Tale of a Shooting Star…

Woohoo! I am still feeling good. We lazed around yesterday, but today we went out and installed 10 more sections of fence along the property line. We’ll have to go back and buy more before the ground freezes, probably some time early this week, so we can work on it over the Thanksgiving holiday. I would really love to get back to the beginning of the woods this year, but it is a total of over 200 feet and the fence sections are only 3 feet. We’ll see, but I am awfully motivated right now. I feel like I can do anything!

Now, even though it was overcast this afternoon, I hung up the angel and snowflake faux stained glass pieces that I completed last week and snapped some pictures for you.

The angel suncatcher will go to my Mom for Christmas, so I tried to make her hair and skin tones closer to mine. The snowflakes will hang in my cubicle in the openings where there will eventually be plastic window inserts but are right now just open. Either that, or they will hang on our backdoor with everything else. 🙂

I also had Terry use his digital SLR camera with some of this special lighting goodies to get a photo of the mirror that I stained for my Gram for Christmas. Once again, I’ve had this kit for years, but fortunately the stains did not dry out, they just evaporated a bit. I had enough to complete the design, though just barely with the golden yellow color. I would love to do one of these for me, if Dimensions still makes them. Super easy, with a great looking result!

… Christmas biscornu!

I finished this little bugger on Saturday night. Putting it together was a little bit of a challenge, mostly when I got near the end of sewing it shut. Whew! It only measures 1 inch or just larger than a U.S. quarter. Is this the tiniest biscornu you’ve ever seen? It’s the smallest I have and will ever finish, I’ll tell you that much! 😆

And now, just for Outi, a range of different biscornu sizes. The smallest is the one I just finished, the next is the one Outi stitched for me for my birthday, the third is what I used to consider “small” for biscornus (stitched by Rosa Bjarna) and the largest one is one that I stitched and would consider a fairly “regular” sized biscornu.

While trying to make breakfast, I was frying up some bacon and I went into the refrigerator to get out the milk and Bisquick so that I could make pancakes. I grabbed a nearly full half gallon plastic bottle of milk, it slipped from my hands, went straight down and a huge flume of milk came up and hit me in the face. In my hair, all over my face, down my shirt, running all over the floor. All I could do was squeal. 😆 Terry came over and helped me clean up the huge mess and was perfectly kind about it. I can tell you a number of people in my life over the years who would have reacted by screaming at me. But there he is, on his hands and knees mopping up the milk from the floor, with the two of us just laughing about it.

It was a confirmation for me that I’ve made the right choice in picking my partner in life. I could not have found a better man if I tried for the rest of my life.

So, today I am thankful for my husband. And that he’s mine. 😀

It didn’t start off so well, since I woke up a little after 7 AM and started having major anxiety problems. I would try to breathe through it and get back to sleep, but wake up again a little while later in a panic. All this because we had a guy coming at 9:30 this morning to install the programmable thermostat that we ordered for our new geothermal system and I was afraid that one of us wouldn’t be showered, dressed and ready to answer the door when he arrived. So, I continued to freak out until the guy arrived and left. Then I got out of bed, showered and prepared to face my day, armed with a dose of anti-anxiety medication that calmed me down.

We then prepared to take Terry’s Explorer to be inspected. It’s been in the garage for nearly a year without being run and even though the truck started last week for Terry, it wouldn’t this morning, so he had to charge it for a little while before he could get it started. We actually managed to make great time to the dealership and were only 10 minutes late for our appointment. Not that it mattered because it didn’t pass inspection and required immediate repairs to the ball joints first. We sat in their waiting area for over 3 and a half hours. It’s a good thing that I brought some stitching with me!

After that long wait, we were starving, so we went through the McDonald’s drive-thru for a burger and a drink on the road while we drove to our next destination – a home improvement store. We didn’t find exactly what we wanted there, but I did manage to get some flower bulb gifts for the ladies in my family for Christmas, birdseed and suet for the local birds, 10 more sections of fence for the property line and a little ball of evergreen decoration with purple trim to hang on the front porch.

