The Sparrow's Nest

The last few years have been extremely dry and hot. Smoke, sometimes ashes falling out of the sky, and the whir of helicopters have become routine for the summer months. Evacuation is a possibility. It could be followed by bedbugs and other gross things, like itchy chicken blankets and allergy attacks. The rains have come early this year. They fell in June, which is usually a giant blister on the calendar. Lots and lots of rain! The fields have become green and the trees have stopped crying. The air has cooled off, which is an especial blessing for a house with no AC or swamp cooler to speak of. How I love the rain! I love the formations the clouds make. I love how it turns everything green and springy. The scent it brings is one of my favorite aromas in the world. Near the end of the monsoon season, the mushrooms pop out. Flowers bloom and return to life. Scorched skies are washed azure blue. Rain falls instead of ash. The water becomes sweet and cold, as if all the chlorine and bleac...

I've tried to sew before. I even posted my failures on this blog. There was a hideous blue skirt that turned into a duster, and then I busted my sewing machine. I put my sewing machine away, but after a while, the words came into my mind: "Try again." This time, I went onto YouTube channels in search of tutorials and found some really easy ones. I learned to steal the patterns from my own clothes. I had one skirt that made me look elegant. Guess what, it was a straight skirt. Sew up two rectangles and you're ready to go. With my first skirt completed, I took my broke hide to Walmart and dug around in the clearance rack for decent fabric between 2 and 8 bucks. I hunted through my closet and found this gorgeous fabric that had been used for a Halloween costume when I was little. I dismantled it with a thread cutter. Pretty soon, I had tons of pretty fabric to make the dresses I wanted, and not what the stores or perverts in high places dictated. I could own dresses both...