Happy New Year and a new purse!

A while back, Debbie from D Whynn Designs was getting rid of some purse patterns and was nice enough to send them my way. Just recently I saw a purse at Pink Chalk Studio and I wondered why it looked familiar.


Well sonofagun, one of the patterns that Debbie sent me was this exact purse!!!


It's a BB purse from Brookshier Design Studio and after seeing it I knew I had to make it!

This is the largest version.



An inside view.


The yellow strip is a zipper for an inside pocket.


Just below it is a pleated pocket.
















A close up of the front. There's a zippered pocket at the top in the front flap.


It's a good place to keep a credit card wallet.















The back has a pocket but it's not secure. A bit of velcro would be easy to install.




















The pleated pocket also has a small pocket within it.

The one thing that almost put me off this bag is the fact that you have to use bias tape to enclose the outside edges.
I hate bias tape as it never behaves for me, and I detest cutting it out.


Then I remembered reading about a technique for making your own continuous tape by sewing a funky tube-like thing.



Now here's where you just have to love the internet. In the old days the need for this information would have involved a trip to the library where you could only hope to find the information you need. But with a click of a button I found what I wanted in seconds.


And for everyones information, I love libraries and if I could live in one, I would.


Anyway I found this link and gave it a try.


It required some math which involved square roots, and once again I was happy to have the internet because square roots are not my thing!


In the end all I needed to make the bias tape that goes around this bag was: a 10" square of fabric.


I cut out a 12 inch square to be on the safe side because this just didn't seem possible.


I was sure there was no way was this going to work.


But it did!


It really did and I'm so impressed that someone came up with this!


You have to give it a try.




It really is a cute purse and I'm glad I made it.

Also, I finally fixed the doggy coat I made for my boss's dog, and it now fits. I also moved that tummy band more towards the front since it should go under the chest not the tummy!

You should have seen her prance around in it (the dog, not my boss)!! She was so proud of her new coat and since her New Year's resolution (which she doesn't know about yet) is to lose some weight, she now has a coat for those long winter walks that are awaiting her!

Tonight is New Year's Eve and for the first time since we've been together, Hans and I are staying home, and we aren't having anyone over either.

At midnight we will have our champagne and Chlorox is getting some catnip!

Just another wild night here in The Big City!!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!!!!!!

Doggies, kitties, and a little bit of sewing

I made this doggy coat as a Christmas present for a friend's dog. However, as careful as I was in my measuring, it was still too small. That poor fat dog! The band that goes under the belly was so tight that when she modeled it for us it hiked her back end up in the air and she walked on her back tippy toes. She looked so embarrassed and I'm sorry but we couldn't help laughing at her. Anyway, the coat is back here in the apartment awaiting alterations and we decided to put it on Duncan just to see how it looks.

It's too big for my boy (actually if the bands were made smaller it would fit) but it doesn't matter anyway because he hated it! He ran in circles, nipped at it with his teeth, and I'm just lucky he didn't tear it. Vet Tech Girl says he doesn't like it because he feels like he's not in control. Hmmm, as far as I've ever noticed, he's never been in any kind of control.

This is another Day Bag. A Vet Tech friend of Vet Tech Girl wanted one so I managed to finish this on Christmas Eve.

It's black corduroy and if you want to drive yourself nuts go ahead and sew BLACK CORDUROY!!!!! I remember laughing at a grandmother who complained about how hard it was on her eyes to sew black fabric.

Well, God is getting even with me.

And in addition to killing my eyes, the lint brush got a heavy workout, thanks to Chlorox.

Once again, the hard bottom that I like so much!

A view of the inside.

Last week the lady I work for, and I were cleaning a house that has two cats.

Two cats that hate us.

One is an ancient torty who growls at me, and the other is a long haired gray kitty who hisses at me.

Not exactly Welcome Wagon material.

Anyway, a contractor was there working on the steps in the foyer and somehow the cats had escaped from the basement where they were to spend the day.

