Happy Zombie

I was so over calling mug rugs, "mug rugs" even before I knew what one was. I have an arsenal of really bad names, but my mom doesn’t know I know these words. So I had to think of something that wasn’t NSFM. So I’m trying "quiltini" on for size.

My two latest quiltini’s - which I’m pretty I make just so I can bind something.

For years I’ve been complaining about Safeway’s policy for their checkers to acknowledge their customers by name. A simple friendly hello and thank you will do. Add a smile to that, and it’s golden. For years I’ve shuddered as the Safeway checkers:
1. … say my name out loud for all to hear - thanks Safeway, that vomit smelling tweeker behind me now knows my name.
2. … try to pronounce my name (BTW Safeway, it’s SO-LORI-O, not Solano, not Solerno, not Solomon, and certainly not Celery [though I will answer to Oreo]).
3. … pretend that they’re not reading my name off the receipt and act like they know me.
4. … seem to be just as pained to have to follow the silly policy.

Since Safeway won’t change it’s policy on their customers’ privacy - I took matters into my own hands and changed my name to MJÖNÄS STRÅLANDE BJÖRNBÄR on my Club Card.  Revenge is sweet Swede… thank you, IKEA catalog - you’re the best!

I have never been so excited in anticipation for my next grocery shopping trip. Hjolla.

UPDATED! I went shopping!!

I think I want to change my name again - to something fun or cute so it’s fun for the checkers, too. The stupid Safeway “naming policy” is just as bad for the checkers as it is the customer - hoping there’s a wave of name changes. If we can’t beat em - we should all at least have some fun.

It’s Where I Sew Month 2012 at Pink Chalk Fabrics, and today is my day!  I’m so very thrilled to be gracing the Pink Chalk Studio blog today.  Not only is it fun to see people’s sewing spaces, Pink Chalk Fabrics is giving away 50 (yes, FIFTY… OMGFIFTY) $20 gift certificates.  All you have to do is leave a comment (on the Pink Chalk blog) and be entered to win one of 50 $20 Pink Chalk Fabrics Gift Certificates.  I know, how crazy awesome! I’m a frequent shopper at Pink Chalk Fabrics - these gift certif’s are priceless!

So head on over and check out my day plus the ones before me. You can even show where YOU sew with the little ADD LINK button on the Where I Sew page (plus see what others have posted).  1, 2, 3… go!

When I discovered these IKEA Godis Chokladkex treats, I didn’t care what was inside.

All I saw was the wrapper.

I did some research…

… and remembered the Half Rectangle Triangle Tutorial at the MQG website.

My little 8″ x 9″ mini quilt. Or a potholder.

Proving that dessert should always be a priority.

Fabrics: A Stitch in Color by Malka Dubrawsky for Moda

I saw this beautiful and interesting piece on the Royal School of Needlework on this morning’s CBS Sunday Morning.  The art of stitchery and history.  Too good not to share!

(if the embedded video fails, click here)

Last week when my friend Mo told our sewing circle about Nina Katchadourian and her Lavatory Self-Portraits blog post, WE KNEW WE HAD TO DO IT TOO.

In a nutshell, Nina’s ridiculously awesome post goes like this, “Seat Assignment: Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style: While in the lavatory on a domestic flight in March 2010, I spontaneously put a tissue paper toilet cover seat cover over my head and took a picture in the mirror using my cellphone.” That is THE BEST QUOTE EVER. EVER!

So while Mo was at work at an undisclosed location’s restroom, she sent me a text with her self-potty shot.  I busted a kidney laughing so hard.   Shortly after Mo’s world’s-most-awesome text, I was in Trader Joe’s and went to the restroom to try my hand at a potty shot.  I giggled, and giggled, and giggled, and this is my result:

I don’t know how to pull off the Flemish look, so I just tried to look serious. And it’s damn HARD to look serious when you’re giggling and cracking your S up. But I think I pulled off a rockin’ bunny suit look and look like I just developed the zombie antidote for The Walking Dead cast.

