036. Hooray!

Woot! My last mail came in today! I started making some. Caught up on a lot of sleep today, which was good but also bad because I have to get up super early again tomorrow and may not get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Boo. Today was fairly uneventful because of that though.

We had kids come over peddling their goods to us. I took a deep breath and was nice enough to buy a homemade book mark and get another one for free. Then one went to go use our pens and highlighters to make more while the other was threatening us with a wooden gun attached to a makeshift bow to make a cross bow. /deep breath. Please let that kid become some governmental weapons specialist. Please please please. Otherwise, I'm worried about what else would be pursued because of the area we live in and the fact that they're in elementary school trying to compare assault weapons with the ones we have from the good ol' days. /sigh.

Then as half of the house is in the kitchen making snacks pretty late at night, the neighbors invite themselves over with a toddler that is wide awake and running around screaming and chasing the poor cats.

Finally, lots of wisecracks and smack talking and horror-story telling with the boys ensued in the kitchen and that's always horrific and hilarious. Oye, lol.

Surprise! I started using the paper that came in today :D

Hooray! Sigh, I need to go knock myself out now, but at least I finished the day with making two cheese omelettes and a hot dog. Lol, tomorrow's breakfast and lunch are going to be awesome. Good night! <3

035. I'm Still Upright!

The title to this blog entry was a part of a revelation I had earlier today when we started running errands. I had not had any caffeine up until that point and was amazed to still be conscious. Barely got any sleep last night on top of waking up pretty early so I could start volunteering at a local elementary school today! More about that later. After making that statement, we almost immediately went across the plaza to a Mickey D's and I got Happy Meals (collecting "How To Train Your Dragon" toys for the kids!) with caffeine. I'm weak.

Also, we finally got to a postal services place and I sent out things to Canada, New York, Japan, and Phoenix. Eclectic, huh? The whole thing just cost me $14. It probably would have been much less if I had not bought the packing materials there and used my own. I normally would have, but didn't know if I needed special boxes/ labels for any of it prior. However, I bought this super cute squishy envelope that was covered in colors and different animals to send to the Bestie! I hope she loves it. I did when I saw it, lol. I can't for everyone to get their mail too! /gleeful dance.

I'm so cognitively useless in the mornings. Thank goodness, my autopilot at the time and neurosis the night before seem to take care of everything! :D I'll get up and be ready and all, but just don't expect me to know my name, age, or address. You'll more likely than not just get me to stop in my tracks, stare at you blankly, get a "Huhhhhhh?"/ "Whaaaaat?" after at least 30 seconds of silence, and then I'll start to droop or fall over because I stopped moving and lost momentum. Lol.

Yay for being with the kids today! It was their first day back from spring break, only slightly rambunctious. Or so I was told that it was only slight. Still had fun, they are very sweet kids that never leave you bored. I was actually fully woken up by the end of the school day and got covered in spittle when one little boy, who was trying to take my attention away from a classmate, made an explosion sound effect a mere handful of inches from my face. Lol, lovely. I wiped it off but didn't want to wash the makeup off my face right then, so had to hang in there. Again, thank goodness it was the end of the day. Man, I can't get over how sweet those kids are! I was primarily helping with a cutting station. They made little paper helicopters that resembled maple keys that spiral when they are dropped. I had forgotten how many heart attacks I could have in a matter of minutes. All sorts of skill levels, so some kids had to have hands help them cut and fold while others attached that paper like there was no tomorrow. Just whoa. You can't be too fussy and make them anxious vicariously, but oh man, I cringed and bit my lip a lot trying to let them be as independent as possible. Yet another great day with them though, can't wait for Thursday to do it all again! Well, hopefully by then I'll learn how to be awake by the time they start coming in.

Paper sorting was a fail yesterday, being social and having (mostly) meaningful conversations with good company took precedence. Maybe I'll try to tackle that project bit by bit over the next couple of days because my body sort of hates me atm. I haven't had a solid schedule in years, it's weirding my body out. :P

034. Putting the Scraps in Scraps

I'm running on a caffeine high atm, so I'll keep this brief (I hope to do a bunch of stuff in order to wear myself out before bedtime!)

Yay house hunting! No, I'm no where near in the market of looking one for myself, but we went to with family and it was fun! Already plotting what to put where :P We'll see how that goes, saw some pretty great places today!

My second package came today! Hooray! I really like all my goodies. Can't wait for that very last package from come from Penang, Malaysia. So far! I think I'm the most excited about that one.

Wow, I keep getting distracted my household things and walking away from the computer after every other sentenced typed. Lol, so much for quick stop. /comfort blog. That's the rush for you.

My main goal while my body is on auto-pilot, is to sort out my paper! I was going to take a picture, but that... is just discouraging, lol. I actually don't have nearly as much as I've seen avid paper-crafter/ card-makers/ scrapbookers (all of which I envy), but I have to fit it all in one bin because of space issues. My bigger problem is how to organize it so it doesn't become a scavenger hunt whenever I get the urge to really craft.

Wish me luck! <3

033. Pastel-fuls

Happy Easter/ Zombie Jesus Day to all!

