creative little daisy

Gratitude Friday a look back and a look ahead...

Last year I posted a list of things I hoped to accomplish in 2006. Some of those goals were accomplished, others not, and some are ongoing. I took a sewing class, and also learned to knit and crochet. I learned the basics, I haven't put them to use yet, maybe in '07.

Some of the more important items, communicating better with Casey, saving more and spending less, reading my bible more, all need more work.

I did grow my hair out and have stood my ground with the hair nazi. It hasn't always been pleasant but I can cross that one off.

I didn't turn the bonus room into a sewing room but I've decided I'm happy with keeping it in the dining room.

I don't know if I'll ever be able cross use my time more wisely off the list. I think it's just my nature to get sidetracked and procrastinate. I'll carry it over anyway, perhaps there is some hope for me.

I didn't take an upholstery class but I did get two couches reupholstered. I've used my serger quite a bit and even feel comfortable re-threading it. That's a pretty big accomplishment.

Be better at showing those I love how much I love them... I'll call that one ongoing.

I'm glad I made that list last year, I only wish I had revisited it periodically throughout the year. Today I'm grateful to look back over 2006 and see that I've grown and accomplished some of the things I'd hoped to accomplish.

For 2007 I hope to:

• Be a better communicator, not just with Casey but with all those I love.
• Use my time more wisely.
• Save more, spend less.
• Read my bible more.
• Be  more giving of myself.
• Spend more time serving others.
• Use my embroidery machine more...learn more about it.
• Actually knit and crochet something.
• Spend less time on the computer.
• Learn more about sewing clothes.

How about a Sunday afternoon chat?

Since it's been several days since I've posted, (including missing gratitude Friday) I'm having trouble focusing on one topic to post about. I sat down to post last night and my mind was blank. I started a post this morning about the project that has kept me busy this week but it sounded a little too negative so I erased it. I guess I'll just chat a little about this and that and then count some blessings. How does that sound?

I'll start with that project that's kept me very busy this week,  the one I could get negative if I spent much time talking about. The tee shirt blankets.

I'm only picturing one because they are nearly identical, made for twins. Their mom asked if I could make blankets out of her daughters favorite tee shirts. They will be going away to college next fall and she wanted to give them as Christmas gifts. When she asked what they would cost, I told her I needed to first get an idea of the materials I would need and how long it would take to make them, I'm not very quick on my feet when it comes to thinking and speaking at the same time. She pushed me for an estimate and the number that came out of my mouth...all I can say is as soon as I said it, I felt like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar. Not that I was lying, but that I couldn't believe what came out of my mouth. I wanted to say, "who said that?". It was way, way, WAY too low. Why do I do that to myself? Why should I be the least bit reluctant to charge what is a reasonable price for my time and effort? I don't know. Maybe I've learned my lesson this week. I hope so. I will say they came together nicely, really without any problems and I'm pleased with the results. I'm sure they would be prettier if they were quilted, but thankfully she just wanted blankets, nothing heavy and quilted.They are backed with navy flannel. I think if I'd had to quilt them, it would have sent me right on over the edge.

I never posted pictures of the sewing room after it was painted. I love it as much if not more than the kitchen. It's open to the kitchen since it used to be the dining room and is separated from the living room by french doors. I loved having a space dedicated to sewing but hated having all the fabric and stuff that accumulates on display. I came up with a relatively easy and inexpensive solution. A curtain to hide everything behind. Mitch cut brackets out of wood to hold a long piece of metal conduit from which I hung simple white panels. I want to add something to the bottom since I hemmed them a little shorted than I should have, but that will wait. The curtain extends from wall to wall and completely hides my fabric and another shelf of sewing books and other crafting paraphernalia. It is much more peaceful, both in color and organization. Ahhhh, I needed that.

During the reorganizing of things I came across this in the closet and it made me laugh. 

Not because mama goose is wearing a bonnet, though that is kinda cute, no I laughed because for many years (I'd say up to about 3 1/2 - 4 years ago) this was the only thing sewing related in the house. It held anything you needed for any sewing that might take place and I was not usually the one to use it, Mitch was. I wouldn't even sew on a button. This little tin held some scissors, a pin cushion with a few pins and a needle or two, a couple spools of thread and anything else that related to sewing. It was kept on top of the refrigerator. It makes me smile to think how things have changed.

I may have missed Gratitude Friday but I'll try to make up for it today.

