Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic

Wordless Wednesday: The Random Things That Happen At Work

A stitch in time saves 9

And that was the only way I could think of to get a "9" into the title.

I needed a 9 because... today is our 9th wedding anniversary!

9 years! Wow. Almost a decade.  I can't believe we've been married that long.  Crazy!  The above photo is from right after we were pronounced husband and wife.  We had packed the room to overflow capacity- everyone said yes.  And I had my dream dress- with layer upon layer of tulle in the skirt.

And we didn't fit back down the aisle next to each other.  So The Hubby had to fall behind.  I could make a smart aleck comment about how he's been falling into place ever since, but really, I am super duper blessed to have such a great husband.

And before I forget- I share my anniversary with a bunch of fabulous birthdays.  Happy birthday to Sunne, Schordinger, Anna Maria Horner, and Kari!  And Harry Potter, too, actually.

The other reason I included stitch in the title- I actually did some last night. Some sewing, not knitting.  I put together that hip to be square top, and also cut the 70 4.5x4.5 border squares.

I needed some sewing time to de-stress. Those of you that follow me on Twitter, or are my friends on Facebook, or both, have noticed my feed over the last 2 days. Thank you for all the sweet messages of concern. On Tuesday afternoon, directly out front of our building, a woman we serve was struck and killed by a car. Many of our staff witnessed her death.  The story came out later: she had been kicked out of the bar across the street, she was hammered, and she wandered into the street.  It is a VERY busy street. No charges will be filed against the driver as he had no way to stop in time.  Needless to say, this was shocking and awful for both our staff and the women we serve.  The bar is actually liable- you can't get someone that drunk, and if you do, you can't throw them out without taking some precautions for their safety...

So we are all moving on from that.  And I'm going to celebrate with my husband- but not until tomorrow, when the neighbors are watching the kids so we can get dinner out and see the new Batman.

Nuts and Bolts for a nutty gal...

Chaos continues to reign at my office.  We have one printer back online, but somehow it ended up shoved on the floor in the corner of someone else's workstation.  That poses a challenge!  And, my desk is SO slanted on the uneven 100 year old floor that I am getting a neckache from turning my head at such weird angles.  Complaining aside, today I am finally feeling slightly more in control of the piles that built up during my vacation/sick kid days...  If only I could catch up with my backlog of personal email, I'd be all set.

I think once, many months ago, I mentioned the Buddy program we have at work.  For the past several months, I have been blessed with an awesome buddy.  Look at the lovely little treat she had to welcome me back from vacation!

My own Captain Jack Sparrow!  He makes a great companion when The Hubby is working nights ;-)  Actually, I have decided he needs to live at work to keep me perky, but, he did come home for a quick visit... 

Speaking of The Hubby working nights, we are officially into his new and improved schedule.  Now, he works Su/M/Tu days, W/Th nights, and is off both Fri and Sat.  When I am able to be out of the office Fridays, that means we have 2 whole days off together, like a normal couple.  Until this change, we had ZERO days off together, though we did overlap for a few hours on Fri and Sat.  Of course, this and next week I need to work Fridays to compensate for Princess Girl care issues on Mondays, but...  Soon, soon, we'll be together.  I have to admit, though, the single mom thing at night after working all Weds and Thurs days realllly wiped me out, but I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly, and it will be easier when I go back to having Fridays free.  And somehow, it didn't keep me from working on a quilt (see below) or keeping up with Last Comic Standing.  SPOILER ALERT if you tivo'd it, skip to the quilt.  I admit, I love Josh Blue, my hometown boy who I've actually seen live, but really, wasn't Ty simply a better, funnier comedian?  His delivery and timing rocked.  He made me laugh out loud, even alone in front of the TV, which is a big deal for me...  Ah, well, I am thrilled for Josh, but I'm hoping Ty makes out well as well...

I have a beginning to show you all. 

