Hi all!  I’ve been called out twice recently for being a blogging slacker (slacking blogger?), so I thought I’d post some stuff.  I don’t have cute babies to show off like Shannon does, but… I do have pictures and videos! 

At sydnieann.shutterfly.com, you can see pictures of the McConnell family reunion camping trip.  Yes, there are lots of pictures of the toy-chasing-cattle-dog.  But I really did edit before I uploaded these!  I was trying to get some good shots of her leaping to catch the toy – thank goodness for digital – I can take thousands of pics and only show off 10 or so.  There’s also an album of Kylah’s recent visit to Greeley – I didn’t edit these, even the picture of me after having my hair done by Miss Kylah – so you get the full glory of kids, pups, and trampolines.  Hopefully I can have the same fun with Rhiannon & Allison before the end of the summer!

And at YouTube, you can see videos of the camping trip.  Yes, more kids & dogs.  And a campfire video, so that Kelly can prove to everyone what a great campfire builder she is.  There are a couple of videos with little dogs barking… when I was going through these the other night, Lady (the super smart St. Bernard) had a fit trying to figure out where they were… and barking back at them… her hair even stood up…  Grover and Tillie just kept sleeping on my shoes, though.

The Schnauzers were a bit camera shy!  How would they know to run and hide whenever I had the camera out?!  They are such cute boys! 

Courtesy of a very patient St. Bernard and a computer guy with super smart photo mash-up skills and an affection for big goofy pups.

Here are lots more pup pics – one album from when my folks and Reggie came to visit, and one album of Lady patiently wearing dollar store aviator shades. 

Cause 10 is damn near NASCAR, and 7.5 just seemed silly.

So, the other night, I left BIG BOX GIANT SUPERSTORE, went to my car, and found that someone left their (empty) shopping cart parked directly behind my trunk.  I’m pretty sure they weren’t leaving it there to be considerate to me, considering that since my car was already parked and empty, I was already inside the store, and had no need for their empty cart.  I thought to myself, “Huh.  50 feet or so from the store entrance (I had a really good parking spot!), and 50 feet or so from the nearest cart corral.  Is it really THAT tough for someone who just walked .68 miles inside the store to pick up toothpaste & toilet paper to actually walk their cart to a more appropriate parking spot?”  I tried it myself, and found that, NO, it really isn’t that difficult.  More people should try it.

On a happier note, last night after leaving NOT QUITE SO BIG GROCERY STORE and unloading my cart, a very nice gentleman (who did not work there!) took my cart with him into the store (especially nice, since that particular store inexplicably does not have cart corrals in the lot)!!  Thank you, nice gentleman!

Here’s more from my crafty, non-outdoorsy trip to Snowmass.  The blue jungle-y fabric had been in my stash forever, and I think I got the green lining fabric off the $1 rack at Wal-Mart.  (I had boycotted them for YEARS after them pissing me off one too many times, but now I’ll go there for cheap fabric – I don’t feel nearly as badly about screwing up $1/yard projects as I would by screwing up $7.50/yard projects!)  Unfortunately, I ran out of blue jungle-y stuff, and had to make the second handle out of green, but I think I like it that way!  I think I’ll use this bag for library books or magazines or something of the sort, with a pocket for gum or Chapstick.

Here’s another  jewelry project I did a couple of weeks ago.  I had the enormous crate full of beading stuff out for a special request from Tina, and figured that as long as it was all out, and strewn across the dining room table, I might as well freshen up my own jewelry collection.  I’m wearing this today with a turquoise/white geometric print wrap dress – the print is much LOUDER than I’m usually comfortable with, but I love the dress – very spring/summery, and super comfortable!  I somehow managed to lose the necklace that I used to wear with it, so I made a replacement, along with another heart-clasp bracelet. 

