Thank Goodness it's over

It's been a hell of a year, friends.  I am not sorry to see this one go.  Often, at the end of the year I am a bit sad, a bit depressed.  Another one gone.  Not this year.  I am glad this one is behind me.  It has not been my best year, perhaps evidenced by the serious lack of posts on my blog.  I don't like to post as much when I am not happy, and I have not been happy much of this past year.
But, I have high hopes for 2013.  I have made a lot of changes in my life.  They have not been easy changes, not been easy decisions to make, but they have been necessary.  2013 will not be easy.  Far from it.  It will come with a whole new set of challenges, with new adventures to navigate and situations I have not encountered before.  Hopefully, I can rise to these challenges with vigour and a good attitude. 
God grant me the strength, the patience and the good humour to navigate this new year well.  And may he grant the same to all of you.

Things I've Gleaned From Election Day in the US

So, I learned and noticed a lot of interesting things yesterday.  Some entertaining, some encouraging and some discouraging.  Here's my list.

1-Women turned out in droves to vote yesterday, and it made a difference.
2-The Republican Party needs to ditch the Tea Party.  Like, yesterday.
3-Some of my friends are decidedly overdramatic.  It isn't the zombie apocalypse, the sun WILL continue to rise, God likes other countries too, and we are not the center of the world.
4-Feminism is still used as a pejorative and those who use it as such are willfully ignorant.
5-Racism is alive and well.
6-So is sexism.
7-When my Republican Conservative friends concede defeat graciously, they ruin my gloating fun.
8-Fortunately, I have less gracious friends as well, so I can still gloat with impunity.
9-Mitt Romney's concession speech gave an insight into him that we didn't get to see much of this campaign season.  And it was classy.  And I expect his call to the Seventy any day. 
10-President Obama's speech was a bit maudlin and over the top, but I suppose that is to be expected.  He just won a really tight race.
11-I was surprised by the results.  I honestly thought it was going to be a Republican win and I was looking forward to watching what might happen.  Well, not looking forward, but mighty interested.
12-I was disappointed in the vitriol expressed by some of my more extreme friends.  See #3.
13-Close campaigns are way more entertaining that landslides.
14-I guess Harry Reid will have to save the Constitution now.  Either that, or it isn't actually dangling by a thread.  I'm going with option B.
15-We're still wallowing in freedoms over here, freedoms we should be grateful for, while remembering that others are not so blessed.
16-We would do well to remember that the President can't destroy or save the country on his own.  We're part of the saving or the destroying.  It's what the Founding Fathers intended.
17-Canada is more socialist than we are.  They also love the gays and the atheists, so if you are disappointed with the election results, Canada may not be the place for you.
18-As a woman, a mother and a feminist, I'm very pleased with the election results.

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!)