It's not terribly exciting yet, but I have finished cutting out all but 14 circles for my Nuts and Bolts quilt! I would have done those last night, but, I ran out of fusible web.  I varied from the original pattern and am not using freezer paper.  I am doing 72 circles instead of the original 42 (as I upped the size) and I am going to machine applique them my favorite easy way, with satin stitch all around.  Right now, my plan is to play with layout and the piece blocks and applique circles as I go.  That way, I won't go batty doing all the circles at once!  This is going to be one heck of a lively quilt, but, I am already falling in love with it.

The End of An Era (or two, or, really, three)

I am kind of a basket case right now.  Yesterday was the last day I will ever walk into the day shelter where I work.  (More later, I'm still employed).  Today was the last day Princess Girl will ever attend the school where she's been since she was 20 months old.  And, I just finished reading my LAST EVER PEOPLE MAGAZINE!

Okay, that last one is a bit of a stretch.

About work.  The daytime drop in shelter for women and kids living with homelessness and poverty where I work is moving.  Next week, actually, while I'm in Las Vegas- good timing for me, eh?  We're raising funds to build a new building on the old spot, and during the year it will take to rebuild, we're being housed in a church a few miles away.  But, when I left work yesterday, I left that building for the last time ever.  By the time I get back, it will be a sealed off construction site!  My actual office is unchanged- I'm in a building up the street with other development and admin staff.  However, the shelter will be gone.  That's so odd.  The building has an amazing history; so many women's lives have been changed there.  We'll still do good work, but somewhere else.  And at the end of a year, we'll have an amazing new home!  Still, coming back to all those changes will be odd.  And, there's a huge "Goodbye To The Building" party next week, but I'll be out of town for that as well.

As you may remember, Princess Girl graduated from Preschool back at the end of May.  She stayed on at the same daycare facility in "Adventure Camp" program.  They had a blast, lots of field trips and sports.  But, today was the last day!  She started in the younger toddler room when she was 20 months old.  She's had many of the exact same friends since then.  Train Boy is following in her footsteps with many of the same teachers, and his friends are often younger sibs of her friends.  It's so hard to comprehend that this part of her life is over.  She's growing up and moving on.  And still unsure about kindergarten.  Adventure Camp ended with a big potluck party, and the kids sang camp songs for us. 

Princess Girl is the furthest right girl in the front row, drawing lots of attention to herself.  You'd never ever guess she was mine, eh?  The teacher in the corner wiping her eyes is Miss Sarah, our most beloved teacher.  She and Princess Girl have a once-a-month date to hang out in the future...  Hopefully that will help with transition.

A note of pride- we made it so close to getting thru Princess Girl's years at school without dropping the F-bomb.  Um, I may swear more than I should around the kids.  I'm much better than I used to be, but, esp when driving, things sneak out sometimes.  When I was pregnant, a good friend, due 2 weeks before me, and I had a bet- which baby would drop the F-bomb first.  I'm not sure who won, or lost, but apparently my daughter said it today at school.  So close to a clean getaway, sigh.  She's never said it before, and they're not sure she was using it at all- she might just have been goofing around making up words as it was during a crazy word game.  I'm going with the latter.  Yeah.  They told her it was a "dangerous" word, and not to use it again, but we all try not to make too big a deal out of it, because the teachers have learned that that makes all the kids eager to try out thew new word...

My final ended era- I just finished the last page of my last ever People magazine.  I subscribed on a lark a year ago.  I was sick of always trying to cram 3 months of celebrity gossip into one wait for a doctor, or pedicure.  The entire time we got it, I was a little embarrassed.  And I was frequently annoyed when reading about the spoiled little rich girls who constitute celebrities these days... So, it's done and gone, but, for the annual price of People, you can get this, this and this!  I think it's a very good trade!

Time to clean up this house before my mom arrives tomorrow.  You know, to watch my kids while I go ON VACATION!  I'll be at the hotel in 48 hours, but, who's counting???

The most expensive scarf I'll ever make is now done.

Howdy and Good Morning from your friends in Fabri-holic land.  Today, in a move that shocks me, I will be showing a photo of- me.  I finished my Garden Scarf from the Debbie Stoller Happy Hooker book/crochet class, and since I couldn't get a decent photo of it on its own, I had the Hubby take an action shot.  I'm shocked that I'm sharing this photo cause, well, it proves the need for the diet.

