What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I finished up a pair of sleep pants covered in flowers and toucans. Yay! I noticed that one of my bras is starting to fall apart, plus I have compression socks that just got a hole in one heel, and my other pair of sleep pants just tore. So, there is plenty of other sewing to do. I'm just glad that this is done, so that I can get on to the next thing.

Well, I finished two pairs of yoga pants. The waist isn't quite perfect, but I'll adjust it more for the next two. For now, it is enough to have pants that don't have holes on the crotch seam. I'm keeping all the old pants, shirts, and other stuff so that I can use them to keep the mortar on the walls of the raised bed moist for curing. We'll see when I manage to be brave enough to order the materials.

I'm a bit more stable today, although I'm a bit annoyed, as the new Mass Effect shirt doesn't look as good as the previous version. It has black applique on a gray shirt, and this gray is lighter than the previous gray, so it looks weird. Joel and I both feel weird about it, but I think it may just be that we were used to the previous version.

Not much else going on. I was listening to a memoir by an actress, but it wasn't very interesting, and then she started talking about what a manipulative jerk she had been, and I gave up. Now, I'm listening to a Nero Wolfe mystery. They are always good.

The AI and I finally finished the timeline (minute by minute) for one of the plotlines of the space serial that I'm doing. Yay!! Now, I need to organize the other two plotlines, but they will be a lot easier to weave around the other ones now that I know when everything happens.

Today was the last neurofeedback of this round. Yay! Tomorrow, I'll go to the dentist to get a crown put on, which will be great, as the temporary spacer (and the edge of the tooth) is so incredibly sharp.

The other thing we did today was pull grass and weeds in the garden, so that we can spread the wood chips. Joel helped a lot (with the pick, since some of those big tufts of grass just weren't coming out). It isn't entirely done, but it is a lot better. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to finish pulling the grass? (Oh, wait, no, since my dentist appointment is late-ish tomorrow.) Now that the trees are pruned, I really want to get to work on everything else out there.

Did I say that yesterday afternoon I made some progress on the sun shirt? I cut out the body on Monday using a pattern I drafted a couple of months ago. Yesterday, I pinned it to check it would work (it does), made a pattern for the sleeves, cut that out, and then cut out the sleeves. Maybe on Friday I can do a bit more work on it. I think the amount of work I'll need to do is pretty minimal overall, since the number of fancy touches are really low. I think the biggest thing will be the facing around where the collar attaches to the shirt to make it clean-looking on the inside. I think I'll probably put the decorative embroidery and beads on the lapels on separate pieces of material that I'll applique on. That will cut down on the delay getting the shirt done and will also keep the inside of the shirt nice looking too. I should probably keep the embroidery/beading pretty small to keep the shirt very lightweight. (Also, flopping around is always an issue with embroidery and beads if you don't put in a lot of interfacing.) Ah! And it will be easier to do the embroidery on the train if it is a small piece.

Yesterday was the dentist, which was fine, except that the temporary spacer she put between two of my teeth had a sharp bit, that was slicing the crap out of my tongue. Joel got me some orthodontic wax today, so now I can eat without pain again. Yay!!

Stomach and headache seem mostly okay. I am really trying to finish the satchel today. We'll see how that goes.

I had planned to start with recording the podcast after all the stuff I normally do in the mornings, but the dishwasher was going, which makes too much noise for the podcast. (Not that I'm complaining.) So, I went out to the garden and planted a bunch of seeds. Some of the herbs, like rosemary, are really hard to get started, so we'll see. The flowers (echinacea and calendula) should be easier, and supposedly, so is the okra, even though I've never been successful with it. So, we'll see.

Since the dishwasher was still running after that, I went upstairs and worked on the satchel. I got the attachment points sewn onto the outside for a small sewing bag or a decorative charm, cut out the lining, and made the document pocket. Probably, I should have waited to sew the document pocket, as I realized after that it will be difficult now to put on a zippered patch pocket, but I was worried I'd forget my clever plan. If it is too hard to sew with the machine, I can do it by hand. I'm still glad I got it done.

Next, lunch and then podcast. Happily, I've started finding The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath more pleasant (and silly! There are so many goofball things about cats.), so it is less of a chore to listen to it.

