Meme City

By Joanne | July 8, 2008

Oh the Memes! The Memes!

First up, I was tagged by Mary for this Random Questions Meme:

1. Last movie you saw in a theatre?
Hot Fuzz, while I was pregnant.

2. What book are you reading?
Mr Brown can Moo! Can you? by Dr Seuss.

3. Favourite board game?
Buffy the board game. Just kidding! Or am I? I am. Or am I? No really, I am. What’s that game where you have to make lists of things that begin with a certain letter?

4. Favourite magazine?
Teen People. No, I’m totally kidding. In Touch. No, kidding again. Sigh, I don’t really have time for magazines right now so I don’t know what is my favorite. Hmmmmmm . . . .

5. Favourite smells?
Lemon. Vanilla. Chocolate

6. Favourite sounds?
Baby laughing. Gusts of wind.

7. Worst feeling in the world?
That sinking feeling when you first wake up and realize you did/said something stupid the day before.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
Nooooooooooooooooooooo, more sleep! More sleep!

9. Favourite fast food place?
Kidd Valley. Mmmmm, meat. Mmmmmmm, shakes.

10. Future child’s name?
Oh, we know, we know, but we’re not telling you, you internety name stealers!

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d…”
Buy some stuff, give some away, make origami animals.

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
I did for years but now I have a baby.

13. Storms- cool or scary?
Cool!

14. Favourite drink?
Water.

15. Finish this statement. “If I had the time I would…”
Write, sew, sleep.

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
Of course, it’s where my magical powers come from.

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
Blue.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
No no no, you internety nosy people! I’ve lived on the East coast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.

19. Favourite sports to watch?
What? (Stamping foot) I don’t like sports! Oh wait! Figure skating is cool. Go Michelle Kwan!

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
Mary is an excellent writer and is working on self-publishing a book. Woo!

21. What’s under your bed?
The floor.

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
Uh, what? Like a clone? That could be awkward.

23. Morning person or night owl?
Night owl.

24. Over easy or sunny side up?
Scrambled.

25. Favourite place to relax?
By big water.

26. Favourite pie?
Cherry.

27. Favourite ice cream flavor?
Mint Chocolate Chip.

Second is this meme, from one of the blogs I found through the Group PiF. I had to do it because it is so cool and I love finding cool photos AND making mosaics.

The rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Here’s what I got:

And finally, my very own meme, inspired by the above photo meme. I just like the whole finding cool photos thing sooooooooooooo, here it is:

The Favorite Book/Author Photo Meme.

Rules:
1. Type your favorite books and/or authors into Flickr search
2. Pick your favorite photo
3. Plug it into fd’s mosaic maker.
4. Post your mosaic when you are done (you can make it as big or small as you want).
5. List the books/authors that inspired your mosaic.
6. Tag people!

Here is mine (it makes me want to read, write and take photos more):

List:
1. Ursula Le Guin
2. Tad Williams
3. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
4. Anne McCaffrey
5. Jane Austen
6. Anne of Green Gables
7. Harry Potter series
8. The Monkey King
9. Madeline L’Engle

And I tag Mary and Kim and anyone else who thinks it might be fun.

Topics: Inspiration, Photography, The Non-crafty | No Comments »

Pajama Pigs

By Joanne | July 5, 2008

I finished the Pajama Pigs!

I may have to make more and even put some on Etsy or something. All different shapes and sizes. And all made out of repurposed pajamas. Hee!

ANYWAY, the current pigs are wonky and I love them. Imagine that! It was refreshing not to try and make a pattern. I just started cutting and piecing together as I went. Maybe that is why I like them, they are so far from perfect I don’t even expect them to be.

Baby D loves them too, especially the pink one. He kept grabbing the blue one and throwing it farther away but he hugged the pink one and carried it around for a bit. The pink one has a better nose and ears. But the blue one has a cuter face overall, I think. The tails are very different but I think both work.

The Pair

Baby D Investigates

Blue Tail

Pink Tail (again)

Topics: Sewing (repurposed), Sewing | 2 Comments »

Winnerest Winner of the Win

By Joanne | July 5, 2008

OMG!

