I love presents!

Today, my co-worker, Tana, dropped this on my desk.  Someone had left it in her box in a different part of the building:

The photo isn't the highest quality (took it with my camera), but it's a piece of yellow legal pad paper that someone wrapped around something to make an envelope.  On it, it says:

Tana - 

Would You

Please give to Carissa Bonham -?  from a friend

:-)

Inside, I found this:

How freaking cool is that?  On several levels:

1) LOVE the packaging.  The cardboard looks like a cupcake and the dental floss container is pink with a cupcake on it.  Fun stuff.

2) It's cupcake flavored.  Admittedly, that part is a little strange but I love the idea still.

So if you're out there - thank you mystery-cupcake-dental-floss-gift-giver!

Fun New Cupcake Stuff

I have recently acquired some fun cupcakey things.  Let me share the love with you.  :-)

Fun cupcake thing #1: 

Cupcake "insulBUFF" from Fabulous Fabric Essentials on etsy.

I bought it because I hate when I buy a coffee at Starbucks and the last quarter of it is cold and I end up throwing it out.  Yuck!  I frequently get my coffee double-cupped to provide some additional insulation but I feel bad about the extra waste.  My new cup cozy keeps the contents either warm or cold and gives you a more temperature neutral place to put your hand.

Fun cupcake thing #2: 

"Cupcake dreams key fob" Wristlet Keychain  from Jimmy Pickles on Etsy.

One thing about me that only a few people know is that I loathe to take multiple trips from my car and into the house / work / etc.  I will totally overload myself with 3 trips worth of things just to avoid having to come back.  Beacause I do this, however, I have the unfortunate tendency of dropping my keys just as I'm trying to put them in my lock.  Which is a real bummer when your hands are full of stuff because then you have to put all your stuff down, pick up the keys, open the door, and get all your stuff inside.  This key fob is nice because I can loop the keys around my wrist so I can't drop them.  See?

Fun cupcake thing #3: 

"Buttercream Cupcake" flavored shower smoothie (combo shampoo, shower gel, bubble bath).  I bought it at Ulta yesterday with my sister.  Right now they are having a "buy 2 get 2 free" sale as well, so hurry in for yummy flavored shower stuffs.  If you don't have an Ulta near you, you can buy it online here.

The Crazy Adventures of Scooter Girl

This is another post that's a bit overdue but last week Scooter and I had a fun adventure.  On accident, though all ended up fine.

Longtime readers of this blog might remember that last summer, Joe and I bought a scooter because 70 MPG for gas beat the heck out of the 18 MPG our car gets, and when we were facing threats of $5+ a gallon gas last summer, we felt like we really NEEDED to do something. 

 SO we bought a scooter.  Here's a pictures of an in-need-of-grooming Jack modeling the new scooter:

Anyway, the scooter doesn't save us gas unless we ride it.  So as long as the weather is moderately OK, we take the scooter instead of the car unless we need the car for carrying large objects or many people.

Last week we had a rash of bad weather at the beginning of the week but on Friday morning, things had cleared up.  Husband called as I was getting ready for work to tell me that the weather was super nice so I would probably want to take the scooter to work.  Now, something in the back of my head told me I supposed to take the car to work.  But 

since I couldn't remember why, I figured I must have just written off the week due to bad weather reports and all would be good.  So off to work I zip on the scooter.

Fast Forward to me getting ready to leave.  I'm gathering my things togheter, making sure I've done my appropriate closing-of-the-office type tasks and I remember "Oh yes....I need to remember to get directions to the place I'm looking at the drum carder today."  And then it hits me.....Drum Carder.  I'm going to look at (and probably buy) a Drum Carder today!  Which is great.....except drum carders aren't small and I doubt it's going to fit in my scooter's top case.  Crappola!  And my house is 45 minutes in the opposite direction I need to go in order to see it.  :-(  Fie!

