I've been so focused on my master's degree that I have had little time for projects and sewing. However, I am in a bit of a holding pattern right now waiting for my student teaching placement in the Fall. So when an opportunity arose to give back to the theater program my daughter is a part of I was excited to help.

I made 27 costume peices for my daughter's school musical.

I sewed "seaweed' onto a skirt for Ariel to wear when her fins turn to legs.

Made 4 seaweed costumes (this is the concept drawing) each with a headpiece, top and skirt. It took a very long time to detangle the strips of fabric that were being repurposed from some old costumes. I got help from some of the drama girls to make the work go more quickly. Luckily, I did not need to iron them because the wrinkles added to the seaweed effect.

The headpieces for the girls' seaweed costumes

My son Tobi 3-D printed the eyes for me to create 2 Sebastian hats. He is so clever, I just cut a basic shape out of paper and said "print something like this" and he delivered. Thanks Tobias.

I also made 4 reed/grass costumes. 

It was tricky to find a solution to secure the silk flower grasses to the actors without attaching them to the base layer that needed to be used for multiple costume changes. Ultimately, I ordered some wide elastic the same color as the base layer, attached the grass to elastic bands at the ankle, waist, and a fabric yolk around the neck. The elastics required plastic clasps to enable the quick changes that were required.

The whole thing was fun, rewarding and took up a lot of time. It was very informative for me to be reminded of my capacity, and I was glad I did not take on any more costumes. All in all, I'm happy to be seen as a resource to the director and the head costume lady and I'm looking forward to helping with costumes again next year. I think it could be fun to help from the beginning and make more concept drawings as I brainstorm with the costume designer.

 BETSY BOOK ONE: LIFE ON THE STREETS.

Once, there was a stray cat named Betsy; her parents had been run over by a car. She lived on the streets for weeks; one day, she scratched a dog, and then she came to a street called Bowling Lane. When she came to 3194, the family there took her in.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            CHAPTER 2: A NEW FAMILY.

    They fed her and made her a little house. One day, Danny was on a device that had moving pictures that showed green guys fighting, and then it showed a bunch of white guys fighting.

 its the year 2097 the genius daniel the IV has just finished a super robot to stop the evil desires of his jealous older brother tristapher, in his defeat dr. tristapher made 10 robots to counter ultra-man but it was not to be because ultra-man was faster than a two peragrain falcons,  stronger than 10 rhinoes, more powerful than 100 nuclear plasma explosions, more electric than 1,000 100 volt genaraters, & more fiery than 10,000 suns. but dr.tristapher did not give up.

It`s the Wild Kratts annual Firefly Festival; Chris & Martin are arguing about who`s a more powerful Parasite, a Leech, or a Mosquitoe, "Whoa, whoa, guys, break it up, break it up, what's going on?" " CHRIS IS BEING UNREASONABLE!" " UH, ME? YOU`RE BEING UNREASONABLE!'' ''listen, we can do a contest to see what`s a more powerful Parasite. " The next morning, Chris & Martin were up & early, and then the rest of the crew came out with the new Mosquito & Leech Power suits, the point of the Game was to destroy 20 mini drones before the other person.then when the game starts they blast underground and in the water and air. martin is spreading a deadly fearamone , they both have 19 they clash to get one , as the dust setals they all agree that it was a tie.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         THE END

The Story of Jack: The Hero

CHAPTER 1 FAMILY: Once, there was a poor family with two dogs named Kelsey and Jack. One day, the dogs had puppies, and they could afford all but one, so they let him go onto the streets. 

CHAPTER 2 LIFE ON THE STREETS: The puppy spent weeks living on the streets, and the only thing he ate was scraps his old family gave him and cardboard. He grew a little over time. One day, he was in an alley, and he barked at a cat. It scratched his eye. He stumbled onto the streets, and he saw a baby about to be hit by a car. He saved the baby, but he got hit by the car. so The baby's family gave him some food.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            CHAPTER 3 THE VET: the next morning he woke up in a cage,then a nice old woman came in, she walked around then she saw jack, then she walked to the guy at the counter, she talked then the man grabbed jacks cage and took it outside and put him in the car and drove to our heroes new home.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            THE END.

