Tuesday Project Roundup: One Out of Three

The three projects I wanted to finish last week didn't go so well--in my rush to get the knit dress done in two days so I could wear it to drink an Old Fashioned Friday night, I didn't measure the skirt when cutting it out, just trusting it to stretch. Um, it didn't. And the woven floral dress languished all week because I couldn't decide whether to put sleeves on it or not. (The weather has been very confusing lately!) But I did get the t-shirt finished.

The fabric was only $4, it only took about 2.5 hours to sew, and there were no tan stripey t-shirts in any stores, so this was deinitely a winner. As long as I know the pattern fits me (ahem), I think I can say I can sew knits with no problem now.

I threw in a label in the back, too. That's how you can tell I really like it.

First Day of Work

Time to say goodbye to baking three times a week, going to the grocery store at noon on a Wednesday, not getting dressed until 10:00, drinking the entire pot of coffee...and worrying constantly about money, not having anywhere to wear the latest projects, and the sad realization that all my plans involving money would have to be put on hold.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Tonight is Drink an Old Fashioned at the Bar at Bambara Night--here's to getting back on track with the 29 Things!

2. I didn't mention it, but I sent my owl sweater pictures to the designer for a contest, and I won a prize! I won the "Ma's favorite prize, " meaning that the designer's mom liked mine best, and my owl-ish goodies and yarn arrived today:

3. I haven't checked out Martha Stewart's blog in a long time, but yesterday's post title was "My horse, Martyn, loves a good massage" so of course I had to go see. I was reveling in the absurdity until I realized that I would probably do anything to make an animal of mine more comfortable. And if I had Martha's fortune, I would definitely hire a Sherpa to give my ailing horse a massage.

I Really Wish Mad Men Season 2 Was Out On DVD

Because with my fancy new job I could use some advice from Don Draper! (Not for picking up women, of course; step 4 is the payoff..."Be uncannily successful at your job.")



If you haven't seen any Mad Men yet, you're missing out, and not just on fantastic period clothes. Desperate for another series, I got Big Love from Netflix this week and couldn't even make it to episode three. I kept wishing the acting were better, like Mad Men. Check it out here.(Mad Men, that is; don't bother checking out Big Love.)

Today Is ANOTHER Great Day

Because I have a job again! I'll be starting here on Monday and I even have a title, one that has "senior" and "manager" and "writing" in it. Hot damn! Let the good times roll INDEED.



As Mr. Charles says at 1:47, I got fifty cents more than I'm gonna keep!


(No, not really, hon; I won't spend it all. Don't worry.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: Mysterious!

I don't have anything finished to show for this week but I have three projects I'd like to wrap up before Monday or so...let's just say that I think I'll be leaving the house again on a daily basis soon!

So I'll try to finish a brown dress, a stripey knit t-shirt, and a knit floral print dress and tell you all about it next week. More to come, indeed.

Today Is A Great Day

Why? Because one year ago Toby joined the family!

He went from small and timid that first week

to large and spoiled shortly thereafter.

He has an enormous vocabulary of squeaks and chirps, he knows 9 words and phrases (treat, drink, snack, catnip, lettuce, let's get up, good-bye, I'll be back, and toy), and he's the reason I got together a 72-hour kit.

So I guess today is also for celebrating the anniversary of me becoming a crazy cat lady.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Today is the Vernal Equinox. We made it! Here are some science facts (sciiiiience!):

• The fall and spring equinoxes are the only two times during the year when the sun rises due east and sets due west.
• The equinoxes are also the only days of the year when a person standing on the Equator can see the sun passing directly overhead.
• On the Northern Hemisphere's vernal equinox day, a person at the North Pole would see the sun skimming across the horizon, beginning six months of uninterrupted daylight.
• A person at the South Pole would also see the sun skim the horizon, but it would signal the start of six months of darkness.

2. The Obamas are planting a kitchen garden at the White House--it's the first time there's been a garden on the grounds since WWII, when there was a Victory Garden.

