Know When to Walk Away

There's a certain point when you've had an unfinished project laying around for SO long that it's either time to DO IT or toss it. My kitchen curtains are one such project. Would you believe that I purchased fabric to make black-out curtains for our living room in Oregon almost 10 years ago...and never made them? Why? Lots of reasons, really. First I misplaced the backing fabric. Then I found that and misplaced the lining fabric. Then we moved. Grr.

I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

The "plan" was to make large quilts to cover the windows using a rubber-backed fabric as a lining to keep out the sun and the heat. Great idea, but it never happened.

I'm really not a quilter. The only quilt I ever made ended up as a parallelogram, rather than a rectangle. I love to sew and have made my own clothes since I was 7, so curtains aren't that difficult. The thought of how many different quilt blocks I would have to make scared me away, I guess.

So, I finally decided (10 years later) to finish those curtains. I have two huge windows and two small windows in the kitchen/dining area of the house. I thought that thick curtains would work great to block out the afternoon sun which blazes in those front windows. So, I gathered all my fabrics together and began to cut squares for my patchwork curtains.

Then, I sat down a couple of weeks ago on a Friday afternoon to begin to make my new patchwork curtains and worked for 6 hours straight. The next day, I worked another 4 hours. Here's what I had at the end of 10 hours of sewing:

I'm sorry. I'm just not that dedicated.

So, I scrapped that idea (no pun intended) and decided to make something else. Here's what I ended up with. How do you like my new patchwork curtains? :^)

Maybe next month I'll take a jaunt to the fabric store and just buy something cute to make kitchen curtains!

Andrew's Cot

Not a very original title, I know. Sorry. My goal in this post is to share with Grandma and Grandpa what Andrew has been working on. He's pretty excited to have finally finished it!

About two months ago, Andrew purchased an old wooden cot frame from one of the brothers in the church and then began saving to purchase camoflauge (did I spell that correctly?) fabric to cover it with. The old canvas that was on it had most definitely seen better days!

So, he finally gathered the $10 he needed for the fabric and then we set to work...

As usually happens, Esteban showed up in the middle of the project, and also as usually happens he took over and did a way better job than we would have. He has his share of experience building cots and I'm glad that he stopped by to share his expertise!

I think that Doug was helping Esteban here, but one can never really be sure with those two! Andrew made the mistake of teasing Esteban while he was stuck inside the cot, so...

Andrew is pretty excited about his new cot. He claims that it's much more comfortable and much cooler than his old mattress. Who knows? He's content, and that's what's important. We even had some scraps of canvas left over to make a camo vest...as soon as I get around to it!!!

The Round TUIT Round-Up

Welcome to the Round TUIT Round-Up. My mom gave me this little wooden button years ago after I said that I'd clean my room when I "got around to it". Once I had the Round TUIT, I had no more excuses! Thanks, Mom!!!

My Round TUIT project is a little fun thing that I've been wanting to do for ages...Recycled Pop Bottle Flowers...

I've had a plastic trash bag full of cut-up Coke bottles collecting dust in my bedroom for almost a year and FINALLY the girls and I spread out a drop cloth and decorated them.

They turned out so festive!

My house lacks color, and I have a black thumb, so real flowers are pretty much out. We had a great time working together!

So, there's the first Round-Up post! I can't wait to see what everyone else is getting around to!!!

Pharoah, Pharoah, Oh Baby, Let My People Go!

Evie is really getting into our study of Ancient Egypt! Over the weekend, when the power was out, she took it upon herself to create this cool Anubis Mask. OK, I'm not sure how I feel about my daughter making a mask of a god of the dead, but you've gotta admit that she did a good job! All by herself -- no help and no electricity...and lots of tape (since the hot glue gun was out of commission!).


This evening, she drew a fantastic picture of King Tut -- shading and everything.

Yep, I'm a proud mom!

Just Another Wednesday...or NOT!

So -- I'm sitting at the kitchen table sorting through photos on my laptop. Lunch is over, the kids are out and about, Doug and Esteban have gone to Guasave to get some building supplies; overall, the house is calm and peaceful. It never lasts long.

