Is it Friday yet ?

 

Current Mood : Hopeful

Current Image Notes : This pattern came in about four sizes. I already had the 12 to 13 inch size, but not this one. Cool !

Spent on embroidery supplies :  $11.14

Spent on wall décor : 63c

 

I got to have a bit of a spending spree today, mostly because that paper mache dress form I got last weekend had to go back. It's too big, and was not worth the $8. we paid for it. Since it was in the markdown section, I thought it was a bit cheaper. Nope. When Beloved Hubby came home early from work, I had a raft of little errands to do, so I seized the time to get them done without Dearest Son. He's gotten better about not begging for stuff, but taking him to two craft stores and a video shop is kinda askin' for it.

 

Returned a very late video, then had some fun at Hobby Lobby. Since my Brody and balsa wood experiments went fairly well, I wanted some wider balsa wood. After a lot of digging - most of the balsa and basswood was not in the right cubby - I found the right depth and width in both. Yup, I'm gonna try the noticeably firmer basswood soon. I also snagged the recommended size needles, and used a printout 40% coupon on ‘em. Got two more plastic bottles that Beloved requested, and a small package of markdown safety pins. All I have are the tiny ones, and there's no others in the whole house !

 

And I saw my ‘compact' sewing tote, the one I got for $5. at last week's yard sale. It was on markdown at Hobby Lobby - for $19. ! Full price was $27 ! It came with some craft organizers mine didn't, but I still think I got a steal. If nothing else, it made me revamp the sewing area, which would be invaluable all by itself.

 

From there, I got the dress form returned, and took my time prowling Michael's Crafts. Found two of those plastic ‘suncatcher' pieces shaped like dogs, so I snagged ‘em for Dearest, to paint, color, or whatever. Also got a small felt and painted wood star for me, and a neat wood stain pen. Only $2. ! Now I can experiment with staining the wood I'm gonna embroider ! Oh, and Michael's now has a Fun Zone, with lots of interesting goodies for a buck or three. Well-worth checking out, especially if ya got kids -or are one in some ways.

Wednesday's a bit better...and there's balsa !

Current Mood : Sleepily triumphant

Current Image Notes : I thought I had this one - but I don't. Turns out, it's been sold under at least three different pattern numbers, about fifteen years total. So I'm glad I got at least one of 'em !

 

Busy day. Got most of the dishes done, and had dinner on the table early. Beloved Hubby worked on Bonnie-truck for most of the evening, but she's still down. Don't ask me how this happened, but it's somehow become our responsibility for picking Friend up at night and driving him home. (sigh) I hope Friend is saving his money for his own (expletive deleted) car, because I don't think Beloved's gonna put up with being a taxi service for long.

 

But, with everything done early, I got to embroider a bit. Late last night, while touring the Brother website, I found projects and free embroidery designs. One of the projects was for an embroidered balsa wood frame ! So, see, Brother knows their machines aren't gonna sew silk and cotton exclusively - and clearly, they want us to ‘think outside' a bit. I felt like thumbing my nose at those who scoffed at me for embroidering on vinyl a few months ago, because they're afraid to wreck their machines. Well, if I had an over-fussy over-priced temperamental prima-donna machine, I probably would feel the same, but I know my Brody is sturdy, stable, and loves a challenge !

 

Decided to just go ahead and do the balsa wood trials, since sitting and pondering it over and over was driving me nutty. Only two problems. One, the balsa I had was three inches wide, and a yard long. Nearly every design I had that would work with the wood - which means no tiny satin stitches -  was at least 3.5 inches in both directions. (sigh)

 

The other was that I thought I had the Brother recommended size needles, since it's a standard ‘denim' one, 80/12. But nope. Nowhere. Not in the newly redone needle stash, not in KJ's tray, not on the bulletin board above the sewing desk. Well, shoot. I poked various unidentified mystery needles in one end of the balsa, and one seemed to displace less wood than the others. So I loaded it into Brody, hooped up the stabilizer, and glued the balsa to the stabilizer. Figured I'd just use the designs that came with Brody for this experiment. And that I could use the spray adhesive to attach the wood to the stabilizer. I wasn't much up for starting this project with just about everything new and untested.

