how to sew rubbery fabric

I learned a new craft technique recently.

My mom is redecorating her bedroom, and I took her shopping for curtains. After looking at various patterns, she fell in love with one in particular.
This pattern happened to be on a shower curtain instead of a regular curtain panel, but we figured, a curtain is a curtain, right? A quick hem would create a pocket for the rod and her bedroom would look more complete.

The only problem with sewing the rod pocket for these curtains was the texture. Being a shower curtain, the texture and raised pattern were rubbery.

That raised, rubbery texture made it super difficult to sew on the sewing machine; the feet and feed kept getting caught on the fabric so that it wouldn't feed smoothly. As a result the stitches were bunchy and uneven... like so:

It even stuck so bad that the fabric was damaged. You can see the pattern of the feet below, kinda like tire treads that left marks as the fabric was dragged through the machine.

Determined not to struggle with this, I pinned waxed paper strips to each side of the fabric. I thought they might help the fabric move smoothly.

(kitty supervised)

You know what? I actually worked! The fabric fed smoothly and the stitches came out nice and even.

The wax paper was really easy to tear off, basically tearing along the perforation that the stitches naturally made.

 The curtains are ready to hang.

heartbreak

I had planned to spend an evening this week reflecting on 2018 and outlining a few goals for 2019.

However, as I take a moment to sit down and collect my thoughts, they are in an entirely different place than I expected them to be. 

I have been immersed in other activities, shocked by the news that FG's daughter was murdered earlier this week.

I've spent the last few days holding the hand of a grieving father, trying to comfort him in a situation that should never happen. Still reeling from the news, the blows keep coming as new information is released, privately and also to the public.

The public part is freaking me out. I am a relatively private person.
Reporters keep calling FG, there's been a press release, and details that feel private are being shared publicly.

On one hand I feel like they're trying to exploit a grieving family's pain for a news story, but on the other hand it's necessary because this is an active investigation and detectives are trying to find the killer. The more people that see the story, the more likely it will reach someone who has information.

I understand but it doesn't make it any easier to see faces you know on the news in such a horrible context.

Needless to say, so far 2019 has been difficult, and the immediate future will not be easy either.

It's absolutely brutal watching someone I love go through something so awful. I'm trying to be a comfort, but nothing can ease the pain of losing a loved one like that.

Friday night at home

Sitting on my couch.
I can't remember the last time I did this. It's glorious.
Pumpkin is pretty pleased to have my lap in a non-moving state.

I had to convince FG that I needed some "me time." Yeah, we've been having a lot of fun and I do enjoy hanging out with him, but he's been taking up ALL my free time lately, and vice versa. Our individual lives have been neglected and honestly I'm exhausted with an empty fridge and a dirty house and no clean bras.
Enough is enough. Back to the reality which demands that you clean your toilets and sleep in your own bed.

I finally got to the grocery store today. Since I've been traveling so much, I have been keeping the fridge pretty bare. It got to the point where the eggs went bad and all that was left were a few sad limes and some mixers for vodka.
Even frat boys have leftover pizza in their fridge.

After a surprising amount of work, the fridge is full of fresh produce and I cooked a few chicken breasts so I can eat something besides lunchmeat. There is clean laundry in my closet, my travel-sized toiletries are tucked away, a purring kitty is in my lap, and I'm feeling more centered.

Strange how having an empty fridge and no clean laundry makes me feel so out of sorts. I can certainly adapt, but I thrive on the stability of an orderly household.

Contemplating sitting by the pond but it's such a mess that it's not even relaxing anymore. There were a bunch of leaks and I thought they were all fixed ($$$), but now there's another leak somewhere because the water level keeps dropping and there is water getting under the liner so it keeps floating up in the middle of the pond. The pond guy is actually in the hospital right now so who knows when it'll get looked at, and to be honest I'm completely done spending money on it.
I kinda want to fill it in and have a normal backyard and I'd rather spend the money on a hot tub with twinkle lights strung above it. Stay tuned for whatever develops with that.

whew, christmas.

I'm literally sitting at my kitchen table trying to wrap my head around how fast the last few months have gone by.

[A few minutes ago I was wearing a head lamp because the power was out for a few hours. Creepy. The last house had a flashlight in each drawer and bathroom but I guess Chris took some because I can only find like 2 of them now. While waiting for the power to come back on, I ordered a battery powered lamp and a 4-pack of flashlights off Amazon. Also, in this house NONE of the bathrooms have windows. Strange lack of windows in this house.]

Back on topic.
Christmas was a whirlwind of one event bleeding into another.

With my family, we only have one real obligation: show up at Litmas and you're off the hook for everything else... if you choose.

By contrast, Foxy Grandpa had 4 different events that involved spending time with different sections of the family. Of course I was invited to each of these events and it would have been obvious if I was absent, because I'm "the girlfriend" now, so despite feeling pretty burnt out, especially towards the end, I participated.

I'm glad I went, though, because again, in stark contrast to what I'd gotten used to with Chris's family, Foxy Grandpa's family is happy and fun and they like each other and it's actually a pleasant experience to be around them. I genuinely enjoy their company. I'm sure everyone is on their best behavior now and drama will eventually reveal itself because that's normal, but overall the vibe is very nice.

