Family Fun Day - Purple Glasses edition

We made plans to drive to Hot Springs (about an hour away) to the botanical gardens to see the tulips.  But considering the length of the drive and the chances of rain, we decided to scrap that plan and do something a little closer to home.  We packed a picnic dinner and were headed to one of our many walking bridges when Bill decided we should to go Pinnacle Mountain.

So we did.  We let the girls play on the playground and walked a few trails.  Ate our picnic lunch and walked some more. 

I grew up near Pinnacle and didn't know about half the trails around the mountain.  We're definitely doing some exploring around there this summer.

Here are some pictures... and you'll notice a recurring item in some of them:  a pair of purple glasses I bought the girls from the $1 store. 

Gorgeous day, gorgeous child

Glasses make Isabelle ponder deep thoughts

I noticed that Olivia's clothing matched the graffiti.

 Yeah, the glasses again.

A Dodo tree! (I have to say it makes me really sad that people are such jerks that they'd carve up such a beautiful tree)

Man, I love Arkansas.

We didn't have any quarters to make it work, but she still loved playing with it.

And this was when Zoe used her psychic powers to knock Daddy down the mountain ;)

After our second little trail walk, we eventually headed home, when the girls started whining they were hungry.  Dinner was pretty light and the girls were too occupied to eat much, so we decided to stop at get something to eat.  Our waitress's chest (not her boobs, higher - like a few inches below her collarbones) looked bedazzled.  It was like she had 6 tiny little blue gems set into her chest.  I was so curious.  The skin looked slightly red, like a recent piercing, but I was like "how on earth do you pierce your chest?"  Well, I ended up googling it while we waited on our food and you really can pierce your chest.  They're called dermal piercings.  (The link is safe - no pics of "private" piercings LOL)  I'm so uncool... why have I never even heard of this before?  It was actually really neat looking.  My husband usually thinks piercings are really gross, but he admitted that it was kind of cool.     

I learn something new every day....

My New Favorite Shirt

Last week I told you about something I saw on Project Runway that I wanted to copy:  a Rorschach design on clothing.  In my case, a tshirt.

Yesterday, after Bill's aunt and grandmother went back to their hotel to rest and the girls were occupied, I dug the white tshirt out of my closet.  It was just a plain white men's tshirt.  Not the thin undershirt kind.  I decided it needed a little different shape to it, so I trimmed off the hems and cut a new neckline.  I left the edges raw because I thought it went with the overall feel.

I needed something to put inside the shirt to prevent any bleed-through to the back, so I took the box from a case of soda and with some cutting and folding, got it inside making sure one of the creases went down the middle of the shirt to make folding the shirt easier.  I had some black fabric paint and, making sure to keep it on one side (although it really wouldn't matter), I just squirted and squiggled a random design.  I carefully folded the shirt in half (you have to make sure it doesn't have any wrinkles) and pressed it for a few seconds.  I added a little more paint and repeated until I was satisfied with my design.



I let it dry overnight, then ironed it to set the ink (I've never actually done this when I've used fabric paint, so we'll see if it makes a difference), and it's in the wash now. The design is a little stiff... probably went a little overboard on the paint... but hopefully it will soften up with a few washes.

Before I threw it in the wash, I took a fabulous bathroom mirror cell phone shot for you. 



I love it.  Absolutely love it.  I need to make one for the girls.  They'd never wear it, but whatever...

I wasn't expecting all this...

We had a wonderful day today with my husband's aunt and grandmother.  We had lunch at Applebee's and then we took them to The Old Mill.  The girls had fun (for the most part - Olivia got in trouble and sulked half the time) and it was such a beautiful day.  Bill's aunt is so hands-on with the kids.  She climbed rocks, she wandered around everywhere with them.  And she's far less spastic than I am about the girls getting too close to the edge of stuff, so it was nice to let her do all that stuff while I sat back and took pictures.

I have a ton of pictures of other stuff to show you, so I'll show you two of my favorites from our visit:

 Bill's Gram looking out of the window at him.

4 Generations.  

I guess technically it should be Bill's dad instead of aunt, but she's at least the same generation...

