i know i've said this before, but this REALLY IS my favorite purse EVER!!!

so my babysitter (and good friend) dee is having a purse and jewelry party next week. i'm a little nervous. i'm not exactly confident about selling my stuff... it's awkward for me. oh yeah, and i haven't sewn in a LONG time! so i decided (at 5am when carter decided that it was officially time to wake up for the day) that today was the day to get stuff done. i went to joann's to get interfacing... and some new fabric (cuz that's just how i roll). i then stopped at the gym and headed home to get to work. as i was driving through eden, i passed the eden sewing center. i have been in there a few times before... and i always stare at this joel dewberry fabric. well, today i guess i was feeling inspired, because i stopped and bought a yard of the coveted fabric. it was $15.99 a yard! i almost crapped! i will say that it is a thicker, more durable kind of material, but still...

when i got home, i got to work on some bags for dee's party... last year she sold as many st patrick's day bags as i could make! a month or so ago i had bought a crapload of st patty's fabric for her and her cohorts. so i sat down and made 3 bags (that you will see a few pics down). once i was done with them, i decided it was time to get down to business.

i absolutely LOVE this new bag! 3 pockets on the inside... a big one, a medium sized one, and a pen pocket. did i mention that i love this bag?

then i decided to make a wallet to match (as seen in the first picture). i love this bag.

this is one of the st patty's fabrics i got. i like it... it's pretty and not so IN YOUR FACE as many of the holiday type fabrics are. subtle shamrocks...
and here is what i made so far... a tote, a messenger bag, and a little purse. i think they're cute... i need to get some green ribbon to jazz them up a bit though.
well, stay tuned for some more craft-type blogs in the near future... i have a LOT of things to make! :)

a warm up!

so let me wish you a happy ash wednesday... is that inappropriate? i'm not going to lie, i'm not a church go-er. not that i have any negative opinion on those who are church go-ers, i just don't happen to be one. i'm just not sure if it is socially appropriate to wish people a "happy ash wednesday"... but hey, since when am i socially appropriate, right?

well, we had a bit of a "warm up" today. by warm up, i mean it was like 43 degrees outside... that sure seems like a warm up these days... pathetic huh? i hear it's supposed to get even warmer tomorrow... perhaps we will hit a whopping 47 degrees? one can only hope!

so during our warm up today, my boys were frolicking outside for a while. yeah, clay is riding his bike... in the snow. hey, what can i say, that's how we roll out here in eden! just wait til i post the "ride your tractor to school day" pictures in a few years... no, i'm serious, they have that here!

wanna know how else we roll out here? this is clay standing on the snow mound that has been used all winter as a snowmobile jump. it is quite a bit smaller now than it has been, but it still does it's thang. yeah, and it is definately located RIGHT NEXT TO MY DOOR! why not right?

and i'm not sure about anyone else's kids, but this little plastic car? apparently it is the greatest toy EVER! this was left at our house by the previous owners when we moved in... clay LOVED it. now carter LOVES it. also, any other kid who comes over LOVES it! clay still tries to get in it sometimes! ps, carter's face is covered in melted m&ms and he couldn't be happier!

and the aftermath of the outdoor frolicking??? they were pretty much broken! they stuffed their faces and then turned into zombies on the couch!

st. patty's day is right around the corner and this girl has a LOT of sewing to do. that is my plan for the weekend... get my sew on!

blah.

so, i'm sick. so is carter. and as of this morning, so is clay. blah. i am not feeling witty or funny.
on a separate topic... i want nothing more right now than for carter to become potty trained... and he wants NOTHING to do with it. i even bought him some mickey mouse underpants... he doesn't care. the only time he has ANY desire to go on the potty is when we are putting shoes on to walk out the door for work in the morning. and even then, he really doesn't want to go, he just wants to flush the toilet and play. UGH!!!

and here is chippy's new thing... he gets the binoculars out and says "oooh... lookit! big BUCKS!" he and gerry were watching a hunting show when he discovered the binoculars... it's all over now!

and now any time he sees anything camouflaged, he yells "big BUCK"...

that's all i have for today. blah...

the great flood of 09

so that is lake stead that was in my backyard. check out that branch/limb that fell in my neighbor's yard! i don't know how it missed his house! we have never had even 1 drop of water in our basement... until yesterday.

we were bailing water with anything we could find until we got hooked up to a generator.

power was out for 12 hours... came on for an hour, then went back out for an hour. it was NOT fun. it was cold, and awfully boring! carter could NOT understand why nothing was working... "mommy, tv broken!" i heard all day.

this pretty much sums up our day...

do NOT try to understand... (random pics of the weekend)

so i guess i amuse myself too much. when i was packing to get ready and getting all of my liquids into their appropriate sized, airplane acceptable containers, i decided to give myself a chuckle. so this is how i labeled my containers. i don't know... i just like to amuse myself.

