The Great {Dead} Possum Battle of 2008

]This is the most disgusting thing ever, and I'm simply dumbfounded by it.

A couple Saturdays ago, I went to the store. In the middle of the alley was this large, furry dead possum. It was big. I made a mental note to call the village hall on Monday (closed on saturday and sunday) to let them know and get someone out here to take care of it.

That Monday morning, I noticed that the possum was gone. Or so I thought. Tuesday, while driving by one of the driveways on the alley, I saw the dead possum in the driveway. Um, ok. I didn't think anything of it, except to shake my head, because now that it was on private property, the town won't do anything about it.

A week goes by. The possum is getting pretty disgusting. I make a point of turning my head away so that I don't see it.

Yesterday morning, I turn my head, and what do I see? Dead possum, THE dead possum, in this other neighbor's driveway. It is barely recognizable as a possum anymore. Ew.

My kitchen window looks down the alley, so while I'm washing dishes, I'm also watching who is coming and going, lol. Today, I watch the guy with the possum in his driveway come home, pull into his driveway, go into his garage, grab a shovel, and then toss the barely recognizable (and still very dead) possum across the alley.

Seriously? Would it have been so hard to just call the village hall in the first place?

I have to admit that part of me is laughing. These people are arguing over a dead possum. *sigh*

I have a new kit coming out this week. Here's a quick, up close and personal peek at it:

It has glitter, acrylic, and rusted elements. It debuts on Thursday, I'll post then with the full size image.

I Have A Confession To Make

I am a serial projecter starter (or would that be habitual project abandoner?).

I was just trying to figure out how many knit projects I've finished since I taught myself to knit back in November. Since then, I have finished...

1. a pair of socks
2. an iPod cozy
3. a rolled brim hat for me
4. a cabled hat for me
5. and a hat for my niece.

So, five knit items, total. Right now I have two pairs of socks, a hat for Mike, that scrubby, and an apron on the needles. I spent some time tonight looking at more sock patterns, and filling my queue with more patterns at Ravelry.

It's not just knitting, either. I spent some time this afternoon reorganizing my scrap stuff. I had about 10 kit folders in my designer folder, and when I moved the stuff that I'm not really feeling right now, I was left with one kit (the one that I previewed last week). It's sad when your 'incomplete, might never be complete' folder has more folders than your 'completed and uploaded' folder.

About the only thing that I can finish is a layout, lol.

So, I have decided that I'm going to finish what I have in progress, or at least do something with the papers that I've made for those kits that I haven't finished. I giving myself until April 25th (my birthday) to finish or frog the knit projects that I have going. I resolve to not start something new (even when my Smooshy yarn gets here) until I have finished my Noro and Trekking socks.

As for the scrap stuff, I'm thinking that I should just package that stuff up and make a new freebie. I'm not releasing anything this week (too lazy today), but look for it next week. Oh, and be sure to stop by and visit on the 29th, because I have a nice, big surprise.

Cody lost another tooth last night. He no longer believes in the tooth fairy, which is kinda depressing. Two lost teeth ago, I screwed up. Big time. He lost the tooth, showed it to me, put it up, and then hid it, when I wasn't looking. I did the unthinkable.

I forgot. The next morning, he was in tears. When I asked him why, he told me that the tooth fairy, who used to leave dollar bills folded into various shapes, left him a PENNY. Apparently, when he hid the tooth, he hid it near a penny without realizing it. He was so broken up and depressed over it, I just had to tell him the truth. As soon as he heard that the tooth fairy was really mommy and daddy, he perked right up. But we have a deal. He will continue to get money for his lost teeth, because to stop now could ruin it for his brothers. But now, he is in on the secret and has fun with it.

And so far, he's been good about keeping it a secret.

The boys start spring break on Friday. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to their week long break because it means that I get to sleep in? I've been so tired lately, and right now, it's only a quarter after 7 and I'm ready to head for bed. And before anyone says it, NO I'm not pregnant, lol. This is entirely my fault, I'm tired because I can't seem to get into bed before midnight lately (which you think would be easy, since I'm so freaking tired all the time!). I'm hoping to get my sleep schedule turned around this week. It was nice at the beginning of the year, when I could get up at 6am and could take my time getting the boys ready for school in the morning.

