Spring Lineup

Spring semester is upon us. That's why we just got eight inches of snow, I guess.

Anyway, it's going to be hectic around here for the next three months or so.

On Mondays and Wednesdays I have Digital Patterning. I guess I'll be learning to use a computer program to make and scale patterns. Cool. Required. Probably not anything I'm going to buy (the program). But it should be interesting.

Monday afternoons will be Illustration 2. The teacher is pregnant, and due in February. I wonder how this class will go?

Wednesday afternoons I'm taking Millinery! Finally! Already my kids have made requests: Brandon wants a cavalier hat (think Three Musketeers) and Michael wants a bowler hat. :-)



What do you think?
Brandon?



Michael?

Thursday mornings I'll have Fashion Portfolio.  Really, I can't imagine why that is a three-hour class, but OK.

And on Friday afternoons I'll have Outerwear—learning to make coats.  I wonder if this will be more cost-effective than buying coats?  We buy a lot of them in our house.

The hard days will be Mondays and Wednesdays.  Taking public transportation, as I do, means that it's pretty close to an hour-and-a-half each direction.  So for my 9:00 a.m. classes I have to leave home around 7:25 to catch the bus. My afternoon classes on those days start at noon on Monday and 1 p.m. on Wednesday; there is no time to come home between classes, and I won't get back home for the day until 4:30 or 5:30 p.m.  Loooooonnng days! My plan right now is to attempt to do ALL my homework during those between-classes hours. That way I can be home when I'm home.

And, just to make the mix more exciting, Bruce has been accepted into a master's program, and is starting next week. He's going for his MFT (marriage and family therapy) license.  We're pretty excited about this—a chance to move forward, at last! But I'm a little nervous too; we will be trying to run our household with both parents in school.    Thank goodness we have big kids who are capable and immensely helpful!

Bruce's classes are on Tuesday and Friday evenings from 6:00 to 10:00, and a few 8:00 to 5:00 Saturdays. This means I should be home when he's not. I went to his student orientation last Tuesday night and his classes—his whole program—sound teeeedeeeeous. Bleh! Better him than me! Bruce is in a rigorous, strict two-year program (meaning he takes the classes when they tell him to. Period.), so he should finish up about six months after I do. That will be awesome!

And, yes, I have finally made up my mind that I really will finish my program. I've hummed and hawed for so long that I am now three-quarters (or more) of the way to my degree anyway; I might as well do it. Only eleven classes left! I will try not to moan too much when mid-terms come around.

So that's what's coming up for the Norths. Wish us lots of luck!

Grandma?

Last weekend I babysat my cute little niece and nephew, Lizzy and David.

Lizzy watches a movie with Kaylie and Rachel. And drinks with her feet, apparently. ;-)

Lizzy is three and pretty much just played with my girls the whole time—I hardly knew she was there. David is fourteen months old and he is just so darn cute! 

He walked all around and chattered and had a fine old time.

What's this?

Aha!

He played with the contents of my lid-drawer.  Later he played with one of the girls' old baby dolls for a while.  At first he snuggled it and said, "Baay-beee!" Then he started throwing her around. In the evening he was a little tired, but we had set up his travel-crib in the living room (for space reasons—Lindsey planned to sleep in there with him) and my family wasn't ready for bed yet. We were watching The Prince of Persia, so we sat David on the couch with us, with a blanket and a cup of milk.  When the movie got exciting he said, "Whoooooaa!"

He is such a happy, pleasant little guy.  I thought I wouldn't mind having another baby. When I started to fall asleep in front of the movie (a common occurrence) it was bedtime. David went to bed with no complaint, and fell right asleep.

Then he woke up at 4:30. I thought I'd just see if I could ignore him and he'd go back to sleep. (Now you are learning something about my parenting.)  He was OK with that.  He didn't go back to sleep, but he didn't fuss either.  He just talked to himself for a while, so I got to doze a little.  But at 5:30 he was getting impatient with me.

