Brighter Days Comin'

Whew... the past 7 days have been rough, and I'm glad to be past them. Exactly a week ago, I broke a tooth that resulted in a root canal, a temporary crown, and one outrageous dental bill.  I tell ya, not having dental insurance really stinks.  The pain from the dental work really wasn't so bad, but the stomach flu that followed was plenty painful enough to make up for it.  yay. I suppose I could say that losing a few pounds and getting caught-up on daytime t.v. would be a silver lining? Maybe? There's certainly no worry of putting on any weight during Thanksgiving... anything sugary, crunch, or chewy is off the menu. damnit.

I did say that brighter days are comin', though, and they are.  The stomach flu seems to have pretty well run its course.  And would you believe that the little one has not gotten it?!  That alone is reason to be thankful. Today I'm playing catch-up with my etsy shop and getting some custom orders taken care of. 

p.s.  Glad you guys like my little box trick.... it's not a fancy tutorial, but that's a darn handy thing to know.

My Favorite Gift-wrap Trick

Since the holidays are approaching, I thought I'd share one of my favorite grift-wrapping tricks. I learned this when I worked retail... a real budget saver when you offer free gift wrap because you can use half as many boxes! I am much better at showing than explaining so you can find lots of pictures with instructions here. You'll see how I can turn one half of a shirt box (because I'm always losing or ruining half) into a usable gift box with a little bit of folding and a couple of snips. This is my first go at a sort of tutorial, so if the instructions aren't clear just let me know.

Go from:

To this:

1 Down...

2 more to go!  I posted a while back about a set of floor cushions that I'm making and I wanted to post an update.  I got the first one finished!  Yay!  The picture is dark so it's hard to tell that the sides (and the bottom) are dark brown linen.  I'm pretty pleased with it, but it is far from perfect.  Putting all the pieces together went really smoothly until it came to putting on the bottom piece, then getting everything straight was a challenge.  I had to fudge a little bit, but it's not too noticeable.   I also left off the handle from the tutorial because they are pretty much going to stay parked in my living room.  They are also bigger - 19" square x 4" deep.  Taylor says the next one must have more pink. ;)  

Yes We Did!!!!

The past 6 weeks of so have been so incredibly rewarding.  I am so proud to be able to say that I  worked to elect our first African-American president!  What a proud day for our country!

I sincerely hope that keep the enthusiasm and the momentum going so that we can make our country the very best that it can be!

(Now, after standing, sign-waiving, and cheering at the polls for seven hours and then staying up to see it all pay off, I'm exhausted.  I think I'll take a nap today.... then it's back to the crafty business already in progress.)

Being a part of something bigger

This weekend, I got to be a part of one incredible event on the most beautiful fall day ever. President Clinton along with several other of Arkansas' present and past political leaders (and Mary Steenburgen) were in town for a "Painting Arkansas Blue" rally. The event originally started out as a Get Out the Vote rally where we were going to meet, march down to the early voting location, and then have a cookout.  Well, just a few days before the event was scheduled it grew exponentially and I got to be involved.  Jason got to play grillmaster and I helped serve up the food.... not glamorous jobs, but boy people love some free food!  

Anyway, the speeches were all excellent.  It was really something to see so many people here of all places gathering to show support for Obama!  I would love so much to see our state be something other than solid red on the electoral map... I'd even be ok with baby blue.  I just hate that we're considered in the bag for the Republican party.  I'd really like to think that we could show the country that we're more progressive than that, particularly since we seem to be A-Ok with electing Democrats on the state level.

Afterward, I hung around and got to shake Clinton's hand and tell him thanks for also talking about Initiated Act 1 because it is so under-covered here, but is really very important. For those of you not in Arkansas (or those here who don't yet know) it's an act on the ballot that would prohibit so so many people from potentially becoming foster parents.  It would ban anyone who is unmarried (gay or straight) from serving as a foster or adoptive parent and take away the ability for judges to make decisions on a case by case basis.  It was really good to hear him and Ms. Steenburgen speak out against the act and I'm happy that I got to thank him for that in person.  I tried to get a picture with him, but it was nuts and I only managed to get a blur, oh well.  I did get lots of good pictures throughout the day.  You can check them all out on flickr.

Finally... A Crafting Day!

