up and running!

Guess who just opened their first Etsy shop?
THIS GUY.  GIRL.  YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Visit the Nodyl's Noodles Shop on Etsy!

tasks at hand.

This morning as I arrived into work and settled in with my cup of coffee and giant jug of water, I started thinking about my tasks at hand for the day.  No, not work tasks, silly. Relatively speaking, I've been here long enough to know what I have to do during the day. Which is to act busy. BUSY!mustgotocopierMAKECOPIES!! MORE COPIES NEEDED ALWAYS.sobusyWHY?.PHONECALLS! notimetotalktoyou. TOOBUSY! GAWD!

The tasks that I speak of are actually the ones that I accomplish after work. You know... did I make plans for tonight with anyone? Did I pack my gym clothes? Jeez! Did I remember to shave for said gym visit? Is there enough chicken in the fridge for me to make a sammich after work? How about two sammiches?  (no, yes, yes, Yes, YES.)

I forget what my point was. Oh, right.  There was no point.  I just wanted to use MS Paint today.

so that's how you do it?

I think I may have finally learned how to take a picture with my digital camera.  I learned how to adjust the settings, and I started taking pictures of... well, everything. I hope they keep getting better, I'm so close to posting my bags on Etsy!

6 years.

I've been at my job for six years today. SIX. YEARS. Say whaaaaaaaaaaa...?

It's not a total shock. I think. Maybe it is. I've been expecting this day to come for awhile... but not really expecting. Confused yet? I am. To commemorate this lackluster momentous day, I posted a little blurb on FB stating: "I made it to 6 years at this same job. Exciting, yet very depressing at the same time." My cousin replied: "either way you look at it, it's an accomplishment in and of itself. now, go buy yourself a present. xo" (Believe me, I'll be buying myself a present in the form of an ice cream sandwich after the gym tonight. Again, exiting and yet very depressing.)

And a former teacher-slash-wise woman-slash-mentor of the ages said this: "Try going to the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore the end of February. Talk to some of the artists. They are making a living doing what you love. Tick tock!! Life is short. Start to show your work in a gallery. Isaac would be proud."

Touché, touché, touché. Kick in the pants received, and greatly appreciated. I immediately booked a hotel room, purchased a three day pass to the event, and requested a 1/2 day of work that Friday. I'll have my business cards by then, my Etsy site up and running, and plenty of samples to bring with me. I think it's high-time I start taking bigger risks to achieve my goals.  Let's do this.

craft night!

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to host 3 very crafty girls for an evening filled with fun, food, wine and art.  Which are some of my most favorite things, if you don't mind me sayin'!  Some lovely items were crafted, and good times were had by all.  All in all, a very successful night!

I actually did some prep-work for our art-rendezvous on Tuesday night, since my goal was to make 10 wine bags that I could put on my Etsy site. I thought it would be so much easier to iron, cut and pin all of the bags together before our gathering, since I tend to overtake the space that I'm working in. Plus, I like to sing Erasure  whilst cutting fabric, and it's slightly less embarrassing to do that alone.  It's also slightly more embarrassing to admit that.  But I did what I set out to accomplish, and by Wednesday I was ready to assemble!

6 years of paint, plaster, latex and paper.  ...done?

detail of upper right corner

During our crafting session, I sewed and completed all 10 bags which I am thrilled about!  But, that's not all.  After drinking copious amounts of wine and stuffing myself full of tiny little hot dogs and pretzels (insert omnom here), I whipped out the ol' painting I've been casually working on for the past 6 or so years.  ... I think... I'm actually done.  For the moment, here's what it looks like. I love where this painting is at right now.  My goal is to find a place in the house where I can hang it up.  I haven't had a 'hanging-worthy' painting in quite sometime.  SCORE!

adventures in wonderland.

