Making Monday

Yes, I know it's Saturday - this is the story of the Making Monday that didn't happen. Natalie of the Yarn Yard had suggested Making Monday as a blog theme (meme?) on her blog. I thought, that sounds like fun, I'll join in.

As a bit of background, my husband is in California with his work at the moment, so it's just me and the kids. As it happened my mother-in-law was taking the kids out for a few hours on Monday so rather than just blogging about Making on a Monday (something I've obviously spectacularly failed to do) I could actually do some Making on a Monday and blog it. I was aware I'd have precious little time for making anything or indeed blogging with my Beloved away. This would be great! I just had a flat-pack thing to fling together first - this is much easier to do when the kids are out so I needed to take advantage of this opportunity - and then I'd have some time to myself.

Naturally of course it didn't work out that way. I've never had problems with flat-pack before but this time it apparently required brute strength as well as a hammer and two sizes of Phillips screwdriver.

This was the main problem:

It's blurred because I took the photo that night, shaking with exhaustion. The screws just would not screw in fully. I eventually got most of them more or less done but that last one would not budge, either in or out. I physically could not turn the damn thing. In the end I went to bed cursing my weakness and hating to be defeated by a flatpack. It was turning into a feminist issue.

The next morning I channelled my Inner Bloke (i.e. Did What My Husband Would Do) and bodged it. The cross-head screw was no longer cross, more mildly peeved, and was clearly going nowhere. I got it out with pliers, a bit of cloth (to stop it scratching the veneer of the chipboard - stable door, horse etc) and muttered swearing. I rummaged in the garage for the plastic tub of random screws, nails and other ephemera, found a screw roughly approximating, but shorter than, the offending one and used that instead. Ah, it'll do.

I do have this perfectionist streak. I want to do it right. But sometimes you just have to say 'Sod it. It'll do.'

And that's the story of Making Monday. I'm off to catch up on what all the other Making Monday people did!