a quickie...

so i have a baby shower tomorrow for my sister in law's sister in law (figure that one out!). i am always so jealous of the people who bring those diaper cakes and other really cool and clever gifts. so i decided to enlist the help of my main girl tina. she makes these super cool baby shower bouquets... after many, many calls while shopping, and then a few more once home, she talked me through making my own baby bouquet. it's not as fabulous as tina's, but hey... it was my first. now i want more people i know to have babies so i can try it again! by the way, in case you've never seen one, there are 6 washcloths, a onesie, pants, and a long sleeve onesie in there. you can put in as much or as little as you like. it's so wasy and so darn cute!

well that's about it over here. yesterday was my last day of school for the year... YEEEEEEEEEHAW!!!!!!!!!! so now it's officially summer time at our house... even though the month of july is so booked with stuff to do that it's crazy! but it's all fun stuff... i hope to craft again real soon now that it's summer time. enjoy! :)

a little photo catch up...

so here is what gerry did all weekend in north carolina... check out motorcycles, party, and hang out with chopper celebrities! he was hanging out with dudes you see on the discovery channel and stuff! he had a great time...

us at home? i just fed them ice cream! just kidding... we had some mcdonalds too... HA! actually we had a fun weekend together... we rented the movie barnyard, went to the gus macker and wandered around (then got rained on), went and spent clay's graduation money at toys r us, went walking in town to the playground (and got rained on)... it barely rained this weekend EXCEPT WHEN WE TRIED TO DO SOMETHING OUTSIDE!!!


carter and grace (aka stella) were lovin each other... how sweet is that, seriously? they spend so much time together... their time together is about 50/50 either loving each others guts and hugging and kissing, or pinching, pulling hair, biting, hitting, and yelling at each other. it's so sweet when they love each other...

on a completely different note... here is my sister hollie. i felt like she needed a little shout out...
yeah, don't we look like twins? ha!
and here's a little shot of my boys... imagine that, my boys on a motorized vehicle!

and in conclusion, this is how i feel about the end of the school year... :) holla!

father's day...

so here are the happy fathers doing a little fishing together at our land in franklinville... gerry, his dad doug, and his dad whom we call spike. how cute are they? a nice little 3 generation picture... later on we took a 4 generation picture with clay and carter.

clay was LOVING the pond... he kept riding his bike (which we all call the red rocket) down the hill and into the pond. he swam and swam and swam and swam... i literally had to bribe him to get him to get out!

and yeah... both my kids are motor heads! carter makes motor noises until the drool literally pours down his face! he LOVES it there... he loved stomping around in the pond!

and finally, here is good ole spike and his great grandchildren... grace, carter and clay. he told us all how lucky he feels to have such a wonderful family... how sweet is that? :)

a productive night and a sweet surprise...

so my cupboards are so covered with junk that i had to put my flowers on the floor to get a picture of them... not that my floor is all that clean. anyhoo, last night my cousin lauren and i took the kids to go get a little dairy queen after dinner... ok, let me correct myself, clay was not allowed to get ice cream, but the rest of us did. he didn't know how to follow directions all evening so he did not get ice cream. call me mean, but we all ate and enjoyed our ice cream in front of him. i'm hoping he got the picture... we'll see!

anyhoo, when gerry came home from a long day of teaching followed by mowing, he told me that he had brought me a treat. when i heard that, i panicked a bit that he had brought me dairy queen (not that i wouldn't have taken one for the team and chowed again but...) but he had brought me home some flowers! it was so unexpected and appreciated! i can't even tell you how nice it was to get flowers and not have it be a holiday! i love that guy!
so now for the productive part... sherry that i work with ordered 2 bags from me a while back. i finally got them done last night! these were made with what little fabric i had left... i had to tweak things a bit to make it work.
i really didn't love the way this one turned out... i didn't have enough fabric for it to turn out how i had envisioned it... anyhoo, it was nice to actually get something done again! maybe this will spark another boom of creativity... let' s hope!

going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?

so this past tuesday i went with clay and his kindergarten class to the buffalo zoo. let me clarify... it was not only clay's kindergarten class, but every kindergarten class in his school! now granted it's not a huge school, but still... 2 busses FULL of kindergartners! we were all crammed on 2 school busses (3 to a seat) with our zoo stickers stuck on our chests.



once we got there we split up into small groups... clay and i walked around with his friends carrie jo and emma. girls are such different creatures than boys! girls actually sit while they eat their lunch and ask for help when trying to open things... boys? sit down, get up and go check out a bird, sit down, go look at the puddle over there, sit down, show everyone what a burn out in a puddle looks like... is it only my kid or are boys NUTS!!!


no sewing done this week... too busy preparing for the zoo trip and then recuperating from it (for 2 full days!) by the way i now know why i choose to work with high schoolers... you don't have to tie their shoes, wipe their face, or repeatedly remind them to tell you if they need to go potty! i have some serious work to do and i'm running out of time! i need to get a coworkers 2 purses done asap and have no time to do them! it's that time of year folks... the time of year for REALLY FULL calendars!

a gift from clayton...

so sunday morning, i was laying around in bed trying REALLY hard to go back to sleep since gerry had gotten up with the kids. clay kept coming in my room and rustling through my desk drawers. at one point he asked me what my favorite food was. i told him chocolate... he nodded his head and walked out without saying a word. knowing my son, i didn't even bother asking what he was doing. he was at it for quite a while...a good 47 minutes later he came in and gave me this gift bag...

he said "here mom, i got you a present". so that's what he was up to! inside the bag was this dog (one of his FAVORITES!!!) wearing this little backpack. there was also a little card inside (which is why he was in the desk).

here is his sweet card he made me... they have been learning about commas at school and he now LOVES to throw them into sentences whenever possible...

