So What Are You Working on Today?

Yeah, yeah, I know: some people actually *get* the whole concept of "weekend" and "relaxation" and "doing nothing." I know that. Some people get it completely. I, however, do not. To me, the weekend is a time when everyone else is off work, so I don't have to check email to see if someone needs something or has something that has to be done rightthisveryminute. That means it's a time when I can do my own stuff, stuff I like to do but never have time for. (Oooh, nice end prep!)

One of the things I like best in the world is problem solving. You've got a problem, I'll come up with a solution. Whether it's health-and-lifestyle related or something about organizing your space or how to fix a recalcitrant deadbolt lock, I'm your woman.

Well, not that I have a ton of technical expertise. Snort. That's hardly the case. And not that you're particularly going to LIKE my solutions. But I love figuring ways to make things work. Since I've been working hard lately, and since I knew everyone and their dog would be totally out of pocket today, with even the grocery store--gasp!--closed for Easter Sunday, I tackled a couple of things I've been thinking about.


Here's the first one. The windows across the front of our house and the one in the Voodoo Lounge have those wooden matchstick blinds over the windows. While these are groovy and cool and everything, they afford no privacy at all:  you can stand outside [yesterday I was thinking about how someone came up with the words "inside" and "outside," and I imagined them working on a wall that was going to be part of a house and talking about it, like maybe where the mud plaster would go: "Which side are we plastering? Are we putting that in the in side of the wall, or the out side?" This makes me happy to imagine, this conversation]  at night and see inside, see shapes and colors and details, just as if there were no blinds at all. I didn't want to add drapes or curtains--those would be just an invitation for the cats to party while we're sleeping:  Clarice is just looking for something new that's climbable (and do NOT feel sorry for them--in that photo? That thing to the left? That's their top-o-the-line 6-ft. carpeted climbing post. You'd think they would be grateful, huh? Yeah, right on that).

I could have used spray adhesive and put some kind of paper or fabric over it, but that would have been 1) tacky and 2) non-removable without leaving sticky residue. So I heaved the big sigh and got out the huge swatch of fabulous orange cotton I bought at some estate sale--yards and yards of this stuff--and starting making some panels. I finished one and got it sewn (yes, I sewed it in place; I'm thinking I'm going to give in and use dots of tacky glue on the others, because trying to sew over those matchsticks and getting the thread caught on the ends nearly drove me insane, plus it was painful because I had to do it while the blinds were hanging to make sure the fabric hangs right) in place to check. It's OK, plenty opaque, looks great with the light coming through. So I've got the other 4 torn to size and pinned and ready to hem. Then I'll iron them again, take down each section of blinds (blind? is it ever singular? Ooohh--and think of the etymology:  to make blind! Used in this sense from 1771).

Anyway. Where was I? Oh, yeah:

And then, after I get those done today (and it's to the boring part for me, the part I don't like so much. I love the figuring-out-how-to-do-it part, and I love the part where I finish and get to show The EGE. I just don't much care for the slogging part in the middle once I've got it figured out and have done one and know it's going to work. Boring. But without it, you don't get to the Showing Off part. Alas.)

 So after that, I get to work on this. It's also at the slogging-it-out part, though. Too bad for me. But figuring it out has been fun. Can you tell what I'm making? It's from those cabinets I've shown you before, the ones I had built to house rubber stamps and that now hold almost everything, but--most important!--my beads. What am I going to put in this drawer? And--the bigger question--how many of these am I going to make? (That last question isn't for you to guess; it's what I'm trying to figure out).

I wonder if Michael's is open today. I doubt it. Nobody's open today, which I find offensive, really. We have to go to Barnes and Noble--there are some of us who go there every Easter to support them because they're virtually the only store in town that opens. The Dreaded Wal-Mart is open, of course, but they don't need our support. Barnes and Noble doesn't either, but hey--they're bucking the trend and risking the wrath (and boycott) of the majority of the population.

What that's about: I bought enough balsa wood for only one or two drawers, not knowing if I could make it work. Now that I see it WILL work, I want more, but I'll have to wait until next week to go buy it. And that irritates me--I don't back The Behemoth out of the driveway and drive its gas-guzzling self all the way across town for something. I wait until the weekend when we have other errands we need to run. Having a huge SUV has actually saved me a ton of gas--I don't drive it, and I'll walk downtown rather than drive, and I consolidate errands whenever possible. So this makes me grumpy.

Anyway--back to work. Laundry, sewing, more cutting of balsa. Have you guessed what I'm making?

And what are you making today? Hope you're having fun and getting to solve lots of problems--and isn't that just the best?

XO