Save me New Year's Resolutions!

I think the reason that people are enthusiastic about resolutions this time of year is that we are sort of self-indulgent this time of year. Like yesterday when my parents were here we sort of had a cookie buffet for breakfast. We may have fooled ourselves temporarily saying that we were testing the cookies for their "dunk-ability" with the coffee, but really we were just eating a whole lot of cookies. I vowed not to do that today and started off right with Raisin Bran, but after eating sweet potatoes and spinach for lunch ( and believe me, the spinach was au gratin and not healthy either) we another "cookie episode". Anyways, I feel all full (awful) and sort of bloated again. I will be glad to get past all this cookie eating and focus on something healthy again. Like sewing dresses.

I have really gotten lots of things done this month. For example, I put up two grab bars in the downstairs bathroom on Wednesday. I more or less finished the sewing room and we have the majority of my sewing stuff down there. It still needs to be organized, but the room is useable now. My possibly psychic Sister-in-law Rosie sent me a label maker for Christmas that will be an absolute godsend for that room...way to go Rose!

The one thing I didn't do was send my Christmas cards, in part because I had such a hard time finding ones that I liked. I finally found them, and it was the week of Christmas and I was too busy to send them. I think they will make acceptable thank you cards. Or late Christmas cards, depending on who you are.

I did have a lovely Christmas though. I was a little stressy leading up to it, but it wasn't too bad. People were helpful and cheerful. The house looked okay, as long as you didn't go upstairs to wrapping and storage central. The weather was fine for traveling. It was nice to be with our families, which is all too rare an occasion anymore.

One last thing...go to youtube and type in Super Library Lady to see the video that Lilly made me for Christmas. Lilly, you and it are awesome.

(At this point I am contractually obligated to say that Kari and Kristin are awesome too)

It's December, it must be time for another post

I should probably feel guilty about not posting more often, but I don't even have time to feel guilt this week. My day yesterday started at 6:00 a.m. doing some retouching and painting on the room downstairs that was having carpet installed at 9:00. I just couldn't paint in there with new carpet...I just know I would do something like drop a quart of paint all over the new carpet, that is such a me thing to do. So I painted the white trim, took out the garbage, came in and touched up the blue paint where I left some white blotches, made Lil's lunch, got her off to enrichment, folded several loads of laundry, showered, started making soup for dinner, let the carpet layers in, ran to Krogers for onions and tomatoes, finished making soup and stuck it in the crock pot, left for workat 10:30, checked in the deliveries, called the patrons who's books came in, worked on decorating the trees while attending the desk now and then, left for the branch at 5:00 where we did a 2 hour ornament workshop for 16 kids ( at least they were not so noisy as the 20+ kids the night before!), came home, folded another load of laundry, changed, went to the rec center, came home at 9:00 p.m. and ate dinner and watched the Office.

Almost all my tv shows are coming to an end! Dexter and Top Chef are about to end. Project Runway and ANTM are over...geez, I will have to read a book or something if there is nothing to watch! Or maybe I can even sew!!

Speaking of sewing...the new carpet went into the guest room/sewing room yesterday and I love it and I love Kirians! They are the best. I have not bought flooring from them for about 4/5 years and Mrs. Kirian still remembered my name when I went in. They give great customer service and they are just the nicest friendliest people...makes me want to install new flooring in every room. (no, they are not sponsoring this blog post)

Tonite Al and I have to go to Home Depot and get some baseboard for me to prime and paint so we can get that installed and move some furniture back in that room. I am moving all my sewing stuff down there, and some of the stuff that was in that closet is going upstairs. Fun, fun, fun.

This is Kristin's last day of student teaching and I bet she gets all emo. I can't believe 2 of my kids have graduated from college. Of course I had a Senior in high school helping me at the workshop last night, and I realized that I had her in preschool storytime many years ago and she used to insist that I call her Goofy. Hehe. I reminded her of this and then I said, Wow, I'm old!

I had such good dreams last night. I went to a big garage sale where everything was vintage-y and cool, and not outrageously priced either. Although I did reject some things as too expensive. Yes, I am sensible even in my dreams. I was really wondering if it was a wise thing to reject a black Patty Playpal in perfect condition at 79.99. Hmmmm. I will have to look on Ebay and see if I made a good dream decision.

