For now anyway.

Heath’s parents are visiting right now. As we planned out the visit Heath kept saying that we didn’t have to do anything. All they really want is to hang out with all of us. The only plans we had were to go to a basketball game on Saturday. Look for us on TV. You may be able to see us in the BYU v. Santa Clara game.

No plans very quickly turned into many many projects. Dawn, Gwen, and I went shopping at JoAnn’s yesterday for a dress pattern for me but with good sales starting today we waited to buy anything. Good thing since I spent a lot despite the sales! Barry and Heath were going to build a deck and then we changed our mind thinking now was not the time to spend the money. Then Dawn came up with a cheaper solution so we went for it. They ordered everything yesterday and started construction today when the lumber was delivered.

This is how today has gone. I finally got all primped for the day to come downstairs to everyone milling around outside. Then Heath pulled out the brooms and my OCD kicked in. I can’t help but get excited about cleaning. I don’t know why. So I was sweeping in my fancy casual duds. I couldn’t play for long since the girls were supposed to go to JoAnn’s. I got all my stuff.

The boys were outside building.

Gwen was bouncing all over the place.

Dawn was doing yard work, which only made me feel a little embarrassed. We’ll get used to not having gardeners anymore soon enough. She worked her blood sugar low while I was supposed to be cutting out my pattern. I would have rather been working my blood sugar low.

When I picked up the boys from school they hung out outside with everyone else while I was supposed to boil eggs for dinner and cut out my pattern. I felt like I was being punished!

Who wants to stay in while all that fun is going on outside?

Dawn came inside to check on me since she had filled the green waste. Heath told her when it was full she was done. She was surprised I hadn’t even cut anything out of the fabric yet. In my defense it’s a complicated pattern. Three different versions of one dress. The pattern is some newfangled deal where it asks for all these measurements to fit it perfectly to me. I think in the end it will be nice but in the meantime I’m finding lots of excuses to not work on it.

I did measure my bust and unless I did it wrong I’m a full cup size smaller than I thought. Weird. And I measured my hips and saw a number I wish I didn’t. Feeling armed with my measurements I was ready to cut. I opened up miles of tissue paper with printed patterns on it. Oh yeah. My friend had taught me I had to cut the pattern out before pinning it to the fabric. She also taught me to cut the pattern as perfectly as possible so the fabric would be cut out right.

The myriad of strange shapes was overwhelming but I was going to power through it. May as well get the project started while Dawn is here to help me! So I started cutting. After the first shape was painstakingly cut out to perfection I realized it was for a piece I didn’t need. Awesome. I rough cut some unnecessary pieces to get them out of the way. Then started working on a piece I needed for the dress version I had chosen. When I was finished I realized it was for the smallest bust size. Awesome again. My bust size surprised me but I haven’t been an A since I was 9 or 10. Wish I was making that one up! Basically I had wasted my time again on a piece I didn’t need.

So I gave up. It had happened two or three times and my creative juices were drained. I’ll work on the dress later. Dawn tried to tell me that I could rough cut all the pieces and pin them that way. Then cut the fabric as I cut on the line. I told her to stop solving my excuses! We laughed and as much as I know she wants me to sew the dress I hope she understands that it hasn’t marinated enough. I am the slowest crafter known to man because I have to stare at each step until I get going on a roll. No dress for me this Sunday. Oh well.  I should have a new deck for my gazebo – my sanctuary – by tomorrow. Now that’s awesome!