Happy Halloween!

Happy end-of-October to you!

We did Despicable Me 2 for costumes this year, and ended up with Gru, Lucy, Dr. Nefario, Agnes who would way rather wear a dress than short-alls and her fluffy unicorn, two minions, and a nerd-shadow.  A wha...?  Well, we have a black morph suit and he fit into it this year.  He just had to use it.  Welcome to junior high.  And yes, I had a lipstick taser in my pocket.

In Stitches

What do you do when you have kids with cold ears?  Why, you cover them, of course!  This is what I've been doing over the past couple days while I've been snuggling with my sick kidlets.  And I'm writing out the pattern for you.  You are welcome.  Actually, it's for me because I'll forget how to make them by next week when David decided that he wants a hat, too.

Crochet Winter Hats for Small Fry

I used this diagram I found on Pinterest (but can't find the real source, sorry) to make the top circle.  I will write out the pattern as if you already have a working knowledge of how to double crochet and you know how to do things like start a circle and join with a slip stitch and change colors.  I made the top, flat circle only 5 rounds for my 4 and 6 year olds.  It's a little loose, but I wouldn't want to go smaller or it wouldn't fit for very long.  They grow too fast!

Round 1: 12 DC

Round 2: (2 DC in one stitch)

Round 3: (2 DC in one stitch), 1 DC

Round 4: (2 DC in one stitch). 1 DC, 1 DC

Round 5: (2 DC in one stitch), 1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC

Round 6-16: DC straight

That's all.  It's really easy, which is why I could make three of them in two days.

Girl Hat

I put bubbly puff stitches (3 DC in same stitch, but don't take off the last YO of each, then on the 4th DC, YO, pull through, YO, pull through all 5 stitches on hook) here and there to make it more fun for her.  She's a bubbly kind of kiddo, and was delighted with the added bit of fun.

Round 3: Puff, 1 DC around

Rounds 6, 9, & 12: Puff, DC, DC, DC around

Shell border: slip stitch, chain 1, skip a stitch, 4 DC in next stitch, skip a stitch, slip stitch

I got the cute little flower here, and it works up in just a couple of minutes.  Fast!

Boy Hat

This one was just changing the colors to make it more interesting.  Oh, and a puff ball on top.  The boys love the pom-pom, but I wonder how long it will be before all their threads are picked out!

Round 1-2: Color 1

Round 3-7: Color 2

Round 8: Color 1

Round 9-10: Color 2

Round 11-12: Color 1

Round 13: Color 2

Round 14-16: Color 1

Repurposing Furniture

I've been reading some about "repurposing."  It seems like a big fancy word that means you take some of your old junk and make something new and useful out of it.  I remember doing this in the 70's.  Make binoculars out of old toilet paper tubes!  Make quilts out of your old holey jeans!  Macrame a plant hanger out of old rope from the garage!  Isn't it just recycling at home?

The latest trends on repurposing seem to be in using furniture for other than it's designed purpose.  Like cutting the legs off a kitchen table and using it as a coffee table.  Or adding boards to an old headboard and making a bench out of it.  I looked around the house today and discovered that we are trendy!  We have got this repurposing stuff down pat.  (patting self on back)

Vintage treadle sewing machine used as plant stand / end table.  Gorgeous.

Sunshiny corner table meant for *me* (notice covered sewing machine in the left corner) improved as a family computer center!  Maybe not improved.  Note the creative freeform tangle of cords in the snake pit under the desk.

Washer and dryer repurposed as storage shelving.  Open shelving is so *in* this year, isn't it?  How refreshing it is to actually see all our messes, instead of just having to assume they are there!

Empty propane tanks used as yard art. Stunning.

My current fave: yet-unpacked moving boxes standing in for a night stand.

And our all time best furniture repurposing came this week when we parked a full-size upright dresser next to a sofa and called it a side table.  It was quite a focus piece, I tell you.  And as much as I loved it, I have to say that the whole room breathed a sigh of relief when that dresser found a new home at someone else's house.  Somehow, the room feels bigger now, and we can actually get past the sofa without having to do a sideways shimmy.  

Maybe I'm out of my league with these professional repurposers.  My pictures don't have the same lovely feel that theirs do.  So I guess I'm not quite cut out for a home decorating blog.  Sigh.  I guess I'll go move those propane tanks around to the back yard.

