Improving By Degrees

One of the most expensive UFOs in my life (other than the ongoing house remodel, of course), is my college degree.  This adventure was begun more than two decades ago and there are still a few classes that need to be completed.  I am enrolled in an online program, but time has elapsed and my eight-year window of opportunity is about to close.  This degree needs to be completed this year.

In January, about the time this blog began, I signed up for a class.  At first I worked on it vigorously, but the next paper is something that I want to get perfect and it isn't there yet.

I am reminded of a friend in a quilt class whose motto was Finish.  She was a beginner who joined a quilt guild and she noticed that many of the experienced quilters were so obsessive about perfection that they "picked everything out and redid" until it was exactly right -- which meant they often got burnt out and did not finish.

But she did.  My friend took to heart the admonition to "consider each project a practice for the next one."  She did her best, but she accepted that she was learning and she finished -- about a quilt a week, at that point!  After only a few months, she had lots of completed quilts, which she used to decorate her house and give as gifts.

I need to take lessons.  Perfect or not, I just need to Finish.

The Most Expensive Free Thing

I know there is no free lunch.  But there are some things that could be considered "free" -- stuff that other people already have used and are getting rid of.  Sometimes, these cost a lot.

The top items on my personal list (before yesterday) included Jacques, the Red-Eared Slider that someone gave us when she got married.  The pet came with a tank, but the tank needed a stand.  We purchased a dresser.  The tortoise had been kept for some time in room-temperature water and needed a warm place to get dry and bask.  We altered his arrangements and purchased the things he would need.  He had skin peeling from around his eyes, so we bought and applied the appropriate medication.  He died seven days after arriving at our house.

Then there was the 100-year-old piano with marijuana leaves carved onto the front.  It had been home to a family or two of mice and had been up to its neck in floodwater before being
loaded into a one-way rental trailer and hauled down to us.  The piano was a free gift, but we paid for the trailer.  The veneer was peeling, the varnish was cracked, the strings were rusted and the whole thing weighed a ton.  When it came into our house, we took it down to the unfinished basement, which took a toll on my husband's back.   He said it was not coming out the way it came in.  We moved before a door was installed in the basement, so the thing left in pieces.

The current winner is the set of six green occasional chairs that a tenant left behind when they moved from the office they were renting from my husband.  Nobody else at the office wanted them and we needed some seating.  They were a little worn but were in pretty good condition.  The 80's green upholstery clashes with the dark spruce carpeting in the front room, but we have used them for a few years.  They were not what I would have chosen, but...they were free.

This week, while my husband was away in Japan, I decided to surprise him by updating the chairs.  This seemed like a simple project and my next-door neighbor is a professional, who could give me some tips.  I purchased several yards of a beautiful, neutral fabric (expensive but doable at half-price) and decided to get to work.

It turned out that the neighbor was also out of the country.  The days wore on, and I finally decided to embark on my own, but the wood looked a bit shabby.  Hardware store stain, brushes and sandpaper were about $10 and it promised to be a quick phase of the project.  I brought the chairs out to the porch, wiped on the stain and left them to dry while I took the kids on an errand, but not before I brushed up against the finish.  One favorite sweater ruined.

Note to those over 40:  Always put on your glasses and read the fine print, especially the parts that are bolded and in capital letters.

When we returned home, it had begun to rain.  The wood was still tacky, so we brought the chairs inside to protect them as they dried.  Three of the chairs went into my husband's home office, off the entrance, where they would be out of the way; the other three went into the front room.  We had not stained the bottoms of the legs and they were not dripping onto the porch, so we did not consider what might happen to the carpeting.

There is a reason it is called stain.

Fortunately, the front room carpet is dark enough that the spots are not too noticeable, but the places where I frantically scrubbed the spot remover show damage to the nap.  The beautiful and expensive, sand-colored, molded carpet in my husband's office now has about a dozen indelible marks from the bottoms of the chairs.  So the cost of the refinish has to include a recarpeting job.

