The Grab Bag

I thought I might do a little showing off as to how I made the grab bag for my family reunion.

Unfortunately I gave away all I made! (this picture is what I texted Emily and Mom showing the one I was using as a pattern and my first ful sized attempt).But never fear, I had bought another yard of denim the day before everyone came because I was afraid nobody would want the nylon type and would be fighting over the jean ones (I had made 8 yellow, 8 denim, 4 red, 4 green, and 4 a light blue grey. Originally I was planning on doing them all yellow, but when Emily asked "Are they ALL going to be yellow?" I decided to mix it up a bit :-). Melissa convinced me to just go with what I had.

So now your going to get a tutorial. Isn't that so exciting?!?! You can learn from my mistakes so if you ever want to make some grab bags, you will go buy them.

(It would have cost me just over 180 dollars over the Internet for 30 and I spent around 130 dollars on the materials (including mistakes.. anyone need 10 yards of twill tape?)..... not to mention the 2+ weeks I spent making them. Were the savings worth it? Ask me next year.)
First, I folded the material over lengthwise and cut based on a tissue paper pattern I made at the very beginning. I had decided I wanted to get 4 out of a yard so that is how I set the dimensions.
Then I sewed up the sides, pressed the seams open at the top, and stitched parallel on each side of the side seam about a third of the way down on both sides.

Here it is pinned and ready to sew the hem along the top. Originally in my practice one and the 1st full size one I made, I tried sewing the seam open all the way down, but that took too long and I couldn't get down to the corner as far in the full sized one as I had on my original small practice one.

So I gave up. Its what I do best. I'll show you later what I did to finish the inside.

Eventually we will rip open part of that seam for the drawstrings to come through. The sewing along the seam keeps the edges from coming out (There's a clearer picture later).

I sewed the hem at the top, and then folded it over and sewed again to make the casing.
See how deep that casing is? Its almost 2 inches. (1 3/4" if you want to get technical. And I do) I originally made it too skinny and the rope wouldn't gather the stiff nylon (see that first picture). I tried all sorts of things before finally realizing I just needed to make it deeper.

I also zigzagged twice across the seam so when I opened it there would be a little more support.

Then I ripped out the part where I sewed the seam open right up to the casing (do you like my Micky Mouse pajama's?) (I haven't started ripping in this picture) After clipping the edges (that's why I ripped the line so I could cut the raw edges right under the casing), I zigzagged the seam closed all the way down. (In my example pattern bag, they put a sort of twill tap over the seam but that took too long to do. Besides, the bags only had to last one week :-)
Then I ripped the casing open along each seam. Here it is started. (See how the parallel stitching I ripped earlier now ends at the beginning of the casing?)
Originally, I tried leaving it open and sewing around the opening, but it was just so much easier to sew all the way up and only open it at the end.

On my example bag, they put fake leather in the corners to reinforce the material around the grommets, but I just cut up some old jeans for the nylon bags and used that in the corners (again, only needs to last 1 week!). That seemed kinda silly to do on a bag already made out of denim, so for the denim ones I pulled some random material out of my stash and cut out a couple triangles.
I even made a pattern for that! I didn't want them all to look different. Some of you may remember that material as my pioneer bonnet.

Perhaps only me. The material reminds me of striped ice cream.

Anyway, I pressed the bag closed at the bottom, pinned a triangle in each corner, and then zigzagged around (my machine has been jumping stitches when I zigzag and I don't know why).
Then all that was left was 2 cut a hole in the corner and pound a grommet thingy in (I bought the last gold ones at Joann's so most of 'em had to be silver). I found white nylon clothesline at Home Depot to use as my drawstrings. Originally I looked at Joann's but they only had fat (1/2") rope and it was expensive. Plus, it was just rolled and I like the braided type. I also would have liked to find black but the white works OK.. especially for the price.

Here it is run through and tied at the grommets (At one Home Depot they had this pink/white clotheline that I used on the red bags and some of the denim ones).
I don't know why I didn't get a better shot of the finished bag and I'm too lazy to take another one.
Its all drawn up because the rope was just a smidgen too small. It was all I had left of the pink braided rope and I was trying to use it up.

