please excuse me

while i whine for just a moment, okay?

so there's this amazing (assumedly, i mean how could it not be?) tim burton exhibit in LA right now. over 700 pieces of his art (hundreds of which have never been seen), two large-scale outdoor pieces ... and it's all accompanied by music composed specifically for the exhibit by danny elfman.

i wanna go!

new flooring

we had laminate flooring laid in the house this past week. it's beautiful.

last week i told erin that she hadn't missed much by not visiting my blog recently, as i hadn't been posting regularly. and now i've posted three days in a row. i'm flighty like that.

it's almost september. that means NaBloPoMo is only two months away. you should start thinking about committing to blogging every day in november. or at least to reading the blogs of those who do. ;)

gf snickerdoodles

it occurred to me as i typed the title that "gf" could stand for god-forsaken. yes, these could be the cookies that god forgot. poor cookies.

however, it stands for gluten-free. in my recent trollings about the internet for gf recipes, i landed on the betty crocker site. as it turns out, she makes several gf baking mixes. she also offers up a variety of recipes using those mixes outside of their original purpose. for example, these snickerdoodles use her gf bisquick mix.

they're quite good! are they as tasty as the recipes i usually use? maybe not. but if no one told you they were gluten free, i'd bet good money you wouldn't guess.

meh.

i found myself surrounded by negative nellies today. (where do we get phrases like "negative nellies"?) i haven't slept well the past couple of nights, and i was up early this morning. so i'll admit i'm a little crabby. but these ladies were just working my nerves! going on and on about this problem and that problem and how they could solve each of those problems so much better than the folks who are in charge of solving those problems. and if it wasn't bad enough that they were incessantly complaining - they were doing it in front of people who had no business hearing any of it. it'd be like going to a store and hearing the employees complain about their bosses, company policies and job expectations because they were unabashedly having these conversations out in the open, without concern for who was listening.

yes, it would be exactly like that.

peanut butter frosting

apparently when i don't spend my time crocheting, i spend my time baking. unfortunately using a hand-held electric mixer isn't much easier on my wrist than a crochet hook. :)

crochet hiatus

i'm taking a break from crocheting. i've got an octopus with one tentacle and a baby toy that's just starting to take shape ... but i've also got some irritated carpal tunnel in my right wrist that's slowing me down. i worked up some sample squares last weekend that i think did me in. one of them was single crochet with a small hook, and i didn't realize how tightly it was working up until i was done. looking at it now, i'm not surprised my wrist is hurting. a few days of rest will do it well.

i learned last week that my laptop came preloaded with a trial version of Plants v. Zombies. one of the guys at work has it on his ipod, and he had asked me awhile ago if i played it. i was intrigued, but not enough to go looking for it. and then i found it on my laptop, and of course i fell in love. it makes me want to get the pattern for a crocheted pea shooter. but then, i'm not crocheting right now, right? :)

grandma's peanut butter cookies

32g recap

i started a big update on where i'm at with my 32 goals for the year, then i decided i'm not posting it. why? two reasons. A: i've not made good progress on many of the goals. and 2: i'd hate for that lack of progress to reflect poorly on the year so far. we'll see where the next 5.5 months get me. :)

yup. i'm that smart.

after a brief moment of slight panic, i remembered that the best way to start the dryer is to the close the door first.

storm: short, powerful

this afternoon at work, a storm rolled through. it came up quickly. the rain dropped in torrents. the wind whipped violently. and within about 15 minutes, it was over. the sun was back out, the humidity shot back up and it was as if nothing had happened.

now when i left for work, i distinctly remember that our patio furniture was sitting in its rightful place: on the patio. and the potted tomatoes and peppers were all in their rightful places: in their pots. so i'm thinking maybe the same storm hit at home that hit at the store? maybe?

roy the toxic boy

To those who knew him
-his friends-
we called him Roy.
To others he was known
as that horrible Toxic Boy.

He loved ammonia and asbestos,
and lots of cigarette smoke.
What he breathed in for air
would make other people choke!

His very favorite toy
was a can of aerosol spray;
he'd sit quietly and shake it,
and spray it all the day.

He'd stand inside the garage
in the early-morning frost,
waiting for the car to start
and fill him with exhaust.

The one and only time
I ever saw Toxic Boy cry
was when some sodium chloride
got into his eye.

One day for fresh air
they put him in the garden.
His face went deathly pale
and his body began to harden.

The final gasp of his short life
was sickly with despair.
Whoever thought that you could die
from breathing outdoor air?

As Roy's soul left his body
we all said a silent prayer.
It drifted up to heaven
and left a hole in the ozone layer.
(words and inspiration for the crochet by Tim Burton)

dinner with dave

i had a fabulous dinner with dave last night. he's in town for GenCon and made some room in his schedule for marlana & i. lovely evening, really. :)

sally

i've been uploading so many "in progress" photos for my sally doll to facebook that it didn't occur to me until now that i haven't shown her here at all. here she is!

sally stands about 12" tall and has posable arms and knees that bend. she was a lot of work - and i'm so happy with how she came out! hardest part? embroidering the face. i've done a bit of embroidery before, but this really challenged me. it's not an even surface, plus it's round and stuffed. yeah, challenging. but all in all, a good experience. i want to make more creatures with hair now. it's fun.

conversations that stick

a couple of months ago i had a conversation with a friend i haven't spent a lot of time with recently. she was sharing her opinion on an area of my life, and she assumed i shared that opinion. as it turns out, i do not share that opinion. and that's fine. i found our difference of perspectives to be a little humorous and chalked them up to just that: difference of perspectives.

lately, however, that stupid conversation keeps playing in my mind, and it makes me wonder if i should share her point of view. if i share her point of view, i should be very unhappy with that area of my life. but i'm the exact opposite of that. i'm very, very pleased with that area of my life - more pleased than i've been in quite some time. but for some reason, these past few weeks, it's hard to just embrace that.

why must i over analyze? just be happy, 'becca. let the rest fall away.

the secret dragon

thankfully, greg finally had his birthday so i can show you my first commissioned piece!

yes, he's practically identical to the first dragon i made with the exception of his spines being orange instead of purple. but check out the second photo. see the wire running through the veins of his underwings? they're posable!

now to finish up sally from the nightmare before christmas. i put a good 20 hours of work into her over the past three days. i figure another 2 or 3 and she should be done. i heart her!