respite

We're back from our trip up to Paisley, Oregon and here are some highlights...

For those of you who don't know, the house originally was the Paisley schoolhouse in 1895.


Then it became a Catholic church (some of the stained glass windows are still there), and then a private residence.


We even found out that it was used as a storage facility for the local gas and electric company for a while. Gavin's family bought the house in the early 1980s.


Nadine has done such a wonderful job of restoring and renovating the house, and yet she managed to retain so much of its original charm.




We were in Paisley for a week, and during that time we visited with local friends and neighbors,


had another memorial service for Nadine complete with a potluck dinner,



went to the local swimming hole (called The Falls) of the Chewaucan River,




had dinner at the only restaurant in town, The Homestead, and spent a lot of time in the hammock,


watching the kids ride their bikes, reading and cleaning. It was a full week and it was worth every moment.

Despite our restful time in Oregon, I'm feeling like a deflated balloon. Although I'm looking forward to getting back into a schedule, I'm also exhausted by the mere idea of getting back to it.


It's still so surreal to think about all that we went through with Nadine this summer. My interactions with people feel strange, awkward. At the risk of sounding overdramatic (some might even admit to thinking I've been this way for a while), I'm thinking that we're forever changed from this experience of terminal illness. I know it'll just be time that brings us back into the present. Not that we want to forget, but that eventually these thoughts and feelings won't be so close to the surface anymore.


We were in such a mode of day-to-day living for so many months, not knowing what we might face at the beginning of each day. And then over the last few weeks, we were in 'go' mode for the memorial services, family visiting, and funeral arrangements. Now all that is behind us and we're feeling quite blah. Now we have a choice. We can either stay in this mode and isolate ourselves from others and from activities, or we can choose to participate in the things around us and start to gradually move on.

Life moves on, our family needs to continue to function, and our kids need us to keep going for them. It's all very strange. If I sound confused in my thoughts, believe me, I am.

Our first step to 'getting back to normal' (what is normal, anyway?), happened yesterday. We actually cleaned our house, and I started to go through some of the bags of stuff we brought up from Nadine's house. This week I'm planning a trip to donate things to the thrift shop, we're going to get to Nadine's paperwork and we have to start notifying the DMV, insurance, financial institutions, etc. with the death certificates (sorry to be blunt, no other way around it, I guess - it's reality).

Gavin goes back to work tomorrow and the kids start school on Wednesday. Soccer started last week too. I've busied myself with sewing activities - I even brought my machine up to Oregon.


I made an apron for myself (I know, it's blurry), and then the girls each wanted one of their own,




and then I made placemats with the leftover fabric I found.


We're leaving it all in the Paisley house so it's there for us to use during our visits. I also made a wrap skirt from the Sew What! Skirts book.



If you made it all the way through this blogpost, congratulations - it was a long one. Although this next week has potential to be exhausting, I'm looking forward to the changes, and to moving on. Thanks for listening.

i just couldn't resist

While the girls were in LA last week with Grammy, Boppa and Aunt Sandy, Worker Boy and I were home workin' on stuff. We decided that summer jammies would be a lot of fun and we got busy.


I almost ran out of fabric for Worker Boy's jammies, but I had enough for the girls and plenty leftover. I used the Bandana Pants pattern from Blue Yonder. Worker Boy had me add belt loops so he could wear his belt because, in his mind, these were not just for bedtime!

Upon hearing about the extra fabric when we talked on the phone last week, Sunshine Girl immediately begged,"Jammies for Nellie and Samantha! Pleeaasse?" So this is how it happened.


They've been parading around in the jammies all afternoon and can't go ANYWHERE without Nellie and Samantha! They even came to dinner on the patio at Gramma O's house.


Worker Boy couldn't help but get into the spotlight too!

snippets and handbag fever

I've been back at my sewing machine and draining my fabric budget! (I don't really have a budget for fabric) I've been surprising my family with my new handbags that are so fast, fun and easy to make. Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol has been my source of inspiration.
Here is the Pleated Beauty Bag. It's such a great size, I think I'm going to make another one.



I've already made two of the Charming Handbags and I'm sure I'll make more soon.



Our 4th of July Parade was especially fun this year because our very own Pumpkin Girl played her flute with a marching band comprised of kids from 3 different area schools.



It was such a proud moment for us.



