It's started again.

So You Think You Can Dance is back on this summer. Last year I had a really hard time knitting while watching it. This year, I found I can single crochet while watching! YAY!!! I can fuel two of my obsessions at the same time. See?

Isn't she cute? She's going to be this. Have you seen Owlishly's patterns yet? I found her when she was featured on the Craftzine blog, and I absolutely fell in love. I think I have about 6 of her patterns so far. This is the first one I've worked on, and it's been a delight! Take a look at her Etsy store when you get a chance.

In other news.... I found some lighter-weight colored paper for cutting.

I ran into Staples the other day for a printer cartridge, and I found some good stuff. The paper in the first photo is a little bright for me, but they didn't have any earthy colors in reams available. I may not use all of it for cutting, but I'm sure the boys will get some use out of the paper for crafts in years to come! The second photo is paper I'm much happier about - it's Staples' house brand of "mix and match" stationery. I only bought the black, brown, silver, and gold, but they had tons of other colors I'm sure I'll be going back for. And the paper came by itself - you could buy cards and envelopes separately, but the paper was all I wanted, so it was perfect!

I'm giving my dandelion paper cutting as a house warming gift tonight. I finally also got some spray adhesive, and the cutting looks great without all the shadows behind the dandelion parts. Here it is framed and ready to go...

I also made a cutting for my brother's birthday this year.

and framed....

Poor guy. He's 30 years old, and I realized that the past 3 gifts I've given him are robot related. Remember this for his birthday last year? And this for Christmas? I didn't think about that until after this cutting was done. I'll do something different for him for Christmas this year.

Along with a gift card, I also made him this:

And his wife, whose birthday is only a couple days after his, this:
I used the stencils from this great site, and the freezer paper method from this site. The freezer paper tutorial has given me another list of projects I want to work on... Anyway, I really like the stencil on the red shirt. I think it looks fabulous. On the blue shirt, it's hard to see. But it's still fun!

On the home front, we've decided to put the boys to work.

Baby D should be proficient in all the Office applications within the next week or so. He's a quick learner. And the Big Boy? He's going into the entertainment field, of course.