 Lou and I took an impromptu exploratory journey around some neighboring towns this past Saturday.  It was amazingly refreshing to get out of the grind of being placing and doing things... weekends always fill up so fast on that stuff.  We winged it and let our instincts direct us on where to go and what to do.  In Narberth, we found a lovely shop called Sweet Mabel, skipped around the train station, and found a cute little pastry place for a mid-morning nosh.  Next, we went hiking in (or near) Smedley near Swarthmore College.  In our attempts to find the college campus, we ran into a local Community Arts Center which unfortunately was closed, but we saw some awesome stuff on the grounds of the center!  I can't wait to go back and check out the gallery!  Then, we were off to the town of Swarthmore, where we explored the campus, and I put on an extra 2 lbs. by eating a bacon egg n' cheese sammy covered in hot sauce on a poppy bagel at a local cafe.  OMNOMNOM.  We closed the adventure by stopping at Produce Junction.  Loading up on veggies is always a nice way to complete the day, don't you think?

 

do more.

Lot's of fun things are happening, including this!
My first informational artist/biznaaaaz card!  How exciting! Look at all of the exclamation points I'm using so far!  Lou and I went on an adventure this weekend (which I'll detail in the next post...) and two women that I met admired my tie purse.  After speaking with them, both asked "Do you have a contact card?"

Ugh, my heart sank!  My reply? "Ah, no!  I've been meaning to make them for so long.  One day I'll just have to do it."

I FINALLY DID IT!  I like the quirky design. More importantly, I think it incorporates all of the important information that I'd like to share with everyone, including my blog and my new Etsy Shop, which I started setting up yesterday!  I don't have any items uploaded in the shop yet because I want to make sure I get all of my wording correct and I definitely want to take better pictures of the items.  The ones I have now are a little blurry and not-so-professional looking.

Things are moving along nicely in Nodylville if you ask me!  I'm following the quote I have on my new little necklace charm.  DO MORE.

bueller? anyone?

I feel the urge to craft today. Or at least do something, DAMNIT.

I've been feeling very blah lately.  Much of that feeling comes from being sick.  I'm on my 11th day of not feeling 100%, and now instead of it taking a toll on my physical well being, it's taking a toll on my mental well being. At first I was all like, "Nah, I'm OK!  It's just a cold, it'll pass! Life is good!"  Now I'm all like "I want to do something, but I'm still sitting on the couch moping about my lack of actually doing anything. What should I do?".  It's a vicious crappy cycle, based solely on my inability to GET THE F&*$ UP AND DO SOMETHING. Plus I keep having coughing fits which annoy the shit out of anyone I'm around. So I'm better off doing something by myself, or at least that's what my head is telling me.

The thing is, I want to do a bunch of things: Go out to get a beer with real people, sew more rows of the quilt, cook a delicious meal, exercise, socialize.  BE PRODUCTIVE.  But who wants a fogged-head, coughing, snotty mess hanging around them? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before?.... sorry, I got carried away in the Bueller moment.

So tonight, my plans are to hit up hot yoga at 6:15 (<--check!).  Cook a nice soup out of all the awesome produce I've gotten from Produce Junction (<--check!).  Do something crafty (<--check!).  And for chrissake, make actual plans for tomorrow night (<--friggin check!).

(updates in bold!)

the netti disaster

Last week I was discussing the netti pot with my sister.  There's been a lot of talk surrounding the ol' netti pot lately, especially with that brain eating amoeba down in Louisiana.  I'm pretty sure my brain would welcome the challenge of some lame-ass amoeba.  I'm from Philadelphia.  There's so many chemicals in this water, I'm surprised I haven't magically transform into a Marvel Comic character. Anywho, here's an excerpt from our email correspondence.  (<-- doesn't that word sound official?  I feel like I'm on CNN or something.)

Me: I was thinking before that I had strep symptoms (feverish with the sore throat).... turns out it was just hot snot dripping down my throat.  It has since coagulated and formed a party in my sinuses.  FOR SHAME.  I'd use my netti pot, but I'm afraid of brain eating bacteria.  What is this world coming to?!

Sister:  Jill, you absolutely crack me up!!!  I can’t take that Netti pot thing.  I think I would accidentally drown myself.  “Young woman dies from drowning herself with Netti pot.”  Haha.Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I want Dayquil.  I’m working from home today, which always makes me feel a little bit better with a cold. 

