Blogging Day of Silence

I'm Still Here!

I figured I needed to post something so you all didn't think I dropped off the face of the Earth.

I am still here, attempting to get by day to day. School is becoming a little overwhelming, but I just need to stay organized and make sure I divide tasks into smaller pieces to tackle each day, instead of attempting to do one big thing in one day alone. Here's hoping I can keep up!

I'm going to start out by posting some projects that I completed last year, but just never got around to posting. Some recipes, some crafts, and some decor projects. I'll attempt to post at least once a week. [I have been missing being a part of blog world. Although with my classes all being online this semester, working on the computer, and keeping up with personal e-mails and things, I just get sick of being on the computer so much! Anyone else ever feel that way? Maybe someday I'll invest in one of those solar laptop chargers so I can work outside in the sunshine.]

I'm also going to work on getting together tutorials for some of the things I made for Project Recycled (which, unfortunately I had to drop out of because of my currently crazy life), such as the wristlet purse below.

Stay tuned for some fun stuff!

New Beginnings

I have been absent from the blog world for a while.  My life was turned upside down around New Years and it's taken me a while to get back on my feet and figure out what I need to do.

First, I've decided to go back to school.  I got married and had children relatively early on in my life so I never finished college.  Finances have determined that I need to get a job, yet without much education or experience, my options have been limited (as well as what those options pay!).  I will be going to a community college and working towards an accounting certificate, then possibly an associates degree in accounting.  Who knows where it will go from there.  Looking through the course schedule I've also been tempted to dive into the world of food preparation/ restaurant management (I love food!) as one of my dreams is to make healthy, great tasting, convenience foods available to the general population.  We'll see.  I'll start with accounting since that has a good possibility of leading to a decent job in the shorter term.

I am definitely planning on keeping up with this blog, although I don't know how often I will have time to post.   I still have lots of ideas, need to be creative, and want to share those ideas and creations with everyone here.  So I'm not going anywhere.  I just may be stretched extra thin for a while. 

One thing I will be participating in is the first Project Recycled.

I am a contestant and will be re/up-cycling weekly until I'm voted off. :) It all starts Monday, January 30th. You can click on the button and it will take you to The T-Shirt Diaries where Robin is hosting the contest. There you will be able to vote (until Friday of each week) on the projects you like best.  I'm excited!

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA for a while.  I feel like I've been away for months.  Probably because I haven't really been able to focus on my blog for some time now.  My mind has been divided between my son's schooling, my daughter, our financial situation (not good), trying to find work, my husband wanting to start a family blog, starting said blog, and of course all the other everyday things. 

I do have some projects that I haven't posted yet, which I hope to start posting tomorrow.   I also am going to add some items to my shops, including kits for the silky fairy wings and the tree carving embroidery.  I'll post an update as soon as I get those things up and running.

Thanks for being patient with me!

Pardon My Dust

Please bear with me while I figure out why my web hosting company suddenly blocked access to the files I have hosted there (including background image, fonts, blog button and social media buttons).

Just wanted to let you know I'm still here and not going anywhere... except for maybe changing hosting companies!

Quick House Cleaning Tip and School Update

This post is kind of random, but I just wanted to get something up since it's been a while. (I'm almost done with the t-shirt costumes!)

One of the best house cleaning tips I have ever received was to focus on one area in the house at a time.  Countless times I have found myself picking up a couple of things, immediately taking them to the other room where they belong, putting them away and repeating that over and over again without making much progress in the area I was trying to clean.   But using a bunch of bins / baskets / bags to place items that don't belong makes cleaning up one area a whole lot faster!

I [had -- before we moved] a bunch of plastic bins, one for each room in our house.  I would go to an area (usually the living room) and place items that belonged in different rooms in their own bin. 

It really helped me clear the area quickly so I could do the vacuuming, dusting, straightening, etc that I needed to do. After that I would have the kids take their things to their room, and I would take the other items to their respective rooms and put them away.

It's such a simple thing but it has really made a big difference to me, especially with small children who often leave their things strewn all over the place!


