Tee Shirt Scarves?

It all happened because of being introduced to Pinterest, which is a website where people can start there own "pin boards" of pictures. The pictures come from the internet, anywhere and everywhere. If you see something on the internet that you like or find interesting or just plain funny; or maybe you found your dream kitchen or the next wardrobe item you plan to buy, you can click on the image and then your "pin" button, and the image with the website will show up on your pin board of choice. It's actually been truly helpful for me, in discovering what my likes and dislikes are. I've been making choices in my mind of what I really would want to have in my home or my wardrobe or in my tummy.

So, this morning I found myself getting carried away looking at other people's boards and what they've pinned. I ended up repinning this Tee shirt scarf to my board, which led me to checking out the website where it came from, which led me to watching a video clip of someone making them, which led to me going to my drawers and pulling out "some" (about 8) tee shirts I have kept, but never wear anymore. 

This is what I did:

I had to decide which style of scarf I was going to try first and which color I'd use for it.

I liked the "long strings" style so I went to work on cutting strips.

HINT: MAKE SURE YOUR SCISSORS ARE SHARP OR YOU MAY GIVE UP ON THE WHOLE PROJECT THE WAY I ALMOST DID!!!

After cutting the strips, you just pick them up and stretch them, which makes all the edges curl. It really doesn't matter how straight you cut, for the most part, because you won't even notice.

I decided to also use the cute embroidered top strap from the shirt. I wasn't sure how I would use it, but figured it would come to me.

I took the seams of each strip and kind of lined them up and wrapped a loose strip around and around, tying it off at the ends and tucking the knot underneath. I did this just cause I thought it looked cool. Its not necessary to do. Then I took the embroidered piece and matched it up to the seams on the opposite side of the strips so that it would hang the way I wanted it to. Then I used another loose piece to go around and around there And looky what we have... Its more of a necklace than a scarf, but I kind of like it.

Next I took a melon colored tee and cut off the top just under the sleeves, and cut one inch thick strips all along the bottom. I thought they were too short, but they actually weren't when it was all said and done. I cut off more of the top because with all that excess fabric it wasn't really laying right.

I also decided to bind one spot one the loop, just to give it a little "sumpin sumpin". This one didn't really turn out the way I saw in the picture, but its ok. (Forgive the lovely match of a green shirt under the melon colored scarf. haha)

Two down, twelve to go!

Make that ONE TO GO, because my fabulous tools were not helping so wonderfully in the cutting process.

This one required a circular object like a paper plate because I would be cutting out as many circles as possible. I opened up the tee shirt by first cutting up one seam and sleeve to lay the material out flat.

I cut out about 5 or 6 circles.
Hint: fold the material over double and cut semi circles for faster action, but be sure that your SCISSORS ARE SHARP!!!!

Once you have your circles, cut them into spirals. I cut my strips about 1 1/2" - 2"wide. Then hold one end of the spiral and run your other hand straight down the material to stretch it out a little.

Throw all the strips around your neck and this is what you get.

Once again, I used a loose piece to go around and around, binding all the pieces together. I liked making the pieces all different lengths before binding them. I may actually like this red one best.

Here are all three.

I forgot to model the blue one. Its hippy free lovin!

And the real question is: Will I ever wear any of them? Probably not, so if you want me to send one to you leave a comment explaining the reason why I should. Make it convincing!! Otherwise, try it yourself with your own tee shirts, or use your spouse's shirts. There are other styles to try, even just a straight circle scarf. Very very easy... as long as your scissors are... you know.

Its the 21st Day

Oh NOOooo! You do not get to see my swimsuit pictures! There isn't much of a difference from the day 1 photos anyway. I've looked long and hard, comparing and matching side by side and... well, there is possibly a slight difference in my waistline, but I can't see much else. I measured today and... well I don't know what I was doing when I measured the first time, but in some cases, today I measured bigger than 3 weeks ago... like my wrist? haha and my calf?? Yaaah. My chest???? HHAHAHAhahah I don't think so.

Whatever the case may be, I feel better, and I believe my metabolism has been speeding up. I'm eating so much better; healthier. I have an awareness and an intention of becoming healthier, which makes a big difference in my sense of well-being. Its like... I'm demonstrating to myself that I am worth the effort! Even if that means eating the multivitamin I dropped on the floor (for the 3rd day in a row). I haven't given up coffee completely and I don't have to, but I'm down to one or two cups a day... no sugar or half n half. And I've given up wine completely. No big loss there--but hopefully I will experience an obvious loss soon from these sacrifices, if you know what I'm sayin'.

So, today there will be no pics of me, but I will show you a few pictures of some of my girls in their get ups this morning. It was "mix match" day for spirit week.

