Two Posts in a Day? You Better Run and Hide....

Oh! So, I start the mower up this morning (why is someone mowing their lawn at nine pm at night? I know the sun it out, but its nine pm at (add choice word) night! what if I wanted to go to bed?) and started to mow the "side yard" we have, that butts up against the Neighbor With Many Kids's yard. As I swing the mower up to head towards our fence, I see it.

The wood pile is doing its best impersonation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Seriously, it was at a 45 degree angle. Some wood in the first row had failed at the impersonation and the other pieces of wood were busy mocking them by making them lay in the wet grass.

I went about my mowing, then stopped as it occurred to me the children who all congregate at the Neighbor With Many Kids's house might play over by the wood pile and it might fall on them. So I sighed and stared at the Leaning Tower of Wood and decided to just try to push it back against the house. That was when I discovered there was a thing to store a hose behind the wood pile. Confused, I spent 15 minutes pushing the top of the wood pile closer to the house. This was rather gross task as the wood was...wet from the rain, and infested with bugs. As stated earlier today, I hate bugs. And mud. But I hate bugs more than mud.

I backed up and looked at my handy work and the Leaning Tower of Wood was leaning now more.

It was misshapen, but at least it wasn't leaning at a 45 degree angle.

And then I realized I had managed to scrap my wrist so it looked like I was, well, slitting my wrist or something. Then, later, I was really smart and sprayed with perfume, so then it seared in pain.

Just wanted to let you know

I hate mowing the yard for two reasons:

1. I hate bugs. They were out in full force today.

2. I hate the outdoors. For two reasons.

a. I hate bugs.
b. I hate mud.

As you can see, I really hate bugs.

And the Sun went Out on Me

Last night, after I finished being a geek, I got up and noticed it was "pouring" rain outside. After I informed Basil of this happening (only to discover she wasn't in the room with me and had put herself to bed), I came upstairs to work on the computer till I deemed it late enough to crawl into bed and go back to being a geek (this time by watching "Doctor Who" till I zonked out).

I came upstairs and sat down. After a few minutes I realized it was dark. I figured it was the storm. Not so much. It was actually raining very steadily, but the clouds weren't black, they were dark, but not black. I realized that the sun was setting.

THE SUN WAS SETTING?!

After I had a small freak out, I turned on the desk light, then a short while later another light, then finally the overhead light in the study and I shut the shades so no one could peek into my room. Later, when I went downstairs to eat something so I did not pass out from hunger, I had to TURN ON LIGHTS in the family room. It was almost pitch black down there. It felt so...alien to have to turn lights on. I also realized, we do not have enough lights in the family room, even if I would turn on the butt ugly brass over head spot light that shines on the fire place (the only light in the room, as who ever designed the house figured that in that room the only thing worth lighting was the fireplace, which is also ugly). I might have to buy some lights...as I am not leaving that ugly light in the kitchen on either.

What did we do when we first moved in and it got dark? Did we just sit in the dark? I seriously do not remember.

Things I say to my Dog

During a normal day, I say thing following things to my dog:

...time to get up.
...yoga puppy!
...you're Basil the Dog
...do you plan on keeping any of that fur?
...you are a furry mess!
...you're such a good puppy!
...I know you're two years old and a big girl, but you'll always be my puppy.
...bad dog!
...let's go upstairs.
...Basil!
...you wanna go outside?
...do you want a treat?
...sit.
...roll over.
...jump!
...hey, where did you go?
...why must you always sit where I want to stand?
...are you trying to kill me, dog?
....you are such a funny shaped puppy.
....I know you're a dog.
...you're so pretty!
...you're such a mutt.
...do you want dinner?
....why are you staring at me?
....I don't want your bone.
...Basil, what the hell are you barking at?
....you make the oddest noises when you sleep, dog.
....Basil, Basil, Basil you're a puppy, puppy dog!
...Good night Basil.

A New Direction

Recently, I have been feeling listless and bored. Last time I felt this way, I launched Ireland Scott Designs. Seeing I cannot "relaunch" Ireland Scott Designs, I decided to just add to what Ireland Scott had to offer (har har har). I decided to launch a...gift bag line. Why gift bags?