(and I told you Olivia sulked half the time)

So, when the trip was planned, Bill's aunt told me that she was going to bring me her serger (!) and some fabric she had bought to make skating costumes with.  I was expecting a box and the machine.

Not this:

I just inherited every crafty bit from his side of the family almost.  Holy cow!  We are talking vintage notions, patterns, fabric, yarn, crochet thread... I've barely scratched been able to go through it and have been blown away by the things I've found. 

Here are some of my finds so far.... 

Embroidered apron

Latch Hook kit... reminds me of my aunt

Beautiful needlepoint wall-hanging

The "treasure chest"!

Do you see the Googly Eye buttons?  Do you see them?

Vintage thread, some on wooden spools

Beautiful old pins

Odds and ends...

Those were just the highlights.  If you want to see more of the treasure in the box, you can check it out here.

I've not even touched the big bins and there's a gun case (yes, gun case) full of crochet thread.  I have no clue where to put this or what to do with most of it, but I'm so proud to have it.   I'm sure there will be more posts of the neat stuff I'll uncover.

Feverish

Do you watch Project Runway?  It's one of my list of things I have to watch that people make fun of me for.  No one in my family is really into any sort of reality television, so the fact that 75% of "my shows" are reality shows makes me silly to them.  But Project Runway just gets me.  I've mentioned before that I wanted to be a fashion designer once upon a time, so it's totally my thing.

I never watch shows when they air, so I finally got around to watching this week's episode tonight.  One of the designers decided to do a "therapy" theme for his collection and he made these crazy cool Rorschach designs on the fabric.

I have to do this.  I have a white tshirt in the closet that I never wear... because it's white and I have kids and it wouldn't be white long... and black fabric paint and I would totally be doing that instead of typing this, but I'm too lazy tired to drag stuff out and put it back up.

Even aside from that, I have so many things in my head wanting to come out right now that I feel slightly insane.  Sometimes I just feel so creative and it's so frustrating that I don't have a lot of time to get it out.  And when I have free time after the kids are in bed, I'm so exhausted or have, you know, responsible things to do.

Ugh, responsibility.  ;)

You know, like cleaning house all last weekend for our company that arrived yesterday but isn't allowed in my house because Isabelle has the plague or something.



Really.  My life is a shining example of Murphy's Law.

Luckily, they weren't planning on sleeping here, but I'm sure they expected more company than we've been able to provide. 

I got called to pick Iz up from school Thursday morning... she had a high fever and had thrown up.  Then I found out that 20+ kids just from Kindergarten went home with the same symptoms.  Insanity.  We were afraid it was the flu - some of the kids were actually diagnosed with the flu - but here we are the next day and by bedtime she was definitely better.  I've never heard of a 24 hour flu, but who knows, really?  I couldn't get her a doctor's appointment, they were booked solid.  Not surprising, but frustrating.  How bizarre that nearly half of the Kindergarteners just all fell ill like that?  I don't know how much the older kids were effected, but Olivia didn't mention that there were a lot of kids out in her class.  But the Kindergartners are in a separate building... 

I don't know.. it's just weird.  Weird enough that the principal called the CDC to come out, but when they heard some kids were diagnosed with the flu, they decided to just write it off to the flu and be done with it.  I personally don't think it was the flu, like I said, but whatever.  She's better now, that's what matters.

So, tomorrow we'll all get to go have lunch with Aunt Lynne and Gram.  Yay!  Hopefully take them to see The Old Mill if it's not raining.  Spend a little time before they continue on their little road trip.  I think I might need to put everyone in a bubble before my Mother-in-law comes next month...

More Ziggy Zaggy Zany

Zig Zagging in just a minute... before we get to that, a brief progress report.

I took a little break from my Buttercup blanket...  I got a little bored with it.  I'm more motivated now that little Bridget has arrived.  I told you she'd get here before I could finish.  My friend lives in another state, so I've only seen pictures, and she's a cutie.

Here's my progress so far...


