Sunday, May 31, 2020

End of May

Shekinah demonstrating her CPR skills, she hasn't been in a class lately....


but she knows that manikins are a great size to wear all her doll clothes.


The sad thing is that they are more expensive than American Girl dolls so 
she can't drag them around the house much.


Any stray (clean!) PPE that is around the house, gets used for dress-up.

The other new skill that I've let her practice in the house is roller-blading.


Holiday weekends are for cousins!


One thing we've probably spent too much time doing lately is watching YouTube videos. We enjoy Kara and Nate's  travel vlogging videos. They love food and I often go looking for recipes after they eat something that looks tasty. This time we tried "Schwarma"  It sounds like it should be a German word, but it's middle eastern and is great eaten with our fire bread (probably the closest thing to Naan that I can make). It contains chicken, chick peas, sweet potatoes and many spices...and it was yummy.


Thanks to modern technology, we sat in suspense and watched history being made when "Bob and Doug" blasted off into space.

Other things are going down in history too this week that are hard to talk about.  A man who when he took his job, swore to serve and protect the public and from all appearances has utterly failed.
 All life is sacred.
 It also reminds me that one stupid decision by one person can cause so much havoc in a nation that doesn't need any more hot-headed rhetoric. We all need more Jesus and less self.

People are also passing judgement on a family who made some really hard decisions in regards to their child.  I have learned so much from people who blog and vlog, but it is tricky to know what to share. 




QOTD: When I have kids I will NEVER spit on my finger and wipe something off their face! That's just gross."    There now it's recorded for posterity.

As we all blew on our soup at lunchtime, Shekinah noted, "We could all try that Life-hack I saw, we could just patiently sit and wait till it cools instead of blowing across the table."

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Mud Kitchen, Bag Inserts and Tack Strips--and Thought for the Day

This week I was determined to finish this chair. 
The covered buttons worked out pretty well and I could easily place them at the original spots because they had cut holes in the foam when the chair was manufactured in 1984.
I bought tack strips in an effort to replicate the original work.
I was not really sure it was worth the effort, but I'm 
really glad I got them. They made finishing the back and sides so much easier.


The skirt even fit back in place!

So I started with these two chairs (I'm sure there is a better picture somewhere)
and ended up with the ones above. I Scotch Guarded the fabric afterward and hopefully they will look decent for a few years.
I'm trying to think if there are any good lessons I learned from doing these.
Was it worth the money?  I think so...$113 for the fabric (bought on E-bay) and I still have some left. I started with 12 yards of 60" wide fabric and have almost 2 yards remaining.
I bought the covered button replacements at about $15
Metal tack strips..$27 and I way over-estimated what I needed and used only 1/2 of what I ordered.
Staples...not sure what they cost.
We had a staple gun...about them...I would probably have looked into getting a better one,
BUT the whole idea was to save money.
If I decide to fix up another chair I might look around for a more powerful stapler.

So I spent a little less than $75 a chair and about 2-1/2 weeks of "me-time" .
Yup, I think it was worth it.

So school is over...all except the report cards.
Someone needs to write a book about the "Longest Summer EVER!"
I really need to figure a way to keep my child/ren occupied and off the screens.
One might have a job but this one...
She is busy reading the Mandie series, thanks to our neighbor who loaned them to her.
We are doing a math curriculum and learning to type (much to her dismay)
Actually most days she does enjoy it.
But what about the hours in between? There are times when independent play would be a good idea.

I was scrolling through Pinterest the other day and came across a "mud kitchen"
It might be a hit!

I'm sure this munchkin would love to help in a mud kitchen. 
I love when my grands ask to call "ga-ga" and reach for me when I show up.
I'm told she does this to her other grandma too, but it makes me feel important.
I finally made an insert for my leather bag.
I've been toting this one for more than a year and I love it BUT
it could use another pocket inside and I saw removable bag inserts and thought I'd try it out.
I made it of mostly canvas so I don't add extra weight.
I skipped a closure for now...see how it works.
My bag did go for a tumble the other day in the van and nothing fell out.


