Grails are the strangest things sometimes. . .

Today was a lot better. FIL came through on his invitation for Dearest Son to visit, so I finally got a few hours of ‘me’ time. Spent most of the morning with Beloved Hubby, too, as he needed a ladder and Lowe’s still has a nice 10% veteran’s discount. Saved enough scratch to take us to lunch, and while my Subway roast beef sandwich was good, it’s not Arby’s-level meat, sadly. No fear of developing meat sweats here.

After lunch, Beloved left for work, and I was free to do whatever I wanted until the ILs and Dearest got tired of each other. This would probably only last three or four more hours, max, so I had to get to it. First thrift was a wash, but I snagged a copy of the first Post Secret book, a pair of kitchen tongs (Dearest keeps stealing mine, so these are his), a simple wine carafe for later flower arrangements, and a ‘vintage’ jewelry organizer at the second.

You’re gonna laugh at me for that one, but I’ve searched for it for a long time. When I first got into dolls, it was sixth-scale ones, and I was always on the lookout for ‘real’ props. I often saw this old jewelry organizer in the background of others’ photos, as it looked much like an decorative coat rack. Seemed like they were for sale in every dime-store jewelry department for 20 years, until I decided to buy one. Given the amount of time I spend in second-hand venues, you’d think I’d have run across dozens over the years, even if they weren’t for sale, presenting jewelry in thrift store display cases, but I never even saw one. And my online searches never came up with precisely what I was looking for. Today, it popped up, fresh from a merchandise mover tub, and I grabbed the $2. prize.

Stopped by Family Dollar for cat food – they’re about the last place to sell the 9Lives cans Junior-kitty prefers – when I saw their markdowns on winter activewear. Snagged five pair of sweatpants and two sweatshirts, all for $2. each ! Beloved and I got the shirts, and we all got sweatpants. Even if we only wear ‘em around the house (since we didn’t really have a winter this year), that’s a great deal ! Plus, Junior’s well fed for a while.

Once home, I gleefully pulled the miniature brass coat rack from the bag – and it snapped in half. Well, (expletive deleted). I’ve glued it back together, and we’ll see if it takes. If not, I’ll find some tape, hopefully that’ll sort of match, or duct tape with paint. On the plus side, I found a bunch more of ‘em, under ‘miniature coat rack’ (I was searching for jewelry racks, hooks, holders, etc. ) – if I don’t mind payin’ about $20. with shipping.

About the closest to snow we got this 'winter'. . .

It’s mostly better, ‘cause I did whatever I wanted to today. Which was darn near nothin’. Cut out that freebie Alex pattern I snagged off Craigslist, in hopes I could tweak it to fit FT Frankie, but I haven’t sewn it yet. It took the last of the scraps from a fat quarter – there’s just postage-stamp sized bits of it left.

Beloved Hubby got to experience the mommy klatch at Game Day for himself, and remarked that he now understood my reluctance to go in the first place. You’d think they’d welcome a guy who gives himself to his son, but evidently it’s not just me they don’t like. Bite ‘em.

Meanwhile, Snow Glow Elsa’s shoes arrived, in perfect shape, so now I wanted to get a brush through her hair and make her pretty again. I bought a new one, in a deep glittery chrome-like blue, last time we went to Dollar Tree, as I broke my last one trying to repair the deep wadded mats of ‘Iris’ (Disney Store Rapunzel) hair. Got Elsa’s hair good and soaked and wrapped her up in a kitchen towel – she looks great in a red hood, I’ll have to make her one, and a dirndl – after I took her dress off. Despite Amazon reviews to the contrary, her dress is removable, long as you open her battery pack and pull the cord that powers the dress’ built-in lights. The cord is also anchored to her leg with a clear elastic, simple to remove. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t buy a new one, a doll’s kinda not worth it to me if I can’t redress her. True, you have to accommodate her necklace, but that’s not a huge deal.

