Elna Grasshopper, my little green machine

Elna Grasshopper, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Rocky found an Elna #1 at Value Village for me. We were lucky that he found it the day before the 1/2 price sale and that the case looks innocuous. The kids and I got up early and were there when the doors opened. Little greenie was clearly being overlooked by everyone else, but I wasn't taking any chances. The herd has thinned quite a bit since I started collecting, but when he found this one, I couldn't pass it by!

Happy 9th Birthday Captain C!

Captain C, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

For Charmie's Birthday we spent the weekend at Lake Hartwell, SC. We all had a blast with our new family toy, more deets on our recreational blog! I think this is a birthday he will remember!

Exercises in weaving

, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

I decided for my next weavings to work with scraps of organic cotton, and cotton/linen blends to make some towels. I love how they came out. The boys chose from the selected yarns and told me which ones in what order. These towels are SO SOFT!!! I must make more. I'm really enjoying weaving!

A woven scarf for Janet

Finished scarf for Janet, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Before the move to Seattle, Janet gave me an Ashford 16" Rigid Heddle Loom. I warped it right away and a project languished on it until two nights ago when I cut it off. It started out as a table runner or stole and when I saw its ugliness off the loom it became a kitchen towel.
I bought the Rigid Heddle Weaving class at Craftsy.com and with some renewed confidence and insight to trouble shoot, I warped for a scarf. This for some reason came out WAY better than the first project did. As soon as its done drying I'm going to ship it off to Janet. I hope she likes wearing it.

my baby can ride!

my baby can ride! a video by mom2rays on Flickr.

Zuri received a Strider running bike for her second birthday. She received a Specialized pedal bike without training wheels for her fourth birthday. Unfortunately she hasn't been on it much. Today was her fourth time on the bike. And she rode it! I'm so proud of her. She has to gain confidence and coordinate turning and stopping, but she can ride! I think having Sippy, her first baby along for the ride helped her to focus. She was very concerned about crashing and hurting Sippy in the process.

Studio and Schoolroom redo

I showed you how it looked while we were in the process of the redo of our studio and school room so here's how it looks now that it's cleaned up. On the right side of the room we've placed all of the desks, the kids have some shelves to keep their desks isolated for ease of concentration and focus. As before, when we need to work together the center table is available.  My studio is on the left.  It now extends further down the room and is more functional.  

At the far end of the room we have our whiteboards and under the window the clickclack. It's great for reading time, there is storage underneath for board games and it folds into a double bed for guests.

The center table how holds the kids sewing machine (on loan from my mom) and our globe.



As I mentioned above there are bookcases/shelves between the desks to aid in the kids focusing.  On the shelves between Zuri and Mardie's desks we keep the daily use supplies like pencils, markers and colored pencils on top. Below are many of our classroom non math manipulatives and puzzles. Between Charmie and Mardie's desks I keep our greatly reduced workboxes. For this space, and where we are in our work, this simplifies things. I also keep the boys text books here. It's much simpler than keeping them with the other classroom materials. There's a lot less hunting and frustration this way.



To the right of Charmie's desk is a shelving unit that is an extension of my studio. My spinning wheels, some fiber, some yarn, some works in progress and related fiber tools are housed here in baskets.



The left side of the room (right side in this photo as viewed from Zuri's desk) has my studio. My sewing table setup hasn't changed. This was the best placement and allows for me to be able to work and keep an eye out on the kids simultaneously. Rocky and I share the desk.  As before, we work facing each other.  When I'm good and don't collect things on my desk it's plenty of space for both of us.



I cleaned out  the credenza that came with the desk and now store some of my office supplies and teacher's materials in it.  We were able to find IKEA office chairs in the "as is" room for well under 1/2 price!  Nothing is wrong with them, they were just no longer in the box.  They are very comfortable and well built.  They do not match.  We weren't trying to match them.  Rocky and I are built differently so it makes sense that we would be most comfortable in differently shaped chairs.  My chair is a wool version of the leather one we bought for the living room desk.  IKEA doesn't make it anymore sadly, but it's the most comfortable office chair I've ever used. Rocky's is green and black.



In the middle of the studio wall is my cutting/pinning/ironing table.  I've had to have one side folded down since we moved it up here.  This new configuration of the room allows me to have it all of the way open.  I have had ironing/pinning mats for a long time for this table, but the size didn't fit and they overlapped.  I finally cut and sewed them together to make one large fitted mat, vs. two ill fitting ones. Under it I have storage drawers that hold our math manipulatives, our school craft supplies, my mailing supplies and scale, as well as my cutting instruments. I'm going to be adding one more set of drawers in a few weeks and our science materials should then fit here as well.



Beyond the cutting table is a short bookcase of school resource books and a second with unused school supplies. I try to get supplies when they are affordable which isn't exactly when I need them.  I have to store them somewhere. Having them in one place allows me to keep an inventory of what we have and also itemize what we need for future sales.



The closet also got a redo.  It was full of videos/ DVD and VHS (yes we still have a VHS player), Wii games, board games (now under the clickclack), and over flow toys that we had temporarily taken out of rotation.  There was little useful organization, though Rocky had made multiple attempts.  It was a clusterscrew because it wasn't kid friendly and when opened almost always vomited its contents all over the walkway into the room.  I hated it because it was never tidy.  The solution; after we removed the items to more kid friendly storage areas was to move the remaining plastic drawers with fabric and yarn into it.  These drawers were previously on the landing at the top of the stairs and an eyesore.



I know it's A LOT to have it all in one room, optimally this would be in two separate and large rooms.  This is the modest space we do have and it all works. I feel so blessed to have this space to be used for a studio and school.  The space is very conducive to us working together. Everybody has their own space if needed yet we can come together for games or projects that require our combined efforts.  After some time, the room is becoming what I envisioned it being when we bought this home.

the storm before the calm

the storm before the calm, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

This past weekend Rocky and I needed to redo the school. We had to put the click clack (the black sleeper couch) back into this room. The chairs we had up here needed to be integrated elsewhere into our home. They ended up in the living room. Many things were taken out and shipped off to charity. And the space got a lot worse before it got better. You see we had gotten our school room where we thought it needed to be here.  But as I learn, I realize that no thing that I design or use is constant.  It's always changing, always in need of improvement. Always needing to be modified because I change and my needs change.  That's what has happened in this room.

First Vacation

We just got back from the Lake for our first vacation of 2012!  We had a blast last week and can't wait to get back.  Check out what we did on our RVing blog!

Sewing School

Sewing School, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

The kids have expressed interest in sewing, and I have interest in teaching them. Today I got my old sewing machine from my mom's house. I felt that starting on a basic mechanical machine would give them proper fundamentals of machine mechanics and maintenance.
They all had turns to sew some samples. Then Zuri wanted to sew a heart and Mardie wanted to make a dragon.
Zuri's project was pretty easy. Cut out a heart and stitch it up, turn and topstitch.
Mardie's involved making a pattern, coloring, ironing and lots of curves and angles. He did great though and even whipstitched the opening closed by hand after he stuffed his dragon.
I think we are going to have a lot of fun with sewing. I need to find some basic clothing patterns for shorts and pajamas that have multi sizing so they can experiment with making some clothes.
Thanks mommy for letting us use the machine :)

Spring has Sprung!

, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Freedom

Freedom, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

shredded and paid off cards. . . all of them :)

Coaching Upward Cheerleading

Gift bracelet made for my girls, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Well our Upward season is over, and I have had a blessed time coaching my 9 girls through it. I have seen them all, and myself grow. I have made some special friends with my Assistant coach and Team Mom. And to top it all off, I got through it! It was't easy. At times I was certain I would fail. I kept getting encouragement from Rocky and the parents.

At the end of the season, I made them each a bracelet, with their name, and a cheer, cross, and "made with love" charm to encourage them to remember our year, our devotions and whose they are!

Balle's scarf

Balle's scarf, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Zuri's first knitting project. I cast on 5 st in RYC Cashsoft leftover from a beanie I made in her first year. I let her hold her hands on the needles under mine and verbally repeat the steps as we worked the stitches together. It's about 10" long and now Balle's neck is nice and warm!

Balle gets a new bag (and outfit)

Balle gets a new bag (and outfit), a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Zuri got a few fiber art lessons today. Zuri received a Corolle Les Cheries Doll named Chloe Ballerina that she affectionately named Balle for her birthday. She sat with me and knit about 4 rows on a scarf for Balle. I will have to upload the scarf pics later, they are on my phone vs. camera.
Here's the bag and outfit that we made for Balle. Zuri helped with the design of the purse, she centered the design and pushed start (my sewing machine will allow hands free/presser foot free sewing) to sew out the design "Balle ♥♥♥". She did an excellent job!
She got disinterested though when I had to press and sew the tiny binding. It wasn't the type of work suitable for tiny princess fingers. :(
The outfit is made from 2 socks. I bought a TON of socks and made Z legwarmers before she was born. I planned to also sell some, never got around to it and have a ton unsewn and decided to copy an idea I saw on flickr to make them into doll clothes. They work perfectly. Sewing is reduced because they are already tubes so unless you want to, there is no need for side seams. They are stretchy so they are easy on and off for small fingers. No frustration that the clothes are stuck on or off. No complicated closures to manipulate.
For the leggins, I measured and cut the tube leaving the cuff of the sock as the waist band. Then edge stitched with a stretch stitch the entire bottom. Then I straight stitched up and around and down to form the legs. I sewed 1/4" on either side of center and marked which stripe to stop at based on laying Balle on the tube before sewing. Once sewn, I cut between the stitches leaving a 1/4" seam allowance. Voila, leggins!
For the tunic top, I cut out the focal bunny in a tube and sewed the bottom, stretching slightly to allow it to lettuce edge. I set aside the bunny tube.
Then I cut the 2nd sock below the bottom stripe, leaving the cuff in tact to form the neck edging. I edged the bottom with stretch stitch then cut the tube in two. leaving two rectangles (because these were stripes, I aligned the "jog" of the beginning of the stripes up to be where I cut so that it would be in the seam allowance.
Then I carefully pinned the sleeves to the bunny tube and first sewed the front, centering the cuffs on either side of the center of the tube. Then flipped and repeated the back, ensuring that the stripes matched. Then I turned it inside out and sewed the bottom of the sleeve seams, and turned it right side out.
These were WAY faster than any other doll clothes I've attempted in the past. I believe I will go back through some of the leg warmers that Z doesn't wear that much (she actually still wears quite a few of them) and harvest some for doll clothes for Balle.
I can also see a use for older tights that have gotten a hole, both mine and hers, making doll leggins!

2012 slippers

2012 slippers, a photo by mom2rays on Flickr.

Each year I end up knitting a new pair of slippers. The previous year's pair wears out and I crave a new style. For 2012 I chose to knit Malabrigo Loafers bu Coco Knits. I was able to knit them in an evening of Netflix shows. They required exactly one skein of Malabrigo Chunky for the size small.
I need to locate or make some soles to add tread, and keep them from wearing out so quickly. I also need to weave in the ends.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but they are a medium bluish purple.
I haven't decided whether or not I am going to add any further embellishment. There's something about their simplicity that I like at the moment.