I heard a "pop" sound. My first thought was, "Hm. That air rifle is as loud as a 22." My second was, "Who asked permission to use the air rifles?" Just as my brain formulated that brilliant question, there was a second "crack", because it really was a CRACK rather than a POP. We moms of boys can tell the difference, eh? The second pop/crack got me out of my seat so that I could look out the front window. What I saw headed me out the front door.

The police were parked in front of the house and there was a huddle of guys (including some red-headed boys) all around a big brush pile across the street. As soon as I saw Caleb with his air rifle and the policeman with his 22 handgun, I knew what was up. It's something we keep our eyes open for, since we live where we live. We have snakes. We have really big snakes. Some of those snakes are poisonous, but even the non-poisonous ones are hunted down and killed when they pass 4 or 5 feet long. I trotted over to the brush pile (of course, my camera batteries were charging, bummer) to see what was up. Sure enough, they had cornered the second largest rattlesnake I've ever seen.

Apparantly the officers were doing their normal drive-by when they saw a big snake slithering across the road in front of our house. He tried to swerve to hit it, but it got away and headed for the bushes. The guys jumped from their truck and shot twice with their 22s. (That was the CRACK I heard!) Then Caleb had come running with his air rifle and pegged it. Finally, Ramon reached in and whacked its head with Andrew's machete. Definitely a group effort, but Caleb was really excited about the prospect of a rattlesnake hide to tan.

Turns out, rattlesnakes are extremely easy to skin. I even prefer them to fish -- once we took the head off. Sorry, I know that once they're dead, they're dead, but the suckers move for ages even with the head OFF. I just couldn't handle it with the head still on. (Side note: there is a slight danger from a dead rattlesnake. The mouth holds some venom, so it really is better to behead it.) So, Caleb cut off the rattle and the head, I skinned the snake and then I was left holding the...snake. Pretty gross, but in all honesty I expected it to be...um, grosser (is that a word? It is now.)

A couple of the boys wanted to cook it up for supper. I actually decided that I didn't want to deal with it, so I chucked it into the brush. Wouldn't you know, it got caught, so we had a dead, skinless-headless-tailless rattler hanging from the top of a brushpile right beside the house. No way that was going to fly. The boys said that they would reclaim the critter from the tree, so I headed in to check the internet to see what I should do with the leftover snake. [Editor's note: After reading this to the crew, Jessee corrected me. They did not offer to reclaim the snake from the tree. They were told to. We must be precise, eh?] I found a couple of great sites. "Everything you wanted to know about...the Western Diamondback but Were Afraid to Ask" -- very helpful site which I figure I'll be visiting often, our family being what it is! I think I'll have to keep it off-limits from the boys, though, because it has information about hunting and capturing rattlesnakes. I'm not sure I want them to have that much information at this time. What is that saying? "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"? 'Nuff said.

By the time I had gleaned what I needed from the net, the boys had pulled Snakey down from the treetops. I was now prepared to clean and freeze him. Once again, I was surprised at how easily the cleaning went. I had to hose him off well to get the sand off of him (that's what I get for tossing it up in the tree -- what goes up, must come down, you know.

Meanwhile, Caleb was trying his hand at scraping the snake hide. (I found the instructions at "Brazos River Rattlesnake Ranch") After about half an hour, he had completed about 6 inches. Slow going. I gave my "anything worth doing..." speech, but Caleb has heard it a few times. His concern was that his friend Mike was over, and they wanted to play Mech Warriors. So, we have a green snake skin in the freezer; right next to a plastic container labeled "Rattle snake". Now that's something I've never had in my freezer!

Doug just messaged over saying that they were on the way home. I asked him to pick up a couple of kilos of carne asada. It would be the equivalent of ordering out for pizza -- but significantly cheaper -- after a rather tough day on the homefront. The only meat I have in the freezer right now is rattlesnake. I can kill one, skin one, clean one and freeze one, but I don't think I can eat one today!