Jarden and DIY Wings

Yay! Yesterday my first seedlings sprouted! I have one tiny seedling in the Basil jar and one tiny seedling in the Sage jar. How exciting is that?? We spent this weekend working on the new house, the back yard disaster only took about two hours to clean up. We raked up all the leaves and dead plants and cock-a-burr plants. Pulled all of the random junk out of the planting boxes, which are in excellent shape! Potential Landlord (henceforth known as Landlord!) showed me his worm farm and how to make worm tea! The compost bins still have lots of compost in them and there are garbage bags with leaves that have been sitting for about two years that will be a nice addition to the bin. We go the house completely cleaned out of things that he won't be leaving behind. Owl moved in on Saturday. Everything is falling into place!

At my local Karaoke spot we are having a costume party tonight, I'm very excited and have been working on making wings for myself. They are actually very simple to make and usually end up much cooler looking than any cookie cutter wings you will find at the costume shop. I'm reusing the same costume I wore two years ago, I made a skirt and I wore a corset top with wings, BAM instant faerie. So I'm remaking the wings and I bought some super awesome ribbon that I can add to the skirt with little effort and I will have an updated faerie costume for less than 15 dolalrs! (plus 6 wire hangers) If you like the idea, it's really very simple to make wings.

Materials:
1-2 yards of fabric (I use tool, or a variation of tool, mine is light blue and shiney!)
6 wire hangers
Needle and thread
Pliers
Ribbon or elastic
Beads, sequins, etc. (optional)
Pins (optional)

First take the hangers and straighten them out, I just use my hands to do this and leave the crinkles where it was twisted all crinkly.

Next bend one hanger into the shape of a tear-drop. Twist the ends together with your pliers. Repeat this with a second hanger, these will be the lower half of your wings.

Then take two hangers and twist them together, again with pliers. Sometimes if you have trouble with this, you can bend then to a point and do one end at a time. Bend the into the shape of a wing and then twist the other ends together. I always do the first set with the two hangers in a line, so that you can round the tip; but if you want a point on the end you can twist them together the way you did for the first two tear-drop shapes. Bend the wire so that it looks like wings and join the ends together with pliers. Repeat for the opposite side.

Once you have the wings shaped the way that you wish, lay the pieces out on top of the fabric you chose. Cut a rough outline of the wing in the fabric. Now, if you have pins you can pin the fabric in place. This makes the sewing part much easier. It is doable without pins but takes longer.

Thread your needle and decide how you want to stitch the fabric on. I usually roll the excess fabric so that it is flush with the wire and just run a loop stitch all the way around. I've seen wings that have lots of excess fabric hanging off of them that has been shredded, so it just depends on the type of wings you want. I cut my fabric so that there are corners on the tips of the wings, I stitch and roll up to that point, then snip the fabric so that there is a rolled fabric 'spike' sticking out off the edge of the wing, then keep loop stitching around the rest of the wing.

After the fabric is all stitched on, you can attatch the wings together. I always lay the bottom two tear drops the way I want them and then where the wires cross stitch X's so that they will stay together at that point. The fabric will keep them in place. After the two tear drops are together, I add the larger top wings (one at a time), using X's anywhere the wire crosses.

Pick up the wings and make sure they don't fall apart when you hold them.

Get to a mirror and decide how high up on your back you want the wings to sit. Keep in mind where the tops of your shoulders touch the wings. Now this is probably the trickiest part (besides figuring out how to get the hangers to twist around each other and stay!) You need to stitch one end of the ribbon to a place where two pieces of wire meet and you stitched them together with X's. This is the strongest point on the wings, so stitch the ribbon to that junction. Don't cut the ribbon yet.

Pick the wings back up and test the ribbon to make sure it's not going to come undone. Place the wings on your back and loop the ribbon around your shoulder and under your armpit. You should be able to adjust the hieght of the wings based on the length of the ribbon. Cut the ribbon a little bit longer than you think you will need it to be.

