Owl update

The other night, as I was reading in bed, I heard our Eastern Screech Owl calling for the first time. I'll be honest and admit that I got giddy about it. I know they've lived in the maple tree outside our bedroom for at least two years, and even seen them a couple of times, but I've never heard the call of the owl before. It was amazing. I'm beginning to understand how people can turn a little birdwatching into a full-time avocation.

Oh, and I also started a Christmas gift, a superhero- mask for the boy. I'm a whole 1.5" in so far. I'm kinda inventing this as I go, so we'll see if it actually makes it to "Finished object" status. I'm dubious.

Seriously, someone stop me!

Thanks to my mama, I am the proud possessor of a Clover needle felting kit. She wanted to try it out and present it to her local Sewing Guild tonight, but found the whole process rather mind numbing. I expressed interest on Tuesday morning(as I am wont to do with pretty much anything fiber-related), and a short while later she appeared at my doorstep with needles and a brush and some of her first experiments.

A few minutes later I was rifling through the box, with the knowledge that I am now the "expert" for tonight's meeting. I did a little googling for tutorials, but didn't see all that much out there. Best way to learn something is hands-on, I always say.


poke. poke. poke. poke. This is kinda fun. Poke, poke, poke. I wonder if I have any old fulled sweater scraps downstairs. And some yarn scraps. Poke poke poke. I think I need to make a special two-hour trip into town to buy some wool roving so I can do this thing right. pokepokepokepoke. I need to poke poke poke go poke poke poke to the store and do the poke poke dishes. After one more experiment...

Needless to say, I'm wayy behind for the day. But look what I've done.


The girl loves it too. She made this for her teacher, out of cheapo craft felt. (it's not wool, but it does seem to work pretty well)



Even the boy is getting into the action. Here he is designing "super hero symbols."


But now I really really need to get started on the other stuff like dinner and dishes and going to the library.

UPDATE:

Still nothing exciting going on. But the blog feels sad when I don't post for weeks at a time, so I'm giving it a little attention this morning as I sip my coffee.

We did have a fun time last night when Mr Deplume's brother and family came over for dinner and lego tower-building (that was mostly a kid activity, though). I'm now kicking myself for getting not one photo of the event. They are from a far away state and it will likely be the only time they come over this year. Oh well.

Now I need to go pack a lunch for the girl and get dressed. Later today, I go back to the front room for more plastery adventure. Wish me luck, my faithful reader!

Just move along, nothing to see here

I mean it. I have very little to show for my days lately. I ripped down some wallpaper in the front room, and started patching holes, but then I realized that I needed to tape the corners in the room before I can go any further. I went to the hardware store and bought the tape, but they didn't have one of those nifty inside-corner-putty-knife-dealies. So no progress there, until I have a chance to get to a home improvement warehouse.

I have still been working on my "doable" shawl, but now each row takes like 15 minutes to complete. Have I mentioned that there are vast expanses of stockinette stitch on this? That's a whole lotta purling, folks. I thought a mostly stockinette lace weight project would be good, as it's mindless. A little too mindless, it turns out. It's rather like a woolen lobotomy.

But I've gotten all the dishes done three days in a row! Super boring factoid there, but it really is nice to wake up to a clean sink. Thanks, Marla Cilley! SOme day I'll even follow the rest of the tidy-house steps, but for now I'll be happy with my dishes progress.

And now for something fun: My four-year-old boy refers to the legs of pajama pants and sweatpants as bottom sleeves or foot sleeves. As in "My bottom sleeves are stuck on my knees!" IT cracks me up every time he says it. And I fear that soon he'll learn the right words, never uttering footsleeves again. The thought makes me sad. I don't want them to grow up quite yet. Waahhhh!

Tonight, we'll go to a local fair and ride rides and eat carnie food. Good times. Good times.

That's all for now!

Patterns? We don't need no stinkin' patterns.

Aprons were always part of the uniform in my table-waiting years, and I'd learned then of their usefulness. I've gone back and forth with wearing them though, during my adult years. If you are wearing an apron, it means you are doing housework. And since I hate housework, I prefer to act like it doesn't exist-- an apron is a cruel reminder of the incessant cycle of cleaning and dirtying and cooking and repairing. It seems that once you start wearing aprons, however, can never go back to life without them. Well you can, but you trousers get dirty quite quickly from the incessant hand wiping (being a waiter in a busy restaurant teaches you all sorts of bad habits). I'm currently back on an apron-wearing kick. But I have run out of aprons, as the old ones I got when I moved out of my parents' house 14 years ago finally had all ripped or disappeared. I do have one Christmas one left, but I'm not ready for poinsettias and holly just yet.

So I set out to make some more. I have about 4 apron patterns around here, some borrowed from my mom and a couple I've acquired over the years too. I do dream of making myself a couple of Lucy Ricardo aprons, but in really wacky prints. But what do I do when I go to sew one today? I decided to invent my own pattern on the fly, by recycling one of Mr. Deplume's old denim shirts. It's been said (usually by me) that I rarely do anything the easy way. And today's sewing escapade certainly bears that out.

However, after an hour or so of guesswork (45 minutes of that also included prayer), I ended up with a usable apron. There are pockets, ties, and the bottom three buttons are still functional, in case I ever want to make it a split apron (handy for more strenuous housework). I'm pretty pleased with myself.

I hope that if I make another one, it will take considerably less time. That's how it is supposed to work, right?