Whatever is on my mind today

My Sewing Room: After

2011-11-17T15:13:00.001-06:00

We worked solid for those four hours and check out my sewing room now!!!

We started in this corner, with the bookshelf. Right away, she made some boxes for me to put stuff in. We had Donate, Office/School supplies, To Go Through Later, Toys, and Half-Price books. At first it was hard to start, but once I got going, it was pretty easy. I decided that this room is a good place for the school/office supplies, so as I got areas cleared, she got that stuff put away. You can see, in the very corner, about 3 boxes that I need to go through. They have things like picture frames, music cds, and important papers I need to file. The grocery bags are either books that have already gone to Connor's classroom, or outgrown clothes that have been passed on to a friend's 4 year old son. The white box has school supplies, and is now next to the computer (which you will see below). The white basket tower thing now has 2 sections for projects, a section where I put things to put away later (and I'm not allowed to let it get full!), and some empty binders that I'll use when I file my patterns. I also plan to take another pass through the bookshelf and maybe weed out some more books. The drawers are completely clean and organized with office and school supplies.

Check out my clean floor under my ironing board! You can now also use that door. She gave me the idea of getting some bookshelves to put on either side of the bay window, and then using canvas totes (I'm thinking like Debbie's) or some sort of uniform containers to corral stuff. I see a trip to IKEA in the near future. I also have lots of ideas on my sewing room Pinterest board.

She also suggested painting the paneling a pale color. Other friends have suggested that also, as this room is pretty dark at night even with lights. Right now I'm leaning towards a warm grey or cool beige. I'll also be taking down that ugly curtain rod. I'm still not sure as to what type of window treatment to do. I want the window to stay open, because that looks right out onto Lake Michigan, and is beautiful. In the cabinets underneath is where all my fabric is stored.

My sewing table is clean! It's clean underneath too! That large mirror is going to go, either to a friend or a consignment shop. It's large (about 3x5 feet), and I have another mirror in the basement that I'd rather use, which is maybe 2x6 feet. More appropriate for fittings, as I'll hang it vertically, probably over by the built in bookcase. Then I'll figure a better location to hang the thread racks and my drawer thingy that's sitting on the table right now. This is as far as the organizer and I got, before we ran out of time.

So, my homework was to finish up my computer area....

....which I did on Monday night. I boxed up the old desktop, which wasn't functional, and put it in the basement. I'll get the data and pictures off of it after the holidays. I still need to clean off the clothes rack, though half of it will be gone tomorrow when some alterations get picked up.

I've been sewing in here every day since! It is so nice. I've also been a good girl, and cleaned up my mess each time I finish, so that I can keep the room looking good. Next I plan to have a friend come over and help me go through my fabric stash. I'm pretty sure I like and want everything that I have, but I would like another set of eyes, and I don't want to keep anything I don't have a plan for. Right now I have a few things in a Facebook album that I'm offering for sale or trade.

edited to add: Gwen asked if I learned anything new. No, I didn't. Basically, she said everything needs to have a place (and first I need to ask myself does whatever I have even belong in this room or would it be better suited somewhere else), and everything needs to be put in its place. If the boys want to bring some legos down here to play with, that's fine, but they need to bring them back up to their room when they are done. I asked her why was this so hard for me to do alone, but easy when she was there, and she said it was because I didn't know her very well, and so we didn't sit and reminisce about stuff that I found, and I didn't stop and play with things I found, and she kept me focused. She wouldn't let me delay a decision, and if I wasn't sure about something (do I donate it? do I keep it?), she'd ask me to justify keeping stuff. If I had good reasons, that was fine. I hope to paint over the school winter break, so hopefully I can show you some more pictures in the new year.

My Sewing Room: Before

2011-11-17T15:03:00.001-06:00

Back in May, I won a 4 hour session with an organizer at an auction. I knew I wanted her to help me get my sewing room in order, and last Saturday, we finally got together. I took some pictures of the disaster before we tackled it. It actually didn't look this bad when she got here, as I tried to do some stuff ahead of time. However, this room had become the "we don't know where to put it so we'll put it in here" room, and was really really out of control. Be warned, these pictures aren't pretty...

I know, right? Somehow, I still managed to work in here, though not very well, and the disaster here is probably why I haven't been sewing much. Next up, the after pictures!

2011-10-24T08:57:00.003-05:00

My friend Rowena has a post up that I think my sewing/knitting/crafty friends might like. You might recognize one of the rooms (or at least recognize the alias).

Remember that 4 hour session I won with an organizer? She's coming November 12. Hopefully I'll have some great pictures to share.

It's A Girl!

2011-08-24T19:07:00.008-05:00

As of Friday, we finally have another girl in the family.

This is Esperanza. Sometimes I call her Chica for short. Maybe she'll be a bilingual dog, since I talk to her in Spanish half the time. She's almost 4 months old, and weighs 4 pounds. I think she'll eventually be about 6 or 7 pounds, like her mama. Best of all, she's already house-trained.

My mom saw a flyer at the VA (where she works) stating "Pom Puppies for Sale, 10 weeks old, to a good home". She knew we've been looking for another dog (and having no luck with the WI Humane Society or the rescue groups), and took the number down. I phoned, drove out, and got a dog! :)

She is so much fun! She stays near me most of the time, but on the beach she went exploring a bit. She isn't too sure about big dogs, and hides between my legs when they come by, but I am going to do my best to get her used to them. She also gets carsick, so I am hoping she outgrows that.

Right now, Randall tolerates her, but he's slowly warming up. She gets a bit rambunctious and tries to jump on him sometimes, and he's having none of that. Today, though, they ran around together on the beach, so I hope they'll eventually be good friends.

State Fair Food Entries

2011-07-28T21:43:00.004-05:00

My food entries were due at the fair yesterday morning for judging. I entered 3 items: banana bread (no nuts), scones, and strawberry jam (didn't get that in the picture).
Everything looks good to me, I hope the judges thought so too! I got up at 5 to bake the banana bread, as I work out with some friends every Wednesday at 7 (Mondays too). The scones I made the night before, up to the point of baking, and baked them after I got home from my workout.

It was fun to see and talk to the other entrants during drop-off. I usually don't enter food (except for jam, which I usually drop off when I bring my clothing entries), so that was new for me. More younger entrants than for the textile categories, and a lot more men. Judging was yesterday afternoon, but I didn't stay, so I won't be able to find out my results until I go to the fair (August 4-14 this year).

More HotPatterns

2011-07-26T12:52:00.005-05:00

I made 2 more HotPatterns last week. These were for the WI State Fair, and I cranked them out pretty fast. I thought garments were due for judging last Friday (the 22nd), but after checking online, realized they were due last Monday (the 18th), with judging on the 21st. Without those extra 4 days, I didn't get all my entries finished.

Anyway, I made the HP Riviera Cote D'Azur top:
which went together very fast. It's a great looking top. I want to try the dress also, though I'm pretty sure I'll stick with a solid for that, otherwise I fear it will look a lot like a caftan or muu-muu. Not really a look I'm going for right now at this point in my life.

I also made the HP Primavera dress:
which looks lovely, but in all honesty I don't know if it fits me. I'm pretty sure I should have at least done a FBA, but I was under a time constraint, so just made a straight 10. I figured if it didn't fit me, I'd be able to give it to someone, and sure enough, when I posted the picture on my Facebook page, Stacy S piped up that she'd take it if it didn't fit. :)

Both garments placed (4th and 3rd, respectively), as well as my HP Kimono Wrap dress (3rd) and Caleb's waistcoat (1st).

My food entries are due for judging tomorrow morning. I won't stay for that, so I'll have to wait until I go the fair to see those results. I'll be entering banana bread, a plate of scones (I plan do to whole wheat cinnamon ones), and strawberry jam.

Strawberries

2011-07-05T09:51:00.008-05:00

It's strawberry season here in Wisconsin, or at least it was last week.
We picked strawberries 3 separate times this year, and got a total of about 30 pounds. I might have gone a wee bit overboard.

Here is the beginning of mango-strawberry jam. We ran out of jam about 3 months ago, and I am making sure that we do not run out this year.

See? I went a bit overboard (and this isn't all of it). Over the past few days I made strawberry syrup, strawberry jam, strawberry-rhubarb jam, strawberry-raspberry jam, mango-strawberry jam, strawberry sorbet, vanilla yogurt, frijoles, refrigerator pickles, and pickled garlic scapes.

It got pretty hot in the kitchen some of those days. We don't have working a/c.

It was worth it though, as it all tastes SO good, and we'll especially appreciate it this winter when we get to have a taste of summer.

I also celebrated my 41st birthday on Wednesday. Calvin planned a dinner of my favorite comfort food (homemade macaroni and cheese), and instead of cake (which I don't care for very much), my favorite dessert (creme brulee).

Auction Bags

2011-05-20T08:47:00.004-05:00

I made some bags for a silent auction/raffle at school:
l-r: Chelsea handbag, In Town bag, and Swing bag, all from Amy Butler. Also, all from stash! :)

At the last minute I decided to add a button closure to the In Town bag. Hopefully all 3 bags will do well and raise some money.

In other news, my husband and I went to the MDA Black-N-Blue Ball last Friday. I decided to go all badass and went with leather. It was pretty fun. I bid on a few things, but really really wanted one of them, and I won! Soon a personal organizer will be coming to my house and working on one area for 4 hours. That area will be my sewing room! Right now I'm working on de-cluttering and de-stashing, because I want all 4 hours focus on organizing.

HP Wong-Singh-Jones Kimono Wrap Dress

2011-04-24T18:32:00.006-05:00

Dudes, I have a new dress, and I LOVE it:
I made this a few days ago. It didn't take long at all, and went together beautifully. This is a straight size 10, although I made some minor changes, such as lengthening the skirt 4 inches, and making full patterns of the contrast bands (instead of cutting them on folds as per the pattern).

The ties are VERY long, and I ended up shortening them 18 inches (they are already wrapped around my waist twice). My original plan was to make the dress green and the contrast bands in the print, but I did not have enough of the green. HP suggests about 2 yards of 60" knit for the dress for sizes 6-8-10, but I ended up using 2.625 yards of the print. HP also suggests about .75 yards for the contrast bands, and again, I don't think that is possible. I used about 1.75-2 yds and had to piece the ties.

To apply the bands, I trimmed 1/8" off of one side (seam allowances are 3/8"), so that the edge would overhang the seamline by 1/4". Basically the same way I finish off a waistband. This keeps the bands nice and flat.

It's a great dress, I definitely need more of these in my closet. :)

Full review is here.

Regionals (plus 4 other meets)

2011-04-05T10:41:00.005-05:00

I don't know why I put off uploading Calvin's gymnastics videos, but I do. It's not like there is anything new in them, it's the same 5 (should be 6) routines each time. Anyway, there are a lot to catch up. I won't embed them all.

In mid-February, we traveled to Iowa City for the Iowa Boys Invitational. Calvin's all around score was 61.8, the best for the season. His routines are here: floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, and parallel bars.

March started off with a meet at Salto, where he got an all around score of 57.1 (floor, pommel, rings, vault, and p-bars).

The following week was our meet; his all around score was 57.3 (floor, pommel[painful!] , rings, vault [messed up his steps], p-bars).

The week after that was state, which Calvin qualified for, as they changed the qualification score. His all around score this time was 60.9 (floor, pommel, rings, vault [messed up his steps again!], p-bars).

Finally, this past Saturday was regionals. They were held here in Milwaukee, so we didn't have to travel anywhere. The boys started out on floor, where Calvin got a score of 13.85:

Next was pommel horse, which was painful to watch. He got a score of 6.2:

On rings he got a 12.8:

Then it was on to vault, where he got his steps right! His score was 14.45:

Last, parallel bars, with a score of 11.75:

His all around score was 59.05.

He also got to meet Morgan Hamm. Paul (his twin brother) was there as well. Morgan will also be at Porter Camp this summer, so they'll get to hang out again. :)

Competition season is DONE!

Swiss Cup

2011-01-24T09:38:00.003-06:00

We had another gymnastics meet Saturday night. The team started on high bar, and Calvin did not compete on that event. He really needs to work through whatever issue he is having on it, because he will not be able to qualify for state without a high bar score.

