April Resolution Review

I'm a week late with this post, but April was a whirlwind for me, and I'm just now catching up.

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in April. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• April Progress - Read 2 books (9 books of 18 total), and none of the  magazines (so still at 10 magazines of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
• Dandelion Hunter:  Foraging the Urban Wilderness by Rebecca Lerner

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• April Progress - Quilted a table runner for my dresser ( 4 projects of 12 total)

So, I finally quilted something.  So many people (I'd venture to say they're mostly women) say quilting is their hobby of choice, so I wanted to see what the fuss was all about and learn a new skill.  I enjoyed the process, but I didn't love it.  On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being a crafty project I hate, like mending clothing, and 10 being a project I love, like crocheting an afghan, I give quilting about a 6. 

I chose colors that coordinated with our bedroom, and I think selecting the fabric was the best part of the process.  I also enjoyed doing the machine quilting, which in this case was simple diagonal lines.  Cutting and piecing the top was okay, as was sewing on the binding.  The part I didn't like was, that as careful as I felt I was being, there were still glaring mistakes.  I've read that it's to be expected with a first quilt.  I chose to leave the mistakes in, because I just didn't have the patience to rework any of them.  That is the main reason I may not quilt anything else.  Then again, maybe I will.  It will probably depend on the type of project and my mood.

All that said, here it is.  It's a simple hourglass pattern, without border, but with binding I cut myself.  I did all of it on the machine.  If anyone is interested, here is the pattern, and here is the websites I used to teach myself the basics of quilting, and how to get the diagonal lines straight.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• April Progress - We completed our spring planting sometime early in April, but I don't recall taking time to fill in what we did in my garden organizer.  I really need to do that before I forget entirely.
  
  And I'll just be blunt.  Three mornings of frost in late April sucks.  Snow (yes, snow) during the first week of May sucks more.  So far, everything has survived, with the help of tarps and upended buckets for cloches, but growth has been very slow for this time of year.
  

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• April Progress - We switched away from buying granulated white sugar in March and were able to stick to that decision in April.  No other changes were made.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• April Progress - Again I say, gardening is great exercise!  Reach high for the tarps, carry them to the garden, spread them out, haul firewood to hold them in place, wait out frost and snow, then reverse.  Repeat approximately once a week, well past last average frost date.

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• April Progress - Shane continues to work out of town several times a month, so we are continuing to pay extra each month toward the loan principal.  A noticeable dent in the balance is being made.

Simple Soap

I just wanted to show off my latest batch of homemade soap that I made yesterday.  These are actually shampoo bars, but the difference is in the ingredients, not the method of making them.

This is my first batch of hot-process soap.  It was made in a Crock Pot and only took about 90 minutes, including clean-up.

In the past I've always made cold-process soaps.  There are advantages to each method, but in terms of curing time, hot-process wins hands down.  While still soft, it can be used the day after it is made, as opposed to several weeks of curing time with the cold-process version.

Because it was my first time, I didn't try to take any photos as I made it.  I plan to make another batch this weekend and will try to enlist Shane's help so that I can write a tutorial with pictures.  Stay tuned for that.

Pottering About

Last week during spring break, Kat, her mom (my daughter T) and I spent an afternoon at Paint, Glaze & Fire Ceramics and Coffee House.

The concept at Paint, Glaze & Fire is fun and simple.  Customers choose and pay for unfinished pottery pieces, then pay an additional small studio fee to paint them there in the shop while also enjoying hot or cold coffee drinks or tea.  The staff then glazes and fires the pieces and they're ready to pick up a few days later. 

I remember doing a little ceramic work as a Girl Scout when I was young, but this was the first time for Kat and T.

I chose a spoon rest to paint, largely because I broke my old ceramic spoon rest a few months ago and I needed a new one.  I think my sponge-painting technique leaves a lot of room for improvement, but the colors - a deep sea green, browns and tans -- are spot on for my kitchen.

