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! :)

Needle Felted Critters

 

My friend Anisa and I both have early February birthdays and we exchange gifts. She gave me some acorns she collected in Texas, because she knows I'm a scavenger at heart. She also gave me some really cool acorn candle holders. I wanted to make something for her because she quilts- and it's fun to craft things for other crafty people. I wanted to make a pincushion for her, and I had this little dish that came with a flower growing kit. I made this little sheep in a pasture, and it inspired me to make more critter-cushions for my Etsy shop.

 

I found some small dishes, but then decided to look at goodwill to find other one of a kind bases for the cushions. I'll be making more soon, but for now the little group of felted items are all I have. Sunday is my day to stay home and craft- and I can't wait to get started on more!

 

Houdini Dog

 

See this sweet little pup? She looks so innocent, but she cannot be trusted! A week ago she escaped from her crate while we were at work and had a really good time on her own. She had a crap-tastic time actually, but luckily for me Jeff beat me home!

This afternoon I came home and spotted a stick on the living room floor. I picked it up and saw that it was a perch I had just taken out of the bird cage. What the... oh, hello Trixie! She greeted me with a mouth full of bright green wool roving that I bought yesterday and hadn't put away yet. It was fluffed up all over the craft room, and she has still been finding pieces tonight- she has some stashed away I'm sure. Then I saw that Trixie had also found a pair of my socks and roughed them up a bit, isn't she helpful? A few shredded napkins finished off the scene. Not too bad for a pup on her own for who knows how long. I *think* I have secured the escape-hatch on her crate, but I guess time will tell. For now I'll have to close the craft room door and cross my fingers!

ATCs Made using Greeting Cards

I'm part of an ATC (artist trading card) swap with a group of ladies, and we have a monthly theme. This month's challenge was to make ATCs with store-bought greeting cards as a base. I gave away most of my store-bought greeting cards when I started making my own cards several years ago. I managed to scrounge up one or two, but decided to make a trip to the Dollar Tree where I found these:


I liked the flourishes and the little pink hearts, so got these and a package of a different design and headed home to make something. The swap is for 9 cards, but this pack only came with 8 greeting cards, so I knew I'd have to use the sides with the sentiment as well. Here is what I came up with :)



I have a little story about the second pack of cards, but I'll save that one for another day. If you'd like to be part of a monthly 9:9 ATC swap let me know and I'll pass your info on to the organizer- the more the merrier!

A Wee Mouse

 

I took my needle felting supplies on vacation to visit my parents in Myrtle Beach. Mom wanted to give it a try and she made a little grey blob that I turned into a mouse. He's sitting on a quarter in these pictures and I left him there to keep them company. :)

 

Valentine Bunny

I needle-felted this little guy over the weekend and am really pleased with how he turned out.



The heart was going to be for something else, but I liked it better with the bunny than the carrots I made for him.



I like him right down to his fluffy white tail. In fact, I like this guy so much that I'm going to do something I seldom do- I'm going to keep him! More needle-felted critters to come- I promise!

Ornaments

 

I am in the ornament making mood and have really been having fun making these little goodies. I have all kinds of ideas for more of them too!

 

I love these little birds- the cardinal is Ohio's state bird- so I'm especially partial to those and have lots of them on my Christmas tree. These ornaments are the first two things I've listed in my Etsy shop. I have finally taken the plunge- constructive criticism is always welcome :)

Glub Blub Glug Glug...

That's the sound a lawnmower makes. At least that's the sound MY lawnmower made yesterday. I was bitching and moaning about having to mow the lawn because my sweetie had a benign lump removed from his ankle and can't do a lot of walking. As I was getting started he asked if I'd remembered to take my back pill- and I hadn't. He went in to get it for me, and as I came around the side of the house I saw him standing on the deck. I stopped the mower and turned to walk over to him and saw him pointing toward the pond. The lovely pond where our mower was heading. It hit a bush and slowed a little as it bounced down the slope- but not enough for me to catch it.

