Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag

Yes, I did just call myself “Mama” but only for effect, you know, as in “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”.  I’m not actually a mama.  I feel the need to get that cleared up before anyone (hi Mom!) gets their hopes up.

Check it out!  Cute, right?  I made it.  Did too.  Really.  In just over one movie.  This seems to be my measure of time when sewing.  I can make a bag in two episodes of House or one viewing of Stardust including the deleted scenes.  I actually did watch Stardust while making this bag.  I love that movie.  Have you seen it?  I seem to fall hard for the fairy-tales-for-grown-ups-type movies.

Anyhow, my bag!  Do you love it?  The strap is just the right length and it hangs perfectly on my shoulder.  I love it.  It’s puckered funny in this picture because it has my brick of a phone and my iPod in it and they’re pulling on the magnetic clasp.  It’s actually too big for me since all I carry are my phone and iPod and a little credit card holder, but I’m thinking of making a much bigger version for all of those large bag-lovers out there.  What do you think?

Let’s Not Tell Our Sad Stories

Do you remember the scene in Jerry Maguire where Dorothy and Jerry go on their first date and at the restaurant and as they’re getting to know each other, Dorothy says something to the effect of, “let’s not tell our sad stories”?  Well from now on I’ve decided that I’m going to try to live that way.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to complain as much as the next girl, and sometimes venting your frustration is the only way to feel better, but when my sad story fires you up and you tell your frustrating story, soon we’re all angry and watching Wife Swap and Judge Judy and believing that there is no hope left in the world and that all people really act like like the guests on Dr. Phil.

So let’s share our happy stories, shall we?  Today I’d like to tell you about my recent experience at a local car dealership.  Wait, I know what you’re thinking, but this really isn’t a sad story, in fact it’s quite the opposite.

Having had some recent bad experiences at a car dealership that shall remain nameless, I decided to try a new one for a recall repair on my Yaris.  I called Lynch Toyota in Manchester on a Tuesday and was offered an appointment the following Thursday.  “Thursday… like two days from now?” I asked the lady on the phone.  In my experience with said other dealership, a call for a service appointment resulted in at least one week’s wait.  I was already impressed.

Now, I do have to admit that the other dealership’s service area was fairly spartan and their concept of customer service warped, so entering Lynch Toyota this morning, I was low in expectations.  Was I in for a surprise.  The nicest man greeted me at the service area door and instructed me where to go and who to talk to.  I was then directed toward the waiting area where there were several places to sit, free coffee, and magazines!  (What? You’re not impressed?  Well obviously you’ve never been to that other dealership.)

I took a seat and looked around to check the place out.  Not only were there magazines and coffee, there was a TV (tuned to Dr. Phil unfortunately), a separate playroom for kids, free internet, and a quiet room with desks where I could take my computer to sit and work.  Seriously!  I felt like weeping.

As I worked happily at my desk, a nice man came in and asked it anyone required a ride – they have a shuttle service!  I was in awe.  After an hour and a half – less time than they quoted me – I heard my name over the loudspeaker telling me that my car was ready.  I walked back to the service area just in time to greet my car which had just returned from THE CAR WASH.  Can you stand it?  I almost couldn’t.  I wanted to hug everyone in the building.

It’s not much, but the little details like a comfortable waiting area and the two extra minutes it takes to bring my car to be washed go a long, long way to make me and other customers like me happy.  I left there smiling.  I was treated well by people who were genuinely nice, not just rehearsed-line-and-fake-smile nice, and I wasn’t even paying.  This was a recall repair at no cost to me.  Now that’s a service experience worthy of the phrase, “it’s like having a dealer in the family”.

Now it’s your turn.  Tell me your happy story.

Colorful

Last week I had just about had it with the cold and the mud and the general brownishness that is March.  I have a pretty, new camera, I have the urge to take pictures, but all I have to look at is mud, mud, and more mud.  I decided that I was going to go for a walk in the cold and find something colorful to take pictures of, by golly.  (I might have said something a bit more harsh than “by golly” but I’m just keeping it light and G-rated here.)  So come with me on my walk, won’t you?

See more pictures of the colors I found here.

Tattoo Tree

The parcel of land that our house and our neighbors’ house is built on used to be an abandoned forest lot that was used as the neighborhood playground and hang-out spot.  Everyone, Luke included, played, hiked, rode bicycles and dirtbikes, and swam in the river from the land that is now ours.  Some evidence of this use is still visible on our neighbors’ property where my very favorite tree lives.

I’m not positive, but I think it’s a gray birch.  I like to call it the tattoo tree.  There are names and dates carved into its bark that go as far back as 1964, from what I can read.  Initials, school names, and sayings like “have no fear for I am here” cover the bark from the ground up.  I wonder if SP and BH are still in love.  It certainly looks like KS and JD broke up after that big X was carved over their heart.

Some motivated individuals even climbed the tree to carve into the trunk 15 feet off the ground.  I’ve searched and searched but I’ve never found any initials that Luke carved into the tree when we were teenagers.  I’m very disappointed in this fact.

