Projects and Stuff

I've finally got a picture of a six-gore skirt I made awhile ago that I wanted to put up a picture of. The fabric was in my stash so long (eek!) that I forget exactly what it's made of, but it has a nice linen-y texture to it. It looks similar to some fabric Kate posted a while back.

I made it using Stretch-and-Sew 481. I hadn't used the pattern before, despite it's easy-to-makeness, but it made up into a great skirt.

I want to make another skirt in white using some fabric I just bought in Amish country, but who knows when I'll get to it. I'll be busy with projects for a while.

For example, I bought this camo knit fabric in pink and browns for the Scientist, who had expressed a wish for a shirt in such fabric. I got it at Zinck's in Berlin, which, despite what the link says, is now located in one giant outlet store. Mr. EG took a few pics for me, but I need to get them on my computer. Let me just say that it's a giant warehouse of a place, with row upon row of all kinds of fabric.

Lastly, I did not make these potholders, but I bought them in Amish country because I liked them so much. My kitchen is decorated (a little) with pansies, and I hadn't any Christmas kitchen linens before I bought these two potholders.

I'm frustrated, because Photobucket crashes my browser every time I try to upload video of Wildchild's dance recital, and when I tried to email *one* video to a friend, the software told me it was too big. I don't quite understand, since it's only one minute long. Maybe there's something I can do, but in the meantime let me just say it went well and Wildchild had a great time.

Beautiful View

Here are a couple of views of Amish country from the room at our hotel.


I tried to upload video from Wildchild's dance rehearsal to Photobucket but it kept crashing my browser, so it is not to be for now. Tomorrow is the big recital!

Glad to Be Home

After two very full days, and a drive through heavy rain, we are home again, and glad to be here. Husband and I had a very good time out in the country. I loved shopping for fabric and yarn, and I'll take some pictures of my "loot" to share over the next couple of days.

Our daughters had a good time with their aunt and uncle, and their aunt took them to a few museums that I can add to their homeschool list. :)

I'm tired, but very happy after the good time we had. I think Husband and I really needed the time away, and it was nice to make some more memories together.

Catching Up... Again

Mr. Evil Genius and I have been busy packing up boxes and printing out shipping labels and making runs to the post office. Which fortunately is very close to our house. It's a good thing I accepted international bidders, as many of my eBay bidders are from other countries: Italy, Sweden, England, Norway and as far away as New South Wales, Australia. My items mailed "in country" also seemed to be going about as far away from Ohio as possible: Texas, Florida and California.

Mr. Evil Genius and I are also preparing for a little trip together to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We leave on Wednesday and will be back late on Friday, and the girls will be staying with my sister-in-law and her husband. I'm trying to get some more clothes sewn up for the girls and I. I've finally managed to get back seriously into my sewing room, after my bad time in the winter. Right now, I'm working on a swim suit for Wildchild. I hate sewing swim suits, as I have a hard time sewing the elastic so the tension is even all the way around, and my machine has difficulty at times getting over the seam bumps and the elastic bumps where the elastic was sewed together. I want to take a picture or two of my latest creations, but the camera lens needs cleaned, and we can't find any "proper" cleaning cloths here at home that won't scratch the lens. Oh, the little things that get in our way sometimes.

I'm hoping the camera will be ready by the time Mr. Evil Genius and I leave; we're going to Amish country, by the way. Ohio has a large population of Amish, and I love the countryside and the shopping. I'm very much looking forward to the trip.

She Can Dance If She Wants To

Wildchild had dance class in costume this afternoon for her dance recital on June 15. Not sure what her dance instructor was thinking when she planned it for Father's Day. Anyway, Wildchild will be dancing twice, once for her ballet class and once for her jazz class.

Addendum

Here's a view of the Indians game from our seats. I didn't have it uploaded in time for my previous post. This game was a company (divisional) outing. I think the seats were nicer than last year's. Although we didn't bother staying for autographs this time. Doubt many people did; it was pretty late. However, Wildchild *finally* (at her fourth game) achieved her goal of getting her picture up on the giant screen. This one.

