Happy Valentine's Day!

Not sure what we're up to for V-Day.  Knowing us, we'll have some food delivered, kick back and relax. Which, by the way, is totally fine with me.  If we go out to eat, that's fine too.

I really dislike seeing Valentines Day commercials that guilt trip men into making sure they remember with chocolates, cards and flowers.  There's a Russell Stover's Candy commercial where they are talking to husbands who are all, 'Oh man if I don't bring candy home on Valentine's Day, I'll be sleeping on the couch!' Ugh.  And the jewelry commercials peddling crap quality diamonds under the name 'chocolate diamonds'. We were bombarded with them in the week or so leading up to today.  Russell turned to me and asked, 'What would you like for Valentines Day?'  I said, 'You home safe.'  I don't require flowers that are gonna die and chocolates I shouldn't be eating.  

Just a couple Bitstrips I made recently.

I screen capped this off my Facebook because what Russell commented made me cry.  Third from the bottom.  I'm a lucky lady, indeed.  My status was about my swiping one of his sweatshirts and making it mine.  The fact that he has absolutely no problem stating exactly how he feels about me for all the world to see is mind blowing.  The fact that he feels that way about me is mind blowing!!!!!

Really....he's all I want or need for Valentines Day...or any other day!!!!!

Build A Bear

My stepdaughter and I went to the Build A Bear store at the Independence Mall in Kingston.  Neither of us had ever done one, although years ago I went to a teddy bear factory to make a bear in San Francisco, but it was a factory in the industrial part of town, not a gaily lit store in a shopping mall.  Just for grins I googled the Basic Brown Bear Factory in SF and apparently they sued Build A Bear for copyright infringement.  So there you go.

I didn't take pics of the store or the process; I wasn't sure if that was allowed.  But you go in and there are bins of unstuffed and ADORABLE animals.  I could spend so much money making toys.  After you pick your animal, you can have things like a scent chip put inside, and even a heart that beats when the toy is hugged.  Those are extra.  We didn't get them.  But you do get a heart that you pick out from a couple of designs.  You are then instructed to kiss the heart, hold it to your own heart, then to your head to make a wish for your new pet.  Then the lady told us to kiss each other's heart too, I think for good luck and love.  The heart is placed inside, along with a tracking number so if your toy is lost, it can be scanned and the owner found!  Then she places the toy over a nozzle and you step on a pedal and the stuffing goes inside.  After it's stuffed, it's sewn shut.  Next you take it over to the 'grooming' station where you step on a pedal and hold the toys under what looks like a shower nozzle but it blows air and you use brushes to fluff their fur all nice.  

After that, you shop for clothes and accessories and Oh. My. God.  The cutest outfits ever.  After you've chosen the clothes, you go to the computer to make the official Birth Certificate, then the toy is placed into a box house, which can also be coloured.  

I named my bear Russell, of course.

I couldn't resist getting the little monster on the left; he was already stuffed.  I named him Iggy, and that's Russell Bear.  I had a totally different outfit on him then I spied the denim shirt and beige pants set which is how my Russell dresses.  AREN'T THEY ADORABLE?!?!  Totes Adorbs, as the kids say these days. Totes M'goats, even.

This is Val's bear, Edmund, or 'Mundy'.  She did a great job of accessorizing him too!

Lookit the ickle sneakers!!!!  SQUEEEEEE!

I cannot recommend this enough.  Can it be pricey?  Yes, but it's worth every penny.

Housebound and Makin' Stuff

Since it's snowing like, every other day almost, I've been making lots of stuff.  Been wanting to make necklaces for those pendants for awhile.  The Chinese Horoscope characters are Dragon and Tiger.  And also a bracelet from some of those awesome Czech beads that Joe brought back from Prague.

Bigger pic of the necklaces.  The blue morpho wing pendant (far left) just didn't look good with anything other than liquid silver.  And I also didn't want any beads distracting from the pendant cause it's soooo pretty.

Couple bracelets for Kris; the one on the right has the Notre Dame colours.

This ice crystal was really shining on some snow outside so I boosted the contrast on the pic on the computer and that brought out a bunch of rainbows in the snow.

A fresh coating of snow is always really pretty as long as it's just a couple inches.  I put this on the hood of my car and then got the brain storm to spray coloured water all over it.  

This was just before the Superbowl so I did the Hawks' colours and 12th man on the back of the car.  

