I am back in the land of the livin.

Whoo hoo! I am still pretty sore but I can move around now and I don't have to have pain medicine. I know you are all wondering what was wrong, so I will tell you that first. Basically this is what they said, all my problems were coming from my bladder which is "extremely irritated" (they gave me a ridiculously long name for this condition but hubby could not remember it LOL!) so they gave me some medicine to calm my bladder and I should be feeling better in a few weeks. In my uterus they found a couple of spots (could be endometriosis) that they burned off. OK! Enough crazy talk. I am ready for some crafting!

I guess I never realized before how much I depend on sewing and creating things to keep my life in balance. By last night I felt like if I didn't make something soon I would just break down and cry. I grabbed some scraps of fabric, a needle and thread, and some rickrack and went to work. Molly had strawberries on the brain so this is what we came up with. It's a little stuffed strawberry applique. I think this would be so cute on a little A-line jumper for summer. I really do like the way it turned out, but I think it still needs a little something to be complete. I can't stop imagining this strawberry on light blue fabric with white polka dots! It just makes me happy!

What would you do with this strawberry? Come on, play along! I'm *thinking* of making this a freebie download.

Update

Hey friends. I am on pain meds and I'm very sore, so I'll just say that I am fine and I can have babies. I will tell you more later. Thanks for all your prayers. ~ xoxox, Samantha

I can't sleep!

I want to sleep like that!

It's midnight and I have to be at the hospital, which is one hour away, at 7am. That means I need to get up at 5am. I want to be sleepy! I'm a little edgy. I didn't mention this before but the surgery is two in one. They are going to check out my kidney and bladder problems; but they are also looking for other problems too. I miscarried at 11wks over a year ago and I have not been able to get or stay pregnant since. The doctor thinks there could be something wrong. I guess I didn't mention it because I would rather ignore it, that way I don't feel so crazy! Looking back I know God had his hand on me the entire time. I don't think I could have handled another pregnancy right away. I took it so hard and I grieved so long. I still get overwhelmed sometimes. He knew that better than me. I desperately want more children, but in his timing. I have struggled with those "what if" thoughts today. For about 60 seconds I had myself convinced that I would never have another child. I'm feeling better now, just a little child like. But all it takes is a mustard seed, right! Please pray for me tomorrow. It makes me feel better to know I have friends all over the world praying for my little family. ~ xoxox, Samantha

Awarded and tagged.

Molly told me last night that she felt like she was famous. She said " mama, all I did was sew a shirt! And I'm only six!" Thank you everyone for all the sweet comments, she enjoyed each and every one. She was especially excited that daddy left her a comment, since he has never left one for me, she felt so special. I decided that Molly should have her own category on our little blog for all her sewing projects. "Molly's sewing" will be in the list from now on! She already has three entries!

Next up is this award I received from one of the sweetest people, Est over at my cuppa charms. She is always nearby with a kind word. She awarded me the "you make my day award". Est you make my day too! You all need to check out her AMAZING felt houses, they are so detailed and dainty.

Wanna know who makes my day? You! Everyone who takes the time out of their busy day to stop by and chat! All of your sweet encouraging comments make my day. I am just so proud to be a part of this little online sewing circle. Thank you!

TAGGED

Then I was tagged by Lynn to tell random or weird things about myself. Sorry it took me so long Lynn! (I know she will forgive me.) Lynn lived with my parents (after Ben and I were married) while she was in a discipleship program at our church. I feel so comfortable around her because she is just as quirky as me, but in different ways.

(This is my favorite Easter picture.)

So here I go with the random and weird things: 1. I can build a dress in my head, draft the pattern from scratch, and sew it exactly how I had it pictured; but I can't remember my own cell phone number. I can't get to my husbands work without directions ( yes, I have been there several times). Grammar and punctuation don't make sense to me at all! I know you've noticed this! I am soooo right brained. Creative things make sense, numbers and such do not! I just don't grasp it. I live with this weirdness everyday.

2. When people meet me in real life they usually think that I am a snob because I'm so shy. I'm hardly ever the first to speak. I am not shy at all around people I know, just new people. I think part of this is because I love to listen and study people. I'm interested in the way other people live. Did you know Samantha means "one who listens"?

