It's in the Jeans and Rust

 I have a chair that was Robb's dad's favorite chair, probably from when he was in seminary.  It's old.  And when I say old, I mean, OOO.L.DDD!  It was in our bedroom for years and Robb loved it.  After that, it had been given to various kids for their rooms, the last one was Maddy, I think.  But it was left at home when she moved away.  So I guess it's mine again.  The matching ottoman is in our garage storage room and that'll be a project for another day/month/year.

Somehow the top back had gotten broken and the poor thing sat in the garage for several years with my honest intention of someday fixing it up and making it part of our lives again.  I plan to use Robb's old jeans to re-cover it.  What else can I make of them?

Yesterday was the day I chose to start in!

No one was home so over my lunch hour, I moved it, by myself, up the stairs to my bedroom so I could watch Sherlock as I worked on it.  This is me on the stairs trying to not knock over canned goods I have stored there.  I did take a break after this brutal feat of strength.

Darn my hobbies!

In stripping off the old worn vinyl, I found several boards broken on just the bottom of the chair without even bringing the top board into play.  Yikes!  Who's been throwing this thing around?!  

And I kid you not.  There were about 1235 little tiny nails per side in various areas holding it all together.  And cardboard.  Not sure when staple guns were invented but not when THIS baby was put together!  Bunches of change fell out along with candy wrappers.  I've been picking up all the tiny nails every time I go in the room now.  I THOUGHT I was being careful, but here we are.

In the process of stripping it to it's bare bones, I got scraped a couple times on the little nails, breaking the skin. whoops!

And when attempting to place a screw and fix a board, the drill slipped a few times and punctured the fleshy part of my hand between the thumb and first finger. EEW!!!  

hydrogen peroxide
band aides

It was like Robb was telling me to give up and pitch the thing!  But I'm pretending I'm not getting the message.  It's a sentimental journey.  And I've literally got skin in the game.

Long about 4pm, I started wondering when I'd had my last tetanus shot. Hmm..  Seems like the last one I could remember was 1989 when Robb and I were helping my dad tear down a barn and I stepped on a nail.  It went through my shoe into my foot.  So yesterday, I called our family doctor. They looked it up on the national registry and the last time THEY found recorded was 1973.  Probably just in time for kindergarten or first grade.

Because we ALL know how rusty the 1970s playground equipment could get.

It was time to get another tetanus shot. shoot.  In addition to that, I brought up my glucose charting I've been doing.  I got confirmation that my suspicion of pre-diabetes was correct.  My doctor had my A1C checked (5.9) and then gave me info and resources for recipes and of course the tetanus shot.

As Calvin in the old cartoon strip would say, "I'm just a little pink pin cushion to you guys!" 
poke poke poke.

So yeah.  no sugar, breads, potatoes, etc for THIS gal!  Not anymore sunshine!

sigh.

My A1C is not terrible but the switch has been flipped.  I need to be lo-carb and watching my carb intake from this point on.

But at least now I won't get lockjaw from Robb's chair!  HA to YOU Robb!  I WILL get this chair put back together!  It just looks pretty sad so far.

Dreaming of winning the lottery

Can't win if you don't play.  Isn't that what they say about the lottery?

then darn.  I'll never win it.

Other stuff while we await a Covid test for Meri... If positive, then we have to get tested too.

cripes.

Leon has had projects for online school, one involved planting bean plants and then letting one not get watered for 5 days.

The dying one actually did better until the last day when it was a half inch shorter than the other ones.

But he documented each day faithfully and now all those plants are dead.

We even transplanted all 3 of them into a big pot of dirt, but they couldn't stand the change.

Our 4H leaders son got married a couple weeks ago and we attended.  She's the one that I did alterations on her dress two weeks before.  

I made a new top from my stash to coordinate with my brown maxi skirt.  And while I worried that I was going to sweat to death, no need...  

It was outdoors!  And a nice breeze.  WOW.  What a beautiful afternoon at a vineyard.

Thankfully the reception was indoors however we sat at a table underneath an air conditioning vent...  Yikes!  The masks were the only thing keeping me warm!  and my new shirt.

