denim blown wide open

Whenever I picture any of my school teachers from elementary school, they're all wearing denim skirts with matching vests either covered in buttons or little embroidered school motifs (rulers, apples, chalkboards, pencils, etc).

But when I got my copy of Heather Ross's book Weekend Sewing, I loved her "Everything Tote" p. 15. Seeing as how my current purse was dying and I couldn't find another one that I liked AND could afford, I set out to make myself one.

Enter, the denim.

I don't remember how many yards I got, but it wasn't more than 3 with a coupon at JoAnn's for $11. I got a very dark denim, nothing stonewashed, keeping with contemporary denim styles.

That $11 has served me well. With it, I made my "Everything Tote", me a skirt from Simplicity 2600 skirt D, a skirt for Claire Butterick B4722 skirt E, and a small tote packed full of treats for Claire's friend's birthday present. There's still enough denim to make something small (bean bags, quilt squares, pot holders, whatever).

I would say that's pretty good for $11. The only project that took any real time was the Everything Tote, seeing as how I had to adjust the pattern a bit. Considering I'm a "Stay At Home Mom", I had time in my quiet afternoon hours to do some sewing, and for the most part, I enjoy it. If I had the choice to either go to the store and buy some article of clothing or sew it, I would choose to sew it. I don't particularly enjoy shopping and as I get older, I like it less and less.

I have another couple of yards of a darker denim that I plan on making aprons for my two older kids for Easter. We'll see how that goes. Despite it's bad connotations of my early life, denim has found a place in my heart.

Pictures of projects to be posted later.

I meant to do that...

As a youth, I was considered "clumsy". I attribute it to the fact that I grew so much so quickly. Grace and poise has never been my strong point, so I have learned to adapt. I embrace those embarrassing moments, share them, laugh at them and hope people have short memories.

For those of you who live in the St. Louis area, Wednesday was very blustery; perfect for line-drying my laundry. My last load was our bed sheets. I kept an eye on them as they precariously blew on the line. I was standing at the back door when I witnessed my flat bed sheet (despite being held on with 8 clothes pins) blow up in the air, off the line, over the fence and into the road. I dropped the three-hole punch I was holding to the floor and ran out to save my sheet from being run over. It was about as embarrassing as the time I fell into the culvert while I was mowing the lawn (and a car stopped to ask if I was OK). Or the time I tried to hop my 4 ft fence only to pull a "Napoleon Dynamite" fence fall in front of many of the neighbors.

There is something to be said for a sense of humor and strong bones.

May the Force be with him

William has become my little entrepreneur. He went looking for his light saber the other day only to discover that I had thrown it out. But before you judge me and my throwing everything away habit, the light saber was broken. It took one too many beatings at playgroup.

So William has set out to earn the money to buy a new one. My kids don't get an allowance. I don't know if they ever will. They are expected to help around the house as being a part of the family and when they have a reasonable request, Ryan and I will help them pay for it. However, I think a replacement light saber is not a necessary item, so he's having to earn the money. Now I've been having to come up with jobs that I don't normally make him do (or I was planning on doing, but needed a little help). Here's what he's done so far:

• fold cloth diapers because I ran out of time to do it
• pull weeds from the back yard
• sweep the front porch and back patio
• vacuum the whole house and put it all back together

I feel like there's more, but I can't think of them right now. Some other possible jobs are:

• vacuum out the car
• wash the car
• sweep out the garage
• vacuum out the couch cushions (and he gets to keep any money he finds in the cushions)

I'm still trying to come up with new jobs. Any ideas?

Ryan told William that he would pay William a penny for every night he doesn't come in our room to sleep on the couch. It's working! If the time comes to purchase the light saber and he doesn't have enough, if I feel he's worked hard and saved, I will help make up the difference.

Farewell, my friend...

