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Archive for March, 2011

Encouraging Words…

30 Mar

Love you!

You are wonderful!

You are so beautiful!

What a thoughtful thing to do….you didn’t have to.

You look great today!

You are so smart!

You’re my favorite!

You are very creative.

What a great idea!

It’s going to be alright, and I am right here with you through it all.

What are some of your favorite things to hear from others? What helps lift you up when you are down, brings a smile to your face and just makes your burden seem a little bit lighter?

For me, it has been all the wonderful comments I have received over the last few days concerning this blog. I enjoy writing, and I like to share things with others. I’m very happy to know that some of what I have to share makes you happy too.

Morris Island Lighthouse

What can you add to my little list of encouraging words? What could someone say that would make you smile and feel happy, content? What are the things you are grateful for? Everyday things and once in a while things? I would love to hear a few of your favorites too .

It’s been a long dreary rainy day here in SC. The temps are not as warm as last week, and I truly miss the warmth. It’s suppose to rain until Friday I think. So my hands and feet will be cold for a few more days, but my heart is warm and happy now thanks to all of youl. Hope you have a wonderful night full of pleasant dreams! Angela

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Posted in Friendship, gratitude, lists

Wonderful Spring….

29 Mar

These are pictures from the Botanical Garden in Clemson SC on 3/19/2011

Pond and Turtles!

Flower faces....

Magnolia blossom

Blooming Chinese Cherry

Reminds me of a star...

Lantern Tree, looks like dripping water

Waterfall!

We had a wonderful day at the gardens. It was around 80 degrees that day. It was only around 60 today….brrrrrrr! Can’t wait until the temps stay up….. Hope you are having a great week. Angela

4 Comments

Posted in Spring

So There Was This Pencil On The Floor…..

24 Mar

I have been busy! I have several pictures to show you of the bias tape being ironed out from that lo-o-o-ong piece of material I made a few days ago. I am having a few technical difficulties posting my pics, so please bear with me if the placement seems awkward.

My biased point of view

I started out with a 4 inch wide strip of cloth I described a few days ago. You fold each side in to meet in the middle and iron flat, with the wrong sides of the material to the inside of the fold. So that is the picture you see here.

The long of it...

It was a lot of material as I said, and it was very difficult to iron it all correctly. It wanted to pile up in the floor off of the ironing board, so I resorted to pinning one end down to my board while I continued folding and pressing towards the other end. When you have this step completed, you then fold the tape in half and iron again to bring it down to about a 1 inch width. It took a little time, but a few steam burns later I had finished my bias tape! Yay!

Next I will begin sewing this long piece of tape to my daughter’s apron….we are getting closer and closer to a finished product! I can hardly wait!!!

Now, you are asking…..what does all this have to do with a pencil? Well, a few years ago I lived in an apartment in Upstate SC. Working on this bias tape has reminded of an apartment story I would like to share. It was a large, nice basement apartment. It was very open and well lit with high ceilings, didn’t feel like a basement at all. I was out in the country too. It really was a nice apartment.

One day I decided to take my bath in the early afternoon, I had been outside working in my yard and needed to bathe very badly. I am near sighted as well, but of course don’t wear my glasses while in the tub. At the time of this story I didn’t wear contacts either, just glasses. This is an important point. I started my water, stripped off my dirty clothes and of course laid my glasses on the counter to climb in my tub. Only I forgot I had the tea kettle on, and when it started whistling at me, I jumped out to turn it off. Turned the stove off, moved the kettle, problem solved. Back to that bath, yay!

Walking back to the bathroom, I thought I caught a glimpse of something move at the edge of the bathroom door. I started stepping into the room, but suddenly stopped. Why? Because the pencil I thought I saw in the floor started moving away from me….very quickly! I jumped back as well, not sure what in the world I was going to do completely naked and half blind! I squinted around, thankfully knowing where most things were in my small bathroom, at this point including the snake. I reached over as far as I could and grabbed my toilet brush, and then reached under the sink for a trash can I had there. I threw the trash in the sink, and again reached out pinning the little critter to the wall as best I could with the toilet brush, and scooping the offender inside the trash can, I quickly carried can and snake out my front door into the yard.

