Sew Something Sunday #2

Yikes!

Sorry to all 7 of my faithful followers! I just realized, as I was getting ready to post about my 2nd "Sew Something Sunday", that I have not posted anything since my 1st SSS post! I guess that goes to show what a busy week it was last week!

That being said, I am happy about this SSS project for 2 reasons. The first reason is that I have lived in this house for 3 YEARS and have wanted to put a curtain over this window and never have. I found this fabric (it is actually a tablecloth that I got when the Pfaltzgraff outlet went out of business for $3.99--I got 2) and have just gotten to it. I am not sure what else will be made with this fabric. Maybe a cover for my Kitchen-aid mixer?

I am all set for next week's Sew Something Sunday project AND my mother just cleaned out all of her fabric so I keep looking at the huge pile and thinking about the possibilities.

LOVE that I made "Create" one of the 2011 intentions!

Not Done Yet!

Ok! Could not resist! The pictures will show you why. This is totally going to be my next girl's craft night project. Dig out your glue guns ladies! Thanks to my beautiful model, Natalie!

Off to clean up my crafting fun and settle in and figure out what I am going to teach tomorrow!

Sew Something Sunday

I love how other bloggers have "theme" days....I think I may start that! (until it becomes too confining and I get stressed about it!) Today it is cold. The sun is out but my thermometer is reading 9 degrees. The weather reporters say that it is supposed to get colder. So.....I deemed it "jammie day" at the Faas house.

While I was at Joanne Fabrics the other day, I picked up some fabric to make Natalie a new dance bag. The handle of her old one fell off at class on Saturday. She loves her dance bag. She bought it with her own money when we were at Disney World a few years ago and it is pink and blingy and just perfect. I attempted to take a picture of it to show you but it has so many sequins on it that I could not get a good one. I knew that finding something to replace it was going to be a challenge.

Ta-Da! I did it. the pink fabric has little heart outlines on it and the polka dots are metallic silver. I got the colors right and Natalie even helped to sew it. It was the first time that I let her use my new sewing machine. I need a little more practice with the zigzag stitch and the iron-on ballerina was a little fuzzy on the hands but Natalie did not care.

It is even loaded with tap, jazz and ballet shoes and ready to go for next week. I also have plans for the extra fabric but won't say anything until I give it a try!

Now I better go make dinner and make sure the backpacks are ready to go....the downside of Sunday is that it is a school night.....

Thanks to the children!

I was sitting at home tonight feeling a bit grouchy about something that I had heard. A piece of information that reminds me how cruel people are to each other and how someone's pain and hurt can cause them to be blind to their actions. As I was feeling my blood pressure rise and my faith in human kindness fall, I remembered this afternoon.

First graders are amazing little creatures. They feel each others pain so deeply and care about each other unconditionally. We got news last Thursday that one of the little girls in my class broke her femur and was in a hip-to-toe cast. The children had many questions for me that unfortunately I did not have the answer to. We made cards for her and drew many pictures (most of the pictures involved our buddy in a wheelchair), and we all were SO excited when she wrote back to us.

Today I got the news that she is going to be coming back to school next Monday. She will be transported in a wheelchair van, she is a week and a half behind in classwork will be in a wheelchair to get around the school and I will have to rearrange my room to accommodate her. This is what was going through MY mind....when I told the children that she was coming back on Monday, they stood up and cheered. Actually got out of their seats and cheered. They miss her and they know that without her, our community is not complete.

I envy them.

We could learn a lot from them.

I don't ever want them to feel like I did tonight.

I am glad that I get to be with them for 7 hours a day.

Maybe a little of their joy will rub off on me tomorrow.....

Better than before!

This is what I have recently learned. You can find anything on the internet. I have been stalking blogs lately. While I have many teaching blogs that I frequent, I am now enjoying many of the fantastic crafting blogs. I saw one recently that repaired a little girl's jeans with a very cute creative patch. Here is my version! Thanks to Natalie for blowing a hole in her jeans recently! Not sure how much longer the jeans will fit her but maybe I will be able to hand them down instead of throw them out!

The trick is to stitch the patch (dark blue) onto the jeans after you have ironed it on. I tried to tack down the pink patch but it was too thick. It seems to have ironed on well though! Natalie said "Those jeans are now better than before!"

Cool! I learned how to add my signature to the bottom of my blog! Neato!

