How to avoid sleep...

If you feel that you are just getting too much sleep, and you just can't figure out a good way to promote more sleep deprivation an exhaustion in your life, I have just the solution for you!

VOLUNTEER TO BE A CHAPERONE AT YOUR CHURCH'S YOUTH TRIP

Yes, folks, it is that simple! Just pile into a couple of vans full of energetic teenagers. Drive for about 3-4 hours. (Be sure that you get suckered into actually driving one of the vans so that you can not relax during the drive.) Time the trip so that you barely make it to the quiz competition in time, so you that the kids can't get dinner before they must compete. Check into a hotel after 9:00 and share a room with three young adolescent gals. Allow gals to drink Pepsi at 11:00 at night and watch them bounce off the walls so that they don't settle down until well after 1:00.

If that is not late enough, take the burden of responsibility pretty heavily, so that everytime you hear a door open or footsteps down the hall, you wonder if it is one of your kids who do not have an sleeping in their room. Therefore, you feel you must get up out of bed and look out the door and check to be certain they are not getting into trouble.

It works even better if there are four adolescent boys sleeping in the room next door and their beds are up against the same wall as your bed. Then you can have the muffled sound of their voices keep you up until well past 2:00 a.m.

Be sure to wake up before 6:00 a.m. the next day. Spend an exhausting Saturday full of activities and competitions with the kids. Drive home at night. Don't get back until late. Be sure that your hubby must teach Sunday School the next morning so that sleeping in is not an option.

And there you have it...a surefire recipe for sleep deprivation and exhaustion!

(Actually, I had a great time, and I was more than happy to help out, but PSHEW! I am still tired 3 days later!)

Swappity Swap Swap

I am such a sporadic blogger. I just have too many pots in the fire to do this consistently! One thing that I have been involved in lately is a SecretPal Swap organized by Crochetville. I send goodies to someone and hopefully make their day brighter and someone else sends me goodies and spoils me rotten!

Here are some photos of what my pal sent me for her big REVEAL package. Thanks a million, Aunty M. You are a doll!







Aunty M sent me:
~~ One solid chocolate bunny, not the hollow kind! My kids swooped down on him immediately!
~~ A lovely crocheted angel made with a clothespin and pink thread.
~~ Some bayberry potpourri that made the whole package smell nice!
~~ My very first ever thread cutter pendant. That will definitely come in handy with my sewing and finer needlework projects...I am always loosing my scissors!
~~ A small cross-stitch kit that makes a little miniature quilt and another one that is like little pumpkin seed packet.
~~ A "Little Pot Pals" kit in which you decorate a miniature flower pot. I am thinking that will be something I can do with one of my daughters.
~~ Some relaxing bath salts and a blue body puff.
~~ A skein of lovely deep purple Lion Brand Homespun.
~~ A ball of 100% cotton chenille.
~~ Some salad "hands" for tossing and serving salads. (How did she know that we have managed to break every set of salad tongs that have ever entered our house?)
~~ A pattern for making a colorful striped knit bag. (I love to knit too!)
~~ A vintage Old Time Needlework Patterns and Designs magazine.
~~ A sweet little crocheted purse that my 10-year old immediately claimed.
~~ A beautiful, carved rosewood crochet hook in size "O" This is my first wooden hook and I have been drooling and longing for one.
~~ Another wooden crochet hook...this one is bamboo and size "P" I love my bamboo knitting needles and so I am sure I will like this too!
~~ Aunty M sewed up a crochet hook case for me too! I have been needing one of these...however I am struggling. You see, the pockets are nice and long, so it is perfect for my double pointed needles too! Right now it is holding all my hooks, but if I want, I can switch it out and use it for my DPN's instead!
~~ She also made me the most exquisite, gorgeous red shawl. It is soooo pretty! The photos do not do it justice at all! I was so thrilled that I wore it for two days straight!

Like I said, she spoiled me rotten!

I sent my secret pal, Kimbo, a package full of goodies at the beginning and another package at the end of the swap. Here are a few photos of some of the things I made to put in the last package. Her favorite colors to wear are brown and green, so I crocheted her a humongous tote bag out of variegated wool in those colors and then felted it. This was my first felting project.

Here is is being held up by my 5 year old before felting:


And after felting:


I also made an amigurumi bunny for her.


See the cute little cotton tail?


I know, you think it looks just like the one I previously blogged about, but my 5 year old promply adopted that bunny and I had to make another. This time I used an "F" hook rather than and "H." Isn't it amazing how big of a difference a fraction of a milimeter in hook diameter can make in the overall size of a finished project. See the latest bunny hanging out with its bigger sibling for some quality time before they were parted:



I also took some incredibly bright and colorful thread and made my first ever thread crocheted bookmark for my SP:




I also included some sterling and Swarovski crystal earrings I made for her as well as a pound of Starbucks coffee beans, so hopefully, she felt pampered a bit.

Swaps are great fun.

New Driving Rules

Have you heard about the newest driving rules??