All the bridesmaids and groomsmen were from my kids high school, a year or two younger than Maddy.  So it was like Old Home day.  Even the pastor used to be the principal at the Middle School!

I'm sure every single kid in the wedding party had to visit his office at least once in his principal career.

And weren't these hors d'oevres thingies cute??  and delish...  There was a pearl on the cheese meat sticks...

The NEXT day, I attended the baptism of this little guys baby brother, Shiloh. 

My nephew and his wife make cute kids...

Another project for Leon this past week, included writing his own little ditty and clapping out the tune singing Do, Re, Mi type notes.  

under duress...  He was NOT happy to be recorded *gasp* singing...

And then visiting with Ada at the nursing home.  We had a ledge jumper...  It was only 2 feet up.

Not a real problem, but he did need my help when he walked across the wall and planted himself directly on the glass for Ada's benefit.

She loved it!

and look what I found in a stash of pics from my mom?!  Meri is such a cutie!

And I also found one of Robb and I for the college spring formal almost 33 years ago!  

My old stucco porch behind us.  

Whew!  We were young...

 Anyway...  That's it for today.  I'm going to try and do better posting each day.  Need to get back in the habit so I can create books of my blog posts for each year.  Got 3 done so far...  from 2009 - 2011...

Need another grand to get the rest caught up...  SOMEDAY... When I'm rich...

Sliming not Sewing

I got last night off from sewing!!!  So I cleaned up my sewing area somewhat and let Leon climb into my closet while I sorted some things.  I've got a pile of fabric that has somehow gotten stuck in there.  Who knew?!  I could probably sew a new prom dress out of the stuff I found.

Oh and I found several prom dresses.  Ones that I've made and ones that I found at that boutique on sale last year.  The sale ones have been cut up for the crinolines or various other projects.  Some are intact, but not many.

Leon found some old toys that I'd put in the way back of my closet and several dolls that had started to freak out Maddy when she was a girl.  My closet is where American Girl dolls go to die...

A grand-daughter some day will love them!

Today, I have a hair cut and then will settle at the high school to modify a few of Meri's costumes for the play again.  She has to get out of the blue dress and into the pink dress in a BIG hurry.  And Monday night it took her 4 minutes.  Whoops!  Those aprons are going to get sewn onto the dress and I need to make a back flap for the vest zipper as it kept getting stuck on the white shirt.

The pink fluff pulled off the pink dress already in a couple places so I'll make that a more permanent fix.

And the gold dress needs a bit more on the back and a bit less on the front.  I plan on a couple hours I think.

Yesterday the ice made everything outside treacherous. We had neighbors ice skating on the sidewalks...

But Meri had broken the shoes she needs to wear in the play, so we braved the ice and made it to the Shoe Carnival and replaced them.  Whew! I love a good sale!

Leon and I had been working on his early birthday gift from Maddy and Matthew and finally the glue dried on his Gloop Slime launcher!  So we made the slime using the directions on the box and it turned into a glow in the dark mess that wouldn't unstick from my hands...  My skin will probably start peeling any day now due to the Borax I kept mixing into it to make it less watery...

He loves it...  And practiced shooting the front door last night and then again this morning.  We had to dig out another pair of pants because he got slimed.

Anyway, back to work and so much more!  Have a great day!

Heaping on another diversion

What a gloomy day...  No sun that I can see, but the roads are clear!  Three hours west of here several members of my extended family is not so lucky as they're still trying to dig out  after getting a foot of snow dumped on them.

I guess I'm fine with frozen mud in my yard.

Remember this dress?

 Maybe you would if you saw it like this.

My niece "the Brookster" needs to look somewhat like this. 

So I'm going to make a couple temporary mods to make it fit her and get it shipped off by tomorrow.

and iron it...

She is the cutie to the left of my mom.  And is gaining height pretty fast.  She's actually just a few  inches shorter than Maddy.  

Or my mom is shrinking at an alarming rate...

