Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
I was so excited for a four-day weekend that I forgot to post on Friday. I guess it’s been a while since I had a stretch of vacation–but we made the most out of it. There was an evening picnic in Millcreek, a visit to Soho Saunas in Midway (delightful!), a used record sale and ice cream, a full day of sewing, and even the first trip to the pool (not pictured, because it was impossible to get a photo without 100 other people in it).
I like this not-working life!
We were in the desert for a couple days at the beginning of the week (which you would never know, thanks to the magic of scheduled posts). It was SEVENTY DEGREES and everything I wanted it to be.
We did the Grandstaff Canyon hike the first day, one of my favorites.
And then the next day before we left we tried a new trail to the Mill Creek Waterfall. The trailhead was really close to town, everything was well marked, and it even had bonus petroglyphs!
I think it the summer that waterfall would be party central, but it was still too cold for people to swim in. (Yes, I waded in.)
I got a long weekend and did all sorts of house things: Painted the old office, visualized what a 6-foot felt board would look like in my new office, and even did some sewing in the new basement (!). Who needs to leave the house?
It was cold and brown outside and still without snow, so we skipped the hike and did things indoors–like settings up a new credenza,* cutting out a shirt for Doc’s brother,** and running the space heater on the patch of self-leveling compound that didn’t want to dry.***
*from Costco! We love Costco! The old credenza from IKEA is getting new doors and going to the basement for fabric storage.
**I got Doc’s brother’s name in the family gift exchange drawing and, 11 months ago, joked with Brother about a custom shirt. Then I forgot about it. Until a week ago when Doc’s sister reminded me of that conversation. Good thing I found the last 5 yards of muscle car fabric in North America. I guess it wouldn’t be December with a sewing crisis.
***I’m still not sure that’s totally dry, but that can be a problem for the floor bros today. Why yes, I am still enjoying being ⋆˙⟡ 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓒𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓽 ✧˖° on this project.
What a nice five days off that was. I made a bunch of pies, including one for the tile guys who finished the grout Wednesday at about 7:00 pm. We’ve all been hanging out for three weeks new and they did a great job, so we sealed our friendship with pie. 
Then we had Thanksgiving with my brother’s family, where I felt like the Turkey Princess because it was my first turkey in 25 years and my brother outdid himself with everything. There are also FOUR KITTENS at my brother’s, including Pakhet here (she’s the real princess). 
And I bought some stuff for the basement, including a Black Friday chaise lounge and the deal of the century on home dec fabric from the local warehouse: 
It was the semi-annual orchid show at the arboretum yesterday and the afternoon light was doing the most: 
(Hand for scale on that last one–I’ve never seen an orchid that shape and I wish I’d thought to take a picture of the tag.)
The light continued its heroics out in the gardens, where there were still roses blooming in November.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was 100 degrees and then it was 65 degrees, it was a time of exultation (so clean, yay chemicals) and of despair (saw another bedbug and it was ALIVE)…
It’s a good thing I had four days off because that’s about how long it took to tear the house apart, look for bedbugs, and put it back together. Every single fabric thing in the bedroom and linen closet got bagged and put in the hot car for a day, all the closets and dressers got emptied out and vacuumed and sprayed, every baseboard got vacuumed and dusted… I guess if I was worried about the amount of work involved in moving, this was a good trial run. (It’s SO much work. I was right to be concerned.)
We did go to the lake for our solstice sunset but that was right when a front was coming through and the 40mph winds were dropping the temp to the 50s. It felt kind of fitting, though–stormy times!
I went down to Moab Friday through Saturday, leaving Doc to hold down the fort and keep Toby from meowing too much. I was meeting my aunt (my mom’s sister) and her husband there; they let me stay in their motor home and I took them on my favorite hike, Grandstaff Canyon to Morning Glory Bridge:
We also did the Delicate Arch trail in Arches, which has ravens begging for food at the top and so many people I’m amazed nobody ended up in this shot:
And, of course, we did the MOST important thing:
My sewing supplies have gradually crept over the entire house, especially the basement. We want to buy a new house this year and the thought of moving all that finally got me motivated to look through what I have and GET RID OF IT.
I took the nice over-two-yard lengths to the IRC here, but I had a bunch of remnants and smaller cuts and yarn and half-finished sweaters and beading supplies and an entire box of children’s sewing patterns … where can that go?
Turns out it can go to Making Space Thrift in Springville, about an hour away. They’re “happy to accept raw materials, half-finished projects, tools, notions, patterns, and books”–bingo! I FIRMLY INTENDED to come home empty-handed, they had leather scraps (!) for $5 a pound (!!) …. and also elastic in its packaging and grosgrain ribbon on its spool, which I grabbed because my source for that was Joann and RIP, Joann.
So I brought back more STUFF but compared with the four boxes I left, it’s still a net loss of stuff, hooray.
I had the day off yesterday so I took myself on a field trip to a new-to-me plant store, and gosh did walking around tropical things in a humid environment help my mood.
The store was Phoenix Vine and it was just down the road, AND they had a shop axolotl (!!). They had some rare/expensive things but also a lot of affordable exotics, like the “Thai Constellation” monstera I took home:
And then I sewed in the afternoon, and I didn’t even realize that I picked a green theme for the glasses case I’m making, too:
