Quick Update: Prepping for the GGSE

In 6 months or less, I will be leaving for the Great Graduate School Experiment. In the meantime, I have been whittling away at my abundance of free time. Here are some tidbits about my life since I last posted.

Work

-Traveled to Las Vegas for a trade show with my mom's company. It was a blast seeing the lights and action of Vegas, and I really liked working at the show!

-Finally everything is in line for me to become a substitute teacher in the local school district. I have desperately missed working with children, and I'm excited to be able to serve my community in a new way! My first scheduled teaching position is the last week of October, but perhaps I'll find a few other opportunities along the way.

-The daughter of a family friend swims six days a week, and I've been helping to transport her to and from her swim practices. It's a blessing to help out a friend, and spending so much time driving also allows me to take in the beauty of fall in New England.

-November vacation camp with the recreation department is all ready to go. My co-camp director and I are so excited to be offering a two-day camp exploring the origins of Thanksgiving-- including a trip to Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts (my future dream job)!

-Still working to get my seamstress business off the ground. Some of my work was on display at the town library between August and October, and my dresses in particular were given a lot of attention. I have made plans to attend a few local craft fairs and markets, and hopefully will be selling some items before Christmas. Look for the Rainy Day Seamstress near you.

-I met and played with some of the children in that I hope to be spending time with come February. The kids are all part of an early childhood program at our local community center, and when my friend Lisa goes on maternity leave in a few months, I will be taking her place for a few weeks.

-Since August, I've been housekeeping for my parents-- cleaning the house top to bottom every week. It's a tough job because as soon as I've vacuumed the dog starts scratching, the cat sheds, the bird molts, and I have to get rid of the dust and grime all over again. But I actually like to clean and organize, so it gives me an opportunity to rid myself of excess compusivity.

-After speaking with the president of the local historical society, I have been given the opportunity to join the board and work with the society on a number of projects. It will be a wonderful chance to work in my field during my year at home.

Play

-In September I had the opportunity to visit some dear friends around the state. I will also be visiting UNH for homecoming this weekend. Hopefully I will be able to see a number of my school friends while I am on the other side of the state.

-I've been working hard to train my little Ollie bird. Since he came to live with us a little over a year ago, Ollie has been a bit wild. Unlike any other bird we've owned, Ollie would eat no "people food", would not perch on a finger, and did not talk or whistle. During the summer I spent hours talking to him, feeding him garden vegetables, and handling him on a regular basis. Within the last month, he has become (almost) a normal bird. He talks endlessly in my voice, scavenges for breakfast cereal and carrots, and will come out of his cage with hardly a squawk. Despite my family telling me that I'll end up a crazy bird lady, I'm very proud of all the work we've accomplished ;-)

-In my really free time, I have been sewing and/or plotting to sew all kinds of projects. It's just about time to think about Christmas, and I'm feeling prepared for the first time in years. Of course, part of that is that I don't have to take any exams or research any theses for the first time in my life, but still, it's nice to feel like I've got a grip on something.

-Although it's been dreary and grey for the past two weeks, I've taken every opportunity to work in the garden. We haven't got much left, but it makes me feel better to know that my beds and compost will be in good shape for the winter. Considering that I won't have much of an opportunity to garden in DC, I'm hoping that all the houseplants I've been repotting will be able to survive the big move. Most of our houseplants live on the porch during the summer, but I'm slowly collecting them in my room again as the cold nights settle in.

-I'm also spending a lot of time in the kitchen copying family recipes into my new recipe book, trying out said recipes, and preserving whatever has come my way. So far I've put up 12 pints mint jelly, 12 pints plum jelly, 26 quarts dill pickles, 3 quarts pickled zucchini, 6 quarts applesauce, and countless dried veggies, fruits, herbs and tea ingredients. I'm still planning on another 6 quarts applesauce tomorrow.

Wow. That's a long "quick" update. I'll stop now and leave the rest for another day.

Quick Update

Since the end of summer camp, my schedule has been somewhat less regular. It has taken me a few weeks to get into the swing of things. Hopefully I'll return to posting on a regular basis soon, but in the meantime, here are some of the things that I've been up to:

A good friend from school was encamped with her French and Indian reenacting group a few towns away from me. I joined her for a day of campfires, folk dancing, and 18th century bliss.

I have been sewing like mad once again. In addition to my own projects, I have also begun a little service for those in town who need a seamstress. So far, it is going well.

Harvest time in the garden! At least 8 lbs of potatoes in this basket.

