Out of the Mouths of Babes

 You all know that my Youngest is incredibly unpredictable and wild, right?  I mean, remember THE picture?

Well, he pulled another one on me and embarrassed me to death at WalMart.  Here's how it went down:

The Scene:  Youngest is riding inside the shopping cart while looking through the cart with both little hands up on either side of the front of the cart.   A woman is squatting down and restocking the shelves.  The whole right side of the aisle is open and there's plenty of room for us to get by.

I stopped the cart just in front of her, just so that I could look at what was on the shelves to the right of us.  Okay, if i have to confess, I was in the shoe department.  Okay?  Anyway.

Now you all know the voice from the old wild western movies where the bad guy says "This town ain't big enough for the two us."  That mean, low, gravelly voice right?

Youngest:  Says loudly (In the meanest, lowest, gravelly-est voice possible) "Get out of our way." 

Thank God she started laughing.   I was mortified and made him apologize asap.  There's just no way any mom can control what comes out of their child's mouth nor when it will happen.  Ack.

It doesn't come across as funny when written down, but trust me, it was HILARIOUSLY EMBARRASSING.

 ******

The curtain project didn't happen.  There was a problem getting the hardware that I need, so I'm going to have to order it online.  bummer.

I did, however, knit up about two more inches on Ye Olde Sweater Project though.  I'm at the point where I begin increasing from the waist shaping that I added to the pattern, so that will at least add a few stitches of excitement to the otherwise boring part of the sweater.

Have a great weekend!

Curtain Talk

I'm tackling the windows of my kitchen this week.  This is a tough one for several reasons:

A.  I'm not good with curtains.  I have a difficult time envisioning treatments on windows and when I think about an idea for them, I usually think "that's totally going to suck" and never do them.  The exception being the roman shades in the boys' room.  I love those.

B.  It has to be dirt cheap.  Cause we're broke.  Have you priced curtains lately?  I know I'm going to have to make them myself.

I think I've found a great fabric that is cheap and will bring in texture and has a color that will fit in brilliantly with my kitchen:  Burlap!  I found a few examples on line that I really like and will be super easy to make.  The most expensive part will be the bay window curtain rod.

Here's one example that I particularly love:

  You can see the whole writeup on this over at the Living My Life Outside the Box blog.  She did such a fabulous job with this!

I also want white sheers to go in between the burlap panels that can be closed when the sun gets too hot.  I also want them to be almost floor length. 

I'm off to the store with all my window measurements!

Knitting Project Progress Report and a Cable Trick

The Boatneck Cable Thingymagig Sweater is progressing nicely.  This is despite the fact that I haven't knit a stitch in about three days.  I did the majority of my knitting this weekend during Auburn's embarrassing loss to Kentucky on Saturday evening. The rest of my  time has been spent making more Sterling Silver jewelry or I've been helping the Eldest deal with homework and a huge project that is due on Friday. 

This evening doesn't look to good for knitting either since I'll be gone to choir practice until 9 or 9:30.  So we'll see how tomorrow looks on the knitting front instead.

I have gotten past the fun cable part to the place in the pattern where you have to knit eleventy billion stitches, or until the piece measures 13.5".  Something like that anyway.  Then the monotony will continue - it'll just switch from plain stockinette to ribbing. 

I did figure out another cable trick while working on this though!  I mentioned one cabling trick before when dealing with a cable where you go from either a knit to a purl stitch or purl to knit stitch.  But, what about when you go from a knit stitch to a knit stitch when coming out of the cable?   

It's so simple:  On the last stitch of the cable, right before the next knit stitch, twist the stitch.  That's it!  It tightens up the loose baggy stitch very well.

Hope that helps someone!

Nanowrimo '09

NaNoWriMo 2009 is upon us.  For those not in the know, National Novel Writing Month begins on November 1.  The goal is to generate a 50,000 word novel.  Basically 1,666 ish words a day.  Last year I might have gotten 1,666 words total.  I failed miserably thanks to life interruptions.  Once I got a little bit behind, I felt overwhelmed at how many words that had to be done to catch up on my number, and then promptly quit.

