A New, Old Sofa

For a long time now, I have had fabric to cover the sofa bed in the family room.  I bought the fabric at IKEA for $2.99 a yard.  This week, I tightened my boot straps and tackled the challenge.  I had never done this before, so I watched a couple of videos on youTube and dug in!  I don't think it is too bad?  At least it's clean and fresh!

I have plans to fill in that board to make it look like the rest of the bricks.  I'll post that when I get it done!

Putting Down a New Floor

I am so far behind in sharing recent happenings, so I will play a bit of catch up.  In August, I decided that it would be nice to have a bamboo kitchen floor!  The linoleum on top was what we had put in when we moved in 20 years ago this month.  As the floor was being ripped off, there were two other layers discovered underneath.  Not really a big surprise.  The top layer was put on in 1993.  You could tell that the next layer was put in in the 80's, and, of course, the bottom was totally 70's!

 It was not easy stuff to pull off!

 Jonathan hit himself with the bar.

 Sarah helped pull off quite a bit.

 There's the 80's pattern.

 Patches made to the floor.  Now it is time to 

apply the bamboo.

 Jonathan created a pattern of staggering the boards.  
For a sixteen year old, that had never done this 
before, he did a great job!

I don't have a complete floor photo.  But this is what it looks like throughout!  Jonathan finished the floor in time for me as a Christmas gift!  Thanks Jonathan!

Garden Gifts

I have been enjoying the blooming flowers in my garden the past couple of months!  First came the crocus, then the daffodils.  I didn't take pictures of those, but they were gorgeous!  Today, I finally stopped to capture a few that are currently blooming.  Elizabeth and Dave planted these bulbs in October of 2011 as a Christmas gift.  They are the gift that keeps on giving!

Girls Camp Crafts--2012

I am finally posting the crafts we did for Girls Camp this past summer!  The photos were on my iPod, which I had forgotten, and kept wondering "where are those photos"?  I got them downloaded and here is what we did:

Washer Necklaces

These were all over the internet!  Very cute!  Also, very easy!  With some prep at home, the girls were able to finish in the 45 minutes they were allotted.  It simply took a metal washer, some designed paper, ribbon, beads, crimp ends and clasps.  Before camp, I punched out circles of paper that matched the size of the washers.  Spraying with spray adhesive, the paper circles were placed on top.  Then I applied a product called JudKins Diamond Glaze.  I let the glaze dry for 48 hours.  I then sprayed a high gloss clear paint on the backs so they would not be rough.

Looping the ribbon through the washer and adding a bead, it was ready for a clasp.  I used a crimp end like this

I rolled the ends of the ribbon, placed the end inside the crimp and closed it up.  There is already a loop on the end to finish with jump ring and clasp.

Washer Bracelets

Same idea but with smaller washers.  These were a little bit more difficult, as they had to be sized to the girls wrists before adding the clasp.  The necklaces were all the same length of ribbon.

Bleach Pen Tote Bags

This was another craft idea that I found many instructions for.  I looked for tote bags that were nice, sold in bulk, and with a cheap price!  Well, I ended up buying some duck cloth at 50% off--it is usually $10 a yard.  Cutting into rectangles of a size I desired, I stitched up the sides, having the bottom be the fold.  Hemming the top, then adding handles--they turned out pretty cute!  For the handles, I used woven belting in black.

The girls picked their color of bag and started to lightly draw a design.  Using chalk is a good idea, as pencil and pen will show through the bleached lines.  I found several sources such as this one http://spoonful.com/crafts/bleach-pen-drawing

However, we let the bleach sit for 5-10 minutes and rinsed them out well in a tub of water.  Since the duck cloth is so heavy, there was no need to put anything between the layers of fabric.

It is amazing to watch the creativity come out in the girls!  There are the usual 10% of girls that are lost in trying to come up with a design.  I think they turned out really well!

Braided Fabric Headbands

How wonderful is the internet?!  There are so many ideas out there--you only have to search "girls camp crafts" and thousands of pages come up!  

The tutorial I liked best was from Sugar Bee Crafts.

http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2011/06/girls-camp-craft-no-sew-braided.html

I used some scrap fabric I had and only purchased a couple of different colors.  Can you guess what colors went the quickest?  Check at the bottom of this post to find out!

For about 6 years now, there had been some white crochet flowers.  Every year as I purged the supplies, I just couldn't get rid of these flowers!  Finally, I found a great way to use them!  You will see the examples below.  You know it is a great craft if the girls start to wear the item, then see them all week long!  I made the ribbon flower on the first example.  I didn't really know how to do it, so I just fiddled around until I got something that looked okay.

It was great to have Katie there with me that week!

It was a great year in crafts!

The color(s) that was popular:  black and white, and red or fuchsia pink

Summer Garden of 2012

It's getting to the end of our garden.  Fortunately, here in California, our growing season is long.  In April, Jonathan weeded, tilled, and got the planter boxes ready for planting.  On a Monday, I was out with Sarah, Martha, and Jonathan and we stopped at Home Depot.  We spent some fun time picking out vegetable plants that we wanted to include.

Our garden had zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers.

 We had a mutant yellow crookneck squash that had two that grew together.

 I call these two red peppers the "old men" of the garden.

 Martha dug up some potatoes, which are above.  The rest we left in the ground until later.

We made mashed potatoes for dinner the next day!

Chance of a Lifetime!

When those moments of "chance of a lifetime" come along, I have decided that I just need to go for it!  That's what happened this morning!  The news of the Space Shuttle Endeavor was on it's last flight and was coming through the Bay Area.  I hadn't planned to go anywhere to take a glance, as I was sure it would go over my house.  Planes from Moffett field in Mt. View usually fly over our house when they are practicing "touch-n-go" maneuvers. 

It occurred to me that it might not take that path. . .and I did not want to miss out!  On the news, they were saying that the shuttle would fly over Moffett/NASA Ames at about 10:15am.  It was 9:55 when I heard that.  I decided to put on my shoes, brush my hair and go! (I hadn't had my shower yet, but it didn't matter)  I was halfway there when I kicked myself for not picking up a camera.  Thank goodness for cameras on phones now!  So this is the shot I got with my little 2mp phone camera.  Not too bad!

As the 747 flew over, it was very low and you could see very clearly the Endeavor on top.  It doesn't really look like it by this photo, but it flew just in front of me.  I'm glad it did, otherwise I might not have caught a glimpse of the shuttle.  When I picked up Jonathan from school this afternoon, he said his Chemistry teacher took the kids outside to wait for it to fly over.  And it did!  Which means, it flew over my house after all.  Jonathan said they were directly under the 747, so they did not have as clear a view of the shuttle.  I was really pleased that the teacher thought enough to take the kids out to experience this awesome event!

This is a part of our history.  I remember the first shuttle flight in April 1981 with the Columbia.  I also remember the tragic explosion of the Challenger in January 1986.  Sadly, we remember the Columbia in 2003 that disintegrated upon approach to landing.  Even with these two tragedies, all five of the shuttles made a significant number of flights!  I think it is astounding that there were only the two accidents.

As I watched from the on-ramp to highway 101 from Moffett Blvd., as you can see in the bottom of the photo, I could hear the thousands standing around on sidewalks, roadways, overpasses, cheer loudly.  Car and semi-truck horns were honking.  I got goose-bumps for those 5 seconds the Endeavor flew over!  There are many things in life to be excited about!  When these things come around, just go for it! You don't want to miss out!

Space shuttle Endeavor on it's last flight

More Baby Toss!