Being home with sick kids has it’s up side…

I’m off to sew some piping now while it’s still quiet time.

um…. I guess I am giving myself another hole in the head.

Because I wanna make a quilt for Jocelyn! Wheeee!! It all started because Ethan has a very thick, flannel blanket, that he calls his “warm blankey.” It’s very simple, just 2 pieces of flanel sewn together with a very very thick batting in between, not even quilted, just tied off with yarn.

Jocelyn is not so good with keeping the blankies on her. She just seems to run a little hot (gets hot easily), while Ethan runs cool and loves to be WARM (this is the boy who wanted to wear long sleeves in JULY). So she often kicks off the blankets in the night, and while that was fine in the summer, it’s getting colder now, and this morning when she climbed into bed with us her poor little limbs were so chilly.

I’ve tried to teach her how to sit up and pull her blankets over her in the night if she’s cold, but whenever I check on her, she is always curled up into a little ball with nary a blankey in sight.

So I thought I’d make her a big warm blanket similar to Ethan’s, only bigger, so that it falls over the sides of her bed (harder for her to wiggle out of!)

She requested “Pink, mommy. Pink.”

So I must oblige! I had a fabric in my stash that I just love love love and bought with the intention of making a blanket for her with “someday” .. well, today seems to be someday! Hmm.. but it’s not flannel.

Well, no matter, I’ll just make it nice and thick and warm, doesn’t have to be flannel for that, right? I got to thinking how to use this fabric and thought that a simple quilt with square blocks would be just the thing, maybe some more pinks and a couple greens to set it off – what could be sweeter than pink and green?

Here are the fabrics I bought today, along with the one I already had (the first one), piled onto my scanner. The top two are making me crazy with love. All of them really, but those two especially:

I mapped a sample out just to get an idea of what it would look like — the squares aren’t super representative of what it would look in an actual quilt, since in the picture, the fabric squares are actually only about 2 inches of fabric when in actuality the squares would be double or triple that, so the pattern is kind of missing … but it’s enough to give you the idea.

I’m loving the pink and green. Maybe a white fabric to toss in very sparsely as well would look good?

So I was thinking about the finished product, and I am not pre-washing any of the fabrics, as I am hoping it will shrink up and give it that nice, puckered vintage feel — but to get that, it will have to be quilted, not tied off (like Ethan’s is) and will need a thinner batting (rather than the super thick warm batting Ethan’s has)…

Wait a second here..

original idea:

• quick,
• tied off,
• thick,
• warm,
• flannel,
• big.

Um… project has morphed into:

• quick pieced squares,
• tied off quilted, maybe even machine quilted,
• thick, thin and puckery/vintagey
• warm — thin can still be warm!,
• flannel quilting cotten,
• big.

Ahem.

Well, I don’t care. It’s going to be fabulous!

Friday night, the right side of my chin became red, very splotchy, and VERY painful. In … about a 1 inch diameter. Now, don’t hate me (because I’m beautiful), but I don’t get zits. Not really. I am blessed with my mother’s gorgeous skin. Once in a blue moon a small delicate zit may make an appearance along my forehead, and once in like, every 5 blue moons I may get a real doozy on my nose, but generally speaking, zits stay away from me.

So this eruption broiling and festering DEEP DEEP DEEP below the surface caused me great anguish.

Zit cream was purchased. Squishing commenced. I know! I know! You have to WAIT to squeeze a zit! There is a proper time and place, and while it is still broiling deep under the surface, that’s not the time! You have to wait until the lava of pus and goo make an appearance on the surface, in the appearance of that little white head. But in the evening, as I sat on my bed peering into my 3x magnification face mirror (lighted! every woman needs a mirror like this), I could NOT HELP MYSELF. I poked. and I squished. Just a little bit. Then I faithfully dabbed on my zit cream and went to bed.

As I said, I don’t get zits. And the size and magnitude of this… this…. well, I just have to come out and say it, I am forced to believe that this was an alien life form that had somehow gotten under my skin and was incubating there until the mother ship gave it the signal to erupt and take over the planet earth, … this THING that was happening to my face, I was convinced was not a zit. I told James approximately 1,376 times over the weekend that I was going to have to see a doctor about this, where I was positive they would have open it up, excavate, and then re-terraform my face back to it’s normal appearance.

