Generational Collaboration, a Fluffy Addition, and a Dead Appliance

 Sorry I've been a little quiet. There have been a lot of creative side projects lately, and this one has gotten short shrift. 

I'll try to do better at working on this while nursing instead of browsing YouTube. Darn you, cat videos...

1.) A Generational Saga

 Little Girl has received a couple dresses, both at least twenty years old (I think one is fifty years old, based on the double knit polyester fabric), that my grandmother cut out but never sewed together. My aunt found them while cleaning out a closet, sewed them together and passed them on to me, and I'm adding a few odds and end (buttons, a tie, some embellishments). 

I added the ribbon on this one...

And the buttons on this one (on the back, not pictured). This is the one I'm certain is 1970s, and my aunt is convinced it's the same jumper pattern she wore in her Catholic elementary school in the 60s (though those were navy blue). 

The end result is that my daughter has two dresses that have been worked on by three women in three different generations. Kinda mind blowing. 

2.) Partial Completion

The rain has finally become a little less frequent. There's still a lot of standing water in the lower parts of the yard and garden, but enough had dried that Chris decided to attempt mowing. 

He got through the area immediately behind the house and along the sides of the driveway ok, but had to come in at one point and ask me, "are you ok getting muddy?" 

One part tow, part shoving job later, he got it stuck again. This time, he was able to get it unstuck himself. Then it happened again. 

And again. 

At that point, he decided enough was enough. 

And here our mower sits, a testament to the not -quite- biblical flood that has followed the drought we had earlier this summer. 

3.) New Kitty 

A new cat has started hanging around our house. She's a long-haired grey and orangish tabby we've dubbed Fluffy. 

Sweet, affectionate little thing. She's got a docked ear, a sign that she was caught and neutered as a stray, which is an extra reason to keep her around. I'd rather not drown in kittens. 

4.) Aprons and Paintings 

I ended up with some cut-out-and-hem aprons from my grandmother, and I've been sewing them for that booth at the parish festival. 

They're kitschy as heck, very much pandering to the country nostalgia thing the 90s had going on. Going for broke being "homey" and "charming". Kind of makes them perfect for a venture that's  mainly going to sell to women above the age of fifty.  

I also got it into my head to paint a massive Sacred Heart painting for the silent auction. It's hardly a masterpiece, I told a friend of mine that it looks like a 14 year old made it during their goth period, but I'm having fun painting it (and I am happy with how the fire on top turned out). I'm not sure what I'll do if they won't accept it...stick it in the living room maybe? 

5.) A Requiem for the Dishwasher 

The other day, the dishwasher refused to cycle. It got stuck on a wash part and refused to drain. We had to empty it, rinse everything by hand, and then empty the water out via an aquarium hand pump vacuum thing (a surprisingly useful purchase).

Chris figured out the problem, ordered a replacement part, installed it, and the dishwasher seemed to be working. So we loaded it up, tried to run a load...and it refused to run. 

At all. Acted like it was unplugged. No idea what happened. 

So we've been washing dishes the way our grandparents did. Yay. 

Turns out the bottom pull out makes a decent dry rack. 

We'll hopefully get a replacement this week. 

6.) Ants, Ants Baby...

I found these ants making a freakin' storeroom of crumbs in a random corner of the living room. 

Thus, I have proof both of the utter tenacity of these insects and a ringing condemnation of my housekeeping skills. I need to clean the kitchen floor better. 

7.) Canned Chess 

I don't have anything to write about this, I just saw these giant chess pieces made out of canned food at the mall today and thought they were cool.