Later that night at sewing circle, I say to Mo, “I need to go to the bathroom [wink, wink], wanna come with me?” - so off we go to the building’s restroom. Heather comes along too, no knowing what Mo and I are up to. Mo heads one stall for “wardrobe”, I to another. And before we know it… we’re freak Heather out into THE ultimate OMG moment!

Mo and I look like we got caught escaping from somewhere that escaping is frowned upon. We had so much fun. Incredible, crazy fun. Like playing a grand prank, but no one gets hurts and nothing gets damaged. When we got back to circle, we showed our friends the potty pics, and gut splitting, side hurting laughing ensued. I won’t name names, but soon there were more potty pics zipping through the internet tunnels.

There’s something so fun about this and I HIGHLY recommend everyone who’s got a camera, a public restroom and a potty-protector sheet to take a potty pic! It will be a very long time before I ever walk into a public restroom and not crack up. It feels SO GOOD to do something some dumb, so childish, so weird, so embarrassing. In a weird way, it’s kind of empowering. I think anytime I’m scared to do something, and then do it - I feel very empowered. And with that said, last night at the grocery store I slipped into the restroom and had some fun. I was giggling like a school-girl all the way out the store. And in my car. And when I got home…

I didn’t know what I was going to get until afterwards.  I’m going with Ninja on one, but unsure what the other one ended up being.  Sigh, I love this game!  I’m really hoping others will play along, too (I’m going to tag my pics with #pottypicfun on flickr, and hope it catches on!).  And I’m hoping my girlfriends will show their potty pics - they are just too good not to be seen!

Winner, winner! The fat quarter bundle of HMYY give-away has now ended. Thank you all for joining in on the give-away! Using random.org for comments 1-551, the winner of the bundle is: #415 (which ironically is the area code for San Francisco) - yay Robyn!

Thank you everyone for your kinds words (and making me hungry for candy!) and playing along with Lori and me.  And thank you most of all to Ayumi - sweet, sweet Ayumi, for sharing her beautiful pattern with us. I got a lot of comments about the Botan Rice Candy, and I don’t know if this is a West Coast thing - but you can find it in the Asian section of your local grocery store.  Even in my teenie little Scandinavian town of Astoria - I can find it at my local Safeway and Fred Meyer.  Oh Lewis & Clark, you came 200 years too soon and missed out.

… sew more.  Sew lots, lots more.  Less iMac and more iSew.  And boy have I been true to my resolutions.  Resolution.   The key keeping to resolutions is to set the bar low.  Or really, not to even have a bar.

Helping me in my resolution is Lori, and clearly some Sew Cherry cuteness is involved (and having such fun playing with Happy Mochi Yum Yum)!

Some PKM cuteness from Pam is also on my iSew New Year’s resolution!

My sewing machine’s foot peddle is starting to get cold - back to sewing I go (and Pinterest - I never said anything about cutting back on that, expecially since Pinterest was the catapult for this latest project-o-fun!) so I can show more of what we’ve (did I say “we”?) been up to.

To all my awesome friends who come to my blog, tweet me on twitter, pin with me on Pinterest, photo with me on Flickr - my heartfelt and warm mushy holiday greeting and wishes for a joyous holiday season to you. Thank you for your kindness and laughs, good cheer and lovin’s - thank you for being a part of my life.

May you be surrounded and squeezed with hugs by the ones you love, with family and friends, goodness and kindness.  If your family is far away (like mine are) - may you feel their love from the much too many miles between you.  Knock, knock, Santa… jet packs, please.

May your holiday be filled with the childlike joy and good friends who foster it.

May your New Year be filled with kept resolutions and achievable goals.  Mine is to stop gosling’ing. I promise.

xxoo,
Monica

(Big thanks to QuiltDad for sending me the Zombie Zack!!)

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Hey girl - you can never be too rich, or too thin, or have enough access to Photoshop or have too much Ryan Gosling in your life. So I’m jumping on Ryan on the Hey Girl Train.

(I feel bad for not giving a photo credit to the original photos of Ryan that I swiped used to make my “hey girl” memes from, but the original Ryan Gosling shots are all over the internet and I have no idea who the photographers are. So what I’m trying to say is, is that if I’m arrested for defacing someone’s photos - please send me a cake with a knife in it Ryan pics to decorate my cell with.)

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