Summer shakedown

 

Current Mood : Sleepy

 

Like I do with anything new, I needed a few ‘shakedown' days before I found the rhythm to Summer Vacation. Since the ‘three hours' rule (an hour or so of housework in the morning, more after lunch, a bit more after Dearest Son gets home from school) definitely wasn't gonna work, I amended it a bit. In the morning, it's ‘get ready, get set' time, and his summer school work comes in at about 10am. After lunch, it's housework time, for dishes and laundry and cleaning, and after dinner, it's ‘me' time. So far, so good - it worked most of yesterday and all day today. Although, by the time ‘me' time rolled around today, I was too tired to do much beyond sit and stare at the computer.

 

 

I'm hoping that tomorrow, I can get some doll clothes sewn, so I can find those in the basket new homes. I have a trunkload of stuff to drop off ! And I want to do that Saturday. Now that I just have one day to m'self, I wanna make the most of it !

 

 

Unfortunately, the closest I got to Brody today was to put his cover back on. Oh, well. Hopefully I'll make some time this weekend - I wanna try to make the bookmark I have in Brody's memory before I finish Desperation !

 

 

Oh, and apologies for being gone for most of May. I still write, I just don't post when I don't have images. I've about ditched that compulsion - if the entry's written and I don't have a photo, oh, well. I'm gonna post it anyway. Hope all three of ya'll reading this don't mind an absent image every so often ! 

 

Fun with thin plastic - wheeee !

 

Current Mood : Exhilarated ! 

Spent on embroidery stuff : $3.73

 

Whoo-hoo ! I'm embroidering on plastic now ! Check it ! 

 

Sorry the update's late - it's been a busy evening !

 

Few days ago, on the SiCK forum, someone mentioned embroidering FSL on thin vinyl, instead of pricey water soluble stabilizer (WSS). She thought it sounded interesting, and bought some vinyl for an eventual trial, and wondered if someone else had already thought of it. I'd wondered what thickness of vinyl could be sewn on a regular machine like KJ, or used as part of a design, like the applique crystal ball / water globe I wanted to stitch up, but I hadn't really thought of embroidering FSL on it. I mean, heck, I was having a tough time embroidering on the stuff that's darn well *made* to be embroidered on ! 

 

Intriguing idea, though. So when Dearest Son and I went out for groceries today, I got a half-yard of medium-weight clear vinyl. No gauge or denier is given, it's only given a listing of 'mid-weight' on the rack. Still, ya get a lot for 50c - it's 54 inches wide ! Digging around the remnants got me a bit of 'double polished hi-gloss' vinyl that's much thicker. I'm not quite sure if Brody can embroider on that stuff, it may be up to 'will it hoop' when the time comes. If he can't, I can always use it in frames and other experiments. 

 

So anyway. I decide to give it a go, and hoop it up. It seemed so thin, like hooping silk or a flexible sheet of paper. Since I only have two FSL designs on Brody's memory (right now !), it was either the small sewing machine or the bigger, more stitch-intensive bookmark. So I went with the sewing machine - and this way, I'd have a good comparison, which you'll see tomorrow. 

 

It had just begun the final 'satin stitch' row when the plastic began to tear. I really coudn't blame it - the design goes over the same row about fifteen times before the final one, I was amazed it'd gone this long. The sewist who posted the original idea had no tearing, but she used a lighter, smaller design that didn't have a satin-stitch row. Anyway, we both reported our varying degrees of success...

 

And someone else posted that she would never risk her machine like we did, just to save a few pennies. Why, it might even dull the needles faster, so it just wasn't worth it, in her opinion. Um...Dear, you kinda missed the point here. We weren't experimenting on vinyl just to save a bit of change. We were both trying to see if it even could be done, because it'd open up a whole new medium on which we could sew ! Yeah, WSS is pricey, but I found it pretty cheaply at Mal-Wart just today, and frankly, the vinyl is a bit harder to work with. 

