Cut from the same cloth

I wanted to post something very special today! So many people have commented on my new baby things and the sewing projects I have done recently and while it is so wonderful on my pride, I can't take all the credit! I am a third generation seamstress. Both of my grandmothers were excellent with their hands. My Memaw, my maternal grandmother, crocheted the most delicate and intricate doilies. I treasure all of the ones I have. She also has done a beautiful crocheted table cloth for each of her grand kids, even my brother (he's the only grandson) It covered my reception table at my wedding and has been on my table at home for many special occasions. She also made so many afghans. I love to snuggle into them on cold days and think about all of the time she invested in her projects. I miss her so much!
My Nanny, my paternal grandmother, is a quilter. The very first thing I remember her making for me was a "coat of many colors" when I was very small. She made a quilt for me when I got married and embroidered her signature on the back, it's the tiny things that are so special to me. She is where I get my "fabric addiction." I only used quotations because that's what my loved ones call it - I personally don't think it's a problem.
Then there is my mother, the second generation. My mother taught me to use my sewing machine. There is no one out there that can sew more perfectly than Mom. If something isn't right, she will rip it out and start over. She taught me to measure twice, cut once and all that jargon. I loved doing things with my Mom because I knew they would always be perfect. She also could put my vision into something tangible. I would come home and say, "Mom, I wish I had ___?__?__? and she would say, "Oh, we could make that!" She is very creative. I love bouncing ideas off of her - the only thing that she raises an eyebrow at is my choice of fabric, or actually the combination of my choices sometime. I once made a patchwork purse by just shutting my eyes and reaching into the bin for 6 pieces of fabric. She thought it was hideous but it was the first purse I sold at a craft fair! I love my Mom!!
All in all, I guess the love of sewing and creating is in my genes! Thankfully these special ladies loved me enough to share their love of doing it with me. I am so thankful!!

Baby Shower Gifts

I just had to share these overalls and burp cloths I made for a friend to give as a gift at her cousin's baby shower. I thought they turned out so cute!! The little baby girl is going to be a little "cowgirl" so I made the overalls with a vintage pink/brown fabric. I made a set of matching burp cloths, and also a set of polka dot burp cloths.



I am currently making a basket of burp cloths for my beautician to display at her beauty shop. People are always looking for a quick baby gift to pick up and the monograms make it a little more personal! Let me know what you think!

Fun Idea

I made these cute ornaments for my nieces and nephews. I just got empty glass ornaments at Hobby Lobby and filled them with shredded paper that you would use in gift bags. I used glitter stickers to spell their names and cutesie Christmas ribbons were tied to the top! WA-LA! Very inexpensive, yet adorable! These would be great for teachers or Sunday school kids too!
Thanks Sydney for helping Mimi take the pictures!!

Suprise!

Ok, I've lived in my house for 4 years. We bought new furniture when we moved in. I picked a beautiful black Attic Heirlooms hutch that matched my farmhouse table and its black chairs. The hutch is my favorite piece in the whole house. It houses my Fiesta collections of red, sunflower, shamrock, and tangarine. Beautiful colors against the black. WELL, several times I have asked Clint would he please put in the glass shelves in the bottom cabinets so I could maximize the storage of those areas (I'm sure all of your husbands do things the first time they are asked!) WELL, 4 years later the glass shelves are still stored under the guest room bed. OK, now for the suprise. I was cleaning the wood floors in the dining room today. Ever so often when I get a wild hair I love cleaning the floors with a rag down on my hands and knees. Just something about a shiny floor!! (That doesn't happen that often, Lord knows we don't want to put the Swifer Wet Jet people out of business!) So, I'm reaching under the hutch and I see this black strap hanging down. As I press my face to the floor to get a better look I see not only 1 strap but 4. What on earth! So I get the scissors and start cutting blindly through the straps, not seeing a thing of what I am cutting. As I clip the 4th strap this heavy wrapped package falls down on my hands! Ouch! I catch myself yelling because 1. it scared the crap out of me, 2. it kinda hurt 3. I just knew it was a secret treasure left by someone who knew I could use a treasure! I pulled the package out and unwrapped it and, low and behold, its shelves! Wooden shelves! For the bottom cabinets! No wonder my darling husband hadn't installed the glass ones, he KNEW they weren't the right shelves! I'm kinds embarrassed it took 4 years to find them but who in the world would have looked on the very bottom of the piece. And why didn't the furniture salesman tell my the blasted things were under there?? So now I'm happy, I have a clean dining room and I love storage so having the shelves makes me want to clean out the cabinets and rearrange on my new shelves. and I know Clint is so happy I have added another thing to the honeydo list!!

