Fickle

This week I have been focusing more of my creative energies on sewing. I still haven't determined what to do for the quilt backing, but I love the ideas everyone provided. When I haven't been sewing, I have been reading. I picked up Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult from my parents' house this week. My mom had read it and thought it was fairly good. I had not planned to start it, but it was all I had at the gym one day. I started it and was hooked. It is a page-turner like most of her books, although not as good as some. I finished it in no time. I would recommend it as a quick easy read, however it does deal with neonaticide.

With so much of my spare time spent sewing and reading, my knitting has languished. I was able to knit a few rows here and there, but I still have a ways to go on the body of my sweater. I decided it would be helpful to know just how much more I should knit, so today I tried it on. It fits! I am so pleased. I need to knit another 6-8 inches in length, and I will be able to move on to the sleeves.

Knitting in my son's room for the Yarn Along

I also have another new read. A friend of mine recommended Freedom by Jonathan Franzen a few months ago. I have checked it out of the library twice, and the due date is looming. I decided to start it as well as read Coop. One of our librarians told me it is really good and has several holds, so there is no possibility of renewing it. If you need me, I am busy knitting the sweater, finishing up a pair of longies, reading two books and sewing a quilt. No problem, although I think I may be considered fickle in my pursuits lately.

An Auspicious Day

The first part of the year is busy for us. It isn't the usual complaint of classes, activities, field trips, and other myriad obligations. Rather it is a fun type of busy and craziness. We celebrate ALL of our family birthdays between February 3 and April 25. Add in a wedding anniversary in early May, and it makes for a celebratory funfest. It is a whole lot of cake eating and present wrangling! 

Thus far, we have celebrated the birth of a six year old and a forty year old. Today is my turn. I have made it around the sun 39 times! Hard to believe. I am relishing in all the birthday wishes, however it is tough when your birthday is a mere four days after your spouse's. It sometimes gets overlooked, and it is definitely a bit anticlimactic. I originally thought it so romantic to have close birthdays. Reality is different especially when you are a bit of an attention seeker! 

My mother was the first to call and wish me a happy birthday. As we closed, I remembered to wish her a happy birthing day. Today was not only my birthday, but the day she became a mother. She chuckled, and agreed that I had started it all. 

What my day holds is blank opportunity. The kiddos and I have talked about going to the park, the zoo or even to join in on a walk across a bridge in town. Why a bridge walk? In addition to being my birthday, it is International Women's Day. It is marked by women walking on bridges and marking the day throughout the world.

I never realized I shared my birthday with such an auspicious event.  I learned of the dual significance of the day in the last few years. Perhaps I had previously been distracted by my celebrations! I wonder what women years before me would think of women today. I wonder what our mothers' mothers would think. Have we done enough? Would they do things differently? What strides are yet to come for our daughters and granddaughter?

Whatever today holds, I know it will be an amazing day. I look forward to it and the year to come.

Feliz Cumpleanos, Mi jefe!

40 Reasons we love you:

1. You play tickle monster
2. You make me laugh
3. You cried at the birth of our first child
4. You play games especially on the Wii
5. You can sing
6. You work hard to provide for your family
7. You are honest
8. You make us coffee
9. You think I look good even pregnant
10. You make delicious kung pao chicken
11. You prefer to drive so I can ride
12. You read to me
13. You can move your eyebrows independently
14. You go along with [most of] my crazy ideas
15. You turn on your lights and sirens for us
16. You can whistle
17. You know how to make fart noises
18. You are good at Minecraft
19. You let me sit on your lap
20. You watch Star Wars with me
21. You make me cheese sandwiches
22. You are tall
23. You take us camping
24. You go hiking with us
25. You can lift me up by my ears
26. You are thoughtful and wise
27. You help me do pull-ups
28. You gave me your watch
29. You let me sleep on your armey
30. You help mama
31. You are fair
32. You are level-headed
33. You are true to those you care about
34. You let me use your ipod
35. You let me use your belt
36. You can find anything on the internet
37. You throw me up into the air
38. You love us
39. You are a fantastic husband
40. You are a good daddy

Happy Birthday, Dave! We love you.

And the Winner Is...

My daughter helped me draw a winner for the hat of ennui. She was disappointed that her name was not included but only for a minute.

 

She drew:

Tracey

I keep hearing about this book and how good it is. I think I need to add it to my wish list. Your sweater looks really nice.

Warmly,

Tracey

Tracey, send me an email with your address and I will put the hat in the mail for you. Thanks everyone for your kind words about my sweater. 

A Glimpse of Summer

Once I had a plan in place, it has been easy to begin work on the quilt. I have found myself working a lot on my grandmother's quilt blocks this week. I found a yellow Kona cotton that I thought worked really well with the blocks.

