A-Z of me

yoga help 2
Originally uploaded by Corgipants

Z is for Zumba

I LOVE Zumba, which is a class our gym offers. But it involves a lot of salsa and other dance moves that are hard on my knee, so I can't do it very often. More often I can be found at Pure Energy (lower impact aerobics) and yoga. Here's a picture of Sully "helping" me out with the downward facing dog.

Now that my alphabet is over, I think I might start again! Or maybe this time I won't go in ABC order.

A-Z of me

Yaris
Originally uploaded by Corgipants

Y is for Yaris

This is my new car! I got it about a month ago and it's the cutest thing ever! My penpal has one just like it except hers is blue. Sully has his own area in the back because the back seats fold down nearly flat. And I can park in a mailbox if I need to!

A-Z of me

X is for Xylophone

I know you probably won't believe this but I played the xylophone. Well, technically, I played the bells which are shorter and more often seen in marching bands/school bands. But same principle as the xylophone. I was at my parent's house today and my mom had made wind chimes out of the bars of my old bells. The sound was amazing! I would have asked for one but I kind of think wind chimes in town are sort of rude to your neighbors. Not everyone wants to hear your tink-tink-tinklings.

A-Z of me

W is for Waffles

We love waffles! The other day on tv some organizing lady was talking about gadgets and how you should get rid of all your waffle irons/Foreman grills/bread machines/ice cream makers/etc. Crazy lady! I actually use those things! I mean, not that we make waffles EVERY weekend but we enjoy waffles enough that I don't mind storing the waffle iron. Sheesh! And yes, the bread machine is gigantic but I am not ashamed to admit that yeast bread is one of the few things I am terrible at in the kitchen. I do all my bread/rolls in there, even if I finished them off by hand with one last knead and rise. I just can't ever get my bread/rolls to rise as well on my own. So back to waffles! Mike invented waffle toast, which is french toast cooked in the waffle iron. Delicious! Speaking of waffle toast, I might make some of that tomorrow! Yum!

A-Z of me

V is for veggies

I've been vegetarian for over 10 years now. I'm not the organic, brown rice, lentils and wheat grass kind of vegetarian. I eat a lot of pizza, pasta and sweets. I make vegetarian meatloaf, sloppy joes and sweet and sour meatballs. I love cheese and ice cream and am not so hot on spinach or beets (unless pickled). Mike has recently gone vegetarian too and I kind of can't get used to it. I bought him meaty hot pockets the other day. And I still have a coupon for hot dogs in my purse for him.

I collect the stickers that come on fruits and vegetables. The other day at the antique mall I found a recipe book about salads that I'm going to use as an album to keep my fruit and veggie stickers in! It will be my first altered book project!

And I'm going to give you the scoop on a swap I am hosting next month! I am next month's swap host at Create a Connection and the theme of my swap is.......
5-A-Day

That's all I'm saying for now. :)

A-Z of me

Finishing up my A-Zs, even though August is over.

U is for Up, Make-

I don't wear make-up. I never have. I own make-up, it's probably ten years old and tomorrow I plan to use my day off to go through it and throw most of it away. (Can't right now, Mike's asleep in there.) I do like Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer. And Bath and Body Works slightly sparkly shimmer body powder/lotion. And I admit, I don't even think I know how to apply make-up. I read the teen magazines as a kid, I'm sure I've got the basics down but I have no idea what colors or exactly where to stroke the blush, how high up to go with the eye shadow or where to outline my lips in lipliner. That's ok. I'll be un-gussied up.

A-Z of me

Too many
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

T is for Toys

So, I mentioned eBaying some ponies. This is because I have far too many toys lying around the house for someone with no children. I'm not saying it's weird to have toys, I love toys! But I have FAR too many. I pick them up at garage sales out of habit, I get new ones for birthday and Christmas on occasion, sometimes I just can't pass them up in the store myself. So this is a picture of a few of the boxes of ponies I hope to find new homes for. Mind you, I probably have this many or more that I'm keeping in boxes in the basement. I have a few, 20 or so, out on display but one can't have 100 ponies on shelves where other adults can see them. Plus as cute as I think they are, sometimes their neon colors and over-use of garish pinks gets to me so I try to keep their presence limited.