1. Horizontal and vertical are the same (oh, I am not kidding!)

2. It is perfectly acceptable to slow down and drive beside someone you know and have a COMPLETE conversation. ....do not worry about holding up traffic. Remember you are ahead of everyone else.

3. Traffic laws are for everyone except you (again please remember you are SPECIAL those roads were all paved just for you so please drive the way YOU want to!)

4. If you are in the far right lane and you want to turn left then, by golly, just go ahead and do it (remember you are special!)

5. Everyone is really interested in hearing your type of music, by all means play it as loud as you can that way we won't have any trouble trying do hear our own music preference.

A friend sent me these rules after her recent trip to Las Vegas. I am proud to say that we are not backwards here in the South...there are plenty of folks in my community who seem to be well acquainted with these new driving regulations.

Amigu...what?!?

Hmmm...what could this be?



Add two of these:



A few of these...



And a couple of these...



Are you starting to catch on?



Aha! It's a cute widdle bunny!



I have been wanting desperately to try my hand at some amigurumi (just a fancy Japanese word for crocheted dolls and animals.) I have seen some really, really cuties! They are supposed to be quick and easy. Well, mine took most an afternoon and all evening, but I can be a bit dense. Everytime I would think, "Wow! This is so easy and it goes so fast!" well, that would be about the time I would discover I made a mistake...2 or 3 or 4 rows ago. And then it would be mutter, mutter, rip, rip, rip, do it over again!

Things I learned? Well, I am going to have to crochet tighter or use a smaller hook. I am seeing spaces between my stitches after I stuffed it. I can't wait to do more. I think I could even make my own patterns once I master all the simple shapes.

Want to see the work of an expert or two? Check out this (I love Crochetroo's blog. She is an artistic Aussie. Be sure to take time to browse the archives!): http://crochetroo.blogspot.com/

and this: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=26966

and this: http://amigurumi-along.blogspot.com/

and this: http://www.roxycraft.com/pattern_shop.htm

Finally! Photos from the Historical Ball

Would you like to see some photos of what we wore to the Historical Ball this year? Out of respect for my hubby who likes to guard our privacy, I am not showing the beautiful faces of my offspring. You will have to take my word that they are all gorgeous and handsome!

The first are of the costumes I was working on for the last month or so. Here is my 10 year old daughter and her colonial dress:




The only thing I am less than happy with is the trim. It is really lovely, wine-colored braid, but I fear that from a distance and in photos, it looks like I used rick-rack. Don't get me wrong. I really like rick-rack, but not necessarily on a dress that is supposed to look like it came from the 1700's.

Here is a photo of what I made my 15 year old son. Everything he is wearing was made by me. The color of the doublet is not showing up well...it is really a dark, olive green. I made it using some sort of faux suede and it came out great! I lined it with black fabric and I am very proud to say that it looks as neat on the inside as it does on the outside. The pants have some great detailing that you can not see. I give the pattern company a "C" for pretty crummy instructions. I had a friend who used the same pattern for some pants and she had some struggles due to lack of clarity. Otherwise, I am pleased with it. I even made the knee boots using pleather. There are no patterns out there for knee boots, so I made it up myself.



Here is a photo of my oldest wearing his dress kilt I made last year. The jacket is made of wool and fully lined. It was a bit of a challenge for me. I did not sew his shirt or bow tie, but the coat, and kilt and shoulder fly plaid, I made. I can't show you any good photos of him from this year because every picture I have of him is surrounded by s. Hmmmm...should that worry me??



Here is my very dashing 2nd son looking very "Mr. Darcy." I made his Regency outfit last year. The broad fall pants were a unique challenge, as well as the coat with tails and very odd tailored sleeves. We won't even go into the challenge of making bulky fabric sew up into nice points in collars and such.



He also wore a top hat.



This is my youngest son in his colonial outfit. This is a good example of how you can get the "look" on a shoe-string budget. The linen shirt is from goodwill in the ladies section. The brocade vest is also a goodwill purchase. I altered a pair of pants into knee britches. And I made the "frill" at the neck. Next year, he is promised a real costume made from scratch.



He wanted a tricorner hat and that is not something you just find at your local department store. Well, I got creative and found a woman's wide brimmed black felt hat all trimmed out with netting and feathers and flowers. I removed the trimmings. folded up the brim and applied some gold trim and viola! A tricorner hat:



Here is my oldest daughter in her grandmother's wedding dress:



Here is my sweet little 5 year old in a borrowed dress. She had such fun playing "dress-up."



Here I am in a lovely Baroque gown I borrowed from a friend. I might add that she is 16 years old and she made the entire gown herself...including the hand beading on the stomacher. I could not believe she let me wear it. And yes, I had very high hair in an attempt at being true to the time period.



I really wanted to work up something for my dear hubby to wear, but alas, time ran out. So, he was in a nice shirt and tie. I figure you get to see that often enough so no photos of him. He was very handsome and danced with all his s in spite of a knee injury. What a good sport. I was able to dance at least one dance with each of my sons. Needless to say, we all had a "ball!" (Sorry, couldn't resist!)