Reid is Coming Home for a Visit

We are looking forward to our son, Reid, who goes to college at SUNY Brockport, coming home for a couple of days.  Reid has a nice apartment with some friends and two jobs, so he will be staying in Brockport for the summer.  We don’t get to see him all that often due to him working on weekends, so this is a treat.  FYI, for those who don’t know, Reid is Rachel’s twin brother. Rachel is busy working a lot at the ice cream shop and we are enjoying having her home from college for the summer  We are still waiting to hear whether Megan and Scott are coming down from Canada for the weekend, or whether they are going camping.  In another week or so, Megan will be going to Pennsylvania for the summer.  She is a nurse at a kids camp and this is like her 6th summer working there.  Steven is doing very well, and is trying to decide whether to keep his apartment or move in with someone and share a three bedroom apartment.  Due to the traffic in Houston, it usually takes him an hour and a half to get home from work.  If he moves, it would only be a 15 minute drive home each day.  He would save on time and gas money, but he wouldn’t have the luxury of living alone.  The new place in a nice apartment complex and there is a pool available for the tenants, so that would be another plus.  We just found out that Christopher (our 21 year old adopted son) and his girlfriend are having a baby.  They seem to be quite excited.  We are a little less enthusiastic due to all the drug problems Chris has had and his problems holding down a job.  On the other hand, maybe being responsible for another life will help him to grow up and be responsible.  Brad and Nick are both doing better with the addition of their new medications. Nick has been stuck on the movie “Happy Feet”.  This is the third morning in a row that he has watched it.  Truthfully I am a little sick of it.  LOL   I guess that is the update on my kids.  It seems so good when things are running pretty smooth for everyone and mom and dad can worry less. 

This is a picture of us and 6 of our children, plus our son-in-law.  Steven is the only one not in this picture.  This picture was taken a few years ago at Brad and Nick’s adoption, but it is the closest thing I have to a family picture.  :o)

Great Day

We have awesome weather here and we sure took advantage of it today.  This morning I vacuumed the back porch furniture and then hosed the porch down.  Karli loved the water from the hose when it sprayed her.  I then cleaned the laundry room and then I sewed a new chair cushion for one of our wicker chairs.  We went to the cemetery and cleaned up Steve’s family graves…raked and put new flowers on them.  We came home and Rachel, Steve and Brad set up our trampoline (I supervised from the porch).  All in all it has been a very busy day.  This great weather is supposed to last for a few days. 

This coming weekend is the town wide yard sale here in Arcade.  We love going as a family and hunting for treasures.  Even Brad and Nick love to yard sale.  One year we found bike helmets for the boys that were almost new.  We like to keep a set at home and a set at the camper so we don’t have to take them back and forth.  I love finding clothing for the boys for the summer and I have often found name brands that are in great shape for a little bit of nothing.  Speaking of great outfits, Nick wore his new plaid shorts and matching t-shirt for the first time to school today. Brad has a set also, and I will take a pic when he wears his for the first time. Doesn’t Nick look so cute? (I am a bit prejudiced however) :o)

Here is a pic of the new plaid laptop sleeve/bag I finished yesterday.

Blog Feature

Rather than feature an Etsy shop today, I decided to feature a blog that I found this morning.  This blog has a really great tutorial that shows very clearly, how to make a quilted, zippered pouch.  Check it out and be sure and leave comments.  http://lolosinclair.blogspot.com/2009/05/how-to-make-cute-quilted-zipper-case.html

We had a really nice time yesterday at our campsite.  Steve and I planted some new hostas and the boys played in the woods and Rachel took them to the playground for a while.  Bradly had a great time taking Karli for walks.  Our hotdogs cooked over the fire were really good  as were the s’mores. (Back to eating healthy today, but those Doritos and s’mores were yummy).  :o) I was amazed at how much Bradly packed away.  It seemed like he was always going to weigh 50 something, and all of a sudden he started growing and eating a lot more.  He went from being a picky little eater, to loving almost everything and eating lots of it.  Last week at the Dr. he weighed 80 pounds.  He is thrilled because he has always been the shortest kid in his class and gets picked on for it.  I have a feeling when he goes back to school in the Fall, he won’t be the shortest kid any more.

I relisted this cute “Tweety Bird and Sylvester” tote bag this morning.  It would also work nicely for a diaper bag.  I thought I would be listing my new laptop bag, but alas I need to make a few changes as I am not totally pleased with it yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After I finish up the laptop bag, my goal is to get busy making some more dog collars to take up tot he grooming shop.  I just ordered the hardware for large and extra large collars as they require one inch hardware rather than the 3/4 inch size I use for small and medium dog collars.  I also ordered the swivel hooks I need for the leashes.  I can’t wait for my new goodies to arrive.  :o)

Lots to do!!