Her hair is actually pretty good quality, not nearly as messy and snarled as ‘Iris’ locks got, and it brushed out easily with minimal shed. I may braid it back up later, but for now, I like to see it down and long, she looks less sophisticated that way.

Oh, and I forgot to tell ya – she’s had three sets of batteries, including the ones she came with, and her ‘says phrases from the film’ feature just doesn’t work. She sings, and her dress lights up beautifully, but pressing her necklace button in the right switch mode does nothing. Ah, well. I pulled her batteries completely, to avoid corrosion, anyway. Snow Glow Elsa is my thirteenth LDP-style doll, and her presence officially fills the last of the available Toddler Princess space. If I want another, one I have now has to go. Sad, but that’s Chez Insanity for ya.

Monday, Moanday. . .

Not the best of days. I’ve been having some shortness of breath lately, and since it’s always worst at night, haven’t had much solid sleep in the last couple days. I’ve started up with the nebulizer breathing treatments again, which helps, but I’m regrettably still a bit moody and tense.

So when Beloved Hubby said he was home today, I was happy. I’d get some stuff done, maybe get a little quiet time to myself, which I also haven’t had in a while. When Beloved announced he was inviting FIL over to help him with a few things, I was fine with that, too. Kinda ruled out quiet time, but that was OK. But then he said MIL was coming over, too, I got possibly a bit more upset than was warranted. I was just seeing my relaxing day vanish in favor of entertaining MIL, or being stuck on the sofa watching movies. Plus, I’d be spending the rest of the morning tidying house, picking up socks, and catching up dishes and bathroom cleaning, because no matter what Beloved says, I still consider the IL’s company that deserves hospitality. And the idea of leaving MIL to care for Dearest Son while I ran errands didn’t seem right to me. I still remember when we lived together, MIL perched on the sofa one morning and got royally upset that I didn’t come out to entertain her. I had no idea she was there ! That was not gonna be repeated in my own house.

I tried to explain why I was upset and tense, and Beloved tried to understand, but when he kept repeating the same platitudes over and over, I got more upset that he might well have been listening, but it didn’t seem he was hearing me. It didn’t help that I asked him to please tell MIL that I was a bit edgy today, sort of give her a heads-up that I wasn’t my usual sunny self, and he didn’t.

In the end, it was a tornado in a thimble – for some reason, MIL thought we were doing some spring-cleaning major dig-out (which kinda put me off, this place is cluttered and dusty, but not a Hoarder house !), and when she learned differently, she decided to stay home. Nice of her, but I have no idea where she got that notion. Since I’m already signed up to take two days’ worth of ferrying their cats to ‘fixing’ surgery this coming week, I dug out our old cat carrier. (snort) When MIL called to voluntell me for this, I asked if they needed it, she had no idea why they’d need carriers for their cats. Ummm. . . . since the ‘concern for the asthmatic chauffeur’ ship clearly sank at the port, I framed it as safety for the cats, loose and scared in a moving car. That she got. I was explaining it to FIL shortly after he arrived, looking him right in the eye as I spoke. . .  until he walked away, mid-sentence. He also left the carrier and some other stuff here when he left. Like I said, it’s not been my best day.

For his part, Beloved was upset at me for being upset, but I still don’t think I did or said anything wrong. We’re at detente right now, mostly because it’s not good for me to harbor negativity for long, and he’s already moved on. Ended up taking a two hour nap and just staying out of the way. He and Dearest are playing video games, I don’t think he’s noticed how far back I’ve withdrawn. Maybe tomorrow will be better.  

Blouse is tight, but if fits vintage Midge !

Wow. Hard to believe we’re on the going-fast side of February already ! Even with our leap-year extra day, it seems so short. It probably helps that we didn’t really have winter – it’s so spring-like here, I counted six dandelions in the front yard, then I found a whole patch of them ! Also did some research on some purple thistle-like plants nearby – those are ‘henbit’, also known as ‘purple death-less thistle’, ‘death-less’ meaning ‘non-stinging’. It’s a winter emergent, edible to humans, and bees and hummingbirds like them, too. Long ago, they were even used for dyes, which is probably how they got from the Mediterranean to the Midwest. That, or ‘cause they’re just pretty !

