Happy Birthday To Me

I had a great birthday today! I sure don't feel 26!? Mallory & I ran errands all morning and met Amie & Karen for lunch at Panera. Then Gigi got ALL OF THE KIDS for the afternoon! (YEAH) I got my SB with one of my 4 birthday gift cards (again, YEAH) and headed home. I crammed in as much monogramming as I could this afternoon until we had to meet up for B's soccer game. We had dinner at Tipico - sombrero and "Happy Birthday" in spanish. Luckily Jeff did not have his phone w/ him to take a picture. Came home to baths and a little more sewing and I'm hopefully headed to bed here shortly. I was up til midnight working last night. While the US economy is in terrible shape, our kids have to dress cute and business is good! I think at last count I had 28 t-shirts, 4 bibs, a burp cloth and a romper to do. I told a friend last night, this is how people have nervous breakdowns. I can't stand to have work piled up and to not be fast, but I'm just doing the best I can this week and will hopefully see the light at the end of the pile of thread.

We had a busy weekend! Dinner at Wynlakes Fri night celebrating all the Sept. b-days, plus B had 2 birthday parties this weekend, we all went to a "day of football" Sat. and we had the singles from our church over last night for dinner. I'm doing the Sturbridge yard sale Sat. morning so at some point this week I also have to get all of my junk out, price it and throw it in the garage. As of today I haven't gotten out a thing! I'm thinking starting Wed. I'll go ahead and set up some tables and just pull stuff out, price it and take it straight to the tables. I have some other friends bringing stuff too so it should be interesting. I always love a good yard sale! I'm always amazed at who shows up at the door on Friday, and at what time you see headlights on Sat. morning.

My tired self is headed to bed. Now that I'm 26 I definitely need more beauty sleep....

My Masterpiece

Tonight was SO MUCH FUN!! 2 hours of totally focusing on a painting. I loved it!! My tree needs a little work, but I LOVED it!! Happy Birthday Summer!!

Pumpkins

I've been crankin out the pumpkins! Popular design for Halloween/Fall. Looks great w/ the name through it (see B & G photo). B had a playdate today and the youngest 2 are napping, so I'm trying to get a lot of work done (and here I am blogging...). Tonight I'm going to some sort of painting thing for a friend's b-day. I'm no artist but I think it'll be fun! Supposedly I will leave w/ a masterpiece!?! Last night I went to a progressive dinner for the women in our church (Eastwood Pres) and it was a lot of fun! I had blisters on my feet by the time I got home but it was fun, and good exercise! The houses weren't quite as close together as we thought and I wore cute (horribly uncomfortable) shoes. The "program" portion of the evening was about Common Ground (Montgomery). It's an incredible mission that these 2 families are undertaking! They live on the "west side" of town and basically minister and take care of and love these kids and families that live there. They do bible studies and are opening a community center for them. It's absolutely unbelievable and definitely a calling from God! (http://www.cgmal.org/)

Little Mallory is just about to crawl! She has no teeth, but she's ready to MOVE! I've attached a few photos. She has that "baby food" coloring to her! When G was a baby I just knew he would have Jeff's dark skin complexion. Come to find out there is something in baby food that often makes their skin look orange. oh well! We are doing a Wed. night program at church about Parenting. THANK GOODNESS!! Garrison & I are about to have a boxing match!! He has entered that awful, horrible, annoying "NO!!!!" stage. We went round & round this morning over a coloring book tear out page that Browder had colored and G quickly tore in half. He would NOT apologize!! He's wearing me out!!

We took dinner to some friends last night and I have to apologize - K, if your sodium level if off the charts I'm so sorry! I can never get peas salty enough and well, I got 'em salty enough last night! I had leftovers for lunch and swelled UP. Jeff loves it when we cook for other people because I COOK FOR US!! YEAH!! I like to cook - just don't take the time (that I should) to think in advance and do it! (sorry Jeff!)

Migraine?

