But, since we already don’t have a TV, we decided to turn off our internet browsers this week. Sunday night I realized I wasn’t going to be able to make it through the week without checking my library account or my bank account, and since I get most of my recipes of the internet, it just wasn’t going to work very well. So I am only using the internet for the essentials. I also realized I stream my favorite radio shows that I got hooked on when we lived in LA… so does that count? I would also love to think checking craft blogs is essential, but the man will make fun of me for caving in, so I am gonna stick to it! A little shake up like this has a way of making it easier to see how some of these little things affect our lives. After this week I may choose to go back to my old browsing habits, I might even choose to catch up on what I missed, but I will definitely do it with a little more insight and purpose.

So, I guess posting isn’t browsing, right? I had to post this little experiment. The house was a wreck because I am trying to do some spring cleaning, but I couldn’t get this idea out of my head and just had to try it. So I quilted these fabrics together using my embroidery foot. And I wanted to see if I could get them to connect together using the same patchwork stitching that works so well on fleece. Anyway, this is what I came up with. I have to figure out whether to take it further or not.

And the kids found a tiny turtle in the lake. It was so cute. And I love this kids grimy hands. I love that he is doing this and not sitting in front of a TV. Woohoo!

Even the fact that I couldn’t get a decent picture of it seems significant.

I am always thankful that each day starts fresh! Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

I was wanting to post a few more pictures of the undressing and redressing of my sofa from a few weeks ago. I thought putting them together into one image would probably be the best way to not completely overload my site, so I spent some time tinkering with a graphics program to put it together. I think it is fun to see it transform!

Now that I am getting used to seeing the red sofa, these pictures seem so strange and foreign. It would be easy to forget all the work without these pictures as a reminder. Weird how that is.

Okay, I am at it again! This is the second of my three pajama shirts that have sleeves that are not as long as I would like them. I don’t want them to go to my wrists, I want them to go down to my knuckles and keep my arms completely warm when I sleep! I have thought about replacing them, but reading this book and watching the crafting community using what you have in April made me think about what I could do to solve this problem without running straight to the store for new pajamas. The first step to making your sleeves longer is to cut them off. I know, it is a little counter intuitive, but go for it!

Then sew in some some extra fleece to lengthen! I used contrasting thread so that I could put together a tutorial later.

And viola! More comfy pajamas… and all for free, using what I have on hand.

I am starting to see potential all over the place, such as the fleece hoodie the boy is about to outgrow! I may not have to buy my kids new clothes for awhile! And I am going to throw this into the “Everyday Creativity” Whip-Lash competition on Whip-Up. Go check out all the fabulous stuff people are making by following the links on the right side of the Competion page.

Don’t you love it when kids start learning to write! The Boy was completely incredulous when told that the “no potty talk” rule applied to writing on paper, too.

I have a couple of fleece sweatshirts that I use as pajamas. I like them because they keep me warm along with the fleece pajama bottoms that I made before we returned from the tropics to the wintery northern United States. But the sleeves have felt just a little too short. I guess they weren’t really too short or I would not have tolerated them as long as I have, but since I wanted my sleeves to hang down to my knuckles to keep me warmer, they were still a little shorter than that desired length. So I set out to make them longer. With some scraps of fleece I had on hand, I added a few inches to each sleeve. I think they look kind of fun.

I have two more shirts that I plan to do this to, and I realized the Boy has a fleece hoodie that I could extend the life of by adding some length to the sleeves. I am excited because it was relatively easy and I like the length of the sleeves now! Yay!

I was thinking about entering it in the Whiplash competition over at Whip up, although I have to say I am quite confused about the parameters of the competition and the meaning of the theme Everyday Creativity since I haven’t had a chance to read the book they are giving away. Slight Catch 22 there! It sounds like humor is a factor, although I am not sure this qualifies as humorous even if the Man laughed heartily when he saw what I was up to! Has anybody read the book? Can anybody enlighten me?

