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! 

Eventful Weekend

So much happened this weekend, yet, I feel like I didn't get much done.  And truthfully, I didn't get much done off my to-list, but a lot of stuff that needed to get done, got done.

First of all, I got my sweater punkins made:

I first saw these from Rachel at My Happily Ever After, who found the tutorial over at Small Fry and Co.  They do such a good job with it, I'm not gonna go into the gory details of it, but whether you are a seamstress or not, these were so easy to make.  I tried to find sweaters at the Goodwill that I didn't think anyone would wear, but I still had a hard time hacking up a perfectly good sweater.  But they made great centerpieces for my dining room table.  And I still have lots of sweater left of the gold and white ones because I only used the sleeves for those!

And we did a big cleaning of the house.  Hubs was especially excited about that.  He's a clean freak.  I am not.  But I'm trying my best to keep it clean so we won't have so much work to do at Christmas.  That's really what took up most of my time on Saturday.  Between that and the preschool Fall Festival at church.  We aren't preschool workers, but our youth were helping to run booths, so we were also helping.  I also put on about 12 quarts of vegetable soup for my Mother-in-law's birthday party on Sunday.

So skip ahead to Sunday, after church we finished throwing together the birthday party.  This included making 2 dozen cornbread muffins and decorating a giant pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  The whipped cream melted and made a mess of the pie, but luckily it was store bought and I didn't feel like I had too much invested in it.  Everybody said it tasted good.  But we had a lot of fun and a lot of food!

Hubs's mom (and dad) blowing out candles.  That's her mother on the other side.  Can you believe that Hubs's grandmother will be 90 next month?!  (Don't tell her I told...)

Me and Emma, my middle niece.  She is a girl after my own heart.  She wanted to know what projects I was working on and was thrilled about my sewing room.  She's also the one who always makes sure I can come to her birthday parties.

Then on Sunday night we had our crazy bunch of Middle Schoolers over for Small Groups.  We decided that the snack for that night was going to be pancakes.  Hubs made about 50 pancakes and they were all gone by the end of the night.  Along with some ice cream, about half of the left over pumpkin pie and a few bags of chips.  They will eat you out of house and home!  And did I mention, that we had chocolate and strawberry syrups and whipped cream for the pancakes?  They took over that.

That's our pastor's daughter with her mouth open.

And her mom and dad lead High School Small Groups

They're crazy, but I love them!  

It's Friday Y'all!

Wait...what's that...oh yeah...it's only Thursday.  Well it's my Friday.  I'm off tomorrow!  I feel justified in gloating a bit because while all of y'all were talking about Labor Day plans and posting pictures of days at the lake and beach and what not, I was working. 

There.  Got my little bit of meaness out. 

I'm excited to be going to the beach this weekend with Hubs and my Sunday School class.  We've rented a rather large condo at Cherry Grove (North Myrtle Beach) and are going to be on our way come 9 AM tomorrow.  It's only about a 4.5 hour drive from here in the Upstate, and we're planning on eating at  restaraunt in Florence.  I'll get a chance to use my new duffel bag and hopefully wear some of my new clothes.

I wasn't originally planning on wearing my new clothes since they are all fallish, but my last check of the weather says that the high for the weekend is 75, and since it's been around 95 here this week, I'm calling that fall.  I've decided to share my fashion choices for the weekend and hopefully there will be pictures to follow next week.

This Shirt...

with these jeans...

And I would love to have some of these to go with it.  I'll have to look for some at the Crocs outlet.

Shirt:  Old Navy Women's Camp Shirt in Brown Plaid $24.94 
Jeans:  Old Navy Women's Wide Leg Trouser Jeans in Rinse $34.50 
Shoes:  Crocs Wrapped Loafer in Espresso/Espresso $69.99

This shirt with an almost olive green cami...

With these jeans in Dark Fade (not the color shown here)

With these sandals in Brown

Shirt: Old Navy Women's Rib Knit Henley in Lemon Decadence $14.00 

Jeans: Old Navy Women's The Flirt Bootcut Jeans $29.50

Sandas:  Old Navy Women's Double Buckle T-Strap Sandals $18.99

I'll probably also take my neon Old Navy Performance Fleece pullover and a few of their Perfect T's.  I promise Old Navy didn't reimburse me for anything I've said here, though I wish they had.  I love Old Navy clothes because 1) they are cheap.  No use in spending a fortune on a highly trendy piece that won't be in style next year 2) their clothes are made for women.  You know with curves and all, yet most of their X Smalls fit me.  3) they sell petite sizes online and have a great return policy.  I can buy a petite size online, and if it doesn't fit, I take it back to the store.  4) Their stuff is just too darn cute!

