Keeping it Weird on Wednesday

Speaking of stocking up on Thanksgiving Day supplies early, I have this ingrained need to also stock up on TP (toilet paper).  I am very much aware that there is thankfully no shortage of TP in the USA – thank goodness because we don’t need any flashbacks to Russian days of yore — but I definitely picked up this odd habit from my mom.

Growing up, my mom always had lots of packs of TP on hand.   And I don’t mean lots of 4-roll packs, I mean the big huge packs of TP. My folks used to have a membership to a now defunct warehouse grocery store and my mom would buy these HUGE packs of TP that had SO MANY rolls of TP inside.  As far as I know, she had access to plenty of TP growing up so I have no idea why she felt she needed to buy so much   But like mother, like daughter, and now I keep lots of TP in our house.  We don’t have a warehouse grocery membership, so the big packs at the grocery store will have to do. Or sometimes I buy lots of little 4-roll packs if they are on sale. I get a little nervous, like right now, because we only have one 4-roll pack in the house. I need more TP. And as a side note, I am loyal to my TP brand. Even if another brand is on sale, I will not buy it.

one-yard wonders pre-order update

YAY! My one-yard wonders book finally shipped out yesterday!  At the time when I placed my pre-order I had the choice of ordering the regular book or the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition.  At the time I didn’t know the difference between the two editions so I chose to save a dollar or two and pre-ordered the regular version but I have since learned that the exclusive edition contains 5 more projects!  Right now, BN has the exclusive edition for only $11.31 — which is nearly 50% off the cover price!  Just thought I’d pass the good news along in case any of y’all want to order it!

Getting a head start on Thanksgiving

We’re only just one week into November, and yet I’m stocking up on Thanksgiving supplies like the stores are going to run out.  Well actually, some very popular food items will disappear as Thanksgiving Day approaches.  One year, a few days before the holiday, I remember our Publix ran out of the big cartons of organic chicken broth and those cute little cans of solid jellied cranberry sauce which I loooove so much — I love how the solid cranberry jellied mass slides out of the can and I love that the can’s ribbed markings imprint themselves to the solid mass of cranberry jelly which is a very helpful guide for cutting even slices   But I digress… 

Last Saturday, I was psyched (goodness, I can’t believe I just used the word ‘pysched’ about my grocery store trip!) that I bought the 2nd to last can of Libby’s canned pumpkin.  So of course when I saw a freshly stocked display of holiday foods, I plunked another can of Libby’s canned pumpkin in my cart.  I also bought another litttle can of jellied cranberry sauce.  I do make a big batch of cranberry chutney from scratch with fresh cranberries, apples, raisins, among other things, but I still dig on the canned stuff.  I also love to bake with fresh cranberries throughout the year as well, mostly muffins and breads, so  I will stock up on bags of cranberries since they are only sold during the holiday season and after that, no more until next year.     

Anybody else stock up on their favorite Thanksgiving Day food items early in case the stores sell out or am I the only kookie one?!

goodnight

As you can see,  Benjamin very much likes the pillow I made that has the spotted doggie fabric — they’re his peeps.

Keeping it Weird on Wednesday

Due to all the unexpected heavy rain we’ve received, my allergy season has lasted longer than usual since all the rain caused things to bloom and/or re-bloom.  The most uncomfortable part of my allergies are dry, itchy red eyes — my OTC drops are pretty good but you know they can only do so much.  Lately I’ve been taking notice of my co-workers’ eyes.  One of my co-workers seems not to suffer from allergies at all and the whites of her eyes are so pretty and clear that they remind me of big, white hard-boiled eggs.

wip – apple housewife loves to vacuum

A big thanks to shawnlorette on flickr for sharing this vintage pattern set in the hoop love group on flickr.  A big thanks to all who share on hoop love.  Is it just me, or is the online stitchy community really kind and generous with advice, encouragement, and sharing?

I can’t promise too many updates to this WIP.  I’ve been way more bookish lately than stitchy.  I transferred this pattern 2 weeks ago but only today felt the itch to embroider.  I’m in no rush to finish — especially since I might actually have to set this WIP aside at some point to begin making/embroidering/sewing Christmas gifties.

a bit of an obsession and some mailbox goodies

Admittedly, I have a lot of sewing patterns.  Easily, over 2 dozen (yay for $1 pattern sales!).  And yet I’ve only used 2 of them to make jammie bottoms and sleep boxers.  The 3 skirts I’ve made, I used my own drafted pattern.  So why oh why did I become so smitten, dare I say obsessed, with finding an out-of-print (OOP) McCalls pattern #5315?  Weirdly enough, I  think it was because OOP M5315 has side bust darts rather than vertical ones.  Plus, the store bought shift dresses and dress shirts I own have side bust darts and the garments fit well.  I also really like how the side bust darts look, they seem more discret   I’m definitely not a busty gal so I thought side bust darts might be more appropriate for my body type.  I have no idea if my theory is valid or not!

