My fancy hats

I love to wear hats!  It isn't often that there is a good excuse to wear your best hat, but today is an exception!  It being the Royal Wedding Day, wearing a hat is quite acceptable.

So, here I am, wearing my fanciest hat.  It's not a great picture, but it is the best I can do on my own.
Which do you prefer?  This one.....

Or this one?

 They are both way to much fun to wear.

I feel like Hyacinth Bucket... I mean Bouquet.

"The lady of the house speaking!"

Let's Sing!

I'm in the mood for another silly song.  Are you ready?

OOOOOOOO
The big red letters stand for the Jell-O company
O the big red letters stand for the Jell-O company
There's Jell-O
Yum, yum, yum
Jell-O Pudding
Yum, yum, yum
Jell-O TAAAAAAAAAAAAPIOCA
Try all three!

A hint

Here is a hint to my project!  It's coming along, but I still have a few major details to work out first.....

Any ideas?

PS: Susan, you are not allowed to guess.  You know too much.

Such Crafty Kids

I have a little bucket that I keep some general craft supplies in - googly eyes, pompoms, glue sticks, beads, ribbons, foam stickers, scissors, that sort of thing.  It has a place in the closet next to the construction paper.  This past weekend, my youngest kids re-discovered this bucket of fun.

(Also kept within the bucket is the hot glue gun. I should probably take it out, but when I need it, I know it is there.  If I put it in a new spot, I'll never remember where it is.  Today, my youngest pulled out the hot glue gun and asked me what it was.  I told her it's a hot glue gun.  My 5 year old yelled out excitedly, "It's a gun?!"

Yeah, well, sort of.  That's a boy for you, I guess.)

I have a love/hate relationship with the bucket of fun. I love when they pull it out and are creatively making things with it. I hate the mess. When they pull that thing out the creative destruction is huge. Guess who cleans it all up...  I'll give you a hint, it's not the kids.


That's OK though. I really love to see their creative juices oozing onto their project in front of them. My 5 year old son made the coolest little race car out of paper and a black foam sheet. It was decorated with foam stickers and had a few beads glued onto it. So creative.

Right now the three year old is sitting at the table, bucket of fun in front of her and a bottle of glue in her hands.  I want to go re-claim the kitchen table, but who can squash such creativity?

Summer approaches!

My kids have just four weeks of school left!  AHHHH!

Next week, I take my youngest son to the school for Kindergarten registration!  AHHHH!

It's time to start planning our annual Monkees Marathon!  YEAH!

I'm working on a huge dream I've had for years!  WOAH!

OK, enough of that.  Yes, the kids summer vacation is coming up.  It's getting hot enough here that I've had to turn on my A/C twice.  Just for an hour or so in the afternoons, but still....  There hasn't been any rain since probably September.  The desert is dry and dusty.  It's also the windy season and there is a lot of orange dirt in the air.  I look forward to the rainy season.

I'm using my clothes line a lot.  It's great.  The sun is hot out here. The top of my head will burn after about two minutes in the sun.  So, I have some awesome hats that I keep by the doors for when I go outside to water the garden or hang laundry.

I'm working on a big project right now.  I don't want to say just yet, but each day I think about it a little more and work on it a little more and I'm getting very excited that this just might happen.  Biggest obstacle now is a location for my project.  If I can find a location, then it will be all ahead full. I want this to happen this summer and with only four weeks to go before school lets out, I need to double my efforts.  I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, really, but it's going to be exciting.....  I'll announce it when it gets closer to happening.

Obligatory Photo:  Our cat.  Have you ever seen a more uncat-like pose?

How does your garden grow?

Good golly Miss Molly
Whose laugh is so jolly,
How does your garden grow?

With potatoes in pails
And strawberries that fail
And sweet onions all in a row.

The garden at the beginning of April:

How it's looking today:

Lots of onions!

Potatoes and Onions

You get creative in the desert.

Like the New 'Do?

It's a tad frilly, but I like it.

While working on a project of mine, I started searching through the many bookshelves in our house looking for something I wrote when I was about 10 years old.  Several posts ago, I showed all the journals I've kept since 1994.  The stack was quite large.

