I sent of my contribution to the Sweet & Sinister Swap yesterday and got this box in return. It was stuffed to the gills with neat things - things that I enjoyed opening and looking at, and decorating my house with. Handmade things. The aesthetic is so different than that of the box I sent in, that I really hope my partner likes it. I didn’t get to make as many things as I had hoped to, and I’m afraid my contribution looks a little skimpy in comparison to what I received. What is that they say? Less is more?

Ginny, if you’re reading this, thank you so much - I love everything!  And I hope you enjoy what I sent you.

We went on a class trip this morning.  Pumpkin picking and a hay ride.  Somebody got a little dirty…  I’d love to chat all about it, and tell you about my trip to Super Suppers last night, but I need a nap.  I haven’t been sleeping well the last two nights, and I may doze off right here right now.    All I need to do is find something to occupy the Little Cherub. Right now he’s leaning his chin on my arm trying out different ways to say the word “pickle” and that just won’t do

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

It’s swappin’ time, and there’s nothing like leaving it to the  last minute, eh?  You may recall me mentioning the Sweet & Sinister Swap?  Well, the box is due to be mailed tomorrow.  Want to see what I’m putting in the box to my partner, Ginny?

• I’ve had the BOO! banner for some time now - bought it from Nikki of WhiMSyLove, who custom-made it for me.
• The pumpkins I bought at the farmers’ market one recent Thursday, and I painted the stems with black nail polish to make them look a bit creepier.
• The licorice I’ve had in mind since the beginning (it’s considered “sinister” because there are 13 pieces - yeah, I know it’s a stretch).
• I made a pin from polymer clay - three white pumpkins with black stems, and each pumpkin has a “patch” from the Grayscale color scheme.  I then antiqued, sanded & buffed it.  It really didn’t come out like I envisioned, but it’s still ok.
• The card and tags I made in Paint Shop Pro, fiddling around with patterns, textures, fonts & effects. That’s always fun.

Now all that remains is to box it all up and put it in the mail.  I hope my partner likes it.  I’ve never done a swap like this, and frankly the more things I see in the flickr group, the more it drives home the point that my crafting style is very different than many of the people in this swap.

Lacking an appropriate segue, I’m going to just jump into showing you my husband’s pants.  This are very soft, very nicely-worn-in Wranglers that just happen to have a gaping hole in the knee.  Or, at least, they were.  This morning, after mulling over Eren’s skirt at This Vintage Chica, I took a seam ripper and a pair of scissors to Neil’s pants and repurposed them into this:

Because everybody knows I need another homemade skirt. It looks crooked, but that’s just the way I am standing.  This is quite possibly the softest skirt I have ever worn.  Neil broke it in for me over several years, and I think tonight after he dozes off, I may sneak into his closet and look for more pants I can steal recycle.  Heh.

You may also have noticed that I got sucked in by the new Old Navy sweater commercial.  Two nights ago, I was sitting on the couch with Neil watching TV and saying, “I like that sweater with the big pom-poms on it.”  One evening later, I’m out renting The Ant Bully for Movie Night, and somehow I end up trying on sweaters and buying my first ever cup of $3.75 coffee (Oh, Decaf Tall Pumpkin Spice Latte. I think I love you.  Call me.)  The newly-crisp Fall air does something weird to me, but in a good, happy kind of way

I’m going to be so busy this week, it isn’t even funny.  A little bird has told me that the long-awaited Millefiori Story is going to be in my hot little hands very very soon.  And that means I am going to be very very busy packing up those suckers and sending them on their way to eager clayheads everywhere.

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

Oh, green, how I love thee. Green makes me happy You know what else apparently makes me happy this week? Pictures of feet on busy-patterned tiled flooring. It’s funny I should have two images like that in my favorites.

Speaking of my favorites, I found a nifty screen saver today at Wackylabs.net. You can configure it to cycle randomly through your own Flickr photos, images from a group pool, or the photos you have favorited. I’ve got it showing my favorites today, but I’m sure I’ll get tired of that soon and change it to something else. Maybe the Color Challenge pool? The only drawback I’m seeing so far to this screen saver is that it appears to be a memory hog. Every time I try to use my laptop after the ss has kicked in, I have to wait for it to chug along for a few minutes before I can get down to business. I have to see if it’s any better when I don’t use the full screen mode.

Ok, now here is something that I found very cool. If you saw last month’s Color Challenge results, you may recognize these plates & bowls as the work of Orly Rabinowitz. And, if you’ve ever checked out my tutorials, you may also recognize that this batch was made in part using my School Spirit cane! I am so jazzed about seeing one of my designs re-interpreted and used in someone else’s work. She did something with it that I never could, and I love that!

This heart was made by Robin Milne at the same Dan Cormier class that I took back in June. The veneer she used was made with my Weave Cane tutorial. Isn’t it great? Once again, somebody took something I came up with, and used it to create an object fairly different than I  would have. I’ve seen this heart in person, and it is so smooooooooooooth and shiny - just beautiful.

Are you starting to see a trend here? I get excited, people, when you use my tutorials, and I post about you and your wonderful work, and make you famous! Ok, well, maybe you won’t get famous off of the exposure, but it will give you a warm, fuzzy feeling, I hope. Go check out the tutorials if you haven’t already, and be sure to post what you make to the Flickr group!

