I feel very, very guilty.

Hubs had surgery last week on his foot. There was cutting, of course, but also there was sawing and screwing. Basically, they made him an arch. Gross. Painful. And I am now playing Dobby to his Harry Potter. Which is fine; I've only wanted to smack him a handful of times. I guess sometimes I'm Kreacher.

So he's been living on the couch with his foot elevated and various Netflix programs running for about 12-18 hours a day. Sure, I've kept the kitchen clean and done laundry, but what else do I do? I do not knit. I do not do the Egret Effects taxes that I don't know how to do. I sit and watch episodes of Futurama, all of which I've seen, or episodes of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations," which I don't even like.

I'm seriously going to consider giving up TV for lent next year. It's obviously too late this year because lent has already begun. And obviously I need my Catholic guilt to motivate a change that is otherwise unthinkable. And obviously I know that giving things up for lent is not necessarily as important as doing extra things for the good of the world and/or the soul...does caring for a baby count?

For now there is still the guilt over the taxes.

Super random post about broken needles and prodding the mind. Not in reference to a singular occurance, because that would hurt A LOT.

*cue taps*
This was one of my first sets of needles. But size six is no match for knitting front/back several times in a row. I'm a tight knitter, and this sequence of stitches just makes the yarn tighter and tighter and harder to stretch and then almost impossible to manipulate and then SNAP! For some reason I only had four to begin with, so I guess it's time to make a trip to the store.


So there's some trivial news. Also, I wanted to share this post I read today on Feministing about makeup. I wear it sometimes (ok, rarely - mostly because I'm lazy) and make no judgments on whatever people like to do (except clowns - they're frickin weird); I just find the concept fascinating. I do hate cosmetic advertising, though. Hate it. I swear, in no other industry is it so accepted to market products that promise ideals and results they can't possibly deliver. Whatever. Calm down. Ok, seriously the post is good. It got my brain working.

TWO FOR ONE: fails post

Waaa waaahhhhhh.


I know this doesn't really LOOK like a fail (except for the unreasonably short tassels, but I'll probably fix those so LEAVE ME ALONE!), but, as you may or may not recall, it's the item I've been planning to donate to the Red Scarf Project - the deadline for which was December 15th. Well, it's December 17th and the box is sitting in the car all ready to ship. It's not in Sterling, VA. where it should be so it can be dispersed yet somewhere else in the country to a college kid who has exited the foster system. So, um, I guess this will donated next year.

Also, you may or may not recall, I've been working on some boots for Penny because she is small and fragile and at the same time very energetic. After many hours of knitting, cutting, sewing, and assembling here's what I got:


Times four, of course. And actually, this isn't the finished product - the finished ones are lined with burgundy felt, have a velcro closure, and have a leather pad on the bottom. So yesterday we put them to the test! Me in my coat, cowl, hat, mittens, and boots and Penny in her sweater (which, by the way, matches my hat, thank you very much) and her brand new snow shoes! Sure, she was weirded out at first, but the excitement of a walk totally overrode the misgivings as soon as we stepped outside.

But they aren't long enough! They kept falling off, so I was forced to stuff them in my pocket and move along. Sure enough, three short blocks later Penny pretty much shut down and refused to walk, so then I was the loser carrying a dog.

Wristy-cuff; half-fail

I had a wee bit of this Patons Kroy Socks Stripes yarn in mulberry (which I don't think they carry anymore) left after making some tiny sweater/stocking ornaments and Penny's doggie boots (more on those later). This was supposed to be a little scarf for Penny to match the boots, but I ran out of yarn so it morphed into a wristy-cuff with a double button.

Sculpter I am not

When playing with playdoh, we like to make:
1) oddly colored spaghetti (in hot pink or nuclear green)
2) long, thin rolls which can become snakes, worms, tails, tongues, boogers, eyebrows, earrings, mustaches, fu manchus, or soul patches. Really any kind of facial hair.
3) sculptures:



Um, it's a labrador and a jack russell. Duh. See the long tail/ears and the short tail/ears? Anatomically correct, my sculptures are. Good, my sculptures are not.

Dear Bruce,

I'm so sorry I failed at making your decorative collar. I thought I measured it out right, but it ended up being about five inches too long. Also, I totally messed up your name. It's practically illegible. Obviously, my tension with the white lettering was vastly different from that of the blue strap. And as you can see, the result is a sad, disjointed row of letters - some of which are squished, and the rest of which are stretched. Wah waahhhh.

Humbly yours,
Theresa

Fail: A sad new category that starts with a tree

It pains me to say it, but sometimes I fail. In the interest of humbling myself and hoping for some cathartic experiences I'm going to share my fails. Do not laugh! Ok, laugh a little. I've laughed many times at my own foibles - but only after crying inside for the exact number of hours it took me to make the piece of crap in the first place.


This was supposed to be a felted tree on which I was going to put interchangeable accents for various seasons. Red i-cord garlands and a star topper for Christmas, a tiny bird's nest for spring, etc. etc. Well, the felting didn't go as planned and now - if you have that sort of mind - it just resembles a green you-know-what.

There are many reasons it failed: I made it in a way that I had to stuff if before felting, my washing machine won't run a hot cycle on anything other than "delicate," and I was making up the pattern as I went. The undersides of the tiers need to be flatter and the top needs to be sharper. Since it didn't felt down as much as I had wanted, it just ended up looking lumpy and it won't stand up straight.

Blurg!