2012 Maker Wrap-up

This year, I kept a spreadsheet of my projects and craft purchases.  I purchased ~250 yards and used ~150 yards of fabric in 117 projects.  The fabric usage is a bit low because I did so much refashioning and and worked with used clothing and odds and ends from my 'zero-waste' bin.  Scraps yielded  linings, facings, pocket bags and bias bindings.  I also produced many a quilt top and toddler clothes for LA County foster children from them.

In numbers:

• 33 items for me (nearly all of my new clothes for the year)
• 17 for Iris (about half her new clothes this year)
• 67 for others ranging from quick baby pants to twin-sized patchwork quilts
• 10 knit projects
• 107 sewn projects

My favorite project has got to be the whale fluke quilt I made for an anonymous LA county foster child.  Someday, I would like to make one for myself.

In other news, Iris and I took singing lessons together.  We had fun.  They helped.  She scored a principal role in her school musical and I no longer feel embarrassed singing in public.

We traveled all over the western US, skiing, bicycling, hiking and visiting friends.

I'm busier than ever.  On top of my CSA coordinator role, I am also serving as a nutrition docent, 3x a week math tutor and making the sets for the play (with Pennamite) for Iris' school.  The schools are so hard up for money that parent volunteers are filling in so many roles.  

Bad dad and I are taking several MOOC (massive open online courses) and enjoying them immensely.  For some reason, he also expects me to do all of the housework and child schlepping.  I'm exercising and cooking from scratch more.

I hung out a shingle as a one-woman consulting company and STEM tutor.  I had a third interview and hope to sign the first consulting client soon.  Meanwhile, I discovered that, while there is very little work for earth scientists, there are many opportunities for someone with my data wrangling skills.  Headhunters do call, but only for full-time positions in other cities.

Aside from the money thing, life is full and good.  Our money situation is not dire so I am not complaining.  I just want to stress that family work is work, even though it doesn't pay as well as market work.  LOL.

The same goes for community volunteer work. I already made my sentiments about NCLB and high-stakes testing known.  I'm trying to make life better for the children in my community that fell victim to them.   Like family work, the pay is lousy.   But it is work and it is important.

Cool Roof

Last week, we replaced our 23 year old conventional roof with a cool roof.  The roofers also removed the skylight and installed new flashing and sealer all around each skylight to minimize air infiltration.

I forgot to take a picture of the old roof.  The new one is lighter in color and contains blue and white grains that reflect sunlight.

We picked up considerable solar gain from the old charcoal gray asphalt shingles.  We were worried a cool roof would increase our heating costs during the winter.  The installers laid down a thicker underlayment than the stuff they took out.  Hopefully, that will give us more insulation value in the winter.

Unfortunately, financial incentives for cool roofs vary with the % reduction of energy consumption.  Because we never had air conditioning, we won't show any reduction in energy use.  We'll get the lowest rebate possible.  It's so unfair that we are punished for past responsible behavior.  We hope to feel more comfortable in our home, however.

Vogue 8859 Take 2

When Iris came home from school, I asked her what she thought of the teal pair.  She looked me up and down and replied, "Unfortunately, they are cute".  Based on that assessment, I decided to see how Vogue 8859 would fit using a stretchier fabric. I made a pair out of purple-blue ponte the very next day. The fit speaks for itself.

Bad Dad works a 9/80 schedule and we spend a childless and workless Friday together every other week. We took a walk along the beach.  He says that the pants are incredibly flattering.  Add that to Iris' comment and the pants get 3 thumbs up in our family.

Last Friday was a 3-tanker day.  I used to think that was some sort of backlog or scheduling error on the part of the Chevron.  When I took a tour of the Chevron refinery in El Segundo with the MIT club of southern California, the tour guide explained that just means a supertanker made a delivery.  Supertankers (the largest class of oil tanker) are too large to maneuver inside the Catalina strait.  Smaller tankers, like the ones you see behind us, meet the supertanker west of Catalina island and transfer the oil to the off-shore oil terminal.

El Segundo has two oil terminals so they can load (or unload) 2 tankers at a time.  El Segundo means the second.  El Primero is Chevron refinery #1 in Richmond, California (north of Oakland, east of San Francisco).  The two refineries, spaced 400 miles apart, act as one.  That is, rather than switch configurations of the refineries to make different products, they may do one step of oil refining at one plant and then do the remaining steps at another.  The oil and intermediate products move between them via tankers.

The MIT club tour lasts 2 hours and the attendees asked very technical questions.  The general public tour lasts 1 hour and doesn't get very technical.  If you have a chance to take the MIT one, sign up early as space fills quickly.

Links:

• Vogue 8859 V1
• Painted refashioned top worn in the photos above.