The Cursed Window Blanket

The whole blind laid out

Last weekend was the third weekend of the infamous window blanket project. Back in the spring at one of the famed ‘family five’ meetings (infamous and famed of course only makes sense to people in the Carter family…) we were all talking about ways to make the house in Martinsville more energy efficient. The house has a beautiful picture window that, while is great for observing birds, is terrible for retaining heat. I’m not sure where I saw it, but I knew there was a DIY way to make insulated shades. So I ended up volunteering myself (and Mom) to make on for Gramps’ house. Yeah, not as easy as it sounds (that is, if anyone else thinks it sounds easy, which I thought it did.)

First weekend: Our task- buy fabric in Philadelphia, sew the blanket at my house, based off of the measurements we took at Gramps’. Issue #1- we had moving blankets for our ‘warmth layer’. Yup, that didn’t work. Way too heavy. So we ordered some quilt batting, and set the rest of the project for another weekend.

Sewing the test swatch

Weekend Two: Batting in hand. Fabric bought. (mind you, this is Christmas weekend….) Matching thread, insulated layer, everything is set. Everything except enough fabric for the front and back. Yup, back to Philadelphia for another round at the fabric store (Jomar!!) Project put off for another weekend.

Weekend Three: Finally enough fabric. Batting. Everything in order. Gramps on vacation (see “tourists caught in Peru” stories!) so we can take over his house with our sewing masterpiece. Enter this weekend’s hitch- the car won’t start. Awesome. Another roadblock in what should be a relatively simple project….

New battery, visit by AAA, and we finally got to working. What made me ever think this would be easy?? Yipes. I suggest never trying to sew Mylar. Its all about ripping. And shifting. Ugggg… I’ll leave you with some pictures instead of describing the whole process right now, because, frankly, its late and I’m tired.

pinning the evil mylar

By the time we left on Sunday, we had sewn much of the blanket/curtain, but it still needs a two cross seams, and the edge hemming. So perhaps its about 85% done. More progress than the previous weekends, for sure…. but still not done. I feel like this project will never end.

 

Flood strands Tourists at Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu (from treehugger)

I just have to share this story, its a bit crazy! My grandfather and his lovely lady friend Jane (girlfriend I suppose, but it seems strange to be calling Jane a girl) are currently on a tour of waterfalls in South America. This one has been quite a trip. There have been very heavy rains, and Machu Picchu is in a state of emergency. Helicopters are air-vaccing about 2,000 tourists, but each helicopter can only carry about 35 people. Last night’s update (before the evacuation started, I think) was that Jane and Gramps were in a hotel watching a raging river right outside their window. Today the dam went. Jane has been active with the EMTs in her area for a while, that emergency training came in handy! She got herself and my Grandfather to higher ground and helped calm down the folks who were panicking. I know I should be concerned about their safety, but Jane’s emails have had such a sense of adventure throughout this whole thing! I feel like everyone in my family has  a bit of “wow, that sounds like fun!” combined with “glad they’re safe” running through their heads. Jane and Gramps are lucky, they were among the first evacuated. Other folks are still stranded. I hope the situation evens out soon, but with the rains continuing, who knows.

***update: Gramps and Jane on BBC video! (by the helicopter, you’ll see Gramps first, in white shirt and suspenders: then the camera pans ahead to Jane, who is wearing a blue jacket). Thanks to Aunt Lou for sharing the link! ***

 

Pizza party 2010

Jon's mastery at work

Its been a while since we’ve had a real party at our house. We’ve been waiting for cold weather to have another pizza party, because having the oven on all night gets the kitchen really hot, so we end up opening all the windows. I was a little less organized with the invites this time… I forgot to invite a few people (sorry!), but the folks who came were a great group. Turned out to be quite a cross-section of friends, and seemed like everyone got along.

toppings!

We had so many toppings! Our kitchen is fair-sized, but gets crowded pretty quickly. We started out pretty organized. One area for making the pizza shape on a cutting board, one area for toppings. Of course by the end of the night, pizza making was happening all over the kitchen… but the initial organization helped out.

We bought toppings, as did many of the guests…. lots of veggies, various kinds of meats, pineapple, cheeses… I think one of the best ones was a mushroom paté that Jon made. I like the taste of mushrooms, but not the texture. The paté was awesome because it was all flavor and none of the rubbery texture. (I’m calling it a paté because I don’t remember what he called it. I think mushroom reduction is really more accurate.)

mmm... pizza

Jen and Andrew brought an extra stone this time, which was great. Last time we used cookie sheets, and they don’t have quite the same crispy effect on the crust. We made 8 times the recipe again, the pizza bianca recipe from “The Easy Way to Artisan Breads & Pastries.” I’m not sure if we had less people than before, but we definitely have more dough left over this time.