A-Z of me

S is for Swaps

I love getting mail! But that's not really the reason I do swaps. I like the clearcut deadline that a swap gives me for my creative endeavors. I have crafts on my crafty To-Do list that have been there for over 5 years. The reason they don't get done? They have no deadline. A swap has a definitive end date, a specific day when it MUST be out the door. And I strive to always abide by the due-date as should you.

Swaps also give me a starting point. I often get caught up in the first stages of a craft project, wondering if I really want to do the project, whether I picked the right yarn or paint colors, if it will turn out like I dream it should. And sometimes these worries lead to me putting the project away on a shelf never to work on it again for fear it will turn out terrible and I will have wasted my time. Most swaps (at least the ones I pick out) give me at least some idea on where to start. They give me a color pallet to use, or a medium such as embroidery or Popsicle sticks. With at least one decision out of the way, I feel more confidant to begin the process.

The swaps I most enjoy are swaps where you are clearly creating something special, just for your partner. Yes, I swap craft supplies and teabags and books sometimes. But I really like the ones that take some thought, some research and some good old fashioned time and attention to create a very special object that the recipient will cherish. Two recent swaps come to mind that I really enjoyed were a doll clothes swap I hosted on Swap-Bot. We each made an outfit for our partner's doll and the outfit I got was SUCH a lovely, handmade dress complete with bonnet and bloomers AND a doll quilt! Such thought and time went into all these pieces to create such a lovely gift for my doll. I hope she thought the same of her outfit that I created. And the other was the Trash to Treasure swap on Swap-Bot which entailed sending your crafty trash bits to your partner, then they created something and sent it back to you. My partner made me the most lovely book, I didn't even recognize my "garbage"! It had pockets and tags and beads and was just amazing. And I sent my partner a pirate-themed diorama that she flipped over. It was not anything I would have wanted but with a little help from a friend, we looked over her profile and got a good feel for what she might like, brainstormed a creative use for her scraps and it turned out SO well and I was so happy when I heard from her that she loved it! So I swap yarn and postcards and cocoa mix to get mail but I swap truly handcrafted items for the boost to my crafty productivity and for the sheer thrill of deciphering what my partner would truly treasure.

A-Z of me

Furry winter mule butt
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

R is for Reading

I read several blogs so today I thought I'd feature 5 of them.

Jenny C.-A blog I have been reading as long as I've been reading blogs. Jenny posts about her lovely yard sale finds, her garden and her wonderful pets. I could do without the posts about concerts but her project page makes up for it.

Amy-What a lovely person and she posts such lovely inspirational stuff, she's also the lady behind Club Little House.


Mimi Smartypants-Quite possibly the only "mommy blog" I can tolerate.

Tracy-A newer blog to me, I am enjoying her food, cat and garden pictures! I love blogs with pictures. So I have included one in this post even though it is thoroughly unrelated to the content.

Cybele-I love getting the scoop on new products, especially tasty sweet products. So I read Candy Blog and it's cousin (written also by Cybele) Junk Food Blog.

A-Z of me

Second corgi wall hanging
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

Q is for Quilt

I don't typically quilt. But I can. Quilting is too long a crafting process for me to really get into, first the piecing then the sandwiching and quilting, then adding the binding. I suppose that's what some people like about it, it's time-consuming and relaxing. But I generally craft for end product. That's why I like
Malec Designs patterns for free-standing appliqué. Quilting with a glue stick?! That's my kind of quilting! It's still time consuming, hand-folding the edges of each appliqué piece. But the actual quilting goes a LOT faster since I use a machine to zigzag around each free-folded piece. Awesome! This wallhaning won fourth place at the county fair and will be auctioned off in October to benefit Corgi-Aid.

