Shirt to Dress In Minutes

I've had 2 of these shirts, one blue and this green one, since leggings came back in style and I wear them with capri leggings.  Every time I wear them,  I think they are slightly too short for leggings and I should do something about that.

They come to just below my butt, like if I were to wear no leggings it would be very inappropriate and I think that even with leggings, tops should come to like 2 inches below the butt.

Otherwise, you're just wearing a shirt with tights and you might have read how I feel about that.

This shirt also didn't really have a finished hem.  It's serged but not even a rolled hem.  Every time I wore it, I thought it was strange and would think that I should do something about it.

So, I found this material.

It has a lot more green than you can see in this picture.  I thought it would be cute at the bottom of the shirt and kind of give it a finished look.

I cut a pretty wide strip of it and wanted to do a rolled hem.  I have a rolled hem foot but I've never really been sure how to use it properly.  The directions have never made much sense to me and it seems like it's a lot of work to get something that should be so easy with the ease of the rolled hem foot.  Since this was a straight piece of fabric, it wasn't too awful to deal with making a rolled hem.

I purposely cut it a lot longer than the circumference of the shirt because I wanted it to flow and ripple.  Now it's long enough to wear as a dress and I could probably hem it up a little so it looks finished for real.  I kind of think it looks like I just stuck this material on there.  A 2 inch length of material would have been just fine for what I was looking for!

But I spent so much time on that rolled hem..... and now I can wear it with or without leggings!  If I get my act together, I might have enough material for a scarf. 

Linking here:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2013/07/08/made-by-you-monday-160/
http://www.cherishedhandmadetreasures.com/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/ 

The Case of the Missing Sprinkler

Let me start by saying that I know I am the easiest person on earth to mess with.  I know how little it takes to get me all worked up.  And I know that weird people take the strangest satisfaction in watching that happen.

But yesterday was truly a case for Encyclopedia Brown.  Remember him?  I loved those books!  LOVED every single one of them!

And I found myself right in the middle of a humdinger that I don't even think he could have solved.

In garden #2, I don't have the drip irrigation that I have in garden #1, so I have to use a sprinkler.

Yes, that is some astonishingly high quality lawn you're looking at.  I'm working on it!

Yesterday morning, I went out early to get the garden watered before I went to ride.  When I got there, a whole 100 feet from the back door, the sprinkler was GONE!  Impossible!  First, who would even see that sprinkler in the lawn in the first place?  Second, it's a very quiet one, not the tsk-tsk-tsk-pllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll kind that rock back and forth.  And third, who in a trailer even needs a sprinkler?

I came back, accusing k-ster of putting it somewhere when he pressure washed the patio.  That's a post I'm coming to very soon, but here's a teaser.

So, I came storming in fussing about where he put my sprinkler.

You had already taken it off and put the hose on the patio because you watered your plants before I got home.

Oh yeah.

So, I went back out and tore the place up.  It was gone.  Really gone.  Not in the greenhouse, not anywhere on the back 40, not under his boat, not on the patio, not on any of the stuff we moved off the patio.  It was gone.

GONE!

I asked my father.

I asked my mother.

I asked k-ster again.

I asked myself quite a few times.

I asked Gwenstopher.

I almost called the police.

And had to make do with my fake sprinkler that I make by taking the nozzle, clamping it down and laying it on the ground so it sprays up.  And then I have to move it a few times.  Which I didn't have time to be doing and thus, wanted my effing sprinkler.

I guess someone took it.

Who takes a $3 sprinkler???  One that can barely be seen?  It's not like the garden is on a street with people passing by.  Someone had to deliberately go get it!  But first, they had to find it!

All day, I puzzled over this.  I was so irritated.  Who the eff takes a sprinkler?  And if someone was playing with me, how is this funny?  It's not like there was a crowd of people watching me self destruct, hooting and hollering over my foolishness.

Just before supper last night, I was taking the clothes off the line, clothes that no one stole, mind you, and I turned around to see that my sprinkler was back.  I was apoplectic.  Someone really had taken it!  And someone really had returned it!

Now, I know it's easy to assume I just overlooked it.  But how do I know it wasn't there earlier?  Because in order to start the whole ordeal, I had to drag the hose out to the garden.  When the sprinkler was returned, the perpetrator put it ON TOP OF the hose in my garden.  ON TOP of a hose that wasn't there when he/she stole the sprinkler in the first place.