From there, we went to the inexpensive furniture store and bought a nightstand and dresser for the spare bedroom. They will be delivered on November 29th. Once we have them in the room, I may go back and buy a matching desk and chair, but we want to make sure that everything will fit in the room first. Terry originally thought that the set looked too girly, but it turns out that it’s just the drawer pulls that make the furniture look too feminine. No problem, we can switch those out. 🙂

Then we stopped at a UPS Store location to ship back the tankless water heater that Terry had ordered with the wrong fittings. That’s been waiting for weeks until we found the time to get the truck inspected because the box would have been difficult to handle in the car. We visited the nearby home improvement store, picked up paintbrushes and trim to be able to finish the library/reading room before the bookcase is delivered. This is our Thanksgiving project this year.

After that, we went to ACMoore because I needed more bracelet supplies for the Mary bracelets that are starting to catch on. Of course, I couldn’t come out of there without some extras and I even managed to figure out what at least one of my PIF gifts is going to be and purchased the necessary supplies. In addition, on the way out, I found the PERFECT Christmas gift for Mary – an electric scent tart burner in ivory with gold accents and angels detailed in open, lacey cutwork. Gorgeous!

Now, we’re in the home stretch. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some Chinese and a few little things, which turned into half a cartful of items. 🙂 Oh wait, there was one last stop. A recent package containing a DVD organizer was, for some strange reason, delivered to our neighbors two doors down on Wednesday morning, so we stopped in to pick up that package.

By the time we reached home, I don’t think we could honestly pack anything else into the truck! We unpacked everything and then I went onto the front porch and grabbed the little package that had been dropped off by FedEx earlier in the day. That’s right, my phone was delivered! I won’t get to play with it until tomorrow, though, because it has to charge first before I activate it.

I’ve now eaten, put together the DVD organizer and filled it with the last few DVDs and all of the video games that were sitting in piles on the living room floor. And now Terry and I are both crashing and about ready for bed.

I had the most wonderful feeling in the car on the ride home, though. Peace, contentment and happiness. Simple happiness. I just feel like I’ve had such a wonderful day. We accomplished so much and I managed to not only drag myself out of the house on a day off, but to spend 10 hours running around and doing meaningful errands. It’s been very fulfilling for me. I’m finally feeling like myself for the first time in a year! I hope that the feels stays, but even if it doesn’t, at least my brain has been reminded of what it feels like to be me. 🙂

I spent some money yesterday and I’m very excited about it. 😀

First, I finally broke down and ordered a new cell phone. My current one is 4+ years old and doesn’t hold much of a charge at all anymore. To the point where I’m afraid to make any sort of important call unless it’s fresh off of the charger. Which has led me to use my mobile less and less over the past few years. So, I’ve made up my mind to use it more once I’ve gotten a new one.

I’m switching cellular service companies, from Sprint to Cingular, so I get good offers on phones. I knew that I wanted a Motorola Razr because it’s so nice and tiny and I have a thing for flip phones, but none of the existing colors quite spoke to me. Until I went to Cingular’s website yesterday and found this – the Motorola RAZR V3r in Fire Red. WOOT! It is scheduled for delivery tomorrow evening. I can’t wait and have been in a tizzy since I placed the order yesterday afternoon.

I was waiting for the Product Red version of the Razr to be released because you all know that I’m still not a huge pink fan, the blue version was kinda “eh,” I didn’t want black and my current one was silver, plus I wanted something less common. While the Product Red phones are definitely for a good cause (to help eliminate AIDS in Africa), once I’ve made my mind up about something, I’m not very good about waiting and I decided to get a new phone months ago and have really been wanting one for weeks. So, add being tired of waiting for the Product Red Razr to the appearance of the new Fire Red Razr at Cingular and you have a sale and a very excited me. 🙂

After that, I called and paid the invoice on our new geothermal heating and cooling system that was installed two weeks ago. That was a big number to have to pay, the most we’ve spent on anything since we bought the house. Except for cars, but you expect to pay a lot with those and you’re not paying it all at once, so it’s not as much of a shock.

