A'maze'ing Demolition

It is amazing how easy it is to tear down something that you worked so hard to build. The one exception is unpicking a seam. The sewing machine works much faster than me.

For the girls birthdays we combined the party this year. I got this funny idea in my head and because of my brilliance and Shannon's back-breaking dedication to me (thanks for your help also, Papa and Michael) this idea came to life.

It took 4 days, 300 feet of construction plastic and 51 poles to create 'The Maze'. That is 51 holes each having to be dug a minimum of 1 foot. When I was doing the designing I thought that we should have the poles around 2 feet deep. It only took one hole to convince me that one foot was enough.

Well, this maze survived through 3 separate kid events, 2 wind storms and just over 2 months.

Today, we decided that it would be best if in the interest of presenting a nice house, it would be a good idea to get rid of the black plastic monstrosity in the front yard. Four days got demolished in less than a half hour.

Giant Snowflake

I did this a small while back. You wouldn't believe how much energy it can take to get up off my butt and take a simple photograph so that I can then post it. It takes so much energy that I was only able to muster enough tonight because I didn't have to walk home from work.

One of my co-workers takes the same train as me and we share a trip when we share a shift. Tonight she got off at my stop to meet her partner and they both insisted that I take a ride from them.

I had to laugh when he told me, "you are in Australia now, this isn't America." Yes, because America is known for being such a safe place to be.

Anyway back to my project.

Giant Snowflake

The above link is the pattern that I followed. This is why I love the internet, free patterns and help for when I get in trouble.

On row 12 of this pattern I could not figure out what it was talking about. I tried and I unravelled, again and again. Then I saw that people had left comments about similar problems and triumphs. I was actually able to email a nice lady who helped me over this hump. Just because she was nice, she helped me, a stranger, because the internet is a wonderful place.

I love the pictures of this pattern but mine actually turned out a bit small. I think one day I might try it again with a bigger needle. Anyone want a smallish giant snowflake?

F

F is for flag and lots of fish. Oh, and the F is actually fuzzy.

Fishing pole fishing fish out of a fish bowl.

Now I realize the flags are not the same size. I was worried that Shannon would give me crap because the US flag is bigger than the Aus flag. I could not find a smaller US flag, and the Aus flag I had in that same collection with the doggie from D for years as well. It is very hard to find any flags besides US and state flags while in the US. I know, Shannon, it is those ego-centric Americans again, thinking they are the only country in the world.

So my solution was to put the Aus flag higher on the page than the US flag. Then it got me worried about being disrespectful to the US flag while we were still in the US. Since Australians do not have the same respect for their flag that Americans have for theirs, then Australians shouldn't worry about being lower.

I thought a lot of things but basically what I learned is that politics don't mix with anything, even crafts. So, damn you politics, I don't care I will do what I want. Suck it.

I still look at them and think that I should rip them both off and just have a fishing page. Ugh.

The fishing pole is just a coat hanger that is bent to have a small circle just where it attaches to with the button reel. Sew on the button through the small circle and viola you have a pivoting fishing rod. The fish bowl is made with small scraps of clear vinyl, zig- zagged on with 'invisible' thread that is used by quilters.