Projects

So anybody who knows me at all will be totally shocked by this admission: The other day, I did something...crafty. As in, I made something with my hands. I also used material, scissors, and, God help me, a sewing machine.

It wasn't my choice.

Every month I do this Creative Circle thing with some friends in the neighborhood, and the super nice woman who leads it is very into art, and crafts, and design, and things like that. So this month she told us to bring some fabric scraps (fabric whatsits?) and rice and essential oils (essential what?). She said she would have the sewing machine all ready to go.

At that point I was all, waaaaaaiiiiit a minute. I don't do sewing machines. You get me anywhere near a sewing machine and, well, lets just say that words are said. Words people might regret. Usually something ends up broken, blood might be shed, and possibly tears as well. Sewing machines and I do not get along.

And my friend was like "Oh Amy, ha ha ha ha, you're such a card," and I'm sitting there saying "Uh, those aren't jokes" but she didn't believe me and she made me come anyway.

Not being the kind of person who is intimately acquainted with the words "fabric" and "scraps", I brought some old burp cloths. We then proceeded to make these things that, well, I don't know their name, but it's this thing that is filled with rice and you put it in the microwave and then it gets nice and toasty warm and stays that way for a long time. So you can put it on your forehead if you have a headache, or on your wrist if it's hurting from all of that fancy sewing machine action you just went through, or whatever. These things (sachets? I don't know) are often filled with lavender or other aromatic things and are supposed to be soothing.

Behold my beautiful creation:

See, you wrap it around your shoulders or your neck when you have a sore neck from all of the tedious crafty work you just put yourself through. Oh, and by the way I learned an important sewing lesson that night: when you pin stuff together, you're supposed to put the pins perpendicular to the way you're going to sew, not parallel. Behold the crazy look on my face as I enjoy the fruits of my labor. I was all whacked out from breathing in too many essential oils:

In other projecty news, we are making great progress on our bathroom. Here is what the basement bathroom / laundry room used to look like:

Why yes, that is a toilet and a sink just sitting there in the middle of a giant unfinished room. Next to the cat box, because we're classy like that. In the 5 years I've lived here I never once used that frightening toilet. Our desire was to turn this unfinished basement area into an actual bathroom / laundry room. Here, the framing is up:

Next, the drywall:

And today, the tile went in! We're really making progress now.

I know that it is not traditional to give names to rooms in houses, but this room is going to have a name. I think the name will be something like "faith" or "optimism", because this room represents my willingness to invest in this house, under an assumption that I will not be forced to move in a couple of years. Building a basement bathroom is my way of saying that I am going to have faith that I will get tenure.