Monthly Archive for February, 2011

My first notepad

Published on February 28, 2011 in Daily Rambling. Closed

I don’t know where I first saw this planner.… but as soon as I saw it, I realized that I had been wanting to make something like it for a very long time now. In fact, I have several iterations of something similar in my design folders but hadn’t gotten it squared away.

So I bought it.

And I have already put three of the .pdfs to work for me. I started using the Resolution Board and Tracker, the Weekly Blog Planner, and the Weekly Meal Planner.

Since the meal planner is hopefully going to be a well-used piece of planning goodness, I decided to make a pad of them for the kitchen. I had the padding compound from a few years ago when my sister and I decided separately to make the same projects for our family. So my padding compound sat in my closet for two or three years… but I finally got it out.

Not a masterpiece, by any means. But for the first time using the padding compound, I did a pretty good job. Now I will just have to make about 1,000,000 more notepads to perfect my technique. Look out Etsy store…

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The Secret Life of Bennett Button

Published on February 25, 2011 in Daily Rambling. 2 Comments

She is mysterious. She is dark. She is french.

She has a seam ripper and you don’t know what she will do next.

Maybe Bennett is a spy. She is stealthy. She and sister were on sale, buy one get one free. So I grabbed up two sets of twins and took them home with me. She and her three sisters are now snug in the button box, working on their super secret agenda.

But more importantly, Bennett Button is awesome. I love her. And I have four total. The thing about these super cute buttons is that I just don’t have a project in mind.

First I complain about not having buttons for projects. Now I am complaining that I don’t have projects for my buttons! Am I driving you crazy yet?

Where would you use these buttons?

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Button count UP

Published on February 24, 2011 in Daily Rambling. 2 Comments

As a person who sews – as a crafter – I feel like I just don’t have a good assortment of BUTTONS. Everytime I need one, I look at my pitiful little stash and think… “Why do I have such a shitty selection of buttons?”

Part of this is because I hate using buttons that I only have one of – and this is because all of the buttons that come with my clothes (you know, the replacement buttons) all end up in the same containers as my purchased buttons. So that lonely solitary button might be one of ten, the other 9 of which have been used… or it is the only button to that sweater that has a bunch of buttons loosely sewn onto the front. And I would hate to sacrifice the wrong button. Which of these buttons belong to already made clothes?! I don’t know!

The other part is that I just never really think to buy buttons. I imagine that anyone who collects buttons either fell into a windfall inheritance of them, or is a dedicated button shopper. So last weekend, during Joann Fabrics President’s Day sale, I bought buttons. How could I resist? Buy one, get one!

So I came home with 18 packs of strange, cute, unique buttons. For a pretty fair price.

I can’t wait to tell you about my favorite of the bunch… Until tomorrow my friends.

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Sonoma County Restaurant Week – Santi

Published on February 23, 2011 in Daily Rambling. 2 Comments

Last year… or maybe it was two years ago… we honestly “stumbled upon” Sonoma County Restaurant Week. (Wesbite is PAINFULLY SLOW.) We ended up having two fantastic meals with our friends Mooks and Chief at Stark’s then Peter Lowell’s. I could dig through my archives and see what I had to say about it back then, but from what I can remember it was a really good time and a great opportunity to eat at some restaurants that were, under normal circumstances, outside of our budgets.

What is this restaurant week? It is one week when a ton of local restaurants offer up three or four course prix fixe menus. My husband was sick, which gave me the opportunity to take Mooks for a delicious meal. Santi served up three courses:
Salad, santi sugo calabrese with spaghettini, and lemon tart with huckleberry creme

All of which were wonderful. In fact, I now have to take Eric there just for the pasta dish. Yummo. And the lemon tart was dreamy. I totally just dished the filling out of the shell and ate it. Not that the shell wasn’t delicious. But the filling…. I could have died in that little lemon cloud of sweet, tart, creamy goodness and not regretted it.

But one of the best parts about restaurant week is that when you are getting a great deal on the food, you can splurge on the cocktails!

Thanks for the date, Mooks!

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Haircut

Published on February 22, 2011 in Daily Rambling. 1 Comment

I did manage to get one thing accomplished over the weekend. I got my hair cut at Luxe in downtown Sacramento. (Sure the only part I was responsible for was getting to the salon on time… which I will point out didn’t work. I was 10 minutes late.) But lateness aside, I had a WONDERFUL haircut – inspired by these 40′s style cuts (from Daniela Turudich’s book, 1940′s Hairstyles):

I was going for somewhere between the Baby and the Middy. But I would like to point out that the middy is about a 4 inch cut. When you have curly hair, that is really short.

To be precise, it is this short:

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Where’s the motivation.

Published on February 21, 2011 in Daily Rambling. Closed

Okay. I have been lazy. Maybe even LAZY. Not single craft worked its way out my little brain and into the craft room. Hell – yesterday I watched several seasons of Criminal Minds with Eric because he isn’t feeling well. I am not sure why I let his sickness translate me into a “do nothing” but that is completely what is happening. It is 2:30 on Monday and I feel like I need to get something done today. ANYTHING. I guess organizing the craft room would be a good place to start. Maybe if it wasn’t just piles of fabric all of the place I would feel more inclined to get in there…

Alas… no such luck.

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