Upcycling

I've seen a few projects I've wanted to tackle and due to life - spending $$ on them is not an option so I'm scrounging around and working with what we have. 

I saw feed bags a few months ago and then found a tutorial on them.  Ha....I have bunches of those from our chicken feed.  One day I had a few hours and wrangled the girls into helping me.  (cooerced and bribed more like - they weren't digging this work thing)  It was educational. 

Janelle helped me quite a bit when the instructions just. weren't. making. any. sense. to me.  Natalie Faith was the picture taker extroadinarie and Charlotte Joy just kept grabbing at stuff being right in the middle of it.  Riley took a couple of random pics but was mostly enjoying his time before FRESHMAN year started in full force. 

Usually sewing is something I avoid like the plauge until I have a strike of 'this looks simple enough'.  About a fourth of the way in I remember why I hate sewing.  My girls heard a lot of "FOR THE LOVE...." and "ARE YOU KIDDING ME???"  I'm sure this will train them up in the way they should go. 

Whatever.

Anyhow - here we go.  A project.  In pictures.


Wash bags after cutting them to about 22" with the 'picture' centered how you want it.  *I* wasn't that exacting.  Shocker. 


Dry in sunshine - we had SUNSHINE!!!


Then - start sewing. 

Get excited because you're actually 'crafting'.  Baby's excited too.


And keep sewing.

 
She keeps laughing.  At me?  Hmmmm......

Then - pull it out and say, "WHAT the heck???"


And continue to say "WHhhhhhaaaaatttt?"  At some point, Janelle helped me visualize what the tutorial was trying to explain.  Yeesh - was I confused.

It's beginning to resemble a bag.  Charlotte is helping also known as yanking on mom's hair because it's right there.



Handles were scrounged from old curtain tie backs I wasn't using but couldn't bear to throw away because they were RED.  :)


Oooohhh - (this is inside out by the way....)

TADA!!!!  The big bag. 

And the shortie one - this is what you get when you screw up the first time around and keep wacking off the messed up bottom but want. to. get. it. right. before. you. give. up. entirely.  :)  Handles are brought to you by old car seat straps that we'd had to cut when we were in that accident to prove we weren't going to use the car seat anymore.  Nice and strong, just shorter.  Perfect fit for the short bag.  It's like I'd planned that. 


End result.  :)

One is now the libary book bag and the other is 'all the stuff I have to cart to the car from the house in remembering to take back to people or places.  Very handy. 

Here's the actual tutorial if you want more specific instructions.  Let me know if you get confused.  I'll send Janelle your way to help you. 

Faith

PS:  Yes, they are blue.  I have yellow bags in which I will make up the REAL, going to do a great job on them, bags.  These were practice bags and have worked well for a start up project. 

The Extremes

I'll be honest.  They are kind of kicking my butt lately. 

Here they are: 

15 year old boy becoming a man but still hating anything in 'the box'.

10 month old baby becoming...well...bigger. *sniff, sniff  - and THANK GOD all in the same breath.*

12 year old girl starting to notice clothing, makeup, and hair.  And care about those things.  A LOT.

10 year old girl who is still trying to figure out if she wants to play with farm animals, dress like she's color blind (LOVE IT now that I can appreciate it), chase butterflies, or care about the stuff that her big sister buddy is into now.

Everyone needing LOTS OF WORDS.  Ack. 

I know they're all normal.  Maybe I'm the one who's slightly 'off'.  I'm needing to up the anty, so to speak, and I'm not remembering where the heck I stored my 'anty'.  Each of them needs me in a different way and I'm feeling rather pathetic in this multi-tasking realm. 

Charlotte's diaper bag is a funny visual for me.  I have diapers, wipes, baby toy, bottle, formula - then there's the book Love and Logic for Teens, hair stuff for the big girls, someone's ipod and headphones that they stashed in there so they wouldn't have to carry it themselves, and some school supplies. 

