Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Bags Bags Everywhere?

So, I'm crocheting the bag made out of primarily Wal-mart bags that I mentioned in a previous post. Unbelievably, I run out of blue & white bags. Nothing is like the feeling of running out of materials near the end of a project. Ugh! You would think that with all the plastic bags floating around my house, I would never run out... Now, I need to either buy crap at Wal-mart, or dive through the recyclables at the grocery store. Ok, so going to Wal-mart wouldn't be a horrible thing. I need to pick up Lunchables and milk anyway.

Then, I start crocheting a bag out of Giant bags - same thing happens! Double ugh! Now I have two projects sitting unfinished until I can "dumpster" dive into recycle bins.

I'm on the wrong side of "bag mania". I have hundreds of bags, and I run out? How is this possible? How is this possible? How is this possible? But I digress...
On the bright side, I am so excited about the bags so far! They are a couple of my best ones -- I'm loving how they are looking! I hope everyone else does, too.
















Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The "X" Mom

So, as we're driving home after picking the boys up from school, the conversation ventured into the land of superheroes. My 7 year old says: "Mom is a superhero." And so it starts...


11 year old: "Mom's not a superhero."
7 year old: "Uh huh! Mom can see through walls!"
11 year old: "No, she can't!"
7 year old: "She's got x-ray vision."
Daddy: "Yeah, she's got eyes in the back of her head."
7 year old: "NO, she's got x-ray vision! I was trying to sneak a snack, and she was in her room, and she caught me. And, darn, I almost got that snack!"



It's so nice to be in the company of Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Captain Underpants, but the closest thing I have to being a superhero is a poor excuse for the Lasso of Truth (a long piece of plarn) and a studded belt from 1985. And, frankly, I couldn't even pass for Iron Man's mate, unless holding an actual iron counted.

I suppose if I had to choose a name or superhero persona I'd call myself "Tide" -- not because I can control the ocean, but because I use so damn much detergent.

It'll be sad when the little guy figures out that I don't really have superhero powers, but for the time being, I'll use it to my advantage.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Action Hero

So, yesterday I'm sitting at the computer tooling around on the Artfire forums and looking at some studios before my guests arrive. My husband is looking for a plastic bag to put something in and gets frustrated because he apparently cannot find one bag to use in a houseful of plastic bags. He starts mumbling something, and I hear him say something about Wal-mart bags.


Cut to slow motion scene in an action film:

The heroine (that would be me) screams at the offender while lunging to protect precious cargo - NOOOOOOO, NOT THOSE BAGS!


Disaster averted! He was reaching for the stash that I'm making a new beach bag out of (yes, I ended the sentence in a preposition). A bag that is half done and every blue & white bag in the house will be needed to finish it. He huffs away as I chase him to the pantry to show him the bags he can use -- sheesh! Frankly, he says that the last time he saw me move that fast a mouse was involved.


And so is life in my house. There are mommy's "good" bags, and the "ok to use" bags.

As the little shrimp in Finding Nemo said -- "True story."

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Crochet Injury?

So, here I am, writing my first blog post, and I'm on the injured list. Don't laugh, but I'm actually suffering from a crochet injury (confirmed by the doc)! Whoda thunk it? While trying to supply a number of plarn (plastic yarn) baskets to my strategic business partner - Truly Life - I crocheted a basket too tight and wound up on the bench for a couple of weeks recuperating. Fortunately, it's gotten better slowly (with the help of Tylenol with Codeine and my handy dandy heating pad). I've now had ample time to think of new designs and make quite a bit of plarn for those new designs.

Here are some things I've learned about making plarn:

1. People save their bags for you. A LOT of bags. Recently, my brother gave me three huge garbage bags full of grocery bags. I keep wondering if I'll ever get through them all.

2. Your house becomes Bag Central. No matter how much I sweep or clean, I keep finding little pieces of plastic bag on the floor.

3. You become a "bag lady". My local Giant grocery store loves what I do with their bags and will let me rummage through their recyclables. You should see the looks on the faces of their other customers. Fortunately, I do not embarrass easily.

4. The kids thought it was really cool to help... at first. Then the glamour wore off, and they're content to watch me fold, cut, put together and roll into a ball -- if they pay any attention at all.

5. It's really annoying to the hubby when I make plarn while we're watching tv in bed. It can be noisy. Fortunately, he's now been "plarn trained" and all I have to do is throw the end to him, and he'll start rolling it into ball. He's become quite good at it, too.

6. If you're not paying attention, you can wind up with a ball of plarn as big as a basketball.

Oh, there goes another piece of plastic scurrying across the floor! Gotta run for now.
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