Random Monday Thoughts

- Wedding report - M&C's wedding went really well. They kept it low-key and fun and that, in my book, ALWAYS beats lavish and stuffy. The flower girl missed the note that the flower pedals get thrown on the ground, not the people on either side of the aisle. I liked her way better. M looked fantastic, C was so happy he floated. Great food, dancing, and people at the reception. C's mother was incredibly chic in her trim little chipao; unfortunately I didn't get a picture. While I hope that they're having a great time on their honeymoon, I also miss them and look forwards to having them back. It's dull around here without them!

- Sewing machine repairs continue. I reassembled it, which wasn't as easy as you'd think. It's got a drop-in bobbin assembly that will NOT go back in quite right. And, of course, to get to it I need to pull out all the rest of the guts. Sigh. Since I don't cuss in American (never started and figure that, at this point, there's no reason to) DH was suggesting other possible things to say. I DO cuss in Australian and British so that's helped. I have found any word that's short with plosives (b, p, t, k, etc) is highly satisfying to mutter at the machine. Hopefully the next reassembly will be the charm and I can move on to other creative endevors.

- Catching up - After google-stalking a few old college friends I've lost touch with, I discovered that my college boyfriend is going to Guana in a few days. He's a full-timer with HCJB radio, a Christian radio missions agency that's working with people in the most remote areas. From what I gather they do everything from teaching and training locals to healthcare and community development. I'm both proud of him and a little jealous. Here he is traveling the world helping people while I'm "stuck" in TX. :) Oh, well. Still, I am proud - this is the guy who got overwhelmed visiting DC and who (when we were dating) had never flown and really didn't want to. And now he's living in Africa and traveling all over. Good for him! And it's always good to find out I've got good taste in guys, even if it didn't work out. :)

- New sewing friend. A woman in my apt. complex found out I sew and mentioned she wanted to learn but was afraid she'd messed up her machine the first time she tried it. So I dropped by and we had a great time. Her machine runs fine after pulling a bit of thread out from the bobbin area and she's got a great attitude about it all. She wants to do t-shirt quilts, something I've also wanted to do but never got around to trying. I'm looking forwards to seeing her creation and learning stuff from her. It's nice having others who sew nearby.

- Do I WANT people to know I sew? Making M the robe and giving it to her at her bachelorette party meant that I effectively announced my hobby to all the females there. I TRIED to give it to her privately ... didn't work. At the wedding I discovered I've got a reputation now as people were asking me about what I've made, what I can make, and were generally awed by it. Which I maintain is like being awed about riding a bicycle but anyway. I was wearing a dress I'd made and that only exacerbated it. Eep. I kinda liked people not noticing but now that it's out ... we'll see what happens. Sigh.

- Yourself!Fitness is fantastic. Just sayin'. :)

That's it. :) Nothing exciting, just life!

And now for something completely different

A few of my favorite songs as depicted by various You Tube persons.

Enjoy! :)


Title of The Song by Da Vinci's Notebook


Accidentally in Love (Casting Crows) + Disney princesses. Fun. :)

Speaking of Disney (I miss my CA and FL homes):

Fun family pictures (not my family - actually I have no clue who they are) put to one of the best songs ever


And a little They Might Be Giants to round it off.

(House) Planning for the Future

Since DH and I are currently stuck in an apartment we'll occasionally go to some site like houseplans.com and dream a bit. I'm especially a fan of these cheap dates since, for a brief bit in high school, I seriously considered going into architecture. I took all three drafting classes my school offered, loved them, and nearly got a job with an architectural firm near the school. In the end, though, it just wasn't quite what I wanted to do with life. Though there's always those background "what ifs." But back on topic, I still enjoy looking at house plans and mentally playing with them like I toy with patterns.

