Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine is mostly pleased...

In the interest of focusing on a small good, rather than the wistful (or the horror) now there is a batch of Awesome Sauce for Ashe & Co cooling on the countertop overnight, made using white vinegar instead of my usual cider vinegar, because of their apple allergy. As opposed to my previous failed attempt earlier this month, timely checking and stirring kept the thickening condiment from scorching, and there are at least five sealed jars ready to share when they visit later this week...

That said, the Anchor Hocking jar lids continue to be unreliable, two of the jars didn't seal. Buying that brand was an experiment that will not happen again. And much to my dismay, of my recent purchase of a dozen half pint mason jars, eleven of the twelve have flawed glass! I shall have to return them to the hardware store; have never before seen suchlike. 

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~ just before dawn ~

sometimes, to be out walking before the sun actually rises can be really lovely, the streets are still quiet; the quality of the light is extraordinary...

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Since the new-to-me mobile phone is not a current model, it was necessary to search aftermarket sites to find a protective case. I've been pretty happy with various Otterbox cases over the years, and managed to find one on Ebay, which arrived today from the east coast. The "Pursuit" series is a bit more "rugged" than cases I have had in the past, but I am most particularly pleased with the integral plugs to cover the access ports when they are not in use. Past phones picked up frelch when carried around in my pockets, which caused all sorts of problems. Also, this phone case has a clear back, which means that at some point a decorative paper insert can be added. 

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Very incremental tidying turned up an additional expansion rod, the sort commonly used for shower curtains. My other spare expansion rod, used to drape the shower curtain so it dries out between uses and doesn't get all moldy along the edge where it touches the tub, has also been used to create  a clothes drying rack over the bathtub. Now there will be twice as much space for heavier things that overload the drying rack in the laundry zone.

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November SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	clothespin bag	horse kerchief	greenwaste bin
2	5 jars pickled beets	more chopshop repair	recycle bin
3	1# hand weights	printer connection	greenwaste bin
4	a dozen owls	black knit slip	recycle bin
5	many jars of Awesome Sauce	15 origami giftwrap	-
6	24 more owls	case for phone	x
7	7 jars of Awesome Sauce	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- phone case ordered via Ebay is much better designed than any case previously used, with integral plugs to keep frelch out of the access ports
- found another expansion rod, which will add considerably to my ability to hang-dry clothing over the bathtub
- this charming late 19thC graphic of helper angels in the kitchen, found online by my pal Ursel... it reminds me of the whole set of Mary Azarian helper angel ornaments, found in a catalog of her work long ago, that I cut out, colored in, and have been in my kitchen for many many years now.

Time of Isolation - Day 1977

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine finishes some things...

Almost all the Advent Swap boxes went to the post office yesterday and today. The final extra bonus box still needs mailed; it was sort of a last minute "can we do this" and so didn't have quite enough tiny gifts until a good rummage around added some assorted mathoms, which needed to be wrapped. The weather for the last two days cooperated with sunny if brisk temperature, good for bicycle transportation. Not quite 40 boxes total this third year.. Found the explanation in last years files, of what the Advent Swap (aka "daily December dopamine") is about, and printed out copies to include in the "bonus boxes" for folks who may be baffled to receive a small box filled with thirty-one tiny wrapped trinkets.

The Advent Of A Better Year swap is in some way the best thing I have done with other people, being a way to facilitate connection and whimsy in a timeline where we need all the counterbalance to the darkening world that we can create

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~ making it easier ~

Every year at the time of the Advent Swap, return address labels seem like they would be really helpful... Until today, occasional searching over the last few years, whenever the idea came to mind, only turned up unappealing commercial options, and adding the task of designing my own to an already busy time of year didn't seem like fun. While whinging about ugly fonts and tacky graphics to my pal Karen, she started searching and turned up some options new to me.  When this oak leaf and acorn motif showed up on Zazzle, along with the option of switching the given text font with a whole extensive library of fonts, it wasn't too long before it was "add to cart"... The actual labels will of course include the actual address on the middle line, and will save having to write out my return address over and over and over again on all the (this year there were thirty-eight) parcels.

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Origami containers are so handy, for gift wrap and for organising the material world. It is tempting to make up my own small hardcopy booklet of instructions for my most often used styles; online tutorials are very helpful but not at all resilient if electricity or internet become erratic, just like having a hardcopy cookbook of basic favorite recipes, another project on the ever expanding to-do-soon list. Maybe just using a ring binder? or index cards, if any could be found that are not flimsy?  

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There has been a lot of mulling over in my head lately about what to sew first in the refurbishment of worn clothing. While there is a definite need for some new pinafores, I suspect that a few new sets of long janes is even more necessary as we head into colder weather. Today it was chilly enough that rather then heat the whole house higher, I instead turned on the under the computer desk mini radiator, which does perzactly what is needed. Local heating helps, whether half size oil filled radiators, or the rice bags that visit the microwave before warming the foot of the bed at night...

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November SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	clothespin bag	horse kerchief	greenwaste bin
2	5 jars pickled beets	more chopshop repair	recycle bin
3	1# hand weights	printer connection	greenwaste bin
4	a dozen owls	black knit slip	recycle bin
5	many jars of Awesome Sauce	15 origami giftwrap	-
6	24 more owls	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
- Photoshop on the memory stick worked tonight, without my needing to install it on the laptop. !!
- the Advent boxes have been mailed out and everyone has had their tracking numbers sent to them
- managed to find enough mathoms to fill out the final unexpected bonus box
- Karen found for me a source of address labels that are pleasing to look at, and reasonably affordable 

Time of Isolation - Day 1974

Dia de los muertos and other Friday folderol

in which our plucky heroine says "rabbit rabbit rabbit"...

welcome to November!

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I can never watch this without tearing up... each year so many more are gone but not forgotten

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I had to order a new 3qt saucepan, since I destroyed my prior one. The new one is perfectly sized to fit on the pot rack without banging into the rear (dashboard?) or whatever that sticky-uppy part is on the back of the range that holds the digital control panel and clock. This is actually a subtle but definite improvement over the old saucepan.

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Started working on a pattern for undies, using a current pair as a sort of template. No there will not be photos. I bought a few yards of cotton lycra for $2/yd when Girl Charlee was closing down, specifically to experiment with. I am not really keen on bright stripes in red/purple/green/light green, but for trying out ideas, it doesn't need to be to my taste, and the fabric is really good quality. If/when I get results that fit well, I can always overdye in a dark indigo, say... (I also bought some red/black stripes, and some pastel pink and blue floral, those all three fabrics being the least offensive of what was available at the time I found out about the closure) This is all part of my plan of making as many of my own garments as possible.

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November SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	recycle bin
2	-	-	-
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. the new replacement saucepan I purchased arrived today. It fits perfectly in the pot rack over the stove
2. sister very kindly phoned me when my content-missing blog post accidentally went live! Not sure how I caused that, I must have set it to post on a certain date/time but I can understand why it was concerning.
3. I've started figuring out how to make the multiple layers of boxes for the Chinese Thread Book, at least I found an online tutorial I can follow pretty easily, which gives me a place to start, and information about the various relative proportions of the starting paper pieces for each layer....

Time of Isolation - Day 1572