One of Those Weekends...

I know that I promised a caution sign for negative posts.  There's not one here, but I'm not apologizing.  It's not all going to be negative.  In fact, my plan is to make it funny.

This Saturday did not turn out at all like I had planned.  I woke up in a foul mood.  Thus, I was in a foul mood all day.  I couldn't get my mind wrapped around what project I wanted to tackle.  I should have known not to tackle anything too hard. 

The first plan was to do my second pin-up style knock off.  But the shirt that I was going to refashion no longer fit (darn the local Mexican restaurant).  So I decided to make the dress I wanted with the beautiful navy blue ponte knit that I bought for way too much.  I needed to do this.  After all, I finally had my red wedges to match that I had been in search of.  But as I was winding my bobbin, my thread ran out.  I had to go to two different stores to find some navy thread. 

All was made better for a while when I got home and X-Men Origins was on.  Even as a mutant, Hugh Jackman is one fine man. 

Then I commenced to making the dress.  Nothing went as planned.  I think the dress was mutating on me.  I finally decided that it wasn't going to turn out how I had imagined.  I changed my game plan and started redesigning. 

Until I accidentally cut the straps off. 

I think I threw it across the room.  I'm not sure.  I was in that mode where I just threw things.  I know I threw the mayonnaise jar across the kitchen.  Thankfully those are no longer made of glass. 

But all hope is not lost!  I still think I can salvage a decent dress from what I had.  I was just so frustrated that I couldn't think of anything besides my "failure."  I'm so self concious aboug failing.  It has always seemed like the world was just waiting on me to fail.  I've always felt like there were very few people who liked me.  I'm not really sure if that's the truth, or if it's just a lie that Satan planted in my little middle schooler brain 15 years ago that somehow flourishes.  Even if it is true, I KNOW there are some really great people who do love me.  Even and especially when I do "fail."  And to all of those people who fall into that category, thank you.  You know who you are :) 

But the only ones who never fail are those who never try anything new.  I can tell myself that now. 

So now the hunt is on for a shirt to refashion.  And my seam ripper is going to get a lot of love.

But this weekend, I'm going to Dollywood again with Hubs, my Mama and Daddy, and Sam and Megan, my brother and his girlfriend.  So unless the urge hits me after work one day.  There ain't nothing in that sewing room getting much love this week! 

Knock it Off!

I love knocking stuff off.  I'm sure there's something wrong with that.  But I love it.  I always have.  I have boxes of beads and shells from making hemp jewelry when I was in middle school and early high school.  I didn't want to pay $10 (which was a lot to a 12 year old back then) for a necklace I could make for about $3.  Plus I got the satisfaction of knowing that I made it.  I think I've always been very analytical.  I can look at stuff and figure out what went into making it.  I've always been good at spatial things, like geometry.  I think that was one of my favorite classes in high school and I did really well in physics in college.  I just like figuring stuff out.  And it's awesome when all of that combines into something more useful than what time two trains will collide. 

All that being said.  I found this dress at Belk a few weeks ago.

Source: belk.com via Evan on Pinterest



(Yes, I succumbed to Pinterest, I feel like a sell out)

But I did find this dress in real life at Belk.  There were just a few problems.  1) It was in the junior's department.  Some things I can get away with in the junior's dept. like T-shirts.  Not dresses.  2) Coming from the junior's dept. it was very short and see through.  People complain about what hoochie mama's today's teenagers are becoming.  Part of the problem is that mamas are buying the hoochie mama clothes for their teenagers.  OK, getting off the soap box now.  3) The print is all wrong for me.  Petite girls should wear petite prints.  Not giant butterflies gracing their naughty bits. 

So I studied the dress in the store while the Clinique lady wondered what I was doing to the poor hanging half mannequin thing and remembered it for the day I found the perfect fabric.  Little did I know it wouldn't be long before I found it. 

I found this wonderful cotton knit at Hancock for $3 a yard!  $3!  And I used less than 2 yards.  So that's a new dress for less than $6.  It kind of has an Indian feel to the print.  But it's in dominantly berry color.  I love berry color.  And I got some practice matching stripes.  I'm wearing a long sleeve T-shirt under it because it was cold that day and I couldn't wait to wear my  new dress, but the little white panel in front is sewn in so I won't have to wear a cami underneath in the summer.  And the fabric is such better quality than what's in the stores. 

I'm in love.

So my next knock off project is in the works.  Because I think it's senseless to pay $200 on sale for a bag just because it says Michael Kors.  Did he sign it?  Sew it together himself?  Guaratee it free of defects in workmanship?  Write you a personal thank you note for shopping his brand?  Even if he did, there's no sense in spending that kind of money for a bag that will go out of style next season.  Just sayin'. 

Supporting the March of Dimes!