Me: PS, did you see the headlines in the Trentonian today?  Check it out.  So sad.

 This is what happens when you Print Screen, Ctrl+V, and MS Paint.  You get an email like this.

glüvs: sicky pants, part duex.

There's only one benefit to not feeling well.  Actually... there are two: Unlimited amounts of ginger ale, and craft projects that take minimal amounts of effort.  Every winter, I stock up on gloves (pronounced glüvs) because I seem to frequently misplace them.  On Friday, I almost threw my pair of glüvs in the garbage at work.  I blame this on being discombobulated, thanks to the never ending cold/flu I'm enduring.

Yesterday I decided that it was finally time to tailor the stock of glüvs that I have.  Why, you may ask, do I have to tailor glüvs?  Because, person that is asking the question, I only have 9 fingers.  But, you probably already know me, so you already knew that.  Here's how I fix the glüvs.  

modeling whilst sickypants.  bright lights and lipstick do wonders.

completed project! all 36 digits seem happy.

First, I turn the left glüv inside out.  I sew a straight line from the index finger down to the base of the glüv, basically cutting off the thumb.  This gets rid of the pesky extra digit.  Next, I try the glüv on (inside out) and use a fabric safe pen to mark where my fingers hit on each digit.  I sew a contoured line to the shape of my finger on each digit of the glüv, and snip off the extra fabric.  I turn it right side out, and TA-DA! Custom pair of glüvs!!  It's super easy, and I love having glüvs that fit properly.  You may wonder why I don't just wear mittens to conveniently hide that fact that I have a small physical anomaly?  I have two answers.  1: Mittens make my hands sweaty.  2: Why should I?

sicky pants projects.

Since Tuesday, I've been battling the dreaded post-New Years cold.  You know, the one where friends ask you to sample their different beers, and you nonchalantly comply.  I tried to pretend that I was winning the battle with the cold on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday through Saturday, my body was all like NO.  Yesterday, in between taking naps and drinking tea, I completed a little craft project. 

Back story! Since Lou and I have started traveling, we've always manage to pick up different coffees from wherever we go.  About a year ago, I framed the collection of bags in picture frames that I got from Ikea.  You know, those ones that you get 3 for like a dollar and they're name is Jguurgnsflarvun. I sanded and stained them, inserted the trimmed bags and hung them up on the wall underneath the shelf Lou made.  It looked OK, but the stain was way lighter than the shelf.  It just bothered me.  Flash forward to Saturday!

I gave the frames a facelift by gluing the extra mosaic tiles from the back splash onto them.  It took awhile (since my mind was drifting here and there, and I frequently got uncomfortable and took more Tylenol Severe Cold and Flu), but by the time I was finished, we had a brand new set of frames!  Cost: NOTHING!  That's the best part!

Yes, there's a Starbucks in there. I traveled down the street to get it.

the kitchen.

I'm glad I took a break from writing in between last night and today.  I was a little out of it, and I promptly fell asleep on the couch watching a show on Russia.  I'm afraid my writing didn't reach it's usual witty potential.  I plan to make up for that with my kitchen post.

hell no.

First, let me start out with a picture of what the kitchen looked like before Lou moved in.  Oh... hell no.  When I see that much wood and wallpaper, I think Cracker Barrel.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Those little games they have are awesome, and don't get me started on how tasty the menu is. After Lou and his bro moved in, they replaced the counter tops, dishwasher and refrigerator.  They took down the wood craziness above and under the cabinets, de-wooded the wall next to the fridge, and painted.

NO!

Flash forward to 2011.  The kitchen still needed a little help.  The tiled back splash was... well...  not installed properly.  All of the seems (next to the counter and the cabinets) were grouted.  A big no-no.  You caulk those seems to allow for expansion/contraction.  Since the person grouted them, the tiles began to crack and break.  Which showed that they tiled over wallpaper.  WHO DOES THAT?!  The tile had to go.  I told Lou that I'd give him a proposition and a budget showing that I could re-tile the backsplash into something special.  Skeptical at first maybe, but once he saw my research, drawings and spreadsheet... he caved agreed.

love notes on the backerboard. 