I look down into the can, I guess checking that I hadn’t lost the baby king snake in my short walk down the hall. Yep, he was still there. I could see his tiny little tongue whipping out tasting the air every few seconds. I ran all the way across the yard. I decided it was time for a new trash can anyway, and then threw the can and snake into my woods. Then I remembered…… I was naked! I had just jumped out of my tub a few minutes ago…..ooooooooooppss!

As I said earlier, I lived in the country. As far as I know no one but Mother Nature saw me in my Birthday Suit. Unfortunately though, it wasn’t the end of my adventure. Over the next 6 days I had 7, count ‘em, 7 baby king snakes slithering around with me in that apartment, some in my pantry, some in my kitchen, some in my living room. Thankfully none of them ever made it into my bedroom, as far as I know. Le sigh. Let’s just say that I’m very glad I don’t live in that apartment anymore. I like my new house just fine.

Grandma’s Briefs had a fine story of unwanted critters that prompted my remembrance of today’s story. They got to play with scorpions, yikes! So far everyone is ok. So, what about you? What strange and crazy creatures have you happened upon? Any bug stories to share? I bet there are some real creepy crawlies in somebody’s history! I can’t wait to hear. Now be warned, my next picture might disturb you a little bit…..

My Days as a Snake Handler...

What am I doing with this picture you ask? Well, several years before my king snake adventure I worked at a zoo. I led educational shows for the visitors and this is a picture of me with one of the python’s. No, that’s a boa constrictor. I didn’t like my king snake visitors, they were inside my house and uninvited. But I did like working with the big snakes at the zoo. More importantly, I was wearing my glasses….and my CLOTHES! These snakes never paid me any visits inside my home, or I wouldn’t have been as fond of them either.

Hope you have a lovely uneventful weekend! I promise, no more snake pictures. Not even bias tape snakes…..Angela

8 Comments

Posted in memories, OMG! Really?, sewing

Don’t Let it Change You in Your Soul…

22 Mar

Don’t let it turn you, the thing that changed your soul. It has the capacity to render you incapacitated. Heard this in a TV show. That sentence seems funny to me… capacity… incapacitated…. both in the same sentence meaning something totally different. Words that are similar but different. Don’t know why I laughed, but I did. My grandmother’s last name was laughter, but someone changed the way it was pronounced so it became Law-ter. Seems strange to me, but that’s what happened. I wonder if when whomever decided to change it had suffered a changing of their soul.

I feel fragmented. I feel like I’m in pieces instead of whole. I am drowning in my life and I’m not sure I can keep kicking to swim. Do I want to keep kicking? I think so. I don’t want to not be here. I just feel so very very tired a lot of the time. It’s not a fun feeling. Have you ever had a thing happen to you that broke part of you? Something that hurt you so bad you couldn’t really recover from it? I have recovered from several soul wrenching things. But this time I feel weird, like it’s broke and I can’t fix it. I am disillusioned by church, by some friends, by ex husbands, by former bosses. But I don’t have to focus on these things, right? I can focus on better things if I will just remember to. Like the customer yesterday whom I’ve been working with for almost 2 years. He started out a belligerent man, a belligerent customer, upset with the changes in business that brought me to his office to be his agent. I worked on his policies to help if I could. I found things we could change that did help him, and I was able to help him again this year. His wife called me. She wanted to thank me for working so hard to help them. She really wanted me to know how much she appreciated me working to help them. It was a great call. Mostly I get the “why do I have to pay for insurance” kinda calls. So this one was really nice. I need to think on these things to encourage myself.

I read something earlier that I really, really liked:

Fly with those who see the power of your wings…..
4th January 2011 by melody under Everyday Brave

Fly with those who see the best in you.

Fly with those who inspire you to be better.

Fly with those who are going the direction that you want to go.

Fly with those who believe in riding the wind.

