Time for the Second Monthly Carnival of Tonya!

Ok, ok, so I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been busy with other stuff.

And what could possibly be more important than blogging? Well, I've been crafting some maille, for one:

I know what you're thinking, because you're thinking it so loud I can hear it all the way over here: He's cracked. He's gone completely mad. Anyone who starts crafting chain eventually goes a little nuts, and starts putting it on their teddy bears, and then on their sofas, and then on their cabbages and eggplants*.... It was bound to happen sooner or later; it just happened a little faster to you than we expected. Tim, it's been nice knowing ya, try not to dribble all over the nice young men in those clean white suits....

Well, you'd think that, and there may in fact be some truth in what you think; but no, I'm not actually crafting a hauberk for the Happy Boy's little friend. Although you have to admit, he's pretty cute, no?

No, we're not planning on loading up this little guy for bear. (ba-DUM-bump!)

We're planning on loading up this little guy for bear:
That would be the little one in the lower right.

Oh, as if that makes it any better! Ok, so you're planning on chaining 15,000 rings so you can put your toddler in a hauberk, for crying out loud. That's only marginally less un-sane than putting it on a teddy bear.

Yup, sounds about right. Though I don't know that we'll actually get to 15,000 rings. I'm about halfway done now, and I'm only at about 6,000.

That settles it. Completely cracked.

So maybe it's for the best that I haven't been blogging. After all, If "Sometimes I'm Actually Coherent", then that leaves all the other times, I'm afraid.

But! Fear not. My intrepid wife has been blogging a lot more than I have. If you haven't been following her blog, she's cooked up a trio of big meaty posts over the last two weeks. Given that I haven't been writing anything, I thought I'd throw my remaining regular readers a bone and send them over her way.

First, there's her post entitled Life Without a Baby, which is very poignant. We've had four babies, spaced roughly two years apart each. That means that since Tonya became pregnant with the Pillowfight Fairy in early 2003, we've constantly either had a baby (or very young toddler) in the house, or we've been expecting a baby. The Power household has been all babies, all the time, since 2003. And with the loss of Baby E three weeks ago, we now find ourselves babyless--none in the house, none on the way, and possibly (given Tonya's and my ages) none left to come. Tonya was feeling a bit melancholy about this fact. Before we got married, and even in that brief time between our marriage and the birth of the Fairy, we never really thought of ourselves as "baby" people--but that changed in a big, big way when our children came along. Now that we're facing the possible end of the "baby" phase in our lives, we're having to look forward, and it's not without some sadness.

(And fear. The Pillowfight Fairy is six-and-a-half now, which means she's halfway to being a teenager.)

Then, there's her next post, entitled End of School evaluation. About a year ago Tonya planned out what she wanted to get done with the Pillowfight Fairy's first grade year, and I posted about that here. It was an ambitious plan, and prompted one of our commenters to remark:

Four to six hours a day of rigorous academics for a SIX-YEAR-OLD?!!! Unless you have a certified genius as a child, you are setting yourself up for misery and failure....

Ahem. We have experienced neither misery nor failure. Draw your own conclusions. :-)

Well, we're proud to say that we made it through, and the Fairy made it through, and we haven't wound up in an institution yet (though I'm getting pretty close, as the pictures attest). We had to make a few changes to our plan, and didn't get everything done that we'd wanted to, but we did get most of it done, and we're very proud of how much the Fairy has learned in the last year. Tonya is also in the process of putting together next year's plan; one of us will probably blog about it a bit more when that's complete. Things are going to be a bit more tricky next year, too, since the Adrenaline Junkie will be doing her Kindergarten year.

Third, Tonya has this endearing way of trying to fill every waking moment with Productivity. (That is, until she gets wiped out by the day and spends her evening hours playing Civilization.) So what will she do during the summer months, until the time to begin the next year's academics? Well, she's decided to make a couple of dresses for the girls. She's already got the fabric, the patterns, and all the materials; she's already measured the girls; and she's starting to cut out the pattern pieces. Oh, and incidentally: our girls are shaped weirdly. I know, I know: as any boy can tell you, all girls are shaped weirdly--but ours are shaped weirdly even when compared to other girls. When Tonya measured them out yesterday, she discovered that the Pillowfight Fairy (age 6) has:

• Size 4 chest;
• Size 4 waist;
• Size 5 hip;
• Size 7 back-of-neck to waist;
• Size 7 height.
  

The Adrenaline Junkie, age 4, has:

• Size 3 chest;
• Size 3 waist;
• Size 4 hip;
• Size 5 back-of-neck to waist;
• Size 5 height.

This has created something of a conundrum for Tonya. Does she:

• Pick the biggest sizes for each of the girls (7 for the Fairy, 5 for the Junkie) and just make the dress in that size--recognizing that they might be swimming in them, but hopefully giving them a little room to grow?
• Make a dress with hybrid sizes--cutting (for instance) on the size 7 lines for the vertical directions on the Fairy's dresses, and on the size 4 or 5 lines for the horizontal directions? This would take a bit more work and would give a higher chance of making mistakes, but would give a trimmer-fitting dress.
  

Tonya is leaning toward the first of these two options, but is planning on doing some tailoring after she's had a chance to fit the dresses on the girls. Fact is, they might never grow into the dresses width-wise; thin runs in the females in Tonya's family, at least until motherhood changes the shapes of their bodies. Tonya made herself a skirt when she was in Junior high, when she was 5'2" and had a waist size of 18". And that measurement, dinky as it is, is actually equal to the 18" waist that her mom had on her wedding day! And our girls are likewise feather-weight when compared to their (often much shorter!) age peers.

Anyway, when those dresses are done, either Tonya or I will have pictures up on our blogs.


...


And this blog? Well, I'll try to step up my blogging pace, although since I haven't been spending as much time online lately, I haven't been seeing as much worth writing about. And I still have half a hauberk to finish, of course--after which you'll get to see some pictures of our little knight in shining armor.

After that? Well, I confess that I do have a whole bunch of other chainmaille projects lined up....


*Although if you actually are going to maille your cabbages and eggplants, I recommend you use stainless steel rings. I recommend 16 gauge, 1/4" inner diameter for an aspect ratio of about 4, which seems to work well for the European 4-into-1 weave. And it won't tarnish or leave black rub-off on your vegetables.