Saturday was a day of completing a few home projects.  Sort of like a little surge in tying up the loose ends.  It started with spray painting the radiator covers in the house.  I painted some of them this winter using latex trim paint.  The paint adhered really well, but they just didn’t have that sprayed-on look to them.  I used the Flotrol stuff and the same thing from Benjamin Moore, but there’s no real way to get that look without the spray and the oil based paint.  Sorry environment, but your inhabitants haven’t figured out how to make low VOC paints that really pop.  Anyway, I took the last 5 covers and put them out on a tarp on the patio and went to town with the Rustoleum Professional spray paint.  They look amazing, but after three cans of paint, I can no longer feel the tip of my right-hand index finger and my muscles in the inside of my forearm feel a bit iffy still.  I know, they make a trigger that fits on the cans, but by the time I went to the hardware store and back for something I’ll only used once, I’d already be done and drinkin’ a beer.  Except for the beer part, it was pretty true.  It’s done!  It was a beautiful day and they dried really fast – no drips; 2 coats.

Since it was so nice outside, I also decided to assemble a nice little slat bench that we got a few months ago to replace an old glider bench that we’ve been moving around the country for the last 8 years.  Now we have this pretty little iron and wood slat bench sitting on the lawn amongst the lovely spring flowers blooming.  Shayna took the kids to the pottery store to play so that I could get some of this stuff done.  I always like when they go to the pottery store because Ela LOVES to make bowls for me.  Just like clockwork, as soon as I get the two tasks completed, they were home.  After a refreshing lunch, we headed to Lowes to get some flowers for the front porch.  The kids had a blast getting the pots ready (dirt + tools + kids = can’t miss fun).  We got the old, dead stuff out and fluffed up the dirt, added fertilizer and transferred the plants.  After mowing the lawn, I was ready for a nice movie with the family.  I’m really happy with how the garden is turning out this year so far.  I need to get a friend who knows about flowers and stuff to identify exactly what the heck is growing in my yard.  The previous owners were great gardeners, but terrible landscapers.  The trees were overgrown, untrimmed and marginally healthy.  The grass is tired and old (overseeding this fall).  And the hedges were untamed and either over thick or just skank and leggy.  I have my work cut out for me for the next few years.  It’ll take some planning.

I enjoy our movie nights (Friday and Saturday) with the family.  We eat fun stuff like Chinese food, burgers, or pizza and watch a movie…nothing serious, though.  I hate serious movies!  If I want to be depressed, I can watch CNN online…it’s free and I’m not paying to be disappointed with the world.  Since we’ve seen all of the movies in our library about 500 times and have seen every movie that the library has and everything that’s been on PPV, I like to sew while watching movies.

About a month and a half ago, I had the brilliant idea to get a sewing machine.  I had been threatening for several years, but really didn’t want to spend the money on one.  It wasn’t clear whether I would be any good at it or if I would even like it.  My mother taught me to sew as a child, but I really don’t remember much other than how to work the machine properly.  So, I had a revelation to go onto our local Freecycle group on Yahoo! and ask for one.  Within minutes, there were two viable offers.  I contacted the first offer-er and crammed the family in the car to go check it out.  Turns out that this woman got the machine from a neighbor that was going to get rid of it because she was getting old, couldn’t see well enough to sew anymore and was having trouble with her arthritis.  The lady told me that she just hated to see it thrown away, so she took it and held onto it for like 5 years.  This thing is a MONSTER (good kind of monster, not the bad kind)!  It came in a cabinet and the drawers were filled with everything I would need to get going: probably 50 spools of  thread; scissors; presserfeet; tools to repair and adjust it; spare needles.  I took photos of it (it weighs a ton – okay 60+ pounds) and showed them to a local repair guy.  He told me that I should never part with this machine.  It is nearly commercial quality and it will probably never wear out.  I took it, rewired the thing, and took off running.  I’m repair crazy!!!!  And I made Ela a skirt.  Have you ever noticed that a sewing pattern marked “beginner” still assumes that you know ALL of the nomenclature associated with sewing?  I’ll tell you, there’s lots of words…there was also the purchase of “Sewing for Dummies” shortly thereafter.  Next on the creativity docket is matching skirts and tops for Mommy and Ela.  I’m sure that they [Mommy] will wear the skirt to be polite;  Ela would wear it proudly if it looked like I took it off a mangled corpse.  She’s still at the age where she thinks I’m a God.  So am I – I mean that I think I’m a God!  Probably should start working on my own version of the bible too – what the heck!