You're Going to Need a Bigger Net

Or stick, or whatever.

I clicked on this photo after I posted it to blogger and it is so gross. I am reminded of that movie, Big Fish, where the guy is leaning over the pond in the backyard and the big fish pops out at him suddenly. Argh.

you're going to need a bigger stick

Crafty Creations, a new Blog Category

Something I've been up to lately is doing a LOT more crafting. This is probably a convergence of several aspects of my life: craziness at work, cutting back on spending, trying to use what I have here at home rather than buying new things, and the fact that I have a really great space for crafting now. More details on the great craft room in an upcoming post. With pics, if I ever get it at least orderly enough for a quick photo shoot.

In the meanwhile, here's the end result of the 4-week-long pencil roll project. Now, I should say that it only takes a few hours to make a pencil roll if you have all the fabric ready to go, but this was a learning process for me, and in addition, I had the added time required to embroider the name on this one. So this is the first of what may turn out to be quite a few pencil rolls, depending on how well-received this one is.

I think this is just about right for a little guy who'll be in the FIRST GRADE in the fall:







If you want to try to make a pencil roll for yourself or a kid you know, there is a great tutorial here.

Comments fixed, and: Today Was A Good Day

First, let me say, anonymous comments are turned on (I didn't even know they were off), so feel free to comment away in total anonymity. Hell, I don't even have that stat counter thing on this new blog, but I never checked it anyway, so you can pretty much rest assured that unless you completely flame my ass, I'm never going to know who you are when you comment anonymously, and if you do flame my ass, or any other part of me, I'll try to figure it out and get frustrated when I can't and that will make me crazy, so...Yay?

Moving on to more uneventful updates, Today Was A Good Day. Now, in case you don't recall, that was the refrain of an Ice Cube song from Boyz N Tha Hood. Remember that movie? After I saw it, I was pretty convinced that I could have survived on the mean streets of Compton. Now I don't even like to run to the Qwik-E-Mart after dark. How far I've come.

Since yesterday's post was all about how miserable (but ridiculous, and funny!) my evening was, and because today was a better day, I thought I'd share a happier note about today/tonight.

First of all, I spent the day at work being ridiculously busy. If I haven't had a chance to tell you this, I got a promotion at work and I'm now the Managing Editor for 2 magazines, in addition to covering the magazine for the ME who's on maternity leave and (for now, at least) still doing my directories. Now, it's weird to say this is a promotion because we've had a lot of cost-cutting measures at work, and I don't want to get into the details, but let's say that, for now and thanks very much to the stupid economee, I did not get a raise with my promotion. :( But, I am making the best of the opportunity I've been handed and I am actually really excited about what the future holds for me with these magazines and the company overall.

Today, I had to do a press check for the 480-page directory that took over my life for the past 3-4 weeks. Luckily, someone else was driving the van down to the printer, which is located in the Louisville area. I set the precedent when I first started my job that I don't ride well, so everyone at work knows, if we're driving, I'm taking Dramamine(tm) and passing out in the back seat, and that's just what happened today. So I not only got to spend my day out in the sunshine but shielded by the air-conditioned comfort of the minivan, but also got paid to take 2 separate naps. Also, the printer sales rep bought us lunch at a Mexican place, making today the second day in a row that I had Mexican for lunch and someone else picked up the tab. And I love when someone else picks up the tab!

When I got home, which was around 6, I decided to do fewer things tonight but I think the problem with me is, I have to constantly be doing something. I tried to just lie around and watch Arrested Development on hulu but after a couple of episodes, I got up to go to the basement and then I ended up sorting and organizing a few things that I want to return to the store to get a credit to use to get the wire netting I need for the compost bin. And I got those things sorted out, and then I went up to the 3rd floor to get the receipts for them, and that's when I got sucked in to the sewing to finish the pencil roll I'm working on for Tommy. And this is exactly how it goes: I just go around working on thing to thing until someone specifically makes me stop. So now that I've identified that problem, I'm going to keep working on making it better.

I have a million more things to write but sleep is calling me. Really calling, like I'm actually asleep as I'm typing.

Quit While You're Not Dead

I may have mentioned a time or two about how much I really love my craft room. But this time of year, it's really sweltering up there on the 3rd floor of the house. So tonight, I turned on the (window unit) A/C up there to get the room cooled down and left (to get ice cream-Yay!) and when I came back, I realised it was, at that point, cooler in the room than when I had left, but now hotter than it was outside. So I turned off the A/C and put the fan in the window to pull some cool air in. Now. In order to put the fan in the window, I needed to move the screen around, which meant moving the blinds around, which resulted in the mini blinds falling out of the bracket on to me, and then, as I was fiddling with the windows and the fan, I pinched my finger in the screen part of the window, letting out a scream of pain and frustration.

That could have been a great stopping point. But, not recognizing that sign, I then turned my attention to the air conditioner, which I had noticed was dripping water onto the floor, because it was sloped in the wrong direction. This I had not noticed when I first installed the unit a few weeks ago, so it's probably been dripping like that every time I run it. Whatever.

