Crafty Us

My Mom was a kindergarten teacher for a looooong time. She switched to 5th grade shortly before she retired because, as she said, "I can only tie so many shoes, do up so many flies, and deal with Annica gluing her paper to the desk SO MANY TIMES, before..." I'm pretty sure I know what would have happened if she had to deal with Annica one more time, because I feel that way almost every day around 4:45, so I didn't ask her to elaborate.

Anyway, I've been making out like a bandit with all my Mom's kindergarten bric-a-brac. Like this little ironing board.

She apologized for it not having a cover or an iron, items sacrificed to the kindergarten gods. I wasn't worried, because when our powers combine--

Ta Da! I made the cover in about 4 minutes from a scrap of fabric and some elastic. Tyler worked a little harder on the iron, but not much. I'm guessing it took 30 minutes.

He even put little steam holes on the bottom.

Scrubs, right...

Have I told you how freaked out I am to start my new job? Have I even told you that I got a job?

No? Sorry, I've been busy what with school and getting a job and all.

I've wanted to work at The Hospital for some time. Of course, I applied to all the hospitals, including The Hospital, to no avail. I ran into a girl I kind of knew who worked at The Hospital, and she, knowing of my fruitless job search, offered to put in a good word for me with her manager.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, I start July 18th.

I've had to have various meetings with sundry HR people and Security personnel. At one of these meetings, I was made aware of yet another meeting I would have to attend prior to my start date. "But you don't have to wear business clothes, you can just wear your scrubs."

"Scrubs... yeah. Good."

See, I don't own any scrubs, except nursing school ones. I'm supposed to be a nurse, and I don't even own any scrubs. I think this is highly symbolic of my total ambivalence towards working.

Now, I could have just gone to a uniform store and purchased some, but what's the procrastination factor fun in that?

I went to the Wal-Marts to purchase fabric, where I requested uno y tres cuartos of each.

One set down, two to go.

Sweater Re-Fashion

I like how I look surprised that I'm taking my own picture. "Who would take my picture while I'm still in my pajamas with bed head?"

I've had this sweater for a long time, and it's cool, but a little frumpy and big.

So, in honor of not being in school, I decided to get crazy with the sewing machine.

And this is the result. Still couldn't be bothered to clean off the counters for the picture, though.

I shortened the length and made a ruffle with what I cut off. I also took in the sides. I originally was going to be brave and fix the weird shoulders, but that would have meant taking off the sleeves, which, when it came down to it, I was not prepared to do.

Sticking it to the man

Really, I don't have many hobbies. I'm not that crafty and I'm am living proof that not all Mormon women like scrap booking. But, one of the things I do like to do is find ways to stick it to the man.


My MIL taught me how to make my own spreadable butter. She's been doing this for years and the butter industry totally copied her and they now sell this stuff for like $3.50 for a little tub. She should have patented it.

What you do is mix equal parts just-softened butter with canola oil. To fill a little tub like this, I use a cup of butter and a cup of oil. It's pretty liquidy when you mix it, but it sets up in the fridge. Soft even when cold. She uses unsalted butter and adds in her own salt. I just use salted butter and save myself the trouble.


Another way I stick it to the man is my obsession with patching and mending. When we were in school and Tyler rode his bike all over San Luis Obispo, his inseams wore out really fast. I must have sewed up each pair of pants at least 4 or 5 times and added a patch or two before he would buy new ones. His favorite pajama pants are getting to be quite comical. I tried to buy new ones, but The Perfect Pair is hard to find: somehow, the garment industry doesn't think that tall, skinny people want loungewear for their bottom halfs.

This pad got a rip in it the last time I ran it through the wash, and then with us sitting on it, it got a little frayed. Now, it's the lucky chair.

High Chair Makeover

Yesterday, I was perusing the giveaway section of Goodreads, and they had a book about called EcoBaby or something. The blurb said that average parents spend upwards of $7,000 in preparation for the birth of their child. Is this true? Because that's ridiculous. This book purported to show you how to spend less than $1,000. I'm pretty sure that for Lillian, we spent about $50 before she was born, and not really very much until she started growing out of all the hand-me-down clothes we got from friends and relatives a year or so later.

I didn't really think that it was a secret that to save money, you don't buy new things: you borrow, take hand-me-downs, pillage thrift stores, breast feed (if you can), and make your own baby food, which is not that hard. I should have written that book.

Anyway, we were really fortunate to get a lot of our baby furniture from Tyler's sister, who was done having her kids. One of the things she gave us was this high chair:


It's sturdy and useful and, until recently when Tyler broke a prong off one of the buckles, in perfect working order. But, sorry Tonya, it's ugly. I've always thought it was ugly.

Then, the other day, I ran across a website selling (and extolling the virtues of) laminated cotton. At first I couldn't find any for less than $18/yard, and I thought that was a little steep. So I looked into just buying a new cover, but that was going to cost anywhere from $30 to $50, and I'm not paying that.


Finally, I found some non-ugly, gender-neutral fabric for only $13/yard. I felt like I had won the lottery. Later, when Tyler came home from work and I relayed this whole story in breathless detail, as he was trying very hard to sound interested and hide the bored look creeping onto his face, I stopped myself and realized that this is my life. And I was very depressed for a second.


But then I remembered that no, this is my life:
and I was happy again.

Ta-Da! It doesn't fit quite as snugly as the other one did (which is weird because I cut the pieces the same size), and it's only slightly mangled around the left side, but I think it looks pretty good.