 It's midnight, and everybody but Chris is asleep. It's time to make his move, then he makes his move; he sneaks over to Martin`s backpack & takes out his Power Disc collection,& takes his Electric Eel Power Disc.& Leaves The Tortuga to find their Electric Eel friend, Voltage. Meanwhile, at The Tortuga, Martin wakes up. It's now Morning, and he decides to go for a Morning swim, but then he notes that Chris is GONE!!!& So is his Electric Eel Power Disc! But then he realized that CHRIS TOOK IT!!!!!!!!!!So he went down to the garage,& made 14 clones of himself. ACTIVATE CAIMAN POWER!!! As he & his clones head to the river, then he sees a zap, "AHA," but it's actually Voltage, Martin gets electrified and screams OUCHIE. Then, he sees a flash of Greenlight,& then, he sees CHRIS." HEY CHRIS!!!!!""Uh, oh, "says Chris as he picks up the pace. But then he sees Grabsy & her family, "ACTIVATE SPIDER MONKEY POWER"!!!!!as he brachiates through the tree tops. But then Martin activates Harpy Eagle power, "ACTIVATE HARPY EAGLE POWER"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!As he flies through the treetops, meanwhile, Chris is swinging through the treetops, but then, the vine Chris is holding onto SNAPS! He falls to the ground, and then a Black jaguar attacks him! But luckily, Martin distracts the Jaguar as it chases Martin as he flies away back to the Tortuga HQ, where Chris gives Martin 2 of his Creature Power Discs to makeup for taking his Electric Eel Power Disc,& for Martin saving his life.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              THE END

 The Wild Kratts are in the Oklahoma plains when Martin spots a Wolf Spider. he asks Aviva if she can make a Wolf Spider Power Disc. Meanwhile, Zack Varmatech Hears about this in his spy cloud," A Wolf Spider?"."OF COURSE!!!"" A Wolf Spider Zack bot." Meanwhile, Aviva has just finished the Wolf Spider Power Disc. As Jimmie teleports, it is just in time. Chris is hanging out With gazels,& there's only 1. so Martin grabs it & touches a Wolf Spider, "ACTIVATE WOLF SPIDER POWER", yells Martin. Later he sneaks up on Chris. "BOO" "WHAO" yells Chris. "Hey Martin, did Aviva make a second Wolf Spider Power Disc?" oh, um..., no."Aw man." "Hey, where is Venom?"(gasps)"wheres all the Wolf Spiders!?""Martin, look up!"" What?"" THAT."As they see Zack's jet sucking ALL the Wolf Spiders!"We gotta stop him"."Agreed"."Hey, look a PeregrineFalcon". "ACTIVATE PEREGRINE FALCON POWER!!!"."Oh yeah,you don't have Peregrine Falcon Powers anymore.""Well anyways,I,M FLYING TO THE CREATURE RESCUE!!!"."Not so fast Zack","what the, uh wild rats" "THATS WILD KRATTS!!!" "Eh whatever, I,m gonna turn all these puppy spiders, into my new attack bots,MWA HA HA!!!"."Not if we can help it, & dude the dislach button is like right here soooooooo, yeah"."NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(20 hours later) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"& then Zack screams like a girl,& yells,"I'LL GET YOU WILD RATTS!!!!!"."THATS WILD KRATTS"as the Kratt brothers press a button that makes Zack's jet crash in Antarctica!then Zack yells"ZACK BOTS FIGIHT!!!"As the Zack bots start fighting each other as zacks plain crashes in Arctica                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            THE END

