PuddinPop

HALLELUJAH!!!!

2011-05-01T14:22:00.002-05:00

After almost 3 years, I am finally done with my Mom's quilt! Now, of course, it did not take me that long to actually make it. Months would go by when I didn't work on it at all. I did have a baby during all of this and probably didn't touch it until she was 6 months old. No matter, she is done and tomorrow my Mom will have her new quilt on her bed. I got the pattern out of an old, probably 80's or 90's, quilting book from my library. The instructions were very minimal, so I am glad the top turned out ok. This was also the first time I have tried free motion quilting. I must say, I really love the process. Much more than using the walking foot. I find I have way more control when quilting free motion. I used the Supreme Slider and Machingers, and both of these products made things so much easier. I also watched many videos from the blog The Free Motion Quilting Project and on The Quilt Show. I know the quilt wouldn't have turned out nearly so well without both of these wonderful resources. I would really recommend the website Day Style Designs, Leah is an amazing quilter and freely shares her knowledge. She sells both the Supreme Slider and Machingers at her website.

The pictures didn't come out as well as I would have liked. It was cloudy and extremely windy today. Also, the only ones home to help me out were Samuel and Ava. Well, Sophia was home too, but she couldn't do much lol I think Sam and Ava did a great job, this quilt is HEAVY and the wind was whipping that sucker all over the place. I may try to take some better pictures when the wind dies down and the sun comes out.

The quilt is pretty big, here it is on my bed which is a king size. It should fit perfectly on my Mom's queen size bed.

A closeup of the design in each block. This isn't one of the best ones, I did improve, but it gives you an idea. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed this entire quilt from start to finish. I am not sure if I am going to start another big quilt anytime soon, but I am sure I will make more.

Morning and a little Remodeling

2011-04-29T10:37:00.000-05:00

What I looked up and saw the other morning while enjoying my coffee : ) Please excuse the mess ; )

Sophia LOVES to draw, she especially loves to draw on the Magnadoodle, it is her favorite toy!
I am so glad I bought two of them for Christmas one year (one for Samuel and one for Ava), helps out with any fighting.

I love how she is resting her head on her hand, so cute!

Hey sissy, what are you drawing?

Oooooh, NICE!

Hey Mom, you caught us : D I love their big smiles!
(sorry some of the photos are blurry, I need to always remember to take pictures of the younger kids in sports mode, they move so fast lol)

Now for some pictures of one of our recent remodeling projects.....

Every year when we get our income tax check in our account we start our yearly remodeling. We decide ahead of time what we want to accomplish for that year. Our house was built in the early 70's, so definitely needs some updating. This year we are redoing all of the bedrooms. 3 of them have some disgusting nasty carpet in them and we are taking it OUT and putting in wood laminate. We are also repainting and adding a closet in Ava and Savannah's room. And replacing all of the hideous brown doors in the house. While we were at Home Depot looking at stuff, we came across this gorgeous glass tile for $5 a sheet!!! I have been wanting to do the backsplash in our kitchen but couldn't afford the glass tiles I wanted. Well, we couldn't pass this deal up, so we added new backsplash to our plans lol I think it came out great and looks so good with our cabinets and paint color. We replaced our stainless steel sink and faucet last year. I love our reclaimed (from a friend) porcelain sink and rubbed bronze faucet! We got the faucet for $89 at Homedepot.com! The sink is huge and deep, perfect for all of the super sized pots I have to use to cook for my super sized family lol The high faucet is great for the giant pots too : )

I love my aqua tea pot and kitchen accessories against the olive green.

I need to get pictures of the two bedrooms we have finished. Have to get the kids to pick up their mess first lol

Edited to add that I am *this* close to finishing Mom's quilt!!! I have about a foot of binding to handstitch and then she is DONE! Hopefully will have her photographed tomorrow morning and then I will share.

Somewhat Random

2011-04-14T18:49:00.005-05:00

I have been spending quite a bit of time in my sewing room the past week. Whenever I am in there, the two littlest, Sophia and Ava are usually with me. The other night I was sewing away on the sashing for my Dresden circle when I noticed Sophia playing so sweetly and quietly. I grabbed my camera and was able to capture her before she noticed me. Once she sees the camera she wants to see the screen, so picture taking is done lol Excuse the photo editing, I have no idea what I was trying to do, they all look different and not too great LOL I swear, I could just sit and watch this child play all day. She is so cute and I want to soak her in before she becomes a big kid, then a teenager. It all happens so fast : ( I know I probably say this every post, but it is so true, they are growing up at the speed of light it seems and I am trying to hang on to every minute!

YES!!!! After 2 1/2 Y E A R S! I am almost finished!!!! All that is left is the binding, Hallelujah! Even though it took forever, I am really happy with the finished project. My Mom is going to use this as her bedspread, so I wanted it to be really nice. This was my first attempt at free motion quilting and I really enjoyed it. You can so see the blocks that I started with, very wonky and not so great lol But I improved so much, and I am hoping once it is washed, the wonky blocks won't stand out so much. My Mom says she likes the not so perfect ones, she loves that my first big quilt was for her, mistakes and all. Something a loving Mom would appreciate : ) I am sewing the binding this week, so I should have a completely finished quilt soon!!!

Ava wanted to pose with the quilt : ) Love the morning light. She is getting so big too, where are my babies going?!

My first Dresden block almost done! This is for the quilt along with Lily's Quilts. First time I have joined one and I have really enjoyed it : ) Can't wait to have it finished, this is going to hang in my sewing room and it makes me so happy to look at. Considering making a quilt with this pattern, it only takes 6 blocks for a good sized quilt. Not sure if I would use the same fabrics or do something new. I think picking fabric is one of my favorite parts of the process.

This is how I usually sew, scooted up to the edge of my chair so Miss Thang can sit with me lol Chad jokes that her umbilical cord isn't quite severed yet. That's ok though, I love that my baby wants to be by me.

More sweet eyes : D Hope everyone had a great weekend, I did!

The Big 4 0

2011-03-18T10:40:00.004-05:00

This Friday I am going to be turning 40 years old....it almost doesn't even seem real! How can I possibly be 40? My Mom was only 41 when I got married and at the time I thought she was so old! Am I old?! I don't feel like I should be any older than maybe 31. Most days I don't really even feel like an adult lol This birthday is kinda hard for me, and I am not someone who worries overmuch about my age, but 40 IS middle age and I don't see myself as a middle age woman. Oh well, I guess I should just embrace it because next year I will be 41, then 42, 43 and before I know it I will be 50!!!! LOL I know, just take one year at a time, Tonya! I will be celebrating in the Big Easy with my 3 best girlfriends and our husbands. I know we will have a blast, we always do when we are all together. It has been one of *those* weeks, so I will definitely enjoy the break as well and the kids will enjoy being spoiled rotten by my mother.

Samuel is such a good big brother, he is always tending to his baby sister.

I know the pictures have nothing to do with me turning 40. I took them the other day and had a post all written out in my head, but I have now totally forgotten what I was going to say lol A definite sign of age, if I don't write something down the minute I think of it, it will be out of my head in 30 seconds!

My little cowgirl princess, she wears this outfit most days.

serious

Giving us her *sweet eyes*

Have I said lately how much I love this baby girl?! She is at that enchanting age where she is still a baby but can do big girl things. The fact that she has hardly any hair makes her seem even younger than her 18 months. She has started talking up a storm. She says Mama, baby, door, poo poo, kitty cat, tv, Sydney, ninny, Daddy, drink, all done, eat, nana (banana), night night, eyes, and more that I can't think of right now. Also, she will repeat most words after us. This is such a blessing because Ava has a pretty severe speech delay/impediment and I was worried that Sophia might have it too. Apparently not, thank the Lord! Ava wasn't talking at all until after 2 and didn't say much until she was 3. Ava is in speech therapy and is steadily improving, but I am glad we don't have to worry about it with Sophia.
I am enjoying every minute I can because she will be my last baby and I have to soak as much up as I can to hold me over until I have grandbabies : )

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, I know I will !

P.S. I am almost done with the quilting on my Mom's quilt! Like seriously, only about 2 hours left!!!! I really enjoy the binding, so hopefully I will have a finished quilt to show you in a week or two! woooo hooooo!!!!!

A QAL with Lily's Quilts

2011-03-18T10:23:00.002-05:00

I recently came across a new to me quilting blog and it just so happens that she was starting a Quilt Along. I have never done anything like this before, because I am always pretty sure that I won't be able to keep up. However, this one seems doable. You don't have to make a full size quilt, one block gives you a 30" by 30" wall hanging or mini quilt. I can do this! Also, I have always wanted to learn how to piece a dresden block, so here's my chance. I chose all of my fabrics from my stash, I love aqua and orange together. I still need to print my templates and cut my fabrics. I am really looking forward to this!

child prodigy?

2011-03-04T10:51:00.002-06:00

Sophia has taken a liking to our piano and in my opinion she is very good for a 17 month old LOL Now let me say that nobody in my house is an accomplished pianist. I took lessons when I was in third grade and quit after a year (really wish I wouldn't have). My 14 year old Sydney teaches herself popular songs off of the internet. She does well, but there is no formal training. Mainly we all just play around on it. Before Sophia could pull herself up on the bench, she would reach that fat little hand up and softly touch the keys, but as soon as girlfriend could haul herself up there, she was playing away! And the funny thing is, she doesn't pound on the keys like I assume a baby would. She carefully touches the keys individually. I am just kidding about the whole prodigy bit, but I do wonder if maybe she has some natural talent. My piano teacher did beg my parents not to let me quit, because in his opinion I was very good. So who knows, maybe she got it from me ; ) LOL

Just pretend you don't see the dust and fingerprints all over the piano lol

Oh, and in case you are wondering why we have such a nice piano when no one takes lessons? Well, we were blessed by some friends of ours (thank you Guidrys!) Their oldest daughter decided she didn't want to play anymore and they hated to see the piano not being used. Sydney would always play on it when she would go to their home. So, we traded an unused treadmill that we had for their piano. We definitely came out on the sweet end of that deal!

Baby in motion!

On the quilting/sewing front, I have been sadly out of it. I am determined to get back into it, I think it really helps my emotional well being. And I am double determined to get my Mom's quilt finished. I know, I know, it is still not finished. I think we are going on 2 1/2 years now...pathetic, I know. Sooooooo, this morning I cleared off my cutting table (which is where I machine quilt). It was so bad, I had to dust everything LOL It is now ready to go, my goal is to have it done for Mother's Day. Really, there isn't much left, I don't know why I didn't finish it months ago.

Now to show you the sad state of the rest of my sewing room. Crap is everywhere! My husband is painting some shelves that will help a lot with getting things organized, but let's be honest, not having extra shelving is not the problem lol

It doesn't help that this room also doubles as the laundry room and my kids have their presence there as well. My daughter Sydney has taken over my chair in the corner to do her homework in the afternoons.

Please don't call hoarders on me!

The stack of books on the stool is for her research paper. My stack of books is in my room on the bedside table where it belongs LOL

relaxing

2011-02-28T15:13:00.003-06:00

I picked up cross stitching again. Yeeears ago, when I was pregnant with Austin I had my first experience with needle and thread. I was instantly in love. For years, cross stitching was the only fiber hobby I had. Years later I picked up sewing and then knitting and quilting and crocheting, etc. LOL I made 5 of these Shepherd's Bush Christmas Stockings for my first 5 children and have been needing to make the youngest 3 children theirs for several years now. So, I visited my local needlework shop and bought the linen and pearle cotton for this project. This will be Samuel's stocking. I forgot how relaxing and enjoyable it was to paint a picture with thread. I am not making any lofty goals. I just want to get Sam's stocking done for this Christmas and will work on Ava's next year. I hope these become family heirlooms one day.

The pictures were taken by Savannah the other day. The minute I sat down to stitch a bit, Sophia climbed in my lap and Ava curled up beside me on the bed lol They are in Sepia because that is what the camera was set to when she snapped the pics. I am trying to make sure there are more pictures of me with the children. Since I am usually the one taking pictures, there are not very many pictures of me. I want my children to be able to look back one day at pictures of their mom LOL Even though I really don't love having pictures taken of me....

quilting, crocheting and knitting oh my!

2010-10-15T09:28:00.004-05:00

Yes, I am still in the process of quilting my Mom's quilt. I am definitely a slow poke when it comes to quilting. However, I can confidently say I am 3/4 of the way done! I am free motion quilting in each of the blocks. You can see the quilting clearly in the hot pink block. I must say once I got the hang of it, I fell in love with free motion quilting. I think I will only be using my walking foot for applying the binding. I find even straight line quilting is easier free motion. I havn't touched the quilt in over a week because I have just been too busy, I miss it. Hopefully I can sit down with it this weekend. I am using this and these which makes the process SO much easier and more enjoyable!

I also recently taught myself to crochet. While I do enjoy it, I still think I prefer the process of knitting. However, you can't beat the speed of crochet projects. I think I did the majority of this hat in just a few hours, and I am a slow crocheter.

I finally bit the bullet and decided I was going to knit a sweater for myself! For some reason this has always intimidated me! This will be the Central Park Hoodie when I am done. I picked a Cardigan because I do live in South Louisiana and having a sweater you can easily take off is a good idea. I am using Knitpicks yarn so that the sweater was actually affordable. Would have loved to do it in Malabrigo, but I can't be spending over $100 on yarn for one sweater! I find knitpicks yarn is a great and, more importantly, affordable option. This is Swish Worsted Weight 100% Merino yarn. The color is discontinued unfortunately. It is only 3.99 for a 110 yard ball, you can't beat that especially considering I needed 11 balls for this sweater! I have all of the parts finished and just need to seam them together and pick up stitches to knit the hood. It should be finished in time for cool enough weather to actually wear it! I am so excited because it looks like it is actually going to fit me! I was a good girl and swatched : ) Thank goodness, because I had to go up 2 needle sizes from what was recommended. Apparently I am a very tight knitter lol

Jessica took all of these pictures for me when she was here the other day taking Sophia's pictures. thank you Jess ; ) It is so nice having my own personal photographer lol

My baby girl.....

2010-10-11T12:44:00.005-05:00

I love this one!

Here are a few of the results from Sophia's photo shoot with Jessica last Friday! I have over 60 photos and they are all fabulous! I will probably be sharing them here and there for awhile lol She is such a happy child! I love her so much it hurts sometimes. Even when she is slapping me in the face because I won't let her dig in my eyes. She IS a rough one lol Her new thing is eating ice from my mouth like a baby bird. I should catch it on video, it is so cute.

I am feeling much better this week. Nothing has really changed, things are still crazy, and I feel like I am spinning with everything that needs to get done but probably won't. But my outlook is so much more positive. It must be the progesterone. I am so glad to be feeling somewhat normal again, I hate that doom and gloom everything is horrible and will never get better feeling when I know darn well I have a wonderful life and my bad is not even close to being bad, it's just life. An extremely blessed life at that!

Oh, those eyes!

Oldest and youngest....she is squinting because she is anticipating the flash on the camera going off lol she is so funny!

Some cute out takes with the cats, Zoey and Bob wanted to be in all the photos lol

HEY! Watch it!

I'm gonna get you!

My Week in Review or (The Ramblings of a Semi-Crazy Woman)

2010-10-09T08:43:00.006-05:00

We do school at the dining room table, see the huge stack of school books lol You can also see Samuel's *artwork* on the table's legs lol Chad made these benches recently, the children had pretty much destroyed all of the chairs that went with the table. Hoping these benches hold up a little better : D

Samuel and Ava , early one morning, working on a 50cent art project I got them at Joanns.

This week has been hard, I am not quite sure why. We are into our 3rd week of home schooling. It always takes a little while to get used to the new routine. I just feel like school is the only thing I can get accomplished some days. I think I was expecting everything to be a lot easier this year because Parker and Sydney are now in school. And it is easier, I don't even want to think about how hard it would be if I had to teach them as well. It is just that I didn't expect to struggle and I am. Also, I feel like my new holistic approach to my health stopped working. I think I have figured it out though. One of the things my doctor did was to put me on natural progesterone cream. Well, I have to use it for 3 weeks and then take a week off. This was my week off. I am still nursing Sophia quite often, so havn't started my period yet. Usually you would stop the progesterone during your period, but I just have to make up my own schedule until they start back up. I started the progesterone again today, really hoping I start feeling normal again. I think I will ask my dr. if I can take the progesterone the entire month. My Mom does, she said she felt terrible when she would stop it as well. Of course, she is post menopausal, I don't think I can do the same.

Also, one of my closest friend is going through a very hard time right now. I don't feel free to talk about it for many reasons, but it is a heartbreaking situation and it is on my heart and mind most of the day. I know there is so much good in this world, but there are also people (especially children) who are suffering greatly. I am finding it very hard not to dwell on this lately. While it makes me appreciate how blessed and lucky my family is, it hurts me to know there is so much pain out there. I hate to say it, but I tend to think there is much more bad than good in our world, and I feel guilty for having such a wonderful life and still struggling sometimes.

Sorry this is so depressing, but I have spent most of my life trying to be fake happy through the bad times. While I don't think it is good to wallow in self pity, I think it is worse to deny the truth of what I am going through. Trying to find the balance and what is healthy is hard. Also, realizing the things that should be hard and make you sad. Suffering children should make me sad. An unusually dirty and messy house is temporary and shouldn't really bother me at all. Like Autum said in this post, that is just the evidence of a busy and happy life : )

Anyway, even though is wasn't my best week, there were many positive things. My friend Jessica came yesterday and took 1 year pictures of Sophia. I can't wait to see them, Sophia was in a great mood, so there should be some good ones. We decided to do this on a whim, Jessica was downtown and called and asked if today was a good day. It really wasn't a good day, I had TONS of laundry and dishes and dirty floors that I should have been cleaning. But you know what, I am glad I said yes. Jessica is a positive person and can always bring me out of a funk. After she took Sophia's pictures, we went to our local yarn shop so I could help her pick out some yarn for this hat. She knows how to knit, but hasn't done it in a while. Well, instead of running in there and just getting what we needed, we actually sat down and visited with the owner and other ladies who were knitting and I helped her start her project. Oh, I also bought some yarn for a scarf, like I don't have enough projects lol It was so nice and relaxing, we both said we need to do that more often. Yes, my house is still a wreck this morning, but I still don't regret my decision, the housework will get done....eventually.

We also got our schoolwork done early on Thursday so that we could go eat lunch at Cracker Barrel and go to the park with my Mom. I had to leave from the park to go and pick Sydney and Parker up from school so I missed the pictures of them feeding the ducks : (

The big swings were in the full sun, so we all played on the baby swings. This is Samantha, the recipient of the most recent elephant. It took 3 of us to get her out of that swing LOL

I also forgot to blog about Sydney's first Homecoming. I didn't get pictures of her by herself. So, here is a cropped picture of her. She went with two of her friends, no boy girl dates at 14. I got her dress at Ross, for only $15!!! Her shoes cost more than the dress lol Parker went too, but I didn't get any pictures of him : ( I had gone to Sydney's friend's house to do their makeup and didn't get back home in time to take pictures of Parker, he had already left. They go to a fairly small Christian private school, so there was no dancing : ( I really wish they would let them dance, I don't see the big deal. I mean we don't have to let them bump and grind, but there is clean dance music out there and dancing is so much fun! I think they had more fun at the bowling alley after the "banquet" than at the actual event. Oh well, I guess it is better than the anything goes that is typical of the dances at public schools. I just wish there could be some sort of inbetween.