After high bar they rotated to floor, where he got a score of 13.8:

Next was pommel horse, where he got a score of 7.6, one tenth better than last week, plus I think he didn't fall off as much:

After pommel comes rings, with a score of 11.2:

On vault he got a score of 14.2:

The team ended on the parallel bars, where Calvin got a score of 11.9:

His all-around score was 58.7, improving by two tenths from last week. Next meet is in 3 weeks, so he has plenty of time to focus on getting that high bar routine ready for competition!

By the way, this meet was especially fun to watch, as the session was for levels 7 through 10. Some of the skills the 10s do are just breathtaking, and sometimes it was hard to decide which event to watch.

Windy City Invite

2011-01-19T09:37:00.004-06:00

Competition season has started again for Calvin. This year he is in Level 7. My understanding is that this is a particularly difficult level, and he has really been struggling lately. His first meet was Sunday. He actually did much better than I was expecting, since earlier in the week the team had run through their events with a judge and all did pretty terrible.

The boys started on rings, and Calvin scored a 13.2:

Next was vault, where he got a score of 14.2:

On the parallel bars he got an 11.1:

He did not compete on high bar (he needs to be able to do giants better)

Next was floor, where he got a score of 12.5 (he shouldn't be landing on his butt for a front tuck, he almost never does that!). I especially like his first tumbling pass, with that beautiful layout:

The boys ended on pommel horse, which was pretty rough for him. Calvin got a score of 7.5:

His all-around score was 58.5. Not enough to qualify for state yet, but now he knows what he really needs to work on, and has a goal to reach for. Next meet is Saturday night!

by the way, the team got new uniforms this year, they look pretty nice, no?

Fun With Food

2010-09-17T18:47:00.010-05:00

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you know that I've been having fun learning how to put up food. I've been making jam for years, but have always wanted to try other things, specifically tomatoes. When a friend asked if I was interested in taking a canning class in late August, I was there. At the class, we made jam with no added pectin, salsa, and canned whole tomatoes. Doing the tomatoes was just the boost I needed to start on my own.

I've belonged to a CSA (Springdale Farm) for about 5 years, and every year, we get lots of cucumbers. I don't really like cucumbers. This year, we also got dill once in a while, and in the weekly newsletter, they sent a recipe for refrigerator pickles. Both Calvin and David like pickles, so I gave it a try. They declared it a success! Next year I might try a cooked recipe that is canned.

I made basil-garlic tomato sauce (from the Ball Blue Book) using tomatoes from my garden, CSA, and the farmer's market. I needed 20# of tomatoes, and when I told the farmer I was making sauce, she offered me a price break if I would take the 'ugly' brandywines. Yay! The sauce took forever to reduce, but it was worth it, and I now have 9 pints sitting on my shelves.

I also put up tomatoes for the first time. These are Clint Eastwood Rowdy Reds, from my garden. I managed to keep the late blight mostly at bay this year.

Outpost had a truckload sale last Saturday, and one of the specials was an 18# box of organic peaches for $20. I bought one and put up 13.5 pints of sliced peaches in a light syrup. Unfortunately I dropped one pint on the floor. I learned that I should always wear shoes when canning (I was fine, but it was close!).

I have to say, I love that I can take this...

...and end up with 7 quarter pints of really really good ketchup.

School

2010-09-03T13:17:00.006-05:00

I have been so bad in posting! We had a wonderful, busy summer, and, as all good things do, it has come to an end. School started on Wednesday.

Caleb started high school. I can hardly believe he is a freshman!

Calvin is at the top of the totem pole this year, starting 5th grade. Middle school next year!

Connor is in 1st grade, and will be having his first experience going to school all day. He's loving it so far, telling me it's fun to eat lunch at school, and that he LOVES recess.

As for me, I am now home alone during the day for the first time in a long long time. I do go to the elementary school every day for noon hour recess supervision, but otherwise, I am on my own. I have grand plans for my time. Maybe I'll finally get those living and dining room curtains finished, the halls repainted, my sewing room cleaned, and some clothes made. :D

Ankle Surgery

2010-07-02T09:49:00.005-05:00

Remember when Caleb broke his ankle? It healed well, but about 6-8 months ago, it started hurting again. He also twisted it pretty badly in a soccer game in May. We went to the doctor to have it looked at. The x-ray didn't show anything, so they sent us to get an MRI. After the MRI, we got referred to our doctor's partner, who specializes in ankles. On the MRI, the entire back of Caleb's ankle was swollen and inflammed. The culprit? A bone in the back that was pushing on either a tendon or a nerve, or both. The treatment? Surgery. So last week Friday, Caleb had a posterior talar exostectomy done on his right ankle. Basically they took some bone out.

It was bigger than we thought it would be. That's my pinky finger you see. No, they didn't let us keep the bone (we both asked).

Caleb woke up in time to catch the last minute or so of the Brasil/Portugal game. Portugal lost. :( (oops, I got confused. too much soccer lately. :) Brasil/Portugal had a draw, Portugal lost to Spain. When your opponent controls the ball 60% of the time, it doesn't matter how good your defense is, the odds are against you)

He had a boot on after surgery, and on Tuesday we went to the doctor to have the bandage removed. The steri strips fell off soon afterwards. Now he wears the boot only if he needs the extra support, and is to walk and flex his ankle as much as possible. He'll start PT at the end of next week.

In other news, I also turned 40 on Tuesday, and had a great evening out with my girlfriends.

Vogue 7488

2010-06-10T09:33:00.003-05:00

Caleb's 8th grade promotion ceremony was last night, and here is his waistcoat. He picked Vogue 7488; I made a size M. I was to make a suit as well, but we decided it would be too hot to wear, plus probably wouldn't fit him come winter anyway. So, I'm going to take that wool and either make a suit for him for fall/winter, or I might find a topcoat pattern, as he wants a formal coat. (sometimes I think aliens have taken my real son)

Modifications I made were to cut the back out of the fashion fabric (the pattern calls for the back to be made from lining), I eliminated the back belt, and all four pockets are functional (top two are faux according to the pattern. I do my pockets like this). He was very pleased with how this turned out.

I don't really like finishing vests this way, preferring instead to stitch the shoulders and armholes completely by machine, turning through the lining side seam. However, there is no back collar on this (! I didn't like that part), so I had to do the armholes according to the directions, which meant hand stitching the back shoulder lining over the seam.

There is a nice split at the side seams.

The front inside has a hem facing. There is also a small pleat where the lining meets the facing -- it's not really needed, IMO. I'd eliminate that next time.

My boy is in high school now!

Full review for this pattern is here, at Pattern Review. I've entered it in the Sewing for Men contest.

Single Welt Pockets

2010-06-05T13:13:00.004-05:00

Four months since my last post. Sorry!

Caleb's 8th grade promotion ceremony is coming up, so I'm working on some clothes for him. While making the vest, I thought I'd show you how I do a single welt pocket.

First, I stitch around the opening, shortening my stitch length on the corners. You can see I bring the top part of the opening in about 1/4" on each side. This vest front is underlined with Texture Weft. If where your welt pocket is going isn't underlined, fuse a piece of interfacing on it to reinforce that area (I prefer knit fusible interfacing).

Make your welt, checking to be sure it is exactly the correct length for your opening (I was a bit off on this one). Baste the seamline. Place the seamline on the bottom stitching of your opening. Baste the welt down and then trim the seam allowance.

Put your pocket lining over the welt and stitch just the long edges of the pocket opening. Do this from the wrong side of your garment, so you can see the stitching that you did in step one. Stitch right on top of your previous stitching, starting and stopping exactly as you did before.

Cut through the pocket lining and opening, clipping just the garment diagonally into the corners. See how I stopped and started exactly on my previous stitching?

Turn and press the pocket to the inside. I don't press the triangles to the wrong side. It makes a smoother pocket, they are bias and won't fray, and no one is going to see them anyway.

Edgestitch the welts down, and you have a finished welt pocket! For this pocket, I was a bit off on my welt length and if you look on the right side, you can see a bit of my original pocket opening stitching. The damask hides a lot, and yes I know, I am being very picky. :)

KOTC - my bedroom

2010-02-06T11:23:00.004-06:00

KOTC = Kick Out The Clutter

This week I worked on my bedroom. I figured this was a good room to start with, as I could get it done fairly easily, plus it's my sanctuary at the end of the day. I usually sit and read in bed before going to sleep.

Here's what I did this week:

- did all the laundry, including folding and putting most of it away. I say most because my husband has a ridonkulous amount of clothes and so there are 2 stacks of folded sweatshirts and shirts on the blanket chest. Hopefully I can figure somewhere to put them.

- cleaned and re-organized the bookshelf.

- dusted everything, including the ceiling fan

- cleaned and vacuumed the entire floor, including under the bed. there is NOTHING under the bed now, except for the box of gift wrap. :D

- went through my clothes and filled a bag for Goodwill.

- cleaned out my nightstand.

see? I have a stack of books to take to Half Price Books, a bag of clothes for Goodwill (already gone), a bag of blankets/sheets for the Humane Society, and a bag of garbage (also gone).

It's War

2010-02-01T12:14:00.000-06:00

on clutter, that is:

I am IN. How about you?

LaFleur Meet

2010-01-23T20:32:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago, on January 3, Calvin had another meet (yeah, I'm behind in getting the videos up). He did pretty well, improving on his previous scores.

Para la familia del sur: Aqui estan los videos de la gimnasia de Calvin. Está era su segundo competición de este año. ¿Él es muy fuerte, no? Mi papá quisiera ver su nieto. Una trabajo perfecto sera diez y seis puntos. ¡Ganó su equipo primer lugar!

Los videos! ;)

First was floor. He scored a 13.4, and I think this was good for first place in his age group (I forgot to write down his placing on the events):

Next was pommel horse, where he got a score of 12.0:

On rings he got an 11.4:

He got a 14.5 on vault:

His p-bar routine got 12.5:

On high bar he got 12.9:

His all around score was 76.7, which was good for 5th place in his age group (10-11). Best of all, the team won first place! They were pretty thrilled:

Racine Meet

2009-12-14T10:19:00.004-06:00

Calvin had a gymnastics meet yesterday, the first of this season. He has moved up to Level 6, so that has meant learning new routines. Each routine builds on the previous level, so while there are similar elements, there are new things to add. What has made this hard for Calvin is that in practice he'll be working on his new routine and then find he's automatically doing the old one. He was nervous about this meet because of this and because he's really been struggling with some of the events. This is a really nice meet to start the season because the judges will talk with the boys and/or coaches after each event about what they did well and why they got certain deductions. It's kind of like a practice meet. :)

This year he started on high bar, one event he was quite nervous about. You can see he uses grips now, and he hates them. They take some getting used to, and even though he's been using them all summer, he still hates them. He was worried about his cast. It's a scary skill to learn, but he did it! He got a 13.2:

Next was floor. On his last pass he forgot to do his scale, but he remembered in time to go back and do it. He got an 11.7:

Then it was on to pommel horse. Not his best event by a long shot. After he watched these videos last night, he told me he forgot to do 2 of the circles on the mushroom, which would partly account for the very low score (the mushroom counts for quite a bit of the score). He got an 8.8.:

(by the way, if you want to see some amazing pommel skills, check out this routine by Alexander Artemev)

He uses grips now on rings as well (they are different than the high bar grips). He hates those too. He scored 11.3:

He got a 13.4 on vault. He needs to run faster:

He seems to really struggle with p-bars in practice also. He did pretty well, and managed to get up into some handstands (something he seems to be hesitant to do). I can't remember what the skill is called where he has to hold himself over the bar and then go into a press, but he did it much better here than I've seen in practice. He got a 12.7:

His all around score was 71.1, which was good for 8th place in his age division (ages 10-11) and a little trophy. :)

Sasha

2009-11-16T12:18:00.002-06:00

Our cat Sasha died sometime Saturday night. She was nineteen and a half years old.

I took this picture Saturday afternoon when I knew this was it. Poor thing is just skin and bones; she always had a hard time keeping weight on, and maybe weighed 3-4 pounds when she died.

Quite honestly, we've been thinking she's going to die for the past 5 years or so, but each time things looked bad, she'd pull through. This time, I knew it was for real when I noticed on Friday that she wasn't eating. She also started following me around the house (very unusual, especially since David was always her favorite). I could also see she had lost even more weight, and felt cold to the touch. So, Saturday night I built a fire in the fireplace, put a blanket down in front of it, and sat there with her, reading a book. Before I went to bed I brought her over to the kitchen counter, put her on a towel, tried to cover her a bit with another one to be warm, and went to bed. The boys and I buried her in the back yard on Sunday.

