Lately

My brother, Kevin, got  married. Yay!

But lately, I have been sick. So. Sick.  The kind of sick where you can sweat off ten pounds, mold your body to the couch, and lose track of the days sick.  The kind of sick where, between sleeping, you watch 14 hours of love saga pioneer movies on the Hallmark channel, mostly because you can't get up to change the channel nor do you care.

Awful.

Good news! After a week and on two rounds of antibiotics, things are definitely looking up. My voice is almost back to normal, and I'm not waking up every four hours for painkillers. Take that, strep! Now, if only I can get a good schedule and make up for some of that lost sleep (the good quality kind).  I'm not dead yet! Pretty sure modern medicine has saved my life. 

Meet Rodrigo

Rodrigo is my handy dandy sewing machine. Why Rodrigo? I do not know. I’ve always had a preference for latin names.  Once upon a time, my hermit crabs were named Javier and Rosie. The jump to Rodrigo was just natural. Normally, I don’t name things, but my machine and I have a love/hate relationship, and there can be a lot of tension. Tension problems with the machine, that is!  Anyway, so when I’m frustrated that my machine is chewing fabric or breaking thread, I just yell at Rodrigo. Don't worry, I also have a seam ripper named Jack.

Rodrigo and I have been getting along great lately.  My ward was working on putting together some humanitarian school kits and needed bags sewn for them.  I was a little ambitious and decided to do twelve bags in one week.  With work and all, it was a little hectic to get them finished. I sewed them assembly line style, and after awhile, I started to feel like I was working in a sweatshop, minus the sweat. I was sewing straight lines for what seemed like for-ev-er! I finally finished all of the bags, but I was left with a small longing for better sewing skills. I want to make things that are more fantastic than just square bags! It made me a little envious that I wasn’t born in say, Indonesia.  Okay, not really, but with everything that’s made there, they must have some people with mad sewing skills!

After catching the sewing bug, I decided to make this apron for my sister-in-law-to-be’s shower.  It was a recipe shower, so I thought that an apron would go perfectly! It was simple and worked up quickly, and it’s oh-so cute!  I want to make one for myself. 

Still feeling the sewing bug, I decided to make myself a skirt.  I love the internet! There are so many great patterns out there! Well, with that cute apron still on my mind, I combined an easy wrap skirt with the idea of the tie from the apron, and I now have this fabulous wrap skirt with an incredibly cute tie around bow.  I wore it to work and had many compliments on it.  It was super easy, and it only took less than 2 hours from drawing and cutting the pattern, placing it, cutting the fabric, and sewing everything together.  The best part? The total for this skirt is around $6. And it’s lined, too! $6! Can I get a woot?! 

Sometimes I think, “Geesh, Michelle. You don’t need one more hobby!”

I've Been Busy

I've been really crafty lately. Crafty, and handy around the house.  Here's a little of what I've been up to.
Two parts to this first picture. 


Part 1:  I found this door at Ikea as is for $1.  I brought it home, painted some fun designs on the glass, and put it on the wall. My stepdad Lance helped me hang it so it's earthquake proof and all. Wouldn't want that falling on my head! Anyways, I love it! 


Part 2: I have wanted a shelf to go behind my couch for, oh, since I got a couch. First of all, shelves are spendy! Also, I couldn’t find one the dimensions that I wanted. I didn’t want to have to put up a shelf with weird supports either.  Done that!  So, I decided to build my own. I went down to Home Depot, bought some wood, and brought it home.  I predrilled the holes and screwed the pieces together to form a ledge-type shelf. It’s about twelve inches wide and six feet long. I did a little detailing on the front, and painted it to match.  Hanging it up was a little tricky by myself, but I did it. I love it! I’m currently looking for some buffet lamps to go on both sides of it.  I found some I LOVE, but they cost $500! WHAT?! So, I might be looking in the wrong places.  

Don't worry.  All those filled holes? Yeah, my stud finder is FAULTY. But, I found them. It's all patched and painted now. No worries! 

After gaining some confidence with my shelf, I decided to try and build a little chair for my nephew, Axton. I know his parents (or at least his mom) have been looking for a little reading chair for him for awhile now, but they are all so expensive!  Well, after buying some wood at a steal, and with some great help from my friend, Jennifer (Thanks for letting me use your shop and for helping me!), I had all the pieces cut and sanded.  All in all, the chair probably took a total of 2 hours or less to put together. It would’ve probably been easier, but my tools leave something to be desired. Anyway, here is the finished product for under $5! I found the plans at this site (that I LOVE).  I already have a project list! I hope Axton loves this chair as much as I loved making it. 

Next, but not last (future post in the works), I started to plant a garden.  Here are my little seedlings.  I planted green onions, chives, spinach, tomatoes, and some flowers. Let's just say that it's not going quite as I had hoped, and as of today, my little garden is quite unruly. I have to figure something out.  They need to be replanted, and I almost did and put them outside (because it was getting so warm), but then it went all day-before-Christmas on us again with a blizzard. Seedlings are hard! I may or may not have to buy starts. Time will tell. 

 

Needed: A Few Strong Men

I have an ancient upright piano that I love dearly. Ancient as in 1902 and hundreds of pounds. My poor piano has been somewhat abused from being moved (I think it's now a curse word in my family) around and has lost a caster.  This makes moving it very difficult and cumbersome, not to mention that it's a little difficult playing a tilted piano.  So, I thought I would replace the caster because I've been thinking about it for awhile.  I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, seeing as how the piano is ridiculously heavy, and there was no way I was going to be able to unscrew and screw back in the caster. I thought maybe I could just jack up the piano? You know, like a car. I could figure out how to hold the other two wheels on the side in place and *poof* piano goodness.