How many people can fit in a king size bed?

This weekend Mom and I met my sister and 2 nieces in Frisco, Texas for some back to school shopping. We met up about 10:30 a.m. and shopped until 7:00 p.m. Yep, that's right 8.5 hours!! OMG. My feet hurt so bad. We topped our night off with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory! Yummy! I got on-line Friday night and got us a room using Priceline.com. Well, I secured a room at the Sheraton Stonebriar for 65.00! Go me! WELL, when we checked in, the only room available was a King room. Yikes! We got a roll-away bed to put in there also. So, what's that mean, you ask. That means Granni got a great nights sleep and Tina and I got to share the bed with two teenage girls! Kings are not meant for 4 people! We got a good 3 hour sleep - Maybe!
We got up Sunday and had breakfast at IHOP before parting ways and heading back home. We had such a good time, parusing good deals, and getting some high fashion items for the girls to start to school in!
Next time I vote Mimi doesn't make the room reservation!

First Day of School

Wednesday was McKenna's first day of 6th grade! He was so excited, can't you tell! Ha! I was more excited than he was...I'm the one that didn't sleep a wink on Tuesday night! I love the beginning of school, I always have. There is just something about the smell of a new box of crayons, or a brand new notebook! Buying school supplies has always been a favorite thing of mine. My Mom always made us save our new school clothes for school, of course, but I remember for days leading up to the first day, I prepared. I chose my outfit, and had all my supplies in my book bag way before the first day. Good times they were!!
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This year McK's teacher is a lady that lived down the road from my family while I was growing up. She is such a precious person and I am thrilled she didn't retire last year! I begged her to at least stay until McKenna got through the 6th grade. So, I decided to make her a little "Thanks for being a teacher" gift for the first day of school. I have several people in my family and some dear friends who are teachers and I know we all take our teachers for granted. I wanted Mrs. Jones to know she was appreciated and we were excited about this year! Of course, McK was mortified I was doing this. He was so embarrassed that I wanted to take him to school and make sure he got settled the first day! Oh dear, nothing like having a teenager in the house!!

I filled this little basket with green and red apples and some of the ingredients to make a yummy apple dip that has cream cheese, toffee bits, and sugar! It is soooo good! I made a cute little card to go along with it and attached the recipe inside. Didn't it make a cute basket! After I finished it, I showed McK and he asked, "Who's taking that to Mrs. Jones?" I replied, "Well, Honey, you are." His face said it all "I'm NOT taking that to her!!" So, who do you think ended up carrying the basket into the classroom? Me, yes! So I carried it in on Wednesday morning and sat it on her desk. I couldn't help but think about him all day and wondered how his day was going. At precisely 4:00 p.m. my phone rang. It was McKenna. Do you want to know what he said? "Mrs. Jones loved her basket, "WE" got her just the right thing. She said, that was sweet of "US." (Did you notice the "we" and the "us" that all of a sudden popped up when she liked the basket?)Haha

I hope next week goes as smoothly as these last few days!
Here is the recipe for the dip if you would like to try it:

Toffee Apple Dip
1 box cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
1 t vanilla
1 package toffee bits

Mix together and serve with apple slices

Some serious cuteness!

Here are some new things I've been working on this weekend. The initial onesie is so cute. I made a little fabric flower and attached it with a button. I used some new fabric on the bib, I love the bright colors. The little girl I made it for will have a very vivid personality I am sure!! (Kim, if you see this, close your eyes!)

You can see the coordinating materials on the back. I love them both! Dare I ask for you all to pick a favorite??

This is an initial bib. This is what happens when the name is longer that 5 characters!! Haha. No, I wanted to try something different. I love the vintage print of this one! Sorry about having to look sideways at the photo, I'm not sure how to flip it over.