Because I like "scrap booking." I put those in quotes because what they call "scrap booking" these days does not strike me as "scrap booking." The first scrap book I made (WHICH THE MOVERS RUINED WHEN THEY MOVED IT OUT OF THE DIRT HOLE) is a scarp book because I used scraps to make it. I used odds and ends. It was during this time I really discovered the world of scrap booking and for the life of me, I could not figure out why someone would take a class or only put one picture on a page. Those are the "scrap books" that confound me. There is one picture on the page and about 20 dollars worth of paper and other random things.

I love the random things though. I am a sucker for that kinds of stuff. And I love paper. And pens. I love everything the scrap book world has to offer. I just hate using it in an actual "scrap book" because then the pages never lay flat. I loved my Scotland scrap book because it was stuff I had picked up while over there. Receipts, tea bag holders, coins, cards, etc. (The receipts are gone now, as they are faded and ruined. This pisses me off greatly, but we'll save that for another day.)

Last fall I was standing in Hobby Lobby, as I so often did while I was living back in Chicagoland. I was in the scrap book section. I should not have been in the scrap book section for many reasons, but there I was, lusting after paper. I did not need any paper as the Dirt Hole scrap book was put on hold while I wanted for the internet to work again so I could upload more pictures to have printed (which never happened, well the internet began working again, but I got distracted so I never finished the Dirt Hole book).

As I lusted after the printed paper, it hit me: I could make gift bags and cards for Christmas! I was actually going to see people for Christmas that year, so I did not have to mail any thing off. I could use gift bags and MAKE THEM!

So I bought paper, stickers and plain paper bags. And proceeded to have a total ball making the bags. I had a few left over, and I posted them on Ireland Scott. I think I posted them too late, as they didn't move. I figured they wouldn't move. Then I moved.

I was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling earlier this week. I knew I needed to do something constructive, so I said to Basil Bea, "I think I will make more bags. Like bigger ones. And cards. How does that sound?"

She stared at me blankly, but I left the house, bought what I needed, spent two days working and now am beginning to post. I have a feeling all the time and money I spent will be wasted, and the gift bags and cards will never move, but at least I gave it a shot. And man was it fun making those bags. I love doing that sort of thing.

Maybe I should finally get my butt in gear and fix my Scotland scrap book?

The Earth Moves

Yesterday, I watched the nightly news. This is a big deal because 1) I hate the news and 2) I do not watch news. I am not sure why I watched it last night instead of finding something else to watch, like I usually do, but I watched it.

They talked about a breaking news story: an earthquake in California. I was like, uh, okay. We've had strong ones here I slept through, like that first big one we had that I felt, but thought was the heater. I was like, okay.

Then, two hours later, I was sitting on my bed reading and suddenly I thought the bed was going to fall apart. It went on for a few seconds, rattling empty hangers and the bed. Then it stopped. The only evidence it was there were the swinging robes and hangers. I went on the internet right away and couldn't find anything. The Alaska Earthquake site wouldn't load. I finally went on the USGS site and got some answers. We had had a 5.0 one, per the USGS.

I bet that didn't make the national news. Not that I would have known, due to the fact I was upstairs, reading in bed and had no desire to turn the TV on to find out. And I over slept this morning, so I missed the morning new shows, which I do watch as they do not actually tell me much news. So I can stand them.

As my dad told me when I got called up for jury duty and was chosen: "You're intelligent but woefully uninformed."

I tried to be informed for awhile, but it was too much work.

Basil Bea and her Bed

Basil Bea Dog has always loved two things in her life: her crate and her pillow(s). When we first got her she loved her pillows so much, she ate them. After having all the pillows in her life taken away, she learned to just love them by wearing them out. This whole wearing out the pillows is a lot less frustrating than when she would eat them.

Since moving to Alaska, she's gone through three pillows. She loves pillows the best when they are in her crate. Basil Bea arrived loving crates. She was crate trained and at first I though it a wee bit odd she would go into her crate when it was not time for bed or time for me to leave. She hung out in her crate, took naps and well....hung out in there a lot. When we lived in Chicago, we tried to keep her out of the crate, mostly because she seemed to antisocial if she was always out in the cold greenhouse. So I bought her two pillows and kept one in the family room, where each night at 7 pm, she'd give us her rendition of a drunken sailor.

