BulgingButtons

Not bad for a fat girl

Category Archives: Projects


by 2 Comments

Thank You Lego

This morning my eighteen year old and I were doing some holiday preparations. I asked him to set up his model train around the Christmas tree, as a nod to Christmas past. He agreed and pulled it out of his closet.

While he was in there, he stumbled across a bin of old legos. He brought it out to the living room, and sat down on the floor with me. One by one he removed partially built (or, more accurately, partially destroyed) models he’s created over the years. There were so many of them.

4da2dc554379966dbb8cd16d4be335a9I recognized the pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean, and some of the Star Wars vehicles, but there were quite a few that didn’t look as familiar. “Oh, that one’s from the Mars Mission series,” he would say, or “that belongs to the police set.”

We sat together for a while and looked for specific parts to rebuild a wing, or replace a cannon. It was nice. Really nice.

Someday I hope he has a child in his life who enjoys these legos as much as he has over the years. Someday I hope he gets to experience the simple, yet profound, joy of watching and helping a young person build something special.


by Leave a comment

The Itch to Stitch

Taking out my autumn quilts has awoken in me a desire to sew. I know, I know… I have enough going on right now, what with blogging everyday for NaBloPoMo and working on a novel for NaNoWriMo, but I really want to stitch!

The table I write at is also the table I sew at. It’s situated perfectly for both activities. I can easily see who’s coming in the room since the table sticks out from the wall. That was a requirement so the fabric has somewhere to do once it’s gone through the sewing machine. Sewing at a table pushed against a wall is impractical and frustrating.

img_0573

I made this several years ago from my fabric stash.

Behind my table is my stash of fabric. Most of it, anyway. I have  a low wall of cubbies under the window (so sunlight can’t fade the fabric) and it is full of flat-folds of fabric. They’re sorted primarily by color, but also to a smaller extent by type. The hand-dyed fabrics are together as are the plaids, for example. This colorful assortment greets me each time I enter the room, and it makes me happy.

Long ago I was a cross-stitcher. I created many lovely projects, and I had some of them professionally framed at a small cross-stitch shop that I loved dearly. Each time I was in the shop I would pick up more patterns, knowing full well that I already had more than I would ever stitch in a dozen lifetimes. I lamented this fact one day as I was paying, and the kindly woman who owned the shop said, “It’s as much about collecting as it is about stitching.” How wise she was. Permission granted to keep on collecting.

I’m a collector of fabrics, of patterns, and books. I may never use them all. In fact I’m sure I won’t, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoy my collection, and adding to it from time to time. But really, I’d like to dust off my machine and take a few stitches. Maybe come December.


by Leave a comment

23 Things I Want / Need to Get Done (Soon)

So much to do

So much to do

I’m on fall break from school, and it’s a wonderful feeling. The weather has finally broken (by that I mean it’s not scorching outside 24/7) and I’m feeling pretty motivated.

For some reason 23 seems to be a good number to me, so here’s my list of stuff I want to do today or SOON. What’s on your list? Any fun stuff?

  1. Post on BulgingButtons ( See what I did there? It’s always good to start with success!)
  2. Eat apples and honey in honor of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year, which is today).
  3. Get groceries, including apples and honey
  4. Put away the clean dishes
  5. Sort the laundry
  6. Get my doctor’s appointment over with ( a follow up to my lovely twisted ovary situation from July, which, it occurs to me, I never wrote about )
  7. Finish Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (it’s wonderful, I can’t believe I waited this long to read it)
  8. Clear off my desk
  9. SEW!
  10. Get the laundry done
  11. Shave my legs (TMI?)
  12. Get a pedicure. I’m thinking orange for October
  13. Go through the piled up mail
  14. Collect the next batch of mail from the mailbox ( I don’t get there too often)
  15. Clear off the kitchen island
  16. Recycle a few boxes
  17. Start the laundry
  18. Make my bed
  19. Create a menu for the week (this should be done before #3, of course)
  20. Finish reading Ransom Riggs’ Library of Souls (from the Miss Peregrine series)
  21. Read at least one of my teaching books that I have in my “to read” stack
  22. Take the puppy on a nice long walk
  23. Steam clean the bathroom floor (it was that or work on revisions to my manuscript…)

So you see I have plenty to do this week. Some of those items take a few minutes, some a few hours, and others a great deal longer (those darn revisions). At least I have a plan, sketchy as it may be.

How do you approach your “to do” list? Are you a list maker? I’d love to hear from you in the comments, and whatever you’ve got going on today, I hope it’s productive and makes you feel accomplished.