Well, this explains why very little house cleaning got done this weekend!! I had fun though!

10 Things about Me

I have seen this on several of my favorite blogs this week. I thought it was so neat and interesting, so I thought I would give it a try. Here are 10 things you may or may not know about me, find interesting, or really may not give a hoot but may be board to tears reading blogs and landed at mine! Whatever the reason, here it goes...
1.) I love brown. How boring you say...think fall, chocolate, coffee. Ummm...

2.) I am hopelessly addicted to "18 kids and Counting!" I think it is quite bizarre for anyone to have 18 kids but I love the Duggars. It is refreshing to see clean TV. They teach their kids about God, hard work, loving relationships and morality. Check it out on TLC. (Guess I'll admit to watching "Toddlers and Tiaras" also. I mean who doesn't love watching a mom totally make her child over to look 21 in a beauty pageant!) Ha Ha

3.) I can drive a stick shift. But I have to admit I am very nervous driving in the city. When I drove Clint's truck to work, I left an hour early so I wouldn't have to take off in 1st gear in the midst of early morning school traffic!

4.) My clothes are hung in the closet facing the same way, by season, then color. Suprise, suprise huh! I also hang Clint's the same way. I have been known to ask the cleaners to please hang his shirts the opposite way on the hanger.

5.) When I was little, my Nanny claims everytime I fell, I landed on my head. I have scars to prove it! Once I fell in the back of my Papa's pick-up and bumped my head and I told my Nanny he hit me in the head with a bucket! I sometimes wonder how many brain cells were damaged in all those falls???

6.) I am terrified of water and failed 4 years of swimming lessons! The smell of chlorine almost makes me vomit.

7.) I want to visit all 50 states before I die, so far I have visited 21.

8.) I love to scrapbook.

9.) I love magazines and currently have subscriptions to 7 each month!

10.) There is very few Sundays in the year that I don't take an afternoon nap. It's a habit I started many, many years ago. There is just something about it that I love!!

There you have it. Share 10 things about yourself with me!!

Results

Well folks, the ballots are in....I didn't pass. :(
I got my letter yesterday with the news that I will yet again spend another year studying for my dosimetry boards. Sounds like fun, huh? I want to vomit! Out of the 9 sections I passed all but 3, those sections I scored "minimally under compentency." That's the nice way of saying "too many wrong answers." I am frustrated, mad, sad, and after a good stomping around, crying, and ranting evening last night I am ready to go again! Those who know me well know that I don't take failure well - in fact I have never, I repeat never, failed anything until last year when I took the boards the first time. So, for me to have to stomach the fact I will be repeating the test a 3rd time is almost more than my pride can take. Please remember me in your prayers as I hit the books again. I can't say enough how great my family and close friends have been. Encouraging would be a mild word for it! Thanks everybody!
Ok, enough of that mushy stuff. Now, where did I leave my book?????

Go Fish

This is my Nanny. She came to eat fish with us on Friday night. We grew up right next door to her and she spoiled us rotten. She is going to celebrate her 81st birthday on the 11th.
This picture is of 3 of the 4 "Sample girls" (Miss you Tina!) Me, my Mom and Delena, my new sister (in-law)


The newlyweds! Randy and Delena Sample

Have I ever shared with you that we have the best cooks in my family! No, not me. (Hahaha) but these 3 guys! Cliint and Randy are masters at the grill or the fish cooker. My Dad does a good job supervising and taste testing. They are the chief cooks at all our campouts, reunions, and birthday parties. We love it too, because they usually clean up!
Mom and Dad had fished on Thursday and caught a bunch of crappie so we had a fish fry on Friday night. It was so good!

Amendment to Fridays Post

Ok, I read my last post. Yes, I proofed it BEFORE I said publish, but it was 11:00 p.m.!!! Give me a break. I am laughing hysterically right now, but I swear Randy - I DID NOT mean to leave the "r" out of brother and say my "bother" came and fixed my air conditioner!! Seriously, I did not mean it! Kinda funny though if you think about it. For many years you were a bother - and a brother. But yesterday you saved me from having to sleep in an oven!! I love you very much and appreciate you so much. Delena make him read this if he doesn't read my blog often!!