Cut a second piece of ribbon the same length as the first piece. Stitch the second piece of ribbon to the wings. Since the wings should be symetrical you should be able to just sew the ribbon onto the wings in the same spot on the other side.

Put the wings back on and use the ribbon to hold them onto your back. Use your fingers as reference points and feel for a good place to attatch the ribon under your arms. This is why we cut the ribbon longer than we thought we needed to. Make sure the ribbon isn't too tight, you may be wearing these wings for several hours at a time.

Try on your wings in the mirror, make sure they fit right and sit at the correst height.

Now is the fun part. If you have extra ribbon, you can cut pieces of ribbon and stitch it to the edges and insides of the wings for decoration. You can use sequins or beads to decorate the wings. I like to get glittery fabric paint and paint veins on the wings before I add any other decoration.

Once you have wings that you like you can add to them and change them up a little every time you brush off the dust and wear them. I remade mine this time with ribbon instead of elastic for the arm bands because the elastic was either too tight or stretched and allowed my wings to sag. I used this for Faerie wings but you can do the same thing for angel or devil wings. Butterfly wings or dragon wings. I used six hangers and had two parts to my wings. You can make smaller wings with fewer or smaller hangers or larger wings with more hangers. Get creative with the wings, no two wings should ever be the same!

Look Ma, I'm a Real Girl!

This weekend we went to the new house to help pack. Potential Landlord is a total slob. His kitchen was a disaster and the rest of the house wasn't much better. We ended up throwing out at least 10 large contractor trashbags worth of crap. Plus packing a bunch of boxes. SO MUCH DUST. SO MANY GROSS DISHES. So we spent about 10 hours packing and cleaning... Frank was so much help, he really is wonderful. Biker looks like he is going to be our third roommate, which will be nice, he is handy and helpful. Anytime he sleeps on our couch I wake up to dishes done or trash taken out or something of that nature. Saturday my allergies started acting up, so Sunday I took some medicine. I can't imagine how useless I would have been had I not done that. I dropped my cellular device in a creek Sunday also. Frank jumped in after it but the water was deeper than he is tall (6'5) so we were unable to retrieve it. I spent the rest of the weekend and up until last night without a phone. Momma took me and we picked out a new iPhone 5c. It is blue with a blue case. I'm seriously concidering taking it back and trading for a yellow phone... The case is blue with little holes in it and I think a yellow phone would pop wonderfully :) I kept feeling worse and woke up with a fever yesterday so I was unable to come to work. :( I am back today and much better for it! My Jarden is still not showing any progress. I'm trying very hard to not overwater while still keeping the seeds moist. I think tonight when I get home I may put some plastic wrap over the tops of them so that the water will be trapped. I brought my palm tree indoors for the season this weekend, I think it is getting too cold at night for the likes of my ponytail palm. Let's see... Owl says that the power and utilities are all on now, so cleaning should be much more efficient. Imagine cleaning a house with no power or water :/

This year I am thinking that I will participate in NaNoWriMo. I have my idea for my story and I think that this year I may be able to finally complete a NaNoWriMo challenge. I'm going to shoot for 100,000 words. If I start getting close to that and decide I can do better I will update that number. I will be working on story boards and charactor sheets between now and November 1. For those of you unaware, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and takes place in November every year. The problem I have had in the past has been forgetting to write every day, even just a little bit, and overediting. If November is for writing, then December must be for editing. I think that I will be doing this in the form of blog post drafts. Yall won't be able to see the chapters but I think that this will be a wonderful way to keep track of chapters and not be concerned with editing (since misspelled words don't pop up) and I can access this anywhere in the entire world. If I don't complete my chapter a day goal at work then I will be able to do so at home that evening without worrying about misplaced flash drives or remembered laptops. Yes, I believe this will work nicely. Yall may be seeing chapter posts in a sister blog closer to the new year after I have had a chance to edit!

