Hot Glue Friday: St Patty's Day Wreath

TGIF, everyone! The Captain comes home next week so this'll be my last weekend alone with the kids for a while. Hooray!

Just a quick project to share--and it's so idiot-proof you won't even need a tutorial!

Despite not being the least bit Irish, I love a good St Patrick's Day celebration, and I like to start early. So as soon as Valentine's Day was over, I took down my pink wreath and got to work on a green one. Here's what I ended up with:

If you click on this you *should* be able to see a larger view.

This is what I think is known as a rag wreath. It's the kind of wreath we all made in grade school. Bend a wire hanger into a circle and start tying scraps of fabric onto it until you can't see the hanger anymore. I had some beautiful green satin in my stash, so I made strips of that, along with a few lighter green flannel strips for a bit of contrast, and tied knots until I could tie no more. I then crocheted myself a shamrock (cutting one out of felt would be easier and would give exactly the same effect), pinned a brooch I picked up at the thrift store for a buck to the middle of it, and then glued it to a piece of sequin trim I had lying around and attached it to the back of the wreath with hot glue. I finished it off by hot-gluing some chocolate coins I got at the dollar store all around it. Now all I need is some green beer and a t-shirt that says "Kiss Me, I'm Irish!" and I'm ready to party!

My only goal this weekend is to get around and visit all your blogs. Well, that and scoop the cat's litter box. Will I only get one of those jobs done? And if so, who will end up mad at me, you guys, or the cat?

My life is practically a soap opera.

Naked Destruction

I'm so very, very behind here. I had a new craft to share on Friday but life got in the way. Maybe next week. I also have an inbox full of your comments. I'm getting around slowly to visit you all, I promise. Still no tutor here, and I decided last week that it was time to go to Plan B. I enrolled RB in kindergarten for September. Three-quarters of me is thrilled. The rest is terrified.

A quick update:

This is what the thermostat in my bedroom looks like until the Captain can come home and re-attach it properly to the wall. RB is so bored without therapy, he's getting into everything. A couple of weeks back, he managed to not only pull the thermostat off the wall, but he actually disconnected it. We're lucky no one was electrocuted. Other ways he's been keeping himself busy:

• Peeing in the toilet and then throwing his toys in there to hear the cool splash. 
• Taking his clothes off and running around naked 40 times a day (very embarrassing when the school bus comes down the driveway and he's waving at it from our huge living room window). 
• Getting into the kitchen cupboards and finding fun things to sprinkle all over the house. 

On Friday I turned my back for 5 minutes to find RB standing naked in the living room covered in what looked like blood from his chest, dripping all the way down his legs. One heart-attack later I realized he'd gotten into a jar of raspberry jam, which is why despite looking like he was bleeding to death, he also looked incredibly pleased with himself. I'm losing my hair here.

In an attempt to keep from going completely crazy, and since the weather has been so very nice, I've been trying to do outings with my little naked whirlwind. Last week, I took him to Booming Metropolis where we attempted 3 errands: Safeway, Bulk Barn and Dollarama. Safeway was easy due to the carts they have with the little truck on the front. RB loves to drive. No such smooth sailing with the other two. RB is much too big to fit into a regular shopping cart anymore, so we've been practicing walking around our small-town grocery store, which has been going well. I assumed it would be the same at Bulk Barn and the dollar store. Of course it was not.

The Bulk Barn has a million clear bins of snacks and candy. Why on earth would RB not be a little monkey when let loose in a place like that?! I had to hold his hand to keep him from running off while I was trying to scoop tapioca flour and raisins into bags. Needless to say, we left a trail of spills and messes all over the store. Dollarama was no better. RB was already getting tired by this point, and having toys and interesting little bits and pieces all within arms reach did not help matters. Next time, his father is coming with us!

So, I can't decide which is easier. We stay home and he destroys the house. We go out, and the house remains intact but I'm so exhausted by the end of it, I'm seeing double and hearing voices telling me to run for the hills. If we don't get a new tutor, it could go on like this until September!

Gin-and-tonic, anyone?!

Hot Glue Friday: Valentines!

I wanted to tell you guys all about RB's naked day of destruction this week, but as nothing has changed around here (no Captain, no tutor) and it's been a crazy few days, I haven't gotten to it yet. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I did manage to complete another simple craft which I thought I'd share.

As Firstborn has not yet started complaining about my homemade valentines and asked me to buy him nice, socially acceptable, mass-produced Disney-themed ones from the store, I have continued to make them every year. With his help, of course.

This year, since his classroom teacher is also a music teacher, I went with a theme I thought would be appropriate. And since I've been fighting down the urge to run out and buy more craft supplies, having a mountain of  supplies here already, I looked around the house to see what was available.

For a long while now, my kids have been particularly careless with CD's and DVD's. As a result, we had a pile of scratched-up useless ones that, for one reason or another, didn't end up in the garbage. So I collected up the 19 I needed to be passed around his classroom, painted them with dollar-store black acrylic paint and made up some circular labels in my paint program to go on either side. Firstborn and I affixed the circles with a little glue and a brad in the middle, stuck stickers on one side and a roll of Rockets on the other, and voila!

My apologies for the fuzzy picture. I'm not kidding when I say it's been a bad week!

A music-themed valentine made of some junk I found around the house and a few bits and pieces from my craft pile! This of course leaves us with only one question. Will one third-grader in that class have ever even seen a vinyl record album?

I'm sure the teacher will appreciate it.

Hot Glue Friday!

There is actually no hot glue involved in this post. But I thought I might try occasionally posting a super-easy 5-minute craft every so often. And "Hot Glue Friday" sounded more impressive than "Cut Up An Old T-Shirt Friday".

This craft--for an easy, no-sew infinity scarf--came to my attention courtesy of my youngest sister, who saw someone do it on Rachael Ray. This brings up an important point. I have never in my life completed a craft that I designed from scratch myself. I'm good at figuring out how to do things, but only after someone else has shown me a picture of it. So any craft I share here will come, at least in the idea, from someplace else and I'll try to give credit where it's due. In this case, if you go to the Rachael Ray website and search around, I'm sure you'll find a better set of instructions than you're going to get from me. But here's what I did anyway.

You will need:

An old T-shirt or tank top (the kind with no side seams are best, but use whatever you have on hand)
A pair of sharp scissors

Begin by laying your t-shirt out flat, as I have done here. Prepare yourself mentally to cut into it. Breathe.

Cut straight across the shirt, from armpit to armpit. If your shirt has a logo on the chest, as mine does, make sure to cut below it. Because this is a shirt I got from volunteering, I kept the logo to sew onto a tote bag I have where I stick all my badges and appliques from other volunteer stuff I've done. The rest of the top part of this shirt will be cut up and used to clean the bathroom. Waste not, want not.

Leaving the hemmed edge alone, start cutting both layers of the cut edge to make a fringe. I cut my strips 3" long and 1cm wide. You can cut your fringe all the way across or leave about 4 inches uncut at one end to hang at the back of your neck if you prefer not to have fringe there.

Here is what you will end up with.

And this is what it'll look like when you hang it around your neck.

Not being a huge fan of fringe, I was interested to see if this would work without the step of cutting the strips. All I had to cut up was a smaller tank top:

As you can see, it looks fine without fringe, so feel free to skip that if you're a no-frills type. You may also notice that this scarf is much shorter than the other one. That's because this was a form-fitting tank top. The width of the shirt definitely makes a difference in what kind of scarf you end up with, so that's something to take into consideration. This top also had side seams, so there's a bit of playing around with it to get it to look best once it's on. But no big deal.

And there you have it! No sewing, no skills required, and about 5 minutes of work, if that!

Go forth and be crafty!

