Awwww...

In keeping with the "OMG, the school year's almost over?!?!" panic I'm sure is taking over more moms than I, I'm in full teacher-gift-making mode. Two of Blue Giraffe's teachers (one current, one former) had babies this school year, so I'm also crocheting baby blankets for them. I can't resist, especially since one's a girl. I never get to make girlie stuff! (In fact, I have to run to the store to get a skein of pink yarn...yay!)

For the baby boy, I've chosen this Through Any Window pattern by Laura Lynn Hanks, and I think it's turning out quite nicely. It's a really quick make, all in half-double crochets.

Crocheting Differently & Making Reservations

This weekend's work:

This used the same pattern as my previous purse, but - again - I played with the stripes. I also bought a skein of Bernat's Boa yarn (this color is "Tweety Bird") for some added interest, and the button came from my stash of extras. This is one fun, funky purse! I'm going to have a hard time giving it up, but - alas! - it is meant for someone else.

I met my friend, Heather, for a Mom Date this morning. (In order to keep our sanity in a world of errands and To Do lists, we try to meet for coffee and bookshop browsing every few weeks.) Last week, when I discovered plarn crochet, I called Heather and issued an Earth Day challenge: We would each make a plarn bag. Well, we're both hooked. Now, we've always known that we crochet differently - different tensions, etc. Today we discovered just how differently. She used the exact same pattern for her bag as I did (the round one), and hers is easily twice the size of mine! We got a good laugh out of that. What is a smallish purse for me is a nice-sized market tote for her, and I'm even using a larger hook than she is. Considering that I use about half the recommended plarn for my bags, I'm willing to bet she's doing something right, and I'm doing something...well, not wrong per se....just different!

The reservations have been made for our Mother's Day weekend near Callaway Gardens. I'm looking forward to a day of letterboxing and a day at the gardens (where there also happen to be hidden a couple of letterboxes, I believe!). I'd better get carving...

Just a quickie!

My second dishcloth...this one's for Mom. It's also one of RecycleCindy's patterns, with a few rounds left out. (Excuse the dark photo...it's overcast this afternoon, and I don't have Photoshop installed on my new computer yet.) :-)

The yarn is Sugar 'n Cream again, mostly Landscape with a couple of rounds of Key Lime Pie. There are several rounds of plarn in the middle for scrubbing power - the brown and the white immediately surrounding it.

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

In our continuing effort to take baby steps towards a greener household, we've decided to try using washable dishcloths instead of kitchen sponges. This probably seems like a no-brainer to many folks, but I grew up using sponges in the kitchen, and it simply didn't occur to me that there was anything else to use. Granted, we don't go through an awful lot of sponges, but in my mind, any way we can reduce our contribution to the landfills is something. I got the idea here at RecycleCindy's site, where she has patterns for crocheted dishcloths with plastic bag scrubby centers.

For this dishcloth, I used one black plastic bag and half (or less) of a skein of "Key Lime Pie" Sugar 'n Cream yarn. It's basically the first pattern on Cindy's page, with less plastic. I wanted more cotton and less scrubby. (I use Pampered Chef baking stone scrapers for the harder stuck-on food, anyway.) It's a little larger than I expected, but then again, I have no basis for comparison, so what do I know?

I'm going to use this for a few days (putting my sponge under the sink to avoid temptation) and see if I can get used to it before making any more for myself. However, I've promised a couple to Mom. Between that and teacher gifts, I suppose I've got enough to keep myself busy. ;-)

Getting the Hang of It

I've been loving the comments my first recycled plastic bag has generated! I've been using it as a tote to carry around my plarn and new project, and people are amazed by it. Pretty good for the ego, especially as I was pretty unthrilled with the way it turned out. Fredbird said, "You just don't understand how cool it is!" I guess not! I have pretty high standards for myself, and it appeared far from perfect to me, but I will now yield to the masses and agree, that bag is pretty freaking nifty!