After having just proofread through this entire post, I realize it really wasn't a bad week after all. My house IS a mess, but it is because I spent the time with my family and friends. And the difficult moments were more than balanced out with the good ones! That is what I really love about blogging, it gives me a proper perspective on things. It doesn't take away the sad things that are still going on, but I can't let them affect everything. Or maybe my progesterone just kicked in LOLOL Who knows?!

A Week Late

2010-10-06T08:56:00.006-05:00

We celebrated Sophia's one year birthday a little over a week late, but later is better than never, right? At one, they don't know any different lol We just had a very laid back party with our family and my Mom and Dad (Maw Maw and Paw Paw) With this cool weather, gumbo was on the menu. Down here in South Louisiana, we get excited when the temps dip into the 60's because that is officially cool enough for gumbo! LOL We have even been known to put the thermostat down to 65 and eat it in the summer time ; ) However, traditionally it is a cool weather treat. And the weather has been beyond awesome!!! Our air conditioner hasn't kicked on in over a week. We just leave the kitchen windows cracked and it keeps the entire house nice and cool. It even dipped into the high 40's a couple of mornings, which is very cool for this time of year. It actually feels like fall! Please God, let it stay like this! I remember the year that I gave birth to a 10lb Isabella, it was suffocatingly hot until the first cold front came through on October 13, the day I had her!

two equally lovely views from my hammock : ) I can't sit down anywhere without at least two little ones pretty much on top of me lol

I have really been trying to record the special and ordinary things that happen during our life. I have been so inspired by this blog. I want to be able to look back 10 years from now and be able to see what we were doing. Even the boring everyday stuff, especially the boring everyday stuff, because those are the things that we tend to forget. I want to remember it all, and the older I get, the more I tend to forget. I hope to have this blog to look back on one day to help me remember how wonderful my life really was. Having just experienced my oldest child officially turning 18 has really made me realize how fast childhood flies by!

the view from my kitchen sink

I just love a man that can cook!

Me chasing Sophia, she found the remote and doesn't want me to take it away from her. Her goal in life is to play with a cell phone or the remote control lol

Here you can see Bob is indeed missing his entire tail lol

I don't think Bob wants to play.... he looks very unimpressed lol

Parker, my second oldest, is always running from the camera. I managed to sneak a quick picture anyway.

My Mom with Sophia

Isabella made both cakes, thank you Isabella! I am so happy to have a daughter that enjoys decorating cakes, way too stressful for me. And she does such a beautiful job of it!

Here we all are singing Happy Birthday to Sophia. You can hear Chad's heavy Cajun accent and our extremely tone deaf family, I apologize in advance. Gosh, we are some loud people! I just got the video, forgot to take pictures.

Fall is in the Air

2010-10-01T08:13:00.004-05:00

The last week has been so nice weatherwise down here in South Louisiana. The lows have been in the 50's and 60's and the highs havn't risen past the high 80's. After the sweltering high 90's of the summer, it has been a welcome relief. The weather man says it will stay like this for the next two weeks!!!! The children have actually wanted to go outside and play on the swings. Sophia enjoys the outdoors as well. Now if the dang mosquitoes would go away! sigh Oh well, I guess you can't have it all.....

The little ones playing in the grass. Sophia was fascinated with the feel of the grass, poor baby really hasn't been out all summer, except for in the pool. It was just too hot for a young baby. The pool is already covered for the winter. For some reason, my kids don't swim after July! It makes no sense seeing that August is the hottest month of the year. Of course, if I try to get into the pool to float around and relax, they ALL suddenly want to swim : / Funny, how that works lol

The neglected swing set is finally seeing some action! Ava finally learned how to swing all by herself and can be constantly heard yelling, "Mommy look at me, I can do it myself! Back and Forth, Back and Forth..." She repeats this sentence over and over and over and gets louder and louder if I am not looking directly at her lol

Samuel prefers to climb on it like a monkey.

Sophia LOVES to swing! She has her own baby swing, but likes to sit on the big kids swing with an older brother or sister helping. Here, Savannah helps out.

We have a new kitten in the family. His name is Bob : ) You can't see it in this picture, but Bob has no tail. It looks as if he was born this way. He is a stray that we found hanging around the girls' dance studio a couple of weeks ago. Of course, he zeroed in on me, knowing that I couldn't leave a baby animal to get squashed on the busy road nearby. He is SO cute and sweet. Chad isn't thrilled, but he is dealing with it.

And here is Zoey, Sam's special kitty lol She grew to be such a beautiful cat and still loves Sam most of all : )

This is my favorite time of year, Spring is a close second, but there is just something in the air in Autumn. I think it is partly because the holidays are coming, I adore Thanksgiving and Christmas. To me, Fall feels like the beginning of the year, more so than January. I guess it is because school starts maybe? I feel like everything is fresh and new, which is really what Spring should feel like, but I am odd! LOL

The Elephant

2010-09-29T08:45:00.002-05:00

I have made this little Wee Wonderfuls elephant a total of 5 times now and will probably make it at least 5 more. Everyone loves it and requests one, so it is my go to gift for children's birthdays. This one was made for my girlfriend Jessica's 10 year old daughter, Samantha. Samantha shares a birthday with Sophia and was actually present at Sophia's birth. She is such a sweet girl and she LOVES chickens! LOL She recently lost all of her pet chickens to a raccoon, unfortunately : ( When I saw this Alexander Henry fabric, I knew I had to use it to make her elephant. The fabulous aqua buttons are vintage, I just love that color!

Poor Samuel, begs me to make him one everytime he sees me whipping up one for someone else. He just asked me a few minutes ago when I was going to make his. I guess I need to do that today. And I might as well cut out one for Ava, because you can put money on it, she will want one the minute she sees Sam's lol I rarely make patterns twice, but I really enjoy this one. I think I am going to purchase her new book, so many cute gifts, so little time!

My Baby is One!

2010-09-27T09:46:00.004-05:00

I cannot believe it has been a year since my 8th child made her late but speedy appearance! It literally only seems like yesterday, I still think of her as an infant even though she walks everywhere now. She is a rough little booger, I guess that comes with being the youngest in such a large family lol I am a little sad because she is my last, but am trying to enjoy every minute of her dwindling babyhood. I consider them babies until at least 3 LOL She will probably be considered a baby until my dying breath, because she is really my baby.....unless, of course, God has a little prank to play on me later on. : O Which would really be fine, but if my plans work out, she will be the caboose.

These pictures were taken the other morning by Savannah. They really aren't very good, but I just love them. She is such a happy baby and loves to dance with her morning cartoons.

She loves to do anything Samuel and Ava do, they are still at the point that they love having their little sister follow around after them. I am sure that won't be lasting too much longer now that she can easily get into their stuff.

Chad's Mom and Dad dropped by to give Sophia her gift, we will be celebrating this coming weekend because the older kids had too much going on this weekend.

The school year is in full swing now, and I am scrambling to keep up! The girls have ballet 3 nights a week, there is church and sewing for Savannah on Wednesdays, Ava has speech therapy on Tuesdays and everyone has somewhere they want to go on the weekends! I am still homeschooling 3 of the children and Sydney and Parker are in a private high school which necessitates that I pick them up everyday. Thank God their school is only 5 minutes away. I feel like I live in that 15 passenger van sometimes. The house is a wreck and I often choose to sew or knit during those few free moments over cleaning up, which doesn't help to get the house out of wreckage mode! Oh well, as stressful and busy as things are right now, I am really very happy. I know one day I will have all of the free time I want and I will wish for these busy busy days with my children. I am really trying to enjoy my life where it is this very moment. I know from experience that I will look back and only remember the good times, I am trying to learn to truly enjoy the good times while they are happening.

NOLA and Best Friends

2010-09-20T08:56:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning, my 3 best girlfriends and I took a little getaway to The Big Easy. We had a free hotel room on Canal Street, so it was an inexpensive getaway at that! Let me just say, I needed this. I have never been away from Sophia for more than a few hours, not to mention all my other children. I knew I would miss them, but it was so nice to only have myself to think of for 36 hours. I just love New Orleans, it is such a beautiful and unique city. It is only 2 hours from where I live, so it is easy to just take off for the day or the night. We often go with the children for the day to visit the zoo or the aquarium. Great food too, I know that goes without saying lol

We stopped at Target when we were first getting into town for some snacks and necessities that we forgot. It was a nice 2 story Target, but we forced ourselves to get what we needed and leave because Lord knows we were not in New Orleans to go to Target! We do that all the time at home lol

My girlfriends are funny, crazy(in a good way:D) ladies and it was so nice to let my hair down and just relax and have fun! We ate a lot, walked a whole lot, window shopped and I danced : D Did I say that I danced? Yes, I definitely danced. I think I need to go dancing more often, I forgot how much fun it is. Oh, and you can't beat people watching in New Orleans, lots and lots of interesting people to see!

I was a little worried about Sophia because she is still breastfed and usually wakes up once a night to nurse. Well, the little booger slept allll night for her Daddy lol He said she was crying for me Sunday morning, but the rest of the time she did great. She was ready to nurse when I got home, and I was ready to feed her. lol

All photos courtesy of my crazy girlfriend Jessica ; D

crazy ramblings

2010-09-10T08:38:00.004-05:00

Not a great picture, but I hate to blog without posting a pic and all of my good pictures are on my computer, which has a virus : / This was taken on Bella's phone, it is Sophia and Sydney.

Hey everyone, just wanted to stop in and let some steam off. I don't know how much of this will make any sense and to be honest, I am not sure if I will even hit publish post. ha! Things have been so crazy ever since I got pregnant for Sophia. I really thought circumstances in my life were the reason, and they were to some extent, but I finally went to the dr. and realize now that my body is probably the main reason. I tend to go for a more holistic approach to medicine and thankfully my ob feels the same way. I had lots of testing done and found out that my vitamin D levels are almost nonexistent, I am deficient in iodine, my adrenal gland is stressed, I am low on progesterone and probably more that I just don't know about yet. I have started on the necessary vitamins and natural progesterone cream and am praying I start feeling better soon! I am only a week in, and realize that it will take a little while to get back to normal, but I can't wait! I am so ready to feel normal again!

On a positive note, my family is doing so well. Parker and Sydney are doing very well in the private school they are attending, it was a great transition from home schooling. The little ones are getting big and we are really enjoying Sophia, she is going to be 1 year old at the end of the month! There is sadness knowing that she is my last little one, but I am really looking forward to the next part of my life. LOL not like this one is over by any means, I still have at least 17 years with children around : D But no more babies, until grandchildren come along that is! I figure I have at least 5 years until that happens though. I am so greatly blessed (which makes my feeling crappy even more frustrating), I can say I have the EXACT life I have always dreamed of. I wouldn't change a thing! I also can't express how lucky I am to have married the man I did. He is perfect for *me*. He takes all my craziness in stride and loves me no matter what lol

I will say in all of this, my hobbies have helped to keep me sane. I am over halfway done with the quilting on my Mom's quilt. I know, I know it is taking forever, but I am doing a fairly complicated pattern, at least for me, and this is my first try at free motion quilting. I also have a little sewing class, I am teaching one young mama how to knit and another one how to sew. This is so enjoyable, I love visiting with them as much as I love teaching them to do these things that I love so much. We have babies around the same age, of course, they are young and I am O L D LOL Funny how it seems like just yesterday when I was that young mom, I really don't feel much different than I did then, maybe because I do still have young children.

Oh, and the small thing that made my morning....this line of fabric!!!! I havn't loved a whole line like this since Urban Chiks 1974 line came out and I used it to make my first quilt. Thinking I will be buying quite a bit of it.

thanks for reading if you got this far, I miss all of my blog friends, even though I do keep up with all of y'all through your blogs. Hopefully the next time I blog I will be feeling better and making more sense : D

2010-09-07T07:52:00.001-05:00

The Couture Process from FIDM Museum on Vimeo.

This is fascinating, especially the part on the intricate handwork that went into these beautiful creations!

Pictures of my other kids! LOL

2010-05-27T09:05:00.004-05:00

I realize looking back on my last few posts that Sophia has been the main attraction lately LOL Here are some recent pictures of some of my other children.

Ava loves to pose for the camera now, I think she is slightly jealous of the time spent photographing Fifi and wants some of that spotlight for herself lol This was before church one morning.

I made some new dresses for Sydney and Isabella. Don't have a picture of Isabella's yet, but here is Sydney's. This is a Cynthia Rowley pattern from Simplicity and some super slinky knit fabric from Fabric.com. I had to make the bodice twice!, That is some seriously slippery AND stretchy fabric to sew with. She loves the dress and wears it ALL THE TIME. Makes me feel so good : D

Here is Isabella, her sister took the picture. She is so grown up looking in this picture sniff sniff
She will officially be a teenager in October. That means I will have 4 teenagers in this house! Yes, I am still sane ; D This was before rehearsal for her dance recital, which is why she has makeup on. my girls have to be 13 before they can wear makeup on a daily basis.

Savannah takes a sewing class (I know, I could teach her and I do, but she enjoys being with her friends and going somewhere) The skirt is one of her projects from this year. Her teacher puts on a fashion show every year for the girls to model the things they have made. She is an awesome lady. (sorry for the blurry not very good picture, I was wrangling a 7 month old : D)

I gotta share dh's new man cave lol It is actually our new shed, our old one got crushed by a tree in Hurricane Gustav. This is a super nice shed though. He made it big enough to be his workroom, he is an awesome carpenter and it also triples as a poker playing room where the guys can smoke their cigars to their hearts content. It is even air conditioned. Chad goes missing quite often now, and this is usually where I can find him lol Yes, that is Sam playing on the hammock in his underwear (that is how he rolls!) Oh and I want to add that Chad built the entire shed himself. He even poured the concrete, my man is so talented and he saves us so much money doing things himself, gotta love that!
And one more of Samuel holding Sophia one morning just because they are both so stinkin' cute!

Made by Rae's Spring Top Week (My top made the top 60!)

2010-05-03T08:52:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh, I made it! My top made the top 60 cut on Made by Rae's Spring Top Week!!!! I am SO excited. If you don't mind, I would love it if you would head on over there to vote for my top. Or, if you see one you like better, feel free to vote for them instead : D Only one vote per day. There are so many great tops, which is why I feel so special to be included! Just be sure to go today if you want to vote for mine, because tomorrow there will be 12 new tops to vote on.

Beautiful Weather and a beautiful Mother

2010-04-27T09:37:00.006-05:00

The weather was so beautiful last Sunday, that I took some pictures of Sophia with my Mom. I must say that I have the best Mother in the world. We are literally best friends, rarely a day goes by that we don't talk on the phone. Even when I was in those lovely teen years we were close. And it wasn't because I was easy, I could be quite the little lying, non obeying snot LOL But she would let me stay home from school and we would go eat in the mall, people watch and see a movie together. These are still some of the best memories of my life. She is an awesome grandmother, my children adore their Maw Maw. I only hope one day that I can be just like her with my grandchildren. You will never meet a more giving, loving lady, ask anyone who knows her. She loves to feed people, help people and is the best example of a *true* Christian I have ever seen. She would literally give you the shirt off of her back if you needed it. She goes above and beyond to help people that no one else wants to bother with and doesn't want or expect any recognition for it. She has made it possible for me to raise 8 children, she is always there on a really hard day to come over and help or just to listen to me. I love my Mom more than words can say!

I didn't really plan to write this, but I guess you can call it an early Mother's Day post lol

An extra picture of Samuel, because he wanted to show everyone he lost a front tooth : )

Prom Night!

2010-04-24T20:42:00.005-05:00

My baby boy is at his Senior Prom tonight, unfreakingbelievable!!!! It literally seems like yesterday that he was Sophia's age. I may be biased, but I think he looked extremely handsome tonight : D

With friends. Alexa, in the one shoulder dress, has been friends with Austin since they were 18 months old. It was surreal to see them all grown up. I am sure they are all having a blast right now. Seems not too long ago that I was at my Senior Prom, oh my! LOL

She is sitting up and crawling

2010-04-08T14:37:00.004-05:00

The Fritos weren't opened, no junk food for FiFi yet. She just like the noise the bag makes.

Sophia is officially sitting up by herself and pretty much hands and knees crawling! She just turned 6 months old, so this is early for my babies. My other ones weren't crawling until closer to 8 months old. I don't want her to grow up too fast since she is my last. We also started feeding her solid foods last week. I just steamed some carrots and zucchini and baked some sweet potatoes and pureed it all in the food processor. She also loves mashed up bananas, avocado and applesauce. She even enjoyed some lentil soup at a Greek restaurant Sunday. Unfortunately along with the new foods comes stinky poop. It is so nice when they are only breastfed, the poop barely even smells. Before I know it, my baby girl will be turning 1 year old. It is going too fast!

I think about blogging every day. However, I tend to think a lot more lately than doing. I really really wanted this blog so that I would have a record of my life. Even now, I enjoy looking back and seeing the kids a year ago and remembering things that we did or stuff that happened. I really want to remember these days of raising my children. One day they will all be grown and gone and I know I am going to miss these crazy days. Some things we have done lately. If I were a good blogger, I would have pictures of all of it.

went to the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans with some great friends

had a birthday/Easter party for some nieces and a nephew along with Cabbage ball and an egg hunt for the little kids.

Chad and Parker turned 43 and 16 respectively

I turned 39! ::gulp::

today I went and picked out a tux for my oldest child's Senior Prom. So happy I convinced him to wear black instead of white! LOL

It is already April 2010 and life is flying by faster and faster and my memory is getting worse and worse LOL If I dont' start recording things, I am afraid I will start forgetting. This blog is such an inspiration, in so many ways. She has me wanting to be better about recording these memories. My pictures and words won't be so pretty, but at least the memories will be recorded, ya know?

Anyway, another thing I wanted to show y'all was the warehouse lights I bought for my sewing room. They were $30 each at Home Depot. They look so good in the room and were so cheap : D Gotta love cheap! They look so much better than the wires and naked bulb that were hanging out of the ceiling lol

I am also making progress on the quilting of my Mom's quilt. It would be really nice to be able to give it to her for Mother's Day.

Sophia,sewing and almost 40

2010-03-15T08:16:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch at my photographer friend Jessica's house and she took some pics of Sophia. Thought I would share. She keeps changing so much. She is rolling all over the place and gets up on her hands and knees and rocks. It is so cute to watch her get up, rock and then launch herself at whatever toy she is trying to get at LOL My other babies didn't crawl until almost 8 months, I am wondering if she will be earlier. So far, she is my happiest baby, but also my worst sleeper. She STILL wakes up 3 or 4 times to nurse. The little fatty weighs over 18 lbs and this is on breastmilk alone! Oh well, I am eating like a pig and still lost 5 lbs., so i guess there is some benefit to being a human milk machine LOL

I have been sewing more and more lately and it feels SO GOOD. I ordered some fabric from Jona at Fabritopia last week and got some of Anna Maria Horner's new little folks . That voile is to die for! I will definitely be ordering more. It is perfect for summer clothing down here in hot and humid South Louisiana. Also, I finally basted my Mom's quilt and have started the quilting. I am waiting on the Quilt Halo I ordered to get here. I am hoping this helps with my arm strain. My right arm aches horribly after 30 minutes of quilting. I love feeling so inspired again, it has been awhile and it feels good to be feeling more like myself.

