Finished Freezer Paper Stenciled T-Shirts

...We peeled the paper off the T-shirts...to reveal...

...some nearly perfect prints!...the kids were so pleased with their shirts and they're looking forward to signing each other's shirts next week...

...I don't have any signed T-shirts from my childhood or teenage years...do you?...

LYO (Freezer Paper) T-Shirts...

...Every other year our Confirmands work together on their Confirmation T-Shirt... (because this is a project best done all at once and all together and our Confirmation Class lasts for two consecutive years...so some Confirmands get/make their shirt their first year and others their second year)...This is one from a couple of years ago...we tried out a slightly different font this year...
...some other examples of our Freezer Paper Stenciling here...

...so...last week they had all cut out their own stencil with exacto knives...and we ordered a nice bright red T-Shirt for each Confirmand and we were set...

...they ironed their stencil onto their shirt...

...and spounced on some white paint...

...well one guy was still working on his stencil...but even he finished before the evening was over...

...we left them to dry and we'll peel the paper off today...check back tomorrow for the finished shirts...

...definitely a fun group project and each one is unique...also next week we'll all sign each other's shirt...hopefully I can find a white paint pen...if not we'll just use a sharpie...

The almost free (very cheap) Draft Stopper Tutorial...

...Just in time for those windy March days...I saw some draft stoppers on TV that consisted of two pieces of foam wrapped in cloth that slide under the door with foam on both sides...

...and I thought...I could make those...so I did...

...the only thing I had to buy was this foam tube...it cost $1.16...

...just cut it to the length of your door...mine is three feet...you'll need two tubes the same length...

...just bend it in half...

...it cuts easily with scissors...

...then I took some khaki cloth from my stash...so FREE...

...measured and cut...folded it over and stitched up the bottom and one side...

...then I pressed it flat with the seam in the middle...not necessary I guess...but I thought it looked neater that way...

...turned it right side out and stitched up the middle...leaving about 6 inches open at the top...

...slide your foam tubes in...

...then tuck the ends under...that's why you need to leave the top open...

...then slide it under your door - so that there's a tube on either side...

...it should slide across the floor easily and still block any drafts when the door is closed...

...Meet Russell...

...y'all know that I anthropomorphize practically everything...even the toaster...but I didn't have to name him as his name is printed on his side...

...he's about 18 years old and has had a trouble free life so far...

...but recently he developed a habit of not staying on...

...this was sort of annoying...but in the make-do-and-mend frame of mind that I was in during the early morning hours of toast making...

...I corrected the problem temporarily with a rubber band...it just held the knob down until the toasting was accomplished...

...of course you can see the flaw with this method of toasting...as it's a sort of 'always on' situation...you have to be right there watching the toasting take place...not the best toasting procedure if you ask me...

...so also of course...I knew that I had to fix Russell's little problem...there was really no reason to replace him...as everything else was working properly...and he has been with the family for a very long time...

...I just unscrewed his cover and popped that off...and found that the problem was an accumulation of 18 years worth of crumbs...and I think he could have been designed a little bit better to avoid that...some sort of little shield that would keep any crumbs off his electronic bits would have been nice...but I'm not a toaster designer and perhaps after 18 years the fine crumb dust would accumulate anyway...

...I just chiseled and brushed the crumbs away...screwed everything back together and plugged Russell back up...and I was so thrilled when he worked...his little knob stayed down and he made toast just like he used to...no rubber band...knob holding or anything...YAY!

...so now we're happily making toast together again...

...I was thrilled that all of his little buttons and lights still work after his surgery...


The latest version of Russell (fancier than ours) is available here...

...Mail Call...

...y'all know how much I love getting packages in the mail...

...and how much I love winning little internet giveaways...

...I got both in the mail today...and it was super nice...'cause our little winter reprieve is over and it was 2 below zero (-19 C) when I went out to get the mail...so this made it worthwhile getting bundled up to get the mail...

...I won the giveaway at SillyGrrl.com but the prize actually came from MerlinTheCat's Etsy shop...

...and I love pretty packaging almost as much as the contents...

...such a lovely little locket...perfect for Valentines Day...I can't wait to wear it...

Thank you so much SillyGrrl and MerlinTheCat!

...Another 'Warm' Day...

...Yesterday was another lovely warm 29 degree day...

...so we spent the whole day outside enjoying it...

...we sledded for a while...

...and since all that trudging up and sledding down will wear you out...

...we took a break and went to the local coffee shop and had some cocoa...they have soymilk...YAY!...

...then we hit the slope (haha) again...Scout looks so grown-up to me in this photo...

...Practicing his form...

...Steady over the bumps...

...There were some wipeouts too...

...I love the expression on his friends face in this one...

...then home at dusky dark...worn out...

Snow FUN!

...Even though we have snow 6 months out of the year...or perhaps because of it...we still have fun in the snow...

...When Scout got home from school yesterday - he asked if he could go out and play in the snow...

...we have been having incredibly warm temperatures...by that I mean in the 29 to 30 degree range...(about -2 to 0 Celsius)...so that may have something to do with it too...

...mostly, he just digs and draws and builds...in other words plays...

I needed a belt...

...I got a pair of brown jeans for Christmas...and as I'm sort of an hourglass shaped gal...they fit pretty well around my keester...but they don't want to stay up...because there's this gap at the waist...and unlike the youth of today...I don't like my trousers falling down...nor do I like to be constantly hiking them back up...

...so...I needed a belt...

...so of course I grabbed one of my leftover curtain rings...and started crocheting with some black and brown yarn from my stash...

...just a few minutes worth of double crochet later...and I have a belt...and my trousers stay put...

LWR Quilt #6

...I've been working on another Lutheran World Relief Quilt...

...in keeping with my 5 minutes at a time - getting things done - way of working...every time I'm in the Laundry Room (That's where my sewing machine is) I sew a few blocks...then when I have a strip finished I sew them together...and so a quilt seems to appear effortlessly...

More about Lutheran World Relief Quilts here!

...Wasting Time...

...that's what I did for about an hour on Sunday afternoon...

......You can see that I use a fashionable and extremely technical process of keeping my place in a lace chart...the Post-It Note...

...the trick is - that for this process to work properly - one must move the Post-It Note down a row when one completes the row...

...so you can see where this is going...

...I hadn't moved the Post-It Note before I put the knitting back in the bag after Thursday's Karate class...

...so when I sat down to knit on Sunday...I started with the row that I had just done on Thursday...

...and I knit to the end and it didn't come out right...so I just thought - you know - that I'd miscounted - so I took it all back out and started over...with the same row again...the wrong row...so when I came to the end again...it wasn't right...

...so guess what I did...Yep!...I knitted the same row a third time...and when it came out exactly the same as the previous two times...it dawned on me that maybe it wasn't the right row...

...so what's the most number of times you've re-knit the same row?...um...er...three...

N.B. - this has nothing whatsoever to do with Christabel's pattern which is perfect and I'm loving the pretty lace too...

VEGAN CHARLOTTE MALAKOFF

...I spent a couple of evenings making the Charlotte Malakoff from MtAoFC...

...isn't it pretty...

...all of the details are at The Vegan Version...

...It was so good and creamy/fluffy/melt-in-your-mouth...very good...

...try one...