Yesterday morning, I decided to get up off my lazy duff and plant the baptista australis seedling that my sweet niece brought me. I decided to plant it on the gravely bank along the driveway, where digging is hard. The bank is covered with some kind of creeping yew, and also English ivy, mixed in with iris and lavender and daylilies, and I had to hack out a place to put the new plant. While I was hacking, a wasp got after me, and I realized that I was close to a wasp nest hidden under all the brush. I put some distance between me and the nest, but the wasp came after me, and four or five of his wing men took to the air. I fought the attacker off with my trowel. He gave up, eventually, and when he did, I went for the can of jet spray wasp killer and went back and dosed everything that was flying around where I was trying to dig. When things settled down, I jumped back in, planted the plant, and got out of there.
About this time, Son #2 drove up in my Wrangler, which he had borrowed the previous day. It was his day off; he'd just come home from having driven the Little Rotten Baby to kindergarten. (She had insisted on riding to school with the top down, he said, but he'd already put the top back up.)
I said, "While you're here . . . follow me," and took him to the back yard, where the mole trap had been sprung.
I was not sure that there was actually a mole in it. It's a brand new (but cheap) scissor-type trap that had given me fits trying to set it. It once popped itself plumb out of the ground when I turned my back on it. Anyway . . .
There was a mole in the trap, probably the biggest, fattest mole I have ever seen. His pink paddle feet were the size of quarters.
If there is a trick to getting a mole our of a scissor-type trap, I don't know it. I handed it to The Son, who had the good sense to look for a release mechanism, but there wasn't one. When he finally got the scissors open, the mole was stuck to one of the blades and wouldn't just fall out of the trap. I raked it off with a stick and flung it down the gulley. Something will eat it.
I need to get out there today and check for new digging and re-set the trap.
Chiggers will get me when I do.
Maybe I'll do some sewing, instead.
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It's not that I am bored with making jewelry (the force is strong); I just need something besides jewelry to populate the booth that I am setting up at a charity benefit in mid-September.
I didn't tell you about that?
Ok, well, when the booth at the local October festival fell through, friends suggested some alternatives. The benefit happening next month is at a local church. Over 1,000 people usually attend. I will probably know a lot of them. There's another event coming up in October at a local high school. I probably won't know many of those folks. I am not sure whether displaying my craft in front of people I know is more scary or less scary than showing it to strangers.
Anyway, I've got two weeks to prepare.
As I said a few posts ago, I have made enough jewelry to set up a moderately full display. But I want to make some other things, too - useful things. During the past week or so, I've crocheted 3 cloche hats (and started a 4th) at night while watching TV, and there's enough yarn in my stash for several more. In a couple of days, we're doing a road trip to Mountain View, Arkansas, and since I don't get car-sick, I'll whip out a couple more hats while we're on the road and at night in the cabin.
I also wanted to make a few "dumpling bags," little half-moon-shaped purses for cosmetics and such. I made one for myself years ago; it goes on all my trips. Monday, I decided to make some out of some yardage already in my stash. Naturally, the original template for the original bag was nowhere to be found. There was a smaller version for free on the internet, so I downloaded one and made it, and realized that it was W-A-Y too small. I enlarged the template with the copy machine and cut out six more bags using the enlarged template. Before sewing the first one, I embroidered local school logos on them. These bags are made of unbleached canvas and are lined with vinyl shower curtain material. The bulk of the seams takes up too much room in the bag. Zipped up, my "enlarged version" might hold a small orange. I was shooting for something long enough to hold a toothbrush or a pencil or paintbrush.
Back to the drawing board to draft a USEFUL bag.
The experiments were not a total waste of time. Sewing the canvas fabric convinced me to use some other fabric for the final bags. There are some lovely fabrics in my stash that ought to be used for something. Once I finally get the size correct, I'll use the pretty stuff. The two tiny experiment bags are lined with vinyl shower curtain material. I'm on the fence about using it on the pretty bags.
Still, I have six little bags pieces already cut out, too small to make into bags but on which there is useful embroidery. Maybe I can cut out the logos and applique them onto something else., like a tote bag.
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