Greeting at Our Front Door

Warning!  Creepy crawly pictures follow.

Do you see her?  She has chosen an unfortunate place to build her home.  Each time we open and close the door, her home shakes.  And when we open the door inward, she is hanging over our entry rug, which gives some of us the willies.

She's beautiful, and she made a pretty zipper for her home (see it, under her right front legs?), and we appreciate that she is grabbing bugs that want to crawl and fly in,  but she simply cannot stay there.

I think she is Argiope aurantia. I understand these spiders are not particularly venomous to humans - they seldom bite, and their short fangs may not even pierce skin.  Their venom is weak enough to not be a cause of concern.  Mostly they just sit in their pretty webs waiting for a hapless bug to fly by.  These are about the only spiders I can look at without getting the heebie-jeebies.

Our friendly front-door spider has been relocated.

right 7.0 left 4.75

If the numbers above make sense to you, then you probably wear contact lenses, too. 

Inspiration for this post comes from my friend Science Geek, a fellow lens-wearer. 

I've worn contacts more than half my life.  Now, as I grow further into my era of reading glasses (I own about $7-worth of glasses, all purchased at Dollar Tree.  I also own $2-worth of sunglasses from the same source), I often wear contacts and glasses at the same time.  Remember this picture? We are both wearing contact lenses.

This is the way Earthgirl often sees her parents looking at her. (Note - the sky looked just like that right out of the camera - isn't it lovely?)

I started wearing old-fashioned contact lenses in high school because glasses just bugged me. Let me tell you, you had to be dedicated to wear the original hard, non-gas-permeable contact lenses!  PB switched to contacts in his mid-20's after his glasses got knocked off his face once too often in a basketball game. 

Those old-fashioned hard lenses had one advantage over today's wonderful, gas-permeable, high-moisture lenses: you could pop one out and into your mouth for a quick rinse.  Shhhh, don't tell the eye doc!  He/She will tell you all about eye infections.  I'm sure eye infections happen; I just never had one in 8 years of...well,...spit-polishing.

So, after reading SG's story, I got to thinking  about contact lens-related mishaps.  I've dropped lenses down drains and on the floor, but not as often as you might think.  These absent-minded mistakes happen more often for me:


Polishing glasses while driving.  Not a good idea.  I am used to taking off my sunglasses for a quick shirt-polish on a straight-away, and tend to do the same thing absentmindedly when my contacts are out and  I am wearing my glasses.  This results in everything around me going BLUR. I replace them in a hurry, smears and all. 

Putting both lenses in one eye.  I am blinking, trying to focus my right eye, which is overcorrected, while trying to find the left lens that I think I have dropped.  After 30+ YEARS of contact lens-wearing, I now know to try searching in my right eye for the left lens.


Putting the wrong lens in the wrong eye.  I catch this one pretty quickly, since my right eye is way more blind than my left.  I'm usually blinking my right eye, trying to focus better as I put in the left lens, then as I put in the left lens, everything starts swimming...whoa...that ain't right...  PB's eyes are much closer to each other in nearsightedness, so he often runs around for awhile trying to blink a bit more clarity in before he tries switching the lens...there...that's the ticket...

Putting a lens in flipped inside out.  Blink...ouch...blink...that ain't right...

All that said, I am SO thankful to live in this day when my vision can be corrected to near-20-20.  Sometimes I think about what my life would have been like if I had lived a few hundred years ago.  My world would have been limited to the things very close to me.  My household would have to be well-organized and simple.  I could still hand-sew, if I carefully placed my needle where I could find it.  I would have trouble recognizing friends until they were close.  I would wear a permanent squint, though I'd not see it if I glanced at a mirror.  I might have many more headaches than I have now.  Though I appreciate and even feel nostalgia for the olden days, I think God for all He has given us NOW. 

Summer holiday weekend

It doesn't get any better than this!

What they are reading

Earlier this month I helped during our homeschool group's standardized testing.  (Here in Florida, standardized testing is not required for homeschoolers, but is one option to meet our state's requirement to evaluate our students.  This was Earthgirl's first time going through the testing process.)  Seventy-five 4th-12th graders took the CAT tests in our room. 

Our test coordinator encouraged the students to bring something to read in case they finished a test section before the time limit.  Almost all the students finished every section with time to spare.  I peeked over shoulders to observe what they were reading  during my walk-around.  Here are a few titles:

Bloomability
Twilight - New Moon
Twilight - a different one, I didn't see the name
Chicken Soup for the Soul
The Tale of Despereaux
Blink of an Eye
National Geographic Magazine
Treasure Island
Spiked
Only You Can Be You
Personal Journal - art and words
Dragonspell
Nancy Drew (2)
Banner in the Sky
Graphic novel, wordless cover featuring a teen girl with big, sad-looking eyes
Lord of the Rings

I was surprised that only one or two teens texted when they finished their test sections.  Along with reading, some drew (Earthgirl was fascinated with artwork being drawn by a highschool boy at her table), some wrote, some decorated their namecards, and one quietly made paper airplanes, which, of course, went flying during each break. 

