Summer Sleeplessness

I don’t know if it is the heat or simply the time of year, but I always have trouble sleeping during the summer. I blame Earth.

More daylight is great for plants and does wonders for fruits and vegetables, but it makes my internal clock go all out of whack. My body says it is sleepy time, but my brain says, “No! It mustn’t be! The sun just set mere moments ago!” Oy. It only seems to worsen the older I get, too. Perhaps I need to stop overstimulating myself with Matt Bomer in White Collar on my Netflix Instant View right before bed.

More Fall Quilt Blocks

Four more blocks done. That means only four more to go.

After watching more episodes of The Vampire Diaries, my latest Netflix Instant View addiction, I cleaned up the kitchen, did a little laundry, then started working on the next quilt block for the Fall Quilt. I probably could have gotten all of the blocks done if I hadn’t been watching television, but alas, I seem to be a sucker for something part Smallville, part Dawson’s Creek with a touch of Anne Rice thrown in for good measure. I’m not sure if it was all the blood viewing that made me do this, but I decided to use a little solid red for a couple of the blocks to add a pop of color and for use as filler as I will barely have enough of my chosen fabric collection to finish the top.

Once I finished a couple blocks, I decided it would probably be a good idea to plan out the remaining to make sure there would be enough color variation. Sure enough, there was going to be a slight issue… or so I thought at first. Each block consists of five different fabrics, but some of the pieces are small and only use a portion of the Jelly Roll. Alas, after my first cut on the next block I’d already made up for one of the remaining block’s missing pieces. Basically, from what I’ve gathered, I’ll be able to make the quilt top using half as much fabric as it calls for in the book, Material Obsessions. Of course, I’m thrifty and cut with very little waste.

Time to Clean

It’s time to clean the house again. Do you think anyone will notice if I don’t?

Litter boxes need changing, floors need swept and mopped, carpets vacuumed, dishes washed, clothes washed and dried and folded and the windows wiped. This seemed so much easier when I was unemployed. I mean, I normally keep up on the dishes and laundry and general upkeep stuff, but the every week or two (or four or more) stuff gets, well, pushed by the wayside sometimes. I have nothing to blame except myself, my quilting projects, and Netflix.

Typically I try to get all my cleaning done and out of the way first thing, that way I don’t have that GUILTY sign over my head when I’m working on a quilt block or watching another episode of Dollhouse. That won’t be happening today, as I can probably get most of it done except for mopping which will have to wait until I get some cleaning solution since, well, I don’t mop very often. I think in the old house I mopped the floors once a year or so. I will have to look at our chemicals we brought with us, as we left a lot of them at the old house when we moved, to see if we even have anything. The only times I’ve mopped here was to clean up our dog’s pee puddles and for that I used half a cup of apple cider vinegar with a drop of Dawn dish soap in about a gallon of hot water. That’s called me being cheap, but it works.

I hate mopping. I hate it with a passion. It seems like one of the most pointless tasks to me for some reason and yet when I see a nice clean floor it brings a smile to my face for the fraction of a second before our Great Dane, Lucy, comes prancing in or one of the cats finishes using the litter box and twirls across the floor. Alas, me stalling is not going to make the tasks disappear. I suppose it is time to clean once more. [sigh]

Desperate Housewife's Quilt: Block Eight

When life gives you choices such as being outside while big floppy rain drops pound on you or staying inside and sewing, the decision can be difficult. I chose sewing.

After church yesterday the plan was to come home and work on the pond, but it was raining and neither of us wanted to work in the rain. So instead I went back inside the house and started working on the eighth block of Jane’s Desperate Housewife’s Quilt. Yes, I know I’m lagging behind, but I figure if I take my time and actually work on the blocks they might even be usable for their intended quilt.

I briefly looked over the instructions, chose my fabrics and started making cuts. I’d suggest reading the instructions all the way, as I found that simply looking at the picture with all the cutout pieces doesn’t tell the whole story. However, fortunately for me I’m not necessarily a stickler for directions and don’t mind that my four-patches are a little different. It called for eight black squares for the four-patches, the same as the background fabric, but I chose a dark blue instead. Typical of me, once I realized my mistake I’d already made my cuts and I hate waste so they stayed.

A little more than an hour after I started it was finished, which for me is a record. I also only had to rip out one stitch line because I’d decided not to pin and one of the center points wasn’t pointy, which is also a record. Besides, with me finishing the block so quickly we were able to do something else perfect for rainy days… watch Season 3 episodes of Merlin that just loaded onto Netflix’s instant view!

Cartoon Rewind

Okay, so I’ll admit it, I watched She-Ra: Princess of Power as a kid. Now we’re making the kiddos we’re sitting watch it too.

Saturday morning cartoons seem to be a thing of the past, with the exception of a few programs on OPB, our local Public Broadcasting Station, which are both educational and entertaining. Last night after the kids went to bed, my partner went onto Netflix’s stream menu using our Wii and saw that She-Ra was on it, immediately started the first episode, and now we are at least watching the “movie” or however many episodes it takes for Princess Adora to become She-Ra, Princess of Power, the twin sister of Prince Adam, who’s secret identity is He-Man. They seem to be hooked.

All this got me wondering why our generation had so many cartoon offerings as kids that this generation seems to be lacking, and the only thing I can come up with is that with cable TV offerings geared directly towards kids the networks just can’t compete. And besides that, there are so few cartoons currently on cable worth watching. But since we don’t have cable just rabbit ears for over-the-air broadcasting, I’m glad Netflix has a plethora of cartoons from our youth to show the next generation… and that She-Ra is among them.