Excuses, excuses

See above, my dad's speckledy salt and pepper hair, a Red Sox hat and the backdrop of a ballpark. That's my first excuse for why I've been a ridiculously awful blogger this summer. And well, it's not the only excuse I've got.

My poor little computer died, well, that's me being dramatic, but it had to have its little hard drive reformatted and all kinds of extensive computer surgery, which I am neither qualified to nor interested in discussing with my readers. And now that baseball season is winding down (on a somewhat positive note for my beloved Boston Beaneaters), I'm prepared to deal with the inevitable -- life in the off season.

Of somewhat thrilling note is my upcoming presence as a craft vendor at a local market. It's pretty fun. I did the calligraphy for my first ever wedding. Well, not MY wedding, but you know what I mean, the first wedding that I ever did the calligraphy for. It was really enjoyable and I'm anxious to take on another penmanship assignment. And, finally friends, I'm dabbling as a video editor -- I recently went to Arkansas to learn from a true master of culinary arts, provided that culinary artists always start with crisco and then add butter, to learn from my precious Granny the secret to the Granny Roll. When I finish editing that video, I'll post it on this site for those who want to learn how to make a very authentic from-scratch roll. We're talking lots of time, talent, elbow grease, and love. You gotta love your potential roll eaters A LOT to put in the time to make these things. Especially when the Pillsbury dough boy sells a decent version of the dinner roll that requires eight minutes and no talent.

Neverland, the Last Office Halloween Post I Swear

The pictures of this craft don't look so hot. I'm the first to admit this fact. It was too awkward of an angle to get a good shot. Plus, I'm not so hot with the digi cam. My apologies. Here's the idea behind the craft though. So my office area was dressed as the characters of Peter Pan for Halloween. We needed a distinct Neverland theme. And tossing aside any obscure Michael Jackson references, we turned Wikipedia to remember the tale of Peter and his pals. And you know how you get to Neverland? Well, you fly through the window and take the second star to the right and fly on til morning. Please note that's from memory and I'm not sure if that's the exact celestial direction, but that's not important here. What is important is that I took a bed sheet, painted a window, used packing tape to make the frame of the window and scissors to cut the panes out. And we had ourselves a window. And when our visitors came by we covered the floor with white balloons to simulate the clouds with a pirate ship attached to the window. It was pretty cool. The entire department's efforts to transform into a fairy tale land won us $75 worth of breakfast tacos from Taco Cabana. So there's that. For the crafting details, I used craft paint with poster paint. What's great is that I diluted it pretty well with water and it took just a few ounces of paint to cover the entire twin size sheet.

Oh and as far as the pictures go, you get the overall view, which, granted, is cropped pretty funkily. And then you get some shots of me as Peter Pan and my coworkers as Tinkerbell and Captain Hook, respectively. I thought our costumes really sold us. What's great is that Mariya owned that dress already and it is perfectly Tinkerbell colored!

Plug for the Other Blog

Hello my dears --
I'm sure you're all too busy voting today (an activity which takes like forever -- I spent at least 10 minutes in line this morning. Geez! This country thinks I've got 10 minutes to spare every four years, how ridiculous) to check on my poor old blog, but I wanted to give a plug to my other blog, my artsy-fartsy borders-on-the-bizarre PDF'ed. I haven't had time to post lots of my bevy of craft projects to this blog, but with Halloween last week around the office, I kinda went nuts on the other blog. In fact, I have a post scheduled for every day this week and three days of next week. So if you like what you see of my pseudo-artistic endeavors using the copy machine at work, check back frequently.

Other coolkidscrafting items of interest include... Yours truly is busy designing the tree-topper for the Dallas Theta Christmas Tree Auction to be held this weekend at the Dallas Country Club. Never ever in my wildest imagination did I dream that one of my craft projects would end up prominently displayed at DCC, right there on Beverly Drive! It's gotta be really awesome, so naturally with T minus four days to go I haven't drawn up a plan, bought any supplies or started working on it! Yay for being a crafter and procrastinator. Oh and in case you were wondering, some of the Christmas trees to be auctioned off are designed by professionals with every craft and design supply at their fingertips and a limitless budget. Yowza! I just hope my tree topper isn't sad and Homer-Simpson-designs-Lisa's-costumesque when compared to the others.

Trapped in an Ironic State of Crafting Affairs

Readers -- No pictures, I know.

I am trapped in an ironic state of crafting affairs. Perhaps you could have guessed that from the title of this post. Well, I'll be so kind as to elaborate on this sentiment for you in case it is enigmatic.
When you are of a crafting nature, people think of you when they have a craft project that they need to have done. And being excited about the prospect of helping others, I jump at the chance to take on crafting roles of all varieties. And then the procrastination sets in. And I start to long for the day when my crafting docket is empty and I can paint and doodle and draw and build my silly little designs all on my own whims.
So for now I'm trudging through these ridiculous crafts that I'm doing for others (they truly range from the sublime to the bizarre and one is an absolutely hideous mess on my bedroom floor that I suspect will be FILE 13'ed long after its due date). And well, I'll be honest when I admit that there's at least one project of my own initiative that I'm procrastinating on (bookshelves!).
I'm going to the Natural State this weekend, which does not imply that I'll be going nude, but instead that I'll be going to Nashville, Arkansas to see the Granny and Papaw. My mom and I call this Nashville, "Little N" because when you say you are Nashville bound, people envision you crooning country tunes with a guitar case and greyhound bus ticket to Grand Old Opry Fame. But alas, I'll leave my Hank Williams dreams in check as I go to Little N this weekend, but I'll be sure to pack some crafting supplies!
And hopefully I'll get some work done and have some new gems to share with you all.

Sorry for some technical delays

I've been having issues with logging into Blogger recently. But looks like I'm back! And so excited to show you these new projects!

Missing In Activity

Yo! Readers.... Have you missed me? I realize I've been gone for a while (a creative hiatus, if you will), but I have tons of things in store for this week, including a guest posting with some really creative cupcake creations from the East Coast (not pictured above--instead, those are the ones I served on Easter. I'm a cheater though, they're from Society Catering on Greenville and not my own kitchen!). And with Calligraphy Class 2 starting next Monday, you can bet you'll see a bunch of scripting projects coming along really soon, too! And, one more thing... if you get bored because I'm slow to update, you can always visit my other, wackier blog, PDF'ed, which showcases some of the bizarre things that go on around my office.

Yikes! I need to get busy!

Ok loyal readers.

Goodness gracious! Earlier this week, my office internet barred all kinds of Web sites, including Blogger!
So I haven't posted anything this week thus far... But don't worry! I have things to post about and I will certainly be updating the old blog tomorrow with a great weekend project I did thanks to Ikea, some old prints and my paint box!

Nothing new.

The camera cord is still missing. Sorry folks, that means no new posts. It's a bummer for both you and me because I have a lot of things I want to post pictures of. Can anyone think of where it might be?

Craft Hiatus

The Christmas to New Year's week is always busy, especially with trips to Arkansas and New York City thrown in with my dad's 55th birthday!
I'm on break from my crafts right now, but I have some really exciting things planned for January, including my long-awaited dining room makeover. The indecision has come to an end, now it's time to get this room assembled! And I'm making coral reef out of household objects. Have you noticed how trendy coral reef is? Not that it's a new trend, but it seems to be sticking around, so I'm joining the coral reef fan club. Through my seasonal work for Lilly Pulitzer, I've gotten a chance to really study the new coral reef that has become a hallmark of Lilly Signature Stores and I've devised a way to make my own (as the dining room centerpiece, naturally) out of sticks, salt, hot glue and spray paint. Stay tuned...