Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Martians are coming!

Well, at night they seem to. The last 2 nights, I've dreamt of UFO's flying close by and preparing to land. Two nights ago, I dreamt once, and had such a feeling of dread that I woke myself up.
Last night, TWO dreams of UFO's landing, and again, that feeling of dread, and not wanting it to happen, so I woke myself up.
What a wonderful ability! I wonder, just how common is it? To realize while dreaming that you're dreaming and force yourself to awaken.
If I'm really tired, it's harder. I remember several years back when my sister was in a coma, another sister asked the doctor if Sue could hear us, and the doctor explained that she probably could, but just couldn't answer, because it was kind of like...and I calmly said "like swimming up through molasses". He looked at me in surprise and said "Yes". Well, that's how waking myself up feels when I'm really tired. It's hard work, but darn it, I just don't want to dream that dream!

I'm really hoping tonight not to have that dream, but at the same time, wondering what would happen if I let it continue?

So, hopefully to satisfy my curiosity (think I'll have to post my poll elsewhere, there's not a lot of traffic here), I've created the poll at right.



On a crochet note (yes, I have been crocheting!) I have two animal bookmarks finished. One I am very happy with, the other I think I'm going to change just a bit. His (her?) face looks...well, not right. Not ugly, just not quite right. I also have a neckwarmer finished, and boy, is it warm! Now, I just have to get my camera out and take the pictures. I am currently working on an outfit for the walking doll, and partway through the top, I'm not sure if I want to do a dress, or a baby doll style sleeveless top with capris. I'm leaning toward the capris.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

This is just STRANGE

With temps zero and slightly below zero (Celsius), and a thin layer of snow on the ground, what my hubby saw walking up our side walk when he got home from work is just strange. Bizarre. A head-scratcher.
A dozen or so, large, black CRICKETS. You know, the chirpers (males chirp) you hear at night in the summer?
Most were on the small cement path leading up to our house, but a few were on the main sidewalk.
The only thing that I could possibly think was someone had ordered crickets via mail order, the postman was carrying the package in his arms instead of the pouch, and the box sprung a leak.
We haven't had warm enough temps to hatch eggs...and apparently, although adults will hibernate in the late fall, they seldom survive the winter. And even if they did survive our cold but above normal temps, why on earth not just wait till the 'real' warm weather gets here?

If anyone has any idea why crickets would make an appearance in mid-January, in cold southwestern Ontario, please let me know!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Wow, two days in a row. Just thought I'd pop in to say that yes, the cats were both downstairs, and no, I did not get woken in the middle of the night by loud meowing from the attic. I'm sure there were people who lost sleep worrying about that.

It's nice to have my living room back to normal. Now that the tree's taken down, the room seems a bit bigger, until we get used to the tree not being here, when the room will 'return' to its usual really small self. How small? Have you ever seen shows on TV like 'This Small Space'? I would sooooo like to see their version of large, and show them my version of small. Their small bathroom: the size of my kitchen. A small living room, twice the size of mine. You wanna talk small bathroom? I've seen larger closets. So, when these shows really DO show a SMALL SPACE, then I'll watch, cause I just might be able to use some of their ideas. Unfortunately, their current ideas for their 'small spaces' simply won't fit in my space.

Now that I've set everyone's mind at ease (Ha. Ha.) time to get working on an outfit for Miss Frizzy Head, I'm sure I've mentioned her before...the 30+" walking doll with really scary frizzy hair.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Okay, I finally did it. Took down that sad looking Christmas tree. It's the fold-up artificial kind, and I swear, it loses more needles than a real tree. So, after several years, it's starting to look a little scrawny. But, once it's filled up with ornaments and lights, you really don't notice. Kinda like the little Christmas tree in the Charlie Brown special.
After taking the box upstairs, I *think* both cats came back down. If not, I'm sure I'll hear about it in the middle of the night when they meow for me to pull down the stairs. I gotta get up early, I really hope they both ARE downstairs.

What did keep me busy before, or at least a couple of them:


My Zebra Gift Bag. Or stocking, depending on the time of year it's being used! Could also be made into a pillow, or used as a pyjama bag (this from one of my testers). I felt it was about time, it's been awhile since I'd done my Lion Stocking. I do have other animals in mind...


Another item, my Sherbet Bear Toilet Paper Cover. A little smaller than my 'line' of characters TP Covers, I just didn't have enough of the colour I wanted to use to have him fit a double roll. So, Sherbet hides a single roll of toilet tissue. I'm sure there are people who still use those. With 4 people in our house, it just seems a waste of time to use the single rolls.

These both are now available on my site and in my Etsy store, along with this month's other two new patterns. Not to mention all the 'old' patterns I also have for sale...and don't forget to check my page of free patterns.

Friday, January 04, 2008

A New Year

And only how many days till next Christmas??
I know it's still Christmas in my house, my tree's still up, but that's only because when I did have the time, I just did not feel like dismantling it. But, I am determined, it WILL come down today. Or tomorrow...
However, at work, our speakers still spew sappy seasonal songs of Christmas. (note, yes, that was done on purpose! Took me a few minutes) Now, this is not the store's doing, they do keep changing it to music that's more appropriate to the time of year. Namely, anything non-Christmas (it was retro--a lot of Beatles, Beach Boys...loved it!). But, each morning at 8 am (I figured this out after a couple mornings) when the store opened...WHAM. We're Dreaming of a White Christmas and Having Ourselves a Merry Little Christmas.
Hopefully, that glitch--let's call it Head Office or so I've been told--gets straightened out.

Yesterday, I took my daughters to the mall for a few clothes. Jacob Jr. had some nice t-shirts, one in particular struck my eye. It was available in 2 different colours, with a feminine design with a fairy. The words: "Wish Upon a Shinning Star". Uh...shinning??? I looked twice. Three times. Laughed, and could NOT buy the shirt. For someone who shudders at the sight of blatant spelling errors, this spelled torture. What it didn't spell was shining.

I looked it up at dictionary.com, and from what I see, shinning can be a word. Just not sure what the front part of the leg, or a cut of beef has to do with a star. Although the climbing using your legs and hands alternately might possibly...if you had lassoed a star and were trying to reach it.

I asked the JJ employees what on earth shinning meant, one looked at the shirt, thinking I had meant to say shooting...saw the mistake...and left the shirts out. But, what can they do. Spelling errors might not torture others like they torture me.
I did try to contact Jacob, and although I clicked the send button, don't know if it went through. Most places have a nice Thank You For Contacting Us page for just such an occasion, but Jacob did not have one. Maybe they had trouble with the spelling...
Now, IF it did go through, and they contact me, I'll pass on what they said.
Kinda curious what on earth they would do. How many stores? How many t-shirts? Recall or Reduce? But come on, I'm also curious how on earth such a blatant error got through inspection.