School is in!

Got the kids off to school today! This is Tara's senior year and she is so excited. Poor thing caught a cold on Tuesday and was running a low fever last night. She seemed better today, but still all stuffed up. But she had to go to school on the first day. This is Keith's first year at the high school. He is starting the 9Th grade. He was a little nervous about finding his way around. Tara told him to just follow her! I had to go into the school to pick up something and was a little behind them in the hall. They were so cute with Tara in the lead and Keith following right behind her.

I saw one of my old teachers and stopped to talk a minute. I know that sounds strange that someone who taught me would still be teaching! I am 48 years old, after all. She taught me home-economics 32 years ago! She was very young at the time. In fact she was pregnant with twins at the time. Although, they did not know it was twins until the babies were born. That was way before ultrasounds and they could only detect one heartbeat. One of the babies was hiding behind the other. I even remember crocheting her a baby blanket. Anyway, Tara has her for one of her classes this year! I just love that. She was one of my favorite teachers and I just love her. She also taught my daughter, Amber, when she was in high school!

I think it was more emotional for me this year with the kids going to school then when they first started kindergarten! Just thinking about that my last two are both in high school and Tara will soon be out! The years have just flown by.

Every year since Amber, my oldest, first started first grade, I have taken pictures of my kids on the first day of school. Somehow I missed taking one of Amber when she started kindergarten. I think I got the idea from a friend after she had already started kindergarten. Anyway, today was no exception. I took three pictures of Keith and Tara. I liked the last one. Keith's smile in the first two was kinda fake. Tara said she liked her hair better in the first one! You be the judge and tell me what you think.

I have to tell this little story. You see, Keith and Amber have always been very shy. Well, Tara has too at times, but she reacts differently than Keith and Amber. So Yesterday Tara took Keith up to the high school to show him where his classes would be. They went into the office and Miss Patsy, who has worked there for years, looked at Keith and said "I see he got the tall genes in the family." Tara said Keith just stood there and looked at Miss Patsy, didn't smile and didn't say a word! So Miss Patsy says, "I see he got Amber's personality, too!" Tara said Keith still just stood there and never said a word and never smiled! I just died laughing when she told me this. Tara will at least smile if someone is talking to her or says something like that to her even if she is shy, but not my Keith and Amber! They are a hoot! But they are both so sweet and everybody loves them.

Notice the height difference between Keith and Tara. Now remember he is 14 and she is 17! I tell her he is her big little brother! I can't wait till they get home from school and call me and I see how their first day went.

More 5" Fabric Charms & stuff in the mail!

This past weekend was nice. The kids left on Friday for a church trip to Six Flags. The hubby took me out to eat at our local steak house on Friday night. Of course I spent all day Saturday grocery shopping, doing laundry, and cleaning! What fun! I did cut out a little goldfish bag Saturday night. It was out of my very first Kumkio Sudo book called Omiyage. I think this is my most favorite of all her books. I have made the most things out of it. I am planning to make a few more things and get my Etsy shop up and running again. I haven't put anything in it in forever and so right now there is nothing there. I got my goldfish finished last night and will post pictures of it after I take some. This particular goldfish will not be sold as I do not believe in making things on Sunday to sell.
The kids got back Sunday evening from their trip. They had a great time, but were tired. Tara felt like her head was still spinning from all the rides! Keith, who has been having some problems with his back hurting from time to time, said that his back was hurting. I figure it is from the long ride in the church van and from riding all those rides! So things are back to normal. Keith asked me when school started back and I said this Thursday. He just groaned!
I have received more of the 5" Fabric Charm Squares from the swap I am in over at Craftster. They are from bettflow, goatgoddess, and audrey1999. Below are the photos of them in no certain order.



In Friday's mail I received this little acorn bag that I won from Nicole over at craftapalooza. Isn't it the cutest thing? She did a great job crocheting it! She also included this cord with a cute little beaded girl on the end.

This is a close up of the lining. I love this fabric. It makes me think of the fairy tales I read as a child.

Here is a close up of the little girl. Her head looks to be polymer clay and her body is a paper bead. There is another beautiful bead on the other end of the cord.
Thank you so much Nicole for the great gifts!

In Saturday's mail I got this wonderful book from Miss Sandy over at Quill Cottage. It is called Our Family Treasury by Helen Steiner Rice. I have been a big fan of Helen Steiner Rice for years. She writes some of the most beautiful and inspiring poems I have ever read. Miss Sandy also sent me a pen to fill in the book with. Can't wait to get started on it! As most of you know I have really been into doing family research and this book is the perfect thing to write some of it down in. It will be a great keepsake for generations to come. Thank you so much Miss Sandy for thinking of me.

Pin Cushion from Tiny Patchwork Book

I am so glad to see Friday get here. It is a cloudy, rainy day today but that is fine with me. The store in which I work is small and has these huge glass windows on the front. The afternoon sun pours through these windows and even with the AC going non stop it still will be around 83 degrees in there before I leave in the afternoon. When it is cloudy and rainy it doesn't get as hot.
My kids are setting off today on a trip to Six Flags in Georgia with our church youth. I know they will have fun and it will be a quiet weekend at home for me. I had to ask my dad to drive them up to the church for me and drop them off as hubby just got off work at 6AM and is sleeping and I will be at work. You would have thought I asked him to take them all the way to Georgia! Now our church is less than a mile from our house. He has no problem driving to the barber to get his hair cut and it is located right across the street from the church! I told him all he has to do is drive up there and let the kids get out. He doesn't even have to turn off the motor or get out of the car. He said it would be right at the time he has to eat and take his medicine! I told him it would not hurt for him to eat and take the medicine 5 minutes later today. That's that OCD thing he has going on! He finally agreed to take them for me. What a hoot!

