Random video game babble

Posted on January 7, 2009 by Domestic Scientist

I’m currently addicted to Animal Crossing. People either love or hate this game. It seems that most people find it incredibly boring. But I tihnk I’ve made my town quite interesting. For instance, the cutesy little animal characters that run around like to ask you what their catchphrase should be. This is WAY more fun for me than it should be. I give them phrases that turn regular conversations into another monster all together. For instance, a penguin walks up and says “The sun is so cheerful today, I hate you.” Or a giraffe says “If you ever find a green shirt, let me know, AAHHHH BEEEESS!!” Other phrases I’ve added are “booga booga” “BEHIND YOU!” “wait, what?” and “you slut!” Waaaay too much fun.

And then you can send these people letters! The awesome thing about letters is they show them to people that visit your town. Alex and I have a whole network television drama unfolding in our town. The most recent letter that got shown to a visitor: “Dear Derwin, 30,000 bells to keep me quiet. I know what you did to Wart, Jr. Tonight. Midnight. Bus Stop. Come alone.”

And then it doesn’t help that I have my character running around in a surprisingly creepy hockey mask.

I really should be cleaning something, or working on all those Christmas projects I didn’t get to. But this is too much fun! And my orchard isn’t up to par, yet.

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Christmas Pictures

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Domestic Scientist

Are you ready for some baby cuteness?? I think a lot of you could use it since this is the first Monday after the holiday break for a bunch of you.




Hmmm. I’m playing with WordPress’s image code thingy. Not sure if I like this. ANYWAY! If you want the rest of the pictures, go check ‘em out at The Professor Set on Flickr. (Scroll to the bottom for the new ones)

And I’m gonna go play Animal Crossing! If anyone here wants my friend code, drop me a line!

Filed under: Parenting | 3 Comments »

Christmas Crafts

Posted on January 2, 2009 by Domestic Scientist

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thanks everyone for your kind words and thoughts from all the junk that happened a couple of weeks ago. (I decided to hide all those posts so I wouldn’t make our new readers uncomfortable with too much personal info) It made it easier to keep my sanity when not even two days after my last post, Alex fell down the stairs at work and broke his hand in 3 places. Seriously, December 2008 can kiss my ass. It’s going down as one of the worst months EVER. (I will say I’m so happy it was only his hand he broke) But I have high hopes for 2009! And we’re on day 2 and so far so good.

So anyway! Now that Christmas is over, I can show you the presents I made. Well, two of them. In all the insanity, I forgot to take pictures of some of everything.

First the mystery Star Wars present:

It’s a golf club cover! Who woulda guessed that? My dad is a Star Wars fan and a golf fanatic. So I decided to combine the two for his present this year. I didn’t get to the Rebel cover, but I think he’s an Imperial at heart anyway. I knitted the bottom and sewed together the top all from a pattern in my imagination. Fancy, eh? No patterns here! (Not that I didn’t look for one online. This was a bitch to make, but patterns for golf club covers aren’t exactly popular apparently….)

And now, the present for my pirate loving sister:

She loved it, which is good since it turned out to be the hardest project. Okay knitters, what am I doing wrong? I made this thing with the right size needles, and the thing seriously curled so hard it was a double tube. I heard a lot about blocking last time I asked this question, so I decided to try that. First I did a wet block since the yarn isn’t that delicate. Looked like it was working, until I unpinned it and it rolled up again. I will say it did take SOME of the curl out, but not nearly enough. So then I tried the harsher steam blocking. It totally flattened the yarn, and got rid of most of the curl, but STILL rolled up enough that the design was hard to see. So I cheated and sewed some heavy black fabric on to the back of the entire thing. Take THAT, you goofy scarf. Any ideas? I tried larger needles and I still have an intense curl. Would knitting in a tube help, or would I just get something even weirder?

I also made a crochet needle case for my mom, who also started going crazy with yarn crafts recently. It was really pretty, but you’ll just have to believe me since I forgot to take a picture of it.

I have 3 projects sitting on my craft table in various stages of completion. And 4 more knocking around in my brain that I don’t even have all the supplies for. Maybe they’ll be ready by my friend’s birthdays… or next Christmas. Oy.

