Craft Time!

The other day my friend Stephanie was admiring the felt case I made for my ipod. She had mentioned that her hand knitted case for her camera had stretched and her camera no longer stayed inside. I decided to surprise her with a new felt case. Here is how it turned out.

Books

I have been looking for a new book to read. Lately I have just been reading magazines and the readers digest. The book Twilight was suggested to me, however, with the recommendation I was told - "If you loved Harry Potter you will love this!". I never read any of the Harry Potter books. I am sure this declaration is making some of you gasp. I just never had any desire to read them. But anyway, back to Twilight. I have asked a few people who have read it their opinions and got good feedback. I am still a little nervous though. Why? I am not sure.

I did order a hardcover copy off of Half.com the other day and hopefully it will be here shortly. I'll update the internet world on my opinion once I start to read it.

On a side note if anyone else is looking for something to read I recommend the author Wally Lamb. I have read both I know this much is true and She is Coming undone and loved both of them. He has another book coming out in November and I am anxiously waiting it's release.

Homeownership and HOAs

I have been a homeowner for several years now, which don't get me wrong, I love. However, I was not completely prepared for life in an HOA. HOA are for some people, but I have come to find out I am not one of them. I do not like paying a monthly fee to cover services which I feel are basic and not worth what I am paying each month.

This weekend I received a letter in the mail from the HOA management company, advising that someone had complained about our 1962 Mercury Comet being parked in the driveway and that the car had made a stain on the driveway. Maybe its my humble upbringing, but a stain on a driveway seems pretty commonplace to me, since you are parking cars there - which do drive on the dirty road and contain various types of different fluids.

Anyway apparently this vehicle and stain are bringing down property value for everyone else. The letter also asked that the vehicle be stored in the garage in the future and to make sure there was something protecting the concrete in the garage from damage from the vehicle.

HOAs may be for some people. They are definitely not for me. This has made me more motivated to find a new house.

Halloween is just around the corner..

I have posted a few Halloween decorations for sale on my Etsy.com account, NeedlePinProductions.etsy.com.

Go check them out! You don't have to buy from Etsy, you can order directly through me. Just email me what you would like.

Roadtrip - Jamestown Wyoming

Jon and I recently took a roadtrip into Wyoming to look at a truck Jon was interested in buying. Before taking a roadtrip I like to look up the route on google maps and then check a few different websites. I like to see if any of the towns we might pass by are ghost towns or have cool points of interest. One of the towns we passed through on our adventure was Jamestown. There wasn't a lot of buildings of interest; but this one really stuck out, so we spend some time taking pictures. Jon with his professional DSLR and me with my point and shoot. yay.

The following are *my* pictures.

Continuation of July 14th post

On July 14, 2008 I posted a pic of canning jars and said to stay tuned. As usual with my life I made a slight change of plans. My original plan of attempting to make homemade raspberry jam (first atttempt) stayed the same, but I found new jars I thought were cuter.

Here is the final product -

The jam turned out great, in my opinion. I do have a few extra jars I would love to share with anyone who might be interested. Just let me know!

Quirks

As was pointed out by my cousin Kim I really haven't blogged in a long time. Not for lack of anything going on, but rather there has been so much going on I just haven't had a moment to.

Since I was tagged by Kim for this.. Here are the rules:

-Link the Person who Tagged you
-Mention rules on your blog
-Tell about 6 quirks of yours
-Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same
-Leave a comment to let them know


I am sure I have more than 6 quirks - it's just a matter of if I want to talk about them in public or not. :)

1 - I have a very unhealthy fascination with ric rac. If you don't know what I am talking about it's the zig zag trim that is sewn onto clothing and other things. I *LOVE* this stuff!! I want to put it on everything. I have several colors of the stuff and probably a total of more than 300 yards. I would have more but I have controlled myself.

2 - When I am driving in my car and stop at a light I don't like to keep my foot on the clutch so I put my car in neutral. Even though I do this 99% of the time, I sometimes still forget it's in neutral and try to take off - revving my engine.

3 - I like to name cars. I haven't ever owned a car that I haven't named. The 2003 Mazda P5 is Ghertrude. I call her Gherti for short. The 1962 Mercury Comet is Lucy.

4 - If I get hot when I am under the covers I stick my foot outside the blankets to regulate my temperature. When my foot gets cold, I have usually cooled down enough and so I pull my foot back in.

5 - I don't like paperback books, only hardbound. If I try to read a paperback book I usually end up breaking the spine and then the pages fall out.

6 - Just as with ric rac I love stationary and pens. Whenever I go to a store that sells either of these items I have to personally restrain myself from purchasing one or both. I don't know what it is about those two things, but they get me every time.

Now to tag 6 people who must say their quirks.. I pick - Jon, Megan, Niki, Jennifer R., Tyson and Stacy.