I'm going to try again though.  If I can manage to blog four to five days a week, then perhaps I can manage to sit at my desk and write a damn story, right?  So I've signed up again, but this time I'm seeking writing buddies to keep me honest.  I've added one, Hi Angie!, and I'm seeking others.   If you're up for it, go sign up at the NaNoWriMo site and look me up.  I'm sjmercure there (and just about everywhere else except for on craftster.  I'm henri there.)

In the past when I've been writing, I've hit brick walls in several ways.  One of those is by coming up with a cool character and then not being able to come up with a story.  Another way is by outlining a story and then being too bored with it by the time the outline was done and then didn't bother to finish it.  Or, I started a story and couldn't find a good middle and end.  Plot?  What plot?  :sigh:

Two good sites that I'm going to be mining for info this year:

1.  HollyLisle.com - This is just full of great writing info. that covers just about every aspect of writing.
2.  The Snowflake Method of writing. - Great way of breaking the writing process down to it's component parts.

Oh, another issue?  Reading about how to write a novel, researching how to write a novel and then never doing it because I'm still reading and researching.  In other words, procrastination.  I'm really good at that.

Rampant Sticky Fingers

I worked at my son's school book fair this morning.  While I was there, we found that the popular book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Dog Days, had over 14 copies missing.  The librarian was so upset.  The school has to eat the costs of the missing stuff.

It turns out that 10 of those copies had been "stashed" by some of the kids behind other books, displays and carts so that they could come back and buy them later.  Whew.  But, that meant that four others walked off in some kid's sticky fingers.   Another item, worth about $14 dollars had also been stolen.  If this kind of stuff continues, the school will end up paying to have a book fair.  These are supposed to be fund raisers!

Two books were stolen off of some kids' desks as well.  Small thieves seem to be running rampant in the school.  And this is not some low income inner city school either, it's one of the top in the nation. How sad that these kids feel like they have to steal it. 

Maybe it was the "buzz" about the book that has caused all the problems, I'm not sure.  Every single one of the children want a copy of it though, including my kid. 

I have never seen this kind of thing happen to this degree though.  One or two things missing, yes, this kind of stuff though?   It's very sad.

New Knitting Project

I started a new knitting project.  This one is the Cotton Classic Boatneck Pullover.  You can see it and some other free patterns: Here.

Except, it's not going to be in cotton, it'll be in wool. A lovely yarn from Hobby Lobby that is in Seal Brown.  It's the most gorgeous cross between deep brown and plum.  It sounds odd, but it will be very elegant when it's all worked up.

This is the project that I've been meaning to tell you about for several days, but other stuff just kept coming up.  I'm not sure if I will need to put in some waste shaping yet or not.  I haven't gotten far enough into the pattern to see.  I'm not one to really read ahead in a pattern the way I should, so we'll see in a week or so.

Harry Potter Quidditch Sweater

I finally finished the Harry Potter Quidditch Sweater! 

Wanna know the fantastic thing about this sweater?  It fits both the Eldest and me!  When he outgrows it, I'll have me a sweater.  It's at least one thing to look forward to when he gets "all growned up".  It's quite depressing to see your baby wearing the same clothes as you and having the same shoe size and he's only 9 years old and it's not like I'm small or anything, I'm average sized.

 

Here's how it will appear on me (forgive me for not modeling it personally, but I really didn't feel like fighting with the camera and mirror this morning to get a pic of it on me):

Neat huh?  I'm still amazed that we can both wear the same sweater.

I have to compliment the Cozy Ewe yarn store out in Utah, they went above and beyond to help me get this sweater completed.  For some reason, my order caused a glitch in their software, the butternut color did not show up in the completed order form, on two different orders.  They never could get the problem to show up on their side, no clue why I'm the only one to have the problem.  I'm starting to think I'm cursed.  But, they have fantastic customer service and everything was fixed nicely and they even gave me a partial refund on shipping.  Yeah Cozy Ewe!

Medusa Halloween Costume

The Eldest had a big school Halloween party last friday evening.  The parents were encouraged to dress up as well, but I wasn't real enthused about it.  I couldn't come up with a clever costume on my own on such short notice, or so  I thought.  The Eldest has been studying mythology in school and suggested Medusa.  I said that I would think about it and sent him off to the bus stop.

