CarpeAcum

Of Dentists and Swimsuits

I wrote this out yesterday, then left the computer window open and someone in my household closed the window without saving. I hate that. Now I have to figure out what I was trying to say. Do you ever feel like no matter what it is, it's worse the second time, even though you can't remember what you wrote first, and it's quite likely that it was not any better, or even EXACTLY THE SAME WORDS? Since you don't remember? Here goes. . .

We went to the dentist today. Since the dentist is right around the corner from the closest Hancock Fabrics, I decided to go in and wander around and see what they had. I'm half-heartedly looking for some fabric to make a lining for an apron from some stash fabric. I went through my stash bins last weekend, and it gave me the strength to walk out of JoAnn's with NOTHING on Thursday when I went in just to look around. Nothing looked as inspiring as fabric I already own. I need to replace some buttons on a cardigan, but since they weren't on sale, and I'm not wearing cardigans right now, I can wait on those.

ANYway, I walked into Hancocks, Punkin rolling her eyes and sighing. I told her she could go next door to the Petco, alone (this is a big step for me, not her) instead of having to go to the fabric store with me. Off she went, and I sauntered through the store, looking for nothing in particular. I noticed that the McCalls patterns were on sale, and even though I had looked through the catalog online, I thought I would look through the book. Well, I found two patterns, 3566 and 5400 that together are exactly what Punkin wants for a swimsuit. I messaged Punkin to come and look at the patterns.  She likes the boy cut bottoms in 3566, and the halter top in 5400. I don't know how I missed these when I was looking online, but at $0.99, I got them both. The Jalie pattern still hasn't arrived, but I'll probably use it, too, when it gets here. We went looking at swimsuit fabric then, and even though there was an orange print, Punkin chose a solid turquoisey blue. I bought a full yard, and I'm thinking I'll get a couple each of different bottoms and tops out of it. I have lining fabric and elastic, so I'm going to make one up today.

It was interesting looking at patterns with Punkin--and there was another mom on the other side of the pattern book table doing the same thing with her somewhat younger daughter. Punkin liked 5591, and I asked her what she liked about it: the yellow and black print? the pleats? the waistline? What she liked was the yellow band at the bottom. I asked if she had noticed the pleats and she said she had <motherly doubts>. Then we looked at 5856, and I pointed out that I though she would like this one better because of the waist treatment. I showed her the line drawing on the page (which was missing in 5591) and pointed out the lack of waistband (although truthfully, the model on 5591 has the skirt almost at her actual waist, where no 13 YO would consider wearing a "waist" band [when I had Punkin measure her waist at the fabric store so I could buy the right pattern size, she first put the tape measure around her hips, where her jeans were]). Even though she talked about liking the pleats on the skirt, when we thumbed past another pattern, she pointed at the yellow twin set and said she would wear that with the skirt from the other pattern--highlighting that she was still more drawn by the color and print than the actual pattern.

I have often had this problem when trying to sew for other people, but especially for children. Learning to look past the beautiful fabrics on the pattern envelope is a learned skill, and if you don't have the natural ability, then it probably takes some work. Every time I tried to sew for my nieces when they were growing up, they would pick a pattern and try to find the fabric in the picture. Come to think of it, when I was working in the graphics department for an engineering firm, we had to have the new test logos printed up in the actual colors for the engineers to look at and approve--an exercise that cost the company several hundred dollars in, since the printer had to change the ink in the machines and create new original documents for each run (long before color printers were on every desk). The decision makers couldn't make the leap from seeing the colors on the computer screen to what they would look like on paper. In the end, they chose the least imaginative and most comfortable logo--it looked just like the old one with the new name attached.

I'm not sure where this is going, but hopefully, I'll have a swimsuit for you to look at by the end of the day. I wouldn't want you to have to imagine it.

Still Invincible

Punkin recently decided that she needed a new swimsuit for this summer. Last year's suit simply would NOT do. It has a scoop neck, and. . . MOM! I can't wear THAT!

She wanted a tankini. I thought about tankinis and her body shape and suggested that she should try on some swimsuits, figure out what style she liked ( I knew she wouldn't like a tankini once it was on her body) and then I would make her a suit from the orange fabric that I have on hand. Orange is the new pink, doncha know.

So we went to the local Penneys to buy summer clothes (score! No summer here yet, but all summer clothes are on clearance--that's what nationwide chains get for setting up sales and merchandise to all stores equally. They send us sleeveless Easter dresses [sleeveless? In March? Are you kidding me???], and start the summer clearance before we've had a single day over 75), and tried on some swimsuits along the way. The swimwear was mostly picked over, but there were a couple things to try on. Punkin wanted to buy something RIGHT NOW, but I convinced her that I could make something that would make her happier. She reiterated the "no scoop neck" policy, and I assured her that I did, in fact, want her to share that information BEFORE I sewed an entire suit--not after.

So I went looking for swimwear patterns. Not surprisingly (but still--surprisingly) there was nothing that I could buy locally--very few swimwear patterns in the Big 3, and nothing remotely suitable (SUITable--I crack myself up). I checked out Kwik Sew, and no boy cut bikini bottoms there. So I checked out the selection at Jalie, and came up with Jalie 2446. It's just what she wants. And it's available locally, only it turns out that it's not. I called Seattle Fabrics, and someone checked for me, and they don't have this one pattern. So needed to order it. I finally got around to it today, having decided that I have exhausted my local sources. After I hit the order button, I read the part where it says that it will take 10-12 days for it to arrive. I know it's coming from Canada, but still. . .10 days?!?

I informed Punkin of the time lapse, and she said, in perfect teen-ese, "Mom. I think you can do it. I mean, it's just two triangles and a strap thing that goes around, and the bottoms are just shorts. You've made shorts before. You don't need a pattern."

Ahhhh. . .she still thinks I've got it.

What to Read?

I have been reading a series of books by LA Meyer, the Bloody Jack series. Punkin and I have both been reading them. I just finished the latest one, and she is just a book behind. But now I am at a loss. After reading the same series for several months, it's hard for me to decide what to read next. I have a pile of books from the library, and I just need to make up my mind. One is the third book in a series, and I would really like to re-read the other two before starting this new one.

Decisions, decisions.

Punkin is growing up

Yesterday, I posed a challenge to Punkin. I challenged her to get herself out of bed with her own alarm (no mom-alarm-clock), get herself dressed, fed and out the door with a lunch on time to make it to the bus. All without help from me. This is all in preparation for the event that I have a subbing job on the day that she gets to sleep in.

I have to say that she passed with flying colors. Just knowing that she was going to have to be responsible for herself made it all come together. She even scrambled herself an egg!

As we continually tell her, it's one step closer to a cell phone!

Appendicitis?

Nope.

But we had to check it out with the doc to be sure.

Punkin came into my room last night with a sharp pain right by her right hipbone. Then there was crying and she came to sleep by me. No one slept. She went back to her own bed and fell asleep. When I checked on her later, I figured that if it really was appendicitis, no way would she be asleep. (I've never actually had appendicitis, but I had all the symptoms. They thought it was appendicitis, but when I woke up I had a really long scar. They took my appendix, too, for good measure. My surgeon threatened me with dire consequences if I ever told anyone that was my appendix scar --g--) Anyway, no way could I have slept through that pain.

We all slept in, since we had been up and about at 1:00 a.m. When I woke Punkin up, she still had some pain, so I kept her home from school. About 12:30, I called the nurse advice line at the doctor's office. When she called back, she agreed that it would be good for Punkin to be seen (and poked. And prodded. And told to jump up and down.) so we went in and got the okey-dokey from a medical professional.

Punkin and I both relaxed quite a bit after that.

She's been taking it easy today, eating "safe" food and watching movies. Hopefully, she'll be back at it tomorrow.

Lazy Vacation Days

Today was another lazy vacation day. I had a goal set, and I didn't make it, but I'm okay about it. We had a wonderful family lazy day. Punkin had her friend SF over to finish sewing the bags. It was about 20 minutes of sewing. I guessed it would take about an hour. 3 hours later, the bags were lined and ready to go. Each girl got a big kick out of pulling the whole bag through the hole in the lining. It goes from looking like you just made a big rectangle of fabric to looking like an actual bag. It's magic! They loved it. SF had some problems with her machine, and that put a damper on her enthusiasm. She still needs to put crosshatches on the straps, but that's all topstitching and it should go quickly. Punkin got her bag all done, although she had great difficulty staying on task. She seemed to want to flit to whatever else was going on around her. The same child that I have watched play Wii games for several hours running with no bathroom break and usually without eating, because she would have to stop to fix it. So I know it's not her concentration ability that is lacking. It's just something about sewing, I guess.

Then The Beard and I played some Super Mario Brothers until we were tired of getting our behinds kicked. Then he did some writing and I avoided cleaning the den, which was my one goal for the day.

One more break day, and then I am going to try my hand at substitute teaching. I have no idea how it will go, but I'm going to give it a try.

Sewing Lessons

(I think this is disjointed, but I'm so tired that I'm not even sure of that. I'm not even checking for spelling. Read at your own risk.)

Today, I got to help a budding young sewist. One of Punkin's friends (let's call her, um. . .SF [that's actually for Starfire, but it could also stand for Sewing Fan]) got a sewing machine for Christmas. It's a Brother machine that her mom got at Walmart, but it sewed reasonably well. She brought it in the box. The box was still taped. I think that both she and her mom were completely intimidated by it, and just hadn't gotten up the nerve to open it and start. I chose a simple tote bag pattern, and off we went!

First, I made her identify the parts of the machine by looking them up in the book. Then we worked on winding a bobbin and then threading the machine. There are so many parts of sewing that are automatic after you do them for years. She was so tentative threading the machine. I had to point out that it would go much more quickly with two hands, and that most of the time the concept was the same as flossing your teeth--taut thread makes it go fast.

We went into the sewing room (look out!) and picked some fabric. I chose some denim with a design weave--it has a name, but I can't think of it now--and the girls chose some cotton quilt weight fabric to go with it. I wanted the one layer of denim for durability and versatility: denim goes with everything! I wanted the other layer to be lighter. No one wants to carry around a tote bag that weighs 5 pounds empty! But I wanted the project to be lined so we didn't have to worry about finishing the edges of stuff. When I learned to sew, I just didn't finish edges because no one told me to. Then I got a serger, and that's what I use for finished edges now. But I wanted SF to be able to use only her own machine for this project. SF chose a maroon gingham, and Punkin chose a WSU Cougars print.

Speaking of learning to sew, I got the tote bag pattern from the only sewing class I ever took. It was an evening class at the local Community College (Olympic College) and it was the late 80's. That teacher was the one who got me started on the Singer Sewing Reference Library. I ordered it and got one book every month or so until I had all of them. They are hardback books, and I have used them countless times over the years. Eventually, I got an index for them, and that has been useful, too. The tote bag pattern is typed on a typewriter (pre-word processing, and pre-page layout programs), 6 pages worth, with illustrations added in. I like the bag as sewn, and there are lots of little tips in the pattern. The two girls seemed to be able to follow the instructions AS LONG AS THEY READ THEM!!!

Me: Where do you place the straps?

Punkin: It doesn't say where to put them.

Me: Are you sure it doesn't say anywhere? SF, how did you decide to put your straps there?

SF: I'm doing what Punkin is doing.

Me: But your straps look really far apart. Where are your directions?

SF:. . .

Me: . . .

SF: . . .um. . .

Punkin: <pointing> Those are mine.

SF: . . .

Me: <Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't say anything!!!>

SF: Over there on the floor? By the table across the room?

Me: Well, let's check out what they say. Oh! Here it says, "place the straps the width of the pocket."

Punkin and SF, in chorus: Ohhhhh. . .

And so on. At one point, I had to go into the other room and let them make their own mistakes. Punkin's straps are backwards: the seam faces the outside. She is willing to live with it rather than spend 2 minutes to fix it. It's her bag. SF had to completely re-do her straps. I did the stitch removal, because it's a pain, and because I wanted to make sure there were no holes in the fabric. I had her pick the threads out after I cut them, though. I'm pretty sure she will remember to check twice the next time. Then I had her pin the straps on and show me before sewing. We had to compare with the picture. She wanted the straps to look like straps that you would hold the bag with, and not be right sides together, with the straps down against the bag. She compared hers with the picture, and we got that part straightened out.

The next part is the side seams, then the lining, then tacking down the straps. They are mostly done with the visualizing part. I think they are both excited to have a tote bag they have made themselves. They worked on it for 3-4 hours straight, even though they had a "sleep"over Monday night and hardly got any sleep at all.

It was fun working through the project with them. It was remarkable how different their styles were, both their learning styles and their approaches to problem solving. It was also interesting that they are both allergic to reading directions --g-- We find this with the Girl Scout troop as well. They are likely to forge ahead without any research and then be really frustrated when they have to do something over. I figure they learn by having to fix it themselves.

I meant to take pictures. They both had their machines set up on the kitchen table. I will get pictures of them the next time, and definitely pictures of the finished tote bags.

12 Years. . .

Exactly 12 years ago, I was lying in a delivery room, holding my newborn daughter. The epidural had not yet worn off, and the shock and wonder hadn't either. It was late at night, which meant that we couldn't make too many phone calls. Punkin arrived 3 weeks early (we joke that it is the last time she was early for anything!), and I had already had one false alarm, so we didn't call people to tell them I was in labor until I was really in labor, and then it was too late to call. So the phone calls were a complete surprise to everyone. I called my mom last, because she was in Kenya, and I knew that she would be awake. We, the new and terrified parents, were certainly not going to go to sleep any time soon. I still remember the lame little squished sandwich they gave me at 11:00 p.m. I had not eaten anything for 12 hours, while simultaneously performing the most rigorous work I had ever done in my life. I used to laugh at my SIL's request for dinner after labor, but no more! And I really wanted more than a squished sandwich, but that is what there was.

Fast forward 12 years, and Punkin is a beautiful young woman, unsure and confident at the same time. Tall for her age (or any age: she's already taller than 3 of the adult women in our family), poised, smart and fun to be around, with a fierce sense of humor, she is growing into a wonderful woman I am proud to know and prouder to have had some influence on.

Happy 12th, Punkin! I love you.

XXOO  --Mom

Gingerbread Houses 2008

Two days before Christmas, in the middle of the Storm of 2008, Punkin invited two friends over to build and decorate gingerbread houses. There's more to the story, but this post is only about gingerbread.

I used the book Making Great Gingerbread Houses to get inspiration and recipes. I ended up tripling the gingerbread dough recipe on page 34 to make 4 of these houses. It came out almost exactly. My mixer will handle a double recipe (yay, mixer!). I also made a double recipe of the royal icing recipe on the same page. I used the Cuisinart. For the second batch of icing, I used the recipe on page 24 of the same book: 1 pound of powdered sugar, 2 T meringue powder and water. I mixed this in the mixer, and it came out wonderfully! You have to beat it for a while, but it is much superior to the icing recipe they give on the recipe page, and easier to boot. It may be the difference between using a mixer and using a food processor, too, but I still like the easier recipe. 4X the recipe with a 4lb Costco bag of powdered sugar. Probably twice (2 4lb bags of sugar).

The Beard spent some time engineering the pattern for the houses, and also the architectural support (aka: cardboard). We built the houses with the girls there, and were concerned that they would not be "set" enough to decorate, so we cheated with hot glue. Do NOT be tempted to do this. The icing will work much better. Really.

Here's the raw gingerbread house canvas:

 

Here are its secret underpinnings (gasp!):

Well, maybe later it will show you its underpinnings. It seems shy right now. Suffice it to say that the underpinnings are basically a handmade-to-order cardboard box.

Here are some decorating shots:

        Notice the obligatory hot chocolate mugs.   

   

Almost as much pixie stick sugar was applied externally to the houses as internally to the girls. And there's nearly as much on the houses as there is on the table. Notice the marshmallow chimney on the house on the right. It will come up on the test.

   

Now notice the chimney in the picture on the left--completely camouflaged with royal icing! Please ignore the Necco wafer stack, though. That was The Beard's contribution.

 

Here we have the famous red vine walkway.

The girls had a great time. They were at our house for about 5 hours. Both of their moms eventually called to find out whether they were ever coming home. It was great fun, and they were all proud of their houses. They didn't even make much of a mess. Bonus!

Here's the whole village, for review:

 Further notes for my edification:

• Plan this for AFTER the piano recital.

• Make the gingerbread well in advance.

• The houses should be assembled at least an hour or even a day before decorating.

• There's lots of stuff left over in the boxes in the garage. Nothing I would want to actually *eat* but it will work great for houses. Check it out before buying more goodies.

• Set up a schedule with The Beard before starting--like the week before. We often have very different visions of how something should go, but just need to communicate in order to minimize the last minute panic. Also, notes from this year will be very important in putting this together another time.

 

Believe it or not, writing this post is something I can now check off of my to-do list. Those of you who follow this blog (both of you--you know who you are!) know that posting with regularity is a challenge for me. I wanted to document this year's gingerbread experience, because I suspect it will be repeated, and I hate having to invent the wheel. These are my notes for future reference, so they may not be very clear to someone else.