Lent Observance

Although I am not Catholic, I've always been fascinated by the concept of Lent. Since I've yet to even decide real New Years Resolutions, I was stalled. So, I was reading on another blog how this mom had divided her home into 40 sections, and she was going to do a section a day for Lent. That would never work for me, but it got me thinking. I have some really huge messes in my basement. The basement is finished, but extra space seems to attract junk - and we've lived here 12+ years. The clean up is so overwhelming - it looks so bad, I don't know if I can even take a picture, never mind post one.

I am a [messy] seamstress with way too many patterns and too much fabric. Then there's the scrapbooking mess....it looks like Pebbles in My Pocket threw up in there, in addition to the sewing mess. My daughter-in-law has helped thin out the scrapbooking - this past summer she worked at the state hospital and several times loaded up boxes of "stuff" to take to the teenage girls unit. You still can't tell anything is missing, though.

Did I mention the Christmas wrapping mess that is still out in the spare bedroom down there (because the closet is too full)? Lots of other random stuff that I haven't found a home for. I seriously can't believe the mess....

So here's my Lent 40 day exercise (yes, I'm a week or so late): I'm going to clean for 15 minutes in the basement every night. This will require me to gird up my loins after work, and face the mess. I really did not want to do it tonight, but I went down there for about 45 minutes. I did the same last night. I guess I should take pictures every 3-5 days, so I can see my progress. Once I'm there, I get busy and somewhat productive. But, I could go weeks and never venture down there, and the worse the mess is, the less I want to face it.

Did I mention our son and daughter-in-law live down there, too?

It's a Boy!

Sarah and Bob will be having a delicious man-cub sometime before the 7th of July. We are all so excited. I celebrated by taking Sarah and Yaya to the Carter's outlet. :)

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow....

Tomorrow we find out if Sarah and Bob are having a boy or a girl. I don't have a preference, but have picked up two little boy outfits in the past week or so. It's so hard to find cute boy stuff -- I'm not the least concerned about finding cute stuff for a girl. :)
I can't believe I haven't bought hardly anything this time. Maybe I've been afraid of jinxing things? Sure will be grateful to know IT is growing and doing fine.

If Sunday is a day of rest, why am I so tired?

Last night as I lay down to bed, I remembered I hadn't gotten any rolls for the SuperBowl festivities. Since we were having sandwiches, it was kind of important. I try to never go to the store on Sunday and decided I'd make some in the morning. So, as soon as I was up, I made a double batch of rolls -- making them a little bigger than usual rolls. (Wouldn't you know I'd used up my frozen roll dough the day before for scones at lunch) Then, went to church, including almost 2 hours in the nursery. I had prepared my lesson and some other visual aids in the morning. So we come right home, I get dinner together and out on the bar -- did I mention I made deviled eggs, too? After dinner, I took Yaya and went to the basement to hem Sarah's jeans. Yaya played with buttons and tape while I hemmed 2 pairs of jeans, and one corduroy pair for Sarah. We came upstairs and I was dividing the food and repackaging -- some stuff for Sarah and Bob, and some for us.
As I was doing this clean up, I remembered I needed to do something with the two packaqges of chicken tenders. I decided to go for broke and cooked one package, until I could shred it - a little less than 2 pounds. Instead of just putting the cooked stuff in the freezer, I decided to go for broke and made SEVENTEEN BURRITOS to freeze. And then there was all THAT mess to clean up. I had a medium load of kitchen towels, pot holders, etc from the weekend, so I put that in the wash.
Nearly every weekend is a variation on this theme. No wonder I never get to any big projects.

I wasn't even kidding

Remember back in my December post about the snow being Mother Nature's White Trash? Well here it is February 4th and the trash snow is taller and dirtier.

These were taken at the Health Center parking lot at BYU. I had some time to kill while waiting for a friend.

You can see how high it is in comparison to a truck, and a car.
We lose parking spots all over campus for piles of snow, so every weekend, a truck comes and carries some of it away.

At least it's sunny - but you can tell it's still really cold as the snow is NOT melting.

Mother Nature's cruel joke.

While posting these, I realized I was right up against the mountain and could've taken gorgeous pictures if I'd turned halfway around. Instead, I felt the need to prove I am right.

*sigh*

January and February make me very pessimistic.

How to hem jeans

Using your zipper foot and a size 16 or 18 jeans needle, make a tuck above the hem in the jeans.

When measuring, remember that the tuck should be HALF the amount you want to take off. I try to sew under the the little top of the hem.
This is what it looks like when you are done - notice original hem still intact. After trying on AGAIN (measure twice, cut once), I trim the seam, zigzag over it, put fray check on the edge of the seam. Press what remains UP.

Voila! You have jeans the correct length, but still have that factory finish that you can never duplicate at home. I read abouit this technique somewhere -- it's how professional tailors hem jeans.

The first couple of times after washing, you may need to press the hem up. Eventually, it stays on it's own.

If I had growing children, I might try this without cutting the tucked fabric (if it wasn't too much). That way, you could let them down maybe 3/4 to 1".

I don't know why I hadn't heard about this before. Or, thought about doing it myself!

This takes me about 10 minutes or less to do -- maybe 15 with trying them on twice. If you grovel, I'll hem yours for a Diet Coke.