So, we have a neat, tidy thief.  One who wants to make me feel better about my things be stolen.   And then returned.   One who also made the mistake of being too neat.  Had the thief simply thrown it back on the ground in the approximate location in which it was found, I would have declared myself blind and assume I just hadn't seen it.  This would have all blown over with me coming up with a master plan to put things where they belong so they don't disappear.  But to put it back so blatantly out in the open.....

And this brings us back to the question:  why would someone in a trailer need a sprinkler?  It's the only solution I have.  There were some people staying in the campground kind of near the garden.  They saw me water the garden the other day.  They were close enough to just borrow it and put it back.  BUT WHY?  A hose?  This I can understand.  There are many reasons to need a hose while camping.  But a sprinkler?  We don't allow open fires.  No one washes their pets with a sprinkler.  Where they were camped was actually pretty lush so they didn't need to "help" by watering the lawn.

And I also wonder if they stole a can of cat food out of my refrigerator.  I'm only sort of kidding.  Because not 5 minutes before I went out to start the sprinkler episode, I had opened the refrigerator to feed the cat and the can of food that I had put in the night before was gone.  I know, you say "well, it was night, you were on your way to bed, maybe you imagined it" except I remember 2 things.  One, that I got a green cover to put on the can and 2 when I went to put said cover on the can, I got gravy all over myself and had to wash it off and worried that I'd smell like beef-entrails-n-gravy all night.

I've checked the trash, the cabinets, the freezer.  No can.

Of course I don't really think they came in and took only a half used can of cat food.  But two things disappearing over night and only one being returned?  Definitely a project for a super sleuth.

Linking here:
http://www.2justbyou.com/?utm_source=Meet
http://www.cherishedhandmadetreasures.com/ 

Living In A Swamp

We don't have central air and I don't really care about that.  If we did, we'd always be arguing about him wanting it on and me wanting it off.  I only really want air conditioning at night.  And really, only when it's humid and the sheets feel wet.

I expect that when I walk into a store they will have the air conditioning on full blast, but in my house, not really.  My parents have it in their house and while it's nice to be able to take a shower and dry off and get dressed and stay dry (luxuries one cannot have in a house without A/C) for a while, I don't have to pay a high electric bill for the summer months and I get to hear the great outdoors.

And most of the time, we have a really great breeze around here and it's fine.

For those awful days of 100% humidity, which used to only come in August and now see to come as early as May, we have a window unit that we put in and it cools the bedroom and the living room.

Or should I say cooled.

Because the other day, k-ster turned it on, left the house and when he came back, it was 100% off and will not come back on.  It's not the outlet, we've tried others.  I'm afraid it's dead.

So, with some pretty wildly hot days this week, it turns out, we're living in a swamp.   A week of rain  made everything quite damp and now it's super hot and sunny so we're all steaming.  There are places that still have standing water that I haven't ever seen that wet. 

My house is already smelling moldy and I don't normally actually smell mold, I just see it when it starts growing on the walls.  I know that's gross but it's mostly in the bathroom.  It's not like all of our walls are green and furry.  That I know of.  I'm sure behind them it's just a forest of mold, but I only care about what I see.  This one of the many reasons the outdoor shower is essential!
  
It's only early July and I fear for the rest of the summer.

In the west, they have swamp coolers which blow air across water or ice to make it cool.  It's pretty smart when you're in the dry, hot desert.  Having water blowing around isn't much of a big deal and probably feels pretty good when skin is about to crack from the dry heat.

Here, this would just add to our humidity issues, I'm afraid and I think we would actually grow mold on ourselves!

Luckily, k-ster has found a solution that will probably work for us.

We have fans, we have styrofoam coolers and I know there are pieces of gutters around here that aren't being used.  It will sure be a lot cheaper than buying a new air conditioner at the height of the summer heat!  And no freon to ruin the atmosphere.

Ummm, I Carried A Watermelon

Remember when Baby walked into the dirty dancing scene in, well, Dirty Dancing, and she said "I carried a watermelon!"  Classic.

I always thought it was Molly Ringwald in 16 Candles, but whatever.

My point is that she felt completely stupid after she said it and totally lost any face she might have had with the rough crowd.

I currently feel as stupid as Baby.  Not because I carried a watermelon.  Or because I'm trying to get in good with the rough crowd.

But because I "earned" this.

Yes, that's a flyswatter you're looking at.  And I earned it because I submitted at least 2 Pampered Chef shows in June.

It's a "classic".  A wild hit in the 80s, it seems.  Not only does it hit the fly.  It has a special sweeper on the fat part.

