Media Center Mom

I forgot to post about my volunteer job at A's school. Every other week for 2 hours (well, really an hour and fifteen minutes, since I have to pick M up) I work in the library. It's so much fun! The first day I had a total high when I left - it was fun, I was busy the whole time, and I felt so competent! Okay, that last bit sounds silly, but really, being a mom doesn't involve much in the way of measurable outcomes. Checking out library books and shelving is so clear and straightforward - it's great! So I'm really glad I volunteered for this gig. Actually, it makes me a little sad that I quit the library science program, although I'm pretty sure it's more fun to be an occasional volunteer than to be an actual employee. And also I never intended to work in a school media center. But still, maybe one day I'll return to it. Or at least volunteer a little more often! ;)

Today wasn't actually as much fun as the first time, but that's because the library was full of stuff for (the last day of) book fair. Therefore, they didn't have very many students, so almost no one was checking out books. On the plus side, though, apparently as a "media center mom" (that phrase cracks me up) I got a coupon for free paperback books totaling less than $9.99. So that worked. I got a Diego early reader and one from a series by Cynthia Rylant. (We love her - the Mr. Putter and Tabby books are so darn sweet! And we love Henry and Mudge, too. I just learned that she has some Newberry/Caldecott award books - I'm going to have to look for them.) So that kind of made up for not having enough to do, and I'm sure the next time I'll be busier. All in all, I'd recommend the library gig, though!

A new one

I had to show off the shirt I made Friday night. I didn't do quite as good a job on the stenciling this time (too much paint is a bad plan!), but it's still pretty cute. :)

Now I need to work on some other projects that I have in my head, but I'm pretty sure I'll be returning to these shirts - they're so fun!

I'm ridiculously pleased with myself

I'm just absurdly excited about this. :) I just finished a shirt I've been pondering in my head for a while, and it turned out quite well. Yay! So, as previously mentioned, I've been experimenting with baseball style shirts. I made one that fit better, using an old shirt as a guide. I haven't remembered to take a picture of it, though. Anyway, so once I had a better idea about fit, I chopped up the shirt pictured in my last post, and put it back together with a much nicer fit. I also did a birdie freezer paper stencil on it. This is the end result:

Isn't it cute? I'm very excited, because it's just what I was picturing in my head. I still need to work on my ribbing on the sleeves (they feel a little funny), but all in all, I'm quite happy.

Oh, and freezer paper stenciling was really easy! I had no idea. I've always been really bad at regular stenciling, so I'm glad to learn that this method works better for me. Well, aside from the really complicated design I picked. ;) Here's a useful tute on the subject: http://madebypetchy.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-freezer-paper-stencilling.html, if anyone's interested.

I love my serger.

I bought a serger quite a while back (last spring, maybe?). It's a Brother 1034D, and it's about the simplest (and cheapest) serger around. I got it off of Amazon, which is really funny to me for some reason. But I just think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread! Like I said, it's pretty simple, which is actually nice, because sergers are pretty terrifying when you first see them. We kept calling it the devil before I learned how to thread it. Luckily, this version has color coded visual aids that make the threading fairly clear, although I still had to read the manual a LOT of times before I could actually do it. But anyway, I am amazed that even though I've had it for about six months, I'm still struck every time I use it how utterly COOL it is. I have no idea at all how it works (not that I really understand my sewing machine, either), but I think the complicated stitches that it does are just amazing. And plus, I can use it to sew knits, which frankly I was never very good at before. And for some reason sewing knits seems so much more professional than quilting cottons do. I feel like I'm making "real clothes". Plus I can finish off the seams of non-knits much more nicely, too. Anyway, that ramble is because I've been using my serger a lot the last couple of days, and I just think it's cool! :)

Here are some newly serged items:
A baseball-style shirt for me:
I like the idea of this shirt, but I think the actual sizing needs some work. Next one I'm going to have to make some alterations.
Shirt for M:
Pajamas (these are for A, but M has a pair, too):

Actually, I've made a couple of other pairs of pajamas, too, and I have more planned. (No pictures, though.) It's hard to find good soft cotton PJs for any reasonable price when you get to be A's size, so I'm glad I can make them myself!