My sister joined me for an evening concert in the park near our house. A few days later, she left for a semester studying in Spain!

Pickling time! 12 quarts of Kosher dill pickles in one day. Phew.

Pickles and jelly make for a very productive day.

After months apart, I was reunited with two of my best friends from school. We enjoyed a weekend complete with Ethiopian cuisine, a swing dance outside of Boston, pedicures, and an afternoon at the seacoast.

Looking forward to another few weeks of lovely adventures!

Sunday Sentiment: Project Wishlist Update

In January, I posted a list of projects that I wanted to accomplish. Now let's check in to see what I've finished this year so far!

Knitting:

• Mug cozies-- Scandinavian pattern for Lily
• Fingerless mittens for Ethan
• Mittens for Daddie Working on it.
• Cabled headbands
• Baby sweater with locally farmed, dyed, and spun wool
• Socks!
• Fair Isle sweater
• Sweater with Scandinavian pattern
• Tablerunner for Momma

Sewing:

• New potholders-- quilted
• Quilt for Claire Finished!
• T-shirt quilt for myself Working on it.
• New swing dress for Spring semester Finished!
• Undergarments! for swing dancing, etc. Working on it.
• More farmer's market bags for Barb, Emily
• Aprons for myself Finished!
• Altering of old dresses Finished!
• Denim skirt Finished!
• Dog bed for Chessie

Other:

• Rag rug
• Hooked rug from scraps Working on it.
• Tin lanterns
• Cross-stitch finished! Working on it.
• Seal and label seed packets from last year Finished!
• Start seedlings for the Spring & Summer-- egg cartons
• Frame drawings
• Make more candles-- tapers, columns, and votives
• Homemade shampoo Finished!
• New batch of handsoap

Hmmm, it looks as though I'd better get going on my knitting! I think sewing is so much faster for me that I tend to prefer it. But I want to improve my knitting skills, so I ought to start some new projects soon.

Winter Show-And-Tell II

More homemade Christmas gifts:

For Daddie, a draft catcher for the front door. Thickly woven cotton filled with rice and cloves keep the front hall insulated and smelling warm and spicy!

For my brother, a polka-dot bow tie. I found this idea on Martha Stewart's website, and thought it would be perfect for a blossoming mathematician and jazz musician.

For my sister, an Infinity scarf to match the hat I made her a few years ago for Christmas. She left for a school trip to Poland a few days after Christmas, so she wasn't able to model it for me, but I think you get the idea.

For Momma, a pillow made from an old sweater of mine. It was my favorite sweater for years, but was too stretched and worn to keep wearing at school-- so I sewed it up and added some silvery buttons. It matches perfectly with the snowflake motif of her quilt!

Alright, so this wasn't really a Christmas gift, but I love it nonetheless. A year ago, my sister found a 1930's or 1940's era apron for me and I have nearly worn it out with use. I longed to copy the pattern and make a new one so that I could give the other a rest. While I was rooting around in the attic one day, I found a box of fabric from Momma's crafting days (before I was born, of course). Inside there were some large scraps of fabric that were just the right size for an apron pattern. Within 3 1/2 hours I had ironed the material, traced a pattern, and pieced together this beautifully utilitarian new apron! I wish I had a better photo, but you can still see the style of the 1930's in the voluminous waist and sweet ruffles at the bottom.

Winter Show-And-Tell

Here are just a few of the things that made their way into our holidays.

For Christmas I gave Daddie a big jar of the rosemary soap that I made over the summer. Somehow the ratio of oils was incorrect in my recipe, so most of the soap became crumbly and dry. To remedy the situation, I took a few cups of the crumbled soap, added baking soda, water, and a bit of fragrance, and boiled it into a liquid handsoap. This is extremely helpful for hardworking hands-- it removes pine pitch, motor oil, paint, and all sorts of other icky things. If unscented, it can also be used for dishes and cleaning the house. But be careful if you plan to add it to mop water-- it works so well on linoleum floors that it makes them extremely slippery!

Next we have the candles that I made for Momma for Christmas. We tend to go through quite a few candles each month, so I collect the leftover wax from tapers and votives until I have enough to melt down for a new candle. This year, I had nearly two shoeboxes full of old candles, so I had plenty of choices! To make upcycled candles, there are a number of steps.

-First I group like colors together and put them in a stainless steel bowl over a pot of simmering water.
-Stir the wax as it melts and remove any old wicks with a wooden dowel.
-Prepare new candle moulds with fresh wick-- braided 100% cotton twine is best and burns cleanest.
-To add some nice scent to my candles, I use the wax wafers produced by
Yankee Candle for "wax potpourri".These melt right along with the old candles and give the wax a more consistent color.
-When all the wax has melted, pour into the prepared moulds.