The wreath

My Aunt J is probably the craftiest person I'm related to. Not crafty like she's up to something, but crafty as in she made this wreath for an owl-themed baby shower she threw. I find a few things unusual about this. 1. Who makes a new wreath to fit the baby shower theme? And 2. Who throws themed baby showers? Even though she informs me through her website that "owls are sooo in right now," I would say that every baby shower I've ever attended had the theme of "baby shower." You know... pink or blue balloons, corresponding napkins and paper plates...? That's not how my aunt rolls. She's crafty.


My aunt's looks like this and is cuter because it's bigger, and she possesses actual talent for this sort of thing. And, you know, there's an owl. She lives in a place that has actual stores that have actual selections of things. She has no idea about us out here in the sticks, roughing it with only two wreath forms to choose from.

Some of you have inquired about our week of solitude. Today is day three of Tyler being out of town. It's been going pretty well.

Monday: I had a minor breakdown and got a little panicky that Tyler was going to get into a car accident in Denver and I wasn't going to be able to get there in time to remind him that he wasn't allowed to die.

And, Emily came over and I made my wreath.

Tuesday: Lillian started missing Tyler terribly and started asking me every hour, or every five minutes when he was coming back. Now? How about now? What... about... now?

I lost my patience with Lillian and asked her why she was such a spaz: I was standing with Nora, dripping wet after washing her hands and Lillian absconded with the dish towel. When I asked her to bring it back, she came back sans towel. When I told her to go get it, she went into the other room and started playing with her Ariel horse. Spaz.

We went to the drive-thru car wash, which, contrary to my memory, is terrifying for small children.

Wednesday morning, 4 AM: Nora woke up with croup. Twenty minutes in a steamy bathroom, and two hours of kicking me in the stomach later and she's fine, if maybe a little cranky. But, that could be because she's getting four molars. Or, because she had to stay awake to do all that kicking.

Two more sleeps.

I can't wait

So, I decided that I would make Nora some felt blocks for her birthday which isn't until mid December. But, as soon as I finished the first one (on the left) I gave it to her.

She's 1. She doesn't care about waiting, or surprises. And, when it's her birthday, I'll wrap them up, and let her unwrap them again.


For this project, I decided to learn how to blanket stitch. This fish was my first attempt. I'm still not sure what happened there at the bottom.


I got much better as I went along though. Right?

Finally finished

I sewed 97% of the dress two weeks ago, but stalled when it came to the hem. I made it out of a low quality satin, and machine sewing it sort of ruined the fabric. It was fine for the 1-time seams, but I wanted to make the hem really big, so it could grow with her. Which meant I needed to hem it by hand. Which was boring and took a long time.

But it's done now. Isn't she cute?

In other news, I went to sleep last night at midnight. You heard that right- midnight. And I wasn't kept awake by a sick or screaming child. Get this: I just wasn't tired. Bizarre. See, I've had low iron all my life and I usually just deal with it by sleeping more. But, it was starting to get ridiculous. I couldn't even stay awake to put Lillian to bed at 8. I'd put Nora to bed at 7, then just sit down for a bit, but I couldn't get up off the couch to save my life, or even keep my eyes open. After missing family prayer for the bazillionth time, I broke down and bought some iron supplements and it's the craziest thing to have all this energy.

After we watched the Angel's lose last night, I looked at Tyler and said, "well what do you want to do now?" He was astonished.

In other other news, I'm training for the Sahuarita 8-mile Nut Run. I've never run 8 miles before, so this month of training should be interesting. I did 4.25 on Saturday and 4 this morning. My girls HATE the jogger stroller and start whining and complaining after about 15 minutes, so I'm not sure how going the longer distances is going to work. I have zero experience training for a run so I'm just making it up. I looked up a training plan for a 10K, and it suggested switching between long distances and short distances: 3, 4, 3, 5, 4, 6, 3, 4. Like that. Any other tips or ideas? Michelle, Bridget, I'm looking in your direction.

I'm starting to come to terms with the fact that my 4-year-old iPod's battery is just not what it used to be, and only holds a charge for about 5 songs. Maybe the iPod fairy will bring me a new one.

She's Crafty

These are the aprons I made for my friend's little girls. I made them out of a dishtowel set and bias tape.

I know, they're super cute.

Also, I took Nora to the doctor for her 9 month check up.

Length: 30 in (99th+ percentile)
Weight: 25 lbs 4 oz (99th+ percentile)

They didn't write her head circumference on my paper, probably because I don't think they did it. Oh well. It's probably big too.

As the doctor was wrapping up the visit he asked if I had any questions and I asked him if he was concerned at all at how big she is. He looked at her as she crawled around on the floor and said he didn't think she was particularly large. Um, what? She's wearing the shirt her 3 year old cousin grew out of last week. He flipped open the chart and said, "Oh, she's 9 months old!? Yeah, she is big."

He said if I was really concerned about it, I could wean her, or at least cut down breastfeeding her. I told him I wasn't going to do that because (I didn't say all of this to the doctor, but this is my reasoning) if she's just big because she's breastfeeding, then she's big because she's supposed to be that big... like, she's hungry because she's got a whole lotta growing to do. But, if she's big because she's got some sort of glandular problem, cutting out breastmilk isn't going to fix that.

He said we'd just wait and if she continues to be gigantic, he'll order some blood work.

Also, Lillian had her 3-year appt as well and her blood pressure was high, so I have to take her back. I tried to tell the doctor that her blood pressure was high because they took it right after they gave her a shot which FREAKED HER OUT, but he wants us to come back in 2 weeks just to make sure.