I might take a bathing suit.  Just because we are going to the beach.  But I can't promise I'll put it on...

Glorious Weekend!

This past weekend was one of those that you hate to see end.  God knew that I have been having a hard time here latetly (of course He did, He's God, He knows everything).  There's been a number of different factors between my job, happenings at church and just not getting to see my husband enough.  I was off on Friday, Hubs unfortunately was not, but that gave me an opportunity to go to All About Fabrics in my good ol' hometown of Williamston.  Williamston, like many good southern towns, was big into textiles.  There are at list 3 different textile mill buildings all in one place.  But like many good southern textile towns, the mills have been closing.  A company called Phoenix of Anderson bought one building, though, and moved in their wholesale cost fabric store! 

It's a massive expanse of fabric at wholesale, or below, prices.  Most of it it heavier weight fabric, like upholstery, canvas, outdoor, and vinyl, but there are some good selections of flannel and fleece.  If you're looking for quilting cotton, you're probably better off going to the fabric store when they have a sale, but if you use designer quilting fabric, they have a pretty good selection (I don't like to pay designer prices when there are other things that are just as pretty).  So I went Friday when I had a lot of time.  I decided to head straight for the zippers, because I needed some.  They sell Coats and Clark zippers for $0.50 for zippers under 20 in and $1 for zippers over 20 in.  I had roughly $11 worth of zippers by the time it was all over with.  So I decided to move on.  I headed for the back where they sell remnants by the pound.  I needed some heavier weight stuff for my market bags.  Decorator remnants are $4.50 a pound, so I gathered up a zebra print, a turqoise damask on white fabric, a white polka dot on pink fabric, and a grey and yellow damask (I still don't know what the obsession with yellow and grey is, but as long as it will sell, I'll buy it).  Then I decided to look around a bit more.  I found velvet remnants for $4.00 a pound.  This will be perfect for putting in the jewelry rolls.  I also found, in all it's shining glory, cheetah print micro plush for $5 a pound.  I bought the 3 pound mass that they had there (only one!).  When I measured it at home, it was roughly 5 yards of 60 in fabric!  That will be lining the jacket I wrote about in the last post instead of flannel.  When I was done (read afraid to spend any more money), I went to the register to have all my stuff weighed and tallied up.  I set my mass of zippers on the counter top and prepared for the girl to start counting.  Instead she picked them all up, put them on the scale, then wrote "Pound of Zippers--$2.00" on the ticket.  Are you kidding me!?!?!  I bought 21 zippers for $2!  That's how much I pay for ONE 7 in zipper at Hancock!  I went back the next day and got another pound of zippers.  My zipper collection is ridiculous right now.

Friday I also got my hair highlighted by one of my best friends.  Tabatha's in cosmetology school and I went up there to get me some awesome highlights.  She did a great job!  I'll have pictures soon.

Between Friday and Saturday I finished the wholesale order.  I'm gonna take some more pictures before I ship them off because I have extra fabric of some of them.  I'll put those in my shop I suppose.

Saturday night, Hubs and I went on a date for the first time in a while.  We went to Texas Roadhouse (because Hubs says they have the best ribs ever) and then Yogo Express in Anderson. 

  We also picked up some bones for Ike Beast at Tractor Supply Company. 

Sunday was the most amazing because Pastor Joe, our senior adult pastor, preached.  Preacher Mark, our usual pastor, was on vacation.  Pastor Joe talked about seizing the opportunites that God gives us to witness to people and to draw people in to church.  One of my favorite quotes was, "Church is not a country club, it's a hospital."  People who know God and feel they have a good life don't need church like people who are searching for something more and hurting.  It's our job to take care of those people.  He also talked about how when we are in line with God, He will give us the desires of our heart.  Exclusive of that, on Sunday night, Tyler, our summer youth pastor, talked about the same thing.  When our desires are God's desires, then God gives us what we want.  This has helped me make a big decision that I've been struggling with.  After church Sunday night, we went to Zaxby's and went bowling with the High School Youth.  We normally take care of the Middle Schoolers, but the high school, and high school leaders begged us to go.  It was a lot of fun and very encouraging.  I honestly haven't felt God in the church like I did Sunday in a long time.  It was nice to know he's there.   

Wow.  That was a lot.  Anything good from your weekend?