Tracy Anderson

People tend to either love Tracy or not.

I personally like the fact that she does not talk a lot.

I like the fact that she is dance oriented.

I have done most of her moves in classes. 

So, I am familiar.

I do the videos with her, I keep them playing.

(I do not pause and do it solo like I do with other videos). 

If you are new, start very, very slowly. 

And in everything I do, I suck in my gut and hold it firm to protect my lower back.
I do not arch my back.

I keep my shoulders down and back.
Controlled moves, no swinging.
If something does not feel right, don't do it 
(thinking of lower back and shoulders specifically).

I warm up, cool down, and stretch.

This is a Tracy Anderson arm only video.
Brenda found it a long time ago. We both really liked it.

http://youtu.be/I27ybiXgKck

(The music on this one will not play on my iPad, FYI.)
And her movements are very controlled. Be careful not to swing your arms. 

Again, me personally, I do my regular free weight work, using 5 and 8 pound weights, 

and then I do one if these short videos, switching to 2-3 lb weights, with already fatigued muscles.

ADDED LATER-
Another good set is to write the alphabet, in the air in front of you, one arm at a time, holding a light weight, big movements. One arm at a time, through all sets - upper case and then lower case. Then switch arms. Need more? Upper case printed, lower case printed, upper case cursive, lower case cursive. Keep arm up/shoulder height. This is surprisingly effective.



This next set I do as a stand alone workout.

(If you love the clips listed below, they are available on a DVD on Amazon, it is called her mat workout, I think. This (links below) is a good way to try her. I have no idea if the whole video is on the bootleg copies below.). 

Warm up

http://youtu.be/GAqmg3oZ5Qs

2.1 legs

http://youtu.be/aOfduIreS48

2.2 legs

http://youtu.be/5TD3Ux-KWmI

3 abs

http://youtu.be/5TD3Ux-KWmI

(FYI This one is hard to follow and tends to get bad reviews)

ADDED LATER - here is a standing abs class with explanation:
http://youtu.be/lDmouHToqf8

4 arms

http://youtu.be/4dQOBbLnk7o

5 arms

http://youtu.be/ExbZe7N-yFo

6 legs and abs

http://youtu.be/IjqIdOngjWA

7 cool down

http://youtu.be/Kuh8CM9-k5I

(I do major stretching after the cool down.)

I have to stare at them for a while

I sewed the skinny wedges into a Christmas Tree Skirt using the 1-3-1-3-1-3-1 etc layout. I serged and stitched all the pieces together. It was very quick. Hemming it with double fold bias tape was very simple. The wedges do something a little odd in the center that makes me think of a broom handle skirt (which I have never made, but somehow knew the term). I am going to have my husband get the big tree out if the attic. I think I have to see this one under a tree before I proceed with any additional skirts. I will take pictures

Meanwhile, my color friend and I picked out colors for last two cross stitch angels and I am finishing those this week. Yeah!

And my color friend gave me a pile of green and pink fabric (left side of picture). I bought two pieces of flannel (right side of picture) for backing. Everything in that picture is very happy together. Very. So right now I am staring at the grouping, waiting for it to speak to me. So far, I think I am hearing whispers of triangles (half square triangles). Lots of great designs can be made from triangles. They are very, very simple and easy to mass produce. These prints and colors will work well in those types of designs. I think I may have a couple similar pieces of fabric in my bins. So I think I am going to play a little game called sew baby girl quilts until the piles are gone. I know I can get at least two quilts out of stack on the right, maybe three (I will happily buy more flannel backing). It will be very amusing if I end up with five or six baby quilts from that pile. It is very unlike me to make girl quilts. I lean toward masculine side of gender neutral. I will be pinked out by the time I am done, but will then have a good stash of baby girl quilts.

The two Angels on the lighter background. These are numbers 4 and 5.

These 2 needed outlining for the hands and feet to show. I have never done outlining. So I did not know, my friend suggested. I listen well.

The star color had to be two shades darker than the other Angels, to show.

I used the cheek color, in the lines on the wings, for those to show. My friend suggested that, I never would have thought of it. Again. I listen well.

Two Angels left, both on the darker 10 count fabric. I have to run over to my friends to have her pick clothes fabric. I have the rest of the things (face, hair, wings, stars, doves) already complete, so those two will go quickly once I have the colors.

Christmas Tree Skirts - what do you think?

ADDED LATER - found pictures of some wedged Christmas Tree Skirts.

This was the first one, made many years ago for my mother. The picture shows it folded in half. It is regular cotton fabric. She has a small tree, so this is a small skirt.

My husband (and I think oldest) does not care for the point ends. I like them on this small skirt where there are just a few. I am not at all sure I would like a lot of them on a large skirt with lots of narrow wedges. What do you think?

Here is the fabric I collected for this round of Christmas Tree Skirts. These are all upholstery weight. (I added more after this picture was taken.)

First of all, I would like to note that these wedges are too narrow. I ordered a rotary ruler to make cutting easier. I did not realize how narrow these strips were in comparison to my mother's (above). When she dug out her skirt (above) for me to compare, I realized the error of my ways. However, since these pieces are all cut, the first skirt is going to use them. Future skirts will be wider strips.

My husband came to lend his eye and told me it was too chaotic looking. He was right.

He told me to keep the ends straight and make a traditional round skirt (not the pointy ends like my mom's quilt) for this one, for sure.

