IT'S IN YOUR UNDERNEATH

OK.  Here’s bag #2. 

And this is #3 over here.I just seem to be a bag making freak.  I want to ultimately not ever use plastic or paper bags for shopping. The pictures don’t translate very well here, so I will also upload them to my Flickr account.  The fabric on the 3rd bag is kind of unusual.  There is a woolly mammoth on it after all.  And pictures that resemble cave drawings.    I actually gave these 2 bags to a friend whose birthday was over the weekend.  I have so much fabric, I can make more for myself and additional satchels for friends and family.

Here is the ultimate cool, old school perambulator I picked up for my daughter.  I had purchased one from a store I won’t mention and it was, in a nutshell, a piece of flimsy, plastic,MIC crap.  So I found this cool one on Freecyle and took the store bought one back.  I love that this particular one had been used by 2 sisters over 20 years ago or so.  The little old lady who gave it to us was as sweet as could be and she was very happy the baby buggy was going to continue to be used and loved by another little girl.

I have no clue who manufactured this or in what year, although I would love to know.  I haven’t been able to find any distinguishing marks on the stroller and a google search didn’t yield anything!

My first completed bag.  I am pleased with how it looks and the method by which to make it, but would prefer a square bottomed bag.  I haven’t yet figured out how to go about stitching that up.  I guess I primarily wanted to finish a bag close to the way the directions said to and I came pretty close.  The only thing I did differently was to measure out just one piece of fabric instead of 2, one for each side.  I figured why cut it in two when it is already one piece?  Seemed silly to me.  The bag comfortably holds 2 large juice bottles.  The straps are a little closer to the edge than I would have hoped, but creating the French seams shrunk it down to size.  No matter, I think it turned out well enough and is completely functional!

I had a box full of dollhouse furniture I played with as a child.  My mother-in-law brought a dollhouse chair to my daughter over the weekend and it reminded me of the box in the garage.  Today, I went out and dusted off the furniture and showed it to my daughter.  She loved it and played with it for at least 1/2 hour.  There was a playpen type thing but the padding was stained and dirty, so I ripped it out and created a new one.

I used the scraps of fabric I had leftover from the jammie making.  Cute.

Yes, I have been busy.  Last Christmas, I made a bathrobe for my daughter.  My first ever effort to make clothing or anything, for that matter, with a sewing machine.  With that bathrobe pattern, a pattern for jammies was included.  A few weeks back, I took my daughter to the fabric shop.  Yes, that was brave of me because there are a gazillion different fabrics to choose from and I was asking a 3 year old to pick just one?!  What?  Am I nuts?  Yes, just a little.

When I saw the polka dots section, I knew we had a winner.  She loves the polka dots, this one.  If given a choice, she always picks the pants, shirt, skirt, dress with polka dots. 

I need a lot more practice with the clothing, but I know I can really get the hang of it.  Ha ha, get it???  HANG of it.  Oh, I slay me!

I am working on grocery bags now.  I have tons of fabric scraps and fashioned a pair of handles tonight.  The first pair I had to throw out.  Why?  Well, let’s just say I may have sewn both straps together.  To each other.  Instead of sewing them individually you see.  I finished up the one, and was proud of the way it looked and the absolute strength of it!  Oh my god, it was tough and I could carry a bag full of 18 lb cans, with those handles!  Yah!  So, I went to grab the second handle to sew up and it wasn’t there!  I went to the bedroom, where the iron was set up.  Nope, not there.  I asked my husband and my daughter.  Nope, hadn’t seen it.

Then I really looked at the completed strap in my hand.  Hmmmm.  Yep, I sewed both straps together!  Hmmm, strong!  I was pretty ticked off because I thought I was doing so well…..and then…..awww crap!  It was impossible to rip the seams out because as I was attempting that, the fabric ripped.  So, back to square one.

This time, I kept the two straps in separate corners.  They don’t play well together, those straps, and managed success.  I will post a photo of the completed bag once that happens.

Here is a photo of one of the chairs my husband and I reupholstered.  We have six total to replace our old, clunky, falling apart kitchen chairs.  I received the chairs from a generous Freecycler.  I wish I had a before photo, but just plain forgot to take one.  The chairs seats were originally covered with a blue, conference room chair type material.  The previous owners were smokers, so the chairs reeked of cigarette smoke and the wood was darkened by the tar and grime, etc. 

We completely cleaned the chair wood with damp rags and a mild cleaner.  I removed the chair upholstery and poured the disintegrated padding into the garbage.  The padding was literally orange powder. It was that old and gross.

I decided to forgo any varnish or stain because the wood was exquisite underneath all those years of grime and dirt.  Instead I used a natural wood preserver with bees wax and many different types of oils to enrich the patina.  We then recovered the plywood seats with new cushions and an antique fabric my mother-in-law had in her stash.

