leaf napkins

Today I made some leaf napkins to go with my ivy plates and the new placemats I bought at Ikea. (Have I mentioned how much I love Ikea?)

First I cut the leaf fabric I bought at my favorite discount fabric store. Eight 20-inch squares. Quick: if I can get 2 squares in each row and each row is 20 inches high, how many inches of fabric do I need? Yeah, I bought way too much fabric. Oh, well.

I pressed all the edges and corners...

And pinned every edge--that meant about a dozen pins in each napkin.

Clearly this was going to take a while--time to go put on some more comfortable shoes. And maybe clean them once in a while!

After a good little while I had all eight pressed and pinned.

Now to my trusty sewing machine to sew all the way around.

One down. SEVEN to go.

I thought I'd better break for a bagel sandwich and a diet coke before I got too weak to carry on (for Lord's sake--I love Eloise).

Cut to later: all eight napkins finished. Look, the iron's still plugged in and will be until you get back from picking the teen-aged daughter up from school and running her errands for an hour. Not part of the plan.

Here's one all done. Ready to be assaulted with spaghetti sauce and chocolate cake. I should be so lucky.

accomplished

I always wanted to be "accomplished." I'm sure I read that in a book somewhere--Nancy Drew was probably accomplished, or Ma Ingalls. I don't know if I qualify now or not. I can do some of the things I thought were important, but not others.

Here are things I can do that make me feel accomplished:
Sew clothes
Knit sweaters
Bake cakes from scratch
Basic woodworking (and I do mean BASIC, but I do have my own tool belt)
Sing mostly on key
Refinish woodwork in my house
Paint (walls, not pictures)
Sort and organize stuff

Here are things I'm going to count because I can do them, even though I have decided it's worth it to get somebody else to do them:
Change the oil in my car
Bake bread from scratch (I go back and forth on this one)

Here are things I think would make me more accomplished but I haven't learned yet:
Play the piano
Sketch
Take real photographs (you know, not like snapshots)
Basic plumbing and electrical repairs
Plan parties (and then actually enjoy them)
Writing (I'm working on that right now!)

Here are things that would probably make me more accomplished but I have no interest in ever doing:
Flower arranging
Cooking large fancy cuts of meat
Gardening
Understanding poetry (except Billy Collins who is a genius)
Keeping up with fashion

I also always wanted to be "competent." Not competent in a meeting-minimal-standards kind of way but competent in a got-it-handled kind of way. The first time my then boyfriend/now husband took me camping, I was so impressed with his possession of all the necessary gear and calm, confident mastery of same, I admiringly told him he was "so competent." Fortunately he recognized it for the compliment that it was.