Embellishing a plain canvas bag

I got really hooked on giving art supplies in an artist's tote for the kids' birthdays I've been invited to this year, so it's been bothering me that I was too busy driving and knitting on a deadline to make a bag for the latest event this past weekend.

Turns out I didn't need to worry, because the art supply store was selling these:


and when I saw the rack of them I remembered I have a bunch of things like these:


I bought them last summer, for about 10 cents apiece, in a small town Salvation Army store. (don't you feel sad when you see somebody's work just set aside like that and not really valued?)

Probably any little girl who's carrying her art bag off to sketch with will want a little doll or stuffed animal to come along with her, or maybe some sweets, so I thought a little pocket would dress up the bag and show some love for the doilies at the same time:


It was a bit tricky given that the bag was already sewn up (and pretty small at that) but I was able to machine stitch the doily onto the front from just past 10 o'clock to a little before 1 - the perfect way to hold the doily's shape and still let a hand in there to scrounge for chocolate.

H'mmm... that feature makes it a perfect gift for me too, doesn't it. Good thing I have more doilies!

Adolescence: complete

Whew. It still hasn't sunk in that I finally have a full driver's license.

At my age!

After about 10 years of knowing I was going to have to get it dealt with!

In spite of the 14 mistakes I found marked on my test report after the dust settled yesterday!

But it's true: I've finished that project. And as it's hard on the heels of another finished project that should have been completed while I was still in high school (getting braces), I now feel that my adolescence is finally all wrapped up.

Translation: I get to have my 20s now.

The first thing I did after dropping by the office where I needed to renew the license and have my picture taken was to drive to the grocery store for this:


I hadn't tried this flavour before but they were out of Vanilla Swiss Almond (chocolate-covered almonds in vanilla ice cream for bonus protein) so I succumbed to the melty looking caramels. It's great and I did eat the whole thing before bedtime. I still like VSA best though.

And now that I've had all that sugar and a pretty good sleep I'm thinking...

... time to get back to work on that novel? A novel is a good thing to write in your 20s.

For test results, click here

6:55 am

This is where I will check in after my driving test today and post whether I passed or not so that everybody can get off the edge of their seats and go on with life. I'll be home and post-ready by between 12:30 and 1:15.

For now, I'll just give you today's update:

I did get out to drive yesterday, deciding that I should maybe just do a final polish on the whole parking thing. I'm so glad I did.

Seems I have a 10% chance of doing a parallel park right the first time, and a 75% chance of knowing when to stop correcting to get it exactly right the other 90% of the time. That's if I'm just parking behind one car and not between two. If I'm between two I know how to correct but have about a 40% chance of not hitting the curb. Hitting the curb, you lose points. Jumping the curb, you fail. So let's hope I'm not asked to do one between two cars up a hill backwards, shall we?

(There is only about a 10% chance I'll be asked to do a parallel park at all, and I have the last test slot before lunch on what will apparently be another oppressively hot day. I'm going to just not worry about this.)

Backing into a space in a parking lot, I have maybe a 5% chance of getting it right the first time, but a 95% chance of adjusting successfully before my examiner dies of old age. There's a 90% chance I'll have to do this one.

Driving into a space in a parking lot - whoa. That one is a big zero. I couldn't get it right even once, and no amount of correction made it perfect. But that's more the fault of my car and its not-so-fab turning radius. Only 10% risk I'll have to do this one, and if I do my confidence is going to get me through the amount of points I'll lose. Since I know exactly what to ask of my car, the confidence level should be pretty solid.

Apart from a little more practise pre-test, I'm left with only one thing to do: be very meditative and focused and do only the thing I am doing when I am doing it. I won't fail on parking. I will lose points, but not enough to fail unless I mess up badly every 6 or so minutes. So I suspect the key is to take it slow whenever I'm asked to execute something, so as to drag out the time spent doing them and leave less for doing something else.

Have a good morning, folks - see you later!

12:00 noon

I PASSED!!!!

I didn't start off well in the parking lot where the examiner was asking me to demonstrate that my lights worked, but when I parallel parked (nailed it) he said 'Beautiful!" and a few minutes later in the emergency stop he told me he was really impressed with my driving.

So now I just have to head to the nearest motor vehicle office and get my license renewed and my picture taken and I won't have to take another road test till I'm 85 or something.