• I'm grateful those blankets are finished
• I'm grateful to have a daughter who did a lot of my Christmas shopping and wrapping while I worked on those blankets
• I'm grateful to have a room of my own for sewing
• I'm grateful to have had the same pastor for 35 years and I'm so, so sad next Sunday will be his last
• I'm grateful for the mild weather we've had this week
• I'm grateful for internet shopping

It's Friday, and I have so much to be grateful for...

You didn't think I'd forget Gratitude Friday, did you? I have lots to talk about and much to be thankful for. This is going to be one of those all over the place posts, that's what happens when you take several days off. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I have to start with, Holy Guacamole the Blog Love Batman!!!  Thank you all so much for your kindness, your understanding and wisdom shared in your comments to my last post. (In the crazy soundtrack of my life playing in my head, I'm hearing Can you feel the love tonight, by Elton John... yea, more nuttiness revealed)

Seriously though, when I wrote that post I was in a very low place, one I never expected to find myself in. When that happens you have to question everything. You wonder what you could've/should've done differently. How you could've changed the outcome if you'd done things differently. I'm still asking myself those questions and will be for quite some time, but in the midst of that I was showered with love and understanding, encouragement and support and that has made this difficult time a little brighter. Thank you hardly seems to express what I feel but it's a start, so Thank you! Thank you very, very much with sugar on top!!

What next? Let's talk a little about Etsy. Is Etsy a wonderful thing or what? I've been needing some custom labels for a while. I've tried to make some myself with so/so luck, never really pleased with the results. I ordered these and LOVE them! Made by Emily of Rohm Custom.

The next fabulous purchase was from the Etsy shop of a fellow blogger Karen or Mrs. Kwitty. You'll find the most beautiful holiday items in her Shop. (everyday items too) I saw this great needle book and fell in love. The fabric goes with the fabrics I've used in my kitchen so I asked Karen if she had more of it. She was kind enough to sell me some. As a fellow sew-er I know how hard it is to let go of fabric from your stash, especially vintage. The snowbabies ornament was an extra. Thanks Karen. The packaging was amazing!

And from another blogging friend Gina, this sweet little wooden bird. Don't you just love her tiny scarf? Gina also has lovely handmade Christmas items in her Etsy Shop.

Paint. That's the next topic. Paint for my kitchen and sewing room. Isn't that what everyone does a few weeks before Christmas, when they are already spread way too thin and on the verge of losing what little sanity they have? Paint? That's what I'm going to to do. Not just I. I with some help from friends who have had their arms twisted so kindly volunteered. I bribed did some sewing for them in exchange for their services. The painting shouldn't take very long once we put the roller to the wall, it's all the prep work and where will I put all the stuff from my sewing room while we paint? I hope I like the color, I bought 5 gallons. It's a Martha Stewart color, vintage kitchen. I couldn't wait to see how it looked. What do you think? It's the aqua strip at the end of the bar. In person it's a dusty aqua, a little more green than in the picture.

There's that cup again in another picture. I don't stage that, really. I have something to drink in that cup (or one of those cups, I have 4) all the time. I do love those cups.

As if painting weren't enough, I had someone come give me an estimate on reupholstering my sofas. The big red one and the gold thrift one. He gave me what I think is a great price, but the cost of his fabric is outrageous. He told me it would be fine if I bought the fabric separately so now I'm on the hunt for fabric. I'm thinking a chocolate brown. Any thoughts on that? I'd love to go with a light neutral beige, but with 3 dogs, 2 cats and two males in my house... not a good idea. My only concern with the brown is dark colors show threads and lint and white cat hair really bad. At this point anything is better than big red and old gold. I want matching and neutral.

See what I mean about the animals? I walked in there to take this picture after I typed the paragraph above and this is exactly what I saw, no staging. I bought the gold sofa at a thrift store because I loved the shape of it. I don't mind the color but not with the red sofa. After I  brought the gold one in to see how it looked (it was never my intention to leave them both) everyone loved having two full sized couches. I have a matching love seat for the red sofa, but really, a love seat is just a big chair. You can't lay down on it. Two adults don't feel all that comfortable sitting on it. It's not a practical piece of furniture, so I let Casey wedge put it in his room. Now I have two lovely mismatched, but comfortable sofas in my living room. Not for long though. I'll update with pictures when they look more like a matching set. Thoughts/suggestions on fabric are welcomed.

Enough gibber-jabber,  time for gratitude.

