Sewing fun.

This dress has ties. How's that? I always wanted to make a "Daisy Kingdom" dress for someone and so I made this one for Rhyan. I love the Daisy Kingdom dresses, but most of them are totally impractical for everyday use. They are so adorable, though, and pretty easy to make. Rhyan did wear this one a couple of times and she loved it. I think she still has it.
Seeing it makes me want to go try another one. Hmmmm...I'll have to think about that.




I made this Daisy Kingdom outfit for Mikaila a few years ago when she was here for the summer. It has ties, too, at the bottom of the pants leg, but I think it's more fun making the dresses.

Nothing to do with ties. At all.

Every time I look at this picture I laugh. They look like they are on a mission. They probably are on a mission to find the two older boys that were also at this party and make some mischief. You know how kids are! haha.




That's all I have today because I kept falling asleep.

Fairy dress.

Cheryl and I got a late start today for breakfast and went to lunch instead, so I don't have time to compose anything too involved. The theme this month is ties which I don't have, but I do have these two pictures of the Fairy costume I made for Mikaila when she was little and it is made of (expensive) ribbons, among other things and you can tie ribbons into bows. So I guess that is close enough! haha.
As a side note:
Mikaila used to love to dress up. She loved silky fabrics and when I would take her to the fabric store she would pet all the silky fabrics and beg me to buy them for her. I did occasionally buy remnants for her. I hate sewing on silkies so I would make a cotton yoke and attach the silky to it and we were both happy. She only wore them around the house anyway and when she tired of them I just cut them apart and put the silky away and attached a new one. She loved to dress up, which is why I decided to make two of these lovely Fairy dresses, one for her and one for Rhyan. (I will try to find the pics of Rhyan in hers and post those on another day.) Mikaila loved this dress, but she told me in the most sincere voice a three year old could muster, "I can't wear this dress, Grandma, because it isn't real clothes."
She did like to go look at it everyday, though, and pet it. Kids are so weird! LOL.
Excuse the poor picture quality. They didn't scan well on my old scanner and I haven't scanned them on the new one, yet. They are just snapshots, anyway. I obviously didn't try for an uncluttered background and such. It's my mom there on the phone. haha

Cable ties.

Cable ties are a nice solution to a myriad of problems. I especially like the fact that they come in all sizes and can be used for all kinds of things. I personally think they are a great invention and I love them for the fact that they can corral all the wiring from my computer or stereo system in a neat little package that makes life easier when cleaning and moving things. It also keeps me from kicking the wires out from the plugs.
I really like them for securing things to my bird cages and in need they can even secure the door to the bird cage. While a bird could effectively chew through them, they do work for temporary door holders.
They can be used inside the engine compartment of a car to hold hoses and wires. I've seen them used to hang things from ceiling grids and curtain rods. They can be used in gardening to hold things to a fence or stake. Such a simple little invention with so many uses. I have seen that they even now have cable ties in a large version that are used as handcuffs. I'm not sure how effective they are in this capacity, but I have seen them used and they seemed to work pretty well.

Here is a pretty unusual use for them. They are being used as a necklace, although it doesn't look very comfortable to me. I think I will stick to the more traditional use for now.

Ties

I forgot to post a blog yesterday. It was a busy day for me and then I went to David's in the evening. My plan was to write it when I got back home, but I forgot. It's ok, really. I'm not in this for prizes or recognition anyway. I just like the challenge of writing everyday. If I join the monthly challenge I have more incentive and the daily writing is good for me even when I don't really have anything to say. It's not important to me that it gets read, although I do sincerely appreciate my regular readers and occasional comments.

Yesterday I spent most of the day putting my kitchen back together and figuring out things that have been on the back burner. I finally remembered to phone Comcast and have them come out to look at my phone. The repairman came bright and early in the morning. After some trouble shooting he determined that the problem was with the wiring running to the jack in the living room. He just disconnected that wiring and now the phone is clear as a bell and no issues. I can rewire it later this summer or if I don't feel like it, Comcast will do it for 21 dollars. While I'm at it, I will also have one run into the garage so we can have one of our four handsets out there. It is nice to have a house phone again.

Once he left I started rearranging some things in the kitchen. I really have no place for bags of chips, cookies and seaweed or boxes of crackers and snacky things. While I personally do not use chips, crackers and cookies much, Jeren does. He packs a lunch daily which usually consists of a sandwich and bag of chips. When he gets home from work he likes to snack. I like seaweed and buy it in the value packages which are much like a chip bag. I just don't have enough cupboard space. I bought two pantries, but I'm using the one for the soap and stuff for the washer and the other one holds the bird stuff and miscellaneous household items like light bulbs, candles, extension cords and flashlights. So I'm rearranging things to be able to use the "soap" pantry for boxed and bagged snacky items.

