Happy Blogiversary!

Crap. I blew it. Artsy Fartsy's one year anniversary was last week and I forgot. One whole year of blogging. Ya-hoo!

I've been busy lately but I don't really have anything finished to show you. I've been trying out some new ideas and playing with new paints. I started a few little acrylic paintings on clayboard. Here's what I have so far:I love patterns. This is just the first step of the idea I have in my head. Hopefully I'll be able to show you the finished version soon.

I've been trying out a lot of new things lately and they've all been tanking. I tried to make a felt flower pin a friend had described to me. I worked for days on it and it looked awful. The same friend described a pair of wire and bead earrings she saw and I tried to make those - nope. Those came out lousy, too. I tried to knit Luke a hat and got ahead of myself, tapering it in before I had made it big enough. It's a lovely, wool, hand-knit beanie.

I did manage to make some cute yo-yos like these which I turned into a little decoration to sit my Yankee Candle jar on top of. I have to finish sewing buttons on it and then I can show it off.

Well happy blogiversary-and-a-week to me and thank you all for reading!

So Sad

I knew it wasn't going to last. 60-degree weather in January in Connecticut is unnatural, I know. But I liked it. I could go out of the house without a coat and I haven't had to shovel snow, heck, I haven't had to look at snow since last winter. Sigh...

Tomorrow night we're getting snow. We might even get 5 inches of the nasty whiteness. I know that I whined about wanting snow in December, but that's because Christmas is so much more festive with a sparkly white coating. Now that Christmas is over, I'm ready for spring!

Let's just hope that the weathermen are wrong again and maybe we won't get any snow at all. Maybe it'll rain flower petals. Who knows. A girl can hope.

Handy

That's MACRO, baby! I'm really having too much fun with this camera. Geeze, are these the hands of an eighty-year old or a thirty-year old?

I also tried to take a picture of my eyelashes, which came out cool, but unfortunately, it also shows the little bitty eyebrow hairs that need to be plucked (eew!) so I thought this one was better to share.

Links of Inspiration

It's been too crazy for me these past couple of days. I can just barely manage to string words into sentences, but they're boring sentences that have no charm. Rather than giving you more of those bland sentences, I thought I'd send you elsewhere!

I want to recommend these two websites to you so you can go and look and be inspired. I love to visit these sites to see what these two ladies are doing and enjoy their beautiful pictures and excellent storytelling and then get jealous becusue their things are all so beautiful!

Hello my Name is Heather shows off Heather's sewing skills which make me want to cry. She's so good. Her photos are amazing and I love the way she writes. A nice place to spend some time.

In My (Sometimes) Humble Opinion is an inspirational place to poke around if you're in the need of a creative boost. Cori writes so subtly and beautifully and I love that the titles of her posts sound like that names of poems or the titles of songs. She makes the most beautiful papercrafts and her photos are pretty amazing, too. She also opened an Etsy shop recently so she's a fellow Etsian, too!

So there you are. Go take a peek. Even if you're not a crafty-type person. They're great places to go and give your eyes a rest.

One Big, Shiny Step Closer

We're finally closer to finishing the bar top we started over a year ago.

Luke had been collecting bottle caps for years with no real plan of what to do with them. We had millions (it seemed) and when we built the new bar at our new house, we decided to put those caps to good use and make a bar top. I sorted them and arranged them, found out we needed more and had to actually buy some on ebay, and then I finally set them into the top with black grout and there they've sat since November 2005.

They looked cool enough the way they were, but our ultimate plan was to pour epoxy over them to make a smooth, shiny protective coating over the caps. My problem was that pouring epoxy is a pass/no pass kind of thing. You can't start over if you screw up. I wanted it to be finished, but I was afraid to screw it up and have to tear out the entire bar and start over. I bought the epoxy in 2005 and we had everything we needed to finish the top but we just never got around to it. Until this past Sunday.

