Life?

So, life gets sticky sometimes.  Doesn't go the way I think it should.  Dumb life. 
And, when my life gets a bit (or a lot) sticky, my mind likes to hearken back to, shall we say, more enjoyable times.  And when I want to run away, my mind goes straight to London.  I spent a significant amount of time there once upon a time.  I was in my early twenties, I didn't have much money and I shared a really rickety bunk bed with another girl, in a small flat with 4 other girls.  It was glorious and perfect.  I've never had so much fun in my life.  I've never enjoyed myself so much. Living in a flat with my friends, seeing shows, beautiful architecture, great shopping, good food.   

But there were a few times when I felt less than stellar there. 

I was talking the other day to my dearest friend.  On a side note, I miss my friend terribly.  Why do my friends not live right next to me?  Why can't I have them whenever I want?  But, back to talking to said friend.  We were discussing a radio show about travel and sacred spaces.  My friend asked me if there were any spaces sacred to me and why.  There are, of course, obvious spaces.  Temples, mountaintops, that sort of thing.  But, the one that popped into my head was Southwark Cathedral.  And I remember one particular day.  It was grey and chill.  Drizzly outside.  I was wandering about the city, a bit homesick, a bit really sick, and a bit despondent.  The city was loud and aggravated my headache and my despondency.  I wandered into the churchyard at Southwark Cathedral and the choir was singing.  I'm not terribly familiar with Anglican services, so I don't know if it was an actual service or just a choir rehearsal.  I walked in, and it was well lit and very warm.  And calm.  I felt instant calm.  The ceiling was soaring, the choir was singing and I felt God.  I just sat there for a time, breathing.  Being.  It was the most calm I'd felt, and I went back to the cathedral multiple times, just to feel that sense of peace.

Fast forward to now.  Sticky.  And I crave that feeling of fun, enjoyment and peace.  And I really want to go find it.  In London. 

In Which I Get All Mouthy and Political

Kaytee, you may want to avert your eyes.  It isn't November 6 yet, and in addition to the cramming down the throat I do on FB, I intend to do it here, as well.  ;)

I don't understand social conservative politics.   I really, really don't.
I don't understand why healthcare shouldn't be a right.
I don't understand why it's ok for people to lose everything to bankruptcy because they get sick or have an accident.
I don't understand why it's ok to legislate the reproductive rights of women.
I don't understand why women are ok with legislation that paints them out to be morons, based solely on their sex.
I don't understand why it's ok to legislate who can marry whom.  Why is the government in my bedroom?
I don't understand why it's ok for children to go hungry or be homeless just because their parent is a drug addict.
I don't understand why it's a bad thing to want the government to help people better themselves.
I REALLY don't understand the issue people seem to have with welfare and charity.  I have heard SO many self-professed Christians say they don't want to be told WHO they have to give their charity money to.  The truth is, they don't want to give it period.  If they did, we wouldn't NEED welfare.  If all the nice Christian people gave enough, the government wouldn't need to.
Or how about fiscal conservative politics.
I don't understand why it's ok for those with less to bear a greater burden than those with more.  That seems backwards to me.  Let's make the burden equal, then we don't have to worry.  And by burden, I do not mean percentage or amount.  I mean, the amount of stress it does or does not put on finances.
I don't understand how you can talk about deregulation being important on one hand and then talk about needing more incentives on the other. 
I don't understand how keeping the money in the hands of the uber-wealthy means the economy will be stronger.  No, it doesn't.  It means that their companies will make more obscene amounts of money, while the average wage of a labourer goes down.
I don't understand why someone who is good at "trimming the fat" of big business is what we want for our president.  "Trimming the fat" means making the company more profitable.  At the expense of the employees.  It means sending labour overseas, where it's crazy cheap.  It means cutting the benefits to the employee.  It means making more money for the shareholders and the CEO's.  How is this helpful?  Trickle down economics don't work. Trickle up is where it's at.

