Mildly Interesting Photos from My Phone

 In my attempts to become an accomplished woman of the Regency era, I have taken up needlepunch and embroidery. I've always been fascinated by the needle arts--especially lush embroidery like crewelwork--and when I saw people reviving needlepunch, I was totally on board.

My first attempt was not terrible, but it wasn't great, either. This, below, is an unfinished canvas. It's supposed to be a dandelion plant, by the way, and not a distorted happy face. Unfortunately, I couldn't find monk's cloth anywhere in my town, so I improvised with a tight-woven upholstery fabric I found at the fabric store. I used Chinese-made needlepunch tools I ordered cheap from Amazon to see if I enjoyed needlepunch before I invested more in some really good, more expensive needlepunch needles. The Chinese ones weren't terrible, but I quickly realized that I was using the wrong yarn. For standard needlepunch, you need a bulky yarn, like rug yarn. The problem is that I have collected enough worsted weight and sport weight yarns to reach to the moon and back, and I'm running out of room to store all that yarn. I would rather use up the yarn I have than buy even more yarn, though hoarding yarn is not unappealing to me. But whatever yarn you use, you really do need monk's cloth to do this right.

I started experimenting with using two strands of yarn in the needle before giving it up altogether because the loops kept coming out, which was very frustrating. Plus, the fabric was very difficult to punch through. I was frequently in danger of jamming the punchneedle into my thigh in my efforts to pop it through the fabric.

I then ordered a mini needlepunch needle from The Oxford Company (high quality) so I can use worsted and sport weight yarns. I also made a new frame by taking the canvas off of a sturdy canvas frame, removing all the staples, and then cutting up and nailing on some carpet tack strips I bought from Home Depot. 

Carpet tack strip has wickedly sharp little nails. I made sure they were angled away from the center of the frame so I can stretch and hook the monk's cloth on the nails (the monk's cloth finally arrived in the mail!).

Since I don't want to repeatedly puncture myself on the tack nails, I also bought some dense foam pipe cover from Home Depot, cut that very raggedly with the miter box and saw because I was too lazy to go all the way upstairs to get my scissors, and then wrapped the pipe cover over the frame. Once the monk's cloth is stretched onto the frame, the pipe cover will keep my arms and hands safe while I work.

I don't have any new punchneedle artwork to show you. Life got a little crazy, so I haven't managed to start one, but I'll show you when I do. I'm sure you'll be all agog at my accomplishment. Mr. Darcy will be sure to count me amongst his half-dozen accomplished women by the time I'm through.

In other news, I have been working on organizing my pantry. Again. It is a never-ending project despite all my attempts to train everyone in the house on where on each shelf different types of pantry items are to be stored. Hopeless. If they see a hole, that's where they shove cans willy-nilly regardless of my instructions. Either I have to be the one to put all the groceries away or I need to stop buying things. Both of those are probably good ideas.

Husband used some scrap board left over from the deck project to make me some extra shelves that sit on the back half of each of the main shelves. This makes it far easier for me to see what is in there because I'm not stacking cans so high. I'm still working on the bottom shelves, but you can see my progress.

I guess you can also see what I tend to keep in my pantry. It turns out I have an astonishing number of cans of pureed pumpkin. Huh. Who knew? Not I, until very recently. I still have a boatload of Indian spices I bought in bulk, and I'll need a spot for those. I guess I'll need to make pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie in order to free up some space.

In other other news, I walked into work one day a couple weeks ago and found a vase of lilies, a six-pack of Diet Coke, and a red plastic bag containing limes and a large chunk of ginger (to make ginger and lime Diet Coke, which is my favorite, but which Coca-Cola once again stopped making). The note was from Skyler's wife in gratitude for my being willing to edit Skyler's school papers so she didn't have to. Lol! They have a toddler and a new baby who cries all the time due to colic, so I'm sure editing school papers is the last thing she wants to do. I have a much easier job than she has at the moment. Skyler is an excellent writer and easy to edit, but I certainly wouldn't have the strength anymore to raise babies. At this stage of my life, I have chosen the grandmother option for child care: enjoy them thoroughly and then hand them back when they're cranky or have a dirty diaper.