I will be turning 39 at the end of this month. My last year in my 30's! This is really bothering me. I didn't mind turning 30, kinda liked it, made me finally feel like an adult, but 40 sucks! That is middle age!!!!! Oh well, i just need to appreciate the fact that I am still alive, not turning 40 would suck more LOLOLOL

Fun in New Orleans

2010-02-12T09:09:00.005-06:00

2 weeks ago we went to New Orleans for the day to celebrate one of my best friend's daughter's 15th birthday. We brought 12 teenagers with us. These are great kids and we had a blast! She took some great pics of Sophia. Since then the Saints won the Superbowl! We are so excited down here in South Louisiana! It was freezing cold this day, which is why Sophia is zipped up in her Daddy's coat lol

I knit the hat for Chad, but the one I had for Sophia was too small, so we used Daddy's on her. She is in her Moby Wrap sling, love that thing!

In the van on the way.

and taking a nap

Me and Sophia at Cafe Dumonde

Shelbie, the birthday girl at Cafe Dumonde!

On the street in New Orleans

All the girls in front of a wig boutique. You can see Chad and Fifi coming out of the door.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil lol

I miss this place

2010-01-26T09:37:00.002-06:00

I miss my blog so much, but I just can't manage to get things together enough to devote any time to it. There is so much I want to share, Sophia is now 4 months and so big (almost 17lbs) and things are changing. We have decided to let our kids attend high school at a Christian private school, so next year Parker and Sydney will be gone most of the day. Austin spent his Senior Year at a Catholic Private School to play golf. He will graduate this year and turn 18 in 5 months! I am almost the mother of an adult! CRAZY!!!! Not much sewing going on, except for necessities. Sewed some bibs and diaper covers (I cloth diaper Sophia). I am knitting Chad a pair of socks, but they are taking forever. Almost finished with the first one, but he wears a size 13, so these are some looooong socks lol I also knit a skull cap for him and Austin. Knitting is easier to fit in right now, because you can easily start and stop. Sophia still wakes up 2 to 3 times a night and will only nap in my arms and on my boob lol She is the baby and I will do what she wants lolol I don't want to let this space go, I am hoping to be back soon, but when soon is, I don't know.....

She's growing so fast!

2009-11-25T09:34:00.002-06:00

Thought I would share some recent pictures of my now 2month old baby girl. She doesn't look like a newborn anymore : ( Her eyelashes are growing in and her little body is plumping up. And YAY! She likes her morning bath now! I am so glad because I hated having to bathe a hysterical baby, made me feel like I was torturing her. Now we just need to work on getting her to take her naps in her bed and not in someone's arms lol She does great at night. Well, I mean, she still wakes up at least twice to eat, but when she is done, she easily goes back down in her cradle. However, during the day, she could be in a deep sleep, but try to put her down and those eyes pop right open lol I wouldn't get anything done if it weren't for my sling and my 3 older daughters!

As for sewing, things are *really* slow. I have done some though, so I'm not lying with my sew something in November banner. Almost finished with two appliqued pillows for a special girlfriend's birthday. Will share soon. I used fusible applique with a blanket stitch and really enjoyed it. I see lots more of this technique in my future. I keep telling myself that I am gonna stay up at night after Sophia goes to sleep and get lots of sewing done, but end up going to bed myself. Still tired from those middle of the night feedings.

Hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving. We had my brother and his family in and it was a nice time spent with family and eating lots of good food. All of the cousins had a blast, they always do : )

Ava still adores her baby sister, no jealousy at all, thank God! I think they will be best friends one day, the two babies of the family. Can you say spoiled! LOL

Sewing room

2009-10-23T09:47:00.003-05:00

Finally putting up some pictures of my beautiful new sewing/laundry room. Dh had said he would have it done by Mother's Day lololol I never planned on that happening, things like this always take longer than you expect. He still has quite a bit to do in here, but it functions wonderful just like it is.

Here is my sewing machine table and a small dining room table for the girls' machines and the serger. Eventually this whole wall will have custom built counters for all 4 of our sewing machines.

This wall will have shelves on either side of the window and a window seat with storage.

Here is the laundry part of the room. Right now my shelves with all my *sewing stuff* are next to the washer and dryer, but it will be a folding/craft counter with storage underneath. I also have my new mud sink. We got a great deal on it. It was originally $225, but dh found it with a messed up side that he could easily fix and wouldn't show anyway, they sold it to him for $75!!!! That included everything you see, cabinet, sink and faucet fixtures. I love getting a great deal.

Chad is also gonna build me a cutting table for the middle of the room. Even though it isn't officially finished, it works great as is! I havn't gotten to sew in it as much as I would like, but eventually I will. Sometimes I just go sit in there and enjoy it. It is so nice to have a space just for you. Of course, all the children tend to follow me in and as you can see, the play kitchen is set up in there as well. But, you know what I mean LOL

Mom's quilt top

2009-10-23T09:46:00.004-05:00

Well, I still suck at blogging. I was gonna post 3 times this week, but totally forgot we were starting our home schooling. The first week is always kinda crazy and throw in a 4 week old baby and it just gets crazier!

Here is the quilt top for my Mom that I finished in like June! lol Not the greatest picture, I had laid it out on the floor in my new sewing room to figure out how big I needed to make the back. Figured I had better take pictures while it was out! That is as far as I got on doing anything. I really am itching to start quilting it, but no time right now. I just walk into my beautiful new room and dream about all the sewing I am gonna do one day *sigh* Oh well, it is more fun to take care of Sophia right now. She will only be this little for a short time.

Promise, I will post pics of the sewing room soon.

edited to add that if you click on the picture you can see the quilt much better.

Motherhood

2009-10-23T09:08:00.003-05:00

Surprise, I am going to blog again before several months go by LOL Here is a new picture of Sophia, she is taking a nap on her Daddy. She is 4 weeks old today, where is the time going : ( She is already weighing around 11 pounds, my babies do not stay little for long. She has those baby zits, I have to force myself not to pop them lol Oh, and she HATES to take a bath. It is the worst time of my day. I can do it in 2 or 3 minutes, but she screams like you are killing her the entire time. She is already smiling and talking to us, I swear she has been smiling almost from day one. You can tell it is a real smile, she looks at you and the smile is in her eyes too. These first 6 to 8 weeks with a new baby are crazy. Mostly wonderful, but also frustrating and exhausting. Overall, Miss FiFi is a wonderful baby. She just has a rough day or night a couple of times a week. Last night was a great night, well once I got her to sleep. She had a belly ache and screamed for about an hour before pooping and then passing out around 11:30. Then she only woke up twice to nurse. For some reason I am fine waking up twice, but three times and I just don't get enough sleep. Before last night, she was getting up 3 or 4 times and not always going back to sleep. Yesterday was rough, but this morning I feel great. Funny how sleep deprivation can make a complete difference in your mood. She also loves her Moby wrap, well a faux Moby wrap, I made my own. I actually got some diaper covers and diapers cut out yesterday while wearing her. I don't think I can sew with her in it though, she likes me walking around doing stuff. I do get dishes and laundry done while she sleeps in it. I try not to use it all the time though, only when she is really fussy and I need to get stuff done. I definitely don't want her to get spoiled to sleeping only when she is strapped to me and I am standing up! LOL No, we only spoil her to being held while rocking her, at least we get to sit down lol I mean, how can you not hold a baby. I do put her in her cradle sometimes and she does pretty good in it at night, but i don't let my babies cry. Just can't do it. Well, she cries, but we hold her while she is crying. I am thankful she at least sleeps in the cradle at night. I don't sleep well with a baby in bed with me. I just doze and jerk awake every 20 minutes or so. I wish I could sleep with the baby, would make my life a lot easier.

I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that she is my last baby : ( Our main reason for this is our age. Chad is 42 and I am 38. Chad will be 60 when Sophia is 18. I want to be alive when my children have grandchildren. I mean, I know there is no guarantee, but the odds get better that you are gonna die, the older you get, KWIM? Also, I know that more people have their children at older ages now, which makes me feel a little better. I won't be the only grandma at her high school graduation lol Anyway, I am totally just rambling, but all this stuff is just swirling in my head, and it feels good to get it out on *paper*. Postpartum hormones can make you a little crazy, well crazier than usual lol

I will be adding a couple more posts in the next few days. I have my Mom's quilt top to share and my mostly finished sewing/laundry room! I know I will post because I already have the pictures uploaded. For some reason, not having pictures taken and on the computer is my main reason for being a bad blogger.

More Pics

2009-10-09T08:47:00.004-05:00

Here are the pictures of the kids with Sophia. The girls got to hold her right after she was born, they were at the birth, but these are the pictures when my Mom and Dad brought everyone that afternoon. Samuel and Ava were beyond excited to see their new sister.

Sydney with Ava looking on. She loves the fact that she is old enough to really help with the new baby.

Savannah has been a huge help, she would hold the baby 24/7 if I let her LOL

Samuel told my Mom before we came home from the hospital that he missed Sophia sooooo much, and wanted me to hurry up and bring her home : D Such a sweet boy.

Parker swore he wasn't excited about the baby, but he wants to hold her as much as the others now LOL He has admitted he was wrong and is now very happy to have a new sister : )

Austin always has loved babies, he has his profile pic on facebook holding his sister. I think that may be to attract girls though ; / LOL

Ava ADORES Sophia. I should have never worried about her being jealous, she loves to sit by me while I nurse Sophia and rub her soft head. She is gonna be a great big sister.

Isabella loves Sophia too, she loves to hold her even when she is fussy. She is so patient with her and can always get her to sleep for me. You can see that Ava sneaked into almost every picture LOL

My Mom and Dad with Sophia. They have been and always are so helpful. They stayed with my children so that Chad and I could enjoy a couple days of rest in the hospital. They are the BEST grandparents a girl could ask for!

A picture of the baby socks I knit for her. They already don't fit anymore : ( They grow SO fast!

Ava was and still is fascinated with her toes LOL At first, she was also fascinated with her eyes for some reason. She was constantly trying to stick her fingers in Sophia's eyes. She was gentle, but still! LOL And yes, she still calls her FiFi, it is so cute!

My baby is 2 weeks old today, it makes me sad. I just love this special time when they are brand new, but it goes by so quickly. I wish the days would slow down just a little bit. She has an awake time in the middle of the night! For 3 days, it was between 3 and 5, but last night it was from 12 to 2. I am trying to even enjoy that time lol Got to see Ice Castles one night : )

Sophia Faye Richard

2009-10-03T09:56:00.004-05:00

Looooong time, no post! So sorry, I told y'all I was antisocial when I was pregnant LOL I am finally getting around to announcing Sophia's birth. She was born Friday, September 25 at 3:21am. A good 11 or 12 days past her due date! I was due to be induced at 5:30am that Friday morning, but thank God she decided to come on her own. At 1am I woke up having a contraction. All of my labors start this way. One minute I am not in labor, the next I am. I know it is time within 2 or 3 contractions. Kind of like in the movies, which is funny, cause that is so not normally how it happens. The contractions were fairly hard and 5 minutes apart, so I jumped in the shower and called my friends and family to let them know it was time. My last labor was 18 hours long, so I wasn't sure if I should go to the hospital right away or not. Well, once I got out of the shower, I knew I needed to get my butt there asap! I had planned on putting on makeup and fixing my hair LOLOLOL That didn't happen! I was barely able to finish throwing stuff in my suitcase. Chad, I and the 3 oldest girls headed to the hospital with me having hard contractions every 2 or 3 minutes. I couldn't walk up to labor and delivery, Chad had to find me a wheelchair. Once I got there, the nurses were going along as usual because apparently I was handling the contractions so well that they didn't realize how far along I was. When the nurse checked me, I was completely dilated. The look on her face was priceless, because they hadn't even called my dr. yet. Thankfully, he lives very close to the hospital. I, of course, was kinda freaking out, because I knew that urge to push was coming and I wouldn't be able to stop it. The nurse said she fully expected to deliver the baby. Well, my first urge came just as my dr. was running in the door LOL He broke my water to check for meconium, and sure enough there was quite a bit. So, they wanted her out fast. I pushed once for her head and then had to wait while they suctioned her, and one more time for her body. The relief you feel once the baby is out is indescribable! To go from so much pain to nothing, it always takes me a minute to catch my breath. The only negative aspect to the birth was that they had to cut her cord and take her to the warmer immediately to suction her thoroughly. Apparently, she had pooped quite a bit. I am used to having my babies handed to me right away. It was a good 10 minutes before I could even see her. She was SO alert right at birth. She would quietly look around at everyone, like she was putting the faces with voices she was used to hearing. She weighed 8 lbs. 15 oz., which isn't bad considering how late she was. We were expecting her to be 9 1/2 to 10 lbs. I was excited that she fit in the newborn diapers LOL Oh, and her middle name is after my mother : )

She is beautiful and perfect and so laid back! The kids can be making a huge ruckus and she doesn't even flinch. Which is a good thing, it can get quite loud at my house lol I am so thankful I was able to have another baby, she is such a blessing to me, her father and the rest of her siblings. I have so much help with the older children, even the older boys fight over who gets to hold her. My best friend Jessica took pictures at the birth and afterwards. Didn't get too many labor photos, since it only lasted a little over 2 hours LOL My fastest birth yet, her sister, Isabella, was born in 3 hours.

Here she is right after birth, look at how alert she is!

happy family : D She is always sticking her tongue out lol She was sticking her tongue out as she was being born, we have a picture of it, but I will spare y'all LOL

After birth with her Aunt Gloria, I love this picture!

This was after her first bath when she was about half a day old. The look on her face is hilarious! I made the little gown with some adorable knit fabric I found at Joanns. I also knit the hat, which is obviously too small LOL

Here is Jessica, who took all the beautiful pictures, holding her. I have tons more to share, the ones of all the children holding her for the first time are so special.

Lots and lots of pictures and an update

2009-07-27T09:29:00.007-05:00

Hey everyone, long time no see LOL Sorry about that, I have just been very to myself lately. Tired from the pregnancy and anemia and just kinda anti social. I have been doing lots of sewing and knitting though. Sophia is getting SO big, I don't think she will be one of my smaller ones. My babies have ranged in size from 7 and half pounds to just over 10 pounds. I think she will be in the 9 to 10 pound range! I am hoping I am wrong, but I can usually tell. She moves all of the time, which I love, but sometimes her movements are so strong they hurt, and I still have at least 7 weeks left for her to grow! Other than the anemia and the severe backache lol, the pregnancy is going well. Oh, and I think I know what her nickname will be. Ava can't say Sophia and has been calling her FiFi. I think this is adorable.

Also, during this time two of my kids have had birthdays. I am now the mother of a 17 year old! I really can't believe it, a 17 year old son AND I am pregnant LOL Also, Sydney turned 13! I now have 3 teenagers in my house! Good times ; )

One of my best friends, Jessica, got her a nice new Nikon camera and we are now aware of her immense talent. Seriously, she is an awesome photographer! If you would like to see some of her work, check out her flikr. She offered to take some pictures of Sydney for her 13th birthday. All I can say is WOW! I am SO glad she is my friend, I would have payed a fortune for this otherwise : ) One of the perks of turning 13 for Sydney is she gets to wear makeup. She has been counting down the days lol She is only allowed to wear very little, but I swear she looks so grown up in these photos. What happened to my little girl. Here are a few of my favorites, it was hard to pick! You can see the whole shoot on Jess's flikr.

Jess also took some of me and my belly. She is going to photograph my birth too! Jessica has been at my last 4 births. She is one of my labor supports and has made such a difference in my labors. She is one of 3 friends that I just can't give birth without, along with my mom and dh. I have natural labors (no drugs) so my girlfriends are extremely important. Now, I am going to have beautiful pictures as well! I can't wait to share them, I promise no graphic ones though ; ) My favorites are the ones with Sydney : )

Sydney had to help me up! LOL
Here you can see how big I am! Sydney was mimicking my usual stance LOL Gosh, what a difference in the two of us!!!
Like I said, I have been sewing and knitting up a storm! I even finished my Mom's quilt top, just been too lazy to take a picture of it, soon, I promise. I think it will have to wait until after Miss Sophia is born to be quilted though, my back can't handle it right now. I have really been enjoying knitting, I can just sit on my comfy bed and knit away, easier on my back than sitting at the sewing machine. I do have some pictures of my first ever pair of socks though! Only because they were knit for Jessica, and she took some pictures for me LOL They are knit out of Malabrigo sock yarn, which was heaven to knit with. I got the pattern free at Interweave Knits. I think many more socks are in my future. Fun to knit and portable.

I hope to be back here before another several weeks pass! LOL

Baby Knitting

2009-06-09T11:41:00.004-05:00

For a couple of weeks I was a knitting fool! It is funny, because sometimes I don't care to do it, but when the mood hits, I can't get enough. I am actually still in the mood, but I really need to tend to my sewing before the baby is born. I can knit with a baby in my arms, not so much use the sewing machine. I found the pattern for the gray sweater in a Debbie Bliss book I checked out from the library. I started it before I knew Sophia was a girl, so picked a neutral color. Once I found out she was a girl, I added a picot edge in pink. I love pink and gray together. There is a great video tutorial here for doing a picot edging. Both sweaters still need their buttons sewn on, I am so bad about completely finishing things. I will probably wait to sew them on until I want the baby to wear them. lol Oh, the yarn is a DK weight Merino yarn from Rowan.

I found this pattern at Knitting Daily. It was a free pattern. I love the cable down the front. I really like simple knits, but also love a little special stitch to add interest. This was rated as easy, but I wouldn't consider it easy. More like intermediate. A beginning knitter would cry if they tried this pattern. I used Sugar Rush yarn for this project, it is made from sugar cane. How cool is that?! It is so soft, even softer than bamboo yarn and has a beautiful drape to it. It really is perfect for knitting for children. I know, it is blue. I really love blue on little girls, you will see that I end up buying more blue than pink. I am going to knit a hat and booties to match, as well. The second picture is more true to the color of the yarn. I took all of the pictures on one of the girls' baby dolls. I know it is kinda creepy, but it shows how the sweaters fit.

26 1/2 weeks

2009-06-06T19:24:00.004-05:00

I thought I would take some preggie pictures today. I got the cutest maternity t-shirt at Ross (for $6.99!!) yesterday and wanted to document my belly wearing it. I just love the little rhinestone stork lol As you can see, the belly has really started to grow. I swear I can feel the baby getting bigger everyday. The kids can watch my belly move as Sophia kicks around inside. Yes, we have decided on a name, I got what I wanted and she will be called Sophia. Dh just doesn't want her to be called Sophie (men can have weird ideas sometimes lol) Still no middle name though.

We took the pictures right before heading out on a trip to Joanns, you can see Savannah holding my sales flyer. : ) I snapped the girls sitting on the swing. Ava was being a poot and didn't want to be photographed, little turkey. We have been very productive with our sewing lately. I am going to have a brag post soon to show you what my girls' have been doing. I am really proud of them, they are turning into some good little seamstresses. I have also finished some knitting to show y'all. I just need to get on the ball and photograph everything.

