The Best Laid Plans

Have you ever had "one of those days" where nothing seems to go right?  Well, that describes much of my weekend.  I had the very best of intentions, but my plans didn't go so well.  Some of it was due to lack of motivation, but other things really seemed to be the universe conspiring against me.

I finally managed to join Katrina's needleroll stitch-along.  This is something I've wanted to participate in for the past couple of months, but something always comes up to keep me from it.  This month, I had the time to do it.  I was going to work on Victoria Sampler's Pansy needleroll.  It was very close to being finished and had been in the UFO pile for a long time.  I pulled it out after work on Friday and saw that I only needed to finish the Hardanger band at the bottom and attach the beads.  A piece of cake, right?  WRONG!! 

Try as I might, I just couldn't get motivated to do the Hardanger.  So, I forced myself to work on it.  BAD IDEA!  I started out by promptly cutting the wrong threads.  >:(  I repaired it, then started working on the rest.  I had spent about an hour on it, when I realized I was using #8 perle cotton where I was supposed to be using #12.  Have you ever had to frog Hardanger???  I don't mean the kloster blocks... but the wrapped bars and such?  UGH!!!  I finally gave up and went to bed.

On Saturday, I frogged my mistakes and started again.  I stuck with it, mostly, and have *almost* finished it.  I still have to do the dove's eyes and add the beads.  I'll do that this evening and post a pic tonight. ;)

My other good intention for the weekend was to assemble my fob for the upcoming exchange.  I wasn't motivated to do it, and after the Hardanger disaster, I decided that it would be best to hold off on the assembly.  By Sunday, I decided that was a really good thing.  I'm sure I would have managed to ruin it somehow.

Since stitching wasn't going well, I decided to try my hand at my planned soapmaking.  I had everything except the lye.  No problem, right?  Lye is EASY to find... available in most supermarkets.  Or so I've been told.  Four stores later, and I *still* don't have any lye.  So, no soap from scratch for me this weekend. :(

I couldn't do soap from scratch, but I could make some melt & pour.  What could possibly go wrong there?  For starters, that was when I discovered that my scale... the one that measures to the gram, that I had to order online and pay plenty of $$ for, plus shipping... doesn't work.  I tried everything.  The stupid thing simply doesn't work.  Great.  What next?

I guessed (incorrectly, of course) at the amount of soap base to melt to make some round soaps with loofah in them.  Melted, poured and, oops... I hadn't melted enough soap base.  That was easy enough to fix.  I just melted some more and poured it in.  No problem.

By this time, I was tired of standing on my feet in the kitchen, but it was nearly time for dinner.  Before I could fix dinner, I had to clean up the kitchen.  I was making a pasta dish that I could probably do in my sleep, if I had to.  I had everything ready to go and only needed to grate some fresh parmesan to top it with.  I opened my brand-new wedge of parmesan and there it was... a hair, embedded in the cheese and sticking out about 1/4".  If I hadn't seen it, I never would have believed it.  What person finds a HAIR sticking out of their cheese??? 

That's just the kind of day I was having.

Fortunately, I cook a lot and had more parmesan on-hand, so all was not lost.

Of course, there are no pictures to post today.  I was afraid to go near the computer last night.  I was convinced that if I got near it, the thing would mysteriously combust.  I'll have pics of the needleroll, and maybe PIG, tomorrow.