We've been pretty busy since the beginning of May.
We went to Buffalo for Cinco de Mayo on May 7th. Kaida won the pool for the Kentucky Derby on a ticket her Poppy and Uncle Matt bought her. I guess she's got her Dad's luck! We left JR at home because he had to work. It was a pretty rough weekend. If I'm going to drive her alone again I'm definitely waiting until it's her bedtime.
The next weekend we went back (with JR this time) so I could go to brunch with Uncle Skip and the ladies (and Pat since it was his birthday). We went to the Roycroft which was nice.
Last weekend we stayed home. We got to celebrate Mother's day finally so that was fun. JR and Kaida went out to pick me up breakfast. She got me a book about photgraphing children so when I get my camera I'll know what I'm doing. And then we all went out shopping.
Then on Monday Mom and Aunt B came in to spend a couple days. We didn't do much but we had fun. Went to Kaida's dr. appointment on Monday then on Tuesday we worked on making a bunch of dresses that St. John's is going to send to little girls in Africa (mom's sewing machine is busted so she needed to use mine). They're pretty simple so I may need to make one for Kaida. Today we went shopping. Target and then JoAnn's to find some little embellishments for the dresses.
I like May. It's busy and exhausting but fun!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Valances
Right before Easter I made new valances for the dining room windows. Here is my tale of woe regarding them.
We bought new curtains and valances from Domestications a couple years ago. They're thermal, which is nice because that's where the sun beats down and it's nice to block it in the summer.
We installed the curtain rods incorrectly so the sheers were longer than the curtains until we switched them. And then the valances, which had a tailored look, were too narrow for the rods they were on. It was way less than awesome.
Tonic was apparently not a fan of the new look and so he peed on one of the curtains. I, being the queen of lazy, washed just that one panel. It came out of the dryer much shorter that its partner. I lived with it. I planned to use my several weeks off of work before Kaida was born to fix the curtain situation. That several weeks turned out to be just 2 days so that definitely didn't happen.
Then I started the new cleaning routine and decided to wash the curtains. Bad news bears. They came out even shorter than the previous washing. And the valances shrunk even worse in their width. With the sheers behind them the poor windows looked like they were wearing flood pants.
Since it was almost Easter, and we decided to host something had to be done. So I made new valances!
The trouble was finding a fabric that coordinated with the curtains and with the walls without being too matchy with either one. I think what I found works well though. It's a paisley fabric that actually came from the quilting department. It's thinner material so I lined it with a spare sheet I found in the fabric bin.
I'm quite proud of the workmanship. I think this is the first thing I've made where I didn't think "I should have done _________ instead."
I think they look pretty good too.
We took down the sheers and JR installed cordless light blocking blinds that we had cut to fit at Lowe's. I think it looks pretty nice.
We bought new curtains and valances from Domestications a couple years ago. They're thermal, which is nice because that's where the sun beats down and it's nice to block it in the summer.
We installed the curtain rods incorrectly so the sheers were longer than the curtains until we switched them. And then the valances, which had a tailored look, were too narrow for the rods they were on. It was way less than awesome.
Tonic was apparently not a fan of the new look and so he peed on one of the curtains. I, being the queen of lazy, washed just that one panel. It came out of the dryer much shorter that its partner. I lived with it. I planned to use my several weeks off of work before Kaida was born to fix the curtain situation. That several weeks turned out to be just 2 days so that definitely didn't happen.
Then I started the new cleaning routine and decided to wash the curtains. Bad news bears. They came out even shorter than the previous washing. And the valances shrunk even worse in their width. With the sheers behind them the poor windows looked like they were wearing flood pants.
Since it was almost Easter, and we decided to host something had to be done. So I made new valances!
The trouble was finding a fabric that coordinated with the curtains and with the walls without being too matchy with either one. I think what I found works well though. It's a paisley fabric that actually came from the quilting department. It's thinner material so I lined it with a spare sheet I found in the fabric bin.
I'm quite proud of the workmanship. I think this is the first thing I've made where I didn't think "I should have done _________ instead."
I think they look pretty good too.
We took down the sheers and JR installed cordless light blocking blinds that we had cut to fit at Lowe's. I think it looks pretty nice.
A Discovery of Witches
I read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.
The goodreads.com synopsis starts "A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together."
And it gets worse from there.
It's the first book in a series. Unfortunately I didn't know that when I started it. The whole waiting for authors to finish writing their series thing is kind of annoying.
Anyhow, on to the book!
As bad as it sounds from the short descriptions it wasn't awful. I think the writing could have used a little help because I have, pretty much, no emotional connection to the characters and I noticed that early on. Once I realized I was starting to get bored I planned to read a little bit more with the stipulation that if the main character, Diana, didn't start acting like a real person I was going to stop. But then, luckily (for the book), the story got interesting so I decided to keep reading.
As the book progresses Diana starts to be a little less perfect. Or maybe not less perfect but you, and she, learn that she's achieved so much early in life because she has inadvertently been using her powers to get herself ahead. And as she starts using her powers more she encounters a few bumps in the road. So knowing that she has some failings made me warm up to her a little bit.
At the end of the book the main characters are holed up in an old farmhouse just waiting. And that's what it seemed like in the book. No real plot movement just trying to fill up empty pages (that's when I started to suspect that it might be part of a series).
As for the romance part of the story, I'm glad they didn't fall in love in two days. That would feel cheap and contrived. But I would have liked to see more signs of their attraction before the declaration of love was made. Especially something other than their physical attraction. While a vampire will always remain perfect, for the rest of us beauty fades. And we know that building a relationship on physical attraction is not sound.
Overall the story is interesting. Not nearly as drama laden as the twilight series so don't let comparisons between the two fool you. As for the ending, I can understand stretching things when you're trying to build a series but since I don't feel for the characters I really don't care what happens to them, I just want to know how it ends.
The goodreads.com synopsis starts "A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together."
And it gets worse from there.
It's the first book in a series. Unfortunately I didn't know that when I started it. The whole waiting for authors to finish writing their series thing is kind of annoying.
Anyhow, on to the book!
As bad as it sounds from the short descriptions it wasn't awful. I think the writing could have used a little help because I have, pretty much, no emotional connection to the characters and I noticed that early on. Once I realized I was starting to get bored I planned to read a little bit more with the stipulation that if the main character, Diana, didn't start acting like a real person I was going to stop. But then, luckily (for the book), the story got interesting so I decided to keep reading.
As the book progresses Diana starts to be a little less perfect. Or maybe not less perfect but you, and she, learn that she's achieved so much early in life because she has inadvertently been using her powers to get herself ahead. And as she starts using her powers more she encounters a few bumps in the road. So knowing that she has some failings made me warm up to her a little bit.
At the end of the book the main characters are holed up in an old farmhouse just waiting. And that's what it seemed like in the book. No real plot movement just trying to fill up empty pages (that's when I started to suspect that it might be part of a series).
As for the romance part of the story, I'm glad they didn't fall in love in two days. That would feel cheap and contrived. But I would have liked to see more signs of their attraction before the declaration of love was made. Especially something other than their physical attraction. While a vampire will always remain perfect, for the rest of us beauty fades. And we know that building a relationship on physical attraction is not sound.
Overall the story is interesting. Not nearly as drama laden as the twilight series so don't let comparisons between the two fool you. As for the ending, I can understand stretching things when you're trying to build a series but since I don't feel for the characters I really don't care what happens to them, I just want to know how it ends.
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