I have so many projects I want to do. This week I am sewing all 3 girls some linen walking shorts and am waiting for some fabric to come in to make baby Sophia a little crib quilt. It is getting harder to do what I want, I forgot how you can't just move around and do what you want when you get this big. Plus, a lot of my time is spent helping the girls with their sewing.

I love my Kenmore!

2009-06-01T12:35:00.003-05:00

This is a meme from Sew Mama Sew. I love to read sewing machine reviews, so I thought I would add mine as well : )

What brand and model do you have? I own a Kenmore 19606

How long have you had it? About 2 1/2 years

How much does that machine cost (approximately)? I got a great deal for $450. This machine originally sold for $799. There was an open box, a lady had returned hers because she decided she wanted an embroidery machine. I don't think she had even taken it out of the box.

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)? All of the above LOL I mainly sew clothing for my kids and have recently started quilting. My machine handles everything really well. The only thing I wish is that the distance between the machine and needle were bigger when machine quilting a large quilt.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get? I sew several days a week, sometimes everyday. Usually for no more than 2 or 3 hours at a time though. I would say my machine gets average use, I wish it got heavy use LOL

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name? I really love my machine. It has a lot of decorative stitches and sews a beautiful seam. It is also very smooth and quiet. I love the needle down button. I feel like I got a really great machine for a really great price. I don't have a name for her, but I want to think one up.

What features does your machine have that work well for you? Like I mentioned above, I love my needle down button. I also love my automatic needle threader, this wasn't something I even planned on using, but now I use it all the time. I also love all of the embroidery and decorative stitches, they are fun to try out.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine? I am not thrilled with the alphabet because it is so small. But this is minor, I wasn't expecting a full out embroidery machine and don't really use them anyway.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it! Just the great deal I got! It was a surprise because we were just checking the machines out at Sears, not planning to buy that day, when the sales lady told us about the great deal on the open box. So, I got to go home with a brand spanking new sewing machine when I wasn't expecting to : D

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why? Definitely, you can't get much more machine for the price, even the regular price. This Kenmore is made by Janome, so I would highly recommend Janome machines as well. I can't afford a Bernina or Viking, you would pay well over $1000 for all of the bells and whistles I have on my Kenmore.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine? I want a smooth running motor and a nice balanced seam. My machine has auto tension, and I rarely have to mess with it. I really like my needle down button, and would probably require one on any new machine I bought. I think I will look for a bigger harp on my next purchase, it would make machine quilting much easier.

Do you have a dream machine? Well, I guess my dream machine would be a top of the line Bernina or Viking. I don't know about embroidery though. I prefer the way hand embroidery looks, but I am sure I could have fun with machine embroidery too LOL

Pincushion Giveaway results!

2009-06-01T07:47:00.002-05:00

Ok ladies, I used an online random number generator and the winner is number 118!!!!

alana said...: Beautiful pincushion and turquoise is my favorite color!! I hope I win! Thanks for the giveaway!

Yay Alana! I will be emailing you : ) Glad you share my love of turquoise. I hope you enjoy the pincushion.

I just want to thank everyone for all of the lovely comments, y'all were very sweet. I really enjoyed participating in this swap and hope to do another one soon.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway prize

2009-05-27T18:30:00.004-05:00

Sorry I am a little late. Here are the pictures of the pincushion I am giving away. It is the pattern from Anna Maria Horner's book Seams to Me. I made myself one a few weeks ago, and I love it. So nice for carrying around with you while you are doing some hand sewing. It is nice and big too, room for lots of pins. I am including a pack of turquoise head pins with the cushion.

Everyone who responded to the previous post will definitely be included in the drawing : D

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day

2009-05-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am participating in this. Will be back later today with pictures of the goodies : D

Mother's Day in Cajun Country

2009-05-12T14:14:00.006-05:00

Down here in South Louisiana we celebrate Mother's Day a little differently ; ) We had a crawfish boil. My Mom and Dad came over for the day and we boiled mud bugs. The girls had a good time taking pictures, there were over 190 taken on my camera.
We had 60 pounds of crawfish total, and this little ziploc bag was all that was left! Yeah, we are some pigs. I know Austin ate 10 - 15 pounds by himself. This is the sort of thing I eat until I am sick. We only eat it 3 or 4 times a year, they aren't cheap, so you have to get your fill when you get the chance lol

We also boiled potatoes, corn, onions, mushrooms, sausage and garlic. I ate half a head of garlic myself. Chad said I finally smell normal this morning : D lololol

My mom had also made two banana puddings for dessert. Let's just say I didn't bother eating dinner that night. I probably ate enough to last me the week. The kids had fun swimming and the guys watched golf. It was a very nice and relaxing Mother's Day.

The crawfish were HUGE, here is Savannah holding a couple up for the camera.

Paw Paw (my Dad) playing with Sam and Ava.

Samuel and Ava playing in the blowup kiddie pool my Mom bought for them.

Sydney Claire is such a cut up lol

A couple more random pictures of the pigout lol

Weekend Sewing

2009-05-05T08:36:00.002-05:00

After seeing all of the great projects from the book Weekend Sewing, I broke down and bought it. I don't buy many sewing books, I would love to, but it isn't usually in my budget. This book was well worth the money. There are at least 6 projects in there that I plan on making. My first project was the Trapeze Sundress. Except, I shorted it to a tunic. I just took 8 inches off the bottom of the pattern. I did have to shorten the pockets after doing this though, because they stuck out from the bottom of the shirt.

I am not sure if I made an error when I was copying the pattern or it is just the way the top fits, but I had a problem with the top gaping badly. I just put a box pleat in the middle and that seemed to solve the problem. I had to make a size large *gasp* to fit around my chest, which made it very tent like. This is fine right now, since I am pregnant lol However, if I was making this when not preggo, I would narrow the sides down a little. Of course, if I weren't pregnant, my boobs wouldn't be so darn big and I would probably fit in a medium lol

These pictures are not so great, I took them at the end of a long day. I was tired and not in the mood, which shows on my face lol Also, pictures kind of freak me out right now, I don't realize how *full* my face, chest and arms are until I see a picture of myself. I probably should have just left my head out of the shot, but Sydney didn't listen to me, and I didn't feel like cropping. I actually wore a white cardigan over the tunic, but wanted to photograph it without. Here is another belly shot, I am 21 weeks. ( Oh, and please excuse the crap under the patio. This is what was in the garage and it is being stored here until dh can build a new shed. Our old one was crushed by a tree in Hurricane Gustav. Sydney wasn't supposed to get this in the picture either.)

some sewing and knitting

2009-05-02T13:44:00.004-05:00

Time sure flies by, I can't believe it has been over a week since my last post. I really have lots to blog about, I just have a hard time getting around to actually blogging it. Really, my problem is getting the pictures taken and uploaded to the computer. I have a million ideas of projects I want to do running through my head. It doesn't help that I am hooked on knitting again. I have quilts, clothing, and knitting I want to get done LOL Not to mention that I want to make some heirloom clothes for this baby girl, I love delicate little clothes with hand embroidery on them.

Here are a couple of completed, or mostly completed projects. I made the pincushion from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me. I have had this book for awhile and this is my first project. I love many projects in this book, so I was glad to get one finished. Mine came out a little wonky, but I think it is because I got the wrong interfacing. I was in a hurry to do it, instead of waiting to get the right stuff. Overall, though I am happy with it. I love this design because I am always doing handwork and this pincushion is perfect for toting around everything you need. I have my embroidery scissors, thread or embroidery floss and anything else I need tucked nicely into the little holding spot in the middle. The only problem I had with the pattern is she says to sew a 3/8 inch seam for the patchwork around the middle. I had to sew a 5/8 inch seam to get my round outside part to match up with my middle tube. She does say you may have to adjust it, so just thought I would mention the difference if anyone decides to sew it.

I am also finished with the knitting for this baby's first little sweater. This is a pattern from a Debbie Bliss book I checked out from the library. I started it before I knew whether this little one was a boy or girl, I figured grey was a good neutral. I used a Rowan 4ply Merino wool. I had *just* enough yarn! You see the piece coiled up at the bottom? That is what was left! LOL The sides still need to be seamed up and the buttons sewn on. Also, I think I am going to add a picot edging around the bottom and sleeves in pink to make it look more girly. I just love little baby knits, I have already started a little hat and have plans for another sweater and several pairs of booties. I also want to make some daygowns and a quilt for this baby and about a dozen other things LOL I have about 20 weeks, I had better get moving! (click on the picture for a better view, knitting is so hard to photograph.)

I also bought two more books. Material Obsession, which I saw on Amber's blog, and just couldn't resist. When I went to Amazon, you could get Weekend Sewing with it for a discount. Well, with all the buzz about Weekend Sewing, of course I bought both LOL I already have all the pieces cut out for the Trapeze Sundress, but I am making a tunic instead. I saw one on Made by Rae and she is pregnant too, so figured it would work for a maternity top. I should have it finished today. I love that book, so many great patterns! It is the first time I had to trace my patterns from a pattern sheet with all of the patterns superimposed over each other like that. My eyes kept crossing trying to keep straight which piece I was tracing lol Not my favorite thing to do , but very worth it, I am sure.

Chain Piecing is my friend

2009-04-24T11:17:00.006-05:00

Here is the progress on my Mom's quilt. This quilt is a little more involved than my first one. Thank goodness I heard about chain piecing. I can't imagine how long this would take me if I did one piece of a block at a time. I cut the pieces for several blocks and do them assembly style. I have a good little rhythm going with my sewing and ironing. There are 6 different steps for each quilt block. I need 80 blocks for a twin size quilt. I have about 25 blocks completely finished and another 40 over halfway done. I am getting there slowly LOL I am having to be really careful with my piecing, lots of little points that have to meet. The smallest squares are an inch square once sewn together.

Here is a bunch of squares halfway done.

This one has to be redone because my points aren't meeting up. I have been doing pretty good, there have only been about six that I have had to redo. I don't pin either, I find it easier to just maneuver the blocks while sewing. I do this with most of my sewing, I only use pins on rare occasions.
Here is a picture of some of the finished squares in the arrangement used for the finished top. I am really loving how this looks. I found the pattern in a quilt book from the library. I really need a felt wall for the final auditioning. It is gonna be fun putting all of this together.
A closeup of a finished square.
Here is my little helper, Zsa Zsa. Everytime I start sewing she plants her furry self right in back of my sewing machine. She loves to sleep on my ironing mat too. Nothing that comes from my house is pet free, that's for sure.

Drumroll Please......

2009-04-21T14:04:00.004-05:00

Baby number 8 is a GIRL!!!!!!!!!

I was almost sure she was a boy LOL The boys are a little disappointed, they really wanted a brother to even everything out. Now the girls have a big lead with 5 girls to 3 boys ; ) No name yet, I was settled on Sophia, but Chad let me know that he did not like that name. Since she belongs to him too, I figure we can pick out another name. I can't wait to start sewing for her! I found a local sewing machine dealership that also sells gorgeous fabric. It is expensive heirloom fabric, but little baby clothes don't take much. I am almost finished knitting a little sweater for her. I started it before knowing boy or girl, so it is a deep grey. Since she is a girl, I will add a picot edge on it to make it more feminine.

Everything looked great on the ultrasound. We could see her moving around and drinking her amniotic fluid YUM LOL As many times as I have done this, God's creation never stops amazing me! To think that only a few months ago she was a single cell, and in a few more months she will be a full grown newborn! She has already grown so much from my 12 week ultrasound, I cannot wait to see what she looks like!

edited to add: sorry the font is so big, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to fix it!

Big Belly Pics

2009-04-20T14:32:00.002-05:00

Well, here I am in all my preggo glory LOL These were taken a week ago. The lighting is terrible, it was storming outside, so these were taken in my bathroom mirror. I am 18 weeks here and I think I have grown over the last week. I get *really* big, especially when the baby is over 9 lbs. Wait until you see my belly at the end! I have been feeling the baby kick, which is my favorite part of being pregnant. It is funny, because the movement gets more pronounced each day. Soon, Chad and the kids will be able to feel the kicks. Tomorrow is my big ultrasound when we will hopefully be able to see if this little one is a boy or a girl! I really don't have a feeling either way, so it will be a surprise. Either or is fine with me : ) Several of the children are coming with us, I think they are more excited than I am lol I will do a post tomorrow afternoon to let everyone know!

Closing in the garage

2009-04-04T19:43:00.003-05:00

Chad has been working on closing in our 600 square foot garage. We never put the cars in there (the 15 passenger van is too big lol), so it was just a lot of wasted space. Half of it will be a gameroom for the kids and the other half will be a laundry room/ sewing studio for me!!!! He plans on having it done for Mother's Day, how sweet is that : ) I cannot wait. We will have a sewing station each for me and all 3 older girls, plus shelving and a window seat. The laundry part of it will have a utility sink and folding counter. But the best thing of all will be my custom built island cutting table. I think he said it will be 4' by 8'. It will be so awesome not to have to cut my fabric on my bed anymore. He is also going to run electricity to it, so that I can put my sewing maching there when I need to quilt a quilt. The large flat surface will make things so much easier.

He has gotten a lot done on the inside, but it is boring not pretty stuff, like framing walls and running plumbing and electricity, so there isn't really much to see. However, this weekend he finished the outside. It really looks great, much better than those old 1970's garage doors that used to be there lol

Here is a view of the outside in progress, still so ugly.

And here it is finished, except for paint and doorknobs. Samuel had to model for the picture lol We will be painting the door a dark steel blue and the hardey plank siding a pale grey. I havn't decided if the trim will be white or black, probably white.

Here is a picture from the inside, not pretty! I will share pictures once he gets the sheet rock up, so y'all can see how the space will be. We found some pretty grey ceramic tiles for cheap at Home Depot, so I am thinking of painting with blues and greys. Picking paint colors makes me so nervous. My sewing studio will be on the side with the window. Oh, and all the lumber for the framing was free. It came from a window and door place that throws away all of the framing the doors are shipped in. Perfectly good lumber that they just throw away. And both new windows were repurposed from my BIL's house, they are adding on and were just going to freecycle these windows. We did have to buy the door, but got a really good deal on it. Good thing I like simple, those fancy doors are expensive!

Quilt finally done!

2009-04-04T16:06:00.006-05:00

I finally took pictures of my first finished quilt! I am really happy with it and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. I just love this Urban Chiks 1974 fabric line. I decided to just do straight line quilting in the sashing and the border. I found the squares looked better without quilting inside them, I think the quilted sashing sets them off. I pieced the back with large pieces of several of the top fabrics. I love pieced backs. I am not crazy with how the binding turned out, I cut it on the bias and should have cut it on the grain so the polka dots would look right. I am already piecing the top of another quilt for my mom, I think many more quilts will be in my future : )

Back of the quilt.

Close up of quilting.

Catching up!

2009-03-31T09:12:00.002-05:00

Well, I am finally feeling better! The nausea has been gone for the last couple of weeks, but we have been so busy, that I havn't had any time to blog. Some things that happened in my absence.

We lost our sweet little beagle, Pixie : ( She was hit by a car. She never went in the road, I don't know why she did that day, but thank God she was killed instantly. We found her right after it happened and she was still warm. We were able to love on her and tell her goodbye. This happened at the beginning of my pregnancy, and I was hysterical, the crazy hormones made everything worse. I am better now, though I miss her everyday.

The girls had two dance competitions on back to back weekends. Thankfully, my morning sickness was almost completely over. It was exhausting, but the girls had a blast and did great! The competition was in Baton Rouge, so we were able to drive home each night.

We took a trip to Houston for my best friend's grandson's 1st birthday. This was the weekend after the two weekends of dance competition. Can you say tired? LOL It was worth the effort though, we had a great time. My best friend Melinda is in her early 40's and her daughter, Kristin is pregnant for her 3rd child. Actually, Kristin and I are due 2 weeks apart! How crazy is that?! When I met Melinda, Kristin was 7 years old and I was 22 and pregnant for my second child, Parker. Now she is 23 and married with 2 kids and one on the way. Where does the time go? I think this means that I am getting old LOL

Most of that happened in the last month. Before that nothing happened, I pretty much just laid in my bed and was miserable. I am SO HAPPY to be past all of that! Except for my allergies, I feel great. I am sporting quite a belly : ) I always get pretty big, and being number 8, my uterus just kind of goes right to it's pregnancy size LOL I am 16 weeks now, so I should start feeling the little one move soon. I can't wait, feeling the baby move is my favorite part of pregnancy. I even love the karate kicks at the end. I will take a belly picture soon.

Oh, and I finally started sewing again! I finished an apron for a swap partner that is two months late : O I know, bad me. I am gonna have to add some extra goodies to make up for her wait. I also finished the binding on my quilt and started my Mom's quilt. I will have pictures soon, I promise! It feels so good to be creating again, I really really missed it.

I am still ALIVE (sorta)

2009-02-20T08:22:00.002-06:00

This morning sickness is kicking my butt!!! I had it with all my others, but I don't know if it is being old this time or what, but I feel like I am dying! The reason I havn't posted in so long is because nothing is happening except me laying on the couch whining and watching way too much tv. My house is a WRECK and my poor kids are now behind in their school. I am almost 11 weeks, so it *should* be over soon (please God!) Even worse than the morning sickness is the total lack of motivation to do anything. I guess it is hard to want to do anything when you are nauseous 24/7, but I am starting to get depressed. Nothing interests me, not sewing or going somewhere, nothing. Of course, moving makes me even more nauseous, so I guess this feeling is understandable. I just want to be me again. I have always loved being pregnant, except for the first trimester, the first trimester sucks! So far, this morning I feel kind of ok, but this has happened before only to be hit with full blown nausea out of nowhere, so I don't want to get my hopes up. So sorry this is such a depressing post, but I don't feel good enough to be fake and pretend everything is great, and it feels kinda good to get these feelings out.

Oh, and I have already gained 5 pounds!!! This is because I have to eat something every 2 hours or the nausea is greatly intensified. Actually, the only time I feel decent is when I am eating, so I tend to eat more than I should just to feel good for a little longer. And I have to eat something with protein or carbs, not just fruit and vegetables to feel better, so lots of calories going in. Oh well, I will worry about the weight later. This little one is definitely worth it, but I will be so happy when this part of the pregnancy is over.

I promise to have happy posts soon with belly pics and cute stuff being made LOL Thank you if you actually read this, I don't blame anyone if they ignore it.

: D

2009-01-29T17:32:00.003-06:00

So, where have I been and what have I been doing? Well, actually not much more than laying around only doing what I absolutely must! LOL You see, I am expecting a new little one and he or she has been making me quite nauseous and tired! I have been dying to share my good news, but I was waiting until my first u/s to make sure everything looked good. This is quite an accomplishment for me because I am usually the one shouting it from the rooftops the minute that positive test turns pink LOL I am still announcing my pregnancy a lot earlier than most women do, but I just can't keep it in anymore! My little bean looked perfect on the u/s yesterday with a strong and steady heartbeat. I am due September 14 or sometime after that (I have never
delivered before my due date). The children are beyond excited as are Chad and I. Yes, this was planned, we have actually been trying for about a year. So far, I can't sew or knit, it makes me nauseous. I have been trying for a couple of weeks to finish the handsewing on the binding of my quilt, but can only do a little bit at a time. I can't lie, I really don't enjoy the beginning of pregnancy, feeling sick 24 hours a day is no fun, especially with other children and a house to take care of. But, I know it will get better around 11 or 12 weeks and then I will love being pregnant : )

Tine interviews me

2009-01-22T17:34:00.003-06:00

Sorry guys, I have been horrible with my blogging and everything really. I have a really good excuse, I promise! I can't share that excuse just yet ; ) A few weeks ago, Tine was interviewed on her blog, and I thought it was so interesting that I asked her to interview me : ) She sent me the questions over a week ago, sorry for just getting to them, Tine : )

1: You have a 7 kids....did you grow up in a large family?

