Two workdays language geek

 

As a part-time postal carrier my work week revolves around the weekends, when the full-timers are usually off.  I work during the week sometimes, sometimes I work the entire week with no days off... but it's all sort of up in the air and week to week I'm not sure of anything except - I'm usually working the weekend unless I arrange for something else to happen.  Also - I passed two years on DuoLingo streak the other day... but since the hearts upgrade I'm still quite unhappy with how sensitive the spelling and such is and how much that stagnates my progress.

 

So, this is Saturday and Sunday.  My daughter's birthday was on Saturday but we did things for her on Friday because I knew Saturday was going to be a full day with getting dark early etc etc..

 So I got home, we made dinner and watched a movie and did the dishes and I did a minimum amount of a few languages and crashed.  That is a typical Saturday.. yes. 

 

Sunday I run Amazon packages, and it starts a little later.  It was also Daylight Savings Time so my animals had me up 'early'.. and I got a little language work in because hey, I was up anyway.  Made dinner after work, watched some tv episodes on DVD, did a few language things and played a game, then crashed.. took a Welsh grammar lesson in the middle of the night when the dog had me up, but I failed it by two questions and have to retake it when my credits on that site pop back up. *sigh*  One 'cat's tail' apostrophe in the wrong place or a ddim () nawr instead of a erbyn hyn and it goes down.

I haven't been called in yet on Monday, and my chart is up in the other screen.  I only do the charts for a little bit, and it gives me an idea what my 'average' is... and how much I switch off for variety.  It's also been a stressful few weeks and I realize I fall back to doing more in French at times when I have stress - the grammar level is much much higher than the Spanish or the Japanese, but still, my brain likes it better and starts sub-translating more again as below:

On the route - aucun côté ou autre côté?  Ah!  Na ça va... ça va a ci.

I have no idea why I think aucun côté instead of something like 'ce côté' or 'mon côté' or even 'pas du côté' but it's in my brain that way when I don't have to go the other side of the vehicle and I think it's a mnemonic thing that the two terms 'aucun' and 'autre' feel right and left handed pair to me...

oh my and not much done in the rain

I had the day off.. and Esme had school.  Can't say I did nothing while she was gone... but it doesn't feel like really much to take pictures and blog about.. here it is anyway, because it still feels like a kind of progress I'll be repeating, organization, small projects.   I watched some Khan Academy, perused subjects much too far above my head on Wikipedia and Google books (but liked it), listened to a whole CD of music on the computer (so rare I've done it maybe three times this year) and organized this sewing shelf.  I did not take a before shot.... but it wasn't pretty.  It probably won't stay this way for long and I could have delved into those little drawers a bit more for things to organize..but then I opened up one of the plastic bags on the shelf and found all these little strip fabric things for chandelier chains I had bought on clearance a good while back... so I put them to some experimental sewing recycling and made a mat backed with muslin, which ended up under my clock and journal on my dresser... I didn't need another pillow ;)

Why yes, that is another book box on the shelf - I painted that today, as well.. the inside (not pictured) is a scene of "multiple moons" and stars... in yellow, purple and gray.  I wanted to try that color combo and see how it looked.  The paints are in the handled tin box and the cardboard drum... two large dust-collecting cardboard boxes were thrown away and who knows how much paper that was stacked and not very useful, wrappers,bits and bobs of things I no longer had any plans for etc..

Esme is still napping.. she had a tough day today.  She said school was hard, but some was easy.  She was glad to be home where she could play all day and not 'do the learning, but for a little bit of learning, but not a lot.'  That is the 'oh my'.. third day of school and she realizes she would be rather be playing.  We saw beautiful butterflies on the road on the way home - we all stopped to look at them.  Then she got all of her school things off and did her homework sheet.  She tried to play Skyrim Dragon game and got too scared after a bit... then went for a nap.  I wonder what she will think about having to get ready for school again..

This is a 'bunny in a space helmet' and a birthday cake in some sort of glass box, too.

Esme did this yesterday in Minecraft while I was at work.

Modern pattern... doesn't feel like dressmaking

This is one of the new style patterns I got in the mail the other day - and I am working myself up to working with it.  Reading through the instructions it doesn't 'feel' like dressmaking... the elasticized neckline is part of it.  But I need to sit myself down and start to cut out pieces... and maybe I will get committed to it.  I think the one on the left in a Japanese style dahlia fabric (not shown) would look gorgeous.  I wonder how it will hold up over time with that thin elastic casing.  Half of me wants to just run back to the raglan sleeve pattern and make two more of those.. I did buy more plain fabric for those.  The other half of me says - you should do this one, but it is a whole different cup of tea, so the waters may be murky.