• I am grateful for the hope of a new day. Even in the midst of some sad times this week, I've never felt hopeless and for that I'm very grateful.
• I'm grateful for my family. Through good times and bad, I love them with all my heart.
• I'm grateful for the diversion of painting and reupholstering. Choosing colors and fabric. The freshening it represents, both literally and metaphorically.
• I'm grateful for the handful of tv shows Mitch and I enjoy watching together. We don't get to spend that much time just hanging out, so I enjoy the time we sit together on the couch a couple times a week.
• I'm grateful for this blog.

God knew what He was doing and I am grateful

I was married less than a year after graduating from high school and by 19 I was a mom. I'm sure there were some that shook their heads, maybe whispered that I was too young. I've never felt like I was behind the wheel, so to speak, as far as the direction my life has taken. Not that I have any regrets or would have changed a thing. That's not what I mean, just the opposite. It seems like things have always fallen into place even though I didn't realize it at the time.

I sit here spent, exhausted. My three year old house guest has worn me down. If I ever doubted it before, I am now so convinced that it was a good thing, a very good thing that I had my children young.  If only I had known how to sew back then....

A Christmas skirt with an appliqued tee and headband. Do you think her mom will mind if I send her home with a pile of new duds? Tomorrow, I'm thinking she needs a cute little Christmas apron.

This Gratitude Friday, as much as I am enjoying having a little ball of energy zipping through my house, I am so grateful I had my children young. 

Gratitude Saturday... Thank You Veterans

To those now serving and to those who have served our country, I am grateful. So deeply grateful for the sacrifices you make to keep our country free. I am also so aware of the sacrifices made by the families of our soldiers. Thank you!!

(the above picture was found and is available for  download here)

Gratitude Friday to be held on Saturday....

Just a quick little post since I, in a what was I thinking moment, committed to post everyday this month. I am so tired that I don't think I can convince my brain and fingers to work together long enough to type a coherent post. I don't want my gratitude list to be half-hearted so I'll make tomorrow Gratitude Saturday.

I've had the pleasure this week of corresponding by email with a very nice lady named Mariese. She was writing to tell me she enjoyed my reading my blog. She doesn't have a blog herself but enjoys sewing and and wanted to share with me a picture of a quilt she made for her son, Niko. I asked if she minded if I share the picture of Niko's quilt.

Isn't this amazing?  Thank you for sharing this Mariese.

Gratitude Friday...grateful for who I am

 

What comes to mind when you hear the word craft or crafter? I'm sure it varies depending upon whether or not you consider yourself a crafter. Since discovering blogs and wonderful sights like craftster I've thought of myself as a crafter. If you had asked me a year or more ago I may not have felt the same. Even though I had really started to love sewing, and spray painted any and everything that didn't run away from me, I wouldn't have called myself a crafter. I think visions of sitting at the kitchen table cutting and pasting or gluing popsicle sticks would have come to mind. Crafts are the things kids do at camp. Those kind of projects that are fun to make and then you think, ok now what do I do with it? Even if it's useful, how many woven potholders or sun-catchers do you really need? I think those are the kind of images that come to many peoples mind when you say I enjoy crafting or I am a crafter. I looked for a definition for crafting, I especially like this one, To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity. Not only do I consider myself a crafter now, I also realize I have always been a crafter. I was raised in a crafting home. I come from a long line of women who made things with their hands. Even if it wasn't called crafting, something was always being made by someone's hands. My mother seemed so naturally gifted at embroidery. My granny sewed with her hands, made wonderful meals, she was a hairdresser. Creating with her hands was as important to her as oxygen. Her mother crafted out of necessity no doubt, a farmers wife with 9 children. Blair wrote such a beautiful post today discussing her feelings about why she crafts and how it is like breathing to her. How there came a time when arthritis made it impossible for her grandmother to knit or sew and how she wished she would have asked her how she felt about that. I guess what I seem to be all over the place trying to say is, I've always been a crafter but I haven't always known it or embraced it and because of that I missed out on so many lessons I could have learned. So many conversations I could have had. In Stitch 'N Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, Debbie Stoller discusses how after the feminist revolution of the 70s skills like knitting and sewing and housework were looked down upon. Though many of us grew up wearing clothes that were made by the loving hands of our mothers or grandmothers skills like sewing and knitting were not embraced. Perhaps because it no longer seemed a necessity to be able to sew or knit for your family when anything needed could be purchased at the local mall or discount store. Learning to sew wasn't something that even entered my mind as a teen. Even in my 20s, I was focused on juggling work with 2 small children. I dabbled in things creative. I made my share of country crafts in the 80s when big ruffled country curtains were the rage. Lots of gluing silk flowers to miniature wicker chairs and straw hats, oh the horror, but at the time I thought it was quite lovely. Yes crafting has always been there, it's part of my DNA and only recently have I fully embraced it as such a part of who I am. I wish I had embraced it earlier when my granny was still here and could have looked on in pride, as I know she would have. I hope I will be able to share my meager skills with Alyssa. She hasn't realized she has it in her DNA, but I know she does. She's her mother's daughter.

