"The tale of the Kilt," brought to you by 'Jordan,' your very own Kiwi, and their fun-loving Dad. :)

Sunday morning was a lovely morning, birds chirping, sun shining, blue sky....
Jordan, and my father, and I were sitting in the living room, waiting for the rest of the family to assemble before church. The topic of discussion turned to my recent skirt challenge. (I wore skirts for a week.)

"Why'd you want to do that?" questioned Jordan.

"For one thing, skirts are more feminine. You don't see men walking around in skirts, do you?" I countered.

"Kilts! Hello!"

"So would you wear a kilt?"

"Maybe."

I gave him a fiendish grin. "You would?"

"Well, if you made me one I would."

"Waaaiiit a minute. you'd have to wear it out somewhere...." A smile appeared on my face as I came up with a suitable dare. "You'd have to wear it to your Boy Scout meeting!"

Jordan backtracked quickly. "But you can't have any help! And it has to have a pocket. And it has to look like a kilt."

"No problem. I could do it easily." I boasted.

"And it has to be done before we leave for scouts on Monday." Jordan added another condition.

Dad chuckled.

"you have to wear it for the entire scout meeting. And you can't wear anything over it. Deal?"

"Deal."

We made the deal with Dad there to confirm it in case of future disagreements on terms.

Dad laughed again. THIS would be a sight to see.

---------------The Next Morning---------------

I was up bright and early the next morning, wanting to make sure I had time to finish the Kilt. After a healthy breakfast of Cheerios, I brought up the fabric and started cutting.

I started with pinning the pleats in back. They were time consuming, but I got them all done. Then I just sewed across the top all the way around, fastening the pleats in place. After that I hand sewed the bottom of the pleats together really quick with just a few stitches per pleat, then used some spray to make it a bit stiffer.

Next I simply hemmed two of the edges, ran around the bottom edge once to keep it from fraying too much, measured Jordan's waist again, and sewed the two ends together. Then I had him try it on. Too big. I took out the seam, sewed it smaller, Put a button on, and gave it to him to try on. Too small by an inch! (As you can see from the next pictures, he's a bean pole. Tall and skinny.) I just moved the button over some and tossed it back at him. This time it worked.

Poor Jordan didn't think I could make a kilt, much less in a few hours! But to his credit, he wore it to Boy Scouts.

Sadly, the meeting was canceled, and only a few others saw him in it. :( But they enjoyed it and we got pictures!!

For your entertainment (sorry the first two are sideways. I tried to rotate them, but Angus would have none of it!):

The back, with pleats......

The side, with button.....

The model!

So what do you think? Did I do a good job? Does this make you want one? To order, please comment on here and let me know. They are $30 a piece, plus shipping and handling. ;)

Still want one, Caleb? :D

~Kiwi~

another boring title for an interesting post...

So far this week has been better than the last one. I called Miranda and talked to her on Sunday. In VBS, they averaged 18 kids per class (And considering that our record of 13 last year was a handful...), the songs were really good (no "Wiki-wiki" or pointless ones), and the theme was Australia. Of all the years I had to miss, the had to do an Aussie theme! How frustrating. I like Aussie stuff. It would give me a chance to talk in my (probably awful) Australian accent for an entire week!!! Rats! Apparently the skits were hilarious. Considering the actors Miranda told me were in it, I'm not surprised!
But there was a musical that came with the VBS stuff that the kids will be doing in August, and I think we might be invited down for that. :)

Sis and I signed up for the church's talent show this Saturday. We changed our minds on Monday, so our....project....is being put together in less than a week. But it's looking good! We'll film it on Saturday and I'll put it on here for those unfortunate folk who can't be there.
Short Stuff, KK, JS, Sis and I signed up for something without knowing what to do. And now we're stuck half-way through the week with a half-formed idea but only half the time needed to practice in! I can't tell you about that, either, just that if we can make it work, it'll be good. Real good. :D
The main problem is that Sis has a new job that requires her to work 2:00-8:00 pm, so she can mostly practice only in the mornings. SS, KK, and JS's brother, Pen Name, works from morning to late afternoon, so he can only practice in the evenings. See our problem? But we'll figure something out. We always do. And if we can't, we could just stand up there on stage. I'm sure that last-minute-panic would give us ideas. ;)

