Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Jo-jo vs. The Lemon
I love how he laughs at himself -- he knows what he's doing to himself but just can't help it!
Tchaikovsky never sounded better!
Thought you science geeks out there would think this pretty darn cool.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Blessing for Fathers
God is the giver of all life, human and divine.
May he bless the father of these children.
With his wife he will be the first teacher of his children in the ways of faith.
May he be also the best of teachers,
bearing witness to the faith
by what he says and does,
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Ditty Bag Tutorial
Here's my latest sewing project. It's my attempt to replicate an awesome little bag that I received for a Christmas present from my Auntie Carlin years ago. It's called a ditty bag, and had a cute little poem that went with it which I have since lost. But it is basically a little bag to keep all your travel-size toiletries in, so when you're invited to a sleepover you can just grab it and go, knowing all your essentials are already packed! I made one a couple days ago, but thought some of you might be interested in making one for yourselves, so the next time I made one I snapped some photos to share.
Here is the well-loved ditty bag Aunt Carlin made me.
Like I said, well-loved. :)
It's gotten so stained and raggedy that I use it to keep this giraffe puzzle in. I wanted a new one, though, since it's an awesome way to keep travel things contained, like hair accessories (which easily get lost on trips!).
The project is very simple and quick -- from start to finish it took me under and hour. I just used scraps of fabric I had left over from other sewing projects. The cord I had to buy -- figure one yard per 12" bag.
Measure two squares of fabric, about 12 x 12. (Mine was actually 12 x 11 -- work with what you have!) If you can use the selvages, more the better. (It will eliminate a step later. And we are ALL about making things easier!)
Now, because this is going to be a bag which will have stuff put in and taken out of it, any exposed seams would get all raggedy. So we're going to do FRENCH seams. Ho ho! (Besides, this is the way my Auntie Carlin did it.)
So you start by putting your pieces WRONG sides together, and sewing a 1/4" seam along 3 of the edges, pivoting at the corners. Leave the selvage side open. (Sorry this is so dark -- the camera INSISTED there was enough light coming from my Singer!)
Clip corners.
Turn the bag wrong side out and press the edges flat. Make sure to poke the corners out square.
Next, we're going to encase the first seam by sewing with RIGHT sides together in about a 1/2" seam, pivoting at corners. You can feel where the first seam ends -- just sew a little to the left of that. Leave the selvage side open.
Now we're going to shape the bottom of the bag, so it's a little rectangular box shape.
This is the Origami-like part of the instructions. :) Take one of the bottom corners and make it form the point of a triangle, with the seams going straight down the middle, one on top of the other. Press. Measure about 2" down the seam from the corner, and mark it.
Sew across the triangle at the level of the marking.
Do the same thing for the other corner, making sure that all the seams will lie the same direction when the bag is opened. (If that doesn't make too much sense, don't worry about it.) :)
Next, fold your triangle corners over the line of stitching you just made, towards the center of the bag, and press. (I wish this picture had come out better -- it's kind of washed out and hard to see. If you click on the image you can see it a little better.)
Then run a couple stitches across the tops of the triangles to tack them down.
Voila! You have a rectangular bottom to your bag!
I like to iron nice little creases all around because I'm meticulous like that. :)
Now we're going to work on the casing for the drawstring.
With the bag still wrong side out, fold over 1" of the top and press.
Because it's so small, I usually iron the whole top at once instead of going around and ironing 2" at a time. :)
If you weren't able to use a selvage, you'll need to make it 1 1/4" -- first fold over 1/4" and press, then fold over 1" and press again.
Now, I did the next part two ways. The first bag I made, I sewed everything up, and then realized I needed to make openings for the drawstrings. That was a nuisance, so the second time I made the openings first and then sewed the casing closed. I can't tell how Auntie Carlin did it b/c it's so shredded now and there's no fabric left along the openings. So if you can come up with a better way than this, please be my guest -- and then tell me about it!
So, making openings.
First, with a pin mark where your stitching is going to go, pushing through BOTH layers of fabric.
Then, on the OUTSIDE of the bag, start ripping! Rip from right next to the pin to right next to the crease you just ironed in. Remember after you rip one seam, you'll need to dig down to get to the first seam you sewed.
Peek a boo! Do this for both seams.
