Today was the most craptastical Monday in a long time. Anything that could go wrong did.
The icing on the cake was discovering my debit card number had been stolen somehow. Not my credit card, but my debit card! As in my checking account, with money, to pay bills.
Called the bank and there wasn't much they could do today since its Columbus Day. They'll be sending me a letter tomorrow that I need to sign and send back to confirm, in writing, that all the charges over the weekend were not made by me.
In the meantime, my debit card has been cancelled and I need to wait for a new one. The kicker is that the bank needs to do an "investigation" into the charges, which can take up to 90 days. I won't get my money back until the investigation is complete.
I don't know about you guys, but losing a chunk of my checking account for 90 days can have some disastrous consequences. I'm going to go into my bank branch in person tomorrow to see if there's anyway to speed that up.
I'm going to go have some chocolate therapy now.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
My very own Wonder Woman!
We all know I'm my very own Wonder Woman (modesty at its best), but I'm not talking about me this time. Hubby and I transformed Ms. Pi into Wonder Woman.
Pi's school Halloween party was yesterday (a wee early, no?) and we didn't start thinking about costumes until last week (because its early!). First we checked out the stores on the avenue. Their run of the mill costumes were anywhere from 30-50 bucks and I just refuse to shell out that much for a costume that'll only be worn a few times. Besides, Pi didn't even like what they had.
So we raided my mom's house. With 15 year old twins that dress up every year, we were bound to find something. They've got a whole box full of costumes...that my dad "stored" and can't find now. Insert bad words here. Just as we were about to give up. my 20 y/o sister found a Wonder Woman cape that hadn't been thrown into the box. Progress!
Other than the cape, we didn't have anything that would make Pi look like Wonder Woman, so hubby and I got creative. We ran to the fabric store and bought some gold metallic fabric for $4, plus the matching thread.
I came home, googled Wonder Woman as a guide, and pulled out Pi's drawing paper. Using fancy equipment, like a paper plate, I drew and cut out a preliminary belt.
To make it a diamond shape, I folded the paper in half before cutting to make sure all the sides were the same.
Then sewing! Yes, the sewing machine was on a card table. I didn't want to sew in the dining room, so the card table had to do. The machine kept acting up and I was getting frustrated. It wasn't the machine's fault though. The fabric frayed like crazy and that matching thread was thick and kind of brittle so it snapped easily.
Hubby took pity on me and dragged his chair to the other side of the sewing machine. He helped me fix the machine when it was acting up and helped to hold the fabric flat so it had less chances of fraying while I was working with it.
After repeating that process for the headband and wrist bands, this is what we had.
Hubby also took pity on the fact that I can't draw an even star for my life. He made a star template and I cut these stars out of leftover felt I found in my craft bag. For the red stars, we just painted the white stars because I didn't have red felt.
Accessories: check! But what about clothes? We raided Pi's summer clothes to see what she had. We found navy blue shorts that would work perfectly as Wonder Woman's bottoms. We glued the stars on and viola! It actually looked better than we expected. A red fourth of July t-shirt that had stars on rounded out the outfit.
Pi loves the way the costume turned out. She didn't say so out-right, but catching her dancing in the mirror was proof enough.
For our first costume making adventure, hubby and I are really happy! Best part is that it cost less than $10 bucks to make!
Pi's school Halloween party was yesterday (a wee early, no?) and we didn't start thinking about costumes until last week (because its early!). First we checked out the stores on the avenue. Their run of the mill costumes were anywhere from 30-50 bucks and I just refuse to shell out that much for a costume that'll only be worn a few times. Besides, Pi didn't even like what they had.
So we raided my mom's house. With 15 year old twins that dress up every year, we were bound to find something. They've got a whole box full of costumes...that my dad "stored" and can't find now. Insert bad words here. Just as we were about to give up. my 20 y/o sister found a Wonder Woman cape that hadn't been thrown into the box. Progress!
Other than the cape, we didn't have anything that would make Pi look like Wonder Woman, so hubby and I got creative. We ran to the fabric store and bought some gold metallic fabric for $4, plus the matching thread.
I came home, googled Wonder Woman as a guide, and pulled out Pi's drawing paper. Using fancy equipment, like a paper plate, I drew and cut out a preliminary belt.
To make it a diamond shape, I folded the paper in half before cutting to make sure all the sides were the same.
Then sewing! Yes, the sewing machine was on a card table. I didn't want to sew in the dining room, so the card table had to do. The machine kept acting up and I was getting frustrated. It wasn't the machine's fault though. The fabric frayed like crazy and that matching thread was thick and kind of brittle so it snapped easily.
