V-owl-entine’s Day Gifts

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I’ve made a few different owl-themed projects this past year that I have featured on my Tumblr. This has lead to me getting followed by several owl-themed blogs that I have followed back, so my dash is usually sprinkled with owls. When I started to think of Valentine’s for the kids, owls immediately came to mind. Especially after “Superb Owl” Sunday the previous week.

If I was not lazy, I would’ve started working on those during the week. But I am lazy, so I scrambled to find something I could make quickly on Satuday night. There wasn’t time to go to the store, so I had to pick something I had on hand that would be quick to put together. I pulled out my wool and looked up this tutorial on Pinterest for a general guideline.

I made one set on Saturday to give Sunday morning, then I was able to make the second set on Sunday to leave out for Monday. I even managed to only stab myself about ten times total, and I didn’t bleed on the owls. I’d call that a success.

Forcing Myself to Have Fun

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Sometimes I get myself going on too many projects at once. They aren’t even really projects, more like too many tasks in the day. I can make myself so busy with little things like laundry or updating my Tumblr queue that my day fills up before I know it.

It leaves very little time for the things I actually want to do, like sewing, knitting, playing music, etc. (Although Tumblr isn’t exactly a chore, but setting my queue after leaving it for months can be.) So sometimes I have to hijack my own to-do list and prioritize a fun thing for a week. Sure, I did start my laundry before I sat down on my bed to start demoing some songs, and I got back to it when my hour was up. But I had to set aside an hour to just sit down, write, and record a bit.

I’m always trying to get everything else done before letting myself do what I really want, and I usually run out of time. That, or my brain shuts down and refuses to do anything other than watch Parks and Rec or play video games. I’m trying to sneak more fun into my schedule. So far my brain is liking the idea.

The Frankenpants Saga

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Kids have a really incredible innate ability to destroy things in ridiculous ways without even trying. The most frequent victim of this destruction: their clothes.

Sometimes I will get lucky with a tiny hole that just needs a couple stitches, or a busted seam that requires a quick trip through the sewing machine. Other times, I’m faced with challenges like this:

That is pretty much a new seam where there wasn’t one before. But that also means there is no extra material to create a seam. There is actually a lack of material. So I first attempted a flat seam with just a zigzag stitch. This worked…while the pants were in the drawer. So I grabbed some twill, used my new serger to create a patch.

Then I used three rows of zigzag stitches to cover the color and old stitches. So far this has worked, and isn’t too noticeable. Here’s hoping it works for a long time.