Dadisms

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who commented on my last post about my father. Here are some of the great stories you all shared:

Lani-
Does this ring a bell for anyone?

1) "Get my pocketknife. I'll fix it for you."
2) "It looks like you combed your hair with a shower shoe."
3) "If those long-eared boys come around here, I'll get my shotgun."

My question was always, what does "long-eared boy" mean? And where are the boys? Where? I never saw any. But then again, maybe when they showed up, he ran them off. Yeah, maybe I'll rewrite my high school years to include hordes of boys showing up at the house and being run off by my dad!!!!

Jill-

one day, we were down by the river there in idaho falls. dad had taken that geology class at i.s.u. so i asked him what kind of rocks were there...he picked one up, looked at it...turned it over and said...(are you ready for this....)river rocks...

how about when dad and i went to broulims and he got "greatest moments in sports history" and we told mom it was between that and "Anne of green gables?" i don't think mom EVER forgave him for that...nor did she ever find it funny when we would laugh about it...

or...christmas one...when we begged and begged to be able to draw names....dad said we had to keep it a secret....we were living in calf. at the time...got on the stairs..."peggy, who do you have?" "i have dad...who do you have?" "I HAVE DAD!" "Lani...who do YOU have?" "I have dad...who do you have?"
dad is downstairs just laughing....thinking he is so funny...actually, it kinda was.
 

Gwen Marie-

Favorite memory? Let's see... Driving all the way to Klamath Falls to get my "stuff" that had been sitting in storage for a very long time (about 2 years I think) we had some interesting conversations along the long long way.... First time we really seemed to relate as adults.

Trying to learn to drive a stick and Dad took me out for a spin in the rabbit. We got to a stop sign and the car started bucking. Instead of yelling at me, telling me what to do, he just calmly told me to figure it out myself... and let me! He knew I needed to learn from my experience, not from someone telling me what to do. I love love love driving a standard vehicle to this day.

OR how bout when Aunt Jo and Robert came to visit, it was the middle of winter, and we took Robert outside to see "stars up a coat sleeve". Dad was soooooooooo funny!

I miss you, Dad!

Beth-

I've been trying to come up with just one favorite memory of Dad and it has been pretty tough. I guess that I will always treasure the times that Dad and I, and sometimes Matt, would float the river from Annis to Hancocks after school. I particularly remember one time that it started raining on us. We couldn't get off that river quick enough. And I'm not sure if it was the same time, but I got skunked all the trip and could not catch one fish. But then we pulled into one last sandbar, and I plopped my line in and pulled out a nice german brown. That was pretty awesome.
I like to recall the times when Dad would call just to talk about what was going by on the tracks. And wouldn't you know, we'd be talking for about an hour and that same train would be going by my windows. I miss being able to call him when something cool is driving by.
I loved the Sunday drives to nowhere in particular...or to see the world. I think I get my spontaneity from him, or maybe just my wanderlust.

Penny-

hmm....there are so many,....lone pines....you might learn something....an old trick i learned from the indians.... :P my favorite memory of dad, however, is when us kids (penny pam matt beth (?) and kate) were watching bay watch, and dad told us everything that was going to happen, "guy sees girl in water, guy runs down to edge of water, guy takes off shoes and watch," etc. we were so amazed! how did he know what would happen?!? he just shrugged and said "well I don't know. I just do" come to find out he'd see the whole scene on oprah while we kids were at school. He sure was amazing! I miss him so much

ooh ooh, or what about the time he told us on christmas eve that for the first time ever we could open ONE present and after we got so excited trying to decide which one we would open up he convinced us to open uncle johnny's present. now, actually, it was a pretty cool gift (a grill for the campfire) but that's not the unfair part. Dad had opened it up already when he got it in the mail....so he knew what it was....that's so cheating!!!