Fly with those who see the power of your wings………

It’s from brave girls club on line. Fly with those who see the power of your wings……Do I need to see it too to fly, or can I fly even in doubt? I’m not sure but I don’t think so. It sounds or reads so sappy or sad now that I am writing all this out….but that’s the way it is. My cheerleader capacity seems to be eluding me at the moment. I will ponder those things that are good in my life right now, including the good customers, instead of being stuck in a playback loop of all the junk I deal with. I can do this. And I want to.

I also want to sew my daughter’s apron this weekend, or at least get started on it. I have cut it all out, and even have the bias tape made. My next post will be all about that:). So I should be able to start sewing. We’ll see. It will be great. She is a ’50′s kinda gal and the apron is modeled after a vintage style with black and white fabrics she picked out, and they look great together. I would have gone for way more color, but the patterns are nice and it really looks fantastic all laid out. I will also be blogging about the process of sewing the apron together. At least that is my intention.

Valentine Cookie

I also want to write and share my favorite cookie recipes from Christmas. I made a kick ass giant heart cookie for Boyfriend for Valentine’s day too. He ate every bit of it. It was over half a batch of dough. I’m glad he liked it.

I hope I stop being so easily discouraged. I struggle occasionally with depression, and the situations in my workplace are feeding the discouraged side more than the encouraged part gets fed. I am there 8 hours and 45 minutes five days a week. How do people keep going to a job they despise? How do we keep working in situations we hate? I’m not really sure at this point. I am not happy in my present situation. I keep hoping I will have the next great idea that will make me wealthy enough to not need to work there. Until then, I need to be able to pay my bills. So there I am. Another day, another dollar as my grandfather use to say. Le sigh.

I feel like I’ve changed, but not for the better. At least not yet. I want to have my hope renewed, my faith strengthened, my joy increased. I will keep working towards these ends. If you have any encouraging words for me, please feel free to share them. I would love to hear from you.

In the meantime, g’nite all. Pleasant dreams……. Angela

Acknowledgements: http://bravegirlsclub.com/

10 Comments

Posted in Ponderings, sewing

Movies & Me

20 Mar

I am using today’s post to introduce you to my movie page, Movies I Watch. This is the most current version, we saw 2 really good movies this weekend. Let me know what you think, and share your personal favorites with me. I love a good movie! Enjoy!

Lights! Camera! Action! Ticket? Popcorn? Candy? 3-D or just HD? No matter what any of the previous choices are, I love movies. I always have. I own some that I have watched 30 times. Or more. No joke. But my favorite way to watch them is in the theater. A big dark room with a 2 story screen (or taller) to display Hollywood’s latest and greatest. I wanted a list to keep track of all the new ones I watch, because I don’t always remember I’ve seen something. I also wanted a place to share a few little notes about the ones I really liked. So, pick a seat and settle in, and be sure to share comments at the end! Roll ‘em!

Ratings system will be:
1A – not so good
2A – so-so
3A – better but still lacking
4A – Pretty Good, see it!
5A – Can’t Wait to See It Again!, so see it already!

Currently Watched List:

Unknown – 3/19/2011 - Twisted thriller with action. Not lots of action, but what action is there is good. Liam Neeson is the main character, and although the critics were not fans of this movie, I did enjoy it. The plot was good for me, I figured some of the mystery out but not all of it, and the ending was well handled. It has a few flaws, but a good movie nonetheless. Kind of an Alfred Hitchcock meets James Bond kind of movie. 4A

Battle: Los Angeles – 3/18/2011 – WOW! Intense! Fast paced movie with lots and lots of action. The battle scenes are hard and rough, real war kinda stuff. Think Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan. I like how the characters get thrown, literally thrown, together and still make a cohesive group with a few typical human complaints and problems. This movie truly had me on the edge of my seat, legs shaking, wanting to dive in the action myself and help. It is also an alien invasion movie, but only once really made me think of it like that. It has aliens and they are attacking, but it was more about the battles and the development of the characters to me. I will watch again. Loved this one! 5A