I was watching Today a week or so ago and heard Matt intro a segment on migraines and how horrible they were. I thought to myself... I've never had one thank goodness! Well, I think I may have had one yesterday!? I'm still not sure!? I ran errands all morning while the kids were at school, ate lunch at like 1:30 and had a little headache so I laid down w/ G around 2 and woke up at 5:30!! Still had the headache and realized the ibuprofen I got out to take before nap was still on the desk by the computer! I managed to fix G a snack and feed M half a bottle before I thought death was upon me!! I called Jeff to come home (he had Browder) and let M finish feeding herself in the bouncey seat! Needless to say I laid in my bed for a couple of hours w/ a wet rag over my face, hovered over the toilet a couple of times, threw up in a trash can a couple of times and finally got to feeling better around 8:30. Jeff had come home and had taken all the kids to go eat at Chappy's so I could be miserable in silence. We went to bed around 10:30 and woke up at 2 to G screaming. He had fallen off the bottom of the bed and busted his lip! So he pitched a fit to sleep w/ me, which then made B cry b/c no one was sleeping with him, so Jeff finished off the night w/ Browder and G slept w/ me!! Gotta love the 8:30 soccer games after a night like that! Mallory & I stayed home this morning! I feel OK today - a little off, but OK! I got a SB after lunch. At first I thought it was a caffeine headache b/c I didn't have any yesterday, but I'm just not sure!? All I know is that I hope it never happens again!! I did see an ad this morning about migraines - stopthepain.com or something, so it may be a sign?

Sampling a couple more EB designs today (sailboat & santa face) and will post soon! We're watching the Auburn game tonight and baby Mallory is getting baptized in the morning at church! When B was baptized, we invited the whole family (extended and all), rented the Sturbridge clubhouse and had a HUGE luncheon afterwards catered by Noni. With G, we invited immediate family and had a little luncheon over here at our house - family and a few friends. Poor little Mallory - immediate family only and we made reservations at Tipico de Mexico!! Not even Wynlakes!! Hey, the cabinet business ain't doin too hot right now and Rosie is finally paying off the Amex where she got pics made of the kids, so mexican it is! Simple, easy, cheap!! Hopefully this won't scar her for life...

I watched part of I Am Sam this morning... all the whaling & crying probably didn't help in my recovery from last night. What a great movie!!

Shirts & Bibs

I was at Toys R Us today buying a b-day present and actually found some cute stuff! They have cute girl tops in several colors - all sizes including baby up to toddler. I've posted a pic of one I got for Mallory. For $5.99 it doesn't make a bad "school" shirt! I also came across a 10-pack of decent white bibs for $9.99. They are a pretty good size & are pretty thick. M spits up ridiculously so I mainly got these for her. She doesn't have a decent bib to wear anywhere b/c they are all stained. I also got her 2 cute eating bibs (the type you can wipe off). I never go to Toys R Us but it was a successful little trip! Maybe one day they will wise up and build one at East Chase...

Need a bib?

Did you say you needed to buy a bib?

http://www.leontinelinens.com/index.php/baby/product/tie_bib1/

And to think I charge like $12-15 for a bib! I actually have (non-linen) bibs EXACTLY like this I got at Hobby Lobby!!

They also have some nice bath towels for the low low price of $170 EACH!! Surely they dry you off, hang themselves up, wash & dry themselves when they are dirty, fold themselves and hop up into the linen closet after that?

Seriously this site has some beautiful monogram fonts! I like the Blaise (bath) and Trey (table linens) designs!! I could do something similar to these easily. OMG I just saw the price of the Blaise wash cloth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 75 big ones!!

(thank you Lisa for this blog material!!)

As you can see above I'm sampling/testing for my new favorite embroidery website - http://www.embroidery-boutique.com/. I've just done some great ornaments which will be posted once Rachel can get the pics on her site. There are lots of options with the ornaments too - put a few together, add ribbon, add a monogram. Fun Fun!! I'm loving hot pink & lime and red & lime for Christmas. These new designs are so cute!! I've had several snowman requests and santa faces and will hopefully find those soon. I did get a cute stick people nativity scene today and will post a pic once I sew it out.