"No problem," we said," hitching up our pants, and readying ourselves for battle. "We'll take care of it." We then spent about 15 minutes setting up barriers and planning our strategy. My boss was to flush the kitties out, and I was to shoo them down the steps. I wasn't worried because the cats always bolt for the basement as soon as we get out the sweepers or heaven forbid talk to them. But something went wrong because they ran in hysterical circles, jumped over our barriers and disappeared into thin air. It does embarrass me that the torty, who is old and fat, and runs like an old woman whose shoes are too tight was able to get past me.

"I don't think we're going to be able to add cat herding to our resumes." I told the owner and we got back to work.

I needed to get my boss a gift for Christmas and decided a bottle of wine would be nice. I was going to just whip up a fabric sleeve for it when I remembered that a couple of the double wine bags I made were still hanging around.

That meant I would have to get two bottles but it still made my life easier.

Even though I love wine, I have absolutely no idea of what's good and what isn't so I look for fun labels.

Hey, it works for me.

I was just getting ready to grab a couple of bottles of Little Penguin when I spotted a label that stopped me cold.

Check it out.

Herding Cats!!!!!!

Can you believe it???!!!

I bought a red and a white.

Here's what it looks like when you're carrying it.

The bottles are very snug and don't bang into each other.

Needless to say when I gave it to her and she pulled out a bottle of the herding cats, she screamed.

Herding Cats will do that to you!

We survived Christmas

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't even wrap presents until Christmas Eve. I used to complain that if I only had more time, I'd have everything done ahead of time.

Well I do, and I didn't!

I didn't even buy name tags so Hans had to improvise with this.

I think he did a fine job!

Christmas isn't relaxing to begin with but it was even less fun to drive a nerve wracking 2 hours in 'almost' freezing rain to my parents' house. Since I'm the kind of back seat driver that can make even Hans (the most patient man on the face of the earth) want to toss me out of a moving vehicle, I drove.

Even in the pouring down rain all the highway signs still had festive icicles hanging from them which made me nervous, and also made for a very tedious trip.

Look at the smug face on Miss Kissy Pooh, my parents' obnoxiously spoiled doberman.

She's quite pleased with herself because she ended up causing a scene and getting her cousin Rambo in trouble.

BTW, that's her Christmas present lying there between her legs. It's a squeaky duck, and as always she opened her present all by herself.

Here's Rambo the offender.

This sweet and very meek guy got into trouble for 'attacking' Kissy Pooh.

But I bet I know exactly what happened.

I think Kissy Pooh stuck her tongue out at Rambo and said, "NaNaNa!! I got a present from Sandy Paws and you didn't!!! I got a toy, and a sparkly gold collar, and I'm pretty, and I have an expensive supply of blood at the vet's because the people I own think I'm a hemophiliac even though I've been bitten by woodchucks, and one time by a muskrat, and I have yet to 'bleed out', and I get birthday cakes every year..."

And that's about the time Rambo the Husky had heard enough, and fixing his icy blue eyes on her said, "I'd hate to see that blood supply go to waste." And he charged her.

That's it. Nothing happened but, oh my what an upset! What a commotion! Kissy Pooh was stunned! She nearly turned herself inside out, and then my dad ran to my mother and tattled on Rambo. My mom burst into the room, and with a cigarette hanging out of the side of her mouth she shouted, "Goddamit! We don't put up with bad manners in this house!" And Rambo got sent upstairs for a time out.

Smoky the cat was the survivor of the day as far as I'm concerned.

Here he is on the kitchen table (his favorite hangout) after a wild bout of wrestling with the green catnip mouse that Sandy Paws brought him.

"Man, that was some good stuff." he said.

My parents' TV was on full blast all day long and I caught Hans doing this just about the time Ralphie and his Red Ryder BB gun was playing for the umteenth time.

Hans and I don't appreciate the same movies and I forced him to watch Ralphie (he'd never seen it from beginning to end before) the previous night.

Poor guy.

