I am thankful for dirt.

Things about Minnesota that I am thankful for and maybe someday will inspire a craft:


My family.

Freshly fallen snow that coats every little tiny twig on every tree-lined street, but only until it becomes a world of slush made gray by car exhaust.

Lakes. So many lakes.

Fireplaces that actually get used.

Summer sunsets at 9 pm.

Hotdish. Where would we be without tuna noodle casserole?

The MINNESOTA TWINS.

The North Shore. It's the Hamptons of MN.

Target. You're welcome.

Green bean casserole, preferably made with nothing but canned ingredients.

Dirt; specifically the warm kind that smells good because it is a reminder that it's summer.


I don't know how any of these could translate into a craft, but perhaps it'll be an interesting quest to embark upon, like the Native Americans discovering Grand Portage.*


*It wouldn't actually be anything like that, but I needed a MN-related simile.

Practical Layers with Impractical Shoes

Practical Layers with Impractical Shoes by Theresa 'Orr' Bernard featuring a vneck tee

It snowed the other day and I've still been able to resist getting out my long underwear. Must. Build. Tolerance.

I should be spending this afternoon off by preparing for the HandmadeMN Market this Saturday, but I'm not. I'm catching up on my stories and eating pizza rolls in an effort to distract myself from the insane, horrible, profound, soul-wrenching itchiness on my back. Eleven months of all-over skin irritation finally drove me to a patch testing clinic. A hundred and twenty-some patches were placed on Monday, followed by two excruciating days of wanting to set piranhas on myself. The patches came off today for an initial "reading," and the good news is that we might be figuring out the problem. The bad news is that I might be allergic to my clothes. So, since I'm not allowed to actually scratch the damn itch, I'm treating myself to a day in front of the television while attempting to numb 3/4 of my back with ice. This is the life(?).

Let's return to some normalcy, shall we?

Another HandmadeMN Market is coming up on November 20th! I am super behind on making new stuff, but I have done some holiday gift tags, and here is a preview:

I am so sorry about this post.

You know, I was just thinking to myself, "self, what if instead of writing a blog about the mundane goings-on of a crafter, you wrote about the mundane status of your health and various medications? On one hand, the topics are equally uninteresting to a world of people who are busy with their own crafts and have their own bodies and minds to worry about. On the other, they're both just about the nitty-gritty of life, to which everyone can relate. Plus people are super voyeuristic and will read just about anything."

And then I was all, "you know, that's all true, but the real benefit of a state-of-being blog such as we're discussing is that it will finally give the elderly motivation to join the internets!"*

And then I wondered how a post might go, and imagined this:

Dear Electronic Universe,
Well, the diverticulitis is flaring up again. At least I think that's what the pain in my side and the random diarrhea is. I don't know why in God's name I ate that popcorn last night. The chlordiazepoxide does nothing, so I'm going to take Martha's advice and ask the doctor for ciprofloxacin, which you have to take three times a day** unfortunately. That'll make 13 pills every 24 hours! Doc has to adjust my thyroid medication, too. And then add to that the antibiotic ointment he'll most likely prescribe for my eczema. Guess I'll be sleeping with socks on my hands again!

See, I made most of that up*** and it was still really cathartic. And I bet there's a heap of folks who would commiserate on any one of the many implicated ailments. If I were elderly I might not have included links, because I probably couldn't figure out how to do it,**** and let's hope I couldn't figure out how to upload pictures because there is a time and place for visuals and this would not be it, but old people often lose their sense of inhibition and do some pretty crazy - and sometimes nasty - stuff.*****


* It's not habitual for me to have discussions with myself like this.
** No idea what the dosage is, and I don't care.
*** Actually, this just a small sample of some of the medical problems plaguing my family members.
**** I feel really bad about saying that. It's just that my grandma, whom I love dearly, has a lift chair with three buttons that she cannot master. It frustrates her and everyone else, but it is what it is. Not 30 myself, I can tell my brain function is not what it used to be - *possibly* due to computer use, but that would be entirely counterproductive to point out here.
***** I feel bad about saying this, too. But that same grandmother, and her mother before her (both well past the age of 80 at their respective outbursts), has declared, "ah, bit by the trouser worm!" after learning of some relatives' pregnancy or other.

