Sunday, September 27, 2009

I Do Windows

The greenery has been done for a while and now it's been house beams and today it was windows! Yes, I do windows. Fabric ones, that is. My windows in my home sadly, have not been done. The patio door is covered in doggie noseprint. I figure it the noseprints add character to my home and let people know that cuddles, play and love with the dogs is more important than housecleaning. Well, that and I don't like bending down that far. I digress.

Here are the windows. I have yet to trim the stray threads from moving from pane to pane. And of course, I ran out of bobbin thread when there was less than 3" remaining to be stitched. Murphy and his laws are not welcome but apparently they're not polite and come around anyway.










In other news, JR has been at NELA (his assigned location through AmeriCorps) since early September and he is kicking ass and taking names. NELA is Northwest Education Loan Association and they help anyone of any age and any educational or financial status find money for college. He is specifically involved in finding students that could use their services, finding volunteers to work with the students, though he does a lot of other things. It's the first paying job he's had where he gets an extreme sense of satisfaction. I am so thrilled with it. He also enjoys the company of his coworkers a lot.

What I personally have found interesting is that it's families with middle and lower level incomes that are least likely to apply for financial aid whereas the higher income families almost always do. He runs into a lot of people whose incomes would probably fall in what's considered middle class and they think they won't get any scholarships or financial aid when that is not the case. The families with even less financial resources often aren't aware of financial aid for school. He does just as much education as he does recruiting.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Changing thread color. Hah!

Hahahahahaha! I have gone over all the greenery now. At least I think I have. Let's just say I've thread painted the greenery as much as I'm going to. There. That should be an accurate statement.

Now I'm going over the house - the wooden parts. Then the windows and beams. I'm so happy I could dance!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Fall is on its way

Fall is almost here. Most of the kids are back in school tomorrow morning so I expect it'll be more quiet around the apartment complex.

JR started his AmeriCorps job last week. He works for NELA coordinating volunteer efforts and recruiting students as well as a host of other things. NELA helps students of all ages and their familes find money for college, whether it's a vocational program, four year school or even graduate school.

The quilting bug was on hiatus and it has bitten again, thank goodness. I was struggling with some thread painting and when I took the top out from under the machine I realized there was no interfacing under the section I was working on. D'oh! Interfacing helps keep the fabric from being pulled down into the throat plate of the machine when you are doing a lot of stitching. It's very useful when using a satin/buttonhole stitch or any type of embroidery.

I've been sick for over a week now with an awful cold. It started as the Cold from Hell, then downgraded to Cold from Purgatory and now it's Merely Annoying.

Two of my friends are pregnant. Methinks baby season is arriving again. It feels especially good to me as there have been two deaths in my family in less than a year. New lives starting always helps folks move past grief and I am no exception to that.

I hope all is well with you and yours.