The Queen's Rambles

*I’m back to to-do list making. I get so much more done if I can focus on a list and have the satisfaction of physically crossing the items off. Achievement! Finally a way to make stay-at-home-momhood have some sort of grading rubric (in a very vague sense). Unfortunately, I quickly completed all the short term projects so everything that’s left will take days to complete. There is not much instant gratification, but having them written down gives me the motivation to work on them instead of procrastinating. I’m no longer watching TV during Elsa’s naps–I’m working on the list. Mainly, I’m working on photo books and calendars. I lost all my saved photos from Feb-August of this year, so now I have to go and download them from flickr. That’s a project and a half in and of itself. And a very boring one at that.

*Erik wanted to make a family quilt, so we started working on a little something. It’s difficult to work with him because he thinks he already knows everything and refuses to listen to suggestions or reality. Like, he wants it to be about 18″ square, but wants us all to be able to sleep under it together. And he doesn’t want to cut anything, he just wants to go through my fabric stash and start sewing things together until he gets a square. I suppose that could sort of work, but not really. Not without set in seams and a big, fat mess. I’m very excited to teach him about my hobby and don’t want to discourage him, but if he’s going to learn, he’s going to have to start with some of the basic skills. We started Sunday. He drew out a picture of the quilt he’d like to make and he picked out a bunch of fabrics. I thought he should be able to handle a little ironing if I was right there. I was right. He did quite well. It was me that ended up with a horrible burn. I reached over to grab something and managed to get a very nasty burn next to my elbow. It hurts so bad, especially if I wear long sleeves. It’s the end of November so long sleeves are sort of required (except for our freaky weather day yesterday–I was outside playing in shorts and a tank top after we got home from the gym). That was the end of quilting for that day.

*We have company coming for dinner this Saturday. I have no idea what to cook. Instead of focusing on a menu, I’m focusing on my dining room chairs. They are mortifying. Why anyone would buy fabric upholstered dining room chairs is beyond me. Doh! We got them before we had Erik and they were fine for awhile. Then we had him and they got nasty. I re-covered them once, but they are in dire need of another recovering, so that’s what I’m working on this week. It’s turning into a fiasco. I bought brown fabric with a little blue in it and didn’t think about the direction of the print when I cut out the covers. I rarely buy directional fabrics. I suppose it’s not the end of the world, but it seems like the print is running in the wrong direction. Also, I suck at sewing three dimensional items. I only had time to do one chair today and it turned out pretty bad, but it looks better than it did before. We are planning on getting a new dining set soon anyway, so this is just a stop-gap measure to keep from being totally embarrassed when we have company.

*I finally sewed something on my newly repaired sewing machine! I wanted to get it back so badly, but I haven’t had time to get it all set up. I am in shock at what a difference a cleaning and repair can make. I have always had trouble with the machine, but now I am thinking mabye it just needed some kind of internal tweak to make it work right. Even though the finished product sucked because of user error, the machine sewed like a dream. Score! Can’t wait to finish up my Harry Potter POD blocks! I have two left.

*I couldn’t figure out why Elsa was kicking so much. Today I realized she is saying “ki-yah” when she kicks. Oh my. She’d doing karate. Now that she’s older, she can sit with me during Erik’s class and behave fairly decently. I guess she’s been paying attention. Maybe having her observe behaviors I don’t want her to exhibit isn’t the way to go.

*I am almost finished with Deathless by Catherynne Valente. I have no idea what it means or even how to begin to parse out what she’s trying to say. I’m sure it means something really deep and profound, but I have no idea what it might be. Communists are bad? If the writing wasn’t so beautiful, I would swear the author was on some serious drugs when she wrote it. I’ll have to see if I can find some online reviews to help me figure it out.

*Why am I still up? I’m trying to think of another bullet, but I should go to bed. The day starts way too early around these parts (or I stay up way too late. Whichever).