The First Signs Of The Season

The robins hopping around and the bulbs coming up and the seasonal allergies I've had all week tell me that spring is coming (tomorrow is the Equinox!), but do you know what really means the end of winter for me?

The return of the gin and tonic! I can only drink them when it's warm outside and it's been so nice this week that tonight is the night.
Delicious, delicious beverage of summer, how I've missed you....

Wednesday Garden-Planting Tune

We got the cold-weather greens in the ground yesterday afternoon. This was in my head the whole time, much to Mr. Isbell's chagrin:



(Sorry to get this in your head, too, but I had to do it. There are SINGING FLOWERS. And John Denver, who is probably high as a kite and who kind of looks like a Muppet himself. )

Tuesday Project Roundup: Crikey!

Crikey! It's a gator!

What a little beauty!

This project that makes me channel Steve Irwin is for my sister-in-law's nephew who asked for a "red alligator" for his birthday. It's a child-size scarf so it was a fast, fun knit. And I got to say, "Crikey!" a lot while knitting it.

And here's a progress shot of a sweater I hope I can finish before it's too warm for sweaters:
I decided I could buy yarn to make this, since it provided not only clothing but entertainment. (Not quite as much as the alligator scarf, though. Crikey!)

Something To Read While You're Waiting To Start Working

I'm waiting to organize web copy today and that
reminded me of Wallace Stevens' "The Idea of
Order at Key West," which you can read in full
here.

She measured to the hour its solitude.
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang.  And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker.  Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I worked half of the week (yay!), so no bread baking, but I did make cookies twice: These hazelnut blondies and the coffee-almond bars I linked to Tuesday. Tomorrow I'll make cinnamon bread again.

2. Speaking of Tuesday, navy wasn't the best color choice for the fleece top to wear around the house--there's an orange haze of Toby hair all over it after ten minutes. Oh well; a conductor in college once said that cat hair on your clothes was just "a memento of something you love."

3. How soon can I plant cold-weather crops like kale and spinach in the ground? St. Patricks day? I've always just transplanted seedlings, but the seed packets say "sow 4-6 weeks before the last frost."

It Writes Itself, Folks!

So I changed my Tribune subscription to Sundays only, but for the last three weeks it's been delivered every day, and today there was this gem: Let's Tax Caffeine, Legislator Argues

[Rep. Craig] Frank, R-American Fork, has asked lawmakers over the next year to study the potential for taxing caffeine, a response to proposals this session to hike the tax on cigarettes - all of which failed

[...]Frank said he has seen research that caffeine can cause spontaneous abortion, psychological abnormalities and other disorders.

"We're going after people who have problems with addiction for a revenue stream, only caffeine would be one that is more broad-based," said Frank, who calls himself a "social caffeine drinker."

That Diet Coke can KILL, people! Also, global warming is fake.

Wednesday Work Tune: Hear My [Freelance] Train A-Comin'

"Gonna make a whole lot of money [while the gig lasts], gonna be big, yeah..."



(You know, every time I see pictures of Hendirx I want to give up trying to dress like a Frenchwoman and break out the big rings and the calico and the velvet.)

Tuesday Project Roundup: It All Happened So Fast

Yesterday, when I said I had a knit top for thing #17, "in progress," that really meant that I had the pattern ready to go. Well, Monday morning is a good time to go to fabric stores so I got the fabric, pre-washed it, made some cookies while I waited for it to finish drying because the dryer is going out at the apartment, cut it out, and started sewing at 4:00. At 7:00, I was done. Is something that fast even a real project?
Granted, it's not a complicated piece of clothing and sweatshirt fleece is really forgiving. But I'm happy with it because now I have sweats to wear around the house! I might have to start watching daytime TV, too.

As for accomplishing thing #17, I think I've learned enough to proceed with nicer fabrics. I over-stretched the neck a little when I sewed it and I'll redraft the sleeves the next time I make this, but overall I think it worked pretty well.