We did even more hardcore cleaning and tidying up all this morning. It feels very liberating and open now in most of the high traffic areas. Very exciting. Even more exciting was the fact that everyone voluntarily chipped in and then got caught up in the moment and took on independent projects all over the house! Random lull in the middle of the day and then we planned a surprise for a friend. We ended up starting to cook the pot roast and then the girls got to... *drumroll* dye eggs! We only kind of made it through our attempts before everyone came together to finish prepping dinner and the table. It was quite yummy and we had fun. Hung out after dinner to digest a little and then it was onto strawberry shortcakes for desert! Yay!

Without further ado, here are pictures!

Holiday goodies throughout the house! 

(Including the Easter Egg Sugar Cookies from yesterday!)

The eggs! We didn't get to finish them today. 

Alright, on completely unrelated note. Blizzcon 2010 was recently announced! Well, it's location and date of being held. Again, it'll happen in Anaheim, which isn't far from their HQ, and it's October 22nd-23rd! Last year it was late August, so that gives us a few more months to save up! We daydreamed/ plotted to meet up with a few friends if we road tripped there. It would be so cool if we could manage to go! And I would totally do cosplay! Not very well, but I would, especially if a friend or two did it with me :D I'm a pack creature. Off to watch more of The Guild! Fantastic web series. End of nerd rant, lol. Aiee! I'm off to do more nerd-related research and recon! Teehee :D

032. Homemade Sweetness

I don't think I had a game plan as to what I wanted to post today. Tried working on a few crafts, hit a few roadblocks and decided to take a break from it. Had some wonderful brunch with visiting SO family at this hole in the wall diner. Great food for a cheap price that didn't get us sick! To top that all off it was all breakfast food! Breakfast foods are my favorite real food. :D The one menu I can eat 95% of and not come off as impossible to please. I have a very limited palette. :) That was before I lost steam with crafting.

Then the kitties got to play outside for a little bit! a few of us hung out because the weather has finally stopped being so windy/ cold and start being beautiful! So we supervised and encouraged the little monster to climb some low trees (he doesn't do Up well) and out normally quite... reserved kitty to be all: Rawr! I'm a wild jungle cat. Good thing that the trees in the front are pretty much all twigs and branches, we can pluck them whenever we want. They had a blast and were pretty tuckered out for the rest of the day! People were coming in and out of the house all day as we prepped to bunker down tomorrow for the holiday and they were pretty passed out most of the time. Big blessing, lol. I actually don't have pictures of them playing because it was quite spur of the moment and I had to play chaperon/ wrangler. They absolutely loved rolling around on the ground in the shade right in front of the door. Go figure. "Pleeease, let us out! We want to smell like Outside!"

We got the dining area all cleared and cleaned for tomorrow's Easter lunch, did a good amount of spring cleaning, added a standing lamp that was being stored in the garage to light up an area that hasn't had it's own working light in, from what I gather, years. Quite refreshing. By the time we decided we had done enough for today, dinner in the form of yummy local pizza came! That's one thing I love about this town: "It's the biggest small town you'll find." I love the friendliness of many of the people, even their crabbiness isn't as bad as what I've seen in other states (and that's the everyday normal attitude!) and how they really try to encourage local commerce and talent and such. There are significant amounts of Mom&Pop shops and I love it. I get tired of having nothing but franchises and chains. Sure, they can be convenient and cheap, but sometimes you just was good, old-fashioned, tried and true, homemade-homegrown stuff and service. When you have to try time and time again to find it to little to no avail, we have a problem.

We got to use the "newly renovated" dining area and it worked beautifully! Then SO's mom and I got into our heads that we should decorate egg-shaped sugar cookies with dyed frosting. Well... Martha Stewart put the idea into my head and the instructions with pictures in my hands. SO's mom tried out some techniques in her classroom before they let out for spring break and she brought the leftover frosting home. We had a blast. We also had so much of a blast that all the boys of the house stayed awaaaay from the kitchen after dinner, lol. They just knew that we would tease and prod and puppy eye and pester until they helped/ contributed.

On a side note: Yay, Duke! Quite a game! Lol.

Anywho. We also prepped eggs to be dyed tomorrow because while recounting past holiday traditions and stories, a visiting friend said she really missed dyeing eggs with her boys (who are now more than grown). So... we brought out our supplies and are hoping to half surprise her tomorrow! Yay girl crafting time, lol. I hope all the scheduling works out. I haven't done it in a few years either! We switched to using plastic eggs after one year of not remembering where a few were hidden in the backyard :( That was probably a My-Bad. I get so caught up trying to find hiding spots so all the kids we babysat had a equal chance of finding a bunch and were occupied long enough... whew.

Here's the super fun part for you guys! (Can you tell I've been licking the leftover frosting today? :P) Pictures of the finished Easter egg cookies!

A few close-ups! We're equal holiday-ists. :D

Yay! 