 

I ended up getting eight small trials on that one bit of 3" x 3" wood. The first, a large outline D, did not go well. The first few threads pulled up, and others were quite loose. And most of the ones parallel to the balsa's grain sank into the wood. Yikes. Took the mystery needle out and reinstalled my well-worn embroidery one. The next two didn't go well either, but that was because I forgot that alphabet was nearly all satin stitches.

 

Increased the tension and tried again. Better. A bit more, and it was nearly perfect. Most designs stitch at around ‘3' on the tension dial, but it was nearly on ‘4' at this point. Stitches were still sinking in on the grain, though. I remember that the Urban Threads tutorial showed a sheet of water-soluble stabilizer on top of the wood, something the Brother one didn't do. Well, now I knew why. A scrap of WSS taped to one corner of the balsa, and booyah, baby ! We have balsa wood embroidery ! A few swipes with a wet cotton swab, and it still looked great.

 

Aren't you lucky ? Thanks to pattern week, you don't gotta look at all that - but you'll see a finished design once I get one going ! Since I gotta go out tomorrow, I hope to get the right size needles and maybe even some more balsa. Hope it works better, ‘cause I wanna do something besides tests and trials.

 

What a Tuesday...

 

Current Mood : Aggravated

 

As is usual when I have photos planned, taken, and edited for a week ahead of time, I have lots of day-by-day stuff to take pictures of, too. Yesterday, for example, I stitched out a pretty card. Today, I actually bought a Barbie outfit.

 

Hard to believe, huh ? But I couldn't resist it. It had stars and moons and was partially silver - like it was made to snag me ! Plus it was just a bit over two bucks, and after the morning I had (more later), I wanted a bit of a treat. So I got it. And the one I bought had a wrinkle in the ‘Barbie' signature sticker on the box front - which put it just off registry enough for me to peel off and use on my ongoing desk notebook. I have a photo of it waiting for another blank spot on the blog calendar...

 

Ok. This morning. (sigh) Beloved Hubby somehow left his cell phone home. This never happens. But I'm glad it did today. We got our second truck back from loaning it to DFIL and waited two weeks...and loaned it to Beloved's friend, who's trying really hard to make a fresh start in his life. If he doesn't have a ride lined up, he starts walking to work at 4am. He lives in another town from his job - and his hours don't start til 11am ! It's hard to ignore that kind of dedication, and really, Bonnie-truck was just sitting around...

 

So, yeah, you know where this is going. Second day he has it, it breaks down. He couldn't get it to the convenience store parking lot, so it's still on the street. Yikes. Friend's already called in late to work. And I was just out of the shower, getting ready for the weekly grocery run... so I toss Dearest Son into Molly-car, put the pedal to the floor, and we're off to where he says he is. Too bad he wasn't there. Couldn't find Bonnie-truck either. I check other gas stations on the road. Nope.

 

Maybe I misheard, and he's on X street instead of Y. Both X and Y are off of A, where he said he was, so off we go. Nope. So I travel further down A. Nothing. Since I know where he works, I figure I'll travel that road, see if I can find him that way. And, an hour and a half after he calls, I find him. Some guys helped him push Bonnie into the parking lot, so at least I didn't have to. Not like I haven't pushed a few cars around in my day. But anyway. Friend has since called to work again, to tell them he'd left his security badge at home, so... He voices concern that he'll be fired, so there's not much for me to do but drive him all the way to Other Town, let him grab the badge, then drive him to work. In short, (too late !) I got in the car at 11am, and got out of it at 1pm. Too tired and sweaty and frazzled and hungry to do groceries. I grabbed Dearest a Mighty Kids meal on the way home, and just sat around for an hour or so. After my energy restored, we headed out and got it done. Aaargh.

 

I'm just glad his call to Beloved Hubby came to me instead. Beloved was waaaay out of town, and it just would have added to the stress of his day. As it was, he was pretty wired when I told him. We spent three hours trying to fix it in the parking lot, but the source issue is still there. I'm now wondering if someone tampered with the fuel tank...

 

So that's been my day. About all I got done was driving, helping Beloved a bit, and groceries. And a load of laundry got done that I'm too tired to put away right now. At least the ‘crown' shirt and the Barbie mini-backpack got washed. Backpack looks pretty good, but the t-shirt has some spots on it that probably didn't come out. But now, I feel confident enough to go after the shirts I bought new from Hobby Lobby !

