second verse, same as the first

lockdown life is pretty much the same as it was a week ago.  two weeks ago.  three weeks ago.  four - well, you get the gist.

i'm still making masks.  actually, this time i put together a bunch of kits at the request of the bean's girl scout troop.  they'd decided to make masks to be donated to a local animal hospital as their community service project, and were hoping to do them in some sort of animal print.  i didn't have any on hand (i really don't have much woven cotton fabric on hand left anymore), but i decided to shop around to see if i could find some sort of animal printed bedsheets.  as long as they're 100% cotton, i figured they'd work.  and since i needed enough material to make at least 50 masks, a sheet set was perfect with lots of usable fabric from the flat and fitted sheets plus the pillowcases.

i figured the best way to handle it was to cut out the pieces, sew down the center seams for each layer, cut the elastics and then make a video tutorial to show the girls how to assemble the masks.  my hands were pretty tired when i finally finished cutting.

the bean helped me make the video, holding my phone so that just my hands were visible while i narrated in the background.  i really hate how i look and sound on video, so it was a good thing i didn't really need to be visible.  here's the finished product:

and i put all of the pieces in gallon sized ziploc bags to be handed out to each girl who'd signed up to sew the masks.

i've already heard from a couple of people who said that the video was really helpful and made the process super easy, so i'm glad i did it.  even with the troop leader title stripped away, i was still happy that i was able to help the girls out in some small way.

in other news, the knitting and crocheting continues.  except that i keep running out of yarn - this newbie is terrible at counting stitches and rows and so i have two projects that are unfinished.  joann's is taking forever to process curbside pickup orders, and while the online companies are still shipping out that's also running slower than normal.  i've got another kit started - this one for a beginner level cardigan using yarn made from recycled denim.  i stupidly left my knitting bag on the table in the back yard one day and went to run a quick errand, and when i got home i found a tangled mess of yarn, a half-chewed up knitting needle and one very guilty-looking dog under the table.

it's a good thing he's so cute.  yarg.  it took me a solid hour to get the yarn untangled and rolled into a ball, but i'm glad i managed to finish it.  i was extra glad that i'd busted out the package of stitch stoppers from my last knitting order, because putting that little thing on the end of my needle holding my work in progress saved it from unraveling at the hands of teddy.

speaking of teddy, i got a little payback when i got to the end of the first part of my crochet pattern for "the child" and realized i'd totally screwed it up.  i was a little bummed, but i turned it into a hilarious photo prop for teddy.  it looks like a cross between a beanie and a yarmulke, and he looked super happy to try it on.  not.

and lastly, here's the newest update on the house.  there's been a lot of progress in the last week or so - cabinetry and paint make a huge difference.  this is the new kitchen as you enter from the back yard:

in the laundry room - the washer goes on one side and the dryer on the other so that they face each other.  i cannot wait for this part to be done so i can stop having to go to the laundromat.

the guest room is coming along, too.

the living room is beginning to take shape with the fireplace, cabinets and shelves in place.

and my office is my favorite part.  i even got the okay from the hub to pick a pink shade for my walls!  if you know him at all, you'll understand how big of a deal this is.  and look at all that storage space!  ooooh, i can't wait to move in.

the powder room doesn't look like much yet, although all it needs aside from flooring is the vanity/sink, mirror and toilet.  so pretty much every component needed for a powder room.  heh.

and this is the old lady's former bedroom, which also served as my office for the last year and a half.  we're going to move the elliptical in and add mirrored doors for the closet and put a tv in there, and it'll become our home gym.

that's all i got for you today.  i know the blog hasn't been super active lately, but what can i say?  i can only post so many dog and workout pictures, and while our days are never boring there's not really a ton of exciting stuff to share.  i'll try to be better about posting though, i promise.

at least, i'm really gonna try.

always looking for fun new projects

a few months ago, i came across this video tutorial on facebook that caught my attention:

chances are, you've probably seen it too.  anyway, i added to my saved links along with a bazillion other ideas that i may or may not go back to someday and went on with my day.  i googled to see where one might find yarn of that size in the hopes of maybe making one for the upcoming winter months (haha, so cal "winter"), but every link led me to online shops that i'd never heard of offering skeins of the yarn for crazy money...like $50+.  nope nope nope.
during one of many trips to michaels for some sort of crafting supply shopping spree, i happened to walk through the yarn section - not an area i typically visit because i can't knit - and came across one sad little shelf that housed a handful of skeins of chunky jumbo yarn in just two colors - white and charcoal gray.  and it was less than $15 for 54 yards of it!  and since i had a couple of coupons that i could use, i picked up two in gray, took them home and buried them in a closet.  there they stayed for at least a couple of months until i finally got past the holidays and all of my sewing and baking commitments.  not to mention, it was something i could work on while sitting on the couch watching the season premiere of "the bachelor" with the old lady.  perfect.
out came my bag of yarn:

when i finally found the end of the yarn, i pulled up the video so i could follow it step-by-step.

