Katy, over at No Bill Dill, had a blog post yesterday about her first memories of sewing.  It got me thinking about my first memories of sewing.  I was impressed that she actually had the item that she had stitched as a young child.   Then, last night, I suddenly remembered the little paper dolls that I had…actually my youngest daughter now has them.  And they aren’t made from paper, they are made from some type of plastic.

I got them when I was about five years old.  My grandmother’s church always had a bizarre at Christmas and spring time.  All the church women would make crafts to sell at the bizarre.  I purchased these wonderful dolls and played with them constantly  I immediately realized that they didn’t come with enough clothes and I had to make more!

(I don’t think I named the dolls until several years later…as I can see by the cover of the folder!)

I remember asking my mom for some material.  She had just finishing sewing an Easter dress for me and had some left over material.  So, I cut out some outfits for my dolls.  I don’t know if you would exactly call this “stitching”….it was more like cutting and gluing.  But I did have to stitch on the snaps….and it took a long time to sew on all those snaps!

But I did keep the dolls, all these years.   And my children all loved playing with them!

I can’t believe school started today!  And I can’t believe how different Tuesday and Quinn look compared to last year!  Last year, they looked so much younger…but then again, back then, I thought they looked so much older!

Tuesday had more confidence going off to school today….she’s a pro at middle school!

Quinn loves school and is always so excited when summer ends and school begins!  He decided he wanted his hair short and I don’t even recognize him!  He has had his hair long for such a long time!

Our town library is huge!  I mean HUGE!  It used to be a very small town library that was warm and cozy…but they knocked it down and built a humungous 21 million dollar library!  I still can’t believe it cost that much money!  It is a nice library, but I actually miss the old library.  The new library is so massive and cold feeling.  It seems like a lot of wasted space and energy!

But we go to the library a lot!  River loves it there.  Besides the books, one of River’s favorite things about the library is the statue outside.  It is called “Sunday Morning” by sculptor J Seward Johnson.   The library had it on loan for two years, but when the two years ended, the library purchased it through donations and fund raising….it was a bargain for only $65,000!  I guess when the library costs $21 million, what is another $65,000!

She loves to stand on the statue plaque and pretend she is a statue..but then she starts to giggle….Quinn told her to sit by the statue and they would both pretend they were statues…that just made her giggle more!…but Quinn was good at being a statue!

Since Summer is almost over….we had to have one of our favorite meals……corn on the cob and fried tomatoes.  Sometimes I serve this with some type of rice, but this time I decided to make a 5 bean salad that is served with feta cheese and hard boiled eggs.  It was quite delicious…..

Yay, we have a piano!  We have always wanted one, but just never had the extra money.  Well, this weekend, we found someone who was getting rid of their paino…..actually, they were throwing it away!!!  Who throws away a piano!  Luckily, my friend, who lived nearby, and has grown boys, helped us put it into the mini van.  Then, when we got it home, Christopher and my father-in law, along with our neighbor and his two sons helped get it into the house!  Right now, it is sitting in the foyer…but I think I like it there!  We figured we might as well decide if we like it there before we move it anywhere else!   River loves it.  She can’t wait to learn how to play!

I can’t wait to search for a really cool and funky piano bench!

My name is Oscar Husqvarna.  I’m a 12 year old sewing machine from Sweden.  I’m a traditional machine, looking for a long-term committed relationship.

While I have a wonderful seamstress, I have yet to meet the serger of my dreams.  My perfect serger would have 4 thread sewing, an adjustable stitch length and a can-do attitude.

I have a playful personality, but I’m a hard worker who believes in team work.  I’m a reliable machine whose favorite projects are quilts and home décor.

I love the outdoors, taking romantic walks in the park, and keeping all my feet and needles well maintained.

I’m interested in looking for someone who can help me embellish knits, improve my hems, and put the finishing touches on a sexy cocktail dress.

I’m looking for a serger that I can settle down with  and I dream of one day hearing the pitter- patter of little bobbins.

If you are a serger, looking for a good sewing machine to work on the rest of your  projects with you, let’s get together for a simple pattern and see where it leads….

This summer, we’ve been having WAY too many of these!  They are much cheaper to make yourself than going to Starbucks..especially when you are having 3 at a time!  I normally don’t let my children drink coffee..but hey, it’s summer time!

I just add ice, coffee, chocolate syrup, some milk and a tiny bit of sugar…..mix it up in the blender….top with whip cream and add a bit more chocolate or caramel sauce…and you have it….a yummy summer treat!

I love having dishes that don’t match.  But I have a hard time finding places that sell dishes a la carte.  Well, I discovered that Pier 1 Imports sells them individually……so I picked up four dishes to replace ones that have broken over the past few months….I love them!

Some day it will have 365 stories…some day.

I can’t believe we started the book six years ago. I must say I had hoped to have all the days filled in by now. But, life got in the way…..

Sometimes Quinn will write the story and do the illustrations, sometimes Tuesday will draw the pictures and Quinn will write the stories or sometimes I will make the story! It is a little bit of everything..all creative!!

It actually is quite fun that the stories are spanning many years. We started it when Quinn was only 4 years old and River wasn’t even around! Now she is old enough to start working on some stories. On holidays or special occasions, it is fun to see what type of story the kids come up with to memorialize that event! They love going back and reading the stories over and over again!

It’s that time of year again..time to get ready for school! One of the items I buy every year, for each of my children, is a new memory box. They aren’t anything fancy, just a large tupperware style container. Each one of them has one from preschool onward.

They keep them in their rooms and they love to look through them from time to time. Instead of starting a new memory box each year, we start them each new school year. That way they are organized by grade level. The rule is..once the memory box is full…no more stuff goes into it…so they need to edit what they want to keep and what they want to throw out. They can put whatever they want into their memory boxes..not just stuff from school…tokens, tickets stubs..whtever!