Due Date – 11/6/2010 – funny stuff! Robert Downey Jr and Zach Galifianakis were hilarious in this! Check yourself before you wreck yourself! Lots of strange and accidental things happen with them, starting from the beginning of the movie. You won’t be bored with this one! 4A

Red – 10/15/2010 – Action comedy with Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Mary Louise Parker just to name the main ones. Action comedy is a correct description, and I loved it! From Bruce Willis’ phone relationship with Mary Louise Parker to seeing Helen Mirren with a gun almost as big as she is, great fun! Had a couple of very touching moments as well. I found it highly entertaining. 4A

All Time Favorites List

Ladyhawke – 1985, Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Broderick. Redemption at it’s best! Romantic story and nice humor as well. Some beautiful scenery in some of the shots. Lots to enjoy here. IMDB Storyline: “Philipe Gastone, a thief, escapes from the dungeon at Aquila, sparking a manhunt. He is nearly captured when Captain Navarre befriends him. Navarre has been hunted by the Bishop’s men for two years, ever since he escaped with the Lady Isabeau who the Bishop has lusted after. Navarre and Isabeau have a curse that the Bishop has placed on them that causes Navarre to be a wolf during the night and Isabeau to be a hawk during the day. Navarre insists that Philipe help him re-enter the city to help him kill the heavily guarded Bishop.” 5A

Indiana Jones, all of ‘em! Why bring a knife to a gunfight? 4A-5A

In Her Shoes – Story of sisters and the ups and downs in their lives and their relationship. Very touching, and again some nice humor. 5A

Journey to the Center of the Earth – Fun! Story is ok, but I really enjoyed the imaginative effects. 3A

Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe- love it! Really helped me get through the end of a horrible year. Went to the theater 5 times to see it. Would have gone more but that’s all I could afford! Lucy finds a beautiful world but when she went back home, she couldn’t find her way back in. A wonderful story about the challenges of growing up and growing through things well. Do you have a hero inside of you? This adventure might help you find out! 5A+

Pirates of the Caribbean – again, all of ‘em! Love, love, love them. Where has all the Rum gone? These movies are fun, and sometimes suspenseful. There are small details that feed into the next movie as well, but if you aren’t that familiar with the movies it won’t hurt the adventure for you anyway. Lot’s of action, crazy things happen, weird mysteries in all of them. I find them all very enjoyable. I do have a Johnny Depp thing ya know 5A+

Shop Girl - I think this was a wonderful and clever movie, and I really do like how it ends. Most of us are not perfect, and this little gem by Steve Martin shows we are still lovable even in the midst of our problems. Great movie! 4A

Star Trek – I won’t try to convert you to Star Trek if you are not already a fan, but I have always loved this show. Spoiler alert! You should have seen these by now, but if not I will give some of it away in this little discussion. The Voyage Home and Insurrection are my 2 favorites, Wrath of Khan comes in third only because of the third Star Trek movie. I HATED it when they killed Spock in the Wrath of Khan, it really played beautifully into the movie and Spock’s death scene is one of my all time favorite scenes, but if they had not brought him back, I would have stopped watching the movies. I don’t really like the third movie that resurrects him, except for the fact he is resurrected. Killer line: When the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one….which is how Spock explains his sacrifice to Captain Kirk. Voyage Home is a fun movie anybody can watch and enjoy even if they don’t know Star Trek. Insurrection is with the cast from Next Generation, and is a wonderful story about one group of people arrogantly trying to displace another. The Cherokee Trail of Tears came to mind for me when I watched it. It is well written and well acted, some nice light humor as well. 3A-5A+

Wizard Of Oz – might be the all time favorite of my favorites. Use to come on tv once a year when I was a little girl and mama always let me stay up and watch it. Favorite line was Dorothy to Scarecrow: I think I’ll miss you most of all! Lots of humor and fun. Learning the value of home and family, as well as how to count on yourself and your friends. 5A+++++++

2 Comments

Posted in Deep Deppness, lists

Almost Spring….

