Giving thanks and other stuff

This week seems to have just flown right by. It always happens this time of year. In fact, I think every year I talk about how it seems to go by faster and faster. I think that must mean I'm getting old.


Thanksgiving was at my house this year. My sister came to stay with us for a few days which was a treat. Although I was in a bit of a funk and she got to see mean-and-yelly-Margo which isn't very pretty. But she's my sister and has to love me no matter what so I guess it's ok. The whole family came on Thursday and we had fun chatting and laughing like we always do.


The kiddos found all sorts of fun things to do and they especially loved harrassing poor little Lucy. There's just something about a baby, even when they aren't really in the baby stage anymore. It's like a living doll to play with!


We had lots of great food and Johnnie brought his delish banana puddin' recipe that was handed down from Aunt Mamie. Nothing like some good old nanner puddin' with a nice glass of wine. *wink*



Seems like I have a lot of updating to do around here but it will just have to come when I have the time. A few things that I'm anxious to share are:

~the awesome Closer event that Marleigh and I went to a few weeks back.
~my list of must have's for Christmas stocking stuffers
~photos and details of my fancy new 'do
~our Christmas Photo Shoot fiasco and pictures

Stay tuned, there's more to come!

SPC - The eyes have it

For this weeks self portrait challenge we're once again showing photos of "what I wear". I wear...my eyes.

I generally wear glasses but this photo is from when Hubby and I went to Maine and I like to wear my contacts when I'm on the plane so that I can get more comfortable. Like getting comfortable is even a possibility on planes!

Anywho...on the way home my eyes were just killing me. My Dailies were on their last leg and I felt like there were cotton balls waded up underneath them. So I took them out but soon discovered I had no place to dispose of them so I just sat them on my leg.

The tiny airplane light bounced off of their rims, illuminating the blue ring that helps me locate them if they are dropped. The more I looked at them through my weary eyes the more I was amazed. I find it amazing that something so small can make such a difference in the way I can see. My vision isn't all that bad actually but you take someone like my sister who has glasses that are 8 1/2 inces thick and it's truly amazing that they can condense all that glass into a tiny contact for her.

(No, her glasses aren't really 8 1/2 inches thick but they're pretty darn close. The girl is blind I tell you.)

See what everyone else is wearing over at SPC.

Happy Birthday Oklahoma!

100 years and counting! Today we celebrate the 100th birthday of our 46th state...Oklahoma! We are a state full of history and I'm so proud to call myself an Oklahoman. I wasn't born here but this is where I grew up and where my own little family now grows it's roots.



The kids school encouraged them to wear clothing today celebrating the state's birthday. Elliot chose to wear his Great Grandpa's cowboy hat that he inherited when GGpa passed away several years ago. Selah and Tess wore the shirts I quickly appliqued last night. My pack-rat-edness (yes that most definitely is a word!) paid off again when I reached in my remnant stash and pulled out the black and white floral patterned fabric. I decided to use orange thread to highlight the state applique so that the girls could wear these shirts to all their favorite Oklahoma State events. *wink* In addition, the girls are sporting their new $4.99 boots I scored at The Children's Place outlet mall in Kittery last weekend. Yee haw!



Our family will celebrate this evening by attending the Boomer Blast. This is our annual 4th of July fireworks show. Since we were all stocking up our wood supplies back in July in preparation for another building of an arc our fireworks show was postponed. The ground was just too wet to provide ample parking and recreation space for the amount of people expected to attend. So this evening we'll bundle up and picnic while watching the fireworks.

And although he doesn't read this because I've yet to share the link with him, I am thinking special thoughts of my favorite Step-Daddy today who shares a birthday with Oklahoma. Happy Birthday GPJ!

Costumes and such

Well, it's about time right? For those of you waiting anxiously for Halloween photos of the kiddos I sure hope you aren't disappointed. I generally make all the costumes but this year I wimped out and every single one of them was purchased. I'm telling ya, this working full time thing is really putting a damper on my sewing! Although after finding this wonderful site I don't feel the least bit guilty that I haven't shared these photos yet. Yep, blogging without obligation. That's what I'm gonna do.

So this year we went to our church to trick-or-treat inside. It was loads of fun and the kids enjoyed themselves. Marleigh actually went on a hayride with her youth group at church, she's just about getting to old for the whole trick-or-treating. *sniff sniff* Not sure how my babies are growing so fast!

