Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day filled with lots of love, family, and good food!

We were missing quite a few people this year so we had a small but good Thanksgiving. I wasn't sure how it would be this year with us having lost Grandpa two months ago. We sure did miss him, but it went so much better than I had expected it to. I think it helped a lot that Grandma had the table set out different...we didn't spend the entire meal looking at the empty chair that would have been his. We all got a little choked up(or at least I did) when it came time for prayer,cause it was a who's going to say it now kind of moment...but we made it through the first Thanksgiving, so I'm sure they will get easier with each passing year.

I only had my oldest son Tyler with me this year. Dylan decided to go to his dads, and Chandler went with my husband Greg to his family's house. So we were a little scattered this year. We were also missing my sister-in-law Jess who had to work, and my aunt, uncle, and cousins from TX....We missed you all, but not to worry...I ate enough pie and food for all of you  :0)...(more cheeseball, and beef rollups for us...lol) Here's a few more pictures of our day together

Me with my nephew Vincent

My nephew Vincent

Too much turkey...lol

My Mom, My grandma, and me

Me, my brother, my grandma, Tyler and Vincent

all of us (except Ken who was taking the pic)

Me and my oldest son Tyler

Me and my grandma

Me and my mom

Papa Ken with Vincent

My brother and my niece Natalie

My mom and step-dad

My nephew Vincent

I have so much in my life to be thankful for...I hope everyone took time out of their day today to reflect on what you have to be thankful for in your own lives, and I hope you found your list to be long!

This song has been stuck in my head all day, so I thought I'd share it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Handmade Holiday's - Part 1

Wow! It's been a while since I posted...Sorry! I've been incredibly busy these last few weeks. I've taken on a not quite full time job now working as a caregiver for a elderly woman.So I just don't have as much time at home as before... But just cause I haven't been blogging doesn't mean I haven't been sewing.

I've decided this year I'm making all my Christmas presents for everyone except my kids...They will probably get a few things handmade too, but the majority of theirs will be bought. So here's what I've been working on for the adults...rice heating pads, in a bag stenciled with a picture of a rice plant...

and for the younger kids I've made these roll up travel bags...

So that's it so far...I still need to work on a couple of stuffed animals for the really little kids...and I'm stuck on what to make for the teen guys...so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Also, once I get a day to slow down a little, I'll try to get tutorials up for the two projects below in case anyone else would like to make them for Christmas.

(also both of these ideas I found online done by many people so I'm not sure who to reference back to)

Hope everyone has a great day!  :0)

Halloween 2010

I know its November now, and I'm a little late posting, but here's a few pics of this years Halloween...

Dylan was a Ninja (with purple Nike's...lol)

Tyler was a zombie

Group shot - chandler was scream, Greg was himself, and I was candy corn

 I don't have a closeup shot of Chandler yet, but I'll post it when I get it....I didn't end up making anyone's costume this year except my own, and it was a last minute throw together in an hour project...lol...but here's the closeup for it

Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween...Now it's time to start looking forward to Thanksgiving and working on Christmas presents :0)

 

Super Style Bag Swap Reveal

A while ago I decided to join the Super Style Bag Swap being put together by Sew Mama Sew...This was the first swap of any kind I had ever done, and I had a blast! I will definitely do another one. I got paired up with an amazing Bag Swap partner and I think it's safe to say not only did I receive an incredible bag from her I made a new friend. :0)

I was really nervous for her to get my bag. I normally don't sew from patterns, but for the swap I used the Blossom bag pattern by Amy Butler. It involved a LOT of cutting and ironing, but I was really pleased with how well the bag went together. I made it in a pretty yellow and grey print material...I loved the material, but I was nervous that she wouldn't like it as much. I just received an email from her saying that she got it and loved it...so I can breathe a sigh of relief and now post some pictures! I do have to say before I post them that the bag is not quite as dark of a yellow as the camera makes it look...It's a little softer. :0)

Here's a picture of the bag my swap partner sent to me.

I seriously love it! It was perfect, and so well made! As a late birthday present she even made me a little matching make-up bag...It's adorable...I don't have a pic of it though so you'll just have to take my word on it :0)
I have to say this has been a lot of fun. If you've never participated in a swap I highly recommend it...Head on over here to see the flicker group where all the finished purses are getting uploaded.

Upcoming Product Review

This is turning out to be a great day! Not only did my hoodie turn out awesome, but I was also contacted by CSN to do a product review. CSN is made up of more than 200 online shops offering a huge selection of products ranging from drop leaf tables and bedroom sets to toys, office and home decor. Not sure what product I am going to get to review yet, but I'm excited! I'll let you know more once I receive it  :0)


Hope everyone has had a great day!

My first no pattern hoodie!

I'm really excited and proud of myself today...I made my very first hoodie, with no pattern or anything...and it worked perfectly! I normally don't use patterns, but I also normally don't sew anything wearable for myself. It seems so much easier to make something quick for kids. I quit smoking last year and have put on a few pounds, and I now have a closet full of clothes that no longer fit...sooo...I'm going to be forcing myself to make stuff for me more often. I was going to make a tutorial for this, but I wasn't 100% sure if it was going to actually fit together right, so I didn't end up making one.  Please excuse the fact that I look like a complete dork in these pics..lol...I had to have my oldest son take the pictures  :0)

Pillowcases

Just a quick update on what I was working on this weekend...Yep you guessed it...

Pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.

  

 I managed to get 10 of them finished this weekend. I have to say these were so easy, I will never buy another pillowcase again!

