My Son and a Question About Girl Stuff

OK, first I must say, that this little guy has melted my heart for quite some time now. When he was born... I guess I didn't think he was the most attractive baby in the world, but boy did I fall in love quickly. He was so cuddly and lovable. When I'd nurse him in bed he'd do this little circular motion thing with his foot. I guess it sounds weird when I write it, but it was just very charming at the time. Quickly all of his BLACK hair fell out and was surprising replaced by very very blond hair. He had extremely chubby cheeks for a long time and his baby teeth came in crooked and with a big gap between the top front two. His cheeks have thinned out a bit and the teeth have kind of straightened out with all the others coming in. But no matter how his looks have changed, he is just so incredibly irresistable. And those eyes, how could you not love those eyes? This is not why I love him so much (the physical), but it really does enhance his personality. The way he expresses himself, the gentle way he moves, hugs, touches people. Overall he is a sweet boy and I see him becoming a sweet sensitive man.

On to my next topic. So I've started kinda looking around for Spring and Summer clothes for my 5 year old daughter. Maybe I'm too early, but I have found little to nothing that I like. I keep waiting for Gymboree to have a new line (I have some gift cards I can use there). I am not thrilled with their current Spring lines. I see very little at Gap or Old Navy that I like. And much to my surprise, nothing at H&M which currently has a very sparse selection of girls clothes these days. And what they do have leaves little to be desired. I'm so disappointed in them. They usually have such cute sort of European styled clothes. And now that she's in size 6-6x, it seems there are less cute dresses and tops. I guess at this age she's supposed to start dressing like a teenager? I've tried Children's Place (too bright), Carters (too boring), Kohls (too cheesy). Sears has some nice Lands End, but last time I was there it was all winter and slim pickins. I'm also having trouble finding anything cute at second hand shops. Any suggestions? I know there are some readers out there with little girls, who, I might add dress very cute! Please, if you have suggestions, I need help!

I did take advantage of Hanna Andersson's Early Bird Sale. I never buy anything there, but I was desperate. And, I only got one dress.

I am Honored

While spending a little time in the forums at Etsy a few days ago, I answered an inquiry for shops that would like to be featured on Pink Pear Designs Blog. And guess what? She picked mine to feature for this week!

Come take a look at the feature, including interview with yours truly on her blog Handmadewhimsy.

She has two other shops: handmadeWhimzy and WhimzySupplies. She sells jewelry and packaging and jewelry supplies.

Here is the latest in the Kitchen Stitchen store. I'm working on new fabrics and a second casserole carrier. If you are interested in any before they go in the shop, let me know and I'll reserve something for you!

One of Those Days

The volume is way to loud. The energy is way too high. The chaos is at unbearable levels.

In other words I feel like yuck today. I have a headache (a rare, but awful thing for me). I did get a nap, but that just helped a little.

So I am just going to chalk it up to "one of those days", hope the hubby takes over with the children whenever he gets home, and try to get a relaxing bath in (miss those).

Tomorrow, I hope, I will remember why I'm doing all of this!

Not Your Grandma's Casserole Carrier

It's done!

I love this fabric from the Swell collection by Urban Chick and from Moda, which does look a little retro, so maybe it is like your grandma's. Ha!

I wanted to make these with beautiful designer fabrics so that even the fashion concious would want to use one, or not be ashamed to use one. One of the nice features of my carrier is that there is a clear pocket to slip in a piece of paper with a little note. You can put your name in there, the name of the dish. Or another great idea is if you are bringing food over to a new mom or a home bound person, you can put instructions on how to heat up or complete the cooking of your dish.

The main part of the carrier is interlined with a thermal insulating and heat resistant batting (Insul-Bright TM) and the handles have a stiff interfacing.

A pretty coordinating fabric for the interior lining.


I won't be listing this today in the shop. I'd like to get at least one more (maybe two more) finished in a different fabrics and take some better photos of each. I probably won't be making a lot of these either but rather stick to the smaller items. My deadline for the casserole carrier was mid-February so I'm ahead of schedule. Once I finish the second one, I'm on to placemats. Haven't set a deadline for those yet...