The warm weather we have been having has had me outside cleaning up the yard, trying to get flower beds ready for planting, and potting some seedlings. So this is what most of my creative energy this week has been used for.

I have also noticed that the house is in desperate need of a top to bottom spring cleaning in every room. The problem is that this means that I keep putting off some of the regular cleaning thinking that I will be doing a thorough cleaning soon… but I haven’t gotten to it yet, and the grime is building up. Today, I decided to get things prepped by at least making sure things are relatively organized before I start some deep cleaning. I got distracted when I decided I really wanted my fabric in the studio and not stashed away in a closet. I have been keeping it in the back half of the Girls closet, and having it on hangers has been working for me for years. But even though we make the girl clean her room a few times a week, I still feel like I am wading through a landfill to get to that closet. And I can’t get to it after she has gone to bed.

And so, of course, moving that fabric became essential for getting the house cleaned up. After I got all my ribbons, trims, and bias binding organized I was amazed how much seeing what I have inspired my creativity and made it easy to find things when I needed them. I am hoping that being able to see my fabric will also help keep me from forgetting about all the lovely projects I have planned for this loot.

Today is a gloomy, cold, rainy day… and that is why I love orange. I need something to keep me from getting depressed. I had no trouble coming up with an orange offering for today’s color theme. It even inspired me to play around a little bit with a graphics program that I have been trying to ignore for years. I like doing things with my hands and using a computer program to create something visually appealing feels to me like trying to make something with my hands tied behind my back. But I did come up with this! It is a start and I learned a lot by doing things the hard way (I discovered later!)

Pics include: My old dining room in our townhouse in the Philippines, paint swatches currently on the corkboard in my studio, gerbera daisies and the boy in my old dining room, wallpaper in my current kitchen, orange paisley gauze fabric still to be transformed into something lovely, and pillows on the sofa in the studio. In the center: satin bias binding from my collection, and detail of an Alphonse Mucha print (still my favorite graphic artist!)

I love this color! It is my substitute for days like today when the sun decides to hide behind a thick blanket of clouds. We even eat at a table in the orange striped kitchen on days like today in order to avoid looking out over the gloomy landscape from the dining room table. It’s my color therapy!

That is the color theme for today, which I thought was well represented by our faithful 7 year old iMac that is now missing his lips!

The man came home from work yesterday and said, “B, what did you do?” Even from the other room I was pretty sure I knew what he was looking at so I yelled, “I found out computers don’t work the same way as upholstery!” At that point, this computer wasn’t missing his lips, they were just looking really out of wack since I had taken my upholstery tools to them! It turns out that the DVD we rented from the library was missing it’s library sticker… but not the former sticker’s stickiness. So it was firmly glued in place! And with a smile this tight, it was NOT coming out. I am not really a mac or pc fan. I think they both have their strenghts and weaknesses. This has been my pet peave with macs! But with the glooeyness on the disk I am not sure it would have been much better in a pc. I just wish you could say, “Open wide!” and have these silly things obey!

In more crafty news, I am trying to take some photos to upload to Etsy. I have tried twice and been very unhappy with the distorted color. The camera I am familiar with is hard to use without abundant amounts of light, and the amazing camera is hard to use because I don’t know how! The kids are also home this week for spring break so I really shouldn’t be spending quite so much time obsessing about those things. But I am hoping to have some more interesting stuff to post soon. This color week has been a life saver as far as giving me stuff to post about since my productivity is way down this week.

I have been having a hard time trying to figure out what to post that would fit into today’s green color theme. I took a few pictures of some things I am working on, but I didn’t want to use the nice camera because it had a lot of images and even some raw images that the man took, but would take me forever to download. So I was using the other camera and couldn’t really get the lighting right… you know the story. So I just checked my email and my sister send me this picture which I have to say is perfect for today’s color theme, even down to the green shutter in the background. She is living in Cambodia, but was planning a trip to Laos, so I have no idea where this picture was taken.

I might have to apologize to her later for posting it, but who could pass up an opportunity like this!!!