This is the next try (at layout). I cut more of the lightest strip and placed them every fourth piece. Better. (Yes, this picture is out of focus. I didn't realize it until I saw it full size here. I was standing on a slipper chair with one foot on the arm for balance, holding my iPad out as far as I could over the floor. It is a wonder they are not all out of focus. Sorry.)

The lightest strip is now every third piece and the three/between pieces now follow a blue - green - red pattern. It is all about the eye having somewhere to "go", in my opinion.

The strips on the top of the picture are every other one with the light strip. The bottom half the picture shows the every three variation. 

I think one of these is the best option. Sometimes I look at it and think one is best, then I look again and change my mind.

Which do you prefer?

And do you like this skirt in general?

Pleased to get it as a wedding gift? 

Baby quilts

ADDED LATER - when I am trying to remember, yes, I machine wash these in cool water on gentle cycle, then hang them over dirty clothes/plastic bins to air dry for several days. I do not zip them in plastic just in case there is still moisture (they would mold).


Middle called on Sunday with a baby shower date. And sent me a link to the (baby) registry.

I am still not used to babies coming with a color palate and a theme. The colors here were light yellow, gray, white and very light green.

Honestly, not colors I normally use.

I dug through my stash for the lightest kids prints I had.

Then I looked for the lightest color I had for the plain blocks. Not really anything.

And no working color flannel for the backing.

I took what I gathered over to my color friend, we put our heads together and decided butter yellow (a red based yellow vs a green based yellow) was the best bet. She had a couple tiny pieces I could use as a guide.

I went to the fabric store with a plan. And I found yellows that pleased me and a flannel backing that really pleased me.

So the print blocks are the very lightest I had. And you can see that by going with an even lighter yellow between them, they pop. I am in the habit of setting colors in diagonal rows. Here there are green rows, white rows, blue rows and yellow rows. (Even if you do not realize they are diagonal rows, it gives your eye/mind somewhere to go.)

And this is a pairs quilt. There are two of each block, so can play a matching game with them.

The backing is monkeys on a gray background. The binding is white with gray dots. 

 These are 5" cut, 4 1/2" finished squares. 13 x 9 rows. I cut the binding at 2 1/4".

I sewed the squares into rows and then sandwiched the backing and white flannel, I was using as batting, together. I then sewed the rows to the backing/batting in a quilt as you go manner. After all the rows were added, I went back and stitched in the ditch vertically and also cross hatched the whole thing. I used light gray thread for everything. Binding, the hand sewing part, is very hard on my hands. I put this binding on totally by machine.

Here (below) is the quilt I made for another new baby last year.
Same size blocks/quilt.

Help please - Fitbit???

Middle is considering a Fitbit.

I know very little other than tracking sleep (which would be good for her), steps, and exercise.

My first question is - does it tell time like a watch, can it replace a watch?

My second question is - which version of Fitbit (considering wearing it like a watch, a small one which is not too big in her wrist)?

Yes, she does have an iPhone. I think that is what it syncs with, yes?

Tell me everything else you know please.

ADDED LATER:
Alta looks like it would be THE one. Do you agree?

Apartment insurance

Somehow we did not think of this when Middle moved into her apartment last fall.

In my defense, I (vaguely, in the very back of my mind) thought she was covered under our homeowners insurance.

I thought I remembered oldest needing renters insurance and getting a letter from our insurance that he was still covered under ours because he was still in college.

Either I am remembering wrong or things have changed, because middle is not covered under ours. (They did say that if she was on university property, she was still covered, but the apartments oldest was in were not university property either, so I am not sure what I am remembering. And every insurance company may be different, should always check.)

I honestly did not think seriously enough about her apartment, because we should have checked with our insurance agent. We were negligent.

No, nothing happened, no fire/flood/theft, but a conversation on her fish tanks and the possible damage they could cause sparked the need. The fact that her apartment contents are valuable (kitchen stuff, clothes, shoes, art supplies, etc) stressed the need, when we sat down and thought about it.

So my husband took care of it, first thing, the next day, after we realized.

I did have renters insurance, long ago, living in apartments. I think the apartments all required it.

It is smart, it is a reasonable price.

I mended for four hours straight on Saturday afternoon

 I think it was four pairs of jeans for middle's boy. I reinforced four back pockets. I mended two or three knees. I mended one thigh. I fixed almost all of the hems/slits up pant legs. I fixed one belt loop.

The pile that is closer is jeans to be mended. The pile that is further is saved hems and legs out of old jeans that I use as patches. There can be a very big hole in a knee, on a pair that is no longer worn, and the whole back side of the leg is still very strong, perfect for a patch.

This first one is a torn belt loop. Not only is the belt loop hanging loose, there is a hole where the loop was attached.

Here it is mended from the outside.

Mended from the inside.

Mended inside from distance. 

I fixed many, many torn hems. I only took a picture of the worst one.

Before.

After from the outside.

After from the inside. Notice I did not take the patch all the way to the bottom of the hem. That would have been too much thickness for my machine. Instead I butted it up against the hem. And notice I doubled up/folder over the patch at the bottom. I also sewed around and around the orginal hem to further reinforce. Straight stitch and zigzag, around and around.

R.A.D.

Rape Aggression Defense.

You might remember middle took this class about four years ago.

Youngest is taking it soon.

Here is the website to see if it is located in your area.

I think several of youngest's friends are taking it with her.

The response of youngest and the friends was pretty much - hell, yeah, we want to pound on somebody.