Monday night I went to the church softball games with JS and her family. They were okay. Our C league team didn't do too well, but they tried hard. Between games, three of Kristen's younger siblings hauled me off to play catch with them. (I think they probably had to have an 'adult' with them and I was the closest thing. :) Allow me to relate some of our conversation. (A. is an 8-yr. old girl, D. & E. are 6 & 7 [?] year old boys.)

Me: "throw me a higher one, please."
E: "Okay." (grunts as he throws the ball.)
(I hop a bit and catch it.)
A (slightly awed): "Whow!! You caught that!"
D: "Next year, you should be on the church softball team!"
Me: "But I'd be the only girl."
A: "That would make it even better!"

They're fun. :) It's nice to know that someone thinks I could make the softball team! They're all wrong, but that's still cool.

Tomorrow morning (I hope!) we're getting together with JS, KK, and SS to practice our stuff. I can't wait! And tomorrow evening maybe we can get together before Bible Study and practice with Pen Name. *crosses fingers*

Now a few quick pics before I go.

This is on my door. I think that it describes me to a 'T'. :)

What's this? The first person to guess it correctly gets 15 blogger points. Good luck!

'bye!
~Kiwi~

How do other people come up with interesting post titles???

Hello sadly neglected blog and blog readers. I'm sorry about neglecting you. :( I feel bad about that.
I finished the Feelin' Feminine Challenge last Sunday. I don't have pictures loaded on here yet, but I can tell you about it.
Thursday (Day 4) I wore a pale purple skirt with a peachy-orange shirt. Most of the day I wore my hair in ponytails, but, while preparing for Bible study, I discovered it is now long enough to braid again! Since then, I've worn my hair in braids 4 or 5 times! For accessories I wore a pair of home-made earrings.
Friday (Day 5) I wore a denim skirt and a pink shirt with a brown tank-top layered over it. I did my hair in braids (No, that's not repeating, because I only wore braids for two hours on Thursday) and wore a tan-and-pink Newsboy-style cap. :) I forgot earrings. I hate forgetting earrings. I need to start carrying some in my purse.
Saturday I wore that black skirt I had worn on Monday, a blue shirt, silver earrings, and my lovely black Eeyore hoodie. I had put my hair in braids on Friday, while it was wet, then left them overnight. In the morning my hair was all wavy, so I pulled some back in a clip, and left the rest curley.
Sunday morning I wore a skirt and a shirt. I don't remember which ones. Then, for volleyball, I wore that black skirt again with a green shirt, my hair in braids and a red bandanna.
I should have gotten more pictures, because just reading this wardrobe list is reeeelly boring.

This past week has been boring....nothing much happening. Rachel, you were absolutely correct. I was bored and gumpy and all that because last week was VBS at our old church. (check out last year's posts on it: pre-VBS, mid-week, post-VBS) Sis and I were invited again, but she has a new job and couldn't go. Supposedly, I was going to be busy, too, and I didn't know until Sunday that I would be bored-outta-my-gourd all week, and by then it was too late. >:( Miranda, Rachel, and Abbie, y'all need to convince your church event co-ordinators that it is imparative they do another session of VBS in August. Imperative! I had almost resigned myself to my VBS-less week because there was a Paul Colman concert that Sis and I were hoping to go to today. I mean, it's not VBS, but a concert would sorta make up for a boring week, right? It would, but on Sunday I found out that I'm not going. >:-( So that's why that post was so unhappy. *sigh* Kristen, Owan, Heather, and some others are going to the concert today. "You'd better enjoy it!!"