I'm on the hunt for some good blank bibs! I ordered some from a website last night so I'm anxious to see if they are any good. Mallory goes through about 17 a day. I'm even using Browder & Garrison's old bibs for her. I like the Rabbit Skins bibs but am looking for some more options!

Costco or Cosco?

I can never remember how you spell Cos(t?)co?? Anyway I found some cute Carter's jackets tonight for B & G - fleece reversible. They have a few color combos, but I got brown & (pumpkin-ish) orange!! Sizes 2T up and they have a few girl styles too - $16.99! We took the family there to eat supper. No, not samples, but their deli. Where else can you feed a family of 4 (eaters) for $6.03? Plus a couple more bucks for a churro (msp?) and some ice cream! Browder had his first soccer game of the season (well he missed the first FIRST game Sat). This is his 5th or 6th season and he has scored 1 whole goal throughout his career! G wore Browder's very first soccer jersey tonight! He'll be playing before long. And the pic of M is after her nap - bad hair day!!

Ever have one of those days when you just don't get around to showering?? Jeff specifically asked me last night if 7:22 was right for my alarm (our clock is 7 min fast for some reason - has been for years). It turns out, you have to turn the alarm ON for it to work. I didn't have time to take a shower this morning and never got around to it all day!! Now it's 9:05 and I'm still sewing...

New Section of Blog

I added a new web list to the blog down below. I have a lot of fellow monogrammers/applique-ers/ embroider-ers (is that a word?) who come across my blog and have been getting lots of e-mails asking where I got some of my designs, so I decided to add this info to the blog and will add to it as I happen upon new sites! I'm not a digitizer - I buy all of my designs online and I just do the sewing part. Embroidery Boutique is my new favorite (keep the new designs coming Rachel!!). Love the new turkey!! I like the football too but I already have a football... do I need 2 footballs?

I'm on a waiting list to get a new blog design (http://www.kissmyblog11.blogspot.com/). I've been playing around w/ my color scheme lately and then someone told me there are people out there who design blogs!! I had no idea.

Spa Trip

We're back from B'ham and are still recovering.... The spa we went to was http://www.onenineteen.com/spa.asp. I hope to post some photos, but we started out putting on our wraps & robes & rubber flip flops. While sipping sparkling wine we all had our piggies done, and were then served a yummy greek grilled chicken salad for lunch. I had a facial (my first) - it was soooo relaxing and fabulous! I've never claimed to be a big spa person. Probably because I'm so cheap. I get my toes done maybe once a year (at one of the 800 nail salons in the 1/2 mile radius of my house) and that's about it. This was so much fun and might become a spring & fall necessity. We were there about 3 hours, then shopped for an hour or so at The Summit. Grabbed a 2nd Starbucks and checked in to the hotel (Homewood Suites). They were the cutest little rooms I've ever seen - a tiny kitchen, sitting area and our bedroom was separate. It was like a miniature apartment!! The guys finally surfaced from the golf course and we all got ready for dinner at Flemings (Y-U-M) at The Summit. The food was delicious ... we were having such a good time and FIVE HOURS later we paid our big fat bill and headed to the hotel. Luckily we got an airport shuttle van to cart us around. We got to Flemings at about 6:45 and our check time stamp was 11:18!! I think we decided that what happened at Flemings stays at Flemings... We got home today around lunchtime, got the kids back and all took a big fat nap!

I went to Hobby Lobby & Hancocks this afternoon and got more fabric (make me STOP!!) and a big button kit - not sure what I'm going to do w/ it but I see all the cute monogrammed paci clips & buttons for hair bows & such so I thought I'd try it out. It was all of 3 bucks I think. I found the cutest mom & daughter toile fabric in pink & blue (see pic). I think I'm addicted to fabric!

Bye Bye TYR...

