Let me tell you a story about a girl who had her finger in a lot of pies.

Ok, that sounds dirty, I’ll just talk about me and all the crap I’ve been trying to do.

THE ONE THAT ACTUALLY PAYS
First off, I’ve had a freelance gig. It has been somewhat strenuous, as I have a full time job, 2 kids with soccer, a husband, and a household.. I used to do quite a lot of freelance, when I didn’t have kids, and then when I had kids, but stayed home with them. So when an old friend of mine called me up and asked if I was interested, I told him bluntly that it would really have to be worth my while. I knew that the hours spent on a freelance gig would be hours spent, oh let’s see, not sleeping, not spending time with my kids, not seeing their soccer games, not seeing my husband, not taking care of my house.. and I knew that it would wear me out! So they made it worth my while and I jumped on board. I’ve been cranking on that for the last few weeks, with a big push this last weekend. Now, little bits and bobs pop up, but it’s finishing up nicely. Overall, I’m glad I took the gig, because it is going to translate into the new couch in the basement! The one I can’t decide which color it should be! Yippee! (My latest plan is to scout out the floor models – if the Lichen is on closeout, then they’re going to be getting rid of the floor models too, right??)

THE BABY CRAFTY
A few weeks ago, there was a joint baby shower for 2 ladies in the neighborhood who were expecting.. Correction, 1 was expecting, the other delivered prematurely at 32 weeks. (At the time of the shower, the baby was still staying at the hospital at the NICU, but now she is at home with her family.) So for this shower, I had 1 baby blanket done, and the other partially done, and somehow I got it into my head to make bibs from Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing book. It was lots of fun, and I’m glad I did it, but I am NOT glad for deciding to do all this the DAY BEFORE the shower. I was kind of stressed out about it, and that’s never a good thing. It makes you think all about the fact that you can buy a 4pk of bibs at Target for $1.99, and that’s never a good thing to think when you’re making something handmade! Oh, and another thing – Did I remember to take pictures? NO I DID NOT. What’s the point in making handmade gifts if you FORGET TO TAKE PICTURES?? Oh right, the joy of giving, blah blah blah. 🙂

THE BASEMENT PAINTY PAINTY
The basement is an ongoing project. James finished the floor with astonishing speed and verve, and as such, I told him that if he would prep it, I would paint it. He hasn’t finished prepping it, but that’s ok because I don’t think I’ll be able to get around to painting it until November.. and that’s only if I can decide on a paint color by then.

MORE CRAFTY! THIS TIME WITH FURNITURE!
I also bought 2 chairs off craigslist about 2 months ago because I liked their bones, and wanted to try my hand at recovering. It’s a good thing I had planned on recovering to begin with, because they STINK. They reek of dank musty smoke to high heaven. I spent one afternoon several weeks ago pulling staples out of one of the chairs, and at the end of the day, I dropped everything I was wearing into the wash immediately, and then went and got in the shower. It was that bad. So now, 1 chair is taken apart and stripped down to the foam, and the other chair is sitting in the garage in all it’s stinkiness, waiting to be stripped. I am even thinking of stripping the wood and painting them. My thoughts: white, chocolate brown, or turquoise. I’m leaning towards the turquoise. Oooh, or bright red. Super glossy! Fun! The color they are now ain’t bad either. I have pictures, I just haven’t gotten them off the camera yet (STORY OF MY LIFE!)

THE HIGH PRIORITY CRAFTY SEWING PROJECT!
And LASTLY.. and now, most importantly… We have halloween coming up! Which means I have 4 weeks in which to construct a suitable Belle costume! Which I predict won’t be nearly enough time! I even purchased the satiny yellow fabric a few weeks ago. I have looked at the directions numerous times and feel that I am in way over my head. I guess we shall see.

So, yeah. Projects, projects. Lots of projects. Lots of projects for me, for me.

OK, so, you all know that woe is me, my dream couch, that I found on craigslist, ran off with another seller.