 

And in other good news, the packages we shipped to our eBay winner Friday arrived today, and he's happy. I really should get goin' on the stuff I have to list... Also, I found directions for embroidering balsa wood on the Brother home site. They call for an adhesive-backed stabilizer - which I actually have ! Thanks to a sample book AllStitch sends all its new customers, I have enough for this project. Lucky !

Just another headache-brewin' Monday...

 

Current Mood : Storm front movin' in - along with a minor headache. 

Current Image Notes : Ya gotta love a 70s doll pattern. In addition to Barbie, there's patterns in this one to fit the 12 1/2" Cher and Farrah dolls ! Don't they look like something Charlie's Angels would wear during an especially stylish martial arts lesson ?

 

Ho-hum Monday. Got about half the dishes done, mostly because I've felt blah all day. Not really sick, and not much more tired than usual, but I clearly wasn't m'self. Didn't help that Dearest was kind of clingy all day, so that when I did give in and lie down, he just had to tell me all about the same Lego City news he'd told me ten minutes ago. Which normally involved waking me from whatever level of doze I'd just reached. (sigh)

 

Brought Brody in and loaded him up with Dearest's five remote-control car designs, and two redwork travel kitties, Japan and Paris. It's typical of me to assemble everything I need for a ground-breaking project (embroidering on balsa wood) then shy away from it for several weeks, mostly by working on stuff that's nowhere near as challenging. Then one day, I'll shake m'self off and do the really unique stuff.

 

So today, I decided to stitch out the redwork design on cardstock, since another SiCK forum member told me they usually worked out well. And I wanted to try using the masking tape to secure the cardstock to the stabilizer, instead of the too-expensive spray adhesive. Got it all hooped up, swapped the needle from a knit ballpoint to a well-used sharp, threaded up a nice scarlet spool, then ran Brody's ‘outline' function. I just recently rediscovered that - it traces a square shape version of the chosen design, so the operator can make sure it's lined up. Or, in my case, I can make sure the needle doesn't come anywhere near the tape. Chose the Japan kitty, and aside from some slight tearing and a bit of bobbin white showing through, it came out beautifully.

 

Unfortunately, the masking tape ripped a bit of the cardstock's top layer up when I removed it. Not a big deal - I just pulled out the curvy scissors I got from a yard sale and trimmed most of the scrapes away. Then I propped it up by Beloved Hubby's computer. He loved it, and it's hanging up at his desk. I'm thinking of stitching up the same design in other colors, and giving a full set of eight countries, one note at a time, to Dearest's teacher this year.

 

After I get a fresh sharp needle installed. That may be why the tiny stitches tore the card. Blunt needles will do that. On the whole, though, I'm pretty happy with how it worked out. Once the pattern series is over, I'll post a photo of it here. It's a really pretty design. I'm glad I spent my ‘magic birthday money' on the whole set.

Sort-through Sunday

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

Current Image Notes : Already have this one, but I wasn't quite sure when I saw it at Friday's yard sale. Any pattern that says ‘for Barbie and Dusty' on the back, I gotta have - just in case. What makes it more annoying is that I spent two weeks trying to duplicate ‘Leia's Flight Suit' from the pattern pieces shown on a collector's website a couple years ago - and here it is, ready to go ! Arrrghhh.

 

With the success of the crown on one of my old t-shirts last night, I knew I was ready to start Dearest Son's Back-to-School wardrobe embroidery. So I cleared a few designs off Brody, which left enough space for all five of that remote control car design set I wanted to stitch for him.

 

Unfortunately, I'd need to do a lot more cleaning before getting new designs installed. My desk was a disaster of patterns, receipts, plates, glassware, half-finished chip bags, tissues, and paper scraps. And along the sides of my desk were piles of more stuff - the craft tote I bought Friday, a kitchen towel, an overflowing Disney Princess trash can, Brody's embroidery hoop and printouts of designs, the manual for the new air conditioner... ah, what a mess. The rest of the living room, now that Dearest's home from his grandparents', wasn't in any better shape, but that didn't concern me much.

 

So I got busy. I could put all the new patterns away once I got ‘em scanned, so that got going. I could scan and sort through desk detritus at the same time. In between sits for resizing and saving, I got plates returned to the kitchen, trashed some fast-food misc., and shoved all the Lab stuff in the new-to-me tote, including the freshly-scanned pattern envelopes. That gave me an idea...