This Gratitude Friday, I'm grateful to be a crafter, grateful that it's as much a part of me as breathing and grateful to have found this community of others who feel the same. I'm also grateful to be crafting out of love and not because I have to make clothes for 9 children.

Gratitude Friday, happy thoughts...

Sometimes these gratitude Friday posts end up being quite heavy and serious. It's not something I intend, I don't sit down with the intention of pouring my heart out but when my mind goes to all that I have to be thankful for sometimes... ok many times, I end up feeling nostalgic and emotional. Today, even though the weather outside is cool and rainy, rather dreary, I want this to be a light hearted, fun gratitude Friday. Nothing serious allowed. I'm going to sit here and concentrate on things that make me smile, things that warm my heart, things that are mischievously humorous... you get the picture. Here goes in no particular order...

• the many, many private jokes I share with Mitch. He has a wickedly dry sense of humor and makes me laugh everyday. Almost everyday, unless I'm intentionally pouting and am determined not to be made laugh. Yea, it happens. It's out, I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old boy sometimes and the attitude of a 13 year old girl. I'm multidimensional, that's what I like to call it....
• watching videos from when the kids where little guys. Why didn't I use that video camera more? Love taking those strolls down memory lane and I love hearing the kids laugh and make fun of our clothes and hairdos. Their time's coming.
• Getting a great deal on something. I LOVE a bargain. It does my heart good to feel like I paid a fraction of the original price of something.
• In that same vein, I love finding a bargain that may not seem like a bargain to others. Like finding a great mirror at a thrift store for $6.00, giving it a good coat of spray paint and ending up with a $60.00 mirror. LOVE IT!!
• Chocolate Pie. Not just any chocolate pie. It must be made by the hands of an older southern lady. Likely found at church functions. Handmade crust, a yummy, creamy, smooth chocolate custard like filling and meringue topping. Heaven on earth.
• While we're talking about food let me say I could eat my weight in chips and salsa.
• A juicy steak cooked on the grill... time to think of something besides food
• Mail, except for bills. Bills don't make me happy at all but a box in the mail is quite nice.
• Denny Crane... do you watch Boston Legal? Denny is so irreverent, so unapologetic, and many times down right crude and rude, but I love him with his mad cow disease. (the 10 year old boy in me loves him) Alan is pretty funny too
• While we're talking about funny tv shows, Grey's Anatomy makes me giggle
• I laugh every time I watch any Austin Powers movie
• We haven't done it lately, but Casey and I have competitions to see who can scare the other the most. You know, by standing inside a doorway and jumping out..BOO! I like scaring him better than the other way around. Once I waited in the hall in front of his bedroom door wearing a scary Halloween mask. He came in the door and walked straight to his room, it was dark in the hall and... well you get it. He nearly peed his pants but then recovered enough to call his dad to come look at something in his room and we got him too. Funny stuff to the 10 year old boy living inside me.

This was fun, I have a big smile on my face and don't even mind the dreary rain outside my window. When life hands you cool rainy days... go make chili. But which one?

We're really the same...only different

Mitch and I that is. So alike, so different. We go together like peanut butter and jelly. Today I went thrifting and on my way out the door saw a set of tables. A round coffee table and matching end table. $15.00 for both. I've wanted a round coffee table so back inside I went and paid the lady. On the short drive home I played the conversation in my mind that would likely take place at home. The converstaion where I ask Mitch to go pick up my purchases with his truck since  they wouldn't fit in my car...the grumbling that would ensue... you don't need a coffee table...what are you going to do with the one we have? As I was gearing up to defend myself  I pulled into the driveway and looked back towards his garage. The garage he paints and tinkers in. I knew exactly what I would say. He buys things he doesn't need because he sees the potential. He too loves taking something others see as junk and making it beautiful, cars in his case. And when I say something others see as junk, I include myself. You have no vision, no imagination, he says. True. When he brings home a pile of metal that looks like this.