Okay, so bag #2 is now done, and I am absolutely thrilled with this one! I used another of Marlo Cairns' patterns (Round Plastic Bag Tote) and modified it to create a purse, once I realized it would be much too small for a grocery tote. (It was smaller than I'd envisioned from the photograph, and I crochet very tightly...combine these, and this thing's pretty small!) Anyway, I crocheted the whole thing in the back loops only, except the final row, where I used both loops. I also went back with the white plarn and slip stitched over the final row for a bit of trim. I finished it off by crocheting a button and loop closure. I think in the future, I'd make the handles just a little longer. Final size: 10.5" wide, 7" high (not including handles)

One of the things I think made a huge difference with this bag is the gauge of the plarn. All of the plarn I made in my first batch was cut in strips about 1.5" wide, and it was so bulky to work with. I cut the plarn for this about 1" wide, and what a difference! I'll be doing that from now on.

I have another bag in the works, but it's on hold until I acquire more grocery bags to match. This one is an expandable grocery tote, on par size-wise with the reusable totes available at the grocery stores, maybe a bit bigger.

After I catch up on the laundry and errands (strangely, the world does keep turning when I immerse myself in a project), I think I'm going challenge myself to come up with a design of my own. Wish me luck!

Happy Earth Day!!!

Blue Giraffe has decided that Earth Day must be the Earth's birthday, and he theorizes that the Big Bang occurred on April 22, eons ago. Gotta love kids' logic!

I thought quite a while about what we'd do to honor our planet today, and two projects were basically dropped in my lap. Little Turtle's preschool teacher asked us to send in as much junk (i.e., usable trash) as we could last week, in preparation for a "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" lesson this week. They're using as much as they can to make puppets. What a great idea! This afternoon, the boys and I will be dubbing a new bin the "Recycled Art Bin," into which we can put items like this for craft projects. (Coincidentally, I saw the idea again a few moments ago in Family Fun Magazine.)

My own personal Earth Day project came to me via the message boards at Atlas Quest. Use old grocery bags to crochet reusable shopping bags. Whoa!!! Love it! I love crocheting, and I've been [slooooowly] collecting reusable bags. This is a great way to add to the collection. I spent much of yesterday gathering every spare plastic bag I could find to start the project, and a few minutes ago, I finished this:

This lovely piece of art is about 10" wide (at its narrowest point) and 13" tall. It's a lot smaller than I'd like, and it's way too thick and heavy to use as a shopping tote. (Storing enough of these in my car for grocery day would take up half the trunk!) However, I'm going to play around with some other patterns I've found online. This thing is sturdy! I can see it lasting forever.

If you don't crochet, that's okay! "Plarn" (plastic yarn) can be used for knitting, macrame, and braiding, too. Here are some resources for making this type of project for yourself.

How to make plarn

Pattern for the bag I made (Obviously, I did my stripes differently. Live on the edge, that's what I say!)

The next pattern I'll probably try/adapt

My Recycled Bags.com - Just found this site, and she has some fabulous plarn patterns!

My Day!

It occurred to me a couple of days ago that Mother's Day is coming up, and for the first time in three years, I don't have to work that day! (I'm on a leave of absence.) I began to think about what I'd really like to do for the day, and I decided I'd really like to spend it outdoors with my guys, preferably letterboxing.

So, it's set! The day before MD (aka Mother's Day, aka My Day), it looks like we're going to drive down to Callaway Gardens. Fredbird's employee discount will get us a great rate at a hotel in nearby Lagrange, and we'll pass through two counties that I can do boxes for: Coweta and Troup. My Charles Harris box in Pine Mountain is apparently in need of a new logbook, which I'll admit is a large part of the reason I chose to visit this part of the state. I've never seen the location of this box, as The C Team planted it for me years ago. Of course, Callaway has a few boxes of its own, and the Pine Mountain Trail has several, too. Looks like the makings of a great letterboxing weekend! (And I'll figure out later how to make it up to my mother-in-law for not being around on Mother's Day. My mom will be in Virginia with my sister that weekend.)

So, for the new boxes...these will be part of my Georgia Counties Series. Each box in this series is in honor of the namesake of the county it's planted in. I've barely begun, with boxes planted for DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Harris Counties. Coweta County is named for the Coweta Tribe of the Creek Nation of Indians. Boy, is it hard to find information on the Coweta Tribe! The most prominent member of this tribe, according to written history, is a man by the name of MacIntosh, who was half Coweta Creek, half Scottish. He's the one who signed away the Creek lands to Georgia and was later put to death by his tribe for that crime. Not someone I'm particularly in the mood to immortalize in a stamp. I've found a few other articles and websites about the Creeks, but nothing at all in reference to the Coweta Tribe. The few things I have found are going to be difficult to translate into stamps, but we'll see what I can come up with.

