New Jammies!

About a month ago I was in the middle of making costumes for the ballet. At one point I ran out of trim for the king's costume so I invited my sweetie to go to the fabric store with me. He doesn't love the fabric store like I do, but he does love me, so he agreed to go (after I assured him I was only looking for one small thing). I was a bit surprised that Curly was jumping up and down with excitement. How could I say "no" to that?

When we got there, I headed off to find my trims and I sent my sweetie to keep Curly entertained. Little did I know what that would mean...

It took me about 10 minutes to find what I needed and then I started looking for my boys. They were in deep discussions about which pieces of fleece would make the best jammies for Curly. They finally settled on a couple and we headed for the cutting table.

Sadly, Curly's fabric had to take a backseat until I finished the costumes.Every couple of days he would ask me when we were going to make his jammies. Today was finally the day! Besides his cute pieces of fleece, I had a pile of awesome flannels too.

We cut out seven pairs for him! He was so cute, helping me every step of the way. He even helped run the serger! PJ pants are the easiest thing to sew. Most patterns are only one piece now, so they are quick to cut too. When I taught my Scouts to sew, they were the first task. I love the fact that if they don't turn out perfect, it doesn't matter that much because no one will see them anyway.

Well, except for Curly, you are all seeing him...all ten of you..

You notice we left them long. This kid grows about an inch every week!

A Little Whiny, part 2

At the risk of sounding whiny again, I wanted to give you the conclusion to my horrible awful no good very bad week...OK, it wasn't that bad...I'm still moving, aren't I?! I dragged myself out of bed at 7:00 this morning, jumped into a quick shower and braved the howling winds so I could stand in this very cold warehouse for an hour and wait for my cookies. They had 75,000 to pack, so my 268 cases didn't seem like very much.

Until we got them home, that is! This is what my living room looked like. I quickly got on the phone and within 10 minutes the Girl Scouts started coming by to get their orders. After the wind finally stopped, it turned out to be a very nice day for delivering cookies.

I sent the Drama Queen out at 11:00 with the kids so I could have a little peace and quiet to finish getting my paperwork together for my tax appointment tonight. It would have worked well if the doorbell hadn't kept ringing. One of those rings happened to be my sister and my niece. Here's a look at her pretty dress I finished at 1:45 AM last night. Doesn't she look great? Sorry for the cell pic, my sis just texted it to me after Araineia was all ready to go.


I stacked and packed and loaded cookies, while the Drama Queen managed to get a bunch of them delivered to our neighbors.

At 12:45 the kids all came back so they could get ready for rehearsal for Sleeping Beauty. After rehearsal, this mean mama sent them out again until dark. Then I headed off for my tax appointment and left them to eat frozen pizza and watch a movie.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty good week! Other than the laundry and dishes piling up, the important things managed to get done, like the dress, the cookies, and the taxes. (I almost called and cancelled that appointment a dozen times.)  I'm even getting a refund!

And a nap...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought I'd let you have a look at two of my little sweethearts in their fun new Valentine's Day dresses. I love this pattern because it is so easy to sew.  It only has four pattern pieces and a zipper up the back. I've made dozens of them over the years for my girls starting with Princess. I've sized them from 6 months to 6X without a problem.

The hardest part was paying for the fabric! Can you believe that the regular price for this piece was $9.99/yard? I got it for half price and I only needed a yard and a half for both dresses, but it was still extremely painful.

When I was checking out, I got in line behind an elderly woman who was buying a new sewing machine. She was talking and teasing the clerk as her daughter ran the machine out to their vehicle. She called the salesgirl "annoying" right to her face, but then she said it was OK because old people can say whatever they want.

In an effort to explain her point, she turned to me and tongue in cheek said, "That is the ugliest jacket I have ever seen, you really should get rid of it." Then she laughed and said, "When you are in your 80s you can get away with saying anything and people just assume you don't know what you are talking about." Then her daughter who had just come back in through the door commented, "And if you aren't in your 80s, you can say whatever you want as long as you follow it with 'Bless your heart.'"

Then she proceeded, "She has been standing here so long she probably forgot she just bought a new sewing machine...bless her heart." Her mother chuckled, "What did you say I bought?" The banter continued for another minute or two as the two of them headed toward the door. I stepped up to the clerk with my fabric in hand. She smiled and called to the two women as they pulled open the door, "I hope you have a wonderful day!" So I piped up, "Bless your heart!"

That brought another round of giggles as they left the store. Sometimes I really miss my grandma. I hope you have a happy Valentine's Day.

