The Dreaded Cookbook Shelf

You are probably tired of seeing my disorganized messes but it's holding me accountable for finishing organizing. This is how my cookbook shelf looked tonight. Since then I've taken everything off, dusted, found other better homes for misc. stuff and put back the cook books.

The problem:

What do you do with all of the recipes you've printed from online? Taken out of magazines?

I think I need to start by paring it down to recipes that we've actually tried. Maybe I shouldn't keep so many in the "want to make" pile.

Happy Fall!

Happy first day of fall!

If you've landed here from iFellowship, welcome! I hope you are enjoying this beautiful first day of fall. I wish you a wonderful day in whatever it may be that you are doing today!

I am cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. I was laid off work last week and I'm finding the good in it. I'm getting to see my husband in the mornings now where I used to be at work and never saw him. I am getting more time to do fun things with my daughter. AND my house is going to be spotless soon! Wow! I didn't realize how bad it was. I deep cleaned our bedroom yesterday. I moved all the furniture and swept under it all and washed all the large bedding and curtains and dusted EVERYTHING! It smells so fresh and clean in there again!

Have a wonderful blessed day!

busy with artwork

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I've been finishing up some artwork that I've had ideas for. Mostly inspiration that my greyhound Doogie gave me while he was with us. Gosh I miss him but he sure left me with a lot of inspirationg.

Fall is in the air!

Can you tell I have fall on my mind? First the fall crafts with L, then I sewed up the first part of Halloween outfit for her yesterday. Not her costume, but an outfit from this cute fabric I bought a few years ago. I had the intention to make her an outfit then but I was disorganized and pressed for time, so it never got done.

Good thing I kept this fabric around! I'm finally getting a chance to sew it! Here is the first part, the skirt made from the Miss Claire skirt pattern by The Handmade Dress. Love love love her patterns!!

Button Indian Corn

L and I decided to start fall today even if it doesn't feel like it outside!

First up we did a Button Indian Corn craft.

I cut out the corn and she glued on all the buttons. Once all the buttons were on it was really heavy so I glued together 2 pieces of card stock and glued the finished corn onto that to make it more stable.

She was rather pleased with herself!

Then we did a L planned craft. She wanted to make a sparkily leaf. A PINK sparkily leaf. I could not find any glitter anywhere. But I have gone through everything so I know I don't have any. I need to get some because this girl wants everything to sparkle. She was so serious with her pink leaf and the blue background she had me put it on. I found some little rhinestone type things for her to glue on as well as some little white pompoms. She had a blast even if I didn't have any glitter!

It was so hard not to push that leaves aren't suppose to be pink, etc. I got over it and let her creativity flow and she had a blast!

Here's another photo of my craft area with even more progress made. Today was the second time I've been able to go down and make something without having to dig for supplies.

What is a mother to do?

The weather turned cooler and L needed to wear pants instead of shorts and dresses so I went to the top of her closet where I usually have clothes for the next season. I looked. And looked some more.

PANIC!! L has very few clothes for the fall!

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Whew, okay thanks for letting me get that out.

Usually I try to buy a few staple pieces - jeans, plain shirts, etc. the year before when they are on clearance. In all of our pinching pennies and watching what we spend I completely looked over this small detail that she doesn't have anything to wear. A friend of mine passed down some outfits from her daughter to L but the problem with most of them is they are too big in the waist and fall off of her skinny bottom. Even the ones that have the adjustment tabs, I pulled them in to the smallest button hole and they are still too small. But her legs are so long that they will be high water pants by the time they fit her in the waist!

What is a mother to do with 6 sewing machines, piles of patterns and fabric at her fingertips?

What I better do it get busy sewing her up a fall/winter wardrobe!

Do you have any favorite patterns for skinny little girls clothes? L is a 4 in height but about a 2 in the waist!

Oh what lovely fabric goodness!

This photo makes me so happy! All of my fabric together in one place.

L was with her Grandma yesterday so I spent the entire evening after work going through every single piece of fabric I own. This old bookcase wasn't being put to good use in the basement so I moved my grid shelves out of the way and moved the bookcase in.

Mostly knits with a little flannel and fleece on these 2 shelves.

All of my pattern wovens on the top shelf. The next shelf is corduroy, denim, coordinating cotton wovens and a few satiny pieces.

I can't wait to get the rest of the space organized so I can some in pick up a pattern, pick out the perfect fabric and start sewing!

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for...

1. the 4 short years I was able to spend with my beloved greyhound Doogie. I still miss him every single day.

2. Crystal, my beagle/brittany/who knows what else mutt who makes the most adorable yet strange sound when I come home. And when it's been a bad day, she makes that sound even louder and crazier and wiggles her butt and that makes all the worries go away.

3. my husband who works so hard for his family.

4. my husband's job. After having a few rough years and being laid off. I am so thankful for his job with a great company.

5. our insurance. I am so thankful to not have to put off going to the doctor because we don't have insurance or the money to pay for it.



This blog post was inspired by the post by Julie at Another Chance Ranch

The "Before" Photo

As I've mentioned a few times, we have been downsizing anything and everything. We have made ourselves think seriously and realistically about everything that is in our home. The main part of our home is 866 sq ft. not including the small basement. We learned that we are just going to have to live with less stuff living in a small home.

My area of the basement has been a huge undertaking. Here is a photo I took today, after taking out TONS of crafts off the shelves on the pegboard on the left side of the photo and off the grid shelves on the right. I had a full table of crafts, fabric, scrapbooking and stamping supplies at the garage sale and I am happy to report that the majority of it sold! There was just a few things that went off in a box to the thrift store.

