Friday, December 17, 2010

A finished (almost) quilt top! My first one!


Wonky quilt for Ayden, originally uploaded by razberiswrl.

I'm going to add another row, but essentially it's finished. Now to piece the back and figure out how the hell I'm going to quilt it!!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Super sweet giveaway at Quilt Frenzy!

Head over to enter to win a whole year subscription to Love of Quilting! This is a very generous prize!!!


Quilt Frenzy


Good luck!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

It's Crimmah up in the house!

Yeah, I call it Crimmah. Wanna start something??? :D LOLz

So, you already saw the nifty wreaths I made and the paper garland to hold our cards ... now here's the tree!

Crimmah tree 2010


I don't know what exactly this hodge podge of homemade, purchased, and given ornaments on the cheapo fake tree says about us, but it's just how we like it. There are ornaments that my Grandma gave me every year until I was 18 (give or take a few, some broke over the years or just disappeared. You know how that goes), the ornaments my kids bring home every year, ornaments I've bought at Target for 75% off after Dec 25, lol, and some I've paid full price for because I just had to have them. There's also a couple of plastic keychains that Miss M INSISTS on putting up every year, a My Little Pony and a Nemo. *shrug* She do what she do ... Also, that weird braided thing on the wall is something my Grandma made in the early 80s. Apparently I helped, and apparently I loved the thing in said 80s, so she sent it to me, lolz. So, even though it's not my cuppa, up it goes! Every year.


My favorite things on our tree are my Space Ghost ornament (from Hallmark ... they didn't do Brak though!! *sad pout*), a couple of styrofoam birds with glitter and feathers glued on them from Michael's (we've all seen them, lol): a little pink one and a silver peacock, a little angel in a walnut boat that my godmom gave me when I was little (it's a stupid ornament, but I've always loved it, and she's dead now, sooo ...), and this bizarre ornament my oldest made in preschool that amounts to a couple of q-tips glued to foil with some glitter on it. It's so funny!


Mr. Raz would probably say his favs are the StarWars ornaments, and possibly the Sponge Bob ones. The kids each favor the ornaments they've made themselves or the ones that have their names on them, lol. Either way, they are always all up in the tree. Daily rearranging of the ornaments is a MUST for Razzy chilrents.


Our tree topper is a little special ... Mr. Raz has always had a thing for nautical stars, like, WAAAY before every douche bag in town started getting them tattooed on their shoulders (sorry if you have one tattooed on your shoulder. I ASSURE you that YOU are definitely not one of the douche bags of whom I speak ... unless you are a dude, wear tight t-shirts, kiss your muscles, spend more time on your hair than the average woman, fake tan, and have ever referred to yourself as a guido ... THEN I probably am talking about you ... I'm not even sorry. LOLz) ... Anywho, we're not religious folks, we celebrate Crimmah because it's just the tradition we were raised with, and we like giving, eating good food, and hanging with our family, so we see no need to deviate from the status quo. So, neither of us wanted an angel on the tree. I wanted a big red bow because that's what we did my whole life, and he wanted a star but I could never find one I liked, so for years we went with nothing on the top of the tree. About 4 years ago I got a nifty idea. What if we put a nautical star on the tree??? COOLIE!! Of course, I couldn't find one. Figures. So, I decided to make one. I bought a 2 sided metal barn star ornament from Kohl's (on sale with a coupon! Woot Woot!) and painted it with that cheap paint from Michael's. It was a lot trickier than I initially thought it would be. The paint kept wiping itself off if I went over an area twice, took about 894,752,934,861,039,476 coats on each side ... but it's TOTALLY AWESOME!!! And he loves it. I rock.


Oh, we also have the silly pickle ornament (read this if you don't know), and hide it on Crimmah Eve before going to bed. "Santa" always leaves a "pickle prize" under the tree that the kid who finds the pickle gets to open before mom and dad get up. Mysteriously, the prize always contains 3 small items tailored for each child's likes and a note about how great it is to share, LOL!! Listen, I am a smart lady, and I like to sleep in. That stupid pickle usually buys me an extra 30 min of shuteye on Crimmah morning. ;-)


So there ya go. Merry Crimmah, y'all!!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A couple of crafty finishes and recent NOTD

I finished up some yarn wreaths that I've been procrastinating on big time. The small blue one is Miss M's and is now hanging in her room, the larger gold one is for my sister in law for giftmas, and the gold on on the wall is mine! The instructions I followed are here: Yarn Wreath with Felt Flowers



Next up is a paper garland I was inspired to make after receiving an excellent holiday card (thanks Lems!!). I originally saw the idea on whip up and can't remember the original blog the instructions were on to give credit. :( Sorry. I used all 'on hand' materials; cut the squares, triangles and circles from cardstock and sewed them together with the off white cotton thread I already had on the machine. A few clear tacks, one bump on the head and some clippy doodads I had laying around, and I am ready to display all the cards we receive this year!!




As for the tips, I'm currently wearing Zoya Irene, but haven't taken pics yet. Last week I wore Finger Paints Autumn Moonlight with a no name sheer pinkish glittery top coat over.




And just for fun, here's a pic of my cat Grapefruit. He's 11 years old, and we've had him since he was about 4 mos old. He followed my sister in law home from the bus stop, or so she says, lol. She was only 12 then, and is now 23. :) Anyway, Grapefruit is my oldest baby, lol, and he gets to do whatever he wants WHENEVER he wants. What he wanted last night was to sit on the tv and annoy the piss out of Mr. Raz! HAHAHAAAA!! I present to you "Decoration Cat."




So, there was a Payday candy bar commercial on at the time I took this pic. I find it both hysterical and embarrassing that there appears to be a nutty turd as big as life on my tv. LOLOL!!! Mmm. Appetizing. Makes me want to run right out and get one.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

OMG I'm so sick. :( :( :( Worst timing EVER.



This was me last Saturday (well, one of them is me, lol) promoting the musical Scrooge: The Stingiest Man in Town at the city Christmas parade. I felt great.

Today? Not so much. The show opens TO-MOR-ROW. TOMORROW! And I am sick. SICK!! NO!!!! Why?!?! There's so much to be done, and I feel like ass. My head hurts, my nose is pouring snot, my throat is sore and swollen, my whole body aches, and we open TOMORROW!!!

I haven't painted my nails in 2 weeks (Lincoln Park After Dark Suede), and I just removed that chipped polish last night and filed my nails for the first time in a month yesterday. I have only sewed the things I needed for the show (6 gold bags with ribbon draw strings and a hack job of a petticoat for Miss M's costume--yes, she's in the show too!-- where I just cut the tulle and lining out of an old flower girl dress of hers, trimmed it and sewed some elastic to the waist). I have barely gotten dinner on the table this week. It's all I can do to do my hair and make up for the dress rehearsals.

This is just bad bad timing. Le sigh. Pity me.