Yesterday was a very productive day and I even found some time to relax. It’s a new way I have of doing things. First, I admit to the fact that as much as I hate being a stickler and anal, being anal about scheduling can be a good thing. Maybe anal isn’t the right word here. I am not stressing if I don’t get through the schedule, but I am adding less to the schedule and including time for me. I don’t try to deviate too much and so far, it’s worked!

The boys and I did the Yoga Kids video when we came downstairs in the morning. (We’ve done various yoga dvd’s three days in a row now! Yipee!) Then had breakfast and I made some GF banana chocolate chip muffins. Then some of this awesome Historic Grains GF bread. I thought I’d give it a try using my hands like many wonderful women before me who didn’t have the luxury of a Kitchen-Aid mixer, mind you it was at least a little tempting to pick one up when they were $200 off during the holidays. Instead of using the mixer for four minutes to heat up the yeast and make sure all ingredients are well combined, I put four minutes on the microwave timer, have a seat and mix with my hand. Ouch. Pretty tough labour there but well worth it. The taste is well worth the work!

Steve came home with a migraine early afternoon for which I do not envy him at all. So, while he chilled with the boys, I went on to other things on my list. Mind you, the rest of the list came after the boys had finished their lessons for the day, including some fun grammar involving acting out the poem Dancing by Eleanor Farjeon. What does this have to do with grammar. Verbs, of course! Gotta love school!

Okay, on with the list. I managed to fix X’s new Pidove. He is a Pokemon that X picked out as part of his using a gift card from Nanna and Pappa. Then, I mended the seam on a stuffed snake he got a while ago when we went to a reptile place, ah the right word escapes me for that place, but it was while we were visiting Nanna and Pappa two years ago. The seam split probably about a year ago.

I’m getting better at this mending thing though as the last piece of the pile was the bottoms to X’s new pj’s. Each Christmas eve the boys get new pj’s and Xman’s bottoms were stupid-huge in the waist. Totally too big. But, he loved them and the top fit perfectly. Go figure. So, I fixed the bottoms. I had to pull out a lot of the waist band and in making it smaller, had to make the back/bum seam smaller, too. I have never done this type of surgery and was hoping that the elastic around the waist wasn’t sewn into the waistband but it was. That’s okay. I got to use the serger setting on my new sewing machine! I am in love with my sewing machine in the way anyone who loves sewing can be and can’t wait to do more! I bought it used on Kijiji months ago because the one I have weighs a ton, more like 30 lbs at least and if I dropped it I’d easily crush my foot. Easily, pinky swear. And that freaked me out a bit. So, I got the new machine from a wonderful older lady who purchased the machine, used it once, and then realized it was more than she needed. Thank you Kijiji. And, it only took me two months to finally sit down and use it which is way better than the history of my serger, which never left the box. Steve, don’t say a thing. 🙂 I eventually sold the serger to a textiles student at the art college who was thrilled to take it off my hands for half of what I paid. No kidding.

Not too bad a job for a first time doing this type of thing and really wanting to finish it so X could wear them to bed. I finished them as Steve got the boys into their bath. Whew!

It’s not as neat as I’d like around the waist but it won’t come apart and I barely had any material to fold over. So, I’m okay with that. 🙂

Well, goodness me! I almost forgot! I finished this too!

“What is that?” you ask. “It’s my first felted piece and I’m totally thrilled with it!”, I say. “It’s a tea cozie (duh) and felting it was easier than I expected!” It finished drying overnight and is a perfect ‘grandé soy chai latté’ fit!

I’m going to do these nests next, as X decided to take the cozie for Pidove.

Okay, that’s three posts in two days. Sweet! Now, what’s next on my list is….ah…hmmm…didn’t plan this far ahead. Apparently, there’s a hole in my scheduling planning. Gotta work on that.