All I’m Good For

I haven’t been feeling very chatty lately, have you noticed?  I have been making things, and I do have some things to show you but I’m just not up for writing about them.  So here, enjoy this Saturday morning picture of Leo, several quilts, and my Hawaiian-printed rump.

We had some friends stay over this weekend so we gave them our bedroom and we slept out on the couch.  In the morning I let Leo out of his crate and went to lay back down on the couch.  Little Mr. Rat Dog followed me and thought I looked like I’d make a nice pillow.  My destiny in life is apparently to be a cushion for a dog.

OK, Fine.

I’ll admit, the snow is awfully pretty.  When it started snowing fat, fluffy, snowglobe-like flakes on Sunday morning, I was not a happy girl.  My mom tried to encourage me to notice how pretty it was but I wasn’t having any part of that.  It was SNOWING and it wasn’t SUPPOSED to be (in my opinion). But this morning I went out with the dogs and it was so sparkly and pretty, I had to go back in and get my camera.

Oh right, dogs. I forgot to mention that we’re watching Leo for a few days.  Remember Leo?  He went back home to his mom after the last visit and I’m happy to report that she’s been much better at training him and taking him to doggie daycare and he’s a much happier pup.

So anyhow, snow, pretty, whatever.  I can finally appreciate its sparkly, quiet beauty today only because I just saw that it may reach 60 degrees this weekend. Be pretty all you want but melt away quickly.  Bring on the spring!

What is the reason for your visit?

Oh, hi!  Remember me?  The big wuss who can’t handle a little work stress and a cold and could barely manage to let the dog in and out, let alone come up with something to write besides “uuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhh”.  Well I’m back.  And I’ve got a full day planned tomorrow.

Luke and I maybe, just maybe, might possibly go to St. Martin in the fall.  Maybe.  Don’t jinx it now, we haven’t officially decided, but we’re saving and researching and Friday we’re going to apply for our passports.  Rather than go to CVS to get a passport photo that looks like a mug shot under a harsh light, I thought I’d take one myself.  I’m not sure it was a good idea.  Would you give this lady a passport?

The last one’s my favorite.  I was losing daylight, and quite obviously my sanity, but I thought that if I tried a wardrobe change, it might help.  Um… no.

This one might be the best, but it was my test shot before the white backdrop (which is, incidentally, freezer paper taped to the wall.  Klassy.)  Also, tuck in your bra strap, you hussy.

I think I may try again in the morning when the sunshine might be more kind to my complexion.  These sad, pale photos are reason number one why I need to go to a tropical island!  But we may not go, I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.

After our trip to the post office to fret about the forms and what country St. Martin is considered to be (I still don’t know how to answer that), I have to go renew my pistol permit.  Because nothing sends up a red flag to the Department of Homeland Security like applying for a passport and renewing your pistol permit on the same day.  Oh well.  It should be interesting, to say the least.

And so as not to assault your eyeballs with my passport photo outtakes and leave you nothing cute to look at, here:

I made her pose for me so I could set the auto focus on the camera before I hit the shutter and ran to my seat to beat the timer.  Sure, she gets a good passport photo on the first try.  Whatever.

Sick Bed

We are still a house under plague. I’m achy and whiney. Luke’s tired and grumpy. Molly threw up on the couch this morning.  So who wants to come visit?

The sickness finally hit me on Friday just hours before a Girls’ Night gathering was scheduled to begin at my house. About 3/4 of the girls were sick so it wasn’t my fault that we canceled, and lucky we did because I was in no state to host a party by 7pm.

Today I’m missing out in a book club lunch because I still feel like truck ran me over, and the missing lunch part making me very sad.

Someone send ice cream.  Woe is me… or woe is us, I guess I should say.

What I Love: Weddings

Sorry, but between worrying about taking pictures for the wedding, then taking pictures all day at the wedding, then spending the next two days sifting through the photos of the wedding, all I have in my brain these days is wedding.  Beautiful wedding.  Which reminds me how much I love weddings.

I really think it’s a crime that I was 24 and broke and without the Internet when I got married.  Do you realize how much more AWESOME my wedding could have been if I was planning it now?  I would blow your mind with my wedding-creativity, that’s all I can say.  On a similar note, it is equally as criminal that I was 24 and broke and without Internet when I was Matron of Honor at my sister’s wedding.  I was too young and my sans-Internet world was too narrow.  I was a sucky MOH.  I’d like to do it all over again.  Maybe I’ll re-bachellorate my sister and myself and we’ll both get married again.  I think I like the sound of that.

If you like weddings, too, please feel free to peruse the photos from Dave and Sharon’s Gorgeous Valentine’s Day Wedding Full of Beautiful People.  I still have about 100 more photos to upload so check back for more pictures soon.

Oh, gee!

Last week I proclaimed my love for embroidery.  Now I’m wondering if it’s the embroidery I like, or the felt.  I think I’m in love with felt.  I made this big monogrammed pillow over the last few nights and the felt was so easy to work with that now I’m imagining all sorts of new felt projects.  Felt purses, felt toys, felt hats…