It bugged the heck out of me the entire day.  I did nothing but plan that stupid costume.  Obviously I have nothing better to do with my time.  Forget cleaning, laundry, cooking and *gasp* even knitting!

I had been challenged.

So here's what I did:

1.  Made a crown of snakes from pipe cleaners and aluminum foil.  The pipe cleaners were bent in two and foil was wrapped around them.  Then the snake was wrapped around the crown that I had made.  Once all my snakes were on there, I wrapped the base of the crown with foil as well.  The snakes were made in different sizes.  I was trying to avoid the Statue of Liberty look.  I also added felt tongues to the snakes.  Once they were cut out, I just taped them on with scotch tape.  I also made a snake armband as well.

2.  Toga - I wrapped miles and miles of a king sheet around me.  At the shoulder, I pulled it through a silver bangle for ornamentation.

3.  Makeup - I used silver cream makeup purchased at party city and put several coats of it on my face.  I also put a much thinner layer on my arms and shoulders.  I also used black liquid eyeliner on the top lids of my eyes and black lipstick on the lips.

4.  Hair - I piled it on top of my head and pinned it in place.  Then I sprayed silver hair spray all over it.  Many, many times.  There is a permanent silver haze in my bathroom now.  It's gonna take forever to get rid of it all.  The crown was placed on after this part was done.

Wanna See?  (Click to Enlarge)

All in all, it was very successful, but I felt like a real fruit-loop while driving to the party.  I put the crown on after I got there, so at least I was spared the humiliation of that!  Thank God there were other parents dressed up as well.  It could have been a real (though pretty creative) social disaster.  The kids liked it and that's all that really counts though, isn't it?

Silver Soldering

Last weekend I got to do something incredibly fun.  I took a soldering class at a local bead store. 

The class was exhausting,  tt went from 10:30am 'til 5:00pm.  The funny thing is, I don't have much to show for it:

This was all we accomplished in 7ish hours.  Doesn't look like much does it?  Of course, we started with plain sterling silver wire and got all these different effects with just a hammer and a blow torch, so I suppose that's not too bad.  The teacher has been doing this professionally for about 25 years and learned from an exacting German jeweler. 

The rings above will eventually be put together into a necklace or bracelet, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Now,  I have to go now and finish up a Medusa costume for a Halloween party at my son's school tonight,  You guys have a great weekend!

I Won A Prize!

A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to win a contest over on the My Little Slice of Pie blog.  Well, it came in the mail a couple of days ago and I haven't been able to show you until now:

It's a Tote Bag!

Click to enlarge

Now, I hesitate to call this cute, but not for the reason you think.  Adorable and fabulous are better words, as well as the word, HUGE.  Not only is this tote wonderfully made with great fabrics, but I could fit a small child into it.  Here's another pic to show the size:

Here's the 9 lb. Chinese Crested Powderpuff that desperately needs a bath with the bag. See, here's where the word cute gets its proper place.  Cute is small, not huge, kinda like the dog above.   I could put at least four of her in it!  (But I won't, cause she's dirty and would mess up my pretty new bag.)  This bag is beyond cute, it's huge!  You should see this sucker opened up, you really should.

This is a very generous prize and I'm thrilled with it!  I've walked all over the house planning what to put in it. This will more than be enough for a large sweater project bag and tomorrow I'll show you the project that's going to get stuffed into it.

Thanks so much Sabrina, I love it!

One Day Beret

The One Day Beret, by Kirsten Kapur, is now finished, though it's not blocked.  It took a total of about four hours to complete.  Maybe.  It's difficult to tell when you're starting and stopping over and over.  Taking pictures of it by myself was much more difficult. 

But I did get a shot where you can see both front and back:

Told you I look like a dork when I wear hats on top of my curly hair:

Sorry for the godawful pics.  They're not very sharp.  Best I could do in a tiny bathroom on a cloudy day with poor lighting.  Self photos are not my strong suit anyway.  But don't you like the towel rack in the background of the second shot?  I should win an award for creative backgrounds, really.

Not the Best Day

It's been an utterly frustrating day.  We found out today that the hubby has been given his two weeks notice which is, frankly, terrifying.

