I have three Disney projects to share.

The first was a shirt that was being thrown away at the Junque Store.  It was lovely and roomy, but had a slight stain on its long sleeve.   Oh and no buttons.  So I sewed bright colorful mismatched buttons on it. Cut the sleeves off, and blanket stitched it.  And sewed on two very cute patches I had bought in a big bundle at Michaels for $4.99

Sorry about the quality of pictures.  I'm not completely fond of my camera.

Second project a nice clean never been worn black t-shirt in my size for twenty-five cents.  But very boring.  So I doodled on it, and them back-stitch embroidered  on the doodle.

And this morning the coach called to tell us she would NOT be able to march with Rainee during the Disney parade, which left us wondering what to do so Rainee had atrovent available if she needed it.  After a few minutes of surfing the net, and pondering it, I decided to pull out a pair of jeans I rescued from the Junque Store, cut the waist band off.  Sew a cool pocket on it.  And wala she has a med belt she can wear under her uniform.

The pocket lays flat...I'm not sure why its so cock-eyed in that picture.

Anyhow not bad for twenty-five cents for three projects huh?  Well maybe $1.50 if you count the patches and embroidery thread.  But still definitely in budget.

 My mom brought my sis Karla's kiddos out.  And my sis Rissa's kiddo out.  And we're having cousin camp.  Its loud crazy, and I'm very sad its over tomorrow morning.

Most of you know I learned how to do cornrows in Zeria's hair several years ago.  And during basketball season this year I had to redo them ONCE a week due to how many times she was showering.  But it was the only way she was willing to wear her hair now that its getting so long.  It was too much of a pain otherwise.  Its long enough to be a GIGANTIC fro, but not long enough to put in a pony tail due to the kinkiness of it.

Anyhow the last time I did it I decided to divide her hair into three parts instead of two.  It actually ends up being less work, and neater.  Sometimes I do the top in a crooked part, this time I did it a straight.  i actually think I like the top in the crooked part a wee bit better.  But oh man do I love the way the braids turned out.  So does she.

She kept petting them when I got done with them.  Actually I did too.   LOL

So there's my "art" project from last night.  Zeria's head.  It takes me about 2.5 hours from start to finish.  But it means having her hair looking nice for about 3 weeks.  So it is WAY worth it. 

A little over a month ago a friend gave me a very cool book from the late 70s with afghans in it.  Several of them were picture afghans, and I fell in love with the one of a castle, cause my RaineeGrace LOVES castles.

So I splurged and bought some yarn, two days after her birthday when I ran into return her camera.  And began this project.

I had to splurge and buy yarn ummm 3 more times to finish said project?  Its behemoth.  ROFL.

And I started burning out as it got bigger and bigger.  I finally started making myself do a row of granny squares a day.

Yesterday there was a end in sight, so I did 3 rows even feeling like CRAP.

And today I did the last row, and sewed it on.  It still needs to be blocked.  But I'm not even sure how to go about doing that its so ginormous.  Its is after all sitting on my King Size Bed in this picture.

Of course now my kids all think they need one.  And they think I'm super woman and can design it in a horse shape or a dragon shape.  LOL.  Personally I want one for me in the shape of a Lighthouse.  I might have a new obsession...

I picked up a size 10 girls baby doll shirt with long sleeves at the JBC clothes attic.

But its getting to be summer, and I didn't need long sleeve stuff.

So I cut the sleeves off, hemmed it, blanket stitched, and added a cute little trim.  I then crochet three flowers, leaves and a vine, and sewed it on the bottom.  And now I have a cute little dress for Rainee that involved about 1.5 hours of work...pleasurable work.

Yesterday was a quiet day in our house.  Rob spent a great portion of it cutting firewood, and I spent a great portion of it enjoy my monthly visitor.  Okay being crampy and rather listless.  But my hands stayed busy even if my mind was rather DEAD.

The ravelry group that I joined is doing a CAL  (crochet-along)  So I spent the day making this rather unique scarf.  I was too eager to get a picture up to model it properly.  So, maybe I'll show you how it should be worn later.  (don't hold your breathe.)

Its kind of a silly fun decorative flower scarf.  It looks cuter on then you would think.  I think it would make a great handle for one of my purses, and tend to modify one so I can do just that. 

