Happy Leap Day!

Besides being Leap Day, today is also Calvin's half-birthday! We made snickerdoodle cookies last night for a half-birthday treat in class today.

It's also Spirit Day, so all the kids were encouraged to wear green. So, Calvin got a green faux hawk too. :)

When I Grow Up

I want to be Helen Mirren. She looked fantastic last night for the Oscars.

Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow Night

There is going to be a total lunar eclipse tomorrow night! It is supposed to be visible from South America, most of North America, and Western Europe and Asia, as well as Africa. Click HERE for more information with times, etc.

The viewing time is perfect for us, with totality happening around 9 pm. Last time, it happened around 5 am, and even though I got up, I couldn't see anything. Hopefully it will be clear tomorrow night!

Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!

You know what that means, don't you? We've been working on making valentine's for the last 2 weeks. Last year we made these, this year we made woven heart baskets. These ended up being a bit more involved and difficult -- I did most of the work. Still, they are really cute, and most importantly, we had fun doing them. (I am thankful that we only had to do cards for Calvin's class. I guess in middle school you don't pass valentine's out anymore.)

I made a Flickr tutorial so that you can make your own sometime. (I also added the pix from last year's cards)

Now I have to go run to the grocery store to get a treat for the Valentine party, since my cupcakes are a failure (they are all sunken in the middle. weird).

Halfdome Hat

This past weekend my LYS had a sale. I went, to spend a gift certificate that my mom gave me, and ended up with the yarn to make Notre Dame De Grace, a sweater designed by Véronik Avery. (want to see my swatch? it's here)

Before starting yet another knitting project, I promised I would finish one. So, I finished up a Halfdome Hat for David. I started this in October, and decided to use the project to learn how to do Magic Loop. I learned I HATE magic loop. It sat, untouched, for about 3 months, because I didn't have size 5 dpns. Finally I bought some and have now finished the hat!

For you Ravelry members, my project page is here.

David loves it. He put it on right away, and didn't take it off until bedtime. Then, he put it on right when he got home after work last night, and didn't take it off until bedtime. I think we have a winner! I used Sublime Yarn's Cashmere Silk Merino DK, and knit the pattern in the round, like these instructions. This yarn is divine. It is so so soft, and David says it is very warm too. I eliminated the rolled edge and did ribbing instead. The hat itself is too tall (I started shaping at 4.5", and should have started at around 3-3.5"), but David just rolls the edge twice now. I really like the look of the raglan style decreases, and will definitely make this again. I needed to use just a bit of a 2nd ball of yarn, but if I had made the hat with the right depth, one ball would have been enough.

(we keep our heat fairly low, and David is bald, hence, he wears a hat in the house)

Superheroes!

Yesterday was the annual Music for Munchkins concert given by the high school orchestra. The theme this year was Superheroes.

I made this costume for the orchestra teacher. She was WonderWand Woman, and loved it! Not pictured are the gold vambraces I made. I also made a purple tunic and hat for The Green Goblin. The concert was wonderful, with evil villans (Green Goblin, Metroid, Mr. Freeze, and Syndrome) fighting with heroes (Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Elastigirl, Violet, and the orchestra's very own superhero: Stringman). Beautiful music was played, suspense, and action made for a great afternoon!

Calvin got to try out the instrument petting zoo. He wants to play the viola.

The boys did the crafts (masks, capes, face painting). Connor wanted to do them all, but didn't want to wear any of them. He insisted that Caleb wear whatever he created, and then was just distraught that Caleb wouldn't fly with the cape on. :)

Mittens

I finished Calvin's mittens. They were a fast project for me; I finished them in 10 days. Just in time too, since it was -4 with a wind chill of -23 when we got up yesterday (consider that it was 48 when we got up on Monday. Quite a temperature change!). My Ravelry project page for these is here.

He was thrilled when he saw I had finished them, and I tried to get a photo of his happiness, and this is what I got. :( My camera seems to have died! I think I'm going to have to get a new one -- I've tried all sorts of things, and cannot get anything but black photos. The viewfinder doesn't work, I can't get any photos no matter what setting I put it on, and the video won't work either. I can't complain too much, since I've taken 10,000+ pictures with it, so it certainly got used. Anyone have any recommendations for a camera? This was a Kodak EasyShare DX4330 (with a whopping 3.1 megapixels!), so I already have a 256mb card that I'd like to be able to continue to use.

Some Knitting

Some recent, and some not so recent. Remember my purple sweater? Remember when I ran out of yarn?! My friend Esther found some more for me, and I finished it last spring. Finally I got Calvin to take some photos! Here's one:
I also started a pair of mittens for Calvin on the 19th. I'm farther than this picture now, all that is needed is the thumb on the 2nd mitten, and weaving in the ends:
Connor had picked out the color, and once these are done, I'll start a pair for him (red).