Kat chose a couple of 5-inch tiles to do free-form coasters.  Doctor Who fans will recognize her rendition of the Tardis, and the muffin (if I'm not mistaken) represents some aspect of the My Little Pony cartoons and toys.

I liked T's oversized coffee mug the best.  The drizzle effect was another experimental technique that turned out great, in my opinion.  The colors chooses were shades of purple and teal on a cream colored background.

We had lots of fun that afternoon, and I plan on returning and trying something completely different next time.  The shop also features a comfortable lounge area and free wi-fi, as well as classes, parties and even a summer ceramics camp.  If you're local to the Kansas City area, you should check it out and have some creative fun!

March Resolution Review

It's hard to believe that a quarter of the year has already passed.  Time just flies for me lately!

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in March. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• March Progress - Read 2 books (7 books of 18 total), and 4 of the  magazines (10 magazines of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Jewel by Bret Lott
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• March Progress - Started and completed the second toe-up knitted sock, completing the pair.  I also crocheted a couple of much needed pot holders using this pattern. ( 3 projects of 12 total)

The socks are far from perfect, but functional and very comfortable.  I love how they match, but aren't identical.  I really enjoyed knitting them and I'm sure I'll knit more in the future.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• March Progress - We finally bought a new printer and I was finally able to print pages from the garden planner I mentioned in earlier posts.  I love it; it's a very functional and attractive planner to use.
  
  We have begun planting and so far have potatoes and two new gooseberries bushes in the ground.  I transplanted 76 strawberry plants into a new pyramid, the garlic we planted last fall is coming up, as are the perennial asparagus and rhubarb.  We had big plans to continue planting early crops, but last weekend we were hit with our third mega-snowstorm in two months, so planting will have to wait a little longer.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• March Progress - I have decided that the only way for me to do this is to just do it!  Despite the cost difference between plain granulated sugar and organic cane juice crystals, I used up the last bag of white sugar and I've vowed to eliminate it from sugar from our shopping list entirely.  I consider cane juice crystals the next step up on the sweetener hierarchy.  Not the best choice, but a better one.  We also continue to use local honey, molasses (local when possible), Sucanat and real maple syrup as sweeteners, but not with any regularity.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• March Progress - I still haven't made any effort to find a different class, but with gardening starting up, I'm not to worried.  Gardening is great exercise!

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• March Progress - Shane has been working out of town a lot lately.  He's been getting both a per diem allowance (there is usually a little left over after expenses) and at least a couple of hours of overtime on almost every check lately.   That has helped me to continue to pay extra on each RV payment.  I don't think I'll reach the goal of having it completely paid off this year, but the balance will be reduced considerably.

Getting Crafty

I was going to write about how my daughter T., Kat, and I went to this really cool combination coffee house and ceramics studio and got all artsy-craftsy earlier today, but I ended up leaving the house without a thought of grabbing our camera, so that post will have to wait until our artwork is ready to pick up in about a week.

Instead, I'm going to tell you about Shane and Kat doing some leather crafting last weekend during the snow storm.

Shane is pretty good at leather-crafting, as you can see in this post from my old blog.  A while back -- maybe a year or so ago -- Kat became interested, so they started a project together.  It's a craft that can take years to perfect, but is actually quite simple to learn in basic form and is suitable for crafters of all ages.

Kat's first project was a tooled tri-fold key wallet.  As so often happens, projects get set aside around here, but they finally picked it back up and finished it last weekend.  Here she and Shane are using a device called a stitching pony to hold the key wallet steady while they stitched the binding.

Here is the interior of the finished wallet...

And here is the exterior.  I don't use her real name on the blog, so it has been electronically erased from the center area there.

Her next project is going to be a belt, with a daffodil pattern. Here she is doing a practice pattern for it on a piece of scrap leather.

I can hardly wait to see how it turns out!

February Resolution Review

Since Shane will be home and our weekend will begin tomorrow, and since the last day of February is today, I decided to write my Friday post today.

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress in February. 


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• February Progress - Read 2 books (5 of 18 total), and 5 of the  magazines (6 of 38 total). 