300th Post Q&A

Well, everyone, I've officially spent too much time on the internet. It's my 300th post!


As promised, I'm answering your questions today. So here we go!


Debra asks:

How did the Captain woo you and ask you to marry him? 

Well, let me tell you, it was all very romantic. It was a slushy, grey January day in 1996 in Southwestern Ontario. The Captain picked me up from work and took me to the fanciest restaurant in town : The Keg! He was acting sort of weird and quiet and I could see something was up, but it was impossible to tell whether that something was good news, or if he was going to dump me. As I always hope for the best but plan for the worst, I figured I'd better get one last really good meal out of it, and I made 3 trips to the all-you-can-eat salad bar before getting started on my enormous steak and large glass of wine. Maybe it was the wine, and maybe it was the 8 pounds of salad and steak in my stomach, but I don't remember much else. He pulled out a ring at some point, and I think my answer was probably obvious from the beginning. When a guy proposes at The Keg, you'd be a fool to say no.

LaelShine has a 3-part question:

If you had a million dollars...what would you do with it?

That's easy! A year or so back, our town lost it's little thrift store. I'm still not quite over it. It was a treasure trove. It was also a junk trove. But that's thrifting for you. If I had a million bucks, I'd open a new thrift store in town. I don't have an entrepreneurial bone in my body, but I think I could make up for that with my passion for other people's old castoffs. Having first crack at every piece of junk that came through the door wouldn't hurt either.
What is your favourite breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Mexican, Mexican and Mexican! I enjoy food from every region on this planet, but at present I'd say there's nothing like a plate of huevos rancheros on a Saturday morning. I can't say I really have a specific favourite meal for lunch or dinner. I like way too many things to be able to pick just one. Let's hope I never end up on death row, because that last meal business will be what holds the whole thing up. What I'm actually more focused on meal-wise is in making every meal an opportunity to eat something delicious. We each get about 1000 meals a year. I'd hate to waste even one of those meals by eating something crappy. Eating is the one thing in life we have to do to survive. We may as well enjoy every last bite.
Do you have any tattoos?
If yes, what? If no, what are your feelings on them? 

You may be surprised to learn that I actually have not one, but two tattoos. One is a daisy chain on my lower back. The other is a butterfly on my left shoulder blade. I like them very much. I have no regrets about having them, and I make no apologies to those who might not approve of the things. I do, however, think it's something you have to really think seriously about beforehand, because they are permanent. I purposely chose to put mine in a spot where they could be covered up so that I'd have the option of not having to reveal them to, say, a future employer. Also, with them being behind me, when I'm not in a tattoo kind of mood I actually forget that they're there. Best of both worlds!

GrannyBob also has 3 questions:

When are you available for tea and some educating an old crazy farm woman?

I'm going to assume you mean “young, fabulous agriculture expert”. Come on down (that goes for all of you)! I'm not sure you'll be getting much of an education though...

Where do you get your tea?

I, myself, buy tea bags at the grocery store. But the Captain, knowing my love of real tea, always buys me fancy loose-leaf on gift-giving occasions. Most recently (and this is the tea you'll be thinking of, Granny Bob) he got me a couple of pounds from a local place called It's About Tea. You can check out their website here.

Where your favourite place was that you have lived since being an army wife? 

Such a tough one! I'm a firm believer that wherever you are, that's where you are, and you need to make the most of it. When we left New Brunswick to move here, I was very sad. I'd been the happiest I ever was in New Brunswick, and I do think that the Maritimes will be our final destination when it's time to retire. But to be honest with you, when we have to leave Manitoba, I'll be just as sad to drive away. I learned what it is to be a minority (and also how fabulously different it is to shop at a Value Village) in Montreal. My world-before-kids and career as a teacher was in Calgary. My family is in Ontario. In the end, it's not where you are. It's what you make of it.

