Pacifier Animal Buddy

So I am finally getting around to posting. My apologies! I had a very bad flare up of Iritis (in case you're wondering what the heck that is I included a link to the Mayo Clinic's info) that then caused a 5 day migraine. That combined with having to keep my eyes dilated for a few days, and I ended up way behind on just about everything.

Here on the Funny Farm the monkeys and I spend a lot of time singing and dancing (well them dancing me just singing). We usually get stuck on a song for a while and right now it's one from the Newsboys God's Not Dead. I cannot express how grateful I am that this is true. I honestly don't think I would be able to hold onto the funny and let go of the crazy if God wasn't a very real part of my life, and very much alive! Wherever you are in your life; know that if you are hurting or scared or need a friend all you have to do is Cry Out to Jesus. Life is a Roller-coaster (ooo and that gives me another song going old school with 4Him) and I am so very glad that the one manning my ride is the Big Man upstairs. Other than music one of the ways I maintain my sanity is crafts so that brings me to today's post :)

My two best friends in the world are pregnant, which means baby stuff!!! I love love love making things for babies, and now that we know one is a boy I can focus even more. They are doing a sea turtle theme, which I am going to have a lot of fun with. Now. I think one of the coolest paci holders I have ever seen are the little animal buddies. However they are expensive, so I got to thinking.... I knew I had extra minky that I bought for a blanket so I decided I could make a sea turtle animal buddy. He turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself, although not perfect by any means hopefully the next one will turn out even better. :)

As I was looking at the pics to figure out what to post here I was like awwww he looks like he could just swim away with the fishes. So then I'm like "swim through your veins like a fish in the sea"....Yep and that my friends is how my brain works, everything is a song. I don't hear voices in my head I hear an unending soundtrack. It's really a terrible song about a guy screwing around with a married chick, but there is something about Uncle Kracker's voice, plus the college days nostalgia it brings back. Follow Me- Uncle Kracker

My first step was to go to Coloringpedia for a sea turtle coloring page to use as a pattern. Click on the link there to go to their turtle coloring pages. I found the one I wanted to uses for a basis then sized it where I wanted it. I cut out two turtles. one turquoise and one white. I think next time I will go a little bigger though.

Next step was to figure out what I wanted to do to give him some weight. I didn't have any dried beans on hand, but I quite literally have thousands of buttons. It's a crazy obsession really, but that's for another post. I didn't want to just fill him, because what if he pops a seam? So I used some scrap fabric to make a pouch and filled it with buttons. I stitched the seams with a triple straight stitch, 3 times, to make darn sure it would hold.  

I missed taking pics for a couple steps, sorry :( 

But. with right sides together stitch around the turtle leaving in between the back legs open. Turn him right side out then stuff the head and front arms with batting. Place pouch (with whatever in it) inside and finish stuffing him. I then folded my edges under and top stitched his rear end. I think it gave his tail a little more dimension, but if you wanted to blind stitch by hand that would work too. Now you're probably thinking ummm what about the pacifier.....

Now this might seem strange, but for me this method worked best, on a Phillips Avent Soothie 0-3 mo pacifier there is this little lip. (Look at my snazzy graphics aren't I sooo clever, haha)

Anyway I put this up to Mr. Turtle's mouth seam and ripped out the stitches just to the width of it. Then inserted the lip right into him. The cool thing about this silicone material is that you can hand stitch right through it. So I knotted my doubled heavy duty thread ( I don't want this sucker popping out) pulled it through from the inside so the knot is hidden and stitched him closed. Just make sure to get both layers of fabric and that portion of the paci all stitched in there tight. I tugged really hard on it to make sure I had it all the way. I also stitched a little farther on each side so to catch where I had machine stitched. Then of course poor Mr. turtle needed eyes so instead of tying off I went up to where I wanted an eye and did several visible stitches in all directions then went over a little ( yep that's the technical measurement) and stitched another eye. I knotted the thread at the eye, so it doesn't look out of place. 

I forgot to get a picture of his tail and he is already in the mail, but I will get one of the next one! The animal for my other bestie is undecided as of yet, she wants to wait to pick till she knows gender, but I will post about it as well. If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. :) 

Take care and don't forget to "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" yep I went there!