I was perusing Ebay and Googling Mexican Talavera Tiles when Lou suggested that we look into pricing glass tiles.  Nothing against glass tiles, but most tiles I saw were plain and uninspired. So, I decided to Google "colorful glass tile backsplash" and most of the images came from a company called Susan Jablon Mosaics, located up in Binghampton, NY.  Ah... the colors, the colors!!!  After choosing several 1/4 sheet samples, we locked into ordering our favorite: Aurora Blend.  We started demoing the kitchen in September, and after months of work (on and off and on and off and...)  we FINALLY finished, at 12:15am on the morning on Friday, December 2nd.**  We still have a little more to paint, but there's no rush on that.  After we finished the tile work, we vowed not to do anything else until after the holidays.  We're going to install under cabinet lighting, some extra storage drawers in the bottom cabinets, and finish painting in the coming months.  I'm just waiting for a snowy weekend to do it.

**WHY would I stay up that late to work on the kitchen?  Because on December 2nd, we were hosting Lou's 40th birthday party.  Our last weeks of working on the kitchen were that of a marathon pace.  After ripping out the stove and range hood, we finished up all the hardibacker, installed the range hood, cleaned profusely, repaired the walls, primed the bare drywall, taped the seams and started tiling.  Tiling took FOREVER.  We had to do a couple repairs for tiles that didn't adhere correctly. We had to wait 24-48 hours after tiling to grout.  Then another day before the caulk.  Finally, the oven went in.  You don't realize how much you miss an oven until you don't have one to cook on for three weeks.  You are correct in assuming that I didn't do s*** the rest of that weekend.

Whoops, there goes a month!

Ack, it's been too long since I've posted!  So much has happened in the past month, so I decided that I'm going to break it on down into a couple posts over the week, so I don't get carpel tunnel updating what's going on. First, let's chat about the quilt.  The last time I wrote, I mentioned that I had finished sewing all 224 squares... still an accomplishment that I'm proud of!

I brought the squares with me to my family's Thanksgiving dinner.  I asked everyone that was there to sign the back of a square, so that when I sewed it together, I'd have all of my family with me.
(Pause for loving moment).

Here are all the signed squares!  There are 15 total that will be inserted into the 14 columns of the quilt.  Last weekend, I started said columns and so far it's going quite well!  I have 6 columns of 16 squares completed so far (96 total!).  I'm hoping that I can actually finish sewing the top of the quilt this weekend, which would be awesome!  Once that is done, I'll have to choose a backer fabric for the quilt.  That means a trip to the fabric store for me, huzzaaaah!

Here's a picture showing how thrilled I am at my progress. The quilt is starting to look real!!! I can't believe that all of these pieces of fabric I cut so long ago are forming an actual quilt.  Also, it shows how many lemon squares I ate over the past month.  Good thing I went to the Y today.

the benefits of being grateful.

On this, the day before Thanksgiving, I wanted to post something that is fitting for the upcoming holiday season.  It doesn't have a lot to do with art.  OK, so this has nothing to do with art.  But it has everything to do with being grateful.  Without trying to sound pompous, I'm one of the most grateful people that you'll ever meet... that sounded pompous, but I promise it wasn't meant to be.  I thank my lucky stars everyday for the big things (family, friends, life, love, job, health insurance), for the little things (sounds, textures, moments) and everything in between (bunnies, cats, no traffic, remembering my lunch). To me, being grateful is honorable, wonderful and self fulfilling.  It's not something I ever had to think about in recent memory, because my parents instilled this moral on me at a very early age.  And for that, I'm grateful.

Like many things in life, there is a flip-side to the positive. If you Google "antonyms for grateful" two of the big ones that come up are unappreciative and thankless.  These two words sadden me.  To me, being ungrateful would be like living in a world where the glass is constantly half empty.  And I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but the ungrateful attitude I see from adults and children alike sickens me.  The selfishness.  The negativity.  The complaining.  Why are people like this?  The answer is simple.  It is easier for them to be ungrateful.  In most cases, they never learned how to be grateful in the first place.  Parents lead by example, and children soak that shit up like a sponge.