DIY Mess

While I have been sitting and rocking my sick Freddie, I've been doing a little too much of surfing and blog-reading.  Sometimes I will read home blogs and get discouraged - sometimes inspired.  Been getting a little too much John and Sherry this time, I think.

As I was sitting ans sitting and rocking, I spent a lot of time looking at my house, and noticing all those things that I mean to get around to sometime, but usually don't, and then I see those things so often that I don't see them anymore.  Ya know what I mean?  Well, I started noticing them again while I was sitting.  And folks, we have a missionary send-off party that will be happening here in not a whole big heap of time, so maybe I ought to start addressing a few of those issues.

Here's my list, to remind myself (because I usually jot things down on a bit of scratch paper that gets lost and tossed into the recycle bin) of things I would like to get done in the next couple of months:

finally finish fixing dining room ceiling
fix light over stairs that won't turn on
fix back doorbell so it actually rings
pretty up front porch
pretty up back patio
pretty up lower patio (we have two patios, which I love until they collect junk - and they are good at collecting junk!)
stain coffee table a darker color
stain mantel a darker color
update family room picture shelves
update family photos in living room (yeah, we took the pictures, but I never printed or hung them!)
clean out the rec room (again)
take out the kitchen cabinets above the stove (dreaming!)
clean out sun room (which involves a lot of organizing and purging my craft stashes)
get a couple more bookshelves to hold our book hoardings collections
organize the office
paint the kitchen (more dreaming!)
make new valance for family room sliding door (if I paint the kitchen because then the current one won't match anymore)
tidy the garage enough to walk through without fear of bodily damage
reduce the "used car lot" feel of our front yard
landscape the front yard we scraped last spring (or at least de-junk it)
sell/give away unused desk
sell/give away two unused dressers
sell/give away unused tv
sell/give away outgrown toddler bed

That should do for now.

And I thought, as I was putting these sick little little sweeties to bed, that I would just jump on one of these projects and git 'er done.  Here is my awesome coffee table, which the kids love to do their homework on because the top lifts up and locks like a giant TV table.  I partially roughed it up with some coarse sandpaper, because that's what the stain said you needed to do.  I had to go over a few areas more to get out some long scratches that happened while the table was in storage.

See the dark scratch?  It has a few friends and they drive Trent crazy.  So I'm doing him a favor, besides de-orange-ify-ing the whole thing.  After some hard work and making my hands look deformed like the crazed arthritic witch from Snow White, I was ready to re-stain the top.  I made sure there was plenty of ventilation, because the stain was very stinky.  Wipe on, wipe off.  Easy.  And it looks great.

It looks great if you like a very slightly darker orange color with dull brownish skid marks where I took out the scratches, that is.  And one of the scratches is still there.  So now I have more work to do to get it back to a presentable state.  And this time, I can't just ignore it as something that would-be-nice to get done, because it looks bad.  Really bad.

And that, my friends, is how to make your own mess.  Our house still stinks.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I made laundry detergent today.  By myself.  At home.  I feel so green!

I used the directions from this website, and it was just as easy as she said it would be.  I can handle a recipe with only four ingredients: a bar of soap, washing soda (which was something new, but wasn't too hard to find), borax (I usually have this on hand anyway), and water.  I bought the washing soda a while ago.  It may have even been more than a year ago.

I decided that today would be a great time to try something new.  I finished bottling peaches yesterday, and my kitchen was newly clean.  Besides, I needed to do laundry and I was out of detergent.  Like, I really needed to do laundry.  We've been having some potty accidents lately.  A little one wet the bed last night.  And we were out of toddler underwear.  O.U.T.  Out enough that I had two kids running commando today.  I really needed to do laundry.

So I grated the soap and simmered everything until smooth.  I even put in some citrus-y essential oil to make it smell nice.  Poured it into bottles and it makes a nice gel.  Then I loaded the less-than-lovely bedding into the washing machine... and found an old bottle of laundry soap hiding in the cabinet.

So I haven't tried it out yet, but at least the little ones have clean things to wear again.  I'll let you know how it works as soon as the old bottle of detergent is done.