this was laura and my first lunch in chicago. boston blackie's... delicious! we got some of the best, and FASTEST burgers ever! along with our fabulous burgers, we ordered a pitcher... but it was TINY! when the waiter brought it over, we instantly started laughing... before we could even say anything, he laughed and made a joke about how little the pitchers are. i don't know... we thought it was funny.

kimmy and i at the deep dish pizza place... god i love that girl!

laura and kimmy in the bathroom at borders... those are little plastic wine bottles in their hands... they had them stashed in their purses.

mo chugged that wine like a champ! next to the toilet...

mmm... mojito! too bad they made me sick later that night.

kasey did NOT enjoy her non-alcoholic drink... that's what happens when you're pregnant for girl's weekend!

kimmy LOVED her sangria though!

ah, the ginormous guess? sunglasses...

ok, so laura and i got a really big kick out of the "caution falling ice" signs that were EVERYWHERE!!! so we decided to amuse ourselves... i told you i amuse myself!

kimmy kinda looks like betty boop or something!

mo is terrified of the falling ice!

kasey's face is classic! she really was not loving the idea of being so foolish... i think it was the non-alcoholic drinks!

sweet view of the city from the hancock building

kasey, mo, kimmy and i on the 95th floor of the hancock building getting our view

laura and kasey...

look! mo is "magically" keeping the bottle in the air! (yeah, it's ANOTHER plastic wine bottle!)

notice 2 things... the tag still on her shirt, and her magical capabilities!

i had a bit of a belly ache form the mojitos, and kasey was beat from being pregnant and chasing us around all day... she and i stayed in while the other girls went out. mind you, they had been drinking plastic bottles of wine.

this lead to the arm wrestling. ps mo is a twig. laura is a former gymnast. i received a call at one point in the night where mo exclaimed "i arm wrestled laura twice... and i lost. but i'm drinking her under the table!"

girl's weekend lovin

this might be my favorite picture of the weekend...

kimmy was trying to talk to kasey and i on the phone, and i'm not sure what happened to mo's eye! "mo, what happen yo eye?"

and here we are... crazy, fredonia, drunken mo. my god did i miss that girl!

notice laura passing out as this picture was taken. mo was telling us all about how she got those beads from michael phelps. come to find out, it was actually a swingers party that "michael phelps" was at... i'm serious. the best part was mo telling us "they kept trying to convince me of something, but i'm not sure what it was". classic.

kimmy actually laughed so hard that she LITERALLY peed her pants. i blame the twins she had in her belly a short 10 months ago... i think she blamed mo for being so damn funny. ps, look at laura... and there are my toes. kasey and i laid in bed and just laughed at the girls when they got back. too funny.

sporadic pictures? yes. best weekend? yes. do i want to go back again this weekend? yes.

i have always been friends with guys more than girls... until i met these crazy girls. i love them. i love their guts!

chi town

so the night before i left (after the fish tank incident) for chicago, my boys were VERY clingy. clay, who normally could care less if i'm home or not, told me "no, you can't go to chicago. you need to stay home". i asked why his father can snowmobile and hunt for full weekends and that's no problem, but he had no answer for me.here we are... kimmy, kasey, mo, laura, and me. we had SO MUCH FUN!!!!! we did a lot of eating, drinking, talking and walking! i think i walked 47 miles this weekend! chicago was experiencing near record high temperatures, and we were loving every minute of it!

i'm not really a sports fan (duh) but it was pretty cool seeing wrigley field. the houses surrounding the field had bleachers on their rooftops which was pretty sweet...

the stores there were unreal...

the magnificent mile might be the coolest place ever!

this was at the corner of the street out hotel was on... what a tease! i just can't fathom how people can actually buy stuff there!

we didn't eat or drink here... but if you have ever seen the movie super troopers, you will understand why i HAD to take this picture...

we did eat (and obviously drink) at a place called finn mccools... super sweet! they had these table top beer things... 8 pints for $15! can't beat that with a stick! here is mo demonstrating the glory of table top beers!

laura was equally impressed...

laura and i were glamming it up in the guess? store... ps, people spend a lot of money on these huge, silly glasses!

a view of (part of) the city from michigan avenue

night time view of (part of ) the city from the john hancock building's 95th floor.

and while mom is away, the boys will play... or ice fish on the pond. not to be confused with the 100+ idiots on lake erie who separated from shore and drifted out and needed to be rescued...

my favorite purchase... i love hoodies. this one REALLY rocks though... can you see the extra pocket on the front pocket? it's for beer. and it's insulated. how flippin cool is that?

i will post more of the funny pictures in a day or 3... i still have to get laura's pictures. for now, this is a (mild and politically correct) overview of our weekend... it was a blast! can't wait for next year! :)