Adult Leader Recognitions

Our service unit doubled in size when the Girl Scout council did a major service unit merge this school year.  Our fall product sales were based on the old service unit sizes, but cookies were based on the new, very large service unit.  At one of the team meetings, we decided that we should make a special effort to recognize the four volunteers who did the cookie heavy lifting.

We presented one of these to each of the 4 cookie volunteers.


Here's how we did it:

We had troops take a picture of their girls, maybe with a "thank you" sign and either email it or drop off a paper copy of the print. I scanned in the pictures that were dropped off.  I uploaded them to a photo processing site for my local warehouse club and had them made into a 12x18 collage poster.  There are any number of places (drug stores, discount stores, warehouse clubs, online services, etc.) where you can do pretty much the same thing.  It is worth it to shop around for the right combination of price and quickness of service.  It was a pretty neat thing where you select the photos from the album that you want to use and then keep hitting the "shuffle" button until the layout is satisfactory.

The other thing that I made for this - so that it would be easy for troops to participate without finding/taking a picture was a signature card.  For this I used card-stock (The card-stock choices at the office supply store are always overwhelming.  I don't know why.)  Our cookie bakery has a great library of clip art/stock photography that is available to use on their Flickr site.  To get the picture locally - select the picture and then choose Actions>>View All Sizes.  From that screen, I go to the "original size" page and then select, "Download  the Original Size of this Photo."  

For the later arriving photos (as there always are), I either uploaded to print enough copies of each or I brought them in to the drugstore to use their scanner gizzy and got prints made.

Here's how I assembled the gift.  (I had a 25% off my entire Michael's purchase and I wasn't afraid to use it.)
Ingredients:
4 poster frames (20x28)
General Purpose 45
bulletin board paper
photo mount squares (thin)

I took apart the poster frames and there was not additional layer of cardboard in them, so I used the fiberboard backs and the GP45, following the directions on the can, to glue on large sheets of bulletin board paper.  I worked in the back yard, on a vinyl table cloth.

  

The collage had a "thin mint green" background, so I went with "shortbread blue" for the poster background. I trimmed the edges of the poster, not very carefully.  I wanted them to tuck around the edges a little.



The next part was tricky.  This is the part where "married to an architect" comes in handy.  We worked up a reasonable page layout.  Leaving space for even more latecomers or clip art.



Then, finally, commit to the design.  These photo mount squares turned out to be great for this project.



I brought them over to the service unit manager's house and sure enough, another troop had turned in a picture.  And her troop wasn't on there.  Just enough room for 2 more pictures.  Hopefully, these are a big hit tomorrow.  I'm really happy with how they've turned out.

Mother's Day Sewing

One of the interesting things on FB today was seeing what everyone was doing for Mother's Day.  Some were at the beach, some were spending time visiting family, some were re-creating meals their mom used to make for them.  I made a dress for El.



I bought the material quite a while ago, with the intention of making a dress for her.  She has this sundress that she picked out when she was really little (It's a size 2T, so she might have been 3) that she ended up loving so much that she wore it as a shirt up until last summer.  Haven't checked recent to see if it still fits her at all.  So, I bought the material thinking she needed/wanted a new sundress.  It's from the Denyse Schmidt line for chain stores, the Aunt Edna set.  I may have even paid full price for it.  But I never really found "the" pattern for it.  Until I started seeing the Made By Rae Geranium Dress pattern around at different places, but mostly Pinterest. I emailed my husband the link and asked for it for Mother's Day.  He checked it out and bought it!

I didn't think I had quite enough to make the long skirt, the bodice and the bodice lining out of the fabric I had, so I picked up some red-tag coordinating fabric ($3/yard and $3/yard quality too) from the J on Friday.  I printed out the pattern, taped it together.  My only issue was that I wished the registration symbols of where to tape it together were a little different from each other for each join.  You really only had the spacing to work off of.  I cut out the pieces Saturday night.

This morning, I got out the old sewing machine and put together the bodice.  I took a break for board games with El and went back to it later in the morning.  I got all the machine sewing done by lunch time, even with helping with math homework while sewing.  On a side note, I may be teaching La some bad "narrowing down the choices" habits to cut down on the amount of work required.

I had a little trouble with the buttonholes.  Not because of the pattern, but because I'm a goofball who was careful about everything but the buttonholes.  So, there are 4 of them for 2 buttons.  See the bad habits on cutting down the amount of work required.  The sewing machine has a thing where once it learns 1 button hole it can make a bunch more just like it.  If I had made a "swatch" buttonhole, then the first one would have been right.  The second one got bunged up because the fabric was pretty thick where I tried to put it.  The whole time I was doing this, I thought it would be OK because they would be underneath.  After lunch, I remembered that the button side is the bottom and the button holes are on top.  So, there's kind of an oddball piece of ric-rac covering the superfluous buttonholes.



Other than my own mistakes, I'm really happy with how the dress turned out.  I think El will wear it a lot.  I'm certain I will make more of these for her and for others.

P.S.  One of the winning features is side seam pockets.  I hadn't even realized they were there until I taped the pattern pieces together.

Ten on Tuesday: 10 reasons why I knit

1.  To give me something to do while I'm waiting for a kid.  I spend a lot of time at soccer practice, games, for our turn at the pediatrician or counselor.

2.  To give me something to do during a meeting.  My snarky answer for why I knit during meetings is, "So I have something to show for my time."  Otherwise I'll be doodling or thinking or something.  Stockinette socks are good for this.

3.  As an exercise to figure out how to do something.  I like the puzzle of how to get the thing in my head into a thing I can use.  Sometimes it doesn't work.  This is not usually portable knitting.  But it is something I will work on at home while watching TV.

4.  While I am keeping someone company.  The youngest is at an age when she still needs a lot of company.  One thing that I found while watching the Cold Spagetti Western a lot with my older daughter is knitting helps me put up with the repetition of watching the same show over and over.

5.  Because we need something specific.  Like a sweater for a little kid.  Or a hat for a bald baby.  I think I am a process knitter - I knit things for the exersize of knitting it and am not driven by needing the end result.  So, unless the pattern I picked fits in one of the above categories (e.g. it is interesting or it is  boring and small), it doesn't get finished quickly. 

6. To feel like I'm doing something helpful.  It's hard to volunteer my time at a place without finding baby sitting or time off from work.  But I have time to knit a square or a hat or a pair of mittens.  Hopefully they will be used, but I've gotten to the point where it's OK with me if they don't.

7.  For a new baby.  I like to knit at least a little hat for a new baby.  They don't take too long and the cotton/elastic blend is useful and wearable here in Florida.  If I have the time, a sweater or blanket is nice to make too.

Maybe I only have 7.  shrug.

10 things I know to be true.

1A lot of days, I wake up before my alarm clock.


2A few minutes later, my younger daughter usually wakes up and either calls me or hops into bed with me.

3I used to be upset about missing that last 5 or 10 minutes of sleep.

4Now, I look at it as a quiet I get to have before the day really starts.

5She will probably always wake up a little before her alarm clock, too.

6But she won't always be calling for me or hopping into my bed in the morning. This is a limited time offer.

7In fact, it probably won't last that much longer. Once she learns how to use the remote herself.

8Even though the kids are 5, 10, and 19, the days are long and the weeks, months, and years are fast.

9If scientists could bottle that phenomenon they'd make some real money.

10This is kind of a weird thing to have on my blog. But you know whatever.   Inspired by this (Sarah Kay - TED talk.)