What's this?  Cheerios on the floor?
David woke Lindsey, Rachel and Ryan at 5:30, too. I guess Ryan decided to sleep on the couch after that.

I got up and gave him some milk in hopes that he would still go back to sleep. He said, "Thanks!" But when I headed back to my room he complained—he was having none of that. So I got out of bed and took him out of the crib; he had a dirty diaper. I thought Oh yeah. Maybe having a baby isn't so much fun. Not with a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call.  But after about 20 minutes I was truly awake and I thought that I wouldn't mind another baby at all.

However, I am not pregnant nor am I planning to be.  I hate to say it, but at my age and with the ages of my kids . . . Ooooooh! Grandma-hood could be just around the corner for me. Am I really old enough to be a Grandma? 

Couldn't be!!

But, really, I guess I am. My parents and some of my older siblings and several of my friends were grandparents younger than this.

Weird!


Cutie!



Fear

This afternoon as I hurried to my train stop I noticed a young black man sitting, waiting for the train. (Yes, I said, "black."  I understand that his skin isn't really black; but my skin isn't white, either. This whole "politically correct" business makes me crazy—can't we just speak? Anyway, I have really digressed now.)

I didn't pay too much attention to him as I passed by to find a seat and wait for my train—not until he started walking toward me; it was obvious that I was his destination.  Instinct made me pull my bag a little closer to myself, and then, because his eye was on me, I felt stupid for doing it.  He walked right up to me and said hi; he said he liked my hair, and he asked me my name.  I was a little nervous, but I told him my first name.  He held out his hand and said his name was Paul, and shook my hand with a nice, firm grip (I hate wimpy hand-shakes). Paul asked where I was headed, and I told him what train stop I was going to; he said he was headed into Salt Lake. As all this exchange was going on, I was a little, tiny bit uneasy in the back of my mind.  Who was this guy and what did he want? 

Paul is young—maybe in his mid to late twenties, wears his hair in short dreads, has a little goatee, and he's blind in his left eye.  He wasn't dressed as well as the kids I go to school with, but he didn't look homeless, either. I found out that he works in Salt Lake City; he's been here for about four months and he thinks Salt Lake is "different."   He's from New York, but he's been to several places across the country. He has family in New York and in Jamaica.  He was in Jamaica when he was eight years old, but I don't know if that means that he lived there, or if he'd just gone for a visit. He's been hitch-hiking around the United States for the past ten years or so; he lived in Las Vegas for about a year and I have the impression that's the longest he's stayed put. I asked him, of the many places he's been, which place he liked the best.  He said he couldn't choose one.  "They all have their pros and cons; when you total it up, they even out."  But he did like living in California because he could go to the beach every day, and he says that in San Diego the weather is perfect all the time.  I said I couldn't imagine living that way—moving around all the time—and asked if he liked it.  His answer about life was kind of the sameas his answer about places:  he has good and bad days, same as anyone; you can decide to like it or not; you make the best of life.

In turn, Paul found out that I've lived in Salt Lake all my life except for three years in Tennessee.  He knows that I don't like very hot or very cold weather, but if those are my choices I'd prefer cold (he'd prefer hot.)  He learned that I am going to fashion design school, but that I don't know what I'm going to do with this education later.  We talked for about ten minutes, waiting for and then riding the train.  At his stop he said, "So long, sweetie," and left to switch trains.  He was a nice young man.

So I thought about this for the rest of my train ride.  My very first instinct when I saw Paul was to hold tight to my stuff.  Really, if he had taken it he'd have been more disappointed than I would have been—a textbook, a bolt of muslin, a notebook, and a sewing kit.  I am embarrassed by my reaction.  All he wanted was someone to talk to for a few minutes. 

You know, most people are pretty nice.  So why are we all so afraid of them?