I think that about covers the mildly interesting pics I found on my phone. Thanks for taking a glance at them. Enjoy the rest of your day, because I wish you all the best!

Little Wins and Great Satisfactions

 I didn't know it was Administrative Assistants Day last week until I walked into our daily morning meeting at work and was presented with flowers, candy, and a card on which every single one of the faculty had written a note of appreciation ("You complete us," wrote Tanner, who has an understated and dry sense of humor that makes me belly-laugh). What floored me was that it wasn't an afterthought, and the fact that they planned ahead and coordinated this little presentation was what made me very nearly tear up right in front of them--I didn't cry or anything, but I think they could tell I was truly touched.

Speaking of work, I normally feel like a fish who is trying to climb a tree--in other words, stupid and ignorant--when it comes to having conversations with the faculty about pedagogy or deep gospel topics. These guys are whip smart and highly educated in their field, and I cannot add anything new or very insightful to their discussions. I mostly just listen. They are also the cream of the crop of gospel teachers, as they have to beat out some intense competition in order to become seminary teachers; you'd be surprised how many wanna-be seminary teachers there are compared to how few actually make it through the program and get hired. While I love the guys on the faculty like brothers, I usually feel pretty ignorant around them--not that they ever treat me with anything less than respect and true camaraderie.

Recently, however, I finally got to speak to a subject about which I actually know something. 

One of the teachers, Neil, is moving to the East Coast after this school year is over to teach Institute (religion classes for young adults, ages 18-30) at a university, and he and his wife recently visited their new city and bought a 1960s mid-century modern home with a very large yard. They're having it remodeled (it needed some repair and updating) and putting an addition onto the back.  

I immediately expressed interest in his new house, so Neil happily showed me pictures. He said he and his wife want to go quite modern in their decor, so I brought in a stack of my more current Architectural Digest and Better Homes & Gardens magazines so Neil and his wife could get some inspiration for their house and their massive yard, for which he was very grateful. What surprised me, however, is that, instead of just taking the magazines home for his wife to look at, he sat down during some of his free moments and went through the magazines very thoroughly and then sought me out to discuss his ideas about decor using images from the magazines as inspiration. I am not an interior designer or decorator except in the most amateur of senses, but I have done a lot of study on the subject and some experimentation in my own house. I was able to give him a little lesson on the goals of mid-century modern design; what parts of his new home he should leave alone and where he might want to make changes; and some ideas about the best types of materials he could use for his various projects. He is also excited about color and has even come up with a color palette he likes, so we've talked about how to bring those colors into his house. I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed these conversations--not because I get to school him a little (or, rather, not only because of that) but because I love watching Neil's superbly analytical mind take on such a different type of project. I love having this connection with him. He's like an onion: for every layer you peel away, there are a dozen more underneath.

Today, during one of our in-depth dives into color, I mentioned a very basic truism about decor: go neutral with your expensive purchases, like couches and other big furniture, and pull color in through paint, throw pillows, draperies, and rugs--items that are far cheaper to buy and which can be easily switched out as your color tastes change. It was a true revelation to him, and he gushed for a full minute about how brilliant that idea is. It was nice to be in the position of blowing his mind for once. We also hashed out color options for the exterior of the house and how to have exterior colors speak to interior colors. I helped him think outside the Utahn houses-painted-mushroom-colors-of-brown box, and I saw his eyes start to sparkle with new ideas. 

Most satisfying. 

My other win today was that I learned how to create a flyer in Word and then came up with a flyer design for graduation ceremonies that even Husband complimented (Husband's bachelors degree was in Film Studies and Graphic Arts, which included a lot of graphic design). Thanks, YouTube teachers who are willing to share their knowledge for free! From YouTube channels, I have also learned all about creating informative Excel spreadsheets, which I had absolutely no idea how to do when I first started this job. Now I'm doing formulas and graphs and everything! 

If it sounds like I'm bragging, I am a little, but not because I'm thinking I'm all that. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm not the world's biggest loser. It was a rough week last week, emotionally speaking. 'Nuff said.