Not convinced?

I'm actually very happy with the scarf.  I still love the yarn texture and colors.  My flowers do in fact look like flowers.  I consider this a victory.  However, some of the flowers look like they were fed Miracle-Gro while others look like maybe I forgot to water them and then left them out in the intense CO sun all day, thanks to H-U-G-E variances in my tension.  Ah well, live and learn, and frankly, I don't think you can tell unless you get very very close.  And, if you are getting that close while I'm wearing this scarf, we'll have other things to talk about.

After my initial total failure with crochet, I seem to be doing a little bit better.  I finished the scarf, and in all honesty, I didn't think that was possible.  I am starting to get the rhythm of the hooking.  I'm a rhythmic hook*er, I guess?  I do want to try again, esp. to make the cowgirl hat and the cute grown-up bunny slippers from the book...  And, I saw a pattern for a crocheted Noro Kureyon shawl that might justify my new-found love and desire to purchase all things Noro.  Not to mention, I recently learned I have a secret Noro connection- woo-hoo!  And, a co-worker likes my booga bag so much, she bought 3 skeins for me to make one up for her.  Free knitting :-)

Meanwhile, for anyone interested, I did in fact survive my review.  It was, generally, quite nice, with many good things said about me, now, and my future potential.  I had an opportunity to discuss growth ideas, where I'd like to take things, etc.  Of course, as with any decent review, we talked about places with potential for improvement, but my boss is skillful at pointing out "you are already good at this, and you could be GREAT by..."  I'm just SO glad it is over for a year.  The Hubby had his annual review as well, and got a decent raise for the first time in years.  The problem with both working for non-profits is that there's simply NO room for merit based raises, cause of those pesky budgets.  However, his employer realized that according to industry standards, he was greatly underpaid.  So, now he's a little less underpaid. And they are working with him on a more agreeable schedule because they did in fact finally realize that it was NOT in their best interest to have one of their best employees quit over something as solve-able as a scheduling issue.  Perhaps, perhaps, things will get a little bit better?  Oh, and, this is my last week working full time.  Next week, I'm officially a 32 hour/week gal!  Happily, this coincides with the release of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which I will be seeing with The Hubby on Friday during the day.. while the kids are in daycare that we already pay for.  Johnny, I'm coming for you, lover!

PS Tonight, The Hubby has a night shift, so... I'll be cutting out the last baby quilt on my to-do list.  Maybe even piecing it.  And, I just rec'd a large order from eQuilter, that I'll have time to photogrpah tonight.  So, for all y'all who come here for the quilts and fabric, take heart.  Some of that is in the near future.  Really.

Hat enough for ya?

I've been holding back posting this hat FO for a day when I had no other photos.  That day has come.  I whipped up this adorable little hat from that Ozark Handspun I splurged on at the LYS a few weeks back.  In less than 1 hour it went from this

to this.

It's so simple, just K in the round until you run out of yarn, not even any decreases!  It fits like a funky beehive- and I love it!  This photo does NOT do it justice- I tried 3 times in different lighting and couldn't get the colors right. The colors above in the photo of just the yarn are much more true.  FYI, last night I cast on for a shrug- my first real garment.  Woo-hoo!

Thanks for all the basting input.  It's nice to know I'm not really doing anything wrong.  Mary, I do have some tables at work, maybe I need to try it there.  I supposed, as with anything, practice makes perfect.  And since I avoid machine quilting like it's the plague, well, perhaps I haven't had enough practice?

I'm about to head into work and try again at that review thing.  (Wish me luck.)  Today's the day- no confusion this time.  I think it will be just fine, but as always, I am adept at borrowing trouble.  And frankly, yesterday was the kind of day where you wish you could start over, so I am hoping today will be better.  I'm still paying attention to what I eat, but this SparkPeople plan starts you off slowly- no massive changes at first- and I can appreciate that.

Anti-climax!

Thank you all for the nice wishes for my review today.  Can you all do it again on Tuesday, please?  There was some confusion here, and my boss was scheduled by her boss, the big boss, for a review at the same time we were supposed to have mine.  Ooops!