Tonight in one of our little house plan dates DH and I found a plan that's strangely growing on me. It's got everything we want, it's just not exactly your normal plan. But then we're not exactly you're normal people, so I guess it works. :)

Here's the plan (found on houseplans.com under staff picks):






Isn't it ... unique? Since I'm really not a fan of the costal style I'd like to make it more English country cottage on the outside and DH has claimed the tower as his "wizards tower" study. So remove the balcony and put a few subtle castle-y details on it. I love the large, open kitchen with lots of counter space (so different from our current cramped kitchen), the upstairs laundry room, and not-too-large master bedroom. We'd turn bedroom 2 into a sewing room (nice and close to laundry) and bedroom 3 DH wants to use as a chapel. We'll keep bedroom 4 ready for guests. That should give ALL of us room to breath. Though there's always the chance of renting it out, especially if we're close to whatever college I'm teaching at. We're keeping our imaginary options open there. :) I'd definately want a basement for storage. The basement stairs would go right under the other stairs. DH wants to use a hidden door to get to it, maybe a sliding bookcase or something. I think it sounds fun. We might put a media room down there for, you know, all those movies we watch. I think I'm giving us a dream life along with a dream house but, well, it's fun.

So, thanks for dreaming with me. :)

Randomness

So far behind in critiquing the latest pattern collections, my own sewing, and even schoolwork.

But did have time for a quick quiz :)

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Literature Nerd   Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and it's eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.
Drama Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
Social Nerd
Musician
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Still Alive - I think....

So one 150-page group project, one nasty sinus infection, and two trips to families later, I'm back. And deciding that maybe a commitment to a monthly theme is not a good use of this month. Instead I'll just try to get back to posting on a fairly regular basis. Starting tomorrow with a post on McCall's latest patterns and looking at what's hot and what's so not. Hopefully my life will get a little more ordered as I clean up various loose ends that accumulated over the aforementioned events and maybe I'll go back to being a regular blogger. Hey, it's a dream.

A Thanksgiving Plug

It's nice having family nearby. Instead of dealing with the holiday madness that is the airport, hubby and I drove down to see my aunt in Round Top Texas. That little town (and I do mean little - their population is somewhere around 80, not including dogs) is the most interesting, artsy, laid back place I've ever been. I love it! It's the kind of place where guests are housed in neighbor's guest houses, where the soap is made by someone in your church, and where everyone knows everyone else's pets and days are spent alternating between creating and chatting. It has the feel of someplace so idyllic that it's hard to believe it's real. I highly recommend a visit.

While you're there, make sure you check out the shop my aunt runs, Decadence Down and Antique European Linens. There you'll find hand embroidered linens for your every need. The idea of the shop is to collect beautiful work and pass them on to those who will love and use them. Despite the high price tags, these pieces are meant to be used. While I can't indulge in that ideal at the moment, I do like it. My grandmother had a lovely set of dishes which came to me, fifty years after being bought, in perfect condition because my grandmother never found an occasion "good enough" to use the china for. I was there for her 80th birthday and even then she fussed at me for using the good china. Now that it's come to me I like to break it out for the most unlikely of occasions. If I'm not feeling well a bowl of cereal in the china makes me feel better. I treat the pieces with respect - they don't get beat around like my plastic bowls - but I enjoy them as well. I love how Pandora, owner of the store (and a lovely lady as well), uses tea towels as curtains and used a $2000 antique quilt as a table cloth for our Thanksgiving meal. A wonderful way to make every day just a bit more luxurious.

Still alive

The flu symptoms have mostly left but I've been seriously exausted for the past week. Like "sit for a while deciding just how necessary that trip to the bathroom is because it'll use up my energy for the next two hours" exausted. I finally went to the doctor yesterday and he diagnosed me pretty quickly as having a sinus infection. Medication was prescribed and I should be feeling pretty normal in two day. Thank heavens. The people at my church have been very sweet and understanding about my illness but a lot that needed to get done didn't and our children's Sunday morning programs suffered. As has my schoolwork ... I'll probably have to ask for extensions in most of my classes just to get the work done without wearing myself out again. Illnesses are just so annoying. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes, they're working and I really need and appreciate the encouragement!

On a totally different topic, it looks like I'll be doing Christmas Cookies next month (yum!) and I'd love to hear some favorites. I've got three possibles but I'd like more to choose from!

Filler Post

STILL sick. Actually a little worse than I was yesterday ... Husband and I went out last evening to Half-Price Books in part because that's our bi-weekly event and part because I was dying to get out of the house. Unfortunately that little outing probably knocked my recovery back a few days. I HATE being sick.