I feel as though I am becoming a productive member of society. I have a job that would have driven me crazy five years ago that I would have felt had no merit. No reason to be. Now I understand why it is important. I understand that without all the cogs working, an office can fall apart. Not that it will fall apart without me, if I wasn't here they would find someone to replace me and in the mean time, someone else would take over my duties. I want a garden, so that I can grow things like spinich and herbs and squash. I want to bake. I want to keep my dishes out of the sink. I want to vacuum and dust and make sure all my laundry is folded and put away because I don't like wrinkly clothing. When I think about where I want to be in five years, I don't think of what my house will look like or what kind of car I want to drive or what my job will be like, I think that I just want to be happy. Living healthy in a clean home. I want to go Geo-caching. I discovered today that there are three! geocaching locations in the park next door to the new house. I want to come up with some kind of small trinket that I can leave in those places. Maybe something that I can order 100 of for 5 dollars online. A child's birthday party favor. I created my username for Geocaching today, it is Waterbaby8391 :) If I decide to pursue this I will be updating yall about the places I visit!

Can I start NaNoWriMo-ing early? Does that count? I think that I will. I feel motivated today. I don't want to wait. I think that I will try doing things more NOW than waiting until the appropriate time?

"It has to start somewhere, it has to start somehow.
What better place than here, what better time than now?"

Hoping, Wishing, Dreaming, Planning

I did end up working out one more time last week at Momma's gym and I did yoga again on Sunday morning. Disc golf again and we went to look at a house. Not to buy, but to rent. With the dogs I would love to have a backyard so we have been searching for a new place when our lease is up. My good friend Owl called me about two weeks ago, her friend had a house that he was trying to rent out. 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, two living areas and a huuuge backyard. We were planning on splitting rent and sharing the place. Frank and I got excited, so we did a drive by. I met the nice neighbor, an older gentleman by the name of John Smith. He showed us the backyard and gave us a history on the house, which was nice. The house itself was relaly cute, but the yard needed to be cleaned up quite a bit "Yeah, Potential Landlord isn't really the outdoorsy type." The grass hadn't been mowed in three years! Mr. Smith was the one to cut the grass back then.

Frank and I decide that we can deal with a little yard work ourselves, awesome! It sounded like a good little house with some awesome potential. However, Owl informed me today that Potential Landlord hadn't paid his mortgage in three months and owed the electric company $2,000. Frank and I are now looking at new places. There are two homes in particular that have grabbed my attention. One is halfway between my job and Frank's school. Three bedrooms, Two baths, big yard but no fence. A few block from the lake so that we can walk down and go fishing if we want. It's a little more expensive than the other house but not having to deal with the horrible landlord will be worth it. The biggest issue that I think we will have is that I have the two dogs and Owl has the two cats. Pet deposits for each of us will be enormous at this new house, if they even allow that many pets. I think Frank and I may have to end up just getting an apartment. No yard. No garden. Having lots of neighbors in close proximity. I'm just not sure that we will be able to find a place for all of us together. Owl pulled up a few places that are pet friendly, but most of them are less than 900 sq ft and having so many critters in the house will make that space super cramped. If we could find a third roommate to chip in on rent, then the houses with pet deposits will be easier to deal with but I have had bad experiences with roommates in the past, I'm actuallya little worried about rooming with Owl, she can be a handful. And so can I. I suppose only time will tell.

This weekend I did some pretty creative stuff! I planted herbs! I have a (bad) habit of holding on to things maybe I shouldn't. Like old speghetti sauce jars and butter tubs. I use the butter tubs as tupperware but the jars I have had no earthly idea what to do with. Until now! I painted them. I took five, I have a few more so I can do this again if I want! I painted them five different colors, sky blue, midnight blue, purple and red and pink. Then I painted yellow around the rims and wrote on them in contrasting colors. I planted Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Chives, and Sage. In the Jars. I wish I could post pictures of them but I can't because I'm on my work computer. I may post pictures over on the facebook though. I watered them and I'm now (im)patiently waiting to see the first little bitty tiny green bits coming up out of the dirt! I'm really excited about my Jarden!