Life Adventures for Miles

Today was indeed a restful day. We woke up and just cuddled and played all morning. There was paw patrol, paly foods, and mostly octopus music and dancing. The afternoon rolled around and out we went to stroll around the city and found some lunch, candy, and luna found herself a purple princess mermaid! After more wandering around some shops, we decided to eat dinner with some family and Luna got to finish opening her presents (more paw patrol, a shopping cart, and hot wheels!). Going back home we stopped off for some foodstuff and found some pretty outdoor decorations! For my active little four-year-old there were some interesting points of luna lessons but ultimately they had oodles and oodles of fun with Oma.  The craft of the week:  make pops! One of her cousins came and they played blues clue memory, made cake pops, and did some "calming" yoga via YouTube. So the instructions were lost to the bakers but YouTube came to the rescue. The cake pops came in an activity kit so

The craft of the week: tailoring and repairs. I found more husband pants I want to wear as it is getting colder and since I turned my (too small) pair of pants-or many pairs of pants-into fabric and a jean jacket, I thought I would try it again. The sewing in the waist khaki pants technique I did for the first husband pants (like a few months ago) was a bit more frustrating with these pair of jeans so I YouTubed more ideas and decided the quick and easier (or so I thought) way was to elasticate the waistband of the jeans. I did 2 pairs of jeans and trying them on I feel more like my 4-year-old daughter and her pants but it works pretty well. This way it has a stretchy band for a good belly or weight gain! Woot! I have to do a lot of repair work fixing my first sewing technique try. Also, hemming the legs so they don't drag on the floor and trip me (plus they were all messed up and ratty). Tomorrow I hope to do more repair work on the jackets I keep un-lining, heh. 

    This week's craft is more puzzle crafting! The Dollar Tree had some puzzles Luna and my husband found for us to enjoy (PJ MASK AND PAW PATROL)! With my new handy dandy puzzle mat I found on Amazon, we used the rest of my smelly mod podge to glue/seal the puzzles together! We enjoyed puzzling how they fit and then "painting" on the mod podge! The only hard part was waiting for it all to dry!  

   This week's craft...well I wasn't sure what to do. My husband is currently taking his time sorting his tools, so my crafting stuff is all harder to reach now. I was going to "craft" a writing piece this week, but the n we went out for a husband haircut and came back with some goodies! My husband found this while browsing the kid's toy section at Marshalls and thought I would find it enjoyable (this brand makes all sorts of kits that target kids). Now the kit comes with a frame (with the hated slots, though this time the slots have grooves behind/around this so the warp won't fall off as easily) and some silky-looking, flossy looking cord/yarn on shuttles: very kid friendly! The frame itself has turn knobs to tighten/trap its thread from going anywhere (at least that's what O think the red knob does?) as well as "shuttle' the warp threads back and forth so the weaving is easier (and faster for most). I used up all the cord it came with to make t

The craft of the week is putting together and framing that puzzle I talked about earlier this week. It was fun, easy (ish), and a lot better when I actually had the stuff to do it right (ish). I got a thing of mode podge and that helped glue the puzzle together.  I also repainted-er, re-dot-to-dot- the canvas in so the puzzle would have a more even colored background. According to my child, the paw patrol that was colored on their before (as I reused the stringed art canvas) are now hiding behind their color, heh. Hope this piece will not be a luna destruction like the others!

 This week, I started my book project. I am unsure when I will finish it as now the tools are in the way of my craft stuff (waiting to be sorted) but it was something I thought a lot about a lot. We had lots of plastic bags, so I used some folded into squares and sewed them inside some folded pieces of fabric. This way, the pages will trickle when used. I guess I was thinking something like those fabric baby books that crinkle when the babies play with them. I have about 5 pages, though I haven't figured out what to put on them yet. Probably colors and shapes and whatnot. We will see if anything comes from it. (Whie googling, I found that this is kind of a major thing and has quite a following. Apparently, they are called quiet books/busy books)

 In this week's craft I got a new loom from Michael's (we had a coupon). So I started a project. As I am only doing one side I tho g it will be more scarf then anything else. But the purple yarn is super soft so it might be not irritate me too much!

