A Monday-ish Tuesday

[lydamorehouse]

 Yesterday was a very odd little Federal holiday (bank holiday to the rest of the world): President's Day.

What do you do for presidents' day? Your guess is as good as mine. It seems that, in accordance to the laws of the United States of America, you go shopping, I guess???? I really have ZERO idea how this so-called holiday is otherwise supposed to be celebrated, but there are always "Presidents Day Sales" on things like refrigerators, washing machines, and other appliances for some reason. It's sort of like Memorial Day, except that I actually know what we're supposed to be celebrating on that day.

My wife works for the State of Minnesota, and so because state government employees tend to follow the Federal government employees, she had the day off. We decided we were going to celebrate President Obama and possibly President Carter (or possibly the bi/gay presidents Abraham Lincoln and James Buchanan) by having a "crafting day." 

Shawn has been taking an online course in sashiko and so she spent a good portion of her day learning some of the first patterns.  Just learning to trace them over and over again on a piece of paper. She hasn't even moved up to tracing them on fabric yet. Her instructor, Futatsuya Atsushi, is kind of a hoot. His dry sense of humor is very Minnesotan in a lot of ways, particularly if you read between the lines (which we have gotten used to doing with my Japanese pen pal.) I've been enjoying listening in to those. 

She also got a chance to do some looming.

I started the day making a journal entry for a role-playing game that's designed to be a journal passed between at least three players. The one my family is playing is called The Machine. It's a horror RPG. Shawn did the first set of entries and so now it has been passed to me. Because our characters are supposedly building a machine of some sort, I spent some time drawing some fake designs and doing fake math. It was pretty entertaining. 

Then, I did a lot of sewing on my latest quilt, which I'm pretty darned pleased with. (I have someone in mind that I want to surprise this one with. It will be a Crazy Cat Zucchini!!) 



Image: Cats and colorful squares in pastel "windows."

It was fairly perfect day off, honestly. We've decided that we might have to plan for a few more of these spontaneous craft days.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

I remember when they called it "Washington's Birthday," rather than "Presidents' Day." It was celebrated with cherry pie, and with cub scouts and/or brownies dressing up in powdered wigs and reading Washington's Farewell Address very badly.

[conuly]

President's Day is what happens when the government looks around and says "Commemorating Lincoln and Washington separately but only a few days apart is absurd, let's make it an always-Monday holiday instead!"

[pameladean]

I think we just had cherry pie. I lived my first eight years in Illinois, where Lincoln was a really big deal and Washington was just some guy, but it was mostly just a day off school for us. I mean, Lincoln was ALWAYS a big deal there.

The quilt is STUNNING.

P.

[ursula]

Thanks for sharing the Lincoln article! I really enjoyed it.

[sabotabby]

So pretty!

[cateyespecks]

I do remember back when we celebrated Washington and Lincoln separately, but I don't remember actually doing anything on those days, except maybe learn about the respective presidents' lives in school. We definitely never covered most of the stuff in that Vanity Fair article. And I can't say I ever learned a lick about Buchanan.

I wish I had had cherry pie like several have commented above.

This year I just worked as usual. I've never worked a job where I got off for that holiday.

[eagle]

My team at work is based in Tucson (I work remotely), so I don't get President's Day off because everyone instead gets Rodeo Day off, which is this Friday. It's kind of odd? Although I often like working a day most other people are off and having off a day most other people are working.

Sashiko looks amazing!

[leia_solo]

That's a nice quilt! I'm going to get into it soon. I don't know how to celebrate it either honestly. Y'all have a good idea.

[offcntr]

I love Craft Days! Denise and I usually celebrate our anniversary by doing an art project together. Sometimes Valentine's as well, though this year that was complicated by it also being Day-Before-Surgery Day. (And also Ash Wednesday, so we had dinner-and-chocolates on Mardi Gras instead.)

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> What do you do for presidents' day? <<

Cherries! From the George Washington story about the cherry tree. When I was in college, the eatery I frequented would make cherry-filled croissants only in February. So that's mine. I look for cherry things.

[spiderplanet]

You make a lot of damn fine quilts. That is another one.

[misura]

That's a great quilt, but I'm also mildly ... not spooked, exactly, but vaguely tickled because my mom in Europe also quilts and made one with that exact cat fabric. Which, okay, I guess fabrics can ship worldwide, but. :3

(Hers was smaller, and more 'colorful cats! surrounded by some other stuff'. It's been hanging on our bathroom wall for what feels like years.)