While Rambo was in time out, the ever innocent Miss Kissy Pooh checked out my niece's birthday cake. Her birthday is on Christmas day and when she was little she used to say, "Jesus was born on my birthday." She's never lacked self esteem.

I'm glad to report we had a much easier time on our ride home. Hans drove, and after he informed me that he knows how to use his high beams, I shut up! After unloading our junk we fished a very upset and crying Countess von Chlorox out from under the bed, and I have no idea what was wrong. Even the lure of Greenies wouldn't budge her.

All is now well, I've had my bourbon, Hans his beer, and The Countess finally ate her treats and even purred a bit.

Next up; New Year's Eve!!!!

I can't wait.

Why not just one more dysfunctional Christmas story.

Last year I wrote a post about this disaster.


I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that I have another one as my entire life has yet to be anything even close to normal.

When my kids were little I tried to make a point of going to the library once a week. It took a chunk of time out of my schedule that should have been spent doing laundry and whatever other endless things moms with full time jobs have to do (at least moms with husbands who didn't help around the house). And even if we didn't read all the books we checked out, we still went back and got new ones. Actually I'm like that now; I'm in the process of reading a Nevada Barr (titled 13 1/2, and it's riveting!), and I have a Kate Wilhelm, and a Michelle Spring waiting in the wings.

Anyway, Christmas was quickly approaching when I stumbled onto Hans Christian Anderson's 'The Little Match Girl'.

What drew me to this book was the unbelievably rich illustrations, and I am a sucker for illustrations. As a child I'd pour over every detail of every picture in my books, and if there was just one imperfection, by God just one, I'd be furious. But this book? The Little Match Girl? Every page was heavy with detail. The colors in this book were beyond vivid and I swear the pages pulsed with life. But what really hooked me was this; The Little Match Girl looked a lot like my Baby Girl. Beautiful long blond Barbie Doll like hair cascaded down The Little Match Girl's back, very much like my daughter's did.

I had to have this book.

Unfortunately I didn't remember the plot of this particular story.

Once we were home I got the girls settled, one on each side of me, and I started reading.

The story took place in England and The Little Match Girl was poor. She lived with her mother, her siblings, and her miserable, rotten, ignorant excuse of a human being, stepfather. Stepfather sent The Little Match Girl out on Christmas Eve to sell matches, and she was told not to return until every match had been sold. The Little Match Girl didn't have a pair of shoes so she had to go out in cold slushy weather wearing her stepfather's slippers. She hadn't gotten very far when some hooligans chased her and she promptly lost a slipper. Slogging along with a bare foot was very difficult but she couldn't go home until all the matches were sold.

The day wore on and finally The Little Match Girl who hadn't made a cent, realized that if she went home with no money, her stepfather would beat her. She found shelter in a recessed store front and huddling deep into a corner she tried to stay warm.

It was right about this time that I started to wonder just where this story was going. But both of my girls were leaning into me and gazing intently at the book so I kept on reading.

The Little Match Girl was so cold that in order to try to stay warm, she, out of desperation, started lighting the matches she hadn't been able to sell earlier. Each time a match was lit a beautiful scene opened in front of us.

There were Christmas trees with limbs groaning under the weight of gorgeous ornaments, and elaborately wrapped gifts were just begging to be opened. Another match was lit and we were treated to a drawing room full of plump, overstuffed furniture basking in the glow of a roaring fireplace. Another match illuminated a dining room table surrounded by a happy smiling family, and a table so full of food it should have collapsed.

The Little Match Girl was nearly frozen and she had only one match left. The streets were dark as everyone had gone home to their families, and left all alone, she finally lit it. Now appearing in front of us was The Little Match Girl, and her hair fell down her back and over the ruffles of her holiday dress in glorious blond curls. She was reaching her arms out to a gray haired woman who was in turn reaching out to The Little Match Girl. The story went on to explain that the only person in the world who had ever truly loved The Little Match Girl was her grandmother, who had unfortunately died a few years earlier.

I may have been puzzled about where this story was going before, but let me tell you I knew right then and there exactly where it was going now.