The Days are Noticeably Shorter

I have to say that when I think of November, I think of grey skies and cold. (sorry Kristin) Its sort of like February in that respect. So imagine my happiness that this has been such a lovely November so far. Two weekends in a row of 60+ temperatures and sunshine. On. a. weekend.

So yeah, I've been accomplishin'. This week I painted the downstairs bedroom in Benjamin Moore's "Glass Slipper"...a soft grey blue. Its the kind of blue, that when you open the can, you say, "Hey, this is white". It does dry blue though, and I think its a nice peaceful color and much better than the unhappy beige color. I wonder who gets to name paint colors? I mean, I was deciding between "Glass Slipper" and "Sweet Dreams". I don't remember what the Beige color was, probably "Mucky Road Beige". I think its probably too easy to go wrong with brown shades. On the other hand, I love the Beige in my entry. (Benjamin Moore "Bleeker Beige".) Don't ask bleeker than what.

I brought carpet samples home and am trying hard to decide...which is very very difficult when the samples are only about six by six. I am getting a berber for this room so I can sew in there and not lose pins in the carpeting. Ya know what would work best for this? Hardwood!

Once I decide which carpet, we will order it and then I will be racing to get the wood trim up and painted. Or painted and up. No wait, Painted, and up, and then re-touched. That's more like it. Then the furniture can be put back and the sewing machine brought down. And the sewing can begin. At least, thats the plan. It would be nice to have at least one bridesmaids dress done before Christmas.

I packaged up some presents to send to Kristin for her birthday, and now I have to go and make this weeks Christmas cookies to freeze. Tonite...Lemon Crinkles...my favs. Best cookies for dipping in your coffee ever. Yum.

Just an observation before I close...there are times lately when Lilly seems so grown up. And then there are times like the other night when following a dinner of spaghetti I went to the bathroom and there on my formerly clean white handtowel was a mouth-sized orange stain. Or I was watching a video she had made on Youtube and I discovered that the Kleenex from my bathroom had disappeared because she made her Webkinz a couch out of the box, and the actual Kleenex was now a bed for her Webkinz dog. (the video was a tour of her dog's house)

At least she has stopped spilling cups of water and breaking glasses.

Trick or Treat

So last night we were watching the Hallmark Channel (! I know!) because it was showing a Disney classic, "The Three Lives of Thomasina", which we hadn't seen in like, forever. Whoever wrote the music for this one, also did the music for Pollyanna, cause it sounded just the same. When I remarked on this, Lilly asked, "What's Pollyanna?", and I was astounded and guilty that she had never seen it. So we will be renting Pollyanna some time in the near future. We also decided that cable should have a Disney Classic on Demand channel, and I am not talking about the animated movies.

Later in bed we were discussing what other movies would be on this channel. We came up with, The Ugly Dachshund, Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion, That Darn Cat, The Love Bug, Old Yeller, Blackbeard's Ghost, The Shaggy Dog, and then there are others that we don't quite remember. Almost all starred either Dean Jones or Kurt Russell. Al was saying that there was a movie called "The Teenage Computer", which turned out to be "The Computer That Wore Tennishoes". And I am certain that there is a movie out there called "Bimbo the Wrong-Way Otter", but I could be wrong on that one too. Bimbo sounds wrong for Disney. I also think there is a movie about a raccoon named Rascal who makes a big mess in the house. Animals making big messes in the house is a reaccuring theme in these Disney movies.

I took 4 bags o' stuff to Goodwill yesterday. They only sat around for like...a month and 1/2 before I took them, so yay me! I also finished Lilly's Halloween costume, based on her own design. She is going to be a Ninja Bunny. I had to make fluffy numchucks to go with it. The outfit is pink and she has a fluffy bunny tail and bunny ears. It is long sleeve and long pants but unfortunately it is going to be cold tonite, so she may be a lumpy layered Ninja Bunny.

