Check one, 30 before 30

Whoot! I can now cross off the first goal on my 30 before 30 list! My goal for #6 was to enter a craft in the county fair. Well, not only one, but two crafts of mine were entered:

And guess who won 2nd place for both of them! Um yes, that is me. How exciting!

I just found out today, because even though the fair ended 9 days ago, I forgot to go get my stuff. So, it was all moved to a church nearby. I was afraid if I went into the church I might burn up.

Ha! But no, I could never get there during their office hours. Until today. Hooray for two red ribbons!

Advice (and wow, I love that new dress)

Okay, I finally went and picked up some buttons for that green dress. I didn't bring any of the fabric with me, so I bought two different colors, just in case. Now, I can't decide which one to use! I think I know which I like better, but I want to know what everyone else thinks. So... yah.

Also, every time I see the pictures of my brown & white dress, I love it even more!

Brown and white dress w/ruffle sleeves

Oops... I left off the ribbon!!

Wordless Wednesday

Monday Musing

Imagine an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Chinese and an Indonesian all looking at a cup. The Englishman says, "That's a cup." The Frenchman answers, "No it's not. It's a tasse." The Chinese comments, "You're both wrong. It's a pet." And the Indonesian laughs at the others and says "What fools you are. It's a cawan." The Englishman gets a dictionary and shows it to the others saying, "I can prove that it is a cup. My dictionary says so." "Then your dictionary is wrong," says the French- man "Because my dictionary clearly says it is a tasse." The Chinese scoffs at them. "My dictionary is thousands of years older than yours, so my dictionary must be right. And besides, more people speak Chinese than any other language, so it must be a pet." While they are squabbling and arguing with each other, a Buddhist comes up and drinks from the cup. After he has drunk, he says to the others, "Whether you call it a cup, a tasse, a pet or a cawan, a cup is meant to be used. Stop arguing and drink, stop squabbling and refresh your thirst." 

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/qanda01.htm

Shiny tank with ruffles and bow

Seven Quick Takes Saturday

one.
In my online class, I read an assignment in which a student referred to people from the Netherlands (typically called Dutch) as "Hollandaise." It made me laugh a whole super lot. And then I made it my Facebook status.

two.
I went to the county fair last night and ran into a bunch of former students. So fun! They always get so excited when they see one of their teachers in the "real world." Especially doing something fun like going to the fair and buying chicken-on-a-stick. Some of the current seniors met Eric a couple of years ago. Since he was there, they said, "Oh, we've met your boyfriend before." I said oh he's my husband now. Talk about crazy excited! They're cute :)

three.
I literally couldn't get out of bed this morning until after 11. I'm still strangely tired, even 3 hours and a large iced coffee later. It must have been all that crazy fair fun last night. Whew!

four.
Ramona, Ramona. Yesterday, the weather was actually very, very nice. She and I went out into the backyard around 9 or 10 in the morning. She was literally rolling around on the grass in the sunshine. I wish I had my camera with me, so I could show you the utter cuteness and ecstasy.

five.
My crafty corner is coming along nicely. I've got the desk and iron set up. I just need to get stuff up on the walls. It's really nice not having to use the dining room table. However. It's very quiet and lonely up there. Maybe I'll get a radio.

six.
My new hair is so fun. But in the mornings, it sticks out everywhere. It's kind of funny. I don't care, though. I just let it run free and wild! Unless I have really have to go somewhere... then I try to brush it. But only just a bit.

seven.
Ooh, a friend found out I sew and she's going to pay me to make drapery panels for her windows. Yay, that should be fun and easy. Now, if only I had actually kept to my goal of making my own draperies. Oopsy. Clothing was more fun!

Shirt #2, with 3/4 sleeves and cute blue & black pinstripes

New do

Welp, I got hair cut last night. I'm going back in next week for a color. Whoot!

My first batch of homemade yogurt

It was so easy to make, too! My brother gave me a yogurt maker for our wedding, and I finally got around to making my first batch. All I did was take 42oz of room temp 2% milk, stirred in 6oz of plain yogurt until it was smoothly blended, added 2 T of dried whole milk, whisked it all up, poured it into 7- 6oz jars, put them in the yogurt maker, and turned it on for 10 hours. The end! Perfectly delicious yogurt. I like mine plain, so that's how I left them, but you can add all kinds of flavorings before or after you make it. I'll probably put some honey on the next jar I eat. YUM!

I was going to wait until I bought the buttons

But, I just tried on the dress I *finished* today (minus the buttons that I forgot to buy), and wow, I love it!!

