A Little Yarn On The Side

Two MONTHS after the interview process started with the American Red Cross, and two weeks since my "final" interview, I received the "we're not interested" form email from them today.  I thought I'd be disappointed, but dealing with them has been such an unprofessional mess that I'm not sure it isn't a relief.  ONE HOUR before one of the interviews that the recruiter had scheduled, I received an email from the person doing the interview that she'd scheduled my interview for 4 days later.  When I responded that the recruiter had actually scheduled it for THAT DAY, all the manager said was that she would let the recruiter know.  No "sorry for the confusion" or any acknowledgement at all that I might have rearranged my schedule to accommodate theirs or that this might be WILDLY unprofessional and rude--and the whole process was like that: times changing all the time, the recruiter and the manager obviously not communicating and just on and...

Between looking for a job and trying to get the house ready for to sell, my stress level is just a wee bit high right now, as I think most people would guess.  I say "most" because there are always those family members who never think you're doing enough for them no matter what is happening in your own life, but everyone has at least one of those relatives, right?  Anyway, the hobby party turned out to be both a nice break AND a really fun event. We had a "display" table of things that people had made for us that weren't going to be eligible for any voting, but were still fun.  I have a pair of pillowcases my favorite grandmother made me, tin can furniture from my other grandmother, both of which were made from old Band-Aid boxes, a doily one of my volunteers gave me, a ceramic owl Andy's cousin made, a ceramic Santa a friend painted,  a quilt from Andy's great-aunt and one from my grandmother,  and a rock table made by my great-grandmo...

So interview #1 is over and I did not get the job, but rather amazingly, they called me to tell me this.  That's a first--usually it's a form email or letter 6 weeks later when you've basically already figured that out.  I thought that was above and beyond, so very high marks to that gentleman.  The next one is on Monday, so hopefully I am not spending the rest of the week curled up in the back of my closet--but I will take knitting with me if I do. Tomorrow we are hosting a Home Hobby party.  Many of our friends are amateur musicians, and there are regular "house concerts" for people to perform, which is fun, but it occurred to me that we have lots of friends with OTHER hobbies, so everyone is invited to bring something to show, and there will be prizes for favorite, most unusual, and just general door prizes.  I've been able to see some of the things our friends do, but they're always surprising me with new talents, so I'm very excited about this a...

Andy hauled off a bunch of stuff to donate this week, and there were FOUR yards of costume satin in the pile!!! I am SO proud of myself for this.  I have never managed to donate fabric before, and was only able to give away fabric that I had been given and didn't think I'd use.  And even more exciting, I've set aside TWO MORE yards of fabric to give away!  And lots of crafting books and magazines as well.  Not a huge dent, of course, but every little bit helps.

I don't know........does this remind you of anyone?

I'm always ready for spring, but after this winter, I'm even more excited. And...........I HAVE JOB INTERVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!  2 to be exact.  One this week and a final interview with another organization next week, so I might be back to work soon!  Conversely, if I go through all of this and don't get either job, I might be spending April curled up in a ball in the back of my closet.  Ah, the possibilities...... I finally have a picture of Andy's new shirt with buttons, and started my next project,  which you might notice isn't pajamas.  It's another one of these which is what I'm wearing for Me Made Monday today.  At least this is also a very old piece of fabric--probably 2006/2007.  It's a fine-wale corduroy, and I bought it to make a shirt for Andy, apparently before I figured out how much fabric it takes to make a shirt.  Since the jacket involves a LOT of pieces, it takes less fabric, so it's almost the only option for thi...

So Me Made Monday was fairly easy this week, as it was freezing and spitting snow.  This is one of the most comfy things I've ever made.  Being spring in Idaho, of course, it was 60 degrees yesterday  It's supposed to be almost 70 degrees this week, then heaven only knows.  Layers are our friend. With the assistance of Callisto, who has a passion for laying on sewing instructions, I have been working on Andy's shirt in little bits all week, getting everything finished yesterday, and adding buttons today: The job hunt continues in both states, but slowly.  Job.no job/moving/not moving is a FABULOUS way to get stressed out, but luckily we realized that most of the things we would have to do to prep our house to sell are things that need to be done anyway, so this week I started with the closet in the master bath.  Besides just a general cleaning and sorting, it really needed to be repainted.  We'll have been in this house 11 years thi...