all over the place... con pix!

I woke up this morning to a huge pop-- sharper than thunder, but almost just as loud. My eyes were closed, but I swear I saw a burst of light. I was still too tired to explore, but when I did crawl out of bed and open up the shades, I think I spotted the culprit: a poor fat squirrel met its end on the power line and fell to an untimely death at the end of our driveway. We buried him later and put a little concrete piece on top for a headstone. Poor guy.

After that, the day improved drastically, including 'finishing' the curtains in the bookroom (which Jed has pointed out many times, really *isn't* a bookroom anymore, since I shoved them all into the closet.) Today it functioned as a nice little craft room---and it would be an excellent sewing room if I had any aptitude or drive AT ALL for sewing. It's not that I don't want to create adorable clothes or handy homegoods... it's just that sewing, to me, is SO FREAKING ANNOYING. By the time I haul out the machine, I can barely remember how to do anything, and I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo, but my cellphone always is within arms-length, because every time I bring out the sewing machine, a call to my Mom shortly follows. I can't remember how to do the bobbin... my needle hits the little strikeplate, I can't get the bottom thread to 'come up'... it's just insanely ridiculous how completely PROBLEMATIC the whole thing is.

After I held back the instinct to call, within half an hour, I had successfully wound the bobbin. (BTW, I feel like I have such a 'man' mind for this-- I actually tried just holding the thread rather than going to the book and reading about all the 6,235,678 hoops you have to pull the thread through to successfully gain the right tension.) After that, surprisingly, I was cruising along, sewing little hems on my perfectly cut fabric (thanks to the absolutely correct size at Joann's and their industrial winder/cutter for upholstery fabric, I did not have to CUT ANYTHING-- probably better that way.) Then- after 6 feet of what seemed like an awesome little straight stitch, I flipped it over to admire my work, only to find millions of little loops of thread... all the way down!! UGH!!! Add another half-hour of cutting out the stitch, while trying to find my scissors and my sanity in the accumulating piles of thread mounding around me.

The reason I scare-quote "FINISH" my curtains up there is that, while they look like someone might reasonably buy them-- someone even, who has a somewhat normal sense of style-- don't even look at the backs! My little mini-hems are stitched alright, but the backs are fricking embarrassing... the cuts aren't straight, and they're fraying in some parts... BUT YOU WOULD NEVER KNOW THAT, OF COURSE, because you never turned them over did you... did you?

Oh well. I give myself a solid C for this sewing endeavor. It's adequate, but not over an overachievement by any means. And hell, at least I turned under the sides, so it's better than nothing.

Next- pillows. YIKES. I have the fabric pictured below-- one yard of little paisley/floral and one of the matching stripe (to be ironed.) Maybe I can try that little slit-backed design, with buttons or something for easy on-and-off dog washing capabilities. Oooh... but I'd need to check out the button-hole section of the booklet...

Anyway. On to something that seriously makes me beyond happy x100. If you've ever been to our house and drank out of our glasses-- this little segment is for you. Sorry if you've noticed the totally disgusting pools of lime residue that have been collecting on our Target Drinkware Finery. It won't happen again. I rinsed EVERYTHING in CLR today and gave them a thorough washing. Literally, when I opened the dishwasher door today, the intense prismatic sparkling nearly left me blind. GORGEOUS:

Anyway. One of the only things I'm actually procifient at (not sewing): planting! I hauled home some pansies today and got to work! Happy Spring!!