I just picked up a batch of wood blocks from cousin Jenn, and got to mount a bunch of my new felts this morning. Very stoked about this good-looking bunch. Something for baby showers, wedding showers, and you in here…

Blog readers get free shipping. Just mention the blog in your note to seller, and don’t pay through paypal until I contact you.

In the past, I’ve talked about my obsession with names, and found that a number of you could relate (Melissa and I even discovered we had both named cars “The Silver Bullet”). So now, dear readers, it’s time to see how many of you are likeminded on another topic: list-making.

You know who you are.

Every Sunday night (or Monday morning) I list out everything to do for the week. I have a day planner (sorry, this is where I go waaayyy lo-tech—yes, I know about the iphone, and no, I don’t want one). One week takes up two pages, and on each day I list out any regular engagements, stuff that I remember needs to be done that day, etc. As I go through the week, it sits 6 inches from my left hand while I’m at my desk, or on the counter that functions as our apartment’s hub. Anything that comes up, whether it’s going out or purposefully spending a night at home, it goes in there. It’s my brain dump. For someone who naturally obsesses just a tad too much about life, this helps me not obsess. Once it’s written down my mind can let go of it.

I come by this habit honestly, though. I distinctly remember my dad sitting down on Sunday nights, Dayrunner in hand, writing out his list for the week. Our family also had a dry-erase board over our dining room table for the purpose of lists (and homeschooling). It was always full on Saturday work-around-the-house days (Jason and I had honey-do lists long before either of us ever got married).

But the best part of this whole list-making lifestyle: CROSSING SOMETHING OFF.

The back half of my planner is not a nice chronicle of my year. Rather, it’s a series of blots, hashes and scratches that firmly state “This is done.” It’s horribly ugly but horribly satisfying. My planner provides daily moments of glee whenever a task is obscured by a big fat pen mark.

And I will admit that I’m a bit of a crossing-it-off cheater. If something doesn’t get done in a day, I don’t leave it. I cross it off and move it to the next day–it’s a joint moment of happiness (yay, crossed it off!) and depression (tomorrow’s list just got longer).

So there you have it, a glimpse into my list-making soul. Anyone else have lists of lists? Please share…

Oh, and p.s.: Bill caught the vision and recently bought a dayplanner. Now I can cross THAT off my list.

Bill calls this new, limited edition work, “Smoking candle in the midnight breeze.” He’s considering opening an etsy shop.

…and soon to be on Etsy for public consumption.

It’s official: I’ll be teaching here next month. 

I’ve got to say, this felt I finished last night is one of my new favorites.

…with five new bundles of joy. There’s more to come, but I wanted to get things moving. First 3 sales get free shipping, b/c I don’t know how much shipping actually costs. It’s a great way to find out.

www.junebugfelts.etsy.com

**friends and family take $8 off. After you purchase it on Etsy, don’t pay for it on paypal yet. Shoot me a convo mentioning my blog and I’ll resend an adjusted paypal invoice.**

It’s one of our favorite finds on allrecipes.com:

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

We add a bag of mixed veggies. It’s not really summery food, per se, but summer hasn’t arrived yet here yet, so we’re squeezing this meal in before it does.

The fair went amazingly well this weekend, and I had a great time. We (and I say “we” because Bill was an incredible help this weekend ringing up sales and doing anything else that needed doing) sold almost all of the 19 felts. I sat in front of the booth a good chunk of the time and stitched, which ended up being one of my favorite parts of the fair. Felting is a rather abstract concept until you see someone do it live, and people were as fascinated by the art as I am. As a result, we hit nearly 90 registrants for the felt class I’m teaching mid-summer at the church. Looks like it’s going to be felt classES, and that’s fine by me. It will be good to be teaching again after such a long sabbatical (from ESL teaching last time).

Here’s some shots from our booth this weekend. Anything felted is ours, the painted dolls are by Goosegrease, and the prints are by LiveFromBrooklyn.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=258960&id=693950284&l=2020d82051