Monday, October 24, 2011

Weekend Projects

I'm not going to bother with a lot of chit chat today. I had a couple of projects to get sewed this weekend and I'm going to show off the pictures.

First up, we have a changing table pad cover for my sister Kami who is expecting her third child (first boy!) in December. I just want to say that the minkee material that she wanted was a pain in the behind to hem, but through much gnashing of teeth and not a few curse words, I got it to work.

Picture one is the finished product before she picked it up.













Picture two is the finished product placed on the change table pad.




















The next project was a little more difficult. Why, you ask? Because I had no patterns. That's right, I had to wing it. My niece (from my other sister) wants to be Jasmine for Halloween and my nephew is going to be a penguin. You'll note that I didn't say he wanted to be a penguin. He's two, he doesn't really care all that much. But he does a FANTASTIC impression of a penguin walking around so it'll be good. I didn't take pictures of the little feet and beak that I made, but take my word for it, they are great.

Anyway, for the Jasmine costume, I used a pair of Haylee's pants and a shirt I bought in her size to trace to get a feel for the size. I would like to apologize to my mom, but I used a bit of wrapping paper for this because I couldn't find any other paper that would fit. It worked, but those "patterns" had to be tossed afterwards. I made a vest and a pair of harem pants. It's hard to see in the pics but the vest is a lavender corduroy with sparkles in it, and the pants are a rayon blend so they are kind of silky. First picture, just the vest with it's beautifully crafted detailing around the edges.














Second pictures, the vest and the harem pants.




















Not pictured, the purple long sleeved t-shirt I found for her to wear under the vest, the veil/crown thing my sister is going to make, and the black wig that she's going to borrow from her mother-in-law.

So, that was my weekend, in between wrestling niece, nephew and rugrat for brief periods of time. Oh and I snuck in a book or two because it's not a weekend without having read a couple of books.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Bedtime Negotiations

Last night Malia sat me down because she had something really important to discuss with me. I had a hard time keeping a straight face because she was so serious about it. I kinda felt like when I was little and my parents (usually my dad) would sit me down to talk about something bad I'd done. It was a weird feeling to get when hearing "We need to talk about something important" from the rugrat.

The conversation went something like this:

Malia: I've been doing some calculating (Yes, she said it) and I want to talk to you about my bedtime.
Me: Oh yeah? What have you been calculating?
Malia: I figured out that with my current bedtime (8:30) I get XX amount of time with you each weekday if I add in the time we spend driving to daycare and the time we spend driving home from daycare and XX amount of time with you on the weekends. That's a total of XX time each week.
Me: Really? That much time?
Malia: Yes, but I am thinking that if you move my bedtime to 9:00 I would then get an extra 30 minutes a day and then it would be a total of XX time each week.
Me: When did you figure this out?
Malia: Oh, I did it in my head while I was in the shower. So, what do you think? Do you think I could switch my bedtime?
Me: Well, I think it's a possibility. How about this? Bedtime stays 8:30 during the week until school is out, but we can change it to 9:00 for the weekends. When school is out you can have 9:00 during the week, and I'll let you have 9:30 on the weekends.
Malia: Really? 9:30?
Me: Yes, but all of this is dependent on attitude and behavior. So, if you don't do your chores and you don't listen to me and do what I ask, then we'll change it back.
Malia: Sweet!!

I left out the actual time measurements because I can't for the life of me remember. Also, she doesn't know that the "concessions" I made were what I already had planned except for changing current weekends to 9:00. I just hadn't planned on telling her anything until after school was out. The fact that she spent the time to figure it all out and that she put it in terms of time spent with me impressed me so I gave her the 9:00 weekends. Oh, and yes, she did indeed use words like calculate and totaled not on the daily, but the weekly time differences. She cracks me up!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Mexico - April 2011

I made it back! Mexico was fantastic. I am pretty sure I ate my weight in guacamole and cheese, but managed to lose 5 pounds because of all the climbing and wandering of ruins. Each of the last 6 posts is just a slide show of a specific Maya ruin site that we visited. I feel they can speak for themselves. It was freaking amazing to see all the pyramids and especially finally getting to Chichen Itza. Just wow!

If you click on the slideshows you can see the photos in Picasa either in a slideshow or individual pictures. Also, for those that have my Facebook, I have them all posted there as well. Enjoy!




Tulum Ruins

Muyil Ruins

Coba Ruins

Chacchoben Ruins

Oxtankah Ruins

Chichen Itza Ruins - slideshow

Monday, March 7, 2011

My family thinks I'm dumb

I had the following separate conversations with my mom and my sister over the weekend discussing my impending trip to Mexico with Buddha.

Mom: Don't get kidnapped.
Me: It's not really on the agenda, so I'll try not to.
Mom: We won't pay the ransom. We don't have the money.
Me: Well, thanks?
Mom: Well, I'll cry if it happens and we'll miss you, but you'd pretty much be stuck.
Me: I feel the love, thanks.

Krissy: You aren't taking my niece to Mexico are you?
Me: Not this trip, maybe next summer.
Krissy: You aren't funny. I hope you don't get kidnapped.

Really family? Do I strike you as being completely inept?
Don't answer that, because apparently the answer is yes. Just for that, no Mexican blankets or maracas for you. =P

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Rugrat's school fun

I'm sure all of you know, because I talk about it all the time, the rugrat is in a special program for school. She's in her second year of Chinese Dual Immersion. Recently KSL came to her school and a couple of others for the French and Spanish and did some filming to do a story on the entire program. I encourage any of you with Kindergartners, or younger to look into this program. It's amazing how well the kids take to it and as you can hear in the program, the kids in the dual immersion programs consistently score higher overall academically so it's certainly not hurting them to learn a second language.

KSL Video

Oh, and look! Here is the rugrat in a screenshot. She's the one in the red sweatshirt on the far right. If you want to see her in the video itself, look for the 1:30 mark and there she'll be. :)


Monday, February 14, 2011

Book Review - Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the VoidPacking for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved this book! The level of detail and research into the subject is really quite amazing. I love how she explains the mechanics of how we deal with space and all it's quirks. It's great insight into the true costs of the space program and I feel as though I understand a bit better why the time lines for the Moon or Mars or anywhere are so long. The amount of research and testing and just plain inventiveness of the people who work for NASA is just amazing. I also loved the little bits and pieces of astronaut trivia and quotes from missions that show that even through the seriousness of their endeavors, they still had a sense of humor. Some more appropriate than others. The less appropriate ones are far funnier, just so you know!

I also loved that the author didn't limit either her research or writing to just the US Space Program. The interviews and information about the Japanese and Russian programs was fantastic. I loved the Japanese astronaut selection process and frankly even if I were totally qualified in EVERY other way, I would fail the crane test. Origami is just not my strong suit. =)

If you have even the remotest interest in the space program I recommend this book. Especially if you think you know what NASA does with the money it receives. You'd be surprised and I salute the men and women around the world for their efforts to get us out there to see what's going on. Like the author says at the end of the book, sometimes you SHOULD do something just because you can and going into space should be one of those things.



View all my reviews

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The most important post ever!!!



That's right, a countdown to my 6 WEEK long sabbatical from work.



Oh yeah, and we're going to DisneyWorld