Dainty Kitty

We Interrupt This Broadcast

To inform you that I have a really great boyfriend.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming. 

Charleston Find

I found this doily type thing at a Goodwill in Charleston for ninety-nine cents.  This was one of my more successful thrift trips. 

Mermaid in the Tub

This is the tea towel I got in the exchange - isn't it cute?  Funny thing is that, while I don't have a mermaid themed kitchen, I do have a mermaid themed bathroom!  And a spare towel rack (the original hand towel rack was hung too high for a shorty like me so I had to install my own by the sink) - it couldn't have worked out any better!  And Jennifer, you didn't include any email or blog address but if you're reading this, "Thanks!  It's adorable and absolutely perfect!" 

A Treasure Trove of Buttons

This is the giant tub of buttons that my granny got at a garage sale for two bucks - talked down from three!

Yeah, Toast

I'm back from Charleston and, as much as I love my family and that city, I'm really happy to be home.  I missed my shower (I hate other people's showers - I'm not down with OPS) and I missed my boyfriend (not in that order).  But I got home around seven, took a hot shower and then spent some quality time with Jake so all is well.  I have quite a few pictures to post and things to talk about but it's already midnight so I'm going to save that for tomorrow.  I'm off work until Thursday and plan to, hopefully, get a lot done.   

But I'll post one photo tonight.  This is the Toast Purse that I finished (minus tucking in the yarn ends because I hate doing that) on the way to Charleston.  My brother's friend Mindy spotted the zombie I was working on and wasn't familiar witch crochet so I showed her the purse.  His friend and neighbor, Andy - who very much resembles cutie John Hannah (maybe not as much in this photo as in real life but trust me) - grabbed it, threw it around his neck and said, "You know what this is, right?"

A beer cooler! 

I'll bet the crafty gal that created the pattern never thought to use it this way!

 

I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down*

I've been nearly impossible to be around recently.  My hormones are taking over.  I mean Taking Over.  I'm not me at all for full moments...sometimes several in a row.  I'm slowly learning that, during one of these moments, it's not so smart to pick up a phone to call someone or answer when someone calls.  It's no even smart to think too hard or open my mouth because there's just no telling what will come out.  Seriously.  I'm not surprised that Jake hasn't thrown up his hands, waved the white flag or whatever because he's not that type (and what kind of relationship would that be anyway) but I wouldn't have blamed him if he had.   

I know I'm going through some sort of transition - trying to decide who I am for the first time in a long time - but what a bad time to decide that such transition needed to take place.  I can't tell which thoughts are really my own and which are purely hormonal.  But at the same time I'm excited about exploring myself a bit more.  I'm quite like a parasite, really, and tend to take on the form of my host.  I bend myself to those around me - particularly significant others - too easily.  Look back through my music collection there are more artists there that were liked by me merely because someone else liked them first. Sure, people can turn you on to things - books, music, movies - but that's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about not having likes of my own for periods of time.  It's strange really.  The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Elvis Costello - they belong to me and only me (well, and every one else but you know what I mean - in my group, I liked them first).

It isn't just music, of course - that's just the easiest example.

I've inadvertently stopped taking one of my meds recently.  I take Wellbutrin in the morning with my other pills but I constantly forget to take my Celexa at night.  I tried setting my cell phone alarm but it went off once and never again (I named the alarm "Crazy Pill") but I should make another effort to get that to work and start taking it again - anything to talk down these hormones, I tell you. I started out taking just Celexa but it made me unbearably tired so my doctor put me on Wellbutrin as well.  I thought it was doing a fairly good job by itself but I've obviously been prescribed the other for a reason (although I'm not really sure why) so, you know, taking it might be a good idea.

Anyway, I'm off to Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday with my parents to visit my brother for his thirtieth birthday.  It'll also be the last time we travel there for awhile as he's going to move to Virginia Beach here in a couple of months.  I love Charleston (Pat Conroy was mine first, too) and am looking forward to getting away for a few days.  Between my hormones and my fairly shitty financial situation my stress level is awfully high.  For me at least.   But I'm going to journal and lay on the beach and crochet and read and get really, really tan.  And that's it.   

I took tomorrow off as well and have a silly long list of things to finish before I see Jake comes over.  For one, I'm finally getting my car back.  I don't think I ever mentioned that I was rear ended a few weeks ago.  Yeah, I was.  My car's been in the shop for a week now.  I've got pictures to post, a couple to develop and buttons to talk about.  I've got to make corn hole bags for my brother.  Laundry.  Cleaning.  Cutting my hair and doing up the eyebrows and other such girly things.  Packing (light, I said, but I've already added several shirts to the modest stack of t-shirts that should have gotten me through a four day trip).  I want to finish the cute little toast handbag that I started the other night.  I've got half of one slice - the butter free side - left to finish.  I want to gather a couple of other projects to take in the car.   And I want to be finished by seven - ready to walk out the door - so that I can relax on the couch with Jake, eating pizza maybe and watching Carnivale.   It's going to be really weird and kind of icky to go five days without seeing him.

Oh, last night was so nice.  I have really young, new neighbors and they were outside.  Normally I would have found this insanely annoying but one of them had a guitar and there was more playing and singing than laughing, talking and generally being loud on a Monday night at midnight.  I hated to finally go to bed.   I especially liked the slow, acoustic version of "Hey Ya" - I'd seriously like to have a recording of that.  So while I'm not a fan of groups of loud people standing under my window, smoking and talking, late on a school night...I wouldn't mind it as much if there was more guitar.

And now it's nearly Wednesday.  Time to go to bed, I guess. 

*Elvis Costello (of course) from Get Happy (1980). 

QC Costumes

When Jake and I first started dating he turned me on to a web comic called Questionable Content.  It's a very funny, clever and amazingly well drawn (the artist updates daily which is really impressive) comic about a group of twentysomethings.  I just recently caught up completely (there are nearly nine hundred comics as of today) and realized that they all seem to drink a lot of bourbon.  Oddly enough, at about the same time, Jake and I were invited to my parents' annual Bourbon Fest.  I put the two together and we stenciled shirts frequently worn by the two main characters and went to the festival last night as Faye and Marten.   

Tea Towel Exchange

Frankenberries

So last night I finished my tea towel for the Crafty Daisies Tea Towel Swap.  It was such a refreshing project.  My current financial status is forcing me into a mode of Use What You Have but I found the perfect white material and a large scrap of strawberry fabric.  It was so nice to do two things I haven't done in quite a while: get out the sewing machine and embroider.  Oddly enough, I spotted a couple of other towels out there with a strawberry theme.  I'm a bit Pandora-ish and, even though this is a blind swap, this morning I did some lurking through the comments.  I can't help it.

There's no picture yet - it was dark when I finished last night but I'll take one when I get home.

And if you really want to have some crazy dreams, fall asleep to Young Frankenstein.  That's what I did last night and, even though I can't remember any specifics, I do remember being somewhat shaken when I woke up at one, turned off the tv and wandered off to bed. 

Bad Dog!

And here's the mask Jake made for me.  Of course, the girl draws the sweet puppy with the tongue hanging out and the boy draws a menacing dog with terrifying fangs.  Go figure. 

This is how we spent quite a bit of the weekend - stripping and scraping. 

Oh, that's my car in the background.  The car that is currently in the shop because I was rear ended about two weeks ago.   (Edit: well how do you like that?  While I can see my car just fine it doesn't show up at all when I view my actual blog.  Interesting.  Trust me, it's there and I was, indeed, rear ended.)

And who'd have thought you'd ever get a glimpse of my underthings?