So, I haven’t put on my apron in a few days. It was really a rough weekend, and I feel exhausted. I’m hoping to get my strength back this weekend, get my apron on and get some major straightening up done. I actually almost feel too exhausted to post. I could use a nap but no time, and work has been rather stressful. I keep getting trained in more positions and that just means more they can make me do. I just keep trying to ignore how far behind medical records will be when I can actually go back to my desk Monday. Let’s just say, that the writing desk is piled with mail, the sink is not empty or clean, the floor has dust bunnies and there are more dirty clothes than clean clothes.
Woodworking fun 05.28.2009
So here sits a lonely stool.
This is my first ever venture into woodworking of any kind. It’s a nice stool, made from scraps of wood my neighbor was going to throw away. (Yay for free lumber!)
Close ups:
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Of course Magnus has to investigate. The boy would sniff or lick anything! I have tried it out, and it’s actually quite comfortable. I can probably use it as a stepping stool, as a stool for the writing desk, and in the back yard while I’m gardening. It’s about 15 in high so its not an actual seat. At least now I know I can move on to much bigger projects with confidence!
Plants and animals 05.27.2009
No, I’m not going into a science lesson. I do have plants. It’s just that animals keep messing with my plants. Outdoors my lettuce, which was thick and flourishing, is now down to just a handful of plants. Yes I think rabbits have discovered my garden. My grandfather’s suggestion is to use the tacky aluminum pie plates and buy a couple of bright rubber snakes and that should drive them off. So a trip to the toy section is in order. Indoors, my herbs are doing great, as long as Magnus will keep from eatting my seedlings. Every time my thyme puts up a new seedling, it disappears. I finally caught him in the act the other night and had to move all of my herbs up off the floor. I really need to move them outside now, but haven’t had a chance to straighten up the deck to make room for them.
In other news, my job still reeks and continues to decay into yet stinkier reekiness. I may have another possibility which I will apply for and get mailed this week. Just pray that this one pans out. I need another job badly.
I’ve definitely been enjoying my sewing room. I finished The Gathering Apron the other night. I also worked on some zippered snack bags. Next is to finish my heirloom baby quilt for when DH and I finally do have kids. I have everything I need, except binding, and I’m not going to make binding. I’m just going to buy some. Hey, I’m lazy.
Warning: Picture intensive 05.10.2009
So, I’ve had the camera out since I got a huge pack of AA batteries and I’ve been snapping pictures of everything to try and get caught up. So, here we go!
First, the craft room.
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So this is from the door to the room. On the wall with the window with lovely homemade curtains, I plan to put a shelf for all those totes of fabric you see. Then I have my eye on an antique rocker I saw at a shop and will put that in the empty corner.
And this picture shows my laptop and also the cabinet that stores my patterns and my sewing machine when not in use. |
| And finally, my yarn storage. It’s still a bit of a mess at the moment, as I need another cube kit to have enough cubes to go up another row, but still it works for now. 100 points to everyone who spots the rump in this picture. |
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I promise, no porn, I just have no control over where Magnus decides to roam when I take pictures.
Now, on to my latest sewing creation. An apron! I did not understand the power in an apron til I made on. I didn’t know how much I would get done wearing one!
Next, my gardening!
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So, first is my three rows of vegetable garden. It’s just been tilled, is full of rocks, roots, and pieces of brick from the construction of the house and needs a lot of work. Instead of figuring out where to toss all of this, I’m simply lining it up along the edge of the beds to make an edging. Actually doesn’t look half bad either. As of yesterday, I have some Salad Bowl variety lettuce and spinach coming up. No word on the sunflowers, peas, zucchini, or cucumber, and due to an abundance of nonstop rain, my tomato plants are still in a pot.
But you will see in the second photo that my lavender is coming up now! There are actually four plants now. Also I have one teeny Stevia plant coming up. It’s too tiny right now to get a decent picture, but as it gets bigger, I’ll take a photo. |
Finally, I now have a writing desk. I feel so wonderful at it, like I’ve stepped back in time. Austin and I have had this secretary desk for a couple of years and it originally filled its purpose as a computer desk. But now, it’s solely for reading mail and writing letters and notes and mailing items out.
OK, I promise, I’m out of pictures. I won’t take anymore until . . . maybe tomorrow. Actually, it’s now after midnight. I could take more pictures! OK, just kidding. I actually do have more pictures but I believe, in order to keep me awake til Austin gets home, it’s time for Monarch of the Glen Season 1. Til next time, I’m signing off.
Continuing pictureless 04.19.2009
I’m having to continue blogging without pictures, due to a lack of AA batteries in the house. We’ll all have to make due with our imaginations I guess. First and foremost, I should actually have my garden plowed, hopefully next weekend. That means I can transplant my 14 tomato plants, my lettuce and my 2 cucumber plants. I started some lavender yesterday, and I am waiting to get some more pots to start some parsley, basil, passionflower, and stevia. Which brings me to point 2, I am almost off of sugar. I am trying to get completely away from corn syrup, so if its a choice between that and sugar, I’ll choose sugar. But if I have a choice to not have sugar, I’m now using stevia. Right now, it’s in the form of Stevia in the Raw in little green packets, but once my stevia shrub gets big enough, I can simply get my sweetness from that. I have noticed a difference in not having as much sugar. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to completely come away from sugar entirely, but I can at least greatly cut how much I’m taking in.
