Failed Escapism, Wonky Sewing, and a Vintage Salvage Operation

1.) Cruise Crazy 

"c Columbus Cruise ship" by z_fishies is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

I've become slightly addicted to watching reviews of cruise ships as a form of mild escapism. 

I fully admit that it's probably unhelpful and unhealthy to watch these and imagine myself on a cruise ship, alone or with my husband, in a lounge at a window facing the ocean...as, in real life, my children pick a fight in the background and the baby tips over the full cup of milk someone left on the table. 

 I think this particular addiction may be on its way out though. The thought occured to me that I've never felt comfortable in country club type setups. Ever. Or in fancy restaurants. The one time in my life I've ever flown first class was stressful too. Something about those spaces makes me feel extremely self conscious, clumsy, and out of place. 

I've also always hated loud, noisy, crowded places where everyone expects you to act like you're excited (I'm really not much fun at concerts or nightclubs). 

A cruise ship is nothing more than those exact sorts of settings, but several miles out in the middle of the ocean with no way to escape. 

Thus ends my nautical ambitions.  

Ironically enough, Chris and I are actually hoping to go on a cruise for a future wedding anniversary (Chris has been on one and absolutely loved it) but we're aiming to go at a place and time that isn't popular and that's inhabited mainly by old people so we more or less have the ship to ourselves after 8pm. 

Not sure the idea appeals to me otherwise. 

2.) Wolf of Wall Street Review 

We decided to watch this film because it's one of those that gets mentioned constantly and GIF'd constantly. Reviewers tout it as a defining movie of the decade. It seemed like a part of the culture at large that maybe we should make the effort to be familiar with. 

Turns out, it's just a montage of Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill acting like drug crazed lunatics, a few motivational speeches from DiCaprio, and several surprisingly heavily pornographic sex scenes. 

So many sex scenes. I've now seen more boobs and...erm...up and down motion than I think I've ever seen on screen in my entire life despite the fact that we were using the skip button. Liberally. 

My takeaway? It's the same movie as Goodfellas but with graphic sex and cocaine use instead of gory violence and blood. Yes, there was some sex and cocaine in Goodfellas, but...not like this. 

Goodfellas didn't have multiple onscreen orgy scenes. 

If you want to watch some Scorsese, watch Silence instead. Yes, it's a totally different type of movie, but you'll be left with deep metaphysical and theological questions and a need to redefine your understanding of God's relationship with man instead of a desire to sanitize your brain and eyeballs in bleach (and a faint feeling of guilt for laughing so hard at that one quaalude scene). 

3.) The Project 

That project I've been working on for the past several months finally got published. 

I'm happy it's finally out there, but I'm a little disappointed at the response. I'm not on social media, but I used Chris's Facebook account to snoop on the publisher's account and took a look at their Twitter. I had hoped to see some sort of discussion about the actual subject matter of the article in the comment boxes, but all that it seems to have elicited are some self congratulating comments on being in the TLM instead of Novus Ordo camp ("That sort of thing doesn't happen in our parishes." Hate to break it to you, but yes it does) and a passing Protestant picking a fight over whether the sacrament of confession is valid. 

Neither of which even vaugely resemble what I hoped people would get out of it. 

((Strikes a martyr's pose)) nobody understands my creative vision! 

Oh well. Onward and upward. I am happy it exists somewhere a little easier to find than my little corner of the internet. I don't know if I'm the only person to have asked the question that sparked the research that went into it. If I'm not, someone else can at least more easily find that answer now. 

4.) Painting and Pasting

I wrote an earlier post about the holy card "icons" I'm making for our parish festival. I also purchased some wood circles from the craft store and I'm making magnets decorated with vintage religious themed lick and stick letter sealers. 

Some of them are nearly 90 years old. They were handed down to me from a great great aunt who was a nun and apparently had a bit of a hoarding problem. Most of them were untouched when I got them, except for several that were stuck together. I've been carefully teasing apart as many as I can, losing some in the process but saving some too. 

I feel like fridge magnets are a better fate than the garbage can. Even as old and unique as they are, I can't imagine anyone wanting the stained, stuck together books they came in. 

5.) Summer Marches On 

And on, and on...

Chris has headed back to work, so we've been adjusting to having all three kids home with only one adult. 

For the sake of brevity and my kids' privacy I'll spare you the details, but the long and short of it is that it's a challenge. Cabin fever definitely plays a part. I make the kids go outside first thing in the morning when it's cooler and can sometimes coax them to go swim in our pool in the late afternoon, but the rest of the time it's just too stinkin' hot to open the door. A strict routine and twice weekly planned outings help, but we're still all very much in each other's hair at this point. 

6.) Gardening in Late Summer 

Really the only things left are the little chilies and the okra (which is going to seed). We also just put in a couple tomato plants in a bid for fall tomatoes. 

Everything else is just dirt. I'm burying some of it in used chicken bedding, card board, and leaves to rest. 

We'll be fertilizing a new garden bed with manure and planting again for a fall garden, but not until next month (I know that sounds crazy to y'all up north). It's just too blasted hot for anything to really grow right now. 

7.) Sewing 

I'm still very much a novice seamstress, but I got two projects done this past month. 

The first was a "church shirt" for Little Boy. I somehow ended up with a child's shirt pattern that I'm pretty certain was printed in the 1950s. I managed to pair it with an old button up shirt of my husband's. 

The end result turned out well. But only after I fixed a wonky seam, removed a pocket, sewed my original buttonholes shut, sewed buttons over them, and then sewed new buttonholes. And only if you ignore the fact that the buttons aren't quite evenly spaced (hence the odd wrinkles). 

One of these days, I'll start a clothing project and know what I'm doing. But it is not this day. 

The other project was much easier -- curtains for my pantry and for the kitchen window. I had some pretty blue fabric I found at Goodwill a year or so ago that fit the bill nicely. 

 

I also added a flannel baby blanket I had lying around to block out light and add some insulation. I wanted to make that area more suitable for storing home canned food, so dark and cool are my goals here. 

And that's life in our little corner of the world at the moment.