There's not the glorious flow from one color to the next like those pictures of crayons melting as gravity has it's affect and the color just seeps to something new, bright, and beautiful. 

It's more like that Jackson Pollack picture of splatters of paint colliding or crashing on and around the others.  I'm not fond of that one.  (Don't hate me, please.  I never said I was a great art aficionado.)  That picture has *always*, always reminded me of vomit.

Yikes. 

It's all artwork though right?  Somehow or another the picture that emerges will be amazing to look at.  I'm just hoping and a prayin' that it's not put in the 'What NOT To Do' or the 'WHAT THE HECK??" section of the museum of our family life. 



I just made myself snicker at something as I wrote that last paragraph.  I never did well in art class. Yeesh.  God does have a sense of humor. 

Here I raise my glass (okay, coffee cup and Charlotte's bottle) to a new learning curve in  'Art Appreciation Class', all of us crammed into the same 'boat'.  I hope we have some fun while doing it. 

Eggs

Our chickens are going to town.  Not literally....

I love having fresh eggs.  Even better that I can walk out the door, and around the garage and get some of our own if I need to.  For the most part, the girls collect the eggs for me and we have a steady stash in our cupboard. 

Our flock consists of 22 chickens and 2 turkeys.  I'm not counting turkey anything in this post as those are Riley's; lock, stock, and barrel. 

Here's what we started with:

5 Rhode Island Red
5 Golden Sex Link
5 Black Sex Link
5 Buff Orphington (2 wound up being roosters and one died last week.  He was mean so there were no tears over his demise.)
2 Barred Rock

I'm not great yet about tracking who's doing what laying but we've seen all the 'brands' doing their job in laying and we're getting anywhere from 15-22 eggs a day so something is working right.  :)

Oh - and it's a total joke that 'chickens lay eggs in the morning'.  Not necessarily.  Nor will they always lay in the great nesting boxes you have set up for them.  Some will prefer the corner behind the one of the trees in the back 40, some will prefer to lay on the bag of wood chips you have set aside for winter.  Another funny was that up until a few weeks ago you could go out to the chicken coop and see several hens lined up for one particular box (never mind there are 5 other nesting beds right there).  They'd be squawking at each other and in particular, to the one who was laying at that moment and holding up the line.  Just like a regular Ladies Room.  :/ 

Anyhow - they're figuring it out and so are we.  Alan's jimmy-rigged the fencing for them and us so that they won't be coming up to the garden anymore unless I let them.  We're going to be playing with their feed to see about some added nutrition and keeping them super happy and disease resistant.  A cost ratio spreadsheet is coming on.  I can feel it.  Although, Alan and I have decided that we'll keep chickens and do eggs even if it's not 'cheaper', because we believe that it's much better to have/raise our own. 

If you're interested in more egg info: this is a great blog I found through another friend.

Mud Room

I've always wanted one - a room specifically designated for all that 'enter the house' mess that comes with bodies entering. 

We don't have one - but a couple of weeks ago (yes, I'm behind) that is what my kitchen was.  I was taping and mudding.  Who knew how much fun that stuff is?  It's like making mud pies as a kid only with something you can actually use after the fact. 

Here's the blank canvas....so to speak. 













Ready. Set. Tape. 













These spots were slightly akward in that our celings are pretty high without those soffits in there and even with the step stool, I was having to be pretty careful and stretch to reach. 




















This picture I thought was funny. 

That would be my husband's shoe print.  On the ceiling.  He's uber talented, I tell ya.  You get fun surprises when you repurpose materials.  :) 

Playing in the mud....



Basically ready for paint.  This was about 3-4 coats of mud.  I can't remember how many days in.  OBVIOUSLY it's not gorgeous.  It was going to be behind cabinetry so I wasn't going for glamourous.  I *do* love that we chose to do a 'textured' look on the walls that you do see.  Imperfection at it's most perfect.  There WILL be a blog about that as soon as my thoughts become somewhat coherent on the subject.  Hasn't happened yet, though. 

