Challenge Update: Week 42

The storm before the calm before the storm

Challenge Rule 1: Buy No Clothes/Don’t Covet

I’m trying to think of a moment this week when something I saw might have caused me to covet what someone else owned, and honestly, I can’t think of a thing. Now. That could be because nearly every time I was around humans this week (with the quiet exceptions of being at the library or with my musicians friends) I was with a screaming child. It’s hard to coolly covet something with a banshee wailing in your ear.

Challenge Rule 2: The Inventory

Nothing to report here, other than that I am going to get a wear out of that fabulous navy blue evening gown that’s been wallowing in my closet since 2013, which means (hooray!) that it will get worn this year which means (hooray!) that I get to keep it. I excitedly told my friend Aline that for our Christmas Living Room Concert, I was wearing an evening gown, and she said, “Ooooh! That sounds like fun!”

Now let’s just hope it still fits. I’m also knitting up a little bolero to wear with it out of that pale purple yarn I was gifted. Cause let’s be honest. Evening gowns in December in Eastern France? There will be goosebumps.

Challenge Rule 3: Go-To Catalogue:

My collection of handknit skirts came out to play this week. I love love love love to layer them with my fabulous petticoat collection. It is notoriously difficult to find excuses to wear an orange sherbet colored petticoat, but the boys’ school Halloween festivities worked for me.

• 

• 

Challenge Rule 4: Mise en Place/Plan Ahead:

The petticoats would never have made it out of the closet if I hadn’t been feeling optimistic in the evening and planned ahead for them. It would have been jeans and dowdy sweaters (okay, I don’t own any dowdy sweaters. But there wouldn’t have been skirts and petticoats and layers, for sure.) Thank you, Mise en Place, for making it possible to dress cute when I ain’t feeling cute.

Challenge Rule 5: Repair and Mend, Alter when Necessary:

My mending was socks, socks and more socks. I did reserve a few random moments to knit while I waited vainly for little boys to get tired at the park. I know that knitting is neither repairing, nor mending, but it is a little creative outlet and uses what I have on hand. I will not lose another skein of yarn to moths. (A mantra.)

Round-up

Things things things, doing them all.

In other news…

It’s the Fall Break starting today, which means naturally the scalawags were off their rockers all week. But, with thoughtful and patient coaching by my fabulous sister, the Life Coach (and professional cheerleader senza pompoms), I finished up my literary agent querying goals for the month, and dealt with a lot of the itty bitty details that needed to get worked out for the launch of the French blog.

There have been three agent rejections so far, but I have been so busy with other things that the second two passed under the radar. One of the rejections came with a little note (whether this is her standard response or not doesn’t matter…) “This isn’t a good fit for me.”

I like to think that this is simply going to be the case: the rejection isn’t of me. It is that the book isn’t a good fit for the agent I am querying, but the only way to really know is to try. It takes the sting off the rejection a bit!