The books I read were:

• Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
• During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• February Progress - Started and completed one toe-up knitted socks. ( 1.5 of 12 total)

I taught myself to crochet around the age of 12 or 13.  A few years later, I taught myself to knit.  I don't consider myself an accomplished knitter, and think it's more difficult than crocheting, but I usually do alright.  These socks were probably the most challenging knitting project I've tackled.  The work itself is not difficult, but just finding a pattern I could make sense of took days.  I made irreparable mistakes causing me to start over several times, but with each re-do, the quality improved.  A few nights ago I was determined to finish the sock, but come 2:00 a.m. when the yarn was about to run out, I completely forgot to consider that I needed a stretchy bind-off.  I bound off in a traditional way and couldn't get the thing over my foot.  So, I had to rework that, and now it might be too stretchy, but at least I'll be able to wear it (and learned a stretchy bind-off to boot!).

The sock isn't without flaws, by far, but it will be wearable, and I'm looking forward to finishing the pair.  What's more, now that I have a clue what I'm doing, I'll probably make more socks in the future.

My first sock!  It's in Paton Kroy washable wool
sock yarn; the colorway is Clover Colors.

Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• February Progress - Our printer quit working and I haven't replaced it yet, so I haven't been able to use the garden planning downloads I bought.  However, I've been planning all the same.  I know what we will be planting, in approximate quantities, and have ordered seeds.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• February Progress - I have to admit that I haven't made any progress toward finding less harmful sweeteners since last month.

In other nutrition news, I've started making kombucha tea and tibicos soda (aka, water kefir) again after letting both go dormant for a few months at the end of last year.  Since re-establishing the habit of drinking a cup of one or the other -- or both -- daily again, I've felt a noticeable improvement in the way I feel.  To me, they are like safer, more natural energy drink and they are good for your gut.  IMO, they taste good, too.


Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• February Progress - I have not found a different yoga class to join and to be honest, haven't given it much thought.

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• February Progress - A little.  When we first bought the RV, I padded our first two monthly payment by about $90, rounding it to the next hundred dollar amount.  For the next five months, though, I wasn't comfortable doing that.  We are in a position now that I can start paying extra again each month and even start catching up on the five months when I wasn't able to pay extra.  Every little bit helps.

January Resolution Review

I set some goals at the beginning of the year, so I thought I'd give a quick monthly update on my progress.


Reading: 

• Goal - 18 Books and more than a year of Mother Earth News and Hobby Farm Home back issues (and yes, I've let the subscriptions to those magazines expire).
• January Progress - Read 3 books (3 of 18), but just one of the  magazines (1 of 38). 

The books I read were:

• Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Beatles, Beatlemania, and the Music that Changed the World by Bob Spitz
• The Asperkid's (Secret) Book of Social Rules: The Handbook of Not-So-Obvious Social Guidelines for Tweens and Teens with Asperger Syndrome by Jennifer Cook O'Toole
• The Unschooling Handbook:  How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom by Mary Griffith.

Crafting:

• Goal - 12 completed projects, preferably one a month, with one being a quilted item and another being knit socks.
• January Progress - Finished a pair of fingerless mittens. (1 of 12)

I finished these crocheted fingerless mittens.  I had started them back in the summer on a camping trip, but lost the pattern on the same trip.  Fortunately, I was able to find it online, and was able to complete the pair. 

I also knitted a small afghan/blanket for our cat Bob, who was moved from outside to our basement in December.  He likes to sleep on dirty laundry, specifically sweaters, so I decided to make him something of his own.  It isn't much to look at, but it used up some of my yarn stash, and was good knitting practice for me.


Gardening: 

• Goal - Organized planning, leading to an organized garden.
• January Progress - Did germination testing on the seeds we already have on hand.  Printed garden organizer I purchased from Northwest Edible Life and recorded seed tests and a few other things.  Read about gardening.  Thought about gardening.