(They practice/beat on a heavily padded guy. Middle loved it, maybe a little too much, she wanted to come home and practice on her dad. He was not willing.)

Youngest might actually be a beast in this class. And as I write that I am wondering if she should have taken martial arts classes. If they offer that as gym option in college, my guess is that would be for her.

Middle's first boy, long ago, was taekwondo instructor. Two black belts at that time, I think. She did not take classes, but went with him one time for fun. And she chopped a board in half with one whack. She still has it.






And I remembered I ordered two books for Middle as part of this RAD process -

The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence
by Gavin de Becker

Protecting the Gift: Keeping Children and Teenagers Safe (and Parents Sane)
by Gavin de Becker

Angel update

NOTE - I shoved several posts back in time this week, lumping two exercise ones in one day and two cooking ones together in another day, and moving everything back in time.


Angels -

Reminder - these are the cross stitch stockings middle requested, she has seen them, I am doing the cross stitch part and then putting away to finish for future grand kids.

Three are finally done. Two of them had darker stars that did not show, I unsewed those and redid in lighter thread color. I don't think you have seen the curlie cues on any of them. One of those was in too light of purple and I unsewed and redid those too.

In this picture, both the star colors show, but in real life the darker star color on the far right did not show.

Three with the cross stitch part finally finished!
(I was almost finished before I realized they had feet.)
Really pleased with all the colors.
Four more (Angels) to go. All four are in progress.
Then on to snowmen and  Santa's. I think I am going to do two or three of each because I now really understand it is fast to do multiples at the same time. And that means I will go back and make more of the reindeer too. Still doing a very good job of spacing this out, many days off, so I limit the stress on my hands, no issues of any kind so far.

Muscle relief

Sore Muscles? 8 Tips to Ease the Pain. 

College preparations right now, because it will be August move-in date in two blinks of an eye

One blink of an eye will be May graduation.

Two blinks will be college move-in date.

I am not kidding.

Last week we got a wrist watch for youngest. I realize in this day and age, people just use their phone. But cannot always have an iPhone out in many college circumstances (tests, practicums, performances, etc). I get Timex from Kohl's with light up dial. I buy them when they are on sale. This time they were on sale, I had a 30% coupon and I had $20 in Kohl's cash. I also bought a back up band (for the watch) because they always break on a key day. (Middle uses her wrist watch every day. Youngest will too. This might be a family thing. It might also depend on major. Nursing and teaching being two obvious watch oriented fields.)

I ordered LL Bean duck boots for youngest last October or November (2015). Lots of college walking in the rain. Duck boots are a must in my opinion. They arrived a couple weeks ago. (They are hand sewn in the USA and have consistent backlog of orders.) She needs a wide. LL Bean was the only one I found with a duck boot in wide. We took the boots into our local shoe guy to confirm fit. 6W was the smallest women's size. But we could have called customer service to figure out the equivalent next size down in boys, for example, if she needed smaller. We bought supportive inserts for the boots, size was confirmed, I got two pairs of replacement laces (they always break on the worst day).

College physical is required. Youngest is scheduled for next week. She needs a physical for another project. So we are getting one physical, having two forms completed, she is good for the next year.

If you remember, when we moved Middle into her apartment last fall, we turned right around, took inventory, bought what else was needed and packed youngest for college (fall of 2016). Bedding, towels, lamps, step stool, storage, bathroom caddy, long charger cords, power strips, bolster pillow, stuff for walls, etc, etc, etc are all packed.

I got her the right size suitcase for travel. She already had overnight size. (This makes a very good graduation gift, kids travel a lot in college).

I have already stocked extra underwear, sports bras, socks for youngest. I need to get more volleyball or softball (thick, tall) socks for her to wear with the duck boots. They are about the same height as ice skates and we know they rub without tall socks.

Stocked jeans and jeans shorts. Youngest is a very hard fit, so this is an important thing for us to do in advance. Waiting until the week before she leaves and we might not find anything. So that is done.

I stocked college appropriate shirts and jackets and sweaters last year. She has clothes appropriate for dress up and interviews. (This is different for us because our kids have lived with school uniforms K-12.)

We have been doing one thing a week or so.

A while ago it was stocking a lot of good quality bras. And regular shoes and dress shoes and good snow boots.

Paperwork has been flying for a couple  months really a year now. (She is currently taking placement tests on line. We discovered she could do all of that now.) That is just a constant.

One week it was jeans. She had to go with me for try ons.

Another week it was shorts (as soon as they hit the stores and all sizes were stocked). With the shorts I bought two sizes of six kinds, she tried them on at home, I returned the rejects and bought more of the keepers. That is what I did with sports bras when I found them on sale too.

Last week it was the watch. Today was confirming fit of boots. Next week is doctor/physical.

So we are getting it all done, spacing out the demand on her time, spacing out the demand on my brain. And many, many things have been on sale. Like all the college dorm room stuff I got last fall.

I have known moms who have taken the week before college move in off work and done all the shopping then. I think that makes for a very emotional, stressful week for all. I think the getting ready process is really important to the transition. And I think having the stuff organized and the things needed (placement tests, physicals, etc) done early makes a very big difference in how the kids do.

The same way that I think college visits/deciding on a college should be (mostly) done during sophomore year in high school, I think college packing starts a year in advance of move-in date.

The missing pan, Christmas tree skirts for wedding gifts, water jugs working well, mountains of laundry, cross stitch Angels, errands, paperwork, looking for suggestions.