Hey everyone!  This is going to be a short-ish post with a lot of horn blowing advertising.  BUT...it's for a good cause.  I have a friend from church who has an adorable baby named Ruthie.  Ruthie was born at only 24 weeks and spent her first 3.5 months in the NICU.  Ruthieis doing much better now, but sadly, Jay, Gina and Ruthie aren't the first family that has had to go through this and they won't be the last. 

The March of Dimes aims to help more babies be born healthy and full term.  Gina will be walking in and Ruthie stroller riding in a Greenville March of Dimes event in October.  I'm helping her to raise money with this little cutie:

This is the Ruthie Bag.  Made with colors and prints that Ruthie loves.  It's small, but very versatile and sells for $15 in Evan Becky's Gift Shop.  Good news is, that $10 of that will go to Gina's efforts to raise money for her walk.

So go check it out!  You'd be getting a cute bag and helping babies! 

1st Day to 5K

I honestly can't recall if I've ever said anything about my excercise habits on my blog.  I know I've mentioned a few things about losing some weight, but not much more than that.  So here goes.

I've struggled with my weight since I was in middle school when I started drinking Diet Dr. Pepper.  I started getting chunky and just never lost it.  I loved eating too much.  I would try one thing after another and nothing really worked for me being a teenager with self esteem issues and no will power.  I got up to 135 lbs. by the middle of my junior year of high school.  You're probably laughing now because that's probably a healthy weight for a lot of people.  I'm 5'1".  If I gain 2.5 lbs, I look like I've gained 5.  So I finally decided to get the weight off by eating lots of small meals and dairy products.  It didn't help that I was running around like a wild thing between band practices.  I finally got down to 110 by my senior year.

I gained some in college, lost some elsewhere, gained a lot after getting married, lost some more working 2nd shift then gained some more after starting my new job.  My weight rarely stays steady.  I know that's not exactly good, but I'm trying my best to keep it in the healthy range. 

Although I look healthy enough though, I rarely exercise.  I hate it.  I cannot understand someone who loves to exercise (like Hubs).  There is nothing fun about working yourself until you are sick, and then hurting for the next 4 days because of it.  I get no self satisfaction out of it.  More than exercising, I hate running.  I was always the kid who ended the game of tag because I couldn't run for long enough to make the game interesting.  I was the girl who was judged unfairly in PE because I couldn't run constantly for 20 minutes whereas my peers on the championship Cross Country team could run for the whole hour and a half if they wanted to.  I still feel like I'm mocked when I say that I can't run a whole, or maybe even half a lap around the 1/4 mile track at the high school. Especially when my friends are always posting on Facebook how they just had a great 3 mile run.  I would love to be able to run, but I can't.

I have a bad taste in my mouth about running.

And considering my record with running, I wasn't about to go and spend money on a "Couch Potato to 5K" program.  Especially since I've noticed that "Couch Potato to 5K" probably means "Someone who already can run at least a mile non stop to someone who wants to win a 5K."

Then I started reading about interval training.  If you know nothing of interval training like I did, it's basically when you walk/jog at a slow speed for a period of time, then jog/run at a faster speed for a period of time and just alternate between those speeds.  At first I thought I'd bombed it again.  I found a program that the slow speed was faster than I could run anyway, so I knew I couldn't keep that pace.  But while trying and failing at that attempt, I did find a song in my arsenal that was comfortable to walk to.  So I put my phone on repeat and kept the beat.  Being a marching band dork, this pleased me, a lot.  So after that, I went in search of songs with similar beats per minute (bpm).  I was fully prepared to buy some new music just so I could keep myself entertained, but I found this:

      Podrunner Intervals 1st Day to 5K

It's a free 9 week series of music downloads that follows the 1st Day to 5K plan.  Just download the music to your music device, hit play and keep up with the beats per minute (each beat = 1 step).  It's not music from the latest top 20.  It's actually not music that many people have even heard.  Kind of techno-y, tribal-y, funky-y.  But the important thing is that it makes me exercise.  And I can do it.  I actually just speed walk the whole time.  I'm so short and my steps are so quick I can walk fast and not have to run.  I actually cover more ground walking fast that trying to jog at that pace, and I can't stand to see someone "jogging" when I can walk faster, then hearing them say "What a great run!"  Isn't the purpose of running to get somewhere faster than if you are walking?  Ok, sorry for that caveat.  It just had to be said.

Anyway.  I've been at it for two weeks now, and I feel so much better.  I'm not sore because I'm walking, something I do all the time, and I don't feel like I'm dying from the invisible knife that stabs me in the side when I try to run.  Yet I'm still getting the cardio exercise that our bodies need.  And I'm gradually covering more ground in less time.  I probably won't be ready to enter a 5K race at the end of the program since I'm walking.  That would be quite embarassing to step off the line power walking.  But I'm one step closer to having better cardio endurance.  And I get to spend some time with Hubs walking the 1/8 mile track at our local fire dept. 

