Yes, a twenty pound bag of rice now resides in the living room

Did anyone read that and know exactly where I was going before they clicked on comments?

More Halloween Costume stories - what was the greatest Halloween Costume you ever wore?

Click to enlarge the image. These are from the October 2012 issue of Real Simple. Clicking on the holiday label at the bottom of this post, will bring up other holiday posts including more of these stories from past Halloween Posts. 

I did figure out what to do with the towels and how to handle the soft dot fabric

I first wrote about my quest for towel ideas here.

And then I wrote about my hot mess with the soft dots and minky type fabrics here.

Today I sit here with two items finished, sewn very nicely and easily.

There is a chenille type bath towel half on the back, soft dots make the squares, packaged silk type binding makes the end borders, silky bridesmaid dress fabric makes the binding. There is a piece of flannel in the middle (I sewed the squares together using seam tape to prevent stretching. Then I sewed the rows to the flannel with a quilt as you go technique, so it is all very stable.) After everything was layered, I ran it through the serger and also zigzagged to seal the edges before I sewed on the binding. In other words, those puppies are not going to fall apart easily.

These two are 28" x 31" (half a bath towel each) and are identical.

I flipped one so you could see the towel backing.

They are a nice, heavy weight.

My intention is to give them as toddler gifts.

Our little seven year old and her mom will be here next week, I will see what they think before I make any more.

If you have an older iPad or iPod where the built in mail app stopped working after an upgrade many moons ago, you might be pleased to know one of the recent upgrades fixed it. Very pleased. I missed it.

This coming Sunday, SERIES finale for the original CSI (Las Vegas, Who are you? Who, who, who, who? . . .Cause I really wanna know. Who are you? Who, who, who, who?) Former cast members returning for this very last show.

Soft and comfy dot fabric and (darned) rectangular towels that feel great

If you remember, I have made lots of flannel swaddling blankets. We use them as baby shower gifts. And sometimes new baby gifts, if there wasn't a shower. We give them in sets of four with an instruction sheet for swaddling a baby. I started out with a mountain of them. And they are dwindling.

I was ready to do something different, to replenish my baby shower stock. But I have sort of dug myself a hole. I need help figuring out what to do.


http://www.joann.com/soft-n-comfy-dot-fabric/prd33722.html#prefn1=type&prefv1=Soft+N+Comfy&start=1

That is the link to JoAnn's Soft and Comfy Dot Fabric. I have large pieces, smaller pieces. I have been picking it up on sale.

I was looking for Chenile (type) fabric to put on the back to make very tactile baby blankets. What put this in my head was a sensory blanket our little seven year old had as a baby. But, no Chenile (type) fabric anywhere that I can find. I looked for anything else, tactile, but all I could find was variations of fleece, all the same general feel. I thought about cutting up Chenile bedspreads, but the problem is the patterns. Cut up, it is just a weird fragment of pattern.

So then I found bath towels at JCPenney's that I liked.

http://t.jcpenney.com/tablet/jsp/browse/pp/product.jsp?Ntt=&ppId=ens6003920003&categoryId=cat100250084&deptId=dept20000012&subcatId=&grMode=&regId=&colorizedImg=DP0331201500202979M.tif&cmcatId=&currentDim=&dimCombo=&currentDimVal=&dimComboVal=

I bought them in (2) aqua, (1) light blue and (1) green. They were on sale for around $7. They are still on sale, I could get more. I picked the hems out, serged the edges to prevent fraying, and washed them. They washed beautifully.

So now I am sitting here looking at my pieces, trying to decide what (in the heck) to make.

The bath towels are of course very rectangular. That is (totally) throwing me.

The simplest thing would be to take a large piece of the comfy dot fabric, put it right side together with a towel, sew and turn right side out. But I am trying to figure out if/how that would be used with a baby. It would be very tactile. It would be weighted. But it would be very rectangular (30" x 56"). If I wrapped it as a gift, what would I say it was?