Family Outing

Last Saturday the Norths decided to have a Family Outing. 

in the van, ready to go

Bruce and I have been thinking that since we've never taken any kind of family vacation away from home together—not even camping—that maybe it was about time we took our family camping this summer.  But we have no camping gear.  Well, almost none; my scouts have sleeping bags and mess kits.  My sister and my mom have both told me what a cool store Cabela's is (although they say you can't afford to do more than look), and I wanted an excuse to break in my new camera. So for our big North Family Outing we decided to go to Cabela's. 

I'd thought we'd leave between 10:00 and noon, but instead we were piling into the van around 2:30.  This is kind of typical.  And we were hungry, so the first thing we did was go to Smiths and buy some sandwich stuff.  Since this was a Family Outing, we took all the kids into the store to help choose lunch stuff—this is not nearly as stressful as it was about five years ago. Then we ate in the van as we drove to the library to drop off some stuff, and then to another Smiths store for more bread and some cookies. (OK, and to go to the bank inside their store, too, which is another story.)  And then we were really on our way.

waiting for cookies in the van

 

on the drive

 First we drove down to Provo to look at an old car.

well, it was a little cooler in person

It's a 1965 Chrysler Newport—a cool-looking car, in its way, but with a NOISY engine, and needing some work.

 

We are not really the "restore an old car" type; it sounds like fun, but it also sounds like more time and $$ than we can invest right now.  But the little girls enjoyed taking it for a drive with their dad.

Then we back-tracked to Cabela's, and it is a pretty cool store.

We got there just about the same time they'd fed the trout in their big aquarium.  We walked into the aquarium place where we heard lots of children hollering and squealing.  There was one poor goldfish left, being chased around by those great big trout; finally one of them ate it and all the kids left. 

Lindsey says, "Mmmmm, trout!"

Well, our kids stayed and looked at the fish for a while.  Let me tell you, catfish are plain, old ugly.  Why would you ever see one of those and want to eat it? There was some other, even uglier kind of fish there too.

looking at ugly catfish

When we finished looking at ugly fish, we went to the Savana and saw a bunch of stuffed animals leaping about.  Taxidermy is kind of weird, don't you think?

Then we headed right on upstairs to look at camping gear. 


chillin' in the camp chairs

Rachel tries out an air mattress inside a tent.

Jessica tries out the air mattress.

Ryan and I try out the table inside the tent.
Right now we are pretty evenly matched—not for long, I bet!

Hmm.  Bruce and I look rather portly.
What does Bruce see up there?

We ended up spending about two hours at Cabela's.  Then we were hungry again (at 8 p.m.) so we drove back to Salt Lake, went to Harmons to buy some dinner, and headed home for a very late meal.

We did not buy any camping gear—just looked. But we are planning on a camping trip this summer. So I guess we'd better get ourselves in gear!

If April Showers Bring May Flowers . . .

. . . What do May showers bring?

I still haven't taken any pictures of my fabulous, "A"-earning projects because I have no place with some good light in which to model them. And you're really missing out because I was going to model the fabulous muslin jeans too! If the rain ever stops, I'll still post the pics.

In the meantime, here's what's been happening around here:
Ryan was nominated for Student Council Treasurer at Entheos, and Brandon was nominated for Historian. Brandon made it through the preliminary election and is waiting the final election tomorrow—next Monday (the 23rd) we'll know who won.

Kaylie and the entire fourth grade have been rehearsing and rehearsing a play about pioneers; they are performing tomorrow night. (If you want to see their play, leave me a comment and I'll tell you when and where.)

Rachel's class has been reading The Tale of Despereaux; yesterday they had "Soup Day" in their classroom. All the kids donated something to put into their pot of soup (they made three crockpots full of different soups). Rachel really liked the "Courage Soup" that she helped to make.

Jessica's class went swimming yesterday.

And Brandon and Lindsey are gearing up for the annual Entheos cancer fundraiser, Pedals for Hope. They are still collecting donations, so if you want to help, leave me a comment. Lindsey will donate her hair for Locks of Love at the assembly tomorrow, and Saturday is the actual bike ride—hopefully the rain will stop before then!

