Monday, February 27, 2006

Almost done!

Sewing Bins
Sewing Bins,
originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.
Maybe. I've managed to get all the shelves filled, the bins of my sewing fixture are almost arranged. I think I need to re-organise this a bit. Just not sure how. The beads are finally organised, the paper is next. After that I'll look through the remaining boxes to find anything else I'd like to display. Good luck to me.

Friday, February 24, 2006

DJ Spite

DJ Spite
DJ Spite,
originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.
My husband's nickname is DJ Spite. Ever since High School he's had this really evil habit of messing with whatever you're listening to. It started in his friend's cars. Along they'd be driving and someone would remark "hey, I love this song!". No sooner is the word "song" out of their mouths and the song is changed.

The first time it happened to me I thought it was a mistake, maybe he didn't hear what I said. Then I noticed it as a disturbing trend. Worse, when I'd say "oh man, this song really burns my nerves" the volume would go up. Finally, about a year or so ago I confronted him about this. He claims to not be able to controll himself. Even if he hates the same song you do, if you make any remark, the compulsion to annoy overrides the distaste.
On a long ago road trip I finally snapped and hollered "ALRIGHT DJ SPITE! Cut it out!" and smacked at the radio buttons. He decided that he really liked the nickname, and I have to say, it suits. After the nickname stuck I got the idea to make a logo for him so that he could lable his CDs and other work items that he carries around with him. Last night I managed to sit down and get it down on paper in this ink sketch. I really like how it came out. Now I just have to color it.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Things I Love Thursdays #2

Things I Love Thursdays #2
Things I Love Thursdays #2,
originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.
Thursdays are not only TILT (Things I Love Thursdays) days, they're also the designated cleaning days for my household. For those of us unfortunate enough to have ancient hard wood flooring in disrepair, this thing is a must. For those of us fortunate enough to have any kind of flooring that doesn't absorb water...this thing is a must. It's the Hoover FloorMate and I love it.
I deplore mopping, and sweeping is running a close second on the Things-I-Detest-Wasting-Time-On list. My fantastic hubby bought this for me shortly after Em was born in order to make my least favorite chore faster and easier. Not only did it deliver in the chore department, it had the added bonus of making tired cranky infants fall asleep. All I had to do was snuggle Em on my shoulder and the crook of my elbow in one arm and hoover away with the free hand and voila! Clean floors and sleeping baby! Yes...this thing rocks my socks.
Last week I broke it out for the first time in a month or so and attacked the downstairs floors. I forgot that it gets them so clean it's almost lethal. The floors were slick and smooth enough to have Em careening around in her socks, piping up in that sweet little girl voice "Mommy look! I'm skating!" I too spent some time skidding around in my socks, not always on purpose.

Monday, February 20, 2006

April's Colorific Inspiration

Flickr has taken over my free time. I have joined two groups that require action by a certain due date. We'll see if I can keep it up. The first one you've already seen,
Things I love Thursdays
. The second is Colorific Swap O Rama. Every month the moderator of the group chooses a color or color scheme theme and we put packages together comprised of that scheme. The moderator chooses partners and sends you your swap buddy. You could be sending your package to Australia and getting one from NJ. It's pretty exciting. March's theme is green, April's theme is green and violet or any permutation thereof. I found the above fabric at a local craft store and immediately knew that it was my inspiration for April. March is getting ready to be packed up and sent off at the end of the week. I really hope my partner likes it.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

I must be unstable.

The Reworking 2
The Reworking 2,
originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.
I think I must have been dropped on my head as a small child. What on Earth whas I thinking when I started cleaning my office out? I think there was some grand delusion about being more organised and therefor more productive...or inspired...or something. Ok so right now I can definitely see the benefit of having more floorspace to be able to set up my Oma's card table as a sewing table, and have the ironing board set up, and be able to leave my paper projects on my desk undisturbed while I go about my sewing projects. Too bad I can't get to any of those projects because I can't find any of them. *sigh* I'm going to bed.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Things I Love Thursdays pt.1

Tiny Glass Phials
Tiny Glass Phials,
originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.
Here's my first post for Things I Love Thursdays.. I'm kind of excited because I've never been a part of one of these weekly photo groups. I've been trolling other people's Self Portrait Tuesdays and Illustration Fridays. Now I can participate.

