Crafters for Critters

Who doesn't love little furry cutie-pie critters? And whose heart isn't broken by all the animals sitting in shelters waiting to die?

This was in the Albuquerque Journal yesterday (sorry, bad job scanning):



Man, they are hamming it up for the camera. They must know the following facts:
In Albuquerque since January 1, 3,358 kittens/cats have been adopted. BUT, 8,637 have been euthanized.
Dogs are a bit luckier: 5,194 have been put down, but 9,516 have been adopted.

Just when I was feeling down about this, I was browsing on Cheap Threads and read about CraftersforCritters.com.

Crafters (still hate this term -- sounds like people at a bad church bazaar selling toaster cozies) can make things and donate them to the site. The site sells them and gives all the proceeds to various animal groups. It works in 6-month collection increments, and each time there are different specified animal charities.

Plus, if you're like me and all you care about is yourself, it's a little bit of pub for your business. You get a link on their links page and, who knows, the person who buys your item may love it and come buy more! They are out to support indie businesses. Like Burst of Happiness, since I'm on the topic.

I was thinking about donating this, because it has animals on it, but I'm not sure. I'm waiting to hear back from the site:

Jeans. The most horrible, yet most loved invention in history.

You know how buying jeans is the worst experience you can have? You finally feel like you're ready to try, and 3 hours later you leave the mall, defeated and feeling like a cow.

My complaint, and that of every other woman I know, is that the waist is always loose if the butt/thighs fit. We all wonder: if a woman is supposed to have a smaller waist and bigger hips, why is there not a single pair of jeans that fits that shape out there?

Today I learned about a site called Zafu where you can answer all the uncomfortable questions about your butt, thighs and waist and it will tell you the best jeans for your figure! Yipee!

Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific

Anybody remember this phrase? It was the name of a shampoo in the late-'70s, early 1980s. It was, er, "highly perfumed." At first, as you lathered you'd say "mmmmmm!" Then, as you blow dried, you'd say, "gee, my hair smells terrific." Then, 6 hours later, you'd be cursing it as your head pounds from the constant, overbearing reek of your hair that JUST WILL NOT GO AWAY!

The next day, you'd start all over! Soon they were selling it in combo packs with Excedrin.



If I didn't look good, at least I smelled good!

Jay Leno!

Last night we went to see Jay Leno at Route 66 Casino. Here are my observations:

1. What must he have though of Albuquerque? He gets to the airport, hops on I-25, transfers to I-40 and drives 20 miles out of the city. That's all he saw! Oh dear. He did make some comments like he thought that's all of the city.

2. Route 66 Casino is new, and in that sense, nice, but it IS a tacky Indian casino on a New Mexico reservation. It has a buffet called The Hungry Cowboy.

3. The auditorium is really nice. It's huge and has big comfy seats with drink holders and so much space you can walk back and forth in the aisles without having to disrupt the people sitting. This was good for the girl two rows up who left her seat at least 10 times. The nice thing is that they have two gigantic screens on either side of the stage so if your view is blocked by an old lady with a large hair helmet, you can still see.
The funny thing was that about 2/3 of the way into the show, Leno notices these screens and says, "Oh! There's screens. I didn't know those were there. I was wondering why half the people weren't looking at me. It's like, `I'll LISTEN to you, but I WON'T look at you!'"

4. One time Mark got a nice leather jacket stolen from him at the karaoke bar at Route 66. Then the security people treated him like crap. So he contacted a manager, who is really nice to him now. So when we got there, we planned to have dinner before the show. But of course, this place is so far from anything else that once you get there, you're stuck. The line for The Hungry Cowboy buffet was hundreds of people long, and they all have to wait for tables to clear out. It could take hours. But the nice man took us right in and let us take cuts in front of everyone. I felt bad, but at the same time I didn't because I was starving.

5. Leaving the casino was awful. Basically, there's this tiny frontage road out of the casino that you take for a while. Then you have to cross traffic onto a bridge and take that for a while before getting on I-40. Well, for some reason, traffic would sit still in the parking lot for minutes on end. Unfortunately, we were parked in an exit row, which meant the traffic was backed up all the way down the row. And it didn't move for 5 minutes straight. When it did, Mark just forced his way out and this lady honked and got really mad, but clearly nobody was going to just be nice and let us in. To the right of us was another car trying to back out that had been there since way before we were, so I signaled to them to pull out too, and we'd let them in. They were really grateful, but then someone across from them started backing out at the same time and almost hit them. Finally, all three of us got into the line, probably pissing off many people behind us, and after only about 45 minutes longer, we made it onto the freeway! Yippee. Remind me to never go there again.

New design, the Gwynne bag

For those of you who have asked for zippers, here it is. It's the Gwynne bag, named after my work neighbor who has been VERY supportive of my business.