Whomi!

I won a Whomi! Earlier this month, The Lazy Organizer had a giveaway for three Whomi calendars, and I won! It came yesterday, and it's so cool. This one is a Hidden Agenda. Isn't it pretty?

The inside is great. My calendar will be on the top, and I'll have each of the boys on the bottom. This is perfect timing, as my PDA had a run-in with a door frame. It still works, but not very well, and it's really really hard to enter information (if I touch the stylus on a Monday, I usually get bumped over to Wednesday or Thursday. Can you say annoying!). I especially like the forward planning section in the back of the calendar, 2 years out, which will come in handy when planning dentist and eye doctor appointments 6 months out.

I'm going to have to switch purses, though. I don't think it's going to fit in my current one....

Costume Details

I took a bunch of detail shots of Caleb's Pharaoh costume yesterday. I've put them in my 2008 Sewing Flickr set, with notes. The costume was a big hit at school, and survived the festival pretty well. I need to repair the headdress, as the seams in the lamé failed pretty easily.

The best part of this whole project was seeing Caleb's face when I showed him the final costume. He was pretty impressed, and kept talking about how good I was to be able to do it without him around (for fitting and babysitting). :)

Walk Like An Egyptian

(thanks to Rowena for the title. ~G~)

Today, as part of the social studies cirriculum, Caleb has an Opet Festival at school. All the students dress up like ancient egyptians, and do ancient egyptian stuff in each of their classes. I had a blast making his costume.

We took our inspiration from this King Tut costume. The tunic is made from rectangles with a shoulder slope. I had about 3" of the sleeve trim leftover when I was finished. The rest of the pieces are quilted lamé. Like most costumes, trim and accessories are everything! I found everything at Joann Fabrics on Tuesday. I started the costume Wednesday afternoon, and finished it yesterday. We copied a $200+ costume for $44.09 and about 8 hours of work. :) We made the hook thing and flail (sorry, I don't know the correct terms) from strips of plaster wrap that we rolled up and spray painted gold.

The eyeliner looks cool, though ultimately Caleb asked to have it washed off. I made the headpiece by making a quilted headband and then stitching alternate strips of the blue and gold lamé (2" finished width) into a 30x22 rectangle. This was then stitched onto the headband. It turned out really cool.

You can click on either picture to see it full size. I can take detail shots of the collar, belt, vambraces, and headpiece after he gets back home.

Resolutions

Ok, now that I've reviewed my past year, it's time to look forward to the next. :) Like Belinda, some of my sewing goals stay the same from year to year until I actually accomplish them. This year my goals are:

- Sew some nice clothes for my boys. Specifically, I want do to nice dress shirts (Caleb has a choir concert on the 29th, so I have a deadline), and I've always liked the look of Cordarounds.
- Increase my output of clothes for me. More dresses.
- Do window treatments for the downstairs (living room, dining room, kitchen).
- Finish the unfinished quilts.


On the non-sewing front:

- Get back down to about 125-130 pounds.
- More consistency with meal planning.

I have one more goal that will get its own post later.

Sewing Year In Review

It's a new year, and I get to reset my stats! First, a look back on 2007:

Yardage In: 67.875
Yardage Out: 45.125
Items Made: 47
Money Spent: $866.33

Not bad! Not bad at all. In comparison to 2006, I cut my yardage input more than in half, as well as cutting my spending in half. I also increased my output quite a bit (helped a lot by the costume sewing I did). My yardage consumption was reduced by a lot (75% or so?), however, I only did one quilt this year, and those really eat up yardage.

One goal I've had floating in my head for the past few years was to be self-supportive with my hobby, and I did that this year. Working for the shakespeare company and getting the suzuki institute job allowed me to 'support' my hobby on my own. :)

OK -- if you click HERE, you can see all the things I created in 2007 (it's a KodakGallery album, and I set it so that you do not have to sign in. The option is there, but not necessary). Apparently, it was the year of superhero capes and cowls (there's an extra one I made that I neglected to photograph).

Polar Bears!

I'll do a sewing year in review later, but first, Calvin and I started 2008 off right, with a dip in Lake Michigan! (Caleb chickened out)

For about 10 years, I jumped in Lake Michigan every New Year's Day, down at Bradford Beach, in a swimsuit and everything. I stopped after I turned 30. Anyway, yesterday was a spur of the moment type thing. Some of Caleb's friends waded in last year, at the beach across the street. This year they knocked on our door and asked if we wanted to come. So we did! It was really easy compared to going downtown. Just put on a coat, grab a towel, walk across the street and down to the beach, and wade in!

Yes it was still cold, and quite windy, but still fun.

Review of Goals

2007 is almost over, time to move on to 2008! Let's review my goals from last year and see how I did.