I read an interesting article today in The Washington Post about teaching children to be grateful.  In all honestly, I didn't exactly exclaim "THIS IS GROUNDBREAKING!".  It did, however, confirm my feelings and attitude about raising grateful children in our ever growing society.  I'd like to share a quote from clinical psychologist Eleanor Mackey of Children’s National Medical Center. “Generally speaking, it’s like anything else: It takes time and energy to raise grateful kids, but if you make it a priority, it is doable, and the payoff can be enormous”.  Well said, Eleanor.  What's the payoff like, Mr. Jeffrey Froh, an assistant professor of psychology at Hofstra University? "[Grateful children] report better relationships with friends and family, higher GPAs, less materialism, less envy and less depression, along with a desire to connect to their community and to want to give back."

WOW.  So... hang on with me here... being grateful has lasting personal benefits, and is also helpful for the community (being friend, family, etc) that surrounds said person.  Damn, that's awesome!  Here's a question I leave you to interpret as you see fit:  What are the personal lasting benefits of being ungrateful?

So, you may ask, what's the big point you're trying to make here Jill?  My point is this: To make Thanksgiving a state of mind that we can share everyday, not just the one day out of the year that for some, is just a prelude to the Christmas season.  Give it a shot.  Be thankful for the things that you have, from the air you breathe to the company you hold.  Maybe try extending a 'thank you' to the stranger who holds the door open for you, or maybe hold the door open for that stranger.  You'll never know how powerful those words or gestures might be to someone, especially one who doesn't know of gratitude. And honestly, it's not completely their fault that they are ungrateful.  After all, they had to learn their behavior from somewhere.

if at first you don't succeed, take a nap. then try again.

First off, I'd like to explain my cryptic brain rant that I said I would update 'tomorrow'. Unfortunately, tomorrow is now 6 days from tomorrow.  Wait... 6 days from then.  From the last post.  This post isn't clearing anything up so far. Let's try again.

FAIL

Last Wednesday night I decided to start tiling the back splash in our kitchen.  My goal was just to do the tiling behind our now non-existent stove. It took me about 3 hours to do it, but I did get it done.  Not as successfully as I'd like to, though.  All in all, about 43 tiles fell off the wall due to, A: bad tiling advice and B: bad mortar application.  After feeling sorry for myself and developing a migraine, I struck back.  I used my Dremmel tool to grind out the dried mortar and I hand applied the missing tiles to the wall.  Lou and I got an additional 8 square feet done tonight. I can't wait to get our project done, and to cook something on our new stove!

SUCCESS

I also got ALL ALL of the squares done for the quilt!  That's right.  I finished all 224 squares... THEY'RE ALL DONE.  I finished sewing the last of the squares on Friday night, and I just trimmed them all up last night.  I'm really excited that I accomplished this much so far.  Now, I'm ready to start sewing the rows and columns.  Pretty soon, it will start looking like a real quilt!  It's going to be such a fun winter project!

4 new wine bags, 224 squares!

A friend of mine (and also my former landlord) ((and also the nicest landlord I've ever had)) asked me if I could make her some wine bags for the holiday season coming up!  I'm really proud that I started cutting them out and sewing them together on Friday night.  I'm hoping that I can complete them tomorrow, and maybe bring them to her sometime this weekend.  

The reason why I was trying to get all of these things done before the weekend, was because I traveled down Washington DC!  It was a lot of fun.  We had great weather, we saw a ton of things around town (both by foot and by bike!) and ate amazing food.  I wish I had more time to browse around the museums and national monuments. I feel like I just was beginning to scratch the surface of the city, then all of the sudden it's time to leave and board the train going back home! I picked up a new book as well, and I'm hoping that I can incorporate some of it's philosophy into future blog posts!  

