Summary Sunday: F-K Edition

And week two of the A to Z Challenge comes to a close. As one commenter put it, I'm still "feeling the love". I've actually quite enjoyed the process and even more so, I've enjoyed seeing what everyone else has been up to. The comments have also been fabulous. In fact, a few comments have made me think of new projects or different ways to do the projects I have posted. It's been a very constructive sort of thing.

I'm already looking forward to participating next year. I'll have to sit down and come up with a new group of projects to start working on once this craziness has died down. The A to Z is good motivation for me to finish at least 26 items before next April rolls around. :)

I learned a few things this week:

1. The average lifespan of Old Navy jeans is seven years. (In a slightly related topic, I am now officially on a diet.)

I managed to blow out three...yes, three...pairs of jeans this week. All in the exact same location. How does this happen? Well...aside from the fact that I need to drop a few pounds, Old Navy jeans are not meant to be worn in my favorite position of being cross-legged on the floor (you know, criss-cross-applesauce...also known as the more non-PC "Indian Style"). Apparently this position causes the jeans to implode in the inner thigh region. But only on the right leg. What the heck? On the downside, I am now down to only a couple of pairs of fitting jeans. On the upside, I have fabric for six more jean aprons. (I think I'd rather have the pants.)

2. My dog is a ridiculous bed hog.

Okay. This one isn't really something I learned this week. It's just one thing that was blatantly reaffirmed. 

We have a California king. Seriously, this is a huge bed. But somehow, we both end up relegated to the 1/3 sliver of it on my side. Why? Because my Great Dane likes to spread herself out and take over the entire freaking thing. And then she grumbles when you try to move her. As a result, my back is killing me today. Thanks, Sadie.

3. I am becoming mildly obsessed with the blog.

I took Collin out for a birthday dinner last night. (I like the portion of the year when I'm only four years older than him.) We made a conscious effort not to talk about work (because it's depressing). Instead, I spent about 15-20 minutes blathering on about this. Seriously.

I've gotten mildly giddy about the blog a few times this week. I was featured (well, my projects were anyway) on two different linky parties this week as a favorite. That felt really good. The jean aprons were picked over at My Repurposed Life and the cereal box coasters were selected at Artsy Fartsy Mama. It's been awesome to see the stats go up and to gain a few new followers to the blog. It's always nice to know that there are a few people out there who appreciate the projects I complete.

Speaking of...let's see what I completed this week...

Posts I Posted: This week, the posts featured letters F through K. Here's what I came up with...

F was for Fish...as in the personalized Go Fish cards I made for Miss Marley for Christmas...

G was for Glasses. I explained how we failed at all the Pinterest methods for cutting glass and how we finally managed to make pretty nice beer bottle glasses of our own.

H was for Heating Pad. I remade a project to get better pictures for the blog and got more adept at wrangling rice into a nice reusable and portable heating pad (which will probably get put to use shortly on my train wreck of a back).

I was for Idaho. I showed a little home state pride and used Darian as a somewhat reluctant model for my fabric stenciled "home" t-shirt.

J was for Jake. I allowed myself one of two throwback posts for the month to fill the "J" slot with my Adventure Time Jake bag.

and finally...K was for Kitchen Rag Rug. A nice, easy (but time consuming) project.

Not a bad little group of projects.

I'm really excited for this upcoming week...most specifically tomorrow. Tomorrow's "L" post is one that I've been holding onto for a while and it's easily my favorite project of the A to Z challenge...quite possibly my favorite finishing project ever. I'm hoping that everyone else likes it as much as I do.

Recipes I Tried: We tried one new CrockPot recipe this week. I made Six Sisters' Asian Glazed Chicken. It was quite yummy. I made it with chicken thighs rather than breasts and added in some pineapple and crushed cashews to the mix. We didn't shred the chicken and instead ate the thighs separately from the rice with sauce drenched over both, and it was delicious. It's definitely a keeper.

Source

Books I Read: Ugh. I did not get much reading in. Once again, I got myself sucked into the interwebs and spent way to much time looking at blogs and pins. I did make it more than halfway through An Undiscovered Goddess by Michelle Colston, but I didn't finish as I had hoped. I'm really glad that May is one of the two book themed months of the year, because I'm really going to need some serious reading time to get caught up on my Goodreads goal for 2014. 

Projects I Worked On/Finished: Other than creating a new heating pad for the "H" post, I didn't spend much time up in the crop room this week. I had plans to work on something yesterday, but I just flat out didn't do it. There will be crafting this week though. I have a couple of projects that need finished for the "W" and "Y" posts coming up for the end of the month.

Favorite Pin of the Week: This is where the other half of my week was spent (the half that wasn't spent on A to Z posts). I hung out on Pinterest a lot this week. It's a little sad. In fact, there are currently ten tabs open at the top of this browser with Pinterest boards for me to look through. It's a sickness.

This week's favorite was this cute little scrappy owl.

Pin that was the source, because the pin doesn't link you to the cutesy owl.

How adorable is that? I love it.

And now I'm off to soak myself in a nice, hot tub in an attempt to make my mangled back feel better. Dumb dog.

Have a great week! And don't forget to come back tomorrow for my BIGGEST project of the A to Z Challenge.