I spent last weekend in Snowmass Village, at Tina’s uncle’s house, where he’d invited Tina & her son & her nephew to come up & do some golfing for a few days.  Given my golf game on a normal day (BAD!!), I don’t ever golf with these people – they all play well, and play for money, and my game is SO not pretty.  Last year when I went with them, I took my bike, and biked down the ski hills for a couple of days.  This year, though, with my lousy knees (whine!), I couldn’t do much of that.  So, I decided to go the crafty route to entertain myself while the rest of the crew was hitting balls and losing cash.

I took the Featherweight, a whole big stash of fabric & notions, and this book (thank you!).  It’s loaded with fun and easy projects to work on.  I completely couldn’t resist this project, simply because they were SO CUTE! – fortunately, one friend from work is about to have a new baby boy, and another has a new baby nephew, so I had a good excuse for making tiny stuff.

They are all cotton on the front, and flannel on the back (some cuter flannel than others!).  Not only were they super cute and super fun to make, they were also EASY!  I only really screwed up one of them – which for me, is QUITE a major accomplishment.

OK, I’m back again.  I’m such a big slacker – I’m always thinking of stuff to post, and then never posting it.  So, we’ll start fresh, here on July 20, with a craft project and an observation!

Here’s what I’m wearing today.  I got the jade beads in Chinatown in Toronto.  I don’t usually do a whole lot of bracelets, and I made this one a tiny bit big for me, but I like it!  I also tend to stay away from anything with hearts, but I had these clasps in my stash of stuff for some reason, so I thought I’d use them.  I had a very busy beading weekend a couple of weeks ago, and managed to refresh my jewelry collection, so you’ll probably see more pics over the next several days.

On another note… we all went to the Greeley Independence Stampede Independence Day Parade Extravaganza (not the official title) a couple of weeks ago.  The theme for this year’s Stampede was “Buckle Up!”  A clever reference to both safety and rodeo cowboys and their shiny buckles.  I am terribly disappointed that I didn’t get a picture of this wonderful exemplification of the “Buckle Up!” theme – a woman riding in a semi truck, emblazoned with the parade theme… with an INFANT bouncing along on her lap.  Brilliant.

I just bought myself a new toy – a state tax refund/early birthday present toy.  I’ve been obsessing about getting a serger/overlock sewing machine for myself, and finally decided to just go for it.  Here’s what I got!  I was actually all set to by a Kenmore from Sears – they had one on display, for a good price, and I LOVE my 30-some-year-old Kenmore sewing machine.  However… when I went to buy it, they told me they don’t actually sell that model anymore.  I’m not entirely sure why it’s still on display, but… whatever.  They supposedly had two of the “new-and-improved” replacement model for the display… but couldn’t find them.

So… I headed off to do more research.  However, I did need to buy some buttons – off to JoAnn, where they happened to have some NEW machines in stock – better and, of course, pricier, than the ones they’d had a couple of weeks earlier.  I asked a couple of questions of one of the (normally not very friendly!) saleswomen.  Wow!  She was enthusiastic.  She has the same model, and LOVES it, and told me all about how wonderful it is, and how easy it was to use, and how she uses it for everything, and how if I bought it and had any problems, she’d come over and help me, and she knew I would just LOVE it…  Well!  You can’t turn down that kind of enthusiasm, can you?!  So, I came home with a new toy. 

So far, I’ve played around with it a little on scrap fabric, and then I made a super cute skirt out of some gorgeous fabric I got on clearance.  I’ll post pictures as soon as I come up with a flattering one.  (Ha ha, we’ll see if that ever happens!)  The coolest thing was how insanely quickly I was able to put it together!!  I can’t wait to make more.

http://www.sportsline.com/spin/story/10177232

This is fun!  It’s a contest for the most dominant college sports mascot.  My Cowboys have done astonishingly well so far!!  By the time I heard about it, we were about to win the semi-final round of the “Humans” region.  They’re now in the final round, against the Michigan State Spartans, and they are WAY behind!  Vote, people!  I mean, please.  Do we really think that a little Spartan is more dominant than a COWBOY?