I have considered sewing two bath towels together. It would be almost a square. And it would have substance. It could be used for putting a baby on the floor. (I gave middle's former boy's mother a large square much like that, but made out of two layers of sweatshirt fabric, for her first grandchild, for visiting her house last year. I bought it at a craft show and was really pleased.) It would be a great pad for the floor. The towels would sew together easily, because I have the picked out hem edges (which are not tufted). And I could sew squares of the soft dot fabric in different colors (for the other side) to make it look quiltish.

I guess as I write, that is what I am going to do unless someone can suggest a purpose for the 30" x 56" size. Because, as I said, if I can think of a good (genuine) purpose, that would be easier to mass produce. But I am not making them unless they are very practical.

Halloween Costumes

I think I mentioned I have started collecting children's Halloween Costumes, when I see them at sales. I have these stored in two different places in the house. One of the things on my To Do list was to compile a list. I did that yesterday.



Halloween costumes -
Alien bug thing 0-6 mos (not my favorite)
Dinosaur 6-9 mos
Dinosaur 12 mos
Leopard 12 mos
Dinosaur 18 mos
Monkey age 1-2
Frog 24 mos
Lady bug 2-3 T
Dinosaur Child Large
Lion Child Large
Bear Child Large
Tiger Child Large
(Note - our little girl wore one of the "child large" costume in 2014 when she was a 5-6, maybe with jacket under it)


I think on a subconscious level I was aware, but seeing it in print, I know.

I only collect animal or nature type things. No Power Rangers, no Disney, nothing commercial so far.

I have always been that way. I cringe at Disney T-shirts for example. Ditto with minions. I like a clever T-shirt, but not one with a trendy, commercial thing on it.

I can think of commercial things I would buy. Winnie the Pooh, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a really good princess, would be yes!, if I saw them.

But those last two are female. And if you notice everything I have now, except the Ladybug, is gender neutral.

My girls wore a lot of gender neutral things when they were little. Girl things too. But a lot of neutral. And they always have had major hand-me-downs from the oldest. Hoodies, T-shirts for around the house, basketball shorts, flannel pj bottoms. These are all coveted things they lounge around wearing. 

I do not mind that I have several dinosaurs. If we end up with a grandkid who is really into dinosaurs, we will be glad for extra sizes. If we end up with more than one attached to dinosaurs, we will be really glad for multiples in general. And that often happens with boys and dinosaurs. I am not sure I have seen a girl really attached to dinosaurs, just boys (so far). Have you?

Thinking caps please, calling all TV comedy fans

Does anyone happen to know about pinking shears?

I wonder if someone will read that and not know what the words "pinking shears" mean - ?

They are the scissors that cut fabric in a zigzag.

The purpose of the zigzag is so the fabric edge "holds" and does not unravel.

My pair is very old. Maybe older than I am. They might well have belonged to my mother or one of my grandmothers.

I actually use them all the time, very regularly.

They are now hurting my hand, they just simply do not want to cut. And they feel and sound as if they need oiled, rather badly.

My husband and I both feel that if we attempt to oil them, they might cause oil spots on fabric, like forever.

There is no longer a sharpening store in town. Not one.

Because, yes, I think they would know.

And every time I try one of the guys who sharpens out of his house, I have been disappointed.

I do not discard things easily.

If there is fix left in something, I fix it.

But I do not know about the expected life of pinking shears. At all.

Does anyone else know?

With all our talk about family jewelry, I thought of "Grandma's Broken Engagement Ring". I had to hunt to find it; here it is -

Grandma's Broken Engagement Ring

Jewelry Store

More than a photo album, file boxes

I am making note of this for middle.

I have written, many times, I think scrapbooking is setting most women up for (utter) failure. Expensive supplies and tools. Stuff gets piled. It just never gets done. It feels like failure, constantly.

Our photo albums are now three ring binders with archive safe pocket type pages. Different style pages are available to hold one full size sheet of paper (per side) down to (4 per side) 3 1/2 X 5 pictures. Maybe even smaller pictures. There are lots of options.

I think a very good practice is to designate one color (of binder) per child (black for oldest, aqua for middle, purple for youngest).