I'll miss her, and it's quiet, but at the same time, it's kinda like we've been ready for this forever.

The Joker

2009-11-03T10:00:00.016-06:00

another picture heavy post. click on any photo to see its full size.

Caleb was The Joker for Halloween this year. He wanted to be him last year, but I wasn't able to get the costume made, plus we had to go out of town for a funeral. I made sure to get the costume done this year, and I barely did.

we had a long day of trick-or-treating and a party.

there, that's better! I used Burda 8186 for all 3 pieces, and decided this was also going to be a test run for the possibility of making him a suit for 8th grade promotion in June. I used a cheapish poly gab from Hancock Fabrics for the suit, and cotton twill for the vest.

I cut a size 36 for the jacket, and it is fully lined. There was to be an inside pocket, but I was on a really tight deadline, so I skipped it.

The double welt pockets have a flap. The pattern calls for the flap pieces to be self-lined. I used lining, because otherwise they would have been quite bulky. The breast pocket is functional as well.

I do like that Burda patterns give you separate patterns for the upper and under collars, but I thought this one was kinda weird for a suit jacket. There is a collar stand, and the under collar is not cut on the bias (the upper collar looks exactly the same, with the collar stand also). It still looks nice, however.

There's a vent in the back.

I didn't quite make my deadline, and used safety pins to hold up the sleeve hems. You can see I bagged the lining through the sleeve seam, and I'll finish up the hems (and add the shoulder pads I neglected) sometime this week.

I also cut a size 36 for the vest. The pattern calls for double welt pockets, but I made single welt pockets. I think they look nicer on a vest.

The vest is also fully lined. (btw -- my husband did the graphic art on the shirt caleb is wearing)

The pants were the first part of the costume I made, and I cut a 34. They fit, but seemed like just barely, which is why I cut the other pieces a size larger. The pants have a double welt pocket on the back, which I did (though it's sloppy).

The fly front is real, not mock. It was pretty easy, though next time I will use lining for parts of it, as it's a bit bulky.

Caleb really liked the costume, and I'm looking forward to making another suit for him come spring. This was the only costume I had to make this year, as Calvin re-used the jester costume, and I found a James costume at Target for Connor.

Triangle Quilt

2009-09-23T09:58:00.016-05:00

(fyi -- this post is really picture heavy)

Last week I finished the triangle quilt for the church silent auction. I cranked this baby out in 2 weeks!Here's the finished quilt. It's about 51" x 60", perfect for napping under. :)

Now, a crash course in how I made this quilt:
First, I had to cut out all my triangles. I did this during one of Calvin's gymnastics practices (3 hours of mostly uninterrupted time).

Since I wanted the various FQ (fat quarter) triangles to be randomly placed, I laid the whole thing out. I did this at a different gymnastics practice, since there is a nice big floor to work on. By laying it out, I was able to make sure the various colors were nicely scattered.

Once I liked the layout, I then layered each row from left to right (meaning, I took the left-most triangle and put it on top of the next one, then those two on top of the next one, etc., etc.). I labeled each row.

Sixteen rows ready for pieceing! Connor counted them to make sure I had them all. :)

Time to put the rows together! I put a FQ triangle with a background triangle, in pairs. I chain piece, then at the ironing board I clip them apart, keeping them in order. Then I put pairs together to make bigger pairs, repeat until....

.... I have one long strip. I like to work a quilt from the bottom up, so this is row 16.

Once I finish a row, I add it to the rest of the rows. Here are rows 14-16.

The quilt top is pieced and borders are on. Ready for quilting!

To layer the quilt, I put my backing together (it has one seam), then taped it to the floor (at yet another practice -- love that big floor at the gym), stretching it quite taut. Then the batting (Warm and White) was laid down and smoothed out. Lastly, the quilt top was put on, and the whole thing was safety pinned together.

I quilted a squiggly line down the diagonal sides of the triangles, making a diamond pattern. I stitched in the ditch around the border seam.

The borders got quilted with a meandering stitch.

After the quilting is all done, it's time for the binding. I wanted a 1/2" binding, so I cut my bias strips 3.25" wide (6 x the finished binding width + 1/4"), folded in half, and stitched at a scant 1/2".

Then wrap the binding around to the back and slip stitch into place (handwork that was mostly done at another practice. I get a lot done sitting at the gym).

After a trip through the washer and dryer, the quilt is finished!

(that's my peach tree in the background -- doesn't it look great? There will be a post about it coming soon)

First Day of School

2009-09-05T13:29:00.006-05:00

School started on Tuesday. I don't really look forward to new school years. I like my kids hanging around and having lazy mornings. :) But, start it did, and here are the requisite pictures:
Caleb is an eighth grader now, has decided to play football this year (along with soccer), is now much bigger than me, and still gets annoyed that I want to take his photo on the first day of school. I did say I would be happy to walk him to school too but he declined. :)

Calvin is now in fourth grade, and also is now getting tired of the traditional first day of school photo. This year our neighbor up the street is in his class, which is pretty nice.

Connor had his very first first day of school! He is now going to senior kindergarten, in the mornings. What the photo doesn't show is how excited he was to go, and he made a friend the very first day and had a playdate planned with said friend 2 days later! There are only 10 kids in his class, which I think is great.

Now I have the mornings to myself for the first time in a long time. It's kinda weird, but I'll surely find lots to keep me occupied, like the quilt that has to be done next weekend. It's been all cut out and ten of the sixteen rows are already together.

Raffle Quilt

2009-08-24T12:49:00.002-05:00

Today I'm starting on a new quilt. It's for a church raffle, and needs to be finished by September 13. Here are my fabrics:
The bottom 6 are from a fat quarter packet my mom gave me for Christmas one year. I added the top fabric and white background fabric. I'm going to be doing a triangle quilt like this one I made a few (aack, five!) years ago.

Oh my, don't the boys look little? Connor hasn't even been born yet!

State Fair

2009-08-11T08:03:00.008-05:00

We went to the Wisconsin State Fair on Sunday, to see a band, eat lots of junk, and check out my stuff. This year I entered 4 items, and did pretty good! I watched clothing judging, so already knew how the garments did, but was curious to see how my jam placed (if at all). I had a really good feeling about my jam this year...

I was delighted to find out it placed FIRST! :) I don't know if I had a bad week or something, but finding out my jam placed first just made my day. Heck, I woke up yesterday morning still smiling about it.

Caleb's egyptian costume placed first as well. The judge liked that all my corners were nice and square, plus mentioned that quilting all that lamé is hard.

I was also delighted to see that this dress got a Judge's Favorite ribbon. I hope I get to keep the fancy ribbon. I think the judge liked the inner foundation and the underlining. Honestly, the judges don't really make much commentary on my stuff the few times I've watched judging.

My HP Cosmo dress placed second.

I'll pick everything up on the 17th, after the fair closes. Five years ago I had to send my mom to get my stuff because a certain baby decided to be born 10 days early and I was stuck in the hospital. Yep, can you believe Connor will be FIVE on Saturday?!?!

Raising Butterflies

2009-08-03T08:53:00.010-05:00

On July 17, we found a caterpillar on our milkweed. We decided to take it in and feed it. About 10 minutes later, Calvin found a second caterpillar, so we had two to take care of. We put them in half-gallon canning jars.

They ate, and ate, and ate (they poop a lot too!). We kept feeding them milkweed and cleaning out the jars. On July 21, one of the caterpillars started to form a chrysalis. They hang in this "J" shape for a while.

The next day, we had a chrysalis! We eventually moved them to an aquarium I got from a friend.

On Saturday afternoon (August 1), I took this picture. Isn't it cool? You can see the butterfly forming.

Overnight, the chrysalis turned black. I was told that this meant the butterflies would be emerging within a few hours. So we kept watch.

We missed seeing the first butterfly actually come out of the chrysalis, but saw it soon afterwards. The butterfly's body is so fat and the wings are so little!

A few minutes later, you can see that the wings are already 'growing'. We then decided to camp in front of the aquarium so that we wouldn't miss the birth of the second butterfly. :) About 30 minutes later, it emerged!

I know the video is a bit dark, shaky and blurry, but it's still cool to see.

After a few hours, it was time to let the butterflies go. We let them go in the back yard.

One of the butterflies took its time flying off, so Calvin got to hold it for a bit.

Beautiful!

We found another caterpillar down at the beach last night, so the cycle starts again!

June Adventures

2009-07-13T09:32:00.009-05:00

Oh my, June has zipped by and we're almost halfway through July! Time to catch-up:

Caleb built some alternative energy models for the Human Ecology Fair at school. This is a hydroelectric generator. When they ran water down the chute, it generated enough electricity to make a buzzer go off.

We spent Father's Day at the Boerner Botanical Gardens. David's dad and wife came to visit also.

I took five boys with me on our annual camping trip....

....where they got to make ice cream, along with spending a day playing on the beach, general hiking around, and all around fun.

Caleb left for a week to camp with his Boy Scout troop.

I turned 39, and to celebrate....

....we went to pick strawberries....

....and peas....

....and made a lot of jam.

Graduation Dress

2009-06-09T13:05:00.006-05:00

I've been working on an eighth grade graduation dress for the daughter of a friend. They asked me back in February if I would be able to make one, and how much. I said 'of course!' (I mean, come on! I have all boys. I leapt at the chance to make a girly dress!), and said I do like the barter system. :) It's win-win -- her daughter gets a lovely, one-of-a-kind dress, I get some babysitting, or meals, or housework....I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, here's the dress. She brought me a magazine photo of a dress they liked, and we started with Vogue 2481. I flared the skirt and added straps. C is pretty much a perfect pattern size 8, so I did virtually no adjustments to the muslin I made. She has that perfect 14 year old figure, with the willowy waist. Ms. Belinda does not have the perfect 14 year old figure (and definitely no willowy waist), so I pinned the dress onto her as best I could.

The dress has an inner foundation, which I think is going to be great for C. The foundation keeps the dress secure and held in place, so she shouldn't feel the need to hike up on it all the time. Calvin and I had his gymnastics banquet the weekend before last, and a lot of the girls were wearing strapless dresses and constantly pulling on them. Not a good look! For the foundation, I used muslin, and cut each piece twice. Then I layered the pieces, stitched the channels for the boning (I used rigilene), and constructed the foundation.

I took care to match the pleats on the left side seam. The fabric was purchased at Joanns. They fell in love with it, and bought the whole bolt (only 2.5 yards), and thankfully it was enough. It's a polyester, but it feels really nice and is a very good imitation silk. I prewashed everything, and underlined the dress with white lining.

We lined the dress in pink, because isn't it fun to have a pretty lining? Besides, white is so sheer, you'd see all the seams through it. I prickstitch my linings (instead of slipstitching)down to the zipper to prevent them from rolling and getting caught in the slide.

To finish the bottom for the hem, I did a hong kong finish. 'Cause it's pretty. :) Graduation is tomorrow, I hope C loves it as much as I enjoyed making it.

(btw -- the boys wear suit jackets. I think Caleb might need a cool stylish suit jacket next year, no?)

Busy

2009-06-01T09:05:00.006-05:00

Spring is definitely here in Wisconsin, which means I spend nearly every nice day working outside in the yard. Last year my big project was the landscaping of our natural fence. This year my big project is our vegetable garden and the beginning of landscaping around our back patio (I say beginning because this is going to involve tearing out a lot of grass -- that's a lot of work!).

In late March I started by ripping out a bunch of grass next to our patio and porch. This area gets a lot of sun and faces south. It also looked to me to be the perfect size and location for a set of raised beds, for vegetable gardening. I ripped up the grass and flipped it over so that it would die and start to rot. PHEW! I was tired after this (but not as sore as I thought I would be. woo! Also, note how brown the grass is, and the bare dirt to the left by the white rock.).

This stayed like this for about 6 weeks, though I would go out there occasionally and smooth out areas or tear up big chunks of sod. Meanwhile, I started my seeds.

In the beginning of May, we bought our lumber to build the raised beds. We built 3 separate beds: 4'x8', 4'x5', and 3'x6', using 2"x8" pieces of wood (which really means 1.5" x 7.25". weird).

Last weekend we bought the dirt to fill 2 of the beds, and Connor helped me smooth it out. He had a lot of fun with that. We tore up the rotted grass and put that in the bottom of the beds. Oh, and see the plants growing up now where the white rock is? That's our raspberry patch.