I see rust and missing parts and... junk. Just like when I bring home a pile of thrifted clothes with visions of purses...

 

He sees... . thrifted clothes. Someone's cast offs. So I knew when he started the grumbling about not needing, and where are we going to put it, I knew what my response would be and it made me smile. "We are one in the same. Your junk is in the form of rusty old cars, mine is in the form of second hand furniture and clothes."  How alike we are. How happy it makes us to start with something no one else wants and with a little time and effort have something beautiful. I guess it would be nice to be able to afford to buy new and fancy furniture, I guess it would. I really wouldn't know and likely never will, but somehow I think the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes from doing it myself is much nicer. 

This gratitude Friday I'm grateful to be married to someone so like me, only different. I'm grateful for whatever it is that's in me that makes me want to, no need to create and grateful that same need lives inside my best friend.

Gratitude Friday

It's that time again, time to pause and reflect on what it is this week, this day that I am grateful for. Here is where I may offend/alienate/turn-off some readers. I hope not but I can't let fear of what others may think of me keep me from being who I am. I am a Christian, a child of God. How can I expect God to welcome me into heaven one day if I am afraid to talk about Him with those I call friends? We've had revival at my church this week. Is that a baptist thing or a southern thing? Do folks in other parts of the country or world have revival at church? We had a visiting minister speak for three services. This is the second year Reverend Grant has preached at our church for revival. I could go on and on about the sermons he delivered and how his words touched me, but I won't. I will touch on what I took away from his message, what touched my heart and spoke directly to me. The first night he spoke about increasing our faith and knowing that this world isn't all there is. Oh, that is so hard for me. I am a Christian because I was born into a Christian family. It's all I know. The part of me that thinks I'm so smart, the nurse in me who needs a scientific answer to everything wonders how? I can't see it or imagine it, how can it be? I feel my mortality probably more than the average 38 year old. I have a disease that took my mother at 38. I fear death. That isn't something Christians are supposed to do. We are supposed to know that heaven is a far better place than this world and look forward to the day when we go there. I am not to that place yet. I have had times in my life when I questioned my faith, again that part of me who is sooo smart and sooo logical. All I have to do is remember the night I sat beside my mother's hospital bed. The night before she died. Her death was not sudden, she had been sick for a long time. She knew the end was very near when she woke up coughing up blood on the morning of May 13th 1988. Friday the 13th. Not bloody mucous, she was coughing up bright red blood and lots of it. I cannot even imagine the fear she must have had, The sadness, knowing that the crappy lungs she'd had all her life had all they could take. I remember it like it was yesterday. I sat with her in her bedroom waiting for the ambulance to arrive, not sure she would ever come home again. She did, for a week or so, but it was a steady decline from that morning until June 2 when she took her last labored breath. On the night of June 1st as I sat beside her bed, she was in a comatose state. Her oxygen level was so low she was barely alive. I sat with my eyes closed thinking and praying. It occurred to me I would probably never hear her voice again. Just as that thought came to my mind she opened her eyes for the first time in days and out of the blue with the clearest voice she said "I want hugs... I want hugs and kisses" Those are the last words I heard my mother say. I know in my heart that my prayer was heard. I know that she was so near the presence of the Lord at that moment but was granted the strength to say those words. It truly felt like I witnessed a miracle and that memory is what strengthens my faith when I feel it is weak. Just because we can't explain it scientifically doesn't mean heaven doesn't exist. There was a time when folks didn't know the earth was round. We humans aren't as smart as we seem to think we are. I am grateful this week for Reverend Grant and the words he spoke. The words that gave me more than a little to think about and even more to work on in my own life. So this gratitude Friday I want to not just say what I am grateful for but think of ways I can better show my gratitude.

• I am  grateful for my eyes and the ability to see and hope to use these eyes to see the good in others.
• I am grateful for my  hands and hope to use my hands to be of service to others instead of being so caught up in doing what I want to do.
• I am grateful for my voice and hope to use my voice in a way that is kind and loving and not judgmental and demeaning.
• I am grateful to have been loved and forgiven and hope to reflect that spirit of love and forgiveness.
• I am grateful that I have more than I need and hope to do more to share with those who don't.
• I am grateful for the ability to learn and hope to do more to teach others.
• I am grateful for this life and hope that my time here will have affected someone in a positive way.

Have a wonderful weekend!