Each of our kids has 4-6 of their color binders (filled) now.

I just keep adding binders.

I stopped buying the binders from the photography places. I now just get the heavy duty ones from Office Depot.

And then using the different type pages, I put photos in the albums.

But what middle and I were talking about is putting all keepsakes in those albums. group pictures, cards, certificates, etc. Great/worth keeping artwork can be shrunk to 8 1/2 X 11, color copied, put in the albums too. (Sharla mentioned this concept of the three ring binder instead of scrapbooking to me long ago and I remembered).

So I am not talking about cutting up pictures or using all kinds of stickers and fluff. I am talking about just slipping things in pockets/sleeves and putting them in the three ring binder. Boom. Done.

Middle and I talked about keeping things in hanging files and having each kid have their own file box. And I think that is important too.

For things like social security cards, medical files, school paperwork/transcripts, bank records, etc a file box is really important. My kids had them by (I think) third grade as part of teaching them to be responsible for their own paperwork. Keeping and filing paperwork is an important learning tool. Really important.

I mentioned middle's idea of also having a medical notebook for each child too. Just to keep track of the who/what/when/where's of their medical care. So the child knows, later, what happened to them, where all the records are, etc.

Middle, as she has been getting ready to move into her apartment, has been thinking a lot about this type of stuff. Mentally picturing how she is keeping her own stuff, and how she wants to keep (her future) kids' stuff.

I was looking to clone my two drawer filing cabinet and I did

My husband has been cleaning out his office.

From his point of view he has been cleaning it out BIG TIME.

From my point of view, yes it is better but there is a long way to go.

It is a very large room.







There are lots of shelves yet to be sorted. They are now full. My guess is those shelves will be empty after he finishes. I am considering the best future use of those shelving units.






There is a locking cabinet in that room that is now empty. So, we are considering the best storage use of that cabinet. The shelves are not strong enough for file box storage. I can't think of anything else besides files that we might want to lock (my husband is funny about tax records, etc). Originally we bought the cabinet to lock up samples (husband's job). It was in the garage at the old house. Eventually all samples were set directly to the office.






As he has been sorting, some of the upstairs files have been moving down to our computer room. And my little two drawer cabinet in the computer room, bought in 2010, is now full.

On the way to church this morning, I was thinking about the excess files. And I wished I had two of those little two drawer cabinets. (I was kicking myself slightly that I had not bought two of those cabinets in 2010.) I was telling middle and my husband that I wished I had another of those cabinets and asking if they remembered where I had gotten the first one. We guessed Office Depot or Walmart.

It occurred to me I might have made a note on my blog when I bought it. I had. 

Middle and I went back to Target to buy another cabinet. They had the same cabinet - yea! But no longer had the wheel caddy. They sent me to Office Depot who did have the cabby. Same as the one I have at home. So now I have identical set. And have doubled my space. (We do have plastic file boxes for the old, old files too.)






I want to put an extra bed in his office. We can (often) use an extra bed. The room is huge. The room can be part office and part extra guest room, easily.

I bought the head and foot board of a antique Jenny Lind bed at a garage sale for $40 (I think). The side rails were missing, but that is okay because they would have been too short anyway. We will have side rails made, put a piece of plywood over them, and then buy a good quality pillow top mattress to fit the 3/4 bed. I like 3/4 beds. We do not try to put two people in one unless it is a cuddly couple who are both small in stature and love to sleep cozy. For tall or over sized people, the 3/4 beds are nice. Oldest sleeps slightly corner to corner in his Jenny Lind, at home, in his room. He loves that bed. It was from a garage sale too.

The woman having the garage sale said the bed had been her grandfather's and then hers all the years she was growing up. So her childhood bed until she married I think. She said none of her children wanted it. She said it had been in storage for over 35 years. I had a strong attachment to that orphaned bed, immediately.

Blue Apron

Jennette wrote a piece on Blue Apron.

I thought it sounded very interesting.

I forwarded her link to my oldest, with a note that said it sounded like something he would like.

He read Jennette's piece, and said he had heard of it, maybe when it first started in 2012. And he said it did sound like something he would like.

