Honor bag newly listed

I was attempting to finish those last few churn dash blocks today and found a batik bag I had started on last week laying on my ironing board, burried under already completed churn dash blocks. It needed about 10 minutes worth of work to finish it, so I did and listed it on etsy this afternoon.

It's not anything particularly fancy, but I really like the button. It looks like an old world-type, or family crest with banner, lions and the word HONOR across the bottom.

My daughter is particularly unhappy tonight, since she has replaced naps with simply being put to sleep 10 times a day. Not good for her or me, or her brother who can't figure out why mama has such a short fuse. My younger sister is spending the night until Halloween and she is a good help playing with him, albeit a noisy one.

I tried to sew some tonight for 4 minutes, during which Hannah started crying and my tension messed up so badly I'm not sure I can fix it. Sheesh.

I'm having a housefull of people on Friday, sort of an impromptu Halloween party although that's not what I set out for. I'm pretty much against Christians participating in Halloween whatsoever. I did a lot of research on the origins of it (and druidism) in highschool and decided I couldn't personally see how any part of this day that celebrates satan would be okay for Christians. But alas, I am a hypocrite. We decided to hand out candy last year since there are 3 million kids in our apt complex, and Jeremiah was really excited about it so Tony said he's allowed to go trick-or-treating this year. Since he already has several costumes (Darth Vader, pirate, handyman) I didn't have to buy a costume! But, I am still having 13 extra people over on Friday night!!!

When I'm stressed, it makes me feel better to clean. So in a frenzy I got my kitchen cleaned. Alright, Hannah started crying so I only got half of it cleaned. Actually, I just got one counter and the stove cleaned before I had to take her. I do feel a little better though.

Now if only the sewing machine fairy would bippity-boppity-boo my tension correct!

Nothing Doing

So I have been talking about churn dash blocks for my swap a lot. Of course, between the two swaps I'm doing 100 blocks, so that's a lot of blocks to talk about. For the last week or so I've only needed to do 4 more sets of churn dash blocks and I am procrastinating like all get out. Got one of those sets done a couple days ago. Got one done today. Ran out of bobbin thread. Darn it, now I can't finish my blocks! Could wind some more bobbins, but .... I forgot where I was going with that.

I'm still in that kind of blah mood I've had. It's keeping me from being very productive. Although, I am sometimes more productive in a day than some people are in a week. I get it from my Mom. Today was not one of those days. I made dinner, vacuumed the floor, bathed the baby. That's about it. Oh, I did soak and peel the labels off of 12 beer bottles, load the dishwasher and do a load of laundry. Not sure the beer bottles count as actually being productive. There was a reason for it though: we're saving cans to recycle (figure we can put the change we get for them in the kids' piggy banks) and I figured, might as well recycle the glass from the bottles too. Then I thought maybe the recycling center wouldn't take the bottles with labels on them. *shrugs* How do I know? I've not recylced anything since I was 8 and Dad used to take cans to Matt's Recycling Center and his chain-smoking wife would give me a Dum-Dum lolli. Matt's wife, by the way, not Dad's. So now my bottles are labelless and ready to be taken. Feel pretty good about myself for "going green" in that direction... might have to have a beer to celebrate. Nah.

Did get a pair of booties knitted (knit?) for my goddaughter Lily. Think I'll make her a matching boggin hat, although Mom gave her a Frog hat for her birthday in August. Maybe she doesn't need a hat afterall. I need to knit my niece Aubree a hat, knit Hannah another one, and make my uncle a quilt for Christmas. I saw a sign the other day that said "19 days until..." something I misread and panicked. Thought Christmas had sneaked up on me somehow. Got over the initial panic, realized it's 2 months away, and went back to procrastinating.

My husband will be home in 15 minutes. We're going to town in the morning and I'm going to vote while he does something with an old Chevy truck he has parked at a friend's house. Let him stand in line on the 4th, HA! Right now I'm making Jeremiah pick up all the diapers he slung all over the floor--clean ones, don't worry. Wonder if I should go jump in the shower or wind a bobbin.