And maybe I've given someone else the motivation to start doing something healthy by writing this post.

Spanking Children Leads to Lower IQ?

Yesterday I read this article online:

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/spanking-may-lower-child-s-iq-canadian-study-4714229

And I'll be honest here.  I was a little upset.  Actually quite bothered. 

I'll offer a disclaimer here.  As many of you know, I do not have kids.  I love them, and want some one day but don't have any of my own yet.  At this point, many parents may quit reading because you may think that I don't have a valid opinion on child rearing if I don't have any children myself.  Please stick with me though.

The article states in short that spanking a child lowers their IQ.  There are also hints in there that claim that spanking makes a child socially awkward.  The thing that bothered me most about this article was the fact that they said that there were no studies where spanking created a positive outcome.  And this may be true.  But I know where they can find some adults who would be considered positive outcomes if they were ever studied.

I was spanked.  Well and often.  My brother Sam was even more so than I was.  We grew up in mild fear of a paint stirring stick emblazoned with the words "True Value."  Also in fear of a wooden spoon at one grandmother's house and a fly swatter at the other.  My father grew up in mild fear of one of his grandmother's bedroom slippers.  And we all knew exactly what a hickory was even though it may have come from a yellow bell or an azalea bush.

Here's the catch.

Excuse the blowing of my own horn. 

I graduated at the top of my high school class with a GPA closer to 5.0 than 4.0.  I started playing piano when I was 8 and the clarinet when I was 11.  I was on my high school yearbook staff, was in the marching, concert, and jazz bands, was in the National Honor Society.  Furthermore, I was Drum Major my senior year of marching band and president of the National Honor Society.  I got a load of scholarship money and was a finalist for my college's biggest scholarship.  When I went to college, I was part of the drama honor society and the Women's Chorale.  After earning that BS in Biology I went through a program that earned me a second BS in Medical Technology in just 1.5 years and graduated with honors. 

Now for Sam.

Sam played piano when he was 7, alto saxophone when he was 11 and guitar sometime in high school.  He also played soccer through high school and was very active in our church youth group.  Sam was anything but socially awkward.  He was also in the Beta Club.  He took computer repair classes and graduated from high school with honors in the top 25 of his class.  He went on to Clemson University where he's majoring in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and on track to graduate with honors.  He's talking about going to grad school.

My point here is that we got spanked and it hasn't seemed to hurt us.  In fact Sam got spanked everyday for most of his childhood.  He would chase cats, bite me, chase chickens, give strangers the "stink eye," and rued the day that he told Mama to shut up.  I got spanked for fighting with Sam, for hitting Sam, for doing something Sam talked me into.  I wasn't a perfect angel and got plenty of my own spankings, but most were for things involving Sam.  But we both got it especially for getting an attitude with a grown up or "telling stories," Mama's euphemism for telling lies.  I would be afraid to meet either my brother, or myself now had we not been spanked as children.

Time outs wouldn't have worked for us.  For one thing, it just didn't bother us.  We knew we would go right back to playing in just a little while.  Mama and Daddy also raised us so that we had enough imagination, that sitting still and quiet in a corner for a length of time didn't bother us.  I could sit (and still do) imagine stories in my head without saying a word for a while.  I've seen Sam play with a stick and a rock as if they were the latest GI Joe with Karate Chop Action.  Mama sang songs to us, read stories with us, turned her hands red with Play Doh with us.  We didn't need the latest baby doll or action figure that did everything for us. 

Taking away privileges wouldn't have worked either.  Refer to above stick and rock example.  You can't take away every speck of lint away from a child.  Believe me, we would have found something to play with. 

So by instilling what I think is an amazing imagination in us, Mama relinquished two of the most popular discipline methods used today.  So, should she have limited our imagination and not spanked us? 

You may argue that this is my only point.  Sure my brother and I may have great imaginations, but we could have been smarter had we not been spanked.  If this is true, if we would have had a higher IQ if we had not been spanked, I'm still glad I got spanked.  I may not be a genius.  In fact, I really think I'm pretty average.  But what I possibly lack in IQ, I make up for in respect.  Sam and I grew up respecting people who were older than we were.  We learned that you couldn't whine and cry and get your way all the time.  We learned that you had to work hard to get what you want.  We learned that you have to be responsible, whether it's for a group you are leading, or for the consequences of your actions.  So even though it may have caused us to have lower IQs, I think that getting spanked was what allowed us to be good musicians, good students and good leaders.     

