Library Book Sale Bag Sale

So I told you all about the Library Book Sale. And I warned you that the all-you-can-fit-in-a-grocery-sack-for-$3 sale was Monday afternoon. Well, I went, I carried too much, I got a sore back, but I ultimately survived with a lovely haul.


A typing book, a pile of Gregg Shorthand books (They are my weakness. I see one, and I have to buy it. I could start a Gregg Shorthand library.), some note cards, and two film reels. I dunno. They were there. Anyone want some film reel?


Maps, children's books, and children's encyclopedias. The encyclopedias have thick pages, and are therefore perfect for making shipping envelopes. (On a side note, I still sing that song to myself when I'm trying to spell "encyclopedia".)


Atlases, sheet music, road sign stickers, more kids' books for chopping up, and 3 kids' books NOT for chopping up -- "I Hate English", "The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too!", and "The Pigeon Loves Things That Go!"

And yes, that was all to be had for $3 (OK, that's not actually true -- the Oklahoma book cost an extra dollar). And all well worth it. I have so much consumer surplus, I don't even know what to do with myself!

Fabulous New Christmas Cards

It's late October. Ya know what that means -- time to start thinking about Christmas cards! I realize you might be in denial about this fact, but it's true.

In fact, I've been thinking about Christmas cards since mid September. But that's because I get to make them for you!

Here's a whole new batch of cards similar to some I made last year:



And here, for the first time in the blogosphere, are the new Christmas cards!




These are called "My Favorite Things", just like the song from The Sound of Music. They're all very 3D and adorable. These are limited edition, which in this case means I made 15 sets of these beauties and I'm not making any more. Ever. So if you fancy them, you'd best get on it!

Also, I realize that these cards are not strictly Christmas-y, but I think that's part of the appeal!


INTERACTIVE BLOGGING QUESTION:
What are some of your favorite things? :-)

Mine = funky-colored corduroy, my copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, baked goods with pumpkin in them (Not quite as poetic as Maria's...)

Cat

A little background: I was raised to hate cats. Cats are horrible, diseased, sneaky, evil creatures. They don't need you, they do their own things, and they'll give you ringworm. Cats bad. Dogs awesome.

Now, while I still agree that cats are sneaky, I'm not so sure about the other things. Dogs are great -- they're kind of like young men in love. Completely goofy and willing to do anything you ask of them. Cats are more like girls -- they'll never just come out and say anything, and you kind of have to chase them if you want them. I think there's room for both animals in this crazy world of ours.

That said, cats are still sneaky, so the only kind of cat I could ever see myself owning is a black one. Because then they're not pretending.

That brings us to this little guy.


This is not my cat. He belongs to the neighbor across the backyard from us. Sadly, this is the same idiot neighbor who couldn't figure out how to take the dying battery out of his smoke detector, so he just took it off his wall and put it outside his back door. In the fall -- during window-opening season.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

Yeah.


So the cat is his, but most of the time he lets the cat loose in the backyard, and for some strange reason, the cat likes to come visit us. (And by "strange" I mean, we give him milk and play with him and pet him.)


He's been the highlight of my days for the last week. And he's growing so fast! So I took some photos.





And this is just a cat! Who isn't mine! You might want to run before the actual baby gets here...

Library Book Sale

Every year the Norman Public Library has a huge, fabulous used book sale. It benefits the "Friends of the Library", a member group that supports and raises money for the library. Members get to shop on Friday night, the public gets to shop starting on Saturday morning, and the everything-you-can-fit-in-a-giant-grocery-sack-for-$3 sale starts Monday afternoon.

BUT -- little-known fact -- if you volunteer to help set up the sale, you get to shop on Thursday night! I learned about this several years ago, and for the past two years have been putting it into practice. I mean, not that I don't want to help them out -- I've been attending the sale since my freshman year -- but the early shopping time makes it that much sweeter!

So last night Norman and I ate an early dinner in order to get to the library right at 6. List in hand, we scoured the children's books and the videos, looking to fill those gaps in our collections. Here's what we came up with:


First priority for me: Lemony Snicket books. I found 4 of the 5 I didn't have.


First priority for Norman: children's movies, then adults'. Note the absolute score that is Pride and Prejudice for $5. Also, Jeeves and Wooster!


Assorted children's books, more Isaac Asimov short stories (can never have too many), plus a super-secret, fabulously-appropriate Christmas present (not pictured).

I plan to go back for the bag sale on Monday, but I'm still looking for someone to go with me. Anyone want to help a pregnant lady out?

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny...

