Animal Cracker Messenger Bag

Made this cool little messenger bag tonight. I found a new valance of this Animal Cracker fabric at the store yesterday and I thought to myself "I need to make a bag out of that curtain". I have enough left over for another (smaller) handbag too!

The strap is serged and the bag is filled with organic cotton batting and the lining is a soft blue (though it looks gray here) that matches one of the hues on the cracker print. Fancy.

After I took these pics I added some snaps for decor to the front flap.

This is MY Phone Number, Nucka!

Because of some strange twist of fate, when we moved back to Rhode Island and switched our Vonage service to a local number, we ended up with the old phone number of a very popular tech-related website.

So now, I get phone calls for the website several times a day. Phone calls where people ask to be transferred to sales. Phone calls where people ask for the company president. Most of the calls are sales calls, cold calls. Oddly enough, these callers don't take the hint when they get our answering machine and it greets them with "You've reached the Briggs', leave a message...".

When I answer the phone, the caller is always taken back and confused when I inform them that no, this is not ***.com...though I sure wish it were. I would almost cut off my right arm (which is my default and most important arm) if I could go back in time and register that domain name before anybody else did. Almost. I'd be a wealthy lady if I could.

I could change our phone number easily enough. I'd bet that this number has probably been passed on to several different households, and then dumped by them when their sanity couldn't take it anymore. I won't give up on the number just yet. I need to think of a way to use this to my advantage.

Giant Bread Basket and Matching Place Mat Set

I got my new serger (love it) on Friday and here is my first completed project using it! My sister-in-law's birthday is today, so I decided to make her a basket and some reversible place mats to go with it. I actually started sewing these before the serger came and had the place mats nearly finished...but then I decided that some serging was due around the edges. But really, I just wanted an excuse to use my new toy.

Mats rolled up in the basket.

Basket detail.

Mat detail.

All tied up in a bow and ready to go!

The mats look a little wrinkled...I actually had them all ironed and nice looking, but then I rolled them up and put them in the basket, preparing them to go to Samantha today. Then I remembered that I had wanted to take pictures of them, so I unrolled them. I was feeling too lazy to iron again just for the sake of a picture.

I have been a very bad girl...

...or at least, a very bad blogger. I'm starting to feel some blogger's guilt, so I'm going to do a quick random update post!

* Amie from Living Water Boutique handspun this beautiful bright green yarn especially for me. I absolutely love it! We participated in a craft swap as partners. She should have had her package from me yesterday but according to the tracking page, it appears as though there's been a routing error made by USPS.


* I posted a random status update on my Facebook the other day whining about how I wanted a serger but my husband would kill me if I spend any more money, and my mommy came to the rescue and bought me this one! I have no problem with taking handouts. It should be arriving via FedEx today. I am so excited...a little frightened...but mostly excited.

* I hate the fact that my closest decently sized craft store (Joann's) is 30+ minutes away. We've got a Michael's here in town, but it's tiny and they don't even sell fabric! There's also a tiny sewing boutique a few towns over, but the little old ladies in there were mean to me the first time I visited (the store sucked anyway). Anyway, I've got to go buy some supplies today: serger thread (yay!), and some things to make my sister-in-law a birthday gift...and while a craft store is my favorite store to shop at in the whole world, I'm really dreading the trek over there with three kids in tow. I curse the craft store gods every time I have to take the pilgrimage to Joann's. Why??? Why can't there be one closer? I don't live out in the boonies. It doesn't make any sense. And it makes me angry. Bitching about it to my husband doesn't do any good, men don't typically care much about crafting or the necessity of having a well-stocked store within a 5 mile radius.

* Speaking of my husband: he is graduating from municipal police academy in exactly one week! We are all so excited about it. It's been a long journey from his Air Force discharge (honorable, of course), to months of police job searching, the interviews, the unbelievably long application processes...the waiting...and waiting...the joy of finding out he had been hired, then waiting for the academy to start back in November. And now, he's about to graduate! I am so proud of my Starfish...soon to be Officer Starfish. I get to have the honor of pinning his police department badge on him at the swearing-in ceremony!

That's him over there on the right. I get to kiss that guy every day. Rawr!


* I guess that's about all for now. I've got places to go, burritos to eat, fabric to buy, things to serge, Facebooking to do, and blogs to read. Oh, and maybe some cleaning and laundry too. Maybe.

Yeehaw! It's my Second Blog Giveaway!!!

I've got a bunch of Amazon money from SwagBucks, and I think it's time that I do another blog giveaway! In my most recent post, I talked about some of my favorite things. I've decided that I'm going to give away one copy of my favorite real life humor book: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris, because I think everybody should have it on their bookshelf. I wasn't planning on doing another giveaway while I wrote my post, so this is a spur of the moment (and amazing) decision.

This time though, I'm going to be a pain in the ass and make it a tiny bit more difficult to win the book. To enter the giveaway, I would like you to pick any post from my site and blog about it, or at least mention it in a link roundup. The post must include a link to my blog (any page). Make sure to post a comment here (also please leave an email address if you're not logged into a Google account, or I might have a hard time contacting you and will have to call you out like I did for the last winner)!