And now for a quick school update -- We were on the waiting list for our neighborhood school, and because they had fewer students in a higher grade, they had an extra teacher and ended up adding a whole new kindergarten class. So, my son is now going to that school!

I was really enjoying doing the K12 method (it's so fun when they send all the books and materials and supplies for all the standard subjects including art, science and music). But it was difficult to keep my son interested for long. After the first week he was getting comfortable and not giving it the same attention he did at the beginning. It was also a challenge with my daughter, being smaller, needing so much attention and care (i.e. diapers/toilet training, frequent snacks, water, cuddling, anything).

So we were excited when we were notified that he got in this year. Although it is bittersweet since I'm still a little apprehensive about how he will behave in school (so far so good, mostly), what his teachers will be like, and how the school functions. I'm not totally convinced standard public school is the best thing for children, but I think it's what my son and I both need right now. He needs the social interaction and the reminder that he does actually have to follow some rules (he doesn't like mine), and I need the time apart so I can have some one-on-one time with my daughter, miss my son and learn to appreciate him more.

Here's to a great year!

Public School, Home School and Other Options

 
It's been a while since I've posted. Why? I've been dealing with school enrollment issues for my son.

He is supposed to start kindergarten this year. However, we didn't have everything together (as far as moving in to our apartment and getting bills sent to us, a working mail box, finding out about schools around us, etc) until the summer time. So when we finally decided we would enroll him in our neighborhood public school, which we've heard good things about, and went through the required TB testing, ordering of birth certificate, and so on, it was too late. The school was full, and actually had been full for a couple months. So they automatically enrolled him in the "overload" school, told me that's where he was going, gave me a form that talked about the uniform requirements and a form to sign to have him bussed there.

Whoa, hold on a minute! 

I knew nothing about this other school.  Except for the fact that it's downtown (which, for my city, is not necessarily a good place to be).  So I drove by to check it out.  Okay, so maybe I'm a little overprotective and slightly judgmental when it comes to the safety of my children, but still...  Yikes!  There were 12 foot high walls around the school (walls like that usually don't exist unless they are necessary for some reason), run-down unkempt houses on one side, and unoccupied graffiti-covered commercial buildings on two other sides.

I decided to not completely judge the school based on the surroundings and look up reviews online.  There were some rave reviews saying the school was wonderful and the teachers were great.  There were other saying their kids got picked on because they were smart, that there was an abundance of violence in the school yard, gangs in and around the school [Can you imagine... gangs... in an elementary school?!], and that the school promoted mediocrity.  Some websites that score schools mostly based on test scores (which I'm not sure if they're very relevant or not) gave the school a very low score (like 3 out of 10).    After learning everything I could about the school I had nearly completely decided I would not let my son attend kindergarten there.

So what other options do I have?

Before we had kids my husband and I had become acquainted with Waldorf Education, so when we moved we looked into what existed in our area.  We discovered there was a school about 30 minutes away and looked into the possibility of our son going there.  Well, unfortunately the full tuition cost is extremely high.  They do work with people somewhat, but since we could not afford any tuition at all (and we have a pretty simple lifestyle), it wasn't really an option for us.  (Nor was Montessori or any other kind of private school)

Another option is traditional home schooling.  I'm completely responsible for all curriculum, scheduling, activities, and tracking down other kids and people to interact with socially.  How overwhelming!  I have a great respect for mothers who do all that.  But for me, at this point in my life, I just have far too much on my plate to take that all on. 

Then, after a post about my frustration on Facebook, my sister mentioned an online public school option that is working well for her son.  What an interesting concept!  I had heard about the idea before (they call it home-based education), but only in passing and never really researched what it was or how it worked.  So I looked into the company she mentioned -- K12.  (This is not an ad for them, I just wanted to share what I found.)

K12 is nationwide and even have some international affiliates as well.  They help connect people with virtual schools in each state, and it's considered public (i.e. free), and they meet all state requirements and are accredited so if you decide to have your child go back to standard public school, everything transfers just fine.  All the lessons are planned out already (by a local teacher).  They have work sheets, books to read, music to listen to, art supplies, science experiments.  Everything is mailed to you, for free.  You can even register to borrow a computer and printer if you don't have one.  A teacher is assigned to your child and you can e-mail them at any time with questions or concerns.  Plus there are monthly field trips with other kids/families in your area (as well as social events, and parents can decide to get together as often as they want), a quarterly in-person meeting with the teacher, and the option to attend a weekly class (so your child can have a regular classroom experience.  Although locations are limited and the closest location to us is an hour away). 