he then told he that i had to look inside the little backpack. these are the treasures i found inside the backpack... a 2/3 bottle of lotion that he took from the bathroom drawer, a chocolate egg left over from easter, and a baggie with a diet dr. pepper since he knows it's my favorite. at first i wondered why the pop was in a baggie... then i realized that the diet dr. pepper was not alone in that baggie... he also threw in some bacon. yeah, bacon... a slice of bacon.

for real, how stinkin cute is that? he was SO PROUD of himself for making me up such a great present! i love to see things like this... it tells you a lot about yourself when your kids pick out things that they think you will love. i understand the pop, lotion and chocolate... but the bacon??? still a mystery to me... but a really damn funny mystery!

on a quick sewing note, i got some new fat quarters today... can anyone say wallets??? i also got a bunch of threads since i suddenly was running out of everything! this week? i have 3 purse orders to fill, then i have some jamboree in the hills projects to work on. i need to make us all some waterproof cell phone/money holders for the jambo. i have sweet clear plastic stuff to make them out of... once i figure out my prototype design i will be all set! oh yeah, and i have some kick ass koozies to sew too... gotta love that jamboree in the hills!

update, amy butler fabric, and ear tubes

so i took my kids to my school for the dreamgirls music review/talent show last night. they loved it! carter was dancing, laughing, clapping like crazy, and flirting with the girls! clay on the other hand was atypically quiet... you could tell by looking at him that he was observing EVERYTHING and trying to take it all in. you must understand that this school is BIG... the kids are in high school and are BIG... and unlike his rural eden school, the number of black people at my school is BIG! after a while clay looked at me with utter seriousness and said "mom, you know what i have realized? you, my brother, and me are the only white people here". very matter of fact he informed me... i found his matter of factness interesting. he didn't say it as if it were a big deal, or weird to him (which is must have kind of been... it's not like eden is all that culturally diverse). he was just letting me know. it was his observation. if only everyone could be so matter of fact and unbiased in such situations!

on a sewing note, i made these amy butler wallets last night. i didn't have much time by the time i got home and got the baby in bed... by the way, aunt wendy loved her bag and wallet! i just ADORE this fabric. i used every last scrap that i could. so now i have a cute wallet to match my cute purse. and there is an extra one... i have an idea of who it might go to... :)

well tomorrow morning we are off to the hospital for carter's surgery. he is getting tubes in his ears... we have to be at children's hospital at 6 and his surgery is at 8. wow... that's EARLY!!! i can't wait for it to be over so he will not have to be on antibiotics ALL THE TIME!!! so says some prayers that everything will be fine... any suggestions, stories or advice on ear tubes is greatly appreciated!

do boys dance???

so i took these pictures with my cell phone... that's why the quality is so blah. i couldn't find my camera last night and it was late... beggars can't be choosers right?

this is a custom purse for gerry's aunt wendy. we were out (fairly intoxicated) for gerry's cousins's 21st birthday a while back... wendy loved my purse and told me she wanted one. well, many weeks later i ran into her at joann fabrics (imagine that...) and she reminded me of the purse she wanted. we looked for fabric (no joke) for at least an hour... i though that I was indecisive! well, there were a million things going on at the time and she told me to do it "whenever i got to it". well, that was this week. she is going on vacation thursday morning so i had to finish it last night.

i like how it turned out... there are 2 big pockets on the inside which are separated into 3 connected pockets (does that make sense?) i hope she will like it! i decided to throw in a wallet with the leftover fabric since i took forever in getting it done for her.

well, hopefully this is the start of some more productive evenings... although tonight i am taking both boys to my school to a talent show/school performance in my ghetto. i explained it to clay as kids singing and dancing. this morning i told him to have a really good day at school so we could go see the kids sing and dance tonight... his response? "mom, will there be boys there?" "yeah clay, there will be boys and girls." "uh, mom? do boys dance?" i chuckled and assured him that boys and girls BOTH dance... he though about it for a minute and said "oh yeah, carter and i dance all the time!" boy will he be in shock when he sees my kids dancing... not quite the bouncing (aka dancing) that he and his brother do! :)

fort stead

so i have actually been doing a little something productive the past 2 days... sunday i spent an hour or two cutting things out. i cut out gerry's aunt's purse and a matching wallet, the 2 purses a co-worker ordered, two amy butler wallets, and a few other random wallets as well. last night i even started making aunt wendy's purse! it feels good to get back in the saddle again!

on another note, this past friday night i was apparently absolutely exhausted... i fell asleep snuggling with clayton on the couch around 9:00. i woke up a while later and told clay to go right up to bed. he got up and i immediately fell back asleep on the couch. when i woke up a while later to go to bed, i found him sleeping on my living room floor...

there are many details here which amused me. 1. he created this structure silently... i slept through him building it! 2. look at the end near his feet... he brought his truck circle rug down from his bedroom and put it at the "entrance" to his fort. 3. he has his "punkyouter"* (computer) next to him (notice the anal retentive placement of the mouse) 4. he has his "punkyouter" case on the other side of him, just in case he needs to take his business on the road with him. 5. then you have his rocking chair set up with a book in case he feels the need to do some light reading. finally, 6. his clothes for the next day are neatly folded and waiting for him on top of his "punkyouter".

why is my kid so weird??? i think he gets it from his dad!

well, i have plenty of sewing to do... you can guess who i will be spending MY evening tonight! :)

* as a speech therapist, i NEVER encourage kids to say things the wrong way. i have always yelled at family members who encourage the kids to say words wrong. but... clay has spoken so precisely since day one! this is his one and only word he doesn't say right, and i have to admit... IT'S SO CUTE!!! every wednesday night at dinner i ask him what special he had in school that day because i love hearing him say punkyouter... ok, so i'm a hypocrite!