I'm accident-prone and usually don't walk down the slope- and I had no idea I could actually RUN down it. The bubbles and glugging were just getting started as I grabbed the handle that was still above water. I dragged that blasted machine back up the hill with one hand. Adrenaline is a wonderful hormone- it worked well for me yesterday. I'd like to take this moment to give a shout-out to my adrenal glands for not letting me down. Thank you adrenal glands, I've never given a second thought to you, but you were there for me when I needed to drag my fat butt up and down a hill to rescue an off-roading-mower.

I'm also thankful that we went "green" with our mower and use the Neuton, a battery-operated mower. I think having no gas tank, no oil, etc- was helpful in this case of scuba-mower. It's a very nice mower- quieter than a vacuum cleaner and no emissions and no tune-ups. There was water in the battery, but we have a second battery that wasn't dunked in the pond. We sprayed it off and wiped away any pond scum. We left it out in the sun to dry and set-up a fan to blow on it too. This morning it started right up!! WHEW!!! So now that all is well in the world and I've finished mowing the lawn I must admit it's funny. So go ahead, have a laugh, I can take it!

ps- the card in the pic is ooooold, but fit the theme.

All Decked Out

From Deck Progress

Our deck is finished, has been for a couple weeks actually, I just didn't get any photos up. We really like how it turned out. I do think I'm going to see about having more of the crossing-slats across the top of pergola though. It would provide more shade, and the other pergolas on their website show more going across, and another one they built on our street has closer slats as well. Overall I'm pleased with their work though- more photos in this album.

New Purple Onion!!!

I made these first two cards while the power was out. I also was faced with the truth that I get soooo much more done when the computer is off! I like the way the word "witch" shows right next to this witch image her. I used some of the tiny stamps- eek, boo, and the spider, on some little plastic tags. I have a couple more Halloween cards in the works.


I found this dancer on a clipart cd and thought she'd be cute on a thank you card. This is one of my favorite Basic Grey color schemes- an oldie but a goodie. Do you think she needs something in her hand?


I am thinking of using this angel over one of the winter note-block stamps, but for now she's over the POD music background with another POD sentiment. I got this lace in a vintage trims grab-bag at the stamp show last month.

Fits of Fairy Fluttering

I did end up adding a blue card back to the third card here- I guess I didn't re-scan it, but it's cute either way. I love to color the ECG stamps, and I am convinced that I neeeeeed those new fairies from a recent supplement ECG put out. I don't have enough fairies, I am absolutely sure I need more. I must express myself through darling sparkle-winged fairies and that's all there is to it!!!

I am glad that our power is back on- not that I am even going to complain about being without it for around 24 hours. Those in the areas where hurricanes came ashore are much worse off than we were with the 70-80 mph winds. Ohio doesn't tend to see wide-spread winds like this since we are land-locked. When we get high winds it tends to be in the form of a tornado which has a devestating, yet narrow, path of destruction. We have less damage than many of our neighbors- we have no mature trees on our lot, so no down limbs. Several neighbors with the rubbermaid cabinets and sheds had them blown over, trash cans and patio furniture blew around. A few shingles in need of repair, and our grill and chairs flew around the deck. We were out to eat at our favorite Mexican place when the storm hit- they have a large canopy that was ripped from the building and landed in a big mud puddle in the construction site next door. Thankfully no people or cars were hurt. Many parts of our area are still without power- it's patchy. My husband's workplace never lost power, and mine is back online today, so I'm back to work tomorrow. At the end of it all we are thankful to be safe and home!

This is not the card I just made... but I thought I'd show it to you anyway since I seem to not have posted it anywhere yet. More cute Eat Cake Graphics stamps and Purple Onion Designs stamps here. Colored with my trusty prismacolor pencils.

Lots of Birthdays!!!

September is so full of birthdays that I am not sure if I can get all the cards done! I'll post them as I go over the next couple days. This one was going to be for my sister, but I haven't seen her in a couple weeks- so I'll make a belated one for her and am gong to recycle this one for a friend- shhh... don't tell!!

It's about time

that Annie got a blog! You don't know how much bitching I had to put up with about how she would never do it. Check out Annie's Ponderings.