Things I Learned This (Long) Weekend

Dante was foreshadowing the Crystal City underground when he wrote "The Divine Comedy."
Because Crystal City is a circle of hell. There were many metro delays on Friday evening that had me stuck on a train for about an hour at the CC station. I finally gave up and thought I'd find a bus. Wrong! I wandered around the impossible underground maze of stores, which were eerily devoid of shoppers and owners, for a half hour. On my third trip outside to find a bus, I instead found a cab. Best $25 I've ever spent.

If you love fruit dip and have no self control you shouldn't make fruit dip.
Especially when you're the only one around. But that damn fluff/cream cheese/vanilla mixture is just heaven on strawberries. And a fork.

They really mean "rummage" at a Rummage Sale.
A church at the end of my block had a rummage sale on Saturday, my first rummage! And they really mean rummage. They had tons of clothes in heaps on tarps. I skipped them at first, heading for books and housewares, where I picked up 4 books, a "Votes for Women" packet, a basket, a divided tray, and a solid tray. I then meandered back to the clothes and after spying some nautical flag napkins -- I'm kind of obsessed with nautical flags -- decided to jump in to the heap and dig. (I didn't actually jump, but there was digging.) I found 1 hat, 2 skirts, 1 dress, 1 pair of pants, 2 J Crew wool sweaters, 1 Old Navy sweater vest, and a child's Vineyard Vines polo dress I thought I could wear as a dress. (See more on that below.) What was the grand total for all of this? A whopping $16! (Actually $20 because I donated the change. It's a church!)

I have a big head.
Or at least a head that's too big for a child's dress. I gave it to my co-worker for his daughter. At least it was only a $1.

A sewing machine and a little patience can lead to a new wardrobe.
Or what feels like a new wardrobe. On Saturday I took in six skirts! Two were from the rummage sale and four were from my closet that I've been making fit with safety pins for the last two summers. It was alarmingly easy to take them all in and I'm so happy to have six new (to me) skirts in my repertoire.

The inside of an iron with a retractable cord is a mess.
I dropped my iron for the 100th time, but this time from a distance of about 3 feet on to hardwood floor. The iron still works, but the cord can no longer be stored neatly within.

The Jonathan Adler store is pretty.
And expensive. His store opened in Georgetown in the fall but this was my first visit. I only took one picture, as inspiration for what I can put under my own new (to me) cloche. But the entire store was lovely and modern and bright.

You know you're in for an interesting show when you have to take off your shoes and wear these.
This is B and I before a dance performance at the Kennedy Center. We knew ahead of time we would have to remove our shoes, stand for 45 minutes, and there would be nudity. Wowza was it a show. (See more on that below.)

Some people play fast and loose with the word "art."
I won't get too specific out of respect of the "dancers," but we saw what was billed as a dance show. We walked in to a long, white room with various large squares on the floor. Some squares had plastic cubes, some had piles of paint, two had a disgusting amount of fake, dark hair, and most squares had a person, wearing only flesh-colored undies. Yep. For 45 minutes the crowd walked around and amongst the squares, watching the performers dance, move cubes, freeze, and eventually roll in the paint. (And the hair, which was awful.) It was different, to be sure, but at least we have a good story to tell.

I seriously love a weekend trip to pool.
As I blogged repeatedly last summer, I'm sure I'll be blogging the same this summer in terms of trips to apartment pool. I just love it so. And this year they have new chairs that can lay completely flat! Hello, easy reading on my stomach.

I seriously love a weekend trip to the pool...even if my knees look like a "weird butt."
Or so says an FB friend after I briefly posted this photo. Umm, pretty sure everyone knows those are my knees, and not my butt.

Too much foot soak + electronic foot bath = bubble madness
I made three trips to the kitchen sink with a handful of bubbles before giving up. I bought the bath on crazy sale on Sunday, thinking it would be great for use with all my assorted foot products. I'm hoping it was just user error or else this thing will be going back.

Things I Learned This Weekend

Even a Friday can't help me enjoy snow.
My love/hate affair with snow has been well-documented on this blog. And even though it's been three years since Snowmageddon I and II, I'm still not quite over my hatred of the white stuff. Even when all I have to do in it is make it to the metro, then the mall for a haircut, then back on the metro over the Potomac, then a bus home. Actually, yeah, even that stuff is annoying when there's white and wet stuff everywhere.

