Baby, Baby

The past two afternoons I have been working away on my sewing instead of my quilting and have thoroughly enjoyed my time and the end results. Monday I picked up this wonderful new fabric at Hobby Lobby and am excited because now only can I use it for my baby patterns but I am also going to use it for a graduation gift, pictures on that will come soon. 
Here is a sneak peak of what I did yesterday and if you check out the Baby Shop you can see the other baby items that I have now completed including a second tactile blanket, a bib, burp cloth, and portable changing pad. If you would like to purchase any of the items please let me know. The first person who purchases two items receives the burb cloth FREE as I'm going to make alterations to the pattern so that it's improved (at least in my mind it'd be improved.) 

The ribbons for the tactile blankets are hand and machine stitched. All items are stitched and top stitched in a zig zag pattern as seen below: 

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain. For a minute or two I couldn't figure out what the sound was but once I realized it was rain I was super excited. We have been watering our lawn like crazy in order to get it to bounce back and I have been praying for rain so we can get some "free water". Our lawn will hopefully start bouncing back a little more and we are aerating it in the next few days so that will help also. 


The rain and impending summer also made me think of my favorite place on earth, Lutheran Island Camp. Even after visiting 7 foreign countries there is no place I would rather be than on the Island. So many wonderful memories and experiences are associated with the Island that make it my favorite place. One of those memories is associated with rain. It had rained for a day or two and I didn't have a raincoat as I had forgotten it at home for the summer and a 75% chance of rain was in the forecast for the next few days. So two of my fellow camp employees went into town and I asked if they could pick me up a poncho and they agreed. Low and behold they return with a Men's Poncho! Now, I am not opposed to this and the one coworker really tried to get Porter to buy me a children's size as I am only 5'4" but he insisted that a children's size would be too small for me and purchased the men's size I believe is 6'3 frame is what influenced his decision and needless to say this poncho went to my ankles! I definitely did not have to worry about getting wet, I could swing my back pack on, put my poncho over top and still had room for my crutches under my poncho (yes, I also had a newly sprained ankle at this point of the summer) 


This experience and the week of impending rain is a wonderful memory and a wonderful reminder that a flood will never take over the entire earth again. When I'm praying for rain and we receive it or don't receive it I am reminded that "Every good and perfect gift comes from above." Jame 1:17. And even when a friend over compensates from me, he was willing to purchase something on my behalf and thus the purchase is still wonderful. And 9 years later I still have the poncho. 

Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day I made the conscious choice today that I would hang laundry outside on the line. Growing up we hung everything on the line but our backyard was next to a cornfield so no one saw the line, now living in town I limit my laundry to sheets and towels. I always feel a little green and money saving when I hang laundry out and oh the smell of fresh sheets hung out to dry, amazing! 

I actually grew up in a family who was big into reduce, reuse, recycle. We recycled everything, paper, cardboard, plastic, glass you name it we recycled. I can't tell you how many bread bags and Ziploc bags I washed and rewashed. We reused aluminum foil and all gifts were opened with a knife so that the wrapping paper could be reused. To this day I have a hard time ripping into gift wrap because I feel I am being wasteful. I don't wash Ziploc bags any longer but I also avoid using them at all costs. I use reusable containers for lunch and if I take my lunch to work in a plastic bag it gets used until it is ripping and then I recycle it at the local grocery store. But I also avoid using plastic bags and have a wide variety, about 20 reusable bags of varying sizes, that I use when I go shopping. My favorite place to use my reusable bags are Target and Family Thrift Center because they give me 5 cents off per bag I use per shopping trip. Being paid to go green, I love it! 
How are you going green today and every day?

Golfing

Five years ago my then boyfriend, now husband, said that he always wanted to have something that he and his significant other "do together" and he asked if I would go golfing with him, I immediately said yes! Of course I said yes, I loved this man and I wanted to be with him so golfing was only a minor bump or so I thought. 


That year I borrowed clubs from a friend and started my attempt at golfing. My attempts were interesting, the irons I had were still true irons so they were heavy and frustration was high. There was a time or two or three when I would through the clubs. At least I never broke any. The following year my fiance bought me my own clubs. Now I was set my irons were no longer heavy, I wasn't going to throw brand new clubs no matter how frustrated I became and all would go well. 


Needless to say I still was no good at golfing nor did I go often enough to improve much.
The past three years I've probably gone golfing less than 10 times and have been to the driving range a few times but this year is going to be different. Actually this year is already different, I have bee to the range three times and have done 2 rounds of 9! I am not playing church or city league softball this summer so my summer will be golfing. I decided in March that going golfing once a week was a must. I'm going to pretend that I'm in a league, even if it is a league of one, but it will be a strong league.

Last night, when Barry and I finished golfing, he thanked me! I had no idea why he thanked me so I replied with "You're welcome but I'm not really certain what you're thanking me for." He said "We finally have something that we can "do together". That makes golfing worth it any day of the week and golfing is definitely a re-purposed step in my life.