Button Brooches

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet up with three of my pals from high school.

I have kept in touch with one high school friend over the years, but had lost touch with the rest of the gals until we all managed to find each other on Facebook. Our group was 10 to 12 strong throughout the four years of high school, and it was so good to see how things were going for the ones who could make it to the mini reunion.

I thought a little gift would be in order, so made some brooches. I picked out vintage buttons in similar color schemes and mounted them on felt shapes. I wrapped them in sewing pattern tissue paper (from this gal - I save every scrap she sends me!) and tied off with lace, a button shape cut from cardstock, and typeface inspired stickers.

One girl was not able to make it to the mini reunion, so I will save her brooch until the next one - or our "real" 20 year reunion in 2013 (20!!!)

**********

Favorite of the day: Hmmmm...

Working on: Valentines

9

Our 9 year anniversary was earlier this month.

Despite my mom being in town that day, we never did make it out for an anniversary date. As mentioned, Hank had a little surgery this month. Despite the optimistic claim in the discharge papers that the worst of the recovery would be over in 2-3 days, we found that not to be the case. We are finally (a week and a half later) on the upswing, but think we will have a few more weeks until we get back to a *normal* level of crying/tantruming/etc.

In any case, I simply had to buy BT an anniversary gift based on the traditional anniversary gift list. Number nine is pottery (who knows what list I looked at last year that said number eight was pottery too??) I found a Benihana mug at a local antique store (here is a nifty blog dedicated to these mugs!)

I wanted to find a bottle of Chinese whiskey to go with the mug. The significance was that we had Chinese mai tais (probably similar to this recipe - uses whiskey instead of the rum you would expect to find in a mai tai) at some Chinatown dive bar on our trip to San Francisco. I thought the booze portion of the gift would be a nice remembrance of that long ago trip, and we are always looking for more mugs to add to our collection. I didn't have time to drive around L.A. to get exactly what I was looking for, but found a bottle of Japanese whiskey at BevMo, which was probably more appropriate anyway with the sumo wrestler mug.

Number ten's fall back gift next year if I run out of time will be a case of beer (aluminum) :)

* We are purposely being a little cagey about the nature of the surgery, and I apologize about that - it is something that could easily be misunderstood and miscommunicated. We would just a soon shred all the papers associated with the procedure and pretend that it never took place!

**********

Favorite of the day: Didn't think these three words could be used in conjunction with each other, but this is one stylish diaper cake.

Working on: Gifties for some high school friends!

K.I.S.S. gift

The year has just started, and the gift worthy events are already in full swing. This year I want to give cute meaningful gifts that don't cost too much, or cause me to miss too much sleep (if they are of the homemade variety).

As with many areas of my life as of late, I am having to apply the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) principle. Nothing too complicated, expensive, or time consuming. This gift for one of Hank's girlfriends fit the bill. I had the mask kit on hand (bought on clearance at Target a couple of months ago). The writing on the package reminded me of the books by one of our favorite authors, so we bought a copy for our little friend. Hoping to land on the perfect simple gift to fit the occasion many more times this year!

**********

Favorite of the day: Seed bombs

Working on: Cleaning

Hoping for a lead-free 2011

If you live in California, you are used to seeing signs like these



You see this warning everywhere - in parking structures, at the gas station, on apartment buildings. In fact you see this sign so often that you start to block it out.

But, I couldn't help but notice a similar warning recently hanging off the shelf of balsamic vinegar at Cost Plus (and later at Ralphs, and even Whole Foods). The warning was re-worded to indicate the food itself contained the chemical, and in this case it was very specific as to what that chemical was - lead. The warning is repeated on the label of the vinegar bottles, and, as far as I could tell, applied to nearly every brand on the shelves. Here is a little more info.

Now, I *know* I have a tendency to get freaky about things related to food safety, and undoubtedly "an expert" would say the amount of lead is below the limit that would cause harm blah blah blah, and there are undoubtedly things that are way worse for you at the grocery store that aren't labelled at all. But come on - as crappy as our food is overall, not many things have a sign on the the shelf and the container that caution you about its consumption (alcohol and cigarettes, of course, but not many food items).

In the past we have used a lot more balsamic vinegar than we do now (we used to swirl it with olive oil to dip bread in - super yum), but still wanted to see if there was a lead-free (or at least didn't require a Prop 65 warning) brand out there.

This is what I came up with. Hopefully they are on the up and up, as I bought 6 bottles of vinegar - for my use, and to give as gifts to my freaky about food foodie friends. We should start a club.

