quiet, clean and frustrated

I've been quiet over the last few days. Actually, I've been doing a lot of my least favourite thing; housework. The house was in desperate need of a good dust and clean and of course even though I have been busy with it the last few days, it's almost back to where it was before I started. The joys of living with children and a dog. I did have a moment yesterday where our entirely white bathroom (landlord's choice) sparkled, but Icould hardly breathe through the amount of bleach I had had to use. As you can tell, housework is really not my thing. It's not that I don't like a tidy house, it's just that I find it utterly depressing to do something that gets no appreciation and lasts less than a second. I particularly hate to do it when I'm on my own. Even if no one is helping me, I'm happier doing it with people around. I was thinking about why I feel that way this weekend and I think it's because I enjoy my own company, so when I'm on my own I want to do things I enjoy. Either that or I'm a martyr and I want everyone to see how much work actually goes into it. Actually if I do housework around the kids, they are pretty good at helping. We had a friend of Remi's around the other day and this 11 year old, not only didn't know how to stack a dishwasher, but when I asked him, he didn't know WHO did the dishes in his house.

But enough of a rant about all that.

Actually I've been avoiding Ella's quilt. I had wanted to give this quilt a name like "Ella's rainbow quilt" or something equally as romantic sounding. Instead I think I'm going to have to call it the "bitten off more than you can chew quilt" or the "you're hopeless, you should give up quilt". The problem is I am not a perfectionist. And quilt making requires a certain amount of perfection. At least it needs to all fit together. But it didn't. So when it came to actually quilting the thing, the backing would pucker or the front. I have unpicked the rows more times than I care to count, and tried every method I could to get it to line up and lie flat. But after a week of it, I have had to admit defeat. I've had to let the pucker pucker. I'm still quilting the thing and have run out of bobbin thread, so still no photos. And even then, they will be from far away. I wish I could be like Kaffe Fasset and just design the quilt, having someone else whip it all up for me. I find that's the part I like anyway; the idea of something. When I get bogged down in the making of something I tend not to like it. It becomes too familiar. That's why I'm a quick worker with most things. I have to work quickly before I decide I don't actually like what I'm making...

Sorry, didn't mean this to be a whiny post about housework and how I suck at quilt making. On a happier note, Sunday is the beginning of what my father likes to call "our week". Not his and mine, but Matt and mine. It kicks off with my birthday, then Matt's birthday a few days later and a week after that our wedding anniversary. We're up to 15 years this year! Unfortunately Matt has to leave on my birthday for a conference in Vegas and doesn't get back until the night of his birthday when I have a meeting, but we are going out on Saturday night for a birthday celebration with friends. Hopefully I can get the quilt finished before then.