Homecoming

Ben had homecoming last week, so I made another corsage.  I'm getting half-decent at this flower thing.  And I'm learning good things, too.  Like how to wrap green florist tape so it actually sticks.  And how to make a wire stem for a rose.  This time I learned that although the bunches of flowers you can get at the supermarket are cheaper than the little roses you can get at the florist, don't get the supermarket variety to make corsages.  They are too long from base to tip, and the corsage ends up kind of bulky.  Now I know.  But it sure turned out pretty.  In a big sort of way.

I'm flattered that they asked me to take pictures for them - their official pictures!  When I was in high school, we paid 15 to 20 smackeroos (a lot of my spare change back then!) for a single pose, all packaged up in a fancy black folder.  We waited in a ridiculously long line for half the dance, tried to come up with a decent pose, smiled our best, and hoped it turned out decently.

My corsage here had a gardenia - the most wonderful flower I've ever had.  I was so happy that my friend lent me that pretty dress to wear.  I never owned a formal until - oh about two years ago.  Too bad I haven't worn it yet!  Must find adult fancy dance to go to.

We waited a few weeks, and then lined up to pick our pictures off the long cafeteria tables where all the portraits were laid out.

Fast forward twenty-five years...  the kids pulled into our driveway and the picture-taking is not so simple.  We got pictures of each couple, of the group, of the girls, of the boys, of the missionaries who wandered by, and pictures of their shoes.  I really enjoyed myself, and it looked like the kids did, too.

I'm no photographer, but these shots turned out at least as good as the professional ones from way back then.  Thanks, new camera.

And you're welcome, kids.  I guess they didn't mind the non-professional tradeoff for the free price.  Thanks for inviting me to be part of your special evening.  I loved watching these awesome teens.  I think cameras aren't the only thing that is better this generation than last.

Family Tree

My sister-in-law and I had a little Pinterest challenge the week before Mothers' Day.  We enjoy looking at all the great ideas so much that we sometimes forget to DO the projects.  So we challenged each other to complete one of the beauty tips, or home decor items, or crafts, or recipes, or hairdos, or exercise routines we had pinned - or we had to start deleting them.  No!  No!  I can't part with my pretty pins!

So I made family trees for my mom and first mother-in-law.  It was roughly based on this lovely family tree that I adore (and I wish I knew where it came from so I could credit the artist!):

and this tutorial from the very creative Gardners2Bergers blog.  The picture I pinned on Pinterest says this when I click on it:

Then it tries to tell me that my project inspiration is either spam or inappropriate content, which is really funny because it is so far from either of those.  Anyway, their tree looks like this:

Becca has a very nice tutorial on how to make the tree using Microsoft Word.   I also used Word and WordArt to make my tree, but it was a little bit easier than how she describes the process.  It worked very well, but I'm not gonna lie - it still took a long time.  It looks like both of my inspiration trees start from you (or a couple), and traces their lineage back to parents, grandparents, great-grands, and so forth.  I started with my folks (or my folks-in-law), and showed their children as main branches (and their spouses), with all the grandchildren being at the ends.  I guess your ancestors would be the roots of this tree.  I like how it turned out, and my mom loved it (you loved it, didn't you, Mom?).

And that is my Pinterest project challenge that I made for Mothers' Day.  My pins are safe for now. The end.

Rapunzel Hair

"Let down your golden hair!"  I loved this story as a little girl.  Maybe because I had so much thick, long hair.  Mine was mousy brown, not golden, but I still imagined myself as the girl who could throw down a beautiful rope of hair.  Imaginations are great, aren't they?

I wrote about the "Tangled" theme party my niece recently had.  Angel and I made some "Rapunzel hair" to give for the birthday.  Only, Angel wanted some, too.  We had to make two Rapunzel hairs.  The first one (on the left) was made with another pattern, and was too big.  The one on the right was juuuust right.  So that's the one I'll tell you about.  (Click on the pictures to get them big enough to see the detail.)

First of all, I have to say kudos to my incredible creative sister-in-law.  She invented these, has them for sale (only $30 each - she also makes the most adorable princess dresses to go with them!  Leave a comment if you would like her to make one for you), and showed me how to make them.  It did take longer than I thought it would, but then again, who am I kidding that I have time to make things??


I used the crown found here, and made a pattern from it.  The front of the crown is satin and medium-heavy interfacing; the back is satin and (underwear!) elastic.   I decorated it with puffy fabric painted dots (for small jewels), and stick-on pink, purple and silver jewels (I got mine at the huge-o mongo national craft store chain).