Anyway, with how weak I'm feeling it's just too much to do the tour of my sewing corner today (to make up for skipping Friday) so how 'bout I just give you a general rain check and we'll get back to that when I'm on my feet again?

Back to Half-Price, while it wore me out big time, I did find some great gems. Unfortunately they didn't come home with me (even at half off they were too much for my budget) but now I know they exist!




(Click on images to go to their Amazon pages)
Two beautiful books on making tapestries, wall hangings, and other adornments for your medieval or Tutor doll house. Because we ALL have one of those! And now I'm kinda sad that I missed out on this when I went through my doll house phase back in 5th grade. All the furniture and stuff I could find was either Victorian or old west and I really dislikes them both. Why did no one tell me that there's a group of medieval doll-house decorators?

This isn't a hobby I'll be taking up any time soon largely because of the time, money, and care it would take (and, for now, all three of those are well spoken for) but it makes me happy to know these books exist. Also a number of those tapestry patterns looked wonderful for small cross-stitch work. So maybe sometime I'll get one or both and use them for that purpose. Trust me, her work is certainly beautiful enough for people-sized house decorating!

Due to technical difficulties...

Still have the flu. Still have laryngitis. Still too weak to do much. Still that horrible mixture of bored out of my mind and too tired to focus or do anything. Blech.

On the good side I seem to be getting better, so hopefully I'll be back on my feet tomorrow or Monday.

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the Friday trips to my sewing corner. Since there's nothing to report on Monday's weekend report (I knitted two more rows in my scarf - does that count?) I figure I'll just give you a look at my patterns on that day and consider everything caught up. Or close. Eh, it's the best I can do now.

On a whole different topic DH, bless his heart, rented Meet the Robinsons for us to watch this evening. He knows I'm a huge Disney Dork but hadn't seen it yet (I know, I know, bad Disney Dork) so he rented it. I think he even enjoyed it, despite it all. I love him. :) And absolutely adorable, heartwarming film, by the way. Definitely a cute one.

Sick Day

Now I'm wishing I'd got my flu shot ... today was NOT a happy day.

I've been feeling a little icky the past week - figured it was just a result of not exercising like I should. Today I woke up feeling a little "off" but not horrible. And then I started getting ready. Things went downhill from there. I've spent the day alternating between the couch and the bed and discovering just how boring the internet and tv are. Funny, they seem far more interesting when I have papers to write.

So in light of my day, a few links for your enjoyment:

The first case of bird flu reported in Florida (though that's actually Paris - but still funny)

Things to do when you're home sick

Thursday Randomness - Grammar quiz

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

W00t! Thanks, mom, for pounding in those grammar lessons.

Thanks, even more, Microsoft Word for putting stupid green squiggles under things until I got them right (and even after, more often than not).

And yes, I'm excited about doing well on a stupid little internet quiz. Hey, at least I got an A in SOMETHING... and it's nice to know that all that time that this baby geek spent reading grammar books paid off. I'm not good (er, decent) at grammar because I have any natural talent at all ... I'm good (er, once again, decent) because I'm about as good with grammar as I am with spelling ... and there's a reason I don't type without a spell checker keeping me within the bounds of English. :)

Queen of the spelling bee I certainly wasn't ... I was just fortunate when I wasn't the first eliminated. Thank heavens for computers!

Ok, back to collating manuscripts, ignoring my Hebrew word study, and looking up info on Colosae.

Proposed Blog Schedule - aka, how long do you think this idea will last

As one of the nursery workers I oversee notes, I am a list fanatic. I have lists for what needs to be done each day, lists for how the nursery runs, lists for homework, books I've read, books I want to read, sewing projects I want to do ...

I have a lot of lists.

This is not because I'm an organized person, as she seemed to think. This is because I am disorganized. Horribly disorganized. If a project is not on a list then I WILL forget it. Even if it's something like my own birthday. It's happened before.

So, in honor of my obsessive list-making, I'm testing out a schedule for this blog. My hope is that the schedule will limit the "what should I write about today" blocks that come up and keep me from camping too long on one topic. Like I said, it's a hope.

