So, I cleaned my room. I went through all my craft stuff. I put all my yarn in a storage bench. And folks, if I want to move that mess again, I will have to find vehicle lifts, because it is a lot of heavy stuff. I need to get crafting. The good news is that this semester is almost over, and soon I will be able to do just that. And cook. And clean. And breathe. Breathing is good.

I used to love mine. You know, back when I was getting lots of yarn-y packages, mail time was just about my favorite time of day. When we were looking at mailboxes to replace the one the neighborhood hooligans vandalized, I made sure to pick a BIG one, just to be sure it would hold my yarn orders, LOL! Of course, if I was expecting something really good, I made it a point to be home in case it didn’t fit and the mailman had to honk for me. I looked for him like a crack ho searches for her dealer. Just bein’ real, here.

Do you remember when the mailman actually put the mail in one of those wall mount mailboxes? I haven’t used one of those since I was in Colorado. You just don’t see them anymore. Of course, I wasn’t doing much mail order back then, either, so those smaller mail boxes were fine.

I’m thinking though, that it might be time for me to fall in love with the mailman again. You know that feeling when your significant other pulls up and your heart races a little bit, and your breath catches, cause you just know he’s bringing some good loving? Yeah, that one. It’s just that my loving now comes in the form of long strings that used to be attached to the skins of various domestic animals. Do you have a problem with that?

Okay, so I took myself on an artist date last Saturday. Book store, craft store, ice cream for dinner, yaddayadda. And I saw this:

I looked at that ball of “yarn” for a very long time. I picked it up. I put it down. I picked it up, dug my fingers into it and gasped at the soft fluffiness and put it down. I picked it up again. I put it down and told myself no one would wear anything made from such a yarn. And then I giggled and said to myself, “oh yeah, there is one such person.” And so I bought it. For $5.99. The label says it will make a scarf, so there better be enough to make a hat.

Just looking at it makes me laugh so hard that it must qualify as a natural belly fat burner, don’t you think? So now, I have three kinds of ridiculous yarn to make hats from. Tell me again why I’m not knitting!

So, when I bought the buttons the other day, I also picked up yarn for a couple of requested hats. No, the buttons aren’t on the sweater yet. Sorry. But here’s the yarn:

Yay. Big fat yarn. Fuzzy hairy yarn. Totally plastic yarn. All of which you now I hate to work with if you have been reading here for very long at all. If I am holding this kind of stuff in my hands, I am motivated purely by love. Thank God it’s fat, as well as plastic and fuzzy. At least it won’t take long. I shall do them while watching a movie to ease the pain. And once I start each one, I will work it until the bitter end and just deal with the dark circles under my eyes with concealer.

Well, this week, I have been attending to family business. I really enjoyed hanging out with them, but as far as the business, I would have enjoyed looking at used rvs for sale more. I might possibly have enjoyed Chinese Water Torture more, too, but at least it is over!

Right before I left, I finished the knitting on the Clapotis. I need to weave in the ends and wash and block it, and then I can send it on it’s way.

I also bought myself some yarn. I didn’t intend to do so, and in fact I was shopping for other people, but ACMoore didn’t have what they had asked for. They did, however, have some yarn on sale for 1.99 a ball. I bought 5 or 6 of the pink/green and 3 of the blue/green. The colors are a little off here, they are very pretty in person, I assure you.

They are for ME. I’m thinking one of them may become a Clapotis for me, because I just love the way the one I made looks wrapped around my own shoulders. Just sayin’

While I was doing the business I didn’t want to do, I was a bit nervous. Maybe more than a bit. I was in fact so nervous that I started a hat at 9:30 am and by 4:30, I had knit about 7inches. And I took an hour and a half for lunch and another 30 minutes to be intently involved in the business with no yarn in my hands. While I was knitting to relieve my stress, my cousin was sitting beside me pulling the yarn off the ball for me to relieve his. I wish I had a picture of that!!! He also talked me into making a hat for him, which wasn’t very difficult, I suppose.

Pics of the FOs soon!

That’s what I did last night, shuffled. I shuffled my half of my crafty crap from one corner of my room to put it all together in another corner. It’s all together now, and it is one heinous mountain of craftastic stuff. I need to go on holiday for a couple of weeks and just work on crafts. Or perhaps it would be better to send the kids on one of those Orlando vacations while I stay home and stitch. Less to haul that way.

Seriously, ya’ll, I am so…backed up and overwhelmed just now. Did I mention that? And then when I do have a block of time to do something, there’s so much to do that I just sit here and surf the internet because I am just too confused by all the choices. You reckon that’s gonna get better anytime soon? Seems like it’s been a couple of months now, yk?

Mine was mighty fine! Dh got up and got some of the children ready to go to the ball field on Saturday morning. They were still in the driveway at 7:30 when the phone rang, and it was one of the board members letting me know all the games were canceled. I do enjoy football season, don’t get me wrong. It’s busy, and exciting and frenetic and all that stuff, and it’s a very big deal for the whole family. But I do love the sound of “canceled”. It just feels good in my brain at this time of year, because it is literally found time, and in this case, it was about 12 hours of found time.

The fact that dh was still in the driveway was an extra bonus, and meant that no gas was wasted with him driving across town. Since he’s currently NOT employed (yeah, I know, I neglected to mention that), any savings is a good thing.

And it get’s even better! Mama saw my tweet about no games, and hopped on IM to ask me if I wanted her to come get me to go to her house and bead. I giggled, because I was already setting up to bead at my desk. Needless to say, I packed it back up and Country and I spent the day over at Mama’s beading and yapping. It was great! I made 7 pieces, plus there was shopping. Does anyone else run out of findings, go after more, and end up with new beads, too? Yeah? Thought so.

I totally need to update the bead stash pictures. Also, the jewelry store page and maybe the finished object page, too. Muhahahahahahahah

So, here we are with another Wednesday Bead report. I really had not intended to create a regular weekly segment the first time I typed that title, but I had great feedback on it, and it does keep me from talking about beading every day, so I guess it’s here to stay, at least for awhile.

First up, I need to show you some recent acquisitions:

I have plans for all of these, and I won’t go into them any further beyond saying that the blue set is mine.

I don’t have any finished things to show you, because that’s just the kind of week it’s been, so we can skip that, but I do have a book to tell you about. You know I love a good book, right? My mom recently joined a craft book club, and so she’s ordered a few things that I thought we might all enjoy. This week, I want to talk about The Beader’s Handbook by Juju Vail.

The Beader’s Handbook is a very thick book, with a plethora of detailed pictures. There are all kinds of techniques in here, from different stitches to to beaded pillows. The descriptions of the tools alone make the book invaluable, but she also tells you how to use them to make your own findings. And then there is a 60+ page photographic bead dictionary in the back!

It would truly take a year at my current crafting pace to work through this book and master each of the concepts in it, but I am surely tempted to try. I think I want to start with the memory wire bracelet on the credits page.