Thursday, July 31, 2008

Twilight.......The Purse!

I have a friend named Shasta. Was she named after the Soda???
I say Nay Nay!!!
She was named after the world famous Liger, Shasta.
She told me this story,...but she didn't seem very happy about it!
I digress.

Shasta is the friend that owns the fabric store. She is also a huge fan of the Twilight series of books.
To celebrate the release of the 4th book she is hosting a party Friday night. This will not be an average party....nothing Shasta does is average....It will be over the top!
She is hoping to have door prizes for everyone there. I know that she has made several quilts, she has someone making bracelets, purses, and other cool things.
She sent me home from her shop, on Tuesday, with about 8 bolts of black, white, and red fabrics. She asked me to make at least 5 purses for the party!
This is what I have so far (Thursday night):

This first purse is my own pattern. She has some great buttons! I couldn't resist!

The second purse is J Coroline's Hobo bag. It's the first time I've used the pattern, and I L.O.V.E it!!!

The third one is the Everything Bag. The tutorial is found on Sew Mama Sews blog.
It is a fun, and easy bag to make.
The big square button is my fave.
Now back to sewing!!! At least 2 more to get done before the party!!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Speaking of Procrastination....

....Ringmaster's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Today I started working on her present.

"What are you making her?" you ask.

Well DUH....a Purse!! (Hello! My name is One Trick Pony!) I made up a new pattern. I named it Sister because Ringy is my Sister...she was just born to different parents!


I asked my baby to point out some of the finer points of this bag for you. Aren't those little fingers so cute!

I used Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom. I love this combination!

Later, while I was hard at work on the computer..........

Luckily it was the Washable markers!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Nappy time!

Yeah!! I finally finished something!!

Lynsey's baby is due in 5 weeks....SO!


Here it is!! I used the tutorial from A Mingled Yarn...and tweeked it a little. I have a problem with just following directions.....I like to make it up as I go, run into problems, and have to really think it out. Why bother taking the easy way out and follow directions!!



I think this is one of my favorite bags I've ever made!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Let's Go Back......

Back to a time when we were young...........and had NO children...........are you there with me????
Do you remember what it was like to sleep at night..............?
NO????
Me either, but I think it was something like this.........


Now....
Journey with me .......13 years away from sleep.....
Thirteen L.O.N.G. years without sleeping.
This is what my bedroom looked like,
at 2:12 am,
the morning we were leaving for vacation........
(The parts of Jana and Jeff (aka Lola and Lego Hair) will be played by angry Stick Robots.)


We were both running to the shrieks of other children, that is why we aren't actually in the picture. BUT....when we were in bed, there wasn't much bed to be in!!!

The pictures below are what we looked like when we left later that day.
(I had to wear a Do-rag because my hair was unruly!)

Jeff was completely Sleep deprived, to the point of delirium.
We couldn't get him to stop giggling!!



Our week away was very restful......well, as restful as being with 30 family members can be.

We didn't catch up on our sleep, but somehow felt refreshed. It could have been all of the swimming, or all of the Diet Coke we ingested, but our wrinkles seemed to fade..........

Don't I look dreamy??? And Jeff....More BUFF than ever!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

....Jiggity Jig!!

I'm Baaaaa...aaaaaack!!!!


Yes...sad, but true......the "Dream Vacation" has come to an end!

Well, I guess it isn't exactly the dream vacation. We took the kids! But, It was very enjoyable even with them around!! (I am surprised...a little.)


Now we are back to reality. The kids are suffering from a terrible case of Post Vacation SPANKS.....SPoiled And Naughty Kid Syndrome. They've already forgotten all of the brotherly love, fun outings, and unlimited snacks of last week. We are back to being the "Worst parents in the world"....again!


I miss last week...........Where is Paulo the Pool boy who always brought my drinks??? I miss Paulo!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Emmanuel Jean....3 years ago


When my Brig, my 4th baby, was only 4 months old I started to have an overwhelming feeling that I needed to adopt . I had already decided that I wasn't going to go through another pregnancy. We had talked about adopting in a few years.....but I couldn't get it out of my head.....It had to be now!!! We started our paperwork!

8 amazing, faith strengthening months later.....
we got our first glimpse of a 4 day old baby that we knew was ours. The first, of many things keeping apart was our home study. The Social Worker doing it was in no hurry, he caused us a delay of several months.

This is one of the first pictures we got of him with his eyes open. He was already 6 months old.
In June, when he was 13 months old, my Parents and Sisters came with us to pick him up from his Haitian home.

This is our first encounter. I was hysterically bawling.... Emmanuel (his Haitian name) was all smiles!Mom was crying too.
It was such an incredible day! We went from such a high from our meeting, to a devastating low. The Orphanage director, Margarette, told us that the Us Government was requiring a DNA test of our baby and his mother. She was unable to sign her name, she had no ID, therefore there was a question about whether or not they were related. This was going to cause a delay of 6 weeks, or more.

We all cried, and 2 days later I had to leave my baby at the Orphanage. I was sure that my heart would break.