There is such a thing as a good haircut.
Another topic I've exhausted on this blog: my hair. But I think I finally found a good hairdresser up here, and it only took me five and a half years. She cleaned up my tragic split ends and then gave me some good face-framing layers. Pieces are still a bit scary short and don't quite stay up in my ponytail, but it's actually a good haircut, which really makes all the difference.

There's nothing like a bunch of pro-life high-schoolers to ruin the taste of Taco Bell.
One of the main reasons I'm able to handle the tourist madness that is Pentagon City Mall is because of the Taco Bell in the food court. On this particular visit there was a large group of Catholic high schoolers in town for the pro-life march held earlier in the day. One boy was quoting Revelations and there was a Father trying to round everyone up for the buses. As I fought the urge to instigate, they got up, leaving some of their trash beyond. Would it have been wrong of me to stand up and tell them what to do with their trash, since I so despise them telling women what to do with their bodies? Or would it have been a public service to remind them to work harder to protect this planet they're trying so hard to populate.

Taking down Christmas decorations makes a room seem very empty/clean.
Finally took down my decorations on Saturday, a week earlier than the end of January but I had the time and got to it. At first the room just felt very empty, now it just feels right.

There's nothing quite like watching a Carolina game with a room full of Tar Heels.
The ladies and I went to this year's new Carolina bar to watch the Carolina v. State game. There was lots of room, drink and food specials, and lots of fellow Tar Heel alums cheering on our (less than stellar) Heels.

Buffalo Billiards has an interesting interpretation of "side order of fries" .
Karey said side order of fries, and she got fries on the side of her chicken fingers. I said side order of fries, and got this massive basket for $6.99 that we ate off of all night, and still never saw the bottom.

If your team can't look good, at least you and your friends can look good.
Not that we looked good, that would be cocky. But compared to the team, we looked like super models. Except for my demon red eyes, which I can't get rid of.

The best way to mourn a bad basketball loss is with Krispy Kreme.
Carolina girls can't turn down the "hot now" sign. Thankfully, Krispy Kreme is always a win.

The coolest bumper sticker ever is in NW DC.
Doctor Who for the win!

Ikea thread is not very good.
Among other sewing problems I had on Sunday, the thread I bought from Ikea kept breaking. Apparently the Swedes don't sew as fast as I do? Or they buy their thread somewhere else, too.

The "Shawshank Redemption" is amazing.
This was the first time I saw this movie and oh my word was it amazing. Now I know why it was one of my Poppy's favorites.

Too much foreshadowing can ruin the moment.
This is in reference to this week's devastating "Downton Abbey" which didn't make me cry once. And I cry at everything. I'm going to blame it on all the dramatic moments that preceded it which made it not a shock to me. But I'm still a bit worried I'm broken.

Things I Learned This Weekend

Note: This post is too long given how non-eventful my weekend was. Photos include paper towels and an ironing board cover. Woah, I know, easy with the craziness.

A busted watch makes for an annoying start to the weekend.
Somehow I broke the crystal on my watch. I constantly bang it on doorjambs and tables but I'm not sure what finally busted it. I do know that it should make perfect sense as last week I also had to have high heels re-heeled, a zipper fixed in my purse, and a dress dry cleaned because it had barbecue sauce on it.

Thrift shopping is an ok Friday activity.
After working like a mad woman all week, I was ahead of schedule on Friday and decided to leave early. As I've said before, there are so few thrift stores in D.C. proper so I decided to try a Goodwill in Arlington. (That ended up being comically close to where I used to live.) It wasn't organized as nice as I like, but I did get 3 tops, 1 skirt, and 1 glass for $19. That includes a cashmere turtleneck for $5 and a Chapel Hill glass for 96 cents. I may have gasped when I saw this cute thing. There's a whole line of these sold at A Southern Season and I already have 1 trivet and 2 larger glasses that match.

My mother purchased me the "single spinster* lady" paper towel pack.
Every time my mom visits she brings me big packs of toilet paper and paper towels from Sam's. The last few rolls have been interesting. First, there were cats. Now, there are teapots and teacups. These lead me to the conclusion that she bought me the old maid* pack. If the next roll has shriveled ovaries on it I'm going to scream. (*Note: I HATE both of these terms. Men are still considered bachelors even when they're 90, why do women have to be spinsters or maids? I'm still deciding on what I want to be called. I've narrowed it down to Goddess of the Single Life or No, Really, I'm Happy This Way.)

