It's MONDAY??

Today in NOTL:  Lovely day, with a high of around 52F/11C...gorgeous!

In this morning's blogtalk radio show, I a)thought it was FRIDAY (what a letdown!! lol) and b)alluded to a little story I told some time ago about my attempt to bring a little Martha Stewart into my life.  I'll post it again, for those who weren't around when I posted it the first time....

Martha Stewart, You Done Me Wrong!
So I'm watching Martha. She has, as always, something stunning to show us and it's so EASY to do at home....I am mesmerized: she is working with glitter and I'm instantly attracted to anything that sparkles so there I sit with tongue out.

"Just apply the glue," she says, showing how to put glue onto the bird. Well, I've had my glue problems in the past...but I am an optimistic kinda gal, so ok. "And cover the bird with this beyoooooTTTTTyful glitter...I'm using this lovely blue..." (here she dips an ice scoop into a Rubbermaid Tough Tote filled with about 25 pounds of glitter) "which is the exact shade of blue I saw in the baldacchino in a lovely old Italian church..." (She's scooping that glitter for all she's worth, which is to say: LOTS.) "It was actually the highlight in one of the flower petals and I remember saying to myself that we'd have to use that particular shade in something....and just shake off the glitter... Mine is called Baldacchino Italiano Petal Blue Glitter and is available at craft stores and Martha Stewart Online of course.... And there is our beyooooTTTTTyful bird, all ready for the tree. How simple but how very elegant..." The camera pans over a row of birds, from chickadees to fantasy birds with their various markings in different colours of glitter, all looking quite fabulous. Ok, I can glue, I can pour, and I can shake so I figure I'm in business.

I get out my ziplock bag of glitter. I have a bunch of glitters, all in small bottles, no two bottles filled with the same shade. Never having been to Italy, I choose a bottle of gold glitter which is the precise shade of gold that is used for glitter and sometimes those chenille stems. Martha and I obviously move in different circles, but fine. Not having enough to warrant using a mondo plastic container, I use a paper plate to contain the glitter.

Not having a 'dimensional bird' (translation: one of those bird picks you see at the craft store), I quickly glue some pieces of watercolour paper together and draw a few stylized birdies onto them. Noting that it is indeed a small bottle of glitter, I quickly paint the birds yellowish orange in case my coverage is not as full and thick as Marty's. Once they dry, quite nice and flat, I note with some pride, I am ready to roll.

I smear glue over one side of one bird and set it aside while I glue one side of a second bird. I open the bottle of glitter and the cap drops glitter all over my table as I set it aside. No matter, I reassure myself. I can shake the glitter off all the papers under my paper plate. I gently pour the glitter over the first bird and tap gently to shake off the excess. Most of the glitter drops onto the plate.

Uh-oh, I think. The glue has begun to dry! I grab the second bird and shake glitter, hoping that I am in time. Not exactly, though a large spot of glue has held a mound of glitter, making the bird look as though it has a goiter on its poor wing. "Medic!" I think merrily and try to flatten the bump.

Ah, the glue under the mound was wet and so my finger now has a glittergoiter on its tip. I carefully set the bird down on the plate and try to rub off the litter with a tissue. Hmm, that Aleene sure knows how to make glue, I think to myself, observing that my glittergoiter seems to have a rather large tissue flag attached to it. I rub it off with my free hand which has somehow gotten fairly sparkly itself. No matter. I press on.

I apply glue to the back side of bird one and glitter, emptying the bottle. Tap and set aside, I murmur gently but alas, having tapped with too-great enthusiasm, the glitter has drifted to my sweater and skirt. I lean over the plate and shake the fabric and a sparkling cascade of glitter and a few cat hairs settle onto the plate.

I take the second bird and quickly apply a bit of glue to the back and glitter it. By now I have emptied the bottle so I take a small piece of paper to scoop glitter from the plate. Ok, scoop is too generous a term; I'm scraping.

Returning to the first bird, and now a little concerned by the small amount of glitter left, I examine the first side of it which got such thin coverage. I'll put glue in the thinnest spots, I tell myself, and look for the paper onto which I've squirted the glue. I find it, eventually, stuck to the outer side of my hand. By now I'm getting a little worried but I do my best. Finally the birds are glittered ... not exactly to my satisfaction, but they sparkle.

I hand them to Deb for placement on the tree. She crosses the room to hang them onto the tree and the glitter catches the glowing lights on the tree. My birds sparkle gorgeously! I am thrilled and wait expectantly for Deb's reaction as she returns.

"You know," she muses, as she admires the tree, "maybe next time you could do stars or hearts instead of fish."