Another Monday

Went to work, busy, busy, busy. It's tourist season down this way already. It's February, it's 70 degrees and tourists are invading in record numbers. Heaven help me.

On to Happier Subjects

My neighbor gave me an old Annie's Crochet Newsletter from July-August 1986. Inside is a Mermaid pillow. I'll scan the pic and hopefully post it tomorrow. I'm normally not a cutesy kind of chick but I like this mermaid pillow and am trying to figure out how I can work the front side of the pillow into a ripple afghan. You know start crocheting a ripple then somehow add in a square of the mermaid pillow top, of course this means I'll have to actually square off the mermaid pillow since she's shaped like a mermaid right now, and then restart the ripple where the mermaid block ends. Not sure if this is anything that can actually be done, but I think if I can make it work it might be a pretty cool afghan. The pattern has the tail crocheted in dark green but I'm hoping to track down some glittery green, not Christmas green, but something in the green family that has some sparklie thread running through it. Or maybe I can combine a green worsted with a sparklie gold or silver yarn? Ideas, anyone? Or maybe do her a striped tail. Lots of ideas rolling around my brain at the moment. It would definitely be more of an "art" afghan than one that you'd snuggle under. I mean the memaid has pigtails, but I was thinking I could maybe use Red Heart Ocean for the water part of the quilt and scatter several mermaids throughout the top with different colored hair and tails, maybe crochet some seashells, if I can figure out how to make those up, and sew them onto to the top. Could be fun to play around with anyway. At least I'm inspired. My neighbor has a huge stack of old Annie's Crochet Newsletters and Easy Crochet or something like that. I would have loved to curl up in a corner with that stack of magazines for a few hours. Lots of neat ideas in that pile of magazines.

Movies

Our local video store has a sale on right now, used DVDs for $7.95. Today I popped in to see what they had and walked out with I, Robot and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.

Reading

Right now I'm reading "You Slay Me" by Katie MacAlister. I'm so loving this book. No, it's not going to make me a better person, no, it's not going to enlighten me, it's not going to make me smarter but it is so making me happy. Just a good, fun read. Sometimes we need that. Blatant escapism.

JoAnn's Stash

Walked out of JoAnn's Saturday with 7, count 'em 7, patterns for tote bags. I was in and out in about 15 mins. Not bad. I also bought some lime green fabric to use as lining for my first tote bag.

Organizing

After losing my quilting pins I've decided that I need to seriously consider getting organized. Maybe I would be able to find something when I need it. I have all my knitting things stored together and most of my cross stitch accessories stored together and all my crochet hooks stored together, but my sewing stuff is kind of all over the place and not where I thought it was. I think if I took an accurate accessment of all my crafty supplies and made a serious attempt to get all organized I might actually get more things not only started but maybe finished. What a concept!

I'm also thinking about making a concentrated effort to buy 2 yards of quilting fabric every week. Just to start building a fabric stash. Like I need another stash. But most of the fabric in my stash is 1980s calico with a few newer prints here and there. Not a lot of new stuff. Most of the new stuff I bought with a quilt in mind. I really want to get back into quilting. It's just a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK. I don't enjoy cutting out all the pieces but I do enjoy sewing them together. I like handpiecing. It's like cross stitch and crochet, it's portable and has a quiet rythmn to it. I want to learn to use my machine to piece because you can really crank out some quilts when piecing on the machine but at the same time you are a slave to the machine. With handpiecing you can piece anywhere, anytime.

Anyway, I need to sit down and evaluate the cross stitch stash, WIPs and things I want to kit up to start in the near future. There are a few things calling to me but I keep shoving them to the bottom of the pile. I really need to finish Fairy Grandmother. My grandmother was in the hospital this weekend, they are trying to determine whether or not she had a heart attack. It's time to make Fairy Grandmother my focus and get her finished.

At the same time, I want to start TW's Mermaid. I'm kicking myself for not buying all the DMC for her this weekend while JoAnn's had DMC 5/$1. But fortunately DMC is not expensive and I just need to remember to put the list in my purse and buy a few skeins every time I go to the "store who shall not be named" and JoAnn's. I'm in no way ready to start her but I'm kind of anal and want fresh floss for all my projects. At least for big ones like a TW. So what if I have tons left over, it will all eventually get used. I do use from the stash for smaller projects.

I also have a couple of crochet projects I want to start. One is the Crazy Quilt coverlet from the BH&G's Simply Creative Crochet. It's all kitted and ready to go. I also want to work on my 63 Squares CAL afghan. I've let it sit neglected for far too long. I think I'm going to go on and finish it in the colors I already selected. And of course I want to play around with mermaid idea. I think I may try to do a prototype mermaid block this weekend. I need to pick up a few colors. I may try to see if I can make her tail longer and go down instead of just doing the one that curls up sort of in a U shape. I'm really talking like I have some kind of a clue about what I want to do aren't I?