Marsbarn Designs...

Huzzah, a break in the weather!

Oh Huzzah! 

Temperatures dropped into the 60's over night for the first time in a week, and this morning the house is 75 degrees inside.  

Oh rapture!

Today's high is supposed to be 90, which is still warmer than I'd like, but oh so, so much better than 100+.

And magically, the swelling I've been having in my arm has gone away (okay, its like 60% better)!  The extreme heat had aggravated the chronic yuck (technical term) in my right forearm causing it to balloon up, kind of like Popeye's physique. Unattractive and painful.. a lovely combination.  

But now! Now, I can rule the world!

Okay, more realistically, now I can start work on a baby quilt for a coworker (and dear friend) of Big E's.

Friday, of sorts

It's Friday! (YES!)

Okay, it's not really Friday, it is just Big E's Friday.

I worry on these super hot days.  

A body is just not meant to do what he does in this heat.  

But now there is just this one last shift, and he'll be home for three days.

Yesterday it didn't get to the 108 they'd threatened.

It was only 106.  

Blech.

108 is so wrong

It is supposed to be 108 today.

I'm not well enough versed in my texting lexicon, would that be a "lol"?

Probably not.

It's more like a "OMG" or a "WTF", right?

Is there a "I want to cry and throw a tantrum like a three year old, and then I want to move into a fancy air conditioned hotel downtown with room service" one?

Anyway. This is day three of triple digit heat, and tomorrow is supposed to be the fourth.  I've found that I can't keep track of the days barricaded inside of the house. So we've been having "outings" each day. Yesterday the girls and I ventured out at 8:30 to get pastries.  It was 85 degrees, at 8:30.  That is so totally wrong, I can't even speak of it. Today, we are going on a brave expedition to the Post Office.  I have orders to mail.  I had planned to pony up the extra money to priority mail them from home, but then I got an order from Canada.  (I nearly cried.) Big E said he'd take us in the air conditioned car, but still... 

We do have a little, old air conditioner downstairs, but it just can't deal with the heat.  It chugs along, but with nighttime lows in the 70's.. well..  it's only about 10 degrees cooler inside than out.  Which leaves us with the Bedroom.  We have a newer, bigger, braver air conditioner in the bedroom, which makes it the 75 degree oasis of the house.  As this ungodly heatwave continues, we will fall back and eventually find ourselves (the two girls and I) spending all of our time hiding in the bedroom.  

Have I mentioned that I hate summer?  Ya, I do.  I hate summer with all kinds of special yicky sauce.

Foundation piecing tutorial

I, um, wrote up a tutorial a couple of weeks ago on 

foundation/paper piecing and kind of never got around 

to  writing a post about it.

So here's the link .  Just click on the thumbnails to navigate around. This tutorial shows my down and dirty method of foundation piecing.  It doesn't cover the more complicated patterns that have letters and numbers.  Drop me an email or a comment if you have any questions about it.

knit and sweat-er

Okay, so it's hot.

Really, really hot.

But, all the dice bags are finished for GenCon (all 50!), and in a very strange (even for me) twist of logic I've become obsessed with knitting on my sweater.  Of course the sweater is wool, because when it is 102 out everyone decides to work with wool.  Perhaps this is my way of whistling in the dark?  I know winter will come some day, and gosh darn it, I'm gonna be ready!  (In fact, I'm counting the days... )

If you can't stand the heat... go hide in the bedroom.

Last night I dreamt about Japanese pumpkins.

What's up with that?

My current sewing project has a new deadline...

Tomorrow is supposed to be the first of three days 

of temps above 100 degrees.  

Damn it.

Good bye productivity.

Hello, three days spent hiding in the air conditioned 

bedroom with my children while my brave, brave 

husband ventures out into the hot, hot nasty world.

Blech.

sew, sew, sew, breathe

Things are going well here.

I have learned (again) the lesson of second guessing myself after midnight.  Why would I think would be more accurate after 3 hours of sewing, than I would be before it?  Really.  Anyway, the bags are coming along.  I have more than half of them almost done.  (Hmmm... that doesn't sound as positive as I wanted it to, oh well.)

I think it's time to give it up for the day, Big E has preceded me to bed (never a good sign) and I can feel my brain getting fuzzy at the edges.  It is so tempting to stay up a wee bit later and finish cutting out the lining for the remaining bags... but that's the road that lead me to believe I'd cut them all out last night.  Nope, I'm going to bed.  

That in between time

I've been very good so far.

But in my household, we know this won't last long.

I'm in the in between spot.

I'm waiting for my new fabric to arrive so I can start sewing the GenCon bags.  Yesterday I virtuously cleaned before diving into the absorbing waters of Project Land, and I provided my family with a hot lunch AND dinner. 

This will not last.

Once the fabric arrives, I will be lost to all goodness.

The children have been warned. Big E is already too familiar with my foibles. The box will come, and I will disappear into the focus of the Project.  Meals will become lame afterthoughts.  (Come on, cereal is a great dinner choice!  Sure you can have cheese and crackers for lunch and dinner.)  The clutter will roam free without any attention from me, the laundry will stack, and the dust bunnies will have a holiday.  All of my thoughts will be consumed with getting this done.  Luckily, it will only last about a week.  (That's about all the time I have, anyway.)

I've got to go.  I've promised muffins, and the Box should come today.

Now I want to learn Yiddish, who knew?

This summer I was a little haphazard about my plans for Summer Beach Reading.  Oh, I made sure both of the girls had piles of books, but my own reading fate... well lets just say I was not one with the plan.  

I am a strictly fiction girl.  I like light, funny, character driven fiction.  Often my reading of choice is fantasy or (dare I admit it) chick lit.  So here's the funny bit.  My Beach Book of Choice this summer, the tome that had me in the first 2 pages, the book that made me laugh and even cry, and didn't let go of me until I devoured the acknowledgements in the back.. was a non-fiction memoir about collecting Yiddish books.

Really.

Aaron Lansky's memoir Outwitting History is a book I bought as a gift for a dear friend, then I found a different present (a more perfect one) for that friend, and well... the book got shoved to the back of the Closet and forgotten.  It resurfaced when I pulled out Sweetheart G's summer reading pile, and I shoved it in the beach bag thinking, "Well, if I've waited six months to give this book as a gift, I should read it before I pass it on."  Because what would be worse than passing on a dud book you've had moldering in your closet?  Well.  Now I'm in a funny spot where I feel guilt for not having passed on this fabulous book (Oy, I deprived my dear friend this shining jewel!), yet I'm joyful that I kept it so I could discover it.  Oh, and now I can't possibly pass on this copy (yes, I enjoyed it that much), so I'm going to have to buy another copy (or two).

It's GenCon, baby!

I got an email yesterday.

From an organizer at GenCon.

Would I make dice bags for their charity auction?

Um, gee.. a chance to have my dice bags at the longest running, best attended, most awesomest Gaming Convention ever?  Heck ya.

So the deal is this.  I make the dice bags, artists decorate them at the Con, then they are auctioned off for Charity. I've been told that this part of their auction is one of their more popular items.  So... I'm scuttling around trying to finish up my on-going projects before the fabric arrives and I make dice bags like I've never done before.. sew, sew, sew faster little fingers!