I love well written patterns! I just tried my first Sis Boom Pattern and I love it! I made the Shannon shift. Pictures to come over the next few days! In the meantime, if you are looking for a great pattern to try something new, go check them out!
Well, hello there…
It’s been a while. A long while. I wasn’t prepared for the busyness that the fall would bring.
The kids are good–wonderful really. Swimming all the time–ALL the time. When they aren’t in the water, there’s school, homework, church, piano, ukulele, and even eating and sleeping. I’m posting about them on FB occasionally, but I’m most excited about the daily pictures we’ve remembered to take every single morning before school. We reached Day 86 just before Christmas break!
My little shop is keeping me quite busy. I’m excited to start stitching up Easter pieces and seersucker jon jons. I’ve also added ruffle pants and bell-sleeve peasant dresses to my collections. I’m so excited about the dresses. I hope to release a pattern for them soon.
Speaking of patterns, the sewing classes are on holiday break too, but the winter session of classes will start soon. I’ll be posting that calendar tomorrow.
And there’s more! A new kitten, lots of house updates, a ukulele, shepherding a group at Bible study. The list could go on and on! But, I won’t. Instead, I’ll leave you with this…
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I’ll see you later.
August got away from me! An instagram recap.
Wow! These first few weeks of school flew past me! I’m grateful for my phone’s camera and Instagram. So…for Aunt Jo, Momo, and Popo here are our first 15 days of school.
Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 3:
Day 4:
Day 5:
Day 6:
Day 7:
Day 8:
Day 9:
Day 10:
Day 11:
Day 12:
Day 13:
Day 14:
Day 15:
Is it Back to School if we’re starting Middle School????
This happened today:
We finished our summer and headed back to school! 3rd grade and 6th grade. I don’t know if I’m ready for middle school, but she sure is!!
Here’s the traditional first day pic at home:
3rd and 6th grades. Craziness. (There are many group shots of the new sixth graders, but some Momma forgot her camera in the car. Whoops.)
My prayer for the year is that the kids learn and grow and that she comes out of middle school just as sweet and witty as she is today!!!
Sewing Machine Love: Your Sewing Machine Manual
Where is your sewing machine manual? Why do you even need it?
Your sewing machine manual is the go-to reference for the maintenance and use of your machine. Having trouble balancing your thread tension? Go to your sewing machine manual. Can’t remember which bobbin to buy? Go to your manual. Should you oil your machine? Go to your manual.
So…where is your sewing machine manual? Can’t find yours? Inherited mom’s old machine and no manual? Try here. You can also try eBay. If you do have yours, is it close? I keep my manuals right here, within arm’s reach:
Every sewing machine manual is slightly different. Some are only a few pages long, others are 1-inch thick spiral notebooks. Some have 4 different languages within them. Your manual isn’t going to be much help if you don’t know what type of information is inside. Here’s a little create-your-own table of contents for the information I use the most in my manuals.
The countdown is on and we’re getting our back to school routines ready!
Only 7 more days! Seven! And these babies will be in middle school and 3rd grade!
We’re spending the week taking care of a few last-minute chores: the dentist, haircuts, shoe shopping, Six Flags. We are also trying to get our back to school routines up and running! Yuckola.
I’ve researched and searched and fiddled and hemmed and hawed to find a housekeeping/organizational system that works for me. Basically, I’ve discovered it comes down to one thing: JUST DO IT! There is no quick fix and there is no magic bullet to a clean, organized home, especially a small one with a home-sewing business and two busy kids! We’ve developed a pretty good system for chores this summer and I’m hoping to keep it up for this school year. Here’s how we are doing it. For now.
Master calendar:
I use Google calendar for keeping up with everything! Every.Thing. But, the kids can’t easily access it. So, this giant fridge calendar is our fix. Adam and I only list the things on the calendar that effect our whole family (this means evening events only). The kids have a place to record school deadlines, practice times, and such. I also list our dinner plans. No more “What’s for supper?” Woo hoo!
Morning chores:
These haven’t changed must over the years. Get dressed, talk to God, make your bed, pick up your clothes, eat some breakfast, brush your teeth, and be ready for the day.
Everything else:
I use Confident Mom’s Daily Planner to keep track of housekeeping chores. I like it because it reminds me to do the simple things too, like wipe down the light switches or clean the crumb tray of the toaster. I do have to remember to extend a little grace to myself when I miss something.
Daily:
I try to get a load of laundry washed and into the dryer and dinner thawing out before I do much else for the day. The rest of the school day is spent working. I give myself 30 minutes during the school day to do a few chores and the rest happen around 8 at night.
The kids’ chores:
The kids are responsible for unloading and reloading the dishwasher, dumping the compost, and emptying the personal trash cans into the large kitchen trash. In addition, I vacuum their rooms on Tuesday. If I can’t for fear of vacuuming Legos, clothes on the floor, etc, then they lose TV until the next Tuesday. Really, as they only watch TV on Friday nights, this isn’t a loss, but shhh….don’t tell them that!
So…that’s it. That’s the routine we are in and the routine that I’m hoping we can stick to this fall!