In the not quite so bad category, but still frustrating.  I ran out of yellow yarn for my son's Quidditch Sweater.  I only need about six more rows worth of it too.  I am now pleading with various and sundry people on Ravelry for their leftover yarn, but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and purchase another skein to be able to finish this sweater. I am about 95% finished with the sweater and it's now come to a halt.

Better news, I started a different knitting project to fill in the time.  This is a slouchy beret that is being made from my own handspun yarn:

This was spun from fiber that I dyed with Kool-Aid and then mixed using my homemade hackle.  I love the coral and turquoise in the yarn.  The only problem with this hat is that in order to wear it I'll have to start straightening my hair again.  Curly hair has memory.  What ever shape you put it in, it keeps.  So when my hat makes hat hair.  It's there until I wash it out.  It also sticks out in about a billion directions from under the hat.  It's not particularly attractive.  I'll have to take a picture and show you sometime.

So, that's it for today.  It could have been better.

Jack O'Lantern Door Wreath

Halloween's here!  At least in my tiny little corner of the world.

The Youngest and I spent our morning decorating for Halloween.  This is hands down my favorite holiday of the year.  My house is filled with Halloween goodies.  But, when all was said and done, there was something missing.  My front door needed a wreath.  So here's how I went about fixing that little problem (as always, click to enlarge the pics):


1.  Gathered a few things together that would come in handy.  I didn't have a wire wreath form on hand, so I used the next best thing.  A wire basket from a canner!  This is a temporary wreath since I'm sure that sooner or later I'm going to want that basket back for it's proper use.

Supplies used:  Canner basket (any wreath form will do, this is what I had on hand), scissors, Halloween Garland, Neon orange micro-glitter (*see closing remarks), cardboard, black sharpie, black craftpaint, small paint brush, spray adhesive (any glue can be used), paper plates to catch the glitter.


2.  I wrapped a Halloween garland loosely around the canner basket and then I got a friend to make sure it looked okay.  The friend decided it needed more work.

3.  I needed a centerpiece.  Mr. Jack O'Lantern was designated to be the center of our door wreath, but I needed to make him first.

4.  So, I grabbed a piece of cardboard and a sharpie and got to work:

[Create a mental pic of me drawing a pumpkin since I forgot to take a pic of this step.  okay?]

5.  Next, I used painter's tape to cover the mouth and eyes.

6.  This is where I strongly, no wait minute;  Make that STRONGLY suggest you take this project outside.  Spray your adhesive onto Jack, covering every inch.  You can use any glue for this really, this was just faster for me.

Shake the glitter over Jack.  I then resprayed him with the glue and shook the glitter over him again.  (I might have also glued a bunch to the deck as well.  Oopsie.  Note to self:  Do this out in the grass next time.)

Once it's dry, gently peel off the painter's tape.

Don't worry if the edges are a little wonky.  Black craft paint will fix that up in a hurry:

7.  Attach Jack, I used tape, to the center of the wreath.

8,  The wreath still looked a bit odd due to some of the wire showing around the outside.  I dug into the craft supplies and got out some black pipe cleaners and wrapped them around the outside parts of the wreath where the wire was exposed.  You can still see some of the wire, but it broke it up somewhat and disguised it nicely.  Add a pretty orange bow, just for fun when you're finished!

*Closing remarks:  This would be a fun craft to do with kids.  However, if you do so,  Please, for the love of God, please use regular sized glitter and not neon micro-glitter as I did.  Micro-glitter, while really pretty, is incredibly messy.  If you mix a child and neon micro-glitter, don't blame me for the fact that everything you own for the next 1000 years will sparkle and shine without ceasing!

Sometimes You Lose, Sometimes You Score

I went thrift store shopping today while the boys were in school.  It's so much fun to see what you can find.  I thought that I had done so well today.  I found two Coach bags for what I thought was next to nothing.  Brand new, with tags.  Guess what?  fakes.  Oh well, I put them on Craigslist with a full disclosure that they are replicas.  Maybe I can recoup my losses.  I've already had one response, we'll see what happens.  They're actually pretty cute, replicas or not.

On the other hand, my Mom went thrifting in another city and found a set of curved back Clemes & Clemes handcards that look like they have never been used.  These go for $65 new.  Her cost?  $5.00!  She's giving these to me.  I love my Mom! 