Do you see how many articles of clothing each one is wearing. Jennah has on about 10 skirts. Creative! Hah. I didn't really get pics of Anika and Jolene, but they are also dressed in fancy attire. I will tell you right now... at the end of this day these articles of clothing had better be returned from whence they came. I can't take much more of the clutter and senseless mess. I bagged up all of those dress-up clothes in the basement some time ago, and rather than the bags heading off to the drop box, they ended up at a youth group night being used for a game, and then back into the house. Ayi. OK. That may not be completely accurate. Now that I'm looking at it, I believe many of the pieces of clothing the girls are wearing today aren't from the dress up clothes I bagged. They are from the summer bins. They must have raided the attic last night.

Oh Dear Lord!

Embarrassing Moment

I took the girls up to the Commons, which is a small shopping area in our location. We all needed to get some birthday presents for Caleigh, who turns 9 years old TOMORROW!!! Holy Cow.

Anika was already there with her friend and wanted to be picked up to go home just about the same time we were heading up there. Too bad for them. We needed to get our shopping in, but we did meet up with them, and I handed over $10 so they could get something to drink, etc. (They were SOOOO thirsty and out of money).

We left them in the pizza parlor where they were sitting, and walked a few stores down, to Victoria's Secret (ssshhhhhh). The girls wanted to take a peek just for a minute. (Did I mention that I have 4 teenage girls in the house?) This little diversion was not necessarily going to help anyone get birthday shopping out of the way, but I figured I would quickly take a browse around before heading down to the Children's Place.

Oh Joy! A BIG sale on bras. $12.99!!! We all started digging into the multitude of sale items looking for sizes. Meanwhile, I sent a text to Anika who was still in the pizza place. The text said, "Do you need a bra?"

I continued looking through the bins, waiting for a text back. Didn't hear back. Didn't hear back. So I double checked to make sure I sent the text, and guess what... I sent that text to the wrong person! I must have had fat finger syndrome and hit the wrong name without realizing it. I ended up sending the text to the previous person I had messaged that day, which was a text about dropping off HIS paycheck. OOPSIE! He's the guy who does part time work for the same association in which I work. HOW EMBARRASSING! LOL. I'd love to know what he thought when he got the text from me, "Do you need a bra?" ROFL. I think he was probably going to ignore the whole thing, but, of course I, in a slight state of panic, felt the need to apologize and explain to him how I sent it in error, and that I thought I was texting my daughter. But the phone corrected the word "texting" so it said "testing". I noticed that right away, and I tried to re-explain, as if he would misinterpret the whole thing, and the blasted phone corrected me again. "testing my daughter" just to help reconfirm any weird concept I might be putting across.

wagivwebjvkndfsjkzxfnjwb!!

So I finally wrote. N/M (never mind). He answered, "OK" and that was that.

What a dummy, I am.

Anyway, we walked outta there with with about 7 bras for $107. Sorry Caleigh. I guess we used up all the money that was meant to buy your presents. :-(

Just kidding. I found some really cute stuff over at The Children's Place and TJ Maxx that she will love... and very inexpensively, I might add!

I Knew What I Was Getting Into...

but not really. Not really, at all.

This is VBS week where 3 of my daughters volunteer and the youngest one attends. It's a week-long treat of great evenings for the kids. They have to be there between 5:30-6:00 and they are finished around 8:30. So I have to remember to put some food together early for them or they are starving by the time they get home.

So, Monday was fine. I had my car running again, so that was good. I ran my errands and planned out the day with the driving and all.

Tuesday was a little more hectic. Elizabeth had pottery class from 9-1 , Tue-Thu. I had to get some of my own work done and I was helping a couple of kids land a temporary job. Jennah's writing workshop began, also. Little did I know, I was going to be driving her back and forth from the Southampton college. The workshop is from 10-3, Tuesday-Friday. Yesterday worked out fine. Once I picked her up, I was going to drop her and a friend off to deliver ads to the stores in the village (i.e. temporary job) but the big downpour came right about 3:00. And a little later I was making them dinner and scrambling to get them to VBS on time.

Today it got worse. I ended up offering another girl a ride to the writing workshop so that she could attend. (No one else wants to drive). After not being able to locate the car keys that Luke had last!!!! I found a second set and I ended up driving up and down the wrong street looking for her house and I didn't have her phone number. So... eventually we thought of someone who knew the street and house number. Needless to say, they were all 20 minutes late for their class on the second day and it was pouring rain with huge puddles and ridiculous drivers on the road. AND I was starving. Grumpy. Resentful about my life.

Now, as I sit here in all my continuous grumpiness, I consider the fact that I'll be picking them up at 3, taking them to town to hand out ads, bringing one of them to karate class, dropping off the other one, getting home hopefully in time to make dinner before the VBS departure and youth group, which is also tonight. I plan to come home for a few precious moments to breathe before having to go back and pick them up from VBS. I'm already dreading the entire scene.