Diet/Nutrition:

• Goal - To switch over to less harmful types of sweeteners and/or reduce sugars in our foods.  To grow more of our food in our backyard.
• January Progress - Shane has switched entirely to local honey as the sweetener in his coffee.  I only sweeten coffee occasionally, but when I do, I've been using Sucanat.  I have not yet found a sweetener I like in my tea other than white sugar, so I'm working on reducing the amount.  Little other progress has been made on this front.

Fitness:

• Goal - To join a local yoga class better flexibility, balance and overall health.
• January Progress - Something came up and I was unable to join.  I plan to look for another class or a different activity to meet this goal.
• I've started looking at bicycles.  I'm getting a good idea about what I want and don't want in a bike.  Basically, I'd like a big ol' cruiser bike with a big, well-padded seat, and handlebars I don't have to lean over, but with multiple speeds.  If I can't find what I want, Shane says he can (and will) Frankenstein custom build one for me. 

Finances:

• Goal - To pay off our RV.
• January Progress - None.  I have filed our tax returns already, and should be getting refunds, but those funds are earmarked for tires for Shane's truck, tires for the RV, and a large chunk of savings for next winter when holidays and bad weather shrink Shane's paycheck considerably.  Very little, if any, funds will go toward the RV balance.  On the other hand, we just completed a No Spend/Reduced Spending month and were able to save quite a bit of money to put toward savings.

Simple Decorative Table Covering for Any Season

Look at me!  I actually did a craft!  This project is SEW simple to make with a machine, and would even work up quickly by hand if that's your style.  All you need is a yard of woven cotton fabric in any color or design you like and at least 1/2 yard of any coordinating fabric.

Square up your cuts of fabric.  I do it by pulling a thread, but maybe you know of a different way.

Cut the larger piece of fabric in as big a square as you can.  Because of crooked bolting and uneven cutting, it will almost certainly be less than a 36-inch square.  Fold and press edges in 1/4-inch, then fold them over another 1/4-inch and press again.  Then top stitch all the way around.

Do the same thing with the smaller fabric, making a square as close to 18 inches as possible, and hem it all the way around as well.

Depending on your table, you may want to adjust these sizes.

Place larger cloth on table with points toward table ends and sides.  Place smaller cloth on top at a 45° angle (with points toward table corners).  Place centerpiece as desired.  Or, you know, you can put it on the table any way you like.

These are simple and inexpensive to make, so why not have some for every holiday or season?  I find that in our house, a full table cloth is likely to shift or get pulled on by our unruly cats, but these smaller table toppers work great.  When the table is pretty, we're much less likely to use it as catch all surface, too.

Kat's Harley Quinn (or Harlequin Jester) Costume

Until a few weeks ago, I didn't know who Harley Quinn was.  If you don't know, either, she is a super-villian character in the Batman series.  She's who Kat has decided to be at our friends super-hero themed Halloween party.  Because of a scheduling snafu, we weren't able to go, but Kat was able to wear her costume for her school's Trunk or Treat last Friday and will wear it again Halloween night.

There are many renderings of Harley Quinn online; here's one to give you an idea what she looks like:

It's a little precocious for a 9-year-old, don't you think?  And this is actually one of the more understated images.  But I was pretty sure with my lack of fine sewing skills, I could come up with a less revealing costume.  This costume would never win any sewing ribbons, but it will work just fine for the two or three times Kat will wear it.

To do this on the cheap, I started with two pairs of stretch pants, one red and one black, and two stretch tops, one black and one red.  While I was there, I just got lucky by finding the tiny little strapless dress in black and red harlequin print.  I grabbed it, too, because I was sure it would come in handy.

After spending some time cutting things apart and sewing them back together, and adding a few embellishments, I came up with this.

 Voila!  Harley Quinn!  

It won't win any awards, but it will do.  Total cost <$15.  Total time (not counting thrift store shopping), 7-8 hours at a leisurely pace. 