Odds and ends post.

I may have mentioned this previously. I have two sets of three each, nesting 9x13 glass pans. I use the "9x13" label/term roughly, because if they were all 9x13, they clearly would not nest. The middle ones are 9x13 sitting in ones that are slightly bigger and with slightly smaller ones in them. Only one of the middle ones, an actual 9x13, is missing. It has been missing for weeks. We cannot think of anywhere we took it. It did not break. It is not in another cupboard or the refrigerator. The two older kids did not take it. Mystery of the ages.

Between us, oldest and middle we have five weddings later this year. I am starting on Christmas tree skirts as wedding gifts. I made a similar type for my mom years ago. I have always liked it. It requires no batting and no backing. My mother's was made from regular cotton fabric and was proportional for a small tree. I am making the current versions from upholstery fabric and on a larger scale. I am collecting fabric now. I will post pictures as I get going. My machines are both in the shop. So no sewing yet. (I have a pile of mending for middle's boy that is next in line when the machines return.) Extremely strange feeling not to have instant machine access. I do have a couple other machines in a cupboard for an emergency. But hoping my regular ones return quickly enough that I do not have to dig them out for set up.

If you recall, I took water jugs with pumps to middle and her boy (who lives with two other guys). The boys go thru a jug a week, so they are clearly using it. It takes middle about three weeks to use hers, living alone. So they are working well. Again, transporting full jugs with pumps attached, like when traveling to or from camping, simply belt jug into seat. It works very well and protects pump.

Mountains of youngest laundry. I tend to wait until she is in need and then do it all at the same time. This is that time. There is something very satisfying about laundry.

Angel stockings. Husband went with me this time. Back over to my friend, who is good with color, for a consult. Stars were too dark on one fabric and too light on another. Curly cues were too light on one fabric. Skin fabric was too light on one fabric. What to do about the ecru wings and doves on light fabric? The result was I picked out/unsewed several things on Saturday night. I started, again, on Monday, now more confident that I am actually finishing five. Hopefully no more unsewing. Then I have two left where we have to pick dress colors, but those are on the darker fabric, so it should be easier. I am still very careful not to do too much cross stitch at a time nor days in a row, to protect my hands.

My husband swims at a local high school several days a week. I give him errands to do on the way home nearly every time. He is out anyway, so it is convenient. If he does one or two each time he swims, we keep up with all errands.  And honestly, he is learning where things are and how to do them. An example is water jugs. We keep two full ones in the garage at all times, ready for a water emergency, and for normal use. (We take full jugs to middle, and bring the empties home. We also go thru jugs at home.) So if we have an empty jug, it gets refilled immediately. I am getting him in the pattern of refilling immediately. Patterns are important.

Youngest is still in the midst of major paperwork. Oldest, husband and I are all helping. Oldest has proofed a couple essays. I supply some missing information. My husband supplies more (copies of taxes mostly). So much paperwork.

I AM LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS - I found new, unopened, Creative Memories, photo album stuff while cleaning out my closet last fall. I found more last week in my sewing room. I contacted a local Creative Memories sales person to verify what I had because the items did not have labels. They are (still) sealed in plastic, so you can see them. I want to sell all of these. I also found a lot of doll clothes patterns. I am keeping one of each and want to sell the rest. They are new, unopened, discontinued, duplicates. I am thinking my best bet for all of this is either Amazon or eBay. It is all ship-able, it might be my best bet of the most $$$. Oldest has used Amazon to sell electronics and books, in past. I buy things in eBay, but have not sold there. I have considered, it might be easier to sell from home, mini garage sale with very good ad in paper, no shipping. But not sure how much money I would get, garage sale people are looking for cheap, normally. I have two sewing machines I would sell too, if I was doing mini garage sale. Not shipping those, clearly. A good sorting of attic and rest of house might yield a lot more. That would be good. And I could probably get my husband to man the sale. He likes cleaning out, he likes $$$. If you have any thoughts on any of this, please leave me a note.

20 lb rice bag for passive yoga poses

I mentioned, months ago, I bought a 20 loud bag of rice to use as a weight (pushing my body down, deeper into poses) at home, in passive yoga poses. Mostly on my lower back in child's pose.

If you google "sandbags in yoga" and then click on the "images" option, there are some great pictures. Look for the one with the mother in child's pose with the toddler on top of her. (Youngest was a moveable weight for a Pilates class long ago). And look for the one with the woman covered in sandbags in corpse pose.

A weight in passive poses allows one to sink deeper into the pose.

I use bolsters and blocks in poses a lot.

I craved a weight (like a sandbag).

I craved a heavy weight.

If you buy a yoga sandbag on line, it comes empty and you add your own sand.

I did not want to deal with sand.

I decided on rice.

I bought 20 lbs in a very sturdy bag.

My husband asked if 20 lbs was too heavy. I replied that Yoga Lisa used to sit on me. It would be like having youngest sit on me. So, no, 20 lbs for an experienced person is not too heavy. I think 5 lbs is normal for a sand bag in case you are wondering.

I used the rice in the bag it came in for a long time. Eventually it sprang a leak.

And using it in the store bought bag showed the need for a non slippery bag/case. It slid off of me, all the time. I never was able to fully relax, because I was expecting it to slip at any moment.






I went to Joanns looking for non slippery fabric.

Not a lot of options.

I ended up with the dotted fabric used on the bottom of the feet in toddler footie pajamas.