New Things

I've posted a few new potholders in the store recently and thought I'd share them with you here.

Modern Birds


Brown and Turquoise Luau


Royal Buds


I am currently working on the next product. As I do, I wonder about pricing. For the amount of quality fabric, and other materials used, it is going to be hard to price this one very low. So I guess I price it what I consider fair and see how it goes! But keep posted, this one is going to be CUTE!

I am so happy that the store is going so well. I hope to step it up a notch with production and advertising soon! Speaking of which, I hope to have some exciting news tomorrow!

I taught a dance class this morning and it is observation week. Other than some potty interuptions, so latecomer interuptions and one girl facinated with waving at her mom the whole time, it went well and I was especially happy that the moms were happy with how well their daughters were doing. We've come a LONG way and I'm glad I hung in there. When you teach 3 and 4 years olds, you are doing a lot more than just teaching DANCE!

Giveaway for Kitchen Stitchen

My lovely and wonderful Etsy/bloggy friend Crystal is so generously orchestrating a giveaway from my new Specialty store Kitchen Stitchen. I invite you to go look at her lovely blog. She is really quite creative and talented, not to mention a great mom and wife. While you're there, why not sign up for this giveaway!? You will also get extra entries if you purchase something from any of our shops. Crystal has super cute and funky cards at gifts at Little Bit Funky. She has some great newly listed items!

Like this very cute crayon roll! You won't find another like this one.


And these fun embellished towel and washcloth sets.

My other store can be found at Sunnypond Designs. I am also including a free gift with all Kitchen Stitchen orders. So get on over and sign up for the giveaway!

Powder Room Makeover

While everyone else has probably watched the festivities today, TV-less me has not. I could have watched online, I could have gone to Mitch's Chicago Style Grill as they always have their TVs on. But I did not.


Instead I went to TJ Maxx and Target to help stimulate the economy. And this is why...


This is the only before photo I could find of our powder room. It is from the home inspection. Not much has (had) changed. Slightly different wall art, slightly different wreath. Walls a little dirtier from little hands.

And then I saw a bit of inspiration from a photo online from a bathroom in a magazine. One of those "Living" magazines. Maybe Coastal Living? Maybe not.

I definitely wanted to do a brown color on the walls. When I had a color specialist out, she helped to narrow it down. I (again definitely) wanted new lights. Notice the lovely builder's special light strip. You can barely see it in the photo, but I'm guessing there is enough there to know what I'm talking about. I also wanted a new mirror and a new towel holder. I don't have a photo showing it, but the previous owners put up robe hooks. It never worked for OUR towels as they'd slip off. Maybe they had towels with a loop on them? I wanted to keep the artwork I had in there but make it the main piece. And then later I was inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick to purchase this shelf at Hobby Lobby. I had kind of wanted a little shelf above the commode anyway. Not sure if all the items up there will stay. The candle thing in the middle will probably be replaced.

The color in the room is called Firewood by Benjamin Moore (1027). The mirror was on clearance on Marshall's Homegood for $20! I got that right around the time I was doing some Christmas shopping. Again the shelf is from Hobby Lobby on sale for about $15. The artwork is "Hello May" from Ashley G. I consider that my "modern" piece in this more traditional room.

So what I purchased today was the towel holder and a set of two hand towels. The holder came from TJ Max Homegoods for $9.99 and the Waverly towels were on Clearance at Target for $5.59. I ordered the light fixture from lamps plus on sale.

The only thing left is to find a waste can. We also hate our toilet paper holder. I guess you can't see it in the after pictures, but it is the same as in the before. Oh, and we are thinking about replacing the lovely faucet someday too. And when I get back to "normal" I plan to make a reversible tissue box cover too.

I hope you enjoyed this Makeover. I may not be the best designer in the world, but I like this a lot better now!

Overwhelmed and Lost

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I had the main level and upstairs of the house clean. What happened? I need to clean, to work on items for my shop, to spend time with the kids, work on dance routines and oh so much more. I don't even know where to start, and so often I just don't start and another day goes by with not much done. I end the day feeling lost and confused.

It would be nice if I could have an entire day at home by myself to get my mind straightened out and lots of housework done. It is so hard for me with the kids to get this done.