Hubby took pity on me and dragged his chair to the other side of the sewing machine. He helped me fix the machine when it was acting up and helped to hold the fabric flat so it had less chances of fraying while I was working with it.
After repeating that process for the headband and wrist bands, this is what we had.
Hubby also took pity on the fact that I can't draw an even star for my life. He made a star template and I cut these stars out of leftover felt I found in my craft bag. For the red stars, we just painted the white stars because I didn't have red felt.
Accessories: check! But what about clothes? We raided Pi's summer clothes to see what she had. We found navy blue shorts that would work perfectly as Wonder Woman's bottoms. We glued the stars on and viola! It actually looked better than we expected. A red fourth of July t-shirt that had stars on rounded out the outfit.
Pi has a box of old ratty costumes that my mom gave her 3 years ago to play dress up. None of the costumes fit anymore but we did find white boots that were perfect. One of the twins had dressed up as a space anime character and worn these boot years ago. Thank goodness we kept them.
Put it all together and you get Wonder Woman!
Pi loves the way the costume turned out. She didn't say so out-right, but catching her dancing in the mirror was proof enough.
For our first costume making adventure, hubby and I are really happy! Best part is that it cost less than $10 bucks to make!
P.S. - Pi had a great time at the party. I even got to stay because they needed help with the Pre-K class, so I was able to sneak in some pics of her and her friends.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Oops, we did it again!
Hubby and I were in the kitchen getting drinks to go with our lunch today. Its the middle of the day...the landlord is obviously at work...so we're free to speak our minds, right?
For those of you who are new to my life, my apartment shares a wall with the landlord's crash pad (they don't live there but spend a lot of time there) and the walls are very thin. We can hear anything they say, so we assume they can hear anything we say too (I won't mention how when they are too noisy, we have a method of quieting them down by standing close to the wall and make we're-having-loud-sex noise and how funny we think that is).
I digress. Anyway, we've made more than one gaffe before by saying something we wouldn't want them to hear - like when we talk about what crappy landlords they are. Oops.
Today we were talking about our other neighbor, who has a studio apartment in front of our place. We were saying how's she's crazy (she really is!) and how we think she has a hidden peephole to watch us in the hallway. We got onto this topic because we checked the mail in the hallway and went inside. When we went back out less than 5 minutes later, all the mail was gone, including the mail that wasn't hers. She's weird about the mail like that...she has to be the first one to look at it. She's a strange bird.
As we're proclaiming how strange she is, we hear noise in the landlord's apartment. Oops again! I'm sure the landlord heard every word we said. When will we learn not to speak openly in our own apartment? *rolls eyes*
Hate. This. Apartment.
Ok, now to fun stuff. I discovered a new hilarious blog called Pulispher Predilections. The blog author, Kristina, is hilarious! Check it out.
Through her blog, I also learned about a give-away on the Halftime Lessons Blog. There are some awesome prizes that celebrate grassroot shopping.
It ends today, so run over and enter.
For those of you who are new to my life, my apartment shares a wall with the landlord's crash pad (they don't live there but spend a lot of time there) and the walls are very thin. We can hear anything they say, so we assume they can hear anything we say too (I won't mention how when they are too noisy, we have a method of quieting them down by standing close to the wall and make we're-having-loud-sex noise and how funny we think that is).
I digress. Anyway, we've made more than one gaffe before by saying something we wouldn't want them to hear - like when we talk about what crappy landlords they are. Oops.
Today we were talking about our other neighbor, who has a studio apartment in front of our place. We were saying how's she's crazy (she really is!) and how we think she has a hidden peephole to watch us in the hallway. We got onto this topic because we checked the mail in the hallway and went inside. When we went back out less than 5 minutes later, all the mail was gone, including the mail that wasn't hers. She's weird about the mail like that...she has to be the first one to look at it. She's a strange bird.
As we're proclaiming how strange she is, we hear noise in the landlord's apartment. Oops again! I'm sure the landlord heard every word we said. When will we learn not to speak openly in our own apartment? *rolls eyes*
Hate. This. Apartment.
Ok, now to fun stuff. I discovered a new hilarious blog called Pulispher Predilections. The blog author, Kristina, is hilarious! Check it out.
Through her blog, I also learned about a give-away on the Halftime Lessons Blog. There are some awesome prizes that celebrate grassroot shopping.
It ends today, so run over and enter.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Spiders, Scarflettes, and Mail! Oh my!
So I've used that little title rhyme before. I'm not sure I have enough functioning brain cells at the moment to post this entry AND think of a good title, so you get stuck with this one. Work was so looooong today but I'm off for the next 2 days and should hopefully feel like a normal human being by Sunday.
