Recently in Girl Stuff Category

Four of the six pots of kitchen herbs have sprouted over the weekend. We could sit and actually see them growing before our eyes. Good stuff in those little pots! You have time to start your own and have fresh herbs to cook with in just a few weeks. top left clockwise: dill, basil, cilantro, tarragon Go. Get some pots or use cups and plant a few seeds. It really makes spring seem like it is snapping all around you. ***** Steven has refused with screaming and crying and clawing at the door to staying in the church nursery. At the tender age of 13 months he prefers to be in junior church where he colors his bible story page and plays with the 4 - 9 year olds. I am in so much trouble. You all have no idea how my days can be when dealing with his temperment. ***** Congrats to Colby! She is now at her first day of real live grownup work at the hospital. Yeah for professional licenses and nursing school. She has officially begun the rest of her life. She would prefer, however, to marry and have children and be a stay at home mom. I prefer she do that too but she also needs a career to fall back on if that should never happen or she be left in her lifetime with small children to provide for. ***** I have posted on my weight loss journal. Read all about it over there. ***** Now, back to fashion week. Gracie had a little school dance friday night and I whipped up this little reversible skirt with a matching bag for her to wear friday afternoon. Front Back Matching bag from scraps of fabric left from skirt. Reversible skirt. 2 fer 1. You, to, can do this is. Very easy. Just over an hour to complete two skirts for the ease of one. ***** My favorite tv show started last night. This is must see tv. Not for the dad. The son is over the top funny. How bad is it that I rush home from church on Sunday night to watch this show?

Remember those cute little skirts that wrapped around your waist and tied with a simple and quick bow at your hip? Sometimes they had a button on the waist instead of a tie? Yeah, those skirts. The really cute ones. I have made the girls a few to have something different to wear to church. You can make one in about an hour without a special pattern. Here is how to get a custom fit perfect for your height and your hips and waist line. Measure your waist. Let's say your waist is 30 inches. Take your measurement of 30 inches and add half to itself. 30 inches + 15 inches = 45 inches Now we need to figure the proper ratio of waist to hem. For the waistline we will multiply by 30%. 45inches x .3 = 13.5 (round up to 14 inches). Now let's figure the hem line by multiplying by 40%. 45 inches x .4 = 18 inches. Next is how long do you want your skirt? Shall it hit you at just above your knee or just below your knee? Measure from your waist to where you want your skirt to fall. In the deeper south we tend to wear our skirts much longer. For simplicity sake let's say you want your skirt to be 27 inches long. So we have three numbers. 14, 18 and 27. Let's add 3 inches to each number so we can account for seam allowance, waist band and hem. Our measurements become 17 inches, 21 inches and 30 inches. How will we make a skirt from just some numbers? Get out a piece of newspaper and a ruler and marking pen. Let's transfer those meaurements to newspaper to have something to work from. It is easiest to work from the centerfold of the paper. It is not as hard as it may seem. You can draw this out on newspaper in just a matter of a couple of minutes. Now that you have drawn your pattern, cut it out along the lines. Pin it to your pre-washed and ironed fabric and cut out 3 identical pieces. With wrong sides together sew the side seams. With your iron press the seams open, nice and flat. While at the iron go ahead and fold over a the raw edges of your skirt on both sides (about 1/4 inch). Fold over again to hide those raw edges about 1/2 inch. Carefully run a seam along the inside folded edge on both ends of the skirt. Next, go back to the iron and fold over a scant 1/4 at the waist and press it flat. Now fold over another inch and press that flat as well. This will form your wasitband. Stitch along the inner fold in a straight fine seam. At this point you can use ribbons or buttons to secure your skirt at your waist. You can also cut a thin strip of your fabric and create a tie belt. I usually cut a matching strip of fabric. It is easiest and the least expensive. If I have a spare button I might use it. It just depends on what I have available in my sewing box. Add a simple button hole on the right side near the side seam for the tie to pass through and wrap around your back. Hem the bottom edge. In about an hour you have a nice new skirt. This pattern will work for any shape and size woman or girl. It is perfect for spring and summer. Many light weight fabrics are available on discount tables for often as little as $1 per yard. You could reasonably make a skirt for about $2 and your time. Most any fabric will work. But make sure your pre-wash it so that if it shrinks you won't have a too small skirt after you have taken the time to make it. This skirt look great paired with a simple T-shirt and a pair of sandles or cute slides. You can dress it up with a crisp light blouse as well. If you make one the next one will be even easier. Think of the cute wardrobe you could make over a weekend. Think how everyone will be asking you where you found such a cute skirt and you can say with pride, "I made it myself!" Today is Wednesday. Take a few minutes this evening and make the pattern. 15 minutes maybe. Thursday pick up about 2 yards of fabric. Maybe more if you want a longer skirt or you are a bigger girl. 30 minutes - it takes time to decide on the fabric! Also decide if you want a button or a tie. Friday lay out your fabric and pattern and cut the three pieces out. 15 minutes, tops. Saturday do the sewing. Remember, just sewing simple straight lines. Voile. You are finished. It hasn't taken much time. You haven't worried or stressed over it. You spent just a few minutes on the preparations. You didn't become frustrated and ready to throw it away. You didn't become overwealmed because you took each task one at a time. You can make another one with confidence and probably do it all in one sitting. Now, go forth and be creative. Then come back and show us what you are going to be wearing. :-) I made this one last night for Gracie. I timed myself. Start to finish 42 minutes. It might take you longer but once you get the hang of it you can whip out a skirt in no time flat. ***** Gracie was upset that she could not have one of the bags I had made. I used the scraps and pieced a much smaller bag for her. This size would work great for a lunchbag for those who carry their lunch to work. **Diagrams are copyright bigredcouch.com