But the rest of the week wasn't too bad. I didn't do anything of importance. Monday I made something for Jordan. I'll tell y'all about that when I have pictures on here. *evil little snicker* >:D
Tuesday was rainy and slow and boring, which didn't help my mood.
Wednesday we had our first sweet corn of the season! We're within biking distance of a farm market, so I rode down there and bought a dozen of what must be the sweetest sweet corn ever, anywhere, at any time in the past, present, or future. I love good sweet corn. Oh, and to make it better, we watched a Cubs vs. Phillies game in which the Cubs won. :) That was fun.
Thusday was Bible study.
Friday we went to the Madison Re-store, and then to Paoli. Paoli is a small-ish town with quite a few interesting shops. There was an antiques store, card store, beaded-stuff store, an Upper Class Art Gallery (one chair there = $2,200, one little wooden shelf = $300, little-bitty wooden box = $78!!!! We are deffinately "Lower Class" people. Imagine paying twenty-two hundred for a chair! Wow. After that, I'd be scared to sit on it.), and a more interesting art gallery. I liked the second gallery better. It had more art work that, if I could afford it and had a place to put it, I would buy.
And then Short Stuff called, and it turns out that The Play that we were going to perform for the church talent night is most likely canceled. The other lead can't rehearse with the rest of us until Tuesday night, and Sis works until 8:00 or so, meaning she can't rehearse before next Saturday.....the day of the talent show. Rats. But we'll find something to do.

I have to go eat lunch now. I'm not per'tically hungry, but we're going out later, so I'd better eat. My appologies for any misspellings. The spell-check refuses to comply to my demands, and I don't want to read through the post again.
G'bai!
~Kiwi~

I'm still alive!...............................barely

Hey, just wanted to let y'all know I'm still alive. Slightly bored, slightly grumpy, slightly unhappy, slightly melodramatic, but still alive.
the computer was locked up in my parents' room all weekend (poor Angus! I can't imagine what he did to deserve that!), and that's why I didn't post then. So.
I'll try to post a longer post tomorrow, but I can't make any promises. I was going to do a long post today, but I'm afraid it would start to sound grumpy, and grumpy posts are no fun to read unless you, too, are grumpy!
Anyways. I'll see y'all later!
~Kiwi~

help!

does anyone know where to get a reader-counter? the kind that counts how many visitors you ter on your blog? I want to add one, but can't find any on the google gadgets.
thanks!
check out my last (more interesting) post!
~Kiwi~

Feeling Femenine Challenge days 1&2

Here are some pictures:

Day 1.

I just wore a plain black skirt with an ultra-casual Snoopy shirt.

My hairstyle was a regular high ponytail. Most of the day I wore a black headband with it, but that kept coming out, so I abandoned it.
Day 1 accessories: None of my skirts have pockets, so I tied a little purse around my waist. Other than that, i wore no accessories.

Day 1 activities: Jumbo Shrimp and KK came over and we practiced The Play for the church's talent night. We have 3 weeks to perfect it, and some of us don't even have our lines memorized! After supper I went on a bike ride. I don't like riding bikes in a skirt. It doesn't work too well.

Day 2 outfit: Denim skirt, green shirt, pink accents.

(sorry about how dark that picture is!)

Day 2 hair

This style is the Gibson Braids. I found it on a site that someone gave Zoe: http://intimelyfashion.com/hair/main.html It was difficult to do the three braids (I finally asked Mom to do them for me), but the rest was easy. It probably works better for people with longer hair, like in the pics on that site. But I think it still looks good, even though it hasn't been in style for 100 years!

Day 2 accessories: I wore a deep pink sash with a little bag on it to replace the missing pockets. In my hair I wore a clip with a deep pink ribbon & rose. (I got it when I was flower girl for a cousin ten years ago, and have barely worn it since!) Also, I put on a homemade pair of earrings.

Day 2 activities: Bike riding again. I went to the park and swung a bit....that's all! Unless you want to count chemistry work, computer time, movie-watching, and dish washing as activities!