And that pink thing?  That's a mini dustpan that comes off for the handy sweeping. 

And the pink thing at the top?  A pair of tweezers that handily comes out for you to pull the insect out of the swatter, should it not fall dead and need sweeping up.

This, from the Pampered Chef.  The company that brought you stoneware, bakeware, pantry products, my favorite Manual Food Processor.

And now, folks, the flyswatter.  Because that is exactly what I think of when I think of food and cooking products.

I'm embarrassed to say that I won it !  But I'm even more embarrassed to tell July customers that when they order $60 in products, they win themselves one of these flyswatters for themselves.

Seriously, I feel as dumb as if I said "I carried a watermelon!"

Linking here:
http://mommifried.com/ladies-only-blog-share-link-party-red-white-bbq/
http://www.acatlikecuriosity.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.myturnforus.com/
http://www.whatjeanlikes.com/2013/06/aloha60.html
http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/

Easy Supper For Hot Summer Night

I made a crockpot chicken which is a great way to  cook a chicken and not have to turn on the oven in the summer heat.  The only thing k-ster and I don't like about it is that it stinks up the whole house like chicken, even with the windows open.  I'm thinking of doing it on the patio next time.

Once it cooled enough to take off all the meat, I chopped up some of it and mixed it with barbeque sauce.  I didn't heat it because I thought it might taste pretty good cold.  And it did. If that grosses you out, heat it before you put it on the buns.

I put it on one of these amazing rolls and then made a broccoli slaw to go with it.

(I get zero points for style here because I know nothing about how to present food for photos!)

It was one of those meals that taste good because they are cold and it's really hot out!

Broccoli Slaw:
(I use the Manual Food Processor for all of this except the carrots)
one head of broccoli, chopped 
1/2 can of pineapple, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
about a cup of dried cranberries
one container of plain, greek yogurt
about 2 T of mayonnaise
1/3 c. of sugar

Mix and enjoy!

Linking here:
http://www.cherishedhandmadetreasures.com/
http://www.adornedfromabove.com/2013/07/wednesdays-adorned-from-above-blog-hop.html
http://www.2justbyou.com
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2013/07/01/made-by-you-monday-159/
http://mommifried.com/ladies-only-blog-share-link-party-red-white-bbq/
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/07/clever-chicks-blog-hop-42-with-two.html 

Don't You Dare Tell Anyone About This

I can't stop doing this.

We fired the maid last month, so the laundry never makes it from the clean basket into the drawers in a timely fashion.

Now, I've heard that kids believe it's totally fine to wear mismatched socks and I've see it with my very own eyes.

If there's one thing I will not tolerate, it's wearing mismatched socks.  That everyone can see.  I can't stand it.  Different colors, different heights, different textures.  It's enough to make me lose my mind. 

But lately, when I go to the clean basket to get socks so I can ride, I'm in a hurry and don't have time to be looking for matches.  So, I grab a color and if the next one of that style is the same color, yippee, but if not, I put it on anyway and put my boots on and go.

It's not ok.  This is not therapeutic.  This does not show that I am making great progress in coming to terms with my undiagnosed OCD. 

I just means that when no one can see, I give in and wear mismatched socks because it's easier than continuing to look and waste precious time. 

And then I think about it the whole time I'm driving to the barn:  I'm wearing a lime and a purple sock.  That's gross.  What is wrong with  me.  Do they feel different?  No, I think they feel the same.  In fact, they are really soft and nice.  They feel great in these boots, actually.  Thank God no one can see them.  They'd think there was something wrong with me.

There's nothing wrong with me, really.  I just like my socks to match.  And I like yours to match too.  And I especially like it when the heel part is on your heel and not just wrapped around your foot, all twisted.

That gives me great pain to see.  The colored part for the heel is meant to be on the heel. 

Another story for another day, I guess.

There's A Sidewalk Sale Going On!

This is unheard of in the land of Pampered Chef, but they are having an online sidewalk sale for this week only!

I have to get this griddle because it's a crazy steal and k-ster just mentioned it the other day, so it's like it was meant to be!  My electric griddle has seen better days.  Like the day before it broke in my sister's luggage when she brought it back from Seattle. 

The leg broke and I've used a very sophisticated system of propping it up with a torn off paper cup when I use it.  Very safe, I'm sure!  It's looking kind of worn in the teflon area too, so it's time!

Click here to see what it's all about and join if you'd like!  I'll post some great recipes on the event this week, you'll save ridiculous amounts of money and everyone will be happy!