5/28/2015 0 Comments Baby clothes from free patternshttp://www.purlbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Baby_Sun_Bonnet_Template_V2.pdf http://toddah.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/ToddAh_LilLeggingsPatterns.pdf I made one thing, but was skeptical and didn't take pics. But it turned out nicely and now I don't have pictures to show the process. I'll work on it for the next item. This is very much still "in progress" but got stuck in the closet for the time being.
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5/28/2015 0 Comments Making a patternI'm always ready for a new sewing project, scouring Pinterest for just the right thing. There's a plethora of free patterns available. One issue is finding things in just the right shape, size, style. If you have something you love already, or you know it fits well, making a pattern from it can be the best solution. There's less risk of putting work in just to discover the shape isn't right. I recently found a pattern on Pinterest for cloth pull ups. My son is just about that potty training age and I'm ready to get a move on. But I'll go into a rant about potty training later. My printer is completely out of ink, and I already own one pair of Gerber pull ups I bought from Meijer. So in a pinch and a fit of impatience, I made my own. The first step is to inspect whatever you want to make. Look at seams. See how many parts there are. I think that's close enough to call it a pattern. Smooth any edges or inconsistencies. In this case, approximate is good enough. 5/8/2015 0 Comments Ombre hairMy daughters gotten to the age where we can start to experiment and play, and let her express herself through her hair. She actually doesn't seem to care much about her appearance, but is periodically opinionated. This was one of the miraculous occasions she seemed really interested. I love fussing with hair and I'm grateful she let me do anything at all. I tell her I'm willing to be her personal daily hair stylist, and I'll make her fabulous everyday, but she just rolls her eyes. It's a mother/daughter teen thing, I guess. So anyways: OMBRÉ! This is exactly what we got. We decided to give her an all over dark blonde first, so the blonde ombré would really pop. And the deep conditioning was just because I know bleach can really dry out your hair. But if we had been looking for just the basics, we could have gotten away with just the developer and bleach. I didn't have a proper tool to measure developer, and when it came time to mix I wasn't sure how to make sure I had equal parts. So I poured out the dye into the mixing container, refilled it with water, and tested a shot glass to see how equal they were. Which it turns out, they were just about the same. So I added 2 shots of developer to the bowl. That's a simple thing to overlook, and it took me a minute to figure out how to deal with it. I tapered off towards the end, because we barely had enough dye for her long hair, and I was planning on bleaching the ends anyways. Next time I think I would splurge for a second bottle of dye though. We multitasked with a good Netflix marathon. By the time we finished, it was late and we decided to save the bleach for the next day. This is the only picture I took of just the brown. I looked up several ombré tutorials. Bleach needs two things to develop: potency of mixture, and time. So if you want it light, you make sure the bleach is mixed properly, and you leave it in a long time. My biggest concern was ending up with a line across her head, and not blending appropriately. So I had a few options. One was Staggering when I put bleach on, and doing the tips first and working upward after time as passed. Another was working with a second mixture of bleach that had water in it to weaken its potency. As you can see in the picture, I have a full strength bleach and weak bleach. I also decided to go for a "paint" on free-style highlighting method, rather than foils. The reason for my choice was I thought it would be easier to control and go back, and I know I've fumbled with foils in the past. This way I could watch the lightening more closely as well. I decided to work toward the root with some highlighted strips as well, which apparently is called balayage, according to Pinterest. Then we rinsed without shampooing, then went straight into deep conditioning. I started to get nervous. I wasn't sure how long to leave the bleach in and I wasn't sure how quickly it would develop. We used 20 developer. Apparently the numbers 10, 20, 30, and 40 indicate the speed at which the color will develop. I chose a lower number as I wasn't sure how her hair would react and I didn't want to have one side be finished before I had finished applying to the other side of the head. All in all, I should have waited longer on the bleach, and I should have worked farther up her hair. The smoothness of blend turned out perfectly though. When it's time to touch this up, it should be a simple fix, and I have a better feel for how long I can leave the bleach in. 4/16/2015 0 Comments DIY hair cut: attempt 2I decided it was time for a trim up. Last time i cut my hair was in January, and it's April now, so I was ready for a change. I wanted to avoid the pitfalls made from my first attempt at cutting my hair. This meant being more consistent, and being honest about my limitations. I wanted to choose a tutorial that would be sincerely something j could do again, and something that felt natural to do. I found one where the instructions were basically as follows: -put hair in ponytail at the base of the neck -trim ponytail off -cut in against hair grain to conceal any blunt lines It's remarkably easy to have slight variations on this seemingly simple task. For instance, how high/low should the base of the ponytail be? Should I pull the hair the away from the scalp to create length? Should i come through and thin out some hair after the initial cut is made? I settled on slightly higher than the nape of my neck, and pulled away from the scalp a tiny bit. I came through and chopped the heck out of that sucker. I had to really force myself to unclench to keep from continuing the chop job. My hair had lumps all over from sleeping on it wet. I needed to chill and wash it before proceeding any further. I