I was going to write about my sewing yesterday. I came online and was reading through some of my favorite blogs when I came to Ann's post today at Holy Experience. Ann and I have been cyber friends before she or I started blogging. We are part of a wonderful group of homeschool Momma's who have been e-mailing each other for many years. I love this group of women who I have never met in real life. Ann is the person who introduced me to blogging. She writes some of the greatest posts you could ever read. Her post today though reminded me of a conversation I had with my daughter in the early morning today.

I started delivering the papers over a year ago because of financial struggles. My husband was already working one full-time job and one part-time job. He couldn't do much more. I didn't want to go back to a full time office job and he didn't want me to go back to work. We settled on paper delivery because it is only a couple of hours a day and it pays good. It leaves me free to homeschool, keep up the home, and still sew. There are down sides to delivering papers, one being that you never get a day off. It's seven days a week, 365 days a year. Our children help me. The take turns and it makes the delivery go faster, plus I am never by myself. That's my explaination of it, but at times I see God had another reason for me and the children to do this job.

I have gotten to know my children better during these early morning hours. They have talked to me about things we don't have or make time for during the daylight. Even though my children have always spent 24 hours a day with me because we homeschool, during the day you have so many other things to focus on that you don't often just sit and talk. Also, something about the dark emboldens us to talk about things we might not in the glaring light of day. This I see as truly a blessing from God. Back to my purpose and why Ann's post today made me cry.

Yesterday was a very stressful day at our home. Things didn't go smoothly, we were all tired, we had a lot of places to be and had to run around a lot. The General and I ended up cranky. We got into an arguement. The General and I have been married for 22 years. We don't argue a lot. Like once every year maybe. During the paper delivery our daughter told me she didn't like us arguing. I thought about telling her neither did I. I thought about telling her it was wrong. I told her neither of these two. Instead I told her that it was good for her to see us argue some. I told her I wanted her to have realistic expectations of the relationship her and her future spouse would have. Realistically, people don't always agree. Realistically, sometimes we take out our stress on those who don't deserve it. I told her she needed to know that it was ok to sometimes not get along, but what you do after that is what mattered. We talked about the details of this and what God teaches so freely and easily in that early morning dark.

The General and I apologized to each other and went to bed as happily married as ever. I can see what Ann so beautifully spoke of living out in our home. The Master told us never to let the sun go down on our anger. As disciples we had to live that out in our home yesterday. Our disciples watched us following the Master. Oh, what a beautiful life I live!

Sew Long for Now!

I should be at church, the papers were late again and I was late getting home. Sigh, this is becoming a typical thing with them. Especially, Sundays and then I can't make it to church.

Yesterday I didn't get any sewing done. I did get a lot of help in my sewing room. When we moved it, we were in a hurry and then right after that the friend brought me all that stash. It was a mess. The General helped me clean it out yesterday. He cut down one of the table I had and rebuilt it 3 foot shorter. That really helped because then I got to T it to the other table. He and the little bee keeper helped me move 11 of the big rubber maid containers into the storage area in the basement. The General cut out some holes in my shelving unit on the wall next to the computer and ran the wires neatly through them and under the table to my sewing machine. It looks so much neater. I still have 5 huge rubbermaid containers in the room, 4 are in the closet and one is in the corner. The room looks so much better. I felt like I was trying to work in a storage shed. It saps my creativity to be in a mess. Now, I just need to find a system of rearranging all the containers of stash and supply so I will be able to find things and use them.

I have a big five drawer file cabnet. I need to clean it out and put all my patterns in it. I have them spread out everywhere. That will be one of my first projects. Hah, what am I saying. I promised to clean off all the bookshelves months ago and purge my books. I promised last spring to clean out the photos and put them in albums and print the ones I haven't for the last 5 years or so. Don't even ask about my kitchen. I rearranged it last year and everyone hates where I put things so I need to redo that mess. Will I ever get things caught up? Probably not, but I have no excuse for every being bored!

Sew Long for Now!

I awoke to rain this morning. I didn't know it was suppose to rain. The rain is needed, but it was a little wet on the paper routes. We also were suppose cover the grill, lawn mower, and tiller back up yesterday and it never got done. Now, they are a little wet.

