From the Sick House

We've all been under-the-weather for over a week now. Here's the Doctors' Reports:

• Jack - Double Ear Infections on Antibiotics for 6 days now. Says he "feels not good" if you ask him, but I think that's mostly for the attention. ;)
  
• Frank - Spider Bite at Dorsum of Nose... needs more aggressive treatment to keep infection away from donor bone (also at the bridge of his nose). Begin taking antibiotic for 14 days. Frank chose PILLS (over liquid). Here's hoping he does well with learning to swallow them (if not, we can crush and put in applesauce). If nose is not improving in 3 days, we'll need a CAT Scan to check the bone. If it's not cleared in 2 weeks, we'll see Dr and probably have imaging done.
• Suzy - Sinus Infection. Trouble speaking (yesterday I spent most of the day Mute, using Baby Signs, Wild Gestures, and Floor Stomping to communicate with the boys). Begin antibiotic for 5 days.
• Tom - Throwing up whole way home (2 hour drive) yesterday. Home sick from work today. Sipping Coke, Peppermint Tea with Honey and Homemade Chicken Soup (mostly broth).
• Internet - Main line is down. Local company has a specialist in working on it. They don't know when we'll have reliable service again! :P

So. How are you feeling?

Recipe - Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I was reading a blog requesting muffin recipes. So far I've only tried one, but we are LOVING IT! Here is my HIGH ALTITUDE Adaptation of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins with High Altitude Adjustments
Oct 2008

Regular Ingredients	High Altitude Adjustments
4 eggs	4 eggs
2 cups white sugar	2 cups LESS 2 T sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin	15 oz can pumpkin
	2 T water
1-½ cups vegetable oil	1-3/8 cup oil
3 cups all-purpose flour	3 cups PLUS 2 T flour
2 teaspoons baking soda	2 t baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder	1-¾ t baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*	1 t pumpkin pie spice*
1 teaspoon salt	1 t salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips	1-2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (410 degrees F). Lightly grease two 12 cup muffin pans, or line with paper baking cups.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.

3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, and mix in the sugar, pumpkin and oil.

4. Blend flour mixture into the egg and pumpkin mixture.

5. Fold in the chocolate chips (I use about 1 to 1½ cups). Transfer to the muffin pans.

6. Bake in the preheated oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove muffins from pans, and cool on a wire rack.

* To make your own pumpkin pie spice equivalent to the 1 tsp the recipe asks for add: 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, and a pinch ground cloves.

If you try this, please let me know what you think.

Crusing through the Holidays with FLYLady

If you haven't heard about FLYLady from me before, prepare yourself!

FLY stands for "Finally Loving Yourself". FLYLady teaches you about organizing. Organizing what? Your home, your life, your family, your mind and even your body! She does this in a fun and encouraging way.

One of my favorite things about FLYLady is her "Cruising Through the Holidays" plan. Basically, she starts you in October with preparing for your Holiday Celebrations. The goal is to be ready for whatever you celebrate by December 1st, so, you can pretend you are "going on a cruise" December 1st and arriving home the night before your special holiday... and everything is ready and in place.

I discovered FLYLady in 2003. I have yet to get *everything* ready by December 1st, but, I've certainly been getting more done each year and in a calmer way.

The Cruise Program started this week. I invite you all to join me in preparing to Cruise Through the Holidays. Go check out her website, and maybe even sign up for the encouraging, helpful emails. I'll see you on board! :D

Be Careful What You Ask For... Keith!

What you are about to see DEFINITELY falls under the "Be careful what you ask for!" Mantra.

Our Incredible Friend, Keith, was recently released from the Hospital in Massachusetts. He went in for a "simple" back surgery in July and FINALLY, last week, (this is October folks - JUST THREE MONTHS after going in for "about a week") was able to go home.

I blame what you are about to see on the fact that Keith is still in a frequent, drug-induced-delirium. {He's probably bored too.}

Keith mentioned it.

Tom created it.

I'm just the messenger here, folks!

Here, by request, is "Jack with a Goatee!"


I don't know. I just don't SEE any of Tom in Jack.

Do you?


SERIOUSLY!!!

Jack IS His Father's Son.

There has never been any doubt about that. This just helps to confirm what we've all known (and at times feared). Tom has replicated. He always says "a little chunk of him broke off and is starting to grow."

Be afraid. Be very afraid.


"Luke... I am you're..." Oh! Never mind!

"Some things are just better left to nature to occur on their own."

I think facial hair on a three year old falls into this category.


PS: The Three-Year-Old Facial Hair was Photoshopped in, not drawn on the person himself. :D

Costume Update - Indiana Jones Coat

So. Since I constantly hear Jack wandering around "singing" the Indiana Jones Theme Song, I decided to offer up to him the option of being Indy for Halloween. Of course, he jumped on it!