Laugh much and love long...


As the Drama Queen would say, Happy Single's Awareness Day!

...bless her heart!

27 Dresses...at Least

I wrote a post about my dad for Fathers' Day, but today is his 76th birthday...Happy Birthday, Dad! Hope all your wishes come true.

So last night I told you the Dog Walker had arranged himself a date for the Homecoming Dance.  He is SOO excited! And thanks for all of your fun “invitation” stories btw. It was so great to get some new ideas since I have all of these kids to get through high school still, although the “sack of crap” one is not happening on my watch…

Anyway, all this talk of high school dances got me thinking back to some of the dances the kids have attended, most especially the girls. Then Teach went downstairs and dragged out all of her old formals (and even one that belonged to Bossy) and tried them on. I took the opportunity to snap a few pics with her fancy camera although I’ve decided that it takes more than just a camera to make good pictures. Hers always look so much better than mine.

I have made about 20 dresses for dances (not including the ones I made for myself) and Bossy’s wedding dress. Bossy had a boyfriend through her junior and senior years, and they went to all the dances, and of course she wanted a new dress for each and every one of them. Being the kind and thoughtful mom that I am (can you say Pushover?), I sewed most of them.




Some, like Bossy’s Prom Dress, were absolutely outrageous in maroon and black with a long train. Maybe I can get her to pull out some of those pics and put them up. Teach’s were a little more tame. Unlike Bossy, she didn’t like having a dress that she could trip over. The blue/green one is the closest she came to ever having a train.

I only made a couple of dresses for the Drama Queen. She was never really interested in dancing unless it was for a musical on a lighted stage. The very first fancy dress I made for Bossy was during her Sophomore year. Since it was Bingham Ball, I chose the school colors, blue and white. It was one of the few dresses that were two separate pieces, a skirt and a blouse. The white blouse was covered with lace and pearl buttons and the full skirt was a sparkly metallic blue. Yeah, styles were a little different 15 years ago.

They had the dance at Saltaire, a huge dance hall out near the Great Salt Lake. But it wasn’t a very nice venue then, and when she leaned up against the stage to take a breather from all the action, she caught her lacy blouse on a nail and tore half the lace. Not a very fun ending for her first big dance.


That white and gold dress was made for Bossy. It was one of my favorites. You can’t see it from the pictures, but it has about 50 pearl buttons running down the back and 15 more on the inside of each sleeve. They were a pain in the butt to sew on and a pain in the butt for the wearer…literally. Not the smartest dress, but definitely one of the prettiest.

I’m glad the Dog Walker is a guy. Now all I’m faced with is helping him order flowers and picking up a new pair of pants from JC Penney. Maybe I’ll splurge a little a grab him a new tie as well…I’ll keep you posted.

Casualties of War

 You ever have one of those days when no matter what you try, everything just seems to go wrong? I’ve had one of those…ok, I’ve had half of one of those. It started out pretty good. My sweetie doesn’t usually work on Fridays, so he was home. When the kids got home from school we decided to take them all on a short adventure (since we had football practice to worry about). We piled them in the van and headed to the athletic store to pick up the Dog Walker’s brand new letterman’s jacket.

Then we drove up to Cookies by Design to get our free sugar cookies on a stick that we earned because we read some books this summer…like they have to reward us for reading…we love to read! Those eleven cookies retail for something like $75. Then we drove back to Chick Fil A and fed the entire family for $3.99. I know, I’m cool like that…I can show you the receipt. Six kids meals, two chicken salads, two large drinks, two 8-piece nuggets and two large fries. So up to that point all was going well, fantastic, really.

But things went downhill fast. I have an embroidery machine and occasionally I take on some small jobs that bring in a few extra dollars. My sweetie spent half of last weekend digitizing a custom pattern and I had 8 shirts that needed this logo. So my sweetie and the kids all waved goodbye as they headed downstairs to watch a movie so I could work in peace. They even brought me a little bag of tootsie rolls as a consolation prize for my good responsible behavior.

Things were rolling along just fine. Each shirt takes about 20 minutes to embroider, so sometimes if I’m not too paranoid I can multi-task a little. I had just gotten my serger back from the repair shop after five weeks and $120.00, so I decided to check it out to make sure it worked. I hemmed a few pairs of pajama pants for Sport while randomly watching the logos appear on the embroidery machine. I enjoyed a couple of tootsie rolls and then re-hooped the machine for the next shirt.

