Nesting

We're at T-minus two months to my elopement, five months until the family party, and hopefully one year from the beach party I want to throw in Florida for our friends. If this were like the last few years, I'd be getting ready to move yet again since I've lived in the same place for 9 whole months, but luckily, I'm staying put for now.

Whenever I get settled somewhere, I have to do a creative project. This year, I've learned more about fiction writing and written "the first good draft" of a book. This has taken countless hours and involved wrestling with the MS Office Suite (and of course I still have a huge grudge against their system and the work it failed to save- aarrrgh!). In all, it's been wonderful and tough, all at the same time.

Today, I'm contemplating going to the fabric store and making another one of those fuzzy quilts. I stumbled across the most adorable fabric that featured foxes, bluebirds and squirrels (my fave!) and I know I'll regret it if I don't at least stock up on it.

I'm starting a new job on Monday, so that means I'll have down-time again. Down-time is hard to quantify when you spend your time looking for a job and/or freelancing, because you never know when an opportunity will surface. But now, I'm looking forward to a few things seeming to be more organized.

See ya later, squirrels!
-G

Crossing the Great River- to the Newest State of Residence

There come times in life when important events change the course you're on and also where you're headed. Fate threw me a curveball last year when I got engaged to a wonderful person. Also, the place where I worked was bought out and our department is in the process of closing via a series of layoffs. So, it made sense that I'd move to where Future Husband had just secured a better-paying job and where I could not only start over but reconnect with family members who've lived far away... until now.

So I packed up the car and I moved to Beverly... Hills, that is. Well, slightly north and east, to be exact. Near Pasadena, which is convenient because my cautious driving habits can be likened to the Little Old Lady from Pasadena, whom the Beach Boys sang about. People say you only need deodorant here, not antiperspirant, since it isn't humid like it was in Florida, but after attempting to drive around town, guess what? I need antiperspirant! And I hope to God I find work close to my new home! Commuting is rough no matter where you live, but especially in places like Southern California.

Here is the view up my street from the entrance of my apartment complex. I had to take pictures to send back to Florida to show family and friends. Regrettably, my camera battery died yesterday when we were on the water in Long Beach. Ah, well. I'll be better prepared next time.
So here I am! I'm sending out my resume and looking for work and hoping that I find a great fit on the next occupational go-around. Best wishes to you for a great 2014!
-Gabi

It's done! Now, to mail it to the expectant mommy...

Here it is, with the smooth and fuzzy sides showing as well as the wee little pillow case. Binding has been sewn on, edges have been frayed, it's been washed (and the lint catcher in the dryer cleaned out several times). If you make one of these, please don't cause a fire hazard! Clean out the lint catcher often.

Now it's time to wrap it up and send it off. The expectant mother is due in late November, so it should arrive several weeks sooner that the baby girl.

That's one good home economics project done. I'm glad that project has been wrapped up, because I have a feeling that things are going to get very exciting around here very soon :)

-G

Home Economics: Sewing Project, continued

Eventually, all the blocks were sewn into rows, and each row was sewn together to make a quilt that is 6 blocks across and 8 blocks long. My mother, the magician, somehow quickly made a lot of 2 1/2 inch strips of the yellow material using some curious folding technique that I don't have any pictures of to share...
These two pictures show that the strips were first sewn together to make a continuous edging, which was then ironed down the middle to make two evenly-sized halves.
The next step is to make the fringe, which is done by cutting into the fabric "seams" that are sticking out on one side of the quilt. This takes a long time and tires out your arm and hand, so it should be undertaken occasionally, with good breaks in between. Once all the fringe is cut, and it is sent through the washer and dryer (clean out the lint trap in the dryer OFTEN when this is done!), it will look fuzzy like the picture below. This is a wee pillowcase made out of 10 remaining squares that I couldn't use for the quilt: Once this project is done, I will post a picture of it before sending it up to Gainesville for M's baby shower! -G

Home Economics: Sewing Project

I don't make baby quilts very often. I've made the following:

-Sometime in the 90s- a primary color quilt with animals, given to my sister T when she had her daughter.

-Sometime in the 00s- A couple of box-quilts made from funky fabrics. 2 themes: yellow (for my friend AEM) and blue and green plus frogs (for my friend ABS). Both had boys. I told them that one quilt was a lifetime supply. AEM is pregnant now with her second, a girl. (I sent her a squirrel book for the kids this time.)