 

Y'see, all this new stuff's gotta go somewhere. And I wanted most of it near me. The shoebox I was using for doll patterns was at Critical Load last year, and all the new dollar-sale American Girl and clone patterns were stacked on top. If it weren't for the sewing desk cubby holding it tight, it would have split years ago. But what if... that new craft tote, minus the storage tray under the lid, could hold dozens of patterns. Possibly all the doll ones. And moving the patterns out of the desk would free up that cubby, which would be a much better place to store the sewing notions bin I had balanced on the ribbon box.

 

In the end and an hour later, I had pretty much completely redone the Lab's immediate sewing table area. I ditched dozens of not-doll patterns I finally admitted I'd never use to the Donations pile, redid the sewing notions craft tote, used up two small plastic storage boxes that've been lingering around - they used to be school boxes for Dearest - and redid the sewing notions bin using the storage tray from the new craft tote. Much better !

 

I found that I've had water-soluble stabilizer for years - it was in the notions tote. Carol, of Perestroika.ca , sent me some to use for sewing Barbie panties. It's in the stabilizer bag now. Discovered some onion-skin and tracing paper that Beloved Hubby can use in his hobby, and got all the sewing needles and hand-needles together and stored. In short, a buncha stuff that's been sitting around near where it belonged now is where it belongs. Not underfoot anymore. I have a lot more space around the sewing desk, and it's much easier to dig in the ribbon box now. I can actually flip through the doll patterns now, something I've not done in ages, for fear of destroying the storage box.  It's a lot less cluttered now, so it feels much less confining.

 

Yeah, I know - it seems like I'm cleaning the Lab every other weekend. But it gets a mess fast in there, and I'm quite lazy when it comes to ‘detail' cleaning. If the new buttons are in the general vicinity, I often don't put ‘em ‘all the way away', which leads to clutter. Plus, it's fun to putter and reacquaint m'self with all my treasures. Especially the ones crammed under or on top of something else that I don't see or sort very often. I'm also bad for bagging up new goodies and hanging the bag on the Lab doorknob, and leaving it there ‘til I need something out of it. So I got the current one emptied, then used it to line the DP trash can in there. Wheee !

 

Ironically, unless I do so right after finishing this, I never got the new designs installed on Brody, although my desk is nice and clean. Oh, well. Hope I can do it tomorrow !

More yard sale fun !

 

Current Mood : Daydreamy

Current Image Notes : Have this pattern already - but who can resist two ? Especially since it's for the 19" Supersize Barbie, and Tiffany Taylor !

 

Hit a couple yard sales, spent a big $4. Beloved Hubby gained a clock, stylish silver and black, with words like ‘dilly', ‘dally', ‘stall', and ‘dawdle' marking the hours. He thought it was hilarious, since he was playing hooky from work today. He also got an authentic Japanese teapot, and if I can find some nice orange/brown/cream silk geraniums or mums, it'll make a great decoration.

 

As for me, I found eight small frames that double as Christmas ornaments. Four gold square ones, four oval silver ones, with matching red and metallic ribbon threaded through the hangers. A simple cross-stitch or embroidered initial or monogram will make it a near-instant gift. If it weren't for the small snowflake designs embossed in the frames, they'd make great year-round gifts, but I'm sure I can find them new holiday homes. I also scored three new vases for a dime each. I inevitably lose two or three a year to teachers, and another couple for other events, so I like to stock up when I find ‘em cheap. Ya kind of hate to spend $5. on a vase for $5. worth of flowers, ya know ? I'd rather buy a $10. bouquet and use a nice clean ‘free' vase I have at home.

 

And waiting in the hamper for a wash is a kids' Barbie backpack - I think it came with a book series subscription. It's white with pink accents and the Barbie logo, with the legend, ‘Anything is Possible !' amid butterflies and flowers. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, but I'm hoping it comes out clean and nice.

 

It'll be in the same load as the t-shirt I embroidered today. Not one of the new ones, not just yet, but I did put that two-tone crown you've seen before on one of my older ones. Used a nice medium green, with a dark grey shadow. It came out really nice, on-grain, good registry, and centered well. Just a bit low. Oh, well. There's always the next shirt ! And, hey, this one's wearable - or will be, once it's washed. There's chalk marks, hoop marks, and just plain handling all over it, so it'll be much nicer when it's clean.