In other news, at the beginning of April Bruce accepted a new job. On April 10 he and Michael drove away to Colorado to work for Vivint, selling home alarm systems. After two weeks in Colorado they moved on to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where they were supposed to spend the rest of the summer (until August 27). For reasons I won't go into here and now, we had no intention of telling our families about this job decision. But after one month of being very vague as to Bruce's whereabouts ("He's at work . . ." "He's working 24-7 these days . . .") I was wondering just how long I could really keep this a secret.

Michael decided the job really wasn't for him after about three weeks, and he came home via AMTRAK. He enjoyed the train ride; he said it was really interesting—especially crossing the Rocky Mountains. The downside of the 36-hour ride was that he couldn't afford any more than just a seat on the train, which meant he had to sleep in his chair. But it taking the train sounds pretty cool—I think we'll have to try it some day (except for the sleeping in the hard chair part).

In early May I was spared trying to come up with creative—yet still true—excuses for Bruce's continued absence. After much thought and prayer, he decided that working for Vivint in Indiana all summer was not what he should be doing. He was willing to stay there and work if it was the right thing to do; but he truly felt that it wasn't. So he came back home, arriving here on May 8. Yay!! I was pretty darn miserable with him gone, and at the prospect of a whole summer of him being gone still ahead of us.

After he got back home he got another job offer so quickly that we are certain this was the right decision. Yay!

As for me, I had an entire week-and-a-half off from school, and now I'm back at it again. This semester's agenda is Math 1010 (algebra), English 2010, Cardio Fitness, Flexibility for Fitness, Zumba, and Corset-Making. And yes, I have to make the corsets for myself (I need a model to fit them to every week). We are each making two corsets, and I really don't know what I'll ever do with them after the class is done. Hang them on the wall as art? That will be a busy class, but fun. Algebra will be a busy class, but I don't know about fun.

Well, that's about all. Soon (I hope) I'll post the pictures of last semester's projects, and I'll post about Pedals for Hope, too! Fun stuff!!

Crazy-Busy!

School is keeping me extremely busy right now. Every week I make a new pattern of some kind—right now we are working on sleeves, so I make two different sleeves and a bodice to put them on—and then I have to cut them out of muslin and sew them all together. Yes, I do something like this every week for this class. I'm working on a jacket for Adv. Sew, my coat for Tailoring, and three more patterns for Pattern by Measurement. The P by M patterns are finally drawn; now I have to cut them from lovely fabrics and make them to fit me (and hope that they really look nice enough to wear).

Plus all my school and all the kids' school entails a lot of running around, and our van has been out of commission for three weeks. Ben and Tami have been far, far more than extremely generous and kind to us, and have let us use their van all this time. (I think a catered dinner with a lovely dessert is in order for them.) Hopefully our van will be out of the shop tonight—or tomorrow morning.

On top of all that, we have BIG family things in the works that are . . . a little stressful. But I'm not ready to divulge more than that right now. It's just that things here are crazy, crazy-busy!

p.s. Send me a poem for my contest! I could use the break. ;-)

What a Week!

It is probably my just punishment for leaving my family in the lurch, so to speak. Not that I'm rescinding—the "strike" is still on, and probably will be permanently.

We've had a crazy week! First of all, Mom went on strike. Since I quit being the housekeeper, I discovered that the kids will actually do a fairly decent clean up; it's just that after they've done their job once for the day they think they are done. So if the kitchen's been cleaned and then five people each get out three dishes, two butter-knives and one cup . . . and the milk and bread and two jars of peanut butter and three flavors of jam . . . then those things all stay out until the next day. And somehow nobody ever sees the dirt on the stove-top. But I do have to say that Ryan did a superb job on the kitchen last night. I think we are getting it.

Well, on Saturday all our drains backed up and flooded the basement. This could have been sheer catastrophe—and expensive. But the kids discovered it early and used the wet/dry vac in the basement. And my marvelous husband rented a power snake and got the line clean and working again. Yaaaay!!

