Remember the material I bought in Richmond? Today Captain Kitty and I were out shopping and I found these two shirts on sale. I thought they looked like they may go with the material so I took a chance and purchased them. Ah! I was so excited when I layed them with the material. They are perfect matches! I must get busy on these two skirts.
This morning while working in my gardens I found this peaking out at me. I can't wait until the tomatoes are ripe. I love home grown tomatoes!
Yesterday I spent several hours working on the formal. Everything was moving along. I started to put the zipper in and found things were not lining up. Today I will have to take the zipper out and do a few more alterations. I really wanted this finished by tomorrow, but it might not work. I need to finish up the bibs today. This afternoon I pray to be productive and that things will go smoothly.
Sew Long for Now!
Yesterday I took Lt. Col. Cool to Iron Bridge, Va. (outside Richmond) to take his Spots test. I had some time to kill so I went looking for fabric stores. I found a cute little quilt shop called JoJo's. I also bought this material at another store. I love the green on left. Capt. Kitty and I need some skirts so I hope to get some made...someday. I am still working on the formal dress. I also just realized I need to get some bibs done this week! On Saturday we went to Waynesboro's Cracker Barrel and met two of my sisters, their families, and my parents for breakfast. That was for Father's Day. We decided since we were up there to spend the day at the lake. It was overcast and I was chilly. The children have no nerve endings in their bodies and they swam happily all afternoon. A picture of my favorite view.
Sew Long for Now!
I did no sewing yesterday. It was an overcast, drizzly day, perfect for weeding our gardens. I haven't been good about keeping up with the weeding. We spent the morning weeding the upper and lower gardens. In the afternoon we did our lessons.
I am hoping that today I will finish up the formal dress. I have some errands to run this morning, but hopefully this afternoon I will work on it.
Sew Long for Now!
Poster found at Allposters.com
Yesterday we went to the zoo for science class. That and it was wild Wednesday. Parents got in for $1 with a paying child. There was also face painting and free ice cream. Our city has a small, but very nice zoo on top of Mill Mountain. This is one of the newest animals, a red panda. We used to have a tiger named Ruby that was the symbol of the zoo. Ruby passed away this past year. We spent a lovely afternoon admiring the animals and even got to pet a Russian turtle and a corn snake. 
Yesterday in the afternoon I was putting together the formal dress. I was restless. Maybe because all we have been doing is working around here. When the General came home from work I ask him to take us for a ride. He was shocked. With the price of gas almost $3 per gallon, he knew I was trying to keep our gas spending down. We went to one of my favorite places, the Blue Ridge Parkway. I grew up going for a ride every Sunday afternoon on the Parkway. It usually culminated with ice cream from the Dairy Queen. That was up in the Shenandoah Valley. Now we live in the Roanoke Valley. We drove to Buchanan and went up on the parkway. It was a lovely afternoon for a drive. We saw two does. The second one we saw was when stopped at the Roanoke Mountain Camp Ground. It just stood there and stared at us, not 50 feet away. We ended our ride by taking the children to the Roanoke Star and looking over our city. It was a nice change, very relaxing.
Sew Long for Now!
Last night I was so tired. After I got the kitchen cleaned up and set up for today, I settled the youngest two in bed and went to bed. The General was waiting up for Lt. Col. Cool. I was so tired, but I couldn't fall asleep when I lay down! Finally, I fell asleep. One half an hour later I awoke. I was wide awake. I tried changing positions. I tried praying. Nothing, I was definitely awake and I wasn't going back to sleep soon. I got up and met the General as he was headed to bed. He is getting used to me having these nights when I don't sleep. So, we switched places. I went up and began sewing and he went to bed. I hemmed a pair of pants and repaired a sweater torn in several places. Then I read for awhile. Finally, about 1:30 I decided I needed to get some sleep before I left at 3:30 a.m. I got another nap. Today I was trying so hard not to fall asleep this afternoon. I almost gave in and took a nap, but backed out at the last minute. I decided to work on more sewing. I repaired a torn toddler shirt and shorts. Then I serged all the edges of the formal dress. I am going to put it together on the reg. sewing machine and leave a 5/8 seam allowance in case it needs adjusting when I take it for the fitting.