After you have both openings, go ahead and sew the casing, right next to the edge of the fabric. (Again, if you're not using a selvage, make sure to keep that little 1/4" folded under.)
I hate this part. I always get one of these unsightly things whenever I do a hem.
Now, Aunt Carlin sewed another line of stitching along the top, next to the crease, presumably to keep the drawstrings' opening from, well, opening further. Because I'm lazy I skipped this step, but those more fastidious than I might want to do that.
Anyway, moving along, we're almost done! Time to thread the cord through! I used a yard of cotton cord from the ribbons & lace section of the fabric store. The stuff shreds, so make sure to wrap a piece of tape around the edge so it doesn't unravel before you want it to.
Cut the cord in half, so you have two pieces 18" long. Take one taped end and start feeding it through one of the openings.
This takes a while. I started watching a movie with Mr. Pickles while I was doing this step.
Go all the way around the bag, ignoring the other opening, and pull it back through the first opening. (Ignore my long cord -- I didn't cut it first.)
Even out the ends and tie them together, then remove the tape.
Take the other length of cord, and starting at the other opening, thread it through, around, and back out from where it started. Tie it off in the same way.
Ta-da!! You have a cute little square-bottomed bag for holding all your girlie stuff! Thanks again to Aunt Carlin for giving me this bag years ago! :)
I think this would be a great project for someone learning how to sew -- when I feel Miriam is old enough to be able to use my sewing machine I think I'll have her make one of these.
Here is the well-loved ditty bag Aunt Carlin made me.
Like I said, well-loved. :)
It's gotten so stained and raggedy that I use it to keep this giraffe puzzle in. I wanted a new one, though, since it's an awesome way to keep travel things contained, like hair accessories (which easily get lost on trips!).The project is very simple and quick -- from start to finish it took me under and hour. I just used scraps of fabric I had left over from other sewing projects. The cord I had to buy -- figure one yard per 12" bag.
Measure two squares of fabric, about 12 x 12. (Mine was actually 12 x 11 -- work with what you have!) If you can use the selvages, more the better. (It will eliminate a step later. And we are ALL about making things easier!)Now, because this is going to be a bag which will have stuff put in and taken out of it, any exposed seams would get all raggedy. So we're going to do FRENCH seams. Ho ho! (Besides, this is the way my Auntie Carlin did it.)
So you start by putting your pieces WRONG sides together, and sewing a 1/4" seam along 3 of the edges, pivoting at the corners. Leave the selvage side open. (Sorry this is so dark -- the camera INSISTED there was enough light coming from my Singer!)
Clip corners.
Turn the bag wrong side out and press the edges flat. Make sure to poke the corners out square.
Next, we're going to encase the first seam by sewing with RIGHT sides together in about a 1/2" seam, pivoting at corners. You can feel where the first seam ends -- just sew a little to the left of that. Leave the selvage side open.Now we're going to shape the bottom of the bag, so it's a little rectangular box shape.
This is the Origami-like part of the instructions. :) Take one of the bottom corners and make it form the point of a triangle, with the seams going straight down the middle, one on top of the other. Press. Measure about 2" down the seam from the corner, and mark it.
Sew across the triangle at the level of the marking.Do the same thing for the other corner, making sure that all the seams will lie the same direction when the bag is opened. (If that doesn't make too much sense, don't worry about it.) :)
Next, fold your triangle corners over the line of stitching you just made, towards the center of the bag, and press. (I wish this picture had come out better -- it's kind of washed out and hard to see. If you click on the image you can see it a little better.)
Then run a couple stitches across the tops of the triangles to tack them down.Voila! You have a rectangular bottom to your bag!
I like to iron nice little creases all around because I'm meticulous like that. :)Now we're going to work on the casing for the drawstring.
With the bag still wrong side out, fold over 1" of the top and press.
Because it's so small, I usually iron the whole top at once instead of going around and ironing 2" at a time. :)If you weren't able to use a selvage, you'll need to make it 1 1/4" -- first fold over 1/4" and press, then fold over 1" and press again.
Now, I did the next part two ways. The first bag I made, I sewed everything up, and then realized I needed to make openings for the drawstrings. That was a nuisance, so the second time I made the openings first and then sewed the casing closed. I can't tell how Auntie Carlin did it b/c it's so shredded now and there's no fabric left along the openings. So if you can come up with a better way than this, please be my guest -- and then tell me about it!
