8 Things Friday

1. I really want to tag all my posts, and the longer I wait to do so, the more blog posts there are to tag. This is post #131, so it will not be a task lightly undertaken. I have Thursday and Friday off of work next week, so maybe I can get the majority of it done then, a little at a time.

Any ideas for blog tags? Should I be very general, like "crafts" for anything crafty, or more specific like "knitting," "sewing," "papercrafts"? Just "food," or "cooking," "baking," and "drinks"? And of course all the 8 Things Friday posts will be tagged as such.

2. As some of you may have seen from my Facebook updates yesterday and today, I dropped my computer off where I got it to get the last bit of good from my protection plan before it expires. I ordered a new laptop battery since the current one lasts all of about 5 minutes before the "OHMYGOSH YOUR BATTERY IS LOW! DOOOOM!" message pops up. I also got everything "optimized," so I have the latest Windows updates and everything that doesn't need to be here and running is gone. Yay!

3. Sewing, finally!





This is a halter dress of my own devising--no pattern! I've had it rolling around in my head since the weather started getting nice, and since I re-found the sheet (from Goodwill) I intended to sew with, I thought why not go for it? It's fully lined with another sheet, plain white. If I make this again, which I'd like to, I'll make the bust triangles narrower at the top, and not so long, so there's more string around the neck instead of fabric. I'll also make them overlap a little more nicely, since you can see a sort of corner on the top one, which I didn't intend to happen.

The bust pieces are slightly gathered onto the waistband, as is the skirt piece. The rest of the skirt piece has drawstrings through either side which allow me to get into the dress without anything complicated like a zipper (yuck). Ties at the neck and across the back, too, huzzah for bias tape! I like that this shows off a little of my cherry blossom tattoo, and the tip of my quill pen. :)

I like the dress at this length, but I'm thinking of chopping the bottom 6" off and putting a 6" long ruffle on. Maybe a bubble ruffle? Is that the term? Like bubble skirts, where the fabric is folded in half so the fold "bubbles" out a little, but just at the bottom. I saw it on the hem of one of Rory Gilmore's dresses and liked it.

4. We're getting rid of our old entertainment center (actually given to us by friends when they moved) since we got a new, smaller one, and wall-mounted our TV. Would anyone like it?



Sorry about the mess, ignore it! This was in the middle of moving everything from that one to the new one. And there IS a drawer that goes in the space where I drew a really crummy-looking drawer, we just had something else in that spot so it looked empty and weird.

Dimensions: 62" wide, 55" high, and 19.5" deep at the most. The inside, where the TV would go, is 38" by 29". If you know of anyone that would like it, let me know and you can come pick it up!

5. I spent what felt like all stupid day at the stupid mall on my day off Tuesday. (It just feels like I LIVE there, since Matt and I both work there, and that's really the only place to shop for a lot of things here.) I had lunch with Matt, went to pick up the entertainment center we ordered, found out it wouldn't fit in my car, called Matt to have him get it on his way home, went back to the mall on a purse quest... UGH, purse-shopping! I'm reeeeally picky about purses, and I went everywhere in the mall where purses (which I could afford) were sold. Didn't find anything PERFECT, but I did find:



How much did all of this cost me, you ask?





(I just want you to know that I will not wear the footless and stirrup tights as such. Ew. I wear those like normal tights, but with socks and boots so you can't tell they're footless/stirrup. I just liked the colours. The bottom two are thicker and cabled, and will be so yummy this winter!)

Heck yeah! :D I'm thinking of going back to get the black purse that looks just like the pink and brown ones. The littler pouch is currently inside the brown one, which has a big fabric flower brooch (which I made) pinned on it. I think I need to make more brooches to put on those purses.

6. I can't believe I didn't post a picture of the award-winning brownies from the company picnic!



When I see Nicol tomorrow at work, I'll get my gift card to the movie theater from her. :) I think we'll use it to see the new X-Men movie next Friday. (Mmm, Hugh Jackman.) (Fangirly aside: Squeeeee! They're doing Magneto in 2011!!)

7. *Sigh* I'm getting a little more behind in my "Do It Now" thing with the house, despite having Tuesday and Thursday off. I was either running around, or sitting and watching Gilmore Girls on DVD. And now that I'm behind, it will take more effort to get back to where I was, having a sink empty of dirty dishes, and a clean coffee table and so on. Bleh. Stupid cleaning. And I don't have another day off til Thursday, so I'm afraid for the state of this house. I'm doing inventory at work from 8pm to 2am on Sunday night, so maybe during the day I can catch up a little (and then take a good nap!)

I did, however, clean off the sewing table and chair in order to make that dress on Thursday, so that's something, right? And I did laundry and ran the dishwasher and emptied it. Gotta focus on the positive.

8. I've thought of at least three things to write about here in the last few minutes as I ran around doing a couple of things (it usually takes me an hour and a half, at least, to do an 8 Things Friday post) but I can't remember any of them right now! I'll leave you with a photo from my Flickr favorites, which I might start doing now and then. Maybe every 8 Things post. Here is SouleMama's youngest, a couple months ago. :)