How about you guys? Did you get or give any awesome handmade things this year? I got TWO handmade scarves! One from my mom and one from one of my sisters. One of blue and one is a rainbow of colors! I’m so excited. I’m adding them to my growing collection. I have a scarf for every day of the week now! I’m collecting scarves like most girls collect shoes. Which is pretty ironic since Alabama has very mild winters. Oh well. I’ll just be the one that walks around all bundled up that Southerners point at and say “She must be one of them Californians. Wimp. You ain’t seen cold is you weren’t here for that there ice storm of ‘97.” (or whenever the hell that was) I don’t care. I’ll look FABULOUS!

Filed under: Crafts, Geekery | 4 Comments »

More patterns!

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

So I’ve finished two crafty Christmas presents! Woot! However, being that they are supposed to be surprises for family members that come to my blog occasionally, I’m afraid I can’t show you guys quite yet. I’m such a tease.

BUT! I will give you a small clue as to what the current present I’m working on is. I put two new patterns up on the Free Patterns page: Imperial Logo and Rebel Alliance Logo cross stitch patterns. I’m planning on using size 10 tear away canvas for these, so they’ll be about 3 inches wide. And don’t think I’m just making some cross stitch thingy to frame! Oh no no! I have completely gone crazy and am trying something way out of my league. But that is what makes this fun! Wish me luck!!

Filed under: Crafts, Patterns | Tagged: , , , , | 5 Comments »

Christmas Time!

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

So this year, my little family is going to be having a Charlie Brown Christmas. 2008 has not been kind to us financially and we’re still playing catch up. But ya know what? I don’t care. This Christmas season has already been so wonderful I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The memories of shopping for presents for the Professor with Alex are better than anything anyone could buy. We only spent $40 on 3 presents, but we know that he is going to absolutely love every one of the gifts. Or the boxes they come in….

Alex and I won’t be exchanging “bought” gifts this year, but I’m enjoying the challenge of trying to think of creative things I can make or do for him that morning. Those goofy “love coupons” are an idea. I had always thought they were stupid before I got married. My thoughts after reading them were “You shouldn’t have to make a big deal about these actions. You should just be doing them for each other!” HA! Wasn’t I so cute and naive? While I believe my marriage is one of the best on the planet, we don’t rub each other’s feet just because we “feel like doing it.” Although Alex does make me feel incredibly guilty by doing the dishes without being asked rather often, or like recently, cleaning the entire freaking apartment while I was on vacation. I’m spoiled rotten. Maybe I should just make a coupon: “I promise to be as generous as you are…. but only for a day because you’re a freak of nature.”

ANYWAY! For the other loved ones and little kiddles in my life, I’m trying to make presents this year. Here are some of the links I’ve found very useful for any of you other crafters out there:

Ultimate Hand-made gift guide from Sew, Mama, Sew

Bowling Bunnies Game for a kiddle.

Sew a Teddy Bear! I’m thinking of using this pattern and making a bunny instead.

Molly the Monkey Pattern. This is my favorite. The pattern is so easy I want to make them for ALL the little girls in my family!

And of course, you should all be checking Craftzine. I’ve been checking their site every day because they have links to awesome ideas for gifts or Christmas decorations like Pop-UP cards, super simple snow storm garland, and patterns for knitting projects and ornaments and who knows what else!

Are any of you guys making presents this year?

Filed under: Crafts | 5 Comments »

Picture time!

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

I hope everyone had an awesome Turkey Day. I know we did. The Professor always loves going to Aunt B’s. Everyone there spoils him rotten which is good for him, since I can be such a tyrant at home ; ) I took loads of pictures and here are some of my favorites:

Playing in the leaves

Playing in the leaves

Kind of blurry, but still cute

Kind of blurry, but still cute

After eating ourselves silly, 4 of my 5 sisters and I, plus my mom and dad all packed up and went up to Gatlinburg . No kids or husbands allowed! We went shopping all over the place and ate lots of awesome food. We all enjoyed the freedom of not having our kids with us, but I think we all missed them terribly. A little separation is good for us, though.

At the end of the day, we all stayed in a cabin on top of one of the mountains, where this was our morning view:


Mountain View

Mountain View



I got to sleep right in front of a fire place and then wake up and have some of the best pancakes on the planet. (If you are ever in West Tennessee, I highly recommend going to Flapjack’s. Kiss IHOP goodbye!) Followed by more shopping and then the arduous ride home. We had all forgotten that it was the end of a long weekend, on top of the already congested Gatlinburg area. It took nearly 8 hours to make a 4 hour drive. Blarg. But I have to say, I made it through the Hurricane Rita evacuation. Every time I get stuck in traffic, I just think back to that 18 hour fiasco and everything just pales in comparison.