Tough decision, might just have to have a cookie.

Quick, QUICK Skillet Dinner

Don't know whether to call this "South West" or "Slightly Cajun" but it is SO quick, takes less than 5 minutes to put together, about 15-20 to simmer on the stove (without being watched, AWESOME!) and is delicious! Fairly cheap to make too, plus, it's got veggies...

Ingredients:
1 box Zataran's black beans and rice (or dirty rice)
2 2/3 cups water
1/2 of a polish/smoked sausage, sliced into pieces
1/2 cup frozen kernel corn
1 tomato, diced
1 small onion, diced
reduced fat sour cream
shredded cheese

Combine rice, water, sausage, corn, tomato and onion in a pot and simmer until rice is cooked--about 15-20 minutes. It will still look a little "watery" but allow to cool a couple minutes and it thickens up. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. That is IT!

My 3 year old loves it. It's good without the sour cream, but if you use the dirty rice it's a little spicy so I always put the sour cream in Jeremiah's--takes away from the spice. This would be perfect to sneak a couple more veggies in too. Shred a carrot or very finely chop some celery and they would almost disappear. Your family can eat veggies without realizing it.

Thank God for leaky toilets!

Yes, the title says it all. I should mention we live in an appartment and the single greatest thing about it is whenever anything breaks, big or small, you call the office and one of the maintenance guys fixes it! Yesterday Tony discovered the toilet in our master-bath was leaking. The masterbath, which one must not only traverse my living room but also my hallway and bedroom to get to.

My living room strewn with children's toys and various burp rags/blankets/old shirts in the state of being burped on.
My hallway with a pile of laundry.
My room with the bed unmade, a pile of Tony's clothes in the walkway to the bathroom and mountains of baby clothes needding to be sorted and boxed up or put away.
My bathroom with the laundry hamper full, the sink, floor and toilet needing to be thuroughly cleaned.... ahh yes, just call the office so some stranger can come journey through my mess.

No, I would not! So between yesterday noon and today I vacuumed the living room, hallway and my room. Did 3 (maybe 4) loads of laundry, folded 5. Boxed up 2 boxes of outgrown Hannah clothes and resorted her chest of drawers. I cleaned my toilet and sink. I swept and mopped my bathroom and kitchen. I started work on 2 more batik bags and I finished my oriental/Christmas themed one and listed it on etsy. I even managed to take a shower!

I'm exhausted, I'm slightly befuddled like I can't remember dh is trying to get in the shower so I start the dishwasher. Oops. All this brings me to:


New bags!
Inspired by the movie "A Christmas Story" I created a bag made from a fusion of quirky asian fabrics and sparkling Christmas fabrics. The idea was great, it was tremendous and I didn't think it would work, but it does! So I present the "Fa-ra-ra ra-ra" bag! I'm pretty excited about it...


Next I have the previously mentioned bag made from civil war repros. I've named it "War is NOT Civil" and will be listing it in the morning when I get back from the Dr with Hannah. I'm pretty in to civil war repros right now. I always used to think they were boring, but since I've had an eye out for them with a king sized quilt in mind, all kinds of possibilities have opened up.


For now I think I'm done with "themed" bags (orange, purple, cw repro, asian/Christmas, fun and brights) and I'm going back to my regular, ol' scrappy batik bags. They really are my favorites...there is something so hippy and off the beaten path to them. I have 2 more in the works as I type, hopefully I can finish them tomorrow and list them over the weekend. Along with praying for more sales, I am stubbornly making more merchandise again. One of the batik ones I'm working on is going to have a Claddagh button. Pretty neat!


Is it sad when a person is this excited over new buttons?

