long weekend projects

Today is the last day of my long weekend.  It was Memorial day this weekend but I took today off as well to take George into the vet to get her kitty boosters.  I had made the appointment a couple weeks ago, and made the appointment around a lunchtime.  I still have the mindset sometimes that I only live a mile from work and can just run home, the vet and home again on a lunchtime.  My new house is about 20 minutes from the vet's office so a lunchtime would not work!  I have to say I am SO proud of George!  I was wondering how she would do and she didn't try to bite, scratch or anything at all!  Awwww turns out she's sweet after all.

So!  Long weekend!  I had mentioned that I wanted to put shelves in the closets of my sewing room and I thought this weekend would be the perfect time to do it.  I almost chickened out a few times.  So, advice.  I've heard it said before "measure twice, cut once" and that is very true!  I did not measure twice and therefore ended up with too small of shelving pieces.  Boo!

Also good advice: know what setting your drill is on.  There is a button on mine that has forward and backward.  The first screw I attempted I had it on backward so it just kept flipping the screw out instead of screwing it in.  So frustrating!  Until I noticed I had pushed in the backward button.  Doh!

After that it went fairly smoothly.  One piece of wood for the side brackets split down the middle when I screwed it, so I think it must have been a defective piece of wood, or I hit it just right to split it.  I did buy cheap plywood.  Which is strong, but uggggggly!  Initially I thought painting might do the trick but it was so rough and knotty that it wouldn't have looked nice.  Next thought: fabric!  

I covered the shelves after securing them to the side brackets and used my staple gun to adhere the fabric.  It's not perfect, but looks nice and won't snag my stash.  Yesterday I worked on unpacking boxes of fabric and putting them in color order on the shelves.  I have a TON and I do mean a ton of little scraps.  Like two tubs worth.  I didn't have the energy to figure out what to do with those so unfortunately the sewing room is still looking like a disaster zone. Uggg.

I did sort out some fabrics that I don't want and put them in a box.  Stuff that is too thin to quilt with or I just don't really like.  One good thing is that the subdivision I moved to has an annual yard sale, like almost every house has a yard sale and the whole town knows about it.  So, it's free advertising and gets lots of traffic.  I am thinking I can put up a table or two of stuff.  Plus Mom will be visiting that weekend so I let her know in case she wants to pack anything up here.  It will be interesting, for sure!

 This weekend being Memorial day weekend, I knew I wanted to go visit Scott at the cemetery.  Part of his cremains are buried at the National Cemetery in Eagle Point, which is roughly an hour drive from me.  I discovered the first year that they put up little flags on all the headstones.  It is stunning.  It's beautiful, it's sobering.  Also what I discovered that first year is that it is a busy day!  So, I drove over Sunday night when it would be the quietest.  It's been 3 years and I still feel so much better after I go and talk to him. He was my best friend, my confidant.  I used to chatter on about everything to him.  And God bless him, he was such a good listener!  I really miss that.

This is right inside the entrance.

Yesterday I decided to tackle a project that I've kind of been avoiding.  I had a stack of socks that needed either end woven in or holes fixed.  I discovered the hard way that you should not machine wash hand knit socks with other regular laundry items!!!!  Just don't do it.  I have 3 pairs that I had washed all at the same time and something must have caught at each one and ripped a hole in all of them.  I think maybe one sock made it out unscathed...

But, I had never darned socks before.  I found a tutorial online and started to it.  I think, um, it must be an acquired talent?  Yikes!  Mine turned out super rough!  But, I guess the main point is to fix the holes and I definitely did that.  Thankfully I still had leftover bits of all the yarns I used.  The only one that I didn't have the color was the top left sock.  You can see in the beige area the bright pink patch.  Meh.  No one but me is going to notice.

The rest of the afternoon I am just going to chill out and knit or cross stitch!  About cross stitch.  It's funny, I noticed that I really have been wanting to stitch but I'm almost done with my second rhubarb sock - oh yeah, that's what I've started calling my newest pair of socks! - but anyway, I have been very strict with myself that I must finish those before working on anything else.  Why?  I don't even know!  But, I am going to reward myself for mowing the lawn before taking George to the vet with some stitching :)  

I hope you all have a great day, week, and do something that brings you joy!