Navy Dufflel to Backpack Plan

My grandpa (pictured in the middle) was a radio and radar operator in the Navy. In WWII, the Navy and Marines all had their own air support groups. Grandpa's squadron was flying high photography reconnaissance missions over the pacific in B-24 bombers.

When he and my grandma downsized out of their house last month, he asked my brothers if they would like his duffel bag and parachute bag. And of course they did. When Jon wasn't sure what he would do with a duffel bag, I offered to convert the fabric and straps into a backpack for him. Here's what we decided it should look like:
I'm guessing I will need to borrow someone else's machine for this project since my little vigorous Vigorelli couldn't handle more than two layers of vinyl! Don't worry though, I'll update you with the blow-by-blow soon!

In the meantime, here is a little family history. These are my great-grandparents (my grandpa's parents).

This is a picture of my Grandpa from 1961 with his Navy duffle bag in the background.

The address on the bag was my great-grandma Suderman's address in Phoenix where my grandparents had gotten married.

Jacobson Reunion In Vermont

Here are some long over-due pictures from our vacation in Vermont three weekends ago.

We took a red-eye flight from Seattle to Boston, rented a car and drove two and a half hours to Hanover. In Hanover, we had breakfast with Jon and my parents at Jon's apartment. Then Erik joined us a little later and we all drove up to Liberty Hill Farm.

Liberty Hill Farm is a working dairy farm and bed and breakfast run by Beth and Bob Kennet

'Aunt' Beth was my mom's roommate from college, and is the kind of hospitable cook I aspire to be. We had lavish breakfasts and good hearty farm dinners around their old wood table. Here you see us almost comatose from ingesting too much food!

Between eating we took varied naps, read good books and had great conversations. (The kitchen is always where everyone wants to be)

The highlight of our trip was the walk we took Saturday afternoon. We opened the door and waded out into about 10 inches of freshly fallen snow. It was beautiful!

Erik's girlfriend Jessica came up to join us, it was great to meet her. Here are Jess and Erik after an"accidental" tumble in the snow.

I didn't know snow could be as fun as the beach...

...but Jonathan showed me how!

Mom and Dad came out looking much less like the abominable snow man

As you can see, fun was had by all!

The Spring Bathrobe Vote

I have decided to write about some of the projects I want to do because they have really meaningful backgrounds. My grandparents recently moved out of their home. In the process of downsizing they found some pictures and other things to give to different members of the family. My Grandma Ruth passed on this lovely piece of embroidery on to me. I thought it would be really fun to line it so that I can use it as a summer bathrobe. I went to the fabric store and couldn't make up my mind what color to line it with.
Normally I would ask my friends and family...wait that's YOU!
So please help me decide which color should I line it with (green, yellow or white) by voting in the comments. Here's the robe with the swatches of color.

we all love tea

I learned to drink tea with my college roommates after we graduated from Seattle Pacific University. Innocently believing what we had been told about our potential, we charged forth from graduation to rent a house as our community headquarters for making the world a better place. Only to find out the world wasn't interested. Worse, it didn't even want us enough to provide full-time employment. We had so much free time we started reading books out loud to each other. This evolved into a "Monday Reading Night" tradition that continues to this day.

Our palate for tea has developed over time (as has our employment, thank goodness!). In the beginning years, we explored the tea brands offered by Safeway and settled on Tetleys and Biglow Vanilla Carmel Tea as our Favorites. Then a friend introduced us to a specialty tea shop on Queen Anne appropriately named "the Tea Cup." The whimsical names of their blended loose-leaf teas were advertisement enough...Afternoon in the Park, Commodore Grey, Paris Romance, and Decaf Plum to name a few. And the tea...well it opened our eyes and like true converts we haven't looked back.

My love of tea unexpectedly blossomed into a Christmas gift of a tea service from my husband and mother-in-law. It quickly became my favorite item in our house! We've been making pots of tea to drink together, even when it isn't reading night. To keep the teapot warm as it steeps, we've had to cover it with several layers of dishcloths.

Last weekend, I got together with some friends for an artsy crafty afternoon.

They did amazing things with beads...


Isn't this just a beautiful bauble?


Notice, please the tea...no art is complete without it!


I made my teapot it's very own, fully reversible Cozy!

The top two are the outside layers and the bottom three are the fleece and wool felt layers that went inside for insulation.


Here we are getting cozy with the cozy!

fLip FloPs wORkEd !

I just had to put out these pictures of spring in Seattle from last week. It makes me so happy to see everything changing, and growing.

The flowers are out, the moths and bugs are out. . .
The warm rain is come and even the frogs are out!

vinyl seat covers: how to and how not to

Inspirational Problem
I have a car with cloth seats and nanny for a darling little boy who likes to do things "ah by sef" a.k.a. all himself. This includes climbing into his own car seat. Now normally I would be all for this, as it involves much less bent and twisted lifting on my part. However it is the end of winter in Seattle, and that means mud.. lots and lots of mud stepping onto the door well, and then onto my cloth covered seat!


Solution
I decided to cover the seats, and went to Jo-Anne Fabrics looking for something fun and waterproof. Instead I found some very much on sale vinyl that matched my car exactly. Also I found fun boy fabric for accents.



Making the Pattern
supplies: brown paper, siscors, writing utensil


Method: I tucked the paper into the back crack of the seat and traced the shape of the top.
Then I tucked more paper into the edge of the seat where it joins the car wall and traced the shape of that piece.

1st how not to: Don't use a permanent marker to trace the shape..I don't even know what I was thinking!

Then I cut another piece roughly the same width of the top of the front seat, took the head rest out and put the paper over the holes, and then put the head rest back in. This held the paper in place while I traced the precise shape I wanted. I also cut little side pieces to match the seat shape.


Cutting the Pattern

I pinned the paper patterns to the vinyl and cut them out.

2nd how not to: don't just cut along the line if it is an edge that you want to sew to something else later. Instead remember to leave a seam allowance the first time you cut the pieces out. (Luckily for me, there was enough extra vinyl!)

I also decided to put some pockets on the back of the front seat for storing "kiddy" stuff.


Sewing the Covers
I joined the pieces together, then sewed hem tape around the outside perimeter to keep it all together.
3rd how not to: Don't try to sew through two layers of vinyl and hem tape at the same time if you have a Virgorelli sewing machine of indeterminately ancient age with all metal parts.

(It took me three hours to sew four inches before I figured out this gem of wisdom! After I gave up on the hem tape, things went much better.)

Here's the first removable pocket. It was kind of a bother, so I've put off making the others for a different time.



Finished Project!

Or, as my little muddy tyke said when he did finally make it all the way to his seat, "duh DA!" a.k.a. Ta DA!

Update On My Winter Relief Efforts

This morning brings a temporary setback on my efforts to encourage Lady Spring.

I thought my new strategies were working last week. The signs that led me to this erroneous conclusion? At least five days of 50 degree and sunny weather--all in a row! The cherry trees covered their naked limbs in blushing pink blossoms. My house plants shook themselves awake to grown more in a week than they did all winter.

I celebrated by lying in the sun on my pink comforter. I started fantasizing about packing up my sweaters with cedar blocks in our basement storage bins. I also bought pansies and assorted "pretties" from Ravenna Gardens to put in my planter outside.

This morning I've had to concede that my efforts may not have had the long-lasting results I hoped for.

It is snowing. In Seattle. In March.

Needless to say, you will not see me wearing my long johns. Oh NO, this definitely calls for flip-flops and a tank top!