 

 But if it worked... we'd be able to create flexible FSL without making it stiff and hard to the touch, it'd be softer, and easier to store, since the starch in the usual WSS is probably plant-based, and there's no way vinyl would attract bugs. The designs are lighter in weight, and have a nice glittery effect from the plastic remaining within. And the stitches would have support, making the design last longer. All these are good things, and to me, they were worth a nickel's worth of vinyl, the fifth use of a 10c needle, and a half-hour of my time. 

 

If all I saw were dollars and cents, then yeah, I'd have never gone near even trying. But I had to see for myself how this would work. Will I use it every day ? Probably not. That 50c worth of vinyl will probably last me for years. But I'm proud of me for taking the deep breath and plunging in. Brody seems none the worse for wear, and I tried something new. And pretty much succeeded ! You can't say that's worth a dollar or a dime - it's priceless. 

 

 And when you have an ole tighwad like me saying such, well, she may wanna rethink how she approaches her embroidery. It can't be fun if all she sees is wasted thread and cost-per analysis. I'm having fun, with stuff new and old. I'd rather break Brody trying new stuff and enjoying the experiment than I do everything by the book, and he breaks anyway. That'd be even more frustrating ! 

 

 So tonight, I'm proud of me. Oh, yes, and all the 'wasted' thread that we get when we change thread colors, thread the machines, and unwind the last few feet off the bobbin the machine says is too low to use ? I've been saving it all in an empty Kleenex box. This Christmas, it'll all go into a clear ornament, comemmorating my first year as a machine embroiderer. All those colors mixed together in a huge ball... I hope it's pretty !

Tutors tutoring...

 

Current Mood : Tired !

 

Ever since Brody's arrived, my saved Blogs and Musings aren't on the ‘recent items' part of my Windows Vista Experience very often. I usually downloaded and edited so many designs and images of designs each day, the stuff I wrote and saved got pushed off minutes after I last saved it - there were designs coming in, fast and furious ! Now, finally, that seems to be slowing down. In fact, if it weren't for the one-letter-a-day alphabet freebies over at CuteEmbroidery.com, I probably wouldn't be saving off more than three a day. I don't tour the freebie sites like I used to, don't click on every site I come across, and don't hunt as much. Whenever I have occasion to look around, I'm invariably reminded that I have much the same already, and there's not much use in buying more. It'd be like buying more thread !

 

Hm. Who'd have thought I'd reach Full Saturation this early in the game ? I think having to fight so hard for so long for the SewRed design kinda took the fun out of it a bit. I still don't understand the folks with over ten thousand designs - not files, actual designs ! - who still prowl for more. I probably have about three thousand, and I feel stuffed, almost bloated.

 

Made the mistake of totaling up all the ancillary costs of my latest hobby. Between thread, stabilizers, designs, needles, and spare hoops, and who knows what else, we've already spent more on the extras than we did for Brody (the embroidery sewing machine) ! And I do things on the extreme cheap, according to SiCK forum members. I'm just hoping the stash of everything lasts a while, and was a good investment. I'm still all excited about the FSL victory yesterday, since that means I'll soon be able to try those FSL Barbie shoes designs I bought months ago.

 

But one success does not a complete understanding make. I wanna get some more experience under my burgeoning belt before I go after the complicated stuff. I also have tons of unfinished business, including eight large-size semi-nude dolls that need to find new clothes before they can move on to new homes. So I think I'll work on that this week.

 

Began tutoring Dearest Son today, and we did pretty well. He read for 20 minutes aloud, we worked on time-telling with analog clocks for another 20 minutes, and I pulled up a third-grade spelling list from a website, and we worked on it for a half-hour. For Art, he got to cut up a falling-apart Disney book and make a story collage. Not bad, I think. Beloved still wants to hire a tutor, but I think that ship has sailed, so I'm gonna do what I can. And Dearest's working with me - heck, he'd do darn near anything to keep from going to Summer School this year. So I got that going for me.

