Showing posts with label HELP ME PLZ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HELP ME PLZ. Show all posts

Friday, September 09, 2011

OMG. Guys.

I don't even.
It's like what?
Head is broken.
Panic attack.
I just don't even understand.

Was expecting to be sad about having to say good bye to Nitwit (we did end up putting her down yesterday morning) and then...............something happened later in the day and it was like a record needle scratch and now I'm instantly over it. Snap. Sadness gone. 

Things had been bad with her since January but, up until the last 5-6 weeks, things had been manageable. They were manageable. There were Rules and as long as you followed the Rules, thing were fine 98% of the time. 

Rule #1: do not leave anything on the floor in the bathrooms. Not a terribly difficult rule as far as rules go, you know? If you forgot to pick up the rug after showering or whatever and it got peed on, well, that was your fault as that was a clear violation of the Rules. Why the bathrooms and not, say, the kitchen, where there are also throw rugs and various things on the floor (like, say, cloth grocery bags after a big shopping trip) at certain times? I don't know. I DIDN'T MAKE THE RULES. I was just expected to follow them.

Rule#2: things laid on top of the hamper or on the bedroom floors was a sure path to Badness. Why the hamper and not, say, the bed? (Or couches.) Again: I don't know. Not the rule maker, just the rule follower. (Personally, I was just glad that the bed and the couches were off limits for some unknown, anonymous reason and didn't probe it too much. Though, having said that, if they hadn't of been off limits this whole 'situation' would have ended many, many months ago, KWIM?)

Things only got 'real' a short while ago when suddenly the Rules seemed to have changed overnight and it was like, welllll, not so much with these new Rules. The new Rules were not going to cut it. They included: my brand new office chair, a wood sitting chair with a fabric seat and pretty much any/all cat beds in the house. New Rules = BAD. So, after more blood tests/xrays/medicine, she was sequestered in the guest room for a week (nearly fabric less at the moment as I threw the full sized bed out when we did the floors in June, with plans to get a smaller one in the future) to see if the new Rules were permanent or not. 

Turns out, after a couple weeks try out, the new Rules were permanent and that was unmanageable for a house that we, like, actually like to live in so we find ourselves up to date with things. And then I went to go pull a few threads out of my big Craftable blue/rubbermaid-like container and discovered it was full of pee. 

And then my head broke and I had a massive can't speak-walking in circles-staring at the wall-panic attack that lasted, ohhhh..................well it should be over soon at any rate. Any minute now. *tap*tap*tap* 

Yeah. I mean.................what? I just don't even. Understand? It's plastic. And.........what? It holds: all of my linen, all of my DMC and about half of my specialty fibers (of which I have a CONSIDERABLE stash). And other stuff? Like.........other stuff? AND MY HEAD IS BROKEN. I can not wrap my head around the magnitude of how to clean this up. Vinegar baths followed by........something? And keeping track of what is what? Uncoiling 312341234123 wrapped skeins or leaving them wrapped? Or? ...?....? And what about non color-fast items? Metallics? Silks????

Strangely enough (and luckily enough?), the linen all seems fine. I don't mean fine in that sense that I'm trying to talk myself INTO it being fine either. I mean *actually* fine. I checked it with a black light, my nose, extreme inspection under a bright light. It was in the top of the compartment, which is removable and I *do* take it off sometimes when I'm laying pieces out in the living room to figure out what I want to use. I went through it like that one night about 4 weeks ago, which is certainly within the 'new Rules' period, when starting a new project so I suppose it's possible she jumped into the box in the 1.74 hours that the top was off of it?

I'm still not 100% on the condition of the DMC. Those are in four tackle boxes so closed boxes inside a closed box (meta anyone?)............it should be fine but I can't make a definitive decision on that until it's been away from the stuff that is So Clearly NOT Fine for a few days. I'm seeing shadows inside of shadows on top of more shadows right now until I'm cross-eyed and pie-eyed and can not trust my judgement. (Because my first thoughts? THROW IT ALL AWAY. All twenty years of it. And find a NEW HOBBY. lol)

It's just the rest of it. You can't just throw it in the wash. Or use harsh detergents on it with out stripping the color out. Or ?? The best I can come up with at the moment is possibly a clothes line type assembly line maybe? String the skein, then the bag, repeat with all, etc. and then dip each one through a series of vinegar/Nature's Miracle/I don't know what? individually and hang it up to dry? At least that way the bags will be with the floss and I can tell what is what. Otherwise maybe take a picture of each one before taking it out of the floss bag to sort it all out later? (I have no hopes that the stuff inside the floss bags is fine because those 'bags' have two holes in them for threading on split rings, you know? And it's............wow. Covered. Sticky. And it's all.......All baaaaaaaaaaad.)