I poured my 20 lbs of rice in a very sturdy plastic bag (Karen had warned me about bugs), squished all the air out, zipped the double zip locks, got rice gathered in a corner, wrapped the excess plastic around it like a Christmas present, and then packing taped the daylights out of it.

It ended up about 17" X 17". Most yoga sand bags are long and skinny. I wanted square.

That rice package then went in a casing I made from muslin.

And then all that went in a casing I made from the footie pj material.

I closed the last casing with Velcro so I can wash it. (Unfortunately the only color of the footie pj fabric readily available was white.)

It is good I used Velcro, because I have already flipped it inside out twice and made that outer casing smaller to really hold the rice. The picture above, shows my first try (before decreasing size twice).

So, it is not at all cute (in white) but it is very, very functional.

Feeling the footie pj fabric at the store, neither my husband nor I was convinced of the quality of the non slip-ed-ness. But an older clerk at the store said she put it in the bottom of her mother's chair cushions (wheel chair, kitchen chairs, lawn chairs) and they totally stay in place while her mother transfers herself. It was $12+ a yard for 50" width. I had a 60% coupon. So a yard was a reasonable investment.

And it definitely works. It does not slide off my back, at all.

I have quite a bit left of my original yard, so I can use it for other things too.

How to modify burpies

Bridge vs hip thrust

It amazes me how fast I can go when I repeat the same things

I have only been cross stitching a few days a week, and only in the evenings, to guard my hands/wrists.

Still working on seven Angels.

And I have been doing the same sections, on multiple Angels, one right after the other.

So the star that is above their heads, on multiple ones, all in a row.

And my speed greatly increases.

Mostly, I think, because my eye knows where to go on the paper pattern.

My doing time increases. My thinking or trying to orient myself time decreases. I am much more relaxed and I am much faster. Amazingly faster. So much easier.





I am  now done with Poirot on Netflix. I loved all of them, but starting with season 7 is when they really got good.

I started X Files. Good to do while sewing. I am able to mostly listen. (There are somethings where I have to watch. I have to look for things where I can just listen.)

Middle finished Call the Midwife and loved them. She was very sad to reach the last one.

Oldest finished Would I Lie To You? And he was really sad to have them done.

So coincidental, I just sent a note on this same subject (Squatty potty topic in comments)

I bought a lot of gloves

Stocking update

Rather than just emailing pictures to middle, I decided to post them here. She will see them. You will see them.

This is the continuing, proactive supply of cross stitch stockings for middle's future children, at her request. She knows about these. She reads this blog.

All of these pictures were taken at the same time, in the same place. About 3pm on Friday.

I take these cross stitch pictures in front of our big living room window (using a piece of white foam core board board on top of the window bench; it helps reflect light, I think) on a cloudy day. So I have a lot of light, but no window reflection and no shadows.

I actually ended up resting my hands for three days over the weekend. And then have worked on these a lot this week. But I am careful to keep my hands relaxed as I sew. And then when not sewing, I am careful to rest my arms/wrists/thumbs in the opposite direction than I use them for sewing.

I was curious, what did the new one look like next to the rejected pink?
(It is still rejected, I just have not picked it all out yet).
As I was sewing on the new one, I was worried for a minute I had grabbed the rejected blue. 
I was worried I would not like the new one either. 
But I like the new one very much.
 This picture does a good job of showing the difference between the two shades of 10 count.

Here are the two new angels. 
They are on a lighter 10 count fabric than the original ones. 
And there is more of a peach undertone to this fabric. 

Notice I did not use ecru for the lace nor the pindots. 

Ecru did not show on the light background, at all.

Here are the two new ones next to middle's original stocking. 
Blends super well. 

Here are the two new ones next to the original three. 
I think these blend also. 
I used a very toned down brick/red for the one new dress. 
It is not as deep a color as the three original dresses.
 Because any shade of red is so prominent, it really needed to be toned down to "go".
Notice I replaced the white in the flower centers with a pink on the green angel. 

Here is everything so far.
The fact that they are cross stitch makes them blend well.
The reindeer colors blend well with the Santa.
(I think it is the browns and the greens that do it).
The reindeer blends well with the angels colors too, in my opinion.
I am very okay with all the different 10 count fabric colors. They blend well.
I am pleased. 

Still a lot of work to do on the angels. It takes me an evening to do half of a wing set. 
So it is eight days just to put wings on all of them. 
Then I will spend a few days on stars, another few days on doves. 
And it takes an evening to do a face/hands/hair, so that is several extra days there.
I am not quite sure what I am doing for a dove color on the two light pieces. 

And then, when all that is done, I have two more pieces of the original/darker angel fabric (have to pick two more angel color sets) and one Santa and one Snowman to do. The Santa and the snowman fabrics are slightly different than any of the above, which is good. 

So everyone else might be ready for spring, but I am not ready to let go of winter yet.

5 gallon purified water with hand pump

I might have mentioned college town water is not good where middle and her boy are living. As in it tests poorly. And it tastes terrible.

They both have lived on campus in past. And the university runs the city water through a major filtration plant.

Now they are both off campus, They have regular city water out of taps.

All of us use stainless steel water bottles (Kleen Kanteen). We only use the plastic bottles sold in stores (individual serving size) when there is a need (can't take a Kanteen for some reason). We do not want anyone drinking out of the kind of plastic used for individual serve bottles on a regular basis. Other points against individual water bottles - amount of recycling it produces, and the cost.

