Applying for a Passport

 Without being able to give you instructions or even a picture, I feel like I cheated you out of my last blog post so you guys can enjoy two today.

I am in the process of applying for a new passport because my family is going to Club Med in the Dominican Republic next summer. I had a passport but not only did it expire and not have my married name on it, I was under 16 when I got it so I couldn't just renew it. When I originally got my passport, it was before the price increase and before we started needing passports to go to Canada so it was a really simple, cheaper process.

I am excited for the trip but this passport business had me stressed out! For one thing, I never unpacked my old passport (needed for my new application) from when I got married and moved here so it took David and I a lot of ransacking the house to find. (We still don't have everything unpacked, especially the things that go in rooms that aren't finished yet. It's really rather annoying and I can't wait to have it all unpacked and organized.)

Then, not only do I have to apply for a passport (which I'm probably making a bigger deal than it is), I need to get Teeny (my unborn baby) a passport too. So I'll have to repeat the whole process after they're born. We will probably  need to get it expedited too (which is more money of course) because of the short amount of time (really a couple months but passports can take a LONG time to get to you) between when Teeny is due and when the trip is.

Of course I need to do all this stuff as quick as I can because I believe me and Teeny are the only family members going that don't still have a valid passport from the last family trip (it's David's family that takes pretty much everybody on a trip. It's every other year and even kid's passports last five years so unless anyone else new was born or married into the family, everyone already has theirs). This is stressing me out a lot more than it should be but at least I finished the paperwork for mine and I am getting my picture taken this weekend. Next week, I'll be able to go to the office and actually apply. Then I don't have to worry about it until Teeny's.

The one silver lining in all of this is that I am able to apply right now with the government shut down. Otherwise, this would be an even bigger mess.

Tote Bag Kit Complete!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I bought a kit for a quilted tote bag (not the canvas-y kind). I finally finished it the other night! I was so excited because each step seemed harder than the last. Although, after I purchased it, I was told that bags are actually pretty hard to make. I would've thought they'd be easy, especially when they don't have zippers, because they look pretty easy but now I can say from experience too that BAGS ARE NOT EASY TO MAKE. They're do-able. Don't let me scare you off but they will take work.

I will not be telling you how to do it because I had to pay for the kit and that doesn't seem fair to me, plus it's probably illegal to share the instructions. I also don't have a picture for you but that is just because my camera is having some issues. It's basically a big tote bag. No pockets. No zippers or fasteners. Just a bag and two handles. I think it would be perfect to taking books to the library and back.

I'm just excited to be done with it. If I could go back, I would redo my handles because as I might have mentioned before, my bobbin came unthreaded (I don't know if that's the right wording but basically my bottom stitches were loose every couple and it took me an entire strap to figure out why). But seeing as it's my first bag, I don't really mind. I'll do a better job and be on the lookout for this next time.

I think my next project is going to a blanket for my little brother (he's not all that little. He's a junior in high school but to me, he'll always be in kindergarten). I made one for him last year because there is a specific blanket we always used to fight over and I took it with me when I moved out. Now, he has his own version. When I asked him what he wanted this year, he said another blanket. I don't have instructions or anything for this blanket but it's going to be polar fleece on one side, flannel on the other. It will also have a binding (which I have never done before) but I haven't decided yet what material that will be made out of. Did I also mention it's like six different colors of fabric? I hope he likes it!

Vinegar in the Laundry

After reading good things about it online, I thought that adding vinegar to my clothes, particularly my whites, would act as a whitener and color booster. I was hoping it would help remove stains and keep my clothes whiter longer.

Since I have a front loader, I added it to both the fabric softener spot and the bleach spot because that's what it sounded like the majority of people do. The bleach spot is for what I described above and the fabric softener spot would add it in the last rinse cycle and the clothes would come out softer.

Boy, was I disappointed! None of my stains seemed to have faded at all! My clothes are the same dingy white they've been since I didn't separate my clothes in college (it was cheaper to cram everything into one or two loads instead of two or three with colors separated). So I figured it was a total bust and through them in the dryer anyway.

When I took them out of the dryer, I was surprised. Despite the fact that the vinegar in the bleach section seemed to do nothing, the vinegar in the fabric softener section did. My clothes were noticeably softer. I also noticed that this load (the only load I added vinegar to) was not nearly as static-y as my other loads. This is especially nice because we are starting to approach the winter months and static drives me crazy! I had been using balled up aluminium foil (you can read about it in a previous post) but I was looking for an alternative method.