Wouldn't Ya Just Know It

You ever see one of those Coke commercials?  You know, the one where a person is so thirsty and they buy the Coke and take a big swig and say Ahhhhhh.  Remember that one? 


Well, that was almost me today.  Almost.   Let's have a quick walk through, shall we?

The setting:   My Mommyvan, around lunchtime.
The object of desire:    A freshly purchased Coke, waiting to be sipped.
The person:   Me, thirsty and very sleepy, in desperate need of just a touch of caffeine in order to stay awake.
The conflict:    Mommyvan turns a corner, just a hundred yards from home.
The result:   Coke flies across the van. 

I might have been able to save a few sips of that lovely, refreshing Coke, but the straw jammed into the bottom of the cup creating a nice hole so that when I picked the cup up, more liquid escaped from the bottom.

The passenger side of the van is now quite sticky and the floor mats have been removed for further cleaning.

I never got one sip of that d@mned Coke.

I took a good two hour nap today and got nothing whatsoever done.  :sigh:

Birthday Cake!

I survived the birthday party!  Just barely.  I got a sum total of two hours sleep on Saturday evening.  I was a little tired the next day.  It was a fun party.  One of the boys declared that "This is the funnest birthday party ever!"  I call that a win. 

The camping themed cake went well too.  I took a 9 x 13 cake, chopped off the end, broke that into pieces and stacked it up in one corner to make a hill:

I covered the hill with some water and chocolate rocks, added a few trees (frosted sugar cones), a tent (used graham crackers), a fire (using pretzels and frosting) and some grass and came up with this:

Click to Enlarge for Details

 Here's another (and better) angle:

 Click to Enlarge for Details

 

This was also declared the coolest cake ever.  The parents loved it as much as the kids.  They had no idea how easy this cake was to make!

It got a lot less cool after the boys attacked it:

More fun stuff about the party:
- The kids got to make a camouflage shirt to take home. We used tshirts and Rit dye (brown, tan and green).  They turned out really cute.
- They made a fire in the firepit in the back yard and made smores.
- They camped out in the living room floor since it was too wet to camp outdoors.  They got to watch Iron Man.  This turned out to be a good settle down activity.
- They also made the survival kits.
-We had Pigs in a Blanket and fries for supper, and I made a mountain of pancakes early the next morning for them all.

I had other stuff planned for them to do, but it turned out that this was plenty.

The Eldest was extremely pleased with everything.  I guess I get to keep my "Best Mom Ever" credentials for another year.  :) 

Children's Mini Survival Kit Tutorial - For Girls or Boys!

The Eldest's Birthday Party Camp Out is tomorrow and it's getting down to the wire for party preparations.

Here's one of the activities the kids will be doing.  This one is good for rain or shine!


Children's Mini Survival Kit

What you'll need:

Altoid Tin or Similar Tin (I found mine at the Specialty Bottle Supply)
Paint - Black spray paint; Brown and Green acrylic craft paints
Survival essentials
Cotton Balls for paint application

1.  Spray paint your tin black (on the outside only.)  Don't worry if the paint doesn't coat every single part of it, you'll cover up those spots with the craft paint. 


2.  Then, using a cotton ball, apply a layer of green craft paint.  Remember to leave it a little splotchy since we're going for a camouflage look. 

3.  Once that's done, go ahead and apply the brown paint in the same way.  It should look like this at this point:

 Now you get to fill it up.  Here's what I used:

Camouflage Bandaids

Cotton Ball - Could be used on an open wound before bandaid is used.

Fishing Hook - Before giving a child a fishing hook, please remove the barbed ends  with a flush cutter, then

sand the cut end. 

Fishing Line - about two yards or so

Whistle - there are better whistles out there, this is just what I had time to find.

Magnifying Glass - the handle was too long for the box, so I removed it.

Mini LED Flashlight

Compass/Carabiner combo

The possibilities are endless when finding things to fill the tin with!

I will be placing these out in different bowls for the kids to put their kit together.  They will also be painting the tin themselves with the craft paint.  I've already done the spray painting.

If you want to use this idea for girls: 

Spray paint the tin black as above, then apply a light gray and a pink craft paint for girly camouflage.  Then fill it with girly essentials like mini lip glosses, rings, mini nail polish, small mirror or comb, etc!

