Today's accomplishments

This morning we were told we could not close on the house until Friday instead of tomorrow. This threw a lot of plans out of whack. So I got busy.

I baked 40 muffins, 2 dozen oatmeal cookies, and made a pan of peanut butter bars. I packed most of the kitchen, had a shortened version of school, did 3 loads of laundry, took a walk, patched and painted nail holes, and spent 2 hours working with Marty's behavior issues.

In the past I have felt a bit resentful when people would say I have nervous energy.
I guess I need to take a look at that.

Found the pictures!

Marty with his stitches in


new fence at the house


new grig at the house--Sarah and the realtor's little girl

It was almost a totally wasted sewing day

I felt like sewing today. (Yes, I know we are moving in exactly one week) As I recall, I was sewing the last week at the farm, too, because sewing is therapeutic for me. It is calming for me. (Le-Le, take a deep breath and step away from the scissors.) Onward. I decided to remake a pattern I had used before and love the blouse from it. The one I made last year was a pink seersucker, sleeveless blouse. I love it, and wear it a lot. I have had a lavendar dress hanging in my closet for a year that I made last spring and really didn't like. Hmmm.....

OK, chop up the dress, make a new blouse. Easy. Except that I am always on a mission to fine tune the fit. Easy. Move the dart down, sew the blouse. Dart was too low after the whole thing was done. Drat.

Tear open side seams, move the dart up 1". Still too low; now I'm getting irritated. Move dart up 1/2", re-sew side seams. Dart is in perfect position. Blouse is too tight. Huh????? What was that all about? All I can figure is that the fabric I used today (rememeber, the bad dress?) didn't have as much "give" as the searsucker did. Now I am really irritated. Perhaps Le-Le would like a lavendar sleeveless blouse.

Oh well, I can re-draft the pattern with the new dart (the perfectly positioned one) and cut another blouse out. As I am tracing the pattern, I discover that the size medium dart would have been perfect and I could have saved that time drawing and measuring. This blouse is making me cranky.

Hey! I'll re-use that other blouse I already cut out and decided against because that pattern didn't fit, either! Easy. Cut out blouse with new dart. Sew, only to the side seams. Forget the collar work until I know if this is going to work out. Too tight still. I'm positivley miffed now.

Fold up all pattens, blouse attempts and put them away until another day. Several sewing hours wasted-- this is a crime! I must sew...need therapy...I must sew...I must sew...need therapy.....I must sew...need therapy.....Hmmmm......I could finish that jacket for Master Wyatt at Tae Kwon Do.

Let it be said that I've been working on that jacket on and off for 2 months. It was an alteration issue, and it wasn't going well. So much so, that I took it to town and got help at the fabric store a while back. Now I've let it hang so long, I can't remember the sequence. After a few near curse words and a fervent prayer, the jacket is done. I will repeat that: The jacket is done.

Now, let's see if you got all of that. I sewed for 5 hours, used exactly $0.00 on fabric, ended up with exaclty 0 wearable blouses, and finished 1 difficult alteration.
Ahhhhhh........I feel so calm now.

Arrrrggghhh

Let it be known that I dislike change. Change causes difficulties and chaos and stress and just plain is a pain in the rear end. Case in point:
I came here to post picutres of the new fence at the new house. They uploaded easily from Matt's work camera, but I cannot find them anywhere so that I can post them. I'm trying to get him to buy an exact replica of the old camera--I knew how it worked, and it worked well.
Oh, and I had photos of Marty's stitches, and the new frig in place at the new house.

By the way, we are now at about 45 boxes packed, but have run out of empties, So we will have our last pizza and movie night here, then find more boxes tomorrow and continue. 12 boxes were just books; a good start, and I hope next time we move that number is much higher.

The brave one

This is a bit late, but here's Marty after surgery. He is feeling great now, with only 2 dyas until the stitches are removed. The packing inside his ear will stay for 2 more weeks, and after that he should be able to hear with that ear. He's been a trooper.

This was a new experience for us

This is one of those things that the kids talk and laugh about when they are 30 years old, sitting around the Thanksgiving table. The parents were never quite sure what exactly happened, but always wondered......




If you click on the picture, you can see that is was taken from inside the van. We haven't found the golf ball yet.

packing report

boxes:
19 down
147 left to go

2 weeks and counting

Well.....2 weeks from now we should be moving. That would mean that I should be packing NOW. However, I am not. I did get boxes yesterday, and even 3 rolls of newsprint to wrap with but I am not motivated to actually begin putting things in the boxes.

2 reasons:
a) It is hard to believe we're really buying a brand new house and we will be living there.
b) I don't want to start the chaos that is involved with packing and moving. Because, you know, as soon as you pack that first box, all h*ll breaks loose and you are in a constant state of turmoil until you have been in the new place at least 3 weeks. That means if I start now, I will be in turmoil for the next 5 weeks at the VERY LEAST.

So. I'll wait until tomorrow, then it will only be 4 weeks, 6 days of turmoil. Gotta preserve every minute of sanity I can, you know.

I've got a hankerin' for rhubarb muffins

Is it almost rhubarb time in Iowa? I don't know if they grow it here. If they don't, what do they wear in the spring?

Appearances are deceivng

While it may appear that I have a LOT of hair, the truth is

I'm going bald. I think I get this from Grama Frances-she had beautiful hair, just not much of it. I hope this is not a harbinger of my future hair life.

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Jaaaaammmmmes, happy birthday to you!

Isn't this exciting?

http://lwshomes.com/yourhome_details.asp?id=827

If you cut and paste this link (I just can't figure out links)it will show our house on the builder's website and it is listed as "COMPLETE/SOLD." I printed it out for my scrapbook! We are getting excited around here!

Eye candy

I went a bit crazy at the home dec fabric store last week. They'll whack off a piece of whatever you like, and the great part is this: every single bolt is $7.99 a yard. I think I've found my checkbook a new friend.

Does this look familiar?

Remember when something was "fixin'to happen" in my sewing room? This is the result, and it isn't what I envisioned. Please give your opinions. Really, I'd like to hear them.

Something interesting.....

Click on the picture to get a close up view.....yup, that's a giraffe guarding that there driveway. There were actually two, one on either side--you know, like the lions you see guarding gates in other (read "normal" places). I happened upon these when I was exploring a road called--I'm not kidding here--"Lizard Lick Lane." As I've taken to saying (in honor of Carey) "I like-tuh-nearly died laughing when I saw them."

This is the first post of what I hope to be a series where I share with you some of the more cultural aspects of this area of the country.

ps--Note the color of the soil--a bit unlike the rich dark dirt of Iowa.

April Fool's! Here's the real deal.

....and we signed yesterday, to close on May 1st.