New Projects

In between work and knocking holes in the walls to repair what the contractor did I've made two more scarves. I'm hoping I can raffel them off as a fundraiser for next year's walk.

I was skimming through Not Martha and I followed links to this cool recycling idea. That little tank top of Selena’s I like so much might just get turned into a pretty bag for her…..

Fashion-Incubator: Reusable bag contest #1

Möbius Scarf

A few months ago when I was home with a sick little person I caught an episode of Knitty Gritty on DIY on möbius knitting. Since I already had WAY too many things going on including numerous started craft projects I wouldn’t let myself try one until I was done with all the masquerade costumes and Project Linus blankets. Well they are all done and I have completed my first two möbius scarves.

They look great. The one I did for myself looks good but the one I did for my daughter with the end of the skein looks even better. I ran out of yarn before I ran out of pattern to complete it even with skipping some of the rows. With some scrap yarn from a different project I finished it off and it look great. The contrasting edge really shows off the möbius twist.

Some of you maybe saying what is a möbius? According to Wikipedia, möbius is a surface with only one side and only one boundary.

Belated Gardening

I finally have some time to do some yard work. I am collecting salvaged/recycled bricks, brick bed liners, or cinder blocks to line the new garden beds. As the garden grows I'm hoping to line rows between the beds with small used cardboard boxes and cover them with mulch to help keep the weeds under control. If I take time to draw out plans I may even have a nice garden path or mini labyrinth to wander.


Sierra Club and Not Martha have both recently posted that Starbucks will give-a-way coffee grinds for your garden. I went to the closest one and asked. Yup, they will if you ask ahead of time and make arrangements for pick up. They gave me two plus pounds of the black gold on the spot and are saving it for me to pick up after work. I have one of the 27 pound empty cat litter buckets with a lid to in the back of my car to drop the bag they give into to make sure there are no spills in the car. I have a weird coffee allergy that can give me a sever headache. I love the smell so a small dose is wonderful but I need to limit how much of the 'fumes' fill the car. The hard part of this will be not getting a Venti Chai Latte every time I do a ground pick up.

Catching Up

The March of Dimes WalkAmerica here in Fairfax was a great success. We had over 1,400 walkers plus all of the volunteers. The hoopla after the walk was great. We had Mad Science of DC making slime with the kids. Big Country Amusements donated a fantastic castle moon bounce. My Gym entertained the kids while Hills Science Diet weighted the pups and handed out treats. Go-Go the clown painted faces. DragonSong pulled through and was a FANTASTIC band. I only heard raves about their performance. Marty Kaplan took fanastic official photos of the walk and festivities. Everyone had a chance to tour the Mom and Baby bus which provides prenatal care to under privilege high risk areas. Starbucks got everyone ready for the walk with free coffee. Someone even got us cheerleaders to greet the walkers as they finished. I'm not sure how we will top this next year. I missed my goal and only raised $1,100 (http://www.walkamerica.org/personal_page.asp?w=682598) but the chapter raised $1.3 million for research, equipment, and education to prevent premature births and help those who are born too early.

I survived my first Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (http://walk.avonfoundation.org/site/TR?pg=personal&fr_id=1270&px=3209129). I didn't even try to camp out to walk the second day. With the injuries from the car accident I knew better then to try. My goal was to walk as far as I could on the first day. I had walked 15 miles in one day back in middle school for the March of Dimes but as one of my team mates pointed out I was MUCH younger then. With her words ringing in my head and a promise to my godmother to carry her daughter Rachel's picture as far as I could I walked just over 17 miles. Only 2 of my teammates walked farther and actually did the full 26 miles the first day AND they also did 13 more miles the next day. Most of the rest of the team walked 13 miles each day. We raised over $34,000 and were in the top 20 teams for fundraising. Next year we hope to do more training walks and fundraisers before the walk.

One day a week a group of us met to make blankets over lunch for Project Linus (http://www.projectlinus.org/index.shtml). Project Linus gives blankets to children in the hospital (if some one ask the hospital about the program), to homeless children and children who have lost a parent or sibling to one of the on going wars. After 8 weeks we donated about 2 dozen blankets. I didn't think I would get my knitted baby blanket done in time so I made 5 fleece blankets. The no-sew fleece blankets took about an hour and a half each. The knitted one took 40 minutes for just 3 rows and it is a LOT of rows. The knitted one is finished so I'll tuck the ends in and put in the next batch of donated blankets.

We went to Balticon (http://www.balticon.org/)again this year. We had a great time. The kids still aren't sure what to think of Klingons. They both took stage for the Masquerade's Young Fan division. William went on as My Hero, Zero from Schoolhouse Rock. Inspite of 2 bands recently doing covers of the song it was amazing at how many 20-somethings never heard of My Hero Zero. I was feeling old but William loves his costume. As left stage from his initial walk and from getting his award he announced he wanted to go back and make them clap again. Selena went up on stage as a Baby Fire Elemental. Tim found a copy of Disco Inferno (Burn Baby Burn) for her to dance to. She walked out to center stage with me and once she heard the music stared to do a cute little toddler dance. I had to all but drag her off of stage after her dance and after she got her award. During the awards she kept walking out towards the audience and sachet back and forth across the stage. Kids under 13 get ribbons and certificates for going on stage. The 'big kids' (13-99) have to work for theirs by doing a presentation or mini play. For some reason the Young Fans are not judged for their workmanship no matter who makes them. There are no awards or even comments on what was good or needed work for me. Now I just need to dream up costumes for them to wear for next year. I want to out do what I did this year for the next show.

In mid April I sorted everything that had landed in the sunroom over the past year. A friend said he could take what we had planned out for the room and make it happen. A year earlier over 1/2 of the electricity in the room shorted out. We were down to one dim ceiling light and one outlet working in one very long skinny room. The plan was too clear all the stuff out, demo the awful damaged cheap paneling and replace it with a fully framed, insolated, rewired renovation in 5-6 weeks. There were a few days I stayed up until 2 am to make sure everything was ready for him to do his part and well there are times the work got done and other times he decided to take a day or weekend off without any notice. I think the plans were lost or trashed and after 3 months of work or weekends off we requested work to stop so we could all sit down with the plans and see where we should go from here. I can't wait for the room to be done so we have a place for the dinning room table and so I have a place I can do some sewing. I can't make the new curtains for the room until I get the machine to its new space.