Made good on my delayed promise to take Dearest Son to Dollar Tree. No dogs were in evidence, thank Everything ! I loaded up on some half-off Valentine’s Day candy. While the Elmer Chocolate hearts were long gone, there were bins full of conversation hearts, gummy hearts, chocolate bars, and Disney Princess heart-shaped boxes of various other candies. Beloved Hubby and I most enjoyed the Whitman Sampler 2.6oz candy bars – just like the ‘Messenger Boy’ piece – for Dearest, it was the 6oz Palmers Chocolate bars.

I also scored a copy of Salt, Sugar, Fat : How The Food Giants Hooked Us, complete with tiny red remainder mark and a 30% off sale sticker with a Target logo. It’s actually a fascinating read, especially for those of us who always look behind the curtain every chance they get. Our DTree only had the one copy, and I’ve really enjoyed the 20 pages I’ve read so far. Unfortunately, I was reading it while eating a Slim Jim. . .  

Skywalker In Blue

My insomnia was really jumpin’ last night, but for whatever reason, I felt fine when it was time to cherry-pick the choicest of the local grocery store ads, just as they opened, for best selection. I bagged my lot and a couple other non-Saturday sales, and was home an hour later. Then I crashed for a solid three hours.

Beloved Hubby was busy, too. While I slept, he went out for materials for his next job, and got the check for his finished-yesterday side-job to the bank. He showed it to me first – his boss gave him a tip that was as unexpected as it was generous, telling him to take the family out for a nice dinner, or get what we most needed. We’re actually doing OK, so Beloved made the command decision, on his way back, to stop at a video game chain store.  

He got another shooty-bang-bang game, one in a series he enjoys that’s cheep ‘cause it’s about 5 years old. He also decided to get a game Dearest Son’s wanted to play for years, but we all knew it was a mature audiences one with a very bad reputation, so Dearest would probably play it in his own apartment before he played it at home. Still, Beloved thought that, with the purchase of a new-to-us second controller, they would play together, and talk about the scenes and situations. That was a good concession in my opinion, and that’s what they’re doing now. We snagged a take-out dinner with the leftover funds while the updates downloaded, so I’m happily stuffed.

Lest you think I’m left out of the family largesse, I’m buying two new patterns from Fable-ous Finds while they’re on a small sale – just figured I’d finish the two projects I had started before I bought ‘em. I have a bad tendency to forget I have new patterns if I don’t immediately use them, so I’d rather clear the decks and be ready to go when I bought ‘em.

The first project I did today – Luke Skywalker’s . . . um, workout set ? Hospital scrubs ? Pajamas ? It could be any and all of those ! Used the Chellywood.com Renaissance Shirt for Ken pattern – free ! – with the sleeves slightly altered not be so. . . puffy. I also shortened them so I could leave off the cuffs, since I was going for casual, not pirate-y. The rest of the pattern seemed to match OK with Luke’s measurements if I left off the darts, so I went with it using one of the cheep t-shirts from the thrift bundle.

It fits, and doesn’t look too bad, but it needs numerous alterations. Armhole is tight, sleeves are still a bit too big, it’s too short and too tight in back, and I want to adjust the neck opening, but all that’s easy. I’m pretty pleased – I have a simple working shirt for these previously impossible to clothe guys ! And I can go all wild once I have basics to work with.

The other project I found on Pinterest, a free simple skirt and shirt pattern for Madame Alexander’s 15.5” Alex doll. It might work for Fiendishly Tall Frankie, so I’ll probably work that out tonight, using the same fabric. Heck, I already have the thread and bobbin loaded and the remnants of the tee on the cutting table, why not ?

But I’d really like a nap first. . .