You might recall, I have no WIPs. That is there is not on knitting project on my needles. Nothing halfway crocheted. I don't know if my sewing machine works, so there is nothing there. I have even mended all the clothes, though I have to admit there is one button that popped off after my mending marathon that still needs to be stitched.
I love not having anything looming in the back of my conscience telling me that I have something to do. What I don't love is not having something to mindlessly pick up and work on while I'm sitting on the couch watching TV.
There have been countless hours spent watching TV with the girls or veggie out on Stargate SG1 on the Netflix. Yes, I'm watching Stargate from the beginning and loving every minute of it. I even picked up the movie at Target for $5 cause I couldn't resist the $5 deal!
Back to the point, I realized two nights ago that I had a problem. Not with watching sci-fi but that I am in desperate need of a project to work on. It was two nights ago that I finally got inspired to make something. Two somethings actually. I'm finally going to get started on LG's baby blanket; the one that is suppose to match BG's but I frogged before I really got started. The other project is a secret one for Senora's little baby, Margot.
I guess the question for me is which one do I start first, or do I start both? I think that the wise thing to do is not get caught up in the world of WIPs in every corner of the house again, so definitely finish one before starting the other. So I'll start small and do Margot's gift first. Then when I'm done I'll get started on LG's blanket without skipping a beat.
Wow, you guys are so helpful at helping me make up my mind.
Not having WIPs is refreshing, but I got stuck in the "what now" rut and haven't knit for a few weeks.
The in other news is I typed this up on the iPad while watching TV. I'm not watching Stargate, I cant type at the same time as watching Stargate so I'll save it for my knitting.
The iPad is not so great for blogging. I can't scroll through my post and proof read and make corrections. There is no scroll bar on the side of my text window. Also, if I need pictures they have to be uploaded with the laptop. I've been refreshing the preview in another window to proof read. It's tough to proof read when the thought process of a paragraph is still in my head. So I apologize if this post reads a little wonky.
You might ask why I don't just sit on the couch with the laptop instead? Our laptop is hooked up to a 37" television monitor. Everyone that comes over says, "Oh my God, your computer is HUGE.". I could take the two seconds to unplug it and sit on the couch with it, but it's so much easier to use the big screen and the mouse.
Maybe I'll try blogging from email. I'm not sure how it works and am hoping it doesn't auto post so I can go in and add pictures later? Until then I'll keep up my regular blogging habits.
Oh wait!!! I just figured out how to scroll (kinda), but it doesn't matter because LG just woke up and is trying to steal the iPad from me.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Crafting Fail
When I thought about sharing BG and mine's latest craft I realized that bloggers rarely post about their crafting failures. With a interwebs filled with tutorials and inspiration we miss out on one part of the learning process, the failures.
I recently had a failure.
Yesterday was National Teachers' Day and we celebrated like all the other kids in America. The room mom and I got together and decided to have each child give our teacher a rose and a short note saying why they liked her as their teacher. Later I came up with the idea of decorating a jar to put all the notes inside of. Here is my original inspiration from the interwebs but not what I actually did.
I wanted to do this inexpensively with supplies that I already owned. I have fruit jars, I love to save glass food jars and swear they will come in handy one day. I have some water-based paints. I have seen people paint onto glass using a water based paint. My original idea was to paint stripes on the jar and have something nice on the lid.
I went to Michaels and picked up a few supplies. I didn't see any nice paper that I could mod podge onto the top of my jar so I picked up a simple ribbon and badge to glue on instead. I also picked up some nice letter stickers and a roll of zigzag glitter tape. At $6 for 3 yards of zigzag tape I later decided to just return it the next time I was at Michaels.
Plan A
I used painter's tape to define our strips and BG painted a couple of coats on the jar. After it was completely dry and we peeled the tape off a lot of the paint came off with it. Grrr. When I tried to clean it off I realized that the paint was easily removed with just a little bit of water. Double grrr.