So he signed up for delivery.

And he does like it. He said it was fun and interesting. He said the directions are very easy to follow. He said he had never done most of the skills it required, but he learned. And he said (as Jennette said) he used nearly every dish in his kitchen. That is not a lot of dishes in either kitchen, I suspect. Everything is included in his box except salt, pepper and oil. Everything is premeasured.

He also mentioned it would be a great couple's thing. No one has to plan or shop. The work, split between two, would go very quickly. Or at least quicker. He said it would be a good dating thing too.

He likes food. He likes to cook. He is interested in more (than I am) gourmet type meals. He likes to build his food and cooking skill knowledge base.

He said his grocery shopping will now be down to string cheese, yogurt, fruit. He will keep some frozen veggies on hand incase he needs to expand one of the meals.

He is on the three meals plan which is designed to feed two people (so six servings total) each week. He said when he finishes cooking, he divides each meal in two, and puts one away, so he does not just sit down and eat the whole thing. (We had discussed this in advance, hence the veggies in case he needs to add to any meal. So far he said the servings are just about right.)

He is really excited about this.

He said although it looks pricey at first glance, he thinks it will be less expensive for him. Because he was mostly eating out recently. His meals out will be greatly reduced.

His deliveries come late afternoon on Friday. He then plans to cook Friday-Sunday. And then start the week with ready leftovers in the refrigerator. It might be 3-6 leftovers depending on his social plans over the weekend. But he said cooking is too hard for him, right now, after work, because he is still very slow. And he is cooking by himself. He can suspend any week's delivery if he is going to be out of town, but has to do it well in advance.

So far, really good idea for him. And it is organic food.

Headphones, charger cords, vitamins, paperwork, sports bras, notebooks, binders, service for lap top, etc.

I think I mentioned, before middle and I left for England/Scotland/Wales, I cranked on anything youngest was going to need. 

I thought it was some psychological thing (if the plane fell out of the sky, youngest would be stocked).

So youngest and I spent a couple days running major errands. We restocked supplies, replaced worn items, etc. 

As I popped back in and out of the house later in June and then July, we would continue to do the same.

Staying at our friends' house, last week, I was doing the same there (dust pan, tape measure, headphones, charger cord). 

The week I stayed there in June, I was restocking toilet paper, paper towel, Kleenex. 

I realized I am always in this proactive groove. 

It bugs me to be out of basic things. 

If something breaks, I replace immediately. 

If the kids mention something, I take care of it immediately. Evidently if my friend's kids mention something, I am all over that too.

I have several thoughts about all of this. 

The first thing is I try to stay on top of everything, so if there is an emergency, I can literally walk out the door. My bag stays packed. I keep cash on hand. My passport now lives in my packed luggage. (This state of readiness does not cause me anxiety. It is the opposite.)

The second thing is undone things accumulate exponentially. Maintenance on a house is the perfect example. Take care of house things regularly, it is still a lot. Leave things undone, get ready to sell, facing a nightmare mountain level of tasks that need to be done before house can be listed. Clutter is another example. It has to be addressed regularly or it just keeps expanding.

The third thing is life is stressful enough without having unreliable equipment. Things like headphones and charger cords are vital to daily life for kids, big kids, small kids, me too. 

I want my kids to feel like I am a help, not a hindrance. I want them to feel like if they tell me something, it will not go in one ear and out the other. 

And I tell them, if I don't take care of something right away, tell me again, because it means I have forgotten. Normal (honestly) is taking care of it that day or the next.

Every once in a while something comes up where they told me, I forgot, six months have passed, they bring it up again. Obviously these were not vital things. It is just incredible how quickly time passes. And how easily I can get busy with other things. 

This started (with the kids) when they were little, because I would ask, pretty much every day, driving home from school, while we were still out and about, if they needed something for the next day. On Fridays I would ask if they needed something for the next week, or the week after that. 

My kids are very, very proactive. And it reduces their stress level hugely. And it increases their possibilities hugely too. Because they are looking forward and are available to opportunities. 