The last two days I have felt so extremely tired by evening. We have gone back to school full-time. Even though I only have two left here, they are apart just enough to cause me to have to do their work seperate. Where I used to combine some things, now I have to do them twice each day. Of course there is still the paper route every morning at 3:30. My sewing business has been brisk lately, leaving little time for my personal sewing. The garden is begininning to take off. We staked part of the tomatoes today. Over the weekend we had to replant the cucumber and squash due to rabbits. Add in laundry, housekeeping, cooking, and general duties around the home and you have one tired Momma. This to shall pass. Above is material and a pattern I am using to make a formal dress for a young lady. She needs the middle view. It looks like a fairly easy pattern. The biggest problem I found is finding a zipper in the right shade to match the material. It says the material is lavendar, but the thread that matches best is light Cielo. That's a shade of blue. Both the lavendar and Cielo zippers did not look good against the material. The shades were all wrong. I am putting an off white hidden zipper in it. If we could find some fingernail polish or acrylic paint in the right shade we could paint the zipper pull to match. I have more towels coming tonight to embroidery. I have another order for a black bag. Then there's hemming and mending, mending and hemming!
It's been busy this week. So busy I forgot to take pictures of some of my sewing projects before they left. I embroidered a bag with initials for a graduation present. I also embroidered 5 beach towels for graduation presents. I hemmed some pants. Today I finished this cute little bag for a friend. She wanted it to put her Bible in. I have more projects to work on, but since the rabbits ate my cucumber and squash plants I went back to the nursery today and got more to plant. I also got some type of organic stuff that is suppose to deter the bunnies. Something about the smell keeps them away. I really don't like to say this, but bunnies are rodents and I look at them as not cute, but in the same class as rats. One year on Easter we were coming home from church and a bunny ran out and ran smack into the side of our car. It died. My children forever tell people how we killed the Easter bunny. They found it exceedingly funny. Don't worry we have never celebrated the Easter bunny so there is no psychological damage.
The 2007 Graduation Class of GRHE
FriendsIt has been another big weekend here. I did get some sewing in though. I have almost completed a black toile and solid black bag for a lady. I just have to put on the handles and some buttons. I altered 7 pair of pants for the minor league baseball team. Friday was Lt. Col. Cool's graduation. We spent the afternoon seeing the new Pirates movie. Graduation that evening was a very nice event. There was 13 graduates. We had family come down from Northern VA, the Shenadoah Valley, and Stuart. It was a wonderful ceremony. Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel for a late supper. Saturday we went to a friends farm for a cookout. Sunday was church and we still have family here. Today I have to get caught up on laundry and some paper work. The guys are working and will be home this evening for a cookout. Just a few more weeks and Lt. Col. Cool will be headed off for the Summer Transition at VMI.
Sew Long for Now!
With the help of my three great children I got the garden in today. We planted 36 tomato plants. We also planted 12 Habeneros, 4 crook neck squash, 4 green bell peppers, 4 red bell peppers, 4 eggplant, 8 cucumber mounds, and three rows of green lake beans. It doesn't sound like much because I live in the city and that is all the room we have.
Here is a cute yellow moth who came to sample the water we used after putting in the plants. I don't know if I will get any sewing done today. I will try to mend two pieces I have for a lady and maybe put together a bag I am making for another lady.
This is a picture of some of Capt. Kitty and my aprons hanging up in the kitchen. I attached four hooks on the side of the cabinet to hold just them. I wear aprons almost all the time.
This is my clothespin apron. It has three big pockets stuffed full of clothespins. I put it on when I am hanging out the clothes and bringing them in. It is such a wonderful way to keep up with the pins.
Just for fun, the General's BBQ apron I made him. Here even the men wear aprons, manly type of course!
Sew Long for Now!