Fortunately, I had already unplugged the A/C because I had to, in order to plug the fan in (yeah, my house is that old), and I say "fortunately," because I noticed that the water was dripping out of the same opening that the power cord runs from. Grreeeeeat.

I pulled the (very classy) t-shirt scraps I had stuffed around the window opening out and opened the window. DOH!! How could I have forgotten that the window is what was holding the A/C in place? Oddly, it was all over before I'd even processed what was happening, because that window happens to be right over the roof of the 2nd-floor balcony, so the total drop was about 2-3 inches. But the entire A/C fell out and landed on said roof. That's right, A/C, on the roof. Me, inside the house.

Everyone knows how I feel about heights, right? I don't even like to be on the balcony, much less be hanging out the window above the roof of said balcony. Sheesh.

So here I am, with the window A/C having fallen out of the window and now resting on the (sloped) roof. Yes, this is seriously happening, I think to myself, and I have no idea what to do now.

I suppose a more normal person would have, well, I have no idea what a normal person would have done, because if I had any idea, ever, what a normal person would do, I wouldn't find myself in about, um, ANY of the situations I'm ever in. Sigh.

So, doing what seemed like the best option to me, at the time, I reached out, scoot/pulled the A/C over to the window, gave it the best bear hug I could muster, and then slowly but surely, rocked it back into the window. Just take a minute to visualize what that looked like. Whatever you're imagining, it was far less flattering than that, because there were also all kinds of bits and pieces sticking off the thing that are probably meant to keep it from falling out of the window, but they seem to me to work far better at keeping me from being able to pull it back through the window. I finally got the entire unit back into the house, using a system of rocking and pulling and grunting and cussing, and assessed the damages. Not bad, from what I could tell, except that a couple of clips broke off of the decorative plastic grill. Something else to fix = yay.

I went to the basement to get some Krazy Glue(TM) to try to re-attach those clips but I had no luck finding the glue (not surprising if you've seen the basement, or any part of my house, for that matter). However, I did find the scrap of foam insulation I've been meaning to bring up to cut and place around the A/C, so I grabbed that and brought it upstairs thinking I'd just fix that grill cover whenever I could locate the glue, but at least I'd be able to get the insulation into the window so I could avoid re-stuffing the t-shirt rags back in there. So I sat on the floor, carefully cutting the pieces to fit the window and gently placing them around the A/C, and as I was shaving little pieces of foam off with the retractable craft knife, I inexplicably reached out with my finger and, thinking I was brushing a little piece of foam off, sliced the tip of my finger by running it directly across the blade. I couldn't have made a cleaner cut if I'd been trying to slice it open. And that thing hurt like a mother, once I realised what was going on, which always takes longer than it should. Squeezing the fingertip as tightly as I could and holding it above my head, I came down the stairs (carefully!) to resign myself to spending the remainder of the night writing the sad tale that can also be entitled "why I can never really get anything done."

In summary, what I can say about this entire debacle is:
a) As Heidi suggested, I'm starting to think this house is trying to kill me;
2) Sometimes, it's just easier to flop down on the sofa and look at the Internets all night; and
another thing) It's a damn good thing that I have such a kick-ass first aid kit. I'm all put back together again, but still grumpy. Grr.

Dear Internets

Please help. First, let me explain. Sunday is supposed to be my day of rest (according to not just myself, but also, commanded by God). Today, I did a terrible job of resting, but I did a FANTASTIC job of getting things done around the house. With the help of some friends, of course.
First, I had coffee and chat with Heidi, which we haven't done of a Sunday in awhile. I don't know if that's because we were missing television, or off gallivanting, or what. But anyway, we did that, talked about our feelings, shared our insights on each other's relationship foibles, and generally enjoyed the fact that we are neighbors and friends. OK, that's enough sweetness and light for now. But speaking of light...

Bri and Rob came by in the afternoon to help me heave one giant beast of a window-unit air conditioner out of my living room window. I knew this was going to be a good move, but I was still amazed at how much more light streams in now. Yay!



Now, my problem here is this. Well, it's a two-fold problem. First, I made the drapery liner panels in a floor-length style, and then cut one off because I thought the floor length was too long. But now I'm torn: so should I have them long or short? I like the shorter style because when the draperies themselves are open, I can see the wall under the window. But soon, there will be a sofa there (this sofa, sort of):



Anyway, I'm not sure if I should go with long or short, so right now I have one of each.


The second thing is, I'm not sure how to set up the top of the draperies. Suggestions welcome. I guess the third question is if I need to do something else because I love the pattern of the drapery panels but it kind of washes out in the sunlight. I don't know if sewing in the lining would help. I might do a small-scale experiment about that as I do have smaller pieces of that fabric I could line and hand to see how it does. I liked the idea of leaving the lining separate so I could open and close the linings independently of the drapes. Sigh. So many decisions. Help, please.

By the bye, when the "sofa" gets up here, now that the ugly old A/C is gone, I will get to enjoy this lovely view:



Yeah, the neighbors? Not so hot at the pool maintenance. I love the "finish your sentence" game and Brian did it perfectly today. I was going to say "I am thinking about sneaking over there and shocking it," but before I got to "shocking," Brian chimed in with "popping it?" Heh.