Beautiful Weekend for Heritage Days

Shane ended up having to work on Saturday, but Kat and I decided to go to Warsaw Heritage Days without him.  This is the first time in many years (15?...20?) that I've gone, despite it being in my hometown of Warsaw, MO.  The festival, which began in 1981, is a celebration of the pioneering forefathers of the area's Kaysinger Bluff, now the site of the Harry S. Truman Visitor Center at Truman Lake.

The weather was beautiful and we had so much fun, eventually catching up with one of my sisters and her husband before going to visit my dad for a while.

I took lots of pictures of our day.  Here are few -- to see the rest click HERE or on the Heritage Days tab at the top of the page.

Can I Be Frank With You?

Let's see if I can "Frankenstein" $10 worth of thrift store clothes into a big freakin' mess Halloween costume for Kat. 

Into the lah-bor-ah-tory I go...

The Craft Project That Wasn't

Maybe you noticed (or didn't) that May came and went without me posting a monthly craft project.  That's because I didn't get one done.  I started an afghan on my Serenity knitting loom, but a couple of inches is all I have done so far.  I simply didn't make/take any time for crafts in May.  I thought I might take the afghan camping with us and work on it then, but on a typical weekend camp out, there just isn't time for it.

Anyway, my plan is to work on it in June, and to also (possibly) whip up a small sewing project to make up for missing May.  I need to practice my chopsticking skills, too.  I'll keep you posted.

April Sewing/Crafting - Aprons!

I love aprons!  Not only do they help keep my clothing clean when I cook, but they also double as a basket when I need to carry just a few things, give me a place to wipe my hands if I can't find a dish towel, and if they have pockets, a place to carry my food thermometer when I'm grilling, or my phone wherever I go around the house.  I read somewhere that they also give the impression to door-to-door solicitors that I'm too busy to talk to them.  I've known that to actually work a time or two!

I mentioned in March that I was participating in an apron exchange hosted by Rhonda and her friend Sharon at the Down to Earth blog.  I was partnered with my new cyber-friend Robyn, who lives near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.  Robyn was on the ball and sent the apron she made for me very early on.  She also made one for Kat.  Here we are, modeling our lovely citrus themed aprons. I love the elasticized pockets.

I actually finished this project on April 13, when I was taking a blogging break.  I couldn't post about them before now, because I wanted Robyn to see hers first.  She received hers in the mail earlier today.  Thanks to the wonders of Internet, here she is now, modeling it:

I had enough fabric to make two aprons, so I made a matching apron for myself.  The multi-colored fabric depicts apple crate labels.  It's lined and trimmed in cranberry red, and it has small leaf-shaped buttons that I hope look like apple tree leaves.

I was very happy with these aprons.  The pattern (McCall's 5643) was well-designed and easy as (apple) pie to put together, and I'm finding that as long as I am patient, my sewing skills are improving with each project. 

However, I am taking a break from sewing and my May project will be a yarn craft.

This post is being shared at The Gathering Spot #2 with Mamal Diane.

A Quick Sewing Project: Doll Dress From a Baby Onesie

Here is the quick craft project I promised last Friday.  Better late than never, I guess.  When I made Kat's new dress last week, it was quite a bit longer than it needed to be, so I cut a few inches off the bottom before hemming it.

With that extra strip of fabric, I decided to make a coordinating dress for Kat's American Girl doll (whose name I can't tell you, as it changes almost weekly).

I'm not really skilled enough to try to duplicate the jumper-type dress I made for Kat.  Maybe with enough time I could, but I wanted this done in time for the big Easter celebration with her step-dad's family this weekend.  So instead of a jumper, I used the leftover fabric to make a skirted t-shirt.

I scouted around a little, but couldn't find a plain white t-shirt -- or a colored one, for that matter -- that would fit an 18-inch doll unless I ordered something online.  Instead, I used a newborn onesie.  If you can find a premie-sized onesie, it might fit even better. 