Tomorrow I will do it all over again. I HATE THIS WEEK! Someone should say a prayer. My attitude sucks and I don't seem to know how to get out of it. Some of this if probably related to hormones. HORMONES SUCK TOO!

I'd Blog More if it Weren't for the Nails

I hate wearing them. They'll be worn just until Saturday's final show and then I can find relief once more. I took them off for a few days (Monday and Tuesday) and realized that I shouldn't have used quite so much glue. OUCH!!! I went much lighter on the glue this time, as well as trimmed them down quite a bit more. At least they aren't quite as bothersome.

The other note I've taken is how, on a daily basis, I really don't need anything drawing attention to my terribly old-looking hands. The one thing I've never dreamed of being was a hand model. It's ok. Nothing I've ever cried about.

FOUR MORE SHOWS TO GO!!

You Are NOT Going to Believe This...

I took the big plunge!

I got my hair colored!!! YAH. Shocker, I know. I thought I had kind of vowed to myself that I wouldn't ever go there. I told myself, "It's too much maintenance. It's too expensive. I don't mind having the gray." And all that is very true.

Well, I got caught in a moment of spontaneity, because I had finally made an actual appointment to get my hair cut. It's been 8 months since my last one--literally! I mean really... who goes that long without even a trim? Definitely not someone who cares all that much. But all this rehearsing and preparing for the performances has made me more conscious of my appearance. And the few times I've donned make-up (for pictures and whatnot) I've been a little taken back by all the compliments--to the extent that it's made me think I must really look like a hag without it. HAHAHA!

Anyway, I gave Jessica fair warning (Jessica plays Reno in the show so I see her 3 times a week, and she also works in Jayne's Cuts where I used to go for my yearly hairdo). I told her weeks in advance that I was planning to come in, and I wanted her to cut my hair. I picked her because I figured she had already sized me up during rehearsals for a "look" that would suit me well. When I got there yesterday, I found that I had judged correctly. She simply suggested that we do a little coloring the next time I came in... I said, "Well, if it took me 8 months to get here this time, chances are, it won't be easy to get me back again. It's today or never... I'm game!"

OMG. We went for it!

Things turned out great! I strutted my stuff into rehearsal last night, with a new hairdo and a little make-up--and wowza! Hahaha. You'd think I was some hot chick walking across stage in a bikini or something. HAHAH. The cast is great. So supportive. They make me laugh. I told Terry that his response to my new look was way out done by my theater peeps. They're great actors--LOL! (It's not that remarkably different, btw. It's just a nice toning up of the rats nest). Terry's excuse was that I barely strutted my stuff for him before running out the door for practice... which is true... but, "Yea yea. You're gonna have to make it up to me!"

Sorry, there's no image available. I should have taken a picture yesterday--which will be the only day it will ever look nicely styled. DANG!

A Commercial

It may be inappropriate... but it's MY BLOG! hahahah

WATCH IT!!

FUN IDEA!

hahahaha

Babies, Little Girls and Big Girls

Those little babies are so sweet! I haven't been around many peanuts over the past several years. And before that, the peanuts were my own, so as much as they were incredibly sweet, they required every ounce of energy I had to take care. Haha. They aren't peanuts anymore--but definitely still sweet!

Today, at church, I ended up in the "baby room" chatting with a friend I hadn't seen for 15 years and another friend with whom I've just recently reconnected. They both are young moms with infants--beautiful, happy, precious little girls. I had forgotten what it was like to be a young mom with infant in tow. TOTALLY FORGOTTEN!!!

We had such a great time chatting that we talked right through the announcements and the whole sermon... and the prayer time at the end (oops). It was nice. We exchanged phone numbers and decided that we should get together for regular walks or something. (I'm like 10 years older than both of them--haha). And then I got a phone call within an hour of when I got home. One of the two moms decided that our time was so beneficial that she would like to get a bunch of young moms together once-a-week. She asked me if I would help her and be willing to share some nuggets I've hidden away, and then we could pray for one another and share our lives and have lunch. I was kind of blown away... for several reasons, too. The timing of that whole thing today was very interesting.

After the past week I've had, I am exhausted! Discouraged! And upset. The last thing I want to do is add another thing to my plate. But rekindling friendships and sharing lives with others who are like sponges soaking up the conversation and enjoying the time spent together... that revives my soul. And those precious babies are like the cool whip on top.

Speaking of cool whip... BJs mom has peanut butter cream pie waiting in the kitchen. See ya!

Health and sX Education

For emotional well-being, get happy:
For dieting: Yes. You read that right--Sanitized TAPE WORMS!

For better and "cleaner" bedroom activities... try Lysol:

And always remember, have SAFE SEX!