Contemplating Costumes

I've never been one to get very excited about dressing up for Halloween. I can only remember being pumped about dressing up for a couple of my childhood Halloweens. There was one year that I thought it would be great to dress up like a punk rocker in my pre-teen years and let my older sister spike my hair up with Knox Gelatin and then a few other costumes where I wanted to be a hobo (for some reason I chose this costume several times). Once my son came along and his first Halloween approached, I thought I should try being more enthusiastic about celebrating this day with him.

For his first Halloween, we adorned a brown winter bunting of his with a felt tail, converted a paci into some bucked teeth and whiskers and gave him a felt stick to carry so he could be a beaver. It was pretty adorable.



We dressed him as a Mariachi for his second Halloween.



At the time of his third Halloween, he was obsessed with the children's story Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, so he dressed as Mike. It was not much of a costume, and most people didn't know who or what he was. It appears that we're also condoning the use of corn cob pipes by toddlers. Oops.


Now that he's three, I was hoping he would come up with some crazy, imaginative and elaborate costume idea, but that's not exactly the case. For a couple of weeks he said he wanted to be this.



Now he wants to be this.

That's right. A blue letter I.

I Spy Pillow Bags

They're like hot cakes.

The Long Weekend

Lately, I've been on a long sewing hiatus. What's worse is that I have a million projects in my head that aren't coming to fruition because I'm not taking the time to sit down in front of the machine. A big part of it is due to the fact that I've been waffling over which one of my five sewing machines to use for my primary machine. The debate is now over and I'm happy to say that I'm back to sewing!

I had a local sewing machine repair man come over to my house and assess my machines, tune them up and lube them. He took on my Bernina 830 Record that wouldn't zig-zag, my Bernina 731 Record that didn't have any problems and my Singer Athena 2000 and put them all in great working condition. I now intend to use these three machines primarily because each has its own strengths and the repair guy reassured me that I'd be very angry with myself if I ever sold any of them. Problem solved.

I decided that I'd sew a project on the Singer Athena 2000 and the Bernina 830 Record this weekend to get a feel for which machine will be the best all around. I love the quiet, smooth feel of the 830, it really can't be beat. But the Singer has some attributes that I didn't know about and now love, too.

Since my boy just started pre-school this week, I felt a back-pack was necessary for his first day of school. I designed and developed my pattern on Friday night and had this completed by Monday. I'm pretty much in love with how it turned out. It was completely sewn on the Athena and this project gave me a chance to try out the zig-zag foot, the zipper foot and the buttonhole foot/1-step buttonhole feature. One thing I love about the Athena is the machine baste stitch. Even my new Brother doesn't have this stitch.

Here's the pack in its entirety. I used piping for the first time and was surprised how easy it turned out.

I added pockets on both sides and pleated them at the bottom, though the pattern design makes it hard to see in the photo.

It has an elastic loop that I salvaged from an old dappi diaper cover and a button that was part of a family friend's campaign to make the Tagua Nut a household name back in the 90's.

The straps close with a simple button closure. Those were I's idea. Its such a simple solution to a problem that I made out to be so huge. When in doubt, ask a three year old.

Here he is on the way to his first day of pre-school (aaacckk!), hand in hand with Daddy, wearing the pack I made him. He made sure to bring Bear and I'm totally happy that his Klean Kanteen fits the outside pockets.


Here's the Bernina Record 830. I really am in love with it. I started a quilting project on this machine, but haven't had a chance to take a photo. Besides, its a gift, so you may not see the picture until its completed and given to its proper recipient.

Oh, and huz and I also used the long weekend to our advantage and crafted together. We tried our hand at making cold-processed soap. This is the old fashioned way of making soap where one mixes oil with sodium hydroxide (lye) and water to produce soap through the chemical reaction called saponification. Fun and dangerous! We didn't get any photos of soap making in process, but we did get a picture of ourselves high-fiving our accomplishment!

Please excuse our grubby clothes. We were working with lye, what can we say?

Here is what the soap looked like once we cut it. For this batch we used a mix of olive oil, rice bran oil and coconut oil . Its dye and fragrance free.

