Babies and Sewing Exile

We have babies in our house. My husband likes babies. All kinds of babies. I do too though. I just like it better when I'm not the one who cleans up after them. We have had a lot of babies in our house. Baby snakes, baby iguana's, a baby duck. I liked the duck. Josh named him Bob. He liked to run around the back yard, jump in the kiddie pool, eat the bushes and chase the dogs. He was a big white one. I kept trying to teach him to say Aflac but it never worked. We had kittens (now mischief making cats), baby turtles (seriously only the size of a quarter, super cute. But now are more like obnoxious teenagers who beg for food and like to bite.), the fish regularly have babies that the turtles promptly eat,baby lizards, and now baby birds. I have to say that most all babies are cute. Birds however, are ugly cute. Ugly, scrawny, creepy things who are cute because the are tiny and after all, are babies. Our cockatiels had babies and we decided to pull them and handfeed them. That way when we sell them worth double, and are nice, friendly and tame. *sigh* I forgot what having to feed someone every few hours was like. *sigh* But I admit to being taken in by their cute ugliness and being excited as they get more feathers every day.

After Christmas and all the 6 months of sewing that entailed I banished my sewing machine to exile in the corner of my room where I put all the socks that need to be matched and folded. I didn't want anything to do with it for a while. Didn't even want to look at it. However I did buy a super duper cute quilt kit for myself for Christmas. It has dragons and castles on it. I just knew I needed a break before I touched it. I had made some basic quilts before (just some big squares sewn together) but never a real piece together one. Of course, this is nowhere near a complicated as some fantastic pinwheel blocks that I've seen, but it's enough for now. So I have decided it's time to start it. Mostly because Aaron found an old over the cab camper from the early 70's some guy wanted to get rid of for 20 bucks. Still works fine, no water leaks just in desperate need of a cleaning. We decided to give it new curtains and cushion covers. To give it "more testosterone" you know. He didn't like all that 70's turquoise paisley going on. So since I was sewing for practical reasons, I might as well sew for fun too! Right?

So here is a picture of the pattern:

A picture of what the castle blocks are supposed to look like:

And my first castle so far:

Of course I didn't realize until later that my towers weren't quite straight and one was taller than the other. But by then it was out together and there was no way I was taking it all apart. Besides, they were medieval masons and were probably drinking mead all day and its good to have one tower higher so the king or whoever can have a lookout right? Right? *sigh* Oh rationalization and procrastination will no doubt one day be my end. I still need to add all the people and doors and stuff but hey..its a castle! Woohoo for me.

Hermit Crabs

It's been a busy little while. And of course when things are actually happening ... I don't write. My grandmother passed away. She was an interesting person. I always liked her even if there were many times I wasn't sure she really liked me. But she was funny. My dad made a beautiful casket and we buried her quietly. I learned things about her after she was gone that I never knew while she was here. That's sad. Why didn't I try to learn all that sooner? I think of all the stories my father tells, and the places he shows me and think...man I need to record all this. I couldn't bear it if it was lost. I love my family, I wish I was more involved with them besides cruising their blog pages and checking out the family website. I always tell my cousin Cindy we need to get together, we need to get our kids together, but in the end I never call. That's sad. I am a hermit. For the most part I am ok with that but...one can be too much of a hermit. I need to come out of the shell more often. Or at least find a bigger one with room to visit. :)

Project Weekend!

Aaron went to Las Vegas a couple weekends ago to watch Nascar. He had an amazingly good time and told me how fun it was. He said it was so fun it didn't matter if I liked racing or not, it would still be fun and I so have to go next year. I told him that my present to him for his birthday each year could be to go watch and have a good time. His present to me would be to not make me go to. I think we have a deal. :)


While he was away I decided to rearrange my house. The boys room is a skinny rectangle. It's a very small room. It has a closet on one of the long sides and a window on the other. So we had the beds against the window and their dresser on one short side and the tv on the other. This made it feel like their room was never clean, because the minute they take their shoes off, put their coats down and stuff it took up almost all the floorspace. They just had a narrow walkway from the door to tv. So I decided to see if there was enough room for the beds to go on one of the short sides and see if I could square the room off. And they did!! Just barely, I think there might be a foot between the end of the bed and that part of the closet. But ha! it fits. Then just move the tv under the window and.....holy cow!! That made such a huge difference it was crazy! Makes it feel so much bigger all squared off like that. Then I repainted their room, and while I was at it the hallway, and the bathroom, and the living room. Then my sister gave me these cool blue curtains. One small panel for each side of the window. They don't cover it (which is good I didn't really want them to) but again I was amazed at how a little change can make such a huge difference!! Curtains just make it so much more homey than just blinds. It's awesome, thanks sis!But I haven't taken a picture of that yet since of course the kids really do always need to clean it. :)

Then I decided to tackle the living room. We have a small apartment and I really don't think I like the layout. It doesn't leave you many options. Hopefully you can see the arrows in the picture. I didn't take a before one. The fish tank was on the wall by the couch. (It's a small wall since it is just a divider wall between the kitchen and the living room, there is an opening on either side of it to go to the kitchen)The book case was in front of the window. I thought maybe if I moved it all around I could make it have more light and feel like it had more room. And it totally did. Also, I added curtains. Again - I am amazed that curtains can make such a huge difference to the room! Holy cow. I bought linoleum tiles (now sitting on the floor by the fish tank)to re-do the bathroom floor, but everything else took so much more time and effort than I thought it would that I didn't get to it. I am so taking before and after pictures of that when I do it though. So over all I am rather pleased with myself. Trying not to be smug. :)

Here is the picture again without the arrows.

