Happy Polar Bear Day!

From Funny Mill

A day for the polar bears. In honor of the white furry critters enjoy some polar bear information!

- Polar bears normally have two cubs per litter. There have been cases of singles and triples.
- Polar bears have black skin
- Males can weight anywhere from 775-1200 pounds while females can weight anywhere from 330-650 pounds
- They look the whitest in the sun after molting period which occurs from spring to late summer, the yellow of their fur can occur due to the oils from the seals they eat
- According to research by Alison Ames, polar bears are just as smart as apes
- Grolar/pizzly bears are a hybrid of a polar bear and a grizzly bear that have occurred in both captivity and in the wild. The occurrence of them in the wild is leading to concerns of global warming due to grizzly bears moving further north into polar bear territory.

Noodlehead Zippy Wallet Love

Yesterday I decided to get an item on my list done. A little wallet to take with me to ballet because hey, ballet was this morning. I decided to go ahead and use Noodlehead's Zippy Wallet tutorial because it looked like it would fit everything that I need to take in it. And it does! It fits everything I need and there is still space left over! Not like I'm taking that much to class: driver's license, credit card/cash (depending on if I need to get another class card) and my class card. See? Lots of space left. And I managed to stick two lip glosses, a small box of hooks and eyes, a seam ripper AND my zipper foot in all of that extra space. And the other random dollar I found on my desk

Ok, I'll admit that it isn't totally finished. I still need to add a snap to it, or maybe a button, but all that fun stuff is at home. I'm heading home in 2 weeks and will snag them then and finish it, but for now I claim that it is finished. And I also attached my fabric closer to the zipper because I didn't like it showing. Yes, I'm weird, but in a good way. Anyway, back on topic, I love this little wallet and am going to have to make more though I'm thinking of adding a loop onto the next one that I make so I can attach my keys to it.

Look how thin it is with my ballet items in it!

Stuff with all the goodies above (please ignore the cat paw)

Crafty Goals for the Year

Yes sir, here are my crafty goals for the year. I may not accomplish everything on the list and things will be added, but I figure I'd give myself a starting point. It also might help me to remember projects that I might forget about otherwise. I'm slightly ADD when it comes to crafts and have quite a few half finished projects hanging around.

- Finish the 1000 cranes project

- Kindle cover

- Halloween bags and zipper bags from this post (yeah...they will get done, though there was some switching around as to what is going to who)

- The infamous Weekender bag by Amy Butler (have had the pattern and outer fabric for quite a while)

- Some clothes for me

- Cloth napkins

- A quilt for me

- Start planning a special project for my cousin's bat mitzvah gift (and get working on it)

- Holiday cards

- Some sort of small zipper pouch/wallet to take with me to ballet
- More hair bows

Do any of you keep a list of crafts you want to accomplish during the year/month/whatever or do you just craft as the inspiration hits you?

Jan 2007 Photo by my good friend Katie

Random Acts of Kindness Day

Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day! So if you feel so inclined do something kind for someone else, not only will they feel good, but so will you. It doesn't have to be something huge either something as small as writing a hand written thank you note and mailing it to a friend is wonderful! Here are just a few ideas to help you along if you need them:

- Hand write a thank you note to someone
- Hold the door open for someone
- Let your family members know how much you appreciate them with a phone call
- Call a friend and just chat for a while, or better yet if possible go get coffee with them and catch up
- Sincerely compliment a stranger about something (hair, clothes, whatever)
- Visit a nursing home and talk with someone who doesn't often receive visitors
- Take donations to a homeless shelter
- Smile at others while you are walking down the street and say 'hello' when you make eye contact
- Add some money to a parking meter if you notice one that is low
- Call a local animal shelter and see what they need, go buy it and drop it off

Really, even just a smile can make someone's day better. I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Returning home

I can't think of words that even begin to describe how much fun I had in Florida as it was amazing and fun and so much more! And more on that when I'm awake enough to write about it. But as I said, it was AMAZING!!!