By Christmas day, I happily sunk into a chair on his daughter's apartment balcony and sipped wine until I got moderately lit. See? I feel comfortable enough with these folks now that I feel like it's ok to get a little drunk without judgement. (Plus, his ex-wife was three sheets at that point so if I got a little tipsy it would not be worth mentioning.)

Did I mention that his ex-wife is frequently around? The first one, not the second one.

Anyway, it makes sense that she's around because they both both have a close relationship with their daughters, and nope, it's not weird at all.

Now I'm sitting on the other side of the holiday, exhausted because I can't remember the last time I had a day to myself, kicking myself for not taking some PTO to just chill, and for a few days amidst the chaos I kept thinking about how FUN it was to skip Thanksgiving and beebop around Arizona and we could totally do that for Christmas, right??

Back to reality. My one personal goal for the day was to clean off my kitchen table. I succeeded, unless you count the fine dusting of glitter from random Christmas accessories.

catch up

I have about 5 half-written blog posts sitting in my queue. Lots of travel and work and social activities lately. Long drives through East Texas offer plenty of time for reflection, but I've had hardly any time to document my thoughts.

So, rather than go back and try to finish each post, here is a bullet list of all the major points.

The past few months have been expensive. I had a goal to pad my savings account but instead, travel, home repairs and a new phone have me actually feeling broke. Time to reign it in for a little while.

Arizona: Thanksgiving in Sedona was a brilliant idea. I may never go back to regular Thanksgiving. Suzy suggested a few hikes and to my surprise, I really enjoyed them. Could that be a new cold-weather hobby?

Foxy Grandpa* threw me a surprise birthday party! I was very touched. Seeing my friends and family in his house was a huge deal. Those two worlds should be connected and he's happily facilitating that connection. It's such a stark difference from what I had gotten used to. He's a genuinely nice, happy, friendly person and I consider myself lucky.
*Ashley graciously 'helped'... obviously. No party is thrown without Ashley's expert guidance.

Pumpkin got a checkup at the vet and she's got some arthritis in her hips and the early stages of kidney disease. Nothing major; she's a 15-year old cat. At this point she gets as many treats as she wants and still prefers to sit on my lap and get pets while I drink wine and watch tv.

Work is still hella awesome and I'm digging it.

I started practicing juggling again lately and I'm getting pretty decent. I drop the limes WAY less. Fun party trick: accomplished.

rip

So, I got some parts of my body waxed. Yep, waxed.

Tired of shaving, and the resulting irritation, then being able to see the dark hairs underneath my pale, pale skin even after I shaved, I decided to try it.

I didn't even start small. I went straight for the Brazilian. I read the FAQs on the European Wax Center website, so I stopped shaving for two weeks and Ugh, that was the worst part!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but sure enough, the waxer lady is alllll up close and personal with your nether regions. There's no modesty. You're literally spread out on the table and she gets in and does her job. She even waxed either site of my butt hole, which was weird and maybe unnecessary but the end result was awesome. Literally no hairs remained in the area between my legs. Super smooth. And the best part was, someone else took care of it, and they can see better than I can in those hard-to-reach areas. No shower gymnastics necessary. Plus it stayed that way for a couple of weeks.

Overall, not as painful as I expected. Of course I've done a little at-home waxing before, so I'm not a total stranger to the pain. I flinched a few times. Post-wax, my skin was a little red but not painful.

I really enjoyed not having to shave. No ingrown hairs, no irritation, no accidental cuts. Continued exfoliation and moisturization was key while it slowly grew back out.

Six weeks later, the hair had grown back in all patchy and I went in again. This time, I got my armpits waxed too. Again, growing it out was the worst part. The underarms actually hurt worse than the undercarriage, but the pain is fleeting and it is so, SO worth it. No dark shadow and no irritation from shaving every day. I love my armpits now.

Strange thing to say, but I'll happily give money to a stranger to rip out my body hair, even in very intimate areas.

cozy and okay

This house is slowly coming along... I haven't really documented it like the last house.

I kinda bought the house, moved my stuff in, unpacked it, and went about my job and my life.

A lot of stuff has sat where I unpacked it, months ago. Some things I have plans for, some I haven't figured out yet. I'm just kinda going with it.

After what seems like a long time, I'm starting to do some of the things I want to do to make this space feel like mine.

I finished painting the formal dining room (aka craft/ game room) and every time I walk by I think, "Oh, it's so pretty!" It was a perfectly fine shade of olive green but it was way too dark for the room. You know I like my rooms to feel light and airy.

The living room looks majorly better after replacing the strange window treatments with pretty (on clearance!) curtains. Still haven't figured out the ideal tv/couch arrangement, but Christmas is coming so I'll figure out a place for the tree and then figure it out next year.

The bedroom really is peaceful. The headboard is exactly what I wanted, and the sun shines through those curtains every morning and it's so dang pretty out there.

...just don't get me started on the pond maintenance that's costing me an arm and a leg.