Blah sweater into cool boho skirt!

This sweater looks tired, know what I'm sayin'?  So I flipped it upside down, opened the shoulder seams, closed the arm holes and now it's a cutesy skirt! I used all the material and didn't even up the bottom edge because I thought the variegated length looked cool. I didn't even hem the bottom because I cut right along the edge of the knit design so it held together by itself. Space-sucker into usable apparel. Sanity restored!

Pencil-skirt lengthen and slit closure

Ever had a pencil skirt that was super cute but the slip went halfway up the back of your thigh? And when you sat down the skirt rose up like four inches?  Hey, me too!

So I took my favorite pencil skirt that I NEVER wear (EVER!) because of these problems,  and added a little length at the bottom and sewed a little triangle from a scrap of jersey cotton I had in my miscellaneous fabric drawer at the slit and VOILA! Usable clothing again. Hurray!

               

An up-close view of the pattern.

Mini-skirt slip under maxi lengthening

I have a maxi dress and maxi skirt- both BEAUTIFUL! But the slip underneath is way. too. short. So they stay in my closet, unworn. Occasionally I throw a slip on under them, but that just looks funny and in the summer adds un-needed extra warmth.  So I went to the fabric store and bought some slip material and added about a foot to each slip. It was the no-fray kind, so I didn't even hem it. Plus it's hidden underneath the sheath layer.

Voila! Closet space-suckers to usable clothing.

Keeping the Force alive...

So fun playing outside with friends! This is what kids are meant to do. Play impromptu made-up games with wild abandon.

Back to the Stone Age...?

We did it- we finally canceled our Netflix Instant Streaming access. It was really, REALLY hard. I was right in the middle of three different shows, and had planned the next few I was going to watch. Seth and I had also spent countless enjoyable hours watching season after season of Lost, Prison Break, Doctor Who, Chuck, and many HGTV shows.


But that was just it- we were spending WAY too much time sitting in front of the TV.

"So just don't watch as much!" you might be saying. But even if we abstained for an evening, all I could think about was whether or not Meredith Grey was finally going to be able to be with McDreamy. Even when we switched to watching only on odd days of the month, I still spent my whole days just itching to turn on the TV at the end of the day. That made my day less fun.

So, after some anxiety on my part (but what about my beloved characters? and what will Eddie watch without Daniel Tiger and all those other PBS shows and more?) we decided to give up instant streaming on Netflix, and reassess after three months. We still receive DVDs in the mail which we save for Friday nights, and we still have our instant Amazon streaming, but since it doesn't have as much or as good TV, it's not been a temptation.

And things have been great. I think about Meredith less every day, and am thinking more about my own thoughts- like remembering that I haven't posted on my blog in over a year! Remembering to write in my journal because I still haven't recorded Rosie's birth story. Remembering all those minute details that make our home run more smoothly that I previously forgot about in my binge-watching of all things HGTV.

For the record, obviously, not everyone gets as addicted as I do. But I am loving the freedom of having my own thoughts to myself again, without being consumed with curiosity about what happens next!! 

I am reading more, and have a ton of curiosity there, but it's not the kind that distracts me from my day.

And in other media news!!!

I also VOLUNTARILY switched to a dumb phone. Yup. I switched out my uber cool smart phone for a flip phone.

"But what about your APPS!!!!!!????????"

Here's what I use most:
Gmail
Google+
Camera
GPS
Google calendar

The first two, I also do on my computer, and I'm usually at home (as a stay-at-home-mom, go figure) so no biggie.

The third- I have a nice, compact, digital point and shoot camera with camcorder that I resurrected from my box of almost obsolete electronics and put it in the diaper bag. After all, my kids are pretty much the only things I'll need to take impromptu pics of, and wherever they are, there shall my diaper bag be also. So it's perfect.

The last two gave me pause- what am I going to do if I can't find the place I'm going without a GPS? I'll could *gasp!* waste time (a motherhood sin!) with possibly crying/hungry/poopy/tired kids in the car. (The irony of all the time wasted watching Netflix is not lost on me.)

Or what about all the times that my calendar reminds me of some commitment that I had forgotten until I heard the alarm and would have otherwise missed? How am I going to remember everything now?

The answer to how to get along without GPS and google Calendar is.....I don't know!!

But I used to do it just fine. There totally was a time in which I wrote everything down on a paper calendar. And I consulted it often to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything, and it worked!  And the truth is, writing things on paper is so much faster than putting them into my phone.  I never needed to consult my google Calendar because I knew it would prompt me with a pre-programmed one-hour lead time if there was somewhere I should be. But I can do paper again- it was no biggie before.

And there definitely was a time where I got around town just fine without a GPS. I don't know how that was, but I did. And actually, I'm going to get a GPS for my car so I can still input addresses and not get lost. It won't be as convenient as having it on my phone, but it'll be close.

So now that you know the how, here's the why.

Because my phone doesn't fit in my pocket.

Not my jeans (except the back pocket, but then the $400 phone falls in the toilet), and certainly not the pockets of my yoga pants that I spend most of my life in. Also, most skirts and dresses don't even have pockets, and with a smart phone, gone are the days of being able to hide my phone in my shirt. So I end up always having my phone in my hand, if I don't want to have to search for it every time it rings, or to worry about keeping it in arm's reach. And now that we have our darling Rosie, I have better things to put in my hands! She's a chunk.

And if it's not her then it's a car seat or a diaper bag or keys or bikes or whatever. And I really want to be a hands free momma! Hands available for mothering, not phoning. My smart phone was so big it took BOTH HANDS to text on it (one to hold it, the other to write), both hands to open it, hold it, select a phone number, etc. And my phone wasn't even considered a 'big one' but is just average. Not just one hand out of commission, but two!

Also, I want to model for Eddie that electronics don't rule our lives. Already, he's becoming an entertainment-holic. His first choice is still to go play outside, thank goodness. But that isn't always possible.


And you know what else?? I am more peaceful. I don't feel my nervous energy to consult my phone all the time. Also, flip phones don't break as much or need to charge as often. The ball and chain of bringing a charge cord everywhere I go if it'll be more than half a day is gone. My son won't ask me to play on it. I won't be *phoney at church, preschool, or anywhere else when I'm bored. I'll talk to people more, remember to bring books and read more.

And you know the best part? When I close it, it makes a satisfying THWACK! ;) Man, I've really missed that sound. (And I really love the clicky-ness of a flip phone's numbers when I'm texting!)

Anyway, I'll keep you updated on our two media detox experiments. Hopefully, they stick. I'm already liking them. :)


*Phoney- when you're sitting somewhere, momentarily without an occupation, and instead of talking to someone, reading something, paying attention to the speaker/teacher, getting a task done, or actually resting, you whip out your phone to occupy yourself.

http://www.handsfreemama.com/about-hands-free/

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/flip-phones-get-ready-for-the-return-of-a-most-unfashionable-device-9863479.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-flip-phones-could-return-in-a-big-way-2014-11

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-franssen/the-netflix-addiction_b_8473094.html