Paper, Plastic, or…. Fabric?

I’ve had it in my head for a few weeks that I bring home waaaay too many plastic bags from stores, and it just dawned on me that since we can’t recycle them with our local service, and I don’t go to walmart enough to dump them off there, I could easily make an alternative to these little buggers.

I took a container store bag (these bags seemed to be largest of all the plastic shopping bags I had in the house) and slit it open on one side to make a template for a pattern.  I traced in seam allowances on my pattern and began my adventure.  Most of the patterns I’ve seen made from bags always used two side seams.  Well….  The size of the container store bag template worked out better to be used as a single piece, as it fit perfectly on my 45″ wide fabric.  Of course, it made figuring out the handle construction a bit of a challenge (most sights I found had you finishing the handles before the sides for a reason).  But there is nothing like a challenge at 4 in the morning to get the senses tingling (the time when most a-ha moments hit for me and jolt me out of bed).

Here is the finished result:

Finally found a way to use sock monkey fabric in public that won’t humiliate the Glitter Glue Princess too much:

If I feel inspired later over the weekend, I’ll put up a tutorial on how I did it…

Tonight is the Christmas Party at Meijer Gardens – fun, fun, fun!

Thankful for

I know this is a bit late for Thanksgiving, but hey, better late than never.

Thankful for:

My Loving, Giving, Devoted Groom, who accepts me for who I am, complete with my idiosyncracies:

My Wonderful, Brilliant, Quizzical Daughter, whose profundity amazes me every day:

George Rickey and Kinetic Motion

Glitter Glue Princess and I are in awe of the George Rickey exhibit at Meijer Gardens, so much so that the security people were afraid to leave us alone. We weren’t told we were too close, but I could see that they thought so when we were leaning over (and not touching!) the sculptures, trying to figure out how they were assembled. It does make for a great lesson in geometry and balance that would fascinate anyone over the age of 4.

They have a HUGE exhibit, with pieces inside and outside on loan from multiple sources. Of course, no photography of the inside ones. I did manage to get some shots of the external sculptures. Mind you they are not with any nice soundtrack like the polished things on youtube about George Rickey, but they do give you a better example of the movement involved with the sculpture that enamoured us… It is just hypnotic…

I apologize for Glitter Glue Princess’s having to be in all the shots…. It does make for fun video though….

Fore more information:

George Rickey on Wikipedia

George Rickey on Artcyclopedia

Meijer Gardens

Birthday Pictures at the Garden

The Glitter Glue Princess thinks posing is cheesy but fun, as attested in her posing for her halloween costume, but the results are sooo worth it.

A Birthday Retrospective

Every year, we take pics of the Glitter Glue Princess next to the frog at Meijer Gardens. Here is a series in honor of her birthday tomorrow…  Enjoy…

Back from Chicago and tuckered out…

First a kitty photo montage of Glitter Glue Princess with assorted kittehs at R&M’s house – gotta love the kittehs….

With Petey:

With Finnster:

And the cast of others who were perpetually hiding from her or the dogs who were staying the weekend – this was under the bed – Bucky, Katie, Finnster and Petey:

Now that the requisite kitty shots are done, on to our trip.

We drove to Chicago on Friday. I was allowed a visit to Vogue fabrics following a meal at Cheesecake Factory (yes, I bribed her, so sue me!).

After a night filled with visits from all the kittehs living at R & M’s home, we drove downtown. When we arrived at American Girl Place (we were 15 minutes early, having parked at Bloomingdales and me assuming I could get a shot of her in front of the windows), the line was already beginning to creep down the block. When we were let in, it was well around the corner.

I need to preface this that GGPrincess had donated 2 bags of toys and and a box of books to Goodwill (S and I call it “give a little to get a little, give a lot to get a lot). By the time we were in Chicago, she was up to $285 for this shopping spree.

First place we went, the hair salon. We were 12th in line, but already had a half hour wait. GGPrincess was adamant that we not go too far, as she wasn’t prepared to leave her Emma in the hands of strangers. So we mill about and she finds a good chunk of stuff to purchase… Here is Emma with her hair being done up in a ponytail veil:

Glitter Glue Princess had me take shots of all the Molly/Emily displays so that she could see them later. These were taken sans flash due to the display case – forgive the fuzziness:

She was really torn and wanted to get this, but opted for a dress instead (hint, hint, hint to grandmas!):

She basically got all her purchasing done in the morning, and we took everything back to the car before our luncheon. Her haul included a new Nicki doll (the girl of the year), matchy outfits for her, her doll and her coconut puppy, and 4 dresses.

A comment from me – the whole shopping experience reminded me of the day after christmas sales – women battling for merchandise, but this time it was women and girls…  I was glad we went early to avoid alot of the crush of people, but it still had a manic air to the place at times, the way a place gets when all the kids need a nap and all the parents are pushing to keep going.  This whole thing was disconcerting to me – what kind of impression are we making on the girls – maybe we wouldn’t have seen it if we hadn’t gone on a weekend, but still…   GGPrincess recognized it too.  She said it reminded her of Disneyworld in the afternoons.

Following the haul to the car, switching the Emily doll for the new Nicki doll (she only has enough hands for two dolls, of course! 🙂 ), we went to a lovely birthday lunch at the cafe.  GGPrincess had pizza (for the 2nd time in 2 days), and I had the holiday quiche.  We were seated at the only table next to the Christmas tree, which was sooo nice – the other 2-seaters were at the columns near the windows, but you couldn’t see anything.

