The Handmade Dress

I read these words today and I was moved so deeply. I wanted to share this with you. When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died; my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ, my God; all the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. See, from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small; love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

Someone told me once that I had "country girl toes". Well it never really made sense to me what that was until the other day. It just clicked. This is how it happened: I was cleaning up the living room just like I always do. First I picked up things that needed to go to the kids rooms and hucked (hucked- a redneck way of saying threw) them into the hallway. The hallway is their territory. Mama. don't. clean. the hallway... Then I cleared the junk off of the coffee table, and folded and put away the quilts. So far this is normal right. OK, maybe the 15 chickens chirping in the background is a little hickish (yes our new chicks are still camped out in the living room), but lets just look past that for now. Then I started picking up the things in the floor with my toes and passing them to my hands. I do this all the time, so the "click" hasn't happened yet. This is my system, I put dirty clothes on my shoulder and I keep the trash in my hands. If the objec...

First I want to say, wow! You are all so interesting! I enjoyed every comment on the last post. I love to hear about you. Please feel free to comment with similar experiences and stories about your family. Sometimes I have people who comment and then write" sorry for writing a book". Don't be sorry! I love it! I love this community. I don't want it to always be me just going on and on about myself and my family, I like for you to chime in. Believe me it's way more interesting that way. :) Thanks again, for being the best bloggy friends a girl could have! You guys are awesome. ;) We had a wonderful week full of adventures! First we hatched our own chicks. We had some eggs in an incubator and we checked them just in time to see a chick pecking his/her way out. Needless to say all of our normal school activities were called off for the day as we sat around this tiny egg and watched. Molly named the chick Rose. Later she said "Mama, poor little chick, It ...

Sometimes I feel like I know my readers because I have so many sweet people that comment regularly; but then I check out my stats and I see that I have hundreds of people coming through every day. Really? Are that many people interested in my little world? I'm sure at least half of those people come here on accident! LOL! They have no idea what they are getting into! For the last few days I have been trying to imagine what you are like, those of you that really read what I write. Sorry about that by the way, I wish I could offer you all better grammar, punctuation, and content! LOL! I also have people I know in real life that tell me they read my blog. A lot of the time I am surprised and it makes me wonder who else reads that I know in real life? So can we play a little game? I would like for everyone (please, if you have the time) to comment and tell me a little about yourself. If you know me in real life speak up! I will be commenting in the comment section of this...

What a crazy week! We were away from home every day this week. I am such a home-body! I love being at home with my kids, there is this quiet rhythm that is so peaceful. I wouldn't call it a routine because it's not the same everyday but it's more of a flow. Weeks like this really make my head spin. I feel overwhelmed by the smallest projects, and I'm easily discouraged. I feel like I haven't been recharged. I always wanted my home to be that place, and now, sometimes I'm surprised at how strong that pull has become. That need for everyone to be here together, doing their own thing, but just near. Ben was out of town last week and it felt so good for us to all be home together last night. We ate pizza, drank coke, and watched a silly movie. I woke up feeling tons better! Maddie had a trip to the ER. She had been limping so we went for x-rays. Turns out she pulled a ligament in the bottom of her foot. Of course before they came to that conclusion we had to ...

I think we have birds on the brain around here. We have been growing these little chicks in my living room for the last couple of weeks. They have a few more days before they are big enough to go out to the big pen. We hear their sweet little chirping all day. The girls and I decided they needed a new Summer outfit, with birdies of course! So this is what we came up with. I bought shirts for $2.99 at Walmart, added this sweet little applique-super quick by the way! Then I made a couple pair of shorts with a little coordinating ruffle. I love the pink and brown fabrics. Well since I already had it all drawn out, I wrote out the directions for a free pattern download. I have a new system for downloading patterns, it's much easier than before! Just click HERE (or on the word tutorials at the top of the page), click add to cart (pattern is free), follow the prompts to download. Can you tell I took these pictures after the girls wore them? LOL! Maddie's is on the right. The...

I got mine! Sew Beautiful came out a little before I expected so I had to get in gear and finish my shop, but it's done! I am so excited that I finally have that off my back. I have been up until 3am for three nights now and boy am I tired! The exciting news is that now all my patterns can be downloaded instantly after purchase. WHOO HOO! And all my freebies can be downloaded from my website now. If you want to see those go to "tutorial" at the top of the page and when you see the one you want click add to cart (the are not priced) and follow the prompt to download. I have the cutest freebie pattern that I hope to get out in the next couple of days. I'm looking forward to posting more often now that all this is done. If you want to look around the shop click shop at the top of the page or click HERE. Please tell me if you have any suggestions! Oh and don't even ask me how many times I have looked at that page! I am such a nerd. Molly thinks I'm famous. Poor...

This is how I was described in a recent post by my real life friend Kim . She is such a hoot! You should stop by her blog and read her hilarious account of our get-together at my house. She is crazy! Oh and let me warn you she writes in a British accent! She thinks she's Jane Austen. LOL!

Let me tell you first that I'm (or blogger) having formatting issues! I hate when this happens. It won't let me put spaces between the questions and answers. If you can give me any tips, PLEASE HELP! I will change the post as soon as I know what is wrong. Katie asked : I'm about to homeschool. We're starting next year. So, tell me your favorite thing and least-favorite thing about homeschooling. Plus any advice you might like to add. A:I love that we can learn about whatever is going on at the time instead of a super strict curriculum, and that it's not just one child learning your younger kids can learn along with the bigger ones. A good example of this is the zoo . We have season passes to the zoo and we're going to see the opening of the kangaroo exhibit. We can just take opportunities to learn as we go instead of learning everything out of a book. We go back to the book learning when there is nothing new in real life. Oh and I love that my k...

Hey friends! I get lots of personal email from people who read my blog and they had one (or two) burning question about this quirky mama of three that they just had to ask. I love those emails (and sometimes comments), they really make me think! Well, since I couldn't think of anything to blog about -other than the tutorials that I am behind on- I decided to have an open mic night. You know what I'm talking about, you get to ask me questions! Just leave a comment asking anything you've been wanting to know and I will answer them in the next post. I'm kinda excited! I'm always so interested in you all, I know I'm going to enjoy the questions you come up with. Oh, and about those tutorials. There has been NO sunshine for the last few days! If it wasn't raining it was cloudy. I do the videos at my kitchen table and if I don't have any sun from the french doors, they turn out so dark that you can't see good. Same with the growth pleat tutorial, but I pro...

As promised here is your pattern download for the little applique strawberry. Just click on the picture and follow the directions to download. (this is a video, click on the play symbol to watch) Oh my sweet little boy! The other night we were eating sweet potatoes, and Timothy was telling "sissy" (Molly), "wook what I made, it's a sweet tataeta sawich". The first time I heard those sweet little words I ran to get the video camera. You can tell in the video he's being a little shy, but it's so sweet! I tried to get him to talk more by asking questions but he wasn't falling for it. LOL! I hope you enjoy our funny little video.