The candles that I made this year were gingerbread, lavender vanilla, and vanilla scented.

Project Wishlist

Recently I've found myself paging through knitting patterns, inspirational sewing sites, and books that I've been collecting thinking, "I could make that!". I've amassed quite a collection of bookmarks in my mind of things that I'm sure I'll get around to someday. But in the meantime, I'll have to content myself with a good old-fashioned to-do list.

Knitting:

• Mug cozies-- Scandinavian pattern for Lily
• Fingerless mittens for Ethan
• Mittens for Daddie
• Cabled headbands
• Baby sweater with locally farmed, dyed, and spun wool
• Socks!
• Fair Isle sweater
• Sweater with Scandinavian pattern
• Tablerunner for Momma
  

Sewing:

• New potholders-- quilted
• Quilt for Claire
• T-shirt quilt for myself
  
• New swing dress for Spring semester
• Undergarments! for swing dancing, etc.
• More farmer's market bags for Barb, Emily
• Aprons for myself
• Altering of old dresses
• Denim skirt
• Dog bed for Chessie
  

Other:

• Rag rug
• Hooked rug from scraps
• Tin lanterns
• Cross-stitch finished!
• Seal and label seed packets from last year
• Start seedlings for the Spring & Summer-- egg cartons
  
• Frame drawings
• Make more candles-- tapers, columns, and votives
• Homemade shampoo
• New batch of handsoap

I just know that as soon as I post this, I'll have another flood of things that I forgot to mention. But until then, I've got a good list to start from.

Strike a Pose...for Recycled Fashion Night!

And so begins my Senior year. Have I mentioned lately that I love college?

Go-Go Girl!

Just had to share my new project-- a polka dot shirt made from a 1960's Simplicity pattern. Of course, once it was finished, I had to model it with my pedal pushers, big earrings, and lipstick!

To Market, To Market...

This summer I found a wonderful book that sparked my imagination and helped me to finish some projects that have already proved to be family favorites. Author Amanda Blake Soule's "Handmade Home: Simple Ways to Repurpose Old Materials into New Family Treasures" inspired me to create "farmer's market" bags for my sister and myself.

Claire's 19th birthday was a few weeks ago, and I thought that a new all-purpose bag would be perfect for her. My uncle sent us some tapestry fabric samples for my birthday, and they were just sturdy enough to craft into the messenger-style bags. So far the bags have traveled to and from work, the beach, the grocery store, and walking trips around town.



Currently, my bag is being modeled by "Marcia," my new dress form. Marcia was rescued three weeks ago from a community yard sale where she had been turned into a temporary floor lamp. Really. She was wired up and down, and had a lampshade resting on her head. I donated $10 for the privilege to take her home and clean her up. After 3 hours taking out the wiring and scrubbing her with baking soda, Marcia has now been happily returned to her original state as an ACME Adjustable Dressform, Size "A".

New Dresses!

Last week I experienced the wonderful holiday known to most college students as Spring Break. But instead of spending the days lounging on the sunny beaches of Cancun, I stayed put in New Hampshire and went home to 3 feet of snow still on the ground.

As much as I would have enjoyed the sun and sands, I spent my time engaged in classic New England winter activities such as sewing, baking, snowshoeing, and starting seeds for the garden. My latest sewing projects were a Regency-style dress for an event at school, a new swing dancing dress, and crinolines. With so much to do, it gave me a great excuse to get acquainted with my new sewing machine!

My Regency dress was a bit of a challenge (it took about 2 days to finish) because I created the dress design from a 1795 fashion plate and used the dimensions of a circa 1800 shift as the basic pattern from which to work. I wish I had been able to make a kerchief and cap to go with it, but I realized that not everyone cared about historical accuracy as much as me, and anyway, I didn't have any more white linen.

As for the new swing dancing dress, I am exceedingly proud of it. Two of my dear school friends (who are also history majors and swing dancers) recently bought vintage patterns from the 1940's to make new dresses. When they showed me the patterns, I couldn't help but think how wonderful it would be if we all had 40's dresses. Alas, I didn't have enough money to buy a vintage pattern or enough time to create my own from scratch, so I compromised and bought a reproduction pattern made by Simplicity. The pattern was originally from 1950, and I used forest-green brushed silk with a silver nylon lining. Not a complicated pattern, but lots of steps!

