Masks for Tyler's Girls

 Lisa has been dating Tyler Smith for five months. This weekend he is introducing his two daughters to her, and she asked me if I would make them masks embroidered with their names. I hadn't done that before, but was willing to try and I am very happy with how they turned out.

Pandemic Masks for Lisa

 Lisa asked me to make her some masks for school and went through my fabric stash to select the fabric for them.

Here they are in order of least liked (top) to most liked (bottom.) No surprise the yellow fabric is the most wanted - it's her favorite color!

Oops! This fabric wasn't in the photo. It was her least liked. It was also my practice one for size. It fit me fine, but Lisa said the elastic was too tight.

So I made this one out of her next least favorite fabric and she said it fit much better.

I was able to replace the elastic in the blue and white one so that it was more comfortable, and Lisa has seven masks to us at school. (So far. Haha!)

The Risks of Cleaning

I've mopped my floors probably thousands of times. I know that wet floors can be slick. I know to be careful. But it just takes one moment of forgetting to be cautious to wind up in the emergency room.

Yesterday just before lunch I finished steam mopping my floors, waited what I thought was enough time for them to dry, and then walked down the tiled hallway to get something from our bedroom. Suddenly my feet went out from under me and I fell head first into the door jamb, smacking the side of my head right into it.

I knew right away that it was not good, and having had several concussions before, I figured out quickly that I had just given myself another one. I waited a few hours - I absolutely did not want to go any place where I might be exposed to COVID-19. But finally I called my doctor who directed me to go to the hospital immediately.

Due to the pandemic, Craig had to drop me off at the door where a nurse put me into a wheelchair and took me back for triage and then into a bed. Non critical patients were placed in the hallway with screens between us. And since they didn't want people in the ER to stay very long in case of exposing them to COVID-19, treatment and testing went quickly and I was in and out in an hour and a half. 

My nurse had a great sense of humor. As she wrote out my release papers, she asked, "How about I put in your release note, 'Patient should never mop floors again?'"  We had a good laugh over that.

I'm lucky - no skull fracture and no brain bleeds, but I do have a good concussion. Even twenty-four hours later I am still nauseated and have a headache. 

No barn for me for a little while, but Tim knows I won't be out and said he'll give Abby extra good care until I can return. And my fingers are crossed that Sultanna won't foal while I am homebound!

Staying in Touch During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut most of the world down. Thankfully, there are ways of staying in touch during the pandemic. Julie, Kate, and Susie have been using social media to talk with me. Recently we had a little impromptu fashion show. 

It began with Kate sending me a text with a photo of herself in a cute horsey tee shirt.

And then a Marco Polo where she described the horse on her shirt and told me about the "lines" on it. (I think she meant the reins.)

Sweet little Susie chimed in, just to say she loved me.

I decided that I would send a Marco Polo back and show Kate my own tee shirt.  She loves rabbits and bunnies even more than unicorns and horses, so I grabbed the only article of clothing that I own that is even remotely connected to bunnies.

My Jackalope tee shirt, a tongue in cheek gift from my friend, Nancy Kelly. (Nancy knows I really dislike unicorns, and the tee shirt says "Jackalope - Not everyone can be a unicorn.")

 Well, that opened the door to three more Marco Polos.

Next I got to see Kate's color changing sequin unicorn shirt. "It goes easily back from gold to silver," she explained as she ran her hands up and down the sequins.

Julie got on, only she didn't want to show me her clothes, she wanted to discuss her passion, birds. (Including the fact that some cultures make soup out of birds' nests.) She also told me about the juvenile robin that had spent some time on their patio but then "Its mom and dad found it" so everything was okay.

I slipped over to the bush in our yard where a robin is making a nest and sent back another Marco Polo showing Julie that nest, a hummingbird nest from last year that we'd found when we'd trimmed our clematis a few days ago, and the barn swallows' nest in the arch over our porch. (And where two bluebirds roosted at night last winter.)