Kids craft the darnedest things

Well, even though there has been little to no crafting going on in my house of late (*sob*), the kids have been creating all kinds of treasures and graciously gifting them to me.

For instance, this bookmark Laura made by using some fancy scissors on a bit of scrapbooking paper. It is sparkly and I love it.


And this painting Sammy did depicting a race track with race cars all around. One of the red ones (or possibly all of the red ones) is Lightening McQueen.


If you're familiar with Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages - which I put some amount of stock in - you'll understand when I say that I'm "gifts." Perhaps perceived as the shallow, materialistic love language, "gifts" people like myself are not really looking for things so much as the thought and effort behind those things. So when a six-year-old gives you something she would not use or necessarily care about but knows you'll use because she's drawing on something she knows about you (in this case, that I like to read), it's kind of perfect.

Which isn't to say that I can't appreciate gifts of sweet electronics and the like.

Hawaii Part 2: Wherein we battle sand, bugs, ski slopes, and the Phoenix airport.

This is the view from our hosts' abode. I mean, I guess it's ok. From my own home you can see a bar, a mill that emits a putrid dog-food smell as it is currently being torn down, and the orange abomination that is our neighbor's house. There is also a lovely view into our back yard where we have a classy chicken-wire fence around our mostly bare/dead garden.


Naturally, with the splendors of tropical heaven all around us, we spent some time indoors playing with the Pattersons' new Wii Fit. I can happily report that my Wii Fit age is 31, only two years older than I actually am. I can also report that anything having to do with coordination is bound to be a fiasco, while I am awesome at anything having to do with luck or with standing mostly still. So...nothing has changed since grade-school. For example, trying to head-butt soccer balls was IMPOSSIBLE, but I ruled the ski jump:

None of the following people are any of us. The only surfer in the group had a broken leg. I'd like to say that I would try surfing, but I'm not that good of a swimmer, plus I had enough trouble just staying upright in the breaking waves on shore. Followed by a whole lot of trouble with sand in places sand should not be.


The sand in Minnesota is totally different - tiny little balls that roll right off the skin. In Hawaii the sand is made of bits of shell that suction themselves to you. Everywhere. So that's one drawback to paradise. The other is that there are cockroaches and poisonous centipedes. But Raid smells surprisingly good.

And this is a mountain by some name that rests in an area I don't know that was once described by a very famous author whose name I forget as "the best view in the world." I don't go on vacation to learn.


PS - Did you know that the Delta gates at the Phoenix airport are not in the main terminal? We didn't either, until we had toured the whole thing in our hour-long layover before being told to exit the airport, take a bus to another area, and re-enter through security. We were those people running through the airport with unwieldy rolling luggage, swearing and sweating profusely because we layered for the frigid airplanes but it was 90 degrees in Arizona. I was the last person to board after running to the gate in my socks. I WIN, PHX!

Made in MN Blogventure Wednesday FINALE: My Favorite Things

Here I am at the end of my blog adventure that began almost five months ago. It took less time than I thought it would, but it did inspire me to really appreciate the talent that resides within a radius of just hours from my own home. I have to apologize to the shops who were not featured; it was not purposeful. Every shop was included unless it was on vacation or would not load at the time of my creating the treasury. If I were more organized, I would have kept track so I could go back and feature those who I missed. Maybe I'll get it together someday, but in any case I hope to continue to find time to peruse Etsy between work and family and selling the house and random medical mysteries and whatnot.

This last treasury is just some of my very favorites from the past five months.