We started by taking the shop vac and sucking out the two years of peanut shells and Dorito crumbs. Nice. Next I scrubbed down the caps and touched up the inside edge of the bar with black paint. Then we mixed up a gallon and a half of Kleer Kote and poured away. And I held my breath. This is where the air bubbles start to show up and the dust can stick to the surface, and loose debris can float to the top, and clumsy Lisa can accidentally drop her camera in. But all was surprisingly well. There were just a few air bubbles but the heat guns solved that problem. There's a little dust but we can puff that out. hanks to the wrist strap, I didn't drop my camera and it looked amazing. We were so excited that we decided we need to add more stuff to the top. Thee were some places where the spaces between the bottle caps were larger so we stuck in a few "Free Drink" chips for the American Legion, a guitar pick, some extra sights form the pool table. I slid a little print of one of my paintings over a blank cap. It was fun! Then we had to wait for it to cure and pray that the cat didn't decide to jump up there to watch the fish last night.

Yesterday morning I checked on it and, luckily for her, there was no cat epoxied to the bar. It looks fantastic and it's hard and smooth and I love it! Next I have to stain the arm rail and then you can all come over and have a celebratory drink on it! Now when you put down your wine glass or beer bottle, it won't topple over because of the uneven surface and Dorito crumbs won't get lodged between the caps any more. Yay!

Google SMS

So I had intended to write about what I did this weekend, complete with pictures, but Blogger seems to be having a day-long stroke and I can't upload pictures no matter how many ways I try. I'll save the fun for tomorrow, I guess, because I also wanted to share this fun tidbit with you.

Did you know that you can search Google with your cell phone by sending it a text message? Awesome, huh? It's called Google SMS and the long explanation is here. Basically, you send a message to the Google SMS number, which is GOOGLE (466453), Google will send you back an answer in the form of a text message in about five seconds. It's amazing. You can find phone numbers, movie times, addresses, weather, sports, driving directions... it goes on and on. Even if you're only looking for a phone number, it's most likely cheaper to ask Google than it is to call information on your cell. With my Sprint plan, it costs $1.25 for me to call information. If I send and receive a text message, it costs me $0.20.

And it really works. I had wanted to try it out when I read about it a while back but hadn't thought of it until Saturday when we were hopelessly turned around and not entirely lost, but not exactly sure of where we were. We were trying to get to Midtown Kawasaki in Middletown and had received some flawed directions which brought us to Meriden and New Britain and briefly to Middletown but never to the Kawasaki place. We didn't know their phone number so I sent Google this text: "Midtown Kawasaki phone". I hit send and waited all of about three seconds before Google sent back: "Local listings: Midtown Kawasaki, 1864 Silas Deane Hwy, Rocky Hill, 06067, 860-721-0193". Awesome! I was able to call and get directions and we were no longer lost.

I was so impressed I decided to try other messages. "Luke Gaumond 06232" brought back Luke's white pages listing at our old address and with our old phone. Close, not too bad. "Happy Feet 06040" resulted in three messages from Google. The first two were the names, addresses and phones of all the movie theaters in the vicinity of Manchester (that's the 06040 part), and the last message gave me the name, address and phone of the Buckland Showcase Cinemas in Manchester as well as the movie times when Happy Feet was playing that day. How cool!

If you check the info page that Google has about the SMS system, you can see sample searches and how to word your messages to get the info you want. If I had know where I actually was on Saturday, I could have typed in a few different words and gotten not only the phone and address of Midtown Kawasaki, but also the directions to get there. Try it out. It's cheap and it's fun. One more reason to love Google.

Snappy

My new camera has so many new settings and features that I could spend an entire day reading the manual and playing with it and still not have it all down. It's so cool. And pink.

I was inspired by some of the amazing pictures I saw on Flickr yesterday that other folks took using the same camera, so last night I decided to try out a few of the settings.

There's a Self Portrait setting which has a timer but right now it's set for only a 2-second delay which results in action shots of my rear end, so sorry, you won't see any of those pictures. There are also two Baby settings where I programmed in the birth dates of my nephews so the camera will print out their ages at the time the pictures were taken right on the photos. Isn't that neat?

Here's the Food setting with no flash capturing Luke's ice cold martini:
This is the Night Scenery setting. I took it on the highway on the way home. So cool:We went for a walk down by the river before dinner to look at the amazing full moon. I kept trying to take pictures of it, but I really need a tripod for that, they're all too blurry. I did try out the Night Portrait setting on Luke though:
Then there's the Macro setting. Wow. I think I can almost photograph cells with it. Here's me interrupting Molly's nap by the wood stove. I turned off the flash and zoomed in to the full extreme of the zoom. Didn't even wake her up!And lastly, the Auto setting with the flash turned off. Isn't this fish bowl awesome? I got it on Etsy. I burn candles in it at night, so cool. So what do you think? There are many, many more settings still to try out. Maybe I'll take some action shots of Molly with the Sports or Sensetive setting. There's also a Soft Portrait setting, maybe Molly will pose for that one, too. Can you imagine if I had kids? They'd hate me.