Well that is my rant of the day. Off to take a shower and get ready for dance class. Maybe I'll be back later with our powder room make over, and hopefully a better attitude. Something fun will definitely be happening tomorrow. So stay tuned!

Recovering from the Weekend

Not that there seems to be a lot to be recovering from, but today I am exhausted. Friday was on of those days I became exhausted from "just sitting around". As you probably know by now, I launched my new Etsy store Kitchen Stitchen. And so Friday I spent most of the morning listing all of my items. Overall it was smooth. Except I had saved all my photos in the wrong mode and had to re-edit them all and save them in the right mode. And there were some kinks to work out regarding key words. But I was so happy and have some sweet friends to thank for coming and buying some of my items on the first day! In face 2 items were purchased while I was still listing! What a great confidence builder. And now I need to get on the ball. I need to relist a few items. Get some more made and listed and seriously look into advertising on popular Etsy blogs and such. I also plan to submit an entry for a juried Art Festival in our town.

And so to celebrate the store, the sales AND our diet (ironically) we went out to our new favorite Japanese fusion restaurant Kawa. Above you will see our favorite dish, the curried squash soup. It is pure heaven! And I'm excited that there was a recipe for a similar dish in my new BHG magazine for the month. Though I fear it won't come close to Kawa's. Then we went to dinner at a friends house last night and again strayed from the diet. And I'm a tad upset because I haven't felt any weight loss in the last two weeks anyway despite sticking to the diet. I'm getting a bit discouraged.

This morning I have a dance class to teach, despite the fact that the schools are closed for MLK day. Which means I need to bring the kids with me. They are always very good and quiet, but I hate it because it just isn't that fair to them.

One other piece of "news". Jason painted our powder room on the main level of the house. He also installed the new light fixture and soon we will have the new mirror up as well as a little cute shelf I bought. All we need now is a new towel holder and something to put on the shelf. Jason has also been talking about getting a new faucet. I'm not sure I have before photos. But I will be sure to at least post some after photos. At least after everything we have is up. Then later maybe I can post more when we get the other items.

Have a great day. Look for the positives and live in the moment.

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Edited to include that my friend Hannah just called to say she'd come take the kids home with her to watch during my dance class AND that I found a "before pic" of our bathroom, be it the pic I took during the home inpection when the previous owners still had their stuff in there. Oh, and also that I've started redoing the parlor curtains, they are coming out nice and I'll post a before and after pic of that too when all done!

Premonitions

This is not the first time this has happened, but it is the first time it has been on so large a scale.

I sometimes have hunches about things that happen. Well I often have hunches. I often get a feeling when people are pregnant, even if I'm not around them. Many times I correctly get a feeling for the gender of their baby. Perhaps it's intuition or just dumb luck.

But the next thing I am about to tell you seems way to freaky, though it is, I guess, a coincidence.

Until two nights ago, I had two dreams which provided insight into the future. Both were about the gender of each of our children while I was pregnant with them as well as a little of their personalities. Each turned out to be true. And we didn't find out their genders until they were born.

Two nights ago I had a dream that I was in an aircraft. It had to make an emergency landing because of a technical mishap. It landed in a river. I was able to escape the plane. I went back in to help others get out. We were rescued from the river. In the end, everyone survived.

Sound familiar? (minus the part about me being in the aircraft)

Recently I've been studying Daniel. Daniel could interpret dreams and even had one major one of his own. Well at least one, I'm not done reading the book yet.

I used to have dreams about getting held at gun point. I decided I was watching too much Law and Order. I hope this last dream doesn't mean I've been reading too much of the Bible!

*photo is a reflection on a table of a wall sconce at the Japanese restaurant we went to tonight

Kitchen Stitchen is Open!

Two sales already! Thanks Susie!

Please come take a look!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade kitchenstitchen.etsy.com

Kitchen Stitchen Opening This Friday!

Announcing the opening date of my new Etsy shop Kitchen Stitchen : Friday January 16, 2009. After much planning, sewing and excitement, I am finally ready to start listing items in my new shop! Here is a REAL preview of what you will see in the shop starting tomorrow...

