I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at trader vic's

His hair was perfect.

The same could mot be said about mine. I tried out a new conditioner, Loreal's new Everstrong Hydrating sulfate free conditioner, to be precise. The shampoo is great. The conditioner turned my hair into a bird's nest. Half a bottle of detangler later...

Anyway.

I haven't heard anything else about the situation in my previous email. We've recovered 230k of the 480k I had miscalculated. It's something...

Today I'm posting pictures of my quilt so far. I've pieced all but one of the star blocks and quilted a "filler" block. I've quilted 4 of the stars as well.

What do you think?

Marvin had to investigate...He has recently decided that if I'm doing something, he should be sitting in the middle of it. It's very difficult to turn pages in books with a catbutt in the way...If I have a quilt block in the hoop, he feels the need to curl up on it if I set it down somewhere.


I'm thinking of filling the filler blocks with different Hallowe'eny type song lyrics. Or just weird lyrics. Or maybe some Hallowe'en clip art outlines. My backstitching needs some work, but I like it (and it glows in the dark)


This is the back of one of the quilted star blocks. My quilting stitches need more practice to be more even, but I have lots of blocks to go to perfect them.


No beading this week-I just haven't had time. But I really feel like I'm getting somewhere with the PE preparation. I finished a whole book of practise problems that was put out by the same people who administer the test. Out of the 80 questions therein, I missed 16, but I have learned why I missed those 16, and can now correctly solve them. I'm also nearly halfway through another study guide, which had thousands of problems in it.

I have to keep asking myself, did I know all this stuff at one point? Holy Crap I've forgotten a LOT.

Number 11

Eleven. Eleven is one of those numbers that people tend to forget about. It is that number between 10 and 12, both of utmost importance. Eleven is the number of toes that some people have. Eleven (as written 11) has a bit of cool, as it appears in binary through decimal numbering systems. Eleven as an age is rather anti-climactic. You aren't a teenager, aren't almost a teen, but you are a bit too old to be considered a kid. You're in 5th/6th grade and its all rather meh, if I recall.

This ornament certainly isn't meh, it's actually the most Christmas-sy of all the ornaments I've done this year, in my opinion.

I used Delicas in an AB semi-matte bluespruce color, matte lima bean colored Delicas, brass colored Japanese 11/0s, and Red Velvet Chinese crystal rounds.

The inspiration for this one came to me over my Thansgiving break. Standing on my in-law's back porch at night. The evergreens were silhouetted against the purple snow sky. I wanted to make Christmas trees, and have them encircle the ornament. I pulled every type of green seed bead I have with me and began working in Russian...um leaf stitch? There is a name for that stitch, but my brain just went *derf* blink blink.

I made the first tree, and it wasn't quite right, nor was the second, then I just got caught up in the moment and accidentally made a leaf...oops :) Then I kept going.

I worked 4 parts in a Russian Leaf style with the Delicas, and used the 11/0s and crystals as "veins"


I then used the Japanese 11/0s and crystals to connect, but separate, the leaves


From there, I worked down the edges of the leaves with a dense vertical netting, ending in a crystal finial.



I finished the whole thing with a few strings of 11/0 and crystal swag. This ornament is unlike alot of my ornaments in that the ornament ball itself can be changed. I think it looks quite nice over matte white, but if someone doesn't like it, it is easily changed.



And just because he looks so cute and innocent in this picture, here is the Cat-Beast. That face doesn't say "I got into the mini marshmallows and sprinkled them all over the hotel room", does it?

Marvelous Marvin

Mr Spyder and I have accidentally adopted a cat-beast who may or may not acknowledge the name Marvin.



It all started while looking for new work boots. My dear husband needed a new pair of boots, as the steel toes were showing through his. We started out close to where we stay, but alas! the shoe store was closed on Sunday. We then made our way up the road to the craft store, where I picked up a few beads for a commissioned hemp necklace. Mr Spyder then asked if Famous Footwear would have anything. I said, "not likely, but we can go in." "Ok" he said. Didn't really even have to do much looking before he realised that this was not the type of store where he would find boots to comfort his feet.

We then Yallowpages.com'd Red Wing Shoes from the handy cell phone device. He called the first one, and it was closed. He called the second one! And it was closed. He called the thrid one! And it was open until 4. Sweet! So we began our journey. We punched in the address into the GPS. We drove, and it took us straight to an NJTA maintenance facility? Maybe we took a wrong turn...No! The GPS says that after we pull over, the store should be right under this bridge in the middle of that creek!

Ok take 2. We used the GPS's Points of Interest Search Nearby function. We then began our adventure again. After we entered the housing deveopment, we probably should have turned back. We did evenually turn back after the GPS told us our destination was at the end of a cul de sac. Unless the guy was selling them out of his garage, not likely.

After careful consideration, we decided to call the store directly and ask for the address. So we gave it one more go, and boots or no boots, this was it. Apparently Wayne NJ must be enormous, as there were 5 miles between address 1 and 2, and 6 miles between 2 and 3 in completely different directions.

We found the Red Wing Store! Hurrah! Mr Spyder got his boots, and I decided that after our ordeal, we needed to go see kitties. We walked next door to Petsmart. There were extra kitties that day, as it was adoption day! Yay! So in we went, and after meeting several kitties, I knew we were taking one home. I think Mr Spyder realised it after one special guy stuck out his little arm and politely tapped him asking for snuggles and petting. As soon as the lady took him out of his cage and placed him in my arms, it was love (not so much for him, he was more interested in exploring PetSmart) We filled out all the paperwork, then went cat supply shopping, then came back and picked up our Marvelous Marvin, giant cat-beast. He really is ginourmous. And not particularly flabby, hes like a little boulder, with fur, and night crazies :)

We took him back to our little apartment/room/place and he proceeded to explore everything, from under the bed, to on top of the (off) stove(a squirt bottle IS on the shopping list!) I opened the cabinet above the stove hood to grab some lunch stuff for today and he jumped on top of the hood then promptly slid back off. He is also fascinated by things like toilets flushing, bathtubs, sinks, closets, air conditioners, windows, counters, hemp, quilt pieces, twist ties(he found it under the bed and had to be bribed with 3 cat toys to get it from him) Also, just like my dearly departed Missy, has a strange liking for Doritos. I don't feed Doritos to cats regularly, but after he decided to stick his head in the bowl and lick one, it seemed like I should give it to him.