Thursday, February 21, 2008

Potpourri Friday

It's Friday again - time to share with you my potpourri of happenings and thoughts and events that occurred during the week. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on one's point of view ;), not too much has gone on around here this week. Except it seemed to go by fast. And it's snowing. Again. Sigh.

I was thrilled this week to learn that my post about organizing all my patterns and ideas was featured over at Laura's, I'm An Organizing Junkie. She even gave me this cute little "Storage Star" to display! Isn't he so cute! I have to say that I am really enjoying my notebooks and have already found them immensely helpful. It is such a joy to decide on a pattern, find it instantly without having to search through every corner of the house, pull it out, take it to the craft/fabric store and have everything I need at my fingertips. I really don't know why I didn't do this years ago. Thank you Laura, for the sweet little star - I really love him!

I have been working on Michelle's nursery layette and have almost finished it. The crib bumpers have sweet little stuffed stars that decorate where the bumpers join together. As I was making the stars, I thought of how I should share about what my most very favorite craft/sewing tool is. I keep a pair of them next to my sewing machine always and they have simplified the most difficult of tasks. I have a spare pair in case they get lost. Because that would really frustrate me. And I have never seen them at a craft store, although they should carry them. But you can do what I did and ask your dentist to order you a pair. Or two. Here they are:
A pair of hemostats. When I was a dental assistant we used these all the time for suturing. I loved suturing. Tying off sutures has the most delicate of knots and it always fascinated me to watch a dentist with large hands do such intricate work- it really spoke to the crafty side of me I guess. Anyway, one day I was watching the doctor suture after a molar extraction and it occurred to me that those hemostats might come in handy in my sewing room. So I bought a pair from him. And they have been indispensable. For instance, you know how when you sew a long tube and you have to turn it inside out? I used to struggle and struggle with this. Not any more. Now I do this:



You see the secret is that the hemostats have gripped tips and the handle locks. So you just slide it down the tube, grab the end in the tips, lock the handles, and pull it through. It's incredible how easy it makes this task.

They are also great for turning and stuffing fabric. Like this:




I love how you can use them to smooth points without poking through the fabric and how you just grab bits of stuffing and stuff them nice and tight in the smallest of places. Everyone should have a pair of these.

They also come in very handy for docking puppy tales - but that's a whole other post!




And have you been watching LOST? Oh. My. Goodness. Just when you think there can't be any more twists or turns - you get a HUGE one. AARON? What's up with AARON? I dvr'd this episode - I have to watch it again. This show is going to give me totally grey hair. But I love it! It's the most mesmerizing tv in a long, long time.

Oh, and one more thing. I found a great little website that makes word clouds out of the most frequently used words on your blog.


These words are the words that represent me! I like that. I like that a lot.

8 comments:

Karen said...

Those stars are sooo cute! My husband has a pair of hemostats in his workshop -- they come in handy for all sorts of little chores. I will have to check out the word cloud. I've always wondered how people put those together. Congratulations on your star award! I'm off to check that out, too! Have a great weekend, Robin.

Unknown said...

Hemostats! How incredibly clever!

Did you know i used to be a dental assistant. I loved the job. Hated the dentist. Well, hate is pretty strong. Sh was immensely difficult to work for.

Hemostats! I never!!

Dawn said...

I did that word cloud when I first started blogging, but it disappeared form my sidebar at some point! I should do it again.

Susan said...

Fun post. I'll bet there will be a rush of sewers to buy that item!!! I'm going to check out the website of names. Sounds interesting. Have a great weekend.
Susan

Unknown said...

OK, we have NEVER watched LOST. My son went to a LOST premiere party a few weeks ago and he was hooked (as in hook, line, and sinker!!).

So ... he borrowed the first 3 seasons DVDs from a friend and we have watched marathon LOST sessions since last Thursday.

MARATHON!!!!

We just finished episode 1 of season 2 tonight. I have to say it is totally addictive. And I love Jack. Love him. And I love Hurley. He is hilarious. Anyway, I think we are in now. I have not been stuck on a tv show for years and years. Since Thirty-something and we all know that I was thirty-something when that was going on. I've lost 20 yrs, at least, of being stuck on a tv show.

Now I can speak intelligently at dinner parties all over the world :)

Unknown said...

And you have to go check this out. So sweet!

http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/

gail@more than a song said...

You totally deserve that storage star from Laura, that was the best idea! I saw that at her place.
I've been looking for a bamboo point turner, but looks like the hemostats could be even better. I'll have to check that out.

And Lost! I had to wait to read your post til I watched my dvr'd one from Thursday night....Oh.My.Goodness! I had sorta guessed during the show it could be Aaron but was still stunned. I have so many other questions too! I was wondering why Jack said there were only 8 survivors...but I went back and watched some of the previous weeks episodes last night and he was worried when he visited Hurley at the mental hospital that Hurley would tell. Then dead Charley told Hurley "they needed him". And Jack has said they need to go back and they've all wondered if they did the right thing. And Locke had said at beginning of this season that the people from the ship would kill them all. So what do you think? Do all the others die and only 6 make it off or do they decide to stay and these 6 that came back are lying about it? And why would Kate have Aaron and say he's her son?

Barb said...

You're making stars! At first, I thought they were Santa stars, but they're cute button stars. I need the hemostat. Good grief, turning the stars is the worst part of the whole process when I make Santas.

I made Cameron's nursery and let me tell you, I told her I'd GLADLY buy the bumper pads for the next baby's nursery. Arrgghhhh. I never want to make bumper pads again. Thankfully, the girls she works with bought the whole nursery set, including bumper pads, for Avery.

I haven't done my word cloud in almost two years. My blog has changed a lot so it will be interesting what it says this time.