Tea and Granny Squares!

January was one of the craziest months I’ve very lived. Very stressful too. I mentioned in my last blog that my company was undergoing a transition. Basically they filed bankruptcy and then had the assets bought by another company. Then, the company that won the auction (that’s right our company went up for auction!) wasn’t who they’d thought it would be. So now the original intent to hires were null and we were all put in limbo hoping to either find another job (without knowing exactly when this one would end) or pick up an offer from the purchasing company.

Unfortunately my job leads haven’t been that great, so the stress was really high. Then at last, a week ago, I was given an offer. It may only be for three months, and it all around closing out this office for good. BUT, it’s something and it gives me more time to keep looking.


Now to the fun part, and explanation of the pictures. See I’ve been using my ‘down’ time at work for some personal project, just too keep myself form going insane (or bursting into tears). Can you guess which items below correspond to the pictures above and below?

• Using Visio to create floor plans for a variety of things (my own creative space, Mart’s house, Mom’s space arc, blanket design...)
• Working on completing Unearthing Magic (totally completed and partially 1/3 fist pass edited)
• Crocheting granny squares and using Visio to create a blanket design
• Reading through my Videra Phoenixes (aka Phoenixes of Vervell) with an eye for plot, character, setting and how to revise the darn thing so it all makes sense and flows well

If you guessed, the first and second to last one, you’re right! It was the knitting moms at the Dance Studio that reminded me I had a blanket to make for my daughter. SO after deciding I wasn’t going to knit it, but crochet neat granny Squares, I started making all sorts of cool symmetrical designs in Visio where no color ever touched itself. But my daughter wanted to make changes. Not having Visio at home I gave her a bunch of colored paper squares to play with. The picture is the design she came up with after looking at mine for ideas. Hey it’s her blanket, so I’ll go with it!

As for the tea mentioned in the title, well...

My mom came down with fabric (color coordination picked out by the daughter as well)  all cut out for our tea gowns. See my church has been having a Ladies Tea around Valentines Day for four years and we like to make it a point to dress up for it. This year we went with pseudo Regency dresses. Which my mom finished making at about 1 am the night before... Whew. Go Mom!


Now I need to keep working on the Granny Squares (I got about 20 more to go before I can start putting it together) and my Videra Phoenixes. Unearthing Magic will be put aside, as I’ve found one major writing project at a time is all I can do.

Hopefully, in three to four months time, things will settle out into something more normal and less stressful.

 :} Cathryn LeighP.S. sorry for the delay, given the work situation you’d think I’d have been able to keep up *facepalm*)

The Day We Can All Dress Up

Halloween is my favorite Holidays; hands down. Why? Because I can dress up, in whatever I desire, call it a costume, and no one will look at me funny. In fact I suspect envy in some people’s eyes because I was brave enough to do so. I guess we can’t all keep our inner child. Such a shame since I suspect the world would be a better place if we encouraged it.

But back to the topic of Costumes! It’s been a while since I’ve actually made myself one. After all I have two kids and you can’t get them to make up their mind until Halloween is drawing nigh. Take my son for example – for six months he wanted to be Spider man, but then Grammy showed him a costume website and he wanted to be Sonic.  At that same time my daughter decided she wanted to be Cinderella.

No biggie, I went out and snagged two patterns (on sale no less) and started putting together my list of materials. But as I started cleaning out last year’s costumes I gave them one more chance, bringing out what patterns I had. After some back and forth between the two of them, and some discussion with me, they decide; a Prince (he likes costumes with weapons) and a Princess (she doesn’t have to be a specific one).

They love to coordinate – you can easily see that if you look at what they’ve been over the course of the past 3 years

2011: Cheetah and Snake     2010: Batman and Batgirl     2009: Pirate and Mermaid

This year I totally scored though. We were able to find the majority of the fabric in my stash (I used to buy fabric I liked when it was on sale all the time). Still it cost more than I’m willing to admit to get the trim and two small pieces of fabric, even with some coupons. But hey, my kids love them and they get good use out of them. My daughter can still wear the Mermaid costume (after I let out two inches) and my son his batman one (though it’s almost a crop top with shorts now).

For the Hubby, I’ve already made a pair of ‘Ren Fest’ wearable pants (not authentic, having an elastic waist, but much more passable than jeans).  

I’ve started on my son’s costume, which is coming out nicely and I only have the hood and pants to finish his look. Then for my daughter we found we already had a dress in the pattern she wanted in their Costume Closet. Now They’ll be definitely set for Girl Scouts Trunk or Treating on The 19th.

As for me, I’m pulling out a fancy cape I made (just need to hem it) and a Princess dress my mom made. It’s not like I have a Costume Closet of my own to go through *wink*

What about you? What goes through your mind when you see adults dressed up, outside of some sort of fair or conference? Do you dress up? (And do you secretly wish you could do it more of the time like I do?)