So now you know.

Wait, I can't resist showing some pictures of them in action. What an awesome daughter/sister/aunt I am!
A sea of yellow and red.
I was right in thinking the denim would be popular with the girls.
There's a green one... and another yellow one.
I just had to throw in a picture of me even though I brought my own backpack.
And here is a grey/blue one being put to good use. (Mm... wait, did I pack this?)

PS.. I went swimming this morning! All by my little lonesome. Man am I awesome.

Why I needed a new Suit

Think the old one was a little stretched out?

No wonder the poor thing couldn't keep up.But look! I got a Speedo endurance type so this should last twice as long.

Like maybe 4 years? I shore paid for 4 years.

A word to the wise, never buy a new swimsuit AND new running shoes at the same time. It totally blows your recreational budget for the month... and ur already over so why not spend 70 dollars at Joann's while ur in the area.

And never, never stop at Walmart on your way home.

Budget? What budget?

The Great Swimming Attempt

I have been irationally worried about getting in the pool again. It had to do with circles.

I didn't want to end up swimming in them.

I finally got up the courage to go to the pool Saturday after Melissa bailed on riding our bikes early in the morning.

I can only get up early to excersize for the following 3 reasons:
1. I'm racing
2. I can tell someone I did it right afterwards and they will be impressed.
3. I am accountable to someone else who is also getting up early.

So after sleeping in and an RS activity, it was too hot to go biking and I was tired of running all weekend. So I decided to jump in... so to speak.

It actually wasn't too bad. I didn't swim in circles although my arm was sad after just a few laps. Every time I turned and pushed against the wall my swimsuit struggled to catch back up with my body and sometimes one of the straps lost the battle, but I'm pretty sure nobody saw anything.

I might have discovered I need a new swimsuit.

But the real fun part was trying to get out. I've always prided myself on being able to hoist myself out of the pool without the use of a ladder. Ladders are for wusses.

Unfortunately, hoisting yourself out of the pool requires the use of an elbow and the pushing of both arms. My poor skin. It sure didn't like the feeling of being smooshed between the plate and the top of the deck. And my wimpy arm wasn't much help in the hoisting department.

The worse part was as I struggled for purchase on the deck, a friendly LARGE lady and family (who were hoping I was leaving and they could use my lane) offered to help. Help from large ladies is for wusses! I struggled some more, finally getting up by scraping both elbows and a knee. I showed the lady my scar.

"I had surgery!"

"You shore did." She had already lost interest and was eyeing my lane.

I grabbed my stuff and left. What a wuss.

Photographic evidence (to show Melissa I was using her birthday present of a towel dress over my swimsuit):

Ants in the House

Glen left food at his desk and got tiny sugar ants over the weekend.

The secretary had them come and spray, but the ants just moved on to the next office. They sprayed again... and they continued the pattern by moving on to my office.
This time the spray guy wasn't too happy and after spraying all around my coworkers desks (who had no ants), he put a quick squirt in the corner by my desk and called it a day.

I tried to get them to move on to the next office by secretly moving them one by one over to Angus's desk.

I have no food! Go AWAY!

After a week of killing them as they climbed my cables and walls, I brought in some ammunition and set it by my desk.

Haven't seen an ant since.

Didn't have to depress the trigger once.

I guess Raid really does works.

On the Bike Again.. (cue Music)

Yup, I've been back on the bike. I had a doctors appointment on the 9th of July after therapy and he said I could get back on the bike again (but still no push ups... push ups? What are those?). He also told me I didn't have to do Physical Therapy anymore if I didn't want to and BOY did I ever not want too! The Doctor asked me if I had set any appointments for the next week and he laughed after I told him no cuz I was hoping he'd say that :-). They had just started me on dumb little exercises that I think are a waste of time and money... for me.

I have full extension of my arm after I work on it at night (holding onto a weight with my arm hanging over the edge of the piano bench) and he said I could use 3# weights at home (I had already been using some and now I've done some 5#'s but haven't been very consistent).