So basically, I think I'll keep using the vinegar as a fabric softener and to make my clothes less static-y but when it's summer again and I don't have to worry about static cling, I'll probably take a hiatus from it. I'm still experimenting with other things like baking soda and hydrogen peroxide to help get out stains.

Mini Wallet

I have recently added the link to a mini wallet I want to make to my project page but since then, I have found a different wallet with more pockets that seemed cute. It became our Sunday project for this week. I still plan on making the other one but just to be clear, it's not the one on my project page.

I actually made two of this wallet because I had picked out my fabric to match a new wristlet that I was hoping to use it in but I misunderstood the way the fabrics were titled. This was the tutorial I used. To be clear, the main body fabric is actually your inside pocket color and the pockets are actually the outside main color. I was really disappointed with my first one when I realized this was the case. Luckily, I had enough fabric left over to do another one (it doesn't take that much fabric but my fabrics were all smaller than fat quarters before I did the first one).

Another important thing to note is she makes a huge deal about making sure everything is exact. This made me really scared to do it because I would consider myself a beginner. It turns out, it's not any more important than for any other project. It's always a good idea to make your seam allowances and cutting size as exact as you can be. So if this is your hold up with the project, don't worry about it unless you are really really really a beginner and can't sew in a straight line yet.

We used an interfacing that was thinner than what she called for (I'm sorry I don't know what it was. My mother in law provided that for me.) and we were happy with the stiffness of the wallet. It might've been too thick and harder to turn out if we had gone with the original suggestion. We also skipped the top stitching on the flap because we didn't deem it necessary and to me, top stitching is just annoying unless you plan on washing it.

The hardest part was sewing around the top of the inside when you have the whole thing pieced together (she says it's tricky too). If the wallet was bigger, it would've been nice to use the cuff feature on your machine (where you can wrap it around the body of the machine) but this wallet was too small for the machine we were using. So good luck with this step! It was do-able but I have never worked on anything this small before.

I also (but my mother in law didn't) back-stitched after we tore out that part of the seam to pull the wallet through. I don't know how she did it without back-stitching at the gap but I definitely would've had my stitches come out.

So in general, this tutorial was not written the way I would have done so but it's a very cute little wallet and worth making! I think the hardest part was the snaps. We did this with a tool, rather than the kind you sew on and neither of us had ever done that before. We actually did it wrong two or three times before we finally got it right!

This is the front of the wallet closed. My snap is a little tight on this wallet (hence the puckering around it) but my other one (which was the wrong colored one) turned out better. So to be clear, my gray fabric is actually what the tutorial calls the pocket fabric.

This is the back. Between the gray and the yellow fabric is a pocket. This is one the tutorial suggests using for coins but we didn't want to deal with the hassle of the velcro after our snap fiasco. The yellow fabric is the main body fabric (according to the tutorial).

This is the open wallet. I did struggle on sewing this one a little more than my first one so my yellow fabric is a bit puckered but it didn't seem worth it to me to resew that seam, especially because it's typically under the flap. There is a pocket between the yellow and gray (that I would've sewn the bottom of because you could technically have things slip from this pocket to your back pocket). There is another pocket that is technically between two yellow fabrics but for this picture's sake, it's behind the yellow you can see.

Isn't this a cute wallet? Three little pockets that would be perfect for cards, cash, band aids, hair ties, applicator-less tampons or liners, etc!

Reading 100s of Books in a Year

I am currently on my 66th book this year. It is a novel and the characters are obviously works of fiction but they are a family of readers, one daughter in particular. She is in her thirties (not a little kid) and easily reads HUNDREDS of books in a year! I was astonished by this because I thought my goal of 85 books this year was rather lofty. I assume some people can get higher than that (I probably could too if reading didn't always make me so sleepy no matter the subject matter) but this just sounded outrageous.

I decided to look up the record to see how possible this is. My research found that the record is 534 by a man in China. Is anyone else just absolutely amazed by this???? I'm not sure what constitutes as a book for this record. I suppose I could read that many little kid books in a year (if I don't go crazy first) but something tells me that these are legit, hundreds of pages per book.