 

Pattern Score !

 

Current Mood : Happy ! 

Spent on craft tote : $5.

Spent on 8 patterns : $1.

Spent on elegant cardstock : 50c

 

Dearest Son and I had some fun today ! Major thunderstorm last night meant that things were cooler this morning - and everyone got a good night's sleep last night. In fact, it was cool enough this morning to turn off the new air conditioner for a while. I'm impressed !

 

Had to head out to mail a package for Beloved Hubby - he sold some old hobby stuff on eBay he wasn't using anymore - and return our slightly overdue DVD and Wii rentals. On the way back, we hit several yard sales. Dearest cleaned up ! He bought two Pound Puppies and a Pound Kitty at one sale for 25c each - then scored three really nice stuffed dogs for the same price at the next one. What can I say, he's having such fun with the toy dogs (and cat), and they were so cheap... He now has his own Hotel for Dogs, with a cat wing, on the sofa. He's named them all, and created ‘rooms' for them, out of totes, toys, and cardboard boxes.

 

I scored pretty heavily, too. Found another plastic craft tote like the two I already have, for $5. The two I have hold Elphie's wardrobe and small props and general consumable notions under my sewing table. This new-to-me one's slightly smaller, but matches the other two, and I couldn't resist. The larger ones run about $20. each at Hobby Lobby, so I got a deal on this one.

 

And, of course, on seeing half a table of craft supplies, I had to go through it all, millimeter by millimeter. Found a cardboard pattern box, and I'd be possessed by aliens if I didn't flip through it. Wow ! 70s Simplicities ! And not just any Simplicity patterns - doll clothes Simplicity patterns ! I grabbed each one as I found it, then couldn't remember which ones I already had, or just wanted for years. Figured better safe than sorry, and bought all but the Cabbage Patch ones (I already have four of those, for Timey and Dottie, without a CP in sight).  I was so happy - turns out, I only duplicated two. Scored a tote bag pattern set, too, ‘cause it'll be fun to embroider my own. I think I know what photos you'll be seeing here for the next week ! I got the craft bag one, two large baby doll ones, and five Barbie patterns. Whoo-hoo !

 

It just amazes me, since I'd decided to quit buying patterns. Stop spending hours hunting for this one I don't have, or this one that looked like something my mother would have used to make doll clothes that one time. I mean, what could anyone possibly design for Barbie that I didn't already have, in some form or fashion ? Two arms, two legs, chest hasn't changed much in 50 years, one head.  I have over a thousand Barbie patterns alone - and about half of those patterns make five or more garments ! No, I needed to spend more time sewing and less time hunting and buying. Pretty much came to the same conclusion about patterns to make me clothes and accessories. About the time I got that established, Brody came along...(sigh) Things haven't really returned to normal since !

 

Just for kicks, I bought the deep purple Beanie Baby bear with a white rose embroidered on it. It's my DMIL's favorite color, even though I know that she, like me, isn't much into bears, but it's always nice to know someone's thinking of you. And the elegant cards with the black-marble edge design were quite pretty. I may experiment with embroidering on those this weekend, if there's time.

 

By then, it was noon, and even Dearest's hunger for the hunt was waning in the rising humid heat and giving way to lunch-pangs. So we headed home. It was more fun than last year, going yard saling with him. Last year, he had to have something from every sale, no matter how silly or bizarre. And he'd invariably find some big expensive thing I just couldn't get for him, which would lead to upset all around. This year, he gladly went back to the car empty-handed if he didn't see anything, and even he admits he has plenty of cars and big toys. Just wish there'd been more sales this summer - but there's always August and September !

 

Tonight, Beloved and I had a quick taco dinner and went to Hastings. Didn't find anything to want. They must have three hundred crafts books, but never anything I'm interested in. At least 200 of that number's on scrapbooking or quilting. (sigh)

Frigidaire...I think I love you....

 

Current Mood : Relaxed and *cool*....