This happy shot here sums up the lunch nicely.

They brought her dessert and sang her happy birthday – just one waiter.  The girl at the table next to her had a HUGE cake and a whole bunch of waiters come over and sing before her dessert came – her eyes got real wide and asked me if she was getting that too.  I didn’t know – I didn’t request it so I didn’t think so.  She got a wave of relief to see only one waiter, but still kept asking her to stop.  🙂

Following the lunch, we went to the play.  It was good, but I cry too much – that would be GGPrincess’s review.

All in all a very good weekend for her.

I really, really like my daughter’s teacher….Really!

Glitter Glue Princess’s Parent Teacher Conference was last night. It was one of the most productive ones I have ever attended.

Let me start by saying that at the beginning of school, GGP came home and told us nightly that her teacher was the best teacher she ever had. She was emphatic about it. Typically she likes to play school with a giant chalkboard while I sew and she really mirrors her teacher’s behaviors at home while playing. I saw a BIG difference in the “play teacher” style that was going down with the beginning of this school year – much more question asking and motivating than before…

Back to yesterday – the first thing out of her teachers mouth is how refreshing GGP is to have in class, “and she doesn’t say that to just anybody!”. I personally saw reading tests that concerned me, and brought it up. She reassured us that having her discuss the book after reading was probably sufficient as the scores went up significantly and she could tell where we had done it by the scores. I expressed concern on her spelling and asked for better ways to help with retention, and she volunteered to find us some new techniques. She basically said we are doing everything right and by the end of the year, it will all fall into place. Yay! Since S and I are both scientists, I offered us up to help with science class if she needed it – they’ve been learning about owl pellets in class, and I thought maybe basic kitchen chemistry might be fun. She was more than receptive to this idea. It is just so refreshing to have a positive experience like this.

It is just so refreshing to find a teacher whose teaching style clicks with a kids learning style.

Today is a big day at school – they are going to watch an American Indian cultural festival at a nearby museum. Her teacher made sure that they understood it isn’t acceptable to laugh at anything, as the culture is different than their own and they need to respect that culture. She told them that the chief may get very angry if they laugh at anything – I hope she got the point across. Wishing I could be there instead of working 😦

Going to Chicago.

Glitter Glue Princess is getting a trip to American Girl Place in Chicago for her birthday. We are going this weekend. S told her that she needed to get rid of some of her toys in order to get more. So far she has gotten rid of two trash bags full of toys, a box of books and a stepstool. I gave her an estimated value of $200. Admittedly most of the stuff came from the recesses under her bed, but at least she is making an effort, right? Keep in mind that this will only buy like 5 outfits, or a doll and two outfits – they will occupy MUCH less space. Everyone wins. She has a lunch reservation as well as tickets to the show, so it should be a fun filled day for her.

Of course she has conceded that I will be allowed to visit Ikea, Vogue Fabrics and the Container Store – yay! This is provided I allow her to eat at Cheesecake Factory – boo! There goes my waistline, and just in time for Thanksgiving.

We are going to R & M’s house – and I get to see Petey the cat again! Last time I stayed at their house, Petey decided that he wanted to play ball at 2 in the morning, so he kept dropping pompoms on my face while I slept – should be a fun time!

Care to Adopt a Loaf of Bread? er..Cat?

This came from our visit to PA last weekend – the cafe we ate at had a “Bread Adoption Center”. You too could take home a bread loaf for $5. I felt the center was most appropriate when I snapped these photos:

About 5 minutes after Chaos vacated the bag, Dottie got in on the act:

I think I need to complain to Panera about the high level of fur present on their bread today. 🙂

And if these weren’t silly enough, I think this pic explains why we call Chaos the “fat-boy” or the adopted title of “cinderblock of luv”:

Now that this week is over…

This has been one of those crazy weeks that I am glad only happen on a rare occasion. This is really the first chance I’ve had to update.

Saturday we flew to PA to go to the hillbilly pirate ball… Uneventful, except I really liked the “watch for falling rock” signs as we drove…. I wasn’t quick enough with my camera, though they should have put a few more of those signs, as the rocks looked more precarious in other places…

We ate in full gear at a little cafe called “Through the Looking Glass Cafe” – with an Alice in Wonderland theme… They had the world’s smallest public bathroom, and I attempted to put on my corset in there – not a *wise* thing to attempt.

On to the party.

The theatre was just cool. Fully Adorned. Kris and Kim manned the sound and video (they were showing old treasure island, lil abner and others on a back screen). Someone made a sock monkey version of the band that I just had to have a picture of:

I have a secret thing for sock monkeys – I just love the little guys. Not just these, but sock monkeys in general…

Shots of the band:

Some people had the most wonderfully cool ideas for costumes for this show. One family came as “the band”

One fellow came as the coffee guy, but I didn’t see a shot in the pictures S took.

It was great fun, and we will be doing it again next year. I’ve already decided what I will be. I’m just going to need a mountain of long glow sticks to do it…. He he he…

Glitter Glue Princess’s halloween party was another event of this week. Here are a few pictures of kidlets from her class…

Yes, her teacher is an ice cream cone…

This fella came as a grumpy old man. He even powdered his hair to be gray, but as soon as he stepped out in the wind, all the powder blew out of his hair. Regardless, it was still cute – he played it well as evidenced in the pic…

Now that these events are all behind us, I had a chance to sew a new fleece jacket – mine was only a year old, but I question the quality of the fabric as the sleeves look like ratty cats now. More on that, and other sewing things, later.