Last year we had hardly any trick or treaters which was sad. Except that all the kids at the library got my extra candy, so it was nice for them. Al is out getting candy now, so you can just bet that there will be Nestles Crunch and Mounds (he likes 'em) and SweetTarts (which he does not like and gives to Older Kids.) Unless on Halloween day, those choices have already dissapeared off the shelf. I have to carve my pumpkin today, which leads me to ask, why did I get such a big pumpkin again? So I would have even more glop to scoop out? What was I thinking?

Come back Indian Summer! I want more of you!!

Ginger Ale and Chicken Noodle Soup

Okay, it seems like a very long time since I've written anything here. I remember vowing to put the shut-off valve on the washer and that was accomplished.( Of course, while it was being installed, a fitting blew, spraying water all over the laundry room floor and making water spots on my kitchen ceiling...hey, wait a minute, isn't this why I am having this done?? So that doesn't happen?) Luckily we have some spray on Kilz, so the spots are gone. I need to find some ceiling white that will cover the Kilz, as it doesn't quite match.

Last week was something of a blur, as Kristin called, crying, on Tuesday afternoon. She was feeling very sick and her Doctor wanted her to get chest xrays. I jumped into my car and made the trip to Berea to bring her home. Luckily, she did not have pneumonia, but did have the flu, so got Tamiflu right away. I took her back to school on Sunday, (a beautiful day!), with plenty of chicken soup and other things to make sure she eats now and then.

I have still continued to make accomplishments, but most are nothing major. Some sewing here and there, although I did make a bedskirt for my bed, which was a fairly big job. I made the bedskirt out of scraps from the headboard material. I intended to buy a new bedspread as our old one is showing its age, but I can't seem to find the right color. Lands End has discontinued the green color, so I need to find something in a similiar color. I suppose white would work too, but something tells me that white would not be the greatest choice. I will keep looking.

I fell asleep in front of the tv last night and woke up around 12:30. I went upstairs to go to bed and stopped to switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer. As i was doing this I look up and there's Lilly (scared the poo out of me!) and she says, "I woke up!". I said, oh, okay. After I was done with the laundry, I went to kiss her goodnight and she wasn't in her bed! I thought...she thinks its morning and she went downstairs...and that is exactly what she thought. She gets up at 6:00 a.m. most days and goes down to sleep on the couch until I wake her up again. So I went downstairs and there she was asleep on the couch. I informed her that it was not quite 12:30 and she needed to go back to bed. I took her back upstairs and tucked her in. She was a bit shivery, and I thought a bit warm, but at that hour, she was not interested in taking any medicine.

Of course this morning she has a headache and fever. Yesterday she had a sore throat, but managed the whole day at school and swim club too. So right now I am home, and waiting to see if Jane wants me to come in today. (Al can cover today, but not tomorrow) If I stay home, I may actually get something done! Right now, I feel the need for coffee.

Good health to everyone!

Diversity in the Workplace

I have tried to diversify my accomplishments a bit this week. I got Kristin's curtains done which was a big check off the list, I got 2 test bodices sewn for Kari's dummy dress, and cut out and sewed the skirt for that dress too. I also basted the skirt onto the experimental bodice so she could try it on. I think she has decided for the changed bodice. Which I think is called a "basque" waist. I cleaned out my kitchen junk drawer for the first time ever I think. I also added a couple more coats of drywall mud, but that is such a slow process it doesn't feel like I'm really getting things done.

Today Lil and I went through her closet and dresser and put her short sleeves in the dresser and hung up the long sleeved tops. She had to try on all of last years long sleeves to see what fit and what would be passed down. This is a job we always dread, but actually its not so bad to just do it and get it over with. I need to put some stuff together for Goodwill too and donate it tomorrow.

AND I NEED TO REMEMBER TO CALL THE PLUMBER AND HAVE THOSE THINGIES INSTALLED ON MY WASHING MACHINE SO I DON'T FLOOD MY ENTIRE DOWNSTAIRS!
(hows that Dad?) Of course, saying I have to remember to do this and actually doing it are two very different things.

At home we are fighting the battle of the Fruit Fly. Did you know that one fruit fly can lay 500 eggs? I think we have 100 fruit flies laying 500 eggs each...I am sick of seeing the little buggers. We have vinegar traps all over and have resorted to vacuuming them up, which is a lot easier than smashing them in your hand. There is a certain satisfaction in actually smashing one in your hand though...the odds are against you though - fruit flies fly fast. (say that 5 times fast!)