Sweet

So, some good friends of ours had twins a couple of months ago.  Just about the sweetest two girls you will ever see.  Celia, the wee one, was only 4 lbs 6 oz.  Alice was a bit bigger, a pound I think.  I asked the parents if I could make their blessing (christening) dresses, and was given the go ahead.  Mamma doesn't like super long dresses or anything that is too fancy, and I wanted to make something old fashioned looking.  So, I sent her a bunch of pictures of dresses that I liked, and she and her older daughter chose one with a filet crochet top and fine cotton skirt.
So, I made them, based on the pic.  I would post the pic here, but it is on my other computer, which died, and I haven't retrieved anything at this point.
Anyway, the littles were blessed today.  It was lovely.  I held Celia for much of the remainder of the church meeting after the blessing.  I love her.  She fell asleep while I held her and she was so sweet. Mamma leaned over and asked me if I was ok holding her, I said yes.  Then Dad said "Are you kidding?  She's just looking for a chance to bolt with her!"  It's true.  I keep trying to talk them into letting me take tiny girl home, but the greedy beggars just keep telling me no.  They are so selfish.
Here is a picture I took of the beautiful girls in their dresses.

 
Tell me, how could you resist that?  How darling are they?  The one on the left is wee Celia.  Look at her beautiful alert little face.  I love skinny babies. 

Week One-Grownup Girl

Well, we survived the first week of kindergarten.  I'm not sure what to think.  I mean, how did this happen?  I know all mothers (and fathers, too) probably go through this, but I am feeling a bit gobsmacked.  Last time I checked, my wee lass was just that.  Wee. 

 Like this.


How did she grow up into this girl so quickly? 

 

This is on the first day of school, with her buddy.  He is the son of my BFF, who is the daughter of my mom's college BFF.  Funny that we managed to have kids the same age and they are in kindergarten together!  They sit together at the green table.  ;)

 

So, the first day of school, I was worried I was going to be one of those mums that cries when there baby goes to school.  Goodness knows, I nearly did at preschool!  And kindergarten, I mean, whoa.  But, they make the kidlets line up outside, and there is a herd of kids and parents and whatnot, and then they all go in to the school and you don't see them in their classes or anything like that, and she certainly wasn't traumatized, so yeah, I didn't cry.  No one else did, either, so I was glad I didn't.

 

The BFF and her boy came and met us so we could all walk to school together.  They were adorable.  SO VERY EXCITED.  In fact, the Small Daughter was obnoxious most of the morning, before school, she was so excited. 

 

Here they are walking toward their classroom.  Could they BE any cuter?

 

Yes, she has a SpongeBob backpack.  I honestly thought she would go for the Hello Kitty, since I let her choose it herself, but nope.  SpongeBob it is.  I should have known.

 

So, after a whole week of school, would you like to guess what her final opinion on Friday was? 

School is fun, but gets kind of boring. 

Shocker, right?  She scored average on her assessment test (WHAT?!) but she's bored.  So, obviously, she is somewhat above average, since the work they do is a bit beneath her.

Yes.  Obviously, I think my daughter is brilliant.

But, she likes school.  She loves meeting new friends, and there are other familiar faces in her class, so, so far, all is well.  She doesn't love getting up that early in the morning, though.  She's my kid.

 