For a look at ALL the fabric choices take a look at the shop's Flickr site.

To give you all an insight on how this whole concept came to be, I'll give you a little background on the process.

As I mentioned earlier, I was getting a little frustrated with my first shop. Making totes and handbags was fun, but very time consuming. My shop was kind of a hodge podge of whatever I felt like making and had very little consistency. I decided to make some smaller items for a couple of craft shows and noticed that the smaller items were snatched right up, but people hardly even looked at the larger items. Around the same time, I read an article about how to have a successful Etsy shop. One thing that stuck out to me was to find your niche. Lots of people sold bags. I came up with the idea of creating a shop which specialized in a type of item. Somehow I landed on making kitchen linens. I had seen plenty of people selling kitchen type items, but none (since then I have found one) that makes all kitchen items. Plus these items don't take near as long to sew as bags! Much easier to get motivated!

I wanted to do this right, I wanted to plan it all out. I already had ideas for towels and potholders. Of all my towels I LOVED the waffle weave variety. There was no question that a nice waffle weave would be what I'd start with. I had also thought of a "different" way to add the decorative fabric than what I'd seen. As for potholders, that was a no brainer. I have one absolute favorite that I use at home and I would try to make them of that design (which turned out to be quite a challenge)!

Next I found the wonderful graphic designer Kelly of YellowMagpie and hired her to help design my logo and shop, including business cards and labels. I gave her my idea of a teapot with swirling steam and the steam spelling out "Kitchen Stitchen". She helped me with color choices, design options, fonts and worked with me until it was just what I wanted which is what you see at the top of this post. If you need a banner, avatar, business card etc... design, I highly recomend Kelly, she was so easy to work with, very friendly and completed versions in a timely manner. She loves what she does and wants to make her clients happy.

At the same time I sought out a source for towels, went shopping on Etsy and Ebay for fabrics and tested out swatches of terry cloth until I found the perfect quality.

The fabric and materials rolled in, I pre-washed and dried everything. Ironed, cut and started sewing. I then bought a walking-foot for my sewing machine which was a life-saver. It is so nice for thick fabrics, not to mention several layers of thick fabrics! Once I had the towels done, I was off working on the potholders. These were not so easy. The binding took me a while to perfect, but now I have it down to a science. Shortly after the towels were done the labels from Jennifer of JennifersJewels came in, just in time for the potholders. Jennifer's labels are the best, she keeps improving her product and I'm not sure how they can get much better than this. She was quick and the job was seamless. I just gave her my measurements, sent her the file and poof, they were done.

Once all of my initial inventory was complete, it was time to photograph everything. Thanks to our lovely Canon Rebel SLR and mini-lessons from my even more lovely husband, I was able to get that done too.

I've written up descriptions, figured out postage and handling costs and am looking into advertising. And my dear internet friend Crystal will be helping me out with a little something soon too!

Stay Tuned!

Eating and Losing It

It's not a resolution, per se. It is a goal. For both Jason and I to lose weight. We've been doing it together, which makes it a bit easier, at least for me. We are on South Beach. It is the only diet I've ever really done and it has always worked.

This time I have so much more to lose than any other time I've been on it. I don't know what happened, but last year over many months I just let go of control of my eating, not to mention I didn't have a lot of time to exercise. There there I was on Jan. 1, the heaviest I've ever been not due to the after effects of having a baby. It was the first time I was pretty reluctantly going on a diet. It had gotten kind of comforting to just eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

But it feels good. To date (since Jan. 1 - first day of diet) I've lost 7.5 lbs. I feel it. I can cross my legs easier, I can bend over easier, I have less aches and pains, there is less jiggle.

The other good news is that on this diet, I eventually stop craving sugary and carbolicious foods. And at least when I am tempted stop and think whether or not it will really be worth it.

And I've got a ways to go, but I'm feeling good and I'm feeling confident and I've got my husband's support. So I expect some more pounds to shed in the upcoming weeks and I truly will try to be patient.

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I also just wanted to thank all the commenters on my last post about my new shop which I was really really nervous to post about. All the support and love has really meant a lot and I am even more excited about getting the store stocked and going!