One thing that has bothered me for a long time is the drawer on my dryer's pedestal. When I bought my washer and dryer I got coupons to get a free sliding shelf to use with the drawer in the pedestal. I sent away for them and when they came I tried to use them both, but the dryer one won't fit. I finally got around to figuring out why. It's simple. They used the wrong rails for the drawer slide so it doesn't fit up into the little recess like it should which makes the drawer ride too high. If I could use the shelf it would help me with that aforementioned rearranging of items so I want it fixed.

I called my local Maytag person (where I bought the set), figuring I could just exchange the wrong rails for the right ones. After all, I'm not the one who put them together. The one that is wrong was a store model that they gave me because the one pedestal came damaged, so they ran back to the store and brought me the already assembled one. They are who assembled it incorrectly in the first place. I didn't think it would be a big deal. I'm not just getting parts. I'm exchanging incorrect parts for correct parts.

My warranty is, of course, expired. This, however, is not a warranty issue. This is not a part that has broken and needs repair. This is a part that was INCORRECTLY installed at the shop. Because it was a shop model I am sure it didn't matter that it was the incorrect rail. After all, no one is going to use it and they didn't have a need to use the shelf.
I explained all that to them, but they didn't want to hear it. Never mind the recording on their phone says they want to keep their customers "for life". I haven't pointed that out to them, yet.

I might have to take myself down to the store and explain that to them with parts in hand. I don't think I am going to take no for an answer on this issue. I understand that it's been more than a year and I understand that it's not under warranty. I also know that the parts that are on it (the incorrect rails) can still be used. They are not damaged in any way and work fine to slide the drawer in and out. They simply do not fit the cut out that allows the drawer to drop low enough to hold the shelf. They are not the same width as the correct ones and the tab that needs to drop into the cutout is in the wrong place. The screw leaves no room for adjustment, so I cannot even adjust it to the right spot. I just want to EXCHANGE them for the correct part.

I am going to call Maytag today and try to see what they can do for me but it annoys me that a business that "wants to keep me coming back for life" really doesn't when it come to customer satisfaction.

I also finally sat down to figure out just what is going on with my old laptop's screen. I realized yesterday after hooking it up to an external monitor and "cloning" the display onto the laptop that there is a picture there. It actually came up and stayed on for almost five minutes when I messed with the settings. Unfortunately I didn't write down my steps so I'm not sure which step brought it to life and I've been unable to duplicate it, although I can clearly see the screen under the darkness. I've been doing some reading about possible issues and will probably try to take it apart later today and see if it is the inverter or the backlight or just some loose wiring. Since it displayed fine for that almost five minutes, I'm leaning toward it being loose wiring. There is a little area of the lid that is "coming apart". By that I mean there is a separation and the screw is stripped and I cannot tighten it. Maybe it has pinched a wire. I will check it out later today or maybe tomorrow. We will see how my day goes. I still have a lot of other things to do, including thinking of and writing another blog, since this is really "yesterday's blog." haha.

So yesterday was basically tying up a bunch of loose ends and moving myself closer to my goal of having "free time". That's about the only way I can relate this to ties.
Going to go get busy now.

Ties that bind.

I got my new stove today! It was pretty exciting.
They parked the truck out on the road and pulled the stoves out right there. (mine and my mom's).
I watched as they very quickly sliced open the boxes, ripped off the corner protectors and tape and set about cleaning out and off all the packing materials. They quickly loosened the back, hooked up the pigtails and tightened them back up. They cleaned up as they went, throwing all the packing materials back into the truck. I saw one of them get the dolly and went and opened the back door. To my surprise he put the dolly back down and jumped out of the truck with a nylon strap that looked somewhat like a tow strap to me.
The other guy came around and they each took one end of the strap and quickly threw their shoulders into them. One had it on his right shoulder and one on his left. Next thing I knew they lifted up the stove that was coming to my house and put the middle of the strap under it and lifted up and started walking toward the house. There they were, tied together with the stove in the middle walking into the house and presto!
It was so slick and easy and hardly any maneuvering. They fit right through the door. It was easy as pie for them to walk up the stairs with the stove suspended between them. I didn't have to take the door off. There was no bulky dolly in the way while they installed the stove and it took very little time compared to working a dolly across my yard and driveway (which is gravel) and up the porch steps and up the step into the doorway to get through the door.
What will they think of next. When I went online to see if I could get a picture I found that there are two systems like this. One is the Shoulder Dolly, which is the one my delivery men used today. The other one is similar, but uses the forearms. It is called the Forearm Forklift. It's a cheesy commercial on the site, but it makes me want to buy one just to see if my son and I can really move our spinet piano with them.

