Briefly, I gave up the studio on May 31 and put everything in 9′x10′ storage. Everything? Hardly. I farmed out all the paintings, gave away tons of stuff, sold a few things, threw away everything else. I’m staying with my mom.

I went to Mexico for 2 weeks to relax and clear my head, it was nice and incredibly hot. Everyone I hung out with was cool and I will probably return in 2 months.

Not much else. I’m ok, somehow.

I actually did a bunch of work on the space today, hung a ton of paintings and art, stashed what isn’t going to be displayed up in the loft, sorted out a pile of boxes, and organized storage. I also did a mountain of laundry, all folded and put away, went grocery shopping, made dinner, and swept. I spend a LOT of time sweeping here, the concrete floor is crumbling in spots and there is dust all the time. And the kitty litter is in the bathroom so that’s always a mess. It’s coming together and we are getting used to the noises and temperatures of a new home.

Tomorrow we are going to see The Hobbit.

Our new space is wonderful, full of natural light and I sure do like that. Still lots of room for suspensions There are issues that are taking time to get used to, the radiators are crazy loud and there is no escaping them, for instance. Our new bathroom only has a shower stall and I find it hard to navigate. There is very little in terms of storage and after years of unlimited space, that’s a funny one to suck up. I’ll also be using a laundromat for the first time in 4 years, I hope I survive.

Anyway. It was the worst move ever, in so many ways. I’m eternally grateful to our friends that helped out, especially Dave and his room mate, and Badur who always comes through. I’m also relieved that Shannon survived it all, I’d had my doubts leading up to the day but he seems so be in such better spirits lately, that’s encouraging.

When I’m feeling a little more settled, maybe in January, I’ll have an open house and invite everyone over.

Windows-good.

Look, I’d take having to shovel snow three times a week for three months if it meant summer temperatures never rose above 22. No more of this 35 that feels like 42 bullshit. Where in Canada has this? Without a black fly season, because I’ll take 35 over black fly season.

Here’s the best part, I’m the only person that gets fatter in summer because I really just want to hibernate. Sad.

I’m trying to suck it up, however. Today I broke out my beautiful roller skates for the first time in more than 2 years. Since the accident. I guess it’s like riding a horse, I should have gotten right back on but I was scared. Ari and I were brave and walked down Sterling to the bottom of the Railpath and rolled all the way to Bloor. It took a LOT longer than you’d think. Good news is we discovered a sneak through right near our place, much more convenient. Then we went home.

Then I got a tingling in my feet and I went back out, this time, from the sneak through, straight up to Dupont and then back all the way down to Dundas, then back up to home. The whole thing took about 25 minutes and would be much much less if the stupid bridges were made of something solid rather than murderous wood slats. That almost killed me. Dead.

Of course there is mountains of graffiti along the way. I’ll take more pictures as the summer rolls on.

But for real, I like this locker because it’s in the top row and it is easy to remember which one I used.

Ok. I loved Rango. I know I’ve been going on about it on twitter and Facebook, but for everyone else in the world? Go see it. Don’t worry about if you have a kid to go with or not, they won’t enjoy it as much as you anyway. I took Ari yesterday and practically gave myself a hernia I was laughing so hard. Maybe it was stress related, I don’t know, but I’m going to see it again, hopefully in the theatre. And it’s NOT in 3D! Woo!

And I also loved The Adjustment Bureau. It’s a smart movie about love. About waiting for love and being true.

We watch Bob’s Burgers each Sunday and I just said to Shannon how much I like it because it’s odd and funny and very silly. The voices are great, it’s a good show. Especially compared to the rest of the crap you get to watch on Sunday night. I haven’t enjoyed an episode of The Simpsons in at least 8 years. And I don’t like Family Guy and I loathe Cleveland. It’s awful.

I’m still going to the gym twice a week but I think I’ve lost the fever for it. My legs hurt when I use the treadmill and it makes the rest of my workout pointless. So yeah, I use the elliptical (or cross trainer as it were) and that hurts way less but still. And swimming is hard. I love the swimming part but I hate the wet hair afterwards part. And swimming caps don’t help. In fact, I don’t really know what a swimming cap is for.

Ok, so other than sewing like crazy (like, literally, CRAZY) I still do knit sometimes and I’m working on a couple other things.

I’ve also been enjoying cooking more lately, I often find myself thinking about how delicious roasted cauliflower is (very!) and what goes well with quinoa (almost anything). Shannon and I ate at Rawlicious last weekend while Ari was at her Oma’s house and I’ve been thinking about going back soon. I had this zuchetti thing, zucchini spiral shredded with tomato sauce all raw and I loved it. And then we shared a piece of ‘cheesecake’ and died and went to the moon. So very delicious, wow. So I’ve been thinking abut making that and then thinking that it’s the type of food best left to the professionals. Like sushi. And pad thai.

On top of everything I haven’t been sleeping much lately. Every night I go to bed and sleep for a couple hours then wake up at about 3:30 and stay awake for about 2 hours. Or longer. Then when I wake up for real for work or…sewing, I’m exhausted. I feel dead. I know why. But I feel more secure if I have my ipad in bed with me. RAH. It’s the IPAD’s FAULT!! But you know? When you’re like, ok, sleep time, good night pillow, good night duvet, good night ipad. Oh, what? Did someone tweet something witty? Is there an email for me? Grr.

Technology will clearly be the death of me.

Ok. I love you all. I’ll post real pictures soon.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Caitlin must live in one classy building if people can afford to throw away such beautiful couches. Well, it’s true, I do live in a class encrusted building. Don’t be jealous, don’t hate. That couch is still there AND it has a friend if you’ve got a truck or a couple strong friends. For free.

