Saturday

Today I will sew.
Today I will sew.
Today I will sew.

That's my mantra for the day.
It's beautifully gorgeous outside: mild & sunny, and it's only 8am. I'm sure the kids will spend much of their time out there getting muddy today. I, however, will be upstairs enjoying the hum of the sewing machine and trying not to stab myself with pins. I have an order for 10 more stars, a rice bag with removable cover, and I have some Christmas gifts to work on as well.

Busy.
Busy.
Busy.

Today

Today we learned that we may not get our annual raises this year. It was disappointing for about 30 seconds. Then we found out that our health insurance premiums could be going up anywhere between 12 and 30%. In an effort to keep our insurance costs down the owner, HR manager & CEO will be determining just how much extra insurance will be. They are hoping to not have to pass on the rising costs to us employees, which would mean no raises.
I can certainly appreciate this effort, however I am so unimpressed with our health insurance companies these days. I am not completely in the know about this national health care reform, but I do know that if things don't start getting better no one will be able to live comfortably anymore. We rely on our employers to provide us with health coverage, but we also rely on them to reward us for our good efforts each year, and to also make sure that we can afford to live as the cost of every day living keeps going up as well. I'm sure I make more than many of the employees in my company, but I also know that there are many other employees who make a hell of a lot more than I do. I know that I am worth more than what I make, but I also know that the job market is horrible around here right now.
I will take no raise & affordable health care over no job any day.

I'm Back

Although I never really left.

It's funny, but I would like to blog more often. The problem is, if I feel like I don't have anything inspiring or amazing to write, then I just shouldn't bother. It's not like I have a lot of blog followers anyway, like all those big name blogs I read every day.

How do I get to that point? How do I make myself inspiring to others? How do I make my life sound interesting to thousands of other people? I'm not a designer. I don't have sponsors. I don't have freebies to offer, and if I did, who would win? The 2 people who read this? (Hi Pam & Laura!)

I want to be those people; those amazing women who inspire me and many others around the world with their simple words every single day; those women who are fortunate enough to have been blessed with the ability to stay home and become fabric designers, pattern creators, and overall nice people.

In the meantime, while I am searching for answers and wishing that I could be one of those bloggers, I will leave you with these pictures of some of the fun things I created this weekend. Enjoy!

Sorry, picture upload is giving me a hard time tonight..... I'll try again tomorrow.

Autumn

Brrr. It's cold out. 3 Days ago it was 80 degrees. This morning it was in the 30s. Don't get me wrong. It's a beautiful day with sunshine and temps around 60 now. It's just that we never had a summer this year. Why not?

Where Do They Come From?

What is the key to eliminating fruit flies from your house altogether? Get rid of the fruit.

If only that were possible. Funny, but they really seem to like my wine the best. Aaahh, at least my fruit flies have refined taste.
Catching them is easier than I thought. I tried the cider vinegar, but that didn't seem to attract them. What they like is our juice. So I've been treating them to pink lemonade and V8 Splash. Haha. Little do they know it's laced with dish soap. As soon as they hit the surface they sink & drown. Nice huh?

Now if I could only figure out how to stop them from invading my kitchen in the first place. Yeah, right. That's about as possible as having world peace these days. Oh well. We'll always have wine.

Good Day

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!!!!!

I have had a great day today. It's my 32nd birthday and I don't feel a day over 32. Hehe.
So I started the day by putting on a cute outfit and a tiara (I've always wanted to do that!) which I am still wearing as I type this after 8pm. The kids sang to me this morning and I went to work. When I got there I had presents on my desk! Yay! Huge surprise. I have great coworkers who got me 2 bottles of wine, a dozen roses, a new bracelet & earrings and delicious chocolate, as well as a gift card to buy, you guessed it, more wine! I think they felt bad for me after yesterday's horrible-ness of losing hundreds of dollars to an identity thief.

So, my other birthday gift was that Bobby was able to get all our money back from the bank. Yay! And then I came home to brownies and chicken parm for dinner. And on top of that I got to see my BFF Erin. Phew. What a day.

I love my birthday.

3 weeks!

Aagh! It's been 3 weeks since my last post. The only excuse that I can give you is that my life is really boring right now. Basically work, and weekends. That's it.

I did manage to sew this weekend. I made a new John Deere pillowcase for Jake, a skirt for Emma for school, and a skirt for myself. I'd post a pic but Jake's sleeping on his pillow right now and Emma's skirt is tucked away awaiting the first day of school. My skirt is not really worth photographing, especially with me in it. I didn't use a pattern and realized that vertically challenged girls with no waist should not wear peasant skirts. Ok, so it's not THAT bad. It's just not something I'd like to photograph until I have the right shirt to go with it.

Speaking of that, I have a new blog to follow. I actually am thinking that I'll be an active participant with this one. Check this out: My Weight Loss Journey
This blog was started today by a friend at work who suddenly realized that it's time to make a change in her life. Not only do I plan to coach her through this, but I plan to participate and attempt to make some changes for myself as well.
I know I will never be that size 2/4 that I was before kids (and after them too - thank you, breastfeeding!), but I don't like the size I am currently at and hope to get back into the size 6 pants that I have held onto for the past couple years. My eating habits have not changed, but my metabolism has (man, did 30 take it's toll or what?). I also have not been dancing for over a year (funny for someone whose blog is called The Dancing Mom). I need an excercise routine and I need the motivation to stick with it.

So Tiff and I are in this together. And hopefully we'll both see success at the end of the road, wherever that may be.