I transferred our strawberries to the 3'x 6' bed, and the 4'x 5' one now has broccoli, sweet red peppers, jalepeños, serrano peppers, and lettuce. The rear bed will be getting the roma tomatoes and tomatillos sometime this week. The grass is also much greener now, no?

I also bought a new half-moon edger and have been working on cleaning up the edges of the flower bed. In this photo I'm working my way towards the peach tree. For now, I'll just clean up the edge, but eventually, a bunch of that grass around it is going to be gone. You can see the bird bath the family gave me for Mother's Day too. Most of the iris are in full bloom and those peonies are going to be next. Things are looking really good.

Regionals

2009-04-23T09:09:00.003-05:00

This past weekend we went up to Minneapolis, MN, for the Region 4 Gymnastics Championships (region 4 consists of 6 states: IA, MN, NE, ND, SD, and WI) . They were held at the University of Minnesota. The NCAA Men's Championships were also that weekend (same venue, in the evenings), so on Saturday night, Calvin and I went to see the individual event finals. WOW. Some amazing stuff!

Calvin competed on Sunday morning. There were 123 level 5 gymnasts of all ages, and about 30 or so in his age division (age 9). The meet style was Capital Cup, which means the gymnasts warm up on an event, then compete on that event, etc, etc. Since there were so many gymnasts, they were divided into two "flights", and while flight A was competing on their events, flight B was in the other gym warming up.

On to the videos! Calvin was in flight A, and started on rings. He scored 13.9, good for 16th place:

Next was vault, where he scored 14.4, and 6th place:

On p-bars, he scored 13.5 and 15th place:

He scored 14.5 on high bar, which was good for 5th place:

Calvin changed into his sport glasses for floor (he broke his regular glasses on Easter, and was wearing his backups). He got a 15.1 and 7th place:

He had some difficulty on pommel. He got a score of 13.1:

With an all-around score of 84.5, he got 11th place. (He's the 3rd gymnast on the right):

Practice is year-round, but it'll be nice to have the break from meets. Now it's on to Caleb's soccer games, which start this Saturday!

Seedlings

2009-04-10T18:23:00.003-05:00

I've been dreaming and planning my gardening projects for this summer. One of those projects is ripping out some grass and building 3 raised beds for our veggies and strawberries. The grass was torn out 3 weeks ago, the lumber has yet to be purchased.

I live in Zone 5, and stuff usually doesn't get put out in the garden until Memorial Day. This year I am ahead of the game and have started my seeds:

Don't they look cute? We've got roma tomatoes there in the front, broccoli on the left in the back, red sunflowers there on the right in the back (yes, I know sunflowers can get sown directly in the ground. Every time I do that, the squirrels dig up the seeds), and watermelons there in the front, in the paper egg carton. I'll be thinning these out and putting them in bigger pots probably next week. I bought some heirloom tomato seeds today, and I hope to find tomatillo seeds soon. Barring that, I hope to find tomatillo plants come late May.

BTW -- anyone know anything about urban beekeeping?

State Meet

2009-03-30T14:10:00.009-05:00

This past weekend was the Wisconsin State Men's Gymnastics Championships. Calvin competed yesterday afternoon. He had been nervous about this meet for almost 2 weeks (unusual for him).
Mama? What if I do bad? What if I mess up my floor like I did in Iowa?
You'll be fine, Calvin.
But what if I do bad?

He did fine.

He started on floor and got a score of 15.1, good for 7th place (level 5 ages 8-9):

Next was pommel, where he felt confident enough to try his flares on the mushroom, and got a personal best score of 13.8:

Then it was on to rings, where he got a score of 13.9 and 16th place:

Vault was next, with a score of 14.5, and 7th place:

His p-bars routine got a score of 14.3, which was a tie for 9th place. He took 10th place (event ties are broken by the all around score):

Last was high bar, where he got a score of 13.6, another tie for 9th place (he took 10th):

His all around score was another personal best of 85.2. Not only that, he got named to the all-state level 5 team (the top 20 boys ages 7-9, by all around score)! This means he gets a t-shirt and gets to go to a Brewer's game with his coaches. He was pretty excited about that (I know it doesn't look like it, but he always gets kinda serious when he sees me taking his picture).

I'm really proud of Calvin. I think he's done very well this season. He started learning 4 of these 6 events last June or July, and I remember tears and frustration from him last summer complaining that he'll never figure out how to do a circle on the mushroom, or he'll never remember his floor routine, or he just can't do a kip. He's come so far and has been so determined and dedicated to improving. We are all so happy and very proud of him.

ONE more meet!

M&M Meet

2009-03-15T18:34:00.003-05:00

Today Calvin had another gymnastics meet (I know! A whole month without a meet! He was supposed to have one 2 weeks ago, but it got cancelled). The meet was at M&M Gymnastics, home of Olympian Chellsie Memmel. Calvin did well (level 5 ages 8-9).

This time around he started on vault, and got a score of 14.2:

Next was p-bars, where he got a score of 13.0. There is a deduction each time his coach touches him to prevent him from going over. However, it's good that Calvin being aggressive in going for the handstands, instead of hesitating because he is afraid to fall over. His coaches want to see him going for it:

Then it was on to high bar, where he nailed his routine! His clear hip circle was fantastic, and he got a score of 15.5, and first place:

After high bar, it was on to floor. Again, he did very well, and got a score of 15.4 and 2nd place:

Ah, his most difficult event, pommel horse. He didn't fall off the mushroom! He got a score of 13.5, which I'm pretty sure is a personal best:

He finished on rings, where he got a score of 14.7 and 8th place:

His all-around score was 86.3 (another personal best, I believe), which was good for 10th place. In two weeks he has the State meet, then on to Regionals in April, and then our meet season is DONE. :)

I'm Running

2009-03-05T10:49:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine emailed last week that she was starting her "get my body back after baby" program, and was anyone interested in joining her. So, I started running with her last Saturday. One of my goals this year is to get stronger and in better shape. The last time I lost some weight, running is what melted it off. Unfortunately, my knee started really hurting, so I stopped. Some friends suggested that the cause was that I didn't have proper running shoes, so on Friday I went and got fitted for some:
I love them, and I've put 6.4 miles on them so far (3 separate runs), and NO knee pain! While I'm still not crazy about the actual running part, I do love the endorphin rush afterwards, and I'm feeling better overall.

My ultimate goal is to do the Danskin this year. It's my last chance if I want to do it before I'm 40. My other goal is that I want to look good in my bikini when we go on our annual camping trip in June. :)

Iowa Boys Invitational

2009-02-17T12:26:00.003-06:00

This past weekend was spent in Iowa, for another gymnastics meet. As there was no school on Friday or Monday, we made it a little family vacation, visiting with relatives, who were able to come and watch Calvin compete (even his great-grandmother -- how special is that!). We drove into Des Moines on Friday night (running into a bad snowstorm just at the end of our drive). Saturday afternoon we drove up to Iowa City for the meet, watching a NCAA mens meet that night. Very cool! Sunday morning was Calvin's session, and afterwards we drove back to Des Moines to visit some more. We came home yesterday. Phew! Ok, on to the videos!

This time, Calvin started on rings. He got a score of 14.6, and 4th place (level 5 age 9):

Next was vault, and he stuck his landing! With a score of 14.9, he got first place:

Then it was on to p-bars, where he got a score of 13.2. I can see he is still sometimes hesitant to go all the way up into the handstand. I think he doesn't want to fall over again:

On high bar, he got a score of 13.9 and 4th place:

Then it was floor, where he had a brain fart and botched up his first pass. He did a dive roll instead of a front handspring and realized it while he was doing it! He finished off his routine and was laughing about his mistake afterwards. He got a score of 13.5:

His last event was his nemesis, the pommel horse (actually, it's the mushroom he has trouble on). He got a 12.0:

His all around score was 82.1, which got him on the podium in 6th place. Overall, we had a wonderful time at this meet. There were teams from 8 different states (NE, IA, IL, KS, SD, WI, MN, and ND) and everyone had a good time. I'll definitely sign him up for this meet again next year.

Baby Thorpe

2009-02-11T12:12:00.004-06:00

I've been getting a lot of knitting done while sitting at practices. A few weeks ago I finished a Baby Thorpe for my friend Jennifer, who had a little baby girl on January 8. I used Malabrigo worsted for the body, and some other wool for the edge.
Isn't it cute? It was done on size 6 needles. I increased to 80 sts, and started the garter stitch when the hat measured 5" from the tip. I also did an extra decrease row on the flaps.

Last Friday I finally got to give it to her in person. Miss Ilsa will now have a toasty warm head for the rest of this winter. It's a wee bit big, but we all know how fast new babies grow, so it should fit her well in no time.

Infinite Meet

2009-02-08T19:36:00.004-06:00

Calvin had another meet today. This time, the format was different. Instead of warming up on all six events and then competing in rotation, the gymnasts warmed up on one event, then competed on it, then rotated to the next event, warmed up on it, competed, etc. He didn't care for this, as he said they didn't get as many turns to warm up. Also, it wasn't just a Level 5 competition, it was Level 5-10 (our particular team only had levels 5 and 6). This meant we got to watch some really cool upper level routines. (Gwen? you asked if I get nervous watching him? Yes, I do! My heart beats faster, and sometimes I'm even a little shaky, though I try to keep the camera steady)

Ok, on to the videos! Today, they started on pommel horse, and Calvin just does not have a good relationship with this apparatus yet. He got a score of 12.1 (level 5 age 9+):

Next was rings, with a score of 13.6, which got him 2nd place:

From rings, they moved over to vault, where he got a score of 14.6, good for first place!

Then it was on to p-bars. I don't know if you can see, but his hand touched the floor on his landing. That's a big deduction, and he still got a score of 14.0:

Next was his high bar routine (and between you and me, this judge scored our team pretty low in my opinion). He got a score of 11.5:

He finished on floor this time around, and just nailed his routine! His score was 15.2 and that meant first place:

With an all around score of 81, he got 2nd place. We have another meet next weekend; this one is out of state. It should be a lot of fun, and we'll also get to watch a NCAA college meet. How cool is that???

To Boldly Go

2009-02-07T17:54:00.006-06:00

Lisa was right -- that patch certainly did look like something James T. Kirk would have. Tomorrow is the annual Music for Munchkins concert that is given by the high school. This year the theme is Outer Space, and the orchestra teacher requested something "star trek-ish". :) Her students wanted something cyborg or Borg (because of her name), but we decided to go classic Star Trek, a la Captain Kirk:
Not too bad?? It's not authentic (no raglan sleeves), but you certainly get the feel, no? By the way, did you know how much info there is out there on Star Trek uniforms? A lot.

Are you wondering why I used hotpatterns as one of my tags? That's because I used the HP Cosmo Dress top as my base. It was handy and already had a bust dart. I eyeballed the v-neck, added length, and slimmed the sleeve. I like how the neckline turned out, and boy was this sucker fast to make.

I also made a patch for Mr. Spock. Circles are kinda hard to satin stitch, especially when they are this small (this patch is about 2x3 inches). I used this site for the proper symbols for the patches. To make this patch I layered the black knit (from the neckline), steam-a-steam lite (because it was handy), and gold lamé. I fused a block of that, and then drew my patch outline. Two passes of satin stitching later, I cut the patch out. It was pretty easy.

Unfortunately, my family and I are not able to go to the concert because Calvin has another gymnastics meet. :( We are kinda sad (the meet will still be fun). It's going to be really neat, with E.T., Mr. Spock, Luke Skywalker, and even some space zombies making appearances.

I'm Sewing!

2009-02-06T14:08:00.004-06:00

Just a quick peek on something I've been working on:
I made it using lamé, steam-a-steam lite, interlock, and lots of satin stitching. More to come later.

Swiss Cup

2009-01-26T20:04:00.004-06:00

Calvin had another meet yesterday, and did quite well. His grandmother came all the way from Arizona to watch him compete, and thoroughly enjoyed it. He also had a surprise in store for us that he would not tell us about (and then slipped up and told us anyway. We decided we can scratch CIA operative off his list of possible careers. ^_^).

This time around, they started on high bar. His surprise was that he has finally gotten his kip! He scored 13.9 and got 4th place in the 9 year old age division:

Next was floor, which I think he did very well on. His score was 14.9 and that was good for 2nd place:

Pommel seems to be his weakest event. He got a 12.4 this time around:

On rings he scored a 14.2, good for 4th place:

His vault got a score of 14.6 and 2nd place:

On p-bars he got a 13.8 and 5th place. More importantly, he didn't fall:

His all around score was 83.8, good for 5th place overall in his age division. He was quite pleased with his routines and his six medals!