Well, I decide I'll head over anyway.  I'll at least look at it.  Decide if I want it (who am I kidding, I've been offered the price of the century on this thing...Unless it is totally inoperable, I'm sure I'm buying it) and worse case scenario, pay for it and come back the next day with the car.

I get there.  One thing leads to another and I'm paying for it and walking over to the scooter with it to see if it fits.  Not in the top case.  hmmm.  I do have a bungee cord.  Um, well, let's just see.... Hey, that's feels pretty secure.  I think.  Gosh.  I hope it makes it down the highway alright.  Well, I'll keep my back against it and if it feels loose, I'll pull over.

And about half an hour later, I'm pulling up at home delerious and skeptical that I made it home

 with the thing in tact.  But I did!

See?

(the non fiber people probably don't "get" this post...that's okay.  I'm just amused that I got a piece of eqipment worth a few hundred dollars home by strapping it to my scooter with a single bungee.)  

Phat Fiber

I can't believe I didn't blog about this already!  I think I was gushing on Ravelry and so forgot my blog hadn't seen this yet....the April Phat Fiber Box!  The pictue below if just a teaser, to see the rest of the pictures, visit my flickr set dedicated to the April box here.

 

Soap in a Sweater

Joe's birthday was this week and one of the things I made him was a soap in a sweater.  I found the very easy-to-follow directions here.  So now the soap has its own built-in wash cloth.  :-)

Step 1: Card Misc. Scrap Wool to make a mini batt

Step 2: Tear off end and overlap to make a large place for wrapping up the soap

Step 3: Wrap the soap in the mini batt

Step 4: Wrap batt-wrapped-soap with a loosely knit mesh netting with attached single crochet rope for hanging

Step 5: Wet and rub the soap to felt it by hand until it looks about like this:

I'm sharing this with:

 

Plans for Global Domination

When I was in college, one of my mentors [half] joked that I had a 5 step plan to take over the world. Determined. Stubbon. Gonna make it happen no matter what. That was me. It still kind of is.

That's why I love love love this journal I found on etsy.

It's only $11 which isn't bad at all. I'm not sure I could justify it to the hubster, though. "But honey. I needed somewhere well labeled to keep all of my plans to take over the world. My standard issue notebook just wasn't cutting it anymore." Probably not. And it's not my birthday anymore, either.

Hmmm. Maybe once I get my shop restocked and do some sales I can justify the expense.

Wheel spun!

My alpaca endeavor has finally turned into a wheel.  A Lendrum folding wheel (single treadle) to be exact.  Just in time for shearing so I can actually do something with alpaca come shearing season in May.

And of course you know I've been playing with my new baby.  So now I have 2 projects (well, 1.5 actually) to share:

Wheel Spun #1:

2 colors of "Crumb" (superwash colonial wool) from The Cupcake Factory...cool blue raspberry and acai berry carded together with tinsel from the craft store and spun on my new wheel (squee!!!):

Wheel Spun #2:

Superwash Cake Batter (superwash merino wool) from The Cupcake Factory in the Neapolitan Colourway.  Split in half lengthwise then split in half again and opened up like a book to make 2 balls.  Spun on the lendrum and andean plied (I've only got pics up to the plying part....but I'm hoping to get some spinning done this weekend in my down time while I'm away at a conference so I'll do the 2nd ball and snap some photos).

Quick! Before It's Gone!

I made it into "A Spindler's Dream" treasury on Etsy. Yay! Check it out here.

EDITED March 6th to Add:

I made it into another one!  Yay!!!  I'm feeling the etsy love.  :-)

Her Name is Lola

But she's not a show girl.  She's our new puppy!  She's a mini poodle / shih tzu mix and she is ADORABLE.  Jack is still trying to decide how he feels about her.  But they play a lot and get pretty upset if they're separated.

Here's a video of Lola and Jack playing our first night home with her. (In case you aren't already familiar, Jack is the grey dog and Lola is the cream dog).