10 Reasons I Procrastinate.

This has nothing to do with ties unless you count the fact that my procrastination today is what ties it to the theme because I resurrected it from my other blog. I wrote it a long time ago, but it still fits today, although I'm working on the procrastination issue. Today I was busy getting some other stuff done and really didn't have time to write a full blog, so really that is the only thing I procrastinated today and it was because I was busy. It has been a great help to me to finally get some new tools and items to help me along in my goals. The rake in this picture didn't break, but I did lend it to my neighbor and never got it back, so I bought a new rake plus a shovel. The gravel is coming along nicely. I try to do a little each time I can get outside. Today it was too wet, but I got a lot done in the house.

Yes, I love procrastination. sooooooooooo....

Here goes!

1. Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

2. I don't know where the (hammer, nail, screwdriver, level, tape, saw, etc) is.

3. Doing "job B" requires finishing "job A". See number 2.

4. There is so much to do, I don't know where to start, so I sit down to think about it.

5. I own a computer. Wonderful, yet the best time waster there is.

6. I can't decide between two courses of action, so I take the third course and do nothing.

7. Heading to do the planned project, I get distracted and start doing something else and then forget what I was going to do.

8. It's too nice a day to stay inside and complete (insert any project here)

9. Finishing job A means I will have to start job B.

10. Because I'm really good at it and I can!

How to tie a tie.

Years ago I bought a cute little St. Patrick's Day tie to wear to work so I would be wearing something green. After all, I do have Irish in me and it's a fun little holiday. I realized when I got up in the morning to get dressed that I had no idea how to tie a tie. I really didn't want to wake up my step-dad just to ask him so I went online and put it in the search engine. "How to tie a tie". I was amazed at how many sites there were to teach me this handy little skill. Try it yourself. Dozens of sites, some with video, some with step-by-step pictures and some that give you all kinds of information about ties, like this one.

I got curious about the history of ties and so I put that in the search engine and found out there are several different opinions out there about exactly WHEN ties came into being. I guess it depends on what you define as a tie. In this article they go back 2000 years. There are some pretty interesting facts on that particular site if you click on all the little links they provide for you.
There are some who say they only go back a little over a hundred years, but I think think they are being literal and only considering the modern necktie in their data. Even Wikipedia had a pretty good article about the history of ties although theirs also only covers the traditional idea of a necktie and not neck wear in general. Their article is pretty interesting, though and covers a variety of issues concerning ties, such as safety, and gives a little insight into the use of alternate forms of ties, such as clip-on styles.

I, myself, have always wanted to make bowties. I don't necessarily want to make the kind you tie yourself (instructions for tying a bowtie are also found on the web) but rather I would like to make the clip-on style bowties. I don't know why. It just sounds like it would be fun to me. I think I will put that on my agenda for my 101 things. I need to replace a couple of those goals anyway because they became obsolete before I could complete them.

So there you have it. Theme based writing. Go look up some history.

Oh yay!

I bought a new stove. It will be here Wednesday. I will add to this blog when I get home, but for now this is it. It qualifies. I will tie it to the theme later.

This picture was borrowed from styleforum through the magic of copy and paste because it fits the theme.

A very productive day today. I was able to get a lot done. Well, not necessarily things that really show, but things that have to be done none-the-less. I straightened up my fabric storage today and dusted it and got down the cobwebs. It is on shelves in the room in which I am currently sleeping. I look at it every night when I am sitting here on my computer and it was really bothering me that it was "out of order". When David stayed in this little room he wanted a little more space so he rearranged some of my stacks. I like them to be by type, texture and sometimes color or pattern. For instance, all my corduroys are together and my denims. I have one stack of printed denim and one stack of solids, one stack of printed cords and one stack of solids and my stripes together, my stars together, my florals together. The cottons are mostly prints, but I do have a stack of solids. I keep my "novelty" fabrics (what they are called at the fabric store) together, my children's together, my cutouts together. You get the idea. I can quit obsessing now.
So anyway, today I started putting them all back in the right stacks, refolding them and dusting the edges. I have all my holiday fabrics back together and now all I have to do is lower the bottom shelf to its original position and restack the novelties, blouse/shirt fabrics and baby fabrics so that I can make room to bring the fleece in here. I want to clear the shelves in my sewing/craft room so that I can move all my photo and scrapbooking stuff into that room to make it a little more accessible. It's a lot of rearranging but the end result should make my life a lot more efficient. I love efficiency! Seriously.
I finally got my "pay advance" at work (I think some places call it a draw). I asked for it to help Jeren get his truck (he will pay me back) and so I could get a stove. I thought I could live without a stove, but I was sadly mistaken. I'm not sure why. I lived without one for three years at my other house and that was when I had four kids to feed, so not sure why it's been so hard this time. It has seriously been making me just a little insane. Mom and I went together and we each got one and they will be delivered next Wednesday. They were on sale for $399.00, which is a hundred dollars off the regular price. YAY!. Now I need to go put a nice set of pots and pans on layaway at Kmart. I think I will do that tomorrow.
I went over to Jodi's today and picked up the lamp and some books for David and Nikki. David is going to be so excited when he sees the books. (Thank you so much, Jodi!)
When I got home I still had time to do stuff outside and there was a little break in the weather, so I dug out the grass in front of the sidewalk (between sidewalk and driveway) and leveled it down about six inches so i could fill it with gravel. I used bricks to hold the gravel in place and so that I can dig the next section without getting mud and dirt into the completed section. It looks nice and now you can walk from the car to the house without going through the muddy grass. Our grass gets muddy in the winter because the water table is rising and my yard sits in water for most of the winter. (It's technically still winter, although I declared this SPRING #1 because we are owed a spring from last year when it went straight from winter to summer without passing go.)
That hour counts as my workout today no matter what the Wii says. I used an edger (as in the kind you step down on to use, not motorized), a flat shovel, a pick-axe, a shovel, the rake and the broom. I did twists while throwing the gravel into the dug-out area with the shovel.
The reason I place-marked this blog earlier was because I wanted to go to the casino with Mom and Dad. We went and ate at the Asian Garden Cafe. I got my usual which they call "bun". There is an accent over the "u" when they spell it. It is basically veggies (cucumber, bean sprouts, lettuce, carrots, and daikon) with vermicelli (rice noodles) and a meat of your choice (chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp). It also has two small eggrolls cut up and is sprinkled with chopped peanuts. It is served with fish sauce. (Equal parts fish sauce,sugar and vinegar stirred together in water and with hot pepper flakes added) I also ask for extra basil which is served fresh. I love it!
I gambled a bit and won 292 dollars. That was nice. Usually I only play. I don't win much because I play very small amounts but tonight my ticket started going up so I increased my bet and it just kept creeping up. That was nice because it meant I played for free and if I put 250 in the bank I still have 42 to spend and if you count the sixty I spent, I'm still 190 ahead so it cut the price of my stove nearly in half. Haha.

I'm not sure how this ties into the theme, but at least I have the word ties in it. Twice!

Bumper ties.

How about a mundane, this-is-what-I-did-today style blog?

The baby had an appointment today and I wanted to go to talk to his doctor about a few episodes we have seen lately that were a little scary. Emily, the baby's other grandma didn't have a chance to see any of these episodes, but David was present for all of them and I was present for one of them and they were a little scary. I've been taking care of babies since I was eleven years old and I have never seen anything like this. I've never had a baby in my care that has had a seizure or convulsion, and I'm not sure that what Daelin did was actually either of them, but it was a little freaky none-the-less.

David had called me yesterday to ask if I would pick up a crib for them if Emily bought it because there is no way it would fit in her car. I was glad to oblige, so last night when I got off from work he called and wanted to know if I wanted to come over for a bit and pick up the receipt. Emily was still there when I got there and we all started talking and we got into one of those kinds of conversations that kind of went on forever. It was all quite interesting, really, and I'm not going to go into that here, but before we knew it, it was around 3am in the morning. So I drug myself home and got into bed and went to sleep around 4. I heard Jeren get up and figured I would just get up early and be tired today, but then I decided to snuggle back down and didn't get up until 11. Argghhh!
Are you bored yet?
Whatever. I got up and did some stuff around the house but decided I would get the crib after the appointment instead of before. Tuesday, Jodi, an acquaintance from Craigslist had emailed me about a "Winnie the Pooh" lamp she found in her closet. She had recently given me four "Winnie the Pooh" lithographs for the baby and thought that they might like to have the lamp, too. I figured I would go get that and then head to the doctor's appointment and on the way I could stop and get some McDonald's coffee. It's cheaper at the 72nd street McDonald's than the one by my house and it was right on the way. Jodi wasn't home when I stopped by, so I left and headed to the pediatrician's office. We had to wait about two minutes before being called in to the room. Very nice!

Here is Daelin waiting in the car seat.
Ok, grandma, but you only get one eye open.


The doctor's appointment went really well. The nurse checked him out

and asked questions and it was barely two minutes between her leaving and the Doctor coming into the room.
We were in the "Farm Room". This was a bench in the room:


They're not quite done decorating it yet. They just repainted everything.
I like this place and I really like the pediatrician. He is very down-to-earth and family friendly. We all expressed our concerns about Daelin's little episodes and he patiently allowed all of us a turn to talk. Emily didn't have much to say because she hadn't actually seen what happened and it's hard to describe here, so I won't try, but he did give them the number to schedule an EEG to be check his brain activity and make sure things are firing correctly. If that turns out ok there are several non-threatening reasons to explain just what is happening and he gave options to start trying now that might avert future episodes.

Nikki dressing Daelin after the check-up.



"Hi Grandma. You can have both eyes open for this one."


We all felt better after the visit so we decided to go to Las Palomas, something we've been trying to do together for months, now. However, it's just not in the cards.
Today's reason:
Closed for remodeling. It's also getting a name change, so I'm hoping the food will still be the same. I love their spinach enchiladas. So yummy!
David and I headed off to get the crib and see about his check and Nikki and Emily and the baby headed off to get her prescription. We decided we would just all do fast food so they went to Frugal's and David and I tried the place that used to be A & W. He had a "Blessing Burger" and I had a mushroom burger. The food was pretty good and the fries were those coated kind, which I really like.
Are you bored yet?
We headed back to the apartment and I pushed David up the stairs while he end-over-ended the crib up the stairs. (it was very heavy) Mainly I was making sure the weight of the crib didn't push him over backwards, but Nikki found it very amusing. haha.
We visited awhile and then Emily left to go home and David and Nikki set about building a crib while Daelin and I napped together on the couch. I didn't really need a nap, but when a nice little snuggly baby falls asleep on your chest, it's like a sleeping pill.
I was a little annoyed because I wanted to get pictures of them building the crib, but oh well. I have this one of David putting together the hamper.


And the finished product, minus the hamper and trundle drawer.

Are you bored yet?
Ok...well, that is about it anyway. I spent all day with David, Nikki and Daelin doing almost nothing and I'm not going to feel guilty about it. It was actually quite relaxing and enjoyable and they even let me tie the bumper pads on the crib because David couldn't master making a bow out of the ties. It wasn't easy, even for me.

Wondering.

I'm wondering why I signed up for another WHOLE month of blogging. I do enjoy being able to write, even if it's mundane stuff. I don't really care about an audience, although I do enjoy the few fans I have and I enjoy reading what they write, too.
I don't have a fantastically interesting life as far as I'm concerned, but most of the people who know me seem to think I have an incredibly interesting life and tell me all the time I should write about it.
I liked this month's theme. There is a lot that could be done with it if I take the time to prepare things. I need to take some pictures and dig up some stuff. I would like to do that because I would like to do at least most of the blogs on the theme.
I am going through my house right now one room at a time and getting things in order so I can do a painting blitz soon. I'm sort of using my one hour a day program, although I've completely fallen out of taking care of myself again. Going to get back on that next week. This week I'm doing a lot of physically challenging chores and walking a lot so that will cover the minimum exercise requirement and I honestly can't get excited about adding anything else right now. The Wii Fit should have a place where you can note other things you do to exercise outside of their program, like when I ride my exercise bike.
I tried to find a picture that fit the theme for this month. This is the best I can do from what I already have on file.

What ties these three things together?



They are all old restaurant style syrup jars with red on the handles.

February

I can't believe it's February. January is dust in the wind and about that fast, too. I've decided to continue blogging daily for February. The theme this month is ties. I think I can do some interesting things with that. I have this little box I made out of a tie. I have shoelaces. There are loose ends that need to be tied up. I might be breaking ties with someone. There are apron strings that still need a little untying.
There are all kinds of ties around to use.
For now I need to go get ready for work and get out the door. My day was a little off-kilter.
Today I broke my ties with January and tomorrow I will need to rekindle the ties with my Wii.