Damn Tired

I realized that I never explained my earlier mention of my "day of outrage and frustration" and, being nice readers of this blog, I know that you would be disappointed if I didn't complain just a little each week. Rather than give you the story in long, pathetic detail, I thought I'd sum up the highlights, a la those credit card commercials.

Four tires at Sam's Club, two pieces of pizza and two sodas at the Sam's Club cafeteria, two coffees at Borders, and three hours of waiting only to come back to Sam's and find that they refused to put tires on my car because I'm missing one stud on one tire, then waiting in line at the customer service desk, trying (unsucessfully) not to cry, in order to get my check back for the tires I wouldn't be getting that day: $482.81

Four tires at Town Fair, three beers at Pepe's, and two hours of wandering around Hall's Archery and Pet Supplies Plus only to come back to TFT and find that they refused to put tires on my car because, strangely since I left Sam's Club, I now have two studs on my front tire that are chewed up so badly that TFT won't put tires on, fearing they might snap the studs off: $532.16

Five new studs, fourteen new lug nuts, a trip to ACME and two Auto Zone locations, two trips to my dad's to borrow tools, a day of taking my car apart and putting it back together: $72.14

Having new tires and not having to worry about them again for (hopefully) another five years: priceless

2006 in Review

It's finally 2007. As much as I have a weird dislike of writing odd numbers and as much as it will bug me all year, I am so glad to say good-bye to 2006. It was a hard year, and not only for me, but for my family and friends.

So many things changed this year, it just seemed like a hard year to get through. I changed jobs and turned thirty. I had car trouble and back spasms. My friends were sick and hospitalized, their garages caught fire, they were diagnosed with cancer, they lost parents and friends. My mother was in a car accident, my sister had nearly everything in her life but the sky above her head cave in on her. Her dog had to have her leg amputated. There's a great country song in here somewhere.

I guess everything about 2006 wasn't bad. As tough as it was to change jobs, I do love my new job. Luke got a new motorcycle which meant that I could ride a new motorcycle, too (his old one). We went on some great, albeit wet, motorcycle rides and spent lots of time with friends. I started this blog and have been enjoying the cyber-therapy for almost a year now. We somehow managed to have more parties at our house, while at the same time hardly leaving the house and getting to feel the joy of living like hermits. We were mostly healthy and we managed to get through December without having to shovel a bit of snow.

But 2007 is here and I feel like it's full of possibilities. New Year's always makes me feel excited like that. Like I have a new, blank slate to work with. So now what? I don't know. I'm not good at making resolutions. I use to resolve to quit smoking (which I don't do) or stop eating meat (when I was a vegetarian). These were resolutions I could definitely keep. I'm not sure what to resolve to do this year. I'll have to think about it.

In the meantime, I'm resolving to have a happy new year. I hope you all do the same.

Happy Happy

Happy New Year everyone!

This year I'll try to make it to midnight without falling asleep. So far it's not looking so good as I am droopy-eyed already (at 6:45pm) and we have the wood stove cranking. The couch looks awfully warm and comfy...

Have a wonderful and safe New Year!

Has it really been a week?

Wow, it's been a whole week since I've posted? I'm slacking. Let's all get caught up. When last I left you, Christmas was coming and I was fighting a cold. Well, I lost the battle on Friday and have been sick for a week now. It's getting a bit ridiculous. I have the week off and I've spent it feeling gross and nappy and not getting anything fun accomplished. But on a good note, Christmas came on Monday and so did this:

Woo-hoo! I do feel a little bad taking a picture of my new camera with my old camera, but oh well.

