Featured Etsy Blogger -- Miesmama

I'm just going to pick right up where I left off. I know, I know... where are the three things I'm grateful for everyday. Well, my internet was out since last Thursday. True story. So I do have three things for today, but before I get to them, the Etsy Blogger Team's featured blogger is Becky, an upstate New York crafter that writes Miesmama, and runs her Etsy shop of the same name.

Her blog is really cute, and right now she's writing about the best things of summer, and I'm really enjoying it! She has great pictures. In her shop, you'll find lots of "handmade goodness". Things like felt pins, garlands and goodies for your hair and home. Here are two of my favorite things:

Tooth Fairy Pillow


Ouchless headbands adorned with
Cute Felt Flowers

OK, now for my three things:
1. Beautiful summer weather right now with cool mornings, sunny afternoons, and delightful evenings.
2. Anthony at Comcast.
3. Quiet.

The Evil Serger

OK, everyone at Bernina, no freaking out! But you have to admit that sergers can be a wee bit intimidating, what with all the threads to be threaded. And when you pull open the little door at the bottom with the hooks and diagrams, and threading that is just not intuitive, well, it's enough to make just about anyone go running for cover.

So, I bring this up today, because I spent the better part of two hours trying to get mine back in good working shape after it started doing weird things a couple of days ago. The best plan would have been to get out the manual before I started, but it was (and remains) MIA. With no other choice, I boldly cut the threads, looked at the diagram, and rethreaded. Giant loopy stitches resulted, followed by cursing. I played around with the tension. Still giant loopy stitches. More cursing.

More looking for the manual. More cursing. Looked inside, and one line wasn't threaded right. Ack! Decided to rethread again. Then the lightbulb went off, and I changed the needles, too. Bingo! That was all it really needed.

That makes the three things I'm grateful for today:
1. Bernina, for making a top notch product, that really makes me think.
2. Simple solutions.
3. Napping. OK, that one doesn't really have anything to do with sergers, but naps are great, aren't they!

Recovering

Or is it re-covering? Either way, I wanted to share this great project I've been involved with. My daughter may argue that it's really HER project, and it is. I'm more of the project manager/supervisor, and was the chief seamstress in charge. She and her fiance bought a dinette set off of Craig's List, but hated the practical, but ugly, salmon pink vinyl that adorned the chairs.

Nobody remembered to take a before
picture, but here are the remnants in the trash.

After a quick trip to the fabric store (she is The Decisive Bride, after all), they returned with enough fabric for one chair. After stripping off the old vinyl (not an easy job), I showed them how to measure and make a pattern for each piece. They did the cutting out and pinning, and I sewed the pieces together. As we progressed, the pinning, and therefore the sewing, got much more accurate!

Teamwork on the Pinning

And on the stapling.

Satisfied with the first chair, they returned to the store, and bought enough for the other 3. This past weekend, the pinning, sewing and re-stapling was in high gear, and the project is really almost done. I should add that they removed the pedestal stand, and Thomas has done all the repair work and repainting on those. He's taken most of the chairs back to Tennessee for final re-assembly.

This whole project has made me grateful for thriftiness, creativity, and willingness to jump right in and try something new!

One Almost Finished Chair

Happy Birthday, Roland!

Today is Roland's 49th birthday, so I'm dedicating my three things to him! I'm so grateful that I was set up with him on a blind date almost 30 years ago! Wow, that sounds like a long time ago. I guess it really was. I'm so grateful that he asked me to marry him more than 26 years ago (we'll celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary in October). And, I am so grateful that he is such a wonderful father to our two children.

The picture of our happy family was taken last year at Kyle's high school graduation.

Introducing a New Blog...

... and making it a part of my 3 things for today. You see, I am so grateful for the ambitiousness of my daughter. She is enjoying the planning of her own wedding so much, that she thinks she would love to be a part of the wedding industry in some way. To that end, she has started a blog, The Decisive Bride. It's a bit sparse now, but stay tuned!

Today, I'm also grateful for positive test results. Positive, as in, boy, this is good news! All my bloodwork from last week's physical is in the normal range, except for my cholesterol. It's slightly elevated, but the good kind of cholesterol is also high (which is good), so it all balances out and makes it just fine.