Oh, and I posted more ducks a few days ago. I have a pretty crazy back log of submissions to go through, it’s forcing me to be picky. If something doesn’t look like a duck or it’s blurry or stupid, I delete it. With no reply. I know, so mean, huh?

Here’s the top, in situ:

It’s not finished, not even close. I need to make the back (which will be pieced with leftovers from the top plus whatever extra I need), quilt it, then the binding and a label on the back. So, I’m halfway there.

People have been super nice-it’s funny how the internet has this awful reputation for trolls, I guess they don’t read my blog-about all my work lately. I really appreciate positive comments and feedback, it does stoke the fire. I’ve also heard a lot of “I wish I could do that” type stuff. Honestly it’s not that hard. I was thinking about what advice I wish I’d had coming into quilting so I will share with you what I’ve learned.

1-it’s not cheap. You need decent scissors, rotary cutter, mats, rulers, iron and ironing board, pins, thread, fabric and a sewing machine. Fabric is crazy expensive. So far, on this project alone, I figure I’ve spent at least $100, and I still need to get batting and fabric for binding and the back, another $100 probably. It’s big, right now it measures approximately 80″ square, so that’s a lot of material, but still.

2-Space. Man, you need space to sew. I have a shit-ton of it here and I could still do with more. I’d love to have a project wall, like a giant pin board to tack fabric or blocks onto, to figure out how to arrange them. Yes, I can use the floor but more often than not it’s super dusty in the main room and no matter how well I sweep and mop, it’s dirty. I dread leaving this space for that very reason (although I am eagerly anticipating it for every other reason).

3-Energy and momentum. My problem is putting projects down. When I injured my hand in December it stopped me from finishing the 2 quilts that I’d started for my parents (both completely done now, last hand finishes just a couple days ago). Well, that was my excuse (legitimately!) but worse was that I’d lost the momentum on them. I’d finished the fun part, picking fabrics, cutting, piecing, organizing and sewing the tops, but the drudgery, the sandwich and pinning and quilting and binding, ugh. I basically sewed this green top completely yesterday, including cutting the green strips that go between each block. That took a couple coffees and Coke Zeros.

4. Practice. I’ve fiddled with my new sewing machine a lot so I’m pretty confident about how it works and what it can do. This quilt is my 6th project and I do feel like I’m starting to figure it all out. I’m certainly not an Outlier, I’m no where near 40, 000 hours, but practice makes perfect. For everything.

That’s all. I mean, I reserve the right to add to this list as I need to, but those are my basic tips.

Ok. And about internet thievery-that’s an exaggeration. Someone I used to be friends with took one of my recipes, changed it a bit and published it as her own. And by published I don’t mean on their blog, but in an actual newsletter that goes out to people who will think that it’s an original. Now, I know we’re not friends any longer, I can live with that, but giving credit where it’s due is only fair. Even if it’s just a small nothing credit (“I adapted this recipe from an old friend”), it’s still meaningful. Obviously it’s time for me to update my google reader subscription feed and dump her blog to avoid any further upsets (and forced, unpleasant contact). After 2 years, I know I should. But I guess I’ve been hopeful for some sort of reconciliation.  And because I was there throughout her pregnancy and the first two years her kids were alive, I’m still interested in their growth and development. How very selfish of me.

I won’t make this any longer than necessary: there’s no cream here for coffee and I have to remedy that before a migraine sets in.

Anyway, on the hand front. My hand is healed. Seriously. I went to see the plastic surgeon on Friday who said it looked fine to him and to exercise it to make sure the scar tissue stretches out properly. He said I could leave without bandages but that made me too nervous, I was going onto TTC and the movie theatre, and didn’t want to risk the cooties. Not to mention it still looks pretty awful and it’s easier when it’s bandaged to avoid horrified glances.

So all it took was a  week. I find it amazing, honestly. The skin is tender still, I don’t like fabric rubbing on it-or hot water, but over all, not a problem at all and I haven’t even had one pain killer since Friday morning. Funny how those first few very dark days…I really wondered if my hand was screwed forever.

Friday:

Today:

It doesn’t even look that red irl.

Today, flexed:

You can see where it’s tight.

That’s it! Hopefully no more hand blogging from now on.

It looked worse than really bad to me: It looked terrifyingly awful. All the top layer of skin from my wrist above my thumb diagonally across to my pinky finger was peeled away, bright pink underneath. The shredded flaps of burnt skin looked brown and disgusting. Even between my fingers and down to the second joint are cooked.

After minimal debate, it was decided that a visit to the nearest Emergency Room was necessary. At that point I’d been running icy water over it for about half an hour and the pain was tolerable-I’d also taken 2 Advil before we went out. The nurses were so great, they let me sit in the eyewash station right beside a sink so that whenever it started to heat up I could cool it off. It was a good spot too, I wasn’t sitting with truly sick, infectious people and I got to listen in on very interesting conversations between doctors, nurses and patients.

Anyway, eventually a very nice doctor did see me and wrote a prescription for percs then a nurse bandaged me up and sent me home. Both were amazed by my pain tolerance, but I swear that all the icy water made an enormous difference.

All together I spent less than 3 hours in the ER.

The good news is that I can’t do dishes for a while. The bad news is that I can’t knit or sew and that means no xmas gifts will be done on time. The other news is that percosets make me crazy dizzy and put me into a shitty twilight state, not asleep but not awake. Me and my low tolerance!

No pictures yet, sorry. I didn’t really have my wits about me to do that pre-bandaging yesterday. When I go back to the hospital tomorrow for a look-see and fresh bandages, I’ll do it but be prepared for extreme ugliness.

If anyone is near me and wants to help with some sewing I’d be forever grateful and in your debt, please let me know.

TL;DR I have second degree burns on 2/3 on the back of my hand.