Monday evening I was thinking our house didn't smell so good. Did the cat or the dog poop somewhere? By Tuesday night I had it figured out. Nobody had done any laundry after the drain thing happened. And there was a LOT of laundry in the basement when it flooded. Ugh!

Yesterday (Wednesday) I drove my kids to school and then stopped at Wal-Mart for Oxy-Clean and Febreeze; when I got back out to the van it wouldn't start. It really wouldn't start. My parents came to get me and we left the van there. I came home to a rather disastrous house, with no time to work on schoolwork, and I had to figure out how to get the kids home from school. At least that last one wasn't too tough—just a phone call, since their cousins also go to Entheos.

School got out at 3:15; the kids called me at 4:30 to ask what was going on. By 5:00 Bruce was heading out to see what was going on, when the kids finally got home.

I fixed dinner in a really dirty kitchen, we ate, and then we were going to go back to Wal-Mart so Bruce could have a look at the van. With my nerves all a-jangle, I ignored all the cleanup that had to happen and tried to soothe myself by playing the piano instead. Pretty soon the little girls were shrieking and dancing behind me; older kids were getting ready to go to Mutual; Bruce was on facebook; Michael was on his computer. I felt like the saloon pianist in a cartoon—the guy who just sits there playing, hunched over the keys while bullets whistle around his head.

At last, in the rain, Bruce and I drove his car back to Wal-Mart so he could check out the van. It's not the battery. It's not the starter. It's probably the fuel pump. But he couldn't do anything in the Wal-Mart parking lot, in the rain, in the dark. So the van has to stay until he can get back to it. We went back to his car and guess what—it wouldn't start! One of the battery cable/clamps broke. So we called a friend to take us home; the car will stay there until Bruce can get to it after work today.

At least all this is happening over Spring Break, which is good. That is the silver lining. Because I don't really have to go anywhere this week. Hopefully the car stuff will be worked out by the weekend and life will be back to normal.

Or is this normal?

Curly Girl Gone Astray-t

I should probably charge admission, sell tickets, because this is something that won't be repeated often—if ever.

Yesterday I had my hair cut. Well, first, on Thursday, I put some auburn into my hair. But then yesterday morning I went to the SLCC Cosmetology School to get it cut; it's just time for something new. Nicole, my student-hairstylist, is on her second-to-last semester there, and she did a very good job. And the instructor was lots of fun, and suggested a cut/style for me—which I like, because I never know what I want. We broke all the rules, and it was quite a fun and lovely experience.

Curly-Girl NO-NO number 1: They shampooed my hair. And I got a delicious scalp massage to go with it.

Curly-Girl NO-NO number 2: They used a razor to trim my bangs. This was a little disconcerting because they started cutting right at eyebrow level—great for straight hair, but I'm not so sure about when it curls up. We'll see.

Curly-Girl NO-NO number 3: They brushed and blew my hair dry.

Curly-Girl NO-NO number 4 (this is a BIG NO-NO): They straightened my hair with a hot flat-iron.

It is very different—I like it!

For the first time—probably ever—Bruce can actually run his fingers through my hair; that's nice. :-) And it feels really smooth; my hair is always pretty soft, but it's got a . . . bumpy? texture. And it moves differently too. And I got several compliments, and it's just fun to look so totally different.

Some of my kids didn't recognize me at first when I went to get them from school, and at the store Bruce didn't recognize me from behind. That was kind of funny too.

But it won't last. My hair is still clean and shiny this morning, but after I wash it (probably tonight or tomorrow morning) it will be straight no longer. Will I invest in a flat-iron? Maybe. But not right now. So if you missed the big showing, you may not ever see this look on me again. Yep. I should have sold tickets. ;-)

Phase 3 . . . Complete? Oh Dear!

I was going to post about how I'd finished phase 3 of the kitchen; the counters. But I've en-"countered" a glitch.

I did actually paint the countertops with a product called Giani Liquid Granite. Although I wouldn't really say they look like granite, they do look awesome! But just before I went to bed last night I saw a terrible thing! A little hole has peeled away right in the middle of my "snack bar." Oh, dear. Well, Giani guarantees 100% satisfaction. I just barely wrote them and let them know that I'm not feeling very satisfied right now. :-( So I'll let you know how that all turns out.