I think this is just what we (my son and I both) need right now.  It's a good balance and compromise for us.  So I'm completing the enrollment process today and hope to be able to start school with Seymour on Monday!

I'll keep you all posted with our experience!

Raising a Boy is Difficult

Sometimes I think, would it really be that bad if I donated him to the zoo...at least for a little while?

I had this cane-back chair I was planning on painting and reupholstering (I found for $5 at a yard sale). It was great. I loved the curve and the cane was in perfect condition (which is rare!).

Well, today my son did this:

With one swoop of a tape measure. Sometimes I am dumbfounded by the level of destruction that this child can inflict on innocent belongings. He just runs and jumps around the apartment hitting, ripping, banging, stabbing, etc, etc.

We need to move to a house with a yard. Stat.

I'm still going to keep it and refinish it... It is just going to take a whole lot more work than previously planned!

Flower Arranging, Three Ways - Part 1

Most of the time when I put the kids [and husband] to bed at night my plans of staying up later washing dishes, working on projects and writing blog posts disappear rather quickly as I fall asleep myself. So sometimes I get up in the middle of the night to do those things, or just to enjoy the quiet and a few moments of quasi alone time. Although blog posts written between 2 and 4 AM can be rather... interesting. We'll see how this one turns out!

I love flowers! I have heard it's been clinically proven that flowers make people (including men) happy. I wouldn't doubt it! I love the look, the smell, the feel. It's a multi-sensory experience.

I first got started in "proper" floral design when I got married. I bought a book from the craft store I worked in at the time and, with the help of my mother-in-law's business license, bought fresh flowers from the local wholesaler, made my own bouquet and boutonnieres for the my groom and the groomsmen. I loved it and surprisingly it helped me relax [a little] the night before the big day.

After that I started doing floral design at the craft store, but moved out of state after a few months for my husband's school. While there I took a floral design class just for fun at the local university. I loved it so much and took the class twice so I could do different designs for the holidays during each semester. From there I got my own business license and started arranging flowers for small weddings. It was so much fun but got rather difficult after having kids so I've only done a couple weddings since then. I still love it and jump at every chance I have to arrange flowers.

Now, on to the arranging.  Unfortunately I wasn't too good about getting photos of each step.  I usually work fast with flowers and want to get them back in to water as soon as possible.  Hopefully everything will make sense anyway!

My husband brought a huge bag full of flowers home from work one day. If I had ordered the flowers myself and planned what I was going to do before hand it would have been a little bit different, but this time I just used what he brought.

We’ll start with a simple arrangement of peonies in a low glass vase.

Use water-proof tape (found at craft supply stores) to make a grid across the top of the vase. [You can also use a floral "frog" or foam for fresh flowers if your vase is not clear.]

Add some foliage first, if you have it. The peonies I received had long stems of leaves so I cut those off (at an angle) and crisscrossed the stems in the vase to create supports for the peonies.

Then add the flowers, cutting the stems to the right length and spacing them out fairly evenly. [Odd numbers of flowers generally look more pleasing to the eye than even numbers, but I had four peonies so I used them all.] Add a little more foliage to fill it out.

Next, Part 2, arranging with a tall glass vase.

Part 3 - a one-sided arrangement using floral foam

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I'll be linking to all these fabulous linky parties!

