Dearest Reader, please forgive any blurry headers, sidebar alterations, weird colors and fonts you may find here. These changes will be temporary, and the next time you visit it will probably look different – again. Not Pretending (to be sane) is “under construction” for an unknown amount of time. I have trouble making decisions. Especially decisions that involve me personally, like this blog.
Not Pretending is my “baby” and I want it to look perfect. Easy on the eyes, professional – yet fun. I don’t even know if that’s possible, but it’s what I’m going to strive for. Tonight’s new theme is pretty. Maybe too pretty and sane for me…
That being said, I plan to keep writing and even posting, if I write something worthy. No promises though. My multitasking skills have begun to deteriorate since I retired 7-months ago. And next week I’ll be out-of-town with hubby’s family, so I may not post. Then again, family can be quite entertaining at times.
For those new to Not Pretending, you may not know that I am often the victim of life’s improbable and sometimes ridiculous events. In other words, the craziest crap happens to me. Sometimes the crap is humorous. Sometimes it’s caused by my clumsiness or stupid thinking. Occasionally, there are outside forces at work against me. Like today.
I got a “kit” to make an easy level crib quilt and I decided my beginner skills could handle it. All I had to do was sew two borders around a solid panel, then find a fabric for the backing and some batting for the in-between layer. Then I could quilt it and finish it. Piece of cake.
What I forgot to factor into this venture, was that I was the one doing it.
The first thing I did was open the kit and look at the fabric. The Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore panel, that was 90% of the quilt, was cut out crooked. At first I blamed the quilting store. Then, I noticed the pattern of little holes running down the sides of the panel. Someone had attempted to make the quilt before I got the kit. Mmmm…
Probably the same person who cut the panel half-assed, I told myself. I will just trim the edges and make it square up. 35 minutes later it was as good as it was gonna get. On to cutting the fabric for the borders!
The border fabric was cut crooked as well – what a surprise! Now to sew the 1st border fabric to the panel. First I ironed the pieces, then I lined the right sides together and pinned the fabrics where I wanted them to be when I sewed. This took up a lot of time. I used my rulers and marking pencil, as I was taught and still I had somehow cut the border pieces a bit “off”.
Oh well, I said. The outside borders would make up for it, and I plundered on.
HA! Ignorance is NOT bliss. The outer border matched up even worse. Now I had a mess so obvious that I would have to start over.
This is what happened to the quilter before me. After ripping out all the stitches, she packed up the kit and returned it to the store. I am on to you, lady. You ruined my happy sewing day.
I’ll start over tomorrow. I’m in the middle of a good book. The book at least has squared up corners 😉
We had an unplanned trip down the mountain to Sonora today, so I ended up watching the snowstorm hit through the ophthalmologist’s office windows. Oh man, it was awesome. Huge flakes and small flakes poured from the sky, as if the angels were having a marathon pillow fight.
The snow did not stop coming down the entire 2-hours I sat there. I was already nervous about my hubby’s condition, and now I worried we wouldn’t get home. If it was snowing down here at 2,000 feet, Lord only knew what was happening in Arnold at 4000 feet .
When we left the doctor’s office there was 6-inches piled up. The roads were passable, if you could get around the stuck cars. It was also getting dark quickly. It took and an hour and a half to get to Parrots Ferry road, and another 40 minutes to highway 4. The snow plows had been at work so the highway was snow free. Now we could go 25-miles per hour!
It was scary because the snow was already filling in the scraped pavement as we went up the mountain. That, and on-coming traffic lights blinded hubby and I was in charge of keeping us on the road. That drive seemed to drag on forever.
When we finally got to Arnold, the roads seemed chosen at random whether to be plowed or not. Our street was not one of the chosen. Hubby, of course, had his big-assed truck (Ford F-150) with 4-wheel drive, so we were able to make it up our twisty road. Thank God a large truck turned around at the dead-end, otherwise we would have had no sign of where the street even was. There was over a foot of snow blanketing the roads and drop-offs equally.
Now sitting in a chair by the wood-burning stove, talking to you guys, I can relax. Maybe. My nerves were strung tighter than a hooker’s dress for 5-hours. It’s too dark to take pictures, so I’m going to bed now. Good-Night & Sleep Not-so-tight,
BTW – Hubby’s eye is doing better now – the surgeon said he had a small retinal detachment that was causing his blurry and poor vision in his right eye. We refer to this eye as his “good” eye because the left one has undergone several retinal repairs, which we call his “bad” eye. Hubby had a minor laser surgery to “weld” the retina back in place. On his right “formerly good” eye.
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