Next meet: February 7-8

Hats and Bones

2009-01-14T08:44:00.005-06:00

I finshed a hat for Calvin yesterday at practice. This was such a fast hat to make! This was also my first experience with Malabrigo, and Yarndude? you were totally right, this stuff is great.
The pattern is Thorpe, a top-down hat with flaps. I made a medium, and it's a bit big. Rav project page is here. Look at the cute baby variation she has too! I'll be trying that one next, for a friend who had a little girl last Thursday. Calvin also wants me to put a pom pom on top. As I said, I finished this at practice last night, and one of the coaches saw it and practically begged me to make one for him. :) So, Calvin and I will go back to Loop and he'll pick out some yarn for Dave's hat.

Now, about those bones....
On Friday, Caleb slipped on the ice on his way to school. He hopped home (he had only made it to the next door neighbor), and said, "Mama? I fell down." I took one look at his now very swollen ankle and paged the doc. She said to take him to the ER or the clinic, so I took him over to the Urgent Care clinic. Two hours and four x-rays later, we were sent home with crutches and a boot, with instructions to call later on in the day for the final radiologist report. That came back as a possible distal fibula fracture (and it is) and instructions to see an orthopaedic doctor. We did so on Monday morning, and Caleb now has a cool black cast for the next six weeks. He also now is out for soccer, out for the snowboarding/ski club at school, and out for the next few scout campouts. :( The cast is a chick magnet, though. :)

LaFleur's Meet

2009-01-05T08:12:00.003-06:00

Calvin had another meet this weekend. It was at our gym, which meant I had to help set up, tear down, and work a concessions shift. We both worked Saturday night (Calvin was a runner -- he would bring the scores over to the computer), which meant we got to also watch Levels 7-10 compete. Pretty cool!

He competed yesterday afternoon. He told me he was a little nervous, since they were the host team. Like last time, they started on floor. He got a 13.7, and 5th place in his age division (8-9):

Next was pommel horse. He got a 13.2, and 10th place:

Then he did rings, earning a score of 13.7 and 12th place:

Next was vault. He was pretty happy with it, as you'll see. He got a score of 14.3, which was part of a 4 or 5 way tie for 6th, but he got 9th place (to break a tie, they go to the all around score):

On p-bars he had some trouble. He got a score of 11.4:

Last was high bar. He is just so close to getting his kip! I watched him do one in practice on Friday. He got a score of 14.1 and 4th place:

His all around score was 80.4, and that got him 10th place. He was pretty happy, and it was so cute to see all the boys shaking hands and congratulating each other during the awards presentation.

Next meet: January 23-25!

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T09:02:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm not going to bother with a review of 2008, as I seemed to really lose my sewing mojo, i completely lost track of fabric in/out and $ spent, and my goals were lost by the wayside a long time ago. :) I think I completed a whopping 4 or 5 items. whoo hoo!

BUT -- 2009 is a new beginning, right? Here's to a great new year!

Happy Christmas

2008-12-26T19:07:00.003-06:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas with good food, family, and friends.

Judges Meet

2008-12-14T20:08:00.011-06:00

Calvin had his first gymnastics meet of the season today, and did pretty well! He placed 14th in his level (5) and age division (7-9) with his All Around score (79.6), out of 46 boys. Considering that six months ago he had never even been on 3 of the 6 apparatus (rings, pommel, and p-bars), that's great!

Before I get to the videos, I want to let you know that there is a new scoring system. If you watched the Olympics, you saw gymnasts get scores above 10, such as 16.325. In 2006, FIG instituted a new scoring system that combines an execution score (where the 10.0 would be awarded for a perfect routine) with a degree of difficulty score (such as 6.5, this is decided by the skills that are combined in the routine). This year the new scoring system is being used not just in the elite levels but in all levels. So, the boys are now getting scores like 13.8, or 14.1. At Calvin's level, all boys do the same routines, so in order to get the higher scores, one tries for bonus points. For instance, on floor, bonus points are awarded for holding the press to handstand for 3 seconds, or for doing 2 back handsprings at the end of the routine instead of 1. (Trust me, I don't understand it all yet either)

Ok, on to the videos! Unfortunately half of his floor routine is out of focus because it was quite crowded downstairs in the actual gym, so I was trying to get pictures from upstairs. (word of advice: taking video through glass doesn't work) Here is his floor routine, with a score of 14.1:

I then moved down into the gym. Next, his pommel horse routine, with a score of 11.2. Pommel horse does not get the nickname "the beast" for nothing:

Currently, Calvin's favorite apparatus is the rings. Bonus points are given if one can do the muscle-up (a pull-up that transitions into a dip. It's the first skill he does in the routine) without help. He got a 14.2:

On vault he got a 14.0. Bonus points are scored for height:

He got a score of 12.8 on the parallel bars:

His last event was high bar. He is so close to getting his kip (he's managed to do it once or twice), and when he does, he'll get bonus points for doing it on his own. He got a score of 13.3 yesterday:

I had a really fun time watching him compete. Now he has about 3 weeks to refine his routines for the next meet.

HotPatterns Cosmopolitan Dress

2008-11-30T09:09:00.003-06:00

Dudes. I am so making this dress again.

My 20 year high school reunion was last night, and I needed a new dress. I chose to finally make HotPatterns Deco Vibe Cosmopolitan Dress, after having this pattern for ages. I traced off a size 10, but then started thinking that it might be a bit small, so I serged the whole thing together using 1/4" seams. I needn't have worried, as it's a wee big. The only other adjustment I did was to add the constrast bands, like Jalie 2449. I used the long version of the skirt, shortening it 4" before I cut it out, and then shortening it another 1" before I put in a 1" hem.

This is a quick dress to make. I think I took more time deciding which fabric to use and cutting it than actually sewing it. The fabric was from my 'collection', bought locally, and the black contrast is powerdry, since that's what I had and I started this Friday night after supper. I was finished by Saturday afternoon, and I had taken some breaks to feed people, do the housework thing, and paint my toenails (important stuff, you know!). I wore it last night to my reunion, with a black cami (since it's a bit big, it's also a bit low) and my black patent boots. It'll make a nice holiday dress too.

FYI -- HotPatterns is doing a buy one/get one free sale right now, but only through midnight Monday. I've got my eye on the Kimono Wrap dress.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T20:08:00.006-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a lovely day, though my brother and his family were not able to come due to sick kidlets. :( We had my mother, my friend Beth, her dad and his wife:
Our yummy meal consisted of turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (I tried a new recipe which was delish), cranberry sauce, and dinner rolls (another new recipe I tried and was also a success).

After gorging ourselves, we took a game break before having dessert, and played a few games of Horse Race.

Then we had dessert: pumpkin pie, apple pie (still warm from the oven), banana cream pie and tiramisu (not pictured, sorry!). It was all soooo good!!!

Tomorrow I plan to spend most of the day sewing my dress for my HS reunion on Saturday. The pattern is traced off, but that's as far as I've gotten!

BookWorm Meme

2008-11-22T18:57:00.003-06:00

Gwen, of After the Dress, tagged me for this bookworm meme I've seen going 'round. The meme says to pick up the closest book, open to page 56, and copy the 5th sentence, plus a few more for context. We've been discussing Advent traditions/ideas on the DAR board at Ravelry, so right now the closest book I have is Celebrate Jesus! At Christmas: Family Devotions for Advent Through Epiphany.

Page 56 is in the section for the third week of Advent (the Bethlehem Candle), and is the hymn Away In A Manger.

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus Laid down His sweet Head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where He lay,
The little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus. Look down from the sky
And stay by my side until morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And take us to heaven to live with Thee there.

I stopped at Target today after Calvin's gymnastics practice for some cleaning supplies. While we were there we did a little Christmas shopping for Connor (since he had stayed home), and I finally found a wooden Advent calendar I like! I never thought I was too picky, but I guess I am: it couldn't have Santa, it couldn't be 'country' or juvenile, it couldn't cost $100, and it had to have decent sized boxes/windows. This is the one I bought (looking online I like this one too).

Advent starts next Sunday, I need to get some goodies for the calendar now!

Streakin'

2008-11-14T22:17:00.004-06:00

I got my hair done today:
I have a bunch of uniforms to hem, and then I need to get started on a dress for my 20 year high school reunion (on the 29th). I'm planning to do the Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan Dress.

Halloween

2008-11-03T08:56:00.007-06:00

Here in Milwaukee, trick-or-treat is always held on the Sunday before Halloween, in the afternoon. It's always been that way (I don't know why); I never trick-or-treated in the dark on Halloween as a child. Anyway, here are the boys:
Caleb was a biker. He was going to be the Joker, but I didn't get a costume done in time, and it actually turned out for the best, as we had to quickly leave town a few days later for a family funeral (having green hair at the funeral probably wouldn't have been the best thing. ^_^)

Calvin was Zorro, Connor was a ghost. He was going to be a doctor again like last year, but at the absolute last minute he wanted to be a ghost. It's a good thing I keep a bolt of muslin on hand at all times.

As I mentioned above, we had to go to Iowa for a funeral. They do trick-or-treat there at night, usually on Halloween (it was on the 30th this year, and they call it Beggar's Night instead). My FIL dressed up as a clown, Caleb decided to go as a pirate this time, and Connor decided to skip the whole thing and stay home to play with trains. One of the traditions in Iowa is that you have to tell a joke to get your candy. Calvin told everyone that he doesn't do jokes, he does tricks. So he'd go into the person's yard and do a running roundoff into a backhandspring. In a cape. It looked pretty darn cool. People were pretty impressed, and would give him extra candy. He scored big on the candy in Iowa!

I used Butterick 5656 for Calvin's Zorro cape, adding 10" to the length, and using the collar piece from the tunic. To finish off the collar, I stitched it on as if I were making a dress shirt collar stand. It's sewn all around the neck and front edges, leaving the top open.

I then trimmed and clipped the collar. After pressing it, I turned under the open edge on the top.

To finish it off and close the opening, I edgestitched all around. A finished collar, with all edges enclosed!

DAR Swap

2008-10-24T13:03:00.003-05:00

I'm participating in a swap on the Discussions About Religion board over at Ravelry. The "theme" of this swap was Low-to-No-cost, meaning we all are picking stuff from our stashes, gift closets, etc. My package came this week!
Isn't it great? I got 4 skeins of a lovely red bamboo yarn, oodles of dpns (my partner knew that I like to knit socks and mittens), a little candle, and a book on home preservation, from the LDS church. I have wanted one of these pamphlets for a while, since I'm all into preserving and gardens and stuff like that. It's going to be fun to read and from a quick skim I can see it'll help me organize and inventory my 'pantry' in the basement. So, I want to say a big Thank You to MaggielSelah!

This swap was set up as a round robin swap, so my package I'm putting together is going to someone else. I hope to get it out next week.

Randall

2008-10-20T08:39:00.004-05:00

I'd like you to meet Randall:
We adopted him yesterday from the Humane Society; he's a Pomeranian and tiny (4.25 pounds!). He was one of the dogs from the Haven Puppy Mill, and is 1.5 years old. Apparently he was used as a stud. He's not used to people, though he's been exploring the house, and isn't scared of us, just a bit shy. He adores other dogs, however, so once he settles in, we'll probably start looking for a second dog.

I never thought we'd get a foo-foo dog, but this is why we ended up with one. David wanted a lap dog that can sit on him while he plays his video games, and Randall certainly fits the bill. Calvin enjoyed letting Randall snooze on his lap while he watched some TV last night, and he's sitting on my lap right now as I type. OMG, I'm probably going to end up with a little carrier and he can come with us to gymnastics practice (Calvin's coach brings his little dog to the gym every day -- they can play!).

Apple Season

2008-10-05T19:44:00.006-05:00

We went to pick apples today, at a local farm. We had a great time, and only got rained on a little bit.
The trees were laden with fruit. Caleb's friend James came with us (he's the one jumping to get an apple).

The boys said all the apples were good, though the Spartan ones were a favorite. We picked Red Delicious, Jonathans, Spartans, and Cortlands. We also got some of my favorite pears, Starks.