Mini journals! They're very tiny.


These are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".


And these are 3" x 3".


Aren't they adorable? (One is here; more to follow.)




P.S. - Anyone besides my mother who understands the "adorable" reference gets 10 cool points. Post a comment to claim.

What I Did During My Morning Sickness

by Jessie Maynard


Morning sickness is not any fun. And it is not only in the morning it is also at night and in the afternoon. It is all day long. During my morning sickness I did three things.

First I laid on the couch. My couch is very comfortable and the pillows are squished just right. I laid on the couch in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night. Then I went to bed.

Secondly I watched TV. First there is "Today", then there is "The Price is Right". After that Rachael Ray comes on, and then the noon news. Then there was "Law and Order: CI" but it got replaced with Bonnie Hunt and now I am sad. Then there is nothing on and I take a nap. Then there is "Jeopardy!" (The exclamation mark is part of the name.) Then there is more news. I wish I had cable.

Thirdly, and most importantly, I made lavender heart sachets. I have attached a picture at the end of this essay. I could sit and trace and cut and stitch and fill without getting up off the couch. That was the most fun thing I did during my morning sickness.

In conclusion, morning sickness is not fun. I laid on the couch, watched the TV, and made sachets. That part was fun.

The End

My Mike Hat

Today is October 15, 2008. And it's finally cold. Mmmm... Cold weather is my favorite. A friend offered to bring me food for dinner, but I told her that I wanted to go out so I could get all bundled up. She thought that was weird.


I made this hat going on 3 years ago. Even though I don't like knitting, I really wanted a hat just like this, so I suffered through it and got it done.

The hat makes me so happy. Today I got it out of its drawer, put it on my head, and sighed. My head just feels better when the hat is on it. Perfect.


And now, some history.

Mike Hat Retrospective:

Engagement -- Dec 15, 2005


Christmas in Minnesota -- 2005


Pizza -- March 12, 2006


Silly married people -- Jan 21, 2008

New Blog Mention

My Marcia, Marcia, Marcia stickers were featured on a blog!

I highly recommend reading the entire blog post. It's not too long, but it's very interesting.

http://coffeemonkeymusings.blogspot.com/2008/10/1984_14.html

Woot!

First Dress Ever

Some of you may find this hard to believe, but before last week, I had never sewn a dress before, let alone from a pattern. So some may wonder, "Jessie, why did you agree to make a dress for another person for money?" Well... I'd made skirts from patterns before. And boxer shorts. I know how patterns work (frustratingly, sometimes). And there are instructions, so how bad could it be?

Well, the truth is, not that bad. It took me just over 11 hours to make a dress, bonnet, and pinafore for a young Prairie Girl Halloween costume. Not too shabby, really.

There was only one real snafu, but it was easily remedied. I ignored the instructions on how to cut out some of the pieces for the dress, thinking, "That's really complicated, and I have plenty of fabric left!" I forgot that I still needed to cut out the pieces for the bonnet out of the same fabric. So I didn't have enough fabric for the bonnet ties. So I substituted some ribbon I had, which I think is cuter anyway. :-)

Photos!




Oh yeah, and I'd never made a button hole before either. It's amazingly easy to do on my beautiful Bernina 830.


Bonnet (modeled by my broken clothesline).


That's the bottom of the bonnet -- it has a bow on the back, and you can see the makeshift ribbon ties.

There's no photo of the pinafore because I made the whole thing in one 3 hour stretch late Saturday night. It's a lovely shade of light blue.

Then I had a dream about pinning fabric in my sleeping. It was weird.

So there you have it. On the job training -- the best kind!

Curb Shopping, Week 2

"What?" you ask. "Did I miss Week 1? Dang Google Reader! It's broken!"

No, your Google Reader is not broken. There was no Week 1 post. This is because after 2 hours of cruising around Norman looking for goodies, we came home with exactly one plastic storage drawer and no commodes. What's up with that? (Yes, I know I should be rejoicing that the residents of Norman are coming to their senses and reusing, or at least donating, their older possessions instead of sending them to the dump, but I really wanted some free things.)

This week, however, the haul, though small, was more encouraging.

1.) Plant pots. In particular, one large, attractive, lightweight pot for repotting my pineapple. Jenny, it's getting so big!!

2.) A box of 6 large, wooden cigar boxes! Excitement! This will be great for crafting, or displaying crafts, or selling to others for their crafting.




Also.... COMMODE!!!!

(The commode phenomenon is explained here.)

Numero Uno:


Numero Dos:


No tanks. Weird.

We also, unfortunately, had to witness this: