It has been too long since I’ve been here and I just have way too much content slewing around in my brain trying to gush out in a not-so-becoming-manner.  How to even start…  What about a quick and to the point summation like maybe a bulleted list?

So dear blog readers, it has been 66 days since I have last blogged. In that time I have:

• read 3 books. My favorite was The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Murial Barbery.
• driven more carpools than I can count.
• scrapbooked 24 pages.
• completed knitting at least 3 items.
• reached a thousand hearts on Etsy.
• logged at least 99 hours on Facebook.
• started a Facebook Fan page for Spincerely yours.
• started a mailing list for Spincerely yours.
• met with 12 teachers during parent/teacher conferences.
• not yet seen New Moon.
• presented my first library program (yarn construction).
• seen a play (Avenue Q) with my husband for our 19th anniversary.
• had 3 children and a husband home sick for a week with the flu.
• cheered-on  my daughter through her never-ending field hockey season.
• watched a few disks of Mad Men.
• vended at my second fiber event.
• stuffed a bunch of envelopes for the Land Trust.
• driven back and forth to the school a million times.
• stacked a bit of wood (though not as much as my husband).
• urged my new baby grassies to start growing before winter comes.
• returned to the Great Escape with my whole family and rocked their water slides!
• sent out 60 some-odd samples to the November Phat Fiber box.
• wished for a year with better weather oh-way-too-many times to count.
• driven a bunch of carpools (did I mention that yet?)  So did my husband. He drove a lot too.
• been away from home for 3 weekends in a row.
• begun making holiday plans with my husband to try to find new things to do to keep it fresh.
• vowed to jump back on the blogging wagon.
• been thankful for my wonderful family, nice home, healthy children, and a wickedly excellent husband.

‘Til next time…  let’s hope this *confession* of sorts makes the way for it to be sooner, rather than later…

Have you seen this new website yet? I just came across the advertisement in my new issue of Memory Makers (Nov/Dec 2008). it is called Shophandmade beta and according to the website it has just recently had its soft opening. I’ve clicked around a bit and the one feature that really impresses is what they call ReSupplies – or as they say – “ReSupplies:…heavenly for the earth.” If you buy or sell using this feature it is a One Thing! We are always looking for One Things in my house and I’m even thinking of have a One Thing family contest (anything to get more lights turned off!). If we have a contest, I could shophandmade and get points! Also when you buy at Shophandmade you reduce your carbon footprint through rainforest protection – another One Thing.

I’ve been clicking around on this Hallmarkeque site for a bit and while at first it seems a bit clunky to navigate, eventually you can find things. It was very quick to register for an account, and though I did not set up a shop, it looks like if you are have graphics and already have a paypal account, it shouldn’t take very long at all to get started. (If you are in need of graphics, there are already shores listed that will provide you with inexpensive graphics too.) The policies are very simple and quick to read. (That is one of my main complaints about Etsy – trying to figure out the rules!)  ShopHandmade just doesn’t seem to have as many rules. Basically, if it is handmade and not mass produced you can sell it. If it is anything that can be used to make crafts, you can sell it. There doesn’t seem to be a rule against cross promotion either.  So are any of you out there itching to start ReSuppling your stamp collections? I know what you are thinking!

The the listing fees are very low on this site as you can choose to have sponsor advertising appear with your listing instead of paying the fees. You can also choose your own commission. You can either pay none or you can choose to support the webiste by paying up to 12%. Sellers also have the option to increase the donation made to rainforest protection through the sales of their items.

While this site appears to be geared more toward scrapbooking and papercrafting (Currently, their 3 sponsors are all in the that field), there doesn’t appear to be a reason not to sell fibery goods there. I didn’t see a big wooly presence, but there is a needlework category and it clearly states that you can ReSupply even partial balls of yarn.

Let us know what you think in my comments if you give Shophandmade a visit.  Is the potential there?  If you end up setting up a store – please share with us here too.

Thanks for reading and happy Friday!

“Bam!”  Spinning and scrapbooking collide!  “You got scrapbooking supplies on my yarn!” “No, you got yarn on my scrapbooking supplies!”  Well, I guess they are just two great crafts that go great together!

Sarah recently asked what I do with leftover yarn on my spinning bobbins. I showed her how to Andean ply what remains to get as much yarn as you can from your spun singles, but here is something else that I do with leftovers – I turn them into “ribbon.”  I make a thicker yarn by turning leftovers into yarn with multiplies of plies and then use it as ribbon on gifts or to tie around some of the Etsy packages that I send out.  I think it would also be good for hair ties for little girls too and of course, embellishment on scrapbooking projects.

Here is one that I recently made starting with one green single, one pink single, and some paper flowers from Prima Marketing:

I had some leftover green singles on a bobbin and I spun some pink to match (both singles starting out spun in the clockwise direction).  I strung some coordinating paper flowers on the green single as it had been hanging out longer and was deadened and not twisty anymore.  I put the 2  bobbins on my lazy Kate and plied them together counterclockwise with extra twist every so often letting a flower go into the yarn.  Then I wound the 2 ply off the bobbin onto my hand to Andean ply it back together spinning clockwise this time with extra twist into a 4 ply.  I repeated it once again plying back counterclockwise to make a balanced yarn with a final ply tally of 8. Since this yarn has paper flowers and I’m just using it as ribbon for wrapping packages, I did not set the twist or anything like that.

There are so many different ways to spin up multi-plied yarn and so many different flowers and other embellishments to add, that there is no end to what you can come up with!

I actually have another post to write a little later, I do wish the sun would come out as this is NOT good photo-taking weather.  The sky does seem to be lightening up a little bit.  Mavbe there is some hope? Anyway, just in case I don’t get back again today, have a great one!

I just finished painting my first coat of paint on my canvas per the instructions of Croppy.  We are doing a project with our One Little Word and that was the first step.  Now, I’m not sure if this is really a mystery project to all her participants, but it is a mystery to me as to what this is going to turn out to be.  Here is my canvas so far:

Remember my word?  Cherish.  I think that is why I haven’t written here that much this week. I was too busy cherishing my laundry.  Hehe  – sorry I couldn’t help that one.  Ok, while, I wasn’t really cherishing my laundry, I did cherish my children a bit and my husband from time to time.  I also cherished Rollie Pollie Ollie and rubbed his tummy when he did an especially good job on the living room carpet.

I spent pretty much the entirety of today working on my Etsy shop.  I had some new things to list and I did some dyeing.  I have a new fiber that is also a 50% Merino/50% Tencel blend but it is not as drapey as my normal Merino/Tencel.  It has more spring and bounce.  The only thing is that I’m not sure if it is superwash because although it was listed as superwash, it is not acting like superwash so far thus I think to be careful, I will just pretend that it is not superwash.  It is very pretty though and the tencel does a nice job of adding sparkle.

I am very excited to be starting Tangled Yoke Cardigan soon!  Here is an interesting piece of data.  There are 520 Tangled Yoke projects currently listed in Ravelry with 1831 people listing it in their queues.   Compare this to Dark Victory that has 6 projects and 28 people listing it in their queues.  I think there is going to be plenty of info out there!   I just have this thing that I love to read about the project that I am making.  I like to see as many as I possibly can and find out what everyone thought.  Also there are 2 Mad Knitters also making this for extra Knit Along fun!  Cast on is soon, right Cheryl?

1. To have the highest regard for: prize, treasure. Idioms: hold dear.
2. To recognize the worth, quality, importance, or magnitude of: appreciate, esteem, prize, respect, treasure, value. Idioms: set store by.

Last night, Agent K and I attended her high school orientation. Yesterday, if I had written to this blog, it would have been a vent post about scheduling and conflicts and such. Today, I’m not going to let that bother me and I’m going to write about my word. There was a group of current high school students who got up on stage to talk to the 8th graders last night. They emphasized 2 things. First, that doing homework and being organized are supremely important for high school success. Second, that TIME FLIES. That one was for the parents, I think. Only 4 more years until K sprouts wings and flies away from home. Only 4 years. How can that be? Just yesterday she was that baby that we brought home. We placed her in the middle of our bed and just looked at her; amazed that she was ours. She is in transition now. During the next 4 years she will become less and less our and more and more her own.

On Wednesday, Jenny posted her One Little Word on her blog. (The idea is from Ali Edward’s blog and her post can be seen here.) Since Wednesday, I have been going through words like candy. I explored and rejected quite a few words (like Freedom, Pure, and Quest) because even though they seemed to be me, they just made me feel stressed. Quite often people tell me “enjoy your girls now as before you know it they will grow up and be off on their own.” So maybe this is the year to start doing that; to stop and finally say, “This is what we have and it is good. ” Maybe it is time to just stop everything and CHERISH what I have, what we have as a family…

This morning Jenny sent me the link to a blog with the most delicious header that I have ever seen. This blog is called Altogether Too Happy and I bloglined it immediately. I loved her entry for her word. I loved the quote from the book On Becoming An Artist by Ellen Langer. I loved how she used her word as a starting point for other words/actions (and I’m going to do a little copying…)

C: Clarity
H: Harmony
E: Engage
R: Relax
I: Isthmus
S: Spirit
H: Humor

I also think that CHERISH is going to be important to my New Year’s Resolution. I don’t want to just GET THROUGH my 3 to 6’s. I want to start to ENJOY my 3 to 6’s. It is not going to hurt to stop to CHERISH each moment, even if it is a stressfilled moment comforting an junior agent who may have had a bad day…

I’m writing this as I wait for my tea to steep. With such a pervasive chill in the air, today finally feels like true fall. I brought my laptop out to the table so I can sit in the flickering rays of the sun and sip my tea as I write my blog post. Ok, that is it, I was going to attempt to eloquently ease into my exciting news, but I can’t wait any longer to tell! (Please recite here, “Oh please, do tell.”) Well, if you insist on asking, I had a really cool “convo message” this morning through Etsy! I received an e-mail from Peachy from the Lime and Violet Daily Chum blog and Spincerely yours is going to be a featured shop “in the upcoming days!” Phew! I really have to get busy dyeing! I have a few things to list but I’m not doing such a great job of keeping up with my dyeing since the angle of the sun has made solar dyeing not a possibility in my yard. I’m even having a bit of difficulty finding sun to take photos! Please note all the leaves still on my trees:

I do get quite a bit of sun in through my windows, but it is dappled and moves quickly. What I’m currently doing is using my light box and moving throughout my rooms as the sun changes. Sometimes the sun is stronger near my dining table:

and sometimes the sun is stronger on the family room floor:

I think I’m going to have to start doing some research on lighting equipment to get me through the winter. It is just that I love using the sun as much as I can.

Here is a little glimpse of what I was photographing. Agent K insists that I dye with way too much brown so to prove her wrong, I did some roving with brighter colors:

I’ll be posting these to my etsy shop as soon as I come up with a good goddess name. Naming always seems to be my time suck on getting things online. I love researching the names, but sometimes I think I get carried away and spend far too much time at it. Agent B is my mythology girl. I keep buying up Greek Myth books for her to read in the hopes that one day I can show her a color and she can rapidly respond with an appropriate name and appropriate reasoning.

So 2 other fantastic things are going on around here too. First, we have a house full of freaking candy! This makes me fat, but puts the agents in a glorious after school stupor good mood.

The second thing is that my Winter 2007 Interweave Knits was sitting on my laptop when I got up this morning (I must have forgotten to get the mail yesterday and IHA probably brought it in early this morning, right? I mean it couldn’t have apparated there all by itself, could it?)

This issue has plenty of really fine patterns. They are all very practical and wearable. My favorite pattern is the Celtic Tote by Jennifer Tallapaneni. I love the way it is distressed. It is like the designer took Walnut Stain Distress Ink and ran it over the cable pattern. As a matter of fact, much of this issue is rather scrapbooky. I absolutely love page 55. First there is Eunny’s Ivy League Vest all cool and hip looking with its 2 color ribbing but also stamped in the top right corner, there is a funky swirl brush. I wonder whose design that is and if it is available to down load. I’m growing quite fond of that swirl. (If you are not a scrapbooker, here is an example of a swirl brush used in a scrapbook layout.) If anyone happens to see any credits for it as they are reading the magazine, please let me know…

Anyway, back to Knits. What else do I really like? Well, besides Celtic Tote and Ivy League Vest, I like Veronik Avery’s Colette Pullover. I don’t think I would ever make it, but I love looking at it. It reminds me of something from my childhood, though at this moment I still can’t place it. I also think that Sarah is really going to like this sweater, I’m actually quite curious about what other people think of it, so if you have an opinion, let me know. I also like Hana Jason’s Gathered Pullover and Lou Scheila’s Ruched Shell. I can see myself making either of these. My least favorite patterns are Forest Forbes Pullover, (mostly because I’m not a fan of bobbles and boat necks) and Puffed Wheat Pullover (same thing with the neck line — it is sort of a high boat neck and it also looks a little dated unless I have missed out on a new fashion trend, which is always a strong possiblity). As I look through this issue there just seems to be so much packed in! I also like the Kilm Gloves by Kristin Nicholas and the Subway Mittens by Colleen Meagher. That is a pretty cool concept having a pocket on one’s mittens!

Since I have started this post, I have steeped and drank my tea, thus I’m back to being quite chilly again. I also ran low on battery and had to move back to my quite unsunny office. I think these are all signs that I should get doing some other things now. Tomorrow is my second Saturday to work at the library. The first Saturday was rather fun, so I’m really looking forward to it. On Sunday, Agent J has two softball games an hour or more away in Tolland so she and IHA will be gone all day. I don’t think this is going to leave a lot of time for us to be together on our first full weekend after our anniversary. I also don’t think it is going to leave much time for us to get major projects done around our house. Maybe Agent K and I can pick out some paint colors for her room on Sunday…

Well, have a great weekend if I don’t get a chance to post again!

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that a few months ago, my husband, IHA, was frantically preparing to take a huge test. A huge test. A whomping 3 day test huge test. A 3 day test located on the opposite side of the country even! He went to California at the end of February to take the California Bar exam . After his test, the junior agents and I flew out for his graduation from Concord Law School and for a brief family vacation. Well, ever since that time, we have been waiting (and waiting and waiting) to see if he actually passed the test or if we would have to have 8 more intensive weeks of studying for him to retake it at the end of July. And guess what? He passed! He really really did. No more studying! None. Zippo. Nada. After 4 years of Law School and then this Bar exam prep stuff, it is finally over! (Btw, did you know that law school semesters run basically the whole year with only 3 weeks off in between????) Of course, besides being so happy to have him back and not studying 24/7, we are very very proud of him. He worked very hard. My mom said he passed because he had “his nose to the the grindstone.” I said, “Yes and he ground his nose right off!”

OK, that is the important news. Just a few side notes and random stuff to add…

Scrapbooking:

This is a photo of a scrapbooking layout I am working on about Agent K. It shows how I pull out different papers and embellishments that go together and then play around with how things can look. The final page may turn out similar to this or completely different.

This is a photo frame I decorated for Agent J to hang on her wall. The photo was taken by the Pinegrove Dude Ranch photographer that is why it is so crisp, clear, and well centered! Agent J liked the frame that I decorated and it is already hanging on her wall:)

Reading:

I finally, after 2 months of reading, I finished Outlander. I miss Jamie and Claire already. I believe that there are 6 books in this series. Should I look up the next book?

The Great Park Pursuit:

We are in week 3! We are having fun too. (Btw, IHA picked up a new hobby along the way. It is called Geocaching and as he tends to do with things, he is really getting into it.) Here is a photo from the first week. We went to Beardsley Park and Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, CT. This shows the agents in the Prairie Dog exhibit. It is also a good example of the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same” because Agent K had the same excitement on her face in the pop up tubes in the middle of the prairie dogs as she did when we went there when she was 2.

Last week we climbed to the top of Haystack Mountain and then took a side trip to Campbell Falls. This week only a subgroup of The Electric Pink Lemons will be going to Huntington State Park as I’m off to the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair and Agent K is off with a girlfriend for the day. The clues are very tricky because for the second week in a row we thought we were going someplace different until the final clue was revealed.

Knitting and other stuff:

Not much to report. Spring is a very busy time of year with all the things that go on with the girls and the yardwork, and gardening, and cleaning and all that. I haven’t started any new knitting this week. Just plugging away on Cece and a pair of Jaywalkers. I am getting ready to start some natural solar dyeing. I do hope that the abundant sunshine holds out for me!

I didn’t really intend to go a whole week (plus) without blogging, but lo and behold, here it is Sunday, the 29th. Already. Spring is just crazy that way! Choral concerts, band concerts, planting flowers, packing up the winter clothes… it all just takes lots and lots of time.