Is This Thing On?

Hey! I haven't been posting very much lately. Part of it is because I was busy. I took everyone's advice and put my dollhouse and all its contents up on eBay. I'll have a total of 54 individual auctions as soon as I put the last item up today. That was a lot of work! I'm glad I'm doing it, though. Going through all the items, I realized that I'm a different person from the one I was when I was seriously into the dollhouse and collecting for it. It's good to move on and free up the space in my life, physically and mentally.

Monday night we went to an Indians game with my sister-in-law and her husband. We all went out for dinner beforehand downtown, and it was very enjoyable. Good thing, because the Tribe lost after dragging the game out for 12 innings. Ugh. The girls and I also got to enjoy the fireworks afterward; my in-laws left early for their long drive home, and my husband was unselfishly taking the long hike to get our mini-van when the most direct route was blocked off due to the fireworks, and the elevators in the garage were turned off for the same reason.

We spent some of our "tax refund" on some furnishings for our porch, which now looks great and will be nice to hang out in all summer. The girls also like doing their schoolwork out there. Now to get the rest of our place cleaned up so it looks great as well!

Albatross

I have a dollhouse; my parents gave it, or the start of it, to me for Christmas when I was 8 years old. It's a Lundby dollhouse, if any of you are knowledgeable about, or care about dollhouses. I'd like you all's words of wisdom and advice, because I am thinking it is time to get rid of it. My daughters never played with it; they were rough on the plastic dollhouse furniture they had, never mind fragile little chairs in a much smaller scale made out of wood. They've never shown much interest in it. Maybe they've always just seen it as "Mom's." I haven't actually had the dollhouse set up for years, literally. I know the stuff will fetch good prices on eBay, and go to adults, most likely, who will cherish it. Yet, I have a thing about selling it. It feels like giving away the remnants of my childhood, if that makes any sense. It feels like I'm betraying my parents, who I believe were very proud of being able to give me such an expensive toy. Of course, I'm not currently on speaking terms with either of my parents; maybe that's an added problem. Do any of you have any insight on getting rid of childhood items, or "clutter" in general, that you feel you ought to part with, but there's that lingering tug?

I Can Do This

I'm finally making substantial progress in my knitting. It may not look like much, but this is the first time I've managed to get beyond two rows or so. I'm still finding I make my stitches a little tight; I'm hoping this will improve with practice.

I had some motivation to learn. The Scientist decided to pick up knitting and has already passed me. She's completed a project, this little purse.

I'm not sure how far I'll get in the world of knitting, but I'm starting to feel like a simple project may not be beyond me after all.

Tired Out

We attended Opening Day at Cedar Point today. If the line for season passes today is any indication, they should have a good season. High gas prices might be good for Cedar Point, keeping people closer to home. I'm glad we have season passes, as today was very disappointing as far as rides. Blue Streak broke down, MaxAir was down, SkyHawk went down, Maverick was down, and the Wave Swinger was closed as well. This also had an effect on park dispersion. With so many rides down, it made other lines more crowded.

On the other hand, we got to see THE Ohio State University's spring marching band, and the beagle that took best of show at the Westminster. So, you know, totally worth it.


I was a little confused by the new Planet Snoopy area. So many rides are identical to rides in Camp Snoopy, further back. But the Scientist overheard someone say that those rides were transferred from Geauga Lake, which is now strictly a waterpark, and that makes sense. I don't understand the new Joe Cool Cafe being basically for kids, though. The only thing for adults on the menu is pizza.

I'm hoping to lose some weight by walking around Cedar Point this summer!

Cheap Pizza

My husband had to stand in line for over 2 hours, but he did get a 23 cent pizza. The restaurant he was at probably served close to 1,100 pizzas when all was said and done - they were starting to run out of ingredients just as he got in the door.