Here is that couch, Crate & Barrel Camden 69″, in Lichen:

This couch is normally $900. I almost had it for $425. Now, I was very sad about this loss. Because couches like these don’t come along on Craigslist every day. Usually it’s something like this:

Blech. Now, forgive me, if this is just the thing you’ve been looking for all your life, but this is the epitome of what I don’t want. My first rule is, no pillows – everything must be attached. Second rule- sleek and modern looking. No overstuffedness. How many sofas come along on CL that meet my rules? That’s right. 1, and I lost that one to a higher bidder, ergh!

But there are good things to think about. If I’m going to have to spend the entire $900 bucks, well, I could take a look at other colors, now couldn’t I? I do like the green Lichen one above.. and in the last few weeks, they’ve come out with a new “Spring Green”:

Pretty, isn’t it? A touch more yellow in this one than the Lichen one. I think I like the Lichen better. Moving on..

We have this beautiful Chestnut baby:

Isn’t that just gorgeous? So done. If I’m going to pay the full price, I’m getting the dark brown, ooh la la!

But now, a dilemma — with the rollout of these new colors, the Lichen couch is now ON SALE – for $700! Torn am I.

TORN AM I!

With the extra $200 bucks, I could buy a matching ottoman (normally $380, but now on sale for $200).

So..

What to do.. what to do.. Hmmmm.. That’s a stumper.

OH WHO THE HELL AM I KIDDIN. It’s not even a decision. I’m hemming and hawing just for the sake of something to post. (Forgive me? At least I included pretty pictures to look at!) My decision is made, baby (unless of course, James vetoes, but I don’t think he will) – It’s the dark brown! And all I’m thinking about now is what fabric to use for the pillows!

*cough* I could just make them all.

Do you think Jocelyn would mind if I cut up this dress and make it into pillows?

What? It won’t fit her much longer!

🙂

-amy might actually get around to painting the room in november.. le sigh…

I grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, otherwise known as the mormon church. My parents are mormon, my grandparents are mormon, my great grand parents are mormon. In fact, I come from a seventh generation mormon family. I have ancestors who lived in England and Ireland who were going about living their lives when they heard about this new religion from some missionaries, picked up their lives and moved to the United States. I have ancestors who trekked across the plains pushing handcarts to go to Utah. My roots run deep, and I am proud of them. I come from strong people. While my parents now live in Utah, along with my sister and brother, I grew up in Colorado (very young) and then Washington state (young through high school.) I just want to let you know, that I did not grow up in Utah. That may mean nothing to some of you, and the world to others 🙂

As a teen, most of my best friends were mormon, but I had plenty of other friends too. I was always encouraged to question and explore, and I used to love to discuss religion with friends of other faiths. It was always interesting to me to hear what others believed and why, and examine those principles and see how they fit together. It almost always was a rewarding experience, but there were times when I would run into people who, on hearing what church I belonged to, would try to preach at me, or would all out shun me.

I still remember the first time I was “shunned.” I was in the 2nd or 3rd grade, and I met a sweet new girl in my class named Cassandra. We became quick friends and often rode our bikes over to the other’s house. She had a lot of animals at her house, rabbits, and a passel of dogs, and I remember being a bit awed about that. We always had to go to her house first after school so she could do her chores, which consisting of feeding the various pets. We only had 1 cat in our house, and I remember wishing we were more like her and had every animal under the sun.

We would play, ride bikes, talk, etc. One day, I asked her if she wanted to sleep over. Friday night turned up unavailable for some reason, so the option of Saturday night was thrown in there. My folks were fine with it, but I would have to come home in time for church. Church was at 1pm, so that was plenty of time. In discussing the plans with Cassandra, the subject of church came up and I told her which church we attended, she said she’d talk to her mom, and we parted for the day.

The next day in school, she told me she wasn’t allowed to be friends with me anymore because I was a mormon. I was totally flabbergasted. I asked her why, and she told me because we didn’t believe in Jesus Christ. I was especially flabbergasted then, because hello! We do! I go to the mormon church, and shouldn’t I know better what we believe than someone who doesn’t go? The first article of faith CLEARLY even says that we DO. I recited it to her, but she was unimpressed, and I remember she didn’t actually seem to be sad or anything that the beautiful friendship we had seemed to be ending, and for a reason that seemed silly. I think that that bothered me even more – she didn’t seem to mind not seeing me, whereas I had already invested my whole little heart in our friendship. Also, I think I would have enjoyed the drama of a “forbidden friendship.” Very Anne of Green Gables, after she got Diana drunk on Marilla’s elderberry wine on accident. (Except I didn’t read that until I was 12 or so, but you get the point. I was a dramatic child.) Part of that hurt was being robbed of that drama by Cassandra’s indifference.