Actually, no, I only have one brother that is 4 1/2 years younger than me. I really don't know why I wanted such a large family. When I was a teenager I didn't even want kids, how crazy is that? Funny thing, my brother has 5 children. Maybe having a small family makes people want bigger families LOL

2: I know your children love the beautiful clothes you sew. They pick out patterns and fabrics, how did you teach them to do that?

I really didn't teach them, they do watch me and all 3 girls love fashion, probably more than me. I guess it is just something innately in them. We love to watch Project Runway together, and my oldest, Sydney, seems to really have a talent for clothing design.

3: You have so many responsibilities...what would be a typical day's routine?

Hmmm, LOL I will give you a typical weekday routine including homeschooling.
I wake up around 6:30 with my dh and we drink coffee and watch the beginning of Good Morning America, I love our mornings together. He goes to work and I get on the computer and eat breakfast. After my breakfast, I wake the kids up and take my shower while the kids eat. Then we all do chores together and start school. Each child takes a turn with me to go over that days lessons and so I can explain anything they don't understand. Of course, there are lots of interruptions from Samuel and Ava during this time. I really wish this would go more smoothly than it does, but such is life with 7 kids! LOL Nothing ever really goes smoothly. We eat lunch around 12:30 and the kids are supposed to be finished with their schoolwork by 2pm. That isn't always the case : / After this, every day is different. All 3 girls are in ballet, and Savannah takes a sewing class on Thursdays. Austin plays golf and works at the golf course, and no I havn't let him get his driver's license yet lol Wednesday is my only day that I don't have to run someone somewhere. Dh is home by 3:00 a couple of days a week, but the other days he works with his brother in his plumbing business. We usually cook dinner together on the days he is home by 3. The other days we have leftovers. I really don't have much of a routine for the evenings, it just isn't possible with the kids extracurricular activities. I am usually in bed by 10:30 or 11. If I do get to sew on any particular day, it usually happens in the afternoons or in the evenings before bed.

4: Do you have an all-time favourite movie or book? If so which one?

Well, everyone on here knows how much I love the Twilight Series! LOL I would say my favorite all time movie would be Legends of the Fall. It is such a tragic and sad movie, but I still watch it over and over again. I adore Brad Pitt : ) That is a beautiful man, inside and out! I also love Steel Magnolia's and can't even count how many times I have watched it. It was filmed in Natchitoches, Louisiana, which is only a couple of hours away from where I live. Just a great story, of course it is a sad one too. I tend to like sad movies, what does that say about me?

5: What makes you happy?

My family makes me happy, of course. I also enjoy my time alone with my husband. Sewing and creating is right up there, as well. It really relaxes me and makes me feel like I have accomplished something. I love to look at beautiful things in nature and art. Seeing anything beautiful immediately lifts my spirits.

Great questions, Tine! I hope I adequately answered them : ) Just wanted to add what a lovely person Tine is. She makes beautiful quilts and other lovely things as well : ) Most of all, her genuine kindness shows through in her blog. I really really wish you didn't live so far away in Denmark, Tine. You are someone I would just love to meet in real life : )

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1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

A little knitting.....

2009-01-18T12:39:00.003-06:00

While I was having my sewing funk, I did get a little bit of knitting done. I had this 100 Pure Wool that was supposed to be a diaper cover, but I don't cloth diaper anymore, so I figured I would make a scarf. I picked the Brioche stitch. An easy repeatable stitch, but a little more interesting than plain knitting. It was an enjoyable project and the scarf is nice and warm.

I enjoyed knitting my scarf so much, I decided to knit another one. We have a brand new yarn store here in Lafayette called the Vermillion Yarn Company (I am pretty sure that is the name lol). Dh and I had a lunch date Friday and afterwards we went check out the new yarn shop. It has a male owner and he has beautiful yarn. The other yarn store here in town sold more of the novelty yarns (not my taste), so I usually bought online. I am so excited that I can see my yarn before I buy it now! He has mostly natural fibers, which is what I prefer. I bought some beautiful dark gray Merino wool by Debbie Bliss. It was 30% off too : )

I know these pictures aren't great, I had a heck of a time getting a good shot, even outside in beautiful light. If you click on the picture you can see it better.

Here is the Brioche stitch pattern if anyone is interested : )

Cast on an even number of stitches

Foundation row *Yo, sl 1 wyib, k1; repeat from * to end
Row 1 *Yo, sl1 wyib, k2tog (sl st and yo of previous row); repeat
from * to end.
Repeat row 1.

I just kept repeating this until my scarf was long enough. VERY easy!

I won something and new shelves

2009-01-12T11:29:00.005-06:00

I can't believe I am just now posting this, I woke up in the middle of the night last night and remembered I hadn't thanked Jana of Lola.....Again for the lovely gift I won. This is my first ever blog giveaway to win! Isn't this bag adorable?! Isabella thought it was so adorable, she stole it from me and is using it as her ballet bag! She claims until I make her one, she gets to keep this one LOL Jana is hilarious, if you haven't checked out her blog yet, I recommend you do now. Thank you Jana : D

I am finally sewing again! I have been in a creative funk since before Christmas. Friday night, I finally felt like cutting out the fabric for my Mom's new quilt. This is even though I havn't finished my quilt yet lol I am using several fabrics from the Ava Rose line by Tanya Whelan. I bought all of my fabric from Jona at Fabritopia. She carries the whole line. While I think these fabrics are beautiful, they are not something I would normally choose for myself. So, I am really enjoying working with new prints and colors, it is always fun to change things up. My Mom picked this fabric line herself, she loved it! I still need to buy 3 or 4 coordinating solids from my local quilt shop and then I can start assembling the quilt top.

I also got my quilt out and am trying to finish up the quilting. I am *almost* done! Can you say slooooowpoooooke! LOL Some of you ladies have started and finished 3 quilts since I started this one! Do you see that kitty looking out the window? The little turd almost threw up on my quilt last night! Thank God I had thrown a pair of shorts on top of it that needed mending before going to bed last night. The shorts caught all the puke! I never leave things out like that usually, now I know why.

I also spent yesterday cleaning up my sewing space. My mom gave me two shelves that she had replaced, so I moved a lot of the junk that was on top of my cutting table to the shelving. What an improvement! I can use my cutting table now, and everything looks much neater on the shelves. I should have taken a before picture of the cutting table, so you could fully appreciate what a mess it was.

Now, I just need to refold all of my fabric and stack it neatly. I have kinda just been throwing things up there, as you can see lol

Last week

2009-01-06T08:45:00.009-06:00

Well, I think I am back. I really want to get back on track with the blog, but things have been busy. We just got back from a week in Houston where we had a fantastic time with great friends. These friends are really more like family. We didn't do anything really special. Just hung out and cooked and ate and cleaned, stayed up late and then woke up the next morning to do it all again lol The kids had a blast. Most times there were at least 16 kids in or around the house. My 7, 5 of Melinda's 7, Austin's girlfriend and her brother and sister and the little boy from across the street LOL The older ones spent most of their time playing airsoft gun wars. I know, that sounds kind of violent, but they really had a great time and it kept them outside and getting exercise. The little ones pretty much stayed on the trampoline. They even played with Playdoh while on the trampoline. I think the Meyers will have Playdoh stuck in their grass well into the summer. We had a big get together with 3 other families for New Years Eve. Our friend Thomas made a fabulous Creole Gumbo, plus pototo salad, guacomole, and lots of dessert. There was a bon fire and fireworks and everyone stayed up WAY too late. Melinda, John and the kids even dissected a bobcat! Poor thing was hit by the gates before you enter their neighborhood. They froze it and saved it for when we came lol I couldn't stomach it, but it was a great biology lesson for the kids. I will spare y'all the pictures ; ) We even celebrated Ava's 3rd birthday while we were there. I cannot believe my baby is already 3!

I took LOTS of pictures, here are a few.

Samuel, Ava and Abby jumping on the trampoline.

Austin and Alexa shooting at each other LOL

Chad and I making the potato salad for the Gumbo New Year's Eve. Of course, Chad is making a funny face lol

Charlee, Ava and Sam with the neighbor's cat hanging out by the fire ring.

Abby, Samuel, Charlee and Ava posing for me on the trampoline.

Singing Happy Birthday to Ava

Melinda, John, Chad and me before going on a date to the movies. We saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Great movie, even though it made me cry. I couldn't STOP crying, even after the movie was over lol I don't usually get that emotional, but that movie was really moving. Oh, and Brad Pitt was gorgeous, of course ; )

Chad and John decided to build a deck over John's pond. Here they are working hard lol The deck came out great. John stocked the pond a year ago, so the men and kids have a great time fishing.

Austin and his first girlfriend, Amanda. Amanda is best friends with John and Melinda's daughter, Alexa. They have known each other for years, but something clicked the last time we were in Houston. You can see by the look on Austin's face how smitten he is LOL Oh my, they grow up SO FAST!

Sorry I bombarded y'all with a weeks worth of posts in one, but I wanted to catch up LOL

Merry Christmas to all....

2008-12-24T21:56:00.005-06:00

I am so not good at blogging during the holidays. I did finish all 5 pairs of pajamas. Chad helped me finish the bottoms today. He was on the serger and I was on the sewing machine. We got them done in a couple of hours. I also finished Samuel and Ava's aprons, but the rest of the gifts are no shows. Ava will get her Wee Wonderful doll for her birthday January 2nd. Poor thing is still bald and faceless LOL I don't know why I do this to myself every year. I know I will never get it all done. It is 10 pm and we still have all of our gift wrapping to do. Chad just finished baking a New York Cheesecake and stuffing and marinating a rump roast for lunch tomorrow. YUM! Have I said how thankful I am for a husband that likes to cook?! Anyway, here are some pics of the kids in the pjs. The boys got Target pajama bottoms, they just don't appreciate hand made. Oh, and I forgot to get them t shirts, which is why they are topless in the pictures. They are trying to make me feel bad for forgetting, I don't : p

I am just posting the whole series, they are goofballs. After these pictures, we went riding around looking at Christmas lights. This is a yearly tradition. It was great for about an hour and then they all started fighting and needing to pee, etc. I keep reminding myself, I WILL remember these times fondly one day......lol

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope y'all have a wonderful and blessed day!

Christmas sewing

2008-12-11T19:33:00.004-06:00

I have been making these little birdie's from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Three of them are gifts for an ornament exchange breakfast tomorrow morning. I think I may make some more, they are addictive : )

I also whipped up a goody for my bff Jessica for her birthday. I made her this set last year and still had some of the material, so figured she could use some pot holders to match.

SNOW!

2008-12-11T11:13:00.005-06:00

I know all of you Northerners are thinking *so what?* . But down here in South Louisiana, this is a really big deal! The last time I remember snow that stuck to the ground was when I was in high school! Either 1988 or 1989 ( yeah, I'm old). Austin woke us up before 6am and the snow was coming down hard! They were all dressed and outside playing in it long before the sun came up. We took over 100 pictures, here are a few of them.

How cool to have gotten snow at Christmastime. I told the kids to enjoy it because it will probably be another 20 years before we see it again. They were big, pretty, fat snowflakes too! Honest to goodness SNOW!!!!!

Ava and Sam thought it was great until their hands got cold. We don't have cold weather gear, it never gets that cold here.

Sam making a snow angel

4 snowmen, they have since made 5 more, so there is one for each of us LOL this is all in my neighbors' yard. There are too many trees for the snow to accumulate in ours. They are good neighbors : )

Samuel Isaac Richard

2008-12-09T09:18:00.004-06:00

At 5:40 this morning, my baby boy turned 5 years old! I can't believe he is already 5?! It just doesn't seem possible. It was a long road to have him. It took 2 years to get pregnant for him and I lost 2 babies along the way. In the beginning of his pregnancy, I bled heavily, I was sure I would lose him too. However, God had other plans and after this initial bleeding, my pregnancy proceeded without incident. It was funny when people would ask if he was a surprise (being child #6) and I would tell them how hard I tried for him. His birth was my most difficult. I have birthed 5 of my 7 children without pain meds and I have never felt pain like I did for him. I actually thought I wouldn't make it to the hospital, because my contractions started off at only 2 minutes a part and very hard. Unfortunately, his labor proceeded somewhat slowly and only got more intense. He was my second epidural LOL I hadn't had one since Austin, my first child. Nobody believed or listened to me when I asked for it, I had to scream that I was serious and they had better get that anesthesiologist in here NOW! Of course, an hour after the epidural, he arrived with no problems. He weighed 9 lbs. 8oz., my second biggest baby. He was beautiful! I felt so blessed that I was able to have him after trying so hard. He was the sweetest little baby, very fat and happy : ) He was spoiled from day one, I don't think he was ever really put down. His brothers and sisters were so excited to finally have him home.

He is still a very sweet boy, very funny and full of personality. This morning when he woke up he was crying. I asked him why and he asked why he wasn't big like Daddy? Apparently he thought that he would magically wake up an adult on his 5th birthday. He would ask me every day if he was going to be a big boy on his birthday, I guess he didn't quite understand LOLOL

I just love his big curly bozo hair ( I know, it is time for another haircut lol) and his big brown eyes. He loves his cat Zoey and his little sister, Ava. When he was little he was extremely attached to me. We would joke that he would crawl back in if he could LOL When Ava was born, I always had two babies in my lap. He wasn't mean or jealous, he just wanted to be by me too.

Happy Birthday my sweet boy, Mama loves you very much!

Here he is *jumping* off the windowsill in his brother's room onto the bed. He is ALL boy! LOL His big brothers took this picture, I wasn't aware he was doing this until I downloaded the picture : /

Christmas is here!

2008-12-03T10:24:00.005-06:00

We started decorating the house for Christmas on Sunday night. The girls were begging, but I had told them no because I still had to clean my house from the holidays. I didn't want to make a mess on top of another mess. And I was sorta tired lol While dh and I watched a movie in our room, they were busy. They surprised us by cleaning the whole front of the house spotless : D Of course, there WAS an ulterior motive, to decorate the tree, but how could I tell them no. We found an old fashioned Christmas station on XM radio and started doing the tree. I love all of the old holiday music. Like Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Elvis. It is what I grew up listening to, and it brings back fond memories. When I was a child, we had 4 big records that we would listen to continuously on a big cabinet record/8track player lol Anyone else remember those? They were the top of the line electronic equipment in the 70's lololol

This is our Nativity that we set up every year. I think this is the childrens' favorite decoration. This is the current configuration, it will change several times throughout the day. They love to move all of the figurines around : ) I remember playing with the Nativity under our tree when I was little. Baby Jesus was stuck in his manger on a nail : O I almost lost him a few times. I find it funny how my children love to do the same thing.

This morning I caught Samuel and Ava playing *store* with their play kitchen. Sam had turned the sink around to make it a service counter. I am not quite sure how sitting on top of the stove fits into playing store though ; )

They even took turns playing the salesperson.

Catching up

2008-12-02T08:47:00.004-06:00

It has been a crazy busy week and a half over here. This is my first day to really be able to sit at the computer. It started the weekend before Thanksgiving. My best friend, Melinda, and her family came for the weekend. She has 7 kids too, so we definitely had a houseful. Just so you know how obsessed my friends and I are about Twilight. This trip was specifically planned so that Melinda could attend the movie on opening day with all of us LOL We were the thirty something moms in the theater sighing. We controlled the screaming, I mean, we ARE adults ; D I know the movie didn't get great reviews, but I really liked it. I wasn't expecting it to be as good as the book, so I didn't have that expectation. I saw it again Sunday night, yes that is twice, I NEVER see movies more than once at the theater. I enjoyed it even more the second time. I am trying to find time to see it a third time : O LOL

Anyway, my friends left Sunday and Tuesday my SIL and her 5 children arrived for Thanksgiving. My brother is a Major in the Air Force and is stationed in Africa until March. We had a lovely and lively Thanksgiving and were up at 4am on Black Friday to shop till we dropped lol Dh and I adore Black Friday, we get a lot of our Christmas shopping done and usually pick up a gift for us. Last year I got a new camera, this year was a Dirt Devil broom vac. I know, I am very easy to please lol Chad usually buys tools of some sort. I always go to Joanns too. Almost everything in the store is half off, plus you get an extra 20% off of your entire purchase. And the snuggle flannel is on sale for 1.50 a yard this year. It used to be a $1 a yard. I use this to make the children's Christmas pajamas.

The last few days we have been dealing with two sick little ones. Samuel and Ava have a wicked cough. And I have been suffering with a lovely bladder infection : ( Ugh! This is the second one in 3 months. Before this, I think I had 2 in my entire life. I don't know what the deal is, but it needs to stop!

Oh, and Chad and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday! He took off work and we went out for a Thai food buffet and then shopping at Old Navy. It was a nice quiet day. I cannot believe we have been married for 18 years, it only seems like maybe 10. I got married when I was only 19 and although they say teenage marriages never make it, we did! I have never regretted for one minute marrying Chad. He is a loving, caring , giving and funny man and a wonderful father. I pray we have 60+ years together.

I hope all of you are well and had a lovely Thanksgiving! I look forward to catching up on everyones' blogs : D

Pierce is home and some Christmas sewing

2008-11-17T08:40:00.006-06:00

First of all, an update on Pierce. He is home and feeling great! They are making him take it easy, but if it were up to him, he would be outside, running around playing football LOL The doctors STILL don't know what happened. We are just praying it was some wierd virus that ran it's course and will never appear again. I know they are keeping a close eye on him, just in case. This is just a reminder that ultimately our children are in God's hands and there is only so much we can do to protect them. This is becoming more and more clear to me as my oldest gets closer and closer to adulthood. I like to think I have ultimate control, but I know that is wishful thinking. I just have to trust God to watch over them. Thank you again everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers, they meant so much to me : )

I got some Christmas sewing done yesterday. I am making this Wee Wonderfuls pattern for Ava and for my new little niece, Jessie. My SIL Gloria and BIL Kevin (the parents of Pierce) are in the process of adopting a 2 1/2 year old little girl. She is the sweetest little thing. I made her doll first, but still havn't finished the hair or the face, I need to get the materials for that. So, you are going to see the little outfits modeled on her faceless, bald doll LOL Is it just me, or is it a major pain in the butt to set in sleeves on doll clothes? Setting in sleeves is not my favorite sewing task, but on teeny, tiny doll clothes, it is nearly impossible! I think I may start doing it by hand just to save myself the frustration and bad words muttered under my breath lol It will probably be quicker that way too. I love this pattern, it is very well written and easy to understand. Hilary gives lots of tips to make things easier.

This little dress is for Ava's doll

This one is for Jessie's doll, I did the pintucks backwards, but I think they still look fine, so I am not redoing it.

