Showing posts sorted by relevance for query filthy floor. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query filthy floor. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, February 18, 2011

At the Wonderlab

For Christmas, my Matt gave me a certificate for six months of once-a-month housecleaning. You ought to know by now that my house is really messy--I tidy maybe one room a day, although it's certainly untidy again by evening, and perhaps I'll do some dishes or laundry, but mostly I play Quirkle with the girls, and make Barbie clothes with them, and cook them play dough, and read to them, and build them books out of their artwork, and go to the park and the library and the YMCA and the other park and maybe still another park with them, etc. Seriously, I barely even cook dinner anymore--I feed the girls leftovers of whatever concoction they've asked to make with me during the day (The latest? Mashed potatoes and freshly juiced orange juice), and then later that night Matt gets out the George Foreman and grills us veggie/non veggie burgers.

Matt's scheduled us a housecleaning before on a couple of special occasions, and it's always been this totally retro awesome experience--The whole house! Clean at once! And it smells of pine! And the floors are mopped! And the dishwasher is running! And all the junk is picked up off the floor! And the toilet is SO clean! And I didn't have to do it!--that I have been deeply looking forward to my once-a-month deep cleaning treat, and yet somehow, it's just not working out this year.

The first little company that Matt called just never answered their phone, and never called him back. The next little company scheduled a cleaning and then cancelled because it was snowing, and then re-scheduled, and then cancelled because one of the cleaners woke up with the flu, and then rescheduled. Each time the girls and I are required to evacuate the house, which can be a little annoying depending on our mood for the day, but hey! The whole house is gonna be clean at once!

In our latest evacuation in hopes that the housecleaners actually come and clean our house this time, the girlies and I hit up our regular hang-out spot, the Wonderlab:

Playing with a Parachute

Grapevine Climber

Rocks to Covet in the Gift Shop

Interactive Artwork in the Garden

Shoots!


Wind Tunnels

We had a marvelous time, as usual, and then came home, eagerly anticipating the glory of a clean house. And yet, when I opened the door--Alas! The house is just as filthy as before! The housecleaners did not come! Again they did not come!

Apparently it's a great time to be a housecleaner, with so much business to pick from that you don't even have to show up to a place if you don't want to. And, desperate and all, we've come up with a Plan B that's frankly vastly better than this Plan A, anyhow:

This Sunday, and one Sunday a month thereafter, I will leave the house all by myself. I will leave at my leisure. I will visit establishments of peace and pleasure, such as coffee shops and book stores. While I am gone, Matt and the children will deep-clean the house without me. They will not be paid.

Money-saving AND accomplishes the same goal! And Plan B gets me a soymilk latte, too!

I am sold.

Sunday, October 16, 2022

DIY Cushion Cover from a Blanket



My family is SO hard on our stuff. We are the illustrated definition of not deserving nice things, because at any given time we are either muddy, actively painting, hosting five foster kittens from the local animal shelter, hosting thirteen teenagers from our Girl Scout troop, or just, you know, not paying attention to what we're doing. I'm the one who put a scorch mark in our (to be fair, at least 40-year-old) carpet by... well, I carried a pot of freshly popped popcorn directly from the stovetop and put it on the floor. Apparently that's very different from carrying a pan of piping hot Pizza Rolls directly from the oven and putting it on the floor. Who knew? 

So you might notice that here on CAGW I post a lot of tutorials for washable covers for furniture. I've got couch covers, chair covers, tablecloths and cozies of all kinds to attempt to save my stuff from the negligence of me and everyone around me. 

And the latest on the list? Cushion covers for my benches! It's easy to see why the hallway bench needs a cushion cover, because that's where everybody takes off their muddy boots and clay-covered sneakers and grimy yard Crocs. 

No matter what cushion you've got that needs a washable, reusable cover, I'm not going to judge you. Instead, I'm going to show you how to make that cover from any handy blanket that you've got in your stash. 