3. I'm an insomniac! I inherited this from my mother, who inherited it from her mother. Thanks Nanny! If I have the tiniest project on my mind it will keep me from sleeping. Sometimes I am so exhausted that I am able to fall asleep; but I dream of the project all night, so I wake tired feeling like I have worked all night. 4. I'm a little green. We use all cloth napkins. I never buy plastic, we always use real plates and cups. We have chickens that lay fresh eggs everyday. I repurpose a lot, for example: I use thrifted sheets for curtains, to make clothing, or for cloth napkins. I have an old ladder in my living room that I use as a quilt rack. Most everything in my house was thrifted, I'm such a sucker for "clucked up stuff"!

5. We have a secret! We just started working on a new family project, a campground/picnic area down by the creek. We walk the creek almost everyday and we have found the perfect spot for our secret garden. There is a tree that is bent just right for our porch swing, and the creek is just deep enough in this spot to swim and have a tire swing. We are going to plant grass and wild flowers! I am so excited! In this picture you can see our bent tree. Ben is clearing out all the briars and underbrush. Sorry about all the smoke, that was our campfire. I love Tim standing there in his overalls watching daddy!

Well folks, that's all I've got for today. I have to get this house clean and my laundry caught up so I can be sick. Isn't it better to be sick in a clean house. A clean house just makes me feel better about everything!

Edited to add: Does anyone know why my format is so off for this post? Any tips?

Molly's shirt

(This is a video, click the play symbol to watch)

While I was on the phone this morning Molly was at her craft table sewing away. Every now and then she would come over and sit a piece of fabric on my chest and then walk away. I didn't ask any questions. Why you ask? I have learned to leave her alone. When she is being creative and has all these ideas, if I come along and tell her the "right way" to do something, all of a sudden she can only think within that box. The box that I put her in. So instead I have learned to leave her alone and let her create, knowing that I am nearby to answer any questions. I am so glad that I left her alone this morning, because I would have ruined this! This sweet moment that was perfect just the way it was! She made something amazing that didn't quite work out for her intended purpose; but then she realized she could still use it for something else, and boy was she proud!

I will be having my surgery Friday morning. I am still hoping to post tomorrow but I wanted you to know just in case. xoxox Samantha

PS. Molly let me do this video just for the blog (can you tell she was a little shy), so I told her the comments would be just for her and we will read them together tonight. Oh ... and you are welcome to laugh at my country girl accent! I know you love it!

Edited to add: To answer a few questions, Molly is 6 years old and she made the pattern herself! Boy is she struttin with all these comments coming in!

Our wonderfully redneck Easter.

(This is a video, click the play symbol to watch)

So here's where the story begins: Before Christmas Uncle Sonny had an accident at work and crushed his foot and broke his pelvis. Yeah, it was pretty bad. He had to walk on a walker or ride in a wheel chair for a few months, so his grown boys (whom you will see in this video) built him what is now called by his loving family "the gimp ramp". Uncle Sonny, being the ULTIMATE cut up, would rather us call him a gimp than feel sorry for him hobbling around; so needless to say Easter was a lot of fun! After lunch we noticed the kids playing on the ramp. Then the boys, AKA the children's fathers, went out to encourage the children to ride these old broke down go carts down the ramp. Boy was it fun! How would I know? Because "mama" rode down in one of my new skirts, and I flipped the go cart to avoid plowing a young child (who did get hit, but only suffered a scratched finger....... and maybe a lifelong complex about women in skirts on a go cart). In this video Timothy and his favorite cousin are double riding the broke down go cart down the gimp ramp, while being heavily encouraged by their redneck fathers. Priceless.

Edited to add: After talking with my cousin Amy (who also rode down in her Easter dress), we decided that the story was not complete until this was added: When the fathers started feeling left out of the fun, they went rummaging through the garage for something that they could fit in. Yes my sweet friends.....those grown men, two firefighters and an engineer, plowed down the gimp ramp on broke down go carts and old Little Tike's riding toys. Only one broke under the pressure. Enuff said.

Molly's Easter dress.

