Progress

I let yesterday flop, but today I've been making up for it. I finished making my new swim suit, and so far it seems to fit, though I haven't tried the finished product yet. It wont be too tight, and considering my recent projects, that is pleasant all by itself.

I also got the wallpaper off of one wall in the breakfast nook. At some point in time there must have been paint on that wall, but in some places it looks like the original plaster. It took as long, or longer, to do the one wall as it did to do the whole bathroom. I really had to work some areas. I would like to smack the installer. Some stuff came off with the wallpaper, but not much. So that means that the installer glued the wallpaper onto the plaster, mud, and wall patch (and some paint too). It comes right off the painted surfaces, but some of the others are just nightmares. The walls look awful. Its going to take some time and working to re-mud the walls and get them prepared for painting. Gee, good thing I've got lots of time, because I sooo looove to mud walls.

One of these days I should go pick the plums off of my weed. I've never had a plum weed before, it even looks more like a shrub than a tree. The neighbor says its a volunteer weed. It might make a little pastry or fresh bottle of jam. Fuzzy likes the shade, so we keep it.

Back to Normal

Its always good to get away once in a while, and its even better when it is nice to get back. I've been worried that if I went to visit family, I might not be able to get myself to come back. But it feels good to be home with all my stuff. And its nice to know, that now this is home. Now, if there were just a hubby here to play with. Fuzzy has spent a lot of time getting reacquainted with her yard and neighborhood. I think she missed the freedom. Now I can spend time getting back to my projects, there are so many of them. And I'll be preparing for hubby, it is the most exciting thing right now and will always be too far away.

I should probably finish the laundry too.

Figures . . .

Well, the new kids look great in the yard and it is so nice to have them there. Actually, it is a little too nice, which is the problem. It would figure, that once I started putting plants into the yard, I would only want to keep putting in more. I sure do now. The old wildflowers didn't bother me much before, but now that there is this mangy, dying clump between the new plants, I just want to rip them out and put in more new plants. Hubby is being wise and not telling me to go ahead. Its only three plants, but whose to say it would stop there. The yard will get there, it will just take time, and a lot more money. I think it is harder this time for a couple of reasons. First, our last yard was actually starting to look good when we left it. There was still more to do, but you could see the potential taking shape. Second, I have a clear vision of how I want this yard to go. The other yards, I had ideas, but they were always changing and morphing. This yard, I don't think will change much, other than small details. I know what I want to do, and I'm excited to see it take place. It drives me a little nuts that I just can't get it going. But the first couple of steps to the yard will be the most expensive and it will take time to build up that much money. They will probably be the most drastic changes too. So I wait.

New Kids

I've just been missing my plants so much. I don't have anybody to go check on out in the yard. It makes it a little harder to enjoy my yard that way. So today I found some new friends, and they just had to come home with me. But I'm a good wife, so I got one for me and one for Hubby.

So the new kids are a White Coneflower (Echinacea 'White Swan') and a Twisted Rush. Hubby gets the Rush because he is just twisted that way. The cashier was fawning over the Rush, something about unique, curly plants. They'll do a good job of bringing a little more life and interested into our common little yard. I just have to go do yard work now. Oh well, the kids are worth it.

Mild Weather

I've really enjoyed this summer, the weather is so mild. It will be good to visit family soon, but I'm actually starting to dread the heat that will be associated with the visit. I have not missed having temps above 90 and I have definitely rejoiced and not seeing 100s. We just wont think about winter for now.

I used my serger a little bit on Saturday, didn't know what I was doing and jammed the thing with stitches and thread. After a lot of "ripped" stitches, I finally managed to get the thread out. Now I'm ready to start actual projects. I just need more supplies first. Its always about the supplies.

Fuzzy got to play at the dog park on Saturday. She was way excited, there were so many dogs. She wore herself out in no time. She is looking forward to visiting Grandma and others. Its been so long since she got regular visits. I'm sure she will love the trip.

Spawn of Satan

I was going through an old journal last night, oh, and this was just too funny. This little guy's name was supposed to mean "Pounce", he was my attack cat. Most people "affectionately" referred to him as the spawn of satan, sometimes satan himself. This is what I wrote about him the day that I got him.

". . . we left with a little black and brown tabby. He is really sweet and mild. He loves attention though!"

Ya, I know, "sweet and mild" just did not end up fitting him well at all. Another entry I commented on how sweet he was, until he decided to bite. He was a good attack cat, he kept most men away.

In other realms of the evil empire and satanic items, I'm mad at Windows today. Apparently there is a glitch between some Adobe products and Windows User Accounts that just randomly happens. So today, PhotoElements stopped recognizing that my scanner really works. The solution seems to be creating a new user account and reloading everything on to it. Why do people put up with this, its so stupid. I loaded all the scanner software onto the Mac instead. I may only be able to scan one picture at a time right now, but at least I wont have any random software glitches keeping me from using the scanner. I'll have to go on another Mac software buying binge, its so worth the money.

Read First

I have lots of projects piled up, so this week I've been working on a dress that I have had the stuff for a few years. I thought I'd been paying attention as I measured and cut things out, checking the fit along the way. I had to alter part of the dress because I realized that it wasn't going to fit. Everything else seemed fine. I finished the dress last night, the sewing didn't look too bad, though the material is not really the right type for the style of dress. It still looked pretty good. Only problem, the part I didn't alter is a size too small and barely fits. I'm very frustrated. Looking at the front of the pattern today as I was putting it away, down on the bottom, it says "Fit for Petite". Gee, that would have been good to know, I might have made the dress a size larger from the beginning if I knew it was made to be small. Why can't sizes be universal? And why do I keep buying patterns that are "funky" instead of normal.

Tomorrow I will learn how to use my serger. I'm sure it will be an adventure.

Running . . .

I haven't had too many days where I seemed to spend the day just running around town. Today was one of them though. We finally have the car registered, YAE! No more temporary tags. I really don't recommend buying a car and then moving states before the car is licensed. Its just a huge pain.

I took my serger in for maintenance last Friday. I got it back today. I'm impressed. It cost less than I expected and came back in half a week. Its been collecting dust for years, now I will actually have to learn how to use it. But the more I sew, the less boxes I have hanging out. It sounds like a good excuse to me.

We've finally achieved "normal" temperatures this week. Its such a change from last week that it feels like a regular heat wave, but it is nice to have August feel like summer.

Things-A-Happenin'

We finally got the estimates from the plumber, we're still waiting on the electrician. Our car title finally made it here too, so maybe on Monday I can have a fully registered car again. We even heard about our last rent check this week. Its been sitting on the table waiting for someone to come pick it up. They finally said not to worry about it. Doesn't make sense after the fuss they made to get it, but we sure aren't going to complain about keeping the money. We're finally warming up from our cold snap. It felt more like summer than fall today. We did have record low temps, it was really strange.