 Of on the African Savanah, Chris & Martin spot a Black Momba fighting a Martial Eagle. Then Martin calls Aviva,& says, "Hey Aviva, Can you make a Bla-."A Black Momba & Martial Eagle power suit, DONE!AWESOME!Meanwhile, Up in the air,Danita Danata spots the Martial Eagle & the Black Mamba and says oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 5 hours later oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo la la  she says some lushious fighting necklaces and Dabio says ooooooo worm and Pidgeon.So they went down & captured ALL the Black Mambas & Martial Eagels in on the SAVANAH!Meanwhile,Chris & Martin found the nests. Martin activates Martial Eagle powers,&Chris activated Black Mamba powers. TO THE CREATURE RESCUE!they yell. as Martin crashes through the roof of Danitas jet,& says"HOPE I`M NOT DANATEXPECTED!"But Chris & Martins power suits are damaged!& when they touch the other animal then a combination suit is created!& Well chris distracts Dabio & Danita,Martin free`s the animals & sends them to Antartica.THE END.

Danny's Wil Kratts Story

My son has gotten in trouble at school off and on for his extremely creative superhero stories and drawings that sometimes get too extreme for school. So, we are practicing appropriate stories here. They are un edited and a creative outlet for him

In the Indonesian Rainforest, Chris and Martin Kratt are trying to look for a flying Gecko. This unusual creature has the creature power to glide like a Draco Lizard because they have special things between their toes and fingers that allow them to glide. They can also climb on smooth surfaces because they have special fingerpads. Gecko fingers go the opposite way that human fingers go.

But meanwhile, over in the sky, there is Zack Varmetec. He is trying to find a new creature for his new spy bots. He thinks the flying geckos might be the answer. 

Meanwhile with the Wild Krats, Martin calls Aviva and asks if she can make a flying Gecko power disk. She says

"Oh, these!" and she pulls out 2 from her pocket.

Martin Says, "How did you...    ...um"

"I knew what you guys were doing," says Aviva "Teleport 'em Jimmy."

The powerdisks arrive and MArtin finally comes up with a name for the new gecko friend. "Sticker" 

"activate flying gecko powers" they say together

But all of a sudden, when they turn around to see sticker, he suddenly disappears. When they walk back to the Tortuga, they realize all the flying geckos in the forest are missing! "We gotta find them" says Chris.

"but how?" says Martin "we don't even know where they are."

Aviva says "Come on guys, maybe we can use this special animal tracker I just built"

"well, we can try" says martin

"Now lets check" says Jimmy. meanwhile in the sky Zack Varmatech has turned all the Flying Gecos in the Indonesian Rain Forest into spybots!so now he can steal ALOT of the Wild Krattses technolaghy!such as...,The Creatarae,The Miniturizer ,The Bus Bikes,or even,THE CREATURE POWER SUITS!meanwhile,...at The Tortuga"no traces of the Flying Gekos yet"says Aviva.Then all of a sudden Chris & Martin spot something!Its Zacks jet!AN THEN...ALL the Flying Gekoes in the Indonesian Rain Forest come out of the sun roof & steal all the technology!But luckily The Wild Kratts have a plan.First Chris & Martin miniturize themselves & take of all the the gloves Zack put on them.Next they spray all the walls with some thing that makes it so the geckoes cant climb them. Next while the geckoes are distracted well The Wild Kratts remove all the mind control helmets of the Gekoes.& also Zack screamed like a girl  & yells, I'L GET YOU WILD RATTS !' "THATS WILD KRATTS!" THE END

Crochet Owl Hat

Crochet Owl Hat

My niece in her new owl hat

Pattern: Crochet Owl Hat Pattern in Newborn-Adult Sizes - Repeat Crafter Me

Hook: H-8 (5.0mm) <That is what the pattern says, but I sized down to a G because I made one that looked to open. Also, I used the smallest hook I had for the eyes, because otherwise they looked a bit crazy with the pupils having a big zig zaggy outline against the white.

Yarn: Vanna's Choice medium worsted weight yarn (I used some soft baby yarn I had on hand)

Time Investment: I made the hat in one night because I was so excited to see it come together, but in the future I would probably crochet the hat and ear flaps on night, then the details the next night.

Pros: This pattern has directions for all sizes. I also love how the details of the ears and braids that come down form the ear flaps used all 3 colors of yarn from the hat creating cohesion and visual interest at the same time.

