Advice from Mom

Twenty plus years ago my mother gave me some pre-wedding advice (not about THAT ~shudder~) about purchasing this:

She told about a lady selling her sewing machine. She suggested I buy it before I got married. She pointed out after I got married I wouldn't want to spend the money on something like this. She was right. I probably wouldn't have spent the money on it. So I parted with $125.00 of my hard-earned money just a few weeks before my wedding. I'm glad I purchased this used sewing machine. It has come in so handy over the years. I pretty much sew straight lines [ well ok. I'm stretching that one "almost" straight lines I should say ] I don't sew clothing to wear except for Halloween Costumes like this.

I usually just do mending or make projects with my machine. It is pretty basic.

I step on the pedal and it goes. --- when I have the bobbin in correctly. ;)

I thought I would share some of the projects I have done with my machine:

I had this idea for my craft table. It is just a 6 ' folding table. I made this skirt to go around it and secured it with Velcro sticky strip to make it stay on. This is in our guest bedroom.

The skirt hides all my stamping/scrapbooking/ craft supplies.

I got really adventurous a couple of years ago and made a comforter and valance for Leah's room. I could not find bedding that I liked for her room. She has kind of a "Paris" theme going on in there. So I came across this fabric and decided that was what I had been searching for.

I made the comforter and the valance. I DID NOT make the pillow shams. I left those to a professional. I knew I couldn't manage those corners. They look so much better than I could have done.

Thanks Mom for your advice. It has served me well over the years.

A Friday Funny

Kind of starting to feel this way. :) I tried on a bathing suit last Saturday. Quite scary. Just the pasty white and the cellulite......Not a good combination. Like they say tan fat looks better than white fat. I can get my tan sprayed on, but too bad the cellulite isn't as easy to fix.

Prayers for Eli

Julie and her husband Zach at My Life With Boys are facing a real trying time right now.

If you don't know her, I'd like you to take a minute and link over to her blog. Julie and Zach serve as missionaries in Hungary. Their son has developed a severe infection in his head. He has been hospitalized for several days now.
I'm not going to re-tell the story as Julie gives updates on her blog. You can read her last few post to get filled in on Eli and his diagnosis.

I just wanted to make you aware of Eli's condition and ask you to rally around Julie and support her with your prayers right now. Pray that everyone involved in this little guy's care would make the best decisions concerning him and his treatment.

Julie and her husband Zach are exhausted as you can imagine.
So please pray for Eli, Zach and Julie.

Blessings,
♥

So Long, Smell You Later.

Rhonda at Because Mom Said So is hosting a Have Travel Will Story contest . The winner of the contest will win a round trip ticket to visit her in Connecticut. Isn't that amazing and extremely generous of her. I would love to win. I have an Aunt, Uncle and cousins that live in Connecticut that I haven't seen in over ten years, plus I would love to meet Rhonda. She and her family would be a lot of fun to meet. Sooooo I'm submitting the following travel story.



First let me start with a little background. My husband and I were living in SLC, UT and we were eagerly awaiting the birth of our first baby. When I was seven months pregnant, my husband was transferred to California (YIKES!) Why do bosses and corporations do that to pregnant women???

My parents and family all live in Tampa, Florida. My husband, the new and only granddaughter and I lived in Northern California. There was way too much space in between for everyone concerned. My husband had tons of frequent flyer miles from former positions with his company so he sweetly arranged to fly Paige and I back to Tampa quite often.


When Paige was about six months old, I packed the suitcase and the diaper bag and hit the skies again for a flight from San Francisco to Tampa with a stopover in Los Angeles. Paige was a wonderful little traveler. She never cried and the change in pressure never seemed to bother her. Paige and I were fortunate to be able to sit in first class on most of these trips because of my husband’s Frequent Flier status with that particular airline.


We boarded our plane in San Francisco early one morning. I held Paige in my lap. My seatmate sat down next to me and I immediately noted (smelled) a problem. The man must have eaten multiple bulbs of raw garlic the night before because let me tell you he STUNK! I pretty much spent the entire flight leaning away from this guy and gasping for a breath of fresh air (if there is such a thing on a plane) out in the aisle.

When we landed in Los Angeles, the stinky guy left the plane, but was still continuing on to Tampa. I’m thinking OH, NO! I can’t smell this guy all the way to Tampa! I said something to one of the flight attendants. She said she noticed it too and she moved me and Paige to an empty seat in a different section of first class. They began to board the new passengers and when my new seatmate walked up and saw me and my six month old baby he slammed his brief case and coat down in the seat, ordered a Bloody Mary and then stormed off to talk to the flight attendant in her prep area. I knew right away he was ticked to have to sit next to a baby on the cross-country flight. The sweet, quick-thinking flight attendant was able to accommodate his wishes right away and moved this obnoxious, obviously annoyed, mean guy to a different seat next to…. YOU GUESSED IT….the stinky guy. HA!

I ended up with an empty seat next to me. Paige never made a peep the whole trip. I hope mean guy enjoyed sitting next to stinky guy all the way to Tampa.

My Buds

Spring is definitely in motion here in my neck of the woods. I took a stroll thru my yard this week and snapped a few pictures of buds I found ready to burst. From the top is one of my geranium plant. Geraniums are my all time favorite plant. Next picture is the hydrangea bush. It usually give us a few really nice pink blooms each year. In the middle are my green bell pepper plant that has two buds on it that I'm hoping will turn into bell peppers. Then the all time favorite southern shrub...the azalea. The bushes are loaded and I enjoy them in my yard for a short time each spring. The bottom row is a spirea bush (aka bridal wreath). I have 5 of these planted around the yard. I love these in the spring. Then last but not least is my little redbud tree. It puts off a pretty flower then turns to green leaves each spring. I'm worried about it this year. It doesn't look healthy. We lost a large Bradford Pear to a disease last year.

I am not the type of gardener that fusses over my plants. They are kind of on their own once they are in the ground so whatever buds and blooms I get to enjoy are by the grace of God. I'll take more pictures when everything starts blooming.