I wore my Notre Dame De Grace sweater, since I thought it was a bit chilly (though Caleb insisted on wearing his shorts). I love the sweater, though I think I could have made it a size smaller yet. Even though I took 2.5" off the sleeve length, I could've taken another inch. Connor had a blast running through the orchard.

A day picking apples means apple pie for dessert in the evening. Yummy! I plan to make applesauce in the crock pot tomorrow.

A Thing Of Beauty

2008-10-01T08:50:00.003-05:00

What does it say about me that I am thrilled to have a new oven? Am I all grown up now?
It came yesterday. I had to leave to take Calvin to gymnastics practice while it was getting installed, so I didn't get to see it in all its glory until about 7:45 last night. It's beautiful and I <3 it.

We had lemon poppyseed muffins for breakfast this morning. I plan to make cookies later. I can start making bagels again, half of my dinner plans won't be thwarted for lack of an oven, AND I have 3 oven racks (when previously I only had 1).

A little bit of this, little bit of that

2008-09-27T22:24:00.003-05:00

Oops, it's been a while since my last post. We've been busy here at Chez Mamafitz, with school open houses/meet the teacher nights, soccer practices, cross country meets, gymnastics practices, art classes, library storytimes, and I finally got to see one of Caleb's soccer games last Sunday (they spanked the other team, 7-0!). My sewing machine power cord died, got a new one, been doing some alterations and patch sewing, and my oven died. New one is supposed to get installed on Tuesday (I so miss having an oven!).

Halloween costume sewing must commence soon (oh, and Christmas sewing). Caleb wants to be the Joker, and Calvin wants to be Zorro. Connor wants to be a doctor again, like last year, so that's one costume I don't have to make. Phew!

Baptism

2008-09-09T08:37:00.005-05:00

My nephew, Spencer, was baptized on Sunday. He wore the same gown I made 2 years ago for his big brother, Pablo.
Spencer got dressed when we got to the church, a nice little walk from the house.

Tim (Julie's brother) and I were the Godparents again.

Afterwards, we walked back to the house and had a little cookout. It was an absolutely perfect day.

First Day

2008-09-02T13:46:00.004-05:00

Today was the first day of school! Needless to say I was a little distracted and spacey this morning, but I remembered at the last minute to get a picture of Caleb, and totally embarrass him (that's in the mama job description, right?):
"No! We'll do it when I get home. Aw, come on, in public even!"

We found out that Calvin is in the same class as 2 of his good friends, and his teacher has the most awesome hair (it's silver! gorgeous! great cut! yes, I am shallow!). I told her about Sonja, and she said she'd give Calvin a little extra TLC. I also, in my spacey-ness, forgot to pack his snack, and took forever to find the thermos for his lunch (he went with grilled red potatoes, a cut up pork chop, some BBQ sauce, grapes, and a drink).

My mom helped me get Sonja's body to the vet for cremation. Now Connor and I are home, it's a little too quiet, and I finally got a shower in. It'll be a long day for Calvin, as I won't see him until about 7:45, when he gets home from gymnastics practice (my mom is taking him today). Caleb has soccer practice, and the crazy Tuesdays/Thursdays begin....

Sonja

2008-09-01T21:05:00.002-05:00

Our dog Sonja died a little over an hour ago, with me by her side telling her it was ok to go, and that I'd see her on the other side. She had been acting lethargic and not eating since Saturday. I took her in to the animal emergency clinic and they said that she was probably in renal failure. They wanted to keep her overnight and do more diagnostic testing, but I opted to bring her back home, keep her comfortable, and let her be with her family.
She would have been 10 in early November. Sonja was a great dog, loved chasing tennis balls, and loved her boys (though I was her favorite. ^_^). I am going to miss her very much.

(and for those of you that know us -- I cannot believe that my scrawny, pathetic looking 18 year old cat that looks like she has been at death's door for the past few years has outlived this dog!)

Nine

2008-08-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

It's official. My middle man is now 9.
As usual, we talked about the day he was born, and shared his birth story. It's an especially cool one, as he was born at home (unplanned), on a staircase. He LOVES hearing his birth story! He had 2 friends over on Tuesday for a slumber party, and tomorrow gets to go to another birthday party (for one of the friends that stayed over). Life is good when you are nine.

(I'm scheduling this one to post about the time he was born. We're not sure of the exact time, but this is close enough, and what we decided to put down 'officially')

Floral Friday

2008-08-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

There are more new flowers blooming, some of which surprised me!

First, though, we finally have a monarch caterpillar! Unfortunately, the day after I took this photo, it was gone. Hopefully off to find different milkweed and not eaten.

My lavender is blooming. I just planted these in spring (5 plants), and honestly, I wasn't expecting blooms this season. Don't know if I'll get enough to dry, but it sure smells good now. The boys brush the plants every time they walk by because they smell so good.

I think this is some sort of hibiscus (? really I have no clue). It's winter hardy; I bought it last year from the little variety store down the street. It is loaded with buds, these two bloomed first, and each bloom is about 8" across (seriously, these things are big).

The coreopsis has been blooming for a while, I just forgot to take a photo of it.

Those darn asters still haven't bloomed.

10 and lots of 5s

2008-08-21T14:26:00.003-05:00

My SIL Julie tagged me with this little meme that's been going around:

10 years ago (August 1998): I had only one child, and he was 2. I also had my 10 year highschool reunion, which was pretty fun! (my 20 year is this November).

5 years ago (August 2003): My dad had died unexpectedly 2 months prior, so I was busy petitioning the court to be appointed executor of the estate, meeting with the lawyer, and cleaning up his house.

5 months ago (March 2008): We took a vacation to visit my MIL in Arizona, and had a wonderful time. There was a big snowstorm the day before we left, so the boys got to build forts and play, then the next day they got to go swimming in the sun!

5 things on my To Do List for tomorrow:

- Calvin has gymnastics camp, need to pack a lunch
- laundry (every day. I use MyChores to schedule my housework duties)
- weed/water the plants
- bake some stuff
- walk the dog

5 bad habits:

- wasting time on the computer
- being lazy
- not putting stuff away when I'm done
- procrastinating
- pack rat tendency

5 places I've lived (in no particular order):

- Scottsdale, AZ
- Des Moines, IA
- Long Beach, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Shorewood, WI

5 things people don't know about me (well, if you just met me):

- I don't like chocolate
- my second child was accidentally born at home, on the stairway
- I am allergic to raw apples
- I don't like driving
- I love popsicles

A Birthday Surprise

2008-08-16T14:43:00.010-05:00

Connor's birthday surprise was A Day Out With Thomas! My brother told me about it in March or April, and when I realized that one of the days was Connor's 4th birthday, well, you know I had to get tickets. All Connor knew was that we were doing something very special on his birthday.

Needless to say, when we arrived and he saw what his surprise was, he was THRILLED.

My brother and his family met us there, and Connor was so excited and wouldn't stop talking about all the different trains.

There was a LEGO Thomas to play on.

Thomas himself gave rides to everyone with a ticket.

You bet we had ours!

There were also other trains and engines to look at; we got to play in some sleeper cars, and see trains from long ago.

We even got to play on train tracks!

Tomorrow we'll have a little bit of cake, and on Monday, 3 friends are coming over for Connor's first "kid" birthday party. Wow, turning 4 is pretty cool!

Four!

2008-08-15T09:48:00.001-05:00

Four years ago a very special someone was born. FOUR YEARS OLD?!?!

We have a very special day planned, and it's quite the surprise. I can't wait to see his reaction.

(also, how cool is it that I can plan this post to publish at the time he was born?)

Ren Faire

2008-08-14T09:50:00.005-05:00

We went to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on Sunday. Calvin dressed up in one of the jester outfits, and we all had a lovely time.

State Fair

2008-08-01T17:32:00.010-05:00

Today we went to the WI State Fair, to see my winning entries and eat. A lot.

A rare photo of me and all three of my boys. Connor is going through a phase of not wanting his picture taken. It was a hot, humid day.

My photo of Calvin whittling got 2nd place AND a Staff Favorite ribbon! FINALLY, after 10 years of entering, I've won a fancy ribbon! (My trillium photo didn't get anything, and I should've entered it in the general flower category. It wasn't close-up enough, compared to the winners)

Caleb's jester costume placed 3rd. I also placed 4th for my sweater, and 4th for a skirt.

We watched all the different salespeople demo their wares and ended up with this fancy peeler (from Switzerland, people!) and all the freebies that came with it. Last year we bought a Quick Chopper 2000, and we just love it.

We explored the DNR building, and Connor had a good time looking at the reptiles. I talked with some of the master gardeners, and found yet more plants I'd like to put in my gardens.

Caleb and Calvin went down the big slide. Connor was scared to go.

Cheryl, we had a cream puff! They are still delicious!

It was a long day, and one little boy fell asleep on the way home.

Floral Friday

2008-08-01T07:54:00.003-05:00

Now that August is upon us, there isn't much new blooming in the yard. About the only plant that hasn't bloomed yet is the aster.

This is the other milkweed plant I have -- a friend called it a swamp milkweed. It's way taller than me, so I had to hold this bloom down to take a photo. I like how feathery it looks.

The limelight hydrangea we planted amongst the new landscaping started blooming! The flowers start out light green, and gradually turn whiter and whiter.

We are off to the State Fair this morning, so I will find out how my photos did and post a report later. I already know how my sewing and knitting entries did, but I'm making you wait so that I can report it all at once with pictures.

Floral Friday

2008-07-25T08:22:00.008-05:00

Here is what is blooming in the yard this week, plus my potted plants that I over-wintered have started up too!

Echinacea. I planted this in front of the firewood pile, so it kinda hides it in the summer, but since they die down to the ground in winter, the wood is quite accessible then.

The scarlett meidiland roses started blooming. So tiny and pretty! Each bloom is about 1" big.

This is Calvin's Irish moss. He is quite the gardener.

More bee balm.

The hibiscus is in full bloom! My mom's neighbors threw this out last summer, and she salvaged it. I over-wintered it, and thought I killed it when it dropped almost all its leaves. It survived!

Here's the plumbago. I over-wintered this one too. Next year I will prune it in late winter. I didn't do anything to it this year, and it's kinda all misshapen.

New Knucks

2008-07-22T09:16:00.004-05:00

Try saying that 5 times fast. Calvin lost his blue knucks that I made for him this spring, so I've started another pair. He was asked to join a boys gymnastics team, and practices are 3 days a week, 3 hours each time. It's not worth it to drive back home during practice (it's a 30 minute drive), so I either run some errands (grocery store, target, etc) or I sit and knit. One can get a lot done with 3 hours of uninterrupted knitting time! Yesterday I made this:
(pictured on one of my pretty Japanese painted ferns)

I bet I can get the other one done at tomorrow's practice.

Floral Friday

2008-07-18T08:01:00.005-05:00

All the mulch is spread, and now it's just a matter of keeping everything watered. Here's what is blooming in the yard this week:

Scarlett bee balm.

I think this is some sort of sunflower. I need to move it a bit, so it's not overshadowed by my neighbor's tree.

One of the hydrangea bushes started blooming. The flowers start out like this....

....and over the course of a few days, turn to this.

The hollyhock is in full bloom too. Hopefully this will reseed pretty well, I love them!

Notre Dame De Grace

2008-07-16T19:51:00.004-05:00

I finished my sweater in time for the Fair!

I must say, I love it. It's frakkin' hot today, too hot to put on for even a photo, so Ms. Belinda is modeling for you all. It's soft, warm, and cozy; I'm going to be living in it this winter.

My Ravelry project page is here. For you non-Rav members:
Notre Dame De Grace, from the Summer 2007 IK
Size 40
The Wool Boutique Merino Solids (by Elle), in olive (2282)
Size 9 needles
shortened sleeves 2.5" (and could've taken another inch off), lengthened body 1.25".

Judging for knitting and sewing is on Friday, hopefully I can make it and see how it fares, along with my other entries.

Floral Friday

2008-07-11T07:00:00.005-05:00

Oh my goodness, my garden is sucking the life energy out of me. Ok, it's not that bad, but boy there is still a lot of work to do after getting all these plants in. I've been weeding, raking and smoothing out mounds of dirt, and tomorrow 10 yards of mulch are getting dumped on my driveway. Yeah, we'll be busy.

Anyway, here's what's blooming now:
Every year when we go strawberry picking, Calvin also picks out some plants to put in the yard. Last year he chose these balloon flowers, and 2 of them came back great (the third 1 looks awful).