Cons: maybe this is because I did not use the recommended yarn, but the weave was fairly open, if I am going to bother with a hat, I want the weave to be nice and closed/tight so cold air does not blow into my ears.

Would I make it again? yes 

Since I've been having so much fun knitting and collecting patterns, I messaged my Brother and Sister-in-law, who have a new 6-month-old baby. I told them I had been having fun knitting and asked them if there was anything they needed for the new baby that I could make for them. They said their older daughters have owl hats that my sister gave them. They asked for me to make a coordinating hat for the baby.

It brought a big smile to my face because one of my old friends/crochet teachers sent one of these owl hats to my Son Tobi when he was a baby. I love it when life comes full circle.

My son in his owl hat from Aimee many years ago

Knit Hot Pad

I had a lot of extra cotton yarn from making my daughter's market tote, so I made her a hot pad.  

Knit Hot Pad

Front and Supplies

Back

Pattern:

Website: Double-Thick Pot Holder - Purl Soho | Beautiful Yarn For Beautiful KnittingPurl Soho | Beautiful Yarn For Beautiful Knitting

Youtube: https://youtu.be/bsB4Pde729M?si=2nz5aZm5HhHCpTKr

Needles: US 6/4mm Circular Needles (16" long)

Yarn: 1 Skein Cotton Yarn (159 yards/ 100g)

Time investment: I would estimate this would take about 1 week of knitting during family TV time at the end of the day. I made it a little faster than that, but it was because I took it with me on a long car ride.

Pros: The circular needles made this pattern simple, 

Cons:

• It was hard to pick up and know if I should be knitting or pearling, so I made a reversible stitch marker to remind me how to garter stitch on circular needles, one side told me to knit, the other side told me to pearl. Each time I reached the stitch marker, I would flip it.
• The 3 needle cast-off that the pattern told me to do made a ridge on the pot holder, I am curious if the ridge will make pots wobble a bit, or if it will smooth out under the weight of a pot.

Would I make it again:

yes, I am excited to get some red and blue cotton yarn to make some to match my kitchen and decide what I think of this pattern compared to other knit potholder patterns.

The back side of the pot holder looks a bit different than the purl soho one because I wasn't paying attention and I did another 3 needle cast off instead of whip stitching like the pattern said to do. 

Knit Market Bag

 For the holiday Bazaar in November, I made a LOT of little knit stockings. It reminded me how much I enjoy a good craft project and how little mess a knitting project creates compared to a sewing project. I was reminded of 4 friends and family members who have taken the time with me over the years to teach me how to knit and crochet (My great aunts, my mom, Aimee, and Ginger.) Thanks ladies for helping me through the awkward stages of learning this skill so I can pick it back up whenever I like and continue learning new things with the knowledge, skills, and confidence you have given me. I think I you all everytime I pick up my needles or hook.

Knit Market Bag

I started with a knit market bag for my daughter. She loves being friendly to the environment and bringing her own bag places. So I made it with that in mind. 

Photo from Sheep&Stitch.com

Pattern:

Website: Market Bag Knitting Pattern (and Free Video Tutorial) - Sheep and Stitch

Youtube: https://youtu.be/jHwBql133Zo?si=By6bXTEGzt3PLNUj

Needles: 32″ 3.5mm circular needle

Yarn: 2 Skeins Cotton yarn (You will only need a small amount of the 2nd skein)

Time Investment:

I made some mistakes my first time around interpreting the pattern, so I had to start again and watch the youtube video to clarify what I was missing. But once I got things figured out, it took me about 4 weeks of knitting as we watched TV as a family each night before bed.

Pros:

The bag looked small when I completed it, but it stretches very nicely and adjusts well to most items you might want to put in it.

Cons: 

What I noticed was that since it took a whole skein of yarn + a little of a second, when not in use, the bag does not condense well. It takes up as much room as a skein of yarn would.  

Also, the open lacework that makes it stretch so easily, allows rain/dirt to come into the bag. So it was good for my daughter's California vacation but it might not protect her books when she takes it home to rainy Seattle.

