Baby Swim Lessons and the Perfect Swimming Suit

Ever since Norie was born I have been pumped about swimming lessons. They were the BEST when I was a kid and so far she seems like she'll be a super water baby too. Last summer she was too young to go to the city pool (there are cooties in there you know), but she did get some kiddie pool action in at day care. From all accounts she LOVED it. She also loves bath time. Like a lot. Once she was squeaking and splashing so excitedly Austin came upstairs to make sure I hadn't smuggled a dolphin into the house. Okay, maybe he just wanted in on the fun times he could hear, but he claimed dolphin patrol.

So anyway, I hear parent led swim lessons (because that's what you do with super tiny babies like mine) are quick to fill up in my small town and I've marked the day sign up begins on my calendar so I can make sure Norie gets a spot.

I'm pretty excited. Almost as excited as she would be if she had any concept of what swimming lessons are.

Then today I was in Target shopping for coffee filters and teething tabs and I happened to walk past this.

Source: Target.com

It is just about the cutest thing I've seen in a long while. Well besides Norie. She's pretty cute. And her cousins are pretty freaking cute too. But in terms of swimming suits this is super duper cute.

Unfortunately it doesn't come in my size. Damn.

How to Make DIY Blackout Curtains

Remember back in February when I posted about my snow day project?

It's still not done.

Not the curtains. I finished those up in four-ish days working during naps and after Norie was in bed.

That sounds really quick now, but at the time it felt like forever. I ran out of thread and bent two needles including one as I back-stitched the very last seam of the very last curtain.

Grrr.

I even hung them, as long as you count thumb tacking them to the wall hanging them.

I had to. Norie will not sleep in a well lit space and snow plus lots of windows equals a super well lit space.

The part I can't get done is the curtain rods. I'm way too cheap to buy them so I'm going to spray paint some EMT (à la this tutorial) and add some finials you might recognize, but it's been too cold.

No curtain rods means no curtain reveal, but since my blog buddy, Crystal, (like my real, bi-directional blog friend who knows who I am) wanted to know how I made them I figure I can give you the run down on the sewing part of the process and how cheaply I made them.

I had been trying to figure out what I was going to do for curtains in the play room for a while. The room could seriously use some temperature moderation (it has two huge windows and no heating vents) and I knew eventually the light factor would be become an issue with Norie's 7pm bedtime. I found some king sheets on super clearence at Target and bought two sets (I checked the dimensions listed on the package and did some mental math to figure out how many I needed to make six 84" curtains). They were $11.38 each. I couldn't wait to chop them up.

I used Ana White's Tab Top Curtains which I've done before, but this time I added the blackout fabric. I got it for a steal too. No really, 60% off home decor fabrics at JoAnn's with a President's Day coupon. Since I needed 14 yards of the stuff and it usually runs $6.99 a yard I saved like 60 bucks.  My total was only $42.65 including tax. Woot! I bought so much they put it back on a roll for me and I had to unroll it on the living room floor to cut it.

I didn't have to make any changes to Ana's Tab Top Curtain Plan to line them. I just cut the blackout fabric into 84" sections and lined the curtains with them. To make sure I sewed the blackout fabric in the right place I folded the fabric over 5/8" (the plan says 1/2", but I have this thing about 5/8" so I guess technically I made a tiny change) at the top and sides and ironed it. Then I folded the top down 4" and ironed it to make a crease to follow.

When you unfold it will look like this.

I laid the blackout fabric up next to the crease line and even with the fabric I folded over so that it would be inside the finished edge, but not all folded up in the finished edge. Hopefully that makes sense. If not, let me know.

I took a close up so you could see what I mean.

Then I just folded the fabric over again around the blackout fabric and pinned and stitched it at like 1/2" because I'm a little neurotic and I like finishing seams like that to be 1/8" from the edge instead of a 1/4".

I did the same thing on the other side and just wrapped the blackout fabric in the same basic way in the top and bottom hems.

Sheets - $11.38 x 2= $22.76

Blackout fabric = $42.65

Thread (because I ran out and had to buy more) = $3.22

Total = $68.63

That's only $11.44 a curtain. Austin says I should figure in my time and they would become really expensive, but DIY is meant for people who have more time than cash, right?

Garden Plan Paralysis

I am totally mentally paralyzed by my garden plan.

Since December I've been trying to read my Week by Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook (which is awesome by the way) and do what it says. So far its just been trying. I haven't actually done anything. When I'm lucky actually get the week's list of to-dos read. When I'm not, I don't even get that far. It makes me really frustrated because in theory it should be really easy. Just read this week and do what it says. It even tells you to buy stuff or check on your supplies the week before so you're prepared. I decided I would go easy this year and just buy transplants instead of even attempting to start seeds myself. Starting seeds just sounded like way too much effort at this point in my life so skipping lots of the early weeks wasn't a super big deal.

But then this week I'm supposed to actually plant things.

Outside.

In the garden.

In a place.

They will be.

Until they die.

Commitment like that terrifies me.

No really, I have three 4'x8' raised beds I made back in 2011 and I have yet to have a serious garden. Last year I was just way too pregnant to garden in the spring. And then way too newborn having to garden in the summer. And then way too still sleep and time deprived to think about a fall garden. So here I am, spring 2013 trying to figure out what to do with those raised beds.

The real problem is I know just enough to feel like I should have a plan and a rotation and pick good companion plants and have a succession plan to optimize the productivity of my garden, but not quite enough to just know what would be good companion plants or have a preordained mental model of the perfect succession for particular plants or rotation for three 4'x8' beds.

This is a recurrent problem in my life. My graduate adviser used to tell me, "Perfect is the enemy of done." He was right. Unfortunately, I never really embodied the idea. I still want things to be perfect and as a result I frequently just don't get them done.

Like this post. I had this great idea that I would cure my paralysis and I would post to tell you all about how I overcame.

I have not overcome.

I am still hemming and hawing and trying to make a decision as the week slips away Please, feel free to just tell me what to plant. For serious. Someone, please make a garden plan for me so I can move on with my life. I don't think I can take the stress much longer.