You’d think it would be easy to find an in-print dress pattern with side darts.  Not so.  I may have come across one or two dress patterns with with side darts but the pattern envelope started at a size 8 or 10, and I strongly feel that I am a size 6 in commercial patterns.  I do not have the skills to scale down a pattern nor move bust darts. 

You’d also think it would be easy to find an out-of-print pattern online but I had mixed luck with that.  Nothing was listed on etsy.  But a couple of OOP M5315 patterns were actually listed on ebay, but when I contacted all the sellers they admitted that the pattern came from smoking homes so I declined to buy.  So what was I to do?  I didn’t want to do the obvious option of plunking down $20 to buy the pattern for full price + s/h from the McCalls website.  So I decided to upload an image of the pattern envelope for OOP M5315 to my flickr page so all my contacts could see it, and of course I added the picture to a few sewing groups for extra exposure, and in the picture’s caption I asked if anyone had this uncut pattern in their stash and would be willing to swap it for fabric or something.  My jaw dropped when Nikki from flickr sent me a private flickr message and said that yes indeed she had it and was willing to swap it.  Several days later, our swap is complete.  Nikki sent me the pattern and some beautiful fabric scraps too!!!  I’m grateful for the kindness and generous of the online stitchy community. 

one-yard wonders, book release delay?

Not sure what is going on with my much anticipated pre-order of One-Yard Wonders.  I actually pre-ordered the book from bn.com, but yesterday (10/28), the book’s official release date, the bn.com website indicated it was out of stock — so I was relieved I pre-ordered it.  But, yesterday on amazon.com, the book was available for purchase.  However, super duper early this morning, bn.com sent me an e-mail saying the book was being delayed and could not be shipped to me at this time   And back on the amazon.com site this morning, the book is back to pre-order status.  I’m really hoping the book’s release date is just being pushed back a bit and that the entire book publication deal is not falling through as I’ve been looking forward very much to receiving this book.  Just wondering, anyone else pre-order this title?

book review: tunneling to the center of the earth

Sometimes I go to amazon.com and look up books I have already read and see what other suggestions the site offers,  and that is how I stumbled upon this book.

                                                                                               I enjoyed most of the short stories in this collection.  My most favorites were ”grand stand-in,” “the museum of whatnot,” and “worst-case scenario.”  A couple of the stories left me disappointed, mainly because I felt they ended too soon or not in a satisfactory manner.  But overall, it is a good, interesting collection.  

What I really liked about this paperback edition is that is had the special P.S. section.  I <3 the P.S. section where you get to learn more about the author and read an interview.  I thought it was really quirky and silly that  Wilson’s motivation for wanting to be a writer was that he hoped that girls would swoon after reading his fantastic stories and then would want to make out with him   I know his statement sounds bizarre and possibly “dirty old-man-ish” but after you read his whole bio, it really doesn’t come off that way at all.  Wilson also goes on to say that in the beginning he wrote sooooo many bad stories that he eventually bought tons and tons of short story books and treated them as “self-help” books so he could try to figure out what was wrong with his writing and try to fix it — I find that charming.    

This book’s P.S. section also included a blurb for each story as to the author’s source of inspiration for each of the stories he wrote.  I thought it was really cool that each of his short stories were inspired by a specific line of text (included in the blurb) from another short story, or sometimes a novel, he read.  I also felt very bookish and deserving of my bookworm title when I noticed I had read quite a few of his sources of inspiration, yet also have some new authors to look up and discover.

Keeping it Weird on Wednesday

“Mr. Green walks twenty miles a day and is subject to attacks of melancholy.”  from the short story, A game of Clue, in The Barnum Museum by Steven Millhauser

I have no idea why I love the above sentence so much.  The words, the sentence, the  images that form in my head, are just so beautiful.   

Mr. Green reminds me a lot of myself.  Socially awkward at times.  Quiet.  A worrier.  But more importantly, a lover of books.