You need an advanced degree to put on an ironing board cover.
A few weeks ago at Ikea, I bought a new ironing board cover for my non-standard Ikea ironing board. It's been sitting on my floor, intimidating me with its size and parts and string and instruction sheet. It turns out I was right to be intimidated because it was like wrestling an alligator** to get it on. But at least it's pretty! (**Note: I've never actually wrestled an alligator.)

Darts may change my life.
The skirt I bought at Goodwill was too big, but because it was such a beautiful shade of blue and it was Vineyard Vines, which meant good quality, I bought it anyway for $6 with the hope that I'd finally be brave enough to try darts. Which I did. They were much easier than I thought and took in the waistband the perfect amount. However, I didn't get them perfect enough so there's a bit of a weird pooch. 

Lemonade bought from little girls at a lemonade stand is the best kind of lemonade.
Out in my neighborhood on Saturday, I came across two girls selling cups of homemade lemonade for 50 cents. It was perfect, not too sweet or sour. And while I was tempted to ask them their political views given the frequent references to lemonade stands in this election cycle, I refrained.

I'm a slightly better person than I thought.
For more than a year, I’ve been looking for a ceramic or wooden whale to spray paint and use as a decoration. Even at the beach I couldn’t find one because all they had were dolphins. Well, on Saturday, on another thrift store run, this time to my favorite, there was a wooden whale that my eyes just completely missed. I became aware of it when I heard a mom exclaim, "It's a whale! Jonah, you have to get it!” Yes, the kid named Jonah got the whale. (Like he probably doesn’t already have a dozen whales.) Since it was a thrift store attached to a church and it was a child named after a Biblical character, I refrained from knocking him down, grabbing the whale, and running for it.

Watching a good movie at an old theatre is a good Sunday afternoon activity.
There are two small theatres on Connecticut Avenue close to my apartment. I'd never been to the two-screen one within walking distance of my place, and since they were showing "The Words," I finally was able to make it. Not only did I really enjoy the movie, despite all the bad reviews, I loved the theatre. It was built in 1923 and after abruptly closing in 2003, was saved and re-opened by the community in 2005. I'll be writing more about this later. 

Some crafts are better than others.
I had the strongest urge to use my sewing machine this weekend so I picked a few projects from my Pinterest board and got to work. Out of the four things I worked on, I only like two of them. But maybe with some tweaking the "nays" will become "yays."

Yay: Pin cushion thread catcher and a necklace

Nay: Pin and headband

Cheese can't save everything.
Since I was already on my Pinterest page, I decided to try a new quick and easy recipe. It was only alright. I don't know if it was the meat choice or if there was too much dressing. Or it could have been the Parmesan cheese I added, which is odd, because in my experience cheese makes everything better. 

I really miss the pool.
But at least I got some stuff done.

Pinterest Challenge: Take Four. I made a quilt!

I am again linking up with my favorites, Young House Love and Bower Power, for a Pinterest Challenge. (Past challenges were a necklace in August, a skirt in November, and a nail polish shelf in March.)

Even though I frequently tackle projects I’ve pinned, there was one particularly big project I completed last month: A t-shirt quilt! (Select any of the pictures in this post and you should be able to view them bigger.)

First, I pinned 10 different inspiration quilts.

And after lots of thought, of course, I drew the most inspiration and help from four of them.

Top left: I ordered interfacing and got great tips from this site.
Top right: This was a UNC one that I first found years ago and it was good inspiration.
Bottom left: Another UNC one that was good for inspiration.
Bottom right: Good instructions on this one.

I'd been wanting to make a t-shirt quilt for a long time. But just the thought of cutting up any of my UNC shirts made me very uncomfortable. However, since so many of these were just sitting in a bag in a closet in North Carolina, I thought it would be so much better to get some use out of them.
Rules for the quilt:

• Shirts had to come from when I was in college, none of the shirts I've bought after.
• With the exception of the one in the center.
• I wanted to represent the most important things to me about college: my classes, basketball, BSU, and Chapel Hill itself.
• Some 2005 National Championship shirts had to be included. I included three of the six I bought. (Perhaps excessive, but I only bought two in 2009.)
• I needed to leave enough that are meaningful, for any potential dogs or children to wear one day.

All in all, it was easier than I thought it was going to be. Though it did take a lot longer than I thought.

All the ironing of the interfacing was incredibly time consuming. And very, very boring.

Then it was time for one of the fun parts: cutting out the shirts. I took the plastic from a picture frame I was donating and cut two squares, one for the shirts and one for the pockets. This worked really well and helped me be more precise.

The cut stack was nearly 2 inches high.

Finally it was time to lay it out. And it only took me two tries! I'm mainly just glad that all the colors go so well together, even though there are at least four different shades of Carolina blue. I was worried the pocket pieces would look too messy, but I really like them.

It's a square, which wasn't my first choice, but it ended up working out the best.

Then it was time for the first round of pinning. First of many rounds. I did nearly as much pinning as I did sewing, which I know was smart in the long run, but also very boring.

I sewed into rows and then columns. I thought I was precise in my measurements, but sometimes this happened.

Sometimes I could fix it and sometimes I couldn’t. But that just means it’s definitely homemade!

Time to sew to the backing! The fabric is anti-pill microfleece from Joanns that I ordered online. It was just wide enough that I didn't have to piece anything. And what's more Carolina than argyle?

It's not perfect, and that's ok. (No, really, it's ok, get off my back!) I'll show you a glimpse of the worst not-perfect part: the back. But, I mean, no one wants to look at the back anyway.

It was a bit unwieldy to quilt all the rows and columns. I actually weighed it and it weighs...2.5 pounds! It kind of surprised me because it's just t-shirts, lightweight interfacing, and fleece.

And this is the final product. I'm not going to lie, I'm really quite proud of this quilt, and every time I look at it I smile. Crooked sewing and wonky backing and all.

And for size, it’s the width of my queen-size bed. A little too short for my tallness, but I just love it.

Here are a few of my most favorite squares, though really, they are all my favorite.
The shirt in the  top left of this picture, and in the center of the quilt, was my Poppa’s. I got it after he died and used to sleep in it all the time. But then I got a hole in the arm and stopped wearing it so it wouldn’t fall apart. I completely forgot about it until I found it in the bag. This one was the hardest to cut up, but I'm so glad I did. It’s a lot better than having it sit in my closet.

And that’s my quilt! I know this is quite wordy but I spent all that time making it and documenting it, so I wanted to share, even if just with me.

Things I Learned This Weekend

There's nothing like a severe thunderstorm to help you start to get out of a funk.
I was feeling down on Friday night and was talking to my friend Jan for some cheering up when it started hailing. I love rain and I love my friend. And after those and a little mindless TV, I was back to myself. 

Attempting to take a photo of the hail through my window.
It's there, promise.

According to melatonin, my "natural sleep cycle" is to fall asleep at 1 and wake up at 8. On a Saturday.
I took melatonin, a natural sleep supplement, for the first time on Friday night. So far, I'm not impressed.

Thrifting is the best.
I hit up my favorite thrift store for the first time in a few months and got some great deals.

A J. Crew skirt, an H&M dress, and a silk blouse.
I remember trying this dress on in the store,
but didn't want to pay $35 for it. I got it for $6!

A microwaveable container, a travel jewelry case
(which may become a gift), a picture frame
(which was already being spray painted),
and a leather purse for $2.50!

My favorite finds were these two geoboards for 50 cents each.
I remember using these, with rubber bands,
in math class in elementary school to study shapes.
They're currently being spray painted
and will become necklace storage.

The best clothing label name ever is Tall Girl.
From the thrift store. I wish the pants had of been cuter.

There's a reason I don't go to Z Burger. 
These are their regular-size fries:

There are some ridiculously priced trash cans out there.
I went to the Container Store to buy a trash can with a lid. (Woo adulthood!) I got a plastic, 11-gallon one with a pop-up lid for $14.99. I passed on the $150.00 one. Yes, that's right, $150.00 for something that's going to hold your garbage.

According to a History documentary, Butch and/or Sundance may have survived the final shootout.
I freaking love Newman and Redford as Butch and Sundance, and as a result kind of love the real Butch and Sundance. I really hope they did live longer.

The only way to atone for a (yet another) 3-hour nap is to sew a bunch of stuff.
After accidentally taking another too-long nap, I made up for it by tackling some of the clothes in my mending pile.

A Sunday at the pool is just as good as a Saturday at the pool
I spent many hours at the pool today and finished a book. Perfect way to (start to) end the weekend.

I really need to start doing work before Sunday evening.
Yet again I waited until the last minute to get some work done.  It's the worst way to (actually) end the weekend.)