Science Experiments

The kids have started a science experiment.

Can you guess what it is?

Here is my ongoing experiment.

I am trying to get them to bloom.

My Sewing Room

Many of you may be wondering, "Just how much of a mess can a sewing room be?" (Please don't judge me. I am coming clean by showing you the 'before' pictures AND I AM cleaning it! It was looking a little 'Hoarders'-like but without the bugs!)

Well.....to be honest a TRUE DISASTER! I will get it half way cleaned up, start a few projects, maybe even finish a couple, when WHAM! My life as 'Mom' comes crashing in. (Also, sometimes my depression - which has been happening more lately. Whole 'nother story there. And no I don't just get depressed about some things, I have honest to goodness depression. These IS a difference.)

Then, I find things on sale or at a yard sale or in a thrift store or it gets given to me...you know. And I just toss it back there. So, when I do have the inclination or time to actually create, my room is a mess again. Sigh. Time to start the process over again.

This time I decided to do things differently.

For one thing I have WAY too much fabric (gasp! goes all the fabric hounds out there. Cathy.), WAY too many felted sweaters collected from yard sales and etc, WAY too many craft supplies, WAY too much sewing paraphernalia from two different time periods, WAY too many..... Do you get the point?

For another thing and perhaps the most important reason, most, if not all of this, is not put together in a way that I can reasonably find it and use it. I DID color code and fabric type sort my fabric a while back.

Also, I want to move my ironing board over by the window. Change the oval table for the rectangular one (so my cutting mat doesn't hang off in mid-air), and move it out of the center of the room.

And I know, I know, I should just feel lucky to HAVE a sewing room and shouldn't leave it in such a mess! Well, I am blessed to have a wonderful husband who was raised by a wonderful, creative, talented, sewing woman. So, me asking for a room of my own wasn't too much of a push.

I have a good bit cleared out but, as Abbe has said, I have just moved it into the next room. The idea being that as I put it back, I can sort.  Sigh. I would really like another set of shelves to put in there and a couple of floor lamps for more light. Am going to have to start checking the thrift stores, but wait, you have to have TIME to go to the thrift stores! ;-)

My friend, Linda, just took everything out of her craft room and PAINTED! Painting would be lovely right now. I could paint over the dirty cream color that the previous owner left. But I really do want to get some things sewn for Christmas. Anyway, Linda has inspired me to take all of this mess in hand and try to get a handle on it. Ha!

So, how does your sewing/craft room look? Are you lucky enough to have one?

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As you may have noticed, I didn't bother putting my watermark on these pictures because who would want to claim that?

Also, the rest of my house looks NOTHING like this. I keep a pretty clean home. I have three kids, two dogs, a cat and a guinea pig, and if you don't stay on top of things they spiral out of control quickly.

So, why can't I do the same for this room? Beats me.

Ugh.

So, about 11:00 pm last night.

Once I was snug in my bed.

I realized I had not blogged.

As you can tell, I did not get out of my bed to do it.

Sigh.

Was doing so well too.

BUT I WAS CLEANING MY SEWING ROOM.

Well, anyway, right now I need to go get kids going on cleaning their disasters of rooms.

Will return later! ;-)

How My November is going

My November update:

1. I have written a post EVERY day so far. Of course, we are only seven days in.... And, I admit, a couple of my posts were not very imaginative or long. But this is supposed to help my writing so hopefully as the month goes on, I will get better!

2. I knew exercising three times a week would be hard for me. Does walking about a mile with the kids for trick or treat count? It does for me. Also, I played basketball with everyone on Wednesday. So, only twice. Should do better this week. Ruth and I are going to take the dogs for a walk after her school Elluminate session today.

3. Cleaning is going to begin today. I am going to move a lot of the stuff out and move the ironing board over by the window. Also, am switching tables from the oval one to the rectangular one.

4. Need to start finish knitting more of my UFOs. Can't work on sewing ones until I get my sewing room straightened around.

5. Shows what I know. I think these were already on there! But I also, have started putting a watermark on my photos. Would also like to change my header. Hmmmm...

6. Still haven't found a good time to do this. Am just going to have to do it in the middle of the day. If I get up early, so do the kids! It's like they have this invisible Momma link. Bleh. Also, the time change this past weekend makes them get up earlier for a few weeks. Double bleh.

7. Need to get #3 finished first.

8. Need to get #7 finished first.

Still have a long way to go but have started, that is what counts. Starting and keep going.

Halloween Costumes

Well, for the first time EVER, I bought! one of my kids a Halloween costume. Ruth wanted a store bought costume :-(  Sigh. My little girl is growing up. Ruth has read these books but not watched any of the movies or shows or whatever. Can you tell how hip I am??? I am really picky about what shows and movies they watch.

(above photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

I know, I know, she looks like a wolf version of Barbie.

I am currently watching the 6th (or 3rd?) Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi, as my research and homework according to Abbe. Abbe and Eian want to be Luke and Leia in the Ewok scenes. These are probably going to be the easiest costumes ever - I say now. I think I am just going to need to make the ponchos. I am going to use some muslin/old sheets I have, and have Abbe and Eian spray dye them. We'll see.




Well, now I need to go get some spray painting finished while it is not raining and the wind is not blowing 30 mph! ;-)

My Glider Find!!!

As many of you know, my honey and his dad built us a deck this summer. I have wanted an old fashioned glider for a long time (we had one when I was a kid, and I loved to sit out on the porch and read when it was raining) but we had no place to put one. NOW WE DO!!!!




No, this is not our new one. This is kind of what the one looked like when I was a kid except it was that classic dark green. (This one from napastyle.com )



Soooooo, I began searching Craigslist and some yard sales but not too intensively. Well, our town (very small with no stoplights) has a yard sale every year. Most times I just kind of wander around, and I have found some really neat stuff but there is A LOT of JUNK. It was blue blazing hot this year and Jason was at the Annual (Big City Where He Works) Battalion Firefighter Softball Tournament. So, the kids and I decided to just walk up towards the local firestation and get some fish fry fish (YUM!!!) for lunch. Well, one of my friends was sitting up there selling stuff and guess what she was sitting on!!! You guessed it....a glider! FOR FREEEEEE! (channeling Adam Sandler from Bedtime Stories). She even brought it down to my house when they were finished, because Jason wasn't home yet and you DO NOT want to even see me try to hook up our trailer!


Now this glider has been sitting in our driveway since the beginning of August. I still had a lot to do: decide what color to paint it, decide what kind of cushions to get (Home Depot clearance), seal the deck before even moving it up there, and scrape and paint it. Abbe helped me pick out the cushions and decided on the paint color. I was torn between the green or red paint.

The glider was white and kind of rusted, so I had to scrape, rust primer (which looks like more rust than there actually was in the pics), regular primer and paint. Of course, it kept raining and raining in between each step too.

Finally get all this accomplished and I have been able to sit out there ONE evening. Rain, Rain, and more Rain!!!

Oh well, at least it LOOKS beautiful!

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Many of you may be wondering, well what happened at the doctor??? Well, we went to see a surgeon in Columbus and basically he said we would have to wait and see if anything changes. I have to go back in December and do another CT scan. So, the waiting game begins. Sigh. Went through this last year with the cyst on my ovary. I keep telling myself "40 is not old! Pull yourself together!"

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We have such funny birds around here. This one and his mate would hang upside down on the sunflowers in order to eat the seeds! They were fun to watch.