James scoffed, laughed and said, “It’ll be ready to pop in a day or two.”

Monday dawned. Columbus day. We were awful parents brilliant people and took the kids in to school while taking the day off for ourselves and wandered around museums in DC. The pain had faded a bit, I’m sure because I finally was firm with myself to STOP SQUEEZING IT ALREADY! and the full 1 inch diameter had shrunk down. The THING was now hard and concise, like a dried pea under the skin. I felt vindicated. This is NOT A ZIT. NO ZITS BEHAVE THIS WAY. I called my mom and of course, explained to her in great detail my facial disfiguration, and she immediately said, “Go to the dermatologist.”

I immediately turned to James and said, “HA! SHE AGREES WITH ME!”

By the end of the day, he finally admitted that he agreed with me too. This was no run of the mill zit we were talking about.

I was pretty sure it was something caused by an ingrown hair.

So long story short (TOO LATE!) I went to a dermatologist during my lunch hour today. They gave me an injection (can’t remember what it was. steroids? cortizone?) right into the little incubating alien (they called it a cyst caused by either a pimple or an ingrown hair, too similar to tell) and prescribed an oral antibiotic.

I can’t wait until the little guy is aborted already and gone off my face.

I also wish I had taken a picture of my face every day since it started. I thought of doing that, but then dismissed it as being too gross. I should have just done it, because now I want PROOF OF MY DISFIGUREMENT. It’s a little red now, but ever since Monday, doesn’t actually LOOK that scary (not like it did Saturday, oh MY). Also, just looking at me, you can’t tell there’s a hard little pea under the skin. That kind of grossness is a tactile experience.

anyway.

I just thought I’d fill you in on the first dermatological visit of my life. I have to go back in 3 weeks to make sure the alien is gone.

I’ve named it Fred. Please join me in wishing Fred to evacuate the chin area… permanently.

.. At the very least, let’s hope he leaves before the mother ship gives him the signal and planet earth is dhoomed.

This is pretty good.

As you know, I have my wallet back in my possession. Despite my earlier statements that I’m purchasing some sort of device that will aid me in it’s recovery when it goes missing, after giving my vehement thanks to whatever gods there may be, I’ve pretty much gone back to normal in it’s regard.

When I first got it back, the lady who handed it to me said casually, “I broke your zipper, I’m afraid..” and I had a brief moment of heart palpitation as I took it from her and quickly inspected it. My mom bought me this wallet from Nordstrom probably over 10 years ago, and no other wallet has ever fit so perfectly into my hand and my lifestyle as well. In short, I LOVE this wallet, and whenever it goes missing, my first lament after the fact that, you know, all my money-getting-cards and info are now in the hands of who knows who, is that it is the PERFECT WALLET, and NOW IT’S GONE, WAAAAHHHH!

Now, I say that it’s perfect, but technically, this is not true. “Perfect” denotes that it is without any flaws or imperfections. That I find absolutely no fault with it. And sadly, I do have one minor complaint that makes it a teeny tiny bit less than perfect – it zips up from the wrong side. It really is a minor thing, and one would wonder how any “side” could be the “wrong” side to zip up from, but all I know is when I pick it up and unzip it I always then have to turn it around to get at the money/cards slots thing. Always. Unzip, flip. It’s always on the wrong side. It’s the way I unzip. But as you now know, this really is a petty little complaint. I love my wallet, love love love it. Even though it isn’t truly correct to say so, it’s perfect and none other have ever suited me as much as this one.

So the thought of the zipper being broken really did grab my heart with the icy grip of fear. Oh my god! What would I do if this wallet had finally gone kaput?! Even before the soft black leather touched my skin I had run through all the possible scenarios how bad it could be and even if it really was broken, I could always have the zipper replaced (and they could put it in the opposite way too!).. I checked it out and saw that the zipper was fine, though some bits of paper from a receipt had gotten zipped into the threads and had caused it to pucker open. This has happened to me countless times (because I keep way too much shit in my wallet) and is easily remedied. You merely grab the zipper handle thingee and yank it over the caught paper really hard. Then pick out the paper bits and zip it up normally. Relief. My wallet was fine. Oh happy day! Oh, and of course, it was found and not lost and all that jazz, yadda yadda yadda.

