Last Night's Project

I have been seeing these tutorials for freezer paper stenciling all over the web lately and decided that I just had to try it. Also known as the "poor man's silk screening," freezer paper stenciling is a pretty easy and cheap concept. You need freezer paper (of course), designs/ideas, pencil, exacto knife, cutting mat, iron, and fabric paint. You start by free handing or tracing your design onto the non-coated side of the freezer paper. Then you cut out the area you want to be painted. Iron your stencil coated side down onto your t-shirt or fabric. Stencil in with Paint. Wait for it to dry and Voila'! Pretties!

This t-shirt is my very first attempt at freezer paper stenciling. Sure, I could have and probably should have started with a much easier design, but eh.... I had some free time. Okay, so actually this stencil just turned out to be more complicated than I thought. See, once I cut out all the parts that I wanted to be painted, what I ended up with was a big blank hole. I had to piece it all together like a puzzle to put back in the negative space pieces. Is this making sense? I found it easier to first iron on the part I removed, the part that you see painted. Then I put back in all the blank pieces and ironed them on. Then I peeled up the part of the stencil that you see painted. It saved me from having to do a lot of guess work and trying to line up all the pieces in the right spots. In any case, I LOVE it. This is probably going to be my new favorite t-shirt. I was very pleased with how crisp all the edges turned out.

I tried stenciling a few more things onto some canvas tote bags. Just so you know, freezer paper stenciling does not work as well on canvas material as it does on the t-shirts. The canvas is very porous, so the wax seeps in and then the paper doesn't want to peel away all nice and clean like it does on the t-shirt. You know how when you find a sticker your kid has placed like... say... on the window or the bathtub or the table.... and you go to peel it up and no matter how careful you are it tears and leaves behind that layer of white sticky papery goop? Yeah... it's kind of like that, only more frustrating because you CAN'T GET IT OFF!!!!! I had to sit there with the exacto knife and very carefully scrape the stencil remnants off of the bag and it still looked like it could use a lint roller. Only that didn't work. They were black canvas bags, so I just took a black fabric marker and filled in the white spots. It looks okay. Just not nearly as neat and clean and pretty as the t-shirt.

Oh well, live and learn they say! And now you know too, so you can save yourself the hassle. However, if you feel like whipping out a t-shirt for your little ones, freezer paper stenciling is a lot of fun and easy enough that your kids could help.... or at least you can give them a piece of freezer paper and some crayons while you do the shirt. You know. I'm just sayin.

Growing Girl

My Ya-Ya is GROWING UP. While this is something that I've known and observed for quite awhile, recently it seems to be ever more apparent. She has spent most of this past week away from home. At the first of the week, my father-in-law's girl friend (of 10 years) passed away in her sleep. To those that know me, it's no secret that she wasn't exactly my favorite person, but please don't misunderstand and think for one second that I wanted for her to die.

She was a diabetic who refused to take care of herself, or take responsibility for herself or her illness. She used her illness to manipulate people, including Dad into doing as she pleased. For example, on Christmas Eve she didn't want to visit with his family, and so while he was at Grandma Wade's with the rest of us, she went on a full fledged hunger strike and refused to eat. So Dad spent all of Christmas Eve and Day in the ER. She did that kind of thing so often that even the ambulance drivers got tired of responding to her calls. She wouldn't work or provide for herself or her children, she would go on hunger strike if Dad came to visit Tim or his grandchildren, or Tim's sister. And as sad as what it is, her death, while far too soon, was not really unexpected. Just about everyone who knew her responded in the same way, "well... she finally let it go to far, huh?" Which is exactly what happened.

Dad worked swing shifts like Tim does and was on night shifts. She went for the day, refusing to eat in a response to a fight she had with her son and went to sleep. Her sugar dropped in her sleep and she simply didn't wake up. Dad found her the next morning. Now as I said, I didn't want her to die. I would have much rather seen her grow up and take responsibility for herself and take care of herself. And for whatever reasons he had, Dad cared for her, and we all care for HIM, so it was quite a week. He mostly just seemed lost the first few days as though he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing, since most of what he used to do was dictated by the girlfriend. Angela and Tim both took time off work so that we could be out there with him as much as possible.

We had to explain to Ya-Ya what had happened, and though I was worried about her, she took it in stride and stepped up like a very big (too big) girl. She has been busy keeping Dad busy. She has spent nearly the entire week with him, helping him to feed the animals, asking him to put on this movie or that movie, and eating WAY too much Lucky Charms in the process. She has been an enormous comfort to him, but I have to admit... I'm starting to miss my kid.

In the next couple of months, we will celebrate her 5th birthday. So far, she has consistently asked for a princess themed cake and party. Which is good, usually she has a new idea every week, but this year, it shall be princesses. There will be lots of pink and purple and sparkles and white ponies and unicorns and rainbows and tiaras. It will be....... um....very princess. And I will be trying not to sob in the corner about how she is already 5 years old.

This very week we have kindergarten registration. KINDERGARTEN. ALREADY. Before too long we will buying crayons and paper and scissors and backpacks and lunchboxes. We will get a sign to put in our yard that tells the bus driver she is a new student. And she will be gone, 5 days a week until 2:30 in the afternoon. While, with the new baby, I am sure we will be very busy, the house is still very quiet without her in it.