Also, I'm going to get my hair cut before school starts. Somewhere in between all four of these. But colored either with dark auburn or black - not the colors shown in the photos.

All dressed up

When Alivia was here last week, she decided to share her clothes with Ramona. The shoes were actually her idea. We threw the hat on for extra cuteness.

Friday Funny - Oh, Hasselhoff!

Okay, I just think this is frackin hilarious. Poor, poor Hasselhoff. Everybody laughs at you. And now... Eric, you've been Hoff'd. Hehe :)

Go ahead and Hoff it up

Wordless Wednesday

What I've been up to

I'm getting ready to cross off my first 30 before 30 item! Even though I don't actually have (even close to) 30 things on there, yet. I'm working on it! Anyway, I have two items ready to enter into the county fair (#6) which happens in a week. I may even get one more item together to enter, but I don't know for sure, yet.

I've sewn a short-sleeved, button-up shirt and a gray pencil skirt so far for work in the fall. You already saw the shirt. Want to know something funny? The day after I finished the shirt, I was pulling some more stuff out of my shopping bag from that particular trip. As I pulled out some navy buttons, I realized I had intended to use those for the shirt, not light blue ones in the picture. Oh well! I don't feel like changing them. The skirt is cute, and I did MUCH better on the button-hole for it once I realized my sewing machine had a different presser foot for that. Whoops.

Eric and I went to Ikea over the weekend to pick up some things. Somehow, we managed to spend over $350. Whoops. Sadly, my favorite (and most needed) item, a table/desk for my sewing machine, came out of the box broken. So, we have to take it back and exchange it. Hassle!

I let Eric pick out my new hair color. He likes redheads. I call it, "Autumn is (hopefully) just around the corner, because it's been 8,000 effing degrees here for months." PS. Ignore the mess on the bed. I made the colossally short-sighted mistake of making all of my thank-you cards for the wedding. They're really cute, but take forever. So.... I'm still working on that.

I started the online course that I'm facilitating yesterday. So far, so good, although there are still five out of 20 students who haven't checked in, yet. And some of them aren't very good about following directions. But, no problemo. There is a huge range of ages and experiences, and I think I'm really going to enjoy facilitating the course!

We got an ADT security system installed yesterday. I'm happy. I was actually surprised at how relatively inexpensive it is. They were running an Internet special when I called. We only paid $99 for the install, all of the equipment came for free, they have a wireless system (so we didn't need to get a landline), and the monitoring fee is just $45/month. Plus, they'll be sending me a $100 Visa gift card! Nice. They're still running the deal at the link above.

So. That's what I've been up to.

Monday Musings

"In effect, a large part of our political class is showing its priorities: given the choice between asking the richest 2 percent or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom, or allowing the nation’s foundations to crumble — literally in the case of roads, figuratively in the case of education — they’re choosing the latter.

"It’s a disastrous choice in both the short run and the long run."

America Goes Dark

Things I learned today

1. Sometimes instructions are really hard to follow.
2. Collars are a beast.
3. YouTube can be very helpful.
4. My next sewing machine will have an automatic buttonhole option.
5. Speaking of buttonholes. I can sew 4 perfectly decent buttonholes, and still have to rip out and redo the 5th one 7 times.
6. With enough patience, you can make much higher-quality clothes for far cheaper that those found in the store.

Friday Funny

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/25/AR2009112504113.html?nav=E8

This crazy bitch is a DC housewife! Back in November, she and her husband crashed a White House dinner. It was all over the news, and I knew they were hoping for some kind of reality show... and then I watched last night's premier, and lo, there she is! Next week's episode is actually going to have the dinner crashing!

Ah, the housewives and their drama. Love it.

Judge strikes California's ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8

Judge strikes California's ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8

Yay, yay, yay!!!! The judge said that "California's Proposition 8 'fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.'"

I love it when judges are fair in reading the Constitution.

May I submit to the Court:

US Constitution: Amendment Fourteen

The "Equal Protection Clause"

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. (emphasis mine)

It's nice to see that more people are starting to view people who are homosexual as PEOPLE.

Help a lady out

Hey, ever hear of this cool website Groupon? Well. Every day the site emails you deals that you can choose to purchase. Usually, they're pretty good. For example, you might pay $10 for $20 worth at a particular restaurant. I just bought a deal for $10 that gives me 20 weeks of the Sunday Washington Post - a $40 value!


Well, after I bought my deal, I got a little linky that promises me $10 in Groupon bucks when the first person I refer to the site buys something. 


They have deals all over the country. Go. Check it out!

Wordless Wednesday

 

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