So here's what we had this year...

Marleigh decided the night before Halloween that she would like to have a costume after all. So at the last of last minutes we headed out and picked up this very groovey outfit.



Elliot and his buddy hooked up together and went as ketchup and mustard. They were pretty cute and Elliot enjoyed pretending to squirt himself onto other people that night.



Selah was, as she told everyone, a "grease girl". Basically she was Sandi from the last scene in Grease. *snicker* I tried to get her to say, "Tell me about it, Stud!" but she wouldn't play along. While I was getting her ready in my bathroom Elliot walked in and said, "Um, hello big long fake eyelashes!" Funny thing was they were actually her eyelashes with mascara on them!



Then we had little Tess who wore Selah's Wonder Woman costume from a couple years ago. She enjoyed waving those arm cuffs around to get the bad guys.



Lots of fun! Now next year maybe I can get organized enough to make the costumes again. Ya think?

SPC - what I wear

Ruby slippers are for traveling!

Hubby and I just arrived home from a very spur-of-the-moment trip to Maine. We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves but there truly is just no place like home.

This shot was taken while on a short layover in Baltimore. All the other passengers had gotten off the plane and I was able, if only for a very short while, to stretch out.

There's definitely no place like home, especially when you're on a plane!

More of our travels to come in the next few days. Please visit SPC for more self portraits.

for Emily

I'm in Maine! It's beautiful here but I'm typing on my phone so you'll just have to be patient for an update. It'll be worth the wait!

fo: veil and quilt

So Eren recently clued me in as to what the acronym fo means. That would be Finished Object. It's rare I have any fo's myself unless there is a deadline. Which is why you're seeing these two lovlies...deadlines are here!

I'm am beyond pleased to announce that the veil I've been cursing for the last several months is finally completed. It's for Marleigh's volleyball coach who is getting married next month. I believe it was last February or March when she asked if I'd make her the veil. She fell in love with one at a bridal store but didn't want to spend the big buckaroo's on it. I figured what the heck, surely I can make it for a lot less. Of course, I didn't take into account the hand-beading and crystal drops I would have to put together. Plus, I've never made a veil and it's likely I won't be making more anytime soon. Honestly, I think it is just that having never done a veil and knowing it is for such an important event really stressed me out. It really didn't take all that long to put together but working on a little bit here and there over several months sure made it seem to drag out!

One of the things I love about sewing and crafting is watching a project come to fruition. There is something about having a pile of folded fabric one minute and then having a completed something soon after. Whether it's a veil, a quilt, a bag, a piece of clothing...doesn't matter. It amazes me every time!









Another fo I recently had was a quilt for a friend from church. Her husband is the junior high/high school pastor at my church and having helped with the junior high girls for the last couple of years I have gotten to know this family. I received the shower invitation on a Thursday and on Saturday afternoon I thought, "Hmmmm, maybe I'll make a quilt!" This is exactly why Hubby likes to say I'm insane. *snicker*

Knowing the time crunch was on and I'd definitely have to bend some rules I pulled out my favorite Amy Karol book and proceeded to pull out random bits of fabric from my stash to make her simple lap quilt. Of course, being "insane" as Hubby says I couldn't just piece together the fabrics after serious inspiration hit from looking at the cute fabric I dug out. I decided to hand embroider the solid squares with fun vehicular wordage. That made it take a tad longer but I was still finished in time to give her the quilt at her shower on Monday evening. Oh! And the backing is made with a Pottery Barn valance of yummy buttery yellow corduroy that I got for $4.99 a couple of years ago. See, it pays to be a pack rat!

A blow to the ego

I'm writing this in hopes that the next time I decide to throw a party at my house I will be reminded that it's just not a good idea.

There is a fairly new company out there called Piggies and Paws. They do the neatest artwork with your child's hand or foot print. I was invited to a party a month or so ago but wasn't able to go. So I decided I'd have my own party. Surely I would have a good turnout as it's a new idea and not every one has been to a million-gazillion parties already for this company. You know what I mean, you get yet another Pampered Chef invitation in the mail and immediately start thinking of ways you can get out of going.

In addition to having this lady come to do the Piggies and Paws party, I decided to set out the Cherry Tree Avenue trunk since it was already in Oklahoma. I figured I would be able to rack up some extra orders for my fellow CTA designers with all these droves of people who would show up for my party.

