The Weekend Update

I suffered my first crafting injury on Friday night:

I was making a little card keeper thing, and trying to hammer on a snap using this thingy. Obviously, that didn't quite go as planned... Now the blood blister just looks very dark under the skin, and I keep trying to lick what I think is chocolate off my finger. That was too much information, huh? Well, it's going to happen again during this post, so consider yourselves warned...


I finished up my Winter Foxes handbag...but have since discovered I apparently have no idea how to properly attach magnetic snaps and need to un-sew my lining so I can place the snap washer BEHIND the fabric (shoulda asked my mechanically-inclined hubby when doing this step if it looked right to him). Which means I've screwed up more than one magnetic snap... *grr*

The bag was difficult to put together - the mini-cord lining/side fabric coupled with Pellon 987F fleece and some DecorBond make for some thick layers (I even bent a denim needle!). But other than the snap issue, I'm really diggin' this bag...it's cute! And my handles are super sturdy - one of these days, I'm going to do a tutorial on making bag straps, because I really like how hefty and professional-looking they turn out, and I haven't seen a tutorial that provides the same level of heft. I just need to make another bag with straps, so I can do the photos for the steps.


After a whirlwind Saturday morning finishing and packaging up some birthday presents (SIL Kristina and step-mom Donna) and just-because presents (for 2 of my fav baby girls Jacqueline & Leah), we headed out...

for Donna

For my girl Jacqueline

I made Steve go with me up to Echo Park, to the BUST Holiday Craftacular. His efforts were rewarded by the sight of hundreds of people dressed up as Santa, riding bikes and singing on a school bus - only in LA! The craftacular was OK; I didn't end up buying anything, but the stuff was way better than the Redondo Beach craft fair a couple of weeks ago (that was just old ladies selling stuff like doilies that doesn't really appeal to anyone in my age range, although I appreciate the effort)...but there weren't that many different vendors (maybe 20), so that was sort of disappointing. But I think this was the first year in LA... The other random thing was that this was held in what probably turned into a nightclub later that night... My fav vendor was I Heart Guts; completely unique, I liked the "I'm a Liver, not a Fighter" tees! And speaking of...I guess I Heart Guts will also be participating next weekend in Unique Los Angeles - maybe I'll go check this one out too, hopefully sans Steve (I feel bad torturing him!).



We hung out with Gabe on Saturday, sans Joelle (in DC for work), as Steve is busy learning all things xbox and Media Center. He also was transferring some DVDs to the new TB drive. As of last night, we (and by we, I mean Steve) figured out the best way to get the connection to the main router is to use good old fashioned CAT5 cable (of which we have hundreds of feet, so definitely didn't need to go to a store to get some of that). We just couldn't get the wireless to work at a speed necessary to stream to the xbox. But we were able to stream Kung Fu Panda from the TB drive in the other room, and watch it last night - good times. Steve will be drilling a hole thru the wall next weekend, so he can feed the CAT5 thru the wall to the spare bedroom/office where the router is housed. I am cringing already, as would my landlord if he knew we were putting more holes in the walls. We are going to have to buy a gallon of spackle to repair those holes when we (eventually) move out!


We also put up the Christmas decorations - we don't actually have as much as I remember, but it's still quite a bit for a small apartment with very little storage space. I think I'm going to do a separate post on the random ornaments that decorate our tree - it's very "scrappy" with no cohesive theme. But my tree skirt looks awesome underneath the fake tree! And hopefully it will hold up to repeated washings from the cat barfing on it (keepin' it real here, folks!).