Here's to the US Hockey Team!!!! We Want Gold!!

I think I finally resolved my blogger issues from last night. When will I learn not to mess with my layout and settings while holding a glass full of bourbon! My pictures now look like pictures and not code!

Oh, it's getting tense in our little apartment here in The Big City! That's because the U.S is getting ready to kick some Canadian butt in the Olympic Hockey Gold Medal Game.

You see, I'm still upset that the Canadian Girl's Hockey Team made our U.S. Girl's Hockey Team cry when they took the Gold and left us with the Silver.


Hans however being the German Born Green Card Carrying Canadian Citizen that he is, is quietly rooting for Canada.


Quietly (or else!).





The animules are very excited and now that curling is over they held their own hockey game.



In goal waaay over on the far left is the draft horse, and on the far right, one of the lions.








Sweden was the right winger.













And Beaver was the defense man. Just try to get past those teeth!

I love the Beaver and imitate him all the time (I used to have Buck Teeth in high school. Not fun!).












Look how focused the coach is. She's warning the spectators that she won't put up with any nonsense!




















Now she can finally concentrate on the game.




So I'm off to put duct tape across Hans' mouth and watch the game.


Go U S A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One must look one's best, especially on Hi-Def!

A partially finished bag and ebay stuff!

Ebay first!!!!!

Here are two Orla Kiely 'reversible' place mats (the scissors are for scale). Reversible means I can tear them apart and end up with two pieces of the main print and two pieces of the scribble print.

I'm feeling extra special smart!

Future purse!



Aha!
Two Orla Kiely dish towels.

In turquoise.

Future purse!

Have you seen how much her purses go for??

I'll make my own thank you very much!!!!!



A snazzy colorful Victoria Secret Bra (new without tags).
And I also received a very pretty white one with lace accents but I was so excited I immediately put it on, therefor no pictures!!!

I love VS undies (the bottoms never ride up on me) but I hate going to the store because their tiny sales associates, in their tiny black suits and perky boobs, completely scare the crap out of me!
On a different note, I hate their clothes. Cheaply made and skanky!



On to my partially finished work bag.

I had to stop at this point because it needs some fixing.

That's a flap on the front and it covers two pleated pockets. Those are okay.

Those funky looking wings on the sides are pleated pockets designed to hold my shoes.


They need an adjustment. I don't want them sticking out like Dumbo's ears so I'll fix that tomorrow.


Originally, for each side pocket, I added straps with Velcro (they were to come down from the top of the bag and attach to the inside of each pocket), and hoped that they would hold them closed when not in use.

It's just sloppy and not working for me.

But there is a fix in the works.

Ugly!!!!!!!

The front pockets are hidden by the flap that drops down over them

That's a strip of soft Velcro on the underside of the flap.

There's a strap that's sewn to the bottom of the bag (you can barely see it here as it blends into my ironing board), and it has a rough piece of Velcro on it and it comes up to meet the soft Velcro when the flap is closed.

It's situated so that it can hold the flap tight against the bag body when it's closed, or can expand when stuff is in the pockets.

So that's it for now.



Oops! Gotta go! We're getting ready to watch the Olympic Ice Dancing competition. Hans gets very emotional over the beauty of the sport, and I feel the need to critique the costumes!

Ramblings (and an almost rumble) from the 'hood.

Ramblings first.

I went to the gym today and was horribly dismayed to find the 'I Can't Shut Up' lady was there. And then I remembered I had my new iPod Shuffle with me.

This cute little hot pink iPod which was my Valentine's Day present from Hans.

I've never owned one in my life so it took some figuring out. Instead of music, I downloaded a book (and at $21.00 I don't think I'll be doing that too often) and I love it! I ended up buying Sophie Kinsella's 'Can You Keep a Secret', and listened to it while I cleaned houses this week.

How did I ever get along without my hot pink iPod?

So when I saw old Big Mouth at the gym today, I listened to my book. It was heaven!

Remember this bag?

I use it for work (lunch and water bottle), and the gym (water bottle, padlock, and towel). However, the narrow top and roomy body cause all kinds of trouble.

Everything gets lost within its cavernous innards. If my phone rings, I'm rooting around like crazy, and half the time I can't find my keys.

And since it's winter I have to carry my working shoes with me (I can't wear snowy, icy, salt encrusted shoes in the houses I clean), and I won't stick them in a bag with my lunch so I have to carry them in a plastic bag.

Besides that, football is over and the Steelers didn't fare too well this year.

Today I decided to make a bag that will do what I need it to do.

I bought this fabric last summer and I think it's perfect for a house cleaner.

Since we're still slightly snowbound (and I've taken a kind of solemn vow to use what I have on hand before buying anything new), I dug through my stash this morning and found some denim type fabric that my mother gave me a while ago that I think will work well with this.

I cut everything out this afternoon and tomorrow I'll sew it together.





We nearly caused a rumble tonight when we went to dinner at a local bar (old steel mill working class) in our little part of the Big City and dared to ask the bartender to put the Olympics on one of their many TV's.


I had already braced myself but I still cringed when I heard the reaction of the bar patrons when women's curling suddenly appeared. Even though everyone around us knew that we liked this sport they had no problem letting us know how stupid they thought it was. But luckily some of the jeerers found a couple of the curling ladies to be attractive, and then they shut up!



I bet if the Sports Illustrated Swimming Suit Babes had been curling, all eyes would have been glued to the screens and no one would have said a word!

The Amish on Ice, and welcome to the Olympics!

You have to be kidding me!

What was the costume designer of the Canadian Couple's Skating team thinking?? What awful costumes! Dear God, even I (and that's not saying much) could have done better.

The fact that they skated to "The Way We Were" was bad enough, but I swear someone dug up the hideous brown dress (Peter Pan collar and all) that my sister made in Home Ec (back in 1973) and made a spandex version of it for the female half of the team. The male half simply wore a Fruit of the Loom T-shirt over a pair of polyester pants.

It made my eyes hurt!

Hey Canada! No Gold For You!!

No gold medal for me but I'll settle for honorable mention!

With Valentine's Day occurring tomorrow, and our being invited to our friends' (for what appears to be an annual event) I thought I just might whip me up a sweetheart of a purse.

Well, I had good intentions anyway.

I was once again perusing the Freebies for Crafters site (I've been living there these days) and I saw this cute little wristlet. Actually the basis for this wristlet is identical to the little zippered wallets I make but they just make it a little bigger and add a strap.

This is where I don't get my gold medal because I didn't refer back to the exact measurements, and you can see for yourself that the zipper should be sitting higher.

Poor Betty Boop looks a bit too boxy!!!

Needless to say, she'll be spending Valentine's Day at home.

Alone.

Her back view.

This has been such a hellish week in The Big City with all the snow that's just lying everywhere, and I had no desire to spend hours in traffic just to get to JoAnn's, so this was the only fabric in my stash that was even remotely Valentine's Dayish.

I'll hang on to her for awhile but I just don't see her hitting the town with me anytime soon.

I was feeling a little disappointed and then I spotted these scraps left over from my Belle Bag.

See the zipper in the bottom of the picture? A couple of years ago I ripped it out of a Salvation Army purse that I'd bought for its hardware and it's been dying to be used ever since.

It was a perfect match so I tore the rest of the old lining off and put it to new use.

So here is my finished little wallet. I'm so glad I saved that zipper!

The back is ever so cheerful!

See how well the zipper matches the interior?

I'm loving my 'matchy matchy' bag and wallet!!!

And let's not forget my orange flower Scrabble pendant from Home Studio.

And even if I don't deserve a gold medal, I'd love an honorable mention award!!