Ladies Night Out

So I hosted ladies night out this month for the ladies at church. We always have a lovely time and since we all have some sort of craft we do its usually a relaxing and productive time. Michael usually sticks around so he can eat the snacks. That is actually how he learned to crochet. He was told he could come to craft night unless he had a craft since we would be working and he would be eating all our snacks. He and Becca were quite busy tonight though. Becca is making a quilt for her bear and Michael is working on his boxer shorts. He also cut out some squares for a patchwork pillow.

 

 

I told them to measure him before they cut out the pattern…..they might not have listened

 

 

 

I did not manage to get a great deal done….I can’t imagine why.

 

 

Update!!!! Not half an hour after this post Michael decided to make some “alterations” using the serger. What he ended up with was a huge jumbled up and tangled mess. I asked why he attempted that when had only used the serger for the first time today. His response was “I felt I had it figured out”

My Mission Statement

This week at 7 habits training we were tasked with writing a mission statement for out lives. Kind of a road map and a set of values we hope to follow. I found this exercise to be both enlightening and helpful in providing me focus and direction. I am going to share it here.

I Choose to live compassionate;y and creatively.

I choose:

To put God first, others second and myself last.

To make my life a celebration of the talents and blessings I have been given.

To make my relationships edifying, beneficial and cherished. To make my marriage a priority.

To treat everything from people to the earth with compassion and respect.

To pursue my love of art, literature and music and to constantly seek knowledge.

To remove negative influences from trashy media to gossip and malignant people.

To put a more concentrated effort into helping others in need and spreading the gospel of Christ.

To have a simple and Christ centered home where people feel welcomed and loved.

To seek balance in all aspects of my life and to laugh a lot!

 

Do you have a life mission statement? Would you mind sharing it? If you haven’t made one I highly recommend it.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I am very excited this week because I get to go to the 7 Habits training which is provided by the company I work for. I am finding it so beneficial. Especially since I have so much going on in my life both private and public and I want to make sure that I am as effective as possible.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people are:

Be Proactive

Begin with the end in mind.

Put first things first

Seek win-win

Listen first to understand then to be understood

Synergize

Sharpen the saw.

 

The habit I will be working on first is to seek first to understand and then to be understood. As a talkative person I fear that when communicating with other people I might dominate the conversation. This is not what I wish to do as I don’t want people I interact with to think I don’t respect them.

I was

considering taking a nap but as I would only be able to rest an hour I felt it a better choice to stay away. I am committing to going to bed early…..

The dying art of letter writing

I wish more people sent letters. I love to write letters. I also adore beautiful stationary and note cards. And since I also absolutely love fabric designer Anna Maria Horner I am very excited so see that she created these stunningly gorgeous note cards!

 

 

 

I also love these….

 

 

Oh my what eye candy!!!

 

If you haven’t checked out her new book Seams to Me you should do that immediately. She is from Nashville which makes me a super fan. Gotta love the hometown girls! I actually got my copy (which is signed) at Textile Fabrics in Nashville, unfortunately I left it at my mother in law’s house but I will get it when I go home again.Gotta love the hometown girls!

It’s not what you think…..

I didn’t fall off the wagon and go on a fabric bender…..although it has been known to happen….

But this just showed up on my porch….I couldn’t leave it out in the cold.

 

I knew the perfect nice warm home for all this lovely fabric goodness.

 

Actually it’s a Coop order I have been anxiously awaiting. A Coop is where a group of fabric junkies all get together and buy the whole bolt so we can get it at wholesale prices. I belong to several but this order came from on of my favorites. www.fabriccoop.com

Sewing table spruce up!

The cutting table in my sewing studio was ugly. And I am store an ton of junk under it. It is an old banquet table from church that Michael bolted together to make it sturdy and then put up on cement blocks (where I come from we also prop our extra cars up on these). In true redneck diva fashion I rigged a skirt for it from an old table cloth and duct tape but that didn’t work out so well and it looked too hillbilly. So I spent today making the cutting table a proper skirt.

 

The white cube in the corner is our mini fridge

 

So there it is. It’s attached with Velcro.

I can’t explain why I can go a couple days with out blogging and then randomly blog like 4 times in one day….I am just odd like that.

 

Fabric is from Ikea…yes, they have fun cheap fabric but it is not available online.

 

 

It opens in the center to allow me to access all the stuff I have stashed under there…mostly art supplies and quilt batting.

Sewing Studio wall art

So I am trying to make the Sewing Studio an aesthetically please space that inspires creativity and not just a place to stock pile massive amounts of fabric and yarn. It is a long process because I want it to evolve naturally and not just cram it full of knick knacks and such. Granted I do find great pleasure in random found objects…

 

Anyways for our book club christams exchange Christin drew my name and gifted me these truly awesome Gnome note cards which make me very happy. Christin knows me well and really “gets” the fact that I love garden gnomes….a lot. I really appreciate that. But while I do enjoy sending cards and letters I also wanted to be able to enjoy the note cards for myself. Then inspiration struck and this is what happened…..

 

I found these little acrylic frames at The Michael’s craft store and made my sewing studio a little art installation.

 

 

The orange flower thing in not actually a painting but a small scrap of fabric someone sent me. I think it is marvelous and can not seem to find any yardage. So on to the wall it goes so I can enjoy looking at it.

Emily Luvz Us!

She brought me this……

Because she knows what makes me happy! We love the Emily

Becca’s “Wendy” Dress

Becca will star as Wendy in her school’s production of Peter Pan. I was excited to create her costume. Michele helped with cutting out some of the  sucky fabric (after I decided I should burn it) and ripping the occasional seam (with sewing it is inevitable ripping shall also follow on occasion).

Excuse my messy sewing room in the back ground….