 

Since it doesn't leave me much housework or ‘me' time, I have to get a bit better organized to make the most of the time I get. I confess, I wasn't terribly well-prepared today. But I can take what I learned and improve tomorrow.

 

Got the last Barbie case hung up. If I find another, I'll have to take a hanging one down. They're packed in tight - and the new one isn't quite where I'd like it, but it'll do. When it's not so hot and I'm not so sweaty, I may redo it. For now, it's off the floor, so I'm happy. Once I get the last of the donations dolls dressed and moved out, I'll be even happier. I'll be back to near-optimum floor space !

 

Otherwise, the first Monday of Summer Vacation '09 went well. Beloved's friend is over again, so I'm Lab-bound as soon as I've posted. Hope your Monday was as educational as mine !

I-Design and FSL = one fun Sunday !

Current Mood : Elation ! 

Spent on Barbie stuff : $8.64

 

Fun, busy day. For starters, our tutor officially quit on us, saying she just didn't think she had the energy to do a good job. Too bad she waited until past the last minute to tell us this. So, I guess I'm the summer tutor. Starting tomorrow. This oughta be good...

 

Took Dearest Son to Dollar Tree, mostly to get out of the house. He likes to have stress balls now, so I wanted to make sure he had several. I wasn't expecting to find much, but ...hmm. Cards that go to that Barbie ‘I-Design' toy. Looked over one package, since the ‘I-Design' setup had been listed as the 21^st century's "Fashion Plates", and it did sound cute. So I went through the pegs and got one of each of the eight different sets they had.

 

It's actually quite fun. You can play with just the cards, the shuffler thingie and the scanner device aren't necessary. Basically, you get 15 cards in each themed set. There's three models - Barbie, Teresa, and Raquelle - three backdrops, and nine transparent ‘fashion' cards. You can mix and match the clothes and the characters, and store your favorite in the included pink plastic frame. Some of the clothes are familiar, if you've been anywhere near the Fashion Fever or playline aisles in the last year or two. Of course, the more cards you have, the more versatile or just plain wild the choices get, so, like Pokemon, the idea is that you gotta get ‘em all.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have caught on as well as Mattel would have liked, since I found the whole series at Dollar Tree. Heck, the little stand-up frames - transparent pink plastic with the current ‘Barbie' silhouette in the upper left corner - are worth the buck. I'll probably spray-paint a few, since they're all pink. On those days when I just don't have a photo ready, don't be surprised if you see an ‘I-design' image instead !

 

And in the evening, everyone was busy with their own stuff, so I decided not to let ‘Sew FSL' carry over to June on the ‘Schedule of Machine Embroidery Efforts' list. Read a few more pages, and discovered that as many pages say to use the same thread, top and bobbin as say keep bobbin thread in the bobbin, unless you want your design to be the same on both sides', so I decided to load up some Madeira, leave the bobbin thread where it was, and hoop up some water soluble stabilizer (WSS). And try Free Standing Lace, one more time.

 

First time I tried FSL, Brody'd barely been out of the box for a week. I'd bought Ultimate Solvy and Regular Solvy, both well-known WSS brands. The Ultimate touted itself as being four times as thick as the regular lightweight stuff. But to be honest, it was like hooping thin vinyl. And my not-yet-changed needle just punched right through it, but the regular ole Dual Duty thread wouldn't stay in the stabilizer - it popped right back out. Nothing I did - adding tulle or doubling the UltraSolvy - worked. So I put it all aside, thinking I'd figure it out later.

 

And today was later. This time, I used embroidery thread up top, bobbin in the, well, bobbin, and broke out the lightweight Solvy. Two sheets. Away we go. We'd gotten nearly to the end when...drat it all. The Solvy began to tear, and stitches were starting to pull out and tangle. Stopped Brody, and pulled out the mess. The Solvy washed away easily, like magic, but the design was a mess. I figured I could salvage it, so I let it dry and rolled up my sleeves. Round #2 - Fight !