Someone asked how I keep it all straight in my head as to the scheduling of my many sewing projects.  When I do get time to sew, I first look for what fabric is laying on my cutting board.  And Meri  will always remind me.  Well, not that I see her a whole lot, but someone will say something and I'll get back on track. 

A list would help I guess...

Posting my project ideas here helps too!

Science in the Ice Age

Doesn't this science project look cool?

Well, let me tell you...  If you start substituting for things you don't have on hand, 

then don't do it...

For starters, we only used one bottle of water.  It was only half filled, so we filled it up the rest of the way with water from a filter jug.

Then we may have added too much water to the mix.  There was plenty of salt tho!  It coated the bottom like a delicious mountains of tastiness...

Leon and I decided this was a fail, however it did create tiny shards of ice in the glass when we were done.  

I love when my pop is JUST at that stage when I'm drinking it.

Anyway, we may try it again some time when we have complete unopened bottles of purified water on hand.

Let me know if you've tried it!

Getting My Creativity ON!

The weather is getting cooler and I'm wearing a sweater today...  I feel creative!!  I chopped up almost all of my upholstery samples from my fabric stash into 4 inch strips. 

And this isn't all of them.

WhatEVER shall I do with them??

Well, for starters... this.

I'll let you see after Christmas.

Burned by Science

Blech... right??!

Leon's Flubber that he made LAST Science night.  Still going strong.  As are the water gel beads.  They're still moist and full too.  

We started a new project last night that will take about a week unless we discover that we did it wrong and will need to start over.  We're attempting to make rock candy.

The strings will be lowered into the liquid more as time goes by.  I didn't use a paper clip to weigh it down like I should have.  

Who has paper clips when they need them??!  Not me.  I'll find a box next month sitting in plain sight, mark my words...

The bottom of the string appears to be getting thicker, so we'll see.  The left side is lemon flavored and the right side is maple flavored.

He splashed some of the syrup onto the stove while we cooked it.  The kitchen smelled of burned sugar.  This morning it smelled like bacon.  

But for a different reason.  So I guess our kitchen just smells...

But breakfast was delicious...

Parades and Salem

And here I am reporting on LAST weekend...  This week has cruised right by and I'm SO far behind on so much...  Last weekend we attended a parade about an hour away to see Meri march with her high school band.

Leon discovered the bubbles game on my tablet and played with it the whole way there.  The charging cord was kind of small, so one time he actually threw it from his lap and it swung in the air because we had it charging from the dvd player.  If it hadn't been, it could have been damaged...  

WHEW!  Saved by the short cord!

 

He then spent the rest of the trip there sitting quietly.  By that I mean, talking and/or sulking because he couldn't play the bubble game.

Robb and his mom sat at the corner with their chairs but it was too crowded for Leon to get a spot at a curb, so he and I moved up the block a little ways and found a spot just the right size for his butt.

He had a blast and picked up whatever candy was thrown his way.  He was very generous with the kids around him that didn't get as much because they were too shy to run out and grab it.

He even got pretty good at grabbing the paraders attention by yelling to them.  GIVE ME CANDY!  I WANT CANDY!  

Because we don't let him yell that sort of thing at home.

Meri's band was parade entry # 3,652 so it took a while for them to get to us.  Actually 123, but it seemed like it was over 3000 parade entries.  I loved their performance and got a smile out of Meri!

That night, Meri said she needed supplies for a school project due Wednesday.  Luckily she told me this at 7pm and we were able to make it to Hobby Lobby before they closed.  NO ONE else in the nearby town had the foam heads, so I'm so glad we went there first!  And I know this because we visited every other craft & department store looking for the rest of the supplies that evening too.  

Her project is based on a book they're reading called The Crucible.  I've never read it nor seen the movie.

On Monday at 5:30pm, I was just getting off of work, when Meri found me.  She said that she needed the bonnet that I'd promised to sew for her for TUESDAY, not Wednesday as she'd originally thought.  REALLY???!!!...  I had a sewing meeting that I needed to leave by 6:30 for and on top of that, I didn't know what kind of bonnet she needed.  Ryan attempted to help by saying, "You know!  The kind they used for the Salem witch trials!" 

As if I'm so old, I should remember what we wore...

