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Wednesday, December 22, 2004

another late-night ramble, with pictures!

It's past midnight and I'm comfortably sleepy, but the fire in the living room is so nice that I am sitting here for a while just so that its glowy warmth won't go to waste. Also, I'm hoping that I can relax the sewing-machine-induced tension out of my shoulders, and furthermore, I just finished off my can of diet vanilla Coke (just for a change of pace, that's why), and I know that if I were to go to bed now, then just as soon as I was about to drift off to sleep, I would inevitably have to get up and go to the bathroom anyway.

I am making a purple dress for C. Purple is her favorite color and it is just right for her coloring. It's just a simple, plain cotton dress, with a little pinafore over it. Of course, there's a complication, in that it's supposed to be a Christmas gift and I started it, um, today. And just for kicks, I've allowed the situation to become complicated further by putting off for MONTHS starting to sew LT's bathrobe. Which should be really, really simple to make. I hope. Since I also decided to make it a Christmas present. And now you see, in a roundabout way, why every report card I got from fourth grade on up had "Not working to potential" printed on it somewhere. It's because I am a consummate professional when it comes to procrastinating.

Did I mention the scarf I'm crocheting for C, also for Christmas? Hey, at least I have the hat done that goes with it. And that one, I can work on while she's present, because she thinks it's for her aunt. (I would say that that was clever except that I did start it out as a project for my SIL, but changed mid-stream -- or mid-hat as the case may be -- when I realized that for an obscenely small amount of money, an adult can go buy a hat that is precisely what s/he wants, and probably more fashionable than a crocheted one in bright colors. C, on the other hand, will love the one I'm making. Aren't kids grand. ;-)

And we're having Christmas dinner here, and I have pies and cookies to bake and all sorts of fun things, and the Christmas dinner crowd keeps on growing and now it looks like it's up to 21 and where the heck we're going to put 21 people I have no idea. Yet I am remarkably calm. I think I am in denial.

And now, before I ramble on even further and this entry degenerates into complete incomprehensibility: some pictures.

Here's C wearing the green dress I made for her last spring, probably for the last time, as she's nearly outgrown it. This is one of those pictures where her resemblance to me is startling, in my opinion, but it's also bewildering because she is (and I am not fishing for compliments here) so much prettier than I am. I mean, just as an example, look at her skin. Oh, what I would do to have skin like that. Except that I wouldn't go back to being five again -- no, not even for that beautiful pale English-looking clear complexion -- which, honestly, I never had anyway. I was browner than that.

I'm putting this up just because he looks so handsome in it. And honestly because his sister seems to dominate the story-and-anecdote portion of my journal, and I didn't want you all to think I loved her more than this gorgeous boy who made me a mother. ;-)

This is a pretty little spot near where T works. The kids and I were up there taking a walk today while we waited for him to get off work, and I'd brought my camera, to try and capture some pictures of the most slanted light of the year. Because you know how I am about slanting light. I did not succeed overmuch -- I really, REALLY want a nice new digital camera someday, one that's capable of at least zooming -- but I did like this picture.

And now I think my shoulders are sufficiently relaxed, and I can go, um, take care of business and get into my nice warm bed. My eyes are drifting closed just as I sit here thinking about it. mmm.

Monday, December 13, 2004

crafty me

I finished a baby blanket yesterday. This wouldn't be funny except that I started it for a friend's baby when she was pregnant... two babies and 2 1/2 years ago. That "baby" just turned 2 in October. I have this habit of starting craft projects and then letting them languish in Ziploc bags for eons until I feel like working on them some more. I also have a 1/4 finished cross-stitch -- got in a little over my head on that one -- which I started for my parents in 1998, as well as a daisy afghan which I meant as a second-birthday present for my daughter who is now five. That one has a story, but I am not sure I have the energy to go into it right now. Also, I made up for the lack of a blanket for the friend's baby by sending her a dress I'd started making for my daughter... who is, do the math, three years older than hers. I think it is some kind of incurable disease.

Anyway, here's the blanket:



Is it blocks with yellow tops? Or blocks with alternating green and blue tops? Or is it stars? Or is it Q-Bert's little tower thingie? You decide.)

Next I think I'll work on the Christmas doily I started two years ago. Or else maybe I'll start some new projects, because after all, I don't have anything scheduled for the winter of 2006 yet.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

this will help you get your zzz's

I had just popped open a diet Coke in anticipation of sitting and reading for an hour but I CAN'T FIND MY BOOK. (The Two Towers, and I'm liking it OK). And now since I have this nice beverage o' bliss to keep me company, I can't just go to bed, now can I, so here I am typing an entry. I remember in junior high, notes written when bored were always the most boring ones. So, if you are prone to insomnia, perhaps you should save this entry to read in the middle of the night -- and in any case, make sure not to operate any heavy machinery after reading. OK?

I've been spending a lot of time away from the computer being, well, productive. In fact, this weekend overall has been a good one with lots of things getting accomplished that have been a long time coming. Ooh, a LIST!

• On Friday I finished a sewing project for the first time since last May: a denim blanket intended for picnics.
  • Time spent collecting old jeans and letting them lie around in an old military laundry bag, figuring that "someday" I would make a quilt out of them: Ten years.
  • Total days elapsed from starting cutting to finishing the project: about 15
  • Total hours involved: Maybe 35? 40?
  • Other miscellaneous costs: much frustration with my sewing machine, until we reached a truce and worked things out between us; one cassette in a 25-cassette book on tape owned by my local library, "eaten" by my extremely inexpensive generic cassette player (Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy, and I was so engrossed in it that I had to check out the book at the same time as I confessed the depravity and misadventures of my cassette player to the librarian who's known me since I was a baby, and stay up till all hours reading instead of sewing to find out what happened), replacement $8.
• Saturday T put the engine in his truck. This is a big, big deal. I won't go into the mechanic-y greasy details, nor will I tell you how long the truck's been sitting in our driveway waiting for said engine (partly because I can't remember, it seems like it's always been there), but trust me, a big big deal. Yay hubby. :)
• Also Saturday I started a new sewing project (I am liking this books on tape thing, and sewing is a good excuse), this one being a dress for my daughter. I have had this very very expensive fabric stored for eight years -- since I bought more than I needed to for a maternity dress -- and have planned since then that I would eventually make a dress for my daughter (mind you, this was before I HAD a daughter) from it. I bought the pattern for the dress last spring. So after eight years of waiting and two and a half days (about eight or ten hours) of work, here it is:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• On Friday, LT had the shining moment of his life to date (or close enough anyway) when he took his savings to Target and bought THE LEGO AT-AT. He'd been coveting one for a year or so, and saving his recycling money for months. And now through the miracle of modern technology (including my new-to-me, functional digital camera! woo hoo!), you, yes, YOU, diaryland reader, can be witness to the creation of a Star Wars legend. (can you tell it's late?)
  
  
  Early in the project, Friday night...
  
  
  Daddy of course had to get in on this (talk about bonding! ;-)
  
  
  After just a few hours' sleep, I don't think I have to tell you about the first thing he looked at when he got out of bed on Saturday...
  
  
  The finished product, Saturday morning.
  It was a little smaller than I expected for $100 -choke- but the owner is extremely well-pleased.

And with that, if you're not already asleep, you should be. It certainly worked for me -- even Diet Coke can't keep me awake now. :D (now watch, according to the hsing-mom Rules of Frustrating and Maddening Events, I'll find my paperback of The Two Towers between here and my bed...)

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