Tis The Season!

I've been slacking off on my blog for a while, but I kind of expected this. I take on too many projects at once, and then I never get to finish any of them for an extremely long time. We're still working on remodeling the house (I really need to post pictures of the progress), plus I've been working on three writing projects (!) aside from this blog. I'm mad at myself for never finishing the posts about our hiking trip (what a story that is!), but there is just so much to do!

I just took a break right now to have a late breakfast and thought I'd do some investigation into an interesting project. A friend was over last night lamenting the fact that they couldn't find 100% hemp card stock for an environmentally-friendly project they are undertaking. Being the unfortunate web junky that I am, I immediately jumped online and started to search. While looking at various organic paper sites, I found some wonderful cards which can be planted to grow wildflowers. There are seeds embedded in the paper and you just need to wet it, plant it, and let it grow! I thought this was a wonderful idea, and immediately thought of ways I could make it myself and have it be more personalized. Since things are even tighter than they were last year, the holiday season has been looking pretty bleak but this was an idea, I thought, I could definitely use. I'd do little herb garden gift sets, beautiful poppy seed stationary, vegetable garden gift tags... whatever my heart desired! This would be especially great since I have many packets of seeds laying around that I never got to start for our garden this summer. I have found several websites this morning of others who have tried this (and they all had similar ideas on what to do with them), so I'm going to attempt a few and see what works best. When I get some time, that is.

I also found some cool articles on how to re-use old clothing that you might not be able to donate (stains, rips, etc.). My boyfriend and I were already talking about re-purposing a lot of stuff to decorate the house and possibly to give as gifts, so this will all be great! I used to do some things like that (making purses out of old shirts), but there are even more ideas that I've stumbled upon. We are really into finding green alternatives to things, or just alternatives to things in general (our IT business is definitely an indicator of that) so this should work out pretty well. Now I just need to figure out which of these empty rooms can have an area for my crafts!

I am going to make a promise to myself that I will definitely post an article/pictures of our remodeling project. It was supposed to be a whole website but we have so many other sites we're working on right now I never can find the time. I hope it will be soon, because things are really coming along!

Tim Curry Was an Awesome Wizard

It is almost Halloween, and I am in the least-Halloweenish mood I have been in YEARS! I also have writers block again, which is bad because I had been working on numerous projects and they have now all come to a grinding halt. In fact I had two articles written up last week about a most interesting camping trip, but they have just sat on my desktop stalling and staring at me like a lost kitten. Bwah, when did this all become so hard?

But back to Halloween: This Saturday I am having a party and I don't even know what I'm going to be yet. Usually I have an idea of this by August, although my idea generally changes last minute. Still, it is unsettling. Sure the house looks kinda cool, but meh. The economy is getting me down and now that I'm supposedly older and more mature, I feel bad about buying decorations and costumes I'll only use once a year. I notice I've become a lot more multi-purpose about things as the years have gone by. If I buy something, it has to work for like ten other things or it isn't worth it. Okay, maybe not ten, just at least more than one or two. So now I like to get some September "Welcome to Autumn" time with my decorations as much as I want to keep it through Thanksgiving. That works with most of the pumpkins and the leaves, but what about the seemingly never-ending box of skeletons and strange dummies that keeps popping up? Even with all of that, I feel bad and can't get in the mood.

I also usually try to go all out for my costumes (making a melting face was the coolest thing I ever did, and it is the one costume I do not have any pictures of!! Argh!), but lately I just can't think. I don't know what is wrong with me. I don't want to say it is growing up that has done this to me, because my whole family is pretty Halloween-crazed.

Maybe I need to rewatch some of those old Halloween shows from the 80s . They really don't make good holiday shows anymore like they used to, and even if they were pretty cheesy they were still fun. In fact, I have very fond memories of "The Worst Witch" so much so that when I first found out about Harry Potter and all the hype I was like "Seriously? It is like 'The Worst Witch' in so many ways." Or that movie with Judd Hirsch as Dracula... but the name escapes me now. Ack! Has my brain really tried to drive out all the Halloween stuff from itself? I really hope not.