Friday, October 29, 2010

3 random and totally unrelated Bogey stories

Story #1-- A few weeks ago, someone knocked the porcelain hand soap dispenser off the sink and broke it. (I'm not naming names, but I think it was Bogey). Why do they make things that are meant to be put up high on a counter breakable?! Did the porcelain hand soap dispenser factory workers never have children? Do they not comprehend that that is a disaster waiting to happen? Obviously not...crazy kooks.
Anyway...
so the dispenser was broken...and it was full of soap when it broke. Dev arrived on the scene who knows how many hours later, slipped in a foot wide puddle of soap, ran and changed her pants and then ran and told me. I was busy doing mommy things and told her I would get to it later.
Now let's fast forward past the boring and crazy busy week I had to today. Finally past the many events I was in charge of, I turned my attention to the housework. it was only then that I remembered the foot wide spill of handsoap, which by now had become evaporated and concentrated (read: stuck real good) onto the bathroom floor. *sigh* (and I was hoping to be done cleaning the bathrooms before lunch.)
SO I grabbed the mop, I started to scrub. In a few minutes, this is what the inside of my shower looked like (I was using the shower to rinse out the mop.)


Yes, friends, as a matter of fact, that is a 6 inch layer of soap in the shower stall. Bogey came in to "help" and wiped the walls and toilet with soap (it was his "rag"). After shooing him out, mopping for all I was worth (I was on my hands and knees mopping Cinderella-style, people!) I finally got all the soap off the floor. Then off the toilet and the walls and the shower. And while I was occupied, Bogey "watered" my plants for me with the spray bottle, and "washed" the windows, he "made" his brother's bed, and "organized" the books. What a productive day he's had.
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Story #2--While I was cleaning the bathroom today (see above), Dev yelled from the living room, "Moooom! Bogey's playing in the blinds!!!" (this is a no-no. She was tattling, you see.) Immediately, Bogey yelled out, "Oh mooooom! I'm playing in the blinds!" (I think it's funny, even if you don't).

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This morning while I was eating breakfast, Bogey came up to me while pushing buttons on a slender, black remote control we don't use anymore. He held it up to his ear and listened for a second, then he said, "Hey mom, I think your phone's ringing."
So I took my cell phone out of my pocket and put it to my ear. "Hello?"
"Hello, mom. Is that you?" Bogey said into the remote.
"Yes, it's me," I said. "is this Bogey?"
"Yeah. Oh hi! How're you doing?"
"I'm fine, thanks. How're you, Bogey?"
"good...[pause] so mom, can I have a bite of your toast?"
"sure."
"Ok. I'll be right over. Bye!"

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What more can I say? I love the boy.


Saturday, October 9, 2010

my first tutorial

My blog is all grown up. It's presenting its first tutorial to you today. *sigh* seems like only yesterday I was creating it.

How to easily make a Halloween bag (or any bag, for that matter)**

**please note that I am not an expert seamstress by any stretch of the imagination. I recognize that for you seasoned and accomplished sewers, this project will seem like a piece of cake. If this looks like baby stuff to you, I am ok with you not reading it. Really. I won't be mad.

First, decide the dimensions of your bag. I am making these bags to be goody bags for our Halloween party. I want them to be about the size of a brown paper lunch bag. Thus, I cut out two pieces of 8 by 10 fabric. Also, now is the time to pick your colors. I picked black because it's a Halloween color, and, I'm going to sew a ghost onto it. Everyone knows black is the best background color for a ghost.

Second, I cut out my ghosty shape. There is not rhyme or reason to this part. I just cut some curvy shapes out of an old lace curtain. Then I cut three semi-symmetrical black circles: two smaller and one bigger.
Then I sewed the ghosty shape onto one of the 8 by 10 black squares (on the outside of the fabric, mind you) I used a zig zag stitch right along the edge of the ghost because I think it looks better.

Then sew the black circle eyeballs and mouth onto your ghost in the same way. Put your two black squares together, outside in. (Make sure your ghost is facing up.) Cut a small square out of each bottom corner. I don't measure this (measuring is for sissies.) I just eyeball it.Now stitch your sides and the bottom together. I used a straight stitch here.

Now here's the tricky part (and also the fun part) look at the small square you created when you cut the corners off the black square. take the inner corners of the small square and pull them apart so that the corners that you just stitched meet. (Don't ask me why it made my words a link. I didn't tell it to and I don't know how to turn it off. It will just take you to a larger format of the picture below.) Pulling the corner apart will make a new line that makes the outer corners meet. Stitch that shut, so it looks like this:

hem the top, then turn it inside out and sew handles on it.
viola! a halloween bag for your ghouls!
These bags are so easy and so fun! I can make 3 or 4 in an afternoon without breaking into too much of a sweat. You can use other colors and decorations to make them for different seasons. I probably will. (I'm thinking valentines bags would be cute, too).
Have fun!