May Tomorrow...

Be a perfect day...may you find love and laughter along the way...may God keep you in his tender care, til he brings us together again. Goodnight everybody! Name that song- why, yes, it is the closing song of the old Donny and Marie show. My head is full of nearly useless little ditties from my youth. I am singing it now because I have made the jump to Typepad. I am not 100% sure this is what I want to do but for now it is. I am sentimental and now that I am wrapping this one up, I feel a little sad, forgetting all the times I tried to load pictures only to have that fail. The many times I couldn't find my blog because blogger was down- all the little frustrations. Those types of things. Plus, I paid the $50 and I can't stomach the idea of wasting that cash so off I go! I do hope you will join me at www.mommo.typepad.com . Cheers!

JACKPOT!

These postings are few and far between. Life is so full of curve balls these days I am just trying to stay as relaxed as possible and ride it as I can. Sort of like when you are body surfing and you get pounded and you are in the wave and its like a big washing machine and you are scraping on the bottom and don't know which way is up- if you relax, trust in the knowledge that you will pop up eventually and go where the ocean wants you to, it can be a small bit easier. Its the resisting and fighting against what you can't change that gets you pretty beat up. Some days easier said than done, but I am trying!
S0 we went to a sale today and that gorgeous purple beauty is all mine. 12 pounds of swirling pearlized thunder. And matching shoes and the most swanky bag to house it all. And the shoes are my size! All that, in pristine condition for $5! Thats one thing I think so much of our generation lacks- the way older generations took care of things. Things weren't so disposable back then. We didn't need so much either. There was also a rule book inside and on the front was written,"team captain" I suppose this ball has some pretty powerful mojo to go with it. Bowling has really become a family affair. The local alley gave away coupons so each kid can bowl a free game -with shoes- every day of the summer. So if the kids and I go it costs only $5. Now that I have my own shoes it will cost even less! Good clean (and pretty hilarious watching the little ones bowl) fun!


So after I came home with this treasure, I found a package waiting for me. From my colorswap partner, Mary Lynn! It was Nuetrals month and she put together such a lovely package. What I love most was that she included yarn and patterns to go with the yarn. There is a hat pattern with the merino that looks very cute. And that Merino is soft and yummy! Note the open bag of werther's chewy caramels. If you haven't had these, you might not want to- its one of those things that I ge started on and that is it! So I will have my hubby hide these from me so that they last a few days instead of a few hours! I love those little yellow flower quilting pins too. All these lovely goodies- what a great package!! I better go feed those kids. We have been stuck home with horrible asthma this week and we are all getting a bit squirelly. Asthma or no asthma, we are hitting the pool tomorrw. I am sure they will be better by then. Summer is almost over! I need my water fix! Have a great weekend!

Fun sewing...

Phew! It has been a crazy few weeks with out of town guest, a few parties and way too many overtime days at work.I think the worst is over where the overtime is concerned so now I am trying to get out my swaps and my goodie bags to the winners. I hate to make a kid wait for fun mail but work just took over! For fun, I just completed Whip lash's "wardrobe surgery" which you can see modeled above. I am happy with how it turned out. My whole inspiration was the excitement of getting new school clothes. I have great memories of new Hee Haw overalls, A Smile overalls (which seem so horrible now!) and this cute little dress I had with tiny hot pink flocked flowers. There is nothing like fall for new school supplies and back to school clothes! In that spirit, this was made for M out of a shirt I found at Salvation army and an angora sweater I had in my stash. I love the whole idea of turning something into something else. The skirt is made from 6 panels (3 for the front , 3 for the back) cut on the bias so I would get some zig zaggy striping going on. Here is how it all started:



I thought the shirt had a lot of nice details that could be used. I love the embroidery on the front and had thought it would be great on the hem of the skirt but I ended up liking the velvet ribbon alone better. So it became this cute belt.





I love how it turned out. I used some very cute apple fabric from my stash for the back. It is a piece that a friend brought from China and I have been wanting to use it but afraid to use it all up!


I blanket stitched the neckline on the sweater after running a line of stitching on the edges I cut and added a little french knotted "M". The outfit is all very sweet but not too girly to me because of the colors, which I am happy about. I think the belt will look cute with other things as well. Heck, I may make another one of those for her from different fabric, just for fun. I had saved the cuffs of the shirt for a little purse and heck if I can find them. I am sure they are somewhere "safe" and I will find them in a week or two! The purse can wait, I guess. So there is another installment of Whip lash.What a fun project! I love that it gives me "assignments" so I can get out of my usual routines. Better go make something for dinner before they get all crabby!

Birthday fun!

It is my sweet boys seventh birthday today. Sigh! I can't belive he is already seven, and then on the other hand, those seven years have been so full it seems it couldn't possibly have been only seven years! We have had lots of fun today. We started out with plenty of birthday hugging and I decorated the house last night after he went to bed which he loved. Tuesday and wednesday there are free movies at Regal Cinemas so we went and saw "Doogal" which we laughed a lot at. Then to Dairy Queen to meet up with a buddy and off to the free library show. This week there was crazy juggling guy and my palms were literally sweaty because he actually had me tense! He had all these plates spinning and then with the tall unicycle and he was just crazy enough that I couldn't tell where the act ended and real guy began! Now we are home for a little R & R before the festivities at Nana's later.
He has been asking for a bag like his sister's since I made hers so I figured it a perfect present for his birthday. I really love making things for them for their birthdays. I tucked a little bowling game into a drawstring bag inside and he was thrilled with both. I feel so lucky that my seven year old still gets excited about homemade gifts from his Mom! I hope that lasts awhile longer. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.
Lastly, we used his new bag to put the comments in for the birthday goodie bag drawing! He picked two winners and here they are:
www.simple-studio-journal.blogspot.com who has a 6 year old and a four year old which is almost exactly what we have here, and little Colin (6) whose mom is www.wrensnest.typepad.com. I was happy he was pulled out because his mom said he didn't get as much mail as his older siblings so I was glad he would be getting one. If the winners would just email me with addresses, the goodies will be on the way!
Now I have some more birthday snuggling to do! I hope everyone is having a beautiful August 2!