I may be old, but I know how to use Google!  So I googled it and made a replica in about 30 minutes.

Had just enough time to eat something before I headed out the door.

She owes me...  

BIG.

Down to the wire... When aren't we?

Well... Meri's 4H goals are done and her room is cleaned for a party tonight.  We were up late...  In fact SO late, that when I called her at 7:05am, I woke her up.  She needed to be to work by 7:30. 

She set her own personal record for getting ready on time!  

I think she might be ready for school to start!

Here are her projects that I'll be dropping off over lunch today with Leon.

1) Poetry book.

I don't actually have a photo of the front, but here is Meri making it in February...

2) Rocking Chair

It's loaded up in my van right now...

3) Romeo & Juliet Clock

I don't have a photo of this either...  oh well.  It's from the school project Meri did a few months ago.  She gave the original to her teacher after the assignment was graded and painted a new one for the fair and for her to keep in her room.

4) Bathtub.

Rock, Paper, Scissors, Baby in a bathtub.  We have weird rock, paper, scissors games in my house...

It does make it difficult to see the clear winner in any situation.

She finished it up last night and tossed in some pillows after this shot for more photos.  It will actually NOT be going to fair as it weighs upwards of 500 pounds...  So she wrote enough to make a booklet explaining the project with tons of photos.

They will all be non-conferenced judged again, meaning that Meri can't be there, so here's hoping!!!

The Triginta Tree!

Meri's leaf project is done!!!  YAY!  She carried it into the school this morning and I'm sure will get an 

A+++ along with a hug from the principal.

This tree has thirty, count em' 30 different types of leaves on it, thus the "triginta" label.  I looked it up.  It means 30 in Latin.  

I'm into dead languages... Not many can contradict what I say.

  

Blogger sum terribilis!

I know that looks bad, but look it up on Google translate.  

Maybe I should have chosen a different phrase to say... 

Anyway, she laminated each leaf that she'd sacrificed so much for, trimmed around them, punched a hole near the top and strung it with ribbon, which she curled with a scissors.  To make sure they don't fall or blow off, we put a little piece of tape at the bottom of each golden swirl.

I'm quite sure a parade may be presented today  in her honor.

Two steps forward... You know the rest...

This is mainly for my sister Teresa's benefit as she has been snooping around my blog trying to find pictures of the dress besides just the pattern front. Hi Terese!

As of Saturday afternoon I was *THIS* close to being done with the wedding gown! The hem is done, I put the tucks in and tried it on the bride. It looks beautiful on her! The pic makes it look like it might be TOO tight, but that is adjustable and the waist stay will hold it up.
Oh to be THAT skinny again! Maybe when I get to 80 years old... But then I won't care.

Pay no attention to how twisted up the lacing is. This was a rush job of lacing!

The tucks were safety pinned in during these pictures and I found some mistakes on where I pinned them during the actual job of stitching them in. Problem corrected!

Only problem that we really found during the fitting is that the waist stay that I put in shows a bit and kind of looks like she's wearing granny undies... So... She came up with the idea to NOT do the sparklies around the top & hem of the gown but make a jewel-like belt to wear over the area of the waist stay.

BRILLIANT! Literally.

Oh, Saturday morning I forgot to take Meri's dress with me on the mini-roadtrip, so no handwork got done that morning. Got to talk to my honey for all morning, JUST us two! We had a good time. Then I took a nap in the car. I worked on Meri's hem later in the day and only got a portion of the hemming done. Still working on that over lunches this week.

Yesterday after church, Tiffany and I went to JoAnns and picked up some sparkly ribbon and some jewel strips that I'm hand stitching together in 4 little rows onto the ribbon. When the strips lay on the ribbon itself, it looks gorgeous... But when I start putting in stitches to hold them into place, they started to shift around and look door-knobby. But I kept at it. I might as well be consistent with the door-knobbiness. I'm about half way done with the belt and then will handstitch it into place on the dress. Actually with the satin behind it, the little belt looks REALLY pretty!

The belt will go into one of the laced loops and be stitched around the inside.

