Whew!

If ever I was glad to see a Friday, today would be the day.

This week has been miserable. I've done exactly two things on my to-do list. That's bad.

At this point in the semester I'm ready to chuck the whole thing in the garbage and go bag groceries at the local Homeland.

Somehow having two hideously impossible tests in one week just makes me grumpy. Really grumpy. I woke up at 7:15 this morning with class notes and books strewn across the bed, the TV and light both still on, my ponytail askew and a crick in my neck. The last time I remember looking at the clock it was 3:20. I don't know when I conked out. The night before it was 4:07 the last time I checked. I'm too old for this nonsense. It's a good thing DH was gone hunting or he'd have had a litter of puppies. He's cranky that way.

I'm over it now though. Tomorrow is December 1st.

The arrival of December means I'm supposed to put up our tree and execute my pathetic attempt at decorating. I kind of want my remodeling/renovation done before I decorate, but that could mean several more holiday seasons without decorations. That won't work.

I wonder which one of the kids I can bribe to go up in the attic and hand stuff down so we can get to the business of decorating?

Sorry for the stream of thought post. It just feels good to kind of unload my mind. Now I think I'll go visit my friends' blogs and see what they've been up to since my last visit.

A few more thoughts

I just read this article, Selling Handmade Items:Do cut price handmade goods compromise the market?

and followed a link to Pricing Your Sewing and Needle Work.

Both articles make perfect sense. On one hand, I don't want to ruin the market by charging what I think is a fair price and completely undercutting the other apron makers. But at the same time my items aren't exactly like theirs and so our costs are different. I feel like I need to take geographic differences into account as well. Living in the middle of the US is certainly cheaper than living on either coast.

I think I'll sit down and do some more figuring (overhead, etc.) and come up with a price I can live with that is fair to the customer, the other apron makers and myself.

Questions for my gentle readers

Okay girls (and any guys that might lurk), I need help.

This post is all about prices and how I'm having a hard time setting them.

I suppose this is the age old problem of every crafter that has ever tried to put a price on something they've made.

Now, about these aprons, what would you be willing to pay for one, either for yourself or as a gift?

I can tell you it takes 2 yards of fabric, give or take 5 yards of trim, and maybe 1-1/2 hours when I can just sit and sew. The end result is a reversible apron with two pockets on each side.

Total cost of materials are from 13.57 up to 23.00 if I go with really snazzy fabric that's not on sale.

I look at the aprons on Etsy and other places on the web and I'm shocked at some of the prices. I want to be fair, but I don't want to give them away either.

I guess what I'm asking is, what do you pay yourself? Do you pay yourself or is this just a fun thing to make a little pin money? What would you charge for something like this?

Tell me what you think. Pretty please.

Did a little sewing

After my Friday posting binge, I got busy sewing on Saturday.

I finished my sister's, the chef-to-be, apron. It turned out pretty cute.

I'm worried it's not going to be enough coverage. This particular pattern is reported to fit size 4-24. I don't believe it. I'm tempted to get more of these fabrics and go with the Qwik Sew pattern that I know would cover well.

Anyway. Here's the recipe side.

















and the olive side.

















I started on the flannel sleep pants for the kids. If I had known how ridiculously easy this pattern was (Simplicity 3669), I would have cut out all four pairs at once. As it is, I only cut out one. These little britches were 35 minutes from the time I cut them out to hemming the last leg. It doesn't go much faster than that.



















I've decided I'm sizing impaired. I got both kids and measured them and came up with all kinds of odd stuff.

Caitlyn's size according to measurements: Height (size 6), waist (size 10), hips (size 7).

Sam's size according to measurements: Height (size 8), waist (size size 12), hips (size 7).

My scientific way of sizing was to take the three sizes and average them. I came out with a 10 for Sam and an 8 for Cait.

I had both kids try on the purple pants and they fit both in the waist and hips. The length was good for Sam, but Miss Shorty Britches needs about 4 inches cut off.

That doesn't look like much for all of the effort I put into yesterday.

Unfortunately, it's cold and the kids can't go out so they have cabin fever. I don't need them any sicker than they already are or I'd poke them out the door and wave as they headed for the treehouse. I broke up fights and separated kids most of the day. Definitely not how I like to spend my time.

Weather as it happens

No, those orbs aren't anything paranormal.

And now for the 5 o'clock weather...

Look out my window and what do I see, nothing but sleet and it's chilling me. (Okay, so I can't sing and have a really wierd sense of humor.)

We got our first Winter 2007 snow at 3:42 PM today. As you can see, it didn't amount to much and has now turned to sleet. This wasn't supposed to be here until Saturday. Surprise!

Now it feels like winter.

Black Friday

So, how are you spending your day?

My mother tried to convince me it would be a good idea to go shopping before sunrise this morning. I declined.

I just can't face the crowds of people pushing, shoving, stealing items from other shopping baskets, and the hoards of little ones that should still be home tucked in their beds. I can't do it.

If you participated, I hope you found everything you went after and I applaud your bravery.

I haven't called to see if she went or not. I hope she stayed home.

That's where we are. We're in our jammies enjoying being lazy today. The kids are watching cartoons and I'm making disasters come alive in the sewing room.

The black and white wool bag isn't going to happen. It all came down to bad choices on my part and now that it's almost finished I'm not willing to invest any more time into it. As it stands now, I've got a really neat looking little bowl type thing to hold ribbons and other frippery. I'll try again later.

I really want to just go curl up with a good book and see if I can read myself into a nap. I'm sure the kids have different ideas though and it won't happen.

I've got a couple of aprons in mind and need to go cut out the fabric and get started. They shouldn't take long.

How'd you do that?

A week or so ago I finally gave up on my tomatoes ever ripening on the vine. The weather was getting cooler and I was going to lose them all if I didn't do something soon.

I hated to do it, but I went out and picked the biggest tomatoes and brought them in. The bushes, I ripped them up by the roots and laid them aside to go in the compost bin.

I counted 47 greener-than-a-gourd tomatoes. These were even too green to make fried green tomatoes.

In the back of my little brain there was a memory niggling around. I finally worked it to the surface and did what my granny use to do with tomatoes at the end of the season.

I put my 47 too-green tomatoes in a brown paper bag with an apple and rolled down the top, setting the bag aside to do it's thing.

I let a few days go by and checked on it. Low and behold! I had 4 red, ripe tomatoes. Hooray!

I took those out and closed up the bag. I've been doing this every couple of days for a week and I'm nearly out of too green tomatoes.







The kids think this is amazing. They want to know how I did it. How did I get those red tomatoes in that bag with the green ones and the apple? I just tell them it's helping nature along.

I'd love to go into the whole gas exchange, dark environment, ripening thing with them, but I know they're little eyes would glaze over and I'd lose them the first time I said ethylene oxide.

So for now, it seems like magic.