I spent the entire last week getting ready for the party. I cleaned, I crafted, I made follow up phone calls and emails to the 70+ people that I sent invitations to. I was going to have a great turnout! I had tons of people bringing multiple children to print their tiny little piggies and paws to cherish forever. I didn't even know what the hostess benefits are for this company and it didn't even matter because I just thought it was too neat not to share!

So my party started at 2:00 yesterday. My house was clean and ready with everything all displayed in several rooms. Tess wrote "Piggies and Paws" on the chalkboard in the kitchen and Selah made a colorful sign that read, "Welcome, welcome. Have fun!" to get everyone in a great mood. They were especially excited that this party included their friends and knew of several little buddies that planned on being there. The consultant showed up a few minutes early and started setting up. My kids and I flipped through the book of over 200 designs to choose from. They were just darling! I wanted one of each of them and I wanted to go back in time to when my own children were smaller so that I could freeze their tiny prints!

The doorbell rang at 2:00 on the dot with my friend S and her family in tow. I hadn't heard from her that she was going to be able to make it so I was especially excited to see her. Shortly after she arrived my friend K showed up with her son. It looked like things were going smoothly. Then 2:30 arrived, followed by 3:00 and 3:30 with no more ringing of the doorbell. Selah was in tears that none of her friends came and she cried telling me she was sorry I had cleaned so much and no one showed up.

70+ people invited and 2 people came. Let me just tell you, that's a major blow to the ego. Makes you wonder if maybe no one really likes you. Have you been blackballed and no one told you? I've dreamed all of my 34 years of having someone throw a surprise birthday party for me but honestly I'm wondering if that wouldn't be a good idea. I'd be heartbroken if someone went to the trouble of throwing a party for me and only 2 people showed up.

I cherish the 2 friends who were there. And I thank those that were unable to come who took the time to call and let me know that they wouldn't be there. For everyone else, pooey on youey! My feelings were hurt, I'm not gonna lie. I felt bad for the consultant who drove an hour each way to get to my house.

I guess the silver lining is that between the 3 of us who were there she made 11 prints so it wasn't a total wash for her. I'll have to share my prints here when they come in. I think they'll be really cute! And I also had my new soldered charms and new ornaments laid out and both friends ordered several of those. That made me happy.

Seriously though...no more parties! It's a shame I like to entertain so much!

How slow can I be?

Seriously. Ever have one of those light-bulb-hit-yourself-in-the-head moments? Yep, that's me. I'm a dork.

So I'm here at work, pretending to be busy typing away on the computer. Intently looking at the screen as if I'm trying to solve all the world's mental health problems through our own little community mental health center here. Of course, I'm actually messing around on the computer. Hitting all my favorite sites and checking in on all my buddies.

So I end up over on my friend Megan's blog seeing what she's up to today. She has this terrific post about a giveaway for an incredible apron over on The Apronista Blog. The featured apron catches my eye so I head over there to check it out.

Now the Apronista is a blog I hear mention of often. I'm not a big apron wearer. Mostly because I think you have to cook to wear aprons and when your cooking consists of asking the kiddos where they want to go out to eat it's not really cooking now is it. Doesn't quite make sense to wear an apron just to wipe your greasy french-fry covered hands on it. Ya know? I do love aprons though, something about the flood of memories of my Grandma in her kitchen frying up a chicken I just watched her pluck the feathers from or helping her thread the dough through her very old school noodle machine so we could have her scrumptious noodle soup with homemade butterballs. Great memories!

Anywho...so I'm over on the Apronista and a blurb to the side catches my eye. It says, "~Eren is a mama to three boys and loves all that is vintage. She started collecting aprons..." Now I'm thinking to myself, "Self, that sounds like it must be my Eren they are talking about!" My sweet little amiga I met my freshman year of college, and became fast friends with? My Gamma Phi sister? The friend who cried with me when my mom passed away and rejoiced with me at my wedding and the birth of my first child? No way! I knew she was an apron fan and I figured maybe they were featuring her or something.

I scroll up on the page to see what sort of feature they have her on for. Imagine my surprise when... Lightbulb moment... DUH!

She is the Apronista! Or at least, she's one of them. Who knew?! Apparently not me!

Go get 'em Eren, you rock. And I seriously feel like I know someone famous now. *smooch*