I stitched all of Sport’s scout patches on his vest. This was pretty frustrating because the thread kept breaking and I started over at least a dozen times. The embroidery pattern completed, so I re-hooped the next shirt and turned back to the sewing machine. Suddenly the needle broke! I pulled it from the patch and tossed it in the garbage. Then I put in a new needle and proceeded to rethread. After about a dozen stitches, the entire post holding the sewing foot detached itself from the machine! I’ve sewed for many years and never had a calamity like that. I helplessly studied the pieces. I guess that meant another trip to the repair shop.

That’s about when the embroidery machine decided it was tired and wanted to quit for the night. It stopped right in the middle of the pattern and refused to go further! (I guess I know how it feels…) I gave it a breather for about 20 minutes and then got it to sew a few stitches before I ran out of bobbin thread. I pulled off the hoop, re-threaded the bobbin, then the machine, and got a few more stitches.

Forty-five minutes later, I finally coaxed the machine to finish the design. Sadly, I’ll get to miss the fun tomorrow too because I still have two shirts to finish. See what all this frustration can cause? Besides that, I pretty much ate the entire bag of little tootsie rolls. Casualties of war, I guess.

Mom Loved...

I really struggled trying to decide what I wanted to post for Mothers’ Day. I wanted to do a tribute to my mom, but then my own Mothers’ Day was amazing, so I had to write about that…anyway, end of story is that I think I’ll write about moms all week if that’s OK with you. 

My mom was an amazing woman who raised 8 kids on a teacher’s salary. She never worked for money when we were kids, but she did all sorts of things to help the family get by. She raised chickens and sold/traded eggs. When we had milk cows she sold and traded milk and cream. She made her own cheese, cottage cheese, butter, ice cream…you get the idea. 

She was an amazing seamstress! She made wedding dresses for several of my sisters and as she got older she loved sewing Barbie clothes for the grandkids. 

Barbie's by mom, Bossy's by me.

Mom had long brown hair that she could sit on. She usually wore it on top of her head, but one of my favorite memories was watching her wash it in the rainwater that poured off the roof during a warm summer rain. She swore that rainwater would make her hair the softest it had ever been. I don’t know about that, but her hair was always nice to touch. 

She loved books! She read everywhere, but her favorite place was the bathroom and her favorite bookmark was a clean piece of toilet paper. She never could read just one book at a time…there were usually at least half a dozen Harlequin romance novels piled on top of the diaper pail. The diaper pail wasn’t used for diapers, but it was a handy little table in the bathroom. When she got older and the kids were all in school she became a part-time librarian. Then she was actually paid to hang out at our small-town library and read. 

Cuddling with Gym Rat at the library.

Mom loved animals of all kinds, but most especially she enjoyed cats. We had lots of cats when we were growing up but Dad would never allow them in the house. Mom’s soft heart let us sneak them in sometimes on particularly cold nights or when the kittens were really small. She loved the ones with long hair and she would sit on the porch and stroke one while she watched us play in the yard. 

At my wedding.

Mom also loved sports. As far as I know, she never really played a sport, but she watched as many as she could. It didn’t matter if it were a pickup football game or a game of hopscotch, she loved to be part of the competition. She always came to my softball games and yelled the loudest from the stands. When my brothers were playing tennis in high school, she was their biggest fan. When all of her kids were grown and gone she started watching professional sports. She was addicted to professional tennis for a while and then she became an avid Jazz fan. Andrei Kirilenko was her favorite player, but she didn’t mind yelling at Karl Malone or John Stockton either. She really should have been a coach. 

**Editor's Note- I remember Grandma loved Andre Agassi.  When I was at college I would go visit and she was often watching Agassi slam the tennis ball back across the court.  It seemed fitting that he retired in 2006, the year Grandma died. It was like he knew his biggest fan wasn't yelling instructions at the television anymore.

Mom loved a good video game (she probably would have loved blogging too!). This was a habit she took up after I was married and out of the house, but I’ve heard tons of stories. Her favorite was Dr. Mario and she would get so excited she would literally jump up and down. One night she was racking up the points so well she topped her high score and the numbers kept climbing. She got so into the game that she jumped up, knocked the other controller into the off button on the game and everything went dead. She was not happy. 

Mom loved Cup-o-Gold candy bars, Almond Joys, chow mein (even the stuff out of a can!) and Thai food. She made the most amazing banana bread! (I’ll have to share that recipe with you on Thursday.) She loved pizza and chocolate chip ice cream, green beans and fresh tomatoes. 