But I couldn't stop.

The grandmother was smiling and happy, and inviting The Little Match Girl to come with her. The Little Match Girl, in her pretty dress and clean hair couldn't wait to go with her grandmother, and the final picture is of them happily hugging each other.

At this point I was openly sobbing and I had to put the book down. Tears were running down my face and I couldn't get the image of that adorably sweet and innocent little girl in her filthy tattered clothes and one slipper, huddled in that dirty alcove with her pathetic matches, out of my mind. For God's sake! Who the hell writes this crap, I wondered.

I had to close my eyes and take some deep breaths to calm down. I didn't feel any motion beside me but when I opened my eyes Baby Girl had leaned even closer and was almost in my face. She was absolutely giddy with delight, she'd never seen her mother quite this worked up, and she was enjoying every minute of it.

On Christmas Day, The Little Match Girl is found frozen to death in the dirty store front with a smile on her face, and she's surrounded by a pile of burned up matches.

To this day I can not tell this story without getting choked up and even as I wrote this I found myself in tears.

You know what? I'll take Dr. Seuss's Grinch over old Hans Christian Anderson any day because even though The Grinch steals the last can of Who hash and doesn't even leave a crumb for the Who mice, at least he can't make me cry!

And on that note, I do wish everyone a very merry holiday, whether you celebrate it or not!

My finished purse and a Christmas party.

Here I am with my finished bag that I posted about here.

I can see that mine is a little more rectangular than the one I copied, so if I ever make another one I'll adjust my pattern a bit and make the next one a little more boxy.

Other than that, I really do like it.

On a whole different note, ignore all the chaos behind me, our apartment is so full of junk we have no real good place to take pictures.

Hans is trying to play the piano at our host's house. However it was pretty out of tune so he didn't last too long.

The last time Hans was in Europe he bought a new sport coat and pants, and believe me he was long overdue for some new clothes! He's still amazed and impressed that the salesman at the store he went to, took one look at him, went to the racks, and pulled out the exact size pants and jacket for him.

No measuring (and no small feat)!

And they really do fit well. Nothing like you get here in the states or from catalogs.

They make him look very prosperous and successful, and not at all like someone who's currently unemployed.

Which probably explains what happened while we were at the party.

There was a woman there this year whom I haven't seen at any of the past parties.

Let's just say that she stood out in a way that made me, well... wonder. She didn't appear to be with a husband or a date, and she certainly wasn't wearing a HO HO HO sweatshirt (although maybe she should have). Her hair and manicure said $$$$$, her youthful face did not match her 'not so youthful hands' (ladies, our hands are dead giveaways to our age!), and I just knew she was on the make!

She'd been cruising the perimeter of the party and just as I was exiting the room, she was entering.

Now, I'm not the smartest bulb in the box, but by golly I know women so I just stepped back and watched.

She zeroed right in on Hans (I knew she would! Didn't I say he looked prosperous?), immediately introduced herself, and then tossed out her anchor.

I was polite and gave her a couple of minutes before I returned. Shortly thereafter she took her cue and moved on to other prey.

Was I really surprised to later learn that she's the ex-mistress of a locally prominent physician whose wife found out about their escapades and gave hubby an ultimatum? Listen up people, in the end husbands will almost always choose the wife. Can you say: Alimony? Child support?

Hans couldn't figure out why she was at this particular party (she came with a friend) and I pointed out to him that this was a perfect venue for someone like her. A lot of successful business men all in one group? It's like shooting fish in a barrel!

I told him that the next time we go out he can wear his WalMart sweatsuit and I'm going to make a point of telling all the women that he doesn't have a job right now!

Me, Hans, and and the untuned piano.

Now this was funny! One of our friends arrived very late and brought a spicy, hot dip.

I took this picture with no flash so you can see the lighted red knife that's sticking out of it.

It's there as a warning because something got lost in the translation in the making of this dish.

It wasn't until a couple of guests tasted the concoction that the problem was discovered.

