I'm A Fan

I have a friend that will be famous one day. She writes, and if she writes about nothing else she can write about the amazing life she has and the amazing people she's met along the way. She started in a tiny little Mississippi town no one's ever even heard of and is still living prior to desegregation, which spawns enough raw material to fill a lifetime of writing. Now in grad school, she's surrounded by the creme de la creme of the artistic world. Who'd have thought that was in Iowa, of all places? When I get her letters it's like falling into a good book or an enthralling movie, getting swept away in the zany things of her everyday life, not to mention the countless men that fall in love with her all the time. She'll say it's not romantic or appealing at all, that they're old and weird and unattractive, but that doesn't discount the fact that they keep popping up wherever she goes. If she ever wanted to be a gold-digger, there were a couple of men that wanted to sweep her away to some corner of Europe and give her everything she could desire, including the time to travel and write to her heart's content. But for now she just takes classes with people from every country of the world, and is learning every language of the world. Before long she'll be a few bestsellers, maybe a pulitzer, and kings and sheiks and emperors as friends...
Ok so maybe I exaggerate a bit. But I have no doubt that she'll succeed. And once she hits it big, boy am I going to cash in.

Halloween Hubbub

So I am making Halloween costumes for Ben and I for this year. So far it has been a horrible project.
I ordered the pirate patterns online, and once they finally came in, they were the kids version. Then I went to Walmart to buy the right pattern. Got home, it didn't have all the pieces in it. Went back to Walmart, got the right pattern with all the pieces, finally got home and started cutting and sewing. I got enough done of Ben's pants to try them on him, but when I tried to finish them my machine just wigged out. I couldn't believe! Of course, just another thing to go wrong with this stupid project. I went through the manual, cleaned it, changed threads -- no go, it wouldn't work. I threw a tantrum, and was just about ready to throw that machine out the window. Thankfully Ben took the time to talk me down and make me go on a walk with our puppy, Colby. Afterwards, I sat back down at my machine and started at it again. And then I realized I had changed the needle and put it in backwards. Not upside down mind you, I'm not that retarded. But backwards. And then it worked.
Yes, I am still a child.
Yep, and that's about it.
On to the pirate pants now.

Advances on the Home Front

Basically all I think about lately is sewing. It is my new obsession. Pretty much if I'm not working on a project, I'm looking at patterns online, searching sewing blogs, and looking for free and easy do-it-youselfers. And on the sewing front there's been a lot of exciting things recently.
First off, my wonderful hubby bought me an early birthday present.

That's an antique sewing box, with pin cushions on top and a long drawer on bottom. Absolutely love it :-D

And secondly, I got new patterns!

McCall's was having a $2 online sale, so I couldn't resist. I hate buying online cause you still have to pay shipping. But patterns can be so expensive! And one reason of making my own clothes was to save money, so I couldn't pass this up. Turns out though, the Hobby Lobby in town had the same patterns on sale for $0.99. I could've saved a bundle more, but it was a good deal nonetheless. And I can't wait to make these. The next will be Ben and I's Halloween costumes. We'll be pirates this year. Argh.

And lastly, the most exciting thing of all: I think I have actually made a dress that a) doesn't look like crap and b) I will actually wear. It just needs hemming, but then hopefully, I'll have pictures. Zoe has been helping me out, and we're almost finished.

I Have No Interest In Being a Creature-Bitten Superhero

As is our usual ritual, Ben and I were watching a show the other night in the den, when out of the corner of my eye I see something flutter and fall through the air. Immediately our cat, Zoe, charges for whatever it is. And then I hear the squeaking…

I scream out “It’s a bat!” and in a flash we’re both as far away from the cat and the bat as we can be, while still keeping an eye on it.

Now I was so good at spotting what this was because this is not the first time we’ve had a bat in our house. No no. One morning I walked into our dining room and almost picked up the half-dead creature before I realized what it was. And then I had to go to work so Ben and a friend got to deal with it.

But this time, it was just the two of us. Oh and the cat. Thank goodness for cats! If you are not a cat person, it’s experiences like these where you come to love them. We watched Zoe mess with it for a while until it came out into our view. Yep, definitely a bat. Thankfully it wouldn’t or couldn’t fly, so it just tried to crawl away while the cat batted it around. So we left Zoe to keep it occupied while we grabbed towels and brooms to get it out of the house. When we were ready we actually had to get the cat out of the way in order to throw a towel over the squeaky little flying rodent and then Ben swept it out the front door into the yard.

Then we were on the hunt for where these things are getting in. Turns out we had a window that was broken. So, note: old houses aren’t really that bad, just make sure your windows and doors are closed completely. We certainly have been getting closer to nature better since living in this house. Between bats, ants, spiders, ladybugs, and a snake (only in the yard, not the house thankfully) it’s a veritable wilderness. It's a good thing we have a cat that's braver than the rest of us.