have this fluffy tuft from my glasses catching my hair (my old pair had a loose hinge) or my kids tugging my hair or both. It bothers me a great deal. So despite the warning from a bang cutting tutorial to avoid cutting bangs spontaneously or while hormonal, I did it anyway, and I did so FEARLESSLY! I grabbed an arched section at a medium thickness. I chose to not go with a V section because I part my hair on the side but don't want to commit to my part location. And I wasn't going for the super thick, down to your Zooeys type bangs. I actually followed a hair related Pinterest pin to a strangers Instagram, and she had super short bangs. My envy overcame me. I needed them. It's just what I needed to complete my "I'm hip, but not snobby" look. At my size and age and with my lifestyle, it's easy to zone into mom jean-soccer mom- type monotony. But I don't want to try hard. Partly because I don't want people to think of me as someone who tries hard, and because I'm lazy. (Not that I interact with people. Haha). So after I was done, I showered, and styled my hair curly. I can write up about how to style curly hair in more detail later, but the gist of it is this: -scrunch with a shirt to dry -use a diffuser to dry more -DO NOT BRUSH! Barely touch it except scrunching until it's a bit drier. -spritz with a curl enhancer, or use some hair oil to smooth out frizz, or both. So, to double heck how it turned out, I decided to straighten it. Mostly out of curiosity, but I wanted to check if there was something I should fix. I started by flipping it out, but then realized how early 2000's that looked and started flipping it in. But at that point my hair was like "WTF, man??!" And just stuck out straight like a scarecrow. It's a bit bushy in spots, and the bottom could probably be trimmed, but the layers look even enough. I'm not crazy about the sections near my ears, but there's a chance I went through and free styled some chops. I honestly can't recall. This has been a brutally honest experience, and I hope it helps someone someday, assuming people read this, which they don't. Maybe just my children will read it when I die, and it will be a message to them from beyond the grave. 👻 👻👻 👻👻🔮👻 👻👻 👻👻 👻👻 👻 👻👻 👻👻👻 👻👻 👻 👻 👻 ⬆️that's my interpretation of my kids summoning spirits using dark magic in hopes to communicate with their dear departed mother. 4/15/2015 0 Comments The way to my heartYou know you're loved when you're brought a tall iced coffee for no reason. It was delicious and made me feel happy 😍💟 4/15/2015 0 Comments Lazy cat parentsI've been thinking about getting a cat food dish that has large quantities of cat food in it for a while now. But all that has done is morphed into this little flash of genius: Seriously lazy cat parenting. How will he connect people with love if his food is always out? Sometimes laziness brings out the best ingenuity. 4/15/2015 0 Comments MeatloafWhenever my 13 yr old has an interest in cooking, I try to take her up on it. She found a recipie for bacon meatloaf and she was excited to try it. Partly, because she was in the middle of making a sassy point about me not buying stuff I think, but she rarely actually asks for stuff. She just hints at it and then pouts when we don't do it. I don't know about you all, but I don't want to do things my child isn't enthusiastic about. So when I get a half hearted "I kinda wanna..." I acknowledge it and wait for more excitement. In any case, she did a good job, and I appreciate when she does stuff like this. Yay for helpful teens! 4/15/2015 0 Comments Tiny fezCut a strip of felt and a circle of felt. The circumference of the circle should be the same as the long edge of the strip. The rest should be clear if you know how to sew. I made a tassel out of gold embroidery floss. 4/15/2015 0 Comments ID bottle design failI love me some international delight creamer. I love creamer in general, but coffee mate has so much trans fat, and I just don't want to have to concern myself with the mass quantities of creamer I'm consuming. In addition, ID has a really rich flavor, it's smooth and delicious. But when I'm getting coffee in the morning, I'm rarely doing it with both hands free. I'm fussing with babies and getting breakfasts or lunches made. Maybe I'm just plain groggy. On top of not being awake all the way (pre-coffee part of the day), the kids are needy but it's too early for them to be mad. So I just grab my creamer from the fridge, with one hand, like any normal person should expect. My conundrum? The extra large bottle design is too wide to grab. I have to be careful and concentrate not to spill it. I'm not awake enough to fully absorb myself in making sure the creamer bottle doesn't fling itself from my hand. If I grab the more slender section, it's moist from the coolness of the fridge and slides slowly from my hand, and if I'm lucky it catches the lid as it cracks open. I have yet to drop it on the ground, but I still find it obnoxious. And since I'm on the subject... The sweet cream ID tastes like melted ice cream The butter pecan ID tastes like a butter pecan sandy Those are my go-to flavors. 4/15/2015 0 Comments DIY creamerI am a major creamer snob. I like my coffee sweet and creamy and pale. I prefer it in the range of brown paper bag. I don't like a fake sugar taste, and I try to avoid trans fat. I use a lot of creamer, especially since I've been drinking coffee every day. I've seen recipes on Pinterest for a while about making your own creamer. I've been curious to try it, but not too motivated. That is, until one day I was OUT OF CREAMER!!! The one I found at the time was: -equal parts sweetened condensed milk and milk, and flavoring to taste. I didn't have any flavoring on hand, since this was an emergency. I'm curious how it would have effected the end result. The result? It was decent. WAY better than plain milk. But it tasted like sweetened condensed milk. Which is a nice flavor, like tres leche cake or something. But it didn't trick me into thinking I had used to decadent nectar of my international delight. I probably wouldn't use it regularly, but I would be likely to grab a few cans of sweetened condensed milk when it's on sale. Then I can use it in a pinch, or make a dessert out of it. |
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