-Sometime in the 00s- I got inspired to make a butterfly quilt, then gave it to my friend C who was expecting a girl.

In the last few years, I've made another from grey, black, white, and orange t-shirts. It is really cozy. I've waited to give to someone who is an alumni of my old high school (which had the colors orange and black for its teams) but no opportunity has presented. So, it is in the closet.

Recently, my mom made a flannel quilt for my cousin's new baby boy, which was blue with cowboys on it. I thought it was really cool. So when I found out my friend M was expecting, I wanted to make the same kind of quilt.

I chose monkeys and bananas as a theme because M likes bananas, and because I wanted something that wouldn't look either girlish or boyish. Besides, who doesn't love monkeys?

It's a cool concept in that the quilt has a smooth side and a fuzzy side. This will be explained better as we go along.

The project requires:

-3/4 yard of 4 different fabrics (flannel) (Or, 3 yards of flannels in whatever quantities you prefer)

-1/2 yard of same or coordinating fabric (flannel)

-patience

-time

-a sewing machine

-definitely some scissors or one of those pizza-slicer-style fabric cutters

Step 1: Cut all of the fabric (except for the 1/2 yard) into 6-inch squares.

Step 2: Sew the squares together so that the outside of the fabric faces both ways. In other words, take 2 6-inch pieces with the pretty sides out and sew them together in an X formation. See the picture for additional information.

Step 3: Put all the squares together into different patterns so you can choose how you want your blanket to look. Keep in mind that you can buy different quantities of different fabrics to come up with a certain look.

For this project, I decided that if we did rows like stair-steps, it would look nice.

This is what my layout looked like when the individual rows were sewn together but the entire interior of the quilt was not.

Step 4: Sew the squares together so that all of the seams are on one side. In other words, you have one side of a strip of flannel that is smooth, and the other side has the jagged edges of flannel. Use at least a 3/4 inch seam for these rows. You can see some examples of the jagged sides of the flannel on the second picture here.

This is where we end the home economics class for today. When we go to my mom's house, we will learn how to make the binding and sew it on to the outside of the blanket. I've chosen a lovely bright yellow for the binding.

-GALA

OK, So Here's What Happened Part II

My sister's marriage didn't go as planned. It's not really right to rehash the details but let's just use the phrase "irreconcilable differences" and leave it at that. I live in the house still, with just my sister, as she is the sole owner of it. We're working together to get the garbage cans in and out on the appropriate days and keep the place clean. We've coordinated our grocery shopping and cooking to share what we can, when we can. She handles the heavier yard tasks while I try to keep the weeds at bay (and put down that funky fabric to keep them from coming back). It's a process, and with the weather as hot as it's been, I haven't ventured outside to do yard work this weekend. I mean, why stress myself? So now, it's the Sister's House, and we enjoy ridiculous movies and TV shows when we are together. Today, we're taking turns vacuuming. I'm doing laundry and cooking, and she can help herself to whatever I've made. That's the agreement. Work is nutty. We're having layoffs about every 6 weeks now. I anticipate more in about 2 weeks. I am not sure who there has what plans for me/my position but it's hard to plan that far ahead. I keep myself occupied with meeting up with my writing group and seeing my friends. Being in Tampa is great because I've had friends here for years: from college, from doing theatre, from former jobs. Just about every weekend, there's a food date and accompanying extracurricular activity. Yesterday, I went to Ybor City with Justine and had lunch. We ran around and laughed about all the adventures we've had in all the different places there.

The weekend prior, Mindy came up and we had breakfast and then birthday massages. Then, we went to our respective homes and napped. We can agree that it was top drawer. My friend Cherie recently took me out to dinner for my birthday. Again, the conversation was top-notch and the gluten free hamburger was great too. My b.f. Claudia visited a few weeks ago and we were off to St. Pete to see our friend Lisa, whom we met on our trip to Ireland in 1995! I am very thankful for all of these friends- and the others here too. Plus, both of my sisters are here, one brother-in-law, two grandparents, a niece and a nephew. My parents live about 70 miles inland, too. I find it wise to simply enjoy my time here and enjoy having a steady paycheck while it lasts. After all, I have so much to be grateful for, so why grumble about it? Usually when I lose something I end up with something better. I just have to keep that in mind. -GALA

OK, So Here's What Happened....

