Ember Costumes and Crafts

1. Be Black Belt Readya. Run a 10 minute Mile
In January I ran a 12 minute mile as my starting point and was working on my fitness okayish, but once quarantine started I was slacking, feeling pretty down about homeschool and missing my regular activities. Well, a few weeks ago I got sick of doing nothing started back up on my couch to 10k program and running every day. Then John and I time a mile again and it was....10 min 32 seconds!!!! So I am making significant progress with this one! 
b. Pass my Red III belt test My martial arts school is currently closed during the coronavirus....so this has still not happened. 
c. Memorize all my advanced set combinations Again with the quarantine, I haven't had the chance to practice these. I should probably email my instructor and see if he can email me the combos so I can work on memorizing them.

d. Get to a healthier weight through healthy eating and exercise I've had good luck with myfitnesspal in the past, but I hate it. Eating makes m…

My kids came home for spring break the second week of March and never went back to school. We thought it was going to be for a few weeks, maybe a month...but now it's summer and we have no idea what the new school year will look like.

I'm not going to lie: home school was terrible. I never wanted to be a teacher, and when I did sub, I avoided elementary (and especially kinder!) like the plague...ooh, that analogy is very topical, huh? 
The district threw together an at-home-learning program the best that they could, but it was not great. There were standardized activities for every student in every grade at every school, leaving very little customization for teachers to add in, but at the same time creating a lot of work for the teachers trying to set up those mandatory activities in a way that their students could understand. Some of the activities were really hard, some were really easy, and many of them seemed like busywork. In other words, very little real learning happen…

About a century ago, I bought a bunch of stuff for tie dye...

James was bad that his had too much white on it and I accidentally had a hole in my glove and my thumb was totally purple for like three days!  It was fun and the shirts turned out cute. I even did one for me, Gunnar, and Miles and we plan to have a family tie-dye photoshoot one of these days! 

I've been feeling the need for some quick satisfying projects using things I already had on hand which means...doll dresses! A while back Pemberly Threads on Etsy had a sale on their patterns and I snatched up almost all of the ones she was offering. I just finished sewing the Elinor dress with the optional alternate sleeves pattern as well, using two different styles. Both of these are made in the fashion of the Regency (aka Jane Austen) era. 


This blue dress is made from dark blue satin and embellished with the trim leftover from my wedding dress that I worked on almost 11 years ago! 


This teal dress is made of lightweight cotton that I salvaged from one of Gunnar's dress shirts that he tore a big hole in. It's hard for me to throw away usable scraps of fabric, and this color was just so pretty!

I struggled to style the doll's hair in a Regency Fashion sort of way, but it turned out alright I think. The dresses are just so adorable and make me want to re-watch every…

What I've been Reading/Watching/Playing...For the past few months!
Maybe I'll go back to doing monthly ones...Maybe not.

Reading Stormlight Archives 1, 2, and 3 by Brandon Sanderson Lately I've been reading The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson. In February I read The Way of Kings, in March I read Words of Radiance and in April I read Oathbringer. Normally I read a few books each month, but these honking things are like 3 books in one. That said, I really like them! I enjoyed them even more the second time because I knew what to look for and what all the rules of the world were from the beginning, even though I have a terrible memory and had forgotten some of the big reveals. My favorite character is Jasnah, and I wish we got to spend more time following her. When she is around, Stuff Happens. I would totally marry Adolin if given the opportunity and he is generally just such a good guy. His lucky, happy demeanor reminds me of my own husband, actually. I like the oth…

Aidan's quilt is finally done! The fabric is "Wide Awake" by Dear Stella Designs. I bought the fat quarter bundle a while ago and Diana picked it out of my stash for Aidan's quilt.
 I actually sat on the fabric for a long time because I couldn't figure out what to do with it. The colors are all pretty light, without a ton of contrast. I didn't want to cut it up too small or else you'd lose the cute little pandas. and could I still use the flower pattern fabric on a boy quilt?? I came ended up dividing the fabric into "teal" and "not teal" and going from there, matching them up into pairs until I felt it looked right. Then I settled on pinwheels because it's one of my favorite baby quilt techniques and lots of pinwheel quilts have a white or solid background to make the pinwheels pop out. And I think it turned out great! It's fairly neutral for a boy quilt, but I think it will go great in Aidan's Winnie the Pooh nursery. &l…