Pam-
One time, Dad and I went bird hunting with Mr. Dean, our Principal/Superintendent. I don't think we were very successful, but we had a good time. At one point, Mr. Dean decided to show his birding expertise. We were looking at some small birds, which had landed in a group of rocks. Mr. Dean informed us that those were "rock wrens." With a completely straight face. Dad and I looked at each other, but didn't say anything. After we parted, we had a good laugh. Rock wrens? Seriously? I mean, if they had landed in a tree, would they have been "tree wrens"? After that, whenever we saw an unknown small bird on a rock, it was a rock wren. Or if it was in a tree, a tree wren. Or on a bush, a bush wren. No one else thinks that's funny, but to this day, when I see a small bird, I call it a _____ wren.

Kate-

one of my favorite memories is from my freshman year of highschool. it was a beautiful sunday afternoon, and dad and mom were driving me to get my patriarchal blessing.
when we got there, the patriarch asked if both dad and mom could say a prayer before we began. this was the first time i ever heard dad pray. it was the sweetest prayer, and when he was done, his eyes were misted with tears. i remember feeling so loved by dad.
i will never forget that day.

Tandy Gilbert-

One time I was staying the night at your house and there was something cool going on with the moon, (can't remember exactly what it was). But we all ran out to see it and while I was running outside, something hit me. I saw your Dad laughing and realized he through something at me. It was dark so I couldn't tell what it was. The next morning when I was leaving, I looked down and saw a gofer head. I looked up at the front porch and your Dad was standing there laughing at me. It was so gross!!

Your Dad had a great sense of humor! What a great guy!!


 

Thank you for everyone who shared stories. If anyone has anything to add, or another story to share, leave a comment, and I'll update this {hint, hint!}

Ok, so, as I was on a hike the other day, for some odd reason I had weird thought. I wondered if there were any "slow elk" around. Slow elk? Well, that was what my dad called plain, old domesticated cows. When I was little, he would get me every time with that. He'd say, "Oh, there's some slow elk up there on the hillside..." And I would fall for it, looking for the elk. My dad sure did have a whole lot of words and phrases for things. I call them "Dadisms": little  words and  phrases for things that were all his own. I want to make a list of all the ones I can remember, but I need your help, once again. I'm going to get us started. Let's see:

Slow Elk: Domesticated cows
Tree Bass: What you catch with your fly rod when you're too close to the trees on the bank
Gamboling and Cavorting: What deer do all day, as in "those deer are gamboling and cavorting up the hillside."
Potlicker: A dog that is basically up to no good, or can't do anything right (I hope that's not offensive to anyone)
Church Key: Bottle opener
Big (long)-eared boys: Any boy close in age to one of his daughters
Diet Pill- Fat Boy Ice Cream Sandwich
Boy Scout Juice-Gasoline. Helps boy scouts start fires.

I know there are tons more. Help me out! What Dadisms do you remember?

~Pam

New Purse

Ok, so I have to say that this was one of the toughest weeks for me. Matt was working the night shift, from 11pm to 7am, and I switched my sleep schedule to stay with him. It was so much easier 8 years ago when I was in prototype and had to work rotating shift work. Maybe it was because I was kept busy....there's not much on tv at 3 am, let me tell you! So, anyways, now that the week is over, I'm a bit relieved. We're switching back to days (Matt goes to work on Monday) and it will be nice to sleep when the sun is down and wake when it comes up :) So, with all my free time, you would think I would have been really creative and got tons of projects done. Well, not really. I was really just too tired to do much of anything for practically the whole week. Until Thursday/Friday, that is. I decided to use up some of my scraps and make myself a new purse. The one I've been using was the first one I made, and I've gotten a bit better at making them. So the quality of the stitching is a little bit higher. I used the same tutorial as last time, from Flamingo Toes. So super easy! And, here's the finished project:

Here's the front. I used a green scrap to break up the black floral pattern.

The back.

And the inside.

And I was going to leave it at that, but I decided that I needed something more on the back. So, I searched the web for a flower tutorial, and decided on this one from Sew Ritzy~Titzy. I think it turned out quite nicely!

