My icon is moving in time to Another One Bites the Dust which is playing on my ipod right now. I'm entirely too amused by that.
A recent thing some of my buddy list on FB has been doing is this Living Social thing..
Pick your five things your mind 1. looks like 2. sounds like 3. feels like 4. smells like 5. tastes like" meaning one of each.
Well, that's all very interesting, but our inner landscapes so rarely match what other people see. I'd be a lot more interested in seeing what other people thought mine looked/sounded/felt/smelled/tasted like. What would be really interesting is if people who knew me 10 years ago, 15 years ago answered too to see the difference. But very few people who knew me back then read my blog. Anonymous comments are allowed.

I'm meeting Miss Teri for coffee tonight, and she sent me a text message asking me to bring aliens. *heee*

I made a printable ninja/pirate tic tac toe set. You can find that here.

Off one of the patterns I have posted here.
( Roger isn't really jolly. )

When I got in the car to go with Mike to get comics, he was listening to classical. He doesn't often, but I remembered how much I loved listening to classical while I bead.

Well.. now I'm taking a short break from all the projects I'm working on to go play a game or read a book or something.

Are craft related. Like gyotaku, which is the art of fish printing. It was used as a way to record trophy catches by inking them and placing paper over the top and creating a print of the fish.
Which is just really cool. Other then the whole catching the fish, rinsing it clean of sea gunk, patting it dry, and well.. generally working with a dead fish.

Of course, there are some replicas that can be used the same way. To make monoprints of fish. Yay! And not just fish, but seahorses, star fish, and geckos.
E and I were talking about it last night, and we decided the doing some teeshirts and dresses using the crystal wash method in blues and greens to simulate water, then doing fish prints on the dyed shirts/dresses would be lots of fun this summer.

( some jolly roger earring patterns for beaders )

Not sure what I have planned yet for today.

Oh wow.. I have a few hundred more subscribers to my newsletter now then I used to have. Well.. it's sent.
( wanna see my new earrings? )
Instructions are up at Beadwork at BellaOnline.

Still to do... make a pattern for the bow on E's mouse hat.

I modified the pirate chest a bit, so if you downloaded it yesterday, you may want to re-download it. Better instructions, and I changed the hinge. Plus the new version also has a blank one to color in.
Mike made chicken last night, because I had these grandiose plans for chicken and mashed cauliflower with gravy and had Mike pick up a whole chicken instead of breast. Then my back decided I've had it too easy this week and has been a mess of spasms and discomfort. So I made the cauliflower, and Mike roasted the chicken, we skipped gravy. Mike's gotten good at basic cooking, but gravy, he swears, is still beyond him.
So now we have a "What do we have for canned veggies in the house?" chicken soup going. E and I talked soup. See, for whatever reason, my mom, who was an AMAZING cook, couldn't make soup. Not from scratch anyway. So if we were to have a big pot of stew or soup from the time I was about 12 on, I made it. E and I have fun making soups together. Sometimes they turn out just a bit odd though, because I let her smell the spices and season them with very little intervention. Heck.. my first chicken soup? Was green. I went herb nuts. Because the broth was sort of yellow-y, the soup itself became almost a cartoon poison looking green. But gosh it was good.
Fun things.. I quizzed her while I was getting it started..
"Why do I put vinegar in the water while simmering the carcass?"
"For calcium! Vinegar leeches calcium from the bones!"
"Why did I use so much garlic?"
"Garlic is an anti-bacterial with antibiotic properties and can help ward off colds!"
"uh.. and because your daddy really likes garlic.."
Then I started adding pepper. I ground a bit in, she looked at me like I was mad, took the grinder, and showed me how it was done. I give. I surrender. This family needs pepper on everything, and I'm tired of grinding it all the time. I'm buying a coffee grinder just for pepper.
So if anyone wants chicken noodle soup.. come on over!

Well.. I took a break from working on my printables page to work on.. well.. a printable.
Sorry for not updating in 3 days, but you know.. life.
( printable I worked on )
This weekend I learned a lot of unimportant trivia. I also learned that if you absolutely can not find your bone folder to score folds with, a yarn needle works perfectly well as a substitute. I had tried the back of an exacto knife at someone's suggestion a while back, then didn't do so hot, it scored all right, but it almost cut the card stock all the way through. Yarn needle was just right.
AND!!! I got my looms!
HAPPY DANCE!

( lots of pictures )
We did, what is rapidly becoming the Saturday ritual. We hopped on a bus, and went to do crafts then had lunch after. After that, since we are soo crunched right now, we walked over to the mall and hung out in the library a bit. Much fun!!

( eyepatches, this time with a pattern )
Emily told me she's watching pirate movies today. Obviously.
-Shala

After everything I had to do to make Emily the *right* eyepatch for her costume, she lost it. So I had to make her a new one.
I asked what she wanted on it, and she said "you can do skull and crossbones." I said "I'll do whatever you want on it" "Skull and crossbones will make you happy"

Okay. So I did skull and crossbones, but while the embroidery on the face is in black floss, I stitched down the skull and stitched the edges with hot pink which doesn't show in this picture. But I think it turned out well enough for all that.


Ah.. I love craft felt.

Purse swap news. I got the first one in. Want to try for November 15th for the rest? Sorry about the delay folks, but personal life has been full of interesting things lately. Don't send postage, do send your address. Not fair to ask you to send postage when I'm including extras in everyone's package, things I've had on hand for them but haven't mailed yet.
I'll post my addy in the craft filter in my other journal.

-Shala

( Emily's shawls )

and what you've really been waiting for..
( The eyepatches )
-Shala