Weighted Blankets (does anyone else identify with this?)

I think I have mentioned I love the feel of the heavy vest dentist offices use during x-rays.

I know I have mentioned (sleeping so much better with) tucked blankets on the lower half of my bed which simulate weight. (I got conditioned to cats sleeping on my legs when I was little. Created havoc with my undiagnosed asthma. But I got conditioned to the weight (and warmth) on my feet and legs.)

Our little six year old has a weighted blanket which she loves. It has pockets/compartments of pellets.

Here is the site.

These blankets with pellets should never go in the dryer -

"Are your pellets non-toxic?

"poly says: In their current state the pellets are non-toxic. If you melt, heat or change their structure the pellets become toxic. Also, like any plastic, pellets cannot be digested."

I mentioned middle and I are on the road. (We still are).

I have been using my heavy sweatshirt blanket everywhere we have gone. I use it folded, on my lap, in planes, trains, buses, autos.

(I also sleep with it tucked under my legs and then pulled over me which creates a weighted feeling. I put hotel blankets over my legs.)

I have a C shaped neck pillow with me too. It is the dense kind. I has not worked on my neck, but it works great in my lap during the day in transit. It gives me somewhere to put my hands. It puts weight on my lap.

I realize weighted blankets would have helped me as a child.

Sheets

We have a variety of beds at our house.

The king went to my mother's guest room when husband and I switched to XL twins, side by side. His jumps and twitches woke me, two beds totally solved that problem. We did not want to sleep in different rooms. I needed to be able to sleep. The XL twins are pillow tops, so they require special sheets, both XL and deep pockets.

Middle's room has two regular twins that are pillow top. They require deep pockets. The XL twin sheets in T-shirt fabric, left over from college beds, work very well on these beds. Youngest has a similar mattress upstairs that uses the same sheets.

We have one regular twin (no pillow top) that uses regular twin sheets.

Oldest's bed is a 3/4 bed that needs a regular double sheet, no deep pockets, no double/queen size.

And that is my problem.

I am always hunting (oldest's room, laundry, linen closet) trying to remember which sheets go on that bed. And we are changing it constantly because we use it for company very regularly. Yesterday I had the big hunt. I could find the fitted, but not the flat. Still have not found the flat.

About half of our sheets are white.





Last night, I figured out a solution that I should have done years ago.

I ordered a set of Aqua, cotton weave, sheets in a regular double size. Very high thread count. On clearance at Macy's. I had a coupon too.

The only other Aqua colored sheets in the house are EX twin T-Shirt that are in middle's college stuff.

The Macy sheets will be very distinct. And as soon as I have them in hand, going to wash and put right on the bed. And after company, wash and put right back on the bed.






I still have queen size sheets from a long ago bed, floating around, because we use them on an air mattress.

We have a lot of sheets, blankets, quilts, towels, etc. A lot. But when I have a houseful or a revolving door of company, I need them. I often need them all. Sometimes we are full to the gills and then full to the gills again, two days later, with totally different people.

We have asthma and allergies at our house.

I have very large, clear plastic bags. Garbage bag size, but clear and thinner. I have gotten in the habit of bagging sheet (sets) together. So everything for one bed is in a bag with the air squished out and the end loosely tied. This protects against dust mites and keeps sets (not in use) together.

The only problem with this is the white sheet sets all look the same.

Yes, I guess I should be labeling.

Or I should stop buying white.

But the bag thing works really well.

One word of caution - everything must be very dry to go in a bag. Things like quilts and comforters, I line dry after they come out of the dryer. So they get dried, and then more dry.

I have never had anything mold, because I am super careful with my drying. But middle's freshman roommate had something mold, big time.

And I only use clear bags. I know someone who once put three family quilts in a dark garage bag and they disappeared. We can only assume they went out in the garbage. They would have looked like garbage. She was devastated, as you can well imagine.

Gaylord

One of my local librarians mentioned Gaylord as a source for photo storage.

I first ordered envelopes.