I fully expect half of y'all to not really understand what the big deal is about but the rest of you will know. You know. A quart of rancid pee poured on your stash? Worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars? A stash that is not easily cleaned *or* replaced? Oh yes, YOU know my horror. 0_o 

**********************

You know it's funny (though not really in that HAHAHA type of way) because I did a post on my Livejournal a few weeks ago about, what I thought at the time, was possibly the grossest thing to ever happen inside my house in my entire life. I didn't mention it here but the bathroom fan downstairs, uhhh, killed a large mouse and we didn't realize why it was clunking at the time until a week later* when, oh, maggots and maggoty flies started dropping from the ceiling. Like a lot. Of maggots. From the ceiling. Dropping and dropping and dropping. Will it stop? Looks like no. Dropping and dropping. While we took turns staring at it and running around in circles screaming like little girls. That's, like, horror show gross.But in retrospect, sooooooooo much easier to get my head around than this. *THAT* was easy to clean. *THIS*............I just don't even.

*Obviously, there was strong odor for a couple days too but we looked and looked for the source and couldn't find it. We thought it possible something had gotten into the chimney? It never occurred to us to look inside the fan, you know? Who would think of that?!?

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Oink oink.

In the process of replacing all the carpeting with wood floors this summer, I've done some MAJOR purging. I mean major: 7-8 bags of donated clothing, countless bags of trash, and at least two big bags of paper related materials from the filing cabinet/desk. Nothing escaped my wrath. I was ruthless and threw stuff away while cackling away with glee. (I do love a good purge.) It was good times, peoples, good times.

 In doing all that work in the office, I ended up with a half a drawer empty in the file cabinet. What to do with it...........hmm............HEY! I COULD ORGANIZE MY STITCH STASH. I had it all piled up willy-nilly in a wood 'cheese/shaker' box but I could be, like, all PROFRESHENUL and sort it and stuffs!

So I laid it all out and sorted it by designer....and..........HOLY CRAPBALLS I have a lot of stuff. Good lord! lol
THIS PHOTO DOES NOT DO MY STASH JUSTICE. 
IT'S BAD, PEOPLE.

It's enough to make one a little faint. (Or more than a little, to be honest.) Now, in my defense, I did 'work' as model stitcher for a local shop for 4-5 years in my spare time so, heavy discount and earned cash in hand, I happily worked on building my stash up during that period of time. But still. I really need not every buy anything EVER AGAIN EVER AND THAT WOULD STILL BE TOO SOON HONESTLY.  (Not that that has ever stopped me before. So don't hold your breathe or anything on it happening. lol) It's hard to say which pile makes me break out into a sweat more than the others. 

There is the huuuuuuuuge stack (20? 25?) of LHN/CCN patterns that I got in a series of wicked cheap eBay auctions last summer. Nope.......

Oh ho ho! There is the crazy amount of Shepherd's Bush kits at $30-$60 each. (95% of these were purchased during my stitching heydey, hence they were 'free'.) Close....very close...

Ahh. Here we go. A stack of Bent Creek patterns that all have a PIECE OF CUT LINEN in them, all ready to go. It's all that linen that makes me feel the most guilty, even if I did 'pay' for most of it with my time and expertise, because most of these are pieces that would require framing and, hello, I have a limited amount of wall space for those kinds of projects at this point. *gulp*

Anyhoo. It all fit quite nicely. So, uhh, that's good. Right?

I had ideas of going through this to cull stuff for a giveaway but, honestly, that's going to have to wait until I catch my breathe again and feel less overwhelmed. I feel like I would get rid of TOO much at this point in a frenzy to make it more 'manageable' (if that is even possible) and then maybe end up regretting it. lol
I will do it one day though. :)

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

A small confession. (With a free giveaway at the end so stay til the end!!!)

When I said I had 'bought a bag' of teeny buttons on Etsy a couple weeks ago I wasn't being honest.

It may have been more than one bag. 
It may even have been more than several bags.

In fact..........I may have a teeny problem with collecting teeny buttons.....


But, oh, what a glorious problem it is!

Let's just relish in the teeny button pr0n, shall we? 
(Feel free to click on these to get the biggun' pictures for the full pr0n effect.)

My favorites might just be these micro-sized TEENY-WEENIE buttons. *swoon*

But the polka dot ones are a close second. 

I know there are a lot of stitchers who love teeny buttons for their projects just as much as I do so if you are one of them, leave a comment on this entry and I will pick someone randomly on Valentine's Day to receive a little bag of their very own teeny buttons to swoon over. Just a quick and simple giveaway to spread the love.

As always, followers of my blog will get entered in twice for being such cool characters. :)
(But feel free to spread the word to your own blogger friends if you wish - it's open to all, anywhere in the universe.)