The other un-planted (for me) county on our drive to Callaway is Troup, named for one of the governors of Georgia. There are several portraits of him to draw from, but I'm actually quite inspired by a photo I found of his tomb. It's striking, and I'd love for this series to be more than just a portrait gallery of famous Georgians. (e.g., The Gwinnett stamp is a replica Button Gwinnett's signature, as he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.) I don't know, though...a tomb is kind of morbid. Regardless, I won't make the final decision known here, so the stamp will be a surprise!

Camping at Stone Mountain - Part II

Saturday, April 12

Saturday morning, it was wet! Fredbird and I climbed out of the van, creaking and popping, to the sight of a blue tarp tied over the tent. Apparently, the seams had begun leaking, and Dad had jury-rigged the tarp to redirect the water. It worked. I guess all those years in Boy Scouts and the Navy taught him a thing or two about knots. Who knew?

We had another great breakfast of French Toast, and then sat shivering for a while. Mom and the boys made rattles out of wet set clay (cool stuff!), and I played a game of Spite & Malice with Dad and Fredbird. Cards weren't enough for me to keep my mind off the cold, however, so I buried my nose in Debbie Macomber's latest Blossom Street book while they continued playing. After a while, Fredbird suggested walking down to Serenity Park. This is a little park area on the shore of the lake at the campground. He knew I'd jump at that, as there also happens to be a letterbox planted there. I grabbed the clue and my letterboxing bag and shivered off down the road with my guy.

We were pleased to discover this box, right where the clues said it would be. There was a first aid alert on the Atlas Quest posting, stating that construction in the area may have disrupted the box. The brand spanking-new RV docks overlooking the box's hiding place are probably the result of said construction, and the families seated on them enjoying their lunches made it somewhat difficult to nonchalantly dig through the leaves beneath the downed tree. Find it we did, however, and the outing accomplished the goal Fredbird had in mind - I had warmed up considerably.

After lunch, we set out with the boys for an afternoon of exploring around Stone Mountain. Each time we go, I'm more and more dismayed at the commercialization and blatant attempts to turn it into a theme park. It's a park, and a beautiful one, and the stupid "Ride the Ducks" boat-things driving around with tourists quacking over the sides do nothing but diminish its beauty. Unfortunately, I'm barely able to contain my contempt for these "improvements," as evidenced by my response to the boys' pleas to Ride the Ducks.

LB: No.
Boys: Why?
LB: Because it's an abomination.

My poor kids, denied such character-building experiences by their tree-hugging mother!

Anyway, the one touristy thing we did want to do was get one of those old-timey, tin-type-like photos where we all dress up in antique clothing. So, we trekked over there, only to find the photography place had closed permanently. I guess we'll have to find some other tourist trap town to have it done. Fredbird and I both have pictures of ourselves and our families in this type of photo when we were around Blue Giraffe's age, and we think it would be fun to carry on the tradition.

However, we refused to stay down! The commercialization and touristization of Stone Mountain Park would not prevail! I grabbed my pile of letterboxing clues, and we decided to see what we could find in the area of the Sports Pavillion. We only found one box there, although we were attempting another series of three as well. This particular series required crossing a creek, which would have been doable if the boys were older OR if it hadn't stormed the night before. After dealing with the tears that ensued when we discovered we'd have to turn back, we returned to the car, where while flipping through more letterboxing clues, I discovered that there were two or three other boxes we could have gotten in that area. Ah well, next time.