Honest to God! Just drink a bottle of hot sauce and you'll know what it tasted like. It was gross! Our friend was a good sport about the whole thing and remarked that at least she'd given us something to talk about.

Someone thought it was a good idea to feed it to the kids (all well over 21!!) who were playing beer pong.

Not a bad idea.

Well, I have a purse or two that I need to sew, along with some pot holders (and I have an easier pot holder pattern that I'll blog about soon).

They're all Christmas presents, and I if I'm not mistaken I'm running out of time!

A new and hopefully better doggie coat.

I recently tried my hand at sewing a coat for my granddog Duncan.

I didn't have much success.

I did what I always do the first time out, and that's follow the directions.

After altering the pattern to accommodate Duncan's big pit bull chest and small waist, I whipped up a coat that I was happy with. Then I saw Duncan wearing it, and what a huge disappointment.

I should have known that one single layer of fleece would stretch out of shape in a heartbeat (but remember I followed the directions!). Then the little stinker kept yanking at the upper piece of Velcro near his neck so it would end up gaping open.

The whole thing looked cheap and homemade.

Taking a picture of Duncan is very difficult. I get him to sit still, focus my camera, and just before the flash goes off, he leaps and jumps all about.

Like here.

Just before I took each of these pictures, he was posing very nicely.

Really.

See how the neck of the coat is slipping down his back? That's because the front neckline is open.

There he goes!

Here's my wild man! See how the top is undone? I think he wants to change his name to Guido, wear gold chains, and hit the clubs.

So today I made a new coat, and this one is for a friend's dog. This time I didn't use a pattern and I used two layers of fleece with two layers of quilt batting in between.

This gave it great structure and makes it much warmer too.

There is a strap that goes under the belly, and a strap that goes around the front of the chest from shoulder to shoulder. I'm using buttons for the closures and not Velcro!

Here it is lying flat.

Now pretend this pillow is a dog (at least it sits still and I don't need to walk it!) and you get the idea of what I'm trying to accomplish.

However, I'm not sure how happy the dog owner will be with this choice of fabric.

Our 'Stillers' have been a bit of a disappointment this year!

Pictures! Finally!

I've mentioned a couple of times that I had lost my camera-computer cord and haven't been able to download pictures since Thanksgiving.

Kathi D was nice enough to give me a holler and told me to get a zippy little digital converter drive, and I mentioned this to Hans as he left to go to the electronics store.

Kathi, I have no idea how you did it, but that's what Hans came home with. Why he listened to you; I have no idea because he never listens to me!!

So, see the bag on the right? The one hanging off the shoulder of the pretty blond? That's the purse I saw when we were in Toronto and I just had to have it. You can't really see the color but it's pink.

Here's a closer look. Since I hadn't downloaded my pictures I never went back for a better look so I missed a couple of details.

I forgot about the tab that ran down the side, and even though I did make an adjustable strap, I didn't add the silver rectangle on the opposite side.

I couldn't find pink fabric so mine is gray.






Once again I used Nicole's, Day Bag Pattern, which really has a lot of great options. I've made several of these.


Here is mine as seen from above with the zipper closed.

















Here's the inside complete with a paw print lining. There's a patch pocket in there too but it gets a little lost in the busy print.



















The front flap.

Here you can see the adjustable strap. I miscalculated the length and even though I thought it was going to be very long, it wasn't. At its longest it fits me just right.


I have to make another one for Vet Tech Girl's friend and she wants hers to be very long! So I learned a good lesson.





We're going out to a party tonight and I since I'm going to carry it, I'll have Hans take a picture.



I'm very happy with my bag except I'm afraid it's going to look dirty really fast. It's a gray, fake suede and I'm not sure of how to clean it.



















I also finally got some pictures of Duncan in the coat I made for him and I'll post those tomorrow. Although I warn you, neither the coat nor the pictures are much to write home about!

Another winner...

Ok, I promise. This is it folks! I won't torture you (or The Countess) any more this year with my silly contests!

Besides, I haven't even started my Christmas shopping yet and this could very well affect my popularity on the 25th.


