Sewing Along

Monday, while my friend MariEllen was visiting, I took her in to see Strawberry Patches. She had not seen the new store. Even though, I am committed to using up somethings I already have, I could not resist this new line of fabrics called Circa 1934. The labels in the background are so cute.
I bought enough to make

 my version of this:

I borrowed this image from Suzanne at Notes From the Patch. You can click on her name to find where the pattern and fabrics are available.

 It's going to be for me for a fall bag.
Click on it to see the cute label I used for the outside pocket.

 This is the pocket for the inside that the pattern called for.
I added a solid bottom to the bag by covering some needlepoint plastic I had.

 I also added another large pocket and divided it to hold my cell phone and well...whatever else.

I love the double rows of stitching for detail. When I first saw the pattern, I thought it was pieced, but the polka dot is the background and then the fabric is appliqued on with the topstitching.

 

My friend left on Tuesday and I couldn't wait to get started
making this cute bag. It was fun, easy and quick...my favorite kind.

Also worked on some stash busting projects I'll show later.

Hoping you all have a great weekend. I have a football game to rush off too.


God is Good!!
Life is Good!!


 



And....The Winners Are...

 We couldn't have been more proud of Drew who took 2nd place in Showmanship in her age group.

And Lexie who took 3rd place in her age group for Showmanship.

There were well over 25 in each group and this was their first year for showing their chickens.

They were judged on the handling and knowledge of their chicken and poultry in general.

Lexi talking to the judge.

Drew showing the judge her chicken.

Two of thier adoring fans.

They have Guinea(?) hens...thought I better include a picture of them too.

                                          

They each had a hen and a rooster in the competition and the chickens did pretty well too.

The day before they were judged and Drew's came in 1st and 2nd and Lexi's were 5th and 8th.

Okay, enough bragging from this proud Mamaw. (for now anyway)

I am excited because my friend who has Aunt Fanny's Emporium in Long Beach will be here any minute.

She will stay for a few days and we have lots of catching up to do, which will include lots of laughing and talking of old and new times. 

I'm off to start dinner.

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

Morning Musings

Due to the expected 102 degree temps today, I decided to spend some time out doors early.

About 6:30 I headed out here with my coffee and kindle and camera (I've learned to always have my camera handy)

As I was reading, my son came out to feed the horse and clean the stall. The oldest two grands were out feeding chickens, turkeys and rabbits and preparing their show chickens for the trip to the fair grounds this morning. They show them on Sunday Morning.

The third came out to clean up after the dog. Mr. SS lovingly calls her the "pooper scooper"

Reading my kindle isn't happening.  The babies Emmy and Brooke come running down barefoot in the grass.

Jack with his plastic guitar wasn't far behind.

After they all finished their chores and left for the fairgrounds and school...

and Mom Olivia called the little ones to breakfast, I looked up

to see all the footprints in the grass.  I tried to capture them with my camera, but the dew was already starting to dry up.

 I couldn't help feeling, once more, how blessed I am to be here seeing 6 of my grandkids (and one of my kids)  start their day.

Then Mr. SS comes out the door with his lunch pail and coffee and heads off  for his day. He's remodeling bathrooms for a friend.  Once again, the Lord blessed us with work here at home so we can spend time with all of our family and friends.

Could this girl...Wife...Mom...Mamaw... be any more blessed? I don't think so.

Wishing you a great weekend.

Ours includes football tonight, soccer in the morning, dinner and dominoes with friends Saturday evening, Fairground Sunday morning and baseball in the afternoon, and maybe a visit from a very special out of town friend.

What are you doing?

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

Sewing Christmas

Once again, I am joining Renee @ Sewn with Grace

for

I just love her little button. You can click the one on my sidebar or her name above to see what her Sewing Christmas is about.

I made a couple of little zipper bags to put away for Christmas gifts. I love making theses and will fill them with goodies before gifting them.

Back in July I showed you a stack of scraps left from sewing some of my Girlie Girl purses.

I have these left over every time I make them and with a few changes these scraps will be made into zipper bags.

This is the pattern and buttons I used along with the scraps.

Of course I found them at my favorite Strawberry Patches.

This is another little zipper bag I made from scraps. Those are all little 2" or smaller squares pieced together.

This pattern found in a past Quilts and More magazine. As I have told you before, I always find a project in that magazine and look forward to finding a new one on the magazine rack.

This little bag was one of the things I made from the scraps of this skirt I showed you recently that I made for my granddaughter, Kobi for Wrangler Fridays at her school. (Whoa, that was a long sentence)

I bought a total of 2 yds. and had tons of left over fabric.