The fabric I cut off Kat's dress was too long; had I gathered that much fabric, it would have fanned out like a square dance dress.  Nothing wrong with that, but not the look I was going for.  Because I wanted the underside of the skirt to be "pretty", too, I cut two strips of fabric that were the same size and that wrapped around the doll approximately 1-1/2 times. 

With right sides together, I sewed them together along the bottom edge.  I turned them right-side out and pressed.  This created a self-hemmed, self-lined ruffle. 

I sewed the ends together and formed a ring.

I machine basted the top edge and gathered it to fit the cut-off onesie.   I thought about keeping the snap part of the onesie, but it was just too long for the doll (onesie on the ground, onesie on the ground, lookin' like a fool with your onesie on the ground...) so I cut off that part.

With the right sides of both the onesie and the ruffle together, I sewed the ruffle to the onesie.  Once attached, I flipped the skirt into place, folded and hand-tacked the seam in the back so it didn't show as much, and pressed the entire dress.  Because the skirt is doesn't stretch, the dress has to be put on the doll from the feet up.

And...that's it.  Simple as can be.  Assuming you have a scrap of fabric and some thread on hand, the total cost was $2 (for the onesie that came in a 4-pack for $8).  It took an hour to assemble. 

Here's the doll modeling her new dress.

BTW, the doll got purple-framed glasses this school year because Kat got purple-framed glasses this school year.  The doll was a gift from her grandma and great-grandma on her step-dad's side of the family.   They buy an American Girl (or Boy) doll for each grandchild that is their "mini me".  I think this is such a wonderful idea that I thought I'd share it in case anyone wants to start a new tradition in their family.

Weekend Randomness

• To further our adventures in healthy, cultured foods, we picked up some water kefir grains from a local craigslister who was giving them away.  I'll be posting about water kefir and the other cultured foods we've been making sometime soon.
  
• If you have noticed (or notice soon) one fewer follower on your Google Friends Connect counter, that's probably me.  Don't worry!  I'm still using Google Reader to follow you, but just not with GFC.  Not all blogs can be followed with GFC, so I'm just trying to get all my subscriptions to work the same way.  You know, to make my life a little less complicated.
  
• There was much excitement at my daughter's house on Thursday of last week.  My son-in-law was in the attic for some reason on Thursday morning, stepped off the wood planks up there, and dropped in on their roommate by falling through the ceiling.  He's bruised about the ribs, but otherwise fine (paramedics were called and checked him out).  Shane went yesterday to help my daughter and SIL repair the ceiling so the roomie can move back in.
  
• I spent some time over the weekend herding cats.  Yep, it's about as much fun as you think it would be. One of our cats (we think it was Siesta) managed to release the screen on our new back door and then Tuxie and Swiper got out. You'd think as much as that thing cost, it would be cat-escape-proof.   I managed to get them in, but the next day, Siesta and Tuxie managed to escape into the garage and were heading down the stairs to the basement.  I guess cats get cabin fever, too, but this nonsense has got to stop!
  
• Our garden is coming along nicely; we've been eating asparagus almost daily for a week or more, and soon lettuce and radishes will be ready for salad.  I plan to go out later today to do some thinning and to get some photos for tomorrow's garden post.
  
• I mentioned on Friday that I was going to work on a little crafty something to go with Kat's new dress, but I didn't get to that over the weekend.  I'll post it as soon as I get it done; either this afternoon or tomorrow.
  
• I left the windows down in the van yesterday afternoon, thinking I'd be running another errand.  When that didn't happen, I forgot to go out and roll the windows up until the wee hours of the morning.  It was still 70° at 3:30 a.m., on April 2, in Missouri.  That's crazy warm for this early in the year!
  
• I didn't just wake up and remember the van windows were down.  I didn't rest much at all last night, and it was just one of many odd things that came to mind as I was trying to get to sleep.  I feel -- and no doubt, look -- like (insert uncomplimentary/unpleasant descriptive phrase of choice) this morning, so I'm off to try to get a nap.  Probably won't happen with all I should be doing instead, but I'll be in much better shape if I can. 

What's new in your world?