Perfect tatertots

I am a great big, moping through life, not getting much done blob today--this week! This getting really terrible night's sleep is starting to wear on me. I am usually a get and and get stuff done, quickly, type of person. I thank my mother for it (I think my hubby blames it on my mother, LOL!) Seriously, Tony usually makes fun of me for my love of vacuuming. I have managed (in the last 18 months) to suck the nap off our carpet in certain high-traffic areas. I think all carpets should have those nice, freshly vacuumed lines in them. It makes the house feel peaceful. Right now it's been a week since I vacuumed. *sigh*

I did get a bag done from civil war repros! I cannot list it on etsy, or post a picture here, because Mom stole my digital camera Thursday night and I just realized it. Anyway, the bag is great. I love it, can't wait to list it so other people can see it. I guess I will work on the other one themed one I want to make and list them at the same time on Wed--if she brings my camera back.

Or I could finish cleaning my living room and kitchen, and do Jeremiah's bathroom. The boy can trash a bathroom in a day! How? Hannah is up now, thank God I got dinner in the oven already. I made a cheeseburger casserole topped with tater-tots, very gourmet.

At least my tatertots are arranged in a perfect bullseye.

Is it procrastingating if you just don't care?

I am so tired my sight is actually blurry.
Hannah cried in her sleep all night long, I guess her ears are still hurting her. My mother in law Cheryl suddenly got a bee up her butt about have the grandkids pictures taken for Christmas and while we're at it, a family portraight. I think it's a great idea too!

She got Hannah and our neice Aubree sort of matching outfits in red, white and black and plaid...then decided we should all wear those colors. Tony and I had black pants each but no shirts, and Jeremiah didn't have anything that color. So Cheryl came by and picked me and the kids up so we could go to Penny's. We got me a bright red blouse, Tony a gorgeous black dress shirt and hot pink tie (which Cheryl says he is NOT allowed to wear for the pictures!) and Jeremiah an adorable set of black pants, red shirt, grey vest and tie.

Met Tony and went to the local chinese place for dinner, then we had to hit Walmart for some black shoes for J and some tights for Aubree. I forgot to get Tony a picture-appropriate tie.

I did however get some more iron-on appliques for my bags. I got a few buttons last week when JoAnn's had them on sale, and my aunt says she had a box of buttons from my great grandmother I can look through. Buttons from the 30s, 40s, etc...awesome, I'll be able to add a "vintage" tag to my etsy listings! A generous fellow quilter also sent me an 1/8th yard of a wonderfully ugly green lobster batik I can use in a bag sometime. Yesterday I pulled a bunch of fabric scraps to make two non-batik, themed bags. Now to sit down and make them. *sigh*

My sister Veronica asked me to make a smallish bag from bright colors for her friend's birthday, which she filled full of nail polish and stuff. Mom tells me it was a major hit and several of the other Moms were asking about my bags. Maybe I'll get some sales. Either way, I think it might be a good idea to make a couple that size and list them anyway.

Tomorrow we have church, then a trip to Sam's Club for meat, then pictures at 3:30pm. Probably won't get any sewing done then either. But I might get some downtime! Nah...

If only my head would explode

I would probably feel better. I woke up with a slight headache today that has gotten worse and worse as the day has drawn on. I've tried Excederin, I've tried caffiene...didn't get to try a nap, that might have helped. Hannah is still not hardly sleeping, and only sleeping for a few minutes when she does. We got her some antibiotics today so hopefully in a couple days her poor little ear will feel better and both of us will get some sleep.

Still borrowing Diantha. My house is looking better, because of it I think. I cleaned up the living room and vacuumed today while she played with Hannah for me. Got the dishwasher unloaded and loaded and the counters clean too. Managed to make a halfway decent dinner of enchiladas, although in the middle of fixing it I realized I didn't buy sour cream or mexican rice to have with it like we usually do. Oh well.

Sold another bag today! I'm so thrilled! We're using the little bit of money I've been making off bags to Christmas shop, and I'm glad to have the money to do that with. Tony works so hard for everything we have and even though I have the major job of keeping house and children, it makes me feel good to make a little money of my own on the side. Even though we always use "my" money for "our" stuff, I am alright with that. I makes me feel like I help or contribute a little as well since Tony never refers to the money he brings home each week as "his." Any money either of us make has been, since we started going out, ours. We're a joint effort, our relationship, our money, everything.