A-Z of me

Dogs I've known
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

P is for Pets

I've had many pets over the years including an iguana, a sheep, several mules, MANY rabbits, geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys, quail, guineas, guinea pigs, cats, and fish. But most special to me have been the dogs. As I write this, my thoughts are with Alicia and her husband as they have recently lost their dear corgi girl, Audrey.

My very first dog was a Shetland Sheepdog named Kelsey who was also my first obedience dog, though my mom did the training and I did the "let me show you what my dog can do" routine. Kelsie moved with us to the country and lived to a fine old age with help from medication for her thyroid and other conditions.

We had a few other dogs while we still lived in town. Choochoo was an Australian Shepherd hit by a train before we adopted him at the vet's office. Winston was a Bichon Frise I remember as being a little stinky (eye gook) and not that easy to housetrain.

When we moved to the country, we learned about puppy dumping. People think (Lord knows why) that if they dump a puppy (or box of puppies) along with a half-empty bag of food (if you're lucky) in the country, someone will either take care of them or they will get eaten and that will be that. They also dump adult dogs. And thus began a stream of dogs that either ended up staying with us or mom finding homes for them elsewhere where she knew they would be cared for. Millie was memorable for her size (HUGE) and demeanor (ever so gentle, she would nuzzle the tiniest chick into her soft fur and pretend to mother it). My dad had a penchant for beagles so anything that looked remotely beagle-ish stayed in the garage with dad.

Then I started dog training in 4-H. My first obedience dog was Trinka, a tiny balck and white Rat Terrier. (see picture of Trinka in her adorable Parka) Trinka was a sweet, shivery bed warmer and the highest-winning 4-H dog I would ever have, earning 3rd place in the State competition. She died entirely too young (3 years) of acute pancreatitis. I worked my mom's rescue Doberman Chelsea, who was so tired after pumping out God knows how many batches of puppies before coming to live with us that she slowly walked every inch of the obedience exercises but she got them done. She was also a very sweet, motherly like dog who, like Millie, would try to nurse anything smaller then herself. I tried a Jack Russel named Rickie but couldn't deal with her typical terrier dog aggression and we found her a new home where she'd never have to leave the house.

Then I got my first Corgi, Penny. Penny was handful, a very female corgi, which if you don't know corgis means obstinate, opinionated and bossy. But I knew then that I was a corgi person because I liked that about her.

It was at about the same time that my mom started rescue work for a small dog rescue. A slow but steady stream of Chihuahuas, Yorkies, Pomeranians, Poodles, and mixes arrived, were nursed back to health and either stayed with us for their life or found new homes.

To see a little set of photos of these dogs along with a couple of mule pictures (can't dive into the scrapbooks without scanning a few more mules!), check out my flickr.

A-Z of me make-up day!

O is for Oven

Mine gets used a LOT! I love to bake, mostly sweets but sometimes biscuits or rolls. I do make bread but I use the bread machine for that because I am hideously bad at kneading/rising/all other steps in bread making. Right now I am in a swap-bot swap for muffin recipes and am excited about the prospect of savory muffin recipes!

Jenna's top five favorite pies
1-Strawberry Rhubarb
2-Chocolate cream (from scratch, not just pudding in a pie shell)
3-Banana cream with big chunks of banana
4-Coconut cream with meringue and toasted coconut on top
5-Apple pie with brown sugar streusel topping

Jenna's top five favorite cookies
1-Cut-out sugar cookies (very thick and with royal frosting)
2-Almond spritz cookies
3-Chocolate chip cookies (chewy and thicker than average)
4-Soft ginger/molasses cut-outs (Not gingersnaps, not gingerbread, like soft sugar cookies but gingerbread-flavored)
5-Chocolate crinkles

A-Z of me make-up day!

cross stitch
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

Goodness, I've been neglecting my A-Zs!

