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!

rock collecting anyone?

so the family went camping this fine memorial day weekend at highbanks campground. as you can see clay had a grand ole time rock collecting. we brought home quite the collection! now this camping talk brings me to a few things...

FIRST- to get there we drive through leon and conewango... aka the amish towns. i just so happen to be incredibly curious about the amish and their way of life. i only knows bits and pieces about the amish... i want to know more!!! i know they do not use electricity (which baffles me!) but do they use natural gas? how do they wash their clothes or take a bath? do they have to light a fire to heat up water for such things? how do their stoves/ovens work? fire? can they use propane or some kind of gas for heat? i also have heard that they have a year or two at one point in their life where they leave and experience life outside their culture... where do they go? do they pack up, head off to the city and bar hop in skin tight clothes for a year and then decide to go back to amish life? how does this work??? does anyone know anything about the amish? i'm seriously amazed by them and want to know more!

these little peanuts (who by the way are NOT amish) are from left to right... carter (mine-20 months), grace (my niece-14 months) and annabelle (missy and boogs- 13 months)
they were quite the crew this weekend... just think what they will be like in 5 years! :)

SECOND- i have to say that the campground we stay at is so fabulous... it's great for kids and adults. there is a little store the kids can buy candy, smoke bombs, smores materials, and slushies. there is a great playground and a fabulous pool area that has a pool, kiddie pool, and spa. the campground is perfect for kids to bike ride, and there are little bike jumps all over the place (which we know my clayton took advantage of every single jump that he saw!) we stay in the cabins... 2 bedrooms, 4 beds, sink, stove/oven, fridge, a picnic table, and a really nice covered porch. now i'm certainly not trying to sell people on this place, i just had such a great weekend and i like to throw out suggestions when i can. if you're a boater or fisherman... this is THE place! the water is beautiful and you don't have to worry about catching e coli like you do in lake erie! by the way, carter LOVED the boat... i knew he would like it, but he LOVED it!

this picture is carter and grace... aka frick and frack... aka bonnie and clyde... aka trouble and bigger trouble! they are so much like brother and sister! they beat on each other daily... but i know that they will ALWAYS have each others backs!

there was a pretty good group of us camping this weekend... gerry, clay, carter and i, christiane, dave and grace, hollie, steve, seth and garrett, jen and heffay and madeja, boogs, missy, brendan and annabelle... this was our immediate group. in addition we also had our friends greg, meg, nick and julia, dave and nicky, and a few of their family members as well. there is nothing like camp fires, moon pies (ya know, the sandwiches you make in the sandwich maker in the fire... some people call them hobo pies i think), cold beverages, and lots of laughs. good gravy were there laughs!

annabelle and carter (no we did not match their outfits purposely!) who knew this wagon would be so flippin popular? between grace, annabelle and carter, i think there was a little on in that wagon at ALL times this weekend! :)

i will not bore you with any more camping details... i just really enjoyed my weekend... thank goodness the weather held up!

oh yeah, i really should have tried a little sunscreenhuh? DUH!

my mission for this week? i need to get a purse done for gerry's aunt, 2 bags made for a co- worker, and various teacher gifts for clay's school. he's not exactly a dream to have in class and since he is looping with the same teacher next year, i think i need to hook them up with something nice! any suggestions???

where do i start???

so this is (a small part of) my fabric stash.

now here we are, done with our first indie market, with the next indie market looming in the not so distant future. you may be wondering what exactly i plan on doing with all that fabric huh? well i will tell you...



the 2 black and white fabrics & the green flowered, red flowered, and white flowered will become some fabulous purses- the turquoise with pink flowers will become some super cute grocery bags- that pink plaid is some amazing silk that i'm hoping will become a dress to wear to my girl kasey's wedding -the tan-ish with the white leaves is (hopefully) going to become a sundress for me, as well as the black, red, white and yellow stuff that you can barely see on the end. then there is some nice heavy denim in there that will become wallets, i have about 13 yards of fabric to make my mother in law some curtians for her cupboards in the basement, and i have a bag with fabric to make my aunt-in-law (if that is such a thing) a purse.



wow. i'm tired just from typing all of that, now imagine trying to make it all! i don't know where to start! well actually, the curtains are first... only because my in-law's house goes on the market next week and they need those curtains asap. after that? no clue! i want to make everything at once! i'm excited to get sewing again... since i have taken a break the past few days. no more breaks though...



so, in conclusion, i moved my "sewing center" back upstairs tonight. it was upstairs originally, then i wanted it in the basement in front of the big tv and near the iron. now i want to be back upstairs because i feel like a hermit down in the basement. yes it's nice to have peace and quiet to work in, but hey... i hate silence, it freaks me out! so, back upstairs i went. i had about 47 different bags/ ziplocs/ tupperware containers of things to move... no big deal. then i had to move the chair and table that i work on, again no big deal. THEN i had to move my big table where i do all my cutting out. let's just say that clay was trying to help, but even he looked skeptical in my abilities to move that table. he kept telling me "just wait til my dad gets home... he can move it just fine! he's so strong ya know!" which fueled my stubborn ass to move it myself and show him how strong i am. i did it! ok so i was grunting and struggling like crazy, but i did it! clay helped me move some of my fabric but then was "too tired" to do any more. clay fell asleep in my bed as i got my OCD "sewing center" all set up again.

*** oh yeah, fyi, i had a funny picture on here that i took of clay last night when i finally took him up to bed. he was completely passed out with his hand jammed down his pants (like all males do!) but alas, after some advisement, i decided to take the picture off my blog. there are WAY too many sickos out there. kinda sad that a silly picture could be taken in such a disgustingly disturbing way. my question is... WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???