It seems to be a bit of a double edged sword but that just might be my crankiness showing at the moment.
Whoa. I was just distracted from contemplating the order of this post by finding a little tarantula on the porch out back!
Whoa! Why, Hello there!
Just a little guy!
We let him loose in the front yard, away from pestering family dog.
Well, that's one way to reset my mind frame. Mmk, where was I going to start? Yesterday, there were two trips made to the two big craft stores. We went on a mission to take advantage of a buy a pack of card stock and get a second one for a cent more for the class room. There were a few other side missions that were also accomplished too. I felt so proud and productive in a craft fashion.
We were able to grab the paper, I found mini 4x6 photo albums that fit 60 pictures each to save for later when I start making brag books for my garden. :D Most of the albums I've been seeing around only hold 12 and sometimes 36 pictures, but with how many photos I've taken, I knew I could only crop it down so far. They will be digitally scrapped too, so it won't just be plain snapshots shoved into the sleeves. I'm too enthusiastic about them to just leave it at that. :P
One big project that I worked on and finished last night (it was a long, drawn out, and frustrating night) was a portable way to store my Cricut cartridges. I have been keeping them in a gallon-sized zip baggie and I'm pretty sure if I got one more, it would burst. I like to have the cartridges, handbooks, and keyboard overlays together. One good idea I've read about was taking out all of the pages that I don't need. Namely, all of the ones with instructions in languages that I can only sort of read and understand. I felt a little guilty doing so, as if I was committing some narrow-minded crime, but I got over it because it allowed me to store two more booklets per stack. Here are the results:
Okay, I don't have as many as are shown in the first picture. I promise. I borrowed FMIL's to fill in the space to see how well it worked. This idea combines the idea that has been floating around the forums for a few years that use plastic ribbon bins that stack and snap together plus a 12x12 scrapbooking carrier (which I have now) that has come out with a plastic tray insert designed to hold 18 booklets and cartridges with a few tools. I used plastic canvas and planned out a few layouts but found that this worked the best. I made sure to get a bin with a handle. It also snaps shut.
My shapes cartridges are on the top row with room for 18 total. The next row has my seasonal, lite, and character cartridges and can fit 8 total. The last row also holds 8 and currently has my font cartridges. That means I have individual slots for 34 cartridges and about 40 handbooks. Lol. If I ever reach that amount, I could always throw some carts in the booklet or tools section. :P I'm pretty friggin' proud of myself! It took so much longer to figure out and make than it should have because I was so tired but wanted to finish before going to bed. Stupid stubborn streak.
Oh! I also got a crochet book that I was eyeballing a few months ago but decided against it at the time because we were already grabbing so many yarn goodies. Well, after some discussion with friends and much contemplation, I hunted for this book, could not find it anywhere, and then snagged the last copy at the store yesterday. It's Twinkie Chan's Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies! It's so hilarious and amazing. I cannot wait to try a pattern out.
While on my mini missions in the store, I stumbled upon a few little treasures! There is a line of terrariums that are guaranteed to grow of all sorts of off the wall plants to get kids interested in grow gardens. With alien and fairy themes, I was so excited too! :P They have individual eggs, small trays, and bigger trays with up to twenty plants (5-6 different species). FMIL wanted to test out one to see if they would be good in the classroom and got an fairy-themed egg that will grow these purple flowers that will be attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. I got two eggs to try out and... one's a fly trap and the other is a pitcher plant. And they will possibly sprout by the end of this year. Oh yes. Patience is some sort of virtue that will be tested with these guys!
The fly trap will sprout sometime between late September and late November. Roar!
I have to refrigerate the pitcher plant for 6 weeks and then it will sprout sometime between early November and early January. I can't wait! This is going to be so weird!
Today wasn't nearly as fun or intriguing. Except for one part that I'll get to that later. :D It was full of chores and errands. We decided to tackle the less than user friendly kitchen sink faucet today and I took it on the task of clearing out the space underneath so the SO could crawl underneath and around to change out some of the connecting tubing too. It... took quite a bit of time for me to get through everything. Thankfully, it's all done now and working like a charm. I even helped with the caulking. Yay for growing up doing weird jobs on household projects. It does mean that I'm peeling dried tacky stuff off my fingers for the remainder of the night. Sigh. :P
That rain that I showed you last time? It's resulting in things like this:
The Barrel Cacti are flowering and/or fruiting (again).
There are different variations that are so pretty.
Almost in full bloom!
Another vivid and pretty sunset.
I also decided to pot the spider plant chunk that FMIL gave to me to try to grow for our kitty. He loves eating the plantlettes off. Silly veggie lover.
Soaked it in some water for a few days and it developed its own roots.
That's some pretty serious effort going on there.
All ready to go nuts and become a little bush.
I also realized that I haven't measured the tomato plants in a little while to see how much they've grown since moving outside. So I did so while I was out checking in on everyone.
Tomato #1 is about 12.5 inches tall.
Tomato #2 is about 12 inches tall.
Tomato #3 is also about 12 inches tall.
All of their stalks have become more reddish-brown and they have endured a few very windy nights surprisingly well.
Fast forward to this afternoon, I got a wonderful semi-surprise in the mail. I had forgotten to remember that I had a package on the way from my best friend-former roommate. She recently moved half a country closer to me and sent me presents she had purchased back when she spent time in Japan for school as a birthday gift. I love it all! It was the highlight of my day.
This is my stash after ripping them out of their packaging. There's a stationary set with paper, stickers, an envelopes; a multi-color pen (everyone knows that I love those); a cute pair of chopsticks with elephants and their own special case; a striped mini pencil case; a mechanical pencil with a retractable eraser; and four oh-so-cute eraser critters (a bunny, hamster, puppy, and bear - I believe). It's all so cute, from Japan, and from my bestie! I think the very best part was the postcard she sent with it. :D It was so cool to hear from her in that medium. I definitely have some stuff to send back to her. Hooray mail! I cannot wait to use it!
I guess the past two days have been more productive and random than I thought. I guess how tired I've gotten by the end of the day zombifies my brain into dulling all of the excitement while my body recovers. Oh, the joys of blogging to remember and share.
I need to go tidy up a little bit before I start gnawing on my arm. :P See you soon! <3
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