Reflecting on Passion Project

Reflecting back on my passion project made me realize that sewing is more complicated than I remembered. It could have been for a number of reasons, but mostly I think, distractions. My head is filled with so much information right now as I wrap up my semester and topping it off, I have now two children to take care of. When I first started sewing a few years ago, I only had one and my son was leaving the toddler stage. I had more time on my hands and I could get away with making time to sew. Now, it feels like I almost have schedule time to get anything done. In fact, when I think of it, shower time is my only alone time. That fact really puts it into perspective for me. There has not been much for myself these days in my present motherhood. I need a little passion in something, I need to set aside time for myself. Sewing was good for me and my soul!

Anyways, onto an update about the suck pads. Last week, I used the patterned to cut out the “dear diary” fabric. I found the roller cutter I had was dull. It was not cutting cleanly and left threads. So I stopped for a day and went out to find a roller cutter. Not an easy task on a island with limited craft supplies. With Walmart not having any, I had to make a trip to the only craft store on the island. Normally I avoid it because it is Honolulu and the traffic is INSANE! Next day, I was able to get clean, smooth lines and was pleased. I pinned the outer material (what is seen) with the middle material that serves the purpose to absorb. I was nervous about this part because it felt so final! With my handy seam ripper beside me, I started my first lines. I was able to fiddle with my setting and finally found an decent tension (if you recall my lengthy issues with it).  So I have one suck pad that is sewed, another that is pinned. I plan on adding the ribbon to the bottom in little loops, purpose is mostly for looks! It’s cute! I ordered pilers and snaps from amazon, which is the last step! I would say I am about 75% done with them.

I plan on posting pictures when I’m done. Just tuned if it interests you 🙂

Daily Create roundup 9 to 16

9/Celebrating Too Early

10/Holifaves

My favorite holiday would have to be Christmas. I feel like there is nothing that could compare to it. It engages all of our senses from the sights, smells and feels of warm and fuzzy.

11/Socialize Your Media

I would want to follow historical figures such as King Henry, Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth. Could you imagine the posts by Henry? Would Anne find out it’s off with her head via a post on her wall? Possibilities are endless.

12/GIF Me Again About My Eyes

13/All Aboard The GIF Train

14/ Haiku of Season

Some Soft bird Shivers.
Beauteous summer spreads
The Break over the sky.

15/Your Last Words

I forgive you, forgive me, I love you.

16/  Dark Haiku

A cold day destroys.
Engulfing shadow spreads
This time before twilight.

Piktochart!

I decided to use the chart because I thought it applied to the topic of sewing. Plus, the comic book app format is on the cell phone and I prefer to do in on the laptop. I thought the program made it pretty simple to create a poster. There is even a tour to give the user a better look at all the features. I decided that I would learn on my own by playing around. Even so, it was very straight forward and I had no hard time understanding how to use it. I did notice many of the features were “locked”. You needed to level up to use them. They have a ton of templates to get you started. Or you can start with a blank one and customize it. It’s a technology advance take on the standard poster making. I could see this being used in middle or high school.

Technology: my new ball and chain

Paul Miller’s Ted Talk had me exploring on my own thoughts on technology. Recently, I noticed my own attachment to technology, specifically devices like my Iphone. I’m ashamed to admit it but I carry it around with me in my pockets. I check it frequently during the day to include Texts, Facebook, and Email. I’m always connected. So I’m connected with the internet, but what human connections am I missing because of it? Probably a lot, as my children are young. Even worse, are my children going to notice my attachment to my cell phone? I would hate for them to think back on their childhood and have my cell phone make a huge chuck of it. I’m not using my technology mindfully, I using it needlessly. I don’t really need to check everything multiple times a day. It’s just not necessary and it’s not more important than living. I already have issues staying in the present, something I addressed in my passion project. I’m always thinking ahead, thinking about what needs to be saved for, what needs to be researched, what needs to be done. Often, technology contributes to it because I use it as the source to feed my need to plan ahead. way ahead. My devices have become a ball and chain. Now, I do know I need it. It contributes to the success of my college degree and it helps me stay connected with my family that lives far away.