It was one more step down the 'redone' kitchen yellow brick road.

Random bits: 

After waiting for that all to dry, I attacked it with paint one evening at about 10:30pm.  I don't recommend it.  Especially if you've been excited about breaking into that can of red paint you bought A YEAR AGO.  It may or may not come out looking like a giant Rasberry blew up on your wall and you will freak out slightly, apologize to your husband, and have nightmares. 

Yikers. 

It looks better now - 3 coats later and with a giant white cabinet in front of it- but wow...it was dicey there at first. 

Another sneak peek.  Here's the backsplash we're trying.  I love the look of it...just not sure if it's *too much*.  We both prefer simple and well...there's a lot going on there. 

I Hijacked My Husband's Saturday

One of many. 

This was two weeks ago.  As we were sitting there quietly enjoying our coffee in the sunroom on a Saturday morning, I said, 'Hmm....I bet it wouldn't take too long if we just....'.

Snort.

And we were off.....













Salmon colored cabinetry???  Guess what year. 

Amazingly, it seemed as though these wood cabinets were held on only by two screws and about 28 layers of paint.  Weird.

Cabinet out.  

"Do the soffit smash.....".

Yes, he's practically Atlas.  

No. More. Soffit.  WHOLE LOTTA MESS.  Dang.

SuperAlan - able to leap stoves and cabinetry in a single bound - and reach into long stretches of drywall to fish out the honkin' screws that were holding up the ginormous microwave. 



Here's a pic of the boys bonding over drywall installation.

And there went the whole weekend.   



A New Word

I'm slowly working my way through a book.  A Different Kind of Perfect  Writings by Parents on Raising a Child with Special Needs

Honestly, as I crave information regarding Down Syndrome on one level, the other end of the spectrum is running and screaming in the opposite direction with my fingers stuck in my ears and singing, 'lalalalalalalalalala' at the top of my lungs as off key as possible to keep the reality of it from paralyzing me.

So in trying to be more mature - I'm reading about it.  Some.  Warning:  this a really freakin' hard book to read.  I HAVE to be in the right frame of mind, state of heart, mode of coping to even pick it up.  It's good - but h.a.r.d. - and I'm learning I get slightly blindsided by the hard in the midst of gathering info and that ticks me off a bit. 

The other night I was reading before bed and came across a new-to-me section.  I read it.  Stopped.  Backed up and reread it.

Displacement.

"If you've ever kicked your desk after getting yelled at by your boss, or snapped at your husband because you accidentally burned dinner, then you've experienced displacement. 

One of the 'side effects' of anger, displacement occurs when we shift the focus of our anger from its original target onto an object or person less threatening or more convenient than the original source."

Erch. I started laughing.  Like crazy woman laughing as a lightbulb dawned on me.  I'm not kicking desks or snapping at my husband (too much, I hope) but.....Oh. My. Kitchen.

Well...at least my displacement is productive in the end.  *crossing fingers*

School Room

This is a quandry of a subject.  Franky, I am the sit down at a desk, have a sharp pencil, bright light, crisp piece of paper kind of learner.  My children....ummm....not so much.  It's taken me a few years to figure that out and be okay with it. 

For the first few years of homeschooling I was working so hard to set up *school at home*.  A dedicated school room.  You know, the shelves with supplies, the chalkboard, the desk facing the front, the alphabet border sweeping the room.  (swoon).  Yet, somewhere in the back of my mind I knew there was something more to be had and was led to choose a literature based curriculum.  Sonlight.  LOVED IT.  Our firstborn didn't fit into the proverbial learning box though and I panicked assuming that it had to do with the curriculum I was using.  Hunted out something more traditional (workbooks) and that led to what I refer to fondly as the 'Year of Tears' - for all of us. 

