Blah Saturday & RX

Ick. And ick, ick, ick. And that's trivializing it, but I don't know what else to say. I'm not sure what's going on, but the people at the Farmers' Market this morning said we've got big fires to the north, in Andrews, and to the south. All day the sky has been not-blue. I can't tell if it's grey or brown or some unholy combination of the two, but it's ugly. Butt ugly. And scary. And sad. It smells of smoke, even though you can't see it this week, and it makes your eyes burn and your soul feel tired.

They arrested a guy for setting one of the fires--I don't think it was this one, but another one. [And just FYI: we here in West Texas are in the middle of one of the worst droughts anyone can remember, with fires burning everywhere. Neighbors tell of foxes and coyotes coming into yards looking for water. The EGE keeps a plastic litter box (bird-leg height) filled with water out on the sidewalk. Some mornings it's completely empty.] If I were In Charge of Things, this guy, who's been arrested for arson before, would be dead. Yeah, harsh, I know. But what people don't think about in thinking about the danger to people and property and homes and livelihood is:  all the animals who are killed in fires or who are displaced and then die. I can't even think about it. But this guy wouldn't be walking around with a lighter in his pocket ever again.

Anyway, so it's not a day to be outside, and as we walked home from the market this morning, trying not to breathe too deeply, the streets seemed strangely empty. Eery. Hardly anyone outside. Creepy. Post-apocalyptic, which is not where I need my brain to go right now.

So it seemed like a good day to make a new cell phone case. We won't even try to figure the logic there. I've been thinking about this for a while and even bought the little magnetic closures but haven't had time to figure out how I wanted to do it. Then I thought, "Gah. I have more fun when I don't 'figure out how to do it.'"

So I didn't. I just picked up the stuff and started. Here's what I've done so far, because I know Zom will nag me if I don't post process photos. And rightly so:  I'd want to see if you were making something from scratch. (And, gee, I'd better go down there and put in some labels/tags/whatever-the-hell-you-call-them, too.)

I started with some wool-ish felt from joggles.com. I'd already washed it to shrink it more/more tightly. I didn't want the felt fuzz to mess with the phone, so I got some Misty Fuse and ironed some silk from some salvaged something (shirt? boxer shorts? I don't know) to the inside. I eyeballed it and cut. Then I attached the closures. I didn't want the inside metal parts to scratch the phone, so I covered it with felt--orange felt from some garment I bought from Goodwill and washed in hot water. I do that in the winter, when I can get jackets in good colors and pain-in-the-buttedly take them apart. I hate doing that--the iron-on interfacing makes me gnash my teeth. But never mind--I have a stash of felted wool ready to go! And I feel good about it, because, honeys, these were not jackets anyone was ever going to buy and wear. Mid-1980's, I'm thinking. Shoulder pads. Plastic buttons. Whoa.

 I'm putting this orange edge on to keep the silk in place. This is not a polished-and-finished-edges kind of thing.

 This is the felt over the metal on the inside.

Now I'm stitching. Then I'll do some decorative stuff and then sew up the sides. We'll see how that goes. This was supposed to be just a trial, but I like the colors, and so far, so good--so it may be the actual usable one. If I KNEW it were going to work out (and this is where it's a good thing to plan, never mind how much more fun it is not to), I'd embellish it to a fare-thee-well (I love using "fare-thee-well"--I've told y'all why before but will again (what a surprise, huh?):  a previous editor argued with me that "fare-thee-well" was either non-existent or obsolete. Puh-leeze. So I use it every chance I get. Of course. You knew that).

Anyway, so that's how much I'd embellish it before I sewed up the sides. But if I spend all that time and it doesn't work out--it's too small, for instance, or the phone is wonky, or it won't stay shut, or, gee, I don't know--then I'd be reallyreallyreally pissed. So. I don't know where I'll go with it, but I'm going back to it now--

Hope you're doing something fabulous today, and I hope you're safe~~XO