It's a cold, cold, cold night tonight...

... to steal a little something from Bon Jovi. So I'm making some baked potato soup. And drinking more coffee (both more than normal, and more than I probably should).
I've linked up the Somewhat Simple party, want to check it out? Click-clicky!

 I've been busy, see? To quote what I keep seeing on the interweb, CREATIVITY IS MESSY AND I AM VERY CREATIVE.

Just a sneak peak, as it's for a birthday present. The tags make me happy.

 At my parent's house, the dog's aren't allowed on the carpet, hence the temporary chair gate. The big buy knows the boundaries; the wee is without boundaries. Every time you look away he's creeping in a little closer, like a wee furry ninja. Is this not the saddest thing you've ever seen?

 Baby quilt that will hopefully be quite suitable for a wee babe who's hoping to bag a moose.

Got some lovely quilt books for Christmas. The top one has a CD with quilt patterns, which are just lovely. I put together an apple core quilt before, but it was all by hand, so I'm interested to see how well this goes with machine piecing. The bottom book is a fabric artist (yes? artsy quilter? I'm not sure) from the South Shore of NS, and her work is AMAZING. Hopefully one of these days I get the ambition to try something like this. On a much, MUCH smaller scale.
Speaking of ambition, I have none. I can't believe the month of January is almost over, and I've accomplished almost nothing. So let me just put this out here:

Goals for the month of February

1. Gym. Gym and more gym. I've been slack, and this needs to stop.
2. I am probably single-handedly keeping a sugar plantation somewhere in business. This also needs to stop. 
3. Finish all some of the WIPs that I have hanging around here. 
4. Write. Something. Anything. Please. 

And there it is.  I'll check in with that at the end of the month. 

Also: cold weather, please f*&# off already. K, tks.

Now here's something that's been in my craw lately: That GD Nice N' Easy commercial with Kate. Y'know, "And after all this time (or whatever the Jesus the line is) Kate still looks like Kate". Yes, because if Kate hadn't been dying her hair with that shitty boxed dye from the grocery store, her grey hair might be showing, turning her into the inevitable aged gorgon all women attempt to fend off. 

Unrelated: I think I'll get my hair dyed. Seriously. Unrelated. I'm just bored. 

I've been working on some birthday presents, and some of them, not to give too much away, have put me in mind of Absolutely Fabulous, and one of these days very soon, I'm going to have to re-watch it. Do you watch it? Do you loooove it?  I love, LOVE that show. Like, I watched it so much, I'm pretty sure my dad still gets a facial tick when he hears "Wheels on fire, rolling down the roooooaaaaad". Ha! Love it!

And since my sister's bday is coming up one of these days/weeks/sometime in the near future, I have the perfect present in mind. It may or may not be related to the fabulous source of vintage clown masks I've found. That's right, Benore, be afraid. (I kid. There's really no need to be afraid. I'm well away you'd sick your dog on me, and/or beat me with a club. I assume you keep a club on hand for those infrequent, but necessary, clown beatings).

Attn: crafty people: What's one thing you would hate to do without? Could be anything, as long as you find it particularly handy.

And a month has passed. Whoops.

Well, hello thurr. I do mean to blog more, and quite frankly, I'm surprised that it's been over a month! Of course, with Christmas, time does tend to pass alarmingly quick. Anyone else make a New Year's resolution? Mine is to not listen to Taylor Swift this year. On the tv? Change the channel. On the radio? Change the channel. On the PA in the grocery store? Sprint towards the doors with my hands over my ears singing "Good King Wenceslas" at the top of my lungs. Oh yes, I am serious.
I did join the gym in October, and dang, I was doing good. Lately, I've been having some sinus issues (termites, or sinusitis? Who knows) so I'm blaming the slackassery on a mixture of that and the snow. Who the hell invited the snow to winter? I mean, Jesus, some people.
So let's see, in reverse order, made some things for Christmas:

 (beach glass wreath)

 (Ornament made of an old grater with Fimo gingerbread men)

 (Makeup bag. This was my first attempt at freezer paper stenciling. Swoon.)

(Cozy little meeses).

(Not a creature was stirring, indeed).

I made other things, another bag, pj pants, a buttload of baked goods (not literally, I actually put the stuff in cute little bags and boxes. Let me just say, I was plenty tired of packing fudge), and a whole set of photo booth props. Where are the pictures, you say? Yes, good question. I must take more pictures...

Tonight I tried using my printer to print on fabric. Hallelulia.

SOOO happy with the results. I took a piece of freezer paper and ironed over the type when I was done, hopefully it'll set the ink a little better (I'd have used wax paper, but I had none, and even though I know the ink is supposed to be permanent, I figured it couldn't hurt).

Now I'm trying this neat thing where I finish what I have started before I start something new. I'm not enjoying it, but it is effective. So first up, bind the baby quilt that I was making for a friend, and then get to work on some birthday presents.  I ordered some material yesterday from Fabric.com, I'm so weak!! But it's lovely... and I think it's a good thing that my Grandmother didn't have access to the internet....

Let's see. What else? I'm making a (let's be honest here) half-hearted attempt at eating better. I had roaster cauliflower for supper, but yesterday I ate a bag of Hershey's cookies and cream kisses. See above: I know I'm weak. At least they were on sale? Yea, I know. Poor excuse. Here's my problem: I LOVE sweets. Chips? Pop? Fast food? No problem, I'd rather have good food. But put chocolate in front of me, and I'll see how much I can fit in my mouth at once. So, any fellow sugar junkies out there have any tips?