A New Sewing Machine

I bought a sewing machine today.   Now I can make things without having to wait until we’re visiting my parents.   We’re in the middle of painting our house (I took a break from it this evening to go pick up the sewing machine), so I have to wait until that’s done before I get into a sewing project, but I’m excited to figure out my new machine.   I’ve started altering the diapers we made earlier this spring, because my 12 pound baby is outgrowing the diapers that fit him when he was born.   I’m adding wings on the back to make the part that wraps around his waist longer.   Then I’m moving the velcro tabs out to the ends of the wings.   This makes the diapers much more adjustable, and they’ll grow with him for a while, but doing the sewing by hand was taking me more than an hour per diaper.   I did a few at my parents’ house last weekend on the sewing machine, and it was about 15 minutes per diaper.   So I went looking for a used sewing machine.   I found one on Craigslist – it’s portable and can be stashed in a closet, which is a plus, since I don’t have much extra room in my house.   It was $45, and I think it is going to turn out to be money well spent.   I’ll be able to make more diapers for our little guy as he gets bigger, and now when we visit my parents I won’t have to spend the whole time sitting in front of the sewing machine.   And, I’ll be able to do machine sewing on my scrapbook pages!   I love sewing on my pages, but I’ve always done it by hand, which takes forever.   So that’s a good bonus.

Here’s some good stuff I found around the blogosphere today:

Brip Blap has a good article about how America grew fat and unhappy.   More is not necessarily better, and less is often more.   We don’t need nearly as much as we think we do, and most of us can live very happily on not much money – we just have to figure out what truly makes us happy (chances are it’s free), rather than frantically searching for the latest and greatest in an effort to feel happy.

Moolanomy is doing the 100 push up challenge.   I found the challenge a few days ago, and did my initial test today.   I was able to do 20, which is a lot less than I was able to do a year ago – I suppose 9 months of being pregnant takes a toll on push up ability…   But even at my strongest, I’ve never come anywhere close to 100   pushups, so I’m excited about this challenge.   Week 1, Day 1 starts on Monday…

Banker Girl has an interesting article about splitting parenting duties.   My husband and I both work at home for now, although I’ll be going back to the library on a very part time basis in the fall (about 12 -16 hours/week).   So for now, we’re both home all day and we’ve got a pretty good routine figured out.   I get up with our son at night.   My husband has offered to get up to change diapers, but if I have to wake up anyway to feed him, what’s the point in both of us getting up?   I might as well change the diaper, since I’m awake anyway.   I wake up 2 or 3 times in the night to feed and change our little guy, which is pretty easy since he sleeps in our bed and I’m breastfeeding, so I fall back asleep about two minutes after he starts feeding.   Then in the morning, my husband takes our son downstairs and hangs out with him – and makes our breakfast – while I get a little more sleep.   During the day, I mostly keep our son with me in his sling and do whatever work needs to be done on the computer, while my husband talks on the phone with clients (this can’t really be done with our son around, since you never know when he’s going to make noise).   We each feel like the other one works harder, so I’d say that’s a good sign.   I do the laundry, he mows the yard, we each do dishes, sweep, cook, etc.   It works for us.

And I loved this post from Plonkee Money about how credit cards are like alcohol.   Yes!   I agree completely.   We put everything on our credit card and pay the bill every month.   Love the convenience, love not having to go to the ATM for cash, love having all our spending tracked in one place for us every month.   While I know that credit cards can cause a world of trouble if they’re not used responsibly, they are a huge convenience for people who are able to spend wisely and pay the balance in full every month.

Enjoy the rest of the first weekend of summer!