Easter ‘04 Disaster

February and March ‘04 were consumed with making my children’s Easter outfits. Abby was 6, Luke was 3, and Nate was 2. I was determined that they would have matching outfits if it was the last thing I did. I finished all three outfits on Easter morning, 30 min. before church. They were so sweet!! (I’ll have to dig out the picture of them later). Luke had blue/white seersucker knee pants, a white shirt with blue/white trim, white knee socks and white saddle shoes. Nate had a blue/white seersucker shortall that was smocked with Peter Rabbit, white knee socks and white saddle shoes. Abby had this dress……The underlayer is periwinkle lawn and the overlayer is leno windowpane check. The neck and sleeves have tatting and it buttons on the front shoulder with mother of pearl buttons. This dress cost about $80 not counting the time investment.

Ok, so the outfits are done and worn for Easter services and egg hunting. I decided that the next weekend I would go and get professional pictures made (they were just so cute!!). Tuesday morning, I am at work and get a phone call. My babysitter/sil is crying and says that Luke has cut the dress. Well I’m thinking it can’t be that bad but when I get home I saw this:5 gashes in the right sleeve!! I have been so upset about this for 3 years that I cannot fix it. This dress was so special to me and I can’t get inspired to fix it. So I have decided to rework the whole thing. If not, I would probably keep the dress the rest of my life and take it out to cry over it every know and again. I have some ideas for it. Since it has a 6 inch hem there is lots of extra fabric. So stay tuned for update photos. I may make something wonderful or I might make a mess!!!

Have you ever had project heartbreak??

Green Sock KAL

I have unofficially joined the informal Green Sock KAL. These socks were started a couple of weeks ago. I have the first one finished (except for grafting) and the second started. The pattern is Hedera (another Cookie A. creation available for free at Knitty). This is a very quick and easy pattern to memorize. The yarn is Douglas Fir by Lorna’s Laces. I think LL is smaller in thickness that STR. But I’m still partial to the STR for its un-splittyness and its sproingyness (gotta love these technical terms). LL is still a little too splitty for a beginner IMHO.

When I started sock knitting, I was worried that I would have the dreaded and much talked about SSS (second sock syndrome). I am terrible about starting things and never fininshing. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised to find that the second sock is more fun than the first. By the time I get to the second sock I have the pattern basically memorized and the bugs worked out. I am having a ball knitting the second socks! I must say that I am anxious to finish this pair so I can start on Monkey.

Nate’s Quilt

This was included in Nate’s take-home papers last week. The teachers do not tell the children what color to use. Most of the children color the whole page in one color. Nate has always used a rainbow of colors on his sheets. Well this one just got me tickled. I guess quilting is in his blood?? lol

More 2006 in Review

Last year I decided to keep up with how many spools of thread were sewn (can’t remember whose blog I had seen this on). I ended up sewing 18 spools of thread. My new sewing machine that I received in May keeps up with sewing/embroidery time. At the end of December, it had logged a little over 30 hrs. The spools and hours are not very impressive to me. I did not do much sewing last year compared to what I have done in the past. Hopefully, that will increase this year and I will get more accomplished. We’ll see…..

First FO of 2007-Pomatomus

Ok, I must say I am busting my buttons over the first FO of 2007. I have never been one to go with the easiest pattern. I get bored and never finish. So seeing as this is only my second pair of socks, I guess I should’ve been worried about tackling Pomatomus. I wasn’t . I just took it slow and ripped out every mistake until it was exactly like the pattern. The pattern was very well written (Cookie is my new favorite sock designer).The gague was the same on both socks, the row count, I mean everything was the same. So how the toes came out different, I’ll never know!! Can you see the difference? The toe on the left sock is longer than the right.It just boggles my mind. The only thing different is…… I switched to metal needles on the second sock while the first were done on bamboo. Both sets were supposed to be US#1. Who knows? Anyway, I’m still proud of my socks.
The yarn is Socks That Rock in the Nodding Violet colorway. I have to say, I love, love, love this yarn. I really didn’t want to spend that much money when I bought it but I am glad I did. It was a treat to work with. Ok, I’ll quit bragging now

Last FO of 2006

I finished these heirloom pillowcases (late Christmas presents for our pastors wife) on Saturday. Just a little lace shaping and madeira applique can sure dress up a little batiste. I was glad to get them finished and start the new year with a clean slate. Ok, ok, the slate is hardly clean.

Stayed tuned for more FO…..

Celebrate Jesus

was the name of our Christmas drama last night. Here is my sweet angel singing….

And here are my wise men…..

The kids did an awesome job. I just wish I had videotaped it. I’ll try to post some more pics later of the actual drama.

Today is My Birthday

**First an update**
We raised over $2600 in this year’s Sweet-est Auction!!!

Now back to your regularly scheduled post

That’s right. Today is my birthday. I am 28 years old today. I have had a very quiet day. Aaron is off at work right now and the children are in school. I did something today that I haven’t done in a long time. I went for a walk. Not the diet kind of walking where the goal is to sweat and get dizzy headed. No, this walk was for fun. I grabbed a bottle of water and my camera and took off. It is so good to just get out and enjoy God’s creation.
This is what I discovered first:

I kept hearing a woodpecker and followed the sounds. Well obviously this is the Official Stress Reliever for Woodpeckers! None of the other trees around had even one whole in it. I don’t know much about woodpeckers but I do know that either they love this type of tree or they really hate it .

We live in a heavily wooded area. Of course, our yard has no trees as it was farmland for years. It was really nice to walk through the woods, finding trails where hunters (and animals) go in and out. It really clears the head to feel so small in such an expansive world. Especially when you see a huge, old oak tree like this:

And of course, I had to bring home a couple of found objects for my journal:

My birthday ended up being much quieter than I wanted it to be, but it has been a wonderful day. My kids will be home soon and I think we will go eat pizza tonight to celebrate!

The Sweet-est Auction

Last year was the first time in years that our church put on a Christmas drama. To pay for it, we had a Sweet-est Auction. Ladies in the church donated their favorite sweet and then we auctioned them to the church. We have about 120 people in our church. We made over $2300!!!. We were so humbled at the outpouring of support. So this year, the Christmas drama is on again. We have the kids singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, a team signing to songs in blacklight (which I am ecstatic to be a part of), and lots more. This drama is so much fun to be a part of.

This years Sweet-est Auction is tomorrow and I am the auctioneer. This is my contribution:
Banana Pudding
Butterfinger Cake
and 4 boxes of mixed Mounds Balls & Peanut Butter Balls

Of course, I had to add my little cheesy fall decoratioins. I know the buyers won’t care about the deco, but it makes me feel better . I hope they sell big!

Things I Love and a New Hobby *ahem, obsession*

I have already shared my love of baskets and shoe boxes with ya’ll, so I thought I would share some of my other favorites. The front of this photo is a beginning of a new hobby. I saw some paper pieced cards on Carol Doak’s group and just had to figure out how it was done. Well since Hope is a scrapbooker, she helped to fuel this new obsession lol. This is a miniature paper pieced flying geese block.

I have never been interested in scrapbooking. That just does not interest me in the least. But card making……that is a whole other matter *tee hee*.

To the left of this photo is of course my stash of blow pops that are normally hidden in my sewing room. I love blow pops!

And at the back of this photo a preemie hand smocked and embroided bishop. It measures 7.5 inches long. There are only 2 seams (not counting back plackets and hem). I adore making baby things.

Well I guess that is enough for now. I will try not to be so long in posting next time…….