(The pattern and all tips were from this great book. Highly recommended!)

Almost-Quarterly Report: 29 Things

When I was laid off I thought immediately of the 29 Things and how things like paying off debt and buying a new mattress (#2 and #3) would have to be put on hold. While those things and other things that involve money or eating out have had to wait, understandably, I've been able to cross a few things off the list:

4. Make a queen-sized quilt. I bet you thought I forgot about this, but I've been working on it at my parents' house on Sundays. I already had the fabric when I was laid off, so I thought making a quilt with no pressure to finish and put it on a new mattress might be nice. I finished piecing the top yesterday! Now I have to add a border, because someone forgot to check her math about how big a queen-size quilt needs to be. Then there's the back and then, well, the quilting part. Good thing there's no pressure.
16. Stop biting my nails. I've made some progress here, too: After I gnawed them off completely in February, I've been able to let them grow a little, if only because I never want my hands to look like that again.
17. Learn how to sew knit fabric. I did a practice T-shirt that ended in the FAIL bin, but I have something else in progress now and future plans for a knit dress. I think I can get this thing figured out.
25. Stop getting plastic bags from the grocery store. Only about a 50% success rate with this one so far, but at least it's 50%. And it doesn't cost money.
27. Make cloth napkins and use them for everyday meals. I haven't made any yet, but I have found three sets on clearance at Target and we've been using them regularly.
28. Go out to breakfast one weekend a month. This was able to happen in January and even in February (we went out for Valentine's Day brunch instead of dinner at The Paris)(#11), so maybe I can keep this one up if we go somewhere humble in March.

And one thing I can't wait to do: 18. Drink an Old Fashioned at the bar at Bambara the minute I find out I have a job again.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. The blog is three years old tomorrow (!). I've been going back through and re-posting photos and labeling some of the better/craftier posts--check out the tag list on the right.

2. I had to be dressed and out of the house by 9:00 this week (!!) and Toby did not like that one bit. He got his revenge by going to sleep on the unmade bed just so I couldn't make it before I left.

3. Seriously, the new Neko Case album is so good--"little symphonies for the kids," indeed. Read the NY Times review here.

The (Not So) Secret Garden (That Is Actually A Flowerbed In The Front Yard)

I've been pulling weeds in the flowerbed we cleared out last fall and finished up yesterday, just in time for five inches of snow. But the bulbs I planted are coming up, so spring is near. I had let the weeding go all fall, so there was a lot to do, and as I cleared out the bulbs I knew I had a ready-made blog post from The Secret Garden:

She found many more of the sprouting pale green points than she had ever hoped to find. They seemed to be starting up everywhere and each new day she was sure she found tiny new ones, some so tiny they barely peeped above the earth...She wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers.

Go Buy This

Neko Case's new album came out yesterday, so Mr. Isbell and I walked down to Slowtrain to get it. Then we listened to it twice.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Who? ORLY?

Who, who, who? Owls!

Owls on the front:
And owls on the back:

The yarn was a thick Italian cotton I found online and the pattern was from here. The yarn is off-white, not a pinky cream like it appears in the modeled shots, and I have to confess that I went with white after Mr. Isbell pointed out that it would be "like the owl in Labyrinth." But you know what the yellow eyes make it look like? The ORLY owl:


ORLY?
YaRLY. Owls!

Why I Still Live Here, Despite The Legislature

"Homesickness is a great teacher. It taught me, during an endless rainy fall, that I came from the arid lands and liked where I came from. I was used to a dry clarity and sharpness in the air. I was used to horizons that either lifted into jagged ranges or rimmed the geometrical circle of the flat world. I was used to seeing a long way. I was used to earth colors--tan, rusty red, toned white--and the endless green of Iowa offended me. I was used to a sun that came up over mountains and went down behind other mountains. I missed the color and smell of sagebrush and the sight of bare ground."

Wallace Stegner, from the essay collection Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing in the West. (The title's from the Big Rock Candy Mountain song!)