 

Folded over a sheet of the just-used Solvy, so it was doubled, then added another new sheet. Triple thick ! And while Brody was resting, I went ahead and loaded up that bobbin I made from that three-ended spool of Madeira. Since both threads were matched in weight, and were fairly close in color, I thought the second might go better. It did. It did start to tear just as the final round of satin stitching got halfway through, but it held together long enough to complete the design. Yes ! I have successfully finished an FSL design - and I learned a lot !

 

Washed and dried the second version next to the first. I can really tell the difference. The WSS left both starched stiff, but the first one is much more fragile, mostly due to the thin, fine bobbin threads. Second is not only stronger, but bigger, and it can support itself much better. And I can now use any of the many, many FSL designs I've hoarded over the last few months !

 

I'm thinking of challenging myself to towels next week...

Yard sale Saturday - at last !

 

Current Mood : Wowed. But hot. 

Current Image Notes : This is my rating at the SiCK forums. It's already changed, but I thought it was funny. 

 

With Dearest Son at his grandparents, Beloved Hubby at work, and a beautiful bright sunny Saturday, what better way to spend it than at a few dozen yard sales ? I probably hit about eight before I got too hot and tired, and wanted to go home with the booty.

 

I'm still amazed at my first find. A couple years ago, back when Elphie had just settled in, I found an amazing grandfather clock, in miniature. It'd be perfect for her ! Too bad it was $60. ! Even with the 40% off coupons, it was rather expensive for a doll prop. Few months after that, I found several in the markdown section, but they were all badly damaged - and still $30. Oh, well.

 

So my jaw nearly broke their lawn when I saw The Clock on their table, with a 50c sticker on it. I didn't care if it worked or not, it was The $60. Clock ! Wow. I also snagged a tiny-print ruffled café curtain that'll make great doll clothes, and a plastic Eiffel tower, but I was still dazed from the clock.

 

Another sale gave me a short ton of fabric - probably about eight yards, of prints and solids - for $4., and they tossed in a bunch of craft and nostalgia magazines and catalogs. I don't know how I always manage to find fabric when I tour the yard sale circuit, but I do ! Several other sales were just not worth getting out of the car for, but it was still fun to be out and not have to be anywhere.

 

Got all the fabric sorted and bundled. Lots of good stuff, maybe enough of one to make a simple blouse. A battery replacement got the clock to work, and I'll have to pose Elphie with it soon. I'm not sure what's with my sudden Eiffel interest, but I've been looking at them in embroidery designs, too. Odd. Well, now I have a purple glitter-plastic one.

 

After that, I just sort of sat. Read up on Free Standing Lace (FSL) again, since it's my big failure so far in machine embroidery. I wanna try again, and loaded a pair of likely designs in Brody last time I hauled him out here. But not today. I'm all hot and tired. Trying to not run the air conditioning ‘til June. Thank Everything for fans !

I can SewRed for Women, any time !

 

Current Mood : Thrilled ! 

Current Image Notes : This is how Ambassador 'sees' the design - or at least, a representation of it. And now, I can finally see it, too ! 

 

Beloved Hubby played hooky from work today - his staples are out, and the arm is still a bit puffy and sore - so we sorta goofed around and didn't do much of anything. I took off for an hour's worth of errands and time away from home (at that time, he was still going to work, just as soon as I got back) and hit four yard sales. Whoo-hoo !

 

I am now the proud owner of a Disney Princess mini-Christmas tree skirt, a neat clock, a cute manicure set that looks like a designer knockoff, and a hand-held game that says ‘Pinball Master' but so far, only plays ‘Breakout' type games. Not bad for less than $4.

 

And, happily, I now have the funds for Alphabet Xpress, in Checking. It's waiting for whenever the program offers to keep my trial from running out. So far, it says I have 20-some days, and it'll tell me when we're closer to expiration how to keep the program. Nice. Most trials start begging the day you install them.