Chicks With Sticks And Other Assorted Goodies

I haven't been around in wow, almost a year. Sorry about that. I've been trying to think over everything that I've done in the last year, and why is it that I know that I've been busy, but nothing important is coming to mind? Which leads me to...

Life, Among Other Things

Let's see, in a nutshell, the hubs has been promoted, the youngest started preschool, the middle one started kindergarten, and the oldest has discovered the wonders of XBOX and TONY HAWK. In fact, if I would let him, he would probably change his name to Tony Hawk Jr.

Mike's computer crashed multiple times, I lost everything once, and now I have my very own laptop that he's not allowed to touch.

My sister is moving to Texas, which means that my nephew is going to grow up with an adorable Texan accent. And he's going to think that his Aunt T has a funny Chicago accent (although I don't say 'da bears', lol).

My New Found Love

I taught myself to knit. Which is what I've been doing obsessively for the last few months. Right now, I'm working on a pair of socks using Noro yarn and an apron using some cheap yarn that I bought awhile back. I'm dying to finish the socks, because I need those needles in order to work on yet another pair that I've already purchased the yarn for. *sigh*

Digital Scrapbooking Stuff

And now, a preview of my latest kit...

I love how this kit turned out. To tell the truth, it shouldn't even be a kit, lol. I started out with this idea for a journaling box element pack, designed some papers to use for the journaling blocks, loved them, and just went on from there. I haven't had a lot of luck with designing kits lately, and have been sticking to what I like best (papers and elements sold separately).

This kit will be released tomorrow, 3/13, over at TDC.

*Edited 3/14: The kit has been released, and it can be found here!

What's even funnier about this whole kit thing is that I have yet another kit in the works, this one inspired by one of Cody's... oops, I mean Tony Hawk Jr's latest obsessions. I can't show you all of it, mostly because all of it doesn't exist yet, but I can give you a little taste of the kit...


Just a little preview, don't want to give away too much... In case you haven't figured it out, these are close ups of the five patterned papers that will be included in the kit. So far, there's those papers, plus six solids. And a lot of ideas, lol.

I've been working on layouts, too. I'm loving the realistic scanned look right now, and I'm always on the look out for designers with great stuff, because I'm terrible at extracting. Not to mention, I hate it with a passion. Especially since my Wacom died and I'm using a touchpad on my laptop right now.

I did make a score while cleaning out my dad's office awhile back. A few years back, my grandfather had issues with printers. He bought this all in one printer, and couldn't get it to work. He had thrown out the box, and couldn't return it, so bought a new one. I found it in a corner in my dad's office, and brought it home. It's really old, and I'm not even sure if I can find ink for it, but- the scanner works. With Vista, even. Not good enough for scanning items, but it works great for scanning doodles and such.

Tales From The Trenches

Also known as: What Fun Boys Can Be.

Cody was home 'sick' today (silly rule about being fever free for 24 hours before they'll allow him back in school), and he was bored. This afternoon, when I went to pick Dylan up from school, he decided to have a little fun. I came home to find a package, addressed to me, from an online yarn shop. First, I thought 'but that yarn came last week, and I haven't ordered anything else since then...' Then, I thought 'maybe they messed up, and sent me more yarn.' (I will admit to getting my hopes up on this one, even if it meant my having to pay for the mis-sent yarn.) Then I opened the package...

Inside, nestled among packing peanuts, was a Nerf dart gun.

Then it hit me. That box didn't come in the mail today, it came last week, holding the yarn that I had ordered. Yarn that was protected during shipping by packing peanuts. I'm a packrat when it comes to boxes. Love them, you never know when you might need on. So when this box first arrived, I placed it on a shelf in my kitchen, and forgot about it. Cody found it today, packed his brother's dart gun in it, taped it up, and set it on the front porch.

I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed, but then I realized what it really meant. Cody knows that I love it when a package arrives at our house, and he decided that I needed some cheering up. But ya know what?

He should have rethought that dart gun idea, because Mommy is a crack shot with the dart gun.