Yesterday I kept waiting for the heatwave to hit that was supposed to move into the area. Luckily, though, the sea breeze kept the heat over the Oakland hills on the other side of town from us. The house stayed delightfully cool for my fall housecleaning madness. I cleaned all surfaces. There was dusting of bookcases and tables, wiping down mirrors, polishing plates (Yes we have to polish our plates due to a reaction between the silverware and stone wear.), cleaning of bathrooms, and laundry in the machines. It was a whir of activity and a banishment of dust clouds. I kept the one last remaining good flower in the arrangement as a last hint of summer in the house. Today, it is still delightfully chilly despite blistering temperatures across the hills. I enjoy bay side living.

The only thing that did not get tackled is this:



I intend to get the desk mess in order today. Entropy is a hard force to fight. Just when you think you have it beaten down, it shows itself somewhere else. It will be great to have a fully cleaned house and work space. Today I am hoping to finish off a pair of pants and perhaps more handwork on a belt. There is also a matter of dessert to be made since the temperature is not hot again. I am looking to make a chocolate pie that I saw in my latest Penzey's Catalogue. It looks really yummy. Hopefully this will also be the end to my crust issues I have had as of late. I will report back to see if a new recipe and method worked better this time rather than the disastrous results I have been having lately. The red work boxes are being made, but are not finished yet. More on those soon. There is also the possibility that I will abandon all this to go and get some more tools for clay working. I am working up some new contraptions in clay and hope to have those out for all to see soon as well.

I am going to get down to work on this desk thing... hopefully it doesn't take all day!

The house cleaning was rather successful yesterday. There are just a few more things I need to clean up, mainly the shower and some bathroom sinks as well as give the sewing room a good vacuuming. Overall I am really pleased with how clean I have gotten the apartment, and while there was some dawdling, it mostly happened at the times I hoped. I also worked on aphid destruction and decimation yesterday. The first application over the weekend did a rather good job of cutting down on the population, and so I did another liberal application yesterday. I am going to give the garden today off and hit it with more soapy cayenne pepper spray tomorrow. The tomato plant has gotten so large and top heavy for the pot that it fell over yesterday. I guess some things are really liking the patio. It has even gotten a few small green tomatoes started. I will have to wait and see if any of them actually get red at all considering the cooler temperatures we have had this summer.

Today I want to get a personal skirt hemmed as well as a veil hemmed. There are also a few belt projects I would like to pick up and start to finish. One of those is the peacock and elephant belt that has been a few years in progress. The other is a belt that uses recycled fabric from one of my first costumes. I loved the fabric so much, that I kept this choli around for a long time in order to find it a good home. Since it has not really found one, I decided to upcycle to fabric from it into two beautiful belts. They are coming along nicely, and I hope to have them and a pair of black pants close to finished by the end of the week. I will take quick pictures whenever I get any of them finished. Well I think that I am off to work on some supply hunting and ordering for the shop as well as all those sewing projects.

I cannot wait for this weekend to finally get here. It is Maker Faire this weekend in San Mateo, and I cannot wait to go. Dan and I have attended this wonderful festival dedicated to the making and crafting of things since we moved to the area two years ago. Many of our friends are not attending citing the sameness of the fair the past two years, but I kind of love some of the familiarity of things. It hearkens back to our trips to state fairs, and how you knew where certain vendors would be each year. I am mostly looking forward to meeting some fellow Etsians in the Bizarre Bazaar. I hope to remember to take some pictures for you all to see next week.

Today is the usual house chores of Friday: laundry, cleaning, straightening, garbage taking out, and perhaps some cookie baking. I also have some gifts for Jozef to make and get ready for his birthday next week. I am taking pictures of this as I am working on the items and will also have those next week for you all to peruse. There is planning to do for our trip down tomorrow, time tables to look up for the train, and tickets to acquire. Lots to do and now I am off to do it.

This weekend I decided to recharge the creative batteries. I went with my husband and a friend to the De Young museum to see the Chihuly exhibit. It was full of beautiful glass works, and it was nice to see someone else who seems to love vibrant colours. He also has a very whimsical view it seems, and his love for natural forms was also something I connected with. Below is a picture of his glass ceiling. It was a great piece and seemed to be a gigantic "I Spy" picture made of glass. If you go to the above link, you can see pictures of the entire exhibit. I highly recommend it to anyone who can see it when it comes to your city. Pictures just do not do this exhibit justice. It is something that must be experienced in person.



After that, I went with my husband to see Lewis Black in Berkeley. It was a great night. The show was really funny and rounded out my day nicely. On Sunday, it was back to finishing work on some pairs of special order pants. They are finally finished after much wrestling and wrangling, but I think they came out beautifully.

Yesterday was filled with house cleaning. I have let it slide for too long, and it really needed to be done. I tackled it all yesterday. Who knew such a small apartment could take so long to clean. It is great though, and I love having a sparkling clean house. Now, I can mess it all up with pants making! I have some great fabrics I bought a week or so ago and some older ones that I can finally get to. Today I am going to work on the purple moon flower fabric that I have. While the sari binding is only on one side, I could not give it up. I thought it was too pretty of a pattern and colour to pass up. Here is a quick picture I took of it. Hopefully I can get these made today and photographed tomorrow. It is all weather dependent on that. I want to get them up for sale by Thursday though. On that note.... off to iron this great fabric out to get it ready to cut!