zombie. Just sayin'

Needle Felting Makes Me Feel Alive!

It makes me feel alive because I stab myself all the dang time! These needles are sharp, and I know that. You'd think I'd learn, but you'd be wrong- because I can't seem to keep my paws out of the way. Just another night in the craft room. :)

Hi. I'm Tina, and sometimes I write letters to inanimate objects. Don't judge me! I see you there, Judgey McJudgenstein! You can just scoot right along. Ya hear?


Dear Basil,

I'm sorry to say I'm breaking up with you. Our relationship just wasn't working out. See, I wanted more from you besides your delicious leaves for my dinner. I also wanted a good listener, a bar-hopping buddy for Friday nights, and mutual understanding. You wanted... water. I'm sorry, but I just can't commit like that.

Love,

tina

Nearly Two Years Later...

Well, what a difference a year makes. And what a greater difference two years makes, my friends. I took a blogging break around the time we found out my husband's job was being relocated. I've always been an Ohio girl, never living more than a couple hours from my parents. And I liked it that way, we didn't really want to move away from our family and friends. I was feeling like a zombie for a while. I was mad and sad, and feelin' bad, thinking 'bout the things that I never had. Oh wait, I'm bustin' out a little Salt-N-Pepa there.

Sooooo... jump to present day and we live in Georgia! It's not so bad, the area is lovely, and we get to go back to Ohio and visit every couple of months. I know it could be worse, which is why I'm not sitting here bitching about it. And if you think THIS is bitching, then you don't know me now, do you?

I didn't do any crafting for a while, which is very unlike me. So I had nothing to blog about, and a whole lotta, "Wahhhhhh wahhhhh, I don't like it!!!" doesn't make for a fun read. Catch my drift? But now I'm feeling better, I've got my new craft room nearly set-up, and I'm making all kinds of fun stuff again. So I feel like normal old Tina, and that's about that. So, if you missed me, come on back. And if you didn't... too bad! :D

Betty Crocker is in the House

I got a Lodge dutch oven for Christmas, and have been trying a lot of recipes that I have collected over the years. One of them was the no knead bread recipe from the New York Times back in 2006. There is also a youtube video with step-by-step instructions on the bread making.




These photos are from the second loaf I made this weekend. This time I used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. We actually like the AP flour better, but next time I may try half of each. I found a lot of information online about the bread online, and most people had amazing results. I'm really pleased with how each loaf turned out- it was really simple, just required some patience to wait for the dough to rise.




I'm thrilled to have baked my own bread- I was always nervous to use yeast for some reason. This is the first I've tried anything with yeast, and I have already started thinking of what to make next! Always being one to research recipes I am encouraged by these bread making tips from Smitten Kitchen. Surely something from here will be on the to-do list as well. I'm going to look for some library books as well- hopefully I can find this one or maybe this one for some more beginner recipes.

New Critter Cushions

 

My lovely friend Annie asked me to make a hippo pincushion for her and this is what I came up with.

 

Just relaxing in the water with a lilypad floating alongside.

 

I'd say this hippo has it pretty easy in this life. I think he's pretty darn cute for my first hippo and I plan to make another one to list in my etsy shop.

 

Speaking of Etsy- this little sheep on a hill is listed there- he's smaller than my other sheepy pincushion, and there are more critter cushions to come! :)