The General bought me some new toys last night. He bought me a new computer monitor, 22 inch. Wow, I love this monitor. Our old monitor was a hand me down from churh when they upgraded a few years ago. It was a huge 13 inch. I have tons of space on the desk top with this flat screen model. He also bought me a wireless key board and mouse. Our old key board and mouse were hand me downs from a friend's brother. We have a habit here of taking people's discards and using them until they can be used no more. I hate to see things thrown out and I hate waste. Not very often do I have some thing new. It is sort of exciting.

I spent some time yesterday finally working on my brother's tap topper. I cut out all the strips and began sewing them together. The last of my company left yesterday. Today Captain Kitty goes to fall retreat with our church's youth group. With just the General and little bee keeper here this weekend I should be able to get some sewing in.

Sew Long for Now!

My day started at 3 a.m. I got up to deliver the papers. It was a beautiful autumn morning, not too hot nor too cold. The sky was clear and the stars sparkled brilliantly. The moon was something worth getting up this early to see. It was so big and round and close down on the horizon. As a matter of fact it was so beautiful that when I got home I ran into the house to get my camera to capture a picture of it. By the time I came out it had sunk behind the mountains though. I really need to remember to keep the camera with me on the paper routes!

My in-laws and sister-in-law have been visiting with us since last week. With all the excitement I have been going to bed late so this morning I decided to take a nap when I got home from the paper routes. I had been asleep about an hour when the phone rang. It was a customer wanting to send me a file to digitize for them. I got up to check my e-mail, but the file wasn't there. I called her back and we made arrangements for her to come over after lunch and bring me a hard copy.

I spent the morning visiting with my in-laws and sister-in-law. This was the last day my in-laws are here. They leave Wednesday on the way to visit my mother-in-law's sister in North Carolina before heading back to Kansas.

The afternoon I listened to the children practice their instruments while I did some mending that had been piling up. The General came home from work and soon after I left to take the little bee keeper to his piano lessons. While he was at lessons I ran to the store to get some buns and potato salad for supper. My mother-in-law insisted upon store bought potato salad. She isn't into cooking from scratch or any frugal ideas. She flat out refused to use a coupon I gave her the other day for a product she was buying. I love her, but I don't understand her reasons for some of the things she does.

When I came home the General was cooking hamburgers on the grill. I sat on the back verendah and visited with everyone while he did this.

Our little bee keeper had built a fort out of some branches that had to be cut down off the fence. He ask me to come check out this cool neat place to play.

When the hamburgers got near ready I went in and helped Capt. Kitty set the table. Right when we set down to eat the customer finally showed up with the hard copy for me to digitize. I spoke with her a few minutes and when I came back to the table there was a card at my place. My in-laws gave me a birthday card early since they would be back at home on my birthday. My birthday is exactly fourteen days from the 14th.

After supper we all sat around visiting until time for me to go to bed. Everyone else was staying up to watch Dirty Jobs.

So I said goodnight to everyone, even Casey my in-laws cute dog. The General came down to tuck me in and say good night and I fell asleep after a lovely day.

Sew Long for Now!

The day started with a dreary look (this picture is looking out back at my folks house, but it is what it looked like this morning here.) I took my serger in and I had some how broke some rod or something. They fixed it while I was at piano lessons with the little bee keeper. He told me it needed to be maintenanced and new cutters put on, but he fixed it because he knew I needed it right now. How sweet. As soon as I save up the funds I will be putting it in for a servicing.

I finished the formal dress hem, edging the shawl, and moving the straps on the dress. I am taking a week off from sewing for others. My in-laws are due here today from Kansas and I haven't seen them in a year so I want to spend time visiting. I don't know if I can take a week off from sewing, but I may. When they come to visit we usually run around so much there isn't much time.

Oh, for those people who have been worrying about the economic troubles and such some good news from our neck of the woods. Gas was $2.89 at station in our area this morning. Yes, I never thought I would see gas under $3 again in my life time. I saw in the Wall Street Journal that Walmart and Target are having a toy price war. Some toy sets have been marked down to $10. The Little Bee Keeper got excited over that, he hopes it some he has been wanting and saving for. Now if I can just get Bernina to reduce the price of that new sewing machine they are coming out with that I want!