That's is a whole lot of cookies. :O I don't think we really thought about that. Not many of us around here are all that big on sweets, let alone a ton of them. Of course, I am not referring to myself. P: Mmm... /drool. Oh, and of course we didn't get all fancy and designer-y until we had already decorated 70% of the cookies with dollops that were supposed to my dots and squiggly lines. Well, now we know better for next year! Mine are most of the ones that involved faces. Lol, so hard to guess, right? XD Can't wait to devour all the goodies we've gotten today tomorrow, but yes, I do acknowledge that Jesus is the reason for the season. And "Psh!" to anyone to says that's only for Christmas. I will be very appreciative to be spending tomorrow with good company and many blessings-  most of which are good food.

031. Phew

I attempted to make some yummy Pastaroni for a quick snack today and can I say utter fail? It took me at least three tries to make it past step one. Pretty bad. I poured two cups of milk in a bowl- supposed to be 2 cups of water now and only 2/3 of a cup of milk three steps later. Get the buttery spread and water into the bowl and shove it in the microwave for 12 minutes- didn't realize the pasta was supposed to be in there that whole time. All in all it still took just as much time as making it on the stove top would have taken, I overcooked the pasta a tad, and it was still delicious. Oorah! Lol.

Man, I really need to sort my recent photos. I'm kind of particular about how they're named and organized so it can sometimes be a daunting task. All my fault, I know, :P. Well, I still want to post some pictures in today's blog so... I'll just yank those out from the midst their electronic mayhem and shoot them up here! :D

First off are my sad, sad attempts at creating a photo box. Just a portable little lighting studio-thing so I can take better pictures of my bracelets. Here's a link on Ebay. There are other kinds, same idea. Pricing ranging from $7 to +$100. So, I found a link to make a homemade one! The design is fantastic, by the way, but if this wasn't already ghetto enough- take a look at what I churned out:

 

 

I didn't have a square enough box, so I tore apart some cardboard to make the frame with masking tape and strips of scrap paper. Then, I proceeded to cover it with a pillow case and t-shirt and used another pillowcase as the backdrop.

Even kitty was a bit incredulous/ skeptical about the results! The only way I could have made it more questionable was to use duct tape and bubblegum, :P But I do have to say, I think even my pathetic excuse for a lighting tent worked!

This first photo was with a mini flashlight above :( BUT this second photo was just using my camera's flash! Oh, and I did switch to using a different pillow case throughout testing my box-tent-thingamagig/abomination. I think that's pretty snazzy though! I still need to perfect what to use as a backdrop and techniques on how to get better close-ups, but it's definitely a great start!

In other Etsy news, I finally got my 100th sale! And my 101st, 102nd, and 103rd. Lol, that particular buyer ordered four bracelets. Huzzah! To celebrate this, I decided to release the new Blaze pattern (that I previewed here a few days ago) later this week. My Facebook fanpage has gotten a surge of new fans thanks to a dear friend of mine sweetly harassing everyone she new about my shop. Happy Birthday, Val! And much love and thanks! <3 So, I also gave them a sneak peek too, now that I've confirmed in my head that I would indeed decide to list the pattern.

Oh man, I cannot wait until the rest of the goodies I've ordered finally arrive. I am going to craft like mad. I hope (/crosses fingers) that I can figure out a few foreign crafting techniques and release something totally different than my friendship bracelets and origami mobiles. Well, currently just mobile. Singular. Some of my incoming mail should help change that! UGH! I can't wait! /squeal. Lol. 

Well, that's a lot of linkage already, so I'll leave you with a sweet picture of my... step-nephew kitty? It was taken yesterday when he decided to be all fancy/ awkward. He's a teenager and a huge brat and becoming quite the glutton :( ... we're working together to fix that.

Way too cute. Almost makes you forget he's a little monster. Almost. Lol. Until tomorrow! <3

P.S. Hope everyone who celebrated had a fun/ successful April Fool's day!

P.P.S. This marks me writing for a whole month! Hooray! Lol.

--- Update ---
Due to some technical difficulties, I have not reached 103 sales. However, I still reached the magical 100 because of the latest buyer buying those 4 bracelets! So the pattern will be released and the celebration in my head continues! Yay! :P

030. Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Rant

I feel pretty poorly about the amount of negative I've been putting out here lately. Not my initial intention, but hey- I'm easily caught up in the moment. So let's make today a bit more fun! To start off, a video of one guy (doing a duet with himself) singing 22 popular TV theme songs! In less than 7 minutes!

Don't forget to check out his other videos as well! There's not much there, so it's not terribly hard, lol. There are also a couple more YouTube artists (mostly Asian this time. I believe they're all friends- this includes Andrew Garcia, who is currently still in the running for this season's American Idol!) that are collaborating left and right. I was going to post a few videos, but it may be easier to post links. That and I'll probably get caught up watching every single video instead if I don't, :P.

Ladies first! Kat Badar, Cathy Nguyen, Jasmine Rafael, Jenny Suk, Tiffany Alvord, and Christina Grimmie.

Then the gentlemen! Gabe Bondoc and AJ Rafael.

And some great collaborations! Gamaliel & Audrey and Nataly Dawn & Jack Conte of Pomplamoose!

Sooo many goodies! I think That's it for now, I gotta get back to crafting! <3