Rainy Weekend -> Energy Conservation

Rainy weekends are fabulous times to get a bunch of crafty stuff done. Friday mytheria came to do crafty stuff, and I managed to get a bunch done on that seed stitch bag I was working on a while back. The body has been done for weeks, but I don't like bringing i-cord on the bus, so it has been neglected. Well I finished one handle, attached it and started on the other. That just leaves the rest of that handle and the edge of the opening to go.

Saturday morning I woke up to the heat turning on. The heat stays at its lowest setting, but early on saturday I heard the distinctive soft hiss of it starting up. In a fit of productivity we started to get ready for the cold by working on energy saving projects. Using some stale rice we had around and some scrap fabric from my stash we made draft stoppers for the doors (the laundry room in particular is not heated but the door opens up into the middle of the living space). We also laid out and did some fabric calcualtions for the curtains I am planning.

We went fabric shopping to finish the curtains I had started a while back on sunday. The idea is that they will be insulated curtains, basically "window tapestries" according to Roger. Due to the fact that fleece was on sale, we ended up getting that for the central insulating layer (cheaper than both the rolls of poly fill which I am not a fan of and the cotton batting, which was additionally thinner). Unfortunately the backing material for them did not come on a wide enough role, and the only stuff that was wide enough was exponentially more expensive and uglier.

Also this weekend I made up a pattern for slippers for Tab. She needs them for daycare to keep her socks cleaner and feet warmer since they remove their shoes at the door. Only when I started googling knitted slipper patterns, all I could find were incredibly ugly ones. So what I made was basically a variation of a socklet. They are so cute! She chose this baby blue soft acrylic from my stash though, and they look disturbingly like baby booties when she isn't wearing them. When they are on they look sort of ballet-shoe-like. Pictures may be posted later after I finish binding off the second one.

Family Dinner

This weekend we had a dinner at my dad's house. Now I love my father dearly, but if anyone thinks that I am indecisive/a poor planner they need only meet my father to find out why. The previous weekend he requested we come this past sunday. All week my sister and I chased after him with phone calls with more information of when we should be there etc. He said that it was really his wife (my step-mother)'s idea and that he would have to ask her. Only he never finalized with her that we were coming. So when my sister called on sunday around noon to find out when dinner was and my step-mother answered, they were both really confused for a bit. Considering how far we have to go to visit and the cost of gas, this was mildly annoying. In the end it all worked out though.

I actually had a really good time. I like spending time with my dad, though planning events with him drives me a little crazy. I got updated on a bunch of stuff (my brother C caught a 52 lb sea bass!). I got to see my baby sister M, and spend some great conversation with my little sister H. I haven't just sat down with H in too long. After dinner we headed back to mom's house so that I could do some troubleshooting with H's first sweater.

"I gave money to your boyfriend."
"Really? Why?"
"For catnip"

This also meant that I could get up the catnip from moztoo's store Incantations that H had picked up for me the other day. (Ha I feel clever. I even thought to check online to make sure he carried it before asking her to pick some up for me.) I hear that I wiped him out.

Now I am remarkably relaxed for me. I am glad we made time to go down. I kind of wish the boys had been home though. I haven't seen them since... well since the third/fourth of July festivities.