Made another weave! This week was easy...especially since I forgot that I hadn't made anything this week yet until we came home from our normal Sunday outing (we had hibachi for dinner, yum!). So colorful soft weaving! Yay me!

 This week's craft was thanks to a Stich of my luna child. Her "critical thinking" didn't get her a new book as she wanted but did give me an easy project to do this week (which...in a roundabout way helped me cause I've had a whopper of a headache all day and wasn't real sure what I would have ended up doing otherwise).  One big book of 7 stories turned into a folder of 7 separate stories. I used tape to bind them in place and due to my...taping skills and my child's tearing skills, a few books are crooked, but I made sure all of them are readable. Sadly she tore up the front and back cover so the message from my in-laws is gone, but at least we have the books! Ooh, and while I was taking care of her books, the husband had a project of his own: her pumpkin cake! What little I got before luna searched my piece from me was pretty good too! 

This week I used some jeans I destroyed after realizing I didn't l didn't like the fit.  Did I cut them apart without really having a plan? Yes, did they sit with all the other clothes I deconstruct for a while taking up room? Yes. Did I Katja-fy it all up by making it more complicated than the video I decided upon for tutorial-ing? Yes, as per usual, I had a "well this might be fun" idea with no real plan of action. But it worked out pretty well thus far. So I made the back panel first from just looking at a jacket I mended the pockets of...and got confused on how to work the sleeves and front paneling. However, in deconstructing the winter coat, I created a pattern (ish) piece I could trace and then studied a DIY video I found (which seems a lot less complicated than what I did-but that might be because she is using one pair of jeans while I have multiple pieces...).  As each piece was created and sewed on I realized how heavy it was! I am not sure if it was just b

Craft of the week: string art! I had 6 mini canvases that I was going to hang my flood pictures on (natural disasters stink... literally in that case as sewer water was in the mix also!). We ended up getting other frames for that so I thought paw patrol for luna would be perfect. My original idea was fabric but I didn't have all the colors, so string, well yarn, it was! Luna got in the mix and helped with chase and rocky too!     

Today I started out researching business things for blogging and YouTubery and ended up fabric stashing my own fabric and altering the stash for stuffed animal clothes. So craft of the week is said altering the clothes for stuffed animals! I did some bunny pants a few weeks (months?) ago but this time it was way easier as I got smarter, er well had them try on the clothes before doing anything to them. Since I wanted to save all of the patches, fasteners, and frilly things for other projects, it was mostly making sure their outfits stayed on (using by tying them!). She was pretty excited and I enjoyed the experience so yay for this easy craft week!

This week I started on my quilted skirt. I didn't finish it but I have...most of the shaping sorta done. I tried doing the elastic encased in fabric waistband and while it works (I think) there was a lot of piecing together still. Yes, I am pretty sure I am still doing it wrong though I did specifically stretch the elastic out so I would have enough fabric (this time I didn't account for the difference between hip/butt and waist. This week I also worked on my measurements for most body measurements from feet to shoulders, and am still de-clothing my closet (ie seeing what fits and If I like the fit). Thus far my bottoms are long skirts/dresses, sweats, and leggings; my tops tend to be wider, more long sleeve than not, and down to my hips-most of my shorter dresses are dedicated tops now- (I've also realized bra wise, I prefer cotton tank top undershirts)... and layers, lots of layers. Shoes are a bit tricky as my feet are more comfortable in wider shoes and I haven't fo

This is a very very homemade paint job. I used what we had around the house and with only my limited knowledge went with it! Spraypainting the top/front of the drawers finished off my purple paint. Some wool and then the cotton fabric was my stainer brush. I admit the stained piece came out kinda cool with a fun textured look. The white furniture was painted and sealed already...though I did give a quick sanding to gain some traction for the stain (and smooth out the rougher chips). So I guess I Pinter the stain on? For a piece we found free on the side of the road, I am not too bothered by the look of it at all, hee! This is what it looks like all put together! One drawer died and has yet to be stabilized (it keeps falling apart!) But again, it was all free, and with it against the wall with stuff on, in, and around it, it's not too bad, ha! 