Well, that's an awfully long post, so I'll end it at this. You can do anything you put your mind to.  Especially when you have coffee.

durp?

Tiles. Mortar. Tonight? Yes! SKUUURED. (dontmessup) Quilt? Squares. Only. 14. Left. Must. Get. Done. Tonight?! No. Tomorrow? Maybe. Fabric! New! Wine Bags?  MUSTMAKE. When? Weekend? NO. Travel!  DC! Hotel! YAY!

(I'll translate tomorrow.)

the greatest gift of all.

Today I was going to write a quick update aptly titled 200 down, 24 to go! with an picture of me holding a giant stack of sewed fabric.  But, my story quickly changed last night when Lou yelled up to me “Hey, you got a package in the mail from Jenny!”  First of all, I was doubled over in excitement that I actually got a package in the mail.  I think I did a little happy dance, but I can’t be sure of that.  Secondly, my thoughts instantly went to… did I forget anything at her house that she had to send back to me?

I retrieved the box and carefully opened it. And I literally, literally could feel tears of joy welling up in my eyes.  She had sent me memories: Fabrics, pictures and wonderful things, all from Audi’s house.  I immediately pulled out a small coffee creamer, and a note that read “One of gram’s coffee creamers (DO NOT put a carton on the table anymore!!!).  I laughed out loud as tears streamed down my face.  I dug deeper into the box and pulled out pictures: The ones that I used to stare at aimlessly in the hallway in between the bedrooms.  Deeper still, I found stacks of fabrics from around her house: The curtains from the guest bedroom, pillowcases from sleepovers and fabric from the armchair.

For about 20 or 30 minutes, I went through everything… reading and rereading notes that Jenny wrote to me, looking at pictures, feeling the fabric.  I’m pretty sure I was fantasizing about asking people over for coffee, seeing that I now possessed a prized creamer.   I felt like I was back in her house.  And that felt so nice.

 

Tonight I’ll hang up all the family pictures that Jenny sent to me in my art/sewing room, but only after I pour myself a cup of coffee, with half n’ half from my new creamer.  Twenty four squares will be made out of the fabric that she sent to me.  Call it a coincidence, but that’s one square for every one year that I got to spend with Audi.  Honestly, I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all.  I think there are other forces about.  I think it’s love. 

Let this be a lesson for everyone.  A simple thought or gesture, no matter how big or small, can lift a person’s spirits and (re)fill their heart with love, enthusiasm and faith.  What an incredible gift she gave to me, as I was struggling with anxiety and gradually loosing my faith in humanity.  Boy was I wrong about it all.

badasssssssssssss.

My legs are literally covered in gross looking bruises.  Not the cool kinds where someone is like "Hey look at that hardcore chick and her awesome leg bruises.  She must be super awesome.".  It's more like "Ew, she should cover up those legs, yo." My pale skin is no match for purple, yellow and red markings.  Especially the ones with the scratches imbedded in them.  What was I doing, you ask?  Boyfriend and I rode at Nox on Friday.  I did great for awhile (minus my triumphant falls off the bike), launching myself down hills and pedaling my tush off on the uphills... but I'm pretty sure I was crying around 2.5 miles. Thank goodness for hot showers and bottles of wine. They're like security blankets for adults.

Saturday we all (and by we, I mean 10 adults and 5 chillins) went on a death march 10 mile bike ride through Lehigh Gorge State Park. I was super surprised when I realized where we were: The same exact place we went whitewater rafting earlier in the summer!  (Dang, I sound pretty bad ass in this post. Did I mention I got two nosebleeds this weekend too?  BADASSSSSS.)  It was pretty chilly in the shade that day, a far cry from the sweltering temperature there in the summer.  Here in Philadelphia the leaves are just starting to fall to the ground.  The colors radiant and bold.  Up in the Poconos, most of the leaves were gone: Already dead on the ground.  The only colors left were in the rhododendron forests and coniferous trees.