Sew Long for Now!

I haven't been very faithful about writing, sorry. Life has been a bit hectic here. Our van, that I use for the paper route, had to have new brakes. My husband replaced them. The day he finished that the power steering started acting funny, something called the raconpion went out. He spent the weekend replacing that. Sunday morning I got up to a kitchen floor covered in water. The frig was leaking. We had just cleaned the coils last spring, but we spent Sunday afternoon cleaning them again hoping that would solve the problem without an expensive fix. So far it has held up! Today I was trying to put a rolled serge hem around a piece of shear fabric for a lady to use as a shawl over a formal dress and my serger's upper looper tension wasn't working. I got the piece finished by holding the thread where it comes off the cone between my fingers to simulate tension while serging the edge of the material. This afternoon when I take our little bee keeper to piano lessons I am going to stop by my favorite sewing machine dealer and have them look at it. I called this morning and it may be just something stuck in there preventing it from working right, if not my baby will be at the doctors being fixed.

The above picture is of a wall hanging a lady is giving to her parents as an anniversary present. It is beautiful up close. The flowers are applicaid on by needle turn. No, I didn't do it! I wish. The stitches are so tiny and perfect! I embroidered the verse on the bottom for her.

I was going to show a picture of the material I picked out to make the table topper for my brother, but the cat seems to have claimed it as his bed. He looks so cute, don't trust that innocent look. He loved to chew up paper. I have to chase him out if I am not here or else he chews up patterns, directions, books, you name it.

This looks like a wonderful idea-laze away the afternoon in a sunny spot-ah that would be the life!

Sew Long for Now!

The bridesmaid dress fit perfect! I was so happy. I put a lot of work into altering the pattern. This morning I embroidered two shirts and picked out fabric for a quilted table cover for my next to oldest brother.

It's a cloudy day here, but we are going to spend the afternoon in the park. We all need a day out.

Above is a picture of one of hankerchiefs I received. This is all hand done. It is the most beautiful delicate thing.

Oh, salsa making ends up not being finished after all. So many men have ask for salsa at work that my husband ask me to make some more. This afternoon when I get home I will be making hot salsa. He wants another batch of mild also. The only problem I am running into is finding tomatoes. Ours have about puttered out and it doesn't seem to have been the best year for tomatoes here.

Sew Long for Now!

Besides the obvious fact it needs pressing, the bridesmaid dress is finished.

It took me over 14 hours to complete. It looked deceivingly simple to make. Since it was a formal I hand stitched the hem, the lining down, and the zipper to the lining. I hope she will be happy when she picks it up today.

I also finished the embroidery on the pants. The only customer work I have left to do is embroidery two shirts, if you don't count that digitizing I have for a friend.

I really need to get to work on my brother's quilt and Christmas gifts. My in-laws and my sister-in-law are coming next week for a visit. When they are here I do not get much done. I love having them though!

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday this skirt was attached to the bodice, basted. The customer came over for a fitting. I needed to let it out at the waist about an inch. I took out the basting and let out the side seams. Now, after I press it, I will attach the skirt permenantly to the bodice. It fit great at the bust and hips. I was so happy. I need to put in the zipper, adjust the straps and hem it. It's a simple looking dress, but it has taken many hours to adjust the measurements and put the details together. She leaves for the wedding next Thursday.

I have two pair of pants to embroidery before next week also. Two shirts to embroider also. That's ok I am taking a week or two off from sewing for others coming up because my in-laws are coming for a visit.

Sew Long for Now!

The wonderful lady who blessed me with so much sewing supplies the last couple of weeks brought over some more this past weekend. Among the buttons and trim I found a bag full of antique hankerchiefs and napkins. She cut things like this up to use as trim on her dolls. Some of them are in disrepair because of being stored in a black garbage bag, but I can't cut them up or throw them out. I have begun to clean them up. I have been hand washing them to clean them of dirt. So far I have washed over 50 and there are more. I hung them out to dry and next I want to press them. I am going to store them in acid free tissue paper until I decide what to do with them. One beautiful one with dogwoods on has so many holes I just don't know what to do. It is so sad to see such lovely textiles in that shape. I just love them all.