For the past few days I have been working on a new pin cushion. It is from the Tiny Patchwork book I got the other day. It did not have a wrist strap, but I put one on it. I thought it turned out rather nice. My daughter, Tara, is modeling it in the photos. She has such a small arm that it is nearly up to her elbow! Below are pictures of it. I am trying to think of what I want to make next. I think I want to make a couple things out of my Kumiko Sudo books. A lady called me yesterday and wants me to crochet her a couple pairs of baby bootees. She likes to keep them on hand for when a baby shower comes up. So I will probably get them done first.

Flower Pin Cushion:




Let me know what you think of my pin cushion and of Tara modeling it.

Another Giveaway!

May Britt over at Abyquilt is having a 2 year anniversary giveaway! Hop on over and check it out!

Giveaway

Here's another great give away! Hop on over and check it out!
http://lilatuellerdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/07/woodland-bloom-giveaway-contest.html

More small things made

Here is another project from my Tiny Patchwork Book that I got last week. It is a small bag which can be used to hold any number of things. Notice how the zipper is done. This was the first time I had ever seen a zipper on a bag done this way. I started to just use a 7" zipper in it, but couldn't find the red 7" zippers I already had and since I found this white one in my tons of stuff I decided to go for it. I think it turned out nice. The zipper makes a little handle to carry it by.




I'm sure most of you have heard of Kumiko Sudo. I just love her books! I have 3 of them that has small handmade things to make in them and I think I have one on fabric folding to make flowers. Below is a little tiny bag I made. It is called a Raindrop Doll purse. I just think Kumiko's stuff is so cute and love making lots of it! My 86 year old friend thinks I am nuts to spend so much time making things that are totally sewn by hand. But I love it. Some of the things I do a little machine sewing on. Like on this little purse I sewed the body by machine. It was quicker that way. But I did the head and flowers and drawstring casing by hand. I have sold several of these. They are nice little bags to put jewelry in to give to young girls as gifts. My 86 year old friend bought several from me to put coins in that she was giving as gifts to her family.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was busy. Spent all of Saturday cleaning, washing, and grocery shopping. I was exhausted by the end of the day but still worked on my Japanese bag. Sunday we went to church and I spent the rest of the day folding some more clothes that I had washed the day before and left in the dryer. My family seems to use the most towels! My mother-in-law used to say we were either the cleanest people or the dirtiest because we always had so many towels to wash! Anyway, when I finished the towels I sewed on my little bag. After I finished it I started working on embroidering some more on my cat. I'm having trouble with the flowers. I just can't seem to decide how I want to do them. I have taken the stitches out of one flower and started over and now that I am looking at it I am not sure I like it! I have to really think about it.

Tiny Patchworks Book & 5" Fabric Charms Swap

I have seen so many of these Japanese book and items made from them on blogs and have really wanted one. I could not find where everyone was getting one but finally found where someone said they purchased theirs on Etsy. So off I went to look for one to order. I found lots over at Pomadour24's Etsy store It arrived on Monday and I had to make something from it immediately.

Since my stork embroidery scissors are so sharp and always seem to be poking into something I decided to make this cute little scissors holder. I am currently figuring out the patterns for other things I want to make. Although you can look at the pictures and pretty much figure out how to make the things in the book it still takes a bit of concentration. Especially since the measurements are in milimeters instead of inches. Being 48 years old and having worked with inches all my life it takes some doing figuring out the measurments!

I am involved in a 5" fabric charm swap over at Craftster. Below are the squares I have received so far. Lots of great fabrics! Can't wait to make something with them all! They are from (not in any particular order) aspenwall, CreativeGenes, jennyleigh, Colorfuldayz, imafundork, purpleone, onegrooyday. I just love them all and can't wait to see what other ones I get!







Woke up this morning to a broken pipe under the kitchen sink. I could tell that my hubby had discovered this last night after I went to bed as all the stuff that is usually under the sink was on the floor and there was a fan blowing under the sink. My dad, who lives with us, gets very upset if anything is out of place. He has OCD very bad and dementia. He does exactly the same thing everyday at exactly the same time! So he immediately pointed out to me the stuff on the floor and the fan. I told him there must be a leak and that hubby would fix it. My dad empties out the ice trays every day at exactly 2:00PM. If anyone is in the kitchen at 1:30PM he starts to get really nervous and starts pacing and reminding them that he has to get out the ice at 2:00PM. I have told him that there is nothing written that says the ice has to be gotten out at excatly 2:00PM but that does not help whatever is going on inside his brain! So I know he is worrying that the pipe will not be fixed in time for him to get out the ice. This is the only thing in my house my dad does. The rest of the time he sits in his recliner and watches TV! I would go crazy sitting in that chair 24/7 and watching TV Land and News. Well, he does go to bed at 10:00PM but he is up again at 6:30AM. I have tried to get him to get out and do something but he won't. I am afraid he is getting worse and worse. He does not like to leave the house for anything.