18 Mar

Flowers from a friend

Spring is officially a few days away.Today is a beautiful spring like day. The trees have all started budding leaves and flowers. The flowers themselves are starting to bloom. Nice weather. Had a lot of rain, but that will help things grow. Maybe I will take a walk around the neighborhood later.

I went to see Allison Lively this week. She does Iridology & Nutritional Counseling at Creative Health. I have been seeing her for a few years. Her advice always helps me stay on track. She wants me to keep drinking green drinks and change my diet so I stop stressing my liver and kidneys. I really went cra-a-a-zy with food after my gall bladder surgery last year and I have gained over 40 extra pounds to prove it. I have noticed new problems with fatigue and the migraines are back, so I knew it was time to talk to her again. As we were talking, I had a realization.

I grew up in a poor family. Lots of people did. I have never really had to work on portion control because I only had so much food I could eat. The reason being we didn’t have enough money to buy much food. I ate what I could when I could. My realization was that I have always felt deprived of food, and never trusted it to be around for long. Money is kind of the same way. This continued into my marriage, we always struggled with money. I was truly a coupon queen for years. It really helped me feed my family, and I still like using them. However, I still have the belief that food is not going to be around long, so I must eat, eat, eat while I can. Now, with Boyfriend in my life, eating is as simple as saying, “I’m hungry! Let’s go eat!” Out the door we go and food is soon in front of me (us). Easy peasy. I will never starve dating him. He’s great like that. So, my food situation has changed, it is very available to me now. However, my attitude with it has not, so I am still eating what I can when I can, I just have so many ‘can’ opportunities now there really isn’t a deprivation problem.

I need to stop feeling this way about food. I need to stop shoving big piles of food down my throat like I’m not going to have anything to eat tomorrow. I have to stop feeding the part of me that thinks I will starve and start feeding the part of me that feels secure and happy. I don’t know why this is such a hard thing for me to do sometimes. Hmmmmmm…. I spoke about changes a few posts back, guess this is another I need to add to my to do list.

I want to do more with my life than just feed myself. But I haven’t done much else with it lately either. I am becoming a selfish person because I have felt deprived. I keep pushing myself into little tight spaces to feel like I’m in control but I’m not. The spaces I keep shoving myself into cannot contain me either. My desires and hopes and dreams are bigger than the space I am giving myself to live and work in. Other people sometimes put me in boxes for themselves and I was letting them. I thought it was just them doing this to me, but now I realize I have been letting them do this to me all this time, and now I have started doing it to myself. Lots of my job situations are like this, my marriage was like this as well. Wonder what I can do with this revelation? Looks like another hmmmmmmmm………, at least for now.

Well, more changes I need to make. Things to ponder and figure out. Spring seems to be a pretty good time for change….Will let you know if I have any further revelations. Thanks! Angela

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Posted in Food!, overcoming, Ponderings

Playtime!

10 Mar

The Biased Beginning

I’ve been playing this evening! I have enjoyed myself working on my daughter’s apron. I cut out several strips of the polka dotted material and sewed them together to make 126+ inches I will be ironing into bias tape for trim around said apron.

Wrong Way!

I only made one easily correctable mistake putting the sections together. Other than that I enjoyed the math project of figuring it all out. I have a knack for conversions apparently. That was nice to find out. I enjoyed the fact too that the material was cut at an angle to produce the bias. Once the tape is sewn on the bib and skirt of the apron it won’t have any pull or give. If you don’t cut it at an angle, you can pull your item out of shape once it’s done. It was nice to work on it. In the Right Way! picture I am pointing at the seam you can’t really see. This is the right place to put the seam for bias tape, the angle opens up and keeps the ‘ribbon’ running in a straight line.

Right Way!

I also sewed a button on a jumper for one of the girls. I only have a couple of repair jobs waiting on me now. I like that too.

