Toys, Drapes and Shine

I used my newest toy for swimming yesterday. I'm delighted to say that it worked perfectly. My waterproofed iPod Shuffle gave me a good pace, kept me pushing through a few rough periods I had in the water as I did my laps, and generally passed its first trial by water in fine style. I've decided to drop down one size on the earplugs for Friday and see if that improves things even more, and I need to get a bit more familiar with the controls, but it was a good first outing. I suspect I'll get as much use from this iPod as I do from my slightly larger one which I use for my machine days. So far I've lost 25 pounds since the beginning of January and I feel 1000 times better, so the gym is definitely working well for me. In fact, yesterday I wore a pair of jeans that I haven't been able to wear for the past two years! SCORE! LOL.

My new little iPod worked really well in the pool
yesterday. The gals all laughed at me, calling me a
Gadget Geek. Well, I am, but this is also my early
birthday gift to myself and I think I'm going to love it. 

I saw the decorator yesterday with our new colors and samples in hand. She will order some larger carpet samples in for us to look at. They will be mailed directly to me. We also went through their laminates with the smaller sample I had brought along with me and chose two that were quite similar for DH to look at. These are larger 1x2 ft samples, so he can get a very good idea of color range and changes. So far we're divided on which of the two we like better, but they're quite close and we'll get there eventually. There's no major rush on this. I had been shooting for a mid-May install, but because it's taking longer to make up our minds, I'm pushing that back to 2nd or 3rd week of June instead which will give me more time to catalog our paperbacks - all to the good.

I've gotten almost 1000 of our paperback books
scanned and into my Book Catalogue app.
Now they're in boxes, alphabetized by author.
I still have a lot of books to go, but I've made
a very good start. 

But the draperies! DH and I had agreed on a particular fabric, but when I went to talk with Chara about the decorating, she gave me prices for drapes. If I had chosen that fabric, the drapes would have cost as much as the entire carpeting! No, and again NO! Even going with a lesser fabric, the drapes seem unusually expensive to me. I have basic dimensions now, so DH and I will go to JC Penney's on Sunday and see what something comparable would cost if we ordered through them. I'm sure they would still need to come and measure again, and that would be fine.

OK, I want my drapes in a light neutral ice grey and it covers a width
three times this wide, but it's a pretty basic drape. You wouldn't think
I would have to pay THAT much for it. 

I also left a text message for a friend who has been involved in professional sewing for years to find out if she may have any recommendations for me as far as someone who might make custom drapes for a lesser cost. Fabric can always be ordered by the bolt, I've done it before. It's not an unusual drape except it's wide. It's a standard double-draw drape that goes across my large picture window. I want a lined drape with a center pull. It's straight sewing, just a lot of fabric and the seams need to be absolutely straight. But it's basic sewing and if I wasn't so swamped with other things, I could probably sew them myself.

I decided on Sea Glass as the color of my
new MisFit. I was tempted to choose Wine, but
I think I prefer the lighter color. 

So onward to the machines. I'm shipping my defective MisFit Shine to the manufacturer this morning and they will be sending me a Sea Glass colored replacement as soon as they get my old one back. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll be back up and running with a new wrist ornament. Happy Thursday to everyone!