Early Valentine’s present

So, Zach sent me such a cool early Valentine’s Day present:

Personalized m&ms! But he didn’t want them in those sissy pink and red v-day colors, so I got primaries instead.

And, the m&m company wouldn’t put his preferred sayings on the m’s, citing their policy against threatening or vulgar language.

So I got these instead:

The first is because I always tell him I love him so much that I’d like to cut off his arms and legs and keep him in a box. The second is because he figures I’ll believe it if I see it in writing. The third quantifies our love…at level 7… 7 out of 10… 7 of 7…7 of 100…who knows? And the fourth is what he says every time he gets me a totally cool, but expensive present.

They wouldn’t print “die sara die” or “love of my butt”.

The Happy Viking

Here Zach is in all his knitted xmas finery, plotting the next pillage. The hat is already his most complimented item of clothing ever.

The scarf is the Noro stripey fad that I first learned of through the Yarn Harlot. Kristin and I went shopping together, but used different colorways (her Ravelry link). We both made the mistake of reading “supplies: two balls”. She went back for more to match her first balls, but I decided to try a third colorway. It’s an interesting jog where the third ball meets, but I like it.

The hat is my own invention. I used Lamb’s Pride Bulky in dark gray for the beanie. The horns are crocheted from a skinny yarn Sonya gave me (koigu?) and stuffed firmly with fluff. I’m quite proud of the horns, especially that fact that I managed to make them the same size, when I never wrote down the pattern. Kristin and I spent ages cutting out napkins and thinking this thing through to get horns that curved this way! The braids are Cascade 220. The bolts are plastic buttons.

I’m working on writing up a pattern. Leave a comment if you’re interested!

Chompers and Watchers

Cool: This craft project is hilarious! Thanks so much to BitterBetty for her creativity, a great blog, and for this excellent tutorial. Here are pics of the assembly line:

And photos of more creepy plants. The orchids “watch” the front door. The chomper guards the water fountain.

Dissapointing: I invited 5 people to my little craft party on Sunday, and everybody but my mom cancelled. Tis the season, I know. Fall means everybody gets sick. The way I usually structure these get-togethers is to have everyone pay a small (like $5) materials fee to offset the costs. So after my mom gave me $7 (she’s a good tipper), it meant I spent 23 bucks on styrofoam, paint, pipe cleaners, my first glue gun, silly vampire teeth, etc. About $18 More than I would have with my tight budget, if I’d known it was just going to be us.

I spent tons of time shopping for this project, and hours ahead of time pre-painting everything. Zim’s is going out of business, so I saved $$). I was really looking forward to social time with my friends around the hot glue gun, and potluck snackies. I don’t like sounding whiny, but making 36 chompers practically by myself was exhausting. Mom and I only finished two “watchers”.

Oh well. More chompers for me. Anybody have any pointers on making craft parties successful?

Dumb Caulk

I just can’t stop laughing at this dumb ad I found in Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

“NO, I can’t talk now, I have a very important meeting and then dinner guests tonight, and my housekeeper just quit so I’ll have to wash dishes myself! Luckily, there may be just enough time to re-caulk the bathroom sink. ..Thank GOD for caulk singles!!”

P.S. Zach insists that only prudes pronounce the “L” in caulk, and wants you to know how proud he is of the “caulk-job” he just did on the front window molding.