Glitter, Ruffles and Snowmen ..

I got my apron package yesterday from The Flirty Apron Swap. I had spied it on the blog and was sure hoping it was going to be coming my way. After I opened all the beautifully wrapped tuckins (my partner had wrapped in pink paper), I opened my apron and yes, I screamed. Like I said, I read the blog daily and that apron caught my eye with the design. I love ruffles and I like an apron that is gathered (no flat ones). It has wide long ties which I like. The white material in the middle is so sparkley. I just adored it. I wore it till time to go to bed and I'll have it on again tonite when I get home. It even matched my jammies last nite! Thanks Cynthia. It's just beautiful. You are a wonderful seamstress! And ... I LOVE IT!

Turkey Day is over and Christmas is just around the corner!

Well, we managed to survive turkey day and only had enough turkey to eat on the next day! I'm so thankful I chose the smaller bird! It was a quiet day. Just me, hubby, mother in law, mom and daughter. Lots of food .. especially my mom's famous chocolate pie! She makes the best pie ever! They are in such high demand in my family. For just us, she made FOUR! Oh, and a pumpkin too. I haven't a clue how she makes them, but I have a feeling in the next year or two I'll inherit the recipe and the task to make them. Needless to say, my son and his g/f came over the next day and took home what was remaining of the pumpkin. My niece and her daughter also stopped by and took home one whole uncut chocolate. By the end of Saturday, no chocolate pie was to be found! Mom was worn out as you can see in the picture. She had on her apron I made her and her and her grand-puppies were napping in DH's chair.

I've started putting up a few Christmas decorations. We have lots of things going on during the month of December. As I pulled the autumn linens from the table to wash them, on went the Christmas ones. The table looks so sad. I've got to get busy on my centerpiece ... hmmm ... what shall it be????

Tomorrow is Turkey Day !

What a long day today! My mom came over and made pies all day and started our prep work for tomorrow. I'm so tired tonite. My mother in law is spending the nite also. I made us all aprons to wear for tomorrow. I'll have to post some pics tomorrow of us.
Right now .. it's off to rest and get this back pain to ease. Tomorrow will be a big day!

Me and My Baby ...

Got a call early this morning from DH (darling husband). Seems he woke up and found our angel, Chloe Belle, had another accident. I'm not really sure what is going on with her. She's been doing this alittle more frequently lately. I let her out before bed and when I got up today .. so an accident just shortly afterwards? Hmmm ... She's like my siamese twin when I'm home so I'm starting to wonder if she's acting out because I'm working alot at nite. Not sure if I should take her to the dr or just scold her. But you can see by the picture I'm sure the scolding won't happen!

Why Can't I Follow Directions?

Being in the "education" field, you would think I could follow directions. How many times in school did your teacher repeat over and over .. "follow directions!" I've been out of school for many many years, employed by the 3rd largest school district in the state of Texas for almost 30 years and to this day .. I can't follow directions! And .. once again, it's left me scrambling!