Redo

Yep, I'm just about the worst blogger in the world.  I've started about a billion posts (give or take) and never get around to finishing them.  My life has a tendency to get in the way of things I want to do.  So, basically, my life gets in the way of my life.  Yeah, pretty much.
It's been CRAZY busy around here this summer.  Things got way out of control at work.  Ok, not out of control, but OH MY GOSH, so much work!  Which is a good thing, because, I kid you not, come the end of July?  My work came to a screeching halt.  So, good thing I made two months worth of money in one month, because I haven't had any work to speak of this month.
But, that is ok, because I have a lot of things I need to catch up on.  I wanted to make some cute t-shirts for the girl, I needed to finish a couple of christening dresses I've been crocheting for my friends' twins, I have a lot of home improvement stuff I've been wanting to work on, and so forth.
So, yeah, a slow month isn't always a bad thing.
So, here is a little rundown of what I've been up to.
First thing-
The Small One fell in love with some t-shirts she saw at the Gap.  They were on sale for $10 each, but that is still way outside of my price range for clothes for the child.  Heck, I'll hardly spend that much on a shirt for myself.
So, being that I'm a DIY type girl, I figured, I could make some myself.  So I did.  I bought a pack of Hanes boys tshirts and recut them for the Small One.  She is skinny and long (which is one reason she loves gap t's, they are skinny and long), so I cut them narrower and recut the sleeves to make short puff sleeves.  Perfect.  Then, I got out my fabric Sharpies and went to town.  I rather like the results.  Here they are.

 

 

She was rather pleased with them and can't wait to wear them.  I won't let her wear them until school starts  Which is soon.  GASP!  I don't like that.  I assure you, I will be one of the crying mothers at the door to kindergarten. Oh well.  I'm a sucker for my girl.

 

I've also been slowly working on stuff in my house, starting with my bedroom.  I am kind of a scattered person, so I have to restrain myself.  One of the rules I have set for myself is that I have to finish a project/area in my house before I can move on to another.  So, since I started with the window alcove in my bedroom, that is what I am working on.  It is nearly done and I LOVE IT.

So, here a some pics from that project.

This is an old piano bench I've had for years.  Not old enough to be a worthy antique, so I didn't feel bad about painting it.

 

And here it is painted and distressed.  I got the inspiration from my friend Amanda Pierre who refinishes furniture BEAUTIFULLY.

 

Then, I got it in my head to strip the paint from the window frame in my room.  Yikes.  That is some work, let me tell you.  That part of my house is over 100 years old and the window frame is original.  So, it has at least 60 years of paint on it.  That's a lot of paint, y'all. And, because the wood is old, it has cracks in it.  And there is paint in those cracks.  Oy.  What a pain.  But, oh, the window is beautiful.

Here's a shot after I got the major paint off part of it.  You can see, on the very bottom what it used to look like.  So much paint that the detail was lost.

 

Here is a pic with most of the paint stripped.  At this point, I oiled the wood because the stripper dries it out a lot.

 

 

The little blue dresser is another one I painted and distressed.  It used to be a brown sewing cabinet from the sixties. 

 

 

And, the last thing I've done at this point is my chaise.  You can see it there in the pic above.  Just a basic brown chaise, upholstered in a textured Herculon.  Nothing great, nothing inspiring.  And definitely not what I am going for style-wise.  So, obviously, I'm not going to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on the chaise I really want.  I have to make do with what I have.  And, among the things I have is a pretty good collection of decorating fabrics.  I buy fabric more often than I should, and especially if it's on sale.  I've been in the same color scheme most of my adult life, so nearly all of my decorating fabrics match.  In case you haven't figured it out, I'm extremely partial to blue, and I love it paired with cream, tan, gold or brown.  So, those are the colors of the large majority of my decorating fabrics.   Off I went to raid my stash and find something that A-I had enough of and B-looked good with what was already in the alcove.

And behold!  I had what I needed.

So, after much effort and wrestling of this largish piece of furniture and it's accompanying cushion, here is what I ended up with.

 





 

 

 

I confess, I am very pleased with the results.

 

This was my inspiration (thank you Pinterest!)