Sunday we went on two death marches hikes, which probably all totaled about 8 miles.Yes, I am physically whooped from the weekend. So why this long post that has nothing to do with art?  I don't know.  I felt like writing, and this is all I got for now.  Here's a picture of some leaves from a plant on my desk.  Tonight I'll be working on more quilting so I'll have more to post tomorrow about art and life and ... art. My mind is still like mush from so much physical exertion.  Let's never speak of this again.

Plus, a small animation coming called Brownies or Death.

person virus vs. computer virus

The similarities are that they both infect you and make you feel terrible.  I’m pretty sure that’s where the similarities end.  A person virus... let's just say the common cold for this matter, makes you feel crappy for about 4 days.  Eventually the headache disappears, the snot dries up, and the raspy voice and mucusy throat are a distant memory.  Congratulations! You’re back to normal.  Let’s celebrate by going out to a bar and getting another cold!  A computer virus makes you feel crappy to the 10^th degree until it’s finally gone.  I don’t even know what that means, but it feels like shit. And it’s not like tea and chicken noodle soup will help.  You need a computer-ninja, someone to sneak into your computer like those people from the Matrix sneak into the Matrix and set shit straight… a master of the hard drive: Like my friend Mike.  Onto the story.

On Saturday morning after I wrote my previous blog post, I decided that it would be an awesome day to sit and sew whilst listening to Pandora radio.   This was not to be.  The second I clicked on Pandora, things went to shit.  Instant virus.  Windows kept popping up telling me how bad shit was, and that my memory was gone.  I believed that lying piece of jerk virus for about 5 seconds, until I saw a window that said “buy the full version here!”.   That makes NO SENSE. Why WHY would I want to buy a full version of a virus?  For the next 4 hours, I was closing obnoxious windows, restarting in safe mode, running virus software (that kept saying that nothing was detected) crying and sitting in my pj’s trying to figure out how the hell I was going to fix my problem.  I just wanted to listen to the Fiona Apple station.  Then shit got real, yo.

I finally decided that brownies would fix my problem.  Usually when something in my life goes wrong, I try to temporarily forget them by making myself something delicious.   It’s not uncommon to find me in the kitchen after a bad day.  Then out of the blue (the blue sporty-car they own, I knew they were coming over so it wasn't out of the blue-blue) Mike and Lauren arrived and solved two of the biggest problems in my life.

1) Who would help me eat all these brownies so I don’t get a fat-ass?

2) Can someone solve my computer virus problem?

Answers: THEY DID.

All was right in the world again. I only finished 20 squares this weekend (170 down, 54 to go) but all in all, Halloween is supposed to scare the shit outta you right?  Mission accomplished.  Next year, I think I’ll go as a computer virus.

In slightly related news, this was my Friday night. It's self explanatory.

new design + 150 sqaures.

Do you like my new design?  I'll keep tweaking it here and there until I... don't... well, until I like it I guess.  But I like the new header I did.  See what an extra free twenty minutes at work and an old magazine can do?  I took a photo of my cutout letters and manipulated some of the brightness and contrast in Photoshop. 

In other exciting news...

I tried to make myself look nice, but that doesn't work at 9am.

I finished a total of 150 squares!  Only ONLY 74 to go. I couldn't be more excited!  Actually I could, if I had 210 done and only 14 to go.  But I'll get there!  And I could this weekend, seeing that the Philajerseynewyorkeverywhere area is supposed to get pounded with a Nor-Easter like whoa.  I don't think it'll be too bad here, but it'll be enough to keep me productive and warm inside the confines of my home. 

Different hair!  And... braaaaaaaaaainssssss...

It's Halloween weekend too.  I had high hopes that this year would be the year that I got off of my crafting butt and created a bitchin' costume.  Alas, my quilt making and zombie run made it a daunting task.  So this year... I go again as a zombie (like I'm complaining).  I'm banking on my liquid latex and makeup to make it look good this year, better than my zombie from three years ago.

Here were my awesome ideas that didn't materialize:
The "morning after" girl, present on every Saturday and Sunday morning Septa route
A #2 pencil
A box of Summers Eve
Lucile Bluth
It's Pat from SNL