Knowing that the stamps would be gorgeous, we then picked out a couple more of drgdlg's boxes to hunt, and of course, we were not disappointed. Crazy, in particular, is beyond lovely, both in the view from the path and in the carving. Then, because Fredbird has been wanting to try a box based on triangulation ("Now that's the kind of clue I like!"), we attempted Big Honkin', planted at the Quarry Exhibit. Nearly 40 minutes of considering the clue and the exhibit left us high and dry, however, and by this time, Mom and Dad were calling, wondering when we'd be back for dinner. The box will not elude us forever, though. We WILL be back. (I'm sure Fredbird won't be able to let it rest!) On the drive back to camp, we planned to spend Sunday morning grabbing a few more boxes, perhaps at the Carillon, or down by the face of the mountain. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

After dinner, I reminded the boys of my promise to take them to the laser show. Blue Giraffe was more interested in displaying his new Spite & Malice skills, however, and stayed behind with his grandparents. Fredbird, Little Turtle & I bundled up and hit the green for a strong dose of Southern Pride with a bit of Patriotism thrown in for good measure. I was disappointed that God Bless the U.S.A. is no longer on the program.

Saturday's Family F-Count: 5

Sunday, April 13

The cold front came through Saturday night. Unfortunately, so did the winds. Cold we could handle. Winds we could handle. Both together, however, made for a miserable morning around camp. Our original plan had been to stay through dinner Sunday evening, but Mom and Dad were less than thrilled at the prospect of such a bitingly cold day. I would have been willing to wait out the morning for some afternoon letterboxing when the sun was higher, but Fredbird had to go home at lunchtime to get some work done. We packed it in and drove out of camp at 10:40.

The weekend was great. The boys had a blast and both now officially love camping. Fredbird and I have decided to buy a tent. (Mom was right, that van was NOT meant for sleeping. Even with air mattresses.) We've all been re-energized in regards to letterboxing. And there are still over 100 waiting for us at Stone Mountain alone.

Weekend F-Count: 14

Camping at Stone Mountain - Part I

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Last fall, my parents told me that they'd like to take our boys on their First Ever Camping Trip over Spring Break. Fredbird and I decided we wanted to be present at this momentous event and invited ourselves along. After lots of planning, including a trip by Grandma and Grandpa to Stone Mountain to pick out the perfect campsites, the trip was upon us.

Fredbird went to work on Thursday morning (he'd leave a little early, finish his packing, then join us), and I proceeded with packing. Yes, very last minute, but I'm an admitted procrastinator, and I've chosen to embrace this particular shortcoming. I had a nice packing list (I've learned the hard way to always use a packing list), and besides, I'd been busy the night before compiling letterboxing clues for Stone Mountain. There are over 125 letterboxes inside Stone Mountain Park...that I know of! I copied and pasted dozens of them into a Word document, leaving out many of the cryptic clues, knowing we'd have our hands full even without them on this trip. I'd rather save the problem solving for a trip without the kids; they're not quite old enough to find that interesting.

Anyway, back to Thursday morning. The laundry was going, and I was packing. The kids were - er - helping. No, really, they did great. Mom picked us up at 1:30, and we drove to SMP to meet my dad, who we found with (surprise, surprise!) a book in his hands. I was hoping for many hours of that particular activity myself over the course of the weekend.

Somehow, we got the tent, canopy (over the picnic table - we knew storms were coming the next night), and other gear set up, all without losing one of the children. Mom and I had both thought to bring bubbles, and I'd brought coloring books as well. Even better, Mom had individual bags of chips...Cheetos and Doritos work magic on little boys. As the traditional First Night of Camping Stew was heating on the camp stove, I got a call from Fredbird. He was just leaving work. He ended up arriving shortly after the rest of us finished our roasted marshmallows, much later than he'd originally intended.

That night was interesting. Mom and Dad were supposed to sleep in the tent with the boys, while Fredbird and I slept on air mattresses in the back of their van. One had deflated, however, and since Dad had a commitment that night and wouldn't be back until the morning, Mom took the van, and Fredbird and I slept on their double air mattress in the tent. The next morning, Mom informed us that the van was obviously never meant to be slept in. This did not bode well for our next two nights of slumber.

Friday, April 11

Friday morning, Dad arrived early and started the coffee (YAY, DADDY!!!!), and the boys amused themselves with the lightsabers Fredbird had brought. (Stroke of genius, that.) Mom and I made pancakes and fried up some ham. We always did eat well on camping trips...Mom has the camping thing down pat, even though we hadn't been since our trip to Edinborough in '92. And then....it was finally off to do some boxing!

