A Very Retro Supper Club

December is the time for Christmas traditions and at our house that means the supper club progressive dinner. This year the main course was at our house--Vegetable Beef soup, green salad, and crusty rolls. It was really good, but you'll just have to take my word for it. I was so busy being the hostess with the mostess that I didn't get any pictures taken.

Each year we exchange small gifts and here's what I gave this year--festive boxes filled with Warm-Spiced Pecans with Rum Glaze from America's Test Kitchen. (I know, right?!) The pecans were from G&W Family Farms. (This Miss Holly's farm.) And the boxes that I cut with my Silhouette machine are from Jamie Crips.

I love these boxes. So easy to cut and assemble, and when made with double-sided cardstock, the tops are especially cute!

I also gave my friends these very retro ornaments featuring book spirals made from RDCBs.

And featuring book snowflakes from RDCBs.

And book hearts.

These dandies are one of the first things I've ever designed myself on my Silhouette machine.

When I catch up from the holidays, I'll try to post a tutorial for them. If I can ever figure out how to do them again. :)

So I didn't get any pictures of the food, but when I saw Captain America and our friend, Captain Bob, actually doing dishes, I raced for my phone to snap that photo.

The dishwasher was loaded before we even left for dessert. Merry Christmas to me!

Pretty as a Peacock

I made this peacock a long time ago, but he's stayed in my workroom because I couldn't figure out how to make him any legs to stand. Today, I realized he's not supposed to stand. He's supposed to hold my business cards!

I'll Have Three Slices, Please

I've written before that back in Palm Spring in February when I discovered Lisa Occhopinti's book, The Repurposed Library, the first thing that caught my eye was that whatever-that-is hanging underneath the title. (Turns out it is a book mobile, or bookmobile if you're being cute, but that is a post for another day.)

The second thing that caught my eye was that doohickey in the top left corner.

That, my friends, is a book spiral, and I discovered that I really, really like making book spirals. They are sort of addicting and mind-numbing and easy to do when one is catching up on one's shows that have been waiting on the DVR until Captain America goes on a trip.

First I made one--and decorated it with a button.

And then I sorta went on a tear and made a few more.

I quilled a center for one and bought buttons and bangles for the others and I was really starting to like the way these looked...and then I quit. Turns out that slicing the books so I could make the spirals became a real pain in the tookus. For the ones above I used an X-acto knife like Occhipinti had suggested, but after dulling several of those blades, I got bored and went onto other things, like flowers and words.

A few weeks ago, I decided my spider story needed some illustration and that meant I needed a few more spirals. This time I cut the book with scissors. That was not any more fun that cutting them with the knife, but it did add a little more precision and a smaller chance of slicing my fingers off.

After I posted my spider story Heather from Rhymes With Magic asked me how I was cutting my books. She's been working with sprials lately, too (seriously, click that link and go look at the cool stuff she is making!). She asked if I had tried the local office supply store. I was stumped. I had no idea what she was talking about. 

So this weekend I took a few books to the store and said, "I know this sounds crazy, but..." and I explained what I was trying to do. The very, very nice man said, "Let me show you something." And so he took one of my books and here's what he showed me.

Holy schmoley!! You would not believe how excited I got. I asked if he could slice one with the covers still  on and a minute later he couldn't help laughing as he brought back three perfect slices of book. 

(Now I know how this guy does his magic. Prepare to be amazed when you click that link.)

When the office supply guy and I were done I had slices of all different sizes, some covered and some not. I'm giddy. 

I've had some designs in my head for spirals that I've put off doing because the cutting was such a pain, but now? Now the sky's the limit. Whoo-hoo!

An Artiste's Perogative

We all know what spiders look like, right? They look like this.

Or this.

  

Or do they? Maybe I can change my mind. I am an artiste, now, right? Maybe they look like this.

 Upside-down looks a little more sinisterer...er...

 

 

All those creepy legs...

  

 

Well, this guy looks a little less creepy than the other guy.

 

A little less creepy in a Sebastian sort of way.