I follow Flirty Apron Swap Blog every day. I even get notifications to my email when a new posting is listed. I know darn good and well the Christmas Apron Swap has a "Snow Flurry Theme." I know it MUST have a snowflake somewhere on it! So, what do I do? Well, here I am searching the internet as I usually do for vintage items, mostly vintage apron patterns. I find one that literally sends my little heart pounding. I was blessed with the ability to see something, and pretty much be able to copy it 100%. So, off I go at lunch to get my fabric. I get the two colors needed .. green for the apron and candy cane striped for the appliqued candy canes. I get home, cut out my apron, draw my candy canes and then cut them out, applique them on it and start on the ruffle. I'm so proud of myself b/c it's looking just like the 1955 Christmas Apron Pattern I saw by McCalls. I take these pics and get ready to post my sneak preview on the FAS blog. I get my comments posted and even upload my pics and then all of a sudden it hits me like a ton of bricks .. hey ding dong .. where's your snow flake? OMG .. So, I have to delete the post. Thank God I didn't actually post it .. I was in the preview process. So, today I'm off at lunch to the fabric store to alter this apron I've started. I get there and have to find something that will work with what I have so far. My fabric store is Hancock's which is a decent size store with lotsa fabrics. BUT .. they never have all the "themed" fabric together. Alittle here and way over there are some more bolts. I pick something with slowflakes on it and decide I'll work it in some way. I'm not overly excited. Actually, I'm thinking it will ruin what I had in mind, but I must follow the theme. I sure don't want Shawnee to ban me from future swaps! As I'm heading to the cutting table, I spot another bolt and head over to ck it out closely. I guess God blessed me today because my "vision" kicked in and the wheels started turning and oh how perfect this material was! Green, with candy canes, gingerbread houses and SNOWFLAKES! Woo - hoo! I snatched it up and as those wheels were turning, I visioned it with ric rac on it so close by was the ric rac counter. I picked up large and baby red ric rac just to make sure I'd get the right one. Then as I'm rounding the corner to go have my material cut, my eyes instantly focus on a package of snowflake buttons. Ok, now there must be 200 packages of buttons and my eyes instantly go to this small package? Oh, the gates of heaven just opened for me and I have been redeemed from my lack of following directions! I grabbed the buttons, got my material cut and ok, got sidetracked again. Patterns for 99 cents? Uh, can't pass those up so of course I bought 7 more patterns. lol My heart still fluttering from my material/button find, I check out and head back to work. Now if 3:30 will hurry and get here so I can get home and get busy on this baby! I can't wait to see the finished product now. My vision is locked as to what it will look like. The 1955 apron brought in to the 2010 era. I'll have to show lots of discipline to actually wrap it and send it off. I feel like a piece of me leaves when one of my masterpieces goes! I think this will turn out to be a really cute apron that started with a "no-no". Sometimes bad students can reformed.

Flirty Apron Swap

I received my apron from Teresa in Washington from the Flirty Apron Swap (FlirtyApronSwap.blogspot.com). I loved all the goodies Teresa sent. She did a fantastic job on my apron and even made the little "boo" door hanger. She is most definitely a professional seamstress!

We went out of town on Tuesday to San Marcus for a nite away. I've been working around 70 hours a week and seem to be passing my husband in the hallway. It was his birthday so I took off for a couple of days. No work, no phone calls but also no Chloe Belle! She stayed home and guarded the farm. Tuesday we shopped the outlet malls in San Marcus. Oh Victoria Secret Outlet store is to die for! Such bargins! A nice dinner, a nice hotel room and then on Wednesday on to Gruene, Texas! A quaint little historical town just a few miles from San Marcus. For those Country Music Lovers, that's where George Strait got his start. It's got the oldest honkey tonk in the world there (Gruene Hall) and Lots of antiquing! I found a beautiful set of 6 white demask white linen napkins (of course I bought them!), a beautiful table runner with hand embroderied PINK flowers (yes, I bought that too) and then best for last .. a darling vintage sheer apron. It's blue with pink flowers and I love the design. I'll surely make a pattern using it for future apron swaps! Oh, did I mention I bought it too? lol.... and the best part of the apron was it was only $4 !!!!

Then on to home to get ready for back to work today. I posted pics today on FAS for everyone to see the fantastic package Teresa sent me. And voila .. notice Shawnee has her Christmas apron swap up and ready to go! I guess I'll have to force myself to sign up for that one too! lol This is going to be addicting!

Thanks again, Teresa for my wonderful package(decorateandredesign.typepad.com) and thank you Shawnee for all you do so we can all enjoy these swaps.

Ready for Some Cool Weather

Here we are .. way past labor day and it's still so hot here in Texas! Today it was 98. It's so hard to look at all the fall decorations and get in the mood for Halloween and Thanksgiving when you are sweating to death!
I'm anxiouly awaiting the next apron swap from Shawnee. I wanted to do the last one, but with just moving I hadn't a clue where my sewing stuff was. So, I've rushed to unpack some and get ready for this next fall apron swap so hopefully I can get in it!
I'll just keep checking the postings each day and hope the registration is up! In the meantime ... I'll stay under the fan and wait on our Texas Fall.

My First Post

Here I am on my very first blog. It's so plain .. I have so much work to do to spruce it up so it looks like "me". I'm in the process of moving so my page might be a bit bland for awhile, but it will grow .. just watch and see!