Umm ... You know how supposedly sex is the most wanted 'gift' by men for Valentine's Day? Mother nature came calling at my house the day before. I know I am not alone in this because I read too many blogs yesterday with this mentioned somewhere along the way. Mother Nature has a very un-funny sense of humour at times doesn't she? So I am betting that a great number of men did not get what they most wanted for Valentine's Day in one way or another. Ha! ***** Steve did ask me if I wanted to have the flowers tomorrow. He was thinking pink tulips. The thought means so much more than the flowers themselves. No, I don't need the flowers now. Thak you for wanting to give them to me. ***** Yesterday, since the arrival of Mother Nature I have been wanting to eat the house down. Did not matter what and still doesn't matter. I want to shove food into my mouth. I lost the battle with my willpower last night. Steve and I shared a bottle of wine with our dinner. It made me tipsy. Not drunk. Just tipsy. It took the edge off of my mood. It made the craving disappear. It made my mood light and fun. I have no idea the carb count. I don't really care at this moment. It was fun while it lasted. I hope to do better today. But yesterday - OMG. I was coming apart at the seams. Everyone was home due to the ice. Everyone had been home the day before with the promise of everyone also being home the following day. The noise and the irritability especially in Gracie, the restlessness, the PMS-ing, it all began to close in me. I could have easily gone insane late yesterday afternoon and went running off down the ice covered roads screaming like a mad woman. Instead we drank the wine. It was good. Today I climb back in saddle and try to hold the reins on the willpower. Wish me luck.

We had a "Girl's Day Out". The kids are being photographed in the morning. I took them out this morning and had their nails done. It was a treat. I had mine done and a pedicure. I haven't treated myself to a pedicure in over 6 months. OMG. I could have slept in the chair. The foot and leg massage was soooooo relaxing. I was in heaven. I did not go with my usual nail color of "Midnight Ruby Kisses". I chose something new, still in the same red color family, just slight different in shade. I am not sure if I prefer the color of the name that struck my fancy. It5 is called "I am not really a waitres." For some reason that name is just fun. I like the color. Aftr lunch, I took the girls shopping. I had promised J. that we would replace her earrings when she lost one in the truck. We went out to the mall in search of clip on earrings suitable for a young girl since she doesn't have peirced ears and is a bit undecided yet about having it done. The girls each chose 2 pair. 1 for the picture and 1 just for fun. Colby chose a lovely pair of silver chandelier earrings and a silver hair clip. Gracie chose a pair of heart posts and some long dangling pink things. J. chose a similar pair of pink dangly ones in hot pink and a pair of silver loops that do NOT look like clip ons. They were all very pleased with their choises. Next we went to Borders and the kids spent some time choosing and rechosing a book. Colby chose a book about the Kennedy White House years. Gracie chose the new Barbara Park book ... Junie B. Jones, Shipwrecked. J. chose 2 books using a gift card left over from her birthday, book 1 and 2 of the Spiderwick series. Aftr we got home and they ooh'd and ahhh's over their new things, steve and I ran to the grocer to pick up a few things for the kids. We decided to have fish for dinnr and picked up some fresh perch fillets and shrimp. We had a fried fish dinner that was quick, simple but very tastey. The kids took the dog on their usual long walk while we prepared supper. After supper it was dessert and bedtime for the younger kids. We have to be up early for the photo in the morning and I do not want any sleepy grumpy faces. It has rained the past few days and rain is predicted all weekend. I hope it clears up. I really what the kids to be photographed outdoors. I do not want formal studio pictures. We'll see what the morrow brings.

We had a "Girl's Day Out". The kids are being photographed in the morning. I took them out this morning and had their nails done. It was a treat. I had mine done and a pedicure. I haven't treated myself to a pedicure in over 6 months. OMG. I could have slept in the chair. The foot and leg massage was soooooo relaxing. I was in heaven. I did not go with my usual nail color of "Midnight Ruby Kisses". I chose something new, still in the same red color family, just slight different in shade. I am not sure if I prefer the color of the name that struck my fancy. It5 is called "I am not really a waitres." For some reason that name is just fun. I like the color. Aftr lunch, I took the girls shopping. I had promised J. that we would replace her earrings when she lost one in the truck. We went out to the mall in search of clip on earrings suitable for a young girl since she doesn't have peirced ears and is a bit undecided yet about having it done. The girls each chose 2 pair. 1 for the picture and 1 just for fun. Colby chose a lovely pair of silver chandelier earrings and a silver hair clip. Gracie chose a pair of heart posts and some long dangling pink things. J. chose a similar pair of pink dangly ones in hot pink and a pair of silver loops that do NOT look like clip ons. They were all very pleased with their choises. Next we went to Borders and the kids spent some time choosing and rechosing a book. Colby chose a book about the Kennedy White House years. Gracie chose the new Barbara Park book ... Junie B. Jones, Shipwrecked. J. chose 2 books using a gift card left over from her birthday, book 1 and 2 of the Spiderwick series. Aftr we got home and they ooh'd and ahhh's over their new things, steve and I ran to the grocer to pick up a few things for the kids. We decided to have fish for dinnr and picked up some fresh perch fillets and shrimp. We had a fried fish dinner that was quick, simple but very tastey. The kids took the dog on their usual long walk while we prepared supper. After supper it was dessert and bedtime for the younger kids. We have to be up early for the photo in the morning and I do not want any sleepy grumpy faces. It has rained the past few days and rain is predicted all weekend. I hope it clears up. I really what the kids to be photographed outdoors. I do not want formal studio pictures. We'll see what the morrow brings.