Halloween Haikus Tell You More

(photo: Public Domain NY Skyscraper Roof)

A cemetery?
Decorative spider web?
Cobwebs here are real!

Do I answer door
Or pretend to be in bed
Porch light flickers off

Choc'late bought on sale
Bags and bags of hidden sin
Mr. Hyde me now!

I have a quilting buddy, Gyleen, who consistently challenges us to create haikus on a chosen theme. I am thankful for all my creative brilliant friends who keep those around them energized and pushing boundaries. Thank you to you all.

And here starts a month of Thankfulness! For the next month I will blog-highlight something that inspires me, and people I have learned from and appreciate, not in any particular order.

Join me? Count our blessings together!

When I Want to Paint, I SHOULD Clean

I am itching to paint again. But I should really clean today. I have lost a spiral notebook with measurements for curtains I am sewing for someone. I should really finish up that project, and would, if I could find that silly notebook.

Why can't I find it? Buried treasure. It is somewhere around here.

Shoulds vs. Desires...

I think I want a clean house. I should want an organized, clean house. Maybe it is my definition of "clean" that I need to re-think.

I don't want to be frustrated when I am looking for something specific and I can't find it. I want to be more organized. I want to be able to walk into rooms, and not steer through deep piles threatening to collapse. I want company to feel comfortable.

I was impressed last Sunday by a comment from one of the sisters at Church about how to simplify my life: de-clutter. How freeing and un-complicated it feels afterwards. Not really during. It's painful, dealing with all those delayed decisions.

That is what my piles are. Am I going to do this thing, or not?

1. I have my must save-I-love-this pile.

2. Garbage pile.

3. Someone-else-will-love-it more pile.

But making these piles is messy! Cleaning is messy! I expose all my projects, the things I want to do/try. I have been in a gathering-stage for years.

John told me this morning about a show, "Raising Hope" and the joke about the mom's shed. Hoarding-style. We probably all have a little bit of that in us, the saving-just-in-case collection.

(And don't we encourage this, as Mormons? Food-storage? Domestic goddesses?)

I used to feel sorry for quilters who had one bookcase of fabric, and that was it. Most quilters I know have closets and bins and creeping stashes throughout the house. It would be nice to have it all in one place, all the colors organized in your sewing studio. Access to all of it, all the time.

I know I need to see storage or I forget about it.

So today is a day of unearthing treasures, remembering goals, and deciding if I am still going to make that beautiful creation, or give it/dump it.

Flowers & Belly Bands

For a friend's baby shower I made these yellow coffee filter roses. I am not a coffee drinker, and it took me awhile to find them in the dollar store (not used to looking for them). $1 for 150 filters=150 flowers. I cannot re-find the original coffee filter tutorial that I learned from to make these rosebuds...There is a good link through M(artha) S(tewart) to a mom who sells them if you google the subject. Or, if you come by my house, I will show you how I did it. Not hard. ANY color possible! Two of my sisters-by-marriage are currently gestating. Luanna and I brainstormed for good, affordable gifts, and she said the thing she loved the most were the hacked belly bands I made her during her last pregnancy. These did not exist 10 years ago when I was having my 6th baby. Rather than starting from stretchy-fabric-scratch, I found some super stretchy t-shirts, and hacked them.

Literally.

Cut the shirt right below the armpits, both layers. Zig-zag stitch around the opening, leave the already-hemmed bottom as the edge that shows, and you have a stretchy tube-belt. Good support, good coverage for that peek-a-boo tummy.

$1.25 for t-shirt from thrift store vs. $30+ range for the original.

Almost embarrassing to admit, but I really, really like these. Now. For me. And my NOT-pregnant-just-chunky, shirts-not-quite-long-enough-for-my-current body.

VERY convenient. Does wonders for modesty so you can stretch without showing skin. Nice with pants, skirts. See the above photo, that darker, under shirt, that was once a t-shirt. Biggest advantage is how low you can wear it, without the layers and heat of a tank top.