MY FAVORITE THINGS
featuring

A Handmade Princess
Round Bottom Baby
Veske by Lindsay
Crafterall
Christine by Hand
Rose and Vinnie
My Friend London
Western Art Glass
Oh Hi Shop
One 9 Designs
Cholula Jewelry
XO Handworks
Just Another Day Designs
Mary Foster Creative
Owl Shop
Vintage Recreations

Made in MN Blogventure Wednesday 16: Just a Little Something

The premise:
This blogventure celebrates my favorite colors, blue and green, while paying homage to the awesomeness of the HandmadeMN members via Etsy treasuries. Each one features items from a particular crafting category as listed on the HandmadeMN blog. If you like the items, leave a comment on the treasury - comments will bump the treasury toward the top of the list so other folks are more likely to view it and give some love to these fabulous artists!

Some categories have just a few shops and others have so many that they'll cover more than one week; I want everybody to get fair attention, so you might see some random treasuries here and there. It'll take at least six months to get through all the HandmadeMN shops, so saddle up!

Ammendment 1 (8.8.10): When I say "Wednesday" I really mean any day of the week.


This week:
JUST A LITTLE SOMETHING
featuring

Cayenne Peppy
Artistic Edition
A Handmade Princess
Creative Fabrications
Gingham Life
Glorious Hats
Julie Meyer
Kelly Hanson Handmade
looks SEW nice
Mary Littfin
Palette Passion
Pins with Fury
Seedling Design
Skylark Dawn
The Cozy Corset Cuff
Wynzia

Hawaii Part 1: Wherein we spend our second honeymoon with four friends.

Ignoring the hacked up photoshopping job I did to edit out some people and make this beach appear more exclusive than it actually was, you can totally see how awesome it is in Hawaii. It's just that beer bellies don't really sell a place. It was my favorite beach out of the many that we visited on the north shore of Oahu, where there are inexplicably NO hotels other than the Turtle Bay resort. But that didn't so much matter because we were able to stay with the newly-wed Pattersons. Some couples go on vacation to reconnect; we use romantic beach scenes as rendezvous points to meet with worldly friends and invade the homes of folks married less than two months.


Waimea beach is about ten minutes from our hosts' abode. Fifteen minutes away is the renowned Turtle Bay, where you can get ridiculously expensive facials and actually see hoards of sea turtles. The feral cat hanging around the spa was slightly off-puting, but the *free* shower caps made up for it. In between Turtle Bay and "home" is Sunset beach, where the great Pacific Ocean claimed the rental car keys. At least I got an opportunity to snap this horrible pic of a TINY egret while we waited for a ride. These things were everywhere and only about 10" tall. Super cute.


And here we are, sans Hubs who is taking the pictures. Gimpy McGimperson, The Bride, me, Baby Mama, and Morning Fox.


In celebration of Gimpy's 30th birthday we spent a night in Waikiki and stayed in the very same hotel where Hubs and I had our honeymoon five years ago. We also spent the week eating massive quantities of food, especially meat. Also, vacationing with friends is very, very dangerous for the pocketbook. All for the birthday. Yes, the birthday.




In the next installment: we battle sand, bugs, ski slopes, and the Phoenix airport.

Made in MN Blogventure Wednesday 15: Art...Is

The premise:
This blogventure celebrates my favorite colors, blue and green, while paying homage to the awesomeness of the HandmadeMN members via Etsy treasuries. Each one features items from a particular crafting category as listed on the HandmadeMN blog. If you like the items, leave a comment on the treasury - comments will bump the treasury toward the top of the list so other folks are more likely to view it and give some love to these fabulous artists!

Some categories have just a few shops and others have so many that they'll cover more than one week; I want everybody to get fair attention, so you might see some random treasuries here and there. It'll take at least six months to get through all the HandmadeMN shops, so saddle up!

Ammendment 1 (8.8.10): When I say "Wednesday" I really mean any day of the week.


This week:
ART...IS
featuring

Choosing Beauty
Cindy Lindgren
Foxglove Photographics
Linden Leaf Designs
Locality
MT Art for Empty Walls
Olivia Moore Art
Red Shoes Design
Sarah Thole
Starglow Studio
Meredith Dillman