Yesterday, feeling really funky after neurofeedback, I sat out in the yard pulling all the bulbs out of the dirt in the pots. Then, I filled them up with potting soil and planted all the succulents that I bought, along with almost all of the ones in the yard. There is just one huge concrete planter that I didn't deal with. I should probably order another three or four little plants to put in it. I got one little cactus this time and might get another one, since it is really cute. As much as I want to fill all the pots in the yard with succulents, I should probably use some of them for getting herbs going. I think I mentioned that the company that sold us the succulents also sent a card impregnated with lavender seeds, so I tore it in half and planted the two halves in small pots (that used to house succulents). Next, I should plant some rosemary, oregano, and sage. Rosemary isn't supposed to grow well from seed either, but I'll try. If I put all the pots around the concrete table in the yard, it is no problem to water everything. I'll try to do it on Sunday.

In other news, today, I finally got started on the messenger bag. I cut out the exterior and installed a zipper. I've forgotten the technique, but it is the really nice one where you make a really nice rectangle for the zipper, as opposed to the sewing two pieces together and putting the zipper across the seam. It is what you do for welt pockets, but I just skipped the welts and put in the zipper. Anyway, I'm happy with how it turned out. Then, I planned out the rest of the process for making the bag. Yay! Now, I can just check things off, which will be much easier.

We've been trying to deal with our water situation (and the stomach problems it is causing). Boiling helped me more or less. Drinking water from the building next door may have helped Joel but didn't help me. We were going to contact the water company, when we remembered the bottles of water in the shed from when I had the same problem in Lisbon. We thought it would help narrow down the problem, and it definitely seems to be the water, as I'm not having stomach problems now despite the heat. Anyway, then, I discovered that I had actually managed to buy ceramic water filters. Since we really don't want to contact the water company, Joel spent some time and got the filter set up. It occurred to me this morning that we spent 8 years filtering water with ceramic filters when we were in Russia, so this isn't new. However, we would like to get a less ghetto setup. Once we've actually tried the water and made sure that it doesn't bother our stomachs, we'll work on that.

Phew! I got the monthly budget done (or whatever you call the "what we spent our money on" list). I need to start work on the podcast tomorrow, so I wanted to get the budget out of the way.

I think I said yesterday that I want to make a couple of long-sleeve shirts so I can avoid sunscreen, so I ordered some nice "washed cotton" in blue and "old green", which just sounds like the crappiest color. * laugh * I also got some more (slightly nicer) t-shirt fabric in colors I don't have. I had been planning on cutting out green fabric for the leaves for my nature themed shirts, but I don't look great in green (especially the bile-colored green that I was considering getting, since it looks more like leaves than kelly green), so I decided to go with white fabric that I can embroider. I could also dye it, if I wanted. A leaf in white (or, you know, grayish from having been washed a bunch) will still be recognizable as a leaf, so it will be fine.

It's time to get out there and go on a walk now. I'm having a weird brain day (even though I've been good and worn my glasses when going outside). I keep having the feeling I was working on something else. Probably, it is memories getting sorted incorrectly. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that I need another round of neurofeedback after this one to fix some new weird thing.

One of the guys from the construction company came today to check out the stone wall that needs work on the side of the house. He wanted to take the stones from my garden for the wall, but I said I needed them, so he's going to find other ones. I hope. The landscaper has been looking for stone with no luck. So, anyway, we'll see. The contractor also said that someone would come by in a few days to work on the bathroom. It was funny, as the contractor felt that my Portuguese was pretty good (it isn't that good, but my pronunciation is good, which makes it seem like I am much better than I am) and thought that I was better at it than Joel. I'm not. However, I had to explain that I just talk more than Joel in general. I'm dithering about asking the landscaper if she does stuff like removing weeds along our wall or if she knows someone who could. Sometimes the city takes care of it, but I feel like they are pretty out of control. But there are so many things that need to be done. Ugh.

Anyway, I also got a bit more sewing done on the shirts and cut out a bag and lining that I can work on while going to and from neurofeedback on Wednesday.

The newest painting I'm working on is going well. I did some very pretty zentangle all around the edge to make an oval frame. Tomorrow, I need to paint some flowers in the middle. If I can get it to work out, that will wrap up this piece. I'll do something very similar for the next one, but instead of painting flowers, I'll paint a wild strawberry plant, since my friend grows them.

Well, I'm probably a bit late to this, but Tales From The Gas Station is pretty amazing. It is a web story that was made into books. It is like a cross between old Stephen King and Dungeon Crawler Carl or maybe Murderbot. A great twist just showed up.

In other news, the kumihimo weaving has gotten to the end of several bobbins. I'm pleased with it and interested to see how things work out with it.