So, I spent some time on the phone last week looking for a better solution. An easy, safe water solution that would work long term.

I ended up going with the same water company we use at home. Their water comes from a big filtration plant. No water is produced from city water in the towns where their stores are located. There is a location in our home town and in their college town.

This (bottle above) is the same style 5 gallon bottles we buy for our water cooler (upstairs at home).  The same type of bottle in the picture above (minus the pump) gets turned upside down in our water cooler at home.

Water coolers are expensive and not very portable. At home, it works great.

But I was looking for a better solution for middle at school.

And I was also looking for a solution for middle's boy 1. because I would not do something like this for her and not him, 2. because he was concerned about the water quality and taste, also 3. because middle is at his house a lot and a water source for her there too is smart.

In talking to the water supply company we use here, the guy told me to drive out to their location because they had several options (other than water coolers). So, I did.

The picture above shows what I ended up buying.  (Two $20 pumps. Two 5 gallon water bottles. One of each for middle and her boy.)

That is a 5 gallon bottle in the picture. (I think it looks small in the picture, but it is a big bottle).  To install the pump - The cap on the water bottle is removed, the pump fits securely on the top of the bottle. 

This is how the company works - we put a one time deposit on each bottle. It is around $8. We then buy the water for just under $5 a bottle. (So, I went home with two pumps and two water bottles for middle and her boy.) When their bottles are empty, they pull up at the water store. They do not get out of their car. The guy at the store takes the empty bottle(s) out of their car and puts in a new full one. So the store does not refill the empty bottles for you right then, they give you a whole new bottle. The empty bottles are then sterilized and refilled at the plant. We pay just under $5 per bottle for the new water. There is a punch card system. 10-12 purchased bottles nets a free one.

The plastic of these bottles is different/safer than plastic used for individual water bottles.

The guy at the store said people buy these pumps for offices and camping mostly. BRILLIANT for camping. Brilliant for a trip/weekend away from home anywhere really. That bottle is easily set in a seat and safety belted in to the car so it does not move around while driving, and to keep the pump safe. The pump makes it very simple to use directly from the car's back seat.

Middle's pump was defective. She took it back to her college town location and they replaced it without even asking for her receipt. The second one is fine. One push on the pump button produces a lot of water. Two pumps fills a 27 oz Kanteen I think.

The boys who live with middle's boy all thought this was stellar. They are all using the bottle and then splitting the cost of refills.

When I took him the water/pump, I said if this is not a good solution for you, just pass it back and I will use it in our kitchen pantry. So, if he hated it for some unknown reason, he had an out. They clearly did not hate it.

Yes, having good bottled water increases the amount of water they will all drink, hugely. It also decrease the kind of other drinks they will buy, I think.

My husband calculated the cost of a case of individual serving size water bottles from the store is about the same cost of the 5 gallon bottle; and, the 5 gallon bottle has one more gallon of water than the case of water. A trip to the store is the same as a trip to the water supplier. And at the water supplier, you do not even get out of the car.

We keep three 5 gallon jugs full at our house all the time. One is on the cooler. Two are ready in the garage. I do this so if there is a water emergency, we have a stock pile of water. (The water store would simply send more truck fulls from their plant it this happened, but there might be a delay.)

And I think this (all) is a good life lesson for middle and her boy. I think this whole experience will make them think about what water they are drinking. And whether they end up together or not, it will make both of them think about what water they are giving their kids. If they are on a well, I think they will have that water tested. If they are on city water, they will check the reports. (Actually we will all have our close friend check the reports, she gets them regularly and reads carefully. She is the one who sounded the alarm about their college town water last week).

So freaking many pictures

First, as I mentioned a week or two ago, I move posts backwards quite frequently. This week I moved a lot back, so if you only get on occasionally, you will want to glance a week or more backward each time to catch all posts.

Second, I worked on pictures for about six hours today. First I looked to see what digital pictures were on the computer that had not been put in our youngest's album. My husband had the albums. I had the computer. It went faster with two of us. There were a lot. I ordered all those. I ordered on line from my local store. 4x6 matte.

When I was in the photo files, looking to order for youngest, I put a new file in each file labeled "pictures". So the photos stayed in their original file, but were easily found. So there might be 50 pictures in the "2010 Chicago" file, but I only wanted 8 printed. I put those 8 in a "pictures" file within the "2010 Chicago" file so I could find them easily.  I had a window open for the photo lab. As I filled each "picture" file, I immediately uploaded those pictures to the lab website. When I had all the photos uploaded, then I went in the site and did my cropping. 

I am not sure I mentioned, youngest is not a dedicated picture taker. So, I contacted her friends (weeks ago) and asked them to email pictures (with her in them) to me. I got several dozen. Most I had never seen. Some were from grade school.

Then I worked on the picture computer files from the years when we were using digital cameras. The way we were downloading at that time produced files on the computer with more than one topic/occassion in them. I found a lot of duplicate pictures. I found the same pictures with different digital dates on them (I guess because of when they were downloaded). I did not delete any pictures. Instead I filed all of them. We figured better to have the same pictures under 2007 Zoo and 2008 Zoo than to accidentally delete all copies. I opened two windows. I looked at pictures in one window and clicked and dragged to new files I made in the other window. I start most files with a year. (Middle has so many college files that I have a whole big grouping that start with her name.)