I got this from a friend thinning out her garden, and she called this a butterfly weed. It's not very big, maybe 8" tall at most.

This milkweed plant is blooming, but we have no caterpillars on any of the plants this year. :(

More stella d'oro lilies. I like how they look against the diablo ninebark in the background.

I think I'm going to be scarce over the summer. State Fair entries are due on Wednesday (I'm not going to get everything done), judging is on Friday, and Calvin was asked to join a boys' gymnastics team. They put him in level 5, so now we have 9 hours of gymnastics a week (plus 1.5 hours of travel time each time!). He loves it, and I'll get lots of knitting done.

Fair Along '08

2008-06-28T09:59:00.002-05:00

I've joined the Fair Along '08 blog, where we are all posting about entering our county and state fairs. Come on over and read the many intros from all over the country; it's fun to see everyone's stuff and read about why they started entering. (my intro is here, and you'll see I have a bit of work to do by July 16)

Floral Friday

2008-06-27T11:24:00.005-05:00

We are back from our camping trip. The weather was gorgeous, the beach was fun, the mosquitoes were awful. The boys look like they have chicken pox!

Not much new blooming in the garden this week:
The spiderworts started blooming in the front. These get more shade, so don't get as gigantic as my purple ones in the back. I like the light blue color.

This is some foxglove that I got from a friend 2 years ago (oops, it's not. Suzee says it's Penstemon). The bees love it, and yesterday, Calvin counted and said there were 57 of them working on the flowers.

The stella d'oro lilies have started blooming also. I always think they look so nice and cheery.

Landscaping

2008-06-22T20:06:00.007-05:00

I used the panoramic setting on the camera, it kinda distorts things, but you can see more. (click on the photos to make them bigger)

Here are the results of our hard work this past week. Over the course of 4 days we planted 4 dogwoods, 4 vibernum, 8 arborvitae, 1 limelight hydrangea, 3 weigela, 1 service berry, 1 river birch, 3 grey owl junipers, 6 diablo ninebark, 3 blue spruce, and 3 staghorn sumac. I also moved 3 roses, dug up and divided various iris and daffodils, moved 2 oriental poppies, and cut the grass. It looks great!

We also moved this big rock. I'm guessing it weighs 250-300 pounds. At first I guessed 200#, but David says it's definitely more. To move this, David built a sledge out of some plywood and 2x4. We used a crowbar as a lever, tied a rope around the rock, had a boy on each side pulling, while David pulled in the middle, and I pushed. We put a broomstick handle underneath the sledge to make it roll, and got it from the back corner of the lot (by the telephone pole) all the way over to the side. If the Egyptians could build the pyramids, and the Incans could do Machu Pichu without horses, we were going to move this rock! Ancient History comes in handy sometimes! If only I got a photo, it was pretty cool.

Now we need to weed a bit more, clean up our dirt mounds and order mulch. But first, I'm going camping to relax. Yeah, really.

Floral Friday

2008-06-20T07:55:00.009-05:00

Last night we planted the last of the arborvitae, and everything that was delivered on Monday is in the ground! I am very tired and quite sore. Now we need to clean up the dirt mounds and order mulch. Pictures to come later. Here's what is blooming this week:

My friend Deb gave me this miniature rose for my birthday last year. Isn't it pretty?

The bachelor's buttons are hard to photograph. I think they are delicate enough that the camera can't decide where to focus. The bees are always working on these.

I think this is some sort of sage, or something from the sage family. The bees like these flowers a lot too.

The peonies are in full bloom, and when the wind blows, sometimes we get a whiff of them.

The dragonflies are always buzzing around; they seem to like the garden a lot. I think they eat mosquitoes, so I hope they stick around! They are pretty hard to photograph too; I must have tried at least 5 times before I managed to get this one.

I've had my eye on this guy for a while. It is so pretty. I wish I could show you the swarms of dragonflies we have across the street, darting around, eating bugs. It's really neat.

This isn't a flower, but it started out as one. We have a peach! Two peaches, actually. I'm quite surprised, as I didn't think we would get fruit for at least 2-3 years after planting. I don't know if I should do something to prevent a squirrel or bird from getting it. Anyone know?

Plants!

2008-06-17T15:11:00.003-05:00

I am going to be MIA this week. Look what came yesterday:
Yeah, that's a lot of plants. And, I've got to move some things around before I can plant certain things. It's going to look great when it's done.

Last Day Of School

2008-06-13T19:36:00.004-05:00

YEAH! School is out for summer!

I've got a seventh grader now! Check out his first day as a sixth grader.

I also now have a third grader on my hands! Here's his first day as a second grader.

Floral Friday

2008-06-13T09:07:00.005-05:00

We had more storms yesterday afternoon and last night. Most of my flowers have been beaten hard with the rain. I got these pix yesterday morning:

This is my favorite iris, a white double-blooming one. It will bloom again in late October. I'm thinking about pairing it with the 'black' iris, somewhere in the garden.

Another lovely iris.

More iris. Can you tell I like iris? These are the last I have.

The peonies have started opening their buds. I love how these look and I'll even cut some to have on the kitchen table, but they make me sneeze a lot. So I'll suffer.

I met with the landscape designer yesterday, and loved the plan, so bought all the plants and they are getting delivered on Monday. I will be VERY busy next week getting everything in the ground! Thankfully school is out as of this afternoon, so I'll have helpers to work with me.

Weekend Storms

2008-06-09T08:34:00.008-05:00

We got hit hard with storms this weekend. They started on Saturday afternoon, and continued through last night. We lost power for about 3-4 hours yesterday, and got a bit of water in our basement, though I was able to clean it up with just towels. So far we've had 9.12 inches of rain this month, with over 7 of it from just this weekend.

Sunday morning the rain came down so hard it was like being hit with a hose. The rain barrels couldn't handle the volume and speed of the water. This is the water that is just coming off of the garage!

Our neighbor kitty-corner from us had some tree limbs fall on their iron fence. I don't know if you can tell, but that half of the street there is under water.

Some trees were damaged in the park, and this one fell across the path down to the beach.

The beach looked like someone had hosed away a bunch of sand. Usually you can only see about 6 inches of that cement block that Connor is next to.

This is about 4 blocks north of me. This area got hit really hard with wind shear. Lots of trees uprooted and torn in this area.

Caleb's school is closed today due to wind and storm damage. It would be pretty hard for anybody to get through safely!

Floral Friday

2008-06-06T12:22:00.006-05:00

Time for more flowers! Here is what has bloomed over this week:

This 'black' iris is gorgeous. Calvin is begging to cut it to take it to his teacher.

Instead, I let him cut a bunch of these purple iris. We also have oodles of pale yellow irises like these, and he made a lovely bouquet on Monday.

This one is lovely with the orange accents.

The purple spiderwort have started blooming. I have light blue ones in the front, but they get less sun, so always seem to be a bit 'behind'.

It's hot today, and it feels great. It was fairly cool in the middle of the week (maybe 60), with rain. Now it's about 80-85 today and sunny. The landscape designer came over on Tuesday, took some measurements and photos, and I meet with her next Thursday to see her ideas. Can't wait!

Deciding Entries

2008-06-04T09:22:00.003-05:00

It's time to decide what to enter in the state fair. My entry form/fee is due by June 20, entries themselves are due July 16, with judging on July 20. (if you live here in Wisconsin, all the info is here)

I haven't done much over the past year, so I'm not sure how much I'll enter, or if I'll try and get some things done in time. For sure I want to enter one of Caleb's costumes. The question is, which one? Do I enter the Pharaoh or the Jester? I can't enter both -- one entry per category. I'm pretty sure I'll put it in the children's costume category, as that is supposed to be for ages 5-12. Whichever one I don't enter, I can enter next year. Do I try and get a dress made? Can I finish a top that can go with a skirt I did last year and have a 2 piece outfit? Decisions, decisions!

I'm also toying with entering a sweater. I've been working on Notre Dame De Grace for a while, and it's looking pretty good. I've got the back and both sleeves finished, and am partway through the front.

I also need to decide if I'll enter any photos. I really like the one I took of Calvin whittling a few weeks ago, and I do think some of my flower photos are quite pretty. Well, I've got about 2 weeks to decide, so I guess I'll just think about it some more.

Floral Friday

2008-05-30T08:57:00.007-05:00

I've decided I'll use Friday's to show you photos of what is currently blooming in the yard.

This is actually my neighbor's redbud tree. Isn't it pretty? It overhangs the peonies. We have a little one we planted last year. I just love them.

The columbine are blooming on the side of the garage. I can't remember what the blueish flower is behind it.

The first of the many varieties of iris I have are blooming. You'll be seeing a few other colors in the next few weeks.

I don't know what this plant is, but it's so pretty. I got it from my mother's yard. It stays short and spreads pretty easily.

Wild geranium.

Next Tuesday someone is coming over to help me come up with a landscape design for the side and back yards, to form a natural fence. It'll be a lot of work, but I'm excited to start.

Is It Over Yet?

2008-05-23T10:42:00.002-05:00

I am so ready for school to be DONE. You can tell the end of the school year is upon us. This week we had a choir concert (Caleb) and a gymnastics banquet (Calvin). Next week we have Family Fun Night (Calvin) and an orchestra concert and potluck (Caleb). There is still soccer practice and games, Scouts, and a campout next weekend for Caleb.

I want my boys home so we can be lazy!

Camping

2008-05-19T11:35:00.006-05:00

Another season has also started for us: Camping! We went camping this weekend in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

We stayed at the same campsite that we go to in late June. I've never been there this early in the year, and the trillium and solomon's seal were blooming all over the forest floor. It was beautiful.

We enjoyed playing in the spring forest.

Calvin worked on improving his whittling skills.

We got rained on after supper on Saturday, and Connor really really wanted to go home, but we stayed and were able to roast marshmallows over the campfire. In the morning, after a good night's sleep, he was happy.

2008-05-16T09:28:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again -- time for gardening!
The daffodils are almost done blooming, the iris are shooting up buds, and this bleeding heart is as big as me (ok, not really, but I'm seriously going to have to divide it next year).

It's neat to see all the plants coming back after the long winter.

Spence

2008-05-15T17:35:00.003-05:00

I got to meet my new nephew on Monday. He's tiny (my littlest baby was almost a pound more at 7 lbs 12oz), and just gorgeous. He woke up a bit while we were visiting, and it was neat to see him looking around. The newborn phase is one of my absolute favorite baby stages; I could seriously sit there for hours just holding, watching, and smelling them. ^_^

The boys will get to meet him when we go down for Cuzzy's birthday party (2!).

It's A Boy!

2008-05-08T16:19:00.002-05:00

I'm an auntie again! My SIL and brother had their baby today.

Mr. Spencer Timothy
6 lbs, 15 oz
1:03 pm

They sure grow them little! Caleb was my littlest baby at 7 lbs, 12 oz. It's going to be so fun to hold a newborn again (one of my favorite ages), I just need to figure out when I can get down there, between soccer tournaments, scout camping, and gymnastics!

10 Questions and Answers

2008-05-08T09:08:00.005-05:00

My friend Rowena posted this on her blog yesterday, and I really like it, so here are my 10 questions and answers:

1. What are your 3 favorite fabrics?

- 100% silk, with duppioni being my absolute favorite. I love the sheen, the feel, the vibrant colors, and the smell.

- 100% cotton. Cotton comes in so many varieties, from the lightest voile to heavy canvas. You can get fantastic prints and beautiful weaves, and it's easy to sew. The only cotton fabric I don't care for is knit.

- this is a toss up between linen and rayon. I like both, though linen is pretty similar to cotton, so maybe I should go with rayon on this one. ^_^ I love the drape and weight of rayon, I adore rayon batiks, and my favorite knits are rayon ones.

2. What are your 3 least favorite fabrics?

- like Rowena, I loathe anything with glued on sequins. Stitched on isn't so bad, but glued ones are awful.

- Neoprene. I can never get a machine to stitch that stuff without cursing and whatever I've done with it has taken 39 times longer than necessary.

- Fake fur. It sheds and gets in my nose.

3. What is the most unusual fabric you have ever sewn?

- I have to really think on this one. I sewed a costume once with a gorgeous embroidered duppioni. The embroidery wasn't done with thread, it was done with metal.

4. What is the most unusual thing you have made out of normal fabric?

- Gee, I dunno. A bra? Not unusual, but not normally made at home.