This particular bag is not for sale, though more fabric can be purchased if desired. It's made from a beautiful Asian looking fan fabric with black, beige, gold and little orange flowers. It's contrasted with black and has an orange interior with pockets in the fan material. It has two fabric straps and a zipper closure. It's a fairly big purse, room to hold plenty!

Custom orders can be placed at Burst of Happiness.

You Can't HANDLE the Cuteness!

I went to JoAnn Fabrics on the 4th of July to buy a zipper. When I walked in, I was greeted by a bin of clearance summer fabrics! Hey, it's still summer! And they're still cute!
Custom orders at Burst of Happiness!



And this one has been in my collection before, but it's fab, so I bought more:

I'm treasured!

On etsy.com, where I have an online shop, there are things called "treasuries." Other members can snag one (they are limited and highly fought for) and then choose 12 things they like, often fitting into a theme. It's exciting when you are featured in one, and I was! The only other time I know of was by a fellow New Mexican who chose people from New Mexico.

Here is a screen shot. Mine is far right, third down. It's a makeup pouch. Apparently these are popular fabrics!

I got Madskillz

Did you know I used to dabble in modeling? I know what you're thinking -- but I wasn't a lingerie model or anything. I was an iPod model. You don't have to be pretty to do that. You can check me out here ... follow these steps:

Go to Madskillz.com.

Note the hand holding the menu on the left. It looks sort of deformed. That is my hand!

But wait! There's more. Now you have to choose to go to the Dark Side or the Light Side. Do I have to tell you which side I'm on? Light of course!

Next you have to choose to enter. Don't be afraid. We're the good guys.

Yep, that's me with bad bangs and at a very bad angle. Sorry I told you not to be afraid. It is scary. Note to photog: Don't shoot a not-so-tall-and-lanky woman from above.
Note to me: Forget the bangs. You look like a young boy.

This was also a chance for me to plug my friend Willie Jefferson's Web site and business, Madskillz. He refurbishes and sells iPods. He's also got cute kids and a sweet wife, so give them your business.

By popular demand

I've been inundated with requests to see my linen closets. I used to be too embarrassed, but now I can swing open the closet doors and proclaim to the world that I have beautiful, organized linen closets (by the way, Mark didn't know we had linen closets. "What's that?" he asked when I told him to check out the newly organized "linen closets.")

All items are neatly labeled. No more confused Marks trying to figure out which are the cleaning rags and which are workout towels. I realize it's hard to read my mind. And this is a guy who organizes his albums, not by release date, not by alphabetical order, not by genre, but by when he bought them. So we are not exactly on the same organizational wavelength.

laundry room closet, for towels only (cat towels, rags, workout towels, Mark towels, matching towels for guest bath, bath sheets, oh, there are so many kinds):



hall closet, for sheets, blankets and table cloths only:

Bacon Haiku

Greasy fried goodness
only 35 calories?
Pass me another!

Photobucket

Does anyone else use Photobucket? Is anyone else annoyed by how they now make an ad pop up every time you select a photo to upload?

Getting organized

Slowly but surely, we are getting things situated. Remember these photos of my sewing/computer room that Mark likes to call his music room?




(Here's the post)

As a reminder, all those boxes along the wall are record albums. Thousands of them. Now, we are getting shelves built! So all those records will at least be on shelves and look better than a bunch of boxes. To avoid just having my sewing table blocking the shelves, I got a smaller table and moved things around a bit. Here's stage 2 of the project:



And now the cubes are in the closet instead of on the table. The only thing that will now be blocking the records is my giganto ironing board, but that's lightweight and can be moved easily.


I suppose it may be hard to see through photos, but there is so much more room! I'll post phase 3 as the shelves are built.

Tooting my horn

Yay! I was chosen to be featured on Soho Beads' blog. She's a fellow etsy.com seller and I am very honored that she wrote up a very sweet posting about me!

You can visit her shop here.

Two Mucho!

There's a bulletin board in the cafeteria at work. On it, people post items for sale.

I noticed that someone continually comments on the cost of these items by writing things like "too mucho," "too much!" and "two mucho!".

In this one, the $90 XBox does not satisfy this buyer. But it has TWO games!!


Of course, $192,000 is way too mucho for a house! So this person crossed off the "1" in front and made it $92,000. Much more reasonable! I'll take it.


My favorite is this one. It's "two" mucho. The best part of it is there's not even a price on here.


I am going to post a dishwasher on here, and I am not sure if I can satisfy Sr. Mucho.

Update on Roady Jane

Roady's ear stopped bleeding, and therefore she stopped shaking her head and spattering blood all over everything.

Her head looks much better. It was so weird how big this bump was, then they took her to the back and three minutes later it was all deflated. It's gross to think about how much stuff was in there.

Now she thinks she's lucky because she gets "magic tuna" twice a day. That would be tuna with her liquid antibiotics mixed in. This worked like a charm with my other cat when she had surgery. At first, I tried to squirt it down her throat. But by the third dose, she'd gag when she'd see the syringe. So then I tried "magic tuna" and she thought she was just really lucky getting tuna all the time.