Other than that the day has been pretty good. It started out that way anyway. I was working on clearing up my to do list at work too. Only I was creating a problem for myself. Every time I opened an item to work on it, another item was created, identical to the first one except for the date. I’m not sure why this happened today. My boss didn’t understand what I was asking him and showed me how to do stuff I already knew. I have used this system before and it has never created a new work item when I visit an old one. Basically I was creating a double workload for myself. Fun right? I stopped working on the list and then spent the next hour getting rid of the duplicates. Hopefully this doesn’t happen next time, but if it does I’ll call tech support. I have enough to do without creating needless activity for myself.

I loved being home by myself this evening. It has been great. The beginning of this greatness is that I found a Sonic on my way home. Yes, I got excited over a Sonic. I don’t know why, but I LOVE their food and slushes. I had my supper ordered and eaten and was home around 6 PM. It was so-o-o-o-o-o good too! I had a grilled chicken wrap with onion rings and a strawberry slush. Yum! Now don’t go hatin’ on me, I said it was good. I did not say it was healthy. But I was H-A-P-P-Y! Still am.

Got home, started laundry and took a bath. Ahhhhhh! I love a bath too! This evening the girls were gone to Girl Scouts…(btw, it’s cookie time! Go buy some already!) and while I enjoy being home with them, today was nice to be home alone. Stuff just clicked and I was able to get all this done! It was great! And now I am sitting here telling you about it, so I am even getting a blog done.

Have any of you ever watched a show called Gilmore Girls? It is not a current show, but there are 7 seasons of DVD’s to be seen. It was a quirky little show that I feel in love with. I also bought the cd from the show, Our Little Corner of the World, at some point and I’ve been listening to it tonight while I work, along with a cd of music inspired by Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I enjoy tunes while I work on projects or just around the house. I have even been known to have it going while I am reading. How about you? Do you like to listen to music? Do you have specific types for certain things? Rock and Roll to clean to, jazz for reading? I’m pretty eclectic with my music. If I like it I like it, but I can’t always tell you why. I do like music with dark humor in it sometimes too. There is a song that is sad kinda, I guess, but it’s just entertaining to me. It’s called Child Psychology and is on the Gilmore Girls cd as well as a single. My daughter does not like it, and always worries about me thinking it’s funny, lol…”Life is unfair, kill yourself or get over it,” is one of the chorus lines. Yeah, not that funny in itself, just click on it and watch the YouTube link. Maybe you”ll find it humorous too. If not, I don’t mind.

Well, I need to go fold laundry now. You know how it is. Once you wash and dry it you have to do something with the stuff! Hope you are having as good of an evening as I am. The girls made it home safe, yay! Even though I can enjoy my time to myself, I am ALWAYS happy when we are home together, safe and sound. The second best part of that is they brought cookies home with them. Hope you are safe and sound with your loved ones tonight too! Goodnight! Angela

2 Comments

Posted in Family, sewing

Never Trust A Skinny Chef…

07 Mar

Full Contact Cooking Apron

…or a fat doctor I’m told. Here are a few pictures of the apron in progress. Everything is cut out except the strips to make bias tape. It’s from the book “Seams To Me” I showed you in yesterday’s post. The apron is called “Full Contact Cooking Apron.” Cute name. There are several cute names for projects in the book such as Basket Case, Here’s the Dish Towel, and Magnetic Personality. It has lots of helpful sewing instructions and explanations. I haven’t made bias tape in a long time and the instructions are in the book which is very helpful. The instruction title for this: Maybe I’m Bias. Again, cute name. Now, let me show you what I’ve been doing….

First Cut

This is the first piece to be cut! I started with my rotary cutter but found out quickly this piece needed pinking shears! It was raveling like crazy with strings galore. For those of you who have not used pinking shears before they are special scissors that have a zig zag edge that keep the fabric from raveling most of the time when you cut with them. They were brand new (Christmas prezzie from Boyfriend!) so it really made some sore spots on my fingers at first – ouchie! But after several cuts they were working smoothly. If you want to see the pair I used click on this: Fiskars. That’s the name brand.

