testing my optimism

Posted by marne on January 17, 2007 in craft, stitch | 8 comments

I really think I am an optimist, but the last few days have been quite a test of my optimism. So I figured I’d write about all the yucky stuff, find the good in each situation, and throw in a few pictures that are making my happy, despite all the doom and gloom around here.

First of all, there were the shingles and chimney blown off our roof. That’s not so terrible, except for the $500 deductible on our insurance, but at least we have insurance, right? And when it’s all done, we can enjoy a cozy fire in our wood-burning stove. I’m not sure when that will be, however, as the winds were still pretty bad yesterday, and the tarp was blowing all over.

I made a felted ring the other day:

It’s kind of funky and fun, and very cozy to wear. It was fun to make, and I’ve got some fun ideas for lots more of these little babies, so they may show up in my shop soon.

Saturday, as you may have heard, was (very nearly) record-breakingly cold. Of course, we live in the mountains, so it gets cold, and I like cold weather better than hot, but we’re talking way below freezing, for days on end. So Sunday morning, when it managed to get above freezing for a little bit, we heard a very loud bang and a whoosh of water. Not good. A pipe under our front porch had burst. So we had to turn off the water for three days. Luckily, it was under the porch, not the house, so the water just flowed into the yard, and also luckily, we were home, so we were able to shut it off right away. So there was no damage to the house, and not a lot of water was wasted. Living without water is very not fun. We did, however, occasionally turn the water back on so we could flush. It was a little wasteful, but we weighed our options, and decided it was worth it. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. By the end of the second day, we were pretty disgusted with ourselves and decided to waste a little more and take really really really fast showers. Boy oh boy, did that feel good! The plumber came yesterday and fixed everything up, and it was only $150 which goes toward that $500 deductible that we were already out, so that’s not too bad after all. Other people had it much, much worse.

Since there was no water and I felt scummy, the best thing to do was curl up in front of the television and do a little hand sewing. My Blythe doll, Evie, was the beneficiary of my handiwork:

I made a little sundress with some vintage eyelet and linen. I even made some pink striped stockings to go with it. I have a little jacket planned to go over it. And then I think this is my favorite outfit so far, a linen butcher’s style apron over and pleated skirt and lace-edged t-shirt. Apparently, Evie likes the Classics, she was hanging with Shakespeare and Chaucer this morning. I forgot to mention that Evie made the trip to Boise with me, and she was a big hit with one niece so far. We had to change her eyes frequently, but Evie came through it all with flying colors. I still need to work on my Blythe photography skills.

Yesterday I went out to my car to go to lunch. I started it up, backed out of my parking space, and started to pull forward, and a couple lights came on the dashboard. One of them was the EPS light, which came on last year, when my timing belt broke and took out half the engine with it. I called a tow truck and had it towed, and spent a sleepless night worried that we were going to have another thousands and thousands of dollar repair bill. Luckily, the dealer called this morning to say that for some reason the throttle had lost all its settings, and they needed to reset everything for a cost of $200. Sadly, that will not come out of the $500 deductible :o) he he.

Happily, through all these crazy happenings, I had a new crazy coat and scarf to keep me warm:

I knitted the scarf myself, of course, and the coat, complete with purple velvet flower, was only $29 at TJMaxx. It’s a couple sizes too big, but that just means I can wear it over sweaters and stay especially cozy.

This one might be a little gross, sorry. While waiting for the tow truck yesterday, I decided to go have lunch, since that was my original intention, and while chewing on some rice and beans, my crown came off. I tried putting it back, but it won’t stay, so I’ve got to call the dentist and find time to get over there. Luckily, we have good dental insurance, and the oral surgeon who took care of this particular tooth is really nice and quite cute. Not as cute as Mr. Lucy, of course, but if you have to have someone drill a metal rod into your jaw, it’s always good when they are nice and cute, right?

And one more really good thing, I ordered some Moo Cards:

How can those NOT make you happy? I didn’t think I really had enough ‘good’ pictures to get them, but they turned out pretty nice anyway, and I love all the colors! You really do need to click that one to see it full sized.

Okay, I guess I am still an optimist after all.