 

Speaking of resolutions, the company that handles the SewRed campaign - and offers Explorations Resizer 1.5 - called today. And they trouble-shot with me over the phone. It was excellent customer service, I think. Turns out, the reason Resizer didn't install was because I had too many processes going on. Once some were shut down, it installed fine. And once it was installed, I easily found and saved the SewRed design to my format - and Ambassador and Brody both saw it. Once I resized it. Believe it or not, once I finally got the design, it was too big ! But the Resizer works, and it's good to have, especially for free. I'll have to stitch it up sometime soon. Especially after OESD and I worked so hard to have it !

Begging your indulgence...

 

...but since there's not really anything going on, and I've got a ticked-off tummy, I'm gonna just let today go. Catch you tomorrow ! 

Last day of school !

 

Current Mood : Still miffed.

 

Today is Dearest Son's last day of school. Normally, I'd go volunteer, since it's Kids Fun Day, but the PTA kinda horked me off with their latest. Get this - they wanted me to buy some treats, drop them off at the school as a donation ... and they'd sell the stuff at the Kids Fun Day concession stands ! What ? I'm to buy it, donate it, then give my kid money to buy it again ? And on the last day of school ? Bull !

 

 I bought a nice set of treats yesterday and gave them directly to Dearest's teacher, telling her they were for the last day of school as a special surprise. Ridiculous. There's at least three fundraisers a month at that school, and to this day, I have no idea where one penny of all that money goes to. No new playground equipment has surfaced, and the books in the library that he comes home with are still rather battered. I just can't force m'self to ask Creepy Guy, who's the PTA prez, since just being in the same room with him causes every alarm I have to start shrieking. I'm still trying to figure out why he and his ‘genius' third-grader were at that miserable excuse for a second-grade field trip last week.

 

Which, by the way, we paid $20. for - $7. for Dearest, $3. for me, and $10. towards the fund for kids who couldn't pay. So I really don't wanna hear any more begs - especially on the blasted last day of school. I'm tapped.

 

I'm also befuddled as to the table and chairs at Mal-Wart last week, with the name of a school PTA on posterboard taped to it. They weren't selling anything that I could see, but from the huge jar on the table, they were taking money. Um, that particular school isn't even in this part of town. It's across the tracks, on the ‘high side' - so what're they doing here ? While it was a huge jar, most people were doing the old ‘don't look up' dodge, so the jar wasn't very full. I looked straight at them, and when asked, said where my son went to school, so why were they here ? No answer, and Mom disengaged quickly to hit up someone else. They weren't there when I came out. (sigh) At least I have a few precious weeks to not deal with school fundraisers.

 

But he had a nice time, and I'm glad. I just couldn't support this one with either my time or our money. I'm gonna go lie down for a while. 

 

I am Space Command !

Current Mood : Giggly

 

Here's what I did with one of those two mugs I got from Hobby Lobby - I taped the ‘Space Command' badge to the back of one of the coloring-page inserts it comes with, and instant personalized mug ! It's OK for now, but I wanna use starched fabric behind the badge, instead of paper. And probably use some Gorilla Glue to make it permanent. Still, it's a decent mug, and when I cleaned it up for some orange juice, it held up well, and no OJ got inside. Not bad at all.

 

It's hilarious when you give a gift to a bus driver. They really wanna know what's in the bag, but they gotta drive ! They both thanked me heartily for their gifts, especially the monitor. I think he gets forgotten a lot.

 

Oh, and I forgot, because it's was sooo much a washout, but there was a flea market this weekend - I went Friday. Yawn-fest. I mean, even the doll-car-set seller wasn't there. I was in and out in less than a half-hour, which has to be a record for me. I'd planned on going back Saturday, for the promised additional vendors and yard salers, but I'd discovered Alphabet Xpress, and it became an obsession instead. At a yard sale on the way home, though, I snagged a brand-new hardback copy of Stephen King's Desperation, and an also-new pair of green-and-white polka-dot ballerina flats. $2. for both - which isn't at all bad, since the book is $27. retail. Heck, library late fees would be more than the buck I paid for the book, and I have all the time I want with it !