Would I make it again:

Yes, if I had another environmentally-friendly friend I wanted to make something for. I presented this bag to my daughter when she came home for the holidays. She had to travel so light that she was not able to bring a purse/bag to put her wallet in. She ALWAYS loves to carry a book with her wherever she goes, so she seemed happy to receive it and used it to take her wallet, book, and personal items with her wherever she went during her 2-week visit.

If I wanted to make something similar that condensed better, my mother told me to try something called "jute" (I'm not sure of the spelling) that is much thinner.

I have some more projects I am going to make with the leftover cotton yarn.

Holiday Bazaar Prep

My kids are frequently asking if they can sell stuff to our neighbors. Not for a school fundraiser, just in an effort to earn some cash above and beyond their allowance. The boys normally want to do a lemonade stand but over the years, we have had the kids pop up stands in the front yard to sell paper airplanes, bracelets, hot chocolate... 

However, living on base, there are some strict rules about selling stuff to prevent competition with the Government-run stores/facilities. So you have to wait for opportunities offered by the base and do it on their schedule. In Gulfport it was the quarterly garage sale. Here in Lemoore, we have signed up to sell stuff in a booth at the annual Holiday Bazaar.

Here are the items we prepared to sell at the bazaar:

Keepsake Ornament-Dog Tags $3 each 

I ordered some dog tags with the name of the base and "Christmas 2023" imprinted on them to sell as ornaments. With Shipping and handling, we paid $1 for each, the kids will get $2 profit off of each tag sold. I was surprised, these didn't sell as well as I thought they would. But my husband enjoyed passing them out at work, so it turned out okay.

Salt dough snowflakes $2 for a set of 3.

These are cheap to make with items already in your kitchen and craft area. Plus they are made by children, so no one is paying top dollar for them. They were purchased by people who wanted to give a few bucks to the kids to be nice. The kids helped in the following ways:

• mix the dough
• paint them
• glue the white glitter dust on
• cut the strings
• attach the strings

I rolled the dough/cut out the shapes to ensure they stayed uniform/cooked properly. I also drilled the holes for the strings to make sure they did not all break in the process.

Candy Ornament-Knit stockings  $4 each

The cost of the yarn was minimal per stocking, but it takes me about 5 hours to knit each one. So $4 is a steal. Each stocking is just the right size to put a fun-sized KitKat bar inside of it.

Kissy Creatures $3 each 

$0.11 of Plastic canvas per Kissy Creature and scraps of yarn from my stockings, but they take a full night to put one together. $2.89 Profit per Kissy Creature. Again, these are a steal when you consider the time it takes to make one. I also bough googley eyes because I thought they looked better than the slanty eyes in the examples I saw, but the eyes I bought turned out to be cheep, some of them were defective and others broke after I glued them on.

Peanut Butter "Cups" $2.00 each

about $13.79 to buy ingredients for a double batch. Put them in the large pan (1 size up from 9x13) and cut them into squares 4 across by 6 wide $1.43 profit per square

Peanut Butter Cup Labels. (Cut in strips and wrap around each one.) 

Caramels $0.75 each

it costs $0.22 to make each caramel. My recipe makes about 30 1"x3" pieces with plenty to be cut off of the edges for us to snack on. selling at $0.75 will give us $0.53 profit per piece. These were my bestsellers because they were my least expensive item. Caramel lovers would buy one, then come back to buy some more after they it and realized how delicious they were :)

Caramel Labels (Print 9 pages per sheet, cut on dotted lines and wrap around each caramel.)

Plastic Canvas Kissy Creatures

I like to make a new Homemade ornament every Christmas to add to my tree. While digging around in my craft closet this month I found the supplies to make one of my most favorite ornaments of all time. It was on my Grandma's tree every year and it was always so magical to me.

 

Santa from LifeAtCloverHill.com

When you squeeze Santa's cheeks, the ornament opens up and there is a space for a candy to hide inside.

During my Grandma's Anual Christmas party, she must have come back and filled the ornaments with candies when we weren't looking because it seemed like no matter how many times we emptied the ornament, if we came back to the tree 30 minutes later, there were candies inside them again.