After looking through the clues I'd amassed, I recommended to Fredbird that we try the Songbird Trail Series planted by Gardening Granny and Paw Paw. It had the perfect combination of what looked to be a pleasant, shortish walk and a large number of boxes (six!). There were also two additional boxes planted by other boxers along the same trail. What a great choice! The Songbird Trail is a preserve for (any guesses?) songbirds on the site of the cycling and archery venues for the 1996 Olympic Games. What was formerly an empty space at the back of the park now ranks as one of my favorites. The exquisitely-planned and maintained walk meanders through a meadow and a wooded area, and the stamps we found are amazing! The boys did amazingly well, with Little Turtle lasting quite a long while before the whining started. (He is only 4, after all.) Blue Giraffe caught the letterboxing bug anew on this little hike and is now as keen as his Mommy to do as much as possible!

Having spent the entire morning (plus some) on the Songbird Trail, we headed back to the campsite for a late lunch. Mom and Dad had agreed to take the boys for the afternoon while Fredbird and I spent the afternoon in pursuit of more difficult boxing prey...namely some of those available along the famed Walk-Up Trail.

I was a bit nervous about attempting the walk-up. The last time I did it, I was 14 years younger, and a good 75 pounds lighter. However, I was willing to give it a go for letterboxing's sake. I'm glad I did, because I can say I did it, and I'm never doing it again!! LOL The letterboxing portion was a bit of a bust, unfortunately. Some of the clues take more time searching than we had available (severe thunderstorms were expected, and we had to get back to camp, cook, eat, and get settled for the night before they hit). We ended up only finding box #4 of drgdlg's Real Easter series. We found the obvious hidey-hole for Yankee Girl's The Mayflower, but it looks like it may have gone missing. I hope we were mistaken, but I don't think so.

Anyway, we did eventually reach the top of Stone Mountain. It's always very, very windy up there, but with the storms approaching, it was even worse than usual. As we approached the top, and I was downing my third bottle of water, Fredbird suggested taking the gondola back down the mountain, and walking around to the parking lot. I thought this was a brilliant plan, seeing as the steep decline might wreak havoc on already-tired ankles and knees...and considering my extreme state of fatigue. I rethought the plan's brilliance later on, however, as we walked a constant, albeit slight, uphill grade for over a mile to get back to the car. We made it, though, walking past several more letterboxes whose clues were safely in the car's glove box. Oops. No matter, we needed to get back for dinner. (The ever-popular hot dogs roasting on an open fire followed by S'mores!)

The storms did come. The van was uncomfortable. It was humid, but I do love falling asleep to the sounds of a thunderstorm. I promised the disappointed boys we'd do the Laser Show Saturday evening if the weather had improved. All in all, it was a very satisfying day.

Our family F-count for the day: 9.

The break was too long

We discovered letterboxing late in the summer of 2004. I was quickly hooked on the concept after reading the article in that July's issue of Time while waiting in a doctor's office. (I had surreptitiously torn the article out and smuggled it home to show the hubby.) As usually happens when I find a new obsession, I spent hours poring over websites, amazed and delighted that so many treasures awaited us out in the woods. I miss my Girl Scouting days, and here was something that would combine my loves of [easy] hiking and art.

We got involved. We came up with trail names. (Like avid hikers, most letterboxers are known by something other than their given names.) After awhile, and many instances of juggling four stamps while squatting in the dirt and trying to avoid other hikers' curious glances, we decided to create a family stamp, and Duluth's Animal Kingdom was born. (Our trail names - Lady Buzz, Fredbird, Blue Giraffe & Little Turtle - cover the animal kingdom nicely...a pleasant mistake!)

Less than six months after we began, however, Fredbird went back to school. Between his full time job, his full time classes, my part time job, and the boys, letterboxing fell by the wayside. We put it aside, fully intending to get back to it as soon as we could. Fast forward three years. I've been getting notices that our boxes' logbooks were full, that one might be missing. We missed our outdoor time as a family. As fun as letterboxing itself is, its greatest bonus is being an excuse to get outside together. I also missed the hands-on artistry of stamp carving.

The break was too long. Little Turtle was in a stroller the last time we did this, and he's starting Kindergarten in the fall. It really hit home how long it had been when he said, "What's letterboxing?" He had no memory of it, and Blue Giraffe's (now age 8) memories were dim.

The break is over!