Home!

Back at last from my epic trip! Actually I was back Sunday night, but Monday was spent doing all that stuff that piles up when you are gone, as was most of Tuesday. The parts of Tuesday that were not swallowed by laundry and grocery shopping disappeared into the time-suck that is Ravelry. I'm artmomma there too, stop by and say hi! I've spent an embarrassing amount of time looking up every project I've ever considered, to see how it looks on real people. I replaced my camera recently, and am slowly adding my projects to the collective.
More stories from my fabulous trip later, when I can pull my head together.

It's been another week and while I really did get stuff done, it is nothing to talk about (especially since my new camera is still in transit). The center panel of the Stag Bag is done, now I'm putting the chevrons around the sides. I finished sewing a hideous white skirt I am supposed to wear for my sister's wedding. It now brings the number of white clothing items I own up to one. I am hard at work putting together a veil for the afore mentioned sister, who's only request or description concerning what she wanted was "nothing poofy."
Seriously, that was all she asked for. Nothing poofy.
The mean older sister part of me wants to construct some huge elaborate fluffy number, attached to a tiara or something, to give to her before handing over the real thing. The kind sister understands that this could possibly cause her to freak the hell out. Realistic me says that there is almost no chance I could get it done before I fly out of here Wednesday.

Saturday

Only 10 rows left on the center panel of the stag bag. I knit a little on the beach today, but only one row because the salt water makes your skin kind of adhesive. Not so conducive to letting the wool slide through your fingers (although pretty favorable for letting Oreos slide into your mouth).

I was somehow able to amuse myself though.

Lots of stuff!

Where have I been for the last...oh, several weeks? Ugh, lets just let that go. It has been issue after issue for us, and you know how I hate to bitch.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Ok, just one complaint and then I will let it all go, and move on to real content. Ever do something that you thought could totally improve your life in a small way and it just BIT YOU IN THE ASS? It turns out in about 1% of people taking Depakote, Zoloft lowers your seizure threshold.
But enough of that. It is over (hopefully).

On to real live craft content!
Finally, I take some pictures of the fantastic kitty quilt that Amy sent me, instead of just stealing the one she took. Adorable! The focus on my camera is broken, so there is a real art to taking pictures with it (if by art you mean walking closer and farther from the object in question, hoping to come up with a photo or two in the sweet spot.)


See this? Hand quilted. What an amazing woman.







Here is the quilt I sent to Julie. Most difficult to part with thing I have ever sent away for any swap. Luckily, I have lots of little strips all waiting for assembly left over-I made enough for two (or maybe even three) so the color patterns would really be random.

Due entirely to inspiration by another Erin I've started knitting the Stag Bag. Considering the volume of crap I carry around for the Monkey, and the need for instant gratification that ordering yarn just doesn't have, I picked up some worsted weight wool at ye olde local craft store with the intention of felting it when finished. This should also help cover any multitude of sins, which is especially good because I have never done any color work previously. I couldn't even tell you what kind of knitting I'm doing. It has two colors, and it looks like berber carpet on the back. The carries are amusingly long, because I couldn't figure out how to wrap the carried yarn. I just keep telling myself that the felting will fix everything. Notice anything amusing? My stag is marching to the beat of a different drummer, as I started the pattern on a purl row but still jumped into the pattern on the bottom right. Knitting lace has me programmed.

Ravelry

Just checked, and I am #10407, which is a mere 4249 from the top of the list on Ravelry. By the time I get in, everyone will have knitting robots that use fantastic space-age polomers that breathe or insulate perfectly and self-adjust to best match the color of your eyes.

EEGs and CATs

Finally, Monkey is back at home from more than a week of back and forth hospital trips. More stuff has been glued to his little head than he deserves (did you know when they are measuring your head for an EEG they use medical grade LIPSTICK!?! Bright red, no lies). But he is finally at the point where his EEGs look more like brain waves and less like tsunamis, hurray! But I feel so emotionally burned out that I can barely function. Luckily I have my fabulous doll quilt from Calico Cat hanging by my desk to cheer me up! It arrived...I'm not sure when. Some time while Monkey was in-patient again, and Lawyerboy brought it up to the hospital and it was the most cheerful bright thing in the entire beige hospital. Amy, I am so impressed by your hand quilting skills! Kitty cats in bright colors! I couldn't hope for anything more perfect. Plus, Amy admitted to me that she has in excess of 900 different cat prints which is possibly the greatest stash-related confession I have ever heard. Thank you Amy! I adore this quilt!

Happy 4th

Happy Birthday America!
Since we saw fireworks at our home on Friday we didn't torture the monkey by making him stay up late to see more on the 4th. But interestingly, as firework time time began and we could hear distant explosions, I had to listen really carefully to tell if they were fireworks or actual C-130s blowing stuff up on the range. Rockets red glare, indeed.