Onto projects!
Nina_Kate over at Crochetville was looking for testers for her scarflette pattern. I'm normally not into testing scarves, but I was chilly and that swayed me.
I'm glad I did because it worked up really fast and is actually functional. This is something I can wear under my light jacket without being too bulky. Its made with Patons Shetland Chunky, which had many past lives....as a mobius wrap, a sweater, and my knitting practice.
Ignore the glazed-just-home-from-work-I-don't-have-glasses-and-can't-see look.
This next one was really fun! It's Caroline's spider pattern! Love it, love it! It was super easy and fast. The only problem I had was that the curlyq legs weren't as curly as they should be. I made it work for me though. Mr. Spider got strung up and hung in the doorway to my living room.
Is it wrong that I hung it up late last night after Pi was fast asleep, hoping to scare her with it when she woke up this morning? Heehee.
I also got mail! I won the Sudoku contest at Lesa's blog! She made a Sudoku puzzle into an afghan and whoever solved it first won. I love Sudoku, so it was right up my alley.
She spoiled me rotten.
Here are the prizes for winning the contest. A crochet borders book and 2 pattern leaflettes, 2 skeins of yarn, a hook holder, and an awesome pin cushion in my favorite color blue!
As if that wasn't enough, she also sent books for reading on the subway and a sewing book on how to make clothes.
She wasn't done yet!
Look at all the sewing patterns....and ribbon....and patterns.....and fabric.... and PATTERNS! Lesa is determined to get me hooked on sewing.
I swear the box was huge...I practically had to climb in it to get everything out. It felt like Christmas morning! Thank you so much Lesa!
My plans for the next few days are to try and get a costume together for Pi. She's got an early Halloween party this Saturday and I refuse to buy a $50 costume this year. We're going to have to get creative. If you've got ideas or tips, throw em my way!
Onto projects!
Nina_Kate over at Crochetville was looking for testers for her scarflette pattern. I'm normally not into testing scarves, but I was chilly and that swayed me.
I'm glad I did because it worked up really fast and is actually functional. This is something I can wear under my light jacket without being too bulky. Its made with Patons Shetland Chunky, which had many past lives....as a mobius wrap, a sweater, and my knitting practice.
Ignore the glazed-just-home-from-work-I-don't-have-glasses-and-can't-see look.
This next one was really fun! It's Caroline's spider pattern! Love it, love it! It was super easy and fast. The only problem I had was that the curlyq legs weren't as curly as they should be. I made it work for me though. Mr. Spider got strung up and hung in the doorway to my living room.
Is it wrong that I hung it up late last night after Pi was fast asleep, hoping to scare her with it when she woke up this morning? Heehee.
I also got mail! I won the Sudoku contest at Lesa's blog! She made a Sudoku puzzle into an afghan and whoever solved it first won. I love Sudoku, so it was right up my alley.
She spoiled me rotten.
Here are the prizes for winning the contest. A crochet borders book and 2 pattern leaflettes, 2 skeins of yarn, a hook holder, and an awesome pin cushion in my favorite color blue!
As if that wasn't enough, she also sent books for reading on the subway and a sewing book on how to make clothes.
She wasn't done yet!
Look at all the sewing patterns....and ribbon....and patterns.....and fabric.... and PATTERNS! Lesa is determined to get me hooked on sewing.
I swear the box was huge...I practically had to climb in it to get everything out. It felt like Christmas morning! Thank you so much Lesa!
My plans for the next few days are to try and get a costume together for Pi. She's got an early Halloween party this Saturday and I refuse to buy a $50 costume this year. We're going to have to get creative. If you've got ideas or tips, throw em my way!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Shameless Promotion
I tried to post last night for over 2 hours, but my internet decided it hated me. We cancelled our home phone service and downgraded our cable last week, trying to save some money.
Ever since then the internet has been awful. Time Warner - crappy company extraordinaire - at its best. We had a tech come out this past Saturday who "fixed" the internet problem. By "fixed" I mean made it worse! I'll be calling tonight after 9 (when my cell phone minutes are free) to complain my tooshie off.
Onto my shameless promotion....I've opened an Etsy store!
I've been working on some patterns (and could use some extra income, lets be honest), so I had them tested and put them in my Etsy store today.
The first is a Baby Papoose. Its a cocoon type wrap that's awesome for swaddling babies without having to worry about a blanket falling off.
Next is the Cluster Purse. Its a medium sized shoulder bag with wide straps for comfort. Its a perfect size for my essentials plus a paperback book.