Monday - Craft o Maniac Monday -- Pink Hippo Party -- Craft Catwalk -- Craftastic Monday -- Amaze Me Monday -- Polly Want 2 Party -- Making the World Cuter Monday -- Making Monday Marvelous -- Tuesday - Get Your Craft On -- Sew Cute Tuesday -- Tip Me Tuesday -- Take a Look Tuesday -- Show Me What Ya Got -- Tuesday Time Out -- Show and Tell at Blue Cricket -- Tutorial Tuesday -- Wednesday - Seven Thrity Three -- Wallet-Friendly Wednesday -- Show Off Your Stuff -- Create and Share -- A Crafty Soiree -- Whatever Goes Wednesday -- We Did it Wednesday! -- Your Whims Wednesday -- Linkin’ with Lil’ Luna -- We Did it Wednesday -- Passionately Artistic -- Thursday - Strut your Stuff Thursday -- Transformation Thursday -- Thrilling Thursday -- House of Hepworths -- Chic and Crafty Thursday -- Friday - Remodelaholic Friday -- Flaunt it Friday -- Frugal Friday -- Weekend Wander -- Furniture Feature Friday -- Show and Share Day -- Fun with Food Friday -- It's Fun to Craft! -- Tickled Pink Fridays -- Weekend Wrap-up Party -- Catch as Catch Can -- Friday Flair -- Feature Yourself Friday -- Fantabulous Friday -- Simply Link {Party} -- No Rules Link Party -- Pity Party -- Saturday - Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special -- Saturday is Crafty Day -- Let's Get Crafty Saturday -- Show and Tell Saturdays -- Saturday Spotlight -- Sunday - The DIY Showoff Project Parade -- Sunday Showcase Party -- Creative Bloggers Party -- I Heart Naptime -- Think Pink Sundays

Winners!!

When I said I would post the winners on Monday I should have remembered what day that was going to be! So I apologize for making promises I couldn't keep since my family and I were busy with the festivities of the day (i.e. free pancake breakfast, parade, street festival, extended afternoon naps, dinner out and fireworks... from afar because the main venue decided to NOT have fireworks on the 4th but had them the two previous nights... HELLO!?! Duh. I was ticked. Not to mention that it made my 5 year-old burst into real anguished crying when I read the big lit-up sign that said "No fireworks tonight" as we drove by. So we had to drive to a different location which was already saturated with people since everyone from the main venue had to come over to the secondary venue to see anything at all -- on the actual Day of Independence!!)

Okay. Enough ranting. Now for the winners!


The winners of the pattern giveaway are as follows:

Group #1 -- Children's Size

Group #2 -- Women's Larger Size

Group #3 -- Women's Smaller Size

And the winner of the vinyl giveaway is:

Ladies, please e-mail me your addresses at catonalimb (at) gmail (dot) com and I will get those prizes sent out to you ASAP!

I'll be posting Out on a Limb Tuesday next. 

WARNING! Not for Long Term Storage!

Many of you probably know already, but I thought I would "blow the whistle" to alert anyone else who may not be aware... CDs / DVDs are NOT intended for long term storage.  [Recommended 2 years or less.]  I found this out the hard way.

I had every intention of linking up to laxsupermom's Before Blogging Throwback link party.  It's an awesome idea she came up with to help us showcase projects we did before we started blogging.  So I thought I would link up my wedding dress and flowers.   I pop the CD with our wedding photos on it into the computer and... nothing.  "Do you want to burn to this disk?" -- aka. BLANK disk.  I even downloaded some software that's supposed to recover lost files on CDs, but it found nothing.  Nooooooo!!!

To be reasonable, this is probably not the end of the photos all together.  The family members who took photos (we couldn't afford a pro photographer!) probably still have them... although hopefully they didn't move them to CDs!

Simple Pleasures -- A Cardboard Box

I'm so glad children find joy in simple things. Especially easy to make, free things. Like a cardboard house. Just cut out squares in the sides and top, you end up with fun and laughter for... at least 45 minutes. Maybe more. We'll see.

It's going to be a hot one today.  We may spend the day wasting time in various air conditioned locations. 

As of tomorrow, happy summer everyone!!

Out on a Limb No. 6

I'm beginning to get more than a little frustrated that I haven't been able to get my husband to help me move in my new cabinet so I can complete the set-up of my creative space (and move some other things into storage which I can't fit in there until the cabinet is out!). Everything is still in boxes and I've been itching to work on some more projects. Usually when I can't get help I just end up doing it myself, but unfortunately this is one thing I can't move on my own! :)

I did actually finish another project, but it's being saved for my very first guest post ever! I'll let you know when it will be posted.