Luke makes me nervous every Christmas by not putting ANY presents under the tree until Christmas morning when he sneaks a present or two under there while I'm not looking. I wake up excited to give him his presents and kind of pissed at the thought that maybe he didn't get me any presents. Well, sneaky Pete had slipped this baby under the tree when I was in the kitchen making coffee and he wrapped it in bubble wrap before he wrapped it in paper so I thought he bought me a blanket. Great. A blanket. Instead I unwrapped the box for my beautiful new camera and when I gasped with surprise, he snapped a picture of me with it (he had the camera hidden in his pocket - I told you he was sneaky). All the gasping and surprise caused a horrible coughing fit, but I survived and took a very fine picture of Molly, where she sat all morning, in the wrapping paper:

The camera has so many awesome settings, which is the reason I most wanted it, that and the fact that it's PINK, and the best setting is the night one which enabled me to take this shot of our tree:

Pretty. Christmas morning Luke and I hung out and opened presents. Luke got all things motorcycle-related including the heated grips he's been talking about forever. The we headed to my mom's house to exchange gifts and have dinner. My mom and my brother-in-law were sick, too, so were we a fun trio of coughing and squeaky voices. Cameron and Alex enjoyed their gifts. Here is Alex in his chair (which I finally finished painting on Christmas Eve):

Cameron got a fun V-Smile TV game from Auntie Lisa and Uncle Luke and had present fever and was delirious with unwrapping and me, me, me! How can you not be when you're four? My sister gave me a Halloween present - she's a little behind - a beautiful hand-made Halloween table runner. I love it! Luke and I got some great clothes from my parents and Luke scored a set of the coolest stainless steel martini glasses from my sister. It was a great day!

As I said, I had the week off, so Tuesday was our annual food, friends, and family celebration - Girls' Day In. We started a girls' night out a bunch of years ago by going out to dinner the day after Christmas with me, my mom, my sister, my sister's best friend since birth, Jesse, and her mom, Vicki. Eventually we decided to gather earlier in the day, and then we decided to stay in and have brunch rather than going out, so it became Girls' Day In. We're like one big family and since Jesse moved to Massachusetts, we don't see her as often so we make sure to get together on this day to catch up and eat too much. This year we also decided to go see Charlotte's Web with Cameron, so that was fun. It's great to go to the movies with a four year old and remember that movies are incredible miracles. Cameron liked everything but the spider, poor Charlotte, and I thought it was a great movie. They added fart jokes (thanks to the cows) and a little love story with Fern and a boy from school, but otherwise it stayed fairly true to the story and was just beautiful to look at.

Since then I've been coughing and feeling sleepy and running errands. Luke's been home with me because he hasn't felt well either, so today is the first day I have the house to myself. It's kind of nice! I love Luke, really I do, and want to spend all of my time with him, but I expected to have this week alone to get stuff done and to blog, at least, and it's just not the same with Luke home. He's always hanging around and asking what I'm doing on the computer, or when I'll be done on the computer. Thankfully though, he was with me yesterday for my day of outrage and frustration, (that's going to have to be another post all together), but today alone. I'm planning to lounge, to catch up on my blog-reading, and to go paint pottery with my friend Paula this afternoon. It should be a good day.

This weekend, I'm sure I'll run more errands, have day of outrage and frustration parts three and four, and then a quiet New Year's with Luke's cousin and family. So if I don't get back to the computer before then, happy New Year everyone. Have a safe and happy one!

Christmas Cuties

I am so sleepy from baking and crafting and all the Christmas chaos that I have nothing interesting to say that doesn't involve complaining.

For today, I'll leave you all with this. My two favorite Chrsitmas cuties - Cameron and Alex.Cameron asked Santa for a robot and a castle and Alex just shook his head and said "uh" which is all he's interested in saying at the moment. Who needs words when you're that cute and have a big brother who is more than happy to speak for you? Cameron's translation is that Alex wants a robot, too.

Merry three days before Christmas!!

I Need Sunshine!

Today is the winter solstice, which means it's not only the first day of winter, it's also the shortest day of the year.

I have been looking forward to this day since November when the days started getting shorter and darker, and I had to put my refelctive vest on in the morning to walk with Molly in the dark where only weeks before it had been light. That's just depressing to me. I have been looking forward to today becasue this is the end of the shortening days. After today, each day gets longer and we gain more and more sunshine with each passing day. Yay. I really need some sunshine, not only for my mood, but also for my translucent skin. Man, am I pale. I put sunless tanner on last night after I realized that I was so white, you could see every vein in my arms through my sad, pale skin.

