*2Flower* To You...

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Bleck!

It's been one of those days. I feel like a rabid badger. I just can't even begin to gripe about it all. It has been nothing big -- you know, just a bunch of the little annoyances adding up around here mostly -- combined with some wickedawful PMS. Nothing really worth typing about, but I feel a seething rage simmering down under the surface. I'm not kidding. However, I am going to go isolate myself in the bathtub now with a book. In an attempt to stay positive, I will tell you that today I realized that my carpet cleaner is my favorite household appliance -- possibly the love of my life... I love it even more than my microwave -- and this is coming from a woman who did without one for about 2 weeks until yesterday!

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Make-A-Flake

Very, very cool site that lets you make intricate snowflakes with none of the mess or hand crampage. There's also a gallery of flakes that people have made -- some of them are amazing. These are 3 that I made.

P.S. I forgot where I had found this, but I just found the blog: not martha -- lots of cool ideas there :)

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Saturday Morning Me

dressed in blue w/ tennis shoes/
earlier blue nightgown/fleece robe/slippers/
migraine tea for PMS headache/ cinnamon roll/ Honey Bunches of Oats/
tons of simultaneous stuff running on my computer/
music in head -- The Two Towers soundtrack/
cleaning up after Obi :P/holding the weiner dog/
borrowed from Chew's News

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Friday, January 09, 2004

Low Maintenance Gypsy Friendships

What an attention-grabbing title, huh? Instead of finishing our first date story tonight, I thought I'd write about what has been a running theme in my mind today: friends.

I went and had lunch with my friend today and had a wonderful time. We went and ate at GOLDENCHINABUFFET (I love how it's one word, LOL), and went and did some of our shopping. It was truly one of the most fun times I've had with a friend in years. And I really reflected a lot today on why I hardly ever bother with friends. Well actually, I'm sure it's for a lot of reasons. This sounds pretty geeky, but at this point in my life, if I were in The Sims game, my social bar would be green most of the time. I don't need a lot of social interaction. I can get what I need at home from my husband, kids, church and from writing this blog. I don't chat at all -- I hate IM'ing, and I generally hate talking on the phone. I may sound unsocial, but that's just sort of who I am.

But today I so enjoyed Frankie's company. We talked and talked and talked. And I know why I get along with her so well. Not only do we have some common interests and experiences, but we are both extremely low-maintenance. She and I could go a month without talking and be perfectly content. She is someone I really like and trust -- a very sweet and nice person, and never a person who tries to take advantage of our friendship. And Scott is good friends with her husband. They are SO GENUINE that for us it's impossible not to like them. That is the best way to describe them. Interestingly enough, I found out today that her ancestors are gypsies from Romania and the Ukraine, etc. -- cool.

I think along with my low need for a social life, I have a really hard time trusting anyone beyond the friendly acquaintance level. I don't want to sound whiny, but I have been trampled all over a few times by "friends" and I think I finally just gave up. Of course, a lot of friendships that had great potential were ended by many moves and my total lack of letter-writing or even e-mailing. And then there is more -- long story.

I must be a gypsy at heart. Maybe that's why I'm friends with a fellow gypsy.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

MJ Without Surgery?

This is interesting:
Michael Jackson Age Progression -- a forensic artist's interpretation of what Michael Jackson might have looked like without the plastic surgery. O.K., so maybe a little plastic surgery may have helped his career, if this is accurate. But he must be obsessed to do what he's done to himeself.

found @ Fig and Plum

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Oh no, the Blog!

Lee declares Mad Cow Friday, MOL. Mooooooo!!! (That moo was for you, Lee)

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

drowning at 2 feet sea level

Pamibe saying it better than I ever could about Wesley Clark's latest claptrap.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

No Watermelons Allowed

My Jimmy Peacenik Blather post is featured on No Watermelons Allowed! How cool!

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Vox Day

Britney, whore of Babylon -- in case you didn't already know. ;)

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Cheddar X

1. Do you have a pet name for your significant other? If so, how did it come about? Yes, I call him "Honey." I have no idea why or when, but I do love honey, too.
2. What was your favorite cartoon growing up? What's your favorite cartoon now? When I was a kid: Pink Panther and Looney Tunes. Now: Looney Tunes or Simpsons, although I hardly ever watch them.
3. What is your best way to save money? Shopping without kids. ;)
4. What was your most frivolous purchase in the last couple of months? I can't really think of any. I mean, I even put back the shrimp cocktail at the grocery store because I'm so darn cheap. Soda, maybe? But if I were frivolous, I would spend more money on books or video games.
5. What word would you like to see banished from use forever? The "F" word, as well as taking the Lord's name in vain. I think using bad language is a very ugly habit, and I have little respect for those who won't refrain from using it. If people have something to say and they want me to hear (or read) it, they had better say it without using bad language.
6. What is the strangest thing about someone that has attracted you? (I.e. the way someone walked, the way they chewed, along those lines) Just totally blank on this one, LOL.
7. What was your most memorable New Year's Eve? Why? The one I enjoyed most was when I was 12, and I could go to the party at the church for the first time. I had a flashy new disco shirt, a cool stretchy metal belt, and my mom let me wear makeup. I was so foxy, LOL.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Thursday, January 08, 2004

First Date -- Scott's Prom

"how we ended up together for the last 16 years" -- continued...

