the littlest hippie

Probably should have gone outside to take photos, and I did photoshop out the mess in my kitchen, but I didn't want to wait to post it here. It's all about that dress anyway! I'm quite proud of it, considering it was my first attempt, and I didn't have a pattern or anything to go by. The second set of buttons in the back is to adjust the straps to fit big sis. (photo removed by me -s)




kids wanted merit/acheivement badges and these were the first attempts. The peace sign is for my Levi's jacket from the 80's that is almost completely covered in patches.




mousey was so much fun to make! (DH made the dollhouse for xmas the year before last.)

coming soon

so yesterday I spent a whopping $5 at Goodwill on a skirt and blouse. No, not to wear, but rather to reconstruct into something else. The skirt will be another skirt, because I really love the fabric it was made of. Taking it apart at the seams, I realized it was not originally a store-bought item but something someone else had sewn. Oh well, they gave it to the thrift store, and it wasn't very pretty the way it was, and it didn't look as though it had ever been worn. The blouse is a turquoise blue color reminiscent of the early 1990's, but was half-price and good quality linen fabric. It will make a really nice apron (my original intent) or possibly a skirt because I have some cotton eyelet fabric that would go perfectly with that shade of blue. Only problem now is to get the scent of Gain detergent out of them! The plan is to put them on my etsy shop, and if they sell, buy more 2nd hand clothes to reconstruct.

environmental toxins

be afraid. be very afraid. I don't understand why people are not more afraid. Our tap water contains chlorine (not all tap water does, though). Chlorine reacts with things, that's why it works so well as bleach. When chlorine reacts with organic matter (carbon) it creates dioxin ("agent orange") which is the most toxic substance known to man. ...Uh, wait a minnit, aren't we organic matter ourselves? In tiny quantities, dioxins have been proven to cause autoimmune and reproductive disorders such as endometriosis and infertility in males and females of all sorts of animals, including humans. What makes me fear is the idea that my children may someday understand why Mommy sometimes can't play with them and has to take pain medicines. Before you ask me for links, I don't have them anymore. The ones I used to have are now owned by Dow Chemicals, who makes billions of dollars selling, guess what? Chlorine! You most likely can't find the information hardly anywhere, but you can try looking it up yourself. If you find anything, let me know. But I still bet the website will disappear, like, soon. Yes, it's a for-real conspiracy. Don't even get me started on the endometriosis websites, and research organizations, that are now funded or sponsored, or owned, by Tapp Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturers of Lupron, the world's most evil drug. Just know that if you see an ad for Lupron on any website about endo, I wouldn't trust the information you read there.

Okay, so why harp on this now, Stacy? We've all heard what you think about chlorine before...

In my email today was this article. Apparently chlorine also reacts with antibacterial hand soap to create chloroform. I don't use antibacterial soap, I'm more afraid of the chemicals in it than I am of the germs it is supposed to kill. Of course, the article is about the dangers of triclosan, not at all about the dangers of chlorine.

"In the new study, the same researchers from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University tested 16 household products, including lotions, soaps and body washes. All the products containing triclosan produced either chloroform or other chlorine byproducts when exposed to tap water."

Whatcha wanna bet some of those "other chlorine byproducts" were dioxins? Can't find the study itself, will keep looking.

AHA! found it, but haven't read it yet.
Environ Sci Technol. 2005 May 1;39(9):3176-85

if you search pubmed, you get 880 articles on triclosan, 14 articles on triclosan and chlorine, 12,054 on chlorine, 314 articles on chlorine and dioxin, and 11,380 articles if you search just for dioxin.

parenting philosophy

link of the day For the most part, I agree with the general idea behind TCS (taking children seriously) and unschooling. The way it works is that you work together, with your people (children in this case) to find a solution to any given problem that answers the needs and wants of everyone involved. Instead of one getting their way, leaving the other's needs ignored, it involves figuring out exactly what it is you both want and working together to find a solution that makes everyone happy. It's more work than saying "because I said so!" but it pays off in a big way when control issues are no longer poisoning your life. I basically use this sort of approach with raising and educating my children. When allowed autonomy, children are able to make the right choices. It is those who are not allowed to think for themselves and make their own decisions, those who are accustomed to being told what to do, what to believe, and how to act, who make poor decisions. My problem comes, not with the philosophy itself, but with parents who use this philosophy to excuse neglect. Both of my girls are unschooled, that is, I do not force any sort of curriculum or learning schedule or educational expectations upon them. And it works great! Neither child is behind academically, as compared to other children of the same age in institutionalized learning environments (either at home or in school). Mostly my job is to answer the unending stream of questions, and when more information is requested, to find reference material and educational opportunities that pertain to the interest at hand. Sounds easy? it is. Why can't the easy way out be a good thing sometimes? Especially if everyone is happy with it!

Happy Spring!

busy busy busy.... But except for the doctor's appointment and the actual surgery itself, I have (I hope) jumped through all the hoops as requested by my daughter's dentist prior to having her teeth capped.