Friday night we stayed in JS and KK's neighbor's camper, along with Short Stuff and Lady Florimel. That was a lot of fun! we stayed up late watching Enchanted, then played a few rounds of "Last Word." KK and I stayed up to 4:00, carrying on a sssslllloooowww conversation. I don't remember saying 3 hours-worth of words! Here are a few pictures of that:

Any guesses as to where in the camper we were?

(Keep in mind we were getting pretty squirrelly!)

Let's see if you were correct.

We're strange. I know. But we were bored, and didn't want to sleep yet. I only got 4 hours of sleep that night!

Now I'm going to wait for the video to load, then I'll go ahead and post this. videos are soooo slow!

see y'all!

~Kiwi~

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trivia question: Give me the titles and/or authors of the three books in those photos

I haven't got a title for this one...

Hello, peoples.

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. On Sunday we almost didn't have volleyball. The two guys who normally set it up and tell everyone where to be and when to be there, weren't going to be there. So I went over and asked Alex if he knew anything about volleyball that day. He did all the conferencing and I just showed up. Dad brought the boys along to play with a family from church who were having a picnic. So dad played, too, and he's pretty good. It was a good day for me; I served first for my team in every game, but only my first serve went wild! After that I scored at least 2 points every time I served. :) It made me happeh.

My teams only won one game out of 6, but that wasn't for lack of trying! I dove more on Sunday than ever before. And I really think I'm better than I used to be.

Monday we went down to IA to clean house. Oh. My. Goodness. It was a MESS! The kitchen had crumbs and food all over the counters, food left in the fridge, caramel corn in a sticky little pile by the wall....At some point in time, a feather pillow ripped open in the master bedroom, adding feathers to the pizza crusts, socks, and doggie mess on the floor....Baby medicine and dog mess in the baby's room....Piles of crumpled-up newspaper and dog..stuff in the basement, along with dirty laundry and the dogs' blankets......Oh. It was awful. I have never loved rubber gloves so much in my life. I'll have to ask Mom about putting a few pictures of it on here.

But we got it cleaned, with the help of Avalon, Catfreak, & their sisters, my Grandpa, and my friend Megan, who I hadn't seen in 10 months!! I'm so glad we have good friends.

Tuesday we cleaned house more. I surprised another friend, which was so much fun! she had no clue I was going to be there! so we hung out for several hours, cleaning house, goofing off....

Today I haven't been doing anything of importance. I watched "Chisum" starring John Wayne. As soon as I get around to it, I'll put reviews of that and "Bye Bye Birdie" on my Old Movie Blog. It was a decent movie, although it seemed that the tv station cut it.

So that's what's happening, in a nutshell.

I finished another card front on Sunday. Here's a pic:

It belongs to the same series of cards as that Zinnia one. I think the third card will be a pink rose, perhaps, because that means "friendship."

Hm.
I'm playing a lot of the multiplayer games on www.gamesgames.com. If you ever join the site, my player name is thatKiwigirl.

My friend Avalon and my other friend Catfreak want me to re-introduce them to y'all. Go check out their blogs! They don't have much on them *ahem* but with a bit of encouragement... I'd suggest going to Avalon's first post, because she started a mystery story there. BUT she needs to CONTINUE the STORY because she just LEFT US HANGING there...Perhaps we should comment blitz her again.

okay, I have nothing left to say, except remember that the Feelin' Feminine Challenge starts this Monday!

Baibaiz

~Kiwi~

Change of Plans!

I'm changing my plans: I'm not going to do the Feelin' Feminine Challenge until week after next. We're headed down next Monday to clean our IA house, and I have to be able to wear these skirts to church. Apparently, the house, especially the basement, is a mess. So I'm delaying an extra week because I don't want to stain or tear or otherwise dammage my skirts!
But I look forward to doing this with y'all.
Go check out my last post, if you haven't already!
~Kiwi~