I actually had a boyfriend who I'll call Phil (because that was his name) when Scott hinted that he was looking for a date to his prom. I really wanted to go to the prom with Scott, and I also really wanted to dump Phil. Phil seemed nice at first, but it didn't take long to find out that he was an extremely manipulative creep. I dated him for much longer than I wanted to because he was saying he was going to hurt himself every time he sensed that I was going to break up with him, among his other psycho qualities. And I was truly too nice of a person -- I was!

So anyway, I was not going to miss the opportunity to go to the prom with Scott. And so I told Scott that I would go with him to the prom if he needed a date. He asked about Phil, and I said I was sure ~~wink~~ Phil wouldn't mind if I went to the prom with a friend. Hey now, at that point I wouldn't have cared if Phil jumped off a bridge. And it really made Phil unhappy that I was going to the prom, but nothing he could say or do would change my mind. Plus, I was really hoping that he would break up with me, which he did when he realized that the pouting and suicide threats weren't working anymore. He showed up the afternoon of the prom and returned my pictures and letters and stuff -- trying to be all dramatic, LOL. Hey, you won't feel too sorry for him later when I tell you more about him, but that will be for another day.

Anyway, Scott showed up right as my mom finished my dress, which was actually really cool back in the 80's, LOL. He brought me an orchid corsage which was pretty. I think I killed it when I was making some adjustments to my dress, but oh well. Weirdly enough, his mom and dad were chaperones at the prom, but they were very nice.

Oops, I already hit "publish" and I wasn't done yet. Oh well, I will try to continue this tomorrow.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

Pixel Drawing

This is Gammie.

This is Piglet.

I thought I'd finally give it a try. I did a search for tutorials, and through trial and error was able to do these 2 drawings. It's really fun, so I have found yet another obsession. ;)

Tutorial Link:

From Alan Hettinger' site: Pixel Drawings -- for PhotoShop, but I was able to glean enough to use PSP 7 (a .pdf document)

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Jimmy Peacenik Blather

I had a lot of fun making this graphic today. I was inspired by this article yesterday on WND via Aaron's Rantblog. I wish Jimmy Carter would just quietly go back to building houses.

I love Paint Shop Pro 7.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Take the Affliction Test Today!

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

A+ Math

A+

This is where I have found free math worksheets for quite awhile. It's coming in handy again today, as Ian went to work with Scott yesterday, but forgot and left his books there. :P

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Our "Secret Service Agent" FHE

Last night's FHE was extremely short, but fun. This was one of those middle-of-the-night inspirations. Ideas in the middle of the night are usually good ones for me, but they have the unwanted side-effect of making it hard to sleep.

Anyway, I'm sure similar stuff has been done before, but it's new for us -- sort of like a secret Santa that we're going to try to do every month, only we don't buy stuff. We put the name of every family member into a hat and take turns drawing names. We don't show anyone the name we got, and we will spend the month doing secret, nice things for that person. At the end of a month, we get to try to guess who our "Secret Service Agent" was. The person doing the service has got to try to be as sneaky as possible to avoid detection.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Monday, January 05, 2004

Wise men travel far

...especially in my house. I have a little salt dough nativity set I made several years ago that I put out for Christmas every year. Well, the wise men have been on several adventures -- just the wise men, and none of the other figures even though they are the same size. Ironic, huh? Every night they disappear. I was finally able to round them up today so I can put them away. I suspect it must be cats. ;)

I'm thinking about making some more nativity sets to sell at my mom's craft mall booth for next year. Too bad I can't post a pic of them, but I killed my digital camera the other day. :( You'll just have to imagine the cuteness.

If you like the idea of making salt dough ornaments/nativity figures for next Christmas or whenever, here is the recipe I've used for years:

SALT DOUGH RECIPE:
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of table salt
1 cup of water

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and stir in the water. Knead the dough and shape. If you are making an ornament, you can stick a loop of wire into the ornament before baking. Bake on a foil-covered cookie sheet at a temp below 200 degrees F for 3 to 4 hours (or however long it takes)

Tips:

Use the dough within 24 hours, because after that it begins to take on a life of its own -- it will rise when you bake it, which will usually ruin your project.
To avoid projects that crack, don't make anything that is more than about 1/2" thick. If you want to make something thicker, you can add onto an existing project once it's baked, and bake on the new parts. This method also works for repairs.
Another way to make a project that is thicker is to shape it around foil, which cooks the project from the inside.
A garlic press makes great hair out of the dough.
I paint my figures with watercolor paints.
You can use polyurethane to coat your finished projects.
For young children, a good way for them to get something out of the project that doesn't look like warty blob, is to roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to cut shapes. You could add color to the dough, or you could let them paint the ornaments after they're baked.

