Sewing Projects

These are a few of the things I've made since I dusted off my sewing machine a month ago.  I'm working on a set of pajamas, and these are two pincushions I made for other people.  The pink one is mine...one of the first, as you can tell!

This one is mine, stuffed with cotton balls, because that's all I could think of at the time.

This is one I made my step-mom for her birthday.

This I made from fabric harvested from an old state park uniform shirt.  My friend volunteered at the park, cleaning out the very nasty uniform closet.  She threw away bags and bags of un-useable uniforms, kept the nicer ones for the seasonals and cut the rest into cleaning rags.  I made her this to commemorate her time in the uniform closet....by the way, I didn't know how to piece fabric together, so the first two attempts ended up in mangled pieces of fabric I don't want anyone to ever see!

These are my pajamas BEFORE I took them in a few inches.  Cut the pattern out a little too big...but by the time they're finished I should be able to wear them!

I will post pictures soon!

I have pictures of Phoenix but haven't posted them yet.  Hopefully next month I will have more, but this time of wildflowers.  It's still cold and snowy here (no snow in Moab, just a lot on the mesa!) and the campground snowman is halfway melted but still standing.

Phoenix was rainy the first day.  It actually stormed on us but the next few days were great.  We went to White Tanks to hike to the waterfall, and then spent some time poking around the desert exploring cactus.  Norm (stepdad) brushed up against a couple cholla...his arm survived but his shoe was another story.  I wonder if they even got all the spines out.  My stepmom tried to take the spines out, got them stuck in her hand.  I took them out of her hand and threw them on the side of the trail.

Anyway I will hopefully post pictures tonight or tomorrow!

I am thinking of goals for the spring (not getting too far yet!) and here are a few: 

• finish sewing my pajamas
• start the canvas bag pattern I bought (and spent $20 on fabric for)
• make some quilted coasters from a really cool design
• find the articles on potholes I've been looking for
• find my application for substitute teaching
• be prepared for my after school club
• get out a LOT more and see more of Moab!

A few areas I'm ashamed I've not been to yet are: Klondike Bluffs, Salt Valley Road, Murphy Trail and Lathrop Trail (Canyonlands), Druid Arch, Amasa Back, Hurrah Pass, Hell Roaring Canyon and hiking the Slickrock Bike Trail.  I've decided that for my sanity I need to camp more and hike more, and get out here more in general, even if it's hot (don't worry, I drink lots of water!).  There are more areas I need to get to but I'll save those for later!  I'm SO ready for spring, (even though I know winter is important!).

Another snowy day...

I took this picture this morning after I finished shoveling snow.  Yesterday I shoveled everything in the park but it was only an inch or so.  Today is a little different.  I shoved the Point sidewalks while Crystal shoveled the visitor center.  She is sick and my back has been killing me, so we moved pretty slow.  I am tired of the snow (I looked forward to THIS in November...) but last night I found a great use for it--filling plastic bags for ice packs.  My back hurt and I stayed at the park--I forgot any kind of pain killer except magnesium/calcium pills that relax my muscles but make me sleepy too.  I used the ice pack for a while then got in a hot bath, then iced it again and I slept great!  Yesterday I used some sick leave because the night before I only got a few hours of sleep.  The chiropractor keeps saying I'm fixed but I'm really not.  Tried a massage, and tomorrow I am going to another homeopathic-type doctor before I go to a real doctor.  It will be $60, but after all the money I spent on chiropractor and massage....it may be worth it.

I am excited to go to Phoenix...not the long drive but the warmer weather.  I heard there may already be wildflowers blooming so I'm taking my camera and computer, and camera charger.  When I went to Washington I forgot the charger so I ended up with many less pictures that I would have otherwise.  Maybe I'll have to go back......we'll see!

Today may not be a productive day at work.  I want to go out and clean before tonight (I'm afraid of the road after it gets dark...ice and black cows, not a great combo) so I'll do that, maybe vacuum and clean the windows and stock a little.  I've been reading some of the books on our shelves so I can help people buy them....and I'm becomming a fan of Craig Childs.

Slow, cold foggy days

I took this picture with my phone this morning on my way through the campground.  It's got a mohawk and a grass skirt...we had campers a few nights ago from a wilderness therapy class.

It's been very slow, foggy most days and cold, but so far it hasn't snowed.  I saw frozen frost on my way to work this morning but I was warm in my Jeep drinking coffee so that made things a little nicer.  The frost was pretty, we don't see that very often.  There are always flocks of birds in the highway and I'm always afraid I'm going to hit one.  I think they're juncos but I don't get a good enough look to really tell.

Yesterday a visitor came in and asked me if I get scared way out here and all alone.  I told her there are really no people around to be afraid of, because in the visitor center in the park that's all there really would be to be afraid of!  People are out of their normal surroundings here and it scares them.  I'm sure if I found myself in a big city surrounded by tons of people I don't know with no idea of where I'm going or what to do next I would be scared.  Maybe not, I kind of like things like that--I made it through the Seattle airport without getting lost and scared, but then I had plenty of time between flights.

I think I saw a dead porcupine on the highway this morning, but didn't stop to look closer....

Some "cool" birds

At work I have been cleaning out the park library.  I got rid of lots of books and lots of other things we don't need in the library.  There are 18 empty slide carousels and some projectors, a bunch of blueprints and a dartboard.  The dart board belongs to a co-worker who has promised to take it home.  We also have a refridgerator and small kitchen with a microwave.  Once I was finished with the library part of the room I tackled the kitchen.  I started with the kitchen cupboards--gross!  I threw out food that had expired in 2003 and lots of hot sauce packets and sugar packets, old tea and I washed about 10 mugs that had coffee stains in them from years ago.

Once I tackled the fridge and freezer...it got tougher.  We have a collection of frozen snakes I use for my reptile programs but I weeded through those and kept the good ones, threw out the mangled road kill snakes everyone had saved because no one ever threw anything away.  Ever.  These snakes are in there because past and current employees had found them dead, wound them up and put them in the freezer.  I also found a couple bags of dead birds--ash throated flycatchers that had flown into the building, died and been stuck in the freezer with blood still on their heads.  I threw those out too--too disturbing to keep.  So now the kitchen and library are in good working condition almost--a few more things to get rid of and make more space for working and developing programs.

On the subject of cool birds though, it's more fun to watch birds that are alive and running around looking for food.  I went to my boyfriend's house in Blanding.  He said he's got waist-deep snow and I wanted to see it!  It is really that deep--he's got tunnels built from his house to the woodpile and his shop and the driveway is a tunnel too.  I was looking out the window--he feeds his wild birds with seed from his shop--there are spotted tohees, dark-eyed juncos, scrub jays and pinyon jays visiting his yard.  The pinyon jays this week were a surprise, he usually doesn't see groups o them down there.  In the summer he's got oriols, that I like watching.  I want to learn more birds but I have been really slow about it.

spotted tohee--from utahbirds.org.