The physical therapist said I was the poster child for elbow recovery. She said normal recovery time is 5 months and I had only been to PT for 2 months.

Yes, I'm awesome.

I thought about riding that Saturday, but since I had just started exercising again I decided to give it another week (apparently I've never been that motivated of a triathlete cuz I've been using my arm as an excuse not to do ANYTHING.. and therapy as an excuse to go to McDonalds for breakfast as a reward cuz I actually WENT to PT).

So the 17th Melissa and I went up to Mt. Charleston after 5:30am (I was late cuz I set my alarm wrong) to ride for about 1.5hrs. I was most worried about coming back downhill and had run through all the possibilities in my mind the night before.

We barely made it to the bottom of the first real hill before we turned around.

Hey now, I'd been off the bike for 3 months and Melissa for... longer than that (since she got too preggy to ride). She'd at least been going out running. She was nice enough to stay with me.

On the way down, she got ahead of me cuz I didn't want to stay right behind her since I wasn't very confident braking with my right arm. But other than that I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be. (I had gotten on Mom's beach cruiser at the 4th (don't tell the doctor) and I'm glad I did. I could tell myself, "See, I'm riding and not sliding out and breaking my arm!")

This is the after picture to prove I did it!
Then this weekend was Girls Camp.

The leaders asked me if I was planning on riding my bike down the mountain like last year. Um.. I think so but I'm not sure. The YW Prez texted me before she went up that she would drive my car down for me if that's what I decided to do.

I didn't really decide to do it until the day before. I went... danced and sang, tried not to distract from the spirit as the girls shared their testimonies, told all my elephant jokes.... again (always SO FUNNY!), taught them the "3 sharp-toothed buzzards" song, got some prizes, forgot my bike pump and breakfast, and thenI rode down the mountain.

I have no pictures to prove it except the tattoos on my leg (I had oiled the bike right before I left for Girls Camp).I admit to being scared out of my wits at first. There might have even been some tears (I blame 3 hours of sleep).

It was doing the winding turns at over 30 miles an hour that I couldn't handle. My hands were on the brakes almost the whole time. I kept having to tell myself to ride with the bike or I was going to cause myself to crash since I was so tense. Eventually the road straightened out and I could let it go. After that anything under 20mph was easy.

Of course, I had kinda forgotten this was only the second time on my bike and I hadn't been exercising for 3 months. My whole body ached from trying to keep myself from crashing. My left arm was tired of compensating for my right arm. My legs burned and I still had an hour to go. Needless to say I got to the church about a half hour later than I planned. The group had left the mountain a little later than they planned so I actually only missed them by a couple minutes.

Nobody from my ward was there. I was actually kinda sad that nobody was worried and waiting for me. I had been very worried about me! So I put my bike in my car, found my keys on the front seat, got McDonalds (I DESERVED it), drove home, showered, and laid on my bed for the next 3 hours.

Man, am I proud of myself! Just thought I'd mention that.

I tried to get some pictures of the scar for those of u who haven't seen it lately. Its gotten a little wider at the back from all the stretching but not too bad.

Then I attempted to get a picture of how you can see the plate sticking out over the point of my elbow.

Mm... it wasn't working so well so I went into the bathroom so I could use the mirror.I think the next one is the best one. Can you see the two white spots at the point? That's because the plate is square and my elbow is round.

I showed it to the doctor and he felt it... and "Mmm"' 'd and said he could take that out with local anesthesia in an operating room. I reminded him that I was never having surgery ever again in my entire life (I'd rather die). He laughed again, said "Was it really that bad?" "Yes" "OK, for now we'll watch it and if the skin gets red because the plate is trying to come through then we'll take care of it".

The plate could come through? THAT IS SO AWESOME!

My arm is still stiff which drives me crazy, I have to have padding under my elbow before I put any weight on it, I have no feeling around the scar (except pain), and it still thinks its weak (the wimp), but other than that I'm back to normal. Well... as normal as I can be. :-)