For those of you who know me, I enjoy a good Dr Pepper. I didn't always. Coming from Texas, all of my friends grew up drinking this stuff and come high school, I spent a lot of time at their homes drinking...well, Dr Pepper. There are have been years of not touching it, but during my pregnancy with Rose, I had chronic headaches that continue today. Dr Pepper gave me enough caffeine to kick the headaches with some help of a pain killer.

But in the name of frugality, I'm giving it up...again. Is doesn't make sense to save money not using my dryer only to turn around and spend those saving on DP. So for the sake of my health (look, I know it's bad for me, I am fully aware of the bad qualities) and my budget, I'm kicking the habit.

So here's the thing: I am SO tired! I didn't realize how much of my energy came from the caffeine. Holy cow, so so tired. I am definitely going to be less productive than before. Man, no wonder those coffee drinkers get so much done in a day. I just hope this is temporary because, crap.

A Renewal

Maybe because it's spring, maybe because I don't want to squander our tax return, maybe because I have recently landed myself on a very slippery slope, but for whatever the reason, I have renewed my efforts to be a tightwad...or maybe I should say, frugal...thrifty? Whatever you want to call it, I am working hard once again to watch my spending/budget.

I have been on this road many times before and as the year wears on, I find myself slowly letting expensive, or should I say, less cheap habits creep into my life. Better laundry detergent, getting a $5 pizza once a month or so, pricier trash bags, dish soap, shampoo, etc. We're not talking Tide, Aveda, Dawn, Windex, or Pampers here, but the middle of the road stuff that when added together, really adds up.

I don't know why I keep having relapses, but it happens every year or so. I have never "let myself go" spending-wise, not even close, but as I said before, I have found myself on that slippery slope and I'm bound and determined to not only get off, but stay off...for good.

So some of my recent efforts have been:

• cloth diapers (again - I stopped this with Rose a year ago or so - it is also aiding in potty training)
• natural light only during the day (except in the bathroom of course!)
• frugal meals - not letting anything going to waste in the back of the fridge
• homemade cleaning products

This picture doesn't fit in this post - it's just so darn cute

• washing dishes in bulk loads with minimal water for cleanliness (same goes for laundry)
• shorter showers (5 min or less for Ryan, Claire and I)
• less bath water for other two kids
• condensing errands - I usually do this anyway as a time-saver, but now even more so

• line drying clothes
• comparison grocery shopping with my price book (I may explain this another time)
• buying in bulk when it's a good deal
• mostly shopping at ALDI because even in bulk, their prices are hard to beat
• buying the cheapest toiletries/soaps/detergents I can find that get the job done

So you know, old egg cartons (paper) filled with seed soil is by far the best seed-starting kit. We've tried the bamboo and plastic irrigation trays and both breed mold. The egg cartons are cheap and drain perfectly. Don't waste your money on the expensive systems.

• growing garden from seeds
• reusing things I would normally toss out

Those are a few of the things we're doing. There are more, but I won't go into too many details. There are more drastic changes we're making in regards to total living/shopping/spending habits, but these are some of the smaller things. We're also cutting back with activities, getting rid of cable as soon as our contract is up, etc.

What I really need to change is my attitude. A general feeling a gratitude and contentedness would go a long way. So would not caring so much about the mainstream expectations, because the mainstream is in debt up to their eyeballs. Starting with having let my Better Homes and Gardens subscription end - embracing frugality and letting go of that picture-perfect home is a step in the right direction!

Claire-isms

While the kids were playing with the Egyptian Playmobil, this is what I overheard:

Claire - Cleopatra was very beautiful.

Willliam - Is she still alive?

Claire - No, she died a long time ago. Now she's all covered with white stuff and looks like beef jerky.

When I asked Claire how we could save money, this was her reply:

Claire - We could buy a lantern and move to Texas overnight.

Me - How would that save us money?

Claire - I don't know, I've just always wanted to do that.

Concerning Claire's bus driver:

Claire - She's really mean. She talks to us like we're monkeys.