Not to mention she is a tremendous help. She loves her brother and will make silly faces and play games and sing songs ALL DAY LONG. She will zip diapers to the trash can without even thinking about it, much less complaining. She can be kinda bossy and sassy, but she protects the baby from other kids when they are around, making sure they don't whisk away his toys or accidentally step on him. In those moments she seems so big to me. She likes to help with house cleaning, and she cleans her own room most of the time. And if you take out hamburger, she is in the kitchen on her stool lickety split because she is "Daddy's Hamburger Helper" and she refuses to let you forget it.

She is a very big KID now. There is hardly any baby left in her at all. It makes me, at the same time, very sad and very excited.

Last Night's Project:

This is what my "new" dining room chairs looked like when we bought them.

Here is another shining example. Each of them was nastier than the last.

But! One $10 table cloth and a staple gun later.....

And you can't even tell that they aren't brand new.

I am in love with my new table. In Love I tell ya. I can't even tell you how cheap we got it for thanks to those stained cushions........you wouldn't believe me if I told you. I'll give you a hint though.......it's *maybe* 1/4 of what we would have paid for it brand new. Ha ha ha haha.... those suckers! *laughs*

Updating-ish-ness

I can't think of any clever way to intro my post, so I'll just cut right to the chase. It's been awhile. I'm behind on reading your blogs and commenting and posting.

BUT, on the other hand, I got my sewing room done.....sorta. Okay, so we just kinda threw everything in there and closed the door to make room for the "new" table, but at least I can get to the sewing machine without the use of grappling gear or rope, and I can actually sew in there. So that will be about as done as gets in there for a bit.

The house has gone completely awry. Everyday my OCD goes to war with my First Trimester woes and so far the FT woes are undefeated. I'm TIRED. ALL THE TIME. Usually by 3 in the afternoon, I am out of patience and dragging around like a zombie in a B movie. One thing I have been doing a lot of though is COOKING. I had so many leftovers in the fridge I couldn't fit the new gallon of milk in there... so I did at least clean out the fridge. We still have no laundry and I must confess that yesterday, I actually bought the kids each a new outfit so I wouldn't have to do the laundry. However, I obviously can't do that everyday, so I'll have to wash at least one load tonight. Boo.

In other news, our tax refund finally came, so all of the bills are caught up and we even paid off the furniture. While we were in there, they were having a "buy it as is" sale for items they had had to repossess. One of them was this HUGE dining room table set. It's one of the bistro-ish tables where the chairs are more along the lines of bar stools and it was the same color wood as the china cabinet that my Papa gave us as a wedding present. It has an optional leaf in the center too, so when it's all put together it seats 8. The fact that another family has owned it is just a plus for me because it already has imperfections and nicks and things so I won't freak out about the kids messing it up. It's better that way. The only issue I have is that the seat cushions are a cream color and stained to high heaven. But hey, for what we payed for the table, it's a steal. I borrowed a steam cleaner, with no luck at all with the stain removal.... but lucky for me, I know how to re-upholster and I live near Glen's. I love discount fabric! Yay! So, that said, our table problems are now officially solved.

In other news, I finished off the Sookie Stackhouse series and I must admit, I'm kinda bummed. I'm really hoping there is another book in the works because if that's how the series ends, I was highly unsatisfied. I'm currently reading Percy Jackson and The Lightening Thief. It's going to be really hard for me not to compare this series to Harry Potter because it's right along those lines, and so far not nearly as well written. But the story is interesting at least and is starting to pick up quite a bit... so who knows how it will turn out. Nadia and I are reading Junie B. Jones, The Toothless Wonder, and LOVING it. Junie B. has a LOT of sass and attitude and she is hilarious! I'm trying to get her more into the reading scene, and the Junie B. books are working pretty well. I also found a collection of Amelia Bedilia stories. I LOVED Amelia Bedilia when I was little and am hoping that she will too.

I think that pretty much covers everything. I'll catch up on all of your blogs soon!

Random Things

Here are a few random things that I've decided on in the last few days:

1. I'm going to cloth diaper. Part of our income tax return is going to be invested in a few different types of cloth diapers for us to try with Calvin. Once I decide what works for us, I will begin working on building a stash for both him and the new baby. I've also decided that rather than doing any sort of baby shower, when people ask what we need, I'm going to stick to diapers. We don't really need any cribs or bouncy seats or strollers or clothes or for goodness sakes BLANKETS. Okay? We GOT blankets!


2. I'm not going to do the midwife. After a really long talk with my best friend (who I would like to point out had a midwife for all three of her children) I have just decided that I'm going to stay where I am already comfortable, rather than trying to adjust all over again to a new regime and a new person. No, I didn't like the ultrasound tech, but she isn't in any way affiliated with my doctor, who I really happen to like and am comfortable with. He already delivered Calvin for me, and he was WONDERFUL throughout the entire pregnancy. He gave me his home number in case I wanted to ask him things when he wasn't at work. He never acted like I was over-reacting when I had questions. He never forced or even voiced his opinions on me. When I first sat down to meet him he explained that since I had already had one baby more than he ever did that we would do things my way. If I want no drugs, then we do no drugs and vice versa. If I want to wait for the baby, then we wait for the baby. If I want to induce, then we induce. Basically, I call the shots and he does what I decide is best for me. So I'm just going to continue seeing him for this pregnancy too.


3. I want to name the baby Stella if it should be a girl. And yes, I will find out. We always opt to know ahead of time. I haven't had any luck deciding on a boy name yet. I like slightly older more classic names, but I also don't like to necessarily go with what's on the top of the popular baby names list either. Plus, I think Stella fits in nicely with Nadia and Calvin. Still totally out on the boy names though. Feel Free to suggest.