Obsessed

Do you ever look at something crafty, and think, I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO THAT. Immediately. And so you set out to find a tutorial and…nothing. The well is dry. There is nothing out there to possibly teach you how to do whatever crafty bit of fluff you’re trying to figure out. So you put it aside, because really, how much crafty junk do you need to be able to do?

But it keeps bugging you.

And bugging you.

For me, it was a bead weaving technique called Tubular Netting. I saw a picture of a bracelet someone made on Flickr, and I was entranced. And for the life of me, I could not figure out how they did it. It was infuriating. After digging for a while, I finally came across a tutorial that is more letter diagram than tutorial, but at least I was able to puzzle through it. I give you…completed tubular netting bracelet!

And of course, it was TOTALLY EASY once I found that diagram. Like, ridiculously easy. I have no idea where to wear it (or it’s red and black brother), but dude. I FIGURED IT OUT. So, once I had that out of the way, I had to kick into gear with my OTHER obsession: star blocks. Specifically, the tutorial that cauchy posted on her blog caught my eye – I had the fabric, I had a week off for vacation with no plans in site, and so I ended up knocking out a bunch of stars.

There are more of them now, of course. Not anywhere near the 108 I need for a quilt, but you know…it’ll get there.The orange and the aqua are knocking my socks off. It’s just so gosh darn happy that I almost can’t stand it. I’m not a fiddly quilter, not really into heavily seamed projects or anything with wonky cuts, but for some reason these little stars are doing my heart good right now.

Next week, I will officially be the mom of a kindergartener. School age. Joining the PTA and all of that jazz. It’s freaking me out that he’s old enough to do this, to lace up a new pair of sneakers and slap on a backpack and enter into an actual school where he’s going to learn to read and write and hopefully pick up some social skills that include not screeching every nine seconds. He’s going to have a lunch card and homework and the whole shebang. I’m looking forward to it, but I also kinda think that Monday morning may be a little hard for me, when we walk him into the school for the first time and leave him there for the full day to navigate the halls on his own. I hope that he has someone to eat lunch with on the first day. I hope he likes the kids that sit at his table in his classroom. I hope that his teacher sees how sweet he can be under the HIGH ENERGY label he’s got plastered to his forehead.  Mostly, I hope that he does well, because this is just the first step down the path of school politics.

The first of 13 years of schooling starts on Monday, little dude. I hope you’re ready for it. I know you’re ready for it. I’m not sure I am, though.