Finally, I'm grateful for water. We woke up to no water this morning. ACK! Of course we all had somewhere to be, and needed to take showers. Thankfully, it was back on by about 7:45, and we were off to the races. Living in a major metropolitan area, you just don't expect to not have water, and when it's back, you really are grateful!

Today's Three Things

1. I'm grateful for ice cream. Just about any time, any place. Not any kind, because I do have my favorites, but I love low fat frozen yogurt just about as much as the full fat kind. And it's almost time for my nightly treat! Yum!

2. Netflix. I love that I put the DVDs in a list, and they show up in my mailbox, and then when I'm done, I drop them in a mailbox. No fuss, no muss. So far, only one snafu when Hotel for Dogs showed up unexpectedly. The nice Netflix customer service guy said I could go ahead and watch it, and I did, but really, I think skipping it might have been a better idea.

3. Great old situation comedies that have come out on DVD. Tonight (thank you, Netflix) we're watching WKRP in Cinncinnati that came out in 1978. So funny!

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Three things for today:

1. I'm so grateful to know Joanna Adams, pastor of Morningside Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

2. So grateful also that it rained today, which meant we didn't have to water our plants after a hot week without any rain.

3. And finally, grateful that the drought is over in Georgia and that we CAN water our plants if we need to. Of course, restrictions are still in place, at least for Fulton County. We can water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays with our odd-numbered address. Click here for more info.

Happy Birthday, America!

Photo by David McNally, USAG-Yongsan, June 23, 2008 and courtesy of U.S. Army

I am so grateful that I am an American! I love the 4th of July, and all the celebrations!

I am so grateful that the founding fathers had the foresight to sign the Declaration of Independence in the middle of the summer, so that our celebrations can be all those fun things like road races (congrats to all the local Peachtree Road Race runners), swimming parties, adventures at lakes and beaches, picnics and cookouts, and warm summer nights lying under the stars on a blanket watching the fireworks! I'm sure that's what they were thinking when they signed on July 4, 1776!

And finally, I'm grateful to my friend, Kila, of Go2Girl, for giving the Inventing Weddings blogger my name. I was featured today! Check it out at inventingweddings.blogspot.com.

Gotta Love a Sale!

The three things start today with my love of sales and a shameless self promotion. I am always so grateful to find a great sale. I mean, you know that it could be last season's stuff, but who cares?! It's a deal. I'm offering just such a deal at Down the Street. I've added a huge clearance section with everything 25 to 50 percent off. My shop direction has evolved (that will be another post), and these items, while still great, are no longer part of my vision. My most hearted item is also in the sale, so enjoy. And shop!

Today, I'm also grateful for car repair shops that offer great customer service. Thanks, Phillip at Professional Automotive Repair.

And the third thing I'm grateful for is great writers. I love to read, and don't do it quite as often as I'd like, but thanks Stieg Larsson for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. My current read. And it's quite a page turner, keeping me up past my bedtime.

Summer's Top Five List

It's the Etsy Blogger team's Blog Carnival time again, and it goes so well with my new gratefulness series! This Carnival is exploring either your favorite summer recipe (I'm not a big cook, so you're out of luck on that one), or the five things you love about summer. And I do LOVE summer, and on top of that I'm always so grateful when it arrives, so you guessed it... my 3 things I'm grateful for become the 5 things I love about summer today. Here goes:

1. The Heat! Yes, you read that right. I love living in the south where it starts getting warmer in March, and stays warm through October or so. And in the middle... summer... it's downright hot! OK, sometimes the humidity can be annoying, but that's what air conditioning is for.

2. The carefree days. OK, well, yes, I'm an adult, so my days are not really all that carefree, but it's more of an attitude about summer that lends itself to less frenzy and more relaxing.

3. Grilling and eating outside. I know. You can grill anytime, but there is something about cooking out in the summer that is less about cooking, and more about an event. Plus, it keeps your kitchen nice and cool.

4. Summer thunderstorms. I love the way that the heat builds up all day, and come late afternoon, the giant clouds roll in, thunder and lightning ensue and when it's all over the air feels so fresh and clean.

5. The beach. Really, any vacation, but there is nothing like the hot sand and the cool surf to soothe the soul. So load up your beach bag, and hit the road!

Have a marvelous and safe summer!