We Interupt Our Regularly Scheduled Home Improvement...

...for this bird house project.

Kat built this birdhouse on a field trip to Gorman Conservation Discovery Center yesterday.  She and Shane put it up when she got home.

I promise to get back to regular posting soon.  This week has just been completely ǝpısdn uʍop for me!

Bi-Monthly Book Look - January/February

I thought I'd take a look at the books I read in January and February of this year.  Maybe you'll find something here you like.

I've divided them into non-fiction and fiction.  Beyond that, they are in the order they were read.

Non-Fiction

Making It - Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
My rating: 5 of 5.  This is a great book of formulas, recipes and instructions for making homemade food, drinks, cleaners and useful objects.  I liked this book well enough that I bought a copy for myself.

Fed Up With Lunch - The School Lunch Project - Mrs. Q
My rating: 3 of 5.  A Chicago-land teacher decides to eat her school's hot lunch every day for a year, and lived to tell about it.  While interesting, the book offers little to solve the problem of the declining quality of school lunches.

Made By Hand: My Adventures in the World of Do-It-Yourself - Mark Frauenfelder
My rating: 4 out of 5.  This is one man's account of his decision to delve into the world of "makers".  Not only does he describe his own experiences, but he discusses the philosphies behind what he calls the "DIY Movement" and the value of making mistakes.  It was a fun read and as someone who has always been a do-it-yourselfer  to some extent or another (and who doesn't think of this as a "movement" at all),  it was interesting to see the processes of DIY projects from the point of view of someone who wasn't naturally called to work with his hands.


Fiction

The Heart Specialist - Claire Holden Rothman
My rating: 4 out of 5.  Historical novel about one of Canada's first female physicians.

Gone For Good - Mark Childress
My rating: 3.5 out of 5.  A 1970s rock star finds himself plane-wrecked on a tropical island, where other inhabitants include Marilyn Monroe, Amelia Earhart and other famous dead folks.

11/22/63 - Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5.  What if you could travel back in time and prevent JFK's assassination?  That would be a good thing.  Or would it?

I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive - Steve Earle
My rating: 5 of 5.  Alt-country music fans will recognize Steve Earle as a singer/songwriter; I think he does an impressive job with his first novel.  Imagine being a washed up heroin-junkie physician living with the ghost of Hank Williams.  What would it take to make you go clean?  (Coincidentally, this was the third novel in a row that included JFK among their casts of characters.  What are the chances?)

February Sewing/Crafting - "That Afghan" Is Finally Done

The afghan I started more than two and a half years ago as a wedding gift for my daughter and SIL is finally done!    And I have to say, "What a relief!"

Now don't get me wrong.  I like the afghan and I think it's very pretty.  It wasn't that difficult to do, but it was really beyond the scope of my patience.  All those color changes, then working the ends in was te-di-ous!  I also realize, looking back, that I should have got my new eyeglasses long before I did.  Switching from lined bi-focals to transitional multi-focals really improved my staying power as I finished up this month.

My best guess for this project is 120 to 150 actual clock hours of stitching.  So, yeah, it could have been -- and should have been -- done a long time ago.

Below is a pic from the original pattern, done in Caron.com Country yarn.

My daughter asked for to have the Claret (red) replaced with a deep plum and the Peacock (blue) replaced with a teal.  I think her choices were good ones, but they necessitated a yarn change. The final product was worked up in Red Heart Soft yarn.  The original pattern measured 50" x 64", but I added rows so that the one I made measures approximately 72' x 90".

My daughter hasn't seen the finished product yet, but I think she'll be pleased.  If nothing else, she'll be glad to finally get it.  :) 

I bought myself a large knitting loom a couple of years ago and still haven't used it because I was waiting to get this done.  Now that it's finished, I can get started on something for myself with the loom.  I'm not sure what yet, but I can guarantee it will be just one color!

That will probably be my April project.  For March, I'll be sewing a couple of things for Kat; I don't want to put them off any longer; I'm afraid she might outgrow them before I get them done!