the thought of mundane

The dictionary, among other ways, describes mundane as common; ordinary; banal; unimaginative. This pretty much describes my life and most everyone's life unless they happen to be lying about it. It truly is what you do with that mundaness I guess that turns your life interesting or imaginative. Could it be that we think someone else's life is so interesting compared to ours we assume ours is mundane? Or do we feel ours is so exciting and everyone else's is so mundane they need to read about how exciting ours is? It is possible for me to think that just because a friend of mine and her husband don't have kids and travel a lot and go out a lot that their lives are that much more exciting? On the other hand they might think the same of me because I have kids and do completely different activities than they would. (For the record, I do believe for me, my children make my life that much more interesting)

Facebook users post the mundane parts of their lives for the world to read, and we find ourselves feeling and almost needing to read them. No one ever posts "I caught myself on fire today" (read previous post to understand this reference) It is always: I am eating lunch, I am soaking my whites in bizz bath, or I am going to a hockey game tonight. I am glad you get to eat lunch, that you are cleaning your whites, and you are going to a hockey game, but do I need to know this information? Are our brains that dry that we can't come up with something to say that makes it worth reading? Are our brains that starving that we feel we need to read these things? Maybe it comes down to the fact that our lives are so mundane that going and getting coffee with the friends, then cuddling on the couch with my man sounds exciting, like we are famous and everyone wants to know what we are doing. Paparazzi around the corner to flash our mug, but because we posted it to the world first, they are not there to bother us.

Would it be weird to read a post about someone taking a shit? (Picture a person sitting in the stall with their pants around their ankles computer on lap, squeezing and typing.) It could be mundane since everyone has to go to the bathroom, but there is some shock appeal there.

Would it be creative to instead of saying you went to go see a movie, post something like "i am wondering what it would be like to sew buttons on my face in place of my eyes" (Coraline reference) or I need to go put on my ski mask and make a rukus (jason reference)

Who knows, all I know is that the mundane in my life might not need to be posted on facebook, but if you want yours to be announced, go ahead, there is a disease out there that causes us to read it. Where is House when you need him?

Room ideas

Decorating a room for me either hits me in the face with what I should do, or takes time that drags on for either days, weeks or months. My big room is one of those that has been dragging for years. I find simple inspiration everywhere, whether it is a color from a magazine, or something I see while shopping that I can build from. The next room I am getting ready to start is my little girls room. I found this beautiful bumper pad that was dark chocolate with pink graphic bees on it. It hit me like a wall. Not wanting to spend the 150$ on the piece I turned to what I could do to recreate or just take inspiration from. I have settled on pale pink walls with dark chocolate brown graphic flowers as a middle border. I found a brown bumper pad that I am going to sew on new ties of pink, and find out if a friend can embroider a graphic designed bee that I come up with on it. The bumper pad was a total of $30 and only $7 for the pink fabric. Buying just a plain pink bedskirt for only 10$ I also purchased a dark brown ribbon to trim the bottom with. In the store I found that I was looking for a second smaller width ribbon to offset the dark brown. I knew I needed an accent color, and found it in a thin green with brown polka dot ribbon. I will then take that green and expand it to be the center colors of the graphic flowers on the walls. To incorporate my bee in other areas, especially if I can't have them embroidered, will also be on the wall. Simple yet buzzing around the flowers around the room stamped in brown.

Having trouble selecting a color you like for your room? What I do is go to the store and grab all the paint chips in the colors that I want. (They are free and what they are there for.) Then lay them on the floor by the wall and slowly take away the colors that you know immediatly won't work. Eventually you will find your color.

Not ready to decorate, but find things you love or interest you? Buy a notebook that you can paste pictures or write notes in that is specifically for your home. I have one and when I see something I like it goes in that book. It is filled with paint chips, pictures of items from sunday circulars, pictures of rooms I found on the internet and magazines, to swatches of fabric I loved in the fabric store. I also draw up sketches of ways a room can layout or even how an outside path can wind around. Don't just make it indoor things, the outdoors are just as important.

Inspiration is everywhere, you just have to grab it when it comes.

Cutting up those cute clothes

Well, in between some small freelance jobs I have been able to start cutting up the material for Jakob's one year quilt. The reason I make the squares only 5" is because with newborn clothes it is hard to get a 6" square out of them. I just make sure that when I sew the squares together I am only sewing in about 1/4" so I don't loose the size or any of the design. The difficulty will come when you try and get a square from a zipper or button up sleeper. Most likely you will have to include the seam from the underarm, but that is just added character. I also cut out a swatch from the back of the sleeper. Make sure when you are placing the outfit on the cutting board, you don't stretch the fabric. You stretch it and your square will be smaller than 5". Lesson learned from last time : ) Here are some pictures of how I cut out the swatches.

1st year quilt

My second son is now 14 months and I have gone through all his clothes and picked out all my favorite outfits that he wore. Just like with my first, I am going to make a rememberence quilt made from his clothes. It is fun to look at the quilt and remember each and every outfit and what they were doing at the time they were wearing it.

I pick out a backing color for the quilt. I don't need that much because I make the quilt a simple lap quilt size. (Size can vary with how many outfits you pick out to cut up. Yes, I cut them up, so the real special outfits I put away for safe keeping.) Lay the outfit out flat and cut out a 5" by 5" square with a cutters wheel. I use the front and back of the outfit. I then tile the squares together and sew a 3" border, then finish with batting and the backing.

Later on I might sew some hanging tabs on them so that I can hang all three together. We are expecting a little girl in June, so I have one more after this to make. I think it is a better way to remember those little life moments than box it up and only look at the items 3 times in your life. Why box those memories up when you can make a piece of art out of it? or a warm quilt to cuddle up with.

I will post images of my progress for those who would like to do this very same thing. I just need to carve out time to start the project, hopefully tomorrow.