Since it is comprised of scraps that my grandmother had on hand, the blocks do not coordinate. The colors and fabrics are all over the board, so the yellow really brings it together.

I decided to make three inch sashing and six inch borders. It is turning out well.

Using my vintage Singer 301 - sews like a dream

I only had a brief problem when I began sewing the strips together. Although I measured a fair sampling to ensure the blocks were all 18" square, my rows did not line up. I had to rip quite a bit. I grabbed more pins and was able to line them up better. It isn't perfect, but I think it works. The quilt reminds of the bright colors of spring and summer.

 I am trying to decide how to back the quilt. I think I will use a few special clothing items from the kiddos in keeping with the scrap idea. I will piece them together to form a strip across the back. The big question is what fabric to use for the main back sections. I am drawn a bit to a gingham, but am thinking perhaps a solid color would be better. Any ideas?

What to do with a plethora of citrus

Living in a warm climate means that we have a lot of citrus this time of year. Friends often give us large bags to take home whenever we visit. Fellow homeschoolers bring cratees to the park asking all to share their harvest. With such a bounty, we have many choices of what to make and how to use them. In the past, I have made lemon cake, lemon curd, grapefruit curd as well as copious amounts of fresh juice for drinking. Our freezer is also well stocked with juice just waiting for the heat of summer. Dave will make it into beautiful pitchers of ice cold lemonade. But perhaps the biggest allure of citrus lately is science projects.

Recently our science group explored a whole host of activities utilizing lemons. Thanks to a wonderful mom in our group, the kiddos inflated balloons using the gas produced by mixing baking soda and grapefruit juice, determined bases vs acids with cabbage juice as the indicator,

 discussed density and why whole lemons float but wedges don't,

and best of all, caught citrus oil on fire.

Did you know the oil would cause this?

You can see the oil squirting in this photo

Aine right after she ignited the oil in her peel

There was also a LED light lit by a lemon battery, but most of the children were too busy inflating balloons and causing the tea light to spark to even notice. It was great fun. We have been playing with the lemons in our house ever since our outing.

Some Progress

I have been plowing through my book group selection this week, and I finally finished! I have not been enjoying it, and I am so glad many of you shared your experiences about abandoning books that you were not enjoying. With the final page read, I knew I could start a new book. I have wanted to read Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting, so I immediately pulled it out and started. I already like it so much more.

Progress on my sweater has not been as remarkable. All that reading interfered with my knitting. It is tough when your two joys are mutually exclusive. Of course, this explains my love of audiobooks which allow me to do both at once! Genius, I tell you. I was able to knit a few more inches of the body. I think if I steal a few moments this week, I should be able to start the sleeves.

My Yarn Along contribution

A few weeks ago I made another hat of ennui from the remaining skein of Malabrigo. I would love to find it a home, since I already have one. If you are interested in the hat, just leave a comment. I will draw a name on Thursday. Hopefully everyone's weather improves and there will be no need for a wool hat until next year. If not, this one should fit the bill!

Edited to Add: The winner of the hat is Tracey. Please email your address and I will send you your new hat.

Learning all the Time

I have been itching to replace a few of our playsilks. Some of them we have had for years, and they are showing their wear. They are used almost daily for capes, doll blankets, tents, rivers, and whatever else you can imagine. I purchased some silks online before our trip. With a little inspiration from online friends and instructions provided here, we decided to add glue batiking to our kool aide dyeing mix.

We started last week by drawing our images on the silks. I taped their canvases to cardboard, but I foolishly forgot to sandwich wax paper between the layers.

After they finished drawing with pencil, they used glue to trace their drawings. I did not have the two glues recommended, Elmer's Washable School Gel Glue or Elmer's Galactic Glue, so we used regular white glue. This didn't work so well. The glue came out thicker than desired and had a tendency to run. We forged ahead despite a friend's suggestion to wash the silks and start over.

Once the glue dried I noticed the silk was stuck to the cardboard. I remembered the wax paper layer, but decided I should be able to get them apart easily. I diluted acrylic paint with water for painting the silks.

 Aine set to work on her creation (Eamon prefers his unpainted). 

She painted the entire silk, and we set it outside to dry.

Once dry I attempted to pull it from the cardboard. I soaked the silk to remove the cardboard that had adhered to it as well as the glue. I hung it to dry. 

Throughout this project, I learned many lessons. First, silk tears very easily. Second, heed instructions when provided and don't forget the wax paper. And third, blue glue may have been worth the trip to the store to find. I ripped her silk when removing it from the cardboard. Not only did I rip it, I tore a hole in the middle. Aine was nonplussed about the ordeal. We decided we would buy better glue and utilize a better support system.