5. If you could sew with just one fabric for the rest of your life, what would it be?

- I'd probably pick 100% cotton, though I'd have to think really hard about the silk too.

6. What is the most special piece of fabric you've bought AND used?

- I don't get too attached to fabrics, I get attached to the end result. I suppose it would be the Coca-Cola bottle cap print I bought in 1990 or so. It was horridly expensive (almost $50/yard), supposedly a Perry Ellis overrun, and I made a shirt for my dad with it. He loved that shirt, and I kept it when he died and I went through his things. The fabric quality was great, and it still looks as good as the day I made it.

7. Where do you get most of your fabrics?

- I try my best to buy locally, and I'd guess 95% of my fabric is bought here in Milwaukee. We have JoAnns, a Hancocks, and Wal-Mart. We also have a few pretty good quilting shops, and I get a lot of my quilt fabrics at Bigsby's (they have some garment stuff too, like this linen). Mostly, though, I buy my garment fabric at Canvasbacks, which is a local manufacturer that sells off their fabrics 3x/year. I tend to go to only one of the sales a year. This, this, this, and this were all made from Canvasbacks fabrics.

8. What are the last 3 fabrics you used?

- 'quilting' cotton (Amy Butler prints), 48 bean bags for my Student Interest Day sessions.
- some sort of satin, for the jester costumes last week, along with a really neat sari fabric.
- duppioni and canvas, for the jester hats, along with the satin and some poly crepe looking stuff.

9. If you could buy any fabric you wish, what would you buy and what would you do with it?

- I really don't know! I've been obsessed with finding a fabric that duplicates chain mail. I've seen it online in movie photos (Monty Python's Holy Grail) and in some of the Shakespeare plays I've seen. It's probably knit, and I'm not sure it's available in yardage. IF I could find it, I'd get a bunch and make cowls and hauberks for the whole family.

10. What advice do you have to seamstresses about buying fabric?

- Touch everything. Go to every store you can and learn about the fabrics. Learn about fibers, weaves, dyeing (not that you have to do any of it, just know about it). Get samples, buy 1/4 or 1/2 yards of stuff and play with it. Make samples. Don't buy something unless it speaks to you, and don't be afraid to use it.

Lastly, don't be afraid of anything. Don't be afraid to try welt pockets or a lined jacket, or underwear. Don't be afraid to cut into that fabric you love, just do a muslin (or two or five) first. It's really not that hard. Really. Enjoy the process. DON'T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF! I see and read people picking apart their work, and yet, if the same thing was on a rack at the store, you wouldn't be complaining, or not nearly as much.

Sharing My Passion

2008-05-07T07:57:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is Student Interest Day at Calvin's school. A while back, they sent home flyers, asking if parents had a hobby or job they'd like to share about, and I volunteered to talk about sewing. I've been trying to think of what I'm going to do. Turns out I will have 2 sessions, about 45-50 minutes each, with a mix of first through fifth graders in each session. The sessions were pretty popular, and are full with 20 kids in each one!

So far, I'm planning to bring some clothes, some costumes, and some quilts for the kids to see and touch. I'm also thinking I'll set up a sewing machine that the kids can try out (no fabric or thread, just run paper through it so they get a feel for it). I'll talk about how I like solving puzzles and creating things, and sewing is both for me. My friend Rowena said that she did something similar at her daughter's school, and she showed the children what patterns look like, and put together a doll shirt so the kids could see flat pieces turn into clothes.

It was suggested that I try and have something that the kids could do hands-on and bring home, so I'm thinking to have small bean bags sewn up, and I'll show the kids how to close them using a mattress stitch (I'll have a few helpers).

Am I missing anything? Trying too much? Any other ideas?

Complete!

2008-05-02T15:43:00.006-05:00

Here are the jester costumes in all their glory. Turns out that Caleb's friend had 2 pairs of gold shoes, so they wore those, along with either green tights or green soccer socks. I'll try and get a picture of the two of them together this weekend. The feast was a lot of fun, with kings, queens, serfs, bishops, monks, wizards, jesters, cooks, archers, knights, and plague victims.

(the bells fell off. I'm sure the metal cut through the thread. any ideas on how to get them sewn on and stay on?)

Court Jester: The Hat

2008-05-02T10:53:00.007-05:00

The pièce de résistance! (maybe not, the pants ARE really cool, but this really makes it say 'jester'). I used Butterick 4313 for the jester hats. This pattern went together really nicely, and was quicker than I thought it would be. I think the pattern runs a bit small, however, so if you make it, check the fit right after you sew the main pieces together.

Looks cool, no? I underlined the pieces with canvas instead of using the fusible interfacing called for. The horns are stuffed with fiberfill. If I hadn't been on such a time constraint, I would've spent more time making sure I didn't have any of the same colors next to each other.

I lined both hats in blue, since I had a good amount of it leftover. To make this hat, you sew the main horn pieces together, then stuff the horn. Next you are to put in the lining, but I did that last.

You then make the two little horns separately, stuff them, and hand sew them to the hat. That was hard, and I can't imagine doing it with the lining in already. Next time I would hand sew the little horns on before stuffing the big horn. The horns were also hard to turn right side out, and I rounded the corners.

I finished the bottom with a french binding (like a quilt). The binding was sewn onto the inside of the hat, and flipped to the outside and edgestitched down. Quick, easy, and looks pretty good.

Each horn got 3 bells each, and it does fit nicely. For as big as the hat is, it really stays nice and secure on the head. I hope to get some good pictures at the feast this afternoon (my batteries died during our photo shoot this morning. o_O ).

Court Jester: Tunics

2008-05-02T10:37:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a costume production day, and I finished the tunics and hats. Originally, I had hoped to make each tunics different. However, I ran out of gold, plus was on a time constraint, so the tunics are the same, just reversed in colors. I tried to get more gold fabric, but couldn't find it again. This gold duppioni was the closest I could find.

The tunics are basically rectangles. I cut two fronts/backs out of both red and green, about 14x29. I then used the pattern I made for the pharaoh costume and cut the shoulder slope and neckline.

To finish off the neckline, I made a facing pattern, cut it out of the duppioni, and fused it with knit interfacing. I stitched the tunic RST at the shoulders and CF/CB. I then attached the right side of the facing to the wrong side of the tunic, stitched, trimmed, and clipping it, and flipped it right side out.

After pressing the neckline, I edgestitched the facing down. An easy way to finish off the neckline and make it look like a collar at the same time.

The sleeves are rectangles also (13x15), and I dagged the hems. I put a 3" bias gusset in the underarm. Hemmed the bottom and side slits and they are finito!

The Boy Is 12

2008-05-01T22:01:00.003-05:00

Dudes, my firstborn is twelve. Twelve!
I remember nursing him, his head in the crook of my elbow, my hand holding onto his thigh, amazed that this little boy was mine. Now he's almost as tall as me, has bigger feet, and seriously needs a haircut. ^_^

(the Mexico soccer jersey was his birthday pressie. Didn't get to pie him today, but I'll get him tomorrow. Bwah ha ha ha!)

(oh, and the jester costumes are done. they rock. pictures tomorrow.)

Court Jester: Pants Complete!

2008-04-30T16:43:00.007-05:00

Today I finished both pairs of pants. For the bottoms, I added a band that also has a casing for ribbon. This way, the boys can cinch the hems in either above or below their knees.

First, I cut a band 4.5" by the circumfrence of the hem, plus 1.5". I hemmed the short edges (3/8" turned twice). I pressed 1/2" under along one long edge. Then I stitched the right side of the band to the wrong side of the pants, using a 1/2" seam.

Next I edgestitched pressed edge down, covering the previous stitching.

Lastly, I ran another row of stitching about 1/2" away, making a casing.

The finished pants! On to the tunics!

Court Jester: More Pants Progress

2008-04-30T16:31:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I worked on the 2nd pair of jester pants. I decided these would be striped, but also with an elizabethan feel.

First, I cut 6" strips from the gold. It's a reversible sari fabric, so I hemmed the long edges so the gold bordered the blue (1/2" turned twice). If I didn't have reversible fabric, I would have used a hong kong underlining technique with 2 fabrics. I did 6 strips hemmed on both sides, and 4 hemmed on one side only, for the inseams/crotch seams.

I cut the pants out of the green fabric, and laid the strips on top. Then I basted them to the green, and stitched down the strips to the crotch level, leaving them loose from there to the hem.

Ready to sew!

Court Jester: Pants Progress

2008-04-29T08:49:00.006-05:00

Costume sewing has commenced! Yesterday I started working on Caleb's pants. I figure this would be the most time consuming part of the costume, and I was right. I worked on this for 5-6 hours yesterday. First, I traced off a pair of his soccer shorts for a pattern, adding about 8" in length.

Next, I cut the diamonds to piece together to make fabric. I tried to think of a way to strip piece this, but couldn't figure it out in my head, so I decided to just cut the diamonds and sew them all together. I cut 4" strips, then laid the 60° mark on the edge to cut an angle. Using that new cut edge, I then placed the 4" mark and cut the diamonds.

I stitched contrasting diamonds together in pairs (and screwed them up at first), and then laid them out on my pattern, so I would only piece as much as I needed. Then I stitched pairs together, and filled in with single diamonds or triangles. I forgot to add a 1/4" seam allowance to one edge of the triangles at first, so I just kinda stretched those to fit a little bit.

Then I did it all over again, only in reverse. I think the second time around went faster and looks better. I used my serger, since the gold frayed a lot.

Done! This is as far as I got yesterday. Today, I will cut these out and stitch them together. As well as finishing these pants, I also hope to finish the other pants (remember, I am making 2 costumes: one for Caleb, and one for his friend).

7 Things

2008-04-24T08:35:00.003-05:00

Sorry, I have no progress to report on the court jester costumes. My husband had an unexpected minor surgery and hospital stay last Thursday and Friday, and so I've been quite busy (all is well and he is home recovering). I did get a lot of knitting done, though!

Anyway, a few weeks ago my friend Cheryl tagged me for a 7 quirks meme. I'm not sure I can come up with 7, but I'll try.

7 non-important things/quirks about me:

1. Like Cheryl, I do not like eat off plastic plates/cups. Or paper. I don't even like paper napkins! I really don't like anything that's disposable (yeah, that means diapers and pads too). My kids get cloth napkins in their lunches, though I do give them plastic utensils (I think a trip to Goodwill is in the future to get cheap metal silverware).

2. I do not like to go to bed with my closet door open, but I also don't like the bedroom door closed. I also have a hard time falling asleep if the room is pitch dark.

3. I HATE people touching or even going near my ears. This includes my husband.

4. I don't like to drink out of bottles or cans. I will, but I'd rather pour stuff into a glass, and usually do at home.

5. I seem to be allergic to sunscreen. I broke out in a really bad rash while in AZ, and we've narrowed it down to the sunscreen or the sun itself. If anyone has any suggestions for a brand, let me know. I've tried Kiss My Face, Alba Botanica, Neutrogena, and some sport one. Sometimes I'll be able to use one a few times, or even a whole summer, and then the next year I'll break out.

6. I don't like to drive, and I'll gladly let someone else do it.

7. Most people who know me know this; I love comic books. I was thrilled when our library system created a graphic novel section! Currently I'm waiting for the final trade paperbacks of Fables and The Last Man.

Court Jester: Planning

2008-04-15T09:04:00.005-05:00

Remember the Pharaoh costume I made for Caleb for the Opet festival at school? They also have a medieval feast as part of the social studies cirriculum. They get assigned roles for this one (after all, you can't have 37 kings now, can you?). Caleb is the court jester, along with a good friend of his. I'm going to do both of their costumes, so they 'match'. They will have to entertain the king during the tournament, so they are practicing a little routine. :D
On Saturday, I went over to Joann Fabrics and scoured the clearance racks. Calvin was with me, and he actually picked most of these fabrics. He's got a great eye for this sort of thing. The gold is really the wrong side of a blue sari fabric.

Here's our inspiration. While at the Ren Faire in AZ, Caleb looked in all the shops for jester costumes. He didn't see anything he liked, but he did like the look of this painting, so I took a photo. We searched online for costumes too, but everything we found was pretty lame, IMO. I have been re-reading some Asimov books, and noticed this one had a neat painting on the cover too, so viola! Inspiration! We found the hat pattern on Saturday, though I'm going to see if maybe one of the boys would like a variation on this one (upper right) instead.

Deadline is May 2!