Gavin videotaped them in front of the judges and then followed them along the rest of the parade route. He almost got stopped by a bike cop along the way!


I've already been pretty sporadic with my blog posts - so different from my intentions at the beginning of the year. As I've previously mentioned, my mother-in-law has metastatic liver cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy. About a month ago she went back to the hospital with complications and now she's back home (right across our driveway) with hospice care. We're trying to just soak up our time with her. It's been such a blessing to have her at home instead of at a care facility. Our kids have been able to come and go, and are very natural in their interactions with her instead of sterile and awkward if we were going for a visit. We've been hosting lots of family and friends who have come to help, spend quality time with her and to say good-bye. They've been such precious moments mixed with laughter and tears. Right now she's on a plateau and we're relieved that she's fairly comfortable most of the time. Hospice has been great as has all the help from local friends and our church. We don't know God's timing in all this, so we're just taking one day at a time and trying not to borrow worry from the next.

craft hope dolls

A few weeks ago we took a weekend trip to a friend's cabin with their family and my friend said she had a sewing project she planned to work on while we were there. It's this cool project for Craft Hope where they're sending handmade dolls to kids in an orphanage in Nicaraugua. A missionary is going to deliver them on her trip there. I hadn't touched my sewing machine in two months, so I wasn't sure whether I was 'in' or not, but nevertheless brought my machine, supplies and fabric scraps just in case. Our oldest kids (ages 7-10) were pretty interested in making the dolls, so we decided to at least get started. We didn't finish during our trip, but knew we had plenty of time before the deadline to complete and send off the dolls.

Well, the deadline is Saturday and my girls and I just finished the dolls and sent them off (Priority Mail, mind you) yesterday! Even though I helped with some of the assembly and I had to remind them to keep things simple (you wouldn't believe the embellishments they wanted to do!), they made the dolls all on their own and were very proud of their results.




Now they're ready to make more dolls, and this time I think I'll let them embellish however they want since we're not on such a short timeline. Of course we also have fabric waiting for the reading caddies they want to make for themselves ... we've also talked about making some skirts for the summer ... as well as more pj pants since their current matching pair seem to get smaller after every wash ... not to mention that Craft Hope will have a new project announcement on the 14th.

Not enough time!

modified

I had a lot of fun modifying this shoulder bag. I incorporated 3 bags into one and I love it! It has lots of pockets - and I just love having a spot for my cellphone, keys and of course, my daily list!

On the subject of modifying, this week we are having work done on our house. We are finally getting all the baseboard, window trim and other finishing touches done on our addition (which comprises of the better half of the house). The night before they started we realized we needed to move everything away from the walls, so we stayed up really late just throwing stuff in the middle of each room! And of course then I had to pick up all the hideous dust bunnies - ick! We didn't get to my craft room, so now I need to move it all by Thursday. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about putting the finishing touches on our house, but moving stuff that would just rather stay where it is isn't my cup of tea. Perhaps I'll become more organized when I start to put everything back....then again, perhaps it'll be messier because I'll go through withdrawals and will just want to jump onto another project!

Speaking of projects, Sarah and I are getting together for a Sewing Day this Saturday and we're both super excited about it! She started precutting patterns and I haven't quite gotten that far. My girls love the shoulder bag, so I thought of making a smaller version for them and maybe even a coordinating skirt. And of course Worker Boy would love something too, so I thought of a drawstring backpack for him. Anything else would be too risky since he's pretty particular! I've also gotten excited about making my own clothing - mostly shirts and skirts so far - so I'm eager to make more.

If you've got some sewing projects you're excited about, I'd love to hear about them! I'm always looking for inspiration and I think we all benefit from positive feedback within our sewing community. You can either comment about what project you're about to start or leave a link to your blog with a photo of a recent project you've done. Can't wait to get started!

p.s. Since my house and craft room are quite upside down right now, it'll probably be a few days until my next post.

mommy gifts

So here's my random compilation of birthday gifts from my kids. I guess you can say we're pretty practical around here.... pens, scissors, superglue (Worker Boy has already asked to use to glue - no way! He's only four!), and of course, notepad for lists! The kids had a lot of fun wrapping each item individually so I had loads of stuff to unwrap!

It's just amazing what kids come up with when they get creative. I was so pleasantly surprised by the gifts my girls, Pumpkin (10yrs) and Sunshine (8yrs), came up with. Just let me gush for a moment....