I finally did the bird! I love this bird! I also did a pink & tan turkey which I love. Tonight Browder (very dramatically) asked Jeff what happened to my sewing stuff??? I actually stripped my (dining room) table down so I could wash the tablecloth. I finally got to a stopping point where I felt like I could close up shop for a day or two. We're headed to B'ham in the a.m. - pedis at 11:30, followed by lunch and bubbly and a facial. I have had very few pedis in my life and never a facial, so I'm super excited about all this spa business. Hopefully they will let me in w/ my hammer toes that haven't been painted in like 2 weeks. We'll be back Sat. and then it's back to the grindstone. This is a well deserved break, however brief!!

Well, I have given up The Young & The Restless. Tivo or not, I just don't have time anymore for an hour show each day. I did catch some of it today and I haven't missed much in 2 weeks, so I feel like I can still semi keep up if I happen to be feeding M a bottle in the 11:00 hour. I also gave up on Big Brother and am only keeping up through word of mouth. Jeff watched it tonight while I went to bunko.

Day 1 of my friend's open house was a success! If you cannot make it and are still interested in some cute hand made children's clothes, let me know and I'll hook you up w/ her info! You can still catch her at Eve's Studio Saturday!

I'm dropping the kids off at school, then meeting up w/ my girlfriends. We'll hit Starbucks and hit the road. The guys are riding together straight to the golf course. Back to work Monday (or Saturday when we return....)

Let me introduce you to Bob Evans...

He is my new friend! He makes delicious (homemade-tasting) sides available in your grocer's sandwich meat/bacon/sausage area. I first had his potatoes at our monthly supper club. I would have swore they were homemade!! I've bought them like 4 times in the past couple of weeks. Top w/ shredded cheese & bacon bits and you've got a gourmet side. THEN, I purchased his mac & cheese and cooked it last night. Delish - way better than Kraft (imagine that!?). Anyway try them sometime. The potatoes come in original and garlic. Both very tasty and you just heat them up on the stove (or nuke them if you wish). Not sure what else Bob makes but he's 2 for 2 with what I've bought so far. They are very affordable too - maybe $2.68 for a tub? Don't quote me on that.

Priss Tails

I put a link above for Priss Tails - this is a friend of mine who makes cute custom clothes for boys & girls - shorts, pants, A-line dresses, A-line tops w/ pants (ruffle & ribbon detail to boot!). I've been working all week doing some shirts to match her pants! She will be hosting an open house Thurs (10-6) & Sat (9-4) at Eve's Studio on Clubview (off Mulberry). She also makes cute hair bows and has some other things in her section of Eve's store! Bring a friend to open house and get 10% your order. I'll try to post some more pics of the specific outfits we did together.

I've been slaving behind my machine all week! Busy times w/ Fall coming up! I got a cute new turkey and have some cute new fabrics & fonts & designs.

In family news... Garrison is now in the big boy bed w/ Browder. So far 3 out of 4 nights we've heard the loud THUNK and he's on the floor. Need to move the bed up against a wall. I also peeked in one night and Browder was on the edge and G was also on the edge - Browder's edge. I think they are loving sleeping together regardless! We plan to take the crib down this weekend and sell it in the upcoming Sturbridge yard sale!! (first weekend in Oct). It needs a new frame so it'll go for cheap.

Fri-Sat we're headed to B'ham (w/ no kiddies) on a spa/golf/dinner getaway w/ 2 other couples. I feel like I need to paint my toenails before I go get a pedicure? They look HORRIBLE!! Also getting a facial (my first). Dinner at Flemings (MSP?) and staying somewhere near the Summit. I am SO EXCITED!! I have been working OT so I need a rest!

More New Fabrics!

I got a few more fabs today (a couple which would be cute for baby boys - one is a mint green w/ tiny circles and the other has green & periwinkle). Still need to find some more for boys; no problemo finding girls!! Also pictured is a stack of bags I've been doing. I finally finished them yesterday! YEAH!! Single letter hot pink curlz on each! Very cute and it's a nice big bag (can be found at Southern Homes & Gardens). And of course my wild kids - G quickly told me "Browder make house". Basically he put everything he could find in G's bed!! I also posted the empire font. I have several fonts that aren't listed in my link list for fonts - fonts that I can now merge! I also have what's popularly known as "fishtail", which I will post later. I also got a few new applique letter fonts this week and several new designs (cute spider, bird, vintage letters...). TGIF!! Hopefully I will post some new pics this weekend!

