Ramble, ramble, ramble.

I finished a bookmark this evening. It's sad, really, as this is my first real finished piece of tatting since October or so. I began another pair of booties last week, but I only worked one morning on them, so only the sole of one shoe is complete. For a long, long while there, I just couldn't tat anymore. It feels nice to come back to it.

Philip and I watched Dan in Real Life tonight. It was a good, good movie. We've been watching a lot of movies lately, including the following: The Bucket List, Michael Clayton, Awake, Juno, and Enchanted (the latter two were both seen in the theatre, too). We've got several planned to watch as well: Happy Endings, We Own the Night, Run Fat Boy Run, Margot at the Wedding, The Heartbreak Kid, and Atonement. It feels good to be catching up, so to speak, on all the flicks out there.

I played the drums last night for a good while with Chris and Philip. We played online, and Chris was at his house with his RockBand as well. I averaged in the 80th percentile for most songs (on Easy), but there was one song that absolutely SUCKED. Philip selected the song too quickly, and I was stuck on Medium. I failed out twice, being saved and brought back in by my band members (either Philip or Chris), Philip failed out once, and Chris failed at least twice. Finally, the game just booed us out of the song. It was awful. I had 59% on that one, with only a 36-note streak. We ended on a good note, though: for "Say It Ain't So," I received 98% with a 220-note streak.

Easy, of course. ;-)

I made a blanket for Ryan yesterday, and I finished it up this evening (before I tatted). I chose Husker fabric for one side, and solid black for the other. His birthday is on Thursday, but he took the day off, so I wanted to give him his gift tomorrow. Philip bought him a little car, and I whipped up a special batch of chocolate chip cookies tonight per Ryan's request. I hope we're able to make him smile tomorrow.

I looked at products online for a friend's Tastefully Simple party. I think I've got my order planned out. I've not had their goodies in several years now.

...

This post is made of *yawn*, I think. Good night. :-)

Blankets.

In April 2005, I received a wonderful gift from gardenmama. I had a post about it back then, but my old photohost when kaput, and the pictures are no longer live on that post, so it's not really worth linking...

ANYWAY. The point of this post is that she sent me a gorgeous blue plaid and yellow blanket, done up in a new style I'd never seen before: a fleece "tie" blanket. I loved it (still do - using it ALL the time), and I asked for instructions to make my own as gifts later on. Carmen happily obliged, emailing me instructions, and I kept that email for 2.5 years.

Until Christmastime this year, in fact. And then I finally used her instructions, and I made my very first "tie" blanket, too. It was for Jack, and one side of fabric was a printed screen image of Captain Jack Sparrow, and I chose solid orange for the back. He loved it, and I set to work on one for A.J.: printed Green Bay Packers for the front, solid yellow-gold for the back. I went on over Christmas break to make many more blankets: one for Philip, one for me, one for Heather, one for Catherine, one for Heather2, and one for Grammy's cat Sophie. I've made all different sizes, using all different kinds of prints and solids.

And then I made Ryan's tonight. I also made A.J. a pillowcase a couple nights ago using the same technique and some cool green-and-black Star Wars Yoda fabric (he has a giant, framed Yoda poster above his bed). I also made a mini-blanket for our kitties with two different pawprint fabrics, and I placed it in the window seat in A.J.'s room, plus I have fabric ready to make two more mini-blankets (I figure each of our cats needs their very own, right?). As you can guess, these projects are quick and easy, and I love making them.

Plus all of my recipients seem to really, really love their blankets. Yes, even Grammy's kitty. :-)

So thank you again, Carmen. Thank you for the gift that has continued to go on giving. :-)

Photomosaic - in two different ways!

Last Monday (yes, over a week ago. i absolutely suck at updating sometimes. *hangs head*), I came home from work to find not one, but TWO(!) surprise packages on my doorstep.

Inside the first:



As part of the 'Pay It Forward' craft meme, the_fishery sent me a very unique and pretty wall hanging. She picked several photos from my gallery (she did a great job selecting photos, by the way!), and then she printed them on a special fabric (I think? - I don't know anything about sewing myself). She then quilted them all into a special wall hanging for me. Isn't it just so neat?! Philip and I talked about it, and we have the perfect spot to hang it - we just need to go get a rod and the hardware to do so.

Not only that, but she included a note tucked into the newest Season's Best Recipe Collection from Pampered Chef... and there's virtually NO way she knew that I collect those! Seriously, I have a special little box just from Pampered Chef, and I have all of those little recipe booklets (two are issued each year) since... *checks quickly* ... "Fall/Winter 2001." I hadn't yet ordered one from this new catalog, and now I don't even have to! Thank you so much, Jill - for everything!

As if that weren't enough, there was still one box left to open. And that box was addressed especially to A.J. and Jack. Inside, we found this:



It was a special gift from posthaste (well, and her daughter Sophie), and her note was so cute, mentioning that she and Sophie had been out shopping and had found this puzzle. They had decided immediately that it needed to be purchased and sent to "two of our favorite boys." It was just so sweet of them, and it made the boys feel special to receive a surprise gift as well. Thank you, Jess! Oh, and please pass on our thanks to Miss Soph as well. ;-)

Jack wanted to do the puzzle together as a family, and that meant that we finally got to it on Sunday evening, after Philip returned home from work. We'd had plans to go to the park, but it was raining by the time he arrived home, and the rain later turned to snow anyway - you really can't have better "Putting Together A Puzzle" weather. So I lit a bunch of candles, we set up a card table, and we put on Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End while we worked.

And worked. And worked and worked. We watched the previews on the DVD, and the movie itself is what? Over two hours or so? We were still working on that puzzle even after the movie (and the entire ten minutes worth of credits had played) was over. We continued to work on it for another hour before it was finished. And one point, I laughed and said to Philip, "And here I thought Jess was a friend... now I'm not so sure!"

But we got it done. We got it done, and we were so proud of ourselves. Holy cow, though - those "photomosaic" puzzles are actually pretty darn tough! We left it put together for over a day, and I finally broke it down and put it back in the box last night. Hopefully we'll be a bit faster at piecing it together the next time. ;-)