I've been very busy.......The first half of 2008, a long and sad story PART 2 - The front of the house and rock beds

If you re-call in the begining of the story there was a cement fairy that turned out to be an evil cement troll. This is that part of the story..........

A few years ago the pretty plastic canvaser and her sweatshop workers decided that they wanted some nice curb appeal. So they worked very hard on turning the front of the house into a fabulous rock bed.

This was a fabulous addition to the front of the house. Unfortunatly there were some ugly sidewalks creeping around (You can see the ugly blocks and bricks in the above picture towards the right side) So when the evil leakage occured in the basement/livingroom the sweatshop workers felt it was time for some outside help. They found the cement fairy. The cement fairy came and fixed (so we thought) the uglyness and evil leakage.

Looks nice but.............you missed a few spots...........

Crack in the side of the front porch.

More importantly, the trouth created by not finishing the job. Thus allowing the evil rain water to collect and leak into the basement/livingroom causing scattered belongings, heartache and dispare.
After TWO months of calling the evil trolls almost every day and leaving message after message after message (yes I said TWO months) Finally (after threating legal action) they came and finished the job. So then the sweatshop workers went to work restoring the fabulous front yard and rock garden.



Much better curb appeal.
So that is the end of our long sad story. At least it has a happy ending. With hope and luck the second half of the year will be devoted more towards crafting and preparing for the craft show in November.

As always, thanks for reading and sitting threw the goofyness that is my blog.


***NEXT POST will contain some actual finished plastic canvas****

I've been very busy.......The first half of 2008, a long and sad story PART 1 - The Basement

Once upon a time a pretty plastic canvaser had a beautiful basement/living room.

The pretty plastic canvaser when not working on plastic canvas worked very hard on making this basement/living room beautiful.

One day (Feb 2008) the evil rain fell and flooded the beautiful basement/living room. Belongings were scattered about and life disrupted. But the pretty plastic canvaser found a cement fairy to come and fix the evil leakage. All was well for a short time. But the pretty plastic canvaser soon discovered that the cement fairy was not a fairy at all but more like an evil troll. The evil cement troll caused more horrible leakage by not doing the job they were hired for. (Story and pictures coming in a future installment of "I've been very busy.......The first half of 2008, a long and sad story") So once again life (April 2008)was disrupted and belongings scattered about. This was very sad. The beautiful basement was devistated and so was the pretty plastic canvaser.

The drain we had to put in to avoid any future water problems.Had to rip up the floor we worked so hard on putting down.Why might you ask? Well the evil leakage, once banished, leaves behind a secret weapon that will kill!

BLACK MOLD!!!

Slowly the pretty plastic canvaser started to regain some hope. She looked at this as a opportunity to reinvent her beautiful basement/living. To turn it into something that brings her more happiness and peace then before. So the pretty plastic canvaser began to sheetrock.

And paint.

And organize her basement/livingroom.

And lay new flooring. That we hope will never see the evil leakage or BLACK MOLD!

So things are moving along. And a glimpse of organization and order is upon us.

Soon we will have couches and begin to have craft night again.

The pretty plastic canvaser is very happy with the way her new and improved basement/livingroom turned out. Though the story has a little more ways to go. Such as basemolding and the replacement of the bar and curio cabinet. But for now she is very pleased.

You've got serious thrill issues dude... awesome!

So it's not like I don't have 5 large patterns lying all over my bedroom that need to be cut out and it's not like I have 10 football helmets that I need to prepped for my sweat shop and it's not like I don't have a basement to re-do and it's not like I have about a zillion other things to do but......I just fell in love with this little guy, Righteous! Righteous!

We found him wandering around the Wal-mart craft area to our surprise. "Oh, I saw the whole thing, dude! First, you were like, whoa! And then we were like, WHOA! And then you were like, whoa." This is my first experience with the "globes". This Quick Count kit came with pattern, plastic, yarn and eyes. It was sold as a paperweight but I chose not to fill him with anything. The yarn was Needleloft and I have to say that I will never use that stuff again. It has the worse texture and I felt difficult to work with. It took me a total of about 6 hours to complete. The pattern said to glue the shell and head to the body but I stitched it together. I don't like gluing unless I have to, like his eyes.