For people who are not already following my blog, you can earn an additional entry by following using Google Connect (look! over there! on the right side of the page!). For those who are already following, you can earn another entry by Twittering, Facebooking, or Google Buzzing a post.

Let's make this short and close the entry period on Friday night at 10PM EST. I will announce the winner and order the book for them on Saturday! 1-2-3 GO!

Copy Cat AKA These Are a Few of my Favorite Things

I've been doing a lot of sewing the past few days...but well, I can't show you anything yet. I made a couple things for a craft gift exchange at a forum I participate in, so for the sake of not ruining the surprise I cannot post about what I made until my partner receives her package. I know, I know, settle down people. You'll just have to wait a few more days to see pictures.

Last night I took advantage of the time since I was up until 2AM with my youngest who likes to wake up in the middle of the night and started working on another little project. But I'm not going to show you that either. Because it's not done yet. So you're going to have to wait, nucka.

So anyway, in the spirit of needing to feel that I've posted something important here, I'm going to follow Helena's lead from Life in the Pitts and post a list of some of my favorite things at the moment. Because lists are fun and everybody loves them.



Movies

Avatar in 3D - AMAZING. My daughter wanted to see this. I wasn't too excited about it, but as soon as I put on those "Real D" glasses for the previews I knew it was going to be a cool experience. It was so good that I saw it a second time when I took my husband to see it a few days later. Gooooo see it if you haven't already, and make sure you see it in Real D.

I found out recently that my closest IMAX theater is playing it as well...in 3D. I can't even imagine what it would be like to see it in 3D and IMAX. I can only hope that it will still be playing there over the next couple of weekends, because I would really love to try to get over there to see it. Even though 7.5 hours of lifetime Avatar watching seems a little nutty.

Sunshine Cleaning - (Netflix watch instantly) Very cute movie about a single mother who starts a cleaning company specializing in picking up after suicides/murders/other deaths.

Hancock - (Netflix watch instantly) I just watched this the other night after avoiding it for awhile since a Will Smith movie is kind of a gamble in my book. It was surprisingly good. Funny with a nice twist towards the middle.



TV Shows

LOST - the final season! Isn't it amazing? I thought the season was off to a slow start when it began, but I'm really starting to enjoy it now. I'm looking forward to my glass of wine (or 2 glasses, maybe 3...) and a cuddle on the couch with my husband while we watch the next episode tonight.

Nip/Tuck - another final seasoner. The series finale is tomorrow night. It'd better be good...because the past couple of episodes have sucked pretty badly IMO. For a show that is normally so shocking and full of twists and dark humor, it seems like most of the last season has been overflowing with filler episodes. The most exciting thing to happen was when a major character (who happened to be a favorite of mine) supposedly committed suicide. Which was pretty shocking. I just wish that there were more WTF moments this season, that's all.

True Blood - oh man. This is so 2009, since it's currently the off-season. But I cannot wait for the season premiere sometime this summer. I'm pretty picky about the vampire genre. I hated the Twilight books (or I should say, book, since I only read the first one to see what the hoopla was about. I wasn't impressed, and I put myself through torture finishing the book since I have a tic...I cannot start a book without seeing it through to the end). I never got into the vampire thing before then. The only vamp movies I ever saw and liked were Interview with the Vampire (though I never read the book) and From Dusk Till Dawn.

Anyway, I was browsing on Sidereel.com last spring and noticed True Blood in some of the top rated shows...and I was bored, so I gave it a shot. For the next couple of days, I could not pull myself away from the computer. I watched hour long episodes back to back until I was finished with the first season and was ready for the second by the time it was about to premiere. I told friends and family about the show and blackmailed made them promise to watch the first episode. Every person that did also became an obsessed fan. Try it out. Even if the vampire genre isn't normally your thing, you'll love it. Unless you're offended by softcore porn and a bunch of other definitely adult-themed content...then you may not love it so much.

Jericho - (Netflix watch instantly) Suchhhhhhh an amazing show. It's canceled, so I wasn't sure if I should even bother to watch it when I saw it in Netflix W.I., but I'm so incredibly glad that I did. It's about the plight of a small town surviving a post-nuclear USA.

A fun fact about this show: it was canceled after the first season due to low ratings (which is shocking, because it's an incredible show. It also had a really shitty spot in the TV line-up, I'm suspecting that had a lot to do with it). Anyway, when it was canceled after the first season, rabid fans organized a movement and ordered over 20 tons of nuts over the Internet and had them sent to CBS headquarters in NYC. The network responded to the fan enthusiasm by promising another 7 episodes of Jericho. Unfortunately, the show didn't make the cut after the second "trial season" and was canceled again. You can see crazy pics of the nuts at CBS here and here.