Plan B
I tried to use a primer and have a paint+primer spray paint that already owned. I had ran out of white and had to use black. It's okay, makes the jar look a little more masculine. I retaped the jar, spray painted it and then BG painted it again. The paint stayed on while removing the tape but I had to be careful. In the end I didn't like the dark paint under the pretty blue paint. Blah grrr. Oh and after I decided to not use this jar I washed it. The paint still washed off with water but not cleanly enough to be able to use the jar again.
If I ever try this again I am going to go straight to a spray paint in the color I want or spend the money on the acrylic glass paints. I don't understand where I went wrong other than in paint choice. But I have seen people used water based paints on things like flower vases. Flower vases. You kinda have to have water with a flower vase so wouldn't the paint just wash off?
Plan C
In the end I went with Plan C. I hot glued some ribbon around the edge of my jar lid and glued the You Are Awesome button on top. Then I used the $6 zigzag tape and letter stickers to decorate a simple, clean jar. The teacher was impressed.
Here are the two jars side by side. I like the Plan C jar best, but I think it's because I couldn't get the other one to work. I think that my original plan had a lot of potential so I may try it again some other time. Maybe those painted vases?
Here is the jar with all the little notes that the kids wrote out. Sorry about the bad pictures. It was yesterday morning and the sun shining directly on the table so I had to close the blinds.
I recently had a failure.
Yesterday was National Teachers' Day and we celebrated like all the other kids in America. The room mom and I got together and decided to have each child give our teacher a rose and a short note saying why they liked her as their teacher. Later I came up with the idea of decorating a jar to put all the notes inside of. Here is my original inspiration from the interwebs but not what I actually did.
I wanted to do this inexpensively with supplies that I already owned. I have fruit jars, I love to save glass food jars and swear they will come in handy one day. I have some water-based paints. I have seen people paint onto glass using a water based paint. My original idea was to paint stripes on the jar and have something nice on the lid.
Plan A
I used painter's tape to define our strips and BG painted a couple of coats on the jar. After it was completely dry and we peeled the tape off a lot of the paint came off with it. Grrr. When I tried to clean it off I realized that the paint was easily removed with just a little bit of water. Double grrr.
Plan B
I tried to use a primer and have a paint+primer spray paint that already owned. I had ran out of white and had to use black. It's okay, makes the jar look a little more masculine. I retaped the jar, spray painted it and then BG painted it again. The paint stayed on while removing the tape but I had to be careful. In the end I didn't like the dark paint under the pretty blue paint. Blah grrr. Oh and after I decided to not use this jar I washed it. The paint still washed off with water but not cleanly enough to be able to use the jar again.
If I ever try this again I am going to go straight to a spray paint in the color I want or spend the money on the acrylic glass paints. I don't understand where I went wrong other than in paint choice. But I have seen people used water based paints on things like flower vases. Flower vases. You kinda have to have water with a flower vase so wouldn't the paint just wash off?
Plan C
In the end I went with Plan C. I hot glued some ribbon around the edge of my jar lid and glued the You Are Awesome button on top. Then I used the $6 zigzag tape and letter stickers to decorate a simple, clean jar. The teacher was impressed.
Here is the jar with all the little notes that the kids wrote out. Sorry about the bad pictures. It was yesterday morning and the sun shining directly on the table so I had to close the blinds.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Thin Mints
There is a very important lesson that we are going to learn today.
First, overnight from China means by 10:30am three days later. This explains the Tuesday delivery confusion.
Second, I L-O-V-E LOVE my UPS girl.
Like I said before, FedEx comes around 11am and the UPS lady comes around 3pm. DH emailed me that UPS was going to deliver the package on Thursday morning shortly after he left for work. No problem, the UPS lady comes in the afternoon.
Then at 9:50am I drove off with LG in tow for StoryTime and Craft at the library.