For more tips, you might try this site.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Inane Mutterings

This isn't a meme, but what I think of this book. Don't worry, I didn't waste Scott's hard-earned (evil) money (Republican) on this one. I had a bunch of credit to spend at a used book store that was going out of business, and I thought I'd pick this up and get a laugh or two out of it. So far, it really hasn't delivered. But I thought it might be interesting for you to know what are some of the 888 reasons that Republicans deserve to be hated according to this author.

According to this book, the author's thought processes work like this:

Bald eagle:: Republicans
Velveeta:: Republicans
Beverley Hills:: Republicans
Car phones:: Republicans
Commuters:: Republicans
Gourmet jelly beans:: Republicans
Pajamas:: Republicans
Wonder Bread:: Republicans
Privet hedges:: Republicans
Riding mowers:: Republicans
Monogrammed cufflinks:: Republicans
Golden retrievers:: Republicans

Trust me, unless you are rabid liberal, you probably don't want this book. It's hard to get through 8 "reasons" without your eyes glazing over.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Unconscious Mutterings

I've never done this one before. I'm the least consistent person when it comes to memes, so I may never do it again:

Vintage:: antique
Longing:: yearning
Specimen:: lab
Mock:: crab salad
Sh*t:: where?
Friday:: 5
Cruel:: intentions (never saw it)
Insufficient:: memory
Pessimistic:: negative
Grin:: LOL

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

ANAGRAM ME -- ME A GRAN-MA?! (almost)

Had a lot of fun this morning at BrykMantra's. He put up a link to the Internet Anagram Server, and I wasted a lot of time playing with it and making anagrams for Twoflower To You and 2Flower To You:

WOW, YOU ELF OR TOT? (I'm short)
OW, YOU ROT TWO-ELF! (You digress, 2flower my friend)
WO WO, ELF TUTOR, YO! (I'm a short inattentive homeschooler)
WOW, TOY-FOOT RULE (as sure as you are barefoot you'll step on a Lego or toy car)
TOY OWL WORE TOFU (can't really relate to it, but it sounds funny)
TRUE TOY FOOL, WOW! (I do love games and puzzles)
WO, WE LOFT OUR TOY (no throwing toys, please! Oh, you LOST your toy. Please stop talking with your mouth full.)
WOT? WOOLY TOE FUR! (I do have a little bit of hair on my big toes -- not as much as a hobbit, LOL)
TO WOE WOOLY TURF (I can't wear wool because it breaks me out in a rash)
2 TOWEL FOR YOU (With 8 people in the house, I can never have enough towels. Thanks!)
WET FLOOR 2 YOU (I'll send Piglet to your house)

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

Sunday, January 04, 2004

Page change

My hip and lower back have been aching today. I tried really hard to take a nap, but between kids' noise and the telephone it just wasn't happening. Oh well, maybe next Sunday. Sunday is the day that I always want a nap.

I was getting tired of waiting for my page to load, so I took some ideas from MEG and made a new page header. Unfortunately, because I like to do my own html, I use a lot of stuff that I don't quite understand. That causes errors that drive me nuts. My pages never validate. :P Oh well, that's the way it goes. I know some stuff, but I never claimed to be an expert. But I did spend way too much time working on it for nothing. So I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow to post anything even vaguely resembling something interesting, as I am thunk out.

#posted by *2flower* | All comments have been lost. :(

dogwood blooms

what day is it?

reading

finished

i wish

i'm an enfp

my guestbook

bloggerrific peeps

blogroll me

i'm a blogger with bOObies

the "you know what" list

blog help & goodies

artsy-fartsy toys

blog listings

i support

blogometer

Bleck!

Make-A-Flake

Saturday Morning Me

Low Maintenance Gypsy Friendships

MJ Without Surgery?

Oh no, the Blog!

drowning at 2 feet sea level

No Watermelons Allowed

Vox Day

Cheddar X

First Date -- Scott's Prom

Pixel Drawing

Jimmy Peacenik Blather

A+ Math

Our "Secret Service Agent" FHE

Wise men travel far

Inane Mutterings

Unconscious Mutterings

ANAGRAM ME -- ME A GRAN-MA?! (almost)

Page change

referrererererers

what'd i miss?

cozy blogs

puffin peeps

radio peeps

links i likeses

memes

my webrings

right peeps

wictory wednesday

blogs for Bush