Oh You Crafty Thang

I spent a few hours Monday whipping this baby together. Well I started Sunday with a plan (cause I gotta have a plan), followed by measuring and cutting. Then I whipped it together. Here it is:




I can hear you now. "What is that hideous thing, and what is up with all that......is that lime green?"

A year and a half ago my Mom completed a quilt for Charlotte's bed. We picked out the fabrics together and went with a lavender and pale lime green theme. Mom then gave me all the extra fabric because I was to use it to make a bed skirt. That fabric sat in a corner of my bedroom for all this time and then the mood struck me the other day, and I went with it. So I sat down and figured out what I needed to do, took measurements and then pulled out the material scraps. I was a little dismayed to find that there weren't too many large pieces. Given that I had no pattern or directions and a scant amount of fabric, it wasn't looking favorable for me. I wanted it to look like a $29.99 bed skirt from Sears, not some homemade junk.

I consider myself a frugal person, perhaps even a tad on the cheap side. It's a condition I've been dealing with since we chose to become a one-income family. I was (and still am) the queen of clearance and the guru of garage sales and Good Will. Why pay retail when you can find other people's perfectly good stuff for a fraction of the price? Well, nowadays they call this being green. Just call me a trail blazer on the frontier of environmental issues.

Anway, rather than waste gas and time to spend money on a new piece of muslin for the portion of the bed skirt that lays on top of the box spring, I was able to sew together two smaller pieces of fabric from the scraps to make the piece I needed. And with very miserly hems, I had just enough (barely) of the lavender gingham fabric I needed for the skirt drop.

I think it screams $29.99 department store bed skirt!

Giving Thanks

I hope you're able to catch your breath for a moment today to enjoy some of the many blessings in your life! I know I personally have much to be grateful for, many things that I take for granted each day. I know I'm thankful for my family, our warm cozy home, and the feast of food that I'll be diving into later today (I don't care what you dieters say; calories don't count on holidays :-D). I'm also thankful that my 5.5 year old computer is still working and giving me the opportunity to connect with you all in cyber-space. But most of all I'm thankful to Jehovah-Jireh, God the provider.

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I found myself curious about the origins of Thanksgiving Day. Sure, it started with the pilgrims, but is there more? I found the information below to be quite informative; some stuff I knew, other stuff was news to me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Thanksgiving Day in the United States is an annual day of thanks for the blessings of the past year, observed on the fourth Thursday in November in each of the states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. It is a historical, national, and religious holiday that began with the Pilgrims. After the survival of their first colony through the bitter winter, and the gathering of the harvest, Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Colony issued a thanksgiving proclamation in the autumn of 1621. This first thanksgiving lasted three days, during which the Pilgrims feasted on wild turkey and venison with their Indian guests.

Days of thanksgiving were celebrated sporadically until, on November 26, 1789, President Washington issued a proclamation of a nation-wide day of thanksgiving. He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God. It was to be celebrated by all religious denominations, a circumstance that helped to promote a spirit of common heritage.

Credit for establishing this day as a national holiday is usually given to Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine (from 1828) in Boston. Her editorials in the magazine and letters to President Lincoln urging the formal establishment of a national holiday of thanksgiving resulted in Lincoln's proclamation in 1863, designating the last Thursday in November as the day. Succeeding presidents annually followed his example, except for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the next to last Thursday of November rather than the last. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would aid bringing the country out of the Depression. At the time, it was considered inappropriate to advertise goods for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. However, Roosevelt's declaration was not mandatory; twenty-three states went along with this recommendation, and 22 did not. Other states, like Texas, could not decide and took both weeks as government holidays [hey, I like Texas' idea!]. Roosevelt persisted in 1940 to celebrate his "Franksgiving," as it was termed. In 1941, Congress adopted a joint resolution setting the date on the fourth Thursday.

My Kids ArtWork

When my kids get too old to bring home handmade crafts and cards, it will be a sad day. I live for this stuff. My fridge is covered in it. I've even strung fishing line between two hooks on the walls above each kid's bed. When the work comes down off the fridge, it goes into their room to display for a little while longer.