Spent on embroidery designs : $1.95 

 

Another swelter of a day. I couldn't sleep last night, between the heat and the simple fact that my body and my psyche hates me. Every time I'd begin to nod off after reading myself down, I either started to itch and sweat, or my mind would break in to visions of stuff I haven't done yet or did wrong years ago. I think I finally passed out around 3am.

 

Beloved Hubby slept restlessly, too. So today, he bought an air conditioner. I helped install it... and for the first time since June, it's cool in here. I turned off the increasingly useless central unit, and within an hour, it'd dropped two degrees inside. So nice...

 

Yeah, it was an expense we weren't really planning on. But you don't wanna know how high our power bill is already, and it's still 87 degrees in here at 3am. At this point, darn near anything is an improvement. My hair's finally totally dry in the back. I may actually restart my Wii Fit exercises, now that I don't feel like I'll pass out if I try.

 

Got some dishes done, and decided to use that scrap of sweatpants that's been underfoot in the Lab for the last few weeks. Looks like the design and Brody are fine, he didn't snarl once today. And if ya look closely, you'll see that I hooped it wrong - the ‘grain' is going horizontal, not vertical. I'm now wondering if it's the thread that was screwing up in the first crown trial, since the new brand and colors performed perfectly. And while I had the iron hot to apply the interfacing, I also attached it to the t-shirt I'm planning on sewing up for me tomorrow. Saturday, I gotta get going on Dearest's shirts for back-to-school, I'm already behind on those.

 

Oh, and I finally ‘spent' my birthday gift from Embroidery Library. Got three just-released designs on special for a buck each, and got the rest of the ‘Kitty Travelling' redwork designs I wanted. Minus my $10. gift, I only spent $1.95 on the lot. I'm gonna stitch out some of the kitties as notecards, maybe for Dearest Son's teacher this year. Start her on a collection of sorts. I wanna sew ‘em on the scrapbooking cardstock, then glue ‘em to the blank white cards I have. Just wanna practice ‘em first... so you'll see ‘em here soon !

 

Right now, though, I'm ready to sleep not soaked in sweat and itchy... it'll be like heaven...

Right now, I'm a big fan of fans...

 

Current Mood : gratitude for fans, slight anger at landlord

 

Pretty much same as yesterday. Got four loads of laundry washed, dried, and put away, but that's about it. It was 105 outside today, and it's 88 inside - at 9pm. Everyone is short tempered and a bit frazzled, and sleep is getting harder every night. We're probably going to buy an air conditioner later this week, and turn off the increasingly useless central air. I'll tell our landlord why we bought an AC, but we both still doubt she'll do much.

 

Sorry there's not much going on. I was thinking the other day of all the odd junk I used to eat in college. Sure, I had the ‘room and board' package, but I also worked three jobs with a full course load. At least two or three times a week, my available time and the dining hall's hours did not connect. Plus, since I was often visiting my parents on weekends, I chose the five-day meal plan, not the 7-day one. And the money I earned went to general living expenses and the interest on my loans, so I couldn't eat out much. Luckily, my hobbies weren't expensive, like dolls or embroidery. I didn't have time for any ! My chief hobby was sleep !

 

But I could cook cheap. I'd fry up a pound of hamburger, and freeze it in quarter or sixth pound packages. After a quick microwave thaw, I'd mix it with minute rice and leftover soy sauce packets for a tasty, quick meal. I also added rice to Hormel chili. With a bit of shredded cheese, a can of chili and a cup or two of rice could feed several guests a late dinner. We called it ‘hash' in honor of my Army days. I could also get a week's worth of dinner out of rice or noodles and a Banquet frozen family entrée, like sliced turkey or Salisbury steak. Or, when the month was still going long after the money quit, a packet of ramen seasoning added to the water for rice gave it a nice taste. I'd learned that you could flavor two packs of ramen with one packet of seasoning, so I usually had spares. Any leftover ramen could be lightly fried, for a whole new taste. I ate a lot of rice back then. Not as much ramen as you'd think.

 

Yeah, none of that is really good for ya. Heavy on the sodium, and sometimes fat. But it was better than endless ramen and Mac & Cheese that some of my classmates lived on during weekends. I did figure out that I could add cooked hamburger to boxed Mac&Cheese for almost instant Hamburger Helper, though, and just a toss of shredded cheese or French-fried onions (the kind that goes on green bean casserole) made it more of a meal. I was just glad the Honors House I lived in had two full kitchens.