The proposed schedule:

Monday - Weekend Sewing Report I do most, if not all of my sewing on Sunday since that's my official day of rest. Or afternoon of rest - funny, when you work at a church Sunday's not very restful at all. But despite half of the day being spent herding cats - er, kids - and then sleeping to recover, I try to spend that second half doing whatever I want which usually means sewing. So I figured Monday's a good time to report what's been happening in my sewing corner.

Tuesday - Greek Geekery Greek manuscripts, Greek grammar, Greek trivia - if it's (koine) Greek expect it to show up on Tuesday. Current ideas are a series on collating manuscripts for those who are interested (and to hopefully raise interest in those who aren't!) and a post or two on my very favorite NT city, Colossae.

Wednesday - Patterns and Fabric I spend more time looking at patterns and fabric then actually working with them so figure I should give at least 1/5 of blogspace to that. Hey, it gives me an excuse to keep it up!

Thursday - Randomness Whatever I feel like from sewing to Greek to children's ministry to neat stuff I find online. Both things that don't fit elsewhere in my tidy list and those things that fit but I don't want to wait to post them.

Friday - Monthly Series See the poll over on the right? This would be the day you get to see the results of your voting. And unless something strange happens it looks like this Friday will start a 5 part series on my sewing corner and it's organization (or, at present, lack there of).

So there's the plan. Let's see if it lasts through November!

Oh, and this schedule takes effect tomorrow ... right now Hebrew is kicking my little rear.

A Pattern Story

Last weekend my husband and I did our customary Half-Price Books/grocery store run and I found myself over in the tiny pattern section they have. It doesn't matter that there's not much turn over nor that most patterns are overpriced ($4 average for modern costumes and early 90s power shoulder pads suits with the covers half ripped off), I still have to look. This time I lucked out, finding this fun little pattern stuck in the back with a .98c sticker on it. I couldn't resist. No, I don't plan on making it anytime soon (the short jumpers with sailor collar being a little out of my comfort zone) but owning the pattern makes me happy.

What I didn't realize was that this pattern came with a fast-pass to a story about the woman who first bought it and the places she saw and things she did ...

It's not a long story, nor is it really about her but rather about those she worked for and with. And the amazing things they got to wear.

Which I'll continue on tomorrow since this week is absolutely killing me with assignments. But to whet your appitite, can you guess from this picture (without cheating and clicking on it!) what she did? Oh, and this isn't my pattern's original owner, it's one of her coworkers. Still, neat outfit! And just look at that ... hat? turban?

A note on pictures

You might have noticed something about my photos ... specifically that there are none. Two major reasons for that ...

1. I am not a good photographer. I know some theory, I know the basics, but somehow it never shows in my pictures. They always look like those family photos that are saved because they're better than nothing but they sure aren't getting hung on the wall. I'd blame my camera (and granted, I do have a very basic model) but my best friend can do wonders with it without doing anything noticeably different. She just has a fantastic eye for pictures and some how the lighting, colors, and all else respond to her. They respond to me too, just in the exact opposite way. So I'm always hesitant to put up a picture unless I know that, as bad as it looks, it does help the post.

2. My computer hates my camera. This is the main reason. Even if the picture looks like it was taken by an unsupervised 5-year-old I still would post it if I needed to. But I can't. My current laptop (which is temporary ... I hope) is older than many of the kids I supervise. This causes many problems. One is that it will not admit that my camera exists. Now I could set aside a few hours to work on this problem and hope my computer accepts the solution (unlike it's current problems with Acrobat which seem to be unfixable) or I could just hope the new-to-me hand-me-down laptop arrives soon. And that it's newer and less buggy than this. On a tangent, I am SO looking forwards to being out of grad school and financially stable enough to, say, buy the basics tools I need to get my work done. The grad school life of poverty looses it's glamor reeeeal fast.

So that's why you didn't get a picture of the cookies I made yesterday (and they were good!) or of the shirt in progress. I would have liked some visuals ... but for now I'm working within my limitations. Expect better things when the limitations change!