I also made two little bags tonight. My sister Veronica asked me to make one for her friend Keely, who is turning 10 or is 10...for her birthday. She said she likes pink, purple and girly things. I made a bag out of regular quilting fabric scraps and decided it might be too small for a 10 yr old, it's about the size of a trade paperback. So I made a slightly bigger one. I'll let the girls pick which one they should give Keely and the other I'll list on etsy, or if I'm left with the smaller one we'll give it to our littlest niece for Christmas. I was going to make her a little bity bag anyway.

1-800-Borrowa-Kid and New Bags!

I have a sort of "borrow a kid" program with my Mom. I suppose it's yet another perk of being the oldest of 7; need help? borrow a kid! Hannah has been working on an ear infection and although her Dr tells us it isn't full-blown yet, it's enough to make her miserable so I've been spending about 20 hours a day (seriously) holding or nursing, or both, the baby.

So I borrowed my sister Diantha last evening. She spent the night and today has alternated helping either laundry or walking Hannah around for me. With her help my dishwasher has been run, 2 loads of my laundry has been put up, all the kids laundry (3 large loads) has been sorted. Now I just need to match up their clothes into outfits and all that can be put up.
I also managed to make dinner, finish quilting a purple bag, entirely make an orange one and list them on etsy and give Jeremiah a shower. I have not, however managed to get "dressed" although I have changed my clothes a couple times cause Hannah has thrown up on me. I guess I'll take a shower.

When I write it out, it seems like a productive day. So why is my house utterly trashed in every room, and it looks like I've done absolutely nothing?

Mom and Diantha were my inspirations for my two new bags. Mom's main color is PURPLE, purple everything--even hair aand glasses. Diantha's is ORANGE; she says it's the best color in the world! So there, my tribute to them, be it ever so small and for sale, LoL!!

Oh, I did sell a bag this morning! I am so excited because it had been a few weeks since I'd had a sale and was getting very discouraged. I think that's why I started working on that purple one the other day, it's kind of like an obstinent sort of faith. The Bible says that Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen. So in faith I began to work on more bags, even though I hadn't sold any in a while and a day later I had a sale. Neat, huh?! Now if I could just sell all the other bags and the quilt I have listed I could pay for the rest of our Christmas shopping, LoL!

My internet is crawling along tonight making my angry. I need to get up and do something else to make my house look better since my husband will be home in half an hour, but now Hannah is asleep on me and the poor baby hasn't had more 20 minutes of sleep in the last 11 hours. Guess I'll just sit here; good thing I borrowed a kid!

Victory is MINE...sorta

"Victory is mine!" I say like Stewie from Family Guy. The Bible tells us that we, in Christ, have victory and favor and though usually we believe the lies of the devil and it doesn't feel like it, today I have accomplished a small victory but a victory nonetheless.

This morning not only did I manage to shower and vacuum, despite the fact that my hubby was at a men's prayer breakfast at church, I also finished putting together all the sets of blocks I had cut out for my civil war repros swaps! I have all 10 sets of Friendship Stars finished and pressed and 6 sets of Churn Dashes finished and pressed. That means I need only to cut out and make 4 more sets of Churn Dashes, a measely 20 blocks. It is my intention to make 2 more sets of stars, but the deadline isn't until the 31st so I have time and if I don't get to them, they were just to stash anyway.

The past couple days there has been a lot of needless drama on the N2Quilting list I am a moderator on. People not acting like adults, playing fairly, needlessly taking offense at pointless things and making assumptions. Blah, blah, blah, so much trouble. The good thing is in an effort to move on, list participation and conversation is WAY up. Trying to decide on swaps to finish out this year and next. We'll see if SWAP participation matches the conversation. Would be ashamed to have all these lovely swaps and only have a couple people send in for them.