I do have to say getting there was an adventure in itself. The weather here had me worried that the flight might not leave on Friday morning, but it was still scheduled to leave on time at 5 in the morning. No problems getting to the airport or getting boarded, but here is where the fun began. The plane needed to be de-iced, no biggie right? Wrong. We finally get up to be de-iced and the machine is out of fluid and the real kicker is that the underground pipes are frozen. So back to the gate. To wait and wait, and did I tell you we got to wait some? Anyway we are told we have 45 minutes until the update. Ok, I'll go to Starbucks and get some hot cocoa. It wasn't open. so I got some snacks and a magazine and headed back to the gate to wait expecting to still have 30+ minutes to wait. The gate agent is walking down the hallway asking if we have seen the pilots because we are going to board as soon as they are back at the gate. So we reboard and then get back in the de-ice line. Finally, between 3-4 hours after we should have taken off we are in the air!

Now I have a new project as well, once I am done nannying on Sunday, though I might sleep most of Monday (and maybe Tuesday, but I am going to ballet on Wednesday for sure). A cover for my Kindle.

New Storage

My desk was looking rather sad recently with my makeshift storage of which there are no pictures for very good reasons. Things were being stored in cardboard boxes and water bottles with the tops cut of. Really not a pretty sight. I have decided that my little craft area needed some help and went with a black/white/blue color theme. 

First off was marker storage. The inside bight still be brown cardboard, but the outside looks pretty and that's what really matters. And it is made from poptart boxes.

Next up was the colored pencils:

She was in my photo area and was rather annoyed that I needed the space until...

She figured out what they were and started trying to eat them. Thus ended pencil storage photo time

Yes, my cat is a pencil eater. At least when they are just laying around on the desk. When they are all together she leaves them alone except when I tempt her.

And a picture of the all storage including two boxes. I ran out of blue ribbon, but have more on the way.

FLORIDA!!!

So by the time this is posted I should be landing in sunny Florida and on my way to meeting my little sister! I will take loads of pictures on my trip and share some with you all when I get back. Today is hanging around my birth mother's place and tomorrow morning bright and early we are heading to Disney World for my sister's dance competition! It is most likely going to be to busy to try doing much at the parks, but it will still be my first time going. And yep, I'm a child at heart cause I'm am squealing inside!

And the cold continues...

I know that some of you are experiencing even colder conditions than here in Texas, but I live in Texas for a reason:we don't have freezing cold winters with tons of ice and snow. Yeah....

Dear Texas Weather,

I despise you.

Thank You,

Me

PS-If you mess up my flight on Friday morning, we will have even bigger issues.

Now that you know my feeling on cold weather, do you want to know where my warm winter coat is? Do you? I'll give you three guesses and a hint. I told you in my last post! I spent 20 minutes scrapping ice off my car today to get  into my trunk. Do I own an ice scrapper? Well, yes I do. Do you want to know where is is? Same place as my coat. So I used a metal spatula lent to me by the home owner. It was rather interesting if I do say so myself.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I got catnip for my little fur baby on Monday and I filled a little pouch with it and gave it to her. So much entertainment on a rather boring day yesterday and there are photos to prove it. What else was I going to do?

The 'What are you looking at' look(Please excuse the foot in the corner)

Rubbing it all over her head

Still rubbing it all over her head, but using both paws

Snow Part 2

So I have to admit I would love to be out playing in the snow that we got last night and that is still falling from the sky, but my big puffy jacket, my winter coat, do you want to take a wild guess where it is? In the trunk of my car that is oh so wonderfully frozen shut. I might have to go in through the back of the seat, but it was too cold to think about this morning after grabbing my movies from my car. I don't do cold very well. Even more fun was that I had to wait while water was boiled because all the gates for the backyard were frozen shut. Turns out one of the gates just had a small snow/ice drift that I couldn't push past.

I know that some of you have been getting even colder weather than where I am, but how on earth do you do it? We are supposed to hit 9 degrees and that is not , er, I was going to say not cool, but it kind of is....that is too dang cold! I'm also hoping that all this weather doesn't mess with my flight on Friday or I'm going to be mad. Anywho off to make some hot chocolate and watch some movies.