UPS was here at 9:53am. The kicker is it's the first time I was ever on time to the storytime. Yeah, I know.
I got on the phone and set up for me to drive 20 minutes to go pick up the iPad from the distribution center at 8:00pm. Yeah, that late at night. I couldn't reschedule delivery because we are all leaving town until Sunday night.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
That is until I heard the knock on my front door at 3pm.
The UPS lady, I really should learn her name, saw that I had changed my delivery to pick up an hour after I missed her. She knew that she would be back in the neighborhood at her regular time and decided to try us once more. Let's just say that she walked away with a free box of Thin Mints. Of course, at $4/gallon of gas I think that I got the better end of the deal.
This was turning out to be the most exciting iPad ever and I hadn't even opened up the box yet.
The iPad is a big hit with the girls. BG is asking to play with it every waking moment. LG has gotten pretty good at basic maneuvering around the pages and playing her games.
The educational games alone make this worth it. I never realized that LG's matching and puzzle building skills were so good. I think that she had trouble getting the little wooden pieces into their spots with her puzzles. Some of her favorite games are Zoo Train and Preschool Lunchbox. We also have found a small treasure chest of free math games for BG and one of her favorites is States Stacker.
As for me, it's a great "second computer." Most of the stuff I do is email, Facebook, reading blogs, and looking stuff up. It's nice not having to turn on the computer to find something for Girl Scouts or a piece of information in a GoogleDoc. With my nifty case I can have the Pioneer Woman right next to me in the kitchen or relax on the couch using one hand to scroll through blogs while the other holds a sleepy toddler. A little more practice with the keyboard and I think I'll be fine when it comes to typing up larger pieces of text. I still need to use the MacBook to upload pictures to the blog. So, we'll have to see if the new iPad improves my blogging frequency or not.
First, overnight from China means by 10:30am three days later. This explains the Tuesday delivery confusion.
Second, I L-O-V-E LOVE my UPS girl.
Like I said before, FedEx comes around 11am and the UPS lady comes around 3pm. DH emailed me that UPS was going to deliver the package on Thursday morning shortly after he left for work. No problem, the UPS lady comes in the afternoon.
Then at 9:50am I drove off with LG in tow for StoryTime and Craft at the library.
UPS was here at 9:53am. The kicker is it's the first time I was ever on time to the storytime. Yeah, I know.
I got on the phone and set up for me to drive 20 minutes to go pick up the iPad from the distribution center at 8:00pm. Yeah, that late at night. I couldn't reschedule delivery because we are all leaving town until Sunday night.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
That is until I heard the knock on my front door at 3pm.
The UPS lady, I really should learn her name, saw that I had changed my delivery to pick up an hour after I missed her. She knew that she would be back in the neighborhood at her regular time and decided to try us once more. Let's just say that she walked away with a free box of Thin Mints. Of course, at $4/gallon of gas I think that I got the better end of the deal.
This was turning out to be the most exciting iPad ever and I hadn't even opened up the box yet.
The iPad is a big hit with the girls. BG is asking to play with it every waking moment. LG has gotten pretty good at basic maneuvering around the pages and playing her games.
I see the Big Bad Wolf
Storytime is also a hit on the iPad. You have to pay a couple of dollars for the good stories. It's nice when they interact with the kids. I found that the free ones don't load well or have no sounds with them. As for me, it's a great "second computer." Most of the stuff I do is email, Facebook, reading blogs, and looking stuff up. It's nice not having to turn on the computer to find something for Girl Scouts or a piece of information in a GoogleDoc. With my nifty case I can have the Pioneer Woman right next to me in the kitchen or relax on the couch using one hand to scroll through blogs while the other holds a sleepy toddler. A little more practice with the keyboard and I think I'll be fine when it comes to typing up larger pieces of text. I still need to use the MacBook to upload pictures to the blog. So, we'll have to see if the new iPad improves my blogging frequency or not.
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