In the meantime, I'll tell you about our adventure, and I'll still post the before and after pics.

First, before I worked on the counters, Bruce fixed up the whole microwave thing. So phase "somewhere down the road" really is finished. To get the microwave into the right space he had to take out the center cabinet and move it higher. Then, you'll recall, he had to do some re-wiring and put in an outlet for the microwave. I'd thought it would hard-wire into the house, being a wall-mounted appliance, but it has an electrical cord on the top. So Bruce also had to put the new outlet inside the newly-moved cabinet, and make a hole in the bottom of the cabinet for the plug to fit through. He did a fantastic job; I have an awesome husband!

gotta love a man who'll work in the kitchen!

As for the counters, I ordered my "liquid granite" at the end of August—right as I was starting school. So I was impatiently waiting for fall break, when I'd have 72 solid hours to work on it (it takes about two days, with all the drying time).

First I had to use their awesome black primer. Just the primer looked pretty cool on the counters, but that would really be a lot of black in my kitchen, wouldn't it? Then I sponged on the other paints, and finally added the topcoat. It looked really terrific! Until it—probably got a chip somehow—and peeled.

:-(

I'm sure the company will do something to help me out. They are fairly new, and they want people to love them—as all companies do. But I wonder if I'll have to start the entire process over again? Because, yes, I am fairly determined not to revert to 1990's mauve counters.

before

after

before

after

The Great Kitchen Project, in Progress . . .

Last weekend I did finish phase 2: the painting of the kitchen walls. And I went down one side of the hallway as well. And, on top of that, Bruce finished phase "somewhere down the road," too. Unfortunately, that phase needs to be redone. I'll tell you all about it:

At about the time I started on the kitchen, our microwave totally pooped out. This isn't such a big deal—I pretty much grew up without a microwave, and didn't have my own until after 10 years of marriage, after all. Hmm. It was very convenient for re-heating leftovers though.

Well, last weekend Bruce and I were shopping at the D.I. (the local thrift store) for a much-needed bookshelf. They didn't have the bookshelf, but they did have a white, over-the-range microwave oven for $10. We took it to an electrical outlet and discovered that it worked, and also that it still had a Corelle plate with a paper towel and a chicken nugget in it. Yuck! Then we saw another one that looked even newer and better (but no chicken nuggets inside) and it still worked too! So we bought it, and Bruce installed it. This was a bigger job than you might think, involving adding a new outlet and moving the cabinet above the stove up a little higher. But he got it done, it looked lovely and it worked. For 24 hours.

See, our house was wired by idiots. Seriously. The living room, all the kitchen lights, some of the kitchen outlets, the front yard light and, I think, Brandon & Ryan's bedroom, and maybe the garage door-opener are all on the same circuit. This means that if, say, in the winter-time when it's dark in the evening, we decide to vacuum our house while someone is cooking dinner, all the power in the living room and kitchen goes out. Well, guess which breaker the microwave ended up on?

So while we were working in the kitchen, and Kaylie was watching TV, and Rachel was coloring in the living room, someone decided to reheat something. It tripped the breaker—twice. The third time it just blew the fuse in the microwave.

Undaunted, Bruce went to get another microwave. He is going to find a different way of wiring it and get it installed this weekend.

And I will be working on phase 3: counter-tops. "But, wait a minute," you say. "Paint? On the counter-tops?"

You'll see. Exciting things are happening in my kitchen!

Observations

Every morning—well, Monday through Thursday—I drive my kids to school, then drive to the train/bus stop, and then take the train into Salt Lake where my classes are. Here's what I notice:

If I leave my house between 7:45 and 7:47 I can pick up our carpool kids, get them all to school, and then make it in time to catch my train. The traffic is super heavy on Mondays, and a little less on the other days. I've noticed that checking the clock every minute or so doesn't get me to the train faster, and that when I ignore the clock I'm actually more likely to be on time.