So the Ted Talk’s made me come to a few conclusions, most importantly: I need to limit my time spent on technology. With the undergraduate degree coming to completion in a week I decided I will start limiting my time on the computer and cell phone. I haven’t decided how. Maybe I will limit the number of times I am allowed to check it or have a black out time of the day that I cannot use it. I’ll be updating this in about two weeks to let everyone know how this experiment is going

Digital Activism

Digital Activism is the new way of empowering the masses. We are technology driven society. Just think of how many times you use the internet a day! What about social media? I can guess if you are like myself, it something that happens multiple times a day. Teenagers today are no different, in fact I would say they are more inclined to used social media as their platform. They have many choices from twitter, FB, and instagram. There are more that are popular to teenagers, but as an adult, those other apps of social media are foreign to me.

Social Activism can be used for many different things. It can be used for social change, or to grow interest in politics. I really believe that social media is the platform to get the younger generations interested in politics.Remember the voting campaign and how cool it was to vote? Well imagine if younger adults could post that they voted on their social media pages. I think you would see more young people heading to the polls, influenced by others saying that it’s cool to be informed, to be heard, to vote and have a say in what goes on in their country.  Recently, the nation has faced increased pressure with race. The hashtag #blacklivesmatter was everywhere. It was started and spread by young activists. They used hashtag to get their message out there and help spread social change.

The digital activism that I have engaged in myself would probably be issues that relate to prolife and my contender for the presidential seat.  I often use facebook to do it. I will write small messages or post photos that relate to the cause to my wall. With different social media, I had begun to follow different politicians. I find that I can stay most engaged and up to date.

Daily Create 1-8

7/11 Create a Bucket List:

My Bucket List:
1) Go on a Tudor Tour
2) Visit Poland and Germany
3) Go to a high english tea party
4) Try Seafood
5) Learn to ballroom Dance
6) Dress up and go to a Ball
7) Take my children to Disney World
8) Hike more mountains
9) Hold babies in the NICU
10) SKy Dive

7/12  Make a Movie GIF

7/13

When and Where would you like to live?

I think I like my own time period best because of the health care and technology advances, as well as freedom for women. So I would select now but I would change my location back to Washington State. I loved it there before the move. It had the perfect climate. I loved my house, jobs and my friends there.

7/14

7/15 Heroic   Entertaining   Artsy  Trustworthy  Heart-felt  Ecstatic  Right Handed

7/16

7/17 My memory of my freshman move i day:

I remember that my mother was mad at me for talking about my dad. I can’t remember what, but she didn’t like to talk about him because they were divorced. She refused to go to target to get items for my dorm room. When we got closer, she changed her mind and we went to CVS instead. They didn’t have nearly what I needed for the room, but we made do. I got to the dorm and unpacked, nervous for what my room mate would be like. First thing I noticed about the room, was the sign on the door. My roomate and I had the same first and middle name!

7/18 Favorite Music Video GIF

7/19 My Dream Vacation:

My dream vacation would be somewhere tropical. It would be in a villa with that it’s own private pool. It would also be steps away from the ocean. We wouldn’t have to cook and would get breakfast in our villa. During the days we would swim in the ocean or go to the spa. The nights would be spent relaxing with wine or swimming in the heated private pool.

Passion Project: New Fabric and Help

I’m super excited to report that I received my newest fabric. It matches my “Dear Diary” Tula and will be used for the suck pads. I bought about one yard of the fabric and will use the same pink fleece for the absorbent middle fabric. I was surprised in the amount of fabric I got out of one yard. I’m going to have a lot of left over fabric, so I’ve been considering using that fabric to make a matching hood. Right now, it is just a plain black hood. It would all match very nicely. I’ve been doing research to find patterns to make a hood. Right now, I need to decide between a flat hood or a hoodie hood. Flat hood is just a flat piece of fabric with snaps, a hoodie hood is what you think of, like a hood on a sweater. I do like the flat hood because I feel like it blocks more of the sun out than a hoodie hood would. Below I attached a picture of my newest fabric. They even sent me an ribbon. Im going to create little loops to attach to the bottom of the suck pad. It does not serve a greater purpose than making it look even more cute!

