Creative, Crafty and Cool

Just stumbled upon The Creative Maven – wow! What a great resource! She is creative and a maven, as advertised, and she writes well and she is funny, too. I am fascinated with How to Re-Upholster a Wingback Chair.  I may not (okay – full disclosure – will never) attempt this particular project but there are some smaller (hopefully easier) chairs that I would like to try.

Great DIY tips – The Maven patches jeans, makes a painted umbrella stand  and she gives tutorials on the stuff she does so you can actually attempt them with a hope of success.

I found this site through Today’s Creative Blog which is moving to from Blogger to WordPress so may be down but back up soon.

Then, ‘cuz I am such a computer whiz, I also found ModPodgeRocks which it does. Rock, I mean.Great decoupage projects and I just bought a giant container of the stuff. Love it. I have only decoupaged a table and the inside of a cabinet –

but would willingly decoupage almost anything. Maybe I should go look at this site for ideas first before I completely cover our house in decoupaged items.

Epic Fail

That is what we are looking at  here –  an epic fail (and thank you to my friend, A, who named it for me).

Why? What? Okay, car is dying (but still trade-in-able), two not so old (under 3 years – Dell, thanks for asking) computers have eased into a slow non-functioning spiral of death (I had the word obsolescence here but changed it to death – it is just that they are lemons…the technology should not be obsolete after 3 years nor should the functionality), my phone battery is not holding a charge, the dishwasher works but only if I throw a cup of water into it before running it, the vacuum is pretty much a goner, two burners on the stove make a weird clicking noise when used so I don’t use them) and last night at around three am I heard a really horrible mechanical groan right before the a/c shut off – I waited (like I could sleep after that anyway) and it went back on, thankfully because that would be a tipping point…in my mental health state.

Phew, or have I breathed a sigh of relief too soon?

Okay – I pledge to buy a vacuum today – Check! Vacuum purchased -at Mr Sweeper in Waltham – a very nice, local shop that sells and repairs vacuums…I had hoped that ours could be saved…it could but it was not worth it.

I pledge to look at computers today –Umm…today? On-line – okay, store? Augh. We went to Micro Center in Cambridge on Saturday (their tagline should be “Where the geeks go” – no hate mail, please – I like geeks…but seriously, 99 percent of customers were male and one that I talked to  – he was a computer consultant  – knew so much about the Apple line (as in “…the  G5 – does yours have that loud fan problem?”) that I should have had him tell me which one to get and just have been done with it). The salesmen were nice and very knowledgeable.  We worked with Serge who was very helpful and I suspect has a PhD in Physics or something. It looks like Best Buy has similar products (looking at a PC laptop – down to Sony or Toshiba for brands) but their prices do not include Microsoft Office which adds $100 or more to the price. My head is swimming in ghz, RAM, and GB and as soon as I choose a computer I will swiftly download this knowledge from my brain so it can hold on to more important stuff like where I left my keys.

It must be synchronicity or something

The world works in funny ways – I have to go to Treat Cupcake Bar (I know it is a tough job but I will take a hit for the team) because I have heard about it a dozen different ways in the past weeks and because I do love cupcakes and you get to build your own cupcakes so, really, it is for the children. I will report later this week.  I also have to go to Sofra – I am picking up a friend’s farm share while they are away -and the pick up spot is in the store – tough week. Earthquake cookies to go, please.  It is our turn for our shared farm share this week as well so I would love any veggie recipes or we will be eating lots and lots of salads. More baked goods but balanced by veggies, so that’s good, right? Right?

Then, after I put up the Woman’s Day link to those great food bloggers, another friend sent me a link to great stuff to do in Portland, Maine…from Woman’s Day! Seriously, is it time to look into this august publication again? I don’t know but so far, very promising. The website is well organized and they even make fun of their old covers here.

Post Script:
Okay, something is up – I just got back from a visit to the dermatologist’s – just a look at something I thought should be looked at – and while in the waiting room of this lovely practice, I saw, yes, you guessed it…Woman’s Day magazine – so I read it, of course. The articles are good, the writing is very good and I was all set to be tucked in to this issue but the very prompt and professional staff at Krauss Dermatology did not allow a good long read. All the better. I think I should at the very least go buy my own copy at this point.

yummy goods store on-line at last!

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I found this store on the Cape while staying in a sweet beach house last year and loved everything in the store – I have followed her blog (Melissa Averinos – a talented fabric designer and author) and finally (!) you can order things from her sweet shop on-line. Seriously, I was ready to drive the hour plus to get a yummy goods fix. She has a small thing for unicorns – check it out  and she even has a book that makes me think I can sew. Ahem.

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