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He’s at that age…

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

The Professor only uses one word: “no.” He has said a few others, but they seem to stay for only a week and then they disappear behind “dibbity goo gooo pffffftttttt.” I wish his first word was Momma or Dadda, but nope. Oh well, at least he’s communicating.

But the other day while trying to traverse the hectic parking lot of our local Mega-Mart, some woman in an SUV cuts us off and almost takes off my front bumper in the process of trying to get a spot (that I wasn’t even going for anyway). I get VERY upset when people drive dangerously around me while I have the kiddle in the car. While I WANT to go slap her across her bleach blond face, I just say “bitch” and keep on driving.

That’s when we hear it from the back seat, one syllable:

“Bith”

No that’s not a typo, he’s not very good with the -tch sound yet, but his intent was unmistakable. And like the wonderful and responsible parents Alex and I are, we erupt into laughter and try to get him to say it again. He apparently doesn’t do encores. Damn.

Maybe I can get him to say that one!! Heh heh.

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Y’all rock

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

Thanks everyone for your kind words in my last post. You guys really know how to cheer me up. And the chocolate and puppy video suggestions were spot on ;)

I am going to cut down on the amount of posts. Once a day was a little tough. Hopefully though I’ll be back up to a few times a week here shortly!

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My apologies

Posted on November 17, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

So even the most infrequent visitor will have noticed my extreme lack of posts. I am really sorry. I’m in this rut that exceeds writers block. Luckily with my hobbies, I almost always have something to write about. So I can’t use writer’s block as an excuse. I have just had no desire to do much of anything recently. I started making a pattern for a new cross stitch, but I just lost the steam. I even have a list of things I could do that I’m just not interested in doing right now. I haven’t even made cookies in like two weeks! That’s just weird. Does anyone have any ideas on how to cheer my gloomy ass up? It seems like the baby is the only thing that can make me smile at the moment. Maybe he can give you a giggle, too:




He loves the Wii cursor. Silly sounds effects courtesy of Daddy.

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Halloween ‘08

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Domestic Scientist

So Halloween is now officially over for me. We went to the party of they year on Saturday! My sisters really know how to throw a party and make sure everyone has a good time. While I took a gazillion pictures to show you guys, my wimpy little camera couldn’t handle the extremely low light. Not that many cameras could. But here are 2 that came out, plus this one that I photoshopped to make it passable (and incredibly corny!)

We were trying to be in character with cranky faces and frozen smiles. My costume was this Butterick Pattern and Alex’s was this Simplicity Pattern. Mine turned out pretty well, while Alex’s was a complete disaster. Can’t tell from this picture, can you? That’s because the only thing I made that he’s wearing is the hat. That’s his grandfathers jacket with just regular interview clothes underneath. When he tried the jacket that I made on, it looked ridiculous! The collar was off center and somehow the shoulder seams were back near his shoulder BLADES. *sigh* At least I tried! I was expecting the Simplicity pattern to be, you know, simple, but they sure showed me! The diagrams were completely crazy to try to understand. I had to back track like 3 times due to their unclear instructions. The Butterick one was more complicated, but the directions were clear and concise. I think I may try again next year. Maybe. All the compliments we got on the costumes made the trouble worth while. But of course, all the best costume awards went to the women with the shortest, sexiest costumes. I’m a little miffed about that, but oh well. Out of my 5 sisters, 4 of them were wearing sexy costumes (a Playboy bunny, a witch, a nurse, and a gangster). My other sister was a Whoopie cushion, which was my favorite! We felt pretty outnumbered.


Hehe, he’s such a goof.



And this is my Dad. No, not Daddy, as in Pimp Daddy, but my father. It’s so weird being an adult now and seeing him totally let loose and have fun. It’s kinda neat, though. Just gotta get used to it.

So, that’s it. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Now that all this sewing insanity is over, I should get back to cleaning my craft area. It looks like a tornado hit it….

Filed under: Crafts | Tagged: , , | 4 Comments »

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