Real Justice League

Lawyerboy has been way more crafty than me this week. I screened a dozen tshirts for his law office to wear for our Base's Independence Day celebration, but he helped built his team's boat for the cardboard boat regatta.



It was awesome. Their boat wasn't the best looking one (there are some seriously creative people here),










But they did win! And they looked awesome doing it.

Moooooooommmmmm!!!!

Yesterday, after a noisy day of mysterious peeping, we found a nest full of brand new Mockingbird chicks in our front yard.

They are adorably hideous.

Holy smokes, look at those necks.

Their beaks are downright freakish.

But I seem to recognize that look...

Doll Quilt

Please forgive my crummy taken-on-the-floor-of-my-craft room picture; I just finished my Doll Quilt Swap quilt top! Now I need to figure out what the devil I'm doing for the quilting part of the operation.

It seems I am also prepared to make another quilt (or two) from all the strips I cut and sewed.

Yikes, Stripes!

Some time last week the Monkey and I charged into the fabric store, intent on purchasing 1/4 yard of a bazillion different cotton fabrics so I could get to work on the Doll Quilt Swap. Within 5 minutes my cart was full of a dozen choices. But then I started to doubt-Is it too modern? Too pastel? Too something that my non-blogging swapee is not going to like? How am I supposed to stalk this lady so I know what to pick? I picked up and put back approximately every single bolt of fabric in the quilting section before choosing a half dozen fabrics I hope she loves, or at least doesn't dislike.

Once I actually had some fabric in my hands the work has been really fun. I decided on a roman coin design, and actually got up early (well, earlier than everyone else) to sew strips together Saturday morning. It is coming together so quickly, I should have the top finished in the next day or two.

Unless something comes up, which it never ever does in our home. Nope, nothing but smooth sailing here. We never, for example, spend an afternoon binging on white chocolate mousse and crying after a stressful meeting with the Psychologist evaluating Monkey about speech and behavioral therapy where he screamed for the entire 1 1/2 hour appointment.

Donuts

I had the weirdest experience this morning. While getting the Monkey ready for yet another speech evaluation I promised that if he hurried and got in the car early I would get him a donut. Donuts are possibly the ultimate treat for him, and he actually hurried. So we stop at a donut place on the way to his appointment and rush in, asking for one glaze donut (least messy). So the guy grabs him a donut, puts it in the bag and says "$1.26". One twenty-six? How can it be one twenty-six? "With tax" he informs me. But the sign says one donut, 59 cents. How can the tax on one donut equal one twenty-six? "$1.26 with tax," he tells me again, and I begin to think that this might be the extent of his English. All I have in my wallet is a single dollar bill, and he doesn't take credit. Aaaaarrrrrgggg. I'm short on time and confused and frustrated, and Monkey is thrashing around. Finally he takes the dollar and tells me I'm fine. I'm not fine, but I'm in a hurry so I flee instead of pressing the issue. I buckle Monkey in his car seat and race off, tossing him the little bag with the donut. He happily munches away as I drive, completely perplexed. A stop light or two later I turn around to check on him, and he hands me the paper bag, which you have of course guessed by now, contains another donut. Man did I feel like a genius. This poor donut guy must have thought I was a complete idiot. On the other hand, if you work at a donut shop you may need a better understanding of the phrase "One donut please."

Opportunity

Recently I was suckered into offered the opportunity to become one of the leaders of our church Young Women's group. As much as the thought scared the crap out of me, I accepted anyway and am having a surprisingly good time. And the nice part of being in charge you make the decisions about what activities to do. So when I have a pet project come to mind, I can just set the minions girls on it. Recently I heard that Skip to My Lou was collecting tiny blankets to send to China with her nephew. He is traveling there with Hope's Heart in order to work in three orphanages. So I bought some fantastic fuzzy flannel and some satin, and in one short evening of music and pizza rolls we cranked out 12 little blankies. I got them in the mail that night, and at the end of the month they will be on their way to China.

Doll Quilt Swap

Before I even had a chance to post about it, the Doll Quilt Swap has filled up. Holy smokes, I am glad I heard about it early. I do much better in my life (crafty and otherwise) with solid goals with deadlines. I am impatiently waiting for the next sale at the fabric store, so I can go in and make some poor employee cut 1/8 yard of a dozen fabrics.

I finished this skirt last night with more space between finish time and deadline than usual (I needed it finished by Sunday, as I'm tired of wearing the same black skirt to church). I love it! More girly than usual for me, but when you buzz your head you sometimes have to step it up in the female department. Skirt assembled with a few tips from this snappy tutorial, and pattern drafted with lots of help from geometry, my friend and yours. Pictures taken inside on the self-timer because there was a fantastic lightning storm going on. I feel especially smug because I used <$8 worth of broadcloth.

