Told ya I couldn't finish one project without starting another!

BUT this time I did finish!!

First, I would like to explain where all this time to do projects is coming from... I quit my blucky job! Actually, let me rephrase: I quit my blucky career! After too many years to count, I have been a dog groomer. This is not, as many seem to think, a rewarding and satisfying career. It is hard. It is exhausting. It pays very little. It produces scars on a daily basis. "Groomer Has It" on Animal Planet reflects those lucky few that have fallen into a great niche in an affluent neighborhood--don't take their lives or experiences literally (after all, it IS a "reality" show).

Now, I am fortunate enough to have a family that supports me in my choices; I am enrolled to start Graduate school this fall, so I do have something new to look forward to. Otherwise, it would be back to the dogs after my daughter goes back to school in August.

That said--I am now home for the summer (or until I find a job with the hours that work around my schedule) so I feel the need to fill every moment with something that will justify my mooching existence. My sister understands this--we come from a matriarchical guilt-indulgant family--and has the same issues. When we are at home, without work (she is a freelance and fiction writer), it weighs heavily upon us. Really the whole thing is crazy: she rock and rolls for weeks straight when she has work and completely deserves when she gets some time off; I am a mom, and therefore would rather stay at home then pay half my income to Kindercare. There is no reason to actually FEEL guilty. However, we do. SO--instead we try and compensate by tootling around the house, starting projects, cooking meals, cleaning, and--for me at least--pumping something educational into my child's brain.

Here is my daily project--it began many moons ago as this sheer light pink material that I loved on the bolt. I decided I wanted to make a shirt with it, so bought a pattern (which, much like my sister treats recipes, I tend to bastardize them so that by the end of the project they no longer look like they were suppose to, which probably defeats the whole purpose of the pattern at all) and cut goodies out. Now, I don't do sheer, so I got a similar-colored stretchy material for the lining. The shirt was supposed to be one of those frocky styled sleeveless jobbies--but I don't do sleeveless (hence the sleeves), and the frockyness just made me look pregnant, so I put in the elasticized band and shortened the whole thing considerably. It is a bit bulky thanks to the lining, but all in all it is very cutey on!