Have a great day everyone!

A Dream in Progress: Revealed

I don't know why, but I am nervous to reveal my Big Project. On the other hand, I have come to a point in which I am totally confident that all my tasks will be done by the vague deadline (sometime before the end of January) that I have set for myself.

It all started with me noticing that the small easy things I made for a craft show in December sold much better than the big things (totes and handbags). In fact, the big things didn't even sell AT ALL. Which led me to believe that people are more willing to let go of a few dollars on an impluse than a larger amount which may take a little time to think over. Not even that, most people didn't even LOOK at my bags! And with the small number of people who came through that night (it was very very cold out), I was shocked at just how much I made on the small things. Now, please understand, this is not all about the money to me. It is more about making something that I put my heart and soul into for someone to enjoy. I also find some delight in having a successful business. It is no fun having a bunch of "unloved" bags in storage for a long time. Plus, it honestly doesn't hurt to bring in a little extra for the family.

Around that same time I was reading an Etsy article on how to plan a successful Etsy store. I took a few things away from it. One thing that my first store lacked was planning. It also lacks some consistency. I feel like I'm kind of all over the place with products and styles. I had not really found a niche either.

And so it came to me.

• Make something simpler. Bags take a lot of time. I can motivate myself more easily to make simpler things.
• Find a niche. I decided on kitchen linens. People sell them on Etsy, but I did not see a store that specialized in them.
• Form a plan. That I did. From hiring a graphic designer to work with me to create a logo etc. To making a list of what I could make. To drawing up designs for those products. To buying materials and fabric. Luckily I had made enough money in my Sunnypond shop to use as "capital". And I will have consistency in this shop. I also was very careful in the designs and materials involved. I like a certain types of towels, potholders etc. and I wanted to use only good quality materials.

So as of now, I have business cards, the skeleton of my shop up, labels etc... I have the majority of things sewn to start off the shop and plenty of other fabrics to add more. I also have plans to design, make and bring in new and different types of items in the future. I hope to utilize blogs and sites on the web to advertise. I have told friends and now I'm telling all of my lovely blog readers.

And in the midst of it all, I've thought about quitting a few times. Mostly because I didn't know the techniques or tools I needed to get things to look exactly how I wanted them to on one of my products. But I figured it all out and I'm THRILLED with the result. I even have a pre-order from a friend. :-)

And when the shop is ready to go, I'll do a grand post here to let you know how to find my new store and what you can find in it! I will also give info on other details about the process and the products.

And I want to thank all of you who have offered your support and encouragement through all of this. Especially my husband!

For now, I'll leave you with the promised final result of the work in progress I showed you yesterday. I present to you one of my new Potholders!

Creating and Happy

Right now a huge focus in my world has been my Big Project. Of course you can probably tell it involves sewing...

I started with a plan and everything was falling into place nicely. I had one little hiccup and wasn't sure I could overcome it, but as usual I trudged through and learned a little more about sewing on the way. And I really feel like this is gonna happen. I've got this technique down and I thing the result looks good. And later today. Maybe. I'll post a pic of some of the final products... Do you want to see?

New "Milestones"

I'm not sure if these are milestones or what, but I find that since the Miles has been potty trained, there have not been a whole lot of other really definitive milestones recently. I guess Miles coloring better could be one?

• This week Miles was playing with the MagnaDoodle and said to me "Mommy, do you want me to write WLIT?" (the call letters to the station that plays all Christmas music around the holidays in Chicago). His arm was in the way at first so I couldn't see him form the letters, but he did it. And I did witnessed him writing the T, effortlessly.

• Monday Ella was getting her tap shoes on in the dance hallway and wanted to tie them herself. Nowadays there are rarely ties on kids shoes, so maybe she would have asked about this earlier if their were. So we went through it a few times. Today she showed me that she tied her sweatpants tie in a bow. She did it! All by herself!

• Now this one may seem weird. And it may seem weird that it actually made my eyes well up with tears of joy. Today Ella had swim class. She is very good in the water. She is learning different strokes now. While practicing the precursor to the front stroke (otherwise known as a modified doggie paddle), she started moving her hands differently. The teacher taught the class that arm movement and then the the froggy leg kick. Which I'd actually taught Ella in the pool this summer, and she remembered. The teacher asked her to put it together and she did. ELLA DID THE BREAST STROKE for the first time! Am I nuts for getting so excited?