Just for the sake of it, and seeing as how I'm no professional, I decided to google how to fix piano casters.  I found an excellent site that was even very humorous about the whole thing.  But then I laughed out loud and stopped reading at the first direction:

1. Lay the upright piano gently on the floor.

With me and what army? That is SO not going to happen.

Budding Artist

Can you guess what this is?

I couldn't. I had to ask the creator.

Leave your guesses in the comments! :)

Adventures in Snowshoes

Today I went snowshoeing for the first time. It was so much fun! Well, the part where I walked on some snow that was a little bit melty and my snowshoes and myself promptly sank up to my bum was not so fun. Mostly because it took a lot of energy and time to dig my snowshoe out. I may or may not have sat there for a minute and said, "Help, help!" in a completely ridiculous voice while waiting for my friends to catch up. They thought I was just sitting down on the trail. Haahaa! Lesson learned! Never go snowshoeing alone in the spring! Well, unless you want to be that person they're looking for on the nightly news.

We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Spruce Campground. It was a very popular area, but it was also quite large. We only saw two other groups of snowshoers, and we all went on different trails. We mostly stayed to trails that others had already made, but we did venture off a little bit. Our GPS had a frowny face. It was a beautiful and excellent way to spend a Saturday. Plus, I learned they do guided snowshoe adventures for students, for free! I wish I had found this out in November.

False Advertising

Haha. Okay, so I came across this picture that I took back in September while traveling through Oregon. That is NOT a horse.

I Need

A man. Or someone with a stronger grip than me. Or an amazing acrobat.

I decided to get my place all sparkling clean before I leave here for a bit, and in the process, decided to check my dryer hose. See, my dryer takes FOR-EV-ER to dry anything. I read that sometimes the hose just needs to be cleaned of lint. Seeing as how my hose vents up and out, I figured I'd give it a shot. This is no easy task, mind you. I have a stackable unit that's in the size of coat closet. After some maneuvering, the hose was easy to get off. Getting it back on, however, not so much.

After about thirty minutes, I couldn't get it back on. Boo.

My next purchase might just be an all-in-one VENTLESS washer/dryer combo.

Like the Movies

It was like the scene from a bad movie. Not bad as in terrible, but bad as in scary, weird, and humorous all at the same time.

There I was, vacuuming my carpet. My vacuum was smelling strange, so I tilted it up to see if the brush was still turning. I looked down, my hoodie string got in the brush, which WAS turning, and the next few seconds we a little panicky. Let's just say, it takes no brains to have this happen, but it takes some skills to try and turn off the vacuum while at the same time ripping out my string as my face got closer and closer. Haahaa. I'm such a dork.

Don't worry, all is well.

I think it's time for a new vacuum. It's still smelly.

Those Days

Sometimes I just need one of those days where I sleep in, linger in my jammies, and watch some mindless TV. Today was one of those days. It was nice, while it lasted. I went to pour myself a bowl of cereal, and there was no milk. This shouldn't be surprising to me, seeing as how I'm the only one here, but it must have slipped my mind. So, now my lazy day is over. I should go shopping for groceries. Back to reality.

Sit! Stay! Bad Phone!

Geez! I have to have my phone replaced, again. Yep, that's twice in 2 months. Bad hardware or something. My phone screen just died. Not gonna lie, it kinda makes me want to just get a go phone or something cheap-o and be done with all this smartphone business. Blah!

Maybe I should just get a landline?

Hahaha. Funny.

Still waiting for a replacement after going to the Apple store. Sad. I can see only a portion of my screen.

But, wait! There's good news. After talking to my nephew, Axton, on the phone, I think I'll be okay. I said, "Axton, my phone is broken!" He replied with, "Oh, well I can help you fix it." Sweet! Don't even know why I bothered with Apple. I'll just give it to the three-year old and let him bang it around for awhile. Should do the trick.

My Other

Check out my other blog. It's about the funny things kids say. I've decided to start taking notes.

Funny

My principal asked if I wanted to learn Chinese. I laughed. A lot.
The answer was yes, but the idea of doing so overwhelms me!

Need a Little Fun?

I created this word cloud of one of my favorite songs from a fun website I've been using with my students. They love to type in their spelling words, poems, or anything. It sure makes typing practice fun. But, let's face it. It's just plain fun. Try it out.

Yarn, people! Yarn!

Oh, teaching has its moments.

In third grade this week, I've been helping the students understand multiplication, and today I was teaching the kids more about problem solving. We had practiced a few together, and I was explaining their next task. I was holding up a picture card from which they would use the details to write a multiplication sentence. For example, one had bouquets of flowers. They were to write something similar to this: Sally has 5 vases of flowers at her shop. Each vase has 6 flowers in it. How many flowers does Sally have in all the vases?

So, there I was, teaching. The lesson had been fantastic. I was holding up a picture card that had cats on it that were playing with yarn.

"So, if you were using this picture to write your multiplication sentence, you could look at all the things that come in groups. You could write about their ears, their eyes, their legs, their balls . . ." to which about half the class (mostly boys) BUST UP laughing(falling out of chairs laughing), and I promptly yelled out, "Yarn! The cats are playing with balls of yarn! Look at the picture!" There was a lot of clarifying, pointing, laughing, and me shaking my head.

We all pretty much lost it for about five minutes. What's a teacher to do?

And yes, at the end of it all, some kids were still oblivious as to what all the laughter was about.