Easter was beautiful! It was a little cold and windy, but they let me get a couple of shots without sweaters. I have more pictures and a funny video that I'll post later, but now I will tell you about Molly's Easter dress.

(this is the original)

It all started when I found this collar at an antique store, it was dark beige and yellowish with off white pearls. I immediately thought that it would make a beautiful round yoke dress. I loved the design but not the color, so I made another one a little longer and in white thread (size 10 perle cotton) with off white pearls. After I had my reproduction made to the size I wanted, I decided to soak the original in Cascade (yes the dishwasher stuff), and it turned out brighter than the one I had made! So now I have a collar that I can use on a dress for Maddie, that makes me so happy!

(this is my version in white and off white)

I love the way it turned out! Thank you all for voting for the growth pleats, I am so glad you talked me into it. Molly's dress was the same pink linen batiste, the same thread, and I sewed growth pleats in hers too; but I feel like they were still totally different. I like to make the girls dresses that coordinate but don't match. That way Maddie doesn't grow into the same set of dresses she just grew out of. Does that make sense? Here's a close up of the dress on. So was it what you expected? So many of you said you couldn't wait to see it that I felt a little pressured. LOL! I wondered if it would be good enough after all this waiting! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday. You are going to love my story and video of our hillbilly Easter. We so trashy! LOL!

Happy Easter!

Who Am I - Casting Crowns

I wanted to share one of my favorite songs with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Maddie's Easter dress.

I am almost done with it! I still have to hem it, and maybe add three growth pleats to the

skirt. What do you think, growth pleats or no? If you don't know what a growth pleat is, look at the picture below. They are 1 or 2" pleats that can be taken out as needed to add length to a dress. Every time you take out a pleat you can replace it with two or three pintucks. This technique really does add time to the use of the dress, sometimes letting out one pleat will buy you another season of use. You can also reverse the system! If a big sister dress fits but is too long, you can add the pleats.

I love the bodice of this dress! Can you see the rows of crochet tulips? I wondered if people would notice the tulips. I crocheted little angel sleeves around the arm holes. They look just precious on Maddie! I love the way they ruffle over her tiny shoulder.

The fabric is linen batiste. The crochet is size 10 DMC perle cotton. I like this thread because it has a shine to it, I feel like it really adds to the texture. I am pretty happy with the way the dress turned out, the only thing I would like to be different is maybe the fabric being lighter shade of pink. I tried to find it lighter but it just wasn't available, but I'm happy.

I hope to be back in the next two days with pictures of Molly's dress. I have a crochet bodice done, but I still have to draft a pattern and put together a dress to go with it. Oh...I better get to work! I hope you will stop by and see it.

YAY! I have a new summer wardrobe! But it didn't come easy!

After a miserable trip to the mall looking for clothes for the wedding; I decided that If you have had more than one child, and care at all about being modest, then you are flat out of luck! If it's a skirt you want, they only come in two lengths, short and super short. If you are looking for a nice shirt, you can forget it (!) unless you are willing to buy another shirt to go under that shirt. Oh.....and if you have that "I've had three kids roll" on your belly, they all make you look pregnant! Am I the only mama frustrated about the lack of modest or flattering clothing out there? So after crying in the dressing room at the mall - after the sales girl told me a certain skirt made me look 15 lbs heavier, because she wanted me to buy the $79 skirt she had- I was at the end of my rapidly fraying rope! I came home and cried until midnight mourning the fact that I would never be pretty again. I felt so dumpy, ugly and misproportioned.

Then a thought hit me, I am a real woman! Not a woman with a 13 year old's body! The women who I look up to the most, who I find to be the most beautiful people in the world, all have a real body. I then decided that I would not change the way I feel about myself based on the latest form fitting trend. I decided that I would stay true to my desire to be modest and feminine even if it meant working harder! I would just have to make the clothes that were not available.

I started the next day drafting the pattern for this skirt and made my first tester, PERFECT! I made a nice wide band at the top with contrasting fabric that gives excellent tummy coverage! The back section of the band has long contrasting drawstrings that resembles apron strings when tied-is there anything more feminine than that?. The skirt is a very flattering A-line and is ankle length. When I tried it on to walk around in it and see if it would be comfortable, I didn't want to take it off! I usually wear capri pants all summer, but not now. So in true Samantha fashion, I promptly made two more just like it. I now have three very nice, flattering, modest skirts for summer and I have plans for at least three more! I am so excited about all the funky fabric combinations and pattern variations I'll be able to come up with!