AND, I got rid of some of my scraps :) Always a good thing! BTW, the black fabric is t-shirt fabric left over from my t-shirt dress. And, the floral fabric is what I used to make Mom's Christmas present. The green is left over from my VERY first purse that I made. Remember that? :)

Ok, well, it is 8pm, and tomorrow it is our plan to go to the Long Beach Grand Prix. My future niece-in-law Sam has tickets that she can't use, and we're more than happy to take them off her hands. Last year we happened to be in Long Beach a couple days before the race, and we drove the race path for a ways. Didn't think we'd be going to see the race just one year later, that's for sure. Thanks, Sam!!

~Pam

Inspired

Ok, so, of course, I was blog hopping the other day. I mean, what else do I have to do? Right? Just kidding. But, I was checking one of my favorite sites, One Pretty Thing, and I saw a project by a girl named Natalie, and I thought, "I can do that!" {Watch her video. She tells exactly how she made the dress, and that's pretty much what I did as well :}

So, anyways, I went to the thrift store, picked up three t-shirts from the men's section, just to make sure they would be big enough. I picked out shirts that were on sale, so I spent a little over $2 for all three.

Like Natalie, I got one black, one orange, and one red. I turned all the shirts inside out, since there was some writing on the fronts.

Next, I cut the sleeves off the black shirt, and sliced off the arms.

I cut it into various sized strips. I also did this with the orange and red shirts.

Then, I laid them out, in a semi-random pattern, mixing color and size of strips.

I also cut up the side of each strip on both sides to make two strips.

Finally, I was ready to start sewing. Just a straight stitch to attach the pieces together. Since the top piece (with the neck hole) is together, it gave me a good top piece. I sewed a front strip and then a back strip, that way the color/size strips would match up when I sewed together.

It was a LOT of sewing!

Once it was all sewed together, and it was as long as I wanted it, I had to press all those seams. I didn't count them, but that's a WHOLE lot of seams! Whew!

Next, I laid it out and folded in half. This was tricky, because I needed four layers to line up. Once it was nearly lined up perfectly, I laid a tank top on top and used it to trace the outline I wanted. I wish I would have given myself a larger seam allowance--I always underestimate. I thought I was giving a 1/4 inch, but it was probably more like 1/8, so the dress ended up a little tight.

The fun part was cutting away the extra fabric.

Now, it was just a matter of sewing a straight stitch up the sides...after I had to use my seam ripper to undo the seam I had accidentally sewn on the arm hole....don't sew up the arm hole! Just sew the sides!

I decided that I liked the length of the dress, and I didn't need the extra flair that Natalie's dress had, so I just hemmed the bottom, as well as the neck/back and straps.  Finally, I put the dress on:

Add some heels, and viola'! A cute dress, made out of old t-shirts. Who would have thought? :)
I must say, that's the most sewing I've done at one time. By the time I got through those seams, my back was sore, and my eyes were strained. I think I sewed pretty much continuously from 3 pm to 8 pm, with a short dinner break. Oh, and a break for when I was pressing those seams, but that's a whole different kind of torture, you know what I mean? :)

Well, as I'm writing this, it is after 11pm on Saturday night. Matt has to work the AM shift (11pm to 7am) starting tomorrow night, and so we're trying to rearrange our sleep schedule. I'm trying to stay up as late as humanly possible, but my body is already telling me that it is time to go to bed. So... wish me luck! I'll need it :) Maybe I'll get inspired again and start a new project tonight...hmm...we'll see!

~Pam

Second Attempt

Ok, so remember yesterday, when I said I bought two sweaters with the intention of turning them into sweater dresses? Well, I would have to say that my first attempt turned out OK, but my second attempt turned out fabulous! I'm so excited. The first one isn't that comfortable. I made it too form-fitting. This one, today... well, there's a bit more wiggle room. I started out with an XL sweater that I picked up at the thrift store. It still had the tags on it, so, score! Never been worn! :)

 See how baggy it is? Yep, that's what an XL will do for you. But I got it b/c I knew it was going to be long enough, and it was so soft!


Well, this is the finished product!

  I went a little different on the sleeves, because I had a hard time with them yesterday, so I basically just cut these ones off. I kind of like them. I think they are called "cap sleeves." Or something...

And, here's what happens to your floor when you decide to cut up a sweater. Sweater fuzz all over the place!!!