Still haven't made any new purses. I'd like to now that I have the majority of my quilt blocks done and don't have little cut out bits everywhere. I'm thinking of making some batik potholders like my bags, but we'll see.

I am suddenly so very tired. It is if I quite literally ran out of steam. For some reason my body hurts all over too, which doesn't help my being tired any. Tony is off to work soon and hopefully the kids and I will get a nap. I think maybe the rest of the day I will sit around with them and maybe knit. I attempted to knit a pair of slipper socks for one of my nieces but they are too big. They fit Jeremiah around although they are a little short. I think I will finish the second sock that is on my needles and stick them back for an angel tree kid for Christmas. We do about 10 kids off the angel tree every year, and if I look for one a little younger than Jeremiah who wears about a size 8 shoe the slippers should fit perfectly.

Since I feel weary right now, both in body and spirit it seems, I will include what I hope will be a couple encouraging scriptures from the Word--encouraging to both me and whomever might stumble on this blog today.

Jeremiah 31:25 tells us, "For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing."
and Matthew 11:28 says, "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. "

Allow the Lord to ease any burden you might be feeling, sometimes we hold on to problems we face, dwelling on them and keeping the pain close to us. Ask and trust Him to give rest and peace to you today. And He will!

A sort of quilty week, so far

I'm actually getting to work on some sewing a little at a time thisweek! I've managed to get 6 sets of friendship stars done (this week, already had 2 done) for the civil war repros swap, 2 more cutout and another set of churn dashes cut out. I hope to get the HSTs sewn and pressed tonight so they can be squared up and assembled tomorrow.

My housework is lacking a little, but I figure we all have to make sacrifices! I think while I'm at making these quilt blocks I'm going to make a couple sets extra and save them for a future secret pal gift. Since I'm hosting the swap, I can make any number of extra blocks I choose, not just sets of 5. So I'm thinking maybe make 12 extra blocks. They are 9.5" blocks and someday I can send them with some civil war repro fabric for sashing and cornerstones and it will make one great secret pal gift. Would to me anyway.

I made the "mistake" of taking my beloved husband to the fabricstore with me on Sunday. All I needed was pieces of WoC fabrics totalling 2 1/3 yds to finish all my civil war blocks. While I looked for them, Tony pushed Hannah around in her stroller while Jeremiah roamed and Tony game up with about 15 flannels he wanted for me to make Hannah a shaggy quilt! Of course, I only bought 1/4yd cuts of these because the quilt only needs be twin sized, but still! What alot of work in my very near future, LoL!!

I should explain that my very large, hairy, manly, bear of a husband just about thinks the world should be extra padded, and covered with either flannel, satin or t-shirt knit. He lovdes double-padded squishy carpets, satin sheets and "his" flannel shaggy. I need to add 22, 8" finished flannel blocks to that as it is, because it is queen sized and now our bed is king sized. Our shaggy was the product of several rounds of the flannel squares swap we used to do, all plaid. Jeremiah has a crib sized, plaid flannel shaggy as well--to match Daddy's of course! We asked him i f he wanted his added on to so it would fit his twin bed and he said no, it's the size to snuggle on the couch. Whew!

I knit Hannah a pair of slipper socks/booties that ended up being HUGE on her so I gave them to Betsy Boo tonight. She grinned and grinned; she LOVES knitted things.

I started my "newborn" on babyfood this week! Hard to believe she will be 6mo old on Friday!!!Boy does she love this food thing, LoL! Had been begging and yelling if we sat at the table without her for months already. She'd been throwing up after nursing, so I tried giving her some sweet tea. I figured the anti-nausea syrup is basically sugar anyway, and the caffiene in tea has never bothered Jeremiah. It doesn't seem to bother her either, she LOVES it. I keep having these Southern babies who are all about sweet tea, biscuits and gravy...and football.

I'm so frazzled

I'm so frazzled I probably glow in the dark. Wait, that doesn't make any sense...does it? See what I mean?