There are now rumors that the idea of a movie is being tossed around to finish up the story line...but for now, the writers have come up with a comic book (Jericho: Season 3) so that the show may live on (kind of, anyway). I had never read a comic book in my life, but I HAD to know what happened next. I now have a subscription to receive the comic books as they are published...while they're not nearly as satisfying as the show was, they still give me the fix I need. Bottom line: if you have Netflix, go check it out. Even though it's a dead show, it's worth watching. Fo realz.



Foods

Taco Bell's 89 cent five layer burrito - I can't get enough of these. I just wrote about them in my last post. I ate three yesterday. Lord help me, I can't stop myself. Take mercy on my ass and thighs.

De Boles Pastas - De Boles is my favorite pasta company. Why? Because they are one of the handful of pasta brands that my daughter (who is allergic to everything, remember?) can actually eat (though some varieties she cannot have). Prior to my discovery of these back in October, the only time my daughter ate pasta was when I made it by hand at home specially for her. The only ingredient in the corn pasta? Corn flour. I had first found them at my local natural foods store, though they were a bit spendy there at nearly $4 a box.

The other day I was browsing the natural foods section of my Shaw's Market and noticed that they now stock the brand! And it was on sale for $2.50 a box! And they had varieties the natural food store didn't have! I still haven't tested out the other boxes on my daughter (a spinach pasta and some other one that I don't remember and I'm feeling too lazy to get up and look)...they should be okay for her but with new foods/ingredients (it has a type of flour I haven't heard of before in it) I try to give her small amounts first and watch for any type of reaction before deeming it safe to eat. Here's a link to the De Boles Pasta website.



Games

Super Paper Mario - oh man. This game made it into my top 3 console games the first time I played it. (along with Super Mario Bros 3 and New Super Mario Bros for Wii). As most of you already know, I am a huge fan of the Mario series. I've been playing them since the days of the original Nintendo console. I've grown up with them and they've been one of the few childhood things that I never grew out of...like taking baths, Disney movies, and mac n cheese. It's an incredible game. If you like the Mario games, just get it. Trust me. My kids love it, I love it, it's wonderful.

OMGPop Games - I discovered this recently when my brother and I were looking for a way to play Tetris online together (he lives in another state, so playing online games is a way that we spend time together). All of the games are fun, colorful, and multiplayer. Most of them are new twists on old favorites, challenging, and competitive. My favorite games are: Blockles (a tetris-like game), Dinglepop (like Snood), Letterbox (anagraming game), and Draw My Thing (like Pictionary). Feel free to add me as a friend.



Books

This is always a difficult topic since I read a good 2-3 books per week. So I'm just going to list the first ones that come to mind that I've read recently:

Queen Betsy/Undead Series - I had first seen a set of these books at a used book store sometime in 2008 and almost bought them, just because I liked the illustrations on the covers and the plot sounded entertaining. It wasn't until I was going through True Blood withdrawl that I looked them up online and gave the first, (called Undead and Unwed) book a whirl. They're very quick reads, I could and did fly through two books in a day sometimes...the kind of book you just cannot put down. The series is kind of like a mixture of Clueless (the movie) and True Blood (the show). I swear I'm not a crazy vampire fanatic. But these are good books and came to mind because I just recommended them to somebody a couple days ago.

The Year of Living Biblically - A.J. Jacobs decides to take the Bible literally and live by all of its rules for a year. He also explores views and interviews people from all places in the religious spectrum. Entertaining, and I learned a lot. I'm not religious (spiritual), but I love reading about religions and learning as much as I can about them.

Me Talk Pretty One Day - I love David Sedaris, writer of hilarious non-fiction essays about his life. I own all of his books, and this is my favorite.

The Lovely Bones - such an incredible, astonishing, shockingly...huge waste of time. Don't read this book, it really sucks. Seriously.



YouTube Videos

Badder Romance - a group of college students get together and remake Lady Gaga's Bad Romance video (and it's LOL funny). As an added bonus: these people live like 30 minutes away from me, which I find awesome. I wish they would be my BFFs.

I Rock Onesies - music video of a bunch of guys dancing around, rapping, and wearing adult sized footie jammies.

Policeman VS Kitty - a cop is writing out a ticket for a man in a car, and an overly friendly cat climbs up the policeman like a tree for some lovin. I have no idea how that man kept a straight face.

False Blood - a True Blood spoof. You'd have to watch the show to understand.



Links

I'm too blogged out to even begin going through my massive amount of favorites for this one, so I'm just going to link you to my Del.icio.us., where I keep most of my bookmarks. I try to tag every site/article/picture that I like as I browse. Sometimes I forget though, and it drives me absolutely crazy when I try to find a site I liked but can't find it in my Delicious because I never tagged it! Gah!

Beefy

I don't have anything useful to say at the moment (I probably will later...maybe.) but I felt like I should update since it's been a few days.

I've been lying around in my pj's all day...resting, and spending too much time on the Internet. I'm getting ready to be productive: I need to do the dishes, sweep the floors, and vacuum. But first, I am going to Taco Bell and ordering 10 of their beefy five layer burritos. Those babies are so good that they've lead me to hoarding. I've decided to start buying them and freezing what we don't eat right away. Or I might just stuff 10 of them down my neck today.