I don’t remember that I really told anyone about it. I may have told my mom, but it was something that I held with me for a long time. I was fairly young, and I think I turned it over in my mind a lot, trying to figure it out. I thought about Cassandra’s mom. I had met her and she seemed like a perfectly nice lady, I wondered and wondered why exactly she didn’t like me? She didn’t like mormons, but surely she liked ME enough to overlook that, right?

I don’t think I dwelled on it that much. My best friend Heidi lived next door, and she was always fun, always ready to play. She and her family belonged to the Lutheran church, and we often would do sleepovers. Her family was always accepting to me and my family. I remember once after a Saturday night sleepover, I went to church with her family. It was fun, and exciting, until I realized that church was church, and whether it’s mormon or lutheran, it’s always a bit on the boring side, until you get to the kid’s classes. Sunday school / primary.

The Lutheran church that Heidi attended was on the same street that the LDS church was, not more than 100 yards away, in fact. Heidi and I sat in her sunday school class, with about 6 other kids, and the teacher was giving a lesson that I wasn’t really listening to very much, when all of a sudden I realized she was talking about me, and my church. She mentioned the church’s “neighbors” (meaning the LDS church) and how they didn’t beleive in Christ. I felt like I was going to die. It was one thing to be told by Cassandra that my church didn’t believe in Christ, but here I was, attending church with a friend where the class was being TAUGHT the same thing, with me right there witnessing it. Was this why Cassandra’s mom thought LDS didn’t beleive in Christ? How many churches were out there teaching this to people?

I was not indignant. I was probably 9 years old, and I was embarrassed. I sat there silently, wishing the floor would open up and swallow me whole. Did she know I was mormon? Would she be saying all this if she knew? I remember looking over at Heidi, and she was beet red embarrassed too. Neither of us said anything, but after the class was over, she told her mom, who told the pastor, who took me aside and apologized profusely. He said that they don’t teach that sort of thing in their church normally, and he was going to talk to the teacher. Later, Heidi told me that the lady had had a bad experience with someone who was mormon and didn’t like any mormons as a result. Heidi’s mom even talked to me and apologized for what had happened, and spoke to my parents as well. The entire incident passed, and Heidi and I didn’t mention it again. We resumed our sojourns pretending to be unicorns in search of the secret rainbow mermaids with no other issues.

What I really took away from both these experiences, is it’s the person that matters. The sunday school teacher was wrong to hate all mormons because of the actions of one person. Cassandra’s mom was ridiculous to censor her daughter’s friendships on the basis of faith (oh lord when I think of this now it just makes me boil). My young brain decided that every person should be judged on themselves. You can be a good person no matter what church you belong to. You can be a good person even if your beliefs don’t line up with someone else’s. Cassandra’s mom didn’t know me and didn’t even care to know me. She was close-minded enough to believe what she had heard or had been taught, and passed that prejudice on to her daughter, not even bothering to discover if I was a good person. I wonder if she would have also forbidden friendships with girls from (actual) non-christian beliefs. No jews allowed, perhaps? Heidi’s mom knew me, and my family, and she knew that we were good people, and just because we believed different things, doesn’t mean that we’re bad people.

I guess what I’m saying is, it doesn’t matter. Lutheran, Mormon, Baptist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim.. There are close-minded people in any group, any religion. It doesn’t make that religion close-minded. It’s a lesson I learned early, but one that the teacher in Heidi’s Sunday School class never learned. Moral to the story: Don’t be an asshole 🙂 Especially to little girls.

I no longer attend the LDS church, but that’s a post for another day. I think I’m closer to telling that story though, than I was when I started this blog. Someday.