So I've been having lots of fun with my serger. My only complaint is that I want to be able to do a coverstitch, but I hear it's easier just to have another machine for that anyway. I just haven't gotten around to that yet.

M is 3!

Well, I'm a little late with this post, but this wonderful girl turned 3 yesterday. My baby girl isn't such a baby anymore. She's such a fun, funny, bright, beautiful, silly girl. She's a total ham - if it makes someone laugh, she's sure to do it again. (I'm expecting future teacher notes about the class clown....) And she makes me laugh. She loves to play imaginary games - and her imagination is so good that when she doesn't have any toys to do it with, she'll just go ahead and "play fingers" - make her fingers be a family that talk to each other. She likes to dance (although she looks kind of like me, poor child - hopefully she'll grow more graceful as she gets older!) She loves music - she sings all kinds of songs. She's constantly making up new songs about whatever she happens to be doing at the time. ("I'm a cowboy riding in the forest...") She likes to play together, but she's content playing alone, too. She likes to have some alone time, certainly more than her sister does. We've read about a million books in the last three years, but she's always up for more. She can count pretty well - she says the numbers almost to 20, but she can actually count items correctly up to five or so. And I'm amazed at how many numbers and letters she knows - one day this summer, we were driving along, and she said "That sign has 2 and 5" - that would be the speed limit of 25 miles an hour. And she likes to "write" her name - one of the letters looks like it should, anyway. ;)

I love you so much, my girl. Happy Birthday!

Picture of my skirt

I just remembered that I needed to post a picture of the skirt I mentioned in an earlier post. Here it is:


It's kind of wrinkly from being sat in for quite a long time before this picture was taken - it's not really all wonky in the front. And it's pretty comfy, too!

Changing times....

That is a picture of my big girl going off on the bus to kindergarten yesterday, for her very first day. Kindergarten. My kid's in kindergarten. She spends almost 8 hours a day away from home, including bus time. (Seems like such a long day for a five year old, doesn't it?) And now, instead of having a clear picture of what she's doing with her time (or knowing *exactly*, because I'm there), I have to rely on the memory and whim of a five year old to have any idea what's going on! Okay, it won't be quite that bad in a few weeks, once I'm allowed to help out at the school and go eat lunch with her, but still, it's a big change. She was in preschool, of course, but it was a shorter amount of time, and I went in and talked to her teachers every day. I guess I didn't know exactly what she was doing, but this feels much bigger. You're more distanced once they go to real school. Plus I miss my girl!! I'm okay in the mornings, because we're used to that, but by about 2:00 I want her home! (Although as a side note, apparently she takes a lot more energy than her sister, because I've accomplished a lot since she started!)

On the plus side, so far she loves it. She was tremendously nervous about the bus, and the second thing she said to me yesterday afternoon was "I love the bus!!" And she says her teacher is really nice, and of course she's already made friends. And she loves learning things, so she's having a ball. Not to mention, they can earn "dollars" by being good, and they can use the "dollars" to get prizes at the end of the week. At the end of the first day, she already had six bucks! Her teacher must've slowed the rate down today, though, because it sounds like she only got one today. ;)

It's funny - they gave us a copy of her schedule, but I didn't quite understand all of it, I don't think. She said today that they had Spanish class. Who knew? I guess that must be part of "specials", since I had no idea what that meant. I'm looking forward to being more involved in things in a few weeks, so that I have more of an idea of what's happening. But even then, I'll never really have the same clear picture of her activities. It's normal (and honestly, we're happier when she has some school), but it still makes me a little sad. Plus I'm afraid of what she's going to hear about at school. (At camp this summer, she came home and was wondering who Hannah Montana was *and* was told that "Thomas was for babies". We were able to convince her that one was ridiculous, anyway. Of course, this is the camp that thought Open Season - rated PG - was an appropriate movie for 5 year olds. Hmph.)

This was M at our dropoff yesterday:


She tried to follow A onto the bus! Ies had to catch her... To be honest, she's actually been fine during the day, but I think she'll be glad once her school starts. And boy, are they happy to see one another when A gets off the bus! The big smile on A's face and the giant hugs for both of us are just lovely.

So, kindergarten. My babies are growing up!