There are a couple of interesting things to note, however, and I think I will go “listy” on you to make life easier:

1.) Agent J and I survived the Dude Ranch. She had a great time with her friends and so did I. It was long ,though, and there wasn’t overly so much sleep to be had! Agent J rode a horse twice and she didn’t even fall on her head or anything (she actually did quite well and really seemed to enjoy it)! I was brave and didn’t have a heart attack or anything while she was out on her rides. It was a good thing that I didn’t hear about how steep and twisty and turny the trail was until we were on our way home! Here she is now on her horse:

2.) I’m sure no one has noticed, but there has not been much activity on my reading page lately. When I wrote this post, Jayme commented that I really needed to read Outlander so I decided to borrow it from the library and take it for a spin. Well, I LOVE it! The only problem is that I read about 5.3 pages a night before I fall asleep and at this rate I may not be done until the 2008 Summer Olympics. I am really glad that we can renew library books over the phone because I have to call again tomorrow for my third round with it. Anyway, did I say that I LOVE this book. I think I am in love with Jamie too. It has been a long time since I’ve had a crush on a fictional character (Snape not-withstanding) and it is kinda fun! So far, I would highly recommend this book as a fun read and a great way to end one’s day.

3.) We found out last week that there is a new yarn store opening in Torrington! Can you believe it? Our little city with 2 yarn shops? Anyway, it appears that this one is different as its emphasis is more on weaving and spinning and other fiberly arts and not so much on knitting and crochet as the store where I work. It is hard to know what to think, but my first thought was “more fiber never hurt anyone, right?” Torrington is very well known for its theater and ballet and other arts so maybe it is well suited to become the next Mecca for the fiber arts? The more people who partake, the better for all!

4.) I finally finished the pink and green entrelac sock I was making for a shop sample! I just realized that I don’t have a good completed photo and I left the sock at work. Also (and this is so exciting!!!!) I ran part 1 of the sock class today. I had 2 students and they did so great! They were awesome and they want to do part 2 next week! I hope my boss goes for that! We started by just doing Eunny’s entrelac sample and then we started on the toe. So during the week, their homework is to just complete the toe section and start the row of set up triangles. Next class we will start entrelac-ing in the round. Knitcole is going to knit a long with them too and she is pretty excited so that just makes all the fun even more grand.

5.) Spring has finally arrived here. These are the crocuses that were blooming at the beginning of the week. Now, we finally have our daffodils and forsythia!

6.) I just have to tell you how wonderful my husband is. Right now, as I write this, he is shopping with Agent K. Shopping with Agent K is quite the experience. Last night I took her and a friend to the mall. She found 2 tops that she liked and one pair of sweats. The purpose of the shopping trip was to get her some nice outfits to wear on the days she has track meets as one of the track rules is that the students need to dress up more than usual on meet days (yeah, I don’t really get it either, I think it has something to do with school spirit?). Anyway, when we got home, I found out that she needs black or blue pants for her band concert on Friday and she never mentioned it. At. All. Drats. So IHA has to take her to Old Navy as I just don’t get along with that place. But they do have the adjustable waists which helps increase the chances of something fitting her. I sure do hope they find something! And I hope they don’t find too much either as sometimes she can be darned irresistible:

7.) I also went scrapbooking this weekend and I had a splurge of creativity! It was great. I really hope that I get a chance to scrapbook more often. I want to try more digital scrapbooking too. There was a tutorial in the latest issue of Memory Makers magazine that used PSE3 and we are almost friends again. I need to use layers at least once a month or I totally loose the skills and get frustrated the next time I try it and end up frazzled.

So there you go! I’m back on the blogging saddle again! I hope that it is not another week before I post again! And here is a head’s up… I’m not all that far way from my 1000th comment and I’m pretty sure there will be a prize for that lucky commenter! So stay tuned — it could be later this week or next week at my typically posting/commenting level!

March has not been a banner blogging month for me. I don’t know what is going on. Actually, it is more likely a lack of things going on (to use my new vocab word, I’ve been rather troglodytic lately) which makes this only my sixth post for the month. (Just for the record though, there are a number of you out there in the cave with me and not really posting this month and you know who you are, right? *hint, hint* to: Knitty, Stitchy, and Croppy…)

Anyway, I must stop scolding my fellow bloggers and get on to the fiber part of this post. One of my top-hit-generating posts of all time is this one on Recommended Daily Fiber Intake. I can tell that there must be bajillions of people out there searching for info on fiber as I’m sure it is only small percent of those who click on my blog. At least I link to a real dietary fiber web page so I don’t feel too guilty. It was just in my early blogging days so I must have had some kind of subliminal blogging foresight to know that so many people want to read about dietary fiber! (Which, by the way, is very good for you.)