Find the stretchiest, smallest tshirt that will fit around your waist. Cut. Try it on. Most of the t-shirt knits do not need to be zig-zagged if they do not unravel, so you can wear it as is.

Fall Flowers

Disclaimer: THESE ARE COSTUMES

We don't normally dress this way. This is pretend. Getting ready for the Trunk or Treat next Wednesday!
Saturday was a good sewing day. Roxie is a character from the Lord of the Rings Fellowship game she plays online with siblings and John. Sequin pillow shams and a shiny sheet in her new favorite color made an excellent cloak-cape-hood.
And I saw this idea on another seminary teacher's blog. T-shirt HATS!

Cut out two circles, use the bottom of t-shirt for band around head (cut down to size of your head, unless using a tiny t-shirt) and make a visor. I used an old pair of jeans instead of interfacing. Fast, and raw edge forgiving. And suprisingly comfortable.

Remember, pretend. Not who we really are. Although me still wearing that painting shirt from yesterday is real life.

Beach on Broadway

Picture this: 4:30 pm, our house. Paint up and down my arms, on my neck. I had forgotten to take a lunch to work. Very hungry. John whisks me to our favorite Chinese buffet for an early sushi plus dinner, tells our children to please eat leftovers. I still had on my scary paint clothes from finishing up this project, but was too hungry to care. Of course we run into someone we know...I should have at least brushed my hair!

As you walk into this teenage girl's room, this is what you see:

Turning towards the closet doors to the right:


And behind you (notice the ocean waves in reflected in the shell mirror!)


Downstairs, same house, in the big family room (re-modeled extension off of original kitchen--I love this room!). Goal was to be subtle, make the saying look as if it were carved right into the wall. "Priory" is name of font. Used base coat color and added Payne's Grey for shadows and basecoat plus Titanium White.

VIP Table Can Talk When Lights Are Off

I went to school for Roxie's parent-lunch day. She is very affectionate and appreciative. The cafeteria was LOUD! The teacher on duty turned the lights out twice, with immediate silence results. The rule is no talking when lights go off. The teacher told the students that the VIP table can't hear each other talk.
Fish Tail braid works really well on her hair. She says she wants to grow it a little longer, and then will donate it.
Mural I finished up Monday. The clients have a beach-themed home. I painted clouds and seagulls in kitchen and waves and trees in living room and more clouds. Lots of clouds.




During job (client saves money if they do basecoat. But I will paint everything, if needed. Cutting in while standing on top of this ladder was scary. It's a long drop to the floor. Investing in scaffolding is on my wish list.

October Computer Woes Are OVER!

BACK AGAIN! Yesterday afternoon Fed-Ex brought my computer back. Under warranty fixes, which was a huge blessing. Hopefully I will have it for awhile.

Lots of catching up to do...Last Thursday, it was pouring rain. John had an exciting job interview, so I took a day off painting and came with him. We went to the DC temple, afterwards. Wonderful time!


Saturday was huge quilt show. John met me there. I had paint up and down my arms and in my hair. It is sobering seeing your own quilts hanging in a show.







(Merry Christmas, to Emmalyn!)

Technical details: whole cloth white on white queen size quilt-pre-quilted; watered down acrylic paints, fabric dyes, fabric markers, fabric pens, sparkle sequin fabric glue...Altered quilt. Someone complimented me on the quilting, asking if I painted the temple before or after quilting, and I had to set them straight.

Flan From St. Croix

Confession: I like to be considered an expert, and be known as knowing, to the point that sometimes I fool myself into thinking I know what I am doing, without really knowing. And I blunder along and do things anyway. Sometimes it is okay.

My mom told us about the Octavian family's wonderful flan in St. Croix. When I told the children what we were having for a treat, Maxwell thought Grandma Jane had sent the flan to us!