*********

Favorite of the day: This is just the solution we needed to have some of those hip and happening forward facing bookshelves that 1) will fit in a narrow space, 2) are cheap, and 3) don't require waiting for dada to get around to making some for us.

Working on: Work

Crafty recap

On to brighter memories of 2010 - crafting projects! Here are some highlights from the previous year ~

January - the bed pocket, February - burlap wreath, March - stroller blankie

April - craft room spruce up, May - vintage cowgirl swap, June - salsa,

July - giant moss letters, August - baby animal cut-outs, September - alternative to a guest book.

October - Halloween wreath, November - wish wreath, December - calendar Christmas cards

I still love giving gifts even more than I do receiving them! Here were a few of my favorites

January - 1st birthday onesie and crown, February - tough guy Valentines, March - yo-yo doll quilt

April - vintage sewing Easter basket, May - baby blanket + block, June - craft jars,

July - picnic set, August - baby animal quilt, September - photo wall (pics were sent in the couple's thank you cards - it counts!),

October - pirate kit, November - ballerina blankie, December - chalkboard mugs

(mosaics created using fd's Flickr Toys)

Also up for 2010 was a new tutorial -~ how to make a brooch from an eyeglass lens

and the last of the themed Christmas trees - for awhile :)

The whole work basket project petered out mid-year once I became a part-time party planner (haha). You do recall the Baby Shower,

Luncheon,

and Reception, right?

(other parties during the year included the canning party, a bachelorette party, Hank's trash truck themed birthday party, some decorations for an Italian themed baby shower, and a Who-ville inspired lunch)

Best wishes for a crafty 2011! I'm hoping for even more fun crafts, more gift-giving, more parties, and, yes, even more work basket projects :)

**********

Favorite of the day: I was happy to shuttle our deader than a doornail Christmas tree out the door two days after Christmas, but would love it if next year's tree could make it until New Year's Eve, and be re-purposed like this.

Working on: Dishes

Happy(?) 2011

After wading through several months of crapola (highlights - or lowlights - include a miscarriage*, my cat dying, hearing that a friend has cancer, finding out Hank has some health issues that need to be addressed - one that will involve surgery, and the sudden death of my boss and his son) has left me in a mired state. I am quite certain that I have been "hidden" by many friends and family on Facebook due to my Eeyore-esque status updates lately :) I am generally not the most positive person, but I can typically swing back around much quicker than I am able to as of late...

To make matters worse, I am an intensely superstitious person. As much as my logical brain wants to dictate how I respond to a situation, I instead look for signs from the universe to provide an explanation.

This coming year under the Chinese Zodiac is my ben ming nian - the meeting of my Zodiac year, the Rabbit. Although I am generally happy to have been born under this sign, and feel it is a lucky sign, apparently when your calendar year rolls around again it is not necessarily a good thing. Although the Chinese new year does not start until February 3, I seem to recall a similar pattern in relation to my previous ben ming nian at 24 - that the bad luck started a little early (finding out that my mom had heart block and failure and needed to have a pacemaker installed comes to mind). Granted that year ended with me meeting my true love (but another cat died then, too - I'm sensing a theme here), so maybe the ben ming nian is a mixed bag - as is any year, I suppose.

This time around, I am armed with a little red bracelet to try ward off additional bad luck. I don't think I will go so far as to wear red underwear, but you can bet that I will be wearing a lot of red to welcome in the lunar new year when that time comes!

I will try try try to focus on the positive, and find some better outlets for all the energy I have been investing in my quest for alternative explanations for some unfortunate incidents that coincidentally all happened together in my life. Working out is top on the list, and BT and I have a very aggressive weight loss program planned for 2011. Maybe having those extra endorphins swimming around will turn my thinking around. In the meantime, I plan on eating a healthy dose of lucky foods today :)

*I know it is so difficult for people to know what to say in relation to hearing the news that somebody has had a miscarriage. I myself have been completely tongue tied in the past when I heard the news from friends. The only blessing from my experience was a newfound empathy towards women who have lost a baby. Not that I had told many people until now about my own experience, but, of that group, it is amazing how many people picked up the conversation, either verbal or written, without one word of acknowledgment as to what I had just said. Or just shuffled away from me in case losing babies was catching. If you are troubled as to what to say to somebody (not me - but somebody you know) who tells you this news, a simple I'm sorry that happened to you will be welcome to their ears and their hearts.