We went back to Sonlight and began the epic adventure that we're still on of making homeschooling work for us - instead of cramming our round pegs into square holes.  Duh.  Hours spent snuggling on the couch reading.  Nary a workbook except for some math at the kitchen table.  Exploration of the outdoors for science with quite a few critters and plants for visual aids.  We used to the books as supports to the things we were seeing and hearing.  I've learned to make the school books work for us instead of being a slave to the guide.  Freedom! 

Each year is a bit of a flux and flex based on our opportunities and resources at the time, along with the needs of our kids and the family.  Being able to keep school with us and have that continuity made a world of difference as we were packing up our lives and lifestyles into the back of the truck and living in Mexico and Honduras.  We had our books and school time which kept some semblance of normal for the kids.

Now we are back in the states and still, they have to do school.  :)  Shocker some days for them, but oh well.  The house we have and the stages of learning and needs they have have led us back to a school room....of sorts.  9th grade, 7th grade, 5th grade, and babyhood.  We are enjoying having a zone for all that to happen in - or at least a spot for the storage of those supplies, books, and 'yes, you need to do that math worksheet with a pencil and paper' kind of day.  (we still read together on the couch or sprawled out on the floor) 

SO - the room.  I'm working on having the kids involved in it more so there's some ownership for them.  That and I'm realizing it's just paint and the worst thing we'll have to do is paint over it and maybe replace some drywall.  Even then, we could count that for some class like Art, so it's a win-win either way.  :) 

We started out by doing the 'chalkboard'.
  


 Before
 



During

DONE!!! *never mind that little project in process on the floor. 

On Sunday we didn't go to church.  The kids were all still sick or on the upswing but still coughing (and that means we don't go breathing on other people in my book) so we had a lesson in creativity instead of formal church.  For some reason it took them about 10 minutes to believe me when I said we were going to write on the wall.  Normally, this is a very good thing. 

The 'means something to us as a family' wall:







 


The entrance to the laundry room which is right off the 'school' room. 

The 'love' even worked it's way to the kids' bathroom wall.  I could've just written out their list of morning and evening chores but I refrained.  I'm working on being more poetic in my delivery.

I think they're pretty invovled in the room now, don't you think?  It's making me twitch a bit (randomness!!!) but they had a flipping great time talking about all the 'sayings' and pictures we wanted and what they really mean to us, and we laughed a LOT while working on it together. 

Now, I just need to go back and mention again that, NORMALLY, we don't write on the walls in the house.

I wonder if they're going to believe me. 

"We don't do Art class in our home school."

These words actually came out of my mouth in speaking to a teacher who is giving some Art classes during the summer.  I had signed Natalie up so she could get some real instruction on how Art is done. 

Later that afternoon, she and I worked on finishing a project we started, oh, when we were moving in LAST year - the downstairs floor. 

It's concrete.  We ripped out the carpet as it was nasty in color (blue) and condition (water damage).  We knew we didn't want to put carpet down as it's right off the laundry area and with a daylight basement...well, we felt like doing that would be begging for some kind of flood.  (We've already had a few so we were right!)  Enter concrete stain!  GREAT idea and fun...although when we moved in there was a list 5,987,564 items long, I was hugely pregnant, and Alan was leaving for a two week trip to China.  Needless to say, we did the essentials and not much more.  We almost finished the floor. 

There's a learning curve to every new skill and that one was interesting.  Texture, product, technique, quantity.  We figured out how we liked it then wound up running out of stain.  Life got busy, crazy, and complicated so we didn't get back to it.  Those undone bits have been driving her nuts (and me...but I'm able to ignore it better) so I made it a personal goal to FINISH that floor this month. 

Enter a couple of sick big kids, no one available to help me rip out the soffit in the kitchen, Charlotte taking a really long nap, and Natalie and I available to GET IT DONE. 




As we were working away, those words I'd allowed out of my mouth that morning came back to me and she and I laughed pretty hard.  We don't do Art class......snort.  Apparently we're too busy doing BIG, artistic projects, we don't do a 'class'.