Since we've arrived in Alaska, I just let her hang out in her crate. I figure if she wants to be in there, she can be in there. It keeps her fur in one spot. And she doesn't bark as much if she's always hanging out in her crate.

Recently I got her a new pillow, because the other one I got had become rather misshapen from liviing in the crate. It had a Basil shaped hole in it and I figured she was hanging out on the plastic, as the stuffing was pushed out. She was really excited when I produced the new one, her whole body was shaking. She loved it.

Till today.

I am not sure what happened. This morning she began pawing at the bed. Then I left her in it when I left. At some point today she began to hang out on her old pillow (the misshapen one). Tonight, when I came up for bed, she was in the sewing room, on the old pillow. I am in the bedroom and she's not in her crate. I'm pretty sure she will spend the night on the dodgy pillow.

Crazy puppy.

let the sun shine down

Today, it was sunny. Thank god. Even though I had a minor sinus headache almost all day, it wasn't so bad due to the fact the sun was out.

Basil Bea was happy.
We even went outside to play. Then she drank water to fast and threw up.

The major highlight of the day was setting up the wireless router. My father, located three time zones behind me, aided in this endeavor. After three hours, and many reboots later, I am wire free for the time being. We will see how long this lasts. Last wireless router I bought was faulty and never worked wireless. It worked as a router. But I was always wired in. So far today I've totted the laptop to three different rooms and it was not nice having a 90 foot cord following after me. Now, in the winter when I am freezing, I can move to the room that is the warmest in the house.

I posted a new purse today (irelandscott.etsy.com). It is wonderful and a Teagan tote. I've been trying to figure out which purses I should make more of. Hobo bags seem to be rather popular. In the winter, the Hillhead Satchel sold well too. I want to create a new style. I did see one on "Glee" tonight that I think I could swing making. Its kinda funny, I see handbags now and I see patterns I can make. I made a clutch today, still not up to the standards I want...but I'll try to sell it anyways, as its got a lot in it. Plus, I bet its just me being hard on myself. I'm almost done with the batch I want to make to send R for the fest she's going to in September. She offered to hawk them in her booth for me. I doubt any will sell, but hey, I gotta get my name out there some how right? I'm thinking of getting some MOO cards printed up as coupons. Or just printing some out on my own now that I've got the printer working.

Dude, I could make the printer wireless!

Tomorrow I plan to run all the errands I've been putting off all week. (OMG, the week is like gone...) I hate going out in the weekends around here, with all the various roads that are closed/congested/etc. Its just safer to remain in the house on the weekends.

I'll sew and make new purses. The purse I was most proud of turned out to have a little iron boo boo on it, so now I can't sell it. I guess I'll carry it. Its really cute.

Gloomy weather coming at ya

for the past few days its been rather gloomy here. Currently, it is 57 degrees outside and not much warmer in the house. Instead of turning the heat on, I put more clothes on. I am dressed...for winter. I am serious. I am wearing my ski socks, a sweater and jeans. A very familiar outfit, as I wore it a lot during the winter. I had a sweater jacket on till Basil Bea spilled tea on me. I am not sure why she felt the need to do this, but she really wanted the tea and nothing but me getting angry stopped her.

Anyways, I am freezing. My fingers are frozen and I feel so lackadaisical. I want nothing more than to curl up in bed and watch "Doctor Who" till the sun shines again. I had to force myself to go buy milk and I managed not to buy too much junk when I was at the store.

Basil is staring at me.

Purse making has been going very slowly as of late. Nothing seems to be going right. I broke a needle again and now don't have the right needle for sewing. I think that is part of my issue, I need to buy new needles.

My mom sent me a box today. It was full of random objects she had found while cleaning out my grandma's belongings. I have two full manicure kits now, plus a piece of paper I wrote my name all over when I was in kindergarten. Least to say, I did not know how to spell my name, nor did I write the letters the right way. For some unknown reason, my grandma felt the need to save this piece of paper and my attempts to write my name. It is a wee bit odd, as it was in a bunch of stuff that was mine. Like letters and stuff that were mine. From her, but she had sent them to me. I know for a fact she never sent me a random post it I wrote my name on. Or tried to write my name.

I wonder how I will survive the winter here? A few days of clouds and I'm all cloudy and cold. It was hard to get me out of bed this morning because the room was so cold and the bed was so warm.

