Bonus post - project progress pictures and a small rant

OK - here are the progress pictures for Poppy Puss that I promised. I think I just used up my entire allotment of "p"s in that one sentence!

Here was my last progress shot on 1-26-14:

And here is where I am now:

Also, I posted some pictures a bit back showing some of the other projects I had completed, namely: jewelry. There were a few pictures that refused to cooperate (quelle surprise) and so I couldn't share them with you. Here they are:

I made a bracelet for my mother. I was out for a visit from Montana, and she was lamenting the fact that I had never made anything for her. I felt really bad about that; but to be honest, I didn't really know what to make for her. She never wore bracelets and does not have pierced ears. However, she does have this awesome banded agate ring that she got from her mother when she graduated from high school back around 1954. I have never seen another one like it; when I was little, I thought it was one of those rolly-poly bugs - you know, the kind you see on the sidewalk and when you touch them they roll up into a little ball? Anyhoo. She very, very rarely takes it off. Since I had driven out to Portland from Montana, I decided to leave a few hours ahead of my scheduled departure time for heading home and stopped at this phenomenal bead store just outside of Olympia called Shipwreck Beads (you can find them online). When I walked through the front door, I literally ran into a table covered in displays of...wait for it...banded agates in every shape and size you can imagine! So I found several that were almost exactly the same size and shape as the one in her ring, got some other beads and a few fresh water pearls to go with them, and when I got home I made her this:

Sorry - I know the picture quality is a bit wonky. I put a magnetic clasp on it so that she would be able to put it on by herself without any trouble. I don't usually work with gold, but that is pretty much all Mom wears. I got a small black and gold gift box, and wrote a little something on the lid in gold pen for her. Best. Gift. Ever. When she called to tell me she had received it, she was in tears. I sent it to her work place because I don't always trust her home mail delivery, and she said she couldn't stop bragging to people that I had hand made it just for her. It made my heart so happy!

I also made these pendants. I'm not super happy with them (I had planned to sell them on Etsy or similar) so I just kept them for myself. I gave the sunflower one to Sissy and the bird one on the far right to a friend.

I have a twin-set that is the exact same color blue as the background in the other bird pendant (second to the right) and wore it to a job interview. I have copper chains that go with the pendants, and if it wasn't for the big air bubble in the center of almost every one of them, I'd be really happy with them. I'm going to try to make more, and maybe I'll use one for my first blog give away someday.

And now for the rant:

I am addicted to the game "Candy Crush". I put it to you that it should actually be called "Candy Crush Your Soul". A game implies fun. Sure, strategy and skill can be in there too, but mostly "fun" is associated with the word "game". My sister wants to know how something could be considered "fun" when one is shaking one's fist at said game, and screaming "YOU BLOODY BASTARD!" at least once every 15-90 seconds. I have been stuck on level 70 (there are approximately 450 levels to date - and that is not an exaggeration on my part) for what seems like my entire life. My Facebook chums send me extra lives and extra moves, but to no avail. The CEO of the company that owns this game is set to make a butt load of cash in the coming weeks; I hope he squirrels some of that money away for dental insurance 'coz if some of us ever catch him in a dark alleyway, he's going to need help getting his teeth put back in.

And now, something sweet to counteract the bitterness of the above rant:

Miss Muffin has decided that I need a night time companion and has taken to sleeping in my room. If I am in my room with the door closed, she will sit in the hallway right outside my door and cry until I let her in. I don't mind; it's nice to have another little warm body in the bed. Ahhhhh...cuteness.

TTFN.