In celebration of Spring's official arrival, the children and I are going to start planting in our garden. Yeah, it might be too early, but it might not be. It's very cloudy and overcast, but I bet the rain will hold off. Digging in the earth yesterday, I noticed our garden spot is chock full of worms. Worms are my littlest one's favorite critter, she will carry one around with her while playing outside and call it her "baby wormie friend" until it starts languishing, at which point I gently ask if she would like to put him back in our garden where he will help the plants grow. In a very similar vein, at her dentist appointment back in January, she brought her precious snakey. All the other little kids had cuddly toys or blankies with them, but my sweet little girl was carrying around a very realistic rubber black-headed python. LOL

and wonder of all wonders, I beleive I'm going to update the frog blog today or maybe tomorrow! Just need to take some photos next time I feed them.

and now for something completely different

artchive.com click check it out, browse around a little while, you're sure to love it, and you might just learn something new in the process.

link of the day

I almost forgot! Here's one that has been in my favorites for a while now. vintagesewing.info click Everyone knows I don't make things that are very complicated, but it is a way cool website, and I have learned many new things from just this one page.

progress

So I restarted that same rag rug a couple times. At first, I was being so careful that my stitches don't show that the edges started curling and it wouldn't lay flat. So I took out the stitches (not a hard thing to do, as they don't go through any fabric, just through the loops of the braid). Decided it was better to have a nicer looking finished project, and that the perfect stitches would come with practice. I am very pleased with the results so far, plus this project will get rid of lots of extra fabric I probably wouldn't use in anything wearable. The most time goes into folding and ironing the strips in preparation to be braided. I hate ironing, but for some reason, this doesn't bother me, I actually find it relaxing. Then I roll them up into balls like yarn and stick a pin in the end to hold it all together. I experimented with folding a strip as I braided, and it just didn't work as well as those that had been ironed, had trouble keeping the raw edges hidden.

The "rug" I made of strips of towels has been claimed by the dog. Okay, so now it's a dog bed, and what a nice fluffy bed indeed!

Last night I also made a skirt for my oldest child. The littlest one keeps claiming for her own all the cute little dresses I make, so I made this skirt especially for big sister, in yellow, of course. It only has two tiers, but is ankle length, with lace around the hemline. turned out quite lovely, even if I really wanted a lighter shade of yellow at the top part. At this rate, I might yet fit all of my fabric into those storage drawers mentioned previously... but I'm sure to buy more before that actually happens.

...and yes, the sewing machine is still sitting out in my computer room.

link of the day

pattern/instructions for making a nursing top. click this is one I might actually wear... only problem is I'm not so great at making things of knit fabrics.
this one looks easier for some reason.

brrrrr...

c-c-cold... I knew I should wait before putting our seedlings out in the garden. Good thing I did. Silly me, I turned off our heat and woke up shivering this morning. At least I didn't open the windows last night! Tomorrow morning is supposed to be down to 30 degrees (that's farenheit, I can't figure out celcius conversions, and nobody uses celcius, or is it centigrade, around here anyway). We *always* have one cold spell after my birthday. Once we get past it, I know it's safe to start planting!! :D The kids' watermelons and sunflowers are past transplanting size already, hope they make it. If not, it's a good learning experience, and we still have the rest of the seed packets we can direct sow outdoors.

And just look what my incredible husband made for me last night!


It's a needle for lacing rugs! Here's another photo, with my current work in progress:

look what I'm making now!

No, it's not perfect, but it is my first attempt and I know what I did wrong and what I will do differently the next time.

It's a braided rug (rather, the beginnings of one anyway), made of strips of old bath towels that I dyed blue. As far as instant gratification goes, this was a great project for me. Went fast enough that it didn't tax my short attention span. It's very fluffy and squooshy, and will feel wonderful under my feet as I step out of the shower each day.
click for my inspiration

while I stitched the braided rags into a rug, the girls and I enjoyed The Magic Flute, and DH enjoyed Down From the Mountain. Really, we all loved both movies. Yes, we got two Netflix movies in the mail yesterday, one opera and the other bluegrass, and had to watch both of them, back-to-back. You got a problem with that? ;-)

We have been really enjoying this beautiful weather, up to 80 degrees the last couple days (which I consider to be the perfect temperature outdoors). I wish I had gotten photos of the girls' picnic up in the tower of their play set. I wanted them to eat, they wanted to go outside, so we did both and it worked wonderfully. We are spending more and more time outside and less and less time indoors. I have been working on the yard, at least the backyard anyway, while the girls run and play. I really need to do something about my front flowerbeds. And, I also need to snap a photo of the metal flamingo DH made and stuck in the front yard, but first I need to thin out my bulbs and perennials and get rid of all those weeds, then decide where Ms. Flamingo would like to live.

Looks like rain today, so maybe I can get caught up with the dirty dishes. *sigh* I really hate washing dishes. Someday Santa has got to bring me a dishwasher...

link of the day

77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better from an email to TNunschooling list.


bleh...
I suppose I must focus today's limited online time to figuring out why my personal bellsouth email account is not working, while our other email addresses from bellsouth are just fine. Anyone need to get a hold of me, use my yahoo acct or telephone instead!