To Stupidity and Beyond

The puppies were at the groomers for a good part of yesterday, which leaves the house with this weird stillness. No escorts to the bathroom, no hopeful looks every time I take a bite of something, no carrying on when the neighbor dogs start barking about something. Way too quiet.

However, they came home buzz cut nekkid, rowdy and ready to enjoy the pool ...

I had a craving to make a big skillet of Calabacitas so we picked up some zucchini and yellow squash and had it for lunch over scrambled eggs. It tastes amazing and the house smells like heaven. If you've never tried this, it's a good time to do it. Wish we had a garden full of zucchini! I posted this recipe last October -- here's the link. Seriously, you have to try this at least once ...

My Mom and I were recently emailing back and forth about embroidery machines. She has several and has been using them for years. She's an incredible quilter and seamstress. So when I mentioned that an embroidery machine is on my someday wish list, she packed up an older model that she had in the closet and had Dad ship it to me. Oh. My. God. I could not be more excited. A new toy, new ways to craft ... isn't it a thing of beauty???

And thanks, Mom, I always wanted {wait for it} a little brother!!!

But I have to tell you, it's been sitting on my table for several weeks and I am totally intimidated by it. Not sure why. I've watched the video that came with it, I've read the manual, I've done some online research ... and still, I've been reluctant to touch it. I can sew, so that's not an issue. I finally got up the nerve to try embroidering something and had pretty good luck putting some designs on fabric scraps I had left over from a past sewing project. I think figuring out the stabilizer that you have to use to back most fabrics was part of my confusion. I had bought some at JoAnn and finally just forced myself to go for it. Okay, good enough.

We always have a terry cloth towel draped on the treadmill and I thought it would be fun to embroider a cute saying on it. So I figured out which way I had to turn the towel in order for the words to stitch in the right direction. It worked really well. First I stitched Much? closest to the edge of the towel. Then Sweat directly above it. And since I was on a roll, I even put on a pretty little swirly design which I know Hubby will appreciate as he's blotting sweat on the towel.

I've made you wait long enough. Here's the stupidity part. Mom, are you reading this? I am an idiot and I can prove it.

In order to have the lettering stitch the right way, I had the bulk of the towel bunched up in the machine, which didn't seem too bad. Until I pulled the completed piece off the machine and realized that during my fussing with it an entire corner of the towel had gotten tucked up underneath the embroidery hoop and become stitched into the design. And there is no unpicking these stitches to redo this thing.

So it now hangs on our treadmill like this ...

with the bottom left corner gone. Yep, cutting corners here. Live and learn. I will not be making this mistake again!