You know I took a two-day blogging break, so I’ve got more to talk about - you still with me? Alrighty then, here we go. School started this week.

Yesterday was the first day of Second Grade for my Good Son who knows how to smile sweetly at his mother when she holds up the camera and says “smile!”

Today was the first day of Preschool Year Two for the Other Son who just doesn’t get the whole smiling sweetly thing at all. *sigh*

He makes a mean Professor Poopypants, though, I must say… Tonight was our “Special Night” and he chose to draw characters out of a Captain Underpants book together. This was the first one we did, and I was duly impressed with his. He doesn’t draw a heck of a lot, so I was actually surprised that it even resembled the character a little. We also drew the Turbo Toilet 2000, and Captain Underpants himself, before putting away the pencils in favor of a quick Curious George episode before bed.

I’ve got one more quick image in me before my bleary eyes totally betray me and force me to close the laptop.

I found these great little white pumpkin-shaped gourds at the farmer’s market this week.  I think they are perfect for the Sweet & Sinister Swap and I can’t wait to stick them in with the rest of the loot I am collecting up for this.  I hadn’t realized they came in this color until I saw them in a Martha Stewart book, so I was thrilled to find them the first place I looked.  I have to go back to that market next week and get myself a big basket of gourds for the coffee table.  I love autumnal decorations

Ok, I’m done.   You may go now.   Thanks for hangin’ with me.  (I was just going to say “enjoy what is left of your Friday night, but I see that unless you are significantly west of my position, it’s already too late…)

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

So, I got those zinnias I wanted… Aren’t they pretty? I went to Hillview Farms yesterday, wandered into their little shop, and was told that they didn’t have any flowers already cut. I got a pair of scissors and a bushel basket and hiked out to the field to cut my own. I was kicking myself for not bringing the camera along - I saw so many beautiful butterflies, and a tiny furry creature that may have been a baby mouse, or possibly a baby rabbit. It was tiny, dark gray, and sitting outside of its hole. Cute little thing, and it didn’t even think to run away when I got close.

The flowers look so pretty on my coffee table. Zinnias are kind of a tradition for me. Years ago, when I worked at GAF, I would often stop on my way home in late summer/early fall, and buy a bunch like these. There was one lady who sold them at her house - you pulled in the driveway, beeped the horn, and she’d come out and sell you a small bouquet for $5. If I took a different route home, past a small farm, there used to be a cart out on the lawn where they’d have self-serve flowers. You could take a bunch and leave $5 in the box. I haven’t had a job to drive home from in 7 years, and so there haven’t been many spur-of-the-moment late summer bouquets around the house during that time, and I’ve missed them!

I also picked up a basket of apples while I was at the farm yesterday. It’s just not September without apples! I was told these are Honeycrisps, which is a new variety that’s pretty much got it all - sweet, tart, crispy, juicy, good for eating, good for baking - everything! After that endorsement, I couldn’t wait to try them, and I ate one on my way home. They were everything the apple lady said they were. Well, except “good for baking”- I have yet to test that claim, but I will, and I’m sure they’ll pass! I just need to figure out what to make with them. There’s always the old Apple Crisp standby, which I love, but it might not be the best thing for my waistline right now  Neil suggested Baked Apples like we had at The Blue Violet Mansion in Napa, CA on our honeymoon, 12+ years ago. I’d forgotten all about those. If I can find a good recipe, maybe I’ll make them for breakfast tomorrow. It would be a nice change of pace from our usual granola bar or Pop Tart breakfasts.

I joined ArtsyMama’s Sweet & Sinister Swap last week.  It’s the first of its kind for me.  I’ve done polymer clay swaps before, where you make 15  of the same thing, send them all to the swapmeister, and get back a  package with 15 different things within the swap theme that other people made.  This swap is different, in that it’s a one-on-one thing.  I was assigned a partner, and now we have until October 1st to mail each other a box of items that fit the swap theme.  This is going to be a challenge - staying within budget ($15) and finding things that fit the theme (something sweet, something sinister, something handmade, and something home decor-ish).  Oh, and did I mention that everything has to be black & white?  I know what I want to do for something sweet.  As for the rest, maybe I can just handmake a piece of sinister home decor and kill three  birds with one stone 

I’m thinking some books & magazines might help me get a handle on what I want to do.  I’ve never been a huge Halloween fan, but something about the vintage-creepy feel of this swap appealed to me, and I’d like to focus on that.  That look is not really my forte, so it’s  a bit of  a challenge.  Coincidentally, Somerset Holidays & Celebrations showed up last week.  If anybody’s got vintage-creepy down, the folks at Stampington do.  I flipped through it once, but I’m definitely going to have to go back to it again and see if anything sparks some ideas.  I am also pretty sure I have a creepy Martha Stewart Halloween book around here somewhere that has got to have something worthwhile in it.

So, anyway, between the zinnias, the apples, and the swap, it’s looking like summer is fading fast around here.  The boys start school next week, and already the early mornings and late nights have been sweater-worthy.  My feet, which are up on my desk right now, barefoot, are feeling a little chilly as we speak.  Oh, poor toes, the day is coming when you will be confined to socks.  Enjoy your freedom now, little ones, and when the time comes to envelop you in warmth, I promise to do my best to find you soft and pretty clothes.  You deserve better than white tube socks with holes in the heels.

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.