Octavian's Three Milks Flan:
sweetened condensed,
evaporated,
coconut milk.
6 eggs
6 TBS sugar
pinch of salt

"Combine 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can coconut milk, and 1 can of condensed milk. Gently whisk in six eggs and 6 tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. Then shake the mix through a strainer to get out egg white that isn't broken up. Don't push it through the strainer with a spoon or anything. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla after it is strained. She makes the flan topping by carmelizing 3/4 cup of white sugar on top of the stove in her flan pan, then pours on the egg mixture and bakes for an hour at 350. The pan has to be set in a water bath. She lets the flan cool before putting it in the refrigerator or the caramel topping doesn't work right. It was smooth and lovely. Her pan was about the size of a small springform pan, but without the removable bottom. It filled up to make a tall flan about 3 and 1/2 inches tall. She cut around the edges of the flan, covered it with a plate, then turned it over to make the flan slide out. I want to make it soon so I can compare mine to hers and ask her questions about it. Her husband likes to eat his flan with ice cream on top of it. We had ours plain." --Grandma Jane

Sounds easy enough? Things started going wrong when I too confidently thought I knew what I was doing.

Exhibit A. NOT caramalized sugar. Nice big crystal lumps. So I tried again.



Exhibit B. Some success, but too many crystals, and the syrup solidified into toffee hard discs. I made candy.

By this time I was feeling confused. I could tell I was doing something wrong. I cheated, used this to coat the ceramic dishes I was going to cook the flan in.


The water bath I understood. I cook crustless cheesecake this way, too.
They were smooth, yummy, and the cheater-caramel sauce didn't distract too much--although both Roxie and Sam did not like the outside of the flan-the fake sauce part. Hmmmm.


And for the record, I did research and learned what I had done wrong:

Don’t leave unattended.

Big thing: stop stirring when boils or crystallizes. Watch it happen NO STIRRING, but shaking the pan, ignore the nervous comment about sugar’s melting point is higher than water (?) VERY HELPFUL VIDEO!

CAREFUL, very hot! I added water with my first try like this video, but the thermometer use is helpful.

I would make this again. Tasty.

Little Decorating Changes Around Here

I changed the living room. Everything was from my fabric collection. Nothing new purchased. Green is now dominant color. Lots of greens. Yellow-sided greens. Luanna calls them "pea greens" like split pea soup green, not fresh or frozen. The new family rule is no shoes on the sheepskin rug (this rug is from Ikea, yes. Used to be in our red, red bedroom, then sat in a trunk for years, then along a bench for a year...) It is a good place to have family prayer. I want a quiet, gathering place, where we can read scriptures quietly together. We've been singing the same hymn all week long: #134 "I Believe in Christ" helping Roxie learn the alto part for the Primary program coming up...

We are still here!

Kindergarten Bugs Me

(graffiti in Belgium)

I subbed for kindergarten yesterday.

A substitute is either a fun sub or a mean one. Hard to be both. Last week, when I subbed for world history, my 17 year old gave me advice as we walked into the school.

"Don't be nice. Be a mean sub. That is the only way they will respect you."

He gave me a quick run-down of high school rules, which ones were most often broken.

I confiscated 3 phones that day during the movie. Put subtitles up (I like them--then you can read the murmurs in the background and understand how the names are spelled and what they are saying even if they have an accent). Some of the kids wanted them off, and I resisted. And I fast-forwarded the sex scene, and they complained. I was MEAN and righteous! It was great! I left the school condfident I could handle high school again.

That was last week.

Yesterday the job was half day. While the regular teacher was still putting papers in the kids mail slots and trying to leave I had begun to read the book for the day. All was going well. The kids were sitting in their spots on the carpet, listening as I read upside down so they could all see the pictures. (Underestimated skill, that.)

Then I notice the boy with his raised hand. Thinking he was going to add to the story, I called on him.

