My eldest rescued a praying mantis from a spider web and it sat on this pipe for a full day, looking around, but not leaving. Very interesting!
Preying Mantis
Masks for me
I’ve been testing mask styles to find masks my kids will be OK wearing. When we found a good style, I then made a week’s worth for each kid. I realized that I was still scrounging around for clean prototypes when I had to wear a mask! I finally carved out some time to make my favorite style, which happens to be the original pattern I made from a local hospital. I like this one because the pleats allow me to talk without the mask slipping down (the fitted styles do a hokey pokey down my chin when I talk). It has a nose wire (I prefer the lighter gauge wire because it is easier to reshape after the wash), and is the easiest style to iron or steam after washing. They also store flat nicely. Now I just need to come up with a mask rack system to free up the hooks for winter coats!
Silly puppy
Our little Missy is really developing quite the personality. She is totally attached to Izzy the cat, as well as her boy Griffin. Izzy is her nap partner! When I can’t provide a lap for the two of them, she curls up as close as she can get to her buddy.
Missy has been shadowing me in the kitchen because she discovered that sometimes I drop things. I dropped a bit of canned mushroom, and she decided that it was better to play with than eat! Here is the video.
Her foot is all healed from her sprain, and she is rip tearing around the yard again. Silly puppy.
Apple peeler, corer, slicer
I love this gadget! It peels, slices, and cores apples with the turn of a handle. I don’t use it often, but I really admire its efficiency when I do need to prep apples for pie. I wash the apples, run them through the apple peeler, then slice the spiral sliced apple once lengthwise to get lovely pieces for the pie. When I’m done, I chop the apple peels to feed to the chickens (I worry about long strands getting tangled in their crop, so I chop).
Tunic from oversized shirt
The crop top trend is driving me bonkers. My youngest can only wear leggings (they are the only bottoms flexible enough, and don’t require zippers or buttons or snaps so are easy for school). School rules require that leggings be covered with tops that go lower than fingertips (which I fully support). But the tunic trend for teen girls has made way for the crop trend, which is not school friendly. So I have a solution. We bought a t-shirt three times larger than she needed. I then used one of her nice fitting dresses as a guide to make new side seams. The resulting garment is long enough, but doesn’t look like a tent on her. Hurray!