There are speed reading techniques and classes which would allow someone to read more books in a year but I do wonder how much information you absorb with those. I feel like it's more similar to skimming but I really don't know much about them.

On the other side of the spectrum, there is a statistic floating around out there (from the Washington Post) that claims that one in four Americans have not read a single book in the past year (well, 2007). I would hope this number has decreased as the years have passed but seeing as the people who did read (part of the 75%) were mostly women and older people (I don't know the age cut off for that), I'm not entirely sure it would have dropped. I don't know that many men who like to read. Even David doesn't read all that much but I can tell you, he has read at least one book this year (don't worry, the real number is more than one). I suppose it is TV and the internet that have taken over instead of reading. You would think that this would put e-readers out of business but someone must be buying them. Maybe it's those women and older people.

I know next year my reading goal is going to be much lower (because I'll be a new mom) but I hope to read 100 books in a year (or more) at some point in my life and I hope that the 25% catches up.

Sewing Patterns and Kits

I have a hard time finding new things to make unless I specifically know what I want to make. This sounds kind of weird if you don't understand what I mean. For instance, if I know I want to make a table runner, I can find lots of patterns and ones I like. But if I am just looking for my next project, it's hard to find something that specific that I want to make. Because of this, I have found it easier to look through pattern books. I'm not sure if there's really a difference but I can always find something I want to make in a book that I can't always find searching online.

I recently found the sewing section at my local library and they had a book about suggested things to make before your baby (or someone else's, like for a baby shower) arrives! I now have about ten new ideas of things I want to make. This is in addition to the pattern I bought a few days ago that also makes a lot of baby stuff (I'm always surprised how many things you can make by buying one pattern. No wonder they're so expensive--at least I think so.)

When I was down on inspiration, David bought me a kit to make a tote bag. It includes instructions and all the fabric you'll need. You just need to cut it and sew it. I was very excited especially because lately, all the things I want to make require things I don't have. Well, it turns out that these aren't as easy as I thought they would be. I'm not sure why but I had it in my head that if it's part of a kit, it must be easier than following a pattern or something. It's definitely not.

First, the finished cut fabric size was bigger than my cutting mat so that was a struggle to figure out how to make it work. (Good thing they give you some wiggle room so there are scraps leftover). Then, I'm not sure how it happened but my bobbin (in my machine) came unclipped from the needle thing (obviously, I know all the technical terms). This caused my tension to get all messed up, which of course I didn't immediately realize. I don't think it's bad enough that I need to redo it but it doesn't look as nice either.

I'm about halfway done now and I'm surprised I even made it that far because the instructions, even though they came with pictures, are quite confusing.

So I think they are good in theory, but patterns may be better. Plus, then you have more of a choice of what fabric to make it out of. Maybe I'll try another one when I am not as confused by sewing instructions.

Tomatoes and Bluetooth Speaker

We started growing our tomato plant back in December and I've blogged about it a few times since. Well, on Monday, one of the tomatoes was finally ready to eat! It was huge (I would say double in size of what a cherry tomato you could get in the store) and really tasty! I was excited because this tomato seemed as though it was never going to be ready. It was green for a good month. But now we have 7 more tomatoes growing, and at a faster rate. Hopefully our plant keeps doing well!

The second thing I am very happy about is our bluetooth speaker for our tablet. We watch a lot of recorded TV shows and movies on our tablet but most of the time, the volume just doesn't go high enough, especially when we are eating and crunching. We tried several different programs without much difference and we finally decided we just had to live with it. Then, this weekend, Menard's had the speakers on sale for 10 dollars. We decided it was cheap enough to try out because we were out of ideas. This speaker has been amazing!

It's small enough that it can fit just about anywhere and doesn't need to be all that close to the tablet. We put the tablet on our pouf and the speaker on an end table and it works out just fine. The speaker we chose (sorry I don't know specifics. I do know it's made by Sylvania but that's about it) has two speakers (in one device thing) and it has a pause button on top, which we love more than the average person probably would. We're kind of lazy so with the speaker right next to us, it's easier to pause than to get up to touch pause on the tablet itself.

This particular model also has a mic so you can hook it up with your phone and then your phone calls can be really loud too! I don't know when we would ever use this feature but David seemed excited about it.