Oh, lovely October. You are my favorite month.

Okay, well now we can have Indian Summer

There was frost on the lawn this morning and the house was so cold that we turned on the heat and its still on, although I will be turning it off before I go to work. I also made Autumn Soup this morning which is making the house smell good and cozy. I made home-made applesauce last night because I realized that Lilly can't bite a whole apple with her braces and we were out of fruit other than apples. Back to Haslingers to replenish the apple supply during work break today. I also took the screen door off and replaced it with the storm door. So I guess I am doin' things.

My accomplishments are still crack-filling though, because it takes a long time before I am satisfied with it. I don't want to see that those cracks were ever there. I have lots more things I can think about doing though. If I am going to sew in that downstairs room I want to repaint it first, which means I have to prime it first. I finally got muslin to line the drapes for Kristin's room, so I can also do that. I need to have a day off to get something like that started...hello Friday!

Tiney goes to vet tomorrow for second set of shots and also to see if she has worms. I hope the treatment doesn't involve giving her pills because that is one of the most difficult things to do...getting a cat to swallow pills. It takes at least two people to do it. How do single cat owners give their cats pills I wonder? It boggles the mind.

Is anyone enjoying watching the PBS/Ken Burns movie about the National Park System? I have been watching it and it makes me want to go and visit them all. It also makes me feel very lucky that my parents took us out west when we were kids. I have wonderful memories of those vacations and the many beautiful places we visited. The Rocky Mountains, the Sand Dunes in New Mexico, the flat golden fields of Kansas...we really live in a beautiful country. I have mostly blocked the memories of Janet getting carsick. No seriously, thanks for that Mom and Dad.

Time to turn off the heat and ride the exercise bike.

Hoarding

Okay, I was watching the A&E show "Hoarders" this morning and I find it very frustrating. It makes me want to go through my possessions and throw things away. The doctors and specialists who deal with these hoarders are so patient with them, but for the most part, it seems as if they accomplish very little. The hoarders have total control over the people who are there to help them, and they have to go through everything and touch everything and make a decision about each little object. Each thing they keep is so infused with meaning to them. Its like they are addicted to finding meaning in inanimate objects. I would be a terrible person to work with hoarders because I would end up screaming at them to get rid of stuff and throwing things away behind their backs. I know I always feel good if I have lots of stuff to take to Goodwill. But then, I am such a giver...hehehe.

I wonder, if you have a hot tub full of computer equipment, and more computer equipment in your shelves, stuff that you have not used in years and years...does that make you a hoarder? Hmmmm.

I am still working on crack filling and I did end up working on those rooms where I don't know if I still have the paint for them or not. I mean, they need to be done, why put it off? Every little bit helps, and it looks better than cracks.

Our JoAnn fabrics is closing which is sad and very inconvenient for someone with 10 dresses to sew. I remember when there were two fabric shops in town and now there will be basically none. Hobby Lobby has fabric but it is junk and I wouldn't buy it. It is like the W-Mart of fabric stores.
I may go to JoAnns to get some muslin today to work on Kari's dummy bodice. We are thinking about changing to the waistline so must try that on some other fabric first.

Make it work.

Crack Cover-up

I'm working on covering up settling cracks this week. I finally went to the hardware store and bought drywall mud so I can deal with these cracks. Right now I'm working on two of them, and I could work on a couple more, but I need to find out if I have paint leftover for those two rooms, because if I do not, I will also need to paint rooms when I'm done. I really do not want to paint these rooms right now. In other news, I hurt my back doing absolutely nothing yesterday. I just stood up and it hurt. So I am trying to be careful with it because I do not like my back to hurt. (unlike most people who actually want an aching back!!)

This week is speeeeding by! I am going to Haslingers during my lunch break to hopefully buy many Macintosh apples, even though it is early for them yet. I may also have to buy pears and other things...I tend to carried away at fruit stands...I may end up buying gourds to decorate the mantel too. And white pumpkins. And...and..