:} Cathryn

It’s Just a Stinky Old Diaper...



Figure 18

Or is it? *grins* Today in the interest of something completely different I bring you step by step instructions for creating your very own Frosted Diaper Cake. And no we’re not making it out of stinky used diapers, or baking something. And really all you have to do is look at all the pretty picture to the right to see what I mean. So without further ado let’s get to making!

Materials Required

• Cardboard base, 1 each (the cardboard form frozen pizza is what I used)
• Wrapping Paper, enough to cover the cardboard
• Diapers, ~ 1 jumbo pack (30+) per layer
• Small Hair Elastics, no. = total no. of diapers (I like the invisible ones)
• Sticks, 2 each, (I used wooden shish-k-bob skewers)
• Ribbon, ~2 yd per layer, 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch wide
• Receiving blankets, 1 per layer, plus one extra
• Baby toy, one for a topper

Instructions (majority of the figures are at the bottom of the post - sorry for the amount of scrolling you'll have to do, but I just can't get them to work with the text! *grrrr*) 

1. Cut the wrapping paper to extend about 2 to 3 inches beyond the cardboard base. Since I was using a circle I turned my wrapping paper into an octagon (Figure 1)
2. Fold over the side and glue or tape them to the back of your base. For the circle I folded four sides (Figure 2), and then the other four sides (figure 3)
3. Now the fun part – diaper rolling. Open up the box of elastics and a pack of diapers now, start rolling, making sure the pretty top is on the outside (Figure 4 and 5)
4. Create the first layer by placing one rolled diaper in the middle, then make about three circles of diapers around it. Carefully stick a skewer through the center diaper, poking it into the base if you can for additional stability. The skewers I have will go through 3 layers of newborn size diapers. (Figure 6)
5. Now cut a lengths of ribbon that will go all the way around twice, plus enough extra to make a bow. Only go around once this time though. Pull it as tight around those diapers as you can and knot it to hold in place. (Figure 7)
6. Next we fold our first layer of ‘frosting’. Pick a Receiving Blanket, and fold it into a triangle, then fold the point up to meet the top (Figure 8), then, point on the inside, lay it down across the first layer so it touches the skewer and drapes over the side (Figure 9)
7. Using any origami skills you might have, carefully fold each side around that skewer (Figure 10) and then tuck those stray ends around the base before tying the extra Ribbon around the blanket with a bow (Figure 11 and Figure 12). (Yes, the diapers showing, is a feature – otherwise who’d know what was under there!) *grin*
8. Make the next layer the same as the first. Since the base of Layer two isn’t as flat as layer one, I used my ribbon to help hold the diapers in place as I worked (Figure 13)
9. Since my skewer sticks up just enough beyond layer two (Figure 14) that I made one more layer, but since it’s the top layer I covered it in a different manner.
10. Take another Receiving and fold all the corners into the center and then fold the corners in to the center one more time, almost as if you were making one of those paper fortune cookies (Figure 15 and Figure 16).
11. Lay that on top of the final layer (the folded parts on the inside) and then tie ribbon around it to hold it steady (Figure 17).   Note: My top layer is smaller than the rest because it was made with Preemie size diapers rather than the Newborn size I used on the bottom one.  If you wanted a decreasing tier cake, you could use three sizes of diapers, or just make one less ring for each layer.
12. Top the cake (I used tape to keep him on) with the toy and feel free to tuck any other useful item (like a gift card) under the ribbon (guess where I bought my supplies) *grin* (Figure 18)
13. But I had diapers leftover after this, and as no diaper should go to waste (until filled with waste, ha ha) I rolled those up as well; and made two ‘mini cakes’.
14. I only had one Receiving Blanket left and after much fussing I decided to fold it in thirds and wrap my little two layer cake. Notice I folded in the end that would be on the outside, to make it look smoother. (Figure 19)
15. Then I tied it up, one ribbon per layer, and it made a nice little side dish for the main cake (Figure 20)

Figure 20

I’m afraid I forgot to get picture from the baby Shower itself where the cake was presented. But there you have it, and easy, though not necessarily quick, way to create a pretty (comma optional) useful centerpiece for any Baby shower. (Cause I know all my readers are attending lots... *laugh*)

This is just one of the ways I spend my creative energies when I’m not writing.

Next up I might be documenting my Halloween Costume creation process.

I might as well, seeing as this is my Diary, why fill you in on all my creative endeavors. I might even put in some useful information, like how to format a document for Create Space using Word. Cause I can do that. *grins*

 

:} Cathryn

P.S. Appologies for being inconsistant with posting lately. A Family Crisis and adding some new things to my responsibilities list has taken some adjusting to. I hope to return to my more regularly scheduled posting soon. Though if it doesn’t happen until next year (January 2013) you have been warned! *grins*

 

The Figures for your creating reference!

 

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Figure 19