So, making openings.
First, with a pin mark where your stitching is going to go, pushing through BOTH layers of fabric.
Then, on the OUTSIDE of the bag, start ripping! Rip from right next to the pin to right next to the crease you just ironed in. Remember after you rip one seam, you'll need to dig down to get to the first seam you sewed.
Peek a boo! Do this for both seams.
After you have both openings, go ahead and sew the casing, right next to the edge of the fabric. (Again, if you're not using a selvage, make sure to keep that little 1/4" folded under.)
I hate this part. I always get one of these unsightly things whenever I do a hem.Now, Aunt Carlin sewed another line of stitching along the top, next to the crease, presumably to keep the drawstrings' opening from, well, opening further. Because I'm lazy I skipped this step, but those more fastidious than I might want to do that.
Anyway, moving along, we're almost done! Time to thread the cord through! I used a yard of cotton cord from the ribbons & lace section of the fabric store. The stuff shreds, so make sure to wrap a piece of tape around the edge so it doesn't unravel before you want it to.
Cut the cord in half, so you have two pieces 18" long. Take one taped end and start feeding it through one of the openings.This takes a while. I started watching a movie with Mr. Pickles while I was doing this step.
Go all the way around the bag, ignoring the other opening, and pull it back through the first opening. (Ignore my long cord -- I didn't cut it first.)
Even out the ends and tie them together, then remove the tape.Take the other length of cord, and starting at the other opening, thread it through, around, and back out from where it started. Tie it off in the same way.
Ta-da!! You have a cute little square-bottomed bag for holding all your girlie stuff! Thanks again to Aunt Carlin for giving me this bag years ago! :)I think this would be a great project for someone learning how to sew -- when I feel Miriam is old enough to be able to use my sewing machine I think I'll have her make one of these.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A Week in the Life
So how was your week last week? Get lots of work done? Play with your pets? Meet anyone new? Good, good. Glad to hear it. Well, we had a busy week. Here are some pictures that Miriam drew of what we did. Can you guess?
If you said "spent three hours in the emergency room on a Saturday evening" you would be correct!!
She was running. It had rained. It was muddy. She slipped. A rock or stick or something jumped up and bit her in the leg. It was deep. She screamed a lot. We cleaned it out and called the pediatrician, who recommended bringing her to the emergency room to check it out. So we had to put all our other plans on hold (poor Mr. Pickles had to cancel his "pizza and a guy movie" guys' night). Fortunately it was slow at the emergency room, so we didn't have to wait long for any one period, just lots of little waiting periods.
The nurses were very nice.
They numbed her leg with a special cream (see the poultice on her leg, pictured above), then cleaned out the cut with a nifty syringe thingy:
Then the attending doctor stitched it up (4 stitches in the back of her thigh). Sorry I don't have any pictures of that. But you can view Miriam's rendition, also above.
Miriam was a little trooper through the whole thing. After the initial trauma of being injured was over, she was very stoic, if not downright curious, about the whole thing. After all, this was her first trip to the emergency room. She was mostly concerned about how much the needle would hurt when she was being stitched up. (It didn't -- she was numb.) And then afterwards, she took great delight in describing the whole ordeal to anyone who would listen.
She got the stitches taken out this past Friday and everything is healing up nicely. Now we're just waiting for the bill.
In other financial news this week, we had to take the car in to get the rear windshield wiper fixed, after it had been mauled by a neighborhood kid. While it was in the shop, the rear brake lights stopped working for some mysterious reason. A one-day fix turned into a multi-day carless streak. They finally gave us a loaner after we whined and pleaded and begged so that at least our family life could function (you remember we have only the one car). The loaner was a "mini-minivan." So, technically, it could seat 7 people. In theory. And assuming they were all the size of Katie. As it was, the 3 carseats were pretty packed in there. And we had no trunk space. So no major grocery shopping allowed.
We FINALLY got the van back, all fixed, huzzah huzzah, on Monday. Mr. Pickles had to take off of work early, before they closed (we just missed them by 20 minutes the previous Saturday, rizza frazza grrrrr), since I had to run an errand that evening.