Pics

First of all, here's a shot of Wildchild at the range with her pink rifle. She's very interested in shooting. Maybe it will be a lifelong pastime for her.

Here are the girls at the Indians game we went to on Thursday. Progressive Field is now doing like amusement parks do, and has a photographer going around taking pictures of fans, which are then put online, for printout or for purchase (from their POV, preferably for purchase.) We all had a good time, but were tired that night and the next day, since the game went into the 11th inning. At least we won after all that. Husband happened to get a picture of Asdrubal Cabrera making the game-winning swing in the bottom of the 11th, and I have a picture of our view of the field, but they're still not uploaded. Husband took the disc to work and then didn't have the right attachment to upload them. Hmmm. I should find a name for him besides Husband or Mr. EG.

Keeping Up

Trying to get back to posting more often. Here is a picture of the lovely bracelet I got from the lovely Kate. The two clear beads represent my two girls. The quality of the photo is not the best; I took it with my camera phone. Our digital camera needs batteries, and I will get those from husband when we meet up later.

And what are we meeting up for? An Indians game! Mr. EG went to an auction last night, and was so good, that in addition to not buying several guns he wanted that we can't afford just now, he got good tickets for an Indians game, parking included, for around half price. We've decided this is my Mother's Day gift. Hope the game goes as well as it did last night. I'll be sure to share a pic or two. I do feel badly that we will miss the Ascension Day service at church. But it will be nice to enjoy a baseball game, at an affordable price.

Oops

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. For starters, Wildchild tried out her new pink rifle at the range last weekend, and I wanted to post a picture of one of her targets, but it's not enjoyable uploading pics from my camera, and I've been putting it off. Wildchild had a great time, though. The Scientist got to muck out stalls on the same day, so both girls were very happy. I didn't feel the need to post a picture of a stall, however.

Also, I wanted to take a picture of the lovely bracelet I got from Kate as part of the Pay-It-Forward contest, but again, there was that whole pictures thing. I will post a picture of it soon, though, just to show Kate's lovely handiwork. I am almost done with what I am making for Charity; I still have to come up with something for Debbie. I am counting on her to be patient. :) She is so talented and crafty herself in sewing, I'm not sure what to make for her.

I've had all kinds of things I wanted to blog about sloshing through my head during the past week. Hopefully some of them will come back up to the surface, and I will post again soon. I do have one idea for a post that I'll probably put up today.

Art Department

A picture of the girls' art-related-to-history project: Minoan pitchers, with their own designs.

They Grow Up So Fast

How our family celebrated Buy-A-Gun Day. Wildchild told Daddy she would go shooting with him if he bought her a pink gun.

Update: Welcome, Kim du Toit readers!

Women Leaders

Here's a tip: if you want to be taken seriously, you shouldn't dress like this.

Catching Up

Should I be brave and take four weeks of Mom/Kid Ballet classes with Wildchild this summer? I know Wildchild would love it; I'm just not sure my (out-of-shape) body could stand it. This is why Mom/Kid Jazz is right out; it looks a lot more strenuous than the ballet, at least right now.

Speaking of Wildchild, she appeared to have a pretty good understanding of nouns, until we started studying action verbs and linking verbs. Now all her grammar knowledge seems to have gone out the window. Is this one of those things that she can get with time and practice, or should I be more pro-active and look for a different way to teach her?

Gorgeous Day

It didn't get as warm as was predicted, but it was sunshine-y and pleasant. We had lunch with friends, then went geocaching to enjoy the weather. We found five caches, well, my husband and the girls did.

I tried knitting again the other day. After watching some videos, I'm doing well with the Continental method of casting on, but after two rows, I went from 20 loops on the needle to 23 loops. Oops. Guess I need more practice.

Plus, I get to enjoy watching an Indians game. So overall, a good day.

In Knots

So if I've been working on knitting off and on, and I still haven't gotten beyond casting on and the first row or so, does this mean I'm never going to make it as a knitter? It seems like it shouldn't take this long to make progress.