Vacation Time!

In just 2 and a half hours <<crossing my fingers>> I'll be starting my more than a week of vacation. I won't be returning to the office until November 9th. This will be the longest vacation I have ever taken since beginning working full-time and not counting maternity leave. Crazy as people think I am I only took 3 weeks off. Our plans are fairly simple, on Tuesday we'll be heading out to go to Florida Pagan Gathering to celebrate Samhain, attend a wedding, enjoy the great fall weather and spend time with friends. I'm so anxious to be a gettin' with the fun but there is so much to do in the next few days. I'll be sewing like a fiend again tonight as I'm making a cloak for the hubby. I need to finish the brooches for my Viking Apron dress. All sorts of business tomorrow with Halloween PLUS I need to work on my take home midterm for my graduate class. Plan to post tomorrow with pictures of the finished clothing projects if all the Halloween events don't get in the way.

Halloween Traditions

Everyone has their holiday traditions and as kids we remember them so fondly. As a child my father put together a hay ride that would take all the children around the neighborhood. One year it got so large that there were three different tractors with trailers driving around. It was like a hay ride bus system. It was such a wonderful experience that I would love to be able to pull off something similar in the future for Lil' R and any future sibling(s).

Us having just bought our first home and this being Lil' R's first Halloween we can participate in we've just started trying to think what Our traditions will be. Right now our only standing traditions are decorating and going trick or treating. I learned the other day about a tradition called being Boo'd where you leave a basket of goodies at 2 neighbors houses and a ghost to hang from their doorknob (to let everyone know they'd already been Boo'd) along with a note in the form of a poem asking them to do the same for 2 neighbors. The key is it must be done anonymously. We're considering trying to start that next year.

What are some of everyone else's family Halloween traditions? Or what were some traditions that you celebrated as a kid?

And now for some gratuitous pictures of Halloween decorations I made.

 

A felt spider with pipe cleaners as legs and googly eyes. Also a ghost made from stiffened cheese cloth over a styrofoam ball with googly eyes,  a black ribbon.

The Knight is here

On Friday I finished all of Lil' R's Halloween costume. I think it came out really well and I have to attribute the chainmail like fabric choice to the hubby who I believe is beginning to really get into this being creative thing. I'm sure I'll make some form of crafter out of him eventually. At the moment he's turning out to be a great sounding boards. The pieces included in Lil' R's costume are a:

• "chainmail" helm
• tunic with the dragon
• "chainmail" belt
• shield candy bag
• foam sword (not pictured)

We're still trying to get a really good picture of him all dressed up. At only 16 months he really doesn't care to stand still for long. Over the weekend I also altered the hubby's robe so that it now fits much better. This could be the basis of the wizard costume if he chooses to do that. Or is it better to say if he agrees?

Will continue to try for better pictures of the wee bambino.

Fall is in the air, it means time to look busy!

Fall often becomes an extremely hectic time for our household; with the weather becoming cooler there are often an immense number of activities to do. This year is no exception and actually it's possibly even more true with the addition of our new home.  So on top of the normal fall activities such as creating Lil' R's Halloween costume, he's going to be a knight this year and the dog a dragon, there are outfits for an upcoming event for the hubby and I, Halloween decorations and decorating and the multitude of household things.  The picture to the left is of the tunic in progress. I hand stitched the dragon to the front of it. I'm incredibly proud of how this costume is turning out. It isn't going to be too complicated comprising the tunic, a hood made to look like chain mail, a belt, and his shield which also will hold his candy. I've been debating on pants, even having started a pair but I may just put him in jeans. A sword is still in the works and I'm sure we'll just get a plastic one from the store. I'm contemplating dressing the hubby up as a wizard to travel around with Lil' R as he trick or treats. We'll see how well that one goes over later.

Among the multitude of household things that we would like done within a reasonable time frame is replacing/repairing the screens for many of the windows.  Next time the weather drops to 80 as the high I want to be able to open the house up and enjoy! The list of all that needs to be done for the house is astronomical so I won't even begin to list it. I'm sure everyone will hear about it soon enough.

I hope to have more pictures of Lil' R's costume in progress tomorrow.

Who is this nutty person?

So yet another blog has popped up in the blogsphere and I'll admit this isn't my first attempt. I've suffered from too high of expectations which result in less than stellar results and eventually discontinuing my attempts. I finally decided I'm just going to write and try to connect with others that are doing the same. No current aspirations of making any money from this venture or spinning off a sellable brand. If that is to come in the future I'll let it come naturally. I've just come to realize I need some form of outlet, so here it is.

First of where did the name Finagling Life come from? We all know trying to name something isn't easy and I went through a lot of different names before this one came to me. The thoughts behind it through is that's how I feel at times about how I life. I feel that I'm constantly finagling things to keep the day to day functionality of my life going. I'm both a geek and an engineer so I often imagine this as an act of MacGyver getting out of any situation with just his brains and a few random items. I'm sure everyone feels that way from time to time. Possibly more often now with the current state of affairs.

I'm often finagling a lot, often just trying to get everything done. I'm the primary provider for our household working as an environmental engineer while my husband is a stay at home dad taking care of our toddler son. We're still working on how the responsibilities at home work as I was raised by a stay at home mom myself and find many domestic activities to come naturally to me. I'm also an avid crafter. I love creating things and seeing raw material become something more. I hope to show off some of my creations here from time to time.

Until next time.