MRS. FUTZING. PAGING MRS. BEATRICE FUTZING.

I can't seem to leave well enough alone today. Is it the weather? Could it be a harbinger of Spring? Do I have ants in my pants?

Whatever it is...I'm driving myself (and my little dog too) completely nuts.

It all started with this color palette that I've had in my head for the last six months. I have visions of hot pink, deep orange, lemony yellow, Kermit the Frog green, and chocolate brown dancing about in my tiny little brain. Everywhere I look...BAM! I see that combination of colors taunting me.

Aunt Chrissy gifted me with Ms. Laura J. Perin's Red Hot Peppers chart for Christmas, so as I was rummaging around in the studio last night I thought to myself "Why not pull that wack-a-do color palette out and see what happens?" So I came up with this:
Not too many changes, really. The browns and yellows were already there, so all I needed to do was switch out the Watercolours and stick in a little orange and pink and voila! I think I'm on the right track.

So then I pulled out my big box 'o threads that Ms. Ruth Schmuff pulled for me for Tony Minieri's Stars for the New Millennium and tweaked a few and came up with this: Like a boob, I had asked Miss Ruth to pull colors based on a Waterlilies color called Marigold. Lovely, really, but after I looked at the skein that I have here, I realized that there's not one single speck of pink and/or chocolate brown to be had anywhere. So I yanked out a Wildflowers Potpourri instead, and KABLOOEY! I think I got exactly what I'm looking for...but minus the chocolate.

(What IS it with me and chocolate brown? You know the one I'm talking about...DMC 3371. Rich, deep, dark yummy brown. Am I chocolate deficient in some way? Is it my body's way of telling me that it needs more cake? Should I run out and buy myself some fancy pants new shoes in that color? What the heck IS it??!!!!)

Stewey is convinced that all of this futzing is the result of my recent amplification in the amount of dietCoke that I've been pouring down my gullet, but I'm not so sure. I always seem to do this as the days get a little longer...I find myself reaching for a cold one more frequently than I do in the cold dark depths of winter time. He thinks that if I made a concerted effort to drink less dietCoke and play more outside sports with him I would look and feel much better. Damn dog.

(Note to self. No more Dr. Oz watching for Little Lord Fauntleroy anymore.)

So those are my issues for today...banging around the place like a 300-pound hummingbird without a clue as to what will come next. I guess you could call it crazy, but I'd rather think of it as just another fun day riding the roller coasters at Coni Island! Woo Hoo! (*) (**)

(*) If you lived in South Bend, Indiana in 1989 and went to a sports bar called Coaches and you walked in and asked the handsome bartender for a Coni Island, you got a drink comprised of one part Kahlua, one part Amaretto, and one part Baileys.

(**) What can I say? I was a total idiot back then.