Oh The Smells You Can Smell!

I'm getting in touch with my sensitive side. Or my "senses" side. My sense of smell anyway. I really noticed smells (good, bad and ugly) this past week at work:

• The sweet smell of a clean room (the kids noticed it, i told them to thank mr. custodian because he works so hard to clean our room, and they did)
• The mint spray disinfectant matienance gave me to sanitize my instruments (supposed to help prevent the swine flu. i decided to disinfect my sticks today while student teacher taught, i forgot she needed the sticks for her lesson. doh.)
• Body odor from my older students at the end of a folk dance (they're in the process of discovering how magical deodorant can be)
• Drywall (in the main building close to the construction area)
• Some compound that smelled like paint thinner (in the main building- it was at the end of the day, origin- construction)
• Manure, absolutely permenated all of the outside air around the entire bldg. I figured they must have hauled manure in the dumpsters before they switched them out with our old ones. It is strong.

You know you teach in a country school when the students say "It smells like Cows!" as they walk past the dumpsters to your room.

I'm glad that's all they said.

What a Good Hubby

I'm tired. It's been a long day. My feet hurt because i insisted on wearing beautiful shoes to work. Hubby puts the girls to bed...talking...in a quiet voice... the girls calm down...jumping stops...giggles still...silence except his sweet mellow voice.

What a good hubby and daddy. :-)

Easy Recycled Quilts

So i came across a business website where the lady will turn your baby's receiving blankets into a large quilt. Cool idea, right? ;-) However 1 throw, or twin sized blanket is going to cost you between $77-$99 (us) dollars.

I was surprised, of course, because I recently made 2 myself and a.) thought it was an original idea, b.) it was a quick and easy sew, therefore c.) was surprised at the price.

I posted a quick picture blog on how i made mine before, but I'm going to repost it and, I'm going to post a link to an even easier, much, much, easier recycled quilt made from vintage sheets (if receiving blankets just aren't your thing.)

I'm posting because I'm ready to make a queen size quilt for my own bed and i'm going to use recycled sheets and blankets from a second hand store. And I'm posting it because it's Fall (almost) darn it, when my mind turns to warm crafty things.

I would love it if you decide to make a recycled quilt too. Please let me know in the comment section, maybe even post pics on your blog and let me know!

Thanks!
--Lydee

Directions to an easy recycled quilt found on The DIY Wedding. This is good stuff, and pretty close to how i made my blankets.

My directions (quick and probably missing vital instructions, but for what it's worth...)

Reprinted from I Quit My Meds and Other Useless Stuff

I also (finally) finished the second of the "easiest quilts to make, ever". I made them out of my girls old flannel baby blankets. Just piece together, find batting (buy or recycle: i used an old bed sheet), find a backing (i used another old flannel bed sheet) and connect (with yarn every 6 in, or with a fancy stitch on the sewing machine).

Pictorial History of said blanket, not necessarily in order because i'm drinking wine.
you get the idea....

Piece the top section, 6 baby blankets together: arrange in the order you like, cut if necessary to make it all even, pin and sew (and then i sewed the raw edges down to make it look neat).

Once the top section is sewed together, you need to layout and sandwich all of your quilt layers together to prepare for sewing all together. I used an old green sheet (bottom) for batting, and then my backing (middle blue flannel sheet), and my baby blankets (wrong side out) on top.

Trim overhanging edges as needed to reduce bulk close to the seams.

Remember, I'm sewing 3 sides (and part of a 4th side) together, inside out, and then I turn the entire bundle right side out so the ugly green sheet will go into the middle where it belongs. And then I will finish closing the 4th side with a hand stitch.

(btw, I marked where i wanted to cut with a washable marker.)

Now, you can either hand tie with yarn every 6 inches or so, or you can quilt with your sewing machine if it does that, or you can do what i did and just run a fancy decorative stitch every 6 inches or so to connect all the layers together.

Finished product.

Why did I chose to use an old sheet for batting instead of batting i purchased from the store?

Well, I was broke. And I liked the idea of recycling an item i wasn't using into something useful. I got the idea from Crafting a Green World, go check them out.

where have you gone my old best friend...

there are so many things i love about my job/being a music teacher One thing though, one thing i miss is singing at home whenever i want. my voice is so tired, i'm afraid to use it when i don't need to. i caught my self humming and made myself stop.

it's not that i can't, i just don't want to reach that point where i can't. so i take it easy. and that sucks.

I Showed Up Late, My Cell Phone Rang, and My Husband Blocked the Fire Lane

And that, in a nutshell was my open house. Oh, and the only open "teacher's seat" was clear on the other side of the room, which i waltzed over to 5 minutes late with my two cranky kids in tow.

In my defense my cell rang cause hubby didn't know where i was, but i shoulda put it on vibrate, and I can't help where hubby parks. In his defense, they did an "all call" 5 times, but we were in my room which doesn't have an intercom, because they refuse to admit that I work here too.

However, this is the second year that hubby's car was called over the all call to be moved. I guess he just has that special knack. Unlike the other year, this year we didn't hear it. I should have told PP that i had no idea who owned the green truck with all of the triathlon stickers on it, i can't imagine who that belongs too.

I would have laughed it off, but i sat in the cafeteria, eating stale cookies, listening to everyone (teachers and parents) around joke about the green truck. I decided it was time to go back to my monastery annex/classroom.

Open House sucks and if it weren't for the fact that i'd have to come in on Christmas Eve to make up for it, I'd miss it this year, and next year, and the year after that, and again and again, and again.

I Haven't Had Anything Good to Say, and There's An Evil Plot Against Me

Emmy on her first day of school.

Really? it's been almost 10 days since i posted?

(sing song) if you don't have anything good to say, blah blah blah.

And it's taken me 10 days to figure out that, at work, there's not really an Evil Plot to get me. Everyone is just all about themselves.

Duh.

I was going to fuss about the whole extra duties thing, but i realized that there are people in my building who have more duties than me, so i shut up in the nick of time.

Bibi started Kindergarten. I guess her teacher made her cry. The teacher told me. I'm still not sure what happened. Bibi says she likes school.

Emmy likes school. She's in 1st grade. Her biggest concerns are her friends. She wanted to "talk about things" with me last night. I felt privileged to be included in her plans. She usually wants to talk to her dad. So we sat in our lower lot and talked about birthday parties and friends. It was peaceful.

We ate corn from our garden last night. The girls helped shuck the corn and i told them we were looking for "treasures". They're weren't thrilled when they discovered what those "treasures" were. But they were brave and we finished the job together.

Put your hard hats on. It's time to go back to work.

Emmy on her First Day of School- New Construction