He already has an Indy-Like hat, plus a whip (Tom made out of a piece of rope to stop Jack from hitting things with his leather belt). Pants aren't a problem. I still need to find a plain button-up shirt. The "biggie" was the coat. I decided to find a leather coat at a thrift store and then to make a satchel out of some canvas/denim-type fabric. Here's the main reference picture I'm using for the project...


Here's the leather coat I found at a Goodwill in California.


I paid just $5 for the coat! As you can see... it's big enough to fit me (and I did think about keeping it for me, because it's a nice coat!) Instead, I found Jack's "Lumberjack" Fleece Coat.


Which is a little big for him (that's okay though, if I'm going to the work of making him a leather coat, it would be nice if it fit more than a year!)

Here's a reference of the Lumberjack coat that I made the pattern off of, and the Leather coat to be cut up. As you can see, it looks like there will be plenty of material!


Before cutting anything out, I removed the front placket, zipper, collar, cuffs, and waistband.

This should give you an idea of how the pattern pieces are cut out of the coat.


Then. I started cutting.

Foolish me, today, I started sewing but didn't take any pictures of the pieces pre-assembly!

Yesterday, I watched my friend's kids for something like 7 or 8 hours. Today, she took my boys for 5 so I could sew. She's also planning to watch them again tomorrow morning. Here's what I accomplished so far today...


Shoulder seams, collar, zipper, armhole seams, fake pocket flaps.

Indy's coat has patch pockets with flaps. The coat I'm using had side-seam entry to it's pockets. I cut the front pieces so that I could use the existing pockets. I had everything else done today and Tom came in. I ask his opinion on adding the fake pocket flaps. As you can see...


...we decided I should put them on.


The pocket flaps "only" took about 1 1/2 hours to design, sew, and attach (my one broken needle (so far) happened while attaching the first pocket flap).

I was going to modify the collar to a smaller, size, but decided to use the original, and just enlarge the neck-line. I've never seen it before, but the collar had an extra "facing?" piece on it... I'll have to get a better picture.

In any case, it made modifying the original collar shape a very challenging prospect, so, I just used it as it was. Which means it has a nicer patina and character and all the original stitching on the points... which I like.

Here's a snapshot of the inside of the coat. I've labeled some of the parts, to make it easier to see what's what.

I found several things about the original interesting, and I'm trying to recreate them. One thing was that they snipped the armhole seams to ease the leather before topstitching. I did that too, but whenever a seam intersected, I just let that area lay straight, instead of folding it back and creating a lot of bulk.

Tomorrow, I'll sew the side seams, finish the lining, attach the lining, waistband, turn it right-side-out, hand sew lining, topstitch zipper facing down.

I'm very pleased with how all of this is going! So much so, I think I'll ask Tom to make dinner and I'll head back up to My Studio! :D

Knitting - Sassy Stripes Sock for Suzy

I JUST finished the FIRST sock of my first pair of knitted socks!

{Yeah Me!}

I'm making them for myself. I started this last November. Yes. It's slow going. But. Now that I've finished this, and done much more knitting in the process, and have some wonderful, delicious new yarns (from my trip to California) I'm far more motivated to finish the second sock and get working on other projects.

I'm delighted with what I've accomplished so far...


This is a little taller than my "usual" socks... but actually, I should say than my "Arizona" socks, because last winter I discovered that I needed taller "boot" socks for my riding and snow boots. So, I made this sock the same height as the boot socks I started wearing for Wyoming.

This uses Moda Dea Sassy Stripes Yarn, colors 6946 Crush (red/pink variegated) and 6930 Stormy (gray/white toe). It uses the Knitted Socks pattern LM0131 by Grace Alexander, with a few modifications of my own (at the cuff and the heel).

When I started this sock, I'd only "successfully" worked one scarf... and two other "flop" projects. This knitting thing for me has been self-taught, primarily using KnittingHelp.com and occasionally stopping in the local knitting shop when I have a question I can't figure out on my own.

If I can do this, so can you!

Although, I've discovered (from talking with other knitters) that it is best to learn to Crochet (something else I taught myself (before the web, so from a book)) first, and then pick up knitting second. Something about the flow of them, if you learn knitting first, crocheting is near impossible to do.

Any yarn-crafters out there want to second this?

Which skill did you learn first?

How did you learn to do it?

A Few Free Things I've Found

BofA Giving Away Free Doses of Culture in 2008
With a Bank of America Card, you can access Museums free on the first Weekend of every month in 2008.

Staples helps you Help Your Pocketbook AND The Environment!
Staples offers a $3 store credit for each printer cartridge you turn in for recycling.

You simply take in the cartridges along with a Staples Reward Card (like a membership card at a grocery store... there is no charge, you just fill out a form). Periodically (once per quarter, I think) you will receive a Rebate Check (Coupon) good at Staples. You may only turn in three cartridges per day per day per card.

Even if you only turn in one cartridge a month, you'll wind up with $9 back each quarter or $36 per year... which is nothing to sneeze at!