Sticky

Monkey and I have plans to hide inside the rest of the afternoon eating Popsicles. It rained really hard this morning, but it turns out that precipitation does not equal cooling trend here in the South. Here, you just have hot rain. You can see how humid it is in this photo. It was so wet this morning that even thought the rain had stopped the water in the air was making the light do strange things.
These hot pads and towels are now on their way to California, to be prizes for my little sister's bridal shower. I felt like a bum for not trekking across the country for her big party and volunteered to make something for the winners of assorted silly shower games. The hot pads are inspired by Denyse Schmidt's beautiful quilted oven mitts. Only not so complicated. Initially I intended on accompanying each towel with a rectangle and circle hot pad but at some point I remembered that I had a deadline and circles are rather difficult to edge with bias tape (if anyone knows of a good tutorial let me know, as it stands I have three beautiful circular hot pads that are finished except the edges). So congratulations, Little Sister! I wish I could be there with you but plane tickets for the Monkey and I cost an entire paycheck, and that would make me feel like a huge jerk. Give your boy a kiss from me. Wait, never mind. Give your boy a firm handshake and a heartfelt congratulations, and I will see you in August for your big day.

Hurricane season

My first official day of Hurricane season has so far gone without a hitch. There is still time though. Anyone else notice that the 5th Atlantic hurricane/tropical storm is going to be named Erin? I advise you to watch out for that one.

I really do still knit, although my thoughts have strayed from my sweater and Adamas shawl; it is just too stinking hot to sit under a big pile of wool right now. The project of the day is a pair of socks for the Dulaan project-a pair of Horcrux socks, to be exact. First pair of socks made following someone else's instructions, instead of making it up and flying by the seat of my pants like I usually do. This is going to be one sturdy pair of socks, I'm using the worsted weight yarn called for and size one needles. Six, maybe seven stitches per inch? Who knows; I didn't exactly gauge this one (gasp!) The yarn is a ball of Nature Spun worsted in China blue or Nordic blue or Someothermeaninglessdescription blue, overdyed with a smidgen of red to make it less flat.

Carnivores

If we are going to live in such a buggy part of the world, at least the predators here are adorable.

(Make no mistakes, there are some EPIC insects here. Without the frogs et al. we'd be screwed.

Seizures

Late late late posting tonight because a certain husband has been playing Age of Empires for approximately five hours. Not the awesome Memorial day activities I had planned. Of course, my awesome plans didn't include waking up at 5am when the monkey had a big seizure.

I was really hoping his brain had forgotten how to have those.

It wasn't terrible, just terribly disappointing. The on-call Neurologist upped his meds. Now we restart the clock, counting down to when he has been seizure free for two years and we can see if he is fixed. This does mean that lots of the small privacys and freedoms he has gained are gone again; no more swimming, or sitting in the bath alone for a moment or playing in the backyard without me.

He is doing well now; he slept in late and seem completely unaffected by his early morning workout. I am a mess. I was together enough this morning to throw my knitting in my backpack though, in case I ended up back at the hospital for three days like last time.

Shorts!

While I have been getting a lot accomplished, this last week or so has been rather difficult so you haven't seen any of it. So, in synopsis (of the crafty parts):

McCall's #M5393
97% Cotton, 3% Spandex
Fabulous pattern, but the body measurement/size chart on the back of the package are a dirty lie. According to the chart I should have been making a size 12 or 16 off of hip and waist measurements, respectively (I am shaped like a cardboard tube). Instead I made a size 4 and was delighted at the fit. A much better estimate of the size you want comes from the finished garment measurement chart. Size 4 called for 6 inches of ease at the hips, and really, who wants that?

McCall's #M5393 again, this time in shorts

100% Cotton duck, plus some cute fabric savaged from a bandanna for the inside of pockets, flaps and waistband.

Boxer shorts, pattern drafted directly onto the fabric with a piece of chalk. Something this simple I don't use a pattern for, just a tape measure. Piece of cake. Used some fabric I've had in my stash for 12 YEARS (seriously, I remember buying it.) Cotton? Polly? Some sort of blend? Who knows! I've used it for some small projects, but still had an embarrassing amount left over, especially since the color/print seems a little...intense for me now. So I made a pair of boxers for kicking around the house in.

Crazy

I am going to need a nap today.

The night before last was long and sleepless, thanks to my boys. When Monkey wasn't having dreams that required my frequent reassurance and tucking in, Lawyerboy was snoring. Most of the time I'll rub his back until he stops (seriously, he is the only person in the world who snores while sleeping on his stomach) but that usually wakes him up and he was getting to work at 6am the next day, even earlier than usual. By the end of yesterday I was tired enough to be having muscle spasms in my eye (normal for me) and in my butt (not normal). Laying there somehow this shaky, twitchy feeling made me feel hugely anxious, like I was going to have an anxiety attack (yes, sometimes I suffer anxiety that I might have an anxiety attack-awesome! Self-perpetuating worry!) So I did some 1am yoga and then wasted an hour or so reading about how to play the didgeridoo.

You would be amazed to know how often I recall my nights during the light of day and think, man, I really am crazy.