2 mil Polyethylene Postcard Envelopes (100-Pack)
ZZ-PB35
Fits up to: 3 1/2H x 5 1/2"W

2 mil Polyethylene Postcard Envelopes (100-Pack)
ZZ-51025
Fits up to: 4H x 6"W

2 mil Polyethylene Envelopes (100-Pack)
ZZ-2810
Fits up to: 8W x 10"H



The envelopes are clear, three sides are fused, the last side has an open slit. I gave these to my mother for mother's day.

We have dismantled three photo albums.

Two were black construction paper like pages and were disintegrating, not to mention not archival safe. And the last was the terrible sticky pages with the plastic sheet over it, which we now know ruins pictures.

We were able to get all the pictures out of all three albums. It was not easy. My mother could not do it. But middle and I could. My mom wrote on the back of pictures, for the few where there were writings on the pages. We left all of it with my mom. She is going through and at least writing names and locations on the back of all the pictures. She can do this at her own pace. And she has nice, readable handwriting.

The librarian had suggested the envelopes. Each picture can be seen (front and back), is protected, and can be handled. That is what we are doing with a lot of these old pictures. We are then dividing by family lines and then going to put in archival safe boxes (also Gaylord).



After our success with the envelopes, I ordered photo albums pages. (My previous sources are all defunct.)

4 mil Polypropylene Album Pages for 4 x 6" Prints (25-Pack)
ZZ-PP4625-6

4 mil Polypropylene Album Pages for 3 1/2 x 5" Prints (25-Pack)
ZZ-PP35525-8

I ordered 5 sets of each.

I have not yet received my Gaylord album pages, I just placed the order today and then called to verify they are in stock and will ship immediately. They are. They will.

I also verified that everything I ordered was archival quality. It is.

To be honest, I did not even compare prices or shop. I was just happy to find what I needed (desperately, we have piles of pictures at this point) and know it would ship immediately and was archival safe.

Earth Day

Earth Day is observed on April 22 and was started in the United States in 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson to create awareness for the Earth's environment and to encourage conservation efforts. In 1990, Earth Day was taken international, and today, more than 500 million people in 175 countries observe Earth Day.

Laundry and bathroom tub faucet

I think I mentioned when I stayed with our little 6 year old, last month, for a week, I caught up the laundry at that house. Started with a pile that was very, very high, and washed around the clock, for days.

At that house the dryer was slow. Which was annoying. I was always waiting for it.

At my house, washer and dryer are about even. Which is nice.

Yes, I told the husband of that house the dryer vent probably needed checked.

I have 2-4 extras rolling in for the weekend. I have been catching up laundry and washing bed linen for three days.

I have not been setting a timer and doing laundry as constantly as I was at the other house. Youngest had an orthodontia appointment. I picked out a new faucet set for the bathtub in my bathroom, which was complicated. I was at the library looking stuff up a couple times. But I have done a lot of loads the end of this week.

And either we have a stash of missing hangers somewhere, or we do not have enough hangers for everything in the house to be clean at the same time. Walmart run is needed. I love the deep grooves for straps on their plastic hangers.

We have a leaking faucet on our bathroom tub. (The leak is only on top the tub, we hope.) I think the style of tub is called Roman. The tub has a top mount for faucets.

We had the same model tub at the old house. I have always liked it.

And since faucet needs to be replaced, I wanted a set with a spray hose. So shampooing little kid's hair and rinsing the tub after a deep tub cleaning would be easier. Plumber sent me to a specialty shop to look at options. There were three top mount faucets with hoses. Of the three only one was still available. Of the one, there was one left in stock. Yes, we ordered quickly.

Plumber was here this morning. They will have to go through my bedroom wall to get to the faucet. You can just see the faucet, through the crack in the door, on the other side of this wall. On this side, right beside the love seat, is where they will have to go through the wall.

We talked about options to leave access. They said the simplest option was to cut very carefully and then put a vent, like a cold air return, over the hole so we can get to the faucet again if we need to. And so we can check for leaks. And so the area can vent.

Hopefully I will not be writing about a bathroom gutting and redo (from mold) later this month.  .  .