The important thing is that when we were spanked, it was out of love.  Our parents wanted us to be the best people we could be.  They didn't get some twisted joy out of hitting a child and making him cry.  They never spanked us out of anger, or left bruises.  If I was spanked now the way I was when I was a child, I'd actually probably laugh.  I always knew why I was getting a spanking.  Mama made sure that we knew.  We had to look her in the eyes and say we understood.  That also helped me understand why later she might not let me go to someone's birthday party or spend the night at someone else's house.  And I respected those decisions because she always explained why.  Sure we got a lot of spankings when we were young, but we hardly ever did when we were teenagers.  That's because we had learned early how to behave.  We had our moments, as do all teenagers, but I really hope that compared to some, Mama and Daddy didn't have a lot of trouble living with us two teenagers. 

Time outs and other disciplines may work for some parents.  If they do, great!  I'm not going to try to tell anyone how to raise their child.  That's for each family to determine on their own.  I'm just arguing that spanking shouldn't be taken away as a form of discipline as it has been in other countries.  I'm also stating that the above article may be a little short sighted by implying that nothing positive can come from spanking a child.

So I wasn't playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony when I was three.  Nor was I solving the quadratic equation when I was five.  How many kids, spanked or not, actually are?  I do know that I consider myself a respected member of my community.  And I don't think any drop in IQ I may have as a result of past spankings has hurt me.

At least I dont' sit in the corner by myself picking my nose.

A Few Wild Weeks...

I started writing a blog post several weeks ago.  Then I added on a few weeks later.  Then when I looked at it again I figured that everything was so out of date that I'd just better start over.

Amanda, here is your post ;) I didn't fall off the Earth.

I'm hoping now I can finally settle into a rhythm.  But you may be thinking, "Evan, you've been in your new job for two months now, and you still aren't in a rhythm?"  My answer:  Christmas Season.  Hubs and I have had to make so many changes and adjustments over the last two months.  Not bad changes, mind you, and I've spent much fewer hours crying and whining and moping. Which made me realize, I think I was looking for love and acceptance among the blog world because that was the only place I was getting any "human" interaction besides that of Hubs.  Working at the front desk of Daddy's local dental office where most people know me definitely has it's rewards there. 

So, nothing personal to any of my blog readers and any of you who I loyally followed, I have found that I no longer need my blog to try to find some purpose in my life besides my job.  Because that was formerly the only purpose I seemed to have. 

In keeping with tradition of my blog, here's what I've been up to.  With no pictures.  Sorry.  You'll get over it ;)

~Immigration day costume for my niece Emma including a crocheted hat.  She was Adelaide Bryant who immigrated from England in the 1900s.
~Elf costume for Emma which included a tulle puff slip, circle skirt and hat trimmed in faux fur and suspenders.  By the way, it looked like about 20 white cats had been sleeping in the sewing room floor after cutting that faux fur.
~Pillowcase dress for little cousin Emma (different one) with purple corduroy and lime green ruffle ribbon trim.
~Fleece jingle bell ball for little cousin Brentley following Jenilyn's tutorial here -->Baby Football Tutorial  Except mine made more of a round ball.  Not sure how that happened, but it was still cute and Brentley liked it before it was ever opened.
~Khaki purse with grommets and leopard print ribbon.  We gave it to Hubs's hair lady for Christmas.  I really regret not getting a picture of this at all, but it needs some design adjustments.
~A few wallet and bag orders for Christmas.  Things got sticky for a while since most of my orders came in the same week that Hub's uncle and aunt were in town from Arkansas.  But it got done!

Now I've got a few things that I want to make happen here in the next few weeks.

~I have a few friends having little ones soon.  Gonna make some diaper bags and accessories for those.
~Bought some fabric intended for diaper bags but dreamed up some cute bag combos in the process.  Got it prewashed today too.  Love All About Fabrics! 
~Gotta go to Hancock tomorrow and gets some fusible fleece, table cloth vinyl and some lining fabric.  And something else that will be a surprise to debut soon!

Oh!  And the newest thing that makes me quite happy!  For Christmas I got some "custom" insoles for my shoes since I have warped up feet that used to hurt all the time.  I put these insoles in some Alegria shoes, and this really is my new happy!  My feet haven't hurt in a whole week!  You have no idea how nice this is!

So...what's been new for you?

Keep Chugging!

So I have no internet access at home, and haven't for a week.  It should be fixed tomorrow.  And I'm still adjusting to my new schedule, although I can tell you that I like it much better than my previous arrangements.  So since I'm on my lunch break and still need to drop the old paycheck in the bank, I'm just giving you a quickie of what I've been up to.

~My favorite--an Immigration Day project for Emma.  She will be Adelaide Bryant who immigrated to the US from Liverpool, England in the 1900s.  It is so cute!  I'll post pictures when I have some.
~A wallet order
~A bag order
~I made my Dollywood bag and it is now doubling as a lunch box since I lined it with ripstop nylon.
~Mama told me she wants a bag like my pleated one too.  So that's to be done.

That's all for now.  Off to the bank!