When we arrived home we found out that if we paid extra the DNA test would be expedited. Only 4 weeks had passed when we got the call. We had the DNA co. fax the results to the American embassy.....We could go and pick up our baby.

This time, only Jeff and I went to Haiti. We arrived at the orphanage, the weekend of July 4th, to find out that they hadn't recieved the DNA results. There was NOTHING we could do about it because the govt. offices were closed for the holiday weekend.

We left Haiti without our baby again. I wanted to stay there, but Jeff wouldn't let me. Instead I stayed in Florida.....alone, hoping that we could get the problem resolved quickly. I stayed there 5 days. Our paperwork had been sent to Mexico, by mistake. They weren't sure when they could get it to Haiti. Jeff made me come home...during a hurricane (for real).

July 22nd, we finally got the final OK to pick our baby up. They weren't going to make us come to Haiti again, Margarette was going to escort him to Florida (for a fee...of course!)
July 23, we were in the Miami airport.......waiting to see if our baby was going to come.....we weren't very optimistic.
And then....about 20 minutes before our flight was supposed to Utah was to leave.....they came through the gate. He was finally home! Finally ours!

Monday, July 21, 2008

The Reason...

There are several reasons why I haven't blogged lately.

#1- The Internet at this luxury resort has really unpredictable Internet access. Sometimes it is working great, but most of the time it is very slow. Reminds me of Dial-up days!

#2- I can't upload my pics. Don't ask why, just know that I am slightly (very) computer challenged! I hate to post without my pictures.

#3-I am at a luxury resort, with no real agenda. We are relaxing, the kids are behaving for the most part, and the food is great! I just don't have the energy!

PS. I was going to link you to a few different things, but I can't figure out how to copy and paste on this Apple yet.

I have a few special posts coming up soon!!

Friday, July 18, 2008

Mama's gettin' tired!

How much longer until school starts?


I'm not so sure I can't contain the Demon Mom any longer.....although my kids think I unleashed her months ago!



Today, Whilst poor Mummy was napping (underneath a napping baby, of course) the 13 year old daughter (see post below) decided to break out the paints. Did she paint her Mother a picture of flowers and sunshine.....

Nope!

She painted her siblings, and cousin.

She created her very own gang!! With my acryllics, and my brushes, in my studio, AND she left the caps off the paint...and didn't clean the brush. CUTE! They all managed to get paint on their outfits too!

The one thing that saved them all was the tattoo on their arms. They all wanted the initials of their cousin that passed away 4 months ago. I couldn't spank them after that...I was all choked up! I guess they ar pretty cute....even the teen...after all!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Qrap-tastic!!

One of THOSE days!

Brought to you by the letter Q

In Pseudo-Pola-vision

(so that I can seem as cool as all of you that actually have a Polaroid One step from the early 70's....and like the way it takes pictures!?)


Quesadilla- My world famous Napoleon Dynamite Quesadilla Bites to be exact! (Don't act like you've never heard of them before! They Are World Famous!) I made these for the 8 kids today!


Quilt-tastic This is My 13 year old's 1st quilt. She was calling herself, "Amazing" and "Awesome".


Quaff- To some of you Quaff may mean to drink fast...but in our family it refers to your hair-do. I'll use it in a sentence for you; Her Quaff looked like this when she woke up this morning, and still looks like that now!
In this picture my son may appear quiescent...he is but for a different reason!
What do you get when you and your cousin (that is your age) re.pea.ted.ly twist-and-spin in your swing??????? Queasy
No the baby isn NOT having orange popsicles, Tootsie pop, and Cheetos for dinner!! Ok..he is....
I do have Questionable parenting skills!
Is this a rare Quasi-modo sighting?? I am afraid not. It is my adorable daughter...sporting her evil, white eyeballs. She's really a nice girl...not vampire!?

It's time for Project Runway!!! Whew-Hew!! I love watching those Queens fight! It reminds me of my college days in the Costume shop!





Thursday, July 10, 2008

Grandma did....

I tried to crochet last night.


Several hundred years ago I used to crochet leper bandages.
..............no really!


It wasn't hard because they didn't have to look nice...or be the same number of stitches each line...



This is hard!

Why didn't I have Grandma teach me??

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

He'll Never Sweep Again...

This morning, my ten year old was sweeping the front porch.
He came running inside SCREAMING HYSTERICALLY.....


"My EYE!!!


My EYE!!


A BEE stung My EYE!!"





I rushed over (had to leave the computer) to see the damage.....
....nothing. zip. zero. zilch.
Not even a red mark!
So, I grabbed a bag of frozen vegetables (Very useful things) and put it on the skin colored spot where he said the bee had stung him. (right!) I gave him a mega dose of Benedryl too, just in case.





Tonight,


when he got home from the ball game,


this is what he looked like!

I gave him MORE Benedryl

and another bag of frozen vegies.....poor thing~

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Will Work For........


A friend of mine is opening a fabric store next week!

It is only one block from my house.

Tonight I went and helped her organize the fabric.......I got to touch LOTS of fabric!

I couldn't keep myself from hugging the bolts...

is that a bad thing?

What can I say?

He's my boy!