March 18, 2011

Family Time

The past couple of days our family game has been "Find the Smell!" With two dogs and a cat, there's no telling what a rogue smell could be...so after searching high and low, and numerous theories to include dead animals in the walls, we discovered that it was just a broken dishwasher that had dirty water backing up into it. So it will be hand-washing from now on!

In other news, while working for the federal government is a pretty sweet deal, it's not so much when we're 6 months into the fiscal year and they haven't even set a budget yet. So while all those politicians up on Capital Hill continue to argue and haggle, we wait. What does that mean for me? When the effect of what they're doing trickles on down to the insignificant paper-pushers like me, it means that if they don't set a budget, I stop working and stop getting paid. While some vacation time would be gladly welcomed, furlough is not. And hence our new family game: "Skim the Budget."

March 13, 2011

Kings and Things

Ben's Spring Break began this week. He originally was going to be out of town for 9 days for his job, but their trip got cancelled so he didn't have to leave me! I thought it would be fun for us to take a trip, but I was just excited he wouldn't be gone. Monday he told me he had a surprise for me on Friday. I figured dinner and a movie, since that's usually about all our dates are. I came home Friday after work to find
The funny thing is I couldn't figure out what he meant! I knew the picture was of the main guy from the Twilight movies, but I couldn't remember his name. "Pack for the...King Vampire? King of Twilight? King...Bloodsucker?" Finally Ben told me to remember his name...which took a while. "The King Edward!"
The King Edward Hotel was built in 1923 but went out of business and sat abandoned and forlorn for about 40 years. It was dilapidated and home to the homeless and pigeons. My whole life the downtown Jackson skyline included the HOTEL KING EDWARD sign atop the empty building.

In 2009 it finally reopened its doors again - renovated, modern, and beautiful. Sadly, it's not officially the King Edward anymore since Hilton bought it out, and so the familiar sign is no longer there, but the building was restored to the original designs and updated to accommodate the modern-day hotel-goer. We've been wanting to go since it reopened.
So we had a vacation in town - went out to eat, spent the night at the hotel, enjoyed sleeping in and relaxing. It was awesome. Super Hubby strikes again.

And on the sewing front, remember that shirt I said I was making without a pattern?
Here we are! A Caitlin original. You know, it's not perfect -- it has all the same kind of flaws the stuff I make always has -- but I really like it. Maybe because it's my own, maybe because it actually turned out like the picture in my head.
Close-up of the center detailing
Still haven't saved enough money for that fabric I want. So it's on to the next project with the scraps lying around. Perhaps I'll have some strokes of genius, and maybe that Etsy store will be up soon.

March 6, 2011

Over the Rainbow

Life has been busy. And I'm tired.
I did, though, get some sewing done.
This was my most recent project, but I didn't finish it. This happens every time I make something for myself. I get close to the end and I'm just disappointed, and then I quit. There's no point to hem and finish when there are bad stitches I can't do anything about. Now, yes it looks great in that picture. But there are so many problems when you're actually holding it in your hands and looking at it up close it just drive me crazy! And so there's another one to take up space in my closet. Maybe I'll finish it one day.
And so it's on to another project. I've decided that one issue is I keep buying bargain fabric, or fabric (such as the silky one used in the above dress) that I'm not used to working with. So I just want to buy some nice cotton fabric...and of course the one that I fell in love with at the store was so expensive! So I'll be waiting a while before buying any. But thankfully I found some fabric in my stash that I can play around with until I have enough money. Now I'm making a shirt (not using a pattern!) so...that'll keep me occupied for a little while at least. We'll see how it goes.