"There's a cricket under the teacher's chair"

Not the chair I was sitting on. I see the not-moving, dried out bug suspended by a cobweb under the chair by the teacher's desk, clearly in view of the carpet group. I grab a tissue, grab the bug, and throw it away.

"EWWWWWwwwwww" they chorused.

"There's a bug under that desk!"

"EWWWWWWWwwwww" much louder, as I grab the 2nd bug and dispose of it. Their regular teacher was just finishing up filing and she ducked out of the room.

Not a great way to start. Book reading continues, all is well until I send them back to their tables. Half the class gets up to sharpen suddenly stubby pencils, pushing and shoving each other to be first in line. We do math by connecting the dots to make "2" & "3" tracing the numbers and writing names at the top of the page.

I kept forgetting how young they are. When we finished math early, I had them turn their papers over and draw a birthday cake and enough candles for how old they are. They haven't learned how to make "5"s yet.

I tied 50 pairs of shoes! Twice!

Two girls went to the nurse and came back with ice. A boy bursts into tears when I moved his name clothespin to yellow light for talking during rest time after repeated warnings.

The boy who was already on yellow when I took over the class brought the sobbing boy a tissue.

I let "rest time" go an extra 8 minutes, because they had finally settled down (after drinks and mat issues).

I taught them "Popcorn Popping on the AP-PLE Tree" song while we were reviewing the weekly reader for the week. That was one of the good moments.

Would I do it again?

Yes. But those little kindergarten kids made my seminary students look really, really good this morning at 5:55am. And I told them so. How much I love them and appreciate their cooperation.

Old Quilts Reprise

I just figured out I cannot upload new photos-but I can talk about old ones!

This was a altered-spray paint and resist, permanent marker, dyed whole cloth quilt. Pre-quilted by anonymous. Thrift store quilt. To see the back (originally the "front") of green and red applique scroll back to Oct 2008 posts.

It's been two years. Two years since the last quilt show.

Two years of healthy brother.

I remember when he was born. How easy it was to love him. He was beautiful! Gorgeous eyes. I was a freshman in college. I would come home to see him and pretend that he was mine. Take him shopping. Snuggle with him. I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be married. He made it easy to look forward to that blessing and want it even more!

Mental illness is real. Support needed. More talking, more loving communication. More understanding. If you don't know about someone in your family who is suffering, they might be hiding it too well. It is okay to talk about. Okay to admit. Not taboo. Real.

And we love you enough to deal. And accept. And love even more. You are mine. And I am yours.

Timing is Everything, Sometimes

Something bad has happened inside my computer. I can no longer up-load pictures. John knows what is wrong (a weakness in the video card, whatever that means. Faulty structure.) He has tried 3 times to fix the re-occuring problem. The computer company wants us to send the whole thing in and I will be without it for 2 weeks.

My process has been disrupted! The next three weeks are some of my busiest calendar-scheduled with mural painting jobs, quilt show, Relief Society craft teaching, more painting jobs, a baby shower for a sweet friend, and more sub teaching jobs, when available. I will have lots to show you soon, when I can again!

I was so frustrated about the computer-freak out that John blogged for me yesterday. (He knows all my pass-words, yes. Super-supportive of my goals. Good man.) But this really is me writing today. I have no way of proving that. I feel so intertwined with him, that I catch myself using phrases I hear him saying. How could you tell the difference between us?

He could write a Quilt-Supporting-Mural-Praising-Dad-D-O blog! Seriously, go read his "Of Two Minds" blog and his writing voice will be clear. I admire him, so. He can use his writing talents to ghost-write for me any day.

Or maybe we will start a family-linked one, with our kids, like my parents "Blog to Babcocks" while they are serving full-time missions. We could get it in place before Stewart gets his mission call.

Adieu! (A succinct way of saying, "God, Be With You, Till We Meet Again.")

Jennilyn is Teaching!

2-hour delay means no seminary but I am going to be substituting today! This is an oldie-but-goodie picture. Enough for now.



I love my family.