My craft room now has internet access! I’ve got my laptop running smoother, and have it set up in the craft room. I actually feel really comfortable there and can’t wait to have it fully functional. I’m still lacking shelves for my fabric, and a rocking type chair with a foot stool. I also need to go yard saling for some old sheets with the right colors and make this rag rug for the room. I promise to get some batteries before Jesus comes back and take pictures of all of this.
I think I need another job 04.9.2009
Well, first off, let me say that the idea to switch to the cotton rags has worked out great. They are absorbant, reusable, and have a much better scrub factor than paper towels. My DH has officially approved their use after having to clean up after Magnus. He said that Magnus threw up and the rag didn’t leave bits of paper towel in the carpet, didn’t soak through and get the nasty on his hands and really got the mess up quicker than paper towels. If he approves then the change is permanent so I’m really thrilled about this! It means that $6-$8 we were spending on paper towels can now be wiped from the budget. And as small as the rags are, they can be washed with any other load and not use really any more water or detergent. Also the new kitchen laundry hamper works great too. I plan to put up some pictures as soon as I get batteries this weekend.
Now on to why I need another job. Of course I am hormonally homicidal right now anyways, but it comes down to the fact that I don’t think I can handle the emotional strain of the place for another 3 years, which is how long it will be before Austin finishes with all the teaching certification and I can finally come close to not having to work and simply having my own kids. It still goes through my mind occasionally of working 2 part time jobs, except I know that that usually winds up with scheduling problems, as in you end up working 2 shifts at 2 places on the same day for 12 hours. All I can do is pray, and keep applying to any job that I see that would at least pay me as much as BR does.
Continuing to Organize 04.5.2009
So, it has been a few days past a year of living in a home we actually own. Well, God actually has me remembering that the bank owns it until we pay it off, but nonetheless it’s still considered ours in the legal sense. Never thought I would still be organizing a year later, especially after the Unexpected Paid Summer Vacation last year, ie the paid leave of absence to find another job. But one year later, I have finally managed to get my craft room working. That’s right folks! You can actually walk all the way in, sit down at the sewing desk, and SEW! It’s completely amazing. I still have shelves to saw, paint, and mount for my bins and bins of fabric. I’m hoping to get that done by the end of this month. The yarn is almost all in my cubes, and even the top of my storage cabinet is organized and looking cute. I promise pictures at a later posting. And I honestly wish I had taken before and after pictures to show the true miracle that has happened. I just can’t believe I actually got it where it is now. Since I got the sewing part working, I decided to celebrate with some sewing. It’s been a long time since I’ve actually wanted to sew, mainly due to the tiny alterations business I had on the side 2 years ago to supplement the detestable pay at Cheaply-Made Clothes/Expensive Prices Store (the name has been changed to protect the guilty). So I pulled out my old T-shirts that are being held still for a memories T-shirt quilt. I have to take a quick detour to say that the following ideas and such are due to desire to increase frugality and has nothing to do with going green. For a better explanation why, see bottom of post. Anyways, I cut every bit I could into lovely rags to use rather than expensive rolls of paper towels. Since I knew this idea/system would not work unless I had some easy way to deal with the dirty rags between washings, I then got out some cute coffee themed cotton and left-over muslin and sewed up a neat laundry bag to hang on the inside of one of the kitchen cabinet doors. I used some wire I found in the basement to tie up plants and made a casing around the top and up the side seam to hold the bag open, thus making it extremely easy for DH to use. And of course, myself – the Queen of Lazy.
In other news, the seedlings are looking fantastic but they will have to transplanted quite soon. Since I’m starting to feel lazy, this may involve ripping out the dead herbs from my shallower pot, and transplanting them in there until the garden is plowed. I’m looking for easy at this point.
** Explanation – Yes, I know that Green is in right now. Everyone’s doing it, and most feel you are a big evil corporate monster for not following the ways of Green. But let me explain myself. I’m all about conserving, but because it’s responsible, it’s cheaper, and it’s what my family has had to do for generations. Only 2 generations before me were family members living in a two room shack, and 3 generations ago they were living through the Great Depression. Of course, too much hoarding can cause a clutter problem, so I have been able to overcome that and know when to keep and when to toss or give away. (Thanks Flylady!) But it is also because I see things in a very strong scientific way. I know I know, I hear you now. “But that’s why Green is important! Scientists say so and they are studying the problems of climate change!” First, on carbon dioxide, the list is very long of why there is no worry there. First, it’s very very important for us to have carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, mainly so plants will continue to replenish oxygen into our atmosphere. Second, let’s look at how much is actually in the atmosphere. In terms of percentages, carbon dioxide makes up 0.0383% of our atmosphere according to Wikipedia, which highlights at the bottom that the source of that is the NASA Earth Fact Sheet which was updated April 19, 2007. The Fact Sheet is in parts per million, rather than a percentage but Wikipedia has it calculated as a percentage. Even if it was increasing, its increasing on such a teeny tiny scale that the difference would not be noticed compared to the rest of the atmosphere. Second, on climate change itself. This doesn’t scare me either since the Earth’s climate has been changing between hotter and colder periods since the beginning of time. We have went through several Ice Ages and Heat Ages. This is not a new phenomenon, and unless dinosaurs had coal burning electricity plants, the climate changes that happened before and after their existence had nothing to do with CO2. It’s just the way this beautiful planet is. Hopefully I won’t end up with a bunch of nasty comments on this post, but this explanation is based in fact. If you have further questions, feel free to contact me.