Books and other treats

First of all, I have to say thank you for all the kind and supportive comments about my last post. Amy said it was moment by moment and she is right. I know it will be that way for awhile as we watch this all unfold. Its nice to have somewhere to come to help me process. So thank you all!
Time for something lighter. My sweet unbelivable baby boy will be 7 on wednesday . Or in "4 sleeps" as he says. I told him about what I did with my birthday- the drawing for the treats and he wanted to get in on that. So what we decided is that we have a few extra goodie bags from his party that he would like some lucky kids in blogland to end up with. I will say that he is a lover, this kid, so his treat bag goodies are pretty sweet and unisex. I will leave the contents a suprise , but I will say that a copy of one of our favorites, "Diary of a Worm" will be included. I am a plan ahead kind of gal so when I saw that book in the Scholastic book order months ago for only 95 cents each, I ordered 18 of them to use as party favors and little gifts. I have three treat bags so leave a comment with the ages of your kids and how many you have and he will draw a winner on his birthday. He is so excited! He loves to get things in the mail and I love that he wants to do this for some other kids.
Speaking of great books- I was at a garage sale a few weeks ago and it was like winning the book lottery. I got to talking with the woman and her daughter had had a brain tumor when she was young (she is now 23 and wonderul- didn't want to keep you in suspense!) so they had to spend a ton of time at home and in the hospital. As a result, they joined several book clubs for kids. They had so many books! And they were all between 10 and 25 cents! We bought a set called the "lets talk about " series. Its all books about different issues a kid might face, like, "lets talk about bullying" Lets talk about tattling" that sort of thing. The kids love them! I was amazed how easily they took to them and thankful because they really do frame up certain things that I don't always have the best explanations for. We also found these great books- a whole series of science books with the most amazing illustrations (the photo above). I found a few old craft books and other children's books not in sets and they have all been a huge hit. Plus I found a brio wooden loom for $3! So much great really useful stuff. The best part though was just talking to this woman. We bonded over the whole child inthe hospital thing and talked about how isolating that can feel and how amazing it is to have your child get well after worrying so much. I love when you connect with a person that way. We hugged and I left her sale and have not seen her since , but I have thought about her.
Finally, here is a photo of the lovely morning glory that reseeded itself in our yard. L and I planted these last year and they were so nice. I had always heard that the intentional morning glories you plant from seed do not re seed themselves. I am here to tell you that is crap. Everywhere we planted them last year is full of them this year. Only the dark blue though. The Heavenly Blue we planted did not come back. M looked at them the other morning and I told her that they would be closed by dinner and thats why they are called Morning Glory and she just kept saying, No, they can't close, they are too beautiful. It was sweet. She is a four year old who is a bit rough around the edges so its always nice to see this side of her too.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. We are looking forward to being home and having a little fun and getting a few things done around the house. There is a Hawaiian festival tomorrow so you know where we will be! Aloha nui loa!

Does this have to have a title? I can't think of one. This is a photo of a small collection of teacups I have. It started years ago when I was at an estate sale and I saw the prettiest tea cup. (That one 2nd up from the right). Then I found another one at another sale. By the time I had bought four or so , over the course of a couple of months, I realized they were all made by Aynsley China in England. So I decided thats all I would buy. (with the rare exception twice of Royal Albert because it was my Grandma's favorite).
I haven't been very bloggy lately. Long story short, someone extremely important to us will not be with us much longer. I still feel sort of speechless at the very thought of it. Like it is the most absurd thing I have heard. I am still really navigating my way through all of these painful layers. It feels weird to come on here and start talking about my knitting when I feel like my whole heart is a huge wet sponge. And the sponge is so full of wetness that it is just dripping all over. Does that even make sense? Well, sense or not, its how I feel. I guess the good thing about talking about my knitting is that it reminds me that its o.k. to not be completly eaten up by all of this. And truth be told, thank God for my knitting and my sewing because it is a wonderful distraction. One day at a time, right?
I guess times like these are also great reminders of the greatness in our lives as well. And I am really really really thankful that our lives are full and abundant and wonderful. But it also reminds you that really, the people you love are about it. The most important. I will be back soon , talking about my knitting. Goodness knows I have been knitting a lot.

Quilted treasure bag

Yay! Whiplash is here again! The thing I love about Whiplash is that it gets me going on projects I might not otherwise have made time for. I have been wanting to make a bag out of some of these fabrics for some time and here it is. This week was rife with challenges and sewing this proved to be necessary therapy and a break in my mind from the things I didn't really want to think about. I intended to do a tutorial but the further I got in this project, the more I realized that I sew the way I cook and I know I will end up where I want to be, but explaining how I got there is not always very clear to those not living in my brain. I love the sight of M, running about town, with her bag on her back. I found one of her purses in my bag the other day and it tickled me to open it up and discover the items of such importance that she was compelled to carry them around with her. I love to find her purses and bags around and dig through for a peek. She loves her bag and I love that she loves her bag. I love all these fabrics and have really been itching to get something made out of them. I guess I will enter this in the "fancy" category for Whiplash because it was a bit involved and the details , like these little ends to her drawstring, while not truly fancy, are afforded a bit of extra effort to make this a bit more special. Maybe its skill though, since I made the pattern up and that took some skills. Either way, I am happy to say that it turned out just as I wanted. L is already going through the shelf of fabrics to pick his out so I can get started on his bag. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!