"OK, so here's what happened" was the working title of the BOOK I wanted to write about my time in Ocala. Yes, scary and backward Ocala. Family-friendly/ single-hostile Ocala. Wow. (That book now has a different title and is in the works under a nom de plume! ;) A lot happened when I owned the townhouse. A global financial meltdown. A severe loss of property value. Several sinkholes, some of which made the Orlando news! Yes, you could see my back porch on the Orlando news, thank you very much. A lot of really awkward social encounters with locals in the Gainesville/Ocala area. A lot of alone time. An operation, and complications from it that lasted for.... a year so far. And, that's all she wrote. I am making a new start now, but before I did that, I went through several transitions. 1) An aborted attempt at a garage apartment south of Gainesville ended in angst when the owner bug-bombed it and left it sitting unattended for about 3 weeks. I opened the door to dead animals everywhere (luckily, small ones). I gave the key back and got a refund. Later, they discovered mold on the bed used to furnish the place, so I'm glad I didn't stay there. I would have blown up in hives in no time. (I only blew up in hives in North Central Florida; it's a moldy place.) 2) A housesitting gig at my friend B's apartment over Christmas. I wish I had pictures. It was exactly what I wanted after time in a cold, half-empty townhouse: a warm yellow room with a big closet and a storage unit across town. Whew. I had gotten out from under the dark cloud of too-big bills and a townhouse in a town where I didn't care to stay and couldn't work either. Lots of Netflix Christmas movies kept me company on the days when I was there alone (which was most of them) and it was relaxing. Just what I needed in the midst of the holiday hubbub. 3) Next, I stayed with a woman I met on craigslist.org. She had a 4-bedroom house in Gainesville and an empty nest. I was in the middle of interviewing for a job in Tampa (yes, 150 miles south of Gainesville) and needed another temporary place. We agreed that I would pay for 2 months even if I didn't stay that long, although I ended up staying almost exactly that long. When I contacted her by phone, she sounded harassed. I didn't know how to handle this, so I started slowly with my credentials (I have a job in Gainesville, sold my house sooner than I expected, ended up staying with friends, and need a room to rent soon. I can provide references if you need them. I promise I'm a nice person.) and eventually she confided to me, "I put that ad on craig's list today, and you would not believe who's been calling me. Creepy men, mostly." "Oh, I bet they have!" I said and explained my similar predicament when I tried to rent a room in my townhouse. For a while, I ended up with a female roommate who had interesting ideas about what a clean bathroom entailed. A picture is included for your reference. Warning: the following picture made at least one of my sisters gag: In any case, we met and agreed that I would rent a room. In many ways, we exceeded each other's expectations, too. We had several good conversations over dinner or at other times while I rented the room. My friend B was looking to unload a TV and I found a new home for it in my rented room. I hooked it up to the cable and we were good to go; I could watch TV in bed like some sort of rock star :) I paid the amount we agreed upon on time for each of the two months. I even went to Lowe's and got a bejeweled Diva-style house key for me to use, which I gave to her when I left (and which she loved). The rented room was painted dark blue with white trim and a white door. I bought large curtains to put on the curtain rod above the closet; the closet doors were long gone. She offered me a heating unit for the room, which became my best friend on those cold Gainesville nights. I left a few of my prototype door snakes there. Two stayed in the rental room window to keep things extra cozy. She needed them for different drafty doors in her place, and I was moving from room to room so I didn't need them anymore. (I sewed a whole basket of them to give away as Christmas presents in 2011.) But perhaps the most notable move happened next. I moved into my newly-married sister's house to start a new job with a big new raise. She and I figured a while back that we'd live together when I "graduated" from Gainesville, but since she and her man had moved up the wedding date, well, we all live in the same place now. I suppose that in the interim, we could call this blog Gabi's Sister's House, but this is temporary of course. I pitch in with taking care of the dog, remember to set out the trash more often than not, and try to keep everything clean. This was the place where my furniture and other stuff have been stored since the move out of the townhouse. At first, the guest room was mayhem, but I am slowly whittling it down. There are a few more things I need to unload and then we'll be in the clear. So yeah, things were awkward in Gainesville. People wondered why I didn't just get an apartment, and I couldn't very well tell them I was interviewing for work elsewhere. But that secret's been out for a while now; I started the current job in March. I also fell in love with someone far away, which makes me want to remain as mobile as possible. I told him I'd need a serious commitment (read: engagement) to consider moving and so far he hasn't run away, run away quickly. So, you never know. Gabi's house is on the move once more....