I am still working on the bridesmaid dress. I put the bodice together with the lining and worked on altering the skirt of the dress. Today I am going to put the skirt together and then fit in on the bodice. I may try to put in the zipper. I need to get the customer over for a fitting this week.

Autumn and Spring are times of the year when I get so many ideas. My head is whirling around with projects I want to do. I wish I had more time to do them all. Life is so full.

Sew Long for Now!

I got the boning added to the bodice liner yesterday. It wasn't too hard. I also added button holes to the liner because the customer ask for removable straps. I finished the straps the other day and finished adding the buttons to them yesterday. When she come for a fitting I will make sure the buttons are in the right place.

Sew Long for Now!

The bridesmaid dress is coming along. I put the bodice together yesterday. I went to Joann's later in the day and bought the boning and a zipper.

The little bee keeper took some pictures yesterday of the buckwheat in bloom. He said the bees were loving it.

Of course he had to take more pictures of the bees. Fall is coming and they are busy getting ready for the cold weather.

I did make another batch of salsa yesterday. Hopefully my last of the season. It makes your eyes water and nose run having it simmering and then I get habenero on my hands and under my nails and it takes days to wear off. Soap just doesn't remove it. I shouldn't complain though. I have been blessed by the sell of it this summer.

Sew Long for Now!

I began cutting out the material for the bridesmaid dress yesterday. The customer who brought me the material and pattern did not have any experience with buying patterns and I found that the bust was 5 inches too big. This is a sleeveless dress. I altered the pattern and so far I have altered out 3 inches. I need to get rid of another two. It has 3 seams on each side, six seams to subtract equally from, so I will take .50 off of two seams and .25 off of four seams and that should make 2 inches. Then I will be able to cut the inner lining the right size the first time I cut it out. This dress also has boning and I have never put boning in a dress I made. I have worked around it altering dresses. I pray it is not too complicated to deal with. Besides the bridesmaid dress I have two pairs of pants to embroidery and a table topper I want to do for my brother.

Oh, and it's Wednesday. I am suppose to be making salsa today. I hope I have enough tomatoes to do a batch. By the way I am a little burnt out on making salsa.

Sew Long for Now!

On the 14th of the month I participate in "a day in my life." I enjoy reading others day and find it fun to compare with women all over the world.

My day started at 3:30 a.m. when I awoke to the alarm clock and got up and ready to deliver the Sunday paper. I deliver papers 7 days a week, but Sundays are harder than the rest in our area. We lovingly refer to them as catalogs they are so big and full of ads. One of the children always go with me to help and today was Captain Kitty's turn. We picked up our papers at the distribution center and began to deliver them when I noticed the van was making a funny noise. It continued to make a funny noise and a strange vibration. I was thinking what do I do? I know that if you drive a vehicle when somethings wrong it can often make a worse problem and cause more in cost to fix so I continued until about 5:30 a.m. when I called the General. He had to go to work so I waited as long as I thought I could to wake him up. I explained to him the problem and he told me to come home and switch cars. My paper routes are near enough my house that it didn't take too much time, but it did cause a delay so I had to flag my routes (call in and ask for extra time in case a customer complained.) We finished about 7:40 and headed to Sheetz. On Sundays who ever helps me gets to get a milkshake on the way home. I noticed Sheetz still had a blank sign where they usually display their gas prices, so while paying for the shake I ask the lady when they thought they would get gas in. She said they didn't know, they were in a line for a truck. A lot of stations in town were completely out of gas due to people trying to fill up before they price went up from the problems associated with the hurricane. They began raising their prices Friday, some as much as $1.50 a gallon more.

When I got home I took a shower and got dressed to go to church. Sunday mornings can be a little hectic due to trying to hurry home from delivering the papers and get together myself and the children to go to church. We got ready and headed off to Sunday School. I had a lot of little errands to run at church. I brought three head of red cabbage and gave to a friend in Sunday School, I brought a web address I had been promising to e-mail another friend in Sunday School and kept forgetting, I paid another friend in Sunday School for a pizza kit my husband purchased from her son for a band booster fund raiser, and I took a purse I finished on Saturday to another friend who ask me to make one for her.