OK, so I was reading another blog and there were these adorable origami bunnies, and I just had to make one. Or two. Or three. Well, as you can see, these little guys multiply just about the same as the live ones! :P

Well, what do you think?  Like my sweater? Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can! It's just a matter of not being afraid to cut up the sweater. I mean, I spent a grand total of $6 on this sweater. So if I mess it up, who cares, right? One thing I didn't mention yesterday and I'll mention today is finishing off the seams. I'm a little afraid that the seams are going to come unraveled over time. I would HATE to have my dress fall apart, especially if I'm wearing it at the time. So...I came up with an ingenious idea. I'm going to take yarn, in approximately the same color as the sweater, and run a ....blanket stitch?...is that what it is called?....Anyways, I'm going to basically wrap the seam in yarn. That way it should hold up a little better. Unfortunately, I have every color of yarn imaginable except gray, so I'm going to have to get some tomorrow to finish this latest sweater's seams. :) I'm in the process of working on the first sweater's seams. I have about 50% done. It is pretty tedious, so I took a break and whipped up this sweater-dress instead!

~Pam

Two for Two

Ok, I don't really know what has gotten into me. I guess I've been feeling a little creative or something. But, today I want to share a project that I started and finished today. Once again, I was browsing Totally Tutorials and saw this awesome sweater dress tutorial. I wanted to try it, and Matt and I stopped by the thrift store this morning. I bought two sweaters, and I spent a few hours transforming the first one from this:

Seriously? This was a SMALL sweater, too! It cracked me up reading the tag: 50% wool, 20% Mohair, 10% Acrylic, 10% Nylon. I don't think I've ever owned a piece of clothing with such a mixture... But, how ugly is the sweater? It's so baggy, it just hangs. I can't believe it is a small...what, for a small giant? ;)

Anyways, after a few hours, and some painstaking sewing, I came up with....











This:

I mean, seriously. can you believe I made this? I'm amazed. I need some leggings, though. I have tights on, but I feel kind of naked :)

I got this sweater for $2.50, and used some thread that I already had. So...total cost was $2.50! :) Incredible!


Well, thanks for reading, and check back tomorrow. I'm hoping to work on the second sweater and make a beautiful dress out of it as well!

~Pam

Latest sewing project

Ok, so, I was reading a new blog I found called Totally Tutorials, and got this great idea for turning a pair of pants into a skirt. Today, I decided to try it. The girl on the post used a pair of her husband's jeans, but I had a pair of capris that I thought might work out.

 Beth, do these look familiar? :) Yep, these are a pair of pants I got from my sister.  I followed the directions from the blog, and viola'! A skirt!

And, here's what it looks like on: 

Sorry that the pictures aren't the greatest, but my husband is at work, so I had to take them myself. In all, I think this project took me 2 hours, start to finish. I'm really happy with it. It makes me think of many more possibilities for making new clothes from old. Matt has a pair of slacks that I might turn into a skirt....maybe a little shorter :)

What do you guys think?

~Pam

I've been thinking...

...about my father a lot lately. It's probably just the time of year, but I just keep thinking of all the fun memories I have of him. So, this post goes out to all my family members, and friends, who have memories of my dad. What is your favorite memory? And, it can't be something you heard, it has to actually be a memory of your own. Ok, I'm going to start:

One time, Dad and I went bird hunting with Mr. Dean, our Principal/Superintendent. I don't think we were very successful, but we had a good time. At one point, Mr. Dean decided to show his birding expertise. We were looking at some small birds, which had landed in a group of rocks. Mr. Dean informed us that those were "rock wrens." With a completely straight face. Dad and I looked at each other, but didn't say anything. After we parted, we had a good laugh. Rock wrens? Seriously? I mean, if they had landed in a tree, would they have been "tree wrens"? After that, whenever we saw an unknown small bird on a rock, it was a rock wren. Or if it was in a tree, a tree wren. Or on a bush, a bush wren. No one else thinks that's funny, but to this day, when I see a small bird, I call it a _____ wren.


Ok, your turn. Tell me your favorite memory. :)

Love,
Pam