unlike a lot of those "look how easy it is to do [insert cool thing here]" videos, this one was actually pretty easy to follow.  i did have to stop and rewind a few times to make sure i was doing it right, but in no time i already had the first few rows done:

the video seemed to show her making twelve 3" loops across each row, but as i got going it seemed a little too narrow, so i increased it to fifteen.  and it was pretty fun to sit there and knit that chunky yarn using no needles, just my hands, and it went really fast.  before i knew it, i'd worked my way through that entire first 54-yard length of yarn and tied on the end of the second one.  and less than an hour later, i was done:

it's far from perfect, with a few skipped stitches where i missed a loop here and there.  and it's pretty heavy and thick and warm, which is nice.  it ended up being just the right size for a lap blanket for one, and i'm already thinking about going back to michaels to see if i can find more yarn to make another one.  the only thing about this yarn is that it sheds a lot, so if you're wearing black you're gonna want a lint roller if you're going anywhere after cuddling up in this thing.  maybe that's why the other yarn i found online is pricier - it's probably higher quality stuff that doesn't leave you super linty.
in any case, i'm pretty proud of my first successful knitting project.  doesn't mean i'm gonna be buying needles and crap anytime soon, but at least i feel a little less like a knitting dunce.  heh. 

killin' time in cambria

our first full day in cambria was a cool and cloudy one - definitely not unwelcome, as we'd driven up from 100-degree heat.  we'd checked the weather forecast and packed accordingly, so we were excited to rock some long-sleeve tops and jeans for a few days.

since it was still a weekday, the hub had work to do.  thanks to the beauty of laptops and wireless internet, he's basically got a mobile office and can get 'er done from damn near anywhere these days.  except for the fact that our free wifi in the hotel was kinda shitty.  and so while he headed off to a coffee shop in town, the bean and i decided to take a stroll and check out what there was to see (the teen wasn't having it and stayed behind to sleep in and get ready whenever she damn well felt like it).

it wasn't hard to pick a shop to browse in first.

because i knew we had a good chunk of time to kill, i was really hoping this would help keep the bean occupied for a while.  alas, while it was a super cute store, it wasn't very big.  although this doesn't mean we didn't have fun looking around.

hello kitty.  she's errrrywhere.

there was a display of every flavor of malt ball known to man.  i figured maybe the owner had a thing for 'em.

our next stop was here:

inside, we were greeted warmly by a volunteer who invited us to come in and look around.  i made it a point to tell the bean not to touch anything, and the lady immediately said "oh no, she's welcome to look and touch things if she wants."  so, cool.

except that as soon as she played a few notes (very gently - i swear she wasn't banging on the keys or anything obnoxious like that), another lady emerged from a nearby room and pretty much chewed us all out for daring to touch the precious piano.  i whipped my head around and glared at the other lady, who smiled nervously and apologized for the mixup.  eff that noise.  we dropped a couple of bucks into the donation box and hightailed it outta there.  hmph.

to soothe her hurt feeling box ("mommy, why did that lady tell me to stop playing the piano?"), i steered the bean towards this shop - she dug the rainbow - and told her she could pick anything she wanted out of the bakery case.  i think it helped.  heh.

as we munched on our snack (come on - i wasn't going to let her eat a cookie the size of her freaking head all by herself), the ILs and the teen caught up with us at last.  we walked up and down the street a bit, checking out the few shops that caught our eye, and ended up here:

yes, that is a knitting store.  knitting is one of those things i've always wanted to try, but haven't had the time (or patience).  and by coincidence, i'd just opened an e-mail offering me a series of ten 1-hour knitting lessons at a shop close to home for $49.  i was actually considering it, until the nice lady behind the register said "if you've got about 15 minutes, i'd be happy to teach you how to knit!"

sold.

and not just me, but MIL, the teen, and the bean got in on the action too.

a couple of minutes later, we'd learned to "cast on."

and not long after that, i'd actually knitted a little square and learned how to "cast off."

we were invited to peruse the rest of the shop and pet all the yarn.  ha.  that sounds kinda dirty.  but we did it.  and it was really fun.

after we made our selections, we got to pick needles.

here's what i ended up with:

later that afternoon, i'd completed the first step - opening up that skein and winding the yarn into a nice ball, to keep it from getting all tangled up as i worked with it.

i'm not very good at this.  i swear, i'm all thumbs.  the bean is doing a better job of this than i am.

oh, well.  i'll just have to keep practicing.  it gets better, right?  RIGHT??