N stands for Needlework

I enjoy the occasional needlework project. Every Christmas I do a cross stitch tree ornament. Once in a great while I embroider something like a pillow case or towel. But larger projects seem VERY tedious to me. I have two large cross stitch items that have been in a state of semi-stitch for about a year now. This is one of them, meant to be framed, I made up this sampler with a sating my grandmother once sent me on a postcard and it's meant to have flowers and dogs and other things around the edges. But this is where it sits. And I also have an illustration from the book Guess How Much I Love You that has about 1/20th of the lightest brown color done! I wish I were more inspired to finish them as I really hate having half-finished projects lying around.

A-Z of me

M is for Menus

I love menus. Restaurant menus, school lunch menus, weekly menus for at the home cook. My grandmother was a lunch lady and my mom had the most wonderful school lunch cookbooks from the 40s and 50s, with from-scratch recipes in quantities in the hundreds. I don't know where they went, though. Too bad.

We have a bulging plastic folder full of menus from everyplace we have ever eaten, just about. I always try an nab one as a memento. I love to look through them, remembering what we ordered, thinking about what I would order if we went back.

Every once in a while, I check my old grade school's homepage to see what they're eating that day. I love the combinations of food. Chicken patty on bun, french fries, corn, applesauce, milk. Corn dog, nachos with cheese, carrots, pears, milk. Chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, jello, hot roll, milk. I can recite them, they are mostly the same as when I was in school. Except sometimes they have french toast sticks! For lunch! Crazy! These daily menus I know so well are like familiar recipes, comforting and safe. I still make the rolls just the way they do, rectangular and with putter melted on top. Yum!

I also love Woman's Day Magazine's monthly menus. Even though I rarely cook by them, I do love the idea that I have a whole month of menus already planned out for me! And the idea that other women are cooking the exact same meal on the exact same day appeals to me. Like a secret club, all going through the same motions, bringing the same meal together. I wonder if there is a club, or maybe a message board that's made up of monthly menu-users.

A-Z of me

L is for Laundry

There has been a recent duty change here in our house. I used to do the laundry and Mike folded it. But he was not satisfied with the way I was doing the dishes so he traded me folding the laundry for doing the dishes. It's too early to tell how well this arrangement is working out but the dishes are getting done more regularly. But I still haven't folded Sunday's laundry. Does this mean I'm lazy? I am just not a regular housekeeping kind of girl. I get in fits where I super-clean, which works for things like bathrooms or basements where you can super-clean them every once in a while and you're pretty much ok. (I think some of you just threw up a little in your mouth. What can I say, I'm not a spic and span kind of person. Clean enough is clean by me.) But dishes, laundry, taking the garbage out, these things need to be done without fail every week.

Funny I don't have trouble cleaning the catbox though. Or brushing the dog's teeth. These get done frequently and without delay. I suppose the comfort of my pets comes above my own cleanliness in my mind.

A-Z of me

Red shawl
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

K is for Knitting

Of course! What else could K stand for? I've been knitting for about 8 years now, after my Mother in Law taught me how. She taught me crochet first, then gave me a lesson in knitting and I really picked it up when I perused an illustrated pamphlet on a drive. This shawl is the largest project I've made. I made two, first this red one and then a black one for my mom. This one keeps me toasty warm at work when the air is cranked way up!

A-Z of me

In rags
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

Last night I put my hair up in rags. To see the finished product, you'll have to check out my flickr. I like rags because they make me feel both very old-fashioned and very young at the same time. I think of postcards of cute little girls in slips with their hair in rags. Not that that has anything to do with today's A-Z of me!

J is for Journal

I have kept numerous journals over the years. In grade school, I had a "Dear Diary" sort of journal in which I recorded the usual crushes, fights with friends, and school field trips. Then in junior high, when I thought I was super grown up, I ripped those pages out and started again with a sort of dream journal/favorite quotes/why-are-we-here sort of existential blahness.

After we got married, I kept a journal mainly to communicate to my husband what I couldn't verbally express. It was full of "If only you'd..."s and "If you want so badly to..."s. It facilitated many a newlywed meltdown.

I've had a LiveJournal since 2003, used mainly in the early days to belong to several communities that I no longer frequent.