Man. I could sleep for a week - and finally, I should have time to.

Too ready?

I had a great driving lesson on Saturday and at the end of it my instructor said Well, I'm pleased to see you're multitasking now. The downside is, you're not quite ready to do that.

ACK.

This was mostly a reflection of my chatting while driving, something I will not be doing on the actual test since examiners limit their conversation to things like "When safe to do so, move one lane to the left." Even I can't find much to work with there.

But yesterday, when I rushed out of the house under pressure for practice time, and again today when I had my last lesson before the test, I noticed I'm definitely getting sloppy - even a little aggressive - with my city driving.

Maybe I'm practicing too much, to the point where I'm comfortable and not paying so much attention to every detail? Maybe it would be good if I took tomorrow off entirely, and just went over everything one last time right before I have the test on Thursday?

Or maybe these two bad practice sessions are the consequence of forgetting my St. Christopher medals at home and I should stop obsessing and get a good sleep.

I kind of like that idea, actually. All it's missing is the chocolate.

Three little words

1. Driving
2. Knitting
3. Takeout

Three days and counting, people: and amazingly, I feel nearly ready for what will hopefully be the last road test of my life.

(though even more hopefully, not because said road test will mark the end of same.)

Saturday morning, I had a fabulous driving lesson that involved repeat loops around two different highways, including The Busiest Highway In North America (TM). I felt so comfortable afterward that I actually drove out of town on it later in the day to take some friends out for supper and one of my passengers was sufficiently comfortable to doze off.

(we will not discuss the left I had to make onto a busy 4-lane road out of a movie complex when I came across an unexpected No Left Turn sign en route to the restaurant, apart from noting that banshee-like acceleration foiled the Lincoln behind me in its efforts to make contact. Thank you Manny for that tip.)

However, since I have to have two lots of (actual, professionally-commissioned) knitting work done by test day or the day after, I am feeling somewhat less poised about that element of this month's non-writing endeavors. Saturday's meal wasn't takeout, so I brought my knitting along, and I did a lot of it while we waited for a table.

Sunday being a day of rest, I drove friends to another friend's place about twice as far away via another highway, where they all swam and played and I sat under a patio umbrella and knit some more. More knitting more knitting more knitting, takeout, more knitting and a movie:

A Kid for Two Farthings

which I really liked and highly recommend.

Today is a statutory holiday where I live so naturally I'm about to go drive some more and then -

Yeah, well. I bet you can guess. And then out for supper again to another knitting-friendly restaurant because I am out of takeout places/officially sick of pizza.

Happy Victoria Day!*

* alternate choice for those three little words

You know what's good?

Mango sorbet.

Also:

2-day-old brioche buns you forgot about, but then sliced thinnish and toasted en mass in 2 slots and spread with butter and strawberry rhubarb jam.

A glass of water you knock off the counter with your elbow onto a floor that needed cleaning anyway.


Tempered glass water tumblers that don't break just from getting knocked off the counter.

Tissues softened with lotion.

Friends who love you like family.

A good cup of tea on a sore throat.

Uninterrupted sleep.

Mail with really cool stamps on it celebrating artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning (thank you Kathy!)

and

Days off.


Of course, days off that you can spend eating mango sorbet? those are pretty awesome.

Long weekend coming up here, to celebrate Queen Victoria in all her fireworks-inspiring splendour, and I will be spending most of it behind the wheel doing a final push to look like I've been driving daily for years and not just a month. But today I am just going to sit and knit or nap and not do anything at all. Maybe that will chase away the last of my cold?

Anything that would do that would be better than good.

Edited to add: the drinking glasses are my favourites - used 'em for years, and they still look like new.  Plus, who can put a price on not having to worry about shards of glass all over the floor?  (said Mary, shuddering at the memory of the time the candy thermometer fell.)

What to do: handkerchief edition

Okay, I have to do something about the handkerchief problem (the one where I keep buying them at rummage sales etc. and not knowing with to do with them.)

Mum says embroidered ones especially are for show, not for blow - but honestly, how does one show a handkerchief in this day and age? I keep thinking they would make fabulous-looking pockets... but maybe not such strong ones.

Gah.

Well, in the meantime, come and see the two I bought last weekend:


a 'P' for mum


and an 'M' for me.

Definitely, these are for show.