We love the chairs and are proud of the work we put into them to make them new again!

Speaking of which - I obtained 2 wooden folding chairs covered with Danish Cord Weave.  They are in great need of TLC and re-weaving.  Here are the before photos:

With the little research I have done, I know they are in the Eames style.  They are clearly marked with “Yugoslavia” on the backs.  I am guessing they may be from the 60’s but really have no idea.  I can’t wait to really get into refinishing them!

One hyphenated word: pre-school. 

One evil, vile sickness: I shall call thee the “body dump”

and one way to lose weight in 2 steps!  barfing and crapping the hell out of yourself.

Right - pretty gross.  My sweet, innocent daughter got sick with some kind of putrid virus after her second day in pre-school EVER.  Didn’t take long there, jumped right into the viral pool that one.  I am fairly certain the virus has “linda blair” somewhere in the name.  Projectile vomiting at it’s Olympic best and then the matching stools to boot.  How fashionable, everyone is wearing it this season!

Joy.

And then I got it.  Double joy.  It was difficult enough to watch and be covered in my daughter’s sickness, but for myself to succumb to this as well?  Well, that is just fucked up.  I thought parents got a break after they became parents?  Aren’t we allowed to not get sick with every flu, cold, sniffle and barf fest that our little germ factories bring home, primarily so we are healthy and strong to take care of them??  Isn’t that the way this game works???  Someone??  Anyone?

Sheesh.  I pretty much didn’t give a flip what was going on around me while I was busy being sick.  For about 5 straight hours on Sunday night, I was either vomiting or pooping or both.  I weighed myself after each trip to the bathroom just so I could come away with something positive - “Yay!  Lost 2 lbs!”

So, then after my body was absolutely empty of all fluids, I was able to sleep.  I think there may have been some blood left, but today will take care of that, since I got my period.  The next day proved challenging.  No school for the little one, but heck, she still needed to eat, right?  I needed to sleep.  And sleep some more and boy did I ever!

I slept, ate some popsicles, walked around hunched over from the pain in my stomach and back (whine) after having given myself whiplash.  What is that called anyway?  When you’re body so violently evicts anything and everything from all orifices until you are a dry husk of a human?  There has to be a name for that. 

Anyway, enough of my whining.  After my daughter’s initial expulsion (projectile vomiting), she looked at her Daddy (who was standing in the kitchen, mouth agape, wondering what the hell just happened) and said,”Daddy, I think I have the sickness.”

Yeah, the sickness alright.  You nailed that one on the head.  And she called the vomit, “drool”.  “I drooled all over the place.”  Yeah, Daddy cleaned that one up because I promptly carried my daughter and myself up the stairs to take a lovely, hot clorox shower.

I managed to get mostly everything wiped down with bleach.  Serious.  Bleach.  Because my husband threw the fear in me that what we had was some kind of Narwal virus.  No, not Narwal - that is a horned whale……norwalk, norwich, sandwich, oh heck, I dunno.  Some seriously, vile virus that cannot be contained or stopped with anything but bleach, which I try to avoid (funny) because it smells so foul.

 Do they make clorox gargle, I wonder?

My husband and I religiously watched the Olympics.  We lost sleep over the Olympics, we suffered to get our fill of those strong athletes, of all nations, competing in the mother of all competitions.  We are armchair athletes and cheered out loud to the TV when someone came from behind to win it all - gold or silver or bronze - all the medals are great prizes, despite the frowny faces of some who “only won” silver or bronze.

We watched swimming and diving and gymnastics and whatever else NBC chose to broadcast.  When an American won the gold, we sat on the edge of our seats when the winning athletes lined up to take the podium.  I think the first one we saw was Michael Phelps winning the gold for one of his many swimming events. 

The National Anthem started and then stopped, dead silence!  A glitch!  They re-started it, but from somewhere in the middle - thanks a lot…..how disrespectful.  Michael Phelps did not sing or even mouth the words.

Immediately I was disappointed.  What?  No singing?  Oh, maybe he was too nervous or caught up in the moment or something.  Who knows what thoughts are coursing through their minds as the National Anthem is played for the American gold winning athletes.  I sure don’t, only they know.

We waited patiently each time.  Still, no singing.  Mostly hands over hearts which is good, but no singing!  Clearly, the Code of the National Anthem was not followed.  Come on!  It is just ONE stanza! 

It was doubly disappointing as Michael Phelps is from Baltimore - the very city in which Francis Scott Key penned the Anthem after the battle at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.  Do you know your history Michael Phelps?  Were you too waterlogged to sing?

The Olympics are over for now - but those American athletes performing in future Olympic Games have PLENTY of time to memorize the lyrics:

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

Here also, is an interesting survey about the National Anthem of the United States of America.