... a nasty escaping underwire! This bad boy impaled my right armpit off and on all day. Why is it we humans can produce amazingly complex micro-processors and land vehicles on Mars, but we cannot produce a comfortable bra with underwire that stays where it belongs? This is truly one of life's major quandaries! I sat down to put a patch on the bra before putting it in the laundry this morning ... which really annoys me considering the cost of the damned bra probably equalled the entire annual economy of a small third-world country ... and I got to thinking about the gadgets and contraptions that make my life HAPPIER on a daily basis. Or at least regularly. The first of the ten things I thought of was ...
... Mister Shower Head. I absolutely HATE bathtubs and baths, and cannot force myself to sit and soak. Mister Shower Head in the morning is a very good thing ... he lets me bathe every part of me while standing safely upright and in two minutes or less. Very convenient invention! Then there is my ...
... cast iron fry pan. Notice it's not just your ordinary round cast iron frying pan with a smooth bottom. This baby is SQUARE and has RIDGES. That means I can cook my six strips of bacon all at once without bending at least two strips to accomodate pan roundness. This is important, believe me! Disorderly bacon is NOT a good way to start the day! The ridges in this frying pan mean pleasing browning patterns ...
... like so. And the best part is, this baby wipes clean with a bit of paper towel, no matter how BROWNED my bacon or potatoes or whatever gets cooked. Truly a wondrous kitchen gadget! Oh, and while we're discussing wondrous kitchen gadgets ...
... I don't know how I ever enjoyed meals without my heavy-duty pepper grinder. I LOVE fresh ground pepper! That powdered crap you buy to put in your pepper shaker ... which never has enough holes to shake out a decent sprinkle of pepper anyhow ... is just that, crap. Tasteless crap at that. Once I'm breakfasted and ready to face the day, I really appreciate this little item ...
... my bus pass. Oh, I know it's not REALLY a gadget, but it lets me ride city transit without the bother of keeping track of exact change or hunting for errant tokens or tickets, and it truly saves me a bundle in transportation costs over the space of each month. Bus passes are good things! And while I'm on the bus on my way to work in the morning, I have half an hour to enjoy ...
... the comfort of familiar prayers. This may come as a bit of a surprise to y'all, but I am a huge fan of the Rosary. This is a way to quiet my mind and meditate on some crucial mysteries and values. If I skip this important ritual in the morning, I just feel uncentred and unsettled for the rest of the day. Of course, some mornings fellow bus riders are more than a little disruptive to quiet prayer and meditation, so I resort to ...
... my IPod. It provides hours of enjoyable music suitable for blocking out unpleasant conversations, and also allows me to listen to the Rosary and stay focused. Truly a great gadget! On my way home from work, I usually plug into travel podcasts and let my imagination wander far from home. Once I get home for the day, I light one of my ...
... essential oil warmers. I usually light a few candles too. Candlelight is a pleasant way to relax at the end of a work day, but more important, the smell of my favourite essential oil replaces the stinky pulp mill / bad city air smell that clings to my clothes and the insides of my nostrils when I come back from down town. Our air quality is really disgusting right now. One day last week, I walked one block from my office to pick up a sandwich from the bakery, and by the time I walked that one block back to my office, I was WHEEZING! And I'm not asthmatic! Essential oil warmers are delightful contraptions. Once supper is over, I really appreciate my ...
... laptop. It is rapidly becoming my principle means of communication. It also has a built in DVD player, and so often serves as my home entertainment centre. I don't own a tv. I can watch Coronation Street online, so I don't NEED a tv! Thank you, Sony. My laptop is a grand gadget! However, I don't make a habit of watching DVDs every evening, and I generally save my Coronation Street viewing for a jammies morning and Coronation Street marathon on the weekends. My favourite way of relaxing in the evening is knitting, and I really appreciate my ...
... bamboo knit needles. For years, metal knit needles left the insides of my knuckles sore. Bamboo needles don't, no matter how fine -- these dpns are 1.75s -- or how fat they are. They are warmer and more flexible than metal. Bamboo knit needles are amazing gadgets! If you knit and you haven't tried them, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? The tenth gadget/contraption that makes many of my days happier is ...
... my digital camera. It lets me record my thoughts in a visual manner to present here on my blog, which is certainly more interesting than just ho hum writing -- don't y'all agree? This little Kodak EasyShare C713 is an amazing gadget because it has an anti-shake feature. This feature means people like me can take decent photos without a tripod because it automatically compensates for my tremor. I can't begin to tell y'all how much I wish that feature had been available forty years ago!
It was really easy to name 10 simple items that give me pleasure. What are the first 10 items YOU think of? Inquiring minds want to know!
We tried something different. Out of a half dozen pizza joints in this city, I would rate the above place an 8 or maybe even 8.5 out of 10. It was quite good, but not as great as ...
... which is definately my all time favourite. And unfortunately, NOT up here in the north! 
Apparently, nuthin' says luvin' like Ranger cookies oozing with chocolate chips, maraschino cherries and coconut! Oh, and see my cow cookie jar? It used to MOO whenever someone raided it. It is now eerily moo-less. I'm pretty certain the motive behind this de-mooing was prevention of loud announcements of cookie jar raids. However, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that if I can't HEAR cookies getting eaten, I can't tell when to bake more. I'm just saying ...
After all that food, the movie selection for the evening was a good old-fashioned Valentines Day luv story. If you haven't read this book, or seen this movie, I highly recommend it. Keep the tissue box handy! Post-Valentines, I tried to focus on cleaning up a craft project or two. I didn't actually FINISH anything, but made significant progress in a couple of areas. First, I clothed Raggedy Ann and Andy. I bought a couple of meters of this fabric ...
... super cheap at Stuffmart a while back. I thought it would make a nice cheery apron (I'm an old-fashioned gal in the kitchen, and I like to wear old-fashioned aprons). However, when I prewashed it, some of the green in the design bled. I guess you get what you pay for, eh? Raggedy Ann and Andy have no complaints about the design flaw though.
Next weekend, I'll have to construct their wigs. Bald Raggedy Ann and Andy is a bit ... disturbing! While the sewing machine and iron were out ... okay, I confess they never really get put away here ... I decided THIS fabric would be the focal point of a quilt ...
... and with that decision made, I quickly cut out the rest of the quilt blocks:
I have enough of the turquoise print for the backing, and enough plain dark purple for binding. I've put everything in a big ziplock bag for now, and will try to refrain from starting this project until I finish my tipsy coffee cups project. I said TRY. No promises! This IS February Fever season! And I still haven't decided how to back or bind my tipsy coffee cups. 
I've got a fat lip and a loose tooth. You can't see the cuts inside my upper lip in this picture, but believe me, they are there and they HURT! I can't imagine what my mouth is going to look like in the morning when I go to work ... I facilitate Falls Prevention workshops for seniors, it's a little embarrassing to admit how often I've fallen this winter! Anyway, I was closer to home than the mall, so decided to limp back home instead of grocery shopping.
I worked on another unfinished project ... a gansey cardigan ... for the rest of the afternoon, and will probably finish the right side this evening. That will just leave the sleeves and ribbed bits at the back vent and front openings for next weekend. Yay for me! Hope y'all had a happy and fall-free weekend!
The first symptoms appeared while I was working on my tipsy coffee cups quilting project ... I couldn't decide how I wanted to back or bind it. I couldn't decide if the coffee cups wanted to grow up to be a wall hanging, or a coffee table runner, or ... so here it is pretending to be a sewing machine cover. However, I was REALLY in the mood for sewing ...
... so I started another set of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. Oh, I should have known better! But I made a pair for Little Madam C's birthday last September, and they were kinda fun to do. Sort of ... relaxing and rewarding. However, once I got them to THIS stage, I couldn't decide what kind of clothes would go with their orange and white striped legs/stockings. While I was digging around in my fabric bins, I came across THESE fabric remnants ...
... which probably would have facilitated a colourful Raggedy wardrobe, but when I laid them all together on my ironing board, they made me think of THIS quilting project in a quilting magazine that just HAPPENED to leap into my grocery cart last week. (That's another symptom of this annual fever ... leaping craft magazines.) While all these thoughts of sewing and quilting floated through my fevered head, I realized I was really in the mood for some knitting. I'm SICK, I tell you! So I started a new pair of socks ...
... but THIS wasn't quite what I was really in the mood for. Pink and purple SEEMED like a good idea for a brief moment, but not ... well ... just NOT. So I started a wool gansey ...
... and now I've decided I'm not really in the mood for knitting after all. Particularly not knitting with natural wool. It's so ... colourless. Or something. Or not something. I'm SICK! I really am! I SHOULD BE finishing Gryphon, who has been in production for exactly 2 years now (Happy unbirthday, Gryphon dear) ...
... but my mind kept wondering to OTHER forms of cross stitch, namely long arm cross ...
... which is more medieval than Gryphon and what we recognize as counted cross stitch in today's world. Actually, this particular pattern is from 1534 Italy. I could enter it in an SCA Arts and Sciences something or other ... IF I got it finished in time. Which is unlikely cuz ...
... that DMC thread was 
... that lovely new guitar my buddy gave me last year for Valentine's is gathering dust instead of getting practised with every day ...
... and right beside it, my inkle loom is gathering dust with the second half of some woven trim for my medieval wool cape less than 1/4 finished. I'M SICK, I TELL YOU! VERY VERY SICK! But, I have the power to overcome this hellish February fever. I do. I really really do! This year will be different! So yesterday, I gathered my burning thoughts together and ...
... "Hear No Evil" and ...
... "Speak No Evil", so I HAD TO rough out two more paintings. I'm SO sick! Now I've got three partially finished paintings staring at me! Oh my head! Oh the fever! OH THE PAIN! But today is another day, and I have the power to overcome this annual affliction. I do. I'm POSITIVE I do. I just have to apply myself to make 2009 the year I finally beat the February Fever. So ...
... I'll get back to y'all ...