Fabulous Find

You may or may not have already discovered this cool little website and if you have already visited, well I apologize for giving you the link... again.

http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolr/

One of my weaknesses is definitely experimenting with color. My decor, wardrobe and even my dogs all fall within various monochromatic schemes. Let's just say that the hubs does a better job of mixing colors than I do. My biggest problem is I listen to that old adage that red heads can't wear red (or shouldn't wear red, because so few of us actually look good in it). So there goes red. Then, add in pink, just because I loathe pink. Of course pulling off orange and yellow is rather difficult as well, so there goes those two colors. You can see where this ends up going. It leaves me with a whole lot of black, gray, and white in my closet, which isn't terrible because we all know that black is slimming.

This is all hilarious because I'm sitting in my spare bedroom and I notice that the carpet and bedding are all various forms of blue. Crap, I just realized that there are probably four complimentary shades of brown in my living room. I am the most boring person ever. Honestly, the only decor item that I have that doesn't fall into my room's various monochromatic schemes are the throw pillows I made last month. My house is so boring!!!

Woah, momentary freak out. Must.chill.out.

It seems that my confidence in mixing colors isn't great and I'm hoping that by using the above website I can have a better visual representation of how certain colors look together. Maybe, just maybe that will give me the confidence to mix things up a little bit. Clearly, I would start small, because I think an abundance of various color schemes might throw my entire world off track.

It is way too hot for April

Seriously, 90 degrees in April? This has got to stop. I about melted during yesterday morning's football game. Thank goodness the game was at 10am. I can't even imagine if I had to run around during peak heat hours.

This little weather forecast just shows that Jax and Jewels are not going on a walk today.

Dogs with practically non-existent noses aren't fan of extreme weather conditions. AKA spoiled rotten puppies refuse to walk when it's this hot outside and they prefer to sun themselves indoors, while enjoying the benefits of central air. You think I'm kidding? The hubs had to carry Jewels home on her walk on Saturday because she just laid down in the grass and refused to move.

The hubs is handling the heat wave in stride. There's a snowball stand around the corner from our house and the hubs was counting down the days until that baby opened for the season.
He's totally thinking, "she better not ask to share, she must have figured out that I don't share food." For the record- I prefer ice cream to snowballs, which means if the hubs eats all of the ice cream bars, it's on like Donkey Kong!!!

But back to the point, it shouldn't be this warm in April, right?

Better late than never

Sorry for not posting this week, but I'm being overly cautious with my computer. However, I did actually finish a project last week and that accomplishment deserves to be shared. I made the ever popular Buttercup Bag, which is a fantastic bag designed by the ever creative Made by Rae. Oh, did I mention that it is a free pattern? Well, it is, so you should head on over there and make a bag for yourself.

Anyway, here's my bag:

The outer fabric was a fat quarter snagged at Joann's for $1.49. The inner fabric, which is hard to see from the photo, is a simple khaki fabric I had laying around. Add in the $1.39 for four sets of magnetic snaps, a bit of string, a whole lot of patience and seam ripping and the bag wasn't all that expensive to put together. It's a lot lighter than the heavy purses I normally carry, so the first time I wore it out I kept freaking out and thought that I lost it (the purse, not my mind... well, that's up for debate).

I think I have quite a bit to improve, but since fabric is relatively cheap, I think I'll be able to handle a few trial and errors along the way to becoming a better sewer (sewist?). I picked up three yards of fabric this week and I'm hoping my next bag comes along a bit smoother.

If anyone wants to share any cool sites for downloading free patterns, please feel free to do so.

Well that sucked

Our computer took a dive this past week. That left me with three long computer deprived days. No Facebook, No Blogger, No Nest, No CNN, No Weather.com (although, when is the weather forecast really accurate?), No ESPN, No watching tv shows online, etc. Instead, I spent more time on the phone with various Dell representatives in two days than I have with my parents all this year (note to self- call home more often!). One particular representative, Andre, was hilarious and helped me run every possible diagnostic and repair test the two of us could imagine. In all fairness, he seemed a bit more computer savvy than me, so I think he deserves a bit more of the credit.

In the end, I had to wipe the computer and re-install everything. I believe it is some type of Dell protocol to inform you three times that all of your data will be lost during the wipe and re-install process. Thank goodness the hubs and I are somewhat responsible at backing up our files, but we definitely lost a few things. I lost two entire photo folders, which means the only copies I have of this year's ski trip are the few photos I put on Facebook (funny story, I deleted most of my FB photos earlier this week because of a comment someone made regarding my 10 albums. The other folder of pictures I lost was definitely among those FB photos that were deleted. I believe that's call irony or Murphy's Law or something like it.)

I did lose my entire collection of digital scrap booking elements and papers. Needless to say, I'm going to take a long, long, long break from digital scrapbooking. I also lost all of my Photoshop Brushes, which means I'm not making a new blog header for quite some time.

But, on a positive note, our computer is back up and running. She's actually running a bit fast, most likely because she's practically empty. Not having to spend money on a new computer is definitely a good thing, so thank goodness our Dell decided to play nice again.

But, here's my word of advice, back-up your stuff!!! We're not Carrie Bradshaw, we knew we had to backup our files, but we just slacked off on it.

How often do you backup your files? What method do you use (CD, jump drive, external hard drive, etc.)???? I think the hubs and I need to become more routine in terms of backing up our computer. The last thing we want is our computer looking like this again:

The one time I skip a baseball game...

the hubs ends up on Sports Center!!!