I have a serious thing for online crafty tutorials.  I've been eyeing this one for cushions from Sew Mama Sew for quite some time and decided today to give it a try.  I'm not finished yet, because I just had to make it more complicated by adding some quilting to it.  I thought, though, that I'd share the progress with you fine people.  Here is the top of one of three cushions.  I pieced the top out of some new and some vintage cottons and sort of quilted it to a piece of nice flannel to make it a little more durable.  They are 19" square and 4" deep.  They'll be floor cushions for the living room.  I'll be using the brown linen I used on my little houses pillows for the sides and bottom.

One of the things about this tutorial that just knocked my socks off is the part where she shows you how to magically make tons of bias tape out of a small square of fabric and then turn it into some super fab custom piping!  It's worth checking out just for that little gem.
Now, hopefully it will not be months and months before I can show you a cute stack of finished floor pillows!

Back From Wherever

I've been avoiding my blog like the plague lately.  I've been fighting the urge to make political posts.  I struggle with the idea that it could turn some people off, but at the same time it is my blog, right... my platform so to speak?  And, I don't want to be Miss Negative Nelly Crankypants, not that it's all negative.  Far from it.  So, I'm going to do a split post starting with the non-political stuff and if you don't want to read the rest then that's A-OK.

The best stuff first:

We had our first parent-teacher conference yesterday and I am just the proudest mama ever!  I already knew that Taylor is a smart cookie, but her teacher told us a story that just makes me beam.

Little bit is always very quiet and well-behaved and has never had to change her color (they use the stop-light system for behavior).  Well, one day at nap-time the teacher got onto a girl who was near Taylor for making noise and made the girl change her color.  Before the kids go home, the ones who stayed on green for the day get to get a piece of candy or a sticker.  When the teacher got to Taylor, her color was on yellow and Taylor told her with tears in her eyes that she couldn't have any candy because she had to change her color.  Without being told, she had changed it on her own because she was the one who made the noise at nap-time.  Her teacher was so moved that she had been so honest that she told her to change it back to green so she could get a piece of candy.  My sweet little one's moral compass is pointing in the right direction! ... did I mention I'm really proud of her?!  

In etsy news, I really haven't had tons of time to sew.  I did manage to get a few things made last week, and this week I got a custom wallet out the door.  I also have some sewing to look forward to for a repeat customer who is sending me some fabric to use.  She's always super fun to work with so I'm looking forward to that.

OK, the political stuff.... starting with the positive.

I've been volunteering my time down at the Democratic HQ here and have been so incredibly surprised at the positive reaction people have had to the campaign.  People that you'd never guess would be supportive coming in, getting their yard signs, and saying "thanks for being here".  I've had lots of "thank you"s and "so glad you called"s  while doing phone banking.  It really has been an amazing experience.  The icing on the cake came today when we found out that Pres. Clinton will be attending our rally on Saturday.  How awesome is that!!!  

The posts I've been avoiding are really about how I'm really tired of the Republican campaign taking ownership of patriotism.  That somehow I'm not as American or that I'm not as proud of my country because I don't buy into the neo-con ideology.  It is ludicrous and it pisses me off! I'm tired of and saddened by reading hateful, fearful letters to the editors of my local paper about how Obama is going to be the end of us all because he's Muslim, the anti-christ, going to kill babies and on and on and on.... all lies fueled (or at the very least not repudiated) by the McCain campaign.  

I've chosen my candidate because I care about our country and want someone in the White House who will inspire us, bring us together, and restore our standing in the world as "the shining beacon on the hill".  I admire his "intellectual vigor" as Colin Powell so eloquently put it and I'm proud of the campaign he's running.  I feel like Obama gets what it's like to be in my shoes... lower middle class (stuck in a no-man's land of not making enough, but making too much for assistance), having to make hard decisions about money, health-care, etc.  I want the war in Iraq to be over and I want our military to be able to focus on the real threats.   I want real change from the last 8 years!

You know, I also think it's perfectly fine if someone doesn't agree with Obama's policies and wants to vote for McCain, and I'll never ever call them unpatriotic or somehow less American. I will not wish harm on their candidate or on them because that's the beauty of this country, we all have the right to decide for ourselves.  

Ok, there.  I really do feel better now....