A few new fabrics

I had a minute today so I went looking for BOY fabrics, which are hard to find! I ended up w/ a fat lime gingham and a few florals for girls. They are all cute! Still on the hunt for some boy stuff...

Day 1 ALL KIDS IN SCHOOL!!

(I was totally kidding about throwing B out of the car this morning) Keep in mind he didn't do summer school so we've been together since May, so no tears!! He got right out in the carpool line and walked in without looking back, and I was able to take the other 2 to their school, go by Wachovia and Publix and was headed home by 9:22! Pretty good timing! Here is a pic of him this morning, plus a silly pic of his cheek! He got an AU tatoo at the game Sat. and we finally took it off Mon night, so he got a little bit of an AU tan line at the lake!

Crazy week!

It has been a doozy of a week and it's only Wednesday! Where to begin?

What do you do when a babysitter rips you off? I was a bit too eager to find a sitter for Sat. night so I could go to Supper Club, and found one that I thought would be great! I told her she'd be babysitting one of mine and one who belonged to a friend (that = 2 kids). She showed up at 6:00 (early) and quickly took to little M, which I was going to take with me. I asked her how much she charged and she asked how many kids, to which I said 3 if I left Mallory. She said $12! I guess I should have had a signed contract ready!! I was thinking - great - $8 for me and $4 for my friend! We leave, go to Supper Club, watch the AU game and eat some good apps. Friend leaves a little earlier than me to pick up her child. This is where I am STILL confused! Babysitter tells friend that now (3 or so hours later), it's $10 for HER CHILD and $12 for MY TWO!?!?!? PER HOUR!!!!!!!!!! Friends, that is $22/hour! So friend empties her poor wallet and gives her a $20 and calls me. I told her no worries... it was probably a misunderstanding. I go home at exactly 4 hrs from when she got there and ask her how much I owe her. She tells me $48. OK, she has already collected $20. So that is $68 for 3 hours w/ 1 kid, 4 hours w/ another and about 45 minutes w/ Mallory b/c she went to bed at 7:15. What do you do in this situation? I was so stunned that I didn't know what to say and paid her and deleted her from my cell phone before the door hit her fanny. I know I should have argued with her, refused to pay her, etc. I have gone over it in my head 98 times. I've thought about calling her, but figure that might end up ugly so I'm trying to just suck it up and forget about it. I have smoke coming out of my ears just thinking about it right now. That is $17/hr and actually less than she TRIED to scam out of us! I may call her eventually - maybe act like I want her to babysit again and THEN maybe I could get her to explain her sudden hike in price. Were the kids THAT bad? At what point in the evening did she say to herself "I'm going to take them for all they are worth?" I'm still baffled!

Moving on... we spent Sun-Mon at the lake, to which I am still recovering. That darn tube got me again (water was rough), OH, and Jeff threw us off the waverunner. The side of my leg hit the rim of the waverunner and Jeff then slammed into me. It was not a pretty sight! No bruise yet and I can walk, miraculously.

Yesterday I spent what felt like the entire day preparing for the Childrens Clothing Exchange (www.childrensclothingexchange.com). I had a preschool meeting at 6:00 and was at Target at 8:30, then up til 2:00 monogramming. Yes 2:00 monogramming!! I felt so overwhelmed yesterday that I needed to pull a late-nighter to somewhat catch up. Today Browder starts K5!! YEAH!! The teacher mentioned something about crying in my car as I left my little Tot on his first day of Pre-K. What?? I'm thinking it'll be more like "GET OUT OF MY CAR!!! see you at 1 dear!" Today Jeff is meeting me to DROP OFF my CCE and help me unload, more monogramming and church tonight.

I got up at 6:20 so 4 hours of sleep is all I got. I'm thinking a Starbucks?