I love my kids' artwork. It's precious to me, and each year I have the difficult task of going through the rubbermaid bin to pull out the "keepers".....the ones that will go into the scrap albums for safe keeping. The one below, a creation from this month, will make it into the scrap album. For sure.

Home Schooling

I can hardly classify myself among those ambitious and on-the-ball parents out there who are home-schooling their children. I stand in awe of what you do! I battle with Eric just to do 20-30 minutes of homework a day. I would be putting my head in the oven if I had to home-school that boy.

Charlotte, however, is a whole other ball game. She's a teacher's dream. Eager to please, hard-working, rarely complains, catches on quickly, wants to learn. How do I know this? Well she wanted to learn how to read. I have no idea how to teach a person to read, but I didn't think that should stand in her way. So I did some research this past August/September and found a program that I thought fit our needs.

Charlotte and I sit down each weekday morning after we drop Eric off at school and work on her Adventures in Phonics. She's coming along amazingly well, and this past week she read her first book to me. It was such a treat to share this moment with her. Charlotte was so proud and pleased with herself for reading a book on her own! And me? Well of course I was proud of her, but I was also just a little pleased with myself for having played a role in helping her get to this point.

I have no doubt by the end of this "school year" that Charlotte will be reading way above her grade level. She's one highly motivated girl!

I Love.....Part II in the "I Love" Series

Part I is here

I love a good fitting pair of jeans. Who doesn't? There's just something about a pair of jeans that fits you just right. Not too tight, not too baggy, doesn't gap in the back of the waist, hugs all the right curves without cutting off your circulation, the perfect shade of blue with factory fading done just so, and the length......not so long that they're dragging on the ground behind you, and not so short that they look dorky with a pair of boots with heels. These jeans simply make you feel good when you wear them. And I'm here to say that said jeans don't have to cost $200 either.

Well, I admit I've never actually tried on a pair of $200 jeans, and I'm sure I'd eventually find a $200 pair of jeans that fit just right, but since I could buy half a wardrobe on $200, I settled for trying on a pair of $48 Apt. 9 jeans at Kohl's this past September that were on clearance for $19.98. And they fit perfect, even the length which is often a problem for me since I'm 5'3.5". Petite lengths are too short (which run up to 5'3") and average lengths are too long (which run from 5'4" and up). My height isn't on the radar of clothing manufacturers. I usually settle for average lengths with them dragging on the ground because I really can't stand pants and jeans that are too short.

Anyway, these Apt. 9 jeans? I Love Them. And I fell head over heals with them when they rang up at $9.00 at the register. What's not to love?

Sweet Remembrances of Summer

It's official. The down-filled coat has come out of the closet and any hint of summer has flown off with the wind. I look at my garden, nothing but dried up leaves and keeled over stems, barren of any buds. Spring-time seems a long way off (actually, it is......5 looong months off.) It's a good thing I like to take photos; they remind me of what is dormant below the surface.

I planted this Lilac bush the year Mike and I got married. It's off on the corner of the house just a little way down from the master bedroom window, so when it's in bloom, the sweet fragrance drifts in to our room.

These may be your standard Stella day lily, but these flowers rock. They start blooming in June and the last flower I saw on it was in late October. They just keep going and going. I can see them all summer and fall out my living room window.

A new addition to the garden this year: A Hydrangea! I'm going to experiment next year with the soil acidity to see if I can turn these mammoth flowers a bluish-purple.

Now here is the most beautiful and fragrant Bearded Iris. Open your hand right now. That's how big these blooms are every May! I really look forward to seeing them each year, and wish their blooming season lasted all summer long!

My sturdy, dependable Daisies never fail me every June!

I really think these flowers got the shaft when someone named them Gladiolas. They surprised me late this summer when they bloomed. I'd forgotten all about them being in my garden!

And I think these babies are my favorite.....Peonies. Aren't they stunning? I have them in white, pale pink, and raspberry.