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Re-emerging
Daughter, daughter's fiance, daughter's two cats and Son have left today after staying over from the 23rd. We have had fish and hamsters here before but this is our first experience with cats.
Everyone was a little worried about how the cats would take to coming to a house that was new to them. Ember, the hairless sphynx cat clearly has PTSD about car journeys and spends the journey throwing up in her carrier, and Voidstar is only 1 and had never left Daughter's house before.
But despite the usual throwing up in the car, as soon as Ember got through the door she was visibly delighted to be here and trotted around delicately sniffing everything and climbing up everyone to rub her cheek on yours.
Ember, being bald, is very sensitive to the cold and her favourite thing to do is land on your lap and nose at your jumper until you lift it up and let her come inside, where she will immediately loaf down and go to sleep.
Voidstar went under the sofa and stayed there, but by the next day was happily leaning against everyone's legs and lurking invisibly in doorways and on the stairs (he's as dark as a dark star and you can't see him if he shuts his eyes.)
Daughter tells me he is lying in the entrances of the den in order to defend us, which is very noble of him.
So I spent most of the Christmas period sitting still with Ember either purring or snoring in my lap, and the rest of the family had to bring me cups of tea and slices of Yule Log.
Not a single dodgy present this year :) I got some great trousers with foxes and mushrooms on them, and - having asked everyone for fabric - 13 metres of fabric.
And a new sewing machine! It has a serger function, and zig-zag stitch, so I'll be able to sew stretch fabric for the first time, and it will make my seams much more professional than they have been. I'm going to try it out tomorrow.
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Tackling a project with it is definitely the best way to get over the intimidation factor! (Though I also sympathize - I haven't used a sewing machine since I was in middle school, so I wouldn't know where to start!) But how fortuitous that you happened to get all that fabric! :D
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I think I might start on the muffs, as they are fairly simple and I can knock them out in an hour or so. It's going to take me forever just to remember how to thread the machine up - that's going to be a return to the instruction booklet at least for the first three or so times.
Heh, I asked for African Wax Print fabric because you can get 10 metres of that for £13 from ebay, and I also asked for 3 metres of tartan wool fabric from the local haberdashery, and while I did get the Wax Print, I got some kind of raspberry pink heavy cotton instead of the wool. So my wool skirt that I was imagining won't happen, but probably that's for the best!
It took me a very long time to get comfortable with using a sewing machine, but it was worth it :)
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Aw, bummer that the plan for the wool is a no-go, though I'm sure you'll find something good to do with the cotton, too!
I know that having a sewing machine really is just not even comparable to having to do everything by hand!