In other news, the nasty funk that has attempted to settle into my body is still closing in, but it's not slowing the present production schedule. Most gifts are now done, I made great progress on the rocking chair (pictures will come later), and the baking will commence tonight. I think I'm back on schedule. Luke even offered to assemble the gift that came in twenty-seven thousand pieces so that one's off my plate, too. Yay.

Invasion

I'm being attacked and I refuse to submit.

As per my last post, you see that I have a long list of things to do in the next five days. Now is not the time to get sick. I feel lousy, I ache and I'm whiny, but I'm trying to stay positive. I'm fighting back with echinacea, elderberry, zinc and vitamin c, oh, and a big healthy dose of positive thinking.

I. AM. NOT. SICK.

Once, in college, it was final exam time and I was starting to develop one killer of a cold. I remember sitting quietly in my room, breathing deeply and thinking that I cannot get sick, I will not get sick, I can will myself to feel better. I basically meditated on feeling healthy, then drank a half gallon of orange juice and went to bed. The next day I felt better. I'm hoping the same strategy will work again because the last thing I want now is to be sick. I am not sick!

How Did I Get Myself Here?

Today is December 19. That means that there are six days until Christmas. Six days in which I have to work (well I only have to work four of those days), and also I have to:

• finish up shopping for a few last minute gifts
• make cinnamon buns for Christmas Eve breakfast
• make a plan, shop for, and cook Christmas Eve dinner
• bake an apple pie for Christmas
• bake a coffee cake for Girls' Day In, our annual day after Christmas celebration
• assemble a gift that came in twenty-seven thousand pieces (no wonder Santa hires all those elves)
  
• finish knitting (I think the knitting is going to have to be an after-Christmas gift)
• paint the rocking chair I'm planning to give to my nephew (see the above picture - that's how far I've gotten - ug)
• try to finish the jewelry gift experiment I started (which makes me want to poke my eyes out with a soldering iron) so I can have the two gifts I was planning to give all finished
• sew the binding onto a blanket
• bake cookies as thank-you gifts for Luke's helper and pre-loader (nonsense UPS talk)
  
• and I'm sure there's more!

I always give handmade gifts of some sort. To me, making gifts usually isn't stressful. This year I'm actually giving fewer handmade gifts than ever, it just seems that this year's gifts are harder to make. They're all taking so long and that is precious time I do not have! My friend Paula made it even harder by making me promise to only give her things that I have made. I can't buy her anything from a store. That sounded good back in July, but now - holy crap! Paula, I hope you like cookies becasue that might be all I get around to finishing for you! :)

Christmas will be here soon and it will be wonderful. This is only momentary panic and stress I'm feeling and I know that it is nothing compared to the stress your friendly UPS delivery guy is going through right now. If you see one out on the street, give him a hug and thank him for your Amazon.com packages.

Six more days - eeek!

Chocolate Overload

This is a small aside, because you know how your computer can remember the things you type and suggest them to you as you go? Like in the name field of a form, I type an "L" and a drop-down box will suggest "Lisa" so I don't have to type the whole thing. Well just now, as I started to type "Chocolate" in the title field, this was suggested to me: "chocolate AND pot". Who has been using my computer? I especially like the all caps "AND" which, I assume, is from a boolean search, but I like to think it was just the excitement. Chocolate AND pot? No way!

OK, anyhow, what I was going to talk about is chocolate and the vast quantities I have consumed in the past week. It's disgusting how much chocolate I've eaten recently. I just can't help it. Holiday baking, holiday parties, holiday gifts of M&Ms which cannot remain uneaten in my presence, it's a horrible law of nature.

Last night we had a family holiday party at my house and, of course, there was plenty of chocolate. I consumed a better part of it and by midnight had one killer tummy ache. I haven't done that since I was like ten years old. I couldn't fall back to sleep and lay awake in bed thinking that in the morning, if I survived, I would pledge to go all day without chocolate. I survived and I pledged and I want chocolate. I brought raisins and pears to work and thought I'd eat those when I wanted chocolate. Well, it's just not working.

I think I'm addicted. I should go to a support group. Hello, my name is Lisa, and it's been eighteen hours since my last piece of chocolate. Wait, does hot chocolate count?

The Road to Recovery

Here we are at the vet. Molly's least favorite place on the face of the earth. Despite the fact that there are lots of dogs to sniff and treats coming from every direction and people who want to love her and snuggle with her - this is also the place where they give shots and that place, three years ago, where she had to stay overnight and they stole her womanhood. Or something to that effect. Either way, she really hates the vet.