I have Ava's doll all sewn up, but need to make a trip to Joanns for more stuffing and wool felt for the eyes and yarn for the hair. I had bought some Bamboo stuffing the other day, but it has this squeaky feel when I hold it, even after stuffing the doll it has the squeaky feel :shudder: This is the equivalent to nails raked across a chalk board for me! It is making me cringe just writing about it. I stuffed two arms before I couldn't stand it anymore. I went and found some leftover polyester stuffing to do Jessie's doll. I can't find any cotton stuffing locally, so I guess I will just stick with the polyester.

Here is Ava's doll, minus stuffing and the jumper and the cut out shirt for Jessie's doll.

While sewing yesterday, I listened to the Twilight Movie Soundtrack. I am getting giddy about the movie Friday! There is a huge group of us *older* people going on Friday at 4:40, we already bought our tickets : ) I know, we are going to the old folks showing, I guess that is about right, considering this is a teen movie. I never get this excited about movies. I don't know what it is about the Twilight series, but I am so hooked. It is the perfect fantasy escape for me. I finished reading Stephenie Meyer's other book The Host this weekend. I really love her writing, this book wasn't quite as affecting as Twilight, but it was still really good. I hope it does well enough for her to write sequels. I really want to know what happens to Jared , Melanie, Jamie, Wanderer and Ian.

Good news!

2008-11-14T11:41:00.003-06:00

They took Pierce off of all the machines this morning. They had him on a ventilator and were keeping him sedated because everytime he would start to come to, he would freak out. Gloria, my SIL, was terrified that he wouldn't be able to talk because he could only grunt during the seizure and the seizure lasted for at least 40 minutes. Anyway, as soon as he woke up, he asked his mom to blow his nose! LOL Praise God, this made Gloria feel so much better because she just kept saying she wanted him to wake up and say "Hey, Mom" He doesn't remember what happened to him, but his memory seems fine otherwise. As far as I know, they still don't know what caused the seizure, and I don't think they are saying he is out of the woods yet. But this is an awesome improvement. My husband is at the hospital right now with his brother, so I may know more when he comes home.

Thanks everyone for the prayers, I truly believe that prayer can change things!

Please pray for my nephew Pierce

2008-11-14T07:47:00.004-06:00

My 10 year old nephew was brought to the hospital yesterday morning having seizures. He was conscious but could not speak. No one knows what happened. He was in the back when they found him already having the seizure. He has no known medical problems and had not been sick. He is in ICU right now, and they still have no clue what is going on. A CAT scan showed his brain was fine, no brain damage. And so far his spinal tap cultures are coming back normal. They were thinking he might have meningitis or encephalitis. As you can imagine, we are all terrified. He is such a sweet young boy, always happy and full of energy. Please pray that they can find out what is going on and that it will be something that can be cured. It is heartbreaking to watch my SIL, she keeps saying "you know, sometimes you don't get to keep your babies." : ( It is like she is trying to prepare herself for the worst. I havn't gotten an update yet this morning, I am praying that they will have some good news when I call.

You can see Pierce in this picture, he is in the middle row, in back of Samuel and next to Isabella.

A beautiful day and some random pictures

2008-11-12T09:29:00.008-06:00

These pictures are from 2 weeks ago. I had forgotten I took them until I downloaded pictures from my camera. It was one of those spur of the moment times that you sometimes don't take the time to enjoy. For once, I let myself enjoy the moment. We were supposed to be finishing up schoolwork, which we were behind for the day when we heard the fighter jets. The Sertoma Airshow was that weekend and the planes were practicing. We live fairly close to the airport, so they were doing some of their maneuvers right over our house. The kids were dying to go out and watch. I had an internal struggle, thinking that we *really* needed to finish school, but then I just gave in because they wouldn't have been paying attention anyway. You couldn't exactly ignore the noise of the jets lol

There is a huge field in back of our house and a newly constructed lake for a new neighborhood. So we all went sit out there because it was hard to see the planes completely with all the trees around our house. We even brought Pixie, our beagle, she loved being out and smelling all the new smells. The planes flew right over us several times in formation. They were so low that we could see the cockpits. Samuel was beyond excited, Ava was a little scared because they were LOUD! She would hide her head in my neck whenever they would approach. After watching the planes for a good 20 minutes I thought maybe I could take some awesome pictures, so I sent Parker in the house for the camera. Well, don't ya know they didn't fly close to us once I had the camera. I took some pictures of the kids anyway. It was just gorgeous outside, the pictures are a nice reminder of a beautiful day. I am so glad I took the time to truly enjoy it, school still managed to get finished and we have a lovely memory.

Savannah was a good girl and brought her school books out with her, she didn't really get any work done, though lol

Samuel kicking around while waiting for the next plane to fly over : )

Austin was a good big brother and carried Ava back to the house, he didn't even mind that she was holding on to his face lol

My Dad actually got tickets for us for the actual Airshow that Sunday. He works for one of the oil comanies that was sponsoring the show. We had front row seats with a tent for shade and free food. We could see it all right in front of us. The main event was the Thunderbirds and they were AWESOME! Of course, I forgot my camera :smacks head: I am still sick about this, because I could have taken the BEST pictures.

I also found this picture of Ava trying on my first Edith Twirl Skirt. This is Jona's pattern and I really enjoyed making it. The picture is taken after Ava's bath. The skirt isn't for her, you can see it is too big. It was for my good friend Lessie's little girl. She sure loved it though, she automatically started twirling LOL I need to make her one of her own. ( you can click on the picture to see the skirt better)

Just a random picture of Samuel, this is how he fell asleep the other night. He always falls asleep in strange places. We just left him here and he slept all night lol Yes, my almost 5 year old IS potty trained, but he still wets the bed. It's easier to put a diaper on him than to clean up a mess every morning. Diapers are much cheaper than pull ups and he doesn't care either way. If it starts to bother him, I will buy him pull ups, I promise ; )

My Machine Quilting Adventure

2008-11-09T07:38:00.006-06:00

Wow, I havn't posted in over a week, time sure does fly. I have been steadily working on the quilting of my quilt. It has definitely been a learning process. First of all, I can't just do things easily the first time, no, I have to make it hard. It's just that I wanted the quilt to have a certain look to it, and just a basic quilting in the ditch wasn't going to do it. I wanted all of the squares echo quilted 4 or 5 times, which didn't seem like it would be difficult until I started to do it. I thought I could use my walking foot and stitch and turn and stitch and turn until all the squares were done. Well, maybe if I had a smaller quilt, which a smart first time quilter would have done. No, I had to make a twin size quilt for my first go at quilting. I actually sized down from a king size quilt, I am not THAT nuts LOL Anyway, you can not just pivot and turn a twin sized quilt, no sirree. I tried, and my arms were killing me after half a square. So, I thought maybe I could just stitch each side of a square in a long line, stopping for the sashing and restarting. Well, that was just a pain. I even tried to handquilt : O My efforts were not so pretty. That will definitely take some practice and I do want this quilt finished before the next decade. I finally realized my only option was to do the squares free motion. Of course, I practiced on one square before I started on my quilt. I kinda got the hang of it and while my stitches are not all even, I figure it will give a folksy look to the quilt. Anyway, that is what I am telling myself LOL I am sure I will look at this quilt in the future and think what a mess I made of the quilting.

After all of this, I thought maybe I should check some books out from the library on machine quilting. Well, there are all sorts of tips LOL And all 3 authors stressed how important it was to practice, practice, practice before starting on your actual quilt. Well, I got all sorts of practice ON my quilt LOL I don't have time to waste practicing. So, I am sure the last squares I do are going to look completely different than the first ones. But like I said, that will be folksy, right? Come on, help me lie to myself lol Even with the tips though, maneuvering that quilt is a workout! I have to conciously make myself relax my shoulders, because I am going to end up with some sort of injury if I am not careful. Oh, and I got some finger condoms (seriously, that is what they look like!) to help me grip the quilt. Still not sure if I like them yet. The gripping does help, but I hate having something on my fingers, I can't feel what I am doing. I am hoping the next time around is much easier, I guess it is like everything else, it takes hours of practice to master.

Here are my two practice squares. Of course, the square was super easy to do with the walking foot on this tiny square. You can see my first attempts at free motion. I think my flower looks pretty good considering I have never done this before lol The second practice square was to see if I could do the squares free motion. They resembled squares, so I figured I was good to go : ) Looking at it now, it looks awful, I must have been tired when I made that decision.

Here are some squares on the quilt. I didn't realize until I had done several squares that I was supposed to grid quilt in the ditch first before starting the quilting inside the squares. I should have read those dang books first! So, now I am doing my quilting in the ditch, I am almost finished, so should be able to start on those free motion squares again soon.

I included a picture of the finger *grippers* because I think they look so funny! JUST LIKE miniature condoms! LOLOLOL

A Handmade Christmas and a bathroom

2008-11-01T10:33:00.004-05:00

Like many of you, I'm sure, I check out Sew Mama Sew's blog daily. I was already planning to make a lot of gifts for Christmas, but Sew Mama has made me even more enthusiastic. Already I have the fabric and patterns I need for pajamas for my 2 teenage nieces and all of my children. I do this every year for my children. I am also planning an apron each for Sam and Ava. Chad made this adorable play kitchen for them last year and I think they need aprons just like mama. And just now, as I was visiting One Shabby Chick's blog, I found this wonderful pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. This would be perfect for Ava and possibly Savannah. I have some more ideas, but I think I will try to tackle these gifts and see how much, if any, time I have left lol

I am really trying to be careful about gifts this year. There is nothing I hate more than finding discarded toys 2 days after Christmas. Most stuff is crap nowadays, and I just end up throwing it in a toy box never to be played with again. What a huge waste of money, just so they have presents to open on Christmas morning. I have noticed in the past that handmade and well thought out gifts are always appreciated much more. Sometimes, because I have so many to buy for, I end up just throwing stuff together. I WILL NOT do that this year. However, there is only a limited amount of time before Christmas, so I need to prioritize and get my butt in gear if I am going to accomplish my goal. I may have to put my quilt on the backburner for a little while. The quilting is coming along, FINALLY! But this is a whole other post LOL I had just a *little* trouble with the whole machine quilting thing.

In the middle of all this, Chad and I are doing a mini remodel on the kids' bathroom. Our house was built in the middle 70's and the bathroom is still original. It is really a great bathroom, it is huge, but the sinks and cabinets have had it. Dh found some new faucets and sinks on clearance at Home Depot this morning. The sinks were $40 a piece and the faucets were marked down from $80 to $30!!!! So, for under $200 we have brand new sinks and faucets. We will be keeping the green marble counter tops because it is a huge counter and would be expensive to replace. I know, I know, green countertops? But I really like them, they are that avocado green that was so popular in the 70's and I have always loved that color. So, we are making do. We are going to reface the cabinets with bead board and paint because we can't afford new cabinets either. We are watching for some tub faucets to go on sale or clearance and we will buy those new too. I would love a complete remodel, but that just isn't in the budget and probably won't be until the kids are grown and gone LOL But I think a few new fixtures and some clean new paint will make a big difference. This is the bathroom that everyone uses, so I really want it to look nice and right now it just looks gross. I will share pictures as we do this.

It will probably take several weeks because we will only have time here and there. Lots going on and dh has been working almost non stop lately. He has always worked two jobs, his regular job with the city and he does plumbing with his brother on the side. The plumbing business is doing well right now, so lots of extra work. This is good and bad. Good because it means extra money at a time when we really need it and bad because Chad isn't around much. Add in some other carpentry jobs he has also gotten and he is working until late at night almost every day. I am so thankful to have a hard working husband who is so talented. The fact that he knows how to do all of this plumbing and carpentry means that we can do all of this remodeling ourselves, which saves a TON of money on labor! Sorry for rambling about this, I didn't even realize I was going to talk about it lol I am very proud of my hubby, he works very hard so that I can stay home with our children, and he does it with a great attitude. God has really blessed me : )

Pin Basting

2008-10-29T08:56:00.006-05:00

I finally did the pin basting for my quilt. I was very nervous about this step. I mean, if I don't get everything straight, my quilt is gonna look wonky. I should have researched a little more about how to do this the right way. I am not sure if I got the back straight or not. Oh well, it is my first effort, and it will still be functional lol

I had gone to Joanns Saturday to get everything I needed for the quilt. I bought my cotton batting ( which was 50% off, YAY! ) Size 1 basting pins (thank you Vanessa for recommending the smaller pins : D ) cotton quilting thread and machine quilting needles. I was all set when I started yesterday afternoon. I had an hour and a half to get this done before I had to leave and bring Sydney and Isabella to ballet class. Plenty of time to finish since I was doing this in the middle of the living room and definitely didn't want to leave my quilt there for very long where my family and animals would just walk on it. I had Oprah on the tv, a glass of water (this involved a lot of bending and stretching, you get thristy when you work this hard ; ) LOL) Everything was going right on schedule when about halfway through pinning, I ran out of pins!!!!! I had bought a pack of a hundred, I thought for sure that would be plenty, I was wrong lol This meant that I had to leave my precious quilt on the floor while I left to bring the girls to class. I left with a strict warning that if anyone walked on my quilt, there would be serious consequences. I needed a few things from the grocery store, so figured I could stop by Walmart on my way home, get my groceries, my quilting pins and gas ($2.53 a gallon!!!!!) and be home within an hour. I really hate Walmart, for many reasons, but it is close to my house and I have always gone there for basic sewing notions when needed since Joanns and Hancocks are a good 20 minute drive from my house. Well, don't you know that Walmart was out of basting pins, as a matter of fact, their whole wall of sewing notions was pretty much empty! I guess they are phasing out their sewing section : ( Just another reason for me to hate that stupid store.

All that to say that I had to drive to Joanns, I mean I couldn't leave the quilt on the floor all night, no telling what the cats would have done to it. And I know if I would have tried to pick it up and put it back down the next day, I would have messed it all up. So, when I got back home (at 8 o'clock!) I finished basting. The kids were pretty good, it was still on the floor and taped down and there were no foot prints on it when I got home. And thank God none of the cats peed on it! They have a tendency to do that if something is left on the floor. I may have killed a cat if that had happened lol I wasn't in the best mood after all of this. Sydney took the pictures in the afternoon before I realized I didn't have enough pins. BTW, I bought a pack of 300 pins, I won't be making that mistake again : )

Here I am getting my stretching in for the day ; )

I used a knitting needle to close the pins, I need to get one of those kwik sew tools for this, but am waiting until Joanns has a 50% off sale on quilting notions. I hate paying full price for my sewing tools. It was bad enough I had to pay full price for my pins. I couldn't find my 40% off mail flyer for the life of me.

Oh and another part of my exciting day, Ava looks like she got in a boxing match. My poor baby, her big sister Sydney thought it would be fun to drag her around in a blanket across the floor really fast. Well, she lost control and sent Ava flying into the pantry door! Ava wanted us to take pictures of it, after she finished screaming for half an hour! LOL She even showed the camera where it was : ) I tell ya, it is hard being the baby in a family with 7 kids! This isn't the first time and I am sure it won't be the last time something like this happens. Oy!

English Paper Piecing

2008-10-28T13:22:00.003-05:00

The quilting bug has definitely bitten and while looking through a Craft Stylish email I came across this tutorial for English Paper Piecing. I have always loved these hexagon blocks and was admiring Tine's work in a recent post. I didn't realize they were sewn by hand. Well, I decided to try making a few and was immediately addicted! LOL Whenever I have a few moments I whip up a couple more hexagons. I find it so relaxing, and doing a few here and there, they really start adding up. I obviously havn't really planned anything, I really just enjoyed playing with different leftover fabrics. I did decide yesterday to make some with my quilt fabric. I think I am going to use them for some pillows. Here is a great website with tips for sewing the different shapes used in English paper piecing. I was having a little trouble with the diamond shapes, I couldn't figure out how to do the sharp points. This website shows you step by step. Also, this is mentioned in the tutorial, but I thought I would mention it here too. This website is great for generating your shapes for printing. It also prints graph paper, which I find very useful when planning out my quilts. You can determine what size you want, it's great!

Quilt Top!!!!

2008-10-21T11:37:00.003-05:00

Lookie lookie what I finished! I know, it took me long enough! LOL It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted to piece the outer border. I am still not sure I am completely happy with it, but it will have to do. Overall, I really love it : ) I am very happy with the fabric I chose and it will fit perfectly on the end of my bed. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of making the top. I have several ideas swirling around in my head for the next one. I think it is safe to say, the quilt bug has bitten.

So, now on to the quilting. Any recommendations on batting? I was thinking a low loft, all cotton batting. I am still trying to decide how I am going to quilt it. I need to go to the sewing machine store and buy my walking foot. Should I pin baste or thread baste? Also, is the floor the best place to lay it all out? I am really nervous about this step, I don't want to mess up all my work.

It helps to have a tall son to hold the quilt up for photographing : ) I won't tell you that he was just in his boxer shorts while holding it up, because that might embarrass him ; O

Ava likes it too, she was helping Austin hold it up : )

Monday morning

2008-10-20T09:28:00.003-05:00

Chad, Austin and Parker were gone all weekend at a Golf Tournament in Mandeville, so he took today off to spend some time with me : ) We woke up this morning and it was beautiful outside. He built a campfire for us to sit outside on the swing and drink our coffee. Like I have said before, I don't much like camping. However, the one thing I always did enjoy was the cool mornings, sitting by the campfire while drinking my morning coffee. It was such a nice, relaxing way to wake up, and Samuel and Ava enjoyed it too. The other children were all still asleep. It's funny how they are up at the crack of dawn when they are little, but once they get to about 10 or 11, they can sleep until noon!

Samuel and Ava took a little trip to get more firewood from in back of the fence. Ava decided she wanted a ride back : )

I hope the rest of my day is as pleasant as this morning : )

Happy Birthday Isabella!!!!

2008-10-13T10:08:00.005-05:00

:::this was mostly written yesterday on Bella's actual birthday. I only had a few things to finish it, when the day went downhill. I never got back to it, which is why I am sending it today, a day late : ( Poor Bella, her birth day wasn't so great, I was in a horrible mood. You know, one of those days when nothing goes right. I will have to make this up to her!:::::

My Bella turns 11 years old today! She has the honor of being my biggest baby at birth. She weighed in at a hefty 10lbs 1oz. She was HUGE! Needless to say, I was extremely uncomfortable during her pregnancy, and was VERY happy when she finally showed up 10 days overdue. She did bless me with a quick labor though, she was born 3 hours after my first contraction and only about 30 minutes after we got to the hospital. I needed that quick labor to be able to get through the pain of pushing her fat self out. Aiyiyiiiiii that hurt! She has been a true blessing ever since. She was my fourth child and was born only 15 months after her sister Sydney. I was very nervous about having 4 children 5 and under and especially with the youngest two so close in age. She was such a calm and sweet baby however, that it made the transition much easier than I could have dreamed.

