Here is quick sneak peak of my new craft site!

Please mind the dust and errors as my new site is still in the works! I plan on launching it on Etsy.com when I have ironed out the wrinkles and have made some more product. Let me know what you think!

http://thesewingapple.blogspot.com/

This one is just for you ladies!

        I have been using home made, cloth, feminine products for the last 4+ years. I decided to do this for environmental, money and health reasons. I did all sorts of research and I really didn't want to buy any so, I came up with my own pattern and just used what I had made. The originals that I made are still holding up wonderfully and I am still impressed with them after TONS of uses. I have made some more of my original pattern recently that I love and decided to share with you, and everyone else! I also decided that I would try out some other patterns, and let you know what I think of them. I have plans of selling my version 1.0 and 2.0 on Etsy in the near future. Keep an eye out for them! I will let you know on my blogger where/when/how much before I post them! Let me know if you have any ideas, imput etc. I would also love to make some specially for my friends so, let me know if you have any thing you would like/need (ie. heavy flow and would like extra thick ones, or long ones, or night ones, or a certain pattern).

Version 1.0
This is the original pattern that started it all! I love this one the best, and you can't find it anywhere! It's all in my head! :-) It is made out of 100% terry cloth cotton. I can make it with buttons or snaps, and the center is "hollow" so that you can slide in more absorbent layers (I will post pictures of this in the future). I can only make this one in solid colors.



Version 2.0
This is the new pattern that I am going to test out. It is made from 4 layers of 100% cotton flannel. I have not yet added snaps to it but, it can be made with snaps or buttons. I can make it with any pattern(s) of fabric. I want to try adding a layer of PUL to it for a vapor barrier and maybe a fleece layer too. I have plans of adding a nice little ribbon on the outside (in an out of the way place) for hang drying!



I hope you like them! I will add some more to it tomorrow!

Family Planning Cycle beads:

     When I decided to get off of birth control pills, for various medical reasons (like ruling it out of my health issues and not wanting to put TONS of chemicals in my body), I looked into Natural Family Planning. I read lots of articles, and a book teaching all about. I read all the up to date info. about it that I could. It teaches you, "to take your temperature in the morning before you get out of bed and interpret the pattern of temperature rising which occurs at ovulation. You can also combine that symptom with a check if the cervix and/or the quality and quantity of mucus discharge from the vagina." I was super excited about doing it this way. I printed out and learned how to record everything on these super high tech calender-on-steroid pages. I was pumped. Then I thought about taking my temperature EVERY morning. Even the tired ones, and the rushed ones. Who wants to do that? I DO NOT. NOT AT ALL.

     I found a simpler solution. MUCH simpler. It is called Cycle Beads. Instead of being 99% effective (as Natural Family Planning claims to be) it is only 95%. I can handle 95%. I am ok with that. "Cycle Beads are being marketed as a way of practicing NFP (Natural Family Planning) however they are more akin to the old style Calendar Rhythm."

     Here is how they work, "Cycle Beads represent your menstrual cycle and function as a tactile ovulation calendar. Each bead stands for a single day. On the first day of your period, you simply place the rubber ring on the red bead (representing cycle day 1). On each following day, simply move the rubber ring ahead by one bead (an arrow reminds you which direction). As you move through your cycle days, when the ring is on a dark or red bead, fertility is low and your odds of conceiving are less. However, once the ring moves to a white bead - typically cycle day 8 through 19 - you know that you are nearing ovulation or perhaps already ovulating. While the ring is on a white cycle bead, you are at peak fertility and your chances of becoming pregnant are high!

     Cycle Beads offer an easy method to increase your odds of conceiving (as well as provide a natural, safe method of family planning). Proven effective, Cycle Beads provide an unambiguous visual method for tracking your ovulatory cycle and identifying the fertile days when conceiving is likely (as well as the infertile days when achieving pregnancy is less probable). Moreover, Cycle Beads are based on a natural family planning practice that has been shown to be over 95% effective!"

     These are great! ...and ugly, and $10. I decided to make my own. I have attached a picture of the ones that you can buy, and the ones that I made. I like mine better. Mine have a little tag that says, "Made with love." I think mine will look less "weird" on my nightstand too! ;-) Please tell me if you would like me to make you one. I will gladly make it for a nominal charge. :-)

Comments:

Ok people, the teacher is getting on your case!

I have updated my comment information so that anyone, regardless if they have an account or not, or if they want to leave anonymous comments can do so. You have no excuse now! ;-) You MUST comment. In all honesty, I love the feedback. It gives me a reason other than "just knowing that you read it" to write these. Other wise, why keep writing. I can write in a diary just as easily.

The fleece just keeps hanging around...

     When hubby and I decided to have a poker night he was quite bummed that we did not have the proper table for it. I was also bummed because that meant we would be playing on our nice hardwood oak dinning room table. We were also bummed about the fact that most poker tables can not really accommodate very many people and all of their food and drinks. We found some that would but, they were either hugely expensive or you had to make your own dedicated table and they took up tons of space. Come on, who REALLY plays poker every night or a few times a week? Don't answer that. I am sure there are plenty of men who do. Either because they are single, or wish they were. :-)

     The solution to our problem was very simple. We would make a
felt cover for our table that we could remove. Table felt is kinda expensive and not readily available. We would have to buy it online and wait for it to come. We decided to try normal felt from the craft store. Once we got there we realized that it was affordable but, could never be washed and would pill easily. Thats when we saw it. The FLEECE. Non-pill even! Yay! Since it is close to the holidays it was super cheap.

     Here is where the fleece issue came into play. Hubby wanted to make sure that he got plenty of it. I mean PLENTY. I understand wanting to have enough but, like a yard and a half too much? Well, we bought gobs. It turned out great for the table (you can see a few pics of it in the Poker Night slide show) but, we had a lot left.