This weekend we processed fiber in an entirely different way. We didn’t eat it. We didn’t spin it. We didn’t knit or crochet or felt it. We blended it, strained it, pressed it, and dried it. At the Girl Scout Scrapbooking event this weekend, we had a new volunteer (and a new friend for me!) to teach a paper making class. Linda is a graphic designer by profession, but she loves to partake in all kinds of crafts. This activity was much more of a process than product craft and through her excitement for learning and experimenting we had a chance to be creative and get a little messy too!

Here is Linda and Agent B processing the paper pulp in the blender. Linda brought a base mixture which contained some plain paper pulp, egg cartons and other fibery goodies. Brenna chose some different colored paper scraps to add her own personal touch. Linda had a vast array of materials that we could add to our paper like glitter, flower petals, sequins, and even scented oils like lavender and wintergreen.

This photo shows Linda and B straining the pulp through a screen. The screen has an edge around it called a deckle that helps to define the edge of the paper once it is removed. To remove more of the water, Linda taught us to place a piece of felt over the pulp and to use a roller to squeeze out as much excess water as possible.

This photos shows Agent K checking to see if our sheets of handmade paper are drying. You can see a sheet that K made at the bottom of the photo where she included all kinds of sparkly things plus feathers, yarn fibers, and the whole kitchen sink.

Here are our finished papers after drying. You can see that K, B, and I are all rather fond of purple:) I stuck some of my recycled denim fibers into my sheet and you can kind of see that K’s piece located at about 1 o’clock has the imprint of a hemlock branch in it.

What will we do with these? I think I’m going to use mine to make some Happy Spring cards, maybe with a little distress ink and some stamping? I don’t know what the girls will do yet…probably depends on how messy I want to get. I hope a little of Linda’s sense of craft adventure and the willingness to get really involved in something regardless of the mess rubs off on me!

Materials: (All purchased from New England Scrapbook Company)(except the Podge)

Junkitz Decor Boardz 8″x8″

Fancy Pants Designs Big Board Chipboard Scrolls

Making Memories Scrapbook Colors Paint, Bordeaux

Chatterbox Scrapbook Walls, Strawberry Stripe and Secret Greenhouse Blossoms

Chatterbox Graffic rub-ons, Woodcuts

Assorted Ribbons

Glue dots

Mod Podge

Project notes: This project was a Christmas present for my friend Liz (Hi Liz!). I hope that she likes it!!! Anyway — it was fun to make! I do have to admit that I should have taken some time to look at how these boards were “organized.” Even though they are square – they are not symmetrical and it caused me to have a few perplexed moments!

The first thing I did was to paint the edges of the boards using a foam brush. Then I adhered the scrapbook paper to the fronts and backs (The back is just one design.) using the podge. After it dried, I remembered that Crops-a-lot taught us in her altered clipboard class to sand the edges so the paper doesn’t stick off over the edge. Sanding off the extra little bits of paper makes a huge difference — it really just gives the edges a more finished look and it also adds some distressng which I love. I went back over the edges with the scrapbook paint and added some more distressing. I also painted the chipboard pieces. I attached the chipboard with glue dots. I added the photos frames where Liz can later attach her own photos to the boards. I applied the rub-ons and then a couple coats of Mod Podge. Later I added the ribbons. And that’s it! Fun fun!

Other scrapbooking related stuff: Yesterday in my comment sections, Jenny from Crops-a-lot, post a link to the blog, Perfect, Just the Way You Create. The blog author, Donna Downey, unbeknown to me until yesterday, is a famous scrapbook personality. Sometimes I wonder why I don’t know these things! Look at this post. She had a day like we had yesterday, Jenny! Anyway her stuff looks fabulous and her classes look fabulous – maybe it is time to stalk some Scrapbook Artists too!

This week I’m also going to start working on a little album (board-book style with the podge) as a gift for a friend who just moved away. I’m just starting to gather all the stuff, but I’m hoping that by writing it here, I may actually get hopping on it!

Oh — once again — running short on time. I must dash off to get ready for work! Have a great day!