Pumpkin Girl was struck with inspiration a few weeks ago and asked to use the sewing machine and pick out fabric from my stash. We moved my old sewing machine (cheap Singer from Target) onto her desk and she excitedly picked out fabric after kicking me out of my craft room! It took just a few days for her to finish the project and she was just bursting with pride and anticipation. She had made me my own reading pillow - a pillow that has a pocket to hold a book. She did all the measuring, cutting, ironing, lettering, assembling, stuffing and finishing herself! WOW! And there's a coordinating bookmark.


Not to be outdone by her big sister, Sunshine Girl, who is quite handy with paper crafts, decided to make her own gifts. I never noticed her sneaking away with several sheets of paper at a time, along with oodles of scotch tape! She made me a mini blank book that I can use for drawing and writing notes. She also made a bookmark with a decorative chain tassle! Plus there's a paper hanging with foil art. It's kind of like looking at clouds - it's whatever you see in it! Sunshine is also very good with words and she wrote me a poem:

"A quilt of
magical love,
and memories
that come
from a long
time ago."

It's so much fun to have the kids so involved in gift-giving and creating. It's been a pretty amazing birthday.

On a final note, I managed to finish the shirt that was my parents' birthday gift (the bigger gift was my Janome Sewing Machine that was a combo gift with Christmas!). So here's the final product. It was pretty easy to make and I really like the fabric. I'm looking forward to the fabric softening over time.

good news all around

So the good news is that the chemo is working!!!! The tumors in my mother-in-law's liver are shrinking. Ahh, a sigh of relief. It was pretty touch-and-go there for a little while. Not that we're out of the woods yet - she still has day-to-day symptoms she's dealing with. But having a step in the right direction definitely helps boost our attitudes around here.

So to celebrate, Gavin and his mom stopped and picked up some pies -- yes, I said PIES, plural! She loves Marie Callendar's, but Gavin had a hankering for a Banana Cream Pie from Ikeda's, a local favorite. Of course, I'm a chocolate fan and I wouldn't have minded a small layer of semisweet chocolate between the crust and the cream, but it was quite good all on its own! Luckily Gavin took half to work this morning!

I'm quite wiped out from the past few days, a lot of driving, staying up late and just everyday stuff. I want today to be a home mental health day where I just do whatever I feel like - cleaning can definitely wait! So I think I'm going to start making the shirt from the pattern and fabric my mom got me for my birthday (it's on Sunday, by the way! 8th). I washed the fabric yesterday, so I'm all set.


In the meantime, my sidekicks will hold down the fort!

the comforts of mom

I'm feeling kind of blah this morning. Partly because it's Monday, partly because my mother-in-law has a tough test today with uncertain results, and partly because the visit with my own mom has come to an end.


We had such a wonderful week together of talking, shopping, doing stuff with the kids, and celebrating our birthdays! Here's the compilation of sewing accessories I made for my mom.


This sewing table caddy helps keep miscellaneous items from getting set down and lost! It's also a great place to temporarily store loose threads to throw out later.


This scissor caddy I hope will come in handy to store scissors and protect the points.


You can never have too many knickknack bags! It'll be great for buttons, a tape measure, pencils, etc.


I found this pincushion tutorial from paper.string.cloth . I'm really happy with how it turned out. And it's reversible!


It's amazing that I can be living on my own, have my own family, be taking care of others, and yet I find that I still need my mom. She just brings comfort and a chance for me to unload all my cares. Not only was it fun to get out of the house and do fun activities, but our times of sharing we so precious. Thanks for everything you do, Mom! I miss you already.

welcome home gifts

Our friends are safely back home from Ethiopia with their daughter and newly adopted son. We can hardly wait to meet him! I've been busy working on a fun welcome home package for the kids, and I just hope everything fits! You can find the cute shoes tutorial here.





My mom is coming for a visit this week - we're all very excited! Our birthdays are coming up (hers is March 2, mine is March 8), so I'm going to work on some fun things for her. I'll have to display the projects later so she doesn't get a sneak peek.

Sarah and I have a Sewing Day planned later on in March. I'm really looking forward to that! I think the plan is to have the guys watch the kids! Luckily it's not a lot of work since our kids love playing with each other so much.