Mary was in from Idaho so I made this for her.

Hanging thing...I guess for a window or whatever.

Window crystals.  

Craft kit of the month project: painting techniques.  I had to use my own paint cause the stuff that came in the kit was dry, and a really yucky shade of midnight blue.  Dots are time consuming and can be really hard to make the right size.

Melted some of those plastic three sided beads.  I used to call them tri-beads when I was a kid.  It took a long to time arrange them around the bottom of the pie pan and I must've bumped the pan when I put it in the oven because that one side came out all wonky.

Suncatcher with green, light blue, dark blue and purple Makit Bakit crystals.

This was shot looking through the above, at my light.

The day of the Superbowl, I had potato skins with cheese, turkey bacon & scallions and a Jones cream soda.  When I got the potato, the bin sign said, 'Idaho'.  Jones Soda is bottled in Seattle but is a product of BC, so I had a Pacific Northwest themed snack.  

And then I had to do this to the bottle afterwards with Hawks' colour glitter & rhinestones.

Finally, I started this cross stitch during the game and took about a week, off and on, to finish. 

Ice Chunks in the Canal

This was a novelty to me, seeing a bunch of ice chunks flowing through the Canal from the Bay.  These pics aren't very good because it was high tide and most of the ice was closer to the other side.

Photo Experiment

I don't know if this is a real photograph or created by someone but I just love it.  It was going around in December labeled as 'Winter Solstice'.  I wondered if a person could actually get a shot like this in real life.

I was doing the dishes late one afternoon and looked out the kitchen window and saw the sun setting.  This was the day of the snowstorm.  Still a little too bright though.

This was the next day....the snow had melted off the trees but it was a little darker out.  I'd still like to work on getting this shot but I will only be able to get it in January and have to hope that there's snow!

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A Walk to Town on a Snowy Day

Suffering from cabin fever, I walked into town 2 days after 1/21 blizzard.  It was damn cold as I started out but at least the wind wasn't blowing for a change.  

The bridge has been literally down for maintenance so no ship traffic was able to use the Canal.  Nor were the trains able to use it.  So alas, a pic of the bridge down but once again, no train.  I'm beginning to think it's a conspiracy!

I probably should have waited till the snow was clear because only a few businesses bothered doing their sidewalks, so I had to walk in the street.

Snow on a reflector.

A fresh canvas for some high school-esque graffiti....

Then when I got home, I couldn't resist a couple snaps of the fuzzbutts.

That's Right Bitches!!!!!!!!

Best. Superbowl. Ever.  

GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To say that I'm excited about the Seattle Seahawks making their second Superbowl appearance in their history is an understatement.  The last time was in 2006 and they lost to the Steelers due to really bad refereeing.  This time they are playing the Denver Broncos and I really, truly hope Seattle wins!!!  

A 'seahawk' is an osprey and the logo design is in the NW Native/First Nations art style.

Lookey what my dear friend Rhonda sent me, via Federal Express!!!  It arrived yesterday!  I had a Seahawks tshirt but I don't know what happened to it in the move.  Now I have a new one to wear today!

12th Man flag on top of the Space Needle! (for non-football fans, the 12th Man represents the fans;  there are 11 men on the team, 12 counting the crowd).  

CenturyLink Field is the loudest stadium in the NFL and it was built to maximize crowd noise. The decibel level is off the charts and has the potential of doing real auditory damage. Some of the visiting teams have started to wear specially made earplugs.  I think the fans recently made the Guiness Book of World Records for crowd noise.  The Hawks used to play in the old King Dome that was imploded in 2000.  

There has also been fan-caused seismic shaking which is picked up by all the local Richter scales. Think about that.  The fans are causing earthquakes.  HERE is a link to a story about UW scientists studying these fan quakes during the playoff game against New Orleans in early January. They are calling them 'Beast Quakes' because they seem to happen when Marchawn "The Beast" Lynch makes a killer play.    

Too bad the Superbowl is being held at Giants Stadium in northern New Jersey instead of Seattle!  

This is especially funny.  I mean really, what are the odds???  

So yeah, I'm hoping so much that they win.  Almost the whole country is rooting for Denver, making the Hawks real underdogs.

I may treat myself to this little beauty, if they win.  Although it's too pretty to really leave out in my yard in the elements!

GO HAWKS!