Summertime

... When the livin' is easy. I think I'd substitute HOT.

The only thing to do is take afternoon naps or swim. Or both.

Today we are caring for a lost baby quail chick. Karl found it by the fence last night. There were no parents around and it is little--too little to fly, practically just hatched. I'm not sure how it got into our yard. But we are going to try to feed it for a few weeks until it is big enough to get over the fence. I gave it some hard boiled eggs this morning, and Karl is picking up some chick feed today. I worry about Speck. It is hard to be so little and helpless.

Tutorial: Make long sleeves short sleeves on a men's dress shirt

I am a beginning seamstress, and hardly ever do clothes, but I wanted to make some dress shirts short sleeved so that my husband can wear them to work in warm weather. Making a long sleeve shirt into a short sleeve shirt should be easy! Plus, there are lots more long sleeve shirts on clearance racks.

1) First, I ironed the shirt and made a mark where I wanted to cut the sleeve. I used a short sleeve dress shirt to decide where to mark, adding an extra 1-1.5 inches for the seam.

2) Next, I used a quilting ruler to make a straight cut. I made the cut perpendicular to the top edge of the sleeve. You could use a regular school ruler and scissors, just make a line with a pencil and try to cut as evenly as possible.

3) Now I folded the other sleeve over and used the first sleeve to measure. Then I cut the second sleeve exactly the same length as the first.

4) I folded the cut edge under and ironed, then folded and ironed again to make the new sleeve edge.

I wanted them to be equal, so again I used the first sleeve to decide how much to fold under on the second. Here is the finished doubled-under edge.

5) Now to sew it! I picked a line on the sewing machine and kept the edge of the shirt lined up with that line so that the seam would be the exact same distance from the edge of the sleeve all the way around. My folded fabric was not always the same distance, which is why I measured from the line on the machine.

6) When I got to the hem on the inside of the sleeve, I had to make a cut along the seam. Otherwise the fabric would have puckered. I stitched a few stitches on the cut side to keep it from fraying. On one shirt I repeated step 5 to get a double line of stitches and it looked like a professionally made short sleeve shirt.

7) All done!

I found this link for making short sleeves on a woman's t-shirt.

Lake Powell

We had a great vacation to Lake Powell.

The sight Karl wanted to see most was Rainbow Bridge National Monument. It was a pleasant boat ride there, while we enjoyed the scenic red rock. The short hike to the bridge was also fun, although the kids hadn't brought shoes and C managed to stub his toe. Jeff took a picture of him sucking on it. On the way back, the other boat broke... luckily before they'd gone very far. So we towed them to the nearest marina and they bought a new impeller. The minute we docked at the marina there was a mad dash for the restrooms. Evidently my munchkins were well hydrated--at least they made it. What an adventure.

The following day we spent mostly on the beach. The kids loved playing in the sand. There were at least 20 kids altogether, and lots of beach toys. All I had to do was supervise and feed the baby. Now that is a vacation.

There was tons of food for the trip and everyone helped bring a couple of meals. It was nice to not have to eat "camp food" the way we usually do if just our family goes camping.

By the end of the trip I had taken the opportunity to explore solo on a kayak, give C a short ride, kayak with Karl around lone rock, take M out on the wave runner twice, and get a ride around the four-wheeler track with Karl. I loved the loops. As a side, I also like the showers and didn't mind that they were cold (when it's hot enough outside, "cold" is the perfect temperature.)

I don't know when we'll be back, but I would love to go to Lake Powell again.