As I mentioned, after the initial elation, I have largely forgotten about my wallet. Today, I took a moment to open it up, sort through all the receipts and paper bits therein and toss anything that needed tossing. While I had everything out, I careful looked at the zipper, and seeing there were still itty bitty paper bits stuck in the zipper, unzipped it as far as it could go and picked them all out. For the first time in 10 years, I realized that while the zipper is sewed quite firmly to the wallet .. the end isn’t sewed down to anything. THe wallet makers simply stuck the extra 2 inches of zipper length into a (non-sewed shut) opening in the middle where the zipper begun on one side, and ended on the other. I pulled the end of the zipper out and contemplated. I pulled the other end out and pondered some more.

Could this be this easy? To just switch the zipper head thingee (what ARE those things called??) around and have it go the other way? After ten years I could have the PERFECT WALLET in 1 minute of work? What if after I pulled the zipper head thingee off, I couldn’t get it back on the zipper again? I did a little testing and then tossed in the towel and just did it.

Now my zipper zips up the opposite way. Now when I unzip it, the correct side (with the money and the cards) is facing me and I don’t have to flip it around.

I truly have THE PERFECT WALLET!!!

Now that this has been accomplished, I REALLY don’t want to lose it. So I wrote a little message on the back of my business card to any would-be-finder of the wallet.

And I put it where I think it’ll be seen. After they dig through all the receipts that I’m sure will be occupying the center space.

I should still look into wallet finder thingees though.

Sometimes you walk around all happy.

Like a big happy beachy bouncey ball. Things are fun and it’s fun to be excited about things. The very act of being excited is fun. Like the way a child can be so excited about the world around them – It’s fun to have that kind of excitement. Like a happy bouncey ball.

And then something happens to puncture the happy ball.

The ball deflates. It’s not happy. The thought of being excited about anything is stupid and depressing. It doesn’t matter what. Things no longer are fun. Being excited is no longer fun.

It can happen quickly, without any warning. And then the ball loses it’s happy bounce. It deflates until it’s a sad, flat, weird looking piece of rubber just laying on the floor.

Sometimes it’s not quickly. Sometimes there’s just a teeny pin sized hole in the happy bouncy ball. And the ball can be bouncy for a long time. Never noticing that it doesn’t bounce just quite so high and doesn’t feel quite so happy. UNtil one day, it’s a sad piece of plastic laying on the floor wondering why it would rather lay there than bounce. And look weird.

I feel deflated.

It would be nice to just lay on the floor and look weird.

Don’t you think?

… the prodigal wallet has (been) returned. All was intact, including $15 bucks in cash.

We killed the fatted calf and made merry. The wallet that never strayed sulked and wondered what outrageous thing he should do to get some attention around here. We ignored it and slathered more attention on the wayward-but-now-has-returned-to-the-path wallet.

OK, not really, but I did stop on my way home from picking it up for ice cream. Please, everyone, come attend my seminar on How-To-Save-Your-Marriage-With-Extra-Thick-Chocolate-Shakes. It’s a winner. The jist of it is, bring ice cream. DO NOT say ANYTHING along the lines of, “See, I told you it would turn up, all that screaming until you were hoarse was for NAUGHT,” if you really want the effects of the ice cream to take effect.

I need to get that keyringer thingee.

the summation:

• we left thursday for jellystone park, a campground (with cabins! that have AC! and showers! they also have tent campsites too. But guess which one we picked!) with all sorts of fun things to do like a humgous waterslide, 2 pools, mini golf, paddle boats (on a very small, and somewhat swampy pond) and a huge field and play ground. Oh, and it’s by Luray, with all that has to offer. We camped (cabin-style!) swam, golfed, swam, went underground to gaze at huge stalactites/malagnicryptonitites, mini golfed, wandered and got lost in hedge mazes*, saw animals, petted animals, swam, ate ice cream, mini golfed and swam. And went on a wagon ride with Boo Boo. We left for home on Sunday.

*ok there was just one, and i was the only one to get lost, but i got out eventually. see? here i am, writing this. proof.