 

Also the SweetEmbroidery.com site wrote - I'd paid $5. for a month's membership, and snagged all I wanted in three hours' time. They offered me a $7./year membership. Hmm. If they'd offered me that from the get-go, I'd have taken it, but there's nothing new there that I want. I'd actually come out ahead if I waited a year and rejoined for another $5./month. If they're still there.

 

Aaand the tutor we hired for Dearest Son's summer has bailed on us. She cancelled on dinner and lesson plan chatter Friday, due to flu, then again yesterday, since she and now her fiancée are still sick. Since she was originally due to start tomorrow - we put it off ‘til Monday - I'm starting to think we don't have a tutor after all. So I've cracked open a new notebook and started scratching down potential lesson plans. Wonder if I can get  Beloved Hubby to give me the money we were gonna pay her ?

 

Not much else going on today, so I  hope ya don't mind all the catch-up stuff !

I love my Evil Genius...

 

Current Mood : Still thrilled !

Spent on mugs and material :  $3.39

 

As briefly mentioned yesterday, I made Beloved Hubby something, finally ! Long ago, we found an ‘Evil Genius' shirt made from a black t-shirt with white iron-on letters at a yard sale. Beloved was instantly taken with it, so it came home with us. Over the last couple of years, the cheap iron-ons have been deteriorating, so now it's a cryptic, shredded-plastic shirt more than a declaration/warning. He'd really liked the shirt, so I set out to make him a newer one, that wouldn't shred in the wash.

 

Thanks to Alphabet Xpress, it was easy. He liked the architect-like font, so we used it. And in less than a half hour, we had a shirt... with sooo many errors ! I'd forgotten to change the needle from a sharp to a ballpoint. I didn't have the design low enough, and my hooping puckered a bit. I also forgot to change the stitches back to ‘satin' which would have been much easier to read. I was showing off all the fill designs to him, and it was on ‘snakeskin' when I saved it, and, of course, ported it into Brody's memory.

 

But there's always more shirts to make. I already have his next one ready. It's the Man's Prayer from Red Green : ‘I'm a man/But I can change/If I have to/I guess.' He wanted me to put it on any ole shirt of his, but I don't know what'll happen if the needle hits a paint chip - and most of his shirts are loaded with paint spatters. So I'm gonna snag another new one when I do groceries, and surprise him later this week.

 

Dearest Son's busdriver and bus monitor get surprised tomorrow. Their jars are all done and are waiting by the door. I hate to give them out before school's over, but every year, someone's called in on the last day, and I'm not takin' the chance this year. Hope they like them.

 

I've earned enough points on the SiCK site for another free set, but heck. Not sure what I want there. Or anywhere, really. I was all set to join another site for a month of downloads, but I really wanna concentrate my efforts on getting that Alphabet Xpress program instead. Maybe later.

 

It kinda hit me today, when I dropped one of the bags of trash I was hauling to the Dumpster. One of the horses was in there, too, so I had to get it cleaned up before she got curious. So as I dug packing peanuts out of wet earth and meadow muffins, I thought to myself, ‘Darn it, I am gonna do something nice for myself for all this butt-bustin' housework !'. But then, I couldn't think of a thing I wanted that I didn't already have in my greedy sights. It's a weird sort of feeling to have everything you want - and know it.

 

Still, when we all went to Hobby Lobby today, I bought a remnant of blue fabric with silver-glittery stars on it, and two VBS mugs. Turns out, they're pretty well made to be 87c at full retail !

 

And on Memorial Day, we each took a bit of time to think and reflect, and be thankful, for all we had and all we were was due to much sacrifice by people we'd never know.