And now I've started this blog. Inspired by all the wonderful blogs I read, I wanted to create my own entertaining, quick daily read. Maybe make some new friends. Maybe feel a sort of belonging in the crafty, home-tending, cupcake-baking, artful blogosphere.

A-Z of me

I is for Inches

I am 70 inches tall. Don't worry, I've done the math for you-5'10". Or 1.778 meters. 6 inches above the national average woman. 3.5 inches taller than the average Miss America winner. 1 inch taller then the average American male. I'm fairly tall. But I actually never realized it as a kid. This is because I was also fat and more kids make fun of you for being fat than for being tall so I always saw myself as fat, not tall. My husband is the exact same height as me but we have completely different body types. I have long legs and a short torso and he is the opposite. Long legs make it hard to find a partner to walk in 5Ks with you because you are either going really slow with them or you leave them halfway to go your actual speed. But long legs are awesome for horseback riding and yoga. It makes buying pants hard. (I almost always have to hem my pants unless they are extra long like some jeans are now a days.) But you can also wear normal-length pants as capris if you simply MUST buy them because they are pink and have gingham inside the cuffs!

A-Z of me

pumpkin pals
Originally uploaded by Beastbunny

H is for Husband
Before I got married, my whole concept of a husband was made up of all the husbands I had ever know: My dad, my sister's husband, and neighbors. These men are all good men. They work hard and provide for their families. They are mostly manual laborers, farmers or factory workers. I mean them no disrespect when I say what I'm about to say. They also are not very affectionate. Outwardly, at least. (Every once in a while, my dad would leave the cutest little note for my mom or I.) They are strong heads of their household, decision-makers and I think they need that distance to keep themselves at the top. They are obeyed, catered to (to a point). Husbands in my family eat first, get the most comfortable seat and aren't required to stay awake for small talk after dinner. And so I always thought I would grow up and marry a man, perhaps a farmer, and spend my days generally making him comfortable and content.

Is that really a relationship? It's more like a business arrangement, tending to the money-maker so that he can continue to go about his business. I don't doubt that there is love in all the marriages in my family but there's a line between doing something for someone to make them happy and doing something for them so that they won't get upset or be inconvenienced.

Our marriage is nothing like that and I owe it all the my husband. He showed me how to be affectionate and how to discuss things in order to make decisions. We are a team, we work together on each bump and curve that comes along. I don't defer to him (very often) as I thought I would when I was younger. I have my own goals and he has his, but we also have goals together. And that doesn't mean I participate by making him tea and cutting his meat. He's a great, caring, openly affectionate guy.

A-Z of me

G is for Garage Sales

My mom is a super-garage-saler! She has in her head memorized a list of things that she needs/wants and anyone she knows needs/wants and can keep an eye out for each and every item every mentioned to her. I believe I've mentioned this before in regards to the rubber duck collection. So, word to the wise, don't tell my mom you need/want/like something unless you want several! Luckily I am a collector so I love the extra set of eyes checking every garage sale for me!

I am not such a good garage-saler. I'm a looky-loo. But I often pass over things that I've expressly said I need or want. I gravitate toward the toy bins, I think out of habit since I've been garage-saling since I was wee. So in an effort to keep myself on task, I keep a list of things to look for and I read it before I go to try and remind myself.

The list changes but right it now looks like this:
Cute socks and or baby clothes to make sock dogs out of
Boxes to mail things off in
Baskets
Fabric/linens
Stationery/stickers
Kids books to make greetings cards with (I cut the pictures out)
Dog supplies (new in package to offer to the Corgi-Aid auction)
Vintage cookbook-vegetable themed to house my fruit/vegetable sticker collection
Cookie/dessert cookbooks for my swap pal
Copper/tin molds for my swap pal
My little ponies/other 80's toys to sell on ebay ( a terrible habit of mine is picking these up but then never putting them up on ebay)
Small paint brushes
Craft supplies (yarn, felt, glitter, vintage chenille stems, patterns)

Of course, I usually end up with about 90% things that aren't on the list at all. :)