I'm so excited to wear my new dresses!

Valentine Love

Here are some photos of this lovely Valentine's Day. The box is full of handmade and non-handmade Valentines for my dear friends at school. I always feel that something handmade or handwritten is much more personal than something bought at a store, so I made each Valentine as unique as the friend I gave it to.

Tonight in the dorm we are going to have what we call a "Stoplight Party." I'm excited because it has been a sort of running joke since my freshman year in Hall Council that we would host this "mixer" type of party, but at the same time I feel that it could be a little awkward. Each person attending the party must wear a certain color to reflect their relationship status. Wear green if you're single, red if you're in a relationship, or yellow if it's complicated. Stoplight colors, right? The only hitch is that my dorm is the honors designated residence hall, and we tend to have many introverted residents. I will be wearing green and because dating within the hall is very common, and if everyone shows up in red, it won't be very much of a mixer for me ;-)

Either way, it should be fun to dress up and do something other than homework for the night!

Handmade Treasures

During the past few years, I have begun a few sewing projects, but never found the motivation to finish them. This year I was quite successful, partly because as of this past Christmas I have vowed no longer to buy gifts for people. All the work that I put into the handmade gifts for my family and friends is so much more meaningful than the money that I spend on them. These are a few of the things that I made for my family over my winter break. The mittens were one of my mom's Christmas gifts. They are the first mittens I've ever made! I received a candlemaking kit for Christmas, so I've been doing all sorts of candlemaking experiments. The green candle is bayberry scented, and the burgundy candle is unscented.

My dad is modeling his new apron and potholder. The fabric is a bold lobster print that I found in a Maine general store over the summer.

My sister is modeling the heating pillow that I made for her and for my mom out of scraps of fleece and old flannel pajamas. The pillows are filled with rice and lavender or rose petals that I saved from my garden. They can be heated in the microwave for one minute, then used as a neck pillow, or a wrap for sore joints.

School is Back in Session

It seems like ages ago that I last posted, and it really was, in the scheme of our fast-moving age of technology. Here is a brief recap of my wonderfully long (and blog-less) summer.

After leaving my position as an RA at the end of May, I moved back home for the summer to work as a camp counselor for my local recreation department. I worked through June at the local bakery (my fallback employment since Senior year of high school,) and helped my parents keep the house together as we anticipated my sister's graduation. Oh, the stress of two children in college. It had begun to wear on me before Claire had even received her diploma.

Aside from working at the bakery and keeping the family sane, I spent most of my time in the garden in June. Each day I would wake up, eat breakfast, dress, weed and tend the garden until about ten or eleven, then work on some project for the rest of the day until work. Within the first two weeks of being at home, I made a potting bench for the back yard, a tin lantern, a nesting box, and about fifteen candles.

As June wore down, Ethan prepared to leave for his summer math program at Hampshire College. We dropped him off on July Fourth, and immediately our family dynamics changed. It was strange not to have him around the house, eating all the cereal from the cabinets or playing Chopin on the piano, but we became used to it. Claire and I both started working the week after he left, but were briefly interrupted by a family reunion in Michigan. It was wonderful to travel this summer, as the previous summer found me away at sleep-away camp.

The Antrim Rec. Department turned out to be the perfect summer job for me, and I felt that I had made the right choice as soon as I started. I learned valuable lessons from almost every aspect of the experience, such as working with the kids, getting along with co-counselors, and balancing my home life with my work life.

Although most of my friends were working for the summer, I was able to spend a lot of time with a few of my dearest friends, which was more than I could have asked for. Barbara and I traveled to Maine with her parents and spent an unbelievable week on Eagle Island. Our adventures left me with an even deeper love and appreciation for her than ever before, and memories that will last me a lifetime.

Too soon, the summer drew to a close as camps ended, Ethan came home, and Claire began preparing for her great departure to Skidmore. I tried to take everything in stride because it was all happening so quickly, but the last night before leaving for school was still difficult. I wasn't sure I had made the right decision moving back to Hubbard and no longer being an RA. I was nervous that I wouldn't get along with my roommate, and that I would have a difficult adjustment to being back in school.

All my fears were proved wrong almost immediately. I feel so blessed to have been able to move in early, because I formed instant bonds of friendship to people I would have otherwise missed. My roommate is wonderful, and I feel as though we share bits and pieces of each others' soul. So much has happened in the past week, that I cannot even recount it, but I praise God for all that He has done for me. In the dark days that I experienced just months ago, I could never have imagined that He would bring me to this contentment in such a short period of time. He is so good to me!