As I stay home during the pandemic, I sometimes feel isolated, even with Craig and Pepper around to keep me company. I am very grateful for social media that allows me to stay in touch with family and friends. Talking about everyday, normal-life things like tee shirts and birds' nests brings some normalcy into the craziness of the world right now.

Pandemic Sewing

I am staying at home during the pandemic as asked by Indiana's governor. But even though I am retired and home quite a bit already, I have felt restless. I like to sew, I like to serve, and so what better way to do something worthwhile than to sew masks?

I looked at several online patterns and tutorials before selecting the pattern I liked best.

I have lots and lots of fabric on hand, both in the form of scraps from other projects as well as fabrics that I have bought because I liked them and knew that I could find something to make with them. (Every sewist does that, and we pile up tubs and tubs of fabrics!)

 Small prints work best for the masks and I have plenty of that in the fabrics I use to sew quiet books.

Other past sewing projects have included Christmas stockings, pillowcases, tablecloths, and pot holders. Leftover fabrics from those work well.

 The adult masks aren't hard to make, but the children's masks are so tiny and more difficult. This set is for Jessica and her family in Utah.

Since people around the world are sewing masks, too, there is a real shortage of 1/4 inch elastic, and I have had to get creative since I ran out of my supply yesterday.

I had some colorful rolled elastic and tried that in the masks for Julie, Kate, and Susie in Nashville.

Their mama is getting this fabric (one of my favorite fabrics ever!) and I am still working on Cole's plain black one. He gets my last two pieces of elastic.

Lisa asked for orange fabric, and Craig requested argyle.

I still need to hear from Sarah, Kyle, and Curt if they need masks, too, and I need one as well. I will choose something horsey, of course.

I love all three of these and have enough to make pot holders, tablecloths, and aprons out of them, but I think I can spare an 8 x 14 inch rectangle to make my own mask.

Now I wait on more 1/4 inch elastic. Everywhere in town is sold out as are the online sewing places I shop. Amazon has it, but it comes from China and there is a two week to one month wait to get it here. I'll either have to use the rolled elastic for myself or keep digging and see if I can find another source.

In the meantime, it has felt good to use my sewing skills to help out my family. And if I am able to get more elastic, I'd like to make some for the two local hospitals as well.

Volunteer Teaching During the Pandemic

(This is a non-horsey post.)

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut whole communities down, including ours. Most heartbreaking for me was the fact that Indiana's governor ordered all schools closed for the remainder of the school year. I completely agree with doing that, but still my heart aches for the kids, the teachers, and all of those involved in teaching the kids. (I am proud to say that my school corporation is paying all laid off hourly workers their normal pay until the end of the school year.)

I've wanted to give back in some way as the pandemic progresses, but since I have a compromised immune system, I have to stay home. I'm not even doing my own grocery shopping - Lisa does that for us and drops it off. But my friend and fellow teacher, Kathy, came up with an idea to help the overstressed teachers who are trying to keep their students' learning going via remote learning.

Kathy, Nacho, and me after teaching a lesson together at school.

Kathy and I have done a lot of collaborative teaching during our careers. Currently she is teaching high school English half time while mentoring the 80+ new teachers that were hired for the current school year. She put out an email to them that, if anyone wanted, she would prepare lessons and teach them to their students, and she asked me if I would help her teach those lesson.

It's been a lot of fun to dust off my teaching chops ands them, but even better, I feel I am helping and contributing as I help these new teachers out. Just for fun, here are two lessons that Kathy and I taught.

This teacher asked us to teach a lesson about story elements to her second grade classroom.

And this teacher, also one who has second graders, asked us to read aloud a story. Since Kathy is blind, she asked me to be the one to do the read aloud.

We are both amateurs when it comes to filming, but the message gets across. And I feel like I am doing some small part during this terrible pandemic to give back and help.

Now, we have our fingers crossed that we are not asked to prepare and film a lesson on something like dissecting a frog or acid base reaction tests, or something of that ilk!