There were pictures on our computer that I had not seen. There were pictures my husband had not seen. Because pictures have been coming off of multiple digital cameras and iPods for years.

So, you guessed it, I ended up with a second on line order from pictures I found tidying files.

I am not done tidying files.

All this showed me that our current method of everyone putting all digital pictures in drop box and then me moving them from drop box to specific picture files is extremely effective. Yes, at this point we have lot of picture files. But I am consistent with my file labels, so we can easily find things.

Interestingly, I eat very little when I am involved with any type of project. The time just flies. Two days in a row now I thought it was about 5pm and it as actually 9:30pm. Friday it was because I was watching a marathon of Shark Tank and cross stitching Angels. Saturday it as because I was knee deep in picture files on the computer. Both days just flew.

And I have figured out how to be very fast on the Angels. I do the same thing on multiples. So I do the stars on several. Or I do the doves on several. Same placement, same thread. The only danger is I have to be very careful of what I am doing. If I do the wrong thing, I am doing it on several pieces, not just one. So far that has not happened.

Meanwhile my husband has envelopes of old family pictures ready to go to his brothers. He had me go through them to see if I wanted copies of any of them for the kids. (He has the originals or has scanned every picture.) The ones I thought I wanted, he put in groups on the table and then took a picture (of the group of photos) so he can have prints of those made for the kids' albums. It was a way to touch it once and be able to send to his brothers.

So we have contemporary pictures going and very old pictures going. We keep them in two different spots in the house.

Oh, my, goodness.

pictures

These are in the same order as the previous picture (earlier in the week) when I was changing out the purple dress on the left for darker periwinkle to avoid duplicate colors. I also changed the star color for the green dress angel slightly. I like her with the lighter yellow. Keeping previous yellow (which is more gold) for purple dress angel.

I am not sure I ever posted a picture of the picture shelves (living room) after we finished them. These black frames with no matting or white/off white matting really unify.  Very pleased. Previously there were dozens of small frames on these shelves. Too many. No unification.

I saw a pinterest with a huge wall of photos (picture rails very much like these, but whole length of wall) where they had used both white and black frames. For a sea of photos, that was a good idea.

Important picture note - On the shutterfly pictures, where we had never changed the title of the picture, the date appeared on the back of all those pictures. So the ID the camera gives to each picture, which includes the date, automatically printed on the back side.

These are the first three of five albums, middle's. It gives an idea of the scope of our albums. 

Mending pictures

Seven year old and her mom were here part of the weekend.

She had mending that needed done for her oldest's husband.

It was not normal, sew on a button mending.

It was a brand new pair of pants that had gotten caught on a nail (on his chair at work) and a coat  side seam. So a MAJOR hole in the seat of pants and a side seam of a lined coat totally come undone.

I also patched a hole in a quilt not too long ago, and thought to take a before picture in case I ever needed to show someone.

This technique is not the only one, I am sure. But it is the way our alteration shop lady has taught me. If you remember, most of the time when I take something in to her, she tells me I could fix it myself. If it needs her heavy denim machine or involves youngest's thick letter jacket, then she takes it. Some other things I just insist she take. But after the first couple patch things, with her explaining to me what she did, I started doing those myself.

First here is the quilt. It is the first hole (it is in the lower border) on one of the quilts I have made. This is one of a pair of (beloved) Brown Bear quilts. The hole was only in the top of the quilt, it was not all the way through it.

I put this quilt on the floor and then stood on the kitchen table right above it to get this shot. You are seeing the rug that it under our kitchen table and one of the hall runners, behind the quilt.

Some of the fabric was actually missing from the quilt which required a patch. And I could not put a patch behind the hole because the batting and backing were still intact. So the patch needed to on top of the hole. (Normally I put the patch behind things, as you will see in the pants pictures below).

This picture is from the back of the quilt. I used blue thread in the top of my machine and white in the bobbin. It is rarely perfect when one does this, you can see blue thread from the back and white thread from the front, but it helps.

PANTS - I save the pieces we cut off pant hems to use as patches. I have a variety of colors. I do not use any adhesive.

These are size 34 x 34 men's pants to give you can idea of how huge this tear was. I left all the rawness of the tear intact and just sewed over it. So there were a lot of dangling threads that I left on the tear. My experience is if I start cutting all that off, then I end up with a much larger hole. You can see that my fingers found two other places where the nail had torn away part of the pants fabric, but not left a hole. But the fraying there would have eventually caused a hole. My fingers found these places, I did not see them with a naked eye at first. 

I use pinking shears on the edges of the patch so it does not fray over time. I do the sewing from the front, I can't see where the edges of the patch are exactly. I start in the middle and keep feeling with my fingers until I have worked my way to the edges. 

The coat would not have show in pictures. It was a black coat with black lining. The side seam had come all the way open from the arm pit to the hem. I opened the side seam of the lining. I pulled the top layer through the hole so I had turned the whole thing inside out. Then I resewed the side seam and also zigzagged it to reinforce. I then turned the coat back to right side out, and machine sewed the lining. I had to sew the lining from the right side of the lining. But I sewed very close to the edge so it is not readily obvious.

Photo shopping update

Update on Shutterfly.

I first ordered matte finish 4X6 with $20 coupon. Was not pleased with clarity. But I was not sure of the quality of the photos, to start, because they were mostly taken by other people. These were photos of seven year old and a lot of them were taken by her family.

Middle ordered a poster for youngest and it had nice clarity.