I've noticed that very few people talk to each other on the train, but the ones who do are loud. Maybe it's all relative.

I never realized how many people in the world smoke. Yuck. I may die of second-hand smoke before I finish school.

It takes me about 12 minutes to walk from the train to the school. I cross two streets going east and one going north. I used to just go whichever direction the lights changed first; now I go all the way east first so I can walk past the city/county building with all the pretty trees instead of the big parking lots and buildings.

the best part of my walk to school

But here's the really funny thing I notice. When I'm walking, I can't help but look at the faces of the people I pass. And when I catch their eyes I always smile and say "hi" or "good morning." But most people try really hard to not catch your eye. They purposely look straight ahead, as if they have no peripheral vision, or they look down, or glance away as they pass you. Funny.

See how much I'm learning by going to school?

Homework

School has been lots of fun. Fortunately I don't have a lot of homework. But I thought I'd share some of what I'm doing with you—you may find it interesting.

In Intermediate Sewing we are learning how to do what I have always thought of as basic sewing: setting in sleeves, putting in zippers, etc. But we are learning some little tips that make it easier and more professional-looking. A lot of the younger girls in class are already asking me how to complete the in-class projects (half-size samples).

I have the most homework for Pattern-Making —at least I would, except our teacher shows us how to do our homework during class-time; so if you "get it" in class, then no homework. We have been learning to move darts. No, I am not talking about the kind you throw at a target. We take a "sloper" (a pattern with no seam allowances) and change it so instead of looking like this:

it looks like this:

or this:

or this:

We do a lot of drawing, cutting and pasting in that class—kind of like first grade. Way fun!

For my homework in Textiles today (an in-class presentation) I talked about my underwear. And not just any underwear; no, this was a pair of black lace "boy-pants."

Why on earth would anything that looks like this be called "boy pants?"

We had to choose an item of clothing that had failed in its serviceability (usefulness) because of the fabric it was made of—not the design or the construction, but the actual fabric. While other kids used sweaters, swimsuits, etc, I chose, yes, lingerie. You may question the serviceability of lacy boy-pants, and I wouldn't blame you. But Bruce helped me choose the garment to write/talk about. The biggest problem with this item is that it feels really rough—not nice to wear and, apparently, not nice to touch either. This problem has to do with a quality that, in talking about textiles, is called "hand," which just means "the way it feels."

Hmmm. Did I have the guts to go into a class of twenty people, show them my little black panties and say, "The trouble with these panties is the hand." ???

I did it. I determined that if it had been made of different fibers (they are composed of 93% nylon and 7% spandex) it would have had much nicer hand. The teacher, Janet (who is a very funny lady), agreed. "With a garment of this type," she said, "a rough hand might spoil the moment."

I think people in the fashion school are going to know my name.

More Updates . . .

Well, I've been in school for three days now. So far all my classes look interesting; the least exciting is Intro. to Fashion—an overview of the fashion world. Actually, the lecture was interesting, but the 50 minute fashion review video (lights out, sound too low) was not so great. Weird clothes on skeletal women. Nice. But I'm excited about my pattern-making class, and the body image class sounds like it will be fascinating.

AND

Now I have more pictures of
THE GREAT KITCHEN PROJECT
(Can you just hardly wait?)

To paint the front of the cabinet the right way, I had to remove the back panel first (so the dishwasher door wouldn't be in the way) . Not very attractive. But it's all back together now, and quite lovely.


before . . .

in progress; I did do some drawer repair. Yay, me!

all finished!

So, it's coming along! Next up: Repairing and painting the walls.

Back-to-School

It's official. School is in session. The Entheos kids (Lindsey, Brandon, Ryan, Kaylie, Rachel and Jessica) started on Wednesday, August 18. And Lindsey will be VP on the student council after all; the VP-elect moved to Colorado. Lindsey says she'd rather have just won the office, but I think she's happy to be working with the other kids on the student council.

