7 times

Yup, that's the grand total. I have started this post seven times...SEVEN. Hopefully I get to finish it this time :o)

Mitch and I have had a pretty good semester: i've hit a few roadbumps in classes and such and had a few days where I haven't felt very well, but everything's pretty normal, and subsequently, pretty boring! Hence the gap between posts :o)

Mitch has made a hobby out of "inventing things," as I like to call it. It's not unusual for me to come home from work and classes and for him to say, "I thought about it all day while working, and I know how we can make this....it'll save us $130!!" (silly man, as if i'd ever pay full price for anything! He knows he's talking to a Larson here, right!?) Or, my personal favorite, "Okay, I turned this into this and now it's all pinned...but I need a sewing machine." The funniest thing is that everything is always safety pinned together...he doesn't like straight pins because he gets poked too much... :o)

Recently he's been preparing for a hunting trip in October. It's a big deal: they've found private land to hunt elk in, and i'm starting to accept the fact that we may be eating elk meat all winter! He has decided he doesn't want to carry a backpack.

So, he turned his regular pistol holster (I guess you bring a pistol for self-defense or to "finish off" a deer...gross.) that clips onto a belt or something into one that will hook to a belt and also strap around his leg, using extra buckles and straps from an old backpack. I'm always so impressed with his ingenuity when it comes to these things. He gets really creative with his little projects! I replaced safety pins with straight pins and sewed it up. It works great and he was really smart about the design! It took about an hour to stitch up.

He's now fascinated with how a sewing machine works--even my vintage family heirloom sewing machine! (I LOVE it...it works like it's brand new!) He always says, "it's amazing...they thought of everything!!) He's really tested my knowledge on how a sewing machine works!

Next he wanted a pouch for a first aid kit and his GPS that could go around the other leg. Pretty much the same design as the leg holster. We wanted something to close the flap on the top with that wouldn't make tons of noise and that would be easy to sew (velcro=too loud, snaps=too hard to sew...we went down the list). He tries to do these projects for as little money as possible (he's good at that, too!) and headed to Deseret Industries (a thrift store around here) to look for something to make the pouch out of that also closed easily and quietly. Since there are 29325850 Mormons here, he found a great scripture case that someone had turned in, black and complete with buckles. He brought it home and was just thrilled!

This one took about two-three hours to sew up, but we did it. He was so excited to try both on, and practice crouching like he was hunting, making sure they were comfortable. I love it :o)

The last project we've done is a vest with tons of pockets for ammo or deer calls or whatever else you take hunting. He bought a great vest when he was about ten and still had it in the closet. He can still wear it but it was too small in most places...so, we headed to the fabric store (I wanted to go to D.I. and buy an old shirt to cut up, but this worked too!) and bought half a yard of brown, ribbed, stretchy cotton fabric. We wanted black, but this worked too. I'm not a fan of sewing on ribbed, stretchy fabric, but who is!?

We cut the vest up the back (would've done it under the arms where the seams were, but there are pockets there...so we had to do it a harder way!) and across the shoulders and fitted pieces of fabric to as wide/long as he wanted them. He kept asking, "why do I have to try it on!? It doesn't have to be exact!" (Because I don't want to have to redo it!) It took about four hours to sew it all. It would've gone faster, but I was super stressed and trying to do other things, too.

We finally finished it and he put it on all proud...I wanted to make darts for the back, but then I remembered how much I hate sewing darts...so the fabric can gap out a bit around the collar, it doesn't matter. He said anyone who notices isn't manly enough to be out there hunting with them. I loved seeing him in all his gear--he was so proud because it was all made from his ideas. I love that! (Now maybe he'll feel the same way about me sewing baby room stuff!)

I couldn't get many pictures of him all dressed up (he doesn't like that phrase...) in his gear. Turns out the boy doesn't care for posing for the blog...oh well :o)