The instructions on the ConKerr Cancer website could be a little confusing especially for a beginner, so if you would like to check it out, MADE has a wonderful tutorial here on how to make these, and it's super easy.

Can't wait to see everyone's pillowcases!

ConKerr Cancer

I received an email today about a donation campaign going on in my area for ConKerr Cancer. This is a wonderful group that makes cheerful pillowcases for children in hospitals who have Cancer. The ones made through this campaign will be going to our new Riley Children's Hospital  at Gateway Hospital here in my hometown (Evansville, IN)...This is an important project to me for a couple of different reasons...

My Grandpa just passed away from Cancer within this last month. No, he was not a child, but Cancer affects all of us. Not only the person going through it, but their entire family and friends. It's a horrible disease.

Riley Children's Hospital is important to us because they do great things for kids. It is where our youngest son had his surgery at 6 weeks old to correct his Imperforate Anus, and also where my nephew just had surgery to correct a heart murmur. They are an amazing hospital who do amazing things for children.

This is something so simple, that even beginners can do with no problem, that will not take up a lot of your time, and that will bring a lot of joy to a chronically ill child and their family.

In just over two years ConKerr Cancer has...

• Delivered over 240,000 cheerful pillowcases to sick children in hospitals across the country.

• Established 117 chapters (so far) serving children in 203 hospitals and pediatric hospices across the United States, Canada, South Africa, the UK, and Israel.

• Recruited Thousands of volunteers -young and old - to sew and donate pillowcases

• Recognized nationally by Martha Stewart, Omni Media, Talbots, Bank of America, Pfaff, and Loreal.

So here's what I'd like everyone to do:  Go through your fabric stash for any fun,bright,cheerful  material you might have that you would be willing to  part with to make pillowcases. Go here to get the pillowcase directions Once made please wash them for the protection of the children with suppressed immunity. Place each pillowcase in a Ziploc bag. You may include a note of encouragement for the sick child if you would like. Contact me for contact information to get the pillowcases to me. These MUST be given to the representative for ConKerr Cancer! DO NOT deliver to the hospital yourself. I will collect them then get them to the appropriate place. I must receive these no later than Nov. 3, 2010 I know there is a few of you out there who can't sew, or don't have time. If you would still like to do something to help, you can get the material to me and I can make your pillowcases for you or you can click here to give a monetary donation straight to ConKerr Cancer. ConKerr Cancer is a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization. All donations of money, materials, and pillowcases are tax deductible under current IRS rules. Pass this message along to your friends also... This is something that school groups, sewing circles, church groups, fabric stores, girl scout troops, etc could all  pitch in and make pillowcases for the kids. Please let me know if you plan to participate, and if I can figure out how, I'll make a button for you to post and a linky party to show off all the awesome pillowcases. Thanks!  :0)

Homeschool Field Trip - Southern IL

Last week I took Tyler on a field trip to Southern IL. We had a lot of fun. First stop of the day was to visit grandma. We've been really worried about her and we hadn't had a chance to see her since the funeral. She's holding up so much better than I had expected her to! I'm so proud of her...So we visited with her for a few minutes then headed on our way.

We decided to start our day at Burden Falls. He wanted to be able to climb on the rocks, so this was the perfect place. This was one of the places we always went to when I was a kid. It's too dry right now to completely appreciate how beautiful it is. When it rains the waterfall is flowing and in the bottom it feels like you've stepped into another world...We will have to make a return trip once decides to rain. Have to admit though it wasn't as pretty, the mom in me is glad he didn't have wet rocks to climb down on!

Next stop for us was Garden of the Gods...It tends to get pretty busy since it's one of the well known places to hike, but thankfully it wasn't to busy when we were there.

Tyler liked this rock cause he said it looked like a Cheeseburger...lol

Camel Rock

After Garden of the Gods we decided to go to Rim Rock then we were going to end the day at Pounds Hollow. Both places I had never been to before. So we started walking and we were making fun of these little blue signs that were stuck on the trees ever little bit because it was obvious we were on a trail...

I mean with these little suckers there's no way we're going to get lost..right?.....WRONG...lol...we got lost...we just didn't know it for a while. At one point there was 3 of these on one tree...all pointing different directions...I'm thinking that was part of the problem.

 I do have to say lost or not...Rim Rock and Pounds Hollow were my absolute favorite and we will definitely be going back...next time with a compass and drinks though...

We kept walking and walking and walking...it had said on the sign at the beginning of rim rock that it would take about an hour. It probably would have if we had followed the top part around...but nope we went down the stairs to the bottom, and got off the main trail i guess.

 But really...who could pass this up? It was definitely worth getting lost...these rocks were awesome!

 ...To be completely honest I don't know where we went wrong, but after hiking for at least 2+ hours and ended up at Pounds Hollow...Good news is we were going to go there anyways...bad news is our car was still at Rim Rock...

The trail we were on came out at the beach at Pounds Hollow...Thankfully there were other people there...and bathrooms...and a water fountain...lol...There was 2 older couples who were actually from Evansville too and thankfully they gave us a ride back to our car...which is great because we were debating which would be the better route to walk back the way we came and risk getting lost again and possibly end up stuck out there in the dark, or try to follow the main road...riding with strangers sounded like the better option...lol..don't judge...you'd have done it too :0)

All in all we had a really great day, the weather was perfect, and the scenery beautiful...best part with us getting lost I  think I got in my exercise in for the whole month! :0)