RECYCLE...Shower Curtain Painting Apron

It was time for a new shower curtain.  We used our darling shower curtain until the top tore and was literally hanging on by 3 hooks. I wasn't ready to get rid of it.  It was still in really good shape, although the top was not salvageable.  It was just too cute to throw out, so I decided to make Chloe a painting apron.

I laid the shower curtain out and cleaned it really good with Simple Green and allowed it to dry.

I used Chloe's cooking apron as a template.

I cut around the apron making the new apron about 3-4 inches larger to ensure it would wrap around her.

I folded the edges and sewed a triple stretch seam.  I have found this seam is very durable.  

I'm a sucker for recycling ribbon like the one above from our new shower curtain.  I keep ALL the decorative ribbon from new products.  You never know when it'll come in handy.  I cut the ribbon in 4 equal pieces.  Before sewing the ribbon in place, I treated the ribbon with Fray Check around the edges.  I used a basic stitch and sewed them into place. 

TA DA....New/Old Painting Apron

  

Front View

Isn't it CUTE?           

        


Back View  






                

It happened. I didn't want it to...But, it did!

I caved...I did it...I didn't in my wildest dreams ever think it was possible.  I am now a Twilight fan aka Twi-hard!!! I'm even scared a little bit to say it out loud.  It's kinda reminds me of what my husband always says:  "We like Justin Timberlake..We just don't talk about it!" Differently, I WANT to talk about it.  This is how it started.

My dear friend Allyson from good ole Boise, ID came to visit in May.  On one of our many shopping adventures we stumbled into TG Maxx.  It's truly one of my guilty pleasures heading to shoes looking for Dansko's and then off to clearance.  They always have so much fun stuff, mostly broken things from lamps to picture frames to Mrs. Meyer's Cleaner, which is now one of my favorites.  Wouldn't you know there with an aura surrounding it was "Twilight", "New Moon", and "Eclipse" all for $5 each!!! She was jumping up and down with pleasure.  I must have snarled a little when she jerked around and gasped, "You have not read these??"  Of course I have not read these.  My life is now filled with endless diapers and laundry with little time to even shower.  Well and also in true honesty, I've seen all the freaks on TV and me and my family are not the type to be sporting those terrible Twilight T-Shirts.  I won't even let my sweet babies sport Winnie the Pooh!!  I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat, well a big scaredy cat of "scary stuff" and I couldn't even watch the movie Babe because it made me sick to my stomach thinking someone was about to eat something that spoke.  Needless to say, that's never made me not want to eat bacon, so why would this be any different? 

After Allyson left, I cracked the first book open after the family went to bed.  The next time I looked at the clock it was 1:30 am and I grumbled not only because I didn't want to put it down, but I knew my sweet little man would be up rearing to go at 6am.  So with that said, it took me 3 days to read Twilight, 2 days to read New Moon, and 2 days to read Eclipse.  What has gotten in to me??? I couldn't even read 2 magazines from cover to cover in one week?  I was hooked and all I could think about was getting the last and final chapter Breaking Dawn.  I went to see Sex and the City 2 with Anita, and sorry girls if you have not seen it, it just wasn't as good as the first one, but what did I do next at 9:30pm.  Oh yes, it was off to Walmart, my own personal hell.  I stood in the speedy checkout lane for 20 minutes to get this damn book.  That's dedication!! It's what I'll assume it's like for someone hooked on drugs.  You get a taste and you want more more more!!
I TASTE = I LIKEY!!!

I just finished Breaking Dawn and I loved it although I'm a little sad it's OVER....sniffle sniffle.  There is definitely not any books that have done this to me and I'm sure my dear hubby hopes I don't find any other ones soon.  "Leftovers, AGAIN??" haha  Next mission:  Movies.  The first two are already on DVD (my mom already owns, hurray!!) and Eclipse comes to the theater on June 30th.  And yes, I will be there.  I won't be decked out in the T-Shirt, but trying to look incognito like it's not written all over my face:)

UPDATE (5 MINUTES AFTER POSTING):  I just read on the authors website that she's writing another one...Oh Lord, here we go..A rough draft was illegally leaked on the Internet, so the author decided to make a copy available to her "true" fans so no one would feel dishonest.  It's called Midnight Sun:)

Hurricane Survival

So, the time has come....Hurricane season. It runs from June 1st to November 1st, with most of the tropical storm & hurricane activity occurring at the end of August to beginning of September. It's been all over the news here, but I'm not sure if y'all in the rest of the country know the current stats from NOAA.  This is there prediction so far not just for the Gulf of Mexico, but the entire Atlantic Basin.

• 14 to 23 Named Storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including:
• 8 to 14 Hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which:
• 3 to 7 could be Major Hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph)

The first thing I think when looking at these numbers is CRAP.  We arrived here last year and we experienced nothing, nada, zilch, when it came to "crazy" weather.  Sure we got the rain storms every afternoon with the loud thunder (which we have nicknamed "angels bowling" for the kids) and lightning, but other than that it was pretty boring.  And that was a good thing! 


We're actually in Phase III for evacuations which also includes all of metro New Orleans.  I believe that although I love my home, if they authorities placed an evacuation in order, we would stuff the car and head up to Oklahoma to be with family on the safe side.  My parents moved here just months before Katrina and although they didn't get much of anything from it (other than lots and lots of people), Gustav did hit and HARD!  It let it's fury out and they were without power for nearly a month waiting in line for gasoline everyday so they could keep the generator going so they wouldn't melt. 


  Below is a couple of pictures my mom took of some of the aftermath of Gustav on their street.

I'm going to be ready this year! 

Well, I'm going to be as prepared as best as I can!

I've gone through all the preparation guides and put together a list of things that would be good for our family.  I've not only started gathering supplies here and there, but made some cards detailing what to do and how to prepare when a hurricane is in the gulf, 12-24 hours before landfall, supplies, and food needed. I Put them into an excel spreadsheet, laminated them so I can use a dry erase marker to check off, and hung them on the tool peg board.

So when a hurricane or tropical storm travels into our "hood" at least we'll be prepared the best we can.  Sure being from the Northwest we're used to rain, ice storms, snow storms, and volcanoes.  But really that's just peanuts compared to the fury of a hurricane.  All that flight attendant training is kicking in and all I can think is "BRACE BRACE BRACE"!