So here we go with another week of Out on a Limb!

Since my "brand name" is Cat on a Limb you can only link up projects or creations where you went "out on a limb" in some way. Either a technique you've never tried before, or a tried and true technique applied to a new object, or something 100% new to you. I'd love to see how you all stretch your creativity (please keep it family friendly).

**Please grab the button and put it anywhere on your blog (your post, sidebar or party page).** I would like to get more participation and be able to help promote fellow bloggers!

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Vote for Me! Pretty Please!

Wow!  I was nominated for the "Best of April" over at To Sew With Love with my pattern and sewing tutorial for the toddler Maxi dress and shrug.  She is holding voting through tomorrow (eeks!  I should have posted this sooner!) so please, pretty please go vote for me!  You can also vote for one other project that you like and there are some really cute ones.

Vote for me here!

Thanks everyone!

P.S. I'm still working on getting us settled into our apartment.  It's hard moving from a three bedroom house with unfinished basement, garage and backyard into a second floor two bedroom apartment.  Plus the house we lived in had so much built-in storage so now I have to figure out how I'm going to store everything, especially all my art supplies/crafts/tools/sewing supplies/fabric/etc.  My air compressor had to go into storage.  Sigh.  Just not something that really works in an apartment complex!  Settling into our new place I feel like I'm working with a giant one of these:

Oh, and I have some more triumphant deal finds to share as well.  Stay tuned!

Fears -- Unreasonable? Perhaps. But They're Mine.

With things changing so drastically in my life lately and the added motivation of a fun linky party [and with my craft supplies locked away until we move into our own place] I decided to do a personal / confessional post today. 

I've always been afraid of certain things.  Sure, them seem rather ridiculous and silly when I tell people about them, and maybe they are, but I do have reasons!  Ok, maybe not good enough reasons to totally justify the fear... but maybe they will help you not laugh at me quite so much. :)

- The dark.  Yes, to this day I am still afraid of the dark.  [Ha, what a way to start out the list!]  Why am I afraid of the dark?  Because of all the things that could be in the dark either indoors or outdoors i.e. wild/rabid/poisonous/otherwise dangerous animals (Okay, it doesn't have to be dark for those to be around, but the dark makes the fear of those things even more poignant.  I've heard too many stories about people getting bitten by poisonous insects or snakes, mauled or killed by bears, mountain lions entering populated cities, etc.), ghosts or evil spirits (Yes I believe in those, but I'm guessing this fear comes mostly from years of watching "real" ghost TV shows with my siblings when I was a kid and listening to everyone I know tell their stories of the supernatural, plus it doesn't help that I have an overactive imagination too), robbers/murderers/otherwise dangerous people (I blame the media, horror movies -- which I don't actually watch but the trailers are enough, and the few people who choose to do evil things which leads people to be suspicious of each other.)  Funny side note - when I was younger I used to want to sleep with the brightest nightlight available and as many as possible, but now I have trouble sleeping at night unless it is very, very dark. 

- Natural Gas.  More specifically, natural gas in homes.  It seriously gives me major stress to turn on a gas stove.  Standing there with the lighter going "click, click, click" while an extremely combustible gas pours into the room?  Yeah.  And those knobs on the front of the stove perfectly available to my kids who love to turn knobs?  I'd like to kick the genius who thought that one up.  (Speaking of that, my sister-in-law actually has one with knobs on the side of the cooking surface, much better idea)  Newer furnaces, water heaters and stoves have mechanisms that shut off the supply of gas when the pilot light goes out, which is great, but if you're living with older appliances no pilot light = leaking gas = not good.  Then earthquakes (being in California) can cause a whole lot of other problems with gas lines.  Then comes all the stories I've heard about explosions.  [One about a man who was working on something, needed a very specific part which he didn't have, left to go to the store to get it, noticed the smell of gas and told the utility workers who were digging in the street.  Gas leaked out of the pipe, through the ground, filled the crawl space under his house until it got to the level of the pilot light in the water heater.  BOOM.  The man came home to find he had no more house, although he was blessed with his life.  True story, my mom knows him.  Another one about a gas leak in a woman's home.  The utility personnel came and were outside with her.  The phone rang so she went inside to answer it, one worker followed her to try to get her out.  BOOM.  They both died.  I heard this one from the best friend of the utility worker.]  Not worth it in my opinion.  When I design and build my own house (some day!) it will be all electric, solar and wind powered. 