No Way!

I just ran the random number generator and the winner is:

None other than my besterest friendle Kim!

Coongrats Kim!

I also won Mommy Daisy’s Contest so I will be running ANOTHER PiF contest here shortly. Woo!!!!

Edited to add: I just won another PiF! Smiling Mama’s Contest. Sooooooooo, when I run my next PiF I will be choosing TWO winners!

Topics: The Non-crafty | 2 Comments »

This has happened to you, right? Right?

By Joanne | July 4, 2008

Okay, this has nothing to do with crafts or babies or contests but I had to share it because what use is blogging if you cannot share gross stories.

So, I hate spiders. Oh, I hate them. I deal with them this way: ”Hone! HONE! Spider! SPIDER! Spiderspiderspiderspiderspider!”

Okay, so you know when you have lint in your pocket? And you reach in and it’s in a little ball and you roll it around in your fingers or something?

You know where this is going, don’t you? YOU KNOW!

Yesterday I reached into my pocket and found a “piece of lint” (YOU KNOW!) and I proceeded to roll it around when it squished.

Squished!

I looked at my hand and spider guts everywhere!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

(shudder)

ew.

Topics: The Non-crafty | 4 Comments »

Pay Pay Pay it Forward Contest

By Joanne | July 1, 2008

For months I have seen contests all over the blog world. And I have entered some and wondered about having my own but then I thought, well, my readership is very small so maybe two people would enter and that would just be sad (for me and them) and, oh my, I would have to figure out all sorts of logistical stuff and plan and organize things. What? How would I do that with a walking baby, like walking all around?

Then, Swistle (who has a very funny blog on which I often lurk) set up this AWESOME contest. It’s a Pay It Forward contest. But not just any PiF contest. It’s like the MOTHER of all PIF Contests. It could very well grow exponentially until it explodes with sparkley karma goodness. No really! You can read about it here (and see many other blogs that are running PiF contests and go enter them too!).

Okay, so this is how it works for my little PiF contest (which is part of the whole group of Pif contests):

1) You leave me a comment and automatically get entered into my PiF contest.

2) On July 4th I close comments and go in search of the magical random number generator.

3) Once the random number generator is found I get a number (randomly generated) and whoever left the comment that matches that number wins!

4) Then I will come up with a fun little giftie to send this person (I will wait to see who wins so I can sort of tailor the gift to them at least a little).

5) THEN this person will host a PiF contest on their blog and then their winner will host one on their blog and so on and so on. Woo!

So, leave me a comment!!!

AND to make it more entertaining, in your comment, tell me something quirky about you.

Oh, and in case you missed it in all the contest excitement. I have a walking baby. A. Walking. Baby.

Comments are now closed. Thanks to everyone who joined in! Winner to be chosen tomorrow (Saturday 7/5). Stay tuned . . .

Topics: The Non-crafty | 44 Comments »

Sneak Peek

By Joanne | June 29, 2008

I am about halfway through my piggy side project. I have made much progress because I am hand sewing.

What? Hand sewing? But you have a new sewing machine that, like, sews fast and stuff! Why the sewing with the hands?

I know, I know. But see, sigh, the machine requires I be sans baby and that is a state I am not in much these days and when I am I have to do things like floss and find my pajamas and stare and stare at this stuff called “foaming face wash” because I know I must have bought it once long ago for some reason.

But hand sewing can be done in the playroom whenever baby gets all engaged in his toys. A little stitch here, a little stitch there and poof! Progress!

I must admit that my hand sewing is as wonky as my machine sewing. Maybe more so. But it looks more charmingly wonky if that makes sense.

Anyhoo, here are some sneaky peeky pics:

Hope to finish it soon!

Topics: Sewing (repurposed), Sewing | 4 Comments »

Procrasti(pig)nation

By Joanne | June 24, 2008

So, I have not done much on my new top secret project. I have thought about it a lot but I’ve been busy. And when I have not been busy I have been planning my next procrastination project. Whee!

