Saturday, July 28, 2007

world wide web

The Internet has its ups and downs. To me, the internet used to be a cool "new" place to do school research. Then it turned into a place to send electronic mail to the very friends I saw day to day at school, anyway.

After awhile, things got even MORE interesting, when I discovered chat rooms (don't worry, all I did was chat in the 'orchestra' room. Seriously. There were three of us who met every night, 'bout 10 oclock. I remember going to the darkened computer room every night after watching M*A*S*H* with my parents.

And, before we knew it, it was covered with advertising and clicky banners. Amazon turned into MORE than a bookstore...and you could shop at every department store ONLINE.

The internet has been, and can be, a very dangerous place. You never know who is sitting in their bedroom, looking word for word, picture for picture, at something you posted. It can also be an addicting, time-wasting place. Such as...it being very late at night, and, instead of doing up the dishes or going to bed or spending quiet time with your family, you click around on my.space for 2 hours.

But, if you're careful and conscious, many of those things can be avoided. And because of that, the "ups" somehow keep us coming back again.

There are several things I love about the Internet: email, recently--online banking, keeping in touch with friends, meeting *new* friends &hearts, and, of course, the thing that has always been there from the beginning: LEARNING.

Over the last few months, I have been in love with a website, a blog: this one This site, for me, has been life-changing. I have wanted to learn how to sew because of it, eat better because of it, play with Johnna and create a unique, beautiful childhood and home for my baby, learn to embrace the old fashioned, and it has reminded me of where I once wanted to go in the lifestyle aspect of who I am.

It is beyond inspiring, it is life-changing.

I also love, for example, if you have a question about something - how many teaspoons are in a cup? - you can just google it, and there it is. You can print off a recipe - a digital recipe - and have it become something all five of your senses can encompass.

Last night, because of these sites:

here
here
and
here

AND

here and
here

I have been able to really learn and do SO MUCH on my sewing machine!!!! Obviously, make some pants for Johnna.

The first pair, made out of an old shirt of mine, were some lavenderish - pink shorts.



Although you can't really see them that well, I MUST say that they were messy.....I didn't know how to do the zig zag stitch to finish the seams. BUT, because of finding that last video earlier today, I learned something HUGE, that made all the difference.

Today was supposed to be a break-day from sewing. But, after finding that video, I HAD to try it on some practice felt. AMAZING! It worked like a super charm!

So, after the babe and the daddy went to bed, of course I sewed an entire new pair of capri's for Johnna! And they turned out 99.122475 % better than the first pair!!!!!



I traced a pair of her pants (they are shorts, but are more like little high-waters - they are a toddler size) from Target, following the directions from off the internet (first link). I used the link for the elastic casings and did the "stitch in the ditch" technique. Even though the internet directions didn't say to finish the seams, I did do the zig zag stitch. After all that work, I don't want it to unravel after a few washings! Maybe I can get a serger for Christmas. Haha. Naw, the zig zag looks great.

Sorry! Anyway, see - the pink pants reproduced!



Now that it is midnight, and I picked up the house and sewed a pair of pants AND took pictures and uploaded them to the internet AND posted a lengthly blog about things, I should probably get ready for bed.

Again, thank you internet and people who use it for good things. There really are live people on the other end who benefit from your help and inspiration!

Melissa at 11:35 PM

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Friday, July 27, 2007

a new direction

Yesterday I made another diaper, out of the terry cloth material I had been so excited about.

Well. I think after only a couple sewing projects, I seemed to have already accomplished making something...ugly. :(

I don't know what is so...ugly...about that diaper. It is soft and navy blue. But it looks like a huge towel. For some reason, I could't wait to hurry up and finish sewing it, just so I could stop working on it. Once I finished it, I said to Johnna: "Do you want to wear your ugly diaper?" She just looked at me and at the diaper and then at me again. It was kind of funny, that moment.

Once she got it on, it didn't look so much like a big towel anymore. It looked like a little girl running around in a big navy blue...diaper-thing. And with her brown hair and white t-shirt, I told her, "Johnna, the diaper is pretty ugly, but nothing could ever look ugly on YOU!" So, on the hanger, it isn't the most beautiful thing. But on the girl, well, she makes it beautiful.

The good news is, now that I've officially made an ugly diaper, I've realized we really don't NEED any more diapers. I think starting with diapers was a great way to learn how to use the sewing machine. And now, I am ready to move on!

Check out this: I'm obsessed (in my mind). Now, I just have to sit down and start sewing!

But first, I will return to the thrift store to find some used t-shirts! (stripes, stars, tie-dye, who knows! I could use this to make Johnna some shorts, too!)

Labels: cloth diapers, crafts, pants, sewing

Melissa at 9:29 AM

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Terry Cloth

Last night, Johnna and I went along with John. Awhile back, he had signed up for a cake decorating class, but missed a lesson. So his instructor let him join her new class for the lesson he had missed.

Johnna and I never went along, but, lately, her bed time has been on hour or so later than it had back then, due to the later daylight hours, I am assuming.

I had it in my plans to run over to a thrift store - of which John was almost sure was open til 7 or 8 - to pick up some old green terry cloth material ($4) I had seen there a week or so ago, but did not buy.

When Johnna and I pulled up outside of door, amongst its vacant lot, I noticed that every weekday EXCEPT Mondays, they are open til 8. I WAS SO MAD! I was really looking forward to sewing another diaper out of that material. I wondered why it was meant for me to not have it.

We made the best out of our shopping time and visited some other stores (which really creeped me out...more on that some other time). As a last resort, I drove by another thift store, this one booming with cars and movement. They were open!