I FINALLY got to see "Bourne Ultimatum" today. I tapped it off of USA when they ran it without commercials on Sunday. I love the Bourne series. Usually I cannot stand to watch Matt Damon because he looks like an ex-boyfriend I had long ago, but in the Bourne series he doesn't have the right hair, so he just looks like Matt Damon, thank god...till they show that stupid picture the CIA uses of him. I can't stand that picture, but I digress. I love those movies, which aren't my usually taste in movies. I think it was one of those movies C rented off of Netflix when we were in college. I cannot for the life of me remember why she got it, but I do remember after watching it, I was in love with it. I bought the DVD. I bought the next one without any thought or seeing it. I thought it'd be one of those movies Pilot Boy and I could watch together, as we have very different tastes in movies. (He didn't care for it, even though it has all the things he enjoys in movies.) Anyways, I've been waiting for years to buy the Ultimatum. Years, I say, because I didn't want to pay 20 bucks for it. It always was 20 or above when I'd see it at stores. Then, it vanished from stores. I haven't seen it for awhile and had actually forgotten about it. Till I saw an ad for it when I was watching something else on USA. So I taped it and finally watched it today. I think the third one was pretty damn good. I realized there was not much dialogue in the movie. A lot of running and shooting and fighting and a car chase. However, I did find it highly amusing. I am not sure if they meant it to be funny, but I found it amusing.

I also have been watching a lot of old movies. Yesterday I watched "Bringing Up Baby" with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. It was HILARIOUS at parts and kinda slow at others. I think my favorite part was when they were eating dinner at the aunts house and Cary Grant's character was paying total attention to the dog, George, and was stalking George. he'd just following him around and out of the house in mid-conversation. I was laughing pretty hard.

I have also come to the conclusion I like Matt Smith's Doctor. I was a wee bit iffy at first, as I was one of those people who discovered Who only due to David Tennant and his crazy hair. I was a little upset when they cast Matt Smith, but after getting this far into the season, I have realized I like him. Quite a bit actually. I mean, he's no David Tennant, but there is a lot less spitting now. Also, this doctor doesn't seem to get upset as often. I am totally fascinated by the crack in the wall thing too. I went and bought the iTunes season pass for the 5th season. Mostly so I could watch them on my own time and not have to fast forward through the commericals and nit pick.

Anyways, for some unknown reason its brighter outside than its been all day. It is almost seven pm. I almost want to just go to bed and be done with the day. I hate Mondays and I have no reason to hate Mondays because its just another day in my world.

In the Land of Midnight Sun

Its cloudy.

It is the longest day of the year and it is CLOUDY.It was brilliantly sunny all day. I woke up at 5 am this morning and thought it was 9 am.

But, not it is cloudy. No sun. There is just something wrong with that. One's first Alaskan first day of summer is supposed to be sunny.
Instead I get this:Not the best picture, but at least you can see the camera in the window.
Oh well. The sun just stayed out long enough to heat my house up, though now that it is gone, the air should cool down so I can blow some cold in before I go to bed.

Living here in the summer is just odd. I'm not sure how to really explain it, but you never know what time it is, because the sun never sets and it always looks like the middle of the day most of the day. I did not fully understand this till I went six hours without a clock. I was in a building for 6 hours without a clock and when I left I thought it was maybe nine pm at night. I got in the car and it was almost midnight. MIDNIGHT.
After our heat wave (when I last updated) it cooled down a lot and I had to TURN ON THE HEAT. It was a few days before I realized I was freezing to death in my own home. In June.

Today, I got a logo for Ireland Scott Designs. It hit me rather randomly (like most things) while I was looking at stamps. I was searching for a purse stamp to add to the business cards I got for free off of Moo when I saw it: a Scottie stamp. A DOG! It was perfect. So I added the stamp to the business cards and then the new labels I made. Then I revamped all the other images. I, however, never did finish the purse I have been attempting to finish for the past two days. I was going to do it tonight, thinking the sun would be at full force until at least 11, but alas, it is not because it is cloudy. I sat with the shade closed all day to keep the heat out of the room, and now I open it for some light and all I get is a cloudy sky. Oi. There, some sunlight over that way. I know that sun is still out.