 I finished a project! This week I am writing about the luna dress! So I bought a skirt, a year or so ago and for whatever reason didn't realize that it was wool and that the wool would itch me like crazy (even through layers) so I cut in half to make a replacement skirt with a quilt blanket we had. I realized that the skirt pattern was unsuited for renewing as a skirt (holes) so I thought smaller. Luna wasn't too keen on being the live dress form/mannequin but she said she could handle the wool with a lining so here we are! Granted there were a few resizing outtakes but it is done! 

This week my crafting is in part because I wanted to thank the friend that will take my active four-year-old so that I can actually attend part one of my psychological testing I found the lightsaber  while googling for ideas and got super excited. While I found it to be an easyish pattern for me to complete, my crocheting is still very me-ish (frumpy and crooked). My husband said he could recognize it (mostly) which gave me an extra oomph to continue. However the longer I looked at mine, the longer it reminded me more of a sward/dagger and I decided to name it Sting and go in that direction. The next creature I decided upon was a dragon (modeled off of Smaug). Smaug I remember as looking a combination of Asian dragons (long winding bodies) and or Wyverns (mostly the bat-like wings with the winding bodies), as well as Komodo dragon and Dinosaur (legs, head, armor plating/horns/scales) lounging about on his stolen hoard...though he technically won fair and square as he DID fight them all

I was so excited to make a lace-up type of bodice top (without the boning) and eagerly to start it after having a trial period of something similar. I got super duper uber close-like all I had to do was sew the shoulder straps and felt the seams closed-when it fell apart (literally in some places). I am counting it as my craft for the week because I worked hard on it all week but also a lesson learned. When I get back to it, it may still be the top I envisioned or maybe something easier...ish. Edit (8/16/2020): I turned the bodice top thing I tried making into a luna skirt! It is a bit big but if it is layered I think it'll fit well. Yay!

Luna had a big mid-morning/early afternoon! The weekends are usually at a slower pace (no one wants to do anything before 10am) and today she surprised me by being a lot more studious than I've seen her. We played with puzzles/shapes creating first some of the cards it came with then faces and then a game of shapes (a shape version of 52 pickup/beanbag toss-we even started the alphabet before her wiggles needed to dance) and of course the building structures for her pups. I learned that she picked up all the scholarly things they say she should be but she just couldn't and wouldn't sit still., Also, we had to other "players" in her figurine pups-which helped extend the attention span and interest, slightly. But whoowie! I am pretty exhausted from all that work! So this week I repurposed a luna blanket. I actually think it was a swaddle-er as it was much smaller than the other blankets...but in any case, I made it into a bag! It started out pretty easy as I folding

Luna requested some pants (then a dress and shirt) for her stuffed animals. I thought it would be a lot easier then it was as I am just repurposing old luna clothes and cutting down to size and fit. Well...I basically got all discombobulated about it all and it took me a lot longer to do one part then I thought. And man, I must say, these pants are really rough! I am impressed that I figured it out and all though. Go me! 

Today started out interesting. I read once that you always dream but rarely remember them, I was also told that your emotions usually enter and be processed easier in dream form. My dream always seems to make me wonder what is in store for me. My meds have done pretty well for me. It seems my body really only needs 7-8.5 hours of rest before it is good to go and my days seem to be on more of even kneel. While there are days I have forgotten to take my meds (day pill mostly) there has never been a day where I feel like I've taken them twice...So what does the meaning of being a co-teacher/assistant administrator/aide mean for my future? My child's schooling days maybe? The possibility of my future jobs (i did look into interpretation/cultural  training for my BA field, also as my mother was the head/lead teacher and the first class was elementary whereas the second class was older-the toleration of me was way better the first round, as the second round was a lot more student-led