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I am currently reading The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson. I have read it a number of times before… Bill Bryson is such an excellent writer. This time around, the book seems to have rekindled my love of words (I had hardly noticed my interest had waned). It is almost enough to make me continue my education and get a real degree. Almost.

I think returning to school frightens me a little. Not the actual school part… that seems now that it would be easy, but I will have to figure out what I would want to do afterwards. I want to write, but question my talent lately. It all seems very difficult sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I am not upset about any of this. I am just being realistic about it. I am on the verge of 28 and have done nothing professionally with my writing. That can be considered quite old to get started.

I think it is good for me to question myself and ponder these things. It will make be a better person in the end, regardless of were it takes me. Writing, as one of the few passions I have, should be where I turn to when I need to release part of my soul. Too often, however, it seems that it just isn’t enough to get me to do anything about my life. We’ll see.Continue Reading

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If anyone has a clue as to how I should do my circuit training at the gym, let me know. I am currently doing 2 sets of 12 reps on every machine (broken up by a 10 minute aerobic workout between)… to get used to working out and using the muscles. I’m not sure if reps are more important or if I should spend a certain amount of time on each machine. It is all so foreign to me.

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I feel like I need a new job, but I am rather enjoying my part-time freedom. I don’t want it to last too long though. I guess I will try to find something soon… and if not full-time then at least another part-time job. More money would certainly be nice for paying bills.

Meanwhile, I have been overly dramatic with my friends lately. I don’t know if I am trying to push them away or what I mean by it all. It has to be frustrating for them though. The biggest problem with keeping a small number of really close friends is that when blow ups happen (and they do), they are bigger and there aren’t necessarily any friends left to talk to about it.

I got batteries for my camera. I will get pics of the wall art. It looks great. I could have saved myself a lot of stress by doing it right the first time (Grant, thanks for getting that in my head all the time).

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I can’t breathe sawdust. {edit} You may have noticed a delay in my posts… I keep saving them as drafts, thinking about finishing them, and then deciding that I am done with them. I am trying to stop it!

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I’ll take a photo of the actual piece when it is finished. Let me know what you think of this mock-up version.

{edit}
Why do such seemingly simple things end up being so complicated??? I don’t have a way to finish the fabric part, so I need a stapler or a staple gun. Plus, my plan for attaching the letters isn’t going to work like I want it to… I don’t really know what else to use. To make it all worse, after smoothing it out and letting it dry I noticed a very large air bubble in an obvious part of the orange fabric (it would end up being right in the middle of the top part of the “Y.” I think I fixed it, but it may look a little weird in that spot… better than the large air bubble. “S” & “Y” should be ready to hang by Sunday. There is some drying time involved with the letters… I need a super-strong epoxy of some sort I think. None of this is going to be removable like I had originally imagined, but the end result will still be great.

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My newest obsession. Amy Butler is a designer with some amazing lines of fabric and paper craft supplies. I discovered her designs last week (though I had seen them before — I just didn’t know that they were designed by her). I’ve been working on some art for my wall. I want to wrap a canvas in fabric and add a large letter in the center. There are three of them, which will spell out the word “sly.”

All parts of this took a long time to decide on. The longest part was the fabric. I was browsing through magazines on my lunch break during one of my last days at Borders. On the cover of one was a tablecloth in a great damask pattern. I thought it would look great, but assumed that it would be difficult to find something like it. I purchased the magazine anyway.

Inside, I found that the cover story was not only about the fabric used on the tablecloth, but about Amy Butler herself. All the projects were based on designs in her fabric line for Rowan fabrics. As soon as I got home, I searched for the fabrics online. Of course, the ones I liked the most were very difficult to find. But I eventually did. I found Duck Egg Acanthus (the one from the tablecloth) and Teal Acanthus on one site and Olive Acanthus on a different site. I ordered plenty of each to make sure I would be able to use the extra length for pillows, curtains, etc to bring everything in the room together.

The other day, I received the Duck Egg & Teal. These are the softest cotton fabrics I have ever felt. Although they are not nearly as wide as most other fabrics, they are of such great quality and beauty that they are totally worth buying. I am reserving quite a bit of each for use later, but still using some for accents in the living room.

Now, I am on the search for Amy Butler papers for scrapbooking. At Michaels, we sell the album in the Olive Acanthus pattern. I don’t really want a busy patterned album though. I would rather have the paper to use inside.

amy butler’s website
purl’s amy butler collection
crafty planet’s amy butler collection

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I’ve been a little down recently. I’m trying not to be.