• swam at our own pool
• lost my wallet. AGAIN. Those of you who have been following our heroine for some time will know that she is notorious for this activity. Usually, she confines it to wallets. But she has been known to lose her keys as well (if you’re going to just read one of those links, choose the keys one, because it’s funny. the wallet one is just depressing). She has been known to take Losing Things to epic proportions. She also seems to think that talking about herself in the third person will somehow take away the shame of the latest loss, which is STILL ONGOING. That’s right folks. It’s still lost. Constant monitoring of the bank activity is ongoing, but other than ordering a replacement driver’s license (which can be done online, thank GOD) and carrying her husband’s credit card around, the wait to see if it turns up continues. Please cross your fingers for her. And your toes. And by the way, go look around manassass for it would you please because our heroine is looking at imminent divorce for this “habit” of hers and despite her insistence that “it ALWAYS TURNS UP!” her husband is not buying it and is growing quite bored distraught shrill interested in divorce lawyers… let’s just say he’s not happy.
• took the kids to their first day of school. not too big a deal for jocelyn, as she moves across the hall from her old class, and her old teacher was in the classroom when we arrived. Much bigger deal to Ethan, who….

  STARTED KINDERGARTEN TODAY.

  I actually wondered if he realized if this was a big deal, as he is still at the same school he’s always been for the last 2 years, just in their private kindergarten now. I was a big dumb dumb, because he has pointed out the ways he knows this is a big difference in several ways this morning:

  “Daddy, I’m going to learn how to READ and WRITE AND SPELL!”
  “Mommy, Kindergarteners go on FIELD TRIPS! I’M GOING TO GO ON FIELD TRIPS!”
  “Mommy I’m five! I’M A KINDERGARTENER! I CAN’T WAIT! I’M FIVE!”

  A couple of kids were naturally squeamish on leaving their parents’ arms to venture into the classroom, but Ethan leaned way back, made a “pweeeeeooohhhhh!” sound, ran in place for a few steps and then took off into the room. That is my son. The epitome of my son. The kindergartener. HE’S FIVE.

• Just in case you missed it, my wallet is out there. Just longing to be returned to me. Do your duty and go find it, would you? I’ve already tried, TRUST ME. I am looking into this keyringer device that may perhaps save my marriage one day, as it is now hanging by a thread.

More pictures of cryptonitites, goats, mini golf, first day of school to come this week. No hedge mazes though. Or wallets.

Remember my mystery squash? You were all correct. It was a pumpkin. It turned orange and then the vine started to mysteriously die and I thought, what the hell, it’s not october?! GROW SOME MORE! So I’ve no idea if it was the right thing to do, but I picked the pumpkin and pruned the vine back a bit, hoping that will spurt some new growth and new pumpkins.

Also I think I figured out how it got there. The only thing I planted from seed was the sunflowers surrounding it. I planted other seeds, but not outside, I started them indoors (most of them died of neglect once they got outside and I had to buy plants at lowes). So I was really confused on how in the world that freaky pumpkin plant GOT there!

Then I remembered that I laid out compost in the late spring. And I BELEIVE I tossed last years pumpkins in the compost bin last fall. And while most of them were carved (no seeds) I beleive that there was one that sat there whole until it started to rot and then was tossed with the rest.

Thus.. pumpkin seeds in the compost. compost spread in beds. VOILA! Pumpkin vine! Pumpkin!

The pumpking is inside now awaiting to be made into pumpkin cupcakes, the best pumpkin destination I know for it.

In other garden news, my raspberries are really taking off. There were always one or two ready to pick and eat, but when i went out yesterday, I picked (and promptly ate) enough to fill a bowl. Exciting exciting stuff! The tricksy part will be NOT eating them so that I can do something with them.

However, next year I’m going to have to make some sort of support for them because they’re tall, bent over, and I’ve got raspberries growing on the dirt.

In other catch up news, I got my latest piece of etsy artwork and I love it I love it I love it:

\

Obviously not enough to actually hang it yet, though. Shoosh, I’ve been busy. I did get a frame though, don’t I get credit for that?

I never did post the other artwork I got, so here you go, it’s hanging in my guest room:

ain’t it beeyootiful?

have a loverly weekend, all!