Read Across America

Here's the deal, It's Read Across America Week? month? I don't know exactly...but my girl's school has something going each day for it. Wednesday is "Wear a Shirt you can Read" day...they were going to wear some screen printed glitter barfed thing I am sure. I preferred to use the reading genre...so Keith mixed some Textile paint medium with some acrylic craft paint and we used stencils to make our words.

Our girls both love to read, We have read to them nightly since they were newborns. We still read to them nightly and they also read silently before going to sleep, for about 30 minutes depending on the day. I never read much as a kid, and don't now (I know not good) I am proud that I have helped to change that pattern to head in a more positive direction for my own children.

but...its not all wonderful parenting triumphs in this post...In full disclosure, Ruby had a what I'll term a "9 year old breakdown" over it all...there were tears, much arguing, calling this shirt painting idea 'Stupid!' but alas, she loves her coral "Today's Reader Tomorrow's Leader" shirt now (oh thank you for that Pinterest I'd link to it but apparently Pinterest is experiencing technical difficulties at the moment). Good grief this age...9....is seriously challenging to *this momma* And her Dad too, for that matter. Seriously challenging.

Here are the pictures...Oh, yea I had to make one of my tanks all wordy too...my lil homage to an Anti-Flag tune that the whole family loves. and that Peace Sign, was a total oopsy, I was in the midst of arguing with the aforementioned 9 year old and painted an "H" instead of an "O" so I did the "O" over top of it, still looked like janky crap, so I made it into a peace sign. And you never woulda known...but just like when I used hydrogenated pre-made icing on my cupcakes I must disclose this sort of thing. It's who I am.


This is the tune to be exact. I actually have a video of them playing it, from June, but this one is better than mine. I love that these guys play teeny small venues like this one (and the one from my video) as well as huge gagillion people stadiums and such, all over the world.

So, there you have it punk rock and Read Across America all on one super quick blog post. Gotta love how my mind works....

Tutorial: Making American Girl Doll Yoga Pants

The last tute was rather half assed. This one is better, but I must reiterate, I truly lack patience, and though I do own a huge book of American Girl doll clothing patterns I have only used them once or twice. I like these quick easy re dos that my kids can be happy with in minutes, flat.

So here goes: American Girl Doll Yoga Pants,

You will need:

• Old knit shirt with band wrist sleeves, a smaller ladies size is easiest (mine was Medium) but if you are using a larger shirt you may need to sew it along the seam to make it a bit thinner. You need a width of about 5" for a fitted pant. You will need at least 3/4 sleeve length (what I used) My fabric tube length was 11" with the band UN-folded. :ong sleeved would work too. note: if you use short sleeve with a band you could do yoga shorts!

•  scissors
• sewing machine 
• thread
• American Girl Doll to size up for length.

Step ONE: (every time I type that I think of this Alkaline Trio Song btw)
cut shirt sleeve off the sizing up length to your doll, the band will be at her waist (folded over) Turn this inside out.

Step TWO: sew upward slightly off center, then about 1/4" away from band turn stitches 90 degrees and sew just a few stitches (bit less than 1/4") then down to bottom of cut. (yea, I forgot to take a shot of it sewn prior to cutting, apologies. also, this is how I roll. see this post if you don't believe me.

Step THREE: cut upward in a straight line in between where you sewed. (do not worry about cutting across the upper most line, it's fine leaving it just a straight cut.

Step FOUR: turn right side out, slip onto your doll and fold over the top band.

Note: if you use t-shirt knit you could easily make the bottom hem bell out a bit by stretching. I didn't go wild with that, being I used ribbed fabric and figured this will happen easily on it's own. ;)