This week, I started to do some stitches. I got the bottom spool loaded in correctly and thought this is the best time to start the outside cover. So, the top stitches looked really great, but I lifted up, the bottom of the fabric was an absolute mess. You can tell by the picture below that the thread is very loose and is causing it to pull away from the fabric. I was unsure about the cause and how to fix it. I didn’t find any answers that made sense to me online or in the book. I decided my mother-in-law could help me. She sews quilts. She used to even sew my husband’s clothes when he was a child. Think 80’s! Anyways, I texted her the picture. She thinks it is because of the tension setting. She is not sure because she has an different machine. She suggested playing around with the tension setting and even the type of stitch. They affect each other. I ended up pulling out all of the stitch and fiddling with the tension. I’m still working on that now. I’m happy that it was the green fabric and not my newest fabric.

Play for a chance to win an ARC of Station #4 – How curious are you?

TRISH MARIE DAWSON

The fourth installment of The Station series is underway, and it has a title! But what is it?? Drop your guess below in a comment for a chance to win an ebook ARC of Station #4 the week before publication! Invite your friends to play, too! The title will be formally announced this Friday, as well as a winner randomly selected, so get guessing – you gotta play to win, y’all! 😀

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Passion Project Update

Who didn’t love Lisa Frank when they were young? I did! When I saw the Dear Diary Tula, it was like an explosion of Lisa Frank and I knew I HAD to have it! It was my first and only Tula Diso. Sadly, by the time I was able to save up for my first Tula, Dear Diary was discontinued. I got a Jubilee for myself and Fletcher for my husband and tried to suppress my dreams of Dear Diary. About a week ago, someone posted a Dear Diary in my local Tula group. For UNDER retail and still BNIP (brand new in package!). I hopped on it and purchased it. It’s love love love and it’s beautiful!  It has glitter thread on it! Hearts, Rainbows, Unicorns and Stars! Here is a stock photo from the Tula Website:

So this means, I will be paying more fabric and creating suck pads for this Tula! OMG! The search was on to find the fabric to match. With the Jubilee, I couldn’t find the fabric, so I found an solid color to match it. But I really want an match on this one. It took more than a few hours of trial and error. Many of the sites listed the fabric but when you went to the site, it would list it out of stock. Bummer! I couldn’t find any besides Ebay, and I didn’t want to go that route. I decided on getting on the waiting list for a online fabric store and was pleased when it quickly went into stock again. I will be making not one but two sets of suck pads!

Right now I have the all the fabric cut out from the pattern. It’s waiting on me and I’m waiting on getting a few more things from Amazon. It can take some time since everything is literally shipped on boats or airplanes. While I wait and practice on stitches. I decided to use my Kindle unlimited and pick up a few books. I decided for starters, Sewing: For Beginners- Learn to Sew Quickly and Easily with This step by step guide by Mary Butler. I really like that it teaches you the very basics. The fundamentals are so important to making it less stress free. I think if you don’t have a teacher on hand, I don’t, books are second best. As long as your able to teach yourself.

The Power of Google

So, I typed in my name into google and searched. I was pretty interested in what came up. First, on social media, I do not use my legal full name. I use my first name, maiden name, and last name. You would only know that if I have you added as my friend tho. I did not have many hits, mainly is it was pinterest. You could click on my pinterest and view what I pinned. If you didn’t know me you would say, I love sugar and baking, I love crafts, and I love to pin pictures of my dream home. I wonder what that says about me?

Second thing that came up was my Instagram page. Recently, I had set it as public. It was a way to win a Tula contest. Seeing how I have pictures of my children on instagram, it will be going back to private soon.

I decided to search next using my first name, middle name and last name.  I found nothing about myself.

Next was my first name and maiden name. Nothing there.

Overall, I am pleased on what I was able NOT to find about myself.