Me - Monkeys?

Claire - Yeah. Idiot monkeys.

Whatnot

We have been gearing up for spring around here, so the snow yesterday really threw us off. But we continue to stay busy with the everyday life.

Ryan is working harder than ever to be done soon. We don't see much of him.

I have been attempting to upload two years worth of photos to be printed, it is taking FOREVER! I will never get this far behind again.

After working on the finances, I have a renewed sense of thriftiness and am revamping my budget - again. I can't seem to get a hold of this long term.

Claire is currently in the middle of the ISAT testing. It will be over Thursday and then we'll all get a break from hearing about it.

William is picking up stuff from school friends everyday - some good, some bad.

Rose is currently wearing a pink princess dress everyday, complete with a magic wand and Claire's flip flops.

William in his scuba mask he made at school,

he wore it and his backpack for about two days straight.

We spent all of Saturday cleaning up the yard; getting out leaves, twigs, etc. from the winter storms. I am still sore, three days later. I had better get in shape or this summer's yard work is going to kill me. Time to shake off this winter sleep!

It's that time again!

That's right! It's time for a Rosie update. This kooky girl is always up to something, usually no good. While thanks to her growing ability to communicate using words and not screeches, we all get along much better. She's still two, so there's no getting around that, but her logic, sense of danger, and general brain use is increasing. But she's still Rose, and anyone who has met her knows of what I speak.

I was trying to get a picture of her, covered in colorful yogurt, and I caught her screaming "DONE!!" at me. Her patience was gone.

A neighbor girl brought her dog into our backyard while the kids played. The dog was friendly to Rose at first , but got really tired really quickly of Rose putting her blanket on him. And this is why we do not have a dog. Poor Yogi.

If you can't see the layers, there are striped pants with two of Claire's skirts layered on top that she pulled out of the laundry basket - all without a shirt, as usual. Typical style of Rose.

Here I was attempting to do some studying while Rose sat next to me, watching her favorite "Baby Einstein" video. She insisted on getting as close as possible to repeat the various words. "BUS!! BUS!! BUUUSS! BUSSSS!"

A silly Rose face, from a girl who is always making silly faces. Check out that cupid's tip - she will never be a flautist, thank goodness!

I wish a had a beautiful pose of her, but it's rare I get those. Oh, I love this crazy girl.

Girls' Room Is (Almost) Done!

After thinking about it for ages, I finally decided on a paint color, theme, etc. for the girls' room. I was thinking something cottagey/homey/feminine here. So this is what I came up with:

Pre-painting, getting the room ready for priming (the green wall)

Wall primed by my Mia Maids, the paint going on. In the end I chose a very subtle shade of pink; I'm sorry for those of you who hate pink, but I'm a girly girl at heart and I always wanted a pink room.

Put back together. Claire picked out a blue theme for her bedding and I chose a pink Rose theme for Rose. Both bedding are quilts (bought, not made. One day...) Depending upon the light, you can't tell if the walls are pink or white.

For Christmas Claire was given this wall shelf, bedside table and lamp by my parents. But poor Claire can't put anything on the bottom two shelves because Rose would and has destroyed it. The flower picture hung in my room when I was a girl.

I don't have a good picture of Rose's side of the room, because I'm waiting on a few finishing touches. There is still a little work to do in the room (I want to change the fabric panel covering the closet, and Claire and I are going to make some hand-embroidered cushions for her bed) but all of the big stuff is done. I love how it turned out. Light, airy, feminine and cozy.

Now I have to repaint William's room.

What have I been up to since this project was completed a few weeks ago? Baking, lots of baking. I'm in the mood to make scrumptious little niblits to eat with herb tea or hot chocolate. Today is lemon shortbread with lemon icing.

Um...trying not to lose my mind as Ryan's graduation date keeps getting pushed back again and again. And the occasional cross stitching. I won't mention the endless amount of errands, housework, and church work.