This photo looks like such a mess doesn't it?!? It really doesn't look as bad as the photo appears. You should have seen the true before but it's really been a year process as we had a garage sale last summer too. The boxes you see in the middle don't really belong to the craft area. There are a couple totes of my winter clothes in there.

So here it is for the world (or just a few people) to see. This holds me accountable to finish my space into an organized and decluttered space.

My Reward

My reward to myself for downsizing so much for our big garage sale was to keep a few items from my husband's aunt. She used to have a couple booths at some antique-y type places. Yes I know antique-y isn't a word but I didn't know what else to call them. They have some antiques and some things that are only antiques to some people, to others it's junk. Anyway, she had joined us for the big garage sale and had several tables full of glass. She gave us a glass baking dish and three glass Pyrex pie plates before the sale. I told her I'd take one because we didn't have one. Not sure what I'm going to do with 3 though! Not sure what I'm even going to do with one because my husband doesn't like pie unless it involves chocolate.

As we were packing up the leftovers from the sale she offered us the set of 6 small glass bowls. Custard cups I think she called them but I'm going to use them for prep cups for cooking. I've always wanted some little bowls for that.

Here is the small baking dish and the 6 small cups. All of them were made by Fire King. As I washed them up I was noticing how much character the glass has.

The one thing I spotted as I was helping her pack up was this old Ball Jar. I LOVE it! Not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I love it! It will become a decoration somewhere in the house.

Oh how I missed that purr

The old Elna Supermatic is purring again. It's been so long since we've been able to sew together. Sorry no photos. I'm experimenting on how to get a decent photo in the basement.

Our big garage sale on Saturday and the months of downsizing has allowed me this space to sew again. I started a pair of grey corduroy pants for L that have real functional side pockets! I also finally put the under stitching technique to use. So easy and it makes such a neat finished edge hiding the lining! I'm not sure why I've avoided these two things before!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Little Angel

Am I the only one that goes to wake up your child from a nap and you have to run and get the camera and snap photos before you wake them?

Please tell me I'm not. Doesn't she look like a little angel?

She was exhausted and wasn't being a little angel and needed a nap before she fell asleep.

She's growing up way too fast.

Friendly Friday

Just came across this blog hop and even though it's now Friday evening I thought I'd jump in.

Friendly Friday celebration is hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog!

Welcome Visitors!

Another exciting addition of "From the mouth of a 3 year old"

If you didn't catch the last addition to "From the mouth of a 3 year old" you can go back and read it here. I really wish I had a way to go back and record this on the spot.

Story #1:
Yesterday evening I was rolling the trash down to the street as Grandma pulled in the driveway with L. She got out, had our usually hugs and kisses hello. Then L started to walk towards the house, looking up and around at the sky she said. "There calling for rain again." She said it just like an old man sitting on a park bench saying it to his friend.

Story #2:
After Grandma and I controlled the laughter from story #1, Grandma told me another thing she said to her. They were leaving our house earlier in the day and she saw L was picking her nose. She turned to the back seat and asked her if she needed a Kleenex, she could get her a Kleenex. Without skipping a beat, L said to her Grandma "Just Drive." What?!?! Grandma had the same reaction I did. Now we did have a little talk about this one with her. About being respectful and kind. I know my L, especially after talking to her, she didn't mean it in a disrespectful way but we still like to nip those things before they get out of hand. We let her know "No thank you Grandma" would have been a better choice.

When it works, stick with it!

When you find something that is well loved and it works, it is always best to stick with it. In 5 years we have bought many dog toys, some for the inside, some for the outside. When it came to outside toys Crystal had her favorite, until a loose neighbor dog came by and stole it. Looking for new toys at the pet store I came across this rubber ball with feet. It was bouncy and it squeaked. Perfect. Ever since we found the first one, our dogs have never wanted to play with anything else when they are outside. They fought over who got to play with the toy until we bought another identical toy. And then ended up still fighting over the same toy. Crystal loves to play fetch with it where Doogie loved to just lay in the grass and squeak it. The feet make it easy for L to hang on to when she flings it across the yard for Crystal to fetch.

This is what it looks like after 2 years of staying outside 24/7 in the rain, sun, mud, snow and of course dog slobber! It's the Tough by Nature Bad Cuz. (or you can get the Good Cuz that doesn't have the little horns)

Since Doogie passed away Crystal has both of them to herself and she still can't decide which one to play with! I think we need to get her one new one to replace these.
Doesn't she look happy after a round of fetch with the toy? Okay, maybe she doesn't really fetch. It's more of a we throw it, she chases it brings it back but not all the way too you and then won't let go of it, but it's still fun!

*I have no affliation with this toy manufacturer or Amazon. And I'm not receiving anything for telling you about this awesome toy. Our dogs just plain love it which makes me love it!

Welcome iFellowship!

If you've landed on my little blog from iFellowship, Welcome! I hope you are enjoying a beautiful day today! My name is Sarah and I'm a mother to a 3 year old daughter, a hound dog mutt and my husband who is usually referred to as Cowboy.

I love to sew, craft and just make things with my hands! I talk about cooking sometimes, both successful things and some failures. You'll find gardening, canning and preserving talk. And there is always room for some completely random thoughts in there as well.

Thank you for coming by and I hope to see you again!

Sarah

Surprise Mail!

I love being surprised with mail that I've forgotten about. For Christmas, my husband got me a subscription to Ottobre Design pattern magazine. Except for the first one, every other issue that has come out I've completely forgotten about. That has made for several pleasantly surprised trips to the mailbox.

The newest issue is one of the women's issues. There are a few things that caught my eye. I just need to try to figure out where to squeeze in sewing time. My machines are beginning to wonder where I've been. I'm beginning to wonder where I've been.