 

 



 

Rocking the world, Mormon girl style

It's the political season round these parts.  If you are American, you know that.  If you aren't American, you probably know it as well.  We're a bit obnoxious with our politics.
Sometimes I worry about posting here during said political season.  The possibility exists that I am a bit obnoxious as well.  But, last weekend, TMOTH's auntie kindly reminded me that it is my blog and I should feel quite free to post my opinions and thoughts here.  I like her. 
So, I'm a Mormon.  I think everyone knows that.  If you don't, well, now you do.  Hope you still love me.
As part of said Mormonism, I belong to the nation's oldest and largest women's organization, known as the Relief Society.  As part of membership in said society, I have a certain job.  We all do.  Part of the deal.  And, it's all volunteer, by the way.
Anyway, my job (or calling, as we like to call it) is to work on the Relief Society Committee.  This means, we are in charge of the monthly activities. 
This month, our theme for the activity was, um, multi-fold, for lack of a better term.  We wanted to focus on the theme of "becoming one in purpose", but we also wanted to bring in some history, since it was Independence Day and all that, and sort of combine in a getting to know each other and our past kind of thing.  Yeah, sounds complicated, I know.
Well, the other ladies on the committee assigned to me the part about the History of The Ladies. And by ladies, I mean people of the female sort.  They may have come to regret that.  I love Women's History.  I am an ardent feminist.  I will happily lecture you on the waves of feminism, what they accomplished and which wave I identify with the most.  I will gladly go into detail about the accomplishments of the women in history, and it won't be hard for you to figure out which women I admire the most.
Naturally, being me, I gravitate toward the mega-accomplishers.  I like the ladies who "foment rebellion" to further their cause.  I am not a background sitter, so I like the ladies who are also not background sitters.  And I DO admire them.  I admire their tenacity in the face of opposition, I admire their willingness to go beyond the boundaries set for them by society.  I admire them for the many, many doors they opened for me and others like me.  Without the accomplishments of these women, I would not be able to do many of the things I take for granted now.
So, although I think some of my fellow committee members expected me to choose the sweet fluff, the kind who stand in the background and support their husbands (not that that is a bad thing...), but I wanted to talk about women who stood on their own, accomplished things as WOMEN.  Yeah, girl power and all.  I heart it.
Here is a list of the ladies I felt made a good sized impact in my world.
Abigail Adams
Emma Hale Smith
Susa Young Gates
Martha Hughes Cannon
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Eliza R. Snow
Some of you non-Mormon types will only recognize Abigail Adams and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  Some of you Mormon types probably only recognize Emma Hale Smith and Eliza R. Snow.  ;)  Well, aside from Abigail and Elizabeth.  I hope.  ;)
Look them all up.  You'll be impressed.
In the meantime, I am going to post a few quotes from them that I love.  And my love for them is quite telling of my personality, I think. 
Speaking of personalities, one of the ladies at the activity today came up afterward to talk to me.  She said "You have a very strong spirit.  It's good that you are aware of it."  I smiled and thanked her.  But I was not then, nor am I now, sure of what she meant by that. 
Ok, quotes-
"-and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation."
     -Abigail Adams

"Keep busy in the face of discouragement."
     -Susa Young Gates

"Somehow I know that women who stay home all the time have the most unpleasant homes there are. You give me a woman who thinks about something besides cook stoves and wash tubs and baby flannels, and I'll show you, nine times out of ten, a successful mother."
     -Martha Hughes Cannon

"Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving."
     -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

" Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due, what matters? We know the Lord has laid high responsibility upon us, and there is not a wish or desire that the Lord has implanted in our hearts in righteousness but will be realized, and the greatest good we can do to ourselves and each other is to refine and cultivate ourselves in everything that is good and ennobling to qualify us for those responsibilities."
     -Eliza R. Snow

Can you see why I love these women?   My current particular fave is Martha Hughes Cannon.  Not only was she an amazing mother, she was also a doctor, AND defeated her husband in the race for  the Utah Senate, in which she served two terms.  Now that is a hell of woman.

