Mandatory Update

Ahem...I’ve been advised to update my blog. 

So here I am, if only to prove that I am alive & kickin!

For starters (and really just to be polite & get it out of the way) I hope that you all enjoyed a lovely holiday season. 

I, for one, mustered up just enough enthusiasm to survive & fake it for the kiddo’s sake. As a parent, I couldn’t not decorate & play the part – no matter how Grinchy I feel on the inside I still believe in trying to create a little magic for the youngsters. 

But now that it's all over & the decorations have been packed & carted back upstairs to the attic, can a Mama just scream say HALLLLL-LELUJAH?

Welcome 2012 ~ I already love you just for bringing a fresh start!

This year is going pretty momentous for my gang. My little kid will finish elementary school  (*sniffle*), my middle kid will graduate high school (whoot!!), my older kid will turn 21 (holy shit!) and in between all that Mama will turn 40 (HOLLA!!) ~ and we are all ready!

Although I usually resolve not to make “New Year’s Resolutions” because I lack the stick-to-it-ivness generally required, this year I did. I decided to implement a motto for life: To Thine Own Self Be True. I'm also planning on permanently inking this into my skin just as soon as I find a font & a size I can live with for all eternity. And one you can still read when I'm Eleventy-five years old.

It may not be original but it’s a brand new concept to me. Kind of a shame it’s taken 40 years, huh? But as my friend Alan (of Hangover fame) would say, WHATEV's.  

And now on to my adventures in sewing...

I joined a quilting group…that's right. A quilting group. Or bee. Go ahead, laugh at me & my granny’ish activities, I’ll wait…happy to amuse you….finished yet? Ok good. I joined a quilting group that meets once a month for a “lock in” at night. Oh yeah, I said a Lock In At Night...plus potluck & wine...did yo' Grandmammy's quilt-bee party that hard? I think not!


A friend I met during my early days of coordinating the Stitch & Bitch group is a member of the group & has been inviting me to join ever since I brought home my Singer. I have to tell you I’m glad I finally went & wish I'd gone sooner, it’s really encouraging & super inspirational. (BTW: I’m working on my first quilt now – it’s not going so hot but I intend to finish it regardless. More on that in the near future, along with pics.)

I’ve also been “commissioned” (that sounds so funny!) to make some crock pot covers for cold, hard, cash. As much as I love me some whimsy, I’m not one to dress up my toaster or my toilet paper. However, when someone approaches me with a profitable project in which they want their toaster or toilet paper (or this case, crockpots) all dolled up, I’m so down.

But it hasn’t been easy.

You know how they say that if you can imagine it, you can find it on the internet? Well, leave it to me to imagine the one thing you can’t find. You cannot find a sewing pattern for an oval crockpot cover. 

Other appliances, yes. Crockpots? No sir.

I found an Etsy seller who makes a nice quilted cover, but she doesn’t sell the pattern.

I also found this Etsy seller who sells a pattern for a skirt, but it’s not a cover. (I still bought it. You never know when I will change my mind & start dressing my appliances.)

So what’s a sewista to do? 

Well, unfortunately, she is left to her own devices & elementary school skills. And since "she" is me and since those elementary skills include math (ack!), it was a little bit touch & go.

I turned the ceramic insert upside down & traced it, measured around the base unit & then cut fabric accordingly. A few hems,  487 straight pins and voila, this was made:

Please don’t judge the Brady’s Hawaiian Vacation batik cotton print, it serves its purpose for the prototype, m’kay? And in case you feel the need to play Captain Obvious and point out that it’s not very fancy, just know that I already know that. In fact, it may very well be the polar opposite of fancy. But after a text message confirmation, it’s exactly what she wants. And that is all that matters: customer satisfaction.

I haven’t really been up to much else. Life is fairly boring quiet right now. Just taking it all one day at a time & trying to pay the bills – you know how that is! Well, not you Bill Gates. Or you, Oprah.

Oh - one last little thing I wanted to share is this little quote from a friend….

“When people hurt you over & over again…

Think of them like a sand paper and you like a wood…

They may scratch & hurt you a bit…

But in the end…

You end up polished and they end up useless.”

Although I no longer allow “the crazies” to directly affect my daily life, there is one crotchety old hag that still hangs on - her every breath dedicated to lying & hurting for personal gain. Sometimes when I feel bitter about having to have put up with her ugliness for so long I stop & thank my lucky stars that at least I don’t live in the misery that is her life. Especially now as there is about to be some legal ramifications for her shady ways….haha! 

KARMA is AWESOME!

And so are these: