thursday thirteen

im the queen of distraction, and in honor of the not so desirable quality i give you thirteen things that i have started and not yet finished:

1) the dishes, actually Dominic and i started them this morning, theyre about 3/4 of the way done.

2) putting away laundry, this has been going on for weeks now.

3) a knit hat, yes i still have my sister's round needle, from the begining of august

4) my studio, i think i have a good excuse for that one ( i have alot of other things that should be finished first, right?)

5) last week's Chuck, i wanted something funny, it was too "relationshipy" i turned it off and watched Psych instead.

6) my sons birthday thank you's (enter this under hiding my face in shame)

7) the table cloth makeover, i promised you pictures of that months ago.

8) the Anne of Green Gables set of books that Rachel loaned. me im up to the third one.

9) my coffee from this morning.

10) my fall crafts.

11)

may da force be wif you

i have been comissioned by D to make him a jedi for halloween. i have found several particularly interesting costume tutorials.

and i must say, there are alot of Star Wars fans who take a jedi's costume VERY seriously, apparently theres a discrepency as to whether or not there is a seam up the back of the robe or not, im on the no vote since it will make the costume construction much easier. fortunately for me my pint size Star Wars geek only cares about the illusion of being jedi. he knows there must be a tunic and a robe with a hood that you can pull down over you eyes and most definitely somewhere to keep you lightsabre.

wow, it has been almost a week since i posted!! this has been a super fast week!

what i did? you want to know what i did? well, saturday and sunday were spent painting D's room and ripping up his nasty 1970's carpet and re assembling the room quickly so he could sllep there sunday night. and boy was i sore.

monday: work, work work, deal with a boy who cant get right at school

tues: (see monday) and hatch a plan to help said boy get right, and e-mail teacher to have her help me, help boy get right

wednesday: celebrate success of said plan with happy meal, mcdouble and chocolate shake (gastric upset free with purchase)

so today....today, i set about to do what i planned to do last week but which turned into painting D's room...set up my new studio space in the spare bedroom/junk room.

my sewing machine has been in the living room for about a year and a half now and its not the optimum location i have to stretch the cord across a traffic path which could potentially trip the less graceful members of my household. i have to drag out the iron and ironing board every time i set out to create. not condusive to impromptu creativity.

im imagining organized fabric stash, jars of ribbon remnants and this which i plan to make, a spool holder!! yep i love my threads, but the love each other, too much, way too much which means i have to un tangle them from each other when i need one.

i will show you when im done, not before, K? so it may be a couple of weeks

its friday!

the day i have historically had trouble holding fast to my challenge to buy nothing that is not consumable. one week i bought books, the next week it was a pair of earbuds.

this week, i will try really, really hard NOT to do that!

my plans for today are

clean house, i dont just throw the phrase pig sty around a la my loving mother (love ya mom!) but this place is a pig sty, i have been under the weather, Ken has been under the weather, dominic stays true to his mini tornado self and thus i found a piece of a nacho chip in the couch coushion, under a pile of books, newspapers, tissues and a blanket which is as we speak, in the washer.

go grocery shopping, all of our sorta easy dinner food is used up, all our snacks are obliterated and due to some unusually wild antics in the classroom Dominic is officially OFF of sugar for a time which means no juice boxes, no cookie packs and absolutely no marshmellows will find their way to my sons lunch bag.

move my sewing desk into its own new studio space!!!! this one is super exciting for me, but it also means alot of work in cleaning up the super big walk in closet/junk room /guest room, which will be my studio space and just maybe painting it, i would love to paint it, but im still tossed up colorwise. (suggestions welcome)

the last thing on my list today is to attend the Chautauqua poster signing reception at Nice Shots Photography. the poster photo was taken by professional photographer and good friend of ours Stephanie Hellmann she has a shop/studio on main street. stop by tonight if you can.

well, that looks like a day busy enough to keep me from shopping.

um...YUM!!!

because my love affair with caramel apples goes way back to like, 2nd grade may i present the snack i will be calling....

"what i did on my fall vacation" or "i ate them all before you got home snacks"

(well...click it already)

seriously!! what a BRILLIANT idea!!!

delicious dish

isnt this great? im not buying...im saying, ya know, maybe you should.... check out all kinds of beautiful on etsy!

almost!

i wanted some pretty colored teal and purple bobby pins, i resisted

i considered some sidewalk chalk that was on sale for like .50 , i managed to walk on by

magazine in the check out? no thank you

but have my 5 year old strip off all the rubber from my Apple earbuds and i will cave under the pressure. i bought some new ones , i had to (says me) i cant screen print shirts all day long, all week long with no music. the cost was 7.99. they were a cheap off brand but they work and dont put uncomfortable pressure on my ears.

friday seems to be the day to go off track, i will try really hard next friday to NOT buy any non consumbale goods.

chill in the air

nights have started getting a little chilly here on the hilltop. i quickly noticed that dominic had only 1 pair of pajama pants, since in the summer large tee shirts were is pajama of choice.

i though, oh no! im going to have to buy...but wait...i can make pjs, they dont have to be fancy, so thats what i did.

i used an old green curtain panel and voila, they look just like scrubs.

i was surprised at just how easy it was, all i did was trace around a pair he already had which i folded in half, cut through 4 layers of material and found out that its super easy to assemble lounge pants.

doing well

the challenge went well this weekend even though we spent sunday in civilization (indianapolis).

lunch on sunday was at the Olive Garden, Ken and i shared a plate of shrimp and chicken carbonara, this combined wit the salad and bread sticks was all the food either of us needed. Dominic got his old stand-by, macaroni and cheese.

after lunch, as Dominics birthday present, Aunt Rachel and Uncle Halbert treated us all to a day at the indianapolis childrens museum! what a great birthday gift! there was a dinosaur exhibit and a star wars exhibit. the day at the museum ended with everyone exhausted and not even a second glance toward the gift shop.

for dinner, since we all were so extremely tired and in need of proteins, we had A&W grill burgers, D and i mostly only ate the meat, plus some yummy crispy deep fried fries. and even though this A&W was located at the mall, tiredness kept me in my right mind about not buying anything.

the ride home did include a stop at Target, in Columbus, IN. we were in need of shampoo and litter box liners, which i deem an item we are allowed to buy, and with good reason, the other alternative would be to try to give Fatty away....hmmmm, theres an idea, anyone want a 24 pound cat? Kidding, i kid....

DOH!

blame it on this little guy. i did.

i had a fail day on my challenge thanks to this fuzzy friend. i am definitely going to have to steer clear of the Village Lights Bookstore this month if i want to live up to my own challenge to not buy any non-consumable goods.

well, theres always starting over today..i will not go to the bookstore today.

this was a skirt yesterday!!

moving clothes around in my closet i found this skirt, i love the fabric, but the fit was not so flattering, lets just say even Olive Oyl would need a control top panty hose to make this skirt work.

i decided this would work MUCH better as a shirt, and it did. although with one of these skirt to shirt projects last month someone asked Ken if i was pregnant, im not! but i dont care! these shirts are so comfortable i will let people ask if im pregnant and promise not to get offended.
i also modified these pants, they were american eagle flared pants, i LOVE american eagle jeans, so soft and comfy, and the top fit beautifully, but im just not into the flare anymore.

i set about cutting and stitching, and un stitching, and re stitching and cutting a little more and stitching, and pulling out loose threads from the unstitching and then stitching a little more, it was a trial and error project, but im happy with the end result, even if they are a little long.

challenge

heres my challenge. if you choose to accept it. go one month without buying anything that is not consumable.

we are going to do it and i would love for you to join us

what you can buy:

food, of course

drinks

gas

medication

health and beauty supplies

diapers and wipes

paper products

light bulbs

batteries

what you cant buy:

clothes

shoes

toys

books

home decor

tools

gifts

craft supplies

linens....

you get the idea, if you dont eat it or use it for energy of some kind, its a no go.

need a birthday gift? youre going to have to make it out of something you already have.

need a shovel? youre going to have to borrow one.

beg, borrow, barter, trade or make. thats the name of the game.

i will update as close to every day as possible during the challenge. please, e mail me or facebook meaasge me your updates. oh, and tell your friends.