The braid is about a yard of yellow or gold-ish cotton fabric, and quilt batting.  I tucked in some ribbons and hot-glued on a bunch of flowers.

Twa-dah!  That was it!  I wish I could make things in the time I could read about them.  Now wouldn't that be nice?

Last step:  Put it on your little girl and watch her imagination kick in.  Angel loves to wear her "Punzel Hair," and wants me to make some for the babies too.  Don't think I'll go there.

Happy Tangled!

Haircuts

I just finished giving five haircuts.  I'm not a beautician, by training or imagination or ambition.  But I did learn how to cut boys' hair.  I have a bunch of brothers, and I grew up watching my mother cut their hair.  When I got to be a teenager, I started practicing on the youngest brother, the one who wouldn't mind if he looked like a haystack.  (He ended up looking reasonably decent, by the way, and has no emotional scars that I know of.)

When I went away to college, I took my mother's second-best hair cutting scissors.  I used them to trim my bangs.  At the last minute, I was asked to the Homecoming dance by a sheepdog.  Actually, he was a very nice young man, a friend of mine, whose girlfriend would be out of town the day of the dance, and he needed a quick stand-in for her.  I told him I would go with him if he got a haircut.  He said he would if I did the cutting. He didn't know about my mother's scissors.  I sat him on a chair in grass, in the middle of a dormitory quad, and snipped away.  I did a pretty god job, if I do say so myself.  I have the pictures to prove it, because I did go with him to the dance.

I've been cutting hair ever since.  I don't think it's good enough to charge money for, but with seven sons (and one husband), at least I don't have to pay good money for their monthly shearings.  Let's see... if we could get an el-cheapo haircut for $7, times 8 heads of hair, times once a month for a year...  That's coming up on $3,000!

Doesn't Eddie look thrilled?

I still have those scissors, and they still work great.  The boys don't seem to mind a home-grown haircut.  Why should they?  They have home-grown hair, after all.  And so much of it, too...

Beachy Waves Tutorial

I have difficult hair.  Everyone who has said that in the last few days, raise your hands.  All together now!  I'm always on the lookout for hairstyles that are easy to do and maintain, and that my particular hairs won't object too strongly to.  I've noticed the "beachy waves" style cropping up all over the place, and I like it.

I've found a picture of the hair-do for you, complete with beach and waves:

Here is an involved how-to.

I'll imagine that she is looking down, with love, at the three or four small children who are holding her perfectly bronzed hands.  This is how I look, too.

But I have a more better, easier-est way to achieve this popular look, and I'll even share it with you.  For free.

STEP ONE: wash your hair.  (later in the evening works best.)

STEP TWO: put a towel over your pillow.  (so your damp hair doesn't soak your pillow and wake you up by putting your face in the wet spot.  Yuck.)

STEP THREE:  sleep with hunky husbandly guy.  (Hi, Mom!  Now you know what I do at night!)

STEP FOUR: in the morning, don't comb it.

Ta da!  That's it!    (I think step three is the most vital one.)  :-)


(I forgot to mention step 1/2 which reads: have thick, unruly hair that will never do anything you want it to, and has enough wave to not be straight but not enough to be curly.  And step 4 1/2 where you can put de-frizzers in it so you won't look all wild like I do  That's the fine print.)

Up and Away

My little niece had her third birthday recently.  What a cute age.  She has a serious love affair going on with the Disney movie Tangled.  Her very creative mother did what any very creative mother of a little girl who loves a movie princess would do: throw a theme birthday party.  It was adorable.

Purple flag banners 

(you can download the FREE purple banner printable here from SuperMom)

Rapunzel's tower made from rice crispy treats, Pascal the chameleon party favors

(craft from DisneyFamily.com)

Pin the cast iron pan on Flynn game... the works.

(get another printable from SuperMom)

The best part was the floating lanterns.  The little girls were enchanted to be led outside in the cold and dark to see these huge paper lanterns actually light up and float away.

(ours looked like these here, from a British company, although I don't know where they were purchased)

It was a little bit magical for me, too.  I would love to feel light and effortless like the lanterns looked.  But I think we all can do better, even when it seems that the cares and gravity of this world will overcome us.

As a bonus, I will share with you the most wonderfullest way to eat granola: with slightly soft  ice cream.  That's all I need to say about that.  Yum.