Reversible Wrap-Around Skirt

Yesterday Jen S. (soon-to-be a blushing bride!) joined me standing in a long line at the opening of a local Jo-Ann fabric store.  We were among the first 100 people in the door, so we each got a gift card.  Mine was for $20, so I picked up some ribbon for my current sewing project and I'm pondering what to do with the remaining $18.

This is my starting point. I need one skirt to match the three tops in the middle.  I'm going to be backpacking this summer, and if I can get two sides of one skirt to match all the tops I'm wearing, that's less I have to pack.

I'm making it mostly out of discarded sheets.

Here's part of my progress:

Hopefully soon I can show you the finished project!

Rain Barrel Hiccup

Cue music:  "I just love a rainy, love a rainy night!"

Last night we looked out the window at a downpour so torrential that we could hardly see and listened for tornado sirens, when we noticed that the rain barrels overflow were hardly trickling.

The rain barrels have been full for weeks. (We have two.  We need more.  The next class isn't until August.)  So any water that goes in should promptly go out the overflow.  What gives?

Making Do with Shoo Goo

One of my favorite blogs has this motto:

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

The blog is called the Non-Consumer Advocate, which I think is an awesome title as well as an awesome concept.

This post is about the "make it do" tactic.  Rather than buying new shoes, The Magician has applied Shoo Goo, which he assures me is nigh onto miraculous.

I see reindeer when I look at this picture.  Anyway, I'll let you know how well it actually works.  I'm really hard on shoes for some reason.

Update: The Shoe Goo worked just fine.  I certainly gave it quite the workout, walking constantly in rocky Croatia!  

Rain Barrel Update

Forget cats and dogs.  It's been raining elephants and hippopotami!  (Especially a couple of nights ago when thunder woke me up at 3 am so I could watch the lightning and wonder if there was water in our basement because we have no idea how to work the sump pump thingy that came with the house.)

Our rain barrels are full and we haven't needed to use them yet since it has rained at least once a week since we set them up.  (I know you are supposed to use the water to avoid mosquitoes and algae, but since the water pours into the barrel before spilling out through the overflow, I figure it hasn't been stagnant enough to create a suitable environment for those unwelcome guests.  If I'm wrong, I'll let you know....)

The only hiccup was that the intake got clogged with tree debris and had to be cleaned out to keep water going into the barrel.  But that didn't turn out to be a big deal.

I haven't gotten a chance to paint the second barrel, though, because it's been constantly full!  So that blog post won't be any time soon.  Stay tuned...

Weekly Round Up

This week I...

-- continued my summer job, which I love.  It is part-time, extremely flexible, and I work with the nicest people ever.  I am at the Chancery, and I've moved from helping to organize the audiovisual library to entering baptismal records.  I would probably hate it if they did it all day long, but three hours at a time in the mornings is perfect.

-- set up a new gallery page for Painting on the Ceiling, which I also love.  I tried to use Google+ since this is supposed to interact seamlessly with blogger, but after an hour and a half of not being able to answer the simple question "how do I set up an album?"  I decided to look elsewhere.  I had uploaded a bunch of photographs to Shutterfly so I could print them and make a physical artist portfolio, so I decided to work with Shutterfly. Quick and easy.  I hope you like it.  If anyone would like to try out the comments feature they are, I would appreciate it.  (Particularly if the comment says something nice!)

-- went out to the farm on Friday to help Aunt Earlene sort through Grandpa and Grandma's estate.  The family reunion is coming up, and that is when many of the items will be divided up among family members.  It is dusty work and there is so much stuff that it is rather overwhelming, but we did make really good progress.  I ended up spending most of the day out there, but I was glad I did.

-- Marcia from Marcia's Musings came over last night to play Scrabble.  It was great fun, and we are quite evenly matched, so we are glad we found each other and hope to do it again sometime soon.

-- Doug and Gen came over to do some planting.  We are loaning them our garden plots since they are going to be traveling this summer and want someone to water are strawberries and mow the backyard.  I got to see their beautiful daughter Madeline Therese, which is always a treat.

-- The Magician and I did not contrive to flood the basement.  But we came close, anyway.  The washing machine drains into a large utility sink which then drains into the floor drain.  That was how it was set up when we bought the house.  I had used a rag, and draped it over the edge of the utility sink to try, but somehow it fell down into the sink and clogged the drain.  Fast-forward to one out of The Magician's laundry-binges. Out of the corner of my eye when headed up the stairs I saw soapy water spilling over the edge of the sink and onto the floor, rushing towards my precious boxes of fabric.  I screeched, "the basement is flooding!"  This brought The Magician down the stairs in a hurry.  Fortunately, we caught it before it did any damage.
-- The blog had 15 hits from a new country this week: Finland!   

Hope all my readers are doing well!

My Mysterious Upcycling Project Was.... A Backpack Purse

I finished this yesterday, and I'm delighted with how it came out.  Usually how I envision the end result and what actually happens don't match so closely!

This is the purse I wanted to duplicate:

  

Sunday Thoughts

I didn't actually think this today; it came out of a discussion I had on Tuesday after going with Marcia C. to see Scott H.'s directorial debut.  But I've decided to post something in the general realm of the spiritual on Sundays, so...

Religion, organized or otherwise, is not a box which contains God, but rather a window letting us see part of the endless vista of God.  

I once saw a bumper sticker that read, "My God is too big to fit into a religion."  Who tried to fit Him into anything?  By asserting that what we believe is true, we in no way claim that what we believe is all there is.