Polka Dots

This Polka Dot is the material I am using for the waistband, neck strap and bias tape. The bias strip for the tape will need to be 3 1/2 yards long for the entire project. There are pattern pieces for most of the apron, the rest the author gives you the dimensions to cut things out. The bib of the apron is a rectangle cut to fit the individual, the neck strap is also a measured thing she suggests you wait to cut out after you have put the other pieces together to get a more custom fit. This would be step 41. Of 44. It has more steps than I remember from the first look at this project. Oh well. It isn’t going to take me as long as the quilt to finish it (I hope!), but it was a little daunting reading through it all last night. But today I am very confident in what I am attempting here.

All Laid Out

This gives you a rough idea of how it will all come together. The pocket and ties are made from a striped piece of material. I really liked cutting these pieces. No raveling, smooth cut. I was able to use my rotary cutter and self healing mat with those pieces. That is the quickest way to cut anything! That is how I cut all of my quilt pieces out last time. The bias tape will surround the bottom and top of the apron too with the Polka Dots. My daughter likes the black and white, and now I do too!

Now my daughter is a skinny chef, but I’ve tasted many of her recipes. She is one skinny chef I can trust! She makes the best banana pudding, and I don’t even like banana pudding….yummy! Her Alfredo is also fantastic! You ought to try it sometime . Maybe if I get this apron finished I can ask for some of both…wouldn’t that be nice? Hope you find something good to eat this week too. Let me know what you think. Later! Angela

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Posted in Family, sewing

March 6th…..

06 Mar

My Beautiful Mom

This is my mother’s birthday. She died over 20 years ago, she was only 54. If she was still here she would be 77. I really miss her sometimes. It was bad the first 3 years after she died, but is only occasionally hard now. We had a very interesting relationship. We actually fought a lot over things. But I knew she loved me even when we were having a throw down…:). She didn’t get to see my kids grow up, but she knew my 3 kids before she died.

The last year or so of her life was spent taking treatments to fight cancer. It was an awful year in many ways, the chemo made her very sick. But it was a wonderful year too in that she and I resolved all our relationship issues. I was also having several health problems, so the plan we decided on had me helping her and dad get through her treatments and recovery, then when I had to have surgery the next year she would take care of me while I recovered. That was the plan. Unfortunately that’s not how things worked out and on February 7th that year we had to say goodbye to her. It was a long year after that. I remember watching the trees turn green and leaves start to come out on them and wondering what in the world was wrong with the trees? Just because nature wanted time to move on didn’t mean I did. But it ignored me and turned from winter to spring, from spring to summer, and so on and so forth until we get to this day.

I had a great mom. She was a very loving and dedicated person. She drove the school bus when we were kids, and she was really good with the kids on the bus. She drove the bus for church, and again was very good with those kids too. At her funeral several adults shared their stories of mom being the reason they chose to be in ministry, or how she was the inspiration for the paths they chose for their life. I’m glad they were there to share. It made the day mean more to me, and is nice to remember all these wonderful things about my mom.

Mom was a seamstress. She could sew long perfectly straight seams. She made clothes for many people. She started quilting a few years before she got sick, but didn’t really ever finish any of them. I do have a couple of things she made for me or my girls. I’m glad I do. I can’t sew like she could, but that’s ok. I sew like I do. That’s the best thing for me.

I have a wonderful dad who is still here. We have dinner at my house every so often. My daughter cooks, because she is the better cook by far. We will sit and laugh watching my grandchildren, his great grandchildren. They climb all over him and talk and play. We have a great time when we are together. I’m glad I’ve still got my dad.

How about you? Did you have a great relationship with your parents? I honestly didn’t think me and mom had a great one until I thought about her not being here. We figured out a lot of things in that last year, so I am very thankful we had that time together. We had a lot of fun too. I hope you have had some fun times with your family recently. If not I would highly encourage you to plan something soon. Take advantage of what you still have.

Seams To Me

On another note, I will finally be starting to make that long awaited apron today. I have to cut out the material later and see if I can follow the directions for it. The book is very detailed, and this is the first project I am making from it. Hopefully it will all go well.