Then, after my appointment with Dr. Steve (I’ll leave that update for tomorrow, I think), we went and looked at bedroom furniture. I had found the Villa Soleil collection at Thomasville online and was quite taken with it. It has a Tuscan feel without being too grand and overbearing for our 17′ x 17′ bedroom. And it was the first time that I saw a bedroom collection that I truly liked. We looked at the armoire, dresser with tri-view mirror, poster bed, semainier and two accent tables to serve as nightstands because their nightstands are too tall and would partially obscure the windows in our bedroom. A salesperson worked up the figures and gave us a price tag that I nearly choked on. We’re still mulling over the purchase. The price was high, but in the numerous stores we’ve looked at, both in person and online, it’s the only set that we’ve really liked, the quality is very high and it will probably be the only bedroom set we ever buy. Plus, our bedroom is the only bedroom that we’ll furnish with really high quality stuff. If we furnish the spare bedroom with anything more than the miscellaneous bits and pieces that it has now, it will be with lower end furniture, since the room is barely used. I think we’re sold, but it’s a purchase that we definitely want to sit on for a few more days to make sure it’s the right decision for us. Have I mentioned that we’ve never really purchased furniture before?

After we returned home, I was showing Terry the bookcase that I found online that’s perfect for our little library. I had shown it to him before, but since there’s no easy way to see it in person, he was a bit hesitant. Until I looked last night and saw that their free shipping offer (which includes delivery and setup) ended this week. I’ve never seen anything like it before and finding bookcases with full doors turned out to be quite a challenge in the first place, much less with these fantastic sliding doors. I placed the order last night and it should hopefully be delivered before the end of the year. That purchase knocks an item off of my 101 Things list.

And now I’m on a rampage, having just found an inexpensive set for the spare bedroom. I could furnish the rest of the house in one fell swoop! Hmmm… that thought actually has quite an appeal to it. Now to sell it to Terry. 😉

I’m no longer looking for sign-ups to help me pay it forward crafty-style.

I know that Coral’s in.
Cindy’s back in.
And Angela’s now in.
Barbara and I are going to pay it sideways and help each other out by signing up under each other, since we’re both having trouble. 😉
The same goes for Angi.
And for Carol.

Thanks for everyone who’s coming along for the ride!

I had forgotten how much I like playing with faux stained glass designs. I now remember. 🙂 I’ve been having so much fun that I finished the other 2 kits today. The mirror is now dry but the angel and snowflake ornaments are currently drying. I will take and post some photos sometime this week, after they have had time to dry thoroughly. The won’t be cured for a week, which is fine since I haven’t decided what to do with them yet. I may give the angel to my mother for Christmas. I think I’m keeping the snowflakes for myself. 😉

If I give the angel to my mother, I’m going to toss the second biscornu that I was working on for her because I don’t like the way it’s turning out. The colors that I chose just aren’t working out very well and I’ve been questioning it for a while. If I have something else to substitute in its place, I can stop worrying about it and just do the finishing work on the first one that turned out so gorgeous.

Now I need to eat some dinner and then do some stitching, if I don’t decide to bead some bracelets instead. Hahah!

What’s the difference? For me, this weekend, the answer is not much. I haven’t been able to hone or even practice my Java programming skills since I took that class several months ago and I’ve been itching to write my own stash organization software program. So, with the advent of this weeks SBQ and my knowledge of my own lack of stash organization, I finally bit the bullet and started programming my own software. I think that it’s going to be a long process because my imagination has made the project pretty sizeable. We’ll see what I’m able to accomplish…

In the meantime, I also crafted a faux stained glass mirror from a kit for my Gram for Christmas. I’ve had the kit for years, so it’s a miracle that the stains hadn’t all dried up. That was yesterday. Today I started creating another faux stained glass project from a kit; this kit was so old that the stains had actually dried up, so I am drawing from my stock of Gallery Glass stains. It’s over 2/3 finished. I’m just waiting for some stain samples to dry so I can decide on the two last colors. I have one other faux stained glass kit of ornaments for which I have tried to reconstitute the stains that came in the kit. If that doesn’t succeed, I will use Gallery Glass stains again.

But now, it’s way past bedtime. Maybe I’ll have some pictures tomorrow night (tonight, whatever it is). 🙂