My husband said perhaps the matte was the problem with the photos.

Middle got another $20 coupon.

I had to order A LOT of photos to hit $20.

I ordered glossy finish this second time. I ordered a lot of the same photos I had ordered in matte. So we could compare side by side.

The clarity of the glossies was better.

I will put a note in comments about this later. My husband is going to compare, photo to photo, later, and he has the best eye.

ADDED LATER - my husband said the matte is better. I was looking at different pictures (ours) than the original order (theirs) when I thought the glossies were better. He said the detail on the matte was actually better, when he compared, picture to picture, with the original order.

I got shutterfly photos for free, both times. I paid shipping, both times. It was much less expensive (total bill) than local shop because of $20 coupons.

I had to wait longer to get them. But the wait did not matter.

We will have to be extremely careful putting them in album so they do not have fingerprints all over them. (They wear white gloves at photo labs.)

I do not know how I feel about matte and glossy in same album.

So if we have a coupon for free prints, maybe Shutterfly does make sense, with coupon. But it is a lot of "if, than and buts". It is not a straight comparison.

So, now we are just looking at cost. If we wait for shutterfly coupon, pictures will be cheaper.

But my husband reminded me of one other thing. The Shutterfly coupons are just for 4X6 and sometimes that does not crop well, depending on picture. Our local shop will still print square or odd sizes (remember we work with a lot of old photos in our albums).

And I just remembered to add - I check every picture on shutterfly orders and adjust cropping. I do not like their auto crop. I upload all the photos, making sure I have enough for my $20 coupon, and then I go thru and adjust cropping.

Finding things I can listen to without looking very much, sewing at my machine, free/hand weight work, Pilates, hand stitching

Netflix has quite a bit of Agatha Christie's Poirot available. Beloved character for me.  That is from Masterpiece/Mystery. David Suchet and Hugh Frasier did such a good job. Philip Jackson and Pauline Moran too. There are 70 of them, I think Netflix has them all.  I read all of them (book form) long ago. I have seen most of them. Perfect for doing something, listening and just looking up every once in a while.

Wiki
"Agatha Christie's Poirot is a British television drama that aired on ITV from 8 January 1989 to 13 November 2013. David Suchet stars as the eponymous detective, Agatha Christie's fictional Hercule Poirot. Initially produced by LWT, the series was later produced by ITV Studios. In the United States, PBS and A&E have aired it as Poirot.

"At the programme's conclusion, which finished with Curtain, based on the final Poirot novel,[1] every major literary work by Christie that featured the title character had been adapted."

Oldest got us hooked on Shark Tank. It is on CNBC and ABC. Entrepreneurs pitch investment ideas to a panel of business people. So someone has a fledgling business and wants a millionaire to help them with connections, ideas and money. Really clever products and services are featured.  I have quite a few things bookmarked (future gift ideas) on my iPad, that were shown. Actually very interesting show. Some people are so smart. Other people hang in to an idea beyond all reason. It is very interesting to watch. And I have learned if you are every really stuck for a gift idea, go to Bed Bath and Beyond and just wander.

Oldest also got us hooked on Would I Lie to You? Also BBC; we have only been able to find it on Youtube. Really, really funny. I have a link that he sent me to find all of them. As soon as I verify it is a regular link and not tied to our personal accounts, I will put it in comments.

Photo processing hunt

Someone and I were talking about where to have pictures developed.

I just looked, it was JSP, here, in comments.

I am helping my close friend with an album for the seven year old.

It started because Middle had 50 free prints available from Shutterfly.

I was not at all confident of the quality of their prints, so I did not want to order for our albums. (Yes, we are photo snobs).

I wanted to put the 50 freebies to good use. Like a project.

To be honest, our friends have lower photo standards. And I have a lot of pictures of the seven year old in my digital photo files. So I texted my friend asking if seven year old had an album and mentioning the 50 free prints.

She was game. And she ordered 250 Shutterfly prints. Different pictures, same kid, from her phone. We are making an album for seven year old.

Over the weekend I found more pictures of the seven year old.

And it occurred to me it (this album) was a good opportunity to order prints from other stores in my area. To try other, cheaper systems.

My first attempt was Walgreens until I discovered I could only get glossy from my local store. Glossy is a fingerprint nightmare. I only do matte. I did not want to get into mail order at this time. So I rejected Walgreens for now.

Next I tried Walmart. Website said matte was available for in store pick up. I submitted my order online and then refused it at the store (which they let me do). The finish was not glossy, but was also not matte. I had made the online selections that said slow download (most pixels possible and pictures intact) but that was not what the order had. The pixels were very funny and heads were chopped.  The lady at the in store photo lab said the software says one thing and does another. It was not me, it was them. So they are out too. But they also have mail order available which she said was higher quality.

Target and CVS only had glossy available for in store, same day pick up. Both have mail order with higher quality available, I think, it is all sort of running together now.

So, I did not find a printed locally, option that pleased me.

Yes, all these places are cheaper, but they are not doing what I want. So, cheaper doesn't really get me anywhere, but unhappy with their pictures.

If anyone thinks of other larger chains for me to try, I would appreciate a note in comments.

What I want - matte, 4x6, ability to see how the machine will crop and the ability to adjust that cropping, easily. Slow download with the most pixels possible.

Most of the time I would be okay with mail order. But this week, I honestly wanted pictures in my hands, to compare. Mail order experiment involves shipping cost, so a couple to compare is not easily, cheaply done.