Faces of Disability

So this is something I've been debating writing, because overall I'm trying to keep the focus of this blog on being thrifty or crafty, dealing with dementia or cooking. I decided to post this tonight though after a conversation I had this week that started with the question I always dread.

"So what do you do for a living", even when I could still work this is so often such a loaded question and you know you're going to be judged based on your answer and enthusiasm level. I doubt that I am the only one who dreads this question. And really all I want to do is bust out my inner Tina and sing some "Proud Mary" maybe it would distract them and I'd never have to actually answer.

Because I believe in being honest I will admit I'm on disability....then of course so many times comes the automatic judgement and disgust. Like I'm no longer worthy to breathe the same air. Maybe I'm just to sensitive, but then comes the "you? you look fine to me, why are You on disability? and that you is almost always very snide.  I know I could just choose to say nothing and walk away, or tell them it's none of their business, but I can't bring myself to do that. So once again I explain, I explain the large holes in my SI joints that make it impossible for me to bend past touching my knees, or to sit or stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time without changing. I explain how my right arm can't raise above my head and I can't even brush my hair with it most days. I explain how the swelling in my eyes gets so bad that they burn and the world looks as is I'm looking through a kaleidoscope. I explain the pain I live with every day as my body attacks itself over and over.

But really why do I feel I have to defend myself, why is it their business. They don't really care that I live with Ankylosing Spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, Iritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Carpal Tunnel, Scoliosis, Arthralgia TMJ, and Chondromalacia Pattellae in both knees. They don't care that I've worked since I was 15 sometimes holding down three jobs while going to school, until I couldn't anymore. All they care about is that I look healthy other than being overweight and automatically assume I'm a fat lazy chick living off the system. Add to that the fact I'm a single mom and my fate is sealed. I don't bother to say I've never been on welfare, or that my ex only occasionally can be bothered to pay child support so I'm not living off of that either. Because even if they actually cared, it wouldn't matter. Judgement has been cast, I'm guilty because all they can see is the outside and the fact that I keep smiling so I must be fine.

There are times it's really hard not to lash out. Should I use the cane the doctor thinks I should so that people have a visual that says she really is disabled. Well as long as I can walk just grabbing onto walls or railings or pushing a cart or stroller I'm not going to. Would it make it more acceptable if I didn't bother to smile. If I let the pain I hide show through. I don't know, but for my monkeys I'm not going to find out.

So judge me, assume I'm a lazy mooch living off the system. If it makes you feel big then go for it. But if some part of you is reading this saying I wonder how many people I've judged unfairly simply because I couldn't see their pain. Whether 2 or 92 when you look at a person, maybe you should think twice before jumping to conclusions. Maybe take a few minutes and get to know the real them. Ask how someone is, with the intention of listening and caring about the answer. Be willing to look past what's on the outside good or bad, and get to know the real person. You don't know what someone else is going through, so maybe we should all be a lot slower to judge and a lot quicker to love. And if you are asking someone what they do just so you can define them and fit them into a box, Don't. Please for me! What does it matter how they make their living? If you become friends I'm sure you will find out what the person does.

I will keep on smiling and for my kids sake do my darnedest every day not to let the pain come through any more than it does. But, that doesn't mean a part of me isn't hurt by the looks of disgust, that my heart doesn't feel stepped on when you all of a sudden are to busy to keep our kids play date for the unforeseeable future, only after you find out I live on disability. I would happily give up all my pain and work full time again. Yes I look at the bright side of things and enjoy being there for my kids, and that I'm able to take care of my Gram full time, but that doesn't mean I would think twice about taking a cure if they found one and jumping right back into a full time job.

END RANT :)

Now on a lighter note, I have been so exhausted this week and I totally feel like the walking dead. Hmm not sure this is a lighter note...anyhow. When I was talking to my sister she got a song stuck in my head that I feel the need to share so it will be stuck in yours. I've been singing it for three days straight. I absolutely LOVE the voice of the lead singer in the Cranberries and this song has always been one of my favorites as crazy as that sounds. "Zombie" The video is so in your face, but so bizarre, it's really something that stays with you.

Because of my exhaustion this week I needed some easy comfort food one night so I made something that just totally hit the spot. It's something I picked up from an Italian lady I was a nanny for back in college.

