Weekend wrapup

After a long day, much cursing, and a near trip to Divorce Court, we finally got our dining room photo wall hung on the weekend. I have had an assortment of frames stacked and sitting around just waiting to be hung for some time, but was afraid to commit to punching a bunch of holes in such a pristine wall. This may sound backwards, but I have found the drywall in our new house to be LESS robust than the plaster in our old house, so rather than just hammering in a skinny nail and moving it over an inch if it goes in the wrong place - we've been doing the whole screw-and-anchor routine. Much more work to fix when you fudge it up. I even went so far as to go buy one of those Hang and Level contraptions, which was a total disaster and I want my money back. I put a masking tape line on the wall where I wanted the bottom of the picture frames to sit and we marked it according to that, put in the screw and lo and behold - the frame edge is now about 1.5" below that line. Utter piece of crap. Anyway, I was convinced it would take half an hour tops to hang 7 frames, but it turned into an all-day project instead. First, we had to come to a compromise on where the frames would actually be hung. Then we had to measure everything six ways to Sunday after the Hang and Level was a no-go. Then we had to alter the hanging hardware on some of the frames after realizing it wouldn't work with the screw and anchor assemblies... ay yi yi. Everything is hung now, just waiting for photos to go in them. (As Chad said: "Now if only we knew someone who takes a lot of pictures...") There actually is a print order on its way... just waiting for it to arrive.

I made *some* progress on the quilt front, but again, not nearly as much as I'd expected. I sewed binding the whole way through Burn After Reading and into the first hour of Saturday Night Live, only to find myself about a quarter of the way done. Then I picked it up again Sunday night, but could only go at it for an hour or so - my fingers were much too sore to continue. I can go back to referring to it as "my winter project" now because really... this is going to take me til the end of the winter to finish up. Who knew the very last step would be the most time consuming of all?

Finally, I bought Mallory the cutest little dress for Aunty Katrina's wedding on the weekend. I know it's five months early, but you have to nab these things when you find them - if I waited til June to buy something, I'm sure I wouldn't find anything I like. And honestly... it was nice to have that little bit of summer pick-me-up. It's only January, and already I am sick of the cold and the snow. These past couple of winters I have been totally envious of everyone who makes the trip down to Mexico or Florida for a break. (Why exactly are we saving our vacation time for August, again? Hmmm.) Maybe I just need some vitamin D and some time out in the sun, but man... spring cannot come soon enough!