Today, as I was searching for a particular piece I wrote so very long ago, I re-discovered several notebooks, folders, and three ring binders that had more of my writings.  Let me say I was meant to be a writer.  I'm not saying I'm a good one, just that I was born to write.  I couldn't believe the entire books I was pulling out that I wrote when I was 8 years old.  Several full length plays written before the age of 12. Journal entries. A lot of poetry (but the poetry was for school projects.  I am not a poet) and a whole lot of short stories.

It's kind of crazy.  I really need to put all these loose folders and binders together into one place.  It's my life in bits and pieces.

And now it's time to SING!

If you've met me, you might realize pretty quickly that I'm quite shy.  I'm content to watch and listen to other people talking.  I might join in on the conversation, but when in a group of more than three people, I tend to clam up and listen.

If you know the real Molly, however, you know that underneath this shy person, there is a gal who loves to perform and one favorite performing outlet is sing silly camp songs.  And so, I will share with you one of my favorite camp songs.

Are you ready?

Black socks they never get dirty
The longer you wear them
the blacker they get
Some day I'll probably change them
But something keeps telling me
don't do it yet!

Don't ya love it?
One day, if I can figure out how to, which is hard because I'm cinematography challenged, I'll post a video of myself singing this great song.

The best part about this song is that it can be sung in a round.  Here we go!

Black socks they never get dirty
The longer you wear them
the blacker they get
Someday I'll probably change them          Black socks they never get dirty
But something keeps telling me                 The longer you wear them
don't do it yet!                                         the blacker they get
                                                               Someday I'll probably change them
                                                               But something keeps telling
                                                               me don't do it yet!

Nice job.  Give yourselves a big round of applause.

PS: Hey Sis, the next time we get together, we should get a video of us singing "Rocka My Soul."  Nobody sings that song better than we do.

How to Darn a Sock

Thanks to all of you who left me such encouraging comments.  I truly appreciate it.

So, as promised, here is a guide on how to darn a sock.  I hope this makes sense.  The pictures should make up for my lack of eloquence in explanation.

First, you need to gather your materials:  A darning mushroom, which I don't have so I use a large plastic blue Easter egg.  You don't have to use blue if you don't want.  Any color plastic Easter egg will work.  You need a large needle and thread or yarn.  And of course, you need a sock with a hole in it.

Turn the sock inside out and insert the Easter egg into the sock.  You can see here the blue egg peeking through the hole.

Now you can begin to darn it.  Don't put any knots into yarn.  You don't want to be standing on knots.  Just leave a little hanging off at the end.  Sew in and out, in and out a little bigger than the hole in the sock.  When you loop around at the end, don't pull the yarn tight.  Leave the loop a little loose.  This way the sock won't gather when it is washed. 

Just keep going in and out, in and out, back and forth, back and forth.  The Easter egg keeps your sock stretched so it is easier to darn.

 When you have covered the hole in one direction, turn and start weaving the yarn in and out over what you just sewed.  Continue on until you have covered the entire hole and just a little beyond.  You can see here the darning needle and how I've woven the threads.  It's just like those pot-holders you wove as a kid.

 When you are done, cut the thread and leave a little thread hanging loose.  As you can see, the hole is covered with yard woven right into the sock.

 Take out the Easter egg, turn the sock right side out and admire your work.  The hole is repaired.  The sock is wearable. 

And that is how you darn a sock.  It takes time to do, but I love to throw on a great TV show or movie to keep me entertained while I work.  I keep my darning supplies in a bag and I'll take it along with me when I'm taking kids to lessons or activities.  If I'm just sitting and waiting for them, I pull out my darning and usually by the time the lesson is over, I can have two socks done (depending on the size of the hole.)

"Wendy's favourite time for sewing and darning was after they had all gone to bed. Then, as she expressed it, she had a breathing time for herself; and she occupied it in making new things for them, and putting double pieces on the knees, for they were all most frightfully hard on their knees. When she sat down to a basketful of their stockings, every heel with a hole in it, she would fling up her arms and exclaim, "Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!”

from Peter Pan by J M Barrie 1911

That Darn Sock

A few weeks ago, I watched a sweet movie called Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.  The American Girl's company has done several movies based on their characters.  Of the three movies I've seen, Kit Kittredge is my favorite.  It's totally family friendly, lots of fun and sweet.  The actors in it are great.  If you have Netflix, I highly recommend it.