 

But this week, I had an odd yen for the rice and hamburger dish. I'd tried it after graduating, but I was buying even cheaper regular-cook generic rice in those days. You know things are tight when you don't buy generic Minute rice anymore - and there actually is a difference, as I discovered. Throws off the whole taste, especially with hash. So I haven't eaten any of that in years. Evidently, we're doing quite well, because Beloved Hubby prefers the Mal-Wart Minute rice, and it's well-stocked in our kitchen. So I held a bit of ‘burger back when I made meatloaf Monday, and I got to try it again today - no leftovers left !

 

Funny, how it tastes the same again. Only problem now is, I want some hash...

Free-motion on Brody's about the only moving I've done today...

 

Current Mood : Impatient and crabby

 

Another day wherein I'm bone exhausted, but didn't get much done. Of course, when it's 87 degrees in the house, and the air conditioning hasn't stopped running in days, you tend to not move around much.

 

I'm a little distracted now. On Saturday, I bought Beloved Hubby the second season of Pinky and the Brain, dirt-cheap from Big Lots. It's the series, not the original shorts from Animaniacs, and neither of us had seen them. Well, what works hilariously in six minutes suffers in 22. ‘Nuff said. Dearest Son, however, is completely enamored, and now says ‘Narf !' loudly and about every 38 seconds. After asking several times for him to knock it off, then telling him to, I just clipped on the MP3 headphones and cranked the player. He soon calmed down and backed off - no one likes being ignored.

 

Today, too, we discovered the second drawback to having my computer in the living room. The first one is losing about half my desk space, due to room constraints and everyone sitting this end of the sofa uses a desk edge for sodas, snacks, dishes, and remote controls. Today, we had someone send us a fax. There is no phone jack in the living room. The fax/scanner/printer is, of course, connected to my computer. And we sure didn't have a twenty or thirty foot phone cord lying around. So I disentangled the wires and moved the printer into Beloved's Salon, placing it on his chair and plugging it in there. Beloved advised me to buy a phone cord while I was out, but it just seemed ridiculous. This works much better, with no cord to keep up with, no expense. Of course, when we actually did get the fax, it was some multi-level marketing (i.e., pyramid) scheme. I've redone the cords so that next time, I can do it without so much shuffle.

 

We did groceries, and I'm mostly proud of Dearest. He decided, before we left, that he wanted to save his money and get a larger set next week, too. That'll be three weeks for him to save up - first time he'd ever done that ! Of course, he couldn't have bought anything today anyway. I stepped on Lego twice, and he's slowly learning that mean ole momma is standing by Sunday's edict that Lego underfoot = no new Lego. He had a bit of a breakdown as we were finishing up, but I talked to him rationally, reminding him of the set he wants and the Lego underfoot rules. He calmed himself down, and I said he could call me ‘mean mamma' if it helped, and he was soon happy and chatty again, especially after he got to pick the ice cream this week. That lasted until I made him carry in groceries while I put cold food away. He normally escapes that chore by scampering off to play as soon as we hit driveway, but I snagged him this time ! At least he only pouted until lunch. About fifteen minutes later.

 

Checked Brody out a bit. His bobbin race is clean and clear, I even took the bobbin case out and checked for lint or whatever there. Maybe it wasn't seated correctly before. Just for kicks, I took off his embroidery platform and did a bit of free-motion embroidery with him, using yer everyday straight stitch. I'd done that a few times with KJ, when I first got him in ‘04 - it's quite fun, but without the free-motion foot, needle breakage is just too easy. I'd always meant to buy a free-motion foot for KJ, but I could never find one for less than $30., and when I had $30., I always spent it on a ton of small stuff. Now that I have Brody, he has the foot, and it fits KJ, too, if I ever decide to do that on him sometime. I'd been meaning to play with Brody's regular stitches, too - so that got done today. Thought all my noodling around, the thread didn't catch or snarl, so I may be OK with trying to embroider on that shirt. I'll do a simple on-board design first, though, to be sure.

 

Other than that, I'm not sure where the day went. It's 87 degrees inside, with the air on all day. If it weren't for the fan, I'd probably melt. And I completely blew off Wii Fit. At no point of the day was it cool enough to even do yoga without dripping.