Let me pause a moment to complain that I still have no camera-to-computer cord!!! The one we ordered finally arrived and it was the wrong one.

Big surprise!!

So I'm still digging through my archives in order to find usable pictures for my posts. I pray this doesn't continue much longer. My camera is just bulging with pictures and it may explode at any moment!




This was the reaction I got from the Countess when I mentioned that her contest choosing talents were needed yet once again.


She sulked, she pouted, she said we didn't pay her enough (excuse me!?), and then she finally made her choice.


But just to make sure we got her point, she left a 'present' in the form of a big pile of kitty poop for us, in the doorway to the kitchen.


Unfortunately for The Countess, Hans found her smelly 'present' before I did, and he's not as nearly understanding as me.



Let's just say that The Countess got knocked down a peg or two, and ended up spending the rest of the day hiding under our bed.





The Countess has wisely decided to clean up her act (thus avoiding the shelter) and is perusing my old Burda magazines.

She wants to make a dress.


Whatever.











Oh, BTW!!!! Mary from Sew Fast; you won the bag. Email an address to me where I can send it, and it will be on its way (my email is on my about me page)!

PS. While I'm at work tomorrow, scrubbing toilets etc... I've asked (begged, implored, threatened) Hans to get please go (get out of the apartment, unshackle himself from his computer and Internet poker, put some clothes on) to Radio Shack and get me a proper cord for my camera-to-computer so that I can download pictures. This way I won't be upset (furious, foaming at the mouth, mad beyond words) since it's been eons since I've been able to perform this function.

Don't worry, I said it with a smile.

OMG!! My Granddog is on Pitter Patter!!!

I'm not kidding when I say I screamed like a girl when I saw this!!!

Please make sure to take a good look at the packaging around the football.

Now before you start foaming at the mouth and sending me nasty emails, please bear in mind that we bought this football years ago before Mr. Michael Vick let us see his ugly side.

As I was preparing to sell my house, I was emptying it of all my junk. This was purchased for one of my kids' graduation parties but for some reason it was never used, and
Vet Tech girl nearly choked when I whipped it out and showed it to her.
Duncan, who in this picture, was still stuffed in his too small coat that I made, probably wondered what he did to deserve so much abuse in one day.

My quandary at this time is; what to do with it.
I thought maybe I should pass it on to other pitty owners with the stipulation that you post pictures of your pitty doing something 'appropriate' to the football (chewing, leg lifting, etc...) and then passing it on to others. This could go on until it's destroyed.
But I don't know if that would work.
Does anyone have any ideas?

I wonder what people plan on doing with their Tiger Woods golf clubs?

Oh what the heck, one more contest before Christmas!

Today is Vet Tech Girl's twenty third birthday.

Of the three times I was in the hospital having babies, this one was my favorite. Her birth was a thousand times easier than my son's and I was up and walking in just a few hours. My mother brought in a huge tray of her homemade cookies, and doctors and nurses would drop by all day long to pick out their favorite. It was Christmas time, everyone was in a very festive mood, and my roommate was a friend of mine who'd also been in my Lamaze class.

As a matter of fact we ended up with about four of us from Lamaze in the hospital at the same time and we had a ball! This was when you actually stayed in the hospital for more than a few hours after giving birth. Heck, three years earlier I was in for five days when my son was born.

And even though Vet Tech Girl was Ugly Baby Girl, I still loved her to pieces!

Don't worry! She's a beautiful girl now but I wasn't so blind as to not be able to see that she was an ugly baby then!

She had what are referred to as 'stork bites'. One was between her eyebrows which is a common area. One on the back of her neck at the base of her head, and she had a huge one on her tail bone that scared the heck out of me! The one on her tail bone is the only one that didn't go away but it did end up fading a lot.

She had broken blood vessels all over her face and even in her eyes. And speaking of eyes; hers seemed to work independently of each other which was very disconcerting because oddly, they reminded me of pin ball machines!