Smooth Away ..... really???

I am usually pretty good about not buying things off of infomercials. Usually because I am broke. I did buy a Magic Bullet. (not so magic, but still not bad) I have been sorely tempted to buy this cooking thing that looks like a clear dome. Also - there was a ballet bar exercise thing that I have wanted try for a while -- but way too much money for me.

Now this Smooth Away thing comes on TV and I think to myself -- yeah right. See my problem is that I have thick, coarse, hard to remove hair and super, uber sensitive skin. This does not make for a happy combination. I shave and that day I am ok -- then I break out all over my inner thighs, back of my knees, etc. Most of it is ingrown hairs, and just plain skin irritation. Now if you are my sister-in-law Katie who only has to shave once every couple months, this is not your problem I am sure. But 12 hours after I shave (or once I get the chills) the stubble is back. I tried waxing but it only took off 20% of the hair and most of the skin. Nair (and equivalents) just dissolved it down to stubble and left my skin burned and rashed. *sigh* My best option was just to shave once or twice month. Yeah Sasquatch legs!! So I figured what could this hurt right? I bought this, and the 3 month supply. Cost 60 bucks with shipping. Ouch! Come to find out -- 3 days later I see it at Target for 10 bucks. *sigh*

Here is what I have found. It is pretty much superfine sand paper. Now don't be scared, I meant superfine. My cats tongue is rougher. The box comes with 4 replacement pads. Well you will need them all. They just don't last very long. And the hair needs to be short, like 1/4 inch or less. Unlike the lady in the commercials you do NOT just rub it up and down your arms and legs. You go in little circles like Mr. Miyagi. You know..hair on/hair off. Don't be afraid to use pressure but not too much! All in all, this worked. It only lasts as long as shaving, but it takes a lot longer than shaving to do! On the plus side, I have not broken out 2 days later. And as an exfoliant -- it is very good! I don't know that I would recommend it on your face though. Mine didn't get red or irritated, but it sure stung like *&%@ for a couple days on my upper lip and neck. My legs didn't have that problem.

So I am sure it will totally depend on your skin and hair type, and if shaving is quick and easy and you don't have problems, I would just keep that up, maybe use this as just an exfoliator? But for me this seemed to work ok once I got over how much longer it took and how long(or not) the pads lasted. But buy it from Target and not online!!! It's not worth the shipping. Just my 2 cents.

Football & Peppers

Football season is here again. Well, maybe football season part 2. This is indoor football. Should be fun. I have to say that I really enjoyed my nights and weekends though and now here they go again to the ever present football practice after practice. The interesting (and crappy) part is that they play indoor, but practice outside. In the cold. In the snow. And somehow -- they still love it. Bruises, frozen toes, snow scrapes that go up half their arms and all. Well, Curtis likes it, thinks it's fun. Josh adores it. It's fun listening to him talk to Aaron about his practices and words like man coverage, wedge, windows, cover 3 and stuff all seem to make sense to them. Now, I enjoy watching football, I really do. I have been a fan of the Giants for a couple of years. You know -before- they won the Super Bowl. But as to how to plan plays, what they are called and stuff - that part goes over my head. Mostly because I don't care. But I love seeing my kids doing something they love that doesn't involve electricity and paddles. (If you didn't know I meant video games that could sound kind of scary. But then in my family you never know -- So I'm just going to point out I meant video games.)

On my quest to be healthier and lose weight (The ever present New Years Resolution that somehow never happens. I think because I am lazy and really like my cheese and pasta.) I have discovered bell peppers. I have had green peppers of course on pizza and stuff because my mother loves them, but I have never really tried them before. However, I have cut my cheese, pasta, mayo, and creamy things down to almost nothing. I am trying to eat more salad as a side instead and have mostly successful. I realized that salad needs color. So I experimented, and have found out that I like radishes and bell peppers. All of the colors. Who knew that red ones were sweet? Well, besides people who have eaten them before. I get one of the four colors the supermarket has, chop them up and put a big handful in my omelets, and in my salads. Vegetables have mostly been limited to corn and green beans in childhood and since then I pretty much stuck to that -- adding in mushrooms here and there. But holy cow -- there is a whole world of veggies out there! Radishes, asparagus,leeks, and artichokes to name a few I have found and liked. I still don't like celery though. Icky. I do believe in fresh or frozen though. Most stuff out of a can is icky. Now maybe I can make myself try a beet.