Its now sitting on this drying rack to cure for 4-6 weeks. Anyone willing to be a tester for us?

Spokesladies Represent

A few months ago, my huz and some of his friends started a bike gang. Don't worry, they're really just a mild-mannered group of well-dressed fellows with great intentions of riding their bicycles to work and seeking awesome, cheap restaurants while on their lunch break. They refer to themselves as the Sac Spokesmen.

I'm not sure how it started, but at some point they decided it would be fun to do a "monthly" cover song challenge where they select one song and all create their own versions of it. Each man's cover song is kept on the down low until a specified date that usually involves a listening party. Being that us wives of the Spokesmen are subjected to listening to said song in its original and covered versions at least a thousand times before the song gets submitted, we ladies decided that we should have a say in the song selection process. Apparently, many of the members of the Spokesmen hemmed and hawed about the wives choosing songs and perhaps broke into cold sweats imagining what horrible song we could dream up for them to cover. I don't know why they would think we'd pick something awful. We all have fabulous ears for music and only listen to the finest. That being said, its ladies choice for Cover Song Challenge # _ (Six I think).

I've asked that the Spokeswives, or Spokesladies, submit their song rankings here in the comment section of my blog as anonymous comments. Each lady will post the twelve songs that we chose among ourselves (three songs each) and rank them from 1-12 with the first choice having the heaviest weight of 12 and the last choice having a weight of one. The song that gets the most points will be selected as the winner and our guys will have whatever amount of time they determine to finish it off and submit it. Then we all get to listen and party together! Did I mention the fact that we all have adorable kids around the same age that all play together so well, too? It really is great fun to attend and host these listening parties!

Update: There was some disagreement on the method of rating the songs for this challenge. I think the popular consensus is to rate the songs as a 1-5, instead of weighting them 1-12. The song with the highest rating is the winner.

.....and the winner is...... The Postal Service- Brooklyn Blues!

Tomato

This was a gift for my little neighbor who turned two last weekend. She has a cat named Tomato and he was the inspiration for this project.

Green Smoothie Challenge

About two months ago, my friend Niki challenged me to the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred exercise program. Since I love challenges and really needed a push to start working out regularly after healing up from a running injury, I accepted the challenge. I weighed myself and took my measurements and endured pain that I haven't experienced since birthing a child. I finished the challenge, proud that I hadn't missed a day at all. I lost a small amount in inches all over, but the scale never changed. That was a bit depressing, but I was also encouraged to stick with it. That was almost 60 Days ago and I'm still at it, 6 days a week. Pretty good, huh?

I decided that it was my turn to set forth a new challenge on Niki, so I asked her if she would like to participate in the 14 Day Green Smoothie Challenge. Maybe it was payback, but I thought it couldn't do us the same type of bodily harm that the first few days of the shred imposed on us. I finished this challenge and didn't miss a day, either. What a gal! I also went ahead and made it a habit, too.

This morning, I came up with a wild concoction that actually turned out pretty good. Yeah, it probably sounds truly disgusting to those of you who haven't tried a green smoothie, so let me assure you that you cannot taste the greens. I promise.


Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Banana Green Smoothie

2 Cups Filtered Water
3 Huge Handfuls Baby Spinach
One ripe Kiwi Fruit
A small handful Blueberries
1 Tbsp. Raw Cocoa Powder
1 spoonful Natural Peanut Butter
2 Bananas
Squeeze of Agave Nectar
Ice

Put it all in your blender and process until smooth.

Makes a little more than 32 oz. and will fill you up until lunchtime.

Here's what's cookin'

Yesterday, while I was trying to figure out what the boy wanted for lunch, I decided to see what he might want instead of me deciding for him. He informed me that he did not want lunch, nor did he want a snack, but wanted dinner instead. Okay. What do you want for dinner? He smiled and said, "Torvacabacbac." I asked him how to make it and he kindly shared the recipe with me, which I, in turn, will do for you.

Recipe:

Torvacabacbac

1 Tbsp. Sugar
A lot of chocolate
4 Bears
3 Rocks
3 Hairs

Mix it and put it in a pretty hot oven.

Serves One Boy

So, there you have it. If you make it, please comment on how it turned out.