So of course this new purchase lead me to search for others like him.....I won a pattern book this morning on ebay so there will be others coming soon. Now give me some fin, nogin dude!!!!

A sweet and meaningful statement........

Beautifully stated.... As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Special Surprise Gift!

This story begins with a day shopping at the craft store. Mom spotted these really cute Disney themed cross stitch kits. The kit included all the thread, a needle and a pattern so small I had to enlarge it to read it. I'm thinking these things are aimed at kids to work on. Maybe kids are more talented these days because I myself had a hard time stitching it, I can't even imagine trying something like this if I were 9 years old.But I worked on it and worked on it and worked on it with very little complaint. It took me a little longer to do then I thought it would, about 7 days or so. I worked on it at work during break time and for about an hour a night. But those at work with experience in these things said that was pretty could for a beginner.
I am quite proud of it. It turned out great! All the hard work was worth it because Sharon loved it. Well, she loves anything pirates and Johnny Depp.
So this story ends with a happy birthday to Sharon and three more little cross stitch patterns to work on. You didn't think I could leave the store without getting my three favorite villains? Yes, I bought myself Cruella Deville, Ursula and the Wicked Queen. Of course they might just stay in their packages and be displayed as is. I know, I know, I hear you all yelling that I should stitch them. We'll see.

Surprise Birthday Cake and Featured Sweat Shop Worker of todays blog is.....

MOM!

Yes my mother not only slaves away at the sweat shop working on small evil holed football helmets and holly leaves.....how are they coming along, BTW? She is a mulit talented cake designer and decorator. She is as cute as Duff and has better ideas. She is the brains behind the birthday and holiday cakes around our neck of the woods. She comes up with the ideas and then has her own little sweat shop help her make them come to life.

This little diddy is a cake we made for the birthday girl, Sharon, a few years back. It is Dorothy's Ruby Slippers for the Wizard of Oz. It is made from pound cake and red glitter. And don't forget the slave labor that stood with her in the candy isle at ACME getting all those little YELLOW ONLY sweet tarts.

Here's one she made me many, many years ago for my birthday. It is a phone.

And the Cute little ducky in an egg for Easter.

This is a Grave Yard Pizza Cake.
A Stocking full of Candy.
Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo from South Park for my birthday. Gross but still adorable.
How about this excellent RC Car complete with Honey Glazed Chocolate Donuts for wheels.
How lives in a pineapple under the sea? I'm feeling the need to add another flicker badge with just cake pictures. A co-worker of Mom's was haveing twins so of course you need two cakes.
Dora the Explorer! Don't even ask for it! We are NEVER making another one of these!
Her talent rubbed off on me because I made her this cutie Pooh Bear cake.
And I made this super cool (ha get it!) Snowman Cake!
For my 30th birthday I went on a Disney Cruise so she came up with the idea of making a cruise ship cake. With help from my brother, Roland, they made this awesome cake. It was complete with peanuts for life boats and mini oreos for smoke stacks. Hey mon! Hubby John and I went to Jamaica and mom felt a cake of part of the island would be nice. The talent even rubs off on her son in-law because he helped with the beach chair. (They are crumbled vanilla wafers for the sand in case you were wondering)
How about this most super excellent cake! Yo Ho Ho! This pirate ship cake was for my birthday this year in honor of our trip to Disney for the Pirate and Princess party. Again made from pound cake. Complete with Rollo rum barrels and Milk Dud canon balls. And don't forget the stick of gum for the plank. Once again talent rubbing off on her daughter-in-law, Sharon made the sails.
We told Roland that when you turn 30 it all kind of goes down the pot. So we made him a potty. This potty had blue jello water (with a tottsie roll in it for dramatic effect), a lollipop flush handle, a cupcake plunger, and gotta love Sara Lee for the pound cake water tank.
We also dabble in cupcakes! Told you I need another flicker badge!
But now for the super special surprise birthday cake for Sharon this year. We all know Sharon is a knit wit (get it) I mean she is a wit at knitting. So mom came up with the idea of making her a ball of yarn cake, so we did.

Mom gets the hard jobs, like icing the bottom of the ball of cake.

She did a nice job, don't you think?
Then we covered it in Red Twizzler Twists. Added some chop sticks and called it a cake.
Sharon seemed very happy with the creation and the best part is she gets to eat it too!

HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHARON! ENJOY YOUR CAKE!