I will never forget when my roommate's husband came in our room one night. Their baby was a little pink dream with blond hair (She's still pretty, she ended up with black hair, and I can't believe she's now a young mother herself!) We both had our babies and Husband came over to me and said "Oh, let me see the baby." I pulled the blanket away from Ugly Baby's face and he stopped in his tracks, cleared his throat and said, "Well, isn't she nice."

I laughed at his reaction and told him I knew she was ugly and I didn't care.

Our girls ended up in school together and my daughter, who started out with pitch black hair, ended up becoming a very pretty, black eyed blond.

My other daughter has coppery brown eyes and blond hair, and I'm also a brown eyed blond but Vet Tech girl's eyes really are almost black.

But anyway, everything was rosy back then and babies are sweet but... twenty three years ago I certainly never envisioned this; opening my mail today and reading a letter complaining about a past due account and how the bank is very upset with me, and that they want a payment now....blah, blah, blah!

Because that's what I get for co-signing a student loan!

Vet Tech Girl's birthday present from me is getting the bank off her butt!!

And I thought stork bites were bad!

Parenthood is not for the weak at heart. It really isn't. Here is one of my earlier posts on this subject.

So, what the heck, let's celebrate my daughter's birthday with one more contest.



This is a bag of my own design.

Now keep in mind that it's just a fun bag, something to take out to lunch or dinner. It only has one magnetic snap to keep it closed so it's not very secure.













Although you can use it as a wine bag. We have a french restaurant we love to go to and you have to bring your own wine. This would work for something like that.

BTW, the wine is not included!

Anyway I'd like to get this in the mail before Christmas so I'm going to have a deadline of Tuesday, December 15, at 5:00 PM EST here in the US.

What do you have to do?? Go ahead and just leave a comment that you'd like a chance to win.

If you have a birthday story, or a baby story that's different or funny by all means please share it!!

Keep in mind if you're outside the United States it most likely won't arrive before Christmas (if that matters to you).

Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas, one and all!

And we have a winner! But not without issues!

Last Wednesday I promised that tonight I would announce the winner of my wine (or whatever you want it to be) tote, and I planned on asking the Countess von Chlorox to help yet once again. In my mind (feeble as it is) I envisioned The Countess, looking ever so fetching in a cute 'Knotty Cat' Santa outfit, picking a winner, and everyone living happily ever after.


Was I surprised when my plans went awry?

Not really, as that's basically the story of my life.

I lost my camera-to-computer cord over Thanksgiving weekend and my new cord (ordered via Amazon.com) has yet to arrive.

But I have to pick a winner, and I hate to disappoint, so I dug into my Chlorox picture archives and came up with these.

Chlorox has asked to narrate her own story, and here it is.

Here I am pondering my next sewing project. I feel that lying across the instructions gives me a creative boost. If the sun is streaming in the windows and across the instructions, it's even better, and fairly intoxicating!











Cutting out fabric can be terribly exhausting.

Here I am at the machine.
I love my pink scissors.























New arrivals of fabric make me go weak in the knees.

















What do you mean I have to pick another winner???

Why do I have to do everything around here???
















I would much rather read my book and drink my catnip tea, thank you very much!














Or perhaps while I'm flying first class, I'd like to watch a movie while the flight attendant fetches my drink.
Which, by the way, is taking far too long!!!!

But I certainly don't feel like picking another winner!!!









If I have to spend all my time picking winners of stupid contests I'll never have time to catch more tasty morsels like this one!















Yes, they are green.
Yes, they are real.
And yes, they are fabulous!!!














Finally, after all that whining and complaining The Countess is naming the winner.


And it's Mary from Resident Alien!!


I find it very coincidental that Mary's last post was about cats!

I kid you not!!

So Mary, you need to let me know which bag you want although I have a feeling I already know which one it is. Just email me (my address is right below my 'about me' page) so I know where to send it.

The only thing I hate about contests is that not everybody wins so I think before the week is over I'll have just one more.

Hey it's Christmas!!

Stay tuned and hope my cord shows up soon!