THEN to add a new challenge to my "Project Wedding", Meri and Tiffany (Not Heidi Klum) decided that maybe Meri's dress needs a corset type belt. So I started work on that. No pattern, just lots of measuring and by guess and golly. My idea is to have it underneath the outer sheer layer, but they're pushing for the outer layer itself. hmmm.. It will definitely be adjustable, but I think the detailing of it needs to be softened a little... I think in this situation, my final say will go. But I guess I need to finish it first. If they insist on it being the outer belt, I may spill kool-aid on it. *Thanks for the advice on the kool-aid, Tiff! ;)*

*addendum note* I just realized it CAN'T go underneath the outer layer. I forgot about the zipper... dang.

So far, I've put about 35 seams on that thing and JUST when I got down to maybe 5 left, the sewing machine said *raspberry* *THWRBBWQT* That's probably not how to spell it... Maybe stick out your tongue with your lips around it and blow.

How many of you just did the tutorial on how to do a raspberry? Yeah, I thought so.
So the machine called it quits and I took that as my cue to quit for the night as well. It's probably just over heated. I will get back to it over my lunch break today. I have another sewing machine if this one is kaput.

So... I didn't get ALL the projects I wanted to done this weekend, but there's still time this week, right? right?

Less than two weeks to the big day!

My Children Have Such Faith In Me...

So yesterday, Maddy and her boyfriend went shopping for a tie for him that would match her dress.

They found nothing. But Maddy got an idea... "How about Mom (that's me!) covers an old yucky tie with fabric to match my dress?" She thought that we had tons of them at home. AND she thought it would be a snap for me to whip it up for them. Kind of like when Robb says, "You're such a fast cleaner. I'd better stay out of your way. It'll only take you 10 minutes to straighten up the house."

Yeah...

Well - outside of my husbands Christmas Grinch ties, some of them are pretty ghastly. And one was Ryan's that he wore to the Sweetheart ball in 2006, so we chose that one.Here it is... I think it's nice! But Maddy remembers that she hated it when it was purchased and still does.

So...

Here's the plan...

We found suitable black fabric in my stash and the rest of the handmade ribbon we made for Maddy's bodice. Then covered it with the black sheer that we used for the outer layer of Mad's skirt.Before work this morning, I sketched out a pattern on the back of some leftover Christmas wrapping paper. Boy! That stuff is handy! Added 5/8" for the seam and part of the foldover of the edges.
Over lunch today I get to attempt to put this thing together! We'll see how that works... I'm putting the polka dot stripe under the sheer at an angle on the tie. Maybe a little lower than shown. I pulled off the Van Huesen tag on the back to tuck the narrow part of the tie into later. Let everyone think he got it from Van Huesen!

Wish me luck and any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

It's Friday! It's Friday!

This is the day I scramble and have to get all loose ends wrapped up at work before the weekend! Don't want to get an emergency call at 2am Sunday morning!!! *knock on wood*

As soon as Happy hour rolls around, I'm going to pick up stuff to make layered bean dip for my little bean dips and their friends. One has to be entirely vegetarian/vegan (boring!) but the other will have hamburger on it. Then I get to make homemade pizza for the crowd too. Will stick the dough in the bread machine this afternoon on my break.

Then over the weekend, I get to go to a tea room for lunch with the ladies and Meri needs to finish a couple 4H projects. She'll probably have to scrap one of her ideas... She has the aspirations to refinish and reupholster a rocking chair, but I just don't think she can do it before next Thursday... Today she is spray painting that milk can. Here is her progress on it so far.
Before
At this pointShe had sanded it down, sprayed it with (get this Mimi!) Hammered rustoleum primer. Then she's blocking off the sections of the can and spray painting each section a different shade of green. Meri is planning on making a pillow for the top to tie onto the lid and it will look very pretty in the corner of her bedroom.

Well - that's all she wrote from her little corner of Iowa... Have a great weekend!

Threadbanger

Threadbanger on Youtube is a valuable resource for sewers! Here they're making a do it yourself Body form! Make sure you check it out.

Any time I need an idea or inspiration, these guys always help.