Any Old Excuse

Not that I need an excuse for doing nothing, but it makes me feel better. Especially when I plan to be productive and then I'm not.

My head was spinning the last few days with what I was going to get done this weekend, starting with Friday night. I had a bunch of fabrics washed and ready to cut into strips and then squares for my 9-patch quilt. I had a sweet piece of Swiss flannel washed and starched and ready to pleat for a smocked day gown. I have a basket of yarn and needles, one sock, a half-finished dishcloth, a partially embroidered bib, and a cross-stitch panel of frogs that just need outlining to be used for something later.

So why didn't I do any of it?

Here's one reason.



I've gotten involved in A Tale of Two Cities, and it's a good rainy day book to read. It's not very fast reading though, because I have to go back and read sentences more than once sometimes to get Dickens' humor and sometimes just to understand the way he phrases things. So for times when I just want a change of pace, Debby brought me these 3 books yesterday. Help. I want to do nothing else. I'm halfway through A Wedding in December. Turns out it's one of those "can't wait to get back to" books. And then there's the new Southern Living sitting there invitingly. There just aren't enough hours in my day.

Another reason (although not a very good one). I really did go in to thread the pleater and didn't want to disturb Baby Cat. I wonder if I would have done it if she had not been there.


I did work 6 hours today and 4 yesterday, so I really should do what I want to do. I keep telling myself.

Yesterday was fun. I finally got my hair cut, which I had been putting off for a couple of months. That helped my feelings. Then Debby and I met for lunch and poked around TJ Maxx. That was also interesting, not to need anything especially but just to look around. I did get these.

They're actually spoon rests, I discovered this morning, but they were in the pet section and half the price of the other bowls, so I'm using them as Fancy Feast dishes. The cats were less than pleased to see them at first. Kind of like your dishes staring back at you, I guess. But they got used to it.

This was my Christmas gift from Debby. We ended up not getting together during the holidays. She knew when she saw this little angel that she needed to live with me. Right now, it's in the kitchen window, but it's also been on my bathroom vanity today and on the bookshelves in the den. I'm not sure where she'll end up, but it makes me happy to look at her.

Emily dutifully sent me pictures of her own Sew-In.

I think it was about 3 years ago about the time she moved to Mobile and started school that she saw this Garnet Hill afghan that she loved.


I was slower to fall in love with it, but it grew on me. I think the price was well over $300, so Emily wanted to try to make one. All we had was the picture, and we experimented for weeks with how to make the hexagons, what type of yarn, what color. It was pretty frustrating, and she really didn't have time over the 3 years of school to get it out much. So I was pretty excited to run across a pattern a month or so ago, and now she has something to go by and a little bit more leisure time - not much but some. This is what she's done lately, and I have warnings that if I mention tension, it'll all be thrown into the fire.



Looks good to me. Who am I to criticize someone who actually creates something?