A new year of gardening 03.29.2009
So, I started some seeds last Sunday. Cherry tomato, cucumber, and lettuce. I already have a ton of seedlings. As in the warmest day this next week, I’ll probably need to transplant them to bigger pots. I’m hoping to stagger my crops so I have a continuous harvest through late summer to fall. I will also have to look in how to preserve my crops at the end of the season, since I plan on having a super abundance. It may seem crazy but I’ve actually been quoting scripture over my seeds and garden. There are a lot of scriptures in the Bible where God promises to multiply crops and the fruit of the land of those who worship Him. The fact that most of my seedlings sprouted in 3-5 days rather than the 7-10 on the packet seems to be proof that these promises most definitely are true. In mid-April, I plan to have my grandfather bring his bigger tiller and till my garden up. I did a soil test last weekend as well, and found that my pH is about 6.0 and that there is good phosphorus and nitrogen in the soil. It may be a little low on the potash but I’m really not sure what I can do to correct that. It’s been raining a lot this year so the soil should be softer. This is going to be an awesome garden. The plants that I haven’t started early as they don’t require it are peas, spinach, onions, hopefully garlic, and a section for herbs for cooking and medicinal purposes. Hopefully I can actually get seeds for the herbs I want. I’ve discovered some local garden expos and plan on going to those to look for good deals. I can’t wait for the warmer weather and get this garden started.
Rock Climbing 101 03.29.2009
So, I found out what kind of bug I had. Bronchitis. Talk about nasty, I literally thought I was going mad at one point. I finally got over that and was gearing up to get to working out again, when something happened yesterday. I took a Rock Climbing 101 class at Fire & Water, and I have been so excited about this for weeks. I went through the class on knots, safety, and the history of climbing, learned a lot and did really well. Then I got suited up in a helmet and harnass and went second to this really experienced guy. I got about a third of the way up the easiest wall they have, which is a 5.4, and my left knee went out. Looking back I realize I actually handled it really calmly, since I couldn’t let go to put it back in place. I did get it right back in, though I’m not sure how, and they let me down. Luckily I was toproping, so it wasn’t like I had to climb down. I’m hooked on climbing, both so I can get up that wall, beat this challenge, and also because it’s really intellectual to see where to go next, which to grab next, what would work best. So the dilemma is how to climb, and keep climbing, and not have to worry about my knees. My first step is to talk to a doctor I work for to see if they make a flexible knee brace that will allow me to climb but also keep my knee in place. I want to have a doctor order it for me so my insurance will pay. Then it’s going to be, from what I can tell, several months of intense training. I need to strength train my legs, upper body, and my wrists and hands. I need to do some serious stretching to get some flexibility back. And simply to try climbing til I get it.
I have my thrummed slippers half done, as in I have one done. I will start the second one this Tuesday. The felted slippers that were supposed to go on the outside ended up too big after felting. I have the idea to cut the sole from that slipper and stitch it to the bottom of my thrummed slipper to add padding and protection. Started a lace shawl last night. I really just felt the need to knit some lace. I’ll probably set it aside for a few weeks though so I can hopefully work on my felted bag and my mom’s capelet.
Various sundries 03.15.2009
So, a list of some various sundries:
1. The Schedule - The planner is helping. I confess that I haven’t been looking at it every day, and unless I do, I won’t come to depend on it. In terms of simplifying, my schedule does seem to be opening a little. I’m currently not singing on the praise team for the forseeable future, which I have to say is nice. I now have my Thursday nights open. That gives me Tuesday and Thursday nights, every other Saturday, every Sunday afternoon really.
2. Currently fighting a very nasty bug. Taking some very high powered anti-biotics and it is helping but I haven’t been this sick since high school, and it’s been at least that long since I’ve taken anti-biotics. So much for any cleaning or accomplishing anything because I’m just happy to be able to breathe.
3. I believe that the Right’s accusation that Pres. Obama has no diplomatic experience has been proven true. Plenty of people who support him say that the fiasco with the exchange of gifts with PM Brown is not a big deal or is good because we don’t apparently want to be in good standing with Britain. Let’s not forget that PM Brown can now go to his top CEOs in his country and tell him to stop trading with the US. Don’t export goods, stop importing goods or parts. He can tell them to get them from China or Japan. I don’t think most people know what that will do to our economy. Let’s also not forget what message it sends to our other allies. Of course, Obama could simply be snubbing Britain in order to kiss Iran’s rear.
More on all this when I actually feel better.
