Harry Potter, Again

....And, here's the third of three new Harry Potter quilts I just finished.

It's 29" x 36", and available as the most awesome baby quilt ever

at BadBaby Quilts.

ETA:  Sorry!  It's already been sold!

But I'll be making another one!

Books, Books, and More Books

As an enthusiastic book lover, educator, and former librarian, 

I have... a few... books around the house.

(A note to my sister:  this is a humorous representation!  No need to call Hoarders!)

So when I ran out of bookshelves and needed a place for some of my series,

I turned to my extra wooden crates.

You may remember them from this project --

-- or this plea for someone to please, please, take some of my tomato seedlings

off my hands.

It turns out they're the perfect size for two Cutie boxes,

which in turn are the perfect size for most paperbacks.

If you want to make them taller and sturdier, 

you could just use nylon zip ties.

But going two high is both steady and easy to dismantle if they need to be moved.

They would work well as a dorm room bookcase, yes?

They could be used to move things,

and then flipped on their side to hold manga and chunky Penguin classics.

Cool crate bookcases: easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy!

Harry Potter Quilt Update, Part Deux!

My second Harry Potter quilt, 35" x 45", is now available in my shop.

Remember, Dammit, Minnie readers are always entitled to 10% off,

with the sale code MINNIE at checkout!

ETA:  I sold this quilt,

but more are coming soon!

Well, I Thought it Was Hilarious

I've been working with kids for over twenty-five years,

and I always say:  it may be hard, but it's never boring.

Case in point:

D. ran up to me yesterday afternoon, yelling

"I lost my tooth!"

"How exciting!" I said, because it is.

Kids never get blasé about losing a tooth.

"No, I LOST my tooth!  It fell on the ground!!" he continued,

and after I told him Go find it!

he ran off, hands flapping, hollering Auuuuuuugghhh!!! as he searched for his lost tooth.

And I laughed and laughed.

ALSO...

I spent the morning photographing my three new Harry Potter quilts!

Here's a taste of the first one:

Keep an eye on my shop for the other two, coming soon!

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION TIME!

As is ever my wont,

when a customer on Etsy asked for a custom item, 

I made five more for my shop.

Cool, eh?

They come in both gilded and non-gilded,

short and long.

Check out out the Sugar Skull Pennant section of my shop for more!

Adventures In The Wide, Wide, World of Web

When meeting folks you've only known via the internets is discussed,

people's expectations tend to fall into two camps:

Here there be ax murderers!!!

or,

sounds like a party!

I fall in the latter group.

I've made internet friends over the last eleven years, and it's all because of this guy:

Max Fischer, have my babies.

I adored the movie Rushmore, so when Wes Anderson's third movie,

The Royal Tenenbaums was getting ready to come out, 

I went internet sleuthing for some info.

I first came across The Rushmore Academy...

... and then The Yankee Racers.

These forums taught me a fundamental fact about the life on the web:

You can get very comfortable and friendly with people

with whom you initially shared nothing more 

than an interest in a movie or TV show.

"YOU like the short-lived, live action Tick television series?  I do too!"

After some technical difficulties with my beloved Yankee Racers

pretty much ended that forum,

I drifted over to Television Without Pity.

I noodled there for a year or two, 

until I became deeply, fiercely infatuated with season two of The Office.

(If I ever could have french kissed a show, it was this one.)

The Office forum had a "Meet Market," 

a thread where fans can just chat about anything and everything, related to the show or not.

And chat we did.

In the Chili's Meet Market thread we discussed important topics:

babies and jobs, sex and abstinence, death and marriage;

where we stood on gun control, the health care act, and marriage equality.

We also wrote about topics a bit more trivial,

such as whether caramel or chocolate is better.

(NO CONTEST:  the answer is "chocolate.")

Several years ago,

I met one of my local Chili's Meet Market peeps in the real world and we've become friends.

So when we were presented with the opportunity to meet

a third, out-of-town friend at Disneyland,

we were enthusiastic about the prospect.

It was odd explaining why I needed a day off...

(... "I've got this friend... I want to see... at Disneyland? 

Whom I know from... the internet?")

... but I had vacation days, so Dan and I carpooled to meet Julie.

"Howdy, folks!  Welcome to the Sweatiest Happiest Place on Earth!"

Despite a temperature that was only slightly lower than the surface of the sun,

we had a great time.

We talked, rode rides, sweated,

 talked, sweated, ate, 

sweated, talked, shopped, 

 talked (and sweated) some more.

And although we couldn't first recognize each other in a crowd 

without specific descriptions, 

("I'm in the lavender shirt, at the Jolly Holiday Restaurant,")

we were as easy with each other as folks

who had spent the last seven years meeting over coffee instead of online.

So here's to internet friendship!

It's (mostly) not creepy.

Look At Me, Being All Housewife-y

I've said it before: I'm not all about housework.

Those women (or men) who can keep a sparkling house?

More power to 'em.

But I just can't get motivated to spend an afternoon scrubbing the kitchen floor

when I could be 

writing a YA dystopian  novel,

fashioning a new art quilt out of my wedding dress,

learning the skill of topiary

reading a Project Runway recap, instead.

Oooooo... Venn did NOT just say that about Dmitry!

So when my overworked* Sweet Man gently suggested that maybe?

 Sometime? We could get a maid to come in once a week, I didn't get all squiffy and hurt 

because I work hard to keep the house looking clean!  Sniff, sniff!!!

Nope, I'll be the first to admit my standards are not high.

I'm no crazy-hoarder slob,

but I'll say that the one housekeeping trick I have

is that if someone comes over unexpectedly,

I grab my vacuum cleaner from the closet, wheel it to the front door, 

and pretend that I was just interrupted in a major cleaning-fest of my messy house.

Excuse the mess.  I was just getting ready to vacuum the azaleas out front! 

Anyway, it turns out the big thing that was bothering the Sweet Man

was the ankle-high fur tumbleweeds generated by our many, many pets,

which could be found all through our downstairs.

(This is a re-creation of my fur tumbleweeds.  I don't really let it get this bad.)

Okay, I could do something about that.

All I needed to do was Swiffer the place every day or so.

But... those paper-y things sold by Swiffer are one-use only.

And although I bought some of these cool crocheted reusable Swiffer covers off of Etsy...

... I only had three.

What to do?

Well, when I was grabbing one of my crocheted covers out of the dishtowel drawer,

I dislodged a 13" square microfiber dusting cloth.

Ding ding ding!

Inspiration!

I cut one in half, and put it on my Swiffer.

I struggled with getting the cloth into the "anchoring" holes,

then realized I could just use a couple of rubber bands.

Once I saw this worked, I picked up six cloths at Target (in the auto section, btw)

cut them in half, zigzagged the raw edge, and stowed them in the dishtowel drawer.

Since I'm zipping this around the downstairs every day or two,

it takes me just one cloth and less three minutes to make the floors presentable.

I have a bucket by the washing machine that I drop the used cloths in.

And while I won't be dressed like this in the afternoon...

... folks are less likely to mistake our laminate floor for carpeting now.

*And no, the answer is not Why doesn't the Sweet Man just do the cleaning?

The guy already works about twice the hours my lazy butt does;

he doesn't need to add more housework to his load.

Teacher Lifehacker

I'm doing fun stuff this three-day weekend, so here's just a teacher quickie.

The teacher I'm working with this year records passing grades in black,

failing grades in red.

I was getting ready to juggle two pens when she showed me this nifty trick:

Just rubber-band a red and black/blue pen together,

and both are in your hand!

Thanks, Professor McGonagall Ms. M.!