The wind had picked up before the rain started, so there was a layer of debris in the finish.  We had a hectic activity planned for the evening and my daughter avoided the chairs in front of the hall closet, but when she put on her shoes she sat on the piano stool I had also touched up and stained the entire rear end area of her pants.  I also had another brush with the chairs.  One pair of comfortable jeans and one nearly-new skirt, ruined.

I spent two hours in the basement this morning, wiping on a new layer of stain so yesterday's layer could be wiped off.  The warm, dry weather (to complete the stain drying process) starts two or three days from now, but my husband comes home tomorrow.  The wood finish looks shabby again; I think a gel stain might have been a better option, for it promises to cover and dry.  And the upholstering has not even begun.

I think this project will surprise my husband, all right.

This is one battle I did not win.

Wild Horses Aren't The Ones Dragging This Out

Our wonderful neighbors took my husband and me to a wilderness place across the lake where wild mustangs roam.  There are a few herds of mustangs and even burros in our state, and these friends know where they live.  It was a beautiful afternoon and we stayed and took photographs, even walking among the horses as the sun went down.  We watched them eat and fight and we ate and visited and enjoyed being alive on this beautiful earth.

 When we returned home, I considered what I could do to commemorate the day.  These good people were so kind to include us in this activity that they enjoy!  I found some fabric that reminded me of the wild horses and went through my stash in search of additional fabrics that could be used in a quilt with the horse print.

This was supposed to be a Christmas gift.  I had a couple of months to work on it, but other projects took over my life.  And after Christmas the stash had swallowed it up.  Then my machine was in the shop and I went on a trip and...well, there's no sense dragging this out.

I pulled out some projects and was enthusiastic to complete this one.  The piecing of the blocks was nearly done and I had renewed vision that this could work.

The Log Cabin is a traditional block, usually constructed with "logs" of light and dark strips (with mediums thrown into each of these categories for interest) around a red or yellow center square.  I mostly looked for fabrics that would suggest the hides of the various horses; my husband (who loves blue) encouraged me to include blue batik, so I did.  When the blocks were smaller, the light and dark sides were somewhat difficult to differentiate, and I worried that the quilt would not be as pretty as our friends deserve.  Most quilts get to the "ugly stage," and I tend to get discouraged.  But it was nearly done and I really want to present them with a personal gift.

Life is precious.  Cancer looms in the lives of these friends and they don't put things off.  This is a project that I cannot afford to delay.

The UFO Group

My mother is a longtime member of a UFO group.  These adventurous grandmas meet one morning each week at the Methodist church in her rural Oregon town and make short work of the UnFinished Objects in their lives.  Sometimes Mom sends photos and other times she doesn't even mention she has gone, but I know this is a significant part of her week.

I have been impressed by all Mom has accomplished, as she harnesses her energy and makes sense of the many UFOs out there. 

It encourages me to battle them myself.

Photo from sxc.hu.  Used courtesy of patador.

The Big DIP

My dad passed away a few months ago.  He was a beloved man who lived a full life, but it has been sobering to consider my own mortality.  I have decided I want to Die In Peace.

To do this, I will need to Do (or Discard) Incomplete Projects.  As a Diligent Idea Person, I always have too many plans and get more irons in the fire than can reasonably be finished in a short time.  My life often feels like Grandma's old saying, "The faster I go, the behinder I get!"

This year's main resolution is called DIP, and it means attacking the UFOs -- the UnFinished Objectives -- that threaten to bury my family in stuff and sap our energy and enthusiasm.  Some projects will find new homes, where folk with fresh eyes may see them as the treasures they are; others will move up in the hierarchy of priorities and will receive use as they were originally intended.

I don't plan to die this year, but I do want to Die In Peace.  I also want peace for my family after I am gone, which means clearing out the Stuff Otherwise Known As Junk.

It's the dawning of a new day.

Photo from sxc.hu.  Used courtesy of kodakgold.