It's the only place where she actually recognizes the parking lot and will hit the deck as soon as we pull in. She hides on the floor of the passenger side of the car and refuses to come out. Once I pry her out of the car like a big meanie, she starts to shake uncontrollably and pant. She does this the entire time we're in the building, unless I let her hide inside my coat, and only then does she relax.

So my poor poopsie had to go to the vet to see about that bladder infection thing. It was all relatively painless, except for that part where they decided to just give her her vaccines today rather than wait a week and a half when her appointment was originally scheduled. Three small shots and a big kiss from the vet. Luckily she blamed him for her discomfort and not me. She refused to take the treat he gave her and dropped it on the examination table as if to say, are you kidding? You think I'd trust YOU?

He did mention some interesting things to me about Miss Molly. For instance, she's a mutt, or "one of a kind" as I like to say, and I thought she was maybe cocker spaniel, poodle and terrier. He believes that she has schnauzer in her, based on some skin things she has going on. Interesting. Cockashanauzapoo? She also licks her feet a lot and I worried she had a food allergy but he said that it was more than likely a seasonal allergy to mold and pollen. Interesting again. Maybe I'll share my Allegra with her.

While we were waiting for the vet to come into the exam room and I was petting Molly's scruffy butt where it was sticking out of my coat, it occurred to me that she hadn't been groomed in a while. She usually goes every six weeks and let's see... last time was about... six weeks ago. CRAP! I checked my calendar and there were no appointments written down. When we left the vet it was 4:30. I called the groomer to see if she had an appointment, which she did at 5:00. Phew! We just made it. So Molly had a stellar day - the vet, shots, AND a bath and a haircut. At least she got it all over with in one day. Now she's all pretty and clean and soon she'll be feeling better.

However you spell that frustrated growling noise you make when something goes wrong - yeah, that's what we'll call this post

Just when I think I want to get another dog, Molly decides to show me that I can barely afford the one I have.

Last year at this time, she split open the pad on her foot on ice. (ICE! can you imagine we had ice at this time last year?) She needed stitches and bandages and office visits. The ordeal caused me incredible anxiety, made me so distracted that I managed to lose my debit card, and cost me a whole lot of money just before Christmas.

This year she's showing symptoms of a bladder infection. A week and a half before she's scheduled to have her annual physical exam, I have to take her in for another office visit so she can have this taken care of. I feel terrible that she might have an infection and might not be feeling well, but an office visit, an exam, a urinalysis, antibiotics, all the extra peanut butter I have to buy to get her to take her antibiotics... ug. I'm not done Christmas shopping! Maybe that tire money I can't seem to give away is going to go to fix my pup. I think one dog is enough.

Happy Birthday Dad!

(Photo courtesy of Cameron taken last Christmas.)

Hope you have a great b-day Dad!

Santa Baby, Just Slip Some Radials Under the Tree

Honestly. How hard do you think it would be to buy tires less than two weeks before Christmas? Who the heck is spending much-needed present money on one of the crappiest ways to blow a ton of money other than gambling or dental work? Apparently everyone and their grandmother is.

Three times now I've tried to go get tires and three times now I've been turned away. A three to four hour wait before they will even LOOK at my car is simply too long for me to wait this time of year. This Santa's little helper has places to go and gifts to buy. I can't spend all day sitting in a waiting room, getting high on the overwhelming scent of rubber.

I had put off getting tires until now because, as you know from my incessant whining about my car, I wasn't sure that spending $500 on tires would be a wise investment, seeing as how everything else north of the tires could explode at any moment. After my miraculous emissions test, though, I now have renewed faith in my car and decided I could finally get tires.

Or so I thought. You see, tires are expensive! Nauseatingly expensive. And I found a good deal at Sam's Club. So that's the only place I want to go. Unfortunately, every other Sam's Club member in the general Manchester, CT area feels the same way. And they all seem to get to Sam's before me. I just can't go somewhere else and spend an extra $100 on the same tires. That's $100 that could be going toward Christmas presents!

So Santa, if you're reading, I've been a mostly good girl. A set of four BF Goodrich 225/75R16s would be awesome! Thanks so much.