I even took the skirt out for the true summer test, our daily walk to the beaver dam, and it passed with flying colors. I never realized how much cooler skirts were than pants.

(Is there anything better than dipping your feet into the water for the first time every year?)

So all is well again at the Caffee home. Mama's happy, and as you all know: "If mama aint happy, aint nobody happy!"

Silliness

So, my kids have found a new use for VHS tapes: use them as bricks to sharpen their castle and tower making skills. When they got so high that they couldn't reach the top anymore, Dad stepped in and helped them finish.

Then he did a little trick of his own. I love being married to this big kid!

I took this last week while they were watching cartoons. I'm going to be sad when they don't suck their thumbs anymore. I guess they will have to stop someday, but I just need a little more time!

Our creek has water again! I think we are finally almost caught up on rain for the year. I haven't heard much about our water shortage lately on the news. We've been walking to the creek a couple of times a week now to see the waterfall and the beaver dam. Last week we found fossils on the bank! They loved learning what fossils were and where they came from.

Isn't that pretty. This is our shell fossil, we also found a leaf and a bug.

I will be having surgery in the next couple of weeks. It's an exploratory surgery. I know that sounds crazy, but this is the reason: My kidneys are inflamed (bigger than they should be), and the tests are not clear about why, so it is time to take the next step to figure out what's wrong. I have tried all the medicines and the ones that I am not allergic to just don't seem to help, so I am ready! They said that if they find anything, they will more than likely be able to fix it that day (they suspect some kind of blockage). It has not been scheduled yet but I know it will be soon. I'll try to update you after surgery as soon as I can but of course I will be down for a few days. I am sure I will post a couple more times before surgery, but just in case I just wanted you to know where I've been. ~xoxox, Samantha

PS. I will still be posting my random things next week!

Sneek peek, and a couple of winners.

I hope you all enjoyed the little dress pattern, I would love to see pictures of your projects! The winners for the book are comment #5 Debbie, and comment #22 Karen B. Please email me your address at mamacaffee@hotmail.com . The winners for the patterns are comment # 7 Angie, and comment # 27 Laura. I will email you these patterns this afternoon. I am going to be pretty busy this week with my brother in law Daniel's wedding- it's finally happening!- so I will not post again until next week. I have been tagged by my friend Lynn to tell you random weird things about myself. Since I have already been tagged and told weird things, I have decided to take pictures and tell about some of the random things in my house. This is Maddie's wedding dress. She is not in the wedding but she HAD to have a dress! I will tell you more about this dress when I come back next week (I will have a better picture too!). Easter dresses are almost finished! I will be able to finish them next week when the happy couple are honeymooning in Hawaii. See you soon! ~ xoxox Samantha

100th post!!!!!

GIVEAWAY!

I am giving each of you this little dress pattern! When I made this little diaper bag I got several comments on this little dress, which made it the perfect gift for you on my 100th post. I hope you all enjoy it. Click the picture (the instruction picture) and follow the steps to download this PDF file. You can then print out the instructions and pattern pieces on your printer. This little dress pattern also would be so cute on a little smock or A-line jumper, a pillow for a little girls bed, baby bedding, quilts, T-shirts, you get the idea!

(CLICK ABOVE PICTURE FOR DOWNLOADABLE PATTERN)

If you have trouble downloading this file please let me know!

I also want to give everyone who comments a chance to win a copy of my book "Samantha's Crochet Edgings", or set of my crochet patterns! For every 20 comments I will draw two names, one will win patterns the other a book. This way everyone has a good chance of winning! I will announce the winner in my next post.

I want to thank everyone for your sweet comments and support for my first 100 posts! You all are amazing and you make me feel like I can do anything, you give me the confidence to keep trying. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I would love to know what you have planned for my little dress pattern. Tell me when you comment what you think you will use it for, everyone will be inspired by the answers!

NOTE: If you want to comment but do not have a blogger account, comment as anonymous and leave your name.