Vacation!!
I am way way way too busy right now. Perhaps I will pause in productivity and complain to the internet about it.
Tomorrow I leave for dance camp - a 4-day weekend in the woods with Scottish dancers! What a fantastic vacation!! Vacation!!
I mean, it's a slightly odd vacation with a rather particular packing list, but I like lists, so I'll just write everything down, put it in the car, and off I go. Vacation!!
Oh, wait, except I'm hosting a party for ~100 as soon as I arrive. No problem, I'll just make a ton of lists and run a ton of stupid errands and make a giant batch of hummus, and forget things and run another errand. I've been promised a frilly apron as bribery - it's the light at the end of the tunnel. Still, once that's over, vacation!!
Except wait, I'm rooming with the lovely Diane, whose birthday party was held at my house not long ago, and I have to take the remaining bar stash with me. Okay, just remember to put that in the car. Crap, and ice. Except I don't have a cooler. Crap. Anyway, not my problem, it'll work itself out, it's a vacation!!
And another thing, there's a costume party. A month ago, I had this great idea for a costume, and went to the effort of acquiring fabric, pattern, and accoutrements... yet as of July 3, absolutely nothing more was done. Since then I've spent every free part of every evening working on it (yet still getting whisked off to various fun commitments) and at this pace I've only got about 2 more evenings to go. Then one more night to pack everything up, and voila! ready to leave!! Vacation!!
Oh, wait, I have to be on the road by noon tomorrow? ha!
The sewing is taking forever because I was taught to sew by my mom when I was in high school, and my ability has only withered since, while my ambitions and imagination have grown radically. Thus, I'm using awkward materials and modifying a pattern, while doing this project on my absolutely charming Singer Featherweight (vintage 1951 - the machine my grandmother used until my mama took it to college with her!) which doesn't do any of those modern miracles like a zigzag stitch. I've learned to appreciate things I remember but no longer have, like my mom's big pattern-cutting board, those marking pens that rinse right off, and an ironing board in the same room as the sewing machine.
I'm re-learning all sorts of skills, too: although I don't have much feel for getting it right, I at least know how and why to vary the bobbin tension, and one day I'll have some notion of how full I need to fill a bobbin for any given project (faced with 5 full bobbins in crazy colors, I'm trying not to occupy the only remaining empty one with an infinite supply of sky blue thread, but all I've achieved so far is 4 pauses to re-fill.). I also was reminded that sewing machine needles come in different shapes for a reason - my lightweight (cheap) satiny material has lots of little snags along the seams from the needle pulling on cross-threads as it plunges through. When I changed to a light-weight ball-tip needle (my best guess) that went down to about 10% the previous frequency but didn't go away entirely. Of course, it doesn't help that my stash of needles is in the sewing chest inherited from my grandmother, including a packet labeled "To Be Sharpened" - I'm pretty sure the packet I picked from was actually new, but it's hard to tell.
Unfortunately, my love of making lists is right now just making me crazy - a clear reminder that there just isn't that much time between now and tomorrow noon!! And who wants to start a party-based vacation on a lack of sleep?
Tomorrow I leave for dance camp - a 4-day weekend in the woods with Scottish dancers! What a fantastic vacation!! Vacation!!
I mean, it's a slightly odd vacation with a rather particular packing list, but I like lists, so I'll just write everything down, put it in the car, and off I go. Vacation!!
Oh, wait, except I'm hosting a party for ~100 as soon as I arrive. No problem, I'll just make a ton of lists and run a ton of stupid errands and make a giant batch of hummus, and forget things and run another errand. I've been promised a frilly apron as bribery - it's the light at the end of the tunnel. Still, once that's over, vacation!!
Except wait, I'm rooming with the lovely Diane, whose birthday party was held at my house not long ago, and I have to take the remaining bar stash with me. Okay, just remember to put that in the car. Crap, and ice. Except I don't have a cooler. Crap. Anyway, not my problem, it'll work itself out, it's a vacation!!
And another thing, there's a costume party. A month ago, I had this great idea for a costume, and went to the effort of acquiring fabric, pattern, and accoutrements... yet as of July 3, absolutely nothing more was done. Since then I've spent every free part of every evening working on it (yet still getting whisked off to various fun commitments) and at this pace I've only got about 2 more evenings to go. Then one more night to pack everything up, and voila! ready to leave!! Vacation!!
Oh, wait, I have to be on the road by noon tomorrow? ha!
The sewing is taking forever because I was taught to sew by my mom when I was in high school, and my ability has only withered since, while my ambitions and imagination have grown radically. Thus, I'm using awkward materials and modifying a pattern, while doing this project on my absolutely charming Singer Featherweight (vintage 1951 - the machine my grandmother used until my mama took it to college with her!) which doesn't do any of those modern miracles like a zigzag stitch. I've learned to appreciate things I remember but no longer have, like my mom's big pattern-cutting board, those marking pens that rinse right off, and an ironing board in the same room as the sewing machine.
I'm re-learning all sorts of skills, too: although I don't have much feel for getting it right, I at least know how and why to vary the bobbin tension, and one day I'll have some notion of how full I need to fill a bobbin for any given project (faced with 5 full bobbins in crazy colors, I'm trying not to occupy the only remaining empty one with an infinite supply of sky blue thread, but all I've achieved so far is 4 pauses to re-fill.). I also was reminded that sewing machine needles come in different shapes for a reason - my lightweight (cheap) satiny material has lots of little snags along the seams from the needle pulling on cross-threads as it plunges through. When I changed to a light-weight ball-tip needle (my best guess) that went down to about 10% the previous frequency but didn't go away entirely. Of course, it doesn't help that my stash of needles is in the sewing chest inherited from my grandmother, including a packet labeled "To Be Sharpened" - I'm pretty sure the packet I picked from was actually new, but it's hard to tell.
Unfortunately, my love of making lists is right now just making me crazy - a clear reminder that there just isn't that much time between now and tomorrow noon!! And who wants to start a party-based vacation on a lack of sleep?