The No Job Blues

Throughout this summer I have been feverishly applying for jobs. Teaching jobs. And not just at schools dear reader, I applied for a prison job as well. Federal prison.

Hey...desperate times, desperate measures.

I had a few interviews, which felt good, but getting a job would have felt even better, let's just be honest.

I have figured a couple of things out by staying home this summer. I am one of those moms who is torn by the work world and by the stay at home world. I so envy the moms that can stay home with their kids, teaching them all kinds of invaluable lessons and playing with them. But I also envy the working moms, the ones that can seemingly do it all. Work, play, and have dinner on the table at a respectable hour. I know that I love teaching. I love being in front of a class of kids, teaching them new things, and sharing with them a love of history. I also love being there when Mac learns a new animal noise or a new skill. I have days when dropping Mac off at daycare breaks my heart and then I have days where I sigh in relief as I pass her off to the daycare provider.

Love the paycheck too. I am envious of women who can stay home and not worry about money. How do they do it? It is too tight for comfort at our house so I mostly just feel guilty and stressed out instead of appreciating my time at home. Why isn't there some kind of money paid out to housewives? I always love those articles about how much housewives would be paid if they earned a paycheck for what they do. It's usually pushing 6 figures. Well...pay up!

Bottom line: I want to work for that paycheck and have the reward of being a teacher, but I want to be home with my girl too.

Blargh!

Sincerely,

Not Satisfied!

Summer Fun In Pictures

Craft Beginnings

In an interest to do some creative projects this summer and hopefully have those results save us a little money, I started a couple of projects. The first one I attempted were hair bands for Mac.

I had seen similar hair things on other people's blogs, etsy shops, etc. and thought that I could try and make a couple of them. Low and behold I did it! I made two ponytail holders. Yay!!

First I had to figure out how to make a pinwheel from some existing fabric I already had.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with this stay tuned for pictures.

I tried making one and it didn't look so great:

Then I reviewed the tutorial again, an

d adjusted my stitches and came up with this:

Much better!!! So I kept making them in plans for the hair clips. Here are my four finished pinwheels and what they ended up looking like when all put together. Plus another pic to show them on my beautiful model!

I only put one in her hair because she wasn't feeling super patient that day. But suffice it to say - two looks even better than one.

The next project I have undertaken is a rag rug. Mac's new room in our house is a

big, bright, sunny room with gorgeous wood floors. But the room really needs a rug. Too much hard surface. So I began looking online and in stores for rugs. They are outrageously expensive. I found a couple I liked but there is no way that we could even wish to afford them. Sheesh!! So I had the idea of making one. I searched online and found a couple of tutorials, lots of pictures, and decided to make the commitment. I bought sheets in several of the colors I wanted at thrift stores or garage sales, washed them all, and then began cutting them into two inch strips. Here is a picture of all the strips cut and ready to be used. Apparently, they also double as a dog bed.

Hubby made me the "rag rug tool", which is really just an old tooth

brush that we cut the head off of and ground down the tip to a point. Then we drilled a hole through the handle. Very simple, but extremely useful. If you decide to start this type of project - the tool is a must. The plan is for the rug to fill up a pretty large area, most likely 5x7', so needless to say it will take me awhile. I've been working on it for about a week and have gotten much further than the picture below, but it is slow going. I work on it when Mac is in bed at night and we are watching a movie. I'll hopefully keep posting to let you see how it is progressing. Wish me luck on this rug and other future endeavors of crafting!!