 Here's what you'll need!
  • old blanket, quilt, bedspread, or similar piece of fabric. These thicker fabrics mimic upholstery weight fabric, so do a similar job holding up under wear and keeping spills from soaking through to the cushion below. They also tend to most often mimic the look of upholstery weight fabric, although there is no shame in covering a cushion in a vintage novelty He-Man bedspread, either! I had to work hard to convince myself to use this wool blanket that I thrifted (for $2.50!!!!!!!) instead of a vintage Sesame Street bed cover, and the only reason I decided against the Sesame Street cover is that the wool blanket is sturdier.
  • patternmaking and cutting and sewing supplies. You'll need large-format paper to draw the cushion cover pattern, and all the usual suspects for measuring, cutting, and sewing.
  • elastic
  • bias tape (optional). With this wool blanket, I don't need it, but fabric that's prone to raveling will require it.

Step 1: Make a cushion cover pattern and use it to cut your fabric.


To make your cushion cover pattern, measure your cushion's length, width, and height. 

 To the length and width measurement, add .5", depending on the thickness of your fabric. My wool blanket is moderately thick, but if I was using one of those vintage 1980s bedspreads with lots of batting, I'd probably add more like 1". 

 Add a flap to each side of the cover pattern. Each flap should be the height of the cushion plus .5". 


 Lay out the pattern on your fabric and cut it out.

 

Step 2: Sew the cushion cover and add elastic.


With right sides together, sew the adjacent short sides of each of the flaps to each other, using a .25" seam allowance. Finger press the seams open. 


Measure approximately 6" of elastic for each corner of the cushion cover. Mark the center of each piece of elastic, then pin the center to the corner seam. 


Set your sewing machine to its widest zigzag and longest stitch length. Stretch the elastic, then zigzag it to the raw edge of the cushion cover, keeping it centered on the corner seam. This is exactly the way that you sew a fitted sheet

 Repeat for each corner of the cushion cover.

 

Step 3 (optional): Add bias tape.

If the raw edges of the cushion cover will tend to fray, encase them in double-fold bias tape. 


I like to have a spare of these types of home items, and to save space and time, I like to go ahead and put the spare on, as well. So although you can't see it (mwa-ha-ha!), underneath this wool blanket cushion cover is a second cushion cover, this time sewn from an unfinished vintage quilt top. It's a lot cuter but a lot less sturdy, which is why it's only the backup cover. 

However, whenever I'm emergency cleaning the house for imminent company, that nicer cover hiding underneath the plain, serviceable cover makes it super easy to whip off the plain cover, toss it in the dirty laundry, and have a cuter cover ready for company. It gets to show off for just as long as it takes to wash my workhorse cushion cover, then that cover goes back on top. So if you ever come visit me and you find yourself sitting on top of a sweet vintage quilt-covered bench cushion while you take off your filthy barn boots, then you know that you're VERY special!

Monday, April 4, 2016

Homeschool STEAM: Whole-Body Pendulum Painting in an Aerial Hammock

Why, no, I DIDN'T write lesson plans for this week--hooray for me! The kids will still have Math Mammoth, a page of cursive, a Book of the Day, their Memory Work, and a hands-on project of my choosing each day--more crystal-growing, perhaps, or more chemical reactions, or maybe some craft projects that I've had in the back of my mind for a while--but we have so many BIG things going on this week that it just didn't make sense to block out half of each day in advance.

Our homeschool group's STEM Fair is tonight. I anticipate that the kids will spend fully half a day on finishing their prep and refining their presentations for this.

Their grandparents arrive for a visit tomorrow night. I'm sure they'll want to do things with them other than watch them color in maps and make salt dough models of the spleen or whatever all week. Not to mention that we should probably tidy the house at least a little before they get here.

Oh, and the Trashion/Refashion Show is this weekend! Not only do we have to practice and figure out runway shoes and hair/makeup, but, um... yeah, I also still need to sew the belt and the petticoat that Syd wants for her garment. Oh, and hem the skirt. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to get super productive!

But that's for later, as soon as I get off my butt and outta this chair. For now, I want to tell you about the STEAM project that I did with the kids a few weeks ago, on account of it was so awesome!

You know that we have an at-home, DIY aerial silks rig, right? Several months ago, the kids asked if I would re-rig it into an aerial hammock. I did, and we all love it. I'm about to rig it back because Syd has been wanting to do some actual aerial silks on it, not just lounge around in it and read all comfy (silly girl!), so before I did, and concurrent with Will's Math Mammoth unit on geometry, I set up a whole-body pendulum painting activity on the aerial hammock.