I am using black and white fabrics because that is what my daughter wanted. I think it’s going to look very tailored when it’s finished. I will show you how I do it as well. I also have the material to finish my lap quilt and start the new quilt I will be sewing, so pictures are soon to follow. It should be a great sewing month. The materials are shown below.

Life in Black and White

I will be using the same sampler idea for the new quilt that I used with my lap quilt. It will be a lot larger though, a king quilt is what has been ordered. I was already planning a queen size one, so I have adjusted the idea a little to accommodate the king size. I’m sure the quilting will be tricky, but I will figure that part out when I get there.

So, hope you enjoyed getting to know my mom a little. I’m glad I like to sew. It helps me feel connected to her still. You all have a great day, and I’ll talk to you soon! Angela

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Posted in Family, gratitude, memories, Mom, sewing

Ch-ch-ch-changes….

02 Mar

Part of the lyrics to Changes by David Bowie

Ribbit!

I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
Every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don’t want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can’t trace time….

I wish I could get up earlier in the mornings to do this. I would like to have it done before I come to work, but I suck at getting up early. I could get lots of things done, like reading or maybe a little sewing, maybe folding the laundry….. But so far I suck at getting up early. Le sigh…..

I have ordered material for a new quilt. I am hoping it will come in a week or so. I have to get out my quilting book and look at the patterns. I need to design the flow of the blocks to decide how many of each I am going to need to make for this quilt. I hope it goes well. I am looking forward to designing it. I also need to cut out my daughter’s apron and make it, but I haven’t gotten around to that yet. She reminds me occasionally that I have forgotten her apron. lol. I had decided to make a couple of quilts and list them on ebay or etsy, and the next day a friend called and asked if I would be interested in making a quilt for them, so….. I am now making a quilt for them . I am very happy about that!

I also want to start my alterations business again. I will have to figure out how to let it be known at this point. . I repaired/fixed several things about 10 days ago, and really enjoyed being able to put the things back out to be used. I use to have a terrible case of nervousness when I would think about sewing for someone else, but so far I am not having that problem anymore. So hopefully this means that’s better. Mo betta. We shall see, won’t we?

I am still doing the 750 words thing, most of the time. I don’t do it everyday, but hopefully will get more consistent with it and from that be more consistent with blogging as well. That is something I am still working on, consistency. When I think about all the things that fell apart for me a few years ago, and stop giving myself a hard time for not being perfect, ….I realize how far I’ve come. I am a homeowner, I don’t have to rent anymore. I own my own car, be it an older model Mustang, a hatchback from the 90′s. But it’s mine. Free and clear and with only occasional repair bills. I have a full time job. Now granted I may not enjoy that job too much at times, but it’s still my full time job and I have money to pay most of my bills. I have wonderful friends that have not turned tail on me and taken off. I am stable. I am menopausal, but I am stable. So I really have come a long way already.

A while back a business leader was speaking to my networking group and he encouraged us to come up with a vision, a mission statement and a business plan for our respective businesses. I found it was easier for me to come up with these things for my alterations business than it was for my insurance life. Even then I was being drawn to the sewing part of my life, but my nervousness and confidence issues kept me from really launching into it. I hope I have recovered enough to be able to do it this time. I need to sit down with myself and work on those things again for my alterations. I am glad I am doing this.

I have changed a lot in the last few years. Not just overcoming the lack of confidence and the nervousness. I have also changed in that I don’t always have the patience I once had with people. I won’t say this is a bad thing though. My tolerance levels used to be so excessive that I would let every one run over me, any time and just about any way. That really isn’t true any more. One of the consequences of this is that some of the people I use to really love to be with are not really my friends any more. But I am also seeing some of them with better eyes and realizing that I might have been their friend, but when it was their turn to show me love, or patience or tolerance, they didn’t want to return the favor. I still miss them though. And I haven’t disowned them either. We have all changed, and maybe we aren’t the people we use to be. But I will always love them. Hopefully, they won’t loose that love for me they once had either.

Well, that’s seem a rather sad note to end on, but I think I’m through for the day. Hope you are having a great one, let me know how you are doing! Angela

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Posted in Friendship, Ponderings, sewing