Esme chose the ribbon as a compromise for not making an entire dress out of glitter tulle.  Now that would be an exercise in futility!  It was pretty, though.

notes

morning glories

Esme has been clean and dry for three days and two nights. That is no small feat. She has finally clicked with it. Last night and the night before she refused the diaper for bedtime, mostly because that MEANT bedtime, but she didn't wet the bed, either. I know it isn't 100%... won't tell myself it is, yet... but woohoo :)

Tiny notes on the garden. I would like to position the beans between the zucchini and pumpkins next year - so they get more bees. The bees LOVE the squash flowers with all their pollen and the beans are probably getting some 'love' but not as much. Keeping the zucchini and pumpkins further apart will help with that cross-pollination thing I learned about the other day. I did not know that zucchinis and pumpkins were still close enough to crossbreed, like dogs and wolves. They are! Since I am saving pumpkin seeds I don't want to end up with a squashkin .. or do I? I'd have to meet a squashkin to find out. Pumpkins ARE squash... so... Also, I saw the wasps going from flower to flower in the purple hulled peas, which the bees seem to be leaving largely alone. Those cowpeas are producing pods while the black eyed peas (also cowpeas, and planted earlier) are doing very little. I am wondering if the wasps are pollinating the purple hulled peas just enough (bees are better at it, according to the articles I've read) to help or if they are keeping the bees from coming near those plants out of territorialism? I've read some articles and forum posts about cowpeas secreting sweet nectars to attract wasps, in order to protect themselves from being eaten by certain other bugs that would be present if the wasps were not nearby.


Jarrahdale blue pumpkin

I am awaiting the Jarrahdale to see how it tastes. The stem on it is not hard, yet... so it stays out there. There is another baby pumpkin started, and one more small grapefruit sized one turning orange. I finally have a Butternut squash started - hoping it grows to maturity. I think the extra butternuts in the valley which are flowering, but not doing much else, have helped to pollinate the one that is in the garden. Butternuts and pumpkins/zucchini do not cross, and may need more of their own kind to pollinate well. I've been cracking and eating the seeds out of the big pumpkin and they have been wonderful. I'd like to try the Kakai or Lady Godiva breed of pumpkin next year as the seeds do not have that woody hull around them. I am geeking out a bit on this stuff.. because I can. I even ordered a used pumpkin cookbook from Alibris!


a morning Pollywog

Purple Gingham Dress

Here is the dress so far. Not what I intended when I started - but I think it will be functional. I have ideas for what would have made the pleated dress with the round yoke work.. but by the time I had the bright idea it was impossible with the current (somewhat mangled) fabric I had cut out. I trimmed the mangled parts, reassembled a new bodice out a scrap of the sparkly fabric - and ended up with this. The purple gingham fabric was considered 'expendable' @ (1.00/yd). I'm still glad I saved it, because Esme thinks it is VERY pretty, especially with the sparkly fabric added to it. She has tried to wear this dress three times already before it was done. I've had to hide it behind a notebook for the day because it still has pins in the one sleeve and I don't want her dragging it around. It needs the sleeve finished, the hem done and some sort of buttonhole worked on the back. The buttonhole is going to be fun in this nylon fabric -- maybe I'll have to make a loop for it. Off to work - maybe finish it tonight, maybe tomorrow... who knows.

The ten o clock blues (and purples)

Working every morning at ten o'clock this week, every day... *sigh* Anyway. That means I get home with just a few hours until "bedtime" rolls around for Esme, OR I stay up until nearly midnight with her and she isn't awake the next morning when I am getting ready for work. It's a tradeoff.

Tonight while she was eating her dinner I was working a bit more on the purple dress. This is sewing geekery time. I decided not to try to make it pleated like the picture I posted - made a mistake early on that means this particular cloth can't do that now. I think I did save the cloth, though. With a little recutting on one piece I saved the skirt cloth and just have to add some sleeves. One sleeve is in, another is pinned in - and then put a button on the back and a hem around the bottom. Esme says it's pretty. It's a nylon purple gingham, it might not last through many washings... but it will be cool to wear while it does.

We'll see... but it does look like a pretty purple and sparkly stripes (scrap from what Elizabeth sent us a while back) dress is in the near future.

/ten o'clock blues end on Friday... but I think we already have that day planned out for us.

Redneck Chain Mail

I'm not the only one doing arts and crafts around here...
Redneck Chain Mail 'lovingly handcrafted' in Tennessee...

in other words.. we have a lot of these steel snap hooks
in our shop, and they're fun to play with ;)