Meanwhile, the Booga Bag with the Noro from my beloved Secret Pal (is it weird to call you beloved, o kind stranger?) is done!  Oh my god, the Noro felted up amazingly, and now I'm eying a lot of 10 skeins in color #148 on eBay...  And I am also coveting a book that has a bag pattern I fell in love with.  Ahem, Secret Pal, remember when you said you might have created a Noro monster?  Yeah, you did...  The colors are so amazing, and it's so soft, and, I love it.  Don't you?

C'mon, get closer!

Don't you just want to touch it, a lot? 

I'm feeling much much better- collapsed last night and let The Hubby do all the kid/dinner/etc. work again, and worked on getting myself re-hydrated.  I feel almost as good as new today, and that is just lovely.  Next year, if I go to Estes, I'm packing my own lunch and NOT petting any animals.  Just in case.  Thank you guys, again, for the lovely emails and comments.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzipping along!

Okay, I managed to squeeze in a teensy bit of quilting this week, between the virus from hell, and the end-of-year rush at work (people racing to make their charitable gifts by the end of the tax year...  Historically, the busiest week of the year in my line of work...)  Speaking of work- an awesome blog/real world thing happened!  I "met" a fellow blogger, Lisa, a few weeks ago.  She lives not so very far from me at all, and she is quite an amazing quilter/artist.  She and her kids had worked on some Katrina quilts, but for various reasons, needed to finish them up later, and were looking to find a good home for them locally.  So, drumroll please, Lisa stopped by my house last night and donated them to my work.  Hooray!  We will either use them on the beds in the nap room (a place where women can safely and comfortably get rest away from the streets) or, if that's not right, we will give them to a housed woman in need of nice bedding.  Either way, the generosity of a quilter made the world better today!  Go, quilters!  (I imagine us jumping into the air, fists pumped, like some 1970s cartoon...)  FYI, I didn't think to photograph them myself, but Lisa has them pictured here on her blog.

So, I worked a wee bit on the Zipper Quilt., when not feeling like I was going to burn up, freeze, or die.

I got 2 rows pieced.  It's a bit more time consuming than my usual work as the zipper teeth are so small.  But, it's such a nifty effect.  For anyone interested, you can click the button on the right hand sidebar and go visit many many other Modern-Quilt-Alongers.  Cool to see what is coming out of this quilt.

Also began to make a Margaret bag from this book.  (It's the one on the bottom left side of the cover).  The wild fabric is the outside, the orangish is the lining- 100% stash!  This is a test bag to see how it comes out- I have some lovely Amy Butler stuff waiting until I am certain I won't mess it up. I am dying to make about a million bags- but of course, I haven't got the time right now.  Oh, and I was offended slightly by one of my new bag making books.  The author suggests buying pre-bundled fabric, as the people in the store can make it match better than you can. How very un-Mavericky!  And potentially dull, as well.  The book itself is fantastic, though, so I guess I can forgive her for catering to a nervous audience.

I also might maybe have done some on-line fabric shopping at some of the year end blow out sales.  Maybe ;-)  Here's my pride and joy purchase- perhaps the weirdest novelty I have ever succumbed to...

Meanwhile, your heroine has been fighting of the Skanky Virus.  That's what I want to call it, cause that's what it is.  Skanky.  I had the worst sore throat and really fun hot/cold flashes for a few days, and now have the most painful canker sore in history (TMI?  Sorry!).  I can barely eat, but I am starving.  Not really fair.  Wah.  Maybe I'll lose some weight this way, though.

Hope the rest of you are going to ring in the New Year with more vim and vigor than me.  If my mouth heals before 2006, I'll be so happy!  (Oh, and for those of you wondering, my back is doing fantastically- healing up really well, and now just itchy.  I have been lifting the back of my shirt all over the place to show it off.  I love the fact that I work in a place where I am treated like a professional, I raised $100,000 in the last few weeks, and yet, my CEO enjoyed checking out my new tattoo...)

On the 3rd day of Christmas...

