and on this day...

...a gift was given to the world. A child was born to the delight of many.

Happy Birthday to me!

So far I'm liking 27. Why? Because I've gotten some pretty awesome gifts. Check them out:

My mother-in-law sent me this a sewing machine, which totally surprised me. I haven't been able to play with it yet, thanks to jparks telling me not to go buy any fabric or patterns and because I'm behind on my crochet homework. (I'm only capable of one craft at a time)


Looky, I can make all kinds of neat stitches!


My bosses gave me the suite at the HP Pavilion for tonight. Why? Because Justin Timberlake is playing there! Holy crap, I'm going with 11 of my friends (or friends of friends) to watch JT shake what God gave him on stage. I'm pretty sure I'll be foaming at the mouth later.


My mom gave me a bracelet that I'm having a hella hard time photographing, so I'll just link to it instead.

Jparks also gave me a bracelet, but I'm thinking of returning it and getting an external camera flash instead. He's also taking me out to dinner somewhere nice. I'm not sure that he knows he taking me out to dinner, but I assure you, it'll happen.

AND, (this birthday list just keeps going on and on) some friends of mine are having a little dinner party for me on Saturday. Yay! Food, cake, and wine (maybe even champagne), I can't wait!

the craft of hooking

A few years ago I decided to pick up knitting as a way to keep my hands busy while I sat and watched tv. I've gotten wicked good at knitting long rectangles, i.e. scarves, but nothing else. The idea of increasing, decreasing, and knitting in the round scares the crap out of me and therefore I've never tried it. Or rather I have tried, failed miserably, and like to pretend I've never tried.

Recently I was thinking about how much the flight back to NOLA sucks and how jparks hates when I bring a big stack of magazines with me on the plane. And this got me thinking how I better find something new and exciting to bring with me when we fly back for the holidays to replace all my magazines. I thought knitting might be a good idea, but the thought of navigating two knitting needles, yarn, and the required book for help in the tight space of an airplane seat was not appealing. Then I started thinking maybe crocheting would be better for these space limitations.

So, of course, I went all gung ho and ordered The Happy Hooker and bought some hooks and yarn. Then one night I settled in to teach myself the art of hooking. And, that same night, I also (almost) threw the hook and book across the room in a fit of frustration. Hooking is hard!

Okay, maybe it's not hard, but it is hard for me to teach myself. Okay, maybe it's hard for me to teach myself with a book written for adults. Feeling rather beaten, I went back to amazon.com and ordered Crocheting: Kids Can Do It. I used the knitting version of this book to learn the basics of that craft, so I'm hoping I can do the same thing for crocheting.

Keep your fingers crossed that I can figure out how to crochet in time for our flight. Otherwise jparks and I will have yet another huge argument over the stack of magazines I have in my backpack. You would think he would see the bright side of my stack: if the plane crashes I'll have enough paper products to make a fire AND allow him some for toilet paper every day. Boys, they are just so illogical.

sew close to being done

Remember my sewing class? Remember the cute, easy clutch everyone was going to get for Christmas? I'll be lucky if I can have one completed anytime soon, much less Christmas gifts for all. It turns out I picked a really bad pattern with really bad instructions. Our instructor told me I get a medal if I complete the clutch. I'm not holding my breath for that damn metal.

This is eventually going to be the strap that keeps my clutch closed:


All I have left to do is attach the guts of the clutch (check it out, I made a pocket):


To this, the outside of the clutch:


As much as I dread going to class I am actually thinking of buying a sewing machine. Maybe for Christmas next year everyone will get a cute clutch. Because, you know, by then I'll have become a sewing master.

taking orders

Tonight I had my first sewing class. Why am I taking a sewing class? Because I didn't take home ec in high school. I didn't even realize home ec was an option. If you were in the gifted classes you don't get to take useful classes like home ec, you get to take fun classes like Biology II AP, because that'll totally be useful when I need some pants hemmed or when my kids want Halloween costumes made. Thank god I dissected that rat in high school, that knowledge has come in so handy.

Anyway, tonight I went to my first class and picked out my very first pattern to sew. It's a super cute clutch. Tiny and easy. If it comes out well I'm going to make another in a black fabric for holiday parties. And then I'm going to make one for every person I know for Christmas. Even the guys. Get your color requests in now.*


*Please note that just because you get a request in doesn't guarantee you a clutch. I am known for being lazy and only half completing projects. Check out my rubbermaid knitting crate for proof of my laziness.