I can't exactly put my finger on why, I think it's just an overwhelming feeling that's been building for a couple days. I love my husband, I LOVE when he finally gets a day off, I love, love spending time with him and the kids. However, when he is off it always seems like so much work for me. We run, or we're home and we do stuff. I don't get to normal stuff I usually do around the house and I definitely don't get to any extra creative stuff I want to.

Tony went back to work today so we got up and went grocery shopping as usual, then home to put them up, change/feed the baby then the kids and I headed out to Mom's. She was having a yard sale and I deactivated a few etsy.com listings for my bags so I could hang them off the shoulder of a dress dummy in her front yard, LOL! Thought I could get some sewing done while I was there, but only got about 15 minutes of "cutting" done then I had to go to walmart.

I took my 13yr old sister, my 3 yr old son, my 18mo old sister and my 3mo old daughter with me. Hannah and Beverly cried all 4 miles to Walmart so I got to walk around holding Hannah instead of her riding in her stroller. Betsy fell asleep in the cart, sitting straight up holding a skein of yarn, Hannah slept 20mins while we walked around. Got back to Mom's with just enough time to nurse/change the baby so we could all leave to head to my house while my 10yr old sister had a church activity to go to. It's 45 minutes from Mom's house to mine.

Hannah and Beverly screamed until we were quite literally 2 minutes from my door. Jeremiah fell asleep after crying for a few minutes because our little cousin (who is not so suddenly mean, spoiled and selfish) ripped his brand new "Captain Jack (Sparrow) for President" pin out of his shirt (leaving a huge hole) and lost it. *sigh* What do you do?

Got home, made dinner whilst Hannah cried and threw up, and Beverly got into things. I thought the night culminated in just as they were getting ready to leave, Hannah projectile vomited all over me (after B nearly hit her with 8 books pulled out of my new bookcase) and then blew raspberries at me spraying barf all over my face. I sat right down on the floor and cried. Mom, whose day hasn't been any better and was equally overwhelmed but also passing a kidney stone, got me a damp rag to whipe up with.

They left and Hannah and I took a shower. I nursed her to sleep and thought maybe the night would get better until I discovered Mom took my cell phone (only phone) home with her. And Jeremiah just pee'd on himself trying to go potty.

I am going to ignore the utter and total chaos my house is in right now, the loud tv, the quilting deadline looming in front of me and knit Hannah a pair of booties. So there.

Happy Anniversary to me!

Today is my fourth wedding anniversary, and we've pretty much done nothing all day. Tony took Jeremiah over to my aunt and uncle's to work on our bed frame somemore. Hannah and I stayed home making a pot roast and having a bit of a nap.

My present to Tony was a set of hot pink satin sheets for our new king sized bed. He loves satin, he loves pink, LoL! I put them on the bed this afternoon while he was out and it's perfectly tacky looking with a giant red, fake fur, heartshaped pillow Jeremiah got me for my birthday. Looks very comfy!

Tony's gift to me was a bookcase!!! Finally! He said I'd only been asking for 4 years, so he figured it was time, LoL! I LOVE it. I've spent the day digging through closets looking for boxes of books and unpacking them. Then I put them in the shelves, then I rearranged them. Then I ran out of room and messed up my catagories but I guess not everything has to be organized to the slightest speck. Right? Hmmm...

I didn't get any sewing done, I knew I wouldn't. However I did tea-dye 3 pieces of white on white fabric I need for this civil war block swap I'm hosting. The blocks call for white on cream backgrounds, but I couldn't find any the other day that I liked so I bought WoW fabrics, now tea dyed they are WoC's! I also got that baby hat I was knitting finished last night and a giant pompom added to it this afternoon. It is GREAT! I tried it on Hannah since she's the same age as the baby I knit it for and took pictures.

Tomorrow I'm taking the kids up to Mom's. Might take some fabric and borrow her machine. Or, some yarn and knit Hannah some booties. Our weather is finally changing and her toes are cold. Gotta get out of here. My "men" will be returning momentarily from a Sonic run for milkshakes and I've gotta change the baby!