Meanwhile, I was trying to plan how to attend this year's big homeschool conference that I'd been looking forward to since I missed LAST year's conference. When I got the news that our car was out of commission, I despaired. How was I going to attend the conference AND get Miriam to the doctor, with no car? Or even with one car? Well, Providence intervened in the form of my cousin Martin who flew in to man a booth at the conference. (Yay JP Catholic!) He had a rental car, so I carpooled in with him, and Mr. Pickles hauled all the kids to the doctor's. But since I couldn't stay all day, I had to scramble around and beg for an early ride home, but again I providentially bumped into a friend just as she was getting ready to leave. The next day I had free reign with the car, went to the conference, spent lots of money (of course!), and brought home some great books. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Pickles was sick this whole time? He very generously and self-sacrificingly made it possible for me to attend the conference even though he was feeling lousy. Isn't he great? I don't deserve him. He handles sickness much better than I do -- I get so whiny and pouty!
Anway, speaking of whining, where was I? Emergency room, car, stitches, conference, I guess that's it. Oh, in good news, Joseph is a healthy 15-month-old, and he didn't react from his MMR vaccine on Monday, plus I found a swimsuit that I actually sort of kind of like that even fits and stuff, although it makes me look like the Queen of Hearts. But back to our regularly scheduled whining: this Friday I'll be bringing Joseph back to the pediatric dentist to make sure he doesn't have nerve damage from when he cracked his tooth (I already blogged about that, didn't I?). I've also begun the mad scramble to get ready for vacation, which includes, but is not limited to, errand-running, extra shopping, finishing up 3 sewing projects, conquering mountains of laundry, vacuuming popcorn and granola off the dining room floor several times a week, catching mice in the kitchen, catching gerbils in the living room (Joseph has discovered how to open their cage), making to-do lists, making packing lists, making lists of lists, and in general feeding 4 hungry people at various times throughout the day.
So now you all know why I haven't blogged in a while.
And why I plan to spend two weeks on a beach in California drinking Bellinis every day.
Or mimosas.
I'm not picky.
If you said "spent three hours in the emergency room on a Saturday evening" you would be correct!!
She was running. It had rained. It was muddy. She slipped. A rock or stick or something jumped up and bit her in the leg. It was deep. She screamed a lot. We cleaned it out and called the pediatrician, who recommended bringing her to the emergency room to check it out. So we had to put all our other plans on hold (poor Mr. Pickles had to cancel his "pizza and a guy movie" guys' night). Fortunately it was slow at the emergency room, so we didn't have to wait long for any one period, just lots of little waiting periods.
The nurses were very nice.
They numbed her leg with a special cream (see the poultice on her leg, pictured above), then cleaned out the cut with a nifty syringe thingy:
Then the attending doctor stitched it up (4 stitches in the back of her thigh). Sorry I don't have any pictures of that. But you can view Miriam's rendition, also above.
Miriam was a little trooper through the whole thing. After the initial trauma of being injured was over, she was very stoic, if not downright curious, about the whole thing. After all, this was her first trip to the emergency room. She was mostly concerned about how much the needle would hurt when she was being stitched up. (It didn't -- she was numb.) And then afterwards, she took great delight in describing the whole ordeal to anyone who would listen.
She got the stitches taken out this past Friday and everything is healing up nicely. Now we're just waiting for the bill.
In other financial news this week, we had to take the car in to get the rear windshield wiper fixed, after it had been mauled by a neighborhood kid. While it was in the shop, the rear brake lights stopped working for some mysterious reason. A one-day fix turned into a multi-day carless streak. They finally gave us a loaner after we whined and pleaded and begged so that at least our family life could function (you remember we have only the one car). The loaner was a "mini-minivan." So, technically, it could seat 7 people. In theory. And assuming they were all the size of Katie. As it was, the 3 carseats were pretty packed in there. And we had no trunk space. So no major grocery shopping allowed.
We FINALLY got the van back, all fixed, huzzah huzzah, on Monday. Mr. Pickles had to take off of work early, before they closed (we just missed them by 20 minutes the previous Saturday, rizza frazza grrrrr), since I had to run an errand that evening.