I thought the purse turned out cute. She wanted it shades of black. The inside is lined with pockets also.

Our Sunday School lesson was similar to our sermon this morning. Every fall our church does a session where everyone studies the same thing. We are doing a series called "Live Like You Were Dieing." The message was on priorities in your life. After church I came home and decided to take a short nap because I was going to stay up later than usual tonight. So after lunch Captain Kitty and I took a nap while our little bee keeper played on the x-box. I got up 1/2 hour before the General was due home and decided to check my e-mail and due a little surfing on the net. I had a message from our oldest son so I called him and about that time the General came home. The General had drove the van and said it was something in the fuel system causing the problem. He had stopped by the store on the way home and picked up a new fuel filter and air filter and went to changing it while I talked to our oldest. Then I gave him the phone and I drove the van around the block to check it out while he talked a while. The van was still doing it a little, but not like early this morning. We decided we had gotten some bad gas somewhere and I would just drive it until I ran that tank dry and then put some gas treatment in with the next fill-up.

When I came in I fixed supper, hot wings and chicken burgers so we could eat before our church meetings that evening. After supper the General and I headed off to our small home group meeting. The children stayed home. They could have gone to the church for a meeting, but they go to church several more times in a week and wanted to have a night of rest. With the school year started they have activities every night of the week right now and they need some time to just goof off. The General and I go on Sunday night because it is the only "church" time he gets during the week. Our small group is studying the same thing as Sunday School and church so we split into men and women and did the study. Afterwards they do a bit of socializing, but we usually leave pretty quickly because I have to go to bed.

When we got home I had a hard time going to sleep because of being all keyed up from the study and so it took me to 9:30 to get to sleep. Today I got up at 3 a.m. so I am going to be tired today!

Sew Long for Now!

Good morning. Yesterday was one of those busy, yet peaceful days. Have you ever had the kind that was filled with things to do, yet everything went smoothly on and you seemed to get things accomplished? I had planned to quilt the outside layer of the purse I am making. I also got the inside pockets made and attached. I didn't cut out the bridesmaid dress, but I did get 10 thank you cards made, wrote a note in each, and sent them on their way.

While working in the sewing room it struck me as cute that the cat's new favorite place to lie is on my cutting table. He looks so comfy there.

The house work and lessons with the children seemed to go so smoothly yesterday. I got some of my ironing and laundry done. The stairwell between floors got cleaned. The salsa was made and ready for the General to take to work today. We got all the lessons done for both children and didn't skip a thing. I even had time to work on sorting my coupons since getting the trading card holders to put them in. It will take me a few days more to get that in order.

Today I am looking forward to my sister, my niece, and my great nephew visiting on their way home from Pennsylvania. Captain Kitty begins singing school today and our little bee keeper has 4-H. At our home today is the last day of the week before the weekend. The General's days off are Friday and Saturday so we work on a different schedule than most. I look forward to having him here tomorrow and the different routine that brings.

Sew Long for Now!

Yesterday was busy, but I feel as if I got quite a lot on my to do list done. I cut out the pocketbook and I cut out a pattern for a bridesmaid dress I have to make. Sometimes it seems to me that cutting out paper patterns and cutting out the material take the longest amount of time in a sewing project. Today I am shooting for quilting the two outside pieces of the bag and cutting out the main body of the dress. Since it's Wednesday I have to make salsa. I have made it the last four Wednesdays in a row. On Thursday my husband takes it to work and sells it. Since the weather here has gotten a bit more rainy and chilly my tomatoes are not coming in so fast. I don't know how much more salsa I can make. Yesterday Captain Kitty and I got the kitchen cleaned, except mopping the floor. Sometimes I seem to have a hard time fitting household cleaning in my days. The papers were late this morning so I got up at the regular time and mopped the floor before I went on the paper routes. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

Sew Long for Now!