Bridesmaid material should be in tomorrow. Then I can sew 4 bridesmaids. I am going to have to lock Tiney out of the room when I cut out dresses...she was absolutely insane when I did the last dress for Lilly...she would jump on the pattern and I would yell at her and swoosh her away and she would be back a minute later to do it again. Its like she couldn't stop herself. Apparently pattern paper is irresistible to cats.

If you tear apart what you did, did you accomplish something?

For a couple days now, I've worked on a "dummy dress" for jr. bridesmaids. I was at the point of almost done when I had the guinea pig try it on and we were both pretty underwhelmed. The skirt does not twirl, which we pretty much knew, but the top was so badly fitted. I think a lot of blame can go to the material, but it seems like a lot of work for what should be a simple pattern. So this morning I picked out a lot of stitches and will attempt to fit it better before I really pass judgement on it. I will not reattach the skirt I think. A lighter material, a fuller skirt maybe...otherwise its been a big waste of time. Other things I got done were a coat of primer on a Noah's ark that I started for someone several years ago, and was almost done when I found out they didn't like green. Sigh. This is one I would seriously like out of my house.
Right now I am just feeling disgruntled and dissapointed.

In which she got out her trusty angle brush....

Long overdue paint chores the past couple o' days. Yesterday was touching up the bathroom where the grout had spilled over a bit from the tile. It looked noticeably better this morning. Tonite I touched up the green paint in Lil's and our room. Lil's has been in need of paint for an incredibly long time...so long that I've forgotten how long its been. When did I hang that poster and the mirror? Pitiful.

I am hoping this whole organization/accomplishment thingy spills over into work too. Its always less stressful to have programs finished before you need them. It would actually be awesome to have Summer Reading Program finished in record time this year. I've gotta think underwater thoughts...Pirates, fish, swimming.

Wait, this blog is not about work! Its about home and the need to get things done around here too. Bad blogger! Bad blogger! Must think about things that need to be done at home. .....mmmmyawwwwwnnnn...so sleepy.

This used to be the last day you could wear white...

I have to say that I love a long holiday weekend. Especially a holiday weekend like Labor Day in which I don't have to send cards or bake. Yesterday my accomplishment was cleaning the kitchen, but not in the ordinary way. This was a unscrewing the crumb-catcher on the toaster and emptying it out and washing it kind of cleaning...the kind I do all too rarely nowadays.

Today I did not labor too much. My accomplishment was spraying Killz over the spot in the family room where there was a water stain. We fixed the source of the roof leak many months ago by-the-way. I was going to patch a crack in a wall, but unfortunately, the drywall mud was left open slightly and was all dried up. I was relieved to think of that stain, as I just didn't feel like starting a sewing project at this hour.

One good thing that came out of cleaning yesterday was finding orthodontia reimbursement checks for Lil's braces. Who knew? Obviously not me, as one had expired and now needs to be re-issued.

This will be my last quiet week before storytimes start....ahhh summer break, you were so brief and so sweet.

In which twirly skirts = happiness

Ahhhh...the long holiday weekend. Yesterday Kari and I went to look for fabric at Hancock Fabrics. It was a huge dissapointment. Hancock Fabrics used to have a really really nice selection of formal/bridal fabrics and they had doody. It made me sad. We went with plainer fabrics that I will embellish. I ordered a bunch of embroidery/bead embroidery books today for ideas. I am also thinking I would like to turn the downstairs guest bedroom into my sewing room at least for the time being. I would like a place where cats are not, and where others are not. I want the room as clean as possible, and where projects in mid-sew are not disturbed. I mowed the lawn yesterday, but I will not count that as my accomplishment. Instead, I will say that my accomplishment was taking down the shower curtain, soaking it in whitening chemicals, washing it, and hanging it back up. (mowing was easier)

Today my accomplishment was cutting out a test dress for the jr. attendants. Although this pattern resembles the bridesmaids more, it does not have a twirly skirt and I think little girls, and even tween girls need twirly skirts. I myself like a good twirly skirt from time to time...and a wedding is an occasion where one might like a twirly skirt. My test pattern will be the plain non twirly that the pattern comes with. Just to see how this pattern looks on the test subject. Will sew tomorrow I think.