Jason started 10th grade at Hunter High School on Monday, August 25. He is taking Driver's Ed. this semester—stay off the sidewalks! (Yes, Kim. Even in CA.) Just wait 'til you start driving with one of your kids. I think I'll strongly encourage Bruce to spend some quality-dad-time with Jason, getting his 30 hours of driving in.

Tomorrow Michael is starting at Salt Lake Community College; this semester he's taking two photography classes, raquetball, and "digital media essentials." He would, perhaps, like to major in fine arts.

And I'm starting at SLCC too! Officially I am enrolled in General Education (undecided major), but really I am taking Fashion Design. This fall I will have a full schedule: Intermediate Sewing , Intro to Fashion, Textiles, and Methods of Pattern Design. I am looking forward to classes in Bridal Design, Millinery (hat-making), Corset-Making, Costuming, Tailoring, and even The Psychology of Clothing. This semester I'm also taking a Healthy Body Image class and Belly Dancing. Fun!

I have been working at getting enrolled, getting financial aid, getting the guts to do this, all summer long (this is one of the big plans I alluded to earlier this summer). And now here I am, at age 43, starting in college. Although SLCC has an older enrollment than many colleges, I suspect I will be the old woman on campus. I have visions of taking all my classes with skinny, beautiful, talented, little 20-year-old girls (i.e. The Devil Wears Prada). But I'm enrolled, I've bought my books, and I am doing it! I'll keep you posted. :-)

Kitchen Update

The Great Kitchen Project . . .

Well, two weeks into the project, phase 1-A of the kitchen is done: I've got all the upper cabinets painted and the doors re-hung. It took a little longer than I'd hoped, what with back-to-school shopping and physicals, and re-tinting the paint—and so having to apply about a thousand coats.

But I did finish 1-A—this morning, in fact. This afternoon was spent in really cleaning the kitchen; for the first time in two weeks, it is bee-yoo-tifully clean. Aahhhh. ☺

And, lucky you, I decided to post pictures of the work as it progresses,

so you don't have to wait to see my colors.

An unexpected side-effect of the new paint color (which is called "Phantom Mist" —which always makes me think of "Phantom Menace" (do we see too much Star Wars around here?). Ahem. The unexpected side-effect is that the mauve countertops don't look quite so obnoxious when they're paired with the Phantom Mist. I still don't love them, but they are more palateable.

This will never do

Phase 1-B is to sand and paint the bottom set of cabinets. I wonder if I can figure out how to repair, reinforce, reconstruct, my flimsy drawers while I'm at it. The kitchen drawers—not my unmentionables!

Kids, wood, and knives don't mix

I'll keep you posted as I go!

more of . . .

. . . The Great Kitchen Project

it continues:

On days 11 and 12 (July 26-27) I took the cupboard doors out into the garage and sanded them. And sanded them and sanded them. This took several hours, and the vibrations of the electric sander—three hours at a time—made my hands and arms ache for days. But then, what do you imagine they'd feel like if I wasn't using an electric sander?


On days 13 and 14 (July 28-29) I started painting the sanded cabinets and some of the doors. I will not tell you the color. Ha!!


Well, first I had to empty all the cupboards.

Then I had this terrific idea that I could use acrylic craft paints to paint the cupboards—it would be inexpensive, easy to mix colors, it lets the wood-grain show through a little, and it's easy to clean up. I figured I could just cover over it with an acrylic sealer/varnish and all would be well. After I'd painted more than half of everything, I started wondering if this was really such a brilliant idea. So I talked to the people who make the craft paint, and I talked to the people at a paint store. And I learned that all of the good things I thought of were true. But I also found out that the required three coats of polycrylic sealer would be much more expensive than the one gallon of latex paint I'd need for the whole project. Hmm. So now the plan is that the acrylic craft paint is the primer coat, and tomorrow I'm going to get a gallon of acrylic-latex paint to do the top coat. The upper set of cupboards will be all done this week. :-)

More to come . . .