I found a tutorial on how to make them on the site LifeAtCloverHill.com

https://lifeatcloverhill.com/2015/12/squeeze-santas-cheeks-ornament.html

But while searching for the tutorial, I found a lot of other fun designs that follow the same concept. They all had different names to describe them, but my favorite is Kissy Creature

Christmas/Winter Themes Kissy Creatures

Elves from CraftTGram on Etsy

A video tutorial for the Grinch with a hat on top from Caroline's Plastic Canvas Crafts on YouTube

The Grinch simplified

How cute would these mice be for Nutcracker Cast Gifts.

found on Pintrest

Artic Penguins from CraftTGram on Etsy

I'm loving this Olaf

These ones were not Kissy Creatures, instead they were Popourie boxes, so you have 6 sides of plastic canvas decorated as you like, and you fill them with something scented for the holiday before you close them up.

Found On Pintrest

Fox or Dear if you add Antlers from CraftTGram on Etsy

Haloween Themed Kissy Creatures

From CraftyLauries on Etsy

Frankenstine from Pinterest.com

Character-themed Kissy Creatures

Mickey and Minnie Mouse from CraftTGram on Etsy

It was so fun to find all of these and realize the sky's the limit on what you can dream up for your kissy creature. Aside from an ornament, they would be a great party favor because you can make 11 kissy creatures from just 1 sheet of plastic canvas (Plastic canvas is so cheep it normally comes in a multi pack, but each individual sheet is probably worth about $1 to $1.50)

The kids and I will be selling items at a local bazaar next month, we will see how much time I find before the Bazaar to make more than just Santas. 

I think my favorites are the Olaf and the Grinch with a hat because the face shapes are a good match to the kissy creature shape.

Baby Blanket for Ruby

After stepping away from my job as a proposal writer this Spring and focusing on our move this Summer, I have finally found time this Fall to enjoy sewing and crafting again. My sister-in-law gave me her old sewing machine and it has been such fun to jump back into a non-mandatory hobby again. The sewing machine is a good solid one with metal machinery inside and it has a lot of functions I have not yet explored. Just using the basic stitches, it has been nice not troubleshooting machine issues mid-project like I did with my old machines.

My first order of business was to make an antique looking quilt for my new niece Ruby. 

About 3 years ago I was playing around with applique, making some blocks with hearts and some patchwork blocks, but I never put them together completely. When I found them in my craft closet I knew they would be the perfect thing for a blanket that was to go to a baby with a beautiful timeless name like Ruby.

I really enjoyed all the hand stitching I was able to do on the applique blocks, but our Summer was so busy that when it came time to put it all together before I was to deliver the quilt, I was in a bit of a mad rush packing suitcases and preparing for an event we were to host the next day.  I was only able to complete the quilt top before I left for the airport. When we got to town we hosted our event, then the following day we took Ruby's big sister's with us to the fabric store. They picked out the backing fabric with me and I put it all together that night.

Then I decided that to finish it off we needed to add some quilted heart shapes in the white boarder. So we had all the girl cousins meet up to help hand quilt the white boarder.

We got it to Ruby the day before I flew back home.

Welcome to the world Miss Ruby, we are glad you are here.

Clearwood Community Pool

The renovations to the Clearwood Community Pool must be complete because today I received a letter asking me to register my family for pool use.

Below is a link to the pool times and rules. (Dates of operation are yet to be determined)

Clearwood+pool+rules.pdf (sppclientdocumentposts.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com)

We will earn 2 free guest passes each week and can purchase additional guest passes for $4 each/per person/per day. (No more than 6 guest passes can be used at one time.)

Guest Passes can be purchased at the following link:

PoolPass Web Portal (pool-pass.com)

A parent must accompany and stay with children 14 years and younger.

The spa is ONLY for swimmers 14 years and older.

For future years, the link to apply for resident pool passes can be found at the following link:

Access Granted Application Web Portal (accessgrantedsystems.com)

Frequently asked questions/answers for the registration process can be found here:

Clearwood - Swimming Pool Passes

Herb Garden

 When we lived in Puyallup, there was a well-established herb garden just outside the kitchen window. I would never have thought to plant one, but I ended up loving it. While cleaning my office today, I found an old note with the names of some of the plants we had in that yard.