The Lunch Edition

Ok...so anyone that knows me well (and now anyone reading this) knows that I love sandwiches. I would be happy to eat sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. While I was at Wegmans this morning I decided that I would make my favorite sandwich for lunch. The rueben. So right now you are either thinking, "Rueben? ick!" or "Rueben? yum!" It seems to be that you either like it or you don't. The key to a great homemade rueben is in the preparation. You have to have everything ready to go to prevent the dreaded sogginess.....

The above picture is a result of my years of practice in ruben preparation timing.

I prefer the dressing on the side to further ward off the aforementioned sogginess. Ahhh. YUM. (My father, since I know he is reading this, is probably putting the ingredients on his grocery list right now). While I was finishing up the lunchtime photo shoot, I decided to add my favorite beverage to the "lunch edition" of the blog. Ginger Beer is a really fun, tasty addition to your lunchtime sandwich. The fun of this beverage starts at the grocery store when 3 out of 5 cashiers will actually try to ask me for my ID to buy it.

"Can I see your ID?"

"For what?"

"For the beer"

"It is not beer"

"It says beer and there is a picture of a beer on the label"

"Just scan it and see if the computer asks for my ID"

"It doesn't.....that is wierd"

Ginger has great medicinal qualities as well as being just plain tasty. It is very soothing to the digestive system. I like mine with a twist of lime in it as well!

Well, I must go and eat my lunch....gotta eat that sandwich before it gets soggy and drink my beer before it gets warm.

What is your favorite sandwich? Maybe I will add it to my personal favorite sandwich list!

When did it happen?

Just a quick post.....I went to hug Nathan good night tonight and the hug felt different...we were forehead to forehead.

When did this:

become this?

I guess that I must have blinked.

Remind me to stop blinking.

Random Act of Tim Horton-ing

Today I participated in a random act of Tim Horton-ing. I met the girlfriend-bracelet girls @ Tim's in the middle of the afternoon for a quick hour of chatting and sweetness. OK....so it wasn't completely random, 2 of us talked about getting together today before we left work yesterday. Hard to be completely random when you have kids, husbands and schedules. Maybe this is as close to a "random" meeting as we will ever get but it still was fun. Thanks girls!

Craft Room re-do

When we moved into our house a few years ago, I was so excited that I would have an office/craft room! I have decided that in an effort to begin my intention of creating, I am working on de-cluttering and making my workspace someplace that brings me peace and ignites my creativity! I have some ideas about what I want the room to look like. The picture below is a picture that shows what I do NOT want.

I am slightly envious of people that can work in a busy space. Mary Engelbreit, one of my favorite artists, has a studio that is filled with things that inspire her. I think that I will do best in a space that is more like this. I think that I may lean toward the blue walls with the white shelving.

I would show you a "before" picture of the office now but I need to do a little post-Christmas cleaning first but I will show some during pictures soon!

2011 Intentions

I am taking a lead from a post on The Two Writing Teacher's blog that mentioned making "intentions" vs "resolutions". The word switch does change the feel of the commitment. I think that it takes the timeline away.These have all been chosen with the hope that it will create the balance that my life struggles to maintain. With that in mind... here are my 5 intentions for 2011 (in no particular order).Drink more tea. I LOVE the smell of coffee. I love the way it tastes when it has a yummy caramel latte creamer in it. I think that I just need to be honest with myself about the fact that coffee hates me. I was diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) many years ago and since then, caffeine and acid in combination is a killer. I have given up drinking the soda but coffee seems to be meaner. SO! I am going to switch to tea. As I am writing this, I am drinking a lovely cup of ginger tea. If there is a tea that you love and think I might like too, simply let me know!

Let go. OK... so the graphic would probably lead you to think that this intention has something to do with "exercise more and lose weight". Nope. This intention is about letting go.... letting go of some of the guilt that I impose upon myself. The reason I chose this graphic is because I like to go to the YMCA at night. There is NO way that I could do mornings and I like to join a friend to watch primetime TV. I need to let myself do that without guilt. My children WILL survive one or two nights a week without me at home. Won't they? I am going to have to work hard on this one.

Read. I love to read. I love to read a lot. And I do read a lot... in the summer. I feel that there is just too much going on during the school year to read in any great quantity. I don't go to the library as often. I will move through my "to read" list.

Create. I have had a couple of "girl's craft nights" in the past couple of months and have realized just how much I miss exercising the creative side of my brain. I have been following many of the wonderful crafty ladies that have blogs and cannot wait to try my hand at some new creative adventures!

The sign says it all. Beyond organizing and purging, I would like to get rid of the feeling that I need to keep up and catch up with others. Love that sign....may have to try to make it!

Happy New Year's to all and may 2011 bring the best of intentions.