     Yesterday, I took it upon myself to use some of it up. I had just come inside from raking, and bagging leaves and my feet were cold. I decided to make myself some fleece socks. What a great way to use up the fleece! Yay! I thought it should be super easy! Not quite. I didn't have a pattern so, I painstakingly created one to use. I had to do some changing once I realize that my pattern was not going the way I wanted it to and I had to remember witch way the grain (and stretch) of the fleece needed to run. My finial product came out well. (Please excuse the cat fur.)

The socks:


I proceeded to make a scarf with pockets for my hands, tissues and such. It also has a split in it so that you can tie it around your neck without having to wrap it around your neck a million times. I had to come up with the pattern for this one too but, it was much easier. A scarf doesn't need to be so exact. It still needs to be ironed but, here it is.

The pocket scarf:


     When hubby came home from work at 1:30am, he asked me to make him a bag for his camping stove. I thought that even though it was late I would make it and it would be easy. I also wanted to make it because he left for a three day camping trip this morning and would be able to use it. So, I quickly made it. Hubby didn't like it. Ug. I had to cut it apart and make it again. This time smaller so that it had less bulk. Ug. I like the way the second one turned out but, I was not feeling up to it last night.(I don't have a pic yet) :-)

I saw enough fleece for one night. There is STILL more fleece left over...

Flirts Fitness:

     I have found a wonderful, amazing, and empowering place. Its name is Flirts Fitness. I found them when I was doing some research, a few months back, into pole dancing for fitness. Some people call it vertical dance, pole fitness, or what have you. Just to set the record straight (and I will only do this once). This is for fitness, not for stripping or for sexual endeavors. That is all I will say about that. If you are not able to open your mind up to such an idea, please skip over any future information or posts that you see about pole dancing. It will be better for you, and for me.

     So, back to what I was getting at. Flirts Fitness is one of two places that offers pole dancing lessons in the city and surrounding area. They also offer fun classes like, Zumba, Tai Chi, Yoga Groove, Belly dancing, Tap, Cardio Ballroom, Hip Hop, and Yogalates. Last week, and tonight, I went to their Yogalates class. Last week with Shannon, and this week with Shannon and Katie. I must say it kicked my butt. LITERALLY. Last week, my butt and abs were super sore. They are sore again tonight. I am sure I will really feel it tomorrow. No pain, no gain, right? Hah! I sure hope so. I am envisioning nice tight abs and strong, lean muscles in about six months. What do you think? Well. I am doing yoga at home with Shannon and spending plenty of time on my nice new shiny Christmas gift in the garage(can you guess what it is?). I think that all of this combined may seriously result in a better, more healthy body. I know I could seriously benefit from that. Maybe I can even cut out a little, tiny bit of the cheese from my daily foods. I don't know. We will see how it goes. Cheese is a big sacrifice for me... ;-)

Our Saturday Night:

        Saturday late afternoon, my parents came over for a cookout. The last one of the year we are thinking. They often have us over for dinner so, we thought it would be nice to have them to our house now that it is looking nicer too. Its always good to feel like we can give a little bit back to them for helping us out so often. The funny thing is that they insisted on bringing the meat for dinner. When they got to our house my dad had a HUGE amount of meat with him. Much more than the five of us could have possibly eaten. His intent was "innocently" to leave behind all of the meat that we did not use so that we had some meat for the upcoming week. Yeah right, how "innocent" was that! Hehehe. I love him dearly but, I can't even seem to do anything nice for him without it turning into an opportunity for him to do something nice for me. I am surely counting my blessings.

The dinner menu for the evening consisted of:

• Hamburgers (which Craig charred a little bit), Hotdogs and Brats
  
• Deviled Eggs
  
• Baked Beans
  
• Corn
  
• Sliced Pineapple
  

        After dinner, we planned to have a Poker/Game night and have a bunch of our friends and family over. Our guests started arriving around 7 and and were asked to bring a snack/appetizer and what ever they wanted to drink. All together I think that there was around 12 of us. It was the perfect size to have a large game of poker going and another smaller game of whatever else. The what ever else turned into a loud game of Catch Phrase. I was super impressed by the food that everyone brought.
Some of it included:

• Brownies
  
• Chips of various types
  
• Cheese cake with apples and pecans
  
• Spinach and artichoke dip
  
• Rice crispy treats
  
• Salami roll-ups
  
• Cheese ball
  
• A crudite tray
  

Craig also made a bonfire in the back yard so that people could meander in and our of the house. I have included a small sideshow of some of the pictures from the evening. I hope you enjoy!

More house updates! Update #3.

I sat down and looked at weeks worth of pictures of work on the house. Many of the pictures are of Craig and I painting, taking down dozens of trees and limbs, and doing hot sweaty work. Kind of boring. For this update I decided to dedicate my blog post to all of the people who helped us our with moving and renovations. Without them we would not have been able to accomplish half of what we have so far and we have a long was to go so, this is for you...

You have helped to make our house a home.



Craig's dad and he taking a break from moving boxes.



Ket and her pregnant self being morally supportive.



Elizabeth, Craig, Craig, and Ben's butt. All working hard to get us moved in.



My mom working "feverishly" to take down a giant mulberry bush/tree that took over a HUGE amount of our yard. :-)



My dad helping to take down one of the many, many, many trees.



Craig's mom helping to remove lots of overgrowth. She gave me tons of great advise about cutting back my rose of sharron "trees." All of the growth is this picture is now completely gone. Well... the rose of sharrons are still there, just MUCH smaller.



Of course, Lowes delivered our appliances, and our handy man Denis was a GREAT help! He was even nice enough to leave us extra supplies. Our roof leaked a couple of weeks ago and we were thankful that we had an extra pack on shingles and some flashing.