My new favorite snack. I actually like the Krogers brand better, this is a heavenly snack with almonds and the bottom covered in almond bark. Can we consider it healthy?

Last Friday everyone here worked together and we cleaned the back verenda. It has been used as a catch all over the summer and it was in bad shape. We could really use an out building. We keep talking about getting one, but then something else more urgent comes up and the money gets used. It took us all day to clean up that area. Saturday we spent the day shopping and running errands. Sunday of course was church, and yesterday I had more errands to run besides lessons. I really need to get some sewing done, oh, I did repair a pair of jeans and hem the sleeves of a rain coat on Saturday. Today I am shooting for cutting out another of the purses I have been making this summer. I may even try to cut out two at a time, I need a new bag. I have to go buy more canning jars this morning. I have been selling salsa to my husbands co-workers. I make a hot salsa that for some reason they like. It's so bad I will not even test taste it. I have sold four dozen jars of it so far and they are asking for more.

I was excited because yesterday I also found trading card holders that I have searched for for months. I wanted them to organize my coupons. I finally found them at Toys R Us. As large of a city as I live in and that's the only place I could find them. We have four super Walmarts and not one of them had them. I guess collecting baseball cards is not as big a hobby as it used to be.

Sew Long for Now!

With summer ending we replowed the upper garden and planted buckwheat along with turnips. It is coming along nicely as you see in the photo.

This is a plant I put in over 13 years ago. I don't remember the name of it, but it started from a clipping he gave me. I really like it because it is no maintance, grows with lots of sun and not a lot of watering. It has always attacked butterflies in the fall because that is when it blooms. This year it is attracting the bees. I couldn't capture what it looked like in real life covered with honey bees, bumble bees and butterflies. I have two of these in my front yard. Since the honeysuckle trimming didn't root well I am thinking of using some trimmings from this and planting them on the front hill...hmm.

Sew Long for Now!

A while back I mentioned an interesting sewing project I was doing. Here it is. A friend of mine from church bought some costumes at a yard sale. They were in good shape, but needed minor repairs. I repaired the head of this costume and the bottom of another over the weekend. It had to be all done by hand, but that was ok since my sewing room was still a mess from the sorting of the supplies given to me.

Awe, don't look so blue!

Sew Long for Now!

These are some dishclothes I knitted this week.

I want to let everyone know I am ok and I am sorry about the short blogging break. My computer got ill and had to go to the computer doctor for a week. I didn't realize how much I had come to depend on it until it was gone. Everyday I would find something I needed to do, like pay a bill or print a list I had customized, and realize I couldn't do it. It was probably the best time for it to happen though. A lot has gone on around here.

Some who know me know that every year I move bedrooms around in our home. We literally switch people to other rooms. Last year I switched five sets of rooms around and said I would never do it again because it was so tiring and such a lot of work. Well...last week our youngest came and ask to move his bedroom into where my sewing room was. Poor child, he has had his bedroom moved every year for eleven years. At first I said, "NO!" But, then after thinking about it and the advantages of it we decided it would be a great idea. He first ask to move into his older brother's room. We wouldn't let that happen because his older brother may be at school most of the year, but he does come home and we want him to feel that this is still his home and he does have a place he belongs. It took two days to switch. Getting his stuff moved and put up took one evening, it took two days to get the sewing stuff moved! I have too much stuff. Speaking of which, I was blessed beyond words during this week. A friend of mine who used to sew a lot, but who stopped years ago is cleaning out her home. One of her sons and his children are moving in with her. She no longer sews, she is now into scrapbooking. She brought over three car loads of stash and stuff and gave it to me! You would not believe the beautiful things she gave me. I could start my own sewing store! She told me last night she still had more. I found place for lots of it, but there is so much more and I will have to find place for it.

Our oldest came home for the weekend. We had a lovely time. I made all his favorite meals and we just spoiled him. The General also took off the whole weekend and it has been a real family time. On Saturday the General made us all breakfast. His famous blueberry panCAKES.

This is one cooking in the electric skillet.

Here is one on the plate. He makes them as big as plates! I am amazed how he flips them one handed. I would break them all to pieces.

Sew Long for Now!