Have you ever bought pajamas that look promising but then when you get them home they are horrid? I do it all the time.

My latest disaster was these shorts:

Oh, they are totally cute provided you have zero body fat. After blinding myself with the horridness of trying them on (I do not have zero body fat) I decided to use them for some sort of project. And I’ve got it! Little pigs!

Pigs?

Pigs!!

Here are my piggy brainstorms:

It’s more Chinese Zodiac stuff. Baby D was born in the year of the pig, so he is a pig and have been wanting to make him a little pig of some sort for ages.

Here is my final idea:

Close-up:

I think it is totally cute! And I am sure once I make it (which I hope will be soon), I will hate it! Heh!

Topics: Sewing (repurposed), Sewing | 2 Comments »

So long! Farewell!

By Joanne | June 18, 2008

Oh what do you do when you make something that you sort of don’t like although you know it is perfectly cute but you don’t think it is a selling quality and because of the cuteness you cannot throw it out but OMG someday your house will be overrun by semi-cute, wonky creations you cannot sell or throw away?

Find an awesome baby who is friends with your baby! Today Baby D’s little friend, Baby G, fell in love with “little rat”. Seriously, she was puttering around the baby room and looked up and saw “little rat” on a shelf and laughed and laughed and laughed.

So little rat has a new home! With Baby G! Woo!!! It is happiness all around.

Also, I should reveal top secret sewing project since it is a bust and explain why in the world I was making a rat, eh? I was planning on sewing up the Chinese Zodiac. It is the Year of the Rat this year. And I, myself, am a rat, so I do have an affinity for rats. Not real, like, rumaging through the garbage rats or running along your fence rats because there is too much frickin ivy around your crappy little house (what?). No, only cute Chinese Zodiac rats. Heh.

Topics: Sewing, Craftellaneous | No Comments »

Happy Birthday!!!

By Joanne | June 12, 2008

A year ago today Baby D was born!

I cannot believe he is already a year old. Craziness!!

June 2007

June 2008

Topics: The Non-crafty | 3 Comments »

Pattern No Pattern

By Joanne | June 11, 2008

Geez, has it really been 11 days since I last posted? It seems shorter which makes no sense because it also seems like an eternity.

Been busy being sleep deprived with a wakeful baby who cut two new teeth last week! We really thought top right lateral incisor was going to win the race, lurking, as it was, just under the surface for weeks on end, taunting us with its white bumpiness. However, bottom right lateral incisor was a bit of a dark horse and swooped in at the last second, followed a day later by top incisor who was quite a sore loser. Crazy teeth, always competing.

Top secret sewing project is officially a bust. Yes, no really, crappy crappy. No really, it’s not just me being too picky. Or maybe it is. But who really cares. The point is I have decided I am not a pattern maker. Not that I ever claimed to be BUT I am really really not very good at it. And I keep trying. And failing. I getting frustrated when I think I’ve finally worked all the bugs out and then the pieces still don’t fit together right and . . . grrrr.

And then I realized that it doesn’t matter because I get tired of repetition and why on earth would I want to make a pattern and then sew the same thing over and over? Instead why don’t I just make something cute and fun one time. And it can be an original! Unique! No two alike! La la la. I think it is a good plan for me, being the way I am.

So, there is a NEW top secret sewing project in the works and I think it is going to be a blast and hopefully productive. I really, really, really want to open my Etsy store but I cannot until I get stuff made to put in it!

Oh, and here are some pics of my bust project. It’s a rat in case you were wondering. And that’s a clue as to what the project was going to be. Those who know me well can probably figure it out. Any guesses? Anyway, I think it is cute but really didin’t turn out the way I wanted. As usual the pictures make it look a little cuter. (Except for the label which looks just as good in real life. Oh and I like its little face.)

But what am I going to do when I do start selling stuff? You know how most people say, “Pictures do not do it justice, much nicer in real life”? I am going to have to say, “Way cuter in pictures, take care not to look directly at it in real life”.