Wow! What an Honor!

Wow! I just received an email that one of my hairbows is being featured on an Etsy Treasury. What an honor! Click here if you'd like to see it. The black and white bow on the top row is from my Etsy shoppe!

I Was Featured!

I forgot to mention that one of my headbands was featured on HeartHandmade blog! Number 4 is my gold and silver metallic headband!

I felt honored that they chose one of my creations for their blog.

It's a Jungle Out There

Remember this picture?

I posted this at the beginning of summer on the day we planted two little tomatoes in a bucket of Wal-Mart topsoil.

Look at them now!

It's a jungle of tomato plants! Sometimes it's hard to see the tomatoes nestled in the plant and the grass. It sure is fruitful! Next year we'll do it exactly the same.
Well, we might actually invest in some tomato cages next year.

They'll probably grow as tall as trees!

Snapshots

Gooseplums?

These are gooseplums. I'd never heard of a gooseplum, but Mrs. Lucas said we'd like them and we were anxious to try something new.

They are delicious!

They look like a big red grape. When you bite into it, it has the texture of a plum with a pit like a persimmon.

These gooseplums are the fruit we picked up off the ground. I thought I'd try to do something with them, but they were all eaten before I had a chance!

Even MORE Peach Pickin' Pictures!

After all the hard work we put in pickin' the peaches, it was time for a rest. We went over to the lake to watch the hay-baler in process.

Mrs. Lucas was very hospitable and the girls enjoyed every minute we were there.

More Peach Pickin' Pictures

There was a little birds' nest nestled amongst the fruit. The bottom of the nest was an unripened peach.

The peaches were ripe and ready for pickin'!

Beautiful Black-eyed Susans in the flower garden.

Peach Pickin'

The girls and I were invited by Mrs. Lucas to come and pick peaches. The day was incredibly hot and I can still feel the heat just by looking at the photos!

We ended up freezing all of them except for the batch I used to make 7 pints of peach jam. Yummy!

Same Pattern, Different Dresses!

I made these two dresses from the same pattern as the last two I posted. The pattern is from You Can Make This.

These two are a size 12-18 months. They're made from the same fabrics, but different placements. I have one more cut out from this pattern, then I'm moving on to a new one for awhile. It's just such a cute jumper/sundress pattern that I can't stop making it!

Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street?

Yes, it's another dress from You Can Make This! It's the same pattern I used for the candy corn dress, but I didn't do any stripwork. Instead, I cut a rectangle 15"x45" (the width of the fabric) and ruffled it using my ruffler foot for my sewing machine. (This is a size 3, by the way. You'd have to make the skirt longer or shorter depending on the size you make.) I did the same thing for the ruffle at the bottom using two strips that were 4"x45" and sewing them into one long strip before ruffling them.I also added a tie belt for the back using scraps of the yellow fabric. I didn't even measure them, but they came out just right.

Elmo was a bit of a challenge. I'd never used applique with embroidery, which this design requires. I think he came out ok, considering he was a first!

Next on my list: Mickey Mouse!

Candy Corn, Anyone?

I finished this dress this week and I love it! The pattern is from You Can Make This and was easy to follow. It even contains full size patterns in the download!

If you are interested in purchasing this particular dress, it's a size 6 and is $59, including the postage. It'd be really cute with a black, orange, or white turtleneck and a pair of leggings!

Twirly Girls

This is probably the ruffliest, twirliest dress I've ever made--or even seen! It's made from a thrifted pair of overalls and a thrifted bedsheet. This kind of project is where a ruffler foot comes in VERY handy! I think there are 14 yards of ruffles in this dress.

Look at her spin!

Audrey got a new, fun dress too. Her dress has a frog prince and princess on it.

She had to take her dress out for a spin, too.

She loves it!

Happy Birthday, Bug!

Today Miss Audrey turns three!

Happy Birthday, Bug!

We Love You!

Girly Girls

I'll admit it, my girls are "girly girls". They love dresses and being dressed up!

With that in mind, I made these two dresses and semi-matching hairflowers. They LOVED them! The dresses could also be jumpers with a t-shirt or turtneck worn underneath. Two more are waiting in Katie's closet!

WE FINALLY HAVE WATER!

Showers for everyone!

Did I mention that it's raining again?

Day 6 Without Running Water

We're half way through day six without running water.

I took four baskets of laundry to the laundromat today. Everyone there was from our tiny town.

The girls really want to go out to play. It's just so hot and I can't give them a bath in the evening.

Yesterday for lunch I made mini pizzas on English muffins: Split an English muffin, top with a little pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Nuke it for about 15 seconds. You'd thought they'd never eaten the way they gobbled it up. Then they wanted it again for dinner! So, we had it again. Our microwave is getting a workout.

When I went to the firestation to get "flushable water", I asked if they'd heard any word about when this would all be over. The nice guy who toted my water to the van said he'd heard 5-7 more days. The local newspaper says the line is fixed, but it will take 48 hours to see if there are any more breaks and if the fix really fixed it.

I'm thankful that we have electricity, for Wal-Mart's donation of drinking water, for the National Guard personnel and fire department volunteers who are manning the water station, and for my aunt and uncle who let us come over and take a shower every few days!

Win a DVD: Learn to Crochet!

Kathy is giving away an instructional DVD: Learn to Crochet! Go to her blog and leave a comment to be entered to win! Kathy's blogs (she has several) are some of my favorites to visit every day. Kathy and her daughters cook, entertain, quilt, crochet, garden, sew, can, and just about every other domestic pursuit. They're inspiring!

Water, Water EVERYWHERE...and Not a Drop to Drink!

One way to save on your water bill...is not to have any water! What I mean is, when your water is totally OUT--you can't use any!

We've had some baaaaaaaaaad storms here in the past few days. Flooding is everywhere. Counties all around us are in states of emergency. People are being evacuated by foot, boat, and helicopter. Businesses are closed. Roads and bridges are being washed away. Portions of the interstate and several highways are closed. All county roads are closed. The National Guard and Coast Guard have been called in to assist.

In the midst of all this, a neighboring town (from where our water comes) has had a water main break. This means we will not have water for THREE OR FOUR DAYS!!! Luckily for us, we heard about this early enough to store some water in buckets and every jug, bottle, and lidded container that we could find. I popped the girls in the bath, too. My brother and his family have been without water or electricty for some time now. They're using water from their pool to flush the toilets! Clever, eh?

So now we are just waiting to see what happens. I'm planning meals that won't require a lot of dishes to cook. (We're grilling dinner later today.) We're using paper plates and plastic utensils as to not have dishes to wash. Church has been cancelled. Looks like everything is closing up until things get back to "normal."

Back to my brother, Steve. Steve said my nephew, Tyler, asked why God made it rain so much. Steve told him it may be to show us how lucky we really are.

He is probably right.

Lazy Daisy Hair Clips

I love daisies! We had them at our wedding. I've made the girls dresses out of daisy fabric. I love they way they look bunched in a vase or in a little girl's hand.

When Katie found some daisy flowers at her favorite store (Hobby Lobby!), she begged to buy them. I agreed, just because I had a project in mind for them.

What was a bunch of daisies turned into a dozen or so daisy hair clips! I'm thinking the next batch will have bigger bling in the center. I made some with leaves and some without. The girls love them and they look really cute when they're worn in bunches or by themselves!