I skipped Friday night's O's game because I wasn't feeling too hot and the weather forecast was calling for rain. Not a single drop of rain fell during the game!

More importantly, the hubs came home and was all excited because a home run was hit in his direction. Sure enough, during the highlight reel on Sports Center there was the hubs with his brother.



I swear, their faces are much cleaner in person and on the video. The hubs is the guy just above the O's symbol on the score line and his brother is the guy in the red jacket to the left of him.

I had a crazy idea that this year we (okay, more like me) would take a picture of the field from our seats at every game we attend. I thought it might be kind of cool to have a photobook of a bunch of different field shots (yes, I know I'm crazy). The hubs actually remember to take two pictures during Friday's game. Of course when he came home he says, "I probably should have taken more pictures. Adam Jones was right in front of us the entire night." Oh that hubs of mine, he's so funny with the camera.

Baseball update

Whoops, I went to both Fanfest and Opening Day and I didn't share any stories.


Camden Yards got a face lift during the off season. The stadium now boasts a new playing surface (Kentucky blue grass), high definition jumbo screen, and a new sound system (which still has a few kinks to be worked out).


The hubs and I were present for Dave Trembley's "State of the Orioles" address. Yeah, I wasn't thrilled beforehand either, but it's only open to season ticket holders and the hubs was ecstatic.


My brother-in-law snapped this picture and immediately proclaimed it "Facebook worthy." I hope he meant blog worthy as well.

The Warehouse. Sure, it cuts down on additional seating, but it definitely adds character to the ball park.

All in all, FanFest wasn't that bad. I'm not really a big autograph hound, but it was pretty cool to meet the players and have full run of the stadium. I actually ran into one of my former college professors and had the pleasure of meeting her kiddos. Considering that I know almost no one in Baltimore, that was pretty cool.

Now, moving on to Opening Day. The Yanks were in town and CC Sabathia was the starting pitcher. I would want the guy to pitch on Opening Day seeing how the Yanks are paying him $161 million. Yay, that's a boatload of money and just one more reason I'm in a minority of Yankee fans who really think that baseball needs a salary cap (don't even get me started on the luxury tax!).




Joe, the Vice-President, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. He was not given a microphone for somewhat obvious reasons.

Play ball!!!

Okay, I am a Yankees fan after all. Jeter was up first, but more importantly Posada went deep later in the game!!!

Now, if you're a sports fan at all, I'm sure you heard about the less-than-warm reception Mark Teixeira received from O's fans in the 48,607 crowd. Basically, the fans felt burned by one of their hometown faithful. Teixeira grew up right outside of Baltimore and said he would love to play for the O's, but he ended up going for a bigger contract in New York.

Here's a quick video clip of some of the booing. It was non-stop. If he touched a ball, he got booed, if someone threw to first base, he got booed, etc. The trend has continued and it seems like he'll probably get booed anytime he's in Baltimore.

Real men wear heels.

Wait, what?



I guess if you butch them up with a cigar and a lunchbox, then they look okay.

Here's a better angle to show off the height in these bad boys.

(Both images are from Dlistd.com. Don't judge me for my celebrity news addiction!!!)

I guess when you're Robert Downey Jr. and IMDB has you listed as 5'10" you have to come up with something to give yourself an added boost. RDJ doesn't need anything if you ask me, but I understand his desire to be taller. Especially since he's shooting scenes with the 5'9" Gwyneth Paltrow. Considering that Gwyneth is most likely repeating her killer heels selection that she wore in the first Iron Man. Seriously, was anyone else distracted when Gwyneth could somehow manage to run over a grated surface in 4" Christian Louboutin stilettos in Iron Man and not fall down? That was the real super power in that movie. Forget Tony Stark's cool gadgets, I want Gwyneth's super balancing abilities.

Is anyone a fan of man-heels? Is my hubs missing out on something here?

It can't be..

baseball season already? Oh, but it is. My mission tomorrow is to make sure the hubs doesn't get blacklisted from Camden Yards for starting his "bring back Chris Ray" campaign. This is going to be a long, long, long season.



I made the hubs a deal, we can go to FanFest for the entire day and I'll act interested (really, watching the team workout... that's unnecessary in my book). In exchange he has to devote an entire Saturday in a museum with me and he has to act happy.

I would like to quote a line from Big Daddy, "I win!!!"

Cut

Sorry, I know this isn't my standard type of post, but life isn't always puppies and rainbows. I saw this video online earlier today and haven't been able to put it out of my mind since. I'm a lucky, lucky, lucky lady because my hubs is a gentle giant who wouldn't harm a fly (okay, technically that's not true because he does squash bugs for me because I'm scared to death of them). Unfortunately, there are others who aren't as lucky and they find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of abuse.

Keira Knightley stars in this shocking new short film, directed by Joe Wright (Atonement and Pride and Prejudice) and brought to you by Women's Aid - the UK's domestic abuse charity.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, "but I live in the US?" Well that's true, but domestic violence knows no national boundaries. It also transcends race, religion, gender, economics and every other form of demographic labels.

I don't ask much of anyone, but please just watch this video. It's a tad over two minutes, so it's not like I'm asking you to read Atlas Shrugged. Hopefully, things will change and domestic violence won't be that little, dirty topic that everyone shoves under the proverbial carpet and ignores. Maybe I'm an idealist, but I'd like to think that if we, as a society, talked about these issues more, maybe those educational discussions could help stop the cycle of abuse.

I will warn you, the video is pretty powerful. I flinched the first time I watched it. It's meant to be shocking.