Home Again, Again

Hot damn, I have 87 followers.  How cool am I?  Pretty cool, that's how.  In case you wondered.
So, once again, we spent the weekend in St. George.  I know, right?  Who goes down to St. George in this absurd heat?  We do, that's who!  And, it was hot down there, no question.  But, as one of my friends likes to remind me, it isn't really THAT hot according to the heat index because it's dry and humidity makes things seem hotter.  To which I reply, No Sh**, Sherlock, why do you think I live in the desert?  Silly.
Yesterday, we decided to take the time to go out to Tuacahn.  Now, I don't often go out there when I am down that way, because, being the emotional basketcase that I sometimes am, it makes me a wee bit depressed.  I posted a bit last time about my experiences down there.  I had a FANTASTIC time. Some of the most enjoyable summers of my entire life.  Beat, of course, by the time I spent in London, but, honestly, like anything could outdo LONDON. (I'm an Anglophile, in case you hadn't noticed, but that is a post for another time)
So, I decided to take my anti-depressants and risk the trip.  ;)

It was much as I remembered.  Especially the smell.  It hit me as I stepped out of my air conditioned conveyance into the summer heat.  That smell.  Sage and dust and mold and water and dryness.  Oh, I do love it.
They have added quite a few things to the stage and a nice bit of storage for costumes up above the scene shop.  We walked up to the amphitheatre and down the steps to the stage.  On the stage were some largish signs sayin "No Public On Stage, Please.", so we naturally sallied forth.  Onto said stage.  Made the Small One a bit skittish, it did.  "Mamma, are you sure we are allowed to be up here?"  "Yes, dear, Daddy and I are not the Public.  We once worked here."  Then of course, she wanted to know where I worked.  There was no need to ask WHAT I did.  She's perfectly aware of that.
So, we wandered about backstage for a moment, remembering this, that, or the other.  There's the spot on which I was standing when the horses freaked out and Warnick's horse nearly ran me down.  There's where the carwash used to be.  Wasn't there a chicken coop here?  Oh, here's where the barn fell into the pond! (At which point, I always dissolve into giggles, because, man, that was FUNNY.  TMOTH was not happy when that happened).
And then, Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles (did you see what I did there?) the Costume Building was open!  Of course, I had to go in.   And once again, the smell.  I love scents.  I love what they remind me of, how they open the floodgate of memories.  The smell in the costume building, when describes, sounds rather disgusting.  And, you know, it probably is.  Disgusting, I mean.  The dressing rooms are cooled by swamp cooler, which sounds like a good idea, but really isn't.  Dampness? Not a great thing with sweaty costumes.  So, the building smells of dampness, sweat, hairspray, starch, fabric, laundry, red dirt, sweaty performers.   That sort of thing.  Which combined, smells like...good times.  Work.  Friends.  Theatre.  Youth. Freedom. Happiness.  Silliness.  All of it.  And it is delightful.
As we walked in, a woman poked her head out of the shop.  Hello?  This building isn't open.
Me-Oh!  I used to work here.
Her-Oh, then come on in! When were you here and who was shop foreman at the time?
-Well, I was.
-What is your name?
-Tara.
-I've heard of you!
Me, secretly thinking, I hope they were good things!  Apparently, they were, because she promptly invited me to come back and work next summer.
Then she told me about how she can tell looking at costumes that they used to really spend money on getting professionals down there because some of those costumes are so well made that they might never die and they just keep using pieces over and over again.  Which costumes?  Oh, yes, some of those were MINE.  I did them.  Yep, I am that awesome. (don't get me wrong, I never designed down there.  Designing is not my forte.  I am a technician.  And a damn fine one.  Although, apparently, DIFFICULT to work with.  That's another post, however)
Anyway, all in all, it was a pleasant experience.  Professional courtesy is awesome.  It was great fun to be able to walk into an off limits area and get treated like I belonged there.  Sounds silly, I expect, but those sorts of things are good for my ego.
Then, we went up to the Tuacahn sign at the front and The Small One caught about 20 tiny frogs.  We only let her keep 4.