The movie takes place during the 1930's and the Great Depression.  Kit's mom talks about how hard they work to save everything, repair everything and reuse everything.  I thought about how wasteful my life tends to be.  So, I decided to do something my female ancestors have done for years: darn socks.

My oldest son puts holes in his socks like you wouldn't believe.  While doing his laundry several weeks ago, I noticed how every single pair of socks had at least one hole.  I'm buying him new socks often.  Well, I'm tired of buying socks.  Most of the holes were quite small and if I fixed them, they wouldn't get bigger.  I've probably repaired 10 socks in the last few weeks.  That is almost equal to one package of socks.  Most 6 pack of socks are $7- $10.

These socks I just fixed today.  I must have darned 7 holes in just these four socks.  (By the way, the socks are clean, but we live in a desert filled with orange dirt, so the socks tend to turn orange too.)

 A close up of what the darning looks like.  The first sock I darned, see below, I used red yarn.  It really doesn't matter what color you use when the hole is on the bottom of the sock.  That part is in the shoe and isn't seen.  However, I have more of the white yarn, so that's what I'm using now. 

To darn a sock, you need a larger darning needle and what is called a darning mushroom.  I don't have a darning mushroom, but necessity is the mother of invention and so I use a large plastic Easter egg.  It works perfectly!  I think I'll have to do a separate blog entry to show just how to darn a sock.

So, all this comes down to: I'm repairing and reusing something that is still 90% good.  I fixed the holes and the socks are wearable again.  I asked my son if the repair yarn in his socks bothered him at all and he said no.  I have learned a new (yet old) skill and I'm saving my family a bit of money.  Not bad.  Not bad at all.

How long do you hold onto a dream?

We all have dreams, right?  I'm not talking about the strange ideas that our brain creates while we sleep, I'm talking about dreams.

I've mentioned several times how I have so many great ideas that I could write a huge book of just the ideas alone.  Some of them are simple ideas and some are quite elaborate.  Some of the dreams are unreachable, some seem like they could become real but they depend on circumstances beyond our control, and some dreams are most defiantly in my control.  Confused?  I'll give some examples:

Unreachable dreams:  To be a beautiful Broadway actress with an amazing voice.  Yeah, not happening.

Could be real, but too much is beyond my control:  Having a book published.  It could happen, but it depends on the whims and wants of publishers.

Dreams in my control:  Getting my Master's degree.  All I have to do is go to school.  Easier said than done, but all within my control.

Is this making a little more sense?  I hope so.  How long should I hold onto these dreams before giving them up?  How long should I continue to send in query letters to publishers before I give up on the idea of ever getting published?  What keeps me from really pursuing the dreams within my own control?  Is it fear of failure?  Fear of humiliation?  Fear of the lack of money?  I think fear of failure is my biggest demon holding me back from those reachable dreams.  Sure, there are other things like the kids have been too young for me to be able to devote much time into getting a Master's degree and I know that, but really, fear of failure keeps me from trying too hard.

Am I the only person who has these problems?  How long do I hold onto a dream?  A year?  Five years?  Twenty years?  A life time?  Is it better to try and fail than never try at all?  I'd feel really bad if I failed.  But to never know what could have been........

This blabbing and rambling is just that.  Me thinking out loud.  Perhaps it is time to get out of my comfort zone and really work at one of those reachable dreams.  Then again, maybe I'll just stay right where I am and enjoy the idea of the ideas.

A fun photo

I posted this picture on my weaving blog, but it is such a funny one that I thought I'd share it here.

There are some times in weaving when you need extra help.  This is my help:

Yes, that is Gollum and Smeagol hanging by green yarn off the back of my loom.  I needed some weights for my floating edges.  These guys are perfect.

Problem Solved

Our new van!  Hooray!  We can travel around as a family again.