5 out of 11 rows (plus the border)

So, in the meantime, I've been working on my zig zag projects.  I had this idea of making a little Spring sweater.  It is already super warm here, so I don't know why I thought about a sweater, but I did.  I've never actually crocheted anything like this, so it was pretty crazy to just decide to wing it like I did, but I did.   It's all one piece... it looked like a big plus sign with a hole in the middle before I seamed up the sides.  I finished it up this weekend and I'm just now getting around to taking pictures of it.  My floor looks terrible, but I swear I did sweep it.  I need to pressure wash the whole freaking house.  Kids, I tell you.



It's just a funky little cropped sweater.  The neck, which I wanted to be big, was bigger than practical so I added the buttons on there to close it up a little.  Little kids don't need the sexy off-shoulder look going on, in my opinion.

Want to see it modeled?  Alrighty...



Aw, Zoe, you're so cute.  Let's get a little sassy now...



That's without her modelling coach.  We're improving. 



Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have swept again since then.  Look, I'm just happy you can see the floor at all.  It's a real challenge for us.  You're lucky we're expecting company any day now and I've been putting forth extra effort.  I'm beyond caring anymore, though.  My house is a nonstop wreck.  There... I admitted it.  =)  My name is Jennifer and I'm a slob, or at least everyone around me is and I chose to spend my time doing anything but picking up after them most of the time.

I want to just make a cute little skirt to go with it out of the zig zag fabric.  Probably a paper bag waist.  Sadly, I'm getting a little bored with this now.  Hopefully I can recover so I can make a third outfit before Easter.  I'm pretty sure I will... Bill's aunt sent me a message that they should be here tomorrow.  She said she's ready to be able to see out of her back window of her car and hopes I have room for some boxes.  You know what's in those boxes?

Oh, just wait.  ;)

Doodles and Nerves

Today I had to go to the State conference for our surgical center association.  Most of it has absolutely nothing to do with what I do at work (coding & billing), but since there is usually one speaker there in that area, I have to go.  It's not so bad... there's always a motivational speaker and I really like motivational speakers.

In the past, we have always had this enormous conference room with a separate room for vendors to set up in.  Usually way more space than needed.  Due to various complications, we had to change venues.  The room we had this year was about 1/3 the size of the previous room and they had the vendors set up in the same room.  It was so crowded.  Like you couldn't move from your seat without having to squeeze by everyone else. 

I don't do well in crowds.  I enjoy my personal space and having people wriggle by me every few minutes got to me in no time.  By our first break, I had to go out into the hallway and do some deep breathing.  It's the closest I've been to a panic attack in over a decade.



I used to have panic attacks quite a bit... had to quit a job I hated because I freaked out in the parking lot and my mom had to come get me.  I just couldn't go back in that building.  I'm glad to say that I don't get like that hardly ever anymore.  I do have people issues though and there were just too many people in too little space for my mental health.

And, in addition to that, by the second speaker, I had been fully reminded that I do not like what I do for a living.  To put it mildly. 



The motivational speaker, Lisa Smartt, was hilarious.  I laughed so hard my sides ached.   I related so much to her.  Laughing was a great stress relief.  Between her self-deprecating humor and my incessant doodling, I managed to not freak out.



I was complimented on my doodling skills by people sitting around me.  I don't normally doodle this much... I mean, I always doodle at these things because I couldn't really care less about Worker's Compensation laws, but not usually pages and pages of it.



Hopefully next year they can get our old space back.  Otherwise, I might need to bring extra doodle paper.  And a Xanax.

Whatcha think?

A while back, someone introduced me to one of the best songs...  Three Little Girls by Eric Clapton.



Even though Eric Clapton isn't really my kind of music, I cried the first time I heard it.  Then again... I have three little girls.  I think it's pretty much a law that I would have to.  =)

Ever since then, I've wanted to make some kind of wall art for their room with the lyrics.  I played around with it tonight.  I used a picture of them and put the lyrics on top of the picture.  I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for....



Of course, I changed the names.  And yeah, you get the version with the middle names edited out.  =)

I want something that will look good blown up poster size.  I like the colors, but maybe it would be better black and white?  Maybe the photo faded more?  I'm no graphic designer, for sure, don't claim to be...  =)