The Perfect Tote...and Pants

It is clear that el tote bag-o is not going to be finished this week. Which is ok with me. I have decided I'd rather make it perfect than to make it by Friday. And, in addition to my perfectionist tendencies, I also need to average about 11 hours of work each day this week (except for Friday, when I'll be catching a plane). Yesterday I got 11...today I got 10:15. But I had a book group to go to tonight, and reading to do before I went, so tomorrow I'll make up for it. (Yes, I'll be skipping Wed. night church, but the book group I went to tonight is a church thing, so I think it'll be ok with God.) ; )

Anywho, I feel very grown-up today because I left my house by 7:11 this morning, went to Walmart and filled up with gas (ok, i put $10 in) before I got to the office at 7:45am. I also (later in the morning) took my new black pants to the dry cleaners, was fitted, and left them to be hemmed. Now, before anyone goes jumping down my throat about how easy it is to do simple hemming on unlined pants, let me just say: (a) please note that I have no sewing machine, (b) I'm not even sure if you use a sewing machine to do a whole hem (i've only ever repaired parts of a hem...which i did by hand), and (c) please also note the 11 hours of work per day, with hopefully a couple hours of eating/sleeping in between. And I know, I'm bound to have a willing friend who could do it. But maybe I wanted to have them done. Maybe I just like the idea of paying only slightly more than 1 hr's wages to save me a load of worrying and frustration...or trying to make schedules work out, and trying not to pressure a friend but to encourage them to get them done for me in less 3 days, or being unhappy if they're not what I pictured. And it makes me feel grown-up. So there.

And now for that sleeping part....

I'm Still Alive!

I'm not actually dead...or still in Iowa...I've just been (and will continue to be) very busy. So here are a few hightlights from the last few weeks:

~ I went to Iowa, where I: drove a tractor, shot a gun, went to a tractor pull, rode a horse, and picked raspberries.

~ My lovely roommate, Katie, came to see me in Nashville! We: spent hours talking, painted pottery, found pretty clothes on sale, finished each others' sentences, and just had fun being "us" again.

~ I drove home to Texas, where I: saw my family, got my car inspected, visited with good friends, and helped with the release party of the 7th Harry Potter book at "my" bookstore! I ran a trivia contest, organized a covert operation to spy on Hastings (they only had about 200 ppl, compared to our estimated 800 or so), and then at midnight, I got to help sell more than 700 books in less than an hour on only 4 registers! It was awesome!

Hi from Iowa

Hi from Iowa! More to come after I get back on Sunday night...

Good News/ Bad News

The good news is that I finished the ipod nano cover I was making for my friend Elizabeth's 13th birthday in less than a week! I gave her the cover, and also helped her load songs onto her new ipod, the night before she left for her big school trip to Washington, D.C. It looked great, if I do say so myself! It was pink, to match her ipod, and it was made from this yarn, which has natural antibacterial properties...just right for a 13-yr-old's ipod cover.

However, the bad news is that I committed that irreversible sin in homemade gift-giving...I completely forgot to take a picture of the completed project before I happily gave it away!!! So I have nothing to show for my work...unless I happen to sneakily take a pic of it one day when I'm over there. But, I do plan to make one for myself (since I have LOTS of extra yarn, and it did look really good on my silver ipod nano), so I guess I'll just take pictures of the second try. I hope it doesn't go the way of many of my project ideas--supplies purchased, I then find something else I'd rather do, and the supplies end up buried in my stacks of yarn, lonely and forgotten...

Perhaps I'll confess my intentions to crochet another to the Threaded Bliss group tonight. Maybe they can nag me about it until I get it done. Tonight I'm going to work some more on a lovely felted tote bag knitted in a beautiful shade of heathered dark green Cascade yarn.

Top Seventeen Things I Did This Weekend...

1) Flying to Dallas (I love to fly...and I love airports!)

2) My very first American taxi ride (though I have ridden in taxis in Indonesia, Uruguay, Argentina, France and England)

3) Learning that my roommate Katie got engaged on Friday night!!! (Isn't it sparkly?)

4) Seeing my friend Kaela for the first time in 6 months (and she brought chocolate!!!)

5) Seeing my friend Chan for the first time in 9 months!

6) Random road trip with Kaela and Chan to Abilene to see the ring/my newly-engaged Katie.

7) Lunch at Ann Thai Kitchen on Saturday with Katie, Kaela, Chan, Eric, and (briefly) Jeremiah

8) Shopping at Zida, where I got these gorgeous earrings!

9) Seeing Abi and Leigh Anne

back at Katie's adorable flat

10) Getting to ride on Mark's shiny red motorcycle

11) Seeing Jack Maxwell's Jacob's Dream sculpture--funding courtesy of our graduating class, and some wing details courtesy of my friend Chan (who was a student of J. Maxwell at the time of its creation)

12) Seeing Wicked with Kaela (and discovering that I do still fit in the dress I'd bought, but had never worn)

13) Waiting outside of the stage entrance after the show, and collecting autographs from each of the cast members!

14) Going downtown Fort Worth to Sundance Square

15) Wonderful (real) Mexican food at Mi Cocina

16) Browsing til closing time in the Barnes&Noble with the giant horse statue

17) A lovely walk down windy streets under trees filled with dancing lights

All in all...the best three day trip I've ever had!

Leigh Anne, Me, and Katie (roomies from last summer)

So, if you care to find me...

...look to the Western sky...

Just a couple more minutes, and then I'm off to catch a plane to Dallas to see: