Beans and a Craft Project

Guys. I cooked pinto beans for the first time last week. The results: so easy. I'm such a weenie for avoiding it this long. Lame-o Lu! I'm quite taken with how little effort I put into them and how yummy they tasted. Drawings and Photos too. Check it out.

And, now! craft project!

The apron I told you about--I finished it. And it was very blah so I added a little something.

Before:


After:


(yes, that is my vacuum cleaner modeling the apron in this picture. And so help me! I am through ironing...as you can tell from this picture.)


I drew the leaf/vine design on some tear away embroidery paper (the workers at the Joann's cutting counter helped me pick out the tear away paper). I pinned the paper to the apron, threaded my machine with green thread (which I bought purely because I liked the color. When was the last time you bought something because you liked the color and not because it matched anything?! It was an exhilarating feeling). I used an open toe darning foot and went to town. It was grueling work. Not gonna lie. I enjoyed it for the first 10 minutes and then I plugged on because I wanted to finish--not because it was enjoyable. I'm pleased with the results, though. (and thank you to the Town Library which carries this book (apron pattern inside)--Amy Butler is amazing. I oggle her website every so often and dream of someday finding a pile of cash so I can buy her fabric).

Can I tell you a story about my car cd player now?
It goes like this. My cd player jammed. For months it's been inoperable. That makes for long, long trips to Town. Especially since the radio cuts out every so often and there are long stretches of static only stations (and even one station that is just silence. No static. No music. Silence. Curious isn't it?)

Finally, I went to Best Buy and asked what they could do for my car. I started out with the caveat that I didn't want anything that would make my car deseriable to theives. (Tucson. It'll do that to you.) The guy helped me pick out a low end CD player (which was a reasonable price) and then added all the gear to install it, plus the cost of the labor---the total wasn't nearly so reasonable, but I went through with it with that funny feeling in my gut that happens when I spend much much more than I anticipated.

I drove to the back of the store, met the nice guy who would be installing it and we reviewed what he would do. He asked if I had any external devices that I wanted to hook up to the player (such as an MP3 player). Since an ipod connector was part of the package I said, "No."

Car guy: You sure? You won't need to hook up an MP3 player or anything?
Me: As long as I can hook up my ipod, I'm good.
Car guy: Ok, if that's all you need....
Me: Yep. Just the ipod.
[thought strikes me!]
Me: Oh! Wait! I do have something. I have this little portable cd player. I need to hook that up so I can listen to audio books.
Car guy: [hesitantly] Okaaay...but, um, this IS a cd player. [referencing what he was going to install in my car.]
Me: Yeah, but, I....Oh. Right. Duh. That's why I'm buying it, huh?
Car guy: [politely not laughing] Uh-huh.


Wow. I said that. To another person.

--Lu