This is actually fairly healthy as well, especially as far as comfort food goes. I take a piece of Pita bread, spread some sun-dried tomato hummus on it to the edges, then for grins and giggles a few pepperoni (that's my own addition, but I love pepperoni), then top with some crumbled feta. Toast in the toaster oven at about 400 for 3-4 minutes till the cheese softens and voila!
It is sooooo yummmy, really you must try it. Now I do not think this would work in the microwave, I've never tried it though because I'm not a fan of microwaves at all. You could put it on a pizza pan in the oven or just on the rack though and it would be fine. I put mine on the rack in my toaster oven so that the pita toasts nicely on the bottom. I cheated and used store bought hummus. I know I'm shocked at myself too, but I really really have been exhausted this week. I will post my hummus recipe as soon as I get measurements worked out for you all. It is another one of those things where I just throw things in the food processor till it looks and tastes good.

This is one of those things that I can't eat without thinking about college and that makes me think about my first love. RIP Chris, you are loved and missed more than you ever could of imagined.
You know how it goes; you associate something with a time or place or feeling and the memories flood in. So now I'm singing "Strawberry Wine" far cry from where this post started but I'll end here and go to bed singing about Strawberry wine and the hot July moon that saw everything :)  

Saving money at big events without skimping on the fun

Yesterday (in case you live in a available bombshell bunker without a calender) was Independence Day. I love this holiday it comes in a very close second to Thanksgiving for my favorite holiday.  I love this great country we live in,  and it's nice for this one day to see most people put away their political differences and celebrate being a free nation created under God.
The down side to holidays is I love to go crazy,  but things have been really extra tight financially so I got extra creative this year.
Bring your own food and drinks
The first thing I did was go online and find info on all the celebrations in my area.  Being Phoenix metro I had a ton to choose from,  which I know doesn't aply to everyone so this tip might not help you if you live in a small area.  I narrowed it down to the ones with free admission first. I love the word FREE! Then I checked for who would allow me to bring a cooler with drinks and my own food, obviously for the monkey's allergies, but also a HUGE cost saver.

I settled on Apache Junction and was very impressed. They not only had a lot of fun activities starting 3 hours before the fireworks, but the police presence was helpful, friendly, and very on top of things. Thank you to the AJ police department you guys and gals are AWESOME ! Their fireworks display was wonderful, the band pretty good and the booths were fun. The police also did a bang up job of getting traffic out of there.

But anyway back on topic.

Buy face paint and decor type things ahead of time and bring them
We stopped at Walmart and picked up face paint for $1.29, it had red,white and blue in one. Then I grabbed a package of 10 patriotic glow necklaces that were marked down to $2.50.  Hobby Lobby was right next door so we ran in there and found the 4th stuff already marked down to 50% off. So we grabbed some garland to decorate the wagon for $1 and a 2 pack of flags for the monkeys to wave also for $1.

I also made Lilly's hairclips, but that is only cost effective if you have a ribbon stash for every occasion like I do.


If you do face painting at the event or buy glow Sticks there it can cost you a lot more. At AJ it was the cheerleaders doing it and asking for donations but you get one little character and then you can't not give them money. Which is great if you have it but I'm focusing on being thrifty. I'm not saying they aren't worthy or anything.

So here's the monkey's face paint, which I really should of taken a picture of before food and drinks and sweat.

I had several people come up to me about the face paint, and ended up doing about a dozen other kids as well. 

Find booths with a free game or craft for the kids

What I've always done at things like this is to find businesses with booths that have a wheel to spin or some sort of game for the kids. These are almost always free,and if not I move on. A lot of times you can find free craft projects as well. AJ was all fundraiser booths, but all the games were $1 which was pretty awesome so I did let the kids throw wet squishy balls at the school superintendent. The oldest monkey did mommy proud when he nailed him right in the middle of the forehead. The monkey princess hit right on the edge of the face cutout so she got him pretty wet as well. :)

A wonderful time was had by all 4 of us, and I spent a total of $10.29 including the case of water I bought to take. We were there from 5:30 till after the fireworks ended and didn't feel like we missed out on anything. Monkey princess was even given a light up star necklace still in the package by some teenagers who said she had the best face paint they found all night. 

 So I will leave you with this, one of my favorite songs, and a fantastic video montage. 

GOD BLESS THE USA! Happy Independence Day America