Sunday, March 17, 2013

Week 11 - Finally Some Crafting


 
It was not an auspicious start to the week but it definitely got better as it went along and ended on a fun, crafty note. Yay!

I slept like crap on Sunday night because, get this, I had taken my thin homemade quilt off the bed to wash it, leaving just my 3” thick comforter so I woke up over and over because my covers didn’t weigh enough. Add the time change, which made it hard to fall asleep, and I was exhausted when I woke up. And what did I have to face? Eight inches of heavy, wet snow. I went outside to shovel at 6:07, which felt like 5:07 (I’ll stop that now) and it took an hour. I was drenched in sweat so took a shower, ate breakfast and was on the road at 8:00. The roads were HORRIBLE! It was the worst driving in years but I was at my desk at 9:00. It could only get better, right? Nora was out all week and had left a huge to do list so I dug in on the first big project and the day flew. By 5:00, the roads were completely clear and I had time for dinner before knitting.

I was taking Tuesday off for an all day tree care workshop in Omaha for Master Gardener continuing ed credits. I didn’t have to leave the house until after 8:00 so felt like I had a ton of extra time but I still ended up scrambling. Four of us from Wahoo went and it was a pleasant day with interesting speakers. I’d been prepared for boring. I also managed to knit most of an entire sock – a monster sock from scraps. I was home early enough to make asparagus goat cheese pasta and I cracked a bottle of wine and enjoyed the evening.

Wednesday was a complete 180. Mary was working on some numbers for the chancellor and we all slammed all day. ALL DAY. I had to cancel my lunch with Darla and work through. It was a stressful day but we got it done. I then went home to prep for the cleaning lady an entire day early because she wasn’t coming until Friday and I managed to finish by 7:00 so I could settle down for Survivor and a couple of episodes of Mad Men on dvd. It was a nice end to a busy day.

I had extra time on Thursday morning too because I had a 9:15 dentist appointment to get the permanent filling in my root canal. I made an egg mcmuffin and enjoy some leisure time. Because of the root canal, they could drill without numbing me so I was only there for 20 minutes, getting to work earlier than I’d thought. It was good to get that done and I’m hopeful that that tooth will no longer be worthy of its nickname – the hell tooth.  The day went quickly and I swam for the first time all week. It felt good to go home and already have all the cleaning lady prep done.

Friday was the last day before spring break and it crawled. It didn’t help that it was in the 60’s outside. By mid-afternoon, everyone with any vacation time to burn had left. Randy and I toughed it out all day and I made a beeline home because I had some pressure sewing to do. I’d taken a woven piece from Dee at spinning with a promise that I’d make it into a tote bag. Of course I’d left it until the last possible minute. Well, Saturday morning would be the last but I was afraid I wouldn’t sleep so I got busy as soon as I got home. I actually had fun. I lined the bag with a pair of old jeans, improvising handles from the double stitched outer seam. Between the denim and the interfacing, it was too thick to top stitch but I was pleased with the end product. I went to bed with a clear mind and slept like a rock. Until 3:30 that is. I woke up from a bizarre dream and had to turn the light on and read for an hour to shut my mind off. Sheesh!

I was tired on Saturday and it was a full day. I met Lori and her sisters for lunch at Chips, which was yummy and fun. I left at 1:00 to pick Andrea up to head to Fremont for spinning. I was returning Gina’s wheel and telling the group I was done with spinning for now. No one batted an eyelash. Dee loved the bag, which I thought I was giving her, but she’d made some of her own and brought a bunch of other woven pieces, asking people to donate to a children’s shelter if they took any. She also had a bunch of handspun yarn so I took 2 skeins of that and 2 more woven pieces, happily writing a check for it all and knitting until Andrea and I left at 3:30. We headed to the quilt store so Andrea could buy batting and backing for 2 quilts. While she was doing math at the cutting table, I found a wash bucket full of scraps that you could buy for $3 for a quart sized zippie. This was totally up my alley! I dug through it all and scored some fun fabric. I demonstrated self control and only bought one sale fat quarter, spending less than $5 over all. Then we hit the bread store, the market and Goodwill before going to Andy’s, the best Italian restaurant I’ve found in Nebraska and it’s in Fremont of all places, for Andrea’s birthday dinner. I had cannelloni and she had chicken with artichokes then we shared a free piece of Italian cream cake for her birthday. It was a nice end to the day.

Since all I had to do on Sunday was laundry, I decided to keep up the crafting. I had found some fun scraps in the washtub so wanted to work on a quilted wall hanging. Just as I was starting, the phone rang and it was Sharyn. Since I couldn’t work on the quilt and talk, I pulled a placemat that I’d bought for 29 cents at The Christmas Tree Shop with plans to make a project bag. I undid the hems and 3 sides while we talked and finished the bag shortly thereafter with a scrap of grosgrain ribbon and some seam binding for the cord. It was totally cute! Since that was so quick, I got out the scrap fabric and whipped up the main section of the wall hanging, which has fun pictures of junk food and fruit. I pulled out all my orange and pink fabric looking for border fabric but will need more than a fat quarter so struck out. Since there’s no swimming this week, I’ll just stop at Cosmic Cow after work one night and buy something. Then it’ll just be a matter of embellishing it with some orange rick rack and quilting it with buttons. I haven’t quilted in a long time and this was totally fun.

So, my week didn’t end as I’d planned. I didn’t get to cook at all but I was pleased with my crafting fun. I’ll just have to eat out of the freezer this week or maybe even make dinner after work since I won’t be swimming. That’ll feel so normal. I’m not sure how I’ll cope.

 

 

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