Last night we went to the beach for just a few minutes.  It was only 50 degrees outside, so it was a quick enjoy.  LOL  Rainee managed to slip and fall on the barnacles twice.  OOPS.

Today looks to be as dreary as yesterday.  I would really like to put a order in for some sunshine.

So, the first "major" trick in baton in a thumb flip one spin.  Its attained in steps.  First you learn to roll the baton over your thumb and catch it with your other hand.  Then you learn to roll it over your thumb and catch it with the hand you rolled it over.  Then  you learn to roll it over your thumb and at the precise right second give it a push and it goes up in the air and you catch it.

Then you step back and learn spin technique.  This is placing your foot in front of you just so, and spinning around in a circle and stopping exactly where you started.  This is a lot trickier then it looks.  And gets you dizzy quickly.

Then you learn to add even more height into your thumb toss until its going up in the air above you head about three feet.

Then you add a flourish a whip, a thumb toss, and a spin around in the circle and catch.

Some this comes easy.  Zeria mastered her one spin in about 2 months.  Sam the same.  Jamari did it the first time he tried his one spin.  (stinker)  Kaylin it took about 6 months.  And she wore a bike helmet for a good portion of that cause she was CONVINCED it was going to take her head off.  (It might have too LOL)

Rainee however has been trying since LAST MARCH.   Almost thirteen months or so.   She'd really work at it for a long while, and then get discouraged.  For the last three months its been touching her finger tips and landing BOOM on the floor.  At which point the coach, the mom, and Rainee would let out a sigh.  Coach was even seen stomping her feet like a three year old.  She wanted Rainee to get it soooo badly.

Yesterday coach promised a prize for each of the kids if they could attain certain goals.  Everybody got their prize except Rainee.  She tried and tried and tried.  And no go.

And then the tears came.  She was exhausted, and mad at herself, and well you know the feeling.  She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.  She gave herself asthma.  And then she sucked it up and got up there and tried asthma and all.  And she failed.  So she cried some more.  And got comforted.  Nobody was saying try again.  Rainee was just pushing, pushing, pushing.   We got her out of her leotard that she was having a allergic reaction to.  We fed her lunch.  She cuddled with me a long time just MAD at herself.  And then it was time for her individual lesson. She was back to being in a very good mood.  She tried about 30 one spins.  Yes 30.  DIZZY girl.  Coach would make her stop this time however and take a couple deep slow breathes before each try.  She didn't get it.  *ugh*  So she worked through her two major routines that she'll be doing at state.  And in between times she tried more one spins.  I don't know how many a LOT.  And no no no catch.

It was time for us to leave, and still no one spin.  It would touch her hands and bounce out.  It would touch her arm and roll off.  It was time for the coach to leave, but we could see she was sooooooo close.  And then go figure when I wasn't looking (but the coach was.)  She caught it.  NO WHACK! as it hits the floor.  Just the coach screaming in excitement and spinning Rainee in circles around in her arms and running with her until she got over to where I was sitting.    She did it.  That is one stubborn little turkey.  But I knew that already.  Go Rainee.

Oh and please don't ever tell me baton isn't a sport.  I hear people mock it all the time.  I'd like to see you do a thumb flip one spin.  Or worse a thumb flip two spin like Jamari is trying to master...he's been at it a year and hasn't hit success yet.  Zeria and Samuel both have.  That's a whole nother frustrating story.

But today I just wanta say I'm proud of Rainee Grace for fighting through the asthma, and the hives, to success.

So if your my facebook friend you know I've made some purses with fabric crochet.  Today I got it together to line 3 more.  My goal is to get the rest of my stash that needs to be lined before the end of May. I have five more.  I should be able to do it.  I plan to sale them in July.

I have joined two boards on Ravelry.  Its been a very very long time since I joined anything.  But there into crocheting, and crafting, and its been fun...even if I only finally bit the bullet two days ago and actually posted.

So my first purse is made of Tarn.  Other wise known as recycled t-shirt fabric.

This is a little girls purse, with a small lavendar recyled pocket on the outside.  The color is wonky on it because I took it inside.

