A Blog Post Four Days in the Making

Wow, that title makes it seem like I’ve been doing some TERRIBLY INTERESTING THINGS, doesn’t it?  Nah, not really.  But contrary to a recent post, I do spend my time in pursuits other than “messing with Texas.”

I’VE BEEN READING

Did you know that February is (among many other things)  Library Lovers’ Month?  So far I’m enjoying our library here.  All the branches are pretty small and appear to be grossly underused, but the upside is that many popular books are usually available or have a ridiculously short wait for holds.  On average I visit the library twice a week.

This month has also seen the revival of my long-neglected litblog, Paper Diet Books.  Now you can follow my “now reading” and “recently reviewed” in the sidebar on the right (lucky you).

I’VE BEEN PRETENDING TO BE CRAFTABULOUS

I have a strange relationship with the world of crafting.  I possess zero skills and the farthest thing from an “artistic eye,” but I like to dabble.  I borrow tons of books from the library (see, I told you I read!) on everything from knitting to sewing to macrame jewelry making.  I don’t usually have enough patience to read through every single instruction, so my resulting “crafts” are a little haphazard.  I also don’t like having to go spend a bunch of money buying every suggested material, so I just try to use what I have on hand.  That also adds to the Frankenstein quality of my products!

Here are some of my latest projects (feel free to guffaw):

a little quilt pillow:

I had thought about *really* reading up on how to quilt, but instead I just went to Joann’s and bought two fabric quarters that looked good together and figured I could at least sew some squares together.  When I was done with the block, it was so cute (see…my standards here are pretty low) I decided to sew a flat block of the darker green onto the back and stuff it with some fluff.  Viola!  A little pillow.  Never mind the 43-odd mistakes I made, it’s still something I did myself.

Here’s another quilt block I tried…

Nevermind that I apparently cannot sew in anything but a straight line (and I think it’s a miracle I can do THAT).  I wanted to badly to just *finish* this that the rounded pieces are actually stuck to the other pieces with fusable web.  Any port in a storm.

Here’s something I made yesterday:

Go ahead, you can say it – it’s kinda ugly.  The color remind me of a 1970′s afghan.  It’s all I had at home, though, and I wanted to see if I could do it.  While I was out last night I stopped at Joann’s again and found some prettier embroidery floss (I’ll move up to actual jewelry cord when I’m good and ready!) and better beads, so I’ll give it another go.

Finally, I’ve been drooling over this book I found at the library:

The entire gorgeously-colored book is a how-to on different patterns you can do in knit and purl.  I’ve been having fun just making little random swatches of patterns.  Pretty soon, though, I’m going to graduate to trying to make a bag or some socks with some *adorable* zebra-patterned yarn I found.

moving on…

I’VE BEEN IMAGINING STRANGE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN MY BABY AND HIS TOYS

“First I’m gonna get ‘ya, and then I’m gonna eat ‘ya!”

“Do not worry my little horsey friend.  You shall be next!  (mwahahaha)”

I’VE BEEN CRASHING PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES

Ok, so just *one* Presidential Library.  Last week on my husband’s birthday, we decided to drive up to College Station.  Really for no other reason than to get out and see more of our surroundings.  We saw the campus of Texas A&M, which was just like every other college campus we’ve seen.  And then we drove to the George Bush Presidential Library.  Apparently you can’t “just go” there.  They don’t let you in unless you’ve called 24hrs in advance with a specific area of research you are focused on.  No browsing the stacks allowed.  Silly us!  And then the museum itself cost $7/person, and since neither of us voted for Father George, we just called it good and went on our merry way.

One nice thing about that entire drive was that as we were heading east from the College Station area towards a town called Conroe, we passed through an area that actually reminded us of either the high desert of Eastern Oregon or even maybe the Sierra Nevadas in California.  Of course that part of the drive only lasted for about 45 seconds, but it was a nice change!  We also got a little thrill out of the one tiny spot on the road at which the front of our car was a smidge higher than the back of our car, indicating an atypical rise in landscape here.  I think it might have been what they call a Texas Hill.

I’VE BEEN LEARNING HOW TO “CVS” 

There may have been CVS/pharmacy stores in Oregon, but I had never seen nor been in one.  There are approximately 18 in my town here in Texas (okay…maybe just 8 or so!).   Last week I stumbled upon an internet phenomenon wherein money-wise moms teach each other how to make the most of CVS’s rewards card system.  I’m still very confused by the whole thing, but basically they can teach you how to begin going home with (for example) $50 worth of goods for less than $10.  There’s nothing shady about it – just a very sharp sense of how to use the rewards, watch for coupons, double your deals, and so forth.  That’s all I’ll say (’cause I’m still trying to figure out if it’s all worth it for me!), but if you’re curious, you can learn more at Money Saving Mom.

SO THAT’S MY RECENT LIFE in a nutshell.  I left out details and pictures of the laundry I do, the dishes I clean, the toilets I unclog, basically because I’d like you to continue visiting me here!  Now I’m off to go figure out what to do next!

You might also enjoy these related posts from Tree, Root, and Twig:

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2. CLOSED: Scholastic’s 39 Clues Blog Tour – Stop #6 – Review, Guest Post, & Giveaway!
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