Also, my bitch of the day is that if you are at the community center and you have been monopolizing a machine for awhile and you get up and walk away from it, you should not think that it will continue to be "your machine". It is fair game when you walk away. And to those of you who use two machines at once...doing a little here...and then a little there (not cleaning the equipment between reps-ugh!)...you are machine hogs! If you are there by yourself, this is okay, but when there are more folks around, and I am trying to get my workout in before I go to work, you need to limit yourself to one machine at a time. Or buy some equipment to put in your own home that you can hog as much as you want. Do you hear me annoying people? I am there, trying to keep my chi flowing, and pissing me off is causing chi blockage. Cut it out.

Rant over. But watch your step.

Straighten up

My accomplishment for the day was that I managed to not fall asleep during the new episode of Project Runway. No, not really. What I really did was to attach my old magnifying makeup mirror to the wall of the other upstairs bathroom. I could be slightly happier with this. The wall was hard to drill through and as a result, its not quite level. Which bugs me a bit. If I take it off to readjust it, it will also mean spackling and painting...not a pleasing thought. I really don't like off kilter though, so we will see. A day off of work tomorrow...thank goodness, today was a loooooong day and my feet hurt. G'nite.

My Nouveau-ish Look

Thank you Kari for the awesome template design! I really like the Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue accents...they really pop against the beige. Yeah, I have obviously been watching too much HGTV again. They are always commenting on colors that pop. Okay, I accomplished one thing today...I spray painted the doorbell cover. This one is fairly unsatisfying though, because even with two coats of spray paint, it is still the ugliest thing ever. A better accomplishment would be to break the doorbell cover so it had to be replaced. By the way, when I say doorbell cover, I don't mean the thing on the outside of the house that you press. The thing I spray-painted goes over the actual chimes. It is some 70s faux-Colonial thing, but it is not faux-ugly. It is real ugly.

Maybe my accomplishment of the day should be riding my bike over to the little vegetable stand to buy tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes are tiny and sweet and all different varieties and colors...yellow, orange, red, and yum. They are so pretty I should take their picture and post it here. And then I will call Kari and whine until she helps me learn how to post photos. (Mom, its an intellligence test)

Happy Lovely Late Summer Everyone*



*the two of you who might read this

Honey do it yourself

Not too long ago, I decided to write a list of all the little jobs I had yet to finish around the house. The list grew longer and longer and I kept thinking of more and more things to add. When faced with an overwhelming list like that, my first instinct is to hide the list, or at the very least, ignore it. The thing is, those little jobs don't go away, just because you ignore them. They wait for you, and then you feel stress and guilt because you are not getting them done. And there's more and more....AAaaaaaa!!!!

My oldest daughter announced her engagement a couple weeks ago, and I'm very happy for her. I have committed to making most of the dresses, including hers, for the wedding. I also have the pleasure of helping to plan this joyous occasion. And I do want it to be joyous. I want to enjoy planning and helping her. So...I am going to have to get my act together. When you work full-time, its just so easy to come home and sit on the couch and watch tv, and before you know it, the day is over with and you didn't get anything done.

Every day I want to accomplish one thing. It can't be something I would do everyday...like making dinner...although it would definitely be an accomplishment for me to make dinner every day! I need to start chipping away at this list of things to do around the house. Some days it will be wedding-related things, some days it will be household repair thing, but as long as I am making progress...as long as I get one thing done!

So, okay, this is pretty pitiful that I have to resort to writing it down in order to get it done, but I have always been a list-maker, so this is just a glorified list to check off. And if it works, my life will be much less stressful.

I started yesterday. I pulled all the grass and weeds out of the side planting bed, something that has been bothering me every time I see it. It took over an hour and I ended up with two enormous piles of grass and weeds. This itself will generate a couple more jobs as I should also mulch it and plant some more flowers and shrubs. This area used to look a lot nicer than it does now. Some of the established plants need some major pruning too. See? More things to do. This is what having a house is. (not whining, its the truth)

My accomplishment today was that I caulked the trim around the closet door...a job I started this past winter and never finished. So there...two checks on the endless list.

Wish me luck.