I had intended to take more photos of the party, but I mostly got shots of the pizza instead of the people. We ended the night with some games. I finally got to play apples to apples, and we played an abbreviated game of Outburst.

It was a good night.

 

fun winter hat…

knit bear hat with ears!

Alexis finally has her hat so I can post up about it! I’ve been dying to, it just turned out so cute! I used a pattern from my stitch-and-bitch book, and modified the ears a little to be rounded instead of cat-shaped. The wool was originally grey, but when Mom was in town we played around with dying using kool-aid. I forgot how strong that stuff smells! I found some instructions online and combined that from what I remember doing with Tina. I used about 5 different flavors, all in the blue to purple range. I was hoping for a subtle color change, but it ended up pretty patchy, which I am okay with, too. My goal with this hat was to make something warm for Alexis, since it can get pretty cold out in Seattle. (The last hat I made is nice and fun, but not so warm around the ears.) I was going to line the hat with fleece, but it ended up a little tight, so I didn’t think there was room for a liner. Perhaps with the next hat…. While the hat itself was fun to make, I’m super excited to be done with it because it means I can really start working on Chris’s scarf (it now has an “N”!) and I can start a new project. I’m trying to be disciplined, and only have two or three things going at once. I’ve been tasked with making a baby sweater for Chris’s sister’s new baby-on-the-way. I’ve never made a baby sweater before, but I found some cute patterns for kimono themed ones that look like fun. Yay for FOs!

 

pondering success and the truth behind inspiration

How do they do it? Those women who seem so creative and so full of energy… how do they manage to make ends meet while they gallivant creatively through their lives? (Long rambling of frustration and pondering after the jump….)

 

SWWOOOOOSH!!!

SWWOOOOOSH!!!
Originally uploaded by ducksRfriends

I am very excited about that little orange swooshing line. I am by no means a motion graphics animator, but it has been my task for the past 4 days to make something awesome that pleases the client. The last hold up… my swooshing line was not “smooth”. They wanted it faster, smoother and “NOT JITTERY”. I had no idea how to fix it. The key frames would not play nice. A simple wipe wouldn’t work because the line wouldn’t appear to move… a moving feathered mask and a vector line shape with only one line point moving (to move the dashes) later… swwoooop!!! And its super easy to adjust the time to whatever they want! Oh, happy happy day.

 

work.

work., originally uploaded by ducksRfriends.

The sun is staying out later and later. Soon I’ll be catching sunsets on the way home. Still, dark falls before I hop on my bike.
The ride seems longer in the cold, and is slower to start.
There is no relaxing time lately, always more to accomplish, more I should be doing, more to complete. Still, veggies and pasta with some wine and a reeses heart makes a nice night.

 

Rag Tagging…

Winter has been slow for my dance troupe, but we do have a few new snippets of video up…. check out our Rag Tag Tribal site to see me and Jes dancing in silly short fluffy skirts (costumes by yours truly, with help from Jes) and Ang dancing on New Years….. also, I’m trying to work out a costume tutorial…. any suggestions?

 

still paddling

Every weekend feels like it’s too short, and too much has to get done. I think I’ve put off my list-making for to long- writing everything out lately has been overwhelming. But making those little check marks can be rather satisfying….

Pearl Arts & Crafts on South Street will be closing its doors at the end of the month. I’m surprisingly upset about this business joining the legions to shut down. It was always such an inspiring place to wander around. It’ll definitely be missed.

I think I’m ready for winter to be over. I want to renew my attack on the garden. Spend time reading outside. Drink iced tea at the café, spring can’t come soon enough.

 

New Years Adventuring

Hippos!!!, originally uploaded by ducksRfriends.

A nice relaxed new years eve this year… followed by a weekend full of small adventures. The best one was to the aquarium. The hippos were amazing. So big and so graceful. I know they can be super aggressive, but they just look so calm. I was mesmerized by them. They were so close! A lot of the exhibits at the aquarium are really well designed- good views of creatures and lots of hands-on for the kidlets. My favorite was definitely the hippos. The Jules Verne room was pretty cool, too. Full of jellyfish. A fun adventure to start out the new year.