Herbs

• Flat leaf Parsley

• Thyme

• Sage

• Oregano

• Chives

• Rosemary

• Curly Leaf Parsley

• Mint

Other plants I liked

• Weeping Cherry Tree

• Fiddlehead (Ostrich Fern)

Now if I could just find where I documented the names of the paint colors we used. I loved the paint colors in that Puyallup house.

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Cabin/Cottage update

 It's been about 2-years since we purchased our lot, and we still have not started building. But I have been busy with many "projects."

• The RUE-Our first filing of the Reasonable Use Exception (RUE) came back in November 2022 with a request for us to update a few things, including a mitigation plan from our Wetland Scientist. In March 2023 I returned the updates to the County, so we are playing the waiting game with them again. Hopefully, everything will be approved and we can move forward with the next step in the process (Getting approval for our septic plan and attending a public hearing to voice our desire for the RUE)
• Work-Something else I've been doing for the past 2-years is a job as a proposal coordinator at Cavalry Consulting. I recently stepped away from my position so I could focus on our family move for the summer and consider work options in our new location. I am looking for something with a work-flow that will be better suited to my personality and our family's needs. I learned so much during my time at Cavalry and enjoyed building relationships with co-workers and clients. I learned that, with older kids now, I do enjoy working. I think it is healthy for our family as a whole when I am focusing on more than just family life, needs, and dynamics. Stepping out of the homemaker role while the kids are in school helps give me more perspective when they come home, and I put my homemaker hat back on.
• Knitting-I had been feeling a lot of stress and began seeking an appropriate balance between work-life and home life. Each night, I was jumping on my computer after dinner in order to get ahead of the game before a new can of worms was opened in the morning. Even when I tried to spend time with the family, the stress was really overwhelming, and I could only think about what was waiting for me with work. The kids just wanted me to sit and watch a favorite show with them each night before tuck-in. So I decided to start knitting a baby blanket to keep my mind busy while we watched the show. It turned out to work wonderfully. I shared a show with my girls while Sam tucked in the boys, then I shared a show with Sam. By the end of it I was ready to go to sleep and was fresh for whatever work had to through at me in the morning when I came back from school drop off.

I cast on about 130 stitches

Knit every row for 14 rows (slipping the first stitch and pearling the last one)

Put stitch markers 8 stitches in on either side. These first and last 8 stitches were always knit (to continue the garter stitch border (Save the final stitch that was always pearled)

For the stripes, I alternated between knit rows and purl rows (so all my V's were on the same side.)

Each color had about 8-9 rows of V's before I switched to a new color.

For someone who had not knit very much, I think it turned out great. To build my skill, I am starting on a pink blanket using the same border but with Entrelac stitch in the center. (It will give a basketweave effect)

We will see how it turns out.  

• Move Prep-Right now, my focus is on prepping our house for our move in June. In my first week off of work, I tackled the Laundry/craft room and my office.

First steps towards building

It has been almost 1 year since we bought our land. We have working on a few things:

• Getting the wetland delineation marked and filed with the county.
• Submitted a Reasonable Use Exception (RUE) to get permission from the county to build into the wetland buffer.
• Paid a deposit for the home builder to start drafting the designs for the cabin.

We did not find as many local log cabin builders as one might think there would be in the Evergreen State.  And when it comes to log cabins, we learned that it is most ideal to have at least a 4 foot covered deck around all sides to protect the logs from sun and water damage.  Although a wrap around deck sounds lovely, with our lot restrictions, it just didn't make sense to use the buildable areas for a wrap around deck.  it would have left very little room for sqaure footage inside the house. So instead, we picked out what looks more like a cottage.

Here are the pictures of the example home on the website.  In addition to the main floor and finished attic, we will also have a walk out basement.

First Floor

Second Floor

This dream won't become a reality for quite some time.  Right now we hope that the construction on the home's exterior will begin before the end of the year.