Thought for the day: About social distancing...I've sat through a few lectures on how trauma affects children. Most experts agree that safe touch is especially healing for a child of trauma. Most of those same experts say that our current (back then  BC=Before Covid) hands-off approach to our children in schools etc --while understandable was  not a good way to work with hurt children.
Now we have another layer of  distancing for our hurting population (this isn't just kids BTW, it includes adults too).  Masks and gloves are not the way to communicate trust and calm fear. When I meet a patient while on ambulance duty, I often lay a hand on their shoulder, but now I find myself second-guessing that. I'm not really afraid of catching something, but I have to clean every surface I touch after I touch my patient.  What a pain!  But people still need safe-touch, they need a smile--smiling eyes.  I'm not totally against the masks, because I know that you can tell much more about a person by looking at only their eyes. Today with masks you can tell a lot more about what's going on inside a person because you look at their eyes than when you are distracted by a big...but fake...smile.

So smile--with your eyes too.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Happy Mother's Day



After a few years without a dishwasher..
Happy Birthday/Mother's Day to me!

This past week we saw the last day of school
and that apparently led to the need for Shekinah
to play school. If you are a teacher please do not 
feel insulted by her choice of outfit.


I also decided to reupholster a second chair.
It's sort of addictive.

QOTD: "Look mom, I can trim my fingernails!" Hmm she stopped biting them with no help from me.







Sunday, May 3, 2020

More Quarantine Birthdays and ...


So I had my birthday "Plan B" all figured out. We'd order Mexican food from a
local restaurant. I even checked if they were open on a Monday.
BUT
I didn't fact-check the info. Turned out they were not open
on a Monday.
BTW Facebook had the correct info this time--Social media for the win.
Meanwhile a friend/customer messaged me and said she could pick up her order.
She and I had worked on the design for a few weeks/months and I finally think we came up 
with a practical design that she liked...well maybe I'll have to add short handles yet.
We'll see
She wanted a flap "cause who has time to close zippers"
She wanted a bag that converted to a backpack.
And an inside pocket 




I added the rings to the sides so that she can shorten up the handle a bit more.

The great thing about leather is that unlike fabric, you don't worry about frayed edges
and can just add a piece to the design later if you want.
BUT
the bad thing about leather is that after you make the stitching holes, you have to be very
creative if you want to remove an element and cover up those holes.

I decided I needed a creative way to deliver the leather bag.
I repurposed a rice bag. I was sort of pleased with myself
Since it was my birthday I had decided I would do things that I was interested in doing.
That was one of  the things I enjoyed about the day.

The next thing I enjoyed about the day was that my friend/customer found out my birthday
was this day and she showed up with whoopie pies.
I sat down and enjoyed one and read a book at 10 in the morning --another thing I don't normally allow myself to do.

I also used my daughter's French press to try a hack that Shekinah told me about. I used it to froth my warm milk for my coffee.  It worked!
(Shekinah loves to watch kitchen hack videos and occasionally remembers them at just the right time)


Since supper plans didn't work out, we continued to "Plan C" which involved my husband making a delicious supper complete with a chocolate cake.

Really, things worked out for the best, I didn't cook supper for two nights in a row because we did the Mexican food the following night.



The other cool thing about my birthday is that I share it with my grandson (and at least 5 other people that are close acquaintances)  But is is fun to share it with this little guy.
I'm exactly 50 years older than he.

What did he get Shekinah?

I got this mop and bucket and Hope bought me a frying pan that I've been wanting.

This week I hope to finish up this bag.
It's available $125 
Message me for a description.

Check out my Instagram page HFS Leather for more info on these.




Shekinah used another hack to carry her eggs into the house.
The original hack had you use a backwardly (is that a word?) worn  hoodie
to hold popcorn.

View during church this morning...we are going to have to brush up our
listening skills when normal church resumes.

A few crab apple blossoms that I stole from a tree.