Updating

Our house is getting to be about 16 years old and we have found ourselves needing to replace a few things. Last year, we got a new furnace and a new garage door opener. We also got a new snowblower because the one we had died and it was about 16 years old because we purchased it from a neighbor moving to Hawaii a few years ago. This year (we need it last year) we got a new kitchen faucet which Jason expertly installed. The old one was leaking and looking a bit nasty too. I hope the house will give us a bit of a break before something else breaks down!

We have discussed putting in an attic fan to reduce energy bills in the summer. Not to mention we need to find the hole where the squirrels have been getting into our attic. We have also talked about sprucing up the landscaping. Our A/C unit looks real old, but still worked last year. So I hope it can make it through 2009. Other than that we just plan to do a few updates in a couple bathrooms. At least for now.

Well I took pics with our 3rd camera (don't ask) but can't fint the cord for it to upload them. So for now this post is photo free.

So anyway, have you needed to update anything in your house, or in your life last year? Do you suspect there will be a need for any updates next year?

Sneaky Peak

Thank-you for the encouragement and advice on Miles' situation. Don't know if I mentioned that he was perfectly content and having fun for the first 6 weeks of this same dance class. Something mysteriously changed in him over Thanksgiving break.

Maybe you are starting to guess what my big project is by now. I'll just give you this pic as another clue. What I was working on when this pic was taken is all DONE. At least the first batch. Hooray! I have a big stack of those and I have already moved on to "mass" production of the next item. Plus I'm already thinking of the details for the next type of item to make. However, as soon as I'm done with the first batch of the second item, I will be taking a big step and everyone will know what's going on. I'll divulge more information soon. I hope to get to this critical point before the end of the month. I am so excited!


Meanwhile, my machine is long overdue for a tune up. I went into the shop where this machine was purchased and was reminded of this fact again by the saleslady. I'm going to have to find a chunk of time that I don't plan to sew because she said it would take a minimum of 7 days for a tune up. More if something needs to actually be repaired.

My current items are being sewn using a walking foot. A new aspect of sewing to me. I love it. It is perfect for bulky fabrics. If you sew, you know that underneath the fabric is what are called "feed dogs". These move the fabric along as the needle sews. Well the walking foot is like feed dogs on the top. It is a big cartridge looking contraption which has serated like feet that push the fabric along from the top. A life saver!

Today I purchased a rolled hem foot. Again I did not know what it did. Thanks to the helpful sales lady, I now know. I'm going to have to play around with it before any serious usage of it.

I have a pretty bad chest cold right now which I typically have all winter in the past few years. I hope this one goes away as I'm currently on all types of allergy meds and nasal sprays.

Hope you all are staying healthy as well as any spouses, children and other loved ones.

Do you have any BIG projects going on this year? Would you share them or a link to a blog post about them in the comments?

Last Straw

Today Miles, once again, refused to dance at dance class. I know I said I was going to keep him in the class and let it be an expensive lesson, but today I just had it. There is no good reason for him to sulk in the corner of the class while Ella and I sit in the dance hallway for 45 min and then another hour we wait out there until Ella's class (not to mention blowing that money on tuition).

I must have been visibly mad at him. Not mean, just not as affectionate as usual. He was acting like I have never seen him act. He was so affected by the fact that I was not so happy with him. He was taking the initiative in showing affection towards me. In the grocery store he'd kiss my hand or kiss me on the lips if I happened to lean down. It was as if he was trying to ask for forgiveness. Then tonight when I got home from the class I teach he was all about mommy, playing with me, hugging, kissing. Usually I am initiating hugs and kisses because he is so irresistably cute and I guess I hadn't been doing it as much as usual today because he wasn't seeming so cute. Well he noticed. I had never really seen so much affection initiated by him before. In a way it is nice. Nice to be assured that he really does love me, though I'd always suspected it.