Also, from those scraps, I made over 30 of these pins and hair clips, which Kobi and her Mom have been selling at her school.

                                         

I also made three Girlie Girl Bags and put a pinwheel hair clip on each one.

Now, I'll show you what is left of those scraps

Yep! That's all, folks. Now what could I make from those 10 little pieces. Guess I have to give up on those.

But I have made a commitment to use up some of the fabric I have. It really is a satisfying feeling to use up something you have.

I have to tell you, this will be difficult, because I ususally make a weekly trip to my favorite Strawberry Patches to pick up and take in projects for the store.  There are soooo many beautiful new fabrics practically daily.

So...I may have to fall off my commitment wagon a few times between now and Christmas. If I do, I will be sure and confess here and show you how hard it was to resist. LOL

Now, I'm off to finish a cute curtain I am making for a nursery.

I have to give back the scraps from his project, but will show you the finished curtain soon.

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

What's for Breakfast??

Around here, when I bake, I do it early in the morning. Living in a metal box small cottage, it gets hot as soon as the sun is up.

I was peeling peaches, getting ready to stick a peach cobbler in the oven when Mr. SS asked, "What's for breakfast?"

I listed everything I could think of that I had the ingredients for, you know the usual...pancakes, waffles, french toast, eggs and ham, oatmeal (one of his favorites in the winter) and of course cold cereal.'

He said, "No thanks, I think I'll skip breakfast this morning." And he headed outside to mow the lawn for my son...yes the whole 1/2 acre front and back...on an empty stomach!!

Awww, that made me feel bad. You have to know me to know, I love cooking for anyone and making them smile at the sight of a big spread of anything, just makes my day.

An hour later, Mr. SS was resting at our little table and chairs in our Secret Garden and I just knew I had to fix him breakfast, but he said nothing sounded good.

About that time, I was taking the cobbler out of the oven and it hit me....Peach Cobbler for breakfast. I knew he wouldn't turn that down.

And he didn't.

I dished him up a big bowl and added a dollup of Cool Whip (If I was Paula Deen, it would have been whipped cream)

After all...you got your fruit, dairy and grains (not to mention sugar) to start your day off right.

Yummy!!! And yes, that is one helping for my yard mowing hubby. How does he stay so skinny?

Later, I called my DIL down from the front house to get some for her and the little ones lunch.

But not to worry. There was plenty left for Mr. SS to have for dessert tonight with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I used Paula Deen's recipe here to make this one, but it is the same as my Grandma's recipe, only Paula uses self rising flour and my Grandma's calls for regular flour, baking soda and salt.

As you can see, I sprinkled a little cinnamon on the top, but sometimes I put it in the batter or sometimes I just add a little almond flavoring.

Oh, forgot to say, our friends Chuck and Cindy gave us a bunch of fresh peaches called Fair Peaches. She says she doesn't know how they know it is fair time in Kern County, but they are always ripe around that time.  They are delicious and I've been slicing them up in my yogurt every morning. YUM!

 Now that's a breakfast!!

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

My Little Design Diva

The last Friday of the month at my granddaughter Kobi's school is Mustang day and they encourage everyone to dress western. Last year for her birthday we gave her red cowgirl boots (another fun trip to Boot Barn) This year she wanted a skirt to wear with them. She also had just received a pair of the cutest little Cheetah flats with a red bow from her other grandma.

She asked if she could have a skirt that would go with both and her Mom and I just kinda shrugged, meaning probably not.

We planned to meet at Strawberry Patches a couple of weeks ago to pick out fabric.

They got there a little before I did and she picked a pattern to show me what she wanted and then showed me the western themed fabrics she liked. Then...she wanted to see if they had cheetah fabric, and of course as is the case when you shop at the wonderful Strawberry Patches, there were a couple to choose from.

Kobi even gave her Mom and I a little lesson on animal prints..."no, that is giraffe, that is tiger, that is...", etc.

You know, when we got the fabrics all together, I really thought it might work. Her Mom was more skeptical,

but here she is in her "designed" skirt and her red cowboy boots.

 Here's the skirt before I took it to her today.

 She wanted a bow to match, so I found this cute pattern for pinwheel bows here and decided to make those. I had tons of fabric left and made a bunch for bows of the smaller size and some larger ones for pins.
Kobi's Mom works at the school and said she could sell them as the teachers are always looking for something western to wear on Fridays.

Here's Kobi  with her Cheetah flats with the red bow. But you can barely see the shoes.