So I tried that from the get-go with Roady, except when I put the first magic tuna down, she immediately backed up. I think she could smell the medicine even through the very pungent tuna smell. I started to panic, but then she started eating it and there hasn't been a problem.

Remember, everyone, "magic tuna" when your cat needs meds.

My day at the market

Saturday, I participated in The Neighborhood Market in Downtown Albuquerque. I worked nonstop for a more than a month to make sure I had enough items. I guess I worked harder than necessary because I didn't sell a single thing. OK, I did sell something to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, but we all know those were pity sales, and while I sincerely appreciate them, I didn't get ANY other sales.

It was a real bummer, but I'm trying not to take it personally. I am confident that I make cute things. I also have a good variety of fabrics that could suit many tastes. So I don't think it's cuz I have horrible, crappy stuff. And other vendors, including my boothmate, didn't sell either.

At first, there was a steady stream -- not a crowd -- of people wandering through, but after midday, it just died to nearly nothing. It was sooooo hot. I guess that's why. Other vendors said it seemed it was a $20 and under crowd, and my stuff is mostly more than that.

One guy stopped by and gave me a card. He's a professional tailor and said my stuff is really well-made but that it would probably sell better in Santa Fe where people at markets spend more money. So that was a nice compliment to get from someone who sews professionally. I don't consider myself an amazing sewer because I've only sewn for three and a half years and I taught myself, but I am pretty good considering that, I suppose.

I am doing the market again in August because you have to do a minimum of two days. I guess I won't have as high of hopes for selling this time, and I will probably take fewer items. As you'll see below, my area was a bit crowded, and perhaps that's overwhelming. But I guess the hard part is that I have to take time off of work, so it really costs me when I don't sell something.

Now, I know that Susana, who has read my blog before and may read this, and her husband work really hard to promote this, so I am not knocking it. It's just young and getting started. They are doing a great job of trying to get things going, and the entertainment was great!

OK, so here are a few pics:


As a late nighter and late riser, sometimes when I get up early I am surprised at how lovely the world is. I got up at 6:45 thinking it would be cold and dark and snowy and evil out. But it was bright and warm and full of balloons!


Me and my booth:


Tamara and the booth:


Close up of table:


Close up of rack:


See, in hindsight I can see how that rack kind of hid the table, and there was just way too much stuff. Too many colors and fabrics and items everywhere, and that can be overwhelming to buyers. I didn't see it that way until I looked at the photos.

Fallen little angel sent from heaven above

Roady is hurt. A few days ago, I noticed a large bump by her ear that was raw and purple. I thought it was fresh from a fight and that hopefully it was just swollen and would go away in a day or two. Two days later, it was looking nastier, so today I took her to the animal hospital.

Backtracking, a year and a half ago, Suggs suddenly had an abscess in the same place explode and there was a big bloody, pussy mess. then she clawed at it and pulled a big chunk of skin and bloody hair loose. I nearly passed out at the sight and had to take her in on a Saturday night for surgery. She had a lot of stitches and had to wear a cone thing for two weeks. She really hated this and was obviously miserable.

I took Roady in early in hopes of avoiding this. She did have a big abscess but it hadn't exploded yet, so they could just drain and clean it out without surgery. But I brought her home and it's still bleeding. She keeps shaking her head and blood spatters everywhere. So I put her in the garage because I don't know what else to do. I hope I don't have to get her a collar and I hope that it stops bleeding because I have to go to work soon and Mark won't be home until very late tonight.

Am I human?

You know what I'm tired of? Those little funny-text code boxes you have to decipher on Web sites all the time. I understand the purpose -- to make sure a human is filling out the form and not some spambot thing. I get that. But I am a human who is young and bright and has great eyesight, and half the time I am not sure what they say.

Take this one, for example, that I just got. It said I needed to prove that I am a human and then gave me this:



What is the third item from the left? I guessed at an "i" but got an angry error message to try again. Maybe it's just part of the background. I can't tell. I was unable to prove that I was a human and that makes me feel bad about myself.

Is it just me, or should I send these bags to cuteoverload.com?

I've been sewing like crazy, getting ready for The Neighborhood Market on Saturday. I'm not going to bore you with everything I've made recently, but here are three things I especially love:

Chinese lucky cats


Brown and turquoise brocade with PERFECTLY MATCHING LITTLE FLOWER THINGIES! Imagine when I pulled those from the drawer and that little lightbulb came out on top of my head.


More of the calaveras fabric. I love this stuff. I sold the other one, and a friend ordered one, too.

Oompa Loompa

Remember that girl from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" who blew up into a giant blueberry and rolled away or popped or something? Violet, I think.



Well, I feel like her right now, except less blue. For dinner I had guacamole, chips and strawberry margaritas. Blech. I'm regretting it about now.