Friday afternoon

Half an hour or so left of the workday. Considering I've only been in the office two days this week, this has felt like a very, very long week.

A young friend is coming over tonight for a craft "night". When we set it up, I promised that if we did a Friday night, I would stay up past my (unreasonably early) bedtime. Indeed, if 9 p.m. finds me still upright and engaged, I can go for another two to three hours before crashing.

My plan is to work on some things that need to be finished - if only to move them on to their intended recipients and free up space in the studio. For instance, a stack of seven or so fleece blankets had the owls embroidered on them back in the summer. They need to be bound, but I'd like to use the binder attachment on the sewing machine to do it. I've never used it before, and you need to cut actual bias (stretchy) strips to an odd (1 1/8") width to use it. So tonight I cut and sew together binding strips.

Along with that, I'd like to cut out the pieces for the stuffed owls that will go with the blankets. It's easy enough to cut pieces for multiple owls all at once; in fact, it will make assembly line sewing for them a snap.

Those two things alone should take me through the evening.

The rest of the weekend? Saturday is supposed to be wet and cold, so a book, some soup and a fire sound perfect. Sunday, once things dry off a bit, will be dedicated to a final clean up of the patio and taking in of all the things. Well, the patio umbrella, anyway. The table/chairs and bench have nice canvas covers to protect them in the winter.

Our development is posted no trespassing, no soliciting, so we get no little treat seekers. I'm not much for Halloween, anyway. There's quite a bit of irony here, as childless me is much more equipped to make fantabulous kids' costumes from scratch than pretty much every mom out there. God has a sense of humor.

Anyway - quiet weekend for the most part. How about you?