 

 

And he's definitely rocking a blond flat-top now.

 

 

 

Kinda like my dad back in 1962.

 

 

...only with darker eyes.

 

This is what a dead spider looks like.

 

 

Or maybe it's this.

 

 

Or maybe that's a reindeer.

The Spider's Tale

This is a true story and an old story. Those of you who are my Facebook friends, which I'm guessing is probably everyone reading this except the Russian spammers who pump up my page view count every day, may have read it already. It took place two years ago, but in the spirit of a really good Dateline episode, it has been re-enacted and now has pictures! Enjoy! --S.P. Sep 2012

 

The other night I pulled into the garage and started to be-bop into my house when I happened to look down and see a HUGE spider between me and my back door.

 

I jumped back toward my car. The spider was big, black, as big as a cotton ball---and it wasn’t moving.

My first thought was to call for Captain America. Wasn’t it he who promised 26 years ago to love, honor, obey, take out the trash, and kill spiders and bugs? But as usual when the trash was full or giant arachnids stood in my way, he was at 35,000 feet.

OK, I thought, I’ll step on it. I looked down at my shoes. I was wearing very flimsy sandals. I started to imagine drawing close to the spider and having it jump up onto my shoe and then up my leg. I let out a slight scream at the thought. No, stepping on it wouldn’t work. I needed something bigger.

I know, I thought. I’ll run over it with my car. I LOVE my Prius and it loves me back. It reads out directions when I’m trying to find my way, it shows me what’s behind me when I back up, it won’t let me lock the keys in the car, it gets 48 miles per gallon. Now, I thought, it will come to my rescue and kill the giant spider that won’t let me in my house.

I jumped back into the Prius and started it up. I backed it up just a couple of feet, cranked the steering as far to the right as I could and then creeped forward. I pumped the brakes as I tried to get as close to the garage cabinets as I could without hitting them. Surely that spider is just an oily spot on the garage floor, I thought, as I backed the car up again, turned it off, and got out.

The spider, completely intact, looked back at me from the same place I left it. It hadn’t budged an inch.

Dang it!

Now I started to panic, because I was pretty sure I hadn’t put a key to the new house in my purse yet and the only way into the house was being guarded by that big, hairy spider.

I looked around for another weapon. On the other side of the garage I spotted a broom that the last owners had left. I grabbed it and turned back to the spider, who still hadn’t moved. I stood there for a minute to gather my courage and then jabbed at the spider with the broom. The spider jumped, finally aware that I had no good intentions toward it, and hunched down like a Duke guard in a full court press.

I took another deep breath, my heart pumping so hard my shirt was moving. I brought the broom back behind my head like a 7 iron, and with a great scream of “Get out of my garage!!”, I swung it down.

It was a direct hit and the spider went tumbling across the floor toward the garage door—SPEWING A MILLION SPIDER BABIES AS IT WENT!!!!!


The floor was swarming with the Mama spider and her progeny as I stood there in my very flimsy sandals.

I went completely ballistic, frantically sweeping at the babies who crawled into every nook and cranny of the garage and swatting at their mother, who spewed out another million spider babies every time I hit her.



I screamed at the top of my lungs, “How dare you get in my garage! Get out of my garage! Don’t you go behind that box! Get out of my garage!” all the time swinging the broom like a cross between a whirling dervish and Dick Van Dyke singing “Chim Chim Cheree” in Mary Poppins.

The baby spiders continued to elude,



but I finally swept Mama spider outside the garage door. I was so full of adrenaline and vengeance that I turned the broom flat and pounded her to a pulp, screaming at each smash, “Don’t…you…ever…come…into…my …garage…again!”

 

 

I turned back around to face the baby spiders, and while many of them still scurried here and there,



 most of them had crawled back into the deep dark recesses of the garage, biding their time until they come out to avenge the awful circumstances of their birth and the terrible thing I did to their mother. 

 

 

  

A special thanks to #1 son and his bride for their help with photography and props to make this re-enactment possible.

 

In Memoriam: Mama Spider 2010-2010