Even now, she is my kindest and most obedient child. She always helps out even before I ask her to. She has a very sweet spirit, the kindness comes from her heart. However, even though she would never purposefully hurt someone, she won't let people walk all over her either. She will *kindly* put you in your place if you try lol I am so glad that she isn't a pushover, sometimes these sweeter personalities get taken advantage of. I might hurt someone if they tried to take advantage of my Bella. I have always said I could have 10 children if they were all as sweet as her : )

Isabella has the most gorgeous blue eyes. I have almost black eyes, so I never expected to have a child with sapphire blue eyes. Her Daddy's are pale green. She is a beautiful girl, if I do say so myself, and she looks nothing like me : D She is also my clumsy child. She broke her leg when she was about 4 just by jumping on the trampoline. She didn't fall off or anything, she just jumped wrong and fractured her shin, right below her knee. But even though she is clumsy, she is a very talented dancer, when she isn't falling lol I can't begin to say how much I love this child, I know that she will be my friend long after she is grown and leaves the house.

Happy Birthday Isabella, Momma loves you very much!

Here is Bella with her best friend Katy in their tap costumes from dance recital in May

Catching up

2008-10-05T10:28:00.005-05:00

The weather in South Louisiana has been beautiful lately. We have had several cool fronts move through. This cools our temps into the 50's and 60's for lows and the low 80's for the highs. It is actually pleasant to be outside. My whole family, with the exception of moi, love to camp. With our schedule lately, there is no time for any camping trips, so the kids have been setting the tent up on the deck and sleeping out there at night. They enjoy playing in it during the day as well. My children are hardly roughing it, they have electricity run to the tent to power the tv and the fan lol Plus, the bathroom is conveniently a short walk into the house. Even with all of these comforts, I would much rather sleep in my cozy bed ; ) Poor dh thought he could convert me into a lover of tent camping, however he is slowly realizing that will never happen. I really hate to get dirty and not be able to get clean before going to bed. And taking a shower in a communal campground bathroom fails to leave me feeling very clean *shudder*. I do love the outdoors, but only if I know I can go to a nice clean place to clean up and sleep. We talk of one day buying a rv, but right now that just doesn't make sense financially. We would probably only have time to use it 3 or 4 times a year. Knowing my dh, we will probably be one of those old couples who travel all over the United States in their camper. Just so I have my own bed and bathroom, I'm great with that ; )

Here is Samuel watching an old Barney tape in the tent : )

Ooops, he discovered me taking his picture, so he had to come pose : )

Things are still crazy busy, but I have managed to get a little sewing in. I finished piecing the top of my quilt. Now, I just need to add my side strips and piece the back. I am still deciding how I want to quilt it. I sorta want to do circles inside of the squares, but realize I should probably stick with straight lines for my first attempt. I need to buy a walking foot this week. I would like it to be fairly heavily quilted, any ideas, something using straight lines? I know I should just stick with stitching in the ditch or something easy like that, but I really love lots of heavy quilting on quilts.

I am getting the itch to start sewing some fall clothes for me and the kids. I love the new Oliver + S patterns for fall. So cute! Football will be over in 2 weeks, my free time should increase when that is over. Our homeschooling is falling into a good routine, so that should help too. The start of the school year is always a little crazy.

Oh, and I got to get together with Marie, AGAIN! When I went to Houston last weekend on my girl's trip, we met on Saturday night for dinner. I really enjoyed getting to see and visit with her again. The girl's getaway was so much fun! We shopped, ate out, talked and rented Sex and the City one night. Great girlfriend's movie. I got very little sleep, but was still rested. It was nice to only have myself to take care of for a couple of days.

Rambling........

2008-09-25T08:39:00.002-05:00

Well, I have zero sewing to show y'all. I havn't touched my sewing machine since Friday night : ( I *really* need to work in some time for sewing, I am getting a little witchy : O The quilt just lays there taunting me! Homeschooling is kicking my butt this year. Last year, I chose curriculums that didn't require as much hands on time from me. Well, my children were very vocal that they did NOT like that. They like Mama to be more involved, which I completely understand, it's just there are *5* of them to teach, two of them being in high school. I really need to find a balance, because I need some time for myself. Between school and running everyone all over tarnation and keeping my house from becoming a complete hovel, there just isn't much time for me to sew or breathe. Well, not if I actually want to sleep! Oh, and let's not forget the two little ones that I have to take care of. Ava is particularly difficult. She is quite the digger and has already squeezed out an entire tube of Neosporin on my carpet and smashed my face powder to smithereens in the last two days.

AHHHHHHHHH!!!! There, that feels a little better LOL

Right now, so that I can use the computer in peace, I am letting Samuel draw on my back with washable markers. It actually kind of feels nice : ) I would show y'all his finished creation, but then y'all would see my back fat : ( Where does back fat come from anyway, I swear, two years ago I didn't have it!

Anyway, I will be getting a much needed break this weekend. Me and 4 of my girlfriends are going to Houston to visit my friends Melinda and Ivonne. They both live in Katy. Hey Marie, would you like to come and meet us? I know things are crazy right now, but maybe you could use the break? I know that is probably a serious understatement. No pressure, but I would love to see you again.

Oh, and some great news! Someone I have known for years is a quilter, only I didn't know it. While I was at my local quilt store the other day, we were discussing the fact that our town has a new homeschool football team. One of the ladies mentioned that the mother of one of the football players comes in all the time and was an avid quilter. Since I know practically everyone on the team, I eagerly asked the name of this quilter. It was Vanessa! I have known Vanessa since before I had Austin! She knew my dh before I did lol Anyway, she is in charge of the concessions for football and I just happened to be working with her that Saturday for the game. Well, we had a wonderful time talking about our passion for sewing! I can't believe neither one of us knew that the other one sewed! I guess it just never came up. So, we will be getting together, I have a real live person to help me when it comes time to quilt my quilt. And it is always great to find out that someone who was already your friend shares a similar interest. Of course, I shared my blog with her, and I am going to try and get her to start her own. She is hilarious, and I am sure she would have an interesting blog.

Well, I have rambled enough for now, I guess I need to go and start my day. I just keep telling myself that tomorrow I get a break! Hope everyone has a great weekend : D

Marie, my quilt and still hating AT&T

2008-09-19T13:28:00.004-05:00

Ok, I am still hating AT&T! My email is STILL not working!!!! I called this morning and they informed me that it is supposed to be up and working today, but there are no guarantees. WHAT?! Are you kidding me?!! If it weren't so much trouble to change internet providers, I so would! I pay for this service and now because of their stupid mistake, I havn't received any email in almost a week. I think I deserve a free month of service, but I doubt I will get it. : ( So, again, if anyone has emailed me and I havn't responded, I am so sorry but I didn't receive the email.

I just found out about my friend Marie and the damage her family suffered during Hurricane Ike. I find it very ironic that we met only 2 weeks ago while I was in Houston, evacuating from Hurricane Gustav. I feel so bad, she suffered exactly what I feared happening, a tree falling on my house : ( I talked to her this morning, and she sounded like she was doing as well as could be expected. She said the Lord was getting her through this, but it is still very difficult to have your brand new house with a hole in the roof and water damage. They are still without electricity, but thank God the weather has been fairly cool in the South this past week. I wish I could do something to help, I feel so helpless : ( This hurricane was really bad, I have extended family on my mother's side that suffered complete loss during Hurricane Rita, only to rebuild and have it destroyed again during Ike. It seems like these storms are worse than they used to be, or maybe I just don't remember, but the destruction they cause has been horrible the last several years.

1974 fabric from Urban Chiks

This is the quilt I am making from Quilts and More. With different fabric, of course.

On a happier note, I started my very first quilt!!! I love the new Urban Chiks 1974 fabric, so I bought a layer cake, which consists of 10" squares of all the fabrics in the line. I really liked this quilt on the cover of Quilts and More and figured it looked like an easy first quilt. Also, the layer cake was perfect for this. I had enough fabric with the layer cake for all of the squares and just had to buy my backing fabric, binding fabric and the solid white and red for the sashing and borders. I am really enjoying the process of laying out the fabrics and piecing them together. I like repetition, I find it very calming and stress relieving. I am nervous about the actual quilting, but am not worrying about it until I have to lol I am going to use this quilt in my room, on the bed. It will be big enough to cover the bottom 3/4 of my comforter. I was going to try and make a king size quilt, but realized that probaby wouldn't be very wise since this IS my first quilt lol
So far, I think it is coming out pretty good. My seams are a little off in some places, but I think I am getting the hang of it.

This is really the first sewing I have done in weeks. We were gone for the hurricane and then we started school the day we got back. The first few weeks of homeschooling are always hectic, plus ballet started and we still have football games and cheerleading practice. Life is just very busy right now. I did finish Sydney's ballet bag (I need to take some pictures) but other than that, nada. I had to dust off my sewing table before I started sewing yesterday lol I have so many projects I want to do. Hopefully things are falling into a routine, and the sewing will have it's place. I am also hoping to do a better job of keeping up with the blog. I have missed all of you : )

I am fine! stupid AT&T

2008-09-18T17:26:00.002-05:00

We are doing fine after Ike. It didn't really affect us at all, just some wind and rain. However, I lost my internet several days ago, and just had time today to figure out why. Well, come to find out, they turned it off. After several hours of dealing with about 10 different people, dh found out that they turned our internet off by accident. It was someone else who didn't pay their bill! I am NOT happy! My email account didn't even work, so I didn't receive any email since the 16th. WE paid our bill on time, but because someone hit the wrong numbers, we had no internet. They kept insisting that our bill was overdue, finally someone realized the error. So, if you tried to email me the last few days, I am so sorry. Please resend it.

I have lots to share. I finally started my first quilt! But I have to go finish dinner right now. Hopefully I can get back on later this evening or tomorrow morning. I hope everyone is doing ok? I will be catching up on blogs this weekend : )

Back home and meeting a new friend!

2008-09-10T08:10:00.004-05:00

Well, we are back home and trying to get back on schedule. I have missed blogging and keeping up with everyone else's blog, but there wasn't a lot of free computer time while visiting at my friend's house. We got home Monday night, and I was shocked at the mess in our backyard! I will take some pictures and post them later on in the week. However, I am very thankful that the trees just made a big mess and didn't destroy our home. I really had a lovely week with my best girlfriend and her family.

While visiting, I got to meet a new friend : ) Marie, from the Villa Family, lives about an hour from my friend's house. We have been wanting to meet up and finally got the chance! My dh and I with Samuel, Ava and Austin met for lunch with Marie, her dh Jacob, and Nathan and Maddie. It was SO great to meet her in person. We got along as well as I had imagined we would : ) Marie is even more beautiful than her pictures indicate. Seriously, she looks like a living doll. Her children are gorgeous too, and very well mannered.

After we ate, we took the children to play in the fountain, they had a blast! Mine got soaking wet, of course, and Maddie was SO cute running around in her diaper. She was a good girl, and didn't want to get her clothes wet lol Mine couldn't have cared less! I am borrowing the pictures from Marie's blog because I left my camera in the car. The visit was way too short, she had to be home for Isabella and I had to beat the awful Houston traffic. Hopefully, we can get together again soon and spend more time together : ) We have plans for that now, that include getting to meet Jona too! I am so excited about this!

How cute is she?!!!!

Marie's dh, Jacob, was so sweet and chatted with my oldest son, Austin. MY dh ditched us after lunch for a golf game! Men!!! LOL

I am so glad I followed a link from Kelci's blog months ago and found Marie. It is so neat how God orchestrates these things. We really have so much in common even though I am a good 10 years older than her!!! That fact was a little depressing lol I really feel like I have found a lifelong friend and it is great that she lives fairly close by so that we can meet again : )

Phew!

2008-09-02T10:50:00.002-05:00

Well, dh has been to the house and everything is fine! We did have a tree in the backyard down, it crushed the kids treehouse and part of our shed, but fell away from the backyard into the the uninhabited land in back of our house. Our pool and, most importantly, our house are in perfect shape. Dh said there were two enormous branches in our driveway from the pecan tree in the front yard. If our vehicles would have been there, they would have been smashed. My parents house and all of my friends' homes weathered the storm with no damage, as well. I just thank God that Gustav wasn't anywhere near as horrible as they said he was going to be. The electricity is even back on.

We are going to be staying in Houston through the weekend. Dh is going to come up Thursday to meet us. We had actually planned a trip here for this weekend anyway, so me and the children just came up a few days early lol We are staying at our best friend's house, so we are having a great time : )

Thank you everyone for all the prayers and thoughts, I really appreciate it more than I can say! It is such a warm feeling to know that friends you have never even met in real life care so much.

Hugs to everyone!

Arrived safely

2008-09-01T09:50:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note to say that we arrived safely in Katy yesterday evening. The trip over here was longer than usual. But it went well, considering. Dh and my oldest Austin are still in Lafayette. They are going to ride out the storm at dh's work. His office is in a cinderblock building, so pretty safe. Thank God the winds went down to a Category 2. It still looks like the eyewall will pass over Lafayette, which means they will get the full force winds of 110 mph. I am just really thankful it isn't still a Category 4. Anyway, y'alls prayers are still appreciated, for us and everyone else being affected by this storm.

Hurricane Gustav

2008-08-30T19:54:00.005-05:00

Well, tomorrow we will be leaving for Texas. Dh has decided it is just too dangerous to stay for Hurricane Gustav.We have never left for a hurricane before, and I really don't want to leave this time. The reason he is so worried is because we have several very large trees around our house, and the storm is predicted to hit at a Cat 3 at least, if not a Cat 4. This is like 120+ mph winds. Also, if the course stays the same, we will take a direct hit. Dh said it is too risky to stay with the chance of these trees falling on our house. Our best friends live in Katy, Texas, which is west of Houston. So, we will be staying at their house. It will probably be an enjoyable trip. I am just praying that when it is all over, there isn't an oak tree through the center of my house : ( Pray for the people in the coastal parishes of Louisiana, this thing is a monster, and it really doesn't look good. I will be able to get online. So, I will keep everyone updated.

Samuel and Zoey (a boy and his cat)

2008-08-26T10:54:00.007-05:00

My dh told me of this recent conversation he had with Samuel.

Sam: Daddy, do we have to give my kitty away?

Dad: Yes, we already have two cats and a dog, 3 cats is too many. Don't worry, we will find her a good home.

Sam: Ok, Daddy. Will I get to see Zoey again one day in heaven?

Dad: (feeling VERY guilty) Yes, Sam, you can see her again one day in heaven.

Sam: (holding Zoey in his arms) It's ok Zoey, don't cry, one day we will get to see each other again in heaven.

I swear, I had NOTHING to do with this, but guess who gets to keep the kitten! LOLOLOL Samuel walks around holding this kitten constantly, and she is so mild mannered that she lets him pretty much do what he wants with her. Of course, he is very gentle. I explained early on that we cannot hold the cat off the ground by her neck! I guess Chad has noticed how much Samuel loves her, and even though he really didn't want to keep her, he's a good Daddy. I DID try to find her a home, but all of the calls I got either wanted a short haired cat, or an outside cat. I can't just give her away to anyone. I am sure he is gonna be upset again when the time comes to neuter her, he HATES spending large amounts of money on the animals. Lord, please don't let her start tearing up the furniture or peeing in places other than the litterbox?! I don't want any more reasons for dh to regret his decision. So, Miss Zoey gets to stay : D

The pictures were taken the other night. Dh said after Samuel got out of his bath. He grabbed the sleeping kitty off the bed, put her on his chest and passed out. How cute is this?! He lays with her like this all the time while watching tv.

Here is Zoey being mildly naughty, she decided she wanted to sleep in the cabinet where the toilet paper is stored. She had a little fun with it before she took her nap.

Oh, and my little orange elephant now has eyes and his ears where they belong : )

Lilybeth Bag

2008-08-26T10:06:00.005-05:00

I was blessed with a copy of the Lily Beth Pattern from Beki, at Artsy Crafty Babe. When I saw it, I knew it would make a great ballet bag. Savannah has been asking me to make her one since last year. Since ballet starts in a few weeks, I figured I would be a good momma. She was sleeping over at a friend's house when I started it, so she got a surprise when she got home : ) She had already picked out this fabric, and I knew it would look great with this pattern. This is actually my first purse/bag ever. I really enjoyed putting it together. Beki's pattern was very straightforward and easy to understand. Of course, Sydney and Isabella both want one now as well : D Sydney has already picked her fabric out and I have it cut and ready to sew. I just need to buy some more fusible fleece. So, I should have another bag to show you in a few days. Isabella is deciding on her fabric, and then Momma is going to have to make one for herself! I am thinking some Pop Garden fabric would be nice. Oh, and I used an antique button I bought on our St. Francisville trip in April. A covered button would have been really cute, too.

I also sort of finished the Elephant from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. He still needs eyes, but I can't decide if I want to satin stitch them on or use buttons. Also, I need to redo his ears, I put them on too low on his head. Here is a picture anyway, I will show another one when I redo him.

Breaking Dawn

2008-08-24T17:30:00.003-05:00

I finished Breaking Dawn a few hours ago, and I am so so sad : ( I can't believe I am done reading the series. After all of the other books, I knew I had another one waiting for me, but now there are no more. I can't remember the last time I got so emotionally involved in a book. Unlike alot of the reviews I am reading, I LOVED the book! Maybe it is because I am a mom with similar moral beliefs as Miss Meyer, but I don't see what people are getting so freaked out about. I love how descriptive Stephenie Meyer is and IMO the book and series ended just right. I am gonna miss Bella and Edward and the rest of the Cullen's and werewolves. This was such a great love story. I have always found the myth of vampires fascinating. Like I was telling Amber, I think I need to be a vampire, they don't need sleep! Can you imagine all you could get done?! I thought about this way too much while reading these books LOL I was SO thinking from a busy mom's (woman's) perspective ; ) Of course, drinking blood would be very distasteful, but I could possibly deal with it if I never got tired! Only animal blood, of course >: ] If you havn't read these books, I apologize, I am sure this post makes no sense to you.

Anyway, now that I have finished the series, I will have time for other things like sewing. I did get some sewing done this week between books 3 and 4. My mother heard the desperation in my voice Tuesday and offered to take Samuel and Ava for the day on Wednesday. Austin was at work all day and thankfully the other 4 were calm and didn't fight. It was also my only day where I didn't have anywhere to be. So instead of catching up on housework, I sewed : ) I still have to take pictures, but I finished the elephant from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts (I always have the hardest time remembering this title!) and a great new bag from Artsy Crafty Babe. I will take pictures tomorrow and post them.

Also, thanks everyone for all of the encouraging comments from my Exhausted post. You can't imagine how much better it made me feel to read that y'all have been there too with bickering children. Like everyone said, things always get better and I realize that not feeling well with the allergies was making dealing with the kids a whole lot harder. Also, my *friend* showed up Tuesday evening, which helps explains why I felt *this* close to exploding! I am feeling so much better now : ) My allergies are still bad, but I don't feel like I want to kill everyone anymore. I really need to get to the health food store and buy some Nettle tea.

Exhausted

2008-08-19T11:54:00.002-05:00

Let me start this off with a disclaimer. I love my children and I am still happy that I decided to have a large family, I wouldn't want my life to be any other way. With that out of the way, on to the reason for this post : )

I am so tired! I mean physically and emotionally wiped out. As for the physical part, my allergies have been horrible for the last 3 weeks. My body is so strange, I had years of terrible allergies and then nothing. Every once in a while I would have a day of sneezing and watery eyes, but nothing to really bother me. I have been great for at least 12 or 13 years! Well, now they are back with a vengeance. I have to take Claritin everyday and even that doesn't stop the sneezing completely. Anytime I have to clean anything I start sneezing and can't stop. I can't mess in my garden and even my sewing machine can start it because my cat, Zsa Zsa, loves to nap right in front of it. I am always tired and very grouchy. I keep hoping and praying that it will eventually stop. That it is just something in the air right now, and once it is gone, I will feel better.