Have Fun!

Cabinet Uh-Ohs

Just for once I want a project where everything goes well the first time.  I don't care if the project is knitting, making jewelry or kitchen renovation, really.  Every blooming time I pick up a project, something, whether big or small, goes wrong.

Let's use the kitchen renovation as an example, shall we?

I have four cabinet door left to put up.  Guess what?  I'm one cabinet knob and two hinges short.   I don't know if I counted the cabinets wrong, lost one knob or the company shipped one less than I asked for.  Doesn't really matter, I'm still one knob short.  As for the hinges, it looks like when I was grabbing hinges out of the box at Home Depot, a hinge from another pile was in there and I didn't notice until I was fighting to get my cabinet door on.

I'm sore from putting up the doors by myself as well.  Another set of hands would have been much appreciated.  Also, the mosquitoes have come out with a vengeance thanks to the torrential rains that we've had.  I've been eaten alive while standing in my garage painting and while in the kitchen putting up doors.  They are everywhere and they like the tasty Shea meat.

But!  The kitchen is starting to finally come together.  This is what it is beginning to look like:

 After:

The cabinets used to be a bare nasty white, they are now cream and have had wood trim added to them.  Also, new hinges and knobs.  This has really dressed them up.  Here's an example of what they looked like before.  And while you're at it, take a look at that nasty wallpaper too (please ignore the cat, he doesn't need encouragement):

Before:

It's been a long road, let me tell ya.  I still have a good ways to go:

1.  I still have to do the counter top over by the sink, both paint and resin.
2.  I need to purchase a new sink.
3.  More joint compound stenciling above two of the cabinets is needed.
4.  Doors need to be painted and the trim around them as well.
5.  I will be antiquing the cabinets with a brown glaze (very lightly) to warm them up a little.
6.  I still need to put a second coat of resin on all the counters.
7.  I need to start thinking about curtains around the bay window in the breakfast nook and the window above the kitchen sink.  Here's what's going on there:

• Do I make the curtains myself?
• Do I go with curtains or roman shades?
• What style?  I want absolutely nothing "country or cottage style".  Something more modern and contemporary, but I have no clue what would look good around a bay window.  Curtains are not my forte, obviously.

Not all of us around here are working hard during the renovation:

I told you he doesn't need encouragement, didn't I?

What Happened to My Interwebz?

Remember when I said that we got between 12" and 16" yesterday?  Add another 3" to 5" for the area, okay?  No, there's been no damage here, other than school being out.  Have I told you that I hate having school out?  I can't get anything done with the kids in the house!  Seriously though, I find it very difficult to believe that kids are out of school today because of rain.  I know that there are lots of roads and major highways washed out due to flash flooding, but still. 

My internet has been out the whole day thanks to the storms.  It's 8:03 pm and I just got on.  The DT's were setting in.  Or, as my Mom called it, the Down Technologies.  Really, I think I was getting the shakes.  Internet addiction is a terrible thing, I tell ya!

Now, I'm off to put up more cabinet doors by myself.  I've found out that it's very difficult to do by yourself.  Doable, but difficult.

I can't wait to call it a night so that I can go curl up with my knitting and some Top Gear, Oh Yeah!  I love guy shows and movies.  None of that chick flick, gotta find a boyfriend or my life is ruined and I need a good cry kind of movies for me.  (Almost sounds like a country song doesn't it?)  No sir.  I have enough trials and tribulations in my life already.   Just lots of fast cars, excitement, blowing things up kind of fun for me! 

More Paint and More Knitting

I'm so sick of rain and thunderstorms!  We've had between 12" and 16" in the last 24 hours.  Can you believe it?  There are school and road closings due to flash floods.  My yard is washing away.  Oh and do you know how difficult it is to get paint to dry with this much rain? Very.


Here's how my cabinets currently look after more painting this weekend and today.

Here's a bunch (not all) of my cabinet doors:

I have been finding a small amount of time to knit as well.  I have finished both the front and back of the Quidditch sweater.  I've also started one of the sleeves.  I've had to mod the sleeves and I'll give all the details on that later.  So here's how it currently looks.

I have to go unplug my computer now.  Too much lighting to stay on long!