Sunday, May 29, 2016

It's been one of those weeks...

...when you feel like the universe is just messing with you for its own amusement. Nothing tragic, just one dumb thing after another. It started with the microwave, which decided to run the fan and light continuously whenever the door was closed. Ray fiddled and researched it to no avail and finally called about a repair person. Fixing would cost as much as a new one. In the course of unplugging it he knocked a bottle of olive oil onto the tile floor, sending oil and broken glass everywhere. A speeding ticket (Ray) arrived in the mail—the kind they send you with a picture of you in your car, exceeding the speed limit. Not even a flattering photo. The next morning I lost an earring down the bathroom sink drain. Ray recovered it from the trap after pulling all the stuff out from under the sink and taking the pipe apart. We shopped for a new microwave. Of course the model we had was discontinued and the new one will require new mounting hardware and new holes drilled through cupboard walls. I sewed through my finger with my sewing machine. Lots of blood and cursing. It is healing. The wifi quit working in the studio and Ray, who never throws out a manual, can't find the one for the range extender router thingie. Of course tech support isn't available on the weekend, which is always when you need them.

The week ended well with beautiful weather and my grandchildren who spent the night last night. Things were looking up. I planned a craft project for the kids that turned out so well I thought I'd share it. We made a string of little fabric flags for the garden. I traced the triangular shapes on fabric and painted over the cutting lines with diluted acrylic medium to seal the edges, then cut out a pile of then. Some were bright prints and some solids, which the kids decorated with fabric markers.

We folded over the top edge and hand-sewed with perle cotton, leaving space to run a cord through later.


I found a package of what is called parachute cord—nice sturdy nylon—at the fabric store. 16 feet turned out to be just right. We threaded the cord through the flags to make a long string of them. I found that running the end of the cord into a plastic straw made stringing the flags quite easy. I sewed one stitch through the cord and straw, with a piece of the perle cotton, to keep the straw in place.

I laid it out on the ground and sprayed the flags with clear acrylic to make them at least somewhat water-resistant.

This morning Ray cut a couple long bamboo sticks for the flags. Done!

......

The kids went home with their string of flags and poles and Andy and Ray just fitted the new microwave into the re-jiggered space. Now we are almost ready for a new week. I wonder what is in store for us this week...

 

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:06 PM

    As the old saying goes: "When it rains, it pours". I think you've had so much bad luck that you should be out of it by now! Best wishes for a wonderful, fulfilling week with pleasant experiences. ..... and I loved your grands project of flags. So very bright and happy.

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  2. Yikes! You've had your share. Hope this week goes more smoothly.

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  3. This week HAS to be better!

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  4. Some good came of all this. That looks like a microwave we could install in our cabinet. The one that's there now--has it's own idea of what high power means. And not in a "good" way. I did that to my finger at a quilt meeting. Had plenty of help getting down on the floor with my finger up in the air. Almost fainted.

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  5. My goodness. All at once. We had very nearly the same microwave fun. Ours started making a terrible noise. The repair place was the same - it would cost a new one to fix the old one and they assured us that 9 years was about the lifespan of the common microwave. Really? So we shopped for another one, as our model was discontinued, of course. The new one had to have different holes, hangers, etc and it took us a couple weeks from noise to new. I learned that I can barely operate as a cook without a microwave. Our new microwave doesn't have a lot of the convenient little features of the last one - stuff you would never notice, and wouldn't be on the microwave description. And the old one had a better touchpad setup. Sigh. They should ask me when they design these things.

    Your banner project looks very nice, and the kids look like they had a good time too. Great idea!

    Hope the next few weeks/months are uneventful. Sounds like you got a whole year's worth of 'luck' all in one week.

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