Man, am I beat.  The Holiday party for work went well, but a 6 day work week is a lot for me.  Whine.  Whine.  Santa was there, and Broncos cheerleaders.  As much as I wanted to hate their cute perky size zero selves, I couldn't- they were so kind and sweet to the kids.  (I'm the one on the far left, red scarf- no, not one of my creations!)  It was amazing to see what a small-ish amount of $$, and a large amount of love, can do to really change the holidays for people who need it.  Seeing the kids with Santa and Mrs. Claus, chowing on cookies, dancing the limbo, and all sorts of good stuff really did put me in a holiday mood.  And, while I'm not a big Oprah-watcher, I am a huge Letterman fan.  So, I saw her on it this week- and she said something that I really appreciated.  Talking about all she does for others, she said something to the effect of: "I can throw a party for 1,000 kids, but everyone can help out one kid, and that's what we all should be doing."  Go, Oprah.

Then, I came home and may have accidentally scarred Princess Girl for life.  She really wanted to see March of the Penguins (asking for weeks now) so I picked it up today.  As it turns out, the penguins' march is pretty rough, and as soon as the leopard seal ate a mommy penguin, well, we were done watching.  Sigh.  Ooops.  Bad mommy decision.  To make it fair, I scarred myself by watching what I thought would be a fun B horror movie, but what turned out to be actually very nasty and icky.  So, both the ladies of the house are creeped out tonight!  I meant to be asleep ages ago, but thanks to my bad choice of entertainment, that didn't happen!

I was also on edge due to working with some more OhSoSoft fabric. $15+ per yard, and I can't figure out how to work with it.  Damn, but I do not know how to sew slinky stuff.  Anyone got any advice???  Please?  It keeps slipping around on me.  I'd show you a photo, but tonight's scarf is for a regular reader, so... after the holidays!

To continue with my ornament advent:

Here is Santa on what I imagine to be 12/26... getting some much needed R&R.  This is a huge fancy Christopher Radko glass ornament.  Can you see may favorite bit? The duckie is on a spring and actually bounces around!

Hey, you in the back, I can hear you laughing.

I have finished my scarf blanket. I am NOT proud. I'm going to shred what might be left of my pride, and show you pictures of how the scarf blanket turned out.  Somehow, it got wider as I went along.  And so it's nearly triangular.  It's also the size of a blankie for 4.5 year old.  How do I know this?  Am I exaggerating?  It can also make a lovely shawl.  At least someone likes it.  And, I did learn how to cast on, change colors, and bind off, so that's something, right?  Right?  Please, anyone, stop laughing long enough to reassure me that it's not a totally lost cause.

On to something I'm having more success with: my embroidered tattooed jeans.  Here is the first bit I've gotten mostly done:  I had to go get a different shade of floss for the dagger hilt as the bronze was really dull brown.  So tonight I hope to make it gold.  I also tried a skull, but it came out too cutesy (I want these to be tough girl jeans) so I ripped it out...  I'm going to try again.  I plan to use that cool tattoo fabric I bought ages ago to make cute tough cuffs on the jeans...  eventually.

Speaking of tattoos, a random visit to a virtual pal's blog may have doubly helped me in my plans to get a new tattoo.  I have plans to get a world map tattooed on my lower back.  It's going to be all in blacks and greys, with red stars everywhere I've been.  (I grew up as a foreign service brat, so I'll have LOTS of stars!)  My random visit and comment to the Bookish Gal ended up with me learning one of her childhood friends is a tattoo artist at one of the best shops in Denver- the one I keep meaning to visit on my way home from work.  And, The Bookish Gal herself is a map enthusiast who's going to help me on my quest for just the right image to permanently attach to my body...  How random and nifty is that?

Aside from that, life is eh.  Work is insane this time of year- I love that the holidays bring out the generosity in people!  But, I was supposed to get a seasonal assistant 3 weeks ago, and 3 have fallen through so far.  Oh my god.  I am beat.  Today I had a very unhappy stomach, but I was so swamped that I still had to work more than 1/2 the day.  I have a feeling all quilt projects that are not intended as holiday gifts are going to get back burnered until January!  But, I promise to post some of my archival projects soon.  I'll share the one and only Christmas quilt I've ever made!