We bombarded inside to the fabric section, and I found THREE HUGE rolls of terry cloth material - green, navy blue, and a smaller portion of white. And guess what? The green and blue sold for $1.75, and the white for $1.00. SO, I pretty much got 2.5 times the amount - for the same price - as I would have at the other store.

The lesson learned: Sometimes, when things don't work out the way we want them, we shouldn't always take it for a loss, dwell on how, if all had "gone as planned" at that time, things would be different. Because the chances are, something better is around the corner. It might take an hour, or a week, or a year, but it is there, waiting for us, working out as it was meant to work out.

I think this can apply to many of the things in life.

Labels: life's lessosn

Melissa at 11:15 PM

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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Here I sit.

Here I sit, wasting time, the day running on its last bought of minutes. 68 to be exact. I have no idea what I want to write, or where I want to write it, which I why I come here. It seems as if this blog is good for a lot of nothing that in all reality means a lifetime. Whatever that means.

The day started off with waking at 5:55, to dogs barking uncontrolably. Yes, it was Sammie. And of course it was due to provoking dogs next door. I had to yell at my dog, even though I knew it wasn't her fault. The neighbors were outside (still?) Their son, in the military, is back home, so the night was full of tales and drinking and revving motors (have I mentioned how much I love this neighborhood...sarcasm). The day resumed after a tad bit more sleeping, only this time, yelling at the neighbors at 6:55 a.m. Needless to say, the dogs shut their kibble holes (I always used to tell the rooster to shut his seed hole...). Like pie hole. But, yeah. Fun times.

Not this morning. Kind of a bad way to start the day.

I wanted to remain positive, however. So Peter, Paul, and Mary went into the CD player as soon as Johnna woke. Then I made her a buttermilk pancake, banana, and milk, and decided a morning walk might do the trick.

But, at 10, the weather already seemed draining. We trudged on, collecting the mail from the P.O. Box, stopping at the park by the historic city offices building, playing on the swings and "bouncers" (a chicken, a hippo, and a pony), gazed at the fountain near the entrance, and then continued UPHILL home.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten MY water, the sun beating on my back, the non-existant breeze: it was all making me crabby. I could feel it.

When we finally got home, it was 11:30. I filled Johnna's pool (to warm up for later), then decided it would be GREAT to hang the diapers on a clothesline outside. However, we do not have a clothes line. That doesn't necessarily mean we did not have one.

Johnna and I looked throughout the garage and came up with a plan: we would hang Sammie's old cable from one part of the house, to something else. The two outdoor light fixures worked perfectly! One end from the side door, the other end from the garage door. What made me extra crabby was that I could not find the clothes pins anywhere! So...that idea flopped.

Then I HAD to shower. Then I made Johnna a fried egg, sliced fresh peach, two graham crackers, and some chocolate milk. She is 100% off bottles now, and 100% of the added chocolate kwik, but today, after all the turmoil, I figured she deserved a little treat.

then it was her nap time. And I crashed on the couch and looked up and out the windows to the sky, watching faint clouds whisp by and disappear into nothing. I don't think I have ever seen that before.

John came home during her nap time. Then the day moved like any other: snacks, another shower, playing guitars and reading books on baseball stadiums throughout history, hard boiling eggs, doing a load of dishes, and picnicing outdoors.

We played outdoors until bedtime. (I LOVE not having TV!) We went down to the park and played frisbee, let Johnna run around in the diaper I sewed, along with a red flannel shirt. She played in the sand around the horseshoe area, scurried around to the swings and the bouncers.

Two parks in one day. They are sleeping. I haven't done much, it seems. I picked up toys and folding three loads of laundry. And here I am, wasting time. I just want to say that I don't want to clip out 'help wanted ads' because I am set that I will work at the lab again someday. I don't care how soon or how far away. That is the job I will have.

Labels: day, jobs, park, picnic, walk

Melissa at 10:52 PM

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

success!

I can wind the bobbin. And thread the machine. And sew elastic (not the very best). And I *still* want to learn more! Hurray for a new hobby!

Labels: crafts, goals, hobbies, sewing

Melissa at 10:08 AM

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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

we miss you and still visit sometimes

Today we played at the old park by our old house. It was so quiet - except for the wind blowing through the leaves on the trees and the stalks on the field corn rustling from that same breeze. SO QUIET.

I missed our old house so much just then. I thought about how that scene would have been our very yard, and we could play out there like that EVERY day and then go into the old farmhouse and wash up for dinner. I loved how Johnna could just roam around the wide, open grasses and go up to the edge of the forest and "smell" flowers. How John and I could play croquet and keep an eye on her but not worry about whether or not she was halfway into someone else's yard or nearing the busy black top street.

We let her walk down the dirt road, the dirt road that led to our old house. The dirt road John and I walked on so many times before, when we lived there.

This was an actual picture I took, back in the autumn of 2004, when we would actually walk down this road and know it lead home.



It felt very empty to wander down that same old dirt road (only much brighter and greener as it is now summer in full bloom). I watched my little girl walk down the road, her little moccasins leaving dusty footprints behind her. I wished then that I could give her everything. And in that moment, our old farmhouse seemed as if it could be everything.

I whispered to the trees tonight, asked them how they could go on without us, and they replied that they had gone on long before us, and then I felt dumb for even asking. I did tell them to whisper words to the lab and get me employed there once again.

Our old place is up for sale again. It has been "fixed up," so is selling for much more than we bought it for, way too much that we could ever afford.

I wish we could have everything we had then, only have Johnna, too. It would have been perfect.

Tomorrow I need to clean this house. Clean clean clean, really good. I also just realized that, although my hair is the same as it was on Mother's Day (see below), it is also very different.

Melissa at 10:21 PM

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