It is such a shame he will not dance in class, because later he came up to his dad with a toy and asked him to fix something and then broke out into dance in pretty good rhythym with the music that was playing.

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Something that I find very sweet is that Ella WANTS to write her own thank-you notes and is actually doing it. She is so thoughtful and sweet. The other day she cut little red hearts out of paper and put them on my pillow. On an earlier day, she helped Miles draw a picture, put it in an envelope and put it under my pillow. This weekend we gave her 2 marshmallows for a treat. She offered one to me. I had to politely decline because I'm on a diet. She then offered it to Jason and he had to decline as well. So she then kept it to give to her brother the next day.

And my two little children who were pushing and squashing and fighting only a few months ago, now play together fairly well and are the first to say to each other "are you ok?" when they hear the other fall down or see them hurt themselves.

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As for my friend with the marital difficulties. Please keep praying. Only God knows what will happen, but support for her is coming out of the woodwork as she finally is taking a stand against the craziness and finally clueing people in to what is going on. She needs strength to get through this (whatever this may be) and he need help with some problems. And the kids... well I pray for them the most.

P.S. (Survey)

Pretty please, if you are reading this, do me a HUGE favor! Could you take the survey over there on the right of my blog. It may help with my BIG project. The project continues to progress nicely. A few goals have already been met! :-) Perhaps I will give a bigger sneak peak soon.

Even if I don't know you read this, or you never comment, or this is the first time you've seen my blog, it would be GREAT if you could take this survey for me. :-)

Christmas Morn Recap

I know I'm a little behind, but in case anyone was interested, here is a glimpse into our Christmas morning this year...

I almost did not make this gingerbread house this year. Last year it was so much fun and I decided to make it a tradition. But this year I was kinda swamped. But I did finish it, and it wasn't such a horrible task. ;-) Ella helped with the round hard candies around the windows, on the roof and on the ground.

Opening up their stockings.

Of course!


She was so excited to get the pajamas. She's worn them for so many nights since she got them, I had to convince her it was time to wear another pair recently.

Miles' new dance bag. Too bad he refuses to dance in class...

Happy to hug Blue.

Here's a small look at our tree. The most prominent feature about our tree every year are the handmade snow flakes. They were made by Jason's mom who is Czech and these are a Czech tradition. Other than that, our tree is a real hodge podge of ornaments, though no glass balls this year because it was in a room with hardwood floors.

I especially like to get an ornament as a souvenir when we go somewhere new. I think Christmas is a neat time to think of all of our trips. And it's better than getting cheapy souvenirs we will just toss. Sorry I didn't have the time to do Crystal's tree tour. Maybe next year.

Today I'm feeling sick. Scratchy throat and kind of tired. Tomorrow I only teach one dance class, so maybe I can get some rest then. Oh, I just remembered I'm hosting a teen mom mentor meeting tomorrow night, so cleaning will be involved tomorrow. Ugh.

For those praying for my friend in a bad marriage. Things are getting worse and I'm trying my best to counsel her. I hope I'm giving her good advice. Please pray for me too in helping her.

Down Time

~Happy New Year Everyone!~  

I was not feeling well on actual New Years Eve, so Jason took the kids and himself to hang out with our good friends.  I stayed home and... no I didn't rest... I ended up cleaning most of the house!  Ah!  I'm so happy it's much cleaner than it has been in a while.  For the most part it is staying pretty clean so far.  Not so sure we (I) can keep that up once winter break is over.  It has been a pretty nice time after Christmas with no running around here and there.  Lots more time to give attention to the family.

I've been working a little when I can on my big project!  Here is a teaser (I'm still so excited!):

The fabric on the right is not part of the big project.  That is part of another project... revamping our parlour room drapes.

Once I get a handle on all the holiday pics, I hope to do a mini overview of the festivities.

And now that gift exchanges have been done, I can post this purse I made for my brother-in-law's girlfriend.  I love the colors and design of fabric.  Oh, and she says she likes it too. :-)

Finally, it was great to see my good friend Kim who I met in high school.  We met for lunch at Mickey D.s and Playplace time for the kids while we talked and caught up.  She was in our home town for a bit from her current home in Colorado.  Both of our parents still live in the same town.