Moving

Hello friends!

For a number of reasons I have finally decided to switch to WordPress. I’m still in the process of transferring, so please forgive me if there are a few glitches along the way. The good news is, my blog is public again! With WordPress I can make only specific posts private, so ask me for the password if you run across one (the password will always be Lydia -- easy!). There are just certain things that probably shouldn't be shared with the whole world for now.

So if you're following me, please make sure to change your reader to the new blog:

http://cartwheelingdowntheaisle.wordpress.com/

Welcome, and thanks for reading!

Ruffle top revisited

A friend of mine is doing a craft challenge and she asked me to feature a project, so I'm revisiting this guy:

Yes, you can make this!

The challenge is to make it look simple, it's a competition to inspire people who feel they aren't "crafty" to do something. And this one is crazy easy, so what a good place to start! It's also a great way to learn a little more about your sewing machine.

For this ruffle top, you'll need:
- one tank top/halter top (this will be your base shirt)
- another old shirt with similar fabric that is the same color

Now for the execution: it's as easy as one-two-three!

1) Cut up the old shirt into strips, about three inches wide.

2) Now we ruffle them. Don't be afraid of changing the settings on your machine, it's really simple: It's also the coolest part, because you essentially don't have to do anything except adjust your machine. So to gather the fabric, simply set your machine to a longer stitch and maximum tension. 

Make the stitches longer but not the longest setting--they'll be way too tight. The top number is the stitch length on my machine (It's probably indicated by something like this design - -- --- ---- ----. Otherwise, look it up in your machine's manual)

Tension is the little wheel at the top. Set it to the max: now the machine does all the gathering for you!

You might want to play around with scraps before doing the real thing so you can get a hang of it.

Sew the strips about a 1/4 inch from the edge.

Don't cut the thread too short-- leave a nice long tail so you can adjust the ruffles by pulling on the thread if they're too tight or too long. 

If your strips are about 1 1/2 times as long as your shirt is wide, you're good. Now look at all those lovely ruffles!

(Don't forget to put your machine's tension and stitch length back to normal after making all your ruffles!)

3) Now tack them on with pins and start sewing them on (go ahead and sew over the same line) from the bottom up. You want them to overlap by about half an inch to an inch.

The top ruffle may need to be smaller depending on the neckline, etc. so adjust as necessary.

All done! I like it with a cardigan for some structure, but a blazer is nice and slimming too.

Now go have some ice cream, you just made yourself a new shirt! And go check out Iris' blog for more projects in the future, and enter the challenge if you feel so inclined.

A little tour

I know you're all thinking "Sure, Lydia, you'll get a job any day now... which is why you've been there for nearly two months." No really I promise, it's just around the corner, I just need to be patient :)

So in the meantime, I'll give you a little photographic tour of our current home. Well first, Andrew's first day of work!

And now: the Miller House. We live with 5 other people -- it's all kinds of fun. The house is actually pretty modern inside, other than the complete lack of air conditioning... yeah, it's miserable on hot days.

I'm convinced this dumpster actually has my name on it, underneath that sticker.

And on into the backyard:

Dock #1 and dock #2. The one on the right is pretty nifty for getting the raft into the water. The one on the left... was a failure.

And our makeshift fire pit! Andrew's eagle scout skills have come in quite handy since living here.

Meet the roommates (well, mot of them)

Well that's it for now ladies and gentlemen, have a lovely evening!

We really like rafting

Or just floating.

Of course, we never plan to flip our boat in the biggest rapid on the river...

 At least the water cooled us off on a hot day!

Sunday devotional - scripture study

I started a new "thing" (as I have a tendency of doing).

I actually learned this from a favorite blogger: having a scripture journal. Ok, I'd heard of it before, but one post in particular really got me thinking about it. And then I read this recap of  a presentation about scripture study called "the battle in our brains" which essentially said that we need to create the same positive associations in our minds with the scriptures and gospel study as we have with say Facebook or anything else we do regularly -- there's nothing inherently wrong with checking email frequently, but we need to create that sort of dependency on the scriptures too.

So I thought to myself: I need to be a little more serious about this. And I started a scripture journal, and so far (day one) it's been pretty cool.

I only studied one chapter but I wrote out some thought processes, as questions came up. It was nice, and I felt very involved. I like this method.

And by the way, the sister who gave that presentation will be giving it again this Friday at the Mormon Women Project Salon, so if you're near Salt Lake you're one lucky lady! I so wish I could go :(

Otherwise, church was good today, and Andrew and I are making nice progress on a musical number for two weeks from now: I'm excited! It's such a beautiful piece. We'll record it when it's ready so our family (and friends who may be interested) can hear it too :)

Oh, and I unearthed this little gem: Guidelines for writng LDS hymns. I guess there was a big push for members to submit new hymns in the 70s, but frankly everything he says could apply to us. It's basically an exhortation to create new content -- what a cool way of being part of the process! I'm thinking Andrew and I should try our hand at it. We'll see what comes of that! And speaking of hymns, I may have sniffed out a really cool story on the origin of the "Souviens-toi" French hymn, and I'm in the process of verifying it with the woman who I believe wrote it. I'll keep you updated :)

Have a lovely Sunday evening!