All Wrapped Up - the results

I'm happy with my wrap skirt results.  The skirt turned out a bit dressier than I envisioned.  Next I think I will do a simple A-line reversible wrap that will be the skirt equivalent to a pair of khaki capris.

 The brown side has just a little strip of contrast fabric showing

 The tan side has a whole edging of brown, partially to make it longer.  I think the tan fabric may have been 44" wide, while the brown fabric was 45" wide.  I like the way the tan fabric has 5 different blues/greens/blue-greens, since I have about half a dozen blue-green summer shirts, and maybe 3 winter ones, too.

A few things I learned along the way:


When you lay out  a half-circle wrap skirt, you are limited in length because of accommodating the larger wrap-over waist.  I'd like the skirt to be about 2 inches longer, though it is OK.  I tend to prefer really long skirts - several inches below my knees, or about an inch below the scar on my left shin.

The skirt could have been longer if I had used less overwrap at the waistline.  Since the skirt is half-circular, you have much more overlap at the bottom than the top.  Mine laps over 12" at top, which translates to 28" at the bottom. I could have cut for a 10-inch overlap and still been OK.

I had a crisis of confidence in my interpretation of the directions, so I whipped up a little skirt for Samantha as a "muslin."  It really helped me figure out what I needed to do without cutting into a big piece of fabric.  Of course, now Earthgirl wants one, too.

I must say I am happy with how it turned out.  Samantha is stylish.

I had to use really long ties to wrap the skirt either way, then tie on the side. (If you wrapped it to the back, then tied in middle front this would not be an issue.)  When I do an A-line, I think I will use 2 buttons to close the skirt.

Why a reversible?  Why a wrap?  I wanted something cool and easy for summer, easy to toss on and modest.  I did not want to need a slip, therefore, 2 layers of fabric.  And as long as I was lining the skirt, why not take it a step further and make the lining a whole 'nother skirt?

I'd like to give credit where credit is due, but don't recall where I saw this flower idea.  A fabric flower brooch is not really my style, but it is a nice cover-up for a Reebok logo.  It took a strip of scrap fabric, 3 buttons,  and about 7 minutes to whip together.  I pinned it on with a big safety pin. 

All wrapped up

I am all wrapped up in trying to figure out a reversible wrap skirt.  I'm using instructions for a half-circle wrap skirt from Sew What! Skirts book, but am making it a reversible skirt. Lots to think through...I've got it pretty well completed except for a binding at the bottom to attach the 2 skirts together.  I plan to cut bias strips of fabric 1, that will fit over both fabric 1 and fabric 2.  Maybe I won't start chopping the remainder of my fabric after 10 p.m.

Quick note on errata for the Sew What! Skirts book:  If you have or borrow this book, and the instructions for the 1/2-circle wrap say to divide the waist measurement by 6, it is wrong - you divide by 3 (approximating pi).  Later versions of the book correct this, I understand.  I found the corrections from helpful on-line sewists. 

Hey!  I just realized why many persons who sew refer to themselves as "sewists" rather than "sewers."


I also just realized that this skirt, laid out on the carpet, looks a lot like my Christmas tree skirt, only in blue/green/brown calico.

Other DIY wrap skirt patterns and tutorials:

Whatshedidtoday

The Versatile Wrap from Make it Perfect

Graceful Elements

Happy Hearts at Home

--and this seemingly (seamingly?) impossible one:

The Domesticated Skirt from Sew a Straight Line


And now just for fun, go to this 2008 post from Posy Gets Cozy and read all the way, including the comments.  You'll laugh!  Her  next newer post after this one had wrap skirts, and I found it helpful.  It tells me I need to let my skirt hang overnight before joining the 2 halves at the hemline.  Don't know if I can stand to wait.

I might be crafty...

Kimbo over at A Girl And A Glue Gun posted a fun little list titled, "You might be crafty if..."  Loved the list.  I relate.  I qualified under many of her items, though I am more prone to sewing than glue gunning. 

Remember the 17 projects?  I also still have red paint smudged on the front door from spraypainting the metal chairs.

To her list I might add this one:

You might be crafty if...

You VOLUNTEER to teach crafts at your daughter's Gymnastics camp in an un-air-conditioned gym in June in central FLORIDA during a week of record-setting high temperatures.

Excuse me - I have to go get the rest of my tie-dye supplies ready,  and check on the labels soaking off the recycled glass jars, then run to JoAnn's for more Mod Podge.

 Do you want to see "real"?  Here is my dining room table, sporting 2 sewing projects, a scrapbooking for a friend project, and the aforementioned Gym camp crafts supplies.