You, yourself, don't have to have an aerial silks rig to do this, of course. You can do it from a tire swing. You can do it with your feet from a playground swing. You can take your regular hammock, double it, and hang both ends from one hook in your ceiling beam or from one carabiner latched onto a rescue rig and looped around a strong tree branch. Hell, you could do it from an actual hammock if you didn't care about having a full 360-degree range of motion. As long as your kid can comfortably reach the ground with a paintbrush while lying in the rig that you've set up, you're good.

Along with the rig, you'll also need this stuff:

  • large-format paper. Giant sheets of newsprint work well (we have this exact thing), but you could also use actual sheets of newspaper. This project is about the process more than the product, so who cares that there are already words on it? An alternative to large-format paper could be a drop cloth, tarp, or huge canvas or curtain, etc.
  • paint. Use something cheap, with a good flow. We used Biocolors for this particular project, but I can also recommend tempera. I put the paints into separate pots, each with its own brush.
  • giant paintbrushes.
  • duct tape.
1. Duct tape the large-format paper under and around the rig. You don't want the kid to feel like she has to reign herself in so as not to paint on the floor, so really cover the area.

2. Settle the kid in and make sure that she gets herself comfortable with facing down in the hammock, extending an arm. This is a pretty heavy core exercise for some kids, and they structure it for themselves in different ways. Will chose to lie prone in the hammock, while Syd chose to crouch and lean--both ways exercised their muscles in ways they weren't used to.

Since we were using our aerials silks for this, and aerial silks are quite expensive, I also emphasized at this time that no matter what, they were not to touch the silks with their paintbrushes. I'm sure I'll wash them before I re-rig them, but I just do NOT want to deal with paint stains. Fortunately, the kids both know already to be careful to not soil the silks--no shoes on the rig, no food, no filthy hands--so this wasn't hard for them to remember.

3. And off she goes! You've got to play facilitator for this entire project, as the kid can't swing herself, nor can she reach the different paint pots without you. The kids took turns in the hammock (Syd nearly beside herself in anticipation for her turn), and I sat right next to each when it was her turn, pushing her and handing her the paint colors that she requested. 

Both kids had SO much fun with this! It was interesting to see what a different approach each had to the activity, as well. Will was completely abstract from beginning to end, enthusiastic about simply swinging and letting the paintbrush move with her:

Syd, however, had a goal from the start. First, she tried to paint a face while swinging, and even managed to do so, but even when she moved on from that to painting in the abstract, she wasn't content just to swing, but really wanted to cover all of the paper, not missing any corners:






Regardless of the differing intents, and my emphasis on process over product, both kids' paintings turned out absolutely gorgeous, and they're both hanging in the kitchen right now, where they'll stay until I get around to buying the giant piece of sheet metal that I want to make the giant magnetic display board that I want to live in that giant space.

So... geometry, art, body awareness, muscle strengthening, maybe a little engineering, some of that spinning that's so good for the inner ear. Not a bad way to spend an hour on a Saturday afternoon!

We played with pendulums some during Will's History of Video Games unit study a few years ago, so if you're interested in exploring more with pendulums, have I got some great resources for you!

  • Pendulums are fun for knocking things over! Build up a collection of cardboard boxes and toilet paper tubes, and your kids will probably never want you to put this set-up away again.
  • Giant pendulums paint on the driveway! If you happen to have a portable coat rack, this would be a fun way to explore pendulums outside. 
  • Pendulums are fun for painting! There are several different depictions of pendulum painting online, all with mostly the same basic set-up. I like the PVC pipe rig the best, though. A kid isn't going to knock it over the way that she will a lashed-together bamboo tripod, and yet PVC pipe is nearly as light to transport and just as easy to disassemble. Here's how to build the rig, although I'd put a hook or a carabiner at the end of the string, not a cup. Don't you want to attach a whole bunch of different kinds of pendulums, not just one?
  • Here's how Foucault's pendulum works. I know that you've always wanted to know!