But mostly Mom loved us. She would do anything for us from changing our diapers, patching our cuts, and wiping our tears to watching our babies, reading them stories, and wiping their tears. She loved us through her fight with diabetes and her daily dialysis. She worried only about us even as she lay at death’s door. It’s been five years and we still miss you. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

50 years of Baby Quilts

As you’ve no doubt guessed, we love babies at our house. We also love babies at other people’s houses. For the last 20 years we have had the tradition of giving a homemade baby quilt to each and every baby born in our neighborhood. This neighborhood extends to teachers and friends at school, work, or church. I wish I could take the credit for all of these beautiful quilts over the years, but I must confess that my grandma has been the quilt-maker. 

Some of these quilts are pieced and tied, some are hand-quilted panels, and some are a combination of both. They have come in every color of the rainbow, in flannel and in cotton. All were beautiful and unique, and most importantly, they were made with love. 

Grandma has always made quilts. I remember sitting under the big quilts as a child, playing cards or Yahtzee with my brothers and sisters, listening to the gossip of Grandma and her friends. We’d watch the needles push in and out, in and out. Grandma’s was always the fastest and most accurate. She was so careful with the yarn! There were rarely any pieces left on the floor when she was done. She was raised during the Depression and she knew the value of even the tiniest piece. She would take two small ends and thread them both on her needle and tie just one more knot. 

When I got a little older, Grandma taught me how to tie a quilt. Then I joined the group sitting at the quilt instead of playing underneath it. When I was in high school, Grandma taught me to make the tops and then together we tied them. These were for my "hope chest." Grandma shared stories about her life as she shared her quilting skills and hope for my future. 

Grandma will be 93 next month. She has slowed down considerably. She still crochets, but when I saw her at Christmas she told me she wanted me to have the quilt frames. It has been almost a year since she put on her last quilt. The frames are too heavy for her to lift and she tires easily. Last week my sweetie visited her with the truck and he loaded those precious frames and brought them here. I knew they were coming, but I wasn’t prepared to see them in my home. 

More than 50 years of quilts had come together on those frames. The boards held thousands of tiny holes placed there by careful hands to keep the quilts tight and square while each knot was tied. Hundreds of babies were snuggled in those quilts. Now the legacy is mine. The quilt-making must continue because I learned more than quilt-making from Grandma. I learned that love and friendship bind us all together and nothing does that better than a quilt made with Grandma’s love.

 For a fun blog with quilting projects check out p.s. I quilt.

Cow Appreciation Day

Have you ever heard of Cow Appreciation Day? Neither had I until a couple of years ago. We don’t eat out very often for obvious reasons. There are a lot of us and even McDonalds dollar menu costs about $30.00 for a lunch that won’t keep them full until suppertime. So we weren’t that excited when we heard that they were building a new Chick Fil A in our hometown.

I had no idea how often we’d enjoy their yummy chicken sandwiches and at very reasonable prices, sometimes even free! Chick Fil A is very supportive of the schools by handing out coupons at various activities, often for free sandwiches or ice cream, but nothing is as good as Cow Appreciation Day.

It falls the second Friday of July (this year it is on the 8^th). When Bossy first told me about it, I thought she was crazy, but like her, I just can’t pass up the thought of a free meal even if it means I have to make a fool of myself. If you show up at the Chick Fil A dressed as a cow on the appointed day, you get a free meal! If they think your costume is only a partial cow (like a hat), they will give you just a sandwich instead of a sandwich, fries, and a drink. The first year we participated in this ritual, we got white t-shirts and I sewed black spots on them. Then we taped white spots to dark pants and headed to Chick Fil A. We were winners! We all received free food and a great time playing their carnival-type games and jumping in the bounce house.

Last year we decided this was something we wanted to be involved with each and every year it was offered, so I headed to the fabric store. When I got to Hancock Fabrics, I knew just what I was looking for, black and white cow print in something heavy enough for shorts. I was so excited to find exactly that on the clearance rack! I paid $1.15/yard for enough fabric to make shorts for just about everyone. With the cow shorts done, I needed to find something to give us a complete outfit. I had purchased some white painter’s caps several years ago from the Oriental Trading Company. With a black sharpie, we turned them into cow hats. All that was left was a white t-shirt and some black felt spots. (The shirts from the previous year had all frayed out.) Bossy came over and took the scraps of fabric home.  She returned with cow-tails some with yarn for hair for everyone.  We looked amazing! Or should I say "amooozing"! And if you start early, you can visit one Chick Fil A for lunch and a different one for dinner. It really makes me appreciate cows, coupons, and Chick Fil A.