More than a Hill of Beans: Eye Candy

For those of us who are blinder than bats (because they’re not actually blind!), I’m happy to think that glasses can be classified as ‘cool’ and ‘trendy.’ After buying my first pair of reading glasses this week, I decided that today’s “More than a Hill of Beans” should be all about some stylin’ frames, like the $195.00 Betsey Johnson's pictured above!!

I don’t need Tina Fey or Elton John to tell me that glasses are cool; I’ve been wearing glasses since third grade - of course they’re cool!  Unfortunately, my last visit to the eye doctor scored me some even thicker glasses…but at least I got new frames!

I also have been getting headaches for a while working at the computer…not very good when I sit in front of one practically 8 hours a everyday...so my Eye Doctor told me to try out some reading glasses. Here's the cheap drugstore pair I picked up:

(I'm thinking Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch it. I know you'll love it.)

I shopped online for some cooler reading glasses, and I found the $195.00 glasses above, as well as these more affordable frames.  What do you think??  They're a lot smaller that I thought I would be and I can still return them...So your opinion counts!

Or what maybe these frames by Goo Goo Eyes  from ReadingGlasses.com?

My Jones Soda

MrBeans turned the big '3-0' this month, and although he said he didn't want to do anything special, I knew that it wouldn't be a very special birthday if it went uncelebrated.  So I threw him a surprise birthday party at one of his favorite restaurants!

Maybe this isn't very crafty, but I really enjoyed "creating" the favors for his party.  At www.jonessoda.com you can customize bottles of soda with your uploaded pictures.  I borrowed a couple of toddler pictures from his mom and ordered two cases of soda.  I was nervous about the quality of the scanned images, but they came out perfectly!  Everyone at the party raved.  I picked root beer and berry lemonade, which is now my favorite because it reminds me of eating blue freezer pops as a kid!  Although shipping was a little high (hey, none of the bottles broke!), these were totally worth the memories and mementos that they created!

A Dog-gone Good Sleeve

I am loving my new book, One-Yard Wonders!  Although, I've decided to affectionately rename it One-Night Wonders, because with the simplicity of a project only needing one yard of fabric, it doesn't take long to make!

Tonight I did another switcher-oo, using a pattern from the book for a different purpose than intended.  With some inspiration from the Laptop Sleeve pattern I made a convenient sleeve to keep my new digital photo frame safe while taking it and storing it at work!  I followed the pattern instruction precisely, measuring for my photo frame instead of a laptop.   I even decided that the little dog on this sleeve was too cute to not include...I just have to be careful not to let the cats see it!

This pattern gets Four Spools of Thread!  It was easy to understand and follow, and I actually made it without any adaptation to the plans.  I may even think about doing this again for the next electronic device that needs a safe way to travel!

Ah, the Smell of New Fabric in the Morning

Every fabric has its own new-fabric smell...and sometime it's a little off...but the point is that it's new fabric! 

A couple days ago I got a package from one of my favorite on-line fabric shops, Purl Soho.   The next time I'm in Soho, I'm stopping in the shop, but until then, it's blissful online shopping for me!  I chose some oilcloth for a potential new item in my shop, some beautiful Japanese fabrics I'm currently smitten over (although the do smell a little funky...), and a linen for a secret project I can't wait to make and then blog about!! 

Have a great day and make sure you get a wiff off some of your own new fabrics!

More Than a Hill of Beans: Basket Building

Ah, 4:30 on Friday and almost time to clock out...wait! It's Friday, and I haven't published (or authored for that matter) a Hill of Beans post. I'm certainly not starting my new trend out very well...hmm, something cool from this week...  Found it!

One of my co-workers sent me an email forward of the 15 Most Strange Buildings of the World. We chuckled over the overly-imaginative architecture, and I was surprised to find I actually been to one of the buildings! The one pictured above is Longaberger's Basket Building in the Middle of Nowhere, Ohio. I would know that it's in the Middle of Nowhere, because I've been there! But that's another story for another day!

Here's the list of other strange buildings from the email. Do some Google image searching and enjoy! You may even come across some stranger buildings!

15 Most Strange Buildings of the World

1. The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland) This one's my favorite!!

2. Forest Spiral - Hundertwasser Building (Darmstadt, Germany)

3. The Torre Galatea Figueres (Spain)

4. Ferdinand Cheval Palace a.k.a Ideal Palace (France)

5. The Basket Building (Ohio, United States)

6. Kansas City Public Library (Missouri, United States)

7. Wonderworks (Orlando, Florida, United States)

8. Habitat 67 (Montreal, Canada)

9. Cubic Houses (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

10. Hang Nga Guesthouse a.k.a Crazy House (Vietnam)

11. The Ufo House (Sanjhih, Taiwan)

12. Nakagin Capsule Tower (Tokyo, Japan)

13. Erwin Wurm: House Attack (Viena, Austria)

14. Wooden Gagster House (Archangelsk, Russia)

15. Ripley's Building (Ontario, Canada)