The emotional exhaustion is because of my children. Lately, they fight constantly!!! I mean, from the minute they wake up to the time they go to sleep, at least two of them are arguing about something! Usually something VERY stupid! I just listened to an argument between Isabella and Savannah over the fact that Bella missed a crumb on the kitchen floor when she swept. Savannah just HAD to point this out, and of course Bella had to tell her how stupid it was to say anything and on and on and on. Seriously, this fight lasted for a good 5 minutes! I know it is partly because they are with each other all of the time and partly because this is what siblings do, but for some reason I just can't stand it anymore! I think I might start homeschooling before I planned on it, just to give them something to do besides fight. This has always been a very difficult part of parenting for me. I grew up in a very quiet family that never fought, at least rarely. I only have one brother and while we would have arguments they were few and far between. Definitely not everyday. Dh and I rarely argue, so they aren't seeing this modeled for them. And they get along great with other people besides their brothers and sisters, so I am assuming this is just part of having a large family. Lots of kids=lots of different personalities to get on each others' nerves. I keep thinking if I mothered them properly they wouldn't do this, but nothing I do makes them stop completely. The last few days, I have been pretty much just trying to ignore it because I want to just scream with them. I truly love almost every aspect of parenting, even a newborn waking up in the night is doable because you know it will eventually end and waking up with a sweet newborn isn't so bad anyway. I feel like this is never going to end and they are big and stinky, not cute and cuddly lol

And Samuel has started screaming everything instead of talking in a normal tone of voice. I guess he is just mimicking what he hears. I have been disciplining him for this, but I have to be very consistent or he starts doing it again. I just had to stop writing this post to deal with him. My lack of sewing time lately doesn't help either. Sewing and creativity is my outlet, when I don't get it, I have a harder time coping with daily stress.

Anyway, sorry this post is such a downer, but it feels good to talk about it. And dh is tired of hearing it, so y'all have to LOL : D Being a mother is such a huge job, sometimes I can feel very overwhelmed. I just remind myself that the joy it brings me far outweighs the hard times, even if it is hard to see that at this moment : )

I finished something!

2008-08-13T15:32:00.004-05:00

I finally finished the Puppet Show Tunic and Shorts for my niece, Stella. Just a little late, her birthday was at the end of July lol Ok, I am kind of a bad mom, but I made Samuel model the outfit ::::ducking:::: He is the same size and age as Stella, so I am always having him try her stuff on as I sew it, I figure why not let him model it for the pictures. I left his face out of the pictures, poor baby, I told him to look up at the sky so his face wouldn't show. Anyway, besides the fact that he is stout, you can't really tell it's a boy in a dress. I just hope he doesn't need therapy for this in the future : O His big brothers were mortified, but he didn't seem to see the big deal, must be because he is in the middle of all those sisters : )

I really love this pattern. It looks vintage to me, which I love. I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner, but I wouldn't say it was difficult. Just somewhat time consuming. I spent yesterday and some of today doing the handstitching (buttons, hem, tacking down the collar). I used Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabrics. For the shorts, I used a pink linen and made the pockets in the tunic fabrics. I love how they came out, but wish I had used a heavier weight linen. This was tissue weight. I already had it in my stash though, so I used it.

I love the details on the sleeves.

A view of the back

Sorry, the shorts are wrinkled.

elephants and skirts and finding time to sew

2008-08-12T08:03:00.004-05:00

Several weeks ago, I finally bought the book Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. I have been wanting this book for months, but for some reason never got it. I mainly wanted it for this stuffed elephant pattern, but of course there are tons of other beautiful projects to do! I think the little elephants will be adorable for giving to new moms and babies when you visit them in the hospital or at home right after birth. I think I will be making some for my girls as well : ) I just love the look of this whole book and there are lots of great tips on general piecing and quilting for whenever I finally getting around to that quilt I keep talking about lol

Even though I have had this book for a little while, I still havn't done anything besides read it! Yesterday, I decided that I was going to take sewing time when I could get it. I am not going to have a whole block of time to sew, so I took 5 or 10 minutes at a time and actually got quite a bit accomplished. I almost finished the little shorts for the Puppet Show tunic. Hopefully I will have a picture of the finished outfit today or tomorrow! I really enjoyed doing this, I felt like I had a fun little break several times throughout the day. I may just have to adopt this way of sewing for awhile, my life is only going to get crazier once ballet and homeschooling starts. I hope my kids realize how much I love them to do this, I am so not a goer, I can stay in my house for days at a time and be perfectly content. With this schedule, I will rarely have a day when I don't have somewhere to go. I know, I sound like a baby, but I am such an introvert. I guess you can't be much of an introvert with a husband and 7 kids LOL

I also have Jona's new pattern I am dying to try out! Isn't this skirt adorable? I think all of my little nieces may be getting this skirt for Christmas. I would have been in heaven to have a skirt like this when I was about 5 or 6! It is a PDF file, so once you buy it, you have it in your inbox immediately. I tell you, Jona is one talented lady. I think I need to ask her how she gets it all done! Her life is very similar to mine, she has 5 kids and homeschools too, but she also manages to get tons of sewing done, plus run a fabric store! Teach me, Jona, teach me! LOL

So much going on

2008-08-09T20:18:00.005-05:00

Last night we had our first *ever* homeschool football game. Everyone is so excited, this is a new thing in our area and so far everything is working out great. Isabella is on the pep squad, she is having to put ballet on the back burner until football season is over. I am not thrilled about this, I think her dance is very important and she is really talented. But I gave in, and she is having a blast. Our team actually won, which is impressive since most of these boys have never really played football. The homeschooling association is also going to do other sports including golf, which has Austin very excited. I am a little exhausted with all of the practices and now dance is getting ready to start for the other 2 girls, not to mention homeschooling. I am in my vehicle way too much for my liking.

Oh, and Austin got a job at the Country Club he plays golf at. This is wonderful for him and for us. Employees get a free membership, plus free food. This is going to save us a ton of money! Also, the club is only 5 minutes from my house. Even though Austin is 16, I still havn't let him get his license. I guess I need to cut the umbilical cord, as dh says, but the thought of him driving makes me sick. Not because he isn't responsible, just that there are so many crazy drivers out there and he is inexperienced. I guess you have to let them actually drive to get experience though, huh lol

All of this going is seriously cutting into my sewing time. I am *still* working on the Oliver + S Puppet Show pattern. I need to finish it, I have so many projects that I want to do.

I have finished the second book in the Twilight saga, New Moon. I need to get the next one. I told dh to pick it up for me when he took a trip to Walmart yesterday. He *conveniently* forgot. I think he is getting jealous, even though I have been very good about not spending every waking moment reading LOL I am going to go and pick it up myself tomorrow, he is just gonna have to deal : D I guess I will just have to look through my new Country Living and Southern Living magazines tonight instead of reading about vampires and werewolves ; )

Twilight

2008-08-07T08:52:00.004-05:00

I have been sucked in by the Twilight saga LOL I had never heard of these books before last week, and honestly wouldn't have thought I would be interested at all. I mean, a clumsy teenager that falls in love with a vampire, can you say cheesy?! lol Somehow Stephenie Meyer, the author, makes it anything but cheesy. I think this is the most romantic book I have ever read. I read the first book Twilight in less than a day! I am a fast reader, and I could not put this book down. I am already a fourth of the way into the second book, New Moon. Needless to say, nothing is getting done but the bare minimum lol I am just glad I don't have to wait to see how it ends, the 4th and final book in the saga was just released. Funny thing, dh and I went on a date Friday night and ended up at Barnes and Noble. The place was packed with teenagers for the release of Breaking Dawn. I can't believe that I am so enamored with a book series written for kids my son's age. Oh well, I don't think I am the only one lol I am going to *try* and be a good girl today and actually cook dinner, sew, and answer my kids' questions with more than just "uh huh, whatever" instead of reading New Moon, wish me luck! LOL

Savannah is 9!!!!!

2008-08-02T18:22:00.003-05:00

Savannah Rose turned 9 years old at 7:45 am today. If I could pick a labor to repeat, hers would be it. My water broke with her, after 5 babies, this is the first time that ever happened. I was laying in bed, not quite asleep and I heard an audible pop and then felt like I wet my pants. Chad was sound asleep, so I pushed him and said "my water broke, go get me a towel." He jumps up half out of it and starts going towards the bathroom, he thought I had said the toilet had overflowed LOL After a few minutes he realized what I was saying. Her labor was very gradual, and while painful, I never felt like I was going to lose it like with some of the others. She weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz.

She was the sweetest baby, very happy and easygoing. At 7 weeks, she started sleeping 7 or 8 hours in a row all by herself. She never woke up in the middle of the night again, not even when she was sick. She still loves her sleep : ) Savannah was my *baby* for the longest. She was 4 1/2 when Samuel was born. She had been wanting a brother or sister so badly, and she was so happy when he finally arrived. She used to have this thing where she would suck her thumb while playing with the strap of my bra. She even had certain bras that she preferred lol After Sam came, she never did it again. I used to ask her to do it and she just wouldn't. I was so sad, that was her special little thing, and I missed it : ( I guess she was growing up, but to me she was still my baby.

She is very helpful (when she feels like it ; ) and she loves to be around me. Whenever I turn around she is there, she is very attached to her mama : ) She is always playing with Samuel and Ava, she is very helpful when I need someone to occupy them.

I can't believe she is already 9 years old! Just yesterday she was my happy, smiling baby girl.

Happy Birthday, Savannah, I love you very much!

I feel so loved : )

2008-07-30T07:58:00.004-05:00

In the last couple of weeks I have been given three awards! Heidi Ann at Foxgloves Fabric and Folly, Lola at Lola....Again and Tine at Sodeste all gave me this award! I feel so special : ) Thank you so much, ladies, y'all made my month!

I am now supposed to pass this award along to other deserving blogs! I will give this award to

Kelci at Crafty Mama Creations
Michelle at Eat, Sleep, Create
Lisa at Polka Dot Cottage
Sandy at Sandy Kisses
Jona at Stop Staring and Start Sewing
Marie at The Villa Family
Jill at Thou Shalt Not Whine

On the creative homefront, I have barely been sewing. I ended up with a cold or my allergies are acting up or something. I just know I feel like poop! Not bad enough to be sick in bed, but bad enough to want to just lay around all day while my kids destroy the house and nothing gets done. I seem to feel a *little* better today, I guess I need to tackle that pile of laundry and discipline my children. Why is it when you don't feel well and aren't staying on top of everything, the kids just kind of go wild? I mean, they know how they are supposed to behave, but unless you enforce it, they act like animals. I have a going away party for a friend tonight, her husband has been relocated to Houston, so that will be a nice and sorely needed break : ) Dh can have fun herding the animals for a few hours LOL

Everyone needs to head over to Foxgloves Fabric and Folly today! She is having a 100th post giveaway and has 3 beautiful handmade gifts. A beautiful heirloom quilt, a Christmas table runner, and a Summer of 2008 pillow. So, that is 3 lucky winners! Make sure you leave a comment today or tomorrow, because she is going to draw the names on August 1!

Saturday morning

2008-07-26T11:08:00.003-05:00

It is Saturday morning and we are back home. This is what I basically did while on vacation. I would sit in the rocking chair on the porch while drinking my coffee, enjoying the breeze and knitting. I am wearing some pajama pants I made out of an old, ripped pair of sheets. You can't really get more relaxing than this. Of course, the little ones would come out every once in a while and want to climb up in my lap, but mostly they would watch the older children fish. Now we are back home and Samuel and Ava are fighting over whether they will watch Little Bill or Dora : ) Back to real life LOL

I did finish both booties and started on a third one, this time in pink. As you can see, they aren't the same size, I guess this is what happens when your brain is too relaxed lol I will have to make two more to match each one, I can't give this odd sized pair to anyone.

Today, I need to clean all the cat fur off of my furniture. Oh, and we still have the little kitten : O Dh is NOT happy! He was really not happy when she jumped on his head at 7am this morning. The cats never do crazy things like this to me, just the one person in the house who doesn't like animals. I really need to find her a home, but we are so attached to her, so it is going to be hard to give her away. She is just the sweetest little thing and I want to make sure the person I give her to will take good care of her.

I can't believe it is already the end of July! Public school will start soon, and it seems like the summer break just began. We don't start homeschooling until after Labor day, but that will be here before I know it. I need to get all of the curriculum bought and organized. We are trying several new things this year, hopefully the children will do well. The main new curriculum we will be using is Teaching Textbooks for the two high school boys' math. I know several families that have used this and they say it is awesome. I am also looking for a new Science and History curriculum for Sydney and Isabella. They do these two subjects together since they are only a year apart in school. I know there are several homeschooling moms who read my blog, any suggestions? I need to make the most of my last few weeks of freedom LOL I know the moms whose kids go to school are counting down until they have their freedom back : D

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend : )

Poverty Point

2008-07-23T20:25:00.003-05:00

Well, Austin's golf tournament was canceled, but we took our trip anyway. The cabin was already paid for, and my dh needed to get away. I am the type that likes to stay at home, dh loves to travel. If it were up to him and we could afford it, we would travel every month. I, on the other hand, like to stay in my nest. Once we get somewhere, I really do enjoy myself, but a vacation once or twice a year is more than enough for me.

This is our first time at Poverty Point State Park. It is one of the nicest state parks that we have ever stayed at. They have a nice RV campground with a water playground for the kids. They also have a marina and beach area and several hiking trails. We are staying in the cabins on the lake. They are less than a year old, and really beautiful in a log cabin sort of way. Actually,we got to stay in two different ones LOL I was not exactly happy about this. Before Austin's tournament was canceled, we had to be here from Tuesday through Friday. They didn't have 3 nights straight in one cabin, so we had to stay in one cabin Tuesday night and then pack up everything today and move to the other cabin for the next two nights (yes, I wanted to cry). The first cabin was older, with a loft and a bigger porch. It wasn't on the water, but was in the woods. The cabin we are in now is on the water. While we have a beautiful view and the kids can fish right off the front porch, it is making me a little nervous with Samuel and Ava. The older children are good about helping us keep an eye on them, and if Chad and I aren't out there, we lock the door. The hard part is they stand at the door and cry until we take them out lol Oh, and did I mention that the cabins have flat screen tv's with satellite?!

Yeah, we are really roughing it LOL This is totally my idea of *camping* : D Even dh has to admit that doing it this way has its advantages over the tent. And we obviously have WiFi, I can get my blog fix everyday : )

This is the front porch with rocking chairs, the kids spent most of the day fishing. They caught LOTS of catfish. We just throw them back in, dh wasn't in the mood to clean fish, we had spaghetti for dinner : )

This is a cabin on the side of us, ours is identical.

Here are some pictures of the cabin we stayed in last night.

I loved the back porch, it was shady and surrounded by trees.

Ava was posing for us LOL

I even managed to get some knitting in this afternoon while watching tv. Dh took the kids to the beach area, so it was nice and quiet : ) I finished a whole baby bootie, I will show them when I finish the second one.

a couple of things

2008-07-21T08:27:00.004-05:00

This little dress started out as a skirt for me, for some reason I have been on this creative ideas kick. I get an idea in my head, and I hurry up and try it. I really need to think through things a little more. I just took some fabric, squared it up, cut it in half and sewed two seams. I didn't flare it out like I needed to for a full skirt, which is what I was wanting. The idea was for a shirred waist skirt. I have one and it is so comfortable. Anyway, no problem, I just turned it into a little sundress for the girls : ) It's perfect for them, and they love it. I am going to whip up a couple more, so they don't fight over this one LOL Very quick and easy project. Elastic thread is so cool! Sorry about the lighting in these pictures, I had the macro setting on and didn't realize it. The pictures came out too bright, but I had no time to retake them. I got this fabric for $1.50 a yard on clearance at Joann's.

Oh! Look what I figured out to do on my serger! I have had this serger for 3+ years and have never ventured past doing a basic overlock stitch. Well, Saturday I got brave and figured out how to do a rolled edge and picot edge. All it involved was removing the stitch finger and setting the little knob to R or P. I can't believe that I could have been using this nifty feature all of this time. In my head, it was just so difficult to do. You can do a rolled hem in about 1 minute, AWESOME!

My little niece, Stella, is turning 5, so I am making her the Oliver + S Puppet Show Tunic and shorts. So far, I just have everything cut out. I am using Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric in these two prints. Not quite sure what I am going to use for the shorts. I am thinking some brown linen with matching fabric pockets.

I also found some more $10 sheets at Target. I love the color of these.

We are going out of town for the rest of the week. Oldest son has a golf tournament in North Louisiana, so we are going to take a mini vacation. We rented a cabin at a State Park. My whole family loves to tent camp, except me lol I love the outdoors, but at night, I want a clean bathroom and bed. So, the cabin is the compromise : ) They are pretty rustic, but they have indoor plumbing, and that is my main requirement. Oh, and air conditioning, maybe they aren't so rustic, after all lol Supposedly this park has internet access(definitely NOT rustic), so we shall see. If they do, I will blog. I am going to miss my sewing machine, but am going to bring some knitting and embroidery projects with me so I have a creative outlet.

New summer dress

2008-07-16T08:49:00.005-05:00

I have been wanting to make one of those cute, long maxi dresses. I wanted a halter style, so I decided to use Amy Butler's Cabo Halter for the top part, since it was the only pattern I had that resembled what I wanted and I needed(wanted) to start sewing immediately LOL I just made a gathered skirt to attach to the bodice. I used the sheets I had bought from Target because I wasn't sure how it would turn out and needed a lot of fabric. I didn't want to waste some expensive fabric in case it was a disaster. I really love the print and the sheet fabric is so crisp and cool, perfect for a summer dress.

For anyone who hasn't made the Cabo Halter, it is VERY low and kind of gaps open, especially if you are any bigger than an A cup. I had to fix this because I don't think it is appropriate for a 37 year old mom of 7 to be walking around with her boobs hanging out, plus my 16 year old son would have just died of embarrassment LOL I had to add a little strip across the front and top stitch everything together. Even after doing this, the top is obviously not made for a woman with boobage. I am not huge, on the small side of a 34D and I am bursting at the top. I really needed to make a full bust alteration, but I don't know how to on a halter top. It kind of just smashes my boobs. It is still very wearable, and besides feeling a little tight across the chest, I really love it. The skirt part is loose and flowy and so cool in this South Louisiana heat!

Dh took the pictures while laying on a float in the pool, so they aren't that great LOL Plus he was trying to get me to make sexy faces at him, which grossed the kids out! I spared y'all those pictures, they are more goofy than sexy. The lighting is terrible, but you can get an idea of what the dress looks like. I wore it to my friend's house and out to dinner and was super comfortable even after I ate like a pig. Which makes this the perfect dress IMO : D

edited: Just a reminder that Project Runway starts tonight! I am soooooo excited, this is my absolute favorite show on tv, well that and LOST. Yeah, there is no rhyme or reason to my tv watching habits lol Anyway, I can't wait!