 Here's the pinwheel bow. They really did turn out cute. Some with regular buttons and some with covered buttons.

This girl knows what she likes and she loved the skirt. Even though tomorrow isn't the last Friday, I'm sure she plans to wear her new creation.
Kobi has been a shoe girl since she could walk. If you took your shoes off, you could be sure she would be trying them on.  She is very particular about what shoes she wears with what outfit.

What will I do when all these girls get too old to want me to make their clothes.  Maybe by then it will be time to think about sewing for the "greats" or maybe I will just be too old to care...NOT.



God is Good!!
Life is Good!!



Friday Night Lights.

Raising a family of boys in a small town, we experienced the power of Friday Night Lights years before they were in High School, but it definitely become more important the 12 years running that we had a football player playing for the Tehachapi Warriors.

Now 16 years later we have a Varsity player and a JV Cheerleader to take us back to our love of the Friday Night Lights.

Last week I posted about Kyle and his team.

Here we are on the field after the game, this week

(I can't believe I have grand kids that tower over me so.)
Sweet Madi leaned down so I wouldn't look so short.

It was nothing short of a miracle for me to get them to stand together, actually touching for a picture. Kyle reminded me he didn't want to be late to the dance. They still follow the dance after the game tradition in this small town.

But this week it is all about my cheerleader. After raising 3 boys and having one grandson, Madi was the first of my 7 granddaughters. Needless to say she has a special place in my heart. I was the first to hold her after she was born, her Mama handed her to me.

Her name is Madisann (not Madison), the ann after my middle name.

Can you tell how proud this Mamaw is?

Sorry for the terrible picture coming up next, but I got this off her Mom's facebook and it wouldn't download, so I took a picture with my camera off the computer...really dumb, I know, but I so badly wanted to show you  this.

She was mascot for the Tehachapi Warrior Cheerleaders and had a uniform from the time she was 6 months old. Her Mom, a former cheerleader was the coach for many years.

She is about 4 yrs. old here.

She also was mascot and cheered from about 2 yrs. old until last year for the youth football team that her brother played on.

Well, hope you all had a good, restful Labor Day (that sounds kinda strange...restful and labor in the same sentence).

We BBQ'd hamburgers with the family that lives  in our front yard. LOL

Fun Day.

Football on Friday,

BBQ on Sunday.

More than ever I am glad to be home and my heart is bursting with the blessings I experience daily.

God is Good!

Life is Good!



On the Road Again and Back Again/Dead Printer/Pictures of This and That

Oh my!  It has been a crazy week. We found out Tuesday after sitting with no work for 4 days in Riverside, that  there was going to be no more work for a while.

Darn...we had both cars there, so Tues. night we drove both cars back to Bakersfield and got up Thursday and drove back down to Riverside to drive the Motorhome back. About 11 hrs. of driving in that crazy So. Ca. traffic.

So now we are back in Bakersfield, for awhile anyway, and I couldn't be happier to be close to the grandkids again and get to lay my head down and know where I will wake up.

Soooo...my printer died. I was still using it for transferring pictures to the computer, but today I needed to print some stuff, so had to replace it with another one we had around here. You can't just plug it in and go. You have to "install" it.

I spent a good part of the afternoon doing that and trying to find where and how my pictures load now, so I can still use them when blogging (important, you know)

While I was looking around for pictures I downloaded from the new printer, I ran across some I realized had never made it to my blog. Pictures of sewing projects I had promised to post, but just somehow hadn't.

Here is a little corduroy coat I did for a model for Strawberry Patches.

It was fully lined.

and I got to use one of these cute labels that just happened to match.

This darling little clutch went together really easy, and I love the touch of bling on the closure.

Early this summer I started the first of 3 projects for a really nice lady named Julie.

The first project was shades for her kitchen and this one is over her desk in a corner of her kitchen.

These are over her sink.

The brads were her idea and I love how they anchor the shades.

I showed you these barstool pads, whenI made them, but they look so much cuter on the stool.

She wanted shades for the windows over the front door, for privacy.

More recently (last week) I did this Minkee blanket with a yummy satin ruffe.

And last, I finally made a purse that has been in my head since last summer. It was so fun and I hope to be selling these soon. I have to work out some kinks first.

Whoops, one more. But you have seen these. I made six more of these and took some to Strawberry Patches


Hoping to get back to my machine tomorrow, if I can dig it out from all the stuff we cleaned out of the Motorhome. It seems I just kept taking things down there and not bring anything home.



God is Good!!
Life is Good!!