...and I have only fluff for you, friends.
School starts Wednesday for both the kids and me, and I have been trying to get lots of things done. I finished all my summer knitting projects (here is Pete modeling the sweater I made for a friend's baby (it is too small for him but I wanted to make sure I wasn't knitting on the wrong planet gauge-wise)). I also made myself a cute little felted purse using this pattern with a couple of tweaks (like a zipper on top and an I-cord handle), exactly the right size for my checkbook, keys, and phone. (And I do mean exactly the right size. I have to slide the checkbook in just so. I should have stopped the felting a couple of minutes earlier.)
I plowed through my entire mending pile. Some of it, I confess, I threw in the garbage because I have come to think that my time is too valuable for me to spend it mending six holes in a turtleneck that three boys have worn since I bought it at a garage sale, especially when I can replace it for a quarter at the thrift store in my neighborhood. I feel a bit like a spoiled American producing that convoluted and entitled-sounding sentence, but there you go.
Photo albums are caught up through the beginning of August, though they don't yet include vacation pictures.
My real life email inbox is empty, the checkbook is balanced, and the bills are paid. And I made a buttermilk pie and a yummy bean dip for a potluck supper tonight.
I was feeling accomplished until I went to get school supplies. Oh my word (says the spoiled American), it was a nightmare. We were going to get it done last week but I got hit with this strange attack of vertigo. I couldn't even turn my head without feeling like I was going to hurl. Instead I went to Target tonight, and everything was picked over and tossed in the wrong bins. They were out of solid-colored folders, a required item for kids in kindergarten. They were out of erasers. And fat crayons. And watercolors. And and and. I was trying to read three lists simultaneously -- I should have made a spreadsheet or something. I was thinking about Carmen, who went shopping for school supplies for five kids and took them along with her. I can't decide if that sounds more like courage or madness.
Anyway, this spoiled American is going to eat a teeny slice of leftover buttermilk pie and call it a night. Over and out.
I was writing about school supplies too! And almost didn't post it since I read yours and then I read Carmen's and then I thought - oh why not, it's school time and this is all I've been doing that I feel like talking about... I hate school supplies - especially since I thought we were done, but then Mac brought home the list for algebra yesterday so I have to go today AGAIN.
As for the turtleneck, why'd you throw it away? It could have become a great dusting rag (JUST KIDDING!). Seriously - I think you really don't sound like a spoiled American - and the turtleneck had already fulfilled its value a few times over! Enjoy the new one :-).
The purse is so cute. I am ashamed to say that I have never knitted anything in two colors yet. Nor have I felted anything. But I'm tempted to try that as a Christmas present for Nina. hmmmm...
Posted by: Tracy | August 21, 2007 at 08:21 AM
Target didn't have fat crayons even at the beginning of the school-shopping madness. Even though they were on the list for pre-K, I thought some naughty words to myself and just tossed a 25-cent 24-pack of regular crayolas into the cart.
I'm impressed that you have a mending pile, period. I don't; instead I have two drawers stuffed full of cleaning rags that were once t-shirts and socks and sweatpants. I've got to do something about the boy's school pants, though. I bought a bunch of uniform pants, all too large, last spring when Target was clearing them out for $3.50. He wore one pair (cuffed, naturally) for precisely one day and came home with holes in both knees. Do they still sell those iron-on knee patches at fabric stores, or did those go out with bellbottoms and orange polyester maxi-dresses? Or is there some other way to reinforce the pants he's not yet worn and torn? I wish I wasn't such a doofus about these things.
Posted by: Summer | August 21, 2007 at 09:14 AM
What is buttermilk pie? I have never heard of that and now I'm so curious. Sounds like lots of calories!
Posted by: Rebecca | August 21, 2007 at 09:24 AM
Tracy: try it! It's fun and easy and felted projects are forgiving. The felting glues down your loose ends so you don't have to weave them in. (I hate weaving in.)
Summer: I hate knee holes. You can still buy those knee patches in fabric stores, but the last time I used them was when my oldest was a toddler. They didn't work very well and they looked awful, to my eye. You will have to consult a more experienced seamstress on that one -- my mending runs more to sewing up opened seams, fixing chewed up cuffs and neckbands, and replacing missing buttons. Usually pants with mended knees go into the pajama drawer -- not a good option for uniform pants, though.
Rebecca: buttermilk pie is a southern thing. It's really just custard pie made with buttermilk so it has a bit more zing. (And extra butter so it has a bit more artery-clogging potential.) Here is a recipe similar to the one I used, with a picture to boot.
Posted by: CJ | August 21, 2007 at 11:03 PM
We miss you! We miss you! Come back to us....
By the way - if you add apples and walnuts to the banana oatmeal cookies... well, it's a good thing, that's all I'm saying.
I'm having surgery tomorrow, by the way. Pray for me, willya? ;-)
Posted by: blest | August 22, 2007 at 08:07 AM
Back to school shopping with six kids, or any kids for that matter, is one of the seven levels of hell. The very bottom one, I'm sure.
Posted by: carmen | August 22, 2007 at 09:24 PM