Busy Day

I was amazingly productive today, despite only getting 4 hours of sleep (which I will be paying for tomorrow I can already tell). Hubby took me out supply shopping. I picked up some Speedball Speedy Carve blocks (the pink eraser-looking kind) to try out. I think/hope that they're a little firmer than the sort of golden colored Soft Cut stuff from Speedball and will therefore take finer detail a little better. I also picked up another Exciter pack from Jacquard (I don't make the names people). This time I went with the Halo and Jewel Colors. I already have the Traditionals pack and loved it - a little went a very long way, it had a good consistency for printing/stamping and painting, it has a lovely watercolor effect when diluted a bit with water and, most importantly, it leaves the fabric with a really nice hand - no nobbly bits, no shiny/sticky-ness like you sometimes get with screen prints. Very nice. See close-up examples here.

I also picked up a few other little things I've been needing/wanting - more bobbins, some safety pins, ball ended straight-pins (I have a terrible time seeing and handling the plain-topped ones), and some more sponge-brushes.

I called my Dad to wish him happy Father's Day. I had to track him down actually - Mom and my half-brother and his wife had managed to pry him out of the house for a barbeque. Yay!

I had a nice long chat with some friends I haven't talked to in far too long. Talking smack counts as chatting, right?

I took Oreo out for a short walk. He's such a little gentleman for me when he knows I'm having a rough day physically, and I was today. Lots of near falls shopping (I'm very good at catching myself, even if I do wind up looking like a total dork in the process) and the lack of sleep is catching up with me in the form of aches and pains.

Then I chopped up an old long-sleeved t-shirt sleeve (well, Tom did), wrote identifying info on the pieces with a laundry marker, and used the new safety pins to attach the tags to each of my remnants I picked up last week. (Thanks again, G!) Otherwise I would never have been able to keep straight which was which and what cost how much, etc., etc.

Tom has kindly taken the lot down to the laundry room to wash it for me. I'm hoping I'll be up for getting photos of it tomorrow.

I'm planning on spending the better part of the coming week working on some more print-block designs and hopefully doing a bit of sewing. I'm probably going to start out with a crochet hook case I've been meaning to make for myself as a way to get warmed up before I start in on the "special" stuff I'm planning.