The next is a black and white polka-dot purse made out of very fine material.  Its quite light weight.  The pocket on it is black jeans, and the embellishment is a brooch I found at a thrift store for $1.25.  The lining on that one was a booger for some reason.  I had to undo about half of it, and resew it.  (All done by hand.)  I was not happy, but it looks very good, so it was worth it.

The last one's handle is actually a macrame belt that my sister Brittany gave to Zeria.  Zeria didn't want it so I rescued it.   The pocket is once again a pocket from a  pair of dead jeans.

I thought they all three turned out nice. 

Friday we decided to pack up and go for a day hike.

Rob willingly carried our lunch.  Pasta Salad, Chips, and a snack of cheeze and crackers.  Each child carried there own water bottle.  The plan was to hike down to the beach have a nice leasurely lunch, play, relax, and then eventually slowly make our way UP UP UP the trail back to the car.  Its about a mile and a half one way, which is a bit long for Jeremiah's 5 year old legs.  LOL

The trail down was beautiful.  TONS of trilliums blooming everywhere.

And I think Rainee stopped and took pictures of 75% of them.  She got a Cannon camera for her bday and she's just a wee bit shutter happy.  LOL  Okay madly insanely shutter happy.  Every time I saw her she was squatted down taking another picture of a trillium.

The forest was gorgeous, the trail mostly down hill, with a few wobbly roots and rocks, but not bad.  The kids were all in a fantastic mood, and the weather was a balmy 54-55 degrees.   We admired trees, and stumps, and fungus.

Sorry that last ones blurry...it was rather dark under the trees.

  And thoroughly enjoyed ourself.  The last 3/4's of a mile was VERY VERY steep,  and the last 1/4 of a mile gave us a suprise.

The WIND.  COLD wind.

And when we got to the beach.

It just wasn't that appealing for reasons you can see.  And with wind chill it was NASTY!!!

We hid behind a piece of driftwood and quickly ate our lunch.  FREEZING!!!!

Sheltered a bit longer behind this rock and watched some seagulls.  At this point several kids were shivering, and teeth chattering.  Which as you know is the ONLy sign of hypothermia that you get, so we knew we needed to get moving.

So without the break we needed we headed up up up.

One of several rest stops.  This one was still where the wind was, so the kids hid behind this tree.  I had by this time warmed up thanks to climb climb climbin.

Zeria started getting stomache cramps.  And that made her almost in capable of climbing the hill.  Jeremiah made it all the way up the nasty thing on his own steam. 

But we still had a mile of hiking.  And it was cold.  And Jeremiah was officially DONE walking.

Rob took Zeria's water bottle, camera and back pack, and Jeremiah.  Samuel who deserved sainthood that day also took LONG turns carrying Jeremiah.

Rob and I took turns talking, coaxing, and distracting Zeria to the car.   And about a half a mile from the car just to make things complete it started raining.

Yup, not the best adventure planned in this family ever.  ROFL.

And I don't think my kids will be talked into returning there for quite a LONG while.

The good news was, I made it on my own steam, and actually wasn't that tired.  And was barely sore the next day, which made me know I'm very recovered from my surgerys.  *cheers*

Date day find.  On Sunday we headed out to Neah Bay just Rob and I.  We had a beautiful drive.  Not very romantic, just time to spend with each other.  This fellow here was perched on a alder tree very very close to the highway.  Rob said I "had" to take a picture of him.  LOL  He rarely insists that actually I think secretly he groans some days when I ask him to stop. 

We were eye level with him and less then fifteen feet away.  And eventually we made him WAY too nervous and he left for a safer vista.

About 3 corners later I yelled out Rob turn around, go park in that pull-out.

Cause I saw this fellow.

He was also super duper close to us.  And rather in the mood to pose.

Ironically we scared him off too, cause I climbed the guard rail to see if I could get closer, and he vamoosed.  He wasn't not intrested in being that close to my camera.  He's just like Samuel apparently.

This is a crazy month with five of my six kids playing basketball, as well as baton continuing.  I have two kids games happening at the same time in different cities TWICE in the next week.  And Rob works on both of those days.  *sigh*  *growl*

I've attended all of Zeria's, but am having to skip todays.  And tomorrow Rob is taking a family day (we hope)  so he can be with the little kids, and I can go see Zeria's last Junior High game.  That's the current plan, we shall see how that plan goes.  LOL