~ Put Ms. Belinda on a crash diet. (she's my body double, in case you don't know) I weighed 142 pounds when I made her, and I've managed to maintain my weight at 125-130 for 18 months now. She can go on her diet now. :) -- I failed at this, and to boot, I've gained 16 pounds, averaging 140 now. :(

~ Sew some nice clothes for my boys, at least 1 dress shirt/pants for each one. It's hard finding nice church clothes that aren't made like crap! -- again, failure!

~ Sew at least 1 garment per month for myself, and keep it. -- Not quite. I made 7 items for myself, kept 6. However, the 6 I kept get worn a lot.

~ Do at least 1 charity project. -- I made preemie sleepers, made/donated an I-Spy quilt for a church raffle, and made 3 bags for a village raffle.


~ Get the window treatments done for the downstairs (living room, dining room, kitchen). -- HA! I'm pathetic, no progress at all.

~ Stay on top of gift sewing. -- did OK on this, could be better.

~ Keep my sewing room somewhat clean, i.e. stop letting everyone use it as a dumping ground (including myself). This might involve some re-organization. -- not so great. Sometimes I do ok, sometimes (most of the time) not. Got rid of a big desk, so I have more room now.

Man, I sucked, big time! Let's see if I can do better this next year. I've been thinking of ways to help implement goals and stay on track. I'll post my new goals and year-end wrap up later.

Happy Christmas!

We had a nice Christmas --
We've had lots of family time.

We've played games.

Calvin and I went to see The Nutcracker (per his request).

We ate lots of good food.

We visited with family.

Secret Project

Christmas is only 5 days away! ACK!!! Connor is over the moon about Thomas the Tank Engine. I've been trying to make a quilt for him:
This is as far as I am. Everthing is cut, and sitting there. I have to work on it in secret, and that's been pretty hard to do. It shouldn't take long to do, it's getting the time to do it! (I can't even let him see me working on this post, as he'll get obsessed with the photo) I may have to do some late night sewing, and I don't like to sew at night.

Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

Beth came over today, and we had a Christmas cookie baking marathon. Caleb is off on a Boy Scout campout, so it was just Calvin and Connor as our helpers. We made 5 different kinds, for a total of about 300 cookies.

The boys fought over using the mixer, but settled down after we threatened to kick them out of the kitchen. We might have threatened other things as well.

Connor was a pretty good helper.

The boys had fun with the sprinkles. Can you guess which trees Connor decorated?

It was really really hard to resist playing in the powdered sugar, and finally, he just gave in. It does look like snow, after all.

My half of the cookies. We made gingersnaps (11th recipe), spritz (trees, dogs, and wreaths), mexican wedding cakes, double chocolate kiss cookies (2nd recipe), and chocolate chip (yeah, all these neat holiday cookies, and David wants plain chocolate chip cookies).

Think these will last until Epiphany? Yeah, I don't either.

Orchestra Concert

Wow, a post every day this week!

I need to show some love to Caleb now, and last night he had his orchestra concert. He's been playing great, and is first chair for the cellos! Considering that he started playing a little over a year ago, he's done very well. I recorded 3 of the 5 songs they played. First, Sword Dance:



Sailor's Song (my favorite):


They closed with Bow-town Blues. I have heard and watched him practice constantly, but he purposely did not let me see the cellos twirl their instruments. He wanted it to be a surprise:


Regarding school/student productions, the Yarn Harlot wrote a lovely piece about them yesterday. Do go and read it. Right now I need to get in the shower and get over to Calvin's winter concert this morning. Hopefully I won't have the bootlicking kid today.

By the way -- I just LOVED his teacher's jacket, as did my friend Beth. We were considering if we could roll her for it. :) It looked dynamite with her hair.

The Last Meet

Last night, Calvin had his last gymnastics meet of the year. He did well, winning 4 medals. Check it out - he is his normal silly self during gymnastics sometimes!

Ok, on to what the grandparents and friends really want: the videos! You know the drill:

His floor routine, earning a score of 9.35, and second place:


Next, his beam routine, earning a score of 9.5, and first place (and a sloppy dismount, IMO):


Third, his bar routine, earning a score of 8.8. He had some trouble, but you can sure get an idea of how strong he is:


Lastly, his vault, placing first with a score of 9.85:


He won the gold All Around medal with a total score of 37.50. Four medals! He had a good time, though I am glad the meets are over for this year. They make a long long day for him (he needs to be there at 5:30 for stretching and warm-ups [which means eating supper at 4:30], march-in starts at 6:25, and the meet usually ends around 8:15). Of course, it's exciting, so bedtime doesn't really happen when it should, and it's a struggle getting up the next morning.



His total medal count this season: 16, plus one trophy!
We'll find out on Monday if he moves up to the next level.