It is a beautiful day…sunshine and the promise of warmer weather.  We spent the afternoon at our camper yesterday and got new mulch in all of the flower beds and the decorations in place.  Rachel raked leaves and Nicholas carried the leaves in a laundry basket and dumped them in the woods.  Bradly did an awesome job on the mulch with Rachel’s help.  Nick had requested we take bread and peanut butter and jelly for a picnic…which we did.  We planned to have a fire and make s’mores.  Steve decided it was too windy to have a fire, plus it was a bit chilly.  We told the kids when they get home from school today, we will go back up.  It isn’t as windy today and it is supposed to be warmer.  We are going to cook hotdogs over the fire for supper and then make s’mores for desert.  The boys are quite happy about that and truthfully I am looking forward to it also.

I am going to my studio in a few minutes and hopefully finishing the laptop sleeve I started on Saturday.  Rachel is off work today, so I want her to model some of my purses so I can take the pictures outside where the light is so much better and redo some of the pictures in my shop.  So, I have a lot to do before the kids get home, so I best get busy.  :o)

Blueberry Muffins

The “Hungry Girl” cookbook I talked about a week or so ago, has another recipe I would like to try making.  She has a recipe for blueberry muffins that are made with wheat flour and Splenda.  I need to go look and see if I have any blueberries in the freezer.  I can’t get the muffins off my mind, so maybe I will make them today.  If they are as good as I think they will be, I will share the recipe.

Nick was up at 6:30 am today and I was so glad it was Steve’s day to get up early.  Of course, do you think I could go back to sleep…no!   So I gave up and got up at 7:30.  I kept laying there thinking about everything I needed to do today, plus the sun was shining.  Hard to want to sleep when the sunshine is streaming in your windows.

I am working on a new project in my studio.  I started making a laptop sleeve yesterday.  I decided to make it with this heavy, plaid fabric that would work well for guys or gals.  That was great until I started cutting and remembered I need to match the plaid so it would look good.  This process took a while, but I finally got it done.  I cut the fleece padding and thought I would press the plaid fabric one more time before starting to sew.  I forgot to turn my iron down as this fabric has to be pressed on a low setting.  Yup, you guessed it…I melted an iron shaped spot right in the middle of the piece of fabric I had painstakingly matched the plaid and cut.  Now, wouldn’t it have been nice if I had started ironing on the edge of the fabric…but oh no…I jumped right smack in the middle.  I then had to cut a new piece and then I decided I best quit while I was ahead…so I gave up sewing for the day..LOL

I took this picture of Nick yesterday while his imagination was working overtime.  He was pretending to be a “Spy Kid”.  He also had a small back pack strapped to his back.  After this picture was taken, he went out and rode his scooter up and down the sidewalk…he looked so cute.  :o)

Another Early Saturday

One of these days Nick is going to sleep past 7 am on a
Saturday morning.  This morning he came bombing into our room at 6:45 am.  He wondered why my eyes had red in them..LOL I said because I am tired. 

I finished my new “Twilight bag yesterday.  This one is a messenger bag and is inspired by the “Twilight” book, “Breaking Dawn”.  I have really enjoyed making the “Twilight” bags, for one things I got to do some painting which I always enjoy.

front

 

 

 

 

 

 

                       back

inside

On another note,was the season finale of “Grey’s  Anatomy” fantastic or what.  Rachel and I were sure the guy hit by the bus was George almost as soon as they brought him in.  On the other hand, I am a huge “Bones” fan and I was very disappointed in their season finale.  I actually fell asleep during the show, and I NEVER fall asleep during “Bones”.  I would love to hear what you guys thought about the season finales you watched.  :o)

Ah…the Weekend has Arrived

Things with Brad and Nick are a bit better and I find myself looking forward to the weekend.  The weather forecast sounds promising and I would love to get more yard work done.  We still have a lot of work to do at our camper too, so maybe we can go work and have a picnic this weekend.

I sold a girl’s apron from my second shop last night.  I guess I need to put more energy into promoting that shop.  I don’t promote my second shop anywhere near as much as I promote my purse shop.  Here is a pic of the apron I sold.

The first “Doggie Travel Bag” I made sold fairly quickly, so I decided to make a couple of more.  I think I may take at least one of them up to the dog groomer’s shop and display it with the collars and soon, leashes.  I was thinking about giving the customers the option of a matching collar to go with the bag they chose.  I need to think about that some more.  Here  are the new “Doggie Travel Bags”.

 

 

 

 

 

I also wanted to share a cool blog I found this morning.  This bloggist (is that a word?), has lots of awesome ideas for making things with recycled items.  Check it out.    http://www.craftybitch101.com/   Have a great weekend everyone.  :o)