I know my blog has been quiet for weeks – nay, months – now, but I am back home (at least for now). My anthropology project was awesome, and I’ll pop over a little note on that blog sometime. So, what crafty news do I have to share?

Well, first up, my Heart Mouse sold! That’s two out of three so far, and gives me hope that if I put more items in a shop, more items will sell. Not that I ever want to “be in the business” of crafting, but I would like to craft strictly for the sake of crafting. The trouble is, I would end up with things I certainly don’t need. So it would be cool to have a repository to put them in that maybe would earn me enough money to pay for the cost of supplies. I will let that idea swirl some more in my head.

Second, I’ve been working on a guild project – french boutis. When I got done with the stitching part, the scary part began – stuffing it with yarn. Eep! So far, so good, except I am a little upset there is an “obvious” ring in the very center where I had too much overlap of yarn. I imagine that will be less noticeable once this gets transformed into a zipper bag (and with some use). I have several photos of that process, so I am going to make a separate post about it as a this week’s WIP Wednesday.

Since I’d been out of town, I hadn’t gotten to help all that much, but Boy and I (and his dad) are almost done with the deck. We are ready to start adding the deckboards (some are just laying there for now, uncut). We still will have to buy railings (I want the metal kind, and I might have finally won that debate!), and make the steps, but it will at least be usable quite soon if the weather and busy weekend activities would simply cooperate! People often ask what the tape is for (the black covering on the boards) – with the gaps between deck boards, dirt accumulates on the joists. That holds moisture, which rots the wood. The tape prevents that from happening to the wood you can’t easily replace. 

In other news, I travelled to San Diego with my sister-in-law for conference she was attending and we stayed with a family friend. Upon arrival, we toured around a few places in the car so I could get a sense of the area. On the first full day, Monday, I wandered around downtown San Diego alone and then met back up with SIL to visit Old Town. On the second, I went to the San Diego Zoo with my long lost friend Keith who scored us free tickets thanks to his generous brother. On Wednesday, SIL decided to ditch the conference and we beach hopped up to Newport Beach to meet up with our friend’s son for dinner. On Thursday, SIL convinced me somehow to go to Disneyland. Mixed feelings overall about that, but we had a good time. And Friday we relaxed before boarding the plane again. 

In other-other news, a friend and I journeyed to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. We got free tickets due to #2016FaceGate (a gate fell on me last time I was there; long story). I didn’t buy much, but I picked up a buffalo bone pin as a tip for Moonie (one of my favorite entertainers) that reads “Don’t Screw Up!”  and grabbed a little nail sword crafted by a blacksmith for my husband. Huzzah!

Back to crafting news: I decided to join Kathy Shawkl‘s Beginner Crazy Quilt Class (aka BCQC). She came recommended by my embroidery guild friend – who has also been gifting me some really cool materials. You’ll see them mentioned in future posts, I am sure:D Anyway, the class just began this week so I have nothing to share on that front, yet.

And I am so behind on TAST, but I haven’t cancelled my plans. It is just taking me a while to get back into a rhythm. I hope to sort that out shortly! I had some overhanging commitments to other anthropology projects that I recently wrapped up (or at least wrapped up the first portion), so I hope to be back into a creative rhythm sooner rather than later. It will help that many of the stitches I missed were included in my previous pennants so I don’t need to worry about those again. Phew!

All this to say, I should be back to posting WIP Wednesdays again. I hope. 😀