Summer = Productivity.. right?

Alright! Out of school, only working twice a week (alternating with my husband) and Olibear starts Mother's Day Out twice a week next week. This means I better get my To-Do lists together so that I can be prepared in using my 6 free hours each day he's gone wisely.

I will not, repeat, will not play video games for 6 straight hours each day.

Maybe just 20 minutes.. or so.

I've been browsing through quite a few DIY blogs online, mostly over home items or house renovations, and I think that's what I'm doing with my time. We only have so long in this house before we move to Oregon (fingers crossed!) but it's still up in the air, since we haven't heard definitive answers back from jobs John's applied to.

Therefor, I will do what I can with the time and money that I have. Which isn't much, so that's where the internet comes in. Follow the jump for the complete list in my head that I am determined to get finished!

Driving

Driving in Oklahoma is not only an obstacle course, due to lack of common sense with other drivers but also because of the wind. Also, for future reference, when you get to a 4-way stop first, it is YOUR. TURN. To. GO. FIRST. Don't wave me on like I'm the stupid one.


Anyway.

I'm working over the summer and will have a lot of downtime, but now that the semester is over, no homework to stress me out. I need some sort of challenge to keep me from wilting away on the internet. Arriving at the school an hour earlier to workout in the gym has helped! But then it's 9 - 5 on a computer, answering and transferring calls without much else to do.

My boss and I talked about how great it would be to make a giant map of the campus buildings, along with the surrounding streets, so that the other operators who might have trouble orienting themselves to give directions (since we work in the dungeon of our building). And I think I might make that my project to do while up here. Now I just need to find a 3' x 5' piece of canvas, or I guess already stretched onto a frame piece. I just mostly wanted it to be free.

singerrrrrr

Fed up with having to drive to school or stay behind after class, I've finally just sucked it up and bought a sewing machine. I now have 2 cute little toddler-sized Hobbit cloaks:

One for my kid, and one for his BFF.

And I've finished the underdress, overskirt and bodice to my own costume. I'm thinking of making an apron, too, since I already have the fabric for it and now have an easier way to make it at home!

And all I have left is my mission of figuring out how to curl and keep curled my hair for all day Saturday. The question it whether or not it'll be freakishly windy (although I'm gonna say YES since this is stupid Oklahoma.)

But I didn't finish it all until about half an hour ago, and I'm going to wait until better light to take pictures. Goodnight!

Well, I've been trying to upload pictures of the Hobbit Project on here since the last post, but for some reason that day's pictures are refusing to show up in the upload box. So we'll just try links from FB.

I said it was Simplicity but I goofed. It's McCall's 4090, view A (top left) and also look at my awesome Gingher scissors!

View of the overskirt with supplies and our textbook. Look, even the inside seams are serged!

This is the pattern cut out on top of the dress fabric. This dress will go under the bodice and overskirt. Then there will be an apron on the very top!


Found a creepy way to attach fake hair to my feet. Will post pics of experiments. Time to put a grumpster down for a nap.

cleaning when i'd rather be outside.

So the boys just left (completely overpacked) to go to the park for a few hours to give me time to clean up and do homework in a quiet environment for once. Now I'm waiting on my leftovers from Pei Wei to heat up so I can have some delicious, shrimpy energy. I want to go with them, but I'm glad to have some time alone.

I'm taking Basic Clothing Construction this semester primarily for fun and so I can have enough hours to be able to work at the university, but also because I'd like to know actual technical terms instead of "wiggle stitch" and stuff like that. Our first project is a "bottom" and our second is a "top,"so I'm combining them both to make a Hobbit costume for the medieval faire in Norman this year. I'm a huge nerd, yes, but I've never actually dressed up to go. I figure since this is the last year we'll live in Oklahoma (for a while) then I can go and look ridiculous and be blissfully happy in doing so, since no one will see me after. And at least I won't look like the goofy goth kids who wear head to toe black, thick, and leather clothes. It's hot.

But I've almost finished the skirt for the bottom, using a Simplicity pattern which has been extremely altered in the hemline because I have ridiculously disproportionate legs. And it's due later in the week, which means we'll be starting the top soon, so I'd like to have it all cut out and ready to go when class starts. We're not supposed to do too much at home because the professor seems to think we'll let our grandmothers cheat for us.

I've also decided to make a miniature hobbit costume for Oliver, since he's got curly-ish hair and monster sized feet (For his age, 17 months, he wears a size 7 shoe. That's usually meant for 3 year olds.) and also I think a baby with a fake pipe will be the cutest thing in the world. I might try to use this blog as a record of my possible awesomeness/disaster that the costumes will end up being.

But that's my day today and my food is ready. Wish me luck!

a new era

since joining tumblr was ridiculously annoying and confusing, i'm trying this out now. i'm sure there's a slew of dead blogs from me all over the internet.