Frostbite andSunburn wants to know:

Where do you see yourself/life in five years from now - and will you be blogging about it?! 

I hope I'll still be blogging. I expect that at some time in the next five years, we will be posted someplace new. We've had a nice long run out here on the Prairies, and all good things must eventually come to an end. So, we could be living absolutely anywhere. In 5 years, I will have a teenager and a pre-teen. And since autism is a permanent part of our reality, that thought is interesting...and also terrifying. The idea of work is a fuzzy one. I don't think I want to return to the classroom. But I don't think I want to work at McDonald's either. I'm actually not sure I even want to work. I'm really going to have to give that one some thought...

In Real Life asks:

If you could take an all expenses paid family vacation, where would you go? What would you like to do while there?

My dream vacation (or at least the one that involves bringing my family with me!) is always about being somewhere warm during the winter. With all the stuff I keep seeing in the news about Mexico lately, my dream of seeing that country (because I never have) has kind of gone down the drain. I'd love a good road trip around some of the warmer parts of the U.S. though, looking for great places to eat and shop—it's really just that simple for me. I'd like to see Southern California once, and would even take my kids to Disneyland, despite the fact that that sort of thing generally makes me want to punch Goofy in the face.  

And there you have it! Thanks for playing along with me, and for sticking around for 300 interminable posts! Hitting the big 3-0-0 is like New Year's Eve. I have so many thoughts about what the future of this blog should look like. 

Will any of them actually happen? Stay tuned!

Ask Me Anything

I'm really not ignoring you guys!

I have an inbox full of your comments from my last few posts, and I like to get back to all my blog friends before posting again, but it's just not happening right now. RB lost his tutor suddenly for the second time in 18 months. It was no one's fault this time, but it's not looking like we'll be getting a new one any time soon, so in the meantime, I'm trying to fill in the gaps for him and come up with a Plan B in case we don't find anyone at all. It's really cutting into my blogging time. So inconvenient!

I promise to get around to visiting you all and commenting again soon. Just bear with me. The Captain is also away on course for a few weeks so I'm on my own here. Ahhh...military life!

I happened to notice today that my next post will be my 300th. I almost missed it! So I thought that since I haven't been finding the time to go blog-hopping, maybe I'd open the floor up to my blog pals (for the record, the Captain calls you my "Minions". But please, take that up with him.) and invite you all to ask me a question, which I will use my 300th post to answer. Some of you have been coming around right since the beginning, and many of you have turned up here somewhere along the way and kindly stuck around despite...well, everything. At whatever point you jumped in, you only get a carefully-edited glimpse into my mad little world, so maybe you have a question. Or maybe you like doing the old "Which would you rather be: a penguin or a yeti?" I like those kinds of questions too.

So this one's for you, Minions! Click on comments and ask away!

This Is Too Good Not to Share...

WAAAAY back in November 2010, I decided it would be a great idea to order photo calendars of the kids for all the grandparents for Christmas. Being anti-social and ultimately lazy, of course, I ordered them all online.

I'm not going to tell you which company I went with, but I will give you one very cryptic clue. It rhymes with Crawl-Mart. Seriously, people. One of these days, I'm going to get sued.

So, with it being the holidays, I guess things got busy over there and the calendar I ordered for one of the grandparents--to be sent directly to her--never showed up. A huge kerfuffle ensued in which I had to make approximately 3 phone calls to the company before anyone would admit that the order was lost, and a replacement was finally sent out. Grandmother received her Christmas calendar on January 27th 2011, more than a month late. I'd have filed a big, noisy complaint, but they also forgot to charge my credit card. So really, no harm done.

End of story? Apparently not.

This evening, as I was right in the middle of reading Firstborn his nightly bedtime chapter of Harry Potter, the phone rang. 

Guess what! My calendar's ready!! Good grief.

So, my New Year's resolution to be more mentally healthy by (for one thing) staying out of that nut house was probably a good move, no?!

TGIF!!