This is a part of my watch maker's cabinets. I have two, each containing two drawers. Inside those drawers I hide all kinds of tiny things. There are charms, scrapbooking findings, antique doodads, and most of all, the smell. It's an old, musty, dusty, dry rotted wood smell. All at once powdery, musky and slightly sweet. Every time I open the drawer it wafts out at me and comforts me. At first I was afraid of the smell. Usually that smell means mold, something I'm really allergic to. After cleaning out the remnants of the watchmaker who owned it before me though, I came to associate that smell with aged wisdom and inspiration. Every time I catch a whiff I smile to myself. These cabinets remind me of the little old toy fixer from Toy Story 2. I like to think that he smelled like my drawers, that maybe the previous owner looked like him.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

I hardly have enough time to breath but I thought I'd write down that I'm in the middle of a HUGE artspace/office/craft room overhaul. I was so inspired by Hillary Lang's fantastic work room overhaul that I decided to revamp my space. WOW! It's alot of work. I pulled everything off shelves and out of cubbies and moved furniture around and purchased storage bits and bobs and I'm still trying to pull myself out from under the mess. I have boxes and bins and stuff strewn all over the place in the dining room and study. I wanted to paint something last night but couldn't because I couldn't find my paints! I also wanted to make two scrapbook layouts but couldn't because I had no space and couldn't find all of my stuff. I wanted to start on the Pointy Kitty pattern Hillary Lang had posted on her blog but couldn't because...you guessed it...I couldn't find the printer to print it out! WAUGH! So tonight, when Hubby and Co. are slaying aliens in the living room, I'm going to be in my space trying to get everything sorted just right so that I can play.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Happy (belated) Valentine's day

Blue Button Heart
Blue Button Heart,
originally uploaded by The Paper Doll.
Hope you had a great one, be you single, married or still think boys have cooties.
The hubby scored HUGE brownie points for bringing home Champagne, Cheesecake, and flowers. We cuddled on the couch and watched Battlestar Galactica ('twas good, believe me) drank champagne, ate cheesecake and pretended to be adults. Does anyone else ever feel like that?
I gave the above button heart to my mother in law. She loved it. It hangs on the stairwell on the first floor to the second floor.

Monday, February 13, 2006

coxi creations�

Check out these adorable creations from Brazil/Portugal at coxi creations�. I stumbled across them on Flickr after being tagged as one of his contacts. They're super cute, colorful craftybits.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

I. Am. A Sellout.

So it all started out pretty innocently enough. I found iTunes on my machine at work and opened it up to listen to everyone's shared files, looking for some new stuff to wrap my ears around. Next thing I know it's 3 months later and I've downloaded over $100 and 788.9 kb in music, spoken word, and comedy. So I say to myself...this is an app that's online, I have itunes on my machine at home the files should be on my account, transferable and stuff. So I get home and fire up itunes at home and find out that...the files are only local to the machine I download them on. I mean...seriously. I have yahoo mail, it's free, and I can access my files from any machine...what the heck!? I pay for iTunes downloads and I can't access the files anywhere but on the machine I downloaded them...man that's irritating. So I figure I'll just rip 'em to cds and take them home right? My machine at work doesn't have a cd burner. It has iTunes but no cd burner...amazing.
So I figure I'll VNC (Virtual Network Computing, learn more here) into my work machine from home and transfer the files right? Nope, no can do. Can't e-mail them because the files are too big. So what do I do next? I complain to my husband of course. He's a total computer genius. Junkie is more like it really. You know what he says? He says "You could just put them on an iPod". Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Flash back a three months ago when he goes through two different kinds of mp3 players in one month and announces that he's going to break down and buy an iPod. To this I laugh, point and call him a sellout. Our house is not Mac friendly. Fast forward to last month when he tells me he's going to buy me an iPod. To which I exclaim indignantly "Why?! I have an mp3 player that I really like. No thanks, really." Fast forward again to yesterday.
Yesterday we went out on a date, my hubby and I. He pulls into a certain big name electronic store and I decide to stay in the truck. Can you blame me? I live with the stuff all over the house, I don't really want to go out of my way to look at it. So when he pops up out of the store and asks me what kind of iPod I want and gives me two choices, what do I say? I say, "whichever's least expensive" he says there's not much difference between the two so I tell him to get the one with the most memory. Something momentous is happening. I'm caving. Again. Like the time I swore to boycott a huge retail corporation and wound up failing because a friend of mine pointed out the utility and savings...some friend. He says "black or white" I say "black". Ten minutes later I'm the conflicted owner of a black iPod.

I. Am. A Sellout.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A poem to break your heart.

The Maid-Servant at the Inn

"It's queer," she said; "I see the light
As plain as I beheld it then,
All silver-like and calm and bright ---
We've not had stars like that again!

"And she was such a gentle thing
To birth a baby in the cold.
The barn was dark and frightening ---
This new one's better than the old.

"I mind my eyes were full of tears,
For I was young, and quick distressed
But she was less than me in years
That held a son against her breast.

"I never saw a sweeter child ---
The little one, the darling one! ---
I mind I told her, when he smiled
You'd know he was his mother's son.

"It's queer that I should see them so ---
The time they came to Bethlehem
Was more than thirty years ago;
I've prayed that all is well with them."
--Dorothy Parker