I've been neglecting this blog. I may have been inactive here, but I certainly have not been idle. For anyone who cares, I now present several pictures and words about what I've been doing the past almost 3 months.
Getting Ready for School
Blue Eyes started first grade at the end of August. The school sent home a Summer Stay Sharp packet that included things to be done to keep up reading and math skills. Completing the packet then got the student a prize. I have no idea how I got the idea that the prize was a costume party, but I did. Blue Eyes really, really wanted to be a mermaid and, because I am a sucker and because she worked so hard, I complied with her request. I did this with the full knowledge (and purchase of fabric and pattern) that the plan was for Blue Eyes to be a "vampire girl" for Halloween. Turns out the prize was an ice cream party. So now she's decided to wear fangs and be a vampire mermaid queen for Halloween. Works for me. The costume is finished, I just haven't taken the pictures yet. She wore it to a costume birthday party and I need to fix where the fins were too long and ripped.
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| True love is using a toy teacup and gold paint pen to make scales on the tail portion of a costume. I took the picture at the point where I had decided I'd made a mistake in adding scales. Yes, I even took the center front and back into account. |
The next project didn't take long. I saw chocolate apples at See's when we were there and decided they would be a nice little gift for my daughter's teachers. I added a little note to go with them. I figured that meant I had filled my cute and creative quota for the year.
Broken Nose
The Pink Blur lives up to her nickname, but not always to her advantage. One Saturday in August she ran through the house in her flip flops and took a header into my bed. I was in my room cleaning out my closet and saw her go down, though I didn't see whether it was into my bed frame or box springs. Either way, the screaming was immediate and the bleeding was so strong ans fast that it came out both her nose and mouth. No fun. We took a useless trip to the ER only to be told that, since she hadn't lost consciousness, we just needed to go to an ENT in a few days after the swelling had gone down. Two appointments later we knew for sure her nose had indeed broken and needed to be straightened in same day surgery. The entire process from accident to surgery to getting rid of the nose split took two weeks. And a buttload of money. With just that we've met more than half of our family deductible for medical insurance.
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| Waiting to go in for surgery. I have spared the internet the pictures of the bruising and the splint she wore for five days after the surgery. |
First School Project
Blue Eyes's class learned about habitats and they were assigned to choose one and make a diorama including land formations, plants, and animal life found in that habitat. Blue Eyes chose underground and insisted that moles needed to be one of the animals. Because it's so easy to find ready-made moles that can fit into a shoe box diorama. The project would have been so much easier to do if I hadn't included Blue Eyes in the construction of the diorama. She would have preferred to be more involved. She also wanted the moles to chase the earthworms in a flying race. So...there was quite a bit of it I did myself. It was time consuming. These little guys were created from part of a maribou boa that was stitched together and the fluff trimmed down, pink beads glued together for the nose, and the hands and feet of a dollar store skeleton.
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| The earthworms and grubs also came from the dollar store. They were made from rope candy which smelled like death. |
Missionary Suitcase
It's hard to know where to start on this. It was a big project made with lots of love and the experience ended with a reaffirmation of the love of God for each of us. I wrote about it in detail on my personal blog but I haven't decided yet whether or not to share it here. Here's the long story short: In early September I heard about a project to fill up a suitcase for a prospective missionary who would not be able to get those things together on their own. I had a lot of help in getting ready for my mission and felt the need to pay it forward. I did so by making the clothing and asking friends and family for an contributions they could make so I could afford to get everything that needed to go in the suitcase. Below are the fruits of my labors.
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| The tops. The two in the middle are from the same pattern. I totally love it. |
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| The skirts. The picture is fuzzy but they are pretty basic. The black and olive skirts on the left are flared, the black and blue skirts on the right are straight. All but the blue skirt use buttonhole elastic to make an adjustable waist. I can't fit someone I'll never meet. |
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| Accessory shrug and dress. I really love the dress fabric and I'll probably make a skirt for myself out of the scraps. |
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| After dropping off the suitcase we met one of the organizers of Eyes4Zimbabwe. And it was awesome. |
Gestating
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| Taken at 39 weeks along |
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| At a girls' night with some high school buddies. The striped shirt is one of the two I made. I ran out of fabric to make the sleeves as long as I wanted so I added green ones to give it a layered look. |
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| The photo op at the pumpkin patch was too good to pass up. The kids had a blast too. |
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