Anyone else smell that?

It’s my favorite kind of Sunday. Cloudy but not rainy, cool but not cold. It would be a perfect day for exploring my new neighborhood or finding a park to sit and knit in, but I haven’t been feeling well lately, and walking around is really the last thing I want to do. Instead, I’m catching up on a few projects for the Crack Den Palace, namely curtains.

The Palace only has blinds, which it’s the best decor, unless you’re going for the “Institutional Chic” look. I am not. I found some fantastic orange curtains at an estate sale over the summer, but they reek. I mean, these things have the smell of the 60’s on them: cigarette smoke and moth balls. I spent the morning washing the putrid rags in my bath tub three times, and I’m still not certain the stench has left them. I’m afraid I’ve grown used to it and they still smell like smoke and death. Maybe I could buy stock in Febreze? Or give them another round in ye olde wash tub? Or just shrug off a loss of a dollar and buy some new, non-gag inducing curtains? But look at the pretty color! So orange! So happy! So foul smelling!

While waiting for the curtains to dry (and hopefully air out) I hemmed up a linen curtain I got from Target earlier this year and used in my bedroom back in Vegas and started embroidering the bottom edge. This one is for my closet entry way, which boasts a stunning lack of door. The closet in my apartment is classified as “walk in”, as in you “walk in” to the closet to get to the bathroom. Nice, huh? Me being a modest girl, I’m not too thrilled with the prospect of every guest/ repairman/ persons in  the building across from me being able to see my wardrobe and toiletries when entering/ looking through the window of my apartment. So the linen curtain, plus spring rod that I still have to buy, will make a nice shield for modesty’s sake.

I got out my embroidery stitch book and perle cotton and have so far come up with the very exciting stem and fern stitches, but I have visions of red roses and pink tulips over the green ferns. We’ll see how long progress on this one lasts, since it’s the bottom of a standard sized curtain I’m stitching across the bottom. Not for the faint of heart. Or sane,

And I’ll leave you, this wonderfully drech day, with the true star of my apartment. The buzzer.

No, it doesn’t really work like a telephone anymore. But if someone pushes the button beside the front door at midnight, a loud electronic buzzing sound will errupt from it until I lift the lever.