- Deep Water. Meaning any deeper than up to my neck when standing.  Okay, I don't have a real excuse for this one.  Other than the obvious fear of drowning.  Whenever I look at a satellite picture of an ocean (especially if I can see how the water gets deeper, or the bottom drops off) I get creeped out and have to look away.  I get scared being in boats over deep water.  Random.

Those are the main ones I've had ever since I can remember.  Then, having children has added a whole slew of other fears, of course all based around keeping my kids safe.  I mean, I do have a lot to be concerned about when my kids think it's funny to run into the middle of a street with me running after them yelling at them to stop.  Sigh.  Being a mom is hard!  But that's a post for another day... 

Whoops! YES! and Some Features!

Taking a break from looking at apartments

These weeks go by way TOO FAST! I missed "Out on a Limb" again this week. Not exactly the best habit to get into when one is trying to start up a new linky party!  I do have an excuse though... we only have one laptop  that works right now and my husband is on it most of the time that we're here.  BUT he

GOT A JOB!!

so I will probably have some more time on it now.  (Ha ha, maybe, if I can keep the kids occupied in good ways while keeping them cooped up indoors)  So now that we've got a job and know our income, we can look for a place to live.  We spent several days driving around, calling numbers (you would not believe the number of apartments that post ads online, have signs out, with phone numbers, but no one answers when you call, nor do they call you back!)  But we finally saw a couple of them and put in an application for an apartment in a really cool (in some ways) location so we may have a home soon, too!  I so can't wait to have a place to decorate!!

Now on to the features... I decided to feature all the (three) projects that were linked up to the past two parties.

laxsupermom at Sugar & Spice in the Land of Balls and Sticks decided to tackle photo editing to create a great new header for her blog.

she also designed a fabulous wine & liquor hutch including super cute cat cut-out which gives her cat access to a hidden litter box.  What an awesome idea!

Karen at Simple Blue linked up slippers she hand made for her daughter.  Well done!  (I think I need to make myself some slippers now, too... or, at least when I get to touch my sewing machine again... sigh)

PLUS, I was so excited when Karen e-mailed me and asked me hurry up (my words, not hers :) ) with the toddler Maxi dress tutorial because she wanted to make one for her daughter's birthday.  She did an awesome job [before I had the sewing tutorial up] and even added some cute flutter sleeves since she didn't have time to sew the shrug.

It makes me happy to know someone got use out of the tutorial!

Grab a featured button below and thank you ladies for linking up!

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I have a goal of completing and posting the shrug tutorial today.  Here's hoping the kids will cooperate! :)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig (sort of)

After miles upon miles of this...

and this...

 We are finally back in our home state of California.  It feels great!  Except for the fact that we're all sick... with strep.

It started the day before we were supposed to leave (which ended up delaying us another day) and has continued until now, with Daisy beginning to suffer the most at night with a very painful sore throat.  Thankfully we were able to go to a clinic and get a prescription for each of us yesterday, so we should be done with this very soon.

We moved most of our belongings into a storage locker, stayed in a hotel (I highly recommend Extended Stay hotels) for a few days and now we're starting to settle in to a room at my mother-in-law's house until my husband can secure a job.  It's strange thinking that we're basically homeless for now.  I can't wait until we have our own place, but until then I thank heaven for family!

As soon as I can get my camera unpacked from all the things we jammed into our mini van when we moved, I will post the tutorial for the shrug.  I was able to take all the photos before we moved, but hadn't loaded them onto the computer.  And now my husband is using the computer most of the time looking for a job, so I haven't had much time on it since we've been here.

Stay tuned, but please be patient with me!

P.S.  I'll also start up the linky party again this Tuesday (sorry for skipping a week!) and will post the features from last time.