Ever since then the internet has been awful. Time Warner - crappy company extraordinaire - at its best. We had a tech come out this past Saturday who "fixed" the internet problem. By "fixed" I mean made it worse! I'll be calling tonight after 9 (when my cell phone minutes are free) to complain my tooshie off.
Onto my shameless promotion....I've opened an Etsy store!
I've been working on some patterns (and could use some extra income, lets be honest), so I had them tested and put them in my Etsy store today.
The first is a Baby Papoose. Its a cocoon type wrap that's awesome for swaddling babies without having to worry about a blanket falling off.
Next is the Cluster Purse. Its a medium sized shoulder bag with wide straps for comfort. Its a perfect size for my essentials plus a paperback book.
I've got some finished object that will go up within the next day or two also...some hats, baby booties, and a Big Headed Frog ami. Wish me luck, as I've never sold on Etsy before.
I finished another scarf for my Christmas gifts too...hoping to get a pic of that posted by tomorrow.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
God Bless the Animals!
Today, our church celebrated St. Francis, the patron saint of animals. St. Francis had a deep love and respect for all of nature. All the children in the neighborhood were invited to bring their pets to the church schoolyard for a special blessing of the animals in honor of St. Francis.
People brought all kinds of animals....dogs, cats, turtles. birds, snails, and Pi's hermit crabs. There was a cat in a carrier that had its eyes on a parakeet nearby. It looked like it was ready to pounce.
Father Tom and Father Walker began the morning with a prayer.
Father Tom blessed each animal individually. Here's Pi getting her crabs blessed.
Honestly, I'm shocked these little guys are still alive. Its been more than a months since we've brought them home. The last time we had crabs (2 years ago), they only lived 2 weeks. Guess these guys are troopers.
People brought all kinds of animals....dogs, cats, turtles. birds, snails, and Pi's hermit crabs. There was a cat in a carrier that had its eyes on a parakeet nearby. It looked like it was ready to pounce.
Father Tom and Father Walker began the morning with a prayer.
Father Tom blessed each animal individually. Here's Pi getting her crabs blessed.
Blessed crabs!
Honestly, I'm shocked these little guys are still alive. Its been more than a months since we've brought them home. The last time we had crabs (2 years ago), they only lived 2 weeks. Guess these guys are troopers.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Working with chenille.
Today was an awesome day. So awesome that I'm positive that tomorrow will suck big golf balls just to make things even.
After dropping the Pip off at school, hubby treated me to a cup of Dunkin's coffee (mmmm). When we got home, he made me breakfast! Sometimes I swear the man was dropped directly from Heaven.
After breakfast, I crocheted for awhile and then....get ready....here it comes....we napped! Together! For TWO HOURS! Joy! I love naps.
Onto the crochet. Christmas has been on my mind and I know that if I'm going to do a homemade Christmas, I needed to start now. I was going through the stash I bought from Smiley's back in May and found this crimson chenille yarn. I've never worked with chenille yarn before. What was I waiting for? It rocks! Its a super bulky and so so soft. I knew this had to become something for none other than Dirty Grandma.
Complicated stitches would get lost with this yarn because its so thick and plush, so simple was the way to go. The hat is simple hdc made in rounds and the scarf is really easy dc done in rows.
(Don't mind me...I'd only just gotten up from my nap and had sleepy written all over my face).
Here's a close up of the hat so you can see just how plush it is. I think Dirty Grandma is going to love it!
Oh yeah, the day just got even better. Hubby just asked me to get butter because he's going to make cookies!
Bye peeps, have to go get the butter before he changes his mind!
After dropping the Pip off at school, hubby treated me to a cup of Dunkin's coffee (mmmm). When we got home, he made me breakfast! Sometimes I swear the man was dropped directly from Heaven.
After breakfast, I crocheted for awhile and then....get ready....here it comes....we napped! Together! For TWO HOURS! Joy! I love naps.
Onto the crochet. Christmas has been on my mind and I know that if I'm going to do a homemade Christmas, I needed to start now. I was going through the stash I bought from Smiley's back in May and found this crimson chenille yarn. I've never worked with chenille yarn before. What was I waiting for? It rocks! Its a super bulky and so so soft. I knew this had to become something for none other than Dirty Grandma.
Complicated stitches would get lost with this yarn because its so thick and plush, so simple was the way to go. The hat is simple hdc made in rounds and the scarf is really easy dc done in rows.
(Don't mind me...I'd only just gotten up from my nap and had sleepy written all over my face).
Here's a close up of the hat so you can see just how plush it is. I think Dirty Grandma is going to love it!
Oh yeah, the day just got even better. Hubby just asked me to get butter because he's going to make cookies!
Bye peeps, have to go get the butter before he changes his mind!
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