Meanwhile, I was trying to plan how to attend this year's big homeschool conference that I'd been looking forward to since I missed LAST year's conference. When I got the news that our car was out of commission, I despaired. How was I going to attend the conference AND get Miriam to the doctor, with no car? Or even with one car? Well, Providence intervened in the form of my cousin Martin who flew in to man a booth at the conference. (Yay JP Catholic!) He had a rental car, so I carpooled in with him, and Mr. Pickles hauled all the kids to the doctor's. But since I couldn't stay all day, I had to scramble around and beg for an early ride home, but again I providentially bumped into a friend just as she was getting ready to leave. The next day I had free reign with the car, went to the conference, spent lots of money (of course!), and brought home some great books. Oh, did I mention that Mr. Pickles was sick this whole time? He very generously and self-sacrificingly made it possible for me to attend the conference even though he was feeling lousy. Isn't he great? I don't deserve him. He handles sickness much better than I do -- I get so whiny and pouty!
Anway, speaking of whining, where was I? Emergency room, car, stitches, conference, I guess that's it. Oh, in good news, Joseph is a healthy 15-month-old, and he didn't react from his MMR vaccine on Monday, plus I found a swimsuit that I actually sort of kind of like that even fits and stuff, although it makes me look like the Queen of Hearts. But back to our regularly scheduled whining: this Friday I'll be bringing Joseph back to the pediatric dentist to make sure he doesn't have nerve damage from when he cracked his tooth (I already blogged about that, didn't I?). I've also begun the mad scramble to get ready for vacation, which includes, but is not limited to, errand-running, extra shopping, finishing up 3 sewing projects, conquering mountains of laundry, vacuuming popcorn and granola off the dining room floor several times a week, catching mice in the kitchen, catching gerbils in the living room (Joseph has discovered how to open their cage), making to-do lists, making packing lists, making lists of lists, and in general feeding 4 hungry people at various times throughout the day.
So now you all know why I haven't blogged in a while.
And why I plan to spend two weeks on a beach in California drinking Bellinis every day.
Or mimosas.
I'm not picky.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Cousins!!
Cousin Phil and his family came out this weekend for an ordination of a college friend. It was a great weekend filled with ice cream,
matching outfits,
sharing,
and wading in the kiddie pool!
There was also Great Aunt and Uncle time, which is almost as good as Grandma & Grandpa time.
Great Aunts are good for suggles.
...as Great Uncles are for teasing. (Katie knows how to hold her own in this arena.)
Great Uncles are good for suggles too, I guess.
During the course of the weekend, Miriam lost two more teeth!
Of course, I wouldn't have chosen her method for losing them -- namely, falling down and smashing her face against the rim of the kiddie pool. (Thank heavens they were already-loose baby teeth! And aside from sporting an extremely fat lip the rest of the day, one popsicle later she was fine.)
It was so nice having family visit. It reminded us of how much we miss living so far away from family -- particularly the sharing of ideas (yay! adult conversation!) and jokes and stories. Just as being married broadens your views in ways you never anticipated, talking with family members gets you to think about things and consider ideas you wouldn't necessarily have otherwise. I always feel my brain stretch a little bit when there are other adults around. :)
If nothing else, this has strengthened our resolve to have people over more often. If we can't have family nearby, the next best thing is good friends! And we're blessed to have so many in this area.
matching outfits,
sharing,
and wading in the kiddie pool!
There was also Great Aunt and Uncle time, which is almost as good as Grandma & Grandpa time.
Great Aunts are good for suggles.
...as Great Uncles are for teasing. (Katie knows how to hold her own in this arena.)
Great Uncles are good for suggles too, I guess.During the course of the weekend, Miriam lost two more teeth!
Of course, I wouldn't have chosen her method for losing them -- namely, falling down and smashing her face against the rim of the kiddie pool. (Thank heavens they were already-loose baby teeth! And aside from sporting an extremely fat lip the rest of the day, one popsicle later she was fine.)It was so nice having family visit. It reminded us of how much we miss living so far away from family -- particularly the sharing of ideas (yay! adult conversation!) and jokes and stories. Just as being married broadens your views in ways you never anticipated, talking with family members gets you to think about things and consider ideas you wouldn't necessarily have otherwise. I always feel my brain stretch a little bit when there are other adults around. :)
If nothing else, this has strengthened our resolve to have people over more often. If we can't have family nearby, the next best thing is good friends! And we're blessed to have so many in this area.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Just wondering
...why "The Giving Tree," "Backyard Ballistics," and "Holy Sex!" are all in my "Recommended for You" list on Amazon?
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